The Trigger
Narratives of the American Shooter
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
Six moving profiles reveal the complex realities behind gun violence in the United States. These are the stories of the shooters.
In South Carolina, a young man embarks on a life of crime that culminates in a drug-related shooting and decades in prison; in Chicago, an off-duty police officer engages in a shootout with a murderous gunman, saving a fellow patrolman; in rural Tennessee, a troubled teenager shoots her abusive father in his sleep. The Trigger recounts the dramatic life stories of six individuals who have shot someone in America.
In 2017, over 15,000 were killed and over 31,000 were injured by gunfire. Faced with these desensitizing statistics, one easily forgets that each incident is perpetrated by a living, feeling human being who has walked a unique path. The causes and consequences of these violent acts are often far more complicated than one might expect.
Author Daniel J. Patinkin exhaustively interviewed each of six shooters about their life experiences and about the unique circumstances that compelled them to use a firearm against another person. The result is a series of profound narratives that is sure to distress and challenge the reader, but also, perhaps, to provide enlightenment and inspiration.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a timely book, screenwriter and businessman Patinkin (The Crippler: Cage Fighting and My Life on the Edge) tells stories of six very different Americans who have shot and in some cases killed people. They include a Chicago cop who killed a gun-wielding civilian who had shot a fellow patrolman, a teenage girl who shot her abusive father as he slept, and a military veteran who gravely wounded a family member while having delusions. Chapters on each include their histories, how they got access to guns, and the role of class and race in their stories. Patinkin offers no solutions and no generalizations, and includes no mass shooters he selected his subjects for their "compelling" stories and for maximum variation in circumstances and regions. His decision to focus on shooters and not victims may strike some as morally questionable; the author writes: "we must endeavor to understand actions and motivations" of the "sentient, emotional human being who... pulled the trigger... if we are to improve the situation in America." (He also plans to donate a portion of the book's proceeds to victim-centered charities.) His narratives, each complex in its own thorny way, humanize shooters for those who, like Patinkin before he embarked on this project, have had no previous exposure to them as people.
