The New York Review of Magazines

Guns & Weapons for Law Enforcement

By Corey Pein

MANY gun magazines read like any other hobby magazine, only with more deer. Not Guns & Weapons for Law Enforcement, a product of Harris Publications, the New York niche factory that publishes Guitar World and Quilt. This eight-issues-ayear magazine is all about “stopping power.” Without enough stopping power, the magazine recently explained,“we must wait for ‘hydraulic failure,’ the dropping of the target’s blood pressure to levels too low for him to continue to function.”

In short, you probably need a gun that can kill with one shot. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait for the person to bleed to death.

This is a magazine for those cops whose vision of public service mirrors Jerry Bruckheimer’s. Lethalness and courage are the prime virtues; might does not merely make, but is of itself, right. Closer inspection reveals a second, and possibly larger, audience: would-be or has-been cops. They are those whom the magazine describes with a wink as “legally armed civilians,” those who answer the ads for fake badges and bogus concealed-weapons permits. They are angry and poor; they are looking for a purpose and a scapegoat. As David Neiwert showed in his book “In God’s Country,” these men are desperate and, ultimately, sad.

I know these men because I grew up with them, in a tiny Washington state town that was full of guns. These weapons are useful for hunting bucks and fending off interlopers, both human and coyote. But even in the boondocks, firearms connote violent crime. I remember when a classmate’s father, a cop, was shot by a drug dealer at a sleazy motor inn.

Nearly every American town has a similar story, and Guns & Weapons—with a circulation of 83,000—targets the friends of all fallen lawmen. I think the magazine makes money by sowing paranoia in order to boost the sales of its true patrons, the gun manufacturers. Readers’ legitimate fears are exaggerated and given forms suitable for target practice.

In the 1960s, the John Birch Society gained uniformed followers across the nation with the line, “Support your local police.” But where the Birchers’ mouthpiece The New American distrusts government power, Guns & Weapons embraces the rise of police militarization that began with the war on drugs and continues with the war on terror. A 2002 issue of The New American devoted itself entirely to denouncing “The Rising Police State,” which Guns & Weapons represents with pride.

In the April 2004 issue (all examples here are from that issue), a former federal agent argues that police ought to be conditioned to kill just as soldiers are. The guest editorial—illustrated with a bloody chalk outline—concludes, “[T]hrough New Age influences, the natural combativeness and competitiveness of many of our youth has been stifled and candidates arriving for police training have never been in a physical fight. Peaceful resolution has its place in society, but in the age of the Taliban and al Qaeda, there is no second place.”

They are just about everywhere. The magazine’s sights fall first on “bad guys” and “the criminal,” who “despises everyone else’s right to live, except his own.” There is an undertone of xenophobia—and a high ratio of mustaches. The only non-white face pictured is that of an Asian gunman on a target, buckshot through his neck, heart and stomach. Illegal immigrants—or “anyone who can pass for being a Mexican”—and “Middle Eastern types” are also objects of suspicion.

The magazine’s political propaganda serves to enhance its bottom line. I counted only four pieces in an eighty-page issue that weren’t sales pitches dressed up as feature stories, advice columns or product reviews. Writers never speak ill of the merchandise and tend to use the hyperbole of hucksterism. “You can’t afford to miss out” on two new rifles. A new model Taser would impress Mr. Spock. A couple of guns are “perfect” or close to it. Every new product is a problem solved.

And almost every article follows the same format. “YOU’RE SHOT—TRAFFIC STOP GONE BAD: How You Could Have Saved Yourself,” teases the cover. Inside, the author spins tales of preventable disasters, of officers who got shot because overly heavy equipment weighed them down. It turns out that you can save your life by wearing lighter holsters, body armor and batons. And you’re in luck: Several companies, listed in a sidebar for your convenience, happen to sell this stuff.

I don’t, however, think the magazine is entirely cynical. The writers can convey a sincerity too pure to fabricate. “My rule of thumb is that if you are going to carry a gun, you should also carry a knife,” begins one review. “Carrying a gun means that you have an occupation or a lifestyle that puts you in harm’s way. Certainly this could apply to everyone who lives in our country in the New Millennium, but many prefer to ignore this, so I will not direct this at them.”

Such attitudes should even interest those who don’t know a .40-caliber from a 12- gauge. Some readers are, after all, actual police officers.

The last page features “Police Stories,” where we are reminded what hydraulic failure looks like. This time, we get a Midwestern domestic-violence call, involving a crack-smoking wife-beater and a chrome-plated 9-millimeter. The crackhead raised his weapon and was immediately filled with bullets. He fell, but he held onto his gun. Two more shots. “One round hit him in the throat, and the other hit him in the eye. That did it!”

The officer continued: “As it turns out, the suspect never fired a round. His pistol had a fully charged magazine inserted, but there was no round in the chamber. Either through ignorance or carelessness, he had not loaded his pistol. He brought a club to a gunfight. Shame on him. He won’t have the opportunity to make that mistake again!” No sir.

For your $5, here are the lessons: quick lateral movements can win a gunfight, and, “deadly force should always be applied with surgical precision but also with great enthusiasm, sufficient volume, and without hesitation or apology.”