Lethal Passage1994
how the travels of a single handgun expose the roots of America's gun crisis
by Erik Larson
One bitter cold morning a sixteen-year-old boy named Nicholas Elliot walked into his Virginia high school with a Cobray M-11/9 - touted by its manufacturer as "the gun that made the eighties roar" - stuffed in his backpack. By mid-morning he had killed one teacher and severely wounded another. Only sheer luck kept his rampage from becoming one of the worst in America's long and bloody infatuation with guns.
By tracing the history of the Cobray from its design and manufacture to the final, illegal transaction that placed it in Elliot's hands, Lethal Passage provides a stunning expose that will completely reframe the debate surrounding America's gun crisis.
Erik Larson immersed himself in America's gun culture. He learned to shoot and to appreciate the sheer fun of the sport, and he even...