Guns on campus: An autoethnography of “concealed carry” policies

Abstract

In the United States, school shootings are a common social problem and frequently occur on both K-12 and college campuses. High profile school shootings have resulted in a growing number of state governments legalizing “concealed carry” on college campuses, increasing the presence of guns in classrooms. This research study employs qualitative autoethnography to present the author's experiences teaching on a campus where concealed carry was implemented in 2014. Through autoethnographic narratives, the author describes her lived experiences. This paper analyses these narratives using intersectional feminist theory and situates the narratives within the broader socio-cultural context of gun culture in the Pacific Northwestern USA. The author spent four years immersed in the culture of concealed carry, and has written multiple narratives detailing these experiences. Two narratives are presented in this work. Important findings in this work include examinations of: how the presence of guns in college classrooms shapes power dynamics; the use of fear-based curricula in active-shooter survival trainings; the cultural construction of the “good guy with a gun”; and the implications of the author's positionalities within gun culture. This research study encourages the reader to engage with and learn from the lived experiences of the author.