Supremes to Hear Heller on Tuesday: Despite mountains of scholarly
research, enough books to fill a library shelf and decades of political
battles about gun control, the Supreme Court will have an opportunity
this week that is almost unique for a modern court when it examines
whether the District's handgun ban violates the Second Amendment...The
outcome could roil the 2008 political campaigns, send a national message
about what kinds of gun control are constitutional and finally settle
the question of whether the 27-word amendment, with its odd structure
and antiquated punctuation, provides an individual right to gun
ownership or simply pertains to militia service. "The case has been
structured so that they have to confront the threshold question," said
Robert A. Levy, the wealthy libertarian lawyer who has spent five years
and his own money to bring District of Columbia v. Heller to the Supreme
Court. "I think they have to come to grips with that."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/03/15/ST2008031502430.html?hpid=topnews
Any Hints on How They Will Rule?:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/15/AR2008031502121.html?sid=ST2008031502430
---
No Charges Yet in Texas Shooting: Joe Horn reportedly shot and killed
two men breaking into his neighbor's home last November. Nearly four
months later, Horn hasn't been charged with any crime. Eyewitness News
has learned, however, that could change in just weeks... KTRK legal
analyst Joel Androphy points out, charges or not, an indictment against
Horn is unlikely, and a conviction is even more improbable. "This is a
defense lawyer's dream type of case, because you'll never get 12 people
to say that he acted inappropriately," Androphy said. Androphy believes
that's part of the reason prosecutors have yet to present their evidence
to a grand jury and push for an indictment against Horn...
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=6013534
---
Student Suspended for Out-of-School Threat: ...James, an honor-roll
fifth-grader, was not sick. He was starting the 10th day of a seemingly
indefinite school suspension for a threat he said was made in
self-defense. Late last month, James said, a bully stalked him and his
younger brother on their way home from school. To ward him off, James
said he was going to go home and get a gun. That apparently ended the
incident but began a 12-year-old's hands-on lesson on zero-tolerance
policies in today's schools. Administrators, mindful of fatal shootings
that have occurred on or near campuses across the country, say they must
intervene swiftly and forcefully any time gun threats emerge...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/15/AR2008031502254.html
---
Funding Cut Threatens Alaska Ranges: The fate of the state-owned
shooting range in Fairbanks is up in the air after members of the Senate
Finance Committee cut funds for the facility in a new version of the
state's operating budget. The Fairbanks Hunter Education Indoor Shooting
Range, located off College Road, is one of three state-owned ranges and
is used for hunter education classes, school shooting programs and
public shooting. The other two are located in Anchorage and
Juneau...Committee co-chair Sen. Lyman Hoffman, a Democrat from Bethel,
suggested in an interview that running shooting ranges was not really a
state duty, and that it was unfair to have the ranges only in the three
urban areas. "If it's good for the state, everybody should have access
to them," he said. Hoffman said he wasn't looking for new facilities in
rural areas, and just wanted the funding removed from the existing
facilities.
http://newsminer.com/news/2008/mar/15/senate-committee-pulls-funding-shooting-range/
---
Al Jazeera to Examine US RKBA:
Dear MSSA Friends,
A week ago I was approached by an independent TV journalist who had been
contracted to do a Montana story for an international news network.
The story, I was told, was about trying to explain the D.C. v. Heller
case now before the U.S. Supreme Court, for which oral arguments will be
this coming Tuesday. The Montana segment is to explain to an
international audience why the RKBA is important in Montana - an
important part of the culture of our Montana people.
The international news network is Al Jazeera. Yeah, right. That's what
I though, too.
So, I did some research. Al Jazeera is headquartered in Qatar, and is
thought by international observers to currently be the closest thing to
freedom of the press that exists in the Mid-East. Plus, I learned, Al
Jazeera has an English-only channel that is watched by 100 million
English-speaking people around the globe, beginning to rival the BBC and
CNN. My research also suggested that the journalist doing this story on
contract for Al Jazeera is an American and a professional who has done
work for CBS, NBC and other biggies.
After several email interchanges with the journalist, Mike Kirsch, I got
into a comfort zone and agreed to help with the story.
I spent most of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with Mike and his nice
camera lady Kelly. I drove them around and helped them get interviews
with various people who had something useful to say about why the RKBA
is important to us here in Montana.
So, this Montana story is now produced, edited and prepared for
broadcast. It will be available on the Internet from the Al Jazeera
English Website. It will be about three minutes, and aired every hour
from 6PM to 10PM, Eastern Time (should be 4 to 8 in Montana) on March
20th. You can watch this on the Internet at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/English
Their streaming news requires Real Player to be installed on your
computer, so get that installed if you want to watch.
Here's the tentative schedule:
The Guns Across America "series" is set as follows:
Guns in Illinois March 19 Mike Kirsch
Guns in Montana March 20 Mike Kirsch
Guns from the other side, Canada March 21 Jeremy Copeland
Do I know what material made the cut for the three minutes about
Montana? No. Do I know if it will portray us in a positive light?
No. But, I believe it will be that way. We'll have to watch to find
out for sure.
Best wishes,
Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com
---
From John Farnam:
10 Mar 08
Co-Witnessing?
When a rifle's optical sight (usually 1X, or minimal magnification) and
iron-sights simultaneously share the same sight line, the two a said to
be "co-witnessed." In an age of rails, precisely aligning two (or more)
sighting systems on the same plane has become a simple task. I'm not
sure "co-witnessing" is the most descriptive of terms, but at this point
it appears we are stuck with it. Presumably, when two sighting systems
use separate sight lines (one directly on top, and the other cast off at
a forty-five-degree angle), they are "split-witnessed."
Co-witnessing is a good thing!
(1) Operators can use virtually the same mount and cheek weld with
either sighting system. Accordingly, effective use of both is readily
available from nearly identical postures.
(1,a) Deliberately mounting an optic well above, or just above,
iron-sights usually renders an unsatisfactory result. When an optic is
mounted too low, its bottom edge will block the line of sight between
front and rear iron-sights, and iron-sights are thus rendered useless
until the optic can be removed. Mounting optics far enough above
iron-sights to permit their utilization usually places the optic too
high for effective employment. And, even then, iron-sights are only
marginally useful, as the scope body still blocks out much of the
downrange area.
(2) It facilitates, indeed encourages, continuous confirmation and
re-confirmation that both sighting systems are adjusted correctly.
Iron-sights can be easily compared with the aiming reticle of the optic,
and visa-versa. Any time an Operator suspects a sight misadjustment,
with either his optic or his iron-sights, one can be quickly compared
with the other as the weapon is mounted normally. When both are
aligned, he can be assured both are still adjusted correctly. When they
are not aligned, one has obviously changed since the last confirmation.
This confirmation technique is particularly useful when
the rife or optic have been subjected to a blow, or the optic, or
iron-sights, have been removed and subsequently reinstalled.
(2, a) Iron-sights, correctly sighted-in and verified through
live-fire, can subsequently be used to adjust an optic that is mounted,
and co-witnessed, on the same rail, and visa-versa. It is my preference
to sight-in the optic first, then adjust iron-sights accordingly, but
the process works just as well in reverse. Ultimately, of course, all
sight adjustments need to be confirmed through live fire.
(3) It permits the Operator to default to iron-sights when the optic's
reticle is no longer visible, because of a battery, electronic,
lighting, or contrast issue. Such a default can take place instantly
when iron-sights are deployed continuously. The default process will
require a second or two when iron-sights are normally folded down. A
useful compromise is leaving the front iron-sight continuously deployed,
and the rear one normally folded down.
(3, a) Unless the optic is frosted over or otherwise obscured, there is
no need to remove it, even when it is non-functional, as co-witnessed
iron-sights are altogether useable, through the optic. In fact, a crude,
but effective, aiming technique can be accomplished via the front
iron-sight and an Aimpoint with no reticle visible. The Aimpoint body
itself can function as a large "ghost-ring," rear sight. The further
forward the optic is mounted, the more positive this sighting technique
becomes.
Mark LaRue makes a wonderful quick-release mount for both Aimpoints and
EOTechs. In addition, he makes mating risers, in various heights, that
are designed to facilitate co-witnessing with nearly any railed rifle.
In my opinion, there is no point in having a 1X optic on a rifle and not
co-witnessing it with iron-sights, be they permanent or fold-down.
Mark's system is what I use in order to successfully execute
co-witnessing on all my serious rifles. Highly recommended!
/John
11 Mar 08
Follow up on the subject of "co-witnessing:"
Mark LaRue (LaRue Tactical), Dave Lauek (D&L Sports), and others who
manufacture mounts and risers for co-witnessing 1X rifle optics don't
make them so that iron-sights line up in the exact middle of the
scope. Instead, they arrange for iron-sights to line up in the
bottom-third of the scope. Most of us agree that this is the more
satisfactory arrangement, as it gets the optic's aiming reticle,
isolated and uncongested, above the iron-sight line.
With EOTechs and Aimpoints, no matter how the operator moves his head,
the aiming reticle will correspondingly move around in scope, but always
be on targets, so long as the Operator can see it. Thus, when the
Operator lowers his head slightly, he will able to position the reticle
and iron-sights (assuming they're deployed) exactly on line. This exact
alignment will always take place in the lower third of the scope.
When he subsequently lifts his head slightly, iron-sights will remain in
the lower third of the scope, but the reticle will return to the middle,
and iron-sights will then no longer be "in the way."
So, when I use the term "co-witness," I don't mean that iron-sights and
optic reticle are necessarily exactly superimposed over each other in
the middle of the scope, although I'm sure you can have it that way if
you wish! As I indicated, the "bottom-third" set-up is the one
preferred by the majority of us.
/John
(Seems like a pretty quick shift in preference, from March 10 to March
11. As I say on my website, "Common sense - don't leave home without
it." Just because someone usually makes sense doesn't mean they will
always make sense. Don't be afraid to ask questions and beware of anyone
who resents them.)
11 Mar 08
They don't get it. They don't want to!
With the massacre of innocents that took place in a suburban Chicago
shopping mall in February still fresh on their minds, residents
recently attended a meeting with the local PD. Nervous attendees wanted
guidance from their police with regard to surviving the next such
incident. What they received was profoundly unhelpful! What they
received was hollow, emasculate, let's-all-be-good-little-victims,
perfidiousness. It is all too typical!
Victims in the incident had been herded into a back room by a
gun-wielding armed-robbery suspect and then coldly murdered,
one-by-one. Attendees wanted to know what to do when another such
active VCA starts precipitously murdering innocent people. They were told:
"We believe the best to do is be compliant..." "Conformity is
safest...""If someone runs, it could make the robber madder..." " Do
exactly as they state..., and don't be a hero."
The political mood in Illinois is apparently so committed to the dogma
of learned-helplessness and compulsory-victimhood, that police
themselves are now actually advising citizens that it is their civic
duty to passively allow themselves to be murdered by violent criminals
and take no action to prevent it! If recent events are any guide, this
"be-a-willing-victim"strategy will play right into the hands of
murderous sociopaths, but none of this seems to concern leftist
bureaucrats. Even the concept of "being a hero" is now denigrated and
mocked as somehow unpatriotic!
Amazing that American Citizens are being officially instructed that
there is nothing worth fighting for, not even their own lives, not even
the lives of their families! ... and this guidance" is being promulgated
by public employees, who, paradoxically, are all bearing guns Their
deeds belie their vacuous rhetoric! Their lives are apparently worth
protecting. Ours evidently aren't.
"Find out just what the people will submit to, and you will have found
the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them;
and these will continue until they are resisted, with either words or
blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance
of those whom they oppress."
Fred Douglass
/John
12 Mar 08
About being willing victims, from an Instructor:
"In Leftist philosophy, there are only dead heroes. The ultimate goal
of the Left is death. Always has been! Our philosophic enemy is the
delusive belief that man is a pathetic, iniquitous, incapable, leechlike
being, worthy only of enslavement for his own good; with dying his only
worthwhile accomplishment!
The contrary: that each man is a magnificent creation, capable of
amazing feats, with the purpose of living his life to the fullest and
accomplishing and contributing everything of which he is capable, is the
most powerful message we can promulgate. Ultimately, if Western
Civilization is to survive, this must be the essence of our moral code.
At one time, it was!
Unhappily, in modern times, our society, and men in particular, has
embraced the enslavement mentality. We have allowed politicians to
disenfranchise us, bribing us with our own money!
"...But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off
such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future..."
Perhaps we all need to read the Declaration of Independence more often!"
Again, from Fred Douglas:
"Who profess to favor freedom, yet depreciate agitation, are men who
want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without
thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its many
waters."
/John
12 Mar 08
Safariland RLS (Rapid Light System):
Competing directly with Surefire's excellent X300 Weapon-Light,
Safariland is now marketing their amazingly clever RLS!
The RLS fits on any under-rail-equipped pistol. However, when detached,
the light is still eminently useable as a plain, hand-held flashlight.
It clips on your belt and is low-profile enough to ride there. When
mounted on the pistol, the light can be swung up nearly even with the
barrel, on either the left or right side.
Rapid-on and rapid-off, the RLS has some real advantages, and I'm using
a copy now as my main, carry light.
I have to hand it to Safariland! They've come up with a flashlight that
solves a lot of problems at once!
Recommended!
/John
(Remember that once the flashlight is mounted on the gun your are likely
to be searching with the muzzle [e.g., violating Rule Two by pointing
the muzzle at things or people you may not be prepared to shoot]. To
some degree, with these high-intensity lights you may be able to reflect
enough light off a floor or ceiling for illumination but this will
likely only be the case indoors.)
14 Mar 08
Family affair in LA, from an LEO friend in the area:
"Wednesday evening, two of our gang-officers, on foot-patrol in our most
'active' housing project, spotted a known gang-member who was in direct
violation of our City's gang-injunction just by physically being there.
Under this ordinance, any violation generates instant arrest.
Being obviously familiar with our ordinance, the suspect immediately
took off on a bicycle. Both officers are on our Station's running team
and had no problem closing the distance. As they caught up with the
suspect, he produced a pistol and, from under his arm (as he continued
frantically peddling), started shooting backwards at our officers.
Our officers both stopped, took aim, and fired at the fleeing suspect
with their G22s. Firing a total of four rounds, they struck the suspect
in the torso with all four. None exited. He wobbled, stayed upright
for another second or two, and then fell off the bicycle. By the time
the ambulance crew arrived, he was DRT.
As other officer arrived, this kid's 'family,' consisting of over a
dozen 'relatives' showed up and, as expected, created the usual,
contrived, emotional scene commemorating their 'son-of-the-year.'
Eventually, the crowd disbursed except for one, who identified himself
as the decedent's father. He continued to create a one-man scene,
cursing our officers and verbalizing threats. Our guys went about their
duties, doing their best to ignore him. He was not arrested, because we
were trying to be understanding by just letting let him blow off steam.
We won't do that again! Without warning, 'dad' himself produced a
pistol and began firing at our officers and detectives. Fortunately,
our perimeter guys were alert and immediately gunned him down. This new
suspect was subsequently transported and was last reported 'critical' by
the hospital.
None of our guys were hurt. As you may know, our overall violence rate
here is exhibiting a slight downward trend, but gang-related violence is
rising dramatically. We don't see it leveling off any time soon."
Lessons: Don't relax too soon! Don't relax at all! Keep your head up
and stay alert. When it's least expected, you're elected!
At any crime scene, or other police activity, routinely set up
security-in-depth. This means layers of protection. Evidence techs and
detectives tend to get engrossed in the tedium of their tasks. Someone
always needs to be "on watch."
Never be part of, or anywhere near, any "protest," rally, demonstration,
or other emotional gathering. When people around you become outwardly
emotional, get out of there without delay! Long before bullets start
flying, arrange to be somewhere else!
In many parts of the Country, our civilization is descending into
anarchy, as we see! No matter where you are, be alert, armed, ready,
confident, particularly when you wear a uniform!
Train continuously! Expect the unexpected. Never be "surprised."
/John
(Based on news reports, I believe that by "LA" John means "Los Angeles,"
not "Louisiana.")
--
Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
