Becoming a Shooter

Sociologists have extensively studied gun violence but paid less attention to how firearms shape the identities and life trajectories of those who carry them. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and life-course interviews in Chicago, Megan Kang, (Princeton University - Department of Sociology) examined how individuals develop reputations as shooters and the obstacles they face in shedding this label. The erosion of gang control over gun markets, coupled with the status attached to being a shooter, heighten pressures to cultivate violent reputations. Youth move from acquiring a gun to becoming a shooter through rituals and public displays that transform gun carrying into a social identity.

Three mechanisms make shooter identities particularly durable: the lethality of firearms creates lasting rival networks; social media preserves shooter reputations through permanent digital archives; and widespread firearm availability creates a dilemma where former shooters feel they cannot unilaterally disarm while rivals remain armed. For former shooters, conventional turning points like school, romantic relationships, and work can become sites of vulnerability rather than transformation. This study reveals how guns function as social forces that make exit from violence increasingly difficult even after behavioral change occurs.

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