Champion Sport Shooter and local Texan BJ Norris has a website called MyGunTips.com.
It’s a growing collection of informational videos about shooting sports, self-defense, and other firearms-related topics.
As an example, here’s BJ explaining strategies for shooting the Steel Challenge stage “Roundabout”
And you thought it was just making 5 plates go “ping” as fast as possible. 😉
Jane M. Orient, M.D. writes for the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 18 Number 3 Fall 2013 on the notion of “gun violence” as a public health issue. (h/t Greg Howard)
Full article available here. 6 pages, 51 citations. Not a long read, but one chock-full of data.
In a 2005 report commissioned by [National Institute of Justice, a U.S. Department of Justice agency], researchers examined a variety of sexual assaults and other physical assaults against women. The study did not focus specifically on college students. The researchers found that potential rape victims who resisted their attackers physically and verbally significantly reduced the probability that a rape would be completed and did not significantly increase the risk of serious injury.
Most self-protective actions significantly reduce the risk that a rape will be completed. In particular, certain actions reduce the risk of rape more than 80 percent compared to nonresistance. The most effective actions, according to victims, are attacking or struggling against their attacker, running away, and verbally warning the attacker.
In assaults against women, most self-protective tactics reduced the risk of injury compared to nonresistance. According to the researchers, the only self-protective tactics that appear to increase the risk of injury significantly were those that are ambiguous and not forceful. These included stalling, cooperating and screaming from pain or fear.
A separate study found that even when a rape was completed, women who used some form of resistance had better mental health outcomes than those who did not resist.
From a 2005 report, that Certain Self-Defense Actions Can Decrease Risk. (h/t Michael Z. Williamson)
So sure. It’s important to teach people not to commit crimes; to not violate the property, rights, and dignity of others. It’s also important to realize that while civilized society has worked towards this end for thousands of years, there are still those who chose to deviate and not do what you or society-at-large desires and deems appropriate and acceptable. We haven’t yet been able to eliminate from society bad people doing bad things.
Given these bad people still exist and likely will continue to exist for some time (if thousands of years of history are any indication), it’s prudent you take additional steps towards your own self-protection and self-preservation.
And yes, if the above report is any fair indication (along with thousands of years of recorded history), sometimes violence is the most effective solution.
Remember, violence isn’t bad, it just is what it is. While often violence is used – and most often reported – in a negative manner, certainly violence can be and is used in a positive manner. Do not overlook the fact that a woman fighting back against her rapist, that she is using violence as a tool to preserve her dignity and life. And apparently, a violent response is demonstrated to be the most effective means of avoiding assault, sexual assault, and rape.
I read about the Ergo Delta Grip in a recent issue of American Rifleman magazine. I thought it was interesting — a “better” grip for a J-frame (S&W snub-nose) revolver, that takes away some of the pain of shooting, helps bring about a natural point of aim, and is dolphin safe (ok, I made up that last one). Sounds interesting enough to check out.
Here’s the copy from their website:
The Delta Grip™ is the first truly ergonomic grip for J Frame revolvers. Designed for the most important part of the gun, the shooter, the Delta Grip was engineered to fit the natural point of aim and mechanics of the human hand, wrist and arm. The result is a grip with a superior natural point of aim, comfort and control. Fits round butt J-Frames. Will not fit on Smith and Wesson Bodyguard 38 Model (sku 103037 and 103038).
I ordered it from MidwayUSA. It was backordered, but eventually came in. Note: paid for this with my own money, this is my own assessment.
I put it on my S&W 442 and did some initial dry fire work with it.
It’s big. It really fills the hand. This is good. It has a lot more surface area, covers the backstrap, and yes you now have a place to fit your support hand! More surface area of the grip allows for more hand/palm on the grip/grun, and thus better control. This is all good.
That said, it is kinda big. For someone with small hands, I don’t think this is going to work all that well. Gun fit is very important, especially when it comes to a revolver having a long and heavy trigger press. The Delta Grip does make things larger, makes for a longer length of pull, and thus it just won’t work for smaller-handed folks.
However, it’s not so big as to change the concealment profile. Sure, it changes it some because it is larger. But I found in all the places that it matters, it didn’t change all that much compared to say the “boot grips“. But the thing is, the profile does change enough that it could matter. For example, pocket carry is going to be a little more difficult. There’s just more grip, it will fill the pocket a bit more, and it’s going to require a different bit of mechanics and thus pocket “room” to get your fingers around and get a good grip on the gun. Also, the surface is “rubber”; not sure what it’s actually made out of, but it’s a “rubbery-like” texture, that certainly grabs things. While that’s good for your grip, it’s not good for clothing — will drag someone on the pocket draw (unless you can get your hand all the way covering it, see above), and in a holster on your body clothing can “stick” and drag a little bit on it which could affect your concealment. I didn’t try on the ankle (don’t have such a holster as I never carry that way), but again depending upon your clothing it may be just big enough to cause an issue.
These are the trade-offs, folks.
Another thing I worked on dry was drawing. Now, pocket carry is almost out of the question for me any more, because my pants fit quite differently now due to squatting and deadlifting. So I did some holster work, both from 3 o’clock and appendix. I guess this is a grip you’re going to have to get used to. I’m not really sure how to describe it best, but like with a regular gun, there’s a feel, there’s index points when you go to draw… when your hand comes down on the gun, it’s able to do things like slide up under the beavertail and then you know you’re in place and can draw. Here, no such tactile feedback. Even with boot grips on there isn’t anything like a beavertail to index against, but you can still index into the right place into your hand due to how things are shaped. Not so with the Delta Grip. It just felt really awkward to me. But that said, I almost never had a bad grip on the draw. It just FELT really strange to me. As I said, this is initial impressions, so this may be just one of those things I’d have to get used to. All in all it wasn’t a problem to draw, just weird. Caleb @ GunNuts did a review of the Delta Grip and he mentioned how it hurt when his hand was too high and touching metal instead of fully behind the grip. It’s easy to get into that position on the draw, so take that for whatever it’s worth. Frankly, I think this is just one you gotta practice with to learn it.
As for the issue of “natural pointing”, it lived up to that. It’s just slightly different enough (vs. traditional angles you get out of a J-frame) and it’s pretty nice to just point and click.
Using the same S&W 442, I did some “side by side” comparisons. Alas, I didn’t have 2 revolvers, so I just would put one set of grips on, shoot, switch grips, shoot the same, see how things felt.
I used two types of ammo.
The two grips were:
The DeSantis Clip Grip has been on my 442 for a couple years now and has been my preferred grip. I’ve gone through lots of different grips on my snub, and so far the DeSantis Clip Grip has been my favorite. Yeah, good old Boot Grips are tough to beat too… but the Clip Grip is that plus the clip so….
First, some eye candy.
S&W 442 with DeSantis Clip Grip
That’s my 442 with the Clip Grip.
Here’s the same with the Delta Grip
S&W 442 with Ergo Delta Grip
So you can see what I mean by “bigger”. There’s just a lot more side surface area, which is great for filling the hand and giving you somewhere to put your support hand. But it may not work out for folks with smaller hands.
How did it shoot?
It was… interesting.
One big reason I got it was hoping for something that would help mitigate some of the felt recoil. And the Delta Grip? It does… but it doesn’t.
First, it certainly does reduce the overall felt recoil. There’s just more rubber there, especially over the backstrap. It’s going to absorb energy before your hand gets to feel it. This was evident with both the plinking loads and the Gold Dots.
But yet… it doesn’t. Look at these backstrap pictures
Backstrap of S&W 442 with Ergo Delta Grip
Backstrap of S&W 442 with DeSantis Clip Grip
Top is the Delta, bottom is the Clip.
Look at the contour of the backstrap. Notice the Delta Grip is a bit more pointed? That’s a nice focused area of force transmission. Think of it like walking in snow: your bodyweight (the force) doesn’t change – focus all your weight in a tiny area (your foot) and you fall through the snow, but spread that weight out over a larger area (snowshoes) and you can walk on the snow.
That pointed backstrap drove the grip into the palm of my hand pretty forcefully. So while yes I could tell overall the felt recoil was reduced, what was transmitted was more focused in certain areas. So it’s weird that yes it was less recoil, but in some ways it hurt more than the bare-backed Clip Grips!
Didn’t really like that.
I am pretty sure that if I shot a few hundred rounds of +P through my snub, I’d be happier with the Delta Grip than the Clip Grip. But I know I’d still walk away sore. Long ago I had used some Pachmayr Compac grips on my snub and they were great at mitigating the pain, but they were just too bulky for practical use.
Pointing was fine. Shooting was fine. My issues of grip and drawing remained, but again I reckon this just needs practice and getting used to it. I did appreciate the extra room for my support hand, but after all this time of shooting the snub I’m so used to it that it doesn’t really matter.
The Ergo Delta Grip has a lot of potential. I think it can serve a good niche because it doesn’t add too terribly to the profile of the gun, and strives to address grip issues that are just part of having a snub. So there’s a lot of good here.
But I just can’t use them. That “pointed” backstrap is just too much. If they refine the grip with a more rounded backstrap, I betcha this will be really awesome. But doing so, I’m not sure how that will affect other aspects of the grip and thus if it’s really possible. I’ll leave that up to Ergo’s design and engineering team.
I do want other people to shoot it and see what their impressions are. It may be a personal thing: my hands vs. your hands.
For now, I’m going back to my DeSantis Clip Grip. It works best for me. I can grip it reliably. I can shoot well. It’s very low-profile no matter how I carry it. And yes, the clip is just such a handy feature from time to time.
Updated: Tom Hogel, another KR Training instructor, had this to say about them after I lent them to him:
“Poked” me holster carry and difficult to get a grip on from a pocket holster. Don’t see any real advantage over gripping the crap out of my current rubberized grips.
Another KRT instructor has them now. Awaiting his feedback.
I’m finding more reviews of the Delta Grip online, and it’s starting to seem that people find them interesting and find similar strengths like more grip area (more length for the pinky, more slab for the support hand), similar weirdness (it’s just different, you have to get used to it and practice a lot with it), and similar downsides (the pain from the more focused recoil; doesn’t really work for pocket carry). Who knows… maybe it will inspire Ergo to tweak the design and come out with a version 2.0.
The KR Training June 2014 Newsletter is up.
There’s been some schedule changes for the summer classes, to address student demand. My favorite is the DPS-BUG class, because we all know you start carrying small guns in the summer (hot, less clothing), so hey — you might as well ensure you can shoot well with it.
The schedule is also getting fleshed out for the remainder of 2014, including the Suburban Dad Survivalist Field Day in August, which will include Dynamic First Aid from Lone Star Medics.
See you at the range!
This video has started to float around, about “Position Sul”.
While Sul has very specific and limited application, it’s worthwhile to know. If nothing else, it’s worth knowing where Sul came from, why it was developed, and under what conditions it’s applicable. Generally speaking, private citizens aren’t going to use Sul (you’ll note the application tends to be teams and contexts specific to law enforcement and military), but it’s still worth knowing and understanding.
Oh, and this all comes right from the authoritative horse’s mouth. So, sit back for 8 minutes and receive a good education.
“Only police (and military) should have guns, because they are trained.”
About that….
Police violence, and especially questionable shootings, provide a real-world example of why the state shouldn’t be granted a monopoly on the use of guns by measures curbing the individual right of self-defense. It also shows what’s dangerous about the assumption that state agents are innately more qualified in the use of firearms than civilians looking to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
Indeed. People are always disgusted at police corruption, police brutality, and yet for some reason also think it’s fine to give police the monopoly on power. I’m not sure people are thinking things through.
But to their last point about state agents being more qualified than private citizens is what I want to address.
It appears the majority of the public grossly overestimates the training and skill of law enforcement officers. Now, there are certainly exceptions. Austin Police Department has a marksmanship team, and I know numerous LEOs that are quite skilled and practice regularly. But the sad reality is, these folks are the exception and not the rule.
An ACTIVE police department generally qualifies with their pistol 4x per year. The assault rifle gets much less attention than the pistol in a police environment; however, there are some officers that are required to qualify with it. Active duty soldiers in the army qualify with their assault rifle 2x per year. Reserve components qualify 1x per year. Although Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare would have you believe otherwise, the infantry soldier doesn’t carry a pistol in combat. That’s pretty much reserved for Special Forces. Military officers are issued pistols but usually receive little to no training with it. There are exceptions to this rule but they’re few and far between.
Now let me be clear about this: qualification does NOT mean training. Qualification is a TEST. The minimum army standard for rifle qualification is 23 hits out of 40 rounds fired (page 6-16 FM 3-22.9). For the pistol its 16 hits out of 30 rounds fired (page A-9 FM 3-23.35) Police standards vary state to state but the standard is never 100%.
Why is this important?
Heres why: For a soldier with a rifle, the standard is that missing every third shot is acceptable. For the pistol, every other shot. Now I’m not just talking about missing center mass here, I’m talking about complete misses. For police, the same principles apply though the number of acceptable misses will vary from district to district.
The public servants that everyone claims are the “trained professionals” – are qualified to carry their weapon with a test where it is OK TO MISS THE TARGET COMPLETELY as long as they don’t do it too many times.
To measure just how acceptable or unacceptable this standard is, a simple litmus test can be used. Simply imagine your spouse, child, mother, father, brother, sister or even yourself standing next to a bad guy. A cop or soldier starts shooting at said bad guy. How acceptable is it that the cop or soldier shooting at a person very VERY close to you has trouble putting every round he or she fires on a STILL PIECE OF PAPER at distances of 25 yards or less? A perfect example is just recently two cops in NYC (who were seasoned ten year veterans on the force) had a shootout with a man at the base of the Empire State building at a distance of LESS THAN 10 FEET. NINE innocent bystanders were injured by the officer’s stray bullets.
Let that sink in.
They don’t have to train, they just have to qualify. And in qualifying, the test makes it acceptable to miss the target completely.
And where do you think that miss winds up?
This is why I call it an “unacceptable hit”, because it’s not a miss – that bullet will always hit something; it’s just a question of if the hit is acceptable or unacceptable. And not hitting the target and calling it acceptable? To me, that’s unacceptable. Yet, that’s all the professionals – the folks that so many rally behind being the only people qualified enough to carry a gun – have to do. I’d like to hope that my fellow man doesn’t actually want this, just that they don’t know any better.
Well now, hopefully you do.
Contrast:
The people who carry concealed are worried about getting sued and going to jail if they miss. They’re not backed by any department or government if they screw up. They’re also not bound by any statutes of limitation or rules of engagement stating they must procedurally go through some ridiculous escalation of force before they use their gun. For them, the moment their life is threatened it is do or die. They are their own first responder. They must fire and fire well. So you know what they do? They go to the range and practice. They practice for the moment they hope never comes. They Youtube every reputable instructional video they can find. They join the NRA and subscribe to the American Rifleman with drills in it. They join the US Concealed Carry Association and get practice plans from them. Some go as far as to pay for private instruction. They practice because their life or the life of a family member may depend on their ability quickly and accurately put their gun into action. In addition to life and death, whether or not they go to jail depends on their ability to accurately assess the situation and NOT MISS AT ALL if they are forced to use their gun.
The liability for a private citizen is much higher. The stakes are much higher, therefore there’s greater incentive to get it right. Carrying a gun brings a high responsibility. No, none of us can be perfect, no one is above screwing up or failing. But we must strive high and work hard.
Ask anyone thats been there, getting shot at is not something you can practice for. We are all human; soldier, police and civilian alike, and we are all scared to death when it happens. Defending one’s life and family with deadly force is a right inherent to being alive, not to owning a badge or a uniform. The ability to handle a firearm while being shot at depends on your lowest level of training. The most qualified people to shoot back in a life and death situation are the ones who regularly PRACTICE shooting. That may be a cop. It might be a soldier. It might be a teacher. It may be a grandma. It may be a bus driver. Could be a teller at your bank. It could even be your pastor. The point is that the idea of limiting self defense with a gun to a limited quantity of people such as soldiers or policemen is ungrounded. There is virtually no gun fighting /military training out there that a civilian cannot get. There are so many tactical shooting schools out there available to the public its silly. Sure, civilians have to pay for it, but at the end of the day its training cops and soldiers just don’t normally receive.
There just is no magical voodoo that makes a cop or soldier better with a gun.
There is only practice. There is only the will to get better and the drive to do it perfect every time.
Some might consider this a reason to mandate training. I firmly believe that individuals and society as a whole are better off due to education. The more education an individual receives, the better off she and everyone is for it. We know how education empowers and enables us to rise above, there is no reasonable situation where too much knowledge and skill is a bad thing. I encourage people to seek out as much education, teaching, schooling, knowledge, training, and practice as they can. But I stop short of mandating it, because that rarely generates results (and opens a massive can of worms). You cannot mandate responsibility – else our country wouldn’t be in such the mess that it is (besides, there’s a certain irony in mandating responsibility). You cannot mandate motivation. These things must come from within. And yes, it will mean there will be those less educated, less skilled, and perhaps a danger to themselves and the community; but such is the cost of greater freedom for all (which includes us doing what we can to help those improve their education and skills; to help uplift and improve).
Just accept that because someone’s job is to carry a gun doesn’t mean they have some innate proficiency or that their job provides them enough “on the job training” to actually use it well. And accept that because someone may not professionally carry a gun, doesn’t mean they lack skill and ability.
To help celebrate the release of this version, the Pro Uprade is being offered at 20% off the regular price, through the end of June 2014.
Carry your damn gun!
From Tom Givens, of Rangemaster:
Carry Your Darned Gun!
Rangemaster students’ success rate (at least on events I know about) is 61/0/2 for 63 incidents. That’s 61 clear victories, zero losses and 2 forfeits. The two forfeits were people who died as a result of not being armed on The Big Day. Both were killed in separate street robberies. Essentially, both were executed for the contents of their pockets. They were not able to defend themselves because they chose not to be armed that day. They made a poor choice.
Of the 61 students who won, only 3 were injured, and all recovered from those injuries. They did not know they would need a gun that day, but they chose to be armed, anyway. Based on my interviews with the winners, I believe the two MOST important factors are:
1. Having your damn gun on you when the event occurs, and
2. Being willing to use it to save your life.Everything else– gun model, caliber, ammo choice and Yes, even amount of training, seems to be a distant third after these primary two. Three of the shooters in our group were trained to our instructor level, four or five more to what I would call competency, and the rest had only had an eight hour carry permit course.
One of the things we stress at ALL training levels is the need to actually carry the gun daily, as one simply cannot make an appointment for an emergency. An emergency, in this context, is a sudden, unforeseen crisis in which one’s life is in immediate mortal danger. The key words are “sudden, unforeseen”, so making carrying a handgun a daily routine assures that it will be there when needed. I believe that because we stress this heavily, our students tend to be armed, and thus win when attacked.
I believe a big factor is the Bad Guy’s training, education and life experience. Most BG’s go through their entire careers without ever running into an armed citizen on the street. Only about 4% of the US population has some kind of carry permit, and I’d bet less than 1% of them actually carry on a routine, daily basis. So, when a Bad Guy confronts a citizen who is actually armed and produces his weapon, the resulting mental lag time for the Bad Guy allows even an untrained or minimally trained defender a golden opportunity. The one who starts the fight has an enormous advantage. In this context, the BG started the incident, but the student starts the fight.
This is not to say that more advanced training is not desirable. Several of my students have been in rather difficult extreme cases and still won. Fortunately, they had training beyond a permit course.
Here’s what I take from this.
First, it seems Tom’s student count keeps rising. That’s a bad thing, but from it we can glean good things. It’s bad because good people are being violently assaulted. It’s bad because there’s so much violent crime, and it shows no signs of abating. But it’s good because we can gather hard, real data, and from that learn how to improve, how to be better, how to succeed. We can learn about reality.
Second, “have your damn gun”. I think that’s become Tom’s patented phrase, and with good reason. When you have a 97% success rate, you look for patterns that contribute to that high success rate. This is what we can call, “a clue”.
You see, these violent encounters tend to be “sudden and unforeseen”. I previously wrote about violence unfolds very quickly, and if the only response you have is “I don’t know”, that will not bode well for you. You have to be prepared, and you have to be able to respond swiftly, without hesitation. Which means, 1. carry your damn gun, 2. being willing to use it to save your life.
Third, mindset matters. To make the choice to carry it on a daily and regular basis. Else you could wind up like Tom’s two forfeits, or like Tommy. To make the choice that your life is worth preserving. To understand, acknowledge, and accept there are horrible people in this world that will kill you for your pocket change, which is totally unthinkable and irrational to you, but consider people you encounter in your daily life, the news stories you read, the Facebook posts you see… and how you shake your head wondering how someone could do such a thing… and then realize there are people in this world that will do things 100-times worse. No, we don’t want this, we agree the world would be better off if we didn’t have such things and such people, but we do. And you can either be in denial, or accept it and be willing and able to cope with it when they decide to infringe upon your life and ability to go home tonight and see your family.
Fourth, please stop listening to all the crap on Internet gun forums, Facebook comment threads, or whatever, about what people think is important. Because your gun, your caliber, and all that stuff really doesn’t matter. As the old saying goes: “In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance or tactics. They will only remember who lived.” What’s going to help you live? 1. having your gun, 2. being willing to use it to preserve your life.
Fifth, yes… as professional trainers, we like people coming to classes. It’s how we make money. The more classes, the better, right? But you can see, that it only matters to a limited extent. I believe Claude Werner has a lot of data that demonstrates that most often what matters is again, 1. having a gun, 2. being willing to use it (which may not necessitate pressing the trigger, perhaps merely showing it with the obvious resolve in your eyes to use it). I do think that more education is never a hindrance in life (tell me any facet of life where you are better off being ignorant or un-/under-educated). However, we’re back to the key points that show even some level of training is better than nothing — in part because that good training should reinforce 1. having your gun, 2. helping you gain the resolve to use it.
Ultimately what comes from this is accepting that the world isn’t fully of shiny happy people holding hands. There are degenerates that are willing to kill you for no reason — even if you do what they tell you. They will take your money, your phone, your keys, your sexuality, your dignity, your life. To them, your life means nothing. To you, your life is everything. To your family, your friends, your life is most precious. Act like it.
Capacity is important.
Would you want your car’s gas tank to only hold 1 gallon of gas? No, you prefer it to hold 12-20 gallons; enough to get you around 300 miles, not 30 — most people couldn’t do what they need to do in a day if the car only held enough gas to do 30 miles at a time. It’s also one barrier with more widespread adoption of electric cars, because you just can’t go very far. This is why hybrid cars exist, to help overcome the capacity issue.
Even if you don’t like the notion of humongous drink cups (e.g. 44 oz, 64 oz, etc.), you still prefer some sort of capacity when you want a drink, especially if you need to take that drink with you. I mean, if you could only get your coffee in thimble-sized shots, there’d have to be a Starbucks every 50 feet, amiright? You prefer your Grandes, your Ventis, and perhaps your Trentas, don’t you? Makes life better.
Have you ever noticed that police don’t carry single-shot guns? Why is that?
Whether a gun is used as a deterrent (simply by being present) or is used in the most common fashion a confrontation (drawn but not fired), or is used by pulling the trigger, the objective is always to stop the threat. In situations where the gun must be fired, not all shots hit an attacker. Of those that do, few are immediately incapacitating, unless they strike the heart or the central nervous system. Yet when the defender has sufficient reserve capacity, even multiple attackers may decide to desist from an attack. That is why American law enforcement officers ubiquitously carry handguns with more than ten rounds of ammunition, and often more than 15. It is also why their rifles typically have 20 or 30 round magazines, not 10.
If the firing of several shots has wounded one attacker, and has resulted in the other attacker putting up his hands, the defender needs to control the situation until the police arrive. That is why reserve capacity is so important for law enforcement and for citizens. Reloading is very difficult when the second hand is holding a cell phone. Even a two-handed reload will likely make the gun temporarily inoperable and cause the gun to move off target for at least a few seconds, giving the criminal(s) a new window of opportunity. Citizens do not carry police radios, and police response to a cell phone call about citizen in trouble is often slower than the response to a radio call about an officer in trouble. The reasons why magazines for greater than 10 rounds are the overwhelming choice for law enforcement officers for lawful defense of self and others apply a fortiori to citizens, who rightly look to law enforcement officers as good models for gun safety practices.
– David Kopel, “The history of magazines hold 11 or more rounds: Amicus brief in 9th Circuit”
Mr. Kopel wrote this brief (and this article) because there’s a court case where a ban on magazines due to their capacity was being upheld in part because the Court’s analysis stated that magazines did not exist at the time the Second Amendment was ratified. Mr. Kopel gave a history lesson, showing how such technology existed as early as the 16th century – a couple hundred years before the USA Founding Documents were authored. It’s an interesting read on history.
Stuff From Hsoi 