I BOUGHT this book, several times - once for me, the others for friends of mine who are writers, gun owners and just plain old fans of great essays.
I'm also a former journalist - 23 years, and currently a full-time ghost writer, and a former cop and gun owner. I'm also a life-long Stephen King fan. I had no idea what I was getting when I bought this, but wow. SO WORTH the 99 cents and more. So, I've seen the cop's side, the reporter's side and when I was shot at in a parking lot covering a story, I was the "victim's side." Think Groundhog Day, the movie. The only thing that changes are the names of the victims. It's horrifically devastating to the families -- but in a detached, by-stander mode as King approaches...it's right on accurate.
First:
King absolutely NAILS the progression from shooting to media side note to moving on. The only thing he didn't include was that once a shooting is relegated to a side note behind the YouTube video of the day was that the newsroom adds the clips and info to their "prior shooting" archives to trot out ad nauseam to fill in the news holes between the "A-team's" arrival on scene, and the interns who are still trying to figure out how to file a story at all. He also probably doesn't realize how much shootings are kind of a relief (don't hate ME, it's true) because there's no real reporting involved at all...just a lot of microphone or tape recorder shoving and asking "How did you feel? What did you think? What did you do? What are you going to do now."
Second:
King talks about his book "Rage," which he describes as NOT causing school shootings, but as being an accelerant to fire bugs. His books "didn't break" anyone, but they spoke to boys already broken. Like King, I'm sad he pulled Rage because books that speak to the broken who cannot be fixed, also speak to the broken who are looking for a reason to heal. King will never know how many boys read RAGE and thought, "I'm not the only one who feels this way. I don't have to do anything to get attention because this is not the attention I want...." and who then turned their lives around. I doubt RAGE turned as many broken boys into shooters as the numerous video-games and R rated movies and 4-to-8 hours a DAY of television, movies and vampires and violence kids see every day. But we can agree to disagree on that. To think that one's writing (I am a writer - See my TED Global video) can influence a person is humbling. I only wish King thought about republishing RAGE with an epilogue. Better than simply pulling it.
Third:
In reference to King's description of major shooting scenes, not the police tape and stoic police images viewers really get, unless a photographer with a telephoto manages to get on scene during the action. My first major shooting scene was a suicide. I was an ambulance volunteer. The victim put a shotgun under the soft fleshy triangle above what was once the juncture between his adam's apple and the basement of his lower jaw and pulled the trigger. His last thoughts and brain matter covered three of four walls, his bedding and the collection of paperbacks on the headboard behind him. The public would go insane to see what multiple shots to a 6-year old body do...mostly there's not really much left. But then you'd have to address war and understand PTSD in veterans.
Fourth:
King's understanding of the arguments and the gun debate are as lacking as most of America, but infinitely more entertaining to read. Like most blue-state debaters he honestly thinks the gun debate is about self-defense against bath-salt and meth/crack head fueled home invaders. He obviously didn't take time to actually READ the second amendment, but I'm sure he was busy with another novel where he continues to kill off innocent people and spew blood and guts and horror for the entertainment of thousands who wouldn't actually pull a trigger, but who enjoy gore and violence none-the-less. If he really was opposed to violence he wouldn't be writing about and making a fortune on people killing people "in the land of make-believe.
He supports back-ground checks, as do I and most responsible gun owners, but fails to point out that the majority of shootings involve people who would not pass a check stealing or borrowing the guns they need to commit their crimes. Better to enforce a mandatory gun safe law.
He fails to acknowledge the role pharmaceuticals, military intelligence and other more common indicators play in these shootings. 90+ percent of shooters are on, or are coming off anti-psychotic medication when driven to violence. Where's the role of big pharma? C'mon Stephen...
King says that 80 people die of gunshot wounds every day in the USA. He neglects to mention that 500 rapes and 100,000 homicides are PREVENTED everyday because someone simply pulls and shows a gun to a would-be attacker. If you want to quote statistics, how many people are killed in car accidents every day, yet no one wants to ban automobiles.
Life is not safe. Pulling his book RAGE isn't really the act of a "good guy." After four people are moved to commit violence after reading it, and the book is found in their possession, that's the move of an author who sees litigation on his literary horizon and doesn't need a jury reviewing a lifetime of his murderous, violent stories trotted out for review on FOX News.
Mark Chapman was reading "Catcher in the Rye," when the police arrested him. Was that book pulled? King's fascination with violence parallels Salinger's. Indeed, American culture is submersed in violence and a fascination with it.
SUMMARY:
While I love King's writing, although was disappointed when he went from subtle, brilliant plot turns and twists to simply cursing, blood and violence, I have to say this is a wonderfully delightful essay to read. It contains the usual lapses and lingering faults and one-sided rants of most liberals, but it's fun to read. Like most of those opposed to guns, King doesn't seem to grasp the constitutional imperative of Americans who need guns to defend themselves against a tyrannical GOVERNMENT, not the nutjob down the street.
Worth the .99 cents because it's a better read than most rants. You don't have to agree with a piece of writing to enjoy reading it. Because King manages to deftly weave his story telling into the essay -- creating a fantasy sure to resonate with like minded liberals who desperately want to ensure the government is free to destroy the American people as quickly, cleanly and without as much fuss as possible, it's a brilliant piece of editorial. Highly recommend it.
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2013
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- John MiltonReviewed in the United Kingdom on January 27, 2013
Absolutely worthy of your time and money
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paintwaxolyReviewed in Germany on June 28, 2014
Interessanter, gut argumentierter Essay
