A New Weekend Knowledge Dump from Active Response Training

•  Greg Ellifritz has a new Weekend Knowledge Dump at Active Response Training. Those of you that keep a shotgun for home defense or are thinking about it should check out the links he has relating to using shotguns for home defense--"The Old Ways" (discussing running a shotgun and has some advice on running one in dim light) and "How to Set Up a Defensive Shotgun". Greg comments: 

Unlike the author of the first piece, I do not think a light, sling, or spare ammo is absolutely needed on a home defense shotgun.  You will definitely need all of it if you are going to a gun school shotgun class.  With that said, optimal class performance isn’t the exact same mission as home defense proficiency. 

I'm sure that someone could come up with a use for a sling inside a building, but I see slings as field equipment. I had a self-defense shotgun to which I had attached a sling--and it was handy when out practicing with the shotgun--but it just seemed to get caught up on things trying to get the shotgun out of a cabinet or moving around inside the house. The same with rifles. If a sling is easily removable, I like to just take the slings off long arms I intend on using for self-defense. 

    Anyway, some other articles that caught my attention: 

•  A warning from an ammo company that is closing its doors due to powder shortages and such shortages will be driving up ammo prices.
• Gun fighting stats from cop killers. As always, certain demographics are over represented relative to their percentage of the population. But pay attention to some of the other statistics, including that the number who had committed murders before was fairly low, but prior robberies, thefts, and weapon charges were very high. 
• Another statistical article is one that draws on a military analysis of 133 gunfights, including both those where carbines were used and handguns. Interestingly, 43% of gunfights with carbines was at short ranges (less than 50 m); and apparently none of the gun fight analyzed involved targets being engaged at long range.  There do appear to be some discrepancies, however, as the percentages at short, medium, and long range do not add up to l00. 
• Mountain Medical discusses 5 things that every trauma kit should have. 
• Tamara Keel thinks that medium frame, double-action revolvers are dead.  As I read her article, I thought she meant from the perspective of being the primary side arm for law enforcement or as the favorite choice of civilians, and from that perspective I would agree: the medium frame double-action revolver has certainly taken a back seat to higher capacity, lighter weight semi-auto pistols. But then I read this in her article: "Medium-frame revolvers still exist to this day, largely as rimfire, small-game-hunting wheelguns or niche gamer pieces...." Really? Almost every .357 Magnum offered today is built on a medium frame. S&W even offers a medium frame .44 Magnum (the Model 69). 
• An article advocating a different scoring system for police qualifications that rewards those who hit their targets but do so faster than someone taking their time and focusing on a bullseye. The idea is that there is a difference between combat accuracy and bulls eye competition accuracy. 
• And a link to article discussing the fit of a handgun (that is, does it fit your hand?). One of the points mentioned in the article is that of trigger reach. Interestingly, this comes up in another article that Greg links to by someone who does not like DA/SA pistols.  

• Greg also has a new list of free e-books from Amazon.