This is the next edition in my repository post on what I am calling The Master Narrative of Democracy Destroying Right-Wing Gun Culture, the dominant paradigm in the interdisciplinary academic field of gun studies (and as a key organizing idea in the wider culture). This narrative complements The Standard Model of Explaining the Irrationality of Defensive Gun Ownership. Maybe someday I will be able to merge these two components of the dominant approach to understanding guns in the United States into one Grand Theory. First, read a bit about scientific paradigms generally and then get to the gr ..read more

It is an old idea in my field of sociology that SOCIAL CONDITIONS EXIST but SOCIAL PROBLEMS ARE DEFINED. The process of taking a social condition and getting people to recognize it as a social problem often entails ADVOCACY. According to a foundational statement by John Kitsuse and Malcolm Spector, social problems are “the activities of individuals or groups making assertions of grievances and claims with respect to some putative conditions” (Constructing Social Problems, 1977, p. 75). Joseph Gusfield’s analysis of the movement against drinking-driving in The Culture of Public Problems (1980 ..read more

In connection with my project of articulating The Master Narrative of Democracy-Destroying Right-Wing Gun Culture in the field of gun studies, I have been reading political scientist Alexandra Filindra’s Race, Rights, and Rifles: The Origins of the NRA and Contemporary Gun Culture (buy it via this Bookshop.org affiliate link). It’s an interesting book with a unique argument about the history of the National Rifle Association. When reviewing it, I, of course, looked at the blurbs on the back cover to see what scholarly firepower Filindra was invoking to support her work. I found Rogers Smith’s ..read more

UPDATED TO ADD: I have recently posted a draft of my paper, “Articulating The Standard Model of Explaining the Irrationality of Defensive Gun Ownership,” on the open-access site SocArXiv. I don’t have time, energy, or a venue to publish this paper, so this may forever be the reference edition. Enjoy it! I discussed The Standard Model also in Module 4 of my free public webinar on “Ten Essential Observations on Guns in America,” as well as on my “Light Over Heat” YouTube channel. A brief synopsis of The Standard Model from my original post on it follows. ORIGINAL POST Last year I was invited to ..read more

This post continues what I started before with my recap of the second Light Over Heat Virtual Book Club on Jonathan Metzl’s recently published book, What We’ve Become: Living and Dying in a Country of Arms (Amazon affiliate link to help offset my expenses in doing this work). The recap also includes my reading notes of what I liked and disliked about the first section we read. For our second meeting last night, we had 10 of 12 panelists present and another 10 people going strong in the chat (of 25 registrants – another solid turnout!). The final session will be on Thursday, May 2nd at 6:00pm E ..read more

“Without” is an award-winning podcast hosted by international bestselling author Omar El Akkad and produced by HyperObject Industries (founded by Hollywood legend Adam McKay) and Sony Music Entertainment. When I spoke with Omar in January about my changing relationship to firearms and if a world without them is conceivable, I thought I was going to be just one of many guests. It turns out, I was the only guest. Omar is an admitted skeptic about civilian ownership of firearms. I credit him for seeking me out as someone who is not. We need more civil dialogue across our differences on this issue ..read more

As noted previously, I stole the phrase “Gun Culture 2.0” from Michael Bane after I heard him talk about it on his Downrange Radio podcast (and got his ex post facto approval btw), and alot of what I learned in my early days as a shooter were from Bob Mayne’s Handgun World Podcast. So, I am indebted to the hard work of many podcasters, and correspondingly flattered when asked to be a guest. In order for me to keep track of these appearances, I am creating this landing page to collect links to the shows I’ve appeared on. In reverse chronological order (newest first): [36] Without is an award-wi ..read more

Last week I attended a Deliberative Forum on “Guns in America: How Should We Balance Concerns about Gun Rights and Gun Risks?” at Davidson College, a fine liberal arts institution down the road from Wake Forest. I only learned of the Tuesday night event on Monday morning when Philip Smith, President of the National African American Gun Association, emailed me to let me know he would be in North Carolina the following day. I eagerly registered for the event and made my way to Davidson immediately after class. The event was developed by something called the Deliberative Citizenship Initiative at ..read more

Friends, Please save the date: Saturday, June 1st from 6:00pm to 8:00pm EDT. A fabulous new independent bookstore in Winston-Salem, The Bookhouse in Reynolda Village, will be hosting a book launch event for Gun Curious. Please join me for a celebratory drink and a few words about the book. You can also pick up a copy of Gun Curious that I will be excited to sign for you. I am grateful for all of the support I have received in the decade I have been working on this book and the years of struggling to get it published. This event will allow me to celebrate everyone who has been there with me. I ..read more

The second Light Over Heat Virtual Book Club kicked off last night with a thoughtful discussion of Jonathan Metzl’s recently published book, What We’ve Become: Living and Dying in a Country of Arms (Amazon affiliate link to help offset my expenses in doing this work). The basic format of the book club is a panel of 12 people discussing the book in a Zoom Webinar, with anyone else interested able to attend and interact with each other and the panel in the webinar chat. For our first meeting, we had 11 of 12 panelists present and 15 people going strong in the chat (of 25 registrants – a solid tu ..read more