John Ross (author)

John Franklin Ross
Born (1957-06-17) June 17, 1957
Alma mater Amherst College
Notable works Unintended Consequences

John Franklin Ross (born June 17, 1957) is a gun rights activist, author of the underground bestselling novel Unintended Consequences, author of a regular column on the Internet, and was the Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in 1998 in Missouri's 2nd congressional district.[1]

Unintended Consequences

Unintended Consequences is a controversial novel that mixes real events with fiction. These events portray a continuing oppression of the American gun culture that, the author believes, has occurred since the passage of the National Firearms Act of 1934, which made it a federal offense to possess a machine gun, short-barreled rifle, short-barreled shotgun, or silencer without first paying a $200 fee to the United States Treasury.

The cover of the book shows a woman dressed as Lady Justice being menaced by a heavily armed agent of the ATF; it contains several scenes of graphic sex and violence. The book has been repeatedly confiscated in Canada by customs officials. The publisher no longer ships copies of the book to Canada as a result.[2]

Its thesis, as discussed in the Author's Note - A Warning and Disclaimer, is that hostile bullying by a government will cause a revolt, and the revolt will be successful if the area involved is large enough, the area has a sufficiently distinct culture, and the rebels use low-tech leaderless resistance.

Lacking any advertising or promotion in the mainstream book industry, the novel has remained a top seller on Amazon.com since it came out in 1996. Its sales largely have been either at gun shows or through online book retailers such as Amazon.com. It has sold briskly at gun shows but is generally not sold at traditional bookstores. (As of June 2009, the price for a new copy hovers around $120 and even used ones are priced at over $50 on auction sites because the publisher is almost sold out.)[3]

In 2000, Ross had his lawyer write a letter to the ATF claiming that their agents harassed him for writing his book, threatened vendors for selling his book and approached his "amicably separated" wife to elicit information against him.[4]

.500 S&W Magnum Special Edition

In 2007, Ross designed a version of the S&W .500 Magnum revolver so as to make it more suitable to his needs and Smith & Wesson produced 500 of these John Ross Performance Center 5" handguns. It is a pound lighter than the standard version and produces even more power due to tighter barrel/cylinder tolerances. It produces more power per pound of gun weight than any repeating handgun ever made.[5]

Other activities and personal life

Ross is the grandson of Charles Ross, who was the Sixth White House Press Secretary, serving under President Harry Truman.

Ross supported a Concealed Carry law passed in Missouri in 2003.[6]

He was the Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in 1998 in Missouri's 2nd congressional district, billing himself as a "Pre-Roosevelt Democrat," which, as he defined it, was "a Democrat without the Socialism." He received 28.3% of the vote, losing to Republican incumbent James Talent.[7]

In 2000, Ross appeared under his own name in the independent film Defiance, where he played the part of a gun dealer in a small western town in 1876.

In October 2000, he had a stroke and was incapacitated for a few weeks. He has made a complete recovery and now lives in St. Louis, Missouri, where he writes, does investment consulting, schedules fee-based speaking engagements, and runs night classes for Concealed Weapons licensing.[8]

Ross wrote a semi-regular Internet column called "Ross In Range," where he discussed topics that interest him. A recurring theme is understanding and coping with women.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Missouri Digital News. 1998 Election Results.
  2. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions". John-ross.net. Archived from the original on 2014-12-04. Retrieved 2014-07-31.
  3. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions". John-ross.net. Archived from the original on 2014-12-04. Retrieved 2014-07-31.
  4. ↑ Jeffired, James III, Letter to Honorable Bradley A. Buckles, Director, ATF at the Wayback Machine (archived August 17, 2007). This letter is available at the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership Web site.
  5. ↑ Thompson, Leroy. "The John Ross S&W Performance Center 5" .500 Magnum". GunBlast.com. Retrieved 22 October 2010.
  6. ↑ Patrick, Brian Anse (2010). Rise of the Anti-media: In-forming America's Concealed Weapon Carry Movement. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 129–130. ISBN 978-0-7391-1886-3.
  7. ↑ Archived January 5, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions". John-ross.net. Archived from the original on 2014-12-04. Retrieved 2014-07-31.
  9. ↑ Archived February 5, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.