Guns

Scout leader fatally stabbed

/ hsoi / 9 Comments

A Boy Scout leader was fatally stabbed while leading boys on a hike:

BUNKER HILL, Ind. (AP) — A 76-year-old man has been stabbed to death while leading Boy Scouts on a hiking trip in northern Indiana, and a suspect who battered his mother and killed a dog near the trail is under arrest, police said.

The assistant scout leader, Arthur L. Anderson, had stopped to identify a tree on the Nickel Plate Trail in Bunker Hill Sunday afternoon when an attacker approached him from behind and stabbed him in the neck, Indiana State Police said in a statement. Witnesses told police the attack was unprovoked.

Anderson of Kokomo, Ind., died at the scene despite the efforts of medical personnel who responded to a 911 call. Police said he had been involved in scouting for 50 years.

A terrible thing. Seems to have been totally unprovoked.

In my time as a Scout leader I never encountered trouble like this, but there was potential for trouble. I recall camping at state parks with a group of drunken rowdy folks not too far from our sites. I recall pulling into one campground and seeing people working the grounds in black and white striped uniforms – prison work release and hopefully trustworthy, but still.

Bad things don’t stop happening because you’re in a “safe place” or with a “good group” of people. Bad things happen, terrible things happen. They can happen anywhere, at any time, to any one.

This is one problem I had with BSA policies and one reason why I had to walk away from the organization. BSA speaks so much about “youth protection” and keeping the kids safe. Of course, in BSA-speak that’s primarily caring about sexual molestation. Not to minimize that, but certainly there are other areas where Scouts need protection as well. It’s fortunate none of the boys were injured in the above-mentioned attack.

BSA policy formally prohibits the carry and use of firearms unless 1. it’s your job (i.e. a policeman on duty at a Scout event can keep his gun), 2. it’s specifically part of the BSA activity, and then you can only possess and use firearms within the scope of that specific activity. While BSA may have shooting sports, it’s become quite limited. I talk to people just a generation before mine that spoke of how it wasn’t a campout unless you brought your .22 rifle and every Scout slept with his in his tent. Now? No such thing and firearm access and use is strictly controlled. Within the rules that BSA lays down, one cannot legally carry a concealed handgun. In fact, in my last year with the Cub Scout pack I worked with, they changed their official policies to explicitly mention concealed carry and that it won’t be tolerated.

As a Scout leader, one duty I was charged with was the safety of those boys. If the sheepdog’s teeth are taken away, how well can he do his job? What sort of safe environment does that foster? And just how does it allow me to “Be Prepared”?

That’s my biggest beef with BSA. The tenets of Scouting seem to take a back seat to avoiding trouble and lawsuits. Maybe today “Be Prepared” means to have a good lawyer on retainer.

on the FAST drill

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

After shooting the F.A.S.T. drill yesterday, I emailed Karl Rehn for some help.

A few things came out of it.

There’s no question I can be faster, but the question is, just how fast can one get? It seems technique and equipment dependent.

One thing that helps you go fast(er)? After the reload, you drop the slide using the slide lock instead of any technique involving grasping the slide. My habit is to reach over the top of the slide and grab the top (rear) of the slide in a “horseshoe” manner, pull back, release. That takes time, and certainly more time than just thumbing the slide lock. Karl says you lose about a second.

Another is on the reload, I need to be “proactive” instead of “reactive”. My training and practice is primarily defensive, so I’m waiting for a signal to say “time to reload” which I then react to and reload. Here, the moment you press off the second shot your hand needs to be leaving the gun to retrieve the reload from your belt; you need to be proactive about getting the reload.

Concealment garment matters too, but to a lesser extent. Most of the videos I see of fast F.A.S.T. runs, they’re drawing open carry or from some sort of cover garment that’s sweepable, like a coat or vest. Having to pull up on my shirt to get the gun and the mag out? That’s going to be slower. But, that’s how I carry. I have seen one video of a guy breaking 5 seconds from under the shirt, but I’m sure using an AIWB holster helps a bit on speed (tho, no question the guy’s still fast… he’s got a great press-out too).

Bottom line: what do I care about? gaming it to get the fastest time possible? Or using it as a good test and barometer of skill, and working to be the best I can within the parameters I set for myself? I’m not really a gamer, I’m a defensive pistol shooter. So if that means I choose to shoot the drill exactly like I carry, if that means I use the same habits like how I drop the slide… if that means the best I could ever shoot it in would be 6 seconds, then so be it. The best I shot yesterday was a 7.5, so obviously I’ve got some room to improve. And I’m going to be watching that one press-out video a bunch more times to analyze a few things to see what I can learn and put into practice myself.

Need to go FASTer

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

I slipped away this morning to do something long overdue: a trip to the gun range.

Met friend and fellow KR Training assistant instructor, Tom Hogel, at the Austin Rifle Club and we worked. This wasn’t just time to throw lead downrange, but a time to do some serious practice.

We focused on one drill, the FASTest. We did a little group and one-handed shooting at the end (2-3 mags worth), but the bulk of the 200+ rounds we each shot was all F.A.S.T. drill.

I have never shot the FASTest before today. Yeah, I know… we use it in KRT classes, it’s been around for a while, but for whatever reason or other I never got around to shooting it despite wanting to for the longest time. I’m glad I finally got to.

Most of my times were in the 8 to 8.3 second range (shot clean), but a handful were sub-8 with my best being 7.5 (I think 7.57).  I can live with that for a first time and being sorely out of practice.

Shooting the drill that many times (30-ish?) and I see the things I need to work on.

First, my draw and present. Yes, I could pick up a couple of tenths with a faster draw (i.e. hear buzzer, lift shirt, hand to gun, remove from holster and get to position 3 of the draw… that compressed ready position) because I was intentionally going a bit slower because I did not want to rush so fast and fumble things. I wanted to be solid, and if I have to be slower to get there, fine. But the draw itself I’m not going to sweat as much, I just know there’s a few tenths of a second to pick up in there. The bigger thing that slowed me down was the “press out”. Pressing the gun out, getting the finger on the trigger, finding the front sight, and pressing off that first shot — into that tiny target. The last time I did live fire, it felt like I forgot how to press out… I could empty the gun and have no problems dry, but doing it live and I just couldn’t do it, literally! Today was better, but it was just too much time to press out, ensure I found the sights and had a good enough sight picture, then press of a clean shot (no trigger slapping/yanking) into that tiny target. That’s the #1 thing to work on and pick up time in.

Second, reload. Maybe it’s just too much time drilling self-defense skills and not enough “gaming” drills but my brain wanted a signal that I needed to reload: press trigger and it didn’t go bang. I would find myself constantly going “oh yeah, I need to reload now!”. This is more of a “gaming” aspect, but it’s certainly part of the drill, that the moment that second shot happens to get my left hand off the gun and moving to my belt to get the reload going. Of course, the reload itself, work on that too. Getting the magazine out from under my shirt takes a lot of time and I always felt like that was a good fumble point, so I want to see what could be done, technique wise, to improve that area.

Third, grip pressure. Tom noticed that many of my “4 shots to the circle” would land in different spots. Given what he was saying, that’s inconsistent grip pressure. This comes from too much dry and not enough live work. I remember to work on grip when I’m dry, but it’s very easy to let it relax or vary, and without more live fire to give you the recoil, it’s hard to work up on grip management.

Granted, there are other things I can work on too, but I think those are the three big ones, especially the present/press-out… and into a tiny target.

We finished off with some group shooting and I was happy with how that went.

Plus now that Tom’s shooting a 9, that means I got a lot more brass for reloading. 😉

A good day. I’m glad Tom pulled me out. I needed that, badly. Thanx, Tom!

Now… I’ve got things to work on.

Inside the Secret Service

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

LIFE Magazine has a piece “Inside the Secret Service“. (h/t Fark)

It’s quite cool.

I thought slide 16 was interesting:

“Legend has it,” Petro writes in Standing Next to History, “there’s a blood oath that Secret Service agents take in which we swear to lay down our own life to save the president’s. There is no such pledge, no such promise, and, maybe even more important, no such requirement. It’s a myth, nothing more than part of the mystique that surrounds the Secret Service.” That said, Petro goes on to detail expectations that are made of agents. “Most people duck when they hear gunshots. . . But Secret Service agents need to do just the opposite. . . When shots are fired, we’re trained to pull our weapon, stand up straight, and return fire. Instead of protecting ourselves, we turn ourselves into a larger target. That’s one reason why all of our weapons training is done standing up. We don’t do any prone shooting.”

No prone shooting.

A couple years ago I read an in-depth article about Secret Service training. It’s fascinating what they go through.

Home security product idea

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

I just had an idea for the world’s most effective home security product.

What is it?

It’s an audio file… like this one.

Yup. That’s all you need. Your home, property, and life of you and your loved ones are now forever safe.

Because — according to some — all you need is the SOUND of a racking shotgun.

*sigh*

Only gun folk will giggle at this.

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

On my way to KR Training this morning, I received a text from Karl. I was about 45 minutes away.

Karl: bring ice. thanks

Me: Already got it. Be there in 45

Karl: I will be here in 9mm

I LOL’d. 🙂

Inaugural DPS3

/ hsoi

Today KR Training held the first Defensive Pistol Skills 3 class. It’s a new class aimed at pushing you further, putting you in new and interesting positions, and rounding out skills and situations that are possible in defensive shooting situations.

Overall the class ran smooth. Good group of students. Karl deviated from the set curriculum slightly, but they were good changes that I think will lead towards refinement of the curriculum.

Here’s a few take-homes for the students:

* Keep moving.

When you draw, move. When you reload, move. When you’re dealing with a malfunction, move. Generally speaking, if you’re not shooting, you should be moving. Consider this is a defensive setup, so that means there’s someone(s) attacking you. If there’s incoming gunfire well… it’s more important to not get shot than it is to shoot. One way to help yourself towards not getting shot is to move off the line of incoming fire. Standing still is a good way for the attacker to get a bead on you, and you don’t want that to happen.

* Dry work

Lots of trigger yanking today. Dry work will help. Furthermore, many of the skills taught just cannot be performed at the public ranges in the area. What can you do? Practice them dry. No it’s not 100% the same, but it’s sure better than nothing.

* Consider a backup gun

There were a lot of malfunctions today: failures to feed, double-feeds, things just didn’t go right for a number of guns. Sure, some of them were PEBKAC or simple equipment issues. But regardless of the reason, often fixing the malfunction was way too time consuming. If in a gunfight seconds count, does taking 5-10 seconds to fiddle-fart with a non-functioning gun make sense? What works faster? Drop the gun on the ground and draw your backup.

We have no problem with you doing this in class. Carry a backup. If in the middle of a drill something goes wrong and you draw your backup and keep yourself in the fight, awesome! Going for your backup is a lot faster than struggling to get your gun running again. It’s a fight for your life, so keep fighting.

Something doesn’t smell right

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies answered a 911 call in Tampa Friday night. When they arrived at the couple’s apartment, they found Robin Martin suffering from a gunshot wound to her stomach. She is listed in stable condition.

Oscar Dean told authorities he was cleaning his revolver when one round discharged.

Full story. (h/t Fark)

Uh…. given the way a revolver works, given the fact there’s no reason ammunition should be around when cleaning a gun, given the only way to make a gun go bang is to press the trigger… uh… cleaning? Methinks the story stinks.

Sure, all we have to go on is what the article reports, but still… it doesn’t add up.