The Equalizer? Crime, Vulnerability, and Gender in Pro-Gun Discourse

Alongside literature on how crime and crime control reproduce racial inequality, less attention has been paid to how the social construction of crime reproduces masculine privilege. To address this gap, I examine 71 interviews with gun carriers. While gun carriers actively promote guns to women, they tend to assume a masculine perspective on crime by emphasizing fast, warlike violence perpetrated by strangers-the kinds of crime men, as opposed to women, are likely to face. Extending theories of vulnerability to gun politics, I argue that the social construction of crime is a key vehicle through which gender is reproduced.