There are some circles in America where it seems to be more socially acceptable to carry a hand-gun than a packet of cigarettes.

Whitehorn juxtaposes two contested American habits—gun-carrying and smoking—to highlight a perceived inversion of social stigma. The line suggests that, in certain subcultures, firearms have been normalized (even valorized) as symbols of autonomy, safety, or identity, while cigarettes have become increasingly taboo due to public-health campaigns and shifting etiquette. The contrast is rhetorical rather than statistical: it points to how moral judgment and “respectability” can attach more strongly to slow, self-directed harms (smoking) than to objects associated with sudden violence (guns), depending on community values. The quote functions as social criticism of what is treated as acceptable risk and what is publicly shamed.