Olin Foundation To Shut Down: The Olin Foundation, which has funded
conservative think-tank activity over a period of three decades, is
closing down. Not mentioned in the article is the fact that John Lott
(More Guns, Less Crime) has received important support from the Olin
Foundation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/29/politics/29olin.html?pagewanted=all
---
C-O-M In-Car Safe: The "safe" has arrived. As reported to me by one list
member, it is made of fairly thin steel and the cable is also quite
thin. It is better described as a lock box than a safe. I would describe
it an a moderate security device in that two steps would likely be
required to access the firearm(s) - cutting the cable to remove the box
and getting the lock open at another location. It is probably not the
best device to use in open view but, slid under the seat of a vehicle, a
burglar would need to know to look for it. It remains a low-cost option
to limit access to casual, unauthorized users and affords a certain
level of security in a vehicle without the hassle of removing seats and
drilling holes for installation.
http://www.center-of-mass.com/
---
More From Teddy Jacobson: Teddy continues his comments on
current-production handguns.
http://actionsbyt.blogspot.com/2005/05/current-production-continued.html
---
From John Farnam:
23 May 05
Reloading autoloading pistols:
This issue keeps coming up. We teach a "Military Reload" to our
active-duty Marines and a "Speed reload" to those preparing for domestic
defense. The only difference between the two is that the "old" magazine
(and live rounds it may still contain) is captured and preserved during
the military reload and simply jettisoned during the speed reload.
I like friend, Dave Manning's, technique for the military reload. "Make
a hole; Fill the hole" sums it up. The old magazine is first removed
and quickly secured in a pocket (not in a magazine carrier, as only
fully-charged magazines should go there). A fresh magazine is then
retrieved with the support hand and inserted into the pistol. Easy to
teach and learn, difficult to do wrong, and unlikely to lead to items
being inadvertently dropped, this is the method I prefer teaching to
our military students. I don't like any
reloading technique that:
(1) Requires the student to hold two magazines in the same hand at the
same time, or
(2) Requires the student to hold a magazine in the same hand that is
already holding a pistol.
Dropped and fumbled magazines (sometimes even pistols) regularly plague
all reloading techniques that involve the foregoing.
With either option, I teach students to rack the slide after the fresh
magazine has been inserted. The fact that the slide is forward is no
guarantee that there is a live round chambered. Autopistol slides are
supposed to lock to the rear when the last round in the magazine is
fired, but none do it reliably.
Racking the slide after the magazine exchange insures that:
(1) There is a live round chambered, and
(2) The slide is forward and not locked to the rear
/John
23 May 05
Shooting Incident in Capetown, SA, from a friend there:
"One of our city police officers was enjoying a leisurely, off-duty meal
in a local restaurant yesterday when he alerted on odd behavior of
restaurant staff attending the cash register. When he got up and moved
toward that part of the restaurant, he saw that the place was being
robbed by three, pistol-wielding suspects.
He immediately drew his (concealed) pistol (CZ 9mm, w/hardball) and
yelled that he was a police officer. One of the suspects pointed his
pistol in our officer's direction, and our officer responded by firing a
single round. The suspect was struck in the chest and fell after taking
only a few steps. He was DRT. The other two suspect turned and fled.
No one else was hurt, and everyone took a breath of relief.
Prematurely, as it turns out! One of the fleeing suspect fired several
shots back into the restaurant, through a glass window, from outside.
Our officer and a bystander were both hit. Fortunately, neither wound
was serious.
I believe this officer's actions were heroic, but he was let down by his
training, as he remained static after the initial shooting, mistakenly
thinking it was all over. The importance of the techniques you have
taught us with regard to automatically moving off the line of force
cannot be overemphasized.
Neither of the two suspects who escaped have been subsequently captured."
Comment: Years ago at Northwestern University in Illinois, I had the
privilege of lecturing beside Pierce Brooks, author of "Officer Down,
Code Three," the first definitive text on serious police tactics. In
his book, Pierce listed "deadly sins" often committed by police officers
and often left uncorrected by supervisors. Of the ten listed, the one
that always stuck in my mind was RELAXING TOO SOON.
The forgoing is a classic example. When you think it is "all over," is
the precise time when you should be most vigilant. Someone may forget
to tell the bad guys!
/John
26 May 05
You have to trust your people.
At the start of the American Civil War, it was a commonly-held belief
among war planners in the Union Army that muzzle-loading muskets made
more appropriate infantry weapons than did muzzle-loading rifles or did
any breech-loading rifle.
Smooth-bore muskets were useable only out to seventy-five meters. More
distance than that, and practical accuracy dropped off exponentially.
Rifles of the day, on the other hand, were fully useable past
three-hundred meters. Further, French mini-ball technology reduced
rifle reloading time to little more that for a musket, but commanders
were still unenthusiastic, because long-range marksmanship encouraged,
indeed invited, individual enterprise. Commanders wanted complete
control of battlefield formations, and allowing soldiers to fire
individual weapons at targets of opportunity, on their own initiative,
was considered contrary to good order and discipline.
Breech-loading rifles, many of which were also rapid firing, were
shunned even more, as they were thought to encourage soldiers to fire
wildly and waste ammunition. In addition, unlike muzzle loaders,
breech-loaders could be reloaded and fired while the soldier remained in
a prone position. In contrast, muzzle loaders were easiest to reload
when the shooter stood up. Soldiers are difficult to see when the are
in the prone position. A field commander preferred his men standing
during battle, so he could control formations.
Marksmanship training was often withheld, again because it could cause
individual soldiers to realize the full capability of their issued
weapons and become "too proficient" as a result.
Of course, in retrospect the foregoing seems foolish; commanders
actually fearful of their own people excelling in skill with individual
weapons. Unhappily, this same reactionary thinking haunts many military
organizations, even today. Minimal range time, cold ranges, and the
official discouragement of soldiers taking advantage of outside training
or obtaining personally-owned guns and blades all contribute to
soldiers fearing their weapons and having no confidence in their
ability with them.
We have the opportunity today to provide soldiers and Marines with
small-arms training far superior to any provided in the past, training
that is consummate and self-empowering. Modern techniques and methods,
learned at great expense, are now common knowledge in the weapons
training community. This training can make our soldiers and Marines
competent, audacious, professional gunmen, not the timid, fearful,
unsteady, unenlightened gun handlers many are now.
What is holding us back? The same things that has always held us back:
ignorance and fear. The solution is faith, faith in our own
magnificence and in the virtue and grand potential of our people.
Fearless officers are, as this very minute, pushing this enlightened
training philosophy forward, but "those of little faith," rather than
leading the way, stand in the way.
We should all pray they are wildly successful, and soon, before the next
world conflagration, the next Great War, where heroes, not machines,
will carry the day. We may have a good deal less time than we all think!
/John
27 May 05
Excellent history lesson from a friend and student, particularly germane
on Memorial Day:
"The NRA was indeed started by a group of concerned Union Army officers
at the end of the American Civil War. They were frustrated with the
universally acknowledged abysmal performance of Union Army soldiers with
personal weapons. Marksmanship was poor throughout the conflict.
Worse, accidents were rampant due to inept gun-handling. By contrast,
marksmanship and weapon-handling skills were excellent among Confederate
troops, which is the reason they were able to hold out so long. Of
course, the foregoing was all common knowledge, but, by 1871 (the year
the NRA was founded in New York), the Army, reflecting the nation as a
whole, was predictably back in its customary state of lassitude and
denial.
New York's governor, Alonzo B Cornell, gave voice to the naive,
adolescent thinking of the day, 'There will be no war in my time or in
the time of my children. The only need for a National Guard is to show
itself on national holidays. I see no reason for them to learn to
shoot, since their only function will be to march in parades. Rifle
practice is a waste of money. We should take their rifles away and
sell them to benefit the treasury. It would be more practical, and far
less expensive, to arm them with clubs which require no instruction in
their use.' Were he alive today, Cornell would surely be the
front-running presidential candidate for the Democratic party!
The lesson here is that critical, war-winning weapon skills and age-old
warrior traditions always lie dormant in peacetime, kept alive in an
unofficial, self-ordained Priesthood that exists both within and without
the military; a Priesthood that is relentlessly threatened, persecuted,
and disparaged. In fact, sanctimonious politicians make every effort to
stamp it out altogether, until danger threatens. When it does,
complacent sheep who, in peacetime self-righteously made outcasts of
warriors in order to promote their own pseudo-sainthood, pay for their
naivet� with the blood of the current generation of hastily assembled
and poorly trained soldiers.
It's a miserable cycle, and I don't know that it can be broken. All I
can do is stay sharp myself, expand and refine the Priesthood, and
enlighten anyone else who 'gets it.'"
Comment (from Kipling):
"I could not dig. I dared not rob.
Therefore, I lied to please the mob.
Now, all my lies have proved untrue
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall serve me here among
These angry and defrauded young?
/John
--
Stephen P. Wenger
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
