Newsweek Photo Gallery: "One Nation, Under Gun"

Inspired by a dinner conversation with an ex-staffer for a 2004 Presidential candidate whose job it was to "wrangle" the gun vote, photographer Kyle Cassidy wanted to find out who gun owners are, what they look like and how they live. So he traveled 15,000 miles over the course of two years taking pictures of people with their weapons and asking them one question: 'Why do you own a gun?' His new book, 'Armed America,' is the culmination of that project.

Click here for Cassidy's portraits of Americans at home with their firearms, and to listen to audio from the author as well as the subjects of his photographs.