Basic Pistol

Living and Dying by the Gun in America

By: Harel Shapira

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Hardcover | 17 September 2026

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Hardcover

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23.4 x 15.3 x 2.9

Hardcover

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A shocking encounter with American gun culture that reveals the devastating effects of how people are training their minds and bodies for violence.

'Utterly brilliant . . . deeply researched and thoughtful' - Justin Webb, former BBC North America editor

Every day, at firearms schools across the country, ordinary Americans are learning how to use a gun. Who are their teachers? What are they being taught, and for what purpose?

Harel Shapira, a sociologist at the University of Texas, has spent ten years immersed in the world of gun-training. Throughout the dozens of classes he has taken, he has been taught that the world is filled with ‘bad guys’ who can only be stopped by the self-styled ‘good guys’. He has learned that he must be prepared to kill or be killed.

Basic Pistol reveals how these schools are going far beyond teaching the mechanics of gun safety. They are teaching a way of living in the world rooted in racist fears, aggressive masculinity and an entitlement to violence. It will explain why the risk of widespread gun ownership is not simply the possibility of more gun violence and mass shootings. The risk is to the very foundations of democracy itself.

'A must read' - Heather Ann Thompson
‘Groundbreaking’ - Adam Winkler
'Fascinating, disturbing, necessary' - Eric Klinenberg

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