American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15 presents the epic history of America's most controversial weapon.
In the 1950s, an obsessive firearms designer named Eugene Stoner invented the AR-15 rifle in a California garage. High-minded and patriotic, Stoner sought to devise a lightweight, easy-to-use weapon that could replace the M1s touted by soldiers in World War II. What he did create was a lethal handheld icon of the American century.
In American Gun, the veteran Wall Street Journal reporters Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson track the AR-15 from inception to ubiquity. How did the same gun represent the essence of freedom to millions of Americans and the essence of evil to millions more? To answer this question, McWhirter and Elinson follow Stoner—the American Kalashnikov—as he struggled mightily to win support for his invention, which under the name M16 would become standard equipment in Vietnam. Shunned by gun owners at first, the rifle's popularity would take off thanks to a renegade band of small-time gun makers. And in the 2000s, it would become the weapon of choice for mass shooters, prompting widespread calls for proscription even as the gun industry embraced it as a financial savior. Writing with fairness and compassion, McWhirter and Elinson explore America's gun culture, revealing the deep appeal of the AR-15, the awful havoc it wreaks, and the politics of reducing its toll. The result is a moral history of contemporary America's love affair with technology, freedom, and weaponry.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
1 of 1 copy available
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 26, 2023 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781250910844
- File size: 425624 KB
- Duration: 14:46:42
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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June 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. -
June 10, 2024
Wall Street Journal reporters McWhirter (Red Summer) and Elinson offer a meticulously researched chronicle of the AR-15. Covering politics, profit, technology, legality, and culture, the authors detail the history of this controversial weapon from its creation through the present day. The lightweight and easy-to-use AR-15 was invented by amateur gun designer Eugene Stoner and his team in the 1950s to counter the AK-47 used by Communist forces during the Cold War. The story goes from the military-industrial complex's procurement system--rife with bureaucratic infighting--to the past decades' mass shootings, including the tragic 2017 Las Vegas shooting. Along the way, listeners come into contact with both famous and little-known personages and events--Arthur Godfrey, General Curtis LeMay, John Wayne, Chris Waltz, Sandy Hook, Ben Wheeler, Adam Lanza, Stephen Paddock, and Robert McNamara, to name just a few. This account is enhanced by Roger Wayne's narration, which is measured and calming yet shows enough emotion to make the story relatable. VERDICT Listeners won't want to miss this informative and troubling look into the creation and ramifications of an iconic weapon.--Scott DiMarco
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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