Basic Pistol: Living and Dying by the Gun in America

by Harel Shapira

This eye-opening deep dive into American gun culture reveals how people are training their minds and bodies to use guns to devastating effect.

All across the country, everyday Americans are taking classes in how to use a gun. Harel Shapira, a sociologist at the University of Texas, has spent ten years immersed in the world of gun-training. Who are the instructors? What are people learning from them? And how does it explain the gun violence that’s now playing out on a daily basis?

Shapira reveals that far from simply teaching the mechanics of gun safety these schools are teaching a way of living in the world that is rooted in racist fears, aggressive masculinity and an entitlement to violence. In storytelling that will take your breath away, we discover that the risk of widespread gun ownership is not simply the possibility of more gun violence and mass shootings. The risk is to the very foundations of democracy itself.

Audible Audio

Expected publication September 17, 2026

About the author

Harel Shapira is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on gun culture, militias, and right-wing politics.