Gunfight
My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America
-
- $15.99
Publisher Description
A former firearms executive pulls back the curtain on America's multibillion-dollar gun industry, exposing how it fostered extremism and racism, radicalizing the nation and bringing cultural division to a boiling point.
As an avid hunter, outdoorsman, and conservationist–all things that the firearms industry was built on–Ryan Busse chased a childhood dream and built a successful career selling millions of firearms for one of America’s most popular gun companies.
But blinded by the promise of massive profits, the gun industry abandoned its self-imposed decency in favor of hardline conservatism and McCarthyesque internal policing, sowing irreparable division in our politics and society. That drove Busse to do something few other gun executives have done: he's ending his 30-year career in the industry to show us how and why we got here.
Gunfight is an insider’s call-out of a wild, secretive, and critically important industry. It shows us how America's gun industry shifted from prioritizing safety and ethics to one that is addicted to fear, conspiracy, intolerance, and secrecy. It recounts Busse's personal transformation and shows how authoritarianism spreads in the guise of freedom, how voicing one's conscience becomes an act of treason in a culture that demands sameness and loyalty. Gunfight offers a valuable perspective as the nation struggles to choose between armed violence or healing.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Busse, a former executive at the gun manufacturer Kimber, delivers a valuable insider account of how the NRA altered the gun industry and the U.S. political landscape beginning in the 1990s. He details how the NRA's failure to stop the 1994 assault weapons ban led the lobbying group to adopt a more strident approach and link gun control to abortion and other "hot-button right-wing social issues." Busse also describes how tragedies, including the 1999 Columbine school shooting, drive up sales among gun owners fearful that the government will pass new restrictions, and contends that the NRA fanned the flames of xenophobia after 9/11 and stoked racial tensions during the Obama presidency in order to sell more guns. After running afoul of the NRA by speaking out in favor of preserving public lands, Busse left Kimber in July 2020 and is now an activist for progressive causes. Though his attempts to explain why he stayed in the industry for more than 20 years, despite his increasing distress over the NRA's influence, aren't entirely convincing, Busse's insights into the connections between politics and profit are genuinely eye-opening. This is an incisive look at how and why one of America's deepest partisan divides got that way.
