Why do men own guns? What meaning does gun ownership hold for them? How is the experience of owning, using, and displaying guns similar and different for men in surburbia and the inner city, and by race and class? Is there an association between violence and gun use and ownership? These are some of the questions addressed in this ethnographic study of male gun owners and users in Michigan.;The everyday life of gun owners was my concern. I joined a shooting club, observed a handgun intervention program in Detroit, observed in a gun shop and shooting ranges, and interviewed various individuals and groups of people in order to study gun ownership and use among men. In order to better understand the phenomenology of gun ownership, I interacted with gun owners through participant observation, where appropriate, supplemented by direct observation in other settings, and used individual and focus group interviews, analysis of gun magazines and NRA literature, and comparison of my findings with those obtained national surveys. I found that men are socialized into gun use by other men but differently by race and class, with white men's socialization occurring intergenerationally in the family, African American socialization occurring in peer groups or alone. Men use guns to express masculinities, which are hierarchical reconstructions assembled from available valued choices. The use of guns is one way that men manage the emotional components of their lives, with guns and gun use symbolic of valued masculinities.;Social construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction let readers compare different assertions about the social implications of gun ownership found in feminist, NRA, and criminology literature and relate these to the complex reality of gun use in different social locations. The social location of men informs the way that guns are used to express masculinities. In all settings physical and emotional control of the body is important, as is the texture and qualities of guns themselves. However different rituals of use are employed to express masculinity among gun users in various social locations.;The project directs attention to gender theory, and suggests ways that hierarchies are formed and maintained among and between genders, stressing the importance of sexuality, power expressed in patriarchal relations, and gender.
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