The Armed Citizen Blog - American Rifleman

My father ("Pop"), was a Life Member in the NRA.  He was such a "gun nut" that he purchased those goofy-looking binders where you could store a year's issues of the NRA magazine "The American Rifleman" (which was the only publication they had, and came automatically with your membership).

I remember as a teenager going into the "den" at home and taking an annual volume of American Rifleman down for 'casual reading'.

Actually, it wasn't all that casual.  I was fascinated by the articles, the stories ... and the columns.

My favorite column was "The Armed Citizen".  Looking back, it seems like "Surfing The Net" for interesting news stories relating to --- well, an appreciation for stories which told how common, ordinary people were able to protect themselves, their families and their homes.

The stories were presented in a consistent format ... pithy, terse, they were like the first paragraph of a well-written newspaper article.   The only downside was that there was no means to get (as Paul Harvey use to say) "The Rest Of The Story".

I've only just now discovered that same format and collection of stories (including 'archived' stories) is available online, with three stories published daily.

The Armed Citizen Blog - American Rifleman: Read three more amazing stories of self-defense in the latest online edition of The Armed Citizen.

The format remains the same.  The good news, there are now links to the publication; bad news, there are no links to the actuall story.  boo hoo.

So I've been looking through the stories, and my appreciation for the rawest national inforation on what is, essentially 'raw data' hasn't changed.

Thanks, NRA, for continuing with your traditional format and for making it available online.

PS:  My father had about 50 years of magazines when he died.  I inherited them, but one day I had to move and rather than haul a trailer load of binders, I sold them to a book store for a buck a year ... and while the time I was glad to have the cash, I've always regretted my short-sighteness.