Commentary Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

The rationale of the automatic rifle

By Massad Ayoob Issue #70 • July/August, 2001 There are those who would ban private citizens' ownership of semiautomatic rifles. After 27 years of carrying a badge, the author profoundly disagrees. If there is any place you...

If you don’t like it here, why don’t you move to another country?

By John Silveira Issue #99 • May/June, 2006 That's a question I've been confronted with, more than once, when I've complained about the PATRIOT Act, the RICO Act, creeping gun control, the empowerment of the bureaucracy,...

The Coming American Dictatorship Part XI — The Tenth Amendement Movement

By John Silveira Issue #119 • September/October, 2009 O.E. MacDougal, Dave Duffy's poker-playing buddy from Southern California, had come to town to fish the Rogue, a river that runs 215 miles from the heels of Crater...

10 traits for better living

By Claire Wolfe Issue #151 • January/February, 2015 It's a mystery why one person can be poor but still proud, independent, and reasonably content while the guy next door is merely content to slide into a...

Helping crackpots kill kids

By John Silveira February 23, 2000 I've moved to Oregon and one of the first "privileges" in this state I intend to avail myself of is the state's easy-to-obtain concealed weapon permit. Never mind that the...

Dr. Laura tells her listeners she’s decided to pack a gun

By Dave Duffy February 12, 2000 The showdown between the Federal government and the American people over gun rights may have tilted in favor of the people recently when the nation's third most popular radio talk...

Why you may want to get a stress test

By Dave Duffy Issue #98 • March/April, 2006 Between issues I underwent triple bypass open heart surgery that saved me from a major heart attack, possibly a fatal one. It was a sudden thing. One day...

Our energy crisis Part 2 — Nuclear energy is sensible and safe

By John Silveira Issue #114 • November/December, 2008 When an atomic bomb was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, August 9, 1945, the amount of energy...

Terrorism in America — The armed citizen’s view

By Massad Ayoob Issue #150 • November/December, 2014 The warnings come in non-stop... FoxNews: "A new English-language Al Qaeda magazine features a how-to article on making car bombs and suggests terror targets in the United States, including...

Should we scrap our ‘old’ Constitution?

By John Silveira Issue #135 • May/June, 2012 In a recent New York Times article by Adam Liptak, he observed that the Constitution of the United States is not only the oldest constitution in existence, but...

A Republic vs. A Democracy

By John Silveira Issue #90 • November/December, 2004 He was in the other office when I heard his voice. But he was getting closer and closer and then he came through the door into the editorial...

Here are some answers to often-asked questions of anti-gunners

By Massad Ayoob Issue #45 • May/June, 1997 It has become increasingly politically incorrect to be a firearms owner. This is because trends tend to be set by the fashionable and the media-connected in metropolitan environments....

Do rural homeowners need guns for self-defense?

By Massad Ayoob Issue #72 • November/December, 2001 Do rural homeowners need guns for self-defense? Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't, according to Ayoob's experience, but those who did never really knew they would until...

Gulf War II opened the eyes of Americans to the UN and the media

By Dave Duffy Issue #82 • July/August, 2003 How many of you were tightly tuned to the TV like I was during Gulf War II. I hope a lot because it was a great education. Not...

Body language and threat recognition

By Massad Ayoob Issue #87 • May/June, 2004 Reader mail indicates that while some Backwoods Home readers turn to this column for advice on putting wild game on the table or keeping four-footed poachers out of...

The Runaway

By John Silveira February 9, 2006 My kids are grown. But it didn't come about without a lot of frustration, tribulations, and laughs. Runaways: What do you do with a six-year-old who threatens to run away? One woman...