I don’t re-blog much on this site, and I definitely try to stay out of politics (though sometimes I can’t help myself). Lately more than ever. To be perfectly honest, I have grown weary of the culture war rhetoric on both major sides of the debate over guns in American society. I don’t want to … Continue reading
Working on an exam for my Introduction to Sociology class, so reflecting on the current (post-Parkland, Florida school shooting) debates made me think to formulate a test question about it. If you care about children, then you must . . . A. Support a ban on assault weapons B. Support arming teachers C. Support more … Continue reading
I wrote yesterday about re-visiting statistics on gun ownership from the 2015 National Firearms Survey for my Sociology of Guns seminar. For class today we also read the report, “America’s Complex Relationship with Guns.” I have posted several times already about this Pew Research Center’s 2017 gun survey, perhaps because I consulted on the survey … Continue reading
Some time ago over lunch, my friend and I had a very productive and civil conversation about guns. We both have connections to Wisconsin and Wake Forest University, play tennis together, enjoy drinking gin and tonics, and share most of our political views in common. We are alike in many ways — most ways, probably … Continue reading
That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Reading year after year of The American Rifleman, this well-known passage from the Tanakh ring ever so true. Two examples below are similar to others I have found, … Continue reading
In a much longer recent entry I questioned the common narrative that the National Rifle Association was (largely? mostly? considerably?) a-political prior to the 1977 Revolt at Cincinnati. Continuing my stroll through 100 years of the NRA’s flagship publication, The American Rifleman, I came across still more evidence that the fundamental political emphasis of the … Continue reading
I confess that I have always been jealous of historians and historical sociologists because their wide field of vision offers so many insights into the present. Good history helps us see where we came from, and how the present day is or is not different from the past. Total immersion into a previous time period … Continue reading
