First Blog Ever
This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Fall 2008 Cultural Interfaces class. For more about this assignment, click here. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.
So, this is the first blog i have ever written and I'm thinking ill talk about the topic i chose to research and how my actual research is coming along. I chose to do my research paper on a large, but not very well-known group in America: Gun owners. There are many different types of people who own firearms and many different reasons they have for owning them. I decided to write about this group of people because i realized certain stereotypes surround them that are untrue and i thought it would be good to show the many different people that actually make up this demographic.
The research has gone much better than i had anticipated. Due to my inability to navigate the library, i had just planned on finding one or two books and then just cross my fingers and tryto find some additional online sources. However, the class trip to the library was really good for me and taught me about the library. I ended up finding a ton of sources both in books and online. A really interesting book i found was Armed America . It was a book with many pictures of gun owners holding their firearms. Normally this would sound like a slightly weird picture book, but underneath the pictures were the person's reason for owning a gun. There were families, old people, young people, rich people, poor people, and people of many races. I thought it was a really neat book because it captured what i will be trying to communicate to my reader in my paper which is that gun owners are a surprisingly diverse group of people.
Comments
Armed America sounds like a really great source! In fact, I was so intrigued, that I went online and, sure enough, it has a website - http://www.armedamerica.org/. You're right - the pictures are amazing. I particularly like one I found that shows a family of four, with the mom and a baby (!) holding guns
(see that picture). It's actually a really really disturbing picture and doesn't really allay my fears/stereotypes about gun owners at all.
This sort of primary resource will be a good starting point for your research -- and will provide a nice foundation for the secondary sources that you'll be working with it as well. I also wonder if the book has an introduction or forward that might provide a bit of a critical perspective on the issue.
good work, and I look forward to hearing more about your project soon!
Posted by: Christine Alfano, Stanford Instructor | October 15, 2008 09:13 PM
Tom, I love this topic. I have always wondered about this unique gun-owner culture and I think it is great that someone will enlighten us all on what you refer to as a "diverse group of people." As I read your blog, however, I noticed that you worried about finding online sources. Considering that this subject also intrigued me, I typed your topic into Google and found this great website with what has to be over 100 links to web pages related to your topic. Here it is:
http://www.gunowners.org/links.htm.
These links can direct you to political sites, commercial sites, organizations, and other resources you may find useful. I hope you will find the sources you need to put together a great paper. Good luck!
Posted by: Carlos Arellano | October 15, 2008 10:53 PM
This is an very unique topic. I have never considered gun ownership as a culture so I'll be interested to hear your elaboration on the topic. The issue is so politically charged that it's hard to put off the politics and analyze the thing only on a social perspective. With this in mind, I was wondering if you were going to include any political aspects for and against gun ownership? There is a ton of sources, interviews, blogs, laws on gun ownership in the political and legal realm.
Also, I am interested in the specific aspect of the subject that you will be taking a stance on. Whatever your thesis is, though, I'm it will be great with this cool topic.
Posted by: Ming | October 16, 2008 02:06 AM
Glad my book was helpful! I always wonder if people are checking it out of libraries. It's nice to hear things "from the field".
Good luck with your project.
Posted by: kyle | October 29, 2008 01:42 PM