An interview with the author of "Glock: The Rise of America's Gun"

Years ago, and most of you may not realize, in police/revolver days, your finger remained on the trigger when covering.
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Oh yes, I do remember. Had to train a lot of folks out of that. I almost got shot in the foot by a detective on the range once from the practice.

The necessity of training folks out of that is addressed in the book, as are the ways Glock's legal counsel handled lawsuits from negligent discharges.

"Tactical Tupperware, or how Gaston Glock turn an entire generation into howler monkeys of negative neybobism."
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Fnruhnnn...that's the sound I made when the coffee came out of my nose. :p

I'm not a fan of the gun. I've never owned one, and I doubt I ever will. Nonetheless, the book is a neat window into a period of firearms history, and it's fairly well done.
 
I just finished reading the book. It was very insightful as Tom said to that period of history in the firearms market. It was easy to read and the author obviously has journalistic experience.

I got into guns just four years ago (well non-bb guns), and I am only 27 so I missed a lot of what was going on in the 80's and 90's. It is obvious from the book that the author is in favor of some gun control intitiatives like a ban on high-cap mags and better bullet tracing technology. I was wondering what some of you who are older than me thought of his depiction of the NRA? I am an NRA member, but like I said, I have only been immersed in this segment of the world for four years.

I love Glocks which is one reason why I read this book. I wouldn't consider myself a fanboy as I love a lot of other guns including Kahr, Beretta, Sig, H+K, Ruger, Colt 1911's and S+W revolvers. However, I just find that I shoot better with my Glocks which is why I keep coming back to them. Anyway, I just wanted to hear more of what people who read the book thought of the content of it.
 
I was wondering what some of you who are older than me thought of his depiction of the NRA?
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I'm not sure he was completely off. Sure, he pointed out that the NRA now tends toward more extreme positions (although he obviously didn't look to see just how extreme things could get) out of a desire for more funding, but I think he really should have looked into his own notions of what is "reasonable" and how worthwhile it is. It seemed like he was acknowledging that the proposals he thought would be reasonable would have very little actual impact on crime, but thought it should be done anyway because compromise is good. He never actually looked into whether those proposals would have had any use whatsoever in reducing crime.
 
I was wondering what some of you who are older than me thought of his depiction of the NRA?
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To an outsider, some of the statements of the NRA could be taken as "extreme" at times. I've cringed at a few of the things LaPierre and Cox have said, and I'm old enough to remember when the "jack booted thugs" comment lost more than a few members.
 
"I'm old enough to remember when the "jack booted thugs" comment lost more than a few members...."
Tom,
I leaned towards that being an over the top comment then but with the history that has taken place since then it has proven to be prescient and truer than not. Mostly bothered me that the gov leftest thugs (cop talking here) were killing people but the media and left made political hay of the comment.


"Well, I guess if your point was to demonstrate an incredible narrow mindedness, then I guess you made your point.

Congratulations." My goodness Mike, getting a little close to the edge of "civil" arn't we?

..
 
"Mr. Irwin, may I please quote you on the tactical tupperware thing?"


Be my guest!



Oh, there's one thing I should have mentioned some time ago. I've been in and out jobs in the publishing industry a number of times over the years, and when it comes to books and magazine articles, the title is frequently not the author's.

The title is often generated during the editing and cover design process, and the author may not have much say in the matter.

The same is true of the newspaper industry. When you're screaming at a journalist over a poor or blatantly incorrect headline, you'd do better to yell at the managing editor or the composition editors. They frequently change or invent headlines that better fit the space the article is allotted on the page.

That was often one of my jobs when I was writing for the newspaper.
 
Just downloaded it and started reading it last night. I haven't gotten very far into it, but it's interesting so far, and the author's writing style is good. I'm looking forward to finishing it soon.
 
The problem with determining if a book is worth its price is that one must spend the price of the book to learn if the book was worth its price.

Even more expensive is that one must spend the time to read the book to learn if the book was worth the time spent to read it.

Because of this the title of a non-fiction book should reflect as much as a title can what the book is about. This is no guarantee but does somewhat help.

So—
should a book be judged by its cover? Definitely if non-fiction.

Should a book be judged by critical review? Definitely, both fic and non-fic. With the caution that one must trust the reviewer’s capability to judge.

My time might be worth little to you or to anyone else but it’s worth very much to me.

Anyway—
I haven’t bought the book and will be noting what anyone says about it, especially comments made in these gun forums because in here the readers are a bit more gun-savvy than the average person; and I’m beginning to believe a bit more savvy than the author of the book.
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in here the readers are a bit more gun-savvy than the average person; and I’m beginning to believe a bit more savvy than the author of the book.
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The author says (pretty much up front, IIRC) that he's not a gun person and he came at this from a documentary/historical angle than out of any desire to show how great or how awful Glocks are. He's not in it to focus on the gun, but the company.
 
Well, there's the library.

I'll wait for that, if I read it at all.

Besides, I like to show support for the library.

In this day and age, libraries are shining examples of that which is good in mankind.
 
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