Consider the trades when it comes to your future ability to make money
By Patrice Lewis
When I was in my late teens and getting ready to attend college, my father gave me a piece of advice: “Study whatever you want, but always make sure you have a...
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...
The Newtown atrocity and “gun control”
By Massad Ayoob
Issue #140 • March/April, 2013
In mid-December of 2012, a mentally disturbed twenty-year-old whose escalating aberrant behavior had gone untreated and unchecked murdered his own mother, stole her guns, and entered the Sandy...
Concealed carry laws reduce crime
By John Silveira
Issue #143 • September/October, 2013
This year, Illinois became the 50th state to allow the carrying of concealed weapons by law-abiding citizens. That's a milestone that heralds a lot of good news for...
Understanding the gun debate, part 1
By Massad Ayoob
Issue #161 • September/October, 2016
It has been said that gun legislation and abortion are the two most polarizing issues in the United States. The former has taken the lead on both the...
Defending your lifestyle
By Massad Ayoob
Issue #60 • November/December, 1999
I was sitting in the witness box, an expert witness for the defense, in a courtroom out west not long ago. The opposing lawyer was conducting cross examination,...
Armed and Female
By Massad Ayoob
Issue #63 • May/June, 2000
I didn't come up with the term "Armed and Female." Paxton Quigley did. She's a neat lady. I know her, trained her, taught with her, and have the...
Planning the lives of generations to come
By John Silveira
March 8, 2006
I was reading the March 2006 issue of Discover Magazine and read Asteroid Watcher Worries, an interview with Clark R. Chapman, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute at...
The meltdown and the bailout: why, how, and what they mean
By John Silveira
Issue #115 • January/February, 2009
To understand how the recent meltdown and bailout came about, you have to know what brought them on. According to some, there are PhDs who have problems grasping...
Of kids and guns
By Massad Ayoob
Issue #68 • March/April, 2001
In the almost two years since the Columbine tragedy, American police have coined the term "active shooter." It means, in essence, a crazed gunman who is at the...
Why oil and other fossil fuels are good
By John Silveira
Issue #152 • March/April, 2015
Last issue I concluded The Last Word saying I'd "... talk about the myth of oil destroying the environment." But between issues I thought about it and realized...
Justice Breyer is wrong about the 2nd Amendment
By John Silveira
Issue #128 • March/April, 2011
December 12, 2010, on Fox News Sunday, Justice Stephen Breyer said the Founding Fathers never intended for guns to go unregulated. His reasoning was that James Madison, often...
If you want to take care of your health, you have to take control...
By Dave Duffy
Issue #100 • July/August, 2006
The other day a man called the office to thank me for writing Issue 98's page 7 editorial, in which I urged readers to get a stress test...
The logic behind term limits and a historical perspective
By John Silveira
Issue #35 • September/October, 1995
It was Tuesday and we were in deadline mode. Heat was seeping through the uninsulated walls of the new offices of Backwoods Home Magazine like little beasts from...
My View: Call Me Miracle Man!
By Dave Duffy
Issue #177 • July/August/September, 2019
Superheroes are the rage these days at movie theaters. Even I am fascinated by them. Old style heroes like Superman and Batman seem tame by comparison to characters...
Remembering a decade of BHM
By Dave Duffy
Issue #61 • January/February, 2000
Deadline has just ended as I sit down to write this, the last remaining page of this issue. The staff has gone home, and, except for Silveira who...































