As a longtime subscriber and sometime contributor to
High Country News, I always look forward to your
feature reporting – especially when the reporter is Ray Ring. But I
have seldom been not only so disappointed by an article’s obvious
slant, but also so absolutely astonished by the lack of breadth in
Ring’s information-gathering (it is not worthy of being called
“research”). His primary source – indeed, practically his only
source – is Professor Joan Burbick of Washington State University,
whose Gun Show Nation: Gun Culture And American
Democracy does little more than rehash the standard
screed of the anti-gun crowd.
There is, by now, a large
and well-developed body of literature presenting multiple sides of
the complex story of American gun ownership – much of it coming
from the political left of center, at that. It would have been
appropriate for Ring to have familiarized himself with some of it.
For readers of yours who may be seeking a more balanced perspective
on American gun users and enthusiasts, I would suggest the
following books: Abigail Kohn’s Shooters: Myths and
Realities of America’s Gun Cultures (Oxford University
Press, 2005); Jan E. Dizard’s anthology Guns in
America (New York University Press, 1999); Caitlin
Kelly’s Blown Away: American Women and Guns
(Pocket Books, 2004); and my book with Carol Oyster, Gun
Women: Firearms and Feminism in Contemporary America (New
York University Press, 2000). All of these works amply show that
there is a lot more going on in America’s “gun culture” than a
bunch of conservative white Anglo-Saxon males asserting their
masculinity and playing at being gunslingers. That stereotype is
limiting, demeaning, distorting and insulting to the majority of
HCN‘s readers who are, themselves, responsible
gun owners and users.
Mary Zeiss
Stange
Ekalaka, Montana
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A gun culture bibliography.
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