Guns

Good for him

/ hsoi

Colorado State University’s Board of Governors voted for a weapons ban on campus.

In response, Larimer County Sheriff James Alderden said he would undermine the ban in the interest of student safety. Read more here.

“I have told the CSU police chief I will not support this in any way,” Sheriff Alderden told The Gazette. “If anyone with one of my permits gets arrested for concealed carry at CSU, I will refuse to book that person into my jail. Furthermore, I will show up at court and testify on that person’s behalf, and I will do whatever I can to discourage a conviction. I will not be a party to this very poor decision.”

It’s simple. This Sheriff has set aside emotions and looked at the hard facts:

Alderden said ban advocates have been unable to cite a single study or statistic to show that students will be safer as a result of a weapons ban. He’s convinced they will be much less safe as a result of the ban, which will leave most students defenseless. The ban establishes the campuses as “soft targets,” meaning armed criminals will have a reasonable expectation their intended victims aren’t armed.

“There are volumes of statistical and anecdotal data that show populations are safer when law-abiding citizens are permitted to carry concealed weapons,” Alderden said.

Six years after Alderden began issuing permits, he noticed the homicide rate in his jurisdiction had dropped.

Amazing that. But like I said, the ban is about emotion. Don’t believe me?

“I made the whole case, based in provable facts. The teacher said, and I quote, ‘I don’t care about the facts.’ She only cared about her emotional response,” Alderden said.

Amazing. Isn’t it interesting how in so many other areas of life people want facts, people want proof, people want evidence, but here they don’t want facts. How… odd.

Metal detectors at the Texas capitol?

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

“Grits for Breakfast” takes a look at the DPS plan to put x-rays and metal detectors at the Texas capitol entrances.

One thing many don’t think about is the psychological consequences of such a thing:

After 9/11, the Austin city council turned their offices into their own little fortress, installing metal detectors and ceasing the longstanding practice of allowing constituents to go directly to councilmembers’ offices to talk to staff, the councilmember, etc.. The result was to make them much less accessible, more insular, and ultimately IMO more aloof and full of themselves. The physical infrastructure created to protect these “important people” more than the rest of us had an unintended side effect on officeholders and staff, creating an even more significant psychological distance from constituents than the physical one. The change dramatically altered the culture at city hall, very much for the worse as far as I’m concerned.

Indeed. One must wonder what makes them more important than the rest of us to warrant such measures? If it’s good enough for them, why not you and me? And if we went that route, what sort of world would we live in? And would it really solve anything or just amount to more psychological pain?

Even better: Maybe if legislators are concerned about security they should use some of their campaign funds to send themselves and their staff through the necessary training to get their concealed carry permits.

That’d probably do far more positive. However, I wouldn’t want to force anyone to do such a thing. If a staffer doesn’t want to do it, they shouldn’t be made to.

But for heaven’s sake, state officials shouldn’t let either fear or an overblown sense of self-importance spur security measures that degrade the fundamental culture of the institution. It’s important to protect legislators, but we hold elections every two years precisely to remind each of them that they’re replaceable. It’s not their capitol, it’s ours.

The key word is “self-importance”. If you believe you are that important that you need to work to preserve yourself, then work to enable measures that preserve yourself and enable the citizenry to do the same.

Rangemaster March 2010 Newsletter

/ hsoi

The Rangemaster March 2010 Newsletter is now posted.

Here’s a sobering bit of data from the newsletter:

Violent Crime in Memphis

The following informa- tion is from the FBI Uni- form Crime Report and the US Census Bureau, for the year 2008 (the latest year with full pub- lished figures). These numbers apply to the City of Memphis, NOT the metropolitan area.

Population: 672,046
Number of Families: 158,455
Murders: 138
Forcible Rapes: 366
Robberies: 4,787
Aggravated Assaults: 7,646
Total Violent Crimes: 12,937

Thus, in that one year there was one felony violent crime for every 52 residents, and one for every 12 families. This is why preparedness is so critical. Be alert, be trained, and be armed.

Hooray for belly flab?

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

A woman in Florida — an innocent bystander — is shot when entering a bar.

The woman lives. Why? According to the article:

Frazier told The Press of Atlantic City that ‘I could have been dead. They said my love handles saved my life.”

The new body armor: flab. 😉

Frazier also told the newspaper that she had been “hollering” that she wanted to lose weight. She now said “I want to be as big as I can if it’s going to stop a bullet.”

Hrm. If needing to stop a bullet is something you find yourself worrying about on a daily basis and you’re not say a cop, SWAT, military (i.e. where your job requires you to field incoming fire on a daily basis)… then you may just want to rethink the whole of your lifestyle choices. That may be healthier for you in the long run.

KR Training February 2010 Newsletter posted

/ hsoi

The KR Training February 2010 newsletter is now posted.

Lots of good information, and the real gem is the sheer amount of training being offered in this area in the near future including medical training and unarmed via Leslie Buck.

John Lott on guns in National Parks

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

John Lott writes on the topic of guns in US National Parks.

Basically, it’s a non-issue.

But I wanted to mention the article because of one choice passage:

“You’re raising the level of risk in the parks, and the chance that people will use the parks less than they have in the past,” Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign gun control group warned during February 2009. As evidence for his claim, Helmke pointed to a New York school teacher who said that she would cancel school trips to national parks if guns were allowed. Helmke and others opponents have largely focused on permitted concealed handguns again being allowed in the parks.

Hysteria supporting hysteria. It’s a shame that logic and reason are victims here.

On personal defense

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Most people are hip to the notion of defending your home. It’s your sacred and personal place in the world, one we don’t want to have violated. Pro or anti gun, aggressive or pacifist, you’ll find most people are fine with defending your home.

Could you not say that your own person, your own body… could you not say that place is even more sacred, even more personal?

Why then do some people have a problem with a desire to keep your own person, your own body from being violated?

The retort typically is “Of course I don’t have a problem with this”, especially if you paint that violation in a context of something like rape.  But if that’s the case, why are we taught to just “lie back and take it“? Why is the constant refrain to not fight back, to “just give them what they want”? Don’t forget how the words “Let’s roll” and the actions that followed changed the course of events on 9/11/2001.

Realize most violent crime occurs away from the home. If it’s acceptable to defend yourself at home, I would reason it’d be more important to defend yourself when you’re away from home! However, some people don’t think that.

“To force the general public to be exposed to the risk of loaded guns when they are out with their family in public areas is outrageous and has absolutely nothing to do with the right to defend the home,” [Jonathan E. Lowy, a lawyer with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence] says.

Source here.

You know…. the general public is exposed to the risk of loaded guns all the time. Last time I checked, the police carried loaded guns. When you’re out and about with your family in public areas, hopefully there are police around somewhere, right? Are their guns any different?

Jay is working his way through the police academy. Consequently, he has a fair perspective on the process. He recently wrote a 2 part article on the requirements to get into the academy. Part 1, Part 2. It’s a little long, but it has to be to provide the proper perspective.

Where is the difference between a cop and a CHL? You can argue training, but as I’ve already said previously, little time actually deals with firearms. You can argue psychological examination. However, as proven in the past, psych exams aren’t foolproof. They can be beaten and fool even some of the best in the psych field. You could argue firearms qualification, but the last time I checked, a CHL’s qualification is harder than that of a LEO.

That is why I push for less carry restrictions for CHL holders. Because in the end, there isn’t any real difference at all.

Student shot

/ hsoi

This past weekend a student in Orlando, Florida was shot in a class. There are many copies of the article floating around, but they all seem to have the same text so here’s a link to one of the articles.

A few things about this report need to be addressed.

A gun instructor accidently shot a student in the foot Saturday during an NRA class to receive certification to carry a concealed weapon, Orlando police said.

First, it should be noted that the NRA doesn’t specifically have classes about concealed carry certification. The NRA course “Personal Protection Outside the Home” does talk about concealed carry techniques, but it has nothing to do with actual certification. However, many states accept NRA training as the “required training” component towards the state’s licensing requirements. So, the above statement is a bit of a half-truth. If we want to get a little more pedantic, the NRA is very specific that a firearm is not referred to as a “weapon”. Furthermore, knives, sticks, saps, clubs, swords, nunchucks, and so on are also weapons, but any sort of “license to carry a concealed weapon” is about handguns. Thus the above sentence is better phrased: “A gun instructor negligently shot a student in the foot Saturday during a class to receive certification to carry a concealed handgun, Orlando police said.”

Nevertheless, the question remains: why was there live ammunition in the classroom? If this instructor was an NRA Certified Instructor, he should know that NRA policy states you are not to have live ammo in the classroom.

Second, why was the instructor’s gun out of the holster? If you do have a live gun, if things are running hot, it’s simple: put it in the holster, leave it there, don’t touch it and mess with it. This is what you risk.

Third, this NRA instructor violated the 3 very rules that are fundamental to the very course he was teaching. I don’t know what course he was teaching, but every NRA course I’m aware of discusses the 3 safety rules:

  1. Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.
  2. Always keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.
  3. Always keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.

And by the accounts we have, all 3 rules were violated. Not the sort of learning the students wanted, but they got a sober lesson in what happens if you violate the rules.

Granted, we are without complete details of the incident, so the above is based upon what was reported. Regardless of some specific details, the indisputable fact is a student was on the receiving end of a bullet from an instructor’s gun. For that to happen, the basic rules of gun safety had to be violated. Other information may come to light that clear up some other details, but the fundamental problem appears to be indisputable.

“We won’t be having anything like that in our church in the future,” [church communication’s director Kristy-Lee] Lawley said.

The event was being held in a classroom at a local church, because some of the church members requested holding the class there. Not church-sponsored, just an available location. It’s a shame that the negligence of one has now ruined things for everyone. I hope the church would be willing to reconsider, but I can understand their reluctance.

I love how the article ends:

This was not the first time something’s gone wrong during a gun demonstration in Orlando. In 2004, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration shot himself in the thigh with a .40-caliber Glock pistol while talking to schoolchildren about gun safety.

That situation was something totally different. Yes it still reeks of rules violations, yes it will forever live in Internet infamy. But the way it was tacked onto the article? Good grief… a little reporter bias? It also ignores something. The implication of the above is this is now 2 instances of such a thing happening in Orlando in the past 6 years (or more). I don’t have the numbers, but I’d reason hundreds if not thousands of other successful gun courses have occurred in Orlando in the past 6+ years and nothing happened. Let’s ignore all the good for the sake of a little sensationalized reporting.

Bottom line: the rules start with an important word — always.

Long term reloading plans

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Now that I know my 9mm reload recipe is solid, the goal is to reload until I’m sick of it. 🙂

I’m going to reload 9mm until I run out of some component. If I can get a few thousand of them in the larder, that’d be great. Heck, I think 10K on ice would be a nice surplus but we’ll see where that ends up. Point is, I just want to get a lot loaded so I can shoot and not have to worry about obtaining or making ammo. Because….

I want to get back to working on a .223 Remington load. Yeah, the whole hunting load hasn’t been working out so I put it on the backburner. What I’d like to do is start off with just a cheap plinking load. Just help me find a load that works, work to perfect my skill at making rifle loads, and so on. And yes, if I can eventually work up a great load like foo.c’s zombie load, that’d be cool.

Of course, down the line once I get good at making a .223 rifle load, then it will be time to make a .308 Winchester load. That should be fun. 🙂