Author Events

Please join us for An Evening with Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson, featuring their new book, American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15. 

The two authors trace the history of the AR-15 to explore how the same gun came to represent freedom to millions of Americans and evil to millions of others.

The AR-15 was invented in the 1950s by an amateur gun designer pursuing an obsessive hobby in his garage—an innovation that would transform the rifle for generations to come. Eugene Stoner, a patriotic and high-minded Marine veteran, sought to devise a lightweight, easy-to-use weapon that could replace the M1s touted by soldiers in World War II. He achieved his goal with the AR-15 rifle, a lethal handheld icon of the American century. But today, his invention is better known as a tool used by troubled men to kill fellow Americans, from schoolchildren to concertgoers to people attending a Fourth of July parade.

The authors follow Stoner as he struggles mightily to win support for his invention, which under the name M16 would become standard equipment in Vietnam. Initially shunned by gun owners, the rifle’s popularity would take off thanks to a renegade band of small-time gunmakers. And in the 2000s, it would become the weapon of choice for mass shooters, prompting widespread calls for proscription even as it became America’s bestselling rifle and embraced as the financial savior of the gun industry.

The authors look at technology, business, and politics as well as the terrible crime scenes from a variety of perspectives — from witnesses, doctors, and victims, to the killers themselves. McWhirter and Elinson offer their unique perspective and matchless insight into where the gun debate is today and what can be done about it. 

Writing with fairness and compassion, the authors explore America’s gun culture, revealing the deep appeal of the AR-15, the awful havoc it wreaks, and the politics of trying to protect Americans from mass shootings. The result is a moral history of contemporary America’s love affair with technology, freedom, and weaponry. This is an essential and extraordinary story and no one’s told it before. As Kirkus Reviews notes in their starred review of American Gun, it is a “ riveting exploration of the cost of the nation’s fascination with an iconic weapon.”

In-Person Tickets:
Tier One: $27 plus fees. Tier Two: $17 plus fees.

Livestream Ticket: $15 plus an Eventbrite fee

Remember: All National Writers Series events serve our Raising Writers efforts! Your ticket purchase helps to fund classes, scholarships, workshops, and author masterclasses for students throughout northern Michigan.