Month: February 2011

Utah gun-permit bill moving along

/ hsoi

It looks like Utah’s SB36 is on its way to the governor

The Legislature gave final approval Monday to a bill that would require out-of-state gun owners who seek a Utah concealed-weapon permit to first obtain a permit from their home states, if available.

The Senate voted 25-0 to accept earlier House amendments to SB36 and sent it to Gov. Gary Herbert. The House changes make it clear that out-of-state residents could apply immediately for a Utah permit if their home state does not recognize Utah’s.

As I mentioned before, I like this because it’s Utah fixing Utah’s problems, so hopefully that means Texas HB 356 can be withdrawn. I am going to drop a line to Rep. Burnam accordingly.

No time

/ hsoi

This past weekend was a wake-up call for me in many ways, most of which had nothing to do with guns or shooting.

I’ve got many things swirling around in my head right now. Good things. Potentially life-changing things.

Reading Bill Roger’s book last night was serendipitous in numerous ways.

It’s going to be tough to keep up with one blog post a day, but here we are, made my one a day. 🙂  Just a matter of time and where to spend my mental energy right now. Nebulous and useless posting for most of you, I know.

NRA Personal Protection Outside the Home

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I am now (almost*) a certified instructor in NRA Personal Protection Outside the Home (PPOTH). In short, this is the NRA’s course for teaching private citizens how to draw a handgun from a concealed holster and use it as a last resort for self-defense.

I spent Valentine’s Day weekend working on this certification, because I love what I do and I do this for those that I love. It was long and intensive – 33 hours of training in 3 days. First we take the actual PPOTH course (14 hours), then we learn how to teach the course (19 hours). It was taught by Wendell Joost and Dave Burdett, hosted at KR Training.

The stated course goal:

To develop in students the knowledge, skills, and attitude essential for avoiding dangerous confrontations and for the safe, effective, responsible, and ethical use of a concealed pistol for self-defnse outside the home.

Students are expected to already know fundamentals of marksmanship and personal defense, as NRA Personal Protection Inside the Home is a prerequisite (there is also a pre-test that can be administered to waive this requirement). PPOTH provides important foundational material such as how to select proper equipment; proper mindset for concealed carry; dealing with the physical, mental, emotional, and legal aspects of concealed carry; and fundamental shooting skills for the context. The shooting skills build from the basics of drawing from a holster, to shooting multiple targets, use of cover, different shooting positions (e.g. kneeling, squatting, turning, basic movement). Even drawing from other carry methods like a holster purse. Yes… nothing like 12 guys struggling on the firing line not with how to shoot, but with how to carry and use a purse. 🙂  But it’s good because as instructors we can encounter students that don’t fit our personal mold, e.g. a right-handed semi-auto shooter. We could have a lefty shooting a revolver (note: 99% of revolvers are right-hand biased, and not very lefty friendly), we could have a woman who wishes to carry in her purse. We need to know how to work with these things.

Overall, the material in the PPOTH course is pretty good; we were pleasantly surprised. The material is nothing groundbreaking and isn’t on the cutting edge of carry techniques (e.g. it doesn’t mention the “cheek index” flashlight technique, which is de rigueur these days), but overall what’s presented and how it’s presented is quite solid. Yes, we came to learn and understand lots of “design by committee” and internal politics that went into producing this course, so I’d have to give it a B+ rating. There are a few little nits, printing errors, and stuff  you can easily overlook and forgive. There are some inconsistencies, e.g. some shooting exercises reuse the “ready” command to mean two different things, so it’s best for any prospective instructor to reconcile the instructor manual and the range drill manual AND also run through everything outside of a class and add your own notes to ensure typos and omissions don’t catch you.

One thing that really bugged me was how during instruction they say:

You should never search and assess with an empty gun. Always reload before scanning and assessing the area. (Instructor manual, page V-15)

But then all the range commands during the shooting drills have you scan then reload. The instructor manual does attempt to excuse it by saying “However, for training purposes, when you exhaust your ammunition on the last shot of an exercise, do not reload before scanning and assessing.” (V-15) But this is bad! Page II-3 of the Instructor manual says:

The way you train is the way you will react under stress. This is why you will train to develop proper habits, such as immediately seeking cover.

I agree. You will fight the way you train. I recall a story of a police officer that was killed in the line of duty. The way the police department gun range operated, you shot your revolver, then you could not drop the empty cases onto the floor: you had to dump them into your hand, put them into your pocket, then reload. Well, this officer was in the field, got into a gunfight, and was killed. When the officer was found, he had empty cases in his hand because he was fighting like he trained: wasting time with range administrative nonsense instead of getting his gun and himself back into the fight. I don’t know exactly why the NRA chose to say one thing then train another – that’s bad. They should be training that if your gun runs dry, immediately get it back into action. The gun should be ready for action before you scan. If this class is out to introduce people to concepts, if this is the first time students could be learning such concepts, then we should be setting them up for success in everything we do and teach. We should be carving those initial neural pathways with the 100% right way to do things, not cluttering them up with administrative nonsense that won’t serve to help them.

I am making a big deal out of that one because it stood out to me, but that is just one. On the whole, NRA PPOTH is a good course and is generally full of good material. Material that, with a good instructor that cares enough to make the right corrections and spit-and-polish where needed, can make PPOTH into a very good course for teaching these concepts. I find PPOTH is a good introduction to all the factors that come into play when it comes to concealed carry. Couple that, at least here in Texas, with the Texas CHL course, tests, and requirements, and someone who wishes to carry a concealed handgun should have a good start on things. I say start because I highly encourage people to seek greater, deeper, and continuing education. Obtaining your CHL is just the beginning and should open the gate for more education.

One other thing I got out of the weekend? I’m embarrassingly out of practice. 😦 I know why… the job change has me down, stress, and so on. It’s no excuse, but it is why. But I am wanting to use it as motivation to not just get more practice, but to ensure I get out and shoot more because yes, it’ll be a stress reliever. The weather appears to be improving here too (the 3 class days had perfect weather), so maybe that means soon I can be back at the reloading bench getting to work on my .223 loads… but I digress. That said, I did spend most of the weekend shooting my snub revolver, and that was fun. 🙂

I’d like to thank Karl Rehn for hosting the event. I’d also like to thank Dave Burdett for coming down from College Station, and Wendell Joost for coming out from Seattle. It was a pleasure to meet and work with both of them, and I’m sure we’ll continue to cross paths in the future. It was cool to finally meet Dave Re, and we got to talking about a project to do together (stay tuned). And finally, I’d like to give thanks to Tom Hogel, for being my snubbie brother this weekend and always being there to bust my chops. 🙂

(*almost – just a matter of paperwork and processing; all the heavy lifting is complete)

Updated: Dave Re, another student in the class, posted to his blog about his experience.

Pictures, 1000 words, and all that

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Reams of data, mountains of evidence… it’s just difficult to convey it. Especially these days because 1. people are rather impatient and want their information right now, 2. we have so much data, we just can’t sift through it all. So what better than a picture to make it all clear.

Take a look at these pictures. They make things quite clear.

(thanx, Linoge… you’ve always got good stuff)

Off the wagon

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

I fell off the wagon *sigh*

Been trying to shed a few pounds, but  stress has taken its toll and I’ve fallen off the wagon. I haven’t really gained, but I haven’t lost either. *sigh*  It’s really only 20# to go, but still….

A few things need to change:

First, I need to pick back up on regular exercise. That will help. But the hard part there is motivation. Again, stress from work and other things has got me down (also why my blogging’s been light). I know this would help, not just with the weight-loss but also the stress management and just general fitness.

Second, I need to sell my motorcycle. The guy that said he would buy it, he’s not responding so I’ve given up on him. I need to start formal work to sell the thing (if you’re in the area and interested, drop me a line). Once it’s out of the garage, that will actually help on the exercise front because I’ll have a whole bay that I can use for workouts.

All a matter right now of time, which is currently my most precious and scarce commodity.

Excellent use for old cell phones

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I knew that old cell phones, plan or not, still had to be able to call through to 911. A Good Thing™ for sure.

Linoge took the logical step.

Put it on a timer. It’s one of those things where you slap yourself on the forehead for not thinking of it yourself. Makes perfect sense because it keeps the phone powered up, keeps the battery “moving”, but doesn’t make for a constant drain. And if you’ve got a bunch of old phones, scatter them about in your “safe areas” and other “hunker-down” spots so there’s certainly a phone where you need it for when you need it.

Of course, do check them. Old phones could have batteries at the end of their life. One hour a day may not be enough to keep them working. Do check them from time to time to ensure they are working and holding a charge. etc..

Nice tip!

The myths go on

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Tam linked to a blog posting where they tested various loads against drywall. The intent was to address the common myth about what can and can’t go through drywall, thinking shotgun loads will have little penetration and rifles will go right through to the next zip code.

The Box O’ Truth has covered this many times. I’ve blogged on it too. But hey, I’m not going to deny someone a fun day at a the range. 🙂  Besides, more supporting evidence is always welcome.

Their conclusion? Same as the others: rifle rounds penetrated the least. Well-designed .223 Rem/5.56×45 NATO rounds will fragment and yaw. That’s how they do their damage, but it also means a dramatic loss of energy and penetration potential (after initial impact) thus all those over-penetration concerns are addressed. Buckshot? It just keeps going and going, and where do those pellets land? A hollow-point handgun round hits drywall, plugs the cavity up, and now it’s going to act like a ball round and just keep penetrating, no expansion to help slow it down. More info here.

So really, I know what conventional wisdom is, but it needs to be updated because the data and facts support it. Kudos for CTone for helping to spread that word. 🙂

But despite that, some myth remains. One commenter on CTone’s posting, Laughingdog, said:

Honestly, a shotgun really is the ideal choice for a home defense weapon for most people, but not for the bullshit reasons so many instructors give (e.g., won’t penetrate drywall, you don’t have to aim, etc.).

You can get a good pump action shotgun for less than the cost of a good handgun, and much less than the cost of a good semi-auto rifle. That pump action shotgun is also easier to operate than most semi-auto rifles. Most people can figure out a pump-action without a lot of help.

[…]

To clarify the point I was trying to make there. The average person is not going to spend the money on a good rifle. They also aren’t going to spend the time training with that rifle. So, for that type of person, a shotgun is a good choice, but not because of the myth that it won’t go through the walls.

Laughingdog, I’m not picking on you in particular, just you happened to say what a lot of people say. First yes, shotguns generally can be obtained much less expensively, which is something in their favor. But easier to operate? I’m not so sure. Most rifles are a simple point-and-click interface. If you want to talk inexpensive shotgun, that means a pump-action. While yes most people can figure out the notion of a pump, it doesn’t magically happen — you still have to have practiced with it. And when the flag flies, are you going to remember to “point-click-rack-point-click-rack”? And if you do, to not short-shuck it? People have trouble with flicking off manual safeties when the flag flies — especially people who don’t practice — so why would they remember to rack the shotgun? And how about reloading? It’s far easier and faster to drop an old and insert a fresh magazine, it’s far more cumbersome to reload a shotgun (which has such low-capacity to begin with). Don’t think your situation will require a reload? How do you know that (and it’s not just about number of rounds fired, what about malfunctions?) Take a look at the Magpul Dynamics Art of the Dynamic Shotgun video and you’ll see how complex the shotgun weapon system really is.

If you’re not going to train (and that’s a whole other matter), you really need the simplest manual of arms possible. When you eliminate the commonalities between a rifle and shotgun (e.g. both require flicking off a safety, both have to be aimed), the rifle is going to be simpler, in theory. I say in theory because the rifle could have some of its own issues, like holdover. But the decision of what tool to use is not as simple as “oh this one is better because of X Y and Z”. You have to choose the right tool given the context. That right tool could be a shotgun, that right tool could be a rifle, that right tool could be a handgun, that right tool could be something else. The best you can do is talk frankly about all weapon systems, give people information, then let them make the best decision that fits them. Corollary to that is if you then find out your decision wasn’t right, fix it; don’t be afraid to admit mistake or fix a problem or upgrade your situation… your life hangs on it.

I will say tho, Laughingdog did make an excellent case to use to dispel another horrible myth of defensive shotgun use.

 

I’m just glad I’ve gotten all of the other instructors at the range, as well as about half of the salesmen downstairs, to accept that bird shot is not acceptable self-defense ammo. Even the stubborn ones finally cave when I say two words to them to describe why bird shot sucks for that purpose: “Dick Cheney”.

 

 

Good one! 🙂

 

Federal ammo recall

/ hsoi

Federal just announced a recall on some lots of .45 ACP ammo:

 

Certain lots of recently manufactured 45 Auto ammunition may contain an incorrect propellant charge. Use of product from these lots may result in firearm damage and possible serious injury.

DO NOT USE PRODUCT FROM THE FOLLOWING LOTS:

38X628 through 38X765

38T491 through 38T414

If you have in your possession any 45 Auto with the following brand names and part numbers, check to see if your ammunition package contains the above lots: American Eagle (AE45A, AE45N1, or AE45A250), ChampionTM (WM5233), GoldMedal (GM45B), Hi-Shok (45C, 45D) and Federal Personal Defense (C45C, C45D).

THIS WARNING APPLIES ONLY TO THE LOTS LISTED ABOVE.

If you possess ammunition from any of these lots, or have questions concerning this warning, please call at 1-800-831-0850 or 1-800-322-2342 and ask for Product Service. Federal will provide replacement product and will cover the cost of returning the affected product.

 

 

Organic and natural

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Just because something is “organic” and “natural” doesn’t mean it’s good for you.

Take arsenic for instance.

Hemlock.

Lead.

They’re all organic, they’re all natural. They’re even dolphin-safe! But they aren’t good for you. 🙂

(OK, arsenic and lead don’t have a carbon-basis, but I’m talking marketing terms here. Regardless, a heaping bowl of organic hemlock sprinkled with 100% natural arsenic won’t do your body good.)