American Gun by Chris Kyle

American Gun: A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms by Chris Kyle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's not in the book but Kyle was a marine and war hero, and the deadliest marksman in United States military history. (Of "American Sniper" fame.) After his return to the US, in 2009, he foiled two men trying to carjack him by grabbing his gun and shooting them before they were able to shoot him. Did he have any philosophical thoughts about guns in war or in domestic use? No, not really. His one thought is that having the best guns in war saves lives on your team. Other than that, this is just the facts and no analysis.

The historical facts, as stated by Kyle, are interesting. And the facts certainly persuade me that having the most up-to-date technologically advanced guns are necessary for warfare. However, Kyle talks about how mobsters in the US starting buying Tommy guns, the nickname for "Thompson submachine guns" with nary a commentary about what a complete disaster that was. Glocks became popular with police and criminals at the same time. What does that say about the lack of gun regulation? No thoughts from our gun expert Kyle.

Of course, the whole time I was reading this I kept thinking about what ultimately happened to Kyle. Kyle was murdered at 38 years old with his own .45-caliber pistol. He was murdered by a 25-year-old marine that Kyle knew was mentally ill but took to a shooting range because he believed shooting had therapeutic value. If Kyle had had a psychic premonition of his own death, would he have developed some analysis? What would that analysis have been?

Here are some more facts: https://lawcenter.giffords.org/facts/gun-violence-statistics/

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