Imagining the Future as an Armed Evangelical Christian

I argue that carrying a firearm enables evangelical Christians in the twenty-first century to build a particular kind of future. Armed evangelicals imagine a future in which they and their loved ones will encounter a deadly threat, especially in the form of a stranger armed with a gun. In order to counter this threat, Christians envisage themselves as capable protectors, but only if they are armed. Armed evangelical Christians imaginatively build their future through three modes: discourse about wielding their gun against evil on behalf of the innocent, training their attention to detect threats by imagining them in advance, and regular embodied practice with the firearm.