Customer Reviews

The Best Defense: True Stories of Intended Victims Who Defended Themselves with a Firearm

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The basic premise of this book is: defensive use of firearms is not just for the military and police; it is for every citizen confronted or assaulted by violent criminals violating their personal and property rights. This book contains numerous examples of citizens who used firearms to save their own lives, or the lives of others, before law enforcement arrived.

There are also examples of armed citizens coming to aid of stricken law enforcement officers, who probably owe their lives to the second ammendment rights exercised by the citizens. The stories of survival in the face of certain death at the hands of a violent criminal are gripping.

The book is a fast and easy read. Although not a great literary work, Robert A. Walters succeeds in telling the stories of victims turned defenders completely and understandably. No matter which side of the "gun control" debate you are on, this book will give you a good source of insight into the reasoning behind the pro-second ammendment advocates.

You will probably not sleep well at night after reading this book - unless you have an appropriate, loaded weapon nearby.

There are two things that I like about this book. I have always believed that the best way to learn anything in life is by following the sucessful examples of others. What better examples are there than real life ones? The book also gives good refutations on gun opponents' most popular beliefs:

1. A robber will not hurt you if you do exactly what he tells you to do.

2. Using guns as a self-defense weapon is a deployment of more than necessary force to stop a violent encounter. Martial arts and self-defense sprays should suffice in any violent confrontation

3. Silent alarms should be able to get law enforcement agents onto the scene of a crime in progress before anybody gets physically wounded. In other words, carrying a gun in a place of business is equivalent to trying to take the law into your own hands

4. Law enforcement agents are always here to protect you

Buy this book and read for yourself about the burgular who breaks into the house of a sleeping woman and, without saying a word to her, pulls out a knife and begins to slash her face. The woman did not even have a chance to comprehend what is going on before there are two deep lacerations in her face. The attacker was so strong that after the woman shot him four times, he still continues to beat her and cut her for about another hour. Ask yourself if the martial arts or pepper sprays would have been able to stop him if four .22 caliber bullets barely could. When did the police arrive? One hour after the struggle began.

Read about the jewerly store owner who quickly activates a silent alarm after seeing three men enter his store with shotguns. The first thing the robbers did was fire a shotgun shell into a nearby glass window. At this point, the store owner decided it was time to fight back. Before the police arrived, there was already an intense gun battle. Had the owner not possessed guns, the only thing the police would find upon arrival would have been a pile of dead employees and their dead employer.

Buy this book and see why every smart and responsible citizen should be armed.

I would like to recommend "STREET KARATE" by John McSweeney as a good companion to this book just in case your handgun decides not to work.

This book will open you eyes and awaken you to the fact that you or someone you know may be a victim someday.

How will you respond in a situation of criminal attack? Are you prepared to prevent, deter a crime or to defend yourself, if need be? Reading these true life events of people who used firearms for protection caused me to Be Aware & work on being better prepared for how I will respond in a given situation.

When it comes to self-defense, what you don't know can hurt you. Similar events can happen to anyone. Thanks to this book, it's become my decision to Never be a Victim and learn how to deal with certain people, learn precautions to take, and train to protect myself, my family, friends, and even strangers, if need be.

This is a book EVERY family should have, read, and remember.

A more eloquent case could not be made proving how vitally we need the 2nd Amendment than this pastiche of straightforward vignettes about ordinary American citizens who owe their lives to the fact that they own guns. Far from the thrill-seeking vigilantes often portrayed by gun control advocates, these gun owners are a diverse assortment of law-abiding men and women who, through no fault of their own, came face to face with murderous criminals.

Often it was with extreme reluctance that they used their weapons. In one very moving case a woman who sustained a severe beating before fatally wounding her assailant speaks of being haunted by the fact that she had to kill someone's son just before Mother's Day. Another story profiles gentleman car-jacked and forced into his trunk, where he kept two guns. When confronting his kidnapper, he fired three warning shots in the unsuccessful hope of not having to take the teenager's life.

Perhaps the book's most unsettling fact is the evildoers knowledge that they should stringently avoid Mom and Pop shops where the owners untethered by politically correct corporate policies are likely to be armed and readily able to defend themselves. Too many chain stores will willingly sacrifice a few replaceable employees in order to gain some valuable public relations.

Certainly this book has its sad elements; it's not pleasant to read about the lives snuffed out-even though it was the direct result of their inhuman actions. Still, overall it is a truly inspiring read. It made me think of some celebrated victims-like Nicole Brown, Ron Goldman, and Juanita Broderick--whose tragic fate may very well have been altered by the presence of a firearm.

While "The Best Defense" make no political points in favor of gun ownership, these living, breathing individuals stand as constant refutations to the tyrannical voices of gun control. This is Robert A. Waters' first book, and he has written a very hard act to follow.

Excellent book which shows how individuals defended themselves from criminals with their guns. Indirectly, it unmasks the real agenda of the left-wing gun-control advocates--to disarm law-abiding citizens and make them helpless in the face of crime, all so that liberals can thereby attain a greater control of our society.

I finished reading this book very quickly. Every story was intense and captivating. The book was enjoyable for entertainment value alone, but it also contains critical information about personal defense.

Ever wondered what it was really like to be attacked by someone trying to kill you? These are stories of people who lived to tell the tail. Many potential murder victims only survived because they had a loaded gun handy.

On a personal note, my brother wasn't as fortunate as many of the people in this book. He was returning a tape at a well lit video store on a Sunday night when he was kidnapped by four thugs. They had his car, his cash, and all his possessions, but they murdered him anyway. Apparently just robbing people had become boring to them. They are now in jail, but I often wonder if my brother would be alive today if he had a gun with him.

you are living a quiet life in your home which you thought was so safe - and the next minute a coke-crazed mountain of a man is cutting your face.....Sammie Foust lived this.

Imagine that you are a man who has to keep moving his family to keep them safe because a man who is fixated on your wife is stalking them. One day you look out your window and come face to face with your worst nightmare - this stalker and his gun. Doug Stanton lived this.

These are only two of the fourteen stories that Robert Waters so grippingly tells in his book "The Best Defense." All of the stories are of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances who had guns and had to come to grips, in a matter of seconds, with the question "Could I really shoot someone?" Each of the stories is told in such a way that I could actually picture them in my mind. I consider myself somewhat of an expert on True Crime books and that whole genre and mind imagery in such a book is one of my top priorities. The fear and horror of each situation actually jumps out at you from the page. You absolutely CANNOT put this book down until you reach the end of each chapter - you come to care about these people and want them to come out of each situation with their lives.

This book was written in such a way that it totally changed my view on owning guns. I have always been a gun-control advocate - however, had these people not had guns, this book could not have been written - they would have been dead. Mr. Waters does not preach, he just tells the stories - but if you are not moved by this book, nothing could move you. It changed me in such a way that I am looking into getting a gun for my own protection. This book is THAT POWERFUL. I look forward with great anticipation to his next book . It can't come soon enough.

Similar to Massad Ayoob's classic text, The Ayoob Files: The Book, this book covers over a dozen real incidents. The author focuses more on the mental and emotional impacts of the crime on the victim's life whereas as Ayoob covers the legal and tactical aspects of attacks.

Ordinarily, reading account after account would become tedious but the author skillfully keeps the action moving. He also includes brief commentary on concealed carry of firearms and the failures of the justice system.

The greatest value to the reader comes from considering how the incidents described in the book would play out in the reader's life. Is your home safe from unwanted entry? How would you respond to a car jacking? Is your place of business a desirable target for criminals? If so, how might you react? How would you protect your loved ones?

If you are attacked, you have little or no time to do something very important very quickly. This book provides you courses of action by seeing crimes through the experiences of others. It rates a place in the library of anyone wanting to preserve their life and lives of those they care about.

I really enjoyed reading and reviewing this book. I wrote about it in my review ezine. I wrote-- "This book presents fifteen real life stories of individuals who defended themselves and/or their families from rapists, stalkers, drug crazed murderers, serial killers, gang members, drunk/doped thieves and car-jackers, and other violent criminals by using a firearm. It is estimated that 500,000 to 600,000 crimes are prevented by a person showing, waving, or firing a weapon every year. Some say that the figure may be upwards of 2 to 2-1/2 million a year, out of some 14 million crimes in the USA annually." Read the rest of it at my site, the Critical Review, an Amazon associate [online].

Very insightful, very moving. I received the book on Jan 2 and finished it Jan 3, 2001. I couldn't put it down. Every day you read or hear the negative aspects of guns; this book will show you why gun ownership is so important. The families and people in this book could have been your families, your mothers, your fathers. Even if you are afraid of guns or people who own guns, you owe it to yourself to read this book. It anwsers many questions, from real people, who've been there.