Guns Unpacked

<p>In this special episode of Guns Unpacked, we feature a live recording of the closing panel address at the BRIDGS Initiative’s first ever Guns in Society symposium hosted from January 30-31st, 2025. Dr. Alex Trimble Young opens the closing session by recognizing the many cosponsors, collaborators, and contributors to this symposium who made this event possible, which highlights the importance of scholarly collaboration in shaping the national conversation on guns and gun violence that currently grips the United States of America, and the critical role that the production of scholarly research plays in guiding the development and implementation of sustainable interventions and practices for the future.</p><p>This event featured a presentation by Yasser Arafat Payne, Brooklynn K. Hitchens, and Darryl L. Chambers who discuss their 2023 hit book, Murder Town, USA : Homicide, Structural Violence, and Activism in Wilmington and how poor investment and structural violence create the perfect conditions for gun violence and the way in which communities and everyday Americans choose to respond.</p>

<p>In this special episode of Guns Unpacked, co-hosts Jennifer Carlson and Alex Trimble Young cover the highlights (and lowlights) of their work at the BRIDGS Initiative in 2025. In a conversation that ranges from the snarky to the emotional, they take on issues including the algorithmic censorship of gun-related content online to the state of gun studies as a field to the ubiquity of gun-related trauma in the contemporary United States. </p>

<p>In today’s episode of Guns Unpacked, we welcome Dr. Cedric Dark, an associate professor of history in the Henry J.N. Taub Department of Emergency Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Dark co-hosts the “This Day” podcast and is also the co-executive producer of “You Get a Podcast.” Today’s conversation examines Dark’s work, and his experience in public health. Dark dives deeper into perceptions of the NRA, but also public health as it relates to firearms, and uses his unique perspective to provide suggestions about policy. Dr. Dark also offers advice for people seeking to enter his field of work. For more of Dr. Dark’s work, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://cedricdark.com/">visit here for his books and other writing.</a></p>

<p>In this episode of Guns Unpacked, we are joined by Emily Farris and Mirya Holman, who address the unique role of sheriff within the American justice system and the influence they possess in the world of politics, and how that role shapes US gun culture.Farris is an associate professor in political science, and core faculty member in comparative race and ethnic studies” at Texas Christian University. Mirya is an associate professor at Hobby School of Public Affairs at The University of Houston. They are co-authors of "The<em> Power of the Badge: Sheriffs and Inequality in the United States” with the University of Chicago Press</em> (2024). This conversation focuses on the topics of the duty of sheriffs, accountability, local elections, white conservatism, gun control, red flag gun laws, and the possibility of future research. And the significance sheriffs’ hold in the debate on gun culture and local power within America.</p>

<p>In this episode of Guns Unpacked, host Alex Trimble Young welcomes Wall Street Journal reporters Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson, co-authors of American Gun: The True History of the AR-15 (2023). Their book traces the rifle’s invention by Eugene Stoner, its troubled military adoption, and its evolution into one of America’s most polarizing symbols. Today’s conversation explores the AR-15’s technological development, its transformation from a failed weapon of war into a cultural and political icon, and how both rights advocates and regulation activists have contributed to the mythology surrounding it. The guests also examine media coverage of mass shootings, the impact of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, and the future of regulation in a nation with more than 20 million AR-15s in circulation.</p>