A deeply researched journey through gun culture and the people for whom guns are a way of life
To understand how people die by the gun, we must first understand how people live by the gun.
This is the realization that led sociologist Harel Shapira to embed himself in TK Training, a popular firearms school in rural Texas just outside sprawling Austin. Forty-two classes, ten thousand rounds of ammunition, and one concealed carry license later, he has emerged with Basic Pistol, a dark and richly detailed plunge into an obsession that shapes the very fabric of American life.
Basic Pistol follows Shapira's fraught journey through TK Training's extensive curriculum. He learns how to hold a gun and how to buy one, how to judge when and when not to shoot, and how to talk to the cops once the trigger's been pulled. All the while, he immerses himself in a community of complexities and contradictions, for whom gun ownership is livelihood, is tradition, is identity. In so doing, he shows how gun culture—and the fears and fantasies of violence it breeds—erodes the very bonds of American society, empowering white men and placing Black humanity in the line of fire.
Page-turning and paradigm-shifting, Basic Pistol shows that if there’s any hope of reining in the gun violence epidemic, it must start not with the guns themselves, but with the people who carry them.
"At once page-turning and deeply disquieting, Harel Shapira’s Basic Pistol is a must read for anyone who wants to understand not just why gun violence is so devastatingly prevalent in the United States, but also, and as importantly, how gun ownership has become so normalized, so passionately defended, and so much a part of how countless people now measure their sense of safety as well as connect to their community."—Heather Ann Thompson, author of Fear and Fury and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Blood in the Water
"Basic Pistol is masterfully crafted. It penetrates the heart of American gun culture and, somehow, renders it both deeply human and utterly monstrous. It’s a fascinating, disturbing, and necessary book about the violence of everyday life in the United States."—Eric Klinenberg, Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the Social Sciences, New York University
"Utterly brilliant. So much more than the usual diatribe about guns: it is deeply researched and thoughtful. It tells a story about a culture without inviting us to dislike any of the people involved."—Justin Webb, former BBC North America editor
"With analytic rigor, literary skill, and a deep understanding of his subjects, Harel Shapira takes us into the culture of gun ownership and the far-right with a skill that surpasses most journalism on the subject. Basic Pistol memorably demonstrates how a gun safety training program can amount to indoctrination into a never-ending, trigger-ready state of high alert."—Nicholas Lemann, Pulitzer-Moore Professor and Dean Emeritus, Columbia Journalism School, and author of Transaction Man "Basic Pistol is groundbreaking ethnography. In this fascinating deep dive into America’s obsession with guns, Harel Shapira shows how this culture of violence and doom permeates our communities and shapes our politics.”—Adam Winkler, Connell Professor of Law, UCLA, and author of We the Corporations and Gunfight.
"Unqiuely researched . . . . an important addition to the conversation about gun violence in the United States."—Library Journal "Chilling . . . . An eye-opening study that makes its own case for stricter gun control."—Kirkus Reviews
"A vivid and unique perspective on U.S. gun culture."—Publishers Weekly
Harel Shapira is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his BA from the University of Chicago and his PhD from Columbia University. Shapira uses long- term ethnographic research to understand right- wing politics and gun culture in contemporary America. He is the author of Waiting for José: The Minutemen’s Pursuit of America (Princeton University Press, 2013) and the coeditor of Gun Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Politics, Policy, and Practice (Oxford University Press, 2019, with Jennifer Carlson and Kristin Goss). His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation as well as the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and his writing has been featured in numerous outlets, including The New York Times and The New Republic. He was named an Andrew Carnegie Fellow in 2015 and a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study in 2021.
View titles by Harel Shapira
A deeply researched journey through gun culture and the people for whom guns are a way of life
To understand how people die by the gun, we must first understand how people live by the gun.
This is the realization that led sociologist Harel Shapira to embed himself in TK Training, a popular firearms school in rural Texas just outside sprawling Austin. Forty-two classes, ten thousand rounds of ammunition, and one concealed carry license later, he has emerged with Basic Pistol, a dark and richly detailed plunge into an obsession that shapes the very fabric of American life.
Basic Pistol follows Shapira's fraught journey through TK Training's extensive curriculum. He learns how to hold a gun and how to buy one, how to judge when and when not to shoot, and how to talk to the cops once the trigger's been pulled. All the while, he immerses himself in a community of complexities and contradictions, for whom gun ownership is livelihood, is tradition, is identity. In so doing, he shows how gun culture—and the fears and fantasies of violence it breeds—erodes the very bonds of American society, empowering white men and placing Black humanity in the line of fire.
Page-turning and paradigm-shifting, Basic Pistol shows that if there’s any hope of reining in the gun violence epidemic, it must start not with the guns themselves, but with the people who carry them.
Reviews
"At once page-turning and deeply disquieting, Harel Shapira’s Basic Pistol is a must read for anyone who wants to understand not just why gun violence is so devastatingly prevalent in the United States, but also, and as importantly, how gun ownership has become so normalized, so passionately defended, and so much a part of how countless people now measure their sense of safety as well as connect to their community."—Heather Ann Thompson, author of Fear and Fury and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Blood in the Water
"Basic Pistol is masterfully crafted. It penetrates the heart of American gun culture and, somehow, renders it both deeply human and utterly monstrous. It’s a fascinating, disturbing, and necessary book about the violence of everyday life in the United States."—Eric Klinenberg, Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the Social Sciences, New York University
"Utterly brilliant. So much more than the usual diatribe about guns: it is deeply researched and thoughtful. It tells a story about a culture without inviting us to dislike any of the people involved."—Justin Webb, former BBC North America editor
"With analytic rigor, literary skill, and a deep understanding of his subjects, Harel Shapira takes us into the culture of gun ownership and the far-right with a skill that surpasses most journalism on the subject. Basic Pistol memorably demonstrates how a gun safety training program can amount to indoctrination into a never-ending, trigger-ready state of high alert."—Nicholas Lemann, Pulitzer-Moore Professor and Dean Emeritus, Columbia Journalism School, and author of Transaction Man "Basic Pistol is groundbreaking ethnography. In this fascinating deep dive into America’s obsession with guns, Harel Shapira shows how this culture of violence and doom permeates our communities and shapes our politics.”—Adam Winkler, Connell Professor of Law, UCLA, and author of We the Corporations and Gunfight.
"Unqiuely researched . . . . an important addition to the conversation about gun violence in the United States."—Library Journal "Chilling . . . . An eye-opening study that makes its own case for stricter gun control."—Kirkus Reviews
"A vivid and unique perspective on U.S. gun culture."—Publishers Weekly
Harel Shapira is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his BA from the University of Chicago and his PhD from Columbia University. Shapira uses long- term ethnographic research to understand right- wing politics and gun culture in contemporary America. He is the author of Waiting for José: The Minutemen’s Pursuit of America (Princeton University Press, 2013) and the coeditor of Gun Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Politics, Policy, and Practice (Oxford University Press, 2019, with Jennifer Carlson and Kristin Goss). His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation as well as the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and his writing has been featured in numerous outlets, including The New York Times and The New Republic. He was named an Andrew Carnegie Fellow in 2015 and a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study in 2021.
View titles by Harel Shapira
