While I’m at it with the media, I thought I would post comments on American gun culture I shared recently with a journalist from at the French daily newspaper Le Monde. The comments offer a summarize of some of my overarching views of American gun culture, for what they are worth. They are what I … Continue reading
Reasons for owning, getting into, carrying and shooting guns — topics of my first three posts about the Pew Research Center’s new report, Exploring America’s Complex Relationship with Guns — are good indicators of involvement in American gun culture. But in consulting with the Pew team as they were designing their survey, I also suggested … Continue reading
On June 22nd, while I was deeply immersed in my observations of a 250 Defensive Pistol course at Gunsite Academy, the Pew Research Center released a research report called America’s Complex Relationship with Guns. I was particularly interested in the report because back in February I consulted with the Pew Research Center team about my … Continue reading
The sun has risen on the 5th and final day of the 250 Defensive Pistol course at Gunsite Academy, the original course at Gunsite designed and taught by founder Col. Jeff Cooper. The 250 pistol course is now referred to as “The Gunsite Experience.” Perhaps it has always been that way, but today Gunsite is … Continue reading
Following is the second of four end-of-semester student reflection papers for my Sociology of Guns seminar. Background on the assignment and the first reflection are available here. By Henry Mellon Many people have very strong opinions on guns. Some people feel very strongly that people should be able to own whatever gun they want, and … Continue reading
My wife made me do hot yoga today, which inspired a certain feeling captured in this t-shirt. Funnily enough, I bought the shirt recently in the People’s Republic of Berkeley. Continue reading
I am wrapping up my second semester teaching a seminar on the Sociology of Guns. Although the students have one more paper due, today was the last day of class. This week we completed a “Celebration of Learning” symposium, wherein the students each presented their seminar papers to the class. And I returned their graded … Continue reading
