[Review] "Unintended Consequences" by John Ross

Unintended Consequences
by John Ross
Hardcover: 863 pages
Publisher: Accurate Press; ; (January 1996)
ISBN: 1888118040

While not about survival per se, this book does discuss many issues relevant to "Time Bomb"'s mission, including politics, tactics, and the philosophy behind the use of weapons. If you only want "pure" survival books, don't bother with this review and don't read the book. Fair warning.

The book is a magnum opus on the development of the "gun culture" in the United States. It matches my experience that while there may be gun enthusiasts who are intolerant of minorities/other religions/whatever, that in general the two are not related - except perhaps for a learned intolerance for anti-gunners. The introductory stories of Adolph Tupperwein, John Browning, and Elmer Keith are worth reading all by themselves.

I had a hard time believing in the events which lead to the protagonist's massive gun collection - which is probably due to my not having been around before the '68 GCA was passed. Actual replica ads for mail-order cannon and machine guns may seem like filler to those familiar with the past, but for me they were necessary to avoid outright disbelief in what was being done.

I found the introductory material - which actually composes most of the book - readable and interesting. Throughout, the descriptions of the guns and how they work is quite detailed - so much so that someone who is a casual gun enthusiast, if they are enthusiastic about guns as recreation at all, might find it a little boring. I myself quite enjoyed it but I am a technically-minded sort of person.

The actual events of the "war" are perhaps a bit over-the-top, but nothing like even, say, a James Bond movie in terms of "that wouldn't work in the Real World." The author goes out of his way to explain the main problem that soldiers in such a war face - not their enemy's overwhelming superiority, but the fact that their enemy is the guy down the street, who's got a wife and kids and a mortgage - it's just that he pays for it all by doing a job which is antithetical to freedom. That, I honestly believe, is all that has prevented such a conflict from already having occurred - not fear, but decency. Once Henry Bowman's decency can stand no more, he acts and acts decisively.

As for the "kinky sex" which some complain of, it's really quite tame and not graphic at all - no play-by-play descriptions of the action, just a lot of leading-up. There *is* one distasteful description of a *faked* sexual act, but I don't think it was extraneous to the plot at all, personally.

I recommend the book to anyone interested in the history of the gun culture in the United States - who wants to know "how we got this way." I also recommend it to those who feel that our rights are gone forever, and that we are helpless in the face of the government's power. We are not and never have been. It's just a question, as Henry Bowman found out, of how much you are willing to pay to get them back. As he says, "The first one is expensive. All the rest are free."

St. Marc

Actually a very mild review sir.

While I must agree with most of the author's political points, the story, OBTW I couldn't hardly put it down, really begged in a couple of instances.

Henry, and I guess that's the license an author may take, seemed more like a super-talent than most people I can imagine, including myself, and I like to think of myself as pretty well rounded, I shoot, fly, reload, am proficient in the art of war, etc., but he seemed adept at everything he did. Possible but in the 99.9 percentile of those known to be alive. which would still account for more that 260,000 folks just here in the US. I guess that it just hasn't been my luck to meet them. Most of Henry's friends/associates were almost as equally talented, possible considering the close group he kept around himself.

Though it seems a little far fetched that the campaign wrought against the government, by the unnamed, found no one getting caught, it's entirely plausable. We see how long the beltway snipers lasted. If they'd taken out but one and went along their way they probably never would have been caught.

I just have a hard time believing that this temptation to "resolve" our current political blight, runs quite so close to the surface as the book would make out. Hell, Waco and Ruby Ridge didn't move many. That the collective effort was done with so little orchestration begs reality.

I really enjoyed it though and have recommeded it to others.

Just an end note. I actually had to go a looking to buy this. Books a million didn't carry it. I tried to order it through their warehouse, but about a week later they said they couldn't get it. I think I finally got it from Amazon or Barnes and Nobel, on line. Books a Million didn't have "Sell Out" on the shelf either and I had to order it too.

I ordered mine through B&N locally. The local library carried a copy as well, much to my surprise.
Some folks might be bored by the "history", but I still consider it required reading.