Factual Errors in the Gunning of America: Is this Scholarly History or Polemic?

Abstract

Pamela Haag’s The Gunning of America: Business and the Making of American Gun Culture (Basic Books, 2015) makes the argument that gun culture was developed largely through vigorous marketing of guns to people that neither needed nor wanted them. Examination of some of Haag’s factual statements demonstrate errors that cast doubt on either her research quality or honesty. Her conclusions are therefore suspect, except as an unlikely coincidence.

Keywords: guns, history