Guns

Why not a TASER?

/ hsoi

I know people who desire some sort of tool to aid in their personal safety, but seek non-gun options. So the notion of a TASER comes up a lot.

Here’s a great summary from Kathy Jackson (posted to her Facebook page) on the use of TASER’s and other such tools.

A few days ago, someone asked me what I think about using Tasers instead of firearms for personal defense. My answer: It’s complicated.

1 – If I had access to a nice little Star Trek phaser that could be set to “stun” and would work without fail to drop attackers in their tracks with no possible negative consequences to either myself or the attacker, so the criminal justice system could grab them and choose the appropriate disposition for them with no risk to my own life, I’d hang up my defensive handgun and never carry it again. But that reliable, effective, no-consequences tool does *NOT* exist in this world. No matter what the ad copy says.

2 – Most “tasers” sold to ordinary people are *not* Tasers at all. They are simply low-power electric shockers that require physical contact. And no matter what the packaging says, most of them are about as powerful as the handheld buzzer your joker of a big brother used to use to make his buddies jump when they shook hands. Waste of money.

3 – A true Taser — which comes from the TASER International Inc. and costs about as much as a firearm — will in fact lock up the attacker’s muscles by blocking signals from the nerves back to the brain. Having one used on you feels about like a full-body muscle cramp. Not pleasant! Despite this, it’s *not* a pain compliance tool; it actually functions by blocking the nerve signals. That’s the upside.

The downside: You get exactly one shot, and it fires two projectiles at once at a relatively slow speed. Both probes have to hit. If they hit too close together (as they will if the attacker is too close to you) the signal isn’t blocked that well and the attacker will likely keep coming. If they spread too far apart (as they will if the attacker isn’t right on top of you), one of the probes may miss the attacker — which means you might as well have missed entirely.

Taser advertises that many of their products have a “drive stun” capability, meaning if you miss with one or both probes you can just shove the end of the Taser gun into the bad guy’s body and disrupt the nerve signal that way. This is painful for the attacker, but … it won’t get the same solid lock up and he can fight through that pain.

If you do hit him with both projectiles, the Taser will keep the electrical pulse going through the wires for a short while. The company suggests you leave the pulse going, drop the Taser product, and run away at this point while the attacker’s muscles are still locked up. Better hope you can run faster and farther than your attacker can follow in that amount of time, because as soon as the current shuts off, he’ll be able to follow you.

And finally, there’s this: because Tasers fire projectiles with wires attached, stuff like what happened in the news report below, can and does happen. That’s why law enforcement officers always have access to deadly force whenever a Taser may be deployed.

4 — Bottom line? A Taser can be a good tool for some situations, but it isn’t magic. The products can and have saved lives, mostly lives of law enforcement officers, or suspects being arrested. When LEOs use these things, most of them have backup officers on hand who can and will immediately use deadly force if the Taser fails to subdue the suspect. For us, who don’t have that kind of backup on hand, it’s more dicey.

Good customer service

/ hsoi

I like to give credit where it’s due, especially when it winds up being a good customer service story. IMHO good customer service should be the norm, but alas these days it seems it’s the exception. Still, it’s good to share the success stories because I think it helps us see who is worth doing business with.

This time, it’s Freedom Munitions.

I learned of Freedom Munitions via my work at KR Training, because some time ago Karl switched to them as the bulk ammo provider. I mean, when you have to go through thousands upon thousands of rounds per year due to classes and student needs, you need ammo that is available, reliable, and cost-effective. So Freedom Munitions ammo fits the bill, and thousands upon tens-of-thousands of Freedom Munitions rounds have been fired at the KRT range.

I needed to buy some .223 ammo for myself, so of course I turned to Freedom Munitions given the past track record and of course no one could beat their prices. Ordered 1000 rounds of .223 Rem 55 grain remanufactured ammo. No problem to order, no problem to ship… but there was problem to shoot.

Oldest and I were out shooting and the AR was malfunctioning quite a bit. Long story short? The primers were coming out of the fired rounds. Shoot, enough pressure to cause the primer to come out and basically stick to the bolt face, chamber next round, but firing pin strikes the old primer still stuck to the bolt face. Fix the malfunction, keep going… but then sooner or later it would happen again. I forget the failure rate, but it was pretty bad. We only shot 170 rounds in total, and if I remember correctly at least a dozen, tho I think a bit more, failed in this manner. It was pretty bad. And we know it’s the ammo and not the gun because anything else we fed the gun ran without a hitch.

I contacted Freedom Munitions about it. Another long story short? They offered to take the remaining ammunition back and offered me either a full refund or replacement with new (remember, I purchased remanufactured). The way it was worded I thought I’d get a 1-for-1 replacement, but no… I wound up getting a full 1000 rounds of new .223 Rem 55gr. FMJ.

As well, the lady handling the issue for me, Brenda Carrier, was very helpful. She apologized for being short staffed and that it took a while for her to respond to me, but she saw everything all the way through. She was responsive, straightforward, and worked to ensure I was satisfied.

I haven’t shot any yet, but I’m sure it’ll be good. Plus it’s all Lake City brass. Nice.

Am I bummed to have gone through all of this? Sure. But the reality is, it happens. When you crank out enough rounds of ammo, inevitably there’ll be issues here and there, so it happens. No big deal, and Freedom Munitions worked to make things right.

 

Open Carry – this was bound to happen

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Chuck Rives shared this story about a man open carrying a handgun, and getting robbed.

Investigators said the 21-year-old victim bought a handgun earlier in the day and was openly carrying it while talking to his cousin.

They said a man approached them and asked for a cigarette. Talk eventually turned to the victim’s new purchase, before the robber pulled his own gun from his waistband and said, “I like your gun, give it to me,” according to police.

The victim handed over his gun and the suspect ran away.

There’s numerous things we can learn from this.

First, with the growth of open carry, this sort of thing is bound to happen.

Second, if you are going to open carry, it involves a lot more than just sticking a gun on your hip and thinking you are good to go. You need to greatly improve your awareness and mindset.

Third, someone approaching asking for a cigarette? A classic way for a mugger to make contact and breach your space, to get close, and then mug you. If I can use SouthNarc parlance, the victim here failed to Manage the Unknown Contact. It’s critical to understand such things and how to deal with it so you don’t wind up in trouble.

Fourth, why was the victim engaging in conversation with this random stranger in the first place? Fine the cigarette, but after saying “no”, that should be the end of it. Even if you HAVE a cigarette, and I totally understand the social implications to a fellow smoker (I was one, I know how it goes), don’t let someone encroach on your space. I know it seems wrong to be selfish, but look at what the consequences were for not doing so.

Fifth, I can’t say for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the victim was selected precisely because he was open carrying. And I would say it wasn’t purely because of O.C. but likely the victim also displayed other mannerisms and behavior that demonstrated to the mugger that he’d make good prey. There’s lots of study out there on victim selection, and chances are good the victim was selected because he demonstrated all the traits of being a good victim.

Which… isn’t something you can afford, if you’re advertising that you have things on your person that others might want and would be willing to take, be it a gun or an iPhone or whatever.

To me, this isn’t reason to say “open carry is bad” and “we should ban open carry”. No, I still think from a purely legal and legislative standpoint there’s no reason to deny/ban open carry. But it does provide illustration that you cannot blindly go about this process. That to open carry brings great responsibility, some risk, and you had better have your head on right and some education into the realities you could face, then prepare, practice, and carry yourself accordingly.

Practicing by the Odds

/ hsoi

When I read “The Bell-Curve: Shooting Practice by the Odds” over at the Growing Up Guns blog, it bore a striking resemblance to the article series I wrote last year on “Minimum Competency for Defensive Pistol“. Just shows that great minds think alike. 🙂

We took similar approaches: look at the realities of private citizen gunfights (vs. military or law enforcement engagements, which are a different context), see what actually happens in them, and thus what has the highest probability of happening. Based upon that, it makes sense for those of us with limited training budget (time, money) to at least initially focus our skills in those areas. I mean, if no encounter ever uses weak-hand-only behind-the-back while hanging from the rafters shooting skills… is that really something you should spend 90% of your practice time on? Instead, if 90% of encounters involve being able to draw from concealment, get acceptable hits, in a small area, from close range, quickly, with both hands… maybe that’s where you should focus your training time.

It’s not to say other skills should be ignored, it’s just a matter of prioritization due to the fact we are all limited on time and money. So, spend that time wisely.

We arrive at some slightly different conclusions, and provide a different set of drills (tho we both started with Gila Hayes’ drill). But ultimately we’re saying the same thing in different ways.

I encourage you to give the DefensiveDaddy’s article a read. It’s further perspective on this important topic.

KR Training October 2014 Newsletter

/ hsoi

The KR Training (September) October 2014 newsletter is out.

Karl’s running some specials:

October 25 – Every armed citizen should train to this level. Our most important courses.
Defensive Pistol Skills 2 + AT-2 Force on Force + Low Light Shooting – all 3 for $180

Already taken these but haven’t practiced the skills in awhile? 
REFRESHER DISCOUNT: repeat any individual course you’ve taken before for $20 off.
The October 25 classes will include special drills using the range cars.

That’s one bonus that you normally do NOT get with these. There are a couple cars on the range from the prior guest-instructor visit by Dave Spaulding for his Vehicle Combatives class. So this particular iteration of classes will provide some extras you normally won’t get!

Move on… to what?

/ hsoi

Continuing the discussion on “pick your gear, and move on“.

So once you have your equipment picked out, where are you to move on to?

Getting the skill needed to run that equipment at an acceptable level.

This starts out with basic marksmanship skills: gripping the gun, stance, how to aim, how to press the trigger (without disturbing the sights), how to shoot faster, more accurately, on the move, how to reload, how to clear malfunctions, and so on.

Yes you can get this on your own, but I’d say finding good instruction is invaluable towards helping you get there in a more efficient manner. Learn something, then go practice it. Come back and learn more, then continue to practice it.

During this time, you’ll probably shake some issues out with your equipment and find out what does and does not work. Do not be afraid to refine your equipment or fully start over if that’s what is needed.

But once the equipment is settled, it’s then time to acquire the skill to use that equipment. Keep moving down the road.

Pick your accessories, and move on

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Continuing the discussion on “pick your gear, and move on“.

Accessories don’t have to match your purse, and any color is fine as long as it’s black (even after Labor Day). 🙂  I’m talking about other essential gear such as holsters, magazine pouches, belts, maybe flashlights.

This is an area where the discussion widens a bit because some of it comes down to you and your circumstances. For example, while men can wear a holster inside the waistband of their pants at the 3 o’clock position, a lot of women cannot because of waists and hips going out and how that would point the butt/grip of the gun into her side and thus be both uncomfortable and difficult to draw.

A lot of this ends up being a matter of experimentation. Where you’re just going to have to buy a lot of things, try a lot of things, discard a lot of things, until you find what works for you.

But there are some areas where we can offer some advice.

A good holster matters. You need to carry your gun in a holster, that provides protection to the gun, especially in terms of covering the trigger guard so things cannot get in there and work the trigger when it shouldn’t be worked! A good holster also has a mouth that remains open; collapsing holsters create all manner of hazard and difficulties for reholstering, which is something you will have to do so why make it complicated and risky for yourself when you don’t have to?

You will rarely (probably never) find a good holster at stores in town. Hooray for the Internet tho, and you can find good holster makers all over. For example,  Comp-Tac, Blade Tech, Raven Concealment, Custom Carry Concepts, Dale Fricke. The list is far from inclusive.

If you can, you should carry some means of reloading your gun, like an extra magazine. You then need a way to carry it. Anything with flaps that cover it? Pass (unless you’re in law enforcement, which has different requirements). Most of the good holster makers also make good magazine pouches.

If you carry on your waist, you need a good belt. Thick, wide, a fair amount of rigidity, to help carry and distrubute the weight of the gun, the magazine(s), and whatever else you carry on your belt. A good belt goes a long ways.

I like to carry a flashlight, because it’s useful. Not a tac-light on the rail on my gun, but just a plain-old flashlight. You could carry it in your pocket, or some of the holster makers also make pouches to allow the light to be carried on your belt.

Admittedly this is one area of gear when there’s a bit more room for discussion, but it really comes down to just finding the necessary gear that fits your needs. But once you find it? Move on.

Pick your gun, and move on

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

Continuing the discussion on “pick your gear, and move on“.

Reading this post by DocGKR, he quotes “a very experienced senior SOF NCO” who “wrote the following superb analysis discussing pistol calibers”:

Not getting into the weapons transition issues from frame design to frame design (it’s the reason I love to hate the Glock), the fact of the matter is that the recoil on the G23 crosses the magic line of running the shit out of your pistol. Allow me to explain… Most of the guys mentioned that they can handle the reduced size of the 19 and the recoil increase over the G17 is acceptable. Most of us have also determined that this does NOT cross over to the .40 cartridge. Guys with a firm handle on recoil manipulation can use the G22 and G35 with acceptable results. However when you go down to G26’s and G23’s, the juice is not worth the squeeze. The recoil is now noticeably effecting times and it’s measurable. If you can’t effectively control recoil and are wasting time allowing your pistol to settle between shots then this is all a wash and means nothing to you, but if you can apply the fundamentals effectively you will quickly see that you can’t run a sub compact 9 or a compact .40 worth a shit. So a decision to accept a larger pistol in order to have an acceptable recoil impulse based upon caliber must be made. The smallest 9mm Glock recoil that I will accept is the G19 and I will not go below the G22 when bumping up to .40.

For reference, ordered by caliber, then from largest size frame to smallest.

  • G17 – 9mm, Standard size frame
  • G19 – 9mm, Compact frame
  • G26 – 9mm, Subcompact frame
  • G35 – .40 S&W, Competition frame
  • G22 – .40 S&W, Standard size frame
  • G23 – .40 S&W, Compact frame
  • G27 – .40 S&W, Subcompact frame (not referenced in the above quote, and likely because if the G23 is unacceptable, the G27 is right out).

So what does this all mean?

Equipment matters (but only so much).

You need to be able to run the gun and run it well. While the old-school and Internet commando mantra demands you use only calibers that begin at least with a “4”, the reality is that using such calibers is difficult because, as above NCO stated, you can’t run it worth a shit. More correctly tho, when you have more recoil, it’s harder to run the gun. More recoil happens because of caliber (e.g. .40 S&W, .45 ACP, .357 Sig, .357 Magnum), but it also happens when there’s less gun (less mass, less area to grip) to help mitigate that recoil. That could be because of simple weight (e.g. an “airweight” revolver vs. an all-steel revolver), or because of size which naturally reduces available mass and grip area (e.g. G17 vs G26, G35 vs. G23).

So you have to ensure you have a gun that runs — for you. This is where things like “gun fit” matter. Here’s a good guide on the topic (and more).

But then amongst all those guns that run, there are other things that contribute to you being able to run the gun well. And I’ll put it pretty simply:

Pick the largest gun that fits you and your circumstances, in the biggest caliber you can acceptably run.

Let me break this down.

Larger guns aid in recoil management, both because they will have more mass, and also with more size comes more surface area to enable a better grip on the gun. They can also offer things like a longer sight radius, lighter recoil springs (makes it easier to rack the slide). Bottom line: you can shoot a larger gun better and more easily than smaller guns. This doesn’t mean to buy a monster gun that you cannot handle, it still has to be what properly fits you and fits your circumstances. But within those that fit, strive for the largest you can because you’ll shoot it better.

You want the largest caliber you can acceptably run. I’ve seen folks that cannot handle 9mm recoil but do OK with .380 Auto. While .380 Auto is marginal in performance, it’s better than nothing and if that’s what you can shoot best, then that’s a settled matter. I’ve also encountered some that can’t shoot more than a .22 LR; while that’s also not ideal, it’s still better than nothing so there you go. And note, while you might be a big strong guy with forearms like Popeye and can run .40 decently well, chances are still good you will run 9mm better due to simple physics.

So yes, for the majority of folks, getting a Glock 17 or Glock 19, or a Smith & Wesson M&P 9 (service model size) is good enough. They are proven reliable platforms, that provide acceptable performance. If those guns do not fit you, you may have to do some more shopping, but the end result is the same:

Pick your gun, and move on.

Pick your ammo, and move on

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Continuing the discussion on “pick your gear, and move on“.

I was having a discussion with a fellow KR Training assistant instructor about the differences between different brands of ammo, I came across this posting from DocGKR (a well-respected authority on such matters, real name is Dr. Gary Roberts). There’s more stuff from DocGKR here, and if you just search the Internet for anything DocGKR writes on ammo, you can rest assured you’re getting the best information on ammunition selection.

See, there’s all sorts of gimmicky ammo that comes out from time to time, claiming to be mostest more betterer than ammos that came before – it’s t3h d3adl3y! It all looks good on the slo-mo video against those evil watermelons. But name me one law enforcement agency willing to bet their lives on it… and oddly there are no takers. Not to say law enforcement agencies are any sort of gold standard, but these are people who put their lives on the line every day and whose job description necessitates the need to sometimes use a gun to stop bad people from doing bad things. Thus, these are people who need proven tools and will not accept anything less; they are a fair reference point for “what works” and is worth entrusting your life to.

It’s pretty simple: there are well-known, well-established brands of ammo that perform well and do the job as needed to be done. Yes, from time to time this list gets revised because technology! (e.g. Hydra-Shoks are old tech, HST is a superior replacement) But on the whole, there’s established stuff so just pick one from the list, make sure it runs in your gun (e.g. run 200 rounds through your gun and ensure you get 200 successful shots; yes that’s expensive, but isn’t your life worth it?), and then put this issue to bed because there’s really no need for debate, discussion or deep research into the matter.

Yes, there are some differences. For example, the discussion I was having was regarding the differences between Federal Tactical Bonded and Federal HST (which isn’t bonded). It was a minutia discussion, and there can be some relevance to such a discussion. But on the whole for most private citizens, DocGKR lists:

Federal Tactical 124 gr JHP (LE9T1)
Federal HST 124 gr +P JHP (P9HST3)

So according to DocGKR, either are fine. Pick one, move on.

Incidentally, shortly after I penned this article, Duncan Larsen over at LooseRounds.com reposted an article from the FBI Training Division regarding ammunition selection, mostly as it pertains to caliber. I’ve seen this article in other forms before, but Duncan’s posting of it was timely. For the tl;dr crowd, here’s the conclusion:

While some law enforcement agencies have transitioned to larger calibers from the 9mm Luger in recent years, they do so at the expense of reduced magazine capacity, more felt recoil, and given adequate projectile selection, no discernible increase in terminal performance.

Other law enforcement organizations seem to be making the move back to 9mm Luger taking advantage of the new technologies which are being applied to 9mm Luger projectiles. These organizations are providing their armed personnel the best chance of surviving a deadly force encounter since they can expect faster and more accurate shot strings, higher magazine capacities (similar sized weapons) and all of the terminal performance which can be expected from any law enforcement caliber projectile.

Given the above realities and the fact that numerous ammunition manufacturers now make 9mm Luger service ammunition with outstanding premium line law enforcement projectiles, the move to 9mm Luger can now be viewed as a decided advantage for our armed law enforcement personnel.”

For those curious, I carry Speer Gold Dot 9mm 124 grain +P in all my 9mm semi-autos. In my snub-nose revolver I carry Speer Gold Dot .38 Special 135 grain +P. Why? They’re proven to perform reliably and be optimal for the platform, so ’nuff said.

Pick your ammo, and move on.

Pick your gear, and move on

/ hsoi

We love our gear and our “toys”. Case in point: the mania surrounding the iPhone 6 release and the people camping out for weeks to get the first one.

Why not? It’s fun, it’s tangible, you can experience it, you can share it, you can show it, you can talk (debate/argue) about it. There’s a lot of human satisfaction that comes from gear.

And so like with gear in any realm, so much discussion in the firearms world revolves around equipment.

I always liked Insights Training Center‘s “inverted pyramid” of priorities:

  1. Mindset
  2. Tactics
  3. Skill
  4. Equipment

You need equipment, it is foundational. But it is also the least important. Find the equipment that works for you, then move on. Don’t be afraid to occasionally reassess your gear because technology improves and something better may come along, or maybe later on you discover gear that works better. For example, I was fine with my Springfield XD for a number of years, but the main reason I switched to the S&W M&P was discovering minor differences in the construction of the frame worked better for the physiology of my hands . But on the whole, get it settled and move on.