August 31, 2018 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"Personal Protection: Cap and Ball Revolvers"--Paul Harrell (10 min.)

It may be slower to switch cylinders than to use a speed loader in a modern revolver, or a to insert a magazine in a semi-auto, but it can be made to work -- and may be a valid option in jurisdictions where black powder firearms are permitted, but obtaining a modern handgun is difficult or impossible.

• Greg Ellifritz has his Weekend Knowledge Dump up at Active Response Training. Check it out.
• "FEAR AGGRESSION IN GUNFIGHTING"--Gabe Suarez. He first looks at the difference between predatory aggression and fear aggression in canines, noting the about the latter:

The little dog is afraid and if he was a human, we would say he was emotional, upset, and loudly acting out those emotions.  A fear aggressive dog is dangerous because he is unpredictable and uncontrollable and his fear will lead him to bite even if biting is not what is called for...and even then, those bites will be applied hesitantly and poorly.

In comparison:

The Predator does not show emotional arousal, or anger.  The Predator does not yell or posture and does not develop a relationship to or with his adversary.  He has a cool-minded determination to overcome and defeat the adversary.  The adversary is in fact, nothing more than a target.  The predator has a situational awareness and is planning his positioning and maneuver to take advantage of the environment at the time he launches his action.  The exchange is not a give and take as would be seen in a sparring match or a sporting event.  He moves decisively and with finality.  He has already decided to kill the adversary and is merely waiting for the visual or audible signal that justifies his launch. There is nothing defensive about his attitude once the signal has been recognized.

Saurez's concern is that too many of us--both police and the ordinary citizen--train and have the mindset of responding to an attack with fear aggression rather than the predatory mindset.

• "When Forensic Evidence Goes Bad"--The American Conservative. The author posits:

Forensic science is a fundamental tool of the criminal justice system. However, a growing number of scandals have illustrated that not everyone in this field is qualified or immune to systemic bias. And as research continues to develop, some forms of forensic science have been proven to be, well, unreliable.

The author then briefly discusses some of the scandals and unreliable evidence that is given far too much weight. One of these is bite mark analysis which is barely above astrology. And perhaps lie detectors have improved since, but there was a lot research in the 1990s showing that flipping a coin was just slightly more accurate than a lie detector at determining whether someone was telling the truth.

• "Fight The Freeze"--LDS Gunsite.  While we often talk about the adrenaline kicking us into fight or flight, the reality is that often the reaction to a sudden attack is to freeze like deer in the headlights. The author explains:

       The solution to the problem of freezing up is to do exactly what YOU are doing now… Start learning everything you can about self-defense and use “What-If” scenarios to mentally play out possible situations in your mind, decided in advance how you would like to respond to them. (Perhaps I should qualify this a bit and tell you to learn everything you can about legitimate self-defense and the science of performance. There is a lot of baloney out there masquerading as legitimate fighting advice).

       Training gives you confidence. You can’t fake confidence. So don’t try to fake your training. It comes with a price. That price is learning, training, and practice. It doesn’t matter what method you choose to defend yourself and your loved ones. This applies to all self-defense. 

• "How a Botched Study Fooled the World About the U.S. Share of Mass Public Shootings"--John Lott at Ammo Land. From the article:

       Lankford’s claim was that over the 47 years from 1966 to 2012, an enormous amount of the world’s mass public shooters — 31% — occurred in the United States. Lankford attributed this to America’s gun ownership.

       Lankford claims to have “complete” data on such shooters in 171 countries. However, because he has neither identified the cases nor their location nor even a complete description on how he put the cases together, it is impossible to replicate his findings.

* * *

       Lankford’s study reported that from 1966 to 2012, there were 90 public mass shooters in the United States and 202 in the rest of world. We find that Lankford’s data represent a gross undercount of foreign attacks. Our list contains 1,448 attacks and at least 3,081 shooters outside the United States over just the last 15 years of the period that Lankford examined. We find at least fifteen times more mass public shooters than Lankford in less than a third the number of years.

      Even when we use coding choices that are most charitable to Lankford, his 31 percent estimate of the US’s share of world mass public shooters is cut by over 95 percent.  By our count, the US makes up less than 1.43% of the mass public shooters, 2.11% of their murders, and 2.88% of their attacks. All these are much less than the US’s 4.6% share of the world population. Attacks in the US are not only less frequent than other countries, they are also much less deadly on average.

Lott has different article on the same topic published at the New York Post.

"Managing Unknown Contacts And Why We Do It"-- Active Self Protection (6-1/2 min.)

Correia uses a couple of unprovoked stabbing incidents to show the importance not only of situational awareness, but of managing our distance and orientation to a threat or attacker.

• "Argentina's central bank hikes rates to 60% as the currency collapses"--CNBC. That isn't raise interest rates by 60%, but to raise them to 60%. Even if it is sufficient to attract foreign investment, the costs of servicing the debt will be ruinous. 
• "Immigrants and Disease"--Townhall. From the article:

       The Immigration and Nationality Act mandates that all immigrants and refugees undergo a medical screening examination to determine whether they have an inadmissible health condition. ...

       But what about people who enter our country illegally? The CDC specifically cites the possibility of the cross-border movement of HIV, measles, pertussis, rubella, rabies, hepatitis A, influenza, tuberculosis, shigellosis and syphilis. Chris Cabrera, a Border Patrol agent in South Texas, warned: "What's coming over into the U.S. could harm everyone. We are starting to see scabies, chickenpox, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections and different viruses." Some of the youngsters illegally entering our country are known to be carrying lice and suffering from various illnesses. Because there have been no medical examinations of undocumented immigrants, we have no idea how many are carrying infectious diseases that might endanger American children when these immigrants enter schools across our nation.

• "The Electric Briar In My Neck"--The American Conservative. The author notes that there are many people that suffer from legitimate chronic pain or serious pain from certain conditions that need prescription pain medication. The push to limit availability of opioids will cause millions more to suffer than it will help.