It was the persistence of gun violence that helped convince Nesrine Malik that certain myths propagated by the right wing were creating an alternate American reality.
A London-based columnist for The Guardian, Malik believes the never-ending slaughter is partially a function of corporate and elite interests convincing the public that buying guns is a fight against the “political correctness” of gun control, and that this also plays into the myth of a “virtuous history to justify gun ownership as foundational to America.”
But, adds Malik, whose new book, We Need New Stories: The Myths That Subvert Freedom discusses six current social/political misconceptions, the whole gun myth “typifies why myths are bad for everyone. Firearms increase violence in a society for everyone and claims lives across social classes and races. We think that guns create a society that is based on freedom, but actually gets in the way of people living free from fear and grief.”
— Lewis Beale in Equating Guns With Freedom Is a Toxic Myth That Hurts Us All
