摘要：This article gives an ethnographic account of a group of
Canadians who feel invested in recreational gun use, by
examining their narratives and social relations created through
the practice of shooting “just for fun.” This is the result of
fieldwork with a group of men who practice a specialized form of
marksmanship called tactical shooting in southern
Saskatchewan. In this research, narrative “talk” emerges as a
social glue for tactical shooters, which I analyze using Michael
Herzfeld’s concepts of poetics and performance. These men’s
storytelling is discussed as a means of collaboratively creating
and enacting a worldview and a sense of shared identity. I argue
that stories enable shooters to build a sense of togetherness in a
context where they often feel misunderstood, both by more
conventional shooters and by broader society. In this group,
tactical shooting is not merely a leisurely pursuit – something
done “just for fun” – it is a social occasion for dramatic
storytelling which produces distinctive selves, relations, and
comradeship.
