Category: All About Guns
Lots of you have written asking what handgunning “discipline du jour,” signature school of shooting, trademarked technique, or method-of-the-month I subscribe to. I don’t. I have what I call “evolved practices,” and they’re still evolving. It’s kinda hard to explain, but imagine most, but not all of your “mechanical firearm handling, feeding and functioning” details being derived from training here, there, and everywhere, military and police, and then, your “engagement processes and procedures” being built like the layers of a monster sub sandwich, as you learn just exactly how you — and others — tend to react under fire, fear, fatigue, pain and anger; what sticks with you and what doesn’t.
What you wind up with is, “Here’s How I Fight — Generally — Today. It may differ somewhat tomorrow, and I’m sure I’ll make some stuff up as I go along.” These “evolved practices” are the result of my experiences and I’ve bet my life on ’em, so they’re sorta the Ultimate Empirical Experiment, you know? They principally spring from three episodes in my life, supplemented by scads of fill-in slices from other scenarios. We’ll call ’em The Two Dudes, The Greyhound Rules, and The Shoot-Down Drill. You may not understand until I’ve explained all three and then wrapped ’em up for you.
The Two Dudes
My first two engagements with handguns occurred in the three months before my twentieth birthday. In both cases I was moving, pistol in hand on rough ground, with my off-hand “occupied,” in the first instance with a jammed long gun, and in the second, I was half-carrying half-dragging a wounded comrade, with our two rifles slung. Both took place in heavy foliage and in both cases I suddenly came up against lone enemy troops.
I had just turned a blind hook to the left on a moderate downhill grade when the first dude appeared at about 20 feet. He was holding a rifle in his right hand at the receiver. Still running, I shot him twice at about ten feet. In the second, I was struggling on a steep, heavily-jungled trail when up popped Dude #2 at about 15 feet. He was rising from a crouch and reaching for a rifle leaning against growth to his right. He looked shocked and confused. Without breaking forward movement, I shot him twice.
Only in retrospect was I surprised at the similarities of these events. At the time they seemed like “business as usual.” There were other similarities, and some differences which may only seem significant to other people — not to me. Results and reactions were the same in both cases. They sat down hard and fell over. In neither case did I stick around. Their side of the fight was over, and that’s all I cared about.
Both were hit solid twice in the torso. I was conscious of a firm grip and trigger control. I didn’t glimpse my sights. I was only aware of forcefully extending my right arm and pointing. I had not been taught “double-taps” — that wasn’t included in Marine Corps training. I just shot ’em twice. In one case my sidearm was an issue 1911; a well-worn warrior that rattled like your Uncle Fred’s flat-bed farm truck. Ammo was issue 230-grain round nose ball. In the other, I was carrying the standard sidearm of the unit I was working with — an equally experienced Hi-Power — and ammo was standard NATO 124- grain round nose ball.
Tremblin’ Trepidation?
If I had been reading and accepting the writings of many handgunning gurus of the time, I might have gone into those encounters trembling with trepidation, thinking I was seriously ill-equipped. Old, clunky, issue pistols? Plain-Jane round-nose ball ammo? Horrors! Instead, in my ignorance, I thought I was a well-trained warrior with reasonably reliable roscoes. Keep in mind I was painfully young, and didn’t know any better. I only learned what worked for me. Yes, I’m being sarcastic.
Lessons learned? A working gun in the hand is worth more than two premium pistols in holsters, four rifles slung, or 40 fine firearms stored, stacked, or leaning against trees.
Caliber and ammo ain’t as important as being first, and hitting. If you can get better guns and more effective ammo, fine. If not, you dance with him who brung you, in the outfit you got on. If that means your footwear is brogans instead of tap shoes, just dance better and faster.
I had been religiously practicing the combat rule, “shoot ’em where they’re biggest, and do it more than once.” That wisdom was reinforced. Combatants, crooks, cops and crazies all make fatal mistakes, and most of ’em involve HESITATION; disbelieving your own ears and eyes, and failing to trust your own survival instinct.
Disciplines are fine, but they have to be Gumby-flexible. If I had skidded to a halt, assumed a two-hand hold and gone for a sight picture, I’d have been half-past dead.
Okay, that’s kinda “chapter one.” Think it over, and if you’ve got the patience, meet me here soon for The Greyhound Rules.
Connor OUT
Categories
St Etienne 1907
Yesterday and today: S&W Model 15 with six .38 Special rounds;
Springfield XD(m) with 20 rounds of 9mm.
I don’t always carry a semiautomatic pistol with a double-stack magazine — but, about two-thirds of the time, I do. Meanwhile, American law enforcement has gone sweepingly to 18-shot 9mm pistols, often with triple spare magazine pouches. In this country, armed citizens have historically modeled their self-defense handguns on what the police carry and, in both cases, the decision is largely driven by what the criminals of the day are doing.
Let’s look at some stats. In 2019, a study published by the Policing Institute determined of 1,180 police officers who had been in shootouts, 126 fired 12 or more rounds to finish their fights — a tad over 10%. Let’s keep this in mind when legislators demand laws that limit a law-abiding citizen’s magazine capacity to 10 rounds plus one in the chamber.
Tom Aveni at the Police Policy Study Council in 1998 referenced a study of Washington, DC Metro officer-involved-shootings from 1994 through 1998 that encompassed nearly 500 shootings. In 126 of those, the officers fired more than the six rounds they would have had in their service revolvers before they adopted GLOCKs, and in 67 the officers fired more than 10 rounds.
Micro-Compact Springfield Pro with Hex optic, its payload
of 16 9mm rounds, and a ruler for perspective.
Relevance
When people say “Police stuff doesn’t matter, I’m an armed private citizen,” I cringe. We must never forget the police are fighting the exact same criminals the citizens have armed themselves against. A huge number of police shootings evolve from situations where the perpetrator(s) attacked a private citizen to begin with, and this is why the police made contact with them in the first place.
In the infamous 1986 Miami shootout, the two heavily armed robber-killers the FBI agents engaged had been shooting innocent citizens to steal their cars and their guns. In the course of the cataclysmic final shootout, FBI men Gordon McNeill and John Hanlon were helpless with empty revolvers when cop-killer Michael Platt crippled them with rifle fire. This incident led the Bureau to adopt auto pistols as standard.
In the famous NYPD shooting on the Grand Concourse, the perpetrator was fleeing from a rip-off when the running gun battle started in which he was still on his feet after being hit with 18 non-expanding .38 Special bullets before a 12-gauge slug dropped him for good.
In the famous Skokie, Ill. case where hero cop Tim Gramins stood alone against the ambusher who had just terrorized bank employees during a robbery, it took him 33 rounds of .45 ACP to finally win the fight after 17 solid hits; he was getting toward the end of the last magazine in his GLOCK 21 when he delivered the brain shot that finished the fight against a perp armed with a 16-shot 9mm, a .380 and an SKS rifle. (Tim later switched to a 9mm GLOCK 17 and more spare magazines.)
As we look at the police round-count figures earlier in this column, remember they include many cases of multiple officers firing together. Two cops needing eight rounds apiece to win a gunfight translates to 16 shots needed to achieve the same righteous objective, even for a lone officer or a single armed citizen. And let’s not forget the citizen won’t have body armor, patrol rifle or shotgun and instant radio contact for backup readily at hand.
In Addition to Which …
Today we’re seeing more armed home invasions involving whole gangs of criminals, not just the lone nutcase. We are seeing more bad guys than ever — gang bangers, stalkers, armed robbers — wearing body armor. We are seeing cases of ambushers who know how to use cover and movement tactics. We already had violent criminals “feeling no pain” from alcohol and assorted drugs, and now we have the Fentanyl epidemic to boot. All these things can add up to more shots required to stop bad guys.
When the magazine limit advocates tell you “Well then, just carry spare ammunition to reload with,” your answer might be: “Even if you’re a master shooter who can reload a pistol in two seconds, would you consider it a fair fight if one boxer but not the other was required to lower his hands for at least two seconds in the ring after every 10 punches thrown?”
The five-shot snub-nose .38 has ceased to be the most popular primary line of defense for the armed private citizen. The reasons listed above should give you a good start on explaining why to those who just don’t get it.
In the United States of America, with the Second Amendment protecting our natural right to keep and bear arms, one would think that computer difficulties wouldn’t stop gun sales in an entire state for nearly two weeks.
Alas, one would be wrong.
Since November 1, nobody has been able to legally purchase a firearm in Washington State because of a computer system in the state’s Secure Automated Firearms E-Check (SAFE) system being “compromised.” That’s the program through which Washington conducts its background checks, instead of just going through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check (NICS) system.
When employees realized the system had been “compromised” on November 1 (they won’t say what that means), rather than figuring out how to fix it or putting some standby system into place, they immediately shut it down, making it impossible for gun dealers to run background checks for purchases. Since private sales are outlawed in the state, that effectively shut down all legal gun buying and selling.
In a Seattle Times report, Wendy Ferrell, associate director for the state Administrative Office of the Courts, said she couldn’t reveal the cause of the “compromise” because of “security reasons.”
“In an abundance of caution, we proactively took down our systems to secure them and are working around the clock with leading experts to restore services as quickly as possible,” Ferrell told the Times.
At that time, officials expected the outage to last “at least a week.” However, 12 days later, the system is still offline.
And officials don’t seem to be in much of a hurry to get it back up and running, based on a letter sent to gun dealers last week by Kevin L. Baird, assistant commander of the State Patrol’s Firearms Background Division.
“What this means to you: We are effectively on hold with any checks submitted from November 1, 2024, onward until AOC brings their systems back online,” Baird wrote. “Once that happens, the backlog of checks will process through as normal. But, until that time, we cannot make any determinations on any checks. We are currently working through as many pre-November 1 checks as possible, but even those are likely to be delayed due to another AOC system that we check also being down. We will do our best to get as many checks completed before their 10-business day wait period is met (to prevent unnecessary delays to your customers), but there may be some that we are not able to proceed/deny for a few days afterwards.”
That letter prompted leaders of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the firearm industry trade association, to encourage Washington officials involved with the fiasco to quickly find a remedy. In a letter sent on November 12, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Larry Keane asked state officials to quickly change to the NICS system, at least for now.
“ICS operates effectively nationwide, ensuring accurate background check verifications and accommodating safe and responsible firearm transactions,” Keane wrote. “Until the SAFE system is restored, we believe the NICS program is a sufficient alternative to maintain both security and access.”
Keane followed that statement with a warning to Washington officials that a prolonged delay in gun sales would not be tolerated by the organization.
“Please be aware that the inability to conduct lawful transactions may lead to further action, as we seek to protect the rights of our members and their customers,” Keane wrote. “We urge a swift resolution to these technical issues and stand ready to explore additional measures that should be taken to ensure Washingtonians are not unduly burdened in the future.”
The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) has also vowed legal action if the situation isn’t remedied promptly.
“This is simply unacceptable, and we will not tolerate it,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Washington State citizens have had their rights under the federal and state constitutions suspended, and we will take legal action if this isn’t solved immediately.”