Massad Ayoob's Blog, page 40

FOX & BOX O’ GLOCKS, REDUX

A decade or so ago, the Evil Princess and I would shoot a couple of dozen matches a year. Scheduling nibbled away at that.  So did mobility issues: a bad knee for her and bad back for me, both worse of late.  And of course, there was the Plague and the Great Ammo Drought. Gail […]

TAILOR THE TOOL TO THE TASK

Any of us who are parents have admonished our offspring, “Use things the way they’re meant to be used.”  A target gun with a light, easy target trigger should be used for target shooting only. For any sort of serious business – such as self-defense – when we can expect to be handling a deadly […]

A PRESIDENTIAL-QUALITY READ

[image error] A friend and reader tipped me to the book “Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip,” by Matthew Algeo (Chicago Review Press, 2009).  I really appreciate that. I enjoyed this book more than any other I’ve read in quite a while.  I found it … charming, a word which […]

WHAT TO SAY AFTER YOU’VE HAD TO DEFEND YOURSELF?

[image error] Back in the very early 1980s, when I founded Lethal Force Institute, I formulated a “five point checklist” of things that need to be said to responding authorities at the scene after you have defended yourself or others with force, perhaps even deadly force.  In the four decades since, that advice has worked remarkably well. […]

ANOTHER ANNIVERSARY

Woot! Nine years helicopter crash-free! On January 26, 2013, my friend John Strayer and I survived a helicopter crash, along with the pilot.  It wasn’t my first near-death experience, but it remains my most recent, a fact for which I am thankful. When you reflect on such things, you are reminded why you are still […]

IT TOOK A WHILE, BUT…

In 1950, Colt introduced their lightweight Commander 1911 style pistol in three calibers: the all-American .45 ACP, .38 Super, and 9mm Luger. It was the first American-made 9mm Parabellum. After all, for two world wars that had been “the enemy’s pistol cartridge.”  The Commander has been in production ever since, but for decades the 9mm […]

FUNNY STUFF, RECOMMENDED

Let it not be said that the firearms industry has no sense of humor. Langdon Tactical Technologies is run by super-shooter Ernest Langdon and his lovely wife Aimee.  I use a lot of their stuff.  I was impressed as hell with the Langdon Custom version of the Beretta 1301 semiautomatic shotgun, and my best score […]

KIND WORDS APPRECIATED

[image error] David Blazek is a retired USAF U-2 pilot, and a helluva shot.  When other shooters nicknamed him “Blaze,” it wasn’t just a word-play on his name.  He has been national champion serviceman in IDPA, the International Defensive Pistol Association, a couple of times. He’s also one of my highest achieving graduates, having gone through all […]

Help! I live on the Information Dirt Road!

Evil Princess, here. I am appealing to all of Mas’ readers out there in your backwoods homes to help us with our internet problems. We started out with Hughesnet (Satellite) but they have usage limits and we found ourselves throttled down way before the end of the month. When Windstream, our landline provider, made DSL […]

PERSPECTIVE FROM TAM KEEL

Tamara Keel is one of my very favorite writers, not to mention a helluva good shot.  I regularly read her blog.  From whence comes the following, in which an anti-gun journalist much in need of perspective gets Keel-hauled.