Guns

Her story

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

At KR Training, our beginner-level courses have a lot of female students, which is great. However as we go further in the course curriculum, female enrollment drops off. I’ve often wondered why, because the mid- and upper-level classes certainly aren’t just for men. These classes are arguably the more important level classes to take (by anyone) because it’s in these classes where you move beyond basic mechanical skills to learn how to fight with your gun, which can include the choice to not fight with the gun.

Sure I have some theories as to why, and I’ve spoken with numerous women about this phenomenon. Mrs. Groundhog (obviously not her real name) shared her story with me, and she graciously allowed me to reprint part of it here.

Learning about guns and taking the FOF [force-on-force] classes gives me options to use to never be a victim again.  I fully realize the crime may still occur but the emotional effects will be entirely different because I will have done everything that I possible could to protect myself.

I think that women in general don’t want to take higher level courses because they live in denial that crime could happen to them or one of their loved ones.  If it does happen to touch them that there will be someone there to protect them and that they aren’t capable or shouldn’t take that role upon themselves. The image that many women in our country have of themselves is that they should be the “beautiful one” not the protector. That role belongs to the man. Women are told by the media that they should be concerned about things like clothes, hair, makeup etc..  In generally, they do not understand they need to learn the skills to be able to protect themselves and their loved ones.  They expect their “knight in shining armor” to do that for them.

The gun community is embracing the idea of attracting women shooters if for no other reason than it brings in more money. However, I think the concept of the “pink gun” is the wrong way to go about it. If they want to add color to guns, which I think is unnecessary; make green, red or purple guns too, not just pink. I think it tends to reinforce stereotypes instead of breaking them down.

The best way to attract new women shooters is to treat them with respect.  I absolutely hate going to a gun show and asking a question only to have to clerk give my husband the answer and ignore me even though I asked the question. Yes, there are many things that I don’t know but I should not be treated like a second class citizen because I am a women. I have felt that way at gun shows. Sometimes I prefer to roam without him so I won’t get treated that way.

In all fairest, I have never not once, felt that way with you or anyone else associated with KR Training.  You guys have a class act and I have always felt welcome there.

I don’t know if this has answered your questions but maybe it will give you some things to think on for a while.

Thank you for allowing me to reprint this, and thank you for sharing your story with me. It has answered some questions, and given me things to think on.

To others reading this, take it for what you will. She’s on a powerful, moving, and motivating journey.

Tips for teachers

/ hsoi

While the article is titled “Being a Woman is Not a Disability“, and while the article is presented in the context of powerlifting, what the article is really about is teaching.

Teaching boils down to a lot of the same concepts, whether you’re teaching arithmetic, how to bench press, how to shoot a gun, how to bake a cake. And addressing needs of a student rarely comes down to the student’s gender, race, ethnicity, religious preference, sexual orientation, age, etc.. Oh sure, sometimes those things do matter, but all too often teachers/coaches/educators apply the wrong context and thus the wrong solution. For example, many times when teaching beginning shooters, women do get treated differently. But I’ve found issues with new shooters aren’t because of gender, but because of something like smaller/weaker hands. Yes one can make the generalization that women have smaller and weaker hands than men, but I’ve seen some large strong women and some small weak men. It wasn’t their gender that mattered, it was their hand size and strength. Thus what’s important to address is their hand size and strength, not their gender.

Successful teaching does follow the same guidelines regardless of the topic being taught. Amy Wattles’ article does a fine job of presenting these guidelines:

  • The introduction is the most important part of a lesson<
  • After the delivery of your instruction, check for understanding.
  • Next, it is time to demonstrate the skill to be acquired.
  • Provide students with constructive feedback throughout the lesson.

Read her article for full details, including a good list of additional tips for teaching success.

One thing I’ll add? Know your audience.

If you know your audience, you can better shape the presentation of your message. Let’s say you want to teach how to bake a cake. How might your presentation differ if your students were a group of adults vs. a class of kindergarteners vs. veteran chefs? Your material and message would be the same, but how you present that message, how you work to convey your information, that’s going to and should differ from audience to audience. Suppose you didn’t change. Suppose you wrote it all out for a group of veteran chefs and your audience is a group of 5-year-olds? Do you think your presentation is going to succeed? Do you think you’ll successfully convey your message? Unlikely.

Some might say that they don’t know what their audience will be comprised of. If that’s the case, then you still know that fact and should proceed accordingly. But you may also be able to glean at least a little something. For example, when a new class of Basic Pistol 1 students show up at KR Training, we generally don’t know what to expect. We will have people of both gender, wide range of ages, many ethnicities, socio-economic status, background (e.g. maybe they were brought here due to a bad crime victim experience and are very sensitive)… it’s all over the map. We really can’t know much and thus have to be reserved in our presentation. But we can know they are all here to learn how to shoot a gun, and most are coming because of an interest in personal defense, so we can play off that tidbit of audience awareness.

Teaching is rewarding, even more so when you’re successful at it. Knowing how to teach helps you succeed.

Looking for a new flashlight — do you have any input?

/ hsoi / 13 Comments

For many years I’ve carried a SureFire E2L Outdoorsman. It’s part of my every-day-carry, and in fact I use it almost every day. It’s because of that daily utility that I chose that particular model of flashlight.

However, over the past year I’ve started to have a change of heart. Many new flashlights have come to market, and over the years of carrying I’ve started to find myself wanting… a little more, a little different. And probably too much time hanging out with TXGunGeek, who is also a big flashlight geek.

What’s my beef with my E2L?

  • High-beam output. While my E2L’s high beam is pretty good, there’s better out there now. I’ve found myself in enough situations where I wished for more light.
  • Beam quality. I don’t know how to describe it, but the high beam feels… fuzzy. Maybe it’s my (aging) eyes, but compared to some other flashlights I have, there’s something about the light quality that just doesn’t provide me with the best picture. It’s certainly good enough for most things, but if I can have a little better, since again, my eyes are getting older and anything I can do to help out is A Good Thing™.
  • High first, low second. There’s no question I want dual-output because much of my every-day light needs require a low-beam. Originally I wanted the low-beam to come on first since I figured most of my needs were mundane and didn’t need to blind myself. Now I want the high beam to come on first, because I find myself in more situations where I need a lot of light right now and don’t need to waste time clicking through beam modes. I decided if I needed low beam mode, it would likely not be a “need it immediately” need and I could do something like press the flashlight into my stomach or leg to suppress throwing light, click through to low, then there we go. Besides, when you need a lot of light right now, you need it now and need to be able to just slam the light on and get the light. Yeah I tried many times to just get used to “half click, release, full click” to get as quick as I could over the low mode and locked into the high mode or doing 2 full clicks, but it’s just too error prone, too time consuming, and too loud.

So it’s not much, but it’s enough to motivate me to look for alternatives.

But on that token, some things I would prefer to not give up:

  • Clip. The clip is very useful, especially since I can hang it off the brim of my hat for hands-free use. That means the clip needs to attach near the head and point back towards the tailcap (like the E2L has). So many flashlights have the clip attach at the tail and run towards the head, which can be good for keeping the flashlight in your pocket, but isn’t very usable during use.
  • Dual mode. I need high and low beam. Strobe? Oh please… no.
  • Size. I like the E2L’s size. First, because it means 2 batteries instead of 1 thus more runtime. Second, the diameter feels good in my hands in terms of being able to hold a grip and not lose the flashlight in my hand.

And then there’s one thing I flat out do not want: strobe. This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco. I do not need nor want strobe. I do not want to waste time clicking through a mode that I don’t need, that all too often will accidentally fire because I’m trying to click through to the mode past it. If someone can tell me how strobe is actually useful, please comment. In the dark, it just screws up YOUR vision too, and again it’s too many modes to click through to get it. Enough Low Light shooting classes and strobe never comes up as useful.  But, I will admit I recently found a use for it. While taking Kiddos around the neighborhood this past Halloween for trick-or-treating, I carried a Streamlight Super Tac-X because low beam is good for close-up work (e.g. picking up dropped candy); the high beam is bright, crisp, clean, lots of throw, lots of spread, really lights things up which can be useful when walking around in the dark and well-behind a group of kids that might need some illumination in front of them (throw!). And then… yes… strobe was useful when we would cross the street. I would aim it down at the pavement and let it blink, and saw more than enough cars react to the flashing strobe (vs. other times when I’ve used a plain beam) and slow down. So yeah, THAT was useful. But for my EDC flashlight? No strobe.

There’s no question the awesomeness of Fenix Lights, especially that they have such great output, quality, and runtime on ubiquitous AA batteries, all at such a low price. The Fenix lights I presently have are great.  Because of them, SureFire and Streamlight have had to pick up their game. So lots of new and interesting stuff out there. I focused on these 3 companies. I did look at some others, but they either were no longer in business or their lights could all be eliminated from consideration because they had features I didn’t want (e.g. Blackhawk, NovaTac, Pelican).

Streamlight didn’t have anything that would fit my bill. Mostly lost out on the clip front. In fact, on the clip front alone I pretty much eliminated most every flashlight out there. *sigh* The two I found were:

Fenix LD22 (S2)

SureFire E2D LED Defender

The Fenix has a lot of win all around. Many different modes/levels of light output. Cree LED’s. A tailcap switch, but also a side button; so yes, that means there is a strobe mode but at least it’s not part of the tailcap. There’s a clip, but I’m mixed on the fact it’s removable. Sure that’s cool from a sales standpoint, because they can sell it to more people. And I kinda like that if the clip snagged on something it would just break away instead of bend (how many times have I bent my Spyderco Delica clips because of a snag?). But… that also means it can break away, which may not be what I want. I’m unsure about the clip. I think tho the bigger concern is while it’s cool it remembers the last output setting and uses that next time you turn it on, that means if the last thing I did was read a map but RIGHT NOW I need a lot of light, I won’t get it. The Fenix looks good in so many regards, but I’m not sure it will win the “tactical need” test. But it’s only like $60, so I might pick one up anyways because I could see a lot of use for this in other contexts, like camping or hunting.

The SureFire E2D. Funny how things happen. My only beef with this? The fact it looks aggressive. Of course, that’s the point of the “Defender” models, and I’m honestly not bothered by it myself. But as I wrote in my old “why I like the E2L” article I specifically avoided that light for its looks. At the time I was active in Boy Scouts and a lot of parents there did not “get it” and would freak out at the thought, and I just didn’t need the grief. As well, I flew and didn’t want to have some TSA goon take my $150 flashlight. But these days? I don’t fly. I don’t do BSA, and operate my life in a different context. Besides, I’ll still have my E2L in storage and can always pull it out and use it if context changes.

So yes, presently I’m leaning towards the E2D. I even emailed Comp-Tac to see if their flashlight holster for the E2L works for the E2D.

What’s your input?

13-Nov-2012 Update: Comp-Tac replied:

From what I can tell the e2d and e2l have the same bezel diameter. However, the e2d has that crenellated bezel, which adds to the length a small amount.
I would feel comfortable in saying that it would work.

So I figure if I go with the E2D, I’ll get it, try it, and hope for the best. If I do have to buy a new pouch, I reckon the existing one would work well enough until the new pouch arrived.

 

3 ounces isn’t very much, is it?

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

TSA limits us to 3 ounces of liquid in our carry-on luggage.

I think we’ve all agreed this isn’t much, and doesn’t really provide us with enough to get the job done. Doesn’t matter what the liquid is, be it water for drinking or shampoo for your hair — it’s not enough to get the job done.

Well to be fair, maybe it gets you through; maybe some people get by alright. I know most men have short hair and 3 ounces of shampoo is perhaps enough for them. I’ve got long hair and 3 ounces doesn’t cut it; maybe one shampoo, but if I need to wash my hair a second time? Forget it.

These reduced capacity containers just don’t work for all situations. Yes perhaps it works for the statistical average, but statistics are of little comfort when you’re the anomaly (and no, I’m not going to cut my hair).

We supposedly free citizens are restricted in our liquid carrying capacity for our own safety. We acknowledge it may not get the job done, it may leave us in a lurch… but at least it’s just shampoo, nothing that’s difficult to obtain no matter where you go, and your life generally doesn’t depend upon it.

I think about other contexts where capacity is limited, and the same principles apply. That restricting the amount of ammunition law-abiding supposedly free citizens can carry or possess may not be enough to get the job done. Oh sure, statistical averages say you’ll be attacked by a single person, but that doesn’t mean your enjoyment of your Starbucks won’t be interrupted by a violent mob of 25 pipe-wielding people.

Think about applying this sort of capacity restriction across the board in your life. If all liquids could only come in 3 ounce containers. Your milk, your coffee, your soda (wait… this might give Bloomberg some more ideas), your housecleaning supplies, gasoline… we wouldn’t stand for it because we know it’s a silly restriction and causes more problems than it solves. Yes… causes more problems than it solves.

Bad guys don’t follow the rules

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Being the “bad guy”.

When we’re doing Force-on-Force scenarios, someone has to play the bad guy role. At first it’s hard for people new to FoF to be a bad guy, but after a little bit they get it and have a LOT of fun doing it. The reason is, they’re good people and now have to behave by a different set of standards — or perhaps, by no standards at all.

I recall hearing some pro wrestlers talk about playing the “heel” role… the bad guy. Many of them like playing that role because they can do anything they want. They have a great freedom, whereas the “babyface” (the good guy) has to color within the lines, play by the rules, and is rather restricted in what they can do.

Thus, we can define what it is to be a bad guy: you don’t follow the rules.

And so it goes in real life.

Gun bans are instituted through laws. Good guys will obey those laws. Bad guys won’t… because bad guys don’t follow rules.

Gun restrictions, like “gun free zones”, are instituted through laws. Good guys will obey those laws. Bad guys won’t… because bad guys don’t follow rules.

Signs on doors are something good guys pay attention to. Bad guys won’t… because bad guys don’t follow rules.

Bad guys don’t follow rules.

Not only is it useful to remember that bad guys don’t follow rules, it’s also useful to remember they won’t follow your rules, your standards, your moral code. If you were ever driven to steal, you might rob someone of their wallet but it’s not in you to senselessly and without just-cause take someone’s life. But that’s YOUR moral code. The fact someone is mugging you demonstrates they are not rational — according to your standards. What makes you think they’ll continue to adhere to your standards and not kill you just because they can? Maybe they will, maybe they won’t — you don’t know, you can’t know. All you can know is bad guys don’t follow rules.

Lessons we can learn from dash-cam footage of a knife-wielding assailant

/ hsoi

Take a look at this dashcam footage of a guy pulling out a knife and attacking a deputy during a traffic stop.

There’s much we can learn from this.

First, take a read of PoliceOne’s examination of the footage (and another video of it). (h/t Karl)

Situational awareness. The Deputy was aware of his situation, tho it’s arguable he could have been better aware. I’m guessing the assailant was walking down the road towards the traffic stop, out of view of the dashcam. Then… out of nowhere he goes crazy, pulls the knife, and attacks. It was good that 1. the assailant hesitated (suicide by cop? act of a crazed loon?), 2. the Deputy did see him when he did. You can see how quickly things unfold, how quickly things can go south and the flag can fly. We aren’t supermen… we will fall into “condition white”, we will fail at being situationally aware. We’re human. We can only strive to do our best.

The Deputy moved. It’s better to not get shot (or stabbed) than it is to shoot. As soon as the Deputy registered what was going on (as soon as his OODA loop kicked in on this), he moved. He “got off the X”. While going backwards is not ideal, it’s all he could do with a car on his right and unknown traffic to his left. That was good situational awareness — he knew where he had to go, and went there. Moving bought him time, time enough to draw his gun.

3 yards, 3 seconds, 1 shot. So, lower than the statistical average by 2 shots, but still… there’s your average.

What was this guy’s motive? Who knows… and who cares. Well, in the aftermath we care as the legal system does what it needs to do. But in the moment? Who cares. It doesn’t matter WHY someone is attacking you, just that they are attacking you and you need to get them to stop. Don’t worry about the why… worry about keeping yourself alive and stopping the attack, so you can be around later to ask why.

The Deputy shot “right”. That is, he shot to stop the assailant. No “shoot to kill”. He shot, the attack stopped, that was it.

For those that wish to ban guns or look down on guns for self-defense, I ask you what you would do in this situation. I reckon the attacker had something against police, given the history the videos tell us. But so what? Maybe the attacker will have something against women… or against blacks… or against gays… or against you just because you look funny. Or maybe they’ll have no rational reason at all, which seems possible given this video. So someone gets up close to you, pulls a knife, and lunges at you. What are you going to do? If you think violence is wrong, then you’re dead. If you think fighting back is wrong, then you’re dead. If you think shouting “NO!” is going to make him stop, then you’re dead…. because if I’m close enough to palm strike him in the nose, he’s close enough to stab me. Sometimes violence is the right answer (it took me years to accept that). Sometimes a gun is the right technological solution — it overcomes distance, which is my friend when being attacked by someone with a knife; it gets people to stop doing what they’re doing, which is attacking me.

There’s a lot we can learn from this video. Watch it over and over. Learn what you can.

New gun shop in South Austin

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Recently discovered a new gun store in South Austin: “Guns and More LLC“.

I haven’t had the opportunity to stop by yet, but from the website it seems like a humble “mom & pop” startup, small, but eager.

They are lacking operating hours on their website, but I emailed them and found out they’re open M-F 9-6 and 9-4 on Saturday’s.

I’ll stop by sooner or later, when schedule permits. Meantime, I felt a little publicity wouldn’t be a bad thing. 🙂

 

It’s how you use your time

/ hsoi

How does the saying go? “Speed is fine, but accuracy is final.”

It matters in many places in life. For example, I love to allude back to the Pentium Pro floating point bug. At the time, it was the fastest microprocessor out there, but who cares, because it gave wrong answers. This even held up in the classroom… that student that raised their hand first only mattered if they were the first one with the right answer; the teacher always kept going around until they got the right answer, not the first one. If you can be both fast and accurate, great. But it matters more to be accurate than fast.

So when it comes to shooting, we tend to tell people to go fast. Why? Because you don’t have time to waste. SuburbanDad just returned from Rangemaster with some data:

Speaking of timing, one fun fact – the FBI reports (again, according to Rangemaster staff) that for citizens using a gun in self defense, 92% of those gun fights occur between six to ten feet. The fights usually involve the citizen firing just over three shots, and the entire fight is over in 3.5 seconds. As Tom Givens, the boss man at Rangemaster often says, “you will run out of time before you run out of ammo.”

This is where that “3 shots at 3 yards in 3 seconds” being the statistical average of a gunfight came from, and formed the basis for KR Training’s “3 Seconds or Less Drill“.

So you don’t have time, but to just say “go fast” really isn’t the whole story.

First yes, you must go faster. I can see students in class that move at the speed of “mosey”. You cannot do this. You must move faster. But how fast should you move? It’s tough to quantify, but it should be the maximum speed at which you can move and still get acceptable hits. It may not be as fast as Todd Jarrett and that’s fine, but I’m sure you can move faster than you are. Basically, keep moving faster in small increments until you get to a point where your accuracy is no longer acceptable. There you go. You just have to push yourself to find your limit, then back off within that limit.

Second, you must realize that faster isn’t a singular thing for the whole operation. You must move at different speeds for different tasks. Drawing the gun and getting it on target should be a very fast movement and should always be fast no matter how you’re shooting. But then how fast you get the sights and press the trigger? That will vary depending on what you’re shooting: a large, close-up target can have a coarser sight picture than a small, far-away target. But the only way to ensure you have enough time for those slower things is to make sure you are using your time correctly on other tasks.

Third, use your time efficiently. Most people shoot by pressing the gun out, then pressing the trigger in. For the sake of simplifying the math, let’s say it takes you 1 second to press the gun out and 1 second to press the trigger in. If you perform this as a serial task (press out then press in), that takes you 2 seconds to complete the whole task. What if you performed the two tasks simultaneously? Thus as you press the gun out you also press the trigger in? You have done nothing to speed up the work as it still takes you 1 second to press the gun out and 1 second to press the trigger in. However, by performing the 2 actions simultaneously, you’ve now taken only 1 second to complete the whole task. There was no speed change, no rushing, no hurrying, just more efficient use of the time available. In fact, you could even move a little slower (e.g. 1.5 seconds to press out, and press trigger) yet still take less time than doing the two actions sequentially!

So it’s not really as simple as “go faster”, tho that’s certainly the first step many need to take. In the end, it’s about using what time you have in the most effective manner.

You really need to play it out — beforehand

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

This past Saturday was one of the tougher days at KR Training. A couple of times a year, AT-1A Low Light Shooting is offered. It can only happen a couple of times a year because we need the sun to seat early (e.g. 6-7 PM). And since we offer two other classes prior to the low-light class, in this case Defensive Pistol Skills 2 started the day and the afternoon was AT-2: Force-on-Force Scenarios, which is a bit more physically involved for the instructors and well… I’m still recovering from the weekend. 🙂

While long — and many of the students came for all 3 classes — I think days such as this offer some of the most important training blocks. Not only are you getting some higher-level skills, but you’re starting to really move beyond the mechanical skills of self-defense to the more mental and mindset skills — which I’d argue are more important.

OK, so you just shot someone in self-defense. Now what do you do? Now what will you deal with?

Or how about we back up to 5 minutes before the shooting. Could you have avoided the need to shoot in the first place? Did you make the right choices leading up to and going through the situation?

If you’ve never actually role-played out some serious situations, I guarantee you will make mistakes — perhaps critical mistakes. Why? Because we’re human. The way humans work, we don’t “just know” how to do things: we have to be taught. Pick any sort of pressure situation that can exist in life, be it playing the big game, being on a game show, the big presentation at work, whatever. Did you just drop cold into that situation? Or did you prepare? Did your coach run you and the team through plays and drills and exercises to prepare you? Did you rewrite your presentation and rehearse it in front of the mirror a few times before the meeting? We set up and prepare ourselves before “the big moment” so when the moment arrives we can do it “just like we rehearsed” and it goes off without a hitch and a problem. If we drop in cold with no prep well… maybe we’ll make it through unscathed, maybe not. Is your life worth “winging it”?

The trouble is, we don’t know what we don’t know. Most people don’t realize the advantage of this sort of training — I know I didn’t. But I can still clearly remember how I felt after my first FoF scenario… and how horrible I felt. How sobering it was. How I didn’t know what to do, how I picked the wrong thing. Because all too often, we think that because we have a gun, we can and perhaps should use it… that we’ve got the hammer, and we’re looking for that nail. But you find out that most of the time the problems can and should be solved by some other means.

I was so happy to see students going through the AT-2 class and having their awakenings. There was one student in particular that I know got a good dose. During one of the restaurant scenarios, he was the CHL holder. He found himself wanting to just slip out of the situation, but as he got to the door he found himself turning around and struggling with an internal dilemma to get involved or not. We asked him why he did what he did, and it was just that internal struggle. We know we can do something, can we live with ourselves if we could have stopped it but didn’t? but should we get involved because I could get hurt and then who is going to pay my medical bills, my lawyer bills, take care of my family if I die, etc.? It’s a HUGE issue, and if you have not thought about such things before, you’re going to have trouble when the flag flies. We must draw our lines now, beforehand. We must sort out our feelings, beforehand.

Force-on-force sounds so scary, so intimidating. And yes, some levels can be (a SouthNarc ECQC may not be the best way to ease into the notion of FoF training). But KR Training AT-2 is a great way to start. It’s not physical — no contact, no wrestling, no striking. At most you might just be moving around, but I think the only reason people broke a sweat was from wearing long sleeve clothing and some extra gear out in the near-90 degree heat. 🙂  Your heart will get pumping tho, especially if everyone plays their roles well. You will get a mental and a bit of an emotional workout. But this is the place to get that workout. This is the place to make your inevitable mistakes. This is the place to start to figure out how to actually apply those hard skills of sight alignment and trigger control — and that you may be able to avoid applying those skills entirely.

If you’ve never done FoF, please do. It’s one of the more useful educational experiences you can have.

In other news about the day….

It was great to see some women taking these higher-level courses. In fact, Mrs. Groundhog was there for AT-2 and AT-1A, which was awesome. Great to see her and Mr. Groundhog too, who by the way is looking great (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, just go catch up on their blog). For a reason that still alludes me (tho I have some guesses), women tend to not take higher-level training. It makes me happy to see this, because need for these skills aren’t gender-based — everyone needs them.

Skill take home: slow down.

Monster Magnet lyrics are a perfect thing to recite when you need to play the part of a mentally unstable person thinking the aliens are coming. Hey… I had to play off the weekend’s meteor shower. 🙂

My ankle is most unhappy with me again… too much time on it.

It’s always fun shooting at night. Muzzle blast is so fun to watch. It just doesn’t get old with me. And yes, I really need to bump finding a new EDC flashlight up my priority ladder (more on that some other day).

And I’ll end with a little love for the guys I work with: Karl, John (TXGunGeek, with his weekend writeup), and Tom. I’ve had the privilege of learning and working with these guys for a number of years now. I am thankful for their encouragement, the opportunity they give me to teach, and the ways they still teach and educate me. Thank you, guys. It’s always a pleasure, and I consider myself fortunate to be able to hang, run, and work with you.

Good for her

/ hsoi

A 12-year-old girl took matters into her own hands during a home invasion in southeast Oklahoma.

It happened on Wednesday when the girl was home alone. She told police a stranger rang the doorbell, then went around to the back door and kicked it in. She called her mom, Debra St. Clair, who told her to get the family gun, hide in a closet and call 911.

…

During that time, the intruder made his way through the house. St. Clair’s daughter told deputies the man came into the room where she was hiding and began to open up the closet door. That was when the 12 year old had to make a life-saving decision.

“And what we understand right now, he was turning the doorknob when she fired through the door,” said the Bryan County Undersheriff Ken Golden.

Full story, including some of the 911 call made by the little girl.

Good for her.

Good for Mom and her instructions.

This is a Right Thing to do. She didn’t confront, she hunkered down in as safe a place as she could to do her best to avoid the intruder. I personally might handle things differently, like using a command voice to tell them to get out. But for a 12-year-old, I consider what she did reasonable. And she got 911 on the phone and I’m sure kept the phone going… I’m guessing the gunshot is on the recording.

I wouldn’t recommend shooting through the door because you can’t be sure of your target. But I’ll give the girl the benefit of the doubt, because I don’t know all the details and obviously she hit the guy. You can hear her voice calm at first, but as he drew closer she was certainly scared to death. I can’t say I blame her at all for her actions.

It also brings up safe storage laws. The fact she was able to “get the family gun” means a readily dischargable gun was accessible to a minor. Granted, Oklahoma’s laws could be different in specifics, but I’m going to consider Texas’ law and the general notion of this legal concept. It may well be that this is a legal violation because the child was able to get the gun. But Thank God she was able to… because, as the print story doesn’t report but the video does, this same man was previously arrested for abducting a 17-year old girl. What if he found this girl and all she was doing was hiding in the closet with no means of defending herself? Would she still have been in the closet when Mom finally arrived home? Or would we have a tragic event on our hands?

We can also talk about general self-defense concepts. I mean, girl was on the phone with 911 and police were on their way… but they obviously didn’t get there in time. The police want to protect, they try to protect, but they cannot bend the laws of time and space and be everywhere and show up instantly on-demand. What can YOU do to keep yourself safe? What are you doing to take responsibility for yourself and the safety and well-being of your loved ones?

Teach your children. Teach them what to do in a case like this. Teach them how to use firearms in a safe and responsible manner. Help them understand. Help them care for themselves… because that’s what a parent does.