2 Nov 09

SIG Academy

We just completed an Urban Rifle Program at the SIG Academy in Epping, NH.

It’s been several years since I’ve been there, and I need to say that SIG deserves a great deal of credit for maintaining and continually improving this superlative facility, along with its first-rate Staff, capably headed by friend and colleague, Jeff Creamer.

We had Kalashnikovs, ARs, FALs, XCRs, and SIG/556s. SIG welcomes all brands of rifles and pistols to its training Classes. You are not required to use their guns.

All major arms manufacturers need to emulate SIG and make a continuing commitment to advancing our Art and the teaching of safe gun-handling, carrying, maintenance, and storage. This is a responsibility SIG willingly bears, to their credit.

I ran a hot range, as always. All rifles carried loaded, all the time. Pistols too! Lots of movement, shooting from cover and awkward positions, and weapons transitions. Jeff’s enlightened policy embraces such advanced training doctrine. Students are treated as serious, committed, and mature adults and are expected at act as such. That is my MO. SIG’s too!

When the opportunity presents itself, go to SIG’s Academy and take a Class. They run a wide variety, including guest instructors like me. Nice hotels and restaurants are close-by.

Everything they do at the Academy is top-drawer. Jeff sees to that!

Recommended!

/John

 

2 Nov 09

Urban Blight? From a friend just returning from Detroit:

“Thrill-seeker that I am, I drove around the City of Detroit last weekend, as I haven’t been there for several years.

The East Side is scarcely more than rubble! Complete city blocks have been razed, leaving huge areas that have, non-unexpectedly, returned to native prairie. I saw only a handful of isolated, standing houses. None looked occupied. All had so many bars on windows and doors that they looked like small jails, and all were so rickety that I concluded that only reason they were still standing was that termites were all holding hands!

Downtown, one can see the results of taxpayer-funded ‘Urban Renewal.’ There are sports stadiums and a nice Farmers’ Market. But, surrounding the downtown area is what looks like a movie set for a documentary on the City of Dresden. Kind of ruins the mood, and belies the veneer!

Without industry (which has long-since fled), the City serves no purpose. With such a large demographic of government-subsidized, willfully/permanently non-productive, all residents can do is beg for scraps, from sleazy politicians who steal money doled out to them by the federal government.

The immensity of rotting blight is something you can’t imagine until you see it with your own eyes. Total land area of abandoned/vacant property in Detroit now equals that of the entire City of Boston!

As we entered Detroit City Limits, we were greeted by a billboard advertizing employment opportunities. The job:

One thousand new CCW instructors are needed for the State of Michigan.

Imagine that!”

Comment: A system where government hand-outs are routinely used to purchase votes from the permanently dependant insures such ever-expanding blight. The only beneficiaries are erstwhile-unemployed politicians, living in luxury, who never want to see anyone else’s lot improve.

“Of all tyrannies, one sincerely exercised for the ‘good’ of its victims is most oppressive. It is better to live under robber-barons than under omnipotent, pseudo-moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sleep sometimes, and his lust may, at long-last, be satisfied. But, who torment us ‘for our own good,’ will do so without ceasing, because they do it with the approval of their own consciences.”

CS Lewis

/John

 

5 Nov 09

Hunting with the Krebs/Kalashnikov!

Yesterday, I shot a trophy Ibex at a private hunting preserve in OH. I used my Krebs/Kalashnikov (7.62X39) with forward-mounted Aimpoint T1, folding/collapsible stock, Vickers two-point sling, and Cor-Bon DPX ammunition. Every component of this “Happy Family” complemented each other!

I like to hunt with military weapons, as it provides an opportunity to use a serious weapon in a real environment.

We stalked the animal all afternoon. He was smart and illusive, and I only got a single, fleeting glimpse of him. We did a lot of walking and snooping!

When I finally got my window of opportunity, it was short indeed!

The animal was running, flat-out, from my left to right. Range was fifty meters. He appeared from around a bend and was going to disappear into the bush within no more than two seconds. I even briefly entertained the option of not taking the shot!

In any event, firing offhand, my red dot came up from behind him. It got as far as his hindquarters, and I took the shot, as I knew the window was closing rapidly. The DPX bullet hit and broke both hips. That slowed him down (slightly), and an instant later I put the next one through the point of his shoulder which stopped him in his tracks. A third shot, probably unnecessary, hit his shoulder a second time. All three rounds went through-and-through, as the DPX bullets went about their deadly work.

I particularly dislike chasing wounded animals for hours (as I’ve done more than once), so I try to make sure “dead” ones do not unexpectedly rise up and start running!

This is one of the few times I’ve ever attempted a shot on a running animal. I much prefer to wait for them to stop and remain stationary for a few seconds. However, circumstances gave me no alternative in this instance. I had to mount and fire the instant the window opened, or wait for another opportunity as daylight slipped away.

We hunt this time of year at Shawnee Ridge in OH. It is run by old friends. We stay in a comfortable lodge, and they feed us! No licenses required. No forms to fill out. We just rendevous there and have a great time.

You can get hold of them at.

Shawnee Ridge Hunting
2240 West Fork Road
Stout, Ohio 45684
937 549 2346
Search for Shawnee Ridge Hunting

Recommended!

Great day!

/John

 

6 Nov 09

Profession of Arms?

“Learned helplessness” in our military.

Had Wednesday’s serial murders at Ft Hood taken place just outside the Base, in the City of Killeen, TX, the murder suspect himself would likely have been gunned-down immediately by several irate Texas CHL holders!

Tragically, the murders took place in a “gun-free zone” (aka “criminal-empowerment zone”), because in America, among those claiming to be active members of the “Profession of Arms,” no one is armed!

Reaction from the idiot Press were predictable:

They sought out anyone who would comment on the subject of personal weapons on base. One representative fell into their trap and tried to defend Base rules that require “… anyone on Base with a weapon must have it out-of-reach and unloaded.” However, as we all know, any gun that is “perfectly safe” is “perfectly useless,” and its owner “perfectly defenseless.”

Base commanders apparently believe everyone should be disarmed and always ready to be victimized, rather than (Heaven forbid!) armed, trained, and prepared.

Interesting philosophy, and it obviously “worked” perfectly! Curious that the murder suspect himself apparently didn’t pay much attention to that particular “rule.” Imagine that!

The fact is that the best, and only really effective, deterrent to criminal violence is good and decent people who are constantly armed and prepared. That practice has significantly discouraged all criminal activity every time it has been tried.

It works. Nothing else does!

Years ago, in all branches of the US Military, officers and staff NCOs were always armed with a pistol, on base, off base, in uniform, or not. Being ever “armed and ready” was considered a point of honor! To be unarmed was to be incapable of performing one’s duty. Such a thing would be dishonorable. Back then, we didn’t have mass murders on military bases!

Under today’s “enlightened” policy, even star-wearers are unarmed and helpless, foolishly relying upon some ill-defined “reactionary force” to protect them, a force that will predictably arrive long after the damage has been done. Who own personal weapons, have local CCW permits, and acquire training outside the “System,” are now classified as “gun-enthusiasts” and are thus highly suspect and routinely lumped together with lepers and child-molesters!

So long as professing practitioners of the “Profession of Arms” are pathologically frightened of guns and suspect of each other, we can look forward to more such mass murders of the defenseless. And, I promise you, every one will take place in a “gun-free zone.”

As always, the real villain here is arrogance, the kind of personal vanity the ever precludes us from sincerely admitting we’re wrong and that we need to change directions.

Learned helplessness? Not a formula for victory!

/John

 

11 Nov 09

Comments on the decline of Western Civilization, from a friend and student who works in mental health:

“I’ve come to drearly recognize monotonous behavioral patterns endemic among people who come to me, imagining themselves to be ‘powerless’ to stop biting nails, quit smoking, quit being fat, et al.

In every case, I plainly see:

(1) No individual initiative

(2) No concept of personal responsibility

(3) An ingenious pattern of creativity in maximizing avoidance of all species of individual accountability

Smokers want me to prescribe a pill to ‘help them manage emotions.’ But, what they really want is to be able to blame the pill, and me, when they subsequently choose not to learn self-management.

Politicians love ‘zero-tolerance’ and ‘mandatory sentencing,’ so they can blame a piece of paper when their feebleminded schemes unravel.

And, sadly, we’re literally teaching our children these fraudulent, destructive patterns of thinking. It is openly fostered and promoted at the highest levels of government, particularly the current Administration. Being willfully unproductive, perverted, helpless, devoid of ambition, dependant, and chronically self-destructive are now held up as legitimate, even preferred, ‘life-styles.’

The highest ideal in schools today is to seek the easiest path, averting accomplishment at all costs. Personal accountability is unrelentingly avoided, as children are taught to perpetually shift blame, exercising creativity only in the propagation of fanciful excuses.

We’ve talked before about the systemic decline of our Culture, effectively encouraged by corrupt politicians whose only goal is to acquire absolute power for themselves forever, as individual rights and liberties are unfailingly suffocated to death. To them, we citizens are little more than livestock, and most citizens are currently only too happy to assume that role!

If these fatal trends don’t reverse, we’re in for a rough ride, and, in the end, an ignominious demise, as forces of nature treat our civilization as they have all others!”

Comment:

Kipling predicted all this at the dawn of the Twentieth Century:

“… In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “When you don’t work, you die.”

… after this is accomplished, and the Brave New World begins
When men are paid for existing, and no man pays for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings, with terror and slaughter, return!”

You may have noticed, “terror and slaughter” are back!

/John

 

11 Nov 09

New XCR trigger.

I conducted an Urban Rifle Course in UT last weekend. In attendance was Alex Robinson, president of Robinson Arms, and his Crew. Grand time was had by all!

I used my copy of the XCR, in 7.62X39. It ran fine, as always, but Alex suggested I have him put in his new Trigger System. I was frankly reluctant to change anything, as I’m normally not inclined to fix what isn’t broken.

The original system represents a pretty standard, military trigger. It has generous take-up, some creep, and breaks at a nominal six to seven pounds, with generous over-travel. It is similar to a Garand trigger. Parts are robust and not likely to break.

I was concerned that RA’s new trigger would be delicate and suited mostly to recreational shooting. However, Alex assured me that the new System is every bit as robust and rugged, but a good deal more user-friendly. In any event, I ultimately decided to ask that the new System be installed.

It was a good idea! The new trigger is much crisper, more definitive, and more conducive to accuracy than was the old one There is still adequate take-up, but creep is greatly reduced, and the break (six pounds) is much crisper.

In any event, it is my current suggestion, when you order your XCR, is to specify the “new” Trigger System. It makes a great rifle, even greater!

/John

 

12 Nov 09

These comments from a friend and student on active duty:

“No doubt, the ‘saltiest’ of soldiers were the ones who made the personal decision to ignore foolish orders and remain armed.

The experienced among us clearly see which orders should be followed, and which should be disdainfully ignored. The NCO Corps is the place to learn these critical lessons, whether you’re a private or a brand-new lieutenant.

Other important sources of unblushing wisdom is the private sector are our active Operators. They are the people who unfailingly get things done, regardless of circumstance, and whose council we invariably seek first when confronted with a sticky problem.

Their ‘ever-off-the-record’ advice is worth ten times what is written in manuals and taught in academies. They are routinely passed over for promotion, because now and then they provide point-blank advice to the wrong idiot. But, though seldom even thanked, much less recognized, they continue to produce.

We dare not lose them!”

Comment:

Chance favors the prepared. Fortune, the bold. Providence, the audacious!

“Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow, and of the man who leads, that gains the victory.”

George Patton Jr

/John

 

13 Nov 09

Action Target “PT Torso” steel rifle target:

During our Urban Rifle Course last weekend in UT, Action Target, headquartered locally, was kind enough to proved six copies of their new “PT Torso” steel rifle target.

It’s a super-hard, steel torso, rated for rifle bullets, the size of an IPSC silhouette, mounted on a self-supporting stand and quadra-pod. It can easily be moved around the range, and presents the target to the shooter at the normal height of a standing person. The target portion itself it pitched slightly forward in order to deflect bullet-splash downward. Hardness is AR550, about as hard as steel gets!

Hits are distinguished from misses by the distinctive sound of the impact. We shot them between twenty and sixty meters from the line (the longest distance our particular range accommodated) and experienced no back-splash at all. Each student (of fifteen) fired eight-hundred rifle rounds over two days, mostly at the steel targets. So, each target was struck between 1,500 and 2,000 times (223, 308, 7.45×39). They were new when we started, and, at the end of two days, they were barely scratched, and no hint of warping! The only bullet making even a discernable mark was steel-core Russian ammunition in 5.45X39, from the single Kalashnikov in the Class.

The PT Torso is perfectly useable out to at least two-hundred meters, so long as impacts can be heard back at the line.

It was the first time I’ve used this particular AT product, and I now know enough to recommend it. At $300.00/copy, it’s useable, durable, and much less expensive than electronics.

For an Advanced Urban Rifle Training Program (ever-popular these days) it is hard to beat.

Once again, Action Target provides us with something genuinely functional, reasonably priced, and elegantly simple.

Good show!

/John

 

14 Nov 09

These caustic comments from a frustrated friend in the Federal System:

“Many in our Agency have been piously critical of the lack or preparedness at Ft Hood.

However, when one goes to our Academy for in-service training, he is asked at the gate if he is armed. When we answer in the affirmative, we are instructed to ‘secure’ all weapons and ammunition in one of their storage lockers immediately. Possession of a firearm on campus (aside from transporting an unloaded weapon to and from ranges) is prohibited. The Academy staff obviously doesn’t trust any of us with guns.

Of course, any sensible professional who carries daily and has even a modicum of self-respect, ignores such demeaning and preposterous rules, with utmost disdain!

For one, I remain armed, there and everywhere else, in contemptuous defiance of their ‘rules.’

We Feds dare not criticize Ft Hood’s ‘gun-free’ policy, because we, due to cowardice, paranoia, and stupidity, exercise the same delusional mentality, for the same reason.

We don’t even trust each other!”

Comment: Once again, so long as we have paranoid political hacks, masquerading as “managers,” far more interested in keeping their jobs than they ever will be in doing them, we won’t need criminals!

/John

 

16 Nov 09

Scenario-Based Training:

We’ve just completed an Airsoft-enabled, Scenario-Based Training program in Addison, IL, at the wonderful Safe Direction Facility. It was an eye-opener for all of us!

Students were all veterans of several Defensive Handgun Programs, by us and other well-known instructors. All carry concealed regularly. No amateurs were present!

We used Airsoft pistols and rifles, and all students were thoroughly oriented on Airsoft at the beginning of the Program.

Here are important lessons students report over and over:

1) Keep your head up! Maintain continuous visual contact with all possible threats. Look all around. Notice details. Gawking at your gun seldom provides you with any useful information.

2) Stay in motion! We die in the gaps. Get off the “X!”

3) Use cover! Be ever-aware of objects that may be used for cover. Be able to become an extremely difficult/illusive target, instantly.

4) Develop an ability to rapidly size-up threatening situations. We may not like what we see, but we must have the personal courage to confront indisputable facts squarely.

5) Have a plan! You must have a tactical blueprint up on your screen all the time. Of course, you can’t pre-plan every detail, but you must have a general idea of what you’re going to do and where/how you’re going to start.

6) Be able to distinguish the significant from the insignificant! Most information is worthless. Don’t expend attentive energy on what is not important. Quickly determine what is critical and start planning around it. Beware of decoys!

7) Don’t panic! Move smoothly and with purpose. No wasted parts; no wasted motions! Control your breathing and stay one step ahead of developing situations. Use your sights; aim your shots!

8) Fight through speed-bumps. Running out of ammunition, stoppages, being wounded, et al. They’re all just speed-bumps. Don’t turn them into Mt Everest! Get over/around them quickly and move on. Worry more about a “good plan,” and less about a “perfect plan!”

9) Gain and maintain the offensive! Turn the table on your opponent(s) immediately. Once the initiative is seized, never give it up. Stay in control. One-by-one, eliminate his options.

10) Finish the fight! Outcomes are often determined by who gives up first. See the fight through to the end.

11) Don’t hesitate, dither, nor stampede! (a) Smooth, (b) lethally-potent, (c) coldly-efficient, (d) surgically-precise, and (e) ruthlessly-incisive execution are the keys to victory.

Scenario-based training represents a wonderful opportunity to exercise all of the foregoing.

We’re doing a lot of it these days!

/John

 

16 Nov 09

These additional comments from my friend in the Federal System:

“I visited a colleague at FBI headquarters in Washington DC a short time ago.

He had to come down from his office to the quarantined check-in area to meet me. He then instructed me to secure my weapons in lockers provided. When I asked why, he told me that only FBI Special Agents were authorized to carry weapons in ‘their’ building. ‘That’s really curious,’ said I, ‘since my Agency’s recruitment and training standards, in addition to our security clearance, vastly exceeds yours. So, our Agents, including me, are even more ‘special’ than yours!’

No reply, of course. I was then required to pass through an airport-style magnetometer (operated by rent-a-cops) before being allowed into the building.

As a manager, how can one possibly justify such a stupid, demeaning, intelligence-insulting policy at a federal facility, when all us federal law-enforcement personnel routinely carry loaded firearms everywhere, daily, including on commercial aircraft?

The whole thing is so juvenile, it is difficult for me control my anger long enough to wrap my brain around it. It is even more difficult for the average American to understand how massacres of the unarmed (actually DISarmed, as most officers and NCOs would happily carry all the time if permitted) happen on military bases!”

Comment: My friend hesitates to say it, but I won’t. The problem is that “managers” to whom he refers, including some generals and directors, are spineless worms, far more interested in promotion-groveling politics than in law enforcement, or even defending the Nation.

The entire Federal System, including the Military, needs fewer cowering atta-boys and more audacious heroes!

/John

 

19 Nov 09

This note from a frustrated friend and Instructor, and former Shooting Coach:

“I was told recently, and flatly, that those sponsoring our junior shooting activity (the local ‘Club’) do not authorize, nor affiliate themselves with, the use of the word ‘weapon.’ The use of that word is tolerated only during ever-rare Personal Defense Classes, and even then, only in whispers!
This all became clear to me as I was recently assisting at a Junior Smallbore Rifle Program. One of my teenage charges confronted me, looking distressed. When I asked what the problem was, he related that when he had referred to his rifle as his ‘weapon,’ had been soundly admonished and threatened with expulsion by another Coach!

I calmly explained to him that a ‘weapon’ is an implement for fighting, and, while his rifle had not been specifically designed for fighting, it could still be pressed into service as a weapon when required.

When I subsequently confronted the ‘Coach’ in question, he loudly whined that the NRA and other pro-gun organizations spent entirely too much time defending the right of Americans to own and use ‘assault weapons,’ although he himself was unable to define the term. When pressed, he indicated that an ‘assault weapon’ was any firearm he personally didn’t like or that appeared ‘scary.’ He went on to say the government should confiscate all privately-owned firearms, so long as he could keep his air-rifle (as if the government would stop there!).

That conversation ultimately compelled me to refrain from submitting paperwork for certification as a Coach, and find better ways of spending Saturday afternoons. The Program may be valuable, and indeed some kids end up going to college on shooting scholarships, but it would be unhealthy for them to watch me continuously arguing with these self-centered, adolescent crypto-Marxists, masquerading as people who have real interest in guns and shooting.

We have seen the enemy. He is us!”

Comment:

When all those naive, self-deceptive “fun-gun” owners and competitors are compelled by circumstance to actually use their “fun-guns” for serious purposes, maybe it will finally become obvious to them, and the rest of the rose-colored-glasses crowd, that “weapon” is a valid, honorable term, and one for which we need not apologize!

All guns are always“weapons,” and fighting is sometimes acutely necessary, even for those who, by choice, live in a self-manufactured, fool’s paradise, naively believing they themselves will never have to fight, so long as they steadfastly refrain from ever thinking about it!

/John

 

19 Nov 09

Interesting comments from a student and inadvertent bear hunter!

“Several years ago in MT, while ostensibly hunting elk, I accidentally disturbed an enormous male grizzly bear! The bear was reclining in alders behind me as I took up a position to scan for elk. I was unaware he was there and was surely not thinking about bears. The bear may not have been thinking about me either, but it is obvious he was thinking about lunch!

The first clue was when I heard the sound of crashing alders behind me and turned to catch my initial, terrifying glimpse. The bear was charging me from a distance of thirty meters!

I was armed with a scoped, Ruger bolt-gun in 7mmRem Mg. I remember being surprised and frightened, but I consider myself a competent Operator, and I knew what to do!

My first shot struck the bear head-on, just under the chin. Range was twenty meters. I used the scope. It was adjusted to 3X. It caused the bear the shift his head, similar to a boxer fading from a punch. I was sure I had hit him, but I didn’t know exactly where. Without delay, I bolted-in a second round and fired. That round struck just behind the hump (fired at a downward angle). Range was ten meters. I was looking over the scope when I took that shot. The bear dropped, rolled over, bellowed, and slid down an incline. He thrashed for ten seconds, then went limp, DRT. I was unhurt.

I moved laterally, positioning myself behind a large tree. I then recharged the rifle’s magazine with two rounds, replacing the ones I had just expended.

When the whole episode started, it only required an instant for me to realize that neither fleeing, nor verbal de-escalation, were likely to be successful! Standing my ground and ending this fight was my only viable option. Extensive training made my weapon work. I didn’t have time to think about how to run it.

Because, to Feds, killing a grizzly within CONUS is akin to molesting children, simultaneous, interminable investigations by four, separate state and federal law-enforcement agencies were apparently obligatory. However, the affirmative necessity of my actions were shown to be incontrovertible, and all evidence united in confirming it.

Since the event, I’ve experienced recurring nightmares, which I know are normal. They’ve gradually diminished with time.

A source of personal satisfaction is the fact that I know I fought a battle with an honorable opponent. The bear’s motives were at least respectable. In my job as a police officer, most of my opponents are human, few of whom have ever know any species of honor!

I keep remembering your saying, ‘When it’s least expected, you’re elected!’

Can’t be stressed too much!”

Comment: There are no guarantees in this life, and even the best preparation and tactics sometimes yield poor results. The only thing competent training and preparedness can do is stack the odds in your favor. They give you a good chance.

In the end, that’s all a good man needs!

/John

 

20 Nov 09

Natural Law

Comments from a social-scientist and friend. In view of the current debate in the halls of Congress, it seems particularly appropriate:

“There is at least one absolute constant in nature. It is well documented across all living kingdoms, from fungi to modern humans.

It is the predilection of the strong, clever, and evil to dominate and exploit the weak, slow, callow, and naive. The strong will always cannibalize the weak, and will typically display neither mercy nor compassion.

Dominant individuals maintain their position via coercion and the resultant, grudging acquiescence of the group. Intolerable excesses, incompetence, and injustice eventually lead to unrest, revolution, and deposing of despots, an eventuality all despots instinctively, desperately fear.

In civilized society, to the extent that we modern humans can maintain genuine, credible means to depose a despot, exploitation and iniquity will be limited. To the extent that we permit ourselves to be disarmed of credible weapons (Yes, “Weapons!”), we will be invariably exploited and brutalized, without limit.

Humans haven’t “advanced” much, and we surely haven’t departed the Natural World. We had better all face that fact squarely.

Pretend otherwise at your peril!”

Comment: Fred Douglas put it this way:

“Find out just how much the people will submit to, and you will have found the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the
endurance of those whom they oppress.”

I love Fred!

/John

 

21 Nov 09

New RA/XCR 7.62X39 Magazines from C-Products:

I’ve had my 7.62X39 XCR for over a year. It is my car-gun much of the time, and it is also the rifle I usually fly with when I travel teaching.

It does not use Kalashnikov magazines. The magazines it does use push into the magazine well directly, Stoner-style. They are manufactured by my long-time friend, Larry Panka, at C-Products.

Magazines I’ve been using heretofore are acceptable, but springs need to be stronger. My rifle runs fine with them, but Larry has just sent me copies of his new generation of magazines, and they represent a vast improvement!

In order to make the original magazines reliable, I had to dissemble them, lubricate them, and tweak them in some cases.

The new ones ran fine, right out of the box. I’ve neither cleaned, nor lubricated, nor dissembled any of them. I just stuffed them full of ammunition and started shooting. All ran flawlessly!

For those fortunate enough to have an XCR in 7.62X39, I suggest you get with C-Products and stock-up on these new magazines.

Call Larry P at 941 776 8192

Recommended!

/John

 

21 Nov 09

One of my Instructors comments on scenario-based training:

“Being a role-player allowed me to observe our students reacting to a wide variety of threatening circumstances.

Some notes:

(1) Keep students guessing. We need to ‘maintain the mystery,’ All scenarios need to be full of surprises and unexpected challenges. Student expectations and smug prejudices must be constantly assailed!

(2) Not every drill should culminate in gunfire. Scenarios where many options are available provide the widest spectrum of learning experiences. Too often, students enter scenarios all too anxious to draw and fire, when verbal/postural disengagement, at least initially, is clearly called for. Those skills must be exercised too!

(3) We need less emphasis on endlessly/timidly acquiring information and more on definitive, timely action. When circumstances are rapidly evolving, few relevant details will be known, nor can they be known in time for that knowledge to be used to our advantage. Nonetheless, decisions need to be made quickly. Dithering is always fatal! Do I voluntarily become involved, or not? Does that person represent a lethal threat, or not? Do I need to change position, or stay where I am? Students need to learn to think on their feet, put together a plan on the spot, and hit the ground running, all with limited information!

(4) Students need the personal experience of actually ‘firing’ at another human being (albeit a roll-player) using a simulated (Airsoft) pistol. Shooting at paper targets, even life-like mannequins, is all good training, but there is no substitute for actually dropping the hammer on a real person when it has to be, without hesitation. All students need that experience, no matter how personally distasteful!

Airsoft has been long overlooked, but we are now, at long last, finally coming to fully realize its usefulness in training professional Operators.”

Comment: Scenario-based training, using Airsoft pistols and rifles, is a critical part of every Operator’s training. It requires precise organization, and it is wearisome and far from risk-free!

But, all of us need to find a way to get it into our lives!

/John

 

22 Nov 09

More excellent commentary on Scenario-Based Training, from another Instructor:

“Many of our students are accustomed to shooting only two-dimensional, motionless targets. The vast majority have never participated in live-fire training facing anything else.

They are thus not accustomed to thinking in terms of shooting through a body mass that has three dimensions, in order to arrange for bullets to strike, and subsequently penetrate, vital organs. They concentrate on where the bullet enters the target, but give scant thought to where it will come out, nor what it will pass through in the interim!

Consequently, in force-on-force scenarios involving animated roll-players, they typically aim at the center of the sternum, regardless of orientation of the target. When target presentation changes from face-on to the target facing another direction, point of aim typically does not. This all-too-common mistake generates glancing wounds that lack deep penetration necessary for the generation of crippling wounds.

A number of frustrating iterations are often required for even ‘well-trained’ students to finally grasp this vital axiom.”

Comment: Interestingly, big-game hunters, when they come to us as students, already clearly understand this principle, because they have been compelled to exercise it many times. Another reason all aspiring Operators need to be ardent hunters also, and hunt every chance they get!

By contrast, who have confronted only two-dimensional paper, even steel, targets, are lacking a critical experience. Scenario-based training (and big-game hunting) are two of the few ways of exposing oneself to it.

“There are two kinds of pain: The pain of discipline, and the pain of regret. We can avoid one, but never both!”

/John

 

23 Nov 09

Kalashnikov rifles and shotguns from Krebs.

I talked w/Mark Krebs today about his current inventory. It is enumerated below.

When you want a kalashnikov, Krebs makes the best!

Kci/saiga 12ga Tactical Shotgun W/vltor Stock & Soviet-Style Muzzle Brake/Flash Hider
Krebs/Saiga Custom 308 NATO-Length Stock (Pk Flash Hider)
Krebs/Armory AK74 (5.45×39)
Krebs/Saiga 308, Collapsible Stock (Pk Flash Hider)
Krebs “Speed-Load” Tactical Rifle, 7.62×39
Krebs/Arsenal Under-folder, 7.62×39, w/rail forend

I have a copy of the “Speed-Load,” and I recommend it highly!

/John

 

25 Nov 09

Signs of the times, from a friend in UT:

“Monday, a well-liked BYU professor was murdered in his own home.

Four VCAs overpowered him at his front door and relentlessly beat him until he yielded the combination
to his safe. When the safe was opened, the victim’s throat was cut open, and he bled to death within seconds. His body was left in his living room.

The gang was arrested shortly thereafter.

Vengeance may have been the motive, as one of the VCA’s brothers is currently in prison. The professor testified for the prosecution at his trial.

VCAs didn’t need to kick the door in. The victim opened it for them. He was unarmed at the time!”

Comment: The oft-touted “strategy” of simply “… giving them what they want” isn’t risk-free. Sometimes, VCAs murder you anyway!

The media-manufactured “recovery” we’re supposedly in is, in truth, a dangerously deepening recession. We’ll shortly be looking at double-digit inflation, as well as double-digit unemployment (which we have now), for the balance of the BHO Administration.

One symptom is an increasing degree of desperation and violence on the part of society’s losers, who are all but encouraged to commit violent crimes against classes of citizens (Jews, Christians, “the rich,” et al) deemed “enemies” of the current leftist political agenda.

With regard to answering your door, particularly at night, when you’re not expecting anyone.

Don’t!

There is no law that requires you to answer your door.

When you do answer your door, always be armed and ready to react. Being armed, even while at home, has become a necessity!

Electronic speakers, that allow you to talk with someone at your door without opening it, are highly recommended.

It is going to get worse. We have to be prepared!

“‘Government’ consists of a gang, with no particular talent for the business of government, nor anything else for that matter. They do have talent, and lust, only for getting and holding political office. Their principal device to that end is to seek out constituencies of weaklings who endlessly pant and pine for something they can’t quite seem to get, mainly because they’re not willing to work for it.

These constituencies are then promised, that what they think they want will be forcibly taken from those who rightfully own it and subsequently given to them, even though they neither deserve it, nor have so much as lifted a finger to earn it. The process is little more than ‘theft by proxy.’ The actual thieves are, as noted above, contemptible gasbags. Recipients, when they go along, become petty thieves themselves, are thus altogether stripped of what little personal honor and dignity they may have once had.

Happily, nine times out of ten, those promises, like the prevaricators who make them, are worth nothing. The tenth time is made good only by looting the productive in order to mollify the willfully unproductive.

In other words, our ‘government’ is a broker in pillage, and every so-called ‘election’ is little more than an auction of pilfered goods.”

… paraphrased from HL Mencke

/John

 

26 Nov 09

Predictable Reaction:

A friend on active-duty sent me today a copy of a bulletin, promulgated by the Pentagon, that enumerates advice to our military personnel in light of the recent Ft Hood shooting.

Unhappily, there are no surprises!

Amid splashily, color illustrations, charts and graphs, terrorist threats are meticulously and correctly identified. History of domestic terrorist attacks is laid out in nauseating detail. And, the report openly, and correctly, points out that there is only one way to stop an active terrorist, and that is by shooting him dead!

Then, the all-too-predictable, and sublimely illogical, advice:

When another terrorist event unfolds, all personnel are to run and hide, lock themselves in dark rooms, get on the floor, and patiently wait for their turn to be murdered! Our military personnel are given the exact same instructions as are elementary-school children!

Nowhere is there even the most subtle of hints with regard to fighting back, individually, nor in any organized way. The entire subject of pro-active involvement is apparently off-limits and is never to be discussed openly. Being a hapless, helpless victim is evidently a soldier’s only duty. So much as lifting a finger to protect oneself is unthinkable!

Our troopers, so magnificently trained and organized to deploy and fight effectively and heroically against entire, heavily-armed enemy formations in a battle-zone, are curiously instructed to scatter like frightened mice, run, and hide- in the presence of a single domestic terrorist, armed only with a pistol.

Well, at Ft Hood, they did exactly that, and we see the result! Our soldiers are not currently being advised to do anything different the next time this happens, and we can thus expect a similar outcome!

My frustrated friend had this reaction:

“I am mentally prepared to do whatever is required to ‘personally and unilaterally’ protect my comrades and myself. In the process, I have every confidence that I will violate “rules.” In fact, I already have!

I don’t care!

Our ‘System’ has become a joke, and a cruel one. You have only to read this current ‘advice’ to come to the inescapable conclusion that no one up the food-chain gives a damn about us, as they are apparently unwilling to commit to any genuine acclivity, like putting an end to ‘gun-free’ zones, and requiring all officers and S/NCOs to carry loaded pistols continuously, as part of their uniform.

Back in the days when officers and S/NCOs were routinely armed, they were solemnly instructed that, when any violent attack took place, there were to move in the direction of the incident without delay, guns drawn, and, in spite of personal risk, engage with gunfire all active threats seen. It was a point of honor, and one that everyone knew and understood. Back then, no one messed with uniformed soldiers!

My comrades and I are good and decent citizens, as well as good soldiers. We deserve far better protection than we are ever likely to get under the current agenda-driven System, which places more value on sucking-up to politicians than upon our lives and safety.”

Comment: Yes, we all want to be “law-abiding,” but today, so needlessly voluminous and incomprehensible is the “law,” I believe it is impossible to even know whether you are or not!

For one, I’m pretty sure I know right from wrong, and that will have to suffice, as our “government” is not only unhelpful in that regard, it is actively hostile toward goodness and decency, ever mocking individual responsibility/personal respectability, and even promoting/embracing filth and personal sleaziness.

Augustine put it this way:

“When there is no justice in the land, a nation’s administrators are little more than a gang of criminals.”

With regard to individual self-defense:

“When someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.”

The Dalai Lama, 15 May 01, speaking at the “Educating Heart Summit” in Portland, OR, when asked by a girl how to react when a shooter takes aim at a classmate.

Well, duh!

Even the Dalai Lama can figure this out!

/John

 

28 Nov 09

These excellent comments on obedience to the “Law,” from an attorney and student:

“In any society, no matter how enlightened, there is always a distinction to be made between ‘The Law’ and ‘the implementation of acts of legislation and regulation.’ Indeed, what law is written so perfectly that it is fair to all people at all times?

The honorable among us wish always to be ‘Law abiding.’ In this context, ‘The Law’ is that respectable ideal that gallantly attempts to manifest Justice, in human terms, in the real world.

Accordingly, there has always been an ineluctable gap between ‘Justice’ and what is actually written in statutes and regulations. This is an unavoidable product of attempting to render an abstract
ideal into a concrete, actionable reality. The discrepancy between the perfection of an idea, and its literal implementation, is a familiar difficulty endemic to any creative endeavor. Our Constitution valiantly seeks to minimize that gap, and keep it minimal.

However, in our degenerate age, the gap between real jJustice and written statutes is much wider than anyone wants to admit, to the point where typically overly-voluminous, poorly-written, politically-inspired statutes and regulations, in fact, undermine the Law, and consequently all respect for it, even among the honorable!

And, as this gap continues to widen, there will be increasing confusion among the honorable, as we wrestle with the glaring discrepancy. Among the dishonorable, there will be chaos, as those who lack an internal, moral compass will see external constraints placed upon them as ever more whimsical, arbitrary, and unenforceable.

This isn’t incompetence in law-making. It is a calculated, perverse seizure of power!

Most federal laws now don’t even require criminal intent! Federal prosecutors no longer find a crime and then try to determine who committed it. They simply determine whom they want to punish and then ascertain what laws/regulations they have “violated.” There will always be something! Many citizens, considered “irritants” by a particular political regime, thus discover that their names have curiously made their way onto some prosecutor’s hit-list.

I have friends who are recent immigrants from Hungary. In their lifetimes, they have personally experienced the logical consequences of the path upon which our civilization is currently embarked. They have witnessed the aforementioned ‘gap’ becoming so cavernous that the law can’t be said to serve anything an honorable person would even remotely recognize as ‘Justice,’ and is instead bent and contorted to serve only rabidly ambitious politicians and their blatantly evil aspirations.

They recall the time when their family was arbitrarily dispossessed of personal liberty, property, dignity, and, in the case of many, their very lives. Their homes and property was stolen by the state, and they found themselves brutally rounded-up and interned indefinitely in cold, poorly-supplied concentration camps.

There was no recourse in the law! This evil was all neatly administered by glib bureaucrats and political commissars, in full accordance with ‘the law,’ and, of course, came with endless writs, court-orders, seals, and trappings. All ‘perfectly legal.’

‘The law’ had become so corrupt, it no longer existed in any kind of Lockean paradigm nor moral structure. My friends were powerless, outmatched by brutal Communists waving writs at their doorstep. Communists, who believe that all men, honorable and otherwise, and ‘the law’ too, exist only to serve them and their selfish political ambitions.

Until recently, with our wonderful Western Heritage we have jealously held fast the idea that we can depend on ‘The Law’ to be Logical and Just, and appeal to it for protection and recourse from unjust acts, even of legislation and governance. In other words, over here ‘The Law’ cannot be politicized.

From the current Administration however, there are dangerously mixed signals in this regard, and it seems quite correct for all of us to be skeptically concerned about our ability to count on that consecrated principle any longer working.

Chaos is only a universal vote of ‘no confidence’ in our Justice System away!”

Comment:

Ancient Greeks reduced righteous character to the sum of four virtues. This is the precious heritage of Western Civilization. This defines the term “honorable man:”

(1) Fortitude, strength of mind, courage

(2) Temperance, self-discipline, self control

(3) Prudence, practical wisdom, righteousness

(4) Justice, your word is your bond, knowing right from wrong

Our Founding Fathers set up a system of governance based on the assumption that honorable men would ever represent a majority and that they would always be too proud and righteous to ever exchange personal honor for bribes, in any form, from politicians nor political parties.

“… what romantic fools we mortals be!”

/John