Researcher Watches Gun Videos, Develops Empathy with Gun Owners

Ammoland ^ | 20 July, 2018 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

 A criminal justice researcher from New Jersey recently wrote an article that encouraged people who were reflexively for more restriction on gun ownership to explore the online gun culture.  She had done so. Her view of gun ownership and of legislation involving guns was transformed.

From theconversation.com:

I also realized that despite being married to a gun owner, I knew very little about gun subculture, either in real life or online. But I could learn.

Guns, part of fabric of life

For all the noise around gun control versus gun rights, there was a story that was missed by non-gun owners like me: how much these guns mean to those who own them.

Delving into gun subculture online – which in some, though not all, ways reflects real-life gun subculture – can provide a perspective that may be, for non-gun owners, very different from their own.

Americans live in a time of political polarization on a variety of social issues, gun rights among them. Both gun control and gun rights supporters would benefit from understanding how those with opposing political and social views see their identity and their culture.

The Conversation is a publication with a decidedly population disarmament point of view. I was surprised they published Dr. Hasset-Walker's article. The good doctor inserted a deft virus into the gun debate. She called for those in the reflexive anti-gun culture to educate themselves. She called for them to reach outside their comfort zone and consider the possibility that ownership of guns might have positive aspects.

[marktwain]

I read you, but give me ONE name of an anti-2A activist who will read that woman’s article and watch a video of the gun culture without coming away more invigorated to their bias.

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She is not after the activists. They have too much invested to be reached. She is after the vast majority who have just inhaled the propaganda without much thinking.

[logi_cal869]

I thought I made that clear in my other comment, but I could be wrong.

Agreed.