Gun & Prepping News #41

 Just some gun and prepping related links that I thought interesting or useful: 

• First up, be sure to check out Greg Ellifritz's Weekend Knowledge Dump. A few of the topics that caught my attention were articles on why to have multiple copies of the same defensive pistol, LPVOs versus Magnifiers, advice on mastering pocket pistols, why one author ultimately walked out of a training class because it wasn't being safely taught or supervised, a discussion of the impact of barrel length on rifle ballistics, and more. 
• "Mechanical Advantage"--Shooting Illustrated. The author focuses on two things likely to cause you to miss when shooting a handgun: structural issues (basically, stance) and timing. For instance, as to structural issues, the author raises common problems such as raising one's shoulders before taking a shot, tucking their chin in just before a shot, loose wrists, and poor grip--all things that going to introduce variables into each shot.  As for timing, he discusses how you can train yourself to get a grip faster when drawing, bring your hands together faster when presenting the weapon, and working on taming the inevitable "wobble" in your sights when aiming.
• "Does Trigger Finger Position Matter? No. But Also Yes. But Also No."--The Truth About Guns. An excerpt:

    I’ve struggled with this problem a lot in my career as an instructor. Getting a beginner on the bullseye at 5 yards and then moving to 10 is often easy for first time shooters, but harder for people who have developed bad habits.

    Pretty early on, I figured out that the old Army handgun diagnostic shooting chart was irrelevant 95% of the time, as was most of the shooting fundamentals we’re supposed to overload shooters’ brains with before going out on the range. I still taught the six fundamentals, but spent more time focusing on sight alignment and trigger control, then explained how the other four fundamentals (stance, grip, breathing, follow through) are really supporting actors in this play.

    The next thing I figured out was that once a new shooter had the fundamentals (especially sight alignment) figured out well in dry fire, live fire really comes down to two things:

• Missing slightly left and right is mostly trigger finger position. I found that this was a problem with elderly people more often than younger people (more on this later)
• Up and down misses, or really far off target in any direction, is almost always recoil anticipation, solved by more dry fire and “ball and dummy” training.

The author doesn't believe tightening the dominant hand when shooting is as important as most people think, but I disagree as it can pull the firearm out of alignment, sometimes significantly, particularly with the small concealed carry pistols. 

• "YouTube Training That Works: Five Drills for Gun Owners"--Ammo Land. The author looks at specific drills from various YouTube channels, briefly describing each drill. He doesn't provide links to the videos but presumably they can be located easily enough.  
• "Understanding Holster Retention Levels"--NRA Women.  An explanation of what is meant when you read or hear about  Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3 holster retention levels, as well as the different between passive and active retention. Basically, however, Level 1 is just passive retention where it is friction keeping the weapon in place and all you have to do is pull on the weapon to draw it. Each level above that means that an additional active retention device must be released: "If you must do one additional thing other than pull the gun out, like flip a thumb break, it’s level 2. If you must do two things, like flip a thumb break and push a button to release a trigger guard lock, it’s level 3, and so on."
• "Pocket Holsters & Pocket Carry"--The Revolver Guy.  An excerpt:

    Considering all the ways we could carry a gun, why would we want to carry one in our pocket?

    For me, the best reason to carry a gun in a pocket is that it’s both discrete and convenient. With a good pocket holster, I can carry my S&W 640 out of view, but still have ready access to it. I find it’s especially useful to carry this way when I have to “dress nice,” with a tucked-in shirt that would prevent me from using my normal belt holster, but it’s also very useful on windy days when I can’t keep a cover garment from lifting and exposing my gun, or pressing against it and printing.

He goes on to discuss the tactical advantages and disadvantages, problems with accessing the weapon when seated, and a reminder that when you pocket carry you can't put anything else in that pocket (which is why I generally only use pocket carry when I have extra pockets for carrying keys or a wallet).  The author discusses why a snub nosed revolver works particularly well for pocket carry, why you want to use a pocket holster when you pocket carry, and provides some advice on selecting a holster. Finally, he goes over drawing and re-holstering. All in all a great guide for pocket carry. 

• "The 5.7 as a Light Rifle"--Breach Bang Clear.  The author briefly addresses the history of the light rifle concept starting with the M1 Carbine. The problem today, however, is getting an intermediate caliber rifle in a light enough weight. The author then examines the Keltec Sub 2000 in 5.7×28 in the embedded 19 minute video.  
• "The Rimfire Report: An Examination of CCI 22 Shot Shell (Rat Shot)"--The Firearm Blog.  The author tears apart one of these shells to show you how they are constructed/loaded, and tests their patterning out of a lever action rifle (since most people would probably use this with a .22 rifle) and Henry's smooth-bore garden gun. The patterning was much tighter out of the garden gun, which is to be expected since it was intended for shooting this type of shell. The author comments:

However, the modern Henry Smoothbore Garden Gun combined with the modern CCI 22 Shot Shells is a very lethal combination on small pest species. As you can see in the photos, at the same distance [7 yards], with the same barrel length, and the same point of aim, the shot spread is drastically reduced, and virtually all of the shot is now concentrated in about a 2-inch square box. 

• "Blinded by the Light: Tactical Flashlights as Self-Defence Tools"--TacSource. The author notes: "You need an alternative [to lethal and less-lethal weapons that might be illegal]. Something that can temporarily blind or disorientate the threat, something legal, something you’re more likely to carry on you at all times, and something that has a backup function if things go south faster than you want." And that alternative, the author argues, is the tactical flashlight (or, since the author is Australian, "tactical torch"). And by that he means one that has a high lumen output (he says at least 500 lumens), includes a strobe mode, and is sturdily built to survive falls or being used as an impact weapon. Uses included blinding or disorienting an attacker, situational awareness (i.e., just using it as a flashlight), or as an impact weapon. 
• "Today’s Gun Control Isn’t Normal, And We Shouldn’t Pretend That It Is"--The Truth About Guns. Looking back 100 years, the author notes:

    Not only was concealed carry and gun ownership common in those days, but one could simply send in a postcard requesting one. When the gun arrived, you’d pay the postman for the gun and then have it. There was no waiting period, background check, or any other hoop to jump through. The gun would go straight to your door.

    But, if you wanted to go to a store and get one. Hardware stores sold firearms, suppressors, and many other highly-regulated things right on the shelf like a BB gun today. But, this guy thinks such a thing is crazy, despite it being normal only decades ago. 

And:

    If you ask around in your family, you can probably find similar tales of completely    uncontrolled guns. In my family, my grandfather (who graduated high school in 1953, just 50 years before I did) says that he would just take guns to school. The teacher would have kids put their rifles in the back of the room or put them in their lockers during class so they could go to the school’s shooting range or go hunting after school.

    Nobody got hurt. Nobody shot the place up.

    My dad, who was in high school a couple decades later, tells similar stories. They didn’t want guns in the building, but it was completely normal for a gun or two to sit on a rifle rack in the back window of the cab of a pickup. Once again, despite students having guns on school grounds, nobody got them out and shot the place up. Shootings of any kind were far more rare than they are today (and they’re still pretty rare today). 

So what changed?  The Great Migration and selling the public on the idea that minority violence could be controlled through weapon restrictions. 

• If insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting it to be different this time, then liberals are stark raving mad: "Firearm Homicides Surge in Colorado Following Adoption of Gun Control"--Breitbart.  The article notes:

    Ammoland News examined firearm homicides in the state and found there were “86 gun homicides” in 2014 and 237 in 2023. In other words, as restrictions barring law-abiding citizens from purchasing certain guns or magazines increased, so did firearm homicides.

    Ammoland News noted, “All of the restrictive gun control measures adopted over the past decade haven’t reduced gun-related violent crime.” 

• Another study improperly conflating suicides with actual gun violence. "Defensive Firearm Use Is Far Less Common Than Exposure to Gun Violence"--Rutgers. From the news release:

    An overwhelming majority of firearm users, or about 92%, indicated they never have used their weapons to defend themselves, with less than 1% say they did in the previous year, a new study by the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center found.

This study combines suicides with actual gun violence, then compares it to a low number of instances where people actually had to "use" a firearm (however they define "use") to argue that the dangers of firearms outweigh the good. How "use" is defined is important because other surveys have shown that "in 95% of cases when people use guns defensively, they merely show the gun to make the criminal back off." So if the Rutger researchers only include instances where the gun is fired, it drastically undercounts how often a firearm is used in self-defense. But even if we take their research at face value, a 1% use of a firearm in self-defense would still translate to a large number of defensive uses. According to the 2020 census, there were 258.3 million adults in the U.S. So, a 1% use of firearms in self defense would equate to more than 2,583,000 incidents of self-defense involving a firearm per year, versus approximately 27,000 firearm related suicides. So, from a strict utilitarian position, the benefits of firearms obviously far outweigh the downsides discussed in the article.

• "The Cheapskate Contrarian’s Guide to Prepping – Free Training is All Around You"--Jerking the Trigger.  The author explains:

 There are two consistent sources of free training that I have seen: the local library and a local state or community college. You probably aren’t going to see a carbine course pop up from one these sources but I have seen preparedness-related free courses ranging from regional plant and animal identification, basic first aid training, wilderness first aid, navigation, various other outdoor skills, gardening topics of all kinds, CPR training, and even some basic disaster preparedness topics.

You might also keep an eye on:

• Local forums and Facebook groups related to topics that interest you, like HAM Radio groups, orienteering groups, or even prepping groups
• Local emergency management resources
• Local conservation or land management groups
• Retailers

He also suggests that if you have a friend with certain skills, to see if that friend will teach you the basics; or if they were able to attend a firearms course to give you the basics of what they learned.

• "Home Front: bean and rice survival soup"--Apocalypse Equipped.  The author relates that he or she had obtained a copy of the book No Grid Survival Projects which included, as one of the projects, putting together long term storage meals (i.e., all of the ingredients kept together if not actually in the same container) of bean and rice soup. The author decided to try it out and describes the preparation and results. 
• "JetBoil Cooking Systems You Can’t Go Without."--Top of the Range.  Jetboil makes lightweight camping/backpacking cooking stoves and equipment. The author briefly reviews the Jetboil Zip Cooking System and the Jetboil Flash Cooking System. He also includes a list of cooking utensils to take with you when camping. 
• "Best Water Filtration, Treatment, & Purification Methods for Back Country Hunting"--KUIU. The author discusses and gives the pros and cons of various means of treating water including boiling, water filtration pumps, water purification tablets and drops, gravity fed water filtration systems, squeeze and inline filtration systems, and ultraviolet water purification systems. 
• "Catastrophe! Heroism! Paranoia! The dangerous romance of survivalist stories"--The Guardian. This article offers a strange mix of disdain for survivalists--essentially labeling them anti-social misanthropes--while showing a strong interest in the history of survivalist stories, both novels and on film. But the article, itself, reads like a fictional account of survivalists, emphasizing leftist stereotypes about survivalists without actually considering real world people that engage in survivalism. And what the author, Dorian Lynskey, believes to be dangerous about survivalist literature is that it mostly paints a bleak picture of humanity, a Hobbesian world view of tooth against tooth and nail against nail fight for survival, whereas the author prefers the "nice" picture painted by Rebecca Solnit in her book, A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster, where everyone helps one another. But the fact that Lynskey applies this dichotomy to survivalists underscores his ignorance of the subject, for most survivalists and preppers understand the need for community or "tribe". But they also understand that the history of humanity is filled with violence and war. Perhaps Lynskey would benefit from reading War Before Civilization or even pay attention to events around him as multiculturalism breaks down. Besides, what Solnit described in her book was how people responded in the short term after a disaster where outside help and assistance was quickly available. Things might be different if people began to starve and no help from the outside could be expected. 
• Speaking of survivalists that don't fit the leftist stereotypes: "Meet the Black Women Who Say Survivalism Is a Necessity, Not a Trend"--Capital B. 
• "The disaster preppers who were proven right: ‘We lived in the car for five days’"--The Guardian.  Three accounts of survival including the 2009 ice storm in Kentucky, Hurricane Irma in 2017, and the survivor of tropical cyclones and unexpected unemployment in Brisbane, Australia.