Professor Brian Anse Patrick has a new book coming out soon on how gun owners communicate even though many mainstream outlets are outright hostile to our political agendas: Rise of the Anti-Media: In-forming America’s Concealed Weapon Carry Movement
The American concealed weapon carry movement, consisting largely of political amateurs, has changed the direction of gun control policy in the United States in the last two decades, overcoming well-entrenched professional elites in the process. In Rise of the Anti-Media: In-forming America’s Concealed Weapon Carry Movement, Brian Anse Patrick reports the results of his almost ten years of research on the concealed carry movement. He skillfully traces the emergence of a politically charged new American gun culture from the older traditional “hobby” gun culture. Patrick argues that the movement has succeeded because overlapping horizontal interpretive communities of new American gun culture developed their own anti-media of communication, bypassing mainstream media systems, creating a new and politically potent informational sociology that works to their benefit. Rise of the Anti-Media illuminates both how the American concealed weapon carry movement successfully reclaimed the territory of the Second Amendment as an unambiguously individual right, and how the anti-media of new American gun culture have reenergized the social action schematic underlying the First Amendment.
It’s a bit pricey, but it sounds like something up my alley. If someone else gets it first, please do share comments about it. I’ve found Prof. Patrick’s comments on related subjects to be interesting, as longtime readers might recall from my liveblogging coverage of his speech at the NRA legal symposium at George Mason a few years ago.
I found Patrick’s presentations at the most recent GRPC to be very thoughtful, and engaging, and worth looking into more deeply.
I object in principle to the term “anti-media” being applied to the proliferation of blogs, forums, blogmeets, aggregators and online associations related to firearms rights, use, safety, and laws.
Media is media. A different form of media is still media, although a new and better form of media can replace, outstrip, overwhelm, flank, and/or drive into the ground older, less useful forms of media.
“Deadtree” has been the term used to describe academic journals and regular newspapers since I was in college in the 1970’s, for a good reason. I used paper information resources less and less from then to the present, and used online resources more and more. I read actual paper newspapers while waiting for my oil to be changed, and rarely otherwise.
I think “new media” might be a more accurate, and non-perjorative, term for online firearms information sources.
I object in principle to the term “anti-media†being applied to the proliferation of blogs, forums, blogmeets, aggregators and online associations related to firearms rights, use, safety, and laws.
Do you have an advance copy to see if that’s the full context in which he’s talking about? With the writer being a professor, and this appearing to fall more in the “useful as a textbook” pricing category, I would not assume it’s a simple read on new media.
Rather than not picking over the term anti media when it is a new form of media, the real point is that how successful grassroots efforts to organize and lobby their states to get conceal carry laws on the books. That effort despite all the hysteria of the hoplohobes showed actual success in crime reduction from the increase of personal carry. The good behavior of CCW permit holders set an public narrative that people can be trusted with guns in public rather than in the privacy of their homes.
This is the same narrative that OC is trying to set. But that success has yet to happen or be determined.
The fact that 38 states had CCW and were happy helped in Heller since it bolstered the idea that private people can be trusted.
The real issue is that people know other people than they would not trust with a gun and project that to everyone.
The uneasy fear that people have with OC has it roots with the fear that other people are not safe with guns. Events such as OC clean up allows the public to see OC doing a good public service and alleviate fears. That is where public OC events can be helpful.
In the face OC as perceived by the public offends others and can reinforce the fears of armed people. As Says Uncle ” dont scare the white folk.”
The is a rational reason since a lot of gun control laws were enacted by white folk fear of black folk armed and that white folk would be killed.
The Black Panther march in California is an example But that was also during a time of great social unrest of the 1960’s.
A question is that with the economic depression that could lead to social unrest does that set the circumstances of a an increase call for law and order and more gun control?
The ironic part is those agitating now are the white folk a la town halls and tea partiers.
The emotional fears and discontent is very high and for quite a while there has been a polarization between the left and right.
It is getting to the point that differences can not be discussed. The fustration that many feel that Congress and Obama are running roughshod and not listening also lead to this. We are getting much closer to a out break of hostilities by people of differing political feelings.
These are dangerous times. Our political system is very good and allowing release and contains differing passions and reduces the probability of riots and armed hostilities. But the relief valve is that our representatives listen and react to our concerns.
Thankfuilly the political revolt of anti Obamacare is having an effect and has slowed down the train. The real fear is that Obama is clueless about how much his is pushing people in a direction they do not want to go and will revolt.
This during a time where America’s prestige is less due to Obama talking down America. We have real outside enemies and this is not a good time for America to be divided. But divided we are.
How this enviromment will effect expansion of gun rights, I have no idea. It may increase or diminish them. So far we are the rise but that was from a period of peace , prosperity and security. That period is ended and how this new paradigm will effect things is unknown.