If you’re a burglar, breaking into people’s homes in Iowa, beware of Democratic Congressmen bearing shotguns. Or in this case the Congressman’s 22 year old grandson. The Congressman was apparently trying to fight the guy off with his bare hands.
Category: Carrying / Self-Defense
Bear Advice
Chris from Alaska talks about recent bear encounters in National Parks, and steps you can take to mitigate that risk. I’ve been to Yellowstone, and there are few places I think you can go on earth to see more people doing more stupid things with wildlife. A lot of folks seem to come pretty close to treating some of our National Parks like petting zoos.
We Don’t Need Castle Doctrine or High Cap Magazines
The city politicians who believe this title need to explains the bands of feral teenagers wandering their city and beating people to the point of hospitalization. Given that we know the city will prosecute you for defending yourself against people intent on just giving you a thorough beating, it’s yet another reason not to go into the city.
According to the police report of the incident, Guendelsberger was “jumped” by 30 to 40 men who punched and kicked her numerous times. Police said they checked the area for surveillance but had no luck.
Shortly before Guendelsberger’s assault, police said, they responded to another assault, about five blocks away at Broad Street and Fairmount Avenue, of a 20-year-old man who said that he was attacked by a large group of men and women.
Police said that he was treated for a bruise and abrasion under his right eye.
Twitter users said that the mob ranged from 50 to 100 people and that participants not only assaulted people but also threw trash cans and lit fireworks.
I’ll be honest with you, it’s getting to the point I don’t know if you can carry enough gun in that city. The politicians who run the city should be ashamed. Green St. and Broad isn’t exactly the ghetto.
Bemoaning Carry Restrictions
Democrats are starting to use the fact that most concealed carry bills in them contain certain exceptions, such as for schools and courthouses, using this as proof that carrying is just plain dangerous. From Wisconsin:
Some Democrats pointed to the exemptions as proof that allowing concealed carry does introduce a new set of dangers.
“If this bill helps make Wisconsin safer, then why are there any exceptions?” said Sen. Tim Cullen, D-Janesville.
You really want to make this argument? We’d be happy to introduce a bill that contained no exceptions. Careful what you argue.
Constitutional Carry Moving Along in Wisconsin
The amended bill, sponsored by state Senator Pam Galloway (R-Wausau), allowed law-abiding citizens to carry concealed without a license for self-defense in the same manner as is available to the citizens of four other states. It also included the option of obtaining a concealed weapons license, for those who must pass through school zones or who want to be able to carry a firearm for self-defense while traveling in a number of other states through reciprocal agreements.
Wisconsin is already a state where one can open carry without a license constitutionally, and the courts seemed primed to declare a right to carry concealed in that manner if the legislature did not address the issue. I’m glad that a constitutional carry bill seems poised to be placed on the Governor’s desk.
Winning in California
Permit issuance is apparently up dramatically in Sacramento County, California, largely due to their decision to go shall-issue in response to a lawsuit filed by SAF and the Calguns Foundation. John also reports this is driving the Brady Campaign in California mad. All I have to say is that they better get used to losing. Their little six state party of riding roughshod over our rights will soon be reversing itself, and it’ll be our turn to flip the tables.
Lucky Gunner Shoot – Day 2 – Range Master
On Sunday, the folks over at Lucky Gunner treated us to a shortened version, or demo version of you will, of a pistol course from Range Master. Based on what I experienced, I think they have a sound program, and I would recommend it. Their staff are experienced law enforcement officers, and law enforcement and civilian trainers. You can see some of the people we met here. Tom Givens told us that he’s had 53 of his students go on to get into gunfights, and all of them won them. He did unfortunately say he’s had two of his students murdered, but both had forgotten the first rule of gunfighting, which is to bring a gun.
The day started with some basic classroom instruction, focusing largely on the mindset of carrying a firearm, safe firearm handling, and most of the basic stuff you’d expect to have covered. Then we went to the range session, which started with some basic exercises. Despite what our opponents often think, in that training is this magical thing that turns one from a bumbling fool into a competent gun handler, it is not. The purpose of training is to provide the building blocks of competent gun handling that can be practiced, over and over again, until it becomes second nature. Range Master teaches with this is mind, working from the holster to firing the gun in multiple steps and are combined over the course to show the student how to, on his or her’s own, drill those good habits into their brain through repetition and practice.
After drilling on the basics of the draw and presentation of the firearm, we worked up to firing, first one shot, then two, three, along with magazine changes through all the firing drills. One thing I learned was that I carry spare magazines backwards. In truth, and I’ll probably get kicked out of the tacticool club for admitting this, but I almost never carry a reload (unless you count a New York reload). I also learned a pretty good tip for one handed shooting, which was to allow the gun to cant a bit to the side if it helped you get a firmer grip on the pistol. This did seem to improve my one handed shooting, particularly with my left hand.
After lunch we did drills on improving shooting cadence, going from one shot per second, to two shots per second, and up to four shots per second. There are tips for being able to shoot fast accurately, which we didn’t get into very much, but that could be because we were not taking a full Range Master course. After working on cadence, that’s when the target dummies came out. Follow this link to see the web site of DVC Targets, who makes them. These are excellent training tools. They were fully dressed, and set to drop if hit with a clean shot to the vital area by a 9mm (which is what most were shooting, including me). This is the first time I’d ever shot at something that looks like a live person. The drill was to fire two shots into the chest area down zero zone on an IDPA target, at about 5 yards, then engage the dummy at about 10 yards. Two hits down zero at five yards I wasn’t going to sweat, but I was a little apprehensive about how my eye would find center of mass on something human shaped wearing clothing, but I found center of mass just fine and dropped the dummy.
If you’d like to take a class with Range Master, they are in the Memphis area, but do instruction offsite as well. You can find their schedule here. I think they did a pretty good job with us, and were very patient under the time-compressed circumstances. All training helps, and is beneficial, no matter what you think you know and no matter how basic the course. You will learn something new, or pick up a new technique that could end up working for you. I was glad to spend Sunday with Range Master, and thank them for introducing us to them, and to Lucky Gunner for arranging it.
A Reminder on Different Priorities
The poll that remains up for this week’s NRA-ILA poll of activists is a stark reminder that not all of our fellow gun owners have the same priorities:
More than a quarter of the respondents don’t even have a concealed carry license. And only 3% believe that their names have been published. Considering that most papers who publish those databases do so for the entire state, the number is likely much, much higher than 3%. Even though I never saw it, I know my information was published by the Roanoke paper in Virginia.
Keep in mind, this is a poll not only of people who are members of NRA, but care enough to sign up for the ILA weekly grassroots alerts. And not just that subset, but people who care enough to actually click through and take the poll. So, on one hand, it’s not a perfectly representative sample. On the other hand, it does show that even among those who are passionate about the issue, our interests vary – and we shouldn’t throw those with other ideas under the bus if we can still bring them along in the broader fight for our rights.
Concealed Carry Welcome
A South Carolina man has developed a sticker for businesses who are concealed carry-friendly to post to counter those businesses who post against carry. In all likelihood, many business owners just haven’t really thought about the issue one way or another. Most probably realize that if a customer who is lawfully carrying concealed comes in, it doesn’t matter one way or the other since they’ll never know or need a reason a to care. If someone comes in with the intent of using a gun illegally, a sign won’t stop them. I wouldn’t hold it against a business if they simply opted not to put up any signs on the issue.
Bucks County Repeals Guns in Parks Ordinance
A local Bucks County resident by the name of Ken Richmond decided to challenge Bucks County Commissioners that their ordinance banning firearms in county parks ran contrary to state law. They agreed and repealed it. While these ordinances have been unlawful for at least twenty years, it good to get the blue laws off the books, regardless. I’m not surprised the Daily News managed to get a jab in by asking picnickers to avoid shooting the ants, as if anyone lawfully carrying a firearm is just a loose cannon waiting for the right excuse.
It’s the case that a lot of counties ban firearms in their parks, contrary to state laws which prohibit local governments and municipalities from regulating on this subject. I never recommended people obey these ordinances, because hey are illegal. In the event that anyone does somehow managed to get found out, and get a fine, it would be a relatively easy matter to challenge it and prevail. Preemption in this field is well established law in the Commonwealth, and the case law is pretty black and white.