Ricochet: Guns, Greed, and the American Way of Violence

by Mike McIntire

Three-time Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Mike McIntire delivers the definitive story of the forces that shape gun culture and the American way of violence.

Not too long ago, you could still envision a future for America not marked by gun idolatry, blood-stained classrooms, and empty offers of thoughts and prayers. Yet a witches' brew of politics, money, and ideology has warped gun culture in the United States, hijacking the Second Amendment and allowing fear and insecurity to drive the reckless marketing of powerful weapons. How did our country come to have more guns than people and become one in which just pulling into the wrong driveway can get you shot?

In Ricochet, Mike McIntire provides a bold new road map for understanding our fraught relationship with guns and violence in America. McIntire crafts a gripping narrative of how the imperatives of war, slavery, crime, commerce and politics intertwined with the development of ever-more lethal firearms, leaving the country divided and traumatized. He shares explosive new revelations about the NRA's accumulation of power and turn to radicalism; Wall Street's efforts to turbocharge the market for assault weapons and online gun sales; the gun lobby's secretive campaign to change public attitudes by indoctrinating children; and how dark money, questionable scholarship, and front groups are being used to knock down gun laws. At once a cautionary tale of unfettered liberty, swagger and free markets contributing to our violent undoing, Ricochet also delivers a prescription for how we might yet save ourselves.

A work of deep, revelatory investigative reporting, powerful storytelling, and incisive analysis, Ricochet is in essence a story about America, an excavation of the cultural and political dynamics that are at the root of our contemporary crises.

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

Published July 21, 2026

Reviews

[Siv30 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ricochet מאת Mike McIntire הוא תחקיר על הדרך שבה כסף, פוליטיקה, תעשיית הנשק וה־NRA עיצבו את תרבות הנשק האמריקאית. הוא מתחיל לאט, אבל בחלקיו המאוחרים הופך לניתוח חד ומטריד של כוח ושל הנדסת תודעה. לסקירה מפורטת בעברית ואנגלית, קישור לבלוג שלי -

https://sivi-the-avid-reader.com/rico...

[Jen Juenke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books where I could have devoured more of it. I thought it was TOO BRIEF!
Yep it was over 250 pages, but it was too short. I KNOW that there has to be a ton more from the NRA and other laws out there about guns and individual rights, and I wanted more.

The writing is good, an overuse of $10 words, when a regular old word would suffice.

The documentation is great. I just wanted more of an indepth reporting then a synopsis.

Overall this book is for anyone who wants to learn more about the gun culture, the NRA, and the legislatures that keep Americans into guns and killing each other.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for this honest review.

[Darnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately, like most books on the subject, this isn't going to change any minds. I do respect the work the author went to, getting insight into the NRA via congressional records, but not enough of that comes through in the book, or at least not frequently enough.

There are a few issues where I would imagine the pro-gun people would get upset, because while the author's statements are technically true, they could arguably mislead. It's definitely a book for the anti-gun crowd.

Though most books on this subject are ideological, I can't claim to be completely neutral. For example, when it comes to the historical context of the second amendment, I see the pro-gun side drop quotes like gotchas, frequently from unrelated jurists like George Tucker. Now, I imagine the author of this book is also biased in choice of quotations, but it struck me as a more authentic look at the founding fathers. I mean, James Madison was the writer of the second amendment, so his frequent absence is conspicuous.

My favorite part of the book was a section that felt like just straight journalism: the shift in marketing guns increasingly to the wealthy. Unexpected and not particularly involved in the ideological conflict.

[Cherish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the author did a great job condensing 250 years of gun history into a well-paced and simple way. I would recommend this book.