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Abstract:
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Abstract : This dissertation explores how cultural meanings around race , class , and gender shape concealed handgun licensing in Texas . This project utilizes in -depth interviews with 36 concealed handgun license holders and field observations at licensing courses and gun ranges to understand why people get a license , what their gun carrying practices are , and how they imagine criminal threat and self -defense . Through my analysis of interviews , I find that masculinity is central to how men become gun users and why they want to obtain a concealed handgun license . Women explain their desire for a CHL as rooted in feelings of empowerment . While traditional conceptions of “fear of crime” are not a motivating factor for most of the license holders I interviewed , I find that CHL holders feel vulnerable to potential crime because they assume that criminals are armed . These interviews also suggest that perceptions of criminality are highly racialized , as predominantly black spaces are marked as threatening . As I argue , part of the appeal of concealed handgun licenses is that they signify to those who have them that they are the embodiment of personal responsibility . |