Thompson's Commitment To RKBA Questioned: Republican presidential
candidate Fred Thompson walked through rows of assault rifles, pistols
and other firearms, signing autographs and greeting people at a gun show
Saturday. Despite his pitch for support, some of the gun advocates were
not convinced that the former Tennessee senator was completely on their
side...A Gun Owners of America report said Thompson voted "anti-gun" 14
times on 33 votes the group tracked during his eight years in the
Senate, ending in 2003. Tim Smith, a Winter Haven dealer, said the
report raises questions about whether Thompson is entirely pro-gun. But
among the Republican candidates in 2008, Smith said Thompson may offer
the best choice.
http://www.townhall.com/news/politics-elections/2007/09/15/thompson_courts_gun_advocates_in_florida
---
Crime Boosts Gun Sales In Alabama's Capital: Local gun store and pawn
shop owners say they are selling more guns than usual. The Montgomery
Police Department and a private self-defense teacher have seen an
increase in the number of people wanting to learn how to use
guns...Montgomery Police Chief Arthur Baylor has said the public
apprehension that crime is out of control in Montgomery is more
perception than reality. Crime in general is down, he has said, but an
unusually high homicide rate and the resulting media attention has
created a false sense of insecurity. (As John Farnam points out, how
often do people get murdered somewhere like Montgomery? Just once.)
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007709160317
---
Neighbors Support Store Owner Who Shot Burglar: Nearby customers of Anup
Patel's convenience store in a gritty Pine Hills neighborhood love that
he runs his business on trust. No heavy glass shields him and his family
as they work in the Citgo station, even though it stays open late.
Customers who are a few bucks short on their bill can - and do - settle
up later. Two break-ins earlier this year tested that trust, prompting
the 30-year-old Patel to sleep in his store Thursday night. Residents
hope he can regain his faith after what happened next: Awakened by the
sound of smashing glass early Friday, Patel fired 14 shots and killed
the intruder.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/services/newspaper/printedition/saturday/localandstate/orl-gasstation15sep15%2C0%2C501101.story
---
The Wild, Wild West?: "A solution of everyone carrying guns in a
21st-century society is a step back to the Wild West and the cowboy
era,'' Jones said...Of course not. Presumably Jones is referring to the
level of crime in the Wild West. But crime in the Wild West was lower
than in most major American cities today. The notion that crime was high
in the Wild West is the product of movie westerns, not reality. The
truth is contained in a chapter of the new book 33 Questions About
American History You're Not Supposed to Ask by Thomas Woods.
http://wmugop.blogspot.com/2007/09/wild-wild-west.html
---
Canadian Logic?: Ontario Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty said Wednesday
that he does not want to see the provinces' schools resort to installing
metal detectors and having uniformed security officers patrol the halls
in the wake of Tuesday's fatal stabbing at a Toronto high
school...Instead, he said, Ontario needs to distinguish itself from the
United States by imposing an outright ban on hand guns. "Let's ban
handguns in Ontario," he said. "Let's ban handguns across the country.
Let's declare war against handguns." (I know about bayonet lugs on
rifles but I've never seen one on a handgun.)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070912.wstab0912/BNStory/National/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20070912.wstab0912
---
From John Farnam:
10 Sept 07
I had the opportunity to thoroughly test my Aimpoint Micro that is now
installed on our Remington 11-87, 20ga Shotgun. It is forward-mounted,
with a full, twenty centimeters of eye-relief. Shooting Federal,
three-inch, Premium, #2 Buckshot, it is a legitimate twenty-meter gun!
The Aimpoint is fast and eminently useable! It's small bulk and weight
makes the shotgun handy and agile. Target pick-up and analysis is
effortless.
I particularly like Aimpoint's "constant-on" feature. I never have to
remember to turn it on or off! EOTech's automatic shut-off feature
surely preserves battery life, but the unit sometime shuts itself off at
inconvenient times!
A shotgun set up like this make a formidable weapon that is easy to use
effectively.
The Aimpoint Micro is available from my friend, Mark LaRue
Recommended!
LaRue Tactical
850 CR 177
Leander, TX 78641
512 259 1585
512-259-1588 (fax)
_www.LaRue_ (
http://www.LaRue) Tactical.com
[email protected]_ (mailto:
[email protected])
/John
11 Sept 07
LaserMax Rifle System
Last weekend, I also had the opportunity to use and evaluate LaserMax's
compact rifle-mounted system. Within minutes, it goes right on any
rifle that has rails, and it can be at least coarsely adjusted by
coordinating it with existing iron sights or optics.
LaserMax employs a pulsating, rather than a constant-on, laser.
Pulsations are designed to catch the user's attention, and it really
works. I think it is significantly superior to a constant-on laser.
Even in daylight, one can, without much difficulty, find the laser dot
out to twenty meters, even when wearing sunglasses!
However, when the target starts moving, it is difficult to keep the dot
on him. Even the pulsating dot typically gets lost, except in low
light. Indeed, in low light the whole laser concept comes into its own,
but one must drill until he can move the rifle smoothly. The temptation
is to constantly overcorrect.
The great advantage of having this laser available is that you can keep
track of target movement, keeping both eyes open, and using a
chin-weld. With iron sights and optics, moving targets have an annoying
habit of moving out of the shooter's field of view. The shooter than
must depress the muzzle, open both eyes, relocate the target, remount
the rifle, and reacquire the target, only to have to repeat the entire
process more-or-less continuously so long at the target remains in motion.
Aimpoints and EOTechs have the advantage of having a wide field of view,
so the shooter can spend more time in his sights than is possible with
iron sights, but even they have limits. Conversely, with the LaserMax
System, the target really can't get away from you!
There are disadvantages:
A laser has a distinct and conspicuous launch signature, made all the
more conspicuous by gunsmoke, dust, and fog. Thus, it can't be "on"
continually. As with a flashlight, one must use it only intermittently,
changing position when it is off.
Lasers are most useful in low light. In bright sunlight, even pulsating
lasers are only marginally useful. And, in total darkness, that dancing
red dot downrange provides one with scant useful information. In total
darkness, one must use the laser on concert with a flashlight.
Accuracy is limited. My laser is mounted under and left of the muzzle.
I have it set dead-on at forty meters. At less than forty meters, the
dot will be slightly low and left of actual bullet impact. At greater
than forty meters, impact will be high and right.
Overall, LaserMax deserves credit for making this unit so rugged,
convenient, and compact. On balance, advantages outweigh disadvantages.
It has a place!
/John
(As John says, these gadgets have a place or role. The issue is the
scope of that role. While iron sights can be bent or broken, the
likelihood of that is generally less than the likelihood of battery
failure or similar mishap with an electronic device. Some of these
devices may be invaluable for those of us with aging eyesight. My
concern is that if reflexes are built around such devices, one may not
be prepared to shift gears when the devices fail. I now insist that
handgun-mounted lasers be turned off when I train students in
close-range technique because I have noticed students concentrating on
looking for the red dot instead of the body index I am trying to teach.
One list member reports finding military rifles that lack front-sight
posts, an absence never noticed by the troops because they have become
so dependent on all the electronic gadgets mounted on the rifles.)
13 Sept 07
Operant training is always "personal."
All training is simulation. Particularly with regard to firearms, we
can make training only so "real." In Western Civilization, a high
level of training casualties will not be tolerated, as it is in other
cultures. Any training that becomes excessively hazardous, to the point
where trainees and others are seriously injured on anything more than a
extremely rare basis, will be shut down immediately. None of us doubt that.
Under these restraints, and in the short amount of time we have to work
with our students, how do we train them to be routinely victorious in
serious fights, when most of them have never participated in any kind of
physical fight and are inclined to take little of what we say
seriously? Short of actually shooting at them, how do we "wake them up"
and ultimately inspire them to start thinking in terms of personal victory?
It is my contention that, sometime during their training, students must
attain a personal, emotional involvement/investment. That is, at some
point they need to get mad! They need to get angry with themselves,
with their equipment, with the challenge at hand, with me. They need to
be exhausted, exasperated, and personally embarrassed by their own
performance. Once they become annoyed to the point of anger, it all
suddenly all becomes personal. And, once I set that emotional hook,
real learning will finally start. I can touch their hearts, and my
students will, at long-last, begin to benefit from what I am trying so
desperately to share with them.
We trainers are only too skillful at presenting information in the
abstract. In fact, many of us are accomplished showmen, cleverly,
garishly acquainting student with facts. But all too often, while the
circus proceeds, both we, and they, remain too emotionally removed, too
content to sit back and be entertained, too accustomed to being in the
bleachers rather than in the arena, too used to aspiring only to the
minimum necessary to meet some arbitrary, and ridiculously low, "standard."
Accordingly, getting students out of their "comfort zone" and in the
arena has to be a primary goal of anything that legitimately claims the
title of "training." Students should never be led to expect a relaxing,
comfortable, "fun" training session. Scant will ever accomplished
thus. Until training becomes "personal," we're mostly running in place.
/John
(This is an age-old dilemma. When I taught with Defensive Combat
Academy, back in California, we would coach students into a fairly high
level of performance during the bulk of an eleven-hour training day,
only to see them miss fairly easy shots in the end-of-day scenario
exercise, presumably due to performance anxiety in front of their peers.
My own belief is that technique needs to be confluent with what we know
of human physiology under stress, that training should start slowly and
allow the student to pick up speed as skill is acquired and that
techniques should build on each other. I am no longer as liberal as I
was when I taught with DCA and, while I will allow a student who insists
on shooting from a contorted Weaver position to do so, I will at least
encourage him to try shooting from positions that meet the above
standards. Unfortunately, I lack the facilities to conduct
scenario-based training so I concentrate on exercises that I feel will
build the most stress-resistant skills I can teach.)
14 Sept 07
Flat-Stock Technique:
When carrying rifles and shotguns while moving in tactical environments,
I've advocated keeping the muzzle down and the stock indexed into the
shoulder. In fact, "muzzle-down; head-up" is the by-word with all
longarm handling.
However, my colleague, Henk Iverson, showed me a better way of
positioning the rifle while in the depressed-ready position. He calls
it the "Flat-Stock" technique, and I've gradually come to see its
inherent superiority.
When the rifle is at eye level, we emphasize the importance of a
consistent cheek-weld that reliably positions the eye in line with the
weapon's sights. However, we can only "stay-in-the-sights" for short
periods, because our view is limited. Except when shooting, and
particularly when moving, we must arc the rifle downward, open both
eyes, and move our head, so neither threats nor other important details
escape our notice.
Heretofore, we've arched the rifle straight up and straight down. Now,
when arching the rifle downward, we rotate the stock ninety degrees
counter-clockwise (right-handed shooter), so that the stock lays flat on
our shoulder.
That will, of course, necessitate a half-turn when the rifle is
remounted, and therein is the great benefit if the "Flat-Stock" technique.
That half-turn during remounting arrests the rifle's motion as the
sights lock on target. This is particularly apparent when the shooter
is pivoting and mounting simultaneously in an attempt to engage a threat
to the side. The flat-stock technique, by and large, eliminates
characteristic over-shooting of the threat and subsequently
over-correcting when trying to get back on target, that is commonly
associated with the conventional, straight-stock technique.
I now teach the flat-stock technique and find most students pick it up
right readily. Speed and accuracy are substantially increased (as is
weapon retention) and over-shooting/over-correcting is essentially
eliminated.
Recommended!
/John
(This may be one of those issues that varies with body shape but I am
still more comfortable with the "straight-stock" technique, which also
gets the muzzle onto a relatively wide "safety circle." I go to
"flat-stock" when I need to reduce the diameter of the safety circle and
I note that doing so pulls the toe of the stock out of my shoulder
pocket. In contrast, with the straight-stock technique, the toe of the
stock remains in my shoulder pocket and serves as the pivot point for
depressing the muzzle to at least 60 degrees off horizontal. I find that
this gives me a rapid return to the sights and a shooting position I
prefer to placing the entire flat surface of the butt against the
shoulder. In fact, in Patrol Rifle Instructor Development School, I
noted that when using the flat-stock technique at fairly close range, I
unconsciously returned to the GSG-9 position, where the butt is placed
on the sternum and one merely looks over the top of the long gun. While
the German GSG-9 border police developed this technique for use with 9mm
MP5 submachine guns, it is not uncomfortable for use with .223-caliber
weapons. As I said, this may be a matter of differing body shapes.
Feedback is welcome.)
--
Stephen P. Wenger
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
