David Yamane
Connect with David
About David
Yamane is an internationally recognized scholarly authority on guns in America. His research focuses on the evolution of American gun culture toward self-defense, what he calls “Gun Culture 2.0.” Yamane is committed to informing public debate and enriching everyday conversations about guns through his YouTube channel, “Light Over Heat with Professor David Yamane” and his “Light Over Heat” Substack.
Contributions
Guns are Not Just for Conservative White Men
In the News
Publications
Combines personal experience and sociological observation to explain why nearly 100 million American civilians own hundreds of millions of firearms.
Traces the evolution of gun culture from the prehistorical normality and significance of projectile weaponry among Homo sapiens to America's contemporary culture of armed self-defense.
Argues that while a robust culture centered on the legal ownership and use of guns by law-abiding gun owners exists in the United States, there is no sociology of U.S. gun culture. Rather, the social scientific study of guns is dominated by criminological and epidemiological studies of gun violence. Outlines what a sociology of U.S. gun culture should include, tracing its evolution from colonial-era necessity to 20th-century recreation, and now to a modern focus on armed self-defense–termed "Gun Culture 2.0."