Footnote:
In English
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web
Description:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1 Frontier Masculinity, America’s “Gun Culture,” and the NRA -- 2 Why a Gun Movement? -- 3 Framing Threats to Gun Rights -- 4 Under Attack -- 5 Fighting the Culture Wars -- 6 The Politics of Commitment -- 7 Right and Far-Right Moral Politics -- 8 The Ties That Bind -- Epilogue -- Appendix -- Notes -- Index -- About the Author
Nothing conjures up images of the American frontier and a pick-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps view of freedom and independence quite like guns. Gun Crusaders is a fascinating inside look at how the four-million member National Rifle Association and its committed members come to see each and every gun control threat as a step down the path towards gun confiscation, and eventually socialism. Enlivened by a rich analysis of NRA materials, meetings, leader speeches, and unique in-depth interviews with NRA members, Gun Crusaders focuses on how the NRA constructs and perceives threats to gun rights as one more attack in a broad liberal cultural war. Scott Melzer shows that the NRA promotes a nostalgic vision of frontier masculinity, whereby gun rights defenders are seen as patriots and freedom fighters, defending not the freedom of religion, but the religion of individual rights and freedoms