A radical approach to strengthening self-defense and quelling gun violence
Where I come from on guns
I grew up in Texas in the 1950s. I owned guns—BB guns, pellet rifles, a .22 rifle, a shotgun, a .38 revolver—and hunted for many years. I enjoy shooting guns, I’m a good shot, and it’s fun. Like most men of that time, I’ve never questioned my right to have any gun I wanted. I bought that .38 revolver by mail order when I was sixteen (my parents never knew about it).
The inciting incident
In 1996, angry and sickened by a shooting in a California elementary school that killed five children, I searched for ways to do something about gun violence.
That led to an understanding that the solution lies in the cause—money. Specifically, gun money. As long as it is profitable for gun manufacturers to make and sell guns, nothing will change.
As long as politicians embrace gun money to keep hands off of guns, nothing will change.
As long as gun owners believe they need guns to defend themselves, nothing will change.
But what if gun makers could make MORE money by stepping away from lethal firearms (except for legitimate hunting) and making nonlethal defensive weapons that anyone could own and use for self-defense?
Wouldn’t the gun lobby then be in favor of getting rid of lethal firearms to create a market for people to buy those nonlethal guns?
If the gun lobby switched their money to supporting nonlethal weapons for defense, wouldn’t politicians follow suit?
And if ordinary people were encouraged to defend themselves with nonlethal weapons, wouldn’t all but gun “rights” diehards welcome that?
Rather than just tell my ideas, I wrote a speculative novel, Gundown, a novel of ideas that tries out such a solution to see how it might work, how it might impact lives. I’m giving the novel away to stimulate thinking. I may not have the right idea, or the best idea, but it might help someone else to come up with a workable approach.
Sharing the ideas
I’ve given away more than 600 copies in free downloads of ebooks from this web page: www.gundownload.com. I invite you to read it for free.
Somebody, somewhere, needs to step up and starting changing the gun dynamic in American society. To give gun owners a reason to change their ways by enabling self-defense without lethal violence. Gundown is a thought-starter.
The novel is a thriller and a good read---think of it as a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down, as Mary Poppins would say. I worked hard to stay away from preaching. You be the judge.
Gundown at www.gundownload.com. No charge for food for thought.
A paperback version is available from Amazon, it’s priced at my cost if you click on a $9.99 option; oddly, they offer it at a higher price and I don’t know why. A Kindle Unlimited version is there for free. Reviews will be appreciated.
All best.
