I have previously observed that the National Opinion Research Center’s General Social Survey (GSS) underestimates the rate of gun ownership in the United States. This is a product both of non-response (people who do not answer the “do you own a gun question”) and denial (false negatives) among people who are actually gun owners. Iowa … Continue reading
I like data. I am a social scientist after all. I am also very impressed by some of the new developments in data visualization which did not exist when I was being trained. The gun violence newsadvocacy organization The Trace recently used data from the Gun Violence Archive to create an interesting “atlas” of American … Continue reading
In my haste to get a post up yesterday about the safety and security threats faced by congregations, I neglected to address two important findings from Christopher Scheitle’s recent article based on a national survey of congregations: Religious Congregations’ Experiences with, Fears of, and Preparations for Crime: Results from a National Survey. I dealt only … Continue reading
I concluded my post on Jeff Kowell’s view of church security as ministry by highlighting his point that very little church security involves any physical intervention at all, armed or unarmed. And, yet, church security is often treated just as a variant of armed security in general, especially as concerns “active shooter interdiction.” So, in … Continue reading
I was interested to learn recently about the SOUL Study — SOUL here standing for SOial gUn cuLture. The terrible acronym here, unfortunately, is matched by the poor quality of the survey being fielded. Although I am particularly sensitive to those who say they are studying American gun culture, here I think an objective analysis … 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
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
