Be Prepared, Part 3 - the Black Hawk Down Rule - Movie Rule of Thumb 18

Over the years I have developed what I call my Movie Rules of Thumb, insights into how to deal with life’s situations, each one based on some event in a movie I’ve seen. The most recent addition is what I call the Black Hawk Down Rule:

18. There are NO half hour missions.

Both the book by Mark Bowden and the film by Tony Scott tell the story of the US Army mission to try to capture Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid in Mogadishu in 1993. A lot of the soldiers on this mission got in trouble because they assumed the mission, taking place in the middle of the day, surrounded by his cronies, would take a half hour, in and out. Most took no provisions, no canteens, and minimal ammunition, because the plan said the mission would be too short for them to need it, and they would be back soon. Instead, things went terribly wrong, and the mission lasted all day and all night. 19 Americans died.

So what does the Black Hawk Down Rule mean to me? It means there is no ten minute jaunt to the convenience store for milk. There is no half hour walk around the block. There is no quick run through the drive-through for dinner. Because in all those situations, things can and do happen that can turn that quick trip into a long nightmare, and you need to be prepared.

This means dress for the long term mission. When I make a run to the ice cream store, I take off my sandals and tee shirt and put on running shoes and a shirt that can conceal the handgun that I always take with me. When I run or walk at 5 AM, I carry a Glock 19 in my fanny pack along with my ID and Georgia Weapons License, and a tactical flashlight in my left pocket.

It means I fight my wife to get her to bring her ID and cell phone when we go to pick our son up at a friend’s house, since if we ever got into a wreck and she needed to be treated at the hospital, it would be a great thing if they knew who she was and who to call.

If you’re one of those who hops in the car and goes (and believe me, I was that way once) then I hope you will reconsider that, and think about a worst case scenario as part of your planning. Because no one gives the Medal of Honor to crime victims.

Be Prepared, Part 2 - Getting Home

I’ve talked here about the need to plan for emergencies. In the course of my planning I ranked possible scenarios, and made plans to deal with the most likely ones.

My Day Job is a great gig, but it means commuting 30 miles one way. My planning showed a number of possible scenarios where I could find myself stranded on the road. And, having lived in the Texas Panhandle, where getting stranded in your car by a snowstorm is almost a certainty, I knew the value of having emergency provisions, and a plan. I decided, though, to extend that to any scenario where I needed to survive on the road without my car, most likely having to walk home.

This leads us to the idea of the Get Home Bag. This bag is meant to support any number of people, for however long it takes to get to the safety of a better location. You keep it in your car, and when you need to, you grab it and go. For me, this means I planned for 2 people for a 3 day walk home.

Here is what I keep in my Get Home Bag. Naturally it contains all the things I used to keep in my cars for getting stranded by Texas winters, along with what we would need on the road. I check the contents at least monthly, and I put the bag on every now and then, and carry it around a while, to be sure it is manageable.

Granola bars
Water
Change of clothes (2 shirts and 2 pairs of socks)
Work gloves
Poncho
Shoelaces
Bandana
Rubber jar opener
Cell phone battery charger
AA Batteries
LED flashlight
Light sticks
Ammo
Lighter
Candles
Purel
Germicidal wipes
Bedroll and fleece blanket
Space blanket
Entrenching tool
Multitool
Trash bags
Map
Compass
Whistle
Pen & paper
Rope
Drugs – Aspirin, Immodium, Sudafed, Antacids

In addition, my plans would be to grab my gun, my cell phone, and the First Aid Kit out of my car. In the winter, I have a couple more blankets in the car any way, so I would grab those, too.

For you, you might find that your most likely scenarios don’t take you as far from home as mine do. If so, you can pare your contents down to a bag in the trunk. And, a simple Google search will find other suggested bag contents. Do some research and come up with what you would need. Then do it, because you never know when these things happen. If you did, you could stay home that day.

Make a Difference Locally

Tip O’Neill, Speaker of the House during the Reagan presidency, once said, “All politics is local,” and nowhere is this truer that with gun rights.

For most people, the gun laws and regulations that are applied by your state and local governments will affect your day to day gun life far more than anything the Congress will do on a national level. That’s why, once you are a member of the NRA, you need to seek out and join your local or state gun rights organization.

In Georgia, that group is GeorgiaCarry.org, or GCO. GCO has been instrumental in changing a lot of things that were wrong with Georgia’s gun laws, including the removal of a 140 year old law tha prohibited the carry of concealed weapons at “public gatherings,” even by license holders. They have also been successful in forcing Probate Judges, who are the ones in Georgia who issue Weapons Licenses, to issue licenses within the time frame mandated by law. Thanks to GCO, I wrote a lot of letters in the last couple of years to my state legislators, letting them know where I stood on the gun issues they faced.

So, I urge you to join your state gun rights organization, and your local organization as well, if you have one. A list can be found here. Then get involved. You'll be glad you did

Join the NRA and Make a Difference

I first joined the NRA in 1993, by sending in a card that came with my first pistol. A couple of years later I decided to become a Life Member using one of their time payout plans.

The National Rifle Association is the largest voice for the Second Amendment and the rights of law abiding gun owners in America, with over 4 million members. It’s not the only voice we have, but it’s the loudest, and just about the only one that Congress and the anti-gun lobby both pay attention to.

Yet, most gun owners decide not to be members of the NRA. Whenever I meet a gun owner who isn’t a member, I ask them why. Here are some of the answers I get.

* I don’t want to be on any list for anybody to come after me for my gun.

Really? Don’t you think you’re on a few lists already? Have you bought a gun or ammunition using a credit card or debit card? Besides, what make you think, when the time comes, whoever is going to confiscate guns or round up gun owners is going to use a list? With over 75 million gun owners in the USA, door-to-door sounds a lot more effective. We'll all be on the same list, then.

* I’m a hunter. Gun control doesn’t affect hunters. (A lot of these guys have Ducks Unlimited stickers on their trucks, too.)

What makes you think that? Ask Canada and Australia. Besides, there is nothing in the Second Amendment about hunting. And, what happens when they start confiscating “dangerous” rifles, and someone points out – correctly – that the average .270 deer rifle delivers a bullet with about 4 times the kinetic energy of the .223 Evil Black Rifles.

* I was a member once, but all they did was send me a bunch of mail asking for more money.

Okay. Either send them more money, or drop the mail in the trash. I do a little of both. Or, you can call them and tell them not to send you any more fund raising mailers. And, unlike a lot of organizations, they’ll stop.

* The NRA is so political now, about all they do is argue.

If you think that’s all they do, ask the Brady Campaign. Besides, every PTA in America is political, too. Unless you want to join the Board of Directors, the politics won’t affect you at all.

If you are a gun owner and you’re not a member of the NRA, shame on you. Visit http://membership.nrahq.org/ and join.

If you’re a gun owner and you think you have a good reason why you’re not a member, I’d love to hear it. But I’ve probably heard it before.

Practice for Competition, Part 2 - Target Transition

                                               Oops. I dropped a shot.


Most of the time I’m not able to get to an outdoor range and set up stages to shoot for practice. More often, when I do get to practice live fire, it’s in an indoor range. Here’s how I make the best of that practice time.

The best thing I practice indoors is improving my transition times between targets, and making sure my follow up shots to the same target are clean and fast.

First, I need to cheat. Since it’s tough to put multiple full size targets on a typical indoor range holder, the GlockFAQ has several competition targets that are scaled to 1/3 the normal size. This means that I can put the target at 25 feet and they are sized to be the same as if the full size target were at 25 yards. You can find those targets at http://glockfaq.com/targets.htm.

So, I mount two targets in one holder, and move the holder out to the desired distance. I start at about 15 feet, but I move it out as the session goes along. You’ll find that the farther you practice, the easier the closer shots get.

Unless your range allows drawing from a holster, all drills begin with the pistol in the GSSF start position - elbows at your side and pistol pointed down range. If you can draw, then draw, if you are practicing for USPSA or IDPA.

Here are my drills:

Fire one shot on the target and stop. Repeat until you are smooth and can do this in under 2 seconds.

Two shots on one target and stop. Take a 10 second break or so, then repeat, until you can make the first shot in under 2 seconds and both shots are in the center of the target

One shot on one target, then transition to the other target and fire one shot. Repeat until you are smooth and both shots are on target.

Two shots on one target, then transition to the other target and fire two shots. Repeat until you are smooth and both shots are on target.

Two shots on one target, then transition to the other target and fire two shots, then transition back to the first target and fire two shots . . . continued for 4 or 6 or 8 shots.

If your range allows reloads, load 6 rounds into one magazine and 6 in another. Shoot on three targets, reload, then three more.

Get creative. Fire two on one target, transition to the other target and make a head shot, then back.

An hour’s time and 100 rounds can make a big difference.

Practice for Competition

I love to compete with my pistol. I believe that competition is one way any shooter can improve their self defense skills, even beyond practicing normal self defense skills. That’s because competition inserts the element of stress, and how you react under stress can be very different than how you react otherwise.

The two organizations I regularly compete in are the USPSA and the GSSF. Living in the metro Atlanta area means I have access to regular matches for both. Getting ready for matches takes practice, but the problem comes because I can't always take the time to go to an outdoor range and practice the actual things I would do in matches, like run a stage. So I am reduced to finding ways to practice at home or at an indoor range the kinds of things that will make me better.

You can find out about how GSSF matches are run at their website, www.gssfonline.com. Three things define GSSF and make it unique. First, it is only open to Glock pistols. Second, the three stages shot at each match are pretty much the same for every match. Last, there is no drawing, movement, or reloading during stages, which makes it an ideal sport for beginning shooters.

Distilling the GSSF stages, I have found there are three things I can practice that make my match times better: the presentation and first shot; accuracy and shot placement; and transition between targets. Interestingly, all three of these make my USPSA shooting better, so I spend a lot of practice time on these.

PRESENTATION AND FIRST SHOT

Each GSSF stage starts at a relaxed start position, elbows by your side, gun pointed down range. Now, if you watch new shooters (and some not so new) you will frequently see some variant of the following: at the sound of the buzzer, the shooter straightens their arms, then brings the pistol up to the shooting position. Then, they overshoot the shooting position, and the pistol oscillates a few times until it settles into the shooting position. Then, the shooter moves their finger onto the trigger and a few seconds later, when the shooter is satisfied with the sight picture, they fire. This “method” wastes a lot of movement, and a lot of time.

A smooth start to a GSSF stage looks like this; when the buzzer sounds, the shooter begins to bring the pistol up to firing position, while simultaneously extending the arms, such that the pistol gets up into the field of view of the shooter and the sights are on the target, he moves his finger on to the trigger, and begins to take up the slack in the trigger. The rest of the arm extension goes directly toward the target, and when the arms are fully extended, and the sights are still on the target, the shooter breaks the shot.

The great thing about practicing the GSSF first shot is it can be practiced by dry firing. All you need is a place to practice and an unloaded gun.

I cannot stress enough the importance of making sure all the ammunition is out of the room when you dry fire. It may seem like enough precaution just to make sure the gun is unloaded, until you decide the practice session is over, and reload, and get interrupted, and go back to dry firing. Not good.

In fact, I bought a plastic practice barrel for my Glock 17, that won’t even allow me to chamber a round, should I make a mistake and insert a loaded magazine.

So, first find somewhere you can practice for 10 to 15 minutes. For me it’s my garage. You don’t need to do this in front of the TV. Remember, you are practicing a sport. Chipper Jones doesn’t watch TV in the batting cage.

Start out slow. First, rack the slide on the unloaded pistol so you reset the trigger. Then, lower it to the ready position, and relax. In your head, have your favorite RO ask “Shooter ready? Stand by . . . . beep” and SLOWLY raise the pistol through the stages I talked about earlier. I say slowly, because right now you are concerned with getting the pistol into firing position without any over travel, and breaking the shot as soon as you can.

Over the next 5 minutes, speed up the shot, so that by then you are going full speed. If you use a shot timer*, I find that anything under 2 seconds from the beep to first shot is great. Do 5 minutes of these full speed, then take a break before going on to any other practice. You’ve earned it.

After doing this drill 2 or 3 times a week, you will see your first shot become a lot smoother and faster. Then you can work on accuracy and transitions.


* You can also use an on-line flash shooting timer application that can be found at Matt Burkett’s web site, as well as any number of smart phone apps that will do the same thing. Find one that works for you. I use Matt Burkett’s, but its location moves around, so you’re better using Google.

You can also find other tips for practice and shooting GSSF at the Glock FAQ website.

WIN Tickets to the NRA Annual Meeting, from the Sportsman Channel

If you are going to be in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area on Friday, April 29, 2011, have I got a deal for you!

I have arranged with the Sportsman Channel for 4 free tickets to the Friday events at the NRA Annual Meeting. So, I am giving away 2 groups of 2 tickets to the event.

To win, email me by noon on Friday April 22, 2011 at [tomdl "at" comcast "dot" net] (you know how to put that together, right?) and tell me why you want to go. Include your name and address so I can send you the tickets.

I will then choose 2 winners of 2 tickets each, and post the winning reasons here next week.

Please, tell your friends.


Disclaimer: Winners are responsible for all expenses, including travel, meals, souvenirs, bail money, etc. I will not sell, give away, barter, or Spam your name, email, or address. The decision of the judges is final. Void where prohibited by law. If you live where this is prohibited by law, for goodness sake, move.

The Advantage of Youth

Number One Son and I spent the late afternoon Sunday in the back yard playing a few plinking games. First we ran a little run and gun using his Airsoft pistols against the garden flags. They give definite feedback when hit.

Then we played Horse (actually, we called it Daisy) with the BB gun on various targets, always mindful of Rule 4, of course. I noticed he was already shooting the BB gun left handed to match his eye dominance, and I asked him how it felt. He answered with a hit on the pie plate at 40 yards, and said, "Pretty good. Your turn." I missed left handed. "D." He then switched and shot right handed, and hit the plate. This one I matched.

Ahh, to be young.

While we were running and gunning I asked him to come with me to the next USPSA match that I shoot, probably in May. I think he'll at least come watch.

He also agreed to come with me to the GSSF match in Dawsonville in July. My guess is that by then he will be a member and will compete. And by 2012 he will probably beat me.

That's the breaks.

Pack Rat or Miscellaneous Collector?

Yesterday I was in the garage for something totally non-gun-related, and I got to looking at my workbench area. The work area in my garage is a multipurpose self built tool bench, set against the wall, so that I can use the spaces between the wall studs for storage. The storage looked cluttered enough to push me over the edge to decide to clean it all up, and a couple of hours later, I faced a serious fact.

In the best terms, I am a collector of miscellaneous stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bad enough to be on one of those hoarding shows, but, then again, no one on those shows thinks they’re as bad as they are. No, my problem is not to that scale, but yesterday I got a glimpse inside the head of those folks.

Once I was done, I had a written inventory of some of the more troubling items. For instance, I found that I own 224 rounds of ammunition for guns that I do not own.

• 200 rounds of cowboy loaded .38 special, from a gun show during a time when I had it in my mind that I would take up Cowboy Action Shooting. Then I figured it would take $2000 to get into the sport, not counting ammo or reloading equipment.

• 8 rounds of .30-06. The best part – they’re blanks. Got them from a divorcing friend whose son was in ROTC some time back, and didn’t know what to do with them as he was moving out.

• 4 rounds of .308. At least I think they’re .308. They’re the thinner rifle rounds I found in a box of Russian 7.62x54R.

• 12 20 gauge shotgun shells. I got them when I bought my 12 gauge Mossberg 500, used. The guy I bought it from said, “Here, I got some shells, too.” Thanks.

I also own 20 rounds of 7.62x39 tracer ammo. At least that’s what the little bag says. I bought them at a country general store in Alabama in the late 90’s. (The guy had some cool holsters, too, and I still have his card. Some day . . .) These, I can at least try out, some day.

I also found that I own 4 rifle cleaning rods and 3 pistol cleaning rods, plus 2 bore snakes. This is in addition to the 2 rifle rods that cam with my military rifles, and the 3 cleaning rods that came with my Glocks.

I have 4 pairs of shooting glasses and 3 sets of ear muffs. Granted, I do host a lot of people without their own gear, so this doesn’t bother me.

So, what do I take away from all that?

Don’t lose sight of my goals. I can still get into Cowboy Action Shooting, it’s just going to take a little longer, by buying the guns one or two at a time. My first goal is a Ruger Vaquero in .357 / .38 special. If nothing else, this would be a really awesome barbecue gun.

Keep a list of the things I would be willing to swap, and put them out on the forums.

Keep a list of my accessories with me, and when I’m tempted at a gun show, Walmart, Dick’s, etc., consult the list. It’s not perfect, but it avoids some of it.

I welcome other ideas on organization.

And the Winner is . . .

Sergei

Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov lived from 1894 to 1986, and designed the Samozaryadnyi Karabin sistemi Simonova (SKS), or "Self-loading Carbine, Simonov's system," in 1945. You can read more about him here.

The winning name for my SKS was submitted by my friend @jea_nine from Twitter. She wins my eternal gratitude, and the adoration of millions.

Thank you, @jea_nine!

Tax Day = National Buy a Gun Day

Today is the day income tax filings are due in the United States. If you owe money, today is the day to pay it. If you're due a refund, I hope you already filed, and have the refund back.

I filed in February, and had the money back in time to buy a new .22 caliber Browning Buck Mark pistol for my birthday.

I do not consider this purchased with Other People's Money, since it was my money after all, and the .gov was just holding the excess until I asked for it back. Rather, I see this as an interest free firearms purchase payroll savings plan. It works for me.

I urge you to do the same with your refund. If you can't do it this year, adjust your withholding so you have an extra $50 a month taken out, and you should be set. It's a painless way to save.

So, as much as it pains to, "Happy" Tax Day!

Be Prepared

When I was in school I was a Boy Scout, and while I never rose as far as I would have liked to (I made First Class), the principles of Scouting have stayed with me all these years. By far the best thing I learned was to live the Scout Motto, Be Prepared. Today, there are countless expressions of this concept, from Colonel Cooper’s color code, to the OODA Loop.

This is the fist in a series of postings where I plan to talk about emergency planning and what I have done. I don’t pretend that my way of planning is the only way or the best. It’s just what I have done. But I hope you can learn from it.

First, I sat down and made a list of the kinds of emergencies that my family and I could face. This was a brainstorming session, and I didn’t question the probability of any event at this time. Yes, the list was extensive, and it includes black holes and alien invasion. To me it was important to consider the larger emergencies, because when you really think about them, a lot of the preparations you make for more intimate events like a fire or home invasion would be the same you would make for them.

My wife and I then picked the most likely events, and the easiest preparations, and made our plan. We’ve been at the plan for a few years, and we are steadily making progress. Here are some of the low hanging fruit, as it were, that we found we could do right away.

Make a printed telephone list. We found that we were all relying on our cell phone address books for contact information, but, if we lost our cell phones in an emergency, that information is lost, too.

Make sure there is a family member or friend outside your immediate area who will agree to be a contact for everyone, if necessary. This came from some reports during Katrina and other emergencies, where local communications were impossible, but where people could call or email someone outside the affected area.

Make sure you have a texting plan on your cell phones. This is because text messages are sent by a different method than cell phone calls, using the carrier signal that the cell phone tower uses to keep track of where your phone is. Even if the all cell phone circuits are busy in an emergency, it may be possible to send short text messages. Make sure everyone knows short messages they can send quickly.

Make sure your guns are locked up away from any children. They should not only be out of reach, but out of the prying eyes. Our kids never knew where I kept our pistol safe until they were old enough and they were trained how to use them. Make sure all the responsible adults in your household are trained, and know how to access them.

Practice. Just as you should have fire drills, practice other kinds of drills – tornado drills, earthquake drills, home invasion drills. When you are out in public, always stay alert (Cooper’s Condition Yellow at a minimum), and practice finding the quickest path to safety.

Cross-Dominance Follow Up

Thank you to all who responded to my post yesterday on teaching my son to deal with his cross dominance. In addition to the comments on this blog, the topic came up last night on Twitter, and I received many first hand accounts.

Fortunately my son was still up at the time, and we talked about the comments. Everyone who commented told me they had learned (or were learning) to shoot long guns to match their eye dominance - in other words, even though they were right handed, since they were left eye dominant they taught themselves to shoot left handed. Most admitted it took them some time, about a month it seemed, to get comfortable with it.

So, he agreed to do a lot of dry fire, with his airsoft AR. He also plans to start dry firing his airsoft Glock right handed, so he can get better with it, too. He told me his goal is to be an ambidextrous shooter, which would definitely pay him back in the future.

I'll keep you posted.

Dealing with Cross Dominance

Yesterday I posted a picture of my son Joey, shooting Bruce the Glock 17. Today, I present my daughter, doing the same.

When you look at pictures of my kids shooting, you may notice something. My daughter shoots right handed, but my son shoots left handed. Ah, that it were that simple.

My daughter was born left handed, and she does everything left handed, except she shoots handguns right handed, because that's what she saw me doing. My son is right handed. He writes and throws right handed. The only thing he does left handed is shoot handguns. But the reason is different.

Now, almost all of us have one eye that we use more than the other, and being right eye dominant or left eye dominant is as normal as being right handed or left handed. For most people their dominant eye is the one on the side they write with. Being right handed but left eye dominant (or vice versa) is called cross dominance. It’s certainly no big thing for a pistol shooter, but for shooting a long gun it can be problematic.

When I started plinking aluminum cans in the back yard with my son, I could tell he shot with his head sort of canted way down over the stock. I tried to show him the way to get what I thought was the right cheek weld, but in a few shots, he was back to the over wrap.

After a while I figured out he was left eye dominant. But even before we started shooting together, he had figured it out, since he already shot his Nerf pistols left handed, using his left dominant eye.

Once I realized he was cross dominant, I did some research, and it turns out a lot of really good shooters are cross dominant, people like Brian Enos and Dave Sevigny. So I asked them how I should teach Joey, they told me the same thing – if he’s figured it out on his own, let him shoot pistols left handed But they advised that I switch Joey to shooting rifles left handed, since he won’t be able to use a telescopic sight effectively with his head so far down on the stock.

So, now I’m up against trying to convince him to learn to shoot his rifles left handed. As one writer pointed out, if he will just shoulder a rifle left handed a couple of thousand times, muscle memory will take over and he’ll be fine. I’ll report as I go.

As for my daughter, it turns out she's not cross dominant, she shoots pistols right handed because she copied Daddy when she was learning. Fortunately she was also smart enough to figure out to shoot rifles left handed to get a good sight picture.

Range Report part 2

As promised, I offer at least one picture from Saturday's Range Day. My son Joey shoots Bruce the Glock 17 at a zombie terrorist.

Joey also reminded me at dinner that the M60 on the end of the firing line did let it rock and roll a couple of times. I think I was preoccupied with the Mosin Nagant.

Range Report

Last week was spring break for the schools where I lived, so I took a day of vacation on Friday to take my son Joey to the range.

First, I need to apologize because nothing ruins a great range report like no pictures. But I took a real camera with me, instead of using my cell phone, and I didn't get a chance to download them. Look for a follow up post this evening.

We drove up to the Chestnut Mountain Shooting Range at the John's Mountain Wildlife Management Area, operated by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. It's a nice little 100-yard outdoor range with covered shooting, located a few miles off I-75 near Resaca, Georgia. You could tell it was spring break, because a lot of parents and kids were there, quite a mix of folks. My son had a great time identifying the different guns people had, from a belt fed M-60 to M-1 Garands to M1903 Springfields, AR's, 10/22's, hunting rifles, 1911's, and Glocks.

We brought the new Browning Buck Mark pistol, Bucky, along with Captain America the Ruger 10/22, Bruce the G17, and Vasiliy the Mosin Nagant.

Normally the range rules require paper targets only, so I brought some bullseye targets and a couple of zombie targets. But, people before us had ignored those rules and brought a bunch of plastic soda bottles, and various fruit. Since it was there, we felt compelled to shoot it.

As we do on just about every range trip or practice session, we went over the Firearm Safety Rules, and we had at it.

I knew Joey would love the Buck Mark, and I was right. After a couple of magazines he was able to easily put his shots in the zombie head from 10 yards, as well as make some soda bottles dance. He also did well with the 10/22, as expected.

What surprised me was that he hogged the 9mm Glock. Once he found out he could make the little tangelos dance, I think I got to shoot 4 rounds out of the 150 we brought. I'm not complaining, though, because I've been trying to get him to start competing, and success with the Glock will make it a little easier to talk him into shooting a GSSF match this summer.

Of course, he got to experience all the other fine points of a range day, mostly reloading magazines. But he also learned proper range etiquette, and how to paste targets.

Now, the one gun I couldn't get him to try was the Mosin Nagant. In all honesty, I did spend the morning building up the recoil until he was expecting a small nuclear explosion when I lit it off. Oh, well. Honestly, it wasn't that bad.

We were both very impressed by the M60. Yes, the family of 4 on the end had a belt fed M60. I have to assume it was semi-auto, or these people were a lot more disciplined than I would be, because they never lit it off full auto.

One interesting thing to report, and I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else has had this happen. I brought along some Russian surplus 7.62x54R ammo for the Mosin Nagant, a brand called Barnaul. I opened it and fed a few, and I happened to notice that one of the rounds had a brass case instead of the painted steel case the others had, but I had also noticed that before with 7.62x39. In any case, when the brass round came up in the magazine, I could not get it to feed at all. Eventually I had to open the bottom of the magazine and drop all the rounds out.

Well, it turned out that in the box of 50, there were four of these brass cased rounds, and they were not 7.62.54R. They were about the same overall length, but much narrower, so they would not feed. I don't know what kind of ammo it is, but now I have 4 rounds to add to my Orphan Ammo Collection. (Pix to follow.)

After about 3 hours at the range, 150 rounds of 9mm, a couple hundred rounds of .22, and 15 rounds of 7.62x54R, we were ready to go. So, we cleaned up (always bring a black garbage bag!) and headed home, with plenty of good tales to tell. The conversation on the ride home told me we both have a lot to look forward to.

Safety Redux

I ran across this post about gun safety at the Guffaw in AZ gun blog. Interesting first person illustration of why the Four Rules of Gun Safety are important.

Previous post: Making Safety First Nature

Just One Question

Can you demonstrate one time or place, throughout all history, where the average person was made safer by restricting access to handheld weapons?

I think this is the most compelling Blog posting I've ever read. It's from Joe Huffman at The View from North Central Idaho. Read it. Learn it. Ask it. And if anyone ever gives you a compelling answer, share it.

New Contest - Name the SKS

Why do people name their guns?

I named my first Glock 17 after Bruce Willis, because my wife suggested I buy a gun she could shoot and not have to count the rounds fired, just like he does in the movies.

Since then I’ve come to realize a secondary benefit of naming my guns. If we’re in a subway station late at night and my wife asks “Is the Duke coming with us?” it draws a lot less attention than if she asks “Hey, are you carrying your Glock 21?”

Now, I’ve had many names for my SKS, but none of them have been memorable enough to stick. It’s a Norinco, all matching serial numbers. Of course, I’ve added a few aftermarket parts, including a tactical stock and foregrip.

So, please help me pick a name.

Please submit your choices for a name, and reasons if you have them (provenance lends interest, after all), and I will choose a winner, which I will announce on Friday April 15. The winning submittal will receive accolades and the admiration of the masses, in addition to Gun Naming Immortality.

Adventures in Permitting

Since I’ve owned guns I’ve lived in three states, so I have had the pleasure of holding Concealed Carry Permits in three very different states. The processes to obtain and renew those licenses are as varied as they come.

I believe the Second Amendment guarantees to citizens the right to carry concealed firearms, and there should be no government regulation of that right for those citizens who can lawfully own a gun. But, living in the real world, we are forced to deal with the system we have. For those unfamiliar, there are basically three kinds of permit processes for concealed carry in the United States. The first is my favorite, so-called Constitutional Carry, and requires no permit. Vermont, Alaska, and Arizona currently have this system and a lot of others are considering it.

For states that require a permit for carry, there are two kinds of processes, May Issue and Shall Issue. May Issue means the permitting authority May Issue you a license if they deem you are worthy, and usually if you can prove the need for the license. In Shall Issue states, the permitting authority Shall Issue your permit, unless they can prove you are not eligible for the license. It really comes down to the burden of proof: in May Issue states, the burden is on the applicant to prove the need, while in Shall Issue states the burden is on the issuer to prove the applicant is ineligible.

When I first got a pistol, I lived in Alabama, which was and is a May Issue state. From what I know about other May Issue states, Alabama is the easiest to get permits. My experience was simple. I went to the Sheriff’s office in the county seat, and filled out an application, and paid $10. Five days later I got a call that my background check was clean, and I could come get my license.

Although the permit was good for only a year, renewal of the license was much easier. I went back to the Sheriff’s office and filled out a renewal application, and the clerk looked up my name in her computer to be sure I hadn’t gotten in trouble in the past year. She then called into the other room and told the Sheriff that she had a renewal, and told him my name. The Sheriff stuck his head in the room, looked at me, and said “Yeah, he’s good.” I paid my $5 and was on my way.

When I moved to Arkansas and wanted to get a permit there, I found a different situation. Arkansas is a Shall Issue state, and requires applicants to complete a training course, pay for fingerprints, and pay a $144 permit fee, that’s not refundable if the permit is denied. The permit is good for five years. At the time, I also had to list the serial numbers of no more than 5 guns that I would be carrying, which, to me, was de facto licensing of my guns. I got all the forms from the State Police office in my town, completed my training, paid to be fingerprinted, and mailed it all off. The law allows up to 120 days for the process to be completed, but six weeks later, I had my permit. Then five years later, I went through it all again.

When I moved to Georgia, I found a process that was about in the middle. Georgia is a Shall Issue state. I got a money order for the permit fee and background check fee, and went to the county courthouse. The application was easy to complete, and fingerprinting was actually done by a scanner rather than the traditional ink and paper. Four weeks later I had my permit, although the law give them 60 days. Georgia’s permit is good for five years, and I realized recently that I’ve lived back here long enough to have to renew my permit for the second time. My, how time flies.

Another interesting point here in Georgia is some changes that happened last year. For a long time, knives with blades over five inches were in a regulatory black hole. The law covered knives under five inches, but there was nothing about knives longer than that. The fix – a couple of sentences in a gun law passed in 2010. One changed the name of the Georgia Firearms License to the Georgia Weapons License, and another said that handguns and knives were weapons. Done.

So, how do I feel now about these processes?

• I advocate Constitutional Carry in all 50 states and DC. In the era of instant computerized background information being available to law enforcement, the argument that it provides security to officers is no longer valid. It just remains a de facto tax on gun owners that should be ended.

• I know there are times, like when purchasing a gun, where having a permit makes the process quicker, because the permit holder has already been checked out, and there is an active record of that check. But, a gun owner could choose to pay for a voluntary NICS background check, and have proof of that handy when buying a gun.

• I would recommend training to anyone who is considering owning a gun for protection, regardless of whether you plan to carry concealed or not. But, I would not require that training as a condition of getting a permit.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to set a reminder to renew my permit this fall.

Getting Better by Going Small

One way I have found to get better at shooting is to make the target smaller, and make the caliber smaller if you can. An example – this past weekend I spent a couple of hours shooting bumblebees with a regular old Daisy BB gun. I stood on my driveway while the bees flew around the gutters on the back of my house, which are full of pollen these days. I figure most of the shots were from about 20 feet, and although they did go out to maybe twice that, I didn’t have any success out much farther than 25 feet.

Shooting bees with a BB gun is as hard as it sounds. In fact, I played around with the photo above, so that the bee is just about life size, to give you an idea of what you're up against. But with practice, you can get pretty good at it. It uses a lot of the skills you need for wing shooting or trap – you basically follow the bee with both eyes open, and use the front sight of the gun like the bead on a shotgun. The difference is a clay pigeon doesn’t bob and weave.

I hit two bees while in flight, and believe me, when you can shoot that way, then when they land, they’re toast. A third bee landed on the under side of the gutter, and my first shot hit him mid thorax.

A quick word, if you try this – remember Rule 4! Always know what is behind the bees in case you miss. In my case, there’s 20 acres of woods, but if I slide around trying to get a better shot, the end of the parabola is probably in a neighbor’s yard, so I hold fire and move back around.

This isn’t my only Go Small drill. I also cut out some pieces of aluminum in the shape of a tombstone target, but sized much smaller. By making a 2 inch target, and setting it at 33 yards, I simulate a 2 foot target at 400 yards. Once I work out how high to hold, I can usually get hits half the time after that. The aluminum makes a nice ping, and down it goes.

My son and his friends had a ball with me Saturday, shooting these tombstone targets. Then I set out some 5 inch clay pigeons, and they didn’t stand a chance. Once they could Go Small, the bigger targets were easy.

We started out a couple of years ago, shooting 8 inch aluminum pie pans hung on the back fence, about 40 yards from the driveway. Unless it’s windy and they are swinging and fluttering, though, these don’t seem quite the challenge they once were.

Now, I’m not the first to discover this. I remember reading Rogue Warrior by Richard Marcinko, one of the founders of Seal Team Six. His standard was to use 3 x 5 index cards as targets for his Seal Team, since it represented the size of the target zone on a terrorist. It stuck with me, so I must give credit to Dead Eye Dick. Thanks!

Making Safety First Nature

I am a chemical engineer by training. All my life, in school or at work, safety and safety training has been the first thing we give our attention to. So when I started shooting, gun safety was foremost in my mind, and I’ve worked to keep it that way.

So when my wife and kids wanted to learn to shoot, I started by teaching them the rules of gun safety. In the case of my kids, I started early, and I repeat the rules often. For instance, the Rules of Gun Safety are posted in my garage and in my son’s game room:

0. Always wear eye protection, and hearing protection where warranted.
1. All guns are always loaded.
2. Never let the muzzle cover anything which you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger OFF the trigger until your sights are on the target.
4. Always be sure of your target and what’s behind it.
5. Never try to catch a dropped gun.

These modeled on the classic rules first listed in this form by Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper at the Gunsite Academy. The fifth rule comes from a recent an article in Shooting Illustrated by Chance Ballew of the Say Uncle blog. Rule Zero, or “Eyes and Ears!” as we call it, should be obvious, but will probably be the topic of a future post.

So, how do you teach these things so they become, not second nature, but first nature? Simply, by making training an everyday thing. Even the Bible says in Deuteronomy 11:19, “Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” When you see a gun rule violated on TV, point it out. Even better, when you see an actor or policeman or soldier on TV following a rule, point that out, too. Positive reinforcement works.

Sometimes, though, the training has to get tough. My son has a Daisy Lever Action Range Model BB Gun (alas, not with a compass in the stock, or this thing that tells time) that we gave him as for his birthday when he was 9. At that time, I kept it in my gun safe along with my other rifles, and we would only take it out to shoot together.

One day, I took it out and handed it to him. He checked to be sure the safety was on, and turned it muzzle down. As we got the rest of our gear out, I asked, “Hey, is that loaded?”

He shook it, and there was no sound of any BBs, so he said, “No.”

Wrong answer. “Sorry, Bud, what’s Rule Number 1?” At that point, the gun went back in the safe, and we had to wait to shoot another day.

Thus began the weeping and gnashing of teeth, but I held firm to my decision. Was I cruel to a young child? Or just being a tough teacher? I can tell you that he still remembers, 5 or so years later.

When we are on the range, we call each other on the rules. If someone has a finger inside the trigger guard, we call “Finger!” And if someone gets careless with the muzzle of a gun, we are all free to help them point the muzzle down, and call “Muzzle!” And because of that day with the BB gun and Rule 1, he knows that flagrant violations will make me call a stop to the shooting session.

Does the training work? For me, consider I’ve been shooting for fun and competitively since 1992, and I’ve never had a negligent discharge, nor been disqualified from a match for any reason. For my son, I think this says it all - when he and his friends break out the Airsoft or Nerf rifles for a little force on force “Tactical Tag,” every guy in the group has on safety glasses, fingers outside the triggers as they move, and move with muzzles pointed in safe directions. And as a bystander, I’ve never been hit by a stray round, which must speak to Rule 4.