Unintended Consequences

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Quote On The Gun Culture

August 22, 2018 by 2 Comments

I just finished re-reading John Ross’ Unintended Consequences for the third or fourth time. I came across this quote about the gun culture that really hit home.

We have a specific culture. Guns and shooting are very important to us, just like living
as nomads and hunting buffalo was important to the Indians. We are willing to work hard and have the
government confiscate half our money and use it for things we never get any benefit out of, if only we can
continue to buy our guns and our ammo and our components, and shoot a lot.


“Our culture is important, and we’re willing to pay for it. We have above -average educations, above –
average incomes, and almost nonexistent criminal involvement. We pay far more in taxes and receive
virtually no subsidy payments. You’d think Washington would be happy, but instead they are doing
everything they can to destroy our culture.

“Thomas Fleming” – attorney friend of “Henry Bowman”, p. 480

The soliloquy goes on but this is the meat of it. The only amendment that I’d make to his statement is to expand it to include more than just Washington and the Federal government. I’d add in the anti-civil rights billionaires like Bloomberg, Allen, and Gates who are protected by armed guards, the organizations they support with their wealth, and all the state and local politicians that have bought into their scheme to keep honest, hard-working citizens disarmed.

Copies of Unintended Consequences are very expensive on Amazon. While there are unauthorized PDFs of the book to be found on the Internet, I suggest contacting the publisher Accurate Press to see if they still have the paperback version available.

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Shades Of Henry Bowman

October 13, 2017 by 9 Comments

If you have read the novel Unintended Consequences by John Ross, you are familiar with his protagonist Henry Bowman. The book is something of a cult classic in the gun culture. Indeed, the very term gun culture has many of its origins in this book. I believe you can still obtain copies from the Accurate Press.

One of the firearms that Henry and his father bought before the onset of the Gun Control Act of 1968 was a 20mm Solothurn S18-1000. While it is now considered a destructive device, back then you could get it through the mail. Imagine that!

Ian from Forgotten Weapons recently had the change to fire one of these anti-tank rifles at the James Julia auction house in Maine. I’ll let him continue the story of the Solothurn.

If anyone knows what has become of John Ross, I’d love to know. His old website is long gone. I do know that he left the securities industry in the late 2000s.

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Life Imitating Art

July 5, 2015 by 3 Comments

I am in the process of rereading that classic of the gun culture, John Ross’ Unintended Consequences. I stumbled across this passage on page 155. It is part of the discussion that Henry Bowman, his father Walter, and the owner of Goodman’s for Guns, Al Goodman, are having concerning the requirement to get a pistol purchase permit in 1963 Missouri.

“What Mr. Goodman was telling us is that before I can buy this revolver for you, I have to go get two business owners to sign letters recommending me. Then I take them down to the sheriff and hope he says okay. Mr. Goodman says there won’t be any problem, and he’s probably right, but the whole point is that the sheriff can do whatever he wants. Just like the story about voting. Henry, we still have laws written so that the police can deny negroes, or anyone else, their ability to protect themselves, and arrest them if they carry personal protection. Or arrest me, for that matter. It depends on if they like you or not.”

After a bit of discussion about the black lady that helps Henry’s mother with housekeeping and about why handguns are good for self-defense, his father continues:

Now Walter broke in. “That’s why bigoted people passed laws about voting and guns, Henry. These bigots don’t want negroes being able to protect themselves. They didn’t want them voting for legislators that had their interests in mind, and they didn’t want them having guns in their pockets when the lynch mob was coming.” He thought a moment. “The law Al just described also gives police an excuse to stop negroes on the street and check them for guns. Actually, it gives them the excuse to do that to anyone, but they don’t do it to white, as a rule.” Yet Walter Bowman added silently to himself.

These passages made me reflect back to the debate on North Carolina’s HB 562, the pistol purchase permit system, and how only a neutered bill made it out of the House. Even though we in North Carolina will not be required to get two character references from upstanding citizens, we still have the pistol purchase permit system which was used exactly as Walter Bowman describes to prevent blacks, union organizers, and others from getting the means to protect themselves.

Today’s North Carolina sheriffs will have a harder time denying purchase permits but they will still be able to do it as the good character requirement remains. That it was the Republicans who kow-towed to the NC Sheriffs’ Association on permit system makes it even worse as the system was set up by white supremacist Democrats. They should have known better but law and order Republicans wilt like a cut flower on a hot day when police or sheriffs say boo.