I\u2019m 75 years old today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So far, the cardinal advantage of that landmark seems to be that I don\u2019t have to take my shoes off when I go through airport security. Yay. Bending over to re-tie shoelaces isn\u2019t as easy as it used to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The big advantage, of course, is that I\u2019m still on the sunny side of the grass. And still working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than seventy years pulling triggers (my dad started me at age four with a .22 rifle), more than half a century as a firearms\/deadly force instructor (started teaching cops in 1972, law-abiding armed citizens in 1981), expert witness for the courts in related matters since 1979, a couple of years as co-vice chair of the Forensic Evidence Committee of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, forty-some years as a fully-sworn part-time cop, nineteen years as chair of the Firearms\/Deadly Force Training Committee of the American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers, a like period and counting on the Advisory Board of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association, and member of the Advisory Board of the Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network since its inception. Decades on the Board of Trustees of the Second Amendment Foundation and a couple of years as president of that organization. And, oh yeah, some articles and books and training films and such.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the personal side, two wonderful adult daughters, some great stepkids, and several grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, not to mention two wonderful wives who both made my life better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People ask me when I\u2019m going to retire, and I answer, \u201cWhy retire from something I love?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s been a fun ride, and I\u2019m glad to still be in motion \u2026 and I\u2019m grateful to all of you readers for sharing that ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m 75 years old today. So far, the cardinal advantage of that landmark seems to be that I don\u2019t have to take my shoes off when I go through airport security. Yay. Bending over to re-tie shoelaces isn\u2019t as easy as it used to be. The big advantage, of course, is that I\u2019m still on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7918","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7920,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7918\/revisions\/7920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}