{"id":3985,"date":"2008-08-14T21:42:31","date_gmt":"2008-08-15T01:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=76"},"modified":"2008-08-14T21:42:31","modified_gmt":"2008-08-15T01:42:31","slug":"instead-of-going-it-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/instead-of-going-it-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"INSTEAD  OF  GOING  IT  ALONE . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span> <\/span>Next year will make three decades that I\u2019ve been involved in shooting cases as an expert witness in the courts.<span> <\/span>I took my first case in New York City in 1979.<span> <\/span>It\u2019s been an instructive part of my life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span>One thing I\u2019ve learned is that most private citizens who go through legal ordeals after they\u2019ve had to use a gun in self-defense find themselves feeling terribly, terribly <em>alone.<span> <\/span><\/em>They\u2019re being demonized by the anti-gun media locally, and find themselves shunned by neighbors, friends, co-workers, and customers.<span> <\/span>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: <em>He Who Kills.<span> <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span>It\u2019s easier for cops. They have unions and fraternal organizations to stand up for them, and to stand with them.<span> <\/span>They\u2019re surrounded by peers who think, \u201cThat could have been <em>me <\/em>who had to shoot that dirtbag and bring down this crapstorm. There, but for the grace of God, go I.\u201d<span> <\/span>The private citizen forced to do the same thing generally doesn\u2019t have much of that peer support.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span>One guy who understands is my old friend and colleague <a title=\"Marty\" href=\"http:\/\/www.firearmsacademy.com\/mhayes.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Marty Hayes<\/a>. He\u2019s 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.<span> <\/span>First as Director of the famous <a href=\"http:\/\/www.firearmsacademy.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Firearms Academy of Seattle<\/a>, and now also as the founder of the Armed Citizens\u2019 Legal Defense Network, he understands that people who\u2019ve defended themselves and their families may need support in many ways in the aftermath of the incident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span> <\/span>Gail Pepin recently did an interview with Marty for the <a title=\"ProArms\" href=\"http:\/\/proarms.podbean.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">ProArms Podcast<\/a>. It\u2019s on Episode 005. The interview explains what the organization is about and what it does.<span> <\/span>I\u2019m on board with the Network as an advisor. So are <a title=\"John Farnam\" href=\"http:\/\/backwoodshome.com\" target=\"_blank\">John Farnam<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theppsc.org\/Staff\/Tueller\/Dennis.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Dennis Tueller<\/a>, Jim Cirillo, Jr., and some other folks who\u2019ve spent decades dealing with violent encounter survival at both the street level and the court level. I for one think the <a title=\"ACLDN\" href=\"http:\/\/www.armedcitizensnetwork.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Armed Citizens\u2019 Legal Defense Network<\/a> is an idea whose time has come. You can go to the Network\u2019s <a title=\"ACLDN\" href=\"http:\/\/www.armedcitizensnetwork.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">website<\/a>, which has lots of good info<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">.<\/span> As my old friend Farnam would say, \u201cStrongly recommended!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Next year will make three decades that I\u2019ve been involved in shooting cases as an expert witness in the courts. I took my first case in New York City in 1979. It\u2019s been an instructive part of my life. One thing I\u2019ve learned is that most private citizens who go through legal ordeals after they\u2019ve [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-firearm-owners-civil-rights","8":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3985","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=3985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3985\/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=3985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}