"A funny, raucous, eye-opening, wholly non-partisan trip in search of Americans who love their guns"--

Although the rate of gun ownership in U.S. households has declined from an estimated 50 percent in 1970 to approximately 32 percent today, Americans' propensity for carrying concealed firearms has risen sharply in recent years. Today, more than 11 million Americans hold concealed handgun licenses, an increase from 4.5 million in 2007. Yet, despite increasing numbers of firearms and expanding opportunities for gun owners to carry concealed firearms in public places, we know little about the reasons for obtaining a concealed carry permit or what a publicly armed citizenry means for society. Angela Stroud draws on in-depth interviews with permit holders and on field observations at licensing courses to understand how social and cultural factors shape the practice of obtaining a permit to carry a concealed firearm. Stroud's subjects usually first insist that a gun is simply a tool for protection, but she shows how much more the license represents: possessing a concealed firearm is a practice shaped by race, class, gender, and cultural definitions that separate "good guys" from those who represent threats. Stroud's work goes beyond the existing literature on guns in American culture, most of which concentrates on the effects of the gun lobby on public policy and perception. Focusing on how respondents view the world around them, this book demonstrates that the value gun owners place on their firearms is an expression of their sense of self and how they see their social environment.

Dan Baum is a gun fanatic. He is also Jewish Democrat who grew up in suburban New Jersey. In Gun Guys, he takes us on a guided tour of gun stores and gun shows, shooting ranges and festivals, contests and auctions, trying to figure out what draws so many of us to guns in the first place. Is it just part of being American? Introducing a wide cast of characters, Baum shows both sides of the gun culture in America, bringing an entire world vividly to life, and in doing so helping to find a middle ground in the gun debate, where actual conversation can take place.

"Drawing from 30 years of experience in the gun industry, Mike the Gun Guy will give you the whole story about gun violence--the one based on facts, not on any political agenda. With writing that is often provocative, sometimes hilarious and always informative, Mike breaks down how the gun industry works, and what both sides get right (very little) and wrong (almost everything) about how Americans think about, purchase, and use guns."--back cover.

"It rips to shreds every argument of the anti-gun crowd and has opened my eyes to the mentality of those people." Jan Morgan, FOX News Analyst/Certified NRA Instructor Go behind the lies of the Anti-Gun Radicals. Find out what they hoped you would never know. Dan Wos explains the tactics and strategies of Anti-2nd Amendment Radicals and uncovers the motivation behind their mission to vilify guns and gun owners. Understand the psychology behind those who want to see an unarmed and helpless America. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. FEAR OF GUNS 2. FALSE NARRATIVE 3. RECRUITING THEIR MINIONS 4. SIT AT THE POPULAR TABLE 5. IGNORANCE IS BLISS 6. GUN FREE ZONES 7. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF FREEDOM 8. LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES 9. I'M RIGHT, YOU'RE WRONG 10. BUILDING UTOPIA 11. THE TRUTH ABOUT GUNS

Good Guys with Guns highlights self-defense stories where people used a firearm to defend themselves and others from violent criminals and the impact it had on their lives. The book also discusses the debate over the right to keep and bear arms.

In 1951, after Sam Vincent disappears while investigating a prison for violent African American convicts in Thebes, Mississippi, Earl Swagger finds himself confronting a town guarded by a private army of brutal, Klan-type thugs.