New Monster Hunter Book

Trolling through Amazon today, trying to find another $7 worth of stuff to buy to get my free super saver shipping, I ran across Monster Hunter Legion, due out September 4th.

I got the trilogy for Chris for Christmas, and (of course) read it myself.  Chris started reading the first book in February, then inexplicably lost it.  Couldn't find it anywhere.  Just this past month I found it again, in the glove compartment of the car I drive every day.  Go figure.  Anyway, now he can catch up!

Well Done, Kim!

Kim Rhode took home the gold in women's skeet, becoming the first American athlete to medal in five consecutive games.  She had an awesome performance, setting an Olympic record with her qualification round score of 74/75.  Her final score was 99/100 which I believe is also an Olympic record and ties the world record.

Military Qual Tests and Training

Last week I had a chance to shoot the Air Force M9 qualification course of fire at a nearby military base.  This included the standard training course provided.

The entire course took about 3.5 hours and 90 rounds fired, including qualification.  Academics were taught in the classroom on:

• Safety rules (core four + don't be drunk when handling guns).  No surprises on the academics, but they were poorly taught and were never enforced or demonstrated.  I have never been muzzled so many times.  They actually set up the classroom in such a way that you HAD to muzzle others WHILE pulling the trigger for dry fire.  When I questioned the safety factor I was told, "Oh, its ok, there's no ammo allowed in the classroom."  At which point I referenced rule #1 and was met with blank stares. Safety was awful all day and this was a huge foul.  I wanted to wear a bulletproof vest.
• Nomenclature of the M9 and ammunition.  Standard, except they said "oh, and you'll be carrying hollowpoints all the time."  Ummm...  I guess the instructor isn't aware that troops don't carry HP downrange.
• Methods of destruction.  Apparently you can take it apart and throw key parts away, burn it with fire, shoot it with a 5.56 or larger, or blow it up with demolitions.  Good to know I guess.  I'd think that if you're in a situation where you're thinking about destroying your M9 though you probably don't have much time to do so.
• Loading and unloading.  Pretty standard.  They're teaching to use the slide release to send the slide forward rather than racking the slide but I'm ok with that.
• Magazine changes.  They're teaching:  out with the empty, in with the new, slide forward.  That's it.  No demonstration of proper indexing of the mag, no discussion of how to set up mags, etc.  So as a consequence you have folks throwing mags into pouches integral to their holster (how do you get to that with your weak hand?), into M4 pouches, into cargo pockets, etc.  No discussion of the difference between tactical and emergency reloads.
• Immediate actions.  They're teaching tap-rack-fire for any stoppage.  Do that twice if it doesn't work the first time.  If that doesn't fix the problem, they teach to replace the magazine and tap-rack-bang again.
• Shooting fundamentals.  They do discuss grip (high on tang), stance (isosceles), sight alignment, sight picture, and trigger control.  There is no discussion of trigger reset.  There is no individual instruction/coaching nor are there any proper demonstrations given.  I'm ok with isosceles as the context is wearing hard plate body armor; squaring up to the target will maximize the value of the armor.
• Draw.  They're teaching "grab, smack, press" basically.  The pistol comes out of the holster, up and forward in a diagnol line, the support hand meets it (smack), and then press. This is different from what I have previously used (and still use), which is what is apparently called the right angle draw stroke.  I don't like the grab-smack-press for three reasons.  First, there's a retention issue -- at close quarters, I am basically pushing the gun out in front of me towards a close-up opponent and only have one hand on it.  Second, its slow to get shots on target--with the right angle draw stroke I can shoot from retention as soon as the weapon rotates 90 degrees.  Finally, it is easy to cover the support hand with your muzzle (I saw folks doing it!!) which obviously is Bad.

The actual firing course was 45 rounds for practice and 45 for qual.  The practice session was not very helpful.  I was happy that my first shot drilled the target exactly dead center; my first four headshots were all touching, to the point where I had to point out to the instructor that yes, all four shots were on the paper (they were basically one ragged hole).

QUALIFICATION

The qualification course of fire consisted of the following stages (all failure to stop drills with three rounds--2 chest/1 head--unless otherwise noted):

• 7 yards, eight seconds, with draw
• 7 yards, eight seconds, with draw
• 15 yards, ten seconds, no draw, right side barricade
• 15 yards, ten seconds, no draw,  right side barricade
• 15 yards, 25 seconds, no draw, fire three, drop to knee, reload, fire three more from kneeling
• 15 yards, ten seconds, no draw, strong side barricade
• 15 yards, ten seconds, no draw, strong side barricade
• 15 yards, ten seconds, no draw, strong side barricade
• 15 yards, 25 seconds, no draw, strong side barricade,  fire three, drop to knee, reload, fire three more from kneeling
• 15 yards, ten seconds, no draw, left side barricade
• 15 yards, ten seconds, no draw,  left side barricade
• 25 yards, 25 seconds, no draw, 3 over barricade, drop to knee, reload, 3 under barricade

That should be 45 rounds, with 13 at a 6" "head" and 32 at a 10" "body" drawn on a pretty standard size IDPA-style target.  The vital areas are drawn in light pencil so you can't really see them beyond 7 yards or so.  I indexed off my early hits to know where they were.

Minimum score to qualify is 35 hits on paper.  "Expert" is 41 hits on paper with 6 in the head and 25 in the body.  I scored 43 on paper, 10 in the head (plus two VERY near misses...), 23 in the body.  I asked if I could trade two head shots for a body shot but was not permitted.  I should have stopped taking head shots once I was sure I'd racked up my six but I didn't game the system.

"Alibis" were permitted for any malfunction.  So if you had a malfunction you could basically pause the clock, fix it, and then shoot the string of fire again.  No requirement to rapidly clear them despite the generous time frames.

Shooting was done in plate body armor, so thigh drop holsters were definitely useful.  Those without thigh drops had Bianchi M12 holsters.  Most did not have M9 mag pouches and just used AR pouches or cargo pockets.  Wow.  A lot of folks had Serpa holsters; I personally was running a serpa because that's my only thigh drop, but at least I'm aware of the negligent discharge issues and the need to properly index that trigger finger.  No mention was made of that issue all day by the instructors and I saw folks slipping fingers inside trigger guards during draw strokes way too often.

On the plus side, it was encouraged to carry the weapon with a round in the chamber and safety off with hammer down.  This is the proper way, IMHO, to carry the Beretta 92 platform.

I suspect that many folks who have attended a course at Front Sight or Alaska Tactical could easily qualify and probably shoot expert.  The Front Sight DG handgun requirements are MUCH more stringent than this military qual.

THE UGLY

The instructors looked at practice targets and if it was ugly let folks put all their qualification shots center of mass (i.e. no head shots) to maximize the odds of getting 35 on paper somewhere.  They also let shooters put all their shots at 7 yards into the head (it still didn't help anyone get to expert).  I wouldn't be surprised if a few extra rounds were being handed out to the alibi shooters to help them get 35 holes on paper.  I played it straight, myself, and shot the prescribed course of fire throughout.

There was no discussion of mindset, cooper color code, after action drills, or the ready stance.  In fact the ready stance was discouraged as a safety issue ("pointing your weapon at the ground is hazardous!").  Press checks and standard malfunction clearances were also discouraged.

Safety was AWFUL.  I already discussed flagrant violations of safety rules in the classroom.  It was not much better on the range.  I took a spot at the end of the firing line so I only had to worry about the guys on one side of me.  I'm pretty sure lots of folks were muzzled, there was lots of "finger on trigger," and so on.  Just awful.  The shoot boss and his assistant (calling the line) were playing with an M9 -- finger on trigger, pulling trigger for idle dry fire, messing with the hammer.  On the line.  But I'm sure it was unloaded (reference conversation above about how rule #1 apparently didn't apply).

They had folks do things live they'd never practiced dry.  For example, the first time someone transitions from standing to kneeling should probably not be with a live handgun.  And they should probably see a demonstration of what kneeling should look like and how to hold the weapon so they don't muzzle themselves or their neighbor.  Likewise, the first time someone shoots around a barricade should probably not be with a live weapon--apparently people shooting the barricade is a common problem, and I can't help but think that if they just had you do it dry first it might mitigate that issue.

Nobody cleared the line -- ever.  At one point I was told to go forward of the red line to recover a magazine while a shooter at the other end of the bay was still firing.  HECK NO!  I absolutely refused to go in front of the red line on a hot range while firing was still occurring.  It wasn't a hot or cold range -- it was a "grey" range where I was never clear if we were hot or cold, frankly.

CONCLUSION

It was interesting to see the current state of military training.  Bear in mind that this is the AF, which doesn't take small arms very seriously.  A few years ago, before I seriously got into the hobby, I had similar opportunities and it was good to see my skills improve.  It was also good to see proper carriage of the Beretta 92 being taught (i.e. round in chamber, hammer down, safety off).

On the downside, it was awful training.  Nothing was modeled properly.  The majority of students barely qualified and then only by perverting the course of fire.  Safety was AWFUL.  Not only did I feel that the line  was run unsafely but I feel as if the students did not learn any sort of safe gun handling practices.  This is probably why the military has to deal with so many negligent discharges of both duty weapons and privately owned weapons, and why many base commanders in war zones don't want people to have rounds in chambers.

Anyone who has taken any basic NRA safety course has a stronger grounding in safe weapons handling.  Anyone who has taken a 2-3 day defensive handgun course (or even a basic Alaska CWP course) likely has better shooting skills as well.  Anytime you hear an anti-gun person bleat, "well, only military people need that level of training!" or "only the military and police are well enough qualified to have handguns!" tell them "HOGWASH!"  Affordable training which is readily available in the civilian world far exceeds the basic handgun training available to most deploying airmen at least in both safety and content.

Heard on the NPR

I was listening to some NPR on the way home this afternoon and heard a panel discussion about gun control.

One of the guests, a sociologist, stated that he'd seen several peer reviewed studies as well as Justice Breyer's "amateur" (his word, not mine) review of the gun control literature and was disappointed that there is no link between gun control laws and reduced violence.  In fact, he even said that he agreed with the literature and that he doubted that gun control laws would have any measurable or significant impact on overall violence or even gun violence rates.  Nonetheless, immediately after stating this, the guest went on to expouse his strong support for more gun control laws.

WTF!?!?  Did the guy not listen to the words coming out of his own mouth 30 seconds ago?  "Policy A doesn't work.  It won't work in the future, either.  Nonetheless, we must implement it immediately!"

The next panel speaker spoke about how nobody "needs" 100 round magazines and how preventing access to large magazines and assault weapons would have reduced the body count in Colorado.  Umm, no.  The shooter's weapon malfunctioned BECAUSE he had a cruddy huge magazine.  Had he chained the door of the theater shut and set it on fire, or set off multiple IEDs (he had the skills) he would have racked up a higher body count.  The policies this numskull were supporting would have led to MORE deaths, not fewer.  But they wouldn't have been "gun deaths" so I guess that's ok with the doofus.

Good News, Everyone!

US Won't Sign

DHS Tips to Survive a Shooter

Here's their video, "Run, Hide, Fight."

Overall, not bad.  They included fight back, at least, and the video depiction of fight back was pretty good (though I would have added some projectiles).  The hide section bothered me though.  Yes, lock and block the doors, but you better have something in your hands in case that doesn't work, not be curled up in a ball.

What do you think?

Yes Yes Yes

A great post up on The View From North Central Idaho.

This is something near and dear to me and I already implement many of the suggestions he makes to greater or lesser extents, but it's something that more people need to be aware of.

Separate But Equal?

Playing off of my earlier post about Olympic shooting, I've been reading some more on the subject.  In the 1976 Olympics, a man and a woman tied for the gold in small-bore rifle.  The gold was awarded to the man and, apparently as a result, several countries began to push for segregated shooting events.  The transition to segregated events began in '84 and ended in '96 with full separation.  Interestingly enough, the gold medal in '92 trap, coed for the last time, went to a woman.  Was the change to separate gender competition in trap a direct result of that win?  I find it unlikely that it was the sole reason, given that the shooting sports had been trending that way for nearly a decade, but it's still pretty interesting, especially given the reaction to the '76 Olympic tie which seems to have started the whole issue.

In '96, double trap was the only shotgun sport open to women, since skeet and trap had been dropped by the IOC.  Of course, the rounds shot were different in the men's and women's versions (as they are in all of the shooting sports that I've looked at, by the way), so that men and women could not be directly compared.    After '96 they brought back women's skeet and trap (again, with different round counts), but got rid of double trap in '04 saying there wasn't enough interest, a fact which Kim Rhode disputes.

So, what have we gained by segregating men and women in the shooting sports?  Some seem to argue that the separation is good because it provides more opportunities for women to shoot.  However, if that was the only reason, why are women and men shooting different round counts for the same event?  The only reason I can see for that is to avoid direct comparisons.

More women than ever are joining the shooting sports.  They're competing against men and winning.  Shooting is one of the very few sports where women and men CAN compete on a level playing field.  So why are they not afforded that opportunity all the way to the top?

Disney Wild Africa Trek - Complete with Dysentery!

Apparently dozens of people got sick after going on Disney's Wild Africa Trek.  Clearly they were just trying for some extra realism, folks.

Quotes of the Day: Terrible Implements...

"Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American..."
- Tenche Coxe


"I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that an AK-47 belongs in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals...  That they belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities."
-POTUS


In other news, I went and ordered another stack of AR mags from Midway.  I've been meaning to for awhile anyways, I get my dealer discount, and the prices haven't jumped yet.

...What?

I'm not linking directly to her blog, but:


"That is a convoluted way to say- go ahead and have high capacity magazines because they don't kill as many people as they could when they jam? That's sick and twisted and the very reason they need to be banned.  Come on. Please say you don't mean that. How many lives are O.K to take at one time then? If only one dies, that's O.K. then? That's an insult to the victims. Stop saying stuff like that." - Japete

Soooo... high capacity magazines ought to be banned because they don't kill as many people?

Peterson Syndrome at its finest.

Three Years as a Reformed Hoplophobe

As I mentioned in my last post, it's been three years to the month since I first touched a gun.  So much has happened in those years - it's hard to believe I used to be a bit of a hoplophobe!  I've gotten a lot of training and have line coached for some excellent people.  I'm an NRA instructor and an instructor in training for Appleseed.  I've been on a Kodiak bear hunt and a backpacking caribou hunt.  I shoot, dress, cook and eat upland game birds.  Heck, I even have a bird dog!  I don't even know off the top of my head how many guns I own (and I'm not even touching the ones Chris owns!).  I've also grown a lot in confidence as I grow as a shooter and that's really the most important thing to me.

Over the next few weeks I go back to work at a shiny new job that will, by virtue of its shiny newness, likely take up a fair bit of my time.  We're also entering the final stretch before Chris gets an all-expenses paid vacation to somewhere hot and sandy.  I am happy that this time we will both (theoretically) be able to worry less about the other.  He'll know that I'm able to take care of myself at home and I know how much better his training is this time around.  That doesn't make up for other things, of course, but it's a help.

Girls with Guns in the Olympics

Being somewhat bored this evening, I was clicking around on the Olympics site and of course wound up inspecting the shooting schedule.  Seeing as I first touched a gun three years ago this month, this is our first summer Olympics as "gunnies."  One of our own Alaskans won bronze in Beijing for trap and is preparing for her second Olympics.  Pretty awesome!  The Women's Trap final will be shown on August 4th at 4:30pm according to my local listings.

Anyway, it led me to wonder why, exactly, the shooting events are still divided into mens and womens divisions. I mean, the Y chromosome might be an advantage in many sports, but I fail to see how it plays any role in, say, 10 metre air rifle.  Well go figure, here's an article on the matter.  Apparently shooting used to be with equestrian as the only Olympic events to be mixed-gender, but from the '80s to '96 the shooting sports moved to separate gender competitions.  Interestingly enough, the last mixed-gender shooting event was won by a woman who also set a world record.  What do you think, should the genders remain separate or should we transition back to mixed gender competition?

Women's Shooting Team USA:

Corey Cogdell, as I mentioned earlier, earned bronze in 2008 in trap.

Kim Rhodes has medaled in four consecutive Olympics, aiming for her (record) fifth!  Gold, bronze, Gold in trap, then silver in skeet.

Jaime Gray  will be competing in 10 and 50 meter air rifle.  While she's from PA, she went to school at University of Alaska-Fairbanks.

Sarah Scherer will be competing in the 10 meter air rifle.  This is her first Olympics.

Amanda Furrer will be competing in the 50 meter air rifle.  Also her first Olympics.

Sandra Uptagrafft will be competing in the 10 meter air rifle and 25 meter sport pistol events.  Another first-time Olympian!

The men's team can be found here.  Several repeat Olympic athletes and several who already have medals.  It's late, or I would have posted them by name as well.

A Conversation...

Last night I was chatting with several friends and someone brought up the Colorado shooting.  A friend in Phoenix said that he had been planning to go see the movie but heard that the police were searching everyone at the theater and didn't want to deal with that.  I wondered what they hoped to accomplish, given that it's Arizona and probably not illegal to carry a gun into a theater, at which point someone else said, "Why would you need to bring a gun to a theater anyway?"

...

Really?  We're sitting here talking about some crazy guy who went on a mass shooting spree in a theater and you can still ask that question?

We spend so much time with like-minded people - which is natural, of course - that hearing things like that is sometimes like a bucket of cold water to the face.  We've thought about these issues in depth, we've come to our decisions.  On the other side, the anti-gunners have also thought about these issues and come to their decisions.  But there are a great many people in the middle who haven't really thought about these things.  They pop out whatever line they've heard from other people without really thinking through the implications.  These are the people we hope to - and need to - reach.  We all know that we'll never in a million years change the minds of Japete and her like.  These people though, the ones without an opinion, or the ones only mildly in either direction, those are the people we can reach.

Kodiak - 15 Weeks

Another week gone!  We had an epic cat vs dog interaction this week.  It all started with a cardboard box.  Apparently cats and dogs have very different (and strong) ideas on how to properly use a discarded box.  Kodi thinks they are for eating, while the cat thinks they are for sleeping in.  It takes a fair bit to push Nittany into a confrontation with the puppy, but the box was That Important.  First there was a squabble over possession of the box.  The cat won and promptly occupied the premises.  That left Kodi to bark and make various attempts to reclaim the box, to be chased off with a hiss and a swat of claws.  This went on for half an hour and looked to continue, but we were tired of the barking and put the dog in her crate and the box in a room that is off limits to puppies but not cats.

In other news, Kodi is now responding to "come" and "kennel up" without regular need for physical enforcement or treat reward.  I've been conditioning her for a few skijouring commands for when we get back to civilized and snowy lands.  She's pretty indifferent to "gee" and "haw" thus far but has picked up on "hike" with ridiculous ease.  What can I say, the pup loves to run!  We go for the final round of puppy vaccinations shortly, and then we're done with frequent vet visits (knock on wood) just in time for my work to start back up again.

Batman Shooting

If you haven't already heard, here's a link.

Seems a 24 year old thought it would be a great idea to shoot up a packed theater.  There's not much information out, but the most interesting piece so far seems to be that the alleged shooter's mother doesn't seemed at all shocked that her son would do this.  Interesting indeed.

ETA: It seems ABC mistakenly reported the shooter as affiliated with the Tea Party.  Unfortunately, they got the wrong James Holmes.  Shocking, huh?

Sebastian guesses schizophrenia.  I think that's a good guess.

Take That, TSA

Naked Traveler Protected By First Amendment

Well, that's a step in the right direction, I guess.  Not far enough though, until TSA is gone.

QOTD: JaPete's Reality

Heather found a real gem of a quote over at our favorite Brady Board member's blog.  I don't regularly read anymore but it was too good to pass up.

No one in the liberal media has suggested we repeal the Heller decision.
- Joan Peterson, Brady Campaign Board Member

O Rly?

From the NY Times the day after the Heller decision:

The gun lobby will now trumpet this ruling as an end to virtually all gun restrictions, anywhere, at all times. That must not happen. And today’s decision still provides strong basis for saying it should not. 

If the ruling is held to apply to the states, and not just to the District of Columbia — which is not certain — there will still be considerable dispute about what it means for other less-sweeping gun laws. Judges may end up deciding these on a law-by-law basis. 

Supporters of gun control must fight in court to ensure that registration requirements and background-check rules, and laws against bulk sales of handguns — a major source of guns used in crimes — are all upheld. 

The court left room for gun-control advocates to fight back. It made clear that there were gun restrictions that it was not calling into question, including bans on gun possession by felons and the mentally ill, or in “sensitive places” like schools and government buildings. 

That last part is the final indignity of the decision: when the justices go to work at the Supreme Court, guns will still be banned. When most Americans show up at their own jobs, they will not have that protection. 

This audaciously harmful decision, which hands the far right a victory it has sought for decades, is a powerful reminder of why voters need to have the Supreme Court firmly in mind when they vote for the president this fall.

Ok, so the NYT states (1) anti-gun advocates can "fight back" with gun restrictions and (2) voters must vote in a president who opposes the 2A so that Heller can be limited or overturned.


I see only a few options:  (A) Joan Peterson is an idiot who lives in her own fantasy "reality," (B) Joan Peterson is a cynical liar, (C) the NYT is not part of the "liberal media" as defined by Joan Peterson, or (D) my reading comprehension skills are poor and the NYT thought Heller was properly decided and should not be ignored or overturned.

Kodiak - 14 Weeks

A comparison... the first day we brought her home at seven weeks versus this weekend at fourteen weeks.  As you can see she's lost her soft puppy coat and puppy chub.  She's all legs now and about three times the size she was when we brought her home.  Her coat has darkened and more of the roan coloring is showing.
You can also see that we spent this weekend at the beach.  We had a great time hanging out with friends and the beach was very dog friendly.  Kodi loved the smells, the people, and the other dogs, but she was rather concerned about the whole water thing.  The first day she got a wave in the face and was done, but the second day she tolerated splashing through the shallows with us and was even getting pretty good at jumping through the waves.  Hopefully a few more times at the beach and she'll be right at home!

The Knights of Formerly Great Britain

Bruce Springsteen apparently had a joint concert in London with Sir Paul McCartney, Member of the Order of British Empire, Knighted by the Queen, and recipient of numerous music honors.

They violated the 10:30 PM curfew, and the police immediately pulled the plug on their sound system.  Can you imagine the response of, say, Lord Horatio Nelson, Sir Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela (OM), or Sir Francis Drake to being cut off at the late hour of 10:30 PM in a public oration or event?

Heck many teenagers have a later bed time then Knights in Britain these days.

That Makes Me Feel So Much Better...

I got a random catalog in the mail from this shooting supply company.  Aside from the awful color scheme, it says right on the cover "Not Responsible for Typographical Errors."  Sorry, but that somehow does not inspire confidence in your business.  I mean, it's one thing to say "Prices Subject to Change Without Notice."  I can get behind that.  But "Not Responsible for Typographical Errors"?  Well if you aren't, who is?

Then again, I also tend to feel physically ill when I see a billboard improperly using apostrophes, so maybe it's just me.

Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice

Since Linoge has been preserving peppers, I figured I'd throw up a shot of my own.  My cayennes only just started coloring in the past week, and given the number of green ones still on the bushes, I expect this to grow significantly.  Perhaps I'll use it as decoration at Christmas.

And people say the third amendment is obsolete

Britons sue over SAM site being installed on their roof.

I don't think "gun culture" is their problem

CNN ran a photo-essay with the title:  "Gun culture plagues South Sudan."  There are some truly horrific pictures.  The situation in South Sudan is honestly a massive human tragedy.

However, I don't really think the "gun culture" is the root cause of South Sudan's problems.  Maybe the problem is a horrific, evil state-sponsored group which engaged in systematic abuses of civilian populations including organized gang rapes, mass depopulations, and widespread ethnic cleansing.  Maybe the largely agrarian and Christian residents of South Sudan have turned to firearms because they don't like being gang raped or ethnically cleansed.  I guess CNN believes the appropriate action to take if you are a victim of a state-sponsored genocide and mass rape campaign is to wait for some plutocrat from the UN to come in and broker a cease fire plan that will probably fail because nobody is willing to enforce it.

Seriously, the title for this CNN photo-essay is like saying, "Gun culture plagues Jews in Warsaw Ghetto" in a 1943 issue of Life Magazine.

Of course Brady Campaign hates LEOs

They have guns.

From our favorite Board Member of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership:

This most recent example of an off-duty police officer shooting a woman when his loaded gun dropped out of the holster is a prime example of why loaded guns carried around in public are not a good idea. Presumably the officer was a "law abiding" gun carrier. He was until he suddenly wasn't. And now an innocent woman is dead. This was senseless, avoidable, stupid and dangerous. Guns are dangerous.

I assume Ms. Peterson was referring to this article, which provided more details:

Police say this 16 year veteran officer had the Smith and Wesson M&P .40 caliber handgun in a soft neoprene holster.  It was on his waist when it somehow accidentally fired.

"It is possible still for the trigger to be manipulated with that type of holster," said Godbee. 

The victim's family members say they just can't make sense of it, and neither can gun expert Rick Ector, who showed us the exact same gun in a neoprene holster. 

"How do you bypass this holster to get at the trigger?" he said while repeatedly tapping on it.  "I haven't figured it out." 

Detroit Police have a lot to figure out.  Internal Affairs is investigating.  One unanswered question is how was the victim shot in the chest when a gun is typically pointed down.

On one hand, I have to blame Sebastian for posting a link to JaPete-land, because I will never get those minutes of my life back.  Still, this ultimately was of interest to me, especially as Heather and I carry S&W M&Ps in .40.

First, it is worth looking at the absurdity of Joan Peterson's views:  she thinks that guns are dangerous, even in the hands of law enforcement officers.  Joan is going beyond the idea of civilian disarmament and demanding total LEO disarmament as well, apparently (even beyond what is admitted by Anchorage's local gun grabber, "Gwen").  Here's what "Gwen" has to say:

The military, guard, and cops can have ‘em, but not everyone. That’s what I advocate.

So Joan Peterson, Brady Board member, has a special brand of crazy that goes beyond even our local Alaskan gun grabber's position.  So, how does Joan suppose that cops should do their jobs?  Should they ask violent scummy criminals nicely to cooperate or comply?  Should they be restricted to less-than-lethal rounds?  Should LEOs just be told to "duck and cover" or flee?  Maybe she just believes that police officers have Special Super Gun Powers when they wear their uniforms on duty, but they suddenly lose those super powers and become Ordinary Citizens at the end of their shift and thus are unworthy of possessing firearms (gosh, probably just too bad if Joe the Crackhead who just got out of jail wants a little revenge, eh?).

If Joan Peterson were allowed to be Queen for a Day, the policies she would demand would undoubtedly lead to the death or serious bodily injury of our law enforcement officers for no appreciable gain in public safety (but perhaps a slight decline in the sales of adult diapers).  While one side of me loves it when the .gov has to play by the same rules as the subjects, and while I don't worship at the altar of "officer safety" to the exclusion of all else, I generally support reasonable efforts to keep LEOs who do dangerous jobs safer by allowing them to have reasonable safety gear like body armor, sidearms, etc.  Apparently Joan Peterson disagrees, because she thinks police officers are dangerous.

So, who exactly is wildly out of the mainstream on this issue?

The second point is more technical.  How the heck does an M&P with the moderate striker fired trigger discharge when in a holster, even a cruddy Uncle Mike's style holster?  And how does it rotate 110 degrees to point from the feet to a chest?  Methinks that somehow a booger hook ended up on a bang switch, and the muzzle pointed at something it wasn't supposed to.  Maybe the LEO couldn't resist showing off his "piece" to his date.  This is why (A) I have good holsters and (B) the sidearm does not come out of the holster unless it is needed or it is being deliberately and safely cleared or (C) I need to administratively handle it due to entering a victim disarmament zone.

Range Day!

We finally made it out to the range early Saturday morning in an attempt to beat the heat which was partially successful.  We also took two of Chris' coworkers with us.  They had fun shooting and we gave them a quick lesson on the basics and safety.  It's unfortunate that basic safety is not, it seems, so basic.  We had a lot of muzzle control issues and FOT issues, but those were greatly improved by the end of the session.

Personally, I put 50 rounds downrange before I started teaching and it felt pretty good.  We haven't shot handgun in a few months due to the horrible hours of the range.  One of my ragged hole drills I got four out of five shots in the same hole and kicked myself over the fifth.  Speed drills went well too, though the little Taurus did have a failure to feed.  I was working through the crappy ammo with that one though, I haven't had an issue with my carry ammo yet.

Kodiak - 13 Weeks

Wow... this was a really big week for the pup!  Practically overnight something clicked and she's now starting to understand right from wrong (which is a good thing given that she's now big enough to jump on the couch!).  She's responding to commands on her own and learned "shake" and "lie down" each in a day.  She hasn't had an accident since Sunday and that was only because it was so hot that walking outside burned her little paws.  She's still mouthy but is making vast improvements there as well.

We also did some bird introduction this week.  We started off with a lock-wing pigeon and oh my gosh did she ever love it.  The bird didn't last long but Kodi had a blast.  We also gave her a clip wing, which she thinks is even more fun.  That's probably all we'll do on yard birds for a while though.  She's not big enough to pick the bird up yet, though she tries with all her might.

Mormons

Tonight while walking the dog we came across two well dressed gentlemen.  Two guys with white shirts and ties means one of three things:  Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, or door-to-door salesmen.

Luckily, the dynamic duo turned out to be Mormons.  They wanted to hit us up with a pamphlet and asked if we had any questions.  I said, "Well, actually, yes.  Do you have a cannery around here and do you let non-members use it?"

They were shocked, one because someone actually asked a question and two because I know about LDS canneries.  Given that we're into food storage and have bought some cheap, good storage food from Mormon.org before I've heard that their canneries are cheap/free and often available for use by non-members.  They didn't know off the top of their heads as they're recent arrivals from Utah doing the missionary thing but I got a phone number for their local office.

Appleseed the Second

Heather and I attended our second Appleseed event last weekend.  We figured it would be a great way to celebrate the 4th of July!

ADMIN

The event was at the Mid-Carolina Rifle Club near Columbia, SC.  The official AAR is located here.  The range itself is a great facility.  There was no covered firing point at 25 yards on our range but we put up some sun shades -- and a good thing!

The weather was scorching.  A thermometer measured a temp of 120 degrees or so in the sun.  The heat index in the shade was around the same once you factored in humidity.  That's hot.  It obviously impacted how much material could be covered.  Still, the staff did a great job of staying positive.

On a personal note I was frustrated to find that our stapler was nonop the whole weekend for reasons as of yet unknown.  Luckily the other shooters let me borrow one.

SHOOTING

I did well on my first redcoats target.  I cleared it to 200 yards and got the headshot, and had 2/3 shots in the target for the 300 and 400 yard silhouettes.  Almost nailed it.  A good start.

The shooting instruction went smoothly and was pretty much as I remembered it.  I focused on how they were teaching and also on polishing some of the finer points.  One of the instructors who drove from Georgia -- Elaine -- was particularly helpful in fine tuning my sling usage.  I'm still not 100% comfortable setting up the sling but I am getting more familiar with it.

We started shooting AQTs on day 2 and I screwed up the first due to arithmetic errors (i.e. wrong number of shots into each silhouette) and just shaking out the cobwebs.  On the second AQT I minimized the arithmetic errors and got myself in the hunt.  I was short of the 210 needed -- in fact, I scored an anemic mid-180s score -- but things were improving.  I had a tight group off target on the 400 yard target and gave up a lot of easy points in the first two stages with marginal "3" point hits.

The third and final AQT I scored another 209 -- just like the last Appleseed!  Luckily, the .30 cal rule saved me -- I had a tight group in the "4" zone just barely touching the "5" zone on stage three and a .30 cal bullet would have done it, so I barely pushed over the edge with a 212!  Rifleman achieved!

I used a Ruger 10/22 with a few upgrades:  Volquartsen auto-bolt release and target hammer upgrade, extended mag release, recoil buffer, and Blackhawk Knoxx stock.  I also used a $40 fixed 4x power Bushnell scope.  The optic was a big deal:  at my last Appleseed I shot with irons and kept having point of aim issues on the last stage (i.e. nice tight group, but off a bit).  The optic removed that problem from the equation.  Still, I want to shoot a legit AQT with iron sights.  Given that I got a 209 last time and that Sean shot one it is definitely do-able.

Specific tricks learned from the excellent cadre:
- A slight twist when standing (off-hand) to "lock" your back.  This tightened up my standing groups substantially and reduced the "8" shaped swing even as I tired.
- On stages 2/3 which feature a mag change, drop the mag after one shot (i.e. do a tactical reload, not an emergency reload).  This eliminates the need to rack the bolt on a 10/22.  Given that I shoot left handed this buys me about 2-3 seconds.  Racking the bolt while slung up is a bit awkward.
- The hot weather was brutal but illustrated the importance of steady hold factors, sling usage, and NPOA.  I was exhausted after just sitting out there in the heat and would have been absolutely ineffective had I been "muscling" my rifle around.  With good NPOA I was better.  I got "lazy" on the last silhouette on the last row of my target and it showed in the resulting group -- I gave up some points that I almost sorely needed.  NPOA is the key.


HISTORY


The story as always was great.  I was happy to see one of the humble but effective instructors from Ramseur make a reappearance.  He was upgrading and told his parts of the story quite effectively.


We all got a laugh when one of the instructors referred to the "dirty old man" stories -- oops!  Quickly corrected, we heard some great "dangerous old man" stories.  I heard the tale of Hezekiah Wyman and it sent a frisson down my spine.  The idea of a fifty-something older man with white flowing hear shadowing the British column as if he were death incarnate was harrowing.  I went back to Fischer and found this passage:

Many on both sides remembered a middle-aged militiaman named Hezekiah Wyman, from the outlying hamlet of Woburn that is now the town of Winchester. This day was his birthday. On the morning of April 19, 1775, Hezekiah Wyman turned fifty-five. His wife told him he was too old to fight, but he saddled his “strong white mare” and galloped away. He collided with the British column on the Road east of Lexington, fired at an advancing Regular and brought him down. 

Hezekiah Wyman became highly visible on the battlefield—a “tall, gaunt man” with long gray locks, mounted on a white horse. The British infantry saw him many times from Lexington to Charlestown, and grew to dread the sight of him. 

Wyman was a crack shot. Again and again he rode within range of the British vanguard, jumped off his horse, and laid the long barrel of his musket across the saddle. As the Regulars approached he took careful aim, and squeezed off a shot with slow deliberation. Then he remounted and rode ahead to a new position—a grim, gray-headed messenger of mortality, mounted on death’s pale horse.

I was also pleased to hear three stories about women.  We heard the Mother Batherick story which I'm kind of "eh" about, but also heard about Prudence Wright and the female militia of Pepperell as well as Elizabeth Zane.  We also got to hear a story about one of the drummers.


We had a significant number of women and kids (we had 4-5 youth and 4 women plus female kids) so I think those stories are especially appropriate.  Frankly when the women and kids outnumber the old guys attending then it makes sense to tell more "Dangerous Dames" and "Dangerous Drummer Boys" stories then "Dangerous Old Men" tales.


The only way that we could have improved on the tale telling would have been to feature a local story.  South Carolina has a ton of Revolutionary War history and a story about the Swamp Fox or the Gamecock would have been awesome.  In places that actually have Revolutionary War history (I still haven't found any for Alaska) it would be cool to weave in local tales and landmarks.


MISSION


The mission of Appleseed is to get Americans off the couch and combat apathy, laziness, and ignorance.  I think some progress was being made this weekend despite the oppressive heat.  One of the kids -- a high school age student who is thinking of pursuing a commission in the US Marine Corps -- demonstrated great improvement on marksmanship as well as seemed to have a great time.

Heather was beaten down by the brutally hot weather -- she has a "humour" more acclimated to the cooler northern climes.  Plus, over the day on Saturday we lost hens from the chicken coop due to the extreme heat, so she stayed home on Sunday to deal with the remaining animals.  She still had a good time.

Both of us were inspired enough to take up Orange Hats, which are worn by instructors in training.  I wasn't 100% sure before the weekend.  I was thinking about it, but not sure.  On Sunday, I was asked to instruct one of the shooting positions in review and did it well which was a bit of a surprise.  Furthermore, Appleseed shoot bosses have always responded really well to constructive criticism (including a quick turn adjustment of the schedule for Sunday based on my safety concerns about heat stress injuries) which was just really impressive.  I was also really impressed by the dedication of senior instructors who traveled from GA and NC to make an event in SC a success.  The level of standardization and quality control is really impressive.

I'm pretty excited about picking up instructor duties.  It is another time commitment on top of work, finishing my masters degree, raising a well-behaved pup, and all the other day to day stuff.  I also intend to pursue NRA certification (at least for range safety officer if nothing else) and am working on my pistol and shotgun discipline skills, and obviously have a lot of improvement to go on the rifle side.  Still, the marksmanship+history formula of Appleseed really appeals to me and I think the mission of inspiring sleeping Americans to engage is pretty darn relevant and important.  If I wait until I'm a perfect shot to start helping then I'll be waiting forever.  The 80% solution today is better than the 99% solution tomorrow.

I'm also pretty excited about pursuing study of the Revolutionary War in the South.  While I'm stuck down here in the sweltering heat it is definitely a topic I am interested in pursuing further.  I'm working through a few histories (primary and secondary0 and it is really a fascinating and under-studied episode in the American story.

Happy Fourth of July!  What do you think about the American Revolution?

You've got to be kidding me...

Zombie Theme Park in Detroit?

The Future, It Already Happened

Given the ridiculous temperatures lately, I've been keeping an eye on weather.com for info and such.  I usually jump to the local weather page but today the headline story caught my eye: 4 Snapshots of Topsy Turvy Year

The first sentence is the problem.

"You can call 2012 the year of weather gone wild!  The Northeast's biggest snowstorm hit in October."



I might be mistaken, but I am fairly certain that October 2012 hasn't happened yet.  Clearly the weather.com folks have invented time travel!  This means their predictions will become accurate, right?

Suicide By Cop

ADN has the story.

On the face of the details currently available, it looks like a good shoot.  Don't point a fake gun at a cop.  Period.  Looks like the cops even tried less-than-lethal options first, even.  ADN seems to have disabled comments on this story which is probably a good idea.

Deal Alert

LAPG has 11% off everything until 6 July.

I'm personally picking up an Aimpoint Pro for $410 - 11% = $365 with free shipping.  I'm also putting together another "bump in the night" duty belt with appropriate MOLLE pouches.

But I thought they had Castle Doctrine and SYG

The anti-gun people and the media tell me that Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground laws let you open up on anyone in your house.

Stan Nguyen was unhappy with the job his air conditioner repairman did on the unit at his residence, so Nguyen decided to hold the worker at gunpoint until the job was done right, sheriff's officials said this morning...

At that point, Nguyen pulled out a gun and pointed it at the ground, attempting to fire the weapon, the report shows. The safety was on the weapon though and it did not fire. 

But then Nguyen removed the safety and that's when Hickman took cover behind his van. Hickman called for help and said Nguyen was pointing the gun in his direction and threatening to shoot him if he tried to leave, the report says. 

Nguyen was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Maybe Castle Doctrine and SYG laws don't work the way the media suggest they do.  I'm shocked that the article didn't mention TM or GZ, though.

What did you do to prepare this week?

This is the latest installment of my hopefully weekly series on emergency preparedness.  I missed last week as we were traveling.  Sorry!

PEOPLE - FITNESS

I earned 827 points on Fitocracy over the course of two workouts plus a bunch of walks this week.  

Heather logged 313 points over one workout plus a bunch of dog walks.

Not so good, but it has been ungodly hot outside.

INFORMATION - NSTR

ACTIVITIES & TRAINING

The big activity was an Appleseed shoot this weekend.  I'll post more about that in its own article.  I shot Rifleman and picked up an orange hat!

On the plus side, the gardens continue to produce.

On the downside, we lost our hens in a day of extreme heat.  We left for Appleseed.  Before leaving we made sure the chickens had plenty of shade and water.  When we returned in the afternoon, they had expired.  The heat index made it up to over 115 degrees, which set a record and was unexpected.  It was really sad.  They actually had some degree of personality.  We're not sure if we'll get more hens or chalk it up to experience.  Still sorting that out.

STUFF - NSTR

COMMUNICATIONS - NSTR

Practice Needed

Last night, just as I was falling asleep, a loud BANG rang out.  We went automatically into the emergency routine and cleared the house.  Turned out to just be some kids setting off fireworks, but the event did show us some things we need to work on.

1. I need to practice getting into my emergency vest in the dark.  Somehow I managed to get it on sideways in my hurry.
2. We need a better plan for who does what in clearing the house.
3. I need to get some molle pouches for my vest.  I didn't have anywhere to put my spare mag or phone.
4. The spare set of electronic ears I've been keeping by my bed aren't functional.  Not sure if it's a battery thing or the fact that they're really cheap ears.  Gotta look into it.

So that's the to-do list for the next few days.

Well...

That was even worse than I thought it would be.  I think that ranks up there as one of the worst days of my life.  You can see that I didn't even go back today.  Chris went for a few hours to shoot an AQT or two.  I'll let him write up a full review when he gets back.

Edit: I want to clarify here that my problems yesterday had nothing to do with Appleseed or the instruction therein.  Everyone there did an excellent job.  The weather, however, was awful, and coming home to find my hens had died of the heat was very tough for me.