Clay Cane is a television commentator and the author of "Live Through This: Surviving the Intersections of Sexuality, God, and Race." Follow him on Twitter @claycane. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

(CNN) Whenever we talk about guns in America, the card-carrying members of the National Rifle Association are always the mouthpieces, equating being a gun owner with American hyper-patriotism. The historian Richard Hofstadter described the concept of "gun culture" -- guns viewed by many as part of America's heritage: "an ingredient in the American imagination."

Clay Cane

But there is another culture of guns that has nothing to do with patriotism or distorted views of constitutional rights.

I grew up in the 1990s in West Philadelphia, a rough section of one of the most violent cities in the country at the time. I have seen as much gun violence in my life as anyone "celebrating the association of guns" in America. I heard shots outside my bedroom window, I had friends who were shot and killed, I have run for my life from sprays of bullets.

For me, guns aren't cultural toys or just tools for hunting. Guns are acts of violence against America's most marginalized communities. I wish gun advocates could see beyond their privileged bubble to understand that their narcissistic cultural defense of battlefield weapons ravages communities.

I was disgusted to hear the NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch accuse journalists this week of loving mass shootings. "Crying white mothers are ratings gold to you," she said in a hateful speech. "And notice I said 'crying white mothers' because there are thousands of grieving black mothers in Chicago every weekend, and you don't see town halls for them, do you? Where's the CNN town hall for Chicago?"