The Rise of Self-Defense in Gun Advertising: The American Rifleman, 1918-2017

This chapter examines changes in American gun culture through a content analysis of advertisements in The American Rifleman magazine for every year from 1918 to 2017. We understand the changing themes in these ads as a specific measure of a change from what gun journalist Michael Bane calls Gun Culture 1.0, rooted in hunting and recreational target shooting, to Gun Culture 2.0, centering on personal protection through armed citizenship. Central to Gun Culture 2.0 is the legal carrying of concealed weapons, mostly handguns, in public by ordinary Americans. After briefly reviewing the history of American gun culture, we discuss our analytical approach to studying gun culture through advertising and explain the specific data and methods employed here. Our analysis of this advertising data documents the pattern of decline of Gun Culture 1.0 over the past 100 years and the ongoing rise of Gun Culture 2.0. We also identify the point at which the two centers of gravity in gun culture cross paths.