The Beat Winds Down?: ...Obama's election this past November ushered in
a well-documented boom in the sales of guns and ammunition, predicated
on fears that the new commander-in-chief would place restrictions on
purchases of automatic [sic] weapons. "You could go to Wal-Mart and the
shelves would be cleaned out," said Nick Hart, who was in Comal Pawn
Wednesday. The post-election rush brought about shortages in ammunition,
with gun-owners scrambling to stock up before legislation clamped down
on their firearms. Now, a year since the new president took office,
there has been no significant legislation restricting firearms signed
into law. And those selling guns and ammunition in Comal County [TX]
said the buying frenzy seems to have died down. "It seems like after
awhile all the horror stories people heard about started to melt away,"
said Norm Stephens, behind the counter at Comal Pawn. "Compared to the
rush, they've slowed way down. But sales have still been steady." There
are still shortages on certain types of ammo, Stephens said, but shelves
were starting to fill back up after being near empty early in the year.
Howard Dietz, who owns Dietz Gun Shop and Range, said ammunition is
starting to "dribble in" to his store...
http://herald-zeitung.com/story.lasso?ewcd=f5014366a85496bb
---
Utah Gun Collector Murdered in Home Invasion: Investigators remained
very tight-lipped Wednesday, two days after a retired BYU professor was
killed inside his home... Kent Carroll, a longtime resident on South
Canyon Road a couple of miles southeast of Payson, said Mortensen's
family was planning to gather at the house Monday evening to play board
games. That included Mortensen's son and the son's wife, who apparently
were tied up by two men who invaded the house... Carroll said it was
widely known that Mortensen, 70, had "an extensive collection" of guns
and ammunition, including specialty weapons. Whether that may have been
a motive for the crime, no one is saying. He said his neighbor was a
"survivalist-type person" who even had a bunker behind his house in the
event of a catastrophe. Carroll said he believes Mortensen may have let
his guard down, thinking his family was at the door. If that happened,
"I suspect he was facing a gun (and) they got the drop on him. Knowing
Kay, he was a fairly cautious guy." ... (Mental awareness and mental
preparedness are the first two priorities. Personally, I never open the
door without looking first through the peephole and, when I do, I've
always got my hand on a gun in a pocket, even on Halloween. See John
Farnam's November 25 quip, below.)
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705345524/Neighbor-describes-horrifying-scenario.html
---
Man Cleared in Murder of Wife, Elk Faces No Charges: Ingemar Westlund,
68, found the body of his wife Agneta, 63, by a lake close to the
village of Loftahammer in September 2008. His wife had last been seen
taking the family dog out for a walk in the forest. When she failed to
return her husband went out to look for her. Mr Westlund was arrested
and held in police custody for 10 days. However, the case has now
finally been dropped after forensic analysis found elk hair and saliva
on his wife's clothes. Although the murder investigation was dropped
five months ago, details have only just emerged and the police plan to
hold a news conference next week to explain what happened. Mr Westlund
told the Expressen newspaper in Sweden: "My family and I have been
dragged through a nightmare." The European elk, or moose, is usually
considered to be shy and will normally run away from humans. But Swedish
Radio International says the animals can become aggressive after eating
fermented fallen apples in gardens...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6678397/Sweden-woman-murdered-by-elk-not-husband.html
---
It's Also Christmas Season for Burglars: Christmas holidays are a
special time when families and friends come together to celebrate the
season. It is also the time of year where families and friends are most
generous and practice the tradition of gift giving. It should be a
joyous and happy time for all of us. Unfortunately for us, home burglars
view the holiday season a little differently. For them, it is a time of
opportunity to burglarize your home for cash, credit cards, and all the
new gifts of small electronics, computers, jewelry, and easily sold
valuables. Here are a few tips of what they look for when shopping for a
house to burglarize. These tips will help you enjoy the holidays without
incident...
http://crimedoctor.com/home_security_3.htm
And for the Rest of the Year...:
http://crimedoctor.com/home.htm
---
Twelve Elements of Law-Enforcement Firearms Training: It can easily be
argued that the job of a law enforcement firearms instructor is more
difficult today than ever before. With everything now required from our
already strained training resources, it has become increasingly
difficult to even establish what the right questions are, let alone find
the right answers. To help build a solid foundation and establish some
basic criteria for what a law enforcement training program should
include International Training, Inc. has adopted the 12 critical
elements outlined below. The information gathered for this analysis was
obtained from several surveys conducted by the California Commission on
Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) and the FBI. The FBI has
collected data on officers killed and assaulted since 1945, and
California POST started collecting such data in 1980. The surveys cited
in this study encompass those conducted by the FBI from 1995 through
2004. After summarizing these studies, the following guidelines were
drawn for police firearms training...
http://www.officer.com/web/online/Operations-and-Tactics/12-Elements-of-Firearms-Training/3$49345
---
After-Action Report, Mumbai: For 62 hours, beginning 9.20 pm on November
26, 2008, Indian security forces, including the Mumbai police and the
National Security Guard, fired 36,000 bullets to combat the 10
Lashkar-e-Taiba men. As is well documented, nine of those terrorists
were shot down, one was captured alive the man we know as Mohammed Ajmal
Amir Qasab. The security forces spread out across six locations to
combat the incessant volleys from the 10 terrorists. But the Mumbai
police were handicapped by the quality of the ammunition they used. The
bullets were old, procured over 10 years ago, and they misfired. "Had
the operation been better planned with better equipment, the number of
rounds would have been far less," said a senior police source... On the
other hand, the terrorists were carrying just 10,500 rounds during the
siege. However, they racked up a toll of 166 dead and 300 injured. A
panchnama report has indicated that most of them were on target because
they used automatic weapons like the AK-47 rifle. Investigators also
found that all shots were aimed between the groin and chest, increasing
fatalities... (Get real! Better hits from firing full-auto? The
operation planned better? One can train for a counter-attack, which
clearly had not been done, but, lacking specific intelligence, it's hard
to see how the specifics could have been planned. On the other hand, the
police appeared totally unprepared to use their "British era" SMLE .303
rifles and I have no idea what the "vintage .410 caliber rifle" is.)
http://timesofindia.hotklix.com/link/news/India/36-000-bullets-to-kill-9-terrorists
---
A Unique Book: List members Tim Wheeler and John Wipfler have written
Keeping Your Family Safe: The Responsibilities of Firearm Ownership. As
a concise book that examines the range of issues to be considered in
deciding to include the option of a firearm in planning for personal and
family safety, this book differs from many similar ones in the inclusion
of a chapter on basic first aid for gunshot wounds. What really
distinguishes it is that both authors are physicians or surgeons, a fact
which is made prominent. This makes the book, as intended, a powerful
tool in countering the scam that firearm ownership is a threat to the
health of gun owners and their families. Among other venues, at least
one copy belongs in the waiting room of every health practitioner who
supports the RKBA. Unfortunately, I fear the book would quickly develop
little feet in such an environment. I do, however, recall at least one
physician's waiting room that contained a locked, glass-front bookcase,
with a sign stating that the books it contained were available for
patients to sign out on loan, a system that might solve that dilemma. It
is inevitable that there will be minor disagreements among authors but I
must note one major one. A few photos in the book suggest that interior
walls and beds provide cover from gunfire. Even a .22 will shoot through
drywall and most American mattresses contain primarily air space.
Further, the photo of the shotgun-wielding homeowner "taking cover" at
the corner of a corridor has the barrel projecting beyond the corner and
reflecting in the glass of a framed picture, reducing any value the move
might have had to make his presence at that location less obvious to the
intruder. Nonetheless, as John Farnam says, "Recommended!" for anyone
who can use the authority of physicians and surgeons to argue that
firearms, properly handled, used and stored do enhance family safety.
http://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Your-Family-Safe-Responsibilities/dp/0936783567/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259503106&sr=8-1
---
From John Farnam:
22 Nov 09
More excellent commentary on Scenario-Based Training, from another
Instructor:
"Many of our students are accustomed to shooting only two-dimensional,
motionless targets. The vast majority have never participated in
live-fire training facing anything else.
They are thus not accustomed to thinking in terms of shooting through a
body mass that has three dimensions, in order to arrange for bullets to
strike, and subsequently penetrate, vital organs. They concentrate on
where the bullet enters the target, but give scant thought to where it
will come out, nor what it will pass through in the interim!
Consequently, in force-on-force scenarios involving animated
role-players, they typically aim at the center of the sternum,
regardless of orientation of the target. When target presentation
changes from face-on to the target facing another direction, point of
aim typically does not. This all-too-common mistake generates glancing
wounds that lack deep penetration necessary for the generation of
crippling wounds.
A number of frustrating iterations are often required for even
'well-trained' students to finally grasp this vital axiom."
Comment: Interestingly, big-game hunters, when they come to us as
students, already clearly understand this principle, because they have
been compelled to exercise it many times. Another reason all aspiring
Operators need to be ardent hunters, and hunt every chance they get!
By contrast, who have confronted only two-dimensional paper, even steel,
targets, are lacking a critical experience. Scenario-based training
(and big-game hunting) are two of the few ways of exposing oneself to it.
"There are two kinds of pain: The pain of discipline, and the pain of
regret. We can avoid one, but never both!"
/John
(The weakness of two-dimensional targets is magnified with silhouette
targets, whether of paper, cardboard or steel. While not perfect, my
students train on full-color photographic targets, some of which are
selected to present threats at unconventional angles and not centered in
the rectangle. I always discuss the anatomy, in terms of where the
bullet will head, so long as it continues on a straight path after
entry. Some three-dimensional targets are on the market but few, if any,
include the pelvic area. Not mentioned in John's quip is Tactical
Anatomy training [
http://tacticalanatomy.com/].)
25 Nov 09
Signs of the times, from a friend in UT:
"Monday, a well-liked BYU professor was murdered in his own home.
Four VCAs overpowered him at his front door and relentlessly beat him
until he yielded the combination to his safe. When the safe was opened,
the victim's throat was cut open, and he bled to death within seconds.
His body was left in his living room.
The gang was arrested shortly thereafter.
Vengeance may have been the motive, as one of the VCA's brothers is
currently in prison. The professor testified for the prosecution at his
trial.
VCAs didn't need to kick the door in. The victim opened it for them.
He was unarmed at the time!"
Comment: The media-manufactured "recovery" we're supposedly in is, in
truth, a dangerously deepening recession. We'll shortly be looking at
double-digit inflation, as well as double-digit unemployment (which we
have now), for the balance of the BHO Administration.
One symptom is an increasing degree of desperation and violence on the
part of society's losers, who are all but encouraged to commit violent
crimes against classes of citizens (Jews, Christians, "the rich," et
al) deemed "enemies" of the current leftist political agenda.
With regard to answering your door, particularly at night, when you're
not expecting anyone.
Don't! There is no law that requires you to answer your door.
When you do answer your door, always be armed and ready to react.
Being armed, even while at home, has become a necessity!
Electronic speakers, that allow you to talk with someone at your door
without opening it, are highly recommended.
It is going to get worse. We have to be prepared!
"'Government' consists of a gang, with no particular talent for the
business of government, nor anything else for that matter. They do have
talent, and lust, only for getting and holding political office. Their
principal device to that end is to seek out constituencies of weaklings
who endlessly pant and pine for something they can't quite seem to get,
mainly because they're not willing to work for it.
These constituencies are then promised, that what they think they want
will be forcibly taken from those who rightfully own it and subsequently
given to them, even though they neither deserve it, nor have so much as
lifted a finger to earn it. The process is little more than 'theft by
proxy.' The actual thieves are, as noted above, contemptible gasbags.
Recipients, when they go along, become petty thieves themselves, are
thus altogether
stripped of what little personal honor and dignity they may have once had.
Happily, nine times out of ten, those promises, like the prevaricators
who make them, are worth nothing. The tenth time is made good only by
looting the productive in order to mollify the willfully unproductive.
In other words, our 'government' is a broker in pillage, and every
so-called 'election' is little more than an auction of pilfered goods."
.. paraphrased from HL Mencken
/John
("VCA" is Farnamese for "Violent Criminal Actor.")
26 Nov 09
Predictable Reaction:
A friend on active-duty sent me today a copy of a bulletin, promulgated
by the Pentagon, that enumerates advice to our military personnel in
light of the recent Ft Hood shooting.
Unhappily, there are no surprises!
Amid splashily, color illustrations, charts and graphs, terrorist
threats are meticulously and correctly identified. History of domestic
terrorist attacks is laid out in nauseating detail. And, the report
openly, and correctly, points out that there is only one way to stop an
active terrorist, and that is by shooting him dead!
Then, the all-too-predictable, and sublimely illogical, advice:
When another terrorist event unfolds, all personnel are to run and hide,
lock themselves in dark rooms, get on the floor, and patiently wait for
their turn to be murdered! Our military personnel are given the exact
same instructions as are elementary-school children!
Nowhere is there even the most subtle of hints with regard to fighting
back, individually, nor in any organized way. The entire subject of
pro-active involvement is apparently off-limits and is never to be
discussed openly. Being a hapless, helpless victim is evidently a
soldier's only duty. So much as lifting a finger to protect oneself is
unthinkable!
Our troopers, so magnificently trained and organized to deploy and fight
effectively and heroically against entire, heavily-armed enemy
formations in a battle-zone, are curiously instructed to scatter like
frightened mice, run, and hide- in the presence of a single domestic
terrorist, armed only with a pistol.
Well, at Ft Hood, they did exactly that, and we see the result! Our
soldiers are not currently being advised to do anything different the
next time this happens, and we can thus expect a similar outcome!
My frustrated friend had this reaction:
"I am mentally prepared to do whatever is required to 'personally and
unilaterally' protect my comrades and myself. In the process, I have
every confidence that I will violate "rules." In fact, I already have!
I don't care!
Our 'System' has become a joke, and a cruel one. You have only to read
this current 'advice' to come to the inescapable conclusion that no one
up the food-chain gives a damn about us, as they are apparently
unwilling to commit to any genuine acclivity, like putting an end to
'gun-free' zones, and requiring all officers and S/NCOs to carry loaded
pistols continuously, as part of their uniform.
Back in the days when officers and S/NCOs were routinely armed, they
were solemnly instructed that, when any violent attack took place, there
were to move in the direction of the incident without delay, guns drawn,
and, in spite of personal risk, engage with gunfire all active threats
seen. It was a point of honor, and one that everyone knew and
understood. Back then, no one messed with uniformed soldiers!
My comrades and I are good and decent citizens, as well as good
soldiers. We deserve far better protection than we are ever likely to
get under the current agenda-driven System, which places more value on
sucking-up to politicians than upon our lives and safety."
Comment: Yes, we all want to be "law-abiding," but today, so needlessly
voluminous and incomprehensible is the "law," I believe it is impossible
to even know whether you are or not!
For one, I'm pretty sure I know right from wrong, and that will have to
suffice, as our "government" is not only unhelpful in that regard, it is
actively hostile toward goodness and decency, ever mocking individual
responsibility/personal respectability, and even promoting/embracing
filth and personal sleaziness.
Augustine put it this way:
"When there is no justice in the land, a nation's administrators are
little more than a gang of criminals."
With regard to individual self-defense:
"When someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be
reasonable to shoot back with your own gun."
The Dalai Lama, 15 May 01, speaking at the "Educating Heart Summit" in
Portland, OR, when asked by a girl how to react when a shooter takes aim
at a classmate.
Well, duh!
Even the Dalai Lama can figure this out!
/John
("S/NCO" is a "Senior Non-Commissioned Officer," which would be a
sergeant first class or higher in the Army, a gunnery sergeant or higher
in the Marine Corps, a master sergeant or higher in the Air Force and a
chief petty officer or higher in the Navy. I recall an incident on my
last duty station, during the Vietnam era. The wife of one of our guys,
who lived off-base in a trailer park, called him while he was pulling
night duty, to tell him that she had spotted a peeping tom looking
through a window. With permission from the charge of quarters, a group
of us quickly assembled to accompany him home. One guy asked that we
wait a moment while he went to his room. He returned with the
combination lock to his wall locker, through which he was tying the sash
from a bathrobe. It is not the nature of American servicemen to hide in
the dark, waiting to be shot.)
--
Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
The tactics and skills to use a firearm
in self-defense don't come naturally
with the right to keep and bear arms.
http://www.spw-duf.info
