Guns

KR Training May 2011 Newsletter

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The KR Training May 2011 newsletter is now available.

A few quick points:

This Saturday’s Ladies-only Pistol course with Lynn Givens had a few slots open up. Ladies, you don’t want to miss this opportunity to train with Lynn and Tom Givens!

And this Sunday’s Shotgun course with Tom Givens had one slot open up.

Otherwise, lots of good stuff in this newsletter, including a report from the 2011 Polite Society Conference. Karl came in 2nd place and Tim Meyers (blog reader and KRT student) came in 3rd. Awesome!

I also want to point out this article from Karl about group shooting. I know I need more work in that area myself.

Go read!

Guns in bars

/ hsoi

There are people who wonder why anyone would want to allow someone to carry a gun in a bar.

This past Friday I went to a local club to see a band play. I don’t know of the venue policy towards concealed carry, but having been there in the past I don’t recall seeing any prohibitive signs (e.g. 30.06, 51% or other signs that prohibit legal concealed carry in Texas), nor do I recall any sort of check done at the door (e.g. wands, frisking, bag searches). So I’m pretty sure I would have been fine to carry. If I did carry, I would have chosen a more restrictive means of carry, since being in tight crowds, people are going to bump into it, you will get jostled about if you’re near the mosh pit, and things could be revealed or loosened.

Nevertheless, just because the venue was one way before doesn’t mean it’s that way this time around (I’ve been to venues with changing behaviors), so I just equip myself with alternative but acceptable mechanisms and leave the carry gun at home.

What always bothers me about it is I know what goes on at shows — especially heavy metal shows. There’s beer, there’s pot, and there’s a lot of testosterone. Mix that up with aggressive music, and it could mean trouble. Granted, most of the time it does not mean trouble. In fact, the only trouble I saw at this show was some kid and his friend getting kicked out for underage drinking. I’ve been to hundreds of shows over my life, and most of the time it is not a problem. If someone does get a little too stupid, usually it’s someone drank too much and can’t handle their alcohol so their friends or the bouncers take care of things easily. I’ve seen the pit get ugly a couple of times, but the group usually clamps down on that because there’s an unwritten code to follow and malicious violence is not tolerated.

But I guess… the day Darrell Abbott, better known as “Dimebag Darrell” legendary guitarist for Pantera and Damageplan, was brutally murdered while performing on stage…. and then some other stories not too long after that (I recall one of someone getting knifed)…. it gives you pause.

Then you have stories like these.

So why would it be bad if I carried my gun in a bar/restaurant/venue? Under the license agreement, I cannot drink. In fact, I didn’t drink at the show anyways because 1. it’s expensive, 2. I prefer having my faculties about me, not just if something went down but I can enjoy the show a lot more if I’m sober.

The reality? I’m sure there were people packing guns and other weapons at the show, likely illegally. You know… gang members don’t really care about laws. Even if the venue had signs prohibiting it, do you think they would have cared? Obviously no signs nor fences nor bouncers or lack of ticket nor much of anything deterred Nathan Gale.

Yes, statistics show that things are generally safe. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t have gone in the first place. But statistics are of little comfort to Rita Haney and Vinnie Paul.

Cover YOUR bases

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KR Training instructors were having a small discussion about less than leathal options, force disparity, and so on.

My personal take? We never know what we’ll be faced with, so it’s good to have the bases covered. Immediate thought is that we don’t all have the time and trouble for this… do we carry a gun, pepper spray, baton, need to get empty hand training, and start to look like Deputy Jay as we walk around? That’s not feasible for most of us.

My take is you need to be able to handle the situations relevant to you.

If you’re a bouncer at a bar, you’re more likely to deal with drunks that need to either be told to leave, be made to leave, and need to sober up. Gun isn’t viable in most of your daily work, but empty hand skills (especially locks and controlling techniques) along with perhaps some pepper spray are good for your needs.

A police officer? They interact with a wide array of circumstances and people and need to be prepared accordingly.

A private citizen… well, we all deal with vastly different circumstances. So what do YOU need? If you don’t know, ask  yourself. Consider what you do on a daily basis, where you go, what you deal with, how you live your life, what you encounter, etc.. If you haven’t played the “what if” game, now’s a good time to start. You can start to ask “OK, what if this happened right here right now? how would I respond?” Maybe what you need are good verbal skills (e.g. a SouthNarc “Managing Unknown Contacts” skillset) and a good set of running shoes! If drunk Uncle Joe comes around a lot, knowing a few wrist locks might be useful to escort him to the bedroom to sleep it off. If you work the night shift, carrying a good flashlight at all times. I rarely have desire for pepper spray, except perhaps for dogs. And my desire for spray has upped because my dog doesn’t always play well with other dogs, and other dogs like to approach my dog. Point being, what was once my plan has changed, and I’m willing to let my plans change, evolve, or even be thrown out should my circumstances change. If you have a hole in your coverage, fill it.

Exactly what you need depends upon you and your situation. No one can give you a set list. The key, in my mind, is to ensure you have YOUR bases covered as best you can. If you don’t know what that is, figure it out now while you have time to think and formulate a plan, instead of later when you wish you had a plan.

For them, but not us.

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Yesterday, the Texas Senate overwhelming and very quickly passed a bill that would allow THEM to carry concealed handguns where normal citizens could not.

Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, said the measure that would allow legislators, statewide elected officials, some former legislators and some state employees to carry their concealed weapons in bars, churches and hospitals and at sporting events and other places they are currently prohibited — including businesses that post signs outside saying concealed handguns are prohibited.

“This bill is really about logistics,” Patrick said earlier, when the bill was approved by a Senate committee. “We go from one place to another — maybe five or six places in one evening for functions and events — and we may be faced with either leaving (guns) in the car or taking them inside and violating the law.

“This bill is just to solve that problem.”

It’s not like us mere peasants could ever face that problem… no. How nice of them to grant themselves privilege. Meantime, campus carry struggles in the legislature.

I did see Wentworth voted against this: good for him.

The linked-to article was also updated with this:

Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, just released the following statement on why he voted against allowing lawmakers to carry their concealed weapons in additional places:

“Today, I voted against the Committee Substitute to Senate Bill 905. As a strong proponent of Second Amendment rights, I could not in good conscience grant myself a privilege that I had failed to first grant law-abiding citizens. Concealed handgun license holders are allowed to carry almost everywhere they go. In my judgment, if we are going to expand when and where Texans can legally carry a concealed firearm, we should start with our citizens — not our lawmakers.”

Good for him.

Texas Senate passes Concealed Carry on Campus

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It looks like the Texas Senate has passed concealed carry on campus.

Or maybe not.

I’m not sure about the news report. It says:

The issue was attached to SB 1581 , a bill intended to collect about $30 million in fee adjustments out of education.

Debate between Sen. Jeff Wentworth , D-San Antonio, and the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Judith Zaffirini , D-Laredo, went back and forth.

But, the SB 1581 sponsored by Zaffirini was out of the 79th Legislative session. We’re in the 82nd, and THAT SB 1581 was sponsored by Ogden.

So… I’m trying to verify. It’s still too early and the legislature’s website isn’t fully updated yet.

Updated: I’d say it’s verified. See here. Seen a couple other reports. I think KXAN needs to improve their reporting.

Personally, it’s a tainted win. I don’t like this sort of “passed via amendment” process. We all hate it when crap we don’t like gets through because of this sort of thing (here, tack it onto a bill we know no one will vote against!), and just because this is something we like doesn’t mean it justifies how it got through.

It also looks like our “benevolent leaders” have spoken that they feel they are somehow better and more important than the rest of us lowly citizens, and are trying to exempt themselves from places one is prohibited to carry.

A day at the range – why you need it.

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This past Saturday I was out at KR Training helping with Defensive Pistol Skills 1 and a relatively new course called Personal Tactics Skills.

DPS1 went about as expected, tho I could see Karl continues to make small evolutionary tweaks to the approach and curriculum. I like that he’s never static with material. Sure, the core concepts and focus remain the same, but the approach to teaching them is always refined in an attempt to find the best way to convey and ensure students pick up on the concepts.

Personal Tactics Skills was different. This was my first time helping with that course, and only the second time the course has been taught. The material comes from numerous sources and really isn’t new, just the format of presenting it all. There is no live-fire in this class. It’s all about discussion, role playing, demonstration. It’s no-stress, no real physical exertion, but it’s a LOT of mental work.

And that’s so important.

We all love throwing lead downrange. It’s fun. But is throwing lead going to keep you out of trouble? Well, if you get to the point of having to throw lead, you’re already in deep trouble. What would be better is if you could have avoided the situation in the first place, if you could have kept things from getting to the point of having to throw lead.

That’s what PTS is all about.

Karl wrote a good article titled “Scenario Based Training – Why You Need It“. Read it. Yeah, you might think that because we’re instructors that there’s bias because we’re trying to drum up business for ourselves. Here’s the reality. Do you think Michael Phelps won all those Olympic gold medals by only getting his feet wet in the kiddie pool? No, he had to get into the pool and swim and work in the context he chose to excel in. If you want to be a champion fighter, MMA, boxing, whatever… you have to get in the ring and spar. So if you want to be good at winning a gunfight well… you don’t really want to get into a gunfight because that’d be hard to train. 🙂 But you can simulate it, you can replicate it. You can put yourself into those situations. They allow you to figure out what you need to do, how you can react. It’s so much better to figure these things out now and not when the flag flies. Especially consider that now, you will probably fail, you will probably make mistakes. Better to make them now when it costs you nothing but a learning experience, than when it could cost you something much more expensive.

I mentioned to students in class a good DVD that complements what was taught. It’s called “Practical Unarmed Combat” from SouthNarc of ShivWorks. I have a review of the DVD here.

A good day at the range.

Remember your sunblock, folks.

Got to start breaking in my S&W 640. I like it. While I bought it primarily for the extra weight to help with recoil management, the grip ended up helping a lot more because those small “boot grips” on my 442 leave the top corner of the backstrap exposed and it bites into the web of my hand, whereas the 640’s factory grip covers it just enough to keep it from biting. I do want to try out the boot grips on the 640 for comparison. Next range trip I guess.

Oh, and again… dumping 20-round mags of .308 out of an AR-10 has a high giggle factor. 🙂

High giggle factor

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Got to shoot Tom’s AR-10 today.

Boy that thing has a high giggle factor.

Nothing like rapidly emptying a 20-round magazine of .308 at 25 yards to put a smile on your face that you just can’t wipe off. 🙂  Makes me want to pull out my M1A and trick it out.

Back from a day at KR Training. Tired. It’s late. Mother’s Day tomorrow… I’ll have to write things up later.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Daley

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As Daley leaves office as Mayor of Chicago, he requests armed bodyguards.

So, guns are good when they protect him, but the peasants aren’t allowed to have guns to protect themselves.

I see.

Situational awareness

/ hsoi

An excellent piece on situational awareness.

The money quote:

Carrying a firearm for protection is a great step – you have the best tool available for the job of defending yourself. However, if you miss the early warning signs and have to be accessing that tool after the attack has started, you’re way behind the power curve.