Local author to sign books on American’s history with guns

Internationally recognized scholarly authority on guns and Wake Forest University professor of sociology, Dr. David Yamane, will discuss his newest book about America’s history of and fascination with firearms on Thursday, June 13 at the Davie County Public Library on North Main Street in Mocksville.

“Gun Curious: A Liberal Professor’s Surprising Journey Inside America’s Gun Culture” seeks to promote insight over animosity on one of the country’s most divisive issues.

“It’s a polarizing word already – guns. I wanted to produce something that would encourage people to have conversations not confrontations. I know people are looking for solutions’to our gun problem, and I wish it were that simple, but it’s not. We have a lot of work to do in society, and that starts with listening,” Yamane said.

For the last 12 years, Yamane has studied the numerous ways Americans think about and use guns. The book challenges firearms skeptics and enthusiasts.

Gun Curious also strives to inform the uncommitted by focusing on why guns make sense to those who own them, the logic of defensive gun ownership, the risk of negative outcomes associated with firearms and what responsible gun ownership looks like.

The book weaves Yamane’s personal experiences and sociological observations.

“As someone who had little exposure to guns for most of my life, I know what it’s like not to understand guns and gun culture. I hope Gun Curious translates into what I have learned for anyone who is open-minded about this issue.

“If you are tired of our paralyzing national argument about guns, my book offers a hopeful alternative based on civil conversation.”

The library will host Yamane on Thursday, June 10 for a discussion of Gun Curious, questions and answers, and a book signing.

Yamane, 55, is an Asian American who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and did not become a gun owner until he was 42 years old.

Over the last 12 years, he has conducted hundreds of interviews and thousands of hours of research for his book. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, New Yorker, Associated Press, Rolling Stone, Time, Newsweek, The Guardian (London), Christian Science Monitor and USA Today, and on CNN, NBC News, Fox News, NPR and VICE News, among other media outlets.

Yamane joined the Wake Forest University faculty in 2005 and has authored, co-authored, or edited seven books. He has won the Kulynych Family Omicron Delta Kappa Award for Outstanding Contribution to Student Life and served as chair of the Department of Sociology.

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