Do Guns Make Us Free?


Book Description

Possibly the most emotionally charged debate taking place in the United States today centers on the Second Amendment of the Constitution and the rights of citizens to bear arms. In the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre in Connecticut, the gun rights movement headed by the National Rifle Association appears more intractable than ever in its fight against gun control laws. The core argument of Second Amendment advocates is that the proliferation of firearms is essential to maintaining freedom in America, providing private citizens with a defense against possible government tyranny, and safeguarding all our other rights. But is this argument valid? Do guns indeed make us free? Firmin DeBrabrander examines claims offered in favor of unchecked gun ownership in this insightful and eye-opening analysis, the first philosophical examination of every aspect of a contentious, uniquely American debate. By exposing the contradictions and misinterpretations prevalent in the case presented by gun rights supporters, this provocative volume concludes that an armed society is not a free society but one that ultimately discourages and, in fact, actively hinders democratic participation.




Gun Nation


Book Description

Collection of b/w photographs depicting America's gun culture. Includes an introductory essay on the fight for gun control.




Firearms and Violence


Book Description

For years proposals for gun control and the ownership of firearms have been among the most contentious issues in American politics. For public authorities to make reasonable decisions on these matters, they must take into account facts about the relationship between guns and violence as well as conflicting constitutional claims and divided public opinion. In performing these tasks, legislators need adequate data and research to judge both the effects of firearms on violence and the effects of different violence control policies. Readers of the research literature on firearms may sometimes find themselves unable to distinguish scholarship from advocacy. Given the importance of this issue, there is a pressing need for a clear and unbiased assessment of the existing portfolio of data and research. Firearms and Violence uses conventional standards of science to examine three major themes - firearms and violence, the quality of research, and the quality of data available. The book assesses the strengths and limitations of current databases, examining current research studies on firearm use and the efforts to reduce unjustified firearm use and suggests ways in which they can be improved.




Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America


Book Description

A provocative history that reveals how guns—not abortion, race, or religion—are at the heart of America's cultural divide. Gunfight is a timely work examining America’s four-centuries-long political battle over gun control and the right to bear arms. In this definitive and provocative history, Adam Winkler reveals how guns—not abortion, race, or religion—are at the heart of America’s cultural divide. Using the landmark 2008 case District of Columbia v. Heller—which invalidated a law banning handguns in the nation’s capital—as a springboard, Winkler brilliantly weaves together the dramatic stories of gun-rights advocates and gun-control lobbyists, providing often unexpected insights into the venomous debate that now cleaves our nation.







Gun Control


Book Description

Gun Control If there's one thing most of the world knows about the USA it's that we love guns. Depending on who you are this might be a source of pride; knowing that your country provides you with the ultimate freedom to preserve life and liberty. For others it's a source of shame that despite being the richest nation in the world, the USA doesn't even have the same level of gun regulations as many third world nations. No matter how you feel about guns - knowing what to do about them is a difficult question for anybody. There are no easy answers to the debate about gun control. The information and statistics all seem to contradict each other, and everyone has such strong opinions about guns that there must be a right one. This is where this book on gun control comes to help. Here you will be given an engaging and insightful look into the world of guns and gun control. Understanding the true nature of gun violence and gun culture in the USA is as much about developing the ability to think critically about statistics and society as it is determining whether we should be giving people guns or taking them away. The NRA tells you that guns stop 2.5 million crimes a year. Mother Jones tells you that you're more likely to kill yourself or your children than a criminal with a gun. Who to believe? What's the agenda? Whether Republican or Democrat, gun-nut or gun-phobic; the truth is that the USA's gun homicide rate doesn't just beat out America's competition in the Western world, it obliterates it. Does this mean we need to bury our guns or make sure we have enough to go around? Discover what gun control really means and how it would manifest itself in America. How can we realistically reduce gun crime and stop headlines about another school shooting? Are the policies put forward by Obama a means to making us safer? Are they a way to take away our guns bullet by bullet? Or are they just meaningless political point scoring? Find out if we can keep the constitution and also put safety restrictions on guns and gun ownership. Explore how easy it is for us to get guns and whether binning them would just leave us surrounded by armed criminals. Do guns make us more or less safe? Wyoming has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the USA but also one of the lowest rates of murder. Do you believe the right that tells you this is what guns can achieve, or the left who tells it doesn't meaning anything? Unless you're looking at the relationship between gun ownership and murder in states like Mississippi and Alabama. We've heard a lot about Europe and how guns have both made them safer and far more at risk. What is really the situation on the ground there? Are there really no guns? Has violent crime in England shot through the roof since guns were banned? Do the Swiss really use assault rifles as backscratchers? Don't just discover the truth about gun control; discover how to find it out for yourself.




Dying of Whiteness


Book Description

A physician's "provocative" (Boston Globe) and "timely" (Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times Book Review) account of how right-wing backlash policies have deadly consequences -- even for the white voters they promise to help. In election after election, conservative white Americans have embraced politicians who pledge to make their lives great again. But as physician Jonathan M. Metzl shows in Dying of Whiteness, the policies that result actually place white Americans at ever-greater risk of sickness and death. Interviewing a range of everyday Americans, Metzl examines how racial resentment has fueled progun laws in Missouri, resistance to the Affordable Care Act in Tennessee, and cuts to schools and social services in Kansas. He shows these policies' costs: increasing deaths by gun suicide, falling life expectancies, and rising dropout rates. Now updated with a new afterword, Dying of Whiteness demonstrates how much white America would benefit by emphasizing cooperation rather than chasing false promises of supremacy. Winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award




Gun Show Nation


Book Description

Cultural historian, critic and gun owner Joan Burbick examines the lethal politics of gun ownership, answering that perennial question about American culture: why are Americans so obsessed with guns? Looking at the nation from the floor of a gun show, Burbick uncovers a powerful conservative ideology that attempts to place gun ownership at the centre of US democracy. Her analysis takes us from the history of the NRA, through the gun lobby's engagement with US politics, to the movement's contemporary hostility to the United Nations.




After Gun Violence


Book Description

Mass shootings have become the “new normal” in American life. The same can be said for the public debate that follows a shooting: blame is cast, political postures are assumed, but no meaningful policy changes are enacted. In After Gun Violence, Craig Rood argues that this cycle is the result of a communication problem. Without advocating for specific policies, Rood examines how Americans talk about gun violence and suggests how we might discuss the issues more productively and move beyond our current, tragic impasse. Exploring the ways advocacy groups, community leaders, politicians, and everyday citizens talk about gun violence, Rood reveals how the gun debate is about far more than just guns. He details the role of public memory in shaping the discourse, showing how memories of the victims of gun violence, the Second Amendment, and race relations influence how gun policy is discussed. In doing so, Rood argues that forgetting and misremembering this history leads interest groups and public officials to entrenched positions and political failure and drives the public further apart. Timely and innovative, After Gun Violence advances our understanding of public discourse in an age of gridlock by illustrating how public deliberation and public memory shape and misshape one another. It is a search to understand why public discourse fails and how we can do better.




Out of Range


Book Description

Few constitutional disputes maintain as powerful a grip on the public mind as the battle over the Second Amendment. The National Rifle Association and gun-control groups struggle unceasingly over a piece of the political landscape that no candidate for the presidency--and few for Congress--can afford to ignore. But who's right? Will it ever be possible to settle the argument? In Out of Range, one of the nation's leading legal scholars takes a calm, objective look at this bitter debate. Mark V. Tushnet brings to this book a deep expertise in the Constitution, the Supreme Court, and the role of the law in American life. He breaks down the different positions on the Second Amendment, showing that it is a mistake to stereotype them. Tushnet's exploration is honest and nuanced; he finds the constitutional arguments finely balanced, which is one reason the debate has raged for so long. Along the way, he examines various experiments in public policy, from both sides, and finds little clear evidence for the practical effectiveness of any approach to gun safety and prosecution. Of course, he notes, most advocates of the right to keep and bear arms agree that it should be subject to reasonable regulation. Ultimately, Tushnet argues, our view of the Second Amendment reflects our sense of ourselves as a people. The answer to the debate will not be found in any holy writ, but in our values and our vision of the nation. This compact, incisive examination offers an honest and thoughtful guide to both sides of the argument, pointing the way to solutions that could calm, if not settle, this bitter dispute.