Month: April 2013

Maya Angelou appreciates her guns

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Maya Angelou appreciates owning (and using) her guns:

“I do like to have guns around,” she told Time’s Belinda Luscombe when asked if she shared her mother’s fondness for firearms. “I don’t like to carry them. But I like — if somebody is going to come into my house and I have not put out the welcome mat, I want to stop them.”

Apparently she’s used her guns too:

“Have you ever fired a weapon?” the interviewer asked.

“Of course!” Ms. Angelou affirmed. “I was in my house in North Carolina. It was fall. I heard someone walking on the leaves. And somebody actually turned the knob. So I said, “Stand four feet back because I’m going to shoot now!” Boom! Boom! The police came by and said, ‘Ms. Angelou, the shots came from inside the house.’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t know how that happened.’”

I’m not going to comment on Ms. Angelou’s tactics or legal proceedings, nor the misconceptions about home invasion realities vs. where crime (attacks) typically happen.

No… just let it sink in that Maya Angelou understands that guns have a place in the lives of private citizens. She understands that guns can be tools used for protection (she apparently inherited the love of guns from her mother, who the Time interviewer referred to as ‘her protector’). She obviously considers herself a good, law-abiding, upstanding citizen, and appreciates that she was able to have — and use — a gun for her personal protection.

I don’t know when her home-defense incident occurred, but relative to that date consider…

…it could have prevented I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings from ever existing.

…it could have prevented Ms. Angelou from speaking at President Clinton’s inauguration.

…it could have denied the world of a civil rights leader.

…she likely would not have received the Presidental Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2011.

…and the world would have lost one of its great writers, speakers, and influencers.

If Maya Angelou understands this, why don’t you?

Acevedo supports CHL?

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Texas CHL process is what responsible gun ownership is about. Proud of our process & the overall excellence of our CHL holders.

@ArtAcevedo

Really? Color me a little surprised.

Well, now Austin’s police chief is on record, and I do thank him for his words. But, it seems contrary to prior words.

He apparently doesn’t think college students are responsible enough.

“When you start talking about 21 year-olds and college students, responsibility is the last thing on their minds,” Acevedo said. “With a lot of pressure and high campus suicide rates, the last thing we want to include in that environment, like a bar, is guns.”

(full story)

So let me get this straight. A 21-year-old Texas resident gets a Texas CHL. To have that CHL apparently demonstrates the person is a responsible gun owner — a person of excellence, according to Chief Acevedo.

But if that 21-year-old is a college student, if they cross over into the magical fairyland bubble of the college campus… suddenly somehow responsibility degrades to becoming the last thing on their mind.

Apparently I’m failing to understand Mr. Acevedo’s logic.

 

Improving my skills

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Of course, during the Rangemaster Instructor Certification Course I paid attention to my own shooting performance.

Shooting around 1000 rounds over 3 days actually isn’t a lot compared to numerous other “weekend training” courses, but again, this was predominantly a class about building instructors and not all the time was out on the range.

We shot the new FBI Qualfication course, the new Rangemaster Instructor qualification course, and a host of other drills and tests. With that, here’s some things I came back with regarding my own shooting skill.

25 Yards

In the past, long distance shooting has been a weak spot. Even 15 yards was tough. Not so over the weekend. I was fine at 15 yards, and 25 wasn’t horrible, but wasn’t good either.

I do know one problem was my gun. It had been shooting left, and upon closer examination we saw the rear sight had moved. TXGunGeek gave it a whack (this was a couple weeks prior to class), but the sight was much looser in the dovetail than expected and the sight really moved! TXGunGeek did his best to recenter it, and it looked good to both our eyes. In initial testing, I swore it was a little off to the right, but couldn’t eliminate that it might be me, then we ran out of time so I said “good enough” and moved on. Upon later examination, turns out that yes it’s just off to the right. It’s hard to see except under the right light conditions, but it is “just off”. And while you can’t notice it in closer shooting, it’s sorely evident in 25 yard shooting.

However, that’s only a small thing. And frankly, given how off I was in later drills, I can tell you the performance is all me and not the sights. 🙂  I could have corrected them but didn’t want to risk making the problem worse during the weekend. Besides, it wouldn’t have mattered. It was all me.

Discussed with Karl, and he gave me some things to try. Alas, it’s mostly live-fire, which is a tough thing to do these days (ammo situation). So I asked if there was any dry fire stuff and he said: “Other than dry firing at smaller targets there’s not much to do to work on type 4/5 shooting dry fire.”  He also suggested I check out Ben Stoeger’s books.

Grip

Karl came up with a fun way to describe the grip you need: Homer choking Bart. 🙂  It works surprisingly well at getting the point across.

I’ve been inconsistent in my grip. I need to choke Bart. More specifically, I need to ensure my pinky is involved in the grip. This is something I learned back in Kuk Sool regarding grip. When you hold a champagne flute you extend your pinky, because it’s a delicate thing. When you grip a hammer, you use all your fingers and hold on. A gun has a lot more energy behind it than a hammer, so you really need to hold on. You will have MUCH more grip if you involve your pinky. Heck, when deadlifting, involve your pinky and your grip will be happier.

I just need to be consistent.

Press-out / Present

I was taking an approach of extreme slowness. I think it was after watching so much FAST Drill stuff, like this video of Mike Brook. You can see how the press-out looks so slow. Well, that’s what I was doing, but I was slower. I received constant feedback about how smooth my present was, but it was slow and I know I wasn’t getting out with enough time to then do the rest of the work I needed to do — which was all the work (drawing is just the first step to get you there). I could get things done, but I’d have to rush it a bit.

Why was I doing that? Well, primarily I was doing it in an effort to “see enough”. I was really working on getting the gun into my eye-target line, ensuring I could see what I needed to get, getting a good sight picture, and not letting one go before I knew I’d get an acceptable hit. I didn’t want to just be throwing the gun out there, pushing it out there, hunting for the sights, etc..

Well, it wasn’t quite getting me there.

At one point Karl told me to just get it out there as fast as you can, but decelerate on the press-out. He actually told me that some time ago and I tried it, but it wasn’t working for me. But I immediately took his advice and did it during the rest of the weekend. I was shooting much better. Buzzer sounds, move as quickly as possible to clear garment, grip, draw, move to position 3, all as quickly as I can. From there, change gears and start to slow down. Actually probably about 75% of the way out it’s still fast, then a sudden and smooth stop. And lo, it worked.

Perhaps it was that I needed to work on things a lot slower for a while, to get smoother. And now, deceleration works better.

There were times I was on the line shooting next to Karl. A few times my peripheral vision caught me pressing out with Karl or even faster than he did, so hey… guess that’s good. 🙂

But it brought to light a more important thing….

Visual Knowledge

I don’t know how else to phrase it.

I know in my head that when shooting at closer distances you don’t need a perfect textbook sight picture (e.g. Brian Enos’ “type 2”) to get acceptable hits. So I know and I go as fast as I need to, and I get acceptable hits. It works well and good. BUT there’s always this thing in the back of my head nagging, wondering, and telling me — that’s wrong! That I am shooting too fast for my sights, too fast for my vision, that I’m not seeing enough, and that I’m getting unacceptable hits. Of course after I’m done shooting, everything’s in the A-Zone, because I KNOW what I’m doing is alright and within parameters, but still… my brain doubts.

I realized why.

I don’t have the “visual knowledge”.

I think the seed for this realization was sown by my friend Tim Meyers, who is a Master-ranked shooter in IDPA. He said something to the effect of how he got there because he was able to learn what he needed to see.

This is also something I know, but I don’t know. That is, I know you gotta know this, but I don’t yet know it.

See, usually when I’m doing live fire work, I’m trying to work on other things and so I’m concerned with those things and not necessarily recording what I see. Well, that’s what I need to do. I need to shoot not to work on a skill or get all hits in the A-Zone. No, I just need to shoot at X speed and let my eyes record and register what I see. So do something like a Bill Drill at 3 yards, 5 yards, 7 yards. Just shoot. Just try to go “as fast as possible” and what I need to pay attention to and record is what my eyes are seeing. That I will see “X”. After I’m done, look at my target. If everything is good, then what I saw was ‘good enough’ for what I needed. Of course, repeat this numerous times to ensure it’s how things actually are and not a fluke run. If I have unacceptable hits, was I going too fast? do I need to see more? can I see less? And just play with it. The goal isn’t to work on grip or stance or trigger control or draw or press-out or hits or anything. The goal is to just shoot a bunch and “gather data” about what the eyes should be seeing. If the eyes see X, what results does X bring, y’know?

So in the near-future, that’s what I do with any live fire. Of course, it sucks to have this come at a time when ammo is expensive and hard to find. 🙂

In fact, it’s kinda what I need to do with my 25 yard shooting, but there it’s type 4, and here it’s type 2.

General

Of course, practice on all things is good. Working on reloads, working on draw, trigger control, you name it. Everything can always use more practice.

Some things to also work on are general defensive “response”, like to side-step, draw, shoot, ready, scan, 360 scan, reload, reholster, etc.. Insert MUC into the mix, etc..

But if there’s any one thing to focus on right now, in my dry work it’ll be draw and present (with deceleration). And in live work, gathering “visual knowledge”.

2013-04-03 training log

/ hsoi

Back on the higher road with bench press.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 18, week 3

  • Work Set – Bench Press (working max: 235#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x95
    • 1x5x120
    • 1x3x145
    • 1x5x180 (work)
    • 1x3x200
    • 1x4x225 (rep-PR)
  • Assistance – Bench Press
    • 5 x 10/10/10/10/6 x 140
  • Assistance – Pendlay Rows
    • 5 x 10 x 120

Strictly speaking, it’s only a rep PR because I’ve done 225 before, but it’s still a “true” PR because I’ve never done this much weight for this many reps period — it’s my new max/ceiling “most I’ve ever done before in my life period”. 🙂

So cool on that. Back to 2 wheels!

I had to drop back my weight because I changed my form — arms tucked more, so less chest, more triceps. It’s been a slow climb back up, but you just keep moving forward and eventually you get there. And with happier shoulders!

I am a little upset I didn’t get at least 5 reps, but I’m not surprised. It finally dawned on me with my feet: I’m pressing through with my toes, not my heels. It’s either because my feet are curled in, so I press down on my toes, or because they’re out in front and so the angle of attack is different… and either way, I’m not pushing through with my heels! It seems so obvious now, but it obviously wasn’t until now. 🙂 So of course, instead of saying “set it aside, deal with it next week”, I started to dink with it. I also had settled before this session that my cue was “tight”. And well… things were all over the place:

– Fiddling with my feet
– Trying to be “tight” but not, or at least not overall tight
– For whatever reason when I press I “suck in” instead of pressing my gut out into the belt — old habits die VERY hard?

And so with these and other little things, my brain was thinking about too many things.

The thing was, that first rep with 225? Felt soooo easy! I felt I could have done 10 reps. But my brain started to overload with cues and feedback, I thought about too many things, my bar path lost the groove, strong but “wiggly/wobbly”.. .and that’s not going to get me far. So after 4 reps I just racked it and that was that.

Anyways, it felt good to be back here and able to just fully progress forward now, instead of trying to regain ground.

Flooding around Austin

/ hsoi

Austin got nailed by some wicked storms yesterday. On the one hand, awesome, because we are sorely in need of rain. On the other hand, not so awesome because the lack of rain has made the ground really hard so downpours like that tend to run off and flood.

Live in Austin? wondering if roads are closed due to flooding? The city has a pretty cool interactive map with information on road closures and status due to flooding: ATX Floods.

on capacity

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

One thing I love about Tom Givens is his incredible depth of knowledge. His expertise in matters of personal safety and firearms is unparalleled. Because of this, he’s able to get you thinking about things in different ways.

For example, in the recent Instructor Certification course I took with him, Tom discussed “high-capacity” magazines in guns.

When people hear “high-capacity magazines” (or more commonly, “high-capacity assault clips” *sigh*), they think about how it gives you the ability to shoot more. According to Tom, that’s not what they are for. And when you think about it, that really isn’t what they provide. They don’t really enable you to “shoot more” because there are many other ways to accomplish “shoot more”.

But what capacity allows you to do that really nothing else allows?

To reload less.

Practical

Let’s look at the practical side of it. Credit to Tom Givens for presenting this logic.

A “split” is the time between shots. So if someone is shooting 0.20 second splits, that means there was 0.20 seconds of time between the end of the first shot and the beginning of the second. So you can think of it that if someone shoots 0.20 second splits, they are capable of firing 2 shots in 0.20 seconds, if you will.

I’m going to simplify the math here, because it makes discussion easier. But the point still gets across.

If someone then has 5 rounds, which is typical of many revolvers, that means the shooter could empty the revolver in 1 second.

That’s not very long, is it?

10 rounds? 2 seconds.

15 rounds? 3 seconds.

According to data from self-defense gunfights (private citizens, FBI, DEA), the typical gunfight lasts 3 seconds.

So let that sink in.

If the fight is only going to last 3 seconds, after 5 rounds you’re out of the fight — but the fight is still going on. Of course, that’s if your fight is a typical one; would really suck if your fight was atypical and went longer.

If you’ve now lost use of a very important tool, do you think you have gained advantage or lost advantage? What are you going to do to make up that advantage? because I’m sure you don’t want to lose the fight (and possibly your life).

Oh sure, you could reload, but even the fastest reload takes time. And it doesn’t matter the technique, be it a speed reload or drawing a backup, it still eats precious time.

So if you don’t have to reload? All the better. It can keep you in the fight longer, which hopefully will be long enough to end the fight and you to prevail.

Of course, this is then argument against those small guns, those low-capcacity guns. Yes, sometimes we have to carry them. But if you have a choice, take the Glock 17 over the Kahr PM9.

Political

I wish I didn’t have to write about the political nature of this, but some people only view “high-capacity assault clips” as a way to inflict more death and violence upon the innocent children of the world.

If that were the case, why would police want guns that can hold lots of ammo?

Why would police have moved away from 6-shot revolvers to 17-shot Glocks?

Why do you think police would want more ammo?

Of course, because they might be caught in a prolonged gun battle. But also because having to reload less allows them to end attacks quickly.

Why would this be any different for private citizens?

Or for gun-banning politicians and their well-armed bodyguards…..

Here’s the rub. If you look at most mass shooting incidents, they are not 3-second affairs. The killer has many guns, and a lot of time. They are slow, methodical, often speak to their victims before shooting them. They have all the time in the world to reek their mayhem and destruction upon the world. Lowering capacity will not stop or dissuade them in any regard.

So why do it?

We don’t consider it rational in any other arena to undergo activities that have no demonstrable ability to achieve desired goals, so why is it considered acceptable to implement ineffective solutions in this arena? And if you tell me “if it saves just one life, then it’s worth it”, I can present to you now 60 students of Tom Givens’ that had their lives saved because they had their gun. So there’s 60 lives, and so by your logic it’s 60-times worth it to have guns and concealed carry.

The only thing restricting capacity does is harm innocent law-abiding citizens. Are these the people you wish to abridge? Well, some might argue that yes, that’s precisely who “gun control advocates” want to injure.

But I say this… if it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander — and all of society. So, police should also be subject to the same restrictions. Our military should be subject to the same restrictions. Your bodyguards should be subject to the same restrictions. If you are unwilling to enact the restrictions for them, why is that? And why should this class of citizens be more privileged? If we don’t like the 1% having all the privilege, why are you giving up the power to them?

Why is it OK for them to be protected, but it’s not OK for me and my children to be protected by the same measure and standard? Why are we considered less, and why are you advocating for us to be treated as lessers?

Please… someone that wishes to enact such restrictions. Please, answer my questions and convince me of your stance. Convince me what you say is right, just, true, and factually and rationally the right choice. Please show me the data and convince me that capacity restrictions will achieve your desired goals of “won’t someone think of the children”. Please. I seek truth and am willing to change my mind if the right and logical facts are presented to me — it’s how I became a gun-owner in the first place, because until about 5 years ago I wasn’t. But that’s why I changed my mind in the first place – because I finally stopped and listened to reason, facts, and logic — not emotion, not misconceptions and ignorance.

And when you’re done trying to convince me… please look my children in the eye and tell them the same.

What can we learn – 3rd party intervention

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

TXGunGeek raises a good point about getting involved:

The general manager of a local car dealership was shot during an incident at a San Antonio gentlemen’s club early Monday morning.

KENS 5 in San Antonio reports the victim of the shooting was Mike Vivaldi, who heads up Team Ford of Navasota.

According to WOAI Radio, the shooting happened around 2:00 a.m. Monday at the Palace Men’s Club on Northeast Loop 410.

Police believe Vivaldi was attempting to break up a fight in the truck in the parking lot between a man and a woman when a gun was pulled by the man. Vivaldi was reportedly shot twice in the mid-section.

The truck drove away from the scene, both the shooter and the woman reportedly inside.

Vivaldi was hospitalized at the San Antonio Military Medical Center, originally in critical condition, though reports out of San Antonio say he has been stabilized.

Original Story

TXGunGeek’s main point? Getting involved in third party issues.

Now certainly, we can understand the situation. You see a fight. You see perhaps some man beating up a woman. You are going to have a hard time standing by and watching it.

But do you know what’s going on?

Is it worth getting in the middle of someone else’s heated issue, because it may cost you. Mr. Vivaldi was fortunate he wasn’t killed, but look at the medical bills, lost work, and who knows what longer-term impacts upon his quality of life he’s going to have. Was it worth it?

Was it worth (potentially) dying over?

This is a personal decision. We all draw our lines at different points. Even if you consider the “beer & TV maxim” of self-defense, we can still draw our lines in different places.

To come to the aid of a third party is a personal decision. It may also depend upon who this third party is: your spouse, your child, your boss, a friend, an ex-significant other, a random person on the street. But you need to figure out where your line is BEFORE you get involved. Where is your line? where is your threshold?

Another point to consider is something John Farnam says all the time about how to avoid trouble:

Donʼt go to stupid places; donʼt associate with stupid people; donʼt do stupid things. We will add to that, be in bed by 10 oʼclock.

Updated 2013-04-04: There’s more to the story.

Updated story

According to the San Antonio Police Department’s preliminary report, a friend of Vivaldi’s told police that three people — Vivaldi, himself and another friend — had attended Sunday night’s San Antonio Spurs game and went to the gentlemen’s club afterwards, all part of a birthday celebration. SAPD noted all three were under the influence of alcohol. The names of Vivaldi’s friends were redacted in the report.

As the trio was getting into a cab, Vivaldi’s friend said an unknown white male came to the driver’s side window and started yelling an obscenity-laced string of words at the group.

The first friend of Vivaldi’s told police the trio exited the cab and started walking towards the yelling man, who waved them on towards him. The friend says he then noticed a white female who was with the male. Vivaldi would reportedly go on to remove his shirt as he and his friends moved towards the man.

Eventually, Vivaldi’s friend told police the man made it to his pickup truck in the parking lot, pulled out a pistol and aimed it at Vivaldi’s other friend. After trying to talk the gunman down, the first friend of Vivaldi’s said the man turned the weapon towards Vivaldi and fired multiple shots.

Whenever I hear, read, or see some guy taking off his shirt in this context, I always think about LowTechCombat’s “Alpha Male” notion.

Anyways, I’ll just refer back to Mr. Farnam’s quote above.

2013-04-01 training log

/ hsoi

Truly, your mind is the strongest part of you.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 18, week 3

  • Work Set – Squat (working max: 295#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x120
    • 1x5x150
    • 1x3x180
    • 1x5x225 (work)
    • 1x3x255
    • 1x4x285 (PR)
    • hold 315
  • Assistance – Squat
    • 2 x 20/10 x 150
  • Assistance – Leg Curls
    • 2 x 25/20 x 40
  • Foam Rolling

So I busted through. Last cycle I struggled to get 2 reps with 285 and dumped the bar going for 3.

Today I got 4 pretty strong reps. Oh sure, they weren’t a technique clinic, but I went all the way down and told myself if I don’t come up, then I don’t. At least I’m not going to half-ass it, so to speak.

Am I truly stronger than I was last cycle? On paper, sure. In reality? not so sure. Probably so, but I think the difference between last cycle and today is my mental state.

I’ve had so many things on my mind lately. My brain has NOT been into my training sessions. I’ve been thinking about this, that, and the other; what I need to do, what I’ve done, what I have yet to do, what’s still on my to-do list, what design problem I’m dealing with, what drama I don’t need in my life…. whatever. So many things on my brain.

But finally I’m over some humps, various things are coming together or winding up, and my brain is less cluttered. I took the weekend to relax. I napped a lot. I did break CBL discipline and ate fairly decently — I even think that was needed for my head because CBL is still something I have to intentionally do, it’s not just a natural part of me; thus it draws from finite energy stores. And so today? All I did was be “in the moment”. Oh sure, it wasn’t perfect… I might dance around here and there. But I told myself if I wasn’t thinking about the lift, then I could only think about lifting-related stuff. No work, no play, no friends, no family, no nothing other than the weight at hand.

It paid off.

I felt the weights like I hadn’t in a long time.

I felt my muscles moving.

I could feel and “see” what my body was doing, or failing to do.

“Tight” was the cue for today, and I used it because I could immediately notice what my body was doing — no distractions.

Oh sure… I put that 285 on my back. I walked it out. Stood there for a moment to get a new breath…. and suddenly my brain flashed. One of those “life flashing before your eyes” types of moments. But it wasn’t that I was going to die, per se. It was my brain trying to come up with a way to handle the failure — that if I was going to fail again, how to handle the fail. I was a little annoyed, but it happened, I didn’t intend for it, but the subconscious did it… and I let it go and pressed on. In a way, it was comforting because I knew there was a plan, but it also drove me because there was no way I was going to enact that plan. Not today!

So I felt good.

I’m 15# away from 300, and 30 from 3 wheels. Damn that’s so close I can taste it. No, I don’t want to let my ego drive me, because that will just get me hurt. I am debating if I should take my working-max up by 5# or 10#. If my mental state and life-stress works out right, I think I can jump 10# and be fine, so that’s presently what I’m leaning towards. Hell, I spent all this past weekend thinking about today’s squat. I geared so much towards it: rest, eating, whatever. I was going to make this lift. And frankly, if I have the mental “time” to spend thinking about my squat so much then yeah… life’s freeing up a bit. 🙂

In other news… I’m continuing my exploration into high-reps… like beyond 15+ reps… 20 rep squats, 25 reps, 50 reps, maybe 100 rep curls… who knows. Lots of stuff here. I’ll write on this some other time. But I will say… I almost couldn’t walk home from the gym this morning after those higher-rep squats and leg curls. 🙂