The article titled “Good Guys with Guns: Hegemonic Masculinity and Concealed Handguns” written by Angela Stroud is found in the Gender and Society journal. Stroud (2012) argues that relatively privileged men are most likely to have a license to carry a concealed handgun in public. Stroud (2012) found that men claim they are motivated to carry a concealed handgun by a desire to protect their family, compensate for lost strength as they age, and defend themselves against people and places they perceive as dangerous. These findings suggest that carrying a concealed firearm allows men to identify with masculinity through fantasies of violence and self-defense. The topic of the research is masculinity and its relationship to the reasons men carry concealed handguns. The proposed research questions are, “Why do predominantly males carry concealed handguns? “What do men in Texas state as reasons for carrying a concealed handgun?” and “How does a concealed carry weapon contribute to cultural constructions of masculinity?” The type of data needed to answer this research question are reports of acts, behaviors, events and deeply held opinions and attitudes. The data collection method for this research is in-depth interviews. Stroud (2012) conducted 20 in-depth interviews with men in Texas who currently have a concealed handgun license to understand the relationship between firearms, violence, and masculinity. To develop a sample, Stroud (2012) first contacted concealed handgun licensing instructors. Stroud (2012) utilized snowball sampling because those initial contacts referred her to others. Qualitative data analysis is implemented to discover common trends between the interviewees. Stroud (2012) uses the theory of hegemonic masculinity to guide her research and interview questions. I believe this research is successful because she identifies three common trends between the interviewees and ties it to the wider cultural gender expectation of exerting one’s manhood. However, I wish Stroud (2012) interviewed more than 20 people to ensure that all viewpoints are captured. An interesting aspect of this research is the choice to include an analysis of the NRA (National Rifle Association) to examine the ways in which the magazine relays stories of the avoidance of violent crime through a heroic private gun owner.

Stroud, A. (2012). Good Guys with Guns: Hegemonic Masculinity and Concealed  Handguns. Gender & Society, 26(2), 216-238.

The article titled “Sexuality and School Shootings” by Jessie Klein is found in the Journal of Homosexuality. Klein (2006) argues that conventional explanations of lenient gun control laws, media violence, and single parents do not adequately explain school shootings. Klein (2006) suggests that a certain type of bullying called gay harassment is the common pattern in those that perpetrate school shootings. The perpetrators were relentlessly and repeatedly accused by “preps and jocks” of being gay. When boys believe they warrant privilege, and are instead harassed, they may feel driven to avenge the perceived wrong to reclaim a more dominant, powerful, and aggressive masculinity. The topic of this research is bullying, in the specific form of gay harassment, and its relation to school shootings. The proposed research questions by Klein (2006) are, “Is there textual evidence in press reports that characterize the ways in which perpetrators experienced bullying in the form of gay harassment?” and “What interventions can be implemented to end the ongoing vicious cycle of bullying and retaliation rooted in masculine expectations?” The type of data needed for this research is hidden social patterns. The data collection method is content analysis because the researcher analyzes press reports, televised news reports, radio reports, newspapers, and online news sources. Klein (2006) examines these texts to identify patterns in the way the gay harassment phenomenon is portrayed. The data analysis method employed is thematic analysis because the researcher focuses on common patterns between the perpetrators to trace relationships and tie the findings to a wider social trend of hyper-masculinity. This research successfully describes gay harassment in the wider social context of gender expectations placed on young boys. Normalized masculinity places high expectations for boys to display violence, aggression, and dominance. An interesting aspect of this research is the inclusion of the perpetrators’ claims that the adults in the community were aware of the constant ostracizing and harassment by the more powerful students. Therefore, the perpetrators believed the adults contributed to their marginalization. I appreciate that the researcher suggested solutions to gay harassment, such as anti-bullying programs, sexual orientation workshops, school-based support, classroom panel discussions, mediation, and violence intervention.

Klein, J. (2006). Sexuality and School Shootings: What role does teasing play in school      massacres?. Journal of Homosexuality, 51(4), 39-62.

The article titled “School Shootings as Organizational Deviance” by Cybelle Fox and David Harding is found in the Sociology of Education journal. Fox and Harding argue that rampage school shootings in American public schools can be understood as instances of organizational deviance. Organizational deviance occurs when organizations do not conform to their goals and expectations, especially anti-bullying policy and awareness, which produces unanticipated and harmful outcomes. The topic of this research is the role of the school administration to recognize troubled and bullied teens to prevent future violence. The proposed research question is, “What role do teachers, administrators, and counselors play in intervention of troubled teenage boys, looking specifically at the schools of Heath and Westside?” “Does an inability to recognize the social and emotional problems of teenage boys by school staff increase the likelihood of future violent rampages?” Fox and Harding draw on qualitative case studies of two schools that experienced shootings to show the ways in which the organizational structure, environment, and culture of these schools led to a lack of recognition of socially and emotionally troubled teenage boys. The researchers aim to understand the causes of each shooting, suggest measures to prevent school shootings, and to understand how the communities were affected by these events. The type of data needed to answer this research question are acts/behaviors/events and reports of acts/behaviors/events. The data collection method involves fieldwork such as participant observation and interviews with the community members. Once the tape-recorded formal interviews were transcribed, in combination with notes from observations, the researchers analyze the data through thematic analysis. Coding is then utilized to sort out the discovered patterns to find underlying themes. This research successfully calls for a policy change to provide teachers with better training on the warning signs of students with social and emotional problems. It is an interesting fact that schools tend to center their focus on students with overt and disruptive behavioral and academic problems, rather than students suffering with social and emotional issues. The teachers must communicate their concerns with one another so that students with social and emotional problems can be identified and receive the guidance they need.

Fox, C., & Harding, D. J. (2005). School Shootings as Organizational Deviance. Sociology of       Education, 78(1), 69-97.

The proposal titled “An Investigation of Guns, Masculinity, and Nationalism” is written by Professor Bill Rocque of the University of Redlands staff. The purpose of this study is to examine gun enthusiasm and gun culture and their relationship to masculinity and nationalism in the United States. Professor Rocque also aims to better understand the ways in which guns are important in the lives of the people who own and use them, the meanings people make from guns and shooting, as well as the ways in which guns function in discourses at the center on freedom, democracy, and citizenship. Professor Rocque also examines gun violence and the regulative attempts that raise important sociopolitical issues. The research on gun ownership and gun shooting provides an exploration of this largely male practice. The topic of this research is connecting guns, masculinity, and nationalism to the political, legal, and social debate. Professor Rocque provides several research questions, such as “How do boys and men use guns to construct themselves as men, and what social, emotional, and psychological payoffs are there for them in the process?”, “What are the narratives that circulate in American culture about guns, freedom, manhood, safety, and power?”, “How do these narratives contribute to the construction of a national manhood?”, among a few others about gun violence, gender, and gun regulations.

The type of data needed to answer these research questions are acts/behaviors/events, reports of acts/behavior/events, deeply held opinions and attitudes, and cultural knowledge. These data types show that qualitative methods are employed to assess the symbolic and material relationships between guns, masculinity, and nationalism in the United States. The data collection methods that are essential for this research are in-depth interviews, participant observation, and discourse analysis. Professor Rocque attends gun shows, shoots at ranges, enrolls in gun training courses, and discusses guns with owners of gun related businesses. He engages in the gun culture in the most common ways that gun enthusiasts in America do today. Since he aims to describe a particular population of people, namely males and gun owners, the research requires a non-random sample. To recruit participants, he utilizes snowball sampling methods, internet, email, telephone, and in-person solicitation. The data analysis method employed in this research is coding. Professor Rocque aims to internally code the interview transcripts to identify patterns that the interviewees describe as pertinent. Along with internal coding, Professor Rocque analyzes cultural texts such as social media, films, magazine articles, and websites to contextualize the interview data.

I think this research is well-thought out and successfully utilizes various data types to provide extensive background on the topic of guns, masculinity, and nationalism. Since Professor Rocque is using multiple data types and data collection methods, the research may take a significant amount of time to complete. I think it is interesting that his goal is to help gender theorists better understand the processes of masculinity, role of guns and media in these processes, and the connection between masculinity and violence. If we can improve understanding about gender construction of boys and men who engage in gun violence, then we might eventually reduce it.

The article titled “Adolescent Masculinity, Homophobia, and Violence” by Michael Kimmel and Matthew Mahler can be found in the American Behavioral Scientist journal. The article discusses the 28 random school shootings from 1982-2001 and describes the overall patterns the authors collected from the research. They discovered that most of the boys who opened fire were mercilessly and routinely teased and bullied, the violence was retaliatory against the threats of manhood, more white young boys opened fire, and the specific content of the teasing and bullying is homophobia. The topic of the article is the relationship between masculinity, bullying, and violence. The proposed research question by the authors is “How does gender and homophobia contribute to mass school shootings perpetrated by males?” Since the researchers wanted to discover the relationship between masculinity and homophobia to violent school shootings, the logical structure of this research is ex post facto. The researchers are seeking the causes of violent mass shootings and use existing data to answer their research question. The researchers use multiple types of data to demonstrate how bullying affects a young boy’s masculinity, such as demographic data and survey data. They use aggregate data to portray that school shootings do not occur uniformly or evenly in the U.S., proving that school shootings are not a national trend. The researchers use survey data to show that students suggest that peer harassment is the most significant cause of school shootings. To understand the causes, the researchers suggest that gun culture, local school culture, and local gender culture must be examined. To analyze culture, the type of data needed is hidden social patterns. An analysis of secondary media reports, such as weekly news magazines and daily newspapers was conducted to discover social and cultural patterns in the lives of the perpetrators. The data collection methods of content and discourse analysis are necessary to discover the pattern of bullying and the role masculinity plays in young boys’ lives. The data analysis method is thematic analysis and coding because the researchers analyze different forms of media to trace the relationships and tie them to wider social patterns. I think this research successfully supports the claim of the researchers that being constantly threatened, bullied, and the desire to regain their manhood, by using more than one type of data. An interesting aspect of this research is the identification that media influence, drugs and alcohol, Internet usage, father absence, and parental neglect show weak or no correlation to violent school shootings.

Kimmel, M. S., & Mahler, M. (2003). Adolescent Masculinity, Homophobia, and Violence           Random School Shootings, 1982-2001. American Behavioral Scientist, 46(10), 1439 1458.

The article titled “Suicide by mass murder: Masculinity, aggrieved entitlement, and rampage school shootings” by Rachel Kalish and Michael Kimmel is found in the Health Sociology Review journal. Kalish and Kimmel state that school shootings typically culminate in suicide and are almost universally committed by males. Kalish and Kimmel examine three recent American cases of rampage school shootings that involve suicide to exemplify how the culture of masculinity creates a sense of aggrieved entitlement that is conducive to violence. Aggrieved entitlement is defined by Kalish and Kimmel as a gendered emotion that centers around the loss of manhood and the moral entitlement to gain it back and seek revenge. The topic of the research is masculinity and its relation to rampage school shootings. The research question Kalish and Kimmel pose is, “How does the culture of masculinity in the U.S. create a sense of entitlement that is conducive to violence?” A case study would successfully answer this research question because the researchers investigate specific examples to show the social factors present in a particular population. The type of data needed for this research are reports of acts, behaviors, events and hidden social patterns to describe the school shootings and how the social factor of a threatened masculinity contributes to violence. The data collection method involves discourse analysis because the researchers examine news magazines and major daily newspapers to reveal the ways in which the perpetrators are shaped by systems of social and cultural power. The data analysis method utilized by Kalish and Kimmel is thematic analysis. Thematic analysis focuses on the themes to find relationships between bullying and violence and tie them to the wider social pattern of a threatened masculinity and rampage school shootings. This qualitative method of research is helpful for my own research on this topic and successfully depicts the social and cultural pressures that males face. The most interesting part of this research is the pattern that depicts how most of the school shootings perpetrated by males had stories of being constantly bullied, beaten up, and labelled homosexual.

 Kalish, R. & Kimmel, M. (2010). Suicide by mass murder: masculinity, aggrieved   entitlement,      and rampage school shootings. Health Sociology Review, 19 (4), 451-464.

The article I found is titled “The Poetics of a School Shooter: Decoding Political Signification in Cho Seung-Hui’s Multimedia Manifesto” by Edward J. Carvalho. This article is published in The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies journal. The topic centers around the Virginia Tech school shooting and the social, political, and cultural factors involved. The research question is “What socioeconomic factors contributed to Cho Seung-Hui’s violent response at Virginia Tech, including the creation of his manifesto?” The article discusses Cho Seung-Hui’s familial background of emigration and how the class tensions led to his identity formation, isolation, alienation, bullying, and rage. His manifesto illustrates the failure of society to listen and understand the disaffected youths. This research question requires descriptive research to understand the dynamics of the situation and to describe the event in detail. A case study was utilized by Carvalho to focus on the details and examine a single instance to shed light on a wider social trend. Since the research requires the understanding of how general social processes work in a particular setting, the type of data utilized by Carvalho are reports of acts, behaviors, events and hidden social patterns. The data collection methods of content and discourse analysis provide an examination of the text in the manifesto, interviews, and other media sources to identify patterns in the way the violent act is portrayed to analyze the implicit cultural assumptions. The way the interviewees and Cho-Seung-Hui himself describe the violent act reveal how Cho-Seung-Hui is shaped by systems of social and political power. Therefore, the data collection sites include Cho Seung-Hui’s 23-page PDF manifesto, follow-up reports, televised interviews, documentaries, and other mainstream media sources. The research suggests that the data analysis method is coding because the researcher analyzes interviews and transcripts to discover patterns. I think the research is thorough and provides a detailed account of the factors that led Cho Seung-Hui to commit a tremendously violent act. It is interesting that Carvalho attempts to apply social and cultural logical to a seemingly indiscriminate and illogical action.

Carvalho, E.J. (2010). The Poetics of a School Shooter: Decoding Political Signification in Cho Seung-Hui’s Multimedia Manifesto. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural    Studies, 32(4-5), 403-430. Doi:10.1080/10714413.2010.510355.

The article I found is titled Examining Student Responses to Frequent Bullying: A Latent Class Approach by Tracy Evian Waasdorp and Catherine P. Bradshaw. This article is published in the Journal of Educational Psychology. The article discusses bullying and the ways in which students respond to frequent victimization by peers. The study explores whether there are groups of children who display similar patterns of responses to constant bullying. An examination of the patterns of responding, characteristics of victimization, and internalizing or externalizing symptoms are interpreted through data from 4,312 frequently victimized middle school and high school students. The research topic centers around the responses to bullying, while the research question of “Are there similar patterns of responses of bullying based on characteristics of the victimization?” focuses on the specific and patterned responses of frequent victimization. This study requires descriptive research because the study focuses on events occurring in a school to understand what is happening, how it is happening, and how those involved explain the event. The type of data needed for this study is shallow opinions and attitudes because an anonymous online survey is the data collection method of the bullying in a Maryland school district. Students responded to select questions so the researchers could investigate whether students externalized or internalized their problems, evaluate the extent and frequency of victimization, and interpret whether the forms of victimization were direct or indirect. The data collection site is both the sample and the population. I found this type of research to be thorough and detailed. The study successfully investigated the responses of bullying and found four common patterns of responses, which are passive and low, active and support-seeking, aggressive, and undifferentiated. I think the choice to research those who are victimized rather than the perpetrators of the bullying behavior are note-worthy aspects of the research because the study aims to identify improved coping strategies for those experiencing victimization.

Waasdorp, T.E. & Bradshaw, C.P. (2011). Examining Student Responses to Frequent Bullying:     A Latent Class Approach. Journal of Educational Psychology, 103(2), 336-352.