Author: hsoi

BUG transition practice

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Do you carry a BUG (Back-Up Gun)?

Do you practice with the BUG? By that I mean all the same skills you practice with your primary piece.

Do you practice drawing the BUG from where you carry it? Do you carry your BUG in an ankle holster? Do you practice drawing from it? Maybe you can’t at the range, but at least you can dry practice it at home. Can you draw from this location? Do you carry in a pocket holster? Can you get the gun in a good grip, out and on target in time? If not, reconsider your BUG carry location, or at least acknowledge to yourself the limits and constraints of the location and work within those bounds. Or perhaps you just may need more practice.

Do you practice transitioning from your main carry gun to your BUG? In the heat of a confrontation, transitioning to the BUG may involve dropping your carry gun on the ground and going for the BUG. If the S is H’ing TF, I don’t care what happens to my main gun (i.e. hits ground and breaks), but in practice I do care. I will practice this sort of transition over the bed, so when I drop I know my main gun is landing safely. This isn’t practicing so much about dropping my gun as it is drawing the BUG, but I also want to allow myself to know “yes it’s OK to just drop the gun… don’t waste time trying to find it a home like in the holster… the ground is a perfectly acceptable home when the fur is flying.”

If you carry a BUG, by definition it’s a second gun. That means the likely way you’ll get to it is because your first gun is no longer operational, thus transitions are something to practice. And don’t forget, practice going the other way too (BUG to primary) because sometimes it may go that way.

Sunday Metal – Broken Teeth

/ hsoi

OK, so maybe it’s not metal like Meshuggah, but hey… Austin, Texas’ own Broken Teeth kicks ass.

What I love about this video for “Viva La Rock, Fantastico” is well… the video. McMaster’s got an iPod in his ear for the audio feed, then a camera in his hand, and appears to just be wandering the streets in downtown Austin filming. Kinda cheesy, kinda cheap, but also kinda cool. 🙂

Check more details at Blabbermouth.

I feel safer, don’t you?

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I knew they were starting them at a young age.

Meet America’s tiniest terrorist: 6-year-old Allison Mosher, who’s landed on the nation’s No Fly List alongside mad bombers and other villainous thugs in a mind-boggling snafu that could scuttle her family’s Grand Canyon vacation, her outraged dad says.

We’re assured the list is accurate. So I guess little Allison must have seriously threatened someone that took her pillow at naptime or brought her white milk instead of chocolate when it was time for snacks. I guess Al Qaeda is infiltrating our playgrounds, making swing-sets the next big target.

But the list must be accurate. The TSA told us so:

Ann Davis, a TSA spokeswoman, said that because there are no children on the No Fly List…

No children on the No Fly List, like 6-year-old child Allison Mosher, who is on the No Fly List.

Yes yes. We have nothing to worry about. This is all for our safety.

Ronald Reagan said it best:

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.

BBQ Not Found

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

A few days ago I was in a business that had lots of old vehicle license plates decorating the walls. Some were just plain plates, others were vanity plates. One in particular caught my eye. Given it’s age (well before the Internet) I have to assume it the combination of letters and numbers was coincidence. I forgot to get a picture, but I can’t forget what the plate said:

BBQ 404

All I could think to myself was “BBQ not found? How sad.” 🙂

Tips from the blotter

/ hsoi

From time to time, scan your local Police Blotter. Sometimes you find directly useful tips to avoid crime. In other cases, you could try putting yourself into that situation and figuring out what you would do. It’s a tip from Tom Givens… figure out the plays beforehand so you have a script (and one that’s debugged) before it happens to you.

While reading this morning I came across this entry about two men arrested for a Craigslist scam.

Police said victims would see an ad on Craigslist for an iPhone and would contact the seller to meet. All four meetings were set up in a business parking lot between the hours of 10:15 and 11:30 p.m.

Police said Jenkins and Anderson would get the victim to an isolated area in the parking lot and then rob the victim using weapons and physical force.

Business parking lot is good, as it’s a public place and likely well-lit at night. But that’s also a problem: meeting at night. As well, you should stay in a very public part of the lot, not be taken to an isolated area. The blotter entry echos these tips:

Police are advising that people follow the following safety tips when meeting someone to sell or buy something from an online ad: arrange the meeting in very public places with plenty of people around; avoid, at all costs, being directed to an isolated area of a parking lot; attempt to obtain as much identifying information on subject prior to meeting; do not go alone, take people with you; avoid meeting after dark.

All good tips.

Daughter recently sold a collection of toys on Craigslist. The buyer lived in Lockhart, so when we went to arrange details for the transaction I figured it wouldn’t hurt to go to Lockhart — exchange the goods and pick up some awesome BBQ. When I went to arrange the details, we met on a Sunday morning around 10:00 AM in the gravel parking lot of Smitty’s BBQ. That’s a high traffic area, given it’s right on US-183 — the main road through town; plus, it’s Smitty’s on a Sunday, which is going to have the church crowd and the weekend visitors all around. It was for the safety of both the seller and the buyer. Make it as public and safe as possible. All things I pointed out to Daughter. Good things to learn.

The Metal Detectors Cometh….

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I heard this was a definite go but still had questions. While the Austin-American Statesman article has an obvious bias, it at least seems to answer the question.

And, under an exemption approved Tuesday as a part of a new security plan, Texans with a concealed-handgun license will be able to take their pistols into the statehouse as well.

So this sucks that we’ll have metal detectors, but at least CHL holders will not be abridged. Of course I don’t really care for that either because concealed means concealed. But as soon as you have to notify the guy working the detector, you’re going to stand out, you’re going to get some sort of special treatment (e.g. won’t have to go through the detector), and it’s going to make the sheep scared and cause problems.

*sigh*

And in the end will safety really be improved by this? No. It won’t be any more or any less safe. It makes some legislators feel better about themselves (tho, good for Rick Perry for being the only one to vote against this measure), but that’s all.

We’ll see how this pans out in reality.

Peter Steele – RIP

/ hsoi

Wow.

I just heard that Peter Steele (y’know, from Type O Negative) just died at the age of 48. Supposedly due to heart failure.

Wow. I’m stunned. Big loss for the metal music world.

The “y’know, of Type O Negative”. Back in my college radio days I had a promo done by Peter. “Hi, this is Peter Steele, you know… from Type O Negative… and I died listening to WXJM.”  So, that’s what the above somewhat references.

Man.

I remember an old high school friend of mine went to visit some family one summer and came back with a mixed tape of music. There was this one song on there that we thought was awesome but had no idea who it was. After a lot of digging around we found out it was the band Carnivore. My exposure to Peter Steele had begun.

Then in the college radio time, I was talking with the rep at Roadrunner Records, who knew I was a Carnivore fan. He told me about Peter’s new project, then known as Repulsion (then Sub-Zero) but that name was probably going to change due to another band already with the name. The rep sent me a tape of the demos (that became Type O’s debut album) and I loved it. That first album from Type O Negative was awesome.

Carnivore was silly (tho fun). Type O was unique, heavy, artsy, moody, and poked a lot of fun at things. And Peter himself… an interesting man. I always enjoyed listening to him, especially as he battled his own issues in life and how he changed and evolved, especially made manifest on the last album. And I must admit… I really loved Peter’s voice, especially when he did his softer stuff, like “Nettie”.

We’ll miss you, Pete.

Updated: Official statements from Peter’s family and bandmates.

So Paul, what are we supposed to do?

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Over at Sebastian’s place, “Carl from Chicago” posted a comment. The comment was in response to a Daily Show segment on open carry, which had Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign on as a guest. Carl received this email from Helmke regarding the segment, and in the email wrote this:

While The Daily Show pokes fun at those who carry guns openly, it just doesn’t make sense for the safety of our families to have more guns being carried by more people in more public places. It’s the wrong direction for this country to head.

As I said in the clip, gun owners should leave their guns at home. Let’s keep them out of places like coffee shops, sports stadiums, and schools.

So what you’re saying is, in an effort to increase safety of our families, gun owners should leave their guns at home.

That doesn’t make sense, if you look at facts and data.

If you consider actual violent crime statistics, about 85% of violent crimes happen outside the home. That means violent crime happens in coffee shops (like the 4 Lakewood police officers killed in a coffee shop). That means violent crime happens in sports stadiums (like at a Long Beach high school football game). That means violent crime happens at schools (Columbine, and numerous others).  Yes, those events involved guns, but the guns didn’t leap up on their own and kill innocent people. No, there was someone evil using the gun. They were acts of evil people, not acts of evil steel and evil lead.

Paul, if you’re willing to work against bad people being able to do bad things, I’d be with you. But you’re against good people doing good things. How can I support that? Furthermore, the constant refusal to look at the actual facts and data, to look at the actual Truth of the matter? Well… that just leaves us with “reasoned discourse”.

I know it’s not a coffee house, but it is a Waffle House. The fact two men were open carrying? It prevented the Waffle House from being robbed — known because when the thugs were arrested they flat out admitted seeing the two citizens with guns is what kept them from robbing the place (at least while the citizens were in the restaurant). Yes, open carry prevented a violent crime from occurring.

So tell me Paul, if we did follow your wishes and us good guys left our guns at home…. please tell me, what do you then propose to do to actually make our coffee shops, sports stadiums, and schools safer? Because the fact is, the bad guys aren’t going to leave anything at home, and the bad guys don’t like to come get us in our homes… they want to come get us at the coffee shops, the sports stadiums, the schools — this I know, for the data tells me so. Please Paul tell me, in light of the facts, what is your plan?