Trigger Warning: A Review of I Have A Gun

I've never read anything by Graham Irvin before. But his latest book, I Have A Gun,

seemed interesting because I also have a gun. This book of poetry is published by Rejection Letter Press.  The title is thought provoking, especially in the context of firearm ownership.  After reading this book I’m not convinced Graham Irvin is a gun owner. 

TRIGGER WARNING: the following book contains guns, violence, coarse language, sexual content, mass shootings, suicide, murder, and more guns.

The cover is made to look well worn. It's black with a faded black and white photo in the middle. In the photo there is an empty desk in a corner. Maybe it's the desk that the book was written on. It gives off Ted Kaczynski vibes. Turns out, Ted Kaczynski is in this book.

On the lower left side of the cover is the title all in lower case white-lettered font. It repeats several times until it's clipped by the bottom. The author’s name is done in the same style but with lower case red-lettered font going up the cover. It’s a cover that invokes a sense of someone going mad, but artfully.  I’m reminded of Jack Torrance writing, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” in The Shining.  Had the title been a single line with the author’s name beneath, it would look more like a mass shooter’s manifesto. By the way, there are mass shooters in the book. And suicide. And Nazis. And killing cops. And pretty much everything triggering you could expect from a book about a gun….in case you didn’t read the trigger warning. 

Over the nine sections of the book, Irvin transitions from a metaphor of a gun using clever word play and dark humor, to serious prose regarding mass shootings in the United States of America.  At times it reads like someone trying to be as transgressive as possible in relation to what someone can do with a gun or what a gun is.  Phallic imagery and brazen murder are in no short supply with this book. 

It is not a long book, 158 pages, and the poetry is not complicated with flowery description.  Irvin begins with free verse short poetry that would make Hemingway proud.  The poems gradually get longer, and halfway through become straight prose.  The climax is unsuspecting and powerful.

In the end I was left with complicated feelings making me wonder if this is an anti-gun book or a pro-gun book.

As a gun owner, the finale of this collection truly made me question: Should just anyone be allowed to have a gun?  Should Graham Irvin have a gun?

This is a very American book. It exemplifies our first and second amendments: our right to freedom of speech and the right to bear arms.  But it satirizes those rights as well.  I like my guns.  If I could afford to, I would have more guns.  Shooting guns is fun.  I see guns as a tool, that when used properly, are safe. Yes, they are ultimately a tool of violence.  The argument that they are a tool for hunting does not make them any less violent.  A successful hunt still means the death of an innocent creature. 

Because of my mixed feelings, I didn’t know how to write this review until I was listening to one of my favorite songs by the American punk rock band NOFX, “The Decline”.  It is an 18 minute long, one-song album, satirizing American law, politics, and guns.  There is a section about a man whose father gives him a gun. Despite doing everything responsibly, he still manages to kill his brother.  This poetry book falls into the same category as that album.  It’s just pointing everything out.  It’s not necessarily leaning one way or the other.  It’s up to the reader to decide what is right.

I enjoyed exploring the book for the review and would recommend every gun owner and non-gun owner read it.