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Monday, May 20, 2024

Some Extra Credit Reading

    First up, Jon Low released a Defensive Pistolcraft newsletter last week, which you can find here. Something I found interesting:

From an email from Stephen P. Wenger -- 

A List Member Replies: On the issue of the rearmament of Israelis:

     I was in Israel in December for Hanukkah and in the last few weeks over Passover [April 22-30].  I saw more carried pistols and long guns (M4s and Tavors) than ever before . . .  Long guns:  In social situations, for example in synagogue or in parks, pushing strollers and kids on swings, or shopping or just walking on the street, none of them were carried by people in uniform.  On trains, a high proportion of carriers were in uniform, on buses, mixed.  Religious leaders have been encouraging, all congregants to come to services armed.  I suspect the military has been telling soldiers who are not on duty not to leave their guns at home.  With handguns, it’s all open carry but I think that’s mainly because it’s almost summer and people don’t want to wear an extra layer of clothing to cover them.  

Another bit I found especially interesting:

From an email from John Murphy -- 
 
A 3rd Party Intervention and a Negative Outcome* 
 
An armed citizen witnessed a sustained string of violent acts and elected to intervene. Unfortunately his response was ineffective and it cost him his life when the car jacker, who had already committed a string of felonies, ran him over. 
 
CAUTION: This is a very disturbing video: 
https://twitter.com/TheNewsTrending/status/1779639811495633265 
 
"Good Samaritan killed while trying to help carjacking victim in Lumberton, North Carolina"
by WRAL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmRPmGXYE2U
 
 
    Among the lessons we can take from this incident: 
 
1) The penalty for ineffective intervention can be death. The armed citizen fired four shots at the perpetrator, who was later arrested and required only minimal medical care. 
 
2) The criminal was absolutely committed to violence. The disparity in commitment can be absolutely lethal. All the way in, or all the way out. 
 
*Credit to Claude Werner, the Tactical Professor, for this term
---
Gabe Suarez's comments --
 
 
This one happened a couple of months into 2024. There have been a few online pieces written about it. I want to present my perspectives on it and then hear yours. 
 
1). Based on the KWTL Flowchart, would you engage? To me it is a grey area. It depends. In the various news stories there is no mention of the suspect being armed, and I didn't see any in the video. 
 
    It isn't clear why Lecompte (the shooter/victim) was out of his city vehicle. Was a weapon pointed at him to compel him to exit? Or was he exiting to assist what looked like a traffic accident? Yes, physical force can be used to commit a robbery, but it appears the suspect merely took advantage of the open door of a running vehicle rather than force the driver to exit. Yes, I know all the seriousness of a carjacking but I am basing my comments on what was happening then and there and what Lacompte knew. 
 
2). I hate to reiterate the obvious but Lacompte was 38 at the time. Physically he looks late fifties based on body composition. Based on images online, I suspect he was quite unfit. This this contribute to his demise? Possibly. Very simply, if one looks dangerous, one will likely be left alone. 
 
    Excluding extreme disparities in size, a fit strong man could physically remove another from his vehicle and subdue him. And finally an agile fitter person could easily evade an oncoming vehicle. The other person in the road did just that. 
 
3). Hard to tell what sort of weapon Lacompte was using, but it looks small and based on the rate of fire, likely some sort of small revolver or pocket pistol. Few rounds were fired and as far as I can find online, the suspect was either not hit, or hit minimally at a distance of three feet through an open window. Lacompte was armed with what 90% of Americans carry and virtually no skill
in its deployment.
 
 
    As we say, carry as powerful a weapon as you can under the circumstances, and when you are justified in being proactive, put a burst into their face. A burst is approximately five rounds in the time it took you to read this [sentence]. 
 
-- Gabe Suarez

There is a bunch more there, including a couple longer comments/excerpts concerning gripping the pistol and trigger pull/reset, so be sure to check out the whole thing.

    Second is Greg Ellifritz's Weekend Knowledge Dump from this past Friday. For revolver aficionados, Greg's included links to articles on shooting small revolvers better, revolver reloading methods, and routine cleaning and lubrication of revolvers. 

    Greg also included a link to a video of a news report out of Detroit about an incident where two criminals (the usual suspects) tried to steal a firearm off of an on-duty police officer. It appears from both the video and the reporter's comments that the criminal was able to get the firearm out of the holster but the officer was able to wrestle the weapon away from the criminal. Greg indicates that he linked to it as an example of how lawless is life in the urban environment. I think it also illustrates why open carry is a very poor idea. 

    On a related note, Greg linked to an article from a Brazilian Ju-Jitsu blog asking the question of "why don't cops train independently"--i.e., why don't police seek training outside of their department for hand-to-hand skills. The author gives 7 reasons why he doesn't believe officers seek out such training--the last of which is ego--and Greg seems to agree, noting that he actually studied this issue as part of earning his graduate degree, and commenting:

    I think taking martial arts training is likely to show them the reality of just how deficient their combatives skill set is. Officers don’t want to suffer the ego hit requiring them to admit that they can’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag.

    Rather than taking the time to learn some skills, it’s easier to just pretend your skill set isn’t deficient in the first place.

 Anyway, there is more there, so check it out.

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