The Violence Inside Us

November 11, 2019
Poverty, racial animosity, and, above all, guns are to blame for America’s “morbid circus of human carnage,” argues this wonky but fervent debut. Murphy, a U.S. senator from Connecticut, attributes America’s history of bloodshed to strife between ethnic and immigrant groups, the legacy of slavery, economic desperation in inner cities, and sky-high gun ownership rates that push murder rates far above those in other developed nations. He also indicts U.S. interventionism, including drone strikes and support for Saudi Arabia’s bombing of Yemen, for spreading violence overseas. The book is partly a brief for gun control measures, including universal background checks and a ban on assault rifles; in support of these policy proposals, Murphy features studies tying homicide rates to changes in firearms laws, as well as emotional scenes in which he comforts parents of children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre and by shootings in inner-city Hartford. Some of his arguments are slightly misleading, as when he writes that a Justice Department report found that “poor white Americans are actually more likely to be involved in violent crime... than poor African-Americans”; the report concludes that poor whites are likelier to be victimized by crime, not “involved in” it. Still, Murphy makes a solid case for common-sense gun regulation. Agent: Jennifer Joel, ICM Partners.

November 15, 2019
A rising presence in the Democratic Party faces off against the current epidemic of mayhem in America. Are Americans any more violent than other people? Probably not, suggests Murphy, a senator from Connecticut; the tendency, even instinct, to violent reaction is a human universal. Yet, he asks, "Why is America such a disturbing outlier of violence in the industrialized world?" In this broad-ranging study, his answers are various, from in- and out-group rivalry in a nation of many ethnicities and cultures to the plain fact that guns are entirely too accessible. Murphy's account proceeds from the grim realities of incidents such as the slaughter of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in his home state, piled onto other mass shootings, to "the grudge crimes, the domestic assaults, and the suicides" that end in gunshots. The author delivers a few rueful confessions along the way: When he was a member of the House of Representatives, he didn't pay much attention to the question of gun violence "because the one major city in my congressional district, Waterbury, had very few gun homicides." Expanding his purview to places like New Haven and Hartford expanded his view of the problem. Murphy also delivers a couple of surprises, such as his view that, for the most part, the current judicial position that the Second Amendment covers individual gun owners is correct--or at least a nonstarter to argue against, since other preventive measures, such as monitoring would-be buyers for criminal records and the like, are available. The author closes his winding but effective narrative, which incorporates everything from the latest federal statistics to scholarly views of human nature, with the observation that the National Rifle Association is becoming politically marginalized and, with it, the GOP. Ultimately, Murphy hopes for the rise of a class of voters "who will decide never to support a candidate who doesn't support commonsense interventions like universal background checks and assault weapons bans." A fair-minded view of a topic that's as divisive as any in the current political discourse.

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Starred review from January 1, 2020

Senator Murphy (D-Conn.) discusses the roots of violence in humans and, more specifically, gun violence in the United States. He cites comparative statistics that show the difference in how other developed nations handle firearms and the historical roots that differentiate those countries' practices from the United States. He's angered at the rate of mass shootings, which have been increasing for several decades, and also looks at the less publicized individual deaths and injuries from suicides and accidents. Much of Murphy's discussion concerns various political responses to gun violence and the effects of laws, regulations, and lobbying. The senator is known for his involvement in gun control after Sandy Hook and Parkland; he supports the Second Amendment, but advocates for some level of national regulation. The author's conversational style manages to make a mountain of statistics readable, and brings the emotions of survivors far closer to the reader than media accounts. Murphy also addresses the cultural, economic, and racial reasons for America's history of gun ownership and suggests how the many causes of gun violence can be mitigated. VERDICT An important work on a relevant subject that will draw in anyone interested in social reform.--Edwin Burgess, Kansas City, KS

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Starred review from December 1, 2019
As the newly elected senator from Connecticut, Murphy was shocked when he learned of the massacre of 20 first-graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton. Over time, as that tragedy was followed repeatedly by more mass shootings and rising numbers of murders and suicides, Murphy recognized that a growing epidemic of gun violence was plaguing the country. Embracing this phenomenon as his core legislative passion, Murphy realized that to govern effectively, he had to immerse himself in the nature of violence in America. Why are Americans 20 times more likely to die from a gunshot wound than citizens of other highly prosperous nations? Are Americans inherently more violent and, if so, why? What roles do race, poverty, education, and opportunity play in the propensities for violence and for peace? With an insatiable thirst for fact-finding and a gift for forging a gripping narrative, Murphy posits the answers to these and other challenging questions through the personal journeys of those who have been most affected by gun violence. Disarmingly honest, philosophically astute, emotionally passionate, and bracingly realistic, Murphy's clear-eyed assessment of the nature of violence in America is destined to provoke meaningful, urgently needed discussions.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)