Targeted

by Noah S. Schwartz

Guns may be as American as apple pie, but what does it mean to own a gun north of the 49th parallel? While policy battles over gun control are often associated with American politics, debates about gun control are raging in Canada, prompting Canadian gun owners to transition from hobbyists to advocates. In Targeted, political scientist Noah S. Schwartz provides an insider’s perspective on gun culture in Canada, unpacking the differences between Canadian and American gun activism. He explores how Canadians interpret the rising pro-gun movement in the country, its self-perception, its goals, and the strategies and funding sources that sustain it.
Arguing that a distinct pro-gun culture is emerging in Canada, Targeted highlights how the demands of the movement are closely linked to significant divisions in Canadian politics, such as the rural-urban divide and western alienation. Rather than viewing gun ownership as an unassailable constitutional right, the book reveals how Canadian gun owners frame their demands as a call for fair treatment from their leaders.

248 pages, Paperback

Published August 26, 2025

About the author

Dr. Noah S. Schwartz is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of the Fraser Valley. His scholarship focuses on advocacy groups, social movements, and firearms policy in Canada and the United States.

His research interests include group politics and social movements; the politics of narrative and memory; the theories of the policy process; and firearms policy.

He is the author of On Target: Gun Culture, Storytelling & the NRA, as well as several journal articles and op-eds.

Reviews

[Eric Pecile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Targeted is a much needed breath of fresh air on the history and politics surrounding gun control in Canada. Schwartz explores the unique historical and social conditions that have informed Canadian gun culture and its practices with a thoroughness that I've yet to see elsewhere. The book comprehensively engages both past and present gun policies to tell a story of firearms ownership that is resoundingly Canadian. It avoids the pitfalls of universalizing about gun culture with the US as the sort of default setting for the anglophone world.

Schwartz's analysis emphasizes that firearms ownership in Canada is a complex issue for a group of people that subject themselves to a lot of scrutiny for the privilege to participate in firearms recreation. He expertly takes the reader through historical and contemporary data that educate the non-firearm owning reader and provide a clear, nuanced voice to the Canadian firearms community.

Beyond being an excellent study of its chosen topic, Schwartz's organization and presentation of information set a new bar for what analytical studies of Canadian policies should look like. If you are an academic looking for a policy study to emulate stylistically or interested in the dynamics surrounding Canadian firearms policy, I'd handily recommend this book.

[Adrian White · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Targeted” presents a compelling analysis of the unique Canadian gun culture in an easily readable format grounded in academic rigour. Noah Schwartz traces the history of Canadian gun culture from British roots on a distinctly Canadian path and contrasts this path from that of American gun culture. Extensive Notes and Facting makes “Targeted” a handy reference about the evolution of firearms laws in Canada and the conditions that led to those laws.