John Ross (author)
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John Ross is the grandson of Charles Ross (President Harry Truman's Press Secretary), 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.
[edit] Unintended Consequences
Unintended Consequences is a controversial work of fiction that intermixes real events into the story. These events portray a continuing oppression of the American gun culture that has occurred since the passage of the National Firearms Act of 1934. This Act made it a federal offense for possession of a machine gun, short-barrelled rifle, short-barrelled shotgun, or silencer without first paying a $200 fee to the United States Treasury.
The cover of the book shows a woman dressed as Justice being raped by a heavily armed ATF agent, and the book contains several other scenes of graphic sex and violence. The book has been repeatedly confiscated in Canada by customs. The publisher no longer ships copies of the book to Canada as a result. [1]
Its thesis, as discussed in the Author's Note - A Warning and Disclaimer in the beginning of the book, pp. 9–10, is that enough bullying by what, rightly or wrongly, is perceived as a hostile government will inevitably end in revolt if the area involved is large enough and has a separate enough culture and that this revolt will be undefeatable if the rebels use low-tech resistance.
Lacking any advertising or promotion in the mainstream book industry, this very-lengthy novel has remained a top seller on Amazon.com since it came out in 1996, and it additionally appeals strongly to those who generally do not read novels. Its sales very largely have been either at gun shows or through online book retailers like Amazon.com. It sells very briskly at gun shows whenever a dealer stocks it. It is generally not sold at traditional bookstores. (Retailing it profitably through the Web or mail-order is difficult, due to the unusual length of the book and resulting weight making shipping costs eat up profits.) [2]
Ross was the victim of Federal harassment over his book, which apparently led to his wife leaving him. In October 2000, he had a stroke and was incapacitated for a few weeks. He has made a complete recovery and now lives alone in St. Louis, Missouri, where he writes, does investment consulting, schedules fee-based speaking engagements, and runs night classes for Concealed Weapons licensing. [3]
[edit] Other activities
Getting a Concealed Carry law passed in Missouri in 2003 (and overriding the governor's subsequent veto of it) was a cause that Ross spent a dozen years and tens of thousands of dollars of his own money lobbying for — this despite not personally needing the law, as he is an auxiliary Police Officer and firearms instructor for many Missouri departments.[4]
John Ross 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 put it, was "a Democrat without the Socialism." He lost to Republican incumbent James Talent. [5]
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.
Ross writes a semi-regular Internet column called Ross In Range, where he discusses topics that interest him. A recurring theme is understanding and coping with women. His column, along with the continued success of his book, have garnered him cult status with a devoted and growing group of fans around the world. [6]
