Constructing threat and appropriating 'civil rights': Rhetorical strategies of gun rights and English only leaders

Author: Lio S / Melzer S / Reese E
Publication: Symbolic Interaction
Topics: Ownership Social Science
Keywords: American Society CIVIL rights Gun Rights Social Groups Threats
Bibliographic information +

The authors read speeches, letters and columns of National Rifle Association (NRA) leaders (Charlton Heston, Wayne LaPierre) from 1998-2003 looking for themes and codes. The NRA used four main framing strategies: (a) Historical icons and a romanticized past: Patriots and freedom fighters, Founding Fathers, cultural mythology and a frontier version of masculinity; (b) Mobilization of fears (Culture wars and minority threats): Roving gangs of criminals, white racist fears and stereotypes; (c) Self-sufficient citizens versus Big Government: white, frontier masculinity, rugged individualism, independence, freedom from government; (d) Appropriating the mantle of “civil rights”: transforming rural, southern whites into a persecuted minority who belong to the “biggest and oldest civil rights organization in the country,” the NRA.