Some Firearm and Self-Defense Related Links

 

VIDEO: "New to Concealed Carry? WATCH THIS ASAP"

Warrior Poet Society (12 min.)

• Jon Low of Defensive Pistolcraft has a new roundup of firearm and defensive links, plus commentary, up this week. Among the many items he covers, he mentions the article to which I recently linked on "Warning Shots and Covering Fire" by Gary Evens, and comments:

    As Mark [ed: your humble author] points out in his article, "covering fire" / "suppressive fire" is executed by military units using large volumes of machinegun fire, as Mark's picture shows a minigun.  Pistols are incapable of providing suppressive fire.  Because they lack the volume of fire necessary to achieve the desired effect (forcing the enemy to take cover).  

    Mr. Evans is wrong.  There is no acceptable use of undirected fire in a civilian self-defense scenario.  Every undirected bullet is destroying property, injuring innocent bystanders, maybe killing them.  Murphy's Law guarantees it.  

    You are not the good guy if you are using undirected fire.  Only bad guys use undirected fire, because they don't care who they hit.  

To be fair, I really tried to find a photograph of someone using a handgun to provide covering fire, but was unsuccessful. That in itself may be telling. So I went with the minigun because it looked the most awesome! And my thanks to Jon for mentioning my blog.

• Active Response Training has posted a new Weekend Knowledge Dump. A few items that stuck out for me was: an article on .380 ACP which echoes some of what I've been saying since I got my Beretta 84, which is that .380 is much better out of the "full size" for the caliber weapons like the Beretta 80-series pistols and those of similar barrel lengths; a report from the Secret Service on Mass Attacks in Public Spaces; and an article that discusses holster wear by disabled people, including potential issues and possible solutions.
• What I want: "[SHOT 2023] Tippmann Ordnance .22LR Gatling Gun"--The Firearm Blog. It is belt fed (50 and 100-round belts available) and geared for a rate of 600 rounds/minute. Unfortunately the MSRP is $5,600.
• What I can probably afford: "[SHOT 2023] XS Sights New RD3 2.0 & Sight Pusher"--The Firearm Blog. 

The new tool has a brass pusher to prevent scratches to your pistol’s slide and the sights. The open-topped pushers are made from a block of machined aluminium and securely hold and align with your sights using a plastic shim. Both pushers have a centering scale to allow precise positioning. 

The MSRP is $150 for the DIY model and $200 for the gunsmith model. The only difference between the two mentioned in the article is that the gunsmith model has its own handle while the DIY requires a user supplied Allen wrench to operate. I have to say that this looks sturdier than the RST Rear Sight Tool that I've been using. 

• "What Does 'Brandishing' a Gun Mean?" by Jim Wilson, NRA Family. The author explains that "brandishing is the unnecessary and unlawful display of a defensive firearm." Unfortunately, what constitutes "brandishing" varies from one jurisdiction to another. Consequently, Wilson advises against any display of a weapon and instead surprise an attacker:

Our society requires us to let the criminal make the first move—which means that we are already behind if his attack is serious. It is far better to surprise him, and ruin his day, by drawing our gun when he thinks he has everything going his way. Drawing against an attacker who is armed with a deadly weapon, in the middle of his attack, is not brandishing….even if you don’t have to fire a shot.

He also adds:

It is important to realize that not every criminal attack is deadly in nature. And, while it is an attack, it may not justify the use of deadly force on the part of the armed citizen. Producing a firearm during an argument with an unarmed neighbor, for instance, may be a violation of the law. We should produce the defensive handgun only when our life is clearly in immediate danger, or the lives of our family.

Read the whole thing.

• "Gun Laws Have Disproportionate Impact on Black Communities | Opinion" by Jeff Charles, Newsweek. Key part:

The very roots of the gun control movement in America were designed to disarm black people as slaves even as they became freedmen, because they would use these to protect themselves from external racist threats. So as time went on, they had to change the nature of these laws because you can't pass laws saying we don't want black people owning guns, but now they do it in a way that's a lot more subtle. And I'm not necessarily talking about assault weapons bans, although that could classify. But if you take the Supreme Court's decision in Bruen for instance, and the measures that California, New York, and New Jersey are passing to get around that ruling, what they're doing is making it much harder for black Americans to legally get firearms to protect themselves. It has a disproportionate impact on black communities.

• "Spinning The Wheel" by John Taffin, Guns Magazine. Taffin offers ten tips for becoming more skillful with a revolver. His number one tip is to "study the masters":

Most of the book-style literature on double-action revolver shooting goes back to the 1930s through the 1950s. The words of the old masters are still relevant today; double-action shooting is double-action shooting in the 19th, 20th or 21st century. Great books on double-action shooting include Ed McGivern’s Fast And Fancy Revolver Shooting (1938), Bob McNichols’ Secrets Of Double-Action Shooting (1950), and Bill Jordan’s No Second Place Winner (1965). Although all of these books are 40 years old or older they still contain valuable information. By reading these masters of double-action shooting you also discover there is no single right way to do things. McGivern was the best double-action shooter who ever shot publicly, at least until Jerry Miculek came along. He was incredible then and is unbelievable now, having broken most of McGivern’s records and setting many of his own. There are many videotapes available of Modern Master Miculek. Again, study and learn.

• "Those Magnificent Webleys (And Enfields): The Ugly Ducklings of the Handgun World" by Holt Bodinson. Webley revolvers were the primary sidearms of the British military through the 1950s. Originally shooting the .455 Webley cartridge, the Brits went to the smaller .38/200 (a .38 S&W firing an overlong and heavy bullet) in the 1930s. Webleys were break action revolvers, meaning that the frame was hinged at the front below the barrel, and locked by a lever and lock incorporating the rear sight. Releasing the lock would allow the top part of the frame to pivot, while also actuating the extractor star to push the cartridges out of the cylinder. It's actually a very handy ejection system and its a pity that no one has attempted something similar in modern revolvers. It is one of those innovations that fell into disfavor--believed to be too weak for modern cartridges--due to the number of poor quality revolvers using the system in the late 1800s and early 1900s. 
• "The Ruger Mini-14 As A “Survivalist Rifle”, And Accessorizing It"--Mason Dixon Survival. This is but one of a number of recent articles from Mason Dixon Survival looking at weapons that were once the darlings of the survivalist community but have fallen to the wayside with the increased popularity (and lower prices) of the AR15 platform. This one caught my eye because the Mini-14 is often maligned in the defensive community because of its relative inaccuracy compared to the AR style rifles and lack of durability (although the weapon is generally quite reliable). This article addresses the durability issue, noting that they do not fair well under high, sustained, rates of fire, due to the inability to shed heat--a problem made even worse when using the stainless steel version. The author relates:

    Over the course of my LE career, I qualified with the Mini-14 twenty times (Shot iron sights out to 150 yards) and used one in the LE Firearms Instructors Course I attended in the 90’s. Outside of the military, if you want to see a firearm get used and abused, check out the weapons used in the Academy/Training section of LE Departments. Although they had Mini-14’s with parts failures, those rifles had generally gone through thousands and thousands of rounds between those failures.

    That being said, the Mini-14 is not a military grade rifle, and the few times it’s been placed in that role (Bahamas comes to mind), it has had a number of failures. I think one of the issues is that the full auto version, the AC-556, pushes the rifle past what it can absorb when it comes to the heat produced by sustained rapid fire. The question here is, “What performance do you expect out of your ‘Survivalist’ rifle?”. I would not use my Mini-14 if I was a member of an Infantry Squad and had a choice. I would however, consider the Mini-14 to work well as a “Bug Out” rifle, a “Hit ’em and forget ’em” Guerilla rifle or a Survivalist Hunting and Defense rifle.

* * *

    Once, I fired five 30 round mags through one of my blued Mini-14’s in a very short period of time, and I never had an issue with the rifle. A few years later, a Friend and I both owned stainless models of the Mini-14, and he put four 30 round mags through his rifle very quickly, and the barrel ended up warping to the point that he could not zero with the iron sights anymore. I know this can be an issue with semi-auto stainless steel rifles, due to metallurgical concerns, so needless to say, I got rid of my stainless Mini-14 and haven’t owned a stainless version since.

Heat retention is an inherent property (problem?) with stainless steel and not something peculiar to the Mini-14. Something that those of you who opted for stainless barrel on your defensive carbine might want to think about.

• "Woman, 24, and her one-year-old son killed in 'traumatic' polar bear attack near a school in remote Alaska village - bear was shot dead by a local resident"--Daily Mail.  According to the article, the bear entered the town of Wales (pop. 150) in the morning hours and proceeded to chase multiple residents before mauling Summer Myomick and her son Clyde Ongtowasruk.