Matthew J. Lacombe, "Firepower: How the NRA Turned Gun Owners Into a Political Force" (Princeton UP, 2021)
b'Firepower: How the NRA Turned Gun Owners into a Political Force\\xa0(Princeton, 2021) explores the scope and power of one of America\\u2019s most influential interest groups. Despite widespread public support for stricter gun control laws, the National Rifle Association has consistently managed to defeat or weaken proposed regulations.\\xa0Firepower\\xa0provides an unprecedented look at how this controversial organization built its political power and how it has deployed it on behalf of its pro-gun agenda.\\n\\nTaking readers from the 1930s to the age of Donald Trump, Matthew Lacombe traces how the NRA\\u2019s immense influence on national politics arises from its ability to shape the political outlooks and actions of its followers. He draws on nearly a century of archival records and surveys to show how the organization has fashioned a distinct worldview around gun ownership and used it to mobilize its supporters. Lacombe reveals how the NRA\\u2019s cultivation of a large, unified, and active base has enabled it to build a resilient alliance with the Republican Party, and he examines why the NRA and its members formed an important constituency that helped fuel Trump\\u2019s unlikely political rise.\\xa0Firepower\\xa0sheds vital new light on how the NRA has grown powerful by mobilizing average Americans and how it uses its GOP alliance to advance its objectives and shape the national agenda.\\nMatthew Lacombe is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University. He studies American politics, with a broad focus on understanding and explaining political power in the U.S. His research and teaching interests engage with interest groups and political parties, social identity and political ideology, inequality and representation, and American political development. In addition to\\xa0Firepower, he is the co-author of\\xa0Billionaires and Stealth Politics, a book that details the political preferences and behavior of U.S. billionaires.\\nJoe Renouard is Resident Professor of American Studies and Fei Yi-Ming Journalism Foundation Chair of American Government and Comparative Politics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Nanjing, China.\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law'