Thunder in the Mountains: A Portrait of American Gun Culture

In this beautifully written and powerful memoir, author Craig K. Collins ushers readers down a remarkable path – one that wends from the American frontier to present-day suburbia. Along the way, he explores the meaning of a history – of his family's and his country's – that is infused with the culture of the gun. Stops include an Indian massacre at Bad Axe, the siege of Vicksburg, the slaughter of buffalo in Montana, and the discovery of gold in a remote Nevada canyon. The story begins on a hunting trip Collins took with his father and brothers in the early '70s, when he was accidentally shot with a high-powered deer rifle at the age of 13 near the top of an isolated peak in Northeastern Nevada. He tells a personal story of a childhood in Idaho and Nevada, where hunting is a way of life and guns are revered – often with fatal and unintended results. He recalls friends – past and present – whose lives have been forever shattered or altered by the explosive force of a bullet.

About the Author :
Craig K. Collins was born in Pocatello, Idaho, in 1960, and was raised in small towns throughout the Great Basin—Carson City, Nevada; Winnemucca, Nevada; and Bishop, California. He attended college in San Diego, where he has lived since, and holds a BA in English and an MBA from San Diego State University. After a stint as a journalist, he served as a senior executive for Fortune 500 companies. Later, he founded a series of venture-backed technology start-ups. He has won a number of professional awards for writing, marketing, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He is the author of Midair (Lyons Press, 2016) and Thunder in the Mountains (Lyons Press, 2014).

Review :
Last year’s Gun Guys, by Dan Baum, explored America’s gun culture: its enthusiasts, its debates, its personalities. Collins’ new memoir inevitably covers some of the same ground, but it’s a more personal story, focusing mostly) on the author’s own family and friends, exploring how their lives have been affected in various ways by America’s attitude toward firearms. The story, which recounts the author’s childhood in a family in which guns were a part of everyday life, is punctuated by tragedy: a friend is seriously injured by a gunshot to the head in a hunting accident; another friend’s father commits suicide by shooting himself; the author shoots himself in the foot in another hunting accident; and so on. It’s not really a book about the broader side of America’s gun culture; it’s a book about the way a man’s life was shaped by that culture and how gun violence touched his life. Collins views a subject that elicits seemingly endless topics for debate, and gives it a single, highly personal point of view: this is how all of that impacted my life. A very interesting addition to the gun literature. Craig K. Collins’ Thunder in the Mountains is not only a memoir, but also a perceptive history of gun culture in America. Bravely taking on the timely issue of gun violence, Collins ushers readers down an often overlooked way of life where guns are revered household items. Though the narrative is intertwined with the history of the gun, his prose is neither pro- nor anti-gun, choosing instead to convey an honest, immediate history of the gun and its surrounding culture, allowing readers to make up their own minds about this powerful weapon. . . .Thunder in the Mountains remains cautionary, offering readers an oft-ignored perspective and allowing one to make an informed decision about firearms.