Researchers tracking US gun trends suggested numerous practical explanations: Perhaps white men in places like Cape Girardeau hunted more often than did other people. Perhaps white men kept firearms because of connections to military service or felt more “comfortable” around guns because they had grown up in households with firearms. Perhaps black communities more likely supported gun control. Or perhaps the trends also symbolized three hundred years of history in which owning firearms and carrying them in public marked a privilege afforded primarily to white men.
