Massad Ayoob's Blog, page 3

TIME

I always look forward to Red Shirt News, the newsletter by my old friend and colleague Terry Smith.  The Red Shirts were those of us who reached a high level with the Monadnock PR-24 side-handle baton, training the instructors who would in turn train other officers. The Monadnock program encompassed other non-lethal weapons as well. […]

WHILE WE’RE ON THE TOPIC…

Just a few posts ago we published this, in this space. There was mention of the cop from NYPD who had used his then-standard .38 Special to win a gunfight initiated by a thug with a .45 auto, in the reader comments. That reminded me of something I’d written not too long ago. Both items […]

A SHAMELESS PLUG

For anyone interested, the Evil Princess has created a new YouTube channel, melding some of our old ProArms Podcast interviews with gunfight survivors and some shooting videos we had posted previously, with new content.  The title of the channel is Massad Ayoob Facts and Firearms. We invite you to check it out.  We hope you […]

LESSONS FROM A FAMOUS OLD HOMICIDE CASE

This article appeared last year in my long-running series Ayoob Files in American Handgunner magazine.  It explores many issues in self-defense use of lethal force. There are lessons in every such case, and several in this one.

HAVE A SAFE WEEKEND

Major cities are bracing for trouble this weekend, with military on the ground there. Plan your weekend accordingly and carefully. As the “No Kings” demonstrations unfold, there is unpleasantness in the air, to put it mildly. Unfortunately, I have family members with obligations that put them variously in Chicago, Washington DC, and Los Angeles this […]

WILEY CLAPP HAS LEFT THE RANGE

The Grim Reaper has been having a field day lately with my fellow gun writers and doing his damnedest to turn this blog into an obituary column. We learned this week of the death of Wiley Clapp. I knew the man and liked him, and greatly respected his work. He experienced intense combat in Vietnam […]

TALK TO POLICE AFTER SHOOTING?

Countless people advise never speaking to the police immediately after a self-defense shooting. I don’t think that’s the best advice, and I may have been the first advocate of what is now known as “the brief statement,” going back to the early 1980s when I started teaching lethal force principles to law-abiding private citizens at […]

LETHAL PREY

I recently read John Sandford’s newest novel, “Lethal Prey,” while taking my turn in the passenger seat on a long drive.  I’m a bit conflicted with Sandford, because on the one hand over the series he’s had armed citizens save life multiple times, including his adopted crime victim daughter Letty when she was a young kid. […]

GOOD ADVICE ON OFF-BODY CARRY

If you have studied the tactics of armed self-defense at all, you are familiar with the pioneering work of my good friend John Farnam. If you have studied it deeply, you are aware that John’s wife, Vicki Farnam, is an expert in her own right who specializes in training females.  Vicki has come up with a […]

GUNSMITH CONCURS ON PET PEEVE

I’ve told people for years that slamming an auto pistol’s slide closed on an empty chamber is abusive to the gun, and particularly so with the popular 1911 pistol. Over on the Wilson Combat channel, Bill Wilson and Ken Hackathorn have said the same.  Ain’t too many folks know more about 1911s than those two experts. […]