Article Summary
This article discusses the concept of “gun culture” and its implications. The author argues that there is no such thing as a unified “gun culture” in America, but rather a diverse group of people who own and use guns for various purposes. The term “gun culture” is often used pejoratively by leftists to demonize gun owners and push for stricter gun control laws. However, the author argues that gun ownership is a constitutional right and that guns are used for self-defense, hunting, and other legitimate purposes. The article also discusses the history of gun ownership in America and challenges the notion that there is a unique “gun culture” that is responsible for gun violence in the country.
What This Means for You
- Understanding the complexities of gun ownership and the lack of a unified “gun culture” is important for informed discussions on gun control.
- Being aware of the pejorative use of the term “gun culture” can help you evaluate arguments for gun control more critically.
- Recognizing the diversity of gun owners and their reasons for owning guns can help promote a more nuanced understanding of gun ownership in America.
- Understanding the history of gun ownership in America can provide important context for current debates about gun control.
Original Post
Dictionary.com defines “culture,” in part, thus:
*the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular group of people, as a social, ethnic, professional, or age group (usually used in combination):
the youth culture; the drug culture.
*the shared beliefs, behaviors, or social environment connected with a particular aspect of society:
the rape culture on campus; the culture of poverty; a culture of celebrity worship.
Clearly, a “culture” is a particular group of people,” not a sampling of the population across race, gender, political, age and interest lines that happen to buy and use the same consumer product.1
Graphic: KelTec CMR30, Author
I speak of the “gun culture.” This, like “assault weapon” is a term made up by leftists for political advantage. Just as there is no such thing as an “assault weapon”2 there is no such thing as “gun culture,” and particularly not “American gun culture,” which with Donald Trump is the source of all evil in the world.3
The American left’s—Democrat Party’s—definition, via Wikipedia, is a bit different:
Gun culture refers to the attitudes, feelings, values and behaviour of a society, or any social group, in which guns are used. The term was first coined by Richard Hofstadter in an American Heritage article critiquing gun violence in the United States.
Local gun cultures are found all around the world, and attitudes toward guns vary greatly. Among the most studied and discussed global gun cultures is that of the United States.
That definition continues:
The gun culture of the United States can be considered unique among developed countries, in terms of the large number of firearms owned by civilians and generally permissive regulations.
Wikipedia is correct in at least this: no other country has a Second Amendment, nor did any other country have to tame and populate an entire continent in an extraordinarily short period of time.4
Americans have always appreciated and needed guns. Democrats have always tried to disarm Americans. They’ve pushed the existence of an evil, destructive “gun culture,” and even tried to deny it ever existed in hope of changing history and making guns easier to ban. In 2000, Emory University historian Michael Bellesiles published Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture. Its thesis was that Americans owned virtually no guns until that trend began to change sometime after the Civil War. The
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Key Terms
- gun culture
- gun control
- Second Amendment
- gun violence
- gun ownership
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