Publishers Weekly
06/19/2023
Wall Street Journal reporters McWhirter (Red Summer) and Elinson tell a captivating tale of unintended consequences in this deeply researched history of the AR-15. When machinist Eugene Stoner developed a lighter automatic rifle in a garage in Long Beach, Calif., in the 1950s, his goal was to enable American infantrymen to move more quickly on the battlefield—thus maximizing their safety. His employer, ArmaLite, became the first producer of the weapon, marketing it as a counter to the similarly lightweight Soviet AK-47. Bushmaster, the most prominent manufacturer of the AR-15 after Stoner’s patents expired in the 1970s, cosmetically altered the weapon’s design to evade the 1994 federal assault weapons ban, feeding the “sustained and unprecedented demand” counterintuitively caused by the ban. Over the past 20 years, the AR-15 has become the gun of choice in mass shootings, including the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, the deadliest in U.S. history; the shooter’s many AR-15 rifles, easily modified to be fully automatic with bump stocks, “made the ghoulish feat easy.” Weaving together interviews with Stoner’s family, politicians, law enforcement officials, and survivors of mass shootings, the authors put a human face on a politically charged story. The result is a fascinating genealogy of a weapon that has become the flash point of the contemporary gun control debate. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
"A magisterial work of narrative history and original reportage . . . [Written] in calm, precise language that allows the authors’ exhaustive research to shine through . . . You can feel the tension building one cold, catastrophic fact at a time . . . Among the authors’ feats of reportage was getting gun company executives and entrepreneurs to speak candidly on the record, a virtually unprecedented achievement . . . American Gun lays out the unvarnished truth." —Mike Spies, The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
"A deeply reported, engrossing account . . . American Gun immerses in shifting politics and their exploitation by the firearms industry . . . [The book] adds valuable context as we reckon with the indelible and ongoing impact of a uniquely American gun." —Mark Follman, The Washington Post
"Riveting . . . Indispensable . . . Brilliant . . . A particularly powerful new book . . . [American Gun] is packed with characters and plot turns." —Charles Kaiser, The Guardian
"Riveting . . . This book is not to be missed." —Esquire
"The authors are meticulous in the details they recount . . . American Gun is a fascinating social history." —The Economist
"Reading the second half of American Gun is like watching a Shakespearean tragedy . . . The book is heartbreaking . . . A lucid, straightforward, and well-researched and -reported work." —Colin Dickey, The New Republic
"[McWhirter and Elinson] have done a masterful and damning job tracing the birth and development, and rampant misuse, of the AR-15, and there are heartbreaking stories elegantly told of the destruction this weapon has wrought on families and towns across the nation . . . Poignant." —Air Mail
"McWhirter and Elinson offer a comprehensive, even-handed look at the AR-15's history and the debate over gun violence . . . [Their] well-reported book is vital for anyone who wants to understand how Stoner's creation transformed over time into what the authors call the 'fulcrum of America's great gun divide.'" —Andrew Demillo, Associated Press
"[A] superb history . . . [American Gun] is a meticulously researched and impressively informed book . . . A riveting exploration of the cost of the nation’s fascination with an iconic weapon." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A captivating tale of unintended consequences . . . The authors put a human face on a politically charged story. The result is a fascinating genealogy of a weapon that has become the flash point of the contemporary gun control debate." —Publishers Weekly
"American Gun is an engrossing read. It is both a revealing biography and a thorough autopsy of a historical figure that resides in millions of American homes: the AR-15 rifle. Created in a garage but worshipped as if born in a manger, the AR-15 has become destructive weapon of choice in many mass killings and a source of heartbreak that gnaws at the souls of millions of Americans every day. Through exhaustive research and superb writing, Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson haven’t missed an important moment in the life of this weapon—and they answer the question: what would the inventor of the AR-15 think about the monstrous ways it is being used today?" —Hank Klibanoff, Pulitzer Prize–winning co-author of The Race Beat
"American Gun is an unforgettable story of American ingenuity and mayhem, built with hard-core reporting and gripping prose. This is social history at its finest." —Jonathan Eig, author of King: A Life
"Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson have written the definitive biography of the AR-15, a weapon that has been demonized, deified, and fetishized in the never-ending American gun debate. This book should be of vital interest to both gun-rights advocates and those who would ban the AR-15 as the instrument of ruthless death at schools, Walmarts, and grocery stores. At this fraught moment, there is no more compelling symbol of the unique American fascination with—and horror over—firearms." —Paul M. Barrett, author of Glock: The Rise of America's Gun
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2023-06-15
How an influential gun design became central to debates over Second Amendment rights.
In this superb history of an innovative weapon, McWhirter and Elinson, who both cover the gun industry for the Wall Street Journal, track the invention of the AR-15 rifle in the 1950s, adoption by the American military in the 1960s (where it was known as the M16), and gradual rise to notoriety toward the end of the 20th century and into the 21st as it became, in the semiautomatic form in which it was sold to the public, a favored choice of mass shooters. The authors begin with an exploration of the life and career of Eugene Stoner (1922-1997), a gifted engineer who sought to create a weapon superior to those used by American soldiers in World War II. The authors then give insightful commentary on the evolution of Stoner’s signature creation, disastrous deployment in Vietnam after ill-considered modifications, slow introduction to civilian gun aficionados and gradually rising profile in pop culture, provocation of outrage after being used in notorious crimes, and eventual transformation into a symbol of freedom embraced by the National Rifle Association and hard-line gun-rights advocates. This is a meticulously researched and impressively informed book; despite careful explanations of technical details, the narrative moves along briskly and engagingly. Furthermore, McWhirter and Elinson clearly and fairly handle the sometimes-complex motivations of those seeking to promote the AR-15 along with the frequently base impulses of those looking to profit without moral concern. What emerges, too, through accounts of individuals who have fallen victim to gun violence, is a harrowing sense of the enormous suffering wrought by this invention and the seemingly insurmountable political resistance to mitigating it in any significant way. Ultimately, readers gain an unsettling and timely understanding of how “a device created to protect America [is] wounding it.”
A riveting exploration of the cost of the nation’s fascination with an iconic weapon.
