With the elections behind us, let\u2019s move on, remembering the advice of Marco\u00a0 Rubio, the victorious pro-gun Republican Senator newly elected in Florida. \u201cWe didn\u2019t gain a giant win, we got a second chance,\u201d he is reported to have said, or words to that effect. It\u2019s a sentiment we need to take to heart for the next two years.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s catch up on some promises to the readers here, one of which was suggested reading and Christmas present books. I offer you \u201cDeadly Force\u201d by Chris McNab, subtitled \u201cFirearms and American Law Enforcement From the Wild West to the Streets of Today.\u201d Apparently a Brit, McNab has a good working knowledge of guns, policing, and resources for research.\u00a0 Much of what he writes extrapolates to the armed citizen, who will face the same violent scumbags the cops face, and will face the same courts afterward when the time comes to explain their judicious use of lethal force in defense of themselves and others.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t agree 100% with everything Chris McNab has to say on the topic. (But then, when do ANY of us EVER agree TOTALLY with ANYTHING said by ANYONE?) That said, though, I know many of the contemporary authorities he quotes, mostly as friends and colleagues and occasionally as opponents, and McNab seems by and large to have come up with a solid and realistic overview of issues that are far more complex than they appear to be on the surface.<\/p>\n
He never comes right out and says it, but McNab seems to show some sympathy for armed citizens. Analyzing the Texas Tower massacre by Charles Whitman in 1966, he writes, \u201cThe body count was soon stacking up on the streets of Austin. Such was the frustration felt by police that they permitted armed civilians to join them in directing fire against the tower. Their role became invaluable, as was acknowledged by Texas Ranger Ramiro \u2018Ray\u2019 Martinez, in his later autobiography \u2018They Call Me Ranger Ray.\u2019\u201d \u00a0It was Martinez who, along with brother Austin officer Houston McCoy, killed Whitman atop the tower. McNab quotes Martinez, \u201cI was and am still upset that more recognition has not been given to the citizens who pulled out their hunting rifles and returned the sniper\u2019s fire. The City of Austin and the State of Texas should be forever thankful and grateful to them because of the many lives they saved that day. The sniper did a lot of damage when he could fire freely, but when the armed citizens began to return fire the sniper had to take cover.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNab also lauds Mark Wilson, the armed citizen who stopped a psycho\u2019s massacre in Tyler, Texas a few years ago, though he was slain himself in the course of his heroic act. If you\u2019re into armed self-defense \u2013 and an honest understanding of what cops have to work with daily in that regard \u2013 check out \u201cDeadly Force\u201d by Chris McNab. It came out last year from Osprey Publishing, and I suspect is available on Amazon. I read it at my local library\u2026but then, my community has a really cool library.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With the elections behind us, let\u2019s move on, remembering the advice of Marco\u00a0 Rubio, the victorious pro-gun Republican Senator newly elected in Florida. \u201cWe didn\u2019t gain a giant win, we got a second chance,\u201d he is reported to have said, or words to that effect. It\u2019s a sentiment we need to take to heart for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[24,51,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-1064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reviews","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-deadly-force","10":"tag-gifts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}