What have you read that influenced you?

S

slabsides

Member In Memoriam
Reading over some older posts, including Futo Inu's 'Pleasure Reading' and I bethought me of things I had read, that influenced me, alone of my family, to become an 'armed man'. I loved science fiction as a kid (still do) and I just remembered that the VERY FIRST thing I ever read on the right to keep and bear arms wasn't in any civics or history book, but in a series of science fiction novels by A. E. VanVogt, collectively called 'The Weapon Shops'. In these novels an underground, armed with advanced science, opposed a corrupt empire by creating impregnable gun shops with the motto: 'The right to buy weapons is the right to be free.' This was a long time before HCI and similar crazies ever came along...and I have just realized how much influence it had on me. One sentence, a lifetime of belief. Kind of makes you want to find the one phrase that will make your favorite anti see the light, doesn't it?

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An armed man is a citizen; an unarmed man is a subject; a disarmed man is a slave.
 
rec.guns was what got me going. The 'net was young, I was a newbie, and a friend said "ya gotta see this group..."
 
My background is a tad different from most gun enthusists I've met. Until I was 14, my mother strictly forbade me from owning anything but a toy gun. Her older brother killed himself with a pistol before I was born. Ergo she never wanted me to be around guns growing up. Although she never opposed the priciples set forth in the Second Amendment. Strangely enough, books and movies about guns were ok. It was the real McCoy she didn't want me around.

My intensive interest began in earnest once I watched "Magnum Force" with Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry at the tender age of nine. One look at that big Smith & Wesson, Clint's understated manly style, and the amount of respect he garnished from his peers spoke volumes to my impressionable mind. The two lines that really hit home for me were:

"A man's got to know his limitations."

"Nothing wrong with shooting...as long as the right people get shot."

From there, a quick trip to the library brought home an old volume of "Small Arms of the World" while another trip to the bookstore yielded a copy of the annual "Gun Digest".

The rest is history.

- Anthony

P.S. My prohibition to guns ended when my Godfather, acting as though he never knew of my mother's anti-gun sentiments, bought me a Crossman CO2 pellet revolver. My mother couldn't say no to him and the fever really started from there.
 
The weapon shop series as a yonker, L. Neil Smith's Probability Broach series much later. The Federlist Papers / Anti-Federlist Papers.
Unintended Consequences.

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Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
"If there be treachery, let there be jehad!"
 
I know the topic is "what have you READ....", but I don't think it's what I've read that influenced me in this area, so if you'll indulge me for a moment.

I think it's because, being quite small, I was beat up, pushed around, and abused at home and school alike as a kid (not meaning to be a whiner - just the facts), and by damn I wanted an equalizer - now I've got it, thanks very much. It comes down to that at it's core I think. Also, law school made me realize the incredible power our legislatures and courts wield (that's from reading caselaw), and how voters and activist can really make a difference. And that the laws our legis pass every day really do affect our lives. That spurred on my interest in RKBA. However, I had only a little exposure to guns as a kid, and was never much for hunting either.

Also, I have always been very patriotic (4th of July favorite holiday, proud of my country, etc.), and so I really can't stand to see us slipping into the toilet, not just on loss of civil liberties, but also our pathetic comparison with other industrialized countries in terms of our kids educational skill levels (math, science, etc.), or not measuring up in any other comparison category (trade deficit, etc.). This probably stems from my competitive spirit. Getting off-topic here....

As far as TV and movies go, that HAS TO have had a huge influence on me and millions of others, because how many hundreds of TV cop shows and movies have played out this scenario while growing up: Bad Guy does something reaaallly bad. Good guy gets bad guy by shooting him dead, even though it's in essence vigilante justice - this is true whether good guy is cop, private dick, or citizen, because even the cops will shoot to kill when not legally justified - but then you just feel so - damn - good. And they always get away with it scot-free. How many movies end with a prolonged internal affairs investigation after the shooting? Pick any of hundreds of Wayne, Eastwood, Bronson, Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Norris, etc, etc.

[This message has been edited by Futo Inu (edited August 06, 1999).]
 
Futo has touched on another element that we, and many others, seem to have in common: early experiences in a deprived and mostly lawless environment, that crystallized a determination to oppose victemization. Before guns, I depended on a succession of knives and improvised blunt instruments to ensure my personal safety. I never had to make serious use of them. Time and again, their deterrent effect was sufficient. It became clear to me that having a weapon, and the determination to use it if necessary, was most often enough to prevent trouble. Lott's finding that more crime is prevented by the mere presence of a weapon than by its use, was thoroughly and independently impressed on me by those early experiences. Back then I had no right to keep and bear the primitive arms that were all I could acquire...but I had them, and was ready to use them. Should the time come that our firearms are as proscribed for us, as the knife was back then, I will obey the law of survival and assert my sovereign right to be armed, against any rule a corrupt and decadent society may try to impose. This determination is not mine alone...I sense it, as a current running deeply among those of us of 'a certain age' who were born to depression and war and privation, and fought hard to achieve our present status. We will not surrender it easily. The antis underestimate us badly if they depend on that. slabsides

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An armed man is a citizen; an unarmed man is a subject; a disarmed man is a slave.
 
Well, some of all of the above comments. As far as specific reading, it's less individual books than certain authors. Ayn Rand and Robert Heinlein probably have had the most influence, although VanVogt and Orwell are on the list...
 
Most of the Larry Niven books (Including collections of short stories), Ayn Rand, Jerry Pournelle, and most recently, "More Guns, Less Crime" and "The History of the Second Amendment" (I hope I got that one right) ... And oh, so many movies.

To elaborate a bit on the Niven books, I especially like the Gil, the ARM series, of course the "Known Universe" and there are a couple of favorite shorts, but one that stands out is on how to defeat a carjacker.

As for following a train of logic, nothing is as serious and as hilarious as "Supermman and Lois, Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenix" ... Think about it (or find it in one of the books, read it, understand, and laugh you a** off!)

[This message has been edited by TR (edited August 04, 1999).]
 
"The Art of War" by Sun Tzu (500 B.C.). Also available in english. ;)

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May your lead always hit center mass and your brass always land in your range bag.

~Blades~
 
"Lust for Life" -- the biography of Vincent van Gogh by Irving Stone.

Why?

It showed me that love is universal and timeless; that what I was feeling at that time was something that others had felt. It made me part of humanity. It also showed me that to love and express that love didn't mean I couldn't be a "man".

And it gave a whole new meaning to "Starry, Starry Night" by Don McLean.

B
 
Bruce, I entirely agree. Also Stone's "The Agony and the Ecstasy" about Michelangelo is excellent. You don't have to be an "art lover" to enjoy these books. But you will probably be an "artist lover" afterward, or at least you will look at art from a different perspective.
 
Futo brings up an excellent point. The same year my interest in firearms gelled, my parents moved across town. As a result, I went from a school in which I was friends with everyone to one with a very adversarial environment.

Like Futo, I got picked on to some degree as well...particularly for the first year I was there. This changed the next year. Perhaps this contributed to my interest as well.

- Anthony
 
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