I have previously denied the existence of a Gun Culture 3.0, but a couple of recent Open Source Defense posts could convince me to soften my stance on this (OSD 249: The Eras Tour and OSD 250: A Very Particular Set of Skills).

They don’t use the language of “Gun Culture 3.0,” but it is implied in the passage quoted below when they note that Gun Culture 2.0 “ran through the early 21st century” (ran = past tense).

In the conclusion to my most recent comprehensive article on Gun Culture 2.0 (which they graciously cite), I speculate about some possible future evolutions of gun culture. The one OSD points to is not among them, which doesn’t mean I am right and they are wrong. It could be the other way around.

Beyond the specifics of this issue, Open Source Defense is a must-read for me because it challenges my thinking about and understanding of gun culture. I encourage you to follow and support their work on Twitter and Substack.

Cultures produce trends. Trends have lifespans. A decade, tops. So by definition, the only cultures that last are those that produce multiple trends, one after the other. That requires continual reinvention. A culture that isn’t reinventing itself is one that’s living off of its seed corn.

YouTube is a useful place to see this happening in real-time. You can break the history into different eras.

• Gun Culture 1.0: David Yamane identifies this as starting in the mid 19th century and focusing on hunting and recreation, with self-defense being part of gun education but not central. It ran through the mid 20th century, and Jack O’Connor and Elmer Keith were the top influencers of the era.
• Gun Culture 2.0: this era brought self-defense to the fore, starting in the 1960s. Jeff Cooper is the godfather here, and this era ran through the early 21st century.
• YouTube launched in 2005, and starting in the late ‘00s, you can observe the ebb and flow of five different trends:
  • Military-based training: this kicked off in earnest with the Magpul Dynamics DVDs from Travis Haley and Chris Costa, and today looks like CQB lessons and night-vision tactics on YouTube.
  • Technical gear reviews: there was a time when your best shot at seeing in-depth details on your favorite gun was to wait for its Future Weapons episode to come on TV. Today you can see essentially any gun you want at any time, field-stripped in 4K.
  • Commentary on gun politics and court cases: it used to be hard to find content that had any level of technical depth here. Now there are channels like Fuddbusters which actually assume quite a bit of legal knowledge and are deep wells of professional-level legal analysis.
  • Fun: the innovation here has been in production value and in, well, fun. The first video on Demolition Ranch is a 45-second clip of Matt shooting an old computer monitor with a shotgun. From there, things … progressed.
  • Practical advice: this has been the category with the most original, groundbreaking content in the past few years. Some of the best content here comes from people incentivized to make it — people who are selling gear and have a lot of firsthand experience helping newbies navigate everyday questions. PHLster, T.Rex Arms, and Lucky Gunner are great examples.

All of these categories look very different than they did ten years ago. Some categories might be on the downslope overall. For example, the “military-based training” and “fun” categories in particular are running out of ideas for original content, so those creators are busily looking for ways to reinvent the genre. But ultimately that’s what all creators have to do sooner or later. And that’s good. The more readily we reinvent, the more vibrant the culture becomes.

OSD 249: The Eras Tour