Gun Culture 2.0: The Evolution and Contours of Defensive Gun Ownership in America

• Published date: 01 November 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00027162231156292
• Author: David Yamane
• Date: 01 November 2022
• Subject Matter: The Changing Composition of Gun Violence

20 ANNALS, AAPSS, 704, November 2022

DOI: 10.1177/00027162231156292

Gun Culture

2.0: The

Evolution and

Contours of

Defensive Gun

Ownership in

America

By

DAVID YAMANE

1156292ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYGUN CULTURE 2.0

research-article2023

I trace the evolution of gun culture in the U.S., starting

with the prehistorical normality and significance of

projectile weaponry among Homo sapiens, then turning

to the largely practical use of firearms as tools in the

Colonial, Revolutionary, and Early Republic eras (ca.

1607–1850). I highlight the emergence of Gun Culture

1.0, which centered on sport hunting, recreation, and

collecting and was the core of American gun culture

from approximately 1850 to 2010. I then show the roots

of Gun Culture 2.0, which began in the 1960s and

1970s and centered on self-defense. I use various indi-

cators to document that, by 2010, armed self-defense

had become the core of American gun culture. In the

penultimate section of the article, I use the great gun-

buying spree of 2020+ to show the diversity that exists

within Gun Culture 2.0, a theme that carries over to the

conclusion, where I consider possible future directions

of gun culture.

Keywords: guns; firearms; gun culture; concealed

carry; self-defense; United States

America is awash in firearms, which are

owned by a significant portion of the popu-

lation. There are likely over 400 million guns in

the United States, owned by at least 75 million

individuals. Most of the population currently

lives with a gun in their house or has lived with

at least one in the past, and a sizeable minority—

those I call the “gun curious”—have thought

about or are actively considering acquiring a

gun (Kelley and Ellison 2021). Only about one-

third of Americans say they do not and will

never own guns. A remarkable seven out of ten

American adults have fired a gun—nearly 180

million people (Parker et al. 2017). Guns are a

perfectly normal part of life for most Americans.

Correspondence: yamaned@wfu.edu

David Yamane is a professor of sociology at Wake

Forest University. He is currently completing a book,

Gun Curious: A Journey into America’s Evolving

Culture of Firearms, based on his 10+ years observing

and participating in American gun culture.

GUN CULTURE 2.0 21

In his 1970 essay, “America as a Gun Culture,” historian Richard Hofstadter

remarked on—or, more accurately, lamented—the uniqueness of the U.S. “as the

only modern industrial urban nation that persists in maintaining a gun culture.”

In Hofstadter’s account, U.S. gun culture is rooted in the reality of widespread,

lawful possession of firearms by a large segment of the population. He recog-

nized that guns as material objects are central to the construction of any gun

culture. Without guns, there is no gun culture. But this is a trivial statement in

itself, so it is crucial to explain how people understand and use guns, how under-

standings and uses change over time, and their significant consequences. Note

that the focus of my work is on legal gun cultures. The U.S. also has armed

“criminal subcultures” (Kohn 2004), which are responsible for a large part of the

gun violence we see and are addressed more directly in other articles in this

volume.

This article discusses the evolution and contours of contemporary gun culture.

I begin by tracing the evolution of gun culture, starting with a prehistory high-

lighting the anthropological normality and significance of projectile weaponry

among Homo sapiens. I then turn to the largely practical uses of firearms as tools

in the Colonial, Revolutionary, and Early Republic eras (ca. 1607–1850). Next, I

highlight the emergence of Gun Culture 1.0, which centered on sport hunting,

recreation, and collecting and was the core of American gun culture from approx-

imately 1850 to 2010. I then explore the evolution of Gun Culture 2.0, which

began in the 1960s and 1970s, and is centered on self-defense. I use various

indicators to document that, by 2010, armed self-defense had clearly become the

core of American gun culture. In the penultimate section, I use the great gun-

buying spree of 2020+ to show the diversity that exists within Gun Culture 2.0,

a theme I carry over into the conclusion, where I also consider possible future

developments.

The Early Evolution of America’s Gun Culture

The human-weapon relationship and the normality of guns

My work on guns and gun culture begins with a very different premise than

most of the other articles in this volume. The premise is not novel. Nearly a half

century ago, Wright and Marston (1975, 106) observed that “the vast, over-

whelming majority of . . . privately owned weapons are not involved in accidental

shootings or intentional deaths.” The same is true of today’s 400 million or so

civilian firearms. Looking back on 20 years of research on guns in America,

Wright (1995, 64) concluded that “gun ownership is normative, not deviant,

behavior across vast swaths of the social landscape.” As I put it, guns are normal

and normal people use guns.

When I say guns are normal and normal people use guns, I am not merely

describing the contemporary American scene. The normality runs far deeper.

Projectile weapons are behaviorally normal for Homo sapiens as a species.

Today’s widely owned civilian firearms are part of an unbroken thread of what