Weekend Reading: A New Weekend Knowledge Dump

Greg Ellifritz of Active Response Training has a new Weekend Knowledge Dump up with links to articles, podcasts, and videos on all sorts of self-defense, firearms, and prepping topics. A couple were items that I've recently included in my blog, so I won't be covering them here, but Greg has a particularly good selection this week in my opinion, so here are the one's that for one reason or another stuck out to me:

• First up, if you don't read any other article in Greg's list, you need to at least read "Self-Defense Law: The Prosecution’s Perspective" by Marty Hayes at Gun Digest. The author discusses things you may do (or not do) that will get you arrested and prosecuted, the main one shooting someone who is unarmed. In that regard, he mentions the famous “Subway Vigilante” case involving a strap hanger named Bernhard Goetz who shot four muggers in a New York subway. I will note, however, that it wasn't really the fact that Goetz shot unarmed muggers that got him into trouble: rather, it was that he was illegally carrying a firearm (it was on this charge that he was convicted) and that fact that after he'd shot each of the black teens once, still having a round left in his revolver, he went back and shot one of the teens again even though at that point they no longer posed a threat (at least that is what the prosecutor and the State's highest court said--the grand jury had disagreed and, when it went to trial, the jury disagreed). He has some other points that run contrary to what you hear from others self-defense experts, such as you had better be able to articulate why you shot someone or you will be arrested. Anyway, this is by far the most important article of the lot and you should read the whole thing.
• Greg links to an article on “What the Young Man Should Know” from Harper’s Magazine 1933 and republished by M.D. Creekmore. The article is about practical skills that a young man should learn that he might not be taught in school, with the skills running the gambit from being fluent in a second language to being skilled at swimming, to being able to handle a firearm and be a good driver and know a bit about mechanics. If you have children, this is good article; but even if you don't (or your children are grown), you still might look it over and see if you have areas you should improve in. For instance, being fluent in a second language. Although I served a mission in Japan, my Japanese was never really that good and I've forgotten most of it in the intervening years. But my wife and two of my sons started learning French earlier this year and so I also took it up a few months ago as well. 
• For those of you that use appendix carry or are interested in appendix carry, Greg links to an article called "5 Appendix Carry Tips" by Tom McHale that has some good information on making it more comfortable, particular if you are carrying a bit more weight around you middle. Surprisingly, one of the tips for that is to carry a firearm with a longer barrel with the 1911 used as an example. I would never have thought about a 1911 for AIWB carry.
• Greg hasn't forgotten revolver fans, including an article from the Tactical Professor on running a snub nosed revolver and recoil management. I've said it before and will say it again: Ergo's Delta grip for S&W J-frames can make a big difference.
• Another article that I liked was "Peripheral Vision: The Benefits of Seeing More" which includes a simple exercise to help you develop your peripheral vision. I've done a similar exercise for years and it helps. Of course, it won't matter how good is your peripheral vision if you have your eyes glued to a smartphone screen when someone decides to attack you because your attention will be fixed on the screen.
• In "Rack, Rack. Who’s There? Shotgun Myths, Misconceptions, and Truths" the author goes over pointers for using the shotgun for self-defense (including that criminals are not going to be scared off just from your racking the shotgun). He has advice on setting up a shotgun as well. There is one point that I fault him on which is, in discussing the spread of buckshot and the old rule that "buckshot will spread one inch per yard, so it is not good for anything past 15 yards," he comments that "[t]he reality is that most shotguns are capable of better patterns than that, and with some ammunition much better." But he doesn't list any examples of these or what to look for. As Greg has discussed many times in his blog, one thing to look for tighter patterns is 8 pellets instead of 9 pellets of 00 buckshot (for some reason, with 9 pellets you will almost always get a flyer) and using something similar to Federal's flite-control wad (although other manufacturers will call it something different).
• "Target Indicators" by Clint Smith has tips and lessons applicable to both hunting and dealing with an armed intruder. 
• Greg has included a link to a good article on clearing jams and malfunctions for AR pattern rifles.
• He also has a couple articles describing the current retail apocalypse due rampant organized theft rings and flash mob robberies. I'm fortunate to live in an area where they haven't yet started locking up most items (one of the article mentions a chain that has to keep over 50% of its inventory locked up) but with all the out-of-staters moving into the area, it won't be long. The author of one of the articles basically concludes that there is nothing to be done, but that is not really correct. For one, states that have passed laws reducing punishments for retail theft can revoke those laws. Second, just as we did in the 1990s, we can follow a public policy of getting tougher on crime, including increasing arrests and prison sentences. And third, like many countries, we can become more lenient on self-defense. For instance, in most countries, if someone tried to rob a store and were caught by the owner or other customers, the proprietor or customers can almost with impunity give the criminal a good beating, even if the criminal was a teen. 
• And Greg also included a link to a Guns Magazine article by Mass Ayoob on why cartridge capacity is important. Ayood notes that:

    In 2019, a study published by the Policing Institute determined of 1,180 police officers who had been in shootouts, 126 fired 12 or more rounds to finish their fights — a tad over 10%. Let’s keep this in mind when legislators demand laws that limit a law-abiding citizen’s magazine capacity to 10 rounds plus one in the chamber.

    Tom Aveni at the Police Policy Study Council in 1998 referenced a study of Washington, DC Metro officer-involved-shootings from 1994 through 1998 that encompassed nearly 500 shootings. In 126 of those, the officers fired more than the six rounds they would have had in their service revolvers before they adopted GLOCKs, and in 67 the officers fired more than 10 rounds.

And because of this, he notes that most police officers use weapons with 18 round or more capacity with multiple reloads on their belts. He also adds:

    When people say “Police stuff doesn’t matter, I’m an armed private citizen,” I cringe. We must never forget the police are fighting the exact same criminals the citizens have armed themselves against. A huge number of police shootings evolve from situations where the perpetrator(s) attacked a private citizen to begin with, and this is why the police made contact with them in the first place. ...

    But while he is correct in chastising people for saying that "police stuff doesn't matter," similarly it also matters that the statistics he cites involve police, because police are tasked with engaging, pursuing and capturing criminals and, for that reason, are actively seeking to engage a criminal in a fight, and continue that fight until the criminal is capture or dead. This is something that Ayoob has pointed out in the past and constitutes a significant difference in how police prepare for violent encounters versus how citizens prepare for violent encounters. It is why police carry duty pistols but citizens can get by with smaller, more easily concealable weapons. And it makes a difference in deciding how much ammunition you should be carrying as an armed citizen. Police make a good test bed for equipment and techniques, and their experience is certainly more relevant in many ways to armed civilians than that of the persons that have served in the military, but you also can't just blindly do something because that is what the police do.

Anyway, he links to other articles as well, so be sure to check it out.