Today is my seventieth birthday. Hell, I’d need a fire extinguisher to blow out that many candles.

It’s been a fun ride, and I’m thankful to still be rolling forward, if not quite as fast as I used to. Got married for the second time on June 20th.  Does marriage age a man?  Well, judge for yourself:

That morning, my oldest kid was 41 and I had four grandchildren.  Ten minutes later, my oldest kid was 44, I had more kids and grandkids, and I was now a great-grandfather.

And less than a month after the marriage, I’ve become a septuagenarian.

My olditude is obviously…her fault!

<<Oops, error note.  My birthday is the 20th. This was supposed to be programmed to put this entry up on that day, when I will be 3,000 miles from home in a place with poor internet connection.  (Hey, I warned you early on I’m clumsy with these new-fangled computer things.)

Apologies.

And, damn, marrying that woman is aging me worse than I thought — I apparently just got two weeks older, sooner…>>

70 COMMENTS

  1. 70 years young. Happy birthday and find the time to enjoy the little ones. Spoil them and the turn them loose on the parents.

  2. Happy birthday Mas. I’m a couple years behind you but I have many of the same issues. Oldest child will be 45 this year and my 5th grandchild is about to arrive. No great-grandkids however. There are some benefits to getting older.

  3. Actually, lots of research has shown that being *happily married* is strongly correlated with a long, stress-free and healthy life… so the wisdom would seem to be, to *keep Momma happy*!

  4. Happy Birthday Mas. I am looking forward to more years of training and teaching with you.

  9. Yes you gained Grandkids and all, but I’ve done my best to even things out for our side. My rather young, third (and final) wife became a grandmother at age 35 (I am 16 years older than her) when my daughter had her first child. And now, with said daughter having a second child and youngest son and his wife having a daughter as well, my 40 year old wife has THREE grandchildren. The look on her face when I call her Grandma is amusing to say the least…

  10. Hah! Young whippersnapper. I got grand, great grand and great great great kids. Got a just plain kid age 63.
    Keep on keeping on, Kiddo

    • Thanks, Ken. That means a lot. As I recall, you were 63 the day you kicked my ass down into second place in the Master Stock division at Second Chance. And that was long ago. I wanna grow up to be just like you!

  12. Happy Birthday Mas.

    Hmmm . . . a quote I once came across on the subject of age: “I’m twenty-one, the rest is just experience.”

    And many happy returns of the day too!

  15. Happy Birthday, on the 17th this month I will be 10 years older than you, see you at FAS

  17. Happy birthday! and congratulations on your recent marriage.

    I have learned much from your writings over the years and look forward to learning from you for many years to come. Thank you.

  18. Congratulations, O Gun-Guru, on achieving 70 years.
    Many happy returns of the day, and many more.

  19. So congrats one more time to you. Here in Central Europe is quite usual to wish good health for as many years as possible, so I hope I will read many articles from you.

  21. Oh you firebug??. You are so junior to me, it’s pathetic. Marry well, age well- so you have a long way to go. Plan accordingly and congratulations and the best wishes possible.
    Ancient Grasshopper

  22. Happy Birthday Mas. Have a great day and and an amazing year.

    My father was a proud UFO. He was still legal to fly in his plane in his eighties and was a proud member of the United Flying Octogenarians (UFO).

    I expect no less than another 10 years of ‘rolling forward’ for those of us addicted to your ‘rolling’ (the trigger?). Age, as you know, is less important than attitude. I am sure the XYL (aka the ex ‘Evil Princess’) will keep you in line and moving forward you old Great grandfather.

    One question. Do we now address your Bride as the Evil Queen, the Black Queen or some other moniker now that she has married the King?

  23. Well, Happy Birthday to you. And you’re apparently doing well for someone who lived life in the fast lane!

  24. Mas, Count your blessings (I know you do). Becoming a septuagenarian is way better than the alternative. Congratulations on your now enlarged family. Many young couples that think its hip or smart to be childless, will rue their decision when they reach our age. Old age is lonely without the company (and drama) of a large family.

    Oh yeah, Happy Birthday!!!

  25. Yo Mas: Ayesha I’m still looking for the fool that said getting old is fun…gonna have a serious heart to heart with him!

    Please contact me privately, one of your grads! Congrats Bro…Lead On, Tom Kelly

  26. Mas,

    This is off-topic and I don’t want to spoil your birthday but, as they say, everyone is a critic. I just have to write this.

    I just received my new (Sep/Oct 2018) issue of American Handgunner Magazine. I always like to read the “Ayoob Files” articles in this magazine. This one was on the Shooting of Daniel Shaver by Officer Brailsford of the Mesa Police Department.

    Normally, I am in the “Amen Choir” when reading one of your Ayoob Files. However, I must take exception to this one. The Mesa Police did not handle this incident correctly and you are wrong to imply that they did.

    In your write-up, you argue that the actions of Officer Brailsford did meet the Reasonable Man Doctrine. I agree with you there. Officer Brailsford got a “raw deal” when he was fired and charged with murder. The fact is, Officer Brailsford was made a scapegoat for other people’s failures. When it all went wrong, someone had to get the blame and Brailsford got picked because he was the one who actually pulled the trigger.

    In my opinion, the person truly at fault was Sergeant Charles Langley. Where you fail in your write-up is that you do not apply the Reasonable Man Doctrine to Langley’s actions.

    Consider the situation. The department receives a single complaint of a “Man with a rifle” in his hotel room. I submit that it was wrong of Sergeant Langley, based upon this single, unverified report, to leap to the conclusion that he was dealing with a possible active-shooter situation. Almost always, in a true active shooter incident, there will be multiple, independent 911 calls. There will also be reports of “shots fired”. None of that occurred in this case. Nor did the police hear any shots, themselves, when they arrived on the scene.

    Acting, incorrectly, on his assumption of a possible active-shooter, Sergeant Langley organized basically a “SWAT Team” armed with AR’s to deal with the situation. I say that this level of response does not meet the “Reasonable Man Doctrine” based upon the limited information available at the time. A reasonable response would be an investigation rather than a SWAT assault.

    Sergeant Langley should have kept his AR-armed SWAT Team out-of-sight (as backup) while two uniformed officers, with holstered handguns, simply walked to the hotel door and knocked. Once the occupants of the hotel room opened the door, the officers could have communicated that they were responding to a complaint about the rifle. Very quickly, they could have determined that it was only an air rifle. The final response could have ranged from simply giving Mr. Shaver a stern warning not to wave his air rifle around to confiscating the air rifle and hauling Mr. Shaver off to spend the night in the “Drunk Tank” if he appeared intoxicated. In any event, a simple investigation would have almost certainly cleared the matter up without anyone getting shot.

    Instead, Sergeant Langley reacted like a hoplophobe rather than like a reasonable police officer. He was the officer-in-charge and it was his decision to use a sledgehammer to swat a fly. He is the one who should have been blamed and been fired for incompetence.

    I hope that Mr. Shaver’s family receives a nice fat, six-figure settlement from the Mesa Police Department and from La Quinta Hotels for his “Wrongful Death”. This case certainly calls for it.

    • TN, I can’t fault Mesa PD for responding as they did to a report of a man pointing a rifle out the window. If someone had spotted the Las Vegas mass murderer setting up beforehand and phoned it in, do you think it would have been wise to have sent two cops to his door with holstered gun, to “knock and talk”?

      • Yes, assuming that the police only had a single report and assuming that no shots had yet been fired, it would have been at least “reasonable” for the Las Vegas PD to “knock and talk”. It is only in “hindsight” that we know it would have been a mistake.

        I admit that, 1 time in 1000, it may be a “worst-case scenario” and wiser to go in with AR’s cocked and locked. However, the majority of the time, it is not the “worst-case”.

        The police cannot live in the “bare fear” of the “worst-case scenario” and be constantly ready to shoot anyone who even looks dangerous. If that is their mindset, then they should resign immediately because they can’t do their job properly.

        The police, like a citizen, must react only to “reasonable fear” not “bare fear”. In this case, the Mesa PD was responding to “bare fear” and they “over-reacted” by sending in (effectively) a SWAT Team with AR’s at the ready. It was an over-reaction. It put the officers on the scene, like Officer Brailsford, into a “mindset” that they were dealing with dangerous killer and set them up to shoot on a “hair-trigger”. It worked. The hair-trigger did, indeed, get pulled when Daniel Shaver made a dumb move!

    • to continue Mas’ BIRTHDAY”-off topic” subject. TN-MAN, from my humble estimate, this forum is one of opinion. for you to assert Ayoobs opinion to be wrong is like me saying my favorite color is yellow and you disagree and say it should be blue–and i am wrong? OPINIONS are OPINIONS, based on the facts at hand or otherwise, and opinion is ALWAYS subjective yet not necessarily “wrong”.

      with social media, we have been able to evaluate a split second decisions someone had to make, in the comfort of our office or home. and the recording of what we are watching is but a glimpse in time to the actual encounter.

      certainly mr Ayoob has a bias, and rightfully so. how many GOOD cops have been severely charged with a crime of which they are not guilty of? think baltimore 6, think the Gaskins case in southern Virginia a few months ago. THAT IS A VERY INTERESTING CASE–look it up.

      back on topic-opinions are never wrong, if it is your opinion that opinions are wrong, it is my opinion you should reserve your opinions that matter to family only, less you may be wrong in your opinion.

  27. Let me be first to weigh in uncle Mas, and wish you many more candles in the future! This is like when I hit the big 3-0 (or 30S lol), now my youngest nephew is in the Academy up north, so beers up!!

  28. Happy Birthday! I know that sometimes it feels like we are aging in dog years, but keep on truckin’. Your new bride will make you feel like a teenager.

  29. Congratulations. I feel your pain. I turned 70 in Mar. There are benefits, though. You can use age as an excuse to avoid doing what you don’t want to do, and you are young and fit enough to do want you really want to do.

  33. Congratulations partner. I’ll be 71 in Sept. Been married 29 years. Shoot 2-3 times a week. Fence 2x a month. Work 4x a week. Work f/t and no intent to slow down. And it’s all her fault.

  35. I’m going to be 89 in a few months. I shoot for times a week at the range. Still shoot pretty damn well. Don’t worry, it gets better with age. Think of it as like a good red wine.

  36. Best wishes, and happy birthday Mas…keep on trucking! I’m hot on your heels in this olditude thing. LIFE IS GOOD ?

  37. A birthday with a zero in it is a good time to thank you for all that you have done. Lots of people have good information, few of them can teach it, fewer still can write it. Your writing is splendid (I’m an old editor; I know good copy when I see it).

    And I owe you (and a couple of other authors) for making me a happy Berettaholic.

    Very best regards, and many happy returns of the day.

  38. We share a Birthday, I arrived at 57 still kicking if not exactly going strong. Ours is an interesting birthday, we share it with Ringo Starr and Robert A Heinlein. I was born 7-7-61, take 61 6+1=7, my 16th birthday was 7-7-77, 16 1+6=7. I am not a person who believes in Numerology or Astrology but that is a lot of frakking 7’s 😉

  39. A ways behind, but I feel your pain in a “Previews of Coming Attractions”*snort* way–I’m closing in on 40, my own Evil Princess approaching 50.

    Guess this means I better get to work figuring out how to get past the end of the paved road out to Onalaska for MAG-40 sooner rather than later… (Hopefully not while the GF’s visiting… with her being a non-US citizen and thus probably unable to join us, *that* bit of schedule conflict would suck.)

    Congrats on surviving another one! 😀

  40. Happy birthday to my mentor! And congratulations on your wedding, I wish you happiness and good health. Mazel Tov!!!

  42. Happy birthday Mas!
    I feel like I’ve griwn old with you, as I’ve been reading just about everything you’ve wrote in the last 40 years.

    Here’s to many more with your new bride.

  43. First, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Mas! I’ve previously told you we are only one day apart – me being one day older than you, born 7/6/48. Don’t know about you, but I cannot believe that I’m now 70 – sure don’t feel like it, at least not mentally. Hey, I grew up hearing I was supposed to be a “firecracker” – did you ever hear that? I was glad to hear the news of Gail and you getting married as I feel marriage – done right – is a true stabilizing ingredient for a long life. I’m looking forward to reading more of your excellent articles, stories – especially “the Ayoob Files.”

    Stay safe, my friend.

  45. Happy B-Day, Mas! If the former Jedi knight Yoda was older, slightly taller, and had a mustache, he would look just like you 🙂

    You certainly have lots of all types of guns to teach your grandkids and great grandkids, and maybe great, great grandkids how to shoot. May you make it pass the century mark in good health.

  46. Happy Birthday Mas! Always remember, “It’s NOT I’m 70 years old. (I’m 75) It’s “I’m ’29’….Plus ‘shipping and handling’….My personal philosophy is, “You’re only as old as you feel….And I feel anything that I can get my hands on….May not still know what to do with it, but….”

  48. Saying you’re old, huh. My B-day is 3 days before yours and I’ll be 1 year older than you.
    How would you like telling people, “I’m older than Mas.”
    Happy Birthday, Old Timer.

  50. Happy Birthday, sir! The LFI courses I took in New Hampshire years back were a wonderful experience that I’ll never forget. Thank you again for the training and the memories.

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