March 5, 2013

Quick Reads: “Gun Guys” by Dan Baum


book cover

“Gun Guys: A Road Trip”

By Dan Baum

KNOPF

“You would get a far better understanding,” former NRA exec J. Warren Cassidy told Time in 2001, “if you approached us as if you were approaching one of the great religions.” In Gun Guys, author Dan Baum embeds with the flock. A Jewish Democrat from suburban New Jersey, he has been hooked on guns since childhood. Packing a sidearm and an NRA cap, Baum embarks on a pre-Newtown tour of shooting ranges, gun shows, and gun shops, tracing the rise of the AR-15, unpacking crime stats, and challenging the notion that America suffers from an “epidemic of gun violence.” He tackles this polarizing subject with an anthropologist’s eye, and in the end wonders if the left’s anti-gun sentiment distracts from a progressive agenda that working-class gun guys might support—if only they didn’t think Obama was coming for their arsenal.

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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