This session is part of a three-session workshop entitled "An Armed Nation versus a Disarmed Continent? Gun Culture and Gun Control in the USA and Europe."

Conventional narratives portray Europe and the United States as the disarmed and the armed continent, respectively. In the early 20th century, however, guns were commonplace in most European countries. The use of guns was a sign of masculinity and helped to enforce male political rights, but in certain societies women began to acquire and use small revolvers for self-defense against sexual assault. Guns were also a very popular tool for many past times, such as hunting or target shooting. Revolvers and pistols were fashionable objects that adults and young people alike wanted to own as a status symbol. Serving in the military and possibly fighting in wars was a way to gain the right to be a citizen, as many voting laws explicitly linked military service to political rights. It could be said, somewhat provocatively, that during the so-called Belle Epoque (1890-1914), Europe was more like certain US states today.

At the same time, the current familiarity of many US citizens with guns was far from natural and ancestral, but the result of a complex historical process in which entrenched habits and attitudes, traditions, and market opportunities interacted to shape a distinctive attitude toward guns.

This session explores from a variety of perspectives the complex, contradictory, and multifaceted relationship between guns and society in two crucial periods of American and European history, from the perspective of their everyday use by “ordinary” citizens. By comparing case studies in pre-1914 Europe and more recent post-1945 US societies, this session examines the interplay between social attitudes, political ideologies, economic factors, and gender dynamics that shaped the perception and use of firearms in civilian life. In fact, the periods considered are much more similar than is usually thought, as both saw limited legal restrictions on the use of firearms, broad social and cultural acceptance, and significant moral and political values ascribed to them. The session will explore the political, cultural, and social causes of the differences and similarities between the two continents, highlighting the social and cultural meanings, the capacity to shape habits and social behaviors, the implications for citizenship and individual rights that guns have exercised, and the enduring legacy in the history of these two continents. In short, the panel aims to address perceived American and European exceptionalism through the prism of the everyday use of firearms in modern societies. To do so, the session will take an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together contributions from history, sociology, and political science to explore the multiple (social, political, symbolic, gendered, and racial) meanings that guns have unveiled in societies.