March 02, 2009

Neither Preditor Nor Prey
By Mark Spungin

In a time of great economic downturn, the US Senate, in thrall to an evil leftist president, ratifies the UN Global Gun Ban Treaty. Congress passes implementing legislation and an aggressive enforcement effort is launched. There are those in Wyoming who decide not to comply with the new laws. The old ways suit them just fine, and they are willing to take whatever measures are necessary to preserve their traditional lifestyle. They have no intention of letting themselves become prey to the predatory treaty enforcers. This is their story. (From the website)

How long can you - should you - turn the other cheek? How many insane "laws" and outright violations of basic human rights, theft of property and the indignity of involuntary servitude are people to endure?

The people in this story discover that the UN "treaty" to ban all guns is the "line in the sand" they had been talking about for a very long time. The day of reckoning comes, and at least some of the people in Wyoming decide that they will not endure the confiscation of their rightful tools for self defense, even if it means a guerrilla war with the Federal government and the almost universally distrusted FBI and BATFE.

This is a story about terrible things, horrible violence and needless death on all sides. It is the story of a terrible necessity, forced on innocent people who decide it is better to risk death and destruction rather than kiss the hands of those who would enslave them.

I had a hard time with a lot of the "action," in the second half especially. Much seemed to be aggression by the "good guys."

Once I really gave it some thought, the fact that mistakes were made and people in the story were ordinary human beings - warts and all - made the whole thing so much more realistic. All of it gave me much to think about and may even have influenced some of the things I will add to my self defense training.

We can and should strive for perfect charity, integrity and non-aggression. We ARE, however, fallible human beings and we WILL make mistakes, allow our emotions to overwhelm our common sense sometimes, and we will lose sight of at least some of our cherished idealism if pushed hard enough.

What I had to accept is that, given a similar situation in real life, nobody may be able to live up to their ideals 100%. The actors in this drama are very realistic, with the full range of human faults and virtues.

Maybe if we think about the consequences - spiritual, physical and emotional - of such actions enough, we may work a little harder to find a way not to have to shoot the bastards...

[To order this book, go to Mark's website.]

Welcome to our newest feature. We've had book reviews before, but they are scattered a bit and not easily found. As time goes by, I'll gather them and link them here on this page. All future book reviews will be found here.

I am happy to review YOUR book, or one you might suggest. If you can arrange for a review copy to be sent to me, it will help a great deal. As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome.

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