Later this week I will be attending a Gun Studies Symposium at the University of Arizona in Tucson, organized by Jennifer Carlson, Kristen Goss, and Harel Shapira. The symposium includes a Who’s Who of scholars who have studied guns for decades, including Philip Cook (Duke), David Kopel (Denver Law), Robert Spitzer (CUNY), Frank Zimring (Berkeley), … Continue reading
I shot two replica muzzle loaders yesterday at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. I am guest lecturing on religion and guns and gun culture in two classes today at the College of William and Mary, so I drove up to Williamsburg yesterday. My host mentioned that Colonial Williamsburg opened a musket range in spring 2016. … Continue reading
Preliminary: “AR” is an abbreviation for ArmaLite Rifle, the company that developed the rifle, not “assault rifle” or “automatic rifle.” (H/T McThag) Also, the question here is why DO people own ARs, not why SHOULD they. I am dealing with the empirical issue not the normative one, although normative considerations would probably benefit from understanding … Continue reading
Question: Why do people own guns? Surveys typically offer people several options to describe their motivations, usually including: hunting, collecting, recreation, and personal protection or self-defense. Over the past 20 years, self-defense has replaced hunting as the primary reason for gun ownership for Americans. Some surveys allow people to list multiple reasons, for example the … 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
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
