Harel Shapira: Basic Pistol, Kartoniert / Broschiert

Klappentext

This shocking encounter with American gun culture reveals the devastating effects of how people are training their minds and bodies for violence.

'Exceptional . . . shows his readers a world full of complex people' - The Economist
'Utterly brilliant . . . deeply researched and thoughtful' - Justin Webb, former BBC North America editor

Every day, at firearms schools across America, ordinary people are learning how to use a gun. Who are their teachers? What are they being taught? And for what purpose?

Harel Shapira, a sociologist at the University of Texas, has spent ten years immersed in the world of gun-training. Throughout the dozens of classes he has taken, he has been taught that the world is filled with 'bad guys' who can only be stopped by the self-styled 'good guys'. He has learned that he must be prepared to kill or be killed.

Basic Pistol reveals how these schools are going far beyond teaching the mechanics of gun safety. They are teaching a way of living in the world rooted in racist fears, aggressive masculinity and an entitlement to violence. It will explain why the risk of widespread gun ownership is not simply the possibility of more gun violence and mass shootings. The risk is to the very foundations of democracy itself.

'A must read' - Heather Ann Thompson, author of Fear and Fury
'Groundbreaking' - Adam Winkler, author of We the Corporations
'Fascinating, disturbing, necessary' - Eric Klinenberg, author of Palaces for the People