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Required Reading

J

JB

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I was hoping you guys could suggest some "required" reading for me. It doesn't have to be gun related, it could be political or anything else you would suggest. I'll start with a short list of books I'd recommend, in no particular order:


  1. God, Guns, and Rock and Roll-Ted Nugent


  2. In the Gravest Extreme-Masaad Ayoob


  3. More Guns, Less Crime- John Lott


  4. The Concealed Handgun Manual- Chris Bird


  5. One Ranger- Joaquin Jackson


  6. The Millionaire Mind-Stanley&Danko


  7. The Global War on Your Guns- Wayne Lapierre


  8. Godless-Ann Coulter


  9. Slander-Ann Coulter


  10. How to Talk to a Liberal if You Must- Ann Coulter
I hope I don't catch too much flack for the Ann Coulter books.

 
L

longwatch

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The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein

Unintended Consequences by John Ross

Combat Handgunnery 5th ed. by Mas Ayoob

Bostons Gun Bible and You and the Police by Boston T. Party

The Art of the Rifle by Col. Jeff Cooper

The Ultimate Sniper by Maj. John Plaster

Pallas and The Probability Broach by L. Niel Smith

1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell

The Discourses of Titus Levy by Nicolo Machiavelli http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php?title=1866

The Constitution

The manual for every firearm you own.
 
D

Doug Huffman

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Great topic!

I would add all of Robert Anson Heinlien's works, in chronological order to appreciate him as his ideas matured. Especially Farnham's Freehold and Beyond These Horizons, this latter the source of 'An armed society is a polite society."

Shooting Back: The Right and Duty of Self-defense by Chryl van Wyk. Makes a fine union of shooting and the church.
 
VAopencarry

VAopencarry

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Awakening the Buddha Within - Lama Surya Das

Frederick Douglas autobioghraphies

Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer

Drop Us A Line......Sucker - James and Stuart Wade

The Constitution
 
S

sv_libertarian

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Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Machiavelli's The Prince

Second on all of Heinlein's works.

Louis L'Amour's The Walking Drum

How to Sell Anything to Anybody by Joe Girard

Freehold by Michael Z. Williamson

Almost anything by John Locke
 
T

Tomahawk

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John Locke: 2nd Treatise on Government

Thomas Paine: Common Sense

Thomas Jefferson and Co.: Declaration of Independence *

*(find the book with his writings in it; Jefferson kept a copy of the originial draft before Congress edited it and adopted it. It's instructional to compare the two versions!)

R. A. Heinlein: Moon is a Harsh Mistress, among others

Joseph Plum Martin: Private Yankee Doodle

And of course, the Three Great Dystopian Novels:

Yevgeny Zemyatin: We

Aldus Huxley: Brave New World

George Orwell: 1984 (also check out Animal Farm)
 
J

JB

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I hope this isn't a stupid quiestion, but where would one go to get the federalist papers. I see they are referred to alot with respect to the true intentions of the framers, versus what their words have been twisted into. Would Barnes and Noble have a copy?
 
L

longwatch

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Yes they should have it, and while you are at it get the Anti-Federalist papers too.
 
E

expvideo

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sv_libertarian wrote:
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Click to expand...

Funny, I thought Civil Disobedience would have made this thread before Walden. Personally I think that Thoreau was too arrogant and self-praising. I think he liked to over glorify his accomplishments, and act as if he had done something much more incredible than he actually had. He had an overly-inflated super-ego, and he was insulting to people that didn't share his point of view. But that's just my opinion. Personally, I think Emerson was a much greater writer and Thoreau didn't really deserve his fame-by-proximity.

Just my opinion.
 
HankT

HankT

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On Liberty, J. S.Mill

Almost all of the 2A issues and conflicts we talk about here are informed upon by this classic about the persistent and difficult struggle between majority rule and minority rights.

Incisiveand intelligent strategyto protect 2A rights canbe developed from the principles and thoughts contained therein about the dynamics that affect (and can effect) minority liberty.
 
J

JB

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Thanks for the link Doug. I was hoping to get a list of 2 or 3 books to read, it looks like I got more than I bargained for.
 
I

IdahoCorsair

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The Bible - sets the groundwork for the rest - the nature of man and God, and common pitfalls all societies see

The Declaration of Independence - tells us why we fought for liberty

The Constitution - tells you what your government is and is not allowed to do

The Federalist Papers (since the Constitution was passed, this defends the reason behind why they thought it was necessary - the Anti-Federalist papers are useful in as much as they tell us why people thought the Constitution was a bad idea)

Most works by John Locke, and Blackstone - they help you understand the ideas behind the Founders' ideas

Major Supreme Court Cases of gun and non-gun variety throughout our history... read BOTH the dissenting and majority opinions... you'll learn much of why we are at where we are at today.

"On Combat" first, then "On Killing", by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman - to help you mentally/physcologically prepare yourself for a violent encounter.

Keep up on current events, and study a bit of world history, and lots of US history, to give you the "broad picture" so you don't over-react.

Soli Deo Gloria!
 
S

sv_libertarian

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expvideo wrote:
Funny, I thought Civil Disobedience would have made this thread before Walden. Personally I think that Thoreau was too arrogant and self-praising. I think he liked to over glorify his accomplishments, and act as if he had done something much more incredible than he actually had. He had an overly-inflated super-ego, and he was insulting to people that didn't share his point of view. But that's just my opinion. Personally, I think Emerson was a much greater writer and Thoreau didn't really deserve his fame-by-proximity.

Just my opinion.
Click to expand...
Wasn't thinking ahead when I wrote that, my copy has Walden, Civil Disobedience, Slavery in Massachussets ( a great essay) and some others. It is pretty easy to get Walden and Civil Disobedience in the same volume.

Personally as a salesman I do not mind and even understand the super ego, sometimes you need it to survive. I agree Emerson was a greater writer, but for some reason I find Thoreau more readable. Perhaps it is his arrogance.

I have always thought the OC crowd is pretty diverse and I think this conversation shows that. How many anit gunners think that gun owners, especially such open and vocal gun owners as we are would sit down and debate the merits of Emerson v Thoreau?

Of course I like Whitman and Service too.

Steve

I'm Scared of it All
Robert W. Service

I'm scared of it all, God's truth! so I am...

I'm scared of it all, God's truth! so I am;
It's too big and brutal for me.
My nerve's on the raw and I don't give a damn
For all the "hoorah" that I see.
I'm pinned between subway and overhead train,
Where automobillies swoop down:
Oh, I want to go back to the timber again --
I'm scared of the terrible town.
I want to go back to my lean, ashen plains;
My rivers that flash into foam;
My ultimate valleys where solitude reigns;
My trail from Fort Churchill to Nome.
My forests packed full of mysterious gloom,
My ice-fields agrind and aglare:
The city is deadfalled with danger and doom --
I know that I'm safer up there.
I watch the wan faces that flash in the street;
All kinds and all classes I see.
Yet never a one in the million I meet,
Has the smile of a comrade for me.
Just jaded and panting like dogs in a pack;
Just tensed and intent on the goal:
O God! but I'm lonesome -- I wish I was back,
Up there in the land of the Pole.
I wish I was back on the Hunger Plateaus,
And seeking the lost caribou;
I wish I was up where the Coppermine flows
To the kick of my little canoe.
I'd like to be far on some weariful shore,
In the Land of the Blizzard and Bear;
Oh, I wish I was snug in the Arctic once more,
For I know I am safer up there!
I prowl in the canyons of dismal unrest;
I cringe -- I'm so weak and so small.
I can't get my bearings, I'm crushed and oppressed
With the haste and the waste of it all.
The slaves and the madman, the lust and the sweat,
The fear in the faces I see;
The getting, the spending, the fever, the fret --
It's too bleeding cruel for me.
I feel it's all wrong, but I can't tell you why --
The palace, the hovel next door;
The insolent towers that sprawl to the sky,
The crush and the rush and the roar.
I'm trapped like a fox and I fear for my pelt;
I cower in the crash and the glare;
Oh, I want to be back in the avalanche belt,
For I know that it's safer up there!
I'm scared of it all: Oh, afar I can hear
The voice of my solitudes call!
We're nothing but brute with a little veneer,
And nature is best after all.
There's tumult and terror abroad in the street;
There's menace and doom in the air;
I've got to get back to my thousand-mile beat;
The trail where the cougar and silver-tip meet;
The snows and the camp-fire, with wolves at my feet;
Good-bye, for it's safer up there.
To be forming good habits up there;
To be starving on rabbits up there;
In your hunger and woe,
Though it's sixty below,
Oh, I know that it's safer up there!
 
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