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Gun Guys: A Road Trip Audiobook
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Publisher Description
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.
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“As a writer, Baum doesn’t have it in him to lay down a dullsentence. His sketches of the people he meets (not all of them white, and notall of them guys) are charming and funny…Wise, considered, delectably written,fun to read, and wholly lacking in tendentiousness, and thus likely to deepenanyone’s thinking on the subject.”
— Bloomberg News
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“Dan Baum’s curiosity about guns and his passion for them pull you deep into this book before you even know how you got there. He has put in the heft of a firearm and the smell of gunpowder and the heedless pleasure of shooting and has produced a beautiful piece of writing.”
— Ian Frazier, New York Times bestelling author -
“An evenhanded and witty exposé of hardcore firearms culture and gun control controversies…Baum hones and polishes his investigation like he would an antique Winchester.”
— Boston Globe -
“The gun issue is about to find a new ambassador in Dan Baum…a thoughtful, well-reasoned antidote to the polarized hysteria that currently passes for a national gun debate.”
— San Francisco Chronicle -
“Smart and informative—an education for anyone the slightest bit curious about why gun owners are so passionate about their guns. Dan Baum’s stories are alive, engaging, and earnest.”
— New York Journal of Books -
“Vivid…Baum can still shoot, as demonstrated by a riveting chapter on some arduous gunfight training he endures. But more important, Baum can write. Schlepping among the gun lovers with this guy is unfailingly diverting as well as illuminating.”
— Newsday -
“Dan Baum may be exactly what America needs right now: a liberal journalist with a gun…For those who prefer humorous, literate, and honest discussion about [guns] to frothy ranting, Gun Guys will hit the spot.”
— Dallas News -
“[Gun Guys] is interesting and funny. But most of all it is enlightening.”
— Beaufort Observer -
“[A] balanced accounting of both sides of America’s gun issue, and while Baum doesn’t have all the answers, his solution that both sides come together to promote gun safety is both admirable and prudent.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Engrossing…a thoughtful corrective to the mutual ideological hysteria surrounding the issue of guns in America.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
“Gun Guys is the sort of readable, information-rich book that could change minds and help bridge the huge national divide over guns.”
— BookPage -
“Dan Baum armed himself with an open mind and a .38 Detective Special to see what the armed lifestyle is about. Taking participatory journalism to a debate that rivals abortion as a hot-button topic, he emerged with observations that need to be read by both sides of the highly polarized issue.”
— Massad Ayoob, internationally-known firearms and self-defense instructor -
“He has written the most original book on the gun culture yet—fair, funny, and as informed as it is iconoclastic…Gun Guys is an unlikely bridge for our too-polarized time.”
— Steve Bodio, author of Good Guns Again, and An Eternity of Eagles
Awards
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A Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week in Social Sciences
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A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2013 in Nonfiction
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About Dan Baum
Dan Baum is the author of Nine Lives, Smoke and Mirrors, and Citizen Coors. He was a staff writer for the New Yorker and has written for Rolling Stone, Harper’s Magazine, the New York Times Magazine, and many other publications.
About Richard Kind
Richard Kind is an American actor known for his roles in television sitcoms, including Mad About You and Spin City. Also a prominent voice actor, his work includes Disney’s Tom and Jerry: The Movie, A Bug’s Life, Cars, and Cars 2. He lives in Santa Monica.