Thank God I Had a Gun by Chris Bird, Suzanna (FWD) Hupp (2006, Paperback)

I found the book to be very insightful and easy to read, it points out several factors. 1). Having a weapon to defend yourself is becoming more of a necessity as our society becomes more crowed, more violent and more forgiving of crime. 2). I found the book important because it points out the need for anyone who chooses to have a weapon to obtain training on how and when to deploy it. 3). The book also points out the victims of crime are often over looked and the criminal is focused on to make sure they were treated fairly. This mentality of overtly protecting the rights of the criminal often leads to further victimization of the citizen who has been brutalized enough. I bought the book so anyone I know that would like to hear about the side we never hear about could read it, I only wish that more of the 2.5 million stories of self defense that occur every year could be heard both in this book and the main stream media. I feel the author did a good job of just reporting what happened and not slanting the story. It tells a cautionary tale of falling victim to the "Police will protect me mentality", I have been a Police Officer, self defense instructor and currently work training the police, the first thing most police officers will tell you is we no longer protect we investigate, catch the perpetrator (sometimes) and send them to jail to be released to soon back to society having been through the "Gladiator Academy" to be better criminals.
I highly recommend reading this and leave you with this thought, Police response times vary, on average though you have somewhere between 4-15 minutes alone with a criminal before the Police can arrive to protect you.

Stories seemed real life, and a lot of useful info. Like the way the stories were told in great detail

I started this book and couldn't put it down! It covered many situations people have been in and have had to defend themselves or others. I live in Tyler, where one of the incidents occured. I remember it well. The chapter on that incident really put in in perspective for me. Great job Chris Bird, well written!