Massad Ayoob- magazine articles...

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I have it on good authority that Massad Ayoob is a beer drinker. ;)

I own In the Gravest Extreme and thought it was excellent. Never taken any of his courses, but I would very much like to do LFI-I when he rolls through Lafayette this spring.

- Chris
 
Shooter 2.5

" I think I know which story condemned Mas for the hardbitten crowd.
In "The Gravest Extreme"., he advocated tossing some money to some street people so he could walk unmolested. That comment disturbed the "Not a penny for tribute" group."

I remember that passage, the resulting firestorm from some critics, and Ayoob's rebuttal.

In the first place, IIRC, that passage was written from the point of view of a guy who was out with his wife/gf/family and approached by some punks. It was a suggestion for a way to get out a confrontation without having to escalate it into something more intense.

Many of his critics responded as if he were in LE uniform proposing that a cop try to buy off some punks. Ayoob responded in a rather scathing manner that this was not the case, that if anyone challenged him in such a manner whhile he was on duty, that he (Ayoob) would show them the error of their ways in trying to confront him while on duty. Again IIRC, none of the critics had anywhere near his reputation.
 
Mas IS a beer drinker. Hand him a cold Rolling Rock and he will chat for hours.

Most of the scathing comments made about him are by people who have never met him. Some of his views may seem controversial or contradictory, but not when taken in full context of what he believes and teaches.

A week at LFI is HIGHLY recommended. LFI-1 is a must-take course for anyone who handles firearms.
 
FPrice,
Thanks for the added information so the others can better judge the circumstances of the article.
I don't necessarily agree or disagree with the behavior.
Like I said, I never met the man. I would like to and he might be at one of the NRA conventions some day.

By the way, I always made a habit to bring books to the annual meeting so I can get them signed. I'm still trying to meet G. David Tubb and Mike Dillon.
 
I like most of the things Mr. Ayoob writes. Not all of it, but most.
He got me thinking a few years ago. How to look at things and to think them through in "what if" senarios.
And, the thing that helped me: When confronted/attacked, to safeguard your status as the victim; yell: "STOP! STAY AWAY!"
I was attacked once. I ended up pulling a large knife on the guy while yelling the above mentioned. Guy backs off, but I end up being picked up by the cops. Spend a night in jail (was better than sleeping in a tent during a blizzard anyways :D). Then I put to use something else he had written about. During the questioning by the cops, I was painstakingly aware of what the report was saying. I refused to sign it before it was a 100% as I wanted it. That included changing it 5-6 times and spending a coupple aditional hours being questioned.
All in all, there were no charges filed. I can still own any (almost) gun I want.
I have been thinking of writing him a letter to say thank you, but havent gotten around to it.
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Ayoob has definately done his homework and has contributed materially to the lot of the armed citizen. he is a professional expert witness in addition to his other persuits. His observations went far toward improving the Texas Concealed Handgun training course and his observations on tachipsychia and other physiological responses to threat made it into the base cirriculum.

In fact, he and Jeff Cooper have both become mainstream figures in handgun trainging although they are not always cited by name. I recall mentioning their contributions to the Texas CHL cirriculum in an article and being accused of lying by an Expert Concealed Handgun Instructor. - He had only been a handgun expert for a couple of months and failed to recognize Coopers contributions in ref: color coding and treat levels or ayoob's explicatons of physiological response to threat.
 
I was a regular reader of "The Ayoob Files" for years. My subscriptions all lapsed a few years ago, and I haven't renewed any as my house was getting quite heavy.:D I always enjoyed his writings and appreciated his support of the RKBA immensely. Having never met him, I can only guess I would genuinely like him. We beer drinkers generally get along just fine.;)
 
Ayoob is one of the few gunwriters (i.e. Jim Wilson, Mike Venturino, John Taffin, Mike Cumpston) who I take what they say as the honest, unvarnished truth & wisdom. Even though I don't agree w/ EVERYTHING he writes, I acknowledge it as info from someone who knows of what he speaks...:cool:
 
He is a public figure who strongly advocates private citizens owning and bearing guns. What is not to like?
 
I remember once, at the end of an article on gun's safeties, he had asked for cases where the contraversial magazine safety had been a deciding factor in the outcome of an incident.

Not a week later, an off duty Cleveland cop was working security somewhere downtown and had an incident where his gun was wrestled away and the BG tried to shoot the cop. The gun wouldn't fire because at the last minute, the cop realized he was losing control of the weapon and hit the mag release. The cop was able to draw his backup and fire, thus ending the confrontation, while the BG was distracted while trying to get the primary gun to work. Cop - 1, BG - 0.

I e-mailed a newspaper story link to Ayoob and he wrote back thanking me for submitting the recent event for his database. I wish I could spare the $$$ and the time to take one of his classes.
 
About meeting a public figure; Gee, I never met Jesus, or Jeff Cooper, or even George Bush. Does that disqualify me from having an opinion about somebody who holds his work up in public and says, in effect, "look at this!" ?

I think we have a healthy bit of hero worship/snobbery here on the part of the folks that say "you don't know him and I do so your opinion is not relevant." As if attending a 40 hour class qualifies you to say you "KNOW" somebody.

Mas did take some cheap shots in an article a year or so back about the late, great Charley Askins. I was a big vicarious fan of Charley's all thru the sixties until he stopped writing and you always knew where something stood with the old colonel. No beating around the bush. Yes, Askins may have disparaged some of his fellow writers (O'Connor comes to mind) but so did Elmer Keith and those two had the combined knowledge, experience, and ability to put pen to paper of a round dozen of any active gunwriter today.

When a person writes for money for public consumption we term him a professional. Professionals have to put up with criticism. It goes with the territory.
 
I think he's a tremendous resource. And, he steered me to my Security-Six, which has proved to be one of the best guns I've ever shot.

Moxie
 
I'm retired from civil engineering, having worked in the dam and reservoir business. If we talked about the failures of some dams, would you understand me if I started in about "Swedish Slip Circle"? Or about such design characteristics as a "spillway with an ogee crest" or "Taintor gates"?
I certainly recognize a spillway with an ogee crest. Don't recognize Swedish Slip Circle or Taintor gates. But then, I used to be a civil enginner too...
 
He's highly literate, which is more than one can say of >90% of mag writers. Having testified myself in opposition to the fitness of several expert witnesses in civial trials, IMO he's a very savvy witness with a keen eye for the nuances of personal liability trials (I know zero of the workings of criminal courts). I know well one of the principals in a story that Ayoob's repeated a couple of times in his articles, and he's gotten the story faithfully correct save one detail.

One of my grad students was engaged to/living with Ayoob's oldest daughter Cat when he moved here to start his PhD. I think I was more heartbroken than he was when they split up shortly thereafter. My student told me that the commandos in the local gun shop nearly peed themselves when they got to handle the FFL transfer for a couple of pistols Ayoob sent my student to use.
 
"One of my grad students was engaged to/living with Ayoob's oldest daughter Cat when he moved here to start his PhD. I think I was more heartbroken than he was when they split up shortly thereafter."

I wonder if your grad student acted in an ungentlemanly way, and got whacked on the head with Mas' flashlight? ;)
 
No, more of a mutual thing. Besides, she is apparently quite proficient with her Beretta.
 
LFI-1 is a must for the serious shooter. Ayoob has flaws as do many folks but
you can't fault the learning experience you get from him.
 
Art & 1911 - GOTTA get this one in:

Difference between a Maehanical Engineer & a Civil Engineer:

The Mechanical Engineer builds weapons...:evil:

The Civil Engineer builds TARGETS!:rolleyes: :what:

As for Mr. Ayoob - I enjoy his articles. My CCW instructor took one of Ayoob's classes and passes it on to _His_ students:)
 
Good writer, biased writer and as Blades67 mentioned, self serving in what he writes. That being said, if he were a poor writer, then he would not be able to make the points he is hoping to make and no doubt the gunrag editors probably have something to do with the end product, no doubt being shorter than the original manuscript.

It is one thing for a writer to express and opinion. It is another for that opinion to be backed with case studies. The fact that he writes clear enough for readers to evaluate much of what he writes is a critical point. Whether or not the reader agrees with his analysis, the information is there for that evaluation to be made and so the article has given the reader some mental exercise to work through the information.

I would think a whole lot more of his writing if he would get of the soap box on the issues of gun names, gun modifications, and reloaded ammo for self defense. He has suggested that all of these factors may cause court cases to go against a person in a self defense shooting and that simply has not proven to be factual. This stuff has shown up in multiple publications and somewhere along the way has given rise to the idea that the ideal gun you should be carrying is the same one the local cops carry and with the same ammo the local cops use...as if that would somehow reduce your liability for shooting a person in self defense. Whether or not a person had the right to use lethal force is not determined based on the gun's name (e.g., Wilson Combat CQB), if it has a modified trigger that is light, if the ammo was somebody's home remedy super duper bio blaster ammo, or if the person is using the same gun and ammo the local cops use.
 
DNS,
"I would think a whole lot more of his writing if he would get of the soap box on the issues of gun names, gun modifications, and reloaded ammo for self defense. He has suggested that all of these factors may cause court cases to go against a person in a self defense shooting and that simply has not proven to be factual. "

Yeah, but wouldn't you hate to br the first one. The last time I talked with him I asked this very same question. His answer was that in over 20years there has never been a firearms accident in all of LFI. He does not want there to be a first time. The same holds for gun names/mods/ammo question.
Al
 
Yeah, but wouldn't you hate to br the first one. The last time I talked with him I asked this very same question. His answer was that in over 20years there has never been a firearms accident in all of LFI. He does not want there to be a first time. The same holds for gun names/mods/ammo question.
... logic which can be used to argue for or against anything whatsoever. Surely he can come up with something better than that.
Homer: "Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working like a charm."

Lisa: "That's specious reasoning, Dad."

Homer: "Thank you, dear."

Lisa: "By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away."

Homer: "Oh, how does it work?"

Lisa: "It doesn't work."

Homer: "Uh-huh."

Lisa: "It's just a stupid rock."

Homer: "Uh-huh."

Lisa: "But I don't see any tigers around, do you?"

Homer: "Lisa, I want to buy your rock."

Haven't read much Ayoob, personally. That which I have seen hasn't struck me as incredibly well written, nor terribly poor. Will have to check out Gravest Extreme before I make further judgements.
 
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