Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15 by Zusha Elinson, Cameron McWhirter

5 reviews

gillthequill's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

If you want a comprehensive look on why American today, circa 2024, has such a mass shooter problem, this book offers an easy to read, engaging, and well written account. Weaving both smaller stories, such as AR-15 inventor Stoner's life story and individual accounts of mass shootings, with bigger picture narratives, such as the Vietnam War, this book offers a clear through line of how we got here today. It was an excellent read, one that had me consuming easily 150 pages in the first day of reading alone. A depressing read, but a necessary one if you want to understand how exactly we got here. My only critique was perhaps a deeper dive into the history of the NRA was warranted, but otherwise good read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and War

Moderate: Hate crime, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, and Medical trauma

mscalls's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Misogyny, Racism, and Religious bigotry

vestedreader's review against another edition

informative tense fast-paced

4.0

A quick and comprehensive overview of a weapon that has a prominent role in American society and politics. Something worth reading to understand the current firearm discourse in the US, and how we got here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Mass/school shootings, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: War

lcl_reads's review against another edition

dark informative sad slow-paced

3.5

Overall, a very comprehensive history of the AR-15 and related guns. It is a bit slow, especially at the beginning and spares no detail at all (almost to a fault. I nearly put it down in the middle because it was just so detailed, to the point of starting to become boring).

The second half picks up a bit as it shifts from the invention of the gun to politics and mass shootings. Understanding the history of the gun does underscore the major point that this gun was never meant for civilian use and the explanation of gun mechanics also helps to understand how attempts at gun regulation have fallen short.

As someone who is not as interested in guns or how they work some parts felt very in the weeds for me. It definitely felt like it was written for a gun history buff, which I am not.

I also struggled with references to gangs, gun regulation, and the War on Crime without any connections to race. Some reviews laude the book as "unbiased" (I don't believe a book can be unbiased) which is what I think the authors were going for by not mentioning race, but it made the political discussion feel sanitized and superficial.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Murder, and War

Moderate: Hate crime, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Suicide, Police brutality, and Religious bigotry

blythemc's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

Excellent journalistic research, and compelling stories interwoven to reveal an American “Frankenstein” - the AR-15.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Gun violence