Book Review: The Rookie’s Guide to Guns & Shooting: Handgun Edition by Tom McHale
Disclaimer: I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it.
This is one of a series of “Insanely Practical Guides” on firearms and related matters. This volume primarily focuses on handguns, with brief sections on longer guns.
The parts of the book that are directly about guns, gun-related accessories and shooting are excellent. A strong emphasis is placed on safety and proper care for your weapons. From my experience with firearms, all important areas are covered well
Unfortunately, the author has really obvious political beliefs, and thinks he is much funnier than he actually is. There are many supposed jokes that are cheap jabs at a handful of politicians, bad puns and one or two jokes that were funny the first time but rapidly wear thin.
As a result, the sections on the history of firearms and the Second Amendment are nigh-useless. The latter is told as a “parable” that reduces the issue to gibberish. The book would have been much better served by a sober discussion of Second Amendment issues and why some people have legitimate reasons to consider gun control a good thing.
The author also heavily shills for the National Rifle Association, dismissing their leadership’s shady tactics with “If you have a disagreement whether your spouse drank the last bit of apple juice, do you leave them forever?” Mind, your local chapter of the NRA is probably good folks that aren’t fanatically opposed to sane legal restrictions on firearms, but the national leadership is not so likable.
The heavy jabs at current politicians and pop culture references make it likely that this book will become swiftly dated, and opaque to people outside the United States. It’s unlikely to convince someone who’s on the fence about gun ownership that such would be a good idea.
There are plenty of illustrations, the ones of guns and gun accessories are helpful, the “cartoons” fall flat. There are also several typos, including apostrophe abuse.
I’d recommend for future editions, if any, that the politics and “humor” be cut back considerably in favor of more solid information, which is what the book does best.
