I had the opportunity recently to review historian Clayton Cramer’s new book, Lock, stock, and barrel: The origins of American gun culture (Praeger, 2018), for CHOICE, a monthly publication of the Association of College & Research Libraries designed to help librarians decide which books to add to their collections. My overall evaluation is that this … Continue reading
I am preparing to depart for the Republic of Texas tomorrow to meet with my church security Collaborative Inquiry Team (another sociologist and two pastors) and attend a national conference on church security. Each of us on the team shared something we wrote to help the others understand where we are coming from as we … Continue reading
Last year I was invited to serve as one of the “critics” in an “author-meets-critics” session at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Montreal. The author in question is someone whose work I admire, Jennifer Carlson, so I gladly accepted. Putting together my list of top books on guns in America, I … Continue reading
Following my post on organizing my gun culture library, here are my top picks for books on guns in America. Some of these books are at the top of the list because they resonate with my personal and scholarly interests. They are not necessarily of interest to anyone and everyone. That said, these 9 books … Continue reading
I recently posted a picture to social media of the bookshelf in my office that I recently rearranged because it is (nearly) full of books on gun culture and related topics. It received more engagement than an average post of mine, including requests for an inventory of all the books and for a Top 5 … Continue reading
Between the end of the semester, my sister visiting, and some tennis related events, I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus from gun culture. Of course, gun culture waits on no person, nor goes my work. So I’m back in the office today editing two book chapters that came out of gun studies conferences … Continue reading
The private citizen firearms training industry was born as the American Pistol Institute at Gunsite Ranch back in 1976. The success of the American Pistol Institute (now Gunsite Academy) in surviving the passing of its founder, Col. Jeff Cooper, is due in part to the emphasis on the curriculum taught and not simply the person … Continue reading
