Book Review – Gunfight
Image: Gunfight by Len Lantz (CC BY-NC-ND)
Synopsis: Len's Star Rating: 8 out of 10. A book that is both a memoir and an exposé on the gun industry in America.
BY LEN LANTZ, MD / 1.26.2023; No. 104
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Star Rating – 8 out of 10
Rating guide: 1 = horrible, 5 = average and 10 = wow
Author
Ryan Busse
About the author
Ryan Busse is a former firearms sales vice president with a 25-year career at Kimber firearms. He is an environmental advocate and a consultant to organizations working to address radicalization in the gun industry and promote civil dialogue on gun ownership.
General description
Gunfight is a memoir and a book on the gun industry and gun culture in America. Over the last 3 decades, Ryan Busse has had a front-row seat to the societal polarization generated by the National Rifle Association (NRA) to grow political power and sell more guns. The author wrote his critical book from the position of an insider in the gun industry and someone who continues to value hunting and responsible gun ownership. Topics covered in this book include:
The problem of gun industry and NRA radicalization of gun owners and US citizens
The efforts of the gun industry to roll back and bypass laws and rules on firearms (bump stocks, trigger modifications, and high-capacity magazines) to increase non-sporting lethality
The gun industry’s Orwellian approaches to its members and the role that the author played in disciplining Smith & Wesson in 2000 during “The Smith & Wesson Sellout”
Unique and most important aspects
Ryan Busse’s epiphany and outspoken leadership on rational gun sales, ownership, and legislation position him as the Jerry Maguire of the gun industry. While Gunfight is mostly a memoir, the book offers disturbing glimpses of behind-the-scenes activities of the NRA and the gun industry as well as a history lesson showing episodes of increasing radicalization and division in America. While the author shares positive experiences in the gun industry and hunting, the book’s subtitle, My Battle Against the Industry That Radicalized America, refers to Ryan Busse’s recollections of looking on in horror while he was working within the gun industry.
I was initially interested in reading this book because guns are one of the most lethal methods used in suicides in the US, therefore, safe storage of firearms and decreasing access to firearms for individuals who are suicidal is known to save lives. Ryan Busse does not fully address the connection between gun access and suicides in Gunfight, but he does go into detail on his concern that assault rifles and other modifications to guns that essentially increase their lethality in gun massacres must be addressed. Important ideas from this book:
Gun sales typically increase following the election of Democratic Presidents (due to fear of gun restrictions) and decrease under Republican Presidents
Gun sales increase following large gun massacres (Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Las Vegas, Uvalde) due to fear of gun restrictions
The AR-15-style assault rifle (the AR stands for Colt’s ArmaLite rifle) has seen a dramatic increase in sales and the gun industry has attempted to change the name several times to destigmatize, normalize, and rebrand the weapon with a variety of names:
“Black rifle”
“Modern sporting rifle” (MSR)
“America’s rifle”
Best quotes
“In 1995 I was a young man, and I rushed into the industry, believing that it embodied wholesome parts of a country that valued and relied on guns but did so responsibly. Those were still the days of magazine covers featuring the warmth of father-son hunting trips. For years, my early assumptions seemed correct, but by 2000, things were changing, and the industry was being molded into a powerful political machine. By 2004, I came to terms with the disastrous potential of that machine, and I spent the remaining sixteen years of my career fighting it.”
“Millions like me know that the future of firearms ownership depends on responsibility, decency, and reason for the simple reason that the future of the democracy that grants us the right of gun ownership depends on the same things.”
“After Hammer unscrewed the lid on the racial undertones, a speech by the NRA’s chief lobbyist poured the contents on the floor, drawing a line in the sand between ‘them’ and ‘us.’”
“In hundreds of subsequent news stories about the relationship between the gun industry and the NRA, there were many inferences to the fact that the NRA did the industry’s bidding. The stories might say things like ‘The NRA is just an arm of the gun industry.’ In truth it is the opposite. The gun industry is an arm of the NRA, and the events of 2000 prove this to be true. Crushing Shultz and Smith & Wesson reminded all companies that the NRA ran the show.”
“The NSSF [National Shooting Sports Foundation] bought ads and even updated its website to proclaim that ‘AR-15-style rifles are NOT “assault weapons” or “assault rifles.” If someone calls an AR-15-style rifle an “assault weapon,” then they’ve been duped by an agenda.’”
“At 9:00 sharp the dam at the entrance broke, and NRA members flooded the show floor… Ribbons adorned their name tags, making it clear they had donated huge sums of money to the NRA. This was their place to tithe.”
“We must confront any person or group that uses firearms as tools of intimidation. We should enact laws that prohibit open carry and any related intimidation. These things should not be tolerated, normalized, or ignored. Our country is based upon civil dialogue, honest debate, and majority rule. There is no civility when one party is standing over the other with a loaded gun. Let’s agree to castigate the armed men who make these threats. Responsible gun owners must speak up. We should lead this charge.”
“Commit yourself to making positive change. We must all be part of a new group of people who rise up and release our country from the grip of this un-American Carnage. It is time that we commit to changing our country for the better.”
Who would enjoy this book?
Readers interested in an inside look at the gun industry and possible causes of paranoia and intimidation in gun rights groups in America are likely to enjoy Gunfight.
Who would not enjoy this book?
Readers who would be bothered by a call to reduce or roll back some of the more extreme, current gun rights in the US are unlikely to enjoy Gunfight.
Conclusion
Gunfight is a book that is both a memoir and an exposé on the gun industry in America.