Citizen-Protectors The Everyday Politics of Guns in an Age of Decline [Paperback]

From gang- and drug-related shootings to mass shootings in schools, shopping centers, and movie theatres, reports of gun crimes fill the headlines of newspapers and nightly news programs. At the same time, a different kind of headline has captured public attention: a steady surge in pro-gun sentiment among Americans. InCitizen-Protectors, Jennifer Carlson offers a compelling portrait of gun carriers, shedding light on Americans' complex relationship with guns. Delving headlong into the world of guns, Carlson participated in firearms training classes, attending pro-gun events, and carried a firearm herself. Through these experiences, she explores the role guns play in the lives of Americans who carry them and shows how, against a backdrop of economic insecurity and social instability, gun carrying becomes a means of being a good citizen. A much-needed counterpoint to the rhetorical battles over gun control,Citizen-Protectorsis a captivating and revealing look at gun culture in America, and a must-read for anyone with a stake in this heated debate.

Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: American Dreams, American Nightmares
Chapter 2: Criminal Insecurities
Chapter 3: NRA Training and the Everyday Politics of Gun Carry
Chapter 4: The Right to Self-Defense, the Duty to Protect
Chapter 5: Policing Guns, Profiling People
Chapter 6: Jumping the Gun
Conclusion: We Hope for Better Things; It Shall Rise from the Ashes
Notes
Bibliography
Index

In this insightful, often eye-popping study, Jennifer Carlson describes how millions of Americans have come to view carrying of concealed guns in public as a civic obligation - and to regard killing in self-defense as a moral act. Whether you embrace these views or find them repugnant, the study will force you to grapple with uncomfortable questions about the role of the state vs. the individual in maintaining public order. --Kristin A. Goss, Duke University, and co-author ofThe Gunl3!