Are guns an abstract thing that you see in movies and news reports, or is a gun the kind of thing you carry on your person, something that you are intimate with? That is the key to unlocking this great divide between Americans. About a third of Americans have never shot a gun, and about a third of American households own guns. That gap is really telling in terms of how we’re divided about guns.

Sociologist Jennifer Carlson explains how gun ownership influences notions of identity, citizenship, and safety among carriers and communities, and explores the deeper issues of gun politics that get lost in Second Amendment debates.

Jennifer’s new book is Citizen-Protectors: The Everyday Politics of Guns in an Age of Decline.