Who knew the library had so many books on gun control?

A

azurefly

Moderator
I was at the main county library here in Palm Beach county today, trying to do some research for my girlfriend, and I happened to pass a shelf that had a plethora of books on gun control!

I checked out five of them.

While most of the books on the shelf appeared (at least from the coverleaf) to try to be "balanced" about the subject, I did notice the toilet-paper-in-book-form by Josh Sugarmann (of HCI), Every Gun Is Pointed At You (a hysterical fearmongering title if ever there was one). I didn't check that one out, because I was disgusted. But now I'm thinking I might get it just to see what kind of garbage and lies he filled it with. (I mean, you know there is not a chance that he told a single straight truth in that book.)

I was just surprised that there were so many books on the subject. I am of course familiar with the ones by Kates, Kleck, LaPierre (his were not there, btw), and others. I can't say I've read all of them, to be sure, but I didn't know that so many others, not readily identifiable with the pro-gun-rights crowd, had chimed in.

Anyone know anything about these?:

DeConde, Alexander: Gun Violence in America: the Struggle for Control
Kelly, Caitlin: Blown Away: American Women and Guns
Currie-McGhee, L.K.: Gun Control
Vizzard, William J.: Shots in the Dark: The Policy, Politics, and Symbolism of Gun Control (The cover notes that Vizzard is a former agent, supervisor, and Special Agent in Charge in the BATF)
Kleck, Gary, and Kates, Don B.: Armed: New Perspectives on Gun Control

I have not delved deep into any of them just yet -- still deciding which I want to check into first. Probably the Kleck, Kelly, and Vizzard ones hold the most interest for me, respectively.

I'd like to discuss with anyone who has familiarity with these books or any others. (Please note I am not talking about books about gunfighting, self defense, or other technical aspects of gun ownership -- just the socio-political ones.)

-azurefly
 
With a title like 'Every gun is pointed at you' maybe you should check that book out and loose it...may be worth the 5 bucks just to have no impressionable minds shat on by some fearmongering garbage like that...(but other than that I'm all against censorship!!)
Let us know if any are 'must-reads'.
 
My personal "reviews"...

"Gun Violence in America"... Tries to "appear" balanced, but heavily anti-gun, pro-control/ban. Lots of undocumented or spun factoids. :(

"Blown Away..." Not even going to go there. :eek:

"Gun Control" Skimmed it at Barnes and Noble. Lots of anti-gun, pro-control. Appeared to me to disregard and dismiss any 2nd Amdmt or pro-gun statements as being contemptible. :mad:

"Shots in the Dark..." Haven't looked at this one, but heard that the author is rabidly anti-gun and a closet Bradyite. :barf:

"Armed..." Lots of referenced statistics, not the easiest read but a pretty good look at the arguement from a logical perpective. :)


A few others to take a look at...

"More Guns, Less Crime" by John Lott
"The Samuri, the Mountie, and the Cowboy" By David Kopel
"Origins and Development of the Second Amendment" by David Hardy
"Guns, Crime, and Freedom" by Wayne LaPierre
 
I have always heard "know thine enemy" however I don't have a strong enough stomach for some of that dreck.:barf:
Good luck.
 
Nedreck: That's something to consider. "Whoops! Sorreeee..." ;)

Cowboy: I skimmed "Gun Control," which is one of a large series of "issue books" by that publisher. It actually seemed to give a marginal effort to be unbiased. The thing I think it is guilty of is accepting some "facts" presented by and gleaned from the "other side" far too easily. It seems as though they did not question the accuracy of claims made by anti-gunners.

There are parts of the book that very clearly explain some very cogent pro-gun arguments. To wit:

However, the Court (in Cruikshank) also stated that the right to bear arms was not dependent on the Constitution for its existence. Based on this statement, many contend that the Court recognized that the right of the people to bear arms as a natural right, preceding the Constitution. Additionally, the Court stated that a militia consisted of all citizens able to bear arms. This supports the theory that militias were considered to be universal. Therefore, the Second Amendment applies to all people.

Proponents of gun control use this case to support their stance that the states can impose gun control laws. Gun rights advocates use this case to support their belief that the right to bear arms is a natural right of all people and that gun control laws violate this right."​

I think that one did a decent job of being objective: the only shortcoming is that sometimes it treated anti-gun arguments too credulously.

The one by Kelly does indeed appear to have a slant of, "You sista, may think you want a gun to empower and protect you, but it's an ill-considered thing, so you should...well, I don't know what you should do because nothing else seems to work to safeguard women, either."

She does quote from a good mix of women, some of whom are adamant about choosing a firearm for their defense. There is just an undertone of condescension about making that choice, and she fails to conceal it very well. She also speaks of the "gun violence problem" and constantly presents a view that something must be done to decrease the number of guns held by private individuals, as though that is a noble given in the debate. She proceeds from a starting point of "there are too many guns." That's the major flaw I saw in her book.

-azurefly
 
The "Gun Control" book contains reproductions of various political cartoons, some of which are blindly and dumbly anti-gun (like the one where an obviously "dumb, fat redneck" greets a child trick-or-treater at the door wearing a revolver in his belt; the kid is toting an AR-15, and the homeowner says, "A sniper! How cute! Here's your treat: some non-registered, non-traceable, armor piercing, two-twenty three caliber ammo wrapped in the 2nd amendment..."

But there is also a cartoon in which a professor is showing slides and discussing the Constitution:

He says, "It's obvious our forefathers were wary of big government! They wrote the Bill of Rights to protect 'the little guy' from its collective power! The First Amendment protects his right to worship and express ideas without fear! The Third Amendment keeps soldiers out of his house! The Fourth Protects his privacy! The Fifth protects his right to a fair trial and keeps the government from taking away his property! Yes, Tom?"

Student Tom asks, "What about the Second Amendment, Prof. Mushead?"

And the enlightened liberal professor says, smugly, "The Second Amendment says it's okay for the National Guard to have guns!"


I got a good chuckle out of that accurate representation of the hypocrital and irrational stupidity and brazen lies of the left...

-azurefly
 
I find it funny that many of you blame all gun control

on the 'Left'. No mention of your next proposed president, McCain or that our present Administration's first move after 'freeing' the Iraqi people was to take away their right to defend themselves.
 
(I mean, you know there is not a chance that he told a single straight truth in that book.)
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I took the time to read the reviews on Amazon so it does seem evident that it's a strictly anti-gun book...but really, were you never taught to "never judge a book by its' cover"? That idiom can actually apply to books, y'know.

With a title like 'Every gun is pointed at you' maybe you should check that book out and loose it...may be worth the 5 bucks just to have no impressionable minds shat on by some fearmongering garbage like that...(but other than that I'm all against censorship!!)
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I'll just assume that you're joking but if you're not that's a very sick thing to say.
 
+1 on "Guns, Crime, and Freedom" by Wayne LaPierre. I'm currenty reading this book, its a great book. He demolishes the gun control argument with hard, researcheable facts. Its written so that its not boring to read, I'd HIGHLY recommend this book. :D
 
I didn't understand why everyone blames gun control on the left either but then I realized that places like NY and Kalifornia were having some pretty craaaaazy gun laws (to say the least) while places like Florida and Alabama dont...Which leads me to believe that If someone ran as a democrat on a pro-gun platform, they might clean house...

redworm, I was kinda joking, I'm just a broken hypocrite like that I suppose, while I support that author's right to get published and say whatever he likes, I also support the right to check the book out...and lose it. Sometimes doing what's right, isn't doing what's right :D
 
"Left" does not necessarily mean "Democrat"
"Right" doers not necessarily mean "Republican"

as an example...

Zel Miller... Democrat... "Right"
Rudy Gulliani... Republican... "Left"
 
Yes, but If I may, those people are both CRAZY. Zell's just plain off his rocker while Rudy, after hearing him interviewed, needs to be (stay) retired. I don't know who I'd like to vote for in '08 but I sure as hell know who I don't (Jeb, Rudy, Frist, Klinton (oh please god not her!), anyone with rove's support, anyone with such large conflicts of interest (if we elected kerry and started using heinz catsup in all the public schools, we'd have strung him up by now, what are we waiting on??)...who's left? What about that screaming crazy guy we almost coulda elected? Dean? He's startin to not look so bad now...
 
One day, I finally decided to look at the gun control books in my school library (it's a Highschool, might I add).

After approximately five minutes and three of the books, I gave up and went for the one gem in our library... An encyclopedia of modern firearms, complete with introduction by Ian Hogg.

The bright side? The books on gun control literally had dust on them. ;)

Cheers,
Wolfe.
 
I find it funny that many of you blame all gun control

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on the 'Left'. No mention of your next proposed president, McCain or that our present Administration's first move after 'freeing' the Iraqi people was to take away their right to defend themselves
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McCain is a leftist so how is he "our" next proposed pres? Or are you mistaking conservative and Republican for interchangeable terms? Also, what does what we do or don't do to foreigners in a war zone have to do with OUR Rights. Once we're gone from over there they can try to worry about that subject themselves(assuming they have the capacity).
 
I've found boooks by Bill Jordan, Elmer Keith, and Cooper in the Public Library, as well as More Guns, Less Crime, books on Colt and S&W as well as other firearms, and the Gun Digest books on firearms assembly/disassembly.
I guess its all in what you are looking for.
 
Another pro-gun book I would highly recommend, "The Seven Myths of Gun Control" by Richard Poe. This is an entertaining, fact filled book that destroys the seven most common arguments for gun control. Its very well researched and written, I'd give it 5 stars.:D My brother refuses to read this book, because he know's it will destroy his reasoning for gun control through facts.

GUN CONTROL MEANS HITTING YOUR TARGET. :D :D
 
that our present Administration's first move after 'freeing' the Iraqi people was to take away their right to defend themselves
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We did not disarm the Iraqi People, I don't know where you got that from.

kenny b
 
When I settle down somewhere I want to "donate" magazine subscriptions and new books to the library. I think an intelligent, smooth method might work well to get some books from our side on the shelves. If I need to, I'll make a nice donation along with the books/magazine subcription.

Nothing crazy, just somethings to balance out the anti's.
 
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