I am very happy to report that my second academic article on gun culture was published today in the journal Sociology Compass (my first was on religion and gun ownership). Thanks to a generous grant from Wake Forest University’s ZSR Library and the Office of Research & Sponsored Programs, “The Sociology of U.S. Gun Culture” …
I love whisk(e)y. My love knows almost no boundaries. American, Canadian, Indian, Irish, Japanese, Scotch, Texas. Barley, corn, rye, wheat. Neat, rocks, mixed. To fuel my love I have been reading Reid Mitenbuler’s recent book, Bourbon Empire: The Past and Future of America’s Whiskey. Early on, Mitenbuler introduces the first alcohol distiller among the British …
Chapter 3 of Jennifer Carlson’s book on legal gun carriers in Michigan explores the role of National Rifle Association trainers and training courses in the construction and dissemination of the ideal of armed citizenship she calls the “citizen-protector.” Put briefly, the “citizen-protector” accepts the responsibility of using lethal force in defense of innocent life as …
The problem with averages is that there is no “United States of America” when it comes to guns, violence, and crime, but many Americas. Some of these Americas – like my neighborhood in Winston-Salem – are more like our first world counterparts in the OECD, and some of them are more like the third world …
In light of several self-defense shootings in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I am going to review some points I’ve already made in a few posts, but obviously bear repeating. Despite the concern about a rising number of civilian justifiable homicides, and criticisms of “Stand Your Ground” laws as allowing people to “shoot first and ask questions later,” …
I recently completed the Massad Ayoob Group’s MAG-40 course, “Armed Citizens’ Rules of Engagement,” co-sponsored by Derby Guns of Scottsdale (shout out to Kate and Jim Kreuger!). This is the course Ayoob used to teach under the auspices of the Lethal Force Institute in New Hampshire. (A review of the LFI course written in 1999 …
For the first 42 years of life, I had never even handled a real gun, much less shot one. My experience was limited to shooting BB guns as a teenagers. We would usually shoot at cans, but one day I took aim at a bird that was too far away to hit, pulled the trigger, …
In my last post, I discussed the ways in which photographer Garrett O. Hansen’s The Void both represents and misrepresents gun culture. The second part of his “HAIL” series is called Silhouette. According to Hansen, “While The Void series deals with the power of the single bullet, the Silhouette series engages the broader culture of … Continue reading
Garret O. Hansen was introduced to American gun culture when he took a job as an assistant professor of photography at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Once there he was surprised to find that “it was not uncommon for friends and colleagues, including those of a liberal tilt, to fire off a few rounds … Continue reading
One reason I have not been blogging as much as I would like lately is because I have been on the road more than usual. But even when I am traveling for pleasure I keep my eyes open for guns and gun culture. And sometimes I find them in the unexpected places. Like the Montreal … Continue reading
I was excited recently when my youngest son unexpectedly asked me if we could take his Argentinian exchange student to the range. My son doesn’t particularly like shooting, or guns in general for that matter. I said of course we could go, but we needed to make safety our number one priority as always. Hence, … Continue reading
I just registered for the 20th Anniversary edition of the Rangemaster Polite Society Tactical Conference. It seems I only attend the annual event on historic occasions because the only other time I attended, in 2014, was the last year the Tac Con was held at Rangemaster in Memphis. Registration is $349 plus an additional $20.19 … Continue reading
Following up on yesterday’s post of Yamil Sued’s translation of Col. Jeff Cooper’s four rules of firearms safety into Spanish, I dug around a bit more and found English and Spanish language versions of California’s Firearm Safety Certificate Study Guide. The study guide includes California’s SIX basic rules of gun safety. As you can see, … Continue reading
My son is hosting an exchange student from Argentina for a month and asked about the possibility of a trip to the range. I said, “Of course, that would be fun.” And immediately began thinking about introducing him to safe firearms handling. My first thought, of course, was to begin with Col. Jeff Cooper’s four … Continue reading
