Monday morning. Final arguments begin in the Blagojevich trial, and it could go to the jury as early as today.
Blagojevich not testifying after all these months of screaming that he couldn’t wait to, was something of a surprise. But his attorneys presenting no defense at all was, for most trial-watchers, a HUGE surprise.
Chicago journalist Eric Zorn didn’t think so, though. He had predicted it. As we await the verdict, read Zorn’s explanation of how he saw this coming, HERE.

Deposed anti-gun Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich surprised most court-watchers today. When the government rested its case, Blago’s attorneys rested also, without presenting any active defense. Now, my day job involves a lot more time in court than that of most folks, and in a few decades of that, this particular gambit has always struck me as something like a jump-spinning back kick in a karate tournament. It will result in either a spectacular knockout, or the person who tried it falling on their butt.

I can understand the strategy. Blago is a loose cannon. (One pundit said this morning, “Whaddaya know – Blagojevich IS capable of keeping his mouth shut.”) Jurors are certain to remember that the defense promised in opening statements that the ex-guv would take the stand. Of course, the judge will instruct them to draw no inference from the fact that he did not, but human nature and the subconscious sometimes trump judicial instruction. We all figure that if WE were wrongly accused, we’d welcome our moment to righteously prove ourselves innocent, and we consciously or subconsciously wonder why the defendant did not.

Blago’s lawyers point out that the government also failed to live up to promises, not putting Tony Rezko and Rahm Emanuel on the stand as expected, either. Says one street-wise Chicagoan, “Of course they didn’t. If they put Rezko and Emanual on the stand, Obama would have had to wind up there, too.” Never let it be said that Chicago politicians don’t stick together.

I’ve seen the “defense strategy of no defense” actually work, but not often. Some years ago I was expert witness for Will Lozano, a Miami cop being tried for Manslaughter and being defended by a true dream team, Mark Seiden and the legendary Roy Black. As I was ready to head to the airport to catch a Miami flight, Mark called me and said, “Unpack your bags. Turn on Court TV and you’ll see why.” I did, and watched in real time as the state rested. Black stood up with a smile and said, “Since the state has presented no case, the defense rests, too.” And damned if the jury didn’t acquit.

However, with Roy cross-examining the eyewitnesses and Mark crossing the specialist witnesses, they had absolutely savaged the state’s trumped-up, politically motivated case. Have Sam Adams Senior and Junior really done that to the prosecution in this case?

Hell, I dunno; I haven’t followed the trial. But there are lawyers reading this, and people with juror experience, and court-watchers, and many who have followed the Blagojevich trial intensively. It probably won’t go to the jury until Monday – but for now, what say YOU?

Unredacted motion to subpoena President Barack Obama

The History Channel has been running a show called “Top Shot,” in which shooters young and old, male and female, from disciplines ranging from old-style rifle to modern speed pistol compete in visually exciting marksmanship challenges. There’s both individual and team competition, with $100,000 cash prize for the last shooter left standing, one elimination per weekly episode. (Why a shooting show on a HISTORY channel? Because they use historical weapons.)

On the gun chat boards, shooter folk are complaining about the “reality show drama” backstories developing – yes, the format IS sort of “Survivor” with a shooting match instead of an island – and many a viewer uses Tivo and fast forward to get past the drama and watch only the shooting.

I had heard of some of the contestants before the show. The only one I personally know, modern action shooter/trainer Mike Seeklander, was eliminated in the first episode. A modern gun guy, he hadn’t been familiar with the long-range battle sight on the 1903 Springfield rifle he was issued, and couldn’t get on target. Caleb Giddings was eliminated last week: bright young kid with an informative shooting podcast I listen to. Caleb and I both shot in the Enhanced Service Revolver division at the Indiana State IDPA championships a few weeks ago, and he beat me by about half a second per stage. I kept this in mind as, like every other viewer, I asked myself how I might have done had I been one of the contestants on “Top Shots.”

I can tell you that when they shot from a speeding zip-line, the sound man would have needed to use his magic to drown out my screams and keep them from startling the viewing audience, and in the longbow event, my best chance would have been to grab the arrows from the quiver, drop the bow, do a hundred-yard dash, and stab the target.

If you don’t get The History Channel, you can download it on your computer through Hulu.

While I too might enjoy the program more without the drama, “Top Shots” seems to be drawing a healthy audience, and showing the shooting sports to the general public in a positive light, and that seems to be A Good Thing.

What’s all you guys’ and gals’ take on it?

As a teenager, I discovered “turkey shoots” in New Hampshire. Turkey shoots are run different ways in different places, but in the Granite State they revolved around shooting full-size deer targets at 100 yards, with “standing deer” and “running deer” events. It was a rare hunter with the time and money to set up the motor-and-pulley arrangement for the running target on his own, but a fish and game club could do it, make a profit for the club, and give us hunters much-needed experience in leading fast-moving venison on the hoof a hundred yards away. If you beat the other shooters on your relay, you took home a frozen Butterball turkey for each win. To my way of thinking, that was and is A Good Thing. Later, in the early ‘90s, I had the pleasure of shooting the BuckMasters match against 3D deer targets that fell to bullets. Even better! (Later, Yanks would import silueta from Mexico, where shooters stood “offhand” with hunting rifles to knock down life-size steel silhouettes of game critters.)

I had given up bird hunting when Sporting Clays came along, and have always regretted that this game wasn’t around when I enthusiastically took my shotgun afield after partridge and pheasant. In Sporting Clays, the “clay birds” fly in realistic settings and at unpredictable angles, including scudding along the ground. Will that make you a better shot on “the real thing”? Can anyone even DOUBT?

Making my living on the self-defense side of the gun world, my shooting competition nowadays revolves mostly around handguns. The International Defensive Pistol Association (www.idpa.com) is where I get most of my match-level trigger time. I try to shoot at least four major events a year, and at least one local match every month. Entry fees range from $12 to $20 at local level, up to $165 for the biggest matches that have lots of valuable prizes. I’ve won my share of guns, etc. at the latter, but it’s not a for-profit thing except for a handful of the nation’s very best professional shooters, of which I am not one.  What these matches DO accomplish is to give you training realistic enough to be authentically replicated experience…and put you under major pressure doing it. That combination is priceless for building skill when you really NEED the gun for its intended purpose, whether that purpose is feeding the family or saving the family.

Last month I got to shoot two major IDPA matches, the Indiana State Championships and the Carolina Cup, experiencing about fifteen “replicated gunfights” at each.  At a range near Kokomo, Jeff Brown and his super crew ran us through replays of the famous scene in the movie “Collateral,” and timed shooting with each hand, and a whole mess of “runnin’ an’ gunnin’,” including Jeff’s favorite target, the Rattler, which jerks violently and unpredictably away from your aim like a spastic crackhead, and a devilish “clamshell” target array that gave you only about one second to shoot the hostage taker before the hostage was pulled in front of him.  (Big props to Larry and Stacey Piekarski, who lent one of their own cars to a couple whose brakes had gone out, and then fixed the brakes!). In North Carolina, Frank Glover and his famed Carolina Cup crew had us shooting “outlaw bikers” out from behind REAL motorcycles, and shooting “terrorists” on a REAL schoolbus. Info on each great venue is available at www.idpa.com, along with links to a local club that’s probably within driving distance of where you are right now.

There is more realistic practice, training, and competition available today than ever before. It’s a great time to be a shooter who wants to get better.

John Serafin has used a shovel to “knock out” target in foreground, then run to cover to engage multiple threat targets, including the “swinger” second from right. His pistol is a 9mm 1911.

Gail Pepin raises her Springfield XD(m) 9mm as she runs past “innocent bystander”  to cover to get a clear shot at “bad guy” downrange at Indiana State shoot.

Suzeanne Holleman double-taps target at left on the run before entering schoolbus to engage “hostage takers” at Carolina Cup. Her pistol is S&W M&P Pro in 9mm.

“Attacked” while mowing her lawn, Cyndi Delena abandons the machine and draws her S&W 9mm from behind a “tree” at Carolina Cup.

The permit (or license if you will; I steer clear of that particular semantic trap) to carry a concealed weapon has been the subject of much debate over the last few decades. It wasn’t so long ago that there were seven states where the piece of paper that authorized you to carry a loaded, concealed handgun in public simply wasn’t available. Now there are two: Illinois and Wisconsin. The latter state came achingly close, only to be vetoed repeatedly by a governor who won’t be in office to do that the next time around. Look for Illinois to be the only holdout soon.

Having spent most of my life in New Hampshire, which issued carry permits regularly since long before this old man was born and reportedly was the lowest-crime state in the union last year – and now owning a home in Florida, which caused all manner of angst amongst the lightweights when it made carry permits readily available in the late ‘80s – I can testify that when good people carry guns, the streets don’t run red with blood. Quite the reverse, in fact.

As documented regularly here and elsewhere, Chicago’s Mayor Daley thinks otherwise. Surrounded by heavily armed bodyguards himself, he now flouts the United States Supreme Court itself after the recent McDonald decision. He ramrodded new rules in the windy city which will restrict law-abiding citizens to one functioning handgun in the household, subject to heavy licensing fees, massive liability insurance requirements, and among other ludicrous restrictions will not allow the owner to take it out of the house. How, then, will the owner be able to take it to a shooting range and learn to be safe and competent with it? How will he or she take a broken handgun to a gunsmith, to keep it in safe working order?

Look, on the other hand, to practical Utah. THIS link shows how popular their carry permit, the most widely recognized by other states in the land, has become.

Most of the rest of the country recognizes that those who pass the criminal record checks, etc. required for concealed carry permits are the kind of Good Guys and Gals the rest of society doesn’t have to worry about. It certainly seems to be the case in some quarters in Texas, as we see HERE.

Illinois’ sheriffs seem to be leaning toward concealed carry licensing. It will be offered in the Legislature in the next session in Springfield. Good luck to our logical, law-abiding brothers and sisters in Illinois. Perhaps they’ll one day be treated like free people…even if they have to get a non-resident permit from Utah or elsewhere, and leave home, to know what that feels like as of now.