Beating Guns

“We all know we have a gun problem, but here Shane and Mike put clear words and ideas on what we can actually do to beat it. Sometimes we get stuck in our frustration with problems that seem like they will never go away. This book is how we get unstuck on guns.”—Shaun King, writer, speaker, and activist

“I thought I knew in advance what Shane and Mike would say on this topic, but I was wrong. Finally we have a winsome, reasonable approach to an issue that usually generates far more heat than light.”—Philip Yancey, New York Times bestselling author

“As a Black woman, mother, and reconciler who has witnessed countless parents losing their children to gun violence, one of my greatest concerns is to find a way to stop this senseless loss of life. That’s why I highly recommend this timely, relevant, and necessary book! The authors help us to develop the moral imagination to create a world that is not characterized by violence but by God’s shalom. If you’re like me, you can hardly wait to live in a world where we study war no more. This book will show us how!”—Brenda Salter McNeil, author of Roadmap to Reconciliation and A Credible Witness

“With mass shootings regularly in the news, this powerful, provocative new book by Shane Claiborne and Michael Martin is not only timely but critical reading. Their creative response to the grim realities all around us is exactly what we as followers of Jesus need today.”—Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church

“This is the quintessential pro-life book if there ever was one! The tireless, intrepid Shane Claiborne is joined by Michael Martin in a summons to face up to the claims of faith in response to gun pathology. This book is a painful memorial to myriad gun deaths, a straight-up history of guns and gun violence, a carefully researched statistical report on gun reality, an exposé of gun capitalism, and a repudiation of the cluster of carefully managed myths that sustain gun ideology. Finally, this book is both a bold summons to imagine a gun-regulated society and a mandate to act in the public domain. The book is a must for those who care but who have not yet cared enough to weigh in actively for the sake of an abundant life that overrides the lethal power of fear.”—Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary

“What does history teach us? Guns and violence offer the momentary illusion of control—the thrill of power—but then we look up and find ourselves seeped through with the stench of death. From the genocide of Native Americans to slave patrols armed by the Second Amendment to the militarized racism of the last century to Columbine and Pulse nightclub and Chicago, guns have promised Americans peace and delivered heartbreak again and again and again. Beating Guns dives deep and uncovers the pathologies of violence in our society. Claiborne and Martin shine light on a path out of the madness. It’s time to never again say ‘never again.’”—Lisa Sharon Harper, founder and president of FreedomRoad.us

“Beating Guns fills a spiritual void in our national conversation on guns. This powerful book employs pragmatic wisdom and challenging biblical insight to offer a fresh, humane, and sacred view of our guns, our violence, and the nation’s collective response to human suffering.”—Otis Moss III, writer, activist, sacred troublemaker, and pastor of Trinity UCC, Chicago, Illinois

“Outrage about gun violence in this so-called Christian nation is the easiest path of resistance. In fact, outrage is too easy. It is much harder to grieve over those suffering from gun violence and over how Christians have embraced a legal right—called the Second Amendment—as their Christian right. But the most difficult path is hope carried by love, and it is this love that empowers Beating Guns. Look at the pictures, ponder the sidebars, and read the text—and pray. Then pray some more. Then ask God to guide you and empower you to walk in the way of love. It is time for Christians to turn from the insane violence of guns and their defense by rights to a cross-shaped vision of how we ought to live. It will begin with peace through love, not peace through strength. Better than a good guy with a gun is a good guy with a weapon called ‘cross-shaped love.’”—Scot McKnight, professor of New Testament, Northern Seminary

“This book could change America and awaken Christianity! Seldom have I seen such a combination of documented history, compelling narrative, helpful visuals, and practical, readable theology in one book. Read Beating Guns and try to decide whether you need to weep or rejoice. Probably both!”—Richard Rohr, OFM, Center for Action and Contemplation

“Shane is a good friend of mine, and he’s got a message of love and peace for us. He’s usually not the kind of guy to shout, but he’s willing to when it comes to matters this important. Shane isn’t asking us to just agree with him. This is a book worth reading and then doing something about.”—Bob Goff, New York Times bestselling author of Love Does

“A story behind every statistic. Beating Guns is a book of stories that will crack our hearts wide open—stories that will inspire us to make change. Stories that will convince us that if we value life, if we are pro-life, we have to find a way to beat guns. Mike Martin beat a gun at Middle Collegiate Church, beat it into a farming tool. Shane Claiborne’s honest prose will convert you. Together these visionaries show us the way to beat guns.”—Jacqui Lewis, senior minister, Middle Collegiate Church, New York; executive director, The Middle Project

“Anyone who is worn out by our country’s day-to-day infatuation with violence needs the hope that is contained in this skillfully written tour de force. Buttressed by meticulous research on the unending tragedies of guns that take place only in America, and supported by sound biblical and theological scholarship, the authors ask the question, Can one carry a cross in one hand and a killing machine in the other? Some may answer yes. But, if one reads this book, no simplistic answers are possible.”—James E. Atwood, retired Presbyterian pastor and author of America and Its Guns: A Theological Exposé and Gundamentalism and Where It Is Taking America

“If you’re vexed by increasing gun violence, you’ve found the right book. When it comes to guns and to violence, Shane Claiborne and Michael Martin know what they’re talking about. Shane grew up hunting in Tennessee and now lives in a tough urban center. He knows what guns are and how to use them—and he knows how devastating their misuse can be. In Beating Guns, Shane and Michael help gun lovers and gun haters to suspend their assumptions and look afresh at lethal firepower and find surprising solutions to the deadly problems associated with them. This is a very timely book that can be enormously helpful to individuals, churches, and whole communities who know that something must be done to curb an increasingly deadly problem.”—Rob Schenck, subject of The Armor of Light, an Emmy Award–winning documentary on evangelicals and guns; president of The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute

“The violence epidemic in America that has made guns a part of America’s wardrobe is making our children ‘road kill.’ It comes from a love affair with guns and the deception that they somehow make us safer. This obsession with guns has in fact made us less safe. In the book Beating Guns by Shane Claiborne and Michael Martin, we are reminded of what Dr. King taught us, that if we can change our hearts we can change our world.”—Michael L. Pfleger, pastor of The Faith Community of Saint Sabina

“For any who feel helpless in a society that seems to accept gun violence as inevitable, this book will change you. Being faithful to Jesus requires taking seriously the message of this book.”—Tony Campolo, professor emeritus, Eastern University

“[The authors] assemble statistics, policy alternatives, and detailed histories to document and persuasively condemn America’s apathy toward gun violence. . . . They slowly build their case, laying out evidence of exactly how armed and lethal America has become. . . . One especially fascinating chapter recounts the evolution of gun marketing in the 20th century, which entered the home through new forms of media; another recounts the politicization of the National Rifle Association beginning in the late 1970s, turning the organization away from its roots in gun safety and sportsmanship. The authors advocate regulations, call for gun violence to be declared a public health emergency, and provide instructive Biblical quotes aimed at ‘unlearning violence.’ Particularly moving are 19 sidebars that memorialize the victims of mass shootings. Timely and moving, this important book deserves a wide audience and will be eye-opening for any reader concerned about the effects of America’s open embrace of guns.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)