February 9, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"38 Special Snubnose vs 357 Magnum Snubnose"--

Brass Fetcher (2 min.)

Firearms/Self-Defense:

• "The Reality of the Knife Attack"--Active Response Training.  Greg Ellifritz comments on a video showing someone stabbed in an attack that apparently did not realize he had been stabbed for some period of time. He discusses the the implications both as a victim of a knife attack, and as a defender using a knife. If you are like many concealed carry individuals, you probably carry a knife not just as a tool, but as a backup to your firearm, so it is useful to consider what you can or should be doing with that knife if you have to resort to it for self-defense. One point that Ellifritz raises is: 

If you are defending yourself by using a knife to cut an attacker, it’s important that you not give up after one strike.  You shouldn’t think your attacker is going to magically vanish as soon as you stab him. Get some training to be able to find good targets (generally large blood vessels close to the surface of the skin or major muscle groups that control bodily functions) under stress and keep slashing and stabbing until the attacker stops hurting you.

Ellifritz also notes that, statistically, the odds of being killed in a knife attack is only 1%. I suspect that this statistic includes everything from box cutters and utility knives, to 12" Bowie knives, with the smaller knives predominating. I would suggest that if your knife tactics include stabbing, you should give blade length the same consideration as you might to bullet energy or momentum, as they are both related to penetration. A 3 inch blade is not going to give you much penetration, even if the stab took it all the way to the hilt.

• "6 Creedmoor barrel length versus muzzle velocity (31 to 17 inches)"--Rifleshooter (H/t The Firearms Blog). Similar to the Ballistics-By-The-Inch, the author decided to test 6 mm Creedmore at different barrel lengths (cutting off an inch at a time) and, for different loads, comparing muzzle energy, drop and drift at 1,000 yards, standard deviation of muzzle energy, and change in velocity between lengths. About 25 or 26 inches appears to be the sweet spot, with diminishing, or even negative, returns past that point.
• "Why Tight Is Right: Some Say 'Don’t Hold Your Handgun Too Hard.' Mas Begs To Differ" by Massad Ayoob at Guns Magazine. Ayoob, citing several well respected shooters as well as his considerable experience, recommends a very strong--crush--grip on the weapon. "When you take your hand off the gun, imprints from the checkering and/or stippling should be visible on palms and fingers." I would remind you, however, that this crush is between the fingers and the palm and thumb swell on your hand, not with your thumb--you don't want to push the weapon off target by attempting to make a fist using your thumb.
• For you firearms history buffs: "A Brief History Of FBI Semiauto Pistols"--Loose Rounds. The FBI's soul searching began after the infamous April 11, 1986, Miami/Dade shootout. There were a lot of things that went wrong during that shootout, mostly involving the incompetency of the agents involved, but the FBI decided to fix the blame on the 9mm cartridge that some of its agents were using on that day. The agency was split between those supporting the 9 mm, and those wanting the .45 ACP so, like all bureaucracies, they split the baby and decided on 10 mm. Except that didn't work out so well, with a roll-out of S&W 10 mm pistols having to be recalled and not reissued for almost 1-1/2 years! It wasn't until 1997 that a .40 S&W caliber pistol was authorized (so over 10 years to finally settle on a cartridge and firearm), and then, in 2014, the Agency reversed course and began the process of returning to the 9 mm.
• "Optimizing the Tube Fed Shotgun"--Gabe Suarez Blog. His advice: (i) longer magazines for more ammunition; (ii) modern furniture instead (with a preference for Magpul); (iii) mount a light; (iv) be able to attach a sling; (v) use a red-dot sight; and (vi) only go for different chokes or such modifications after you have already patterned your barrel at various ranges and determined that something needs to be changed.
• "Shot Placement in Combat Shooting"--Breach Bang Clear. A reminder that excessive focus on the weapon results in too many shots aimed at the weapon or hands, and not enough to effective strike zones.
• "Basic Rifle Marksmanship (BRM) Series- Do Not Chase Your Zero"--AZ Rifleman. The author recommends that you shoot a few 3-round groups before fine-tuning your zero in order to see what really needs to be corrected, if anything.

Other Stuff:

• "What a difference a day makes! Schools closed, more than 3,000 flights cancelled as huge storm dumps up to a FOOT of snow in the Northeast... just hours after basking in record high February temperatures"--Daily Mail. The snow storm and cold temperatures is just weather; the record high temperatures is climate change.
• "Police strike leaves 90 dead, Brazilian city in chaos"--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  The article reports:

       The regional metropolitan capital of Vitoria, about 300 miles southeast of Rio de Janeiro, is at the center of the protests with the city’s streets marked by violent assaults and armed confrontations.

       The fear of violence had left Vitoria without key services such as public transport, access to health clinics and public schools. Since Monday, Brazil’s central government has sent hundreds of troops to patrol the streets in a bid to restore order.

• Related: "Lynch mob throw a woman onto a BONFIRE after breaking her out of a police station where she was held over the death of a two-year-old boy killed in a fire in Brazil"--Daily Mail. According to the article, "[t]he lynched woman had been arrested on Monday on suspicion of breaking into and setting fire to a house in which there were seven people inside including three children." According to the article, a crowd of 500 people had stormed the police station and dragged her out and threw her in the fire. She survived. 

• "Did Hillary Try To Flee The Country?"--Anonymous Conservative. He cites a report from the Globe Magazine indicating that Hillary had attempted to flee to an unnamed Persian Gulf State before being warned off by the Trump Administration. As the author observes, this seems to fit in with the Clintons shutting down their charity (and, I would also note, Chelsea Clinton's husband shutting down his hedge fund).
• Celebrating diversity: "Man charged after ‘multiple sexual assaults’ at West Edmonton Mall waterpark"--Global News. According to the news report, "Officers allege a man followed and inappropriately touched six teenage girls while they were swimming at the waterpark." It is not until practically the end of the article before it is revealed that the suspect is one Soleiman Hajj Soleiman, a Syrian refugee and father of six.
• Some more diversity news: You may have seen that the federal judges that blocked Trump's temporary immigration ban have all stated that no one has been arrested for terrorism from the 7 countries listed in the ban. Wrong! "Last year the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest released information showing that at least 60 people born in the seven countries had been convicted — not just arrested, but convicted — of terror-related offenses in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. And that number did not include more recent cases like Abdul Artan, a Somali refugee who wounded 11 people during a machete attack on the campus of Ohio State University last November."
• One of the great lies of our time: "Diversity is Our Strength"--Diplomad. The author writes:

"Diversity" must now join that legion of words appropriated and deformed almost beyond recognition by our progressive overlords. It joins "gay," "liberal," "male," "female," "fascist," "racist" and many more words that now form the core of modern progressivism's narrative. All perfectly good words that now have become unrecognizable and put into the service of the progressive "vision." When, for example, a college dean calls for more diversity in the institution, he or she is not calling for more conservatives and libertarians on staff to balance the school's overwhelmingly progressive bent. Same with corporations and government; it is a call for more "ethnic" and "gender" diversity; it is a call to label anybody who questions that as a "racist," a catch-all term of opprobrium and dismissal; it is increasingly a call for a form of "diversity" that seeks to destroy Western Civilization. It is a call for uniformity of thought.

Also:

... I have noted before (here and here, for example) that many if not most of the so-called Syrian refugees, the current progressive plat d'jour, are neither Syrian nor refugees. They are not particularly persecuted any more than anybody else unfortunate enough to live in a Muslim majority country. Let us not forget that the bulk of Islam's victims consists of Muslims, the same ones who come to our countries to instill the same sort of barbaric Islamic regime and practices they supposedly "flee." I tire of comparisons of these "refugees" with Anne Frank and the millions of other Jews who fell to the Nazis. Prior to and during WWII, we did not take in Nazi "refugees." We did not take in the people vowing to destroy us. 

• The Swamp fights back:

• "The State Department Goes to War on Donald Trump"--The National Interest.

• "Former top diplomats, tech giants blast immigration order as court showdown looms"--Washington Post.

• "Soros Fingerprints All Over Anti-Trump Lawsuits"--Lifezette. "The lawsuits largely stem from organizations bankrolled by billionaire leftist George Soros and Democratic state attorneys general."