Publishers Weekly
03/13/2023
University of Arizona sociologist Carlson (Policing the Second Amendment) offers an illuminating deep dive into how gun sellers navigated the “surging demand” for firearms brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, civil unrest over the murder of George Floyd by police, and Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was rigged. Of the 23 million guns sold in 2020, more than eight million were bought by first-time gun owners, many of whom “didn’t fit the mold of the ‘typical’ gun owner: a conservative, white, straight male who already owned guns.” But rather than embrace their new, more liberal, more diverse clientele, gun sellers “doubled down” on the conspiratorial thinking, anti-elitism, and commitment to “self-reliance, anti-statism, and individualism” that have made them, according to Carlson, avatars and proselytizers of conservative politics in America. She supports her case through interviews with gun sellers who believe Covid-19 “was made in a lab in China” and express disdain for their “panicked, naive, hysterical” new customers; astute analysis of legal, political, and public health matters; and close readings of “online gun news outlets.” Though Carlson’s overarching thesis occasionally gets lost in the shuffle, she packs the proceedings with intriguing insights and observations. It’s a fresh take on how guns and politics mix. (May)
From the Publisher
"Carlson takes on a topic of crucial importance: the relationship between conservative gun culture and the core commitments of American democracy. Along the way, she sheds fascinating new light on the factors that galvanized the largest gun-buying spree in the country’s history in 2020 and shaped how many Americans responded to the tumult of that year."—-Matthew Lacombe, Science
"As much as Carlson’s book is a work of sociological analysis, it is also a warning. . . . armed conservatives are working toward a democracy not of the ballot but of the bullet. As Carlson’s book shows, they’re well on their way."—-Jack McCordick, The New Republic
"Gun culture and its purveyors . . . are important for Carlson not just in themselves and because of their epically awful results, but as a window into the forces that threaten to unravel our society and our democracy. This book is a must-read for all who seek to understand those forces."—-David Gushee, Christian Century
Library Journal
04/01/2023
In a country where there are more guns than people, it is important to understand gun culture and the politics surround it. Carlson (sociology, Univ. of Arizona; Policing the Second Amendment) focuses on the surge of gun sales in 2020, which were up 72 percent over sales in 2019. There were a vast number of first-time buyers, including women and people of color. The author interviewed 50 gun sellers—mostly Trump supporters—of small, independent shops in four states: Arizona, California, Florida, and Michigan. The sellers were generally baffled by the surge in sales. Three elements of the gun culture receive close attention in this study: armed individualism, conspiracists, and extreme partisanship. Concentrating on what she calls a "conservative corner of American gun culture," Carlson acknowledges that gun owners and gun rights advocates are of various backgrounds, ethnicities, and beliefs; at the same time, however, little in the book addresses this topic. The book concludes with a rumination on democracy, political engagement by gun rights advocates, and the 2021 January insurrection. VERDICT Carlson's study will be welcomed by anyone angered, conflicted about, or interested in gun control and devotion to the right to bear arms in the U.S.—Thomas Karel
Kirkus Reviews
2023-01-26
A sociological study of gun sellers and the way their politics sustain gun rights as a defining element of American conservatism.
One of the consequences of the 2020 pandemic was a surge in gun sales—not just to the typical White, straight, conservative, male buyer, but also to women, racial and sexual minorities, and liberals. Carlson, professor of sociology at the University of Arizona, author of Policing the Second Amendment, and a 2022 MacArthur fellow, saw this as an opportunity to gauge “how American gun culture [is] defended as conservative terrain” and how gun sellers act as “merchants of conservative thought.” Interviewing 50 sellers from four states, the author chronicles their responses to the pandemic, the new buyers, and activist initiatives such as Black Lives Matter. Their thinking coalesces around three ideas: Owning a gun reinforces personal responsibility (armed individualism); behind all official stories and state action are “hidden power brokers” (conspiracism); and defining the boundaries of citizenship is a democratic necessity (extreme partisanship). This information allowed Carlson to group sellers into libertarians who cast individual rights as the “preferred remedy to social ills”; illiberal conservatives, who embrace democracy but narrow the concept of “the people” to those who share their beliefs (thereby excluding liberals); and eclectic conservatives, who balance individual rights with collective obligations. For each, defending gun rights is “a means of defining” democracy and protecting political rights. In contrast, Carlson favors a liberal democracy that is “consensus-based, justice-oriented, and equity-driven” and can assert political equanimity, civic grace, and awareness of shared vulnerability to bridge the current political divide. The author treats her subjects with respect and intellectual generosity, and her positioning of gun culture in democratic thought is a model of thoughtful scholarship.
An insightful account of the glue that binds one of the dominant strains of conservatism and threatens liberal democracy.
