Democrats, NRA Reach Deal On NICS Bill: Senior Democrats have reached
agreement with the National Rifle Association on what could be the first
federal gun-control legislation since 1994, a measure to significantly
strengthen the national system that checks the backgrounds of gun buyers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/09/AR2007060901080.html?hpid=topnews
---
Indicted NRA Foe Ordered To Surrender His Firearms: When Rep. William
Jefferson was arraigned on a boatload of corruption and racketeering
charges on Friday, he was ordered to surrender his firearms.
Apparently, while the Louisiana Democrat stores his FBI-marked bribe
money in his freezer in Washington, he stockpiles his collection of
rifles and shotguns in his home in New Orleans.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/06/nra_foe_jefferson_ordered_to_s.html
http://newsbusters.org/node/13333
---
Citizen Released After Shooting Undercover Officer: A Minnesota man has
been released without charges after shooting an undercover police
officer who approached his vehicle with a drawn handgun in a road-rage
incident.
http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_159164139.html
---
Professor Comments On Hal Fish Conviction: A criminal-justice professor
at Northern Arizona University has some interesting comments about the
American judicial system. (Hal Fish is the retired teacher who was
convicted of second-degree murder in the shooting of a man who attacked
him on a hiking trail.)
http://www.azdailysun.com/articles/2007/06/10/news/20070610_front%20page_19.txt
---
From John Farnam:
4 June 07
Vicki and I just completed the 2007 NTI (National Tactical Invitational)
in Harrisburg, PA. Once more, Vicki was "Sheriff" of ASTA Village all
week. I shot the entire Course on Thursday. In addition to shooting
challenges at the range, there were numerous lectures by noted
luminaries such as Tom Givens, Marty Topper, John Holschen, Mike
Warsocki, Skip Gochenour, and others, as well as a panel discussion
among experts.
This year, I used my SIG/229/DAK in 40S&W, carried, as always, in my
Comp-Tac/C-Tac IWB. My backup pistol was my Detonics/CM in my wonderful
Lou Alessi shoulder holster. My second backup was my Kel-Tec/380 in a
Comp-Tac neck holster. In addition, I carried my Cold Steel Vaquero
Grande in a pocket, a Cold Steel Culloden neck knife, and a Blackhawk/HT
automatic knife, also in a pocket. Finally, I carried a
Blackhawk/Gladius flashlight, a Photon neck light, Fox OC, and a Boston
Leather flat sap. Covering it all was my Concealed Carry Clothiers vest.
In all pistols I carried and shot Cor-Bon DPX ammunition, 140gr 40S&W,
180gr 45ACP, and 100 gr 380 Auto.
My equipment all functioned normally, that is to say, superbly!
The theme this year was air travel and getting along in places where you
don't have your normal complement of equipment. In ASTA Village, you
arrive at the local airport and proceed to your hotel. Participants and
actors are armed with Simmunitions revolvers.
The local DA is prosecuting a violent, criminal case, and you've been
retained by him as an expert. The day's activities include a lunch
meeting with a female assistant-prosecutor, a stop at the local clinic,
another stop at the local strip mall, and an appearance at the local
school and at the courthouse. At the school, courthouse, and local
bar/restaurant, you are not allowed to be armed, as you normally would be.
Upon arriving at my hotel room, I armed myself with a five-shot
Simmunitions revolver in a concealment holster. The revolver,
ammunition, and holster were in my checked baggage. I had to
opportunity to arm myself in the airport restroom, but decided instead
to get away from the airport and to my hotel as quickly as possible.
My first stop was at a clinic to have a skin rash examined. As the
nurse was examining it, a gun-wielding thug came into the front door.
We made eye contact, and he motioned to me to be quiet and then
volunteered that he was looking for drugs, all the while waving his
pistol in my direction. His view of my right side was blocked by a
wall, so I slowly drew my gun so that he could not see what I was
doing. The nurse was petrified but said nothing. As the suspect
diverted his attention from me to bottles of pills he was assembling, I
quickly came on target and shot him three times in the torso. I needed
a two-second window, and, as soon as he gave it to me, I acted without
hesitation. He collapsed immediately.
I advanced and picked up his dropped gun in an effort to get it away
from him. As I did, a local deputy confronted me at gunpoint, ordering
me to drop my pistol, which I did. I announced that I was a police
officer and that my ID was in my rear pocket. He still searched me but
upon seeing my ID, allowed me to converse with him normally. I
explained that the deceased threatened me, and the nurse, with a gun.
The sheriff soon arrived and began asking detailed questions. I
repeated my brief version of events and then explained that I was not
well, needed to go to a hospital, and wanted my lawyer personally
present before answering any more questions.
It was than off to the local school where I was to listen to a lecture
by another expert who had been retained on the same case. I had to
leave my pistol with the Sheriff before entering, as did everyone else.
In attendance were a dozen locals. As we listened, two people entered
the room. One started dumping liquid on the floor from a gasoline
can. The other had a cigarette lighter in his hand. They said
nothing. Facing forward, I didn't see them until I saw others looking
backward fearfully. Sensing great danger, I leapt to my feet and made
my way to the exit without delay. I thought about assisting others and
even confronting the suspects, but I decided instead that there was only
time to do one thing and, if I dithered, there would not be time even
for that. Once out of the room and in relative safety, I assisted
others in exiting.
Afterward, I retrieved my revolver from the Sheriff, but I noticed that,
while in her care, it had been unloaded! Forty percent of participants
never checked the condition of their guns as they were reclaimed, but
instead glibly holstered an empty gun, unaware! They embarrassingly
learned their lesson, minutes later.
At the busy strip mall, I was confronted by a thug who stuck a pistol in
my face. I quickly disarmed him, but he stayed in the problem anyway,
just to provide me with additional challenge! A second thug then
confronted me from the rear, and I found myself backed into a corner.
What to do?
The second thug turned away momentarily. As he did, I drew on the first
one. He turned and ran. I then charged the second one. He fled down a
corridor, gun still in hand, amid the screams of frightened shoppers.
As he did, I shot him three times in the back. As he fell, I
re-confronted the first thug, who had come around to intercept me, and
we shot it out at five meters. I was hit at least once in the right
elbow. I hit him twice in the chest with my remaining two rounds.
During a conversation with a female, assistant DA in a bar, I again was
required to be unarmed. Suddenly, the criminal suspect who was the
subject of the case, along with several members of his family, angrily
entered the bar, confronted me, and accused me of trying to ruin his
life. I looked for a quick exit, attempted to verbally disengage by
saying "I'm sorry. I don't think I can help you." He pressed his
assault, so, still moving, I verbally escalated, yelling at him to get
away from me. He and his entourage were momentarily confused, and I
took advantage of their disarray to make good my escape.
At the courthouse, again disarmed, I was providing testimony when a thug
burst in, shot the bailiff and threatened to shoot the judge. As he
extended his revolver in the direction of the judge, I successfully
disarmed him. Once again, when I reclaimed my pistol afterward from the
Sheriff, it had been unloaded while in her custody.
Important lessons, learned and reinforced:
Ammunition management. Most of us carry thirteen-shooters, even
eighteen-shooters, as our main gun, and, as a result, we often wax
nonchalant with regard to the number of rounds we expend, calculating
that a reload will not be necessary until after the fight is over. When
carrying a five-shot revolver, one must shift his thinking! One is well
advised to keep track of his reserve, as reloading one of these is slow,
tedious, and has an irritating habit of becoming acutely necessary at
inconvenient moments!
Exigent acquisition! Even when unarmed, you may have access to weapons
or objects that can be pressed into service as weapons. You need to
always be observant of walking sticks, guns carried by others, baseball
bats, and other potential defensive instrumentalities, and you need to
unapologetically get access to them, without delay, when necessary.
Watch your back! Never forget that you're on your own. On one
occasion, a VCA snuck up behind me, and I never saw him. I had been
depending upon the person I was sitting across the table from to warn
me. She didn't. Shame on me!
Information gathering and threat assessment must be continuous. In ASTA
Village, much valuable information is available for one who listens and
observes. Don't bumble and blunder. Keep your options open. Watch
your step!
Your first shot must be a killer! Whether confronting angry Cape
Buffalo or VCAs, take the time to insure a first-round, fatal hit. Use
your sights. Aim your shots, even when using a snubby revolver. It is
critical. Anything less, and you're handing your opponent a pivotal
advantage.
Get while the getting is good! When sensing danger, don't paint
yourself into a corner. Exercise your options while they are still
available. They tend to dry up quickly. Don't be too polite for your
own good!
Don't relax too soon! Just when you conclude danger has passed, you
might discover, to your dismay, it has not!
Learn legitimate disarming techniques. When confronting VCAs armed with
guns, an aggressive disarm is often the only viable option.
Practice verbal disengagement regularly. Most disengagements can be
successfully accomplished through movement, posture, and verbalization,
but, like shooting, techniques and tape loops must be practiced on a
regular basis.
Verbal challenges, like the one we use: "Police, don't move," are
appropriate when confronting threats of unknown potential, such as a
person at distance holding and gesturing with a bludgeon in a
threatening manner. Verbal challenges are NOT appropriate, indeed are
contra-indicated, when confronted with an immediate, deadly threat, such
as a person threatening you with a gun. In the latter case, verbal
challenges only squander valuable time and initiative.
In addition to ASTA Village, there were six live-fire exercises. In
some, you were permitted to use your own weapon(s). In others, you were
compelled to use found weapons, which included walking canes, baseball
bats, a double-barrel shotgun, a K-frame revolver, a Ruger P85 pistol,
and a left-handed STAG Arms AR-15. Some guns were loaded when found.
Some were not. Ammunition was usually scattered on the floor and had to
be recovered manually. Tactical movement through buildings, some in
low-light, was necessary in all but one station.
As in the past, targets were all mannequins that were dressed and looked
real. When engaging them with gunfire, your are required to shoot
accurately and continue shooting until they either fall or run away.
When you shoot poorly, they do neither!
Interestingly, on the subject of ammunition management, nearly all 1911
shooters reloaded long before running to slide-lock. On the contrary,
most shooting high-capacity pistols ran to slide-lock and only then
discovered they had to reload. There is little doubt that 1911 shooters
do a better job of ammunition management than do high-cap guys.
High-capacity pistols do have drawbacks!
Additional lessons:
Movement and security are always mutually antagonistic. Move too fast,
bypassing areas of potential danger, and it might come out behind you.
Move too slow and methodically, and there is no point, as you will not
be able to accomplish your mission in time for it to matter. As with
all tactics, it is a balance. When you have all the time in the world,
take it! When in a hurry, keep on the move and don't allow yourself to
be distracted by things that are not important. "Pre-navigate" when
possible. In any event, don't dither!
Hesitation is an assassin! You have to learn to act decisively, even
when you don't have all the information you want. Applying deadly force
always involves the risk that you could be mistaken with regard to the
actual threat presented. It is a risk we all have to acknowledge and
accept. "Fire-initiative," hitting fatally, fast, and first carries
with it an incalculable advantage, one from which most VCAs never recover.
Not all shots are easy! Eight, even fifteen-meter pistol shots are now
common. Without adequate skills, you will not be up to the task.
Tom Givens confirmed that a substantial percentage of VCAs (1) are
members of violent gangs, (2) are functionally mentally ill (criminally
insane), (3) dropped out of school at an early age and thus do not
possess any of our cultural values, (4) have been involved in criminal
violence since they were pre-teens, (5) have long-term drug and alcohol
problems, (6) are likely under the influence of drugs when they confront
you, (7) have been shot before and are thus afraid of neither you nor
your gun, (8) have been incarcerated for a significant portion of their
short lives, (9) don't expect to live long, (9) are illegal aliens and
are thus not concerned with domestic prosecution as they
can simply slip back into Mexico from which they have little fear of
extradition, and (10) don't confine themselves to the "bad part" of town.
For them, violent death and mayhem and not "options." They are a way of
life, the only one they know and will ever know. Expect neither mercy,
nor common decency, nor any species of rational behavior from them.
And, when you run into them, you'll likely be on your own.
I know of no other place where one can learn to be prepared for such
unhappy encounters than the NTI! We thank, Skip, Jim, Hersh, and the
entire ASTA Crew for, once again, putting on such a superb clinic.
/John
(I guess that there is room to argue the legality of back-shooting the
unsuccessful robber who is fleeing into a crowd, gun in hand. While I
agree with the superiority of sighted fire, experience tells us that
when threats appear suddenly, at close range, even highly trained
operators may not use their sights; this is why I teach a continuum of
point shooting but conduct most of that training at distances of one to
three yards. Granted that a set of these exercises was intended to train
for environments where one may be barred from carrying one's own
firearms, in real life there is still room to make adjustments, such as
declining to meet the prosecutor in a bar, if it is illegal to carry there.)
6 June 07
Reverse-feed:
Fortunately, the phenomenon is rare, but I've see it happen
spontaneously several dozen times. It happened again last week when we
doing a Pistol Course in Pittsburgh, PA. A shooter attempts to rack the
slide of his autoloading pistol to the rear, but he gets his
support-hand too far forward. As the live round, or empty case, ejects,
it hits his hand, flips around, and then drops back into the receiver.
As the slide then comes forward, the round, or case, is fed into the
chamber backwards, ie: base first!
Of course, the slide subsequently fails go to into battery, and our
"Tap-Rack-Resume" technique avails us nothing. Even our extended
stoppage-reduction technique is not efficacious, as running the slide
back and forth simply pounds the reversed/wedged case further into the
chamber than it was at the start of the incident.
The result is a pistol that is out of action, at least for the short term.
The wedged case will have to be pounded back out, via a range-rod, from
the muzzle end. It can surely be done, but not quickly.
Why even bring this up? Because it bolsters our argument for routinely
carrying a backup-gun. Most "stoppages" are easily and quickly reduced
via our "emergency-action" procedure, and it is taught in a similar
manner by nearly every instructor I know.
A "stoppage" is, or course, an unscheduled interruption in the normal
"cycle-of-operation" of our weapon. However, students need to know
that, although most common stoppages are easily reduceable, there are
some, like a reverse-feed, that are not and will adamantly refuse to be
fixed by any stoppage-reduction technique that is commonly taught.
For these, admittedly rare, occurrences, only a back-up gun will get you
back into the fight quickly.
Who thinks he needs to carry a gun, probably needs to carry two!
/John
(I'm all for carrying as many guns as you can. While revolvers may not
be subject to a reverse-feed, they can fall victim to other stoppages,
such as getting an empty case trapped under the extractor star. For
close to two decades I have routinely carried a Dejammer
[
http://www.tiny.cc/h158C]. This device can be used as a range rod,
slipping it into the barrel and slamming the other end into something
solid; I have cleared at least one squib this way. It can be used to pop
that empty case from under the extractor star on a revolver and to gain
purchase on the bolt handle of a rifle or shotgun that has a case jammed
in the chamber.)
8 June 07
Mac and FDR:
By the late 1930s, Doug Mac Arthur had gone as far as was possible in
uniform. His career had been so brilliant, so meteoric, he actually
bypassed a rank. A child prodigy and the son of a Medal of Honor
winner, "Mac," as he was called, will doubtless go down in history as
the most significant military intellect of the Twentieth Century. His
peers held him in great respect. Politicians feared him!
By 1937, those in the know were persuaded that a war with Japan, and
probably Germany too, was inevitable. FDR was trying his best to
prepare the nation for yet another world conflagration, and the American
people were in no mood for it!
During a notable and pyrotechnic meeting between FDR and Mac in the Oval
office, standing before the seated president, Mac was enthusiastically
making the case for the immediate adoption and production a new infantry
rifle, the autoloading Garand. Mac was convinced the Garand would be a
critical force multiplier during the war to come, and he was, as always,
very persuasive!
FDR, on the other hand, already had a full plate. Other generals wanted
new airplanes, new tanks, new ships, new equipment of all description.
He tried to get Mac to agree that there was nothing wrong with the
existing 1903 bolt-action Springfield rifle. It worked fine! Everyone
liked it, and everyone was trained to use it. It was being currently
produced comfortably. Was this new autoloading rifle, in the same
caliber, really all that critical?
Mac's gaze narrowed, as he took center stage. "In a short time, a young
American trooper in a far-away place, unable to fire fast enough to keep
the enemy away, will receive an enemy bayonet in his belly. When that
happens, he will let out a scream, and then he will gnarl a vile curse.
At the end of that curse, he will mutter a name, and I want that name to
be yours, not mine!"
As he finished his sentence, Mac abruptly turned and walked out, without
another word. Just as he got to the door, FDR said, "Mac! Mac. Okay,
you can have your dammed rifle!" True to form, Mac never looked back,
nor even acknowledged FDR's reply. He paused only for a moment, then
walked through the door.
In that brief interchange, so long ago, world history was changed! The
Garand rifle immediately went in to production and was so good, it
became the envy of the world and markedly contributed to a great
victory. It saw noble service for decades after the War, and many
copies and still stand ready to serve in Americans homes (including
mine!) , even today.
Currently, we are at another historical crossroads, and, unhappily,
there is no Mac Arthur to make our case. The critical need for a new,
heavier infantry rifle and caliber has been well known for decades. We
desperately need a gas-piston rifle, in a caliber with real range and
that actually shoots through things! However, today, when the subject
is brought up, all we hear is how "impossible" any such change would
be. For the current inheritors of Mac's mantle, it seems everything is
"impossible."
That terrible word shouldn't even be in our vocabulary!
/John
(The M1 Rifle definitely has some fine features, along with a few weak
ones, such as the virtual impossibility of performing a tactical reload
with a partially depleted clip in the rifle's integral magazine. While
there is no doubt that it gave American GI's a significant advantage in
WWII and beyond, there is an interesting sidelight. At the end of WWI,
an Army Ordnance captain named S.G. Green analyzed he Browning Automatic
Rifle [BAR] and recommended that the full-auto function be deleted, that
the weight reduced accordingly and that the revised rifle serve as a
general-issue autoloading rifle. Had this proposal not been rejected, in
1919, by an Infantry-Cavalry Board that preferred a clip-fed rifle that
could be operated as a conventional bolt-action "in case of injury to
the self-loading mechanism," American troops might have entered WWII
with an autoloading rifle fed from a 20-round detachable magazine.)
--
Stephen P. Wenger
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
