Massad Ayoob's Blog, page 43

PEARL HARBOR AND A COMPARISON YOU HAVEN’T SEEN BEFORE

Pearl Harbor was to my parents’ generation what 9/11 was to mine. Each triggered a protective national rage. Each also taught lessons about preparedness. No one at Pearl Harbor thought the massive sneak attack was going to happen. They weren’t able to mount an effective defense until it was altogether too late. I recently watched […]

THOUGHTS ON THE VERDICT IN THE ARBERY KILLING

In the overlapping murder trials in Wisconsin and Georgia in recent days, most of us focused primarily on the Rittenhouse case.  We’ve gone over it rather thoroughly here.  It’s time to talk about the recent convictions of three men for Murder in the death of Ahmaud Arbery. Many compared the two, and there are certainly […]

WISE WORDS FROM A WISE MAN

Among the most eminent instructors of armed citizen self-defense in our time are Tom Givens and his wife Lynn. Together, they run the annual Rangemaster Tactical Conference, scheduled for March of this year in Dallas.  The Evil Princess and I will “be there with bells on,” as usual. Tom began his career as a street […]

A GREAT SELF-DEFENSE LAWYER PASSES

We here are greatly saddened to be told of the unexpected passing of a good friend and colleague.  Jim Fleming was famous for his expertise in self-defense cases.  He was one of the very few in his profession who cared enough about the preventive side of things to teach classes in self-defense law for armed […]

THANKSGIVING REFLECTIONS

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are having a joyful and restorative long weekend. Still giving thanks here.  Bad news is I’m up to five good friends battling cancer, good news is they’re all holding their ground or winning so far. The New York State Rifle & Pistol Club’s lawsuit on carry […]

WHAT TO SAY…

It’s November 22, 2021, and your humble scribe is at a rare loss for words. I’ve been listening to the final arguments in the case of the death of Ahmaud Arbery. Folks marching outside the courthouse there with AR15s…anyone getting a little déjà vu? The judge has just ordered the bailiffs to move the jury from […]

JUSTICE PREVAILED IN KENOSHA

Perhaps appropriately, the Evil Princess and I were just pulling up to a gun shop when we listened to the Wisconsin v. Kyle Rittenhouse verdict announcement live on Court TV, streamed to the car: not guilty on all counts. As I’ve been saying since the video of this incident first became available, this multiple shooting is a […]

WHILE ON VERDICT WATCH

And we all thought a “not guilty on all counts” verdict would come in quickly in the Rittenhouse case, given the fact that every shot the kid fired was on video and showed him to be under deadly attack: attempted disarm by a violent mental patient, chased by a mob, kicked in the head with […]

AN OVERLOOKED VICTORY FOR GUN OWNERS’ CIVIL RIGHTS

In the polarized debate over gun owners’ civil rights, we’ve been so constantly on the defensive that is has become easy to forget our long-term victories. Some of us can remember when the thrust of the Prohibitionists was to ban possession of handguns entirely. From California to Massachusetts, we faced referendums that could have voted […]

MORE PERSPECTIVES ON RITTENHOUSE CASE

I am writing this on the morning of Wednesday, November 10. The defense phase of the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse has just begun.  So far, the prosecution’s performance has been an embarrassment to prosecutors everywhere. It turns out that the State is alleging that the first man to be shot was too far away from Rittenhouse […]