Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: New Books in Public Policy
Episode: Lydia Wilkes et al., "Rhetoric and Guns" (Utah State UP, 2022)
Description: Guns hold a complex place in American culture. Over 30,000 Americans die each year from gun violence, and guns are intimately connected to issues of public health, as is evident whenever a mass shooting occurs. But guns also play an important role in many Americans’ lives that is not reducible to violence and death—as tools, sporting equipment, and identity markers. They are also central to debates about constitutional rights, as seen in ongoing discussions about the Second Amendment, and they are a continuous source of legislative concern, as apparent in annual ratings of gun-supporting legislators.Even as guns are wrapped up w...