The purpose of this book is to provide an antidote to the misinformation which circulates in and around what the authors describe as the ‘intense and acrimonious’ national gun debate. The text is devoted to discussing 37 different ideas which create this misinformation, or what Tom Gabor and Fred Guttenberg refer to as gun ‘myths.’
To their credit, G&G do an excellent job of describing each myth in clear and concise terms. They also have plumbed the research conducted and published which sheds some reality on each of these myths. If you find yourself in a discussion, debate or argument with a pro-gun advocate, the chances are pretty good that you will have to respond to one or more of the myths listed in this book and you can feel confident using the points made by G&G to provide a contrary case.
That’s the good news about American Carnage – Shattering The Myths That Fuel Gun Violence. Now the other news, by which I don’t mean criticisms of what G&G have written. Rather, these are several concerns provoked by the book which perhaps require some additional thought. But the whole point of writing any book about a current debate is, after all, to widen the parameters of the debate. As Grandpa would say, ‘ze hais?’ (read: get it?)
Concern #1. Early on, G&G argue that much of the misinformation about guns reflects the absence of research due to the Dickey Amendment, which prohibited the CDC from sponsoring evidence-based studies from 1997 until last year. But what is not mentioned is that the data on gun injuries produced by the CDC happens to be so insufficient and so lacking in both quantity and quality that our understanding of gun violence remains both minimal and misdirected, government research support or not.
What I am referring to is the fact that the CDC only publishes estimates on the number of individuals who are killed with the use of guns, i.e., homicides and suicides. The CDC has yet to figure out how to derive and publish a valid estimate on the number of non-fatal gun injuries which occur every year, and my best guess is that this number, if estimated correctly, would increase the total annual gun carnage by two-thirds!
How can you determine the efficacy of any law or strategy to reduce gun violence if you can’t figure out the number of gun violence events before and then after the law or strategy is put into effect? And let me make it clear that the only difference between fatal and non-fatal gun injuries is that in the latter instance, the shooter didn’t shoot straight.
Moreover, there are studies which strongly hint at the possibility that many of the victims of non-lethal gun injuries recover initially but then end up dying earlier than they otherwise would pass away. In other words, the actual fatal gun violence toll may be substantially higher than the number of deaths which occur in any given year.
My second concern, and again this is in no way of criticism of this fine, little book, is that G&G make no distinction between legal, as opposed to non-legal owners and users of guns. These lacunae aren’t their fault, because the absence of such a distinction is rife throughout the scholarly literature on guns. The United States isn’t the only country to sustain a regulatory system for private gun ownership, but it is the only country whose regulatory system is based on the behavior of gun owners, as opposed to a regulatory system which focuses primarily on the lethality and dangerousness of specific types of guns.
There’s a reason you can’t buy a semi-automatic pistol in Canada, which happens to be the same reason that you can’t buy an assault rifle in Britain or France. The only small arm whose ownership is restricted in the United States is a machine gun, but you can even own a full-auto gun if you’re willing to undergo two background checks, wait a couple of months to get approved and then ante up a $250 tax.
Not only do we try to respond to gun violence by looking primarily at the shooters and not at the guns they use to injure or kill themselves or someone else, in fact we have absolutely no idea how many gun violence events are committed by individuals who don’t meet the criteria we have developed to determine who can qualify to own a gun. G&G mention (p. 83) a California study of 18 million adults which showed that access to guns in the home resulted in a risk of fatal injury, but this study didn’t differentiate between legal and illegal guns.
We have absolutely no idea how many of those 400 million guns in the civilian arsenal are in the possession of people who cannot qualify for legal gun ownership. Hence, we have no way of actually determining the efficacy of the various gun regulations (ERPO, UBC, CAP, etc.) that G&G and the entire gun-control community believe, if enacted, will reduce the gun carnage which currently occurs in the United States.
Again, I am not raising these concerns as a criticism of G&G’s work. If anything, hopefully this book will give them a presence in the gun debate which will enable them to raise these issues in a meaningful ad influential way.
American Carnage deserves to be read.
May 03, 2023 @ 09:22:44
Many thanks for your review and fair comments.
May 03, 2023 @ 11:26:26
I hope this book provides some antidote to the misinformation that is and has circulated with the gun ‘myth’ that the absence of research due to the Dickey Amendment that some say prohibited the CDC from sponsoring evidence-base studies from 1997 until last year is incorrect. In January 2013 President Obama formally directed the “The Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary), through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other scientific agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services, shall conduct or sponsor research into the causes of gun violence and the ways to prevent it.” Prominence given to “shall conduct or sponsor research.”
The Dickey Amendment was a bill signed into law by President Bill Clinton which does not explicitly ban CDC research on guns and violence. However, some CDC employees have said, “Precisely what was or was not permitted under the clause was unclear … but no federal employee was willing to risk his or her career or the agency’s funding to find out.” And yet under President Obama’s direction CDC still failed to conduct any research. But no, it’s those evil white gun nuts that prevented CDC from doing research.
May 03, 2023 @ 12:59:42
P.S. I will purchase this book and hopefully it is a fair book when presenting antidote to the misinformation. Hopefully on both sides.
I truly try to keep an open mind. But I dislike when information is incorrect or misleading when it come to guns.
Although Eric Swalwell in his editorial review writes that it’s “a must read,” you know this is the same man who had a careless relationship with a Chinese intelligence operative and should check what’s in his own leaky backpack first. I’ll set aside his hypocritical folly and still read this book.
May 03, 2023 @ 16:13:53
Although people are apparently making auto-sears on 3D printers, the regulatory scheme on real-live full auto guns seems to be working, given how rarely, if ever, they are used in crimes. I wonder if a fifty state solution that regulated the kinds of guns that Mike loves to criticize (semiauto, external mag-fed rifles and pistols) would actually make a difference in drying up some of the guns that get diverted to people who cannot legally own them. A carrot could be thrown in–50 state law, 50 state reciprocity.
While having a gun in the home presumably leads to some risk, just as having a car adds the risk of a car crash and a bad diet leads to the risk of cardiovascular disease, I’ve yet to see a believable study that looks at gun owners vs. risk in the same way as auto insurance companies look at risk to the individual, rather than to broad statistical surveys. Shootings are not done by broad statistical surveys. They are done by individuals. There presumably are analogs. For example, the biggest risk factors in the Kellerman study were not guns but behavioral issues such as illicit drug use and previous violence. Just as some folks belong on the auto insurance risk pool, some folks probably shouldn’t have guns, even if they already have not obtained a criminal record.
May 04, 2023 @ 08:46:50
I went down a rabbit hole on this one.
In trying to find a copy of this book I was directed to a Florida Chapter of League of Women Voters website that offered the book. WTF?
Isn’t the ‘League’ a nonpartisan organization tasked with promoting and advocating women to participate in the election process?
They sure seem to check all the progressive talking points. Climate Change, Social Equity, Gun ‘Safety’, Voting ‘Rights’.
As for the ‘Authors’. Someone as educated as Gabor to get things factually wrong is a sign of laziness or perhaps an agenda?
Of course, ‘American Carnage’ is a title bound to generate an emotional response. Also, his coauthor is a man who lost a child at Parkland and is now a gun control activist. Parkland happened because EVERY. SINGLE. AUTHORITY. In FLORIDA. Who had knowledge and power to do something with the ticking time bomb that was the murderer, did nothing. Cowards, grifters, and incompetent fools to a man. The head of Broward schools was Robert Runcie who is an incompetent, corrupt, grifter who now oversees a solution plan for safer schools as part of Chiefs for Change. Talk about KlownWorld? This only shows how deep the graft and corruption has become.
The forward is provided by NBA coach Steve Kerr who is so passionate about social justice that he regularly campaigns to ban civilian access to guns. He lacks the same bravery and passion for the issue of Chinese Genocide against minority Muslims and cannot comment on this genocide because he’s not ‘educated’ on this topic. Oh, look, another coward.
How about another read that goes further into the issue of school shootings not likely to be found in gun control circles?
“Why Meadow died.” By Andrew Pollack. He, too lost a child at Parkland. He digs for answers and lays blame on people and policies that failed those children at Parkland. His book is far more insightful than anything career gun control hacks could ever hope to publish.
May 10, 2023 @ 12:35:40
I did purchase and read this book. My review: (could be much longer)
Donna Wald, president of Grandmothers Against Gun Violence MA wrote a review of this book as “Smart, concise, well-written, and, perhaps more importantly, well-researched with non-biased, well-respected resource organizations.” Non-biased, well-respected resource organizations? I wonder if she has ever looked into many of the resources and organizations that are listed in this book?
One of the many resources and organizations menis the human rights group Amnesty International (referred to many times throughout this book) which has condemned the US for failing to protect its citizens from gun violence by not developing a comprehensive system of firearm regulations? This is the same organization that has been criticized for paying some of its staff high salaries, and had an investigation that found a workplace environment that is toxic. Even the US government has criticized AI complaining for its one-sided reporting.
However, the book reports AI saying the US is failing to protect its citizens from gun violence by not developing a comprehensive system of firearm regulations. It’s my understanding that the US firearm industry is one of the most highly regulated industries in the US. Maybe I’m wrong…Mike may be able to shed some light on this. Afterall, I don’t know anything about guns.
Kris Brown, president of Brady, United Against Gun Violence wrote in her “Praise for American Carnage” that “Virtually every American wants to see changes put in place to strengthen our laws and enforcement mechanisms to make gun violence more rare.” There are over 20,000 laws on the books across America. And yet when Barack Obama’s pick to head the ATF testified before a Senate committee, he acknowledged that of 48,321 cases involving attempted straw purchases, the Justice Department had prosecuted a whopping forty-four of them. Where are the charges against Hunter Biden for lying on form 4473?
One of the authors of this book tragically had his beautiful daughter killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and yet this is the very same school that a Statewide Grand Jury heard and seen evidence of noncompliance with the School Safety Act, SB 7026. Florida lawmakers passed the Act several years ago to improve school safety in Florida.
Pass all the laws you want; if they are not enforced you have done nothing but wasted time and money.