Merchants of the Right: Gun Sellers and the Crisis of American Democracy
Here is a bottom-up story of gun sellers who are positioned on the front lines of conservative politics in the United States.
Merchants of the Right: Gun Sellers and the Crisis of American Democracy Book cover
T
he politics surrounding guns in the United States is a deeply contentious issue that has long held a prominent place in the nation’s public discourse. Rooted in historical, cultural, and constitutional factors, the debate over gun rights and regulations has become an enduring hallmark of American politics. The sheer ubiquity of firearms, coupled with deeply ingrained beliefs about individual rights, self-defense, and the role of government, has created a complex landscape where passionate arguments clash and ideological battle lines are drawn.
In Merchants of the Right Jennifer Carlson delves into the multifaceted world of gun sellers, uncovering how their trade extends beyond the mere exchange of firearms. The book sheds light on a remarkable surge in gun purchases, which occurred amidst a confluence of extraordinary events: a once-in-a-century pandemic, widespread racial unrest, and a presidential election that shook the very foundations of American democracy. Carlson’s exploration of this phenomenon reveals how conservative political culture experienced a newfound spur, providing readers with a unique vantage point into the front lines of the ongoing culture war surrounding gun rights and an understanding of how guns became politicized.
Through extensive interviews with gun sellers across the United States, Carlson paints a vivid picture of the struggles faced by these merchants in navigating the complex intersection of guns and politics. The book reveals a frame breaking trend: While it is commonly assumed that the majority of gun owners lean conservative, new gun buyers are more likely to identify as liberal. The significant dilemma that gun sellers faced in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election was should they embrace these new liberal customers, potentially ushering in a new era of bipartisan engagement in the realm of guns, or should they solidify their position on gun politics as a conservative stronghold?
Carlson goes on to illustrate how gun sellers grappled with this question, mobilizing key pillars of modern conservative culture as they confronted the uncertainty and chaos that surrounded them. She argues that merchants of guns, gun culture, and gun politics had helped build conservative culture from the ground up. Concepts such as armed individualism, conspiracism, and partisanship became instrumental in their approach as a civic toolkit, allowing them to assert gun politics as inherently conservative and, in some cases, even challenging or rejecting liberal democratic principles.
By analyzing these dynamics, Merchants of the Right offers invaluable insights, rather than examining macro-level actors in the gun sector such as the NRA, Carlson provides a bottom-up story of gun-sellers positioned on the frontlines of conservative politics that led up to the January 6 Capitol Attack. The book is a confrontation of the everyday politics that continue to divide the U.S. and comes as a page-turning read for those interested in understanding political sociology, sociology of culture, and American politics.
Jennifer Carlson, Merchants of the Right: Gun Sellers and the Crisis of American Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2023) ISBN: 9780691230399, 288 pages
Written by Dilara Özer
