My name is David Yamane. I am a sociology professor at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I also own and use guns. In this blog I write about guns and gun culture in the United States from my perspective as a blue bubble academic who was introduced to firearms in his forties.
As someone who had little exposure to and no interest in guns for most of my life, I know what it is like not to understand guns and gun culture. For nearly a decade now, I have burrowed deeper and deeper into American gun culture. I hope to translate what I have learned to the gun curious – those interested in but unsure about guns.
This uncertainty about guns can be coupled with attraction, repulsion, or neutrality. Whatever your orientation, if you are open-minded and hope to learn more about guns and gun culture, you should find something of interest here. I welcome your comments on my posts, and if you have a question you would like me to answer, please ask via the contact page on this site.
“I have sedulously endeavored not to laugh at human actions, nor to lament them, nor to detest them, but to understand them.” — Baruch Spinoza
My involvement with guns is both personal and professional. Those looking for a more analytical, academic approach to this topic should explore my original blog, Gun Culture 2.0, as well as my scholarly publications on the sociology of guns:
- “The Sociology of U.S. Gun Culture,” Sociology Compass (2017)
- “What’s Next? Understanding and Misunderstanding America’s Gun Culture,” in Understanding America’s Gun Cultures (2018)
- “‘The First Rule of Gunfighting is Have a Gun: Technologies of Concealed Carry in Gun Culture 2.0,” in The Lives of Guns (2019)
- “Awash in a Sea of Faith and Firearms: Rediscovering the Connection between Religion and Gun Ownership in America,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (2017).
Gun Curious 
Cool.
LikeLike
You’ve got yourself a new follower. Thanks for your work.
LikeLike
Appreciate your work on this. Gun ownership is vastly more complex than mass media / new media would have us think. Looking forward reading!
LikeLike
Thank you for reading and commenting. Welcome!
LikeLike
This should be interesting. I’ve been shooting for 45 years. I’m an NRA certified instructor, and Range Safety Officer.
LikeLike
You have some years on me. Thanks for your interest and welcme
LikeLike
Thanks for starting this.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good to see you here, Bruce. Thanks for sharing with your “gun curious” friends.
LikeLike
Thanks for starting this.
LikeLike
This fills a niche that badly needs attention. Thank you.
LikeLike
I obviously agree. I only hope I can do the topic justice. Thanks for sharing with anyone you know who fits this bill.
LikeLike
I’m old enough to remember when the Second Amendment wasn’t polarized along party lines prior to the John Burchers hijacking the NRA BOD in ’77. I’m also a lifelong liberal, a Sanders delegate and an avid marksman. During the caucus process I noticed a distinct difference between the Clinton “corporate pantsuit/Escalade” crowd and the Sanders delegation when it came to guns. It was scarcely an issue in the Sanders camp and too much of an an issue in the Clinton camp, most of it based on fear and misinformation. I hope this blog cures the misinformation.
LikeLike
I’m thirty one and have been using firearms since I was seven. Never even thought of it as a ” culture” . It’s a part of daily life on the farm when you live in rural areas. As common as a fishin’ pole. Growing up, seeing an 11 year old (such as myself) walking down a road with a shotgun in hand was not an uncommon sight. It’s the way “real” America lives. Frontiersmen, pioneers. Unfortunately, I was born 200 years too late. But I do believe most rural Americans have that little seed of american (individual) independence in their blood. And firearms are part of that. Just like that African nation that has an Ak-47 on its flag. To represent how it gained it’s independence
LikeLike
It is a bit simplistic but I sometimes think about there being two different social worlds in America, the one for which guns are a normal part of life, and the one for which guns only cause problems
LikeLike
Pingback: Weekend Knowledge Dump- February 15, 2019 | Active Response Training
We need more like you reaching out beyond the boundaries of the gun owners. These unique ‘voices of support’ are penetrating into the minds of many who have been misinformed, don’t understand, don’t want to or just plain ignorant. Thank you….
LikeLike