Country music has long idealized the gun-owning lifestyle.

From Johnny Cash in “Folsom Prison Blues” to Miranda Lambert’s “Gunpowder and Lead” and Blake Shelton’s “Granddaddy’s Gun,” the genre’s stars have harnessed gun imagery to bolster their outlaw credibility, connect them with kindred fans and conjure a specific image of Americans — self-reliant and violent.

But after a mass shooter killed himself and at least 58 people at Las Vegas’ Route 91 Harvest country music festival, voices questioning loose gun laws have emerged from within the country music community, even at the risk of alienating fans.

“I’ve been a proponent of the 2nd amendment my entire life. Until the events of last night,” Caleb Keeter, guitarist for the Josh Abbott Band, wrote on social media after the shooting. “I cannot express how wrong I was.” He had been on Route 91’s main stage just hours before the killing began.

Rising country singer Margo Price, in an interview Tuesday, said she is a longtime gun owner — she used to live in a tent in Colorado and kept a shotgun to protect herself. Still, she said the shooting may finally lead country artists to speak out.

“No one I hang out with thinks that a random person on the street should be able to buy a machine gun,” said Price.

Country artists, she said, need to use their credibility with rural and right-leaning voters to advocate for stricter gun control.

“Politicians offer ‘prayers and thoughts’ but then take money from the NRA. People have had all these opportunities to speak out, and instead say vague things like, ‘This is a song against hate’ but not talk about reforming gun laws. They’ve got to get their heads out of the sand,” Price said.

Singer Jason Aldean, who was onstage Sunday as bullets flew, struck a balanced tone.

“Something has changed in this country and in this world lately that is scary to see,” he wrote on Tuesday. “This world is becoming the kind of place I am afraid to raise my children in. At the end of the day we aren’t Democrats or Republicans, Whites or Blacks, Men or Women. We are all humans and we are all Americans and its time to start acting like it and stand together as ONE!”

On NRA Country’s website, however, artist-advocates have expressed their devotion to the NRA. “I understand the price of freedom,” wrote country singer Pete Scobell. “I fought for it as a member of our armed forces. It’s something I don’t take for granted.”