Returning soon

Geez who runs this blog anyway.

In the next few weeks there are more "Dark Arts" postings coming. Two concerning defensive driving, an interesting application for extension cord use, and a study on human anatomy and how the body dies from trauma.

Another related but untitled as such post to the "Dark Arts" series is understanding and deciding on equipment when bugging out....realistically and very practically speaking.

Farther on out past that I am working on a year long gun study project called "one year-one rifle: The .357 Magnum Lever Action".

As always thanks for reading Straight Forward in a Crooked World.

And remember if the bad men come be their worst nightmare.

Get on your knees and Aim

In the world of "concealed & carry" and self-defense with handguns there is an well perpetuated axiom that if one is forced to use their handgun in self-defense that it is likely to occur under the following conditions:

less than 5 rounds fired at seven yards in low light conditions.

Whether the very old statistical data is true or not it has created some very significant problems in the CCW world (imho). One is that it inbreeds laziness on a certain level. To the extent that even the gun manufacturers have caught onto this given the current crop of 0oz plastic .380s with non-existent sights.

We have in the gun-carry culture become so focused on ourselves that many of us would rather not be "inconvenienced" by carrying a full or medium size handgun. Steel, plastic or otherwise.

Over reliance on tiny back up guns as primary pieces on a regular basis, combined with the vast majority of our ammo being expended at the 7 yards range is that it creates inherently bad habits. Sub-consciously we place self-imposed limitations on our fighting ability. Telling ourselves ahead of time through this prediction what the fight is going to be, usually with statements such as “Oh I'm just running down to the _______”.

In truth the least talked about, the least trained for situation is contending with a mass shooter. Yet, in no small irony it is usually the main motivator for people seeking out a CCW permit. If we are going to go up against a well armed aggressor we need to be prepared to fight and kill him (or her), and do so accurately.

Going to the range and expending a few magazines at short distances in no way prepares you for this.

Work in Executive Protection even a short amount of time and you realize very quickly that there is general problematic area you are going to have to deal with should the feces hit the impeller.

Other people. Innocent other people.

We (as the good guys) are responsible for the terminal resting place of every round fired from our weapons. Shooting and wounding or killing an innocent individual while you are attempting to kill the M-S-I-Q (Mass Shooter In Question) is not only unacceptable but will likely lead to your facing of a jury pool.

Our shots fired at a M-S-I-Q can be farther than you think and through a narrower gap. Next time you are walking to the office coffee pot or taking your kids back to Sunday School pace off the distance from one end of the hall way to the other. It's most likely not seven yards. Given some hallways in modern homes shots could be over ten and fifteen yards.

Mass Shooters are generally well armed with everything from high capacity rifles and/or handguns to pipe bombs. What they lack in skill they make up for in an abundance of firepower. Ourselves on the other hand will generally be less-than-adequately armed with a pistol and hopefully at the very least a full spare reload. So we need to be better trained than that of the aggressor.

There are a few fundamental things we need to understand when returning fire with “the peoples” running and fleeing as an attack occurs. Our reaction will be just that. A reaction.

Be realistic in understanding that in such a scenario that as loud as gunfire is, it can also be very readily muffled inside of a building and distorted to the point where your brain decides that it must really be something else.

Your first encounter in a mass shooting situation may be seeing a fleeing panicked crowd and over hearing “GUN!” before you identify who the M-S-I-Q is.

The second thing you realize is that time is on your side... to a degree. You won't necessarily have minutes but you will have seconds. So use your time wisely and most importantly develop and implement a plan.

A plan?

Yes a plan. We're not talking about laying siege to Tyre rather K.I.S.S. as dad said.

Get to cover. Cover being something that will stop incoming bullets. Despite all of those heroic images you have in your mind you stand a pretty damn good chance of getting shot when guns pointed in your direction start going off.

Three, Get on your knees and aim.

Dropping into and shooting from the "California Prayer" position aids in concealing your position from the M-S-I-Q. Because even bad guys threat assess.

Getting low also presents your targets vitals better and since people trying to flee or hide from a roaming gunman will either crawl into the fetal position, lay down or crouch run, lowering your position puts your muzzle and target generally above other people.

In the likelihood of a missed shot your round stands a better chance of being lodged into the upper portion of a wall.

On the bad guy's anatomy you are given an upward angle on the head and better exposure (albeit small) to the throat. But this also allows for bullet connectivity to the Cervical Vertebrae and the Clavicle area. Not to mention the Carotid arteries.

Shots placed into the torso will angle slightly upward. And upward means a longer wound channel. Longer wound channel means more blood loss and increased chance of lung deflation. A bad guy focused on trying to catch his breath means he slows down. His focus becomes less on shooting and more on breathing. It also makes him a more stable target.

Shooting from a low knee position also places the lower abdomen and crotch area in a direct line of sight. This means lots of soft tissue damage AND more importantly better access to the Femoral and Deep Femoral arteries. The targeting of this area if you are shooting a heavier caliber handgun round also means straight on availability to the hip bones. Not even the most PCP laden gunman can will broken bone to work or support the rest of the body.

For yourself shooting from cover, prone or from your knees may also mean having the opportunity to shoot from a rest, and you need to get every advantage you can in order to do one thing.

Win.

Armed in society means a greater responsibility. You have removed yourself as merely a gun owner and placed yourself on a voluntary pedestal. We all need to shoot, train....and be armed accordingly.

The fight will always be what it's going to be. Not what you want it to be.

Because someday you may be facing down a terrorist driving a bulldozer with your pistol like Israeli citizen Yaki Asael did in July of 2008.

Gear Review: Luminox Watch

Open any gun magazine, sporting catalog or watch any spy/special forces genre action movie or tv show and at some point you're gonna see the subtle product placement of a tactical watch on the heroes wrist.

Nothing new to this really. James Bond through the decades has worn Rolex's, Omega's, and Breitlings. Clive Cussler's character Dirk Pitt has worn and orange faced Doxa dive watch for years. Even Jack Bauer (or maybe more so) with his character wearing the hundred pound MTM tactical watch that has “a light on it that can be seen a mile away”.

Actually I once owned a Rolex President for 45 seconds when a Principal I was working gave it to me by mistake at a Christmas party. I realized the mistake immediately and handed it back to him and said “couldn't I have a nice Parazzi 12 gauge instead”.

The funny thing about watch companies is they have to go out and find someone to endorse it, pay them large sums of money to get the reputation built. After all everyone has to start somewhere.

But the story of Luminox (Latin for light night) Watches is a vastly different one than that of its competitors. Necessity being the mother of invention after all.

In the late 1980s business partners Barry Cohen and Richard Timbo (Richard-Barry Marketing Group) were actively looking for proprietary technology that could push them out and ahead of the competition. And like dedicated hunters they found their prize treasure on a trip to Switzerland in the form of a small Swiss watch firm. The relatively obscure Swiss company had created a then unknown and unique illumination technology for watches that relied on micro gas lighting as opposed to heat or battery power to illuminate watch hands.

Barry recognizing the immediate potential for solving one of life's simplest realities, degenerating eyesight, saw a market for older aging eyes. Without missing a beat they negotiated an exclusive deal for the use of the new micro gas technology in North America. And with that the world's most luminous watch was born.

But birth doesn't equal success. Soon enough the newly formed Luminox Watch Co realized that they were a small unknown firm in the world of reputable Swiss watch makers. A life boat bobbing in the shipping lane as it were. Then in 1993 something fortuitous happened. One of those once in a lifetime golden egg opportunities came knocking at their door. The U.S. Government.

Actually it was a little known representative of the Government, Procurement Officer (read: scrounger), Chief Nick North of SEAL Team 5. North explained that the SEALs were in need of a self-sustaining illuminating watch for night missions and having heard of their little known Luminox Watches asked if they could build the SEALs a new dive watch for.

Obviously when the best of the best knock on your door you answer. And nine months later in 1994 the first Navy SEAL dive watch was launched.

Then in 1999 a call came from Edwards Air Force base. The bombing pilots loved Luminox watches. What they didn't like was that they were wearing a “Squids” watch. The USAF asked if Luminox would make them their own model.

How do you say no to that?

Instead of making a model for the Air Force Luminox talked with Lockheed Martin to acquire licensing rights related to some of their more unique aviation properties. If you ever wondered what watch F-117 Stealth Fighter Pilots wear now you know.

So how does a Navy SEAL designed watch and a major U.S. Watch manufacturer get tied in here at SFICW?

After ten years of wearing (and abusing) my stainless Kenneth Cole Chronograph I was in dire need of a new watch. I specifically realized this on a very dark night this past July working in a mosquito and tick infested stretch of woods trying to gather intelligence for a new client. No moon made it dark enough, a heavy canopy of leaves made it a helluva lot darker and occasionally these nights out and about gathering intel can be hourly sensitive. So I had to do this hunker down -pull out SureFire-close eyes-bulb down-heat watch method to keep on my time target.

By the drive home at 5am my ten years of nostalgic feelings towards the watch were gone. The search for a new mission ready watch was on. I pulled out catalogs, looked on-line, for applicable watches. By now you're thinking buy a “Timex” dude. I hear you. Honestly. I'm not an image whore to be honest, but I am a hard-use gear whore if there is such a thing.

I looked at a couple of the new “tacti-cool” watches out there being hawked by some actors. As soon as I saw the $1000+ price tags I was looking else where. I looked at the MTM “Warrior” watches. Was the on-board light idea intriguing?

Yep.

But the must charge once a month/ not leave said charger in an airport-hotel-basement was not.

I then remembered a conversation I had a little over ten years ago. I had spent the weekend with some overseas contractors running some training drills, one of them was a former Navy SEAL. One evening at dinner I noticed his watch and asked if it was a Luminox. He replied that it was. When I asked him how well he liked it his response was "Best ******* watch I have ever owned." The watch was dinged and worn but worked flawlessly. Who would want anything else.

So I called Luminox's Director of U.S. Operations, Max Robertson, and told him my beef with the competitions over priced watches, and what I needed from a watch. With out missing a beat Max recommended the the Luminox Black Ops 8401 with black face. I thanked Max for his time and placed my order.

A week later and a half hour before walking out the door to go camping for my birthday with friends, Bill from FedEx dropped off my new watch. Talk about perfect timing from a watch company.

So five months, two seasons, a couple of trips, some shooting clinics and hunting seasons later what are my thoughts?

A fantastic watch.

I like the heft and styling, it is definitely masculine, and the bright green dials and numbers are fantastic when you are laying in the tent during deer season and don't have to fumble for a head lamp to see if you have three hours or three minutes before you get up and meet the cold blackness of morning. The other brilliant idea is the orange illumination for 12 O' Clock. It may not sound like that big of a deal but if the watch is off your wrist and on the desk top in a dark hotel room it can be hard to tell exactly what time it is. The orange dot allows for immediate perspective.

How is that made possible?

Implanted tritium undergoes what is called beta decay. This is a release of electrons which causes a phosphor layer to fluoresce. When being manufactured a length of borosilicate glass tubing has its inside surface coated with a phosphor-containing compound and filled with radioactive tritium. The tube is then fused with a CO₂ laser at the desired length. The borosilicate is relied on for its strength and resistance to breakage. In the tube, the tritium gives off a steady stream of electrons due to beta decay. The particles excite the phosphor, and hence you get the emitting low and constant glow to the watch hands.

Or so I've (cough) read elsewhere.

The other thing I have personally come to like (and you don't have to have a Luminox for this) is the rubber wrist band. Laugh if you want but I have worn a fixed stainless clasp band on my two previous watches for twenty years. Now having the option of being able to wear my watch on the outside of a winter jacket or wet-suit, instead of fumbling with gloves to push clothing back is a nice option to have.

If you are looking for a rugged, hard use watch that you can take anywhere and do damn near anything to Luminox is probably the way to go. Because after all you must be doing something right as a company when the Federal Government allows you to laser engrave the Special Warfare insignia on the back of your watch.

Not for the faint of heart

Since the Dark Arts for Good Guys series started I have striven to paint an accurate picture of what social meltdown looks like en masse.

Sometime back I ran across VBS.TV put out by Spike Jonze. They are currently running an 8 part series on "the vice guide to Liberia". While its not for the faint of heart it is well worth if you've never seen first hand an apocalypse situation. Because dear people of earth they do exist, and it can happen anywhere.

Which is why Dark Arts got started to begin with. I encourage you to watch it and put it in your own context of understanding and remove the "oh it won't happen here" mindset.

The Vice Guide to Liberia

In one man's opinion

When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted the in-flight bombing of Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas day the immediate fall out was a demand for mandatory backscatter X-ray machines in U.S. airports. On the counter side of the coin privacy advocates have continually argued that this type of technology not only violates personal privacy but may prove to be the end privacy as we know it.

Aviation Security officials have responded that if we are to be secure in our travel that we must all be willing to sacrifice some personal liberty for “safety's sake”. The problem is that the air travel situation in this country is an amazing first world nightmare. Airlines are constantly in a poor financial state year end and year out. And it seems five years can not go by with out one major air carrier seeking protection from bankruptcy.

There is the constant problem of planes being late, passengers stranded on board for hours, and additional fees for having the audacity to pack luggage. Add to it the ineffective bureaucratic and politically correct nightmare of federally controlled aviation security. The band-aid on the band aid solution of treating the cancer that is terrorism.

I will contend immediately that I am not an expert in aviation security. However, one must realize that the security issues that passengers contend with prior to boarding airplanes is not in itself aviation security. Rather it is access control, and when done effectively it is also target hardening. The second thing we must remember is that terrorism is theater.

Whatever the body count is at the end of the day whether it is a suicide bomb in Falujah or the attacks on 9/11, the concept is to use fear, dead bodies, and streaming television to grind the target audience to a dead stop. To the point that everything stops. Whether it's the fruit market or the financial one.

Fourteen years in the private security industry I have at times been retained by various corporations to conduct physical security auditing in order to look for holes in their already implemented security procedures. The first thing I tell them is that every system has points of failure, but this does not necessarily reflect that the entire system is in and of itself a failure. The second thing that I do is let them know that between two sets of dates I will attempt to physically breach their security.

When weak and vulnerable areas are exposed the clients will almost immediately request the latest technology to solve the problem, and in some cases technology is the answer.

However there is no such thing as a 100% solution in the world of security. And like any other ongoing fight adapting to the situation is the key to finding, and then exploiting your enemies weaknesses. And that is precisely what is being done to us. Because to some we are the enemy they are fighting.

The problems, and there are many. Begin with feel good politics. You can rely on technology only so far, but ask any security professional for a real answer in preventing terrorism in the skies and they will tell you profiling.

We have demonized this word on the already too large alter of political correctness. If you say profiling then automatically it is insinuated that you mean “racial” profiling. In truth what Hollywood calls profiling and the media demonizes the F.B.I. calls “criminal investigative analysis”. Which is in effect the third wave of investigative science.

The first wave, developed by Scotland Yard in the 1800s was the study of clues left by the criminal themselves, the second wave is the study of the crime itself. Whereas the “third” wave is the study of the criminal's psyche.

Profiling (in my own opinion) suffers from its own prejudices within the criminal investigative community. For instance, when the Beltway sniper was shooting people the F.B.I. “Profilers” believed they should be looking for a white male who was disgruntled against the U.S. Government and was also a gun rights advocate. They further felt that he may be apart of a larger group (militia) and that this may be part of a domestic terrorism program being delivered.

Analyst were shocked to discover that the Belt Way Sniper was in fact a pair Muslim black males. The ring leader John Allen Muhammad when finally caught stated that he was waging a “jihad”.

This is not to say that profiling is a failure. Quite the contrary Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgway (the Green River Killer) were caught through criminal investigative analysis. So we know that “Profiling” does in deed work, however one must keep an open mind about the unknowns they are investigating. Local law enforcement also needs to step out of the dark ages and embrace the fact that not only are we in a war, but that it is not just a military problem to contend with overseas. And so do rank and file civilians.

The problem we face with this new backscatter 3d imaging in that not only is it still in its early years, where we can not be sure of what health implications after long term and prolonged exposure. It also is one more “thing” that leads us to become complacent, lulled into a false comfort where technology begins to replace the intense hard work of criminal detection.

While backscatter technology can inform the screener that a person has something in their pocket that is non-metal in nature it can not say whether it is hand sanitizer or fertilizer, or C-4.

The fact of the matter is we already have some of the best bomb detection “technology” available to us, that would lead to more job opportunities and long term employment. It has an amazing rate of success, is able to give an immediate profile with no prejudices inherited to its system. And for every new scanner placed in an airport ten-twelve explosive detection “systems” could be deployed. I am of course talking about K-9 bomb detection units.

It would put more man power in the airports, provide long reaching job opportunities in every way from breeders, trainers, educators, to officers/handlers. Yet since it isn't “new” or “glamorous” we won't pursue it as an idea

If the United States was committed to fighting the war-on-terror-in-the-skies posters of wanted terrorists would line the numerous bare walls in airports giving people a heads up to be on the look out for these suspected individuals. This would be akin to the highly successful television series America's Most Wanted (as of the date of this writing has led to the capture of 1,099 individuals).

Instead we have a nebulous “no fly list” of suspected individuals which according to Homeland Security's Michael Chertoff only contains the names of 2,500 people while the ACLU contends that the number of individuals suspected and listed to varying degrees actually numbers around one million. Including persons who have criticized the TSA publicly (bloggers included).

The time as come that we must realize that while the rank and file TSA agents have a difficult job, we need to do away with the men an women in nice blazers and clip on ties and replace them with well trained highly motivated armed men and women in BDUs. It is also time that we employed our National Guard on the exterior of our airports and began giving them mass education in civil liberties.

Someone needs to lead the charge to turn our airports into money making business enterprises instead of bureaucratic city controlled chaos. The result would be efficiency, profitability, and security. Imagine if Lee Iacocca ran Laguardia.

As presented to us now, the powers that be have no intention of making air travel any safer (or more convenient for that matter) only a politically correct appearance of doing something. Unless of course the idea is to frustrate the terrorists with delays and inefficiency.

We need our elected officials to step up and stop this continual interruption of free commerce by delaying business persons who need to move about the country in order to restore our economy and end this concept that it is better to inhibit the personal privacy of all rather than offend the sensibilities of some.

Because the last time I checked the war out there that continually comes to our soil from the air is not being waged by old women in orthopedic shoes and five year olds with apple juice containers. It is being waged by Muslim Extremists who seek to kill, murder, destroy....and terrorize.

A loss in the fight

The AP has learned that seven CIA officers and/or employees have been killed in a suicide bomb attack on FOB Chapman in the near Khost City (in the Khost Province).

While Hollywood and conspiracy theorists like to paint C.I.A. "agents" (which they are not called agents btw) as evil, the truth is that they are some of the hardest working men and women in the game. They endure hearing publicly about their failures that are well known and allow their victories to be credited to other people.

I am deeply saddened to hear about this. It's a horrible way to start the new year. We often as a society elevate our men and women in uniform to a hero status, and we are right to do so.

However their job would never go wheels up if it were not for those who work behind the scenes sometimes months and years in advance to build relationships, cultivate assets, and gather viable intelligence.

We have suffered a horrendous lost and tonight families and colleagues will mourn the loss of loved ones that won't be returning home. Sadly it is unlikely that this will be little more than a beep on the nightly news radar as the world will just have to know what piece of clothing some celeb failed to wear as she got out of a car to go celebrate the New Year.

Too big of a toolbox ?

When I started writing the "Dark Arts" series I knew that it would set some people on edge, and understandably so I suppose. And I knew there would be detractors and critics, which to be honest I'm okay with I've got a rather thick hide.

So it came as no surprise when one reader pointed me to a forum where one of my recent posting was being discussed. One gentleman who conducts Self Defense training took um-bridge with me personally (ironic since he doesn't know me and lives in another state) and my advice simply because he had never "heard" of me (whatever that means).

I found the statement somewhat quizzical, yet for all of his critiques there was one statement I found to be a little ridiculous.

It went something like...."some of these guys like to overburden their students with so many tools that the toolbox is too heavy to carry. When I teach I focus only on the basics."

???????????????????????????????????????

Well that's a first.

I will say this about the gentleman who takes disagreement with me. He is an actual trainer and a member of the law enforcement community and by all appearances highly respected in his area of the world. So he's not an arm chair commando. I would also point out that I don't make my living as a trainer, though I am a certified pistol instructor and plans are in the works to develop various training seminars through the company that I own and operate. But my line of work delves into a different area than his.

Let me point to another instance.

Over the summer I attended a morning conference on Church Security over in Illinois, after the murder of the Reverend Fred Winters back in March. The panel was made entirely of law enforcement officers which held a variety of opinions. Panel members where mainly small town police chiefs and most agreed that ultimately in a mass shooting that members of the church would be the first responders to the crisis. Given Illinois anti self-defense laws their were questions concerning what weapons could be legally carried and used.

One local police chief went against the grain of his fellow panel members and said

"you have to remember that this is a law enforcement matter and it is for the Police to respond to. I know you all want to carry a gun, but let me say this as a Chief of Police I don't even let my wife carry pepper spray nor do my teenage children. Any so called self-defense weapon can be taken from you and used against you and they simply aren't worth the risk."

It was an arrogant and disgusting statement.

For someone to say likewise that you can be over burden with to many tools is.....well absurd, because frankly I have yet to find in Sun Tsu's Art of War any quote that reads "stick with the basic levels of training and your campaign will go ok."

Fundamentals are important, but they are the building blocks to further our mindset. We all (myself very included) should always be striving to learn more, train more, think and out think the bad men of the world.

I hope that I never on this blog or in my life come across as someone who thinks he invented the concept of self-defense or outside the box thinking, rather I see myself as a life long student to a school of thought which can only be graduated from by dying.

The irony of it is we live in a world where we over burden ourselves with worry to the point we are told by blue screens in our homes to just take a pill to solve the problem. Yet most of us know that tackling your problems straight on and seeking to defeat them is far more effective than popping legal dope.

Because on Christmas day while most of us were opening gifts and stuffing food into our mouths a vacationing Dutchman was tackling some Nigerinan Farouker (that supposed to be a take on fucker) and preventing him from killing a plane load of people.

There still remains no requirement for being a victim, one doesn't even have to take a physical exam.