John Ross author of Unintended Consequences died Friday 4/30

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  • dsol

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    May 28, 2009
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    If anyone has read the 800+ page novel Unintended Consequences, the name John Ross should be familiar. I had chatted with him several times and was a friend on Facebook. Found out Friday from his best friend Tammy that he died that afternoon. She found him in his driveway, he must have suffered a sudden heart attack or something like that and dropped on the spot.

    He was a great guy, funny snarky sense of humor and loved things that went boom. Owner of a collection of machine guns, cannons, made his own spectacular fireworks and the massive 4-bore rifle that was a big part of his book. He was working on the sequel and heard from Tammy that the publisher picked it up Saturday and it will be published. The only good news to come, frankly I'd rather be harassing him about finishing it...
     

    indymike12

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    Nov 4, 2013
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    martinsville
    If anyone has read the 800+ page novel Unintended Consequences, the name John Ross should be familiar. I had chatted with him several times and was a friend on Facebook. Found out Friday from his best friend Tammy that he died that afternoon. She found him in his driveway, he must have suffered a sudden heart attack or something like that and dropped on the spot.

    He was a great guy, funny snarky sense of humor and loved things that went boom. Owner of a collection of machine guns, cannons, made his own spectacular fireworks and the massive 4-bore rifle that was a big part of his book. He was working on the sequel and heard from Tammy that the publisher picked it up Saturday and it will be published. The only good news to come, frankly I'd rather be harassing him about finishing it...
    I concur with what a heavy loss this is to supporters of the 2nd Amendment and the gun community as a whole. I offer my condolences to his friends, his family and especially to his daughter - of whom he spoke very fondly.

    I was with John at his home back on Dec. 5th. He'd invited me there to discuss his traveling to Indianapolis for a speaking engagement the two of us were working on. We were both hoping to use it as a quiet launch to his new book, "Cold Resolve". I was fortunate enough to spend the day with him and we talked about a fascinating array of topics virtually all day. I left with an agreement that we'd meet again in May to schedule his appearance. Admittedly, and regrettably I'd been dragging my feet on following up. He'd recently been hospitalized with a serious leg infection that seemingly refused to heal and was generally not in good health. I had wondered if he'd be up to the trip in June. I deeply regret those concerns have been born out.

    I read "UC", as he often referred to it many years ago and wanted to learn more about the man and mind that had written it. I was delighted when he agreed to meet with me a little over a year ago. I spoke to him regularly on the phone and visited with him twice in St. Louis. He was a fascinating man. His training was in Financial Planning and he did quite well at it, but his two loves were firearms and aviation. He'd felt his time as a player in the financial world had run out. "Computer algorithms", he said had taken the fun and the human element out of trading, but he still loved aviation and all things firearms related. As of my visit he still owned the highly advanced acrobatic aircraft he commissioned to be built to his specifications years prior. He was also working at perfecting the perfect combination of fireworks. Much to the pleasure of his neighbors he built and launched his own synchronized fireworks show until Covid and his health prevented it.

    Most people were also unaware he was highly active in supporting and promoting the 2nd Amendment in Missouri. He has personally taught thousands of people basic handgun classes as an instructor for concealed carry classes - all while personally detesting the fact that a permit was required. Mostly on his own dime, he and a friend successfully led and won the right to Constitutional Carry in Missouri. He was quite proud of that.

    John Ross was also quite a generous man. His individual acts of kindness and generosity were both frequent and personal to him but he did share a few in the time I spent with him. They are too numerous to detail here.

    Despite what you might expect from reading his book or seeing his Facebook posts he did not consider himself a Republican. He did however, seemingly hate modern Democrats and openly despised what the Biden administration is doing to our country. He didn't consider himself to be a "conservative" either. He often told me he was quite liberal in some areas. What he considered himself was a Constitutionalist. He held it in high reverence.

    What was most surprising about John, particularly after reading UC is that he did NOT believe in, nor support the notion of a civil war. He thought those who believed a civil war was "winnable" to be idiots. In his words, "I just want things to go back to the way they used to be" which again was a reference to the days of "rule of law" and adherence to the spirit of the Constitution.

    I'll finish with a couple of things he'd want readers of his final book, "Cold Resolve" to understand. First, he wanted the book's conclusion to be reflective of real time world events. He had said, "People keep asking why I haven't finished it yet? I don't need things to get better, I just need them to stop getting worse." I myself had asked him on at least three occasions this year if he had the end of the book finished yet? "No", he'd say, "the Biden administration wakes me up each morning with all new material."

    A lot of authors don't care what their critics said of their books, John did. He admitted he frequently read comments people posted after reading "UC" and the one that fascinated and surprised him most was complaints about the "sex" within "UC". Not because it was gratuitous or inappropriate but that it prevented some from sharing the book with their wives or children. That disappointed him greatly because John was all about growing support for the 2A and he wanted people to be aware of the positive role firearms have played in the history of this country. He was frustrated that the presents of a couple of elements of sex had throttled that sharing and wasn't going to make the same mistake in his new book. (Sorry if that disappoints anyone)

    Based on what he told me of the new book, I don't think readers will be disappointed.

    I, for one wish John smooth seas and fair winds in the afterlife and look forward to reading Cold Resolve with great anticipation.
     

    snorko

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    Apr 3, 2008
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    I had a first edition first printing when it came out, ie there were some errata with page sequence and a certain FBI sniper's real name was used. I loaned it to a friend and his dog destroyed it. Got a second later printing of the hardback later.

    There was a pdf floating around the interwebs a while back.
     

    Timjoebillybob

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    Feb 27, 2009
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    I had a first edition first printing when it came out, ie there were some errata with page sequence and a certain FBI sniper's real name was used. I loaned it to a friend and his dog destroyed it. Got a second later printing of the hardback later.

    There was a pdf floating around the interwebs a while back.
    There still is. He ended the copyright protection himself in 2009 the text is public domain, but not the movie rights. So don't feel bad looking around for it and downloading it.
     
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