New Mexico Wal-Mart Sued Over Ammunition Sale: The family of Eusebio
Escobedo is suing Wal-Mart, alleging that the man who killed him was
sold shotgun shells hours before the April 25, 2005 shooting even though
he was under the influence of alcohol, mentally disturbed and a felon
who couldn't legally possess a firearm...It's not illegal for convicted
felons to possess or purchase ammunition, but it is illegal for them to
possess or purchase firearms.
http://haussamen.blogspot.com/2007/04/las-cruces-murder-could-test-ammunition.html
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An Armed Switzerland In Gun-Shy Europe: Switzerland, a country of 7.5
million people with an estimated 2 million or more guns in circulation,
sits as a heavily armed exception in the heart of Europe, where most
countries have strict gun-control laws. Virtually all able-bodied Swiss
men are required to serve in the military, which issues them assault
rifles or pistols, or both, which they store at home and keep when they
leave the service...At a time when the Virginia Tech killings are
stirring debate about U.S. gun laws, Switzerland is also weighing new
curbs on a robust culture of gun ownership that dates back centuries.
Parliament is considering a measure to ban the keeping of ammunition at
home.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/29/AR2007042900133.html?hpid=topnews
proTELL: I joined this organization several years ago just to help
defend the RKBA in Switzerland. Website and newsletters require
knowledge of German, French or Italian.
http://www.protell.ch/
---
From John Farnam:
23 Apr 07
Video Simulators:
The current generation of video simulators, recently on display at the
ILEETA Conference, exhibited an impressive and ever-increasing level of
electronic sophistication. Conditional branching and verbal interaction
are now standard. Prop pistols, rifles, and shotguns function
realistically and no longer have tethers. Batons, Tasers, flashlights,
and OC are all now optionally integrated into scenarios, and sound
systems are vastly improved, providing enhanced realism and scenario
immersion.
The downside with all current systems is still the fact that action is
limited to a relatively small screen in front of participants, and they
are thus not compelled to look all around , look up and down, move more
than short distances, or turn to face threats coming from the side or
the rear.
My friend and colleague, Tony Blauer, has effectively addressed these
shortcomings by integrating physical roll playing into video-simulation
training. It is an idea I wish I'd thought of! Tony are his crew
demonstrated his idea at the Conference by inviting four video simulator
manufacturers to participate in a round-robin presentation, where
students were compelled to interact with live actors (coming in from the
sides and rear) AS video scenarios played out on the screen. During the
session, students had to deal with several developing circumstances,
from all angles, simultaneously.
It struck me that this is an excellent enhancement of video simulation
training and one we all need to adopt and make standard. Until all
video simulators adopt an IMAX format, Tony's idea will be the next-best
thing!
Something else struck me as I watched students going through this training:
Of all video simulator manufacturers, FATS and CAPS are the one closest
associated with American policing. Their scenarios are realistic and
reasoned.
Conversely, systems manufactured in Asia, Europe and elsewhere, though
electronically sophisticated, displayed obvious cultural gaffs. The
problem is that Asians and Europeans know nothing about guns or
shooting, and their scenarios are heavily influenced by American movies
and television, to which they mistakenly looked for verity. For
example, we see criminals, upon being shot, flying into the air and
landing on the deck ten feet distant. At the beginning of each video
scenario, script on the screen reminds students to "Load your weapon,"
as if weapons were unloaded up until that point! And, at the end of the
scenario, we are admonished to "Make your weapon safe" (as if that were
possible!). They apparently believe all police weapons should be
immediately unloaded after the presumed last round is fired, while
gunsmoke still hangs in the air!
It is painfully obvious that Europeans believe there is no such thing as
legitimate self-defense, that police officers are expendable, and that
violent criminals should never be shot under any circumstances. That
naive philosophy is betrayed in, of all places, video trainers marketed
to American police!
FATS and CAPS, while not perfect, still have the best scenarios for
training American police.
I particularly like Dave Young's CAPS System, because it is designed for
use with live fire. However, we cannot, of course, integrate live fire
with roll-playing.
/John
(I believe that John really meant "gaffes" and "role-playing.")
24 Apr 07
Slow progress at NRA, from a friend and NRA Training Counselor:
".. in NRA's current edition of its 'Guide to Basics of Personal
Protection,' we read '... racking the slide after sweeping the
(stovepipe) case normally is not necessary. In fact, doing so may cause
a double feed...' This dubious advice obviously fails to address the
situation where the shooter has a stovepipe but no round chambered! It
is yet another ivory-tower technique, inspired by quaint, collegial
competition shooting, not serious shooting.
Of course, NRA still runs only cold ranges, and their notorious Rule #3,
'Keep all guns unloaded until ready to use,' is intended for children
and completely ignores all of us adults who regularly carry guns for
serious purposes.
I'm beginning to wonder if anyone at the NRA actually carries a gun or
has ever been exposed to up-to-date, relevant weapons training !"
Comment: Were it not for the NRA, our Second Amendment Rights would
have, long-since, been regulated out of existence and snuffed out
completely, so we all owe them a great deal of gratitude and our
continued, enthusiastic support. They are great political advocates for
our Cause, and we need them!
However, like any big bureaucracy, the NRA is infiltrated with stuffy
grasseaters who are afraid of guns and who are infinitely more
interested in sterile, uninspired, "safe" training than they ever will
be in genuinely relevant, serious training.
Those of us at the tip of the spear must continue, undaunted, to refine
and advance the Art, as we are the ones who really are!
/John
(There is a major disconnect between the NRA Law Enforcement Activities
Division, which provides cutting-edge training, and the programs that
are available to private citizens. Last I knew, the NRA was still using
a system of fining people a quarter for referring to a firearm as a
weapon in any of the sport-oriented courses. As to defense of the RKBA,
the NRA's numbers provide a clout we cannot afford to sacrifice but I
find that GOA, SAF, CCRKBA and JPFO usually take more principled stances.)
26 Apr 07
>From a friend and student who is also a lawyer:
"It is a rare thing to find an accountant, or a lawyer, who isn't afraid
of guns. Most have been spoon-fed Marxist dogma since they left high
school.
Since those two occupations infiltrate the upper echelon of most
bureaucracies, it is not surprising that big organizations display an
anti-gun bias, even gun manufacturers, even the NRA!
I had a discussion yesterday with a grasseating colleague about this
very subject. His contention was that guns will 'go off at any moment.'
I asked, 'Has your car ever started itself and then driven itself around
the block? Has your computer ever turned itself on and then suddenly
composed a sonnet?'
No reply!
I continued, 'I have intentionally fired well over a million rounds of
live ammunition, and never has a single one of my guns precipitously
decided, on its own, to discharge itself, with no input from me.'
Again, no reply.
I continued, 'If you eggheads would apply the same cold, incisive logic
to this subject that you apply to everything else in your life, you
would not be so easily ensnared by the Marxist con-job that
simultaneously ensnares the ignorant and uneducated.'
Again, no reply!"
Comment: Most erroneous ideas quickly become discredited and are
ultimately discarded, of their own accord, when they are just expressed
clearly! Beware of chronic purveyors of weasel-words. They have good
reason for not speaking plainly!
/John
(While I don't specifically recall ever having an accountant as a
student, I can't count the number of attorneys, including prosecutors, a
public defender and practitioners of a wide variety of civil-law
specialties whom I have had as students, not to mention the ones I know
who have been crucial in the fight to obtain and maintain legal CCW in
Arizona and all the attorneys on this mailing list. When I brought this
to John's attention, suggesting that he also has probably had many
attorneys among his students, he replied that we get the exceptions. I
then pointed out to him that all our students are exceptions because, to
use his own term, most people are "grasseaters.")
28 Apr 07
Clarification of NRA's Rule #3, from a friend in the NRA:
"Keep all guns unloaded until ready to use," is dissected in other NRA
documents thus:
"A self-defense firearm kept in your home or carried concealed is
defined as 'ready to use' throughout the entire period you have direct
control over it. Conversely, unattended guns over which no one has
direct control must be kept unloaded and appropriately secured, in order
to prevent theft and inappropriate/unauthorized access."
Comment: The "expanded" version of Rule #3 surely makes more sense than
does the abbreviated version. The clarification is much appreciated.
However, I am still troubled that we apparently are prohibited from
articulating important gun-handling principles in plain English, so we
have to craftily assign mysterious, ill-defined double-meanings to words
and phrases. It is almost as if our instructional booklets have to be
written in cryptic cipher, so only the "initiated" get to know the real
meaning, after the fashion of The De Vinci Code!
For one, I am weary of apologizing for the truth! For one, I prefer
plain English, so my real meaning cannot be mistaken. Dancing around
important issues with confusing double-meanings and weasel-words is the
domain of charlatans. We expect such things from sleazy politicians,
but not from heroes and righteous warriors.
/John
28 Apr 07
Gun accident in SC:
"A gun-owner here dropped his pistol yesterday and subsequently
attempted to catch it in mid-air. He was about to enter a local
gunshop, where it was his intention that they perform minor repairs on
his gun.
As he reached for his falling pistol (G22, ammunition unknown, but
probably hardball), a finger inadvertently entered the trigger-guard,
depressed the trigger, and the pistol discharged. The single bullet
went through-and-through his left hand and then continued and went
through-and-through his left leg, in the calf. The bullet thereafter
demolished itself as it struck the concrete sidewalk.
He is scheduled to undergo surgery on his hand next week. The bullet
passed cleanly through his palm, but some permanent disability will
probably result. His leg wound required no surgery at all, just two
band-aids!
After the ND, he continued to walk into the gunshop and asked the clerk
to call EMS, pointing to his hand wound. He was unaware of his
additional leg wound for several minutes thereafter, and would probably
have remained oblivious had not the clerk directed his attention to a
stream of blood emanating from his calf!"
Lesson: We cover this subject at the beginning of every Course:
WHEN YOU LOSE CONTROL OF YOUR GUN, LET IT DROP, UNHINDERED, TO THE GROUND.
Then, immediately draw your back-up pistol and continue with the drill,
leaving the dropped gun where it fell. We carefully pick it up only
after the drill is completed.
We admonish all students not to try to catch, in mid-air, guns that have
been inadvertently dropped. The gravity-engendered trip to the ground,
even the impact, are not dangerous! Nearly all modern pistols are
drop-safe just for this reason.
What is dangerous is trying to intercept, with your hands, a gun that is
in mid-air. In so doing, it is impossible to control where the gun is
pointed, and it is impossible to guarantee that a finger will not
unintentionally inset itself into the trigger guard, as obviously
happened here.
/John
(I recall a training injury that occurred a few months before I left
California, in 1999, in which an officer grabbed a SIG P220 pistol that
she had dropped while shifting it from her right hand to her left hand,
as prescribed in the course of fire, after having just completed a
magazine change. It is believed that she caught the cocked pistol, which
had turned muzzle upward, with her thumb inside the trigger guard,
sending a bullet through her forehead. Contrary to information received
by a list member, I was informed that she survived the shooting, with
the bullet going midline, through the commissure, the structure that
joins the right and left hemispheres of the brain.)
--
Stephen P. Wenger
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
