2 Mar 09
At a Pistol Course in TX last weekend, a student brought several hundred rounds of 45ACP hardball that he had acquired from a Web Page called “Rguns.” It was advertised as having been manufactured in Israel.
Upon examination, I noticed that ten percent of the rounds had the bullet visibly seated too deeply. In fact, they looked as if they had been set-back during feeding. I advised him to cull-out those ones, which he did.
However, shooting only those rounds which looked normal, he experienced two squibs (primer, but no powder) within ten minutes! In both cases, the bullet was blown half-way down the barrel, where it lodged. Both had to be pounded out with my LFI De-jammer. Fortunately, my instructors caught it both times, preventing him from firing another round behind the blockage. Had that happened, his pistol would probably have been ruined, and he may have been injured.
I, of course, instructed the student that he would no longer be able to use any Rguns ammunition on my range, and he had to thus run out and purchase more ammunition locally in order to have enough to get through the Course.
With ammunition in short supply as it is, I suspect we’ll see more of this.
Remember, most foreign ammunition is trash!
/John
4 Mar 09
Denial, in full swing, from a friend in the Federal System:
âI am attending a Homeland-Security/Emergency-Management Conference.
The keynote speaker was a British policeman who spoke about terrorism-prevention strategies in the UK. However, he lost all credibility when he brought up the subject of a Mumbai-style attack within the UK. He sounded like an pathetic alcoholic trying to rationalize his bad habit!
While he did embarrassingly concede Britan’s unarmed police are utterly incapable of dealing with such a threat, he quickly brushed all that aside and went on to state, with complete arrogance, that UK’s gun prohibition make such an attack unlikely! I raised my hand and pointed out that India has nearly identical prohibitions, and none of them so much as inconvenienced terrorists. He refused to answer my question and called for a break.
What a jerk!
It is truly said, âIf the British werenât so dammed stupid, they wouldnât have to be so dammed brave!ââ
Comment: Of course, the exact opposite is true. But, the further left one goes, the more truth gets lost in political agendas.
By far, the greatest deterrent to such an attack within CONUS is our individual right to own, and carry, firearms. The worldâs terrorists are mortified of armed police and armed citizens. They know only too well that, at the moment of truth, what stands between them and success is effective, fearless, and immediate armed resistance.
That is why their shameless admirers in Congress and the Executive Branch are so anxious to disarm us!
However, weâre Americans, and we âdonât go quietly!â
/John
5 Mar 09
Comments on UK terrorist âstrategy,â from a friend there:
âI’m astonished to hear that we even have a âstrategy!â
Iâve talked with many UK police. They freely admit that the one thing they fear most is encountering armed and properly-trained VCAs. They know and understand that they (the cops) donât stand a chance!
By contrast, what little firearms training to which UK police are exposed, is a joke. If you had a typical UK cop in one of your Courses, his place would be among rank beginners, grandmothers and VBCs!
To make matters worse, the same can be said for all of Western Europe!â
Comment: Gun bans is not just about denying firearms. More perniciously, they are about denying knowledge, life-saving knowledge that has been gleaned at great price, life-saving knowledge that will be critical to our national survival.
Why would any civilization, particularly when surrounded by ravenous wolves, make âlearned-helplessnessâ strictly-enforced, public policy?
A national death-wish is the only answer I can come up with.
To reverse course requires sincere and earnest repentance. Unfortunately, the one thing of which leftists are utterly incapable is humbly admitting that they are not only wrong, but have never been anything but wrong! Lording it over others is so critical to their being, that they would rather die than repent. They would rather perish than display even a modicum of humility!
Accordingly, with arrogant leftists in charge, Western Civilization is doomed, and we probably wonât have to wait much longer!
/John
5 Mar 09
… as if to make the point!
This, just received from a friend in Israel:
âTwo hours ago, we just experienced our third âtractor attackâ in two days!
Initial target was a police car, with two officers in it, stopped at a stoplight. The attacker rammed his scoop into the vehicle and succeeded in flipping it over, twice. The terrorist then went after a passenger bus.
A passing taxi driver stopped, got out, and put several bullets into the terrorist. That heroic act precipitously ended the attack, as well as this particular terroristâs career!
Never a dull moment in Jerusalem!â
Comment: Western Civilization is being saved by humble, but armed, taxi drivers.
Imagine that!
/John
5 Mar 09
âModern campus security,â from one of our students:
âLast August, I transferred down here to the University of Arizona, in Tucson.
The first thing you notice on campus is all of the âWeapon-Free Zoneâ signs. Then, there are the equally ubiquitous âCampus Watch Alerts,â posted on bulletin boards. You can find new reasons to be terrified each week!
One caught my eye: A pair of thugs, armed with a pistol, recently robbed three students on campus. They must have somehow missed all the WFZ signs. Imagine that! We obviously need more, maybe in several languages
In the âRobbery Safety Tipsâ at the bottom of the page, we are treated to this advice: âNever resist an armed robber; there is a chance the suspect is acting under the influence of drugs and may not act rationally.â Apparently, all we can do is hope God will bless us with ârationalâ robbers!
Wow! All one has to do is ânot resist,â and his next experience with an armed robber will be a pleasant one, guaranteed by the University Administration!
And, when the robber demands your first-born, you should just hand the child over to him, lest he become, heaven forbid, âirrational!â
In any event, all students in my group disdainfully ignore this self-serving, intelligence-insulting, bureaucracy-generated rubbish, and carry concealed pistols, and blades, and OC, and flashlights, every day, on campus, in blatant, contemptuous defiance of their stupid ârules.â
We proudly claim our own magnificence, per your advice. VBCs, a category which includes the entire university administration, can run scared. That is their choice.
Not us. Weâre Americans!â
Comment: Maybe not all is lost! With kids like these, victory is assured.
âI am a Free Man, regardless of what set of ârulesâ surround me. When I find them tolerable, I tolerate them. When I find them obnoxious, I ignore them. I remain free, because I know and understand that I alone bear full responsibility for everything I do, and everything I chose not to do.â
R Heinlein
/John
10 Mar 09
A student emerges victorious from a dangerous confrontation:
âBack in 2000, you provided handgun training to a large class, including me. I had been a target competitor for many years, but your class changed my paradigm to serious, tactical application, rather than casual recreation. Two things stuck with me most: (1) Spin your OODA Loop quickly, and (2) when a fight is unavoidable, be stitching and moving!
Thank you! That philosophical shift saved my life this last February!
Late on a weekday afternoon last month, two home-invasion suspects kicked in the front door of my home, as I sat watching television. I was alone in the house at the time. There was no warning, nor did I have any reason to suspect such a thing would happen to me that day, nor any day. I remember being astonished as I saw the bottom of a foot still raised as my door lurched open, amid a shower of splinters!
The door-kicker, and an accomplice, burst in, and, seeing me, rushed in my direction. I was wearing my G38 (45GAP) in a Comp-Tac holster. It was loaded with WW 230gr Ranger ammunition. I sprang to my feet and drew my pistol simultaneously. At a distance of less than eight feet, I found my front sight and began firing at the closest suspect, while I was still in motion.
As it turns out, I fired seven shots. All seven struck the first suspect (the door-kicker). His accomplice was behind him and immediately fled, unharmed as far as I know. In fact, he fled in such haste that he abandoned his getaway car, leaving the engine running! Police subsequently found much stolen property in the car.
The suspect I shot stumbled backward and fell in the doorway, never moving after he went down.
I scanned, reloaded, took cover behind a corner, and checked myself over. When police arrived, they found the suspect I had shot, DRT. The second suspect has not been arrested as far as I know. I was unhurt.
Of the seven hits on the first suspect, one in the neck and one in the chest proved fatal. I was told that either of those two shots would probably have been fatal by itself. Being cold at the time, both suspects were wearing heavy clothing, and multiple layers of clothing frustrated expansion, and penetration, of the other five. They may have been effective, but Iâll never know.
Here is what others among your students can learn from my experience:
(1) When at home, stay armed! If my gun had been locked in a safe, or even in a drawer and unloaded, I never could have reacted effectively in time. Be armed all the time, no matter where you are!
(2) Multiple shots from your pistol will probably be necessary to stop any fight decisively, no matter what caliber or brand of ammunition youâre using. As a category, pistols are poor fight-stoppers. Accordingly, pistols that hold lots of ammunition, and that can be reloaded quickly, represent a real advantage!
(3) Be prepared to react instantly! Sometimes, there are warning signs. Sometimes, there are none! In order to live through your next lethal encounter, youâll have to be able to spin your OODA Loop fast.
(4) Finish the fight! Donât relax too soon. Scan, reload, get distance, get cover. Be prepared for anything!
(5) Whatever you do, it wonât be perfect! Donât worry about being perfect. Just act decisively, without hesitation. Do what has to be done, with grace and enthusiasm. Donât look back, and donât worry about what might have been!â
Comment: Iâll add:
(5) Use ammunition that penetrates adequately! Your bullets may have to plow through many layers of clothing before ever reaching flesh, as was the case here. There are many fine, high-performance rounds available, but Cor-Bon DPX tops the list, because it penetrates and expands, without fail! Itâs what I carry.
My student is a real hero. He dared, and he won.
Victory!
/John
10 Mar 09
Magazine exchange:
A student recently pointed out that a magazine for his 45ACP S&W M&P will fit into a G21, but wonât lock in place. However, when it is inserted into the G21 anyway, and then held firmly in place by the shooterâs little finger, the Glock will run normally!
The trick wonât work in reverse, however, as the G21’s magazine is too fat to fit into the M&Pâs magazine well.
Actually, most magazines, when you can get them into the magazine well of pistols for which they are not designed, will still run the pistol, as long as they are held securely in place, via a finger or a strip of tape.
Many 40S&W magazines, in fact, will hold, and reliably feed, 9mm ammunition in 9mm pistols for which they were never designed!
All trivia, I suppose, but, when forced to use a hodge-podge of mixed equipment, such knowledge may come in handy.
Remember also that you can fire most pistols, at least at one shot at a time, when all you have is the pistol itself, a handful of rounds, but no magazines. Simply insert a single round directly into the chamber through the ejection port (as the slide is locked to the rear), send the slide forward smartly, and youâre ready to fire.
I donât recommend doing the foregoing except as an emergency procedure, as the practice of sending the slide forward on a chambered round will, in short order, break the extractor on most pistols. However, the day may come when you have no choice!
Of course, this emergency procedure wonât work on pistols equipped with a âmagazine safety.â This is one reason I consider magazine safeties a death trap and highly recommend against them!
/John
11 Mar 09
Instructor Course in IN
Many ask about DTI Instructor Courses. We run only a few every year.
We have one this summer scheduled in the Midwest. It is three days, so we get a chance to work with instructional techniques with all three weapons.
It is scheduled for Rochester, IN, not far from Chicago, on 15-17 May 09 (Fri-Sun).
Those interested in joining us need to contact Frank Sharpe at dtomfrank@hotmail.com Frank has all the details.
/John
13 Mar 09
More on bumbling attempts at âgun-control,â from SA:
âSouth African Police have âlostâ 4,900 firearms during the last three years! Note that these guns are not those items seized as evidence (thousands of those have been âmisplacedâ also!). These are pistols, shotguns, and rifles that have been purchased by the government and subsequently issued to police.
Keep in mind that the above figure is just what theyâre unable to cover up, and are thus sheepishly owing up to. The actual figure is likely between twice and three-times that number. To put this into perspective, our cops are âlosingâ at least five guns every day of the year!
Many of these âmissingâ firearms have, in fact, been stolen and subsequently used by criminals during the commission of violent crimes. Armored-car heists, for example, frequently see robbers armed with R4s, the same military rifle issued to police and the Army. These rifles are nearly impossible to come by legally and are no longer in production. The only way to get a copy is to steal it from police!
If one were cynical, he might suspect the government is deliberately supplying violent criminals with these weapons, because it is VCAs who, in fact, do the governmentâs bidding, by robbing, maiming, murdering, and terrorizing political opponents. Can we say that VCAs and the government have formed a partnership?
When one reads high-sounding, fictitious âstated-intentsâ of our notorious Firearms Control Act:
â… to prevent the proliferation of illegally-possessed firearms and, by providing for the removal of those firearms from society, and by improving control over legally-possessed firearms, to prevent crime…â
and, even better:
â … enable the State to remove illegally-possessed firearms from society, to control the supply, possession, safe storage, transfer, and use of firearms, and to detect and punish negligent/criminal use of firearms.â
He can only wonder why the government itself insists on demonstrating the very ânegligent/criminal useâ theyâre so frightened we peons might engage in!
Arrogant, two-faced, Communist elitists who write this drivel are, of course, heavily armed themselves, with the very weapons they so hypocritically deny to the rest of us.
… and, when âlost,â they are simply replaced!â
Comment: I have every confidence the current US administration will soon treat us to this same deceitful language, the same weary, long-discredited arguments, the same elitist arrogance for which all Marxists are so famous.
The result will also be the same, as will subsequent, lame excuses when it fails miserably, as it always does
The ever-unarticulated agenda, both here and there, the enslavement of us all, will, of course, be well served!
/John
15 Mar 09
ACLDN. Iâve mentioned this before, but it needs repeating now:
We all need to get our âself-defense-piecesâ together. We work hard on improving psycho-motor skills, but important subjects about which we donât know much, like legal and medical issues, we tend to gloss over.
For that reason, Doc Gunn and I offer our Tactical Treatment of Gunshot Wounds Course. Not as exciting as our regular Pistol Courses, but we exercise a vital set of skills that must be part of every Operatorâs repertoire.
Likewise, Marty Hayesâ Armed Citizensâ Legal Defense Network is propagating another vital body of knowledge among gunmen, both professional and amateur, with regard to successfully interfacing with the American Criminal Justice System, in all its manifestations.
We all train to be prepared for potentially lethal situations, where we may be compelled defend ourselves with gunfire. Having competent equipment, marksmanship skills, and an unerring philosophical overlay all go a long way toward keeping us safe from predators, and mental illness.
When the event is over, membership in the Armed Citizensâ Legal Defense Network will be an important part of your arsenal.
I have been involved in the development of this organization and personally know the founder and President, Marty Hayes, police officer, trainer, practicing attorney, and my good and long-time friend and colleague. Network members receive many benefits, including DVDs covering vital legal issues related to armed self-defense, as well as legal experts, lawyer referrals, and financial assistance.
Visit the Networkâs web site at www.armedcitizensnetwork.org
Become a member. Highly recommended!
/John
16 Mar 09
Urban Rifle:
At one-hundred meters, it isn’t difficult for most of us to see, and effectively engage, paper targets, set against green backdrops, on sunny days, even with iron sights. Indeed, most of us consider a B27 target, at one-hundred meters, an âeasy shot,â with just about any rifle, and from just about any shooting position.
Now, change the âtargetâ to several armed, aggressively-animated, and bloodthirsty VCAs, obscured by utility poles, door-frames, and crouching in tall grass, during an overcast morning. Also, imagine that you are alone, confused, wet, cold, hungry, out of breath, and trembling uncontrollably, and the difficulty of producing effective, fight-ending rifle fire increases exponentially!
Add the inviolable requirement that threats be accurately identified, and legitimately menacing individuals be thus positively differentiated from non-threatening ones.
In addition, imagine youâre not doing all this on a familiar âone-wayâ range, and bullets, some aimed and some random, are flying in every direction, including yours!
Finally, imagine there are already causalities, on all sides. Those painfully wounded and dying are lying about, floundering and screaming, and there is little you can do to help any of them so long as the fight is active.
In view of the foregoing, one quickly realizes that, in real fighting, one-hundred meters in most urban settings, will provide challenge-a-plenty for even experienced riflemen, armed with utility, military rifles.
That is why, during our Urban Rifle Courses, we emphasize ranges between point-blank and one-hundred meters. We do some shooting at greater ranges, so that students can know the full capability, and weaknesses, of their equipment. But, most of our time is spent rapidly moving and engaging multiple targets with rifle fire, at ranges within one-hundred meters.
In golf, the drive, chip-shot, and putt all contribute to producing winning scores. However, golfers agree that it is the chip-shot where most games are won or lost.
In Urban Rifle, the equivalent is long-range shooting, rapid engagement at closer ranges, and CQB. All are important, but most fights are won or lost within one-hundred meters, our equivalent of the âchip-shot.â
That is where we need to be most proficient!
/John
18 Mar 09
Local city-wide budget cuts have recently reduced police patrols in the City of Atlanta. Violent crime is increasing at an alarming rate as a direct result.
Accordingly, police and city bureaucrats are providing beleaguered residents with this laughable advice:
âStay inside, particularly at night, because police won’t be there to help you!â
The official advisory then takes great pains to bemoan how âunfairâ all of this is. In the same breath, it notes police âfurloughsâ are necessitated by the diminishing city budget, and closes by saying that citizens must accept the new reality that police will be notably less available/responsive than in the past.
Of course, there is no mention that the municipal budget is under assault precisely because honest tax-payers, individual and corporate, have been progressively driven out of the City, owing to the preposterous tax burden the City has laid upon them. And, it seems, the higher the tax levy, the poorer the Cityâs services. Isnât it curious that the two are always inversely proportional?
Also notably absent from the advisory is any mention of the most efficient and effective individual strategy âthose left behindâ can adopt in order to avoid being victims of violent crime, ie: become (1) well armed and (2) well trained in the use of arms.
And, youâll never guess what the advisory closes with: the need for higher taxes!
Atlanta is all too typical of major, metropolitan areas during the current world-wide financial crisis. Federal bail-out money has all but dried up! As cities, states, and industries, converted to pathetic beggars, line up in DC, with their collective hands out, progressively less assistance will be forthcoming.
This financial crisis will be neither mild, nor brief!
Wide-spread civil unrest is just over the horizon, as millions of glibly-promised (but un-funded) state and local pensions start defaulting and unemployment flirts with twenty percent. It has already started in Europe. Police will be quickly overwhelmed. Individuals will be one their own, which they have, of course, always been.
The point is that some are just now noticing!
/John
19 Mar 09
Down we go!
âGlitz, without substance; motion, without timing; height, without foundation; noise, but no song; speed, but no destinationâ
The Federal Reserve just announced it is buying our own Treasury Bills. This is equivalent to âeating our seed-corn!â The Chinese have wisely balked at buying more, fearing they will shortly become worthless. Such fears are well founded!
Weâve become a âKleptocracyâ (ruled by thieves). Leftist senators and congressmen, floundering in their own lies, piously denigrate honest wealth (while hiding their own), persuaded apparently that a nationâs riches come from a printing press!
In the interim, as noted, elected municipal officials display their spiteful contempt for uniformed services, police and fire, as well as for the precious few decent, productive tax-payers left in their communities, by first laying off police and fire personnel. This is cynically done to heighten anxiety and set the stage for them to extort more money. Of course, non-productive, non-taxpaying parasites can always be counted upon for their vote, so long as they can hang, uninterrupted, on a government tit!
And, the gallery of charlatans who run network television news no longer see themselves as legitimate journalists who report news. They consider it their first (and only really important) job to hold our attention just long enough so that we can be sold male-impotence pills, miracle-cleaners, and worthless insurance.
âThere is the moral of all human tales;
‘Tis but a replay of the past,
First freedom, and then glory, when that fails,
Wealth, vice, corruption, barbarism at last.â
âYou do not examine legislation in light of the benefits it will convey when properly administered, but in light of the wrongs it will do and, harms it will cause, when improperly administered.â
LBJ
/John
20 Mar 09
Parallels?
From an LEO friend in SA:
âWeâre only slightly downstream of you folks in the States!
We have general elections here next month, and the ruling ANC (âAfrican National Congress,â our equivalent of âDemocratsâ) party is pushing an avowed Communist thug to be our next President.
His name is Jacob Zuma, and he is presently facing multiple corruption and fraud charges, and, yes, tax-evasion too, which should sound familiar! Predictably, ANC is introducing legislation making Zuma immune from prosecution, because it is ânot in the country’s interest that he stands trial for his crimes.â As in the States, here it is suddenly okay for tax-cheats and other criminals to âserveâ in public office, so long as the ârightâ political party is in charge! The National Prosecuting Authority (our equivalent of your Attorney General) is crumbling, under pressure from ANC, in their resolve to even proceed with the legal action against Zuma.
Zuma recently addressed a large, Christian church congregation. Predictably, he turned the service into a political rally and had the gall to state that his Communist ANC had its early roots in Christianity. Oh, please!
Before our eyes, the Rule of Law has been corrupted to suit a gaggle of sleazy, leftist criminals (is there another kind?), whose one and only goal is to hang on to power at all costs, and fill our once-respectable Parliament with convicts and thugs.
The advent of repressive gun laws here is no longer perceived as a coincidence, even by the serial-naive.
Most now concede that full-scale unrest is inevitable. Weâre not only doing our best to keep the guns and ammunition he have, weâre acquiring more every chance we get!
I see that you folks in the States are doing the same thing! Coincidence?â
Comment: As my friend says, weâre not far behind!
/John
23 Mar 09
More self-deception, from a friend currently in Baghdad:
âSome progress to report: Most âclearing-barrelsâ are now gone, as star-wearers here (after how many years?) have finally figured out that eliminating unnecessary gun-handling greatly reduces gun accidents. Imagine that!
The bad news is that the minuscule minority of what we call âheadquarters-typesâ who even carry pistols, carry them in leg-holsters, with spare magazines on the same side. Many donât carry spare magazines at all. Some even carry pistols in shoulder-holsters, worn backward in order to get the pistol out of their way as they fly their desks. Either way, most donât have a magazine inserted, and none have a round chambered! Not one carries a flashlight, blade, nor IBD. Theyâre not ready to fight, because it has occurred to none of them that theyâll ever have to!
A small minority of us (mostly your students) carry pistols, fully-loaded of course, in self-procured kydex holsters, with a minimum of four spare magazines. In addition, we all have flashlights, blades, IBDs, concealed back-up guns, et al.
When riding in an armored convoy last week, I was the only person, out of thirty passengers, to have with me both an M4 and a pistol, with spare magazines for both, all ready to go. Others were only armed with a pistol, and, again, most didnât even have a magazine inserted, nor a round chambered. Some were unarmed altogether. They constituted little more than a hoard of tourists!
By contrast, all âCombat Armsâ types here are heavily armed, all the time, and all demonstrate competent gun-handling skills. They know and understand they may (God forbid!) have to actually fight sometime, and they also know they donât get to make an appointment!â
Comment: Itâs not just a matter of âinadequateâ nor âimproperâ training. Our training philosophy is fatally flawed! Weâre so afraid to even talk about, much less confront, real fighting, that all we seem to be able to do is train people to win pistol matches!
It is also counter-productive when soldiers are assured by those up the food-chain that this âcombat-zoneâ is now a âsafeâ area, and nothing is likely to happen. This is an expression mostly of wishful thinking and represents a disservice to all.
How often are people killed around here?
Only once!
/John
24 Mar 09
What happens afterward?
From friends in the DHS System:
âIâve spent months working on our âHomeland Security Plan.â The prospect of widespread social disorder, with violent, criminal gangs predictably taking advantage of generalized infrastructure breakdown and weak/inadequate response from authorities (as we plainly saw during the Katrina Disaster) isn’t currently integrated into any homeland-security plan, despite dire warnings from many of us!
The Administration does not want to admit it needs a âPlan-Bâ for the likely eventuality where public order cannot be restored within seventy-two hours. Seventy-two hours is the limit of endurance, before whatever local infrastructure that remains after a disabling incident, collapses entirely, necessitating a regional/national response. Think of the abrupt, generalized societal breakdown that will surely materialize seventy-two hours after multiple disasters/attacks take place simultaneously! We Feds cannot possibly manufacture a viable âPlan Bâ on the fly, and, as noted, none is in place now. Any species of public order will not be restored for weeks, or months.
To live through that period, individuals will need significant capabilities, good equipment, plenty of ammunition and other necessities, and competent training. Who lack the foregoing will be out of luck, and no one will help them. Who think theyâll be rescued are naive fools!
Even today, in nations like Mexico and South Africa, creeping, chronic societal breakdown, related to corrupt/failing national governments, has necessitated that perceptive individuals develop long-term coping/exit strategies for surviving these endemic, ever-worsening threats.â
Comment: The Federal response to the next generalized disaster(s) will be characterized by:
âGeneral Abandonment!â
Those caught up near the epicenter(s) will be instantly written-off, as will those dwelling within the ever-widening perimeter.
The self-contained have a chance. The unprepared have none!
/John
25 Mar 09
Lessons from calamity. This from a friend in VA:
âThis past Sunday, at 5:00 AM, a young couple was jogging together, as they regularly did, in the local neighborhood where they lived, only a few miles from where I live.
Both were precipitously attacked by multiple VCAs. The man was murdered (beaten to death), and the woman is in the hospital, in critical condition. Police have no leads nor significant evidence to reveal the identity of the attackers. The woman may recover enough to provide information. She may not!
The attackers, two or three, emerged from a parked car and used baseball bats or similar blunt instruments. Robbery was the apparent motive, at least at the beginning.
These facts have emerged:
(1) Both victims were CCW-permit holders, but neither was armed at the time and place of the fatal attack.
(2) The man was a decorated Special Forces Soldier (retired), trained in hand-to-hand fighting.
(3) The attack took place in broad-daylight, in a quiet, upscale, residential community.
The community is stunned, of course. Police are doing the best they can, but cases where attackers and victims donât know each other and have no obvious connection are difficult to solve.â
Lessons:
(1) We call them âside-armsâ for a reason. At least one needs to be âat your sideâ all the time. Aspire to be a competent, self-contained, independent Operator. And, expect neither support nor understanding from naive VBCs.
(2) Donât arbitrarily divide your life into âsafeâ and âdangerousâ parts, places, nor activities. Fate may neglect to celebrate your dear fantasy! I know people who have CCW-permits, but donât carry, and theyâre ever-ready to treat me to a nauseating dissertation of idiotic excuses. The foregoing exposes the lethal fallacy of such self-deceptive thinking.
(3) When your spouse (either gender) is squeamish about âthe whole gun-thing,â help them get over it. You need a partner, not a burden!
(4) Be aware of âpattern-behavior.â Regularly change-up routines. Donât become predictable, and donât fall into the trap of thinking youâre too insignificant to become a target.. Stalkers will use your predictable routine against you, as was likely the case here.
(5) Donât deceive yourself that your martial-arts training/prowess will protect you against heavy odds. No matter how many black-belts you have, against multiple, simultaneous VCAs, you will likely not prevail, when unarmed. A single, dashing hero, casually dispatching several bad guys with glamorous judo-moves, is something that happens only in movies!
(6) âPolice protectionâ is a contradiction of terms! Donât fill your head with false expectations with regard to actual services police can provide. Police investigators are basically âarmed archeologists.â We might catch these guys, and we might not. Patrol officers may be there to help you, and they may not. We get paid the same either way. And, whatever we manage to accomplish after youâre dead, will probably be of scant interest to you anyway!
/John
25 Mar 09
Who are these people?
The VCA who murdered four police officers in Oakland, CA last Saturday had been incarcerated since 2002, but had been recently released on parole.
The sentencing report in the 2002 case that put him in prison described this VCA as a â…cold-hearted individual, who has no regard for human life,â and went on to insist that his permanently residing in prison was the âonly way to rein-in this man’s proclivity for violence.â
Now, there’s a real recommendation for parole!
That report was surely available to the Parole Board who let him out.
Perhaps, between shrieking for the end to the private ownership of guns in America and the need for higher taxes, the media might find the time to ask why such remorseless, violent, unstable sociopaths are paroled in CA!
… and this is the System that âprotectsâ us?
/John
25 Mar 09
Machineguns and Politics:
At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, ageing, carriage-mounted Gatling Guns, first invented by American âphysicianâ (Gatling graduated from medical school, but never practiced medicine. However, throughout his life he insisted on being addressed as âDoctor Gatlingâ) and design engineer, Richard Gatling, were replaced in the American arsenal with the more convenient, man-portable M1909 Benet-Mercie Light Machinegun. The piece was relatively handy and easily transported, and thus immediately popular with troops, until it saw heavy use in actual fighting! Named after its French designers, Lawrence Benet and Henri Mercie, the Benet-Mercie was actually invented by an American, Benjamin Hotchkiss, who came to France from the Colt factory in Hartford, CT.
The Benet-Mercie could be made to run, but it required sophisticated maintenance, which was difficult to procure among poorly-trained recruits in the field who were actually trying to use it! Like so many weapons that look great in the showroom, but prove worthless in the field, the Benet-Mercie should have been quickly eclipsed by the vastly superior Lewis Light Machinegun, invented by another American design genius, Isaac N Lewis.
Lewis, like Billy Mitchell a generation later, was too brilliant for his own good! The British immediately recognized the inherent superiority of the Lewis Gun and quickly adopted it as an infantry weapon as well as mounting it on airplanes. Indeed, Lewis rightly deserves credit for converting airplanes from mere observation platforms, to weapons! So reliable were they, Lewis Guns thereafter enjoyed ecumenical service throughout the world, well into the 1950s. However, the American Army rejected it outright in 1911, mostly because Lewis considered (with good cause) those running the Ordnance Department to be fossilized, self-serving, myopic nincompoops, and told them so! Thus, for the next four decades the Lewis Gun enjoyed well-deserved popularity everywhere in the world, except the USA where it was invented!
Technically, âmachinegunsâ are heavy weapons, designed to deliver sustained, full-automatic fire. They are served by a crew of at least three and, mounted on tripods or bipods, are fed via strips, and later belts, of ammunition. Sustained fire is made possible by cooling systems using a water jacket, forced air, or multiple barrels that must be regularly exchanged in order to keep the gun running. âLightâ and âheavyâ are added to delineate less, or more, portability and usually light or heavy calibers.
âAutomatic riflesâ are simply magazine-fed, autoloading, military rifles, mounted on bipods, served by individual soldiers, and designed to deliver only intermittent, full-automatic fire. The weapon is much lighter than a machinegun and heats up quickly when fired in full-automatic mode. In fact, it is over-heating that severely limits its utility in supporting protracted assaults.
Prior to WWI, the difference between the two was not well understood, even among those in the System, and thus any gun capable of full-automatic fire, even those firing pistol ammunition (submachine guns and machine pistols), was carelessly bequeathed with the title âmachinegun.â In fact, that error is still common, even today, particularly among willfully ignorant politicians and journalists.
The machinegun turned out to be the centerpiece of WW1 and, in its various forms, became thereafter thoroughly integrated into all armies and infantry tactical doctrine. Despite initial concerns about excessive ammunition consumption and pushing individual marksmanship into second place, machineguns proved themselves too effective and useful to discount!
Gatling, Lewis, Browning, Maxim, and Hotchkiss, Americans all, were examples of the kind of individual design genesis that made America unbeatable, in war and in the world economy. As fate would have it, most died alone, frustrated, and pennyless. Like tactical geniuses MacArthur, Mitchell, Patton, and Boyd, diplomacy was never their strong suite!
A pity, because so many blundering errors, costing countless lives and fortunes, are a direct result of poor politics, not a lack of brilliance!
/John
25 Mar 09
It all comes down to slavery,
from a friend in Zambia:
â A recent political cartoon here showed a skinny African tribesman carrying a fat, white banker/colonial type on his back in the 1960s, and, in the next picture, the same tribesman is carrying a fat, black banker/politician on his back in the 2000s!
Elected despots are no different than appointed ones, and they come in all flavors!
I was asked by a United Nations employee just days ago what should be done about African poverty. Without hesitation, I replied, âDonât give us money!â I continued, âWhen the UN wants to build roads, bridges, and infrastructure, they should just come and do that, but donât give African governments money. Donât involve them at all!â
When Japanese came to Zambia several years ago, they built a highway, but they didn’t give any money to the local politicians. The project was completed in record time and under budget. Imagine that! They held the government NOT accountable, not even involved, and the job got done.
Zambia is not a poor country. Yet, fat politicians live it up at the expense of those who actually produce wealth. And, fat politicians stay in power by bribing the electorate with their own money!
In addition, external infusion of cash is actually counterproductive. Foreign aid to Africa has made the poor poorer, growth slower, has run up debts, and has discouraged quality investments.
The end result is slavery, and it really canât be called anything else. Slavers, be they white colonialists or black political hacks, still perpetuate a system by which they live in luxury off the sweat of the vast majority of the population.â
Comment: In Africa, as everywhere, personal freedom is impossible without economic freedom. When productive people are stripped of the fruits of their labor in order to support bloated governments, the poor get poorer and progress grinds to a halt.
In the end, we have bondage and slavery.
â… from bondage to faith; from faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance, from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back into bondage!”
/John
26 Mar 09
Lexicon of frequently-used Quip abbreviations:
AD, Accidental discharge (in most cases, ADs are NDs!)
ADEE, Avoid, Disengage, Escape, Evade
AOJP, Ability, Opportunity, Jeopardy, Preclusion
BUIS, Back-up Iron Sights
CHL, Concealed Handgun License (a term used mostly in the State of Texas)
DOA, Dead on Arrival
DRT, Dead, Right There
ERD, Electronic Restraint Device
IBD, Israeli Battle Dressing
LEO, Law Enforcement Officer
MRE, Meal, Ready to Eat (military ration)
ND, Negligent Discharge
SA, Special Agent
SAC, Special Agent in Charge
VBC, Victim, by Choice
VCA, Violent, Criminal Actor
/John
26 Mar 09
223!
Those having a hard time procuring 223 hardball, in bulk, can contact Dan Smith at ICC. Dan has lots of it in stock, at least for now. Dan is a stand-up guy and a good friend!
Itâs all high quality and manufactured in the USA. I use it regularly.
Dan Smith
International Cartridge
2273 Rt 310
Reynoldsville, PA15851
814 938 6820
dansmith@iccammo.com
/John
27 Mar 09
A lesson in Objectivity,
This from an LEO friend with a large, metro PD:
âBack in January, one of the patrol officers at my station was wounded in an off-duty shooting. It took place as he was he was leaving his own house on the way to a golf game early one morning. The department was, of course, very concerned, and a great effort was put into motion to identify the attacker(s).
Unhappily, our investigation has concluded that the officer’s bullet wound was self-inflicted, and
the âattackâ scenario he described, fabricated!
We now strongly suspect that an earlier reported theft and torching of his car was also carried out by him, probably for insurance purposes. This officer quietly resigned from our Department three days ago. He is facing charges for insurance fraud and obstruction of justice.
We are all astonished, as this officer was great to work with and a truly competent patrolman. However, weâve since learned that he had serious, chronic financial and family difficulties. His world was apparently collapsing around him.
He has even bigger problems now!â
Lesson: The foregoing is a perfect example of why any police investigation, worthy of the title, must be completely objective! Investigators have no choice but to be absolutely unbiased, right from the beginning, carefully examining all evidence and leads, and letting chips fall where they may. Jumping to conclusions, âprotectingâ friends, even coming to the investigation with conclusions and assumptions mixed in with each other, is the mark of a poor detective, and a bungled investigation.
Accordingly, donât expect police detectives to be âon your side.â Theyâre not any anyoneâs âside!â They are non-partisan, objective investigators. Theyâre in the âfactâ business. It they were any other way, you wouldnât want them as cops!
Police investigations seldom have happy endings!
/John
30 Mar 09
IBDs in action, from an LEO friend:
âI had an opportunity to use an IBD yesterday, and I am surely glad I had them!
My teen-age son took a spill at home. As a result, he stepped on a shard of broken glass and sustained a deep, two-inch laceration in his foot. Bleeding was immediate and heavy! I applied direct pressure via a handkerchief, but the shape of the cut frustrated my efforts. Bleeding continued.
My wife retrieved our trauma kit, and I immediately applied a Israeli Battle Dressing. Bleeding stopped! Both my wife and son were amazed at how quickly and easily the IBD was applied, and how effective it was in controlling blood loss.
Nurses and physicians at the ER were also amazed at the IBD. None had ever seen one! In fact, they waxed suspicious, because my family and I are self-sufficient and decisive, not the helpless, clueless, ever-dependant VBCs theyâre accustomed to in the ER.
As you have said time and time again, bad things happen, for no particular reason and on no particular schedule. Get relevant training and get the gear you need. Have a plan, and execute it without distraction nor apology.
My son got sutured up and was discharged the same afternoon, none the worse for ware.
This episode is a validation of the Warrior Mentality which you teach, and to which we adhere and practice! We all knew what to do. We had the training and the equipment necessary, and we didnât hesitate.â
Comment: IBDs are at the heart of our recommended trauma kit. They are literally a life-saver, and all of us need a good supply of them. Copies need to be in your car, home, office, briefcase, and range bag. I keep one on my person all the time.
My student is a graduate of our Tactical Treatment of Gunshot Wounds Course, and he knew exactly what he needed to do to save this young ladâs life. Per our recommendation, he had a competent trauma-kit on hand, and he was practiced in deploying and applying IBDs
In the medical community and other places, âlearned helplessnessâ has been raised to the level of sainthood! This elevation is little more than a ploy to broaden the economic base of the taxpayer-funded, therapeutic industry.
This is why Americans are currently being encouraged never to do anything to help themselves. In our age, personal preparedness and personal responsibility are unthinkable! Instead, we are supposed to wait interminably on dithering bureaucrats (âthe professionalsâ), be they public or private. Being a âhelpless victimâ is apparently oneâs ultimate, civic responsibility in our upside-down culture.
Never buy-off on that self-destructive sewage! Be equipped, trained, and prepared- always. Donât put it off and donât apologize. The life you save may be your own!
/John
30 Mar 09
Judge
I have a copy of the Taurus âJudgeâ pistol, and had a chance to fire it at a Pistol Course last weekend. My copy is the âLightweightâ model.
I fired 2 1/2-inch 410 slugs and 410 birdshot through it, as well as 45LC.
410 buckshot (three 000 pellets) is hard to find, but it probably represents the best defensive load for this revolver. Cabelaâs stocks 410 buckshot, but it is over one dollar/round!
The Judge is not fun to shoot! 410 recoil is hefty. Recoil with 45LC rounds is considerably less.
There is no possibility of reloading quickly, particularly with 410 shotgun shells.
Accuracy with 410 slugs is excellent.
Loaded with 410 birdshot, the Judge make a top-drawer snake-gun!
I personally prefer carrying fifteen-shooters, rather than five-shooters, but this pistol may fulfill a need in some quarters.
Taurus canât make them fast enough!
/John
31 Mar 09
Legislated into criminality, from a friend in SA. This is what is coming, if we allow it:
âSouth Africaâs new (just the latest) Firearms Act is forcing all of us with licensed guns to get them re-licensed.
Re-licencing entails a âcompetency test,â which is little more than a loyalty oath to the ANC political party (our version of Democrats). You get to choose which of your guns you want to keep. The balance are consigned to the smelting pot!
You may have one gun for âdefense purposesâ (better hope it never breaks), and you may have up to three more in the unlikely event you can swing a âsport licence.â You also get to pay an exorbitant fee while acquiring a âcompetency certificate,â which, as noted, has a lot more to do with political loyalties than with any knowledge of guns.
Once you do all that, then the long wait! Average for processing your license is two years!
Some time ago, we licensed all our guns. Now, all those duly-licensed guns have to be re-licensed. We are all wondering how long it will be before these new licenses will become invalid, necessitating re-re-licensing!
Our politicians and bureaucrats are paranoid and distrusting of us âordinaryâ citizens. Indeed, we peons need to be âmanagedâ and âparented,â but never allowed to do anything for ourselves, never allowed to grow up. Who yearn for freedom and liberty are declared criminals!
A government advert ends of with this pearl of wisdom: âRe-licence your firearm, and youâll be part of the fight against crime.â
Yes, we all have to be âgood little Nazis,â donât we?â
Comment:
âDusty old helmet, rusty old gun. They sit in the corner and wait –
Two souvenirs of the Second World War that have withstood the time, and the hate.
Mute witness to a time of much trouble, where âkill-or-be-killedâ was the law –
Were these implements used with high honor? What was the glory they saw?
Many times I’ve wanted to ask them – And now that we’re here all alone,
Relics of a long-ago war – Where has our freedom gone?
Freedom flies in your heart like an eagle. Let it soar with the winds high above
Among the spirits of soldiers now sleeping, guard it with care and with love.
I salute my old friends in the corner, I agree with all they have said –
And, if the Moment of Truth comes tomorrow,
I’ll be free, or, by God, I’ll be dead!â
Audie Murphy
/John
31 Mar 09
ND in PA, from one of my Instructors!
â I was close to an ND in a local gunshop today!
I was examining a SIG P250 that was part of the shopâs inventory. When I asked the clerk for permission to dry-fire, he said okay, but wanted to insert a snap-cap into the chamber first.
Snap-caps are inert, placebo cartridges, designed to cushion the blow of the firing-pin during dry-fire. Snap-caps are usually plastic and colored brightly to distinguish them from live rounds. Some old guns, and even some recently-manufactured hunting rifles and shotguns can be harmed by excessive dry-firing. Hence, such guns are usually sold with snap-caps.
However, nearly all modern defensive firearms are not harmed by dry-firing, particularly pistols, and, for them, snap-caps are unnecessary. Still, there are some who believe dry-firing with any gun should be done with snap-caps in place. This clerk was apparently one.
In any event, I handed the P250 back to him, as he reached into a plastic bag full of snap-caps in various calibers. He recovered a bright-blue, plastic cartridge (metal base) in 9X19, inserted it into the pistolâs magazine, shoved the magazine into the magazine well, and reciprocated the slide, chambering the round.
He then nonchalantly pointed the pistol at the glass counter-top in front of him and pressed the trigger.
The pistol discharged!
The glass counter-top was shattered, but none of the guns on the shelf below were harmed. The âbulletâ was blue plastic, and we found it, deformed but still identifiable, sitting on the first shelf.
The flabbergasted clerk shook like a leaf, as I took the pistol out of his hand.
No one was harmed, and the only property damage was the broken glass counter-top.
As it turns out, what the clerk (and apparently everyone else) thought was an inert snap-cap, was actually a seldom-seen practice round, manufactured by Germany’s Dynamit Nobel. The blue, plastic bullet weighs less than four grains, but launches at 1300 f/s. It is designed for indoor training with a minimal backstop. It is also marketed for pest control. Not powerful enough to cycle most autoloading pistols, it is still eminently capable of inflicting serious injury at close range.
Before today, I had never seen one, nor did I even know there was such a thing! There were several others in the bag, so apparently everyone in the shop was fooled!
Thank heaven, the clerk had the pistol pointed in a relatively safe direction when he âdry-fired!â
I was graphically reminded today of the importance of âRule Two!ââ
Lessons:
(1) Get snap-caps out of your life! As noted above, they serve no useful purpose in most cases and otherwise do little more than provide opportunities for accidents.
(2) There are no safe guns! That is the reason for Rule Two. All guns, regardless of their supposed condition, are handled the same way. When you have âsafeâ guns and âdangerousâ guns in your life, and have a different handling routine for each, it is only a matter of time before they get mixed in with each other!
(3) Get a Safe-Direction Pad, and have it with you all the time, so you can always manufacture a relatively safe direction in which to point guns when they must be unloaded, loaded, or dry-fired. Keep it with you. Go to safedirection.com.
(4) Watch what you put in your gun! In addition to snap-caps, there are all kinds of other things masquerading as ammunition, as we see! Shoot quality fodder. Even then, examine each round carefully as it goes into the cylinder or magazine. Operators donât like surprises!
(5) There are no guarantees! No matter how careful we try to be, we must resign ourselves to the fact that guns are dangerous. There are risks inherent to having guns around. And, there risks inherent to not having guns around! You donât get a perfect world, not in this life!
/John
