This is book 1 of the "Joe Pickett" series.

This note contains spoilers for the book.

 

They finally got me the first book!

This one revolves around the Endangered Species Act, and can most reasonably be read as thinking the implementation makes it harmful. Mind you, he uses the old chestnut "are animals more important than people"; I would say that we should consider the possibility that avoiding extinction of an entire species might very well be a greater value to society than some temporary economic upturn for a small number of people (mostly stolen by very rich people).

Miller's Weasels are found alive again a century after they were thought to be extinct (extinct through focused deliberate killing by people who believed nonsense about their preying on human babies). Unfortunately the people who find them are outfitters whose livelihoods depend on bringing hunters in, and then the people working to bring the gas pipeline through find out, and people start getting murdered too‐which brings so much attention to the situation that eventually it becomes known.

So, basically, entitled violent people have a tantrum and make so much noise people realize they're murdering people. I might not have gone on if I started with this one. This book has one of the worse cases of "I don't care what happens to these people" I've seen. (Joe isn't horrible, his daughter Sheridan is okay but she's 7 so that mostly means her screw-ups are age-appropriate.)

Also, I'm not absolutely sure which book I'm remembering what from, but the gun knowledge is nowhere near up to what I think of as modern standard, and the gun handling is sometimes just wrong.

Maybe; I mean, it's possible a lot of people in Wyoming really do carry their revolvers with an empty chamber under the hammer, but that hasn't been good practice since the firing pin stopped being integral with the hammer. Now the Ruger transfer-bar safety (or other equivalent mechanisms) keeps the firing pin from being hit unless the trigger was pulled. (Really; you can pound on the hammer with a hammer, sorry, and if the trigger isn't pulled the impulse is not transmitted to the firing pin.)

At least Joe went out and did a test shoot with his new revolver immediately after buying it (though most of my friends would not consider 6 rounds adequate testing for a new gun that's going to be a daily carry, especially for a law-enforcement officer).