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A Road Trip
Knopf
March 2013
On Sale: March 5, 2013
352 pages ISBN: 0307595412 EAN: 9780307595416 Kindle: B00985E64O Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
Here is armed America—a land of machine-gun gatherings in
the desert, lederhosened German shooting societies,
feral-hog hunts in Texas, and Hollywood gun armories.
Whether they’re collecting antique weapons, practicing
concealed carry, or firing an AR-15 or a Glock at their
local range, many Americans love guns—which horrifies and
fascinates many other Americans, and much of the rest of the
world. This lively, sometimes raucous book explores from the
inside the American love affair with
firearms.
Dan Baum is both a lifelong gun guy
and a Jewish Democrat who grew up in suburban New Jersey
feeling like a “child of a bitter divorce with allegiance to
both parents.” In Gun Guys he grabs his licensed
concealed handgun and hits the road to meet some of the 40
percent of Americans who own guns. We meet Rick Ector, a
black Detroit autoworker who buys a Smith & Wesson after
suffering an armed robbery—then quits his job to preach the
gospel of armed self-defense, especially to the resistant
black community; Jeremy and Marcey Parker, a young,
successful Kentucky couple whose idea of a romantic getaway
is the Blue Ridge Mountain 3-Gun Championship in Bowling
Green; and Aaron Zelman, head of Jews for the Preservation
of Firearms Ownership. Baum also travels to New Orleans,
where he enters the world of a man disabled by a bullet, and
to Chicago to interview a killer. Along the way, he takes us
to gun shows, gun stores, and shooting ranges trying to
figure out why so many of us love these things and why they
inspire such passions.
In the tradition of
Confederates in the Attic and Among the Thugs,
Baum brings an entire world to life. Written equally
for avid shooters and those who would never touch a firearm,
Gun Guys is more than a travelogue. It gives a fresh
assessment of the heated politics surrounding guns, one that
will challenge and inform people on all sides of the
issue. This may be the first book that goes beyond gun
politics to illuminate the visceral appeal of guns—an
original, perceptive, and surprisingly funny journey through
American gun culture.
No awards found for this book.
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