Ryan Busse joins the show this week to talk about his transformation from Kimber sales executive to Giffords senior advisor.
Busse spent decades in the firearms industry but left last year and has now published a tell-all book slamming his former employer, Kimber, and many former colleagues. Kimber has since denounced him, and many I’ve spoken to in the gun-rights movement have questioned how important he was to the company and the industry as a whole. Still, his book has received a great deal of attention throughout the media.
After reading the entire book, I feel it has many flaws common to the tell-all genre. It decries the excesses of the gun industry while extolling Busse’s rise inside of it. Additionally, the book condemns how some in the gun-rights movement demonize those on the other side, but it often does the same thing in the other direction.
To his credit, Busse was willing to come on the show knowing he would face difficult questions. He responded to each of my critiques with his thoughts. And, he challenged me on several points as well.
I strongly believe in having conversations with those from all sides who are willing to have them. And Busse’s critiques aren’t all without merit.
I did my best to avoid a cable-news-style shouting match. Instead, I think we did a good job of not talking over one another. I much prefer having an exchange of ideas where each person can actually present their thoughts in their own words rather than being interrupted.
Of course, even an hour isn’t nearly enough time to discuss everything in Busse’s book. I know there were points where I wish I’d made one point or another. I’m sure Busse feels the same way too.
But, I think the conversation was worthwhile, and people ought to read the book so they can judge for themselves.
Plus, Jake Fogleman and I discuss how Democrats have begun to endorse the model set by the Texas abortion law. Except, they want to apply it to gun-control laws. We talk about how that could end up.
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3 Responses
Well I listened, I have to give you credit for being polite. I think you summed up his book quite well in the beginning. I find myself interested in how Mr. Busse’s leaving Kimber occurred. Kimber makes no AR’s and only his version of “Good Guns” seems suspicious that he was going to change things from inside that company. I also found his comments on AR’s a bit weird when he’s talking about some discussion of 3rd burst and Fully auto AR15’s. He didn’t seem to know much about what he was objecting to. It seems the book was written to cater to his new employer and he filibustered when challenged.
Well done with the interview, you were polite without being obsequious.
Thank you for the candid feedback. I really appreciate it. I did my best to be respectful while not granting agreement in areas where I didn’t agree. Hopefully, that came across.
It wasn’t perfect of course. There were moments where I would’ve added or changed something.
The section where we discuss ARs was a bit muddled for instance. I should have mentioned the obvious difference between the semi-automatic AR-15 and fully-automatic M-16/M-4. I was speaking about the platform generally there.
I took Mr. Busse to be referring to how the NFA regulated and the FOPA later banned sales of fully-automatic ARs. But, I don’t know for sure.
But, I think it was a valuable discussion overall.
You did as well as could be. A lot of his comments read as what came 1st Chicken or Egg. I agree that the NRA does us all a disservice when it turns itself into a mouthpiece for a party/side in issues outside it’s purview like Vaccine Mandates and Border security, that said the Democratic party has been running against the NRA since before Clinton at least. He chooses to see the NRA actions as the cause where an equal argument could be an effect of Dem actions.
I thought the racism aspect he referenced was also thin, I’m not sure what he thought the exhibiters at Shot Show were supposed to do if some Moron came in with a racist shirt on. It seemed a convenient anecdote to throw mud on his former industry.