THE ETERNAL CULTURE WAR

Guns, Crime, and Freedom
by Wayne LaPierre
Regnery Publishing, Inc., 263 pages
Available for purchase from Amazon here

   Reviewed by William Cavanaugh

"Arguments, whether political or philosophical, are like ammunition – you should stock up on them before the trouble starts." That is what I told a friend of mine when he expressed surprise at my idea of writing a review for a book now almost two decades old. The friend in question is rarely impressed with my little aphorisms, so I spelled it out in more concrete terms.

Wayne LaPierre wrote Guns, Crime, and Freedom in 1994 when the country was quite divided on countless issues: immigration, gun control, gays, a new era of foreign policy, and a Democratic president who had come out of nowhere. Sound familiar? I always find it strange when people talk about the "Culture War that was" – when did it end? Maybe for a chunk of time after 9/11, but since at least the 2004 election all the old debates have been raging and are far from stopping. If they were not, Richard Spencer would not still be talking about Peter Brimelow's 1995 book Alien Nation, and Obama would not be interested in keeping the Clintons so close to his administration.

So when the new year rang in another round of debate on gun control, it seemed logical to refer back to the works of those who were not only fighting in the trenches this calendar year, but twenty years ago too. Given that Wayne LaPierre received a particularly intense battering last winter, I figured he must be good. Though last April the Republican House did (against all odds) manage to stop Obama's opportunistic attempt at gun grabbing – rest assured that the Democrats will try it again sooner or later. When that moment comes we should be well prepared to fight back. Since after all: arguments, whether political or philosophical, are like ammunition – you should stock up on them before the trouble starts.

Overall, the book serves as a good how-to-guide on arguing against gun control, with each chapter covering a different facet of it – from Constitutional arguments to an analysis of failed "cash for guns" programs. This format makes the book a little scatter-brained, but also lets you easily digest the multitude of "subtopics" within the rather broad topic of "gun control."

While the prose can get a little dry, there are some brilliantly articulated points that more than make up for it. One of my favorites comes right at the beginning of chapter seven:

"Using the logic of gun prohibitionists, shouldn't lawmakers consider banning the following motor vehicles?

BLACK BMWs (assault cars) are the vehicles of choice of drug dealers with their menacing looks and dark-tinted windows that hinder law enforcement visual searches.

SPORTS CARS (machine racers) with speedometers that register 100 or more mph are designed to exceed the speed limit – nobody needs to go that fast except to 'out-car' police."

The list goes on and gets even more amusing. Not all of the great passages in the book are funny though – some are just plain insightful. He notes an argument I hear over and over again "that the Second Amendment is obsolete since a populace armed with only small arms cannot defeat a modern army" and responds with a long list of twentieth century conflicts in which guerrillas using small arms defeated not only modern armies but super powers.

Another strength of the book comes from the stories told of how gun control affected specific people at specific times. Sometimes these tales are tragic, like in the case of Rayna Ross, a Good Samaritan who used a weapon in self-defense but was legally attacked anyway because of idiotic gun control laws. Other times you feel inspired by the heroism of some gun-wielding citizens in the face of extreme danger, like Sonya Dowdy.

A weakness the book has that will likely disappoint AltRight readers is the general lack of race-realism. LaPierre for the most part eschews the topic, but also makes it clear that he is likely a mainstream "fellow-traveler" of this and similar websites. For example, at one point he attacks the old Democrat trick of comparing the murder rates in Vancouver to Seattle by frankly noting that, "the homicide rates among non-Hispanic whites in Seattle and Vancouver were almost identical... blacks and Hispanics could not be meaningfully compared because so few live in Vancouver."

He also favorably quotes both the late Sam Francis and Paul Craig Roberts on multiple occasions. Most impressive though, is his open sympathy with a family of White Separatists who were targeted by the Feds for apparently having sold two shotguns that were lacking in length.

The book only dates itself a few times, namely in its focus on the Brady Bill and the disaster at Waco – but revisiting those two matters is far from a bad thing. One of the pleasures derived from the book's vintage comes from playing the "where are they now" game. LaPierre briefly attacks then-senators Hilary Clinton and Joe Biden who would both (especially Biden) go on to become architects of Obama's failed Second Amendment burning. A brief attack is also lobbed at then-congressman Mel Reynolds – who would soon be standing in front of a judge, and is probably the most morally repugnant man ever elected by Black Run America.

All in all, Wayne LaPierre's book deserves a status similar to the one held by most Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin books – a text from the mainstream that we right-wing outsiders can and should openly enjoy. Sooner or later, our enemies will once again try to take each and every one of our guns – and we should be prepared to argue – not just shoot back. The icing on the cake? You can find a copy dirt-cheap on Amazon.