Psychology of Gun Culture

[JRTurner]

I found this interesting article and I agree with much of what it has to say. I think that it's important to evaluate our values and WHY we hold them. Is it for personal comfort, public benefit, or societal progress? There are thousands of reasons--but if you value your guns, this might make you think about why. Or not--up to you

How the Gun Became Integral to the Self-Identity of Millions of Americans

The firearm as a totemlike symbol of personal identity emerged from the psychological insecurities of former enslavers after the Civil War

www.scientificamerican.com

"Carlson argues that while people might have previously staked their identity on their ability to provide for their family..., those who have been left behind by the modern economy ... look for other tools to bolster these needs, and guns are one of these tools. If you look at advertisements in gun magazines and marketing put out by the National Rifle Association in the past 40 years, gun manufacturers have picked up on this idea and run with it. The advertisements have shifted away from hunting and moved toward using guns for masculinity and to become more “paternal” as the family protector. It’s now a very American idea that if you want to control a space, you need a gun to do it.

In terms of identity, the best evidence that we’ve shown in the lab comes from asking a group of gun owners and non-owners how they were feeling throughout the day via text messages. We asked them how meaningful their life was and how much control they thought they had over that life. When gun owners were reminded about their guns, they would tell us that they felt their life was more meaningful and that they had more control over it.

You explored this idea of guns as intrinsic to the psychology of gun owners using an experiment that involved electric shocks. Can you take us through that experiment?

Here we did something out of the classic psychological toolbox: we threatened people with electric shocks. We brought them into the lab and hooked them up to a shock generator. The shocks weren’t powerful—we describe them as being bitten by a kitten that wasn’t trying that hard. Still, people don’t like it, and when they’re warned that they’re about to be shocked, you see a psychological response. Their heart rate goes up; they get sweaty and more nervous in general.

What we’re looking to see is if a gun is helping you to feel safe in one situation, could it also help you to feel safe in this other situation, where you’re about to be shocked? In the lab, the gun did not have an inner firing mechanism, but it resembled a real gun. Again, there’s no physical way that the gun can help protect you in this situation. You can’t shoot the electric shock machine, for example.

Still, we wanted to see if the gun helped participants cope with the pending threat of electric shock. In our study, for participants who came from gun-owning households, the threat of shock wasn’t as bad when they were holding the gun. Their heart rate went down, and they felt more relaxed versus when they were holding a metal object that was the same weight as the gun. The opposite was true for non-owners, who felt much more nervous when they were holding the gun than when they held the metal object."

 

[Jessie C]

I found this interesting article and I agree with much of what it has to say. I think that it's important to evaluate our values and WHY we hold them. Is it for personal comfort, public benefit, or societal progress? There are thousands of reasons--but if you value your guns, this might make you think about why. Or not--up to you

How the Gun Became Integral to the Self-Identity of Millions of Americans

The firearm as a totemlike symbol of personal identity emerged from the psychological insecurities of former enslavers after the Civil War

www.scientificamerican.com

"Carlson argues that while people might have previously staked their identity on their ability to provide for their family..., those who have been left behind by the modern economy ... look for other tools to bolster these needs, and guns are one of these tools. If you look at advertisements in gun magazines and marketing put out by the National Rifle Association in the past 40 years, gun manufacturers have picked up on this idea and run with it. The advertisements have shifted away from hunting and moved toward using guns for masculinity and to become more “paternal” as the family protector. It’s now a very American idea that if you want to control a space, you need a gun to do it.

In terms of identity, the best evidence that we’ve shown in the lab comes from asking a group of gun owners and non-owners how they were feeling throughout the day via text messages. We asked them how meaningful their life was and how much control they thought they had over that life. When gun owners were reminded about their guns, they would tell us that they felt their life was more meaningful and that they had more control over it.

You explored this idea of guns as intrinsic to the psychology of gun owners using an experiment that involved electric shocks. Can you take us through that experiment?

Here we did something out of the classic psychological toolbox: we threatened people with electric shocks. We brought them into the lab and hooked them up to a shock generator. The shocks weren’t powerful—we describe them as being bitten by a kitten that wasn’t trying that hard. Still, people don’t like it, and when they’re warned that they’re about to be shocked, you see a psychological response. Their heart rate goes up; they get sweaty and more nervous in general.

What we’re looking to see is if a gun is helping you to feel safe in one situation, could it also help you to feel safe in this other situation, where you’re about to be shocked? In the lab, the gun did not have an inner firing mechanism, but it resembled a real gun. Again, there’s no physical way that the gun can help protect you in this situation. You can’t shoot the electric shock machine, for example.

Still, we wanted to see if the gun helped participants cope with the pending threat of electric shock. In our study, for participants who came from gun-owning households, the threat of shock wasn’t as bad when they were holding the gun. Their heart rate went down, and they felt more relaxed versus when they were holding a metal object that was the same weight as the gun. The opposite was true for non-owners, who felt much more nervous when they were holding the gun than when they held the metal object."

There was a day when owning a gun was essential to one's survival. FOR FOOD. That day is still here. Just NOT for food. For protection.

 

[JRTurner]

There was a day when owning a gun was essential to one's survival. FOR FOOD. That day is still here. Just NOT for food. For protection.

There's a difference between washing your hands because it's healthy, and washing your hands because you have OCD I wonder how many guns and at what type is necessary. I thought it was super interesting the whole electric shock thing. It explained to me the depth of feelings that that the pro-gun folks have, and the depth of fear those unfamiliar with weapons have. Very thought provoking!

 

[Emily L]

What scares me now is the apparent shift from wanting a gun for protection to wanting a gun to wage "war." I put "war" in quotes because they think that we will soon be fighting a new civil war.

Of course, that won't happen, but the fact that so many people seem to think it will, is what scares me.

I might be over-stating things--and frankly, I hope I am.

 

[Jessie C]

There's a difference between washing your hands because it's healthy, and washing your hands because you have OCD I wonder how many guns and at what type is necessary. I thought it was super interesting the whole electric shock thing. It explained to me the depth of feelings that that the pro-gun folks have, and the depth of fear those unfamiliar with weapons have. Very thought provoking!

Nowadays, people have big guns because their neighbors have big guns. Sometimes that's the extent of the mental process that goes into owning a gun. No smiely face for this one.

 

[soylentgreen]

I found this interesting article and I agree with much of what it has to say. I think that it's important to evaluate our values and WHY we hold them. Is it for personal comfort, public benefit, or societal progress? There are thousands of reasons--but if you value your guns, this might make you think about why. Or not--up to you

How the Gun Became Integral to the Self-Identity of Millions of Americans

The firearm as a totemlike symbol of personal identity emerged from the psychological insecurities of former enslavers after the Civil War

www.scientificamerican.com

"Carlson argues that while people might have previously staked their identity on their ability to provide for their family...,

There in that one sentence is the psychology behind not only guns but why americans are so ****ed up socially.

In the 1950's the concept of a nuclear family came into existence as the preferred american lifestyle. One man and his wife and their children with the man being responsible for the welfare of that family.

You stepped away from the more traditional extended family scenario where grandparents and other close relatives also lived in the house and helped keep the family thriving. Forming their own simple communty and the idea of a community.

Now with your ****ed up belief in the nuclear family concept still going we are seeing the results of a lack of community welfare thinking and a gun being the only defense a family has.

It is not about the guns. They are just a crutch you lean on. It is all about your ****ed up ideas of individuality and family.

 

[HIP56948]

I've always felt that people who must carry a gun are terrified of what's going to happen when they die. The gun may extend their life-span, not
because of safety, but because of the unknown reality that may be waiting for them.
People who are deep Christians also have those same fears. : "There's a golden place for me..I swear this is...I..I..know it with all my passion"
"Please, please tell me that I am not wrong" "Let all of us think the same thing and Yes..Yes..it will be true!" "I will be there after death..and loved..and safe"

 

[Ishm]

There in that one sentence is the psychology behind not only guns but why americans are so ****ed up socially.

In the 1950's the concept of a nuclear family came into existence as the preferred american lifestyle. One man and his wife and their children with the man being responsible for the welfare of that family.

You stepped away from the more traditional extended family scenario where grandparents and other close relatives also lived in the house and helped keep the family thriving. Forming their own simple communty and the idea of a community.

Now with your ****ed up belief in the nuclear family concept still going we are seeing the results of a lack of community welfare thinking and a gun being the only defense a family has.

It is not about the guns. They are just a crutch you lean on. It is all about your ****ed up ideas of individuality and family.

Every other wealthy nation is facing similar shifts in the nuclear family concept etc, but not one of them has turned to guns as crutches.

 

[SMTA]

Nowadays, people have big guns because their neighbors have big guns. Sometimes that's the extent of the mental process that goes into owning a gun. No smiely face for this one.

Untrue.
That broad brush is pure bullshit and unfair

 

[Jessie C]

Untrue.
That broad brush is pure bullshit and unfair

I know folks in this broad brush. Fair or not, it's real.

 

[Chillfolks]

I wonder if this author is a gun owner and speaking from her own personal experience or someone who doesn’t own guns trying to explain something she doesn’t understand?


From the snippets it seems more likely this is a #2

 

[JRTurner]

Untrue.
That broad brush is pure bullshit and unfair

I think for some people it might be true. The wannabe gun aficionados who mimic those who truly are experts and have a legitimate gun hobby.

 

[noonereal]

I found this interesting article and I agree with much of what it has to say. I think that it's important to evaluate our values and WHY we hold them. Is it for personal comfort, public benefit, or societal progress? There are thousands of reasons--but if you value your guns, this might make you think about why. Or not--up to you

How the Gun Became Integral to the Self-Identity of Millions of Americans

The firearm as a totemlike symbol of personal identity emerged from the psychological insecurities of former enslavers after the Civil War

www.scientificamerican.com

"Carlson argues that while people might have previously staked their identity on their ability to provide for their family..., those who have been left behind by the modern economy ... look for other tools to bolster these needs, and guns are one of these tools. If you look at advertisements in gun magazines and marketing put out by the National Rifle Association in the past 40 years, gun manufacturers have picked up on this idea and run with it. The advertisements have shifted away from hunting and moved toward using guns for masculinity and to become more “paternal” as the family protector. It’s now a very American idea that if you want to control a space, you need a gun to do it.

In terms of identity, the best evidence that we’ve shown in the lab comes from asking a group of gun owners and non-owners how they were feeling throughout the day via text messages. We asked them how meaningful their life was and how much control they thought they had over that life. When gun owners were reminded about their guns, they would tell us that they felt their life was more meaningful and that they had more control over it.

You explored this idea of guns as intrinsic to the psychology of gun owners using an experiment that involved electric shocks. Can you take us through that experiment?

Here we did something out of the classic psychological toolbox: we threatened people with electric shocks. We brought them into the lab and hooked them up to a shock generator. The shocks weren’t powerful—we describe them as being bitten by a kitten that wasn’t trying that hard. Still, people don’t like it, and when they’re warned that they’re about to be shocked, you see a psychological response. Their heart rate goes up; they get sweaty and more nervous in general.

What we’re looking to see is if a gun is helping you to feel safe in one situation, could it also help you to feel safe in this other situation, where you’re about to be shocked? In the lab, the gun did not have an inner firing mechanism, but it resembled a real gun. Again, there’s no physical way that the gun can help protect you in this situation. You can’t shoot the electric shock machine, for example.

Still, we wanted to see if the gun helped participants cope with the pending threat of electric shock. In our study, for participants who came from gun-owning households, the threat of shock wasn’t as bad when they were holding the gun. Their heart rate went down, and they felt more relaxed versus when they were holding a metal object that was the same weight as the gun. The opposite was true for non-owners, who felt much more nervous when they were holding the gun than when they held the metal object."

yep, gun owners are cowards hiding behind false security

 

[PeacefulWarrior]

I found this interesting article and I agree with much of what it has to say. I think that it's important to evaluate our values and WHY we hold them. Is it for personal comfort, public benefit, or societal progress? There are thousands of reasons--but if you value your guns, this might make you think about why. Or not--up to you

How the Gun Became Integral to the Self-Identity of Millions of Americans

The firearm as a totemlike symbol of personal identity emerged from the psychological insecurities of former enslavers after the Civil War

www.scientificamerican.com

"Carlson argues that while people might have previously staked their identity on their ability to provide for their family..., those who have been left behind by the modern economy ... look for other tools to bolster these needs, and guns are one of these tools. If you look at advertisements in gun magazines and marketing put out by the National Rifle Association in the past 40 years, gun manufacturers have picked up on this idea and run with it. The advertisements have shifted away from hunting and moved toward using guns for masculinity and to become more “paternal” as the family protector. It’s now a very American idea that if you want to control a space, you need a gun to do it.

In terms of identity, the best evidence that we’ve shown in the lab comes from asking a group of gun owners and non-owners how they were feeling throughout the day via text messages. We asked them how meaningful their life was and how much control they thought they had over that life. When gun owners were reminded about their guns, they would tell us that they felt their life was more meaningful and that they had more control over it.

You explored this idea of guns as intrinsic to the psychology of gun owners using an experiment that involved electric shocks. Can you take us through that experiment?

Here we did something out of the classic psychological toolbox: we threatened people with electric shocks. We brought them into the lab and hooked them up to a shock generator. The shocks weren’t powerful—we describe them as being bitten by a kitten that wasn’t trying that hard. Still, people don’t like it, and when they’re warned that they’re about to be shocked, you see a psychological response. Their heart rate goes up; they get sweaty and more nervous in general.

What we’re looking to see is if a gun is helping you to feel safe in one situation, could it also help you to feel safe in this other situation, where you’re about to be shocked? In the lab, the gun did not have an inner firing mechanism, but it resembled a real gun. Again, there’s no physical way that the gun can help protect you in this situation. You can’t shoot the electric shock machine, for example.

Still, we wanted to see if the gun helped participants cope with the pending threat of electric shock. In our study, for participants who came from gun-owning households, the threat of shock wasn’t as bad when they were holding the gun. Their heart rate went down, and they felt more relaxed versus when they were holding a metal object that was the same weight as the gun. The opposite was true for non-owners, who felt much more nervous when they were holding the gun than when they held the metal object."

The bizarre psychosis of gun obsession in the United States is EXTREMELY CREEPY shit. It defies all logic and reason. It is truly disturbing and I really have no idea what to make of it, other than: EWWWWWWWWWWWWW. Get that mental illness away from me.

Dont get me wrong, I have owned many guns including assault rifles, shotguns, many pistols of semiautomatic and revolver type, single shots, double barrels, and everything in between. But I never was OBSESSED with it like some poor unbalanced fools. And after I decided to always be a peaceable person and there was a school shooting at my high school, I got rid of all of my guns and dont have one in my possession. No reason to.

I'd support some comprehensive across the board bans. Outright bans.

 

[JRTurner]

I wonder if this author is a gun owner and speaking from her own personal experience or someone who doesn’t own guns trying to explain something she doesn’t understand?


From the snippets it seems more likely this is a #2

You should read the whole article. There is more than one study used and multiple authors. That's why I enjoy Scientific American so much. The electric shock experiment was really interesting

 

[JRTurner]

yep, gun owners are cowards hiding behind false security

Hey, I'm a gun owner

 

[Chillfolks]

You should read the whole article. There is more than one study used and multiple authors. That's why I enjoy Scientific American so much. The electric shock experiment was really interesting

I don’t usually waste my time on sociology articles. Calling that a science is a stretch

 

[noonereal]

Hey, I'm a gun owner

So am I.
What i am not, is a gun nutter. I want serious gun legislation

 

[Lykaios]

A gun is a tool, in most civilized countries. Like a leaf blower. We’ve turned gun rights into a cult.

 

[Lykaios]

So am I.
What i am not, is a gun nutter. I want serious gun legislation

I’ve had interesting conversations on this. One, a friend who‘s husband has always been pro 2A, and another a grad student from KS who is pro 2A. In both cases we all agreed that there needed to be some reasonable gun legislation.

What we agreed on was:

In order to purchase a gun, you needed to get license like a drivers license. Pass a test on basic gun safety, responsible ownership and applicable laws. You also had to pass a shooting test to show you could at least hit what you aimed at. It would need to be periodically renewed. We also agreed on red flag laws.

 

[JRTurner]

I don’t usually waste my time on sociology articles. Calling that a science is a stretch

Sociology is far more important than its reputation acknowledges

 

[noonereal]

I’ve had interesting conversations on this. One, a friend who‘s husband has always been pro 2A, and another a grad student from KS who is pro 2A. In both cases we all agreed that there needed to be some reasonable gun legislation.

What we agreed on was:

In order to purchase a gun, you needed to get license like a drivers license. Pass a test on basic gun safety, responsible ownership and applicable laws. You also had to pass a shooting test to show you could at least hit what you aimed at. It would need to be periodically renewed. We also agreed on red flag laws.

All good but 2A is not a right to guns. This phrase is always misused. Its a right to keep arms for a militia which makes this a long dead right.

 

[Lethargic Aptitude]

I found this interesting article and I agree with much of what it has to say. I think that it's important to evaluate our values and WHY we hold them. Is it for personal comfort, public benefit, or societal progress? There are thousands of reasons--but if you value your guns, this might make you think about why. Or not--up to you

How the Gun Became Integral to the Self-Identity of Millions of Americans

The firearm as a totemlike symbol of personal identity emerged from the psychological insecurities of former enslavers after the Civil War

www.scientificamerican.com

"Carlson argues that while people might have previously staked their identity on their ability to provide for their family..., those who have been left behind by the modern economy ... look for other tools to bolster these needs, and guns are one of these tools. If you look at advertisements in gun magazines and marketing put out by the National Rifle Association in the past 40 years, gun manufacturers have picked up on this idea and run with it. The advertisements have shifted away from hunting and moved toward using guns for masculinity and to become more “paternal” as the family protector. It’s now a very American idea that if you want to control a space, you need a gun to do it.

In terms of identity, the best evidence that we’ve shown in the lab comes from asking a group of gun owners and non-owners how they were feeling throughout the day via text messages. We asked them how meaningful their life was and how much control they thought they had over that life. When gun owners were reminded about their guns, they would tell us that they felt their life was more meaningful and that they had more control over it.

You explored this idea of guns as intrinsic to the psychology of gun owners using an experiment that involved electric shocks. Can you take us through that experiment?

Here we did something out of the classic psychological toolbox: we threatened people with electric shocks. We brought them into the lab and hooked them up to a shock generator. The shocks weren’t powerful—we describe them as being bitten by a kitten that wasn’t trying that hard. Still, people don’t like it, and when they’re warned that they’re about to be shocked, you see a psychological response. Their heart rate goes up; they get sweaty and more nervous in general.

What we’re looking to see is if a gun is helping you to feel safe in one situation, could it also help you to feel safe in this other situation, where you’re about to be shocked? In the lab, the gun did not have an inner firing mechanism, but it resembled a real gun. Again, there’s no physical way that the gun can help protect you in this situation. You can’t shoot the electric shock machine, for example.

Still, we wanted to see if the gun helped participants cope with the pending threat of electric shock. In our study, for participants who came from gun-owning households, the threat of shock wasn’t as bad when they were holding the gun. Their heart rate went down, and they felt more relaxed versus when they were holding a metal object that was the same weight as the gun. The opposite was true for non-owners, who felt much more nervous when they were holding the gun than when they held the metal object."

The reality is that it isnt a culture. What it is, is a part of a plan for Civil War. Many Republican have expressed their want of a Civil War. This is their methoid of arming it.

 

[braindrain]

I think for some people it might be true. The wannabe gun aficionados who mimic those who truly are experts and have a legitimate gun hobby.

I have no doubt for some tiny percentage of gun owners it is true. It’s a huge country. You can find a small group of people who believe just about anything.

Doesn’t mean it is any significant percentage.

 

[JRTurner]

The reality is that it isnt a culture. What it is, is a part of a plan for Civil War. Many Republican have expressed their want of a Civil War. This is their methoid of arming it.

I think it can be both