Will Harris, a legendary gun fighter and one of the last living Confederate veterans, turns 100 on July 3, 1939. A parade is held in his honor, and newspapers and magazines from across the country send reporters to cover the event. Charles Case, a reporter from the Dallas Morning News, is one of these. He finds much more than he expected: two families involved in a blood feud that goes back to a train robbery in 1868; and to complicate matters, a boy from one of the families in love with a girl from the other. The book has an epic, mythical quality, reminiscent of Raintree County and Look Homeward, Angel.

Newtown, Connecticut. Aurora, Colorado. Both have entered our collective memory as sites of unimaginable heartbreak and mass slaughter perpetrated by lone gunmen. Meanwhile, cities such as Chicago and Washington, D.C., are dealing with the painful, everyday reality of record rates of gun-related deaths. By any account, gun violence in the United States has reached epidemic proportions. A widely respected activist and policy analyst—as well as a former gun enthusiast and an ex-member of the National Rifle Association—Tom Diaz presents a chilling, up-to-date survey of the changed landscape of gun manufacturing and marketing. The Last Gun explores how the gun industry and the nature of gun violence have changed, including the disturbing rise in military-grade gun models. But Diaz also argues that the once formidable gun lobby has become a "paper tiger," marshaling a range of evidence and case studies to make the case that now is the time for a renewed political effort to attack gun violence at its source—the guns themselves. In the aftermath of Newtown, a challenging national conversation lies ahead. The Last Gun is an indispensable guide to this debate, and essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how we can finally rid America's streets, schools, and homes of gun violence and prevent future Newtowns.

About the Book The Making of a Fast Gun: The Story of Colt McCoy is the exciting tale of both violence and redemption. It tells the story of Colt, who gets caught up in circumstances that are beyond his control. Colt stood up for his friend, which then made him a target for every fast gun that wanted to enhance their own reputation. This takes him on a violent journey that appears to have no escape, and all Colt wants is to be home with his family and the girl that he loves. About the Author Thompson Burnside was born and raised in West Virginia, which he refers to as “almost heaven.” He loves God, his country, and his family. He has a deep concern and love for others. He enjoys hunting and fishing in the beautiful Allegheny Mountains.

Fresh from the East, young Sayers Croft arrives in the desert town of Deadman's Bend to set up a photographic studio. The local hero, with a price on his head, is gunned down before Croft's camera, and Croft finds he has suddenly earned unwanted 'blood money' and the nickname of Judas. No matter where he flees his reputation catches up with him, and Judas has to move on. At last Judas stops running, but as he follows the blood trail he finds being a gun-slinger brings its own problems. If he blasts away the hated name of Judas, who - or what - has he become?

These "New Westers", Johnson reveals, line-dance and two-step, listen to Garth Brooks and George Strait, drink beer from long-neck bottles, wear clothes ordered from Sheplers, watch rodeo on ESPN, play Wild West arcade games, eat fajitas and tacos in stuccoed Mexican cafes, collect Western art and Native American crafts, and vacation in and move to the West. "New Westers" rewrite the history and biography of the West. They reimagine the West in Cowboy sagas and poetry, Native American novels, Mexican-American drama, nature writing, revisionist films, eclectic visual artwork, and neo-traditional music. They flock to movies like Thelma and Louise, Unforgiven, and Dances with Wolves, watch mini-series like Lonesome Dove, and read bestsellers like The Crossing and All The Pretty Horses. "New Westers" are men and women who may or may not have ever hitched up a horse but who crave connection with the West. At the end of a century of urbanization, technological change, and cultural confusion, they seek a more natural home, a fuller and wider sense of place, and a deeper and more colorful personal identity. They also want to revive the dream of the mythic West - but on different terms. They overrun the Old West and yet strive to preserve it, raising troubling new concerns about the differences between the mythic and the real, between traditional and contemporary cultural influences.