Date: Fri, 18 Aug 1995 20:37:31 -0400 From: jneil@genie.geis.com THE NEW BOOK from J. Neil Schulman! Author of STOPPING POWER: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns SELF CONTROL Not Gun Control "Schulman interestingly and insightfully raises a number of liberty-related issues that we ignore at the nation's peril. His ideas are precisely those that helped make our country the destination of those seeking liberty. The book's title says it all: personal responsibility, not laws and prohibitions, is the mark of a civil society." Professor Walter E. Williams, Chairman Department of Economics George Mason University Fairfax, Virginia SELF CONTROL Not Gun Control This is not a diet book. This book asks the question, "How much power should you have to control your own life?" Not just any writer could begin to answer so profound a question but J. Neil Schulman has already won some impressive fans for his previous books. In 1979, _A Clockwork Orange_ author Anthony Burgess wrote of Schulman's first novel, "I received _Alongside Night_ at noon today. It is now eight in the evening and I just finished it. I think I am entitled to some dinner now as I had no lunch. The unputdownability of the book ensured that. It is a remarkable and original story, and the picture it presents of an inflation- crippled America on the verge of revolution is all too acceptable. I wish, and so will many novelists, that I, or they, had thought of the idea first. A thrilling novel, crisply written, that fires the imagination as effectively as it stimulates the feelings." In 1983, science-fiction great Robert A. Heinlein told the chairman of the Prometheus Awards that Schulman's _The Rainbow Cadenza_ was a wonderful novel which he hoped would win. It did. And, in 1994, Charlton Heston called Schulman's _Stopping Power: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns_, "the most cogent explanation of the gun issue I have yet read." _SELF CONTROL Not Gun Control_ is J. Neil Schulman's magnum opus on both current controversies and timeless questions, and he hits whatever he targets with magnum force, whether it's guns, revolution, New Age thinking, liberal hate speech, his vision of "The Coming Golden Age," or 226 words which give us "The Meaning of Life." Schulman explains how to find out if God exists. He tells President Clinton what's wrong with his entire philosophy of government. He shows why America's two major parties are the "Mommy Party" and the "Daddy Party." For those who found in _Stopping Power_ a rational explanation of gun ownership, this book examines why guns are at the front line of America's culture war. With wit and insight, _SELF CONTROL Not Gun Control_ shows that "if you can not, may not, or do not exercise the power to control your own life, someone else must and will." ABOUT J. NEIL SCHULMAN J. NEIL SCHULMAN is the author of two novels, short fiction, nonfiction, and screenwritings, as well as having been the founder of SoftServ Publishing, the first publishing company to distribute "paperless books" via personal computers and modems, and he now distributes all his own writings via the Internet. He's lectured on electronic publishing for Northwood University in Midland, Michigan and has also taught a course entitled "Book Publishing in the 21st Century" for the New School for Social Research/Connected Education. Schulman is currently at work on a third novel and a screenplay. In 1994, his first nonfiction book, _Stopping Power: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns_ was published and became an instant classic in the literature treating the firearms controversy. _The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction_'s article about Schulman calls his books, "very influential in the LIBERTARIAN-SF movement" and says his books "are motivated by a combination of moral outrage and a fascination with the hardware of politics and economics." During 1992, he hosted _The J. Neil Schulman Show_, a program of interviews and music, on the American Radio Network's Kaleidascope program, and for several years wrote articles for the _Los Angeles Times_ and _Orange County Register_ opinion pages which were reprinted in numerous major daily newspapers across the country. Schulman's first novel, _Alongside Night_ (Crown hardcover 1979, Ace paperback 1982, Avon paperback 1987, SoftServ 1990, JNS, 1993), a prophetic story of an America beset by inflation and revolution, was endorsed by Anthony Burgess and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, and received widely positive reviews, including the _Los Angeles Times_ and _Publisher's Weekly_. The novel, published in 1979, anticipated such 1980's and 1990's problems as increased gang violence and homelessness, economic chaos such as the 1980's stock market crash and S&L crisis, and political trends such as the economic and political unification of Europe. In 1989, _Alongside Night_ was entered into the "Prometheus Hall of Fame" for classic works of fiction promoting liberty. _The Rainbow Cadenza_ (Simon & Schuster hardcover 1983, New English library paperback 1984, Avon paperback 1986, SoftServ 1989, JNS, 1993) was his second novel, winning the 1984 Prometheus Award, and was the basis for an all-classical-music LASERIUM concert which played for several years in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston. It's the story of a young girl in the 22nd Century who must fight the sexual exploitation of her era to pursue a career as a performer of "lasegraphy," a classical form of visual music evolved from the current laser shows. The book received favorable comments from such diverse authors as psychologist/bestseller Nathaniel Branden, British author Colin Wilson, and the late Robert A. Heinlein. _Stopping Power: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns_ (Synapse--Centurion, 1994) took on one of the most controversial political issues in America: private gun ownership. With an often wry humor, it dealt with every aspect of the firearms controversy, from the meaning of the Second Amendment to the usefulness of guns in self-defense. It received widespread praise, ranging from Charlton Heston, who called it, "the most cogent explanation of the gun issue I have yet read," to the _Los Angeles Daily News_, which praised it as "a thought-provoking and refreshingly broad discussion of issues that too often receive shallow treatment in mass media reports." Raves also came from the firearms press, including _Guns & Ammo_, _Gun World_, _Gun Week_ _American Firearms Industry_; from the _Aid & Abet Police Newsletter_; and even from the pro-gun-control radio talk host, KABC Los Angeles's Michael Jackson, who said, "His research is impeccable. Nobody expresses the other side better than the author of _Stopping Power_, J. Neil Schulman." Schulman also wrote the "Profile in Silver" episode, exploring the JFK assassination, for _The Twilight Zone_ TV series on CBS, which was run three times in network prime time in 1986 and 1987, and which can now be seen in syndication. _The Robert Heinlein Interview and Other Heinleiniana_ (SoftServ, 1990, JNS, 1993) collected Schulman's writings on an author who was not only particularly influential on Schulman but also a friend for fifteen years, and features Schulman's 25,000 word interview with Heinlein for the New York Daily News, in 1973. Schulman's short story, "The Musician," a psychological mystery about a violinist whose career takes a sudden bizarre turn, was dramatized for Los Angeles radio, broadcast several times in 1980 on Pacifica/ KPFK FM's _Hour 25_ show, read by the late Mike Hodel, and with classical violin accompaniment by the author's father, Julius Schulman. His short story "The Repossessed" is the lead story in Carol Serling's _Adventures in the Twilight Zone_, just out from DAW Books. In addition to his opinion pieces, Schulman's writings have appeared in magazines and newspapers including _National Review_ ,_Reader's Digest_, the _Los Angeles Times Book Review_, _Reason_ Magazine, _Liberty_, _Gun Week_, _American Rifleman_, _The Lamp-Post_, and _The Journal of Social and Biological Structures_, and he's delivered talks at World Science Fiction conventions and other conferences. Mr. Schulman has been written about in magazines and newspapers including the _Wall Street Journal_, _USA Today_, the _Los Angeles Times_, _Shooting Times_, _Analog_, and _Byte_ Magazine, and has been interviewed on CNN, ABC's _World News Tonight_, and numerous radio talk shows coast to coast, on subjects ranging from his novels and screenwriting, to electronic publishing, to firearms issues. RAVE REVIEWS FOR J. Neil Schulman's previous book STOPPING POWER: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns: "Schulman has penned a well-written, forcefully argued explanation of why gun ownership by good people enhances public safety. ... Schulman's writing style is clear and fun to read. The straight-forward writing and the short chapters make STOPPING POWER a good first book for people who want to learn more about the gun issue. STOPPING POWER is also an excellent choice for your friends who are anti-gun, but who have enough intellectual curiousity to want to check out the argument in favor of gun ownership. By the time they're finished with STOPPING POWER, they may well have decided to switch sides in the gun control struggle." --David Kopel, GUN WORLD "Schulman shoots down all of the tired old anti-gun arguments and explains clearly why "gun owners are morally, historically, legally, and politically justified in their choice to be armed." This book is entertaining as well as informative and should be a part of every gun owner's library. ... Buy an extra copy for your congressman." --Bill O'Brien, GUNS & AMMO THREE STARS FROM THE LA DAILY NEWS!!! "Schulman delivers a message likely to enrage those who campaign against handguns ... Just as surely, his point of view is certain to please Second Amendment fundamentalists, who crusade for the right to bear arms, as well as delighting anti-government iconoclasts ... But for readers in the middle ground on the gun-control debate, Schulman presents a thought-provoking and refreshingly broad discussion of issues that too often receive shallow treatment in mass media reports about gun-control proposals. ... Readers who haven't staked out a position on either side of the gun debate will find this volume provides some eye-popping reasons to evaluate or reconsider the assertions they hear on the topic." --Mike Comeaux, Staff Writer, LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS "Schulman's reasoning powers are superb, and he uses them to cut through the bunk that clouds the issue. ... Just like a good handgun, STOPPING POWER will disable the adversary, hopefully for good. Buy it." --AID & ABET POLICE NEWSLETTER "A vastly entertaining book that clarifies the real issues and blows the opposition away like a Vulcan cannon. As a successful screen and SF writer, Schulman has produced what may be the most powerful (and readable) gun rights book yet." --LANCER MILITARIA "A great book for converting anti-gunners to pro-gunners. He provides practical and Constitutional arguments that are hard to refute and he takes what the anti-gunners have been spouting and examines all of their flaws. Schulman brings the Second Amendment into the 20th Century and provides strong arguments for its relevance today that is stronger than when it was included in the Bill of Rights. Must reading." -- AMERICAN FIREARMS INDUSTRY "Schulman is no armchair freedom-fighter. ... [STOPPING POWER] includes practical, philosophical, and constitutional arguments against gun control ..." --LIBERTY MAGAZINE "Gives you the ammunition that you need to effectively debate and talk intelligently about the attack on our Second Amendment rights in everyday language ... The book is thoroughly researched ... Once you have read this book and feel the way that I do about its content, then order a second and a third copy either for your public library, as a gift for a friend, or for your club legislative director. Help spread the word, the facts, the truth." --John C. Krull, THE NEW GUN WEEK "[STOPPING POWER] should take its place as one of the most convenient and readable arguments for firearms rights on the market. The most delightful thing about this book -- besides the frequent humor and often hilarious sarcasm -- is the utterly unapologetic attitude Schulman takes toward the right to keep and bear arms. Some Second Amendment activists mumble about hunting and sportsmen and traditions, while endorsing compromises that are put forward as just a little harmless regulation. Schulman comes right out and says that the right to keep and bear arms has to do with protecting yourself from criminals because you can't count on the cops, and protecting a free society from a potentially tyrannical government. ... Whatever your position on this issue, you'll enjoy Neil's pungent and stylish writing." -- Alan Bock, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER "Much of value in the book, especially Mr. Schulman's incisive critiques of the factoids, misleading rhetoric, and outright lies of the anti-gun lobby." --Jacob Sullum, NATIONAL REVIEW "His research is impeccable. Nobody expresses the other side better than the author of STOPPING POWER, J. Neil Schulman." --Michael Jackson, KABC Radio "It's a most important book and if you've ever been on the fence regarding gun control and why you think the Second Amendment is outdated perhaps, or if you've thought maybe that we do have a right but you couldn't hang your hat on anything that makes sense, this is the book that will do it for you." --Ray Briem, KABC Radio "Deserves to be read. It makes a powerful case for law-abiding gun ownership." --Alan Caruba, BOOKVIEWS FEATURED ALTERNATE OF LAISSEZ FAIRE BOOKS! "An intriguing miscellany ... Schulman provides a wealth of information which can help you decide how best to protect yourself and your loved ones." --Jim Powell, LAISSEZ FAIRE REVIEW "Always eloquent. Always well-reasoned. And dammit, always stirring. This is down in the trenches stuff, real argument and debate. It is the fevered journalism of a man in mid-crusade. A man fighting a war for independence we should all be up to our hips in right now." --Wally Conger, OUT OF STEP SELF CONTROL Not Gun Control TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: SELF CONTROL Not Gun Control THE POLITICS OF GUN CONTROL Poem: Scorched Earth Policy Okay, Let's License Guns Just Like Cars Why Do People Fear Guns? In Defense of the NRA NRA and the Libertarian Party Can You Handle Victory? Putting Republican Feet to the Fire Political Apologies Gun Club to Gun Rights Author: No Guns Allowed! Q&A on Civilian Gun Carrying Letter to President Reagan on Gun Amnesty 50,000 Watts on Guns When the Truth is Not in Vogue More Bogus Science About Guns Resisting a Carjacker California Carry Gun Owner Resistance The Fallacy of Disarmament When Should Gun Owners Revolt? The Second Amendment and Militias A Clarion Call! An Open Reply to Representative Charles Schumer THE POLITICS OF SELF CONTROL Poem: The Last Mile Natural Rights and Social Utility The Social Contract The Libertarian Insight Who Would Build the Roads in A Libertarian Society? Positive Liberty Compulsory National Service Ignoring the Framers Virtual States American Culture Censorship and Hate Speech The Semantics of Hate Speech Symbolic Speech Versus Speech-as-Action Taxing Slashers Doesn't Go With Slashing Taxes The Citizen's Line Item Veto Proposition A More Bulletproof Bill of Rights Forcing the Spring Evolution Versus Revolution The Tenth Amendment War How About Some Domestic Tranquility? A Reply to (Sir Henry?) Clinton The Dignity of Power Nixon's Advice to a 1996 Presidential Candidate No Right to "Just Say No" The Drug Prohibition Epidemic During the L.A. Riots Is This A Case For Perry Mason? O.J. An Argument on the Death Penalty The Aliens Are Among Us Willie Brown, Terrorist The General Welfare RETHINKING FREETHINKING Poem: 15 to Life The Meaning of Life Why I Am Not A Jew And What I Am Instead Thoughts on Individualism New Age Thinking The Philosophy of Neilism ECONOMIC FREEDOM Poem: An Economics Lesson The Convertible Corporation: A Proposal Economic Scandals Two Documentary Proposals: That Good Ole American Know How Time Off The Clock POWER TOOLS Poem: Virtual Hope The New Literacies Paperless Books Letter To President Reagan on Space Policy Deprogram Space The Coming Golden Age POWER WRITING Poem: Chopped Liver Prose The Biter's Manifesto Political Parables A Reader's Rudeness Novels Versus Movies Serious Literature: A Letter to _The New York Times_ Writing Fiction There Are Two Sides To Every Review AFTERTHOUGHTS Poem: A Non-Christian's Prayer to Christ Afterword: Gunzo Journalism by Brad Linaweaver About J. Neil Schulman Key Index INTRODUCTION: SELF CONTROL Not Gun Control "Who controls the maze, controls the rat." --Aesop, Li Quai Quat, Pavlov, or "the lady who designed the downtown L.A. freeway interchange" This is not a diet book. Full disclosure requires that since the title of this book mentions self-control, I'd better get that idea out of the way right up front, because if this _were_ a diet book, I'd honestly have to advise you against buying it. With diet and exercise, I have successfully lost large amounts of fat several times in my life and kept it off for years at a time. But slowly, like some relentless force of gravity, the fat has managed to migrate back onto my body, and I am currently fatter than I am happy being. But I am not fatter than I choose to be. The word "diet"--if you trace its origin back to the Greek word _diaita_--literally means "manner of living." The profession I have chosen involves writing, reading, watching movies and TV, listening to music and talk radio, sitting in chairs listening to people speak, lecturing, and debating ideas--all of which exercise my mind a lot more than they exercise my body. These are not high-fat-burning activities. Therefore, any time I devote to the physical exercise of my body has to be stolen from time I'd otherwise be spending on doing the brain-oriented things I regularly do--not only as my means of producing income, but as the source of my intellectual passions and pleasures. There are two purely physical activities, however, that I like even more than the intellectual ones I listed above: eating and sex. But, all other things being equal, eating good-tasting food makes you fat, and the ability--and opportunities--for having great sex varies directly as the ratio between the human body's muscle and fat. I have consulted with a mathematician friend, Dafydd ab Hugh, and this can be stated as an equation: [Capital Sigma] = F +( [lower-case mu] / [lower-case phi]) where Sigma is Sex, F( ) is an increasing function, mu is muscle, and phi is fat. This is the equation that rules my desire for the physical pleasures of life. Medieval theologians would say I am torn between the competing sins of gluttony and lust. Every mouthful of delicious food I eat puts me farther away from the opportunity for great sex with some hard-bodied goddess. Past a certain point, I find solace in eating more delicious food than my body can burn, and I get fatter. When I get sexually anxious enough to overcome my desire for food, I start eating spinach and trudging up the Stairmaster. I've been eating a lot of spinach of late. The Stairmaster is an exercise device, usually found in health clubs, that allows you to climb stairs without ever reaching the top. It was invented by a man named John Harrington. I bet John got the idea by reading the stories of how King Eurystheus had to come up with twelve impossible tasks for Hercules to perform. If King Eurystheus had had a Stairmaster to put Hercules on, he could have skipped having Hercules clean out the Augean Stables. Another common exercise device found in health clubs is a treadmill. This is a sidewalk that goes nowhere, and takes you forever to get there. Then there are weights, and health clubs have various contraptions for lifting them. One expends great effort lifting things that, at the end of the efforts, are in exactly the same place they were when you started. Have you detected the insanity here yet? Throughout human history, hard labor was necessary for survival. Nobody liked it but there it was. Now, a lot of us make our money by using our brains rather than our backs, so we get soft and fat, which is bad for us. So we go to places where we pay good money we earned with our brains to do hard physical work which produces no goods whatsoever. Why has no one picked up on this? Instead of paying slave wages to migrant workers for picking grapes, grape growers should hire Teri Hatcher--the gorgeous Lois Lane on _Lois & Clark_--away from being the spokesmodel for Bally's Health Clubs. Teri could seduce us brain-workers into _paying_ the grape-growers for the privilege of picking their grapes. The grape-growers would hire hard labor at a _negative_ cost and we'd get hard bodies in return. So this isn't a diet book. My previous book, _Stopping Power_, was subtitled "Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns." It examined the ability of privately-owned firearms to produce individual freedom and individual security. This current book is going to follow the format of _Stopping Power_ in that it's also a book I grew from articles and essays rather than a book I outlined in advance; but this book will "spray and pray" ideas full-auto rather than my more directed-fire last book. About a third of this book deals directly with firearms- related topics. But unlike _Stopping Power_, this current volume doesn't contain a comprehensive treatment of the firearms issue. So if that's what you're looking for, I'll direct your attention to my last book. _Stopping Power_ set out to prove that guns are instruments of power, and the people with guns are the people with power. If that power is used more by criminals and tyrants than by decent ordinary people, then you get a crime-ridden and tyrannical society. If that power is, alternatively, treasured and exercised by decent individuals to defend themselves from gangsters and powermongers, then freedom from crime and tyranny is the social result. In contrast, _SELF CONTROL Not Gun Control_ explores assorted issues which revolve around the uses and abuses of power. Because firearms are implements of power, some of the materials in this book must again deal with firearms; but much of it will deal instead with how power is exercised--either by individuals who wish to rule their own lives, or by other individuals who wish to rule their lives for them. For that, in fact, is the primary political question in any society: if you can not, may not, or do not exercise the power to control your own life, someone else must and will. Not all the explorations in this book are political or even ideological. Some questions which would naturally arise in any discussion of power relate to economics; so I have some articles on that; there are some pieces on how technology can empower us with new tools and frontiers; I've included some discussions of literary technique and values, since that is a kind of power with which I have had direct experience; and if you think I went out on a limb by telling everyone in the entertainment and publishing industries that I approve of guns, I'm going even farther out this time: I'm going to explain as precisely as I can what I think about God, religion, and the place of human beings in the ultimate scheme of things. My friends who participate in organized religions, and my friends who are atheists, will both find reasons to distance themselves from me, as I find myself in that twilight zone of philosophical theology which used to be called "free thought." In other words, while I believe in God, I don't believe in religion. So why should I alienate friends on both sides of me? Call it a form of flashing, if you wish; but I couldn't see putting together a book about the power of the individual without treating ultimate issues. Power relates to what we do. We can't have a comprehensive discussion of that without also getting into who and what we _are_. Returning for the moment to a less lofty discussion of power, it's notable that proponents of government control over private guns wish always to bring the subject around to children. Their rhetoric always focuses on the tragedies that result when the ignorant or undisciplined among us--and children certainly are numerous there--misuse firearms. For their political purposes, advocates of government control over private guns are exactly right to do so. But the difference between a child and a grown-up--and I am speaking personally as the father of a four-year-old girl--lies not in the child being any less passionate than the grown-up in the pursuit of her goals, but merely less practiced in the selection and achievement of them. Kids are born with an adult-sized willfulness. The job of growing up involves learning to harness that will to the better judgments of the brain and heart. Our society does not handle the transition from childhood to adulthood well. Biological puberty makes us physical adults usually between ten and fifteen years old; our brains need a few years practice after the onset of physical maturity to be able to control reproductive impulses with any rationality; our current society passes out condoms to thirteen-year-olds but discourages marriage until they're thirty. But the point is, the psychological difference between the child and adult is the relative ability of adults to control their own lives and negotiate various problems and dangers. Let's solve the problem of children and guns right here, since it can be solved easily. Firearms--like automobiles, like matches, like pharmaceuticals, like rat poison--are safe and useful when used properly and dangerous and destructive when used improperly. Some children can handle responsibility; some adults can't. The successful ability to make rational decisions about potential dangers is a function of an individual's natural gifts, the parenting skills with which they were raised, and their individual life experiences. It's also a function of that ability we have to reinvent ourselves, which we can conveniently label free will. Beyond the age of reason when the brain has completed its growth--which is around the age of seven--the rates at which individuals master assorted tasks vary. In emergencies, three- year-old human beings have punched 9-1-1 and called for help. Five-year-old human beings have saved their parents using CPR which they saw performed on television. Ten-year-olds have soloed as airplane pilots cross-country. At seven-years-old, Mozart was composing symphonies, Sarah Chang was performing violin concertos, and Bobby Fischer was winning chess tournaments. Admittedly these are prodigies ... but why should laws be written which hold the gifted among us to the lowest-common-denominator? Our society's current practice of imposing uniform age standards on the transition from childhood to adulthood--in driving prohibitions, alcohol and tobacco prohibitions--is collectivist bigotry. There are some children whom I would trust with a match or a gun without hesitation; there are some adults whom I would keep away from anything as dangerous as a can of hair spray. In my novel, _The Rainbow Cadenza_, I portray a space habitat with a social contract called, simply, the Lease. The Lease says nothing more than that signatories agree to answer for any liabilities for their debts or damages to others. Any adult may sign it. The test for adulthood is the ability to read and understand the Lease. No one is required to sign the Lease--this is a libertarian society I'm portraying--but anyone who doesn't sign the Lease must either find someone to act as a legal guardian ... or go somewhere else. In my imagined society, responsible adulthood is a matter of reason and choice; childhood ends when you are capable of ending it. My friend, Dafydd ab Hugh, puts it more succinctly: if you can't be trusted with a gun, you need a keeper. I do not believe this is a utopian goal. As a matter of fact, I see our current society's problems as a function of not understanding the differences between childhood and adulthood in its political decisions. Statism in all its pathological variants--communism, fascism, Nazism--treats the government as a wise parent and its citizens as irresponsible children. The current term for this is infantalization. Paternalistic thinking is at the base of even the more moderate politics of the United States, though I have often remarked that the United States has two political parties: the Mommy Party and the Daddy Party. The traditional Democratic Party--the "mommy" party--has wanted the government to take care of all our physical needs from cradle to grave, with government child care and education, welfare, social security, government health care, and government jobs--and plenty of government oversight for any remaining nominally-private activities. The traditional Republican Party--the "daddy" party--expects us to pay our own way, but is more concerned with our moral upbringing: we must pray, avoid sex out of marriage, work hard, stay out of trouble--and there's hard punishment for anyone who disobeys. Of the two philosophies, the Daddy Party's is less destructive to society, but both approaches still miss the point. You don't turn children into adults by shielding them from either economic or moral failure: you turn children into adults by letting them learn from their mistakes so deep down they know the reason for not doing it again. Politicians are the most arrogant, self-important busybodies in the country. They honestly believe that if they don't solve a problem, it won't be solved. If there's a scarcity of something the public wants or needs--child care, Shakespeare in the Park, literacy, a colony on Mars--the private entrepreneur sees this as an opportunity to enter the market and provide it. The political entrepreneur in a legislature or executive mansion sees it as an opportunity to create a program--and starts by making it impossible for the private entrepreneur to compete with the government. Gun control is at its essence a product of socialist thinking. It has all the earmarks of virulent statism. Gun- controllers don't want us to have guns because we--poor children--are too emotionally unstable and careless to handle them without shooting ourselves and our friends. Gun-controllers don't want us to have guns because in their view we're not supposed to protect ourselves: that's what the police are there for. Finally, gun controllers don't want us to have guns because they have been working hard for the last century to create a cradle-to-grave socialist utopia--and now that they have vast bureaucratic mechanisms running our lives, they're terrified that we might come to our senses and shoot the bastards who have enslaved us. They are right to be afraid. That's what the guns are for. Not that arrogant tyrants don't deserve being shot for subverting the American Dream, but it's a damn sight less messy to overthrow statism in the voting booth than it is in urban guerrilla warfare. So Congressman Charles Schumer won't have the opportunity to accuse me of encouraging armed rebellion: I advocate working peacefully within the system so long as we have free speech, free elections, and occasional redress of grievances. But I'm still going to hold onto my guns in case the statists get one percent more arrogant and decide to do away with free speech or free elections, too--for our own good, of course. Under _those_ circumstances, Congressman Schumer--the circumstances of King George III's America, Stalin's Russia, Hitler's Germany, Castro's Cuba--I would not hesitate to use my guns to overthrow the government by force. We have a fundamental choice about how we want to live in this country. We can have a country of self-reliant grown-ups who are free to succeed or fail--and to pick themselves up after failure to try again. In practice this means letting us decide for ourselves what drugs we want to take, what speed we want to drive and whether or not to strap in, how we want to educate our children, what weapons we carry for defense. Or, we can live wearing political swaddling in a society that makes drugs forbidden fruit, diverts cops from catching carjackers so they can give out speeding tickets, convinces children that teachers are their jailers, and shows by our intolerably high violent crime rate that only suckers obey gun laws. The difference between children and grown-ups is that children are not yet competent to run their own lives; grow-ups can and must be. We destroy the innocence and beauty of childhood if it has no end. We destroy the meaning and pleasures of adulthood if we do not have the independence to control ourselves. SELF CONTROL Not Gun Control by J. Neil Schulman Publisher: Synapse--Centurion Price: $24.95 U.S.; $32.95 Canada Publication Date: November 30, 1995 Approx. Shipping Date: Oct. 15, 1995 ISBN: 1-882639-05-7 Library of Congress Catalog Number: 95-74682 ON THE INTERNET Advance orders may be sent to Synapse--Centurion c/o Deep River Books at http://www.well.com/user/deep or phone: 500-FOR-SELF. Reply to: J. Neil Schulman Mail: P.O. Box 94, Long Beach, CA 90801-0094 Voice Mail: (500) 44-JNEIL Fax: 1-500-445-6345 Internet: jneil@genie.com World Wide Web Page: http://www.pinsight.com/~zeus/jneil/ Copyright (c) 1995 by J. Neil Schulman. Permission to post this file intact and unedited in computer databases and filebases, and print publications with a circulation under 2,000 copies, granted. (For higher circulation, check first for permission.) All other rights reserved. Post as filename: SELFBOOK.INF