2017 was a terrific year for my research on American gun culture. I didn’t accomplish everything I had hoped, but I did more than I could reasonably expect. Although I didn’t quite reach my goal of doubling this blog’s readership in 2017, I came pretty close. I have already written about my personal favorites and …
Last fall I was invited to contribute a short essay to the newsletter of the Medical Sociology section of the American Sociological Association. The editors asked me to write anything I wanted to about guns that would be helpful to medical sociologists studying the issue. While some sociologists call for a shift in the national …
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, …
A while ago I was asked to comment for a BBC Future story on what would happen if all guns suddenly disappeared. I saw it as an interesting thought experiment, and I wanted to represent the minority perspective (among BBC interviewees and readers) that the world would NOT all of a sudden become an amazingly … Continue reading
Earlier this week I recorded segments for a future episode of Dr. Celine Gounder’s “In Sickness and In Health” podcast. Her third season in production is on gun violence as a public health problem. I made clear to her that my scholarly expertise is on American gun culture not gun violence, and she welcomed me … Continue reading
I was interested to see The New Yorker covering American kids who use guns safely and lawfully, with photos by Sharif Hamza. It included a photo of the well-known Cheyenne Dalton and the less well-known Joaquin Elizondo. Of course, The New Yorker can’t discuss guns without discussing gun violence. And in this case, writer Dana … Continue reading
Anyone who knows me or follows this blog knows I am neither very “practical” nor “tactical” when it comes to guns. So being invited to be on the “Practically Tactical” podcast left me wondering what we might talk about. As it turns out, we had plenty to talk about. As you can hear in the … Continue reading
I don’t re-blog much on this site, and I definitely try to stay out of politics (though sometimes I can’t help myself). Lately more than ever. To be perfectly honest, I have grown weary of the culture war rhetoric on both major sides of the debate over guns in American society. I don’t want to … Continue reading
First it was Ed Stack of Dick’s, candidate for biggest hypocrite in America. Now we have Citigroup’s statement regarding restrictions on the sales practices of its “business partners” in the gun industry. My response. . . I may take Citigroup’s born again experience more seriously when it targets more common agents of death like cancer … Continue reading
While I was at the Rangemaster Polite Society Tactical Conference on the outskirts of the outskirts of Little Rock last weekend, I received an interesting interview request. A reporter wanted to talk about guns being left in bathrooms, after two guns were found in a short period of time in bathrooms at the University of … Continue reading
