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

Gun sellers played a significant role in the social turmoil leading up to the January 6 Capitol attack, selling more than just guns and selling politics. Jennifer Carlson's book " Merchants of the Right" explores the surge in gun purchasing during this period, revealing how conservative political culture was galvanized amid a pandemic, racial unrest, and a U.S. presidential election. Even though the majority of gun owners are conservative, new gun buyers are more likely to be liberal, posing a dilemma for gun sellers. The book argues that we must reckon with the everyday politics that divide us if we hope to restore American democracy to health.

Format: Hardback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 02 May 2023
Publisher: Princeton University Press

Gun sellers are not just in the business of selling firearms; they are also involved in selling politics. This is explored in depth in Jennifer Carlson's book, Merchants of the Right. The book sheds light on the unprecedented surge in gun purchasing that occurred during one of the most challenging times in American history, including the pandemic, racial unrest, and the 2020 presidential election.

Through in-depth interviews with gun sellers across the United States, Carlson provides a front-row seat to the culture war over gun rights. While the majority of gun owners are conservative, it is noteworthy that new gun buyers tend to be more liberal than existing gun owners. This posed a dilemma for gun sellers in the lead-up to the 2020 election, as they had to decide whether to embrace these liberal customers as part of a new, potentially post-partisan chapter in the American gun saga or to double down on gun politics as conservative terrain.

Carlson vividly describes how gun sellers mobilized key elements of modern conservative culture, such as armed individualism, conspiracy theories, and partisanship, to navigate the uncertainty and chaos surrounding them. They asserted gun politics as conservative politics and reworked and even rejected liberal democracy in the process. Merchants of the Right offers valuable insights into the dilemmas facing us today and argues that we must address the everyday politics that divide us if we are to restore American democracy to health.

Weight: 572g
Dimension: 243 x 165 x 30 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691230399