Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create accountLimited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks when you make the switch!
Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new membership supporting We Are LIT with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Make the switchGift audiobook credit bundles
You pick the number of credits, your recipient picks the audiobooks, and We Are LIT is supported by your purchase.
Start giftingLet It Bang
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreThe most RJ Young knew about guns was that they could get him killed. Until, recently married to a white woman and in desperate need of a way to relate to his gun-loving father-in-law, Charles, Young does the unimaginable: he accepts Charles's gift of a Glock.
Despite, or because of, the racial rage and fear he experiences among white gun owners ("Ain't you supposed to be shooting a basketball?"), Young determines to get good, really good, with a gun. Let It Bang is the compelling story of the author's unexpected obsession—he eventually becomes an NRA-certified pistol instructor—and of his deep dive into the heart of America's gun culture: what he sees as the domino effect of white fear, white violence, black fear, rinse, repeat. Young’s original reporting on shadow industries like US Law Shield, which insures and defends people who report having shot someone in self-defense, and on the newly formed National African American Gun Association, gives powerful insight into the dynamic. Through indelible profiles, Young brings us up to the current rocketing rise in gun ownership among black Americans, most notably women.
RJ Young is a black writer whose work has appeared in Grantland, Racialicious, Reuters, the Oklahoman, This Land Press, Knoxville News Sentinel, Tulsa World, SB Nation Longform and USA Today, among other publications. He is a graduate of the Sports Journalism Institute and received a 2013 Diversity Fellowship from Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. He was a finalist in the sports reporting category in the 2014 Great Plains Journalism Awards. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Tulsa and a master's degree in professional writing from the University of Oklahoma.