I have written previously about how survey research underestimates the rate of gun ownership in the United States. The main sources of “false negatives” (people who own guns but tell survey researchers they do not) are (1) people who don’t want outsiders to know they have guns, (2) people who want to avoid the stigmaContinue reading “Still More on Why Gun Ownership Rates Are Underestimated in Surveys”
Category Archives: Data
How to See Through the Fog of the Culture of Fear Over Bad Outcomes with Guns (Light Over Heat #55)
This week’s “Light Over Heat” video explains a little trick I use to see through the fog produced by the mass-mediated culture of fear. If someone says they are “seeing more X” — where X = some negative outcome with guns — I distinguish between [seeing more] and [more X]. In this day and age,Continue reading “How to See Through the Fog of the Culture of Fear Over Bad Outcomes with Guns (Light Over Heat #55)”
Talking About Violence in the Asian American Community, Especially the Recent Half Moon Bay Mass Murder
RE-POSTING FROM MY GUN CULTURE 2.0 BLOG I am Asian-American (half Japanese-American on my father’s side) and grew up in Half Moon Bay, California. The coincidence of this with the mass murder of 7 people in Half Moon Bay by an Asian man led to a conversation recently with Randy Miyan on the Liberal GunContinue reading “Talking About Violence in the Asian American Community, Especially the Recent Half Moon Bay Mass Murder”
From Relative Risk to Absolute Risk of Negative Outcomes with Firearms – And Back
I have been writing quite a bit lately about negative outcomes with firearms for my book on American gun culture. As I’ve stated repeatedly state on this blog and in various publications over the years, unlike most scholars studying guns, my starting point is not the deviance of guns but their normality. But people careContinue reading “From Relative Risk to Absolute Risk of Negative Outcomes with Firearms – And Back”
Further Exploring American Exceptionalism via the Global Burden of Disease Study (Suicide)
Yesterday I explored America’s violent exceptionalism by looking at homicide data for the 38 member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) collected by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). Today I want to see what these data tell us about the problem of suicide in the United States relativeContinue reading “Further Exploring American Exceptionalism via the Global Burden of Disease Study (Suicide)”
Exploring America’s Violent Exceptionalism via the Global Burden of Disease Collaborative Network (Homicide)
Lately, I have been working on the chapter of my book on American gun culture that explores negative outcomes with firearms. Although I differ from most scholars studying guns by beginning not with gun deviance but with the normality of guns and gun owners, I do take negative outcomes seriously. America is exceptional in theContinue reading “Exploring America’s Violent Exceptionalism via the Global Burden of Disease Collaborative Network (Homicide)”
Thinking About Absolute vs. Relative Risk of Negative Outcomes with Firearms
Lately, I have been working on the chapter of my book on American gun culture that explores negative outcomes with firearms. Although I differ from most scholars studying guns by beginning not with gun deviance but with the normality of guns and gun owners, I do take negative outcomes seriously. Trying to get a betterContinue reading “Thinking About Absolute vs. Relative Risk of Negative Outcomes with Firearms”
The Presentation That Wasn’t: Gun Culture 2.0 and the Changing Face of Gun Owners in America
I have presented my work dozens of times in the 30 years since my first academic conference presentation in 1992. I had never missed a scheduled presentation until this year, when I could not attend a session (organized by Nicholas Buttrick and including Tara Warner and Emmy Betz) at the annual meeting of the AmericanContinue reading “The Presentation That Wasn’t: Gun Culture 2.0 and the Changing Face of Gun Owners in America”
Something Other Than Objective Risk Motivates Defensive Gun Ownership (Light Over Heat #46)
This video concludes my ongoing series systematizing the dominant academic approach to understanding Gun Culture 2.0, what I call “The Standard Model of Explaining the Irrationality of Defensive Gun Ownership.” Here I engage the 5th of the model’s 5 points: That something other than objective risk motivates defensive gun ownership. From a sociological perspective, thatContinue reading “Something Other Than Objective Risk Motivates Defensive Gun Ownership (Light Over Heat #46)”
Defensive Gun Ownership is Irrational – The Standard Model Part 4 (Light Over Heat #45)
This video continues my ongoing series systematizing the dominant academic approach to understanding Gun Culture 2.0, what I call “The Standard Model of Explaining the Irrationality of Defensive Gun Ownership.” Here I engage the 4th of the model’s 5 points: Based on the first 3 points, defensive gun ownership is IRRATIONAL. Links to the firstContinue reading “Defensive Gun Ownership is Irrational – The Standard Model Part 4 (Light Over Heat #45)”
Gun Curious 