Gun Books

I bought a new one yesterday with the aid of a $25 borders gift card I received from my sister. She should be thrilled that I used her card for that. The book is an illustrated gun guide by David Miller, I'll try to get a title and link up as soon as I can.

The good: Lots of great pictures with some decent historical commentary to go along with them. The illustrations are beautiful. Most of the subject choices are quite good, for instance there are three Glocks pictured which vary by frame size and caliber. They also mention a fair number of early designs like the Austrian Roth-Steyr.

The bad: They omit the CZ-75 from the handguns section. Considering how widely copied this pistol is (the Israeli Jericho/Baby Eagle and the Italian made EAA/Tanfoglio Witness are two examples), it deserves at least a passing mention. It is probably one of the most important handguns developed after WWII. I'm sure there are a few more omissions people could argue about, but this was a prominent one.

They also completely botched the M1 Garand and M1 carbine in the rifle section. Both are mentioned together and they describe the Carbine as a miniature Garand. While they look similar and have similar names, the carbine is completely different from the Garand. They use different cartridges, different operating mechanisms, and are intended for different purposes. It is a grievous error.

The ugly: The firearms are broken down by nation of origin. It makes for a pretty muddled narrative. If they had been broken down by date of introduction and then nation, the book would have flowed much better. At the very least, they need to add an index.