Everywhere we look, guns are in the headlines; from legal battles over gun rights in the United States, to controversial disarmament policies promoted by the United Nations, to mass shootings in communities around the world. These events make clear that firearms are not just tools of violence or protection. Rather, they are deeply woven into how people shape identity, community, power, and belonging. Why do people want to own firearms? What do guns mean to those who carry, use, and care for them? And how do firearms bring people together into divergent communities?

ARMIES is a research project that explores these questions by examining what firearms mean in everyday life. Through ethnographic fieldwork, we spend time with people who own and use guns, with a particular focus on groups, such as hunting clubs and rifle associations, that are often overlooked in public debate and academic research. Working across Brazil, Germany, and South Africa, we explore how firearms shape relationship, obligations, rituals, and senses of belonging.

Our aim is to understand not only what people do with guns, but also what guns do to people: how they feel in the hand, how they sound, and how they circulate in stories and shared histories. By paying close attention to lived experience, including the sights, sounds, and emotions that surround firearms, we seek to better understand how guns shape social life across very different contexts.

ARMIES is based in the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and is funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant running from September 2024 to 2029.