Customer Reviews

A Good Fight

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1 star:		(5)

 

 

I read two autobiographies back-to-back: one by Katherine Graham, and the other by Sarah Brady. These are two different women in Washington's inner political circle, from two different walks of life. Both women had life-altering experiences due to their husbands being shot. Graham's husband committed suicide; Brady's husband was permanently disabled during an assassination attempt on President Reagan. I found Brady's story about her life to be completely unpretentious and honest. It is a compelling story that reads easily. Brady wants to tell us about the episodes of her life, but the real inspiration lies in the way she addresses each of those episodes. Feel free to agree or disagree with her political preferences, or her beliefs about gun control. But don't for one minute question her authenticity. This is a book that entertains, while also making readers analyze their own values.

I borrowed this book from the library and read it in a day and a half. (I work two jobs, so I consider this to be a major accomplisment!) I liked "A Good Fight" so much that I then purchased a copy for my mom for mother's day. There is a lot to admire about Sarah Brady: the strength with which she faced and continues to face an adversary like the NRA; her courage in dealing with her husband's disability and her own cancer; her brutal honesty with which she addresses and discusses her ongoing battle with a cigarette addiction. The list goes on. Sarah faces every challenge in life with strength and determination and she is an inpiration to anyone who wants to make a difference and live their lives fully. There are many "good fights" in this inspiring and uplifting book. Kudos to Sarah Brady.

I don't know what it is about guns that makes people react with such hatred and anger. This book is a powerful story of an intelligent, tough woman who has taken tragedy and turned it into a powerful crusade. She turned the tragic shooting of her husband, Jim, into an effort that has kept guns out of the hands of criminals only to find out that she's been stricken with cancer. And, again, she chose to fight - this time against the disease within.

It's a powerful story, well told. Whether you agree with her policies or not, it's impossible not to admire her strength of character and conviction.

Sarah Brady has written from the heart. She lays out her personal life for all to read. Her reaction to Jim's shooting
is profound and she has done wonderful work in trying to counteract the profligate use of hand guns. I salute her.

Sarah Brady describes herself as a college goof-off, never quite the prettiest girl, and a happy housewife. She was delighted in 1981 when Ronald Reagan selected her husband, Jim Brady, as his Press Secretary. But she admits she was in over her head, wearing the wrong clothes and star-gazing at Washington's elite. Within three months, the dream was over. Jim Brady was gravely injured during the March 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan. Sarah Brady's life changed and she became a passionate advocate for sensible gun laws. Her hard work and common sense were instrumental in passing two laws over the objections of the NRA: the Brady Law that mandated a waiting period for handgun purchases, and the Assault Rifle Ban.

For those interested in the give-and-take of the firearms battles in Washington, the book may drift a bit too often into asides about Jim's medical difficulties or the doings of a family maid or longtime friend, while not revealing all you might wish to know about the legislative battles. Fair enough, you can flip ahead. In the end, the personal material reveals Mrs. Brady as a compassionate, strong woman who struggles with family, trauma, and self-doubt, and earns her every victory. She's not quite a hero, in some ways she's more interesting than that. An every-Jane who outworks her opponents.

Brady was a dedicated Republican who felt the firearms issue need not be partisan, but rather one of common sense. While she has become something of a bogeywoman for the right-wing gun nuts (just read some of the other reviews on this page), she states her position clearly, "I believe that law-abiding citizens should be able to buy and keep firearms. And I believe there are sensible standards that we can and should insist upon when it comes to gun ownership." (p.104). Her long years of work in Washington, as a director of Handgun Control Inc., give her access and insights into the corridors of power. Thus her unflattering portraits of Charlton Heston ("phony") and Dick Cheney, who unconscionably was on the losing side of a 413-4 House vote in 1988 to ban plastic handguns that terrorists could use to sneak through metal detectors. One wonders if 9-11 has made Cheney revisit his position.

Brady's greatest legacy may not be the two key bills that she shepherded into law. It may be that she showed the country that the majority of Americans who favor sensible gun regulations can be heard, and that their wishes need not be trampled by the extremists who have hijacked the NRA. She showed us that one hard-working housewife can make a difference. This is a story of American democracy, how one brave citizen can change the law.

While it is admirable for anyone to fight for what they believe in nomatter how difficult I cannot aplaud this woman on her political stance as she operates more on emotion rather than on facts. There is constant bashing of the NRA, yet will not argue facts done on gun ownership and concealed carry. She merely dismisses it as extreme right wing liberal bashing or lies by the NRA, never once coming forward to give conclusive proof on her arguments. You can find plenty of books argueing against gun control with indisputable facts that can easily be confirmed. Such as the fact that states that have the least amount of gun control laws have the lowest crime rate, and is consistant throughout all 50 states.
Her actions in Handgun Control Inc. or now the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence is very unamerican. The NRA does not try to push people to own guns merely to protect a law abiding citizens right to own a gun. Sarah Brady and her orginization however continuously try to force her views on everyone else, to make it into law through use of the government. If her argument is so good there should be no trouble convincing people, whether through debatesor printed out fact sheets that have ALL information present. Something to think for people who want facts on issues like this rather than emotion.

Sarah Brady describes herself as a college goof-off, never quite the prettiest girl, and a happy housewife. She was delighted in 1981 when Ronald Reagan selected her husband, Jim Brady, as his Press Secretary. But she admits she was in over her head, wearing the wrong clothes and star-gazing at Washington's elite. Within three months, the dream was over. Jim Brady was gravely injured during the March 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan. Sarah Brady's life changed and she became a passionate advocate for sensible gun laws. Her hard work and name were instrumental in passing two laws over the objections of the NRA: the Brady Law that mandated a waiting period for handgun purchases, and the Assault Rifle Ban.

For those interested in the give-and-take of the firearms battles in Washington, the book may drift a bit too often into asides about Jim's medical difficulties or the doings of a family maid or longtime friend, while not revealing all you might wish to know about the legislative tussles. Fair enough, you can flip ahead. In the end, the personal material reveals Mrs. Brady as a compassionate, strong woman who struggles with family, trauma, and self-doubt, and earns her every victory. She's not quite a hero, in some ways she's more interesting than that. An every-Jane who outworks her opponents.

Brady was a dedicated Republican who felt the firearms issue need not be partisan, but rather one of common sense. While she has become something of a bogeywoman for the right-wing gun fans (just read some of the other reviews on this page), she states her position clearly, "I believe that law-abiding citizens should be able to buy and keep firearms. And I believe there are sensible standards that we can and should insist upon when it comes to gun ownership." (p.104). Her long years of work in Washington as a director of Handgun Control Inc., give her insights into the corridors of power. Thus her unflattering portraits of Charlton Heston ("phony") and Dick Cheney, who unconscionably was on the losing side of a 413-4 House vote in 1988 to ban plastic handguns that terrorists could use to sneak through metal detectors. One wonders if 9-11 has made Cheney revisit his position.

Brady's greatest legacy may not be the two key bills that she shepherded into law. It may be that she showed the country that the majority of Americans who favor sensible gun regulations can be heard, and that their wishes can overcome extremist views. She showed us that one hard-working housewife can make a difference. This is a story of American democracy, how one brave citizen can change the law.

This book was a remarkable story of a woman's strength. As I recall the shooting of over 20 years ago, I remember how eventually we all went on with our lives and didn't think about the ways in which one young man with a gun changed so many lives forever that day at the Hilton Hotel in DC. Sarah Brady made it her personal mission to put the NRA out of business to keep us all safe from the senseless gun violence that changed her life forever. I would recommend this book to anyone who is inspired by the dedication and will of others and would like to change the world for the better.

Not suprisingly, and as many would expect from the likes of Mrs. Brady, comes an objective book on a topic that is instead weighed down by egotistical banter and false intents.

This book has been summed up (to some degree) by others here already, so I'll save the room for their reviews. The only thing I wanted to add was that for such a "noble" cause (if you consider it that), Mrs. Brady herself along with additional affiliated anti-gun organizations have been caught red-handed using illegal tactics to forward their campaign. One example of this consists of forging official documents from the Department of Justice regarding gun statistics to superimpose high crime numbers that in actuality didn't exist. Since they are so high profile, all they get are slaps on the wrists and fines, and very little air time for being shamed, since the media is of like mentality.

Another thing that Mrs. Brady fails to comprehend is that no matter how restrictive her "people" make gun purchasing, no criminal will ever abide by them. I have never heard of a felon walking into a gun store to give fingerprints and begin 4473 paperwork. Illegal weapons come from harbor freights and other unregulated/hidden means. The additional laws Sarah proposes will only restrict our ability to protect ourselves, but won't take that Glock out of Mr. Break-in-your-house-at-3am's hands. So grab your last legal self-defense weapon (hopefully she won't go after baseball bats) and 'try' to protect your family.

All hail societal downfall and insecurity...all hail Sarah Brady.

One simply has to accept the book for what it is. From its opening words, "As I write this I am fighting for my life" the book is a pity piece, interspersed with personal trials and tribulations calculated to draw the sympathies of the unsuspecting reader to Mrs Brady and thereafter her personal vendetta against the Second Amendment and the right of the law abiding citizen to exercise their individual right to keep and bear arms.

While I extend my sympathies to the Brady family, the fact is simply that Mr. Brady had the misfortune to be in the way of a random bullet, fired in the assassination attempt against President Reagan. This was something that the Reagans themselves handled with remarkable understanding and compassion, compared to Mrs Brady, who turned the incident into not just an understandable distaste for Mr. Reagans attacker, who so severely injured her husband, but in her own words a "rage" against the National Rifle Association, which is comprised of some 4.2 million law abiding firearms owners.

Many of us in life have experienced exactly the same misfortunes as Mrs. Brady, concerning the trials and tribulations experienced by both our loved ones and ourselves. However, few of us have used those experiences as an attention grabber to draw the empathy of others to ourselves and then shift their focus to a personally vengeful cause. In reading the other reviews I find the readers of this book fall into two distinct camps (1) the poor brave Bradys and (2) those who realize what this book is really all about, which is no more than an opportunity for Mrs Brady to vent, while using this same opportunity to draw a few more well intentioned, but totally uninformed individuals closer to the cause that she personally chairs.

The book should be read from two standpoints. (1) If you like personal stories, I have nothing against the personal story of the Brady family who has indeed fought a good fight (2) However if it is to be read as a decision making tool concerning "the right to keep and bear arms" I suggest the reader arm themselves with a highlighter, several hours of research time and seek the truth of the matter for themselves from independent, unbiased sources of information, whereupon in the end, will prove for themselves, with out any further prompting from anyone, that all of the energy, time, effort and money ever poured into the issue of "gun control" has been a totally irrational lost cause.