Beating Guns
Hope for People Who Are Weary of Violence
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4.3 • 6 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
★ Publishers Weekly starred review
Parkland. Las Vegas. Dallas. Orlando. San Bernardino. Paris. Charleston. Sutherland Springs. Newtown. These cities are now known for the people who were shot and killed in them. More Americans have died from guns in the US in the last fifty years than in all the wars in American history. With less than 5% of the world's population, the people of the US own nearly half the world's guns. America also has the most annual gun deaths--homicide, suicide, and accidental gun deaths--at 105 per day, or more than 38,000 per year. Some people say it's a heart problem. Others say it's a gun problem. The authors of Beating Guns believe it's both.
This book is for people who believe the world doesn't have to be this way. Inspired by the prophetic image of beating swords into plows, Beating Guns provides a provocative look at gun violence in America and offers a clarion call to change our hearts regarding one of the most significant moral issues of our time. Bestselling author, speaker, and activist Shane Claiborne and Michael Martin show why Christians should be concerned about gun violence and how they can be part of the solution. The authors transcend stale rhetoric and old debates about gun control to offer a creative and productive response. Full-color images show how guns are being turned into tools and musical instruments across the nation. Charts, tables, and facts convey the mind-boggling realities of gun violence in America, but as the authors make clear, there is a story behind every statistic. Beating Guns allows victims and perpetrators of gun violence to tell their own compelling stories, offering hope for change and helping us reimagine the world as one that turns from death to life, where swords become plows and guns are turned into garden tools.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Claiborne (Jesus for President), an activist and speaker, and Martin, a Mennonite minister, assemble statistics, policy alternatives, and detailed histories to document and persuasively condemn America's apathy toward gun violence. The authors root their efforts in the prophetic aspiration within the Bible to beat "swords into iron plows" and "spears into pruning tools." They slowly build their case, laying out evidence of exactly how armed and lethal America has become: "Since 1979, the nation's gun deaths have not dropped below thirty-two thousand per year. That means for nearly forty years we've allowed more than 1.2 million lives to be lost to guns." One especially fascinating chapter recounts the evolution of gun marketing in the 20th century, which entered the home through new forms of media; another recounts the politicization of the National Rifle Association beginning in the late 1970s, turning the organization away from its roots in gun safety and sportsmanship. The authors advocate regulations, call for gun violence to be declared a public health emergency, and provide instructive Biblical quotes aimed at "unlearning violence." Particularly moving are 19 sidebars that memorialize the victims of mass shootings. Timely and moving, this important book deserves a wide audience and will be eye-opening for any reader concerned about the effects of America's open embrace of guns.
Customer Reviews
Excellent and Well-Researched
This book is an incredible, faith-based look at the issue of gun violence in our country today. The authors use facts, stories, common sense, and their Christian convictions to form a realistic, practical approach to combatting violence in our society. They call all of us to take part in the prophets’ vision of God’s people beating weapons into tools of peace. We would all do well to heed Shane and Michael’s words in this book, apply them, and use them to make the world a better place.
If i could give negative stars i would.
This is anti-american propaganda written by anarcho-communists. Your fever dreams of disarming America will NEVER be realized. We will defend ourselves and unite against supporters of tyrrany, most notably the authors of this piece of liberal garbage.