Weekend Reading #61

Some longer and more involved reading for the weekend:

• First up is Jon Low's most recent Defensive Pistolcraft newsletter.  I'll start with this always good reminder of  John Farnam's rules of self-defense:  
  • Don’t go to stupid places.  
  • Don’t associate with stupid people.  
  • Don’t do stupid things.  
  • Have a “normal” appearance.  
  • Be in bed by 10:00 PM (your own bed).  
  • Don’t fail the attitude test.  
   Some other topics of interest:
• John writes:

     Autonomic Nervous System responses are not just to recoil and report, they are also in anticipation of recoil and report.  That's why we, disciples of Jeff Cooper, teach the surprise trigger break.  The surprise break defeats all autonomic nervous system responses (jerk, flinch, freeze, push, etc.) by not allowing the brain to know exactly when the recoil and report will occur.  

    Any ANS responses occur after the bullet has exited the muzzle.  

     If you intentionally, consciously, make your pistol fire, you will induce ANS responses.  The trick / secret / technique is to:  

1.  Take the slack out of the trigger.  

2.  Smoothly increase pressure on the trigger.  Do not fire the pistol.  Just increase pressure by repeating your mantra, "Keep pressing, keep pressing, keep pressing, . . . "  [Thanks to Kaery Dudenhofer.  A lot of research and experimentation went into developing this mantra.]

3.  Eventually, the pistol will fire.  But, because you did not intentionally fire the pistol, there will be no ANS responses to disturb your shot.  The responses will occur after the bullet has exited the muzzle.  
So, the bullets will go where you aimed them (if your pistol is zeroed).  

     "This sounds like magic to me."  

     Yes, any sufficiently advanced technology will appear to be magic to the ignorant.  The human is God's masterpiece of creation, extremely advanced technology, far beyond the comprehension of man.  

     When students achieve the surprise break, they shoot one hole groups at 3 yards (some as far as 5 yards).  This direct feedback causes an epiphany.  It's not like riding a bicycle.  Once learned, it can be forgotten.  But it's easier to achieve the next time, because you know what you're searching for.  

     "This is a long complex process.  I won't have time to recite a mantra in combat."  

     With dedicated practice, the process will compress in time and become very fast.  

     Of course, the surprise break is only a small part of the shot process, which is only a small part of the tactical exercise, which is only a small part of the scenario.  Real scenarios are surprising.  No command to "Load and make ready".  No checking to see if you're "Ready?"  No authority ordering you to use lethal force.  You must take responsibility.    

•  Just as there are different schools of martial arts, there are different schools of shooting techniques. Jon has this to say about it:

     At dinner, after Farnam's Rifle class, a gentleman said that he had taken a lot of firearms training classes and that he had found most of the stuff that was taught in the U.S. by competent instructors is the same.  Only about 10% is different.  And that the differences were not significant.  So I asked him who he had taken classes from.  And his list included a lot of names and schools that I'm sure you would be familiar with.  

     I suggested to him that all of the instructors he had mentioned were disciples of Jeff Cooper (1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation), and if he would take classes from others, he would find more diversity of philosophy and techniques.  I know it is inconvenient to travel to foreign countries for training, but even within the U.S. there are Israeli schools (e.g. Pacific West Academy or if you ask around at any Jewish Community Center you can get referrals, often incorporating Krav Maga), South African / Rhodesian schools (I am not listing examples, because I have not received permission yet.), and European (German, often in association with a weaponized version of Schutzhund dog training, using the dog as a self-defense weapon) schools that I have found to be very different from the American schools.  [Louis Awerbuck was South African, but he was a disciple of Jeff Cooper.  So, I do not include him in the South African school.]   

•  Next up is Greg Ellifritz's Weekend Knowledge Dump, also with links and commentary on self-defense and firearms related articles. A few links that caught by attention:
• "Carrying a Gun While Camping and Hiking: Practical Guide" by Jacob Paulsen is a very detailed article on carry guns for camping and hiking, looking at the selection of a weapon, securing the weapon, touching up gun laws and whether the castle doctrine might apply to your tent or camper (it depends), bears, where/how to carry when using a backpack, medical and communications, and more.
• "Comparing Revolver and Autopistol Reliability" from the Revolver Guy. Short take: "autopistols tend to be more resistant to abuse, while revolvers tend to be more resistant to neglect." 
• On a related note: "Is the Revolver the Ultimate Survival Gun? by Brad Miller. Discussing some advantages that a revolver has over a semi-auto in wilderness survival or bugging out situations.
• And, again, related: "Some thoughts on torture tests" from Primer Peak. The author believes most torture tests are clickbait with no real value, concluding: "Outside of checking for premature parts breakage or excessive wear with high round counts, most torture tests should be left behind."
• "How to protect your home from rioting mobs using fire as a weapon" from Last Minute Survival. Houses in the U.S. are particularly vulnerable to this attack because the vast majority of homes use wood framing and wood or vinyl siding. His first and probably most important piece of advice is simply clean up the things that are flammable: don't leave out bags of trash, tires, or canisters of fuel (e.g. that half can of gasoline for the lawnmower). 
• And an article on how to test if you 1911's safety's work. Just some quick, simple tests to make sure the active and passive safeties are working.  

•  "When a quote is not (exactly) a quote: General Motors"--Library of Congress. Actually not a long read, but a good example of how famous quotes can subtly change, generally to make them more pithier. The example here is Congressional testimony from General Motors President Charles E. Wilson after he had been nominated for Secretary of Defense:

Senator Hendrickson. Well now, I am interested to know whether if a situation did arise where you had to make a decision which was extremely adverse to the interests of your stock and General Motors Corp. or any of these other companies, or extremely adverse to the company, in the interests of the United States Government, could you make that decision?

Mr. Wilson. Yes, sir; I could. I cannot conceive of one because for years I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa. The difference did not exist. Our company is too big. It goes with the welfare of the country. Our contribution to the Nation is quite considerable.” 

Wilson's comments were quickly altered (by the New York Times, of course) to “what is good for General Motors is good for the country, and what is good for the country is good for General Motors.” Which then became the more commonly known version today: "What’s good for General Motors is good for America." 

• "The Hunt for Judah P. Benjamin, the Spy Chief of the Confederacy" by Jay Solomon and Jane Singer at Tablet Magazine. The article summary: "Suspected of orchestrating the Lincoln assassination, the South’s most prominent Jew escaped to London to start a new life as a high-powered lawyer. The U.S. government secretly tried to bring him home to face justice." A short excerpt:

    Benjamin, Jefferson Davis, and the Confederate leadership fled south after Richmond’s collapse and were temporarily based in Charlotte, North Carolina, when news arrived of Lincoln’s death. No concrete evidence has emerged in the historical record that conclusively proves Benjamin or Davis had any knowledge of Booth’s murderous plans. But as the newly victorious North sought vengeance after four years of fratricidal war, Benjamin, for one, knew he’d be a suspect due to his ties, through the Confederate Secret Service, to the actor-turned-assassin.

    Union detectives investigating Lincoln’s death quickly reconstructed Booth’s travels to Montreal and the contacts he’d made there with Benjamin’s agents. But even more damaging to the Confederate diplomat, they also found in Booth’s hotel room a Confederate cipher key that exactly matched one they found in Benjamin’s abandoned Richmond office. This evidence was presented at the trial of the Lincoln conspirators in Washington.

    “On the 6th of April, I went into the office of Mr. Benjamin, the rebel Secretary of State. On the shelf, among Mr. Benjamin’s books and other things, I found this cipher key,” testified Charles Dana, the North’s assistant secretary of war. “I saw it was a key to the official rebel cipher.”

    Benjamin’s spy network also tied him to Booth in other damaging and seemingly direct ways. While serving in Richmond, Benjamin used as his personal courier a Maryland-based rebel, John Surratt Jr., to ferry his messages to Washington and agents further north. It was the same man who served as Booth’s accomplice in concocting the kidnapping plot of Lincoln. Surratt’s mother, Mary, hosted the actor at her Washington boarding house in the weeks before the attack.

    Surratt would later speak of meeting Benjamin at Richmond’s Spotswood Hotel, and receiving money from him, just days before the capital fell and the attack on Lincoln commenced. Surratt denied ever telling Benjamin of Booth’s activities. But the Confederate leader’s intelligence, and expansive control of his Secret Service, raises questions about the truthfulness of Surratt’s statement. Mary Surratt was eventually hanged for her role in supporting Booth. John Surratt escaped the U.S. by using Benjamin’s overseas spy networks to get to Europe.

    Benjamin, meanwhile, commenced after the assassination of Lincoln to launch one of the greatest escapes in American history—especially for a bookish, pudgy attorney with no military service. He peeled off from Jefferson Davis’ entourage in the town of Washington, Georgia, on May 3, 1865, and proceeded to make his way down the Gulf Coast of Florida. He disguised himself as a bearded, and disheveled, French trader, named M.M. Bonfals, according to press accounts from the time. “Goggles on … a hat well over his face,” Benjamin was nearly unrecognizable.

    He bumped along in a wagon on long, rutted roads and passed by the detritus of the war, including burnt-out buildings and scorched fields. He made it to a sugar plantation owned by a Confederate sympathizer in what’s now Bradenton, Florida. He hid for a month from Union patrols in the plantation house’s second story. He eventually found a Confederate spy ship to ferry him to the Bahamas. But he nearly drowned in subsequent attempts to reach Cuba, dogged by waterspouts and unseaworthy sloops. It took him weeks to reach Havana and the steamships that crossed the Atlantic.

    The Union government’s obsession with capturing Benjamin, however, only grew as the trial of the Lincoln conspirators commenced in May 1865. Newly sworn in President Andrew Johnson, a rabid antisemite, told the Northern press: “There was no rebel, whose hanging seemed so imperatively demanded by public justice, as Judah P. Benjamin.”

    The Confederate spy chief finally reached Southampton, England on August 30, 1865, more than four months after Richmond’s fall. He would immediately tap into the Confederate networks in England and France that he was so central in creating and deploying. He had allies across the sea.