Vox hot take: Loss of jobs has men turning to guns to feel strong and needed

Vox has a steaming hot take just in time for Saturday’s #MarchForOurLives gun control rallies; assistant professor of sociology at the University of Arizona Jennifer Carlson argues that the gun debate ought to center around men and what has inspired them to carry.

Because many men are no longer the definitive breadwinners of the family, gun-carrying allows them to feel strong and needed, writes @jdawncarlson, a sociologist at the University of Arizona. https://t.co/nXzkEsyL0s

— Vox (@voxdotcom) March 24, 2018

Vox’s tweet is a grossly oversimplified take on the piece as a whole, but it’s not so far off. Carlson says she conducted research on gun carriers in Michigan and found that “the loss of manufacturing signaled not just a loss of jobs but also a loss of meaning, relevance, and dignity attached to these jobs.”

She adds, “Guns may be a poor substitute, but they will remain appealing as long as these deeper structures — and the demands they place on men — remain unaddressed.”

"…the loss of manufacturing signaled not just a loss of jobs but also a loss of meaning, relevance, & dignity attached to these jobs. Guns may be a poor substitute, but they will remain appealing as long as these deeper structures…remain unaddressed." https://t.co/n2HvShDBVa

— Stephen Saperstein Frug (@StephenFrug) March 24, 2018

So, what are these deeper structures?

Gun carry culture helped men from diverse backgrounds imagine themselves as protectors, counteracting gender vertigo. In metro Detroit, I learned there was some truth to the claim that gun carriers were indeed “clinging” to their guns — but not out of fearful ignorance (as Obama’s “clinging to their guns” quip implied) but because their carried guns said something important about who they were and what they wanted to become.

Neither aggressive criminals (the “wolves” in gun culture parlance) nor meek victims (the “sheep”), gun carriers see themselves as valiantly straddling a moral space of heroic violence. They are sheepdogs. This citizen-protector ethic redefines men’s social utility to their families.

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With guns, men both rework their personal codes about what it means to be a good man and transform lethal force from a taboo act of violence to an act of good citizenship.