…they read as fast as lightning…
Needs some work.
After the jump, some more old gun books, and one new one.
Big Game Rifles and Cartridges, Elmer Keith. Small-Arms Technical Publishing Company, Plantersville, South Carolina, 1936. Riling 2199.
I’ve written a lot about Elmer Keith, and don’t feel a need to repeat myself here. This is actually a duplicate copy of a Samworth I already have in my collection: it has a September 1946 ad page date, which (per Smith) would make it a third impression. It’s pretty nice, with no edge wear that I can see…
…except it doesn’t have a dust jacket.
Side by side by Elmer.
I bought this as trade fodder. It was only $15 (plus tax) at Half-Price Books. As far as I can tell, these two editions are the same (September 1946 ad page, third impression) except for the missing jacket on the second one.
Not duplicates:
Rifles & Rifle Shooting, Charles Askins. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1938. Riling 2737 (but see below).
This is an odd one. Riling lists the original 1912 Outing Publishing Company edition as primary, with a note that it was reprinted in 1946 by Macmillan, but doesn’t list the 1931 (shown on the copyright page) or 1938 reprints. I can’t tell from Riling’s listing if this was issued with or without jacket, but I’m assuming the later printings did have wrappers. Given the original 1912 copyright, I’m pretty sure that this was Major Charles “Bobo” Askins…
Colonel Askins On Pistols & Revolvers, Charles Askins. NRA Publications, Washington, DC, 1980.
This, on the other hand, was written by Col. Charles “Boots” Askins, “Bobo”‘s son, also known as Charles Askins, Jr. It collects various articles on handgun shooting, including “The Revolver vs. The Automatic”, “Old Perennial The .45 Auto”, and some “true” stories about noted gunfighters and gunfights.
Askins Jr. lived from 1907 to 1999, and spent a lot of time on the Southwest border with the Border Patrol. He also served during WWII, “making landings in North Africa, Italy, and on D-day“. He also spent time training South Vietnamese soldiers, and was a serious and skilled competitive shooter and big game hunter.
A thinly disguised version of him shows up in Pale Horse Coming.
These were part of the same Half-Price Books purchase. Rifles and Rifle Shooting was $10 (plus tax) and Pistols and Revolvers was $4.49 (plus tax).
The Deadly Path: How Operation Fast & Furious and Bad Lawyers Armed Mexican Cartels, Peter J. Forcelli and Keelin MacGregor. This is a new book, readily available from Amazon. It was part of my birthday present from Mike the Musicologist.
I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, since I just got it a few days ago. But I’ll quote the jacket copy:
Pete Forcelli was a highly respected federal agent in New York City, where he made an impact on violent crime by successfully targeting some of the city’s most violent street gangs by using federal racketeering and continuing criminal enterprise statutes in conjunction with federal prosecutors. In early 2007, he was promoted to a supervisory position in Phoenix and quickly discovered that federal prosecutors were not charging criminals for violating federal firearms laws, even in instances where they knew guns were being trafficked to ultra-violent drug cartels and then used in crimes that were shocking to the conscience.
When those very same prosecutors spoke about possibly indicting John Dodson, a special agent who blew the whistle on Operation Fast and Furious, Forcelli stepped forward and contacted Congress. Forcelli became a whistleblower himself, detailing how federal prosecutors in Arizona not only failed to prosecute gun traffickers, but allowed a man who was making hundreds of hand grenades for the Sinaloa Cartel to continue his operations unabated for years. At that moment, those prosecutors and officials from the Department of Justice came after him, leading to a nearly four-year battle for Forcelli to clear his name.
Mike says that this book assumes some level of familiarity with Operation Fast and Furious. I don’t expect that to be an issue for anyone who reads my blog or Lawrence’s.
On a tangential side note, speaking of MtM, guns, and people I hope to get a chance to talk to: we’re going to the NRA Annual Meeting in Dallas this year. Not just that, but I got it together to apply for press credentials in advance…
…and the NRA approved my application. I already have a press card, but I plan to print off some more business cards and samples from here before we leave. (The email from the NRA said they wanted to see at least some of this stuff when you arrived to pick up your press pass.)
MtM have already started a list of people and companies we want to visit. I’m not planning to request any T&E items, but if someone makes an offer… (Mike and I met Andrew Gore at the S&WCA Symposium last year, and I’d really like to lay hands on one of those new Lipsey’s J-frames. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t ask Mr. Gore for a T&E gun: I’d buy one outright if I could find one anywhere. My local gun shop has them on order but hasn’t gotten any yet. We went to multiple gun shops in the San Antonio area over the weekend and didn’t see one anywhere.)