How many times have you heard firearm owners ridiculed as old, fat, racist, sister-humping hicks who are just too dumb to know any better than to cling to to their guns and their religion? It’s the gun-grabbing left’s invidious, bigoted default image of all firearm-owning Americans. The central illusion that undergirds their elitist self-image and sense of moral superiority.

And thanks to a Scientific American article today, we know that it’s true. Because science!

Jeremy Adam Smith (editor of UC-Berkely’s Greater Good magazine, which “explore(s) the roots of happy and compassionate individuals, strong social bonds, and altruistic behavior—the science of a meaningful life”) has written the penetrating explainer, ‘Why Are White Men Stockpiling Guns?’.  Bet you can’t guess the reasons, according to Smith, that white dudes choose to buy firearms. Oh wait…yes you can.

The American citizen most likely to own a gun is a white male—but not just any white guy. According to a growing number of scientific studies, the kind of man who stockpiles weapons or applies for a concealed-carry license meets a very specific profile.

C’mon…you know exactly where this is going.

These are men who are anxious about their ability to protect their families, insecure about their place in the job market, and beset by

Wait for it . . .

racial fears.

Boom! But those gun people aren’t just racist, they’re also dumb. And insecure!

They tend to be less educated. For the most part, they don’t appear to be religious—and, suggests one study, faith seems to reduce their attachment to guns. In fact, stockpiling guns seems to be a symptom of a much deeper crisis in meaning and purpose in their lives. Taken together, these studies describe a population that is struggling to find a new story—one in which they are once again the heroes.

You know, all those icky, Death Wish-ticket-buying people who live in the great, mysterious middle. Those backward-thinking deplorables who don’t want to see women get jobs.

What else do you suppose characterizes gun owners?

But Stroud also discovered another motivation: racial anxiety. “A lot of people talked about how important Obama was to get a concealed-carry license: ‘He’s for free health care, he’s for welfare.’ They were asking, ‘Whatever happened to hard work?’” Obama’s presidency, they feared, would empower minorities to threaten their property and families.

Wait, no discussion of penis size? How did that marker slip through the scientific cracks? Never mind. Let’s get back to those bed sheet-wearing gun people.

A 2013 paper by a team of United Kingdom researchers found that a one-point jump in the scale they used to measure racism increased the odds of owning a gun by 50 percent. A 2016 study from the University of Illinois at Chicago found that racial resentment among whites fueled opposition to gun control. This drives political affiliations: A 2017 study in the Social Studies Quarterly found that gun owners had become 50 percent more likely to vote Republican since 1972—and that gun culture had become strongly associated with explicit racism.

Now that Smith has a good taxonomy of genus: gun owner, what to do about the problem?

That and many other studies suggest that restricting the flow of guns and ammunition would certainly save lives.

Of course. No approach would be complete without restricting those weapons of war. But legislation alone won’t do it. These poor benighted people also need a spiritual makeover.

But no law can address the absence of meaning and purpose that many white men appear to feel, which they might be able to gain through social connection to people who never expected to have the economic security and social power that white men once enjoyed.

“Ridicule of working-class white people is not helpful,” says Angela Stroud. “We need to push the ‘good guys’ to have a deeper connection to other people. We need to reimagine who we are in relation to each other.”

If they stopped ridiculing the working class, most anti-gun politicians wouldn’t have much else to say. Plus there’s the fact that the strategy has worked so well for them lately. Long story short, despite all that scientific data, don’t expect any changes in approach from our friends in the civilian disarmament industrial complex any time soon.

 

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79 COMMENTS

  2. Well that’s a surprise. /Sarc

    Most of the gun owners I know are more worried about things like “universal baisc income.” (Gee, what if everybody says screw it – who’s left to pay for it all? Somehow that never gets addressed…)

    But I guess that’s racist. Somehow.

    • Yup.
      And social media is this age’s Rwandan radio
      Leftists despise you. And this is while you’re armed.
      NEVER DISARM.

  4. Scientists are correct… until they’re proven wrong. Then they’re correct with their amended theorem. Until it is proven wrong.

    From their assumed position, the left “is correct”… even if they’re empirically incorrect.

    So therefore because science and because the left… Gun buyers are wrong….

    Unless they buy a 1911. The design JMB and GOD intended for a firearm.

  5. Is the gun buying demographic also because about 40% of the adult population is also a white male?

    Shooting is popular because of low barriers of entry. The first year costs are usually the worse with the rest being consumables, range fees, and occasional additions to the collection. If you compared the costs of shooting to that ridiculous game known as golf, shooting is much cheaper and more egalitarian.

  6. My IQ is 140+.

    I speak (to some or other degree of success) four languages. Including — Spanish!

    I am well off enough that I was able to retire substantially earlier than many folks — and did it through hard work and being a self-taught entrepreneur.

    I harbor zero ill will towards any racial group. In fact I embrace the culture of those that I have bothered to learn the languages of.

    I do not live in fear. Not existential fear, not racial fear, nor do I fear that my penis is of inadequate size. I have children and grandchildren, so I assume that all is well down there.

    I have no hero complex.

    And I own guns. Lots of them. Why? Because criminals are a thing. They exist. Been robbed at gunpoint twice. But also, because I have a brain. A rather intelligent brain. And I see social unrest as a thing. I lived through the Rodney King riots. And with so much agitation on both sides and such a divided society, I fully expect social unrest could be a thing again. And I do not plan to be another Reginald Denny.

    • nor do I fear that my penis is of inadequate size.
      Uh, oh, my weiner needs to be bigger, what shall I ever do?

      • Probably buy a large caliber firearm to compensate-according to the leftist elitist! Personally I believe that shooters should have one gun in each caliber for diversity’s sake……………

    • Ok…I’ll play along: I’m late fifties, white, and balding and live in the Deep South (AL). I own ARs, AKs, and fair smattering of WW2 collector stuff.

      I earned a BS, MS, and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from GA Tech and work in the Space and Aerospace Industry and hold 3 US patents.

      I have no “hero” complex either, and simply enjoy shooting and working on and with firearms. I am also a NRA Patron.

      Hope that helps Mr. Jeff Smith in his NEXT article.

  10. As a black conservative man I bought my first AR15 last Nov 2017, defying the Liberal white man.
    Last week I got a Slide Fire stock, defying the white male “gun experts”.

    I have learned that if a white person tells me I should not have something, then I should go get that something.
    Especially if those same white people do in fact have the thing they tell everyone else to not have.

    Diane Feinstein and Rosie O’ Donnell both have guns on them and or around them. They are great examples of this “white only” gun attitude.

    • “I have learned that if a white person tells me I should not have something, then I should go get that something.”

      You should not have large quantities of lead in your water.

    • We should have nothing but Contempt for any social, political, economic or cultural progressive Marxist regardless of race, religion or sex.

      • I don’t need an AR15. However if you say I can’t have an AR15, then I guess I really do need one!

    • “I have learned that if a white person tells me I should not have something, then I should go get that something.”

      That attitude is pretty much the same as all gun owners, but with one major race-based exception. The gun owner view is basically:
      “I have learned that if THE GOVERNMENT tells me I should not have something, then I should go get that something.”

        • That’s funny; I built my first AR because I wanted to learn how to build an AR. I built my second AR because the first one was lonely.

    • Diane Feinstein and Rosie O’ Donnell both have guns on them and or around them. They are great examples of this “white only” gun attitude.
      Ohhh….they really do not want most white people to have guns either. Remember, guns for me, but none for thee.

    • I have learned that if a white person tells me I should not have something, then I should go get that something.
      I don’t listen to Statist idiots in authority in the first place, no matter what race they are.

    • Chris, it doesn’t matter if you’re black. They’ll put you in the same reeducation camp as me. It’s the thought that counts.

  11. thats funny because according to CNN and the like all gun owners are bible thumping jesus lovers how are afraid of homo’s and trannies. but now its they are not religious and are scared of minorities. its so fun to watch people who are irrational concoct shit like this.

  12. >> Wait, no discussion of penis size?

    It wouldn’t have occurred to me to try to fire a gun that way, but I guess that could be a problem if you can’t get it through the trigger guard.

    Not to mention, having to stand sideways to the target… and be REALLY happy about that particular gunfight.

  13. BREAKING NEWZ!!! A gunman who “fired shots” was reported at NWestern U n Evanston,IL. After more than an hour it was declared NOTHING HAPPENED…lockdown,SWAT and hysterical media. Coincidence??? Well I’m an OFWG but I got a chocolate bunny for a wife. I’m not worried at all about black folks😄😎😏

  14. Here is the studies that claims there’s a link between racism and gun ownership:
    http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0077552#s2
    https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11109-015-9326-4

    There are 3 components in determining “racism” from these two studies: 1) how a respondent answers the question “How well does the word ‘violent’ describe most blacks”, 2) how a respondent reacts to the statement “Generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower class”, and 3) an “implicit” bias test that has respondents use positive/negative words to describe the attractiveness of pictures of random black & white people.

    For #1, yes there could be a case to be made that some of the respondents have a level of prejudice if they believe in the stereotype. But for #2, you cannot deduce racism based on how that statement is reacted to (for example, Black author Thomas Sowell would totally disagree with the statement — that doesn’t make him racist!). Likewise, for #3, what does a person’s reaction to photos have to do with racism? It only shows how much one person thinks For example, if you show me a bunch of people who aren’t my race, yeah maybe I won’t be attracted to them, but it doesn’t mean I’m racist.

    These studies are fake studies. I really wish they wouldn’t get propagated.

    • Also, as an addendum: Even if there is some slight relationship between gun owners and racism, it is not necessarily a casual link. The jist in the original Scientific American (aka Fake Science American) is that racism is fueling people to buy guns (ie, “A 2013 paper by a team of United Kingdom researchers found that a one-point jump in the scale they used to measure racism increased the odds of owning a gun by 50 percent”). Even if true, it’s not the racism aspect that’s fueling gun purchases, it’s the fear aspect. If the respondents were all inner city blacks who feared other gangbanger blacks and buying guns because of that, it’s not because of racism, it’s because of fear of criminal elements living in their neighborhoods!

      Folks can try to socially engineer “racism” out of everyone, and yet people will still be buying guns. Why? Because there are evil people out there in the world, regardless of skin color. That’s what these egg heads fail to see.

      But boy, they sure do like to paint people who aren’t like them as racists.

    • Oooh, so it’s the one-way racism, racism, then. I can see how the study could be swayed to suggest white racism when it structurally makes out black racism to be impossible. In fact, such an approach would logically make any activity appear to correlate to racism in whites.

        • Yeah, me and my gun totin’ brother like to laugh about racist gun owners. Thing is bro is adopted, and we aren’t the same color, so we both have to hate each other I guess – while we’re laughing and shooting with the neices and nephews who are all also a spectrum of colors. Those damn racist gun owners and their children from all over the damn globe are the problem.

  15. “But Stroud also discovered another motivation: racial anxiety. “A lot of people talked about how important Obama was to get a concealed-carry license: ‘He’s for free health care, he’s for welfare.’ They were asking, ‘Whatever happened to hard work?’” Obama’s presidency, they feared, would empower minorities to threaten their property and families.”

    So…everyone in any racial minority is poor? And only minorities are poor? What a bigoted stereotype. Next he’ll tell us minorities are just too “childlike” to hold down a job or own firearms. The “White Man’s Burden” lives on in this racist fool.

    • Yeah, people were interested in getting a gun during the O admin – not because he was black though. People bought guns because of obama’s words – not his color.

      The ridiculous irony here is that Dr. King’s dream has essentially been realized – people are judged not by their color but by the content of their character – but some folk can’t seem to accept that their character is lacking in some respect – so they blame it on their color or the color of others. I could rant about this for days but the brown people in my family would say, “just stop.”

  16. The only time I have ever been threatened was when my wife and I were out hiking. Not one of the five were Black, or Hispanic, or Asian. The left would claim I am a racist because I noticed their race, after all I am white, and therefore must be a racist.

    • The only time I have ever been threatened was when my wife and I were out hiking. Not one of the five were Black, or Hispanic, or Asian.
      You know, I usually do not see minorities out on trails in the state parks.

  17. Well……he makes a strong argument…….but, nawww……I think I’ll just keep bitterly clinging to my guns and religion, oh, and pressuring my wife and the women at work to vote for Trump, so says Hillary “Everyone and everything else is to blame for my loss, but me” Clinton.

  18. There are more whites on welfare than there are other minorities. As for those scared, they are not so scared now that they have some protection. Blacks in the ‘hood that are able to have guns also purchase them and even learn how to use them.
    I am more scared of drug using whites breaking into my house than I am of blacks breaking in. It doesn’t matter if they are green, anyone who threatens me or mine will get fired upon, if I am there at the time.
    Yes, I am prejudiced against anyone who is targeting me or mine with violence. Any one who is black, brown, yellow or green that wants to protect him/herself against targeted violence has my respect and help if I am near.

    • There are more whites on welfare than there are other minorities.
      Look at the percentages.

      • Blacks are 13 percent of the population and make up just about as many people on welfare as whites.

        I’m assuming that’s what you meant.

  19. Project much???

    Smith really seems to be the Neanderthalic knuckle dragging idiot that he’s trying to call out…

  20. “one study, faith seems to reduce their attachment to guns”

    I wonder it these twits looked at islam? They seem quite attached to their AK, swords, and donkeys.

  21. “A lot of people talked about how important Obama was to get a concealed-carry license:
    Huh? Did I miss something?
    ‘He’s for free health care, he’s for welfare.’ They were asking, ‘Whatever happened to hard work?’”
    Good point. Obonzo hated people who worked hard and were successful. All the flops were victims of the big bad white man.
    Obama’s presidency, they feared, would empower minorities to threaten their property and families.
    You mean letting people riot, like at Ferguson?
    You mean like backing thugs like Trayvon Martin?

  22. Like TexTed above, my IQ is Also measured at 140+. I only speak 3 languages though.
    While I am older, I’m 5’11 and 160. So,far from fat.
    I am also a faithful Christian.
    I could care less what color someones skin is, I care about their character.
    And I collect firearms.

    • As a Christian you’re supposed to give up your shirt and turn the other cheek. Hypocrisy much?

      • Christ had just finished instructing the crowd on judgment and reproof: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:1–2), and “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5). Then in verse 6, Christ tempers these admonitions and shows us the difference between “judgment” and “discernment.” We are not to be hypocritical judges, yet we must be able to discern the swine, lest we cast our pearls before them.

        Before Jesus says, “Do not cast your pearls before swine,” He says, “Do not give dogs what is sacred.” An analogy mentioning dogs is also used in Proverbs: “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly”

  23. I guess with my doctorate degree, white collar job, and upbringing in a non-racist home, I don’t fit the profile. Better head down to city hall and turn my firearms in right now!

    Oh, wait, I do faithfully cling to my religion. I guess that’s something…

    Fun post, Mr. Zimmerman. Thanks for sharing…I needed a good laugh today. Thank you for pointing out this article as a way to fulfill that need.

  25. I have guns because I like them. I am enamored of their mechanical qualities and enjoy the different types and applications of firearms.

    Recently, I got into surplus police pistols from around the globe. Little pistols from from former communist or despot countries are pretty interesting. Interesting contrast with the small-caliber revolvers that were popular in the states for many years.

    That said – I also know that guns are the most effective means of self defense in our world. Since I travel I stay very aware of who I am around. Has little to do with race, but a lot to do with looking like food for predators.

    The biggest predator is easily the government. While necessary, no government ever wants less power or control over the populace. The presence of even small arms is often enough to convince the government that it can’t have total control.

    The government is a machine and all machines want to keep going with no distractions. Individual liberty is often a distraction. The left seems to want all good “citizens” to shut-up and die in the event of a disaster or attack. It is far easier to count the dead and scream for more control if people don’t defend themselves.

    Of course, these elitist asses make sure they have protection. They also think the common, plebeian hordes have no such need of protection. They are too insignificant to justify deadly force in defending their pathetic live.

    That’s why I will keep the guns I have. And buy more, of course.

  26. Let’s be real—–the race riots of the past several decades have DEFINITELY turned people into gun owners.

    Do you think people weren’t buying guns in droves after seeing the LA riots? Ferguson? The Trayvon Martin debacle?

    Are white people nervous about blacks and browns? Of fucking course.

    And with good reason,and there’s nothing at all wrong with that.

    • It’s not just about whites protecting themselves against Evil men; The Koreans during the L.A. riots, There are plenty of wealthy, middle class and lower middle class folks of ALL races buying guns to defend their family’s , Asian, Black, whites and Hispanic.

  27. NWO/Globalism on the move…Multiple “ERPOS ” Issued…”Paramilitarized Police Commandos of the Gun 🔫 🚫 Confiscation Squad ” are enroute to all Political Dissidence, and Rebels homes…You have been Declared an “Enemy of the State!” “You shall surrender all weapons!!! Under Force of ARMS by the Government!!!! All other property is hereby seized until futher notice!!! In the name of public safety, We command YOU to comply!!!”

    • Good on you brother. They are fun and are great for protecting our families. Anyone that wants to take them away has a problem!

  30. Bible is on the nightstand, gun is on the nightstand, flashlight on the night stand. AR in the closet next to the bed. I’m not clinging to anything (but they are within reach), it’s just the way I live my life. I plan for me and my family to not be someone’s victims. Oh, and I have a college degree and common sense. Don’t think I fit this fools definition.

  33. crap…. what if your native american who owns a bunch of guns??? does it count if you marry a white woman and have kids with here? where do i fall into there criteria. WHAT if im conservative too??? im so confused on all this racial profiling!! they say im supposed to be a tree hugging victim!!! someone help me find my place.. im lost.

  34. “A 2013 paper by a team of United Kingdom researchers found that a one-point jump in the scale they used to measure racism increased the odds of owning a gun by 50 percent. “
    How, exactly, do you measure racism?

  35. Bullshit.

    Like almost all of these “a growing number of studies suggest…” concerning guns, the Second Amendment, and public discourse on gun control– THEY’RE ALL WRITTEN BY THE SAME CONNECTED ANTIGUN PEOPLE FROM BERKELEY OR HARVARD. And, notwithstanding that these people have never picked up a gun in their collective lives, nor actually know or interact with anyone who owns and shoots guns, nor even exist in states with free and thriving shooting cultures– these studies routinely extrapolate tiny sample sizes of a few hundred or few thousand people (in a country of 330+ Million people, 80-100 Million gun owners, collectively owning 350+ Million guns). In short, they’re all unabashedly antigun biased, and they always go searching in limited target demographics to “discover” the “scientific” answers that they are looking for.

    THAT IS NOT SCIENCE. That is presupposition, presumption, and prejudice. These prefabricated fallacious “a growing number of studies suggest…” egregiously propagandizing lies are readily accepted and incessantly cited as credible “evidence” to support the civilian disarmament sociopolitical movement. Hence, bullshit.

    They are no more valid than me saying the following true statements and observations, and claiming that it is “scientific evidence”:

    When I attend local gun shows, I usually stay for 3-4 hours, and rarely ever leave without seeing Latinos, Asians, and African-Americans purchasing “military-style assault weapons.” This suggests that we can extrapolate a roughly equal proportion of non-white people are superduper racist and gearing up for the holy unholy race war of the millennium…. or it could just mean that America is more diverse than ever in history, and American gun culture is growing in all demographics… as AMERICANS purchase more guns that ever before.

    And, I am gun owner. I am a supporter of the Second Amendment (with no “buts,” and a whole heck of a lot of “shall not be infringed”). And I am not a so-called “super-owner,” yet would be grossly and adversely affected by any such “Assault Weapons Ban” were it to become law.

    And I am not a white man. Nor a Trump voter. Nor a racist. Nor an Obama hater. Nor a Republican, nor a Democrat. Nor a goddamned Communist. (I may in fact be getting a little fat… but science with a little more integrity and a whole lot more scienceyness can explain that later… I just can’t abstain from cheese.)

    So, for the record… Scientific American has really made a poor choice here… “for the greater good,” by indulging in just a wee bit of biased, prejudiced, bigoted, fallacious propaganda… because, “to save lives,” and “for the children,” and most frighteningly, to “do SOMEthing!”

    If it wasn’t clear yesterday, then by god… it is crystal clear today: these goddamned feel-good doo-somethingers who are relentlessly and systematically assaulting our civil liberties MUST BE STOPPED. If their sociopolitical hysterical crusade is not abated soon, within a generation or two we will be facing serious attempts to repeal the Second Amendment, and then…

    …and then, this time, there is no Abraham Lincoln to bail our stupid asses out. These people are digging their own childrens’ graves, and they are blissfully unaware. Good Americans will fight for their Constitutionally protected guaranteed civil rights… they won’t just let them be stolen. And this is why we need to get back on track turning out pro-2A legislation, and selling it hard. Or everything we worked so hard for these last 25 years is in jeopardy.

    Say what you want about these antigun gun zealots, but they sure know how to rally the village idiots. Hopefully, on both sides.

    Be safe.

  36. That SA shizzay reads like blah blah blah, blah, blah blah blah uNequal sexually deviant, sexually confused male does projection.

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