New Defensive Pistolcraft Post

Jon Low has posted a new newsletter at this Defensive Pistolcraft blog. Lots of good information and links, but here are a few things in particular that I found interesting:

• Jon writes: 

     I was directing traffic and signaled a gentleman to move his car forward closer to the car in front of him, so we could fit 5 cars in the designated lane.  He couldn't.  He told me that the sensor on his Honda Accord Hybrid automatically applied the brakes and would not let him get any closer to the car in front of him.   

 

     Many cars have this safety "feature".  You won't be able to ram the non-engine side of the car blocking the road in front of you.  You'll just have to sit in your car until the mob burns you out with Molotov cocktails.   

 

     If you buy a stupid car, you're going to get tragic results.  

• Another comment from Jon: "If you're drawing portraits or cartoon characters, how do you make the character look stupid or inept?  Jutting upper lip and head jutting forward so that the ears are well in front of the shoulders.  Good posture has the ears over the shoulders, teeth together, mouth closed, lips meeting evenly.  Good posture make you look like a hard target.  Tuck your chin and pull your head back.  I know it's hard.  Your life time of slouching is a bad habit that must be broken." I would add that there is plenty of research out there indicating that criminals use posture and gait to pick targets.

• Stephen P. Wenger pointed Jon to an article about a shooting at a Walmart ("Man shot at Cordova Walmart speaks about what happened"). The victim was in the Walmart with his son when a man (the shooter) punched his (the shooter's) girlfriend. The victim turned to see what was going on and reportedly asked what was going on. For this, the victim also received a punch to the face followed by an fusillade of 15 shots, with the victim being struck 9 times. The victim was armed with a handgun, but wasn't able to employ it. Why? He explained that he was carrying without a round in the chamber:

“Yeah, I had a firearm on me, but I didn't have it engaged. I had just left home, didn't feel a need to have something in the head. And that's how he was able to shoot me. And I wasn't able to shoot back,” Grandberry said.

Wenger commented about this:

     I suspect that depictions on both big and small screens of police detectives racking slides to chamber a round before entering venues where they expect to encounter suspects have done more to promote empty-chamber carry in the US than have prior US military service or training by IDF (Israeli Defense Force) veterans. People who don't feel comfortable carrying a pistol with a round in the chamber may be better served with a double-action revolver.  

The loaded revolver also has a round (or, rather, rounds) in the chambers, so what I think Wenger is getting at is that there are people that don't feel comfortable using a single action or striker fired pistol with a loaded chamber because of fears of inadvertently discharging the weapon, but may be better off with the longer, heavier trigger on the double-action revolver. Or I would add, if that is the case, a DAO or DA/SA semi-auto with a decocker. 

• Jon excerpts 10 questions you should be able to answer if you carry a concealed handgun from an article by Mike Seeklander, "The Concealed Carry Trap – Are You Caught In It?" I won't copy the questions here because it is too long, but the point of the questions is to make you think about your ability or preparations for dealing with common occurrences when you are attacked by a criminal, e.g., having to draw from close quarters, being prepared against losing your weapon if you are thrown around or fall to the ground, having to quickly draw your weapon, etc.
• And another bit of wisdom:

     Dr. Ignatius Piazza says that live fire practice is only used to verify what you have learned in dry practice.  It is in dry practice, without the recoil and report of the pistol, that you perfect form and develop competence and speed.  You should be dry firing 10 shots for every live round you fire on the range.  This is also more cost effective than live fire practice.  (Eventually, you will be visualizing 10 repetitions of an action for every 1 that you dry practice, and 10 dry practiced for every live round fired.  That would be efficient practice.  Mindlessly shooting ammo at the range is not practice.  It's just a waste of time

and money.)  

I recently picked up a laser dry-fire cartridge to work on a trigger issue. I've notice a couple things with it. First, if you have your sights aligned correctly and don't jerk the trigger, you probably won't see the laser dot because it will be hidden behind the front sight post. Thus it helps with fine tuning your form over the iron sights alone. Second, it is far easier to spot wiggle from different causes (for instance, I've discovered that the striker springs on Glocks are strong enough to induce a jump when the trigger is pulled and the striker slams forward). 

 Anyway, a lot more there, including a collection of articles about the airport manager killed by the ATF, firearms and the Mexican Connection, and a couple articles on the correct way to mitigate against overpenetration in a home defense scenario, links to a free PDFs of books on chess, and a lot more. So be sure to check it out.