With Gunsite in my rear view mirror, I have alot of observations to process. And I was reminded today that I still have to process observations of Tom and Lynn Givens’s Rangemaster Instructor Development Course from Memorial Day weekend. And I have made or am trying to make arrangements to observe Rob Pincus, Gabe Suarez, … Continue reading
I am very happy to report that my second academic article on gun culture was published today in the journal Sociology Compass (my first was on religion and gun ownership). Thanks to a generous grant from Wake Forest University’s ZSR Library and the Office of Research & Sponsored Programs, “The Sociology of U.S. Gun Culture” … Continue reading
In my opinion and that of my students, the highlight of my two previous Sociology of Guns courses has been our field trip to the gun range (in fall 2015 and fall 2016). Because I wasn’t expecting to teach the guns seminar this spring, I initially didn’t make plans to have the field trip. I … Continue reading
My posts on gun ownership statistics, beginning here, brought out a number of excellent comments, some of which highlighted that others have made the same or similar points in the past. Teaching on this topic and posting about it has, therefore, been very educational for me. Which is a big part of the point of … Continue reading
Having addressed the issue of how many guns there are in the United States today (twice, actually), and why people own them, I now consider the first of James D. Wright’s “Ten Essential Observations on Guns in America”: Half the households in the country own at least one gun. Updating Wright’s first observation, although it … Continue reading
As I noted in my last post, I am focusing my Sociology of Guns seminar around James Wright’s 1995 essay, “Ten Essential Observations on Gun in America.” Last week we addressed the first three of Wright’s observations are: Half the households in the country own at least one gun. There are 200 million guns already … Continue reading
I ordinarily do not repeat seminars in successive semesters, but a scheduling fluke this spring has me teaching my Sociology of Guns seminar once again. No major changes to the overall structure of the course, though I have tweaked the readings as I usually do. (You can download the syllabus as a PDF document here: … Continue reading
