Before I sneak off to SHOT Show next week, I will be starting the spring semester at Wake Forest University. As I have for the past four academic years, I will be teaching my Sociology of Guns seminar. A copy of this year’s syllabus is available HERE. One modification I made in Version 5.0 was …
I have said it before, on this blog and in scholarly publications (also here), but I will say it again: It is no exaggeration to say that sociologists are only interested in guns and gun culture to the extent that they are related to crime, violence, and social inequality. Now, to be fair, sociologists are …
Most podcasts on which I appear are streamed and recorded live. Celine Gounder’s podcast, by contrast, is more highly produced. She interviewed me in early April for the new season of “In Sickness and In Health” which focuses on gun violence. When she reached out to me, I made clear that my scholarly expertise is …
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 …
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, …
Regular readers of this blog know that I try to stay as a-political as possible, preferring to pursue my motto (as the sidebar notes) “Light over Heat.” Last week, however, I was unable to ignore a buzz in the gun control movement surrounding the release of Guns Down: How to Defeat the NRA and Build … Continue reading
In their recent book, Karl Rehn and John Daub diagnose and offer solutions to the problem of “the one percent” — the small proportion of the gun owning community who participate in gun training beyond the minimum required. When I think of this problem, one of the reasons that comes immediately to mind is the … Continue reading
As I have been discussing in my series of posts on the Extreme Close Quarters Concepts (ECQC) course that I fell into recently, Craig Douglas’s approach to the course is unique in my experience in being “interdisciplinary.” We learn and practice verbal agility, close quarters shooting, and the vast world between “a harsh word and … Continue reading
Anyone who has seen me knows I do not make money off of my body. My mind is my money-maker, and I succeed at my job in large part because I can put “ass in chair” (as writers say) and focus mentally for hours at a time. I regularly finish a workday mentally exhausted, but … Continue reading
Of the 23 total hours I spent in Craig Douglas’s Extreme Close Quarters Concepts (ECQC) course, from 6pm Friday through 6pm Sunday, only 6 were spent on the gun range. Although not easy, the shooting was the easiest part of the course for me. The ShivWorks collective includes “the firearms skills of a USPSA grand … Continue reading
One of the most annoying and offensive criticisms I hear of Gun Culture 2.0 is that defensive gun owners are itchin’ for a fight and prefer to shoot first and ask questions later. Of course, there are irresponsible individuals in any group, like the “good guy with a gun” near me who recently shot at … Continue reading
As discussed in an earlier post, Craig Douglas guest lectured in my Sociology of Guns course this semester, stopping at Wake Forest on his way from teaching a course in Idaho to teaching down the road in Carthage, North Carolina. As we were talking on the phone about his guest appearance in my class, he … Continue reading
