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W W W.WA LT H E R A R M S .C O M

 WALK TOUGH: ARE YOU READY?

48 A TACTICAL VACATION:
TACTICAL RESPONSE
44

52

M&P SERIES:
AS&W
FAMILY OF DEFENSIVE FIREARMS

FIGHTING FROM YOUR BIKE!

64 SOMETHING UP YOUR SLEEVE:
THE ARMSBAND HOLSTER

60

58

94

MOTIVATION FOR TRAINING!

72 BUSINESS IS BOOMING!
SHOT SHOW 2013

68

76

WITH YOUR
TALK
KIDS ABOUT GUNS

80

MEDICINE:
TACTICAL
TEXAS STYLE!

84

THE TRAINER:
TRAINING
THE THIRD TENET

88

ASK!
JUST
QUESTIONS ABOUT LASERS

92

COUNTER-OFFENSIVE
THE
RIFLE: PART ONE

101

MAG 80: MASSAD AYOOB

TAKES
IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

106

CALLING 911: DO IT CORRECTLY

COLUMNS

26

30

BALLISTIC BASICS:
TRIGGER
SLACK AND GRIT

32

LEGALLY ARMED CITIZEN:

YOUR
CCW MISSION

36

ITS JUST THE LAW:

RULES
OF RETREAT

40

WORLD CARRY GEAR:

REAL
FIELD -TESTED GEAR THAT WORKS.

42

DEFCON 1: THE WAR ON GUNS

DEPARTMENTS

28

7
8
6

32

PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
EDITORS SHOT
ASK THE USCCA: AN OPEN
FORUM FOR USCCA MEMBERS

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

12 TRUE STORIES: TALES OF
DEFENSE FROM AROUND THE NATION

10

ABOUT THE COVER

15 LEGISLATIVE NEWS
18 DRILL OF THE MONTH
20 BEHIND THE LINE
22 MEMBER PROFILE
24 USCCA ONLINE & ON THE AIR:
MULTI-MEDIA MAYHEM
14

36

114

ONE TO THE HEAD:

THE
DEFINITION OF STUPID!

5
WWW.USCCA.COM

40

APRIL 2013

GEAR WE LOVE
110 INSTRUCTORS CORNER:
ALIGN YOUR MUZZLE
26

PRESIDENTS

MESSAGE

BY TIM SCHMIDT

WINNING THE WAR

ON GUN CONTROL

IT STARTED WITH A MESSAGE through our Facebook fan page.

On March 1st, Elisa Dahlberg, who is

a student at the University of Colorado, asked us for help in spreading the
word about a dangerous gun control bill
working its way through the Colorado
legislature that would have criminalized
what has been legal for ten years: concealed carry on campus. In those ten
years, there has never been a recorded incident of any permitted student
threatening another student or faculty member, or committing a crime, or
having a negligent discharge, yet state
representative Claire Levy (D) and state
senator Rollie Heath (D) moved to make
Colorado campuses gun-free zones,
because they didnt want to make other
students or faculty members feel uncomfortable.
In Elisas words, This bill is a sneak attack
on public safety and on womens rights. If
enacted, this bill will prohibit concealed
carry inside college buildings, effectively
banning concealed carry everywhere on
campus, and disarming permit holders as
they commute to and from school. During
my commute, whether Im stopping at a
gas station early in the morning, or returning to my car late at night, Im well
aware that there were 2,278 forcible rapes
reported in Colorado in 2011. And while
youd like to believe that Id be safe once
Im actually on campus, the Department
of Education estimates that more than
3,000 forcible rapes occur on college
campuses each year. Im actually lucky
compared to many students, since I commute to school in my car. Other women
and men that walk to campus from their

off-campus housing are at even greater

risk. This bill bans more than concealed
carry on campusit bans self-defense
OFF campus.
In coordination with Elisa and Katherine Whitney, a second year law student at
the University of Colorado, we created a
series of Facebook posts and shared a video of Amanda Collins testifying before the
Colorado Senate State Affairs Committee.
If you havent yet seen this video, I urge
you to. Youll be wiping your eyes before
the end. Amanda had a concealed carry
permit when she was brutally raped within the gun free zone at the University of
Nevada at Reno in October, 2007. She left
her firearm at home to abide by Nevada
state law, which had arbitrarily defined
college campuses as gun free zones.
Testifying alongside Amanda was Kimberly Weeks, also a rape survivor and college
student. For Amanda and Kimberly, this
battle was not business; it was personal.
In eight days, the USCCA brought this
story to more than five million people
through Facebook and YouTube, as well
as through print ads in the Denver Post.
One key exchange during testimony that
brought the greatest backlash against the
bill, was when Senator Evie Hudak scolded Amanda, telling her that even if shed
had a gun, Statistics are not on your side
to have stopped the rape. The senator
later apologized to Amanda, but as the
Denver Post commented, a video of the
exchange went viral. Sensing the overwhelming pressure on Democrat lawmakers, on March 8th at 11:40 p.m., senator
Rollie Heath shelved the bill indefinitely.

So what does this teach us? It tells me

that when leaders like Katherine Whitney,
Elisa Dahlberg, Amanda Collins, and Kimberly Weeks stand up and lead, and when
millions of Americans like you demand
that your voices be heard, we can change
America for the better. It means that your
voice matters. It means that if you simply
lend your voice to a worthy cause, you
can see lasting and effective change in
your local, state, and federal government.
One simple way you can play an important role in causes like this is by joining our Facebook Fan Page, where well
continue to share information about other dangerous bills. Our nearly one million
fans on Facebook took this message viral
in eight days, breaking all of our previous
records on Facebook. With your continued help, we can use Facebook and our
other information channels as a place to
voice our beliefs and promote the values
we hold dear. I urge you to join us in the
battle for liberty, freedom, and safety, if
not for your sake, for the sake of generations to come.
This is not business. Its personal.
Take care and stay safe,
Tim Schmidt

President USCCA

EDITORS

SHOT

BY KEVIN MICHALOWSKI

DO YOU KNOW THE RULES?

You carry your pistol. You are ready.

You are prepared for what the world may throw at you.
You are giving criminal predators an opportunity to
make a fatal error in the victim-selection process.
BUT DO YOU KNOW THE RULES?

Train Hard,
Kevin Michalowski
Executive Editor,
Concealed Carry Magazine

7
WWW.USCCA.COM

thrown out and the judge issued a stern

warning to all law enforcement: The simple act of legally carrying a firearm is not
a crime and does not rise to the level of
disorderly conduct.
So word got out. People started learning the rules. Then the states CCW law
passed and 150,000 of us rushed to get
permits. The best thing I could say about
the permitting process is that each envelope carrying a permit also contains a

APRIL 2013

Yes, there are rules. These rules are

huge, complicated state statutes and,
in some cases, municipal codes. And
they are important. You need to
know them, understand them
and follow them. We are, after
all, law-abiding gun owners.
That is how we want the rest
of the country to think of us.
That is how we should act.
Living in Wisconsin, I
waited a good long time
for a concealed carry law
to be passed. I occasionally opted to carry openly in
accordance with the law, but
there was always the concern
that I might get the restaurant
treatment the way a group of open
carry advocates got in Madison. If you
dont remember the story, five guys went
into a fast-food restaurant with guns on
their hips. A skittish anti-gunner then
called police to check and see if it was
legal. It was, of course, but the local Madison cops didnt get the memo. They demanded I.D. from the members of the
group. Well, police cant demand I.D.
unless you are suspected of committing
a crime. No one was suspected of committing a crime, so they politely refused.
And immediately got cited for disorderly conduct. The charges were eventually

pamphlet outlining the rules. This is wonderful and important. But I wonder how
many permit holders really read the whole
thing and kept it for future reference.
This is good stuff. It opens, as it should
with a section on firearms safety before
moving on to sections labeled: Law Enforcement Contact, Prohibited Locations, School Grounds and Premises,
Taverns and Alcohol and more. The
segments explain clearly what is
and isnt allowed and suggest you
look up the proper state statute for
exceptions and explanations.
My favorite section is labeled If
You Use Your Weapon in Self-Defense. It happens to be the longest of the sections and provides
valuable information about how
you will be treated by police provided you follow the rules and
dont do anything stupid. Near
the end of the segment readers
see a reassuring sentence: Off-duty
police officers involved in a shooting
are handled in this same manner.
I decided to keep this piece of paper
and review it from time to time. Assuming other states are as responsible as Wisconsin, I suggest you seek out and review
your states rules concerning concealed
carry. Knowledge is power. Keep on the
right side of the law and prove to the
world gun owners are good people.

ASK THE

USCCA

COULD YOU EXPLAIN a little bit about the Gun Show Loophole?

APRIL 2013

8
WWW.USCCA.COM

Charles, dont feel bad that you havent

figured out exactly what the media and
anti-gun politicians mean by the term,
gun show loophole. Like the term, assault weapon, its a made-up term that has
less to do with reality, and more to do with
scaring people, or pretending to be tough
on crime. Heres the reality. In most jurisdictions, its legal for a father to sell a firearm to a son, or a neighbor to sell a firearm
to a neighbor, without going through the
same background check thats conducted
when purchasing a firearm from a licensed
dealer. Officially, these transactions are
called private sales. Private sales are legal, and are not the same thing as straw
sales which occur when a person who is
not barred from owning a firearm, buys a
gun on behalf of someone who is legally
barred from owning a firearm. In other
words, sales that occur between gang
members out of car trunks in back alleys
are illegal sales, not private sales. Where
this ties back to gun shows (or at least,
where the anti-gun crowd tries to tie it
back to gun shows) is that in addition to
the thousands of transactions conducted
by licensed dealers at shows, private transactions can also occur between visitors, no
differently than if the transaction had occurred in the living room or garage of the
individuals conducting the transaction.

But heres the problem. The anti-gunners

arent just looking at ending private sales
at gun shows, theyre looking at ending
the practice altogether. That is not a logical step to reduce crime. Almost no crime
can be traced to guns bought and sold
through private sales, whether the private
sale was conducted at a gun show, a farm
field, or a front porch. Gang violence is
overwhelmingly responsible for the largest number of firearm deaths in the United States, and those gang members are
not purchasing their guns at gun shows
(the idea itself is laughable, considering
these shows are literally crawling with
ATF agents and state and local law enforcement). Instead, the majority of those
transactions occur as straw purchases, or
through illegal sales of stolen guns. The
renewed call for an end to the so called
gun show loophole has been driven by
the shooting at Sandy Hook elementary
school in Connecticut, but of course, those
guns didnt come into the possession of
Adam Lanza because of a private sale at a
gun show. Ending private sales would not
have prevented Sandy Hook, but it will do
one thing, and one thing only. It will set
the U.S. on the path of universal gun registration, which for the U.K. and Australia,
was the beginning of the end for responsibly armed citizens.

Charles K., Auburn, WA

Can they dig up a 20-year-old

expunged record to possibly deny
a CCW in Minnesota?
Eric H., Minneapolis, MN

Eric, the real answer to that question

will depend upon whatever was on the expunged record, and whether or not your
county sheriff will uncover the expunged
record when conducting your background
check. In Minnesota, there are a number
of reasons why a sheriff can deny your permit application, the biggest reason being
if youre ineligible to own a firearm. Since
your record was expunged, well assume
that whatever was on it didnt make you
ineligible to own a firearm, and thats really what sheriffs are looking for when they
conduct a check of the Minnesota Crime
Information system, and the NICS check.
That said, if the sheriff does discover something that he or she doesnt like, Minnesota law allows them to deny your permit on
the grounds that they believe youd be a
danger to self or others. If the sheriff goes
that route though, theyre going to have
to be willing to back up their decision in
district court, and if the court reverses the
sheriff s decision, the sheriff s office will
have to pay your legal fees. Our suggestion is to contact Minnesota Firearms Attorney Marc Berris at marc@berrislaw.com
and get his advice.

TO SUBMIT A QUESTION TO ASK THE USCCA,

VISIT US ON FACEBOOK AT FACEBOOK.COM/USCCA

President & CEO

Tim Schmidt
Publisher
Delta Defense

My wife is considering getting her

concealed carry permit, but her
co-workers told her she couldnt
carry at work. She works for the
State of Michigan in one of the
large office buildings behind the
capital. I know you cant carry in a
federal building but I found nothing
in the law about state buildings.
Gabe R., Lake Odessa, MI

Michael C., Vancouver, WA

Lock and load Michael. No state in the

U.S. bars permit holders from carrying
a round in the chamber, in fact in most
states, a handgun is considered legally
loaded if a magazine with live rounds is
inserted into the magazine well, regardless of whether a round is chambered.
Now lets talk about whether its a good
idea or a bad idea to carry with a round in
the chamber, and to do that, well ask you
a question. Do you consider your firearm
to be a device that youre willing to train
with until youre confident and competent with its operation, and do you understand and accept the fact that someday you may need to make the ultimate
choice and fire that handgun at another
human being to save your own life or the
life of another person? The reality is, if
you ever are the target of a violent attack,
youll need every millisecond available
in order to repel the attack, and adding
a slide rack into the process might mean
the difference between life and death. In
addition, under the dramatic stress associated with an attack, your reactions are
going to be limited to the automated
responses driven by your lower brain,
and to things that youve performed
thousands of times previously. So unless
youve drawn from the holster and racked
the slide to chamber a round thousands
of times in training, you might find yourself pressing the trigger on an empty
chamber when it really matters. So back
to our question. If your answer was Yes,
then you should carry with a round in the
chamber. If the answer is No, then you
should not be carrying in the first place.
Michael Martin

Vice President of Media

Michael Martin
Executive Editor
Kevin Michalowski
Media Director
Ken Wangler
Art Director
Dusty Reid
Copy Editor
Marilyn Weishaar
Photographers
Ken Wangler Dusty Reid
Columnists
Bruce N. Eimer, Ph.D. Tamara Keel
K.L. Jamison, ESQ. Duane A. Daiker,
M.D. Johnson Duncan Mackie
Mark Walters Tim Schmidt
Michael Martin
Contributing Writers
R.K. Campbell Karl Rehn
Greg Ellifritz Rich Grassi
Duane A. Daiker Bob Pilgrim
Mary Weddington George Harris Rob
Pincus Rick Sapp CR Williams
Advertising Sales
Bruce Wolberg
715.281.4075
ads@deltamediallc.com
Published for USCCA by:

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(877) 677-1919 Customer Service
(262) 677-8877 USCCA
Concealed Carry Magazine (USPS: 022-302,
ISSN: 1550-7866), Volume 10, Issue 3,
April 2013 Issue. Published 8 times a year,
monthly except combined issues:
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APRIL 2013

9
Signed articles in Concealed Carry Magazine reflect the views of the
author, and are not necessarily the views of the editors at
Delta Defense, LLC. Concealed Carry Magazine and the U.S. Concealed
Carry Association are registered trademarks of Delta Defense, LLC.
All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2004-2013 by Delta Defense, LLC.
Reproduction, copying, or distribution of Concealed Carry Magazine
is prohibited without written permission.

WWW.USCCA.COM

Great question Gabe. While section

RCW 9.41.300 of Michigan law does identify a number of places where firearms are
not allowed, nowhere does it list state
buildings. Now lets talk about the difference between the law, and employer policies. As an employee of the state
or any other entity, your wife is going to
have to live within certain policies, most
likely explained in her employee manual.
While employer policy cant discriminate
based upon things like race, sex, or religion, it can discriminate based upon expected behavior, such as whether or not
employees are allowed to carry firearms
while on state business or in state offices.
Wed suggest that your wife quietly read
through her employee manual, but let
her know that she shouldnt be surprised
if she discovers that as a permit holder,
she can carry on state property, but as an
employee, she cannot. That disparity exists in thousands of workplaces across the
United States, most notably at hundreds
of universities and colleges, where visitors
are able to properly protect themselves,
but employees and students are rendered
defenseless by misguided policies. The
reason we suggest that your wife do this
research quietly is that she can bet that
somewhere in her chain of command will
be an anti-gun zealot, who would like
nothing better than to get rid of a gun
nut who dared to ask about carrying a
gun to work. Personally, we feel most safe
when surrounded by all the pistol packing
gun nuts at Delta Defense. There arent
many offices in the U.S. that are safer.

In Washington state, can I legally

have a round chambered when
carrying concealed?

LETTERS TO THE

EDITOR

DO YOU CARRY PROUD? We recently published

an editorial by yours truly in our Concealed Carry Report, a weekly email

newsletter of the USCCA. The gist of the editorial was to ask a question:
How can we win the public relations battle in the gun rights war? You see
if we broadcast that we are good, honest participants in the concealed
carry lifestyle then we give up that tactical advantage we are provided
by having our gun concealed. The response was more than I could have
hoped for. I got nearly 100 letters and that is not counting the comments
on the web site. Here are a few on both sides of the issue. Where do you
stand? Would you wear a t-shirt in support of the Second Amendment?

CARRY PROUD,
SHOW YOUR PRIDE

I think we can do both. When carrying

concealed in public we need to keep our
tactical advantage. When you want to
broadcast your pride contact your elected
officials.
Fonda Gaynier, Via email

CANT CARRY A COP

Kevin
and Tim,
Best reason for concealed carry Ive seen yet
was a man holding a sign at a demonstration at the Capitol in Harrisburg, PA. It read,
I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy.
We both have concealed permits.
Bob and Jill Fisher, North East, PA

PROUD
IBE
believe the public relations of C&C is

APRIL 2013

10
WWW.USCCA.COM

extremely important. There is no way to

know any scenario you may face but the
chances of coming up against a threat
that has targeted you because you have a
pro-2nd Amendment shirt, NRA or even a
USCCA shirt is very unlikely.
I take that chance. Like you said the
public relations part of it is so important.
Some people are going to know by word of
mouth, catching a glimpse of your weapon, or whatever, that you carry. If that person meets you and you are not what they
stereotyped as a gun-wielding cowboy,
you may change someones mind about
guns. Good PR is everything. You must be
a goodrepresentative of your beliefs.
I live in Missouri, here we are and should
be held to a higher standard to be able
to carry, and I think its important people
know that.
John Volner, St. Louis

KEEP IT UNDERCOVER
When
I first got my carry permit I want-

ed everyone to know. I was going to put

the stickers on my truck and whatever else
I could. A friend and instructor warned me
before I did it that if I was ever stopped for
speeding or a tail light out a police officer
might approach differently than if they
were not there. I can see his point and I
have changed my outlook on broadcasting my carrying. I believe it is best to be
concealed and safe than otherwise. Remember the old saying Its better to be
thought a fool than to open your mouth
and remove all doubt. I believe the same
goes with carrying. Keep it undercover!!!
Daniel Teele, Via email
Daniel,
I can tell you that as a working cop I approach every traffic stop the same way: assuming the occupants are armed and ready
to kill me. Only after I make contact do I
change my view and then only based on the
actions of the occupants and other evidence
at the scene. I can tell you I have never found
drugs in a car with a pro-gun sticker on the
bumper. But I bet I will someday.
Kevin Michalowski
Executive Editor, Concealed Carry Magazine

MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Dear
Kevin Michalowski,
I would submit that carrying concealed
and broadcasting our love are two mutually exclusive subsets of carrying weapons.
You can do both, but not at the same
time. If you are carrying concealed, then
you are likely doing so in order to protect
yourself or the general clueless public
around you.To wear anything that identifies you as agun-bearer obviously com-

promises your ability to do your job in

defending either yourself or those around
you. Someone wearing 2A apparel and
carrying concealed is apparently needing
a little ego boost at the expense of compromising not only their security but that
of others whom they might also be protecting, because they WILL draw fire unless the perp cant read. I only hope they
are wearing plenty of body armor. And I
hope that the precious seconds the perp
spends trying to eliminate them (hopefully unsuccessfully) gives me time to bring
my hip and ankle guns to bear.The more
we blend in the more likely we will be
able to return fire (and survive).
There are other ways to broadcast our
love of the 2nd Amendment, personally
and publicly, without compromising our
duty to protect the general clueless public
and ourselves: talk to or write your state and
national representatives (you dont have to
be eloquent--in fact, less eloquent is probably more effective), financially support,
within your means, those organizations
youbelieve will advocate for your right to
defend yourself, and let those around you
PERSONALLY know where you stand.
Choosing to protect yourself, in a
slaughter, is a God-given right and you
should not expect gratitude for it.Choosing to protect others is a service to God
(or your fellow man) and you shouldnt expect any gratitude from that either.
My advice to you, my co-citizen (brother) Kevin, with all due respect, is to do
both, but not at the same time. Let the
bad guys assume we are all armed, all
ready, to defend personallyour lives, our
children, and our fellow Americans. The
bottom line of the Declaration of Independence (200+ years ago): to this we
pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
Mike Applewhite, LTC(Ret.), US Army

TALK IS CHEAP.
TAKE ACTION

Kevin, Im fortunate to live in a place

that is (comparatively) cc friendly. (I recently went to the courthouse to renew
my permit and I felt like the people there
were giving me a tea in my honor.)
Im for getting the message out, just like
you. I like the concept of addressing nongun owners like its astounding they dont

have a cc permit (just in case). People who

really know me, know me. Everyone else
I do not want to connect me with guns
in any way. I may discuss the issues, but
I dont want cc in the forefront as it relates
to me.
However. There is one thing thatconscientious 2A supporters can do that leaves a
lasting impression. If one does not have
a cc permit, get one, even if you have no
intention of using it. In some cases, its a
lot of work. And it can be pricey, with, perhaps, required training, permit fees, etc.
But it sends a message to politicians
and the rest of the population that you
put your money where your mouth
is. You will spare no expense to promote
freedom and Constitutional authority. And it puts you into a class above
mere petition signers (which is certainly
better than not being heard at all). It also
creates a statistic that states the relative
numbers of individuals that could be
armed at any given moment. It creates a
comfort zone in the undecided/2A-hostile community when they read that
half of their neighbors, at least some of
whom they might respect, are out there,
armed at any given moment, and are not
a threat. It says that firearms are a permanent fixture in this community and
gun-grabbers need not run for office
here. As an added benefit, it tells the
prospective, calculating, punk that today
he might not be so lucky.
Im all for talk, but.... talk is cheap. You
do us all a service. Thanks.
David Williams, Via email

EVEN THE REVEREND

CARRIES

saved because they owned and used a

firearm. Someone needs to start publishGREAT message! Id be a USCCA mem- ing stories and statistics to let the backber today, in the flash of a second if I did ward (definitely not progressive) thinking
not live in such a pathetic and dangerous liberals that guns are not meant for huntstateMaryland. Here, my state will not ing. Their primary purpose is self-defense
allow me to protect my family or myself. and to protect thecitizenryfrom becomI cannot conceal carry. If this should ever ingsubjects. The primary difference being
change, Ill be a LIFETIME member of USC- the right to keep and bear arms.
CA!!! Ill volunteer to help spread the word
Edward A. Nauman, Via Email
about USCCA! Just have to get Maryland
politicians out and some real people in
Edward,
our Annapolis office! I have my fingers
We try to do that with every edition.
crossed and my prayers said. AlsoI LOVE Check out our True Stories and Legislative
THE INFORMATION that you send out to News sections.
me! USCCA seems awesome!
Kevin Michalowski
God Bless!
Executive Editor, Concealed Carry Magazine
Kenneth L. Smith, Via email
Kenneth,
Join USCCA anyway! Use the information
to help pressure your lawmakers and encourage your friends to do the same. Stand
together and push ahead. We are all in this
together.
Kevin Michalowski
Executive Editor, Concealed Carry Magazine

THE WELL-DRESSED
PISTOLEER

How about some guidance in finding

concealment clothing?
Ty Choate, Via Email
Ty,
The July issue will be all about apparel for
both men and women.
Kevin Michalowski
Executive Editor, Concealed Carry Magazine

LETS TALK ABOUT THE

GOOD THINGS

saw Karl Rehns Is A Pocket Gun Enough?

and ended up digging out my calculator.
Mr. Rehn cites police statistics to show
that only about 30 percent of shootings
require more than five shots. Ive seen
other stats saying that only about 15 percent of firearm-defense incidents require
firing at all, as bad guys traditionally back
off when faced with a gun.
Lets say a typical USCCA member has
one self-defense incident each year. In
probability, the fractions multiply, so
30/100 times 15/100 times 1/365. Working it out, we get 1 chance out of 8111 of
needing bullet #6 on any given day. Experience tends to support this, as most of us
go many years without shooting anyone.
Of course, individual situations vary,
but this is now my standard response to
anyone who says my new M&P Shield
dont hold enough rounds. Feel free to
use it yourself.
Darrell Bates, Via email
Darrell,
It was my understanding when I took
this job I would not be required to do math
or lift heavy things. Now my head hurts. But
thanks for doing the math for us
Kevin Michalowski
Executive Editor, Concealed Carry Magazine

11
WWW.USCCA.COM

Mr. Schmidt,
Im not a subscriber at this time. I already
have more magazines than I can manage
to read every month. I am however, a life
member of the NRA and a firm believer of
the second amendment. I do have a publishing suggestion though. The news is
filled with stories of how the public is vilified with the evil assault rifle and those
terriblesemi-automaticweapons.
We never, and probably will never, see
stories (at least in the Democrat-controlled
media) of the hundreds of people whose
lives and or the lives of their families were

HOW MANY BULLETS?

Looking
at the October 2012 issue, I

APRIL 2013

I agree with you, Kevin. Even as an early

CCW citizen I could never understand why
USCCA sent me a bumper sticker and offered additional exposure pieces with my
new membership. Yes, I am thrilled to be a
responsibly armed, CCW, law-abiding citizen. But I certainly do not want to be a
walking billboard for all the bad guys and
bad girls to be extra prepared around me.
If I do that, I have just blown the primary
advantage of carrying concealed.
Thank you for the excellent article.
Rev. James T. Meadows, Via email

LETS SPREAD THE WORD

TRUE

STORIES

OHIO MAN SHOOTS ROBBER WHILE

DEFENDING 2-MONTH-OLD SON

A Columbus man was in the driveway of his home about 9 p.m.

when an armed man approached him, put a gun to his head and
demanded money. Fearful for the life of his infant son, whom he
was holding in a car seat, he handed over what money he had.
As the robber was leaving, he turned back and pointed his gun
at the homeowner and his child. The homeowner drew a pistol
and fired on the robber, who fled the scene. Police arrested a
man fitting the suspects description when he sought treatment for a gunshot wound; he will face robbery charges if the
police investigation determines he is the suspect in the robbery.

ALABAMA MAN
ATTEMPTS GAS
STATION ROBBERY
WITH KNIFE

When two men, one armed, entered a southwest Las Vegas

jewelry store and demanded money from one of the stores
employees, they hadnt counted on getting armed resistance.
Another employee drew his legally carried handgun and fired on
the gun-wielding robber, hitting him several times and putting
him and his partner to flight. The armed robber was arrested
a short time later after seeking treatment for his wounds at a
local hospital. Police are seeking his accomplice.

A Huntsville man found out

the hard way that a gun
trumps a knife when he
pulled one on a gas station
clerk in an attempt to rob
him. The store clerk drew
his legally carried pistol and
stopped the crime cold without firing a shot. The wouldbe robber fled the store and
was apprehended a short
time later; he faces first-degree robbery charges.

The Review-Journal, Las Vegas, NV

WAFF Channel 48, Huntsville, AL

10TV.com, Columbus, OH

NEVADA JEWELRY STORE CLERK

STOPS ARMED ROBBERY

 COLORADO MAN
FIGHTS OFF THREE
HOME INVADERS

15-YR. OLD USES ASSAULT WEAPON

TO DEFEND SELF AND SISTER

Two men attempted a mid-day home invasion near Houston, with one trying the front door and the other the rear
door, and finally breaking a window to gain entry. Seeing
what was happening, the 15-year-old boy at home with
his sister took his fathers AR-15 and fired on the intruders,
hitting one of them three times and putting both to flight.
Both home invaders were apprehended at a local hospital
when they sought medical treatment. Police say the boy
did what he had to do to defend himself and his sister.
KHOU.com, Houston, TX

A Colorado Springs man was home alone

late one night when three men forced their
way into his home. Fortunately, the homeowner kept a .357 Magnum revolver near
him due to the crime rate in his neighborhood. Picking it up, he shot one intruder in
the chest and another in the leg, causing
all three to flee. All three were subsequently arrested and charged with multiple felonies. Authorities cited Colorados Make My
Day law in not charging the homeowner.
KRDO.com, Colorado Springs, CO

NEW YORK MAN STOPS

HOME INVASION WITH
ASSAULT WEAPON
Hearing strange noises outside his home
about midnight, a Rochester man took
his AR-15 rifle and went to investigate.
He encountered two men trying to break
into his home; they fled on seeing the
semi-automatic rifle. The homeowner
credits having the rifle with preventing the
burglary, and possibly worse from being
done to him and his roommates. Police are
still looking for the suspects.
WHEC.com, Rochester, NY

WISCONSINS NEW
CCW LAW HELPS STOP
ROAD RAGE INCIDENT

Two Dekalb men who attempted to

burglarize a second-story apartment met
some unexpected resistance in the form of
a couple defending their home and their
children. Taking up their legally owned
guns, the couple exchanged gunfire with
the burglars, injuring one and causing the
second to jump from the second-story
balcony. The jumper collided with a tree
on the way down and died at the scene.
The other burglar was found by investigating police nursing his wounds in a car
in a nearby shopping center; he will face
charges on his release from hospital.
The Journal-Constitution, Atlanta, GA

A Garfield home was forcibly entered by

a man who shot through the front door,
striking one of the two male occupants in
the face. The second occupant returned
fire with his legally owned firearm,
shooting the intruder who later died of
his wounds but not before both residents
were wounded. The residents were treated
for their injuries at a local hospital, where
they are in serious condition. Police say it
appears the two residents were acting in
self-defense.
WPXI.com, Pittsburgh, PA

An Appleton man was driving into town

when an SUV he had just passed suddenly
rammed him from behind. The man called
911, who directed him to stop at the nearest parking lot and wait for police. The
SUV that hit him followed him into the
parking lot, and its two occupants got out
of their vehicle and started beating him.
They backed off when he drew his legally
carried pistol. The attackers face battery
and disorderly conduct charges; the Appleton man will not be charged.
WTAQ.com, Green Bay, WI

13
WWW.USCCA.COM

PENNSYLVANIA GUN
FIGHT LEAVES MASKED
BURGLAR DEAD

APRIL 2013

GEORGIA HOMEOWNER
FIGHTS OFF HOME
INVADERS

COVER

GUN
THE WELLKNOWN BERETTA 92 SERIES of semi-automatic pistols operates on a short recoil,
delayed blowback system, which yields faster cycle times, exceptional accuracy and greater
reliability. This new Compact Type M9A1 pistol fires the same 9mm round, but with its 4.25inch barrel with an overall stainless (Inox) finish this M9A1 is now a great carry gun. Youll
find all the same features of the Model 92
including: the open slide design which
virtually eliminates jamming and stove
piping, the visible automatic firing pin
block, which is located rearward, far away from the fouling and debris of the breech face
even if the pistol falls and strikes the ground muzzle down, the firing pin will not strike the
primer, the rear sight is designed to provide a front projection so that in an emergency, the
user may retract the slide single-handedly by pushing the rear sight against the edge of
a table, door or other object and the external hammer design that virtually
eliminating the possibility of misfires and provides an immediate visual and
tactile indicator as to the cocked/uncocked status of the pistol.

READY FOR ACTION!

SPECS

BERETTA
M9A1 COMPACT

Caliber: 9mm
Magazine capacity: 13
Barrel: 4.25 inches
Trigger Pull: 5.5 to 7.5 pounds
Action Type: DA/SA
Sights: Fixed

APRIL 2013

14
WWW.USCCA.COM

LEGISLATIVE

UPDATE

NEW YORK STATE PASSES

TOUGHEST GUN LAWS IN NATION

MINNESOTA
The farthest-reaching gun control bill
in the Minnesota House, which would
have expanded background checks to
nearly all firearm sales, has been abandoned.
The bills sponsor, Representative Michael Paymar, DFL-St. Paul, said he will
instead focus on a plan to extend background checks to all purchases at gun
shows, but not other private gun sales or
transfers. The House Public Safety and Finance Committee was scheduled to vote
on the bill on Tuesday, March 19. But Paymar, who is also the committees chairman, pulled it at about 8:15 p.m., after
a nearly nine-hour recess. Paymar said
after the meeting that his bill was dead
and he was working on the alternative.
Minnesota Pioneer Press

Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the New York Secure Ammunition
and Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) Act that gives New York the most
draconian gun laws in the nation. In a dramatic overreach, the SAFE Act will
ban any magazine that can hold more than seven rounds, with only limited
grandfathering of existing magazines that exceed the ban. Magazines that
hold more than 10 rounds and owned before the effective date must be
sold out of state within one year, while 10-round magazines owned before
the ban will be grandfathered, but may be loaded with only seven rounds.
The legislation goes on to include a so-called assault weapons ban that
is even more restrictive than the now-expired federal ban, outlawing any
semi-automatic rifle that uses a detachable magazine and has a single
cosmetic feature deemed military-like by the Act, such as a pistol grip or
an adjustable stock. Modern sporting rifles that meet the new restrictions
but are owned before the effective date, must be registered within a year,
and re-registered every five years. Also included in the legislation is the
requirement that all ammunition dealers register with the New York state
police, and that each sale of ammunition require a state background check, WEST VIRGINIA
With no state law barring concealed
and, that a record of the sale be transmitted to the state police.

carry on campus in West Virginia, the decision is left up to the individual college
or university. While West Virginia University currently bars carry on campus by
students and faculty, the Student Government Association voted on March
13, to recommend that the ban be lifted and that WGU no longer be openly
advertised as a gun free zone which
have been the targets of all recent active
shootings. While the SGA resolution has
no legislative power on campus, the Universitys Board of Governors, with whom
the decision now rests, will take its recommendation into consideration.

15
WWW.USCCA.COM

the school district must receive the

permission of its local law enforcement
agency. The new law also requires participants to undergo training similar to
what law enforcement officers receive.
Freshman Representative Scott Craig
sponsored the bill, stating that, Given the national attention to safety in
schools, specifically in response to tragedies like in Connecticut, this is huge.
He went on to say, Dominoes will start
to fall, people will see its reasonable, its
safer than they think, its proactive and
its preventive.

APRIL 2013

SOUTH DAKOTA
South Dakota became the first state
in the nation to enact a law explicitly
authorizing school employees to carry
guns on the job, under the new sentinel program signed into law on March
8 by South Dakota Governor Dennis
Daugaard.
The new law provides school districts
with the flexibility to allow designated
school employees, hired security officers, or parent volunteers to serve as a
sentinel who can carry a firearm in the
school. To participate in the program,

LEGISLATIVE

UPDATE
COLORADO. YOU WIN SOME...
Although concealed carry on Colorado
campuses had been legal for ten years,
Colorado Representative Claire Levy (D)
and Senator Rollie Heath (D) sponsored
House Bill 13-1226, which would have
created another gun free zone on Colorado campuses. After passing through
the Senate State Affairs committee on a
party-line vote on March 4, the bill was
scheduled for debate and a vote in the
full senate on March 8. During the intervening four days, the USCCA in coordination with Colorado Students for Concealed Carry, brought the story to more
than five million Americans and more
than 600,000 Coloradans in print media,
eroding the support among Democrat
lawmakers, leading Senator Heath to
shelve the bill on March 8, rather than
face defeat in an open vote.
... AND YOU LOSE SOME.
Despite protests that House Bill 1224

contained dramatic flaws, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed the bill
into law on March 20. Designed to limit
magazine capacity to just 15 rounds,
the bill contained language also making illegal any magazine that could be
readily converted to accept more than
15 rounds. Opponents of the bill argued
that the vague language could effectively make any magazine illegal that had a
removable baseplate, which includes
nearly all magazines manufactured today. In addition to receiving massive resistance from Republican lawmakers, the
new law will also have a ripple affect on
Colorados economy, as Colorado-based
Magpul Industries confirmed that they
would relocate out of state now that the
bill has become law. Legislators who had
opposed the new laws commented that
Democrats support for the anti-gun laws
may have electoral consequences for
state Democrats.

KANSAS
The Kansas House has approved three
proposals to alter the states gun regulations, including expanding the locations
where concealed weapons could be carried. The bills passed with broad support
on March 14 and head to the Senate for
consideration. One measure would let
school districts and state colleges designate employees who could carry concealed firearms inside their buildings,
even if such weapons were banned for
others. The bill also would expand the
number of public buildings where people
with a state permit could bring concealed
weapons, including the Statehouse. Another measure declares that the federal
government cannot regulate firearms
manufactured, sold and kept in Kansas.
The Kansas City Star
WASHINGTON D.C.
On March 19, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that he was

dumping the assault weapons ban from

the gun bill that will eventually make it
to the Senate floor. Reid stated that he
would get fewer than 40 votes if the ban
were to be included in the bill, which
was far below the threshold needed to
defeat a filibuster or pass the Senate.
While it has been dropped from the bill,
Senator Dianne Feinstein, who originally proposed the ban, could propose the
ban as an amendment to the bill on the
Senate floor, in order to force a vote on it.
Also uncertain is whether universal background checks will make it to the Senate
floor for a vote, or whether that provision
of the bill will also be jettisoned.

KentucKy residents can

carry in city buildings
From the Aurora, Colo., theater shooting last summer to the Sandy Hook rampage in Newtown, Conn., in December,
the topic of who should be able to carry
a gun has been hotly debated.

A new law in Kentucky allows residents

to openly carry firearms into city-owned
facilities, including parks, libraries, and
city hall. The law was passed Jan. 27; it
seems as if implementing this particular
law was done in stealth mode.
I did not hear that it was even on the
books, said Alex Logsdon, co-owner of
Shooters Supply and Range. While the
new law caught Logsdon off guard, hes
glad it passed. The people who are conceal carriers can take them places where
they couldnt before. You know, just
opening it up to more and more places,
to protect and defend themselves, Logsdon said.
Many Northern Kentucky officials
werent aware the law had gone into effect as of Jan. 28. Independence Police
Chief Shawn Butler said guns are a way of
life there; he expects no problems.
The mayor of Park Hills Don Catchen
said, People carrying guns is fine, but he
isnt happy with the idea of armed citizens

who might have an issue with the city

council. Youre almost like a sitting duck,
he said.
Some gun owners agree with him.
I think in the meeting, stuff like that, it
should be regulated, said Ron Vinson of
Florence, Ky. However, officials in Frankfort made it clear in the legislation that no
local government can put any restrictions
of any kind on firearms in city facilities.
Thats wrong. A city ought to be able to
regulate certain things within their jurisdiction, Catchen said.
With Ohios concealed carry law, there
are restrictions. In most cases, government buildings and school property are
off limits, as well as churches. The rules
are similar in Indiana, which does not
allow guns in government buildings,
schools, or on school buses.
From The Kentucky Post (kypost.com)
28 January 2013

DRILL
OF THE MONTH

RELOAD! RIGHT IN THE BOX

YES, I KNOW there is an ammo shortage. Prices are high and ammo is scarce,

so this drill, like the last few will help you maintain your skills without burning any ammo.
The focus this issue is reloading the auto-loading
pistol. Sorry revolver guys, I will get something for you
in the near future. The focus right now is getting more
rounds into your pistol effectively and that means practicing the skills correctly. Good shooters practice until
they get it right. Exceptional shooters practice until they
cant get it wrong.
So lets begin by setting up your gear to give you every
possible advantage. You do want every possible advantage in a fight, dont you? I thought so. First off, your magazine pouch or pouches should be on your weak-handside in a location where they are both comfortable and
concealed. I like to have the spare magazine on my left
hip, just behind the seam of my pants. With your pouch
or pouches in place insert the magazines with the bullets
pointing to your belt buckle. That way, when you grab a
new magazine your index finger goes directly to the front
of the magazine to help guide it into the magazine well.
Now that you have your magazines where you want
them and set up properly it is time to consider the reload. You are going to do this as dry practice. Spend a
couple bucks for dummy rounds so you dont have to
deal with the slide lock. The first step for dry practice is to

make sure you have no live ammunition anywhere near

the firearm. Triple-check the pistol is clear. Triple-check
the magazines you use are clear and triple-check that
you have only dummy rounds with you. Move all ammunition out of the room you will use for your dry practice.
Now you are ready.
Place a magazine with at least one dummy round in
your magazine pouch. Assume your shooting stance with
a firing grip on your pistol and prepare for your reload.
The first thing you do is pull the pistol back toward your
face with your strong hand. Keep that pistol up in front
of you; just below your eyes. You want to be able to look
at the threat while working the reload. Dont look down.
At the same time move your weak hand to your magazine
pouch to retrieve a loaded magazine. Get your thumb between the magazine and your body and have your index
finger on the front of the magazine. Pull that hand up to
the pistol. Do not lower the pistol to your waist to perform
the reload.
Only when you have the new magazine up near the
pistol should you hit the magazine release button to drop
the empty magazine. Push the button firmly with your
strong hand thumb and, if needed give the pistol a bit of

BY KEVIN MICHALOWSKI

All the steps of the reload should

happen right in front of your face. Keep
your eyes on the threat and work the
reload without dropping the pistol down
to your waist. After you insert the fresh
magazine, rack the slide. This insures you
have a fresh round in the chamber.

and forefinger (a fine motor skill) you may miss, slip or

otherwise fail because youve lost your fine motor skills
under stress.

LETS REVIEW BY THE NUMBERS:

1. From the firing position, pull the pistol in toward your face.
2. Find your full magazine and get a good grip on it.
3. Raise the full magazine near the pistol.
4. Hit the magazine release to dump the magazine from
the pistol.
5. Insert the new magazine sharply.
6. Rack the slide to chamber a fresh round.

19
WWW.USCCA.COM

ABOUT MAGAZINE POUCHES

Youve got some options with spare magazines, too. I opt
for an open-top kydex pouch that holds one spare magazine and a flashlight. I keep it concealed because I dont
want people to see the spare magazine. You can choose
a single mag pouch with a flap over the top. The casual
observe will think it is a multi-tool or small phone pouch.
A big double magazine pouch with flaps may be too big
for most uses. Some people say more ammo is better, that
is up to you. I find that I use my flashlight far more often
than I use my third 10-round magazine. No matter how
you carry your ammo, keep the bullets pointed toward
the belt buckle for the easiest possible reload.
Gun handling skills are perishable. If you dont use
them you lose them. So train often but correctly. You are
responsible for your own safety.

APRIL 2013

a shake to insure the empty magazine drops free. When

it does, simply let it fall to the ground as you insert the
new magazine firmly into the magazine well and slap it
into place.
Next, reach over the top of the slide with all four fingers
and, keeping your fingers behind the ejection port, run
the slide fully to the rear and let go of it to charge the pistol. At this point you may be asking, Am I not ejecting a
live round when I do this?
Well, you might be dropping a live round on the ground.
But the one thing you are doing for sure is putting a fresh
live round into the chamber. Do that every time and you
will know for sure you have a round in the chamber, where
you need it. I dont care if you have shot to slide lock or if
you are doing a tactical reload after the initial attack has
been stopped. When you top off your pistol, rack the slide
to insure there is a live round in the chamber.
In the headline, I made reference to doing your reload
right in the box. That is what we call your fighting box.
Imagine an 18-inch square right in front of your face.
That is area from which you fight. Get the tools with
which you will fight up into that box so you can see both
the tools and the threat. During a reload, you may have
to look through the trigger guard to see the threat, but
so what. It is better to see the threat and be able to react
to it than to be looking down at your waist while someone closes in on you. The reason you use all four fingers
to rack the slide is because this is a gross motor skill. If
you try to pinch the rear of the slide with your thumb

BEHIND THE

LINE

AMMUNITION MADE in the United States is of very high

quality. American manufacturers, however, turn out tens of

millions of rounds of ammunition each day. Any product that
is made in that quantity daily will suffer from defective, out of
spec, or damaged specimens; these will find their way into the
boxes shipped to your local dealer. Since you literally bet your
life on your self-defense ammo, it would be wise to inspect it
and care for it properly.
Handguns, both revolvers and semiautomatic pistols, rely completely on
quality in spec ammunition to function.
Here are just a few of the things we see go
wrong frequently:
High Primer The primer should be
seated just below flush in the base of the
cartridge. A high primer is one that protrudes above the base of the cartridge. In
revolvers, this can bind against the breech
face, preventing rotation of the cylinder.
In semi-autos, this can keep the cartridge

from sliding up under the extractor, and

keep the slide from going into battery.
Inverted Primer Occasionally, we find
a cartridge in which the primer was inserted backward. Obviously, that cartridge
wont fire.
Damaged Rim The extractor must
grab the rim of the cartridge and pull it out
of the chamber so it can be ejected. The
rim should be uniform, and have no bends,
tears or burrs.
Damaged Case The case may have a

big dent in it, or the case mouth may have

been caught by the bullets base when the
bullet was seated in the case, tearing the
mouth. These will often go into a magazine, but not feed into the pistols chamber,
causing a stoppage.
Bullets We see bullets inserted backward in the case (they wont feed), loose in
the case or pushed back too deeply into
the case. Bad ju-ju.
We see a lot of ammo fired every year
and we see these deficiencies in every
brand and type of handgun ammunition.
Before you trust your life to ammunition,
inspect it carefully for the problems previously described. I suggest the following for
ammo you will actually be carrying:
Visually inspect the primers carefully. Be
sure every case has a primer, the primer is
seated fully, and the primer is not dented
or damaged.
Visually, and by feel, check the rim for
damage or burrs.

WATCH YOUR
AMMO:
YOUR LIFE
DEPENDS ON IT

BY TOM GIVENS

Visually check the case, especially the

case mouth.
Visually check the bullets, then with
only finger pressure make sure they are
not loose in the case. You should not be
able to move the bullet.
One final step many knowledgeable
shooters take is to remove the barrel
from the semi-auto pistol and use it as a
gauge for the cartridges. Holding the barrel pointed down, drop a round into the
chamber. It should go in all the way easily
and stop with the base of the case even
with the barrel hood. Invert the barrel over
a towel. The cartridge should fall out easily. Cartridges that have been subjected to
this test will feed smoothly in your gun.
In addition to checking your defensive ammo, you must take care of it. This
branches two ways: ammo you have on
hand, for instance in your home; and
ammo you are actually carrying in your
gun or in spare magazines. Lets look at
them separately.
You should have a minimum reserve
supply of 100 to 200 rounds of your chosen defensive load at home. This should
be kept in the factory boxes it comes in.
The dividers or trays in those boxes help
protect the individual cartridges, and
identification of the ammo is easier in

its original box. These should be kept

inside your home, not in the garage or
a detached storage shed. In those environments, the temperature and humidity vary too much. In a closet inside your
home, the ammo will last indefinitely. If
you want to ensure long-term viability,
keep the ammo in metal GI ammo cans
with a couple of packets of silica gel desiccant inside. Ammo stored inside your
home in this manner is good for 50 years
or longer.
Once you start carrying ammo, its
service life starts counting down rather
quickly. Ammo carried on your person is
subjected to temperature and humidity
swings, gun oils and solvents, and wear
from being loaded and unloaded. Ammo
that is actually carried should be shot up
in practice and replaced in no more than
six months. Going longer than that is begging for trouble. Ammo routinely carried
is susceptible to two major issues that are
potentially disastrous.
American ammo is loaded with Boxer
primers. These primers consist of a metal cup, an anvil, a pellet of priming compound, and a sealant. The primer pellet is
trapped between the cup and anvil so that
when the firing pin or striker hits the cup,
the pellet is crushed between the cup and
Inspect your ammo. Loading

damaged rounds into your

handgun is a recipe for disaster.
Most ammo from reputable makers
is fine, but every once in a while a
bad round gets through.

APRIL 2013

21
WWW.USCCA.COM

anvil, igniting the cartridge.

Every time you chamber a cartridge
in a semiautomatic firearm, the primer is
subjected to impact by the breech face.
Repeated strikes over time can cause the
primer pellet to crumble. If it does, there
is nothing between the cup and anvil to
explode when the firing pin or striker hits,
thus a misfired round. If you chamber the
same round twice, I urge you to remove
it from carry status and put it with your
practice ammo for the next range trip.
There was a recent, well-publicized
law enforcement shooting involving this
very issue. An officer attempted to fire his
handgun in self-defense, and the round in
the chamber misfired. The officer was able
to apply immediate corrective action (tap,
rack, bang), and won the fight.
Understandably, both he and his agency were upset that a round of premium
Law Enforcement Only ammo had failed
to fire at a critical juncture. Examination of
the misfired round showed that the primer
pellet had disintegrated. Investigation revealed that the officer unloaded his pistol
every night and reloaded it the next day before going to work, chambering the same
round over and over in the process. This
caused the failure to fire.
If you are worried about family members getting access to your pistol, as this
officer was, lock it up, dont load/unload
daily. Aside from the wear and tear on the
ammo, most unintended discharges occur
during loading/unloading. Load it, wear it,
or lock it up.
The other problem with loading/unloading is wear and tear on the bullet.
When a round feeds up the ramp and into
the barrel, the bullet takes a pretty solid
impact. Doing this repeatedly can push
the bullet back too deeply in its case. This
compresses the powder charge and can
result in dangerously high pressures (kaboom).
You can prevent a lot of potentially serious problems down the road by checking your carry ammo before loading your
gun or spare magazines with it, then replace the ammo every six months.

MEMBER

PROFILE

From left to right, Elisa

Dahlberg, Kimberly Weeks,
Amanda Collins, and
Katherine Whitney.

Although Amanda Collins had a

concealed carry permit when she was
raped on campus at the University of
Nevada at Reno in October of 2007, at
the time of her rape, she was disarmed
by Nevada state law, which has arbitrarily
drawn a line around Nevada college campuses, declaring them gun free zones. Collins rapist
went on to rape two other women, killing his last victim. Katherine Whitney, second year law
student at the University of Colorado Law School, was not about to stand idly as the Colorado
Legislature considered drawing the same arbitrary line around Colorado college campuses, where
concealed carry has been perfectly legal for ten years. Determined to fight for a womans right to
self-defense, Collins and Whitney teamed up with Colorado college students Kimberly Weeks
and Elisa Dahlberg. The unassuming foursome launched an all-out assault on HB 13-1226.

USCCA MEMBERS ELISA DAHLBERG,

KIMBERLY WEEKS, AMANDA COLLINS,
AND KATHERINE WHITNEY.
LED THE FIGHT TO SUCCESSFULLY DEFEAT
COLORADO HOUSE BILL 13-1226

APRIL 2013

22
WWW.USCCA.COM

On March 4, 2013, Amanda Collins and Kimberly Weeks (the survivor of a brutal rape while attending
the University of Northern Colorado) testified before the Colorado Senate State Affairs committee,
in an effort to convince lawmakers to drop their support for HB 13-1226. Despite their powerful
testimony, the committee voted in favor of repealing concealed carry on campus. Whitney,
Dahlberg, Collins, and Weeks then collaborated with the USCCA to raise awareness about the bill,
bringing the story to more than five million Americans through Facebook and more than 600,000
Coloradans in print media, eroding the support among Democrat lawmakers and ultimately leading
Senator Rollie Heath to shelve the bill on March 8, rather than face defeat in an open vote.

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ARMED AMERICAN RADIO

ROB PINCUS
Teacher, Author, Training Consultant

MARK WALTERS
Author and Armed American Radio Host

MICHAEL MARTIN

Author, Concealed Carry & Home Defense Fundamentals

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ON-LINE AND

ON THE AIR

FACEBOOK POLL OF THE MONTH

Q: What is your home defense gun of choice?

March 15 5,145 Votes

The Same Handgun I use

for Concealed Carry

2532

A Different Handgun

1097

A Double-Barrel Shotgun

154

A Pump Shotgun

893

A Semi-Auto Shotgun

192

An AR-15

277
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FAN COMMENT: My weapon of choice for home defense would be the

rst one I could put in my hot little hands. Mickey Kenney

FACEBOOK
POST OF THE MONTH

March 2 Viewed by 1,538,142 People,

Shared 21,724 times.

Fan Comments:

I do not fear an armed woman because

I mean them no harm. I applaud their
decision to protect themselves from those
who do intend to harm. Ron Ivey
For me, a concealed firearm puts me on
the same level as a man twice my size that
may want to do me harm, and I am not
just some run of the mill college student.
I was a military and civilian cop and I am a
decade older than most students on my
campus. The fact is it is a PUBLIC university
and I have a right to carry there, regardless
of what a few professors think. A simple
rule is YOU DONT BRING A KNIFE TO A
GUN FIGHT. PERIOD. Elisa Dahlberg
After working with strong,
courageous women that have
been sexually assaulted on college
campuses and after sitting through
a murder trial of a student randomly
shot and killed a few blocks off campus,
I have no desire to cross my fingers and
hope Im not attacked or raped.
Kate Whitney

ARMED
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RADIO
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FEBRUARY

FEBRUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

MARCH

Marks guests include

Human Events editor
of Guns and Patriots
Neil McCabe, trainer
Rob Pincus, Gander
Mountains Chris
Juelich, Crossbreed
Holsters Trent Cooper,
David Codrea, and of
course Seanto!

Disgusted at the
outright lies in
President Obamas
State of the Union
address, Mark Walters
takes it upon himself
to rewrite what Obama
really meant to say in
the address, pertaining
to guns.

Suzanna Hupp joins

Mark to discuss her
recent testimony to
congress; while Neil
McCabe and Rob Pincus
join Mark to make a
special announcement!
The Roundtable with
David and George is
enlightening as always!

Mark brings in Katherine

Whitney, Legislative
Coordinator for Colorado
Students for Concealed
Carry; along with NY
Times best selling author
and Fox News Contributor,
John Lott. The Roundtable
discussion includes guest
David Codrea.

Mark welcomes a
powerful guest lineup
including Jose Cruz;
rape survivor Amanda
Collins; CO Students
for Concealed Carry
spokesperson Katherine
Whitney; Guns Across
America founder Eric
Reed; David Codrea; and
George Hill.

10 17 24 3 10

FACEBOOK FAN COMMENTS

MOST LIKES: 6,507

MOST SHARES: 5,782

Colorado Students for

Concealed Carry Efforts
to Defeat House Bill
13-1226 which would
Eliminate the 10-year old
Right to Carry a Concealed
Firearm on Campus

Joe Bidens Advice

to Women to,
Buy a Shotgun.

Video of Amanda
Collins Recounting
her Rape in the
Gun Free Zone at
the University of
Nevada at Reno,
to the Colorado
Senate State Affairs
Committee
The courage for this
woman to get up there
and talk about this is
unbelievable. I am thankful
for your testimony and
willingness to fight
for your right to bear
Amanda Collins.
Jake Ebert

CONTEST
WINNERS

Cassie E. from Oregon,

Mark W. from Colorado,
Robert G. from Texas, Ernest
D. from South Carolina,
Rudolph A. from Michigan,
Bruce K. from Illinois,
Richard B. from Louisiana,
all won $1,000 to purchase
the gun of their choice in
our February and March
Concealed Carry Magazine
promotion and giveaway!

25
WWW.USCCA.COM

I just cant believe that with all

the mass shootings they have had
in Colorado in their GUN FREE
ZONES, that they are actually so
stupid that they want to create
more of them! Wake up Colorado!
Gun free zones are nothing but
shooting galleries for psychopaths!
Gun free zones should be
outlawed nationwide!
Curtis Sessions

The problem with Biden

is that he believes that
just because hes the Vice
President and he says
something, that people will
not notice or even care how
blatantly idiotic, wrong, or
illegal it might be. The man
does not know guns, he does
not know the law, and he
certainly does not know the
American people.
Michael Grandy

APRIL 2013

MOST COMMENTS: 2,304

MAGPUL ANGLED
FORE GRIP

The goal of a forward grip is to

support the rifle and manage
recoil, enabling faster followup shots. The AFG delivers on
all criteria. By positioning the
shooters hand much higher
on the centerline of the barrel
when compared to a vertical
grip, the AFG does a much
better job managing recoil,
which gave us an uncanny
ability to control the rifle for
faster, more accurate followup shots. This ones a keeper.
MSRP: $34.95

MAGPUL CTR
BUTTSTOCK

Continuing with another one of our favorite

products from Magpul, the CTR buttstock
is a drop-in replacement to the standard
AR-15 stock (we replaced ours in about two
minutes). The CTR is a step-up from Magpuls
entry model, the MOE, and adds the benefit
of a friction lock that eliminates any wobble
after adjusting the stock to your length of
choice. MSRP: $79.95

GUNVALULT
MICROVAULT

The Microvault (pictured) and

MicroBioVault from GunVault are
perfectly sized to hold a single
handgun, along with a spare
magazine and tactical flashlight.
Add a security cable and it can
be permanently affixed in your
home or vehicle. Youll pay $80
more for the BioVault, but when
you need your firearm in a pinch,
it cant be beat. Both safes come
with a key backup.
MSRP: $159.99

KIMBER PEPPER
BLASTER II

Our favorite aspect of the

Kimber Pepper Blaster II is
its pistol-like configuration,
sights and all, making for easier
aiming when under stress.
A not so obvious difference is
that the Pepper Blaster isnt
pressurized and instead operates
almost like a squirt-gun. One
press delivers the first barrel of
pepper gel at the target,
and a second press delivers the
second, at up to 13 feet.
MSRP: $39.95

BLACKHAWK
SHEMAGH

This kick-ass scarf (better known as a

shemagh) from Blackhawk, will not
only keep out the winter chill in style,
it should also have a place in your
bugout bag, since it can provide shelter
from the sun, dust, pollutants, allergens,
and it can even provide limited warmth
in a pinch. MSRP: $19.99

CONCEALED CARRY & HOME

DEFENSE FUNDAMENTALS

Written by Michael Martin, this book has been adopted

by Gander Mountain Academy as their standard textbook
for concealed carry classes. Now available as an exclusive,
custom edition from the USCCA, the book is full color, with
hundreds of custom images and illustrations. If you trust
Rob Pincus this is what he had to say: Michael Martin is one
of the most creative communicators in the firearms industry.
This book is a must-read for anyone with a defensive
firearm! MSRP: $27.95 PLUS S&H

APRIL 2013

27
WWW.USCCA.COM

BIANCHI
SHADOW II

The Bianchi Shadow II

crossdraw holster is not only
gorgeous, its also versatile.
With three widely spaced
slots, the Shadow II can be
worn in the conventional
strong-side position, or shifted
to the support side, with an
appropriate cant to draw
smoothly. With a thumbrelease top strap, the Shadow
II offers that extra level of
retention youll appreciate.
MSRP: $64.75

HORDANDY
CRITICAL DEFENSE

This months self-defense ammunition

choice is Hornadys Critical Defense,
which is geared toward the civilian
market. Critical Defense comes with
an InterLockTM band, which locks the
jacket to the lead core for higher weight
retention, and a rubbery Flex TipTM in the
hollowpoint cavity, to minimize clogging
when fired through heavy clothing.
MSRP: $27.85

5.11 TACTICAL
PUSH PACK

Short for Practical Utility Shoulder Hold,

the PUSH pack is sized perfectly for a single
handgun, a few spare magazines, an Israeli
bandage, and a few other necessities. While
its designed with tactical use in mind,
weve used ours while shooting at our
local outdoor range, plus we had space for
a water bottle and energy bar. And just to
clear things up, the PUSH pack is a man
bag, not a purse. MSRP: $64.99

BEAR GRYLLS
ULTIMATE KNIFE

Okay, well admit that were

huge fans of Bear Grylls show,
Man versus Wild, but thats not
why were recommending this
knife. Created in collaboration
between Bear Grylls and Gerber,
the Ultimate Knife comes with
a 4.8-inch half serrated, highcarbon stainless steel blade and
an overall length of 10 inches.
Features include
a hardened,
hammer-like base,
a fire-starter rod
that locks into the
sheath with a striker
on the back of the
knife blade, a blade
sharpener integrated
into the back of
the sheath, an
emergency whistle
on the lanyard, and
lashing points to
allow you to turn the
ultimate knife into
the ultimate spear.
When it isnt with us
on a backpacking
trip, this knife goes
right back into our
bugout bag.
MSRP: $62.00

OTIS TECHNOLOGY
CLEANING SYSTEM

These compact cleaning kits from Otis might

just be the greatest invention ever made.
Nearly every firearm type and caliber can
be cleaned, from a .22 caliber handgun, to a
12-gauge shotgun. with a single kit. Otis kits
also contains unique circular patches, allowing
the exact same patch to clean, you guessed
it, from .22 caliber to 12-gauge. No kidding.
MSRP: $59.99

DO-ALL KINGPIN X
BOWLING PIN TARGET

Sometimes you just need to go beyond

punching holes in paper, or hearing the ting
of a steel target, and thats where the Do-All
Bowling Pin Target comes in. Although it looks
just like a regulation pin, the Do-All is designed
to absorb hundreds of rounds, so feel free to
knock it off a target stand hundreds of times,
or send it bouncing around your Back 40 as
you fill it full of lead. MSRP: $29.99

APRIL 2013

29
WWW.USCCA.COM

TAMARA KEEL

BALLISTIC BASICS | LEGALLY ARMED CITIZEN | ITS JUST THE LAW | REAL WORLD CARRY GEAR | DEFCON 1

Talkin
TRIGGERS

 LEARNING THE TERMINOLOGY OF THE TRIGGER is not all that tough.

But it takes a lot of shooting to actually get a feel for what each reference
really means. You can talk about it all day long, but once you feel it, youll know.
Since we talked about reset recently, lets talk
about more trigger jargon that gets tossed around
by the folks at the local gun store or shooting range
that sometimes forget that not everyone carries a
Gun Nerd-to-English dictionary.
For instance, youll sometimes hear a guns trigger disparaged as gritty. That just sounds bad (unless youre buying sandpaper). Everyone will nod
sagely and agree that this is indeed a bad trigger
without explaining why.
Gritty is bad and conversely smooth is a compliment for triggers because handgun shooting
comes down to one thing: holding an object that
weighs only a pound or two as steady as possible in
your hands while exerting many pounds of force on
it with one finger. Its a lot easier to hold that object
steady if the surface through which you are trying
to apply the force isnt moving backward in a series
of hitches and little jerks.
Another term you may hear is slack. Obviously
a trigger needs to move some distance to the rear
before actually discharging the pistol or it would
go off if you looked at it cross-eyed. Shooting accurately is easier if the distance is minimized, and also
if it is not just a disconnected feeling, slack, that
offers no tactile feedback until abruptly coming up
against sudden resistance at the point where the
sear breaks and the pistol fires.

Overtravel is the flip side of slack. This is the

amount of rearward movement in the trigger after
the pistol discharges but before the trigger hits the
physical limit of its travel. There is a mechanical need
for at least a tiny amount of overtravel if you want
the trigger to trip the firing mechanism reliably but
more than a tiny amount is detrimental to accuracy.
The reason is that the projectile requires a small
amount of time to actually leave the muzzle. If, just
as the trigger passes the point at which the pistol
fires, it suddenly lurches rearward a fraction of an
inch before stopping abruptly, it becomes that
much more likely that the shooters aim will be disturbed before the bullet is away.
Some pistols come with a device called an overtravel stop, which looks like a little pin or screw on
the backside of the trigger. While it looks adjustable, one should resist the urge to monkey with it
because it only has two positions: right and wrong.
It should come locked, usually with thread-locking
compound, in the right position from the factory.
Break the thread sealant loose, and its easy enough
for the little gadget to shift around under recoil and
wind up in the wrong position, which is the one
where your gun no longer fires.
Now when someone says That trigger had more
slack than a Seattle coffee house! you can nod
knowingly and say, Gritty as a gravel road, too!

Looking inside a pistol gives you a better

idea of how things work and where the parts
fit together. This understanding helps shooters
to become familiar with the different words
used to describe triggers,trigger pull and other
subtle nuances found in different firearms.
APRIL 2013

31
WWW.USCCA.COM

BRUCE N. EIMER, PH.D

BALLISTIC BASICS | LEGALLY ARMED CITIZEN | ITS JUST THE LAW | REAL WORLD CARRY GEAR | DEFCON 1

YOUR
CONCEALED
CARRY
MISSION

YOUR MISSION IS TO NOT SIMPLY SURVIVE;

BUT TO PREVAIL. IF YOU ARE FORCED TO FIGHT,
YOU MUST BE MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY
PREPARED TO WIN. ARE YOU READY?

APRIL 2013

33

WWW.USCCA.COM

 THE MISSION, YOUR MISSION, is to go home

safely after you do whatever you have to do each day.

In past installments, I have talked about different handguns
and holsters that are ideal for concealed carry.
Often, I hear the question, What is the
best concealed carry handgun? Very often, I hear someone answer, The gun you
have on you when the balloon goes up.
I think there is a better answer. Those
who have gone repeatedly into harms way
have repeated it to me: the best gun is the
gun that fits the mission, and that depends
on your mission.
I have a friend who is a former spec ops
soldier who has been on many dangerous
assignments. He only carries a Glock 17
with two spare magazines. The Glock 17
is a full-size high-capacity 9mm semi-automatic pistol that holds 17+1 rounds. My
friend is not a fan of the .40 caliber or .45
caliber for everyday carry. His rationale is
that the 9mm is the easiest to shoot under
stress because of its light recoil. Thus, it allows for more precise follow-up shots especially in situations where one has to be
precise with multiple double or triple taps
into hostile targets shooting at you from
different distances.
I am a fan of the .40 Smith and Wesson
cartridge. My first every day carry gun was
a .40 caliber Glock 23. This is a mid-size

GR4004-1
STAINLESS STEEL

APRIL 2013

34

Glock pistol with a capacity of 13+1 .40

caliber cartridges. I also sometimes carry
the full-size Glock 22, which holds 15+1 .40
caliber cartridges. However, my friends experience-based advice has been validated
by my own experience.
I have had the opportunity of shooting
tactical courses outdoors in different climactic conditions. I remember one weekend during which I shot a challenging and
fast-paced combat course in the Pocono
Mountains of Pennsylvania in the middle
of February in the ice, slush, and snow.
I recall taking my Glock 23 and my Glock
19 with me, and I recall how disappointed
I was in my performance with my Glock
23, which I had carried for longer than
13 years. On the following day, I switched
to my Glock 19 and my performance improved markedly. I attributed this to the
much-reduced recoil of the Glock 19. The
9mm cartridge is quite mild in a Glock 19
or Glock 17.
In those wet, icy, cold, adverse conditions, my hands were freezing; occasionally I had gloves on. Over the course
of an entire day of shooting and moving

WWW.USCCA.COM

through the icy muck, I experienced difficulty having as much control over the .40
caliber Glock 23 as I considered necessary
in order to make rapid precision hits. The
Glock 19 was like a breath of fresh air.
Dont get me wrong. I didnt trade in my
Glock 23! However, the truth is good is not
good enough. If you are fighting multiple
assailants, you must be shooting as precisely as you are capable of shooting. Remember the mission is to go home at night.
Ever since the Aurora, Co., movie shooting, I have considered and reconsidered
my good friends advice, and altered my
behavior accordingly. I have switched to
carrying a high-capacity 9mm whenever I
go to the movies, to the mall, to a restaurant, to a synagogue or to church. These
are situations in which one might have to
take long-range shots under adverse conditions such as, noise, smoke, low or no
light, crowds, flying projectiles, sprinkler
systems raining on you, etc.
The gun that fits the bill for me personally is the Glock 17 with its consistent
double-action-only trigger and 17 + 1 capacity. I am also a fan of the Springfield XD
and XDM 9mm full-size pistols with their
smooth and consistent triggers. In addition, if one is comfortable with double-action/single-action semi-auto pistols, then
a Sig Sauer P226 9mm would be just fine
for the mission.
With that said, I still carry my Glock 23 or
my Glock 22 very often, and I do not feel
that I am in an inferior position if I happen
to go to the movies or a restaurant with
that gun concealed inside my waistband.
After all, the .40 S&W has a very favorable
record of felon stops. The .40 caliber falls in
between the 9mm and .45 ACP in terms of
the size and capacity.
I still subscribe to the school of thought
that bigger holes are better. That is part of
the rationale for using hollow-point bullets for self-defense. They are designed to
produce a larger hole if they perform properly and expand as intended. This creates
a larger wound cavity. Using hollow-point
bullets can be considered more humane
than using full metal jacketed bullets because hollow-points, if they perform as intended, expand to produce a larger hole.
You just might need fewer bullets to stop
the attacker.
Another pertinent consideration is
bullet velocity. The .40 caliber falls somewhere in the middle between what is typically the faster 9mm and the slower, yet
heavier, .45 caliber. So, the .40 is a sort of
the best of both worlds.

This reasoning is valid only if you can

control the .40. Whats controllable for me
may not be controllable for you and vice
versa. The most important consideration
is your ability to use your equipment, and
that includes your ability to control your
handgun and place precise shots on your
intended target. In those icy, cold and wet
conditions that weekend in the Poconos,
I made the decision to downsize to the
9mm because for that mission, the .40
was too much for me to do the job I needed to do.
MOUSE GUNS
Let us now address the so-called mouse
gun. This term has often been used to characterize smaller caliber (e.g., .22LR, .25 ACP,
.32 ACP, .380 ACP) pistols, which are often
also smaller in size than are larger caliber
pistols (9mm and higher). Mouse guns have
taken a lot of flack by different authors over
the years. In fact, my friend and mentor
Massad Ayoob has written that: Friends
dont let friends carry mouse guns.
The conundrum is that nowadays the
hot ticket is the pocket .380 ACP pistol. For
fairly obvious reasons, many people carry
.380 ACP pistols as well as .32 ACP pistols
and pocket pistols in .22LR. The most obvious reason is that many of these pistols
are small and light. Thus, they are easier to
conceal and carry around all day.
There is no question that carrying a gun,
any gun, is better than carrying no gun at all.
So, if the only gun you can carry is a mouse
gun, then, carry the mouse gun. However,
it is possible that a violent criminal could
be pumped up on drugs and your mouse
gun may not do enough damage quickly
enough to stop him from hurting you.

SUMMARY
One size does not fit all. As you define
your mission and it may change from day
to day make sure you choose the right
pistol and carry system for that mission.
Bruce N. Eimer, Ph.D., licensed psychologist and NRA Certified Law Enforcement
Firearms Instructor, is the CEO of Personal
Defense Solutions, LLC, www.PersonalDefenseSolutions.net. PDS provides private
handgun, shotgun and rifle self-defense
training, and also offers the classes required
to obtain the Florida, Virginia, and Utah
nonresident multi-state CCW permits. Dr.
Eimer performs gun rights restoration psychological exams, www.GunRightsRecovery.
com, lethal weapons testing for police and
security professionals, www.Act235Testing.
com, and is the founder and owner of the online forum, www.DefensiveHandguns.com.

35
WWW.USCCA.COM

CARRY SYSTEMS
Gun fights unfold and end in a matter of
seconds. If carrying a handgun, you had better have a reliable concealed carry system
that enables you to get your gun out and
on target smoothly and rapidly. Dont spend
$800 on a handgun and then skimp on your
holster. You typically get what you pay for.
A quality holster that fits your mission and
your body type is well worth the money.
A holster is part of a carry system. You
should select a holster that is comfortable
(so youll wear it), that conceals well (so you
are not continually checking and re-adjusting your clothes), and that facilitates rapid
access to your firearm and in many cases,
easy one-handed re-holstering. Holsters
that work for me may not work for you given
differences in our body size and shape, the
clothing we wear, the guns we carry, and the
environments in which we live and work.
If you are serious about being armed
most or all of the time, you will have to test
various holsters until you find one that fits
your particular circumstances. With that
said, I can tell you what some of my every
day carry (EDC) holsters are.
For deep concealment, I favor Alessis
Talon Plus and Watch Six inside the waist
band (IWB) custom leather holsters (www.

AlessiGunHolsters.com). They comfortably

ride deep in my pants.
For the greatest comfort especially in
hot weather worn under a T-shirt and
against my skin, I choose a holster made
by N82 Tactical (www.N82Tactical.com).
The neoprene and leather backing does a
great job of breathing against my skin and
spreading the weight of the gun around so
it does not pull down or ride up. Keeping
in mind that for inside the waistband carry
every eighth of an inch counts, I also favor the Crossbreed Supertuck Deluxe. The
Crossbreed Supertuck is thin, and thus,
takes up minimal room inside my pants,
is comfortable, and does a great job of
spreading the weight of the gun around,
given its fore and aft spring steel clips that
clip over your belt. (www.CrossBreedHolsters.com).
For pocket carry of small pistols, front
and rear pant pocket holsters made by
Meco Holsters (www.MecoPocketHolsters.
com) and Hidden Holsters (www.HiddenHolsters.net) work well for me. They enable me to carry my Seecamp .32 or .380,
or my Kahr PM9 or CM9 comfortably and
securely in my pocket in a fixed and steady
position without the little guns doing
somersaults in my pocket, and without
the pocket holster coming out with the
gun on the draw. Function follows form in
these fine custom leather pocket holsters
that are also mighty pretty works of art.

APRIL 2013

MOUSE GUN ISSUES

The first issue that comes to mind is that
a .380 ACP fired accurately is better than
a 9mm that does not hit the mark. One
cannot skirt the laws of physics. The 9mm
cartridge in the same size gun will give
you more recoil than will the .380 ACP cartridge. These days, firearms manufacturers
have been producing smaller, lighter, and
more concealable semi-auto pistols that
shoot more and more powerful loads.
Thus, there are more 9mm and even .40
caliber pocket pistols than ever. However,
a pocket pistol you cannot handle is of no
use to you.
With this rationale, Ruger Firearms is
currently selling a .380 ACP version of its
popular LC9 9mm pistol. The LC9 is a reliable sub-compact semi-auto pocket pis-

tol. The new Ruger LC380 pocket pistol is a

much softer shooting gun (i.e., less recoil)
than its older 9mm sister, and from what I
have learned thus far in shooting my copy,
it is reliable, combat accurate, and has a
slide that is easier to cycle. It is the better
choice for folks who find the LC9 too snappy. A single .380 ACP bullet on your attacker is infinitely better than half a dozen
9mm bullets that miss him.
Getting back to the point of this discussion, the best pistol to carry is the one
most suited to the nature of your mission.
As a civilian carrying concealed for self-defense, there are many occasions when absolute concealment is essential. Getting
spotted carrying a gun could get me into
a lot of trouble.
In such situations, I need to carry the
smallest gun possible. That gun might ride
in my pants pocket (front or rear), inside
my jacket pocket, or in my shirt pocket. In
those instances a little Seecamp .32 or .380
ACP fits the bill. Both are the same size, extremely small and very reliable.
They also make great backup guns
should you run out of rounds in your primary carry gun. Many police officers have
survived as a result of having a backup gun
in such dire circumstances.

K. L. JAMISON

BALLISTIC BASICS | LEGALLY ARMED CITIZEN | ITS JUST THE LAW | REAL WORLD CARRY GEAR | DEFCON 1

 This image certainly

justifies the use of

deadly force on the
part of the woman. She
is in a corner with no
means of escape. Some
jurisdictions demand
that you attempt to
retreat before you use
force. Know the law
were you carry.

APRIL 2013

37
WWW.USCCA.COM

She fled into her basement. When he

advanced on her threatening to kill her
and the children, she shot him. She was
convicted of manslaughter.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court
upheld her conviction claiming that
she could have retreated outside of her
home; presumably across the state line
to a more sensible jurisdiction.
This case is notable for having been
overturned by the Massachusetts Legislature which changed the state retreat law to
conform to the rest of the nation in terms
that even a Massachusetts judge could understand.[ii] However, this was many years
and many thousands of dollars too late for
the lady in question. A change in the law
does not usually expunge a conviction.
If the situation in which you find yourself has an obvious, and safe, and dignified way out, then I think its a pretty safe
bet that the Almighty intends for you to
take it and leave the martyrdom and the
heroics, at least for the time being, for
someone else.[iii]
The English Rule is that one must retreat to the wall before using deadly
force. This rule can be traced
to an English case of 1328.
Two men quarreled, and
when one drew a weapon,
the other backed away until he
was stopped by a wall between
two houses, where he drew
his own weapon and killed
the attacker.[iv]
Following his acquittal,
British Courts looked for retreat to the wall. The rule requires one to
retreat until confronted with a physical
barrier. This was actually an improvement
over the prior rule that any killing was a
breach of the kings peace. Even persons
acting in self-defense had to apply to the
king for a pardon.
The American Rule is that one may
stand ones ground and use deadly force,
if necessary. The general rule of self-defense is that one may use deadly force
only in cases of necessity. In applying this
rule to the retreat doctrine, a state court
asked, Does the law hold a man who is
violently and feloniously assaulted re38 sponsible for having brought such necessity upon himself on the sole ground that
he failed to fly from his assailant when
he might have safely done so? The court
ruled there was no such requirement.[v]
A train of cases on this point is summarized in Beard v U.S., a 1895 U.S. Supreme

Court case.[vi] It is interesting that this

train of cases stresses old British legal
commentaries, commentaries which
claim a right to stand ones ground.
The following year, the Supreme Court
decided Allen v U.S. This case cites Beard
for the proposition that a person must
retreat before using deadly force, unless
on his own property.[vii] This was not the
ruling in Beard; the Allen decision actually
carves out an exception to the previous
case. In Allen, the guest of honor appears
to have approached the victim in the victims field and provoked a battle. The court
was hampered by the failure of the defendant to supply a brief. Without the benefit
of the defendants argument, the ruling
must be limited to its facts; when off ones
own property, there is a general duty to
retreat if one can do so in safety.[viii]
The Supreme Court revisited the retreat issue in 1920 in the clear ringing
prose of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.
The defendant had been at his workplace
and was attacked by a man with a knife;

THE WOMANS
ESTRANGED HUSBAND
BECAME DECIDEDLY
STRANGER. INSTEAD
OF NEGOTIATING THEIR
MARITAL DIFFERENCES,
HE THREATENED
TO KILL HER.

APRIL 2013
WWW.USCCA.COM

he retreated some 20 feet to where he

had left his pistol, and killed his attacker.
[ix] The trial court instructed the jury that
a person must retreat indefinitely before
using deadly force. [x]
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled
that in accordance with Allen, a person
off his own property must retreat.[xi]
The Supreme Court in a decision authored by Justice Holmes reversed, pointing out that the defendant was in a place
he was entitled to be, and if reasonably
in fear of his life, can use deadly force
without flight or attempts to disable his
assailant.[xii] The court stressed what a
citizen might reasonably believe when
assaulted, ruling that, Detached reflection cannot be demanded in the pres-

ence of an uplifted knife. This is a subjective standard, not the objective and
over-used reasonable man standard. The
court further ruled that retreat was one
factor that might be looked at to determine if a killing was self-defense but was
not categorical proof of guilt.[xiii]
These cases only determine federal law
concerning killings on federal property.
Nearly all killings are governed by state law.
In the 14th Century, it was possible to
retreat to the wall before the side arms
of the day. In America, the use of projectile
weapons makes running futile; one only
dies tired.[xiv] On the other hand, criminals are notoriously poor shots. A retired
detective suggests that serious injury or
death to fleeing citizens by felons occurs

The appropriate inquiry was if the use

of force was reasonable, not if other alternatives were available.[xix] The U.S.
Supreme Court has ruled that the use of
deadly force must be judged by the circumstances at the moment that deadly
force is used.[xx]
Retreat is dangerous. If one turns and
runs, this involves turning ones back;
flight may trigger his predatory impulse.
Animal trainers advise that if pursued by
a wild animal dropping to the ground
may cause animals to lose interest. In
human predators it only invites kicking
and stomping. Backing up risks tripping
and falling, in which case the predator is
suddenly in a position to kick and stomp.
Retreat will help prove that the citizen
was reluctant to engage in a gunfight.
This helps prove that the ultimate shooting was in self-defense. But nothing is the
absolute defense it should be. A northern
Missouri man was charged with attempted murder even though he could not flee
and had called 911. He was being beaten
with his own crutch when he fired the
shot. For the prosecutors theory to be
true, the bullet would have had to turn
corners.[xxi]
It doesnt have to make sense;
its just the law.

39
WWW.USCCA.COM

merman case currently going on in Florida.[xvii] Other cases may involve failure
to prove elements of the defense peculiar
to the specific states law.
It is often argued that a survivor should
have performed this or that action before
using deadly force. Deadly force is always
a last resort. However, when deadly force
is authorized, there is no requirement to
use non-deadly force. In a civil case, an
appellate court ruled:
As [the suspect] moved toward [the officer], was he supposed to think of an attack
dog, of . . . CS gas, or how fast he could run
backwards? Our answer is, and has been,
no, because there is too little time for the
officer to do so and too much opportunity
to second-guess that officer.[xviii]

APRIL 2013

only five percent of the time.[xv] These are

good odds but not complete safety.
The American Rule is modified in each
state. In most states, there is a difference
between retreat inside or outside the
home. If attacked outside, one must retreat if it is possible to do so in complete
safety. The practicality of retreat outside
the home is a factual question for the
jury.[xvi]
In states with stand your ground
laws the failure to retreat is not considered in determining if an action was in
self-defense. However, there have been
several recent cases in which the court
has refused to allow stand your ground
as a defense. Some of the more peculiar
decisions may be a reaction to the Zim-

(1) Commonwealth v Shaffer, 326 N.E.2d 880

(Mass 1975). [ii] 278 M.G.L.A. Section 8A. [iii]
Farnam THE DYNAMICS OF A VIOLENT CONFRONTATION, BEFORE, DURING & AFTER, Leerburg Video Productions 1987. [iv] Gillespie JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE, Ohio State University Press
Columbus OH 1989 at 208. [v] State v Gardner,
104 N.W. 971 (Minn 1905) at 974. [vi] Beard v
U.S., 158 U.S. 550; 15 S.Ct. Rptr 962 (1895) [vii]
Allen v U.S., 164 U.S. 492 (1896) at 498. [viii] Allen at 498. [ix] Brown v U.S., 256 U.S. 335 (1920).
[x] Perhaps to some other jurisdiction where
judges have a grasp on reality. [xi] Brown v U.S.,
257 Federal Rptr 46 (Fifth Cir. 1919). [xii] Brown
v U.S., 256 U.S. 335 (1920) at 343. [xiii] Brown v
U.S. id. [xiv] State v Gardner, 104 N.W. 971 (Minn
1905) at 975. [xv] Bittenbinder TOUGH TARGET,
Running Press, Philadelphia PA 1997 at 31. [xvi]
State v Corujo, 744 S.W.2d 812 (Mo. E.D. 1987)
at 814. [xvii] More on this at a later date. [xviii]
Plakas v Drinski, 19 F.3d 1143 (7th Cir. 1994) at
1149 cert denied 115 S.Ct. 81 (1994). [xix] Scott
v Henrich, 978 F.2d 481 (9th Cir. 1992) withdrawn and reissued Nov. 2, 1994; 39 F.3d 912
(9th Cir Mont 1994). [xx] Graham v Connor, 490
U.S. 386 (1989) at 396. [xxi] Things turned out
reasonably well, but I still have a bad attitude
about it and the client didnt like my bill.

DUANE A. DAIKER

BALLISTIC BASICS | LEGALLY ARMED CITIZEN | ITS JUST THE LAW | REAL WORLD CARRY GEAR | DEFCON 1

VISION &
RUDY PROJECT MAGSTER SHOOTING GLASSES
Few things are as important as your eyes and your vision.
Anytime you are shooting, you need to adequately protect
your eyes. There are many potential risks to your eyes like
a bullet or fragment that bounces back, a hot ejected shell
casing or even a partial detonation of your firearm as part of
a malfunction. Proper eye protection is a must.
Dont just assume that any pair of sunglasses is adequate.
Proper eyewear should be specifically designed for shooting and meet the American National Standards Institute
(ANSI) impact standards. A cheap pair of sunglasses might
not stop a fast-moving projectile and shatter causing
even more problems. The Rudy Project IMPACTX lenses are
so tough you can actually bend them in half in your fingers
without breaking or cracking. These lenses are specifically
designed to be safety glasses, not just a fashion statement.
Rudy Project products are made from the highest quality materials. In many ways, these Magster glasses make my
Oakley sunglasses look cheap. Rudy Project has been making top-quality eyewear for athletes for 25 years. The companys recent expansion into the shooting market makes
a lot of sense.

The Magster frame is fully flexible, with adjustable temple

tips and nose pads. The frames and lenses are so light they
are an absolute pleasure to wear. This particular model even
has an air vent in the front nose bridge to help prevent fogging by maintaining the airflow.
The Magster Performance Kit I am reviewing comes with
a hard case and three sets of lenses photochromic clear,
photochromic red, and laser black. The photochromic lenses are completely clear indoors, but darken into a reasonably dark gray color in the sunlight. This is a great feature for
shooting glasses because the lighting can change over the
course of a range session and the glasses adapt without the
shooter having to think about it.
Unlike a lot of shooting glasses, the Magster design is
very stylish. This is the only pair of shooting glasses I will actually wear as sunglasses. I use them as cycling glasses and
for any other sports that require eye protection.
The Rudy Project Magster kit with three sets of lenses retails for $359.99. If you purchase just the frames with the
clear photochromic lenses, the MSRP is $234.99, but typical
street prices are under $200. How much is it worth to protect your eyes?

Rudy Project glasses are expensive but these very

high-quality glasses are truly the real deal. You can view all
the Rudy Project products at www.e-rudy.com. Dont skimp
on protecting your eyes. If you havent already, please invest
in a quality pair of protective eyewear.

41
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Duane A. Daiker is a contributing writer and columnist for
CCM, but is otherwise a regular guy not much different from
you. Duane has been a lifelong shooter and goes about his life
as an armed, responsible, and somewhat opinionated citizen.
Duane can be contacted through his website, www.realworldcarrygear.com, or though his public page on Facebook, and
welcomes your comments and suggestions for gear reviews.

APRIL 2013

TRAIN SAFE FIREARM BLOCK

We are always preaching about training and safety. A lot
of training can be accomplished with dry fire and unloaded weapons. Things like draw stroke, reloads, and support
hand manipulations are easily practiced at home. However,
safety when handling and training with real firearms is always an issue.
One way to ensure safe practice time is to purchase dummy guns that replicate your actual guns. The most common
dummy guns are plastic replicas like the commonly seen
blue or red guns. However, even these relatively inexpensive dummy guns are about $50. If you want to train with
a couple of different guns, the expense is significant. Also,
while completely safe, plastic training guns are very limited
in their usefulness. There are no moving parts you cant
pull the trigger, work the slide, or insert or remove magazines as part of your training simulation.
Train Safe offers an alternative to dummy guns using
your own deactivated pistol. The firearm block is a simple plastic rod that completely prevents your pistol from chambering
a round. All you do is field strip your pistol and insert the bright
orange device. The plastic rod completely blocks the chamber
and extends slightly from the front of the muzzle.
As you would expect, the pistol continues to work in its
normal fashion, except for chambering a round. The pistol is
still capable of dry fire, the slide can be operated, and magazines can even be inserted. However, the Train Safe device
completely eliminates the chance of chambering a round.
Once the Train Safe block is installed, the pistol is entirely
safe for training purposes. Even if a loaded magazine is inserted, the pistol cannot be put into a firing condition. You
can verify the safe condition at a glance by virtue of the orange rod protruding from the barrel.
The Train Safe product is also good for long-term safe
storage of firearms. While a knowledgeable person could remove the safety device rather quickly, any person unfamiliar
with firearms will likely be stumped. I can see the value in
installing a Train Safe block on handguns you want to store
safely and prevent even accidental access.
The best part of the Train Safe solution is the price. Train
Safe produces a variety of different models to fit popular pistols and they are all $5. Even with shipping you are well under $10 per gun, which is quite a bargain. For the price of one
dummy gun, you could make a whole collection of guns safe.
You can view the available models at www.trainsafe.us
and you can order on-line with quick and inexpensive delivery. At the bargain price of $5, how can you go wrong?

ASP SAPPHIRE USB LIGHT

I am a firm believer in having a flashlight all the time. You
never know when you will need a light source. Even during
the day we can be confronted with dark environments interiors of buildings, elevators, stairwells, and more. A flashlight can be essential to find a lost item, navigate through a
dark space or even identify a threat.
Tactical flashlights can be great tools but even the small
ones are not tiny. We have limits to what we can carry in our
pockets and on our belts. There are definitely times when a
tiny wearable light is the best solution.
The ASP Sapphire USB light is a small, flat LED light with
an integrated clip. The clip is perfect for attaching to a belt
loop, a key chain or a purse. The light has a single button
with a clever design that has a momentary switch for quick
activation that can also be locked into a constant-on position. The single LED light source is extremely bright and
provides a surprising amount of useful light.
Some of the less expensive ASP lights have integrated
batteries that cant be replaced when they run down. The
Sapphire USB, however, is rechargeable and connects to any
micro-USB power source for charging. The Sapphire will run
about 1.5 hours on a charge, which is a long time for a light
of this type and size.
The Sapphire is extremely well built, with a metal frame
and armorized glass panels. The light is vibration, shock,
and impact proof and warranted for life.
I have carried a Sapphire USB for nearly a year. I have used
and abused it attaching it at various times to my belt
loops, my car keys, my briefcase, and my shooting bag. The
Sapphire has gotten a bit scratched and banged-up over the
last year but continues to work as well as it did the first day.
Every month or so I plug it into my computer at work, top off
the charge, and otherwise forget about it until its needed.
Even when I have a tactical flashlight, the Sapphire is usually
clipped to something on my body or very close by.
The Sapphire USB is available in a variety of colors and
materials from ASP directly (www.asp-usa.com), or from
various retailers. The side panels can be glass or aluminum
and are engravable. MSRP for the basic model shown is $30;
street prices run a little bit lower. I use the Sapphire USB every day, and can recommend it highly.

JOHN CAILE

BALLISTIC BASICS | LEGALLY ARMED CITIZEN | ITS JUST THE LAW | REAL WORLD CARRY GEAR | DEFCON 1

WAR ON GUNS
ESCALATES

THE OLD SAYING IS TRUE: POLITICS IS WAR. Of course

of it two centuries ago, he added.

Starting in the 1960s, the news
that is something those of us in the battle for gun rights know media has become more and more
only too well. And while the rights of Americans to own and heavily populated with those who fear
and hate guns; it shows in its predictcarry firearms have always been under attack, never has the ably anti-gun editorials. But more imthreat to our rights been more immediate or more severe. portantly, the bias has been seeping
into the newsroom, and has had a noNever has there been such an undisguised, coordinated ticeable effect on how it reports what are supposed to be hard
assault on American gun owners. Its no longer just left-wing news stories. Note how often the media fail to use its position to
politicians. Whether university professors, the news media, or inform its readers and viewers, but instead actually (intentionalHollywood celebrities, the attacks are becoming more vitriolic, ly?) misinform them. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the
entire assault weapons debate.
more strident, and more unhinged.
Ill never forget a TV reporter commenting on the impendDisturbingly (and not by coincidence) there have been parallel attacks on the Constitution itself. Liberal professors are now ing sunset of the Clinton Assault Weapons ban in 2004. The TV
more likely to openly opine that the Constitution is outdated talking head had B-roll (stock footage) running on the screen
and no longer relevant in a modern, technologically sophisti- behind him showing a couple of guys at a gun range firing (you
guessed it) two (real) AK-47s, on full-auto. With the empty shell
cated society.
CBS aired a commentary by Louis Michael Seidman (ironical- casings pouring out of the guns right behind him, the newsly, a professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University), caster, brow furrowed in mock concern, said soberly, If the Asin which he openly advocated giving up on the Constitution. sault Weapons Ban is allowed to expire, weapons just like these
will soon be back on the shelves of your local Kmart.
You can find information about this online at:
And if you think that this kind of audience manipulation is
http://www.examiner.com/article/cbs-airs-constitutionalunintentional, or that the segment was simply the result of iglaw-professor-let-s-give-up-on-the-constitution
No one should have the slightest doubt that one of Profes- norance on the part of the reporters and producers, I suggest
sor Seidmans major objections to the Constitution is that pesky that you might want to rethink your position.
One of the most powerful tools the media has at its disposal
Second Amendment. More from the commentary:
Certainly, the original intent of the writers is an important to influence the perceptions of the readers and viewers is not
aspect of the [gun] debate, but Seidman says that should be what stories it covers, but what it chooses not to cover. And the
ignored So instead of talking about whether gun control media especially abhors the idea of giving coverage to stories
makes sense in our country, we talk about what people thought where people successfully use guns to defend themselves. In

ANY STUDENT
OF PROPOGANDA
understands that to be
successful it must appeal
to emotion, not reason.
It must also revolve
around subtle themes,
repeated over and over,
that ultimately result in
acceptance.

43
WWW.USCCA.COM

to detect the subtle anti-gun messages

that are now almost required material
in every TV series, and not just the cop
shows.
Any student of propaganda understands that to be successful it must appeal to emotion, not reason. It must also
revolve around subtle themes, repeated
over and over, that ultimately result in
acceptance of the underlying message.
One example is the way the entertainment media promotes the idea of gun
registration. Most people who are not
gun owners simply assume that all guns
must be registered yet though only five states and Washington
D.C. (along with a couple of cities like Chicago) actually require
that guns be registered. The other 45 states do not.
But if thats true, why do so many people believe otherwise?
The answer is simple: television. Watch any cop show and at some
point inevitably you will hear lines like these:
Who was the gun registered to?
The gun was registered to his wife.
He had an unregistered (or unlicensed) gun.
After hearing such phrases repeatedly, it becomes ingrained
in the mind of the viewer that gun registration is the norm. Thus
when a politician proposes some new gun registration scheme,
many of the uninformed wonder what the fuss is all about. T h e
entire discussion of registration is pointless. Any gangbanger
worth his colors knows that once youve used a gun, you throw
it away. And FBI records clearly show that almost without exception, guns used in street crimes are illegally obtained they are
stolen by the criminals or bought off the street. But TV continues
to disseminate the idea that gun registration can magically make
it easier to solve any crime.
The TV crowd is at its absolute worst when it comes to its depiction of firearms used in crime. Nowhere is the immense propaganda power of entertainment television more visible than in
the depiction of assault weapons in crime dramas. Every drive-by
shooting shows thugs blasting away with fully automatic AK-47s
or AR-15s. Almost without exception, every shootout on television involves multiple full-auto weapons.
But check the records of the Chicago or New York Police, the
FBI or the ATF. You will find that overwhelmingly, the gun of
choice for street thugs is a cheap, illegally obtained handgun.
Semi-automatic rifles constitute a tiny fraction of all guns used in
crimes. Genuine, fully automatic machine guns are almost never
encountered.
The result of this endless fusillade of TV images showing fully
automatic weapons (with the cop characters describing them as
assault weapons) is that the average person now thinks that any
semi-automatic carbine discussed on the news is a machine gun.
Just like on TV.
The war is on. And we have a lot of work to do

APRIL 2013

its world, all guns in the hands of private

citizens are bad, and any story that runs
counter to that narrative must be buried.
How many stories have you seen in any
major newspaper or on the big TV news
outlets in which private citizens successfully defend themselves using guns? Other than in local news outlets, such stories
are most often routinely tossed in the
trash bin. When they do have to report
them, they give as little detail as possible,
or carefully distort the facts.
For example, in July of 2010, an incident
occurred in downtown Minneapolis that
should have been hailed as a textbook case of self-defense. An
unruly customer was ejected from a bar around midnight after
having caused a disturbance, threatening customers. As he was
escorted out, he told the three bouncers, Im coming back to cut
you, man.
About an hour later, one of the bouncers was standing outside
the entrance, socializing with about a dozen customers taking
a smoke break. The irate young man who had been thrown out
came down the sidewalk, waving a very large knife. He immediately charged the bouncer, who tried to back away while attempting to fend off the attacker with his collapsible baton.
When the bouncer realized he was losing (he had multiple defensive cut wounds on his forearms) he finally pulled a Glock 26
pistol and fired two shots, killing the attacker.
In the ensuing investigation, police and detectives released
the bouncer after only 20 minutes almost unheard of in a fatal
shooting (normally, one can expect to spend 24 hours or more in
such circumstances). An investigation cleared the bouncer of any
wrongdoing. Great story, right?
The Minneapolis paper, the StarTribune, gave the case only two
tiny paragraphs about a man slain outside North East Minneapolis bar with nothing in the story about the fact that the dead
man had tried to murder the bouncer, or that the bouncer was
acting in self-defense.
The other Twin Cities Newspaper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press,
was even worse. It failed to interview any of the employees at the
bar, the police officers who investigated the event, or any of the
dozen or so witnesses.
It did, however, send a reporter to interview the dead assailants mother, who predictably sobbed that her son was a good
boy and didnt deserve to die. And despite the fact that she told
the reporter how her good son had come home expressly to get
a huge chefs knife out or her kitchen drawer, there was no mention of the knife in the story that finally ran.
This is what passes for journalism when it comes to guns.
Hollywood is, in some ways, an even more powerful force in
shaping public perception, and by extension, public opinion. Because while it is natural to have ones defenses up and running
during a newscast or when reading the paper, we are less likely

YOU CAN
LEARN TO
NEVER BE A
VICTIM.
BY K.L. JAMISON

APRIL 2013

45
WWW.USCCA.COM

WHEN A PREDATOR STALKS a herd, it has a multitude of

options. It could attack the large bull with the most meat. It could
attack a tender calf or succulent cow. It could go for any degree
of these culinary targets but it does not. It attacks the most
vulnerable, the weak, the isolated or the inattentive.
The same is true for human predators. To
avoid being attacked, it is not necessary to be
the tough, old bull but one must never be the
most vulnerable.
One prison philosopher summarized the
predator creed as that if you cant keep what
you have, you dont deserve to have it.1 Most
of the research on criminal targeting focuses on what makes predators believe targets
cannot keep what they have. Once the attraction is understood, one need only do the
opposite.
A New York Police decoy explains, Theres
a point I know when Im out to get ripped off,
that I dont look sharp. My expression changes. So does my gait. I go vague, relaxed, and
unaware. I try to give the impression that
I dont know which way is up. I send out
helpless vibes. Whatever it is I seem to be or
manage to do, its exactly the message the ordinary female should not be sending out, exactly what she should not be doing. Because
whatever it is, it almost always works.2
This officer has employed elderly makeup and assumed a feeble gait but the big
come-on is inattention. One predator said he
focused on persons who were hyper-alert on
the theory that they were alert because they
had something to lose.3 However, in context
he was referring to persons who were looking around fearfully.
In 1981, a pair of social scientists videotaped
random people walking down the street and
showed the video to predatory criminals in

APRIL 2013

46

prison. These predators were asked who they

would attack, who they would avoid, and
why. They were quickly unanimous on easy
targets and hard targets. They had some difficulty verbalizing their reasons but were very
attuned to body language.
The predators focused on the inattentive,
the uncoordinated and the submissive. The
inattentive are easy to surprise. The uncoordinated shuffle, jerk, and stumble, bespeaks
an inability to resist or run. There is a reason
that rolling drunks is a robbery subspecialty.
The submissive invite control; criminals love
control.
Rejected targets paid attention to their
surroundings, walked with a coordinated,
purposeful movement, and confident demeanor. The rejected targets were not always
the largest and strongest but the ones who
looked like they were more trouble than they
were worth.4 Sometimes rejection is a good
thing and is accomplished by learning to
walk tough.
A confident demeanor tends to put off the
predator. A woman who was walking to work
noticed a burley fellow studying her and
working his way toward her no matter where
she moved. As he moved in on the woman
he studied the empty street, looking for the
blue-uniformed protectors that made his
work difficult. When he confronted her she
looked him straight in the face and demanded, Dont I know your mother? Unable to answer the question the predator fled.5

Criminals do not like uncertainty. In lighted areas, crimes can be seen and reported.
People walking in twos and threes are hard to
control. Criminals look for a target giving them
the opportunity for certainty and control.
There is a legend of a pair of criminals
that attacked an elderly man who hobbled
through a parking lot with a cane in one hand
and a gold temptation around his neck. Their
target swung his cane between one attackers legs, taking him out of the gene pool for
a lengthy period. The cane ended against the
second attackers skull, scattering whatever
IQ points had not been killed by drugs. The
thugs had targeted Col. Rex Applegate, who
taught dirty street fighting to unconventional forces during WW II, and had forgotten
nothing.6
Due to age or infirmity many persons
cannot walk with the smooth coordination
that criminals find off-putting. When one defense goes down, it is necessary to double
up on the rest.
Attention to surroundings is critical. One
may avoid becoming a target by not walking in danger areas. These are not to be confused with bad parts of town. Danger areas
are places where a person can be easily ambushed. They are constricted, isolated, and frequently dark allowing predators to approach
and rush inattentive prey. The openings between parked cars are classic danger areas.
One criminal advocates robbing men at
urinals on the grounds that they have their
backs turned and are distracted. From his
experience he claims an inability to fight and
urinate at the same time.7
The Infantry School at Fort Benning, Ga.,
teaches that when a patrol is leaving or returning to friendly lines it is crossing a danger area.8 It is popular in criminal quarters to

WWW.USCCA.COM

follow a target home and rush in after him

before the door is locked or the automatic
garage door closes.9 The relief of reaching a
safe place must be stiffened with vigilance.
Persons without a tactical sense can avoid
danger areas by listening to their fears.10
When a place, person or situation makes
one uncomfortable that is millions of years
of evolution or a God-given survival instinct
at work.11
Fear is the result of subliminal messages
that something is not right. Something is
present or absent from a situation. It may be
the predator watching; studies indicate that
people feel themselves being watched.12
A sound or even a smell may trigger an alert
too faint to register in the conscious mind but
old neural pathways create a feeling of unease. Smells can be a very powerful trigger.
An author who wrote multiple histories of
serial killers commented on their common
odor. It was, Not the smell of BO but something else. It is a fusion, a combination of wet
leather and hazelnuts.13 The odor of drugs
and alcohol often indicates trouble. The rotting flesh and teeth of drug addicts is never
a good sign.
Urban citizens are not oriented toward remembering smells and may find it difficult to
explain later what triggered their unease. In
the aftermath of officer-involved shootings
police departments have found it valuable
to have the officer walk through the scene.
Walk-throughs have been shown to trigger
memories that explain the officers conduct.
In an extraordinary episode of the show
JAG, a female ensign shot and killed a
Turkish military attach. The ensign claimed
self-defense but was unable to articulate
what placed her in fear until she was walked
through the scene.14 Small sounds assisted
in reliving the incident and she remembered the sequence of events. It was a remarkably accurate episode for a series in
which lawyers got into more gunfights than
SWAT teams.
It is possible to avoid danger by recognizing a threat. Criminals bump their targets
like sharks bump fish in the sea, and for the
same reason, to see if they are good to eat.
They may physically bump their target but
commonly they demand something information, a cigarette or money. The aggressors real interest is to see how the target
reacts. If the person reacts meekly, then he
is food. If he acts assertively, then he is more
trouble than he is worth.

A Chicago woman was accosted in a park

by a suspicious character who demanded,
Wheres Clark Street! She planted her feet
and reached under her jacket, a classic gofor-your-gun move. The characters eyes widened. He exclaimed, Youre a cop! and fled.
If he had really been looking for Clark Street,
asking a cop might have worked out well, so
he clearly had something else in mind. She
was not a cop and did not have a gun. However, she looked like a tough target and he
fled to bother someone else.15
Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker was
asked how a woman could avoid a serial killer.
They cant, he said. Once a serial killers got
somebody in focus, thats it. What a woman
can do is be more aware, though. Walk with
her eyes up. Walk as though shes not the
only person in the world. They need to know
whos behind them when theyre getting into
their cars, going into their houses.16
Even serial killers look for soft targets. Fortunately, they are unwilling to work hard in
their chosen profession.
To avoid crime one does not have to be the
toughest or fastest target on the block. One
merely has to look like more work than the
criminal is willing to do.
(1) Earley The Hot House, Bantam Books N.Y.
1992 at 180. (2)Glatzle Muggable Mary Prentice-Hall, Inc Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 1980 at15. (3)
Willwerth Jones Portrait of a Mugger, Fawcett
Publications, Inc Greenwhich, Conn 1974 at 32.
(4) Grayson and Stein, Attracting Assault: Victims Nonverbal Cues, JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION, Winter 1981 at 68 et seq. (5)Bittenbinder Tough Target Running Press Philadelphia 1997
at 22. (6) This is one of those stories that, if it is
not true, it should be. (7) Earley, The Hot House,
op cite at 44. (8) Author is a graduate of the Benning School for Boys. (9)Hunt, The Mugging,
Atheneum N.Y. 1972 at 36.(10)De Becker The Gift
of Fear, Little, Brown and Company Boston 1997.
(11)Depending on how one feels about Charles
Darwin.(12)Rupert Sheldrake PhD, The Sense of
Being Stared At, Crown Publishers N.Y. 2003 at
125 et seq. The phenomena is counter-intuitive
as vision involves no physical force. We do not
know how it works, only that it often works; like
elections. (13)Philip Carlo The Killer Within, The
Overlook Press N.Y. 2011 at 69.(14)Defenseless
JAG Third Season broadcast 9 December, 1997.
(15) Author met the lady.(16)Carlo, The Enemy
Within, supra at 70.

A FIGHTING PISTOL
CLASS IS A GREAT WAY TO
STRENGTHEN FAMILY BONDS.
BY MARY WEDDINGTON

VACA

NOT YOUR
TYPICAL

PHOTOS ARE COURTESY OF JAY GIBSON AND TACTICAL RESPONSE

WWW.USCCA.COM

ATION

49

WHEN MY CHILDREN were younger our family vacations

consisted primarily of Disneyland and trips to the beach. Vacations

meant to keep my kids safe were filled with unrealistic ideas of what
the world should be rather than what it truly has become. I wanted
my kids to be kids. I wanted to keep them sheltered from the ugly
reality forming all around our bubble. Thats what we as parents are
supposed to do, right? Being a mother, I have the internal motherbear syndrome and feel especially protective of my children.

APRIL 2013

I raised my children around guns. Their

dad is an avid hunter and as such my kids
learned gun safety very early. On the other
hand, I still lived in that protective bubble
and thought that the big, bad wolf could not
penetrate my happy life. As Ive gotten older, divorced, and become more aware of the
ugliness in this world, I realized its my job to
prepare my kids and myself.
My first step was getting my Concealed
Carry permit; then it was time to learn how
to use a gun. After doing some research I
decided to take a class. My first class was
Tactical Responses Fighting Pistol course
in Camden, Tenn., in July 2011. I loved it and
stayed an additional two days and also took
the Immediate Action Medical Class.
50
Once I got back home, my life changed.
My mindset had changed. I bought a Glock
19 and I started going to the range and practicing what I had learned. I bought a purse
that would accommodate my gun and I carried it every day. I also carried a blow-out

WWW.USCCA.COM

kit on my person. I also knew my children

needed to learn what I had. My son would
be leaving for college soon and I thought it
was irresponsible of me to send him out into
this world unprepared.
Imagine being an 18-year-old kid, leaving
for college and your mom says, Hey son,
how would you like to go to a class with
me and learn how to defend yourself with a
handgun?
Im a mother. Im a gun owner, and I train.
When my son graduated from high school, I
gave him a Glock 19. It seemed only natural that I would make sure he could use that
handgun safely and correctly. While most
of his buddies were on family vacations on
the beach, we would be on the range. There
would be no bikini-clad 20-somethings running around half-naked. Instead his sights
would be on humanoid and dot targets. Not
your typical trip but still a dream vacation.
In August, my son and I returned to Tactical Response and attended, The Way of

the Pistol. We decided to stay in the Team

Room, located in the home of James Yeager,
owner of Tactical Response. He has converted his basement into a commons area and
sleeping quarters for his students. Students
and instructors stay together and it creates a
family/fraternity type environment. The first
thing you learn as a student is that we are all
family.
It was important that my son experience
everything and understand that this isnt just
a hobby; its a way of life. Its a path we have
all chosen.
Our gear was pretty simple. We both wore
Viking Cobra belts; my son used the Galco
IWB holster and mag carriers while I used
the Kilo Concepts custom holsters and mag
carriers. We both carry the Glock 19 and as
such we trained with what we carry. One
lifesaver we had on hand was the Uplulu for
reloading. If you dont have one of those, get
one. Having to reload 1500 rounds or more
by hand is not fun.
We began our first day with introductions
of our teachers and fellow students, safety
briefings, medical plans, and marksmanship
fundamentals. Then it was off to the range.
I had taken the class once before so I knew
how things would begin but it was an amazing feeling watching my son step to the firing line with his gun on his side.
We started out going through the steps of
drawing our guns from a concealment position, making sure our off hands were out of
the way, then moving to the retention position and finally aiming at our targets with
both hands on the guns. We did that several
times before we ever fired a round.
Once the shooting started, the day moved
quickly. We practiced dot drills to work on
sight alignment and then moved to body
silhouettes to focus more on defensive
tactics. We learned how to clear weapon
malfunctions using both hands and then
strong-hand-only. We learned to load and
reload using strong-hand-only. The instructors reinforced the Wyatt Protocol of FAST
(Fight, Assess, Scan, and Top off ) during each
drill. We also learned to shoot from supine to
standing. On breaks we loaded magazines
for each other. I fussed at him to drink more
while he rolled his eyes and said, Yes, Mom
and laughed.
After shooting close to 600 rounds each
that first day, my son was starting to put
the pieces together. We discussed things we
both felt we needed to improve and things

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who really want to get
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there are few better ways
than participating in an
intense week of firearms
training. It is a great way
to bring shooting families
closer together and learn
something, too.

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51
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ourselves. We ended our

fourth night on the night
shoot.
Our final day was filled
with force-on-force training. Our instructors set up
scenarios and we had to
fight through them using
the tactics and skills we
had been taught the prior four days. Getting shot
by Simunitions rounds hurt but Id rather be
shot in a training situation and learn from
my mistakes than be shot for real in a violent
confrontation because I wasnt prepared. We
ended the final day sharing what we had all
learned throughout the week and received
our certificates.
At the end of the week, we had shot more
than 4000 rounds combined. We battled
heat, humidity, and rain. We had blisters on
our fingers and tired, exhausted muscles
but we also had a new mindset and a vast
amount of knowledge combined with tactics and skill. If the unthinkable happened,
we would be able to defend ourselves in a
violent confrontation.
There are a lot of things I may not be able
to give my son but one thing I have done
and will continue to do is reinforce his love
of guns and ensure that he will be safe. Life
can be beautiful but can also turn ugly in just
a few seconds. I know my son will have the
mindset and ability to save his life and those
around him.
That is a priceless gift and made for a great
vacation.

APRIL 2013

we had improved upon

just in a few hours.
At the end of the day,
driving back to the team
room to shower and
meet our class for dinner,
I couldnt help but smile.
That evening as our fellow
students met for dinner,
we swapped stories from
the range and spent time
getting to know our instructors. He shared
some quite embarrassing stories about his
mom with our fellow students and I reciprocated.
Afterward, it was back to the team room to
complete our homework. Yes, thats correct.
We had homework. We had several pages to
read so we would be prepared for our lecture
the next day.
The following day we gathered back in
the classroom for a lecture on mindset, the
legal issues we would encounter if we were
involved in a gunfight, and the mental and
emotional battle in the aftermath of a gunfight. We finished the day on the range continuing our draw exercises, using the Wyatt
Protocol and we moved into shooting weakhand-only, shooting while on the move, and
shooting from behind cover and from the
retention position.
At the end of the second day, I saw my
sons confidence handling his pistol growing.
He understood why we performed the drills
as instructed. He saw his accuracy improve.
The next two days were filled with learning
to draw and clear malfunctions with our
weak hand, more combative self-defense
techniques, team tactics, team drills, team
cover while providing medical attention to

M MFORTA
ADE
B
IN TH LE
E US
A

FINE

E LINES
FINE LINES

BY OLEG VOLK

APRIL 2013

S&W OFFERS AN M&P

FOR EVERYONE

53
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THE SMITH & WESSON M&P LINE now truly offers

something for every shooter. Since the introduction of the original

M&P pistol in 2005, the company has expanded the line to cover
all categories: sporting longslide (5-inch barrel, 26 ounces), service
(4.25 inches, 24 ounces), compact (3.5 inches, 21.7 ounces).
These three are all double-stack designs. Next up they offered a
subcompact single-stack, the Shield (3.1 inches, 19 ounces). And
now finally, S&W offers a rimfire clone of the service-size pistol.
As direct competition to Glock and the
Springfield XD line, the M&P series offers a
greater variety of features and certain refinements (such as interchangeable backstraps)
the competition grudgingly adopted. What
sparked my interest in the M&P lineup was
getting my hands on one at a training course
and later seeing shooters with tiny hands
handle the pistols with ease. Lets take a look
at the 9x19 variants as we compare them to
the rimfire model.

THE FULL LINE

Smith & Wesson positions the full-size pistol as the service model. The compact is for
concealed carry. The Shield is for deep concealment, and the .22 as the training counterpart for the full-size model. For the most
part, the Shield is too large for pocket carry
but excels for in its role as a concealable pistol in most environments.

APRIL 2013

54

And because holster makers know a winner when they see it, shooters will find an
excellent array of holsters that make even
the full-size model fairly easy to conceal on
an average body. Those same holsters fit the
MP22 for seamless training.
Round counts are excellent for each pistol. The full-size M&P holds 17. The compact
model carries 12. The Shield offers seven or
eight depending on the magazine. Another
nice touch is that the 17-round magazines
from the full-sized pistol can be used in the
compact, and both share the same magazine pouches. Metal magazines, rather than
polymer, allow for a slimmer grip in the
double-stack variants. The magazine release
buttons are reversible on all models except
the Shield and easily interchangeable backstraps in the double-stack variants allow
changes to the grip size for any hand. Neither the single-stack Shield nor the 12-shot

ALL IN THE FAMILY

WWW.USCCA.COM

STACKING UP: From 17 rounds in the fullsized pistol to 12 in the compact to seven in
the Shield, the family of M&P pistols is built to
serve the needs of every shooter.

rimfire trainer M&P22 offer interchangeable

backstraps. This feature is not offered on the
Shield because its grip is designed for maximum concealment. Adding such a feature to
the .22 would make the pistol more complex
and expensive. The rimfire grip is dimensionally identical to the full-size centerfire grip
with medium blackstrap.

SAFETY FIRST AND SECONDAND

All M&P pistols feature multiple safeties.
Trigger safety is in the form of a pivoting
compound trigger. The drop safety is the
usual internal plunger that releases the striker only when the trigger is fully depressed.
In the centerfire line shooter can choose
between pistols with or without a magazine
disconnector (meaning the pistol cannot
fire if the magazine is removed) and with
or without a frame-mounted thumb safety.
The rimfire pistols have both as standard
features. Since I consider this magazine disconnect detrimental to safe handling, I am
disappointed that it is mandatory on the .22.
Fortunately, a gunsmith can remove it if you
wish the rimfire version to behave exactly as
your centerfire variant.
TRIGGER TIME
While I considered the original M&P trigger one of the attractions, I am apparently
in the minority. The full-size and compact

triggers are smooth and crisp on the stroke

but lack an obvious reset point. The rimfire
trainer mimics that closely. The similarity between the trainer and centerfire triggers is
all the more remarkable when you consider
that the defensive pistols are all striker-fired
and the trainer is hammer-fired.
M&P Shield comes with a better trigger
than its bigger brothers, which is unusual for
a subcompact. The initial pull is similar and
the reset is very clear. In a lighter, thinner gun
such as the shield, this trigger is quite welcome. With Apex aftermarket parts, the original M&P trigger reset on the full-size guns
can be made as crisp and the initial pull on
all centerfire models may be reduced without sacrificing reliability.
Recoil on all M&P pistols is quite mild,
thanks in part to the well-designed grips.
Equally well-designed slides allow easy racking without abrasion to the fingers. The trigger and guard design is also compatible with
gloved use. Magazines are easy to load without mechanical aids. Unlike most .22 pistols,
the MP22 is shipped with a 12-rounder, but
10-rounders are available for the .22 and all
double-stack centerfire models for the residents of the more legally restrictive states.
The centerfire pistols ship with white-dot
or tritium sights. Aftermarket tritium or fiber
optic sights are also available. The .22 trainer
comes with a white dot front and a slightly

GRIP THICKNESS
FROM BELOW: Three sizes, from the Shield (left) to the
full-sized M&P, there is a Smith & Wesson pistol to fit every
hand and every style of carry.

APRIL 2013

55
WWW.USCCA.COM

outlined rear sight. For consistency, MP22

sights may be upgraded to whatever configuration you favor on the centerfire models.
Most M&P sights use a setscrew for tension,
so they may be adjusted easily without use
of an expensive sight pusher tool.
Mechanical accuracy seems very similar
between my three 9mm M&Ps. At 7 yards,
they all shoot roughly 1.5-inch groups with
ball ammo and 1-inch groups with hollow-point ammunition. At 25 yards, the difference of sight radius shows up in favor of
the full-size variant, but accuracy is remarkably similar when all were fired using laser
sighting and a rest. The 124-grain JHP loads
all averaged around 3.5 inches, while 115and 147-grain loads came in at about 4.5
inches. Most importantly, none of the pistols
had problems cycling any particular bullet
weight or shape.
Accuracy with the MP22 likewise depended greatly on ammunition: At 25 yards, 6
inches wasnt unusual with bulk ammo, 4
inches with CCI Mini-mags and around 3
inches with Eley Match. The 40-grain loads
were generally more accurate than 30-grain
hyper-velocity loads, but both performed

APRIL 2013

56

better than bulk ammo. To its credit, MP22

ran fine with standard-velocity loads.

DESIGN DIFFERENCES
Although the overall design of the MP22
can be clearly traced from the Walther P22,
it is more accurate by far and appears more
durable. The slide, the weak point of the P22,
is anodized aluminum on the MP22 instead
of the injection-molded powdered metal of
the P22. The other common feature with the
P22 is the requirement for a specific wrench
for full disassembly. Finding a hardware-store
substitute for this wrench is nearly impossible,
so you may wish to order a spare wrench to
have on hand. While you are at it, order spare
magazines, as the MP22 ships with only one.
How closely does MP22 mimic its big
brother? The trigger and the grip are extremely similar, and the sights may be made
similar. Long-range trajectories differ fairly
significantly, as does the follow-up for multiple shots. The main use of the trainer is learning sighting and trigger control, practicing
the draw and the all-important first shot out
of the holster. A day of range practice becomes less expensive and less tiring. MP22

also shines in the hands of the novice shooters -- it looks like a serious gun but has none
of the intimidating report and recoil of the
full-caliber fighting guns. And, dare I point
this out, it is more fun than most of us are
used to having.
The service-size M&P is a competently designed weapon without any obvious flaws.
Its generous rail length makes it compatible
with a wide variety of lights and lasers. The
compact is similar in the feel and identical
in the manual of arms, ideal for carry when
more discretion is advised. Its shorter rail can
still house a useful variety of accessories. The
Shield is a remarkable design in being a very
small gun that still feels and functions like a
full-sized weapon. No rail, but trigger-guard
mounted lasers and lights are available. I
wouldnt feel handicapped shooting IDPA
with it and thats a good gauge of confidence
in a defensive pistol. The M&P series is widely
supported by the holster, sight and accessory makers. Magazines are available at a reasonable cost. While any one of them may be
considered a flexible design, I ended up with
all four in the line-up because each has a definite niche in personal defense and training.

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ON THE FORCES OF IGNORANCE

A RESPONSIBLY
ARMED CITIZEN IS
EDUCATED, TRAINED
EQUIPPED AND
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW IS...EVERY YEAR LAW ABIDING AMERICANS

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL REPUTATIONS ARE DESTROYED BY CRIMINAL CHARGES AS A RESULT

OF A JUSTIFIABLE USE OF THEIR FIREARM FOR SELF DEFENSE. IF YOURE FORCED TO USE YOUR GUN IN
DEFENSE OF YOURSELF OR YOUR FAMILY, THE INSURANCE PROVIDED WITH EACH USCCA MEMBERSHIP
WILL HELP YOU FIND, HIRE AND PAY FOR AN EXPERT PRO-2ND AMENDMENT
LAWYER TO GIVE YOU THE BEST CHANCE IN THE COURT OF LAW.
USCCA MEMBERSHIP PROVIDES THE EDUCATION, TRAINING AND-MOST
IMPORTANTLY
THE INSURANCETO ALLOW YOU TO CARRY YOUR GUN CONFIDENTLY WITHOUT
HAVING TO FEAR LOSING EVERYTHING WHEN YOURE FORCED TO USE IT.

THE USCCA IS THE PATH TO BECOMING A RESPONSIBLY ARMED CITIZEN.

JOIN TODAY. GETUSCCAMEMBERSHIP.COM

YOUR RIGHT.

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BY GREG ELLIFRITZ

APRIL 2013

THINGS YOU NEVER

SEE IN PRINT

61
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IN MY CITY, there have been several recent

gun behind the hip (either

on the belt or inside the
high-profile attacks on bicyclists and people waistband) it will print horusing urban bike paths. In the last two months, ribly when you are riding in
weve seen rapes, robberies, and assaults a forward leaning posture.
committed against people on bicycles. Your Appendix carry is generally out because the muzzle
home city might be seeing a similar trend. will poke you in the thigh
Bicycle commuters and recreational cy- on every pedal stroke. Ankle holsters are not
clists are particularly vulnerable in some feasible because they will bang on the frame
areas. Traditional firearms and self-defense or sprocket of the bike as you ride.
training doesnt cover the situations in which
The weapon will also be exposed to much
cyclists might find themselves. Some special- more moisture than the average concealed
ized awareness and training is necessary.
carry gun. Whether the moisture comes in the
For the record, I am not a bicycle commuter. form of rain or sweat, it will wreak havoc on a
I ride mountain bikes recreationally and have blued guns finish. The gun needs some extra
served as a bike patrol officer for my police protection.
agency. I also taught the firearms and self-de When I ride, I generally carry a Glock 26
fense portion of our states police cyclist cer- in a fanny pack. I rotate it to the back of my
tification class for several years. Although I body (they way it was originally intended to
dont ride my bike every day, Im aware of the be worn) so that it doesnt get in the way of
specialized training that cyclists need.
my pedaling. I realize this isnt going to be an
The following safety tips can be beneficial exceptionally fast draw but it seems like the
for cyclists commuting to work and for the best compromise for me.
occasional cyclist. Some of them might also
Ive also carried a small revolver or .380 aube useful for your children that might spend tomatic in a pocket holster in the thigh cargo
more time on a bike than you do.
pocket of my shorts. If you find the right gun/
1) Traditional holsters dont work well for holster/pocket combination, this option can
concealed carry on a bicycle. If you carry your work well but it will likely take some intense

APRIL 2013

62
WWW.USCCA.COM

experimentation. One caution: magazine release buttons on semi-automatic pistols get

pushed quite often when cycling. Pocket holsters are notorious for creating this problem.
Make sure that your magazine stays in the
gun after all types of exertion and movement.
2) Beware of potential ambush sites. Many
bike paths travel through densely wooded
areas. They often have curves, blind corners,
and poorly maintained brush near the trail.
Many times thieves, rapists, and muggers use
these terrain features to their advantage for
an ambush-style attack.
If I wanted to rob a bike commuter, I would
find a place on a bike trail with a blind corner and set up some type of roadblock. A
large tree limb, log or rock can easily be
placed in the path. If it is placed shortly after
a blind corner, the cyclist may crash into it if
he is moving at any speed. Even if the cyclist
doesnt crash, hell have to stop and move the
obstacle in order to continue. When the biker
either crashes or stops to move the obstacle,
my buddies and I would jump him.
Another option is exploitingany location
where the underbrush is close to the path.
The thief can hide in the brush and shove a
stick into the spokes as you ride by. When you
crash, he steals your bike and wallet.
Look for those areas on your route and either avoid them or be extra cautious. Keep
your eyes on the trail ahead. If you see an
obstacle, either turn around or quickly dismount. Scan the areas around the obstacle
for potential hiding spots and attackers. Access your weapon and be ready to fight if you
are attacked.
3) Use caution when riding on roadways.
Besides the normal hazards of sharing the
road with cars, some criminals will use their
vehicles to assault cyclists to facilitate their
crimes. One recent kidnapper in Louisiana
saw an attractive, young woman riding alone
at night. The kidnapper followed the girl in
his truck, and when he saw an opportunity,
he struck her with the vehicle. After she fell to
the ground, he approached her with a knife
and forced her into the truck. The 19-year-old
girl fought back vigorously, spraying him with
pepper spray and stabbing him with his own
knife but the man drew a gun and killed her.
Be especially aware of anyone who may be
following you. Bikes move slower than cars. If
a car is intentionally traveling behind you and
not attempting to pass, take that as a warning
sign. Get off the road and into the grass where
a vehicle will have more difficulty following.
Mirrors on your bike or helmet are useful in
detecting when a car may be following you.

even know one cyclist who uses a tire pump

mount to carry an expandable baton.
Be creative. Just make sure that weapon is
secured if you have to lock your bike up and
leave it in a public location.
9) If you dismount, unbuckle your helmet.
A buckled helmet makes it very easy for an
attacker to control your movements. The attacker can grab your helmet and drag your
head down. Where the head goes, the body
follows! Ive dragged 250-pound bike cops
around by their helmets all day long in police
bike school. Make it a habit to unbuckle your
helmet whenever you step off your bike.
10) Exhaustion will be a factor if you have
to fight. I remember responding to an officer-in-trouble call one night when I was on
bike patrol. It was a busy Fourth of July and
our citys fireworks show was just ending.
Traffic was snarled and none of the patrol
cruisers could get through. During this mess,
one of my fellow officers was trying to arrest
an intoxicated driver. The driver was fighting back and the officer was in a bad spot
and calling for help. I was about two miles
away on my police bike. I rode there as fast
as I could and was the first officer to arrive on
scene. I jumped off my bike and tried to run
over to help my friend but my legs wouldnt
cooperate. I fell in a heap. I had to crawl over
to the drunk, take him to the ground, and lay
on him until other officers arrived. Thats all I
was physically capable of doing!And that was
after a short five-minute sprint!Imagine how

much a long training ride would diminish

your ability to fight!
Physically exhausted victims are generally
more justified in escalating force during an attack. Realize that after cycling, you may have
far less fighting energy than you would have
if you were fresh. Plan accordingly. If you cant
control your attacker or escape you should be
considering higher levels of force before you
become so exhausted that you cant even access your weapon!
If you spend a lot of time on a bike, you
owe it to yourself to learn some specific bicycle-related defensive skills. Take your bike and
your preferred weapon out for a practice session. Keep these tips in mind as you formulate
a defensive strategy. I dont want to see your
name in a future news article describing yet
another horrific attack on a bicyclist.
Greg Ellifritz is a 17-year veteran police officer
currently serving as the full-time firearms and
defensive tactics training officer for a central
Ohio police department. He holds instructor
or master instructor certifications in more than
75 different weapon systems, defensive tactics
programs, and police specialty areas. Ellifritz
has a masters degree in Public Policy and Management and has been an instructor for both
the Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy and
the Tactical Defense Institute. He is the lead instructor for Active Response Training and can
be reached through his website, ActiveResponseTraining.net.

APRIL 2013

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4) Speed is your friend. Maneuverability

and rapid acceleration from a dead stop is
not! If you have forewarning of a potential
problem, speed up! Dont slow down. A bicycle moving at full speed is very difficult for
a running human to catch. If you slow down,
you are playing the on the criminals turf. A
slowly moving bike is less maneuverable and
lacks quick acceleration. If you slow to walking pace, you are better off dismounting than
trying to quickly accelerate to get away.
5) Use your bike as a barrier, a weapon, or a
distraction. If you have to dismount, keep the
bicycle between yourself and your potential
attacker(s). If he/they move to grab you, push
the bike into him/them and either access
your weapon or run the opposite way. This
technique works surprisingly well at buying
a couple extra seconds in a critical incident.
6) Learn to access your weapon and shoot
from the crash position. If your luck is anything like mine, you will crash before you
have a chance to draw your weapon in a dangerous situation. Can you draw your weapon
of choice while lying on the ground in a heap
with the bike on top of you?You may have to
learn how to do it!Get to your back and push
the bike away from you with your feet as you
draw. Once the bike is away from your legs,
work your way into a standing/fighting position and seek cover.
If you have a range where you can shoot
from the crash position, Id encourage you to
do so. If not, work on dryfiring from the position in any private location. An airsoft gun
and a few cardboard targets in your backyard
may be a good substitute for live fire.
7) Dont try to stop and draw at the same
time. Stop your bike first, then draw your
weapon. This is primarily for right-handed
riders. If you try to draw the gun with your
right hand while simultaneously applying the
brake with your left, youll lock up the front
brake and go over your handlebars.
This is one of the hardest lessons to teach
cyclists who carry guns. They see a threat and
are programmed to draw. They draw, end up
on the ground, and are lucky if they dont
shoot themselves in the process. Stop first.
Then draw.
8) Consider mounting a weapon on your
bike. Even if you carry a gun, having a backup or less lethal weapon makes a lot of sense.
Many cyclists I know carry a folding knife
clipped into the waistband of their pants. (I
like the Spyderco Salt because of its sweat
resistance.)
Several companies make pepper spray carry holsters that attach to your bikes frame. I

 From out of nowhere the

Armsband holster puts the gun
right where you need it with very
limited movement. This location
is especially good for those who
spend a lot of time driving as it
allows rapid access while seated.

WHATS
UP YOUR
SLEEVE?
RECENT EVENTS have

sent sales of all firearms,

particularly those designed
for self-defense skyrocketing.
Leading this rush for personal
armament are the so called
pocket guns in various
center-fire calibers. These are
Constant Carry (C2) guns that
are readily concealable, even
with minimal clothing.

A Holster
on Your Arm
Gives You
AnotHer
option
BY BoB pilGrim

APRIL 2013

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They are the guns you often grab when

you have to momentarily leave your guests
to run down to the local 7-Eleven to get
more chips and dip and just dont have time
to strap on your 1911 and pull on a jacket.
They lend themselves to a plethora of carry
options such as pocket, ankle, under-garment shoulder rigs, and belly bands, brassiere, waistband, belt, neck, thigh, and crotch.
Where you stow your mini blaster is only limited by your imagination and physique.
Please note: I advocate carrying the largest
handgun and caliber that you are comfortable with but any gun is better than no gun.
ARMSBAND OPTION
Where else can we hide a firearm that
has not been tried? I am not talking about
the hardened criminal or terrorist that has
secreted firearms, drugs or explosives deep
within body cavities. My interest was piqued
when a police security bulletin arrived in my
email that alerted officers about a new method of weapons concealment. The warning
concerned a unique holster for small handguns called ArmsBand.
It appears to be a nearly perfect holster
for .32 and .380-sized pistols. Made of a cunning combination of nylon and Velcro, the

APRIL 2013

66

2-ounce holster is designed to be affixed to

the upper arm, under or over a T-shirt sleeve
and further concealed by a short-sleeved
shirt. Worn on the support side, it permits
a very subtle cross draw and negates the
requirement for loose shirts and untucked
shirt tails.
The bicep band merely represents another alternative to tailor your carry to best
meet the requirements of your mission or
circumstances.
SAFETY ASPECTS
Before I explore the various methods for
deploying your hidden firearm from the upper arm, I want to address the rigs idiosyncrasies and safety aspects that must be carefully observed before employing.
HD Ballistic Research LLC is the manufacturer and recommends/cautions the following:
Never reholster your firearm with the
ArmsBand affixed to your arm. Take it off to
reholster.
Do not holster any single-action pistol
in condition one (cocked and locked) with
a round in the chamber. Condition three
(chamber empty) carry is recommended.
Dry practice carrying and drawing with an
empty firearm until proficient before carry-

ing a loaded handgun.

The ArmsBand system is not recommended for people that have neurological, circulatory or skin conditions that may interfere
with the proper elastic tension required for
the rig to remain in place. People with sensitive skin can, however, wear the holster over
the sleeve of a T-shirt.
After-market additions such as trigger
shoes, extended slide releases, and some
types of laser aimers or frame alterations
may render the holster unsafe and increase
the risk of an unintentional discharge.
ArmsBand gives the customer a 30-day
grace period for trial purposes. If you determine the system is not for you, the company
will take it back and refund your purchase
price less shipping charges. A one-year replacement warranty is in effect against wear
or defect as long as cleaning instructions are
adhered to.
AFFIXING THE ARMSBAND
Putting the holster on requires that you
roll up your T-shirt sleeve on the carry side.
Before you do that you must first secure your
loaded firearm in the holster. This is the only
holster that I know of that stipulates inserting the weapon prior to putting it on. Nev-

WWW.USCCA.COM

 Brawling with the Armsband

holster in place may dislodge the pistol.
After several blows the holster slid down
to the elbow and rotated. After several
more, the pistol was lost.

pistol is quite accessible to your opponent

especially if you are straddling him while
ground fighting. This holster is not designed
for vigorous activity to include sprinting and
climbing.
PULLTHROUGH STRAP
After testing I decided the nylon, nonstretch retention strap should be replaced
with an elastic retention strap so the gun can
be pulled straight through without having to
contend with the slow and noisy Velcro anchor now in use. Wear and loss of elasticity
is anticipated, so replacement elastic straps
should be included in the kit.
CONCLUSIONS
The ArmsBand rig works best when trouble is anticipated. Its primary advantage is
that a non-threatening gun contact attitude
can be assumed without brandishing. From
this position the firearm can be deployed relatively quickly. Otherwise, you may have to
resort to other defensive methods to create
an opening or buy time so you can extract
the weapon.
Unfortunately, in its current configuration,
going hands-on may result in loss of the firearm. However, it represents another alternative for concealed carry in a location not
often anticipated by your opponent.
As with any system it could use some improvements, but as it is, the system is suitable for many applications.
Contact:
ArmsBand
7 Avenida Vista Grandee
B-7 PMB 497
Santa Fe, NM 87508
customerservice@armsband.com
www.armsband.com

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the elbow with fingers together and extended. Maintaining contact with the underside
of the support arm the fingers slide up and
establish a partial grip on the firearm. The
thumb will release the retention strap, which
is designed for security and not speed. As the
pistol is extracted, the support elbow should
be driven in the opposite direction.
STEERINGWHEEL DRAW
If you anticipate a violent confrontation
while driving, slide the support hand up to
the 12 oclock position on the wheel. The
dominant hand can subtly make contact with
the handgun without exposing it. If dictated
by your adversary, he will suddenly be admiring your firearms barrel; even a .380 tube
looks intimidating at close range. If a laser,
like the Crimson Trace on the Taurus TCP 738,
is attached to your pistol you can light up the
opposition from an underarm position.
If you are in a static position and want
to use your sights or point shoot, pull your
support arm up and back as if blocking a
blow and index the threat with your sights
or, if close enough to point shoot, by looking
through the gun.
You do not want to cross your support arm
with the guns muzzle, so get it back and up
and out of the way for this method of engagement.
BRAWLING
If you get into a brawl, be advised that a
hard jab, left hook or elbow smash to your
threat may dislodge the firearm.
A federal agent and a Marine staff sergeant wailed away at a heavy bag with a
Taurus TCP 738. After several strikes, the
holster slid down to the elbow, rotated, and
with several more the Taurus was jettisoned
through the top of the holster.
Also note, like other cross-draw rigs your

APRIL 2013

ertheless, safety dictates that this practice

be followed and furthermore, the holster
should be removed to reholster the gun. The
steps are as follows:
To wear the holster on the left arm (righthand draw), lay it down with the two elastic
straps facing left.
Insert the pistol into the pocket with the
butt down, slide up with muzzle pointing
diagonally left and fasten the security strap.
For pistols, the strap goes around the back
strap. Fasten the strap around the back of a
revolvers trigger guard.
Place the holster and gun against the upper inside of the carry side bicep.
With your dominant hand, hold the rig
and gun against arm and hook the upper
Velcro strap to the armband. Then hook the
lower strap. Adjust the straps for comfort
and security.
Adjust the holster, so that the firearms
muzzle is pointing out and up past the armpit and away from the body for safe carry.
Practice with an empty weapon, so during
the presentation the guns muzzle points
away from the body and carrying arm.
The system lends itself to some very subtle and low-profile presentations. A big advantage is that you can have your hand in
contact with your firearm for instant access
without brandishing it.
CROSSCHEST DRAW
Standing with arms folded across your
chest indicates to body language experts
that you are resisting whatever is being conveyed to you.
With the ArmsBand, you can have a grip
on your gun without brandishing, which in
many jurisdictions is a crime. To assist in the
efficacy of the draw, the support arm with elbow leading should be punched to the rear
while the dominant hand extracts the piece
and drives it in the opposite direction toward
the threat. You use this draw while seated.
REACTIVE DRAW
Obviously, this is the slowest method of
extraction and presentation and when under pressure may be difficult to complete in
a timely manner. When time is a factor, the
rig would benefit significantly from an elastic
strap for a pull-through draw.
The shooter raises his arm as if to deliver
an elbow strike. This could be a reflexive or
trained defensive move but it also permits
gravity to drop the hem of the sleeve to create an opening for the hand.
The dorsal surface of your dominant hand
should contact your support arm just above

GET MOTIVATED,
BE PREPARED
BY R.K. CAMPBELL

WHY
DO YOU
TRAIN?
THE MOTIVATION TO STOP AN ATTACK isnt difficult to

achieve. You either respond or you die or get critically injured.

To have the will and the means to defend yourself means you must
train. The single most important training factor is motivation. You are
creating something from nothing. The motivation to put in the time
you need to become proficient is more difficult to come by but you
must train hard because you will fight as you have trained; you will
fall back to that default. If you have not trained hard, you will not rise
to the occasion. You will operate at your average performance on
the range, perhaps less. That is why training is so important.

69

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It takes motivation to train to build skills

you may never need. Many shooters find a
drill at which they excel and practice it to
build proficiency over time. It may be a multiple-target drill or a hostage-rescue drill. But if
other skills, such as a rapid magazine change
or weak-hand shooting, suffer then you may
be SOL when you need those skills the most.
Quite simply you are half trained, at best,
if you ignore all-around skill development. A
lack of proficiency is a dangerous thing. When
you consider the firearm is a life-saving tool
and not simply a fashion accessory, you realize that your attitude about training should
change. The biggest reason for poor performance is a lack of motivation.
In most states, once you pass the concealed
carry course there is no annual training and
no remedial training requirement as there is
in law enforcement. I am not suggesting there
should be, but without this requirement quite
a few shooters become lax in practicing their
skills. Some shooters are lazy about training
and tend to contaminate the minds of other
shooters. Some shooters say training doesnt
matter because you will be shooting at only
a few feet. Perhaps this is sometimes true but
you need to be able to present the weapon
quickly and bring it on target smoothly.
Sometimes students say that firing is stressful. If that is the case, perhaps you do not need
a handgun. If you cannot handle the stress
of the range, you certainly cannot handle
firing for real against an attacker. If you panic, there goes the innocent bystander. If you
consistently have problems on the range, you
should seek remedial help and improve your
shooting. It can be done. The greatest single
predictor of gunfight survival is prior training.

GOALS

beginning there.
The basics of gun handling are actually
more important than marksmanship in the
beginning. Handling the pistol safely, observing muzzle discipline, being able to safely
load and unload the pistol and to fire the pistol safely is most important in the beginning.
Successful repetition is vital. The more you
practice the correct method and handling the
handgun, the more natural your movement
will be. With smoothness comes speed. You
must use mental discipline to exercise what
you have learned.
When you come to a training class the most
important things you bring are mental skills.
A good attitude and a desire to excel must be

The basics of gun handling are

actually more important than
marksmanship in the beginning.
present. You must have certain skills that will
make the class progress as designed and not
bog the class down for your fellow students.
Do not show up at a class that demands a 15yard qualifier if the only handgun you have is
a .25 ACP pocket pistol or a derringer. Do not
show up with an ancient .22 caliber pot metal
revolver that doesnt fire more than half the
time. Obtain fresh ammunition that will fire
when the hammer falls. Dont laugh; I have experienced all of these problems with students.
Again, the most important thing to bring to
a class is motivation. Here is a short list of the
other things you should be prepared to bring
to any training class:
Appropriate handgun. It must be reliable and
serviceable.
Ammunition. Be certain that is the proper caliber and load for the handgun. Yes, really.
Bring a spare magazine or two for the
self-loader. It is ridiculous to keep loading a
single magazine for a self-loading pistol on the
firing line.
A holster that fits the handgun and a gun belt
that supports the weight of the handgun and
the holster.
A spare magazine pouch to be worn on the belt.
Shooting classes and hearing protection.
Gun cleaning gear.
Water.
Appropriate clothing for the weather.
Arm yourself with a good attitude, common sense, and the desire to learn and you
will train successfully. Otherwise you may be
a danger to yourself and others.

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The greatest hurdle to overcome is selfdoubt. You have to examine the realities of
a gunfight and not what you have seen on
television. You must be able to know when
to shoot and when to take cover. Fighting is
fighting whatever the weapon. You must be
able to draw the handgun, to retain it in a
struggle, to quickly take cover, and to quickly
clear a stoppage if need be.
You also must have a realistic expectation
of handgun performance. The primary mindset is to develop a healthy understanding of
the handguns purpose. It is not an instrument
of recreation to be used to fire at three-dimensional targets. This is a life-saving device that
must be respected and understood.
The single greatest shortcoming of students
that attend my classes is a lack of familiarity
with the handgun. They come to the class unprepared to load, handle or fire the handgun.
This basic understanding can be learned from
the owners manual. I have trained numerous
individuals who have had a handgun at the
ready in their home for months or years yet
they are not proficient with the pistol.
Owning a handgun for personal defense involves much more than occasionally firing at
a paper target. Quality firearms are expensive
but proficiency at arms is purchased with a
different coin.
Owning several firearms and firing them
on a regular basis doesnt make a person proficient. On the contrary, you might learn bad
habits from an untrained individual. A good
start is the NRA basic handgun course from a
certified NRA instructor; you cannot go wrong

APRIL 2013

Can you present the handgun from the

holster in a smooth motion and in a manner
in which the sights are quickly lined up on
the target? These skills need to be firmly programmed into our muscle memory. Only repetition on the range will produce this type of
smooth, fluid movement on demand.
Some of us obtain a quality firearm and fire
it in basically recreational shooting without a
purpose, something trainers refer to as simply
making brass. Most shooters who go through
my concealed carry class are more interested
in obtaining a permit than learning to shoot,
although there are exceptions. Others become interested in the shooting sports and
excel at what they do.
In between I find the interested student

who wishes to learn the skills necessary to

save a life. Such a student might never compete in a shooting match and might not become a gun person in the sense some of us
are, but these shooters realize the need for
training and have the proper mindset to address their needs.
You have to consider the likely problem. An
attack is stressful not only mentally but also
physically. Your physical and mental processes will be strained and diminished. What you
bring to the fight will determine the outcome.
Prior training is the single most reliable predictor of survival. Having the proper mindset
the winning mindset will dictate whether you survive.

CLIMATE GOOD
BUSINESS STRONG
FUTURE POSITIVE
BY RICK SAPP

SHOT
SHOW
2 013

APRIL 2013

TO SAY THAT SALES during the 2013 SHOT show

were brisk would be an understatement. Handgun and
ammunition sales were particularly strong with some
manufacturers reporting demand far greater
than production capacity.

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HOW BRIGHT IS IT?

APRIL 2013

74
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Lets look at the shooting sports business

by segment:
FIREARMS: Jason McKean, gunsmith for
Kahr Arms, which is now allied with Thompson/Center and Magnum Research, says:
Were experiencing a six-month backlog on
delivering product.
The Kahr website backs him up: Due to
high demand, delivery times on firearms and
high-capacity magazines will vary and may
take as long as six months for new orders.
Please do not contact the factory until
further notice.
That pretty much makes a statement
about the state of the industry. Six months
for the T/C bolt-action Dimension rifle with
interchangeable barrels and calibers. Six
months for Kahrs tiny, P380 pocket pistol. Six
months for a new Magnum Lite .22LR with
black polymer ambidextrous thumbhole
stock rifle from Magnum Research.
AMMUNITION: HPR (High Precision
[down]Range) ammo National Sales Director
Ryan Nicholas notes this is only the companys second year at the Shooting, Hunting
and Outdoor Trades (SHOT) Show.
Were shipping ammo as fast as we can
build it, he says. At HPR headquarters in
Payson, Ariz., the new ammo manufacturer is
tooling up for a second shift on the factory
floor. Were training new employees but because all of our ammo is hand inspected the
training process is slow.
What ammo is in greatest demand? Without a doubt its 9mm and .223.
RELOADING: At the Dillon Precision
booth where all the reloaders are bright
blue, engineer Chris Kersey says demand for
current models like the XL 650, a multi-caliber five-station progressive machine capable of loading 500-800 rounds per hour, is
so strong that since the national elections,
weve been building as fast as we can and I
think its the fear factor (about political meddling) at work.
The Dillon website notes that it might take
six to eight weeks to ship orders.
HIGH-CAPACITY MAGAZINES: Dave Dolbee, senior writer with Cheaper than Dirt,
confirms the astonishing rise in price of a
30-round magazine. Yeah, were sold out,
he says. Dolbee notes that Brownells had a
three and a half year inventory but emptied
their shelves before Christmas.
A Jan. 23 check of pricing noted that a steel,
30-round Israeli-made Mako E-Lander magazine for the AR15, M16 or M4 with anti-tilt

self-leveling follower normally about $15

was offered for $80, a price confirmed by Frank
Herndon of Backwoods Outdoors, Albany, Ga.
CROSSBOWS: Dave Robb of TenPoint and
Wicked Ridge Crossbows says the Archery
category has disappeared from the SHOT
Show Directory. Archery has been replaced
by Crossbows & Accessories. The time of the
horizontal bow has arrived.
The new Vapor from TenPoint offers a
165-pound draw weight with a 15.5-inch power stroke. The parallel limb design with carbon
fiber barrel gives the Vapor a 360 fps rating with
a 22-inch, 420-grain arrow, he says. Its very efficient turning potential into kinetic energy.

A PARTY WITH OUR 62,371

CLOSEST FRIENDS
Each January, like a mother hen gathering
her chicks, the National Shooting Sports
Foundation (NSSF) calls all shooting sports
businesses, from international manufacturers to local gun stores, together for one giant
conference and trade show. The NSSF calls it
the SHOT Show.
Usually held in Las Vegas, the event lasts
four days, although it would take a month to
see every exciting gun, holster, and cartridge.
In January, the event was so packed with
frantic buying and selling, that by the final
day of the show, Lou Ferrigno, the Incredible Hulk himself, slumped into a black, overstuffed chair in the Buck Knives booth next
to the author. Man, Im tired, he said, relaxing and removing his hearing aids.
The Hulk had a right to be tired. With
62,371 registered individuals from more than
100 nations in attendance it has doubled
in size in just 10 years the 35th annual
SHOT Show featured an astonishing assortment of guns and shooting tools, hunting
equipment and black ops gear and I want
one of everything in my garage!
Okay, to be right up front. Not all segments of the shooting sports industry are
going great guns.
At the center of archery and bowhunting,
the modern high-power crossbow is elbowing its way on stage alongside the vertical
compound bow. These days, archery has its
own, much smaller trade show.
The men and women of the black powder
trades admit their sport is just holding its
own. They perhaps expect that economics is
the science of cycles, and one day the wheel
will again turn in favor of muzzleloaders.
That isnt today.

EVERYWHERE ELSE,
RUNAWAY GROWTH
Today, the excitement at the SHOT Show
spurred to fever pitch by concerns that
Washington politicians will attempt to limit Americans right to own firearms is all
about concealed carry handguns and the
modern sporting rifle.
As if to emphasize the spectacular nature
of business and its belief that shooting, hunting, and personal defense issues are moving
in the correct direction in America, the NSSFs communication director, Bill Brassard,
moderated a state-of-the-industry press
conference.
Were working closely with 40 state Legislatures and 23 governors to increase shooting and hunting opportunities, Brassard said
before turning the lectern over to Hannibal
Bolton, an assistant director of the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service.
Deer, elk, and bear populations, and the
varmint and small game hunting options in
America are better than ever, Bolton said,
despite pressures from a growing population and expanding agriculture. A trend to
keep in mind is the increased use of farmland to grow oil as farmers and scientists
experiment with crops that can readily be
converted into biofuels. How this might ultimately affect wildlife and wild lands cant
be predicted, Bolton said, noting that the
100 million plus Americans who participate
in wildlife fishing, hunting, bird watching
will be affected.
If that effect is negative or seems permanent, the entire shooting industry will
suffer. Arguably, every corner of the SHOT
Show except law enforcement, is financially
based on the health of the whitetail deer
population.
According to Jeff Crane, president of the
Congressional Sportsmans Foundation,
hunting license sales have climbed by 9
percent and fishing by 11 percent in the last
five years. Men and women who love the
outdoors and enjoy shooting are an economic powerhouse in the United States,
Crane said.
The economic metaphor carried back
to Bolton who said that the sale of licenses,
guns, holsters, bows, ammunition all of the
things we enjoy are subject to a special 10-11
percent excise tax had put nearly $7 billion
into the federal treasury since 1937. Thats
billion, with a B! The monies are dedicated
to hunter education, wildlife restoration, and
building shooting ranges. Not bad for a group

that has to continually re-educate congressmen on the definition of conservation.

According to Melissa Schilling, director
of recruitment & retention for NSSF, We understand people want choices. Thus NSSF
has worked with state wildlife agencies to
increase hunters abilities to purchase licenses online. Today about 30 percent of hunting
and fishing licenses are sold online.
Our statistics project that nearly 190 million people will purchase something online
in 2013, 87 million of them from a mobile
device, said Recreational Boating & Fishing
Foundation (RBFF) President Frank Peterson.
The RBFF effort is similar to that of NSSF:
make it easy for men and women to fish and
enjoy the outdoors.

BY THE NUMBERS
Since America was attacked on 9/11, the
hunting element of the SHOT Show has
declined in overall importance. That decline has more than been replaced by law
enforcement and the self- or home-defense
industry, all proponents of informed concealed carry. Still, the NSSF apparently believes that hunting is still very important, a
lynch-pin for the other shooting sports in
America.
About the recent NSSF report Hunting
in America Crane said, Many people dont
understand how important hunting and
fishing are to the fabric of this country. Yet
more people hunt or fish than go bowling,
and their spending would land them at

Facts of the Firearms World

1. The estimated total number of guns held by U.S. civilians is between 275
million and 300 million, about 89 firearms per 100 people. 2. The country with
the second-most guns is India, with an estimated 46 million guns in private
hands, or about four firearms for every 100 people. 3. U.S. citizens might own
between 270 million and 300 million firearms, but less than 100 million actually
own a gun. 4. With 5 percent of the world population, U.S. citizens account
for about 40 percent of the planets civilian firearms. 5. About 50 million U.S.
citizens own handguns. 6. U.S. civilians spend more than $4 billion each year
on guns and ammo. 7. The state with the highest rate of gun ownership is
Wyoming (63 percent). 8. The most recent estimate of the economic impact of
the firearms industry in the United States: $31 billion (in 2011 dollars) or $19
billion (in 2008 dollars). 9. The percent increase in Winchester ammunition sales
since 2007 is 33. 10. The FBI has conducted 160 million background checks
since 1993. In 2012, 11. it conducted 16.8 million background checks, half of
them for gun sales. A record number of 154,873 calls for one days background
checks happened on Black Friday (Nov. 23) 2012. 11. The annual value of small
arms and ammunition exports from the United States in 2009 was $689,170,603.
12. The annual value of small arms and ammunition imports to the United
States in 2009 was $1,585,242,738. BONUS: As many as 10 million U.S. citizens
have current concealed carry permits. Remember, however, that laws vary by
state and so comparisons are inherently unequal. Nevertheless, the top 10
states for concealed carry permits are (in order): Florida, Georgia, Texas, Indiana,
Tennessee, Washington, Alabama, Utah, Michigan, and Ohio.

number 24 on the Fortune 500 list.

The NSSF report found a 55 percent
growth in 40-plus categories of U.S. hunting-related expenditures. This is good
news for businesses and for participants,
particularly small businesses in rural areas,
said NSSF President Steve Sanetti. It also is
gratifying to see the nine percent increase
in hunting participation. The traditional
male hunter is going afield more often, and
more women and novices are going hunting as well, demonstrating the widespread
appeal of this great outdoors tradition.

SANETTI PROVIDED
A FEW STATISTICS:
The $4.1 billion firearms and ammunition
industry supports thousands of small businesses and helps preserve the more than
200,000 jobs associated with the shooting
sports.
Americas 15.5 million hunters could fill
every NASCAR track, NFL stadium, NBA arena, MLB ballpark and NHL rink in the country more than twice (15.5 million vs. 7.2 million combined capacity).
Of hunters and shooters who purchased
a firearm in July 2011, 50.8 percent purchased a handgun, 41.5 percent purchased
a rifle, 15 percent purchased a shotgun and
the balance purchased a muzzleloader.
Beyond the impact to businesses and
local economies, sportsmen and women
are the leaders in protecting fish and wildlife and their habitats. When you combine
license and stamp fees, motorboat fuels,
excise taxes on hunting and fishing equipment, and membership contributions to
conservation organizations, hunters and
anglers directed $3 billion toward on-theground conservation and restoration efforts
in 2011, nearly $100 every second. This does
not include their own habitat acquisition
and restoration work for lands owned or
leased for the purpose of hunting and fishing, which would add another $11 billion to
the mix.

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Kahr Arms is not alone as it struggles to

fill orders for its handguns now. Virtually
every firearms manufacturer is in the same
predicament. Thats why we say the climate
is good, business is strong, and the future is
positive.
Its our state-of-the-sport report and
were sticking to it.

APRIL 2013

AND SO

ITS NEVER
TOO EARLY
TO BEGIN
GUN SAFETY
EDUCATION
BY MICHAEL MARTIN

RAISING

KIDS
AROUND
GUNS
WHEN IT COMES TO KIDS AND GUNS, you have two choices:

APRIL 2013

Ignorance or education. But heres the realityif you take the

ignorance approach, your kids will get their firearms education from
movies, video games, or their friends. While Im not advocating taking
your toddler out shooting at the range (although they can certainly
watch you shoot at the range), I am advocating that you answer your
childrens questions about your firearms, and allow them to interact at a
level thats safe for their age group. Regardless of how old your child is,
youll need to begin his or her education with an understanding of basic
firearms safety. The safety tips and advice that follow, have been used
by my family and extended family to educate more than 45 nephews
and nieces of various age groups.

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26 YEARS OLD
At this age, its time to introduce your child
to Eddie Eagle from the NRA, who teaches kids that if they see a firearm in an unsupervised situation, they should STOP.
Dont Touch. Leave the Area. Tell an Adult.
Launched back in 1988, the Eddie Eagle program has since reached more than 25 million children in pre-K through third grade,
and can be taught by anyone, regardless
of NRA affiliation. While anti-gun groups
might claim that the Eddie Eagle program
is designed to indoctrinate children into a
gun culture, thats simply not the case. Instead, its sole mission is child safety, without stating an opinion one way or another,
on whether guns are good or bad. The four
points taught by Eddie Eagle are not a one
and done kind of education. Every single
time you handle a firearm in front of your
child, or any time the topic of firearms comes
up, quiz them on these four simple rules. In
my household, we remind our two young
sons that if it looks like a gun, the four Eddie
Eagle rules apply, regardless of whether they
believe its a toy gun. Thats especially important when your children are visiting their
friends homes. Teaching your child to abide

APRIL 2013

78

by these rules is as much about bravery, as it

is about gun safety.
In addition to the four Eddie Eagle rules,
the upper end of this age bracket is also a
good age get started on teaching your children about the four Universal Safety Rules
when it comes to safe firearms handling.
That might sound like its the polar opposite
advice from what Eddie Eagle teaches, but in
this case, were not talking about real guns,
were talking about the toy guns that all kids
seem to gravitate toward. As silly as it might
sound, teaching your child to maintain muzzle control on his toy dart gun and to keep
his finger out of the triggerguard until hes
on target and is ready to shoot, will build
that rule into his neural pathways, which will
serve him for the rest of his life. At this age,
a childs brain is twice as active as an adults,
and most of the brains connections are being made. Anything they learn at this age
stands a good chance of becoming hardwired behavior.

712 YEARS OLD

Depending upon your childs maturity and
his or her ability to grasp all four Universal
Safety Rules, as well as his or her physical

ability to handle a firearm safely, this age

group is ready to shoot a BB gun or .22
caliber rifle (or larger caliber rifles when
theyre at the upper end of this age group)
under your close supervision. Make these
sessions about abiding by the safety rules
and enjoyment, rather than as a scored
event. Personally, Ill ask my oldest son
(now nine) to recite the Universal Safety
Rules before we begin any target practice
with his BB gun or the family Ruger 10/22.
When I observe my son plinking away,
I usually watch him, rather than watching
the target, so that I can monitor his safe gun
handling. Regardless of how many times you
have to say, watch your muzzle or take
your finger out of the triggerguard, keep
saying it. You own the responsibility for drilling these rules into your childs brain. Theyll
return the favor by doing the same with your
grandkids.
At the first hint of fatigue, or enjoyment
turning into boredom, end the session for
the day. Praise your childs accuracy, but
even more so, praise them for the great job
they did in adhering to the Universal Safety
Rules, and review any time they failed to follow them.

WWW.USCCA.COM

Teaching your children about

firearms is a personal thing that
must be conducted within the
bounds of what you believe is right.
13+ YEARS OLD

one of his friends, Watch your muzzle! as

they were running around the house shooting their dart guns at everything in sight. Remember, as with all things in life, your children will learn more by watching what you
do, rather than listening to what you say. Be
a good teacher.

No parent likes talking with their children

about the evils that exist in the world, including discussing child abductions, school

WWW.USCCA.COM

EXPLAINING HOME DEFENSE

TO YOUR KIDS

APRIL 2013

Teenagers who have demonstrated maturity

and rock solid safety when using a BB gun
and rifle, may be ready to step up to learning how to operate a handgun. With their
shorter barrels, handguns can sometimes
reintroduce muzzle control problems, so
watch closely to ensure that all safety rules
are being maintained.
So how will you know if your lessons are
sinking in? In our house, we had a good indication on the success of our lessons when
our youngest son, then four years old, told

shootings, stranger danger, etc. That same

unease extends to discussing what to do in
the event of a home invasion. In my home,
the discussion gave our oldest son nightmares for a week, but its a conversation that
had to happen, and continues to happen on
a reoccurring basis, no differently than annual reviews of our fire escape plan or plan in
case of a tornado. In fact, relating the idea
of a home invasion plan to other emergency plans that have already been discussed
might be the easiest way to ease into the
conversation.
When discussing a home invasion plan
with the family, wed suggest planning a
route for all family members to head to the
most secure area of the home, and include
in the plan who will get the phone and dial
911, who will access the defensive firearm,
and who will assist loved ones. You can include older children as active participants in
the plan by assigning them with simple tasks
that can help keep themselves and their siblings safe. For example, their tasks could include:
Get out of the house and find a neighbor,
and ask the neighbor to call 911.
Get the younger kids into the same bedroom, and close and barricade the door.
We suggest two or three small points for
each child, such as, If something bad happens, your job is to get out of the house, get
to a neighbor, and have him or her call 911.
Then your job is done.
Finally, its important to discuss with your
children what not to do in the event of a
home invasion. For example, if everyone in
the family is in the same part of the house,
then it is not necessary, prudent, or smart
to go looking for the intruder. With older
children, its extremely important to discuss
what to do if a family member is coming
home late or unexpectedly, and how to communicate it if a guest will be in the home.
The use of a family code word or challenge
and reply can avoid tragedy if your teenage
son or daughter has decided to sneak a significant other into the house for a late night
rendezvous.
Planning for such eventualities is a personal thing and must be conducted within
the bounds of what you believe is right and
79
proper. The failure to plan could have catastrophic results, which would be far worse
than the discomfort of having, the talk.

STOP THE
WHEN SECONDS COUNT, the cops are minutes away.

That phrase comes in handy when explaining why I carry a

handgun. During a criminal attack, time is critical.

MEDICAL SKILLS FOR

THE ARMED CITIZEN
BY KARL REHN

BLEEDING
81

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APRIL 2013

The right technique executed perfectly

but too late, might produce the same failure
as doing nothing. But the right technique,
even poorly executed soon enough, can
change the outcome for the better.
If the cops are minutes away, so are the
medics. But in some situations, the medics
may arrive much later than the cops. For
example, in an active shooter incident, standard practice is for medics to wait until law
enforcement officers have determined that
the scene is safe for them to enter.
At Columbine, Colo., a teacher bled to
death as students called out the classroom
window for medical help while law enforcement officers were trying to locate the
shooters and all the explosive devices they
had placed.
In rural and remote areas, even the fastest trip to the nearest trauma center could
easily take more than 20 minutes. An injury
that produces bleeding from a major artery
could cause death in less than five minutes.
During a serious medical incident, time is
critical. Those concerned enough about survival to carry a firearm and train realistically
should place as much importance on medical training and equipment as they do on
choosing their carry gear.
More than a decade ago, gun schools
were beginning to offer medical skills courses to armed citizens. John Holschen of Insights Training and the late, great Paul Gomez were early pioneers in the field.
One challenge everyone offering medical
training faces in marketing the courses to
82
armed citizens is the same as the challenge
instructors offering force-on-force training
have encountered: most armed citizens are
also gun enthusiasts who are disappointed
if training classes dont include some rounds
downrange. Its much more fun to work on

WWW.USCCA.COM

dents practiced both skills, which would be

important later in the course.
Caleb explained that in a situation where
a tourniquet is needed, there might not be
time, opportunity or physical ability to retrieve it from a vehicle or another nearby
location. Just as with a handgun, having it
with you is a far better plan than assuming
you can run and get it.
He recommended carrying a SOFT T Wide
tourniquet in the Tactical Medical Solutions
ankle wrap carrier as a low-profile option
that would not add yet another item to
crowded pockets or a belt
filled with a pistol, phone,
Hands on training in
the skills and scenarios
magazine(s) and other
a scenario-based learnwhere you always win and
gear.
Other lighting environment adds a
level of stress, but can in
never get hurt than it is
weight items useful in
no way replicate a real
to train for the situations
treating serious wounds
gunfight. Still, it is a great
where things go wrong.
included gauze (plain and
place to start.
Caleb Causey, former
Quick Clot Combat Gauze
U.S. Army combat medic,
with a hemostatic agent),
EMT, and armed citizen, offers a wide vari- a Russell chest seal, and Olaes pressure
ety of medical classes through his Arlington, dressing. In the ankle kit, the ankle wrap and
Texas-based company, Lone Star Medics. the gauze make up the pressure dressing, so
He developed a two-day Med-X course that youre left with the tourniquet and the chest
combined medic training, live-fire drills and seal to carry some other way. Of all those
force-on-force role-playing scenarios into items, the tourniquet is the most essential.
an integrated program for law enforcement
During the class, Caleb encouraged stuofficers, private security, and military per- dents to build their own kits, choosing
sonnel.
items that fit their likely situation and carry
After the successful launch of that course, options. In addition to essential equipment
he modified the course to address skills and carried on the body, often there is room in a
situations specifically relevant to armed cit- bailout bag, range bag, laptop bag, or backizens, calling it the Med-X Every Day Carry pack for additional supplies.
(Med-X EDC) course. Caleb and assistant inHe explained that the additional supplies
structor Logan Loftin brought that course to could be extremely useful in situations such
my KR Training facility in September 2012.
as an accidental shooting at a remote range,
The early part of the course addressed the active shooter in a school (where laws might
basic questions: What injuries are so severe prohibit carrying a gun but carry of medical
that treatment cant wait for uniformed pro- gear would still be legal), and on any outfessionals to arrive? What can a person with door trek.
a few days of training do? What gear would
The basic skills training progressed
be useful to have? Calebs focus was on through wound packing, proper use of
stopping blood loss, because historical data clotting agents, and techniques for finding
(from WWII, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan) wounds on an injured person using a fullclearly shows that immediate treatment of size training dummy that weighed as much
severe bleeding saves lives. At recent active as a real person.
shooter incidents at Ft. Hood, Texas, Tucson,
After students had completed many drills
Ariz., and Aurora, Colo., law enforcement and activities practicing fundamentals, it
and military personnel on scene treated was time to apply them in a realistic scevictims until medics arrived; those actions nario. Students were split into two groups,
saved lives.
one group practicing fundamentals while
During the class Caleb and Logan demon- the second was taken into the woods. Those
strated several different commercially avail- in the woods was told they were a group of
able tourniquets by applying them to others friends on a hike in a remote area of a naand demonstrating self-treatment. All stu- tional park, and sent down a trail that had

been seeded with several reactive 3-D Hard

Head Ted targets and falling steel targets.
As they walked down the trail, they encountered these threats, which simulated
a group of drug cartel members that was
guarding its marijuana crop. This required
the members of the team to shoot, move,
and communicate until it was confirmed
that the fight was over and the medical portion of the scenario began.
During the fight, Caleb told one member
of the team who had poor cover that he was
shot in the leg, so he retreated to better cover and began applying a tourniquet to his
own leg.
In the aftermath of the fight, one threat (3D
target) was down in the foreground, one member of the group injured and trying to get up,
and another member (the training dummy)
was unconscious with a serious injury.
As the group assessed the safety of the
scene and began checking each person for
injuries, Caleb supplied additional details
and suggestions as they began treating the
injuries using the gear they had with them.
The training dummy had an upper chest
wound, treated with a chest seal, a lower
abdomen wound, and a thigh wound, which
required a tourniquet. The leg simulator was
used for the wound packing.
The scenario did not end until the group
used available materials to make a stretcher
and carry the unconscious person to a safer
location to call for help. After both groups
had completed the live-fire scenario, a de-

serving an eviction notice was shot by the

brief provided further insights.
The second day included some review, occupant of the house, who then fired his rivideos and lectures reinforcing what was fle into the neighborhood, hitting one of two
learned the day before, and another live- people in a vehicle more than 100 yards away.
The shooter then fired at arriving officers,
fire scenario. In this incident, two armed
citizens were in a vehicle driving to pick finally retreating into the house after the
up their dates waiting for them outside an initial burst of shooting. The incident ended
apartment building. As they arrived, they with the shooter killed by law enforcement
found that both ladies were being attacked, after a 25-minute standoff. The simulation
and one was being dragged into a vehicle. A provided multiple challenging situations
large barricade and barrels were used simu- within the scenario for many participants.
As the scenario progressed, other
late the cars body and engine block.
In the fight, an innocent bystander was role-players, representing responding ofshot and seriously wounded (simulated by ficers, arrived on scene, providing cover so
the training dummy). After the fight was that the armed citizen could retreat to better
over, the bystander was moved to a safer cover (simulated by the blue barrels), move
location and treated. One of the armed cit- his injured friend, and begin treatment.
The action shifted to the responding offiizens was also shot in the arm as he leaned
cers, who had to protect themselves from inout from cover to engage the threats.
These scenarios creatively and safely com- coming fire from the shooter, treat their own
bined live-fire drills with medical response, injuries, communicate with other officers arproviding students insight into all the ele- riving on scene, and finally enter the shootments a real incident might have. After all ers home and assess and treat his injuries.
During the class wrap-up, many students
students had run this live-fire scenario and
all real weapons were removed from the sce- commented on the similarities between
firearms training and
nario area, it was time for
medical training, where
a more complex scenario
the fundamentals have
run as force on force.
The scenario we used
to be in place before the
was something I designed
skills can be used in a sceand offered to Caleb,
nario. Caleb and Logan
based on an incident that
did an excellent job both
had occurred in College
in teaching fundamentals
Station, Texas, the week
and in making the sceprior to class. A constable
narios relevant to armed
Scenarios are based on
citizen situations, particreal-world events and give
the students a taste of what
ularly in illustrating how
the chaos of a real incident
difficult it might be to
will be like. Students must
leave the scene to retrieve
assess the situation and
medical gear that isnt imcoordinate their actions.
mediately accessible.
A handful of essential
items, particularly a tourniquet, carried with
you, could be as important to your survival as
the handgun on your hip or in your pocket.

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Karl Rehn is the lead instructor for KR Training

(www.krtraining.com). He is certified by the
NRA, Texas Department of Public Safety, and
Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Education as an instructor and has
trained with dozens of well-known tactical and
competition instructors. Thanks to students
Brian Brown and Leslie Buck, who provided the
photographs for this article.

TR
THE TRA
ONE OF THE MOST exciting aspects of my career

as a firearms instructor has been participating in the

maturing of Defensive Shooting into its own distinct
branch of firearms instruction.
Throughout much of the last 50 years,
there has been little to distinguish defensive shooting from learning how to
shoot a gun in most peoples minds. Even
much of the advanced training offered in
the area of military, law enforcement and
personal defense shooting has been little more than high-end marksmanship
or competition shooting. Luckily for us
that has been rapidly changing. Over the
past couple decades, more and more police departments and military units have
been training in ways that are much more
practical for close-quarters defensive use
of firearms. For example, in 2012, the FBI
finally evolved their antiquated approach
to firearms training, joining much of the
private sector in providing more realistic
and vital, fast close-quarters shooting
instruction. They even modified their
qualification course to reflect what we

definitively know are the realities of how

firearms are used for personal defense,
by both professionals and responsibly
armed citizens alike. This evolution is the
foundation of the Third Tenet of Professionalism in the Creed of the Defensive
Shooting Instructor:
I recognize that defensive shooting
skills, along with the drills and gear used,
are inherently specialized and usually distinct from those of target shooting, competition, and hunting endeavors.
When people come to us as instructors asking for training or advice related
to home or personal defense, we owe it
to them to address that question specifically. No self-respecting instructor
would suggest that someone get started with a hunter safety course, if that
person is interested in carrying a pistol
for personal protection, nor would the

instructor suggest that the student join

a trap and skeet club. Although it may
not be as self-evident, for all the same
reasons, instructors should not start that
person down the path of marksmanship
or training for competitive shooting, either. While hunting and target shooting
are great pursuits, they no more prepare
you for defensive firearms use than driving a taxi in a big city prepares you to
win the Baja 1000 in an 800-horsepower
super-truck.
No legitimate defensive shooting
instructor would think of putting a student through a hunter safety course, and
then handing them a CCW certificate
(although some states allow that). Although they both involve firearms, they
are non-overlapping magisteria. As our
art evolves, more and more legitimate
defensive shooting instructors are realizing there are also vast differences between target and competition shooting,
and what we do. While the differences
are certainly not as stark, its important
that we understand where the overlaps
are, and where they are not.

THE THIRD TENET: DEFENSIVE

SHOOTING IS DIFFERENT

RAINING
AINERS
BY ROB PINCUS

awareness level high and see a threat

coming, you can most likely avoid it entirely, or take other action that will prevent you from having to pull the trigger.
The most common defensive shooting
occurs when you are caught off guard,
and you are forced to apply your skills
with no warning or specific planning. In
the training environment, you can simulate this need to process information
while performing your skills, by giving
your students commands during the drill
(which forces them to figure out exactly
what they need to do on the fly), by loading their magazines randomly, and by
varying the number of shots that you call
for each target.
Hopefully, as an instructor, you have
already accepted the reality of this Tenet in theory, and are now ready to start
applying it in practice. If you arent yet
a defensive shooting instructor, as you
go through the many resources you have
available, make sure that the instructor
that you choose for yourself and your
family is one that understands precisely
what they are teaching.

85
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environment (target shooting, hunting,

competition, training, etc.), a failure with
one can cost you your life in a real situation. Lastly, the crisp, short triggers that
are so valued by those shooting tight
groups with little or no time pressure, are
a luxury rarely worth the safety concerns
they create (or the requirement of a manual safety) in a defensive firearm.
Lastly, the way in which you should
train for defensive shooting skills, is dramatically different from training for other
shooting pursuits. In defensive shooting,
you will need to tie your performance
with the ability to process information
on the fly. In target and competition
shooting, people often talk about performance on demand, yet what they
really mean is that you know exactly
what youll need to do, youll have time
to prepare, and then you stand by at the
ready, waiting for the signal to perform
your choreographed task. Bad guys
dont give you a stage briefing, and rarely is a defensive shooting something that
you are even close to ready for. In fact,
most would agree that if you keep your

APRIL 2013

The primary reason for drawing a distinction between isolated shooting skills
and defensive firearms training are the
contexts of intended use. The easiest ways
to understand the practical differences are:
In traditional target shooting, the goal
is always to maximize your control over
the gun, while in defensive shooting,
you should strive to apply the minimal
amount of control necessary, as efficiently as possible.
In competition, you are trying to
achieve a very precisely known goal as
quickly as possible, without introducing
the variables that are part of defensive
shooting, such as not knowing how
many threats there are, which direction
the threats are coming from, or how
many shots it will take to stop the threat.
Equipment for defensive shooting and
other firearms endeavors is also vastly
different. While target shooting in your
backyard, a malfunction is just an annoyance. But for a defensive firearm, reliability under all plausible circumstances is
a requirement. Similarly, while manual
safeties are no big deal in a controlled

GET READY TO RUMBLE

BY KEVIN MICHALOWSKI

Vs

IM GONNA START A FIGHT. Which pistol is better, the 1911 or the Glock?

APRIL 2013

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When the United States military adopted

its first auto-loading service pistol, the cavalry charge was still an accepted and effective
means of fighting wars. In the 101 years since
that pistol first hung on the hips of American soldiers, the face of modern conflict has
changed immeasurably and the Colt Model
1911 has seen it all. Some say it is the greatest gun of all time.
Legend? Yes. But Unsurpassed? Well
That John Moses Browning created a
work of art when he designed what would
become the Model 1911 pistol is without
question. Yet, between that first design and
today changes in everything from metallurgy to manufacturing have been eroding the
1911s dominance.
But just as no art critic can change the
beauty of a painting by pointing out some
faults, I dont want to be accused of deriding
the 1911 by claiming that some modern pistols are better. Still, as much as I will try to
make this an objective look at various pieces
of machinery, firearms selection remains a
very personal and subjective decision.
Perception No. 1:
The 1911 feels like a pistol should
The feel of a pistol is perhaps the most
subjective of the criteria used to judge one.
Just about any experienced shooter will talk
about the perfect grip angle and ergonomics of the 1911. But is that feel a product of
ergonomic testing and development, or is it
just the feel of a gun thats so common everyone knows how its supposed to feel?
Take this little test. Make a fist. Now maintain the fist and quickly, at shoulder level,

point your index finger at the wall. Theres

the grip angle of the Glock.
This speaks to pointability, recoil control
and the natural ergonomic principles that
create better shooting. The bore axis on the
1911 is higher than most of the newer pistols in its class. The higher the barrel is above
your hand, the more leverage the gun has
working against you as the projectile is fired.
As a result you get more felt recoil. Custom
gunsmiths have been working to reduce the
height of the bore axis on the 1911 for years.
Most of them apply a different grip safety
and modify the rear of the frame to allow the
web of your firing hand to be higher.
The 1911 design wasnt even 20 years old
before the military attacked it with the first
round of changes. Following World War I the
changes that became the 1911-A1 were adopted for various reasons, one of which was
that many doughboys reported that shots
from their pistols were going low. It may
have been the result of those tiny original
sights, or perhaps shooters were adopting
that natural Glock angle and instinctively
pushing the muzzle down as they thrust the
pistols forward at the charging enemy. The
end result left soldiers with a new arched
mainspring housing that was supposed to
help keep the muzzle up. It was a quick fix
and typical of a government agency that
thinks hardware can overcome a training
deficiency.
In real terms, most single-stack 45 ACP
pistols, regardless of the maker, are easy
enough to grip. But would you rather have
eight rounds of 45 ACP, 12 rounds of 40 S&W

or 45 GAP or 17 rounds of 9mm?

Perception No. 2:
The 1911 is a marvel of engineering
It was in 1911. But as revolutionary as the
pistol was when it was first built, modern
design and production techniques leave the
1911 looking like what it really is: a springboard for better ideas. The situation that
immediately comes to mind is the feed path
of 1911. The bullet, as it is stripped from the
magazine, goes on a roller coaster ride before arriving in the chamber. Is it any wonder that 1911 owners all know about things
like ramped barrels, internal polishing and
workshop magazine adjustments? A whole
industry has sprouted around making the
1911 feed reliably with anything other than
ball ammo. Yes, you can make the 1911 design ultra-reliable. Springfield Armory did it
for the FBI contract pistols, but it was a challenge. And didnt anyone notice the look of
surprise when a 1911 actually passed that
grueling set of standards?
You will never have to worry about
hand-fitting a barrel in a Springfield Armory
XD or a Glock. You wont have peened locking lugs and if you buy a different barrel for
such a pistol, you dont have to wonder if you
get the link, too. The beauty of advancing
technology is that designers have been able
to use John Brownings original ideas and
make them better. I would argue that holding on to old ideas purely for nostalgias sake
puts you at a disadvantage.
Perception No. 3:
The 1911 is indestructible
The 1911 is one tough gun. Ive seen vid-

eo of a police officer smashing the side window of a car with his 1911 before firing at an
armed felon. The gun never malfunctioned
and the shots were on target. But put a 1911
side-by-side with some newer designs and
start feeding the guns magazine after magazine and see which one malfunctions first.
Yes, factory original Glock sights are weak
and fragile, but the rest of the gun goes on
forever. Sure, youve heard all the slide separation stories about the Beretta but such
incidents were rare and have been corrected.
There surely have been complaints about the
1911 as well; its just that shooters and gunsmiths have had a century to correct things.
And even with all that time and effort, I would
still put a box-stock polymer pistol from just
about any maker up against a box-stock 1911
in a 5,000-round torture test.
While the 1911 is a tough pistol, its design elements are more than 100 years old.
There are better ways to build a barrel; better
ways to lock it to the slide and better ways
to make pistols feed and function. The 1911
still works, but the newer designs are simpler
and stronger.
Perception No. 4:
The 1911 can be all things to everyone
Now, were talking about the true strength
of the 1911 design! There are two reasons
that the 1911 is the most customized pistol
in the world. First, because it can be so easily
customized. Second, theres usually a need.
And with a century of history, there is not a
part or screw or pin that has not come under
scrutiny. If someone can make a dollar by creating a part for the 1911, he will be making
that dollar far into the foreseeable future.
The 1911 benefits from the economy of
scale. Make parts for a gun with a 100-year
track record and you have a big market. Get
one percent of the 1911 market and you have
something. Theres a reason why more than
a dozen firms make 1911 pistols and several
dozen more do custom work and aftermarket
parts. The demand for the parts is there. People love the 1911 and our economy requires
that such a demand be satisfied.
Are other pistol designs better? You bet.
But those pistols are standing in the shadow
of a legend and its really easy for shooters
to say, Yeah, that (insert the name of your
favorite new design) may work now, but lets
see what happens in 100 years.
Theres something to be said for power
especially staying power.

WHICH LASERS WORK

BEST AND WHY?
BY GEORGE HARRIS

JUST
ASK
QUESTION: I have decided to buy a laser for

my SIG P-229R, which is my everyday concealed

carry gun. My question is, which kind and why?

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ANSWER: There are a variety of lasers to

choose from, all of which will work some

better than others depending on the application. No
one model or brand stands out above all the others but
there are some significant differences that need to be
considered in order to find the best one for your purposes.

APRIL 2013

The first consideration is the location of

the laser and its compatibility with your
current method of carrying concealed.
Another consideration is changes in the
external dimensions of the pistol caused
by the addition of a laser and how those
changes affect the shooting and handling
characteristics of the gun. Other considerations can be mechanical in nature and,
in some cases, whether you are a left- or
right-handed shooter.
I will give you the pros and cons of what is
regularly available for most pistols and you
should be able to make an informed decision as to what you equip your P-229 R with
to best suit your needs.
The newest on the market is a rear
sight-mounted laser. For installation, push
out the original sight and push in the new
sight. A real positive is that the laser beam
and the natural line of sight are very close
together. The sight does not add significant
dimension to the outside of the gun, which
is a concern when carrying concealed, particularly in a fitted holster. The downside in
my experience is durability. The pounding
of the slide cycling every shot takes its toll
on maintaining zero and the laser components themselves.
Dropping the gun from waist level on any
hard surface effectively disables the usefulness of these sights. As you might imagine,
the on/off switch is a bit tedious, thanks to
the size of the device and all but impossible
to operate without finger nails.
Grip-mounted lasers are as easy to install as replacing the factory grips with any
aftermarket grip. They are durable and do
an acceptable job of maintaining zero with
everyday usage. They have an on/off switch
90
that turns the laser completely off when not
needed and on for on-demand use via a second pressure-activated switch controlled by
the strong hand gripping the pistol.
On the not-so-positive side, these grips
increase the grip circumference, which

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might make it difficult to reach the trigger for those with medium to small hands.
Some might find the extra girth of the grips
changes the comfort level of carrying the
gun in the same manner previous to installing the grips. If you are a left-handed shooter and use a grip method that stacks the
thumb parallel to the frame, the laser can be
blocked by the grip and made ineffective.
Internal Lasers that replace the recoil
spring guide dont change the external dimensions of the gun and are serviceable
for most purposes. From a precision standpoint there is no adjustment for a precise
zero so you get what you get. The opening
in the slide for the recoil guide to protrude
through during recoil varies in many pistols; the fit might or might not be tight for
consistency from one shot to the next.
Some companies take issue with replacing critical parts in their guns with critical
aftermarket parts (takedown lever, recoil
spring, and recoil spring guide in the case
of the P-229) and will not honor the warrantee should something happen to the gun
causing it not to function properly.
The on/off switch is located in the takedown lever on the Sig versions and has to
be pressed from one side with the index
finger or thumb to turn it on and pressed
off from the other side. I have found that
tight-fitting holsters will turn it off automatically when reholstering, which could be a
benefit under certain circumstances.
Dust cover-mounted lasers work very
well provided they are tight in their mounting. Most, but not all, are mounted on a
rail system machined into the dust cover
of the pistol in front of the trigger guard.
The problem that you run into is that even
within models of the same brand, the rails
may be slightly different. Quality manufacturers of rail-mounted lasers either provide
adapters or sufficient adjustment to accommodate the inconsistency in most cases.
Set screws provide windage and elevation

adjustment to adjust the beam to

suit the shooter once the device is
securely in place.
The bottom line is that the laser must point to the same place
in relation to the muzzle for each
shot to ensure precise accuracy.
Actuation methods vary from
buttons to knobs to toggle switches to pressure switches on the end of a wire extension.
All have their plusses and minuses.
With this type of laser system the outside
dimension of the pistol is changed enough
to require a different holster to accommodate the extra space occupied by the attachment. As much as size is an issue for
most individuals that carry concealed, the
increased size could be a deal breaker.
Durability usually parallels price with
these types of systems and none worth having are inexpensive.
Here are few thoughts to follow along
with my previous comments that apply to
all of the products mentioned above:
Realize that the flight of the bullet and
the path of the laser beam are not the
same. They are similar to the sight line versus bore line of a scoped rifle. Zeroing the
laser at anything much closer than 20 to 25
yards will increase the angle of departure
from the initial zero to the point of potentially missing the target at farther distances
even though the laser is on the target. Lasers with both vertical and horizontal offset
compound the issue.
To prove point of aim versus point of impact to the maximum distance you envision
using the laser, start at three yards on a simple cardboard target with two shots to the
center. Mark those shots so that you know at
which distance they were fired. After the first
two shots, make the gun safe and move back
another three yards and shoot two shots.
Continue this drill until you have made
it back to your previously decided distance
and then take it a little farther for the justin-case factor. You will now know true point
of aim versus point of impact and therefore
be confident that if you ever need to use
the laser for personal defense, your likelihood of success will be great.

PHOTO
OF THE MONTH

ONCE IN A LIFETIME SHOT

MEDIA DIRECTOR KEN WANGLER CAPTURED THIS

MOMENT ON THE LIVE FIRE RANGE AT GANDER
MOUNTAIN ACADEMY IN LAKEVILLE MINNESOTA.

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PHOTO BY KEN WANGLER

YOU COULD TAKE 10,000 PICTURES AT THE RANGE and never

capture the split second when the burning gases form a ring as they
leave the barrel. Thats exactly what CCM Media Director Ken Wangler
captured at the Concealed Carry Expo in Lakeville Minnesota this past
February. For more of Kens photos, check out our cover, this months
Member Profile, Gear we Like, and more!

CONSIDER
THESE BASICS

BY CR WILLIAMS

Editors Note: The

author reports he has begun to get away from the
idea of defensive fighting
or the use of defensive
weapons because we dont
defend ourselves with
firearms, we counter-attack
someone who is attacking
us. Furthermore, thinking
about defense-defensive-defending all the time
can get you conditioned
not to counter-attack as
soon and as intently as
you need to in order to
prevail in a fight. Defense
alone does not win fights
and does not preserve life.
Counter-attacking does.
Begin, therefore, to think
less of defending and more
of counter-attacking if
you want to increase your
chances of winning.

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ILL BE HONEST WITH YOU: Ive never been very interested in the

shotgun as a fighting weapon. There a several reasons for that, but in the
interest of brevity Ill tell you the primary one: The shotgun does not offer as
much flexibility in the fight as the rifle. A rifle (carbine, really, as I prefer the
shorter barrel of the carbine, but Ill use the term rifle throughout this series)
allows me to go from very short to very long range or from center-of-mass
to center-of-eyeball shots without significant pause or adjustment.
Because of this preference, Ive had to consider various aspects
of the use of the rifle by someone with no background in military or law-enforcement operations (like me), and Ive had to
consider its use as a counter-offensive weapon in the place, the
circumstances, and the environment in which I live. In the course
of these considerations, I have studied what others have to say
about fighting with rifles and I have trained with and sought
advice from those who have experience. I dont have all the answers--not all the answers I want, at least. But I hope you can find
something here that will help.
The single most important concept I can pass on to you is this:
AS SOON AS YOU CAN, GET SOME TRAINING. The training must focus on fighting not marksmanship. If you dont know the basics
of marksmanship, you need to get them first. After that, though,
you need to find teachers who will teach you how to fight with the
rifle. You need to find teachers and companies that teach you to
fight the way you are most likely to fight, not the way a member of
a SWAT team or infantry squad fights.

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THINK INFANTRYMAN NOT RIFLEMAN

I think too many of us are too enamored with the concept of
the rifleman, from the sharpshooters of the Revolutionary War
through Sergeant York to scouts and snipers and beyond that. In
the back of our minds, we hold the image, the hazy dream of the
perfect shot and the setup that makes it for us: careful movement,
proper positioning, good sight, smooth and steady trigger work. I
think all of that is there, in the back, forming a framework for what
we think we should be doing with the rifle.
That is a dangerous illusion we need to get rid of if were going
to be effective rifle-fighters (or gun-fighters, period).
The attitude we should adopt about the rifle is more that of the
skirmisher than the sharpshooter. Think of the infantryman working inside Stalingrad and Fallujah getting into across-the-street
and inside-the-room fights. We need to be able to deal with chaos close in. We need to understand there will likely be no perfect
shot, just the best one we can get in the middle of the morning in
an unlighted house or on the run from a group of rioters who are
not content with destroying property alone.
Furthermore, you have to think like an individual and isolated
skirmisher or infantryman, not like a member of a squad or organized unit with additional resources on call. You are not the member of a team. You will be unsupported and alone with nothing
but your weapon and the skill and experience you put behind it

to help you. Pistol or rifle, you are the first responder to your own
emergency. Start preparing your mind with this central thought:
It is only you, your rifle, what you have at hand. (1)

1. In some situations and under some conditions you may

have supporting arms and partners, sure. For those situations,
you should train and get training that focuses on small units and
teamwork. For the most common likely employment of the counteroffensive rifle, or pistol for that matter, though, you need to be
thinking solo operator.
CR Williams is a former Suarez International Staff Instructor and
author of the Gunfighting, and Other Thoughts about Doing Violence series of books. Volume 1 is available now in e-reader versions at www.lulu.com and www.amazon.com. To find out more
about the books and access additional material or to ask questions
or make comments or requests, contact him through his website at
www.inshadowinlight.com.

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PROACTION, REACTION, DOMINATINGACTION

You draw the pistol to defend yourself. You pick up a rifle to
dominate the situation.
That is a paraphrase of a quote (Either from Gabe Suarez or Jeff
Cooper; I am still unsure of the original source.), and I agree with
it. We carry pistols mainly because we dont or cant carry rifles.
Pistols are not the best weapon to win a fight with. If I knew for
certain that I was heading for a fight or a fight was heading for me
(and I could not avoid the fight), I would get a rifle. Then I would
get friends with rifles. I would not tell myself the pistol is perfectly
adequate and all I needed. I dont want a fair fight, either. I want,
if I can get it, dominating range, power and precision and every
advantage I can get over my attacker(s). So, I choose the rifle if I
have the chance and the choice of it.
The question for most of us, non-military/non-law-enforcement users of the rifle, is how quickly and how easily we can establish or re-establish dominance in the fight. That answer depends
to a large extent on our starting position at the time we perceive
a fight coming on. I will separate that into two broad areas: proactive and reactive action with the rifle. I will further separate that
into two range areas: close (contact to 50 yards) and long (beyond
50 yards). I will be further separating the proactive area into to
sub-categories, short-notice action (a few seconds to a half-minute to get ready to fight) and full-warning setup situations (at least
three or four minutes and longer to prepare). The reactive area is
the same as the handgun: zero or near-zero warning of action requiring you to go from zero to full-on counter-violence as immediately as you can. I will spend the greatest amount of time on the
areas of short-notice action at close ranges for two reasons: Specific
techniques, tactics, and concepts explored for this range will be the
ones you will use most often, and (mainly) because I believe this
is the most likely area over which you will deploy and employ the
counteroffensive rifle (or any long-gun, for that matter).
The first concept I will address is the basic setup of the counteroffensive rifle: Types or kinds of rifles, considerations about caliber and ammunition choices, modifications or add-ons to make it
easier and more effective as a fighting instrument, and ideas for
support equipment for the rifle. Follow-on articles will provide suggestions about how to use the rifle to effectively protect yourself
and others both specific and general. There will then be explorations of the reactive environment and of situations where you have
time to fully prepare for possible action with the rifle. I also intend
to briefly explore deployment and use of the rifle in and around
vehicles specifically.
For now, I want to leave you the following concepts for your consideration. Consider it homework. Trying out the suggestions listed
below will give you a new understanding of the capabilities of your
rifle and your limitations with that rifle. Try taking your rifle to the
pistol bay at your range and running the same drills with it in the
same way you do with your pistol. Consider how to take advantage
of the higher precision potential of the rifle under the same time
constraints and circumstances with which you would use a pistol.

Then: Look at the mount and presentation of the rifle the same way
you look at the drawstroke and presentation of the pistol. Are you
getting the rifle into the fight effectively?
Start working the other side! Strive for fully ambidextrous shooting, maneuvering and manipulation of the rifle and the pistol.
Begin thinking about what you have to do at across-the-room
and across-the-street distances with a rifle instead of a pistol in
your hands.
Stay tuned this will be interesting.

B AT T L E

BLADES

BY KEVIN MICHALOWSKI

IN A DEFENSIVE situation you may

not be able to open a folding knife. But most

straight-blade knives are too big and bulky for
every-day carry. Now Spyderco offers the Enuff line of straight knives that are the perfect
combination of light weight, durability and accessibility. With three different blade designs; a
leaf-shaped blade, a clip point and a sheepsfoot,
there is something for everyone. All three Enuff
knives use the same sheath design. Injection
molded from polymer, it features two ears at
the mouth that snap around the leading edge
of the handle scales to hold the knife securely
in place when sheathed. A thumb push-off on
one side of the mouth supports an easy draw
with simple thumb pressure, while the universal
design of the sheath cavity

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96

Length Overall
Blade Length
Blade Steel
Cutting Edge
Weight
Blade Thickness
Handle Material

6.75 (171 mm)

2.75 (70 mm)
VG-10
2.54 (65 mm)
3.8 oz (108 g)
.157 (4 mm)
FRN

allows all three knives to be inserted with the

edge facing in either direction. All Enuff sheaths
come complete with Spydercos versatile G-Clip
attachment, which supports both belt carry and
clip-style inside-the-waistband carry. The G-Clip
is configurable for vertical, horizontal, or diagonally canted carry and can be attached to both
sides and both faces of the symmetrical sheath.
The sheath also includes multiple mounting
holes to allow both high and low-ride attachment of the G-Clip.

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NEVER AN ACCIDENT
BY KEVIN MICHALOWSKI

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I WILL NEVER USE

the term accidental discharge
when talking about a firearm.
That is because firearms do
not fire themselves. They do
not go off. There is a specific
series of steps that must be
completed in order to make a
firearm go from quiet to loud.
If that firearm becomes loud
before you intend it to become
loud, you are negligent.

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In the interest of discussing personal responsibility, I will explain the circumstances of my one negligent discharge; just so
you know I speak from experience and am
not talking down to anyone.
Way back in 1992 I was preparing
to leave my house in South Dakota. I
strapped on the holster and removed my
Browning Hi-Power from the cabinet. The
pistol was unloaded so I inserted a magazine and racked the slide. Then, for some
reason known only the Almighty, I decided
to lower the hammer by holding the hammer and pulling the trigger! What occurred
is what my kids would today call an epic
fail. The round went down through the
corner of the mattress, through the carpet
and into the bedroom floor. I cleared the
weapon, dropped it on the bed and raced
downstairs to the living room to inspect
the ceiling. I figured if I needed to apply
some spackle it would be dry before my
wife got home from work. Luckily there
was no hole in the ceiling. Also luckily I did
not have the gun pointed at my leg.
The results of a negligent discharge can
be anything from embarrassing to horrific. We are talking about the potential for
a dead child, here. I own that round. I take
full responsibility for my failure that day
and it will never happen again.
So lets take a look at why it happened.
What did I do that made it happen? In
short, the discharge occurred because of
unnecessary gun handling. I was touching
something and doing something I didnt
need to be doing. That pistol should have
been carried cocked and locked. I inten-

Simply removing
the magazine does not
make a pistol safe. You
will also need to visually
and physically inspect
the chamber to ensure
there is not a live
round in there.

tionally pulled the trigger. I

did exactly what needed to
be done to make that gun
fire and, guess what? The
gun worked. The firing pin
hit the primer, the primer
lit the powder, and the gasses shot the projectile out of the muzzle.
So then, the first rule should be never to
handle the firearm more than you need to.
Load it. Make it ready. Holster it and leave
it alone until you are faced with an emergency.
The second rule is one of the four cardinal rules of gun safety: Never put your
finger on the trigger until you have made
a decision to fire. This does not mean you
should put your finger on the trigger when
your sights are on the target. What if you
are holding a person at gunpoint? The bad
guy has his hands in the air and is giving
up. But because he is a lying dirtbag, you
wisely keep him covered in case he suddenly thinks he can get the drop on you
and become a deadly threat again. So you
have him covered. He is giving up and you
get startled. Your sympathetic reflex could
cause you to jerk the trigger. Now you just
shot someone who was trying to surrender.
That puts you in a world of trouble.
Some of you who know the other cardinal rules might say, Well, you shouldnt

have had your gun pointed at him. I disagree. You

are not supposed to point
your gun at anything you
are not willing to destroy.
You are willing to destroy
this particular dirtbag, its
just that right then and there you did not
have a legally justifiable reason to do so.
Go ahead, point your gun at the dirtbag.
The gun will not go off if your finger is not
on the trigger.
Now we are to the point of discussing how
we insure that we always keep our finger off
the trigger until we have made a conscious
decision to fire. In a word: Training.
You can train yourself to do it. But you
have to be vigilant and you have to train
correctly. Im counting on you to be a responsible gun owner so let us agree here
that you will do both.
YOUR OLD FRIEND: DRY PRACTICE
Learning to keep your finger off the trigger will all but eliminate the chances of a
negligent discharge. In fact, I believe having a finger on the trigger is really the only
way a properly functioning and well-maintained firearm will discharge. So, lets start.
Keeping your finger off the trigger, take
your properly functioning and well-maintained firearm from its holster and, keep-

Typically, a negligenT discharge is

caused (iT does noT simply occur,
iT is caused) during whaT some folks call
adminisTraTive gun handling.
ing the pistol pointed in a safe direction,
press the magazine release and remove
the magazine. Set the magazine aside.
Now grasping over the top of the slide
with all four fingers (keeping your fingers
clear of the of the ejection port) retract
the slide briskly and fully to the rear and
watch the chambered round fall to the
ground. Lock the slide to the rear and visually and physically inspect the chamber to
ensure it is empty. Pick up your live round
and move the loaded magazine and the
live round out of the room in which you
will be training. There should be no live
ammo ANYWHERE in the room in which
you will conduct your dry practice.
If you use a revolver; same drill. Depress
the cylinder latch and dump the rounds.
Get them out of the room.
Now, return your unloaded firearm to
the holster and lets practice your draw.
By the numBers:
Reach down with both hands and lift your
cover garment high and out of the way.
Acquire a firing grip on your pistol with
your strong hand. Ensure your trigger finger is outside the holster and away from
the trigger area.
Pull the pistol straight up and rotate it
toward your target. This is where a shooter is most likely to put his or her finger on
the trigger. It just feels right because ergonomically, that is where the index finger
goes. But we have other plans. Raise your
finger up away from the trigger guard. If
your finger is long enough get it up there
and find that ejection port. Now your finger is away from the trigger!
Release your cover garment with your
off hand, bring the pistol up to meet that
off hand and establish a two-handed firing grip.
Push your arms out toward the target
and align your sights.
Now you have your gun out, your sights
are on the threat. Notice there is still no
need to put your finger on the trigger.

Once you decide to shoot. Move your finger to the trigger and press it all the way
to the rear.
So that covers negligent discharges when drawing your firearm. Follow
all those rules and you will never have a
negligent discharge while drawing. What
about other times?
After you shoot and the threat is
stopped it is time to top off. Raise your finger up to the ejection port and conduct a
reload. You can see how elsewhere in this
edition.
Typically, a negligent discharge is
caused (it does not simply occur, it is
caused) during what some folks call administrative gun handling. Some instructors say there is no such thing as administrative gun handling and all handling
should be tactical. But you know as well
as I do that gun owners load and unload
their guns and regularly put on and take
off a holstered gun. So, what to do?
First rule, keep your finger off the trigger. There is only one time you are ever
required to touch the trigger when you
are not in a deadly force situation. Can you
name it? Some pistols, most notably the
Glock, require that you pull the trigger in
order to field strip the gun. I hate that. But
Gaston Glock did not ask me when he designed the pistol. So, barring that instance,
the rule is simple. Dont touch the trigger.
Here is an example. You come home
from a long day and decide to remove your
defensive firearm for the evening. Undo
your belt, slide your holster with the gun
still in it off the belt and place both items
AS A UNIT into your gun safe. In the morning, dress yourself the way your mother
taught you and slide the holster with the
gun in it back onto your belt. Very simple.
How about on training day and the
cleaning that follows. Chances are good
that you are going to want to remove
your expensive hollow points from the
pistol and replace them with FMJ training
ammo. Put your gun on just as described

 This is a bullet wound. You dont want anything like this

anywhere on your body. You certainly dont want to inflict

a wound like this on your own body or on the body of a
friend or relative. Follow the rules laid out here and you
will never experience a negligent discharge.

above. Then with your strong hand reach down and depress the
magazine release button WHILE THE GUN IS STILL IN THE HOLSTER. Remove the magazine with your strong hand, leaving the
gun in your holster. Strip out the rounds from the magazine and
replace them with training ammo. Reinsert the magazine. Reach
over with your weak hand to hold the pistol in place and slap the
magazine firmly to seat it. Now leave it alone. Yes, you still have a
hollow-point in the chamber. So what? Use it for your first training
round.
Now training is over and you want to clean your pistol. This is
the most dangerous time. With your pistol in the holster remove
the magazine just as described in the paragraph above and set
that magazine aside. Now, as described higher above, move to a
safe location and come to what we describe as Position No. 3 of
the draw (some folks call this Position No. 2) and retract the slide
fully and briskly. Allow the live round to fall on the floor. Keeping the pistol pointed in a safe direction physically and visually
inspect the chamber to see that it is clear.
Now you may conduct your field stripping.
You will notice that the only time your finger is on the trigger is
when you are faced with a deadly threat. Unless of course you own
a Glock and need to pull the trigger for field stripping. If you follow
all the rules laid out in this article, you will never have a negligent
discharge. Because, to make a gun go loud you have to pull the
trigger. Dont do that unless you are on target and ready to fire.

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BY DUANE DAIKER

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ADVANCED TRAINING IN
REAL-WORLD SKILLS

APRIL 2013

ADVANCED FIREARMS TRAINING

 Being able to hit your

target with a shotgun is a
mandatory element in the
MAG-80 class. Students also
learn the best ways to mitigate some of the oppressive
recoil of the shotgun.

I WAS FORTUNATE ENOUGH to attend Massad Ayoobs

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excellent MAG-40 class in 2010 in Live Oak, Florida. MAG40 is the first 40 hours of training offered by the Massad
Ayoob Group (MAG). I reviewed this course extensively in
the January 2011 issue of CCM. I described the experience
as the equivalent of a graduate degree in the use of deadly
force. Without a doubt, the MAG-40 curriculum is largely
about the legal and practical implications of the use of
deadly force by civilians. This is an important topic that is
largely ignored, or as least glossed over, even by some of
the best self-defense schools in the country. However,
this aspect of civilian training is critically important. I highly
recommend that anyone who contemplates using a
firearm for self-defense take the MAG-40 course.

MAG-80 is the next class in the MAG

sequence. In essence, MAG-80 is the second 40 hours of training available from the
Massad Ayoob Group. Since MAG-40 is a
pre-requisite, you will have completed a
full 80 hours of training with Mas Ayoob
when MAG-80 is complete.
The MAG-80 curriculum is an extension
of MAG-40, but is quite different. With
most of the serious classroom work having
been completed in the first course, MAG80 students spend much less time in the
classroom and more time on the range. I
would estimate that only about 10 hours
of this class is lecture, and the rest is range
time and practical exercises.
The majority of the range time is focused
on further development of handgun skills.
After a brief review of the basics, the class
quickly moves on to more advanced handgun skills, like shooting from alternative
positionscombat crouch, high and low
kneeling, and prone. With each position
the instructional staff explains how and
why such positions are important, and
the students practice with both dry and
live fire. The lessons also include shooting
from awkward positions that you may not
get into intentionally, like flat on your back
or sitting.
Students are also introduced to support-hand-only techniques, including
drawing the pistol, reloading and malfunction drills, all done with the weak
hand only. With so many repetitions of
dry and live fire some students figure out
either their equipment is wrong, or they
may be wearing it incorrectly, for effective
support-hand access.
The MAG-80 curriculum also introduces
the defensive use of the shotgun. While
students can opt to bring a carbine instead, the course material is clearly focused
on shotgun-specific techniques. The staff
covers all the shotgun basics, including a
few techniques to shoot full-power loads
without pain. By the end of the week,
students are able to work a shotgun with
confidence, including shooting with the
primary or support arm only.
The MAG-80 shooting drills include a
fair dose of student competition and other
forms of artificial (and sometimes self-induced) stress to test the students under
pressure. Clearly everyone understands,
especially after the lessons of MAG-40,
the intense stress of a self-defense incident. While that level of stress cannot be

A Day at the Range...

THE FIRST TIME I MET MASSAD AYOOB it was hot and humid; an

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uncomfortable morning in what would be an uncomfortable Wisconsin

summer day. We were at the Ripon Gun Club and I was preparing for the
first leg of a training adventure with a man I had only spoken to over
the phone. Back then, I was a book editor and was working on Combat
Hangunnery with Mas. Since he was going to be close by, I figured I should
attend a class.
Once all the students filed into the plywood shack that served as a
classroom, Mas moved to the front and said, I bet you are all wondering
what this foul-mouthed little Arab is going to teach you today.
It was a perfect start for what would turn out to be an outstanding
class. The lecture was minimal and we moved to the range rather quickly.
As eloquent a public speaker as Mas is, everyone could tell he was really
at home demonstrating techniques on the range. I instantly embraced his
teaching style. All students were instructed in various methods and then
encouraged to try them all and pick the one that works for you. There was
no dogma or unrealistic demands . If a shooter got better results with one
stance over another, that shooter was encourage to adopt the stance that
provided the best available results.
We all focused on the basics. The goal was to get rounds on target while
really thinking about what we were doing. It seemed to me that every
individual exercise enhanced the one before it and all the little tidbits of
knowledge got pushed into one eye-opening learning experience. Students
got individual attention when needed and Mas would regularly pull people
aside to encourage them, not just correct them. We were given the chance
to see the results of our actions and judge those results against the results
of what we were instructed to do. By the end of the day, everyone was hot,
sweaty and tired but a much better shooter for the instruction.
KEVIN MICHALOWSKI

APRIL 2013

replicated, some stress can be applied to

students in various ways. I am not allowed
to disclose all of the techniques used in
classsome of the techniques need to be
kept in confidence to ensure future students have the best experience. Suffice
to say that the techniques are unique and
very effective. All the students in my class
agreed that performing the new skills we
were learning under pressure was a great
confidence builder and an invaluable part
of the class experience.
Another significant component of MAG80 is handgun retention and disarming
drills. Despite having taken a lot of training, I had very little exposure to these topics. The entire class spent a portion of every
day outside working against other students in drills with dummy guns. The techniques focus first on keeping possession of
your own handgun and defending against
a take-away from your hands or from your
holster. However, we also learned how to
take a handgun away from another personwhether to take his weapon or to get
our own firearm back after a successful gun
grab. I had not fully considered the importance of this training before MAG-80, and I
now believe this is one of the most important aspects of the course.
Of course, one of the best features of
MAG-80 is Mas Ayoob himself. Mas needs
little introduction in shooting circles. He
is one of the best-known self-defense and
firearms trainers in the world. He has been
teaching police officers since 1972, and
civilians since 1981. His landmark book,

 The MAG-80 course goes

beyond the basics providing
hands-on instruction in defense
against gun grabs. Weapon
retention is a key element in
advanced defensive training.

Sustained
Superior
Performance

MASSAD AYOOB has authored thousands of articles in gun magazines, martial arts publications, and law enforcement journals. He is the author of more
than a dozen books on firearms, self-defense, and related topics, including In
the Gravest Extreme, widely considered
to be the authoritative text on the topic
of the use of lethal force. He has three
decades of experience training civilians
and law enforcement officers and is rec-

APRIL 2013

104

ognized as an expert witness in matters

of self-defense and deadly force.
The winner of the Outstanding
American Handgunner of the Year
Award in 1998, Mas has won several
state and regional handgun shooting
championships. Ayoob is one of the
very few Five Gun Masters among the
10,000-member International Defensive Pistol Association, and was the first
to earn that title. He served 19 years as

chair of the Firearms Committee of the

American Society of Law Enforcement
Trainers, and several years as a member of the Advisory Board of the International Law Enforcement Educators
and Trainers Association. In addition to
teaching for those groups, he has also
taught for the International Association
of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors and the International Homicide Investigators seminars.

WWW.USCCA.COM

In the Gravest Extreme, continues to be one of the best

texts on the civilian use of lethal force. In addition to his
legal acumen, Mas is a skilled shooter, being one of only a
handful of people in the world to earn a Five Gun Master
ranking in IDPA. Students in MAG-80 get to know Mas a bit
better and to fully understand his passion for the material
he teaches. The pace of MAG-80 allows for more personal
interaction with Mas, which we all appreciated and enjoyed.
Mas entire instructional staff, however, is top notch. The
cast of instructors can vary, and will be different in other
parts of the country. I can only speak to the regular staff
for the classes held in Live Oak, Florida. Without a doubt,
this is one of the most talented and knowledgeable instructor cadres you will find. They are all champion competitive
shooters and well versed in the MAG techniques and curriculum. I dont have the space to mention them all, but every
one of them taught me something. When we are on the
range, there is an instructor for about every two students
so meaningful personal instruction was almost constant.
Although the MAG classes are taught all over the country, I find the Live Oak experience hard to beat. Live Oak is
a small town a long way from anywhere, but the training
facilities are excellent. In addition to a comfortable classroom building in town, the class has access to two different
outdoor range facilities. Moreover, any equipment needs
during the week can be filled at the excellent ProArms gun
shop in Live Oak.

 Group pictures are common at Massad

Ayoob Group training events. As is learning
to shoot from non-standard positions.

OBVIOUSLY, THIS IS A SELF-SELECTING CROWD OF SHOOTERS

WHO ARE VERY SERIOUS ABOUT THEIR TRAINING AND
THEIR COMMITMENT TO THE SECOND AMENDMENT...
get training. The best training in the proper use of lethal force
and its consequences is MAG-40. So do yourself a favor and embrace the MAG-40 experience, and then keep going to MAG-80
and beyond. I plan to try to help out with classes in Live Oak
when I can, so I hope to see you on the range!

LINKS
massadayoobgroup.com
proarmsinc.com
cityofliveoak.org

105
WWW.USCCA.COM

Duane A. Daiker is a contributing writer and columnist for CCM,

but is otherwise a regular guynot much different from you.
Duane has been a lifelong shooter and goes about his life as an
armed, responsible, and somewhat opinionated citizen. Duane
can be contacted through his website, www.realworldcarrygear.
com, or though his public page on Facebook, and welcomes your
comments and questions.

APRIL 2013

Perhaps another reason to take the MAG-80 course is the students. Obviously this is a self-selecting crowd of shooters who
are very serious about their training and their commitment to
the Second Amendment. After five days of intense classwork,
you definitely form bonds that can lead to lasting friendships
with your fellow students. Many of us we were reunited with
friends from our MAG-40 class as well.
Since only graduates of MAG-40 or the Lethal Force Institute
equivalent (LFI-1) are eligible to take this course, the group I am
speaking directly to is relatively small. However, I hope that my
review of MAG-80 will help nudge some of you toward taking
the first step with MAG-40. Not only is the MAG-40 material
absolutely essential on its own, but it also brings you in to the
MAG family and the wealth of more advanced training available. There is actually another 80 hours of training offered in
MAG-120 and MAG-160 that goes well beyond anything offered
to civilians in any other schools to my knowledge.
I can summarize my thoughts in a few sentences. You need to

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REMEMBER THESE TIPS

WHEN TALKING TO
A DISPATCHER
BY M.D JOHNSON

911
Dial

APRIL 2013

107
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The Right Way

SOME THINGS JUST SEEM WELL EASY. Falling off a

log to use the clich. Riding a bike, once youve learned how.
Speed-reading a Fun with Dick & Jane book. Dialing 911.
Theres really nothing to it. You pick up the phone and dial the
numbers 9 and 1 and 1. Or, as is oft the case now, you press
and hold your pre-programmed speed-dial selection, and youre
instantly patched through to the 911 operator. Easy, right?

APRIL 2013

True, the mechanics of calling the emergency number 911 are easy; however,
when the emergency professional on the
opposite end picks up, things can get a bit
dicey. What do you say? What do you ask, if
anything? What do you do?
A former accountant, Julie Brownell has
been working as a dispatcher for the Jones
County (Iowa) Sheriff s Department for the
past 12 years. Sitting opposite Brownell,
Courtney Soppe adds another nine seasons to the womens impressive professional communications resume at the department. Recently, I had an opportunity
to sit with the women in the midst of their
morning shift, and ask them if, indeed, dialing 911 was as uncomplicated a task as one
might believe. Most interestingly, what the
two had to say was both lengthy and quite
eye-opening.
At the heart of the 911 system is the operator, a trained professional schooled in
the art of dealing with the general public,
often under the most trying and severe of
situations. Depending upon the individual, Brownell began, the training begins
with three to six months of on-the-job skills
acquisition. That is, sitting here at the terminal with current dispatchers and learning
the process. Then you go on, in our case,
to the law enforcement academy in Des
Moines, where theres a 40-hour course,
along with testing and retesting and more
testing.
Its constant learning, Soppe said.
Were learning something new every day,
including such things as CPR. Each of us,
she continued, must be certified in CPR,
and maintain that certification annually.
Why CPR? I asked.
We have to be able to give instructions
108
to a caller in what to do in a 911 situation,
and that might involve the administration
of medical care, like CPR, Brownell replied.
The next question I asked seemed, even
to me, ridiculously elemental; however, I
wanted to know. When does it seem proper
WWW.USCCA.COM

and fitting to call 911? The house is on fire.

Theres an armed intruder downstairs in the
living room; you can see him from the second-floor landing. Obviously the answer is
yes in both cases when it comes to should
you/shouldnt you.
But what about situations such as a stray
dog in the yard? A suspected drunken
driver on the interstate? A strange vehicle
parked across the road?
Dont be afraid to call 911, Brownell
said. If it seems suspicious, if it seems dangerous, dont hesitate to call.
However, when I asked about initiating
the conversation with the qualifier This isnt
an emergency, she responded, If its not an
emergency, why did you call 911? A better
choice or, rather, a better plan of preparedness would be having the county sheriff s office or the local police department on
speed-dial. Im not saying not to call 911;
Im saying consider the situation, and then
make the decision as to what agency to contact based on that information.
The first thing the 911 dispatcher/operator is going to ask isnt the nature of the
emergency but rather the location of the
situation. We need to know your location,
Brownell said.
Not your phone number. Soppe said.
We need to know where you are. Situations dont always happen at home. You
might be shopping. You might be at the
corner of such n such. You might be the
third or fourth call were handling regarding the same situation, a traffic accident
for instance. So its very important that we
know exactly where you are.
But what if Im not from the area, but
rather a visitor or simply passing through,
and dont know exactly where I am, per se?
Were going to ask you a lot of questions, Brownell said. Well ask for landmarks. Can you see a blue 911 house marker? And if youre calling from a cell phone,
Im going to have this 911 tracking screen.
It may not get me to your exact location,

but Im going to get close.

Nine-one-one tracking screen? As the
women demonstrated, cell phone technology is at the place where communications
officials (in this case a 911 operator), can
locate with, a fair amount of accuracy, the
source of a cell call using the triangulation
provided by transmitters the phone, and
the towers which receive and resend the
signal and the receiver which is the 911
communications center.
This information prompted me to ask the
question/statement: This technology being as it is, doesnt it make sense for anyone
and everyone have a cell phone, regardless
of whether they use it as a primary means
of communication? An older gentleman,
perhaps, who still hunts or fishes or does
outdoor photography, often by himself?
Absolutely, Brownell replied. I hunt
and fish and mushroom hunt, and Im never
without my cell phone.
We do have a lot of people, Soppe added, that have cell phones which are activated only for their emergency capabilities,

truder entered my home. There has been a

shooting. Please send law enforcement and
an ambulance.
Something to remember, and a sidebar
introduced by Brownell, all 911 calls are recorded in their entirety, and retrievable by
law enforcement personnel with the click
of a mouse. What am I, personally, saying?
Know that youre being recorded.
The entire time we have the (911) line
open, Brownell said, its being recorded.
Why? I asked.
It could end up in court, Soppe told me.
Its something the conversation that
can be used in court if it has to be.
To recap: Whether a landline or a cell
phone, its important to have both 911 and
local law enforcement, i.e. sheriff or police,
assigned a pre-set separately as part of the
speed-dial application. Should a situation
arise, its your task to determine the significance of that situation to the best of your
ability and, armed with that evaluation,
open a line of communication to the proper agency.
If in doubt, Brownell suggested early on in
our conversation, its never wrong to call 911,
thereby letting the professionals make the
emergency versus non-emergency decision.
Second, be generous with detailed and
very specific information where you are?
the ultimate example, For example, south side of the house as
lets take it a step fur- opposed to a vague outside. If you dont
ther. Said intruder en- know your location, supply the operator
ters the home where, with as much geographical information as
you, the homeowner possible, such as landmarks, street signs, or
use deadly force, i.e. a topographical features. Anything any
shotgun, to eliminate bit of information has the potential to
what you perceive as be significant, Brownell said. And has the
a threat to your health potential to help us locate you and get perand well-being, and to sonnel to your location more quickly.
that of your family. The
Third, try to stay calm while providing
intruder is killed. Once that detailed information, but understand
ensuring the safety of your family, you call you can rely on a trained 911 operator to
911; the operator answers. Is saying, A man help calm you; after all, its in their best inbroke into my home. I think Ive killed him. terest and yours to ensure you stay coherent so that they can get the information
an admission of guilt?
I cant answer yes or no to that, Brownell they need to get you the help you need.
Its all in a days work for them but they
said. Its going to depend on your state of
mind at that very moment, as to what youre could use a little support from you, the caller.
109
going to say. So its difficult to answer that
precisely yes or no. Right or wrong.
Perhaps and note, these are my words,
not Brownells in such a situation, if you
can compose yourself to the point of thinking rationally, it might be best to say, An in-

BE PREPARED
TO GIVE THE 911
OPERATOR AS MUCH
INFORMATION AS
YOU CAN. THE FIRST
QUESTION ASKED
OF YOU WILL BE
YOU LOCATION.
DISPATCHERS NEED
TO FIND YOU FIRST.

APRIL 2013
WWW.USCCA.COM

the 911 capabilities the

phone comes with.
Returning to the
subject of information, Brownell pointed
out the importance
of being as specific as
possible with the information youre providing the 911 operator.
Whats your home address? she asked me.
When I answered, an aerial view of my
home, with my pickup in the driveway and
my boat in the yard, immediately appeared
on her monitor.
With this, she said, I can zoom in and
out, and see your home from all different
angles. You tell me, for instance, an intruder
is trying to access your home from the back
door. I ask south? You say yes. Now, she
continued, I can send officers directly to
that part of your home. Right to the south
door.
Using the above scenario as, perhaps,

INSTRUCTORS

CORNER

THE FUNDAMENTALS:
ALIGNING YOUR MUZZLE
TO THE TARGET
IN THE FEBRUARY/MARCH ISSUE, I explained how

a solid grip with full arm extension served as the basis for the natural
and neutral Isosceles shooting platform. This shooting platform matches
the bodys natural reaction to face an attacker head on and to push
the arms out defensively. As a result, this allows shooters to train the
way theyll fight. This month Ill be talking about another shooting
fundamental, namely, how to align your muzzle to the target.
BALANCING SPEED AND ACCURACY
Before we get into the options for aligning our
muzzle to the target, lets first talk about whats more
importantspeed or accuracy? The answer is, it depends. If were talking about a typical day at the range
or in the field, well usually measure the effectiveness
of the shots that weve fired based upon their accuracy, rather than on how quickly we were able to get off
the shot (missing fast when you were hoping to get
that trophy buck wont impress anyone, including the
buck). In a defensive situation however, we wont have
the luxury of taking an unlimited amount of time to get
the perfect shot, instead, well need to balance the
two factors of speed and accuracy. Those two factors
will constantly be in balance, and well need to make a
split second decision on which factor is most important
for the specific circumstances we find ourselves in. For
example, if were trying to hit an active shooter in the
middle of a crowded mall, accuracy will be ultra critical; but if a knife wielding attacker is already stabbing
us, then speed will be critical, and a margin of error of
ten or even fifteen degrees will still mean a hit. Your
decision on speed versus accuracy will not only affect
the outcome of the situation, it will also affect how you
choose to align your muzzle to the target. Three primary methods are used for target alignmentusing
unsighted fire or point shooting (which prioritizes
speed over accuracy); using a flash sight picture (which
provides an equal balance of speed and accuracy); or
using sighted fire (which prioritizes accuracy over

speed). You shouldnt necessarily think of

each of these methods as being absolutely distinct, instead, you can think of them
as being on a sliding scale. On one end
is unsighted fire (which is not the same
thing as un-aimed fire), which literally ignores the sights and gets the firearm up on
target as quickly as possible, and at the other
end is sighted fire, which requires us to focus
on the front sight, and precisely align the front
sight, rear sight, and target, for as accurate a
shot as possible. Everything in-between, including a flash sight picture, is a combination of the
two to one degree or another. Heres the catch
during a violent attack, that pesky amygdala buried deep in our brain (mentioned in the last issue)
might just limit how far we can move toward the
accuracy end of the scale. Heres why: The brains
automated responses to an attack will most likely
include the motor cortex locking our head and
eyes on what the brain perceives as the most critical part of the attack. Evolutionarily speaking,
that might have meant the teeth of an attacking
wolf; today, that might mean the knife or gun in
the hand of the attacker. The net effect means
that it may be difficult, or even impossible, to
see our firearms sights, eliminating sighted
fire as an option. Thats actually okayunlike
a scored competition on the range, the goal
of defensive shots isnt to place rounds into a

BY MICHAEL MARTIN

Point Shooting Whether youre pointing a finger, pointing a dart gun,

or pointing a firearm, the human body is designed to point. With the arm,
hand and finger at full extension, the body has a natural, straight line from
the shoulder to the fingertip, and were born with the ability to point that
straight line with a high degree of accuracy. When pointing a firearm, you should train to
elevate the firearm up into your line of sight (regardless of your method of target alignment),
which allows even more accurate pointing than if the firearm is below your line of sight.
dime-sized hole. Instead, our goal is whats referred to as defensive
accuracy. Defensive accuracy can be thought of as any round that
significantly affects the attackers ability to continue his attack. Defensive accuracy doesnt mean that we need to place our shots in
the same dime-sized hole that we might go for when were trying
to impress our friends at the range, but it also means that we cant
simply spray and pray, with no regard for where our shots land.
The great news is that even when using unsighted fire, our accuracy can still be amazingly impressive at the close distances (with
nearly ninety percent falling between 915 feet) that would typically accompany a violent attack. Working up the scale from speed
to accuracy, lets take a look at each of the three methods of target
alignment one at a time.

Violent attacks will be fast, and theyll be close. Your

motor cortex will very likely lock your eyes and your
focus onto the weapon in the attackers hands.

Forcing your eyes to change focus from a sixfoot tall attacker to a three-millimeter wide
front sight, may simply not be possible.

APRIL 2013

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UNSIGHTED FIRE
Point or Intuitive shooting doesnt discard the idea of alignment, it simply makes the pistols muzzle an extension of the arms
and hands, and points the fully extended arms and hands at the
target. Think of this as no different than how youd extend your
arm and point your finger at any object. At the close distances
that would typically accompany an attack, youd have no problem
accurately pointing at an object much smaller than the size of a
human being. As mentioned in last issues column, the Isosceles
stance enables point shooting by its naturewith the arms at full
extension, the barrel of the firearm is pointed directly at the target. In other words, the firearm becomes an extension of our arms
and handswhere they point, the gun points. When using this
method, our advice is to focus on the exact spot where you want
your rounds to land, rather than focusing on the entire target. Just
like pointing your finger at a spot on the wall is more specific than
pointing at the entire wall, focusing on a spot on the target will
enable more accurate shooting. Speaking of accuracy, the average
persons margin of error with point shooting will deviate by only
a few degrees from his or her natural point of aim, allowing for
tight shot groups at 10 to 15 feet, and even tighter groups at closer
distances. Finally, think about point shooting in the same way you
shoot a squirt gunyou dont use the squirt guns sights and yet,
more often than not, you can hit your target center of mass.

FLASH SIGHT PICTURE

When the situation we find ourselves in pushes the requirements away from speed and toward accuracy, it may be necessary to use our firearms sights to achieve a more precise shot.
For the most accurate shot, three indexes must be alignedthe
front sight, the rear sight, and the target. But as mentioned,
the automated responses experienced during a violent attack
may literally force your eyes to lock on the attacker, making it
difficult (or impossible) to focus on the front sight. However, if
youve trained to elevate the firearm up into your line-of-sight,
it may be possible to at least gain whats referred to as a flash
sight picture. Put simply, a flash sight picture occurs when the
shooter is able to get a rapid overlay of the sights on the target, without focusing on the front sight, and without taking the
time to gain perfect sight alignment. A flash sight picture will
have the target in perfect focus, with the front sight and rear
sight both visible (but out of focus) on the target. Said another
way, the shooter looks for a flash of the sights on the target to
verify proper alignment, rather than using the sights to attain
proper alignment. As mentioned earlier, its important to look
at the exact spot where you want the round to impact. Then,
when the firearm is elevated into your line of sight, a flash sight
picture occurs (the front and rear sights overlay the spot that
you want to shoot) and the trigger is pressed.

APRIL 2013

112

SIGHTED FIRE
If your brain allows it, the most precise shot will require that you
switch your focus from the target (where the brain and eyes will want
to focus), to the front sight. This is the best method to ensure proper
sight alignment. When focused on the front sight, it will be in complete focus, the rear sight will be semi-blurred, and the target will be
the blurriest thing in your sight picture. When targets are up close
(1015 feet), misaligned sights are more forgiving, but as your target pushes out beyond typical attack distances, even an alignment
error of 1/16 of an inch will translate to more than 12-inches of error
at 50 feet. Double the error in sight alignment (or double the distance), and youll double the error on target.
RANGE EXERCISES
Reading about accurately putting rounds on target is one thing, but
proving it out on the range is another. The problem is, most range
exercises have one thing in commontheyre usually not timed; and
the typical goal is to make as small a hole as possible to impress your
friends, and to make you feel good about yourself, your firearm choice,
and your grasp of the shooting fundamentals. To push my students
beyond that comfort level, I typically recommend a balance of range
exercisesones that push the students toward the speed end of the
spectrum, ones that push them toward the accuracy end of the spectrum, and ones that force a balance between speed and accuracy.
Two of my favorites are the Aim Small/Miss Small and the SEB drill.

WWW.USCCA.COM

Flash Sight Picture

A flash sight picture
occurs when the shooter
is able to get a rapid
overlay of the sights
on the target, without
focusing on the front
sight, and without
taking the time to gain
perfect sight alignment.
The shooter looks for
a flash of the sights
on the target, to verify
proper alignment, rather
than using the sights to
gain proper alignment.

THE AIM SMALL, MISS SMALL DRILL

In the movie The Patriot, Mel Gibsons character advised one of
his sons to Aim Small, Miss Small. While I normally dont look to
the movies for shooting tips, in this case, its good advice. Like golfers have known for decades, training on a smaller cup while putting, produces greater accuracy when presented with a larger target. That same, Aim Small, Miss Small theory applies to shooting
accuracy. To run this drill, the shooter starts from the low or high
ready position, and fires a single round at the back of any target.
The shooter then fires strings of two to five rounds at the hole he or
she just made.
Goal: This exercise is designed to force an intense concentration
on accuracy by making the target no larger than a bullet hole.
Many shooters will allow their degree of slop to be dictated by how
large their target is, so the Aim Small, Miss Small drill is designed to
force extra attention on precision.

Things That a Coach Can Watch For: Watch for shooters attempting to shoot the smaller, numbered targets with the same
speed that they use to shoot the larger square in the silhouette.
If they are consistently missing the smaller targets, theyll need to
slow those shots down. On the other hand, if they are shooting with
a consistent speed for the large and small targets and consistently
hitting each target, they can afford to speed up their shots on the
larger square.
Next issue: Trigger Control

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THE SEB DRILL

The SEB Drill is my favorite speed and accuracy drill, taught to
me by Rob Pincus from I.C.E. Training Company. Starting from the
holster or from the low or high ready position, the shooter will fire
on command of an assistant at an SEB target. The assistant will vary
the commands between calls of Up! and one of the numbers (such
as Two!) On a call of Up the shooter will fire at the large square in
the high center of the silhouette, and on the command of a number,
the shooter will fire at the appropriately-numbered shape surrounding the large silhouette. The assistant can choose to call more commands of Up or more commands of the numbered shapes, in order
to vary the shooters need to balance speed with accuracy.
Goal: This exercise will force the shooter to vary his or her balance of speed and accuracy on the same target and within the
same exercise.

Sighted Fire
When the requirements
for precision require
that you must use
sighted fire, its
important to focus on
the front sight rather
than the target for the
most precise shot. The
front sight will be in
complete focus, the
rear sight will be semiblurred, and the target
will be the blurriest
thing in your sight

ONE TO THE

HEAD

adjective\ stu-p d, styu-\

BY MARK WALTERS

THE ART OF STUPID

THATS NOT MY DEFINITION. It came from Websters dictionary but I like it because it

fits the anti-gun crowd to a T and in my line of work I get to see and hear it all when it comes
to certain people who fit the definition. Although it may not seem nice to use that word to
describe someone, well, Im not nice nor am I trying to be.

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Im about up to my neck bone trying to

reason with the anti-gun crowd. Its easy
to sit there and cock your head like a Chihuahua when trying to wrap your head
around what some of these people try to
pass off as logic. Dont just take my word
for it; listen to Ms. Christie Heffner, former
CEO of Playboy Magazine.
During a recent on-air conversation with
talk radio giant Mike Gallagher, he and I
discussed her comments to the ultra-liberal Joe Scarborough on MSNBC. You wont
believe this ... seriously, look at this!
Yes, last year we hit a record number
of murders from guns (in Chicago) and
this year we are already outpacing last
years numbers. Now there are contributing factors that are not under anybodys
control and may seem odd, but they are
factually true. One of them is actually the
weather. There is a dramatic increase in
gun violence when it is warmer. And we
are having this climate change effect that
is driving that.
Seriously? Climate change?
I couldnt make this garbage up if I tried.
This is the kind of idiot logic that the liberal
gun haters use to try to justify the fact that
their failed gun control policies are getting
people killed. Their model city, Chicago,
is a killing field. Thirty-plus years of the
toughest anti-gun laws on the planet and
this is what these people conjure up as legitimate reasoning?
While discussing these boneheaded
comments on Armed American Radio,
Tampas Talk 860 WGULs Joe Weaver asked,

How then would Ms. Heffner account for

the fact that Florida and other warm climate states have nowhere near the level
of gun violence as Chicago yet remain substantially warmer all year long?
There are two dynamics in play here
stupidity and dishonesty. Ms. Heffner
actually seems to believe her own moronic statements so Ill attribute her thought
process to pure stupidity. For utter dishonesty, lets take a look at some comments
from former Senior White House Adviser
David Axelrod as they pertain to the topic
of Chicagos gun violence:
We live in Chicago and one of the reasons we have such a huge problem is all
around us are areas with weak laws and
with very lax background checks and a lot
of illegal guns flow into this city.
He then acknowledged that Chicago
has a gang problem that is more pervasive
than other cities.
Kool-aid drinkers close your eyes. You
might not like to read the fact Axelrod
knows better and is being blatantly dishonest. In other words hes lying. Yeah, OK
... Chicago is the last bastion of gun control
sanity and its the other states that are responsible for that citys inability to control
its violent criminals. Another crap sandwich brought to you from the chefs over
at Team Obamas Blame the Other Guy
kitchens.
If youre foolish enough to bite into it,
dont choke, we need you around making
statements like these so we can continue
to make fun of you.

Through no fault of our own, we as

law-abiding gun owners we have been
forced to take a stand. Part of that requires
us to no longer allow these fools to get
away with this trash. These idiots need to
be called what they are and you need to
accept the fact that you simply cant argue
with stupidity and dishonesty.
By the way, Ms. Heffner might want to
consider the following before she makes
an idiot of herself. The average high temperature (according to www.weather.com)
in Chicago during January (the month she
attributed the citys record gun deaths to
global warming) is a blazing 31 degrees
and the average low is 18. Meanwhile according to the same source, Tampas temperatures during the same month average
highs of 70 degrees and lows of 52. If Ms.
Heffners theory is correct, Tampa should
be awash in gun murders.
Lets take a look.
According to the Chicago Police Department quoted in the Chicago Tribune,
the city had 40 murders by Jan. 28. Later,
I called the Tampa Police Department
informing them of Ms. Heffners gun violence-global warming theory insisting
I wanted to give her the benefit of the
doubt. Imagine my shock to hear from the
TPD public relations officer that Tampa, as
of Feb. 5, had yet to record its first murder.
(She also laughed at Ms. Heffner. I really
liked her; she was fun.)
I tried Ms. Heffner, I really did.
Now Ill just leave it at, Youre stupid.