Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun
By Paul Barrett
Well I read the teaser on Amazon, since the book doesn’t come out for two more days. Sounds ok, interesting anyway. Hopefully there isn’t too much slanted anti gun rhetoric in there. May be a good addition to the gun library.
I saw an interview of the author the other day. It definitely doesn’t appear to be anti-gun.
I stumbled upon the book at a bookstore yesterday and bought it. Am a little way through it. The author doesn’t seem antigun, but he does make some basic mistakes in describing certain things about guns.
It is a very interesting read so far. I glanced at the end and it mentions the Gen4 Glock but it doesn’t seem to go into the Gen4 issues that have cropped up.
I iwll add more to this thread as I get through the book.
Sounds interesting. I wouldn’t call myself a connoisseur of fine Glocks, but I appreciate good gun writing.
There’s a lot of tinder out there, hopefully this doesn’t fall into that category.
Exerpt from the 1st review of the book I read on Amazon.
- The author received some shooting lessons directly from Massad Ayoob, a well regarded shooting expert. In return, he makes Ayoob look silly for choosing to carry a weapon (never mind that Ayoob is a former police officer and minor celebrity who probably has good reasons to care about his safety). Referring to Ayoob and his girlfriend, the author sarcastically opines: “Like many gun owners who carry, they find last night’s local television news report of an armed robbery at the neighborhood’s 7-11 more compelling than the statistically small chance of being the unlucky customer paying for a Slurpee when a bad guy attacks.”
- The author has some pervasive anti-gun bias that shows up even when he discusses facts and data which are inconclusive or contradict his opinion. The last chapter before the epilogue tries to discuss the impact of the Glock and handgun ownership on American society. When discussing the recent Virginia Tech massacre, the author says about the shooter: “Whether his choice of the Austrian brand raised the horrific body count remains a matter of speculation. It probably did.” Later on he quips “A national ten-round cap seems like a logical compromise that lawful gun owners could easily tolerate.” And then on the next page he admits that “The total number of guns in private hands in the United States is at an all-time high, yet violent crime is back down to where it was in the early 1970s. The murder rate is even lower - at the level of the early 1960s.” Basically, he ends the book with a strange and contradictory chapter which tries to be an overarching synthesis of gun ownership in America, but ends up looking unfocused and bad.
Sounds a lot like a book about the AK47 I have.
Why people who are rabidly anti-gun feel a need to write books about guns profoundly confuses me.
If you think a ten round magazine capacity restriction is “reasonable” you are so far off in left field you can’t even see the stadium.
AK47 was a great read as well.
I like your point about anti-gunners and books, not saying this author is as I don’t own the book yet. It is interesting how hollywood, vehemently anti gun, makes movies every ten seconds about guns, filled with guns etc. Without guns, liberal hollywood would be stuck making movies about…well stupid, boring shheaat!
No guns would mean - no historical based movies on battle etc, no westerns, no cop flicks, no die hards I II and III, no Rambo, Predator, Tom Clancy Movies…done, etc etc etc.
Dunno…
My guess is if the author spent much time with Ayoob, some of Ayoob’s terminal stupidity might have rubbed off…
Something I learned in debate was to make an argument based on the whatever you do not believe…then you become more of an expert on your beliefs as you have already developed persuasive arguments, you can anticipate talking points and therefore dictate the terms of the debate.