Armed Self-Defense in Recent America: Intersectional Perspectives

有了这个更新的建议，我们申请延长我们的合作研究项目（Paketprojekt）“武装自卫在最近的美国：交叉的观点”。当我们在2016年11月提交原始提案时，我们申请的主要动力是2012年在佛罗里达桑福德发生的Trayvon Martin枪击事件，以及一系列与枪支有关的年轻人和大多数男性非洲裔美国人的死亡事件，通常是由男性白色警察和保安人员造成的。除了这些枪击事件的种族和性别配置之外，我们的研究兴趣还受到以下观察的启发：这些案件中的枪手经常试图通过声称自卫来证明他们的暴力行为是正当的，以保护他们的身体完整性，甚至挽救他们的生命，保卫他们的家园和财产，或保护社区。自2016年11月以来，美国种族关系的发展，特朗普总统任期以及乔治弗洛伊德被谋杀后黑人生命物质运动的巨大势头表明，我们对美国武装自卫史的研究项目比最初预期的更重要。我们的指导性问题是，谁被赋予了使用暴力作为自卫的权利，对谁，在何种情况下。该项目包括三个子项目，审查关键的，但迄今为止被忽视的情况下，武装自卫的白色，黑人，男性和女性公民在美国的日常生活，他们的看法和解释，以及他们的法律的和政治后果。每个子项目都建立在案例研究的基础上，以不同的主要参与者为中心：第一个子项目侧重于黑人男子作为射手;第二个子项目侧重于有色人种妇女;最后一个子项目仔细研究了一个白色男性射手。这些案件发生在20世纪70年代和80年代，这是对近年来美国跨部门暴力进行历史研究的关键几十年。这三项研究结合在一起，形成了一个多视角的分析，从而显示出它们最大的优势。在2018年和2019年，我们有一个完美的第一个项目年，研讨会，文本讨论会议，并首次成功的研究之旅到美国。2020年3月，新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19，即2019冠状病毒病）危机使一切都暂停了，因为边境和档案都被关闭。最重要的是，对我们的项目计划极其不利的是，我们项目的关键研究旅行不得不取消。研究小组的成员继续利用现有的材料，改进和调整他们的方法，尽可能优先考虑第三阶段的工作步骤，但第二次档案研究旅行和足够的时间来评估材料并将其纳入现有的零碎研究结果，对于圆满完成次级项目是必不可少的。因此，我们申请将资助期限延长12个月。

With this renewal proposal, we apply for an extension of our collaborative research project (Paketprojekt) on “Armed Self-Defense in Recent America: Intersectional Perspectives” . When submitting our original proposal in November 2016, a major impetus for our application was the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, in 2012, and a series of gun-related deaths of young and mostly male African Americans, often caused by male, white police officers and security guards. In addition to the racial and gendered configuration of these shootings, our research interest was sparked by the observation that shooters in these cases often sought to justify their violence by claiming to have acted in self-defense to preserve their physical integrity and even to save their lives, to defend their home and their property, or to protect the community. Since November 2016, the development of race relations in America, the Trump presidency, and the massive momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the murder of George Floyd have demonstrated that our research project on the history of armed self-defense in the United States is even more significant than originally anticipated. Our guiding question is as to who is endowed with the right to use violence as self-defense against whom and under which circumstances.The project encompasses three subprojects, scrutinizing crucial, yet hitherto neglected cases of armed self-defense by white, black, male, and female citizens in American everyday life, their perceptions and interpretations, as well as their legal and political ramifications. Each subproject is built on case studies with different main actors at their center: the first subproject focuses on black men as shooters; the second subproject concentrates on women of color; the final subproject scrutinizes a white male shooter. The cases are from the 1970s and 1980s, which are pivotal decades for a historical study of intersectional violence in recent America. Together, the three studies merge into a multi-perspective analysis, thus showing their greatest strength. In 2018 and 2019, we had had a perfect first project year, with workshops, text discussion meetings, and first successful research trips to the United States. In March 2020, the Covid-19 crisis put everything on hold, as borders and archives were closed. Most importantly, and extremely detrimental to our project plan, the key research trips for our project had to be cancelled. The members of the research group continued to work with the available material, refined and adjusted their approaches, preponed working steps from phase 3 as far as possible, but a second archival research trip and enough time to assess the material and weave it into the existing fragmentary research results will be indispensable for the successful completion of the subprojects. For that reason, we apply for a 12-months-extension of the funding period.