Guns have been a constant in Ryan Busse’s life story. His father taught him to shoot as a boy growing up on a ranch in the high plains of Kansas. That upbringing led him to a dream job at the gun manufacturer Kimber. Over 25 years, he rose to become a senior executive and an influential force within the firearm industry.

“I am responsible for selling millions of guns,” Busse wrote at the start of his book, “Gunfight.” The claim was not a boast. It was more like the beginning of an apology.

With the book, which is part memoir, part treatise on gun policy in America, Busse has inserted himself into the center of a seemingly intractable debate that recharges each time the country confronts another burst of deadly gun violence, including mass shootings, police killings and fatal confrontations like the one involving Kyle Rittenhouse.

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