Called to arms: the NRA, the gun culture & women

ABSTRACT

The National Rifle Association (NRA) faces a challenge in its battle to expand the gun culture: incorporating women. While NRA content aimed at women once focused on self-defense, recent communications materials have shifted toward recreational shooting and hunting. How can we understand this shift? How does the NRA use narrative to challenge gender ideologies that discourage women’s participation in the gun culture? Drawing on the Narrative Policy Framework, this paper presents a thematic analysis of three NRATV programs. It argues that the gun culture is a source of support that the NRA draws upon to achieve its primary policy goal of expanding access to firearms. The organization mobilizes narratives that frame participation in the gun culture as both enjoyable and empowering for women in order to overcome barriers posed by masculinist norms. This case study has theoretical implications for our understanding of the connection between collective actors, cultures, and policy.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• narrative
• culture
• firearms policy
• National Rifle Association

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Noah S. Schwartz

Noah S. Schwartz is a PhD candidate in Political Science specializing in Public Policy and Administration. His dissertation work focuses on how collective actors mobilize culture, history and memory for political purposes, with a specific focus on firearms policy. His broader research interests include the gun-rights movement, firearms policy and American Politics.