Open carry rally in Michigan (Danielle Duval / Associated Press)
Jennifer Carlson is a sociologist who has been looking a little differently, and more fairly than many, at guns and “gun culture” in America. Her op-ed in the LA Times highlights some themes of her recent book, Citizen-Protectors: The Everyday Politics of Guns in an Age of Decline. In that, she recognizes the meaning to many men of having the ability to defend themselves and especially their loved ones. To her credit, too, she became an NRA Instructor as a way to immerse herself in her subject.
What seems missing is a broader perspective on the world, including women’s increasing interest in self-defense and a fairly stereotyped view of racial roles and perceptions among the populace. However, focusing on a specific question at a time is the way good research happens, so primarily exploring the meaning to men of carrying guns doesn’t necessarily imply bias.
In her article, she casts her eyes on “guns and people”, and doesn’t assume any rightness or wrongness to having guns. It’s long been clear that more guns in responsible hands diminish the motivation and success of violent criminals (despite unscientific claims based on selective data choices and polling by anti-gun academics). Unlike many illiberal sociological thinkers, she seems uninterested in political posturing and simply curious about how and why people do what they do. Her thesis appears to be that the great increase in gun rights, ownership and carry of the past 30 years may be influenced by diminishing confidence in security and greater difficulty fulfilling the classic male roles of breadwinner and leader of families and communities. It’s a fascinating idea, though like so many social theories it is a correlation that can’t be proven as cause.
But she is opening up some new perspectives on the meaning of guns in our society, which I hope will be pursued and expanded in scope. What about the meaning of guns to women who use them? To different ethnic groups (or is this more historical, geographic, and/or related to population density)? Can the fundamental drives for autonomy and the power to protect (as opposed to depending on impersonal agents of government) be all that different between people of different genders, races and religions?
Certainly, many men want to protect their families and their communities. It’s tempting to read into this the ridiculous idea of guns as compensatory phallic objects, but that’s a superficial slur that disrespects people who care enough to want to protect others and to take the great responsibility of being prepared to do so. I hope Carlson will explore the larger subject of why so many people from all walks and classes of life, of all ages, men and women alike, choose to be armed, alert and unintimidated.
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— DRGO editor Robert B. Young, MD is a psychiatrist practicing in Pittsford, NY, an associate clinical professor at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.