Guns Unpacked

In this episode, Jacob Charles, Associate Professor and Strauss Research Professor at the Caruso School of Law at Pepperdine University, helps host Alex Young explore how two pivotal court cases on the Supreme Court's 2026 docket transformed Second Amendment Law. After a broad overview of how the court's understanding of the Second Amendment has changed since the 2008 Heller decision, Charles delves into United States v. Hemani and Wolford v. Lopez to illuminate how these decisions imagine the relationship between drug law and gun law, and property law and gun law, respectively. In the wide-ranging conversation that follows, Charles and Young take on topics ranging from the drinking habits of the founding fathers to the upcoming court challenge to state-level assault weapon bans.

On this episode of Guns Unpacked, we are joined by Dr. Noah Schwarz, professor of political science at Fraser Valley in British Columbia, Canada. Schwarz’s identity as a dual citizen gives him a unique perspective on gun conversation, allowing him to exist in two worlds. Dr. Schwarz’s first book, On Target: Gun Culture, Storytelling, and the NRA, places a spotlight on how the National Rifle Association uses its platform to engage the passions of gun enthusiasts. In our conversation, Schwarz discusses how his research allowed him to form connections with those immersed in gun culture to understand how narratives put forth by the National Rifle Association shape the attitudes and decisions of gun enthusiasts. Dr. Schwarz’s new book, Targeted: Citizenship, Advocacy, and Gun Control in Canada, redirects the conversation north, where Schwarz aims to close the literary gap on the pro-gun movement in Canada. More information on Noah Schwartz and his work can be found here. His book "Targeted" can be purchased here.

In this month’s episode, Alex Trimble Young interviews Brooklyn-based novelist Alexander Sammartino about his debut novel Last Acts (Simon & Schuster 2024). Set in Phoenix and centered on the misadventures of a father and son duo who own a gun store, Last Acts is a hilarious, dark, and touching exploration of the imbrication of US gun culture with masculinity, addiction, and Arizona history. Young and Sammartino discuss the novel, its relation to its author’s Arizona upbringing, and what it says about the future in this engaging and personal interview.

In this episode of Guns Unpacked, Alex Young interviews historian Kellie Carter Jackson, the Michael and Denise Kellen ’68 Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. Their discussion focuses on Dr. Carter Jackson’s award-winning 2024 book, We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance. The conversation ranges over topics including the role of firearms in the civil rights struggle, the relationship between Black refusal and resistance, and Black Americans’ complicated relationship to US gun culture at large.

In this episode of Guns Unpacked, Dr. Jennifer Carlson interviews Dr. Nora Gross, a sociologist, educator, documentary filmmaker, and assistant professor at Barnard College. They discuss Gross’s 2024 award-winning book, Brothers in Grief: The Hidden Toll of Firearm Violence on Black Boys and Their Schools, and examine how grief, rather than trauma, influences the education, emotional, and social experiences of Black boys in schools that have experienced repeated loss. This conversation is based on ethnographic research conducted at a Philadelphia high school. It examines how grief unfolds over time, how schools and systems respond to violence, and how youth create their own spaces for grief, care, and survival.