
Trent “Tate” Steidley, PhD
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology & Criminology at the University of Denver (pictured above). I am currently working on research projects that (1) explore the determinants of firearm demand in the United States, (2) explore how state social control efforts are, or are not, influenced by racial demographics, and (3) explore how political sociology and social movements theories speak to criminal justice outcomes, with a particular focus on firearms.
This blog is where I’ll share things from my research, readings, or writings that I hope others will find interesting or useful. Links to my published work can be found at my Google Scholar profile. People interested in accessing data from my published work should check out the Data page.
Shouting into the void since 2020 (recent blog posts)

Despite strong gun sales, NRA membership apparently shrank in 2020
2020 was a gangbusters year for gun sales with a likely 20 million total gun sales. And the gun industry has been willing to say this is a strong sign of future support for gun rights going forward. An August press release from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) even inferred that at least 5Continue reading “Despite strong gun sales, NRA membership apparently shrank in 2020”

NICS checks: January 2021 Edition
Someday I will blog about things I research besides these NICS posts. I promise. January most likely had over 2 million gun sales (using the raw NICS numbers for Handgun, Long gun, Other, Multiple, Private Handgun, Private Long Gun, and Private other NICS checks, I get 1.98 million, pretty darn close). I caught a newsContinue reading “NICS checks: January 2021 Edition”

Quick Compare: 2020 vs 2019 NICS Numbers
2020 has passed, and with that we can finally start saying how the whole year stacked up compared to previous years in terms of gun sales (or more appropriately “sales” since its pretty much proxies all the way down when it comes to measuring gun sales). Here I am using the NICS data from theContinue reading “Quick Compare: 2020 vs 2019 NICS Numbers”