2 Oct 09
Battle Rifles:
I received this morning a note from a subscriber with regard to rifles with which he would equip his unit. This person puts together teams who do security work in exciting places.
He indicated that, for his money, the AR/M4 (in 223) tops the heap of currently-available battle-rifles. He agrees that the Kalashnikov is indeed inherently reliable, but its stock, Soviet-style, open-sights are only operable within 150m. At 200m-300m, the typical issue-Kalashnikov lacks sufficient accuracy to be genuinely usable against animated, battlefield targets, said he.
He is mostly correct. Indeed, the AR/223 platform was selected, in large part, because of its inherent accuracy.
The problem is with the 223 (5.56X45) round. It is profoundly effective on animated, human targets within 150m, typically producing substantive de-animation with one, solid hit. However, inherently accurate though it may be, beyond 150m, the 223 bullet is substantially de-energized, and, although the AR is certainly precise at extended ranges, the bullet, at 200m-500m, cannot be depended upon to take enemy combatants out of action quickly, even when solidly struck, nor at these extended ranges, is the bullet capable of even modist penetration.
So, for (1) rear-area defense, (2) domestic policing, and (3) domestic home-defense, the AR/M4 in 223 is close to ideal, since most challenges in these scenarios are within 150m, and the 223’s subdued penetration is of less concern than on the battlefield. Indeed, high-penetration is undesirable in most domestic instances.
Although the M4 will technically deliver accurate fire out to 500m, the bulletâs effectiveness at that range is predictably disappointing, as noted above. Conversely, the Soviet/30 (7.62X39), from an issue-Kalashnikov, is effective, and genuinely penetrative, out to 300m, but its open-sights will make it useable, for all but the eagle-eyed, only to 150m. In order to take full advantage of the Soviet/30’s inherent range, open-sights will have to be replaced with Western-style peep-sights, or optics.
To summarize:
(1) An AR/M4 in 223 is a 150m rifle, with poor penetration. Reasonably reliable, light, and handy, but maintenance-sensitive. Currently $900.00-$1,600.00
(2) An issue-Kalashnikov in Soviet/30 is a 150m rifle, with excellent penetration. Extremely reliable and far less maintenance-sensitive, but heavier and less user-friendly. Currently $600.00-$1,000.00.
(3) A Krebs/Kalashnikov or RA/XCR in Soviet/30 with rail-mounted red-dot is a genuine 300m rifle, with excellent penetration. Both are considerably less maintenance-sensitive than a typical AR. XCRâs ergonomics represent a substantial improvement over the Kalashnikov, and its gas-adjustment greatly increases shooting-comfort. Currently $1,600.00-$1,900.00 for rifle only. Optic is additional.
(4) A DSA/FAL, SA/M1A, or PTR-91 in 308 (7.62X51) is a genuine 500m rifle, with outstanding penetration, but inherent weight and bulk of the ammunition makes it possible to carry only a modist supply, and small-statured people will find them ponderous and a good deal less pleasant to shoot than any 223. Happily, gas-adjustment on the FAL can be used to greatly increase the shooting-comfort factor, a real advantage of the FAL System. Currently $1,700.00-$2,200.00
(5) A Kahr/M1 Carbine is a 100m rifle, with modist penetration. Donât overlook this option! The M1 Carbine is light, short, slim, and very handy, ideal for the small-statured. Recoil is negligible, and, because of the low-pressure 30/Carbine round, report is greatly subdued, compared with any of the foregoing. Currently $900.00-$1,100.00
(6) A SIG/556, currently available only in 223 caliber, and the RA/XCR in 223 are at the top of the List with regard to reliability for military rifles in this caliber. Both are gas-piston rifles, have excellent ergonomics, and accept AR magazines. Both are handy, but heavier than an AR. Currently $1,600.00-$1,800.00
I know weâve all hear it before, but, once again, you donât get everything you want in a single package. No one system is ideal, and, even when you have copies of all of them, youâll discover great advantages, along with irksome annoyances, in each.
You have to start somewhere, so pick one up and bring it to a Class! Any of the foregoing, and even most I didnât mention, will work fine. Youâll observe a phenomenal synergy developing between you and your rifle, no matter which one you have, that will endow you with a new, critical, and wonderful repertoire of capabilities.
No American should be without one!
/John
5 Oct 09
Weather Factor!
We just completed a Defensive Handgun/Urban Rifle Course in northern Nevada. By chance, an early snow storm rolled in upon us on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. We were shooting at a remote, unprotected site, with no shelter, nor buildings of any kind.
The sun was hidden by a thick overcast. Temperatures plummeted. There was snow on the ground. We found ourselves slogging around in cold mud, and a relentless wind blew loose grit into our faces, and guns. Students were profoundly uncomfortable, as was I, and we all endured it for two, long days and nights.
I had a number of students there who have been with us before, are competent Operators, and have demonstrated eminent shooting and gun-handling acumen multiple times before. They, and I, by the end of the second day, were sufficiently beat-up that our performance significantly deteriorated. Several students had to sit-out the last exercises, because they were too fatigued to continue safely. They could no longer absorb instruction. I should have recognized it sooner than I did.
One of my instructors observed, âWe do entirely too much of our training on bright, sunny, warm, calm days. When weather is bad, we donât come out and train. What I learned today is that what we should be doing is waiting for bad weather to train in! I had no idea how much it would affect us.â
He is right! I donât believe in discomfort for discomfortâs sake, but, now and then, we have to get out in the cold, wind, rain, snow, and muck, so we can see for ourselves what our capabilities really are. When the Test comes, the weather will be whatever it will be, and we must be both competent and confident, regardless.
Precious few of lifeâs genuinely beneficial experiences are enjoyable!
And, not one of the âworld-recordâ shooting scores youâve heard about were accomplished in a cold, muddy ditch, at night, in the rain!
/John
7 Oct 09
Manual decocking:
In our Courses, we see many manually-decocking pistols, mostly SIGs, but H&Ks, Berettas, and S&Ws also. I own several but now carry them only for demonstration purposes.
Last weekend, during an Urban Rifle Course, I required students to rapidly transition from rifle, to pistol, then back to rifle. This required that pistols be draw quickly (one-handed in many cases), immediately fired several times at a close target, then re-holstered quickly so rifles could then be reloaded and fired immediately, all as the student is moving aggressively.
Several times, I was compelled to physically stop students from holstering cocked SIG/226s! Their response was, upon looking at the cocked pistol about to go into their holster, âOh … Oops!… I almost forgot!â Like someone using the pistol for the first time!
However, for these students, the 226 was their âcarry gun.â
Thus, who insist on carrying manually-decocking pistols need to practice with them extensively, so the foregoing doesnât happen. Even then, we occasionally see it, even among ostensibly experienced shooters.
In my opinion, when your goal is to impress everyone with high scores, a manually-decocking pistol may be at least arguable.
When your goal is to emerge victorious from fights, with all the stresses therewith associated, you are better served with a self-decocking (DAO) pistol.
Hence, the current popularity of the SIG/P250, SIG/DAK, Glock, Kahr, SA/XD, S&W/M&P, H&K/LEM, Beretta PX4/C, et al, and the declining popularity of S&Wâs, SIGâs, Berettaâs, and H&Kâs line of manually-decocking pistols.
We, of course, can train students to correctly carry and operate any pistol, but I consider the addition of a manual decocking lever to be more an impediment than a benefit.
I know, full-well, there are die-hard proponents of manually-decocking pistols, many among my circle of friends. But, last weekend yielded yet another confirmation of the inherent defect in that system.
New shooters donât need to be encumbered with it!
/John
8 Oct 09
Follow-up, from our Instructors:
Instructor One:
âIt used to be that the 1911 was the only custom game in town. Now, nearly every main-stream pistol has a busy aftermarket following, determined to âimproveâ on the original design. In Classes, weâve seen Glocks with more custom parts than 1911s of ten years ago!
The unhappy truth is that precious few of these âcustomizedâ pistols run well. In fact, most break down during a typical, weekend Class.
If I could go back twenty years, to when I first started carrying a concealed pistol, knowing what I know now, I could save the $20,000.00 it cost me vainly seeking an ever-elusive âequipment advantage.â After owning all manner of gaudy, glittering, expensive, custom pistols, having come full-circle, I now find myself older, wiser, poorer, but more stable, and constantly armed with a plain-vanilla G19.
I have reluctantly come to the inescapable conclusion that removing drama from my life serves my best interests infinitely more than does seeking it!
Manual decoking-levers, redundant manual safety levers (insisted upon by corporate lawyers who have never in their lives even carried a gun), ambidextrous/enlarged controls, other absurd accessories all represent extra drama, drama that I don’t need in the context of an already mentally-complex gunfight!
In the face of an imminent threat, I’ll take any pistol, over no pistol! However, given a choice, this âmature maleâ will select the less complex, less dramatic, less garish, every time!â
Instructor Two:
âWhen a student asks, âWhen do I decock?â simply reply, âAny time your finger breaks direct contact with the trigger.â
We donât worry about âexcessive decocking.â We want students manually de-cocking at every opportunity, as âexcessive decockingâ is not harmful, always renders a pistol that is immediately ready to fire anyway, and, at worst, can be only considered an âextra step.â
And, we want to habitually avoid having that trigger finger come into the trigger guard expecting a heavy, first trigger pull, only to grope aimlessly and ultimately slam into the lighter, secondary trigger position, precipitously generating an ND!â
Comment: Along with the âplain-vanillaâ G19 mentioned above also goes the SA/XD, XD/M, SIG/P250, SIG/DAK, Kahr, S&W/M&P, H&K/LEM, Beretta PX4/C. All are recommended!
/John
11 Oct 09
The problem that wonât go away!
Despite the Pentagonâs, and the Administrationâs, best efforts to quash it, news leaked from Afghanistan yesterday about issue-M4s failing their users. These unhappy first-hand reports see the light of day every so often, only to be promptly denied, dismissed, and quickly buried by a gaggle of star-wearers and politicians alike. From wherever they started their career, star-wearers of today teethed on the M16 and its succeeding variants (like the current M4). Most have never known another rifle, nor another cartridge.
The autochthonous inadequacy of the 5.56X45 (223) round, in its current role at a main-battle cartridge, has been well known, and generally acknowledged, for over forty years. Every conceivable attempt has been made to âupgradeâ this cartridge. None have been successful enough to justify retaining it. Yes, it is still with us.
The maintenance-sensitive Stoner System is light, but that attribute is one of the few to recommend it. Gas-piston systems, as embodied in the SIG/556, XCR, and others, albeit heavier, have demonstrated themselves to be significantly superior in terms of both reliability and durability.
Unfortunately, adopting a new rifle, chambered for the same, tired 223 round, only solves half the problem. We must have a new cartridge, with range and penetration worthy of a main-battle weapon, combined with a new, gas-piston rifle.
The worn-out argument of âre-trainingâ on a new rifle doesn’t stand up. During the M16’s tenure, weâve gone through several generations of vehicles, anti-tank weapons, pistols, field-rations, and a host of other personal gear. And yet, acquiring the next generation of main-battle rifles has somehow become an interminable, impenetrable barrier!
For the cost of a single F22, we could re-arm, and re-train, the entire Corps of Infantry!
Maybe this time?
/John
12 Oct 09
Battle Rifle Comments, from a friend in the Phillippines:
âA decade ago, our armed forces were desperately scampering about for additional rifles to issue to police so they could effectively combat local Islamic insurgents, but budgets were tight. A perfect, albeit short-term, solution was to issue a relatively cheap and available Kalashnikov in 223, but TRADOC (Training and Doctrine Command), in their infinite wisdom, quashed the deal, saying it would take too much time to reorient police officers, who were not accustomed to using rifles.
Curiously, rebels, typically uneducated peasants with little military experience, seemed to be able to work an AK just fine, apparently without benefit of any TRADOC âorientation.â Imagine that!
As the crisis deepened, well-meaning individuals spent their own money and donated AKs in 223 to police units. But, our National Police’s General HQ refused to issue 223 ammunition, stating that the AK was not in the police TOE (Table of Equipment). Yet, there were government warehouses chock-full of 223 ammunition, enough to supply all police units many times over.
Political inertia and bureaucratic career-tending, so endemic to this civilization (and yours) is predictably the direct cause of countless needless deaths. We saw it, in spades, over here!
We continue to see it!â
Comment: John Garand, in the 1930s, designed his new, autoloading military rifle to shoot the 276 Pedersen round (ballistically similar to the current 6.8mmSPC). It was considered a âmediumâ cartridge, with 300m in range, but the rifle itself was short, slim, and handy. Only the direct intervention of Doug MacArthur caused Garand to up-size his rifle to fire the âheavyâ 30-06 (7.62X63) cartridge, and in the process making it a good deal longer, fatter, and heavier. The result was the âM1,â the biggest, heaviest, most powerful individual weapon ever issued to infantry soldiers, before or since!
The âmediumâ cartridge, with more range and penetration than the 223 (5.56X45), but less than the 308 (7.62X51), represents today, once again, the wave of the future. In fact, the Chinese, weary of waiting on traditional American leadership in this area, have gone ahead and upgraded to their own version of the medium cartridge, the 5.8X42.
The current American version of the medium cartridge, the 6.8mmSPC (6.8X43), despite promising reviews, is still languishing, as politicians and bureaucrats tend their careers!
American Soldiers and Marines deserve something better than a maintenance-sensitive, 150m rifle, with poor penetration. Weâve had forty years to figure this out!
Big wars, world-wide conflagrations reminiscent of the last Century, are coming, ready or not!
When Garand complained to MacArthur about the increased size of his new rifle when cambered for the 30-06 cartridge, MacArthur replied, âBig wars require big rifles!â
/John
13 Oct 09
Rifles south of the border, from a friend familiar with the area:
âIn the 1960s, when Mexico decided to replace its inventory of 7X57 Mauser bolt-guns (along with their domestically-manufactured equivalent), those in charge at the time shared your disdain for the 5.56X45 (223), preferring the 7.62X51 (308). As a result, they settled on the HK/G3, with the condition that HK license Mexico to produce its own. The G3 was still the standard, military rifle when I last visited Mexico in 1986.
Imagine my surprise a few years later when news photos of Mexican troops, involved in the suppression of uprise in the state of Chiapas, clearly revealed that they were now all carrying American-made M16s! I suspect, given their continuing contempt for the 223 round, the decision to switch from the G3 was far more influenced by M16s being furnished, complements of American taxpayers, than by hard-nosed tactics.
In a similar vein, I noticed news photos of Israeli troops, also carrying American-made M16s, again complements of the American taxpayer, while Israeli-made Galils, in the same 223 chambering, were being happily sold in the US retail market (prior to the Bush ban), to gain Israel badly-needed hard cash!
Strange bedfellows?â
Comment: In the interim, violent Mexican drug-gangs have also been lavishly furnished with these same American-made, American taxpayer-financed M16s, from corrupt Mexican Army sources, not from legitimate American gun retailers, the blatant lie propagated by the current Administration in an effort to falsely âjustifyâ a new, paranoid gun-ban.
We no longer live under a Constitution, nor the Rule of Law. We are governed, indeed ruled, by charlatans and poseurs who rush to the head of every mob, ever-eager to lead it in any direction its mindless members wish to race.
âMoral decisionâ has become a preposterous, and laughable, contradiction of terms!
/John
14 Oct 09
American Guns in Mexico?
Amid frantic calls for the USA to â… reinstate the Clinton-era ban on âassaultâ weapons,â (based entirely on superficial appearances) and â… stepping up investigations of American gun-dealers and owners, and more strictly regulating American gun-showsâ come dubious assurances that such atrocious federal actions in the USA â… will weaken drug-cartels, disrupting their illegal activities and making it easier ultimately to dismantle and destroy themâ
On, please!
Have we heard this rubbish before? Mexicoâs âgovernmentâ hardly inspires confidence, and, when theyâve been so demonstrably incapable thus far in dealing with their own drug-cartels, they can scarcely make a persuasive case that the situation will miraculously change with new, restrictive laws passed in America.
Either way, for any drug-cartel, with literally billions necessary to import cocaine by the ton, importing weapons from South America, Europe, and Asia is childâs play.
A US Senator, and one of our students, noted when he recently toured our southern border that he observed a steady stream of cars and trucks crossing the border, heading south. None were ever searched, on either side!
One logically concludes that Mexicoâs government is vastly more worried about interfering with the southern flow of American dollars than they ever will be about interfering with the supposed flow, in the same direction, of weapons!
For Liberals, justifying the degenerative extermination of individual freedom opens the door to progressive tyranny, for which they so earnestly, sincerely, and additively lust. On the way, their cockamamy rationalizations are comical indeed, as we see!
/John
19 Oct 09
Good information from an OIS (Officer-Involved Shooting) in the Midwest, from a friend and student:
âOne of our patrolmen was involved in a fatal OIS last night (16 Oct 09).
He observed a person throw a small bag from a vehicle. He subsequently attempted to pull the suspect vehicle over, and a high-speed chase followed. It didnât last long! The suspect driver lost control and piled-up, crashing into a parked car.
As is always the case with such crashes, there was a big dust cloud kicked up, and, when our officerâs beat-car came to a stop, he realized that both cars were nearly side by side.
A passenger exited the suspect vehicle holding a pool cue. Simultaneously, the suspect driver pulled forward, then shifted into reverse and did his best to run our officer down as he was trying to exit his vehicle.
While dodging the suspect vehicle, our officer drew his G22 and fired a total of seven shots at the suspect driver (Remington Bonded 165 Gr Golden Saber). All seven bullets had to penetrate auto-glass or car-door before striking the offender. All seven did penetrate and subsequently struck the offender (driver), who, as a result, was DRT at the scene. Two in the chest. Three in hip. Two in the legs.
There were two passengers in the suspect vehicle, including the one with the pool cue. Neither were injured, nor was our officer. One passenger was subsequently apprehended, still in the vehicle. The one with the pool cue was picked up a short distance away, without incident.
Our officer reported that the driver was clearly incapacitated within seconds of being struck.â
Comment: Officers need to fully expect explosive, violent resistance when attempting any arrest. The suspect (driver) in this case had an outstanding warrant, but it was for a misdemeanor. Nothing serious. Yet, he was more than willing to take what turned out to be fatal risks in order to avoid apprehension.
Desperate men do not think clearly!
When threatened, Fight First! Forget about everything else on your check-list. Remember pilotsâ advice when in trouble in the air:
(1) Aviate (2) Navigate (3) Communicate, in that order.
/John
21 Oct 09
Victims, by Choice:
This from a friend, retired Naval Officer, and one of our Instructors:
âLast weekend, I had a long and solemn conversation with the parents of my seventeen-year-old daughter’s closest friend. They ritually retire for two weeks to their time-share apartment near Cancun, Mexico every spring, and had extended an invitation for my daughter to join them this time.
I reviewed current State Department, as well as Stratfor, advice with regard to foreign travel, specifically in Mexico. News is not good!
Mexicoâs economy relies expectantly on tourist dollars, and therefore Mexicoâs government heavily influences local media to downplay dangers to tourists. However, the depressing truth is that vicious drug-gangs operate freely everywhere in Mexico and are successfully challenging the âlegitimateâ government for control in large areas. Widespread, endemic corruption within police and local governments adds to risks for foreigners. In addition to illegal drugs, kidnaping is a growth industry, as is white-slavery!
Friends at the State Department inform me that, in view of the foregoing, none would ever go to any part of Mexico right now, for any reason, nor would they allow family members to do so, not even a short sojourn in a border-town!
I relayed the foregoing to my daughterâs friendâs parents. They essentially laughed it off, insisting the danger I described is exaggerated.
Weâve known them for a long time. They are pleasant people, but they are willfully, indeed belligerently, naive, and apparently have no more concern for my daughterâs life than they do for their own! They are likeable, but I cannot respect them. Indeed, I canât respect any VBC.
Some day, likely sooner than later, they will be savagely murdered. Theyâll die in amazement, as hapless victims. The last thought to go through their callow minds will be how âunfairâ it all is. However, it will be the direct result of choices they willingly made, naively, selfishly, and vaingloriously. In short, theyâll get what they deserve. I just donât want any of my family near them when it happens.
I unceremoniously informed them that my daughter would not be joining them in Mexico, nor anywhere else.
I regret having to be so blunt, but we live in undiplomatic times.
Friends I can replace. I have only one daughter!â
Comment: Never apologize for taking a direct role in looking after your own best interests and those of your family.
âPreparedâ is present tense. âJustice,â is also present tense. âVictimâ is past tense. Justice can never be reconstructed. It does not exist in past tense. Never has!
World history is taking a frightening and sinister turn. It’s not only worse than we imagine. It’s worse than we can imagine!
/John
23 Oct 09
Lubricated Rifles!
This from a friend and gun manufacturer:
âAt a recent Law-Enforcement Tactical Carbine Course, several students decided that their AR-15s needed lubrication.
Mistaking an aerosol can of target adhesive for a can of gun-oil, they âsprayed-downâ ten rifles!
What happened next is interesting: Of the ten âtreatedâ rifles, seven stopped functioning immediately and completely, which is surely not unexpected.
However, three of the rifles had their bolts and bolt carriers treated with Robbie Barrkmanâs (ROBAR) NP3 metallic/teflon coating. Those three continued to function normally, albeit sluggishly! They did not run well, but they ran. The other seven were altogether out of action.â
Comment: I am a great fan of NP3, even more so now.
Recommended!
/John
23 Oct 09
Superpower no longer?
This from friend in the System:
âThe Chinese and Russians, in contemptuous disregard for the endless string of treaties to which only the USA anally adheres, have been busy building, and openly testing, a new generation of Mobile ICBMs. We have nothing like it!
Within a year or two, the US will be forced to retire its entire ICBM fleet, because of age. We have no replacements, nor any ability to make new ones. We stopped building nuclear warheads in 1989, when Bush1 shut down the Rocky Flats Plant in CO. In 1992, as a parting abomination upon his Country, Bush1 unilaterally stopped all testing at the Nevada Test Site. Tribal knowledge in building nuclear weapons has since been almost entirely lost, as the people who did it are long-since deceased or retired.
We’ve belatedly began manufacturing some replacement triggers, but the process is timid and slow. âReadiness of the stockpile,â is now laughingly âverifiedâ via dubious computer-simulations, so weâre fat, dumb, and happy in the âknowledgeâ of what âshould happen.â When asked about âreadiness,â we continue to naively nod âyes,â having no idea of what weâre agreeing to. We donât really know if any of them will any longer work or not!
We used to make wonderfully elegant weapons, but as with our Saturn V and the SR-71, we, as a civilization, literally no longer have the ability, nor the national will, to make such things. As a civilization, we have stopped moving forward. And, while we dither, our world enemies continue to develop new and advanced weapons at a dizzying pace, weapons for which we have no equivalent.
We are rapidly being outclassed, and the subject is almost never discussed. Why have these facts have not been disseminated (they are out there in open literature)? We all know why!
Naive, vain, guilt-ridden, technology-hating American Liberals adolescently believe that our nuclear weapons are âevil,â (everyone elseâs are apparently okay!) and that we, as a nation, donât need them, just as they stupidly believe the same about land-mines.â
Comment: The current Administration, like the last three, apparently couldnât care less!
And, lest we let Carter off the hook, he was the fool who unilaterally decreed that we will not reprocess spent fuel. Everyone else does!
The riddance of the USA as a world, military superpower, with accurate, projectable, nuclear weapons, has been a wet-dream of Russia and China since the end of WWII. We are currently doing virtually everything possible to assist them in achieving that goal!
We donât need âenemies!â
/John
27 Oct 09
Safe gun-handling, learned the hard way!
This from a friend in OK:
âRecently, a new pawn-shop opened here in metro OKC. They announced, amid much fanfare, that their shop was âgun-based,â the âonly such pawn store in the area.â
They pledged low prices, a large inventory, and an âexpertâ staff!
Several of their employees even hung out briefly at our shop, asking adolescent questions and loudly displaying their laughable ignorance of guns and most other subjects.
On Sunday, police responded to a reported shooting at their new store. Investigation revealed that the 32-year old owner had suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the chest, while in his own store, accidentally administered by a store employee!
The culpable employee (one of the loud-mouths who had visited our shop) was âinspectingâ a pistol when the unfortunate owner simultaneously stepped in front of the barrel. The âunloadedâ pistol (which must have magically loaded itself when no one was looking) discharged once, delivering the fatal bullet.
The store is closed indefinitely!â
Comment: With refreshed interest in guns, that spreads, unabated, with every draconian pronouncement of the current Administration, existing gun retailers will continue to experience lively business.
Unfortunately, with expanding trade comes a host of callow pretenders, new to the business, who know precious little, and care even less, of what they purport to sell.
Ignorance is curable. Insecurity/vanity is not! Who âdonât know what they donât knowâ need enlightenment. Who are sick should want to be well, eh?
Who âdonât want to know what they donât knowâ are ever-sick, and proud of it! Such arrogantly self-righteous will predictably experience short and tormented lives, as we see!
/John
28 Oct 09
Now, even the Brits are speaking up!
A recent article in a London newspaper brought to light rancorous and unnerving comments from British Infantrymen serving in the Mideast about their troublesome bullpup SA80 rifles and the 5.56X45 round for which they are chambered (the same 5.56X45 for which the American M4 is chambered).
Complaints center on limited range, poor wounding effect (particularly at extended ranges), and poor penetration. By contrast, the 7.62X39 round used by most Taliban fighters is effective at longer ranges, easily penetrates common barriers, and reliably delivers an instantly crippling wound.
British soldiers, like their American counterparts, complain that multiple, solid hits are required to bring down enemy fighters, and that their rifles will not even shoot through car doors with any consistency.
Among the British, there are still some FALs, just as an occasional M14 can be found among the Americans. Soldiers are now clamoring for these weapons (chambered for 7.62×51) and use them every chance they get.
The British SA80 rifle, which superceded the FAL in the 1990s, has be problem-prone since its inception. Several expensive âfixesâ have been implemented, but problems endure. The rifle is not a popular piece of equipment now, nor has it ever been!
So, like American Soldiers and Marines, British soldiers are lobbying, mostly quietly but sometimes openly, for a new rifle, chambered for a more powerful caliber.
And, in both the UK and the USA, politicians and star-wearers alike continue to dither, turning a deaf ear to the plaintiff chorus of complaints.
/John
29 Oct 09
Three off-duty, OIS (Officer-Involved Shootings), fatal and near-fatal, in NY, from a friend in the area:
âThree off-duty police officers, wearing plain clothes, fatally gunned-down knife, and bat-wielding attackers in three, separate cases last Tuesday.
Two officers fired their pistols at close range during separate car-jacking attempts. â… car-jackers selected their victims most unwisely,â wryly commented a police spokesman. Suspects in both cases were DRT.
Later the same day, two suspects, armed with baseball bats, assaulted a detective as he was vacuuming his personal vehicle at a local car wash. In the ensuing gunfire, one suspect, struck multiple times, was DRT. The other fled, but was apprehended by responding officers a short time later.â
Comment: In all three cases, âvictimsâ emerged victorious and unharmed, not just because they happen to be LEOs, but because they were armed, trained, and eminently willing to defend their own lives with precision gunfire.
Result: Three officers, none-the-worse for wear, three VCAs who will never commit another violent crime (nor any kind of crime for that matter), and one VCA under arrest.â
Comment:
Whatâs not to like?
The only ones âdisturbedâ by this kind of happy outcome are liberal politicians, who live for the creation of victims who will âneedâ them!
The lesson here for the rest of us is: Always be armed, because you canât know when the Test will come. The chronically unprepared have no right to complain about perpetual âvictimâ status.
Once more: When itâs least expected, youâre elected!
/John
