Gunfight My battle against the industry that radicalized America

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. Agent: Julie Stevenson, Massie & McQuilkin. (Oct.)

Startling insider's account of how the firearms industry struck a Faustian bargain with extremism for profit. With some anguish but also precision and wit, Busse fuses business history with memoir in this unsparing examination of American gun culture's devolution. "I am responsible for selling millions of guns…[yet] I detested everything about the Trump-driven boom, which meant that my entire livelihood was a contradiction," he writes. The author is aware of how the role of firearms in society has mutated, starting with its importance to rural life, central to his childhood on a Kansas ranch. The scrappy camaraderie of the industry seemed appealing when he joined Kimber, a struggling company focused on high-end pistols, but his enthusiasm waned as the industry embraced the AR-15 rifle and post--9/11 conspiracy theories (alongside rising sales). Busse emphasizes how legal and social codes regarding gun ownership have eroded in the era of mass shootings and open carry aggressiveness. This process accelerated in the 1990s in response to the Brady Bill, assault weapons ban, and market fluctuations, which showed gun executives that weapons sales could be amplified in response to politics. Busse positions the National Rifle Association as central to this, developing their now-familiar political strategy of ideological purity, while "no industry professional wanted to believe that the main driver of our business was anything but genius." He terms the gradual result "a powerful political machine radicalizing our nation." For years, the author was a lonely voice in a tightknit industry: "I thought I could keep the industry from changing, and then I spent years fighting to hold a battle line within it." Busse portrays his years in the industry lucidly, and his anger regarding its wrong turns and destructive influence seems genuine. "Our country had arrived at the point where military guns were the symbols of an entire political movement," he writes. Sure to elicit controversy, this is a worthwhile addition to a volatile, necessary discussion. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.