A Note to Those in the Know: I will be "KE7QBY/AG" for a few days and
have run out of excuses not to purchase the supplies I need to proceed
with setting up my base station.
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Surviving a Grizzly Bear Attack: ..."I heard a woofing sound, turned,
seen a grizz coming at me. I managed to get my rifle up and get one
round into the chest.... At that point he got on top of me, obviously,
and took me down," Shorter said. "He proceeded to try to maul me in the
back of the scalp and on the neck, and I protected my neck with my
hands. They got fairly chewed up." The bear was biting at his hands,
which were covering his neck, so he dropped his rifle. He scrambled to
get it back, eventually putting some distance between himself and the
bear. He shot the animal a second time, this time killing it...
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/080606/canada/vancouver_bc_grizzly_attack_survivor
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Guns Don't Kill People...: A man who police said "was tired of life"
drove into a crowd of pedestrians Sunday and then went on a stabbing
rampage in Tokyo's premier electronics and video game district, killing
seven people and wounding 10, authorities said...Once rare, stabbing
attacks have become more frequent in Japan in recent years as violent
crime has increased. In one of the worst attacks, a man with a history
of mental illness burst into an elementary school in Japan in 2001 and
killed eight children. The killer was executed in 2004.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/08/AR2008060800240.html?hpid=sec-world
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NRA-ILA Alerts: Alerts for the week are posted on the NRA-ILA website.
http://www.nraila.org/GrassrootsAlerts/read.aspx
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From John Farnam:
1 June 08
A friend with a major pistol manufacturer tells me that they use 155gr
40S&W ammunition for testing durability in their line of 40S&W pistols.
Design engineers have nicknamed the 155gr round, the "Gun-breaker,"
identifying it as the one round that produces most wear and tear on
pistols chambered for that caliber.
Of course, I personally carry Cor-Bon 155gr DPX in my SA/XD. It is my
preferred, carry load, and I just ran several hundred rounds of it
through my XD during the recently-completed NTI.
My XD had no issue with it. Neither has my Beretta PX4 Storm, S&W M&P,
SIG229, nor my G23. It may well shorten the lives of all of theses
pistols, as my friend indicated, but I am determined to carry the most
effective ammunition I can, and, when my pistol eventually breaks, I'll
get it fixed or replace it.
This is America. They'll make more!
/John
(When I lived on the border, Border Patrol firearms instructors were
estimating the service life of the then-issued Beretta 96's at 3,000
rounds with the Federal and Remington 155 gr. issue ammo. One
instructor, who had purchased a Kahr K40 became concerned about the use
of that ammo in his personal firearm and called Kahr. He told me that he
spoke personally with Justin Moon, who told him to keep on using that
load as that was the load around which the pistol had been designed. The
USBP adopted the 155 gr. JHP because they felt that it gave them the
terminal ballistics of the previously issued 110 gr. .357 Magnum SJHP,
after penetrating a windshield or pickup tailgate. It is an excellent
load but Dr. James Williams suggests that the current 180 gr. subsonic
loads may be a better choice for those who are concerned with damaging
pelvic bone.)
2 June 08
LaserMax Battery Life. This info from friends at LaserMax:
"Battery life in our sights is nominally ninety minutes of continuous
use. However, our silver-oxide batteries actually recharge when not in
use, so, in normal employment, the unit will render good service for
several years. To play it safe, we recommend batteries be replaced once
a year.
Batteries can be purchased in drugstores, Radio-Shack, Wal-Mart, et al.
In addition, we sell them, shrink-wrapped, for convenience."
Comment: My LaserMax (on my SA/XD 40S&W) has seen heavy use the past few
months and continues to function normally. However, the lens is right
under the muzzle and thus gets coated with soot during heavy firing. I
noticed that the unit was dimming several weeks ag handkerchief, full
brightness was restored!
/John
(Battery availability is an important criterion for those who require
electronic "supplements." Some people have argued for devices that use
AA batteries as those can be "borrowed" from ubiquitous TV remotes. The
point about "soot" from muzzle blast is well taken; I have experienced
this with an early-generation SureFire light mounted too near the muzzle
of one of my shotguns. While the virtually coaxial mounting of some
Lasermax units offers a theoretical advantage over the laterally
displaced LaserGrips, this report suggest a possible trade-off for
mounting directly under the muzzle. My own preference with LaserGrips is
to estimate the vertical and lateral displacement from the sighting
plane with the iron sights and zero them for the same displacement on
the target, eliminating parallax issues with variations in range; this
way, they should always be off by the same amount. Those who believe
they will use LaserGrips for a close-range brainstem shot may be better
served by zeroing them for the most likely range at which they envision
such a shot.)
3 June 08
The enforced demise of the UK's gun/weapon culture, engineered by
paranoid politicians, has resulted in a never-ending epidemic of UDs
among incompetently-trained British police:
A British newspaper has pointed out in a recent editorial that the
"select few" British police officers who are actually armed, fire their
weapons far more by accident than they ever have on purpose! UDs (even
the few that are actually reported, because there are too many witnesses
for them to be covered up) are rampant, and extremely embarrassing,
within the all of the UK's police services, particularly in light of
arrogant, and manifestly dishonest, proclamations that "training"
provided to officers is "the best available."
The unhappy truth is, in the UK, the blind are leading the blind, as
even the blind can plainly see!
Chronically UD-prone officers are routinely treated by police
administrations the same way pedophile-priests are treated by the
Catholic Church. "Solutions" to the problem range from (1) promotion,
to (2) lateral transfer, to (3) comfortable retirement. Guilty parties
are, of course, never remediated, much less disciplined, as such a thing
would embarrass incompetent police administrators and mendacious
politicians.
Thus, the "solution" virtually guarantees that the problem will never be
meliorated. More to the point, it guarantees the UK's veritable army
of "short-men-in-cheap-suits" will all keep their pathetic jobs!
Also curious is the fact that UDs among the precious-few non-police
Brits who actually own guns legally is always identified as a "crime,"
and the hapless gun-owner is viciously denigrated, vilified, stripped of
his rights, and prosecuted. Simultaneously, the same UDs, when
committed by police officers, are always called "mistakes," and the
officer involved is predictably the next chief of police!
/John
(""UD" would appear to mean "unintentional discharge" versus the more
commonly used "ND" for "negligent discharge.")
3 June 08
I talked with a uniformed, "armed" bank-guard today. He was not one of
our students, but I noticed he was "armed" with a 22-rimfire,
autoloading, target pistol! It was sitting, unsecured, in a chintzy,
chicken-hide, belt holster, and I asked him if it had been issued to him
by his employer.
When you see private, security guards armed with this kind of cheap
junk, it is usually because that is all they can afford, but not in this
case! He, with a straight face, indicated that the 22 was his personal
choice. He indicated that his reasons were:
(1) The clerk at the gunshop where he bought it told him it was
extremely accurate and thus perfect for self-defense, and "That guy must
know what he's talking about."
(2) "I've shot larger calibers a few times, but I can't hit anything!"
(3) "It will only take one shot." at which point he placed his index
finger on his own forehead.
He then volunteered that he keeps a charged magazine in the pistol, but
does not keep a round in the chamber
I asked him if his boss, or his client (the bank), knew he was carrying
a rimfire pistol for ostensibly serious purposes. He indicated both
thought it was "okay."
In as understanding a way as I could, I told him he had been given bad
advice, that his life was at great risk, along with the lives of bank
customers and employees, and that he needed to get himself a serious
gun, serious training, and look for another employer!
It's obvious that neither the owner of this security company, nor the
bank they have as a client, could possibly care less about the safety of
this young lad, nor the safety of anyone else in the bank.
Imagine that!
As this episode illustrates, the level of ignorance among the general
population on this subject is astounding.
Since the FBI has devoted itself to terrorism prevention, domestic bank
robberies are way up. We are in for exciting times! There will only be
"the quick and the dead."
Once again, we're all on our own! It can't be said too often.
/John
(Nearly ten years ago, several months before my return to Arizona, my
former teaching partner and I traveled to Phoenix to take an Arizona CWP
course. As the time approached for the "qualification" session on the
range, several of the students began querying their peers as to what
guns they would be firing. One guy, over six feet tall and weighing
somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 pounds, replied that he had brought
a .22-caliber revolver. His astonished questioners asked if that was all
he owned. He replied that he also owned .38 but that it hurt his hand to
shoot it. This phenomenon is usually a function of settling for all the
training that comes in the box with the gun. Relying on the advice of
the salesperson in the local gun shop is often a related issue.)
4 June 08
Excellent summary, from a friend and instructor:
"Your last two posts on the clueless bank guard and the UK Police ND
'problem' are just symptoms of a bigger, societal disease. It is
rampant at all levels of government, and in most large businesses.
The disease is IBC (Ignorance, by Choice). And, IBC always leads, by a
short route, to incompetence.
Many bureaucrats, public and private, are, by the nature of the job,
intellectually indolent. They really don't want to know their work,
their Art, their Calling, anything! They are not the least bit in throw
so much money at a problem that it goes away, and there is no shortage
of 'experts' who are only too anxious to grovel for it. These vendors
have every confidence that no one will ever be held accountable for the
quality of their work, so long as they fill out all the forms and attach
a sufficiently impressive poundage of 'supporting documents,' that, of
course, no one will ever even look at, much less actually read.
Any learning worth the title is simultaneously dangerous and painful.
There is no learning without pain and risk. True enlightenment is
always a high-effort, high-risk, comfortless process, a struggle filled
with failure and small steps of success. Its just plain work.
Most make endless excuses in an effort to avoid all such exertion and
commitment. Dedicated to nothing, in effect, they desire never to rise
above ignorance/incompetence, and in that cheerless pit they'll remain
so long as their IBC is tolerated, indeed rewarded, but our civilization."
Comment: If striving after personal excellence were profitable, we would
all be duteously pursuing sainthood! But, in the real world, where
avarice, cowardice, fraud, duplicity, prevarication, and even stupidity,
benefit one far more than virtue and honor, the worthy among us are
called upon to "buck the trend," even at the risk of being a hero!
William White put it this way: "Culture is activity of thought, and
receptiveness to beauty and human feeling. A merely well-educated
person is the most useless bore on God's earth!"
/John
(This last commentary likely explains why people like John and myself go
to the effort to share this sort of information, at no charge, to assist
those who can see through the smoke and mirrors. I never cease to be
amazed at the number of people who will e-mail me a question yet fail to
accept the invitation to be added to the mailing list, which I normally
append to my response to any serious question.)
--
Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
