Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun
by Erik Larson
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Description
This devastating book illuminates America's gun culture -- its manufacturers, dealers, buffs, and propagandists -- but also offers concrete solutions to our national epidemic of death by firearm. It begins with an account of a crime that is by now almost commonplace: on December 16, 1988, sixteen-year-old Nicholas Elliot walked into his Virginia high school with a Cobray M-11/9 and several hundred rounds of ammunition tucked in his backpack. By day's end, he had killed one teacher and show more severely wounded another. 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." The result is a book that can -- and should -- save lives, and that has already become an essential text in the gun-control debate. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I wrote these impressions of the book back then:
>>This book is the story of 16 yr. old Nicholas who brought to school and fired a Cobray M 11/9. Through the story, Larson carefully traces the travels of the weapon and convincingly demonstrates what is wrong with gun laws in the United States. I found the book both interesting and instructive. Before reading it, I had not idea of how easy it could be to buy a firearm (not that I would want to). Mr. Larson's conclusions are credible because of the experiences he acquired while researching the book from shooting excursions with the NRA to acquiring a firearms dealer license.
The interesting thing now, a bit over ten years since I read the book, is that school shootings seem to be so much show more more common. A sad fact. show less
>>This book is the story of 16 yr. old Nicholas who brought to school and fired a Cobray M 11/9. Through the story, Larson carefully traces the travels of the weapon and convincingly demonstrates what is wrong with gun laws in the United States. I found the book both interesting and instructive. Before reading it, I had not idea of how easy it could be to buy a firearm (not that I would want to). Mr. Larson's conclusions are credible because of the experiences he acquired while researching the book from shooting excursions with the NRA to acquiring a firearms dealer license.
The interesting thing now, a bit over ten years since I read the book, is that school shootings seem to be so much show more more common. A sad fact. show less
A good read if a bit dry around the corners. Especially enjoyed the true stories of what happens when the wrong people get guns. Didn't really need all of the statistics but also enjoyed the story of the NRA and how it became the way it is now.
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Books about Gun Violence
54 works; 1 member
Author Information
15+ Works 57,038 Members
Erik Larson was born in Brooklyn on January 3, 1954. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania and went to graduate school at Columbia University. Larson worked for the Wall Street Journal and then began writing non-fiction books. He is the bestselling author of the National Book Award finalist and Edgar Award-winning, The show more Devil in the White City, which has been optioned for a feature film by Leonardo DiCaprio. He also wrote In the Garden of the Beasts, Issac's Storm, Thunderstruck and The Naked Consumer. Larson has taught non-fiction writing at San Francisco State University, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, and the University of Oregon. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, Sociology, Politics and Government, Biography & Memoir, History
- DDC/MDS
- 364.15 — Society, government, & culture Social problems and social services Crime Criminal offenses Offenses against the person
- LCC
- HV7436 .L37 — Social sciences Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminal justice administration Gun control
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 230
- Popularity
- 141,527
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.28)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 10
- ASINs
- 3
