> [mailto:MICHAEL.FINN1@us.army.mil]Sent: Tue 1/19/2010 10:57 AM
> To: Patrick, Brian
> Subject: Love Your Book! (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: FOUO
>
> Dr. Patrick:
>
> I am the new gun culture you described and I absolutely loved
> "Rise of
> the Anti-Media." Equally love your motto: "Let's talk." So I
> offer the
> following comments and questions (not expecting you to answer any
> or all
> of these directly, just wanted to respond) in that spirit. Just so
> youknow my demographics, I am a mid-fifties civil service lawyer,
> married29 years to a law school classmate with 3 adult offspring
> (all college
> grads), an Army reservist with multiple combat tours over halfway
> through my fourth decade of service, and a fervent gun culture
> warrior:"first-wave" CHL, NRA Benefactor, life member of SAF, GOA,
> JPFO, and my
> state organization, Texas State Rifle Association. I signed my
> kids up
> as NRA lifers in 1994 at the height of our troubles when the Clinton
> "It's a crime, Bill" crime bill loomed. All three kids seem
> inoculatedagainst anti-gun propaganda, even with one in grad school
> in California
> and one in the film world in New York. The third is an active duty
> Armyofficer and remains my shooting partner as recently as this week.
>
> 1. You opened my eyes to the different characteristics of gun culture
> versus gun grabbers. Before this book and your previous book on the
> NRA, I believed that while the anti-gun crowd enjoyed more top-down
> grant money as well as media support, we were essentially two teams of
> roughly similar size and organization, eternally squared off against
> each other in what I saw as a rear-guard, forlorn hope that just
> neededto be fought. What you bring is very, very good news
> indeed. So my
> first concern regards how we keep or improve the status quo with
> the gun
> culture as communities and the anti-gunners as professional, vertical
> organizations without members. Breaking this down,...
>
> a. What chance do you see that the anti-gun organizations will
> takeyour message to heart and attempt to organize in our fashion?
> (I realize
> you will probably be ignored or demonized by them, or a combination of
> both, but I worry about this stuff.)
>
> b. With concealed carry on the rise, how do we the good guys (you
> know who I mean) keep up the momentum? I realize we have a few
> statesleft needing CHL, and need improvements to each state's laws
> to smooth
> out the compromises required for initial passage, but how does the gun
> culture maintain the cohesion and power you describe if we reach a
> stagewhere we no longer see ourselves as constantly isolated,
> demonized, and
> insulted by the media and the elites? I see potential offensive
> fightsfor open carry, (more to keep the bad guys on the defense,
> see how they
> like it, than as a requirement for self-defense) nation-wide CHL
> reciprocity, repeal of the 1986 new machinegun ban, and fierce
> fights in
> the blue states for what we in the real America already have, with the
> ultimate goal of uniform Alaska- or Vermont-style laws nationwide.
> Thecurrent administration, even with the fear it engenders, has not
> yetassaulted our gun rights, and gun organization fund raising
> using the
> specter of Obama is beginning to seem somewhat strident and contrived,
> even while gun sales continue at record levels. In light of the ideas
> you bring, how do we stay on the attack and avoid complacency?
>
> 2. I would have liked to have heard more about the conversion of the
> old gun culture into the new gun culture. As a reasonably aware
> teenager in the late sixties, I was as politically ignorant as the
> restof the gun culture at the time. (I had participated in NRA
> marksmanshipearlier, but lived then in New York City where my
> father was stationed,
> obviously without owning guns.) As the debate over guns heated up and
> Johnson rammed through the Gun Control Act of 1968, (GCA 68) I
> viscerally disagreed with the increasing tempo of the "guns are evil"
> theme the media employed more and more, but naively believed that
> GCA 68
> would be a grand compromise that would put the whole gun issue to bed,
> and so not worth opposing. Imagine my shock and sense of betrayal
> whenthe anti-gun crowd was back before the ink dried on the bill
> demandingthat we now do something about those pesky "Saturday Night
> Specials."And then cop-killer bullets, plastic guns, assault
> weapons, ad nauseam.
> From that time on, I realized that we were in for a tremendous fight
> worth fighting no matter how overmatched we seemed at times. My
> position regarding any anti-gunners' initiatives remains what Groucho
> sang, "No matter what it is or who commenced it, I'm against it, I'm
> against it."
>
> a. How do you like the following theory of the "perfect storm"
> thatset the elites and media on their virulently anti-gun course,
> and we in
> opposition, in the sixties? First, the amenability to administrative
> control of the population caused by mobilization in World War II
> and the
> Cold War thereafter (the post-war Tennessee revolt of armed veterans
> being the exception that proves the rule.) It is hard to believe now
> that the same polls that you so ably undercut suggested back then that
> we wanted subordination of our sovereignty to the UN, UN armies and
> oversight, so universal personal disarmament is a logical subset.
> Second, the extension of the polis to cities and suburbia outgrew the
> Aristotelian republic ideal, and thus even the "right people" weren't
> sufficiently known to each other to allow them to carry concealed, or
> even own guns for that matter. Finally, the increase in crime, and
> evenmore so, the increase in the perception of crime and riots
> generated by
> the media, highlighted the increasing conundrum between disarming the
> public and an ever-increasing perceived need for self-defense. With
> these three simultaneous goings-on (can't use "movements" since I read
> the book) The old gun culture was mugged by reality.
>
> b. I was on active duty during the Cincinnati revolt of 1977 and
> remember the relief I felt that the organization was going in the
> direction I agreed with, not the backpacking club for which they spent
> ungodly amounts of my money to purchase Whittington Center in New
> Mexico. On several occasions since, we have had to defend and
> reinforcethe Cincinnati reforms to keep NRA on track. While you
> correctlymentioned Harlon Carter as an architect of the new gun
> culture political
> approach, perhaps space did not permit mention of Neal Knox, who
> essentially played Trotsky to Carter's Stalin (continuing the Soviet
> analogy you began with Ms. Hammer.) While he was expelled into the
> wilderness, not murdered with an ax, Knox' ideas as expressed in his
> columns, currently in book form, are the ones that underpin our
> advances. In particular, he pioneered the no-compromise approach,
> whichled to our temporary defeat and ultimate victory on the
> assault weapon
> ban.
>
> 3. Are you familiar with the novels of Stephen Hunter, the
> Ur-storyteller of the new gun culture? If not, I would particularly
> commend Point of Impact (now the movie "Shooter") and the new I,
> Sniper,which came out when your book did. Interestingly, Stephen
> Hunterenjoyed a pilgrim's progress toward right gun thinking
> similar to what
> you describe in a couple of places, since in a collection of his
> earlierfilm criticism called Violent Screen, he called for
> "sensible" bans on
> assault weapons. No longer.
>
> 4. While I think you touched on the words when you discussed Cornell,
> one more dimension to the impetus toward practicing concealed carry
> thatneeds emphasis is duty. I carry not just because I can (like a
> doglicking himself) but because as a trained, experienced person who
> actually has swapped lead on foreign shores, I consider it my duty
> to be
> prepared to use those skills instantly if needed, just like the church
> lady in Colorado. I am willing to endure the inconvenience of
> bureaucracy, the physical and clothing hassle of carrying, and the
> potential litigation consequences of having to use a weapon. Being a
> Federal employee, I cannot carry at work, but do so everywhere
> else.
>
> 5. This may seem too forward, but for your next work, I would be
> honored to review the manuscript for use of words and other items
> whichspell-check does not catch. I'm somewhat anal retentive that
> way, which
> might prove useful for getting your message out.
>
> Again, Dr. Patrick, thank you for your magnificent books. I can't
> remember the last time I stayed up late to read and re-read a
> non-fiction work, marked and made notes in it, without it being needed
> for a class. Or got so many new and exciting ideas. In a recent
> emailto a friend despondent about the course our country is
> following, I
> recommended your books.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Mike
> Michael P. Finn
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: FOUO
From: "Patrick, Brian"
Date: Thursday, January 21, 2010 11:10
Subject: RE: Love Your Book! (UNCLASSIFIED)
To: "Finn, Michael P CIV USA FORSCOM"
> Michael:
>
> Thank you for your marvelous letter.
>
> I had been waiting for a time to compose a suitable reply, then
> realized that if followed this course, you might not get any reply.
> So here is what I can repsond with at the moment (my semester just
> began). In no particular order, then:
>
> Re gun grabbers adopting horizontal means. I think they will do
> their best to simulate them, like the phantom moms march and moving
> onto facebook, but these will only fool the mass media audience,
> and have little durable effect. My belief is by association,
> example and in-formation new gun culture will continue advance
> vine like--you don't actually see a vine grow, but in a relatively
> short time, it covers the trellis.
>
> Re Hunter -- I like his stuff, and read "Point of Impact" when it
> was given to me a a gunsmith friend several years back "Ur story
> teller" is apt. I did not know about his "sensible" ban stuff or
> earlier years, but am not surprised to see the direction of his
> evolution. I like his Swaggert family.
>
> I probably should have gone into Knox. I met his sons at the Gun
> Policy Conference in St Louis back in October) and plan to write a
> review soon of the posthumous book. they have published of his
> writings. I have no excuse for omission other than feeling
> pressured to make a manageable narrative.
>
> re 2a, I am still thinking. Interesting ideas. But some sort of
> bedrock hermeneutic shift in US culture seems to have happened in
> depression/WWII and the 1950s. I am not sure what, exactly. I've
> been pondering , believe it or not, C.G. Jung's last book, the one
> on UFOs, and wondering about "visionary rumors" that Jung talks
> about. Actually I have been thinking of writing an article
> analyzing the Obama phenomenon as a UFO, a visionary rumor
> experienced in times of troubled collective unconsciousness. Much
> of that UFO hysteria stuff had to do with the delivery of
> overarching panaceas from giant administrative powers in the sky
> (latter popularized into entertainments like "The Day the Earth
> Stood Still" and the various "Star Trek" series. People seem to
> await the big intervention. It's difficult for any true,
> earthbound voluntary association to compete with this cargo cult
> mentality--and which makes new gun culture appear all the more
> impressive in its accomplishments.
>
> I am presently working on what will be my third book, "The Ten
> Commandments of Propaganda" (Actually, there are eleven, but one
> of the commandments calls for propaganda to reflect values /ideas
> that are already in people's heads. The book is my attempt to
> systematize what I think I know about propaganda/social control.
> Are you interested in this kind of thing?
>
> Thank you again for your most encouraging letter--and I am pleased
> to digitally meet you. We will talk more, I hope.
>
> BAP
>
Date: Thursday, January 21, 2010 11:10
Subject: RE: Love Your Book! (UNCLASSIFIED)
To: "Finn, Michael P CIV USA FORSCOM"
> Michael:
>
> Thank you for your marvelous letter.
>
> I had been waiting for a time to compose a suitable reply, then
> realized that if followed this course, you might not get any reply.
> So here is what I can repsond with at the moment (my semester just
> began). In no particular order, then:
>
> Re gun grabbers adopting horizontal means. I think they will do
> their best to simulate them, like the phantom moms march and moving
> onto facebook, but these will only fool the mass media audience,
> and have little durable effect. My belief is by association,
> example and in-formation new gun culture will continue advance
> vine like--you don't actually see a vine grow, but in a relatively
> short time, it covers the trellis.
>
> Re Hunter -- I like his stuff, and read "Point of Impact" when it
> was given to me a a gunsmith friend several years back "Ur story
> teller" is apt. I did not know about his "sensible" ban stuff or
> earlier years, but am not surprised to see the direction of his
> evolution. I like his Swaggert family.
>
> I probably should have gone into Knox. I met his sons at the Gun
> Policy Conference in St Louis back in October) and plan to write a
> review soon of the posthumous book. they have published of his
> writings. I have no excuse for omission other than feeling
> pressured to make a manageable narrative.
>
> re 2a, I am still thinking. Interesting ideas. But some sort of
> bedrock hermeneutic shift in US culture seems to have happened in
> depression/WWII and the 1950s. I am not sure what, exactly. I've
> been pondering , believe it or not, C.G. Jung's last book, the one
> on UFOs, and wondering about "visionary rumors" that Jung talks
> about. Actually I have been thinking of writing an article
> analyzing the Obama phenomenon as a UFO, a visionary rumor
> experienced in times of troubled collective unconsciousness. Much
> of that UFO hysteria stuff had to do with the delivery of
> overarching panaceas from giant administrative powers in the sky
> (latter popularized into entertainments like "The Day the Earth
> Stood Still" and the various "Star Trek" series. People seem to
> await the big intervention. It's difficult for any true,
> earthbound voluntary association to compete with this cargo cult
> mentality--and which makes new gun culture appear all the more
> impressive in its accomplishments.
>
> I am presently working on what will be my third book, "The Ten
> Commandments of Propaganda" (Actually, there are eleven, but one
> of the commandments calls for propaganda to reflect values /ideas
> that are already in people's heads. The book is my attempt to
> systematize what I think I know about propaganda/social control.
> Are you interested in this kind of thing?
>
> Thank you again for your most encouraging letter--and I am pleased
> to digitally meet you. We will talk more, I hope.
>
> BAP
>
>
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