What Are They Not Telling Us?: A former contractor has pled guilty to
two federal firearms charges, including possession of a firearm as an
illegal alien. Several other charges were dismissed and immigration
authorities are about to grant him temporary resident status.
http://newsobserver.com/news/ncwire_news/story/2405146p-8782920c.html
---
From John Farnam:
(I find this commentary particularly intriguing in an era when so many
of us have begun to deal with issues like "target focus." It reminds me
that one of the questions I posed to the late Rex Applegate was how well
his system worked on moving targets; I was never satisfied with his
response. I don't know the full answer at this point but I suspect that
John may be onto something here. The target to which John refers may be
viewed at
http://www.safedirection.com/targets/rotator/rotator.htm)
2 May 05
Target, Front Sight, Focus, and Movement:
Earlier this week, a friend, who is an accomplished clay-bird shooter as
well as a competent upland bird hunter, pointed this out to me: MOVEMENT
ATTRACTS FOCUS.
He helped me understand that, in all successful shotgunning, one must
focus on a moving, airborne target in order to be successful.
Conversely, in successful defensive shooting with rifles and pistols,
one must focus on the front sight. We all know this, but he drew my
attention to something I had not fully considered, and I am persuaded he
is right: The human eye will automatically detect movement and then
focus upon the object that is moving most, or at least the most
conspicuously.
For example, demonstrably successful upland bird hunters often do poorly
at sporting clays, trap, and skeet, precisely because clay birds do not
have flapping wings to attract the attention of the shooter's eye. When
a live bird flushes, the shooter focuses in on wildly flapping wings and
the characteristic sound they make. He barely notices his shotgun's
muzzle swinging onto the target. Focusing upon the target is automatic
in this case, because of the movement of the wings. That same shooter,
when trying to hit a flying, clay pigeon, will instead focus upon his
shotgun's swinging muzzle, because the clay bird has no flapping wings,
and the one thing he sees that is most in
motion is his shotgun's barrel. Therefore, to be successful, he must
manually override his mind's tendency to focus on the thing that has the
most movement (his muzzle) and, focus instead upon the wingless clay
pigeon. It takes a great deal of concentration, and, even then, many
find success illusive indeed.
In serious pistol and rifle shooting, we have the same problem, only in
reverse. When shooting at stationary targets, the one moving object we
see in front of our face is the pistol itself. It is natural for the
eye to pickup the moving front sight, because everything downrange,
especially the target itself, is perfectly still. The shooter naturally
concentrates upon his front sight and achieves consistent success. When
that same shooter encounters a gingerly animated bad guy, his focus
bypasses the front sight and goes straight downrange to the target! He
often does not see his front sight at all,
because it is moving far less than the target itself. He presses the
trigger as he is focused upon the target and predictably misses. This
well documented divergence of performance has historically been a great
source of vexation for us trainers. We need to understand the role
movement is playing in order for it to make sense.
Like the student of successful shotgunning, we must learn to manually
override the tendency to focus upon the moving target and compel
ourselves to redirect our focus (accommodate) upon the (less moving)
front sight. One excellent way to do this is do devote a increased
portion of our training time to engaging moving (animated) targets and
less to stationary targets.
I noticed some time ago that students trained on Betterbilt's Rotator
targets picked up the focus-on-the-front-sight maxim much faster than
those trained on stationary targets. It finally dawned on me that the
movement itself, on the part of the target, is what makes the critical
difference. To be successful gunmen, we need to practice on genuinely
animated targets, a lot!
So-called "moving targets" that run at slow speed, along a predictable,
linear path are not particularly therapeutic. For students to get
adequate practice accommodating (changing focus) from target to front
sight, targets used in training need to move fast and erratically. I
thus commend the Rotator to all serious trainers.
Targets that move; serious pistol training is not complete without them!
/John
11 May 05
>From a friend in Brazil:
"Here in Brazil we are living in a more-or-less continuous, civil war.
Territorial battles rage among rival drug gangs, and our 'government'
is only too happy to cater to all of them! Brazil is the second most
violent country in the world, exceeding even South Africa. Current
murder rate is nearly twenty per 100,000 persons, per year. We are
exceeded only by Venezuela, at twenty-two. Last year, Brazil had 40,000
(reported) violent deaths. Serious injuries were twenty times that
number. The actual figures are probably several times higher, as many
go unreported. In rural areas, bodies are rarely found.
For the struggling (and rapidly disappearing) middle class, like me,
criminal violence is always close. My parents, sister, and me have all
been held at gunpoint by armed robbers multiple times, despite our
extensive precautions. My mother once; my sister six times; my father
and me both twice. We'll all lucky to be alive and (so far) uninjured,
but we believe it is only a matter of time before one of us gets hurt.
With our personal security so grievously and continuously threatened,
there is time to think about little else.
Concealed carry licenses are difficult to get here unless you're
connected politically. Drug dealers, for example, all have them! Fee
is $1,000.00 (US) for just one year. Only the rich can afford it.
Even then, you have to'know someone.' My family owns few guns, and we
highly value them all.
Black Brazilians, descendant of African slaves brought here in the
1800s, form the poorest layer of society. They are perpetually angry,
and I don't blame them. Unlike in your country, they have never been
integrated economically and have thus largely been excluded from the
middle class. As such, they are easily manipulated by a government
anxious to use them to threaten those they perceive as enemies.
Our federal government now wants to imitate Australia, South Africa, and
the UK and outright ban the private possession of all firearms. Of
course, they have already announced that they will make convenient
exceptions of themselves. They would have us foolishly believe that
'rules and regulations' do away with the need for independent,
unilateral action. Who lust after the seizure of political power always
want to disarm the middle class, for they believe it is us who threaten
them most. It is the same in your country. The gun ban is being
promoted as a 'crime control' measure, but a frightened, cowed, (and
soon) defenseless middle class is the real goal. Proud, independent,
decent, and self-reliant people, the kind who built this country, are
no longer wanted, nor will we be tolerated."
Comment: Who believes "rules and regulations," even in a civilized
society, provide comprehensive, personal protection is a fool, soon to
be a dead one! The "personal capacity for independent action" is the
cornerstone of all free and productive societies. Our Founding Fathers
knew that personal freedom is impossible without economic freedom, and
that economic freedom is impossible without personal security. That is
why they insisted upon the Second Amendment. Governments that force
decent people into helplessness and defenselessness by suffocating them
with arbitrary and burdensome regulations, squeeze the life out of the
very "civilization" the purport to protect.
/John
11 May 05
The Compton, CA shooting, early Monday Morning:
Early Monday morning, a number of LASO deputies fired a total of 120
pistol rounds, over a span of less than a minute, at a single suspect
who was seated in a slowly moving vehicle. Range never exceeded fifteen
meters. The suspect had attempted to run over at least one deputy, and
that is what prompted the shooting. LASO deputies used Beretta 92Fs
(9mm). Ammunition is a high-performance hollowpoint, but I don't know
the brand. No shotguns or rifles were involved.
The result was that the suspect suffered four, minor injuries. He was
subsequently arrested without further incident. He never lost
consciousness, and appeared to be completely ambulatory, displaying no
apparent disablement. One deputy was shot, evidently unintentionally,
by another deputy. The suspect did not fire any shots, no did anyone
else other than LASO deputies at the scene. The round that struck the
deputy hit an area protected by his ballistic vest. It did not
penetrate, and he was not injured seriously.
The sheriff, in a televised interview yesterday, tried to rationalize
the high number of rounds fired by saying his deputies "really didn't
want to kill" the suspect. Such an absurd and blatantly preposterous
statement was, I'm sure, a conspicuous insult to his deputies.
Suggesting that we can shoot at people without wanting to seriously hurt
them insults my intelligence and that of every other police officer. He
must think the public is really stupid. I can't believe he made that
statement with a straight face.
The real lesson here is that pistols, fired at moving cars, rarely have
any discernable effect, nor are most pistol bullets likely to penetrate
car doors with enough force to cause serious damage on the inside. That
is why so many rounds were fired. They didn't seem to be doing any good!
The ancillary lesson is that we need rifles in beat cars! We now have
223 ammunition that will reliably penetrate car doors. It is Cor-Bon's
223/DPX. Had those LASO deputies been armed with rifles and DPX
ammunition, far fewer shots would have been necessary. The fight would
have been over far sooner, and the suspect would have been DRT!
The third lesson is: Don't "surround" violent suspects! When suspects
are surrounded, and shooting suddenly breaks out, we end up
inadvertently shooting at each other. Remember Rule Four, and, when you
discover yourself in a potential impact zone, get out of there!
/John
---
From Force Science Reasearch Center:
II. WE ASKED FOR YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH UNCLOTHED EDPs...HERE ARE THE NAKED
TRUTHS YOU TOLD US
When it comes to training scenarios, nothing trumps real-life encounters.
Knowing that an exercise has actually been a street problem for other
officers heightens the impact and reinforces that the important caution to
"expect the unexpected" in police work is firmly rooted in reality.
Predictably, our request for Force Science News members to share their
experiences with naked subjects they've confronted (in the line of duty!)
produced rich results.
[see Transmission #16: Naked Subjects No Laughing Matter:
http://www.forcesciencenews.com/home/detail.html?serial=16]
Today we present 4 case histories that offer opportunity to open
challenging what-would-you-have-done dialogue with your trainees--and
between yourself and your partner.
These include contacts in which officers had to deal with a naked subject
attempting to amputate his arm with a shard of glass...a nude man who
provoked a foot pursuit through a cornfield...an EDP in a diaper "working
on" an invisible "house" in the woods...and another in his birthday suit
who was chasing antelope through snow-dusted sagebrush on a mission from
God.
As you read about these confrontations and how they were resolved, keep in
mind these observations from Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of the
Force Science Research Center at Minnesota State University-Mankato, who
has tracked reports of naked-suspect episodes for over 20 years.
1. As explained in Transmission 16, EDPs who appear in public without
clothing are generally in the grip of a severe psychotic disconnect from
reality. They are experiencing a high level of emotional distress, are
highly unpredictable and potentially very dangerous.
"Most police encounters with mentally ill individuals are nonviolent,"
Lewinski stresses. But the suspect described below who was cutting himself
"illustrates a person so out of control that there is no longer any
conscious mental process operating. This could be severe excited delirium,
which is often generated by an extreme psychological disorder and/or
serious drug abuse.
"When you encounter something of this nature, medical attention should be
on standby, because by the time you get him subdued both you and he may
need emergency medical treatment. At the very least, you are likely to have
a blood pressure spike that may require immediate medication for your
safety, and he will require prompt hospitalization."
2. Show up at such confrontations with "a lot of officers," if at all
possible, Lewinski advises. "These subjects can be resistant even to the
most skillful tactics, as well as to electronic and chemical weapons.
Manpower will be necessary to construct a generous perimeter around them,
so they don't feel compressed and crowded in upon but at the same time can
be contained.
At some point, sheer manpower may be necessary to overwhelm and subdue and
control them. The more officers you can get there, the safer it is likely
to be for both the officers and the subject.
"Simple commands that clearly direct specific desired action--'Get on the
ground!'...'Drop the knife!'--have the greatest chance of influencing the
subject. They will probably prove useless, but they have to be made. Just
don't count on them. Vague commands that lack a specific direction--like,
'Don't make me shoot you!'--are totally useless in these encounters,
because the subject, in the confusion of his or her mind, can't figure out
what you want."
3. With suspects who are not already violent and with whom you may still be
able to establish communication, it can be important to think "outside the
box" in trying to build rapport. In 2 of the instances below, officers won
compliance after offering naked subjects water to drink.
"EDPs who are naked have a high level of dissociation from their bodies,"
Lewinski explains. "Because of this, they tend to overexert, especially in
hot weather, and dehydration may occur.
"What's most important about the water, though, is that the officer's
effort to provide it can be seen by the subjects as a nonthreatening
attempt to reach out to them. They may be able to frame in whatever
rational component is left of their mind that you are a helpful intervener,
rather than fitting you somehow into their negative, paranoid ideation.
"Trying to deal in a helpful way with their basic biological needs is no
guarantee. They may be too far gone to reach that way, but it is certainly
something to have in your tactical toolbox."
As Lewinski points out--and as you can see by the accounts below--naked
subjects "challenge our abilities to open up channels of influence to them."
"THE MUSCLE PEELED AWAY FROM THE BONE LIKE A WELL-COOKED SPARE RIB"
I was working patrol in a high crime area when a call came in about a man
screaming outside his home. Responding officers (including a DT instructor)
confronted a nude man in front of the house, punching out porch windows. He
was drenched in blood from cutting his arms and hands but kept up his
tirade. Another DT instructor and I were called for backup.
When we arrived the subject was at a standoff with the officers, holding a
hooked piece of glass in his right hand and threatening to stab any officer
who came close. We Maced him with no effect. He just laughed as he cut his
left forearm down to the bone in a circle all the way around his arm,
nearly amputating it. Bleeding profusely, he then ran into his house and
slammed the door.
In my mind that was fine. If he was by himself we could have waited for him
to bleed out. But one of the gung ho officers followed him through the
door. In a split second, I could see the subject swing his arm with the
glass from behind the door. The officer triangulated out to a corner and
drew his gun, but he was blinded by blood that covered his face. I didn't
know if he'd been slashed or if it was blood from the subject.
I pushed the door hard and pinned the subject behind it. I had my gun in my
right hand and my flashlight in my left. As a last ditch effort before
shooting through the door I swung my flashlight and luckily connected with
the top of the subject's forehead. He dropped the glass.
The four of us (mind you, 3 DT instructors) used every technique we could
think of...baton strikes all over his body, joint manipulations, knee
strikes to the face, head and body--all with no effect. The subject was
like a superhuman Gumby.
At one point we got one handcuff around the arm that was cut all around and
when an officer pulled the cuff behind the subject's back the muscle peeled
away from the bone like a well-cooked spare rib. That had no effect on the
subject, but the officer let go and started to puke.
Finally I got a lateral vascular neck restraint on the subject and rendered
him unconscious. We were exhausted and breathing as hard as if we'd just
run a marathon. I told the other officers, "If this guy gets back up, shoot
him."
To our disbelief the subject came to and stood up with all of us hanging
on. Mind you, most of us were in the 5 ft. 10 in. to 6 ft., 200 lb. range,
while the subject was about 5 ft. 7 in. and 140 lbs. None of us could
believe it! I knew if this guy got away from us someone was going to die.
Once again a plethora of impact techniques the like of which usually
results in death were being delivered. In the melee we inadvertently moved
back onto shattered glass and the subject was frantically trying to reach a
piece.
Somehow I was able to apply a reverse lateral vascular restraint as we were
both facedown on the glass and again rendered him unconscious. Three of us
were then able to handcuff both arms as the other officer continued puking
in the doorway.
To get the subject away from all of the glass we dragged him outside and
threw him into a snowbank. When our boss arrived there was so much blood at
the scene and on us that he called in an officer-involved shooting,
assuming that the person lying in the red snowbank was dead.
To my amazement the subject survived. He was high on angel dust at the time.
A year later I saw a one-armed man riding a bike in my sector. He flagged
me down. When I went over to him, I recognized that it was the guy who'd
brought me the worst brawl of my life. He thanked me and apologized.
He had been in rehab for the year and said he didn't remember the incident,
but his neighbor told him the police had shown ultimate restraint that day.
The neighbor said if he'd been the police he would have shot him. We saved
that man's life in more ways than one that day.
I shook his hand and drove away. I never thought I would condone the
shooting of an unarmed man, but that incident changed my mind for sure. Ten
years later, now retired from the force, I still occasionally have
nightmares about it.
We were fortunate we were able to control the subject eventually. From that
point forward anytime we had to deal with someone threatening nude in
public we developed a game plan before we even stepped foot on the playing
field.
Guy Rossi
Program Coordinator/Curriculum Developer
Rochester (NY) Public Safety Training Facility
"NAKED, SWEATING PROFUSELY, STANDING IN A CORNFIELD"
My sheriff, the chief deputy and I responded to a call and found a male EDP
naked, disoriented and sweating profusely, standing in a cornfield next to
a heavily traveled state route, causing predictable traffic problems. He
was 6 ft. 2 in., 220 lbs., in good shape.
We attempted to corral him, but he was faster than we were, and the nature
of the cornfield made it difficult to corner him. He would not respond
verbally at all, just kept at least 20 ft. away from us at all times.
After we chased him for an hour in the hot August sun, he was obviously
overheated and in some distress. I went to his house nearby (we'd had
contact with him before) and got a glass of water. I offered it to him and
when he took it, I grabbed him and the other guys piled on. It wasn't
pretty, but it worked.
We took him to the hospital and had him committed for observation. He spent
about 2 months in the state mental hospital, then was released. Whereupon
he went off his medication, shot up his house with an illegally purchased
shotgun, was taken into custody by us again (7th time in 5 years) and was
sent back to the state hospital. On an earlier occasion we'd had a
shoot-out with the subject's father, who was sent to prison. There is a
history of personal and familial mental illness.
Dep. John Langan
Juniata County (PA) Sheriff's Dept.
"WE TOLD HIM HE COULD GET MORE WATER WHEN HE GOT INTO THE AMBULANCE"
About 2 years ago I dealt with a male EDP, in his 40s, who was hiding in a
grove of trees near the lake where I work. He was nearly naked, wearing
only a diaper and sandals.
An unarmed Army Corps of Engineers Park Ranger initially found this
subject. This Ranger, a low-key individual, was able to develop rapport
with him. The Ranger had kept his distance and was not being a threat to
him--probably big keys to the successful resolution of this situation.
When I arrived I could tell that the man could change his demeanor in an
instant and flee, resist, or become violent. He did not want to come out of
the woods, but kept wanting us to go in his "house" that he was "working
on." There were no houses in the woods.
We took our time and did not try to force him to comply with our requests.
We just kept talking to him and asked him what he was working on in the
house. We did not put our hands on him, and tried to keep our distance at
first. When we discovered he hadn't had anything to drink for about 24
hours, we built rapport by getting him a bottle of water. He immediately
drank it and wanted more. We told him he'd have to come with us to get
another bottle.
During this time he hurt his foot by stepping on a thorn. I removed the
thorn and from that point forward he was okay with me helping him to a
waiting ambulance by using an escort hold.
At first he did not want to get into the ambulance, but again we did not
force the issue. We told him that he would get more water when he got into
the ambulance. He eventually complied and was taken in for treatment and
evaluation.
By the time we got the man out of the woods, we had several agencies on the
scene and had enough manpower if any problems had arisen.
Sgt. Eldon Wulf
Missouri State Water Patrol
GOD TOLD HIM TO CHASE ANTELOPE THROUGH THE SNOW, BUCK NAKED
One November, I was patrolling I-80 in western Wyoming when I started
hearing truck drivers on the CB talking about someone who was chasing
antelope. This was a treeless area covered with low-lying sagebrush and a
few inches of snow, so I began looking for someone on a snowmobile. My
intent was to impress the local game warden by bringing this person to
justice.
Making a pass through the area, I could see no sign of snowmobile activity
but I did come upon a set of luggage sitting next to a reflector pole at
the side of the road. About one-half mile ahead, I could see a man running
from the fence line down a cutslope toward the interstate.
As I drove toward him, I noticed a jacket at roadside, accompanied by
gloves and a hat. Next, I came upon a pair of shoes and socks. Then came a
button-up shirt followed by a t-shirt. A short distance later, I passed a
pair of blue jeans...and then a pair of short pants...and then a pair of
underwear.
As I got to the underwear, I returned my gaze to the man coming down the
cut. I realized for the first time that he was au naturel, wearing nothing
but his birthday suit.
As I pulled closer, I could see his skin had a bluish hue from the cold and
he was shivering (temperature in the 20s). Recognizing this was not a
person in a normal state of mind, I did not drive up to him. Instead, I had
him stand at roadside until I retrieved the short pants, threw them to him,
and had him put them on. He stood silently and complied with my requests.
His shivering grew worse. I noticed his feet had blood between his toes,
which further confirmed my suspicions he had been running through the snow
for more than a walk to the fence line. I then handcuffed him with his
hands behind his back and seated him in my patrol car. I did not see a need
to frisk him.
I got his name and date of birth and started running a 50-state driver's
license check. I asked how he came to be in the middle of nowhere on a
cold, wintry day. He said he'd been riding cross-country with his father,
who was a truck driver, but his father had to turn off to make a delivery
at an oil rig and left him on the side of the road. (The nearest turnoff
was miles away and the nearest place of habitation was about 10 miles away.)
When I asked him his father's name, he replied, "Howard Hughes." Yes, he
confirmed, the reclusive billionaire. Hughes was purported to have died
years earlier. My new friend said this was just a media ploy to allow the
billionaire to escape the spotlight and enjoy life.
I asked him why he was chasing antelope. He said "God" told him to and he
did not question God's will. I then asked if God had given him any
instructions as to what he was supposed to do if he actually caught an
antelope. He said, "No, but I am sure He will."
The good news, for me, was that the state mental hospital was in my patrol
area, so it was only a 50-mile drive to get him to some help. Investigation
revealed he had checked himself out of a VA hospital in Minnesota several
days before and had not taken his medication with him. His family had no
idea where he was or even where to start looking for him.
>From a tactical point, even though this was before we started training
officers on how to deal with the mentally ill, I recognized this person
could be unpredictable and in spite of the obvious absence of weapons,
other than hands and feet, I did not relax my approach to the situation.
Even after I got the handcuffs attached, I was still leery that he could
lose control and start kicking or biting. However, he was compliant and
passive throughout the encounter and the subsequent trip to the hospital.
Dan Zivkovich, Director
Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy
================
(c) 2005: Force Science Research Center, www.forcescience.org. Reprints
allowed by request. For reprint clearance, please e-mail:
[email protected]. FORCE SCIENCE is a registered trademark of The
Force Science Research Center, a non-profit organization based at Minnesota
State University, Mankato.
================
--
Stephen P. Wenger
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
