Author of murder manual“The Anarchist Cookbook” says it should be taken out of print immediately

In the aftermath of the shooting at Arrapahoe high school in Colorado last week, we learned that the shooter Karl Pierson had purchased and just read “The Anarchist Cookbook,” the original how-to of homicide and mass murder .

The murder manual has been linked to Timothy McVeigh, Jared Loughner, the Columbine shooters, the Boston Marathon bombers, and many more.

Now the author William Powell has said he thinks it should go immediately out of print. But it wont be out of print anytime soon because the publisher "Billy Blann" of Delta Press who owns the rights to the book says he is going to keep selling it, saying we don't ban books in America.

You know, we don’t ban books in America,” says Billy Blann, who bought the rights to the "Cookbook" in 2002, just as digital sales took off. Blann is the founder of Delta Press, “the world’s most outrageous catalog,” as he calls it, and the purveyor of guides on “Justifiable Homicide,” “The Poor Man’s Nuclear Bomb,” and “The Butane Lighter Hand Grenade

I think he is right we don't ban books in America. Maybe some of you feel different so I thought it might spark an interesting debate.

usnews.nbcnews.com...

was an accessory in the arsenal of Karl Pierson, the student who opened fire last week inside a Colorado high school, leaving one girl in a coma before taking his own life.

“The Anarchist Cookbook,” which Pierson read in the days before his rampage, isn’t a guide to culinary revolution. It’s the original how-to of homicide and mass murder — and sales are still raging, with distribution from the likes of Amazon and Barnes & Noble, even as the work is linked to terrorist acts around the world.

Now, in rare interviews with NBC News, the publisher and the author of the "Cookbook" are trading blows about the book’s future.

“'The Anarchist Cookbook' should go quietly and immediately out of print,” says William Powell, who wrote the book as a stern 19-year-old, an opponent of the Vietnam War who felt violence was justified if it could prevent even greater violence in the process. He has since renounced that position, but never so forcefully, telling NBC in an email that “it is no longer responsible or defensible to keep it in print

Side note- I was not sure what forum to post this in so please move if needed.

reply to post by alienjuggalo


If we banned that book, it would just start a tidal wave of other bannings and probably eventually lead to book burnings. We have seen how that went in the past.

Plenty of movies would be banned as well.

It's pretty simple really.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Hell.. Ive had a copy of that book and its revisions for YEARS. It wont ever be taken out of circulation.. its downloadable all over the place these days as well. I got my first copy from Palladin Press yrs ago.. cool info in it. 'Specially if you have stumps to blast out.

I used to own a copy (probably still do and just buried in a box somewhere) and it is garbage. Anyone that attempts to follow the recipes in the book are far more likely to remove themselves from the gene pool than they are to cause actual destruction.

So if that book didnt exist the kid would have never known that gasoline was flammable and shotguns shot?

Amazing!!

BTW: there's this thing called the internet that pretty much negates any and all of the old Palladin Press type books. I remember getting those catalogs when I was in high school. Never knew which was worse, the company that would just send stuff like that to a kid or the parent that said "you got some mail" and just hand it to me.

LordOfArcadia
I used to own a copy (probably still do and just buried in a box somewhere) and it is garbage. Anyone that attempts to follow the recipes in the book are far more likely to remove themselves from the gene pool than they are to cause actual destruction.

If its the original.. the very first print.. it DOES have good information Its been revised too many times by now and there is a lot of weird info in the newer ones.

Advantage
Hell.. Ive had a copy of that book and its revisions for YEARS. It wont ever be taken out of circulation.. its downloadable all over the place these days as well. I got my first copy from Palladin Press yrs ago.. cool info in it. 'Specially if you have stumps to blast out.

I have never even seen a copy of it much less read it.

Not really anything new -- Powell has been denouncing the book for many years.

Salon article from September 2000: Blowing up “The Anarchist Cookbook”

But it's like too many people who shared naughty pictures of themselves have learned… once something is on the Internet, you no longer have any control over it. Powell's book will likely outlive him by centuries, and the legacy of his "adolescent recklessness" will be all the deaths it will cause.

reply to post by TDawgRex


We have banned plenty of books in America, even done a few book and record burnings. It happens. Luckily with digital media you just can't ban things like the cookbook as effectively, and well, can't you just google videos of how to do that stuff anyway?

I used to have that book and it really is more like a novelty than some kind of murder how-to. Much of it is just wrong. It very much reads like a 19 year old wrote it, that said, it is interesting, but original 'murder manual?' Right. Tons of true crime books out there that give more detailed information. Not to mention movies and tv and video games.

All they're doing is giving that book a boost in sales. Save your money.

Thorneblood
reply to post by TDawgRex

 

We have banned plenty of books in America, even done a few book and record burnings. It happens. Luckily with digital media you just can't ban things like the cookbook as effectively, and well, can't you just google videos of how to do that stuff anyway?

Yes.. exactly. You can also get a youtube on how to turn your nerf gun into a real gun.. all sorts of mods and etc. The writer of the Cookbook is just trying to stay relevant IMO.. cause that info is grade school compared to what you can get today.

The problem isn't information or knowledge that crazy people can get from the internet or books or just talking to people about stuff. And it's pointless to ban these things or even try.

The problem continues to be the sad state of mental health care in the U.S. and around the world, and the lack of resources to identify dangerous people before they kill other people.

This is what happens when you have a larger population. Maybe in the past it was easier to spot people who were off the rails because there were just fewer people around and more dependent on each other. Once in a while, you'd get a Jack the Ripper. But there was only a very small percentage and as a result a very small number of these people. Now that there are more people, the percentage of lunatics hasn't necessarily changed, but the sheer number has gone up, and the amount of damage they do is increased exponentially.

I don't know a good way of finding and stopping dangerous lunatics. Maybe it's not possible, and we just have to live with the fact that because there are more people, and therefore more lunatics, there will be more mass killings that we can't stop. It's all just percentages.

That book hasn't killed anyone. Even if it fell off of a shelf on a person's head, it probably wouldn't kill them.

The evil and insane murder people.

Many of the ideas in the book require a lot of work to bring to fruition.

Books and bullets don't kill people.
The irresponsible and the idiotic do.
The information is out there, whether it is learned in a high school chemistry lab, or out of a book in a library.

I know someone who has an original 1971 copy of the book. I wonder if its worth anything?

I had a copy of that book! It was the definitive bible of dirty tricks. Used a few to "get even" with others over time. Speaking of which there was a second book called, wait for it........ Get Even!

Me and my friends used own a copy as teens
(Used too)
Anyway you can just find half the stuff in there in a Chemistry book.


Shall we ban those too?

I remember the first time I saw that book. It was back in the early 2000's and my husband was browsing the internet and came across the website.

I was so mad at him when he ignored the FBI page warning that warned him not to enter the website if he didn't wish to go on a list! Lol. I was young, guillable and my head completely in the sand about conspiracies and such back then. I was so worried when he just shrugged, said "meh", and continued on to the website.

We were both then promptly horrified and slightly amused at the contents of the book. I've never felt a need to download or own it, though. I have children! I was loathe to get rid of some of my more dark occult related reading materials from my youth, to - when my children were born. But I did. The Satanic Bible, no matter how funny a parody, has no place on my book shelf with children about the house not old enough to catch the irony of the book.

So no - there is no need to censor me. I'm quite able to censor myself, thanks very much, where books are concerned. If we are going to talk about censorship - perhaps we should have our eye on the violence in our media, imprinting onto our youths minds...

CdT

PhoenixOD
I know someone who has an original 1971 copy of the book. I wonder if its worth anything?

Maybe he could use it to rob a bank!

I remember downloading the Cookbook in HS, made me feel like a real rebel, first thing I did was blow up my school...

Oh wait, I did not do that, I read it, and forgot about it on my hard drive.

IT is knowledge, Knowledge is simply a tool, just like anything else.

Any maladjusted person can make any tool a danger, that includes Knowledge.

That doesn't mean you ban it, or remove it from print.


All the author is doing is a knee jerk reaction to a tragedy with out thinking critically about the issue, it is an emotional response.

ONE that the media loves to use to obfuscate the issue.

Mental Health is the cause of these events, NOT a book, not a gun, not a bomb.

Until we are ready as a society to address the list of problems american youths face nothing will change, as long as we focus on a symptom and not the cause these event will always happen.