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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.
- Sales Rank: #3154273 in Books
- Published on: 2009-10-01
- Released on: 2009-10-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.02" h x .88" w x 5.98" l, 1.35 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 336 pages
Review
“Melzer brilliantly integrates deep personal observation with data and theory to construct a three-dimensional portrait of the modern gun rights movement. In a wonderfully written, engaging, and scrupulously fair narrative, Melzer’s book makes a major contribution to our understanding of this tumultuous social movement and also happens to be a really good read. It's fresh, clear-eyed, and fair. Anyone wanting to understand the gun movement must read this book.”-Robert J. Spitzer,author of The Politics of Gun Control
“Melzer takes us inside the NRA to reveal that more than gun control—much more—is at stake: a way of life and a definition of manhood that members feel is disintegrating in their hands... [This is] a book that is both balanced and brave, critical and yet compassionate to men who have so lost their way that their guns offer their last tenuous hold on their identity.”-Michael Kimmel,author of Guyland
"The author argues a very credible thesis: that the National Rifle Association (NRA) is more than a single-interest group defending the right to own and bear arms. The NRA should also be understood as a social movement organization dedicated broadly to preserving traditional, conservative values."-Choice
"This book is well written, and raises interesting issues about the transformation of interest groups in a period of polarized politics."-Clyde Wilcox,Political Science Quarterly
About the Author
Scott Melzer is Associate Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Anthropology & Sociology at Albion College.
Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Great expectations, poor delivery
By Myles Anevich
Scott Melzer's Gun Crusaders: The NRA's Culture War is an ambitious addition to the growing academic field of conservative studies. What makes Gun Crusaders so daring is that it is both an insider's and outsider's account of an organisation and social movement that is especially defensive towards academics and outsiders. While Melzer's study is interesting, and at times engaging, Gun Crusaders is none the less a deeply flawed look at the NRA. Even though he paints a detailed portrait of the NRA and the book is obviously well researched, sampling biases and argument flaws persist throughout the entire book.
Though the book is intended to be a study of "frontier masculinity," through the lens of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and gun rights, Gun Crusaders quickly becomes "...a book that focused on members' thoughts on gun rights and related issues." While there are chapters that focus on the fundraising and lobbying power of the NRA - such as Chapter 8: "The Ties that Bind" - the heart of the book focuses on Melzer's interviews with what he calls the "critical mass" and "reserve members of the NRA, two of the three hypothetical classifications of membership commitment. These portions are presented thematically, with Melzer filling in the substance of "what people in the NRA think" by paraphrasing and quoting the organisation faithful, presumably in order to show their political and social opinions.
Melzer, shielded by his NRA membership card was able to get what appear to be extremely candid interviews with these critical mass and reserve members, which he tries to use in order to justify his assertions about all members of the NRA. The book is filled with relatively unsubstantiated parts-to-the-whole comparison flaws, followed by a cavalcade of qualifying statements and "exceptions that prove the rule." For example Melzer throughout Gun Crusaders states that all members of the NRA are conservative (or extremely conservative), and therefore Republicans, only to in the sixth chapter "The Politics of Commitment" reveal that out of the small group of people he interviewed one is currently a democrat, one is non-partisan (officially), and another was a registered democrat until recently.
However this is not to say that frontier masculinity does not play a significant role in the book. Melzer frequently attempts to ground the NRA's gun culture and politics in masculinity. He is sufficiently able to prove through some of his interviews and inferences that anything feminists is detested, because "both masculine women and feminine men threaten the gender status quo and promote feminist goals... which include anti-freedom policies like gun control and group rights." He even shows that conservatives - and therefore the NRA, since the book's implication is they are one and the same - link feminism to communism.
Gun Crusaders also confronts the attitudes of the NRA members he interviews towards homosexuality, which according to Melzer is seen as a direct affront to frontier masculinity. Through his various interviews Melzer establishes that all NRA members dislike homosexuals and the homosexual lifestyle, to the extent that Zach, one of the critical mass members states, "When I think about two guys going to bed together in the sack it makes me sick," while another conflates homosexuality with liberalism and affirmative action. These statements are of course almost immediately qualified by stating that though the members of the NRA as a whole hate gays, certain members he interviewed take a more libertarian view - which conveniently fits into his frontier masculinity thesis - that so long as they are not exposed to homosexuality it is tolerable.
While Gun Crusaders makes valid points about frontier masculinity and its importance to the members of the NRA the book is really about the political and social opinions of these committed gun owners, with masculinity playing a strong, but not central role. No matter how hard Melzer tries to link the members he has interviewed to John Wayne fantasies of masculinity, the link is not strong enough to prove his initial assertion that the NRA is an avenue for men to engage in identity politics centred around their fear of "... loss of status, power and identity to other social groups (such as women)."
The worst part of Gun Crusaders is that Melzer in his zeal to denounce the NRA and gun-rights supporters as anti-gay, racist, neo-conservative, rural, and radical - see critical mass member Ben's "blueprint for dealing with al Qaeda leader... Osama bin Laden" - he uses a "straw man" argument style. While he uses a very creative way to build his "straw man," letting the characterisations of liberals and non-believers by his interviewers do most of the work for him, it is none the less a flawed structure of argument. Though it is entirely likely that all of those he interviewed subscribe to the positions they espoused, the way in which Melzer compiled the book makes all NRA members seem like caricatures. He never truly takes the time to present a balanced view of those he interviewed - and through a very obvious logical leap all NRA members - and instead just presents them as one-dimensional extremist gun crusaders.
Looking specifically at Melzer's research methods - as outlined in the appendix of Gun Crusaders - another flaw of the book becomes readily apparent, sampling biases. Scott Melzer used three main methods of acquiring the information necessary to write this book, he used official United States government documents on demographics, Official NRA documents, and personal interactions with the NRA (including, but not limited to attending meetings and interviewing members). While the data received from the official government documents is above reproach, the documents Melzer chose to highlight the extremism of the NRA bias his research. By consciously choosing to use America's First Freedom - the most radical NRA gun rights publication - as his reference for all modern NRA publications Melzer has put undue emphasis on the most radical of all NRA monthlies, and applied said traits to his characterisation of the entire organisation.
The previously noted flaws of Gun Crusaders notwithstanding Melzer does an excellent job explaining the political power of the National Rifle Association and its methods of fundraising. By showing how the NRA attracts firearms enthusiasts through various means, and then keeps them in a constant state of fear, Gun Crusaders aptly outlines how a social movement organisation (SMO) of 4 million people can lobby more effectively, and more efficiently than oil, alcohol and tobacco lobbies. By showing that the true political power of the NRA does not come exclusively from it's political donations, but instead it's 4 million member voting block Melzer shows how the NRA has such an inordinate voice as a lobby group.
Gun Crusaders, while entertaining, fails to prove its thesis sufficiently, is rife with generalisations, and sampling biases rots its foundation of research. Though its explanation of how the NRA as an organisation operates in regard to political mobilisation is excellent, it is not enough to make up for the books numerous and frequent flaws.
2 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
This book is junk
By Alexey
It is biased against the NRA - the author is himself on the crusade to ban guns. If you want opinion - there is plenty. If you want analysis - there is none. Choose another book if you want to educate yourself on the subject.
22 of 46 people found the following review helpful.
Albion College should be ashamed
By J. W. R.
This sophomoric book portrays NRA members as homophobic women haters.
I am member of the NRA and an Albion College graduate - now I am embarrassed of the latter.
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