Weekend Reading

This weekend brings us a new Defensive Pistolcraft newletter from Jon Low and a new Weekend Knowledge Dump from Greg Ellifritz at Active Response Training.

    First up this week is the Defensive Pistolcraft post of August 16, 2023. As always, there is too much good stuff to cover so I will pick out two or three things that caught my attention and let you peruse the newsletter for other insights, tips, and links to other resources.

• First up, Jon offers some words of wisdom concerning whether to fire warning shots or shoot to wound. The short answer is "DON'T". The slightly longer answer:

     Never fire warning shots!  They are illegal in every state.  You will be prosecuted for such stupidity.  You're not doing the bad guy a favor by warning him to leave.  You are depleting your ammunition.  Every warning shot will be destroying property, injuring innocent bystanders, and killing a few.  Nothing good will come of warning shots.  

 

     Never shoot to wound.  Shooting in combat is a low probability event.  Shooting to wound is a zero probability event, which means you will be missing, which means you will be destroying property, hitting innocent bystanders, maybe killing them.  Even if you intend for your shot to be less than lethal, it may be lethal.  If you make an excited utterance such as "I was shooting to wound.  I didn't mean to kill him."  you're screwed.  That statement will be used against you.  Self-defense is intentional.  Your statement indicates that your use of force was not intentional.  Using a pistol in combat is using lethal force.  There is no way to use a pistol in a less than lethal way.  

My own thoughts? "Shoot to wound" is an unrealistic solution offered up by bleeding heart (i.e., stupid and evil) liberals in order to erode legitimate self-defense, and based on the idea that some violent criminal's life is more valuable than that of an innocent victim. 

•  Jon links to an article by John Farnham entitled "Absence of Order!" which has some thoughts on the chaos in Maui in the aftermath of the fire. Farnham's article begins:

    When disaster strikes, gun-free Hawaii, where state government has smugly declared that Hawaiians are too stupid to own guns, is apparently not the utopia leftists promised!

 

    Looters and armed robbers are running amok in the wake of epic wildfires.

 

    Local residents report being looted and robbed at gunpoint, during daylight hours, when police are largely unavailable, and all public order has broken-down.

 

    Panicked (and unarmed) Maui residents, with non-functioning phone in hand, vainly try to summon police, as robbers and armed thieves help themselves to their belongings an critical supplies.

 

    Some relief workers have even been instantly robbed upon their arrival!

Farnham also lists 6 common self-defense lies uttered by liberals, with number 4 tying in with my comment above: "4) Never resist violent criminals (you might hurt one of them, and that would be terrible)!" 

• Some more words of wisdom from Jon:

      The culture war is not about debating the facts.  It never has been.  It is a conflict between two religions:  Christianity and Liberalism.  There are only two sexes:  male and female.  Liberals deny this fact.  Abortion is baby murder.  Liberals deny this fact.  Facts don't matter to the liberal.  So there is no debate.  There is only war.  Did you notice the cities in ruin?  Did you lose your job because you wouldn't bend the knee to the government and take the vaccine?  Or did you bend the knee?  All of the non-compliant police officers were fired.  All of the non-compliant members of the Armed Forces were fired.  All of the non-compliant healthcare workers were fired.  What type of person is left in those professions.  They certainly are not like us.

• An excerpt from an email of one of Jon's readers (?) or friends, Jason Hanson:

 Yesterday, I was talking with a guy who had to use his knife to defend himself . . .

     Three guys had threatened him and said they were going to kill him.  

     He was at the wrong place at the wrong time.  

     Of course, he tried to talk his way out of it and he told the guys he didn’t want any trouble and he wanted to leave peacefully.  

     But these three guys didn’t care.  

     When the good guy saw that things were about to go down and he had no chance to get out peacefully, he quickly and surreptitiously drew his pocket knife.  

     At about the same time, the “ringleader” of the crew rushed him while the other two guys kind of hung back.  

     A vicious fight ensued and the good guy ended up stabbing the attacker multiple times in the stomach and chest area.  

     The other two attackers just watched in disbelief and didn’t come to help their friend.  

     There was a tremendous amount of blood and, as you can imagine, it was not a pretty scene.  

     But the good guy lived and didn’t get pummeled to death by the three men who said they were going to kill him that evening.  

     Clearly, this is not a situation that anyone wants to be in.  I pray you and I never find ourselves backed into a corner while three men threaten to kill us.  

     But his folding knife saved his life that day and the good guy might not be walking the earth right now if he didn’t have it.  

Jon also links to a video from Hanson on identifying Honeypots and avoiding Honey traps. 

•  He includes an email from Jeff L. Gonzales on steps to building skills with some discussion of each. The 5 steps are:

1.    Begin with the end in mind.

2.    Define the critical tasks and sub-tasks

3.    Move slow, the slower the better

4.    Measure every aspect of your performance

5.    Be consistent

• He has some information on eye-dominance including a link to a video on how to determine eye dominance and a video on how to aim with both eyes open. He also includes an excerpt from an email with Mike Ox, who indicates that the common "triangle test" used actually only works in a small number of cases. Also: "Did you know that eye dominance can change based on lighting, color, distance, angles, and what you're holding in your hands?"
• For those involved with security, Jon includes a lot of information and links to church or school security and active person shooting situations.
• And for something completely different, Jon links to some videos on climbing/rappelling. 
• Final one for my overview: a link to an article on recoil management for fast double-taps. The author discusses the need for a vice type grip with the dominant hand, cocking down your support hand and pulling back on it, and some exercises to strengthen you muscles. Jon notes that this push-pull on the handgun is much easier to do when in a Weaver stance than the isosceles. My father was teaching me the Weaver stance for pistol shooting all the way back in the 1970s when I was just a little kid and it was only later that I tried the isosceles, and I have always preferred the Weaver because it seemed to be an inherently more stable. I think of it as my dominant arm acting like the stock on rifle. I understand the advantages to the isosceles, especially for inexperienced shooters where it is faster to simply push the gun out when aiming or when wearing a vest; but as Mass Ayoob pointed out one time, as soon as you rotate your trunk when shooting in an isosceles stance, you will automatically find yourself in a Weaver type of stance, so you need to learn to shoot from that position.

Anyway, lots more so be sure to check it out.

    Next up is Greg Ellifritz's Weekend Knowledge Dump. Some of the links that jumped out at me this time around:

• The first link in Greg's post is "10 Links I wish I had 10 years ago" which lists some resources and articles for the defensive shooter.
• Are you charging too much? (Just kidding). Greg links to a list of street prices for various illegal drugs in LA as compiled by the LAPD. It includes both "wholesale" and single dosage/pill prices. 
• Greg links to an article on pistol disarms, with Greg noting: "It’s not enough just to be able to strip a gun from a criminal attacker.  You should also know how to use it should the fight continue." I would point out that Jon Low, in the post cited above, disagrees with trying to use the criminal's gun because it may not work or be in a dangerous condition (and I would add that Greg has, in the past, discussed how often a street criminal's weapons are non-functional). I suspect that the answer to this, like many, is "it depends...."
• Another link is to a review of the S&W 43C, which is .22 LR snubby that is super lightweight because of the aluminum frame, barrel shroud, and cylinder. Greg writes:

I really like the 43C…so long as your particular model works.  The last three new J-frames I’ve purchased have come broken from the factory and had to go back after firing the first cylinder.  As much as I love Smith and Wessons, I can’t recommend their new revolvers anymore.  I think most shooters are better off with a Ruger LCR.

I had purchased a S&W Model 317 "Kit Gun" (which is basically the 43C but with a longer barrel and better sights) earlier this year and haven't had any issues with it. But I do remember a relative buying a new large frame S&W revolver some years ago which had some issues where the cylinder would not always advance and asked me to look at it. He had probably shot only a single cylinder through it. I thought maybe something was in the mechanism--perhaps a burr or a bit of metal left over from the manufacturing process. I took off the side plate but didn't see anything amiss. After another 50 rounds through it, the problem disappeared and there has been no issue with it since. 

• Greg also links to an article on managing snake bites. 
• And check out the article an unarmed technique called the shoulder stop.
• Finally, a review of some polymer bladed knives. Note that all of these are sold either with metal rings or metal screws to make them detectable by metal detectors--it is apparently required that they do so--but they all seem easy to remove.

More stuff there, so happy reading.