Gun Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Politics, Policy, and Practice

357 Pages·2018·5.933 MB·English

by  Jennifer Carlson, Kristin A. Goss, Harel Shapira

Gun Studies
As cultural, social, political, and historical objects, guns are rich with complex and
contestedsignificance.Whatgunsmean,whytheymatter,andwhatpoliciesshouldbe
undertaken to regulate guns remain issues of vigorous scholarly and public debate.
GunStudiesoffersfreshresearchandoriginalperspectivesonthecontentiousissueof
firearms in public life. Comprising of global, interdisciplinary contributions, this
insightful volume examines difficult and timely questions through the lens of:
(cid:129) Social practice
(cid:129) Marketing and commerce
(cid:129) Critical theory
(cid:129) Political conflict
(cid:129) Public policy
(cid:129) Criminology
Questions explored include the evolution of American gun culture from recreation
to self-protection; the changing dynamics of the pro-gun and pro-regulation move-
ments; the deeply personal role of guns as sources of both injury and security; and the
relationshipbetweengun-wieldingindividuals,thestate,andsocialorderintheUnited
States and abroad. In addition to introducing new research, Gun Studies presents
reflections by senior scholars on what has been learned over the decades and how
gun-related research has influenced public policy and everyday conversations.
Offeringprovocativeandoftenintimateperspectivesonhowgunsinfluenceindividuals,
socialstructures,andthestateinbothdramaticandnuancedways,GunStudieswillappealto
studentsandresearchersinterestedinfieldssuchassociology,politicalscience,legalhistory,
criminology,criminaljustice,socialpolicy,armamentsindustries,andviolentcrime.Itwill
alsoappealtopolicymakersandothersinterestedinandconcernedabouttheuseofguns.
Jennifer Carlson is an assistant professor at the School of Sociology and School of
Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona, USA.
KristinA.GossisanassociateprofessorofpublicpolicyandpoliticalscienceatDuke
University, USA.
Harel Shapira is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at
Austin, USA.
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Ella Cockbain
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Cyber-risk and Youth
Digital Citizenship, Privacy and Surveillance
Michael Adorjan and Rosemary Ricciardelli
Gun Studies
Interdisciplinary Approaches to Politics, Policy, and Practice
Edited by Jennifer Carlson, Kristin A. Goss, and Harel Shapira
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Studies-in-Crime-and-Society/book-series/RSCS
Gun Studies
Interdisciplinary Approaches to Politics,
Policy, and Practice
Edited by Jennifer Carlson, Kristin A.
Goss, and Harel Shapira
Firstpublished2019
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction:newapproachestoresearchonguns 1
JENNIFERCARLSON,KRISTINA.GOSS,ANDHARELSHAPIRA
1 Theriseofself-defenseingunadvertising:TheAmerican
Rifleman,1918–2017 9
DAVIDYAMANE,SEBASTIANL.IVORY,ANDPAULYAMANE
2 Semi-automaticsforthepeople?Themarketingofanew
kindofman 28
PETERSQUIRES
3 ‘ThegunindustrywantstosellyourkidanAR-15’ 52
LAURABROWDER
4 UnderstandingtheillicitgunmarketinLosAngeles:areview
oftheempiricalevidence 75
GEORGEE.TITAANDMELISSABARRAGAN
5 Consumers,culture,marketsystemsandstrategy:integrating
marketingresearchandfirearmsstudies 95
AIMEEDINNINHUFFANDMICHELLEBARNHART
6 FightingtheLeftandleadingtheRight:NRApoliticsand
powerthroughthe2016elections 117
SCOTTMELZER
7 Whateverhappenedtothe‘missingmovement’?Guncontrol
politicsovertwodecadesofchange 136
KRISTINA.GOSS
vi Contents
8 Whatifwetalkedaboutguncontroldifferently?Aframing
experiment 151
SIERRASMUCKER
9 Guncontrol:anAustralianperspective 177
RICKSARRE
10 Prostheticgods:onthesemioticandaffectivelandscapeof
firearmsinAmericanpolitics 196
PATRICKBLANCHFIELD
11 BulletRiddled:LivingandSufferinginKilladelphia 211
JOOYOUNGLEE
12 Guns,intimacy,andthelimitsofmilitarizedmasculinity 224
MICHAELA.MESSNER
13 Lawfullyarmedcitizensandpolice:aproposalforreducing
armedencounterswithagentsofthestate 241
NICHOLASJ.JOHNSON
14 ‘Theworstthathumanityhastooffer’:onlootersand
law-abidingcitizensinastateofemergency 258
CAROLINELIGHT
15 Gunviolence,guncontrolandself-defenseinthegovernance
ofsecurityofLatinAmerica 271
DIEGOSANJURJO
16 Firearmsandviolence 294
FRANKLINE.ZIMRING
17 Theeffectoffirearmsonsuicide 309
GARYKLECK
18 Gunpolicyresearch:personalreflectionsonpublicquestions 330
PHILIPJ.COOK,DAVIDB.KOPEL,ANDROBERTJ.SPITZER
Index 341
Acknowledgements
Many of the essays included in this volume were originally presented at the
2017 Gun Studies Symposium at the University of Arizona. This symposium
was made possible by generous support from the Rombach Institute, the
School of Government and Public Policy, the School of Sociology in the
Social and Behavioral Sciences College and the College of Humanities at
the University of Arizona, as well as from the Carnegie Corporation of New
York. We are especially grateful to the Marketing and Communications team
at the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, particularly Jenna Rutschman,
Lori Harwood, and Miles Fujimoto, for making sure the event came off
without a hitch, as well as to organizer extraordinaire and sociologist Jessica
Pfaffendorf for creating an intellectual space for open, interdisciplinary debate
surrounding the social life of guns. Accordingly, we also want to acknowledge
the generosity of panelists, attendees, and discussants. We especially thank
Timothy Luke and William Vizzard, who provided indispensable insight to
the panelist-authors. The editors would also like to acknowledge the team at
Routledge, led by Hannah Catterall and Thomas Sutton. Their encourage-
ment and flexibility allowed us to develop a truly interdisciplinary text that
captures the breadth of gun studies today. Last but not least, we are inspired by
the theoretical and empirical breadth of the authors in this volume – and by
what the future of gun studies holds.
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Introduction
New approaches to research on guns
Jennifer Carlson, Kristin A. Goss, and Harel Shapira
Introduction
Until recently, the study of guns was predominantly focused on understanding
the relationship between guns and crime. This focus can be traced back to the
post-war era and the work of criminologists such as Marvin Wolfgang (1958)
and Franklin Zimring (1968a, 1968b), who helped establish the field of gun
studies. Their original emphasis on studying guns by studying the relationship
between guns and crime was connected to a series of coinciding historical
events: high-profile assassinations of political figures; increasing levels of gun
crime; so-called riots in urban areas in the 1960s; and, finally, dramatic spikes
in the sale of long guns and handguns. These scholars raised a series of
important questions that remain key areas of inquiry within the field, includ-
ing: What is the relationship between specific gun control policies and specific
kinds of gun crime? What is the correlation between gun availability and
various kinds of violent and non-violent crime? What is the relationship
between gun ownership and risk of victimization?
While such questions remain important and demand continued investiga-
tion,one ofthe aims of this edited volume is to identify and advance emerging
research agendas within the growing field of gun studies. Specifically, the
volume helps to promote empirical and theoretical understandings of how
people live with, experience, and think about guns in their day-to-day lives.
Doing so requires bringing together scholars who are doing research on
everyday people and their guns, but also scholars who are addressing a wide
range of people embedded in institutions that interact with firearms and
engage in firearms politics: from the National Rifle Association (NRA) to
social movements for gun regulation, including participants in legal and under-
ground gun markets, and from the police officer to the military veteran. The
contributors to this volume examine people and institutions through a variety
of analytical lenses associated with various disciplinary traditions. These ana-
lyses draw upon a wide mix ofempirical sources, such as surveys, ethnographic
fieldwork, media content, laws and policies, and gun-trace data.
Most of the essays in this volume were originally drafted for a symposium
held at the University of Arizona in October 2017. Driven by the desire to