Fiction is often described as "gripping, edge-of-your-seat, pulse-pounding, suspenseful and riveting." Robert A. Water's new book, "The Best Defense" is not fiction, but it is certainly riveting. It is a series of true stories about people who defended themselves with a firearm from violent attack.

Some stories are downright humorous as when four would-be bank robbers in Mississippi bungle a bank job. A quote from a Mississippi state trooper puts the Keystone-Robbers' story in a nutshell, "It's just like these Grenada boys to bring a two-door sedan to a four man bank robbery." Although the actions of the criminals were life-threatening to those in the bank, one cannot help laughing at their bungled attempts to escape the bank manager who kept a gun in the drawer of his desk.

But this is not a book about stupid criminals. There is the story of spree killer, Jerry Hessler, who methodically went to the house of everyone he perceived had wronged him over the years. He murdered whole families, until he came to the house of one family who was ready for him. A chapter called "Death of a Serial Killer" is more frightening than the pages of any horror or suspense novel because the reader realizes that every word is true. When Wayne Nance bursts into the home of Kris and Doug Wells, he does so with an evil, murderous and real intent. His deadly goals are nearly realized.

This book is a much needed recounting of personal stories, annecdotes to convince all but the most blinded gun control advocate that guns have a place in our society. At the end of the book, there is only one conclusion a reader can draw: without the right to carry a gun, every intended victim (and thousands of others across the United States) would be dead and their assailants would be walking the streets looking for new victims.

The stories in "The Best Defense" are well document, intelligently written and imminently readable. Mr. Waters does a masterful job in bringing the reader to an understanding of the importance of individual gun ownership to individual safety. Indeed, for Mr. Waters, gun ownership is not merely a constitutional, but a practical matter. Statistics show that violent crime in states with right to carry laws is lower than in states without it. Psychological studies have shown that criminals are less likely to perform violent acts on persons known to own a gun or in areas where gun ownership is high.

The firearm has been called the great equalizer. In the same way "The Best Defense" is an equalizer, a bullet to the heart of the mistaken notion that guns are harmful to society.

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Read a short biography of Robert A. Waters