Like most of the gun blogging community, I became aware of Emily Miller when she started her series “Emily Gets Her Gun” in the Washington Times. I heard her the first time on Kenn Blanchard’s podcast, and I finally saw her at the Gun Rights Policy Conference in Orlando in 2012. In each venue, I heard variations of the same theme. Emily Miller is what we need in our community. Someone who has been through the insanity imposed on us by our opponents, and is a writer in the mainstream media. Then last year, I read that Ms. Miller was collecting her series into a book. What she actually produced was Emily Gets Her Gun: …But Obama Wants To Take Yours.

This is a book with two intertwined narratives. The first is the ordeal Emily went through in order to get her own, legally-owned, pistol. The second is a review of the gun control battles post-Newtown through mid-summer of 2013 (when the book was published). Together, they combine to give the reader an excellent primer on the current state of the gun control battle, as well as the insanity that is being forced upon many gun owners just to possess a gun.

For those unaware of Ms. Miller’s story, she decided to get a gun after a home invasion when she was house sitting for some friends. After discussing it with her editors, Ms. Miller began to document her experience in getting a gun in Washington, DC through a series of articles in the Washington Times. What she found was a series of steps (most documented, but some missing and/or outdated) that could have only been born from sheer incompetence or to discourage the average citizen from getting a firearm. The book makes the case for the latter, especially considering that the police officials that were supposed to assist in the process were not knowledgeable and/or apathetic. Partly due to the light Ms. Miller shone on the onerous process, the DC authorities shortened the process (eleven steps instead of the seventeen previously).

Ms. Miller’s personal sojourn to get her pistol is interspersed in the book with an explanation of the larger gun control debate, particularly the post-Newtown fight. The book recounts how in the wake of a horrific tragedy, gun owners were forced to defend their rights against a coordinated onslaught led primarily by (thankfully former) New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Mayors Against Illegal Guns organization and the Obama administration. Ms. Miller also explains why the measures being supported by MAIG and the administration were less than worthless in stopping either a Sandy Hook-type attack or the more common criminals.

Overall, Emily Gets Her Gun would be a book that I would give to someone who is just getting into the gun rights movement or who needs a good explanation of why we fight and the stupidity of the restrictions that our opponents demand.

Full Disclosure: I was contacted by the publisher and received a free review copy.