Review: Michael Austin's That's Not What They Meant About Guns

Michael Austin has written an extremely timely and informative analysis That's Not What They Meant About Guns. It is really an extra chapter on the second amendment added to his recently published That's Not What They Meant!: Reclaiming the Founding Fathers from America's Right Wing,which I also highly recommend. Austin destroys the ill informed and ignorant arguments of crazy right wing talk shows hosts like Glenn Beck and Mark Levine. There is historical background about what militias meant in revolutionary America that has some profound implications. And, an eye-opening section on how commonly-proposed gun regulations most likely pass Constitutional muster is really great.

I only have two smallish criticisms. There is a small section of Austin's conclusion("psychological effects") in my Kindle for PC download which is garbled. And, Austin's rhetoric of showing his moderation by positing, even if in passing, an liberal viewpoint on guns just as extreme and absolute as that of today's conservatives seems a little contrived to me.

The debate over gun violence is going to heated in coming months. If you want to be an informed citizen there is no better book to read.