BOOK REVIEW: Gun Stories by T.J. Mullin
One of life's greatest "simple pleasures" is re-living past experiences and events. It costs nothing, or almost nothing, to discuss the wonderful time you had on that memorable vacation, or to look through photos taken at some past happy event.
Those of us who like guns and shooting are more likely to have memorable things happen in the course of our activities than, say, people who enjoy knitting. This is a good thing, since for most people, shooting activities require more advance planning, effort, and finances than a knitting session, and will happen less frequently.
In his new book, Gun Stories, gun writer T.J. Mullin has compiled over 100 episodes of things that happened to people where guns were involved, at least peripherally.
Most of these stories are true. A few of them are imagined, like the one where past luminaries of the gun culture, such as Elmer Keith, Bill Jordan, Skeeter Skelton, Chauncey Thomas, and many others, are gathered in a sort of celestial Valhalla to discuss their favorite subject.
Some of the stories are uplifting, some will make you grin or feel warm and fuzzy, some will serve as a cautionary tale, and a few may horrify you. All of them are memorable, and I predict that you will devour these stories, one after the other, like a favorite gastronomic guilty pleasure.
One of the stories in the "cautionary tale" category is about me. A few years ago, a television news reporter wanted to do a piece about whether or not guns made today were more deadly than ones produced a century ago. He wanted to film a live demonstration at my range. Accordingly, I packed up a number of suitable weapons, several of them borrowed from Tim Mullin, and met the reporter and his cameraman at the shoot site.
I proceeded to demonstrate that a 9mm Glock, holding 17 rounds in its magazine, was merely the modern interpretation of a C96 Broomhandle Mauser with its 20 round detachable magazine. I proceeded to load both guns from the same box of ammunition, and demonstrated that both guns gave the same penetration in wood. They were firing the same ammo from almost identical length barrels, and anyone who tried to tell you that modern semiauto handguns like the Glock were somehow more fearsome than similar weapons of the same caliber produced over 100 years ago was either a fool, or lying to you to advance his anti-gun agenda.
I proceeded with similar demonstrations of modern versus historic weapons, showing the reporter and his audience that modern semiauto guns, like the modern flush toilet, had only cosmetic and manufacturing differences compared to examples made over a century earlier.
In any event, the reporter kept urging me to pull out more guns and demonstrate what I was talking about with as many examples as I could in the shortest possible period of time. He and his cameraman were on a tight schedule, and it had taken over an hour for them to get to the range. They wanted to air the footage that evening, and it would take another hour to get back to the studio before they could do the editing.
As a result, I violated my own rule of only having one gun loaded at a time, with all others having their magazines out and bolts or slides locked back with an empty chamber. When I returned the guns I had borrowed from Tim, one of the rifles had a round in the chamber. In my haste, I had removed the magazine and put the gun back in its case without first locking the bolt back and clearing the gun. Lesson learned.
Since then, when faced with a similar situation of a reporter wanting to get live-fire footage, I first explain in no uncertain terms that I will not be rushed into doing anything that could present a safety hazard, and I tell them this story.
Back to the book review. I found Gun Stories to be a very enjoyable and edifying read. If you are interested in getting a copy, you can order it from the publisher at www.accuratepress.net
As a final note, one of the stories in Tim's book was written by me. Send me a private message if you think you've figured out which one. And no, I'm not getting paid anything for it, I did it as a favor to the author...
