Month: October 2012

Lessons to learn

/ hsoi

Dallas police said a woman shot at two people who kicked in the door to her house late Wednesday morning, killing one.

The shooting occurred at about 11:30 a.m. in the 7200 block of Concordia Drive.

Dallas police said the woman was home alone when she heard a noise — two men had kicked in the front door of her house.

She confronted the two men as they reached the second-floor landing and shot at them several times, police said.

Full Story. (h/t Guy)

Fits the typical profile for a home breakin: mid-week, mid-morning. Most home breakins happen during the work week between about 10 AM and 3 PM, because they expect no one will be home, off at the job working.

Failure of the victim selection process.

I’m not sure if the homeowner had any other lines of defense: alarm system (and using it), doesn’t seem to be sign of a useful dog, and not sure about the state of the home itself that may have made it seem appealing. But the more layers of defense you can have, the more you can do to make your home appear unappealing and “not worth the effort”, the better. It can help you keep a situation from progressing in the first place.

He said he will now teach his daughter how to forgive herself for taking a life.

I’m not sure this was some poetic hyperbole by the article author or fact, but assuming it’s fact well… this is one of those things that hopefully you think about and put into perspective before you consider a gun as a tool of self-defense. No, we don’t “shoot to kill”, we work to stop the threat. But in stopping the threat, yes a life may be taken. The better prepared you are for that reality before the fact, the better you’ll be able to handle it after the fact.

I’m glad the young woman is safe.

Is a pocket gun enough?

/ hsoi

When many people think about the right gun for concealed carry, their thoughts focus on “small, light, concealable”. So things like 5-shot snub revolvers (e.g S&W 642) or tiny semi-autos (Ruger LCP, Kel-Tec P-32, Kahr PM9) come to mind. There are many things one gives up in going to such a small gun, but there are also benefits — there’s always a trade-off somewhere.

But has anyone really quantified this data? Or is it just a bunch of internet gun-slinger bravado and anecdote about why you shouldn’t carry any gun other than a 1911 in .45 ACP the way God and John Moses Browning intended?

Claude Werner has done some study into this, and many people don’t like his results because they clash with their notion of reality.

Karl Rehn opted to do some study and data collection into this area himself. Remember that Defensive Pistol Skills BUG class I did back in July? Karl’s results are finally published in USCCA Magazine.

And Karl happened to get a picture of me looking like Trogdor.

Not everyone’s going to like the results, but data speaks for itself.

Equipment matters, and having better equipment — which does mean larger guns with greater capacity and that are easier to shoot and thus gain acceptable hits — are preferred. But a smaller gun is better than no gun.

But in the end? Training, practice, skill… that trumps equipment.

From the speech, Citizenship in a Republic, 1910

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

If a public man tries to get your vote by saying that he will do something wrong in your interest, you can be absolutely certain that if ever it becomes worth his while he will do something wrong against your interest.

–  Theodore Roosevelt

Read it in context here.

When coyotes attack… in my front yard

/ hsoi / 16 Comments

5:30 AM. Saturday morning.

Kissing Wife goodbye before I head out the door to KR Training. We hear a cat yowl outside, but didn’t think too much of it because we’ve been hearing cat fights in the early mornings for the past some whiles.

But Sasha thought something of it. She got amped… in a different way. Something wasn’t right, as far as she perceived.

I stepped out the front door and in a matter of seconds realized what was wrong.

10 yards in front of me — in the grass of my front yard — I saw the shape of a dog, turning to stare back at me.

“Crap… dog… what’s this dog? a problem dog? friendly dog? don’t let MY dog out, don’t let my dog see this!”

“Oh… there are TWO dogs… there’s something dangling from the second dog’s mouth… it’s… a cat… OH SHIT. COYOTES!” They obviously had just killed the cat.

It all flashed and processed in a couple seconds. Dropped my stuff back in the house and the 2 yotes took off. I booked it after the yotes as they took off down the street. I chased for a number of reasons: to try to better identify the animal taken (so the neighbor that lost the cat could know; closure), to see what I could see about the yotes themselves; to chase them off. No… I wasn’t going to get all Rick Perry on them.

I was able to get a fair idea of the cat… tho we’re not sure who it belonged to. Wife and Kiddos found a cat collar in the yard; no tags.

Really, none of this surprises me.

We may live in Austin, but wildlife abounds. Deer are common, with our landscape being munched and deer poop throughout the neighborhood yards. We probably hear coyotes howl at least once or twice a month. I remember a few years ago there was a mountain lion spotted at the Wildflower Center (matter of miles from my house).

And coyotes have to eat too. As far as I could tell, they were just hungry.

Food hasn’t been scarce… but then, when there are lots of cats wandering the neighborhood, that equates to food not being scarce.

No it wasn’t what I expected to see when I stepped out of my house, but it’s not really a surprise.

It’s a reality of living in this area. Be aware of it. And if you don’t want such a result to befall your beloved pets, keep them indoors.

2012-10-15 workout – Wender 5/3/1 program, cycle 14, squat 2

/ hsoi

My ankles suck, but it led to better things.

“Week 3”

  • 3 reps – Squat (working max: 280#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x5x140
    • 1x3x170
    • 1x3x200 (work)
    • 1x3x225
    • 1x3x255
  • Asst. #2 – Pulldown Abs
    • 5 x 12 x 120
  • Foam Rolling

Over the weekend I (re)aggravated my left ankle. It hurts…. bad.

Still, I wanted to squat. I drove to the gym to avoid the extra pounding on the ankle. I did my work set, but it was evident that was all I was going to get, so I skipped the 5×10 squats and just went to the ab work and moved along. Oh well.

One cool thing tho is I really set up for each lift. I wanted to be mindful of the ankle so I was really on with technique and making each rep solid. I was VERY happy with my performance. I will chalk up today to being one full of quality, not quantity. I can live with that.

Class was good

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

This past Saturday was another round of classes at KR Training. We had one of our good combo days: Basic Pistol 2 and Defensive Pistol Skills 1.

There isn’t much to say here that hasn’t been said before about these classes, because the things that students encounter, the enlightenment, it surprises, etc. is all pretty typical for those classes. Trigger control and sight alignment remain the order of the day. 🙂  Really tho, part of why there’s not much to say is because these two classes were pretty awesome. A fantastic group of students in both classes. One thing that we noticed in DPS1 was how little we taped the targets — students were really doing well! And apart from a little rain here and there, which was easy to work around, classes went smooooooth.

But I did see a few things worth mentioning.

M&P Shield – Saw a LOT of these during the classes. I should have counted, didn’t, but there were numerous and so quickly after introduction. Shows the explosion of this gun’s popularity. But I saw a couple of things that bothered me.

1. I’ve been seeing the Shield fail to go into battery more than enough times. It goes like 98% into battery, which isn’t enough, and the gun doesn’t work. And it happens over and over. I’m not sure why it’s happening, but I’ve seen it with my Shield, and I saw it happen to multiple students and their respective Shield’s. I have no idea what to call the culprit tho… but it’s just something that gives me pause.

2. One student had a brand new Shield with a magazine disconnect. Rumor has it that now every Shield is made this way because of Massachusetts? I don’t yet know if this is the case, but if in fact EVERY Shield is now made with a disconnect well…. since I can’t recommend a gun with a disconnect, then that means I can no longer recommend the Shield. That sucks. I’ll try to look into this more.

Demographics – This morning’s The Shooting Wire had this blurb about new shooters

Having said that, I admit some concerns when a new shooter is sporting body piercings, body art and a decidedly goth dress code. Today, however, that new shooter may be male or female. They’re just expressing themselves, albeit differently from anything I’d ever considered.

Instead of accenting differences, I’m increasingly trying to convince myself to take the things we agree on (like guns) and use them as the lubrication needed to get beyond my personal

We had a wide range of students in class: young to old, male and female, and while there were no goths, there were certainly some people who broke the stereotypical gun owner mold. And one of those guys was shooting pretty damn good.

I always point out demographics because I see the reality of what gun ownership is like, and who is shooting… and who is starting to learn to shoot. It’s growing, it’s widening, it’s diversifying. No pigeonholing here.

Personal note  – On a personal note, I need to remember to keep my voice relaxed… let the PA/bullhorn do its job. It’s hard to… you have ear muffs on, I’m deaf enough already, you start to speak louder… and that just kills the vocal chords. I did better… voice made it all the way through class. But still. 🙂

 

Keep fighting

/ hsoi

A former Gurkha soldier fought off a mugger in spite of having a 6in knife blade jammed into his arm – then managed to keep hold of his attacker for 15 minutes while he waited for the police to arrive.

…

Shop owner Taitex Phlamachha had just been to a cashpoint with his wife when he was pushed up against a wall and told to ‘hand over the money’ or get stabbed.

…

The tussling pair fell to the ground and the mugger knelt on Mr Phlamachha’s chest before trying to stab him in the stomach four or five times.

…

But the Gurkha blocked him, then disabled the knifeman with a kick before holding on to his clothes with one arm. However, the blade of the knife had become lodged in his arm, and it was the handle that fell to the floor. During the struggle he was able to free his mobile phone from his pocket and throw it to his wife, who called the police.

…

‘Nothing like this has ever happened to me before and I will do anything to protect myself and family.’

Full Story.

Lesson? Keep fighting.