Antagonisms and the Discursive Sedimentation of American Gun Culture

Abstract

This article offers a new critical viewpoint of American gun culture through the use of political discourse theory. I argue that the historical evolvement and position of guns in the United States has coincided alongside a process of discursive sedimentation. The latter has fostered a contradictory antagonistic relationship which hitherto, has not been properly accounted for by scholars and activists. Specifically, this antagonism is indicative of a binary relationship that exists between a notion of socio-political freedom and its discursively relational opposites, slavery, anarchy, and tyranny. Concepts taken from discourse theory are applied to examine this antagonistic relationship. This is followed by a proposal to incorporate nonviolence into debates on gun reform.