Guns Save Lives: True Stories of Americans Defending Their Lives With Firearms [Paperback]

Robert A. Waters (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2002

Guns Saves Lives contains true stories of Americans who altered the course of their lives and others by their use of firearms. They stayed alive and, in many instances, saved the lives of loved ones. They saved the lives of untold others from violence their assailants were trying to commit. They changed the lives of the thugs significantly, at least temprorarily, by sending them to jail, or permanently by killing them outright. Robert Waters interviewed the citizen defenders in this book and makes their stories available in far greater detail that the local media cared to. The hidden side of the gun ownership story is seldom told, but Robert Waters does so in this book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 194 pages
• Publisher: Loompanics Unlimited (July 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559502266
• ISBN-13: 978-1559502269
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #762,669 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fate Reversal, August 12, 2002

By 

David J. Miller (Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guns Save Lives: True Stories of Americans Defending Their Lives With Firearms (Paperback)

"Fate reversal.
ItÕs what could have happened that didnÕt happen."

Robert A. WatersÕ new book, Guns Save Lives is about reversal of fate. Not everyone believes in fate, but that doesnÕt make WatersÕ book (subtitled True Stories of Americans Defending Their Lives With Firearms) any less compelling. The intended victims in this book took charge of their own fate. They made their own luck. They turned the tables on their attackers. However you say it, it comes down to the same basic concept: The strong survive.

In Guns Save Lives, Robert Waters tells you about the criminals who take what they want from the weak and unarmed. He gives you detailed accounts of their sociopathic rampages, and how they inevitably come to an end when confronted with a greater force in the form of an armed citizen.

It is difficult to stop reading this book. I read it from cover to cover, only putting it down once. Waters puts you in the time and place of the attack, and puts you in the mindset of the intended victims. You feel the hatred and rage of the attackers, and marvel at the bravery of the people who take responsibility for their own safety, even when theyÕre nearly scared stiff.

YouÕve never read self defense stories this detailed, this personal. Waters makes you feel like you are there. If your heart rate doesnÕt spike while reading Guns Save Lives, youÕre not paying attention.

The American mainstream media completely ignores cases of armed self defense. They are controlled by corporate and special interest groups that donÕt want stories like the ones in Guns Save Lives to gain publicity. Thankfully, Robert Waters shines the light of truth on these "guns are evil" groups and establishes once again that "guns are tools;" and that evil resides only in the hearts of men, not in inanimate objects.

When the idea of tying armed self defense stories to the Right to Keep and Bear Arms was first tested, anti-freedom fanatics immediately dismissed them as "anecdotal." Once again, Robert Waters silences their shrill cries by citing the details of dozens of examples of armed self defense. In addition, in the Afterword, Waters introduces the reader to "Operation Self Defense," an online compilation of thousands of self defense stories archived and available for research. The antis can no longer call such incidents merely anecdotal.

In a chapter entitled "Concealed Carry," Waters relates six separate incidents in which a legally armed citizen defended their life, and the lives of others, from violent criminals. After reading this chapter, you will be amazed that there are still six states that forbid their citizens the right to carry firearms for self defense.

Guns Save Lives is the book that will make your "fence sitting" friends jump to the Liberty side of the fence.

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars These 194 Pages Dispell Every Arguement for Gun Control, November 1, 2002

By 

Keith Kimmel "Free Thinker, Constant Reader" (OK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Guns Save Lives: True Stories of Americans Defending Their Lives With Firearms (Paperback)

Sue Gay lives in South Bend, Indiana, and she is alive today-thanks to her 11-year-old grandson. When Tony "Casper" Murry held a box cutter to Sue's neck one night this February, the fifth grade boy had to think quickly. He ran to an upstairs bedroom to grab a gun and then flew back down the stairs with a .45 in hand. The boy shot one round and hit Murry, 27, in the chest, even though the man was shielding himself with the grandmother.

I remember watching this story unfold in my home town. Every day, good hard-working Americans are saved by guns. Ordinary people who intervene to save themselves from those who place a very low value on human life.

Lets face it: If gun locks where such a great idea, we'd see officers using them on their beats. "If I'm a bad guy, I'm always gonna have a gun. Safety locks? You pull the trigger with a lock on, and I'll pull the trigger. We'll see who wins," Sammy "the Bull" Gravano (an infamous gangster-turned-informant) says.

In Guns Save Lives, we see several true stories (without the drama, without the glorification) about people who are alive today because of guns. What the gun control advocates aren't telling you about are the countless lives that are saved every day by citizens who put guns to use for good.

Whether your a card-carrying member of The NRA or a hardened anti-gun advocate, you should read this book and hear the stories told by those who lived them.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Guns Save Lives, June 3, 2003

By 

Robert Bogash "rbogash2" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Guns Save Lives: True Stories of Americans Defending Their Lives With Firearms (Paperback)

Everyone should read this book. I read this and the other Robert Waters book in 2 or 3 days. They are spellbinding and frightening and hard to put down. Even anti-gun people should read this book, even if they don't change their minds. They will get a feel for the suddenness, viciousness, and speed with which normal people can find themselves in a true life and death crime situation. Maybe they will get a dog or check their door locks! There are many messages in these books that have nothing to do with guns, including a deeply flawed criminal justice system that puts violent offenders repeatedly back on the streets, endangering innocent people; the fallout from a severe drug problem, whatever your proposed solutions; the unbelievable irrationality of people on drugs, seemingly oblivious to people complying with their demands; the inability of police to respond fast enough to "protect" people under atack or threat of attack. One reviewer comments on the apparent rascist slant, i.e. whites defending against black criminals. Read both books -- nothing could be further from the truth. The reviewer is reading things into the text that are not there; he is the rascist. He also feels the stories are repetitive. Only in the sense that crime seems out of control; the situations are all strikingly different, and anyone can see themselves clearly in at least some of the victims' situations.

For people who keep firearms for home protection, there are many, many lessons to be learned in these books, including caliber selection, capabilities of senior citizens to defend themselves, the relative ineffectiveness of handguns to quickly stop violent behavior, the problems with trigger locks, and the many benefits that accrued to people who at least mentally, and often physically, prepared for a day they hoped would never come.