"Culture" internal to the gun owning community different from the broader historical and cultural things happening around it. So many things wrong with this analysis, too many to put in a comment. I will email you a longer document.
As I read over their nine step graphic, I was thinking "granularity vs. lumping". Then read your next to last paragraph. I like the granular evolution but it probably needs some deeper explanation, e.g., did the transitions happen at the same time on the frontier as in older eastern states, north v. south v. mountain, etc.
NYS passed the Sullivan Act in 1911 and it was basically a "northern Jim Crow law" aimed at minorities and "riff raff" So that didn't just happen in the South.
I recall reading The American Rifleman in the sixties (my old man has been a member since we moved from Buffalo to the country in '62)--the NRA was already a 2A advocacy group in the sixties, in part arising from the '68 GCA and the need to answer demands for gun control following the sixties riots and assassinations. But the evolution of the NRA into a more strident 2A organization followed the evolution of gun control as a pair of dance partners.
My recollection of Generation 6 is that ARs did not become popular until they were "banned". Once the "ban" expired ('04?) they sold like hotcakes (see Statista.com). IIRC, the surge in ownership was post-ban. Might work in a few snippets of Ryan Busse's "Gunfight" here regarding the gun industry view of them changing, albeit he has an axe to grind. Also, the rise of mass shooters definitely played into the polarization and the idea that some of these popular but potentially catastrophically used weapons need to be off the streets. I think there is some stuff written about the frequency of mass shootings and the rise of mass shooters as social contagion, e.g. Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker piece. That influences people's thinking whether inside or outside the "gun community".
I'd work in Heller and Bruen as important events, as I think the polarization increased as states like NY, NJ, CA, etc. started a backlash by passing stuff in reaction to the Supreme Court decision, much as SCOTUS decisions Roe and Casey (and now Dobbs) created a crazy quilt of abortion policy.
Just spitballing here. Overall, I think that 9 point discussion a good addition to your class, but I'm just the Statler and Waldorf Act here. It reads like a history of guns in America rather than a change in gun sociology, but I suspect there is plenty of interplay.
Sorry for the verbal diarrhea. This was interesting.
There are two types of taxonomists: splitters and lumpers (at least according to the lumpers; the splitters almost certainly claim that there are more than 2 types).
The analysis is mostly correct, in my opinion, but there were (and are!) state and regional variations, and way more overlap in the time periods indicated. Texas is way different from New Jersey, etc.
Just as we are not a field of potted plants, we are not a set of ice cube trays. There are waves and currents. We have epicycles within wheels. Americans, individually and in small groups, have a propensity to build their own cars, airplanes, and guns. These cultures together may be unique in the world.
"Culture" internal to the gun owning community different from the broader historical and cultural things happening around it. So many things wrong with this analysis, too many to put in a comment. I will email you a longer document.
I will watch for it!
Man, the AI slop graphics there are just flat-out distracting.
LOL
I am visually impaired! ;)
As I read over their nine step graphic, I was thinking "granularity vs. lumping". Then read your next to last paragraph. I like the granular evolution but it probably needs some deeper explanation, e.g., did the transitions happen at the same time on the frontier as in older eastern states, north v. south v. mountain, etc.
NYS passed the Sullivan Act in 1911 and it was basically a "northern Jim Crow law" aimed at minorities and "riff raff" So that didn't just happen in the South.
I recall reading The American Rifleman in the sixties (my old man has been a member since we moved from Buffalo to the country in '62)--the NRA was already a 2A advocacy group in the sixties, in part arising from the '68 GCA and the need to answer demands for gun control following the sixties riots and assassinations. But the evolution of the NRA into a more strident 2A organization followed the evolution of gun control as a pair of dance partners.
My recollection of Generation 6 is that ARs did not become popular until they were "banned". Once the "ban" expired ('04?) they sold like hotcakes (see Statista.com). IIRC, the surge in ownership was post-ban. Might work in a few snippets of Ryan Busse's "Gunfight" here regarding the gun industry view of them changing, albeit he has an axe to grind. Also, the rise of mass shooters definitely played into the polarization and the idea that some of these popular but potentially catastrophically used weapons need to be off the streets. I think there is some stuff written about the frequency of mass shootings and the rise of mass shooters as social contagion, e.g. Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker piece. That influences people's thinking whether inside or outside the "gun community".
I'd work in Heller and Bruen as important events, as I think the polarization increased as states like NY, NJ, CA, etc. started a backlash by passing stuff in reaction to the Supreme Court decision, much as SCOTUS decisions Roe and Casey (and now Dobbs) created a crazy quilt of abortion policy.
Just spitballing here. Overall, I think that 9 point discussion a good addition to your class, but I'm just the Statler and Waldorf Act here. It reads like a history of guns in America rather than a change in gun sociology, but I suspect there is plenty of interplay.
Sorry for the verbal diarrhea. This was interesting.
There are two types of taxonomists: splitters and lumpers (at least according to the lumpers; the splitters almost certainly claim that there are more than 2 types).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumpers_and_splitters
LMAO!
Interesting NY Times article that came out a few days ago.
Where Did All the AK-47s Go?
A family of guns that was once ubiquitous in the U.S. firearms marketplace has started to vanish for a variety of reasons.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/us/ak-47.html?unlocked_article_code=1.jlA.m433.4Y3QR0tmfwzA&smid=url-share
The analysis is mostly correct, in my opinion, but there were (and are!) state and regional variations, and way more overlap in the time periods indicated. Texas is way different from New Jersey, etc.
GWebs is great. Awesome post, I continue to be inspired by your humility.
Just as we are not a field of potted plants, we are not a set of ice cube trays. There are waves and currents. We have epicycles within wheels. Americans, individually and in small groups, have a propensity to build their own cars, airplanes, and guns. These cultures together may be unique in the world.