Guns

From King's website, stephenking.com

Stephen has written an essay discussing his thoughts on the gun control/gun rights issue facing the U.S., available now as a Kindle Single through Amazon.com.
“I think the issue of an America awash in guns is one every citizen has to think about,” said King. “If this helps provoke constructive debate, I’ve done my job. Once I finished writing ‘Guns’ I wanted it published quickly, and Kindle Singles provided an excellent fit.”

From Amazon: In a pulls-no-punches essay intended to provoke rational discussion, Stephen King sets down his thoughts about gun violence in America. Anger and grief in the wake of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School are palpable in this urgent piece of writing, but no less remarkable are King’s keen thoughtfulness and composure as he explores the contours of the gun-control issue and constructs his argument for what can and should be done.

King is donating all profits to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

King begins the essay by taking is down a the well known path of what happens when there is a mass shooting.  King moves quickly from crime to the need for gun control to the NRA's opposition -- and concluding with a repeat of the cycle of violence.

In the second section, King discusses his book, RAGE, which I read recently. He documents case by case instances when his book was directly cited as part  of a violent crime.  Scary stuff.  After a 1997 shooting, King writes, "That was enough for me, even though at the time, the Loukaitis and Carneal shootings were the only Rage-related ones of which I was aware. I asked my publishers to pull the novel from publication." King points out the difficulty in this, since it required pulling the story from the Bachman collection of books.

It had been reported that  King apologized for writing Rage.  No Sir, King insists.  He  writes,

I never did and never would. It took more than one slim novel to cause Cox, Pierce, Loukaitis, and Carneal to do what they did. These were unhappy boys with deep psychological problems, boys who were bullied at school and bruised at home by parental neglect or outright abuse.

King notes he pulled the novel with regret.  Not because it was great literature, but because " it contained a nasty glowing center of truth that was more accessible to me as an adolescent. Adults do not forget the horrors and shamings of their childhood, but those feelings tend to lose their immediacy"  I find that  incredibly insightful.

There's a lot more in the essay -- and it's REALLY good!

The Essay is laid out as follows:

1. The Shake
2. Rage
3. Drunks in a Barroom
4. Culture of Violence
5. From my cold dead hands.  (No, Moses did not say that!)
6. No Solutions, Reasonable Measures
Epilogue

Purchase the essay HERE.