Upcoming TV Show: I've never seen Penn & Teller but it looks like they
will be taking on the fallacy of "gun control" on June 27.
http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/GuidePageServlet/showid-17579/epid-424710/
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From Force Science Research Center:
II. NEW SHELL EJECTION STUDY SUGGESTS: GUN HANDLING DETERMINES WHERE THE
EMPTIES FALL
An expanded study of shell casing ejection patterns, with important legal
implications for law enforcement, has just been completed by the Force
Science Research Center, with cooperation of the Los Angeles County (CA)
Sheriff's Dept.
Details and an analysis will be reported in the next issue of Force Science
News, but FSRC Executive Director Bill Lewinski says that the new research
tentatively confirms that "how a handgun is held has a more profound impact
on the ejection pattern than caliber, ammunition, design or make of
handgun."
FSRC became interested in this subject 2 years after Lewinski was recruited
as an expert witness for an Arizona officer who was charged with murder in
the shooting of a female driver whom he alleged threatened him with her
vehicle. An issue of credibility arose when a firearms examiner adamantly
claimed the officer was lying about his position during the incident, based
on where a spent shell casing from his semiautomatic was found.
Two preliminary FSRC studies conducted with single shooters firing a total
of 150 rounds concluded that ejected-shell placement can vary radically
depending on how a weapon is held. After Lewinski's testimony to this fact
at trial, the officer was acquitted.
** For more, see Force Science News #1 at:
www.forcesciencenews.com/home/detail.html?serial=1
The new study involved about 60 officers from LASD, each firing at least
110 rounds with a variety of handgun models held in 11 different positions.
"Without a doubt, how a gun is manipulated when shooting has a greater
impact on ejection pattern than any mechanical influence," Lewinski says.
"With a study of this extent, the empirical reliability is very high."
This automatically becomes the largest study of its kind--because it is the
only study that has focused on physical manipulation as a factor in
ejection patterning. "Everyone else has come at it from the mechanics of
the gun, the quality of ammunition, even the spring tension of the magazine
on the slide," Lewinski explains.
"This is a tragedy. Because of inadequate and incomplete 'evidence,'
officers have been erroneously charged with capital crimes. Ignorance has
been used to accuse these officers. A study of this nature should have been
done long ago, and with all the firearms experts around who claim to speak
with authority on this subject, it's absurd that it wasn't."
Under the coordination of Lewinski and Lt. Joe Hartshorne of the LASD
Homicide Investigation Division, the latest research was led by Dave
Karwoski, an FSRC Technical Advisory Board member with 30 years' experience
as a sheriff's deputy and firearms instructor. He was assisted by Mark
Peterson, a law enforcement student at Minnesota State University-Mankato,
home of the FSRC.
III. STUDY FINDS NEW CLUE TO POTENTIAL DANGER
Canadian researchers have added a subtle but potentially significant nuance
to the old warning, "Watch the hands."
A study at the University of Alberta has found that the length of a man's
index finger relative to his ring finger can be a predictor of his
predisposition for physical aggression. The shorter the index finger is
compared to the ring finger, the higher his potential for physical violence.
This sounds like lockup lore. Even the study's co-author, Dr. Peter Hurd,
thought the finger-aggression link was "a pile of hooey" until he studied
the data. But Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of the Force Science
Research Center at Minnesota State University-Mankato, says the finding has
a firm foundation in human science.
"This is associated with the level of testosterone a fetus is exposed to
when it is developing in the womb," Lewinski told Force Science News.
"Testosterone influences not only how the aggression-related centers of the
brain develop but can also affect the evolution of fingers that is taking
place at the same time. The more testosterone, the greater the impact."
The effect tends to negatively influence the maturing fetus's capacity for
empathy and compassion, as well, Lewinski says. However, the study found no
correlation between finger lengths and nonphysical forms of aggression,
such as mere verbal abuse, anger or hostility. Nor does the finger-length
finding appear to apply to women.
Because of personal variables within the general results of the study, Hurd
cautions against drawing hard conclusions about specific people. But
Lewinski points out that you should be watching the hands of subjects you
deal with as an officer-safety consideration anyway and this is one among
other potential indicators of trouble that you can take note of.
"More than anything," Hurd says of his study in a report published in
HealthDay News, "I think the findings reinforce that a large part of our
personalities and our traits are determined while we're still in the womb."
Hurd's research group plans to continue its investigation of physical
aggression by studying the relative finger lengths of hockey players to see
if there is a correlation with the penalty minutes they rack up in a given
season
More details of his recent findings appear in the March issue of the
journal Biological Psychology.
================
(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.
================
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From John Farnam:
(I'm not convinced that most private citizens are normally better served
with rounds designed to punch through intermediate barriers but, if you
are, John's report on DPX may be of interest to you.)
31 May 05
At an Instructor's Course we conducted in PA last weekend, friend Mike
Shovel from Cor-Bon was on hand to show us a ballistic gelatin
penetration test. We fired various pistol rounds through two layers of
sixteen-gauge steel, then through four layers of denim, and finally into
gelatin. Our interest was in penetration of common barriers, most
notably, car doors.
Most hollowpoint pistol rounds, even hardball, in 9mm, 40S&W, and 45ACP
bounced off the first layer of steel, leaving a dimple, but never
penetrating even one layer.
45ACP DPX, fired out of my little Detonics, penetrated both layers of
steel, the denim, and nine inches of gelatin. I was astonished!
The same round, again fired from my Detonics, into the denim and
gelatin, but without having to first penetrate the double-steel barrier,
penetrated thirteen inches of gelatin and expanded perfectly, retaining
all its weight.
DPX 223 from a standard AR-15 zips through the double-steel barrier and
subsequently penetrates ten inches of gelatin, with the entire bullet
remaining in tact. 223 hardball, by contrast, breaks up on the
double-steel barrier and doesn't penetrate the gelatin at all.
We all came to the same conclusion: I really like Powerball and
conventional hollow-point pistol rounds, but DPX performs wonderfully
well on soft tissue and, as an added bonus, goes through car doors.
I'm carrying it at this moment in my Detonics, which I'm going to use at
the NTI.
Up until now, most pistol rounds and 223 rifle rounds were notoriously
poor at penetration, particularly of car doors. DPX changes all that.
I can now reliably punch through a car door with my pistol and my 223
rifle and get at the criminals on the other side. As a driver or
passenger of a car, I can also shoot through the door from the inside
and hit a car-jacking suspect standing on the outside.
As a premium carry round, DPX is something we all need to look at. It
has a lot going for it!
/John
31 May 05
Role Reversal?
A friend on active duty recently assumed command of a large military
unit. As is the usual case, he hosted an "assumption of command" party
afterward. In attendance were a number of our instructors as well as
several Gunsite instructors and other professional gunmen, as this
person is well connected in our community.
This particular branch of the military is famous for ceremony, so there
were also any number of uniformed folks on hand, such as band members.
Many uniformed attendees were wearing Beretta pistols and carrying
ceremonial rifles. Of course, all were viably unloaded, sterilized, and
rendered altogether nonfunctional. Needless to say, there were no
magazines or ammunition present.
In curious contrast, just about all civilians there, in civilian attire,
were heavily armed with concealed pistols, blades, flashlights, and OC!
In addition, most had rifles and shotguns in their cars, with
ammunition, ready to go.
The irony struck many there: In 2005, "protectors" are unarmed,
unprepared, and incapable of fighting effectively, while "protectees"
are heavily armed, repared, well trained, and ready to fight effectively
on a moment's notice. It is an absurd role reversal, peculiar
apparently to our absurd times!
/John
(This is the first negative report I have seen about Kahr's M1 Carbine;
I have been under the impression that Kahr had taken over the production
of the Israel Arms Intl. carbines, on which I have received favorable
reports. There were actually ten contractors who produced M1 Carbines
during WWII; Saginaw Steering Division [of General Motors] produced them
at their own plant and also at the Irwin-Pedersen plant, after the
latter lost its contract because none of their Carbines were ever
"qualified." Most Carbines had mixed parts out of the factory, the
result of an "integration" system, which maintained production by
sharing components among contractors, by smoothing out surpluses and
shortages. I carry an M1 Carbine in my truck, with eight 15-round
magazines loaded with Winchester's "hollow softpoint" load. Remington's
softpoint is a close runner-up in performance in soft tissue; Federal's
softpoint has a very hard core and performs just like FMJ.)
2 June 05
M1 Carbine advice from a good friend, one of our instructors, and a
superb practical riflesmith:
"There are no currently, commercially manufactured M1 Carbines that I
recommend. All are unreliable because of machining and metallurgy
issues. For sure, stay away from Kahr, Iver-Johnson, and especially
Universal. There were eight different vendors who supplied carbines to
the US back in WWII. Your only good option is to find a GI surplus gun,
and then clean it up and make it work. Five-hundred dollars is the
going rate for a 'shooter' that probably has mismatched parts.
Don't waste your time with thirty-round magazines. None work well.
Stick with fifteen-rounders. The best have 'dimpled' floor plates.
Smooth floor plates have a nasty habit of walking out and subsequently
causing the entire magazine to spontaneously dissemble.
M1 Carbines are basically house and car guns. They are not battle
rifles. Everyone who shoots them seems to like them, but their
capabilities are limited. They are light, short, handy, and surely
better than a handgun, but range is limited to one-hundred meters, and
penetration is poor on car doors and other barriers."
Comments. Everyone loves M1 Carbines, including me. Cor-Bon's DPX
ammunition, when it becomes available, will be the best choice for
serious purposes. Right now, hardball and a softpoint are all that is
available.
/John
--
Stephen P. Wenger
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
