The first video is just a generic cleaning video with typical cleaning products. The second is from Otis and features some of their specific patches and using a cable rather than a cleaning rod.
VIDEO: "Basic Revolver Cleaning"
Guns of the West (13 min.)
VIDEO: "Gun Cleaning 101: Colt Python"
Otis Technology (3 min.)
Some links that may be of interest:
Tucson criminal defense attorney Louis Fidel said there are circumstances under which a person can display or use a firearm to prevent certain crimes, but shoplifting isn’t one of them.
“It really depends on the details, but there is a statute that authorizes people to display or use a firearm to prevent certain crimes,” Fidel told KOLD News 13. “Shoplifting is not one of those crimes.”
Fidel warned that pointing a firearm during the confrontation could potentially result in an aggravated-assault charge involving a deadly weapon.
The article mentions that no arrests have been made and the Tucson police are still investigating the incident. The police aren't going to care about the shoplifter but they will care about an aggravated assault with a firearm, so undoubtedly the one they are going to try and nab is the elderly woman.
The fixed barrel on the 92 offers inherent accuracy and makes it a smooth cycling, soft shooter. The magazine design is one of the best ever conceived. It takes to a suppressor well. The 92’s reputation was earned serving law enforcement and the military. The pistol is customizable and in a constant state of evolution, adapting to the new shooter needs. The Beretta 92 is and always will be relevant as long as there is a need for a proven, reliable, performance driven pistol.
Even though they are larger and heavier than what you might want for everyday carry, they make excellent handguns for home defense--the "night stand gun" or something similar.
If you can’t account for everyone, your job will become far more difficult. Clearing a structure, even one you know as well as you know your own home, is extremely dangerous. But if a loved one is unaccounted for, you won’t have any choice but to make your way to them as quickly and safely as possible. Unfortunately, quickly and safely don’t always go hand in hand.
Adopted by the French Army in 1873, the Chamelot-Delvigne revolver was France's first standard-issue double-action military revolver. It represented a significant step forward from earlier percussion and pinfire handguns and reflected France's position as one of the world's leading firearms innovators during the 19th century.
Over the last 40 years I have no idea how many words I’ve written on figuring the correct hold when shooting uphill or downhill. The concept is simple, and I’m sure we all know it: Uphill or down, the effect is the same, and as distance and angle increase, the strike will be higher in relation to your level-ground zero.
[snip]
There is something else you need to consider as well, and it may be more important. Finding a steady position for uphill/downhill shots is much harder than on level ground.
The author notes that he normally shoots off a pack, but at steeper angles a bipod helps. He discusses this in more detail.
Choosing to carry is not just buying a gun. It is building a system. That is where a lot of women get stuck.
For years, women were treated like an afterthought: shrink the gun, paint it pink, and call it "for women." That advice is lazy.
After working with new students, I hear the same question all the time: "I bought a gun... now what?" My answer is usually: now we figure out the setup.
What works for your body, clothing, and lifestyle? What can you carry consistently? The best setup is not the one that looks good on paper. It is the one you can actually use.
She covers holster selection, how body shape and lifestyle impact your carry setup, making your wardrobe part of your carry system, carry position, and training.
Using a 22 as a practice or training rifle provides two big benefits. First, the mild little cartridge that’s propelled by just a pinch of flakey gunpowder has minimal recoil. When we discuss recoil in the context of improving your shooting, we don’t mean it as a measure of how hard it kicks — because it doesn’t. We are talking about sight picture disruption and, while the .22 LR does produce some, it’s very little. The lack of that distraction can help you focus on improving fundamental skills like trigger control, but also gives you valuable practice staying in the scope and spotting impacts — something that will benefit you both in competition and hunting.
The second big benefit is that the round’s affordability allows lots of real shooting practice, and actual shooting gives you downrange feedback that dry firing can’t. Quality, and I mean quality, .22 LR ammo is pretty expensive, but still cheaper than most centerfire stuff. My rifle shoots affordable ammo, like CCI Standard Velocity, well enough for practice.
If you can carry the extra weight, I’d also recommend a "training" or "fitness" metal plate (it doesn’t necessarily need to have a ballistic rating) to save your chest the pain of blunt trauma after being shot, and to keep you in the fight since backface deformation (how deformed the side of armor closest to your skin becomes after being struck by a bullet) allows for potentially lethal injuries. ...
For instance, I recently watched a video put out by a large gun rights group where the presenter showed off the contents of his “get home bag.” The purpose of this bag, he said, was to help him get back home no matter what might happen.
In the bag, he had a half-dozen AR-15 magazines, three smoke grenades and a tactical tomahawk. That’s it. No way of procuring water, nothing to create a shelter, just a bunch extra mags for his truck gun, some smoke grenades for concealment and evasion…and a tomahawk.
Clearly he had scripted out a scenario in his head where the only dangers he’d face on the way back home would be man-made and not something more mundane like inclement weather.
Quick Answer: For a basic survival calculation using a 2:1 ratio by dry weight, plan on about 0.8 pound of dry white rice and 0.4 pound of dry beans per person per day. Together, they provide roughly 2,000 calories.
The author provides a table showing the amount per day, for a 30 day period, and for a year for a single person when assuming that this is to provide 100% of your 2,000 calories diet. But there is also an interactive calculator where you can calculate the amounts for more people, for different lengths of time, and the percentage of the diet (e.g., perhaps you anticipate only using the beans and rice for half of your caloric intake).
A bowline can be tied in cord, line, or string of any diameter, though it was designed for use with thicker ropes. It’s a loop knot, and the beauty of it is that it can be tied in seconds. It won’t slip under heavy strain when tied correctly. Even after it’s subjected to high tension, it can easily be undone. The bowline also allows you to create a loop of any size, which makes its applications practically innumerable.
You may need it to quickly secure your boat to a dock piling or stump when cleats aren’t available. You can use it in a pinch to drag an ATV stuck in the mud out with your truck. You may need it to help pull a buddy out of a ravine after a bad fall. Sound extreme? Of course it does, but the point is that the simple ability to create a loop in a length of rope that you can trust to bear a heavy load is something every outdoorsman should know. With fewer than 10 minutes of practice, you’ll be able to tie a bowline with your eyes closed.
Some longer or more involved reading:
THE GOAL IS NOT TO SAVE LIVES, OR TO STOP THE KILLING, OR GET ANYONE TO SAFETY. THOSE THINGS MAY HAPPEN SUBSEQUENT TO YOUR MISSION SUCCESS, BUT THEY ARE NOT YOUR MISSION.
THERE IS ONLY ONE MISSION - LOCATE, IDENTIFY, AND TERMINATE THE SHOOTER.
EVERY PIECE OF GEAR YOU CARRY, EVERY TRAINING SESSION YOU EXECUTE, AND EVERY STEP AND ACTION YOU TAKE AT THAT EVENT MUST BE ORIENTED TO ACCOMPLISH THAT MISSION - LOCATE, IDENTIFY, AND TERMINATE THE SHOOTER.
But Suarez also is quite blunt that it is not something for the average concealed carrier. From another quote Jon includes:
So rather than the underachiever’s “three rounds at three yards in three seconds”, we train for an event like this. Facing an active shooter or terrorist. We carry fighting weapons, not convenient mini-pistols. We train for accuracy, not to beat a timer’s beep. And we train at extended distances as well as standard distances. And time and again, these practices have been shown to be the deciding factor in events like this.
On the other hand, you are more likely to be killed by lightening than be the victim of an active shooter; but, based on data from a 1987 report, you have an 83% chance of being the victim of a violent crime during your lifetime (it is slightly higher if you are a man, and slightly lower if a woman). So while Suarez may poo-poo those who don't carry combat pistols on a daily basis, the "convenient mini-pistols" are sufficient for the vast majority of self-defense situations most people will find themselves in; and, more importantly, the "convenient mini-pistols" will actually be carried while the heavy and/or bulky combat pistol will often be left at home. Unfortunately, it is difficult to collect information about civilians stopping active shooters which John Lott discusses in his paper, "Do Armed Civilians Stop Active Shooters More Effectively Than Uniformed Police?" let alone the weapons used. I agree that a combat pistol would be better than a pocket pistol or sub-compact pistol once you are using it, but the question for concealed carry is what is the largest will you be able and willing to carry on a regular basis. The better solution might be to learn how to use the "convenient mini-pistol" for longer shots. There is no reason why you shouldn't be practicing shots out to 25 yards with a handgun, or even longer if your range allows for it. Fortunately, unlike the situation even a decade ago, most of the small handguns produced today can be fitted with decent sights.
A correct grip, surprise trigger break, and correct follow-through will allow you to achieve precision.
Once you are able to shoot a tight group, all bullets through the same hole at 3 yards or all bullet holes touching at 5 yards, you have demonstrated precision. Now you are ready to move your sight to achieve accuracy, which means your point-of-impact matches your point-of-aim.
Move your sights to move your point of impact to match your point-of-aim. Fixed iron rear sights in a beaver tail can be pushed left or right with a sight pusher. Fixed iron front sights can be ground down if the point-of-impact is low or replaced with a taller front sight if the point-of-impact is high.
Correct zero is essential for confidence. Confidence is the difference between taking the shot, and not to taking the shot because you're not sure you will hit your target, or because you fear that you will hit the hostage.
Cool calm confidence is achieved with training, practice, and a properly zeroed pistol.
If you are using an adjustable sight on your pistol, it's too fragile for combat. Self-defense is combat. Yes, I know it works in the pristine conditions of your training and practice. But that is not combat. All kinds of strange things happen in combat. Murphy's Law is in full force in combat.
"The Marine Corps uses red dot optics."
Yes, I know. But that doesn't mean it is best practice. Remember, the Army used Blackhawk SERPA holsters, which was an act of criminal stupidity. Institutions, no matter how reputable, do not necessarily follow best practices. Rather, they suffer from institutional inertia, bureaucracy (not meritocracy), and lowest bidder contracting.
Striker fired pistols are the norm for much of the CCW and LE worlds now. But I know that they also reduce your margin of error considerably. They are great when you are at your best, but a liability when you are not. Like the man said, “shit happens”. I think it happens more easily with a striker fired pistol.
I had a very successful doctor student. This guy was not quite Elon Musk, but I would not be surprised if they had met at some point. He always had a very nice tuned high end pistol in class. But it was always a double action weapon. It was initially a Sig P226 of some sort, and later an HK P30 series. All with marvelous DA triggers and optics and everything you could ask for. All the others, myself included, were using Glocks. I asked him once why he chose that system. He told me that he had been an ER Doctor for years and he had handled a plethora of self inflicted gunshot injuries. And that these ranged from a neophyte that had little skill, to high level sport shooters, to legitimate police operators. All of them without exception, involved striker fired pistols.
I've argued for years that the double action trigger acts as an additional safety on a handgun, so I do feel somewhat vindicated reading this.
"Safety Tip: If you are a concealed carry holder who engages an active threat inside a public business, your immediate post-shooting protocol is critical for your survival. When police officers flood through the doors on an active shooter dispatch, they are looking for anyone holding a gun. Keep your hands empty, raise them high with fingers spread, and clearly identify yourself as the reporting citizen who stopped the attacker."
On Monday, Senators Ron Johnson and Rand Paul released the first text chain from what we hope are a series of communications recovered from Fauci’s government-issued iPhone, which HHS finally handed over on August 5 in response to Johnson’s request. His phone is said to hold more than 34,000 texts and 522 voicemails. Quite suspiciously, it only contains three saved contacts, which probably means that it was tampered with. I do hope that government officials can secure the data that was possibly deleted.
The senators released something of a bombshell that discusses January 2021 communications between Fauci, then-CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, and future Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. This was just days after former President Biden’s inauguration. The subject is pregnant women and the mRNA injections. In it, Fauci writes that the supposedly “safe and effective” shot “theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.”
One week later, Fauci went in front of cameras and said the vaccines had “no red flags” regarding pregnant women. He later said that there was “no indication whatsoever” of increased adverse events in pregnant women. By September, Walensky and her comrades in the Biden Government Health bureaucracy were strongly recommending vaccination before or during pregnancy.
From The Truth About Guns: "DOJ Lets the Stay Expire — Silencer Shop’s NFA Injunction Takes Effect." From the article:
At 12:01 a.m. Central on August 13, the seven-day stay on Judge James Wesley Hendrix’s ruling in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF ran out — and the Department of Justice let it. No emergency motion to the Fifth Circuit. No request to extend the pause. Nothing.
For the first time in more than 90 years, a federally licensed dealer legally transferred a suppressor to a private buyer with no tax stamp, no Form 4, and no entry in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.
Gun Owners of America, Silencer Shop, and two buyers; YouTuber turned congressional candidate Brandon “The AK Guy” Herrera and Texas state Rep. Wes Virdell closed the deal minutes after the stay lapsed.
GOA called them the first unregistered suppressor purchases from Silencer Shop in the NFA era, and argued both men were covered twice over: as GOA members and as Silencer Shop customers.
The article warns, however: "This is where readers need to slow down before doing anything stupid. The injunction is broad, but it is not nationwide amnesty."
There are more details in the article, so be sure to read the whole thing. The Mr. Guns 'n' Gear channel also goes into more detail:
VIDEO: "Breaking: The Biggest 2nd Amendment Win Ever - What You Need To Know"
Mrgunsngear Channel (26 min.)
"Gun sales spike in Twin Falls after In-N-Out shooting; store owners stress training"--KIVI TV. From the lede:
Gun sales surged in Twin Falls the day after a mass shooting at a local In-N-Out restaurant, with at least one gun store reporting one of its busiest sales days in years. Local firearms dealers say the spike in purchases is a reminder that owning a gun and knowing how to use it are two very different things.
The rest of the article is basically an advert for a Twin Falls gun store and its training services.
Some links that may be of interest:
Sell hunted deer on foot for many years, very successfully, and attacked the brush-busting question as scientifically as possible. He set up tests where he fired at targets behind bushes and measured bullet deflection afterwards.
[snip]
Sell blasted away with a very wide range of cartridges, trying to determine the optimum bullet weight and shape, as well as velocity. His findings: A velocity between 2,200 and 2,500 fps deflected the least, and was also less likely to have the bullet blow up when hitting a branch or twig. He found that a bullet weight of 150 grains or heavier also made a big difference. He did not note any significant difference between different bullet shapes, and also did not note any difference resulting from bullet diameter—6.5x55 and .270 performed well, along with cartridges using .30-caliber and even .35-caliber bullets. He did, however, note a test where 500-grain .45-70 bullets performed inconsistently in his test, with two bullets “screaming off into the forest” when fired at a target through brush, and then the next two bullets showing no deflection at all.
Funnily enough, Sell noted that high-velocity, high-performance cartridges fared poorly in his brush-busting experiments. Conversely, the .30-30 performed very well in his test, particularly when loaded with a 170-grain bullet. ...
I cast the bullets for my handloads, usually from an MP-Molds 6-cavity aluminum mold. I started with a brass 2- cavity hollow point (HP) mold, soon progressing to a 4-banger after being so impressed by the quality. When Mihac Previc, owner of MP Molds, offered an aluminum 6-cavity mold, I quickly jumped on board. The molds are a direct copy of Elmer Keith’s Hensley & Gibbs 503. Bullets cast from it usually run 15 grains heavier than Elmer’s other design, the Lyman 429421.
I’d venture to say my 6-banger has birthed a thousand-plus pounds of lead over the years. My slugs are then powder coated with a polymer coating and baked at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. These PC coated projectiles are then seated over a charge of Alliant Unique powder in a Starline Brass cartridge case.
Since this isn’t YouTube, I will divulge the powder charge of 7.5 grains of Unique, but most diehards know this. The load is nostalgically referred to as the “Skeeter Load” from the millions of Skeeter fans who know a good thing when they see it. Loved for its balance of power, bullet diameter and acceptable recoiling characteristics, Skeeter Skelton’s popularity and warm writing style did more to promote this load and cartridge than anything. This charge weight provides a fuel-efficient 933 loads per pound of precious Unique powder.
At some point in the 1970s, Jeff Cooper created what is often called the Color Code.
When he originally thought it up, and as he taught it, his purpose was to describe a shooter’s “…capacity…to cross the psychological barrier that inhibits [the] ability to take deadly action,” i.e., his or her mental preparation to press the trigger on a live target.
However, the Color Code was subsequently reinterpreted (misinterpreted) from describing a psychological commitment to using force to describing a level of situational awareness.
When you walk into any space, you’re building a quick picture of the environment before you commit to a position in it. This doesn’t require a full tactical assessment. It requires about ten seconds of actual attention before you sit down.
Exits first. Where are the ways out? The front door is obvious. What’s less obvious is the kitchen exit, the emergency door at the back, the hallway that connects to a side entrance. You don’t need to memorize all of them. You need to know that they exist and roughly where they are.
Sight lines next. Where can you sit and see the entrance? Seeing who comes through the door before they see you, or before they can close the distance on you, is a meaningful advantage in almost any situation. It costs you nothing to position for it.
Then the room itself. Who is in it? How many people, where are they seated, is anyone paying unusual attention to entrances or exits? This doesn’t mean treating every stranger as a threat. It means taking a picture of the baseline so that anything that changes later registers as a change.
There is a lot more, including where to sit.
Firearm springs wear out because they are repeatedly cycled. Recoil springs, which travel through nearly their full range of motion with every shot, have one of the highest duty cycles in a firearm and are rightly considered routine maintenance items. Magazine springs, by comparison, typically see far fewer complete compression cycles over their lifetime. That’s why a well-made magazine spring can remain fully loaded for decades with little effect, while a recoil spring in a heavily used pistol may legitimately need replacement after several thousand rounds.
While some of the newer offerings of Loctite offer some oil and solvent resistance, I find that thoroughly degreasing all the threads to be bonded using a strong solvent is an absolute must. My favored method is removing all the screws I needed to coat at once and dipping them in my small steel bench ramekin full of MEK. I let them sit for a few minutes, then remove and blow dry with compressed air. I strongly advise the use of rubber gloves and that this be done in a well-ventilated area. This stuff is super gnarly and will for sure give you face cancer.
For the most effective bond, the adhesive must coat the complete length of the thread engagement area. Loctite is a thixotropic formula, which means it is thick and viscous under static conditions, and as it spreads along a surface under capillary action, it becomes thinner and will seem almost self-guiding. You’ll find a modest drop on a section of threads will find its way around the circumference and “creep” up and down the helix. When threaded in, this action compounds and the adhesive will work its way up and down the length of the threads quite easily.
For large parts, applying to both faces provides the most adequate adhesive application as well as for blind-hole assemblies such as cap screws — threadlocker should be applied to both the bolt and the mating threads. If applied only to the screw going into a blind hole, air pressure tends to force the liquid threadlocker out of the hole as the bolt is torqued down. The anaerobic process hardens in minutes at room temperature and fully cures within 24 hours.
When determining the amount to use, it’s important to remember that less is more, and dipping the screw to the head will not make it “more better.” The space between threads allowed by tolerances is actually quite a bit smaller than you think, and the location that the adhesive is applied is much more important than the amount. If you’re trying to determine which level of adhesion fits your specific needs, start on the low end and work your way up gradually and try experimenting a bit if you have the time and resources.
The article also discusses tips on removing screws or bolts secured with Loctite, so read the whole thing.
With factory sights and a rest, five five-shot groups at 25 yards averaged 2.65 inches. The groups were plagued with flyers. One four-shot group was 7/8 of an inch. The pistol could shoot better than the aging eyes of the shooter. The pistol shot about 3 1/2 inches high at 25 yards.
The Viridian optic was mounted. Five five-shot groups were fired from a rest while sighting in the PR57. At 25 yards, the average group, center to center, was 2.01 inches. Five five-shot groups, fired at 100 yards, averaged 7.6 inches from a rest. There was considerable vertical stringing, which was attributed to an unsatisfactory rest. 23 of the 25 shots fit into a 5 x 8-inch box at 100 yards. The shots were fired deliberately, about a minute per shot.
The NPL25 has a sliding plate that can adapt to the rail slot on a wide range of guns. There’s a sprung button on the left side of the light that moves that toothed bar up, releasing the plate. You then slide it to the position you need and release the button to lock it in place. Easy peasy with no plates to hold onto and (inevitably) lose in about 36 hours.
On a pistol like the FN (above) that has a standard Pic rail, you can a few options as to placement of the sliding plate. On a gun like the G19 (below) with just one slot, it’s easy to adjust and mount it right where you need it. NITECORE ships the NPL25 with a small “Picatinny rail adapter” piece that screws into the two holes you see above, but I mounted the light without a problem without the adapter.
And some other articles discussing important skills for prepping:
I’ve owned a Berkey system for years, and recently I replaced my aging filter elements with the new Phoenix Gravity New Millennium Edition™ filter elements. If you’re a Berkey owner wondering what your replacement options are, here’s why I made the switch and why I think every household should have a plan for safe drinking water.
This is incredible. I always wondered how family liaison officers from RICU or the CRS reliably got the families of victims murdered by political or racial terrorists to provide such anodyne, don't look back in anger public statements. I figured in most cases it would be concern trolling, with legal threats held in reserve.
This lays the technique bare, using interviews conducted both with victim's families and former police officers. Liaison officers serve as anesthetic patches that get slapped on the open wounds of the migration war. They apply therapeutic techniques to calm and reassure the families, establishing dependent relationships and using the trust they build to guide them away from saying anything inflammatory when the time comes to speak to the public. If families become noncompliant in this respect, they're threatened with causing a mistrial should they speak too openly about their feelings.
That isn't all RICU does, of course. ‘Communications’ includes a huge propaganda arm, which uses every tool at its disposal, including battalions of fake social media profiles. You have to wonder how much of the culture war of the last decade or more was pure hallucination.
The New York Post is reporting that a teen in Thailand killed his grandparents and then went to the Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Bangkok where he killed 6 more people, plus himself. Fifteen people were injured. It appears that the teen used a semi-auto pistol, which is strange because in Thailand you have to be at least 20 years old to obtain a permit to possess a firearm; and you have to undergo a thorough background check in order to get a permit. It is also illegal to carry in public without a permit with heightened penalties for carrying at certain locations such as schools.
The Post goes on to relate:
It is the second school shooting in Thailand this year after a teacher died and a student was injured in the south of the country in February.
[snip]
Gun ownership and gun violence are not uncommon in Thailand, which has seen a series of deadly shootings in the past six years, with children among the victims.
Thailand’s worst mass killing by a single perpetrator in its recent history took place in 2022, when a former policeman ran amok in a three-hour gun-and-knife attack in the northeast that killed 36 people including 22 children stabbed as they slept at a daycare center.
A gunman killed five people including security guards and a vendor at a Bangkok market in July 2025 before turning the gun on himself, while a teacher died in the southern city of Hat Yai in February this year when a shooter opened fire at a school where she worked.
In 2020, a soldier killed 29 people in a shooting rampage in Nakhon Ratchasima.
And in 2023, a 14-year-old used a modified handgun to kill two people and wound five others at a luxury Bangkok shopping center.
After the 2023 shooting, Anutin, who was then serving as interior minister, ordered a raft of gun control measures, including a short-term ban on new licenses, import restrictions, and banning of people under 20 years from shooting ranges.
Longer-term measures also included a medical certificate assessing the mental health and psychological condition of gun owners as well as a specified validity period for some gun licenses.
And, of course, the knee-jerk response from politicians is to impose even more gun laws. The thing here is that gun laws will not stop someone intent on killing others--they will obtain firearms through other means (avoiding the permitting process) or select a different means of killing (which is why we see more knife/machete attacks and vehicular attacks in Europe). Rather, all the laws do is disarm the victims.
From Shooting News Weekly: "US District Court in Texas Rules That With $200 Tax Gone, NFA Registration is Unconstitutional." Since the justification for the NFA was that it was to collect taxes, the removal of the $200 tax stamp on certain NFA items, such as SBRs and sound suppressors, left Congress without Constitutional authority to regulate those items. However, the ruling only applies to the plaintiffs in the case and would not extend to NFA items that are still, in theory, taxed. The Mr. Guns & Gear channel has more:
VIDEO: "Breaking: The NFA Ruled Unconstitutional - What You Need To Know"
Mrgunsngear Channel (15 min.)
Some links that may be of interest:
For me, the biggest argument against FliteControl is the same argument for FliteControl: the pattern is tight. When dealing with typical home defense ranges, every shotgun load is firing a fairly tight pattern due to the limited range. A standard shotgun pattern is tight enough that the likelihood of an errant pellet is quite low.
When we reduce the pattern to a hole slightly larger than a 12-gauge slug, we are losing out on a big benefit to throwing multiple pellets per trigger pull. The little bit of spread we are getting at home defense ranges can help us put pellets where it matters.
What I believe he is getting at is that you just don't need it for self defense inside the home because the distances are so short.
“The DEA in 2007 had 44 incidents in which shots were fired against criminals. The average engagement distance was 14.6 feet. The typical American sedan is 16 feet long, so we could just say, about a car length.
“In the case of our students who had to shoot in self-defense, the distances involved were:
Contact distance 4%
3-7 yards 91%
Beyond 7 yards 4%
“The 3 shootings beyond 7 yards were at 15,17 and 22 yards, so some work at that sort of distance is needed, but not a lot.
“So, we put the vast majority of our effort in class on fast, reliable vital zone hits at the 3,5, and 7 yard lines, with a heavy emphasis on 3-5 yards. Three yards could be classified as conversational distance” and is the zone in which we normally talk to strangers. Five yards is essentially one car length. 7 yards is across a large room. If you think in those terms, the reason 91% of our shootings took place at from 3 to 7 yards makes a lot of sense. Keep this in mind when structuring your practice sessions.”
If you want to be able to shoot at all well at 25 yards, you train at fifty yards. That’s the take from a bullseye shooter – at least one and likely many more. It’s also the take of Pat McNamara, a name familiar to those interested in the tactical/personal protection aspect of firearms.
While deep concealment is the most common, pocket carry shines in a backup-gun role. Many armed citizens and law enforcement officers have long relied on small revolvers or compact pistols carried in a pocket as a secondary firearm. This provides access to a weapon if the primary gun becomes unavailable or if one hand is occupied. Carrying a backup gun in the support-side pocket can create additional options during a defensive encounter. While not everyone needs a second firearm, pocket carry remains one of the most practical methods for those who choose to carry one.
For others, pocket carry may simply be the only realistic option. Physical limitations, work attire, body type, or daily activities may make traditional waistband carry difficult. The best carry method is often the one that a person can realistically maintain every day. The key is being honest about your situation. Carrying a smaller firearm in your pocket is far better than leaving a larger firearm at home. However, that decision should be made thoughtfully and not solely for convenience.
According to specs provided to Military.com, the system relies on passive sensing rather than radar, which helps keep the host platform’s signature low. Pointing accuracy is listed at less than one minute of angle.
In the M240 configuration, the cyclic rate is 850 rounds per minute, and the company has repeatedly highlighted a cost per kill measured in the low tens of dollars, driven largely by the price of the ammunition itself.
If your Sawyer Mini barely flows after months or years in storage, do not assume it is worn out. The hollow fibers may need to be fully re-wetted. Sediment or mineral deposits may also be blocking the small passageways.
The best first step is to run clean water through the filter in the normal direction. Then backflush it forcefully with the included syringe. A stubborn filter may need a warm-water soak or a separate white-vinegar soak.
This matters for anyone who keeps a water filter in an emergency kit. A filter that worked when stored may seem almost useless when you suddenly need it.
That is especially true when the kit has never been opened or tested since the day it was purchased.
The remainder of the article provides more detailed directions and explanations.
Some longer or more involved reading:
In the case of our students who had to shoot in self-defense, the distances involved were:
Contact distance 4%
3-7 yards 91%
Beyond 7 yards 4%
The 3 shootings beyond 7 yards were at 15,17 and 22 yards, so some work at that sort of distance is needed, but not a lot.
... The Gun Control Act of 1968 still generally requires that handguns transferred between unlicensed individuals across state lines go through a Federal Firearms Licensee in the recipient’s state. What the USPS rule change does is remove the additional federal mailing prohibition that sat on top of that framework — a prohibition that applied even to fully lawful FFL-to-FFL shipments, FFL-to-customer shipments where permitted, and other transfers that were otherwise completely legal under the GCA but could not move through the Postal Service specifically.
In practical terms: an FFL shipping a handgun to another FFL for a customer transfer, a manufacturer shipping a pistol back to a customer after warranty service, or an individual shipping a handgun to a licensed dealer for consignment or sale — all of these transactions were legal under the GCA before April 2026, but could not use USPS. Now they can. The universe of handgun transactions that require an FFL has not changed. The shipping options available for those transactions have expanded significantly.
Criminals think in such selfish all or nothing terms because believing themselves omniscient and knowing everything, they sense no need to evaluate a situation at any length (unless casing out a place to commit a crime). For the criminal mind, just thinking something makes it so. If a person is certain of his omniscience and infallibility, he has no reason to engage in the rational mental processes that are necessary for making decisions, like defining the problem, establishing a realistic objective, suspending judgment, gathering facts, evaluating alternatives, and selecting a rational, thought-out solution. If criminals want something, they obtain it very quickly, one way or the other without rational decision-making and concern for their victims.
And then the switch from sympathy to guilt (Western societies are unique in being driven by guilt). This he does through these two sentences: "This incident, and countless other tragedies like it, is what inaction looks like. And for decades, both American political parties have been responsible for it." No, our country and our politicians were not the one's that told that woman to get into a trailer packed with dozens of other people, nor did we cause the accident. The woman did something stupid and suffered consequences.
Salazar continues: "As U.S. ambassador, I urgently and passionately made the argument to people in the White House and the halls of Congress that we needed to fix our border and find durable solutions. I warned Democrats that if we did not address this, it would contribute to defeat in the November 2024 elections. I’m sorry to say I was correct." Well, this seems reasonable. We need to fix the borders. But here is the reversal:
Trump was right that the border was broken and needed to be fixed. But his plan of enforcement, tearing families apart, terrorizing communities with mass ICE raids, and pitting nations against nations is not the solution.
In other words, he is saying that if you don't want illegals to remain here and believe they have to go back--because sending them back will require arrests--you are no better than a terrorist.
So at this point Salazar hopes the reader will be nodding his (or more likely, her) head in agreement, waiting with baited breath for Salazar to offer some reasonable solution. And that is?
I propose the creation of a New American Alliance, a North America where the borders, migration, and our nation's deep economic and cultural ties are fixed to create an untapped opportunity rather than a manufactured crisis. It is a truer expression of who we are as Americans—people who achieve greatness when we are united and when we work together toward common goals.
In other words, his idea of fixing the border is to simply do away with borders. Just let them all in and f*** all you lessor mortals that will actually have to live with the consequences.
And we have an example of this right now from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on the North Africa coast, with the New York Post reporting:
An unprecedented wave of 60,000 illegal migrants from Africa has flooded the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, prompting Spain to deploy its military – as locals liken the invasion to an “apocalypse.”
Harrowing local media reports reveal residents and business owners in Ceuta – a Spanish territory located on the north African coast – are terrified to open their doors amid the rush of migrants, many of whom arrived wearing nothing but swimwear without a penny or possession to their name.
“Businesses closed. Shops shut because if you open a business, it gets overrun … We’re scared. The streets are packed. There are no measures in place. It’s every man for himself. They’re not giving us any help,” a terrified downtown restaurant owner who didn’t want to give their name told state-owned Spanish media outlet RTVE.
Visiting the Sacro Bosco (Italian for Sacred Grove), a 16th-century garden in Bomarzo, Italy, is no ordinary walk through the park. The seven-acre site’s sculpted monsters, open tombs and dramatic depictions of supernatural combatants make the experience more akin to braving a Renaissance version of a haunted house. Visitors can wander through a tilted building, run away from a giant gaping mouth and—if they manage to get past Cerberus, the three-headed dog who guards the gates of the underworld—descend into hell.
The Sacro Bosco’s colossal stone statues are frightening to behold. But what makes this garden extra eerie is that no one knows for sure why monsters haunt these woods. “No receipts, account books or commission documents survive to tell us about the Sacro Bosco’s creation,” says John Garton, an art historian at Clark University and the co-author of an upcoming book about the garden. Pier Francesco Orsini, the duke who commissioned the Sacro Bosco in the mid-1500s, left no explicit clues.
An interesting read and lots of photos.
Some longer or more involved reading:
“For the working class to govern, we need a new political system. End political corruption and legalized bribery: get rid of lobbyists, dark money, and Citizens United, and publicly finance all elections. Abolish the Electoral College. Replace the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.
Replace the two-party system with a multi-party democracy. Expand the House of Representatives, implement proportional representation and ranked choice voting in all elections, and abolish the Senate.”
The article explores what each of the elements of this communist wish-list entails, together with this warning:
Our republic was created to tame the appetites of would-be autocrats, making tyranny unlikely, if not impossible to implement. Communists, by contrast, consolidate power.
Lenin, for one, was notoriously unwilling to share power. He led a small faction of the Russian Social Democratic and Labor Party—Democratic Socialists’ presumed namesake—called Bolsheviks, or the majority. He labeled his opponents, usually in the majority, Mensheviks, as being those in the minority and it stuck. It’s not that his ideas weren’t attractive to the majority of socialists—they weren’t—but the future dictator deliberately cobbled together a cell of dedicated yes-men.
Even after the coup, Lenin was unwilling to share power with fellow socialists which earned him criticism from old school Bolsheviks like Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev and the famed socialist writer Maxim Gorky. He survived an assassination attempt by the Socialist Revolutionary party member Fanny Kaplan who felt that the mastermind of the government takeover betrayed the revolution.
After Lenin’s passing, Stalin placed his henchmen in local party cells and purged the opposition, starting with Lenin’s acolytes like Mikhail Bukharin, Kamenev and Zinoviev and the sometimes acolyte Lev Trotsky. Successive waves of repressions followed. By these and other methods, the population of the Soviet Union was successfully terrorized into obedience.
Reading this about the DSA brings to mind the famous quote from Rafał Gan-Ganowicz, a Polish anti-communist activist, mercenary, and writer. When a journalist asked him what it felt like to take a human life, he replied: "I wouldn't know, I've only killed communists."
If you can't get an American 180, this might be the next best thing.
VIDEO: "THE TIPPMANN FRT - THIS 22LR SHOOTS FAST!"
22plinkster (11 min.)
An interesting look at some of the weapons and gear that were rejected or useless by someone who actually had a hand on getting a couple of the items dropped from adoption or use:
VIDEO: "Top 5 GWOT gun and gear fails: Barely used, not tested properly, or completely worthless."
Modern Tactical Shooting (28 min)
Some links that may be of interest:
The inability to get a rifle sighted in can come from several sources. Your rifle could have a problem. Or it just may not like the loads you’re feeding it. It could—(shocking thought!)—even be you, the shooter, that’s inconsistent. However, scope and scope mounting-system issues are frequently the culprit, and that’s what we’re here to explore in this article.
And:
Good bases and rings do hold quality scopes precisely in place. Not just for a while, but as hundreds, even thousands of shots create mini earthquakes.
However, some scopes just won’t hold zero, and some bases and rings just won’t hold tight. Usually, that’s because they’re either cheap (let’s call it what it is), or they’ve been improperly mounted. Either is extremely frustrating. Both must be resolved before the rifle can perform properly.
What causes scopes, scope rings, or bases to come loose? There are a variety of possibilities, but the most common ones are recoil—when a scope is mounted improperly—and vibration. As in, vibration in the belly of an airplane, or the rifle case mounted to your ATV, or behind the seat of your pickup.
Any person with knowledge and experience shooting precision rifles — or just shooting rifles precisely — knows that when a shot is fired, the barrel flexes and then returns to its original state in a fraction of a second. That’s called “barrel harmonics.” There are plenty of super slo-mo videos online that demonstrate this.
During a precision rifle course our instructor had us deliberately take shots with our bolt-action precision rifles and then stick them through a section of chainlink fence with the barrels purposely resting on the fence to see if our point of impact changed. Spoiler alert, the impacts were off dramatically. Our ½-size steel silhouette targets were around 200 yards away if memory serves.
He then tested the shift caused by mounting bayonets on an AR15 and an AK style rifle: specifically, a Springfield Armory SA-16 (a semi-auto clone of the M16A2) and a Century Arms BFT-556 (a 5.56mm AK 74 style rifle). With the bayonet mounted, the SA-16 went from a 0.68 inch 5-shot group at 25 meters to 2.3 inches; and the group printed about 3 inches above point of aim. The BFT-556 had a 2.36 inch group at 25 yards without the bayonet; and, according to the author, the group size showed only a 0.5 inch different with the bayonet mounted, and the group only moved 1.5 inches higher. The author concludes:
When we do our rifle ballistics math and extrapolate how a one-inch group at 100 yards translates to 2 inches at 200, etc., a 3-inch rise in impact between 25 and 50 yards translates to 6 inches of rise at 100 and a full 12 inches at 200. Being 12 inches off at 200 yards could definitely translate to missed targets.
To be fair, we wouldn’t likely fix bayonets if we knew we were engaging targets beyond 100 yards. The cold steel of a bayonet is intended for up close and personal work. In a close quarters battle environment like the jungle or a MOUT situation, we expect targets to easily be inside of 100 yards.
It’s safe to say that adding bayonets to fighting rifles negatively affects accuracy in longer distance shooting. However, for CQB situations, having a chunk of lethal steel affixed to the end of your barrel wouldn’t have such a negative effect on accuracy as to preclude its use. Just be sure to take it off — or take it into account — before engaging anything at greater distances.
The big difference between carrying in a regular car and a motorcycle is the fact that you're exposed to the outside world and elements while on a motorcycle, so there aren't many places to just outright hide your handgun. Not only do you have to worry about keeping your handgun concealed, but you also have to keep in mind that moving around and leaning on your bike can cause different strain on your holster than what's typically normal for carrying concealed. When going at highway speed, it's common for shirts to ride up in the wind without a heavier vest to keep things in place. It's important to think about where your handgun is positioned and if there's a chance of it being exposed at higher speeds when on the highway.
As we have laid out, you have 4 extremely general categories of pistols to choose from for CCW. So, if you’re choosing one of the extremes in a pocket pistol, how is it relevant in 2026? Maybe your occupation doesn’t allow for a pistol on your waist - not necessarily in a legal sense - but potentially because you are in a trade like carpentry, plumbing, etc., where your waist already has a toolbelt taking up all of the real estate around your waist. So, you need to resort to more creative methods of carry like your pocket.
He also explains:
The primary scenarios where a pocket pistol may be a good application for you would be formal attire, hot weather, or extenuating circumstances at your job. We have already painted the picture for your job. You might have a carpentry belt around your waist, work in an office where a hip-carried firearm could be accidentally brandished, or other instances that demand your pistol should reside in your pocket.
Another opportunity to pocket carry is while donning a suit and tie. Professional wear is often tight-fitting and doesn’t take into account the possibility for concealed carry. So, if you force it, it can be tremendously uncomfortable as well as open the door for scaring your co-workers or friends who have delicate sensibilities.
Finally, there are the oppressively hot times in the summer where you’re only wearing a thin T-shirt and shorts. This type of clothing gives you a cooling factor in hotter temps but doesn’t lend itself well to carrying a firearm.
Police officers, district attorneys, and sheriffs offer a different explanation for the teen takeovers: they are the consequence of a decades-long demonization of the criminal-justice system.
Asked how the Chicago Police Department would have responded to a stampede on the Magnificent Mile before that demonization took hold, a recently retired officer with over 30 years on the force replied: “We would have cleared the streets, arrested those breaking windows, looting stores, and assaulting passersby. We would have used pepper spray, fists, and batons to restore order—all of which we did during the Bulls riots [in 1992], the Democratic National Convention in 1996, NATO, and other localized disturbances that didn’t make the news.”
But then, he says, “the bottom fell out. Officers were cast as the enemy by eight years of Obama.” After the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, followed by those of Laquan McDonald in Chicago that same year and of Freddie Gray in Baltimore in 2015, “we were cleaning spit off our windshields on a daily basis. We were physically attacked more during those years than at any other point in our careers.” Officers feared being sued for lawful tactics that make for bad optics.
The cops disengaged. “We drove by the dope sellers on the corner, asked no questions of the juveniles who were clearly up to no good, and ignored the cars running stop signs and weaving through traffic.” Better just to do your eight hours and go home.
Another retired Chicago cop recalls asking his commanders in 2010 when mobs were storming downtown: Can we make arrests? He was told: just hold the line and move them around. Even were the officers to engage, the chance that the average detained teen would face serious consequences was already low.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, officers had a protective attitude toward business; they took responsibility for the well-being of shopkeepers and their customers, says a Chicago sergeant still on the job. “It’s different now.”
And then, on May 25, 2020, George Floyd died while restrained by a Minneapolis officer. The country’s elites proclaimed that systemic racism had killed Floyd. Politicians and business leaders rushed to explain the ensuing firebombing of police cars and stations, the attempted murder of police officers, and the destruction of businesses as an understandable, even justifiable, reaction to police oppression.
The post-Floyd race-riot era is largely coterminous with the Covid era: lockdowns began in late March 2020, and the riots erupted at the end of May. That overlap has allowed policing skeptics to attribute the crime spike that began in 2020 to Covid rather than to de-policing and de-prosecution. Those same skeptics now apply the argument to teen takeovers as well.
The rest of the world again provides a useful benchmark. Other countries did not experience a comparable surge in crime beginning in 2020, just as they did not experience a wave of teen takeovers. The United States experienced both because police and prosecutors shied away further from imposing consequences on antisocial behavior.
The juvenile-justice system was similarly emasculated in the twenty-first century, for much the same reason as the adult system: to avoid disparate impact. The Obama administration sued school districts for disparities in school-discipline rates between black students and white students. Suspensions and expulsions plummeted. Rather than being punished, insubordinate pupils were directed to “peace circles” and other forms of restorative justice.
Outside the school bureaucracy, cities and states loosened their already-permissive rules for holding juveniles accountable for crimes. From 2008, when Barack Obama was first elected president, through 2021, the rate at which black male juveniles received final dispositions for violent offenses fell 67 percent, according to the National Center for Juvenile Justice. It is unlikely that this decline in adjudications reflected a 67 percent drop in violent crime among black juveniles, given victimization data and the reports of police officers. Instead, budding criminals were increasingly kept out of the juvenile system altogether, whether their misconduct occurred in schools or on the streets. Those who did enter the system encountered increasingly permissive rules.
