Massad Ayoob

Hi calmex, it is a delight to read your stories, you don’t know me but I remember you from Mexico Armado, I am a guy that mirrored your choices, but instead of north to south I came from the south to the true north. I was never very active on that forum as I didn’t have a lot to contribute, I was and still am a newbie, I did get to have a Glock 25 with PETA that is still guarded by my dad with an old Spanish .38 special revolver that inherited from my grandpa, it can’t even shoot straight but I keep it because its sentimental value.

I didn’t know that you came back to Canada and It’s been a long time since I logged in to Mexico Armado o En la mira, but I am really glad that you are still sharing your world class knowledge on the internet, I am specially fond of your stories about your exploits in the Queretaro Club with all the Mexican enthusiasts, I look forward to know more of your stories, and once I finally get my PAL maybe I could use some advice, greetings from central Alberta.

Muchas gracias. Your English seems quite good, so we can stay in English. If you have any specific questions about Canada or Canadian Gun Laws, simply MP me. I hope you can get your PAL soon. Canada has problems with it's Government, as you must by now be aware. Things are a lot less violent here than in Mexico, that is something you'll already know. I hope Mexico's problems are worked out in the June election. God only knows how long Canada has yet to wait, but I guess we'll see. At least things are still quite peaceful here, unlike Central Mexico these days.

Welcome to Canada, by the way.
 
Thanks, I've been here for a while now and made a life over here, I appreciate your offer, definitely will take you up on that, I'm sure I will need your advice eventually. Sadly I got to live the worst of 2 worlds now, the reigning violence back there and the issues we all suffer here, but hey, we do what we can with the hand we were dealt.

Even as things are over here, I once told my brother while coming back from a concert, drunk as a skunk in the back of a cab, that being in Canada was like being tucked under a warm blanket, that is on the safety side of things. I can't lie to you, it took me a while to see cops or a police car and not being unnerved, thinking in what way they would try to screw me, oh well at least we still have that. Hopefully both places will get their sh** together soon.
 
Canadians whose only experience in Mexico is drinking their faces off in a tourist resort have no idea of how dangerous it is in the center of the country. They don't know about the thousands of disappeared people, and the risks of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Oh, well. We can only hope that the next government takes things back down a few notches because it's getting absolutely crazy right now. We should not take the thread off topic, so feel free to MP me at any time. We'll get back onto the original topic, and thanks for getting in touch!
 
Thank you. That post was much abbreviated -- I have been accused of using 1,000 words to describe something where 100 would do. Second Chance 1980 was just a crazy event. Everyone who was everyone in the US Shooting World was there -- with a few exceptions. It was amazing. Probably not totally safe, by today's standards, but the first IPSC rulebook wasn't put together until two months after the Second Chance event, so it just was what it was. I'll leave it at that.
 
Gotta love good memories with a hobby or passion . I’m hoping to make a few . On another note it sure would be great if ordinary Joes could attend ShotShows
Leavenworth
Thank you. That post was much abbreviated -- I have been accused of using 1,000 words to describe something where 100 would do. Second Chance 1980 was just a crazy event. Everyone who was everyone in the US Shooting World was there -- with a few exceptions. It was amazing. Probably not totally safe, by today's standards, but the first IPSC rulebook wasn't put together until two months after the Second Chance event, so it just was what it was. I'll leave it at that.
 
Gotta love good memories with a hobby or passion . I’m hoping to make a few . On another note it sure would be great if ordinary Joes could attend ShotShows
Leavenworth

There has to be a way to do it, because many of my friends from Mexico would go to the Shot Show and come back and show me photos and videos of their experience. These guys might have been "tagging" along with other friends who owned a Company or Business, I don't know. But there has to be a way, because these guys did it like it was some sort of lark.

I have not looked into it, so I don't really know, maybe it's harder than I think. But I know Pepe and Seigfried for sure went, I just never asked them how they went about it.
 
There has to be a way to do it, because many of my friends from Mexico would go to the Shot Show and come back and show me photos and videos of their experience. These guys might have been "tagging" along with other friends who owned a Company or Business, I don't know. But there has to be a way, because these guys did it like it was some sort of lark.

I have not looked into it, so I don't really know, maybe it's harder than I think. But I know Pepe and Seigfried for sure went, I just never asked them how they went about it.

If you know anyone with a gun related business getting in isn't too difficult. Not a cheap junket, but you get to see some cool.stuff. - dan
 
If you know anyone with a gun related business getting in isn't too difficult. Not a cheap junket, but you get to see some cool.stuff. - dan

Interestingly enough, shortly after we wrote these words, a good friend from Mexico who helped me rewrite the IPSC Rules into Spanish (and edit out some of the dumber ones that have crept into the book over the last 40+ years), back in the Queretero Gun Club Clubhouse in all it's opulence...

PzDhgOo.jpg


....sent me a WhattsApp directly from the Shot Show floor. When I asked him "How'd you get there?" he replied that several of the Club members from Queretero made the trip and had their entries "arranged" by this certain U.S. gun store we all sorta deal with sometimes..... . Like Dan said.

ju44ROo.jpg


Just old friends making me jealous.
 
Mas is one of my favorite gun writers, he had a column in American Handgunner or something. Retired Police Captain and professional expert witness, IIRC. My instructor back in the 80s raved about Mas' book, "In the Gravest Extreme". Too bad I never had a chance to read it as I soon left for Canada. But I still follow him on the Wilson YT channel.

Sadly I never had a chance to get In The Gravest Extreme and it seems like it's been out of print for a while now. Two other books he has written which are quite good that I have read are Deadly Force and Straight Talk on Armed Defense. What I like about Ayoob is that he lets his experience, wisdom and knowledge do the talking. No need for showy, click-baity type of stuff. Just pertinent information delivered professionally and thoroughly.
 
Sadly I never had a chance to get In The Gravest Extreme and it seems like it's been out of print for a while now. Two other books he has written which are quite good that I have read are Deadly Force and Straight Talk on Armed Defense. What I like about Ayoob is that he lets his experience, wisdom and knowledge do the talking. No need for showy, click-baity type of stuff. Just pertinent information delivered professionally and thoroughly.

"In the Gravest Extreme" was published in 1980 and was part of the competitor package that all the shooters got when they registered into the 1981 Bianchi Cup. I was there, and since I knew Massad from Second Chance 1980, I got him to scribble his signature onto the front title page for me in passing. Mine is the very first edition and I think he's updated it quite a bit since that early edition.
 
"In the Gravest Extreme" was published in 1980 and was part of the competitor package that all the shooters got when they registered into the 1981 Bianchi Cup. I was there, and since I knew Massad from Second Chance 1980, I got him to scribble his signature onto the front title page for me in passing. Mine is the very first edition and I think he's updated it quite a bit since that early edition.

That is a super cool story, to have met one of the true legends of our community.
 
I miss the annual "Complete Book of Handguns" magazine that he wrote. I started collecting those from the mid 1990's until it was discontinued a few years back.
 
Sadly I never had a chance to get In The Gravest Extreme and it seems like it's been out of print for a while now. Two other books he has written which are quite good that I have read are Deadly Force and Straight Talk on Armed Defense. What I like about Ayoob is that he lets his experience, wisdom and knowledge do the talking. No need for showy, click-baity type of stuff. Just pertinent information delivered professionally and thoroughly.
Apologies for the necro, but "Deadly Force" is the updated edition of ITGE.

Mas and I used to be boardmates on THR and AmBack 20-odd years ago when I was in college, and was more than generous with his time noting special defensive concerns for the "neurodivergent" (example in my case, HFA/Asperger's) and only asking, as a number of our other old-time Highly Experienced Guys boardmates also did in their mentorship, that I "pay it forward" and look for opportunities to help others as they had helped me.
 
I remember him from back in the day and all his articles on acceptable use of force.

i wanted to get his signature Ed Brown 1911s but missed out on those. i did get two of his Spyderco collaborations though

i-sk65vvc-X2.jpg


i-wvGF4NB-XL.jpg
 
Back
Top Bottom