Guns
Best Shooting Advice
It’s interesting to note that most of the advice came down to 2 things: trigger control and sight alignment (including follow-through).
In the end, those are really the two things that matter to get good accurate hits.
EPA Lead Ban?
The EPA is considering banning lead, like from ammunition and fishing weights.
Boneheaded move for many reasons. Clicky for details and how to address the schmoes in Washington.
ETA: While they may be schmoes, being rude or screaming declarations and ranting at them is not going to win them over. If anything, it will just reinforce their belief that gun owners, hunters, fishermen, etc. are just redneck morons that need to be herded and lorded over and controlled by any means necessary.
Put your emotions aside, write a brief letter expressing your opposition. In fact, you don’t really have to go into detail about it, just say “yes or no”. With the volume of correspondence they receive, yours will not be read, merely skimmed for key words. When I wrote my Congress-critters about the recent firearms excise tax issue, I received boilerplate “I support the rights of gun owners” responses from my 2 US Senators… when of course, I was writing them about taxes, but they just saw the “gun” keyword and that’s how it was registered.
Phrase your correspondence well.
Irony – Ruger and Boy Scouts
Ruger is making what they call the Ruger Model 1255, which is a special order limited edition version of their 10/22 rifle. What’s special about it? It’s a Boy Scouts of America commemorative.
It’s quite pretty, with the Norman Rockwell image engraved on the buttstock and other BSA logos carved on the stock.
But the thing is? While BSA may have licensed it, no Scout could ever shoot it within the scope of a BSA activity. While you can shoot rifles chambered in .22 LR, they have to be single-shot or bolt-actions with the magazine removed. The Ruger 10/22 is semi-automatic with a 10-round magazine.
*sigh*
KR Training August 2010 Newsletter
The KR Training August 2010 Newsletter is posted.
This newsletter is chock full of stuff. Classes, incident analysis, Austin Rifle Club news, lots of things for folks local and otherwise.
Shot placement matters
Man shot 23 times and shows, more or less, no ill signs.
I recall hearing that NYC police don’t shoot all that much, maybe just the 50 rounds a year they need to qualify. That would explain their 25-33% hit rate… and if those statistics hold, that probably means probably 100 rounds were fired, and while 23 hit, they didn’t hit anything vital. Hrm.
Go practice.
South Austin cyclist robbed and almost executed
A cyclist here in Austin was robbed at gunpoint and yes, almost executed:
Robbery detectives are hoping to catch with two men still on the run after they rob an Austin cyclist at gunpoint. Police Det. Phillip Hogue says during his regular commute home a South Austin cyclist was approached by another man wanting to borrow his cell phone. Investigators indicate it was then that James Ray Perkins, Paul Rios and another unidentified man forced France Dulles to give up his bank account pin number and ATM card. “He didn’t have a lot of money in his checking accountant and the armed men were not satisfied at the amount of cash they were able withdrawal from the ATM” said Hogue. According to arrest reports, the three men decided Dulles should be executed and as Perkins aimed to shoot Dulles in the head the 19-year old cyclist took off on foot. After firing several rounds, Perkins managed to hit Dulles once in his buttocks. All three men have been charged with an Aggravated Robbery and Kidnapping, Attempted Capitol Murder and Organized Criminal Activity. Austin police have managed to arrest Perkins, while Rios and the other unidentified man remains on the run.
Things to note:
- Wanted to use his cell phone
- Robberies and other such criminal/violent acts don’t happen at long-distances. The criminal needs to approach you, they need to talk to you, they need to “interview” you to see if you’ll make a good victim. You need to have skills to keep unknowns at distance.
- The cyclist “just gave ’em what they wanted”, and look what it got him.
- You cannot think that giving them what they want will make them go away or that they won’t take any more than that. The cyclist almost lost his life.
- Executed. Just let that sink in a bit. You cannot apply your standards and values to that criminal. They were willing to kill a man just because he didn’t have enough money. That’s pretty fucked up.
- It was good that the cyclist fled. Our goal isn’t revenge, it isn’t to kill people, it’s to stay alive. He fled, he’s alive.
It’s getting to be an ugly, dangerous world out there. Take steps to keep yourself safe.
Ammo Disposal
On a local mailing list, someone asked how to dispose of some old ammo they found. I recall seeing something the City of Austin did regarding this, so I went looking.
Here’s what the City of Austin says:
Please consult the Austin Police Department at their non-emergency number, 3-1-1, for disposal options. Do not put ammunition in your garbage cart, dumpster or recycling cart.
I was curious enough myself, so I called and asked. Apparently the Austin Police Department will send an officer out to you to collect the ammo, then they’ll take it from there. Don’t know what exactly they will do to dispose of it, but no matter to me.
I like that tho. Just call and they’ll come pick it up.
I don’t have any ammo to dispose of myself… at least, any ammo I have I’ll use. 🙂  Still, good to know this.
Fighting in your house
Gabe Suarez has an article about fighting in your house.
Fighting in houses…or fighting in your house can take on many forms depending on your mission. Having clarity of mission is essential so you know how to comport yourself in each event.
While the article doesn’t discuss tactics or strategy, it does bring up contexts and situations. The article gives you a lot of things to think about, and it’s worth thinking about these things and role-playing through the situations now. If you do it now, you have a gameplan should it happen. If you wait until the shit hits the fan, you’ll be scrambling for a solution.
But while it’s good to drill into specific situations, I think what’s good to do in trying to solve those situations is to eventually seek the guiding principle. That is, the situations are specific and what happens when you find yourself in a situation you didn’t specifically prepare for? What to do? This is where you need to have a higher-layer of guiding principles. If you don’t know what your guiding principle is, going through the specific situations can help you find it — just see what and why you make the choices you do, look for patterns in your choices, then step back and get a higher-level view. Then test that principle out to see if it still holds in other specific situations. Continue to refine from there.
For myself, one guiding principle is protection of myself and my family. I was just thinking about this the other night. We were out at dinner. As I sat down I took a moment to orient myself to the room, including looking for exits. My family was with me… if something went down, my #1 task is to keep them safe (generally, get them out of the area). I have thought that if I could do something to stop the event yes I’d want to — I would find it hard to live with myself thinking “I could have done something” but didn’t. However, keeping my family safe is more important, and so that guides me and my decisions. I cannot go engage the problem if it means my family could be endangered. If I am alone, then things are different. But by the same token, is it more important for me to stop someone being stupid, or to ensure that I get myself home alive and safe so I can continue to work and provide for my family?
These are the things you have to figure out for yourself so you can know how you can and should react, should something happen.
Rangemaster August Newsletter
The Rangemaster August 2010 Newsletter is now posted.
While there’s many useful things in the newsletter, what I found most interesting was the article “The Evolution of the Defensive Handgun Cartridge”. Very cool.
Stuff From Hsoi 