Weekend Reading

 Some longer readings:

• Jon Low at Defensive Pistolcraft posted a new newsletter earlier this week. Obviously about 90% of the newsletter refers to self-defense and firearms related topics, but he leads with this comment:

I read a letter signed by several Colonels in the Continental Army asking General George Washington to be the king, and pledging their support to him.  Washington responded to them, telling them that there would be no king, and explaining to them what they were fighting for.  You think this strange?  Not so.  When I was in the Marine Corps, every Marine (even the officers) I spoke to, freely admitted to me that they had never read the U.S. Constitution.  So they had no idea what they had sworn to uphold and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  All they understood was "immediate obedience to order".  

 Some additional points that caught my attention:

• Jon writes: "Please teach your students to NEVER use any holster that requires using the trigger finger to defeat the retention system." The most common of these were the SERPA holsters that used a lever type lock to keep the handgun in place. The spring loaded lever locked over the trigger guard--to draw, you would press with your trigger finger over a raised portion of the lever which would then release the handgun so you could draw it. There were two basic problems with the holsters. First, due to their location on the outside of the holster, they were prone to grit getting inside the mechanism if the shooter went to the ground, jamming the mechanism so the weapon could not be removed. The second issue is that it put your finger over the location of the trigger and pressing against the holster; under stress, the person using the firearm could draw the weapon without relaxing their finger and accidentally (i.e., without intention) discharge the weapon as it cleared the holster. If you like the general idea of a locking mechanism to better secure the weapon, Safariland has what they call the Automatic Locking System (ALS) that uses the thumb to release the weapon and the Grip Locking System (GLS) that uses your middle finger to release the lock as you grip the weapon.  I have a couple of GLS holsters and like them. Here is a good video demonstrating how the GLS holsters work. The biggest issue is that they do not have as wide a selection of models they fit as I would like. 
• Jon also warns of a home invasion tactic being employed in the Nashville area:

     There are armed-robbery / home-invasion gangs operating in Nashville, TN.  I hope they are not in your area, but they probably are.  There are no news reports because the politicians suppress the reporting, as it is bad for tourism.  So the only way citizens, as we, will know about such is by us telling all of our friends and relatives.  So, please spread the word.  

    A well spoken, well dressed, well groomed, individual will knock on your door.  He will try to talk his way into your abode.  Do NOT open your door!  Do NOT unlock your door.  If he fails to get you to let him in, he and his fellow gang members (who had remained out of sight) will attempt to force entry.  Retreat (your locked door will give you time to do so), grab your gun, gather your loved ones, and barricade in your safest room; or flee the abode.  

     I had to repel two such scum bags from my apartment in Nashville, TN on 12 December 2025 A.D. at 15:30.  The knocking awoke me from a deep sleep.  I should have told the knocker to wait and would be there shortly.  My only excuse is that nobody every knocks on my door (I don't have many friends within 
driving distance), except for the female friend who lives down stairs.  So I opened the door expecting to see her.  I did have the presence of mind to only open a couple of inches and to place my left foot to block the door.  I also kept my left hand out of sight behind my door.  (Your enemy's imagination is one of your most powerful tools.  They teach that in Psychological Warfare classes (some U.S. Army Psychological Warfare unit on Onizuka Air Station in Sunnyvale, CA).  So I let them imagine I had a gun in my left hand.)  My front door opens into my apartment and the hinges are on the left.  So opening the door only allows me a view to the left.  

     The 20 to 25 year old Hispanic male tells me that he is from North American Securities, they had mailed me a check, which I had endorsed and deposited.  I tell him that he is mistaken.  He shows me a photo on his phone of the back of a check and asks me if that is my signature.  He refuses to hold it close enough for me to see, to get me to extend my head forward to see the photo.  I refuse to do so, and tell him that that is not my signature.  This conversation went on too long, because he was well spoken and polite.  But when I smelled and heard his partner who was out of my sight to his left, my right, behind the wall. I immediately closed and locked the door.  

He continues by noting that because of the fact that nothing untoward actually happened and he had not seen a weapon, police weren't immediately dispatched (although someone did take a report later). The lesson from this is that home invasions are becoming more common and the gangs are not just targeting high end neighborhoods. Be cautious to whom you open your door. Often these criminals rely on victims not wanting to be rude enough to call out an obvious lie or simply shutting a door in their face, so don't get hung up on not being rude. 

Jon has a lot more, including many links to other articles and resources.

• Greg Ellifritz's latest Weekend Knowledge Dump has lots of good links.  (And my thanks to Greg for linking to one of my posts). A few that especially caught my attention for one reason or another:
• Hidden in an article on "The Modern 38/44 Heavy Duty" which is discussing some of the heavy duty .357 revolvers, the author relates:

... Due to a shoulder injury in 1988 I have carried front appendix as my preferred carry method since then.  While I have carried plenty of striker fired service pistols this way over the years I always carried them with the mindset of having to always be switched on and treating them like a rattlesnake in my pants.  I am at a place in life where I do not want to have to maintain the level of constantly being switched on.  I simply use a more 2:30-3:00 placement now with striker guns and DA revolvers for appendix carry.  That is a personal decision and I am sure all the experts will discard this decision as somehow a sign of tactical experience deficiencies.  My real world experience in far more deployments of a firearm against real criminals in real incidents has suggested that many of the range safety protocols for reholstering and drawing from appendix go right out the window when used in a crisis. ...

 Yes. Life is different from the square range.

• An article on the .30 Super Carry and why it failed (i.e., didn't become popular). The author blames it on poor marketing in that the manufacturers did not address the advantages of the cartridge: nearly 9 mm power but higher capacity. I don't think that is entirely correct. It was poor marketing, but off a different type: it was advertised as falling in the middle between .380 and 9mm, but real world reports indicated that the recoil was nearly that of the 9mm and the case was slightly longer than 9mm. So the recoil and size meant it wasn't a replacement for the .380, and it didn't offer sufficient advantages over the 9mm to get people to abandon 9mm in favor of the 30 Super Carry.
• Greg links to a video from Gun Sam Revolver Ballistics testing some popular self defense loads from short barreled pistols shooting 9mm, .357 Magnum, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP through heavy winter clothing. Greg says he gets a lot of questions from people asking what ammo changes they should make in winter because of people wearing heavier clothing, apparently because of concerns about penetration. As he notes, the video doesn't show any penetration issues at all (and the expansion was still very respectable). In the past, the concerns I have heard have generally been about expansion because heavy clothing tends to clog hollow points. For that reason, I've seen recommendations to shift to larger caliber weapons. But frankly, these results showed that modern bullet designs can still have adequate expansion. 
• Greg links to an article from Rifleshooter.com testing several 5.56/.223 loads over various barrel lengths (the author basically started with a longer barrel and chopped it down). The lengths tested varied between 6 and 14 inches. This is a good article for anyone interested in building an AR pistol in 5.56/.223. (Interestingly, only a month after the article that Greg links to, the Rifleshooter author released an article that looked at .223 velocities from barrels between 6" and 26"). Ballistics By The Inch is a very useful website that did similar tests for many different pistol caliber loads, but they also tested a few lighter .223 loads between 3" and 18". Patrick Sweeney also did a similar testing and article for Guns & Ammo back in 2017 although the article (at least the online version of it) doesn't seem to have the testing results. But he did note that "the typical 55 grain FMJ, used in bazillions of .223/5.56 rounds, needs to be going faster than 2,300 fps in order for it to yaw and break," and below that threshold, "you are not shooting a .223 anymore. You're shooting a very loud .22 Hornet." Black Hills told him that their "77-grain OTM with cannelure has a minimum velocity-fragmenting threshold of between 2,100 and 2,200 fps. The results it tell us that you have better have a barrel of at least 10 inches or else your distance-to-fragmentation range will be across a large room." So if the impact threshold is 2,300 fps, you can probably go as short as 7" in most AR pistols and still have it effective at distances you would find in most homes. But if you want to be able to use your AR pistol at longer distances, and considering that you lose between 300 and 400 fps at 100 yards, you will probably want a muzzle velocity of at least 2,600 fps to get you to the 75 to 100 yard distance. That bumps you up to the 11" to 12" barrel length for most of the tested loads (although you could still go with 9" on some loads). 
• Greg includes a link to an article on water purification, including treating stored water, filtering water, and various methods of purifying water (filtering removes contaminates--many filters will filter out bacteria and protozoa--while purifying kills germs and protozoa).  
• Finally, Greg included an article on booby traps. The article is intended to instruct police officers about booby traps and what to look for. I suspect that if we enter an extended period without rule of law and/or a full on SHTF, booby traps will become popular beyond just marijuana growers and meth producers. It is useful to know what you might encounter.