Hidden America: From Coal Miners to Cowboys, an Extraordinary Exploration of the Unseen People Who Make This Country Work

This section focuses on the retail worker. However, this is not just any retailer, but Sprague’s Sports in Yuma, Arizona, “the most gun-friendly state” where “anyone over eighteen can buy an assault rifle, at twenty-one you can get a pistol, and you can carry your gun, loaded or unloaded, concealed or openly, just about anywhere” (142). Laskas indicates in the introduction that she chooses to explore the world of gun sales because “[t]he world of guns is one culture in this book that remains for [her] the most inexplicable rabbit hole” (7).

In fact, Laskas claims not to know anybody who carries a gun: “Nobody in my circle back east had guns, nobody wanted them, and if anybody talked about them at all, it was in cartoon terms: guns are bad things owned by bad people who want to do bad things” (142). Although several stores deny her request for access, Richard Sprague, owner of Sprague’s Sports, welcomes Laskas and gives her full access to his business, “behind the counter, in the back room, at the shooting range, anywhere [she] wished” (149).

Laskas wants to discuss the gun store clerk’s role as “the front line guarding America against lunatic mass murderers” (145).