A persecution narrative drives both gun-rights mobilization and evangelical militancy.

Evidence

A common sense of embattlement also links the rhetoric of the NRA to that of conservative white evangelicalism. For both, a bunker mentality strengthens identity and loyalty, and fuels militancy. Even though conservatives have dominated public policy on gun control for decades, a persecution narrative rooted in a sense of cultural decline has long mobilized gun rights advocates and driven gun sales, especially during Democratic administrations. For conservative white evangelicals, guns carry a symbolic weight that can only be understood within this larger culture of militancy. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 668

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the embattlement/backlash literature on American conservatism — Hochschild’s ‘Strangers in Their Own Land’ and the resentiment accounts of right-wing politics.
• SEED: Angle: how the gun lobby and evangelical subculture share a manufactured persecution narrative, and whether the NRA borrowed it from evangelicals or vice versa — a ‘who imitated whom’ piece.