Gunfight My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America

by Busse, Ryan

• ISBN13: 9781541768734
• ISBN10: 1541768736
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2021-10-19
• Publisher: PublicAffairs

Summary

A former firearms executive pulls back the curtain on America's multibillion-dollar gun industry, exposing how it fostered extremism and racism, radicalizing the nation and bringing cultural division to a boiling point.
 
As an avid hunter, outdoorsman, and conservationist–all things that the firearms industry was built on–Ryan Busse chased a childhood dream and built a successful career selling millions of firearms for one of America’s most popular gun companies.

But blinded by the promise of massive profits, the gun industry abandoned its self-imposed decency in favor of hardline conservatism and McCarthyesque internal policing, sowing irreparable division in our politics and society. That drove Busse to do something few other gun executives have done: he's ending his 30-year career in the industry to show us how and why we got here.
 
Gunfight is an insider’s call-out of a wild, secretive, and critically important industry. It shows us how America's gun industry shifted from prioritizing safety and ethics to one that is addicted to fear, conspiracy, intolerance, and secrecy. It recounts Busse's personal transformation and shows how authoritarianism spreads in the guise of freedom, how voicing one's conscience becomes an act of treason in a culture that demands sameness and loyalty. Gunfight offers a valuable perspective as the nation struggles to choose between armed violence or healing.

 

Author Biography

Ryan Busse was born on the Kansas homestead of his great-great grandfather. He grew up using guns and working on the family ranch where his father taught him how to hunt and shoot. In 1993, Busse began a career in the shooting sports industry, and he spent the next 25 years as Vice President of Sales at Kimber, one of the largest and most influential firearms companies in the country. Busse directed the annual sales of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of high-quality guns and was nominated four times by industry colleagues for the prestigious Shooting Industry Person of The Year Award-the same award presented to Charlton Heston, Bill Ruger, Steve Hornady and NRA chief Wayne LaPierre. Busse is still an avid outdoorsman. Busse was the chair of the board of directors of Montana Conservation Voters and adviser to the U.S. Senate Sportsmen's Caucus. He also served as chair of the North American Board of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, a conservation organization he has helped build to 50,000 members in 43 states and three Canadian provinces. He lives in Northwestern Montana.