Massad Ayoob's Blog, page 128

A VERY USEFUL NEW BOOK

A lot of our readers seem to be Glenn Beck fans.  I’ve also met some folks who find him a bit too far to starboard.  Wherever you stand on that, we all have to admit, it’s good when someone gets the truth across.

Beck has, I believe, done exactly that in his new paperback, “Control: Exposing the Truth About Guns.”  His powerful message begins at the very front with its dedication: “To Martin Luther King, Jr., who preached nonviolence but knew that passive resistance could not be relied on for his own family’s protection. King owned several guns but was subjected to the worst kind of gun control – and deprived of his basic right to defend himself and his family – when police in Alabama denied him a concealed carry permit in 1956. When will we learn? The right to bear arms shall not be infringed.”

Glenn Beck assembled an all-star panel for his research: Dan Andros, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, Stephen Halbrook, David Kopel, and John Lott, supplemented by Sharon Ambrose, Cam Edwards, Joe Kerry, Tim McGinnis, Skip Patel, Meg Storm, and Jacob Sullum. That list includes some of the finest minds that have ever researched the complicated issue of “gun control” and the civil rights of firearms owners.  The result is an excellent short compendium of proof that destroys many of the bogus arguments now being wielded against us.

“We’re experiencing an epidemic of mass gun murders?” “No one needs a fast-shooting, high-capacity firearm?” Beck presents the solid statistics which show otherwise. “A gun in the home is 43 times more likely to kill the occupants than protect them?” Beck’s new work gives the best layman’s explanation I’ve yet seen as to why that figure, from a deeply-flawed and long-discredited study, is totally bogus.

Glenn Beck is a best-selling author. His work reaches people the rest of us can’t reach. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen one of my books for sale at an airport newsstand; “Control” is there conspicuously. He simply gets the message across to folks who won’t be reading or listening to the rest of us. For those of us who are activists in this fight, “Control” is the handiest digest this side of Gun Facts 6.2.

Strongly recommended.

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CHRIS KYLE’S LEGACY BOOK

In the current conflict, no American warfighter emerged with a more recognizable name than Chris Kyle, a SEAL who set an awesome kill record as a sniper in Afghanistan and Iraq. His book “American Sniper” became a huge bestseller, and not just among military and shooter folk. The story of a young man who came to terms with killing other people to keep them from killing his people struck a responsive chord throughout our society.  (If you haven’t read it, do.)

He captured the nation’s attention again a few months ago when, home stateside and working hard to help vets who came back damaged, Kyle and a friend took a PTSD-suffering veteran to the range at his request. They became victims of cowardly murder at that man’s hands.

At the time of his death, Chris Kyle was working on a second book which celebrated his life-long understanding and appreciation of firearms. His wife and friends finished the job, and “American Gun: A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms” came out this week. The partial manuscript was completed by a team that loved him and understood him: his young widow Taya, and his friends William Doyle and Jim DeFelice.

I was in a Barnes & Noble this past Monday, and even though they had cases already in stock, they adamantly refused to sell me one until Tuesday, the scheduled release date. So, on Tuesday, in another city, I got to another book store and bought a copy.

It lives up to its title.

“American Gun” smoothly weaves firearms development with the history and needs which drove that development. Though it focuses on ten iconic firearms, each is set into the context of generations of development before and after that specimen.  Kyle and company make clear how the guns were used, by whom, and for what purpose. Famous battles and shootouts are described, not to revel in morbid bloodshed, but to illustrate how understanding of human conflict led to the creation of better fighting tools.

Like Kyle’s first book, this one does not appear to be written so much for the specialist in the field, though that reader will certainly appreciate it.  It seems to have been written more for the person new to the topic.  It clearly shows that the gun is a tool, its effect driven by the people who use it. The Thompson submachine gun favored by Al Capone and John Dillinger was considered a life-saver by the Americans of The Greatest Generation who used it to help defeat the Nazis on one side of the world and simultaneously avenge Pearl Harbor on the other.  The book makes clear how the duality of the gun, in that respect, is simply an allegory for the duality of Man.

I hope this book becomes a huge best-seller, too.  More Americans need to understand what Chris Kyle was trying to tell us when he died, a message I thank Taya Kyle and William Doyle and Jim DeFelice for finishing and bringing to a nation which desperately needs to understand it.

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HISTORIC MOMENT IN ILLINOIS

When I was young, most states had a provision for an ordinary law-abiding citizen to get a permit to carry a concealed and loaded handgun in public, but the issuing of the permit was discretionary to the issuing authority. In many jurisdictions, this “may issue” situation became a code phrase for “we’ll issue you the permit if you’re white, male, rich, and politically connected.” Fewer states were “shall issue,” making it mandatory for the authorities to grant the permit to anyone who applied unless those authorities could show that the applicant was a convicted felon or had been adjudicated mentally incompetent. Only a single state, Vermont, allowed the citizen who was neither a confirmed felon or mental patient to carry without a permit.

And seven states had no provision at all for carrying a gun in public to protect self and family.

Over the last twenty years, things changed profoundly for the better. The great majority of states moved from “may issue” to the egalitarian “shall issue” format. Vermont was joined by three other states in eliminating the permit requirement. And, one by one, those “no-permit” states fell. Wisconsin had been the most recent. Only Illinois was left with nothing in its law to allow the good citizen to carry.

That appears to have changed this week, thanks to a lawsuit brought by the Second Amendment Foundation and a mandate by Federal judge Richard Posner. Leading the fight on the ground in Lincolnland was ISRA, the Illinois State Rifle Association, one of the great grassroots state-level organizations devoted to gun owners’ civil rights. There is much yet to be worked out, and ISRA’s official position on the matter can be found here. http://www.isra.org/

Now awaiting the signature of a spectacularly anti-gun governor, the new bill will establish shall-issue concealed carry in Illinois, the permits to be issued by the Illinois State Police. The bill is, in many ways, less than ideal from the viewpoint of hard-core gun owners’ rights activists, but it’s a huge improvement over the previous situation. When the prohibitionists scream about it as loudly as they’re screaming right now, it’s proof positive of a victory for gun owners’ civil rights.

Stay tuned for how it shakes out as to the fine points. We’re not winning on every front – witness recent Draconian legislation in California – but concealed carry in Illinois can’t be seen as anything but a huge, landmark victory. Thanks to all who made it happen. I hope to go to Illinois soon to raise an adult beverage in a victory toast to those who fought the good fight…and I hope to hear blog commentary on the matter, particularly from our Illinois readers.

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DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME, KIDS…

In one of my favorite used bookstores, I recently picked up a copy of LIFE magazine from April 10 of 1939. Amidst the ads for big ol’ Hudson sedans for $695 new off the showroom floor and Dodge Luxury Liners at $756 for a coupe and $815 for a sedan, firearms were distinctly in evidence in the main body of the reporting.

With the Nazi threat looming, LIFE reported, Europe was shipping gold to the US for safekeeping, and the largest shipment yet – sixty million in 1939 dollars – was being guarded by a fella with a Colt double action revolver and a Thompson submachinegun.

The main theme of that issue was a focus on Texas. A well-worn Westerner was depicted sitting on a porch with his back to the camera, a Colt 1911 .45 auto prominently holstered on his hip. The caption read, “Texans still tote loaded guns.”  (Oddly enough, that open carry in public would not be legal today in the Lone Star State, though unlike the fellow in the picture today’s Texan can get a permit to carry a concealed handgun.)

So far, so good. But then, in a segment titled “Texans Are Lusty,” there were the three pictures below.

Making a shot with a revolver bent over, upside down? Well…been there, done that.

Three of you grabbing your friend and one of you trying to pull his presumably loaded six-shooter out of his holster, while there’s a whisky bottle in his hip pocket? Gee, I guess the mainstream media was already a little anti-gun when they staged that one for the camera 74 years ago.

The piece de resistance of the sequence, though, is one Stetsoned Texan shooting a cigar out of another’s mouth with a six-inch barrel target revolver.  To which I can only say…well, nothing that will pass the family-friendly filter of Backwoods Home.

That trick was supposedly a staple of Annie Oakley’s act. It was said that on one of her European tours prior to World War I, she blew the tip of a tube of tobacco out of the mouth of Kaiser Wilhelm.  After the war began, the legend says, Ms. Oakley invited the Kaiser to give that one more go.  He apparently declined, perhaps realizing the feisty American hero might do it this time with him facing her.

Shooting a cigar or cigarette out of someone’s mouth with live ammunition?  “Only in Texas,” the effete anti-gunners of the time might have sniffed. “That certainly wouldn’t happen in a civilized place, such as Los Angeles!”

Au contraire, Muffy.  The LIFE photos below post-dated by three years the film which follows in this blog, recently discovered from the archives of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.  Watch it, and revel in the fact that firearms safety is better in America in the 21st Century.

Video here:

LASD SHOOTING DEMONSTRATION
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THOUGHTS ON MEMORIAL DAY AND INDEPENDENCE DAY

On Memorial Day, I’ll be one of many doing some shooting…a symbolic celebration of the freedoms for which our honored military dead sacrificed their lives over the centuries. Sadly, I suppose another of our freedoms is that we’re free to do stupid things…and that element is one I’d rather not celebrate.

On Independence Day, the Fourth of July, a fellow named Adam Kokesh wants gun owners to march on Washington, DC carrying loaded rifles. It’s hard for most folks to see a contingent of strangers marching into their cities with loaded rifles as anything less than a threatening invasion.  Intimidation does not win sympathy for even the most righteous cause.

The anti-gun zealots are all over this proposed march, some promising to light off firecrackers in hope of inducing panic and gunfire.  And all that’s needed to light off the tinderbox is one off-safe AR15 whose trigger is accidentally brushed by something hanging off the wearer’s gear, or one strange ranger who wants to fire “a shot heard round the world.”

Some friends of mine in the gun owners’ civil rights movement see this ridiculous idea as a disturbing parallel to Bloody Sunday in 1905 in Russia, a peaceful march on the Winter Palace of the Czar which ended in a mass slaughter of the demonstrators by Czarist troops.  They point out that the march was led under a false flag by one Georgy Gapon, who later admitted that he was an agent provocateur of the Czar’s secret police. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_%281905%29

Speaking of false flags Mr. Kokesh, originator of this insanely bad idea, is alleged by some to have been allied with the gun-prohibitionist-in-chief:  http://www.lady-patriots.com/the-smoking-gun-adam-kokesh-works-for-obama/ . I’m not buying that yet, but I do agree with the great majority of gun folk, as exemplified here http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=524220&page=1″  that no good is likely to come from such a march, and there is huge potential for it to be horribly bad for legitimate gun owners.

Mr. Kokesh’s Kool-Aid is strong. When he was arrested recently at a pro-marijuana rally, his supporters claimed he had been “disappeared” and “kidnapped” by the “Stasi.” Uh, no…simply arrested, jailed, and processed. http://www.ibtimes.com/adam-kokesh-decides-stay-jail-refuses-give-judge-phone-number-address-1278855 .  As anyone intentionally violating DC law by carrying a loaded rifle into the city on the Fourth of July can expect to be…or worse, if someone lights the tinderbox. The Kokesh march seems to be a spectacularly bad idea. It’s the sort of thing that “kidnaps” logic, and “disappears” the credibility of responsible advocates for gun owners’ civil rights.

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A SILVER LINING

Back in the grim days following the Columbine High School atrocity, I pushed hard for the “Israeli model” of armed school personnel. After the Maalot massacre, an all-volunteer program was put together for school personnel and family members of students who were trained by Israel’s civil guard and reported to school with concealed handguns. It was fabulously successful in both stopping and deterring armed terrorist attacks on schools. The concept has much in common with the hugely successful FFDO (Federal Flight Deck Officer) program for armed airline pilots. (It matters not whether the “terrorist” in question is motivated by religious zealotry, politics, or madness. What matters is that a protector with a gun be in place to stop the evildoer with a gun.)

After the recent Sandy Hook atrocity, not only did the NRA come up with a plan for something similar here (while also pushing for more armed police assigned to educational institutions as SROs, or School Resource Officers), but we’ve seen similar plans actually implemented in places like Texas, Utah, and Arkansas.  It is a solid, realistic approach to a genuine problem.

I call your attention to an excellent little book published in December of 2012, “School Administrators Guide To Practical Handgun Training.” The author is Richard Rosenthal, a retired lawman with an impressive 40-year career behind him. The first half of that was twenty years with the NYPD. There, he worked Homicide and Narcotics, served as a helicopter pilot, and spent many years teaching at the Firearms and Tactics Unit, which is where I first met him long ago. Retiring after putting in those twenty, he spent a like period as Chief of Police in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.

Having dealt with school administrators as a chief of police, Rich understands their thinking. His credentials make it clear to them that he’s not some sort of right-wing lunatic, and give him credibility in certain circles where gun enthusiasts simply will not be listened to by decision-makers. Rich is not only a master firearms instructor, but a shooting incident survivor himself. His advice on vetting and training armed volunteers and managing such a program is absolutely spot-on.

I highly recommend “School Administrators Guide to Practical Handgun Training.”  It’s available for $19.33 plus shipping here.

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THE REAL STATISTICS

The pundits say that gun owners are a smaller-than-ever minority, and that a majority of American homes are “gun-free.” (I hate that phrase, “gun-free.” No, guns are not vermin. Anything which sounds that helpless as “gun-free” can’t be A Good Thing.)

Let’s look at some recent statistics, though.  The National Shooting Sports Foundation reports their recent survey of gun dealers that in 2012, about 25% of their sales were to first-time gun owners.

My friend and colleague Dave Workman – such a solid resource that I find myself linking to his stuff more often in this blog than any other source – observes that some 15,000 new concealed carry permits were processed last month in his home state of Washington alone. The list of permit holders increased by more than 60,000 there since May of 2012. http://www.examiner.com/article/cpl-figure-skyrockets-15k-a-single-month.

Brother Workman quotes another outstanding source of solid information, Howard Nemerov of PJ Media, who in turn cites a recent Gallup poll showing that 47% of American adults have firearms at home. http://www.examiner.com/article/waning-gun-culture-u-s-may-be-myth?cid=db_articles .  Sounds like a pretty substantial “minority” to me.

Obviously, density of gun ownership is a regional thing. You’ll have fewer guns in Manhattan high-rises, and more in rural farmhouses and on Western ranches, where guns are working tools as well as self-defense implements.

And, let us not forget, a whole lot of folks don’t want to tell strangers that they have guns, whether or not the stranger has identified himself or herself as a pollster. The media has, for decades, stigmatized gun owners. Besides, who wants to announce having in their house one of the very few things besides prescription drugs that thieves can peddle in the underworld for more than their intrinsic value, instead of pennies on the dollar?

We aren’t an overwhelming national majority, but we sure aren’t the weak and fading shadow the Prohibitionists wish we were.

Dave Workman ( left), Mas (center) and Tom Gresham (right) show how anti-gun media reacts to statistics favoring gun owners.

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“GUN CONTROL” AS SEEN BY HONEST CRIMINOLOGISTS

My old friend Don Kates – a hard-core liberal who worked with William Kunstler and the Freedom Riders back in the day – is the sort of honest liberal who believes that every potential victim has the right to defend himself or herself.  Now retired after a long and brilliant career as a Constitutional lawyer, law professor, and criminologist extrordinaire, Don was kind enough to pass along the following.

It was written by David Kennedy. Kates describes Kennedy as not at all “pro-gun.”  Kennedy does, however, appear to be honest, and true to his profession, which is criminology.

Read this, and let us know what you think: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-kennedy-crime-and-gun-control-20130505,0,4745966.story .

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GOOD TO BE HOME

Pulled in to the driveway at 2 AM after not having slept in my own bed since the night before Easter.  It was a coast to coast run: got my segments for the next season of Personal Defense TV filmed in California, taught a couple of 40-hour armed citizen classes, was in Houston for the whole three days of the annual NRA conference, and spent a week in Chicagoland for the annual conference of the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors.

This month marks 39 years for me as a part-time but fully sworn police officer.  (Doing it part-time staves off burnout.) I was an armed citizen before they pinned my first badge on me, and will be one after I leave The Job, and with one foot in each world I think I may have a pretty good handle on how the two actually interrelate.

At ILEETA, I was attending a course on interdicting active mass-murderers when it was announced that the universal background check bill sank in the Senate, and witnessed the audience of police instructors burst out in spontaneous applause.  At the NRA annual meeting, I saw countless cops – many in uniform – on the floor in the conference center interacting with the gun enthusiasts.  Across the street, where a relatively miniscule group of anti-gunners had gathered to protest, the cops seemed to keep their distance from those folks.  NRA had a strong presence at the vendor expo at ILEETA, and one of the training presentations focused on a police department which provided NRA-based training to their community, with the tuition going toward the department’s own officer training budget. The “Brady Bunch” was, as usual, notable by its absence there.  Oh, and the PDTV filming? We did the live fire segments on a police department tactical shooting range, thank you very much.

The ammunition shortage, caused by panic buying which was in turn triggered by a White House- and media-driven full court press for meaningless gun legislation, has had a profoundly negative impact on police firearms training as well as on law-abiding citizens who own guns. Yes, there is much in common between our armed citizens and our cops, both of whom realize at a boots-on-the-ground level that the problem is criminals, not guns.

Now I’m home, in a community where both the Chief of Police and the County Sheriff recently stated on the front page of the local paper that they’re four-square behind armed citizens and against meaningless “gun control” legislation.  I for one find that reassuring.

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REFLECTIONS ON THE NRA MEETING

The National Rifle Association’s annual meeting is underway in Houston as I write this.  The national media is still claiming that 90% of Americans wanted the flawed Universal Background Check to pass last month.  Let’s talk about voting with your feet. 70,000 NRA members are expected to be in attendance before the three-day event is done, and according to reports, only about six anti-gun people showed up to protest.  I’m told that they stood on a sidewalk, reading aloud the names of murder victims.

I’m not sure what they thought that had to do with 70,000 Americans who arm themselves against the sort of criminals who commit murder, and fight for the right of other law-abiding citizens to also be able to defend themselves against murderers.  I doubt that the six protesters could have explained it coherently, themselves.

The mainstream media claims a majority of NRA members were in favor of the background checks.  Make that suggestion at the conference center in Houston this weekend, and you’ll hope you brought some hearing protection: the collective mocking laughter of that many people can get awfully loud.

Friend Dave Workman, often quoted here, has this to say: http://www.examiner.com/article/huge-nra-opener-houston-as-gun-classes-fill-washington .

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