ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a survey about firearms ownership and carrying practices among four groups of potential "socialization agents": fathers, siblings, "the people hung around with before they came to this prison", and "the men in their family". It details about several "socialization experiences" that many men encounter in their youth. The rituals of male socialization, it would appear, are much the same for youth everywhere. To provide additional details about gun socialization, the survey asked about various experiences the felons might have had when they were younger; all of these items were also asked of the college students. Intercorrelations among the variables representing each of the some socialization "domains" are indicated by boldface numbers. The intercorrelations among the variables in each domain are sufficiently strong to justify the construction of scales, each measuring the strength of the relevant sources of gun socialization.
