Guns

You never have a problem – until you do

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

It’s the mantra of “the gear investor”:

“Works great for me!”

“Used it for years; never had a problem.”

Or whatever justification that their chosen gear is right, good, and infallible. The defense of the product is even stronger when the gear is demonstrably worse and the ego-investment in it even higher. What’s often implied by these statements is a belief that it hasn’t failed – and it won’t.

Here’s the thing.

All gear will fail. It’s not a question of “if” but “when”.

Gear has parts, and parts wear out and break.

Gear is made by humans, and the fallible creatures we are, we will make mistakes in the manufacture and assembly of that gear.

Of course, good, quality gear strives to be reliable and minimize chances of failure, but it still will happen.

Case in point.

This past weekend I reached into my pants pocket to get my keys. Withdrawing the keys felt different and I quickly learned why. My ASP Street Defender (pepper spray) had become detached from my keys. The tail-cap? It somehow managed to  completely unscrew itself while in my pocket. I have no idea how that happened, but it happened.

My gear failed me.

I’ve carried it every day for over a year. It worked great for me. I’ve never had a problem.

Until I did.

To remedy this, I put a drop of blue Loctite on the cap’s threads, which should minimize the chances of it happening again.

But think about it. Honestly assess how “stuff” has failed you. You may not have thought much about it because the failure came at a “safe” time. Maybe you were on the range just plinking and your gun went “click” instead of “bang”. You probably didn’t think much of it, remedied the situation, and moved on. But that was a failure.

Failure can and will happen, even to that precious piece of gear that hasn’t failed you… yet.

Because of course your gear never has a problem… until it does.

Why NOT SERPA

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Ah, the SERPA holster.

Is there any piece of equipment that rustles more jimmies?

Here’s a fun video, from Craig “Southnarc” Douglas and the late Paul Gomez. (h/t Seth Anderson Bailey)

In case the video disappears, here’s a rundown.

  • Southnarc is running evolutions (I believe ECQC class).
  • They are in Arizona, so lots of dirt, sand.
  • Student is running a SERPA.
  • Student is unable to activate the release mechanism and cannot draw his gun.
  • Paul Gomez is holding onto the SERPA while the student pulls – despite 2 strong men pulling, the gun does not come out of the holster.
  • Paul then tries again, using both hands to try to depress the button and hold the holster, another person comes in to play tug-o-war to try to draw the gun.
  • The result of the tug-o-war is the SERPA breaks off at the belt screws.
  • As the video ends, the gun is still in the holster.

And all this, because a little bit of dirt got into the release mechanism.

Of course, there’s going to be the countless defenders of the SERPA. Just a couple days ago, Active Self Protection posted about (against) the SERPA. And the comments were typical:

“Never had a problem”

“the holster instills good habits from the start”

“videos like this are an example of operator error”

“don’t be stupid”

“it’s not the holster’s fault you can’t control your finger”

and the list goes on.

Here’s the thing.

What Southnarc and Gomez encountered? The only “user error” here is choosing to use the SERPA in the first place. Having the release mechanism totally seize up and become inoperable, the fact the holster can so easily detach from the belt and you completely lose control of your gun – these are design problems.

And there are countless individuals, either well-trained or not, that have experienced undesired discharges through the use of this holster.

Here’s the rub.

There are thousands of holsters on the market. Never have there been so many choices available to you. Yes, there are a wide range from the crappy (e.g. Alien Gear, Uncle Mike’s) to the excellent (e.g. Keepers Concealment, JM Custom Kydex, Raven Concealment, Dale Fricke, PHLSter). And because of that, because there are so many good holsters available and they just do not have the problems SERPA does – why use a SERPA?

Ever buy a shitty product that generally worked OK but when you needed it the most, when you were really counting on it, it failed you? Holsters are life-safety equipment. Don’t bet your life on inferior products, when there are countless better products available to you.

 

Moving up

/ hsoi

For some time, Karl Rehn been pushing me to get my USPSA classification. I finally did last summer, landing in “B” class in Production.

I’ve made the decision I want to get to “A” class.

Why? Because once I get there I’ll be a better shooter than I am now. Of course, it’s the process of getting there that matters more than actually getting there, but aiming for “A” class gives a guidepost.

I told this to Karl, and have asked his help via private lessons. Show me where I suck, and help me start to unsuck.

Had my first lesson. Shot from my USPSA Production gear, and used my M&P9 M2.0 (Dawson sights, Apex DCAEK trigger). So it’s not a gamer gun, but I’m OK with that for my purposes and goal.

Karl had me shoot the Central Texas Standards. We didn’t focus too much on the 50 yard and 35 yard portions, but we did shoot them. The goal was to assess where I was and find what I need to work on.

I don’t need to work on my draw, as that’s pretty fast (tho I should move my left hand faster). However, working on a “precision” draw (e.g. draw to a head-shot, and remember this is IPSC targets with the 2″ x 4″ A-zone) is something I should work on.. Remember, it’ll be Minor scoring, so A’s matter. Drawing to small targets at longer distances as well (e.g. draw to head at 15 yards).

My reloads are probably my weakest point, taking way too much time. Karl gave me some homework here.

Weak-hand. Longer distances. And at shorter distances, really pushing the speed.

So yes, much to work on. “A” class is not out of my grasp, it just needs work.

Beyond the One Percent

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

My bossman, Karl Rehn of KR Training presented at the 2017 Rangemaster Tactical Conference.

His presentation was: Beyond the One Percent. The presentation looks at firearms ownership vs. firearms training. How many (or rather, how few) people actually participate in training. Why people participate in training, and why they do not. And what we as trainers can do to increase participation.

The presentation was well-received and I know of at least one high-profile group already putting Karl’s teachings into practice.

Even if you’re not a firearms trainer, there’s a lot of fascinating data about firearms ownership and training in his presentation. Well worth the read.

He’ll be publishing his presentation in parts. Here’s part 1.

Grip Adjustment

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

For the past some while, I’ve been working on gripping the pistol; especially weak-hand-only.

Of course, the general rule is to grip the gun as hard as you can, that so-called “crush-grip”. But it really wasn’t enough, and it’s not like I have a problem with grip strength.

It’s more a matter of technique (tho strength matters too).

Of course, when I grip, the harder I grip the better. There’s less disruption of the gun when the trigger is pressed, better recoil management, etc.. But there are some tricks.

One I learned back in my empty-hand martial arts days: engage the pinky. We tend to focus our grip with our thumb, index, and middle fingers. Yes the ring and pinky fingers wrap around things, but many times they aren’t involved in the crush. Try it. Grab something like you normally would and grip it hard. Maintain that grip, then see how much more you can engage your pinky in the grip. Chances are you’ll find you were able to clamp down a little more. Makes a big difference. I know to do this, but it doesn’t mean I always do it.

But the one that finally dawned on me is how and with what I’m crushing.

I am realizing that the primary force of my crushing – with my shooting hand – is against the front and back straps of the grip. There isn’t a lot of crush-force against the sides. This is primarily because of the way my hands are shaped: larger hands, long fingers, thin fingers. So wrapping my hand around the grip basically “tents” my hand (where the phalanges end and the metacarpals begin) and that part of my hand is NOT in contact with the grip. Well, there’s some touching of skin to grip, but again it’s the hinging of the hand right there, why I described it as a “tent”. That when the hand is crushing against the front and back straps, it pushes the metacarpophalangeal joint away from the grip. As a result, there’s not much force in that area involved in gripping, or even just skin in useful friction contact with the grip.

Part of why I didn’t notice it was because in two-handed shooting, the shooting hand can grip the front and back, but then the other hand wrapping around provides that side-pressure. So first you get the all-around clamping pressure, second your shooting-hand comes in full contact with the grip so tactile feedback is your shooting hand is “fully gripping” the pistol – when actually it’s only fully touching. Then when I would go to shoot one-handed, I’d just work to clamp harder, ensure pinky engagement, and the like (and also some “touching” feedback); not necessarily thinking about the all-around grip force.

So I’ve been playing around with this. That when I grip the gun, I work to actually wrap my hand around the grip instead of just “clamping” on it. Get as much skin contact with the grip as possible (for friction and thus aid with recoil management, if nothing else), and then make sure there’s more involvement of the whole hand in the crushing of the grip. It’s hard to explain, but basically ensuring that it’s not just a front-back clamping pressure, but an all-around squeezing pressure.

It’s actually harder for me to do this shooting 2-handed than 1-handed, so it’s resulting in a bit more one-handed practice (which is a good thing). I get better feedback that I’m doing it right or not, if I just practice 1-handed. For sure when I do this, the results in shooting are greatly improved.

The funny thing? The more abrasive grip texture on the M&P9 M2.0 has helped me realize this.

More things to continue working on.

Choosing to get involved – Do you know the full story?

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Following up from yesterday’s article, Choosing to Get Involved, here’s a case illustrating why choosing to get involved in someone else’s problem can be problematic.

The gun incident happened last March. [Daniel Ray] Brown and his mother were eating near Hanes Mall in Winston-Salem when he saw a white man, screaming for help, being chased by two black men.

Brown… would later tell authorities that he thought the pursuers were drug dealers, or possibly loan sharks, and that the white man was in trouble.

[…]

According to Winston-Salem police, Brown “attempted to stop the struggle by pointing a handgun.”

One of the black men, Fredrick Morgan, testified that Brown pointed his gun at the group and demanded that the scuffling trio show ID.

When the three men wouldn’t listen, Brown fired a bullet into the ground a few feet in front of Morgan.

Daniel Ray Brown sees someone being chased by two people and screaming for help. Obviously the person being chased is the victim and the two other people are assailants bent on causing harm to the person they are chasing.

Right?

That’s obvious to anyone viewing this.

Right?

It wasn’t until after Brown had made a new hole in the asphalt that he learned the truth. The white man was mentally ill and had fled from two care workers. The chase was their attempt to corral him near Hanes Mall.

Full article (h/t Hank G. Shepherd)

Getting involved in someone else’s problem resulted in Brown being arrested and convicted of assault by pointing a gun and discharging a firearm within city limits. He also lost his carry permit.

And someone could have lost their life, because a gun is deadly force. Warning shots are not sound (and generally not legal) tactics – no matter what former Vice-President Joe Biden says; and they are still considered use of deadly force.

This is one reason it’s difficult to get involved in someone else’s situation. You often will not know what you are seeing unfold in front of you. What you are seeing is likely a mere sliver of the full story, and your decisions may well put you on the wrong side of the facts. Your involvement may make the situation better, or it may make it worse. No matter what the real story is, whatever you then choose to you, you have to live with the consequences of your actions. Mr. Brown now has a lifetime to have to live with his.

I understand a desire to “do something” and to help people. We generally want to right wrongs and see justice served. But in doing so, we have to tread carefully because once we choose to get involved, we’re in it and the consequences of our involvement are ours to live with. I’m not saying to not get involved – we each have to draw our lines as to what we will and won’t do, where we will and won’t get involved. What I am saying is it’s important to understand what you see may not be what you think, so consider that when you do make your decisions.

 

Choosing to get involved

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Greg Ellifritz posted an article, “Lessons Learned From My Good Samaritan Attempt“. The article is written by a man who witnessed a woman being beaten on the side of the road. He chose to intervene in the situation. While things generally worked out ok (the attacker was arrested and convicted), the whole situation didn’t turn out like so many people’s heroic fantasies.

All my previous firearms training revolved around identifying an imminent threat, shooting to stop the threat if necessary, and then hopefully moving on with my life. It was all a pretty simple equation in my mind. However, the reality of my incident that day after Christmas was far different. It was not a simple equation. It was quite complex and has taken over two years to resolve.

That’s the first thing to note: it’s taken over two years to resolve.

But that’s just the beginning.

He notes the media coverage, and because “The Internet is Forever”, how his story basically has never and likely will never go away. It will always affect his life.

He notes the disruption to his sleep and health. In doing so, one particular comment stood out to me:

Ripple effects of the incident are everywhere, and I never considered that aspect of it in my prior training, because everything focused on surviving the encounter, not the aftermath. Keep in mind, I didn’t even have to fire a shot! I can’t imagine how these problems would manifest themselves if I had been forced to take a human life.

Emphasis added.

Everyone likes to focus on the pew-pew-pew. It’s easy to focus on, it’s something that people can easily understand a need or desire for, and it’s fun. To focus on things like dealing with the aftermath of a self-defense incident is not fun. It’s uncomfortable to face, to think about, to plan for. Often people don’t want to plan for it because denial is easier. Consider: if you’re getting/carrying a gun because you think you might need it, then realize there may come a day when in fact you will. The incident itself will last seconds, but the aftermath will last the rest of your life. Are you set up to deal with that?

Being set up to deal with that can be the legal aspects. One reason I’m thankful I’m a member of the Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network – they were there for me when I needed them. If I didn’t have them, I don’t know how things would have gone but I suspect not as well.

Being set up to deal with the aftermath also involves the mental and emotional realities. Being able to live with yourself, being able to live with how people will perceive you for the rest of your life. How your family will be perceived and how people may interact with them. A book like Alexis Artwohl and Loren Christensen’s Deadly Force Encounters: What Cops Need To Know To Mentally And Physically Prepare For And Survive A Gunfight,while oriented towards law-enforcement, contains an immense amount of useful information for anyone that may find themselves in such a situation. And yes, ideally it’s a book to read before you need it.

And being set up to deal with the aftermath means being honest with yourself and the harsh realities that may come from self-defense. Have you determined where your line is? In reading this article, I was left with the impression the author didn’t have a well-defined line, but does now. Where we draw our lines will differ from person to person, and likely you will and should revise where and how you draw your line over the course of your life (e.g. you may draw it differently when you’re single vs. when you’re married with children). The important part is to figure this out well in advance of having to put it into play.

There’s much to learn from Aaron’s story. Be wise and learn from his experience.

Shooting without my glasses

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A couple days ago I wrote about Reduced Vision Shooting. I was able to go to the range and try shooting without my glasses. Here’s how it went.

My Vision

I don’t know what my vision is in terms of “20/something”, but I know I’m extremely near-sighted. Around 9″ or so from my eyes is where things start to get blurry. Of course, I can take off my glasses, see, and generally get around, just don’t expect me to read anything; and after a certain level, things just become blurry blobs. I must have glasses in order to drive.

So yes, it’s a legitimate concern for me as to how I can perform without my glasses.

I have to go without my glasses from time to time. For example, most any martial arts training I do is done without my glasses. I do just fine. I can see well enough to punch, kick, grapple, whatever.

But shooting? That tends to require a bit more precision.

Shooting

I set up an IPSC target and decided a fair metric would be the KR Training “3 Seconds or Less” drill. That’s our home-base bottom line drill for measuring “can you do what needs to generally be done in a typical gunfight”.

I started my range session shooting it cold, because that’s a common thing for me to do.

Then I took off my glasses and shot it again. I didn’t do any sort of warm-up or trial shots without my glasses, and while part of me wishes I did, I’m also glad I didn’t because I suspect the learning impact was better this way.

First, I had no problems. Shot the drill fine.

But what got me was what I could see and what I couldn’t see.

First, what I could see? The red dot of my front sight. I have Dawson Precision sights, specifically a red fiber optic front sight. It was a shining beacon to me when I couldn’t see anything else. The sights themselves were a fuzzy blur, but that red dot was bright (tho of course kinda fuzzy) and attracted my eyes – precisely what it’s supposed to do (on this sunny day). No question that helped me.

I found myself a bit thrown off by this. I didn’t expect that to be such a beacon. But what got me? I found myself fiddling with my eyes. I typically have to close my left eye, but now I found myself wanting to keep both eyes open, or switch to my right. I can’t say why I was doing this, but given my vision was looking at novel and unknown things, my brain may have just been trying to make sense of things.

Still, this is where things like good body index come into play. Again, I had no problems putting holes where they needed to be put because 1. I know generally where to point, 2. while you can miss at close distances, one doesn’t have to have that textbook perfect sight picture to get good hits (at close distances).

All in all I’m happy with the performance. It was a little odd for me to experience since I can’t recall the last time I tried shooting without my glasses, thus why part of me wanted to have a little “warm-up”. But again I’m glad I didn’t because I think being forced into it made me have to perform, ignoring any weirdness from the experience.

I do think occasionally dry-firing without my glasses would be useful, and every so often some live fire too.

How about you?

Reduced vision shooting

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

I wear glasses. Without them, I cannot see very well.

A couple weeks ago I read something from Phil Wong. Phil also wears glasses, and shares similar realities and concerns regarding glasses, vision, and being in a fight.

So Phil shot the MAG-40 qualification course. He did pretty well, tho a bit slower.

In November 2013, I shot the qualification course of fire for the Massad Ayoob Group MAG-40 class with my Glock 19, OEM Meprolight night sights, and non-prescription lenses in my shooting glasses, in front of about 25-30 students, staff instructors, and Massad F. Ayoob himself – just to see how I might be able to shoot under pressure without my corrective lenses. My final score was 297/300, which means that I had zero misses and only 3 shots outside of the A-zone of a standard IPSC cardboard target, over 60 shots fired at distances between 4 yards and 15 yards. I wasn’t nearly as fast as Mas and the other instructors, but I met the allotted time limits and still got the hits on target. Honestly, the hardest thing to do was to make sure I shot the right target – I had to consciously count targets from the end of the line before each string of fire, to distinguish between my target and a couple dozen other identical targets. As long as I don’t get attacked by a bad guy wearing the exact same clothes as an innocent bystander, I should be OK…

Years ago I put some thought and work into this, and tried solutions like XS Big Dot sights. The thinking there that if I lost my glasses in a fight, I could still see the front sight. Nope – still can’t see the big dot without my glasses. So while I did some work here and there, I mostly relegated myself to “just dealing with it”.

But it’s been a while. I’ve improved my skill greatly since those days. And “fighting without my glasses” came back to my mind a few weeks ago during the Cecil Burch classes, since I did most of that weekend without my glasses.

I’m going to give this a try next range trip. Phil’s one of Mas’ guys so shooting the MAG qualifier make sense. I’m one of Karl Rehn’s guys, so I’ll probably shoot “3 Seconds or Less“.

Have you given this much thought or practice?

Don’t have your glasses or contacts, can you perform? What if you don’t have a limb, like say you break your right arm, can you perform with your left? Or what if say you lost vision in one eye, can you perform with the other?

This isn’t to say we need to practice up hard on those skills in the off-chance something happens. But it can’t hurt to spend a practice session to tinker with those things for whatever they might tell you. Maybe you find out some weak-hand-only work would be good for you. Maybe you learn that your eyes have aged more than you thought and a different sight system may be in order.

A quick check now and again can be good for you.

Why are guns a right?

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The fundamental question is “What is a ‘Right’?”

Several people here state that education is a right, or that healthcare is a right.

No, they’re not.

While I’m not an Objectivist, I think Ayn Rand was correct when she stated:

A ‘right’ is a moral principle defining and sanctioning a man’s freedom of action in a social context. There is only one fundamental right (all others are its consequences or corollaries): a man’s right to his own life.

As others have stated, “guns” aren’t a right, the right to self-defense – protection of one’s own life – is. The right to keep and bear arms is its corollary, for if denied the tools of that defense, the right is essentially stripped.

Education? You have the right to study anything you wish. What you don’t have is the right to make someone teach you. Health care? Same thing. You have the right to take care of yourself, but not force others to care for you.

Because forcing others violates their rights.

So why is the right to arms listed in the Bill of Rights, but education and healthcare are not? Because the Constitution is a legal document that establishes the limits of power of a governing body. If the Constitution were a document that said only what government could not do, it would be infinitely long. Instead, the body of the Constitution itself lists the powers that the Federal government has, and the mechanism under which those powers are established, maintained and exercised. The Bill of Rights is a (limited) list of things that government is warned explicitly not to trifle with, and a warning that there are other such rights not so listed.

The Tenth Amendment, too, is a limit that basically says “Only powers defined here belong to the Federal Government. Everything else is a power reserved to the States or The People. Hands off.”

So of course that’s the first one that got folded, spindled, mutilated and incinerated.

So what do we gather from this? That EDUCATION and HEALTHCARE are not in the purview of the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. It’s not the job of the Federal Government to provide these things, subsidize these things, or regulate these things except as they affect interstate commerce. (A clause that has been stretched to obscene lengths ever since Wickard v. Filburn)

It doesn’t matter if they seem to be good ideas. Those powers were not given to the Federal Government by the Constitution. They’re (as you observed) not mentioned in that document. They’re among the “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution.” And they’re not rights.

But they are most definitely powers.

By Kevin Baker, posted here.