MicroBalrog
member
The Great American Gun Debate:
Voices from the trenches
With thanks to
Oleg Volk, founder of www.thehighroad.org , maker of www.a-human-right.com
and Connie Rucker at the Brady Campaign.
Introduction
I will start this by saying that I am by no means unbiased in my opinions on gun control: quite simply, I’m very biased. I don’t believe in gun control at all, whatsoever. No gun bans, no registration, no confiscation. However, there’s two things I would like to note: First of all, unbiased doesn’t mean dishonest. Nobody is totally unbiased, however I will do my best, throughout this book, to provide honest information to my reader, to tell “the truth and nothing but the truthâ€. Second, my book is not about gun control. I’m not writing about how registering (and confiscating) AR-15 rifles will increase/decrease crime. That is not, and I repeat not the subject of this book.
What is it, then? This book is about people. About the people who staff Brady Campaign offices and NRA headquarters. What makes them do it? How do they choose sides? Who are they? These are the questions I seek to answer. I believe that the answers will have no real bearing on the gun debate itself: a cause is not really affected by who supports it (example: Hitler supported welfare programs. Does that mean that welfare programs are bad?). However, it is interesting. I believe that the understanding of “who is who†in the Gun Wars will help researchers long after the Gun Wars are over. I will also point out, that despite the way I’m biased on gun control, I have no preconceptions or bias about who the people in the trenches are. We’ll simply have to find out, won’t we?
In the writing of this book, I have utilized portions of my e-mail and Web exchanges with activists as diverse as Tom Mauser and Angel Shamaya, Connie Rucker and Oleg Volk. I have interviewed members of JPFO, the Brady Campaign, and the American Liberty foundation. Up to this date, the only group to entirely shun communications with me has been the National Rifle Association.
Voices from the trenches
With thanks to
Oleg Volk, founder of www.thehighroad.org , maker of www.a-human-right.com
and Connie Rucker at the Brady Campaign.
Introduction
I will start this by saying that I am by no means unbiased in my opinions on gun control: quite simply, I’m very biased. I don’t believe in gun control at all, whatsoever. No gun bans, no registration, no confiscation. However, there’s two things I would like to note: First of all, unbiased doesn’t mean dishonest. Nobody is totally unbiased, however I will do my best, throughout this book, to provide honest information to my reader, to tell “the truth and nothing but the truthâ€. Second, my book is not about gun control. I’m not writing about how registering (and confiscating) AR-15 rifles will increase/decrease crime. That is not, and I repeat not the subject of this book.
What is it, then? This book is about people. About the people who staff Brady Campaign offices and NRA headquarters. What makes them do it? How do they choose sides? Who are they? These are the questions I seek to answer. I believe that the answers will have no real bearing on the gun debate itself: a cause is not really affected by who supports it (example: Hitler supported welfare programs. Does that mean that welfare programs are bad?). However, it is interesting. I believe that the understanding of “who is who†in the Gun Wars will help researchers long after the Gun Wars are over. I will also point out, that despite the way I’m biased on gun control, I have no preconceptions or bias about who the people in the trenches are. We’ll simply have to find out, won’t we?
In the writing of this book, I have utilized portions of my e-mail and Web exchanges with activists as diverse as Tom Mauser and Angel Shamaya, Connie Rucker and Oleg Volk. I have interviewed members of JPFO, the Brady Campaign, and the American Liberty foundation. Up to this date, the only group to entirely shun communications with me has been the National Rifle Association.
