Connie Hassett-Walker - Guns on the Internet: Online Gun Communities, First Amendment Protections, and the Search for Common Ground on Gun Control

This book makes a strikingly original contribution to the growing, inter-disciplinary, field of firearm/gun studies, providing fascinating insights into the pro-gun and anti-gun mindsets whilst also showing how these might be systematically researched on websites and social media. The book also takes up the vital question of public safety and 1st Amendment freedoms as they relate to online gun talk.

Gun rights and control are well-trodden subjects, with prior work supporting the right of citizens to own firearms, discussing the failure of gun control efforts, or warning about or exhorting citizen gun ownership, among other things. Although social media in their many forms have only come to dominate modern U.S. life during the past decade, there has been little academic exploration of gun owner communities on the Internet and social media. How do gun owners use social media? How do they meet other gun owners online? What do they talk about as relates to guns? With a massive and well-organized collection of support material, Guns on the Internet faces these questions with an unbiased approach that seeks a foundation for mutual understanding. The book delves into the question of whether gun-related content on social media platforms should receive free speech protection under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and explores the possibility of using social media to reach common ground between gun rights and gun control supporters.

Guns on the Internet is suitable for students in both undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in criminology and criminal justice as well as those interested in cultural and social movements studies in a more global context.

Connie Hassett-Walker is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. She holds a PhD in Criminal Justice from Rutgers University (2007). Her dissertation (Delinquency and the Black Middle Class) was awarded second place by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) for the 2006 Social Issues Dissertation Award. Prior to joining the faculty at Kean University, Dr. Hassett-Walker worked as a research associate at the Violence Institute of New Jersey at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now Rutgers University). In 2012, she received an AREA grant from the National Institutes of Health to examine the impact of justice system involvement on youths substance use trajectories. Her research has been published in a variety of scholarly journals including the Journal of Developmental and Life- Course Criminology, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, and the Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice. Her first book, Black Middle Class Delinquents, was published in 2009 by LFB Scholarly Publishing.

GUNS ON THE INTERNET

Online Gun Communities, First Amendment Protections, and the Search for Common Ground on Gun Control

Connie Hassett-Walker

First published 2019

by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

and by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

2019 Taylor & Francis

The right of Connie Hassett-Walker to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Names: Hassett-Walker, Connie R., 1969- author.

Title: Guns on the Internet : online gun communities, First Amendment protections, and the search for common ground on gun control / Connie Hassett-Walker.

Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018008075 (print) | LCCN 2018012710 (ebook) | ISBN 9780429486661 (master) | ISBN 9781138598010 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138598034 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Firearms ownershipUnited States. | InternetSocial aspectsUnited States. | Gun controlUnited States.

Classification: LCC HV7436 (ebook) | LCC HV7436 .H376 2018 (print) | DDC 363.330973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018008075

ISBN: 978-1-138-59801-0 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-59803-4 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-48666-1 (ebk)

Writing this book has been a labor of love, frustration, despair, joy, and a variety of other emotions, and has taken more than half a decade from start to finish. Completing the book would not have been possible without the assistance of some key folks to whom I am very grateful. First, I would like to thank my parents, Dr. Constance Hassett and Dr. James Richardson, for their feedback on the initial proposal for this book. A big thanks is also owed to Dr. Christopher Bellitto historian extraordinaire, author, colleague, friend for his feedback on my revised book proposal as well as guidance on the process of publishing a book. I am also very grateful to colleague and dear friend Thomas A. Lateano, J.D., M.S., for his legal expertise, careful read, and feedback on Part II of the book. The staff at Routledge/Taylor & Francis are thanked particularly Editor Ellen Boyne, Editorial Assistant Pam Chester, and Production Editor Dominic Corti for their belief in this book and assistance in bringing it to fruition. Thanks to Alison Neale for her detailed copy-edits. I am grateful to the anonymous reviewers of the draft manuscript, whose identities I dont know. Their careful read and feedback greatly improved the book. My thanks also go to Andrew Walker for his ongoing enthusiasm for the project and tireless explanations of gun-related particulars. Finally, although they were unaware of their assistance, I am grateful to all the gun owners who opened up a window to their world via their social media postings and videos.