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GEOFF BENNETT: The mass
shooting in Texas this
weekend is yet another

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stark reminder of the
pervasiveness of guns in
American society. There are

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hundreds of millions of firearms
in circulation across the U.S.

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A new book explores some
of the forces behind that

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saturation and the political
culture that goes with it.

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Here's William Brangham.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Back in 2020,
a year of a global pandemic
and ongoing social unrest,

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millions of Americans
bought guns,

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including nearly
eight-and-a-half-million
who had never purchased
a firearm before.

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A new book focuses on the
people who sold all those
weapons and the role that they

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play in American society
and politics. It's called
"Merchants of the Right:

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Gun Sellers and the Crisis
of American Democracy."

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And it's by University
of Arizona sociologist
Jennifer Carlson,

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who we talked with last
year for our "NewsHour"
documentary "Ricochet."

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Dr. Carlson, so good to
have you back on the news.

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Your book documents this
remarkable surge of people
who purchased guns during this

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stretch of 2020. And before
we get to the central point
about the gun sellers,

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can you just tell us a little
bit about who was it that
was buying all those weapons?

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JENNIFER CARLSON, University
of Arizona: Thank you so much
for having me on the program.

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Yes, most definitely, in 2020,
there was a massive surge
in gun purchasing. And while

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there was still the sort of
typical gun buyer, in terms
of demographic profile of

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being a white conservative
man who is married, owns
multiple guns, in fact,

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what we saw during 2020 and
into 2021 was a shift in
that -- in that profile.

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So, people who had never
bought a gun, who had
never considered buying a
gun were suddenly lining

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up at gun stores and
clearing the shelves. You
had people who were not
just first-time gun buyers,

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but racialized minorities,
women, members of the LGBTQ
community, and even liberals.

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And so all of those groups
were sort of coming in to
gun stores, trying to figure

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out, according to the
conversations that I was
having with gun sellers,

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what to do in this
moment of just profound
uncertainty and insecurity.

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And so what they came
up with was, buy a gun.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: One
of the most interesting
things, I think, in your
book is the -- is the

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reaction of the different
gun sellers you spoke
with to this sudden new
population of gun buyers,

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people who are not
traditionally their customers.

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Can you explain a little bit
about how they viewed the
-- that new customer base?

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JENNIFER CARLSON: I
think that there was
definitely a lot of glee,

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excitement, enthusiasm
about these new gun buyers.

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They saw it as a vindication
of the appeal of gun
rights as a basic human
right, as something that

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transcends demographics,
as something that anybody
could turn to for safety
and security. Of course,

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there was a limit to that.
And the limit was the
liberal gun buyer. They
would come down and say,

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yes, but I'm a little bit
-- in so many words, I'm
concerned about the liberals.

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Are they just going to be an
irresponsible gun owner? Are
they going to understand the

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politics that they're signing
up for? And so there was
an interesting sort of bait

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and switch in terms of how
they understood these -- these
new gun buyers as, you know,

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very much embracing
the diversity, but also
really drilling down
on the partisanship.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Every one of
the gun sellers you spoke to

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seemed to say that politics
was inextricable from their
professions, and that you wrote

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early on in the book that gun
sellers sell guns, but they
also build political culture.

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Can you explain a
little bit about that?

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JENNIFER CARLSON: So,
absolutely, gun sellers use
the point of sale as a way

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to instruct especially
first-time gun buyers
about what it means to
have gun regulations.

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So, one of the things that
they often brought up,
especially the gun sellers
in states where there

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were waiting periods, that
people would come in wanting
their gun immediately,

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feeling -- and we can
all go back to that
sense of urgency, like,

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I need my toilet paper, I need
my -- and gun sellers would say,
this is what gun control is.

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And so they actually used it as
a way to sort of instruct these
first-time gun buyers. There

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were also very explicit
examples that gun sellers told
me about where one gun seller

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actually talked about this.
He described him as a kid,
which he obviously wasn't a

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kid if he was purchasing a gun
from a licensed dealer -- came
in with a Bernie Sanders shirt.

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And this gun seller told me
how, basically, he had to

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politically reeducate
this buyer. So there was
definitely this sense
that they were not just

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selling guns, that they
were the front line of a
particular political culture.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You don't
necessarily deal with this
in your book, but I wonder,

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given the ongoing gun tragedies
we see of the murder rate
with guns, the mass shootings,

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these shoot-first,
ask-questions-later accidents
we have been seeing recently,

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how do you imagine that gun
sellers see themselves in
the midst of that crisis?

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Do they see themselves as a
part of that, a cause of that,

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an antidote to that?
How do they - - how do
they wrestle with that?

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JENNIFER CARLSON: I think one
of the reasons that this has --
is so intractable and that we

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are in this sort of mutually
exclusive debate that
doesn't seem to ever go

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anywhere is because we have
actually created a society in
which guns are the only answer.

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So, when we look back at
the decades of defunding
of social welfare,

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when we look at the defunding of
the mental health care system,

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when we look at the recent
data that's coming out on
mortality rates among Americans,

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we very clearly can see
that there is not a social
safety net in this country.

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And so when you -- all of those
things wither away and fray
and you're left with a firearm,

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it becomes very difficult
to imagine things beyond
the firearm as solutions.

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When I interviewed gun sellers
and ask them about gun sales,
and who were you selling to,

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but also, who were you not
selling to, gun sellers were
pretty inquisitive in terms of,

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why are you buying this gun?
What do you want to do with it?
What's your level of training?

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And so I think that there is a
big emphasis on firearm safety
and responsibility. The thing,

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though, is that it's not
something that they want

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to see involving gun
law. They don't want the
government to mandate that.

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This is not an anti-gun
book. This is not a book
that's -- actually, the
conclusions talk a lot

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about the new gun buyers
of 2020 and 2021 and what
they might mean in terms
of the politics of the

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U.S. But what it is, is
a book that asks us to
think beyond guns as the
sole solution to how we

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think about ourselves as
citizens and how we think
about ourselves as members
of society together.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, the
book is "Merchants of the Right:

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Gun Sellers and the Crisis
of American Democracy.

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Jennifer Carlson, thank
you so much for being here.

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JENNIFER CARLSON: Thank
you for having me.