New Defensive Pistolcraft Newsletter

Jon Low has posted a new Defensive Pistolcraft newsletter with lots of links and commentary. Jon starts with mindset, because if you don't have the proper mindset, your training and weapons will be useless. Criminals also have a mindset and Jon links to an article from Offgrid Magazine that discusses criminals and their mindset. But we are not criminals, and so Jon moves on to link to an article on what should be your mindset by Paul Markel ("Right Now, Someone Somewhere in the World is Training to Kill You") and quotes a passage on the importance of never allowing cowards (e.g., politicians and bureaucrats) disarm you. Markel rightly points out that "Israel paid a horrific price on October 7th of 2023 for their restrictive gun laws.  Disarmed citizens and 'gun-free' zones are killing fields for monsters." I also liked this quote from Tim Larkin: "Violence doesn't prevent violence.  It only stops the other guy from hurting you."

    I also appreciate that Jon cited to my recent post on intent involving Amber Guyger, a police officer that mistook another person's apartment for her own, entered said apartment and shot the occupant dead. One of the facts that sunk her was an admission that she intended on killing the man that lived there. Jon comments:

    NEVER say anything to the responding officers, investigating officers, or prosecutors. Let your attorney deliver your written statement saying that you were attempting "to stop the attack".  Killing the bad guy never entered your mind.  You weren't trying to kill anybody.  You were just trying to "stop the attack".  Intent matters!  

     If you're so stupid that you say that you intended to kill the bad guy, you will end up convicted, imprisoned, and denied parole.  Be smart, keep your mouth shut.  

     If you're on the witness stand testifying under oath, your statement should be " I shot him to stop his attack."  There is no other reason to shoot.  There is no other desired outcome.  There is no other intent.  Guyger's attorneys did not explain this to Guyger.  So she ran her mouth about intending to kill Jean and got convicted, imprisoned, and denied parole.  

He has more to add, so be sure to read the whole thing.

    Jon links to a video, "The Secret to Mastering the Handgun" by Silverado Shooting Academy, which has some good tips and information on handgun shooting. Check out it and the other links on training.

    Jon relates that while driving to a training conference, he was passed at high speed by a small sports car closely followed by a Highway Patrol vehicle with its lights and siren going. 

     A few minutes later I passed the scene of the "stop".  The State Troopers were putting away the spike strips.  The fire department was hosing down the wreckage.  

     Upon hitting the spikes, which probably blew out his tires, the driver of the sports car lost control and ended up off the road to the right in a fiery crumpled wreck.  

     If you're going to speed in a high performance car and survive spikes blowing out your tires, you've got to have taken the training and practiced.  Otherwise, you're dead.  

     Similarly for self-defense.  Shooting tight groups on the range, ain't the same as fighting for your life to make space and time to get to your pistol.  Or, fighting to take the other guy's pistol.  Or, gouging his eyes and hanging on to his skull to crack his skull on the ground.  As Tim Larkin says, the ground is the best impact weapon and it is always available.  [and gravity is always helping you -- Jon Low]  [Gouging the enemy's eye and immediately pulling your fingers out of his eye sockets is sub-optimal.  Rather, you should gouge deep through his eyes into his brain and grab hold of his skull from the inside.  (Ya, his bones might cut your fingers, but so what?  Remember the context.)  Control his head and his body will follow.  This is a much better grip than grabbing his hair, which might not be there. -- Jon Low] 

    And another bit of advice from Jon: "... Springfield Armory XD magazine springs are junk, replace with Wolff springs." The issue he had was that the springs were not pushing the rounds up as fast the pistol was cycling, resulting in misfeeds and damaged cases. I had a similar problem once with an AR that I solved by installing a heavier buffer to slow the cycling.

    Anyway, Jon has a lot more so be sure to check it out.

Bear Attacks--Oh My!

In the following video, Ron Spomer interviews Phil Shoemaker who survived an attack by a brown bear in Alaska by shooting it dead with a 9mm pistol. I believe the segment below is from a longer interview from earlier this year about bear hunting in Alaska more generally.

 VIDEO: " 9mm Luger vs. Grizzly!" (11 min.)
Ron Spomer Outdoors

 If you like this type of information, here are a few articles you might enjoy:

• "‘Hero’ son, 12, saves dad being mauled by black bear: ‘Killed it on top of me’"--New York Post (Sept. 18, 2024). The 12 year old shot and killed a bear that had his father pinned to the ground and was mauling the man. The two had shot the bear earlier, but only wounded it. It's not clear whether the two were tracking the wounded bear or just chanced upon it when the attack occurred. Nothing about the type of rifle or caliber.
• "Elk hunter is savagely attacked by Grizzly bear before shooting the enraged adult male dead in Idaho"--Daily Mail (Sept. 8, 2024). This involved two archery hunters attacked by the bear while hunting, with one injured. According to the story, both were able to use handguns and killed the bear. Again, no information in the story as to the type of weapons used or the calibers.
• "A Montana man shot a grizzly bear during an attack – it saved his life, but here’s why experts say it’s not your best defense"--Advnture (via Yahoo) (August 18, 2024).

    This July, a 72-year-old man was picking huckleberries in Flathead National Forest by himself when he was attacked by a female grizzly bear. He managed to access his handgun, shooting and killing the bear and surviving the encounter with serious injuries.

    After a summer that brought several high-profile grizzly bear attacks – a veteran who was mauled while hiking in Grand Teton National Park and a Canadian trail runner who says she was saved by her hair clip – some are asking if guns should be as ubiquitous as hiking boots and backpacks when it comes to recreating in bear country.

    The idea of using a firearm against bears is something bear biologist and Tooth and Claw podcast host Wes Larson tells us he hears a lot, but it’s not what he recommends.

 

Larson recommends "avoidance" first, but if that fails, using bear spray. His reasoning seems to be that it is too easy to miss the bear when using a handgun so the bear spray is superior because “[b]ear spray shoots out a whole cloud of aerosolized pepper spray, so when the bear is still coming at you, it passes through that cloud.” Larson is more interested in protecting the bear, not anyone taking his advice, as the next article reminds us.

• "Myth that Bear Spray Will Save You Proves Deadly Once Again" by John Farnam at Ammo Land. This article discusses an October  2023 incident where a couple hiking in Banff National Park in Canada’s Alberta Provence where both killed and partially eaten by a female grizzly bear. Farnam observes: "A fully-discharged bottle of bear spray was discovered at the scene. The bear was apparently unimpressed!" 

    The reality, and this is what the research shows, is that bear spray can be effective against a curious bear or one that has ventured uncomfortably close, but is not aggressive. But that is very different from deterring a bear intent on killing you.

• "Modern Sporting Rifles as Bear Stoppers? They Worked in Every Recorded Incident" by Dean Weingarten at Ammo Land. Weingarten, as you may know, has been collecting information on bear attacks for years documenting what worked (and what didn't). His primary emphasis has been on handguns, but in this article he turns his attention to the modern sporting rifle. I've never doubted they could work since elephant poachers often used AKs, but Weingarten offers more specific data. From the article:

    Of the defensive bear shootings I have found, four of them were with rifles reasonably characterized as semi-automatic civilian versions of popular military rifles.

    All four defensive shootings were successful. Modern sporting rifles most commonly are AR15 or AK47 style semi-automatic rifles. They are the most popular rifles in today’s America. It is certain more bears will be shot with them in the future.  ...

 He then goes on to describe each incident. Three of the incidents involved an AR style rifle, two using 5.56/.223 and the third shooting 6.8 SPC. The bears involved were a polar bear, and two black bears, respectively (yes, the polar bear was taken down with .223). A fourth incident, involving a grizzly bear attack in Alaska, was resolved by someone using an AK-74 style rifle shooting 5.45x39. All involved multiple shots (although it only took two shots from the 6.8 to kill the bear). So these are not bear hunting rifles, but worked perfectly fine for bear defense.

• "Details of .22 Pistol Defense Failure Against Polar Bear in Norway" by Dean Weingarten at Ammo Land. One of the few cases documented by Weingarten where a handgun failed to stop a bear attack involved an attempt to stop a polar bear with a .22 pistol. Weingarten found additional information concerning that attack in order to put it in its proper perspective. After quoting from a more detailed description of the incident, Weingarten notes three things about the response:

1. First, the group started shooting at the bear when it was still 50 feet away;
2. Two of the men kept throwing the handgun back and forth to each other as they would take a shot and then pass it off to the other, and so on;
3. And, finally, although they had shot the bear in the head 3 times, it was ineffective. Weingarten explains:

    Three .22 rounds hit the polar bear in the head. None entered the cranium. This is not unexpected. The brain of a polar bear may be slightly larger than a grizzly. A grizzly bear brain is about the size of a pint jar (29 cubic inches). The head of a large Kodiak bear has a volume of approximately 808 cubic inches, based on measurements supplied by Tom Smith of Brigham Young University. The Kodiak bear measured by Dr. Smith was exceptionally large, estimated at 1,400 pounds. If we assume a 1,000-pound polar bear, and proportional measurements, the head volume would be about 577 cubic inches or 2.5 gallons.

    If you have a pint jar in a 2.5-gallon container, you have to know where the jar is located to be able to hit it. It is easy to miss. There is a lot of muscle and bone in a bear head that can absorb or deflect a .22 LR bullet if they hit at a poor angle or in the wrong place.  A .22 is powerful enough to reach a bear’s brain if it hits the correct place at a reasonable angle.

Bombs & Bants Ep. 146 (Streamed 10/16/2024)

 Another great episode with John Wilder, his wife, and me. Check it out.

 VIDEO: Bombs & Bants Ep. 146 (50 min.)

Revolver Guy's Master List of the Pistols Issued by State Police Agencies

Earlier this year, Mike Wood published an updated "Master List of State-Issued Pistols" at the Revolver Guy blog. No revolvers, though. 

    The list only concerns itself with the handguns issued by each state's State Police (or equivalent) and, even among that, only those issued to patrolmen, not smaller firearms that might be issued to administrative types or plainclothes officers; nor does it concern itself with firearms that are authorized but not issued. Consequently, there is just one pistol listed per state. Obviously, country and local law enforcement agencies will likely have different handguns and/or calibers. For instance, looking at my own state of Idaho, the issued pistol for the Idaho State Police (which pretty much operates as a highway patrol) is a Glock 19 (9mm) (MOS version, with Holosun HE508T optic). Yet most of the local police appear to be carrying full sized Glocks in .40 S&W. 

    Wood also discusses some of the trends he has observed. For instance, all the issue handguns are now polymer framed and half are some model of Glock. And while his prior list had 46% using .40 S&W and 12% .357 Sig, it is now down to 12% and a single agency, respectively; and those issuing .45 ACP fell from 18% to 10%. And, finally, 12% issue pistols with optics and another 10% of so issue optic-ready handguns. In that regard, Wood adds:

My experience in training law enforcement officers throughout the state of California indicates that a strong and rising minority of deputies and police officers are carrying optics-equipped pistols on patrol (maybe as much as 30% – 40% statewide, even more in some regions or departments, and rapidly climbing), and I have no doubt the trend of mounting TV screens to the blaster will accelerate at the state and national level in the years to come.

VIDEO: "Carbine Williams"

The History Guy presents a brief history of David Marshall “Carbine” Williams, the man most people remember as being the inventor of the M-1 Carbine (although it is a bit more complicated than that). 

I think that the M-1 Carbine deserves some attention as being one of the predecessors to the assault rifle. It used a detachable box magazine, fired a cartridge intermediate between the pistol and rifle cartridges available at the time and, while the M-1 carbine was not select fire, the post-WWII iterations (the M-2 and M-3 carbines) were. 

Also notable about the weapon is that the massive volume of M-1 Carbines sold to the public by the government forced a revision of the NFA allowing rifles to have 16-inch barrels instead of the 18 inches previously required.

 VIDEO: "Carbine Williams"
The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered (14 min.)

Greg Ellifritz Gives Cancer Update

Greg Ellifritz has previously mentioned that he has prostate cancer. Today he posted an update on cancer and possible choices he has as to treatment. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound good inasmuch as the cancer has become aggressive and spread beyond the prostate. Keep him in your prayers.

The Enrichment Report #6

A selection of articles showcasing the benefits of diversity, equity and inclusion:

• "Satanic Temple to open 'religious' abortion clinic to promote 'destruction ritual' terminations"--Daily Mail. The article relates that "[t]e new clinic, dubbed the 'Right to Your Life Satanic Abortion Clinic,' is located in Virginia and aims to provide free medical abortions via telehealth screenings and appointments to participants who engage in what the temple describes as a 'destruction ritual.'" The organization argues that abortion is a religious right. I will also note that the organization headquarters prominently flies a rainbow flag.
• "Report: Trans Student Brutally Attacks Girl on Bus 'Growling,' 'Chewing' Her Eye"--Breitbart. And, of course, it was the female victim that was punished by the school district, not the psychotic tranny. 
• "Afghan refugee charged with plotting US Election Day massacre worked for CIA: report"--New York Post.
  
• "Wild footage shows at least 50 thieves ransacking freight train in Chicago as cops rush to the scene and service is ground to halt"--Daily Mail. 
• Ah, Memphis: "Iconic city with vibrant music scene is now the most dangerous place to live in America"--Daily Mail. Apparently it has the highest murder rate of any major U.S. city, with 129 homicides the first half of the year, as well as 167 rapes, 1,028 robberies and 3,763 incidents of aggravated assault that were reported during the same time period. 
• Two-tier justice system: "ASU 'stabber' Kaci Sloan has charges lowered and now faces less than 10 years in prison for knife attack on fellow classmate"--Daily Mail. Sloan is a rather large black woman that was planning on stabbing a male classmate to death, but then decided he was too tough, so she instead tried stabbing a white woman in her class to death. She had originally been charged with attempted first degree murder, but a couple charges were dropped and she is now only faces charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and disorderly conduct.
• More: "Arizona college student accused in random classmate stabbing has attempted murder charge dropped"--New York Post.
  
• "Tren de Aragua Gang Members Terrorizing Times Square"--American Greatness. A couple main points: (1) the group is recruiting teens and tweens to perpetrate crimes because the police can't (or won't) arrest them; and (2) the article indicates that there is an incipient war between TDA and another gang, the Latin Kings.  
• "Pictured: Aurora apartment worker beaten to a pulp by Tren de Aragua — as owners say migrant gang took over and tried to extort them"--New York Post. Keep in mind that local and state officials had told multiple lies about this whole incident in order to keep the public from knowing what was really going on and deflect blame.
• "Hatchet-wielding, hard-partying migrants take over Texas hotel — turning it into a haven for Tren de Aragua gang"--New York Post.
  
• "Shocking moment Chicago restaurant employee shoots and kills two men in horrifying unexplained attack"--Daily Mail. The killer is one Mehdi Medellel. 
• "Terrifying moment brazen gang of dirt bike riders attempt to kill 49ers fan buying beer from San Francisco gas station - as cops watch on"--Daily Mail. Julian Ulloa Gomez was later arrested for the attack.
  
• "Here’s how much each NY state resident will have to fork over in taxes to cover migrant crisis bill"--New York Post. 

    Each of New York’s 10.7 million taxpayers would have to fork over $215 on average to foot the bill for the state’s ongoing migrant crisis, according to a new analysis.

    Put another way, it would take the entire tax bill paid by 328,471 New Yorkers together to cover the $2.3 billion tab to house and care for the staggering number of asylum seekers in the state.

• "NYC seeks 14,000 hotel rooms for migrants through 2025 - with each one costing $352 PER NIGHT"--Daily Mail. 
• "Open-Borders Cato Institute: JD Vance Is Right, 'Immigration Increases Housing Prices'"--Breitbart.
• "Maine mayor tells elderly residents to take out reverse mortgages to pay their soaring property taxes brought on by illegals"--American Thinker.
• "Biden-Harris Admin Used FEMA Disaster Funding For Illegal Immigrants"--The Federalist.
  
• "Europe Being Held Back by 'Whiteness', Claims Soros-Backed Think Tank"--Breitbart.
  
• "Asylum seeker, 28, 'rapes 10-year-old girl and gets her pregnant' in controversial migrant centre in Italy"--Daily Mail. And yet still older than Aisha, the youngest wife of Mohammad. 
• "City student passes 3 classes in four years, ranks near top half of class with 0.13 GPA"--Fox News Baltimore. I don't know whether to classify this as the result of diversity or teacher's unions.
• "Disturbed woman robs 7-year-old boy and slaps his mom in NYC mugging at grocery store"--New York Post. Perpetrator was black, victims appear to be Hispanic.
  
• "DoJ Sues Virginia Over Removal Of Non-Citizens From Voter Lists"--Breitbart. The excuse given by the DoJ is that Virginia had waited to act until after a federal deadline to modify voter lists had already passed. Sounds like collusion: the state had to act like it was doing something, so it acted after the deadline so the feds could then swoop in and tell them "no". 
• "British Cleric Dies in Ecstasy-Fueled Romp with Belgian Priest"--Breitbart.
  
• "Supreme Court to rule on if it should be harder for white and straight people to prove discrimination at work"--Daily Mail. Lawsuit involves a white, straight woman who was discriminated against by her employer (including her black lesbian boss) who gave preferential treatment to her gay co-workers, and was demoted in part because she was heterosexual.
• "Star Wars unveils first look of its first trans woman stormtrooper called 'Sister' with armour in the colour of the transgender flag"--Daily Mail. 
• A one trick pony: "Explicit lesbian sex scenes at the OPERA leave 18 audience members requiring medical treatment: Graphic show features naked nuns on roller skates and Christ having his loincloth whipped off"--Daily Mail.
  

Gun & Prepping News #2

 Just some articles that caught my attention for one reason or another:

• Since I didn't mention it this past weekend, I'll include it here: Greg Ellifritz's Weekend Knowledge Dump for October 11, 2024. If you read nothing else in Greg's collection, read the "Drop It" and "The Bell-Curve: Shooting Practice by the Odds" links.
• In the same vein as the Bell-Curve link in Greg's collection, "High Probability Self-Defense Techniques" by Nick Hughes, Warriors Krav Maga. The author notes that many martial arts and self-defense instructors allocate little training or give a low priority to defending against common attacks (based on the author's work as a bouncer). For men, he notes that the most common method of attack is a head lock where the attacker immobilizing his victim's head with one arm, and then generally pummels the head and face with the other hand. For women, it is a hair grab. Unfortunately, the article fails to describe how to deal with each of these attacks, but I'm sure there are YouTube videos or classes that will go over that.
  
• "Guest Shots: What to Practice" (Part 1) (Part 2) by Dave Spaulding at theTactical Wire. Part 1 breaks down what skills you can practice using dry fire, and what skills will also require actually shooting the gun at a range. Part 2 goes over a few drills to use at the range.
• "What Grips Should You Put On Your Defensive Revolver? [2024]" and "Setting Up Your Revolver EDC [2024]" by Daniel Reedy at Primer Peak. Both of these articles deal with setting up a revolver for defensive use. The first, as the title suggests, goes over certain features to consider in a grip for your revolver(s) including (i) filling the sinus (the space between the grip frame and the back of the trigger guard), (ii) grip size, (iii) texture (i.e., how grippy is the grip), and (iv) certain personal preferences. The second article, which Greg included in his list as well, is primarily for revolvers for everyday carry--whether a duty-size revolver or concealed carry--discussing a few brands/models of holsters, and several different methods of carrying extra ammo (including comments about specific brands of speed loaders). 
• "Going Old School With the AR-15"--The Mag Life. Discussing the fairly recent and continuing interest in retro-clone styles of rifles and a review of PSA's M-16A4 clone (like the A2 but with a removable rear sight/carry handle in order to allow the mounting of optics). 
• "Who Really NEEDS an AR-15 Anyway?" by Will Dabbs, Guns America. He begins with the cultural divide between those that enjoy shooting and crazy cat ladies. He then discusses a couple home invasion case studies: one where an AR15 was used to protect the inhabitants of the home, and the other were the victim apparently did not have any weapons.
  
• "Three Rifles You Need" by Dave Anderson at Guns Magazine. Although the author admits to having 10 different rifles just for deer hunting, he acknowledges that when it comes down to it, most people don't need the specialization offered by owning dozens of weapons in widely differing calibers for different specific roles. This is a topic I've discussed before in my "Thoughts On A Battery Of Survival Arms" and "Top 5 Firearm Myths Among Preppers": that a prepper doesn't need a dozen or more firearms per person. In both of my posts, I referenced a comment by Lloyd Bare in his book, High Country Hunting, where the author admitted to only owning four hunting arms: a rifle in .300 Win. Mag. (for big game hunting), a varmint rifle, a .22 rifle, and a shotgun. Dave Anderson comes down to a similar selection of rifles (he doesn't discuss shotguns) although he bases caliber selection on price and availability. He suggests a rifle in .308 for big game hunting; a rifle in .223/5.56 for vermin, pests, and small game; and a .22 rimfire (presumably for smaller vermin, smaller pests, and really small game and all around plinking fun). Anderson doesn't suggest any specific models or types of rifles, except for the .223 where he mentioned the usefulness of having a semi-auto and the article includes a photo of a couple of Mini-14s.
  
• "31 Pinto Beans Recipes for Survival"--Modern Survival Online. Dried pinto beans are great for food storage, having a decent shelf life; but it always makes sense to eat what you store, which requires you know how to prepare meals using those items. The author here has collected a list of recipes for pinto beans. The article doesn't actually set out the recipes. Rather, it links to the respective web sites from which she found the recipes. But she does briefly describe each dish. And she groups the recipes: stew-type recipes, slow cooker recipes, pressure cooker recipes, casseroles, skillet recipes, soups, salads, dips, and even desserts. 
• "Preppers Are Not Safe from SHTF and Tragedy"--Modern Survival Online. Being prepared can aid us in surviving a disaster, whether personal, regional or national, but it doesn't guarantee that we won't be touched by a disaster up to and including death. 
  

VIDEO: Warning of "Bump" Carjackings

Police in Seattle area are warning of "bump" carjackings: carjackings that occur after a vehicle will bump into a car on the highway; then, when the victim stops his car, the armed carjackers jump out of their vehicle and force the victim out of his or her car, and take the car. In this case, the perpetrators were apparently teens, but no other description was provided, which is suggestive that they are POC.

VIDEO: "WA State Patrol warns of recent 'bump' carjackings on I-5"
FOX 13 Seattle (3 min.)

VIDEO: The Abomination of Desolation

The author explains what he thinks is the Abomination of Desolation, and why he thinks it will occur in the middle of the 7 year Tribulation period (i.e., before the beginning of the Great Tribulation).

 VIDEO: "Abomination of Desolation"
Gospel Lessons (7 min.)