Synopses & Reviews
Newtown. Columbine. Virginia Tech. Tucson. Aurora. Gun violence on a massive scale has become a plague in our society, yet politicians seem more afraid of having a serious conversation about guns than they are of the next horrific shooting. Any attempt to change the status quo, whether to strengthen gun regulations or weaken them, is sure to degenerate into a hysteria that changes nothing. Our attitudes toward guns are utterly polarized, leaving basic questions unasked: How can we reconcile the individual right to own and use firearms with the right to be safe from gun violence? Is keeping guns out of the hands of as many law-abiding Americans as possible really the best way to keep them out of the hands of criminals? And do 30,000 of us really have to die by gunfire every year as the price of a freedom protected by the Constitution?
In Living with Guns, Craig R. Whitney, former foreign correspondent and editor at the New York Times, seeks out answers. He re-examines why the right to bear arms was enshrined in the Bill of Rights, and how it came to be misunderstood. He looks to colonial times, surveying the degree to which guns were a part of everyday life. Finally, blending history and reportage, Whitney explores how twentieth-century turmoil and culture war led to todays climate of activism, partisanship, and stalemate, in a nation that contains an estimated 300 million gunsand probably at least 60 million gun owners.
In the end, Whitney proposes a new way forward through our gun rights stalemate, showing how we can live with gunsand why, with so many of them around, we have no other choice.
Review
Adam Winkler, Author of Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America“Living With Guns is a fascinating and provocative illumination of America's centuries-long battle over gun control. No matter what your views on guns, you'll find yourself unable to put down this riveting history and thoughtful analysis of one of America's most contentious issues. Fair-minded, astute, and balanced, Living With Guns will change the way you think about guns and gun control.”
Review
Adam Winkler, Author of Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in AmericaLiving With Guns is a fascinating and provocative illumination of America's centuries-long battle over gun control. No matter what your views on guns, you'll find yourself unable to put down this riveting history and thoughtful analysis of one of America's most contentious issues. Fair-minded, astute, and balanced, Living With Guns will change the way you think about guns and gun control.”
KirkusA fresh and balanced argument.”
David K. Shipler, author of The Rights of the People and Rights at Risk"Whether you come from the right or the left, this meticulously researched and argued book will make you think hard and reconsider your assumptions. His illuminating research into gun ownership and gun control in early America is an antidote to absolutism. It should be read closely by both sides in the debate."
BooklistA very thoughtful, well-researched, and well-reasoned argument in favor of the right to bear arms within reasonable limitations and an appeal to responsible gun ownership.”
New York Times Book Review
Whitneys fresh eyes and relative agnosticism serve him well in his historical account of guns in America.”
New York TimesEven for doubters of Mr. Whitneys hopeful message [Living with Guns] has much to offer. Of particular interest is his brief and readable history of the role of guns (and their regulation) in the colonial era. This history provides the context for understanding what was on the minds of the founding fathers in drafting the Second Amendment, and for deciphering its rather abstruse wording.”
Philadelphia InquirerWere there to be a reasoned debate about gun control in the United States, Craig R. Whitney might make an ideal moderator
. He has produced a well-researched and nuanced work about the history of the Second Amendment and attitudes toward gun control from Plymouth Rock to the current Supreme Court.”
Synopsis
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. Are these 27 words of the Second Amendment lethal? Are the deaths of 30,000 Americans by gunfire every year the price of our freedoms protected by the Constitution? Has the powerful gun lobby guaranteed that Americans will own more guns than people in any other country on earth? And are gun controls an effective way to control gun violence anyway?
Craig Whitney carried a handgun as a Navy officer in Saigon during the Vietnam War. As a foreign correspondent and later an editor at the New York Times, when baffled foreign friends asked why there were so many guns and so many violent shootings in America, he wondered for himself what the truth was. In Living with Guns, he seeks out answers.
Whitney returns to the early colonial history that set the framers on course for reserving to citizens the right to bear arms, tracks the political battles that led to the contemporary impasse on the subject, and talks to gun owners themselves. The result is an effort to forge a third way into the argument: a liberal gun-owner's fresh perspective on which gun control battles are worth fighting, and where we can still seek out common ground.
Synopsis
A longtime New York Times editor reexamines America’s long relationship with guns, finding less than meets the eye in arguments for greater gun regulation
Synopsis
America’s war over gun control has raged since the 1960s. In 2008, the Supreme Court startled the left by concluding that with the Second Amendment the founders elevated “above all other interests” the right to bear arms “in defense of hearth and home.” Liberals feared the NRA would succeed in rolling back regulations nationwide. Discussion about guns in America has been stalemated, shortcircuited, and dominated by rigidly and mutually intolerant ideologies. Yet we may be closer to a solution than either side may imagine.
In Living With Guns, veteran New York Times editor Craig Whitney carefully reexamines America’s relationship with guns, showing how guns are an important part of American culture. The earliest colonists needed them to survive. We have nearly 300 million of them today. Trying to restrict gun ownership doesn’t effectively deter crime—we need to get serious about what actually works. Whitney shows that, if we focus on controlling violence rather than guns themselves, the Second Amendment may not be so lethal as the left would like to think.
About the Author
Craig Whitney has worked as reporter and foreign correspondent for the New York Times in New York, Saigon, Bonn, Moscow, Paris, and London. He served as European diplomatic correspondent, foreign editor, Washington editor, and assistant managing editor of the Times, before retiring in 2009. He is the author of All the Stops.