Including ...Summer Carry Compromises • President’s Message • Attorney Question • Book Review • Editorial • About this Journal
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Summer Carry Compromises
An Interview with Massad Ayoob
Interview by Gila Hayes
Violent crime increases when summer temperatures soar. With so many potential victims out and about, opportunistic criminals go to work. It is our hope that members will be ready to save their own lives, so we’re distressed when folks admit that when it’s hot, they find it too difficult to carry a concealed gun for self defense. Network advisory board member Massad Ayoob recently shared some hot weather concealed carry strategies, based on experiences gathered over about six decades, coupled with historical perspectives on holsters, guns and concealment clothing. I think Network members will enjoy the casual discussion as much as I did, so let’s switch to question and answer format so readers can enjoy learning from Mas directly.
eJournal: When it is hot, people have more trouble carrying concealed handguns but ironically, crimes against persons increase in hot weather. While carrying a gun has always required compromises, I’m in search of suggestions about how our members can maintain a high level of preparation even when it is hot.
Ayoob: I hear you! In my younger days, starting when I was 12 working part-time in my dad’s jewelry store, I carried a cocked and locked 1911 inside the waistband behind the right hip which was legal in that time and place. It was my dad’s custom and practice that when you were behind the counter, you wore a professional-looking white lab coat. We didn’t really need air conditioning there in northern New England so we didn’t have it, but it could still get pretty warm there in the summers. On the really hot days, I took off the 1911 and carried my dad’s Colt Cobra .38 in a pocket. It was a 2-inch with the hammer shroud, the first of the lightweight aluminum-framed revolvers.
President’s Message
by Marty Hayes, J.D.
As most of you know, the State of Washington Office of Insurance Commissioner (OIC) investigated the NRA Carry Guard Insurance program, and eventually found that the NRA was selling insurance without a certificate of authority to sell insurance in WA State. Ultimately, the NRA along with Lockton Risk (the agency selling the actual insurance policies) closed down selling its program in WA State. Recently, we learned that the Carry Guard program has been discontinued nationwide https://www.thetrace.org/rounds/the-nra-ends-its-carry-guard-insurance-program/ .
Now, I am not ready to immediately believe what The Trace writes, given it is a Michael Bloomberg news outlet, but from what I have heard from other sources it is likely to be true. I followed the link to the NRA Carry Guard website https://www.nracarryguard.com and there was no mention of insurance. They are still promoting their training program, but they have no classes listed. If it is viable, it is on life support. RIP Carry Guard.
Attorney Question of the Month
This month’s Attorney Question comes from members who, reading the statistics on self defense, understand that often the verbal threat of use of deadly force backed up by gripping a holstered gun can convince an attacker to break off. This action is not without legal concerns, though, and this correctly worries members. Condensing several questions along this line of inquiry, we asked our Network Affiliated Attorneys for their thoughts on the following questions--
In many states, a person has committed the crime of assault when he or she verbalized a threat of force accompanied by threatening actions.
This can create a problem when an armed citizen only puts his or her hand on the grip of the holstered pistol and gives verbal commands to stop a threat without actually drawing the gun. If a citizen in your area does that, with what crime are they likely to be charged? If convicted, what is the likely punishment?
What should a Network member do to avoid facing charges after that kind of situation?
Book Review
Prairie Defender:
The Murder Trials of Abraham Lincoln
By George R Dekle, Sr.
248 pages
Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press, May 23, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-0809335978
248 pages; hardcover $34.50; eBook $18.98
Editor’s Notebook
I should probably stop reading the news. It drives me to bang my head against the wall so hard that I may have dislodged the cerebral cortex and now logical thought eludes me–but then again, perhaps it is those about whom the news is written logic eludes.
Imagine that!
Look what I read a few days ago on the news feeds: “Baltimore Police Deputy Commissioner, Danny Murphy, was robbed at gunpoint in the city’s southeast area on Friday night.” Apparently, the ban on so-called assault weapons and against magazines holding more ammunition than some faceless bureaucrat believes a regular citizen needs hasn’t stopped crime in Maryland. The Firearm Safety Act of 2013 didn’t make MD citizens any safer. Imagine that!
About this Journal
The eJournal of the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, Inc. is published monthly on the Network’s website at http://armedcitizensnetwork.org/our-journal. Content is copyrighted by the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, Inc.