Year: 2009

Good news for those looking to snag a copy of Aiming for Liberty – it’s back in full stock at Amazon.

But, as I was looking (and laughing) at the “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” section. It made me think that Amazon should have an “Authors Recommend More Reading” section. That would be interesting to see what authors who write great books suggest for further reading on a topic. Then I remembered, “Wait! Hottie Dave has given us just such a guide in a previous NRA mag!”

Here are the links for those who wonder:

1. Armed America: The Remarkable Story of How and Why Guns Became as American as Apple Pie by Clayton Cramer – Come on, support another blogger! Actually, there’s news on this front. I didn’t realize that the paperback just came out in August. So now you can save some money and still grab a great read.
2. Supreme Court Gun Cases by Kopel, Stephen Halbrook, and Alan Korwin – Unfortunately, this one seems to be out of print, or at least Amazon isn’t carrying it much anymore. However, a related topic book that might be of interest is Brian Doherty’s Gun Control on Trial: Inside the Supreme Court Battle Over the Second Amendment.
3. Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality In World War II by Halbrook – From Kopel: “Halbrook’s book shows not only how the Swiss militia system deterred the recurrent threat of Nazi invasion, but also how the militia system created, in the long run, a culture of civic responsibility devoted to the preservation of liberty. It was Switzerland’s militia-centric culture of republican virtue that was the key reason why liberty survived in Switzerland, even as it was extinguished almost everywhere else in continental Europe.”
4. Origins and Development of the Second Amendment: A Sourcebook by the infamous David Hardy – Since the book is out of print, you might consider “In Search of the Second Amendment” instead.
5. Gun Control and the Constitution: Sources and Explorations on the Second Amendment edited by Robert Cottrol – Prof. Cottrol is at the top of my list of absolutely fascinating people. I don’t event need to actually hold a conversation with him, just listening to him always keeps my attention regardless of the subject. Alas, the book is only available directly from Amazon in the library binding which is $150.
6. The Origin of the Second Amendment: A Documentary History of the Bill of Rights in Commentaries on Liberty, Free Government & an Armed Populace edited by David Young – Again, support yet another blogger! This has been cited in important cases, including several times in Heller. Again, not widely available, but some order information does appear on this page. One of the more entertaining sights I’ve seen though is David carrying his copy of the book with important arguments marked with multiple colors of post-its.
7. Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control by Gary Kleck – Kleck’s research is a staple of many pro-gun arguments. Yet how many people have actually read him? Heh, thought so.
8. To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right by Joyce Lee Malcolm – Another recommended read to supplement Malcolm’s book is her sequel, Guns and Violence: The English Experience.
9. Death by “Gun Control”: The Human Cost of Victim Disarmament by Aaron Zelman – I don’t know much about it, so I’ll just quote Kopel: “The book examines the 20th century genocides in Turkey, the Soviet Union, China, Guatemala, Cambodia, Uganda and Rwanda, and details how each of them was preceded and facilitated by gun control programs to disarm the victims.”
10. The Global War on Your Guns: Inside the U.N. Plan To Destroy the Bill of Rights by Wayne LaPierre – Since you can order directly from NRA and support the fight in your purchase.  Two birds, one stone, yay!

Other suggestions Kopel includes: For the Defense of Themselves and the State: The Original Intent and Judicial Interpretation of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms by Cramer, Gun Laws of America by Korwin, Swiss and the Nazis: How the Alpine Republic Survived in the Shadow of the Third Reich and That Every Man Be Armed by Halbrook, The Second Amendment Primer: A Citizens Guidebook to the History, Sources, and Authorities for the Constitutional Guarantee of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms by Les Adams, Michael Moore Is a Big Fat Stupid White Man by Hardy, and Armed: New Perspectives on Gun Control by Kleck and Don Kates.

And finally, if you’re literally looking for a very Gunny Christmas, R. Lee Ermery’s site actually has Gunny dolls.

I promise, this wasn’t just an excuse to do an Amazon link dump.  I really did wonder about what authors would recommend to their readers other than other books they have written.  I assume if I was curious about such things that others would be, too.  Since I remembered Kopel’s article from a couple of years ago, but didn’t have a solid link list, I figured now was a good time to create one.  Finally, I have been busy making Christmas ornaments and reading of some chick lit, so I haven’t been doing much as much blog reading.  (Oh yeah, and I may have recently been perusing related titles in my search for Christmas gifts for both a gun nut and a history buff [the gun nut’s dad].)