A THOUSAND WAYS TO DIE

A journalist analyzes how gun laws and ownership perpetuate racialized violence.

According to Lee, “Black people are thirteen times more likely to be shot and killed by police and seven times more likely to be shot dead by another civilian with a gun.” Lee traces this pattern to America’s beginnings, when “an uncleavable relationship between the trade of humans and the trade of guns” contributed to the nation’s bloody foundation. After this historical background, Lee moves around the country, describing how Southern gun traffickers illicitly arm Chicagoans despite the state’s stringent gun control laws, fueling the city’s uncontrollable violence. In New Orleans, he notes how, while reporting during Hurricane Katrina, at least one of his white colleagues makes excuses for police shootings aimed at some of the city’s poorest Black residents. In Massachusetts, he interviews a worker at the Smith & Wesson factory who loses his job after publicly questioning the company’s ethics. Throughout these stories, he weaves in his own personal history, recounting how his grandfather’s and stepbrother’s murders left lasting, traumatic impressions on his extended family. Lee’s experience reinforces one of the book’s key messages—that gun violence is both a byproduct and cause of “the systemic, institutional, and structural racism that feeds it.” At best, Lee’s work is empathetic, analytical, and insightful, drawing subtle connections in clean and conversational prose. Some chapters hold together better than others: “(G)un-Civil Rights,” for example, is cohesive, while “Gigglebox” tends to meander. All in all, the book is a provocative and informative read that expertly blends memoir with hard-hitting reporting.

A poignant chronicle of the systems that fuel gun violence in the United States.