Month: March 2009

Sunday Metal – Little Caesar

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Little Caesar was one of those great bands that didn’t have the chance to realize their potential because the musical landscape changed: along came Nirvana, the scene shifted from L.A. to Seattle. So call this a little fan appreciation.

Little Caesar was, at their heart, just a rock and roll band. They weren’t just based in the blues, they were based in soul. This was evident in their cover of Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools”, their cover of The Temptation’s “I Wish It Would Rain”, and their own original songs like “In Your Arms”, “Cajun Panther”, “Stand Up”, “Ain’t Got It”, “So Damn Tired”, “Tell Me That You Love Me”. Ron Young’s voice was the key to this. Powerful, dynamic, a gravel-laiden belting or a quiet soulful whisper; Ron’s voice was expressive and was the body and soul of the band.  

Another trait of the band was storytelling. “Ballad of Johnny”, “Pray For Me”, “Hard Times” all tell their own stories. Of course we can’t forget the double entendre of “Drive It Home” and “Slow Ride”. And sometimes they just went with straight-ahead rockers like “Rock-N-Roll State Of Mind”, “Down-N-Dirty”, “You’re Mine”, and “Rum And Coke” reminding you what rock and roll is all about.

They had the sound, they had the songs, and they had the look. They had cultivated a biker image that was genuine rock and roll: long hair, tattoos, leather, denim. Ron Young fronted the band well and had the right look. 

The band plays the occasional gig now and again, and if the YouTube recordings are any indication, they’re sounding good.  Here’s a video of their hit “Chain Of Fools”. I don’t think this was their best song, but it was their most popular and showcases the band well.

Bruce Lee on learning

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Two separate but related quotes from Bruce Lee, on being.

It is the ego that stands rigidly against influences from the outside, and it is this “ego rigidity” that makes it impossible for us to accept everything that confronts us.

and

Seek not the cultivated innocence of a clever mind that wants to be innocent, but have rather that state of innocence where there is no denial or acceptance and the mind just sees what is.

Mantis blocks

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Some time ago in my training I made a point to always keep my hands up. That is, I see all too often when people are doing kicking drills that they focus only on the kicking and their feet/legs… the rest of the body tends to be ignored, and this is most evident to observe in how they hold their hands or more typically how they aren’t holding their hands at all. I resolved to not do this, that even if I was focusing on something else that my hands must remain up in a proper defensive/blocking position: hands more or less guarding the sides of the face, forearms more or less vertical, elbows pulled in close so you’re not leaving your gut unprotected. Of course going with this, doing things like shrugging the shoulders, chin tucked, but that’s not the focus of my discussion today. The point of ensuring I always kept my hands up was to turn that positioning into my habit, that that’s just the place my hands naturally go — and stay. The stay is an important part. I see people might start with their hands up, but eventually the hands migrate somewhere else. Maybe their arms are getting tired (keep them up there, they’ll get stronger). Maybe they just forget (keep doing it, be aware of it, make it habit). Or many times they’re doing something dynamic and their arms leave their center so they can keep their balance. To that I say, you have to fight to keep your hands in. First, if with every kick your hands fly out so you can keep your balance that tells me (fighting/sparring you) that you’re not very balanced and I’ll either take advantage of that aspect or take advantage of the fact you’re not guarding yourself and attack those areas. Second, when you flail your arms you’re creating more movement, which will lead to further balance disruption, not to mention you’re wasting energy working all those muscles that don’t need to be worked. Keep your hands in, force yourself to do this. You’ll find that your balance will come along just fine.

One thing about keeping your hands up is what to do with your hands themselves. Should you make tight fists? Should you have a fist but just not clenched? Hands in a natural and relaxed but curved but not a full fist looseness? Or maybe have the hands fully straight, fingers extended, palm flat? I have been taking the relaxed approach, a semi-fist, if you will. A few days ago I started to play with keeping my hands flat. I’m going to experiment with this for a while and see where it goes. Here’s my thoughts.

  1. With my hands flat there is now more stuff guarding me. Measure from the tip of my elbow up the forearm to the end of my closed fist, then measure from the elbow to the tip of my extended fingers and you’ll find a few more inches there. That’s a few more inches of protection for myself. Granted it’s fingers, not someting that can absorb a lot of damage (nor do you want them to), plus having the fingers out there leaves them open to finger grabs/locks. Still, I’d like to play with this to see if it really does add any more guarding effectiveness.
  2. It’s good to use natural weapons, parts of our body that are naturally tougher, such as the palm heel. While fists are your traditional “fightin’ man’s” weapon, punching someone in the head with your bare fist is more likely to hurt you than them. Which would you rather do? punch a brick wall with your fist? or punch a brick wall with your palm heel?  I’ll take the palm  heel. The further implication is you’ll be more willing to put more power behind the palm strike because you’re not as worried about getting hurt. Keeping your fingers functioning is important, be you looking to further trap or manipulate your opponent, or perhaps transitioning to say a sidearm. So by keeping my hands open when up in the guard, I’m more apt and open to use palm strikes than closed fist attacks.
  3. One technique in Kuk Sool is the Sa Ma Gui Mak–Gi (사마귀막기) or Praying Mantis Block. This is a trapping and control technique, one that I’ve dabbled with a bit in the past, but I think I’d like to take the time to more seriously study and experiment with practical application. Starting from my hands-up guarding position, with open palms, a block can lead directly into a mantis block and trap. 
  4. I think my desire to explore the mantis block/trap more actually started in earnest about a month ago. I was flipping through my copy of Dr. YANG, Jwing-Ming’s Analysis of Shaolin Chin Na book because he has a lot of exercises for wrist strength and I’ve been looking to improve my wrist/grip strength for other activities. I was reading over his exercises for trapping, twisting, gripping, but especially the coiling training. So it got me thinking about mantis blocking/trapping again.

As I was preparing to write this blog entry, I Googled around for more information on Chinese praying mantis kung fu. I found a video that was most interesting.

I admit, I don’t have a lot of direct exposure to any flavor of Chinese Praying Mantis Kung Fu, and most of what I do see is the performance of forms.  But this video is the sort of thing I wanted to see: 2 man fighting techniques/drills, application. Here’s what stood out to me.

  1. Notice the attacker/defender (person performing the techniques) has their hands up, in the guard position. That’s the position they fight from, which is efficient and deceptive.
  2. I like how both arms are always doing something. One arm blocks the other attacks, then they switch roles. Watch the exchange that starts at 0:30 to really see this.
  3. Notice the use of natural weapons: palm heels, elbows, hammer-fists. Big strong meat of the forearms provides the block, the palm and the elbows provide the attack.

Very cool stuff. Something for me to focus my study on for a while.

 

Updated: All of yesterday I was involved in helping teach a different sort of combative art. One of the movements done is that you start out with your hands put up in front of you, open palms, palms facing out, hands more or less in front of your face. It’s not hands above your head in an “I surrender” position. It’s not hands pulled back so your arms are fully bent, elbows down by your hipbones and hands up at your shoulders, which isn’t quite “I surrender” but is a very submissive position. It’s not hands pushed out in front of you, arms fully or almost fully extended, as if to push a person in front of you back; this is a very aggressive position. No, it’s more that your hands are just out in front of you, just enough, palms open and facing forward, which is an assertive stance that could say “Hey man, I don’t want any trouble. Just stay cool. This is a very reasonable position to start from, especially in a self-defense situation. If you do some things like avert your eyes just slightly, it provides a little more submissiveness to the position, which can be good towards helping diffuse a situation (but that doesn’t mean you are being submissive, perhaps just manipulative of the situation).

When you look at this posture, what is it? It’s the same posture I’m describing above. That guarding stance, hands open, arms up.  Look at the non-verbal message it sends to an attacker. It’s not taking an aggressive and obvious fighting stance (clench your fists or even loosely ball them). It’s not putting you in a negative position such hands above your head, or at your side, out of position to attack or defend. It leaves you guarded, defended, but sending a good message to an attacker. You can combine it with verbal commands “STOP, DON’T MOVE!” “BACK OFF NOW!” or perhaps just less assertive spoken words such as “Hey man, I don’t want any trouble.” or whatever is clear and appropriate for the situation. From this posture you can then transition to whatever may be necessary. You’ve got your hands in close, you can shoot your body inside his for takedowns. You can defend against strikes. You can do as I’m exploring above and be able to perform mantis-based traps and locks. You could transition to your sidearm. You could just transition to other non-verbals as needed, e.g. maybe you have to push your hands out further to be more aggressive and sending a stronger message.

The more I consider this sort of open handed guard position, the more potential I see within it.

My State Representative’s response to HB 1893

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HB 1893 (and SB 1164) has been introduced to the Texas Legislature. So like any good citizen, I took the time to write my elected officials. My State Representative is Valinda Bolton. She has a “C” grade from the NRA. One thing I appreciate about Rep. Bolton is every time I write her I do receive a prompt reply (well-run office/staffers). In the past the reply letters (always snail mailed, tho I sent her email) were rather boilerplate in nature and were generally of a “thank you for writing and sharing your comments on whatever matter with me, when/if it comes up I’ll study all sides of the matter and make the best decision possible, thank you drive thru.”. I’ll admit, I don’t expect a personalized letter, but it’s very difficult to tell from boilerplate letters exactly where she stands on an issue so I can know how she’s likely inclined to vote on the matter. So this last time when I wrote to her  regarding HB 1893 I actually made comment on that to her. To my pleasant surprise, her latest response to me was not a boilerplate at all. It answered my specific questions, used specific talking points from my email to her, and given the attribution at the bottom of the letter it does appear she actually composed the letter. So she’s got my respect for doing that. 

Allow me to reprint the full text of her letter.

Dear Mr. Daub

I am sorry if you felt the previous responses to your letters were boilerplate. In fact, while we do use a basic template for all our constituent correspondence, the body of each reply is specifically tailored to each individual.

In reference to your request for my stance on guns, I do support the right of Americans to own a gun. I believe guns are useful tools in the hands of responsible, well-trained individuals licensed to carry them. However, in an environment like a college campus, I feel that guns would be more of a liability than a tool. Thus, I cannot support allowing the carrying of concealed handguns on college campuses. While the shootings at the University of Texas and Virginia Tech were tragic, they are still rare occurrences best handled by law enforcement professionals, trained in both the use of firearms and crisis management. As for the more ordinary dangers you describe of female students walking across campus late at night, most campuses offer escort services where a public safety officer will accompany a student to her car or destination.

I  hope this answers your questions about my stance on gun-related issues. I do appreciate you writing to me and sharing your thoughts and opinions.

Sincerely,

Valinda Bolton

Texas State Representative

VB/mh

I don’t have a copy of my email to her, but in it I did mention the UT shootings and how the situation was aided by students going back to their dorm rooms, fetching their deer rifles, and shooting back. I also mentioned how we don’t need to just consider unique incidents like mass shootings by a crazy person, but consider daily mundane issues such as a girl walking across campus late at night — mugging, robbery, sexual assault, rape, etc. as these are things well worth protecting against as well. So to Rep. Bolton’s credit, she did work to address my specific message to her, and again I do appreciate that.

So, let’s start to look at Rep. Bolton’s response.

I do support the right of Americans to own a gun.

That’s a good start, and explains why her NRA grade isn’t an “F”.

I believe guns are useful tools in the hands of responsible, well-trained individuals licensed to carry them.

A few things here:

  • So guns are only useful if you are responsible AND well-trained AND licensed to carry them. 
  • Can a college student not be responsible AND well-trained AND licensed to carry a concealed handgun? It sounds like she believes that cannot be the case. Let’s not forget, all college students are not 18-21 years old, and I say that because the “responsible” portion is certainly arugable there. 🙂  What about folks that opt to go back to school later in life? That 40-year-old single mother that opts to attend night classes to better her lot in life so she can get a better job to better provide for her children.
  • Given the requirements in the Republic of Texas to obtain a Concealed Handgun License, you’re going to have to be a responsible, well-trained individual in order to obtain that license to carry a concealed handgun. So Rep. Bolton, according to the laws of our State, a person licensed to carry a concealed handgun is responsible and is well-trained. So… why can’t they carry their concealed handgun on campus?

Continuing:

However, in an environment like a college campus, I feel that guns would be more of a liability than a tool.

Why? And note she used the word “feel.” I understand this, “feel” vs. “think” because I carefully choose the use of those words myself. The implication is using her emotions to make this decision, not her reason, not her logic, not facts, not reality. Just how she feels.

While the shootings at the University of Texas and Virginia Tech were tragic, they are still rare occurrences best handled by law enforcement professionals, trained in both the use of firearms and crisis management.

Yeah, and look how well they handled them. Again back when Charles Whitman went crazy, students obtained their deer rifles from their dorm rooms and shot back; this helped to reduce the damage Whitman could inflict from that point on — armed citizens fighting back made a difference. And is the implication there that private citizens cannot have this training? That private citizens are incapable of doing such things? Oh yeah… gotta let someone else handle it; can’t fight my own fights, gotta let mommy or big brother protect me and fight my fights. Remember, when seconds count, police are only minutes away. Police tactics have changed in the past 10-ish years regarding such “active shooter” situations, with current tactics understanding that the sooner the attacker/shooter/criminal is engaged the better. Old tactics were that the first officer on the scene needed to wait for backup then work to engage the situation, reasoning being that it would be suicide for a single officer to arrive and immediately engage. Now tactics are for the first officer on the scene to engage immediately, because doing otherwise only increases the body count of innocents. So, to minimize damage the first person on the scene needs to engage immediately. If there’s not a police officer right there right then, then who are the first people on the scene, and use a little logical extrapolation as to who can respond first.

 As for the more ordinary dangers you describe of female students walking across campus late at night, most campuses offer escort services where a public safety officer will accompany a student to her car or destination.

“Most.” So ok, what about those that don’t have such a luxury? What are they supposed to do? As well, must now there be enough public safety officers available for all the women on campus? What happens after a football game when you have a large flow of people, a need for general crowd control, but then a need by some to want to be accompanied to their car? How can such services feasibly be offered? What are those women supposed to do? Furthermore, is under the watchful eye of a public safety officer the only way a woman is supposed to move about? Ms. Bolton, I’m sure you yourself prefer to walk about in your daily life without having to have someone there watching over you all the time. Or if you do prefer that someone else tail and watch over you and be responsible for your personal safety, you must realize that not all of us are like that. I know a lot of liberated women that prefer to take care of themselves. Why would you deny your sisters that ability?

So Rep. Bolton, while I understand how you feel, I respectfully think you need to revisit your feelings on the matter… perhaps even setting your feelings aside and applying some thought to the matter.

Training variations for hyung

/ hsoi

This morning I went into the backyard for some training and practice and wanted to share with you something I did during my session.

In Kuk Sool, there is something called “hyung bup” — principles of forms. They are basically:

  1. eyes bright
  2. mind clear
  3. hands fast
  4. feet slow
  5. body low

Now for the outsider looking in, you have to realize there’s more to these principles than the 10 words. For example, “eyes bright” isn’t that your eyes are shining like beacons, it’s about awareness. For now I’ll assume the reader understands these 5 principles and save a discussion of them for another time.

I started my practice slowly, working with Ki Cho Hyung. Ideally when you perform hyung it should be smooth, without stopping, and fast. Stopping is essential in learning the form, but as you progress things should be smooth, without any stops. One thing I picked up from my gun work (e.g. drawing from holster) is: slow is smooth, smooth is fast. All too often we train fast or at least at a moderate pace, but how smooth are we? And then if we aren’t stopping, are we also being sloppy? So this morning I opted to train with “slow is smooth, smooth is fast” in mind. The ideal is fast and smooth, no stopping, no sloppiness. So, start off by taking it slow.

When taking it slow, this also gives you a chance to really work on principles like “body low”. But more so, it really allows you the time to focus and be aware of your application of hyung bup throughout your execution of the form. You’re able to mind little details of your body position and correct them. You’re able to feel all the muscles contracting, including the muscles that shouldn’t be and therefore need to be relaxed. This isn’t to say you should move so slowly, like an exaggerated turtle, but that you should go at a slower pace than normal, smooth it out, and really allow yourself to be aware of your body and your application of hyung bup. It makes a difference.

After working on being slow and smooth for a while, I changed my practice slightly in how I applied hyung bup. I worked to exaggerate the principles (tho really, it tends to work best for hands fast, feet slow, body low). So I really pushed out my stances, not too stupid low levels, but certainly pushing them beyond where I normally go… to a level where yes my legs will shake and tremble as the muscles are tired, but not so much that by the end of the form my stance is nothing. It’s picking something just over my normal state so that I push myself a bit beyond my threshold so that my body grows stronger. Push yourself but pace yourself (train smart). Then I work at the feet slow, ensuring grounded stances, ensuring my head is level, my back is straight, my hips squared, my balance centered. Working on moving my hands as fast as possible, which seems even faster in contrast to the speed everything else is moving, but never letting it be sloppy. If things are getting sloppy, back off the speed a bit and work to make it correct and smooth; speed will eventually come. The key here is to take the principles and not push it to ridiculous extremes but to push it beyond your normal bounds so that you have to be just a bit more than before… it may not be comfortable, but eventually your body will adapt and strengthen, and that’s the point.

I like to perform this exaggeration of multiple principles at the same time, but if it’s too much for you at first, just pick one principle and focus on it. And really focus on it… do that form 10 times, 20 times, 50 times, all focusing on that one thing. Be aware of what you’re doing, how you’re progressing, and always striving to push yourself to be better, closer to ideal, nearer to perfect. Always check your personal feedback, never getting angry at yourself if you mess up but instead discovering something about yourself from that experience and do better on the next repetition. Then once you’re working well at the one, try exaggerating two principles during the same execution. And so on.

Hyung practice shouldn’t be mindless and repetitive movement, just you dancing about the floor. There should be thought and purpose in every movement. Hyung execution should be meaningful and productive.

On a home defense tool – part 4

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If you haven’t read part 1, part 2, and part 3, please go read them before you read part 4.

 

Through the joys of blogging and “suggested links” I stumbled upon a 3-part home defense series from Caleb/Ahab. Here are links to his part 1, part 2, and part 3. These dovetail perfectly into where I left off in my part 3, that equipment is important, but skills and mindset are more important.

I took a fantastic training course called Street & Vehicle Tactics, from InSights Training Center. When gun people take gun classes they want to shoot guns! But this class had no shooting whatsoever. Yes there was a lot of physicality and moving about, but most of what was taught was about mindset and tactics — it was all about using your gray matter. The course talks about Priorities of Survival:

  1. Awareness and preparedness
  2. Tactics
  3. Skill
  4. Equipment

This list is in order, and notice that equipment is at the bottom of the list. This does show that equipment does matter: if you have unreliable equipment, ineffective equipment, it’s going to affect your chances of survival. What has a greater impact on your chances of survival tho are the other listed factors. In fact, there’s a level of “force multiplication” involved here. What this means is as you go up the priorities list, your chances of survival multiply. Equipment gives you the least multiplier, awareness/preparedness gives you the greatest and could even compensate for all the others. The items at the top of the priority list will take you much further than the items at the bottom, and the more/better you can have of all the items, all the better for your chances of survival.

Going back to Caleb’s articles, let’s look at parts 1 and 3. In his part 1 Caleb discusses some good first lines of defense: checking the outside of your home and setting it up defensively (trimming back bushes, well-lit, fences); minding your doors and windows (solid, locked); having an alarm system (deterrent, notification system); the utility of a purposely-trained big dog; other things such as flashlights and mobile phones. What is this? awareness and preparedness. It’s being aware of your home situation: these bushes block this ground-level window, this tree next to the house comes close to that second-story window, there’s a dark spot over by the trash cans. It’s preparing your home: let’s trim back that bush, let’s get those tree limbs trimmed back, let’s install some floodlights around the trash can area, let’s repair the fence for Fido’s sake.  

In his part 3, Caleb talks about “the plan”. He discusses thinking ahead of time about what to do in a home-invasion situation. What to do, where to go, what role each member of the household has in the event — including children, where boundaries are. What is this? This is preparedness, and tactics. He has made a plan, it was made ahead of time, it could be thought through, and practiced. He is prepared. He has discussed the tactics: he arms and hunkers down, Mrs. Caleb removes herself from the line of fire and uses the mobile phone to dial 911 and report everything. A simple plan, but the tactics are worked out head of time. 

In his part 2, Caleb does talk about equipment. While he and I have arrived at a different set of equipment, that’s the equipment that works for him, and he offers some interesting alternative suggestions. One thing I would add is to look around your home and see what could be used in a pinch. For instance, I have a Vaughan SuperBar which would make a pretty ugly weapon.

The take-home message from this part of my series? While we love tools and equipment because it’s fun, tangible, and we just like tinkering with and talking about cool gadgets, it’s really the least important part of home defense or any type of self-defense. Your mindset and mental conditioning are the most important thing, and the more you can invest there, the further you will go.

On a home defense tool – part 3

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If you have not read “On a home defense tool” (part 1) I suggest you go back and read that first. After reading that, you should then read part 2, then come back and read this part 3.

 

While some may discount The Box O’ Truth (e.g. exactly how scientific is it), there’s still some merit in what was presented — it’s still food for thought, especially regarding things like buckshot patterning. So on the topic of ammo, not only do we want something good enough to stop the bad guys, but we also want something that minimizes risk of over-penetration especially in a home-defense situation.

The reality is, if you want it to penetrate the bad guy enough to make them stop, it’s going to have some risk of over-penetration (e.g. ability to go through common household walls). But depending on your ammo choice you can have greater or reduced issues to deal with.

So let’s see what one of the top resources has to say about choice in .223 ammo. Or from Troy & Dr. Gary Roberts. Now granted, what they write there is .223/5.56x45mm specific, but based on part 1 and part 2 of this series you can see where my bias lies. Nevertheless, let’s look at what Dr. Gary Roberts, LCDR, USNR, Stanford University Medical Center. Dr. Roberts has performed much published research into this matter and is a well-respected man in this field.

Given the widespread availability of this information for over a decade, I am shockingly surprised to read about the “overpenetration” with “high powered assault rifles”. In this day and age anyone who is spouting this BS needs to be horsewhipped… Several respected organizations have done structural wall testing, including the FBI, CHP, and IWBA. In our IWBA and CHP testing, replicas of standard construction interior walls were fabricated using two pieces of 1/2″ thick dry wall cut in 12″ x 24″ segments and mounted four inches apart using 2 x 4″ fir studs and 1.5″ dry wall screws. Five rounds of each load were first fired into bare gelatin to serve as controls. Then 5 shots of each load were shot through interior wall segments into gelatin blocks placed a set distance behind the intermediate barriers–various distances have been tested, typically ranging from 1 to 10 feet.

Generally, common service caliber JHP bullets failed to expand and had very deep, excessive penetration after passing through the interior wall, due to plugging of the hollow point. With the hollow point plugged, the bullets performed nearly identically to FMJ pistol bullets. The terminal performance of the 12 ga. 00 buckshot and slugs was not altered by passing through interior wall replicas, with penetration and deformation nearly identical with their performance in bare gelatin. Likewise, .308 rounds were not usually effected by the presence of an interior wall intermediate barrier.

With one exception, the majority of the 5.56 mm/.223 loads, including M855 62 gr “green-tip” FMJ, which were fired through interior walls demonstrated either minimal changes in terminal performance compared with bare gelatin or reduced penetration. The major exception were 55 gr M193 style FMJ projectiles which exhibited minimal fragmentation and deformation after first passing through interior wall replicas and hence penetrated deeper than in bare gel. Since all of the 5.56 mm/.223 bullets fired through the interior wall had significantly less penetration than 9 mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, and 12 ga. shotgun projectiles which were fired through an interior wall, stray 5.56 mm/.223 bullets seem to offer a reduced risk of injuring innocent bystanders and an inherent reduced risk of civil litigation in situations where bullets miss their intended target and enter or exit structures. As such, 5.56mm/.223 caliber weapons may be safer to use in CQB situations and crowded urban environments than service caliber handguns or 12 ga. weapons.

Obviously, it is important to keep in mind that purpose built barrier blind 5.56 mm/.223 projectiles, such as the 55 & 62 gr Federal Tactical JSP’s and the Nosler 60 gr Partition, will offer deeper penetration than fragmenting designs and may exit.
 

So as you can see, there’s something to be said for 5.56/.223 loads in a home-defense situation. And what fires those loads? Generally, rifles. And what’s generally going to be a better rifle for a home-defense situation, with corners, narrow hallways, darkened rooms? Your AR-style platform, or perhaps an “M4-gery” because it’s a bit more compact.

While ammo selection is certainly important, while your choice of hardware is certainly important, I’d argue there’s something more important: a proper warrior mindset combined with proper training/instruction and practice.

 

Continue to Part 4.

On a home defense tool – part 2

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If you have not read the first part of On a home defense tool, you should read that first so the following has context and makes more sense.

The following comes from John Holschen. The words and such are John’s, I’ve merely reformatted for HTML.

I’d like to share a few thoughts considering defensive long guns for your consideration.

I’ll start out by saying that a shotgun is my last choice to procure for employment as a defensive long gun. This is because:

  1. It is heavy.
  2. It’s manual of arms is relatively complex.
  3. It’s recoil is more difficult to manage for quick follow up shots (as might be required for multiple threats).
  4. It’s ammunition supply is relatively limited (this is not a critical factor in a typical home defense situation but it could become one in case of large scale civil disturbance).

Many people believe these drawbacks are offset due to various factors (which I believe are largely misconceptions), such as:

  1. “You don’t have to aim a shotgun just point it in the direction of the bad guy and pull the trigger.” (This is often an allusion to the fact that an untrained person will be using the shotgun.)
    • Reality – At the “across the room” distances likely to be found in most houses the shot column has not opened up significantly (especially with “Buck” sized shot.) Therefore you must aim.
    • Reality — Due to numbers 2 and 3 above, the shotgun actually requires more training for many/most people to shoot well when compared to a rifle.
    • Reality — The very people that would benefit most from additional training (those with small stature and/or less upper body strength) don’t want to train much with a shotgun because of the recoil and the weight.
  2. “Just the sound/appearance of a shotgun with dissuade attackers.”
    • Reality — In many situations it will not be tactically feasible to demonstrate either the sound or appearance of your weapon prior to using it.
    • Reality — Many/most bad guys aren’t switched-on enough for the type of gun you are using to even register with them.
    • And ultimately — I’m not willing to potentially decrease my effectiveness to potentially increase my bluffing power.
  3. “The shotgun is the most versatile defensive/survival weapon.”
    • Reality — Yes it is versatile; if by that you mean you could use it to hunt birds and up to deer sized game animals with the right loads. However, I suggest that people make an honest assessment of how likely it is that they will need to hunt birds with their primary defensive weapon. Also please keep in mind that versatility does have trade-offs as mentioned above. (I won’t even discuss gas rounds, bean-bag rounds, bird-bombs, Taser rounds, etc., other than to say that private citizens show not even consider these as factors in choosing their primary defensive weaponry).
  4. “The shotgun is less likely to over penetrate.”
    • Reality — A 5.56 mm rifle, with the proper ammunition, penetrates less through typical household construction than does 00 Buck.

I started by stating that the shotgun was my last choice to procure as a defensive weapon for my use. IT is even lower on my list of desired weapons for my wife and (adult) daughters to use. So what do I recommend for a defensive long gun? I suppose it will come as no surprise to most of you that my suggestions are:

  1. A semi-auto rifle (read AR)
  2. A semi-auto rifle (read AR)
  3. A semi-auto rifle (read AR)

If I absolutely could not have a semi-auto rifle I would rather have a pump-action rifle (or a lever action rifle) than a shotgun.

Just my (somewhat informed) opinions.

Again, let me state that these are merely opinions. However, they are informed opinions from people with solid backgrounds to shape those opinions. In the end, pick what is right for your situation and context, get training, practice, and be prepared.

 

Continue to Part 3.

Intolerance and Obama.

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Wow. (h/t to Rob)

But this level of massive intolerance doesn’t really surprise me. I’ve found those that scream about tolerance to be some of the most intolerant. Their definition of “tolerance” means that you tolerate what they want you to tolerate. Their definition of “open-mindedness” means you agree with what they agree with. Their definition of “good” is what they deem to be good. If you’re not with them, you are against them.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again.

Freedom is something we must give to others if we wish it for ourselves.

If you want tolerance, you must first be tolerant. If you want people to be open-minded to your opinions and ideas, you must first be open-minded to theirs. If you want good in the world, you must first accept what others consider good.

Another tip? Try to not be so hateful, especially towards those you feel “deserve” some scorn or hate. A little love, a little forgiveness, a little true understanding, a little humility… they go a long way.

On Wrists and Recoil

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Ahab has a piece on grip and recoil management. This has been one of the things I’ve been focusing on heavily in my practice. I can tell you without question it makes a huge difference. You go around enough and you find various suggestions on just how tightly to grip, and you should certainly try them all. I have, and I’ve found that nothing gives me greater recoil management and faster follow-up shots than griping hard.

I wanted to add a few things on wrists and grip.

  1. Whenever you grab your gun, always grip it hard. The biggest place to work on this is during dry-fire practice. We might slack on the grip because in dry-fire there is no recoil to manage. But by always gripping hard every time you grip your gun you 1. build up the grip strength, 2. get your body in the habit of “grip gun, grip hard” so that it’s just natural to grip hard. If you get in the habit of gripping weak, you may grip weak when you least want to.
  2. Make sure you engage all of your fingers, especially your pinky. How do we hold something delicate, like a champagne flute? with pinky extended. How do we hold something we need to keep a hold of, like swinging a hammer? with our full hand and all our fingers. Try it right now. Ball your fingers in a fist and clench. Now really concentrate on adding your pinky into that clench and you’ll likely find yourself gripping just a bit harder.
  3. On that notion, an interesting concept from my empty-hand martial arts study is the notion of “ki finger” (or maybe also called “ki grip” or “ki finger grip”). Watch the video embedded in that post. How that looks like your strong/shooting hand, eh? Believe it or not, you can actually exercise a great deal of your grip strength from your last 3 fingers and can almost ignore your index finger freeing it to do other things, such as work a trigger. The upshot here, when you’re thinking about your grip, experiment with focusing your grip on just your last 3 fingers (middle, ring, pinky) and grip hard with just them. It may or may not work for you, but it’s worth experimenting with.
  4. Always work to improve your grip. This doesn’t mean just when you grip the gun but any time you grip anything. This may not be gripping something hard, but at least ensuring a good grip. For instance, if you carry your groceries in sacks with handles, don’t let the handles droop to the end of your fingertrips — have a fully closed grip. If your grip is starting to fail, of course don’t sacrifice your groceries, but try to hold onto things as long as you can. Your muscles will work long after your brain says to stop, so hang on a bit longer to increase the muscle strength and endurance. If you want, throw in some wrist curls with the groceries too. 🙂
  5. Use it or lose it. If you want to develop the wrist strength, you must continually do so. To perhaps work on it today then not again for weeks isn’t going to develop anything except a poor work ethic. If you work on it for a while then give it up, you will likely lose some of the developed strength and endurance because now your muscles lack that increased workload. Our bodies like to maintain a state of “only what it needs” (efficency), so if it doesn’t need phonebook tearing wrist strength it won’t maintain that on its own. You must work to maintain it.
  6. As for specific exercises, there are many things you can do. Google is your friend.