THE AYOOB FILES

You’re in the shower when an armed home invader breaks in. What do you do? Get your gun first, then worry about the bathrobe.

Situation: You go, armed, to a relative’s home to protect her from her abusive husband … and you end up charged with murder. Lesson: Avoid...

Situation: A police command is met with gunshots and the police return fire. Lessons: Manhunts can take surprising turns, and alternate histories of what...

Situation: You are surrounded by a huge enemy force that wants to kill you…but you have cover, guns, ammo and shooters both skilled and highly...

A known killer, armed with a lethal weapon, attempts to kill again. When lesser means fail, deadly force becomes the only remaining recourse.

Situation: Early in your life, you find yourself set against the most dangerous and vicious criminals of your place and time. Lessons: You will be proud of...

Crockett was a justly famous frontiersman before he got to the Alamo. He had been elected to Congress… and then not re-elected. He had been a close friend...

Situation: The suspect is reaching for what looked like a gun in their pocket. It looks like “shoot now or die.” Lessons: The rule is “You don’t...

Situation: An old friend turns into a brutal maniac during a cordial gathering. Lessons: It’s hard to have to kill. It’s harder when the bad guy is...

Situation: Snarling homicidal threats… A big man lunges for your gun and then appears to go for his own. You perform the indicated response… and end up...

Situation: A ripple of gunfire triggers a series of trials in which many critical issues are raised. Lessons: The pursuit of criminals has a high...

Situation: A famed American frontiersman is seen as the slayer of many and perhaps a racist. Actual history suggests otherwise. Lessons: Sometimes, there...

Famous as a leader in combat, Chesty Puller was a skillful pistol fighter as well. Whenever Puller personally fought with a pistol in hand, it was the...

SITUATION: One American President wielded deadly force as a judge, a combat general, and a head of state … and as an armed individual. LESSON: What was...

Two particularly vicious murderers escape from prison, holding a whole region in a grip of fear.

The core dynamics of armed self-defense don’t change much … but the techniques and the hardware — and the laws governing the wherewithal — do.

Pushed to the wall by an overwhelming force of angry protesters, under attack with rocks and blunt instruments, the peace officers open fire.

A mob motivated by racial hatred is surrounding and attacking your home. Do you open fire?

A man is beating a woman and child. He is armed with a bat. You are the only one effectively capable of stopping him.

The evilest mass murderer on the planet has targeted you. You’ve been furnished security, but you aren’t sure it’s enough.

You are surrounded by hidden, loaded handguns. Unfortunately, one of your kidnappers is holding a .357 Magnum to the base of your skull.

It’s a pleasant May afternoon in East Helena, Montana. Henry Johnson, 37, is having an easy day so far. There was no one present when he broke into the...

A criminal opens fire in a church during a busy Sunday service. Fortunately, armed citizen security is in place.

On the night of August 14, 2014, Marquise Trevel Yates was planning a hit. A member of a Jacksonville, Florida gang calling themselves The Cutthroat...

Born in Georgia and dying in Colorado, Dr. John Henry Holliday became something between famous and infamous in the 36 years in between.

Sunday, June 17, 2018, late afternoon. It’s Father’s Day. David George, 47, enters the WalMart in Tumwater, Washington with his wife, his adult...

January 20, 2011, Miami, Florida. Sergeant Laurick Ingram meets Detectives Amanda Haworth, Roger Castillo, Diedre Beecher and Oscar Plasencia for a briefing...

It would be hard to find a more ferocious warrior for gun owners’ civil rights than Tanya Metaksa. The anti-gun magazine Mother Jones called her “one of...

It’s a cold and nasty February morning in Harrison, AR, when an automobile pulls up in front of the bank under slate-gray skies dropping icy rain and...

They called him the New York City Police Department’s most highly decorated detective. He made more than 2,000 arrests.

On May 26, 2017, WAND 17 News in Springfield, Illinois reported, “Over the course of two weeks there have been at least five different shootings and...

Of all the gunfighters of the Old West, John Wesley Hardin was the rare one who wrote his own autobiography, though it wouldn’t be published until after...

The most thoroughly studied gunfight of the 20th Century occurred on 4/11/86 in the Dadeland area of Miami.

On January 18, 2016, officers of the Mesa, Arizona Police Department converged on the La Quinta Hotel in that city after receiving a complaint a man was...

January 2013, Madera, California. Bryan Lee and his mother Sophia have kept the family-owned drugstore open late to fill an emergency prescription for a...

My generation, the Boomers, grew up in neighborhoods where a great many of the grownup men around us had served in World War II. I noticed early most who...