David Yamane is not your typical ivory tower sociology professor. Well, he’s not any more. As he related in a recent talk he gave the the National Firearms Law Seminar in Indianapolis, Prof. Yamane picked up a gun for the first time at the age of 42 and he hasn’t looked back.
He’s since made it his business to study America’s gun culture, including a class he now teaches at Wake Forest on the sociology of guns. As his website describes,
(T)he center of gravity of American gun culture has shifted from Gun Culture 1.0 — based in hunting and recreational/sport shooting — to Gun Culture 2.0 — based in concealed carry and armed self-defense. My approach to Gun Culture 2.0 is inspired by philosopher Baruch Spinoza: “I have sedulously endeavored not to laugh at human actions, nor to lament them, nor to detest them, but to understand them.”
Who knew that was still an acceptable approach in American higher education? As Yamane told his audience in the video below,
As we know from efforts to promote “common sense” gun laws, one person’s common sense is another person’s nonsense. So there may be things about gun culture today that you, as people heavily involved in that culture, take for granted, that are a revelation to people like me who come from outside that culture.
This is why Peter Berger wrote decades ago that the first wisdom of Sociology is this: Things are not what they seem. As a liberal professor journeying into American gun culture, I’ve been continually surprised at what I’ve found. How things are very much not what they seem from the outside.
Translation: America’s 100+ million gun owners aren’t racist, redneck, bloodthirsty, gap-toothed hicks as they’re so often portrayed in the media and by the Civilian Disarmament Industrial Complex.
Yamane distills this revelation into a simple thesis – guns are normal and normal people use guns. That’s a refreshingly clear insight for any academic, but particularly one who toils in the muck of the social sciences…one who now describes himself as “a card-carrying liberal snowflake gun owner.”
Again, from his talk:
The idea that guns are normal and normal people use guns may seem common sense to those of us gathered here, but it’s actually a dramatic departure from the standard social scientific approaches that view guns and gun owners as deviant
The center of gravity of the American gun culture has shifted over the last half century. The majority of gun owners if 21st century America, especially new gun owners like me, point to self-defense as the primary reason for owning a gun.
Yamane has three lessons and takeaways for his audience.
- Guns are normal and normal people use guns – Resist efforts to stigmatize guns and gun owners by showing the positive face of gun culture.
- Shooting is fun and challenging – Promote the act of shooting whenever possible.
- Gun culture 2.0 is inclusive – Embrace diversity and inclusivity. Build Bridges not walls.
Watch the video.
Someone in the academy committed an act of scholarship?
What’s that: three seals down, four to go? What’s next, “reporters” committing journalism? Also, I’ll be taking my pig-poo umbrella when I skate outdoors into my own personal heck, today.
And I thought that “liberal gun owner” was a contradiction in terms, like “military intelligence” or “jumbo shrimp.”
It’s not. There are quite a lot of us, trying to change the rest from the inside. I’m also a member of LGO.
But if you vote for Leftist Democrats then you must not value your gun rights very much, since every one of them wants to limit, if not eliminate, civilian access to guns (the limiting usually seen as a first step to elimination).
The first rule of lefty gun club is you don’t talk about the confiscation of guns and the following civil war that lefty gun clubs dreams of. What more would you expect from the party of science that takes unprovable theories as complete fact? So rational…
That’s the Wisconsin democrat gun owner. They hunt once or twice a year with the same gun and say. “Why do you need anything else. Grandfather’s gun is fine for me.”
Quoting from the article above…did u u read the whole thing???maybe watch the video???
3.Gun culture 2.0 is inclusive – Embrace diversity and inclusivity. Build Bridges not walls.
Don’t be a douchebag Leon
Charles Bronson said it best when asked if guns scared him. His response, “Guns don’t scare me, Idiots with guns scare me”. I was raised up with guns and ammo in the house and was taught to shoot and respect guns by my WW2 8th ArmyAirForce veteran father. I’ve had guns ever since I was big enough to hold one up. But I wasn’t turned loose with one until my father was satisfied that I was responsible enough to handle one alone. My teaching has never left me and I was taught well. I totally agree with Charles Bronson’s statement.
The only contradiction is when the Progressives/Fascists misappropriated the word Liberal as they did the Swastika.
The definition of classical liberalism was hijacked by left-wing Progressivism. They think their modern version of “enlightened” ideology is somehow morally superior to the ideas proposed by Bastiat, Locke, Adam Smith, Jefferson, and John Adams. It’s not, and it stinks of post-modern degeneracy and false intellectual arrogance instead. Logical, reasonable people can see through the lies.
I would hope the ownership of firearms for snowflakes is a first step in coming to grips with a true change in their life philosophy and, in time, an eventual repudiation of godless left wing ideology as it further reveals its corrupt nature.
It is exactly as contradictory as the democrat voters that hate everything about southern history… You know pretty much southern DEMOCRAT history. At least the libtart gun club forum is funny to check in on. It’s like watching snails get sprinkled with salt, but the snails are screaming about how they deserve the salt. Goofy leftists.
DZ, remind me why words like “redneck” are not anti white racist?
They are. What’s your point?
Point is pretty obvious. You used it, would you casually use any number of other racial epithets directed at non whites?
Are you referring to words like nigger, spick, and chink? I don’t think they quite fit in context. 🙂
There are dozens others. None are casually used in any context.
“There are dozens others. None are casually used in any context.”
It depends on where one finds one’s self. I would like to see them all return to casual use, especially in television comedy. I mean, try making “Blazing Saddles” these days…
I used it as an illustration of how anti-gunners routinely refer to and think about all of us.
Pg2, I’ve been called a redneck, but the most frequently used racial slur directed at me was “cracker motherfucker.” Usually from the backseat as I drove to the county jail. I always took the opportunity to thank the individual for recognizing my heritage. This was usually followed by the question, “What the fuck you talking about?” I would then explain how when Florida was being settled the wagons were generally pulled by oxen. The sound of the bull whips “cracking” could be heard in the distance. Hence the term Florida Cracker. My family settled North Florida and South Georgia shortly after the Revolutionary War. That history lesson tended to take the wind out of their sails.
GF, the version I have heard down a little further south in Florida is that’s a reference to “shell-cracker” around Apalachicola bay area for sound of oysters being cracked open…
Geoff, that’s incorrect. Oysters are shucked, not cracked. And you couldn’t hear the oyster being shucked 10 feet away. The term “Florida Cracker” comes from the bull whips. But, thanks for the reminder. I may run to Bosses Oyster Bar in Appalachicola for a couple of dozen on the halfshell tomorrow.
The Apalachicola Bay oyster fishery is dead. It’s been artificially propped up by DOACS for years because of severe over harvesting. When you buy oysters from the area now they’re trucked in from Texas.
“i’m a cracker. you one too. gonna take good care of you.”
as a perjorative term cracker has many origins. there is a 1590 quote from bill, and early oed references. the earliest usages involved referencing braggadicio, and this followed to the first southern settlers, as in crack a joke. whip cracking is certainly in the conversation, but not solely over pack animals. the crack of a baseball bat lends the term to more than a couple minor league teams.
and okay is from ok which was a purposeful mispelling (sic) of “oll korrect.”
It’s kinda funny but, in Vietnam even the black troops with whom I served referred to the Vietnamese as “dink’s” and/or “gooks”.
Kudos to Dan Zimmerman and TTAG for not censoring my colorful (is that racist too these days?) comment. I was wondering if it would go through. 🙂
There’s a *difference* between using a term, and directing it at an individual.
You do history a great injustice by trying to erase it. Attempting to erase it, like tearing down memorials, dooms society to repeating it…
Does that “you” refer to me or those who try to foist this faux racism upon the masses?
“You do history a great injustice by trying to erase it. Attempting to erase it, like tearing down memorials, dooms society to repeating it…”
I’m not trying to erase anything except the empty-headed social engineering that’s been ongoing. Did systemic racism happen? Yep. Does it still go on? Yep. Am I trying to erase anything? Nope. Why would you think otherwise about my position? (assuming you meant me)
Not you, the ‘foisters’, the fake outrage asswipes…
“Not you, the ‘foisters’, the fake outrage asswipes…”
Cool. I agree.
Pg2,
Let’s try reading again. Dan’s sentence is:
As you can plainly see from that sentence, Dan is NOT applying the term “redneck” as a slur against anyone. Rather, Dan IS characterizing how gun-grabbers often use the slur to invoke negative stereotypes against firearm owners.
You can translate his sentence you way you want. My question is valid, would he have so casually used another racial epithet directed at a nonwhite group? We have been so conditioned to accept anti white bigotry and racism that you’ll even argue in its defense. That’s my translation.
Redneck is not a racist slur. For one, redneck doesn’t just mean white people anymore. Also, many of us rednecks are smarter than to allow mere words to have any power over us.
I have no problem using a full vocabulary of the so-called racists terms these days simply to spite the infantile PC culture. I find the media censoring of certain terms laughable. They sound like preschoolers calling everything the “-word”.
Whether or not it bothers you is not the point. Western culture is now so openly anti white that we don’t even notice it’s existence.
If it bothers me or not isn’t the point. When people give too much power to certain labels, it results in childish behavior, and sometimes dangerous laws.
I agree that Western culture is openly anti-white. However, those of us with a brain do, indeed, notice it.
Agree, my point is that we have so conditioned to even defend it, and that is a dangerous road.
“Agree, my point is that we have so conditioned to even defend it, and that is a dangerous road.”
I think I understand your statement and I agree with it.
anti-white slurs pale in comparison to “the big one” you can lay on them….whats more,..they know it…so, there is that…
So here we are. One sociologist says gunms are good, another one says gunms are bad. Who’s right? Neither one because gunms are just steel and wood( yuk plastic) . It’s the human behind the trigger not the trigger itself. In my opinion if the world is to be a better place , humans need to be extinct.. Us critters were doing just fine until you two legs came along.
Lol. Fair point, marsupial.
Its not the two legs you have to worry about, Possum. Its the 4 wheels and that low hanging bumper.
@JWM- don’t forget the pumpkin.
It would be my luck that I’d get done in by the truck nuts.
Well, possum, at least one sociologist isn’t talking about guns but gun owners, and he found them (the owners) to be normal. So, your argument is based on the logical fallacy known as the “straw man.”
Wasn’t that word created by white people for white people? The other words were also created by white people but to be used against non whites. So there is a difference.
How many white people get upset when a non white calls them that? How about the countless white people that use it?
I have yet to see a genuine white person feel offended like a black person when white terms get thrown around. Historically they are not victims and don’t feel less than regardless of the language a person tries to utilize.
What in the flaming hell makes you think you know what race or ethnicity created a given word? That is the stupidest post I’ve seen in a while.
“Cracker,” the old standby of Anglo insults was first noted in the mid 18th century, making it older than the United States itself. It was used to refer to poor whites, particularly those inhabiting the frontier regions of Maryland, Virginia and Georgia. It is suspected that it was a shortened version of “whip-cracker,” since the manual labor they did involved driving livestock with a whip (not to mention the other brutal arenas where those skills were employed.) Over the course of time it came to represent a person of lower caste or criminal disposition, (in some instances, was used in reference to bandits and other lawless folk.)
The word apparently has even older roots, but it nonetheless an anglo-saxon word used used to disparage the lower class poor white folks. In England, and then here. Back in the 1700s, blacks in America did not dare disparage white people fi they valued their lives.
“what cracker is this that deafs our ears with this abundance of superfluous breath?”
king john, 1595. the bard.
“Historically they are not victims”
There’s that faux racism taking hold. How long does “historically” hold true. One part of my family owned slaves, fought for the colonies in the Revolution, fought for the Confederacy, and even owned a couple of “Indian boys”. That same part of my family has Native American (aka Indian) blood in their veins. Another part of my family has Hebrew blood and lived a couple of generations as crypto-Jews. Additionally, that part has black blood and a small bit of native blood. If I were to follow the race-baiters of today, I would walk around mean-mugging everyone and generally being pissed off. That’s no way to live one’s life, IMHO.
would generally fall under the heading of “a futile response”….
This movie reference cameto mind.
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/f39802cf-1cd8-4a27-93ce-78b709d95120
Sorry, I couldn’t hear you – you’re virtue signal is turned up too loud.
Must be comforting for you to be such a “woke ally”, innit?
Just a question: Are you even passingly familiar with the history of terms of “endearment” invented by Black people and applied to other Black people? No? Didn’t think so.
You must be a blast at parties, what with your moral superiority just hangin’ out all over the place.
I’m rednecker than you
What it is, my redneck! 🙂
Nice talk. Sorry that he used the made up “gun violence” term, but, it seems that he’s traveled far from his origins.
Baby steps, Rick the Bear. At least he’s keeping an open mind. That means there’s a better chance the realization of the “dog whistle” (to turn a prog term against them) of “gun violence” is just that–a hot button term made up to incite the base.
Baby steps won’t get us out of the way of that speeding train of tyranny. If one is going for a participation ribbon, baby steps are enough. If one wishes to fight back tyranny and restore real liberty, it must be done in one generation, two at most. Baby steps are like pissing in the ocean.
All that said, I am glad that LGO exists. I just wish they could’ve worked that “E” in there; Liberal Emancipated Gun Owners, or something like that. Then we’d really have some building blocks.
Or copyright infringement.
american liberal gun owners re- arming everyone.
It’s not gun possession that the Left abhors, it’s the mindset that engenders it…independence.
Truth.
Spot on.
Well… Yeah… It hurts their feewings that independent people don’t need them. Since they can’t do something then nobody should be able to and so on.
He’s a liberal , don’t much care what he has to say.
Exactly…. I’m thinking the law should be if you’re an admitted “liberal”, YOUR guns should be seized by the government… Lol
Liberals are fine. Don’t worry about liberals.
It’s Statists and Progressives who call themselves Liberals to appear harmless that you have to worry about.
Yup. You must watch out for those police state loving fascists trying to give the government more power.
I wholeheartedly agree.
As do I. A liberal.
Well, his career is about to be ended on him…
His career is about to be Arkancided on him. There, fixed it.
Yeah…. But who is HE to pigeon hole rednecks as blood thirsty and racist???
Notice how he tries to separate himself from the “rednecks”? These educated idiots are the last people I want to see holding guns in this country….smarmy little fuck
“Yamane distills this revelation into a simple thesis – guns are normal and normal people use guns.”
I wouldn’t, in my wildest dreams, consider real liberals to be normal people. I guess culture is redefining normal to be the loonie left. That’s some scary shit right there.
There’s quite a bit of difference in the classical liberalism of the past and the post modern left-wing Progressives who claim a false moral and intellectual superiority. Those who have short attention spans and came up short during history class in school might have a more difficult time seeing the difference.
I am familiar with the distinction. However, liberal in the sense of LGO, obviously (IMHO), refers to leftists of today and not “classical liberals.”
I think readers need to re-calibrate his usage of ‘normal’ here.
An argument I have used, that at least gets some thought, is with folks who do not know I am a gun owner, but have known me for some time.
So far as they know, I am ‘like them’. But when I have occasion to remark that, yes, I happen to own guns … ‘You’ve known me for years; have I ever given you reason to suspect I was dangerous? Yet I have owned guns all that time. Maybe character counts more than what things one owns.’
You’re normal. I’m normal.
I have yet to know a real leftist (aka modern liberal) that is normal. There’s usually some disconnect in their wiring. Sometimes that irons itself out with age and experience. When it doesn’t, they end up really whack-a-doo.
Maybe one of these days the politicians will understand that gun owners ARE Constitutionalists and are not lying mouthers as some hypocritical pols are.
“libtard gun owners” would just be another 5th column
Um, expansion of “shall issue” and so on, from what baseline? What’s the start date?
Apparently, the world sprang fully-formed from the forehead of Zeus (Oh, wait, that’s Athena.) with “may issue”, “only with a permit”, “mother, may I?”, gun permission slips and none of those evil black military-equivalent highly-accurate Kentucky / Pennsylvania long-rifles that out-shoot standard-issue Brown Bess muskets (the AK-47 mass expendible arm of fodder-armies of the 18th centruy — change my mind) in “civilian” hands.
Or are we accepting the fiction that guns, and enumerated gun & self-defense rights are a recent development, in Anglo-Saxon common law codified starting a mere 500 years ago. (This is why we needed emergency passage of the NYSAFE Act — gunpowder and fire arms became generally available a mere 400 years ago. Better get on that.)
Dear allegedly anti-spam censor-bots:
If making me execute a captcha to post the above is supposed to convince me you aren’t doing *content filtering*, you have no idea how any of this works.
Could you please throw a bit less conspiracy theory chum out there? My tin-foil had is getting worn out.
Thanks,
Not-bot Jim Bullock
I get bot-checked regularly. 🙁
I use a VPN for privacy. Because of which I sometimes have to switch cities (thus the server address) to use sites that check for “bots” or bandwidth spamming. They tend to confuse VPN servers as various forms of scum and villainy on the internet. Or if I’m getting lots of “bot checks” I just log off the current server, log right back on and it all settles down nicely.
True “liberals” are few & far between. Watch for Yamane to be drummed out of leftard-land. Oh and I don’t give a rat’s azz if you have a gun-WE outnumber you by a massive magnitude😄
+1
Interesting choice of rifle adorning their shirts’ emblem. Wonder if they watched Flags of our Fathers and found real meaning in their choice, or is it the less “scary” skin in the game they’re after?
Liberal gun owners still vote for the politicians that support gun control. If you’re a liberal/democrat voter you are voting for more gun control.
Lefty gun owners just value other lefty things more than their guns. I’m sure there are people who vote righty for their guns while simultaneously being okay with abortions. That’s the funny thing about politics in America. Both parties want to take away your liberty and which one you vote for is largely dependant on which liberties you prioritize. The way I figure it having an armed and trained household means I have any liberties I want. If you think I have one youd rather I not have its up to you whether forcing your will onto me is worth having a shootout over it.
In spite of all the warts that come with linking guns and liberals together, this guy may be on to something. More than a few of us out here have lamented that we are losing the PR battle, that anti-gunners control the conversation, that facts don’t work and we are constantly in reactive/defensive mode.
Well– “Guns are normal and normal people use guns” is short, sweet, to the point, and catchy enough to maybe be the universal answer to all the shit we have to listen to from the media and the Disarmament Cartel. As someone who made career out of marketing, I”m seeing a lot of marketing potential in this one if it’s handled right. It’s almost as good as “my cold dead hands”.
“your right to own a gun threatens me”…or perhaps this.. “all gun owners are bad guys..or potential bad guys”…find an effective counter response to that …because that is the mindset you’re dealing with…
The one meme that underlies everything the Disarmament Cartel does is this:
“Guns are evil.”
Everything they say or do is just an embellishment on that theme. It’s a successful meme because it’s simple and easily transmitted. Put that together with a basic marketing fact that every statement is true until someone stands up and challenges it, and you’ve got a very tough customer.
The way to challenge that meme is with one of our own, just as simple and just as easily transmitted: “Guns are normal”. Nobody on their side gives a shit about rights or statistics or reason– start in on that crap and in five seconds you can see their eyes start to glaze over. Basic marketing fact two: You’ve less than 3 seconds to grab someone’s attention and get the kernel of your message through. Once you’ve got them you can start with all the other bullshit, but you’ve got to grab them first.
I think this might work.
Some of the short answers I’ve had success with when OCing on the streets are:
– You can’t be free if you can’t be armed.
– Free men are armed, slaves are not.
– I’ve been armed most of my life. I refuse to be at the mercy of those who would do me harm.
– Everyone is responsible for their own safety. This tool is an important part of doing that.
– There hasn’t been enough time for humankind to significantly evolve. Being armed keeps the primitive side of others in check.
– Guns can’t be evil but people can. Always be armed.
Of course, there are more but I don’t remember them at the moment. Usually, one comes to mind and I use it at the time.
I’m just wondering how it’s possible to carry concealed and own a gun while voting Democrat liberal when all of them running for president want to take away and ban your guns ? Was enjoying the article until we got to the last part build bridges not walls, somehow I have a feeling your wall comment was about the border wall? Build that wall MAGA!
perhaps the thinking is “im ok.. [with a gun]..it’s all the other assholes you have to worry about”???…..
Historically it has been White liberals in the Forefront. In leadership positions working to disarm law-abiding black people. Because they simply do not believe law-abiding black people need guns.
When white liberals left their safe white communities in the Northeast and elsewhere, to travel down south and assist in registering black people to vote. They did so telling blacks that they had to disarm and could not have guns while at the same time those blacks being totally surrounded by the Klu Klux Klan or other racist white individuals.
For more information I suggest people read “negroes with Guns” by Robert F Williams.
It is history that white liberals, gun owners or not, do not want to talk about. White Republicans have been far more reliable in defending Second Amendment civil rights, for everyone, than white liberals.
A white liberal gun owner is a contradiction in terms. And until they themselves address those contradictions in terms of who they support and vote for they will not advance in the gun community.
When it comes to firearms a white liberal believes “oh look what the government is letting me have”. And that is their problem.
Will liberal gun owners advance in their thinking to the point that they support civilian ownership of flamethrowers, anti-tank weapons, the open carry of any Arm, and the repeal of the National Firearms Act?
Civilians sure could have used Bazookas or at least anti-tank rifles with high explosive Ordnance down in Venezuela a few weeks ago.
A follow-up comment.
I watched the 37-minute video this morning. And having done that, does not change what I have said previously. However there is a lot of information that the professor discusses in his video. I think it is a good source material for anyone who wants to spread the word about gun civil rights.
Liberals are always looking to academics for their information. All of this information has been previously covered in conservative Publications or in the Gun Newsmedia in general for the past several years.
But since it comes from a liberal college professor I know that will add more weight to the argument for liberals.
Good luck liberal gun owners you have quite a series of mountains to climb.
That’s great he and his liberal friends are gun owners. But they support a slew of policies that drag down the country and in some cases cause us to arm up.
If you support the Second Amendment and the right to own firearms but vote for and support a party that makes confiscation by force a keystone of its beliefs (and has for more than the past generation) , obviously you’re badly confused about something.
If you’re that foggy between the ears I don’t WANT you on my side; I don’t want to take up the guessing game for when your other deeply held beliefs will require you to betray me.
I’d rather have left leaning folks listen to this guy about guns than some extreme leftist talking about guns.
So I read about a liberal gun owner, that’s great. Then I read all the anti-left, anti-liberal, anti-Democrat comments which follow and I’m blown away by the hypocrisy. If you want more liberals to see how great the 2nd Amendment is, stop adding your personal hate of their other ideologies. That’s a terrible way to be inclusive. Also if many of you have not noticed, capitalism isn’t working for the majority of Americans. It’s not because they aren’t willing to work, get an education, or bust their asses, it’s because more money is given away to people and companies as welfare than to private citizens. Research shows the number of average, individual citizens that abuses welfare is tiny, and yes we should always work to keep it that way, but for the rest of us, what government we have now is not working. Having CEOs making more than 3000+ times the average wage of their employees is disgusting, and not working as we hear about all of their companies falling apart- GE, MCI WorldCom, Enron, and all the asshat bankers and mortgage companies that whipped us into the last depression back in 2008. What happened to the FTC fighting monopolies? Why is the Federal government giving away the internet to phone companies and and other major corporations? Despite folks saying companies will work to give their customers the best products and services to stay in business, that’s not happening, all they do is feed their CEOs and board members, then screw over their employees and customers. What we have isn’t working. I’d prefer a well regulated capitalism where we hear less stories of corporations abusing their customers and employees. When the Republican party actually places its focus on the average citizen and not wealthy individuals or mega corporations, I’ll join, otherwise, even though I love guns, I’ll keep voting for others who have a more pro-people attitude and work to change their minds if they are mistaken about gun rights.
I think DaveP said it best. I don’t know how someone can embrace the goals and well publicized rhetoric of liberals, progressives, social democrats, etc.and still claim to be pro Second Amendment, in favor of self defense, personal ownership of firearms, etc. If I’m missing something and someone can enlighten me without any sarcastic or insulting references to my race, creed, color, age, gender, sexual orientation or socioeconomic status, I would be interested in your comments.
Because I believe in women’s right to choose, right to self defense and I believe its unjust that corporations like Amazon enjoy profits but dont pay fair share of taxes. Our president agrees with dictators and take their sides over American people
You should have been aborted. This world would be better off without people like you. Go and suck Fidel Castro’s rotten dick.
This guy will never go anywhere.
He’s too normal.
Liberals become gun owners when their family gets raped and the shat beat out of them and someone takes all their stuff..as they lay bleeding for 911 to show….they suddenly wake from stupidity 101….
He would use it on people his disagrees with.
Let’s not forget that many lefty gun owners are communists. See antifa.
Wow
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