Summary
Guns: Laurie Taylor talks to Jennifer Carlson, Professor of Sociology at Arizona State University and author of an in depth study of gun sellers in the US. In 2020 they were on the front line of an unprecedented surge in gun purchasing against a backdrop of pandemic insecurities and political polarisation. Interviewing 50 sellers from four states, 84% of whom were on the right of the political spectrum, she found they were not simply selling guns, but also a conservative vision. How then did they react to a new wave of gun buyers which included women and sexual minorities, some of whom were liberal? Did this vindicate or challenge their gun centric world view? And what are the possibilities for a positive transformation in America's harmful gun culture when only one third of the population are opposed to the personal ownership of hand guns? They're joined by Andrew Nahum, historian & Keeper Emeritus at The Science Museum whose latest work considers the impact of the gun on progress, both intellectual and industrial, from the Enlightenment to the American West, the Cold War and contemporary gun culture. How did so many rifles come to be held in private hands and what does the ongoing preoccupation with the creation of ever more effective firearms tell us about human creativity?
Producer: Jayne Egerton
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of |
| 0:07.0 | Happiness Podcast. |
| 0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
| 0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
| 0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
| 0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
| 0:25.4 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.3 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:36.7 | This is a Thinking Loud Podcasts from the BBC and for more details and much, much more about thinking aloud, go to our website at BBC.co. UK. |
| 0:47.0 | Hello, isn't it strange and not a little frightening how some utterly mundane images can stick in your mind |
| 0:54.5 | when they are associated with greater tragedies. But one such image which I can |
| 0:59.2 | never manage to forget is the 43 year old local shopkeeper called Thomas Hamilton, busying himself with |
| 1:06.7 | scraping ice off the windows of his van before setting off to kill 16 school children and one teacher in what remains the deadliest |
| 1:16.7 | mass shooting in British history. |
| 1:19.3 | Yes, Dunblane, 1996. At least my memories of that day have always been tempered by the news |
| 1:26.4 | that it was the Dunblane massacre which finally pushed the country to enact |
| 1:31.1 | even stricter gun laws. |
| 1:33.0 | Strict enough to ensure that the level of gun violence in Britain is now said to be |
| 1:37.5 | one of the lowest in the world. |
| 1:40.0 | One source estimates that the UK has 5.03 guns for every 100 people. |
| 1:47.3 | In the US, the figure is 120 guns per 100 people. |
| 1:55.0 | And it is that latter statistic, that extraordinary statistic that will stay in my head as I now talk to Jennifer Carlson who is professor of |
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