Massad Ayoob's Blog, page 125

HAPPY NEW YEAR

No wild New Year’s Eve parties for the old guy tonight. They were fun in days past, but at my age I could break a hip…

Hope it’s been a good year on your end.  Has been on mine, for the most part. Survived a helicopter crash.  Welcomed a fourth grandchild. Every case I was involved in had either a favorable resolution, or a postponement requested by an opposing side not eager to face losing. I’m hoping for the same in an attempted murder trial scheduled for mid-next month.  Another year exactly the same, preferably minus near-death experiences, would suit me just fine.

Resolutions? No time for it at this time last year.  Couple years ago, resolved not to buy any new guns, but instead work on the ones I had.  Managed to actually hold to that through third quarter 2012. 2014? Will probably just “keep on keepin’ on.”  Am currently more concerned about finding more ammo than finding new firearms for myself.

Have tested some new guns about to come out. Non-disclosure agreements require me to go no further on that, but will be able to share with you here in a week or three.

On gun owners’ civil rights issues, we can expect another contentious year.

On New Year’s Day, let’s not forget those in our lives who didn’t have a 2013 to be grateful for.

Just because I don’t have any resolutions, doesn’t mean you don’t. Feel free to share those – and your hopes and predictions for 2014 – here.

Happy New Year!

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‘TIS THE SEASON TO BE – SHOOTING!

When I wintered in the frozen wastelands, I always tried to shoot some qualifications out in the snow and cold and wind. When you carry a pistol for police duty or self-defense and you’re working in weather that would give Nanuk of the North the shivers, you want to know you can run the gun under those conditions. Gloves affect that. So does altered range of movement due to heavy clothing.  And, for fun shooting, I could generally get to an indoor range, even if the nearest match was an hour or three away.

This year’s Holiday Season finds me in the Deep South. With my teaching schedule complete for 2013 and work schedule reduced to writing and legal stuff, Significant Other and I have been able to play catch-up after a year of missing match after match because we had training obligations elsewhere by the time the tournament dates were announced.  I’ve discovered I’ve gotten rusty.  So far this month:

Jacksonville, Florida: IDPA match. Nailed High Law Enforcement and First Master in Stock Service Pistol shooting a subcompact Glock 26 9mm, but got knocked down to second in that gun division by straight-shooting Expert Miguel Coles.  Same venue, came in second again using the same pistol in a side match for little backup guns, a tenth of a second slower than Mark Few.  Valdosta, GA IDPA Match: Won High LE, high geezer and the Stock Service Pistol division shooting a 9mm Timberwolf, Lone Wolf’s clone of the Glock  17, but came in second overall to John Strayer, who wielded a custom Springfield XDm 5.25 in Enhanced Service Pistol division.  Valdosta again, combat shotgun match, came in second to that darn Strayer, both of us using the same slide-action Nighthawk Custom Remington 870 12 gauge against shooters with autoloaders.  Valdosta another weekend for a steel match, with the little G26 capturing Compact class for me but finishing fourth overall behind Lee Ovaert, Lee Turner and Roy Backer. Shot a turkey shoot in McAlpin, Florida last week with the same 870; didn’t win a damn thing but had a ball. Finished my shooting year with an IDPA match in Live Oak, FL where the little G26 won me the Stock Service pistol division and the LE and geezer titles, but still left me in third overall behind That Darn Strayer who took ESP with his Springfield, and Dave “the Blaze” Blazek who captured Custom Defense Pistol division with a Les Baer .45.

That was more recreational shooting in a month than the Evil Princess and I were able to get in all summer, and we enjoyed it immensely. Each event was a chance to mingle with good Shooter Folk.

It reminded me I need to sharpen up some. I muttered to the Evil Princess after the last match, “Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.”  She looked at me in mock horror and exclaimed, “I’m with a man who wants to be someone’s bride?”

That’s my sweetie. She always knows the right thing to say…kind of…

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THOUGHTS AT CHRISTMAS

Weather.com tells me that the place I almost went for Christmas has a temperature of one degree Fahrenheit at the moment, with a wind chill of fourteen below.  Balmy compared to a friend’s place in Montana, where the “real-feel” was forty below zero yesterday.  Having become a geezer for whom deep cold is actually painful now, my Christmas present to myself was spending it someplace warm.

 “This season, we’re outdoors in shirts.

  “There’s nothing to shovel, and nothing hurts!”

Will be touching bases on Christmas with friends less fortunate than we. One just lost his lovely wife of many years. Another will be in the hospital recovering from emergency surgery arising from complications following a severe heart attack.  Any season for counting one’s blessings is a season to reach out to those in pain.

Whatever your belief system, whether Christmas is a religious touchstone for you or a secular cultural holiday, all on this end wish all on yours a Merry Christmas and a day of joy and peace.

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THE CHRISTMAS GUN

A police chief friend sent this along from the UK.

What evoked horror in the Brits who published that, evoked nostalgia in me…and, undoubtedly, in many of the men and women of the well-established English shooting community.  I don’t just remember those old ads…I remember opening guns under the Christmas tree.  I think the coolest Christmas present I ever received was my first Colt .45 automatic pistol, at age twelve.  (Yeah, I know, but even Colt called it “automatic” instead of “semi-automatic.”)  The same was true for my kids’ generation, at least in my family and my circles.

Buying guns for Christmas presents is not as casual as it once was.  There is a fear of being accused of a “straw man” purchase. That is, buying a gun for someone else but signing on that ominous Form 4473 that you are buying it for yourself.  While you can still give a gun (under Federal law, anyway; check the local law where you are) many find it easier to simply get a gift certificate at the gun shop to put under the tree.  Not quite the same, but reassuring to some.

Ain’t much time left to buy one, and none at all in which to take possession of it and wrap it up in states with waiting periods.  But in those places, there is still time to lay the money down, take title if not physical possession, and put the receipt in a gift card for the recipient.

I discussed this with my buddy Steve Denney, general manager of the gun shop where I most often hang out, ProArms. Steve had this to add: “Aside from the time convenience of a gift certificate, it also gives a person the chance to choose a different gun than the giver may have imagined the person would like, or even change their mind if the gun they thought they wanted wasn’t the one they actually liked after getting their hands on a particular model.  That may be more detail than you want to get into, but you know the ‘If I like it the little woman must like it’ syndrome.  I guess it depends on how much pre-planning has gone into the decision.  Also, with gun availability as spotty as it is right now, a gift cert. would allow for time to find the make and model gun that a person really wants.  Finally, if you want to give a gun to someone who doesn’t live in the same state, a gift certificate can still cross state lines without the need for, or encumbrance by, Federal regulations.”

To give a firearm is to give the gift of responsibility.  It sends a message of trust.

If the gift is going to a first time shooter/gun owner, the gun itself should be only part of the present. Give it with the understanding that the recipient will go to the range with you and learn safe handling.  Otherwise, it’s like giving a chain saw to someone who has no idea how to run it.  If you going to the range with them isn’t in the cards, a gift certificate for a local firearms safety class would be an excellent accompaniment.

Finally, the Christmas or birthday gun can become the gift of survival.  I rather like this commercial from Glock:

You’re invited to share memories of guns of Christmases past, here.

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MORE GOOD GUN-RELATED BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS

In “Guns Across the Border,” Mike Detty gives the inside story of having been a firearms dealer working at the request of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in what was supposed to be an undercover sting against Mexican drug cartels.  The resultant “gunwalking” scandal became a horrendous failure that undercover police officers will be warned against forevermore.  The program, like the guns themselves, “went south.” Some of those weapons were used to commit murder, including the death of a Border Patrolman named Brian Terry.  The government, all the way to Washington, didn’t handle the aftermath as ethically as I would like to have seen, either.  In four decades of working within the criminal justice system, I never saw cops publicly proclaiming against their chief law enforcement officer, the Attorney General of the United States, until this case.  But today I see cops who post on the internet over a “sig line” that says “Eric Holder lied, Brian Terry died.”  I know Mike Detty, and I trust him.  His insider account is “must reading” on this topic, whether you are a law enforcement officer or a concerned citizen.

“Cornered Cat,” the classic blog  turned book, is now available as an audiobook in time for a Christmas download, on Audible.

While Cornered Cat is a great resource for defensively-oriented gun people of all genders and experience levels, its greatest strength is that it’s written by a woman, for women, and particularly valuable to entry level shooters.  Author Kathy Jackson is a friend and fellow instructor…she knows her stuff, and is a tremendous role model.

Independence Institute is, until New Year’s Eve, running a fabulous offer on Steve Halbrook’s books. Steve is one of the all-time great legal scholars of the Second Amendment, and was a major player in recent SCOTUS decisions in that regard. When he and I taught at a recent Texas Bar Association symposium, I managed to pick up an autographed copy of his “Securing Civil Rights: Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms.”  Very much on point to recent dialogues we’ve had here.  The Independence Institute package represents a great value on Christmas gift books for those in your life who are interested in all manner of civil rights issues.

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REMEMBERING NEWTOWN

I’m writing this on Friday, December 13, 2013.  I feel a sense of foreboding that has nothing to do with Friday the thirteenth. It has everything to do with the fact that tomorrow will mark one year since the atrocity in Newtown, Connecticut at the Sandy Hook Elementary School that left twenty little kids and six innocent adults dead before the monster responsible blew his own brains out.

My first thought, and still the strongest, was the horror of it all: I have grandchildren the age of the victims.  But I cannot escape the firestorm of hate that came down on law-abiding gun owners in the wake of it.  Sandy Hook became a handy hook for a newly re-elected anti-gun President to take off his mask of neutrality on Second Amendment rights, and lead an unprecedented assault against them.

That assault gained ground in some places: California to some extent, Colorado, Connecticut, and New York, for example.  Nationally, though, it largely fizzled. My friend Richie Feldman analyzed the situation well yesterday in his op-ed piece in USA Today.

But on the fourteenth, we can expect the Prohibitionists to dance until they’re exhausted in the blood of the innocent dead, pushing their class warfare against gun owners and ignoring the remedies that CAN prevent such atrocities. That would be measures in place on the ground allowing the next such monster to be interdicted before he can build his sick “body count.”  There has been some positive movement in that direction in the year since, but not nearly enough.

Expect a media gun control circus, despite counter-efforts by pro-gun groups to make it a day of education on safety. Another old friend, Dave Workman, makes some good points on that topic.

Mourn the dead, as we will on this end.  If something meaningful comes from those heartbreaking deaths, it will be a push for on-the-ground measures to interdict mass murderers a’ la’ the Israeli Model, not punishment of more innocent people with Draconian laws born in empty symbolism.

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GUNS AND COLOR LINES

Hanza, a regular commenter here, alerted me to the following from Huffington Post:

O…M…G.  If that had made my eyes roll any more, I would have needed an emergency appointment with an ophthalmologist.

Hanza notes that it does not seem to mention that white racism in the South was associated more with Democrats than Republicans.

I couldn’t help but notice that the African-American reporter himself was suspicious of the story.  Nor that our peace-loving friends at Huffington Post begin with an ad for Call To Duty, at least when I saw it. (They apparently rotate the ads.)

Study is HERE.  A study by the same folks saying why you can’t trust research like this is HERE.

Open for discussion.

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GUN BOOKS FOR UNDER THE CHRISTMAS TREE

When I was a little boy, reading matter was a staple on the family list of Christmas presents.  As both primary gifts and “stocking-stuffers,” I did the same with my kids, and they do the same with theirs.  This being mainly a gun blog, let’s look at some good reading for “gun guys and gals” on your gift list.  Be warned: there will be some degree of controversy in each.

“Gun Guys: A Road Trip.” Author Dan Baum is a self-described left-wing liberal gun owner, who I think did his best to take an unprejudiced look at the whole gun ownership controversy.  The book is insightful interviewing and participatory journalism in which the reader hears from those of us who carry, as well as those who hate guns.  Like most impartial views of this complicated topic, he will manage to anger the hard-core advocates on either side, but I think a dispassionate reading will show that logic brought him, for the most part, to our side.  (Which seems to be the usual outcome in unprejudiced analysis of this topic, but I digress.)  Wherever the reader personally comes down on the issue, no one can expect to defeat an opponent they don’t understand, and Baum gives insight into the thinking of pro-gun and anti-gun people alike.

“The Third Bullet.” Stephen Hunter is one of my very favorite novelists.  His fictionalized account of the JFK assassination, while I don’t see it as a template for reality, may be the most believable “conspiracy theory” yet to see print.  I think it’s appropriate that it’s presented as fiction.  It is, simply, a great read brought to us by a master of the writer’s craft.

“Dangerous Men.” Scott Ferguson is a lifelong student of human conflict in general and gunfighters of the Old West in particular. He is also a deeply-experienced instructor of defensive shooting and police officer survival tactics.  Blending vocation with avocation, “Dangerous Men” is a study of gunfights and the people who fought them. From the OK Corral to the infamous “FBI Firefight” of 4/11/86, Scott reminds us that different historians have different takes on these events, but the takeaway lessons of tactics and the psychology of coping with mortal violence remain the same over the centuries.  Excellent, insightful reading for anyone who keeps or carries a gun.

The first two are now out in paperback for affordable stocking-stuffers, as well as hardcover, Kindle and Audio.  I’ve seen the first two on the rack at Barnes & Noble.  Amazon has “Dangerous Men” in eBook form at their Kindle Store.

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IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN

Having just finished three non-stop Shark Week months, I find myself where many others are now: Good Lord, it’s Christmas shopping time! 

Testing assorted gun-related products as part of my work, I run across some pretty cool stuff now and then.  One line I’ve had great luck with is the Scott-e-Vest series, at www.scottevest.com.  Since being introduced to this stuff a few years ago, I’ve found myself wearing pants, shirt, vest and jacket and just bought a new vest for my Significant Other, who prefers this design to anything else on the market.

Top-quality material and manufacture combine here with ingenious hidden pocket designs. The Scott-e-Vest line began, as its name implies, with gear for geeks.  Pockets for all your iSfuff…and, it turns out, useful pockets for gun stuff.  These garments have tunnels for wires and other cool features.

Check out the website.  We pistol-packers find much of interest, but for even the non-gun people on your list, the whole techno-pocket theme will appeal to giftees who share my Significant Other’s ethos: “ iPod, iPad, iPhone, therefore I am.”

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ON THANKSGIVING…

It looks as if some will be experiencing rough weather on Thanksgiving…for some folks, in more ways than one.

We’ll all be giving thanks for different things.  A couple of weeks ago, my good friend Dan was stricken with a massive heart attack that almost killed him.  Great docs brought him back, and he’s now at home recovering from a quad bypass.  Best of luck, bro.

The grieving of others makes our own thanks more solemn.  Yesterday, a good friend buried his wife of many, many years.  He nursed her to the end while pancreatic cancer ravaged her.  Shortly before that, another old friend lost his only son at age 40 in a tragic car crash.

Like anyone else, I’m grateful for my loved ones, my friends, and my colleagues.  I’m grateful also to the readers here, for their spirited discussions. And I’m grateful to the extended families of my three friends mentioned above, who gave them support in a time when they needed it most.

We could all do worse than aspire to be the people for whom others give thanks on Thanksgiving.

I wish a safe, pleasant and meaningful Thanksgiving to you all.

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