A U.S. senator from Connecticut explores the origins of our violent impulses, the roots of our obsession with firearms, and the mythologies that prevent us from confronting our national crisis with gun violence.
Two of the many politicians who responded to...crime scenes shortly after they occurred have managed to produce worthy memoirs that are not simply rehashes. Tragedies, we learn through their reflective insider accounts, can both make political careers and break them ... Murphy...raise[s] thoughtful questions with no easy answers. Should provocateurs be given demonstration permits when their objective is to provoke? ... And Murphy, despite his vigor when it comes to guns, suggests that some of his gun control brethren go too far in their dismissal of the constitutional right to bear arms.
... the passionate and often deeply moving story of Murphy's personal transformation. It is a well-informed, thoughtful exploration of the causes and potential solutions for the United States' epidemic of gun violence—one that claims around 90 lives every day—even as it addresses that vexing problem in a broader context ... Whether one is already engaged in that fight or seeking information and inspiration to do so, The Violence Inside Us is essential reading.
With an insatiable thirst for fact-finding and a gift for forging a gripping narrative, Murphy posits the answers to...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.
