Adding Some Certainty to CCW, Maybe?

I live and work close enough to where this incident took place that it's of interest to me.  Heck, I drive through there every day to and from work.  Is what's being suggested perfect?  Nope.  But it's better than nothing, in my opinion.

Pulling the whole thing from Shot in the Dark:

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"Joe Doakes emailed me this request:

The case is over.  The next one hasn’t happened, yet.   This is the time to restart the conversation about the Pistol Protocol. Please run this letter on SITD.
Joe Doakes

So here is the letter:

Open letter to politicians, cops, citizens:

I write to enlist your support for law-abiding citizens.

The recent Falcon Heights shooting occurred two miles from my house.  I have a permit to carry a pistol, same as the driver. The cop was acquitted and social media is howling it’s a racial outrage but I’m not interested in who’s to blame in this specific incident.  I’m only interesting in making sure it doesn’t happen to me.

The evidence at trial boiled down to this:  the officer thought he gave a command which the driver failed to obey.  The eye-witness passenger thought the officer gave a different command which the driver was in the midst of obeying when the officer fired.  Neither the officer nor the eye-witness had time to think up a lie to pad the video to make themselves look better for a jury.  They both believed they were telling the truth as they heard it.  It’s a classic case of eye-witnesses recalling identical events differently.

I don’t want to die and the officer doesn’t want to kill me.  How can we work together to make certain that doesn’t happen?  Police have standard procedures for high-speed pursuit, for approaching a stopped vehicle, but apparently there is no standard procedure for Encountering A Lawfully Armed Citizen.  The advice I got in my permit-to-carry training was: “inform the officer you have a pistol and ask how he wants to handle it” which is another way of saying “There are no rules, the officer will make up something on the side of the road, but if you fail to comply, you die.”  That’s not good enough.  The driver might not hear clearly because of a crying kid or complaining passenger.  The office might not hear clearly because of traffic noise.  And instructions can be misinterpreted with deadly results.

The Falcon Heights incident is a vivid illustration of why the current make-shift policy is not good enough, why there must be a standard Pistol Protocol for officers and permitted carriers to know and understand, and why the high-stakes nature of an armed encounter demands the Pistol Protocol be stupid simple to understand and yet crystal clear to follow.

I think permit holders and law enforcement leaders should meet to negotiate a standard Pistol Protocol, add it to every law enforcement curriculum and role-play it in every permit-to-carry training session.   Here’s a draft:

Step 1.  Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) approaches stopped vehicle, Permit Holder (PH) rolls down window, puts hands on the steering wheel and keeps them there.  No other movement.

Step 2.  PH says “Officer, we need the Pistol Protocol. I have a permit to carry a pistol.”  PH says or does nothing else until PH receives verbal confirmation from LEO that the Pistol Protocol is in place.  If LEO fails to confirm, PH repeats the request for the Pistol Protocol.

Step 3.  LEO repeats back that PH wants to use the Pistol Protocol, thus verifying that the officer is aware of the existence of a legally permitted weapon and that a dialogue has begun about how to secure the weapon.  LEO says or does nothing else until he confirms that the Pistol Protocol is in place.  “I confirm you have a pistol and a permit to carry.  We are now using the Pistol Protocol.”

Step 4.  LEO instructs PH as to the next thing the LEO wants the PH to do so the LEO can secure the weapon.  Could be “move your car to a safer location” or “open the door using your left hand and step out” or whatever the situation requires, taking into account lighting, weather, number of passengers, etc.  Whatever LEO instructs, PH repeats back before doing it, LEO affirms or negates (followed by repeat of intended instruction).    “LEO:  Using your right hand, slowly turn the engine off, then put your hand back on the wheel.”  “PH: I’m going to use my right hand to turn the engine off, then put my hand back on the wheel.”  “LEO: that’s correct, go ahead.”  At that point, the driver turns the engine off and puts his hand back on the wheel. 

Step 5.  PH, moving slowly as LEO watches, carries out all LEO instructions until LEO announces the pistol is secure.

Step 6.  When LEO announces the pistol is secure, the Pistol Protocol is not ended, it is in recess.  LEO instructs PH what else to do (driver’s license, proof of insurance) and writes summons or gives a warning to complete their other business.

Step 7.  When LEO is finished with other business, LEO tells PH that LEO is restarting the Pistol Protocol to safely transfer the pistol back to the PH but LEO does not transfer the pistol until PH confirms that LEO has restarted the Pistol Protocol.  “LEO:  I’m restarting the Pistol Protocol to hand the weapon back to you.”  “PH: We’re back using the Pistol Protocol now.” 

Step 8.  LEO tells PH what LEO intends to do with the pistol, PH repeats it back, then LEO and PH slowly and carefully transfer the pistol back to the PH.  “LEO: I’m going to hand you the magazine to put in your pocket, then the weapon to put in your holster.  Do NOT load the weapon until you have left the scene.”  “PH: You’re going to hand me the magazine to put in my pocket and the pistol to put in my holster, but I won’t load the weapon until after I leave here.”  “LEO, okay, here’s the magazine . . . pocket, good . . . and here’s the pistol.”

Step 9.  LEO and PH go their separate ways.
There could be fewer steps, more steps, enhancements and improvements, but the key elements are (1) both LEO and PH affirmatively and verbally acknowledging the existence of the pistol so they can deal with it safely and (2) both LEO and PH read-back instructions to avoid misunderstanding, before any movement takes place.
This draft is not perfect but it’s good enough to be going forward.  Next step, figuring out how to get pistol carriers and cops on board.  Volunteers are needed to negotiate in good faith.  And salesmanship to convince cops and permit holders that it’s something they need to learn.
Could use a catchy phrase to help people remember.  The fire prevention people hit a home run with “Stop, Drop and Roll.”  How about:

Say It.  Repeat It.  Do It.  

Tell me.  Hear me.  See me.

Listen.  Repeat.  Comply. 

I work for the local government bureaucracy.  My bosses are sensitive to political pressure and controversy.  I can’t speak out in my own name so I’m writing this under an assumed name to ask for help. 

If you see merit in the idea, please take the ball and run with it.  If it’s not your cup of tea, can you forward it to someone who might help?

The tragedy in Falcon Heights ruined several lives.  There is absolutely no reason to ruin more.  Help me prevent that.

Joe Doakes, Saint Paul, Minnesota"

Politician Control

(Ran across this old post of mine from a forum I used to participate in frequently.  Made me laugh a little, reposting it here for funsies.)

I listened to 10 seconds of Cuomo's rant last night NY Gov. Cuomo pushes strict gun-control measures in wake of shootings - NYPOST.com and his "Nobody NEEDS 10 bullets to kill a deer!" line got me thinking that, well, nobody NEEDS 10 politicians to pass a law. So I'm thinking that I might start a politician control movement to limit the horrifying things politicians do to ourselves, our children, and our society:

1. No more than 5 politicians allowed per state.
2. All bad politicians are banned, and may be confiscated by the state for disposal. Bad politicians are defined by such criteria as
   
   • Any politician having hair that does not move in a high wind.
   • Any politician that owns a blue suit.
   • Any politician with the letter "F" in their name.
3. No politician may express more than 3 different positions on the same topic within a year's time.

Now, for those folks that are worried that my criteria are arbitrary and uninformed, I can only say that you must hate children and that the time has come to put an end to this sick culture where people feel the need to disagree with me. No one should be able to keep hundreds of politicians with thousands of power ties for any reason.

Who's with me?

Is This Thing On?

Wow, that was a longer break than I'd anticipated.

The combo of the gut-punch that was November 6th, having a semi-surprise house guest's stay stretch longer than anticipated, holiday "recharge" plans aborted, work going crazy, and having part of my house torn apart for a bathroom and window remodel for a while took it all out of me.   Extended social contact is not a strength in my family at the best of times, and I wearied: spent a lot of time in my office playing 15 year old computer games, feeling like butter scraped over too much bread, and not interacting much with folk.

But I'm in my 6th day of "Raw February" (nothing cooked, nothing processed), feeling good, regaining a little gleam in the eye, starting to pay more attention to something other than how fast I can kill the Guardian in Master of Orion 2 and get Damper Field tech.

And I notice the gun thing, especially right here in Minnesota, where they want to take anything with a mag/clip/feed cap over 7.  Hm.  Color me unsurprised, and almost uncaring.  Elections have consequences, dear-hearts, and the whirlwind's comin'.

We're Winning

Hard to believe, but THIS was a linked article on Powerline's top menu bar:

A for-real article about boomsticks.

Now, if it had been NRO's the Corner, I would have to dig up a "wha- wha- WHAAAAT?" graphic from somewhere.

"I Expect I'll Have It Sorted Out by Morning"

One of my favorite sleeper movies is The Ghost and the Darkness.  Not a big movie, just a movie about a story.  Much/most of it happens to be mostly true, even.  And a great soundtrack.

And, for a gunny-wannabe I have to say that I don't know that much about guns, but this movie has more rifles in it then "Rifles: The Movie (About Rifles)".

I expect Tam has most of them in a glass case or something.

"What if he shoots first?" "Then he's hurryin' and he'll miss."

So my first love in handguns is the single action revolver.  I love the history behind it, the myths and truths of the Old West it helped "tame", the sheer uncomplicated brilliance of its mechanics. Last but certainly not least, I shoot them well.  I really enjoy my other pistols too, but the reality is that I don't shoot them as well when I measure my results against my intent.  Lately, especially after conversations with MeatAxe, I've started to wonder if I could "point shoot" my semi-auto pistols as well as I can my cowboy guns, even given the different ergonomics (the classic cowboy pistols were designed for one-handed shooting, after all).

So I went to the range yesterday to test my theory.  I brought my Steyr M9 9mm and my Taurus Millennium Pro .45.  100 rounds through each (plus the 10 JHPs I had already waiting in the Taurus). I put 50 rounds downrange per target at 21 feet, then another 50 at 35 feet. The range I go to (Bill's Gun Shop) doesn't permit draw-from-holster, so the best I can do is just let the gun arm droop and/or rest my wrist down against the lip of the counter.

All shots were standing one-handed (I'm a rightie) with no aiming.  Pistol brought up from rest and held out loosely between belt and chest.  I varied my facing a little and did some minor position shifting.  Some shots were cross-body, some double taps, a few triples.

 1. Steyr M9 9mm. 21 feet. 50 rounds. 49 on paper, 47 in target.

 2. Steyr M9 9mm. 35 feet. 50 rounds. 46 on paper, 38 in target.

 3. Taurus Millennium Pro .45. 21 feet. 60 rounds. 56 on paper, 50 in target.

4. Taurus Millennium Pro .45. 35 feet. 50 rounds, 29 on paper, 17 in target.













So.  Conclusions.  Basically I'm satisfied that if I have to fire unaimed at minimum ranges, I'll hit what I'm aiming at.  At longer ranges I need more practice, and with the little Taurus, more aiming.


But not bad for not aiming, IMO.

RECOIL Magazine: Civilians Have No Need To Put Down Scumbags

It only took them 4 issues to put boot-prints on their dicks.

“Like we mentioned before, the MP7A1 is unavailable to civilians and for good reason. We all know that’s technology no civvies should ever get to lay their hands on. This is a purpose-built weapon with no sporting applications to speak of. It is made to put down scumbags, and that’s it. Mike Cabrera of Heckler & Koch Law Enforcement Sales and veteran law enforcement officer with SWAT unit experience points out that this is a gun that you do not want in the wrong, slimy hands. It comes with semi-automatic and full-auto firing modes only. Its overall size places it between a handgun and submachine gun. Its assault rifle capabilities and small size make this a serious weapon that should not be taken lightly.”

Edited to add that this post is short because Tam said it better, as usual. 

Remington Golden Sabers 185 gr. JHP

At the range this weekend, I was all by myself until a buddy of mine turned up with a chronograph. He let me put a couple rounds through it, and I found that my Para-Ordnance Companion will move a 185 grain Remington Golden Saber jacketed hollow point at 957 feet per second. Not bad for a little 3.5-inch barrel.


By comparison, the Tulammo went at around 790 fps.

In Which I Admit that I Suck As A Blogger

When Atom Smasher and I started this blog, I lived in Connecticut and I had tons of free time at work, and a long work day to fill -- it being the sort of place where you'd had to stay past 6, even if you weren't particularly busy.

These days I live up in New Hampshire, and I have plenty to do at work and the place empties out around 5.

And what with the wife and 2 kids and going to get some exercise every once in a while, time has been short.

So, I have not stopped doing fun gun stuff, but I haven't had as much time or inclination to write about it.

But, I will try to change that.

Here are some things that I will try to cover over the next couple weeks: 

Optics/Sights
Magpul BUIS,
Vortex Strikefire Red Dot Sight
Burris MTAC 1.5-6x

Guns
Smith & Wesson 617
Smith & Wesson MP15-22
Stag Model  3

Misc
UTG Vertical Fore-Grip
High Noon Holsters: Tail Gate and Bare Skin

Shooting
Basic Carbine Class at Weaponcraft in Maine.

Para-Ordnance: Impressive Customer Service

About a week ago, I sent the slide from my Para Black Watch Companion back to the factory. The rear sight had come loose and wouldn't stay tightened down.

This was unfortunate, but I was glad that I had something to blame a 2-foot sized group on.

Yesterday, I got the slide back with brand new Trijicon night sights on it, along with a new extractor. Nice work, Para! Thanks!

[Emily Litella Voice]"Never mind"[/Emily Litella Voice]

Hungry for follow up on another dangerous non-Muslim American terror group that the Obama administration warned us about?

I posted here a couple of years ago: Men Are Not Potatoes: I Know You Are But What Am I?

And checking back in, it seems that the case, of course, was overblown and yielded essentially nothing.


So we have a couple of morons with an illegal Class 3 and an unregistered other gun.  Stupid, but hardly a conspiracy.  Good job, FedGov.  Now let's work harder on those Muslim space initiatives for NASA.

"You Know How I Said I Liked You, Sully?"

I lied.

I dragged my buttocks to the range Sunday after all with my new toy.

That's all at 50ft, the max distance at Bill's (indoor).  Played with the sights a little, got used to the action, etc.  Not good, and a lot of high and to the right (target's sideways), but not terrible for a guy who's not fired anything much but handguns for nigh-on 10 years.

I only have the one mag still so my reloading digits got tired before my shooty desire did, but 250 rounds later I can say I'm definitely hooked.  Next up, I guess, is one o' them fancy red dots and a bunch of spare mags.  And a trip to an outdoor range where I can truly embarrass myself.

Somebody Has a New Toy, and that Somebody is Me.

Atom Smasher: "I don't go to the range enough."
MeatAxe: "Cease thy ruminations and obtain for thyself an MP15-22."
Atom Smasher: "Aye."


Was going to go break it in today, feeling too lazy (and I am working the holiday tomorrow) so will go read in the sun instead.  But I am looking forward to next Saturday - every purchase at Bill's gets you a free range ticket, so it's a guaranteed good time.

It's so LIGHT!

"I'd say about twenty guns. Some on the surface, some on the towers."

My blogpartner has convinced me that I am missing out on too much fun by not having an EBR .22LR chucker. I'm all set to go shopping this Saturday for a S&W MP15-22, and I'm online just now checking the two local boomstick emporia to see what they have on hand.

For years I've been pining for a wood-furniture CETME. No logical reason for it, I just like the lines and the look, and I want one. Every time I've been close something has come up - unexpected trip, car repair, something like that. Also, MeatAxe has reminded me of the weight, the expense, and the shoulder wear a good 1970s battle rifle in a Balrog-dropping caliber brings to the party. And I'd thought I was mostly over it. But then perusing the Frontiersman's website, I saw in the used guns sidebar:

"Several Cetme and FN/FAL .308 cal rifles"

The resulting Gmail chat went something like this:

Smasher: "I really still kinda want one."
Axe: "You'll never shoot it, plus it's expensive when you do shoot it."
Smasher: "But it's pretty."
Axe: "Stay on target."
Smasher: "I still kind of want one."
Axe: "Stay on target!"

So I think we're good.  .22LR here I come!

Some Guys Just Go Down hard

Check out this story and this one for accounts of 2 gunfights, in which the bad guy soaked up an astonishing number of rounds, and was still around to cause trouble.

In the first story, the bad guy was shot 22 times before he finally went down, and in the second it took 17. That doesn't include shots that missed, either.

Both articles contain lengthy discussions of tactics and should prove interesting to readers of this blog.

Possibly The Stupidest Headline Ever

Triple Barrel Revolver Makes Anyone an Expert Marksman

From Gizmodo. Which is  apparently a little fuzzy on the exact details of how one hits targets with boolets. 

When you see this thing, check out the axis of recoil, imagine the weight of the fully loaded cylinder, and try to imagine hitting anything with it, unless it mounted this beast on a tripod first. 

Potassium Nitrate + charcoal + Sulfur = Fun!

I went to the range today for the first time in TOO LONG. Started with my favorite semi-auto, my Steyr M9 (9mm): Dialed myself in at 15 feet, was reasonably happy with the results. After 20 or so rounds, moved the paper to 21 feet, and aside from a serious case of "death grip" to the point where my hand was literally shaking, relaxed enough to be satisfied with the 100 rounds I put through it.


I like my M9.

Next was my alternate carry piece, my Taurus Millennium Pro .45. My fellow gun nuts all tell me that Taurus products suck and are unreliable, but I fed yet another 100 rounds of .45 through the thing and with nary a hiccup and was reasonably satisfied with my accuracy. Still need more practice, of course, but I'm happy (albeit not ecstatic) with where the holes in the paper appeared.

With all the "work" done, I switched to my true calling - my Ruger Vaquero in .45 long Colt and a Zombie target. 50 rounds at 21 feet. And what can I say? I'm good.

Single action cowboy gun, never using the sights, simple old-fashioned point shooting with gun raised up and held between belt and eyeline, and I'll say it:

I'm good. Really really good. Not great. But good.

When the zombie apocalypse comes, I'll have "better", more modern guns, because I'm not stupid, but strapped to my right leg will be a big-ass, honking SA revolver. Because the bullets all go where I think they should without any effort.

And the best part is that I equipped and dragged 3 pistols to the range and used them, and completely forgot about the snubbie S&W Airweight .38 I had in my pocket. Never even thought to put a round through it.

I love America and my part in it.

For Your Consideration: Additional Range Rules

We all love Col. Cooper's Four Rules of Gun Safety and I'm certainly not trying to improve on them in something as trivial as God Damned blog post.

However, I've been observing and shooters at firing ranges long enough to notice a few things that might make your range trip safer or more pleasant.

1) If you pick up a live, unfired round from the ground and intend to shoot it out of your firearm, make sure its the right caliber. 

Picking up rounds off the ground with the intention of shooting them is almost always a bad idea, but I can imagine a couple cases where it might be necessary -- eg, you dump your 100 round value pack of Winchester White Box on the ground, and you'd rather not kiss 30 bucks good bye. Just make sure that they are your rounds you are picking up. A .40SW looks a little bit like a .45ACP if you aren't paying attention, and in some .45s, you can chamber it and fire it. But as the round doesn't fill the chamber, you can expect some unpleasant consequences.

2) Put your range bag where nobody will trip on it. Especially you. 

This shouldn't require any explanation. Tripping over your range bag while holding a loaded firearm is a Bad Thing. Having someone else drop their $2000, tricked-out AR on concrete cause you left your bag in a dumb place will not cause them to love you, even if they should be watching where they are going.


3) When shooting someone else's firearm for the first time, make sure you know how it operates, where the safety is, and -- this is very important -- how much it will recoil. 

Just this weekend at the range, I saw a man shoot his buddy's very modern muzzle-loader. This guy had obviously never fired this particular shootin' iron before, and when it went off, it produced the usual thunderclap and huge cloud of smoke and an unexpected yelp of pain from the shooter. The recoil had thrown the scope back into his head, and put a deep inch-long cut right above his eye. It bled like crazy, and the family day at the range ended rather quickly with a trip to the emergency room.

4) If you need to pick something up off the ground, put your gun down first. 

This is more of a guideline than a rule, I guess. There are probably situations where it would be perfectly safe to bend down, rifle or pistol in hand and grab something off the ground. But if you're going after an en-bloc clip that your Garand just ejected (ping!) 8 feet to the right, you may muzzle-sweep someone else as your 1-handed grip on a 9.5 lb rifle is revealed to be too weak and the dangerous end goes wobbling around. (In a real live self defense emergency, don't put your gun down without a very good reason. Remember, these are RANGE rules.)

5) If you drop your gun, don't try to catch it.  Also: if you drop something else while holding your gun, don't try to catch that either. 

Duh.


6) Although not required, if you think that you might eject hot brass (or maybe an en-bloc clip) onto your neighbor, it's polite to let them know. This means you should  be aware of how your firearm ejects, and what's around you when you are shooting. Consider it a situational awareness drill.

Little kids or new shooters are particularly deserving of a friendly heads up - a rattled new shooter might turn sideways and inadvertently injure or kill someone with an ND. I've never read any accounts of this happening, but it costs nothing to be friendly. There is not a corollary to this. If you get hit by hot brass, don't be a whiny little bitch. It's a shooting range. Put on a hat or go stand somewhere else. 

7) If shooting your hand loads causes your revolver to Ka-Boom (TM), showering other shooters with bits and pieces, instead of packing your stuff up and departing without saying a word, apologize to the folks around you. 

Yes, this really happened to my co-blogger. He was the shower-ee, not the shooter.

Any other suggestions? Please post them in the comments.

From My Cold. Dead. Hands.

For all the usual reasons and also because this was so much fun. (Pix of the scenario shoot I mentioned in an earlier post)

Recoil Therapy: Summer Installment

Its been a couple weeks of intense gunnuttery up here in NH. A couple weeks ago was the NE Bloggershoot, which ran like a Swiss watch due to the unstinting efforts of our community organizier JayG of MArooned and our host doubletrouble. 

It was great to see everyone again, especially since I missed last year. High points for me: shooting Old NFO's SCAR-H, learning a lot from the assembled multitudes, and seeing the size of the hole we shot in the backstop plywood.  Video highlights for anyone curious can be found here:

Last Sunday we had a 2-gun scenario shoot at the range I belong to. A little background -- our outdoor range has a short side and a long side with a 100, 200 and 300 yard range. 

The scenario was simple: returning from a tourist trip to Mexico, a gunfight breaks out in front of you and you need to defend yourself against some hombres determined to kill you. Thankfully you packed appropriately. (Realistically, I don't think I'd go to Mexico with a full size SW 1911 on my belt and a Colt AR in the trunk, but it was more fun that way then, say, harsh language and thrown rocks.)

We were in teams of two, and started in a pickup truck that had been parked out on the short side. On the comnand we bailed out, took cover behind a barricade and shot at 8 targets from 25 - 40 yards away. A little long for pistol work but we managed to take out all the targets.

Then we ran to the long side of the range to simulate a rifle duel with another group of bad guys.  I was at a disadvantage here shooting over iron sights, but my partner had a scoped Ruger 10/22. Between the two of us we knocked out 6 of the 8 targets. Tricky, since I couldn't actually see at that range if I was hitting anything.

Of course, we made enough tactical errors in not taking cover appropriately or engaging targets in the wrong order to convince the judges that we would have both died.

But great fun. Just try to keep me away from the next one.