This book uses the philosophy of technology to demonstrate that guns are inherently non-neutral artifacts, predisposed for an intentional use. This book offers a nuanced interpretation of gun culture by rejecting the often-cited value-neutral thesis and instrumentalist view that “guns don’t kill people; people kill people”, and instead, explains the lethality of the gun in terms of affordance theory, behavioral design, and choice architecture. In sum, this book reaffirms and further develops the perspective of Bruno Latour, a French philosopher and technology studies scholar, who argued that “You are different with a gun in your hand; the gun is different with you holding it.”
Ch1: The Gun Problem.- Ch2: A Philosophy Of Technology.- Ch3: Chekhovs
Gun.- Ch4: A Violent Nudge.- Ch5: Liberty And Guns.- Ch6: The Future Of The
Gun.
Alan J. Reid is an Associate Professor of First-Year Writing & Instructional Technologies at Coastal Carolina University where he teaches courses in composition, new media, and graduate writing and research. He is also an Evaluation Analyst in the Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University and teaches graduate courses in technology and design for the JHU School of Education.
