Category: Carrying / Self-Defense

Sensibly Progressive has a great run down of the 20/20 special, which basically informs us that we’re all way too stupid to defend ourselves with a firearm.

UPDATE: More from VSSA:

We’re only ten minutes in to this and it is very clear that the theme of the program is that ordinary citizens are not prepared to use a firearm in self defense. They give several hours of training to three students at a small college then put them in a scenario to see how they react. Predictably, they fail.

And put them in a scenario as a trained shooter, namely a police instructor.  They should have put them up against another untrained person.  This is an excellent timeline from Found: One Troll:

Active shooter breaks in and Jimmy is unable to draw his sidearm from under his concealing sweatshirt. Looks like he needed more practice. Jimmy is shot and “killed” before he can draw. Jimmy did not seek concealment behind his desk. Sawyer trots out the canard that Jimmy could have been disarmed by the active shooter, his own gun used against the other students after he falls. The active shooter is a police officer and firearms instructor, trained and experienced in shooting while moving and recognizing threats. Not a realistic simulation, it seems to me.

Definitely not realistic.  If a highly trained individual goes ape shit, the body count is going to be high, and even trained police officers are going to have difficulty taking him down.  Also, the person playing the role of crazed shooter expected resistance.  A real shooter will not be. But it does bring up an important point: you have to be better than the person you’re going up against, and what I’ve long suggested to get better is training and competition, particularly practical shooting.

A Sheriff in Mason County in Washington State is encouraging local residents to arm themselves in response to budget cuts in the department.

“I won’t say vigilante days, but we’re back to days when there wasn’t very much law around,” Bob Clark said. “We live in a very remote area and it’s a constant worry.”

Sheldon was quoted in a local newspaper as calling people on Seattle’s Queen Anne and Capitol Hill “wimps.” He has since backed off that statement.

Sounds like my kind of Sheriff.

UPDATE: Ooops… :g/Sheriff/s//County\ Commissioner/g

For those of you not Unix geeks, replace Sheriff with County Commissioner.  That’s what happens when I skim through an article.

Brillianter takes issue with a method of carry we’ve probably all tried at some point or another, namely small of the back carry.  I carried this way for several months when I first got my license, because it seemed like a reasonable place to conceal.

Strong side carry seemed too bulgy and when you first start to carry, you think everyone can notice that.  Truth is, bulges along your side are normal these days with all the crap people carry around with them.  Bulges along your back are not.

Now I carry a Glock 19 at 4:00 strong side, in a Kydex in-waistband holster.  If I can’t wear an outer-shirt, 2:00 works with a shirt pulled over, even though it’s not as comfortable.  The Kel-Tec P3AT I carry in a pocket holster either in the strong side front pocket, or in my inside coat pocket, which makes for a nice cross draw.

When seconds counts, the police are only minutes away.  But then they might spend another hour figuring out what to do.  Active shooter protocols have changed a lot since Columbine, but apparently not in Bimghamton.

Remember what the California Court of Appeals says:

Moreover, although the loss of the right to possess firearms can impact an individual’s ability to defend him- or herself, the deprivation does not leave the individual exposed to danger without recourse to other defensive measures, such as installing home security devices and summoning the police.

Thanks, but no thanks.  When the shit hits the fan, I think I’d rather rely on my Glock.

Dave Hardy reports that the requirement for removing the need for concealed carry permits in incorporated areas in Montana has been removed, and the bill remains as an ordinary castle doctrine bill.

There are activists in Pennsylvania who are exceedingly impatient about this issue, and regularly deride pro-gun politicians and pro-gun groups for not pushing it harder.  Alaska/Vermont style carry, or carry without the need of a license, has been tried in New Hampshire, Wyoming, and Montana now, without success.  If we can’t get Alaska/Vermont carry passed in Montana, which already has no restrictions on carry outside of towns and cities, how the hell are we passing it in Pennsylvania?  Sometimes the votes just aren’t there, and yelling louder isn’t going to make it so.

The National Park carry rule was just suspended by the courts. There is one bit of good news out of this:

The court did grant NRA’s motion to intervene in the cases. Under federal law, NRA is entitled to an immediate appeal, and NRA will exercise that right.

This is one town over from me:

A would-be bandit apparently never heard the idiom “never bring a knife to a gunfight.”

According to police, a man hoping to rob a pharmacy in Bristol Township, Pa., on Wednesday night pulled a knife, struggled with a clerk and was shot by a second clerk.

[…]

The suspect was taken to the hospital by the Levittown-Fairless Hills Rescue Squad. The clerks weren’t injured, and police said the clerk who owns the firearm has a license to carry it.

The robber will be facing charges when he recovers.   This has even gotten coverage in New Jersey.  I don’t see that the clerk had any other choice.  Once you start grappling with someone who has a knife, you’re more likely than not going to get cut.

As any good Irishman knows, a bottle can make a pretty good improvised weapon, when made out of glass and smashed against a bar.  It’s been enough of a problem in other parts of the British Isles that there’s been legislation considered.

I’m pretty sure these bottles, however, are no threat to anyone, except perhaps to the pocketbooks of those who want to pretend to take responsibility for their own security without actually doing so.

Lehigh Carbon County Community College runs a rather startling course for a community college:

Like Solt, Jackson, 46, plotted it out in the noncredit course, which provides access to a simulator that is used to train the Pennsylvania State Police. The course emphasizes the importance of using deadly force only when lives are in danger.

The simulator, called PRISim, can play out hundreds of situations that are taped using actors. Students can act them out using a flashlight, pepper spray and an AR-15 rifle, as well as the handgun. All of the weapons and the flashlight are modified to use with a laser.

I wish Bucks County Community College offered something like this.

Les Jones reports on lead concerns in regards to allowing carry in National Parks.  The bullets in my carry load contain no lead, but that’s another matter.  If National Parks are really as safe as all the critics say they are, this is not really an issue.  The number of discharges for self-defense should yearly, amount to less than a dozen.  I’m sure there’s more lead in the paint on the walls of some buildings in National Parks than we’re talking about here.  We’re talking about concealed carry here, not opening the parks up to random gunfire, though you’d imagine that’s what some think.