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AMERICAN GUN:

September 1, 2013
Chris Kyle

A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms

By Chris Kyle

Reviewed by Dennis Bianchi

The author of this book, Chris Kyle, was a United States Navy Seal and considered the greatest sniper in the history of the United States Military. A native of Texas, he was clearly proud of his background, his love of family and country, and his knowledge of weaponry.   He was the author of a New York Times best-selling book, American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History. He served four combat tours in Operation Iraqi Freedom and elsewhere.  For his bravery in battle, he was awarded two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars with Valor, two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, and one Navy and Marine Corps Commendation. On February 2, 2013, he was ironically and tragically shot to death at a firing range while attempting to assist in the rehabilitation of a returning veteran. 

I am not a gun enthusiast. I had not fired a gun of any type until I joined the San Francisco Police Department in 1970. I found them interesting as pieces of engineering and mechanical cleverness. I had, what I believe, was very good training. The idea of a gun as a tool of my profession was clearly explained and accepted by me. The author, in contrast, grew up knowing a great deal about firearms, learned to properly use one as a boy, and obviously attained exceedingly high proficiency with many. I found him to be a delightful enthusiast and a darn good teller of tales.

Some readers may find Mr. Kyle's style a bit too folksy. From time to time there is a feeling of sitting with friends at a coffee break as a "good ol' boy" spins a yarn to his pals. But Mr. Kyle was not just spinning yarns in this book. He is educating the public not only about guns, but about several historically important incidents in our country's history. 

Many of the Ten Firearms the author selected are discussed in the sense of their importance to different wars the United States has been involved in since our formation as a country. He also makes mention of the types and uses of guns in non-war settings such as police work, and weapons used by criminals. Mr. Kyle does all of this without a political agenda. Rather, he writes in a straight forward manner about how guns of different eras worked - or didn't work in some cases. An example explained in the book is the difficulties that both Union and Confederate soldiers had while fighting with rifle-muskets as compared to the later use of the Spencer rifle. He writes, "A number of soldiers on both sides expressed the opinion that the Spencer or another multiple-shot, easy-firing gun would have turned the tide earlier on...Mr. Bruce (Pulitzer Prize winner for history writing) put it this way 'If a large part of the Union Army had been given breech-loaders by the end of 1862, Gettysburg would certainly have ended the war.' "  It is this combining of knowledge of guns and history that makes this book such a great read.

 The author throws in a few valuable philosophical tidbits that have nothing whatsoever to do with guns. "You can't win a war in your head, but if your head ain't right, you've got no chance at all." And another, "Whether they're used in war or for keeping the peace, guns are just tools. And like any tool, the way they're used reflects the society they're part of. As times change, guns have evolved. If you don't like guns, blame it on the society they're part of."

About the guns:  Mr. Kyle selected the American Long Rifle from the Revolutionary War, the Spencer Repeater, the Colt Single-Action Army Revolver, Winchester 1873 Rifle,  M1903 Springfield, M1911 Pistol,  Thompson Submachine Gun, M1 Garand, .38 Special Police Revolver (a chapter where he covers many other revolvers and semi-automatics used in police work today) and, lastly the  M16 Rifle and M4. There are certain readers of this publication who will, no doubt, be familiar with many or, perhaps, most of these guns. What may surprise even those readers are the settings in which Mr. Kyle places each weapon and the stories attached to them. He explains how the Thompson Submachine Gun moved from being a weapon designed for warfare, clearing out trenches and nests of the enemy, to become a standard piece of equipment sported by American gangsters such as Al Capone and "Baby Face Nelson." There is a very succinct but exciting description of the attempted assassination of President Harry Truman and how proficiency with a gun is mandatory if one decides to use it. He informed me of just how enthusiastic Abraham Lincoln was about guns.  "Abe Lincoln was a gun buff and a technology whiz. . . Lincoln took presidential involvement with gun technology to a new level. Fiddling with another experimental repeating gun on his firing range one day he shot off a few round, then announced, 'I believe I can make this gun shoot better,' He produced a hand-whittled wooden sight from his vest pocket, clamped it on the rifle, and let loose at a piece of congressional stationery pinned more than eighty yards away. He hit the paper almost a dozen times."

The conversations about ammunition size and speed is not too technical for the average reader to understand.

In the epilogue the author sums up the purpose of the book. "Pick up a rifle, a pistol, a shotgun, and you're handling a piece of American history. What you hold is not just a finely engineered instrument, but an object that connects you to people who fought for their freedom ... Each gun has its own story to tell, its own connection not just to the past, but the American spirit." I believe Mr. Kyle has written a book that tells that story extremely well.  And he did it simply and colorfully. As he writes later in the book, "You can get a little fancy talking about guns. You become a bit starry-eyed thinking about history. You can forge the rough spots. That's not fair.  Real life has been messy, bloody, complicated. Not a straight line. That doesn't mean it hasn't been triumphant, victorious, glorious, and wonderful along the same way."