I’m very pleased to announce that my most comprehensive take on Gun Culture 2.0 to date has recently been published. It comes six years after I initially planted the flag for the concept of “Gun Culture 2.0” (h/t as always to Michael Bane) and for a non-deviant approach to studying guns sociologically.

Articles like this are usually paywalled, but the editors successfully negotiated with the journal to have all of the articles in this issue available as “open access.” So click and enjoy “Gun Culture 2.0: The Evolution and Contours of Defensive Gun Ownership in America” (link to the article on the journal’s website).

If you want to go straight to the text, here’s a PDF of the article.

There is a lot that is unique about this article (IMHO), but I want to note in particular the first section of the part on The Early Evolution of America’s Gun Culture called “The human-weapon relationship and the normality of guns.”

Those who follow me closely have heard me talk about the work Randy Miyan is doing as executive director of the Liberal Gun Owners, especially his Liberal Gun Owner Lens. The first pillar of the LGO Lens focuses on “the human-weapon relationship.” It is a thorough analysis of the uniquely human and culturally universal use of projectile weaponry that provides the foundation for widespread contemporary civilian gun ownership in the United States.

That is, the anthropological and archaeological normality of the 300,000-year-old Homo Sapiens Projectile Club is the basis for the sociological normality of guns today.

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