Situational Awarness Time!

Watch this video, but do yourself a favor and pause at the 30 second mark.  What would you do, and why?  What cues do you pick up and what do they tell you?



Hopefully, you'd do something very similar to what the driver did here.  No lights, not even hazards, a couple traffic cones, no reflective wear on the goblin.  You should be saying "this looks sketchy as %&^#" and getting out of dodge.

Thankfully this one has a relatively happy ending.  Two guys getting picked up strongly suggests the other goblin was ready to hop the center divider and carjack the driver while his partner distracted him on the passenger side.

The Anatomy of Shooting

At least in regards to the target's anatomy. This is a good read to follow up the link I posted a couple days ago.

In short, where you put the bullets is a crap-load more important than what kind of bullets they are.

Not What I Espected from North Chicago

Milwaukee County Sheriff Clarke urges residents to arm themselves.

"With officers laid off and furloughed, simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option," Clarke intones. "You could beg for mercy from a violent criminal, hide under the bed, or you can fight back."
 

Apparently the Sheriff also called for arming teachers, and Mayor Barrett isn't amused, which endears the Sheriff to me that much more.

MRDs on Pistols

This is something that's been going on in the competition side for years, but is starting to gain traction in the defense area lately.  Caleb is playing around with a Glock with a Burris Fastfire II mounted on the slide, and it sounds like he's getting some more options to try out soon.

The biggest advantage in my mind is being able to maintain focus on both the target and the sight and the same time.  In a defensive situation, being able to keep the threat in focus while maintaining good sight picture is simply not going to happen with irons.

Currently the biggest hurdle is sending off the slide to be machined for whichever optic you choose, but there are a couple guns coming from the factory with cuts, and Brownell's offers a drop-in Glock slide that's already cut.  I'm hoping it'll gain momentum and become a more common option, right now the price is just too high for my budget, despite how much I want something set up this way.

"Somebody Else Will Call"

“Bike Thief” is a social experiment in which filmmaker Casey Neistat repeatedly stole his own bike in locations around New York City, including in front of a police station. He gets away with it in (almost) every instance.

This really highlights both an immense lack of situational awareness in most people and the reason why I have good bike locks.

APEX FSS and Self Defense

I was so tempted to put "SD" up there rather than "Self Defense..."

Anyway, Robb decided to strap a shock-collar to the Drama Llama and got a discussion going about installing the fancy APEX race trigger in your carry M&P.  The trouble, as Uncle mentions, is that Robb's particular M&P40 is lacking a thumb safety (the FSS does not work with the thumb safety varients like mine.)

Tam makes an excellent point in the comments-

Generally (and especially in foreign-object-in-the-triggerguard reholstering incidents) length of travel is more likely to prevent an unplanned loud noise than weight of pull.

Personally, my M&P9, which is on my side right now, has the APEX DCAEK in it, because the stock trigger on the M&P is the guns biggest (maybe only) flaw.  It cuts down tremendously on the amount of stacking, grit, and inconsistency that comes from the factory.  As soon as they release the thumb safety version of their RAM, that will be going in my gun as well, since that's now the only complaint I have about the trigger.

Would any Ladies like $300 to put towards a Self Defense Course?

If yes, head over to A Girl and Her Gun and get in on the drawing.

How Many Rounds Do You Carry?

And why that many?

A couple weeks ago MandaFern took her CCW course (provided free through Wisconsin Carry, Inc.) and I tagged along, both for morale support, and because (generally) any training is good training and I treasure gathering viewpoints and training techniques from any source I can.

At a few points throughout the course, the instructor (an avid 1911 fan) voiced his negative feelings towards people carrying wonder-nines with super-high capacity magazines.  One of my typical carry guns is my M&P9, fully stoked with 17 rounds in the mag, and a spare 17 round magazine on my support side.  Amanda knows this and nudged me a little when he mentioned it the first time.

I grabbed my pen from my pocket and scribbled down on her notes "'Coyotes' travel in packs" semi jokingly.  While this is a valid point, my other standard carry piece as of late has been my Smith & Wesson 442 J-frame revolver.  Typically with a speed strip of five rounds in my watch-pocket of my jeans and a speed-loader in my coat pocket.  That loadout has less rounds total than one magazine in my M&P.

Do I feel undergunned carrying that few rounds?  No, not really.  Despite my coyote comment, we live in a small enough town that large gangs of thugs are not really a threat.  .38spc+P is a proven round, and the most likely threat I'll ever face around here is an overzealous convenience store robber or the like.  I don't ever see myself being sucked into a running gunfight through downtown Stevens Point.

So why carry 34 rounds of 9mm when I carry the M&P?  Why not save some strain on my belt and leave the spare at home?  I should be able to deal with any likely threat with 17 rounds, right?

Simple.  The biggest Achilles's Heal of any semi-auto weapon system is the magazine.  Add to that the fact that just about any malfunction drill on a semi-auto pistol involves stripping the magazine out to relieve pressure on the action.  If something goes south inside my gun, it's much easier to grab that spare mag, where I know it is, than look all over for the half a mag I tossed in the dirt while fixing my gun.  And since I'm going to carry that second magazine, I may as well fill it up to capacity.

20 ga. for Home Defense

Beyond Buckshot - A Look at 20-gauge Rifled Slugs for Self-Defense in the Smoothbore Shotgun

Well worth a read.  One of the reasons I picked up a 20 gauge is knowledge similar to this quote-

When compared to a 12-gauge, the 20-gauge delivers 75% of the lead with a recoil that is 40-50% less.  This is equivalent to the ballistic force of being hit with two .44 Magnum rounds simultaneously.  In addition, the reduced recoil of the 20-gauge is conducive to accurate, rapid shots.

Defending Yourself With a Knife

Sometimes you find yourself in a place where you can't have a gun, and we know the stupid little signs don't stop the bad guys from being violent, so what can you do with another common EDC tool?

Breda posted this link on facebook, and it's well worth a read (and bookmarking as she suggests.)

Wisconsin Castle Doctrine

To be signed Dec. 7.

Wisconsin Castle Doctrine

Passed through legislature Friday (I'm in the Army this weekend, so I missed it.) The Governor is expected to sign it.

Between this and concealed carry, it's been a good year for 2A and self defense rights in Wisconsin.

Castle Doctrine Passes Senate

But they tweaked it, so it has to go back to the Assembly. Still, it's progress.

Wisconsin Castle Doctrine Passes Assembly

During an overnight session last night.  Now on to the Senate and hopefully the Gov's desk.

What I've Said for Years

"Get a 9mm. Civilians are not limited by the Geneva Conventions and can carry hollowpoints.  A 9mm hollowpoint is devastating.  Plus 9mm is cheaper and you can practice more."

I generally don't get too deep into the caliber wars, but that's pretty much how I've explained my feelings for the better part of a decade now.

I Agree

The advantages of .40S&W aren't that much better than 9x19 to justify the price.  I've never even given any thought to owning anything chambered in fo'tay, I've always figured for the price I may as well just shoot .45acp.  Modern 9mm bullets and loads are much much better than the virtually archaic FMJ loads that spawn the horror stories of nine failing to stop bad guys.

Apparently Rob Pincus agrees, and he's pretty smart.  Also SayUncle, and he's a pretty credible source as well.

Right now I've got 34 rounds of 124 gr. +P jacketed hollow points... if I can't take care of the problem with that, I should have gotten my ass to a rifle 17 rounds ago.  Not to mention I can actually afford to shoot it on a regular basis.

Armed Man Rescues Madison Woman

"He saw the suspect standing over the woman, stomping on her head," DeSpain said. "He yelled for the man to stop but his pleas fell on deaf ears." The man went back to his apartment to get his cell phone so he could call 911, but he couldn't find the phone and grabbed the handgun instead.

Sounds like someone else called the police to report him holding the guy at gun point, thankfully he remained calm and cooperative when they rolled up, while the suspect swore at the police and threatened them.


The surprising part is that the man will not be charged with anything, which makes me wonder if Chief Wray is throwing a little temper tantrum in his office and calling for the shift Sgt's head... 

Birdshot

Is for little birds.

I'm glad that they misguided youths decided to stop after the first shot, but make no mistake, had they been more motivated that injury would not have stopped any fight.

(h/t - SayUncle)

Smart

"I had my pistol; I wasn't going up against an automatic rifle," Ralph Swagler said. "I'm sorry. I wish I would have shot him in the back now as he was going toward IHOP, but I wasn't clear on the situation."

And I agree with Tam.  Unless I'm dating your waitress, I'm not gonna rescue you.

Speaking of Taking the Ladies to the Range

WotC has a pretty good post up titled "On having your wife as a battle buddy."  MandaFern feels much the same way.  She has no intention of carrying come November, but I think she's in agreement that at least getting the permit and having the ability to is a good idea.  Way back when we started dating (well, seems like a long time...) I used the "I've got a fire extinguisher in my trunk, but I don't expect my car to burst into flames any second" example for why I carry a handgun pretty regularly.  At the time it simply reminded her to get a new extinguisher for the kitchen, but the point did make it across.