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More than the Second Amendment: Liberal gun owners, citizenship, and emancipatory democracy in the United States

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  • Jennifer Hubbert
  • Hannah Eaton

Abstract

Objective This study seeks to understand how liberal gun owners configure the rights and responsibilities of ethical gun citizenship in the face of a dominant public narratives that rejects guns as markers of liberal belonging. Methods This study employs a qualitative, textual analysis approach to explore the narratives of liberal gun owners participating in online discussions of mass shootings and contentious political elections. Results The results show how liberal gun owners, in these online forums, advocated for an emancipatory democracy that largely prioritized the collective over the individual, demanded an accountable government, and was radical in its insistence on the importance of accessibility and meaningful participation, thus configuring social belonging and commensurability as central to formal citizenship. Conclusion The results suggest that how one formulates the values of citizenship is linked to how one practices the politics of democracy. Highlighting the greater range of possibilities for the alignment of guns and citizenship may thus offer some hope to the rancor of contemporary partisan politics as liberal gun owners seek to normalize a democracy that brings individual and collective identities and needs into its culture and practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Jennifer Hubbert & Hannah Eaton, 2024. "More than the Second Amendment: Liberal gun owners, citizenship, and emancipatory democracy in the United States," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 105(2), pages 211-225, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:105:y:2024:i:2:p:211-225
    DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.13352
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Matthew J. Lacombe & Adam J. Howat & Jacob E. Rothschild, 2019. "Gun Ownership as a Social Identity: Estimating Behavioral and Attitudinal Relationships," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 100(6), pages 2408-2424, October.
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    4. Mark R. Joslyn & Donald P. Haider-Markel & Michael Baggs & Andrew Bilbo, 2017. "Emerging Political Identities? Gun Ownership and Voting in Presidential Elections-super-," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 98(2), pages 382-396, June.
    5. Jessica Dawson, 2019. "Shall not be infringed: how the NRA used religious language to transform the meaning of the Second Amendment," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-13, December.
    6. Shawn Ratcliff, 2022. "Presidential firepower: The effect of the presidential party on gun ownership, 1980–2018," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 103(3), pages 737-751, May.
    7. Kristin A. Goss, 2017. "The Socialization of Conflict and Its Limits: Gender and Gun Politics in America," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 98(2), pages 455-470, June.
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