Author’s Note: I’m not bringing back this blog (find me on Substack), but I recently published a short essay that is too important not to mention.

I shot a gun for the first time in January 2011. On that day, I began a personal and sociological journey into America’s gun culture that culminated in the June 2024 publication of my book, Gun Curious: A Liberal Professor’s Surprising Journey Inside America’s Gun Culture.

Trying to fit more than a decade’s observations in a single book was difficult. Harder still was to write a TL:DR for those for whom a book is too many words.

But I recently published a 900-word essay in The Conversation: “Guns in America: A liberal gun-owning sociologist offers 5 observations to understand America’s culture of firearms.”

Please have a look and share the essay using the sharing links on the article page. The Conversation (and my employer) tracks these metrics.

And let me know what you think!