What We've Become

An expert at the forefront of a movement advocating for gun reform as a matter of public health, doctor and gun policy scholar, Jonathan M. Metzl has been on media call in the aftermath of fatal shootings.

When a mentally ill white man killed four young adults of colour at a Waffle House, Metzl once again advocated for common-sense gun reform. But as he peeled back evidence surrounding the shooting, a shocking question emerged: Did the approach he championed have it all wrong? These killings led him on a path toward recognising the limitations of biomedical frameworks for fully diagnosing or treating the impassioned complexities of American gun politics.

This brilliant, piercing analysis shows mass shootings as a symptom of America’s most unresolved national conflicts. What We've Become sets America on the path of alliance-forging, racial-reckoning and political power-brokering that must be taken to put things right.