Massad Ayoob's Blog, page 9

THERE’S A TIME TO TALK TO THE PROSECUTOR

The defense strategy of “never talk to the other side” makes sense for an attorney representing a guilty client.  It’s often diametrically opposed to the best strategy for getting charges dropped on a client who shot someone in legitimate self-defense. Explained here, with examples including some of my own cases. From the online edition of […]

RETURN OF THE FIRING SQUAD?

The death penalty is a controversial issue, obviously.  I’ve seen enough wrongful convictions that I can’t advocate for capital punishment. The same is true of Dr. Jim Williams, a friend and one of my fourth level graduates. However, as an MD he is practical enough to realize that if people are going to be killed […]

ANOTHER GREAT GUN GUY PASSES

Last month I lost one of my best friends. Nolan Santy was 87 when he passed, a genuinely good man and one of the nicest guys in the gun world. Maybe in the world, period. I met him when I was a teenager and he was the master gunsmith at one of the all time […]

ON THE SIG ROMEO RECALL

It has been determined that the battery cap on a SIG Romeo optical sight is not child proof, and a little kid could remove the battery and swallow it.  I kid you not. Read it here. Of course, no child has yet swallowed such a battery after removing it from the gunsight. But I can’t […]

A SKEPTIC-AL LOOK AT CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

The theme of the current issue of Skeptic magazine is “crime and punishment.” The conclusions of the researchers who put it together are of interest. Some of their points: –“One famous study found that just ‘1 percent of the population (is) accountable for 63% of all violent crime convictions.’” — “Research suggests that people on […]

WELL, WHADDAYA KNOW?

If someone had asked me six weeks ago, “When do you think we’ll be able to get non-resident concealed carry for California?” my answer might have been, “Oh, about the same time they get a foot of snow in Pensacola, Florida.” Funny thing about that… In recent weeks, snow DID reach twelve inches near Pensacola… […]

THE NEW STANDARD CATALOG OF SMITH & WESSON

From Gun Digest Books comes “The Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson,” fifth edition. Jim Supica and Richard Nahas, two pre-eminent authorities on these guns, are the authors.  Let me call your attention to a couple of things in the photo accompanying these comments. You’ll note that on the hard cover of this edition it […]

THE END OF EVERYTHING

Sometimes what is true in macrocosm is true in microcosm. Reading military historian Victor Davis Hanson’s 2024 book “The End of Everything: How Wars Descend Into Annihilation” reminded me of this. Hanson goes into scrupulous detail of cases across the millennia of nations utterly crushed, and city-states razed to the ground with their population enslaved […]

DEFENSE GUNS FOR GEEZERS

Being now of an age of certified geezer-tude, I think I’m qualified to speak about defensive handguns for the elderly. Hell, I’ve been teaching old folks to shoot since I was twenty-something, so… Second Amendment stalwart David Codrea recently linked one of my past articles on the topic, and inspired me to share it with […]

ACCEPT A PLEA BARGAIN?

If we had, say, shot a violent criminal in self-defense and wound up charged with murder, we’d all stand up righteously and demand a trial, right? It’s easy for us to say. We’re not looking at a choice of life sentence without possibility of parole and an anticipated defense lawyer fee in six figures as […]