Advocacy Piece against Guns Shows Agenda Comes First at Scientific American

Noting that with “progressives,” every day is Opposite Day, it’s no surprise there is nothing scientific or American about this paean to citizen disarmament disguised as an authoritative analysis.

USA – -(Ammoland.com)- “Why Are White Men Stockpiling Guns?” Scientific American asks in a March 14 headline. “Research suggests it’s largely because they’re anxious about their ability to protect their families, insecure about their place in the job market and beset by racial fears.”

As a source of authority, the article points to a “recent, definitive study from the Injury Control Research Center at Harvard University.” The thing is, that study mentions neither jobs nor racial fears. What it does mention are:

 “1) For protection against strangers; 2) For protection against people I know; 3) For protection against animals; 4) For hunting; 5) For other sporting use; 6) For a collection; 7) For some other reason.

So what are we left with, aside from the tantalizing lead about increases in the number of guns manufactured since Obama became president? White men are the predominant demographic buying multiple guns. And concealed carry permits are on the rise.

It’s the old bitter clingers are racists smear, as if the only reason to oppose Obama was because of his race – as opposed to honestly disagreeing with his politics.

Why would whites have more guns?  It couldn’t be because there are more whites?

Why would men have more guns than women? It couldn’t be because that’s traditionally the way things were – but that it’s changing as more women come to understand that choice is theirs?

Why would gun owners have multiple guns? It couldn’t be because as they learn about them and find they like them, they come to understand that different firearms have different utility? And because once you become an enthusiast you appreciate having multiple firearms for reasons of your own?

Why are there more concealed carry permits, and why do more white people have them? It couldn’t be (again) because there are more white people, that the practice has grown considerably as it has become more normalized in so-called “red states,” and that more of them tend to live in “shall issue” areas where it is not culturally and legally discouraged?

Assessments of racist and other dysfunctional male motivations are coming from “Northland College sociologist Angela Stroud [with her own agenda on guns, not to mention on  “gender” and social justice” issues] who “studied applications for licenses to carry concealed firearms in Texas.” That’s evidently what inspired her to coin the forehead-slapping phrase “Hegemonic Masculinity and Concealed Handguns.”

I don’t suppose the disconnect with (and apparent resentment against) traditional men might be within her?

Also adding to the body of “progressive” illusions was a “paper by a team of United Kingdom researchers [that] found that a one-point jump in the scale they used to measure racism increased the odds of owning a gun by 50 percent.” Completing the trifecta was “a 2016 study from the University of Illinois at Chicago [that] found … racial resentment among whites fueled opposition to gun control.”

Plus the implication just had to be worked in that such racists vote Republican.

In another “study,” liberals and conservatives were asked to imagine holding a handgun. To no one’s surprise, “conservatives felt less risk,” while evidently, just the thought of it gave the Pajama Boys a case of the vapors.

Good grief.

Meanwhile, another team of anti-gun sociologists pegged gun owners as insecure, anti-government, and essentially fetishists “investing guns with … moral and emotional meaning.”

How very anthropomorphic and primitive, assigning human qualities to inanimate objects. Not by us, by them.

Speaking non-scientifically, in my experience gun owners view them as tools (albeit many have an appropriate appreciation of fine craftsmanship, performance, technical excellence, aesthetics and design elegance). Every gun I’ve ever owned has been utterly devoid of self-animation and motivation.

That’s not to say any tool can’t be put to good or evil use. No duh, that’s why some of us don’t want to be at the mercy of the merciless. And as for utility for preserving life and property on both an individual and a societal scale, anyone who maintains that’s not self-evident is either too stupid to know where to look or else they know perfectly well but don’t want you to.

So naturally they trot out suicide, but leave unmentioned the much higher rate in “gun-free” Japan. And they trot out the old deception that “a gun in the home is far more likely to kill or wound the people who live there than is a burglar or serial killer.”

Yeah, and that’s because gun owners aren’t the bloodthirsty knuckledraggers looking for any excuse to shoot people over — despite the smears.  DGUs can and do happen, most of the time without a shot ever being fired. The mere presentation of a firearm is enough to discourage aggression and stop violence before it starts, which you’d think would be viewed as a good thing. That’s what they’re intentionally ignoring – along with the obscured fact that the “homes” they get their death stats from may be criminal homes. They’ve been pulling this scam for years, and dusting it off for each new generation that missed seeing it debunked the first and subsequent times and think they’ve just learned a new “Gotcha!”

We could go on with the fisking but the point is made so why bother? The article is garbage and unworthy of a publication that includes the word “Scientific” (or “American”) in its title. Then again, it’s hardly a new tack for what has devolved into a pretentious, pseudoscientific rag. These are the same agenda purveyors who say the only way to stave off catastrophic “climate change” is for “world government” to empower “a new set of institutions … imbued with heavy-handed, transnational enforcement powers.”

You know, what we free Americans with guns call “targets.” That probably goes a long way to explaining why they need to disparage us and why they desperately want to see us disarmed.


About David Codrea:David Codrea

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.

In addition to being a field editor/columnist at GUNS Magazine and associate editor for Oath Keepers, he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.

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Roger

Here in sunny CA every time I go to my local gun store the crowd buying is every make, model and gender of person … and many I know a few of those folks personally and they all own more than one “tool”. When I go to the range I would say that women are well represented there as are other races. These types of articles … like the SA blog piece … have one intention and that is to eradicate guns from public ownership. Might as well get used to the plain and simple fact that this fight isn’t… Read more »

Wayne A Covill

The only way to defeat anti-gun bias – based on fake facts and statistics – is with real, unvarnished facts and statistics. David is preaching to the choir, and of course we love his sarcasm! But what we all really need is to be better informed than our adversaries, to use meaningful information to combat their emotionalism, and ultimately to reach out and educate the ignorant before they are swayed and their uninformed passions co-opted. That is what has happened to many of the students currently protesting. (I am a teacher.) To that end, let me recommend “Guns and Violence,… Read more »

Dave Brown

Another Left and Right thing. How about more of what most of US really think? Complaining about the Complainers ain’t working anymore. Me as a Life Long Independent I have never walked in Lock Step with anyone, nor to I point to a certain side, and say, they all think like this or that. How about trying education and attraction which is what the NRA use to be good at, and thus they use to bring many a kid into the world of firearms. They brought me in at age 12 or 54 years ago. I am still a Gunner,… Read more »

trumped

I guess the irony of you complaining was lost on you.

tomcat

When the author started out with a “Harvard study” I immediately knew he was reporting on the leftist and their constant attack on gun owners. Each and every one of them think this is a challenge for them to put the guns in a pile and destroy them, or they chose this avenue to try and make a buck. Either way, it is getting to be a sorry way to spend a person’s time by continually trying to beat a dead horse. It ain’t gona work folks, too many people with guns and too many guns. Focus your pea brains… Read more »

Constance Underfoot

Skil saw, table saw, hacksaw, sawzall, trim saw, chain saw, tree saw, limb saw, sheetrock saw, scroll saw and band saw.

Who needs all these saws? What’s with all the Saw Nuts out there?

PS. I almost posted “Libs aw” in err for “limb saw.” While that would’ve been funny, I decided to correct the perhaps Freudian slip.

Darren

Great article except for 1 mistake. The Harvard study is cited in reference to who owns guns only, “Three percent of the population now owns half of the country’s firearms, says a recent, definitive study from the Injury Control Research Center at Harvard University.” Other so-called studies are cited to support claims of racism & all the other hooey.

VT Patriot

Gee, how many do I have to own to make it to the 3%? Is their someplace where I can send the info and serial #s of all of them? I’d hate to find out that I only made it to 4th place. But I know I’m not racisss cause I own a few that are black. But I only use them to shoot white guys, does that count?

Tionico

we’re just keeping them safe and available for th two thirds that don’t own any, when the need arises. Thus we do the nation a great service. and since no one really KNOWS how many guns any given individual actually HAS, they never will get them all. Even in OZ, with the recent “amnesty” pogrom thousands of “fogotten” guns are being brought forth for registration/licensing, or surrender. And THEY thought they had them all. Then there is the signficant issue of thousands of new imports finding their way into the country from offshore, and finding their way into the hands… Read more »

Laddyboy

The basis of this diatribe is 100% researchable provable. The opening comment is asinine. As far a women owning less weaponry than men, BULL HOCKEY, BULL FLOPS, BULL CHIPS or just pure BS! My wife owns more hand guns than I do. What La-La-Land do these “people(?) at ‘harvard’ live in. IF you wimpy lily livered yellow striped pansies want to be DISARMED when the “enemy” attacks, THAT IS YOUR CHOICE. Just make sure YOU put a “NO GUNS ALLOWED” in YOUR front window of YOUR home! Other than that, SHUT up and leave me, LEGAL LAW ABIDING American CITIZEN… Read more »

Ozark Muleskinner

… Or more than one hammer: 16 oz carpentry type, 24 oz framer, ball peen, welding, straight claw, curved claw, bodywork (of which there are many types), etc., etc. Tools are tools and it’s the good workman or work woman who uses the proper tool for a given job. Common sense, I know, but we are responding to a liberal thought (to use the word loosely), so it’s wise to speak slowly and give several examples so they might have some chance of understanding.

Dr. Strangelove

Well, Granny in the Beverly Hillbillies used one gun to shoot everything, why can’t everyone else? (Leave a reply if you’re satire challenged and I’ll explain.)

Ben

They even struck oil with it if I remember correctly.

Nottinghill

Granny also hunted ‘squabbits’ half squirrel/half rabbit. Hard to kill. They are wily! ; )

Nottinghill

I know of a few blacks that have more than a couple of guns. Seen many videos of my people of different races and ethnic groups with several firearms. So to state that “why are so many white men stockpiling firearms” is a lie and out right commie falsehood meant to divide. Every law-abiding gunowner that I know has two or more with anywhere from a lot to a Sierra Lima of ammo on hand. For safety, price and practice protection. With loaders loading atleast three different cal. types on average. Really WTF! Do we really expect any honesty from… Read more »

Ben

They continue to try to marginalize guns like they are any different than any other inanimate object. These people are weak and it comes from our soft culture. It truly is sad. Unless strang people go to the polls every election the. We have no chance.

Henry

Voting changes nothing. The system ensures that you have only two losers to choose from. Trump is one of the few politicians who has ever upset this process, and he’s a loose cannon whose only virtue was that he was not Hillary.

“…the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can ‘throw the rascals out’ at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.”
Carroll Quigley

Darren

Great quote, Henry. I used it in an article I wrote:

Principled Nonvoting: The Beginning of Disengaging From the State
https://theinternationallibertarian.blogspot.com/2010/09/principled-nonvoting-beginning-of.html

James

Maybe, just maybe there is a smaller subset of white men who see the writing on the wall. They are demonized for virtually everything they were taught to value and although the chance is small, they want to be prepared to defend their families, home, and way of life should the need ever arise. They will be called crazy and conspiracy theorists by people who are not like them, but they will be prepared. OR Maybe the local range he is a member of has a dozen different kind of lanes from 10 yds to 400 yds and clays and… Read more »

Leo Smith

He’s a Gender Neutral Progressive sissy boy. Who cares what he thinks.???Nobody.

JDC

Well, like it or not, those are the loud voices dominating the news, so it pays to care. I get your point, and in years past might have said “here, here.” (or hear, hear, as one guy said for “hear him, hear him”, the original saying) But, these young snowflakes are starting to move into positions of power in classrooms, corporations, and other areas. So, rather than playing the grumpy old man (that I am) I’ve resolved to teach more young people how fun it is to shoot, and why the 2A is so important to both their future, and… Read more »

Mike

The Democrats in the North Carolina legislature opposed eliminating the gun permit system that was put in place after the war of northern aggression. The permit purchase system was designed to prevent blacks from buying handguns.

Charlie

Visit the south side of Chicago (commonly known as CHIRAQISTAN by us down-staters). If you’re white, you’d better be “packin”

Bill

I think Granny had the double barrel shotgun at the Beverly Hills mansion. Jed shot a cap ‘n ball rifle back home and up came the bubblin’ crude
.

Henry

“Why would gun owners have multiple guns?”

Hey, nobody needs more than one club to play golf.

James Higginbotham

because we can.
and it’s FUN to own more than ONE.
i know people who have a WHOLE COLLECTION OF DIFFERENT GOLF SETS, AND FISHING POLES.
.

RJL

And Automobiles! and Homes, etc., etc.,etc.,………………………..

Bubba47

What do you play , miniature golf ?
Last time I was with someone playing golf they needed different clubs for different purposes ,
Same with firearms , different guns for different usages .