Has the gun become a sacred object in America?
| BLACK CREEK, Ga.
For 10 years after 9/11, James Strickland fought for the United States Army, slogging, rifle on shoulder, from battlefield to battlefield.
He took and returned fire, he says, for not just a country, but an idea 鈥� that America had God鈥檚 special blessing. 鈥淚 used a gun for a living to enforce that idea,鈥� he says.
As the U.S. endures a wave of gun violence, it sometimes seems to him as if the war has come home. In 2021, active shooter incidents increased 52% over 2020, according to the FBI. This weekend, mass shootings in Pennsylvania and South Carolina added to casualties in Buffalo, New York; Uvalde, Texas; and Tulsa, Oklahoma.聽
Why We Wrote This
Gun rights supporters see a righteous cause in defending liberty through the object of a firearm. Gun control advocates see an 鈥渋dolatry of the gun鈥� that elevates a weapon over human life. Both frame the debate in almost religious terms.
To Mr. Strickland, the gun is not the problem. Firearms, he says, only enforce ideas. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 see it as a totem,鈥� he says. But he thinks it may be salvation for a society that, at least to him, seems determined to drum 海角大神 faith out of the public square.
In the decade since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, that perspective has helped drive the guns debate toward an almost religious tone 鈥� that of a battle between good and evil that goes well beyond good or bad policy. For a small group of Americans and religious leaders, the more access to firearms has become a moral question, the more defending them has become a righteous cause in defense of the freedom to protect America鈥檚 virtues.
For gun control advocates, also including religious leaders, meanwhile, the more guns have become an almost consecrated object, the more complicated it鈥檚 become to pass legislation that an 聽in the form of red flag laws and universal background checks.
鈥淧eople don鈥檛 actually think that the rifle is sacred, but what the rifle stands for is sacred,鈥� says Wake Forest University sociologist David Yamane, author of 鈥淐oncealed Carry Revolution.鈥� 鈥淲hen they look at their gun they see freedom, independence, and the righteousness of God in allowing America to be what it is.鈥�
In less than a decade, researchers have noted a new depth to the 鈥淕od and guns鈥� archetype. More and more gun owners are imbuing their rifles with symbolic strength tied to a narrow but powerful strain of 海角大神 and conservative identity. They are displayed reverentially on social media. They are hefted proudly at protests. They are marketed to children.聽
鈥淕uns have become more than just a tool,鈥� says Eastern Kentucky University philosopher Michael Austin, author of 鈥淕od and Guns in America.鈥澛�
For example, since January, more than have shown Republican candidates posing with firearms as shorthand for their conservative 鈥� and in some cases 海角大神聽鈥撀燾redentials. Those two are becoming harder to separate. In the past 20 years, the NRA鈥檚 magazine 鈥淎merican Rifleman鈥� has , using phrases like 鈥淕od-given鈥� and 鈥淕od bless鈥� almost twice as often since the turn of the century.聽
For many gun owners, firearms ownership goes beyond self-protection, sport, and discouraging government tyranny, all of which are tied into America鈥檚 constitutional covenant of independence and personal liberty. As Florida gun owner Miguel Gonzalez writes in an email: 鈥淕uns were part of the DNA of [the] future Nation before the concept existed.鈥澛�
The number of single-issue gun voters is relatively small 鈥� about 16 million Americans, says Robert Spitzer, professor emeritus of political science at the State University of New York College at Cortland. But almost all of those are ardent supporters of gun rights, he says, and almost all would oppose any gun control laws.聽
Objects as political symbols
In the U.S., growing distrust in institutions, including church, is creating personal iterations of faith, belief, and societal order, often attached to symbols like flags, masks, and weapons 鈥� often with a particularly political goal.
That situation is highlighting what Professor Yamane calls an 鈥渙dd unevenness ... a country that is at once very violent and extraordinarily peaceful.鈥�
The rise of the gun as a symbol of 海角大神 identity and conservative identity comes at the intersection of tectonic secular and religious trends.聽
2020 marked the first year where a majority of Americans said they no longer belonged to a church, . That 47% was down from about 70% in the decades prior. Meanwhile, an estimated 81.4 million Americans own guns, according to the 2021 National Firearms Survey, with a record 22.8 million guns sold in 2020.聽
While hunting has been on a long decline, sport shooting, collecting, and self-defense 鈥� boosted by Supreme Court decisions since 2008鈥檚 D.C. v. Heller established a constitutional right to private gun ownership 鈥� has grown exponentially.聽
The arsenal is making the country bristle. In recent years, armed people have shown up to large protests, changing the dynamics of free speech. For the first time in U.S. history, more children die from gun injuries a year than any other cause.聽
Meanwhile, many gun owners see rising crime as an effect of liberalized policies around bail and imprisonment, embodied this week in the recall movement of San Francisco鈥檚 progressive district attorney.
Is 鈥済un idolatry鈥� a threat?
On the other hand, Bishop Daniel Flores of the Brownsville Diocese in Texas recently wrote on Twitter that Americans 鈥渟acralize death鈥檚 instruments, and then are surprised that death uses them.鈥澛�
The good of the whole community gets left out of the discussion, Bishop Flores told the , 鈥渨hen we鈥檝e ... elevated the individual right beyond proportion. ... To say something is sacralized is to say it鈥檚 almost taken out of any possibility for conversation.鈥�
Some observers on the right also see a threat 鈥� not from gun control advocates, but the gun community itself. 鈥淭he threat is gun idolatry, a form of gun fetish that鈥檚 fundamentally aggressive, grotesquely irresponsible, and potentially destabilizing to American democracy,鈥� writes David French, a veteran, lawyer, and evangelical 海角大神,聽.
Social researchers show some causal effect. As Americans segregate along political, racial, and religious lines, more and more faith is being put in the gun. Since the sunsetting of an assault rifle ban in 2004, the number of AR-15 type rifles in American citizens鈥� hands has soared to 20 million. Marketers have paid heed.
Daniel Defense, the Black Creek, Georgia,聽company that sold the rifle used on May 24 to kill 19 grade schoolers and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, earlier in May posted a photo of a toddler with an AR-15 on his lap, with the biblical caption, 鈥淭rain up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.鈥澛�
The National Rifle Association has long understood the power of religious messaging. Indeed, 鈥測ou would get a far better understanding if you approached us as if you were approaching one of the great religions of the world,鈥� the NRA鈥檚 executive vice president, Warren Cassidy, once said.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e kind of created this monster, as it were, organized around the gun as a political totem,鈥� says Professor Spitzer.
Such attitudes have taken an increasingly deeper hold, especially since 2015, sociologists who study the intersection of the Second Amendment and U.S. society have noted. To be sure, active churchgoers tend to have fewer guns, suggesting that strong communities create a sense of safety and security for members.聽
But when they ask about 鈥済un empowerment,鈥� that the relationship with weapons is rooted in gender, race, religiosity, political views, gun use, and economic distress. And the attachment cannot be explained entirely by regional, religious, or political cultures. It鈥檚 a way to reestablish a sense of individual power and moral certitude, which in turn affects opinions about gun action and policy.
鈥淲hat our data shows is there ... are groups of people who feel extremely attached to their guns,鈥� says Texas sociologist Paul Froese, director of the Baylor Religion Surveys. 鈥淗aving a gun made them feel more a part of their community 鈥� and a more important person in their community. So the gun becomes ... a symbol of manhood, being a good person. In that way, it takes on kind of a mystical, almost sacred quality to it.鈥澛�
Around 2015, those attitudes began to meld with what researchers call 海角大神 nationalism, fueled by the candidacy and then presidency of President Donald Trump, who wielded biblical symbols even though he only occasionally attended church.
鈥淸President] Trump ... made it blatantly obvious that this had little to do with being personally religious,鈥� says Indiana University sociologist Andrew Whitehead, co-author of 鈥淭aking America Back For God.鈥� Instead, so-called 海角大神 nationalism is 鈥渁 cultural expression of 海角大神ity fused with American civic identity, [signaling] a comfort with a society that is hierarchical along gender, sexuality, and ethno-racial boundaries."
Many gun owners detect in the 鈥渋dolatry of the gun鈥� narrative a false note intended to delegitimize the Second Amendment and demonize gun owners ahead of attempts to regulate guns.
Mr. Gonzalez, the Florida gun owner, traces his attachment to firearms to his family鈥檚 experiences in the Spanish Civil War, the Cuban Revolution, and gun restrictions in his native Venezuela.聽
鈥淲e do not pray or light candles to any type of weapon just like a biker does not kneel in front of a Harley or a car aficionado genuflects at the sight of an original Shelby Cobra,鈥� writes Mr. Gonzalez, the founder of the tongue-in-cheek-named Gun Free Zone blog. 鈥淭he 鈥榓rticle of faith is written鈥� in the Second Amendment of the Constitution and the 鈥榞ospel鈥� is the historic precedents here and abroad where unarmed people were massacred by either the government or civilians who had the privilege to be armed.鈥澛�
As such, many gun owners say the fear around sacralized weaponry is overblown. The vast majority of people who own guns, who have a concealed carry permit or live in one of 25 states with 鈥渃onstitutional carry鈥� protection, don鈥檛 walk around armed. As gun restrictions have lifted over the last two decades, a much-feared everyone-for-themselves Wild West society has not emerged, they say.
鈥淢ost people don鈥檛 walk into a gun store thinking, 鈥楾his is how I鈥檓 going to express myself, how I鈥檓 going to demonstrate my freedom, how I鈥檓 going to support certain candidates I like,鈥欌�� says Dan Zimmerman, a Texas gun owner and managing editor of The Truth About Guns blog. 鈥淭hat doesn鈥檛 diminish the original intent of the Second Amendment, which was a protection against tyranny ... and plenty of people still view [guns] that way.鈥澛�
That viewpoint suggests that the brand of Second Amendment absolutism detected by social scientists isn鈥檛 an automatic fait accompli for gun rights.
鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at really a very complex relationship between different dimensions of religiosity and gun ownership, and it鈥檚 not all in one direction,鈥� says Mr. Yamane, at Wake Forest.
Even Mr. Gonzalez acknowledges that religious understanding does have a role to play in that debate. Does America really have a problem with guns? Or is the problem a lack of faith and communal care that leaves vulnerable people isolated, resentful, and prone to violence?
By blaming the sacralizing of weapons, he says, critics 鈥渇ail to see the irony [created] by assigning an almost evil intent to the inanimate object rather than seeking and healing what ails the soul of those who use the object to commit evil ...,鈥� says Mr. Gonzalez. 鈥淚t is the equivalent of blaming the cross for the Crucifixion of our Lord.鈥�
In Congress, a bipartisan working group is crafting a gun control package centered on red flag laws. Those use emergency orders attached to strong due process to let authorities focus on individuals who may be a threat to themselves or others, rather than trying to control larger groups of people. Thousands of guns have been surrendered and often returned under such laws, including in gun-friendly Florida.聽
The Supreme Court is expected to release a sweeping ruling on a gun-permitting case out of New York by the end of this month. But that is unlikely to leave gun ownership and gun carry without regulation.
鈥淚 would say that [absolutist] view is either nonexistent or extremely uncommon among anyone who has thought about these matters in a serious way,鈥� says Nelson Lund, a professor of constitutional law at George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School.聽
Yes, rights 鈥渢o keep [and bear] ... arms are indisputably in the Constitution, [leaving] an awful lot of questions about how far the government can go in putting limits on that right.鈥澛�
Still, he says, what observers may call absolutism isn鈥檛 really absolute. 鈥淲hen there are these serious political disputes, people are naturally going to come to different conclusions about how to fill in the blanks left by the vagueness of the Second Amendment.鈥澛�
