I have taught my Sociology of Guns seminar at Wake Forest University once per year for nine consecutive years. I don’t have the actual number of students who have ever taken the course handy, but it is about 150. I currently have over 250 people signed up for a free public webinar version of the course I am offering this spring, which is incredible!
Below are some bullet points about the course – which I am calling “Ten Essential Observations on Guns in America” – followed by an explanation of the course syllabus (which you can view online here). A “Light Over Heat” YouTube video that covers the syllabus in more detail can also be found below.
BULLET POINTS:
- FREE. No tuition.
- No assignments, no homework, no grades
- Live (synchronous) and recorded (asynchronous) viewing options
- There is a syllabus, but webinar attendees are not expected to do the readings suggested. These are made available for those interested, but my job as webinar presenter is to make sense of those readings.
- Webinar will be presented on 7 Mondays beginning on March 25th from 6:00p to 7:00p Eastern time.
- I will try to take Q&A live but with over 200 people registered already, I am not sure exactly how to manage that.
Use this registration link to sign up for the Webinar, even if you cannot attend live. Registering will give you access to a recording of the weekly sessions to view at your leisure.
View this YouTube video for course highlights and a walkthrough of the course syllabus:
Gun Culture 2.0 
Great first session!
You noted that ‘safety’ was prominent in the word cloud. It was one of my six words and, while safe handling of firearms is extremely important, I meant the safety my guns provide me.
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Thanks. Prepping for session #2 tonight. I understood safety largely to be connected with self-defense/protection, but some of it also (hopefully) connected with the responsibility term that also (thankfully) showed up in the word cloud!
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Yes, my GF selected ‘safety’ as meaning safe handling. I’d wager ‘responsibility’ also meant safe handling & storage for some, but for others, taking personal responsibility for one’s general safety.
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