As a resource for you so that you can learn more about the gun issue, we have compiled a list of fiction and non fiction books, as well as documentary and feature films.  It is listed by most recent year and then in author.

FEATURED TITLE

Lethal Logic
Dennis Henigan, 2009 [non-fiction book]

“This is the first book both to acknowledge the profound and deadly impact of the gun lobby’s bumper-sticker logic on the gun control debate and to systematically expose the misguided thinking at the core of the pro-gun slogans. Indeed, the author contends that the gun lobby’s remarkable success in blocking passage of lifesaving gun laws is the result, in large part, of its relentless and effective use of these simple and resonant messages. The book contends that the current political stalemate over guns will never be broken until the pro-gun slogans are exposed as the cleverly disguised fallacies that they are.” Click here for more info.

FRONTLINE: The Wounded Platoon
(Documentary 2010)

"On Nov. 30, 2007, 24-year-old Kevin Shields went out drinking with three Army buddies from Fort Carson, Colo., a base on the outskirts of Colorado Springs. A few hours later, he was dead -- shot twice in the head at close range and left by the side of the road by his fellow soldiers. Shields' murder punctuated a string of violent attacks committed by the three, who are now serving time in prison for this and other crimes, and it contributed to a startling statistic: Since the Iraq war began, a total of 17 soldiers from Fort Carson have been charged with or convicted of murder, manslaughter or attempted murder committed at home in the United States, and 36 have committed suicide." Click here for more info.

Changing the Conversation
Janet Fitch, 2010 [Documentary]

“This independent documentary takes a pragmatic approach to looking at the real issues behind gun violence in the United States. The director allows viewers a different look at this controversial issue from three unique viewpoints. Leaders from churches, legislatures, and the field of medicine describe their efforts to deal with violence in our everyday lives. This documentary lives up to its title and offers real evidence in its pursuit to inject logic into a debate that has been polluted with rhetoric and partisanship” Click here for more info.

The Demarco Factor
Michael Pertschuk, 2010 [Biography]

“Vinny DeMarco might be a latter-day Don Quixote except that he tilts his lance at real obstacles to social justice: lobby-locked state legislatures and Congress, stonewalling the public will. And he makes impossible dreams come true. In twenty years of organizing campaigns in Maryland, he has led successful efforts to pass gun control laws (against National Rifle Association opposition), to hike cigarette taxes to prevent youth smoking, and to extend health care to hundreds of thousands of low-income workers. He has also built a unique alliance of mainstream and conservative faith groups, which helped secure rare bipartisan votes in Congress for the enactment in July 2009 of landmark FDA regulation of tobacco manufacture and marketing.” Click here for more info.

While We Were Sleeping
David Hemenway, 2009 (Book)

"This book powerfully illuminates how public health works with more than sixty success stories drawn from the area of injury and violence prevention. It also profiles dozens of individuals who have made important contributions to safety and health in a range of social arenas." Click here for more info.

Gun Control: A Documentary and Reference Guide
Robert J. Spitzer, 2009 (Book and Documentary)

"Spitzer has assembled documents that illustrate the history, evolution, scope and consequences of the issue of gun control. Original documents are important for anyone studying or taking part in the debate, he says, because so much information is distorted—deliberately or not—during emotional exchanges and pronouncements. He also explains the context and impact of each document. The primary arrangement is chronological, with sections on founding documents, the Second Amendment and early laws, early US and state court rulings, 20th-century US Supreme and lower-court rulings, modern gun laws, and the states and two major parties." Click here for more info.

Guns, Democracy, and the Insurrectionist Idea
Josh Horwitz and Casey Anderson, 2009 [non-fiction book]

“In the past decade, th[e] view of the proper relationship between government and individual rights and the insistence on a role for private violence in a democracy has been co-opted by the conservative movement. As a result, it has spread beyond extreme "militia" groups to influence state and national policy.

In Guns, Democracy, and the Insurrectionist Idea, Josh Horwitz and Casey Anderson reveal that the proponents of this view base their argument on a deliberate misreading of history. The Insurrectionist myth has been forged by twisting the facts of the American Revolution and the founding of the United States, the denial of civil rights to African-Americans after the Civil War, and the rise of the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler. Here, Horwitz and Anderson set the record straight. Then, challenging the proposition that more guns equal more freedom, they expose Insurrectionism — not government oppression — as the true threat to freedom in the U.S. today.” Click here for more info.
 
Beyond the Bullet: Personal Stories of Gun Violence Aftermath
Heidi Yewman, 2009 [non-fiction book]

“How do ordinary people cope after a loved one is killed due to gun violence? It's a question that more than 30,000 families must face every year in America. In this gripping book, survivors, friends, and family members discuss their lives from the moment their worlds were turned upside down by guns. In their own words, they discuss the anguish, fear, confusion, and grief they were plunged into as a result of a pulled trigger. Along the way, author Heidi Yewman finds some common traits and some astonishing illustrations of how grief plays out for different people in tragically similar circumstances.” Click here for more info.

National Geographic: Guns in America
2008 [Documentary]

“300 million citizens, 270 million guns, 5 stories, and one thing in common: Gun Nation. National Geographic tells the story of America's connection with guns through the eyes of its citizens. From gangs, to local law enforcement, to gun hobbyists to a young mother: this documentary explores the lives of people with guns.” Click here for more info.

The Bullet’s Yaw: Reflections on Violence, Healing and an Unforgettable Stranger
Dustin W Ballard, 2007 [non-fiction book]

“When the ambulance arrived, Jeffrey Mains was nearly unconscious; he was bleeding internally and desperately needed surgery. He was rushed, lights blazing and sirens calling, to the UC Davis Medical Center. This is where, several weeks and many complications later, he became my patient. During my three-year residency in emergency medicine I treated thousands of patients -- strangers such as Jeffrey Mains. Most passed through my life swiftly and their illnesses left but a wisp in my memory. A handful of patients, however, marked me forever. The Bullet’s Yaw is the story of one of these unforgettable strangers and what he taught me about life, violence and healing." Click here for more info.

Enter the Babylon System: Unpacking Gun Culture from Samuel Colt to 50 Cent
Rodrigo Bascunan and Christian Pearce, 2007 [non-fiction book]

”Rodrigo Bascunan and Christian Pearce have interviewed many of the major players in the hip-hop world. As publishers of an award-winning magazine of urban culture, they’d watched rap music become a scapegoat for society’s much older and widely spread fascination with guns. What follows is their international adventure to deconstruct modern gun culture in all its manifestations. Bascunan and Pearce seek out hip-hop artists, illegal gun runners, firearms aficionados and manufacturers, museum curators, academics, politicians, video-game creators, activists, victims of gun violence and the family and friends left behind.” Click here for more info.

There Ought to be a Law
Directors: Anita Clearfield, Shoshana Hoose, and Geoffrey Leighton, 2007 [documentary]

“In 2004 Cathy Crowley’s 18-year-old son took his own life with a shotgun he purchased from a Wal-Mart the weekend of his death. After Crowley learns the gun was purchased in accordance with Maine laws, the grief-stricken mom becomes an activist who devotes herself to convincing politicians to get behind a state bill that would raise the legal age to 22 and require a 10-day waiting period to purchase firearms (by Elliot Mandel)." Click here for more info.

Ricochet: Confessions of a Gun Lobbyist
Richard Feldman, 2007 [non-fiction book]

“In Ricochet, a onetime NRA lobbyist and avid Second Amendment defender unmasks the inner workings, influence, and goals of this highly secretive political behemoth. From internecine warfare, media manipulation, and executive bankrolling to gun control bills and school massacres, Richard Feldman, former NRA regional political director and lobbyist for the firearm industry, exposes the NRA as a cynical, mercenary political cult obsessed with wielding power while exploiting members' fear in order to maximize contributions.” Click here for more info

America’s Great Gun Game: Gun Ownership vs. Americans Safety
Earl McDowell, 2007 [non-fiction book]

“More than 30,000 American deaths are caused each year by firearms, and more than 230,000,000 guns exist in the United States today. America's Great Gun Game: Gun Ownership vs. Americans' Safety presents two sides of the gun issue -- the gun control advocates, the silent majority; and the gun rights supporters, the vocal minority. Author Earl E. McDowell urges the silent majority to become the vocal majority as he tackles the controversial topics of gun control and concealed carry laws.” Click here for more info.

Nineteen Minutes
Jodi Picoult, 2007 [novel]

“Sterling is an ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens -- until the day its complacency is shattered by an act of violence. Josie Cormier, the daughter of the judge sitting on the case, should be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened before her very own eyes -- or can she? As the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show -- destroying the closest of friendships and families. Nineteen Minutes asks what it means to be different in our society, who has the right to judge someone else, and whether anyone is ever really who they seem to be.” Click here for more info.

Politics of Gun Control
Robert J. Spitzer, 2007 [non-fiction book]

“New to the third edition of The Politics of Gun Control is coverage of the proliferation of concealed-carry laws in cities and counties. The book covers the debate and data on the effect of these laws on crime rates, homicide rates, gun-related violence and accidental deaths. School violence -- including the shooting at Columbine High and other schools around the country -- is also explored including: the congressional response in the aftermath of these episodes; the Senate's passing of a historic juvenile justice bill requiring background checks for gun show purchases; tougher penalties for sale to juveniles or to felons; mandatory gun locks on new handguns; and a ban on import of high-capacity ammunition clips.” Click here for more info.

American Gun
Director: Aric Avelino; Starring: Forrest Whitaker, 2006 [feature film]

“A powerful series of interwoven storylines that bring to light how the proliferation of guns in America dramatically affect and shape the every day lives of its citizens.” Click here for more info.

Gun Show Nation: Gun Culture and American Democracy
Joan Burbick, 2006 [non-fiction book]

“In this first-of-its-kind archaeology of America's gun culture, progressive cultural historian, critic, and gun owner Joan Burbick takes us on a journey from gun shows to NRA conventions, using firsthand observations and interviews with a wide range of gun owners and gun advocates as a jumping-off point for a fascinating exploration of the rise of the gun -- from Buffalo Bill and the mythology of the frontier to Ronald Reagan, the first sitting president to address the NRA.” Click here for more info.

Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun Control
Kristin Goss, 2006 [non-fiction book]

“Rarely does a book make a significant contribution to two separate fields, but this work by Kristin Goss does. Readers interested in social movements and social movement theory will find an interesting case study of a movement that never happened -- efforts to strengthen gun control laws in the United States. Those who study gun control will encounter a unique perspective on the interest group politics and policy making of firearms regulation. Well-researched and clearly written, the book is insightful and informative. Goss's journalistic background is evident, both in her prose and in the relative brevity of the book. Her arguments are clearly elucidated in a first chapter that should serve as a model.” Click here for more info.

One Nation Under Guns: An Essay on an American Epidemic
Arnold Grossman, 2006 [non-fiction book]

“This eye-opening essay examines the scope of gun violence in this country: its causes, its dangers, and its possible solutions. Part of the Speaker's Corner Books series designed to stimulate discussion on issues that shape our society, One Nation Under Guns takes a rational and reasoned approach to an emotionally charged issue.”  Click here for more info.

The Global Gun Epidemic: From Saturday Night Specials to AK-47’s
Wendy Cukier and Victor W. Sidel, 2005 [non-fiction book]

Just as guns know no borders, gun violence has become a global epidemic, killing hundreds of thousands of people each year and injuring many more. The toll is staggering. Experts estimate that there are 35,000 annual gun-related deaths in Brazil, 10,000 in South Africa, 20,000 in Colombia, and 30,000 in the United States. While guns kill or maim great numbers of people in war zones, two thirds of small arms are in the possession of civilians. Although guns do not in and of themselves "cause" violence, they increase its lethality and fuel "cultures of violence." This book documents the global gun trade, its threat to public health, and efforts to remedy the situation. Virtually every illegal gun begins as a legal gun. With the globalization of trade in licit products has come the globalization of the illegal trade in guns. Click here for more info.

Bullets in the Hood -- Brooklyn Filmmakers Take a Stand
Directors: Terrence Fisher and Daniel Howard, 2005 [documentary]

“These filmmakers were the youngest ever to win an award at Sundance film festival. Two New York City teenagers from Brooklyn’s projects decided they were going to make their voices heard about gun violence. This is their story.” Click here for more info.

A Columbine Survivor’s Story
Marjorie Lindholm, 2005 [non-fiction book]

“Marjorie Lindholm is a student at Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, Colorado. In 1999, she was a sophomore at Columbine High School. Originally from Idaho, she'd only been living in Littleton for a few months and had already made the cheerleading team.

Along with her mother, Peggy Lindholm, Marjorie has written A Columbine Survivor's Story. This book chronicles Marjorie's experiences before, during, and after that day. It is a thought provoking account of one person's struggle with the most traumatic event in her life.” Click here for more info.

Lord of War
Director: Andrew Nichol; Starring: Nicolas Cage, 2005 [feature film]

“Based on actual events this black comedy/drama stars Nicholas Cage as international arms smuggler Uri Orlov. The story follows Uri from his humble beginnings as a Soviet immigrant in 1970s Brooklyn and peaks with his involvement in selling off the stockpiled arsenal of post-Cold War Ukraine to -- among other top clients -- the sadistic African dictator Andr Baptiste Sr. (Eamonn Walker). Jared Leto costars as Uri s little brother Vitaly whose conscience and a burgeoning cocaine problem get in the way of business…” Click here for more info.

Lawyers, Guns and Money: One Man’s Battle With the Gun Industry
Carol Vinzant, 2005 [non-fiction book]

This inspiring book recounts the heroic efforts of Tom McDermott, a lawyer and victim of the infamous Colin Ferguson rampage on the Long Island Railroad, to take on the gun industry. He is among the leaders of an innovative and promising strategy to circumvent the NRA's political power and courts constrained by interpretations of the Second Amendment. Through civil action he hits the gun companies where it hurts most: the bottom line. Making insurance difficult for manufacturers to get, he has helped reduce the number of cheap hand guns, "Saturday Night Specials," often used in crime. This is a riveting account of tragedy turned into action, and how the law can be used to defend victims rather than enrich corporations. Click here for more info.

Looking for a Few Good Moms: How One Mother Rallied a Million Others Against the Gun Lobby
Donna Dees-Thomases and Alison Hendrie, 2004 [non-fiction book]

“This book includes stories of teenagers killed at the first day of work or by classmates in school shootings. This book also includes profiles of gun control activists such as Sarah Brady and Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy.” Click here for more info.

Runaway Jury
Director Gary Felder; Starring John Cusack, 2004 [feature film]

“From master storyteller John Grisham and the director of Don't Say A Word comes a taut suspense-thriller that "grabs hold of you and never lets go" (Philadelphia Metro). In their first film together, screen legends Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman face off in this electrifying nail-biter about a ruthless jury consultant who'll do anything to win. With lives and millions of dollars at stake, the fixer plays a deadly cat-and-mouse game with a jury member (John Cusack) and a mysterious woman (Rachel Weisz) who offer to "deliver" the verdict to the highest bidder. Packed with danger, intrigue and pulse-pounding twists and turns.”  Click here for more info.

Private Guns, Public Health
David Hemenway, 2004 [non-fiction book]

“Private Guns, Public Health explodes that myth and many more, revealing the advantages of treating gun violence as a consumer safety and public health problem. David Hemenway fair-mindedly and authoritatively demonstrates how a public health approach -- which emphasizes prevention over punishment, and which has been so successful in reducing the rates of injury and death from infectious disease, car accidents, and tobacco consumption -- can be applied to gun violence.”  Click here for more info.

Balance of Power
Richard North Patterson, 2004 [novel]

“An epic story that moves with force, passion, and authority, Balance of Power begins when President Kerry Kilcannon and television journalist Lara Costello at last decide to marry. But the momentous occasion is followed by an unspeakable tragedy -- a massacre of innocents by gunfire -- that ignites a high-stakes game of politics and legal maneuvering in the Senate, the courtroom, and across the country, which the charismatic but untested young President is determined to win at any cost. But in the incendiary clash over gun violence and gun rights, the cost to both Kilcannons may be even higher than he imagined.” Click here for more info.

Evaluating Gun Policy: Effects on Crime and Violence
Jens Ludwig and Philip J. Cook, 2003 [non-fiction book]

“Evaluating Gun Policy provides guidance for a pragmatic approach to gun policy using good empirical research to help resolve conflicting assertions about the effects of guns, gun control, and law enforcement.”  Click here for more info.

Guns in American Society
Greg Lee Carter, 2002 (Reference Book)

"School shootings, gangland slayings, spousal murder. With more guns than people, the United States suffers a death-by-gun rate 10, 20, even 50 times that of other industrialized democracies. What lies behind our 200-year-old fascination with firearms? What explains our national ambivalence toward gun control?" Click here for more info. 

A Good Fight
Sarah Brady, 2002 [non-fiction book]

Readers get an intimate look at the events, both personal and professional, that shaped Brady's political career and the direction of U.S. gun legislation in this memoir of the lobbying life. She begins her story on March 30, 1981, when her husband, White House Press Secretary James Brady, was shot in an assassination attempt on President Reagan. His injury and recuperation, filled with close calls and setbacks, takes her on a journey that includes 15 years at the lobbying group Handgun Control, first as a volunteer, then as a board member and finally as its chair until 1996. Brady gives a detailed, suspenseful account of the struggle to pass the Brady bill, a handgun control law finally signed in 1993.  Click here for more info.

Outgunned: Up Against the NRA – The First Complete Insider Account of the Battle Over Gun Control
Peter Brown and Daniel Abel, 2002 [non-fiction book]

“Outgunned would make a good movie. Or put another way, it offers a more focused and substantive, yet entertaining, companion piece to Michael Moore's Bowling in Columbine. It is at times depressing, but it ends on a note of hope even as it follows the NRA right on into the Bush White House and Justice Department. After all the money spent, the despicable tactics, and the right-wing theatricality of Charlton Heston, the gun lawsuits that claim that handgun manufacturers are liable, under public nuisance law, for failing to oversee the distributors of their deadly products, are still alive. As we head into the 2004 election season, anti-gun forces also need to forcefully remind the American public of what is at stake in terms of human life and who, from the NRA, to gun manufacturers, to the White House, is responsible. Outgunned is a good place to start.” Click here for more info.

Bowling For Columbine
Director Michael Moore, 2002 [feature film]

"Bowling for Columbine" is an alternately humorous and horrifying film about the United States. It is a film about the state of the Union, about the violent soul of America. Why do 11,000 people die in America each year at the hands of gun violence? The talking heads yelling from every TV camera blame everything from Satan to video games. But are we that much different from many other countries? What sets us apart? How have we become both the master and victim of such enormous amounts of violence?” Click here for more info.

What to Do When the Police Leave: A Guide to the First Days of Traumatic Loss
Bill Jenkins, 2001 [non-fiction book]

“Finalist in the category of Best First Book in the Publishers Marketing Association's Benjamin Franklin Awards 2000, What To Do When The Police Leave is being used by victim assistance programs, clergy, funeral homes, and police departments across North America as they work with and serve the bereaved. It is recognized as one of the most valuable resources available for grieving families. This one of a kind resource is heart-to-heart practical advice from one who has been through the trenches of grief and loss, encouraging and helping others in their own paths. The victims' voice has never spoken so clearly.” Click here for more info.

Gun Violence: The Real Costs
Jens Ludwig and Philip J. Cook, 2000 [non-fiction book]

“100 billion dollars is the annual cost of gun violence in America according to the authors of this landmark study, a book destined to change the way Americans view the problem of gun-related violence. Until now researchers have assessed the burden imposed by gunshot injuries and deaths in terms of medical costs and lost productivity. Here, economists Philip Cook and Jens Ludwig widen the lens, developing a framework to calculate the full costs borne by Americans in a society where both gun violence and its ever-present threat mandate responses that touch every aspect of our lives.” Click here for more info.

Running Guns: The Global Black Market in Small Arms
Lora Lumpe, 2000 [non-fiction book]

“Whether it is Africa, Sri Lanka, or even Chechnya and Afghanistan, it is not heavy weaponry or hi-tech devices that kill the most people, but the flood of cheap, easy to get, small arms that has swept over so many countries in the 80s and 90s. Yet a lot of this cross-border arms trade is illegal. This important and readable new book seeks to advance our understanding of the illegal arms traffic. What precisely is involved? How is it conducted? Who are the players? What are the impacts? What needs to be done?” Click here for more info.

Give a Boy a Gun
Todd Strasser, 2000 [novel]

“Gunshots echo through the gym. Two heavily armed students, Gary and Brendan, hold their classmates hostage at a high school dance. Their targets: the football players and teachers who have tormented them. Their weapons: semiautomatic rifles stolen from a neighbor. Their motive: revenge. In Give a Boy a Gun, the interweaving voices of students, teachers, friends, and the gunmen themselves re-create the harrowing crisis at Middletown High and the reasons behind Gary and Brendan's rampage. Mirroring the voices on each page are facts about guns and school violence that offer a blistering counterpoint to a tragedy that rings dreadfully true to life.” Click here for more info.

Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America
Tom Diaz, 1999 [non-fiction book]

“Guns are responsible for about 36,000 deaths each year in the United States (more than half are suicides), and so Diaz views them as a public health hazard requiring a massive government intervention. Making a Killing is hardly a dispassionate treatment; Diaz himself is a political activist (and a former Congressional aide). He suggests adopting strategies used against cigarette makers and admires the success antismoking zealots have experienced in their crusade.” Click here for more info.

Gone Boy: A Walkabout: A Father’s Search For the Truth in his Son’s Murder
Gregory Gibson, 1999 [non-fiction book]

“Gibson's journey is written with heart. He never loses sight of his supportive family or his love for his son. Distracted by rage, saddled by guilt, and fueled by love, Gibson takes the reader down a harrowing path no parent should have to travel. He moves with grace and dignity, never exploiting the narrative's events in a sensational light. "No one in the world can guarantee anyone else's personal safety," Gibson writes. Yet his fierce determination to uncover the truth allows the bureaucratic negligence of academia to be put into question.” Click here for more info.

Reducing the Burden of Injury
Institute of Medicine, 1999 [non-fiction book]

“Despite great strides in injury prevention over the decades, injuries result in 150,000 deaths, 2.6 million hospitalizations, and 36 million visits to the emergency room each year. This book describes the cost and magnitude of the injury problem in America and looks critically at the current response by the public and private sectors, including data and surveillance needs, research priorities, trauma care systems development, infrastructure support and training, firearms safety, and coordination among federal agencies.” Click here for more info.

Crime is Not the Problem: Lethal Violence in America
Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins, 1999 [non-fiction book]

“The authors reveal that compared to other industrialized nations, in most categories of nonviolent crime, American crime rates are comparable -- even lower, in some cases. Only when it comes to lethal violence does the United States outpace other Western nations, with homicide rates many, many times greater. London and New York City have nearly the same number of robberies and burglaries each year, but robbers and burglars kill 54 victims in New York for every victim death in London.” Click here for more info.

Under Fire: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control
Osha Gray Davidson, 1998 [non-fiction book]

“Originally published in 1993, Under Fire was widely hailed as the first objective examination of the NRA and its efforts to defeat gun control legislation. Now in this expanded edition, Osha Gray Davidson shows how the NRA's extremism has cost the organization both political power and popular support. He offers a well-reasoned and workable approach to gun control, one that will find many supporters even among the NRA membership.” Click here for more info.

Reducing Firearm Injury and Death: A Public Health Sourcebook on Guns
Trudy Ann Karlson and Stephen W. Hargarten, 1997 [non-fiction book]

“Trudy Karlson is an injury epidemiologist and Stephen Hargarten an emergency medicine physician, both public health professionals who have turned their attention to firearms in the belief that the science of injury control could be usefully applied to reducing the number and severity of gunshot injuries. They offer this work as "the book we wished we had had when we were starting out -- a primer on how guns work, how they cause injury, and on strategies based on the public health perspective for change.” Click here for more info.

Inside the NRA: Armed and Dangerous-An Expose
Jack Anderson, 1996 [non-fiction book]

“This book is a behind the scenes look of the National Rifle Association, providing a thought-provoking expose of the controversial organization and its secrets.” Click here for more info.

5 American Handguns-5 American Kids: America Undercover
Vincent Dipersio, 1995 (Documentary)

 “When a child gets hold of a loaded handgun, someone often dies. Last year, 24,000 Americans lost their lives to handguns...and 3,600 of them were children. This profoundly disturbing documentary tells the stories of five handguns that killed five children--and how their deaths might have been prevented.” Click here for more info (via IMBD).

Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun
Erik Larson, 1995 [non-fiction book]

“In Lethal Passage Erik Larson shows us how a disturbed teenager was able to buy a weapon advertised as "the gun that made the eighties roar." In so doing, he not only illuminates America's gun culture -- its manufacturers, dealers, buffs, and propagandists -- but also offers concrete solutions to our national epidemic of death by firearm. The result is a book that can -- and should -- save lives, and that has already become an essential text in the gun-control debate.” Click here for more info.

National Rifle Association: Money, Firepower & Fear
Josh Sugarmann, 1992  [non-fiction book]

“In this slashing attack, the executive director of the Violence Policy Center depicts the National Rifle Association as a sinister organization of immense power. Sugarmann establishes that the group is not monolithic but embraces members who view it as a force to encourage hunting, target-shooting and comparable activities as well as others who see in any curb on the ownership of any firearm an attempt to undermine the American way of life.” Click here for more info.

Thumbs Up: the Life and Courageous Comeback of White House Press Secretary Jim Brady
Mollie Dickinson, 1987
[non-fiction book]

This is a thoroughly researched and readable authorized biography of James Brady, President Reagan's likable press secretary who was wounded during the 1981 presidential assassination attempt by John Hinckley. At times, the book reads like a testimonial to Brady and his wife, Sarah; but for the most part it offers rounded, personal, sympathetic portraits. The most effective chapters deal with the shooting and its aftermath, when doctors fought to save Brady's life and his bullet-shattered brain. Later chapters deal with Brady's heroic struggle to rehabilitate himself. Few readers will be left untouched by this overlong, but moving, account. Click here for more info.

Guns Don’t Die, People Do: The Pros, the Cons, the Facts
Peter Shields, 1981 [non-fiction book]

“The author[and former head of Handgun Control] speaks out on the loss -- a son murdered by a handgun -- that changed his family’s life and changes the lives of so many Americans each day. Here are the pros and cons of the handguns and the case for their control, the shocking facts and what can -- and must -- be done about them.”  Click here for more info.

¹ Note: Inclusion does not imply endorsement.  Reviews taken from various online sources.