The Best Book Ever Written About Gun Violence

I have read probably every book published on gun violence in the past 20 years, along with having self-published 15 books on gun violence myself as well. And I can say without fear of either exaggeration or correction that What We’ve Become — Living and Dying in a Country of Arms by Jonathan Metzl is far and away the best book on this topic which has been published until now.

I read a pre-published draft of this book and offered the author some suggestions but believe me when I say that my involvement in this remarkable effort had little, if anything to do with making this book something which everyone should read and should then give the book to a family member, a colleague, or a friend.

The text opens with a brief description of a shooting which occurred on April 22, 2018, at 3:40 A.M. in a Waffle House located in Murfreesboro, TN. Travis Reinking, a 29-year-old from Illinois, sprayed the all-night, trucker’s restaurant with an AR-15, killing four diners and injuring three others, until he was wrestled to the ground, lost control of the gun, jumped up and fled.

Two days later, the shooter was arrested and another ‘angry young man’ was convicted of multiple homicides after a five-day trial and will probably spend the rest of his life behind bars.