Freelance writer Dan Baum is a self-described gun guy. But even though he has 15 firearms locked in a cabinet in his garage and loves an outing at the shooting range, he does not exactly fit the stereotype.

"I am a Jewish, liberal Democrat and a gun guy," he says, "which in the US is a very weird hybrid."

The writer, who grew up in New Jersey and now lives in Colorado, says he is representative of millions of ordinary gun-owning Americans.

He wants both sides of the gun control debate - the politicians who want background checks as well as the National Rifle Association, which opposes new regulations - to listen to what these "average gun guys" want.

For his new book Gun Guys: A Road Trip, Mr Baum travelled across the US and met a variety of gun owners, from those blasting automatic weapons in the desert to a school teacher hunting pigs.

He talked to the BBC about his attempt to explain his own and Americans' fascination with firearms.

Produced by Anna Bressanin, Images by Ilya Shnitser