Guns

Stop. Don’t touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult.

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

I became an Eddie Eagle volunteer and gave my first presentation last night. Went over fairly well, for a first time. I think it’s a great program that strives to be fun but teach a serious message. Afterwards I heard from various parents that agreed: even if you are anti-gun, it makes sense to teach your children to “Stop. Don’t touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult.” At the barest of minimums that helps you keep your child safe if they ever encounter a gun. We teach our children so many other things about being safe but this one tends to be avoided for whatever reason. With a program like Eddie Eagle, there’s no reason not to provide it and teach that simple mantra/message to your children:

As for the program itself, I used the “assembly format” which I think works fairly well. It aims to be fun, keeps the kids interested, but it doesn’t bog down with anything or even let the fun and silliness get in the way of the serious message of “Stop. Don’t touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult.”  and additional messages of respect (for always following all safety rules) and responsibility (for yourself). It uses various things to help imprint the message: rhymes, repetition, some physical movements (watch the video, you’ll see the “Eddie Shuffle”), repetition, a few scenarios to play out, repeating the 4 steps numerous times, “Stop. Don’t touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult.” You get the idea. 🙂  It’s very well developed, from an educator standpoint.

You can hate guns to your dying day. But if you love your children, be they your own kids or just kids in your care, please take the time to teach them about Eddie Eagle. Thirty minutes of discussion could save you from a life of heartache.

Convey to the person what you want them to do

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I previously wrote an article on how “mindset is everything” and in there discuss the importance of conveying to the person what you want them to do. If you haven’t read that article, you should read it before continuing with this article. It’s brief, go read it. I’ll be here when you’re done and return. 🙂

An interesting report from Force Science News. The relevance here is to the issuance of commands, as I mention in my “mindset is everything” article, to convey to the person what you want them to do. The article discusses a study of how police give commands under stress and how the type of command affects compliance. It mentions two sorts of commands: alpha, and beta. 

“Alpha commands,” Lewinski explains, “are simple, direct and explicit, so that even someone in a chemically or emotionally induced fog is likely to understand them.” Examples: “Take your hands out of your pocket,” “Stop talking,” “Quit resisting,” “Don’t leave your vehicle.”

… “[Beta commands] are indirect or imprecise orders that require interpretation by the suspect, based on his or her inference of what the officer intends,” Lewinski says. Examples: “Move,” “Give it up,” “Don’t be stupid,” “Stop screwing around,” “Knock it off,” “Don’t make me kill you.”

In other words, officers in day-to-day interactions generally gave very clear commands about what they wanted, and for the most part they gained compliance. But when they felt themselves threatened, this direct precision tended to be abandoned quickly. While they may have started out issuing alpha commands, in the face of resistance and personal danger they overwhelmingly transitioned to vaguer, less direct beta commands and, in general, gained markedly less compliance.

…

Based on his work with autistic children and others who show resistance in classrooms, he knows that “beta commands are very ineffective and inefficient. They leave people guessing.” When teachers switch from beta to alpha commands, they experience greater compliance even from mentally and emotionally disabled students, Houlihan says. “With the change, you almost immediately see better teachers and better kids.”

He cites an incident from the law enforcement studies in which an officer was in a stand-off with a suspect who was gripping a knife. “The officer told him 5 times, ‘Don’t make me kill you’ before he finally did shoot the suspect. A terrible command! He might have thought he was conveying an order to put down the knife, but that’s not what he said. It was left up to the suspect to interpret what the officer meant and what action was expected. In effect, the suspect was put in the position of having to control the officer’s behavior.

It doesn’t matter the context: police work, self-defense, dealing with your kids, ordering food at a restaurant, talking with your boss or subordinates, whatever. If you wish to increase the level of success regarding compliance with your requests, clearly convey to the person what you want them to do.

Shoot to wound doesn’t make sense

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I hear about people that say in a self-defense situation you should shoot someone in the leg or the arm, instead of “center of mass”.  There’s many reasons for it, but in the end it’s just not sound reasoning. If someone needs shooting, then they need effective shooting. If they don’t need shooting, they don’t need shooting. So if push comes to shove and you must shoot, you need to shoot at the most effective target (e.g., “center of mass”) and not at some less-effective area like a leg.

I came across this article at Force Science News that discusses the situation in-depth. It approaches it from a police officer standpoint, which is a different situation than a private citizen defending themselves, but it doesn’t take away from the point of the article that shooting to wound doesn’t make sense.

Nyko Perfect Shot for Wii

/ hsoi

My mother bought the kids a Wii for Christmas. I have to admit, it’s a lot of fun. Growing up as a child of the video game age, we’ve come a long way from the Atari console’s “stick and one button” interface. Sure some Wii games aren’t very inventive in taking advantage of the platform, but most are and it’s neat to interact with games in a way that isn’t just button mashing.

I hear the kids downstairs playing on it right now, so on a whim I started to Google around to see what’s hot in Wii games right now. After a few clicks, I stumbled upon the Nyko Perfect Shot.

Want. Here’s an IGN review.

Nintendo makes their official Wii Zapper, but it pales. I mean look at the Perfect Shot: 1911-like styling; certainly more realistic in styling and ergonomics to a real pistol; the review reads like the trigger is pretty good; and look! Sights! That rules!

Oo… massive amounts of want.

But then, what game to get to go with it? Ghost Squad? Call of Duty: World at War? Medal of Honor Heros 2? Hrm…. 🙂

Updated: I caved. Went to the local GameStop and they had one in stock. Also a copy of Ghost Squad, which the guy working there (who has worked there a long time, has a trustworthy opinion regarding game stuff) said was a lot of fun. The game was even on sale this weekend, so bonus there. Didn’t cost me much for the two things. I haven’t played with it yet (got other things to do first), but I did take it out of the package and fondle it. The grip is very thick, probably to accomodate/balance the Wiimote’s size. I do like how they did the “pass-through” for the nunchuck. The trigger feels as good as you can expect for a little plastic contraption like this, but what tickled me was while it looks like a little pivot trigger, it actually slides back and forth just like a 1911 trigger would. Nifty. As soon as I get a chance to try it out, I’ll report back.

Shooting, relaxing, and having no mind

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

I was scheduled to participate in a handgun class today, AT-4 Extreme Pistol. However due to the heavy rains and flooding issues the class has been postponed until tomorrow. Heavy rains, shooting on the move, paper targets… just doesn’t mix well for a safe and productive class. Tomorrow should be better.

Some weeks ago when I was assisting with a class I mentioned to one of the instructors that I was signed up to take AT-4 as a student. He gave me a puzzled look and wondered why I would take the class, saying something to the effect of I shoot better than that and don’t really need the class. While I appreciated the complement, I’m still taking the class. I signed up for it a long time ago, back when I was still unsure of my skills. While I apparently underestimated myself, I know I can still learn a lot by taking the class. Plus it’s good to just take it as a “résumé” builder — the more formal training the better.

I’ve been thinking about how to approach the class. What do I want to get out of it, what do I want to focus on for myself apart from the class curriculum. I think I’m coming back to something I’ve spent a long time trying to improve about myself:

Being relaxed.

Some years ago I injured myself in some way and so I wasn’t sure how I could keep up my empty-hand martial arts training while I healed from the injury. My teacher at the time suggested to me to work on forms and utter relaxation. To use only those muscles that had to be used and nothing more. For instance, if you’re in a horse stance, your leg muscles certainly need to be at work… but all of them? Your quadriceps sure, but your hamstrings not so much so ensure they’re not tight. Certainly in a horse stance your shoulders aren’t involved so why should there be any tension in them? You’d be surprised how much we involve muscles that have no true reason to be involved, and all that does is consume energy and tire us out quicker. The more I worked on being relaxed, while that in and of itself was difficult, the end result was making things a lot easier. Endurance went up merely because I wasn’t wasting energy.

I still have to work on the physical aspects of this. I guess it’s in my genes to be a tense “type A” person, so it’s an effort to relax (ironic eh?). It’s even in little things, like noticing during a workout or even just sitting here right now at the computer as I type this and I furrow my brow. There’s no need. If the brow is furrowed, I’m not relaxed. The more relaxed I am, the better I move, the better I work. Plus, it telegraphs. Can’t have a relaxed poker-face.

So back to the handgun class. I think the key thing I want to focus on is being relaxed. The class is about pushing your skills further, so if I really want to shoot well the more relaxed I am the better I will perform, the faster I can perform. But that’s just the physical side of it. I need to be mentally (and emotionally) relaxed as well.

No Mind. The Japanese would call it mushin. Chinese, wu-hsin. In Kuk Sool’s hyung bup, “mind clear”. I don’t want to have a gazillion things racing through my head. Maybe “front sight front sight front sight” but I don’t even want that. I want my mind to just be. Just let things flow. Be one with the gun, the target, myself, everything. Harmony.

This will be my personal goal for the class. We’ll see how I do. 🙂

The Inter-American Arms Treaty (CIFTA)

/ hsoi

I’ve been passing on covering things like “the Mexican Gun Canard” and the 20/20 “guns on campus” abomination because other blogs have covered them mighty well. I have nothing to add.

But discussion of the Inter-American Arms Treaty (also known as CIFTA) has ugly implications. You need to contact your Senators and ensure this doesn’t happen.

Sebastian has good coverage. The NRA’s statement.

Grip work and rain

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Current weather forecasts are for rain, and lots of it. A very slow moving storm system coming across the area. I’m thankful for it because Texas is in a major drought so all the rain we can get I’m happy for.

The slight bummer? I was going to be at the gun range for a lot of the weekend. Will I still? Depends on a few things. But regardless it made me think about shooting in the rain. Specifically, shooting my polymer-framed Springfield XD in wet conditions. The grip on the XD is kinda slick and if it was wet it’s not going to be the easiest thing to keep hold of.

I do regret not getting the stippling grip modification by Springer Precision. I’ve tried it on a buddy’s XD and it’s awesome. I guess I might have to go the grip-tape or skateboard-tape route, but I know it’s not as good as the stipple job.

The point to think about is shooting in less-than-ideal conditions. When it comes to defensive shooting, you have no control over when and where the situation would occur: low light? cold weather and you have gloves and a heavy coat on? rain? ice? While we all like to practice in nice and dry conditions, every so often we should push ourselves outside our comfort zone and work on the less-than-ideal.

Competition as training

/ hsoi

Sebastian has a posting on using competitive shooting sports as police training. Good stuff all around and I think the main article makes all the relevant points. I’ve been wanting to get into competition shooting (IDPA or IPSC) but so far the schedule just hasn’t meshed for it.

What I wanted to comment on in Sebastian’s article tho was his comment that “you can’t really practice real gunfighting”. While you truly can’t practice this (or at most you’d only be able to practice it once :D), I’d say what gets you closer than anything would be force-on-force training.