American Carnage: Shattering the Myths That Fuel Gun Violence (School Safety, Violence in Society)

by Fred Guttenberg, Thomas Gabor, Steve Kerr (Foreword by)

Overview

Shooting Down Gun Violence Misinformation

"Don't tell me there's no such thing as gun violence. It happened in Parkland." ―Fred Guttenberg

#1 Best Seller in School Safety, Education Policy, and Law Enforcement Politics

Fred Guttenberg, who lost his beloved daughter Jaime in the 2018 Parkland school shooting, and International gun policy consultant Thomas Gabor team up in American Carnage to dismantle some of the most common myths about guns and gun violence.

A national disgrace. In America, over 40,000 die each year as a result of gun violence. Relative to other advanced countries, the U.S. has a dismal gun violence record. Gun law reforms could reduce the number of gun deaths, but many political challenges stand in the way. A widespread multi-year misinformation assault on truth by the gun lobby and gun-extremists sows doubt about the dangers of pervasive gun ownership, gun carrying, and potential effectiveness of gun laws.

Debunking popular gun myths. Countering with strong evidence-based research the many slogans and myths repeated incessantly by spokespersons for the gun lobby and its surrogates is essential if we are to have a society where kids can attend school safely and people can work and enjoy life without fear of being shot. Over the last 30 years, the NRA’s campaign to achieve an armed society has succeeded in persuading many Americans that having a gun in the home or carrying a gun makes them safer. The evidence is overwhelming this is not the case. Guns in the home are far more likely to be used against a family member or in a suicide attempt than against an intruder. Tackling this and other myths is critical.

Myths and slogans exposed as false in American Carnage include:

• Gun owners frequently use firearms to fend off attackers
• An armed society is a safer society
• Guns don’t kill people, people kill people

If you have read Trigger Points, The Violence Project, Warning Signs, or Fred Guttenberg’s Find the Helpers, American Carnage is a must read.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684812059
Publisher:	Mango Media
Publication date:	05/02/2023
Pages:	228
Sales rank:	244,024
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Winner of the 2023 American Spirt Award for Citizen Activism.

Fred Guttenberg began his public life after the murder of his beautiful fourteen-year-old daughter Jaime in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting on Feb 14, 2018. The day after the murder, Fred decided to attend a public vigil. While there, the mayor asked him to speak. His words shook a nation and he has not stopped since. Only four months prior to the murder of his daughter, Fred’s brother Michael passed away in October 2017 from cancer related to his service in 9/11 in New York City. He was one of the original first responders at the World Trade Center with a team of doctors who got trapped in the WTC as it collapsed. Amazingly, the room that they hid out in did not collapse and Michael and his team of physicians spent sixteen days at ground zero taking care of others. Following his involvement in these two distinctly American tragedies, Fred has traveled the country talking about both events but also talking about perspective, perseverance, and resilience. He discusses pivotal moments in our lives and how we respond to those moments, using his speech to inspire others. Prior to these events, Fred Guttenberg’s professional life included over a decade in sales and management with Johnson & Johnson, followed by almost fifteen years as an entrepreneur, having built a business including nineteen Dunkin Donuts. Fred and his wife Jennifer now spend time challenging elected officials to do more. They began a nonprofit organization dedicated to Jaime’s life called "Orange Ribbons for Jaime." He has been a regular on TV news programs and myriad online and print media. The nonprofit is now his full-time mission.

Thomas Gabor, formerly Professor of Criminology at Ottawa University, is an international gun policy consultant. An author of 200 works, he has testified in front of Parliamentary committees, served as an advisor to the United Nations, and advised governmental agencies. He is author of Confronting Gun Violence in America and ENOUGH!.

Steve Kerr is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association. He is an eight-time NBA champion, having won five titles as a player as well as three with the Warriors as a head coach.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1

Combatting Misinformation on Gun Violence

United States Senator Hiram Johnson once said that the first casualty of war was the truth. The debate over guns and gun violence is nothing short of a clash of cultures and over how to best achieve personal security. And truth has been a major casualty of this clash. Outrageous claims are often made about such things as the meaning of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, the value of gun ownership as a self-defense tool, the protection certain gun laws may provide, and even the number of guns owners in America.

One reason for the many false claims in this area is that gun violence research has been starved of funds, leaving a huge void in our understanding of many issues, including basic ones such as the number of guns and gun owners in the country. For over twenty years, Congress kept the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from funding research on firearms through the Dickey Amendment, which threatened the CDC’s funding. This provision prohibits the use of federal funds to advocate or promote gun control. The amendment, introduced by Congressional Republicans, followed lobbying by the National Rifle Association which was becoming increasingly concerned about research that was showing that guns in the home increased the risk of a homicide. Sepsis, a potentially life-threatening condition caused by the body’s response to an infection, kills the same number of people each year as gunfire, but receives 100 times the funding.

There has also been a rejection of science by a segment of the population that ignores or minimizes the gun violence problem in the US just as some Americans have refused to acknowledge the harm produced by the COVID-19 pandemic. A general distrust of government or cynicism in relation to broadening its powers predisposes some Americans to question any issue that might justify government expansion. The gun debate is so intense and acrimonious because it lies at the center of the great cultural divide in this country—a chasm that pits urbanites against rural dwellers, and splits the country along racial, geographic, and educational lines.

Those rejecting research exposing the dangers associated with gun ownership tend to take the view that the “right to keep and bear arms” is an unlimited constitutional right. Therefore, for them, the science is moot. They believe they have an absolute right to acquire virtually any type of gun—case closed. As seen in Chapter Seven, the interpretation of the Second Amendment of the US Constitution by the courts has evolved and is more nuanced than the simplistic notion that this right is unlimited. In fact, the “right to keep and bear arms” throughout most of this country’s history was not recognized by the courts as an individual right at all but, rather, a right to form a state militia. The right to firearms is different from, say, the freedom of speech as an overly expansive view of gun rights can threaten the lives of others. For example, if it is permissible to carry an AR-15 rifle to a rally, this action may not only stifle the free speech of those who are intimidated but may threaten the lives of others present if an altercation breaks out.

A more recent line of argument asserts the right of the public to be protected from violence. Some legal scholars are arguing that the first duty of government is to protect citizens from abuses by public officials and from private actors. The human rights group Amnesty International has condemned the US for failing to protect its citizens from gun violence by not developing a comprehensive system of firearm regulations. In a 2018 report, Amnesty writes, “The USA has failed to implement a comprehensive, uniform, and coordinated system of gun safety laws and regulations particularly in light of the large number of firearms in circulation, which perpetuates unrelenting and potentially avoidable violence, leaving individuals susceptible to injury and death from firearms.”

The debate about the true costs/benefits of guns is not just an academic one or one waged by ordinary citizens in person or on social media. Egregious statements and claims are often made at hearings in Washington or state legislatures and used to prevent reform that can protect Americans. Recently a federal judge overturned the thirty-year assault weapons ban in California saying: “Like the Swiss Army Knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home-defense weapon and homeland defense equipment.” The judge failed to acknowledge the role of such military-style rifles in many of the deadliest mass shootings and in the murder of police officers. We are not aware of any mass killings with Swiss Army knives.

***

Myth #2: An Increasing Percentage of Americans Are Buying Guns.

There is a widespread belief that gun ownership levels in the US are continuing to climb. Many believe that a majority of Americans are gun owners. The National Shooting Sports Foundation stated the following in 2012: “Violent crime has fallen 65 percent since 1993. While there are many factors in the mix, it is incontrovertible that firearms ownership continued to grow, by astronomical rates, over the same time period.”[i] The Foundation is not so subtly saying that the fall in violent crime is due at least in part to the growth in gun ownership. Therefore, according to the Foundation, guns protect us from crime.

 

Fact Check: While there are indications that gun ownership has risen somewhat during the pandemic, there is no evidence of an increase over the last few decades. Did gun ownership in fact grow from 1993 to 2012 as suggested by the National Shooting Sports Foundation? Nobody has a precise count of the number of guns in America or the proportion of citizens who are gun owners. In fact, it is a violation of federal law to use the national background check system to create a national database of guns owned by Americans.[ii] Therefore, we rely on surveys of representative samples of the population. While the number of guns in America continues to grow, so does the total population, which is why it is important to examine the percentage of adults who own guns or to calculate, say, the number of guns per every 100 people.

 

The US is a clear outlier with regard to its arsenal of privately-owned firearms, surpassing other nations by a wide margin both in terms of the absolute number of guns and in the number of guns relative to its population. The most credible recent estimate, taking into account guns that are no longer operational, is about 400 million total firearms in the US, or about 120 guns for every 100 people.[iii] Recent polls show that 30 percent of American adults own a gun.[iv]

 

While there have been some spikes in gun ownership over the last few decades, including a surge in gun purchases during the pandemic, the overall trend is clearly heading downward over the last 40 years at least. According to the National Opinion Research Center, household gun ownership declined from 50 percent in 1977 to 31 percent in 2014.[v] Changing demographics, urbanization, the decline of hunting, and the lack of a military draft have all played a role in this decline.

 

The proportion of households involved in hunting is half of what it was in the mid-1970s.[vi] The decline in hunting is in turn a result of declining rural populations and changes in social attitudes relating to hunting. Changing demographics and the end of conscription into military service in 1973 are other reasons given for the decline in household gun ownership. Specifically, the growing Hispanic and Asian populations have lower gun ownership levels than white Americans, and the lack of a draft means that fewer Americans are introduced to firearms through military service. One factor has become more relevant as a reason for purchasing guns: self-protection. The Pew Research Center has found that the proportion of those citing protection as the reason for buying a gun rose from 26 percent in 1999 to 48 percent in 2013.[vii]

 

The surges in sales following certain shootings illustrate the importance of self-protection as a motive for gun purchases.[viii] The mass shooting in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater in the summer of 2012 was followed by a dramatic jump in firearms applications and enrollments in firearms classes. Similar increases in applications were observed following the shootings on the Virginia Tech campus in 2007 and the near assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona in 2011. The FBI has also documented spikes in background checks following high-profile mass shootings. Individuals purchasing guns exclusively for self-protection are not those with a gun fetish or obsession. They may even buy guns reluctantly, feeling that self-preservation is at stake.

 

The increasing frequency of purchases of guns for self-protection may lead people to believe that gun ownership overall is increasing. However, the forces described—declining rural populations and hunting, the changing demographic composition of the US population, and the end of the draft—have collectively led to a net decline in the number of households owning guns.

 

***

 

About three-quarters of Americans do not own firearms, and their desire to live in gun-free settings must also be respected. America’s continuing paralysis in relation to gun policy and our failure to respond effectively to gun violence mean that the trend of more frequent and extreme acts of violence will continue until meaningful reform occurs. As long as we remain on the current path, some people will limit their own activities out of fear, security measures that restrict our freedoms will be stepped up, and our privacy will be increasingly compromised by more surveillance of our movements and communications. This is an erosion of our freedoms, rather than the reverse.

 

[i] Michael Weisser, Gun Myths (Ware, MA: Tee Tee Press, 2021), 13.

[ii] Michael Scherer, “Fact Check: The Gun Registry Red Herring,” TIME, January 24, 2013, https://swampland.time.com/2013/01/24/fact-check-the-gun-registry-red-herring/.

[iii] Aaron Karp, Estimating Global Civilian-Held Firearms Numbers (Geneva: Small Arms Survey, 2018), https://www.smallarmssurvey.org/sites/default/files/resources/SAS-BP-Civilian-Firearms-Numbers.pdf.

[iv] Katherine Schaeffer, “Key Facts About Americans and Guns,” Pew Research Center, September 13, 2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/13/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/.

[v] Tom Smith and Jaesok Son, Trends in Gun Ownership in the United States (Chicago: National Opinion Research Center, 2015), https://www.norc.org/PDFs/GSS%20Reports/GSS_Trends%20in%20Gun%20Ownership_US_1972-2014.pdf.

[vi] Smith and Son, Trends in Gun Ownership in the United States.

[vii] Sara Goo, “Why Own a Gun? Protection is Now Top Reason,” Pew Research Center, May 9, 2013, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/05/09/why-own-a-gun-protection-is-now-top-reason/.

[viii] Rachael Calcutt et al., “Effect of Mass Shootings on Gun Sales—A 20-year Perspective,” Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery 87, no. 3 (2019): 531.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Combatting Misinformation on Gun Violence

Chapter 2: The Truth About Guns in US History and Culture
Myth: Gun Laws are a Recent Development
Myth: An Increasing Percentage of Americans Are Buying Guns
Myth: America Has An All-Encompassing Gun Culture
Myth: Most Americans Support an Expansive View of Gun Rights and Generally Oppose Restrictions on Gun Ownership

Chapter 3: The Truth About Guns and Public Safety
Myth: An Armed Society is a Polite Society
Myth: The Only Consequences of Gun Violence are Murders
Myth: Gun Violence Numbers are Inflated Because they Include Suicides
Myth: Guns Make Women Safer
Myth: Arming Teachers Will Make Schools Safer
Myth: Gun Violence is Just a Problem in the Inner Cities

Chapter 4: The Truth About Guns and Assault Weapons
Myth: Guns Don’t Kill People, People Kill People
Myth: An AR-15-Style Rifle Is a Sporting Gun

Chapter 5: The Truth About Guns and Self-Defense Myth: Guns Provide a Net Benefit to Society in That They Are More Likely to be Used for Protection Than to Commit Crimes
Myth: There are 2.5 Million Defensive Gun Uses Per Year in the US
Myth: Right-to-Carry Laws Reduce Crime
Myth: Training Required of Concealed Weapons Permit Holders Prepares Them for Effective Defensive Gun Use
Myth: All Concealed Weapons Permit Holders are “Good Guys”
Myth: Stand Your Ground Laws Save Lives
Myth: Most Mass Shootings Occur in Gun-Free Zones

Chapter 6: The Truth About the Causes of Gun Violence
Myth: The US has More Gun Deaths Than Other Countries Because It Is More Violent and Not Due to Higher Gun Ownership or Weaker Gun Laws
Myth: Mass Shootings and Gun Violence are Primarily Due to the Mental Illness of the Perpetrator

Chapter 7: The Truth about Guns and the Constitution
Myth: The Second Amendment Grants Americans the Right to Carry Any Firearm into Any Setting

Chapter 8: The Truth about Guns and Freedom
Myth: Widespread Gun Ownership and Gun Carrying Increases Our Freedom
Myth: We Must Choose Between Public Safety and the Freedom to Own Guns
Myth: Gun Violence is the Price We Pay for Our Freedoms

Chapter 9: The Truth As to Why Guns Ought to be Regulated
Myth: We Need to Tackle the Root Causes of Violence and Stop Blaming Guns
Myth: Why Ban Guns When People Can Also be Killed with Knives, a Frozen Ham, or Die in a Car or Pool?
Myth: Guns Don’t Matter Because People Will Find a Way to Kill Others or Themselves Regardless of Gun Availability

Chapter 10: The Truth About Gun Laws and Gun Violence Prevention
Myth: Gun Violence Prevention Always Involves Changes to Laws and Public Money
Myth: Switzerland and Israel have Relaxed Gun Laws and Low Murder Rates
Myth: Hitler Introduced Strict Gun Control to Repress the Population
Myth: We Don’t Need More Gun Laws; We Just Need to Enforce the Laws We Have
Myth: Gun Control Doesn’t Work. Chicago has Very Strict Laws and a Huge Gun Violence Problem
Myth: Gun Owners and Nonowners Disagree on Every Form of Regulation
Myth: Bans and Restrictions Don’t Work as Criminals Don’t Obey the Law and Can Buy Guns on the Illegal Market
Myth: Banning Firearms is Futile When So Many Weapons Are Already in Civilian Hands
Myth: Gun Laws Are a First Step to the Complete Disarmament of the Population (the Slippery Slope Argument)

Chapter 11: How to Combat Misinformation and Change the Focus from Gun Rights to Public Safety

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Appendix A: A Declaration of the Right to Live Free from Gun Violence

Notes

Editorial Reviews

American Carnage by authors Thomas Gabor and Fred Guttenberg is a must read. Fred, like far too many Americans, understands gun violence because of the murder of his daughter Jaime. His work with Thomas Gabor to take on the myths around guns and gun violence in America and to present an evidence-based approach has resulted in a book that should be read by everyone who cares about this issue.”
—Congressman Eric Swalwell, US Representative to California's 15th congressional district

“What a powerful book! American Carnage is an essential read for anyone seeking to counter fiction with fact in their efforts to reduce gun violence in the United States.”
—Cassandra Crifasi, co-director of the Center for Gun Violence Solutions, The Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University

“This book, one I will go back to many times, gives you every essential tool to become a well-informed member of a club I want you to join: committed citizens lifting their voices for the lifesaving changes to gun laws the vast majority of Americans want.”
—Steve Kerr, son, husband, father, grandfather, and head coach of the Golden State Warriors

“Let me say at the outset that Fred Guttenberg and I agree on very little when it comes to gun policy. But we listen to each other and we constantly search for common ground. This book written by Thomas Gabor and Fred Guttenberg is an important one. And even though I disagree with some of what's written here, I recommend this book to anyone interested in saving lives. Fred and Tom make a passionate & evidenced-based case for facts to consider when pursuing certain reforms, which I'm sure will spur further passionate debate on this issue between us. I highly recommend American Carnage.”
—Former Congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois's 8th district

“Organized around the prolific myths surrounding the gun debate—and there are a great many—the authors, a criminologist and an activist, are motivated by a simple principle: that facts matter. In service to that principle, Gabor and Guttenberg’s highly readable and engaging book is a valuable contribution to truth in the otherwise often murky story of America and its guns.”
—Robert J. Spitzer, professor emeritus at SUNY Cortland and author of The Gun Dilemma and The Politics of Gun Control

“There’s no single voice more important in the conversation in America about gun safety and avoiding the unthinkable tragedy of losing a child to gun violence than Fred Guttenberg. Fred’s voice rings like a clarion in American Carnage where he, along with Thomas Gabor, explores the crucially important issue of misinformation when it comes to gun violence. The assault on truth spreads through every aspect of American politics, and there is no issue more uniquely American or deadly than gun violence. American Carnage is an essential read on one of the most important issues of our time.”
—Nicolle Wallace, host of Deadline: White House on MSNBC and former White House communications director

“American Carnage is a must-read for every gun violence prevention advocate and those interested in the complexities of the gun violence issue in America. Skillfully written and engaging, American Carnage lays bare the falsehoods and myths that have been circulated over decades by those most willing to profit from their acceptance and proliferation. This book is a fact-filled roadmap for ‘debunking’ the disinformation which has made gun violence prevention such a complicated issue.”
—Donna Wald, president of Grandmothers Against Gun Violence MA

“Smart, concise, well-written, and, perhaps more importantly, well-researched with non-biased, well-respected resource organizations. In debunking the many myths prevalent in the contemporary gun debates, the authors prove with facts and logic, glib slogans do not an argument make. The definitive resource on the misconceptions surrounding our gun culture debates. Highly recommended especially for advocates on both sides of the debate and the general public.”
—Patricia Hatch, founding member and former president of Cape Cod Grandmothers Against Gun Violence

“Since 2020, gun violence has become the leading cause of death for American children. That fact alone should make everyone who cares about a child read this book. We buckle our children into car seats, install pool fences, teach them not to take drugs or go with strangers. We give them medicine when they are sick and protect them from dangerous situations. It is long overdue that we protect them from the most dangerous threat of all—gun violence.

“This book is clearly written and easy to read. It is packed with well-researched, evidence-based facts. The myth-busting in this book provides new information even to long-time supporters of firearm regulation. This is the information that makes us better advocates for the kind of sensible gun laws that will save our children.”
—Susan Foley, MD, and Rebecca Cohen, co-leaders of Speaking Up for America/Indivisible

“This vital, accessible book offers a clear-eyed, deeply researched response to the flood of disinformation about guns and gun-related violence. Required reading for all who wish to stem the surging tide of gun carnage.”
—Caroline Light, director of the undergraduate women, gender, and sexuality studies program at Harvard University

“In American Carnage, Thomas Gabor and Fred Guttenberg masterfully tackle many of the common myths and misperceptions about firearms and gun violence in America. They provide an even-handed approach to sharing evidence-based facts and the realities of this complex issue in a way that will be approachable to audiences. In short, American Carnage is a strong primer for anyone looking to inform themselves about the bevy of issues surrounding the issue of firearms in the US.”
—Jaclyn Schildkraut, PhD, executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium, Rockefeller Institute of Government, and national expert on mass shootings

“There are few issues in American life where the stakes are as high as gun violence, nor where the steps to prevent it are more straightforward. Virtually every American wants to see changes put in place to strengthen our laws and enforcement mechanisms to make gun violence more rare. Yet, those changes have been much harder to enact than popular sentiment would dictate. Why is that? Tom Gabor and Fred Guttenberg lay out why in this exceptional book, which explains the lies, half-truths, and myths propagated by the gun industry to fight common sense gun laws and to sell as many guns as possible, no matter the lives lost or cost to our society. For those of us in the gun violence prevention movement—which is all Americans wanting a safer country where gun violence is rare—this book provides all you need to break through those lies and mistruths, and help lead and participate in conversations that can result in real change, where public safety laws are advanced that protect all Americans from gun violence.”
—Kris Brown, president of Brady, United Against Gun Violence

“A serious and frank discussion on how to reduce firearm injuries and deaths must begin with truth. Tom Gabor and Fred Guttenberg undertake the Herculean task of exposing ‘alternative facts’ in the gun debate for what they really are: half-truths, myths, and, in some instances, outright lies. American Carnage is a seminal work because it lays the groundwork for an open and honest national dialogue on one of the most pressing problems of our time: gun violence.”
—Louis Klarevas, research professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, and author of Rampage Nation: Securing America from Mass Shootings 

“This extraordinary book resonates with me in a profound and personal way, for I am a survivor of gun violence myself, along with two of my sons, and in my more than 400 book reviews written, American Carnage has impacted my psyche more than any other. This book touches my heart and soul!”
—Dennis Moore, East County Magazine

“...As a thirty-two-year classroom educator, I was pleasantly surprised by the in-depth content, the readability, and the researched-based facts of this amazing book... This book should be read by all high school students, educators, community members.”
—Ron Hobert, Kansas president of the American Federation of Teachers

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