In January of this year, Professor David Yamane spoke at The 31st Annual gathering of the Lutheran Ethicists’ Network. The topics were American gun culture and gun violence. David’s talk was split into three sections:
- Gun Culture Properly Understood
- Gun Violence Properly Understood
- Addressing Negative Outcomes
Within the talk, David covered the four following main misconcpetions about gun culture and gun violence:
Misunderstanding #1: The gun industry created gun culture.
Understanding: Guns have been a common and normal part of American life from the beginning.
Misunderstanding #2: Gun owners are mostly politically conservative, middle-aged, married white men from the rural South.
Understanding: Gun Culture 2.0 is diverse and has potential to be even more inclusive.
Misunderstanding #3: There is an epidemic of gun violence in the United States.
Understanding: Gun injury and death are socially organized and endemic.
Misunderstanding #4: Criminal homicides are the most common gun deaths in America.
Understanding: The majority of gun deaths are suicides.
You can access the text of David’s full talk through his blog post, here.