BACKGROUND

Before retiring as a Professor of Leadership & Management at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, I taught at a number of well- known universities, including Iowa, Duke, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and the National University of Singapore. My Ph. D. is in work and organizational psychology from Purdue. During my academic career, I focused on motivation, leadership, job performance, and group / organizational cultures.

My interest in gun culture grew out of my research exploring military and paramilitary organizational cultures. As I followed the gun control debate in the news media and popular publications, I was fascinated by — and frustrated with — the diametrically opposed empirical assertions made by pro-gun and anti-gun proponents. While social scientists researching an area often disagree about specific details, they generally agree about the broad picture: they generally can tell what’s likely to work and what probably won’t, and why something should work, or why it might not. But not so with gun control. The radically different empirical assessments swirling around gun control issues and policies appeared impossible to reconcile. What was going on here? My attempt to answer this question eventually evolved into America’s Gun Wars, which offers a cultural interpretation of the conflicting perspectives. My forthcoming book, Guns in America: Examining the Facts, presents an evaluation of the evidence central to many gun-control disputes.

At various times, I’ve been a chess enthusiast, scuba diver, private pilot, and certified pistol instructor. My two adult sons continue to astound me and enrich my life. Kathleen, their mother and my forever delight, is always with us in fondest memory. And I can’t omit my border collie, whose joie de vivre in ball-chasing is simply inspiring. My fairly opinionated tortoiseshell kitty, who has no trouble communicating her annoyances, would certainly be displeased if I failed to mention her.