Merchants of the Right: Gun Sellers and the Crisis of American Democracy

Carlson (sociology, Univ. of Arizona; Policing the Second Amendment) offers a timely analysis of the politics of guns and the gun market, arguing that gun sellers have fostered right-wing conspiracies and conservative thought. The author’s research is based on interviews with gun sellers who frankly explain their entrepreneurial response to COVID, new types of gun buyers, and activist initiatives such as Black Lives Matter. Carlson provides a fresh take on how guns and politics have become inseparable and offers insights into the new firearms customers, including women, people of color, and even liberals. Although Carlson doesn’t hide her concerns about arming Americans with more guns, she maintains respect for gun sellers while arguing that this new brand of conservative culture, marked by armed individualism, conspiracism, and partisanship, is deepening the fault lines in the United States’ already fragile democracy. Narrator Jennifer Cole provides a solid if somewhat awkwardly paced performance of Carlson’s erudite account.