Guns as Part of American Culture

Paper Summary:

The author of this paper contends that America is associated with guns to a greater degree than virtually any other country, in part because the gun culture is not only prevalent in America but also because it is widely celebrated in popular culture. The writer examines the place of firearms from the beginning of America's statehood and the second amendment to the Constitution up until the present day. The writer also examines attempts to impose some form of arms control on the American people.

From the Paper:

"Yet, for the most part, these arguments have not prevailed to any great degree, and while there have been laws passed for some registration and for keeping some people (felons and the mentally ill) from buying guns, the general trend is to protect the rights of gun owners at all costs. A recent decision by the Supreme Court rejected many efforts to reduce the number of guns in society and to impose more restrictions. This was based largely on legal arguments about whether or not the Second Amendment applied to individuals, and it was decided that it does. Even among those seeking more restrictions, this decision was not seen as a major surprise, for they also recognize that guns and gun ownership are part of American culture and not likely to be changed quickly. Guns are addressed by law, in lore about the frontier, in media depictions of American life in the past and in the present, and in the news page every day as the toll wrought by guns is detailed and enumerated. Guns were an important part of American history, helping in the American Revolution, in the taming of the frontier, in the many wars from the revolution to the Indian wars to more formal battles such as the Civil War, the two World Wars, the War in Vietnam, and now the War in Iraq. There has long been a tension between advocates for gun ownership and those for gun control, between the use of the gun for protection and the use of the gun to intimidate and commit crimes, between police actions and school shootings. All of these uses of guns are part of American couture and help shape the somewhat schizophrenic view Americans take of guns and gun violence."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Levinson, S. (1990). The Embarrassing Second Amendment." In L. Nisbet, The Gun Control Debate: You Decide. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books.
• McClurg, A.J. (1991, Summer). Handguns as Products Unreasonably Dangerous Per Se. University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Journal, 599-619.
• O'Connor, F. (1971). A Good Man Is Hard to Find. In The Complete Stories, Flannery O'Connor, 117-133. New York: Noonday Press.
• Schatz, T. (1981). Hollywood Genres. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Warshow, R. (1999).. Movie Chronicle: The Westerner. In Film Theory and Criticism, L. Braudy & M. Cohen (eds.), 654-667. New York: Oxford University Press.

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