Why It's OK to Own a Gun

Why Its OK to Own a Gun explores the right to self-defense, but also looks beyond it to what gun ownership fundamentally means in American life. Guns can provide a source of meaning that doesnt depend on how much money you have or how important your job is. Guns can offer a sense of shared identity thats not hung up on intellectual credentials or ideological orthodoxy. For many responsible gun owners, owning a gun is a way of positively reclaiming ones own agency in the world. Its true that guns matter to only a minority of Americans, but the same could be said for many important political liberties. Like freedom of religion and freedom of expression, guns should be on the list of basic rights. In fact, they are: as some in Americas founding generation anticipated, gun rights have offered a bulwark for republican freedom. Because there is nothing morally wrong with any of these values, owning a gun is OK. Key Features: Discusses the grounds of the political rights of gun ownership Connects the debate over guns with the sociology of gun ownership Describes genuinely worthwhile features of a way of life thats unfamiliar to many readers Considers empirical and normative aspects of the gun debate Thinks about individual rights in the context of state power