2nd Amendment Media’s Carry Gun Companion
Whitman Publishing’s 2nd Amendment Media has added another title to their bookshelf of CCW resources. Their trio of Legally Armed, Armed & Smart, and Armed & Smarter provide concise state-by-state summaries of gun laws and discussion of basic and advanced CCW topics, respectively. Their Red Book of Carry Gun Values lets owners and prospective buyers find out what a carry gun is worth in various conditions. The latest edition that we had a chance to take a look at, the Carry Gun Companion, takes things in a little bit of a different direction.
The Carry Gun Companion is a deceptively-thin 190 page compilation of discussion of concealed carry topics followed by over a hundred pages of carry gun porn – something most firearms enthusiasts can appreciate. You won’t have to lie about “just reading the articles,” though; each photo of the almost five dozen popular carry guns (complete with stats including size, weight, capacity, MSRP and street price, trigger pull, and turn-ons. Ok, we made up that last one) is accompanied by a write-up detailing the firearm’s features and available options that make it a desirable carry piece. The publishers know what you’re after, though – what else would explain why the page number in the index points to the photo for each firearm rather than the write-up on the preceding page.
Although the Carry Gun Companion is, of course, by no means an exhaustive list of carry guns, it does contain all but one of the CCW pistols (or a comparable model) that I have carried and many that I have only drooled over. The accompanying article with each firearm is descriptive and gives the type of general information that “gun guys and gals” will like without geeking out so much that the casual firearm enthusiast’s eyes will gloss over.
The 60-odd pages that make up “The Archive” portion of the book include a history of US gun laws – including the origins of the Second Amendment and its current status – as well as devoting a few pages each to a number of topics of interest to gun owners, including politics, types of firearms and ammunition and basic firearm maintenance and safety.
In the introduction, the editors say that their mission was to “produce a collection of information related to all aspects of the concealed carry world, including close looks at specific popular handguns but also exploring the ideological terrain surrounding the guns themselves.” It seems like they met that goal with the Carry Gun Companion. Whether you are going to use it as a coffee table book to pick up and read when there is nothing on television, a bathroom reader, or a basic guide on what your next carry gun will be, this is a fun little book.