This book is surprisingly thorough for its size. In each chapter, Dennis Henigan states one of the familiar pro-gun slogans and clearly elucidates its logical flaws. Granted, this can be quite simple. For example, he quotes Ozzy Osbourne in the first chapter as saying, "I keep hearing this [expletive] thing that guns don't kill people, but people kill people. If that is the case, why do we give people guns when they go to war? Why not just send the people?" The reader is to infer quite obviously that if a man like Osbourne, who has been known to make poor choices in his life, can see the logical fallacy in this argument, everyone else should. Henigan, however, does not stop there; he carefully addresses the results of accepting the pro-gun arguments, and explains how stricter gun laws and enforcement could benefit everyone including, or especially, responsible gun owners by making guns safer and stemming the flow of legally manufactured and purchased guns to the hands of criminals or unstable individuals.
Henigan's proposals and arguments appear to be designed to find common ground among gun owners and gun control supporters because he is not opposed to individuals owning guns. Further, in several places, Henigan discusses the fairly recent Heller decision and its implications. Even though he does not agree with the ruling, Henigan believes that the decision, which affirms an individual's right to own a gun and the right to regulate said right, should allay gun owners' fears that their guns will be banned and confiscated, and direct the debate to sensible laws and enforcement. The reader is left to infer, to twist a slogan, that if only well trained law abiding stable individuals had guns that did not fire when dropped, outlaws would be severely disadvantaged.
Henigan briefly touches on the faith some gun rights supporters have in their beliefs about guns. For example, in chapter 3, he quotes Warren Cassidy, the former NRA leader, saying, "You would get a far better understanding if you approached us as if you were approaching one of the great religions of the world." Further, Henigan also states in the prologue that he is, "not arguing that destroying the NRA MYTHOLOGY [emphasis added]," although necessary, is sufficient to overcome the political power of the NRA. As a person of faith, I am aware that many of things that I believe to be true, not just in a spiritual sense, e.g., love your enemies, turn the other cheek, etc., but in a historical sense as well, e.g., a virgin birth, a physical resurrection of an executed man, the God of universe becoming a baby, etc., seem foolish. In fact, Paul, one of the earliest leaders of my faith, even addressed the apparent foolishness of Christianity in his first letter to the Corinthians. I freely admit that no amount of logical explanation can persuade me to let go of these beliefs because I accept them on faith. Since one of the tenets of my faith is honesty, not to admit as much does a disservice to my beliefs.
Before I purchased this book, I read quite a few of the reviews on Amazon. It is woefully apparent that most of the negative comments were written by people who did not read the book or did not consider the arguments presented therein. As well written and thorough as Henigan's book is, I fear that nothing short of a religious type conversion or apostasy, depending on your viewpoint, will change hearts and minds on this topic.
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