Gun Guys

A funny, raucous, eye-opening, wholly nonpartisan trip in search of Americans who love their guns.

Dan Baum is a lifelong gun guy. He's also a Jewish Democrat who grew up in suburban New Jersey. In Gun Guys he slaps on an NRA cap, straps on a legal concealed handgun, and takes us on a guided tour of gun stores and gun shows, shooting ranges and festivals, contests and auctions, trying to figure out what draws so many of us to guns in the first place. He introduces us to people like Rick Ector, a black Detroit auto worker who buys a Smith & Wesson after suffering an armed robbery--then quits his job to preach the gospel of gun ownership and self-defense, especially to the resistant black community... Frank DeSomma, a gunmaker who moved from Brooklyn to Arizona and became obsessed with engineering a better version of the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle... Jeremy and Marcey Parker, a young, successful Kentucky couple whose idea of a romantic weekend happens to be shooting submachine guns at competition. Baum brings an entire world vividly to life; gun enthusiasts will nod and chuckle in recognition, while others will understand an America to which they've never before had access. Curious and candid, this may be the first book that illuminates both the power and the appeal of guns: a completely original and perceptive--and often hilarious--journey through armed America.