Armed self-defense can be a lifesaver- except when silly mistakes get in the way of responsible carry.
Some people might think that just carrying a concealed handgun is enough to protect themselves and the community. And that’s partly true- it’s a step in the right direction. But there are some things that should just never be done. Here are 9 of them.
This is a good read.
Gadsen Guns is a gun shop that I was made aware of by the VCDL (Virginia Citizen Defense League) Facebook page. They’re not local to me (but they’aren’t all that far away, either, being between Fredericksburg and Richmond), but their website has competitive pricing relative to the local gun shops around here.
There’s an additional bonus: there are some pretty good articles within their blog.
On a small tangent, if you’re a Virginia gun owner and value your right to own and bear arms, joining the VCDL will definitely benefit you. The Virginia Citizen Defense League is:
…a non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots organization dedicated to advancing the fundamental human right of all Virginians to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I Section 13 of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
I became a member a few months ago, as I tired of seeing the 2nd Amendment under attack. This is my way of contributing to the defense of the 2nd Amendment.
I want to explain again that this incident was tragic. The shooter apparently was delusional and probably needed mental help. WDBJ had issues with the Flanagan when he worked for them. He was one of the types of employees that give employers and fellow employees headaches with HR complaints due to narcissistic behavior. Even when WDBJ terminated his employment, he had to be escorted out of the building by law enforcement and the room had to be cleared so that there would be no confrontation with the employees while he cleared his desk. He had issues and his employment with WDBJ didn’t help at all.
Many people have been making this into a gun issue. The government will never be able to predict if people will mentally snap (or not). Penalizing people because it *might* happen is stupid. Penalizing a whole population because a small percentage lose their minds is stupid. Adding additional laws when the current ones don’t stop such tragic events is stupid. Each mass murder or active shooter incident needs to be analyzed scientifically (not emotionally), as each shooter/killer has different motives and none of them represent the population that legally carries. Case in point, when Flanagan was being escorted off of WDBJ property by LEOs, and if he’d obtained a concealed carry license, they would almost certainly have been in a much higher state of alert after seeing how belligerent he was.
So far, we know the following:
The first bullet showng above is an exceptional finding, as Virginia anti-2A groups and even the VA governor himself stated that they were going to use this killing as a means to further restrict gun ownership. In a land of millions of gun owners, there’s no exception to someone wigging out? More people drown in pools than people who commit mass murder in a given year. More people die by car accidents than when getting shot by a firearm. Just as many people swim or drive on a daily basis and many more die because of it, yet there’s no uproar over driving or swimming. But in the end, Flanagan didn’t use any loopholes to get his gun. He didn’t steal it. He didn’t buy it at a gun show or via private means. He bought it from the state- and federally-regulated method: via FFL. He had no felonies or any history of domestic violence, so his background check came back clean. The system worked as designed. Did he have mental issues? Almost certainly, but he hadn’t yet committed any crimes.
The latter two bullets listed above were personal issues that no one can control, although I fully believe that WDBJ had a responsibility to report or file a complain against Flanagan’s past aggression…that may have given the background check a chance to work, and may have prevented him from being able to purchase a gun. Then again, if a background check prevented his purchase, he may have just used another tool as a murder weapon.
A guy was shot by LEOs in NYC this year because he was attempting to hit people in the head with a hammer while walking down a busy street. They saw him and confronted him, he tried to kill an officer, and he was shot dead. People die by aggressive acts all the time, but guns only get the scrutiny. Some people use tools other than guns. Some have run people over, purposely. Some have poisoned their victims. Some used airplanes (WTC and Pentagon attacks). Some used chemically-made explosives using non-banned ingredients (McVeigh). None of those tools have faced scrutiny and made to be regulated or illegal. They’re tools that were abused by deranged people.
Maybe we need to start focusing on our apparent problem with mentally unstable people? Make obtaining help a more available option, or notify people that when they see overly aggressive people to report them to law enforcement so that there’s a record of the issue.
I firmly believe that to remove from citizens the option of protecting themselves via firearms is a dangerous means of trying to keep bad people from causing harm. If you’ve a wolf problem, is removing the guard dogs the solution? What do you think happens when the guard dogs are removed?
You want to beat the criminal? Make laws that stop the criminal and not the good guys. Another thing: if you want to catch a criminal, you’ve to think like them…the intelligence community has a saying: “know your enemy”. If you know them, you can exploit their weaknesses,or predict their next move(s), or at very least not play into their strengths. Removing guns from average citizens plays into their strengths, because less guns for the good guys means more power for the bad guys.
Apparently, it was found that there were 2000+ instances where background checks stopped people from buying guns last year. 2,661 examples, to be exact. The actual comment:
About 405,000 checks were made last year, and 2,661 attempted purchases were denied, according to the Virginia State Police, which runs the program.
That’s 2000+ examples of the checks working properly, yet you don’t see the anti-2A people focusing on that. 2000+ examples of background checks working…in a single year. That’s very significant, in my opinion. What we need to do is focus on the laws that work and ensure they keep working (or enhance them to work even better, if possible) and kill bad laws that only hurt legal gun owners.
I’m sure most of you are already aware of what happened in Western VA today (Roanoke).
A disguntled ex-employee of WDBJ by the name of Bryce Williams (also known as Vester Lee Flanagan) killed two former co-workers and also shot and wounded a person who was being interviewed at the time of the shooting. The shooter also used a GoPro action camera to record the shooting. The shooter, after a long attempt at escape and after uploading the footage for the public to see, shot himself in a suicide attempt hours from Roanoke, off of I-66 in Faquier county. He was flown to the INova care center in Fairfax where he died.
This guy was a pure nut. He was a gay Black man that appeared to have a chip on his shoulder, to the point where WDBJ terminated his employment. He was so belligerent that the room had to be cleared of employees while he cleared his desk and was escorted off the site with a police escort. His excuse for the killings was explained in his manifesto: the recent Charleston SC killings and the fact that at least one of the people he shot had apparently made racist remarks toward him. In fact, the bullets that he used to kill his victims apparently had their names written on the bullets. He also idolized several well-known deceased active shooters (Seung-Hui Cho of the Virginia Tech murders and the Columbine school killers).
The Left wasted no time in condemning the attack but also blaming background check ‘loopholes’ and lax gun laws. The VA governor (McAuliffe) assumed that the shooter obtained his gun via private sale, which doesn’t require background checks (which they think is a loophole in the law).
Well, it has been discovered (by ATF) that the shooter obtained his handgun, a Glock 19, via normal means — FFL. This means he submitted and passed a background check as most VA citizens have when buying through local gun stores.
This should take the wind out of the Left’s sails, as the shooter followed the process of the law in obtaining his weapon. Granted, he still killed two people, but there is no way to close any loopholes because no loopholes were exploited when he obtained his handgun.
The following is from VCDL’s (Virginia Citizen Defense League) VA-ALERT notification system:
This comes as no surprise to me, yet another killer passed his background check. BATFE has confirmed to ABC News that Bryce Williams had indeed purchased his gun “legally” from a dealer and passed a background check!
So, Governor McAuliffe, what was that you said this morning on your soapbox about how Virginia needs background checks for gun purchases?
Oh, and Delegate Patrick Hope – you already started an online petition to push for more background checks – what made you think that Mr. Williams had not passed a background check, just like Cho and virtually all the other mass shooters?
Here’s the story – thanks to member Walter Jackson for the link:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/08/26/atf-confirms-virginia-gunman-vester-flanagan-bought-his-firearm-legally/
or
http://tinyurl.com/q4a3klt
ATF Confirms Virginia Gunman Vester Flanagan Bought His Firearm ‘Legally’ – Breitbart
by AWR Hawkins26 Aug 2015
The gun was a Glock 19 9mm.
According to ABC News, Faison said Flanagan bough the gun “legally.” And BuzzFeed reports that Faison said the ATF had recovered the weapon today.
News that Flanagan bought his gun at a store squares with what Flanagan wrote in his manifesto, where he indicated that he “put down a deposit for a gun on 6/19/15.” That was two days after the heinous attack on the church-goers in Charleston, and The Telegraph reports that Flanagan said that very attack pushed him over the edge.
Confirmation that Flanagan passed a background check means he joins numerous other attackers and alleged attackers who have passed background checks for their guns. These include John Russell Houser (Lafayette), Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez (Chattanooga), Dylann Roof (Charleston), Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi (Garland), Jared and Amanda Miller (Las Vegas), Elliot Rodger (Santa Barabara), Ivan Lopez (Fort Hood 2014), Darion Marcus Aguilar (Maryland mall), Karl Halverson Pierson (Arapahoe High School), Paul Ciancia (LAX), Andrew John Engeldinger (Minneapolis), Aaron Alexis (DC Navy Yard), Tennis Melvin Maynard (West Virginia), Wade Michael Page (Sikh Temple), James Holmes (Aurora theater), Jared Loughner (Tucson), Nidal Hasan (Fort Hood 2009), Jiverly Wong (Binghamton), Seung-Hui Cho (Virginia Tech), Naveed Haq (Seattle), and Mark Barton (Atlanta).
The fact that Flanagan passed a background also calls into question Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s (D) call for background check legislation earlier today. He called for that legislation while the police pursuit of Flanagan was still underway.
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VA-ALERT is a project of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc.
(VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization
dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to
Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right.
VCDL web page: http://www.vcdl.org [http://www.vcdl.org/]
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Semi-automatic pistols can be carried in various conditions of readiness. First defined by the legendary Lt Col John Dean “Jeff” Cooper, these conditions are commonly accepted to be:
- Condition 0 – A round is in the chamber, hammer cocked, and the safety is off.
- Condition 1 – known as “cocked and locked”, means a round is in the chamber, the hammer cocked, and the manual thumb safety on the side of the frame is applied.
- Condition 2 – A round is in the chamber and the hammer is down.
- Condition 3 – The chamber is empty and hammer down with a charged magazine in the gun.
- Condition 4 – The chamber is empty, hammer down and no magazine is in the gun.
These conditions are/were designed with a 1911 style pistol in mind. The Glock with no external safety (but with its “safe action” safety measures) technically can’t have the thumb safety applied so it’s condition when loaded and chambered is a matter of debate amongst handgun owners and experts but it’s commonly accepted that a Glock is in “Condition 1” when loaded with a round in the chamber.
Another page on the subject is @ http://www.sightm1911.com/Care/1911_conditions.htm and it elaborates on the different conditions.
In which condition do you carry and why?
A 22-year-old Milwaukee man accidentally shot himself in the femoral artery around 11:00 PM Friday evening while attempting to reholster a pistol. Despite the best efforts of the local hospital trauma units, Timothy Phonisay did not survive his wounds.
Read more @ http://bearingarms.com/man-dies-attempting-appendix-carry-reholster-milkwaukee/
This is a reminder to not be complacent when you’re handling firearms, no matter how tacticool you think you are.
Some things to ponder, after reading about the incident at Bearing Arms and Concealed Nation:
1. Many are assuming that the deceased had his finger on the trigger. If you read the article, it doesn’t state that he was at fault for that. Regardless, we know that guns do not go off by themselves (although there’s the potential if the gun is dropped)…he either had his finger on the trigger or something snagged the trigger.
2. The assumption is that, due to the wound’s location, he was carrying appendix style. That assumption is highly likely. Do you really need to carry at your appendix? Some people think that appendix carry is their only option due to body type (tall, lanky, skinny). I’d rather print with hip carry than chance a femoral artery gunshot wound. That’s just my opinion, though.
3. I saw a lot of berating of the deceased. Many are calling him “dumb”. We don’t have enough facts to make such judgments. Besides that, you’d think the firearms community would show a bit of sympathy, because this could be any one of us, experienced or newly initiated. We’re supposed to be comrades, no?
4. The deceased was apparently taking selfies of himself with his gun. Maybe he was so intent on getting a good picture that he wasn’t paying attention to safety. The lesson here would be to not fragment your attention when handling a gun.
5. The article states that he was using a Springfield Armory. The author noted that he more than likely had an XD, but I don’t understand how that assumption was made. Yes, XDs are popular, but I don’t think they’re so popular that there’s, for example, an 80% chance of a Springfield owner owning an XD. Hell, Springfield Armory sells a lot of 1911s, too.
6. The article states that he was bleeding heavily from his lungs. Conspiracy theorists are already getting uptight. While I’m no doctor, they did state that there were only two areas of injury (I’m assuming it was an entrance and exit wound), in the groin area. I’m not sure why the article mentioned the blood in his lungs. Maybe the projectile bounced around a bit in his body?
7. Some are using this tragic happening as a reason to carry in condition 3 (mag in the gun but no round chambered). I’m not sure this is a strong argument, as guns don’t go off by themselves…he either accidentally actuated the trigger or something snagged the trigger while he was trying to holster the gun.
8. Lastly, if the deceased had holstered SLOWLY, and only after checking around the holster for anything that could snag the trigger, he might still be alive. As well, if the guy’s weapon was an XD, those guns have grip safeties…most people don’t realize that when you’re gripping the gun (properly), you’ve disabled the grip saftety, which allows the trigger to be actuated. Holstering such guns with the maximum amount of safety would mean that you’d have to holster the gun without grabbing the grip and disabling the grip safety. The same applies to 1911s (in case he was carrying a Springfield 1911 when the mishap occurred).
This guy’s life was tragically ended. It reminds me to always have the utmost of respect for these weapons and to train with them so that certain actions become automatic…it doesn’t hurt to slow down to evaluate what you’re doing in your routine — those are the times you might be doing something wrong or dangerous, but you won’t know it because you’ve become compacent.
Ordered some heavier grain ammo from Gander Mountain, Remington HTP 147-grain JHP.
I also bought more of the Remington HTP 115-grain +P JHP ammo that I shot earlier this week.
Both are listed as home defense ammo, so I think I’ll use them in that manner (will have to test the 147-grain ammo, though).
I also ordered 10 9mm-sized snap caps and 10 .45ACP-sized snap caps, from ST Action Pro. I already have a few snap caps (5 x A-Zooms and 5 x Tiptons…they were expensive for 5 packs). These were much cheaper @ between .95 and .98 apiece, so I ordered 10 of each caliber.
I also ordered a cheap Trinity Force rail-mount laser sight from Anthony Industries, for $30. I’m not sure if this will crap out on me since it’s cheap, but I want a laser sight so I can practice dry fire (to monitor my trigger pulls and try to keep them steady). I didn’t feel like spending a large sum of money to use a laser in such a manner. I’ve a cheap light as well and that hasn’t crapped out yet, so maybe this one will be OK.
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You see people all the time that hate on SIG’s P250 SAO handgun. They buy the gun without doing research and find that it’s DA only, speak bad about the trigger, and sell it while giving a bad opinion of the gun at every opportunity.
I’ve also seen people thinking this gun is very similar to the P320. They are similar but different enough to have different nomenclatures. They share the same frame and are modular guns, but other than that, they’re different and are catering to different markets.
Pricing is one thing the article doesn’t address. Why? Think about it for a second: Looking at SIG’s website for the P250, there are 3 MSRP prices per model (full size, compact, sub-compact). That’s 9 different prices. And then, there’s 4 different calibers being sold…that’s the potential for 36 different prices. There’s also a threaded barrel version that I didn’t even factor in. That’s probably why they didn’t include the price in the article.
You can find P250s for well under $400 new. I did a quick check via Gunwatcher.com and the cheapest I saw a P250 being sold was at $360…very rarely you’ll see a P320 being sold new for under $400 — the cheapest I saw one on Gunwatcher was at $399.
Excerpt 1:
The P250 is also fully ambidextrous. This is important to the left-handed shooter but also to those wishing to be able to manipulate the pistol with either hand.
Excerpt 2:
The test pistol turned in a smooth trigger break of 6 pounds with modest backlash and no noticeable creep. There is no manual safety, only safety features, including the long trigger action and a positive firing pin block or “drop safety.”
Now, most people frown upon DAO. I don’t know why, because if you master DAO in semiautomatic, you’re going to be shooting extremely well if you rotate to an SA or DA/SA gun. Once you master DAO, you’ll be a rock star if you go to an SA or DA/SA gun. Some police departments used the P250. From my understanding, the trigger is exceptionally smooth. There are also tricks to learning DAO (some people stage the trigger by pulling halfway through the trigger pull, which helps in aiming for some).
If I had the room, I’d get a P250 just to say I have one. I may even practice with it diligently in the attempt to improve aiming and pulling the trigger, in the hopes that it will improve my gun handling overall.
“The double-action-only polymer frame handgun isn’t something I usually find exciting, but the SIG Sauer P250 has earned…
Posted by Official U.S. Concealed Carry Association Page – USCCA on Thursday, August 13, 2015
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/08/daniel-zimmerman/self-defense-tip-avoid-carry-gun-rotation/
I thought this was an interesting read. It certainly is on-point about how “repetitions are how we become accomplished at any given skill,” and that “when you switch to a new gun, there is an inherent re-learning process.”
An excerpt:
Can a good shooter bounce between platforms and still perform reasonably well? Yes. However, any experienced shooter knows that you will shoot substantially better with a platform that you have been consistently training with. A handgun is a defensive tool, not a fashion statement. You don’t need to change your handgun like you change your shoes to match different outfits.
The author also accounts for differences in manual of arms between a rotation…it’s fine if you’ve trained for this in a self defense scenario (not just casual shooting when you visit a range). For example, some weapons have safeties, some do not. Some are DA/SA and some are not. You’ve to gain proficiency in those manuals of arms while accounting for the differences. If you do not, you’re putting yourself in danger if you’re used to a particular gun that doesn’t have a safety and you’re carrying your Tuesday rotation, a gun that has a safety…you end up in a self defense scenario and a bad guy is upon you…you draw your weapon and attempt to fire but the gun’s safety is still actuated!
I recommend this as good reading material, is it definitely contains common sense logic.
I spent an hour at the range last night and shot 130 rounds out of my XD and 60 rounds out of the Grand Power.
It felt so good to not divide my attention between more than 2 guns, although I did want to shoot one of the 1911s.
I started with the XD first and immediately put 9 of 10 rounds in a close grouping.
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The thing about the Mod 2 is that it shoots extremely well for a subcompact 9mm, as the sight radius of such guns is very small. This gun still has a small sight radius, but the recoil and snappiness is somewhat negated by the Grip Zone texturing of the grips. The front fiber optic helps, especially since I’ve problems focusing on the front sight (I wear corrective lenses).
As I shot five different targets, my groupings got progressively worse. I’m pretty sure it was due to incorrect finger placement on the trigger and not being smooth on the trigger, as I began to impact left of aim. Still, it was fun to challenge myself.
I also fired the XD better with the shorter magazine (vs. using the longer magazine that has the mag sleeve). Don’t ask me why that was the case.
The Grand Power was acting wonky. It didn’t jam or fail to extract, but it may’ve been failing to feed due to a dirty feed ram, as the gun was failing to fully go into battery after expending and ejecting a round. It was an intermittent issue, though, because it didn’t happen every magazine bu when it did, it was almost back-to-back failures to return to battery.
The weapon was clean when I brought it to the range. The ammo I was shooting must’ve been extremely dirty to cause issues between 1 and 60 rounds…in fact, the gun was extremely dirty after that range visit…more than I expected for 60 rounds. The gun was lubed, and I made sure the pivot point on the rotating barrel had lubrication.
I don’t think it was the mags that were the issue. When I racked the gun slowly, I didn’t notice any binding. The only thing I can think of is that the feed ramp got dirty quickly and was hampering the feeding of the next round, which would keep the slide from fully going forward.
Possible causes:
UPDATE: Well…look at this –> http://www.handgunforum.net/beretta/30881-failure-feed-px4-storm-compact-9mm.html. This looks similar to my bullet list above…looks like I am on the right track. How does this relate to my P11? Well, the small Beretta PX4 Storms have rotating barrels as well. It seems that these type guns might not like lighter ammo and might be prone to limp-wristing as well.
Of the two guns, I fired the XD better. That wasn’t the case the last time I took the P11 to the range. Blame the failures to go into battery.
I did not get any video footage, as my camera wasn’t charged before I left for the range.
I fired 100 rounds of Remington UMC 115-grain JHP, 20 rounds of Remington UMC 115-grain FMJ, and 10 rounds of Remington HTP 115-grain +P.
I’m looking forward to the next range visit so I can put more rounds through the XD and become more proficient with it. I’m not quite looking forward to re-experiencing issues with the P11, though.