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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Gap fire eclipses 17,500 acres but is slowed by cooler, moist marine air ... Local wineries earn gold ... Voter information for Jackson County ... Gap fire eclipses 17,500 acres but is slowed by cooler, moist marine air ... Local wineries earn gold ... Voter information for Jackson County ... LITERATURE & PUBLIC SAFETY Ashland author's 'Gundown' book suggests firearms fix Comment By John Darling For the Tidings DailyTidings.com By John Darling For the Tidings Posted Sep. 2, 2016 at 3:00 PM By John Darling For the Tidings Posted Sep. 2, 2016 at 3:00 PM 'Gundown' --> An excerpt from 'Gundown': Hank sliced through the noontime trudge of pedestrians on Michigan Avenue. He couldn’t afford to be late for his meeting with the NRA guy, a VP no less. He h... » Read more X 'Gundown' An excerpt from 'Gundown': Hank sliced through the noontime trudge of pedestrians on Michigan Avenue. He couldn’t afford to be late for his meeting with the NRA guy, a VP no less. He had an important mission for Hank. Oh, man, if only this meant a chance to have a life again. Maybe not as a cop anymore, but Hank would give anything to once more have a sense of duty, of purpose. He sure as hell didn’t miss his former life in the army, but he hated not being a cop, sworn to protect and serve. He smacked down a spike of fear that his PTSD would get in his way today—so far, lifted by a rare feeling of well-being, he felt sharp, at his best. This could be his road back. No, a road forward. Damned if he was going to be another digit in veteran suicide stats. » Social News In his new novel “Gundown,” Ashland author Ray Rhamey has a visionary fix for America’s gun problem: arm everyone with little plastic guns that innocent people can use to put violent people to sleep, wrap them with constraining goo or induce confusion. Since the real driver in the explosion of guns is weapon-makers’ need for profit, he says, they can manufacture all these so-called “stoppers” and keep on profiting. Like his protagonist, Rhamey is motivated to put forth solutions to America’s gun problem that everyone can live with. Hunters can still have guns with small magazines but there’s no need for machine guns — and, since everyone would be “armed,” potentially violent criminals would think twice about acting it out. “I’m one person with one vote,” he says. “I want legislation for gun control, but Congress has fear that of retribution by the gun industry and the NRA at the ballot box. Congress is afraid to enact the will of the people or else they believe the people are wrong.” Rahmey says Americans feel they’re out of options, so he wrote his “novel of ideas” to “advise people to think of the problem in new ways,” with states (not Congress) leading the way, as they have on so many other problems. To further his goal, he is giving his book away in e-book form, but as a self-publisher, must charge $9.40 for the hard copy, with no royalty to him. It’s available on Amazon’s Kindle, epub or pdf. He stages his story in Oregon, a free-thinking state that has pioneered much other innovative legislation — and he plans to send the book to lawmakers. The main character is an ex-cop and ex-military policeman with PTSD, a classic “good guy with a gun,” who is brought in to do something about gun reform. One of his ideas is that the state would pay for all the stopper guns that get everyone sort of armed with three gun settings: nap, tangle or whack. Being able to stun or put anyone to sleep also has its downside, but the technology already exists, he says, and isn’t being abused. Rhamey grew up in Texas, armed with plenty of guns, and notes, “I like guns. I just don’t like people who want to kill people. Lethal firearms don’t need to be in our society — or they need to be well-regulated.” Why does America have such a gun problem while scores of other nations don’t? There was a time when we could outlaw machine guns and did but, says Rhamey, “The manufacturers and the NRA have created a story of fear of us all and betrayal by our government. Those fears have led to the strong urge to defend oneself. We believe the only way to defend oneself against a lethal gun is another lethal gun.” From this bind, the industry has created immense profit which it wants to maintain. Pairing with this, in the novel, is reform of the judicial system, which has his characters re-jiggering the Fifth Amendment, so defendants can be compelled to testify against themselves, by simply telling the truth while being “brain fingerprinted.” This is an existing technology, he notes, that tracks brain signals so that if asked if you were at the scene, the brain tracks to that memory and says you were. If not, it shows nothing happening in your brain. It’s considered “due process,” so it meets the test, he says, of the Fifth Amendment’s language. The story is a vision, his book jacket notes, of “turning America’s murderous gun impasse into self-defense, security and safety.” John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at [email protected]. By John Darling For the Tidings DailyTidings.com By John Darling For the Tidings Posted Sep. 2, 2016 at 3:00 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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