The conclusion of this professor-historian (emeritus) is that our gun culture had its uses in establishing American civilization, as slavery did. But we came to recognize (after a bloody civil war) that slavery was a gigantic mistake, and now I think it's time to realize that our gun culture was a similarly gigantic mistake, though of a different kind. And we need to do what we can to minimize its horrible impacts and move on to a more positive development of a humane civilization.

Frank N. Egerton is a professor emeritus of history who is the most published author on history of ecological sciences. Aside from numerous articles and reviews, he has published three books: Hewett Cottrell Watson: Victorian Plant Ecologist and Evolutionist (Ashgate, 2003); Roots of Ecology: Antiquity to Haeckel (University of California Press, 2012); and A Centennial History of the Ecological Society of America (CRC Press/Taylor and Francis, 2015). This is his first book for the general public. His concern for gun violence is a citizen's response to the stalemate between gun rights advocates and gun control advocates, with gun rights advocates presently having most influence. He graduated from Duke University, spent a year studying ecology at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, then went to University of Wisconsin- adison for a Ph.D. in history of science (1967). He taught at Boston University and Carnegie Mellon University before coming to University of Wisconsin-Parkside to teach history of science and American environmental history, 1970-2005.