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
It is not surprising that a reason some people today own AR-platform or “military style” rifles – sometimes MANY of them — is “because they can.” Recall that 2% of respondents in a 2013 Pew Research Center poll said the primary reason they owned guns is because it is their Constitutional right – the same … 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
Now that I have put a wrap on my Sociology of Guns seminar from last semester, I am ready to get back into my main area of interest with respect to guns: Gun Culture 2.0. As I get back to the roots of my intellectual engagement with American gun culture — the rise of the … Continue reading
Here is a third student reflection on the normative question of the role guns should play in (American) society, from my Sociology of Guns seminar. The first reflection can be found here, and the second here. By Ashley Hamati The role of guns in our society is multifaceted. Thus, it is difficult to determine one … Continue reading
The first written assignment in my Sociology of Guns seminar was for students to reflect on their own personal views of the role that guns SHOULD play in (American) society (in 500-1,000 words). This initial reflection is meant to set the stage for a larger written project undertaken over the course of the semester that … Continue reading
