Gun sellers sell more than just guns. They also sell politics. Merchants of the Right examines the unparalleled surge in gun purchasing during one of the most dire moments in American history, revealing how conservative political culture was galvanized amid a once-in-a-century pandemic, racial unrest, and a U.S. presidential election that rocked the foundations of American democracy.
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.
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.