MaP Book Club ~ America and Its Guns

Session Two – Violence

1. Do you agree with Atwood that violence as entertainment helps us to see gun violence as normal? Do you personally enjoy violence as entertainment? Do others in your family? Why?
2. Chapter 5 discusses children and guns. Make a gun with your thumb and finger and shoot it to kill everyone in the group, saying, “You’re dead!” Did you do this as children? Did/do your children? How does it feel to do it as an adult?
3. Look at the phrases on p. 45-47. Do you hear yourself or your loved ones in these expressions?
4. Atwood states that the violent language of some politicians and talk show hosts has abetted both gun violence and the militia groups who target law enforcement as “foot soldiers of the federal government.” Do you agree or not? Why?
5. See the Appendix on p. 227-228 and update it with: Iraq War Deaths 2003-2009: 4,400 and US gun deaths 2003-2009: 202,500 (p.194). Does anything surprise you in these numbers? Were you aware that gun deaths have been above 30,000 per year for decades? Why is this high level of civilian gun death so peculiarly American?
6. Describe in your own words what is meant by the phrase “redemptive violence,” p. 63-66. Give examples.
7. If violence is part of our American DNA, what does that suggest to you about gun violence prevention efforts? What does it suggest to you about the purpose of the church in the United States today?