Death to all but metal, indeed.
Actually since today is Valentine’s Day, I guess “Community Property” is more appropriate. 😉
Author: hsoi
The Wizard
40 years ago today, Black Sabbath’s debut album was released.
The world was never the same.
Case in point… Ahmet and Dweezil Zappa jamming with… Josh Tesh… on “The Wizard”
Unpossible
So a professor at University of Alabama, Huntsville shoots and kills 3 other professors and wounds 3 others.
But I thought college campuses were gun free zones?
Fat lot of good those signs and policies did.
Furthermore, there were no police nor external security forces there to protect anyone.
Granted, this woman was a case of crazy. But details apparently are that she was in a meeting discussing if she was to get tenure or not, she was denied, pulled out a gun and started shooting. So this was all planned — premeditated. She made up her mind that if she was to be denied tenure, she was going to make people pay with their lives.
You know that saying about shooting fish in a barrel?
She knew they couldn’t fight back. She knew she would have all the advantage.
How might things have been different if the other professors were also armed? Would she have taken a more diplomatic approach to resolving her problem? Could have not have 3 dead and 3 wounded? Of course, it’s all speculation. But the sad reality is things like this happen in gun free zones. From Howard Nemerov:
Ron Borsch is a part-time, commissioned consultant trainer for the Bedford (Ohio) Police Department, with 30 full-time years of service and 17 years with SWAT. He still works part-time, managing the SEALE Police Academy in Bedford, where he specializes in tactically training first-responders, teaching them how to deal with what he calls “active killers.”
Borsch notes that nearly all mass murders occur in places where law-abiding citizens are banned from possessing firearms, either by property owners or government regulation.
The data shows that when law-abiding citizens are allowed the means to protect themselves, violent crime decreases. Everyone likes that end: decrease in violent crime. Trouble is, there are those that don’t like the means to that end. The reality is, it’s the only means that is achieving that end.
Long distance pistol shooting
John mainly discusses the growing trend for compact pocket pistols:
With the currently-exploding market in “concealed-carry” pistols, manufacturers are focused on producing small guns. Many such pistols, though otherwise perfectly functional, have short slides and, thus, short sight-radiuses. While suitable as back-up pistols, these short guns, with their limited range, need to be re-evaluated with the foregoing in mind.
As a main, carry pistol, a four-inch (or longer) sight radius is now a critical feature, if we are going to have the range capability that is likely to be acutely necessary for first-responders. Our sincere affection for small pistols must thus be tempered with the necessity of honestly confronting these new challenges.
And granted, the majority of self-defense shootings happen at a distance from 0 to 5 yards. But while that may be the statistical majority, you just know your day will be the exception.
This is one of the main reasons I stopped using XS Sights’ 24/7 Express Big Dot sights on my carry gun. Can you get precise hits out to 25 or 50 yards with those sights? Well, I guess it depends upon your definition of precision. For instance, there’s video of James Yeager hitting pepper poppers at long distance. So yes you can hit stuff, but the question that video doesn’t answer is where on the popper did the bullet hit? Maybe you didn’t mean to shoot him in the leg, but that may be where it hits and what good is that? I recall one day while I had XS Sights on my gun being at a Jason’s Deli having lunch with Daughter. We were sitting about as far away from the order line/cashier as possible, certainly over 25 yards. I wondered to myself if I’d be able to hit someone at that distance and I thought no I wouldn’t. Granted, it’s probably more commentary on me than the sights, but the reality is that big dot front sight is huge and these sights are meant for fast and dirty acquisition, not precision. Yes they say to do a 6 o’clock hold at that distance but spending a good deal of time on the range trying to do it their way and I still would find it hard to hit the A-Zone in the head of an IPSC target at even lesser distances. If you can do it, great, you’re obviously better than me. I switched to a set of Dawson Precision sights (0.100″ red fiber front, fixed black rear) and have been most happy, including the ability to be far more precise at longer distances while still being fast at close distances.
Just shoot him in the leg
It’s a common question to ask why, in a self-defense situation, you can’t just shoot someone in the leg (or arm or other non-vital area).
John Farnam provides a proper response to that question, and why it’s a poor idea.
When defending yourself with gunfire, it is always because you perceive an imminent, deadly threat to yourself (and/or other innocent parties), and other, lesser options are precluded, ie: unlikely to be efficacious, unavailable, or not practicable.
Any time you shoot someone, you are employing ‘deadly-force,’ because no one can accurately predict the ultimate damage a bullet (any kind of bullet, striking anywhere on the body) will do. You may attempt a shot to an extremity, and you may even be successful, but your bullet may still sever an artery, and, as a direct result, the person may bleed to death in short order, even when that outcome was not your ‘intention.’ Even when death does not result immediately, permanent disablement/impairment/disfigurement surely will. No one ever ‘recovers completely’ from a gunshot wound!
Deadly force is deadly force. Know and understand that you cannot shoot anyone in a ‘non-deadly’ manner!
This is not only a consideration from an anatomy standpoint, but a legal one as well.
In defensive shooting, our goal is, of course, to end the criminal’s violent behavior as quickly as possible. To that end, we shoot with sufficient precision and volume to accomplish the goal. After that goal is accomplished, additional shooting is unnecessary, and thus unjustified.
The incontrovertible, inescapable maxim is: Shot placement that is most likely to stop violent, criminal behavior quickly is also most likely to beget fatal wounds. For better or worse, the two outcomes are inseparably linked! Accordingly, purposely attempting to inflict ostensibly non-fatal wounds may well actually prolong the fight, exacerbating risk-exposure yourself, other innocent parties, even the VCA himself.
In addition, attempting to hit arms or legs of an aggressively animated attacker represents a far greater challenge, even for competent marksman, than does aiming for the chest and trunk. Thus, attempting to ‘shoot him in the leg’ is unlikely to be successful to begin with!
You must, at long last, confront the unavoidable fact that employing gunfire in self-defense, no matter your intent, is likely to result in forceful death, or permanent, crippling injury, to the VCA in question. Who cannot accept, nor deal with, that stark reality, should have naught to do with guns!
The last part is true. You must be able to accept the consequences of this potential action.
Reloading speed
Not that any of you probably care but…. seems I can reload about 200-300 rounds an hour.
I wanted to load about 500 rounds of 9mm and it only took me a couple hours to do. Not to shabby. It’s good to know the pace I can move tho, for future work planning.
One thing I can say. Most of my loads were using the Berry’s 115 grain plated RN DS bullets. However, I opted to load 100 of the Hornady 115 grain FMJ RN. As well, I had a box of Speer 115 grain TMJ RN’s from when I bought all the reloading gear off dockbot/exodus. I figure what the hey, might as well load those up too. So the recipe remained the same, save the bullet I used. I’m going to see if I can chrono them and see if any differences are to be found.
Black and blue
I’m not really a sport bike guy, but while doing some Google searches the above image came up. A Honda CBR600RR. Apparently some sort of limited edition paint job available only in the UK. And it’s the paint job that I like. Mostly black, splash of white, then the ice-electric blue… especially in the wheels.
Just looks awesome.
Hey Mr. UPS Man
Look what the UPS man brought to me:
1000 Hornady 9mm 115 grain FMJ RN bullets. This is Hornady’s “free gift” from purchasing their Lock-n-Load AP. Whoo!
16.5 lbs. of bullets.
I did some caliper measuring and comparison to the Berry’s 115 grain RN DS bullets. The Hornady are a hair more rounded and the Berry’s a hair more “pointed” shaped, but all really seems negligible. I’m going to use my 9mm plinking load recipe and load 100 of these for a trial run.
Speaking of which, I know I’ve been talking about needing to load 2000 rounds for a class in October, and that hasn’t changed. However, next weekend I’ll be taking AT-6 Pistol Workout and I think loading 500 rounds for that class would be a good testing ground. I’ll take 500 rounds of factory with me as well, just in case, and a backup gun, just in case. The 100 with the Hornady will be a part of that run.
If not for arms, where would civil rights be today?
A little late in presenting this but given my giant computer snafu I have some time to catch up on my reading while I wait for files to move and copy.
David Kopel writes an informative piece on how the civil rights protesters of the 1960’s may have been non-violent, but they knew people wanted them dead. There was only one way for them to preserve their own lives: to have guns and let it be known they had them.
Later, I worked for years in the Deep South as a full-time civil rights organizer. Like a martyred friend of mine, NAACP staffer Medgar W. Evers, I, too, was on many Klan death lists and I, too, traveled armed: a .38 special Smith and Wesson revolver and a 44/40 Winchester carbine.
The knowledge that I had these weapons and was willing to use them kept enemies at bay. Years later, in a changed Mississippi, this was confirmed by a former prominent leader of the White Knights of the KKK when we had an interesting dinner together at Jackson.
[…]
We were opposed by white racist organizations (e.g., Nazi Party) and various youth gangs of many sorts. My staff and I received countless death threats, there were arson attacks on our offices, and, on one occasion, men with weapons came to my home and told my wife and children that they intended to kill me. (I happened to be at work.)
Again, I was glad I had many firearms and, again, we guarded our home and let this be known. We responded to hate calls on the telephone by telling the callers we were quite prepared for them.
For Salter, the right to own a handgun was apparently a crucial part of his ability to exercise his right to defend himself and his family, which was a sine qua non of his ability to stay alive in order to exercise his First Amendment rights to advocate for enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Yet in modern Chicago, decent law-abiding citizens are forbidden to own handguns. As I detailed in my amicus brief in McDonald v. Chicago (pages 39–45), many people find that a handgun is best choice for family defense, especially in urban areas such as Chicago. As the history of the Civil Rights Movement demonstrates, the denial of the constitutional right to own a handgun could endanger other constitutional rights, particularly the rights of community organizers.
Maybe there’s a glimmer of hope… nope, it’s gone.
Everything is bass-ackwards in the UK these days, but this report gives a glimmer of hope.
Builder David Fullard, 46, leapt into action as the brute and a pal forced their way into his home and threatened to rape his girlfriend and kill his sons.
He grabbed the antique sword and sliced off the left lug of the yob – named Michael SEVERS.
Prosecutors said Mr Fullard went too far for self-defence and charged him with unlawful wounding. He faced up to EIGHT YEARS in jail.
A jury took less than 50 minutes to acquit him at Hull Crown Court.
I’m glad to hear he was acquited, but he never should have been charged in the first place. Went too far? That implies there’s a proper amount, so pray tell what is that proper amount for when someone breaks into your home, threatens to rape your girlfriend and kill your children (and torch your house)? Yeah I’d say you’re justified in fearing for the lives of yourself and your loved ones, and would have every reason, authority, and duty to fight back. That the yob only lost his ear means he got off easy.
In fact, he did get off easy:
Yesterday the two jobless thugs got six-month suspended sentences and 100 hours of community service after admitting affray.
So that glimmer of hope fades… a man who defends his loved ones could have faced 8 years in jail, whereas the attacker gets a six-month suspended sentence and 100 hours of community service. WTF?
