Guns and values : individualism in the American gun debate The American gun control debate is best understood as a battle in a war over the influence of individualism on American culture politics and policy. This book demonstrates that the gun debate is fundamentally about values. Specifically it is about what we value most: private rights or the public good. This helps explain why the technical empirical or legalistic arguments we hear aren’t persuasive. A review of scholarly literature on both the politics of gun control and American political culture finds an American bias toward an individualism that embraces personal rights. We argue that this bias stacks the deck against gun control. Interviews we conducted with activists show that support for or opposition to gun control is linked to concern for the public or private good. Finally we trace the federal gun control debate in Washington from the 1960s to 2010s to show the ebbs and flows of individualism’s influence. Dylan S. McLean Associate Professor of Political Science University of West Georgia. Anthony K. Fleming Associate Professor of Political Science University of West Georgia. Chapter 1: Introducing the Gun Fight and Values Chapter 2: Gun Battles and Cultural Warfare Chapter 3: Activists at the Grass Roots of Gun Politics Chapter 4: Gun Politics in our Federal Political Institutions Chapter 5: Conclusion: Controversial Values Controversial Policies.