Some Background on the “Florida Firearms” book:
by Jon H. Gutmacher, Esq. – author
Some folks have asked me how long it took to write the original “Florida Firearms” book back in 1993? Well, the truth is that it took over three thousand hours of writing and research, over a period of sixteen months. But, what most people don’t realize was that one of the most difficult and time consuming parts of writing the book was figuring out what information to cover, and then – and most difficult – the arrangement of the information after researching it. In essence, what subjects go where. What the chapters will be. What information will go into the chapters. The arrangement of the material inside each chapter. The subjects the chapters must cover. And of course, as time went on and I handled more and more cases, and answered more and more questions – a lot more additional subjects and information were added to the book. In fact, the original book was one hundred and fifteen pages, and now in 2023 runs three hundred thirty one.
So, what do I think of other books, and writings on the areas my book already covers? Well, to a large extent it’s all good. The more you know, the better. Personally, I’ve read quite a few other books and articles by other authors on the subject, thousands of cases, and there’s always something I pick up when reading a new case, or the work of another author. I especially like the works of Masaad Ayoob. We think very much alike, yet not alike. Great stuff. Yet, when books on the same subject closely resemble each other in how the material is arranged – it can raise a question as to whether the latter works have “borrowed” all that background work from the former, and to what extent. Depending on the degree of use, and the amount of reliance – this can be considered a very unfair use of the original work. Likewise, an older book can be used as a “road map” by another author on the same area. In other words, in all these situations the second author saves enormous time and effort by using the original book to determine what subjects must be covered in their newer work, in what order, and in what format. It’s not really fair, but there’s usually nothing illegal in doing that. I guess it all comes under the term “competition”. However, when you’re reading a copy of my book, “Florida Firearms”, you can be assured that all the information in the book was personally researched and written by me, and very often based on cases I personally handled during my career as both a prosecutor, criminal defense lawyer, police liability attorney, police legal advisor, and as a certified firearms instructor.
So, thanks for all your loyal patronage, compliments, and support over the last thirty years. I continuously strive to earn it, and do even better.
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