Guns and gun violence (part 2)—Desires and dangers of emergent firearm assemblages

According to the Small Arms Survey, there are 120.5 privately owned guns for every 100 civilians in the United States—the world's highest rate of gun ownership. What are the consequences of this? How does the vast number of guns, both concealed and openly carried, frame everyday American fears, anger, and suspicion? In this interview, Jason Pribilsky and Charles Springwood tackle these issues by examining the empirical status of gun violence, as well as which of its facets are, and are not, made readily visible to the general American public. Drawing on extensive research into how shooting survivors cope with the physical and psychological effects of bullet wounds and how guns have infiltrated American consciousness, they assess the strengths and weaknesses of anthropology's collective stance on the topic of gun use and ownership, as well as the challenges of researching these issues during the Trump administration.