Dean Speir commented on my article Loan No More to correct the spelling of his name and my characterization of his relationship to the mainstream gun press:

It’s important to note that calling my absence from the “gunzines” a “blacklisting” isn’t really accurate.

I spent the better part of three years trying to get a gunzine byline, and discovered it was pretty much a closed shop.

Then I got my foot in the clubhouse, and everyone wanted whatever I could provide.

But once “inside,” it became apparent that, like the special interest ‘zines which appeal to the automotive, boating and photography hobby-ists, there was precious little critical writing being done.

And after 12-13 years of trying to get something other than “puffery” in the “mainstream gun press,” and with the advent of the Internet as a more direct conduit for free expression, I retired, bloody but unbowed.

Is there one published who wouldn’t touch my byline with a 12-foot Chechnyan? Absolutely! Harris (Combat Handguns) in NYC.

But I still get inquiries from other Editors wondering if I’m working on anything that might interest their readers.

For the past nine-plus years, whatever fit that category, is self-published at http://www.thegunzone.com, free of advertiser interference and nervous editorial oversight.

These errors were my own, NOT Ross Eliot’s.