Humanizing Gun Nuts

An anthropologist shoots down stereotypes about gun enthusiasts.

Eric Dzinski from the February 2005 issue

(Page 2 of 2)

She emphasizes, for example, that guns have been an integral part of American culture at least since the nation's founding and that no amount of gun control will ever bring about the fundamental change its proponents imagine. On the other side, she argues that gun enthusiasts must give up the belief that gun control has no effect on crime, citing laws that prohibit felons from owning firearms as an example of effective gun control. (She fails to mention that those same felons can still get guns illegally.)

Although Kohn's conclusions are thought-provoking and display a wealth of research about the subject, they depart substantially from her avowed purpose. They frame a discussion more suited to a general debate about the merits of gun control than to a targeted study of gun enthusiasm.

Those weaknesses aside, Kohn paints a fascinating portrait of gun enthusiasts. Studying people who are often maligned as racist, jingoistic troglodytes, she portrays a lively and diverse group brought together by common interests in history, mechanics, and liberty. Her colleagues in academia should take her insights to heart, replacing their blind disgust with a more dispassionate understanding of citizens who see a gun as a tool, not a menace.�

Comments

nfl jerseys|11.8.10 @ 1:17AM|#

nyhf

log in or register to reply