Another Restraining-Order Failure: A man with a rifle opened fire near a
church Saturday morning in the San Fernando Valley and wounded three
people, Los Angeles police said...Authorities said Diaz was on parole
for an unspecified crime, and a restraining order was in place to
prevent him from being near the school, his son and wife...The suspect
was reloading his weapon when he was tackled by several witnesses who
were volunteers at the festival. The shooter put up a fight, struggling
and taunting people as they were trying to subdue him. KTLA said the
suspect and the weapon were taken into custody near the church, St. John
Baptist de la Salle Parish in the Granada Hills area of Los Angeles.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/17/church.shootings/index.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-shoot18-2008may18,0,2906491.story
---
Project Appleseed Target: Project Appleseed provides a free set of three
targets, on one sheet, scaled four use at 50 feet, to assess your rifle
skill in standing, sitting or kneeling, and prone positions.
http://wtr100.bravehost.com/promo_target_15_yards_v3.pdf
---
Study Finds Lead In Game Meat: A study released last week by the
Peregrine Fund and Washington State University shows that people who
consume venison from game animals killed with lead bullets risk
ingestion of the poisonous metal. Tiny amounts of lead can cause brain
development problems in children. Even amounts previously considered
safe in adults are now known to increase rates of death from heart
attack and stroke. (Metallic lead is not well absorbed from mammalian
digestive tracts unless it is very fine particles.)
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0518LeadInMeat0518.html
---
McCain Once Sought to Exclude NRA from GOP: "The NRA is entitled to
their advocacy. I don't think they help the Republican Party at all, but
I don't think they should in any way play a major role in the Republican
Party's policy making." [CNN, 5/12/00] U.S. News and World Report notes
that McCain is expected to flip-flop on his position regarding the
closing of the gun show loophole. (CNN video clip avaialble.)
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/16/flashback-mccain-once-sought-to-push-the-nra-out-of-the-gop/
---
Bob Barr Knocks Huckabee NRA Joke: "Mike Huckabee showed incredibly poor
taste when he joked about a gun pointed at Senator Barack Obama. His
words were reckless, callous and harmful to the sports men and women of
America and to those of us who fully support the Second Amendment..."
http://thirdpartywatch.com/2008/05/17/statement-from-bob-barr-on-mike-huckabees-remarks-at-nra-national-convention/
---
Sen. McConnell Addresses NRA: ...It would not be the first time a
Senator was head of the NRA. The NRA was actually founded in Senator
Clinton's adopted state of New York, and its first president was a U.S.
Senator from Rhode Island. But it was founded by two Civil War veterans.
They were worried about the lack of marksmanship among Union soldiers
and wanted to do something about it. And in the 137 years that have
passed since its founding, the National Rifle Association has proven to
be one of the finest voluntary organizations, in war and in peace, that
any free nation has ever known...
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26583
---
Is the NRA in Bed with BATFE?: ... The shameful truth about the National
Rifle Association, for example, is that there seems to be some kind of
mutually beneficial - symbiotic - relationship between that group, which
would like you to believe it was created to protect the Second Amendment
right of the people to keep and bear arms, and the agency that enforces
federal gun laws, the notorious Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms,
and Explosives. Neither could exist without the other to prop it up. The
BATFE needs the NRA to keep resisting its agenda (or at least appearing
to do so) so it can whimper to Congress that it needs more money, more
manpower, more machinery, and most of all, more leeway with regard to
its habitual violations of its victims' Constitutional rights.
Similarly, the NRA needs the BATFE to frighten its membership with (not
to mention prospective members), using the violent and corrupt federal
agency as a bogey-man, and its well-known illegal depredations and
terror tactics to extract more money from those who foolishly believe
the NRA can protect them - or even has an interest in doing so... (Food
for thought.)
http://www.jpfo.org/smith/smith-friends-like-nra.htm
---
Defensive-Display Bill Heads to Arizona Governor: Earlier this week, the
House concurred on technical amendments made to House Bill 2629.
HB2629, which would clarify how and when a firearm may be displayed for
defensive purposes, now heads to Governor Janet Napolitano (D) for her
consideration. Please contact Governor Napolitano TODAY and urge her to
sign this important bill! You can call her at (602) 542-4331 or send an
email by clicking the link on the NRA-ILA website.
http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Read.aspx?id=3922
---
NRA-ILA Alerts: This week's alerts are posted on the NRA-ILA website.
http://www.nraila.org/GrassrootsAlerts/read.aspx
---
From John Farnam:
6 May 08
2008 IALEFI Conference in Reno, NV:
I arrived on Range in Reno, NV yesterday afternoon, eager to shoot
several new guns I've only handled up until now. Classes continue on the
Range all week with lecture Classes going on simultaneously at the local
Silver Legacy Hotel.
Ruger's diminutive LCP is very functional and digests 380 ammunition
with great enthusiasm. Smooth, flat, small, and slick, I like it! It's a
single-column, self-decocking seven-shooter. It makes a wonderful
hide-out/back-up pistol. Comments were generally positive.
Sights are rudimentary and hard to see. Officers who have to qualify
with back-up pistols may find sufficient accuracy difficult to attain.
Gunsmiths will thus stay busy retrofitting the LCP with after-market sights!
The LCP has an external slide-lock lever, but the slide does not lock to
the rear when the last round is fired. Magazine-release button is in the
customary place on the left side of the frame.
Priced at under $400.00, Ruger will have difficulty making LCPs fast enough!
SIG's P250, currently available only in 9mm with the "medium" frame, is
a compact seventeen-shooter that runs well and is makes a wonderful
concealed-carry pistol. My friends from SIG are already complaining that
they can't get enough copies to run an Armorer's Class, so it will be a
while before SIG is able to fill the pipeline!
The P250 is a DAO service pistol, designed to compete, price-wise,
directly with Glock.
Action Target has produced yet another ingenious innovation: the
"Dropper." With this compact, collapsible system, The shooter shoots
through a cardboard target in an effort to hit a steel plate positioned
on the body mid-line, eight inches behind it. The shooter cannot
actually see the steel plate, as it is concealed behind the cardboard
target. When the plate is struck, the cardboard target falls forward,
and the plate falls backward! This inexpensive, manual system does two
important things: (1) It trains the shooter to keep after the target
until he gets results, and (2) it trains the shooter to see the target
with "X-ray vision." That is, the shooter can't perceive his ultimate
target directly. He must estimate where it is, beneath the skin of the
torso.
Seeing one's target with X-ray vision is a discipline to which Dr Jim
Williams introduced us all, and the "Dropper" enables one to actually
exercise this critical skill.
More later!
/John
11 May 08
More on the IALEFI Conference:
Bill Mathes of 21st Tactical featured his innovative RTI
(Rapid-Transfer Interchange) holster system, whereby holsters can be
rapidly attached and detached from the belt base or a base attached
anywhere. Guns can be kept in holsters, even when the base remains on
the belt.
The trend with weaponlights is to leave them attached to pistols and
train with them constantly. I saw a wide variety of holsters designed
to accommodate pistols with lights attached, and they are greatly
improved from the originals. Insight lights are extremely popular.
However, I really like Safariland's RLS, as it goes on and comes off so
fast and conveniently.
Firstlight's line of lights are, of course, designed to be just as
useful when not attached to pistols!
I was among the first to see and shoot Springfield Armory's new XD/M
pistol. Scheduled for an official debut at the NRA Show in KY next
weekend, several of us got our hands on a copy at the SA booth. It was
in 40S&W, and the size is virtually identical in dimensions to the
existing XD, but it is a 17-shooter, vs the current 13-shooter. I'm not
sure how they accommodated four additional rounds, but the grip is still
comfortable and very ergonomic.
The XD/M also features variable grip-geometry. The grip can easily be
sized up, or down, to accommodate a wide variety of hand sizes, much
like S&W's M&P, Beretta's PX4, and SIG's P250.
It is not necessary to dry-fire the XD/M in order to field strip it.
This is an important feature for many.
In short, the XD/M is substantially slicker, more ergonomic, more
comfortable, and has significantly more magazine capacity than the
existing XD, and it will be more expensive.
SA will continue production of the conventional XD, which is still a
perfectly serviceable pistol. The XD/M will now represent the premium line.
I like it!
/John
(Modular holsters, in which the holster attaches to some sort of
mounting base, usually project farther from the belt, compromising
concealment. This is one of the biggest weaknesses in the otherwise
attractive Blackhawk Serpa holster for S&W J-frame revolvers with the
older 1 7/8" barrels.)
13 May 08
Unleaded pistols in holsters:
Yesterday, in IN, I conducted a "Defensive Revolver Course." My
students, proficient Operators, all united in agreeing that we need to
be competent with all commonly-used handguns. So, we spent a day
exclusively with revolvers, both as main-guns and as back-up guns.
Of course, we run hot ranges, and I reminded all students not to holster
empty, nor even partially-loaded, revolvers. We want all revolvers
topped-off prior to being holstered. But, one circumstance is an
exception: When rapidly transitioning from main-gun to back-up, we must
"do something" with the main-gun, as most of us want both hands
available as we continue fighting with the back-up pistol.
During the transition, the now-empty (or otherwise non-functional)
main-gun can be (1) jettisoned, (2) returned to the holster, or (3)
retained in the strong-side hand (and perhaps even thence used as a
club) as the back-up gun is simultaneously drawn via the support-side
hand and subsequently put to use.
This latter option was employed with considerable success by several
clever students, who showed us all that it is the fastest option of the
three. However, it requires that the back-up pistol be readily
accessible to the support-side hand and that it be fired one-handed.
The first option is fast too, but the main-gun ends up on the deck where
it may, or may not, be subsequently recovered. Acceptable in most
domestic confrontations, but not a good idea when employed in a disaster
scenario, where we can't be quite so cavalier about "throwing away"
critical (albeit currently unusable) equipment that can't be readily
replaced.
The middle option is the slowest of the three, but the main-gun is
preserved on the body of the Operator and can nearly always be
subsequently recovered, reloaded, and returned to service. However, in
the interim, the Operator has an empty pistol in his holster.
Inauspicious, but unavoidable in this scenario.
More than one student who employed the middle option forgot all about
the fact that, at the end of the drill, their holstered main-gun was
empty, and, as they launched into the subsequent drill, unhappily
discovered that they were starting the gunfight with an empty pistol!
Happily, they only made that mistake once!
Main-guns can usually go rapidly from the holster, to action, and then
back to the holster. Conversely, most back-up guns cannot be returned
to their holsters quickly. Indeed, even autoloaders in slide-lock can
still be reholstered rapidly. Thus, when transitioning from back-up
pistol to second back-up pistol or to a blade, the (now-empty) first
back-up pistol must be (1) jettisoned, or (2) returned to a pocket.
Again, in a disaster scenario, taking the extra time to return the
back-up to a pocket will surely be arguable.
/John
(I know not what course others may take; but as for me...I carry the
same model revolver behind each hip, in mirror-image IWB holsters, each
of which meets my criteria of allowing a full firing grip on the
holstered handgun and one-handed reholstering without needing to take
one's eyes off the threat area. On days that I am able to, I carry a
similar, third revolver in my left, front pocket in a PCS No See-Um
straight holster, which is the only pocket holster I have found that
meets the same criteria and stabilizes the gun in the pocket even while
I am seated. Certainly, this assumes that I am competent with these
revolvers in my non-dominant hand, with or without the support of the
other hand. As John points out, his students only reholstered empty
handguns once without remembering to reload them at first opportunity. I
also make it a point to wear a DeSantis 2+2+2 ammo pouch, which I find
optimal for tactical reloads or "topping off" a revolver that has fired
fewer rounds than its full capacity.)
15 May 08
Wisdom from Doc Gunn:
"Regardless of what kind of gun is being used, we need to stress to our
students that they must favorably resolve their tactical challenge
within the number of rounds they have readily at hand.
