firearms accidents

Discusses issues related to gun violence, covering assault-style weapons bans, universal background checks, gun ownership regulations, open carry laws, and related topics.

Sebastian Cody was only four-years-old when he accidentally shot and killed his infant sister. Now a decade later, he's decided that living with the guilt and sideways stares of others is too much. This, he's decided, will be his last summer. But when he meets Aneesa, a Muslim girl who's new to his neighborhood, everything changes. Finally someone sees him for who he really is and not for his horrific past. But when his past is revealed and a wedge is driven between him and Aneesa, Sebastian finds himself right back where he started--planning to end his life the same way he ended his sister's so long ago.

Seemingly disparate portraits of people. Among them a single mother, a high school principal, and an ace student. Distinctly American, all are affected by the proliferation of guns in American society.

In this beautifully written and powerful memoir, author Craig K. Collins ushers readers down a remarkable path--one that wends from the American frontier to present-day suburbia. Along the way, he explores the meaning of a history--of his family's and his country's--that is infused with the culture of the gun. Stops include an Indian massacre at Bad Axe, the siege of Vicksburg, the slaughter of buffalo in Montana, and the discovery of gold in a remote Nevada canyon. The story begins on a hunting trip Collins took with his father and brothers in the early '70s, when he was accidentally shot with a high-powered deer rifle at the age of 13 near the top of an isolated peak in northeastern Nevada. He tells a personal story of a childhood in Idaho and Nevada, where hunting is a way of life and guns are revered--often with fatal and unintended results. He recalls friends--past and present--whose lives have been forever shattered or altered by the explosive force of a bullet.

After being involved in an accidental shooting, fourteen-year-old Ted LeClare awaits the discovery of his guilt by the local police officers and joins a group of boys called the American Youth who pride themselves on anti-federalist beliefs and vandalization of the property of the wealthy.