If you are either a proponent of firearms for self-defence, you would have probably heard of the following three books, which are commonly referenced in discussions or articles: Chris Bird's "Thank God I Had a Gun", Dave Workman and Alan Gottlieb's "American Fights Back" and Robert Waters' "The Best Defense". I have all three and have read all three, and I can honestly say without hesitation that if you only have enough money to buy one of these books, THE book to get is Waters' "The Best Defense". I just finished reading it and it is a tremendously easily read, yet captivating and highly informative.
While the scope of this review is not a thorough and comprehensive analysis of the two other books I mentioned above, I do want to indicate, at least in my view, why I think Robert Waters' book is the book to get. First, it is very well written and edited, which you may think should be the case with all published books, but I've read many (even New York Times bestsellers) that have basic spelling mistakes (now, that being said, I don't use spell-check at all, so I'm sure my blog entries are full of errors too, but my stuff is not really in the professionally published and edited realm anyway - ie. I don't get paid to do any of this). The Workman/Gottlieb book is full of spelling, grammatical, and sentence structure errors, so much so that after a while, it started detracting from the positives in the book. The Bird book is well written, but the Waters' book is better. There was only one case where I noticed a clear sentence structure boo-boo (and it was probably a case of cutting and pasting issues).
Second, there is no visible racial bias. Look, I understand that Blacks do commit a disproportionate amount of crime and have stated that in my other articles, but the Bird book seems to really bend over backwards to highlight and reiterate that fact, almost as if it was written specifically to Whites to instill fear (sure, there was one chapter about a Black gun owner who defended himself, but the tone of the book does not appear to be racially neutral). Waters' book does not mention race per se in most cases, though you can figure some of this out by just reading the story. I think that by Waters' simply stating the facts without a racial agenda, he is lending credibility to his writing and reporting, instead of getting caught up in incessant obsessions with talking about Blacks and Black crime).
Third, there is no clear political bias. The stories are reported based on numerous accounts from different sources and Waters never injects his own two cents as far as either being pro-gun or pro-gun control. The Gottlieb/Workman book is notorious for this, in that the authors make wise-cracks and sarcastic jokes within the accounts or inject their own personal opinions into the story. While this may OK for some, I found it distracting and unprofessional. Waters, on the other hand, does not do any of this, and really seems to report the stories with a sincerity and humility that is very refreshing to see. In the end, it's hard to tell where he is on the gun issue; while he does support personal ownership of firearms for self-defence, he also states that he sees the other side of the argument, in terms of gun safety and accessibility to children, etc. I really also think that he goes out of his way to not embellish the accounts with machismo. It helps for the reader to take the issue more seriously and form conclusions on objective facts (and this is coming from me, as a gun owner and an NRA member).
I also enjoyed the fact that these stories were all "fresh" stories. I mean, how many gun books have you read which refer to the same old accounts - it makes you wonder whether the Gary Kleck estimate of 2.5 million defensive gun use scenarios a year is plausible (I personally think that number is way too high, unless someone can actually substantiate it, which I haven't seen yet). The Waters book retells stories that I have not read anywhere else.
Finally, I really liked the fact that the Robert Waters' stories were full-length and had sufficient detail. I never really "got into" any of the stories in the Workman/Gottlieb book, because they were so short, and also because they injected unnecessary details such as the name of a baby which is not really related to the story. Waters' re-telling of the stories and his descriptive prowess really helps the reader to immerse himself/herself into the shoes of the victim (and maybe to a lesser extent, the shoes of the perpetrator). The background information and level of detail is relevant and adds to moving the plot along. I think that in large measure, that's what made the book so easy to read - it was written so that the progressions of the plot and its transitions between scenes were logical and were at a decent pace.
Enough with the comparisons. Let's examine a couple of the highlights of the Waters' book.
I enjoyed Waters' discussion on how drugs, and in particular, crack-cocaine causes the perpetrator to act differently. We have all heard the arguments about what ammo to use for self-defence and home defence weapons, and one consideration I hear over and over again is, for instance, one should use buckshot with a shotgun, as it has X-amount of penetrating and stopping power for those who are on some sort of drug. I often wondered whether that was really true, but Waters' in a few of the stories, has really shown that low powered rounds, like .22s, may eventually cause the bad guy's death, but it may not stop him immediately (as a result, the perpetrator can still inflict damage while his vitals are slowly shutting down). This side-point did not need to be discussed explicitly, but in reading the chapters, any reasonable person can form that conclusion.
There were chapters such as "Death of a Serial Killer", that seemed so surreal, so unbelievable, that I had to double-check and verify the facts myself, since I found it so hard to believe that something like this could have happened. The strength with which Kristen and Doug Wells was able to defy certain death and their desire to keep living was inspiring - and thanks to them, they put a serial killer scumbag to pasture. This chapter itself is worth the price of the book.
The chapter on Robert Stella and Judy Davis, entitled, "The Stalker" was literally chilling to read - I had to curl up under a blanket to keep warm even though it is 27 celsius on my thermostat. That chapter was written so well that one could easily envision oneself in the victim's shoes, feeling all the rage and frustration that today's lenient criminal justice system would let her down, despite numerous threats and carrying on of violence against her. The fact that Stella, the stalker, was released so often, despite his crimes, and put on probation rather than behind bars, makes a strong argument for the keeping of firearms for personal defence.
Stories are only good if you can remember them, and one thing that I found as a real positive about Waters' book, is that the stories are really relevant and stay in your mind. I think partly, it's because Waters' looks at stories of everyday, normal people, from store owners, to families, to single people, and from young folks to old folks. He examines the stories from different geographies and time frames. Even reading a story from the 1970s does not seem any less relevant than a story from the 1990s. He also clearly describes the weapon of choice for the perpetrator and what the would-be victim ended up using to defend him/herself. He provides ample detail about the history of the bad guy (whether it be mental history, criminal history, etc.) and I think that it helps to understand, at least in part, the psychology of the assailant.
I am a discriminating book reader (I read a lot of books), and in general, I don't recommend a book, unless I wholeheartedly think that it has multi-faceted benefits. So it is for all these reasons already stated that I highly recommend Robert Waters' book, "The Best Defense" as a must-have in your self-defense and firearms library, but don't just put it on your shelf - read it, and heed its lessons that were gleaned from those brave men and women who considered life much more precious than to simply just give it away to those who demand it without good reason.
-Jeremy
5/26/2009 Update: I have had the pleasure to have been in correspondence with the author, Robert Waters, regarding his book, passing along my comments and compliments to him for such a fine book. He has since informed me that several of the would-be victims (heroes, I would call them) have since passed on. While I am saddened by this, I am deeply grateful that they were able to share their stories before their passing and inspire countless others to learn from them.
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