United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- Recently, Massad Ayoob was named as President of the Second Amendment Foundation. It is the latest step in a long career of service, both to community (as a part-time police officer), to those who choose to exercise their Second Amendment rights (he is also well-known for self-defense training – including developing the Stressfire system for pistols and shotguns), and to the cause of protecting the Second Amendment (Ayoob has been a long-time supporter of the Second Amendment Foundation).
But perhaps one of the most important services Ayoob has provided for anyone exercising their Second Amendment rights or thinking about exercising those rights appears in print – and has since 1986. The bi-monthly American Handgunner runs the Ayoob Files as a regular feature. If you have ever thought about carrying a firearm for personal protection, this column ranks up there with his books In The Gravest Extreme and The Truth About Self-Protection as must-reads.
Why is the Ayoob Files feature so important? Because in this case, Second Amendment supporters can learn lessons from others – and these lessons have come at a very high price, ranging from post-shooting trauma and picking up the pieces of one’s life (the very lucky ones), to those who have lost their liberty (including their Second Amendment rights) and even their lives.
Many Second Amendment supporters want people to learn about Second Amendment issues, and that is often done through education. Well, when it comes to exercising our Second Amendment rights, education, and training matter a great deal. As constitutional carry spreads across the country, being well-educated and well-trained in self-defense will be a crucial step in protecting those laws from being overturned.
This is one aspect of responsibly exercising our Second Amendment rights that doesn’t get discussed often, and perhaps it should be. When we exercise our Second Amendment rights, we have the power of life and death in our hands. Knowing the basic rules of firearms safety, knowing how to safely operate your firearm, knowing how to clean them and secure them, knowing the laws – federal, state, and local – that govern them, and knowing when to use them are just as important as knowing what legislation is percolating in Congress and your state legislature.
Hopefully, no loyal AmmoLand News reader will ever wind up having an experience that becomes the subject of the Ayoob Files. Ayoob has a number of other books available on Amazon.com – and their Smile program allows for donations to the Second Amendment Foundation. Perhaps Ayoob’s earlier works can find their way to Kindle – with suitable updating, of course. Ayoob’s works are a great benefit in helping Second Amendment supporters responsibly exercise the rights that we are trying to defend by defeating anti-Second Amendment extremists at the federal, state, and local levels via the ballot box.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.