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By Peggy Tartaro,
Because I have a number of gun-related books piling up next to the bed, the coffee table and a couple of other surfaces, it seemed fitting that we review them together under the title Summer Reading List. This is no school assignment, however, so if you're not a reader-good luck finding a movie or TV show about guns that doesn't make you want to throw your huarache at the screen. When I started putting this feature together, I went over to the message board at womenandguns.com and asked for input. One of the books reviewed in-depth here, Nancy Floyd's She's Got a Gun, showed up in the posts by W&G website users, but the rest of the recommendations by the message board users are shown in the sidebar on Page 38. She's Got a Gun Nancy Floyd, a professor of photography at Georgia State University, is an old friend of Women & Guns. She first came to our attention as a letter writer on a number of subjects, ranging from definitions of "feminism" to the 2-second advantage given women competitors at the old Second Chance matches. Interested, interesting and engaged-my favorite kind of person. When I finally met Floyd face-to-face it was while she was working in nearby Syracuse one summer and called to ask if she could take my picture for a series of photographs of women gunowners she was working on.
Most of us get our pictures taken in fairly casual settings-family get-togethers, vacations and the like. The opportunity to "pose" for a picture is fairly rare-graduation, wedding, company newsletter, perhaps a family Christmas card shot. So the process was interesting to me, and Floyd had a very casual style that put you at easy, even though she was wielding quite a bit of high-end equipment. I was happy with the photo she took (even though it's getting a little old now, I still use it over my editorial on womenandguns.com). Eventually the photographs Floyd took of women gunowners in their "natural habitat," became an art exhibition called "Stopping Power." But Floyd didn't stop taking pictures of women gunowners and along the way she became an IPSC shooter herself. It never really occurred to me to wonder why Nancy Floyd took pictures of women gunowners. It seemed as if woman + photographer + gunowner might naturally equal photographs of women gunwowners. But reading her book, the why-at least the why of the beginning of the project-is evident immediately. Her interest in guns began as an exploration of her late brother, a firearms enthusiast who hoped to become a gunsmith. The gunowner part of the equation was a deliberate choice of Floyd's-a way to connect to the brother she lost to the Vietnam War. Buying a gun, she thought, would help her understand her brother. There are several evocative passages in the book about Nancy, her brother, sisters and friends playing as children-play that included toy guns and role-playing-to which many readers will instantly relate. The six chapters of the book are divided into three sections: Pleasure, Power and Professional. The Pleasure section deals with the shooting sports and with guns as seen and used in entertainment. The Power section is concerned with self-defense and the Professional section deals with women using guns in the police and military.
Floyd said she loved the research nearly as much as the photography. She discovered the story of Mary Shanley, one of the first women police detectives in New York City while doing some research at the National Archives in Washington. She was pursuing a different topic, but a helpful librarian introduced her to a relative of Shanley's who was also doing research at the Archives. In her introduction to the book, she discusses how her photography works: "We all assign a certain amount of veracity to photographslike all artists, however, I am the creator of my images-I've chosen a particular style in an attempt to convey certain types of information" She mentions that when exhibiting her photos, they normally appear as 15"x15" images to allow the viewer an opportunity to study details. Since the book format does not allow such large sizes, the reader will nonetheless be surprised at how much information is available in the images. While many of the illustrations are from archival sources, they show not only "information" but the careful eye of their chooser. Floyd's portraits of women gunowners, which range from a pre-teen girls to mature mother-daughter duos, all tell us something about not just the subjects, but ourselves. I asked Floyd about the title of the book, since a phrase
like "She's got a gun," is invariably followed by an
exclamation point and indicates some danger. There's no exclamation
point in this book's title and she said she wanted to "start
a conversation" about women gunowners with it. Ricochet While I've given up trying to make people be interested in politics, I haven't given up hope that once in a while (say, during a presidential election year), the apolitical and un-political will make an effort to open their eyes and minds a bit to the subject. Richard Feldman's book, Ricochet, is about his life in gun politics, specifically working for the National Rifle Association (NRA). In the interest of full-disclosure, Feldman is a friend of long-standing, as we both started out in the gun world about the same time. Since he worked for NRA as a state liaison in states including my native New York, I've had the opportunity to observe his work. I am thanked in the book's acknowledgements, and while I don't know that I provided any useful insights and I'm quite sure Feldman never listened to any of my advice, I'll plead guilty of being encouraging as he has always struck me as just the kind of person you want on your side in a political fight: smart, committed and creative. The bulk of the book deals with his time at NRA and his opinions on that group and covers such seminal events at the Bernard Goetz subway shooting, passage of the McClure-Volker bill, Waco, Presidential elections, federal campaigns and state and local races. Although the book already has a subtitle, perhaps an alternate would be "It was the best of times, the worst of times." For Feldman, the best was doing work he loved, meeting fascinating people, impacting national events, and the like.
This is a memoir, and as such, contains a lot of personal observations. As I always tell would-be writers, "don't just write what you know, write what you care about." Feldman doesn't disappoint in this regard; he knows politics, especially gun politics, inside and out, and he cares about his subject. Even if you didn't know him, you can often feel the frustration leaping off the page as he recounts events where "coulda, shoulda, woulda" come into play. That, like many other memoirists, he also takes the opportunity to portray others in unflattering terms is not particularly surprising. But it is mostly beside the point. Feldman is entitled to his opinions about others in the gun rights movement, even if this reviewer doesn't share them all. His "confessions" also describe his days as head of the American Shooting Sports Council (ASSC), a trade group which is perhaps best known as the group that appeared in the Rose Garden with Bill Clinton, to announce an agreement between industry and the White House on trigger locks. That event, although sanctioned by the members of ASSC, eventually led to his ouster and the dissolution of ASSC. Although it is both history and memoir, the book would be useful to grassroots activists (especially in gun politics, but other areas as well) as a primer-some really excellent examples of "how to" appear in the book, along with a few cautionary tales. Feldman was (and likely still is) a master at the media event, and he details several which could still serve as models for other applications. Some people, including long-time friends, have accused Feldman of writing an "anti-NRA" book. I can only assume they didn't read Ricochet very thoroughly, if at all. The book does criticize the largest pro-gun group in the country, especially for its often erratic management. That is not, however, the same as being anti-NRA. Many people, myself included, have differed publicly and privately with NRA over the years. Not on core values, shared by all who are part of what the late David Caplan (an NRA Director) called "The Second Amendment Friendship," but on procedure and other matters. As the biggest group, NRA is often the public face of all gunowners, whether they are members or not. In the days since Feldman started, NRA has grown enormously, and it still maintains its reputation as a fearsome lobby, consistently ranking in the Top 10 most effective lobbies in the country. First and foremost Feldman is an advocate of being an active part of the Body Politic and he understands politics well enough to know that the NRA is part of the solution, even with some of its problems. Ricochet is a good book on several subjects. Those interested in the history and workings of the NRA will find a lot of solid information, but more importantly, those interested in a commitment to the cause of firearms civil rights will find some hard lessons, well taught.
Having dealt with two non-fiction works on our summer reading list, we'll lighten up just a bit and mention a fun fictional read with a pro-gun woman protagonist. Chicago-area writer Julie Hyzy's newest series begins with State of the Onion, first in the "White House Chef" series from Penguin. Olivia "Ollie" Paras is an assistant executive chef at the White House when the book opens, in line to succeed her retiring boss, Henry, but not a shoo-in for the job, as TV celebrity Chef Laurel Ann Braun also wants a crack at the job. But job security takes back seat to personal security as Ollie becomes embroiled in an adventure that begins when she stops an intruder on the White House grounds with a commemorative frying pan. It doesn't help that the White House has hired a new "sensitivity director" who seems to have taken an instant dislike to Ollie, or that her boyfriend, Secret Service Agent Tom, doesn't think she should get herself further mixed up in the comings and goings of a terrorist known as "The Chameleon." Despite enormous pressures at work, well-detailed by Hyzy, Ollie pursues bad guys and clues in this mostly PG-rated novel. So what makes this book different than the many, many other works of fiction out there? Ollie is a gunowner (before you wonder how that can be, the chef lives in Virginia). A recreational gun user, who like many women, became interested because of a male friend. But now, Ollie goes out to the range herself and enjoys putting her Beretta 9mm through its paces. An incident at the range is part of the mystery story, but readers will be impressed with Hyzy's easy familiarity with range procedures and etiquette.
Hyzy also writes short fiction in both the mystery and science fiction genres and has another book series which stars investigative television reporter Alex St. James in a Chicago setting. I'm also pleased to tell you Hyzy is a two-time graduate of the Second Amendment Foundation's Firearms & Fiction Seminars. She came at the behest of her friend and fellow writer Michael Black (whose somewhat tougher novels you could also put on your reading list) and the first time she came instructors were moved to vote her our first and only Miss Congeniality-she had an infectious thirst for information in the classroom and a willingness to try everything-over and over again!-at the range. It's impossible not to like Julie Hyzy personally, and I think you'll enjoy meeting her on the page as well.
Reading from the Web Books recommended by womenandguns.com message board users. (NF) denotes non-fiction, (F) fiction.
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Some people cringe
at the thought of "summer reading lists." I, however,
am not one of them. I love reading and am pretty well convinced
that if I hadn't been taught first to read, and then to enjoy
reading by my parents, I would be quite a different person.
I washed
my hair and gave her directions. We had a nice long lunch on
the veranda of a now-defunct restaurant and then she came back
to the office where I had made sure to clean up and arrange my
desk in what I thought was an insightful manner.
What
started as a personal journey for Nancy Floyd has become a 16-year
odyssey of wider discovery. She has traveled quite a bit, using
her summer's to visit such places as the Cody Museum in Wyoming,
Annie Oakley sites around the country, sport shooting venues
and anyplace a good photograph could be had. When I asked Floyd
how she got so many different women in so many places to pose
for her, she said it evolved as one subject introduced her to
another or recommended another type of shooting she should explore,
so that she was able to network her way throughout the country.
Ricochet,
Confessions of a Gun Lobbyist by Richard Feldman. Wiley, wiley.com,
304 pages, hardcover, $24.95. 
The worst was sometimes
one and the same.
State of the Onion
Hyzy also has either
imagined or knows a great deal about the workings of the White
House kitchen, preparations for a State Dinner and the business
of being a chef. Details seem plausible, even to this occasional
cook. As a bonus the book contains a Presidential Menu for breakfast,
lunch and dinner, with surprisingly easy-to-follow recipes which
don't require exotic ingredients. You might want to try Matchstick
Vegetables with a Kick-a spicy cross between stir fry and cole
slaw or maybe indulge in Crisp Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies.
