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,” …
WordPress.com sent me an annual report for my blog, which nicely summarized some of the information I wanted to know most, like how many people visited my site and what were the most popular posts (see below). Although modest in comparison to many other blogs about guns and gun culture, I exceeded my own expectations …
As I have been delving into survey research on American gun ownership recently, I was surprised to find studies back into the 1970s criticizing the dominant approach to firearms ownership as being a subject for the sociology of deviance or criminology. The first two articles I read, from 1975 and 1978, were both published in …
Some time back I had a productive exchange with a commenter (Scott) on my blog post about the public health approach to gun violence. Scott and I got into the question of the role of “data” or “statistics” in debates over guns and gun violence. He usefully summarized both the pro-gun and anti-gun approaches to …
Some in the firearms self-defense community talk about “civilian operators” and “civilian warriors.” Something has always struck me as not quite right about these labels. I previously wrote about and expressed some reservations with Lt. Col. Dave Grossman’s idea of sheepdogs and his equation of them with civilian warriors. But I heard a reference to …
This year I attended for the first time the NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits, which were held in Houston, Texas from May 3-5 at the George R. Brown Convention Center. The NRA reported that 82,228 people attended – a record number (previous high was 73,740). They also reported an 86% increase over the previous year …
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, …
David Kopel, Research Director at the Independence Institute in Colorado and a well-known figure in the gun community, recently published a brief and useful essay on The Volokh Conspiracy blog (now oddly a part of the Washington Post web site). In it, Kopel discusses the expansion of “shall issue” concealed carry laws in the United … Continue reading
I decided I ought to bone up on the history of the National Rifle Association (NRA), so I hit the stacks at my campus library and found a couple of books. I am particularly keen to find the reality that exists somewhere between opponents’ claims that the NRA is a marksmanship organization gone bad and … Continue reading
In response to my recent post on gun carrying as akin to Pascal’s Wager, a colleague pointed to a song called “Pistol Pistol” by the Detroit-based rap group D12 (based known as the group that Eminem used to be a member of): If you can make it half-way through the song, you will hear Kuniva … Continue reading
Sociologist Jennifer Dawn Carlson begins a very interesting essay on the complexity of women’s involvement in gun culture recounting her first day carrying a concealed handgun in public: I remember looking at myself in the mirror that first morning, the familiar feminine ritual of checking my looks before heading out for the day disrupted by … Continue reading
A fellow sociologist asked the other day, “What’s the matter with Tulsa?” My immediate response was that Tulsa’s violent crime rate of 12.66 per 1,000 residents is 3 times the national average of 3.8 (and nearly 3 times Oklahoma’s rate of 4.41). According to Neighborhood Scout’s crime index, Tulsa is 3 out of 100 – … Continue reading
I have heard a lot of sayings about guns and self-defense in the last couple of years. The most popular are surely “Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6” and “When seconds count, police are just minutes away.” I recently heard a new one, though. I liked it because it was reminiscent … Continue reading
Even as I launch headlong into my new study of guns, I maintain a presence and interest in the sociology of religion. So, in addition to a not-yet-published article I wrote on religion and gun ownership, I am also constantly on the lookout for things happening at the intersection of guns and religion. Things like … Continue reading
