What We've Become: Living and Dying in a Country of Arms
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- Create Date：2024-01-30 15:21:46
- Update Date：2025-09-06
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- Author：Jonathan Metzl
- ISBN：B0C97HSL4Q
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Summary
A searing reflection on the broken promise of safety in America。
When a naked， mentally ill white man with an AR-15 killed four young adults of color at a Waffle House， Nashville-based physician and gun policy scholar Dr。 Jonathan M。 Metzl once again advocated for commonsense gun reform。 But as he peeled back evidence surrounding the racially charged mass shooting， a shocking question Did the public health approach he had championed for years have it all wrong？
Long at the forefront of a movement advocating for gun reform as a matter of public health， Metzl has been on constant media call in the aftermath of fatal shootings。 But the 2018 Nashville killings led him on a path toward recognizing the limitations of biomedical frameworks for fully diagnosing or treating the impassioned complexities of American gun politics。 As he came to understand it， public health is a harder sell in a nation that fundamentally disagrees about what it means to be safe， healthy， or free。
In What We’ve Become， Metzl reckons both with the long history of distrust of public health and the larger forces—social， ideological， historical， racial， and political—that allow mass shootings to occur on a near daily basis in America。 Looking closely at the cycle in which mass shootings lead to shock， horror， calls for action， and， ultimately， political gridlock， he explores what happens to the soul of a nation—and the meanings of safety and community—when we normalize violence as an acceptable trade-off for freedom。 Mass shootings and our inability to stop them have become more than horrific they are an American national autobiography。
This brilliant， piercing analysis points to mass shootings as a symptom of our most unresolved national conflicts。 What We’ve Become ultimately sets us on the path of alliance forging， racial reckoning， and political power brokering we must take to put things right。
When a naked， mentally ill white man with an AR-15 killed four young adults of color at a Waffle House， Nashville-based physician and gun policy scholar Dr。 Jonathan M。 Metzl once again advocated for commonsense gun reform。 But as he peeled back evidence surrounding the racially charged mass shooting， a shocking question Did the public health approach he had championed for years have it all wrong？
Long at the forefront of a movement advocating for gun reform as a matter of public health， Metzl has been on constant media call in the aftermath of fatal shootings。 But the 2018 Nashville killings led him on a path toward recognizing the limitations of biomedical frameworks for fully diagnosing or treating the impassioned complexities of American gun politics。 As he came to understand it， public health is a harder sell in a nation that fundamentally disagrees about what it means to be safe， healthy， or free。
In What We’ve Become， Metzl reckons both with the long history of distrust of public health and the larger forces—social， ideological， historical， racial， and political—that allow mass shootings to occur on a near daily basis in America。 Looking closely at the cycle in which mass shootings lead to shock， horror， calls for action， and， ultimately， political gridlock， he explores what happens to the soul of a nation—and the meanings of safety and community—when we normalize violence as an acceptable trade-off for freedom。 Mass shootings and our inability to stop them have become more than horrific they are an American national autobiography。
This brilliant， piercing analysis points to mass shootings as a symptom of our most unresolved national conflicts。 What We’ve Become ultimately sets us on the path of alliance forging， racial reckoning， and political power brokering we must take to put things right。
Reviews
Tony
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On April 22， 2018， a mostly naked schizophrenic man drove to a Waffle House in Nashville — at an hour when not much other than Waffle House was open。 He raised his AR-15 and murdered four people。 About three weeks before， he had been fired from his construction job after expressing paranoid delusions about his coworkers， who he had said were "after him。" Then he went to a BMW dealership， asked to test-drive an X6， and never returned it。 Before that， he posted several videos of himself to YouTube On April 22， 2018， a mostly naked schizophrenic man drove to a Waffle House in Nashville — at an hour when not much other than Waffle House was open。 He raised his AR-15 and murdered four people。 About three weeks before， he had been fired from his construction job after expressing paranoid delusions about his coworkers， who he had said were "after him。" Then he went to a BMW dealership， asked to test-drive an X6， and never returned it。 Before that， he posted several videos of himself to YouTube in which he rambled about Taylor Swift， and appeared at a restricted area at the White House and demanded to "inspect the grounds。" Over a year after the murders， Jonathan Metzl appeared on Bill Maher's talk show Real Time。 He was promoting his recently released book， Dying of Whiteness。 His first words were， "I'm a professor and a doctor。" He summarized his book's then-fashionable thesis， that white rural voters are too stupid to understand that Republican policies， including opposition to gun restrictions， work to their detriment。 He never mentioned Travis Reinking's murders at the Waffle House。Nearly six years after the murders， Metzl returns to the bookshelves to give the Waffle House murders the racial angle that broad coverage in national and international media failed to uncover。 Despite that neither NPR and CNN saw fit to conclude from the races of the murderer （white） and four victims （black） that Reinking murdered out of racial hatred， Metzl doubts that a clearly manifested and undiagnosed mental illness was the proximate cause of the carnage。 Instead， the race-obsessed Metzl psychoanalyzes Reinking — even invoking Freud — and concludes that it was secret racism after all。 This is because， and I'm not making this up， when Reinking went to the White House， he said he was a sovereign citizen， and some sovereign citizens are also white supremacists。 （Sovereign citizens are not known for entering into deferred prosecution agreements with the government， as Reinking did。 A cursory review of traffic stops on YouTube will satisfy the curious viewer of the diversity of folks who say silly things to the police。 And I don't mean to sound unkind， but schizophrenics are not always celebrated for their factual accuracy。）Now， about the only offbeat thing that Travis Reinking did not do was show any evidence of racism， either against his victims or anyone else。 Had he done so， the reader can be sure that Metzl would have brought it to his attention。 Metzl may shrug at Reinking's schizophrenia， but it takes neither a gun enthusiast or a psychiatrist to see that Reinking's behavior was abnormal。 Because of his condition， a judge initially found him incompetent to stand trial — a remarkably difficult finding to make that requires that the defendant is either unable to understand the proceedings， unable to assist his attorneys in defending himself， or both。 When a criminal defendant is found incompetent to stand trial， he is ordered to receive psychiatric treatment， whether he likes it or not。 Metzl inexplicably withheld this information from his readers。 Someone thought Reinking was sick， including a judge， a psychologist who testified in support of his defense that he was not guilty by reason of insanity， and probably the prosecution， which declined to seek the death penalty， a decision that was likely influenced by Supreme Court jurisprudence concerning executing the mentally ill， such as Atkins v。 Virginia （2002）。A funny thing about this is that my own views on gun reform largely track with Metzl's。 But the racism angle was sloppy and slapdash， so that the title does not fit the text。 Rather than a level discussion of gun control， this book is unsure of what it tries to be。 Of all the cases to showcase as an exemplar of structural racism， Reinking's is an odd choice。 According to his website， Metzl seems to study the intersection of guns and race， so maybe it is little wonder that he connects them in What We've Become。 I am curious to know how mental-health professionals would react to his opinion that mass shootings should not be attributed to mental illness。 It was also unusual to see Metzl all but cheering the remarkable sentence — four consecutive life sentences， plus over 100 years — that Reinking received。 Typically， the university-affiliated and the psychiatrists among us can be counted upon to dig up the perpetrator's difficult childhood in mitigation and call for leniency， rehabilitation， and reintegration into society。 They abhor "mass incarceration。" Not so here。 To Metzl's ilk， there are some crimes worse than murder， and even though no jury convicted him of it， no punishment is too severe in response。 。。。more
Danielle
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I loved Metzl's previous book， Dying of Whiteness， so I was very excited to get an advanced copy of this book。 Unfortunately I don't think it came together nearly as well。 I felt like he was undercutting his own points。 The premise of the books seems to be about how anti-gun lobbyists generally take a public health messaging angle and why that doesn't break through to the people who actually own guns because they are looking at it from an entirely different angle and that basically everyone is j I loved Metzl's previous book， Dying of Whiteness， so I was very excited to get an advanced copy of this book。 Unfortunately I don't think it came together nearly as well。 I felt like he was undercutting his own points。 The premise of the books seems to be about how anti-gun lobbyists generally take a public health messaging angle and why that doesn't break through to the people who actually own guns because they are looking at it from an entirely different angle and that basically everyone is just talking past each other。 That seemed to be the setup to me， so I was expecting the second half of the book to talk about how to bridge that gap and actually try and make real in-roads on gun reform。 Instead it felt like all he did was dig into the public health messaging even though the whole premise earlier was that it doesn't work。 He clearly states multiple times is what he's rooted in， and it seems like he's struggling himself to present any messaging beyond it。 I thought it might be a useful book， but ultimately I don't think it had much to offer。 。。。more
V
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers。 To view it， click here。 Finished this one last week。。。 it made a lot of sense in the long run but it did get a bit tedious at points in time。 The one part that was the best explanation was the dialog in the Supreme Court portion。。。
Peter Z。
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You're not "power brokering" away anyone's second amendment civil rights。 If you do， they'll come for your first amendment rights next。 And don't believe anyone who says that they don't want to shred the first amendment tok。 "Hate speech" sentence enhancement， permits to congregate in public spaces， and government collusion with Big Tech to suppress freedom of speech are *already happening。* So， yeah， guns are the only thing protecting your ability to talk about how bad guns are。 Keep treating t You're not "power brokering" away anyone's second amendment civil rights。 If you do， they'll come for your first amendment rights next。 And don't believe anyone who says that they don't want to shred the first amendment tok。 "Hate speech" sentence enhancement， permits to congregate in public spaces， and government collusion with Big Tech to suppress freedom of speech are *already happening。* So， yeah， guns are the only thing protecting your ability to talk about how bad guns are。 Keep treating the second amendment like a second class right， and you can start counting down days til your newspaper needs government approval to print and you're not allowed to go anywhere that speaks out against random "public health" mandates， or even write a letter to your congressman， without getting sent to the gulag。It's amazing that people don't think back to their history books。 Remember when King George was treating us like shit and we started to complain too loudly？ What was the first thing he tried to do， take away our guns。 You might check but I'm pretty sure Hitler did that to the Jews before he exterminated 90% of them。 And here we are， with people still telling us we'll be so much better off without our guns。 No thanks。 Where I live， everyone has guns and everyone is friendly and there's no crime to speak of。 I'd hate to live someplace where defenseless people just have to pray the bad guys won't do bad guy things for the half hour it takes the police to get to a call in some of our cities。 Sad。 。。。more
Alex Pulliam
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An interesting and well-thought-out discussion of American gun reform that loses some points at the end for stereotyping Southerners。Disclaimer: I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway。 This review was not required but encouraged， and my star rating and content are all my own。 The edition I read was an Advanced Reader Copy and may be different than the published version。CW: gun violence， death， mentions of rape， discussions of sexism， racism， and homophobia
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what we've become living and dying in a country of arms what we've become living and dying in a country of arms jonathan metzl