NRA Strikes Back At Bloomberg: The New York Times has discovered that
the NRA's First Freedom magazine has seen beyond NYC Mayor Bloomberg's
campaign against "illegal guns" and has portrayed him as attacking legal
gun ownership as well.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/nyregion/15nra.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin
---
What If They Used Lever-Action .30-30's?: Article from The Miami Herald
on gang-related killings in south Florida emphasizes the use of AK-47
clones and implies that this is related to the sunset of the federal ban
on cosmetically impaired firearms. "The Haitian gangs are so violent,"
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fern�ndez Rundle said in an
interview as she lamented the expiration of the federal assault weapons
ban in 2004. "It's been a real challenge for us."
http://www.miamiherald.com/467/story/73669.html
---
Range Employee Advised Hostage-Taker On Suicide: The man who held
hostages for 10 hours at a Florida shooting range asked them the best
way to kill himself - a gunshot to the temple, the forehead or the
mouth? One weary hostage, who worked at the gun shop, suggested the
temple. It was advice Dudney soon would take. (I know of a former deputy
sheriff who merely blinded himself when he tried to kill himself with a
shot to the temple.)
http://www.tbo.com/news/nationworld/MGBX2DQJH0F.html
---
From John Farnam:
9 Apr 07
Too Fast?
Not long ago, I attended the demonstration of a pneumatic target system
designed for pistol training. A crowd of police officers also gathered
to see this new device. We all watched as pneumatically-actuated steel
plates popped up and down from behind a steel sill. As you might
imagine, this system allowed the operator to pop targets up and down in
sequence, and for adjustable amounts of exposure time.
The manufacturer had a well-known, competitive shooter on hand to
demonstrate his system. Ever the showman, the competition shooter
performed several shooting exhibitions, using a typical
hyper-tricked-out, race-gun/monstrosity and utterly impractical,
competition leather gear. In addition, like all pistol competitors
these days, he wore satin pajamas full of assorted, commercial
messages. While entertaining, I wondered what the purpose of this
exhibition was, other than pure amusement. When I put this question to
the manufacturer, he replied that he wanted to show us all that his
system can train police officers to shoot "really fast."
"Why is that important?" I asked. "Well, don't you want to be able to
shoot fast?" was his exasperated reply. He went on by pointing out that
his hired pretty-boy could consistently shoot plates which were exposed
for a mere three-quarters of a second, from a range of eight meters, all
from the ready position.
"I'm not sure I'm making myself clear," I continued, "but I need to
point out that your exhibition shooter, although starting from the ready
position, has his finger in contact with the trigger all the time, even
when he was not on target. Further, his signal to shoot is ANY movement
of the target. Again, this is all entertaining, but it is NOT training."
I reminded him that, in all legitimate, defensive firearms training, we
teach students to keep trigger fingers in register until (1) there is a
legitimate threat, (2) the sights are aligned on the target, and (3) the
shooter has made the decision to fire.
I continued, "It's indeed dramatic to be able to hit a plate in under a
second from the ready position, but I DON'T THINK ANY OF US CAN EVEN
ACCESS, MUCH LESS ACCURATELY EVALUATE, A THREAT THAT FAST, and training
people to shoot things simply because they move, is not something that
will be found in any
legitimate defensive firearms training curriculum. Being able to
neutralize a lethal threat quickly is surely an important skill, but
incorporating unsafe, indeed reckless, habits into one's protocol in an
effort to shoot 'really fast' is an obvious misdeed."
Not surprisingly, the manufacturer ignored my comments and went on with
his demonstration as if nothing had happened.
Lesson: SLOW DOWN AND HIT! Don't be mesmerized, or even particularly
impressed, by pajama-wearing trick/exhibition shooters. They are
entertainers, not fighters. They know nothing about fighting and don't
even carry guns.
Our colleagues at the FBI recently re-discovered, painfully, that the
"fingers-on-triggers-at-inappropriate-times" syndrome is the source of
no end of grief! How many catastrophes will it take for us to cement
this lesson into our being?
Legitimate training is more than just ego-massaging masturbation. We
are preparing officers for the fight of their lives! There are two
kinds of pain: the (1) Pain of Discipline, and the (2) Pain of Regret.
You can avoid one, but not both!
"The grave is a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace."
/John
(I believe that John is referring to a system on which I shot in a
course at the 1999 ASLET seminar, about which I formed a similar
conclusion. This is the type of risk associated with translating from
the world of competition to the real world. As Bert DuVernay said in his
gracious foreword to my book, "The tactics described are as street
proven as they are simple, but would not be advantageous in the sterile,
safe setting of the competition field.")
10 Apr 07
Vented Pistol Barrels:
Students often bring pistols to classes with "compensated," or vented,
barrels. Glock offers "compensated" models of their pistols directly
from the factory, and a number of gunsmiths offer the process as a
retrofit. The supposed benefit of barrel venting is a reduction in
muzzle flip and a consequent improvement in recovery time. However, the
risk/benefit balance argues against barrel venting in any defensive
handgun, particularly autoloaders.
Here are problems with vented barrels:
(1) Barrel cracking. I've seen venting cuts in barrels, on both
revolvers and autoloaders, develop cracks that made their way all the
way to the muzzle. Cutting holes into pistol barrels weakens the entire
structure.
(2) Muzzle flash. Venting gasses upwards creates a wad of flame in the
shooter's sighting plane every time the weapon fires. The effect can
range from a minor nuisance to a major bloom-out. Far from attenuating
muzzle flash, venting typically exacerbates it, aggravating launch
signature as well as hindering the shooter. And, the closer the pistol
is to the shooter's body, the more of an issue vents create. At
extremely close range, vents will direct flaming gas into the shooter's
ribs!
(3) Reliability reduction. When autoloaders are vented, not only the
barrel has holes in it, but corresponding holes must also be cut in the
slide. Thus, every time the weapon is fired, soot, unburnt powder, and
additional associated crud are blown under the slide in the vicinity of
the muzzle. Normally, all that garbage is jettisoned out the muzzle,
but a significant amount of it ends up between the slide and barrel on
vented pistols. Before long, the pistol starts experiencing failures of
the slide to go all the way into
battery.
(4) Maintenance challenges. Cleaning vented autoloaders is obviously a
daunting task. Getting all that caked-on soot out from under the slide
and off of the barrel requires considerable elbow grease.
I don't have vented barrels on any of my pistols. There is little to
recommend them. The only hole your pistol barrel should have in it is
the muzzle!
/John
(While my limited experience with vented barrels has not shown night
blindness to be as big a problem as I had expected, I have major
concerns about venting gases into one's own body or the face of a nearby
seated companion. Vented barrels also increase the level of noise to the
unprotected ears of the shooter on the street. I recall one student,
back in California, who experienced reliability problems with a
factory-vented autoloader due to partially burned powder granules
accumulating on the outer surface of the barrel, interfering with the
operation of the slide.)
10 Apr 07
The "Trigger-Slam" Technique
A student some time ago was shooting a 1911 clone with a exceedingly
light trigger, and he was practicing the "trigger-slam" technique. One
sees this technique mostly among competitive shooters, and it involves
getting a running start on the trigger and then slamming the trigger
finger into it. The entire body is held rigid. The idea is that, with
the body stiff, the gun can't possibly move much.
This student tried and tried to pass his qualification test and was
unable to. The trigger-slam technique is just too inflexible. One
can't fine tune it to conform to changing circumstances, opportunities,
and target windows. It 's a coarse, speed technique which only works
with pistols with short, light triggers. It obviously is unusable with
any trigger-cocking pistol.
The student finally had to admit that it was not working. He could make
some shots but not all that he needed to make.
This is an inherent problem with all techniques which are
equipment-specific and situation-specific. They are too narrow in
scope. Human evolution, indeed all evolution, has shown us that change
is one hundred percent certain. As change overtakes us, we can either
adapt or go extinct. Those are the only two possible outcomes.
Lesson: I teach broad-spectrum techniques that work under the widest
possible spectrum of circumstances. Inflexible, stilted, narrow
techniques are invariably selected by those headed for extinction.
/John
13 Apr 07
Canceled Flight!
When you discover you're booked on a flight that has just been canceled,
you have several options. From someone who has had this happen at
several inconvenient times, here is some sage advice:
In your carry-on bag, have a toothbrush, electric shaver, and two sets
of underwear. That way, even when you don't have access to your checked
luggage, you can at least look presentable for a day or two. A small
plastic bag containing toothpaste and other toiletries, as well as
required medications is also recommended. TSA has no problem with this,
so long as quantities are small, and the whole thing is in a sealed,
plastic bag.
Most flight cancellation are due to weather, which means no new flights
are going to your destination for at least twenty-four hours. Whatever
you do, you're in for a miserable day and evening!
Here are your choices:
(1) You can try to get on a later flight, but, as stated above, nothing
is likely going into your destination city for the rest of the day.
When your airline isn't flying there, others aren't either! You'll
spend most of rest of the day and evening standing in line just to be
told that!
(2) Try to get on a flight to a city close to your original
destination. Once there, you may be close enough to rent a car and
drive the rest of the way, or have someone come and pick you up.
(3) Rush to the rental car counter and get a car. If your destination
is within a day's drive, you may still be able to get there and maintain
your schedule.
(4) Get on a bus to the AMTRACK station. Often, when planes are not
flying, trains are going along just fine! Again, when the distance is
not too great, you may still be able to maintain your schedule.
(5) Check into an airport hotel and sit it out for the rest of the day.
You may not be able to maintain your schedule, but a nice motel room
and nearby restaurant it is infinitely better than spending a night or
two sitting in an airport!
No matter what you do, you'll not see your checked luggage for several
days! Eventually, it will end up at the city to which it was originally
checked, but, in all likelihood, the airline luggage system will be
completely overwhelmed. It won't be scanned in for days and will just
sit there until it is.
There is no "good way" to deal with canceled flights. The above advice
is just "the best of the worst!"
/John
(Might it not be easier just to drive to most destinations in the first
place? After multiple flight cancellations on a round trip that wrapped
up in June 2000, I decided that I had had my fill of the ritual
disarmament to board planes and of worrying whether my firearms would
actually be there when I finally got to my destination. While others may
not have this luxury, I decided that I had reached the point in my life
where [a] if I cannot drive there and [b] if I cannot legally remain
armed in the process, I probably don't really need to go there. For
those who don't have this luxury, consider whether someone on the other
end can provide firearm[s] and holster[s] if yours are lost and only
checking relatively inexpensive firearms, such as Kel-Tec pistols and
Taurus revolvers in luggage. At the January 1991 ASLET seminar, Jim
Cirillo surprised some friends when he divulged that he had only brought
a Grendel .380 pistol with him because it was the only gun he felt he
could afford to lose if his luggage was lost.)
From AzCDL:
On March 20th, SB 1302, which attempted to make it clear that the
legislature intended to apply the 2006 "Castle Doctrine/Burden of Proof"
legislation to all cases pending at the time it was signed, was vetoed
by the Governor, despite strong bipartisan support in both the House and
Senate. You can view the Governor's veto letter by going here:
http://azgovernor.gov/dms/upload/NR_030207_SB1302VetoLetter.pdf
On April 4th, a "Strike Everything" amendment was added to SB 1166 in
the House Appropriations committee that substituted the language from SB
1302, as well as modifications intended to address the concerns stated
in the Governor's veto letter. The text of the new bill is here:
http://tinyurl.com/335m92
SB 1166 is now scheduled for a Third Read vote by the full House on
Monday, April 16th. Please send a polite note to House members urging
them to vote for SB 1166.
House members in comma format:
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
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[email protected],
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[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
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[email protected]
Information on this and other bills can be found at the AzCDL website:
http://www.azcdl.org/html/legislation.html
As legislation progresses, we will keep you up to date via these Alerts
and at our website.
These alerts are a project of the Arizona Citizens Defense League
(AzCDL), an all volunteer, non-profit, non-partisan grassroots
organization. Join today!
AzCDL - Protecting Your Freedom
http://www.azcdl.org/html/join_us_.html
Copyright � 2007 Arizona Citizens Defense League, Inc., all rights reserved.
(In Arizona a legislator may consent to a "strike everything amendment,"
sacrificing a bill he has introduced in order to allow a bill that has
died to be resurrected under a new number. In this case, there has been
a slight change in wording, in an attempt to overcome the governor's
objections.)
--
Stephen P. Wenger
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
