Previous research has paid little attention to legal firearm demand, instead often focusing on illegal firearm demand. This study expands sociological research on firearms by theoretically identifying and empirically examining a new type of legal firearm demand, status anxiety demand, while also examining recreational and security firearm demand. We use unique background check data from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to measure firearm demand and test our hypotheses using random effects pooled time-series generalized least squares (GLS) regressions. Findings indicate that our measures for recreational demand and status anxiety demand both affect overall firearm sales, but that actual crime risk and the number of police in a state do not. We find that both increases in National Rifle Association (NRA) membership and Democratic Party strength in the federal government increase firearm demand, suggesting that changes in legal firearm demand are associated with political factors and not just recreational or self-defense motivations.

For decades sociologists have been interested in the labor movement's attempts to rebound. Most research, however, focuses on revitalization within the service industry, ignoring important efforts in other sectors, like construction. As recent scholars argue, revitalization within the building trades is unique because organizing workers is not the same as organizing work. Locals must simultaneously increase membership and market capacity. Unfortunately, existing theories ignore many obstacles that building trade unions face in market expansion efforts. These obstacles include macro-economic conditions, like the Great Recession, which limit work opportunities; inter-union competition which allows one Local to expand market share by poaching work from another; and cost differentials which continue to prevent unions from breaking into new markets. Relying on the case of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 58, these obstacles are explored and used to reformulate current theories on revitalization and market recovery within the building trades.

No abstract

No abstract