Customer Reviews

Outgunned: Up Against the NRA--The First Complete Insider Account of the Battle Over Gun Control

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This book is typical of a lot of anti-gun attempts at literacy; packed with false claims and sloppy logic. The author has a poor understanding of US firearms law and an even worse knowledge of the facts behind gun politics in America. For example, he claims that the 1994 Crime Bill banned firearms dealers from selling high capacity magazines.

In fact, the law only restricted the importation and new production of such magazines. All high capacity magazines imported or made in the US before 1994 continue to be lawfully sold in America.

This may seem like an odd technicality, but the author is an attorney and should have been able to properly research and understand the law.

There are a number of compelling books that make arguments in support or opposition to firearms ownership, and groups like the NRA, this is not one of them.

If you are rabidly anti-gun and just want to be spoon fed lies that sound good, this is the book for you. If you are pro-gun or perhaps you'd like to know more before forming an opinion, don't waste your time with this lousy book.

The authors of this book have a very strange idea about how things are supposed to work in the United States of America. According to our Constitution there are three branches of government and the people, under the First Amendment, are free to petition those branches as they chose. The NRA is a member-supported organization of gun owners who want to protect their right to keep and bear arms, as specified in the Second Amendment. As such it has a right to lobby and petition in their behalf. Charges that they have "undue influence" are ridiculous. They have exactly as much influence as the members are willing to pay for, just as any anti-gun organization would have. It just happens that there are more people who are willing to speak with their wallets in behalf of their rights than there are people willing to support legislation and litigation that would undermine those rights. The NRA does have one advantage: their position is supported by the Constitution.

The authors posit a new "branch of the government" that is not supported by the Constitution: trial lawyers. This "branch", which has made billions of dollars effectively writing law outside normal channels, now wants to attack the Second Amendment on behalf of the relatively small group of people who think that private citizens aren't bright enough to handle firearms and that they don't need them to protect themselves against criminals. This is despite the fact, as documented by Dr. John Lott, that crime rates are lower in areas where it is easier for private citizens to own guns, and even lower in jurisdictions where they are allowed to carry concealed firearms for self-protection. Since the anti-gun crowd knows it will never get a Constitutional amendment and serious anti-gun laws would be found unconstitutional, it is trying to sneak its gun control position under the door by harassing legitimate businesses with endless lawsuits.

If you are desperate for support for your anti-gun sentiments, this is the book for you. If you want the truth, look elsewhere.

The authors start out the first chapter by explaining in detail exactly how sleazy and scummy the principal players on the "anti-gun" side are. Most of these lawyers would have to get an integrity transplant just to work their way up to scumballs. They are professional ambulance chasers, in the words of the authors!!

Chapter Two tells us how political opportunists in Chicago tried to blame others for their inability to regulate the most regulated industry in America. Instead of stopping criminal behavior, they merely document it for the evening news, while blaming "profit seeking manufacturers" for not doing a job specifically charged to the Federal and State governments.

The rest of the book is more of the same. Any honest and fair reading will realize that it is mostly a weak-minded liberal whining catharsis, where they even try to blame their failure not on their wrong thinking and philosophy, but on someone else (in this case the NRA).

As much as anything else, this book is a prime example of what is wrong with education in America today. Arguments are weakly presented, poorly thought out, and make no attempt at inciting discussion. Instead, the authors make use of the time-honored methodology of demonizing their critics and name-calling worthy of a six year old child.

Perhaps what we really need is a book about how America is being held hostage by lawyers, who have brought the threat of litigation to a point where innovation is stifled, hiring is inhibited, medical care is about to collapse, and hot coffee is just a memory.

Besides all the incorrect and alarmist-type rhetoric these two people spout out, it's just "Business As Usual" from the anti-gun lobby. Their arguments or [facts] are absolutely misinformed. Whenever you get a pair of incompetents trying to explain a subject or subjects they know very little of; you get a comic book style dissertation that only confirms to Americans that most journalists are liberal nuts, with no common sense.

I think I'll hold pencil manufacturers responsible for any bad grades I received in high school. Does anyone actually take these premises seriously?

This book is poorly written. The precepts it seeks to promote are unrealistic and vague, sort of the 'I just think!' quality which is a sure sign that the person presenting the idea has long ago made up their mind.

One of the hammering points they come to is that Automobiles are far more regulated than guns... they neglect to mention however that even with those regulations, licenses, restrictions we kill each other with the things at a rate of about one hundred to one over guns.
'But those are accidents' a reader might think...
1. not always, automobiles are weapon of choice of a HIGH percentage of murders committed by women!

and

2. so are a goodly percentage of firearm deaths...

'but that's DIFFERENT!.'

No not really.

As far as the knee-jerking about children getting killed with guns; they fail as most of these things do to cite the faxct that more kids are 'killed' by backyard pools than firearms and no one is advocating removal of those.

The anti-gun nuts are every bit as crazy as the gun nuts as this poorly constructed bit of propaganda demonstrates

--scuzzball ambulance chasers,flush with success after the tobacco "victory" go for guns. Disappointingly, they find a much smaller pot of money is available but go ahead anyway--I am sure expecting another win on their way to suing fast food for "obesity" and and then on to car manufacturers for selling cars that can be traced to drunk and incompetent drivers--enough there to keep another generation of lawyers in the upper income class.

Unfortunately, they ran into a speedbump on the way--four million NRA members.

This book is a largely a repeat of Handgun Control, Inc., misinformation, lies, embellished with the personalities of the ambulance chasers, big-city machine politicians and slams at NRA personnel--full of technical errors--Glock "revolvers", etc--

This book is truly one of the worst I've read. Completely full of mis=leading half truths and out right lies. Take a past and save your money

Granted, this is a book written from a point of view, but the lack of intellectual honesty displayed within is sufficient justification to look elsewhere for understanding.

more of the same insipid falderal about what guns and crime and violence have in common and trying to make a "vast gun wing conspiracy out of peoples real reasons to own guns. IT'S ALL ABOUT ARMED CITIZENS PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM THE TWIN EVILS OF BAD PEOPLE AND BAD GOVERNMENT!!