Guns as a Civic Tool Kit

Abstract In Merchants of the Right, sociologist Jennifer Carlson explores the role of gun sellers as political interpreters that have helped promote a civic toolkit of ways to know and act on our uncertain political world, one that heavily favors right-wing policies. Guns, in brief, are not only a potentially lethal instrument of violence but also a framework for identifying one's location and political interests in a complex landscape. The pandemic year of 2020 supercharged the gun store as a public forum and exhibit of political rationalities, sending millions of new and atypical gun buyers into gun stores and the narratives of gun sellers.