This book deserves attention, appreciation, and response by all Americans of good will.
pER ANDERSON, PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF RELIGION, CONCORDIA COLLEGE
COMING IN JUNE 2024!
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Author Statement
I am a sociologist at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I also own and use guns. I write from the perspective of a lifelong liberal professor who became a gun owner later in life. For over a decade, I journeyed deeper and deeper inside American gun culture. Written in an accessible style for a broad audience, Gun Curious reports and reflects on my experiences.
As someone who had little exposure to guns for most of my life, I know what it is like not to understand guns and gun culture. I hope Gun Curious translates what I have learned for anyone who is curious and open-minded about the issue. If you are tired of our paralyzing national argument about guns, my book offers a hopeful alternative based on civil conversation.
I sincerely hope that Gun Curious will enlighten our understanding of gun culture in the same way that Jennifer Carlson clarifies gun politics and Jonathan Metzl illuminates gun violence.
Book Description
More than ever, it feels like cultural and political divisions over firearms are tearing the United States apart. Guns are an undeniable and contradictory presence in America, both widely owned and controversial.
This highly original book by David Yamane, an internationally recognized authority on the subject, does something truly remarkable: it promotes insight over animosity in understanding the complex reality of guns in America. Gun Curious challenges firearms skeptics and enthusiasts alike and informs the uncommitted by taking readers on a surprising journey inside gun culture in a way no book has.
An Asian American and lifelong liberal from the San Francisco Bay Area, Yamane became a first-time gun owner as a forty-two-year-old and embarked on an immersive twelve-year study of American gun culture. Gun Curious brilliantly weaves together his personal experiences and sociological observations to explain why guns make sense to those who own them. Yamane illuminates defensive gun ownership, the risk of negative outcomes associated with firearms, and what responsible gun ownership looks like in the twenty-first century.
Wide-ranging and readable, Gun Curious lowers the heat on America’s inflamed arguments about firearms and models the civil discussions we desperately need right now. If you’re ready for more light and less heat, Gun Curious is for you.
Advance Praise for Gun Curious
About the Author
David Yamane is a sociology professor at Wake Forest University. He is an internationally recognized scholarly authority on guns in America and a calming voice in our divisive national argument on the issue. An Asian American and lifelong liberal from the San Francisco Bay Area, Yamane became a first-time gun owner as a 42-year-old and began a 12-year journey into the complex world of firearms in America. Having one foot outside and one inside gun culture allows him to speak with compassion across our paralyzing differences.
Recent publications include “Gun Culture 2.0: Evolution and Contours of Defensive Gun Ownership in America,” “Understanding and Misunderstanding American Gun Culture and Violence,” and Concealed Carry Revolution: Liberalizing the Right to Bear Arms in America.
Committed to informing public debate and enriching everyday conversations about guns, Professor Yamane shares his thoughts on his blog, gunculture2point0.com and on Twitter at @davidyamane. In 2022, he launched a YouTube channel, “Light Over Heat with Professor David Yamane,” on which he posts weekly short videos about issues related to his scholarship.
Gun Curious 