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The whole self-defense package
2008-04-28 19:10:00
People tend to approach self-defense from the angle of what they can do. They look at what they believe to be their capabilities and try to leverage that as self-defense. Even the term "self-defense" points to a "I am the center of the universe" sort of thinking, so I suppose it is understandable that there are many people who believe that they can defend themselves because they have a tool. read more
More About: Commentary , Defense , Package , Self-Defense

Things should be returning to normal
2008-04-26 22:55:00
Travel, work and 3rd world internet connectivity have been conspiring to keep me from getting some new posts up. Hopefully this situation will settle down in the next day or so.
More About: Things , Normal

On the Road again
2008-04-22 11:48:00
Sorry for the light posting, I am traveling again so it will be a few days before I can resume regular posting.
More About: Road , On The Road , The Road

Long Range Self-Defense
2008-04-17 04:53:00
From Hell In A Handbasket: Reaching Out The maximum engagement distance for a handgun is the greatest distance at which you can still get good hits reliably. It might be that a self-defense encounter beyond 50 feet is pretty rare, but I would argue that if you are getting shot at from 60 feet you still have a problem. Rare doesn't mean it doesn't happen, and statistics don't apply to the individual. For many of the victims of Charles Whitman, 100% of their lethal force self-defense situations occurred (and ended) at distances greater than 50 feet. read more
More About: Tactics , Defense , Long , Range , Long Range

Law and Policy
2008-04-17 02:07:00
The previous post about Wal-Marts decision to support Bloomberg's gun control agenda leads me back to the subject of law and policy. Wal-Mart as a private entity can do or disclose any information it feels like disclosing to anyone it feels like disclosing it too, so long as that information isn't protected by law. Free and easy disclosure of all of this personal information is totally harmless as long the recipients are completely benevolent. Corruption anywhere along the way makes these disclosures dangerous. At some level you have an employee with your purchasing habits. If they think you are dangerous they can inform the government, if they think you are immoral they can inform their fringe activist friends. What is to prevent an employee from red-flagging a customer? read more
More About: Commentary , Policy , Gun Control

Wal Mart Gun Control
2008-04-15 02:11:00
Call Me Ahab has a post about Wal-Mart and Bloomberg Essentially Wal-Mart has volunteered to step into an enforcement role. They will gather, warehouse, and furnish information to to the police about firearms purchases, as well as red flagging any purchaser and calling the police on what amounts to a request from law enforcement. This is an awful lot of discretionary power in the hands of the middle managers of a retail store. read more
More About: Commentary , Gun Control , Control

Field Wallet/Organizer*
2008-04-14 04:27:00
These are available from a number of different manufacturers of varying quality. The cheap ones seem to be fine. I use these for all sorts of general organization when I travel. read more
More About: Organizer , Equipment , Survival , Field , Wallet

The Militia Riflemen
2008-04-14 01:11:00
Riflemen (H/T:War on Guns) If you are worried about running out of ammunition then load more magazines. Stripper clips are faster than loading loose rounds, but are still a bit fiddly. You wouldn't want to be loading magazine under fire either way. Skip the stipper clips and use the savings to buy more magazines. I would argue that a double basic load of magazines (12) is probably sufficient for most purposes. 336+ rounds should either solve your problem or give you an opportunity for resupply or battlefield recovery. A private citizen or law enforcement officer would be hard pressed to need to need to reload a rifle more than once for anything short of a zombie invasion. read more
More About: Commentary , Military , Equipment

Teaching People to Shoot
2008-04-12 13:13:00
Rachel Lucas talks a bit about going to the gun range, and all of the commentary about women being taught to shoot by husbands, boyfriends, etc. reminded me how bad this usually works out. Men do not have some kind of monopoly on knowing how to use firearms - nor are they born with some innate ability. The evolutionary processes around shooting are pretty diluted, so nobody is really a born shooter. All of the people that are really good got that way from practice and training despite any genetic advantages they might have had. read more
More About: Commentary , People , Teaching , Equipment , Shoot

Gun Control Protests
2008-04-12 12:07:00
The ProtestEasyGuns offshoot of the Brady Campaign is taking a page from the far-left activist protesters by staging die ins. Is simple, civil and peaceful. Each protest includes 32 individuals symbolizing the 32 students and teachers murdered at Virginia Tech, and the 32 Americans murdered by guns EVERY DAY in the United States. If you should happen to see one of these I would suggest commenting: "You are lying down when you should be fighting back."
More About: Commentary , Gun Control , Control , Protests

Not Mercenaries
2008-04-10 01:53:00
Mercenary Impulse It bothers me when terms like "mercenary" are thrown around. Technically a mercenary army would be engaged in offensive operations, rather than protective details or site security. Should we also refer to the security guards at the mall as mercenaries? Specifically private military corporations (like Blackwater) are working at the behest of the government, so the "paid to fight" aspect is a bit disingenuous. I do agree with the authors questions about the legal grey area that these companies are working in.
More About: Commentary , Mercenaries

Scenario Specificity
2008-04-10 00:29:00
If you read enough of the books, forums, and websites you will find that different definitions of a scenario is a common problem. The reason this becomes a problem is that people will find and latch on to some small theoretical detail and use that as the solution to the scenario. In the software field this would be called a 'hack.' For training purposes I am not really interested in a solution that only solves a corner-case. I am interested in broad, robust solutions. Simple procedures that solve a broad range of problems have a much better chance of being useful that a some gimmick that is particular to a single instance. The single instance that one has a connection to, tends to loom large in our thinking. It is an individual example of fighting the last war. read more
More About: Commentary , Scenario , Mindset , Decision making

Inappropriate Training for Women
2008-04-07 01:20:00
Society teaches us things, all of us. We are conditioned to do certain things and not others by what the social norms are. The problem with this training is that is not necessarily teaching us the proper things to do in many situations. I think this informal training is doubly bad when it comes to women. I believe that women are now in a grey area as far as what our society expects of them. In the course of daily events it probably isn't much of a factor but on the edges or in certain situations this dichotomy creates problems. For example, you are riding on a bus with many empty seats and someone comes along and sits on the seat directly next to you. This is unusual behavior, and the most common reactions among women are to either move seats, or to try to ignore the person. It is rare that a woman would tell the person to move. Women I have asked said that they didn't want to be rude or impolite. read more
More About: For Women , Training , Mindset

Racial Bias in Shootings
2008-04-05 23:42:00
This is an interesting read: Target Practice: Racism and Police Shootings Are No Game Basically there is a computer shoot/no-shoot simulation and it seems that the general population is slightly more likely to shoot black people than white people. The simulation has people holding weapons (shoot targets) and things like cell phones and soda cans (no-shoots.) Apparently police officers do better than general public and exhibit less racial bias. The online version of the simulation can be found here read more
More About: Crime , Bias , Mindset , Racial

Guns on Campus
2008-04-05 22:14:00
On Guns at Universities Some will argue that if there were armed students that it would minimize the effects of such events. Perhaps. But using the NIU sitiuation as an example, if a guy jumps out from behind a curtain into a lecture hall and starts shooting, the surprise factor alone could have allowed him to shoot 22 plus himself, as happened here. Indeed, if some dude in the back row happened to be packing heat and tried to shoot back there would be the whole crossfire problem. read more
More About: Commentary , Campus , Gun rights , Gun Control

Criminals with Anti-Tank Guns
2008-04-05 10:10:00
Anti-Tank Grenade Launcher Seized In Massive Crime Ring Bust The short story is that some drug-dealing, motorcycle thieves got arrested with guns and they had an old WWII Piat anti-tank weapon. It doesn't appear that they had ammo for it. It is worth looking at the "More Weapons Images" link though. The scary arsenal display kind of falls flat: a couple of AK clones, some deer rifles, a few handguns and a shotgun. This is for a operation that arrested 30 people. I am glad the police arrested these guys, I don't blame them for trying to gets some bonus points for the wall of "guns now off the street", but the photo montage by the paper was simply fear mongering.
More About: Commentary , Guns , Anti

Gun Control Opposes Even Passive Defensive Tools
2008-04-05 09:24:00
'Bullet proof hoodie' condemned by gun (control) groups (Retitled because across the atlantic a 'gun group' is against firearms ownership.) Body armor reduces the chance of injury if you are shot, but apparently in Britain that constitutes encouraging violence: But gun control groups said today that the company was practising ?exploitation at its most grotesque?. They predicted a rise in gang violence, saying children would buy the hoodie as a status symbol. Raymond Stevenson, a spokesman for Don?t Trigger, an international anti-gun campaign based in Brixton, London, said: ?It?s not helping kids to provide them with bullet-proof armoury. These companies are just encouraging the escalation of the urban warfare. read more
More About: Tools , Crime , Equipment , Gun Control , Control