Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun [Paperback]

Erik Larson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1995

This devastating book begins with an account of a crime that is by now almost commonplace: on December 16, 1988, sixteen-year-old Nicholas Elliot walked into his Virginia high school with a Cobray M-11/9 and several hundred rounds of ammunition tucked in his backpack. By day's end, he had killed one teacher and severely wounded another.

In Lethal Passage Erik Larson shows us how a disturbed teenager was able to buy a weapon advertised as "the gun that made the eighties roar." In so doing, he not only illuminates America's gun culture -- its manufacturers, dealers, buffs, and propagandists -- but also offers concrete solutions to our national epidemic of death by firearm. The result is a book that can -- and should -- save lives, and that has already become an essential text in the gun-control debate.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Wall Street Journal reporter Larson has written a new afterword to this timely study of American gun culture.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Larson takes us past the absurd myths, past the numbing statistics, and into the face of reality.... Journalism at its highest."

-- Los Angeles Times Book Review



"An artful slice of the story of what may be the greatest shame we as a nation have tried... to hide from ourselves.... Fascinating." -- Chicago Sun-Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (January 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679759271
• ISBN-13: 978-0679759270
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #64,372 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Erik Larson is a writer, journalist and novelist. Nominated for a Pulitzer prize for investigative journalism on The Wall Street Journal, he has taught non-fiction writing at San Francisco State and Johns Hopkins.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Snug as a Gun, September 12, 2011

By 

Sandy Carlson "SandyCarlson" (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun (Paperback)

Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun is the story of American gun culture told through the story of bullied schoolboy Nicholas Elliot, who plots his revenge by acquiring a handgun and then opening up on his teachers and classmates in a private Christian school in Virginia in December, 1988. Larson traces the history of the Cobray M-11/9 from its creation to its arrival in the hand of an angry young man in the context of (deliberately) lax legislation that makes it easier to get a gun than to get a driver's license in the United States.

Larson challenges the myths that suggest that gun ownership is part and parcel of the American character by citing statistics that show how our permissive gun culture undermines the safety and security we crave.

Larson does his research and tells one compelling story.

52 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ironic Passage, April 3, 2006

By 

T. Dassing "Teri Karma" (Palm Harbor, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun (Paperback)

When I read Erik Larson, I know I'm in for a treat, and this was no exception. This book not only tells the story of how a bullied boy takes his anger out using a gun at school, but the story of the inadequicies of gun legislation and the winding road the NRA has taken interpreting the 2nd Amendment. The one irony I found that Larson points out is that it's harder to get a driver's license than it is to get a gun in the United States. What I like most about the book is that Larson provides a solution to the gun problem and outlines a very reasonable and comprehensive bill regarding the use and regulations of guns. But I have to agree it would be impossible to get through legislation, not because it's unworthy, but because our current government is a messy monolith of a bureacracy where nothing gets done due to poor representation, egos, and political shortsightedness--in my humble opinion. Our forefathers would roll over in their graves if they could see what has become of our sacred 2nd Amendment. Excellent book by an author who does his homework.

7 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars too many stats! no real story line, March 16, 2010

By 

book lover "dk" (frankfort, il USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun (Paperback)

after loving Devil in the White City thought this would be a good choice. reading dry percentages of statistics put me to sleep..