Gunfight: My battle against the industry that radicalized America, by Ryan Busse (Public Affairs Books, 2021, 338 pp, $29)
Gunfight will surprise you. You, the reader, are probably anti-gun due to the horrible mass shootings over the past few decades and you have most likely wondered why Congress can't pass legislation against 'assault rifles' and for stricter background checks. What is wrong with the National Rifle Association anyway? Do they really like killing animals and people or are they responsible gun owners who hunt and like the challenge of shooting competitions for accuracy? Or maybe they just want to sell more guns. Maybe all three?
Gunfight begins with the other side of the story: a country boy who hunts and shoots targets to practice accuracy, responsibly. He brings home rabbits and partridge for dinner. He gets a new rifle one year that he cherishes. When he graduates from college in the 90s, he finds his niche selling rifles, a commodity that ebbs and flows with whichever political party is in power - a virtual boom (when the Democrats are in power) and bust (when the Republicans are) business. He begins to collect old rifles and to appreciate those well-made as does his company, Kimber, maker of high-quality rifles.
Study History or Make History. . . .
Eventually, fringe elements and extremists, generally not those who are veterans, band together and gain prominence in the NRA. (Military veterans, on the other hand, learn and practice gun safety above all.) The formerly marginalized become motivated by guns and irrational fears into banding together politically and doing as the NRA directs for it has the money and the power.
An Eye-Opener
Learn about the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 under President Clinton. Learn about the Brady Bill, the Stand Your Ground law, the tragedy of Columbine and its effect on weapons sales, learn more about unhinged and unpredictable people as well as those who use crises to push gun-control. And did you know Smith and Wesson is based in the UK and that 20% of guns are Smith and Wesson?
Learn about re-branding, making the AR-15 (the civilian cousin of the military M-16) into a common rifle that many shooters and hunters want and have, though it used to be for military use only. It's all about re-branding. And the author's company, Kimber, finally gets on the bandwagon.
So, what's it all about? The methods of the NRA in the ebb and flow of gun sales that mirror the nation's politics, though in an upward curve, regardless of mass shootings. Former President Trump (the Trump Slump chapter) used the same methods to gain power - supported by those who were formerly invisible and downtrodden but now armed and playing soldier with a band of brothers.
Two Books in One
Are you in business or marketing? Did you join a small company and help to make it successful in your industry or do you want to? Does your industry have its ups and downs and do you need to weather them? If you answered yes to any of these, Gunfight could serve as a blueprint for how to make a small company larger and more profitable.
The author never loses his integrity that served him so well in the beginning. It is the world around him that changed causing him to leave the industry after three decades of building it.
Just look at the cover as it tells the whole story.
Then read the comments from those who read the book first - state governors, senators and representatives, professors and authors we are familiar with.
What Did I Like About It?
Written as a memoir, Gunfight is mesmerizing. and full of footnotes. The reader is riveted to the story, beginning in the very beginning - at a demonstration the author attends with his young sons. I also like chapter titles (not merely chapter numbers) and the fact they were fairly short (makes the book easy to put down and pick up again). The author lives in Kalispell, Montana, near where I grew up. And because I almost purchased an AR-15 before they were popular (and spent 24 years in the Army), this book really hit home with me. When one grows up in the West, one is a different kind of person, so I understood the author's viewpoint. And, to admit it, this reviewer is a life member of the NRA and a conservationist like author Ryan Busse.
What Did I Not Like About It?
I found the history and politics a bit detailed for me, who lived these decades but was paying attention to other things. I wish the author had explained more thoroughly so I wasn't quite so lost as to what happened when. Of course, I could have taken notes. . . .
Misfire
Also out now with a review in the Washington Post is Misfire: Inside the Downfall of the NRA, by Tim Mak.
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