This is an important book. It talks knowledgeably about guns and the nasty relationship between the NRA and American politics. This co-dependence has helped bring carnage to the country’s streets and schools for too long.
Today, any discussion of guns raises the adrenalin of outrage by opponents and proponents much in the same way as the abortion issue does for pro-life and pro-choice advocates. Both incite people to act irrationally and resort to name calling that too often results in violent behavior.
Ryan Busse, the author of GUNFIGHT, spent a career as an executive with Kimber, an arms manufacturer initially known for it’s high quality sporting guns. A Westerner and life-long Republican, an insider in the arms industry, and a player in the politics of promoting and selling guns, he writes with passion about how Americans moved from shooting game to shooting one another over the last thirty years.
Busse’s relationship with guns could apply to many of us who grew up with guns across the country. As a teenager, I frequently stopped by Montgomery Ward’s to see the guns – shotguns and small caliber rifles used to hunt small game. There were no handguns and military-style weapons. My first gun was a Stevens bolt-action .410 that I used to hunt squirrels and rabbits. Later I got a double barrel .16 gauge for going after pheasants. When I retired from the university, the faculty presented me with a beautiful Ruger .270 bolt-action rifle to hunt deer at Potlatch. For a long time, I would take a couple deer each fall to put venison in the freezer.
Stop by any big box sporting goods store like Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s or local gun shop today and you will see how things have changed. Along with sporting guns, there are cabinets full of handguns and dangerous looking long-guns and “assault style” AR-15s. Further, today’s customers often wear camouflage clothing and have big trucks outside with Smith & Wesson and NRA bumper stickers. Store clerks most often sport handguns on their hips.
This contrast was striking when I visited L. L. Bean in Freeport, Maine, several years ago. There I discovered the best collection of sporting weapons I had seen without a handgun or military style weapon in sight. There were wonderful legendary shotguns and rifles as well as the most up-to-date sporting guns, all designed for hunting game, large and small. The usual gun shop crowd was nowhere to be seen.
You need to read this book.
