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
Briefly: I know of no local, state, or federal laws that limit how many guns you can own, as long as you can legally own guns. Correct me if I am wrong, please. People are often shocked at the number of guns people own. According to the 2015 National Firearms Survey (NFS), the average household … Continue reading
In my previous two posts (one on The Void and one on Silhouette) I have reflected on the ways in which photographer Garrett O. Hansen’s series of works collectively called “HAIL” both represent and misrepresent gun culture. For the final works in this series, “Memorial,” Hansen uses 12 panels each to depict the actual monthly … Continue reading
When I tell my more liberal friends I am studying “gun culture,” they frequently hear me saying “gun violence,” since their primary association with guns is with violence. Although my interest in guns is actually in the culture that surrounds it rather than violence, I still spend a few days on “gun violence” — firearm-related … Continue reading
Lois Beckett covers guns in the United States for The Guardian, and recently cross-posted her work on The Trace, because some researchers at Harvard and Northeastern Universities gave these two gun-control-oriented news organizations early access to their findings from a study of gun ownership in the United States. Beckett highlighted one particular finding from the … Continue reading
To: The Trace From: A Liberal Social Scientist Studying Guns Date: 22 September 2016 Re: Your Antipathy Toward Gun Owners In my Sociology of Guns seminar today, we are reading an excerpt from (Harvard Bachelor’s, Cambridge Master’s, and University of California Ph.D.) anthropologist Abigail Kohn’s book, Shooters: Myths and Realities of America’s Gun Cultures. Published … Continue reading
The Trace recently published a article by Alex Yablon titled “Concealed Carriers Have Made a Tiny Pistol with a Sketchy Past a Big Seller for Gun Makers.” It is a fascinating read because it gets alot of things right at a descriptive level, but packages what it gets right in its generally anti-gun framework. I … Continue reading
