Cultural notion definition
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operationalized exposure to gun culture by asking respondents whether their family or friends would think less of them if they did not own a gun, and whether their social life with family or friends involved guns (Kalesan et al., 2015). Of the few studies that do not rely on Southernness to characterize gun culture, most have still defined it monolithically. In fact, the predominant line of research in this area uses a single variable-Southernness-as a measure of gun culture, assuming that it is only prevalent in the South (Brennan et al., 1993 Cohen and Nisbett, 1994 Puddifoot and Cooke, 2002 Felson and Pare, 2010 Altheimer and Boswell, 2012). Many researchers who have followed have similarly defined gun culture in a narrow and monolithic way. Hofstadter’s definition, limited to a single political view, failed to account for a range of various beliefs, behaviors, norms, and institutions. At the very time Hofstadter published his article, the National Rifle Association (NRA) had not yet become the political lobby we know today and still included many members open to firearm regulation (Dawson, 2019). The term “gun culture” was coined in 1970 by Hofstadter who viewed it as monolithic and described it as the Americans’ unique belief in the “notion that the people’s right to bear arms is the greatest protection of their individual rights and a firm safeguard of democracy” (Hofstadter, 1970). It includes the social interactions elicited or transformed by the existence of firearms, as well as the reciprocal influences between individuals, groups, and institutions in regards to firearm ownership and use. Gun culture encompasses how both individuals and institutions consciously and unconsciously interact with firearms, through beliefs, thoughts, behaviors, social and legal norms, as well as the social structures they project onto them. It follows that “gun culture” refers to the social, durable, and layered pattern of cognitive and normative systems embodied in firearms as both artifacts and vehicles of that culture.
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Hays has defined culture as “a social, durable, layered pattern of cognitive and normative systems that are once material and ideal, objective and subjective, embodied in artifacts and embedded in behavior, passed about in interaction, internalized in personalities and externalized in institutions” (Hays, 1994, p. However, in the sociology literature, the study of the lawful uses of firearms has only recently emerged (Yamane, 2018).
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As Yamane has argued, “without understanding this, scholars cannot understand American gun culture” (Yamane, 2018, p. gun violence), few studies have examined the legal uses of guns and the cultural elements associated with gun ownership. While there have been many studies in the public health literature about the illegal uses of guns (i.e. This paper advances the literature on gun culture by demonstrating that: (1) gun culture is not monolithic (2) there are multiple elements of gun culture that vary substantially between states (3) over time, the recreational gun subculture has been falling in prominence whereas the self-defense subculture has been rising and (4) there is another subculture, distinct from the self-defense one, which consists in mobilization around the Second Amendment and was strongest in places where state firearm laws are most extensive. Over time, the recreational cultural element declined in prominence while the self-defense one rose and the Second Amendment advocacy one remained stable. Component 3 was indicative of a symbolic cultural element centered around the protection of the Second Amendment and insurrectionism.
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Component 2 represented a self-defense element of gun culture. Component 1 reflected recreational elements of gun culture. Based on the principal component analysis, we identified three cultural variations. We then analyzed the presence of these components over time and across states. Using state-level data, we conducted a principal component analysis of 11 variables associated with gun-related behaviors and retained only the significant components. Using these methods, we then analyzed the prominence of these subcultures between states and over time from 1998 through 2016. We developed empirical methods to identify variations in elements of gun culture across states.