Author Jennifer Carlson is joined in conversation with Michael Sierra-Arévalo on Carlson's new book "Policing the Second Amendment: Guns, Law Enforcement, and the Politics of Race" in this Library and Labyrinth Livestream event.

"Policing the Second Amendment" is an urgent look at the relationship between guns, the police, and race. The United States is steeped in guns, gun violence — and gun debates. As arguments rage on, one issue has largely been overlooked — Americans who support gun control turn to the police as enforcers of their preferred policies, but the police themselves disproportionately support gun rights over gun control. Yet who do the police believe should get gun access? When do they pursue aggressive enforcement of gun laws? And what part does race play in all of this? "Policing the Second Amendment" unravels the complex relationship between the police, gun violence, and race. Rethinking the terms of the gun debate, Jennifer Carlson shows how the politics of guns cannot be understood — or changed — without considering how the racial politics of crime affect police attitudes about guns.

Drawing on local and national newspapers, interviews with close to 80 police chiefs, and a rare look at gun licensing processes, Carlson explores the ways police talk about guns, and how firearms are regulated in different parts of the country. Examining how organizations such as the National Rifle Association have influenced police perspectives, she describes a troubling paradox of guns today — while color-blind laws grant civilians unprecedented rights to own, carry and use guns, people of color face an all-too-visible system of gun criminalization. This racialized framework — undergirding who is “a good guy with a gun” versus “a bad guy with a gun” — informs and justifies how police understand and pursue public safety.

"Policing the Second Amendment" demonstrates that the terrain of gun politics must be reevaluated if there is to be any hope of mitigating further tragedies.

📷Jennifer Carlson is associate professor of sociology as well as government and public policy at the University of Arizona. She is the author of "Citizen-Protectors: The Everyday Politics of Guns in an Age of Decline." Her writing has appeared in such publications as The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. She lives in Tucson, Arizona.

📷Michael Sierra-Arévalo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. His research shows how danger and violence influence police culture, officer practice, and social inequality. His first book, "Peril on Patrol: Danger, Death, and U.S. Policing," is under advance contract at Columbia University Press and his writing and research have appeared in The Washington Post, Times Higher Education, NPR, Vox, GQ, The New Republic, ProPublica, and HuffPost. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Yale University and his B.A. in Sociology and Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin.

Presented in partnership with the library, Princeton University Press, and Labyrinth Books.

Author Talk with Jennifer Carlson on "Policing the Second Amendment"