Armed Citizens and the Stories They Tell

Abstract

Since 1926, the National Rifle Association's (NRA) flagship publication has without pause featured "The Armed Citizen," a column that reports instances in which law-abiding citizens have successfully defended their property, person, and/or family with firearms. These reports are brief (100 to 200 words) and have remained remarkably untouched over the past 80 years with regard to style, diction, and narrative structure. Their rhetorical effect, however, has not. In 1977, the year the NRA became a social movement, these narratives began to contribute to the production of a terror-filled, deeply masculine (and surprisingly biblical) NRA discourse that led (and continues to lead) to the mobilization of its members to defend the right to keep and bear arms in the face of extraordinary public opposition: to perpetuate what has come to be known as the "gun-control paradox. " Attorney Alston Jennings, his wife, and two sons were in their Little Rock, Ark., home when a former mental patient broke in swinging a sickle. In the melee that followed, Jennings shot the berserk man once with a cal. .22 rifle, Mrs. Jennings flailed at him with a chair, and, as Jennings grappled for the sickle, the 12-year-old son rushed to his father's aid with a cal. .45 pistol. Jennings then fatally shot the intruder three times.-National Rifle Association (1961) The so-called gun-control paradox continues to challenge scholars of all stripes (Schuman and Presser

Constructing Policy Narratives in 140 Characters or Less: The Case of Gun Policy Organizations

“…The NRA's use of opponents may reflect the organization's effort to maintain a low profile in the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting; during this time, the NRA was especially vulnerable to criticism and, thus, to avoid a backlash, the organization might have chosen to name their opponents without portraying them as villains . Additionally, an increase in the use of perpetrators, heroes, and events (mainly, self‐defense shootings) is attributable to the introduction of the #ArmedCitizen hashtag in July of 2012; tweets containing this hashtag describe a citizen using a firearm to defend him or herself against someone with malicious intent, as in the following tweet from June 6, 2013: “#ArmedCitizen: 84‐yr‐old MO grandmother caught burglar in her home and held suspect at gunpoint until police arrived http://www.ksdk.com/rss/article/373543/3/GA.” This hashtag represents the adaptation of the long‐standing “Armed Citizen” column in the NRA's flagship magazine The American Rifleman (see O'Neill, ) and thus demonstrates how the organization utilizes Twitter to reinforce organizational strategies previously established in other media.…”

Spillover Effects: Explaining Narrative Divergences of the Christian Right, 1979‐1989

“…Gerteis () argues that the Knights of Labor used narratives of virtue to paper over internal contradictions, specifically in efforts to justify the racial discrimination practiced by a movement presenting itself as racially inclusive. O'Neill () finds that the discourses resulting from narrative work make it possible for movements to mobilize in the face of opposition. Nepstad () finds shared narratives facilitated the development of a shared identity between US Christians and Salvadorans that transcended national allegiances.…”

Firearm Availability and Violent Death: The Need for a Culture Change in Attitudes toward Guns

“…This column reports instances in which law‐abiding citizens have used guns to defend their family or their property against armed intruders. O'Neill () analyzed the structure of these stories, which contain three character types: “(1) the perpetrator, (2) the victim, and (3) the hero. The category of “the perpetrator” fits nicely into a three‐part typology.…”