Author: hsoi

Homicide Trends

/ hsoi

The following information comes from Tom Givens. It’s a copy/paste (with minor edits only for formatting/posting). Take it for what it’s worth.

Homicide Trends

The US Department of Justice gathers and reports information on a number of crime classifications from all over the United States. They recently released a huge amount of data on homicides occurring during the time period 1976-2005. This is a 29 year period, so there was a lot of data to examine. Here are a few tidbits from that information.

Males are almost four times as likely to be murdered as females. Males are also far more likely to be the offender.

Among male victims, they were killed by:

  • Spouse, ex-spouse, or girlfriend 5%
  • Other family member 6.8%
  • Acquaintance/known person 35.3%
  • Stanger or unknown killer 52.9%

Among female victims, they were killed by:

  • Spouse, ex-spouse, boyfriend 30%
  • Other family member 11.8%
  • Acquaintance/ known person 21.8%
  • Stranger/unknown 36.3%

Cases involving:

  • male offender/ male victim 65.3%
  • male offender/female victim 22.7%
  • female offender/male victim 9.6%
  • female offender/female victim 2.4%

Age of victims:

  • Under 18 9.8%
  • 18-34 52.7%
  • 35-49 22.8%
  • 50+ 14.7%

Circumstances of murder, 2005 only:

  • Felony murder* 2,432 15%
  • Argument 4,787
  • Gang related 955 5.7%
  • Other ** 2,223
  • Unknown ** 6,295

Felony murder is a murder committed during the commission of some other felony, such as armed robbery, car-jacking, rape, etc. “Other” and “Unknown” accounted for 51% of all homicides. “Other”, “Unknown” and “Felony Murder” together comprised 66% (2 out of 3) of these homicides. These are the ones we go armed to prevent.

Please note that gang related murders were the smallest percentage. The common notion that most murders are gang members killing each other is nonsense.

A couple of other quick facts:
Each year about 4,400 unidentified human bodies are recovered in the US. About 1,000 remain unidentified after one year. At any given time, there are approximately 100,000 active missing person cases in the US. Many of these are soon found, as they are voluntary disappearances due to marital discord, domestic violence, credit issues, etc. However, several thousand each year disappear without a trace and are never seen again. Obviously, these are undetected homicides that add to the data detailed above.

Other Violent Crime
These figures are also from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a branch of the US Department of Justice. These deal specifically with 2006.

Total Violent Crime Incidents for 2006 = 5,685,620 (1 for every 54 people)

A common fallacy is that this violent crime takes place in the wee hours, after midnight. Wrong!

  • 6 am-6 pm 52.4%
  • 6 pm-midnight 32.8%
  • midnight-6 am 10.9%

Robbery = 645,950 with injury to the victim= 232,380

Rape = 255,630 Victim’s advocacy groups believe about 1 rape out of every 6 is reported to the police. Do the math.

Aggravated Assault = 1,209,730 (an assault involving a deadly weapon and/or serious bodily injury to the victim) Many Aggravated Assault victims are permanently disabled, have to have multiple surgeries, or are permanently disfigured, they just didn’t die and become homicides.

2014-05-23 training log

/ hsoi

Based upon Paul Carter’s Base Building – Mass cycle

  • BB Rows
    • 140 x 8
    • 140 x 8
    • 140 x 8
    • 140 x 8
    • 140 x 8
  • Seated Cable Rows
    • 100 x 15
    • 100 x 15
    • 100 x 10
  • Meadows Shrugs
    • 50e x 12
    • 50e x 12
    • 50e x 12
    • 50e x 12
    • 50e x 12
  • Wide, Neutral-grip Pulldowns
    • 95 x 15
    • 100 x 12
    • 100 x 12
    • 100 x 12
    • 100 x 12
  • BB Curls
    • 50 x 8
    • 50 x 8
    • 50 x 8, then rest pause

    • Actually felt good today. The rep-deaths of the past 2 sessions didn’t appear to be an issue today.

    I did try some minor tweaks.

    Rows. These are still BB rows, not strict Pendlay Rows, but between each rep I set the bar down on the ground. I kept fairly strict, but just not keeping the bar in the air the whole time. I don’t know why I did this, but I did it and went with it, and it seems better. I felt a lot more worked in my back. I think when I keep it in the air the whole time, my arms bear a lot of the work. But here, I can ensure I come off the ground and really initiate the work with the back. Certainly felt it more in my back than I normally do. Good thing.

    On the Meadows Shrugs, I probably went too light because it wasn’t killing me like it was last week. But I played around with my positioning to try to get a better range of motion. What I settled on was DB’s hanging mostly in front of me, tho not strictly as if I’m holding a bar in front of me (they are DB’s, let them rotate a bit to a natural position). Angle the torso slightly forward at the hips, just very slightly (5º? 10º?). Then “turtle” the head/neck forward. This allows the shoulders to get a little higher at the top. Try it. Suck your chin in and really pull your head back. Shrug your shoulders and hold it up there. Now “turtle” your head/neck/chin forward and see how your shoulders move up a little more? More range of motion. So I’ll go with that

    I also dropped the reps and increased the weight slightly on pulldowns — why not keep experimenting? That felt a LOT better to me, aiming for 12 reps instead of 15. It just worked a bit better, I felt more worked in my back and not in my arms. So, I’ll keep going with that emotion.

    Failing at advocacy – You’re not helping

    / hsoi / 2 Comments

    Yes, it’s perfectly legal in many states. So is staring at a woman’s cleavage and making comments about it. Yet it’s bad form to do both.

    – Paul Martin

    So the latest “gun rights” ruckus is a group in Texas did an “open carry” meeting at a Chipotle restaurant. And everyone’s got their panties in a wad about it, on all sides of the issue.

    Chipotle is asking people to not do this (full statement in this article). While parts of the statement do sound like they “personally” are anti-gun (given their choice of words and phrasing), in the end it seems they ultimately want to stay out of this political issue and want to just focus on selling burritos. I can’t say I blame them, and frankly that’s probably the best stance they can take on this issue.

    So please, open carry folks, stop it.

    Look I get it. You want to normalize open carry. If we keep it under wraps, how will it ever be normal? Frequently it’s compared to bigotry against blacks or Jews or homosexuals — if you keep it hidden, if you never allow it to just integrate and be part of everyone’s daily life, how will it ever become normal? I get it.

    Here’s the problem.

    Pro-gun people will see you, nod and smile and move on; but these aren’t the people you’re trying to convince. There will be strong anti-gun people that you will never win over (just like there will always be racists and homophobes that will never be convinced otherwise); so don’t worry about them too much. So who is there to convince? The people in the middle.

    Alas, the primary message the people in the middle receive is that “guns are bad”. You know it, I know it. Part of why you’re doing what you’re doing is precisely to counter the notion of “guns are bad”; you’re trying to show people that “guns are normal”. So you KNOW “bad” is the primary message being broadcast and received. It’s because that’s how guns are portrayed in the mainstream media, and thus it’s the dominant message received by the eyes and ears of the masses.

    How does you sitting in a restaurant with a rifle on your back convince people that such behavior is normal? Remember, a person defines normal as “what I do/say/believe”, and since they don’t sit around with guns on their backs hanging out with other people who have guns on their backs, therefore what you are doing isn’t “normal” (in their eyes). They don’t know you, if you really are a good person or not, if you’re normal, if you’re trustworthy. And throw in their (irrational) fear of guns, and you’ve made a horrible first impression. And yes, it’s irrational, but the present zeitgeist has made everyone afraid of and skeptical of everything, from the food we eat to the air we breathe to the people we interact with. If people are going to be operating from such an initial state, how do you think they are going to perceive you? Why are you acting surprised that  people (the “sheep”, the “grasseaters”), are scared of you?

    How does this win anyone over to the cause?

    How is this good advocacy?

    You have to stop thinking about the message you think you’re sending, and start thinking about the message being received. If you want to show people that gun owners are normal, then act normal — or perhaps more importantly, act in a way that others perceive is normal.

    What do normal people do when they want to convince someone of a position? They engage them and talk with them in a comfortable manner. If Jane Soccermom sees a big scary guy with a big scary rifle, do you really think she’s going to allow you to walk up to her and engage her in a dialogue? I know, it’s not fair, it’s not right to judge people by the way they look, but it’s how our monkey-brains work, so get over it and learn to use it to your advantage instead of having it perpetually work against you. Again, the message you are sending is failing because the message received is NOT the message you intended to send.

    If a co-worker expresses something about guns, don’t get in an impassioned battle with them to shut them down and prove them wrong. Instead, just talk with them — or more importantly, listen to them. Address and validate their concerns. It’s not a time to push agenda, but to listen and understand their point of view. If you can, invite them to the gun range some time to shoot a gun (and make it reasonable, like an outdoor range shooting a .22 at a bullseye paper target; and make it fun).

    Look, if Ted Nugent can help Anthony Bourdain gain understanding, then you can too. But until people can see things like Bourdain sees them, they’re going to see them as they see it — and you with an AR strapped to your back looks not-normal, and will only serve to make them think that Bloomberg and Erika Soto Lamb and their ilk are actually right and rational.

    The next big “gun rights” issue here in Texas is precisely open carry. If we want to win on this, we need to proceed in a manner most likely to garner positive public support. Because despite what Chipotle thinks, it’s the role of the people — not elected officials — to set policy in this area. So let’s work to win the minds of the people by helping them understand. Help them see what is normal by acting normal. And most of all: stop focusing on the message you are trying to send and instead focus on the message being received. When the message being received is the message you’re trying to send, then you’ve succeeded — until then, you’re not helping.

    Updated: Even Linoge, one of the biggest open carry supporters I know, agrees. You’re not helping.

    2014-05-21 training log

    / hsoi

    I’m not sure what to make of this.

    Based upon Paul Carter’s Base Building – Mass cycle

    • Squat – working max: 295
      • BW x 10
      • BW x 10
      • bar x 5
      • bar x 5
      • 120 x 5
      • 150 x 4
      • 175 x 3
      • 225 x 2
      • 250 x 1
      • 215 x 10
      • 215 x 5
    • Stiff Leg Deadlift
      • 205 x 8
      • 205 x 8
      • 205 x 8
    • Lunge
      • BW x 10e
      • BW x 10e
      • BW x 10e
      • BW x 10e
    • Standing Calf Raises
      • 45 x 12
      • 45 x 12
      • 45 x 12
      • 45 x 12

    Is it the removal of creatine that’s doing this? I don’t know. I couldn’t squeeze out any more squat reps, and I’m down from last week. But then, I cranked out a full round of stiff-legs, and I did a 4th set of lunges. So I don’t get it. Not really sure what’s up here, but I continue to just press on.

    Meantime, I’m thinking during week 5 I’ll try to determine maxes for the Strong-15 cycle, take week 6 as a light deload (still hit the gym, just light weights for like 3×8 or something), then hit it. I admit, I’m anxious to get started… and I’m pretty sure I’ll find out why Paul Carter calls that one template the “man maker”.

    Minimum Competency for Defensive Pistol – Revisited Again

    / hsoi

    I just re-read an article from Claude Werner on “Practice priorities for the Armed Citizen“. (h/t Greg Ellifritz). As I was reading it, it reminded me of my article series on “Minimum Competency for Defensive Pistol“. I did revisit the series a few months back, but Claude’s article gave me a few more things to think about, and perhaps revise/refine in my suggestions for practice and skills progression.

    Claude speaks about a progression, a “where do I go from here?” sort of thing. Claude offers his own suggestions, like the NRA Defensive Pistol Qualification. But what really got me was pointing out a key problem most people have when it comes to live fire practice:

    Most people have to limit their livefire practice to indoor ranges where drawing from the holster is not allowed. This presents an issue to those who carry pistol in holsters. There are solutions, though.

    Indeed this is a problem. I’ve gotten quite spoiled at KR Training and with the host of good ranges around Austin where you can do things like practice drawing from a holster. Of course, there are still those people that go to one of the local indoor ranges that have these restrictions, and of course others around the country tend to have these restrictions as well. I overlooked that reality. Claude offers:

    Like many of my colleagues, for a long time I said the hard part of the drawstroke is establishing grip. I’ve changed my opinion on that. The hard part of the drawstroke is getting the pistol indexed on the target enough to get a good hit with the first shot. John Shaw, a World Champion shooter, clued me in to this many years ago. Note that I didn’t say a ‘perfect’ hit.

    Indexing the pistol to the target (presentation) is easily practiced from a high ready position starting at the pectoral muscle of the body’s dominant side. Starting this way is not generally a problem at an indoor range. And since I recommend practicing one shot per presentation, the ‘no rapid fire’ limitation at many indoor ranges isn’t an issue either.

    This is one of those smack your head because you wish you could have had a V-8 sort of moments. What Claude writes is so true. The press-out, the presentation, whatever you want to call it, it’s the hardest part and such a vital skill. When you draw? You then must press-out. After a reload? You must press out. Clear a malfunction? You must press out. The press out is such a vital skill (it’s a key thing stressed in so many of the KR Training courses). And yes, you can practice this at the indoor ranges. You can start from that high, compressed ready position (step 3 of the 4-step drawstroke), and press out and break one shot. While you might end up eventually moving fast in doing this, your single-shots will still be “slow” relative to each other (i.e. you’re not double-tapping) and thus no range rules broken. So so so true, and so important.

    Thank you Claude for my “V-8 moment”. Regardless if you take a progression like Claude recommends or I recommend, the underlying issue remains the same: that you’ll use some particular course of fire (e.g. TX CHL test), assess your skills, then focus on improving the areas you identified as weak. For example, my last live-fire practice session I shot numerous drills not so much to shoot the drills (i.e. throw lead in a semi-organized manner), but to exercise the fundamental skills I consider important and identify what I was doing well and what I needed work on. I saw I needed to move faster, and doing a lot of one-shot draws are in my future. So yes, working that press-out is in my future.

    Another thing Claude touched on.

    …to get a good hit with the first shot…. Note that I didn’t say a ‘perfect’ hit.

    Also:

    What I like about it most is that it is a 100 percent standard, not 70 or 80 percent like a qualification course. We need to accustom ourselves to the concept that if we shoot at a criminal, ALL the rounds we fire must hit the target. That’s being responsible.

    These remind me of my concept of “(un)acceptable hit“. I just prefer that phrasing over “good hit” or “miss”, because like Claude said, it’s not necessarily a “perfect” hit. It’s also understanding that all the rounds must hit what we need it to hit; we must make acceptable hits.

    Thanx, Claude!

    PanemQuotidianum 1.0.3 released

    / hsoi

    Hsoi Enterprises LLC (my day job, now) has released an update to one of our apps, PanemQuotidianum.

    Full details of the update here.

    If you’re so inclined, please check it out and share it with others.

    Thank you.

     

    2014-05-19 training log

    / hsoi

    Today was… interesting.

    Based upon Paul Carter’s Base Building – Mass cycle

    • Incline Press – Working max:
      • 45 x 5
      • 45 x 5
      • 85 x 5
      • 105 x 4
      • 125 x 3
      • 155 x 2
      • 175 x 1
      • 160 x 14
      • 160 x 4
    • DB Bench Press
      • 60e x 10
      • 60e x 10
      • 60e x 5
      • 60e x 8
      • 60e x 8
    • Behind the Neck Press
      • 95 x 8
      • 95 x 7
      • 95 x 5
    • BB Upright Row
      • 70 x 12
      • 70 x 12
      • 70 x 12
      • 70 x 12
      • 70 x 8
    • Rope Tricep Pushdowns
      • 45 x ? a bunch… rest pause style

    I cranked out 14 reps, then I barely got 4. Huh? Weird. Then while DB pressing, 3rd set I suddenly failed. I was almost done with a 6th rep when suddenly everything just stopped — muscles said “I’m done”. I am not sure if I got out of the groove and things just didn’t happen, but look… I got 2 sets of 8 afterwards. Eh?

    I’m not sure what to make of this.

    I’ve been off creatine for a bit… maybe I’m now starting to see the effects and am losing out on those last few reps? Maybe today just sucked? Maybe I really drained myself on the 14 reps and that sucked it out for the rest of the session? I will say even those 14 turned into a grinder. I really can’t say based on one day. But… it’s curious for sure.

    In other news… I’m continuing to think about what to do when this cycle is done. I am starting to lean towards a 9-week Strong-15 cycle, THEN trying like 6 weeks of basebuilding followed by the Strong-15 short cycle then back to mass/BB-style stuff. I dunno. Key thing is I want to get back to some strength building. Still toying around.

    Sunday Metal – Top Metal Albums 1990-2000 – #11 Sepultura

    / hsoi

    When Metal-Rules.com posted their Top 30 Metal Albums 1990-2000, I thought it’d make a fun list for Sunday Metal.

    #11 – Sepultura – Chaos A.D.

    “Territory”

    2014-05-16 training log

    / hsoi

    This was good.

    Based upon Paul Carter’s Base Building – Mass cycle

  • BB Rows
    • 140 x 8
    • 140 x 8
    • 140 x 8
    • 140 x 8
    • 140 x 8
  • Seated Cable Rows
    • 100 x 15
    • 100 x 15
    • 100 x 10
  • Meadows Shrugs
    • 40e x 12
    • 45e x 12
    • 50e x 12
    • 55e x 12
    • 50e x 12
  • Wide, Neutral-grip Pulldowns
    • 95 x 15
    • 95 x 15
    • 95 x 15
    • 95 x 13
    • 95 x 12
  • BB Curls
    • 45 x 21’s
    • 45 x 21’s
    • 45 x 21’s

    • Today was pretty cool.

    Last night Paul Carter posted something to Facebook showing progress of doing “Meadows Shrugs”. These are from John Meadows and it’s basically a DB shrug with a 3 second hold at the top. After 5 weeks, Paul was showing significant growth in his traps. So what the hey… let’s try them! Paul said to go light, so I did and worked up. If I do 4-5×12, I think 50’s will probably get me by for now. I will say, that hold… it does get to you, so you really have to squeeze and then squeeze harder to maintain it. If anything tho, my grip was getting tired before my traps were, but that’s OK too as grip work is never a bad thing. Afterwards? I can say I’ve never had a pump like this in my traps. I’m going to keep at them for this cycle. Why not?

    That said, the methodology spilled over to my pulldowns. See, a common problem I have with my back work is my arms get too involved. So I work to take them out of the equation as much as I can. Cues like to ensure from the hands, it’s the pinky that does the work. Or that really when pulling, I pull from the elbows, not the hands. Alas, these cues do well to keep my arms out, but not always to then ensure I fully involve the back. All too often I do wind up with my arms being the weak link and they peed out before my back does. So when I moved over to the pulldowns, those don’t work for me to do a hold — my arms bear the brunt. So I tried instead that when I got down, to give it a little more pull — like a crunch, like a squeeze, to really get my back/lats a little more tight without getting my arms any further involved. That seemed to help out. So this may be something I have to do for my back — more “tricks” and things to continue to get full-range of motion and less arm involvement, while getting my back muscles actually worked hard.

    Funny thing then… my arms didn’t get as much work as usual, so I did some 21’s (7 full reps, 7 top-half reps, 7 bottom-half reps) at the end.

    One thing I’m not sure how it factors in… a few changes.

    First, sleep seems to be getting better for me. Still weird, but I see increments of progress.

    Second, I am cutting out all caffeine. I propped myself up pretty badly over the past 1-1.5 years due to the day job. While I would then taper, I’d still do things like take a 200mg capsule before lifting or drink iced tea. Dropped those.

    Third, I’ve cut out creatine. I don’t cycle it — take it steady. While I don’t think this was having a negative impact on me, if I do wind up wanting to get a blood test to see if I may have some deeper issue with my sleep and such, I’d like to not have the artificially elevated creatine levels.

    Anyways, today was a lot better than last week. So, we’ll just see how things work out over time.