Josh Sugarmann’s book on NRA misses the target

NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION: Money, Firepower, Fear, by Josh Sugarmann, National Press Books Inc., Washington, D.C., $19.95.

The NRA is made up of some very bad and stupid people, if you believe Josh Sugarmann. Sugarmann is the author of “National Rifle Association: Money, Firepower, Fear.” He also is executive director of the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

Reading this book is risking death by boredom. Neither NRA members nor gun-control advocates are destined to like the book: It does not “expose” the NRA in an unfavorable light, but does take potshots at Handgun Control Inc. and the Brady Bill.

Included, perhaps for entertainment, are insulting adjectives, rehashing of old NRA internal politics, and revolt. Some examples: “irate, orange-capped NRA members,” “extremist dogma,” “brass knuckle political power,” “a fraternity of drunken, fatigue-clad rednecks who, when they aren’t stumbling through the woods in search of Bambi, are home in their bunkers …” and doing God only knows what.

The prose is utilitarian, pedestrian, and not revealing. Subtitles are of the same tenor as those in supermaket pulp papers. The book is a compilation of the same newspaper and TV stories and quotes and HCI cliches that we’ve read and heard for the past 25 or more years, all in 272 long, dull pages. There is absolutely nothing here that has not been said before and far more eloquently.

Depite the aura of being researched, the book is inaccurate in spots. Passages on armor-piercing bullets and plastic guns revive subjects that were presented to Congress by the anti-gun community and which were decided years ago. The size and potency of the 9mm and .38 special are confused by the author, a common sort of occurrence among anti-gun writers and speakers.

Sugarmann quotes “dissident” NRA members described as “life and benefactor members.” That means they have plenty of money for clubs. They think members should pay $100 a year dues and that the legislative arm of the NRA should be disbanded. That they are pictured with skeet guns tells much — it has been HCI’s tactic for years to say how they are not after America’s shotguns.

There is more proof of careless writing: The author leans heavily on footnotes for references, among which are Washington Post articles. The index is sloppily done, tossed together in a rush. Maybe the author had a timetable in mind — one lashed to sessions of Congress?

For $19.95, if what Sarah Brady says is true, the reader might better buy a Saturday Night special. It’s more useful and less deadening to its owner.