OK. That’s it. Enough is enough.

So Barack Obama wants to place “a heartbeat away from the Presidency” the guy who said circa 1993, “Banning firearms is an idea whose time has come”?

That’s it. I’m throwing my hat in the ring.

Actually, the above is yet another manifestation of my significant other’s evil sense of humor. This neat little Internet ditty comes from: http://www.thelopezfamilyonline.com/aol4pres.php

Bless those people for giving us some humor to share with our friends and family. Just go to the link, plug in the name of your chosen victim/candidate (as the cruel significant other did to me, sniff sniff), and email it right to ‘em.

I have a feeling that as the campaign goes on, we’ll need more of this welcome light-heartedness to keep us going.

Next year will make three decades that I’ve been involved in shooting cases as an expert witness in the courts. I took my first case in New York City in 1979. It’s been an instructive part of my life.

One thing I’ve learned is that most private citizens who go through legal ordeals after they’ve had to use a gun in self-defense find themselves feeling terribly, terribly alone. They’re being demonized by the anti-gun media locally, and find themselves shunned by neighbors, friends, co-workers, and customers. Their identity as the good person, the good neighbor, the competent professional at whatever they do, has been subsumed by the new identity given them by the press: He Who Kills.

It’s easier for cops. They have unions and fraternal organizations to stand up for them, and to stand with them. They’re surrounded by peers who think, “That could have been me who had to shoot that dirtbag and bring down this crapstorm. There, but for the grace of God, go I.” The private citizen forced to do the same thing generally doesn’t have much of that peer support.

One guy who understands is my old friend and colleague Marty Hayes. He’s an ex-full time cop who went from patrolman to chief law enforcement officer, and who for the last several years has worked full time to bring responsible armed self-defense training to law-abiding private citizens as well as to law enforcement. First as Director of the famous Firearms Academy of Seattle, and now also as the founder of the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, he understands that people who’ve defended themselves and their families may need support in many ways in the aftermath of the incident.

Gail Pepin recently did an interview with Marty for the ProArms Podcast. It’s on Episode 005. The interview explains what the organization is about and what it does. I’m on board with the Network as an advisor. So are John Farnam, Dennis Tueller, Jim Cirillo, Jr., and some other folks who’ve spent decades dealing with violent encounter survival at both the street level and the court level. I for one think the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network is an idea whose time has come. You can go to the Network’s website, which has lots of good info. As my old friend Farnam would say, “Strongly recommended!”

All this cyber-stuff is scary to old people like me. I could be perfectly comfortable with a ’55 Chevy, a dial telephone, a typewriter, and some postage stamps. (And a good revolver, bolt action rifle, and double barrel shotgun, I suppose.)

If someone had told me a couple of years ago, “Hey, Mas, let’s go podcasting,” I would have been dumbfounded. My reply would probably have been, “Uh, pods? Dude, whales travel in pods. You think you’ve got tackle big enough to go casting for them?”

Time goes by fast. Now I’m on a podcast, and I wanted to share it with you folks. It was founded by Jon and Terri Strayer, rural-dwelling shooting champs who just opened a small gun shop and are in the process of building a big one, called Pro Arms. The producer is Gail Pepin, who has held the Florida/Georgia Regional Woman’s Championship in IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Shooting) since 2005. The host is Steve Denney, a retired public safety professional whose experience includes police supervision and SWAT. Also on board are gun writer/outdoor writer Chris Christian, Class III firearms dealer Herman Gunter III, retired NYPD street cop Mike Larney, me, and assorted guest experts. We do it in a round-table format, with inserted interviews with industry firearms professionals.

So far, it’s been a ball. We may not all take the same positions, but we’ve found we can “disagree without being disagreeable.” The topics tend less toward hunting than subjects such as why we’re armed; how to legally, comfortably, discreetly and competently carry a gun, whether male or female; the inside skinny on IDPA competition shooting (we have two of the seven five-gun Masters of the sport on board); and straight up, no BS gun tests. Downloadable now (or soon, when editing is complete), we have some Ruger and Smith & Wesson no-holds-barred reviews “in the can.” Guest lecturers include top instructors, and among those I’m happy to say are some of the best female instructors in the country, such as Gila Hayes of Firearms Academy of Seattle, Kathy Jackson of the outstanding Cornered Cat website, and Vicki Farnam.

You can take the Pro Arms Podcast for a test drive on your computer or download it to your MP3 player, at http://proarms.podbean.com. For more good info, check out the Gun Rights Radio Network at http://gunrightsradio.com. This will link you to some great folks whose podcast topics range from Second Amendment civil rights advocacy to self-defense issues to pure gun fun. They also have a forum for good folks who appreciate freedom and fine firearms alike.

I hope you enjoy it all as much as we do. It’s so much fun, I’m thinking of doing a podcast of my own. If I make it snide and snarky, maybe I can call it…a sarcast.

SCOTUS’ opinion in District of Columbia, et. al. v. Heller, is probably the most welcome official document in memory for gun owners’ rights activists. As such, it bears multiple re-readings.

Savor this, for example, from Justice Scalia’s majority opinion:

“By the time of the founding, the right to have arms had become fundamental for English subjects. See Malcolm 122-134. Blackstone, whose works, we have said, ‘constituted the preeminent authority on English law for the founding generation,’ Alden v. Maine, 527 U.S. 706, 715 (1999), cited the arms provision of the Bill of Rights as one of the fundamental rights of Englishmen. See 1 Blackstone 136, 139-140 (1765). His description of it cannot possibly be thought to tie it to militia or military service. It was, he said, ‘the natural right of resistance and self preservation,’ id., at 139, and ‘the right of having and using arms for self-preservation and defence,’ id., at 140;see also 3 id., at 2-4…Thus, the right secured in 1689 as a result of the Stuarts’ abuses was by the time of the founding understood to be an individual right protecting against both public and private violence.” (Pages 20-21 of the Heller decision.)

In his dissent, Justice Stevens wrote, “The Court would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the Framers made a choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses of weapons, and to authorize this Court to use the common-law process of case-by-case judicial lawmaking to define the contours of acceptable gun control policy.”

Yes, Justice Stevens, the Court would have us believe the obvious truth, as confirmed by the vast majority of the substantial body of Constitutional scholarship that exists on the topic…

Editor Dave Duffy tells me this blog is getting a good response.  Being a Luddite who doesn’t know from blogs, I’ll take his word for it. 

            I’ve tried not to be intrusive to reader responses, and let everyone have their say. Lots of good stuff!  A few comments do cry out for response, though.

            Anyone interested in more on the Dillinger matter may find my reconstruction of his shooting death at the Biograph Theater in Chicago in 1934 to be of interest. It’s on the stands now, in the July/August issue of American Handgunner magazine, under the continuing “Ayoob Files” feature..

            I mentioned that I was teaching in Harrisburg when the Heller decision was announced, and Jason the Saj commented that he’s from that area, and he was sorry he missed it. No sweat, Jason, we’ll be doing it there again next year. Stay tuned for date announcement at the Lethal Force Institute website at www.ayoob.com.

            Speaking of Heller, Dex wrote, “Scalia’s trips to the metaphorical woodshed with Stevens and Breyer are the most entertaining part of the opinion.”  I’ll second that!

            In re: the discussion of the Hi-Point pistol, lots of folks made cogent comments about the value of low-price, entry level firearms. Armed Jew remarked, “I’d really like to see Mr. Ayoob put these critters through their paces on the range.”  Been there, done that, bro.  Found the most reliable (100% so) and accurate was Hi-Point’s .380 model. I’ve also noted here already, as did several who commented, that their 9mm carbine is particularly nice.  I can also tell you that, according to dealers I’ve talked to, Hi-Point customer service is second to none.

            When I sent in a dispatch from the Midwestern floods, Brogan was concerned about cops entering homes without warrants under those circumstances. He saw it as “…another Katrina wrapped in a different package.” I hear where you’re coming from, Brogan, but I have to say I didn’t see any trampling of rights here.  In life-threatening disasters, emergency service workers – including police – have not only the right but the duty to check apparently abandoned dwellings to make sure there are no injured or infirm people inside who need to be rescued.

            Lots of folks shared their personal thoughts on “grail guns,” and every one mentioned was a fine and desirable firearm.  I only saw one I could help with: Heavyduty wrote that he’d love to own a round-butt, four-inch barrel specimen of the Model 681, Smith & Wesson’s fixed sight  L-frame (.41-frame) .357 Magnum in stainless. Almost all those revolvers were produced with square butts. There’s hope, though: attached is a photo of one of my 686s, the more common adjustable sight version of the same fine revolver. This one had its grip-frame reconfigured to the round butt shape by ace gunsmith Bob Lloyd. I can’t find Bob’s address, but there are lots of good Smith ‘smiths who can do the same job on the still available (if increasingly hard to find) square butt Model 681. Some 686s in the 4”/round butt configuration were also produced by S&W for US Customs, and surface occasionally on the collectors’ market.

            And finally, darn it, the bobcat never did come back.  L

4” S&W 686 rebuilt to round butt configuration (grips are Hogue) by ace gunsmith Bob Lloyd, who also trimmed the cylinder latch, bobbed the hammer, and did an outstanding action job. This gun won the New Hampshire IDPA Stock Service Revolver state championship a few years ago.

In the Comments section under Part Two of “Reflections on Heller” in this blog, reader azasu writes, “Hey Mas, I was wondering if you were going to do a post or article on the whole Joe Horn thing in Texas. I’d be interested to hear your take.”

Joe Horn of Pasadena, Texas made national news twice. The first time was last year, when he shot and killed two illegal immigrants who were burgling his next-door neighbor’s house. The second was this past week, when he was no-billed by the Grand Jury. Since it was publicized as two unarmed, fleeing men being shot in the back, most of the public expected him to be indicted for Murder or at least Manslaughter. Some were shocked by the Grand Jury’s decision, and some pleasantly surprised. Since both of the deceased had long and ugly criminal records, there was not a great deal of sympathy for them in some quarters.

There are a lot of subtleties that haven’t made it into the mainstream media yet, azasu. Many have heard his 9-1-1 calls, in which the dispatcher advised him to stay inside and he excitedly replied that no, he was going to go outside with his shotgun. The tape picks up Horn saying “Move and you’re dead,” and then three shotgun blasts.

What many do not realize is that one of the burglars was armed with a crowbar, and that they had faced him at fairly close range and were moving toward him – on his property by now, not just the neighbor’s, Horn said – when he opened fire. News reports say both men were shot in the back, but I’ve seen several cases where the suspect broke off his attack in the instant he realized he was going to be fired upon, and his turn came faster than the shooter could react to the change in the threat level. The average adult male can make a quarter turn in a quarter second, and a 180-degree body turn in half a second. Reaction time to an unanticipated stimulus takes longer than that, which means that the initial aggressor is likely to be shot before the defender can react to the turn and halt a trigger finger that is already in action.

Horn was in his sixties, and the two men he shot were much younger and stronger. That constitutes disparity of force. The crowbar one allegedly held constitutes a deadly weapon under these circumstances. Lunging at Horn as if to disarm him, under these circumstances, can also constitute lethal force, and Horn’s unleashing his 12-gauge Magnum could thus be justified three times over by a good defense attorney. In his videotaped walk-through at the shooting scene, recently released by the police department, Horn told the lead investigator, “I thought they were gonna get me…if they got the gun away from me, I knew what they were gonna do.” Moreover, Texas law is the most forgiving in the nation of private citizens who use deadly force in protection of property as well as life. Grand Jury proceedings tend to be super-secret, and we do not know to what degree a backlash against crime (and illegal aliens) may have influenced the Grand Jury’s decision not to render the true bill that would have set the stage for prosecution.

In a great many jurisdictions – including some in Texas – a citizen who went out and shot these guys would be under indictment for Murder or Manslaughter by now. Joe Horn’s willingness to risk his life for his neighbor’s goods is commendable, but not necessarily a role model for the rest of us. He is out substantial legal fees already, and he has received death threats. While many see him as a hero, I doubt that he feels like one. His attorney has stated that if Mr. Horn had it to do over again, he would stay inside and leave his Winchester Defender Model 1300 shotgun silent. I suspect the rest of us can learn from that.

As more information becomes available, azasu, I might be doing a full-length article on this in my continuing feature, “Self Defense and the Law,” in Combat Handguns magazine. If you’re interested in a full-length treatment in my Backwoods Home column, let editor Dave Duffy know. He is very responsive to article suggestions from readers.

Best wishes to all for a safe and meaningful Independence Day.

It is fascinating to watch the many reactions to the Heller decision. Perhaps the most obvious is that various print and electronic media, notably CNN, are now suddenly discussing these matters under the umbrella of “gun rights” when they used to say “gun control.” It’s good to see a more correct term in the headlines.

In Washington, DC, the city has reluctantly begun some foot-dragging compliance. They’ve announced that they’ll begin gun registration for handguns (required by a city law untouched by the decision). Moreover, since the city apparently has another law that bans semiautomatic firearms, only revolvers (and, presumably, single shot pistols and two-shot derringers) will be approved. DC Metro Police are issued 18-shot 9mm Glock 17 semiautomatics to protect the citizenry, but to DC lawmakers, I guess that’s neither here nor there. The fact remains that there is no genuine gun retailer in the District of Columbia where law-abiding citizens of the city can purchase any sort of the handguns now allowed there by the SCOTUS decision.

Word is, there is exactly one FFL (Federal Firearms License, for dealers) in Washington, DC. It was issued to Josh Sugarman, a high-profile gun ban advocate, attached to the Sarah Brady-inspired Violence Policy Center. He may have acquired it to gain entry into the SHOT Show, the Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade Show that is the annual Big Event in firearms retailing. He may have acquired it to make some sort of obscure statement. He may have acquired it to allow his friends in the anti-gun movement to buy guns through him in the city, since that sort of hypocrisy is known to run rampant among those people. I honestly don’t know.

However, since the authority that issues and supervises FFLs, the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) reportedly requires FFL holders to do transfers for law-abiding customers, there is a movement afoot among “real” FFL-holders to contact the agency and have Sugarman held to account and required to do so, on pain of losing his license. A “transfer” is what occurs when an individual legally acquires title to a firearm by paying for it in another state, whether in person or through an Internet purchase or auction. The gun is shipped by the seller to an FFL in the purchaser’s jurisdiction, and the individual purchaser then takes possession through the locally licensed dealer, filling out the 4473 form there, and paying a reasonable fee for the transfer. This is required since it is against Federal law for a private individual to purchase a handgun in another state, which is why the newly re-entitled DC residents can’t just drive to a gun shop in Maryland or Virginia and leave with a home defense revolver.

Will stubborn DC officials use such details in hopes of keeping their law-abiding citizenry disarmed? Well, do bears go potty in the woods? It will be interesting to see how this works out.

The Heller decision was certainly long overdue. When Morton Grove, Illinois became the first municipality to pass a law banning handgun possession, gun owners’ rights activists tried to take it to SCOTUS, and failed. Jervis Anderson, in his anti-gun treatise “Guns In American Life” (Random House, 1984) wrote, “The gun-control movement might also draw a measure of comfort from what the Supreme Court eventually decided about the case of Morton Grove…(after the US Court of Appeals in Chicago upheld the ban,) The Supreme Court remained silent on the matter, however. In October of 1983, it, in effect, dismissed the N.R.A. petition, by declining to rule on the opinion delivered in March by the United States Court of Appeals in Chicago.”

The Supreme Court of the United States has fixed that now.

Better late than never.

Viewing the Mississippi flooding up close was awe-inspiring…in terms of the best of human values at work, as well as the majesty of nature. The pictures you see here were taken by significant other and I in Quincy, Illinois and Hannibal, MO.

Homes under water. Business districts under water. Bridges under water, and countless acres of farmland immersed.

But, also, an incredibly strong expression of sense of community. Neighborhood folks, military reserve personnel, Mennonite farm families, and local high school kids pulling together to fill, just in one medium size community, what a city official said was 1.3 million sandbags as they fought to keep the vast waters from spilling over the levees.

As many other commentators have noted: no riots. No looting. The National Guard coming in with shovels instead of M16s.

And, in perhaps the most whimsical picture, we observe that when their favorite watering hole happens to be a waterfront tavern, Americans don’t just abandon their regular routines…J

Says something about values in the Heartland, doesn’t it?

So here I am in Barry, Illinois, just finishing up filming my segments for the third season of Tom Gresham’s television program, Personal Defense TV, which has just switched from The Outdoor Channel to The Sportsman’s Channel. And I’m reminded again of how the world of the gun is so much like every other aspect of our world.

You know how a few minutes after an argument or a debate, we find ourselves thinking, “What I should have said was…”? And all those times where instead of “I should have said,” it’s “I should have done?”

Had a couple of those moments…

In eleven of the thirteen episodes, I was happy with the way things turned out. Several were done in only one take. There are a couple, though, that I wouldn’t mind doing over again…

One was a segment on why it’s a good idea to use a firm grip when shooting, particularly with powerful guns. We were filming at PASA Park, the outstanding shooting facility which hosts the Smith & Wesson Masters and the Single Stack pistol championships. PASA head Dick Metcalf, who also writes for Shooting Times and Guns & Ammo, lent me a Smith & Wesson Model 629 slicked up by our mutual friend, the late, great Fred Sadowski of 300 Gunsmithing Services in Denver. The ammo was powerful Hornady XTP .44 Magnum, using a 180 grain bullet that hits nearly 1600 feet per second muzzle velocity.

To illustrate that the gun can move in your hand upon recoil if you hold it too loosely, I let off one shot downrange with the camera in close-up on gun and hand. I pointed out that the revolver had started to roll back in my relaxed grasp, and that another round or two would have found the hammer blocked by the web of the hand. Then, with a proper hard hold, I ripped five more downrange rapid-fire. That’s a take! Cut, wrap, print…

Not until after the camera turned off did I notice that the light grasp had allowed the sharp edge of the cylinder latch to slice my thumb open, drawing blood. The gear was already being broken down to move to the next filming location, and an after-the-fact splice would have looked hokey. Damn…I had missed a perfect opportunity to show even better why you shouldn’t fire powerful guns with a wimpy grasp.

Another segment involved gun concealment options. With a light nylon windbreaker over my usual garb of cargo pants, shirt, and photographer’s vest, I proceeded in front of the camera to divest myself of two .45 automatics, two full size .357 Magnums, a couple of compact .22s and .32s, a trio of .380s, and so many snub-nose .38s that I lost count. When the camera stopped rolling, 25 pistols and revolvers had made it from concealment on my person to the table beside me. As they unhooked the body mike, I realized, “Dammit…I forgot a couple.” I had missed two short barrel Smith & Wessons, an all-steel .38 Chief Special and an AirLite .357. Well, there was no need for a second take – 25 makes the point about as well as 27 – but you know, I don’t think I’ll be as judgmental as I might have been the next time I read of some honest gun carrier getting arrested because he forgot he had a gun on when he went through a metal detector into a “gun-free zone.”

Woulda…coulda…shoulda…sigh.

Mas has just removed these 25 concealed handguns from the clothes he’s wearing. Vest is concealed by nylon windbreaker…and still hides two more revolvers.

All steel S&W Model 36 .38 Special and super-light S&W Model 340 .357 were literally forgotten in the inside breast pockets of concealment vest.

In my last blog entry, I talked about getting ready for a police combat shoot in New Hampshire. That match is history now, but as usual, I learned some things.

Driving to NH from the south, my adult supervisor and I stopped at the excellent Skip-J shooting range in Anderson, South Carolina to shoot in their annual Glock shoot under the GSSF (Glock Sport Shooting Foundation) system. I hadn’t practiced for the event and shot for the heck of it. Used a Glock 17 9mm and scored, well, “a gentleman’s C.” But then I entered the Major Sub event, and whattaya know…I won it.

“Major Sub” means large caliber subcompact pistol. I had my favorite Glock along, a G30. This is the carry-size, eleven-shot semiautomatic in caliber .45 ACP. However, it had a grip trimmed down to better fit my hand, and I’d forgotten that this feature was not allowed by GSSF rules in a stock gun category. An old friend lent me his G30SF, the new Glock .45 that is essentially the Glock 30 factory-produced with a gripframe that has a smaller than standard measurement front to back. His pistol was perfectly sighted in for me with Winchester 230 grain .45 hardball ammunition, and a high visibility Ameriglo front sight. Kewl! Sometimes, things just work out.

The NH shoot was another story. The course of fire was not announced until we were on the firing line. It was slower shooting than expected, and at longer range. I had been practicing for this particular tournament, but at a faster pace and on a bright, sunny range in the southland. A light rain was falling on match day, and the flat black target in the gray gloom did not give me good contrast between the front sight and the target…and I got sloppy. The first string of fourteen shots (seven, reload, and seven more with my department issue Ruger .45 auto) went to the right of point of aim. Decent group, but in the wrong place. The group was centered between the nine- and eight-point rings, and one drifted into the seven-ring. After we got in to the fifteen yard line, I only dropped one more shot out of the ten ring, and put a couple dozen into the tiny X-ring in the center, but that was too little too late.

I found a bright spot in the day, though. Rangemaster Russ Timmons announced that the overall winner was Stephanie Howland of the New Hampshire Department of Corrections (DoC). I can remember when Steph started shooting the match, a few years ago. She was not happy with her finish the first time. Instead of just slinking away, as so many people do when their first competition doesn’t find them at the top of the list, she resolved to train harder. Each succeeding year, she placed higher and higher.

And this year, she placed top overall, the first time a female officer has done so in the history of the Association, to my knowledge. She also led a DoC sweep, with her colleagues Perkins and Snyder winning the championship team honors. Congratulations, Stephanie!

Stephanie Howland’s perseverance, focus, and determination make her a role model for both genders. All things considered, I’ll take the inspiration she gave us all to a trophy, any day. Inspirations are a lot harder to come by than trophies.

Spent 9mm casing flies from the SIG P226 pistol of Ernest Perkins as he leads his team to victory at the NH Police Association state shoot of 2008. Fellow Dept. of Corrections shooter Stephanie Howland won the individual shooting championship.