Taking aim at gun culture

by Nicole Findlay

In his examination of the role symbols and ritual play in creating communities, Brian Given, is setting his sights on one of the last places you’d expect to find an emphasis on meditation.

Given, an anthropologist in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, whose research has included meditation systems, Tibetan culture and esoteric Buddhism, is planning to conduct a year-long study of Canada’s gun culture. His research may help cut through the polemics and fear to help the public and policy-makers alike grapple with the controversial topic.

Given contends that law abiding gun hobbyists have been largely neglected by researchers. While it is important to study deviant gun use, he says it’s equally important to understand why so many people own guns. 

Gun enthusiasts are collectors, hunters and target shooters. These individuals come from all walks of life and political spectrum, yet their common interest provides them with opportunities to interact socially. For them, the gun is both a potent symbol that defines aspects of who they are and provides a sense of identity within a community. In the contexts that they use them, guns are also instruments of leisure.
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“The gun – an object of danger in some contexts, is transformed into one of recreation and play in other contexts, and then transformed back again,” notes Given. “Experience with these different contexts in which guns may be used helps to explain why gun hobbyists often see gun control issues very differently than people who know little about guns or the people who use them.”

It was during his research for A Most Pernicious Thing, a book that tracks the trade of firearms to Aboriginal Peoples during the early 1600s in North America, that Given ventured in to the world of gun collectors and firearms control.  Canada has had gun control laws since 1934. Owners must be licensed to own, operate and purchase guns.

While Given asserts it is laudable to control guns, he claims “social/political movement entrepreneurs” appropriated the murder of fourteen women at Montreal’s École Polytechnique on December 6, 1989, as an impetus to implement gun control. In the early 1990s, Bill C-68, An Act Respecting Firearms and Other Weapons, was enacted in an effort to make guns easier to trace.

“The long gun registry was badly thought out and implemented and based on little research with law abiding gun owners,” Given says. It is the various sub-cultures of gun owners that he seeks to understand.

Opponents point to many flaws in the long gun registry, arguing that it criminalizes the wrong group – law-abiding Canadians for owning unregistered guns, it’s too costly and does little to prevent criminals from accessing weapons.

Given claims that gun owners believe the ultimate intent of a registry is “to make gun ownership as difficult and unpleasant as possible”, with elimination the ultimate goal.

Based on his preliminary research, Given suggests money spent on the long gun registry would have been more effective had it be invested in programs designed to prevent violence.

“How much could have been accomplished if we had invested over two billion dollars in programs to divert young males from street gangs and other paths to gun violence?” he asks.

With the impending demise of the long-gun registry casting a shadow over the 20th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, Given’s research might bring gun proponents and opponents a little closer to identifying solutions both sides can swallow.