2 Feb 09
Political Considerations…:
In 2009, weâre conducting a record number of Urban Rifle Courses, spread out across the Country. Students typically bring AR-15s, RA/XCRs, DSA/FALs, Kahr M1 Carbines, SA/M1As, Ruger/Mini-14s, and various other military rifles. In most states, these rifles are no more regulated than are commercial/recreational ones, and, though currently in short supply, are generally available to any citizen who is otherwise legally entitled to own firearms.
But, not in all states!
In CA, for example, military rifles are heaped into a âspecialâ category, and are so highly regulated that one can say they are unavailable to most citizens. In the current frenzy, on the part of many formerly-unarmed Americans, to become armed, those unfortunate enough to live in CA thus have severely limited opportunities.
Enter the shotgun! In places where military rifles are highly regulated, shotguns are nearly unregulated, and, unlike, military rifles, generally available wherever guns are sold! While most shotguns (even those used for military purposes) are little more than permutations of fowling pieces and donât meet military standards for drop-safety and hardiness, in both twelve and twenty gauge, they still represent a powerful, intimidating, and eminently effective weapon for domestic self-defense. I have one next to my bed, and I sleep better for it!
I thus encourage students who are, for political reasons, unable to legally acquire military rifles, to look at shotguns for defense of their home and vehicle.
I recommend the Remington 870, the Mossberg 590/500, and the Beretta Supernova pump-action shotguns, and the Remington 11-87, The Benelli M2 and M4 (1014), and the Beretta Extrema II autoloaders.
By coincidence, on the weekend of 7-8 Mar 09, weâre doing a Defensive Handgun/Shotgun Course in the Los Angeles area. Get with Steve Hoch at shoch@hatchparent.com for details.
/John
4 Feb 09
Never apologize for the truth:
In politics, public and private, information is used as a weapon to promote, or disparage, political agendas. Itâs been done routinely since there were nations, and people who engage in it have always been sleazy liars who justify their institutionalized prevarication by insisting theyâre doing it all for a âhigher cause.â That âhigher causeâ is usually little more than their next promotion!
In late 1941, RAF Whitley bombers, hopelessly obsolete the day they entered service, started raining leaflets, and eventually high explosive, upon Germany. And, it was critical to the War Effort that the British public sincerely believed that British technology was absolutely superior and would produce the ultimate victory that seemed so much in doubt at the time.
So, night after night, apprehensive British families huddled around their radios and listened to glowing reports, generated by the Air Ministry, of monumental destruction inflicted upon German military and industrial targets by these brave airmen. At this rate, the War would surely end with a German surrender, within months!
But, it didnât. In fact, relentless German military successes, despite the bombing, started to make folks, both in and out of the military, begin to doubt the glowing reports they had been spoon-fed.
Enter DM Butt and his frank, and famous, âButt Report.â
Even Churchill himself became suspicions of these too-good-to-be-true âdamage assessmentsâ he was getting from the Air Ministry. Butt, independent of the military, was directed to scientifically analyze camera and other data and discover the damage these ageing British bombers were actually inflicting.
His report was a bombshell, and it proved an embarrassing career-ender for generals and politicians alike. The unhappy truth was that the British Air Ministry had been dropping bombs on nearly everything in Germany, except their intended targets!
Of all bombs dropped over Germany, only one in four struck within five miles of its intended target, and that was with good visibility. The ratio in bad visibility dropped to one in twenty! In fact, so laughable was the degree of bombing inaccuracy that German military units on the ground, trying their best to determine actual targets of British bombing raids, almost always guessed wrong, as so few bombs fell even close to what the Germans determined might be logical targets!
Churchill and his Administration were confronted with the cheerless truth that the entire bombing campaign thus far had been largely a wasted effort! Of course, that constituted âdangerous knowledgeâ and was thus immediately classified, along with many other embarrassing cover-ups and failures.
Improvements were made. America entered the War in 1942. And, the Allies were eventually victorious. The Butt Report was finally declassified many years later, after most of the principles were either long-since retired, or dead.
Is this the way Great Powers make war and conduct the business of governing? Always has been, despite facetious assurances of âtransparency,â the current euphemism.
This is why a cynical, dispassionately suspicious attitude toward government, and everyone in it, is a critical necessity among Free Men! Governments should never be trusted, nor should anything they say be accepted, without rigorous proof.
In government, agendas are king. Truth gets lost in the lust for power.
Doubt always! Weâre Americans, and we can handle the truth.
What is desperately needed is fewer smooth speeches, and more Butt Reports!
/John
5 Feb 09
Good Show on the part of my students in South Africa, from a friend and student there:
âTuesday afternoon, a gang of eight armed-robbery suspects, fleeing police in a pick-up truck (called a âbakkieâ in SA), were all shot to death by police officers from several agencies near Durban.
This armed gang had just robbed a local grocery store in Durban, and then fled. When police gave chase, gang members, using both pistols and rifles, fired at pursuing police vehicles. Courageous police continued the chase, but did not return fire while they were in motion.
A non-involved motorist was struck in the shoulder by the gangâs gunfire, and a pedestrian was also slightly injured in his hand, probably from a ricochet.
The driver of the suspect vehicle finally lost control and ran off the road, stalling in a ditch. Five of the suspects immediately jumped off the back and tried to escape on foot, while still firing at police.
They didnât get far!
All five were speedily gunned down. The other three suspects, still inside the truck, also turned their guns on police, and died shortly thereafter! Using their own vehicles for cover, police employed their iron-sighted R5s (SAâs copy of the Galil, in 223) with deadly effect.
One officer suffered a minor injury to his hand from glass shards. No other police were injured.
Two bystanders were injured, one seriously, as noted above.
All eight suspects were DRT!
This gang is suspected of being involved in a number of recent robberies in our area. Their collective careers abruptly ended Tuesday.
Victory!â
Lessons: Nothing magic nor revolutionary here:
(1) Police need rifles in their vehicles! Shotguns may have also done the job, but military rifles have the capacity and range to see the fight through to the finish. When confronting armed and desperate men, donât screw around. Deploy your rifle!
(2) Donât panic! Use your sights. Aim your shots. Take it easy on your trigger. All that power represents scant benefit to you, when the only thing your bullets are doing is digging up dirt!
(3) Stay in the fight. Any suspect, wounded or not, who still represents a threat, obviously hasnât been shot enough!
(4) Use cover! Present your opponents with the most difficult target possible. Provide them with no advantages, no opportunities.
(5) Stay in motion. Keep them guessing! Make sure they never know exactly where you are, until itâs too late!
(6) Have a plan. Spin your OODA faster than your opponents. Think ahead. Identify approaching opportunities. Act decisively at the critical moment, with cunning, ruthlessness, speed, power, and precision!
I hope what little contribution I made to these officersâ training was helpful to them.
Good show, Guys!
/John
7 Feb 09
Courage
Bushido carefully distinguishes between mere bravery, and Courage.
Crude bravery is occasionally displayed by all sorts of men. Criminals are often brave, even daring. But, only within The Code of Honor, does bravery become Courage!
Courage is a True Virtue, because it is exercised in the cause of righteousness. In his Analects, Confucius says, â… perceiving what is right, and doing it not, reveals a lack of Courage.â
The Courageous pursue just character, and relentlessly show, by their own example, what is true and right.
Thus, âevangelismâ is âthe Art of winning converts to your Way. The Art of persuasionâ
By contrast, âpoliticsâ is âthe art of getting your way, without winning converts. The exercise of coercionâ
We Operators, ever seeking the True Way, need to be evangelists, never politicians.
We need to be Courageous!
âWill is rooted in character, and character in more important than intellect. Without will, intellect is worthless. Without character, will is dangerous!â
Von Seekt
/John
10 Feb 09
Poll Tax:
In a number of southeastern states in the late 1800s, a âpoll-taxâ was imposed upon the general electorate, for all state and federal elections. Anyone wishing to exercise his right to vote could, of course, do so by showing up at the polling place on election day. But, this poll-tax (ten dollars) had to be collected before a ballot was issued to the voter.
In those days, ten dollars was a lot of money, and the law effectively prevented impoverished farm workers, mostly black, from participating in elections. That was, of course, the well-known, but never articulated, purpose for the law!
The inherent unfairness of poll taxes was gradually acknowledged, and most were voluntarily eliminated by embarrassed state legislatures during the first half of the Twentieth Century. However, it was not until 1964 that the 24th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, which permanently disallowed poll taxes.
In paraphrase, the Amendment, and subsequent Federal Court decisions, say that Constitutionally-guaranteed, individual rights, like the right to vote, may not be, in effect, regulated out of existence. Individual rights may not be eradicated by putting them out of reach of average citizens, nor minorities thereof. Government may not cynically insist that we citizens have a right, but then make any substantive exercise of that right impossible.
Unfortunately, this is also the real, seldom articulated, intent of gun laws. And, it is nothing new. A quotation from the 1941 Watson v Stone Case in FL:
âThe statute was never intended to be applied to the white population, and in practice, has never been so applied. . . The Act (Florida’s arbitrary handgun-licensing system, which provided for handgun licenses to be issued at the whim of local officials) was passed for the purpose of disarming negro laborers and to thereby reduce the number of unlawful homicides . . . and to give white citizens in sparsely-settled areas a better feeling of security. There has never been any effort to enforce this statute upon white people, because it has been generally conceded to be in contravention of the Constitution and non-enforceable, if ever contested.â
In 1911, the equally infamous âSullivan Lawâ in NY, passed by politicians of Irish descent (who had themselves been subjected to terrible prejudice, but were now in power) in an indiscreet attempt to prevent newly-arriving Italian and Polish immigrants from exercising their right, as Americans, to own guns!
Ambitious, amoral politicians have thus occasionally encouraged political supporters to intimidate, lord it over, even rob and murder their political opponents, and use restrictive gun laws to facilitate the scam. In proper context, they are little more than fascist liars and con-men. In fact, Hitler used this strategy against Jews and others who refused to vote for him. Such violent crimes are, of course, subsequently excused as âgrievance-based,â and the door to the progressive tyranny is flung open!
Accordingly, the spirit of the 24th amendment needs to be applied to all proposed regulations of guns, ammunition, and places to shoot. As Americans, we have the individual right to own and use guns, or we donât! Burdensome taxes, endless fees, toxic inconveniences, and incomprehensible, labyrinthian regulations that, in effect, make the free exercise of that right, or any right, impossible are tantamount to a âpoll-taxâ and are thus clearly unconstitutional.
“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms…disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent murders”
Thomas Jefferson, quoting Cesare Beccaria.
/John
17 Feb 09
SIG P250
Iâve been carrying my copy of SIGâs 250 for several weeks now, and Iâve run several hundred round through it during Courses and demonstrations.
Like all SIGs, it runs fine. Mine is a 9mm Compact with the smallest of the three frames, so both Vicki and I can use it. It is a compact sixteen-shooter, and Iâm carrying DPX, which it masticates effortlessly. It nicely conceals in my Comp-Tac/C-Tac holster. It is similar in size to S&Wâs M&P Compact.
The 250’s trigger is similar to the DAKâs, but it is lighter and has a deeper reset. No manual safety. No manual decocking lever. When you get used to it, it makes a nice system. Easy to use and easy to teach new shooters to use.
I may plunk the trigger mechanism into a 40S&W slide and barrel at a later date, but I really like this package as it currently is. Who need to carry a serious pistol will find this iteration of the 250 close to ideal!
Recommended!
/John
17 Feb 09
Gear Store!
I just completed several Courses in TN with my friend and esteemed colleague, James Yeager. While there, I visited the Tactical Response Gear Store. A wonderful place!
They have, in stock, all kinds of Glock parts, as well as web gear, tactical treatment of wounds equipment, like trauma bandages, Celox bandages, et al
Also concealment holsters, AR, AK, Glock magazines, and DPX ammunition.
It is a great place to find the tactical gear you need.
Get hold of Allen Webb at 731 697 4327 or allen@tacticalresponse.com
/John
17 Feb 09
Our own worst enemy?
A Columbus, OH newspaper ran a fluff-piece last weekend on the Ohio State Highway Patrol. In it were many photos of square-jawed troopers solemnly training to defend the Statehouse.
One particularly good-looking trooper, who was understandably featured prominently, had his finger firmly wrapped around his pistolâs trigger in at least three photos, when he was obviously not aimed-in at any identifiable target, nor was he in the process of intentionally shooting. In fact, he was not even facing the direction his pistol was pointed!
This kind of inexcusable blunder will, of course, go unnoticed by most, but any Operator who sees these photos will roll his eyes and shake his head. Photos like these, particularly when published, make us all look like idiots!
Like promotional photos of gun-owners at ranges, lightheartedly shooting away while conspicuously not wearing safety glasses, which are nauseatingly common in gun ads, this kind of screw-up sets the Art back every time it rears its ugly head.
With âfriendsâ like these, we donât need enemies!
/John
18 Feb 09
Ammunition Update, from friends at Cor-Bon:
âWe cannot make enough defensive handgun ammunition to come anywhere near satisfying demand. 9mm, 40S&W, and 45ACP are pistol calibers most in demand. 223, 308, and 7.62X39 top the demand list for rifle calibers, but all other rifle calibers that can possibly be used in serious rifles are also in short supply.
Specialized lines, such as 270WSM, are selling far faster than we can make them, by several orders of magnitude.
My advice is to get whatever your can, as soon as you can. The demand/supply situation will not improve any time soon.
Prices are nuts!â
Comment. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is hoarding ammunition, including even pseudo-sanctimonious Liberals, who, like their spiritual ancestors during the October Revolution in Russia (1917) who so piously disparaged personal wealth, while hiding their own, are hypocritically stocking up on the very small-arms ammunition theyâre seeking to ban from possession by the rest of us!
/John
19 Feb 09
NRA Board is currently being elected.
I’m voting for Buz Mills, owner of Gunsite in AZ. Buz is not only a good friend, but a savvy and articulate exponent for the True Way.
He has my unqualified support!
/John
19 Feb 09
Sage advice to domestic gun and ammunition manufacturers, from a friend on Wall Street:
âGun and ammunition manufacturers are ill-advised to dramatically increase capital spending and work forces, just to address the current feeding-frenzy.
Despite immediate high market demand, it wonât last! Eventually, each family will panic-buy everything they can, until they run out of disposable income. When pressure from complaining spouses, job loss, and debt-service mounts, consumers will precipitously cut back spending. Manufacturers who increased debt-load, inventory, and work-force will then find themselves in a cash-flow crisis!
In order to deal with cash-flow fluctuation, all businesses require short-term revolving credit lines, and the BHO Administration knows it only too well!
The coming credit squeeze thus represents a subtle way to invoke gun prohibition upon Americans, rather than attempting to implement direct changes in the criminal justice system, changes which would be extremely unpopular.
All they need do is pressure banks to stop lending to the gun/ammunition industry. Banks, now mostly nationalized anyway, will, of course, immediately knuckle under.
It will all be done under innocent-sounding marketing language, like âWe are encouraging banks to focus their lending priorities.â Accordingly, when cash-starved gun and ammunition manufacturers discover their credit has been cut off, they will be âencouragedâ to be amenable with âvoluntary complianceâ with new âsuggestionsâ for draconian restrictions of gun and ammo sales.
Thus, smart manufacturers will self-finance production increases from existing cash flow and refrain from increasing workforces. They will maximize production from existing machinery and passionately explain to workers that they need to maximize overtime, rather than bring in more employees.
I predict a gun-manufacturing slowdown in 2010. So, hoard cash, and pay down debts. Plan on self financing during the coming lean times!â
Comment: America needs a strong, innovative arms industry. Without it, weâll be unable to arm troops for the next war.
American gun and ammunition companies, be warned!
/John
20 Feb 09
Get them while they’re hot!
30-rnd Fusil/USA AR magazines, one-piece, all-steel, made in the USA, in stock (for now), ready to ship.
Contact:
www.jprifles.com
www.laruetactical.com
www.safedirection.com
www.brownells.com
www.mattburkett.com
/John
23 Feb 09
With all the other ills currently faced by Western Civilization, illegal meth-labs continue to represent a significant threat to those of us who travel extensively. This from a police investigator in PA:
âAside from the danger of inadvertent exposure to toxic chemicals, there is also the danger of being in close (albeit unintentional) proximity with violent, desperate criminals and their voluntary and involuntary associates. Police are a form of âinvoluntary associatesâ when they show up unexpectedly and raid the meth-lab in the room next to yours and encounter active, violent resistance.
Typically, meth-lab operators prefer to set up in small, rural, old motels that are independently owned and that have individual room ingress/egress points, like sliding glass doors. This arrangement provides immediate access to vehicles parked directly outside the door. They can move in and out of the room as they set up the lab without creating constant traffic through hallways and lobbies. They also prefer areas where police departments are small, spread thin, and poorly equipped. Motel-room meth-labs can be set up, and be in full operation, in less than four hours!
Typically, meth-lab operators check-in at ten in the evening, operate all night, and then depart in the morning, invariably leaving behind a dangerous, toxic mess!
Thus, when traveling, select upscale, major-franchise hotels with high occupancy. Above all, pay attention to any room that has a lot of traffic during the night and to strong, unusual chemical smells (particularly cat-urine and metallic smells). Depart immediately when you suspect your hotel is inadvertently hosting a meth-lab.
When it becomes necessary to escape out the window of your hotel room, first put a bedspread under the window to collect glass shards. The bedspread, along with shattered glass, can subsequently be rolled up and moved out of the way so that escape through the window is possible without getting cut. Window glass in code-built hotels is now tempered. By striking at the
bottom corner with a pointed metal object (or shooting it), glass will crumble downward with minimal splatter. Same applies to lobby doors, convenience store windows, and the like. Broken glass still has sharp edges, but there are no big, jagged pieces, so normal shoes will protect feet.
Windows in newer hotels cannot be opened, so they must be broken out when escape becomes necessary.â
Comment: Once again, we need to be alert and always suspicious. Weâre on our own, and we need to make decisions that adequately address our own best interests, even when such decisions are abrupt and inconvenient.
Stay out of cheap/sleazy motels. Beside bed-bugs and other insect infestations, drug activity, prostitution, and fugitives hiding out from the law are all commonplace within the roach-motel scene.
/John
24 Feb 09
Government by law?
From a friend and attorney:
âWhen I was a newly-minted lawyer, I was asked to write a memo on what an out-of-state, limited-partnership had to do to qualify to do business in my state.
So, I read the âlaw,â made notes, drafted a memo. Checked for rule-making. Found nothing.
Good to go?
I sent a paralegal over to the Secretary of State’s Office to check for what they had on the subject. She came back loaded down with several reams of âinstructionsâ on âprocedures,â nearly all of it blatantly contradicted by the law!
Sent her back over to ask about that. The reply?
âWell dear, I’m glad you asked. Let me tell you how we do it here. What you have to do is X and Y, leave us a check, and then we’ll take care of everything else for you.â
So, the paralegal comes back and repeats the conversation. Problem is, both X and Y are not only illegal, they are negated by the Stateâs own written handout!
In addition, the âanswerâ my paralegal was given only applies on Tuesdays and Thursdays when Gladys is at the filing window. You get a completely different answer from Fred on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays!
Government by immutable law, not arbitrary whims of men? Not hardly! And, this on some obscure, technical, and boring issue of corporate law.
I canât help thinking that this is the way things were in the Colonies back in 1775. Our mistake is that we have failed to recognize the inevitable suffocating, enslaving nature of bloated government, with its inevitable armies of bureaucrats desperate to justify their existence, no matter what ostensible âtypeâ of government it is!â
Comment: We’ll have lower and lower horizons imposed upon us, until we all find ourselves in 400 sqare-foot, squalid, government-owned, apartments, in high-rise ghettos, while our pampered, dynastic, ruling aristocracy rides in limousines with armies of heavily-armed guards, and soars the stratosphere in Gulfstream Jets, looking down on us suspiciously, making sure we’re not âharming the planet.â
/John
