What do you think?
Rate this book
Gun Guys: A Road Trip
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.
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.
338 pages, Hardcover
First published March 5, 2013
50 people are currently reading
860 people want to read
About the author
Dan Baum
12 books55 followersDan Baum was born in Orange, New Jersey (or South Orange, New Jersey) to Seymour and Audrey Bernice (Goldberger) Baum. His father, Seymour, was an executive with Colgate-Palmolive. His mother, Audrey Bernice (Goldberger) Baum, was a social worker. Raised in South Orange, Baum graduated from Columbia High School in 1974. He graduated from New York University in 1978.
Over the years he worked for various publications as a journalist. He was staff writer for The New Yorker, for which he covered Hurricane Katrina. In addition to that famous magazine he was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, The Asian Wall Street Journal, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He also freelanced for various publications such as Rolling Stone, Wired, Playboy and Harper's Magazine. He also wrote several books: Gun Guys: A Road Trip, Citizen Coors: An American Dynasty and Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure.
In 1987 he married fellow reporter Margret L. Knox and they had one daughter, Rosa Baum. Over the next thirty-three years he and Margaret would makes their home in various places across the globe: Zimbabwe, France, Missoula, Mont., rural Mexico, Watsonville, Calif., and Boulder, Colorado (where he passed away).
For many years, Mr. Baum and Ms. Knox collaborated on writing projects that carried only Mr. Baum’s byline, though she was a full partner, he wrote on their website. They wanted their writing to speak with a strong individual voice, and they thought a double byline would undermine that goal.
He died on Oct. 8, 2020 at his home in Boulder, Colo., at 64. Cause of death was glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer.
Over the years he worked for various publications as a journalist. He was staff writer for The New Yorker, for which he covered Hurricane Katrina. In addition to that famous magazine he was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, The Asian Wall Street Journal, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He also freelanced for various publications such as Rolling Stone, Wired, Playboy and Harper's Magazine. He also wrote several books: Gun Guys: A Road Trip, Citizen Coors: An American Dynasty and Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure.
In 1987 he married fellow reporter Margret L. Knox and they had one daughter, Rosa Baum. Over the next thirty-three years he and Margaret would makes their home in various places across the globe: Zimbabwe, France, Missoula, Mont., rural Mexico, Watsonville, Calif., and Boulder, Colorado (where he passed away).
For many years, Mr. Baum and Ms. Knox collaborated on writing projects that carried only Mr. Baum’s byline, though she was a full partner, he wrote on their website. They wanted their writing to speak with a strong individual voice, and they thought a double byline would undermine that goal.
He died on Oct. 8, 2020 at his home in Boulder, Colo., at 64. Cause of death was glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 154 reviews
May 19, 2018
The downside of this book:
The amount of time Baum spent flaunting his vocabulary and inflicting his politics on the reader. More unnecessary descriptions of people,their dress,and their actions then you would find in a Steig Larssen novel.He is the kind of guy you want to smack on the forehead.Except he's carrying .
The upside:
Dan Baum has written an extremely evenhanded book.He describes arguments from the left and the right and offers fair rebuttals.He is a very good storyteller,and has done a lot of research.He backs up his work with a lot of sources.It's a book that's worth keeping.
Sadly,when I finished this today,I turned on the news to learn about the shooting in Texas.It changes nothing about the book,but the arguments will be revved up.People using a tragedy to push their agendas.
The amount of time Baum spent flaunting his vocabulary and inflicting his politics on the reader. More unnecessary descriptions of people,their dress,and their actions then you would find in a Steig Larssen novel.He is the kind of guy you want to smack on the forehead.Except he's carrying .
The upside:
Dan Baum has written an extremely evenhanded book.He describes arguments from the left and the right and offers fair rebuttals.He is a very good storyteller,and has done a lot of research.He backs up his work with a lot of sources.It's a book that's worth keeping.
Sadly,when I finished this today,I turned on the news to learn about the shooting in Texas.It changes nothing about the book,but the arguments will be revved up.People using a tragedy to push their agendas.
April 9, 2016
“Gun guys don’t talk about it much, because we don’t want to seem weird, but a huge part of the attraction of guns in the sensual pleasure of handling them, whether shooting them or not. They are exquisitely designed and beautifully made like clocks or cameras…Guys like machines, and guns are machines elevated to high, lethal art. Most of us, though, seldom enjoy the pleasure of handling them – perhaps only when we take them from the safe for hunting season, plus a few sessions of target practice. The rest of the time, we read about them, think about them, and watch movies full of them….Imagine a musician who got to touch a guitar for one week a year.”
Like Baum I had a gun put in my hands early in life. By about my tenth year, thanks to the BSA, I could shoot a rifle with some accuracy and take pride in that accomplishment. So, in some ways, I was captivated by Baum’s determination to explore what were all the aspects of relationship between us and guns.
Baum isn’t your stereotypical guy with a gun. He is from Boulder, Colorado, and in many ways fits that demographic in terms of middle-class liberal values. He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker and has written for other magazines including Rolling Stone. His curiosity drives his journey to explore the USA’s fascination with weapons, particularly handguns. “The relationship between Boulder and Colorado Springs illustrated the depth of my ignorance about American politics. A child of the Great Society, raised by New Dealers, I’d grown up with the bedtime story that Democrats were the party of the workingman, while Republicans carried the cudgel of the rich. That, of course, was outdated wisdom…The GOP’s capture of working-class America was a thirty-year-old story by the time I got on the road with my Colt, but it never failed to surprise me when I encountered it. Guns were part of the story of that shift…”
He writes about his fascination with the relationship between the shooter and his gun as he moves around the country. In many venues, he is a stranger but that doesn’t seem to hold him back from digging around in the brains of almost everyone he meets. His observations keep the story moving and my attention riveted on the next sentence. Lots to ponder including this observation from some time in Southern California:
‘I blurted out the story of my own beginnings as a gun guy, telling how guns had colored my identity ever since. “What is it?” I implored. “What keeps us so firmly in their thrall?”
‘He rocked back on a heel, folded his arms, and looked at the ceiling. “My own philosophy?” he said. “There was a ruler of Japan in the 1500s: Nobunaga. This is in the era of bows and arrows and swords. Nobunaga had the flintlock and used it to conquer the country. Then he gathered them all up, destroyed them, and outlawed them. Japan is the only society that ever had a weapon of mass destruction and voluntarily stepped back. Why? Because it took years to get good with a bow and arrow and sword, but with a gun, you could train a peasant in a month. For me, that’s part of the fascination with the gun. You can be the poorest peasant in a land of samurai or the fat kid at summer camp, and with a little practice you’re equal to anybody.’ Or, as the Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company put it in its ads a century and a half ago, ‘God made all men, but Samuel Colt made them equal.’
“…Yes, as historians never tire of reminding us, we are a young country with a violent frontier tradition and a unique Second Amendment. But there’s also this: We’re equality freaks. We endlessly congratulate ourselves for our Equal Protection Clause and our found mythology of classless society…(Guns) make each of us sovereign and inviolate.”
Everything from hunting, to firing ranges; from antique rifles to machine guns; from training to Hollywood is put under scrutiny. For example:
“In addition to your Colorado (concealed carry) permit, you can get a nonresident carry permit in the state of Florida,” (the NRA recruiter) said. “That’s right: Florida will issue you a carry permit even though you don’t live there. Why do you want one? For one thing, three states – Washington, Virginia, and West Virginia – honor a Florida permit but not your Colorado permit. So that’s three extra states where you can exercise your constitutional rights. Second, let’ say you lose your Colorado permit. You couldn’t carry here because Colorado doesn’t recognize a nonresident Florida permit, but you’d still be able to carry in thirty states!”
“The only reason I would ‘lose’ a Colorado permit would be if, say, I committed a violent felony or beat up (my wife) and had a restraining order placed on me. Florida was willing, even then, to step in and allow me to continue to carry a gun.”
“You can’t possibly believe this (three hour) class has prepared me to carry a gun,” I said.
“This class has met the legal requirements to carry a gun,” he said. “There’s a difference. I strongly recommend more training.”
Every chapter has its “eye-openers.” The fundamental virtue of Gun Guys is that, with an open mind, you will find yourself taken down a road less traveled and then wonder how you arrived where you find yourself.
“’I like capacity, capacity, capacity,’ he said, sliding another sixteen-shot magazine into the Smith & Wesson M&P, banging them all off in one long staccato fusillade.
“’But seriously, you don’t think you’re really going to get yourself into a sustained gunfight, right? I mean, you’ve read the stats; most gunfights are over in two shots.’
“’MOST are over in two shots, but what about the ones that aren’t?’
“He let me shoot his gun, which filled my hand and pointed like a dream. I landed sixteen shots effortlessly in a three-inch group. But it was as charmless as it was efficient – a man-killer, with none of the history of my Colt or the jewelry elegance of my little Smith & Wesson. Concealing it would have meant dressing differently, and, as Henry David Thoreau said, beware any enterprise that requires new clothes.”
Baum’s travels and conversations, his training and visits to gun shops, show his own thoughts evolving over the eighteen month period that he is going around this country. “I pictured an attack at Boulder’s annual United Nations’ Day celebration – a place where it was entirely possible to imagine some SinCity2A type showing up to war-paint his face with liberals’ blood. What would I do? Run away? If I did that, with my gun on my hip, how would I live with myself if people were murdered? I’d be like a doctor who walked away from a stranger having a heart attack.
“But if I ran toward the sound of the guns, with my one piddly day of training, I could easily be killed – or kill a bystander. So what exactly were my choices?”
There are a lot of stories in Gun Guys and Baum attempts to explore as many collateral issues as possible. Those include the possibility of an entire world without guns, the terror of knowing you are in a situation with armed assailant, and boredom of having others give you so many similar lectures on the Second Amendment. Baum shares his personal feelings, and seems meticulous in documenting the same for those he meets. There was a lot to consider in what he presents.
I guess we all have an opinion about “those guys.” But who “those guys” are depends are who YOU are. Those guys with guns (at least 40% of the USA’s population) fall into a stereotype for those who don’t want guns around. Those guys who want some limitation on gun access or the kind of guns we can purchase are a stereotype for those who believe that this country was founded on an individual’s right to be armed. How long will it be before those groups can talk to each other?
Having read this book, I am a lot more aware. And, I think that’s a good thing. Thank you, Dan Baum!
Like Baum I had a gun put in my hands early in life. By about my tenth year, thanks to the BSA, I could shoot a rifle with some accuracy and take pride in that accomplishment. So, in some ways, I was captivated by Baum’s determination to explore what were all the aspects of relationship between us and guns.
Baum isn’t your stereotypical guy with a gun. He is from Boulder, Colorado, and in many ways fits that demographic in terms of middle-class liberal values. He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker and has written for other magazines including Rolling Stone. His curiosity drives his journey to explore the USA’s fascination with weapons, particularly handguns. “The relationship between Boulder and Colorado Springs illustrated the depth of my ignorance about American politics. A child of the Great Society, raised by New Dealers, I’d grown up with the bedtime story that Democrats were the party of the workingman, while Republicans carried the cudgel of the rich. That, of course, was outdated wisdom…The GOP’s capture of working-class America was a thirty-year-old story by the time I got on the road with my Colt, but it never failed to surprise me when I encountered it. Guns were part of the story of that shift…”
He writes about his fascination with the relationship between the shooter and his gun as he moves around the country. In many venues, he is a stranger but that doesn’t seem to hold him back from digging around in the brains of almost everyone he meets. His observations keep the story moving and my attention riveted on the next sentence. Lots to ponder including this observation from some time in Southern California:
‘I blurted out the story of my own beginnings as a gun guy, telling how guns had colored my identity ever since. “What is it?” I implored. “What keeps us so firmly in their thrall?”
‘He rocked back on a heel, folded his arms, and looked at the ceiling. “My own philosophy?” he said. “There was a ruler of Japan in the 1500s: Nobunaga. This is in the era of bows and arrows and swords. Nobunaga had the flintlock and used it to conquer the country. Then he gathered them all up, destroyed them, and outlawed them. Japan is the only society that ever had a weapon of mass destruction and voluntarily stepped back. Why? Because it took years to get good with a bow and arrow and sword, but with a gun, you could train a peasant in a month. For me, that’s part of the fascination with the gun. You can be the poorest peasant in a land of samurai or the fat kid at summer camp, and with a little practice you’re equal to anybody.’ Or, as the Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company put it in its ads a century and a half ago, ‘God made all men, but Samuel Colt made them equal.’
“…Yes, as historians never tire of reminding us, we are a young country with a violent frontier tradition and a unique Second Amendment. But there’s also this: We’re equality freaks. We endlessly congratulate ourselves for our Equal Protection Clause and our found mythology of classless society…(Guns) make each of us sovereign and inviolate.”
Everything from hunting, to firing ranges; from antique rifles to machine guns; from training to Hollywood is put under scrutiny. For example:
“In addition to your Colorado (concealed carry) permit, you can get a nonresident carry permit in the state of Florida,” (the NRA recruiter) said. “That’s right: Florida will issue you a carry permit even though you don’t live there. Why do you want one? For one thing, three states – Washington, Virginia, and West Virginia – honor a Florida permit but not your Colorado permit. So that’s three extra states where you can exercise your constitutional rights. Second, let’ say you lose your Colorado permit. You couldn’t carry here because Colorado doesn’t recognize a nonresident Florida permit, but you’d still be able to carry in thirty states!”
“The only reason I would ‘lose’ a Colorado permit would be if, say, I committed a violent felony or beat up (my wife) and had a restraining order placed on me. Florida was willing, even then, to step in and allow me to continue to carry a gun.”
“You can’t possibly believe this (three hour) class has prepared me to carry a gun,” I said.
“This class has met the legal requirements to carry a gun,” he said. “There’s a difference. I strongly recommend more training.”
Every chapter has its “eye-openers.” The fundamental virtue of Gun Guys is that, with an open mind, you will find yourself taken down a road less traveled and then wonder how you arrived where you find yourself.
“’I like capacity, capacity, capacity,’ he said, sliding another sixteen-shot magazine into the Smith & Wesson M&P, banging them all off in one long staccato fusillade.
“’But seriously, you don’t think you’re really going to get yourself into a sustained gunfight, right? I mean, you’ve read the stats; most gunfights are over in two shots.’
“’MOST are over in two shots, but what about the ones that aren’t?’
“He let me shoot his gun, which filled my hand and pointed like a dream. I landed sixteen shots effortlessly in a three-inch group. But it was as charmless as it was efficient – a man-killer, with none of the history of my Colt or the jewelry elegance of my little Smith & Wesson. Concealing it would have meant dressing differently, and, as Henry David Thoreau said, beware any enterprise that requires new clothes.”
Baum’s travels and conversations, his training and visits to gun shops, show his own thoughts evolving over the eighteen month period that he is going around this country. “I pictured an attack at Boulder’s annual United Nations’ Day celebration – a place where it was entirely possible to imagine some SinCity2A type showing up to war-paint his face with liberals’ blood. What would I do? Run away? If I did that, with my gun on my hip, how would I live with myself if people were murdered? I’d be like a doctor who walked away from a stranger having a heart attack.
“But if I ran toward the sound of the guns, with my one piddly day of training, I could easily be killed – or kill a bystander. So what exactly were my choices?”
There are a lot of stories in Gun Guys and Baum attempts to explore as many collateral issues as possible. Those include the possibility of an entire world without guns, the terror of knowing you are in a situation with armed assailant, and boredom of having others give you so many similar lectures on the Second Amendment. Baum shares his personal feelings, and seems meticulous in documenting the same for those he meets. There was a lot to consider in what he presents.
I guess we all have an opinion about “those guys.” But who “those guys” are depends are who YOU are. Those guys with guns (at least 40% of the USA’s population) fall into a stereotype for those who don’t want guns around. Those guys who want some limitation on gun access or the kind of guns we can purchase are a stereotype for those who believe that this country was founded on an individual’s right to be armed. How long will it be before those groups can talk to each other?
Having read this book, I am a lot more aware. And, I think that’s a good thing. Thank you, Dan Baum!
March 25, 2013
Maybe the best thing I've read yet on the places of guns, gun owners, and gun rights/gun control in American society. The author set out to collect information and viewpoints from around the country and across the philosophical spectrum on the subject, and this is a masterful, balanced, thoughtful, often funny, and sometimes poignant report on what he found.
I tend to agree with the jaundiced eye with which Baum regards both ends of the political continuum on this issue. To put it a bit more plainly, there are liars and crazies on both extremes and a lot of reasonable people in the middle being drowned out by those liars and crazies.
My own orientation is a lot like the author's - I am an independent progressive verging on being a socialist, a believer in the social safety net, single payer health care, good public education as the ladder of social mobility, and the idea that each of us is supposed to be our brothers' and sisters' keeper; I am also a gun collector and a retired Marine who spent twenty years in service to an oath to protect the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic - in my case, the part of the Constitution that speaks to me most is the Bill of Rights. All of it. It seems that in America today the people we hear in the mass media either believe in the Second Amendment only, or in the rest of the Bill of Rights but not that part, and that makes me sad. When I see the NRA exaggerating, distorting, and lying on one side, and the gun control lobby's voices on the other spouting nonsense that often shows they have no idea what they're talking about and don't care to learn, it makes me mad.
If I'm interpreting Dan Baum's views correctly, I'd agree with him that there has to be a middle ground in which we have some effective gun control, but still allow people who are not a menace to their neighbors by way of criminality or dangerous mental illness to responsibly own and use the guns they want and can afford. To me, that should be hard for anyone to argue with.
I tend to agree with the jaundiced eye with which Baum regards both ends of the political continuum on this issue. To put it a bit more plainly, there are liars and crazies on both extremes and a lot of reasonable people in the middle being drowned out by those liars and crazies.
My own orientation is a lot like the author's - I am an independent progressive verging on being a socialist, a believer in the social safety net, single payer health care, good public education as the ladder of social mobility, and the idea that each of us is supposed to be our brothers' and sisters' keeper; I am also a gun collector and a retired Marine who spent twenty years in service to an oath to protect the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic - in my case, the part of the Constitution that speaks to me most is the Bill of Rights. All of it. It seems that in America today the people we hear in the mass media either believe in the Second Amendment only, or in the rest of the Bill of Rights but not that part, and that makes me sad. When I see the NRA exaggerating, distorting, and lying on one side, and the gun control lobby's voices on the other spouting nonsense that often shows they have no idea what they're talking about and don't care to learn, it makes me mad.
If I'm interpreting Dan Baum's views correctly, I'd agree with him that there has to be a middle ground in which we have some effective gun control, but still allow people who are not a menace to their neighbors by way of criminality or dangerous mental illness to responsibly own and use the guns they want and can afford. To me, that should be hard for anyone to argue with.
April 17, 2016
No matter what side of the gun-control debate you're standing on right now, you really should take the time to read this book. It is like a breath of fresh air to one who has been long exposed to the ravings of lunatics on either end of the gun-control balancing beam. Dan Baum is a Jewish Democrat who also (somewhat guiltily, of course) enjoys the occasional recreational use of firearms.
When it comes to gun control, particularly in the USA, there seems to be very little middle ground. You have the hysterical granola-crunching foo-foo pixies on one side screaming for the total disarmament of the country, while on the other side you have a group of rabid stump-jumping individualists who believe that the 2nd Amendment has given them the right to take their Uzi to church. Mr Baum found himself occupying the middle ground, and decided that he would set out on a road trip to see armed America with his own eyes.
Did I mention that Baum is a journalist? I don't like journalists...or at least I don't like the way they sensationalize everything and get almost nothing right about guns...just like most Democrats. But Baum is the rare exception who verifies everything he writes...and can he write! Baum takes the reader on a journey through the USA and talks to just about everyone who has anything to do with the sale, dispersal, or utilization of firearms. For camouflage he slapped an NRA cap on his head (fooled no one) and carried a handgun. Baum takes the reader to the beery festivities of the Cincinnati Schuetzenfest and the sweaty run-and-gun of a Texas hog hunt. He'll escort you into the storage and manufacturing areas of a company that rents guns out to movie companies. All very fascinating....I have been on hog hunts in Texas but the Schuetzenfest was new to me and, thanks to Dan Baum, I have another destination on my bucket list. Several, actually, because there was also mention of some machinegun shoots! The reader will also meet some interesting people through their interviews with Mr Baum, not least of whom was the founder of the "Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership".
Obviously, this book has a lot for the gun owner, but if you oppose firearms you may have your assumptions challenged here. Did you realize that many high-profile anti-gun spokespersons actually have quietly taken out carry permits? Or that persons legally carrying concealed firearms are considerably less likely to be involved in a homicide than your average person? Or that countries that enforced gun control restrictions suffered an immediate surge of serious crime? Mr Baum will take you through all of that, studying arguments for both sides of the issue.
By the way, if you read the book, don't neglect the endnotes. They are almost as entertaining as the book and contain all manner of references to new titles and websites. In fact, this book was so darn good that after returning this to the library I'm going out to buy a copy for myself.
When it comes to gun control, particularly in the USA, there seems to be very little middle ground. You have the hysterical granola-crunching foo-foo pixies on one side screaming for the total disarmament of the country, while on the other side you have a group of rabid stump-jumping individualists who believe that the 2nd Amendment has given them the right to take their Uzi to church. Mr Baum found himself occupying the middle ground, and decided that he would set out on a road trip to see armed America with his own eyes.
Did I mention that Baum is a journalist? I don't like journalists...or at least I don't like the way they sensationalize everything and get almost nothing right about guns...just like most Democrats. But Baum is the rare exception who verifies everything he writes...and can he write! Baum takes the reader on a journey through the USA and talks to just about everyone who has anything to do with the sale, dispersal, or utilization of firearms. For camouflage he slapped an NRA cap on his head (fooled no one) and carried a handgun. Baum takes the reader to the beery festivities of the Cincinnati Schuetzenfest and the sweaty run-and-gun of a Texas hog hunt. He'll escort you into the storage and manufacturing areas of a company that rents guns out to movie companies. All very fascinating....I have been on hog hunts in Texas but the Schuetzenfest was new to me and, thanks to Dan Baum, I have another destination on my bucket list. Several, actually, because there was also mention of some machinegun shoots! The reader will also meet some interesting people through their interviews with Mr Baum, not least of whom was the founder of the "Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership".
Obviously, this book has a lot for the gun owner, but if you oppose firearms you may have your assumptions challenged here. Did you realize that many high-profile anti-gun spokespersons actually have quietly taken out carry permits? Or that persons legally carrying concealed firearms are considerably less likely to be involved in a homicide than your average person? Or that countries that enforced gun control restrictions suffered an immediate surge of serious crime? Mr Baum will take you through all of that, studying arguments for both sides of the issue.
By the way, if you read the book, don't neglect the endnotes. They are almost as entertaining as the book and contain all manner of references to new titles and websites. In fact, this book was so darn good that after returning this to the library I'm going out to buy a copy for myself.
May 19, 2021
The late Dan Baum (1956-2020) was a liberal (though I think moderate is just as appropriate), free-lance reporter and a man who was also a gun-owner. Several years ago he embarked on a road trip across the United States to try to get a better understanding of the American gun-culture. In the course of the trip he meets all types of gun-owners, visits numerous shooting competitions, gun-shows, gun-stores and goes through firearms training. He offers no solutions, but he also doesn't indulge in simple-minded clich��s.
Mr. Baum understood that the issue is more complicated than the true-believers on both sides would like to admit. I didn't agree with all of his opinions, but I like the fact that he made an effort. I'm a life-long gun owner and a member of the NRA. However, as the years have gone by and I've matured, I've also come to understand that there are shades of gray (which could be applied to life in general). It isn't an easy place to be when emotions run so hot. Moderation isn't welcomed in such a polarized environment and I appreciate that he was willing to go out there.
ENDNOTE
I wrote this review early in 2019. Mr. Baum was still alive at that time and he and I exchanged several e-mails. He was an intelligent and witty man who was at ease discussing numerous subjects. Eventually we stopped e-mailing one another until today (May 19, 2021) when I decided to send him a short message. I learned that he passed away last October from Cancer. He was a good writer and I'm sorry he left so soon.
Mr. Baum understood that the issue is more complicated than the true-believers on both sides would like to admit. I didn't agree with all of his opinions, but I like the fact that he made an effort. I'm a life-long gun owner and a member of the NRA. However, as the years have gone by and I've matured, I've also come to understand that there are shades of gray (which could be applied to life in general). It isn't an easy place to be when emotions run so hot. Moderation isn't welcomed in such a polarized environment and I appreciate that he was willing to go out there.
ENDNOTE
I wrote this review early in 2019. Mr. Baum was still alive at that time and he and I exchanged several e-mails. He was an intelligent and witty man who was at ease discussing numerous subjects. Eventually we stopped e-mailing one another until today (May 19, 2021) when I decided to send him a short message. I learned that he passed away last October from Cancer. He was a good writer and I'm sorry he left so soon.
April 29, 2016
It only loss the star for me in the technical descriptions of length. I know the parts, but had no idea of the attachments? Or the variety.
Dan Baum is the kind of person whom I love to know and befriend. He's urban, honest, open-minded, and essentially a lightening rod for cultural nuance and individual humor. But I especially like the way he feels about his "fit". So many of us do not fit into the ideologue whole world view that divides and categorizes in any of 30 or 40 essential characteristics. Especially not into the practices that frame those ideologies and agendas as "whole piece" belief systems. Love, love his self-descriptions.
In every aspect of the word he holds little, if any, prejudice. And he doesn't "fit" into his group of Jewish urban East Coast either.
Some of the meets and travelogue portions had me laughing enough that I had to read a few to others out loud. And also go ask a few other friends some questions. Because I have a FOID card but do not know the depth of this subject. Not at all. Baum's Boulder, CO (this is where he resides now) asides and comparisons (like the Whole Foods one, I call it Whole Paycheck)- were spot on.
If you do not read the majority, at least read the Condition Black chapter. I know at least 5 exact Rick Ector's. Those successful Black men who in the prior and for over a decade held $100,000 a year salary and full community family life that have BOTH essentially disappeared. Also, it wouldn't hurt either to read the one on the MOVIE guns. Especially if you are one of those movie buffs who watch those action, blow'em ups, shoot outs, chases with sniper fire, sci. fic. epics etc. The hypocrisy of some of those stars is, IMHO, unbelievable.
Even if you are of the anti-gun visceral reaction, read this book. It's accurate and rests closest to the truth of guns in the USA than any I have come across. Media and politico are not telling you the gun story in any portion of measure or values.
Myself, I seldom walk around in Condition White mode. Not just because of where I live, but because of the events and stranger assaults I have seen.
This book also destroys the memes and fallacies put out by both sides on this issue, for the most part. Rightly so, as they are wrong. Especially upon the NRA being the big boy PAC- not even in the top half any more.
Dan Baum is the kind of person whom I love to know and befriend. He's urban, honest, open-minded, and essentially a lightening rod for cultural nuance and individual humor. But I especially like the way he feels about his "fit". So many of us do not fit into the ideologue whole world view that divides and categorizes in any of 30 or 40 essential characteristics. Especially not into the practices that frame those ideologies and agendas as "whole piece" belief systems. Love, love his self-descriptions.
In every aspect of the word he holds little, if any, prejudice. And he doesn't "fit" into his group of Jewish urban East Coast either.
Some of the meets and travelogue portions had me laughing enough that I had to read a few to others out loud. And also go ask a few other friends some questions. Because I have a FOID card but do not know the depth of this subject. Not at all. Baum's Boulder, CO (this is where he resides now) asides and comparisons (like the Whole Foods one, I call it Whole Paycheck)- were spot on.
If you do not read the majority, at least read the Condition Black chapter. I know at least 5 exact Rick Ector's. Those successful Black men who in the prior and for over a decade held $100,000 a year salary and full community family life that have BOTH essentially disappeared. Also, it wouldn't hurt either to read the one on the MOVIE guns. Especially if you are one of those movie buffs who watch those action, blow'em ups, shoot outs, chases with sniper fire, sci. fic. epics etc. The hypocrisy of some of those stars is, IMHO, unbelievable.
Even if you are of the anti-gun visceral reaction, read this book. It's accurate and rests closest to the truth of guns in the USA than any I have come across. Media and politico are not telling you the gun story in any portion of measure or values.
Myself, I seldom walk around in Condition White mode. Not just because of where I live, but because of the events and stranger assaults I have seen.
This book also destroys the memes and fallacies put out by both sides on this issue, for the most part. Rightly so, as they are wrong. Especially upon the NRA being the big boy PAC- not even in the top half any more.
August 31, 2019
Autor to ciekawy przypadek amerykańskiego "liberała", dość typowego zwolennika demokratów, który jest jednocześnie miłośnikiem broni - po prostu ją lubi, tak jak ktoś inny może lubić szwajcarskie zegarki albo modelarstwo. To stworzyło w jego życiu pewne napięcie (w jego otoczeniu broni się wręcz nie znosi), które zaowocowało w końcu książką - Dan Baum wyruszył w podróż po Ameryce, by rozmawiać z innymi pasjonatami broni i spróbować zrozumieć ich myślenie. Świetny pomysł.
Niestety, rezultaty trochę rozczarowują. Owszem, lepiej poznajemy i rozumiemy dzięki tej lekturze zagorzałych zwolenników drugiej poprawki (i jej niezwykle szerokiej interpretacji), ale mam wrażenie, że jest to co najwyżej rozszerzenie dość stereotypowego obrazu, który można sobie wyrobić na podstawie styczności z amerykańską kulturą i publicystyką (choć może ta ocena to tylko mój confirmation bias?). Również próba odpowiedzi na pytanie, co takiego fascynującego jest w broni, pozostaje bez satysfakcjonującej odpowiedzi.
Wreszcie, w autorze zwycięża w końcu miłośnik broni i jego ostateczne konkluzje są dość jednostronne. Pasjonaci broni są z reguły odpowiedzialni, zwiększenia kontroli nad posiadaniem broni nie przynosi zauważalnych zmian, odbieranie obywatelom tego prawa to traktowanie ich jak dzieci, a w ogóle to i tak nic się nie da zrobić i lepiej odpuścić, bo zniechęca się tym ludzi do innych postulatów "liberałów" - od prawa do aborcji do walki z globalnym ociepleniem.
Autor przy tym w ogóle nie zastanawia się, dlaczego USA to praktycznie jedyny rozwinięty kraj na świecie, gdzie co roku zdarza się mnóstwo przypadków strzelanin, w których ginie wielu ludzi (w tym bardzo tragicznych ataków na szkoły i podobne miejsca). Jego perspektywa jest bardzo amerykocentryczna, w związku z czym europejski czytelnik wielokrotnie zauważa, że stwierdzenia, argumenty czy sposoby rozumowania uznawane przez Bauma praktycznie bezkrytycznie za naturalne czy oczywiste zupełnie takie nie są.
Podsumowując: interesujące, ale rozczarowujące.
Niestety, rezultaty trochę rozczarowują. Owszem, lepiej poznajemy i rozumiemy dzięki tej lekturze zagorzałych zwolenników drugiej poprawki (i jej niezwykle szerokiej interpretacji), ale mam wrażenie, że jest to co najwyżej rozszerzenie dość stereotypowego obrazu, który można sobie wyrobić na podstawie styczności z amerykańską kulturą i publicystyką (choć może ta ocena to tylko mój confirmation bias?). Również próba odpowiedzi na pytanie, co takiego fascynującego jest w broni, pozostaje bez satysfakcjonującej odpowiedzi.
Wreszcie, w autorze zwycięża w końcu miłośnik broni i jego ostateczne konkluzje są dość jednostronne. Pasjonaci broni są z reguły odpowiedzialni, zwiększenia kontroli nad posiadaniem broni nie przynosi zauważalnych zmian, odbieranie obywatelom tego prawa to traktowanie ich jak dzieci, a w ogóle to i tak nic się nie da zrobić i lepiej odpuścić, bo zniechęca się tym ludzi do innych postulatów "liberałów" - od prawa do aborcji do walki z globalnym ociepleniem.
Autor przy tym w ogóle nie zastanawia się, dlaczego USA to praktycznie jedyny rozwinięty kraj na świecie, gdzie co roku zdarza się mnóstwo przypadków strzelanin, w których ginie wielu ludzi (w tym bardzo tragicznych ataków na szkoły i podobne miejsca). Jego perspektywa jest bardzo amerykocentryczna, w związku z czym europejski czytelnik wielokrotnie zauważa, że stwierdzenia, argumenty czy sposoby rozumowania uznawane przez Bauma praktycznie bezkrytycznie za naturalne czy oczywiste zupełnie takie nie są.
Podsumowując: interesujące, ale rozczarowujące.
December 28, 2015
A holiday road trip to the Mid-West was the perfect time to listen to this audiobook, which is strangely, yet wonderfully, narrated by Richard Kind.
Guns. Abortion. Gays. Religion. What do they have in common? Ideological hysteria from all sides. What has happened to us as a nation, that we cannot have civilized, respectful, well informed debates over important issues?
This book is a travelogue that could help start moving the conversation in the right direction, at least on the gun front. Can you be a liberal and love guns? The author, who is a Jewish Democrat and a lifelong gun guy, takes to the road to understand America's love affair with guns. He introduces us to a sampling of the 40% of Americans who own guns for a myriad reasons: hunters, sport shooters, collectors, people who simply love the machinery, and yes criminals.
I found this nonfiction book to be insightful, educational, and surprisingly humorous. You might not agree with everything the author has to say, but read this book to get a better understanding of the gun culture before you get on your soap box with statements like "Guns bad!" Highly recommended.
Guns. Abortion. Gays. Religion. What do they have in common? Ideological hysteria from all sides. What has happened to us as a nation, that we cannot have civilized, respectful, well informed debates over important issues?
This book is a travelogue that could help start moving the conversation in the right direction, at least on the gun front. Can you be a liberal and love guns? The author, who is a Jewish Democrat and a lifelong gun guy, takes to the road to understand America's love affair with guns. He introduces us to a sampling of the 40% of Americans who own guns for a myriad reasons: hunters, sport shooters, collectors, people who simply love the machinery, and yes criminals.
I found this nonfiction book to be insightful, educational, and surprisingly humorous. You might not agree with everything the author has to say, but read this book to get a better understanding of the gun culture before you get on your soap box with statements like "Guns bad!" Highly recommended.
July 15, 2013
I'm astonished at how I feel about this book, frankly. Because I picked it up between two fingers, with my nose wrinkled up and my eyes rolling like the teenager I sometimes act like when my gun guy father tells me to read something like... well, like what I thought this was going to be.
What it was, however, was the story of a liberal Democrat guy who grew up liking guns and how he jumped feet-first into US gun culture to understand it from the inside. It didn't turn out the way Baum expected it to, either. He learned, and in turn explained to me, about what the average-guy-on-the-street-with-a-concealed-weapon was all about. And what hunters are doing out there. And the sports gun people. He talked to people who've been on both sides of guns, and if he told me the five rules of gun handling once, he told me a dozen times.
It's a fair opening salvo (ahem) in the quest to have a dialogue between the anti-gun people and the gun people. It's a tour of a United States that coexists invisibly with the one in which I've always lived. And it's given me an awful lot to think about, made me if nothing else a little more aware of my own prejudices and assumptions.
Highly recommended.
What it was, however, was the story of a liberal Democrat guy who grew up liking guns and how he jumped feet-first into US gun culture to understand it from the inside. It didn't turn out the way Baum expected it to, either. He learned, and in turn explained to me, about what the average-guy-on-the-street-with-a-concealed-weapon was all about. And what hunters are doing out there. And the sports gun people. He talked to people who've been on both sides of guns, and if he told me the five rules of gun handling once, he told me a dozen times.
It's a fair opening salvo (ahem) in the quest to have a dialogue between the anti-gun people and the gun people. It's a tour of a United States that coexists invisibly with the one in which I've always lived. And it's given me an awful lot to think about, made me if nothing else a little more aware of my own prejudices and assumptions.
Highly recommended.
May 6, 2013
"Gun Guys: A Road Trip" is the (nonfiction) tale of a liberal Democrat gun owner who takes to the road to try to understand and document gun owners in America. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the gun debate. Admittedly, no one with an opinion about gun rights or gun control will be swayed by the contents of this study. We believe what we believe. But this book might best represent what is needed in the discussion: a fair and balanced look at both sides of the issue without mindless name calling, demonizing, and exaggeration.
May 29, 2017
I appreciate the attempt to present a clear rational view of those who are pro-gun. But since the author admitted his carrying was an experiment versus a way of life, many of his experiences felt forced and unnatural. It was hard to stop hearing that 'voice' throughout the book.
June 1, 2013
Its incredibly hard for me to review this book without any political bias but there is one thing for certain in this book and its the ability to really grasp and understand gun culture. At it;s core the gun control issue present in America right now is presented in a manner that doesn't constitute as much understanding and comprehensiveness that it should. However Dan Baum's perspective of gun culture is extremely unique in that his political background of being a liberal Democrat and his personal opinions of loving guns is very insightful. If you are on both sides of the spectrum: a gun toting individual or a gun opposed one, you should read this book. I have to agree with Baum that American Gun Culture is extremely misunderstood in the public eye and that needs to changed. In terms of the writing style and story telling aspects of the book go, the techniques employed are also a bit unorthodox. While the main plot line follows a basic format of a road trip, the actual experiences and stories told throughout the book can sometimes be scattered which surprisingly helps the overall formatting of the story and provides greater insight about different type of gun culture and how it is different all across the U.S.
March 6, 2013
Wasn't quite sure what to expect with this one, but it turned out to be a good read, albeit with what I thought were some unnecessary jabs at rural America and some "redneck" stereotyping. Dan Baum is an author and former New York Times writer who grew up in a liberal Democrat Jewish family (his description). He was taught riflery at summer camp when he was 5, and developed a lifelong love of firearms. In 2009, he embarked on a cross country discovery tour to find out exactly who enjoys shooting sports, firearms, and why. He looks at the facts, voices his opinions, and provides a fascinating look at a group of people that is extremely diverse but whose members are pigeonholed and stereotyped. I think he particularly gives voice to people who are on the political left and suddenly find themselves alienated because of a single issue.
April 1, 2018
Niezła książka. Atutem bez wątpienia jest to, że Dan Baum jest entuzjastą broni. Nie tak jak popaprańcy z NRA lub psychiczni sztukujący sobie ego lub penisa posiadaniem AR-15. Szkoda, że głosy takich normalsów giną wd wrzasku zwolenników tego, aby każdy psychiczny bydlak lub pryszczaty gnojek miał prawo rozstrzelać przedszkole. Niemniej, nawet czytając tak wyważającego racje Bauma nie można pozbyć się nawet nie wrażenia co pewności, że dziś prawo do posiadania broni w USA to domena fanatyków lub cynicznych, manipulujących nimi "kapitalistów".
Want to read
August 26, 2023Liczę na wiele!
April 10, 2013
I picked this up because it was reviewed briefly in Mother Jones, and the reviewer praised it for being an honest effort to communicate with and understand gun owners. I agree that this would be a worthwhile project--to understand gun owners and the gulf between them and non-gun owners might help to create policies that would be palatable to "gun guys" and keep everyone safer. The reviewer compared this book to Confederates in the Attic, by Tony Horwitz, and the comparison is apt, because I had the same sense of frustration after finishing both books. The author has a very hard time disentangling personal reminiscences and experiences from anecdotal encounters to arrive at anything like a general understanding. There is very little that puts any of the stories about the people he meets in a broader social or historical context. (Baum will occasionally say things like, no wonder gun owners are so mad when the economy is so bad.) Within each chapter, there's almost nothing to indicate that the individual people he features are at all representative of gun owners, or a subgroup of gun owners. And he often fails to probe adequately about some of the most interesting things the gun owners say directly to him, just follows them with guesswork and navel gazing. I often found myself saying, "oh, ask him more about THAT!" (But near the end of the book he says, "I didn't have the time, money, or competitive urge" to do more research. What a shame.)
There are a few useful things in the book, though. One thing it does to is highlight how heterogeneous gun owners are as a group, and the many different ethical frameworks they attach to their behaviors. The chapters on deer hunting and hog hunting are particularly instructive in this regard--both groups seem to share similar notions about how gun ownership requires similar levels of responsibility and commitment to safety, but they are WORLDS APART on the ethics of what they should be allowed to do with their guns and why, and everything that flows from that. At one point, he wounds a hog that runs off, and Baum says, "My every impulse was to keep searching, with a flashlight if necessary. The worst thing a hunter could do, according to the hunting ethic I’d learned, was lose a wounded animal: It was cruel, it wasted meat, and it messed up game management, because no tag went on the kill. But, good Sunday school teacher that he was, Casey explained patiently and repeatedly: “That’s not what we’re about here.” To reinforce his point, he pulled me from the woods into a pasture thoroughly bulldozed by hogs. If it had been my pasture, I’d have wanted the hogs dead, too."
If Baum is effective at showing how varied gun owners are as a group, the voices advocating gun control come across as much more unified and simplified. He cites lots of examples showing how lefties, liberals, and Democrats vilify gun owners, and a lot of those passages left me cringing. But it made me wonder if there is not perhaps more depth and nuance among those who want to argue for sensible gun policy. I hope so, because the people quoted in this book make the gun control lobby look ten times worse than the NRA.
The policy recommendations Baum issues at the end of the book are probably sound, but he doesn't make any effort in this book to uncover how gun owners would feel about them. We can face the pragmatic reality that we're probably never going to ban guns, and even if we could, there are so many guns out there, it might not really do anything to eliminate violence. So instead of pressing for bans on certain types of guns, why not start pressing for liability laws? The NRA and many gun owners go on at length about personal responsibility--why not start to pass some laws making gun owners liable for crimes committed with their weapons? This is a question that Baum doesn't even touch, though, so we come away from this book not knowing how gun guys would feel about it. In many ways, this is why I'm so disappointed in the book.
Baum, Dan (2013-03-05). Gun Guys: A Road Trip (Kindle Locations 4300-4304). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
There are a few useful things in the book, though. One thing it does to is highlight how heterogeneous gun owners are as a group, and the many different ethical frameworks they attach to their behaviors. The chapters on deer hunting and hog hunting are particularly instructive in this regard--both groups seem to share similar notions about how gun ownership requires similar levels of responsibility and commitment to safety, but they are WORLDS APART on the ethics of what they should be allowed to do with their guns and why, and everything that flows from that. At one point, he wounds a hog that runs off, and Baum says, "My every impulse was to keep searching, with a flashlight if necessary. The worst thing a hunter could do, according to the hunting ethic I’d learned, was lose a wounded animal: It was cruel, it wasted meat, and it messed up game management, because no tag went on the kill. But, good Sunday school teacher that he was, Casey explained patiently and repeatedly: “That’s not what we’re about here.” To reinforce his point, he pulled me from the woods into a pasture thoroughly bulldozed by hogs. If it had been my pasture, I’d have wanted the hogs dead, too."
If Baum is effective at showing how varied gun owners are as a group, the voices advocating gun control come across as much more unified and simplified. He cites lots of examples showing how lefties, liberals, and Democrats vilify gun owners, and a lot of those passages left me cringing. But it made me wonder if there is not perhaps more depth and nuance among those who want to argue for sensible gun policy. I hope so, because the people quoted in this book make the gun control lobby look ten times worse than the NRA.
The policy recommendations Baum issues at the end of the book are probably sound, but he doesn't make any effort in this book to uncover how gun owners would feel about them. We can face the pragmatic reality that we're probably never going to ban guns, and even if we could, there are so many guns out there, it might not really do anything to eliminate violence. So instead of pressing for bans on certain types of guns, why not start pressing for liability laws? The NRA and many gun owners go on at length about personal responsibility--why not start to pass some laws making gun owners liable for crimes committed with their weapons? This is a question that Baum doesn't even touch, though, so we come away from this book not knowing how gun guys would feel about it. In many ways, this is why I'm so disappointed in the book.
Baum, Dan (2013-03-05). Gun Guys: A Road Trip (Kindle Locations 4300-4304). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
May 10, 2016
I'm not emotional about guns and I think that is why I am open to these discussions. This book gave a pretty balanced review of the topic, something many cannot seem to do, especially.considering the author is a gun enthusiast. This book talked about the passion and respect people have for guns but also their 'if you're not with us, you're against us' attitude. Baum discussed the zealots on both sides of the argument. He wrote about the lack of data to support both the anti-gun legislations and the pro-gun perceived increase in crime.
What I took away from this book mostly is a new perspective of the NRA. While they fight against gun control legislation, they don't seem to offer much in return or use their influence to help deal with some of the issues that don't need to be legislated (purposefully cryptic so as not to spoil too much). They don't seem to want to be part of the solution and that is sad because we non-gun owners could learn from them and their members, and vice-versa. Unfortunately, both sides are too sensitive and won't get out of their own way to work toward understanding.
I recommend this book to anyone who is open to the discussion. This book is not meant for those who already have closed that door.
What I took away from this book mostly is a new perspective of the NRA. While they fight against gun control legislation, they don't seem to offer much in return or use their influence to help deal with some of the issues that don't need to be legislated (purposefully cryptic so as not to spoil too much). They don't seem to want to be part of the solution and that is sad because we non-gun owners could learn from them and their members, and vice-versa. Unfortunately, both sides are too sensitive and won't get out of their own way to work toward understanding.
I recommend this book to anyone who is open to the discussion. This book is not meant for those who already have closed that door.
September 24, 2016
Gun Guys: A Road Trip by Dan Baum (Alfred A. Knopf 2013) (683.400973). This is a book about the American gun wars - who can carry, where and when, and under what conditions. I learned from this book that modern day rifles like the American made AR-15 are made of largely interchangeable parts. The owner can add on lots of "extras" to spiff up his gun; he can change the appearance of the weapon, or he can even change the caliber. As I read this, I realized that this is apparently much of the attraction of this weapon. The ability to dress up one's firearm is a large part of the fascination that modern day video games hold for serious gamers, particularly those that are teenaged males. In fact, as one gun store shopper said, "[Dressing up one's gun is] Barbie for men." This book is cute though pointless; I hope it is also harmless as well. After reading this volume, I would posit that arguing which side is right on the gun control debate is like arguing over who is the prettiest castaway, Mary Anne or Ginger. No matter how loud or how long the two sides argue, neither side will ever persuade the other to change their minds. My rating: 7/10, finished 9/20/16.
June 28, 2022
Although a decade old, this book about the author’s 18 month journey with his wife across America while packing heat and seeking out other gun owners, poking though gun stores, going hunting, and training on firing ranges, is to me still an important contribution to understanding our uniquely violent culture. As a skilled journalist and fine writer he captures the tone and widely varying attitudes of America’s “gun guys.” They seem, however, to come across as a mostly benign crowd of common citizens who just happen to like to fool with instruments of death, a fact only briefly acknowledged near the end.
Interestingly, in a short postscript, written shortly after the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, Baum offers three “suggestions:” 1) make gun owners criminally liable for their weapons and keep their guns locked up, 2) Make them take more training in order to “carry” in public, and 3) put the FBI’s Background Check data base on line and make private gun sellers use it to check all gun transfers.
He appeals to America’s gun guys to join in the general quest for a safer culture, but seems to want the rest of us to simply accept a society permeated with devices designed for killing - and the people like himself who love to play with them.
I wondered as I read his book in 2022 what he might say today about where we are with guns and how he might have reacted to our current events had he not died prematurely at age 64 in 2020.
Interestingly, in a short postscript, written shortly after the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, Baum offers three “suggestions:” 1) make gun owners criminally liable for their weapons and keep their guns locked up, 2) Make them take more training in order to “carry” in public, and 3) put the FBI’s Background Check data base on line and make private gun sellers use it to check all gun transfers.
He appeals to America’s gun guys to join in the general quest for a safer culture, but seems to want the rest of us to simply accept a society permeated with devices designed for killing - and the people like himself who love to play with them.
I wondered as I read his book in 2022 what he might say today about where we are with guns and how he might have reacted to our current events had he not died prematurely at age 64 in 2020.
February 24, 2023
Po liberalnym pisarzu można spodziewać się książki potępiającej broń. Jednak Dan Baum jest liberałem i pasjonatem broni jednocześnie. Ten dysonans daje mu ciekawą perspektywę podczas jego podróży po uzbrojonej Ameryce. Autor zwraca uwagę na długą historię posiadania broni w Ameryce, różne powody zainteresowania bronią (kolekcjonerstwo, sport, rozrywka, polowania, samoobrona), przytacza też dane i argumenty obu stron debaty nad prawem do posiadania i noszenia broni.
Dla czytelnika z nieuzbrojonego kraju powszechność broni w USA jest aż uderzająca. To czego mi zabrakło to próby wyjaśnienia, co jest nie tak ze Stanami, że dochodzi tam do masowych zabójstw i strzelanin (ten temat autor jakby celowo pomija). Więcej tu technikaliów dotyczących bronii i strzelania niż interesujących mnue aspektów psychologiczno-społecznych.
Dla czytelnika z nieuzbrojonego kraju powszechność broni w USA jest aż uderzająca. To czego mi zabrakło to próby wyjaśnienia, co jest nie tak ze Stanami, że dochodzi tam do masowych zabójstw i strzelanin (ten temat autor jakby celowo pomija). Więcej tu technikaliów dotyczących bronii i strzelania niż interesujących mnue aspektów psychologiczno-społecznych.
February 17, 2025
Ciekawe przedstawienie czemu amerykanie są skazani na broń i próba zrozumienia tej fascynacji z perspektywy liberała uwielbiającego broń. Choć taki punkt widzenia jest chyba bardziej intrygujący dla samych amerykanów, bo ziomek wciąż ma raczej typowo amerykańskie spojrzenie na problem z bronią. Argument, że USA to jedyny kraj gdzie jest problem ze strzelaninami jest kontrowany, że w Rosji mordują się więcej bez broni xD a epilog to już tak srogi i niespodziewany meltdown i syndrom oblężonej twierdzy właścicieli broni, jakby przez resztę książki typ się chamował z płaczem nad prześladowaniami posiadaczy broni. Ale gość przynajmniej przyznaje, że fascynacja bronią to raczej zjebane hobby. Książka wydana w 2013 więc tematu szkolnych strzelanin tu nie ma co mogłoby zmienić jej wydźwięk.
June 21, 2020
2.5. Basically, a perfect example why I usually don't like gonzo journalism - too much invested/emotional author in the story, not objective, sounding more like a diary. All what I'm going to remember from this book is: 5 basic firearm safety rules and that guys treat their guns like girls treat their barbie dolls.
April 4, 2017
Incredibly balanced and insightful. Absolutely everyone should read this book.
Read
April 23, 2018Pointa tej książki jest bezbłędna :D
September 3, 2022
Duże rozczarowanie. Pomijam już amerykański, nonszalancki styl i wstawki w stylu "moja żona powiedziała mi to i tamto", albo "mój rozmówca zjadł jajko i kiełbaski, a ja kiełbaski i frytki", których jest mnóstwo i nie wnoszą zupełnie nic. Dramatycznie tu dużo w kółko tych samych argumentów zwolenników broni pozostawionych bez żadnej kontry, wybiórczego podawania danych i badań, a czasem otwartym tekstem mówienia, że tego sprawdzić mi się nie chce ("nie wiem od czego ludzie giną w Rosji, ale skoro jest tam więcej zabójstw niż w Stanach, to po co u nas coś ograniczać"). A już najdziwniejszej jest masowe oddanie głosu miłośnikom broni jako symbolu "wolności", którego nie wolno tknąć, ale nie poświęcenie ani pół rozdziału masowym strzelaninom, które z jakiegoś powodu w krajach rozwiniętych na tę skalę występują tylko w USA, kraju miłośników wolności. Szkoda, bo wyjściowo perspektywa zwolennika Demokratów, który lubi sobie postrzelać i ma sentyment do broni jest mega ciekawa.
April 12, 2013
It's pretty momentous that this book came out when it did- there have been two mass shootings in recent American history that has moved guns to the front line of the American discussion agenda (or maybe next down the line right now what with tensions with North Korea being the way they are. The author acknowledges these tragedies in the postscript, but I'll get to that.
Dan Baum doesn't set out to argue one way or the other for gun control or whether guns are inherently good or bad. Baum has an interesting bio, in that he's a Democrat who owns quite a few different guns and likes to shoot at shooting ranges every once in a while. It makes him almost uniquely qualified to take a road trip through various U.S. states and talk to gun guys.
He encounters quite a few characters along the way, some of whom are belligerently anti-Obama and pro-gun, and others who are a bit less bellicose but still put forward interesting arguments toward why there shouldn't be heavy gun control in the States. Baum does a good job of trying to stay as neutral as possible, but he does challenge both pro- and anti-gun advocates on their points and is quite funny sometimes where he says something along the lines of "I knew it was time to leave once he started spewing the same old anti-Obama vitriol."
Baum also digs quite heavily into statistics in places, revealing some very interesting info about the demographics of gun owners and the types of guns normally used to commit murder.
In the postscript he mentions the Aurora and Sandy Hook shootings and offers a few very sensible solutions to the problem of America's guns. Gun Guys is a very pertinent read and highly relevant to this day and age.
May 28, 2016
It’s very difficult to find a balanced discussion about guns. It’s a polarizing issue like vaccines and abortion. However, Gun Guys comes close. Our protagonist, a liberal Jewish guy from a non-gun owning family becomes enamored of guns at summer camp beginning a life long affair with the idea of guns. The premise of the book is a long road trip around America to discover why some people love them and others hate them. Some of what he learns is surprising; some is what you would expect. Gun nuts aren’t as evil as gun haters might expect.
He’s pretty thorough. He wants to interview a guy who has actually been in a gun fight and shot and finds an reformed ex-gang member who details his experiences.
He learned that NRA training can be pretty cursory and then interviewed the undermanned training staff of two at NRA headquarters coming away somewhat unimpressed.
One of the interesting aspects of Gun Guys was that the author got a concealed carry permit and actually packed heat throughout the course of his investigation and discusses the pros and cons, the discomfort and elation of walking around armed. I found this extremely interesting as I too have a permit (for the purpose of buying guns without a waiting period) but never intend to carry one.
I personally think the fears of a lot of gun guys are totally overblown and although there is the rare instance of a citizen stopping a crime or protecting oneself, most people don’t need to carry.
Like every other contentious issue this one is complex with many layers.
If a person doesn’t have any familiarity with guns, gun sport, gun collecting or gun competition then Gun Guys will be the book for you.
He’s pretty thorough. He wants to interview a guy who has actually been in a gun fight and shot and finds an reformed ex-gang member who details his experiences.
He learned that NRA training can be pretty cursory and then interviewed the undermanned training staff of two at NRA headquarters coming away somewhat unimpressed.
One of the interesting aspects of Gun Guys was that the author got a concealed carry permit and actually packed heat throughout the course of his investigation and discusses the pros and cons, the discomfort and elation of walking around armed. I found this extremely interesting as I too have a permit (for the purpose of buying guns without a waiting period) but never intend to carry one.
I personally think the fears of a lot of gun guys are totally overblown and although there is the rare instance of a citizen stopping a crime or protecting oneself, most people don’t need to carry.
Like every other contentious issue this one is complex with many layers.
If a person doesn’t have any familiarity with guns, gun sport, gun collecting or gun competition then Gun Guys will be the book for you.
May 23, 2013
This is just good journalism, front to back.
I identify with the author's stuck-in-the-middle of the gun debate, navigating the personal pleasure of shooting amongst the largely rhetorical argument between pro-and anti-gun folks. Dan Baum, a self-professed liberal enjoys collecting guns, engaging in the sport of shooting, but is put-off by the political defensiveness of the gun guys who assume the sky is falling and ostracized by his liberal in-group as a "gun guy" , where's a gun guy to go from here?
Baum spends the book describing his journey to speak with as many players in the gun game as he can, from casual users to eccentric sporting groups to legislators and people effected by gun violence. The net effect is a great survey of America's obsession with guns from the ground up, and a greater understanding of where the political rhetoric on both sides of the debate choose to externalize facts that do not suit their positions, nor reflect the actual desires of the of people in the greater middle majority.
I have been trying to weigh many of the issues that are addressed in this book for a while now, and this was a refreshing review of many perspectives distilled by a person who seems to approach the issue in a sympathetic way that resonates with me.
I think every person who is about to say some knee-jerk response to guns out loud (whether that be, "Obama's gonna confiscate all the guns" to "assault rifles are the sole reason for violence") should read this before opening up their yammer...
I identify with the author's stuck-in-the-middle of the gun debate, navigating the personal pleasure of shooting amongst the largely rhetorical argument between pro-and anti-gun folks. Dan Baum, a self-professed liberal enjoys collecting guns, engaging in the sport of shooting, but is put-off by the political defensiveness of the gun guys who assume the sky is falling and ostracized by his liberal in-group as a "gun guy" , where's a gun guy to go from here?
Baum spends the book describing his journey to speak with as many players in the gun game as he can, from casual users to eccentric sporting groups to legislators and people effected by gun violence. The net effect is a great survey of America's obsession with guns from the ground up, and a greater understanding of where the political rhetoric on both sides of the debate choose to externalize facts that do not suit their positions, nor reflect the actual desires of the of people in the greater middle majority.
I have been trying to weigh many of the issues that are addressed in this book for a while now, and this was a refreshing review of many perspectives distilled by a person who seems to approach the issue in a sympathetic way that resonates with me.
I think every person who is about to say some knee-jerk response to guns out loud (whether that be, "Obama's gonna confiscate all the guns" to "assault rifles are the sole reason for violence") should read this before opening up their yammer...
March 11, 2013
This is more of a comment then a review. Dan Baum, a liberal pro-Obama Democrat and a gun guy since his 60's youth, takes a completely non-political look at guns and gun people in America. It's fascinating and funny, and is extremely timely.
My comment is that I would like to see more books like this, that look at divisive political issues fairly. What Dan Baum has done for guns, someone needs to do for abortion, taxes, and the proper role of government. We needn't let ignorant media or politicians, or polemic people on either side dictate the story.
Read this whether you're a life long gun lover, or a reflexive gun hater. It is worth your time to learn more about this issue and get beyond whatever side you support. Even if you don't take a side, read it anyway as you'll find it interesting and often amusing.
My comment is that I would like to see more books like this, that look at divisive political issues fairly. What Dan Baum has done for guns, someone needs to do for abortion, taxes, and the proper role of government. We needn't let ignorant media or politicians, or polemic people on either side dictate the story.
Read this whether you're a life long gun lover, or a reflexive gun hater. It is worth your time to learn more about this issue and get beyond whatever side you support. Even if you don't take a side, read it anyway as you'll find it interesting and often amusing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 154 reviews