What is a firearm? Is a gun just a weapon, or is it also a symbol of freedom? A mark of masculinity? A token of white supremacy? Just a tool? Or can a gun be all that and more, depending on the wielder?
Anthropologist Brandon Hunter-Pazzara joins hosts Kelly and JJ to discuss how guns can have "social lives"— how they can be transformed into a multitude of identities and uses, and how understanding that transformation (and it's many contexts) can better help us fight back against gun violence.
Mentioned in this podcast:
The possessive investment in guns: towards a material, social, and racial analysis of guns
(Palgrave Communications)
What guns mean: the symbolic lives of firearms (Palgrave Communications)
Gun that killed Trayvon Martin 'makes $250,000 for Zimmerman' (BBC)
Gun Control: It's Really About Guns As Symbols, Not Weapons (Psychology Today)
Men, Dogs, Guns, and Cars--The Semiotics of Rugged Individualism (Journal of Advertising)
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121: Reckoning With Gun Culture With American Totem
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72: "Stand Your Ground" Laws, Culture, & What It Means
June 15, 2020
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