To Provide or Protect? Masculinity, Economic Precarity, and Protective Gun Ownership in the United States.

ABSTRACT: Protection is now the modal motivation for gun ownership, and men continue to outnumber women among gun owners. While research has linked economic precarity (e.g., insecurity and anxiety) to gun ownership and attitudes, separating economic well-being from constructions of masculinity is challenging. In response to blocked economic opportunities, some gun owners prioritize armed protection, symbolically replacing the masculine role of "provider" with one associated with "protection." Thus, understanding both persistently high rates of gun ownership in the United States (in spite of generally declining crime) alongside the gender gap in gun ownership requires deeper investigations into the meaning of guns in the United States and the role of guns in conceptualizations of American masculinity

SUBMITTER: Warner TD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9355388 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature