Weapons Under Fire

Weapons Under Fire PDF

Author: Lauren Holland

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-11-26

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1135594376

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First Published in 1997. In an effort to find the validity of middle ground, this book offers a comprehensive analysis that looks further than the House Committee on National Security's actions on the B-2 bomber, President Clinton's campaign promise to support the Seawolf submarine, and the Pentagon's use of a concurrent and risky management strategy for the $71.6 billion F-22 fighter aircraft program. It provides a dissection of the decision-making process for a representative sample of major weapons systems to invalidate the claims that pork and malfeasance are both pervasive and determinate.

Children Under Fire

Children Under Fire PDF

Author: John Woodrow Cox

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2021-03-30

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 006288395X

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Longlisted for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction * Winner of the Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice Based on the acclaimed series—a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize—an intimate account of the devastating effects of gun violence on our nation’s children, and a call to action for a new way forward In 2017, seven-year-old Ava in South Carolina wrote a letter to Tyshaun, an eight-year-old boy from Washington, DC. She asked him to be her pen pal; Ava thought they could help each other. The kids had a tragic connection—both were traumatized by gun violence. Ava’s best friend had been killed in a campus shooting at her elementary school, and Tyshaun’s father had been shot to death outside of the boy’s elementary school. Ava’s and Tyshaun’s stories are extraordinary, but not unique. In the past decade, 15,000 children have been killed from gunfire, though that number does not account for the kids who weren’t shot and aren’t considered victims but have nevertheless been irreparably harmed by gun violence. In Children Under Fire, John Woodrow Cox investigates the effectiveness of gun safety reforms as well as efforts to manage children’s trauma in the wake of neighborhood shootings and campus massacres, from Columbine to Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Through deep reporting, Cox addresses how we can effect change now, and help children like Ava and Tyshaun. He explores their stories and more, including a couple in South Carolina whose eleven-year-old son shot himself, a Republican politician fighting for gun safety laws, and the charlatans infiltrating the school safety business. In a moment when the country is desperate to better understand and address gun violence, Children Under Fire offers a way to do just that, weaving wrenching personal stories into a critical call for the United States to embrace practical reforms that would save thousands of young lives. *A Newsweek Favorite Book of 2021 *An NPR 2021 "Books We Love" selection *A Washington Post Notable Work of Nonfiction *A Kirkus "2021's Best, Most Urgent Books of Current Affairs" selection

Whole World on Fire

Whole World on Fire PDF

Author: Lynn Eden

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 9780801435782

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Whole World on Fire focuses on a technical riddle wrapped in an organizational mystery: How and why, for more than half a century, did the U.S. government fail to predict nuclear fire damage as it drew up plans to fight strategic nuclear war?U.S. bombing in World War II caused massive fire damage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but later war plans took account only of damage from blast; they completely ignored damage from atomic firestorms. Recently a small group of researchers has shown that for modern nuclear weapons the destructiveness and lethality of nuclear mass fire often--and predictably--greatly exceeds that of nuclear blast. This has major implications for defense policy: the U.S. government has underestimated the damage caused by nuclear weapons, Lynn Eden finds, and built far more warheads, and far more destructive warheads, than it needed for the Pentagon's war-planning purposes. How could this have happened? The answer lies in how organizations frame the problems they try to solve. In a narrative grounded in organization theory, science and technology studies, and primary historical sources (including declassified documents and interviews), Eden explains how the U.S. Air Force's doctrine of precision bombing led to the development of very good predictions of nuclear blast--a significant achievement--but for many years to no development of organizational knowledge about nuclear fire. Expert communities outside the military reinforced this disparity in organizational capability to predict blast damage but not fire damage. Yet some innovation occurred, and predictions of fire damage were nearly incorporated into nuclear war planning in the early 1990s. The author explains how such a dramatic change almost happened, and why it did not. Whole World on Fire shows how well-funded and highly professional organizations, by focusing on what they do well and systematically excluding what they don't do well, may build a poor representation of the world--a self-reinforcing fallacy that can have serious consequences. In a sweeping conclusion, Eden shows the implications of the analysis for understanding such things as the sinking of the Titanic, the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and the poor fireproofing in the World Trade Center.

Firearms and Violence

Firearms and Violence PDF

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2005-01-13

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 0309091241

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For years proposals for gun control and the ownership of firearms have been among the most contentious issues in American politics. For public authorities to make reasonable decisions on these matters, they must take into account facts about the relationship between guns and violence as well as conflicting constitutional claims and divided public opinion. In performing these tasks, legislators need adequate data and research to judge both the effects of firearms on violence and the effects of different violence control policies. Readers of the research literature on firearms may sometimes find themselves unable to distinguish scholarship from advocacy. Given the importance of this issue, there is a pressing need for a clear and unbiased assessment of the existing portfolio of data and research. Firearms and Violence uses conventional standards of science to examine three major themes - firearms and violence, the quality of research, and the quality of data available. The book assesses the strengths and limitations of current databases, examining current research studies on firearm use and the efforts to reduce unjustified firearm use and suggests ways in which they can be improved.

Adaptation under Fire

Adaptation under Fire PDF

Author: Lt. General David Barno

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-08-03

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 0190672064

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Every military must prepare for future wars despite not really knowing the shape such wars will ultimately take. As former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates once noted: "We have a perfect record in predicting the next war. We have never once gotten it right." In the face of such great uncertainty, militaries must be able to adapt rapidly in order to win. Adaptation under Fire identifies the characteristics that make militaries more adaptable, illustrated through historical examples and the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Authors David Barno and Nora Bensahel argue that militaries facing unknown future conflicts must nevertheless make choices about the type of doctrine that their units will use, the weapons and equipment they will purchase, and the kind of leaders they will select and develop to guide the force to victory. Yet after a war begins, many of these choices will prove flawed in the unpredictable crucible of the battlefield. For a U.S. military facing diverse global threats, its ability to adapt quickly and effectively to those unforeseen circumstances may spell the difference between victory and defeat. Barno and Bensahel start by providing a framework for understanding adaptation and include historical cases of success and failure. Next, they examine U.S. military adaptation during the nation's recent wars, and explain why certain forms of adaptation have proven problematic. In the final section, Barno and Bensahel conclude that the U.S. military must become much more adaptable in order to address the fast-changing security challenges of the future, and they offer recommendations on how to do so before it is too late.

Cop Under Fire

Cop Under Fire PDF

Author: David Clarke Jr.

Publisher: Worthy Books

Published: 2017-02-28

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1683970640

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America has become increasingly divided and polarized in recent years. With growing racial tension, animosity toward law enforcement professionals, government corruption, and disregard for the constitutional process, there seems to be no easy answer in sight. But Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke knows where we must begin: we must stop blaming others; look at our problems with open eyes; take ownership of our family, community, and country; and turn to God for solutions. Deeply rooted in Sheriff Clarke's personal life story, this book is not a dry recitation of what has gone wrong in America with regard to race. It's about the issues that deeply affect us today-both personally and politically-and how we can rise above our current troubles to once again be a truly great people in pursuit of liberty and justice for all. "The principles Sheriff Clarke stands for are the same principles this nation was built on. He's much more than the Milwaukee County Sheriff. He's America's Sheriff . . . and Cop Under Fireis a must-read for people who love this great country." -SEAN HANNITY, FOX News Channel "Clarke is a unique voice today: fearless in his contempt for political correctness and eloquent in his articulation of core American values." -HEATHER MACDONALD, Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of The War on Cops "Sheriff David Clarke provides a much-needed voice of reason in tackling America's challenges. He speaks his mind, and his no-nonsense approach to law and order is exactly what we need to make our country safer." -CHRIS W. COX, Executive Director, NRA Institute for Legislative Action "Even in a predominantly liberal community, his message of law and order, accountability, and self-empowerment resonates. He is one of America's most important cultural voices." -MARK BELLING, Talk Radio Host for 1130 WISN-AM in Milwaukee and columnist for newspapers including the Milwaukee Post "At a time when America seems to have lost its way, Sheriff David Clarke offers critically important leadership, both as one of the nation's top cops and as a much-needed public truth teller." -MONICA CROWLEY, PH.D., FOX News Channel, The Washington Times "I implore all to read Cop Under Fire . . . Sheriff Clarke is a tremendous leader, follower, and a strong voice of reason who needs to be heard by all!" -KRIS "TANTO" PARONTO, Former U.S. Army Ranger (2nd Battalion, 75th Regiment), Security and Military Consultant, and Hero of the Benghazi Attack

Under Fire

Under Fire PDF

Author: Osha Gray Davidson

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13:

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Originally published in 1993, Under Fire was widely hailed as the first objective examination of the NRA and its efforts to defeat gun control legislation. Now in this expanded edition, Osha Gray Davidson shows how the NRA's extremism has cost the organization both political power and popular support. He offers a well-reasoned and workable approach to gun control, one that will find many supporters even among the NRA membership.