The Way of the Gun: A Bloody Journey into the World of Firearms

Overton, a Peabody Award%E2%80%93winning British journalist and director of investigations at Action on Armed Violence, begins this engrossing, multifaceted study with some grim statistics. There are almost one billion guns worldwide, "more than ever before," and each year, about 12 billion bullets are produced and about 500,000 people shot dead. His investigative reporting takes him to more than 20 countries, with stops including Honduras, the world's worst place for gun violence per capita; a trauma unit in South Africa that largely handles gunshot wounds; Las Vegas, for the largest gun show on earth; Odessa, a center of gun smuggling; and Iceland, which has one of the world's lowest homicide rates despite its large number of shooting grounds. Along the way, he interviews an Israeli sniper, El Salvadoran gang members, a former child soldier in Liberia, and an American SWAT sharpshooter, among others. He also examines America's "remarkably unregulated" gun industry and shows how the NRA's lobbying extends even beyond the U.S. Overton's insightful commentary includes the observation that imposing new gun control laws without an accompanying shift in attitudes isn't going to be effective. This illuminating narrative about the life cycle of the gun is comprehensive, revealing, and timely. Antony Topping, Greene and Heaton (U.K.). (Mar.)