Unintended Consequences

Uncategorized

John Ross, RIP

May 4, 2022 by

John Ross, author of Unintended Consequences, passed away of a heart attack on April 29th. I know the news has started to spread amongst the gun culture given the status of his book as a classic.

I bought a hardback copy a number of years ago. Fortunately, I’ve never lent it out as I understand lent copies sometimes fail to be returned and the hardback has become unobtainable unless you are willing to pay an extravagant amount. Softcover copies are reported to be available here.

I’m guessing I’ve read the book at least three times. Beyond the history of the gun culture and the later adventures of Henry Bowman in his war against the ATF, what I loved about the book was the setting in Saint Louis. As I’ve mentioned many times, I have relatives in the area including my older daughter. When Ross wrote about Barnes Hospital, I could relate as my daughter works for its successor as did my brother-in-law and son-in-law. When the Bowmans drove Hwy 40 through Saint Louis, I could picture it.

One thing I do regret is that Donald Trump didn’t take John on the offer to be Director of BATFE and take a $1 per year salary. That would have been fantastic. I can only imagine just how he would have screwed with the Deep State.

I came across his obituary today. It is from a Saint Louis funeral home which is where his memorial service will be held on Friday.

From Lupton Chapel, Inc.:

John Franklin Ross

April 29, 2022

Passed away unexpectedly on Friday, April 29th of natural causes, at his home in Richmond Heights. Mr. Ross is survived by his daughter Lucy Margaret Ross, of Boulder, Colorado, and his two sisters Helen Ross and Lucy Natkiel. John is the son of Walter Ross and Lucianna Gladney Ross, deceased, both of St. Louis, as well as the grandson of Frank Y. Gladney, a prominent attorney and businessman in St. Louis.

John graduated from John Burroughs High School in Ladue in 1974 and from Amherst College in 1979 with a B.A. in English, which he put to great use later in his career as a writer.

He was employed by E.F. Hutton for almost a decade as a broker, and later as an executive in the Clayton regional office. He later left the financial industry to concentrate on being a full-time writer. 

John was a world-class expert and instructor on shooting, firearms, and ammunition. Having been introduced to gun culture at a young age by his uncle Graves Gladney, also of St. Louis, John became a nationally recognized prodigy in shooting and designing firearms and ammunition by the time he graduated from high school. 

It was a lifelong passion for John, who as an adult became a world-renowned and highly respected expert in many different areas of the global firearms and ammunition industries. His dedication to gun culture and to the history of firearms in America led to his ongoing work as one of the tireless pro-Second Amendment lobbying activists in Jefferson City over a period of more than ten years. His work there was largely responsible for the State of Missouri’s ultimate reversal of its existing legislation and its subsequent adoption of the constitutional carry statute, and relaxed purchasing regulations for Missouri citizens.

Before that, in 1995, John published his first and best-known novel Unintended Consequences, which has sold over 100,000 copies as of 2022. The book is—within the worldwide sociological sub-group known informally as “the Gun Culture”—one of the most popular and influential books in the long history of that demographic, and the book has been published in several languages and sold in over 100 countries. 

John was working tirelessly on a sequel to Unintended Consequences when he passed, and the publishers have already committed to examining the unfinished work and doing everything they can to get it published within a year. 

John had an appetite for life and pursued his dreams and interests with intense abandon. Whether you found him barreling down the slopes of Aspen, Colorado; in the cockpit of his Pitts Model 12 biplane; setting up his famous over-the-top July 4th firework display; or regaling friends with an eccentric joke at any of his local Soulard haunts, John’s generosity of spirit allowed him to forge deep friendships over the decades of pursuing his passions. He loved sharing what he loved with the people that he loved.

The Memorial Service will be held at THE LUPTON CHAPEL, 7233 Delmar Blvd., University City, MO 63130 on Friday, May 6, 2022 at 3:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers the family ask that donations be made to either FreedomPrincipleSTL.org (an activist non-profit that works to defend, through events, lobbying and suggested legislation, the political principles John fought so hard for in Missouri all of his life) or ChallengeAspen.org (a non-profit based in Aspen that provides year-round adaptive outdoor experiences, such as skiing or snowboarding, for individuals faced with physical or cognitive disabilities).

I really do hope his unfinished manuscript that is the sequel to Unintended Consequences can be made into a book. According to Michael Bane, it was to be entitled Cold Resolve. I know I’d buy it as soon as it was published.

Uncategorized

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.

Uncategorized

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.

Uncategorized

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.