Guns Unpacked

One of the more unusual aspects of being a gun scholar is how frequently we are approached by folks outside the field with their gun stories, whether that means anecdotes about their connections to gun culture or their exposure to gun violence. In this episode, Jenny and Alex sit down to ask each other to reflect on their own stories about when they were first introduced to firearms, when they were first touched by gun violence, and how those early encounters shaped their approach to their scholarship. Their informal and personal conversation about their two very different paths toward gun scholarship ranges over questions of about guns in media, and the myriad ways differences in race, gender, class, and region shape our understanding of gun culture. Tune in if you’re curious about your hosts mutual obsession with OG Nintendo Duck Hunt or their very different introductions to self-defensive gun culture!

In this episode, Jacob Charles, Associate Professor and Strauss Research Professor at the Caruso School of Law at Pepperdine University, helps host Alex Young explore how two pivotal court cases on the Supreme Court's 2026 docket transformed Second Amendment Law. After a broad overview of how the court's understanding of the Second Amendment has changed since the 2008 Heller decision, Charles delves into United States v. Hemani and Wolford v. Lopez to illuminate how these decisions imagine the relationship between drug law and gun law, and property law and gun law, respectively. In the wide-ranging conversation that follows, Charles and Young take on topics ranging from the drinking habits of the founding fathers to the upcoming court challenge to state-level assault weapon bans.

On this episode of Guns Unpacked, we are joined by Dr. Noah Schwarz, professor of political science at Fraser Valley in British Columbia, Canada. Schwarz’s identity as a dual citizen gives him a unique perspective on gun conversation, allowing him to exist in two worlds. Dr. Schwarz’s first book, On Target: Gun Culture, Storytelling, and the NRA, places a spotlight on how the National Rifle Association uses its platform to engage the passions of gun enthusiasts. In our conversation, Schwarz discusses how his research allowed him to form connections with those immersed in gun culture to understand how narratives put forth by the National Rifle Association shape the attitudes and decisions of gun enthusiasts. Dr. Schwarz’s new book, Targeted: Citizenship, Advocacy, and Gun Control in Canada, redirects the conversation north, where Schwarz aims to close the literary gap on the pro-gun movement in Canada. More information on Noah Schwartz and his work can be found here. His book "Targeted" can be purchased here.

In this month’s episode, Alex Trimble Young interviews Brooklyn-based novelist Alexander Sammartino about his debut novel Last Acts (Simon & Schuster 2024). Set in Phoenix and centered on the misadventures of a father and son duo who own a gun store, Last Acts is a hilarious, dark, and touching exploration of the imbrication of US gun culture with masculinity, addiction, and Arizona history. Young and Sammartino discuss the novel, its relation to its author’s Arizona upbringing, and what it says about the future in this engaging and personal interview.

In this episode of Guns Unpacked, Alex Young interviews historian Kellie Carter Jackson, the Michael and Denise Kellen ’68 Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. Their discussion focuses on Dr. Carter Jackson’s award-winning 2024 book, We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance. The conversation ranges over topics including the role of firearms in the civil rights struggle, the relationship between Black refusal and resistance, and Black Americans’ complicated relationship to US gun culture at large.

In this episode of Guns Unpacked, Dr. Jennifer Carlson interviews Dr. Nora Gross, a sociologist, educator, documentary filmmaker, and assistant professor at Barnard College. They discuss Gross’s 2024 award-winning book, Brothers in Grief: The Hidden Toll of Firearm Violence on Black Boys and Their Schools, and examine how grief, rather than trauma, influences the education, emotional, and social experiences of Black boys in schools that have experienced repeated loss. This conversation is based on ethnographic research conducted at a Philadelphia high school. It examines how grief unfolds over time, how schools and systems respond to violence, and how youth create their own spaces for grief, care, and survival.

On this week’s episode of Guns Unpacked, we are joined by Toni Jensen, who teaches in the MFA program at the University of Arkansas, Institute for American Indian Arts. Her memoir, Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land, was named a Dayton Literary Peace Prize Finalist and New York Times Editors' Choice book. In our conversation, Dr. Jensen details how her identity as a métis woman and firsthand experiences with violence have shaped how she perceives gun identity in America. Dr. Jensen explores the shift in gun identity from hunting to self-defense during the Reagan years and discusses how modern sensationalism associated with mass shootings leads people to overlook the role “we” play in gun violence. Dr. Jensen’s most recent book can be found here. More information on Dr. Jensen can be found here.

In this special episode of Guns Unpacked, we feature a live recording of the closing panel address at the BRIDGS Initiative’s first ever Guns in Society symposium hosted from January 30-31st, 2025. Dr. Alex Trimble Young opens the closing session by recognizing the many cosponsors, collaborators, and contributors to this symposium who made this event possible, which highlights the importance of scholarly collaboration in shaping the national conversation on guns and gun violence that currently grips the United States of America, and the critical role that the production of scholarly research plays in guiding the development and implementation of sustainable interventions and practices for the future. This event featured a presentation by Yasser Arafat Payne, Brooklynn K. Hitchens, and Darryl L. Chambers who discuss their 2023 hit book, Murder Town, USA : Homicide, Structural Violence, and Activism in Wilmington and how poor investment and structural violence create the perfect conditions for gun violence and the way in which communities and everyday Americans choose to respond.

In this special episode of Guns Unpacked, co-hosts Jennifer Carlson and Alex Trimble Young cover the highlights (and lowlights) of their work at the BRIDGS Initiative in 2025. In a conversation that ranges from the snarky to the emotional, they take on issues including the algorithmic censorship of gun-related content online to the state of gun studies as a field to the ubiquity of gun-related trauma in the contemporary United States.

In today’s episode of Guns Unpacked, we welcome Dr. Cedric Dark, an associate professor of history in the Henry J.N. Taub Department of Emergency Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Dark co-hosts the “This Day” podcast and is also the co-executive producer of “You Get a Podcast.” Today’s conversation examines Dark’s work, and his experience in public health. Dark dives deeper into perceptions of the NRA, but also public health as it relates to firearms, and uses his unique perspective to provide suggestions about policy. Dr. Dark also offers advice for people seeking to enter his field of work. For more of Dr. Dark’s work, visit here for his books and other writing.

In this episode of Guns Unpacked, we are joined by Emily Farris and Mirya Holman, who address the unique role of sheriff within the American justice system and the influence they possess in the world of politics, and how that role shapes US gun culture.Farris is an associate professor in political science, and core faculty member in comparative race and ethnic studies” at Texas Christian University. Mirya is an associate professor at Hobby School of Public Affairs at The University of Houston. They are co-authors of "The Power of the Badge: Sheriffs and Inequality in the United States” with the University of Chicago Press (2024). This conversation focuses on the topics of the duty of sheriffs, accountability, local elections, white conservatism, gun control, red flag gun laws, and the possibility of future research. And the significance sheriffs’ hold in the debate on gun culture and local power within America.

In this episode of Guns Unpacked, host Alex Trimble Young welcomes Wall Street Journal reporters Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson, co-authors of American Gun: The True History of the AR-15 (2023). Their book traces the rifle’s invention by Eugene Stoner, its troubled military adoption, and its evolution into one of America’s most polarizing symbols. Today’s conversation explores the AR-15’s technological development, its transformation from a failed weapon of war into a cultural and political icon, and how both rights advocates and regulation activists have contributed to the mythology surrounding it. The guests also examine media coverage of mass shootings, the impact of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, and the future of regulation in a nation with more than 20 million AR-15s in circulation.

In today’s episode of Guns Unpacked, we welcome Dr. Michelle Phelps, a professor of Sociology at the University of Minnesota. Phelps is an expert on probation, criminal justice reform, and the politics of policing. Her first book is titled Breaking the Pendulum: The Long Struggle Over Criminal Justice, which is co-authored by Philip Goodman and Joshua Paige and published by Oxford University Press in 2017. Phelps joins us today to discuss her book, The Minneapolis Reckoning: Race, Violence, and the Politics of Policing in America. Today’s conversation examines Phelps’s work, and how she ties her work involving the politics of policing in America into violence and police abolition. Phelps also provides insight into her research timing and process, detailing important moments from her work, as well as the real-world impact of police abolition policy. For more of Dr. Michelle Phelps, visit the links here and here for her background and writing.

This episode of Guns Unpacked features Jan Dizard, Professor Emeritus of American Studies at Amherst College, a pioneering thinker about hunting, gun culture, and the environment. Dizard authored groundbreaking works such as Going Wild, Mortal Stakes, and Hunting: A Cultural History (MIT Press, 2022, co-author Mary Zeiss Stange). The interview represents his work on hunting, his exploration of the cultural construction of nature, and the convergence of conservation and gun culture. Recorded in February, we believe this was Dizard's last public interview before passing away in June 2025.

In today’s episode of Guns Unpacked, we welcome Dr. Gerald D. Higgenbotham, an assistant professor of public policy and psychology at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Dr. Higgenbotham examines contemporary cognitive policies and how they influence repressive history through racism and collective power. Today’s conversation dissects “Firearm Psychology,” a term frequently used by Higgenbotham to make sense of the nuance and intricacies of gun ownership. Higgenbotham also provides commentary on the racialization of gun rights, collective power, and perceptions of safety through the public eye. Higgenbotham also tackles these issues from a historical perspective, providing a framework of how this history impacts the world today. For more of Higgenbotham’s work and background, links to publications and distinctions can be found here.

Guns Unpacked season 2 launching September 8th!

Guns Unpacked Season 2 launches September 8th!

In this episode of Guns Unpacked, we are joined by Dr. Metzl, a psychiatrist and sociologist who examines gun violence and mental health. Dr. Metzl also serves as the Director of the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University. We discuss his 2024 book, What We’ve Become, which examines the Waffle House mass shooting in Nashville, Tennessee in 2017. Our conversation takes us through the intricacies of the "Dickey Line," the shortcomings of public health responses to gun violence, and Dr. Metzl's own position in the gun debate. You can purchase his book What We've Become from the ASU CSGS "Books for a Better Gun Debate" bookshelf on bookshop.org.

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Emine Fidan Elcioglu, a sociologist at the University of Toronto. Dr. Elcioglu talks to us about her in-depth ethnographic fieldwork studying the politics of migration in Arizona, focusing on anti-immigrant and pro-immigrant groups that mobilized at the border. Her work opens up new insights and new questions regarding the relationship between gun politics and the politics of migration. You can purchase her book Divided by the Wall from the ASU CSGS "Books for a Better Gun Debate" bookshelf on bookshop.org.

Dr. Micheal Sierra-Arévalo is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin Department of Sociology. From 2020 to 2023 served on the Public Safety Commission for the City of Austin. Today, we discuss Dr. Sierra-Arévalo's extensively researched The Danger Imperative: Violence, Death, and the Soul of Policing. Using in-depth interviews and rich ethnographic observations, Dr. Sierra-Arévalo breaks down how the danger imperative is driving police culture and violence within the United States. You can purchase his book The Danger Imperative from the ASU CSGS "Books for a Better Gun Debate" bookshelf on bookshop.org.