GUNS ARE NORMAL, NORMAL PEOPLE USE GUNS
We begin with the first two observations James Wright makes in his 1995 essay, “Ten Essential Observations on Guns in America”:
Observation 1: Half the households in the country own at least one gun.
Observation 2: There are 200 million guns already in circulation in the United States, give or take a few tens of millions.
In this first session, we will explore some of the best available recent data that speak to the widespread ownership of firearms in America. These facts also inform my fundamental perspective on guns and gun owners: Guns are normal and normal people use guns. (This is why chapter 1 of my forthcoming book, Gun Curious, covers this topic.)
CORE RESOURCES
*James D. Wright, “Ten Essential Observations on Guns in America,” Society (March/April 1995)
*David Yamane, “Guns Are Normal, Normal People Use Guns,” Gun Culture 2.0 Blog (26 July 2021)
*John Berrigan, Deborah Azrael, and Matthew Miller, “The Number and Type of Private Firearms in the United States,” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (November 2022).
*William English, “2021 National Firearms Survey: Updated Analysis Including Types of Firearms Owned,” SSRN/Georgetown McDonough School of Business Research Paper No. 4109494 (28 September 2022).
SUPPLEMENTAL RESOURCES
The anthropological normality of projectile weaponry among human beings explains the deep roots of the socio-cultural normality of guns that centers my work. I draw my understanding of the “Homo Sapiens Projectile Club” from Randy Miyan, the executive director of the Liberal Gun Owners:
*Randy Miyan, “The Liberal Gun Owners Lens, Pillar 1: Anthropology, Evolution, and Human Innateness” (this page explains the Liberal Gun Owners Lens overall and has a link at the bottom to access a PDF of the LGO Anthropology Lens) (2 December 2021).
The following two videos are spoken explanations of the perspective found in the LGO Lens document linked above:
*Randy Miyan, “The 2022 Sociology of Guns Lecture: The Human-Weapon Relationship (Part 2),” Liberal Gun Owners YouTube channel (48 minutes) (28 September 2022).
*Randy Miyan, “The 2022 Sociology of Guns Lecture: The Human-Weapon Relationship (Part 3),” Liberal Gun Owners YouTube channel (40 minutes) (28 September 2022).
SUPPORT
There is no tuition for this course. If you would like to support my mission of educating people and enriching conversations about guns in America, please use either of the two donation buttons below. Your contributions help offset the costs associated with making this and other work freely available with no subscriptions or paywalls. Even a small one-time PayPal contribution or gift of one $5 “coffee” helps. (Venmo added by request.) Thank you for sustaining my work and my morale.
