The Cannabilism of CCW

When the Afghans finally forced the Russians out of their country it took little time before the tribes once united in a ten year war fell back to the old ways. Defeating the juggernaut bear with then modern technology allowed clans to began slaughtering each other in a more efficiently.

Today The Wife, my In-Laws, and I were all enjoying some local barbecue when in walked my old childhood neighbor who is a recently certified NRA pistol instructor. He had just finished teaching his first CCW course and I asked him where he went for a range, "Man it's tough. Nobody wants to let you in to their range and when they do they inflate the price because they consider you competition."

I nodded my head in complete understanding. Living in a relatively large metropolitan area anyone who shoots from my neck of the woods can tell you the location of every range, how far it is, and what the range's fees are. Supply simply doesn't meet demand.

Shooting ranges have always been right up there with nuclear power plants for their "Not in my neighborhood" associations. When the infamous "Flood of '93" ravaged the mid-west it led to a number of local ranges being destroyed. One took the insurance money drove 40 miles west and re-opened Benchrest Rifle Club complete with a 600 yard range. Other owners wanted to rebuild but everyone from the EPA to anti-gun municipal tyrants refused to issue permits. After all the Birkenstock 90's was about saving the children, and shooting ranges "obviously" (read: sarcasm first time reader) meant dead ten year olds.

We need more ranges, and not just in that "I want" sense. We really need them. There probably has never been as many first time shooters in America, ever. I can remember when seeing AR at the range was rare and SKSs were common. These days ranges are jammed with waiting lines, black rifles, and pistols and not just old white guys. If you seek "coexistence" and "cultural diversity" you can find it easier at a shooting range than the local Thai restaurant.

The more armed citizens we have the more we need them shooting and honing a lethal skill.
I LOVE shooting and have been at it since I was about eight. I joke that my blood is composed blood, lead, copper shavings, coffee grounds, and IMR 4064. I love it because it teaches me something new everytime, it is a highly enjoyable recreation, a great de-stressing tool, and as I said a lethal skill, all rolled into one.

Some guy over there is waving his arms and telling me "sssshhhh shhhh it's not a leathal skill...it's a gun...not a weapon."

Guns are lethal and they are weapons. Some are reverse engineered for Olympic sport with crazed looped grips and ten pound barrels, but they started out as something else. Manipulation of a firearm is a lethal skill.

So is driving a car.

"but but but not in the same vein" you cry. As a former ten year old who went over the windshield of a 1977 Yellow Gremlin (I didn't look both ways) I beg to differ.

We need more ranges which means we need more allies on local municipal boards who affect land permit issuance and zoning. The more ranges, the less monopoly happens.

Because that is what we are seeing. I don't begrudge anyone from making as much money as they can (okay maybe baseball pitchers I do), but when range owners who run open-to-public ranges and run Conceal Carry courses try to financially burden a fellow instructor by jacking up rates or turning them away I get a little pissed.

"Well were competitors!" Thanks Gordon Gecko, but when you wave that NRA flag on the front door we are also family. And an instructor from the outside who is paying for an hour or two of range time per student has just walked new customers into your door. Because where the instructor without a range sees that student once for training, the same student-now-CCW holder will come back over and over and over to your range. For advice, for ammo, gun rentals, holsters, guns, and (gasp) more range time. After that they bring other friends to shoot, including....wait for it.....new shooters.

I don't know why every range I go to there is always someone behind the counter who can tell you how they came up with the idea of gun ownership and implemented conceal carry all by themselves.

New shooters means strength in the maintaining of rights. New shooters leads to more conceal carry permit holders. More permit holders means more citizens fighting back against rapists, stalkers, and spree shooters.

Besides that if there is one thing I know about working for almost two decades in a specialized field where I have competitors, not all of them last.

"Well those guys aren't professionals. My guys are" says the range owner.

Clint Smith has professionals on his Thunder Ranch range, but I've been to plenty of ranges where the guy behind the counter is working part time for ammo and range discounts (and who can blame him), but ironically may also be in possession of the worst safe gun handling skills. Embroidered Polo doesn't equal a professional, it means employed here.

Am I dogging range owners here?

Yes.

Remember who your allies are. That the best marketing tool is word of mouth, it's what some people call reputation, and you either get a good one or a bad one. Being well funded doesn't mean shit when you have no street cred.

But as one reader reminded me, the coin is always two sided. As an independent instructor coming into a range we have the burden not to act like idiots and self-grandizing gurus. Range owners spend a considerable amount of their money on liability insurance because there is always some jack ass somewhere willing to do something you-tube worthy.

There are always problems in any sub-culture, but the American gun culture is rooted into our cowboy culture I like to think. We stand up to a worthy cause, we value the independent hard work of another person, and we ride for the brand. And for the American shooting community the 2nd Amendment is our brand.

We hang together or we shall surely hang separately.

There use to be civility and manners in civilization. Today we have "tolerance" which is nothing more than narrow minded insistence.

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Reasonable expectation of privacy......depends on who you ask

Privacy is a relative thing.

Today we live in a world where in order to do "normal and modern" things ....like communicate (or self-publish) we voluntarily sacrifice some level of privacy. And while we like to think that this is in our hands it really isn't. The decision to give it away or keep it is ours but once we give it out it's no longer in our control.

The use of any electronic communication device is routed through large corporations with government regulation. At any given time hundreds of people on a daily basis have access to anything about you minus your inner most thoughts.

Those crazy kids at the NSA have all of us under constant watch word surveillance, and dig moderately hard enough you can find out a lot about a person right down to the size of their skivvies (seriously).

But Big Brother is not alone.

In my work the coin is two sided; my clientele' ranges from private individuals, large corporations to governments......ah well not governments. Routinely retained to either safe guard an individual and their privacy or gain whatever intel I can ...just take your pick and we'll talk money.

As of this writing I have just finished drafting a proposal and concept for a large legal firm here in the U.S. titled "Enhanced Surveillance Techniques for use in Litigation".

Very legal and modern means of surveillance in the private sector. Ironically what a judge would have thrown out ten + years ago as excessive or extraordinary can be argued as quite normal. I won't say it reduces the cost of an investigation and in some cases increases it, it does make for better means of intelligence gathering with a lower to invisible profile not to mention providing a consistent flow of streaming intelligence versus a guy in a car down the street.

For years I have wanted to incorporate the use of R/C airplanes fitted with cameras to conduct aerial surveillance. Which may seem reaching, but truth is the Miami-Dade Police brokered a deal with Honeywell a couple months back and filed official paperwork with the FAA for unmanned aerial drones to fly over the county.

The first of its kind over a large metropolitan area. However not the first of its kind over rural areas (think outskirts of Denver). What was once limited to Kabul or Baghdad will now be over South Beach. And it's only a few short years before a private firms start picking up on this.

Trust me I ever get the scratch to effectively do it I am.

Oh sure you're thinking they'll never allow it. But if a person can privately own and fly anything from a glider to a Gulfstream there is no real reason an unmanned droned can't be either.

There are several local law enforcement agencies here in my part of the world that have police cruisers fitted with license plate scanners. The system has four cameras mounted on the front and back of the cruiser's light bar and are connected to a computer in the trunk, constantly and automatically scanning some 1,200 license plates an hour on parked and moving cars. Once scanned the system the compares scans with plate numbers of vehicles and vehicle owners who have outstanding warrants (local to national), and those databases are updated daily.

The NYPD? They are now armed with roving surveillance vehicles that uses back-scatter technology to scan people for weapons and vehicles for explosives. Ironically it can't tell you if the person with the SiG on their hip has a CCW or not.

Sure sure but what does this have to do with you.

Every-time we open a new profile on a social networking site, post our cell phone, use twitter we voluntarily give away our privacy. This makes it difficult if you ever are targeted by someone like me to argue that I've invaded your privacy when I can show what two hours internet search engines alone will produce. Not to mention any surveillance done or trash rooted through (by the way you need to recycle more).

A discussion I've been in with a colleague is whether or not putting passive GPS trackers on a target's vehicle is trespassing or invading privacy. And the Supreme Court is looking at this as well. Passive trackers don't tell me anything different than if I was following someone it just does it better. Nothing personal is revealed, these devices don't shoot audio or video, private conversations aren't compromised they just say where a vehicle went, how it got there and how fast it went. Was privacy really invaded? Especially since most vehicles and cell phones now come equipped with GPS that do exactly the same thing.

"YES" you cry.

"I don't know!" I respond.

Can someone live a modern life and maintain their privacy?

My best advice. Be intentional about it.

For starters if its reasonable block public views from your home windows. Drive around your life and see how someone can visually access your home life (think of it as self-surveilled) and then figure out ways to block those views.

If your world is windows, whether its a high rise apartment or glass office building three words of sage advice "White-noise-generator". In laymen's terms: speakers that play static facing a window.

You may think it 007 but, laser listening devices are indeed out there and it requires little more than youtube and a twelve year old with a how-to video up in regards as how to build one.

Think I'm paranoid? In the last decade I've seen these utilized by the opposition in 10-20 retained clients. The sound quality ? Meh, but good enough to get what is needed.

And I'm not alone in this threat assessment. Every new United States Federal building built has specs for white noise generators to cause reverb in all windows. What was once Tom Clancy is now $25, a soldering gun and a Tuesday night in the basement.

All of my personal mail and work mail go to a P.O. Box first. I make it a conscious effort to know all the vehicles that belong in my neighborhood.

I promise I do not own a tin foil hat (they're all been aluminum since 1946 anyway). It's just being conscious about the world around me.

I have clients who are well known and unknown that pay me an annual retainer to route everything from their cell phone bills, set social networking pages up, all the way to handling their apartment leases through my firm.

"good for them, I don't have that kind of cash"

If you don't mind The Man having some involvement most states have what is called a "Safe at Home" program generally run through the Secretary of States office. It's really just a mail forwarding service, but every little bit of backstopping helps.

Make a list of how and where you are publicly profiled and then see what you can do to curtail it. If you simply take down a profile it will still exist out there so go for disinformation. Then examine all areas of your life where you can do better at safeguarding your personal privacy whether it's the back yard to the internets.

Where there was once a social concept to mind your own business in another twenty will be "what do you have to hide!? What was once seen as a fundamental right will be looked at suspiciously and sadly deemed socially "unacceptable" and prosecutors in the future will talk about how we are trying to keep damning secrets to inflame a juries decision.

The more we attention-whore ourselves out the less we can lay claim to our rights of privacy.

Smart Concealed Carry

Fundamentally concealed carry is a comprehensive approach to predicting the future. No different than the reason we wear seat belts. One realizes that they live in society and several thousand years of recorded case history points out that not all members of society have good intentions toward everyone else. When we walk out the door there are inherent risks and unforeseeable events in the day ahead that may prove detrimental to your over all well being; therefore you take precautions.

Ironically, hoplophobes are always bent on making the world "safer" while simultaneously being the least prepared or capable of responding to a critical situation (but the first on camera after go figure). They also are the least flexible members of society where by comparison most licensed carry conceal permit holders tend to be more tolerant than often given credit.

We tend to be encouraging and welcoming of people with diverse backgrounds and life style choices who have a desire to learn how to shoot. The anti-self-defense people are intolerant and inflexible with attitudes that are borderline paranoid, classicist, and in my opinion often lack good mental fortitude.

The CCW permit is a state's recognition of the individual's positive mental capacity. To which one who does not hold a permit is hardly in the position to make a case against a weapons permit holder backed solely on generalized and, often inaccurate statements that permits are utilized by the ignorant or irresponsible.

For example. The permit holder has to have a decent to exceptional knowledge of criminal, weapon and transportation law. It matters a great deal to know where and how a weapon can be carried, what other states do and do not hold reciprocity with their state. What the consequences are for stalking, or adult abuse, or being intoxicated with a firearm. What places controlled by the Federal Government allow for concealed carry, peaceable transportation or zero tolerance towards weapons all together.

The hoplophobe is often ignorant in such civil matters and it could be argued that they are actually the more ignorant members of the citizenry.Though I suspect this would only lead to further weeping and gnashing of teeth amongst the elite.

No doubt there are permit holders who are bigots, idiots, sexists but, rarely are permit holders criminals (this can be confirmed through state and federal data bases demonstrating the low numbers of revoked CCW permits nationally). Consequently a large majority of violent protests and riots in the United States going back to then of the end of the 19th century with the labor movement stems from hard leftist radicals.

But I digresses; we do not live in a safe world.

We do not.

Some areas see less violence than others, but all areas contend with evil men bent on hell.

After logging in roughly thirty thousand hours carrying a handgun professionally as a civilian one begins to understand that there is a lot that goes into concealed carry. At best it holds an air of continuing education or a part time job. Our mistake can be that in the art of conceal carry and Personal Defense is assuming that when you receive your certificate and plastic ID card your are highly qualified.Knowing how to shoot and being authorized to carry is not the same as living with and understanding the intricate details of daily life with a handgun.

Surviving and thriving through a gun fight may come down to the time it takes to squeezing the trigger, but if you miss the shift in social dynamics, get caught with your hands compromised all that money you shelled out for guns, holsters, and class will have been in vain.

One: Set your own standard for responsibility.

Put it on the calender and get to the range once every three months (at the least) and qualify to your states standard of expectation for getting a permit. Better still go beyond the expectation. Shoot your carry guns at at a variety of distances and then keep the targets with notations on them.

April 8^th, 2011 ten rounds .38 special 7 yards from Smith & Wesson model 442

April 8^th, 2011 twenty-five rounds .45 ACP 25 yards Colt Combat Commander.

Get an expandable folder and file your targets after each range session. You should be nearly on par with your home states requirement for law enforcement qualification. Don't get high strung about having all your holes fill the size of a playing card (especially if you are new to it). If your level of suck is high and your target reflects it then there is your motivation to do better. It also demonstrates should they ever be called into use your marked level of improvement.The best part is you have a scheduled appointment to go to the range, which is far better than the dentist or oil change.

If your new to shooting and/or your first target for record has a pattern that is minute-of-dinner-table and you get into a self-defense shooting the next week you might be just as wise to burn the damn thing and say nothing to no one about it.

Another area of personal responsibility is that long ago I set up a code system for my brain in contending with keeping a handgun around the home. In a holster means chambered and ready to go. A handgun that is not in a holster is not chambered (on a revolver I open the cylinder), and needs to be manipulated into working order.

Two: Measure out your life

While some threats to our life are random and others are not we generally live under one routine or another. Within those routines are set distances and while the world still preaches that most self-defense shootings occur within seven yards (I still contend that this is changing) you might be surprised to find some very lengthy indoor areas.

The first time I can concretely attest to noticing was on a work place protection detail for an internet firm before the dot-com-crash ten years ago. The floor plan was very modern and open and in three areas existed corridors for 43 yard line of fire.

A few winters ago when I was protecting a wealthy client who was fearful that a hit had been taken out on his life I maintained a two week vigil at his very spacious home. From the kitchen to the first decent form of cover was fifteen yards (again inside).

Lest you think these distances apply only to the rich, the children's area at my church had a hallway corridor of 39 yards with the fire doors closed.

You don't have to have a Rain Man compulsion about it, but its applicable if you carry a firearm in your work place or any day-to-day area to know. Even if it is to good cover (cover not concealment).

Which is worth mentioning as well. Do you actively look at things in your life and say (inwardly) "this is concealment (drywall walls for example) and this is cover (concrete pillars, trash dumpsters)". It behooves you to study what bullets penetrate and what they do not.

Case in point. In a street crime shooting your attacker is likely to have a handgun more so than a long-arm so coverage has some flexibility. Spree shooters show a case history that these murderers have a blaze of glory mind set so there is a high probability that you are going to encounter Rambo who will be armed with a couple of pistols, a rifle and a shotgun.

Sound outlandish? As I am compartmentalizing and studying spree killers multiple firearms are the norm.

My end goal is to get you beyond the seven yard target. Start seeing some of the distances common to your life you'll embrace the idea and set aside the ego of shooting "good targets" at short ranges and stretch things out and start working with your gun...and not against it.

Three: Anatomy 101

We are told “aim center mass” but, do you understand why?

In the simplest of terms gun shot wounds to the lower abdomen generally are not fight stoppers in the same vein as the upper. With the exception of killing a kidney causing rapid blood loss, a fight could last several minutes. The upper chest allows for multiple immediate fight stoppers. A bullet puncture to the lung leaves the target with little or no ability to resupply oxygen to the body, add to it the blood loss that incurs and we get a one-two punch. One round (especially from a service caliber) will likely penetrate through and through. From this we get a potential force multiplier of four when everything goes right. A sucking chest and back wound and, two blood loss locations. Multiple rounds and the rate of destruction increases.

This doesn't take into account if the heart is destroyed. When a bullet smashes through the sternum the heart has to contend with damage from not only from the bullet but bone fragmentation as well.

This forward path of destruction is not over.

Straight to the chest gun shot wounds present potential injuries to the Spinal cord (lacerations, severing, etc.). Shattering the vertebral bones can punctured the spinal cord with a potential result in paraplegia, or full body paralysis below the site of injury to the spinal cord for the attacker.

Removing the actual ability to continue the attack by the aggressor.

The head shot while valuable.... and hittable as a target of potential fight stoppage is not a guarantee. Modern dictum from the arm chair is that a head shot equals death is something like 1/10 of a second. This is talking about a brain shot respectfully. The brain cavity takes up roughly half of the head. Shoot from the nose down and your attacker my lose some teeth but not his ability to fight.

Connect with the cervical vertebrae and death is instantaneous but hitting essentially a violently moving saltine cracker size target is tough.

Four: Turn your gun around

There is no way to deny that this isn't a pet peeve, a valid one, but willfully admitted pet peeve. I'd say this is common amongst new conceal carriers, but when I did my stint in corporate security this was very normal amongst guys who were retired law enforcement.

This method of carry is to place the gun in the small of the back either sans holster or in-the-waistband with the butt facing forward. The problem with this is two fold.

One, the gun is drawn by sweeping its owner. It may sound trite, but Rule 2 of gun safety is never allow the muzzle to cover anything you aren't willing to destroy. Conspicuously and continuously violated, especially with pistols, Rule two applies always under all circumstances

Oh sure I know your not gonna shoot yourself....unless of course you do.

Being involved in a gunfight is more than slightly stressful than you might assume. A negligent discharge when drawing strong side butt reward means at best a round goes into the floor. The worst is it goes into your leg (this happened to George Patton with the 1911 allegedly), but shooting yourself in the leg means you may be down but, not out.

Put a round into your guts from muzzle contact range however and you are your own first and last casualty. Extended beyond that, you just shot the only person able to thwart an attack, thus leaving the attacker to do as he pleases. Whether that is shooting your co-workers or raping your wife.

The second problem is it requires extensive chicken winging getting the gun into action. Should the encounter go into a close proximity fight inside arms reach your aggressor merely has to lock your arm behind your back...because that's where it is.

There is a subsection to this ...call it 2b if you will.

Were you to find yourself in a tight quarters brawl or attack in the midst of drawing the pistol in the conventional manner of barrel top forward butt rearward and your arm was locked low you still have the bad guy's groin or leg being easily targeted. In the opposite direction you are now fighting not to be a target from both yourself and the attacker.

Small things are only small things until they become big things.

Five: Understanding The Tactical Reload

In self-defense circles, IDPA, and the like this is often a hot button topic that in my very very humble opinion is misunderstood. The idea is to fire two to three rounds, then pop your magazine and insert a fresh one, while retaining your partial magazine in the process in case you need it.

You probably will need it ….so leave it in your gun.

The actual idea with tac-reload is to wait for a lull in the fight. A lull is different than dropping behind cover. IF your getting behind cover its generally because you are being shot at. A lull is when things get oddly quiet.

How long exactly? (here come the nasty e-mails) Think ten seconds; one-Mississippi two-Mississippi...... all the way up to ten.

I know you can hit a combat tactical reload in under 1/10 of a second. You know what is faster?

A loaded gun.

My predominate side arm is a Colt Combat Commander with 8 round mags and one in the pipe. If forced to fire off three rounds I still have the same amount of cartridges in the mag as a six shot revolver is starting off with. A modern designed high capacity handgun shooter should really question this mentality.

Why begin disassembling your pistol when you are in the fight of your life?

That guy over there just said “but what about...how do I remember how many rounds I fired?

You won't and seriously don't worry about it. That's why the gun manufacturers were kind enough to add the nice slide lock feature.

Six: Buy snap caps

Everyone will tell you dry firing doesn't hurt center fire handguns. They are right. The gun is fine but you can break the firing pin. I dry fire somewhere around two to three accumulative hours a week and have for well over a decade. I use to fire over an empty chamber. I've also broken three firing pins. Which is considerable considering on two of them I carried day in and day out for at least a couple of weeks before I discovered that my pistol didn't function (read: fire).

*Click* is really something you don't want to here when you expect the gun to go off.

It is worth mentioning (hat tip to tgace and Lead Chucker ) on this re-edit that this tend to be a bigger issue with hammer fired over striker fired handguns. Though the first gun that I broke a firing pin on was an early Kahr E-9 (yes I said E not K ) which is striker fired. Whether it was an early design flaw or excessive dry firing I can't say. I've only ever heard of one Glock firing pin breaking ...and I heard about it didn't see it.

Seven: drop a round from your magazines

The most wide spread complaint you will hear in regards to semi-automatic handguns is that “it's not feeding”.

Some will site a dirty gun or a weakened recoil spring, but more often than not it comes from weak magazine springs. For whatever the reason, and don't ask cause I still don't know even after asking people who make them. The last round in the mag is hell on the spring when compressed for a significant amount of time. This is especially true on high capacity magazines.

Where as drop loading or loading your magazine minus one round is not. For day in and day out I keep my mags downloaded by one. If something comes up, I'm traveling or feel the generalized need for it I take the three rounds that reside in my night stand box and insert them into the mag and go about my business.

I've run various tests over the years on this. Loaded mags, dated them and put in the safe only to be pulled out a year or two later and have the same failure to feed problem (and I use good magazines). The good news is you can easily and relatively cheaply replace the springs all by themselves. Two years ago I replaced six mag springs for $24 from Chip McCormick after twelve years of use.

Another good idea is to rotate your magazines (this is to imply that you have several) I generally rotate in and out of service every six months with a routine cleaning after every range session.

Eight: Wear a very good belt

One that is denoted as a gun belt.

I tried Duluth Trading Company's (great products) heavy duty leather belt but after two years of continuous use it fell apart. My current favorite is a Gould & Goodrich B52 leather pants belt. I just crossed the one year mark with it and it is in fantastic shape. Around $50 (US).

Nine: Wear good holsters

Like everything else in the gun community holsters are one more area where opinions are numerous. The current trend building is to carry police type security holsters, and to each their own. But where I have never had a problem making the transition from one type of pistol to another (i.e. 1911 to DOA automatic or revolver) I can not say the same for holsters.

I've carried enough and am familiar with a variety of handguns that muscle memory assumes control as soon as I get a grip on it. But with a holster your hand never touches it so there is no muscle memory building. May not sound like an issue, but after 15 years of dedicated daily carry it's one where I like consistency.

My belt holsters both in and outside the pant usually rely on tension screws or pinched leather to retain the handgun. The idea most folk fall into is that the strap aids in weapon retention in a struggle (which undeniably it can) but since police officers carry openly their threat is greater as opposed to someone who is carrying conceal.

Should you wind up in the unlikely position of fighting to maintain control of your sidearm it will likely already be in your hand. Conveniently enough you can go ahead and shoot. Thus ending that debate.

Personal preferences as far as holster makers go. I like Galco a lot.

My Jackass rig is very close friend of 18 or 19 years and a variety of countries and assignments.

Shoulder holsters get a lot of very bad press. I think the reason for this is most people wear the holster far far to low where the holster swings (would someone please tell the military this!) Mine rides directly under my arm pit and I like it there thank you very much.

The other advantage for a shoulder rig is going to the bathroom. Gone is the dilemma of catching your pants before they hit the floor with a thud, or sitting with a gun in your hand (I hang mine on the coat hook....and no I've never discharged a round into the ceiling) .

I also have come to appreciate El Paso Saddlery. They have quality holsters for reasonable prices to those of us who prefer leather.

My Smith 442 rides in a Galco S.O.B. (small of back) rig, but after several hours with it on I know its there. Anything heavier than the little snub nose I'll pass. On an up note the little SOB did save me from an otherwise nasty kidney punch on a detail once and it did nothing good for my attackers hand nor wrist.

Ankle rigs.

Where they shine (good ones) are in semi-formal events or situations where a tucked in shirt and no jacket is expected to be worn. Hot summer weddings are a good example. A good rig that is secure passes the dancing test. My Galco (again.....really) has no security strap on it only a tension screw, but I assure you I can do a full and complete hand stand and not have it fall out.

I have also driven across the country on four occasions wearing it for ten and 12 hours at a stretch behind the wheel and never been bothered by its presence. A bad or cheap ankle holster will make you drag your leg like Quasimodo or squint like Jack Elam.

By black it disappears with black socks better than a brown one by the way.

At the end of the day the holster that sees the most use is an old Dillon Leather IWB. Which for the private citizen this is going to be the usual method of carry.


Ten: Be Polite, Be respectful, Be in control but don't be a Pussy.

If you have to engage in a verbal altercation do so with steadiness and surety. Don't mince words with them or apologize. The beautiful thing about the human voice is that its user has volume control.

Use it.

Screaming and yelling looks good in the movies where all the cops swarm in, but when you scream at people you elevate the stress level of everyone involved...and there won't be a swarm of other guns behind you. It's also very very difficult for future potential witnesses to know who the rational one was when both of you are yelling.

And truthfully if you have enough time to delve into a Dr. Phil/Clint Eastwood combination monologue you have time to leave before the shit really hits the fan. And the less you talk the less likely you are to say something stupid.I have found is that the rank and file citizen actually fairs quite poor at confrontations and de-escalation. They either tend to go over board with the tough talk or they come across weak and pathetic. Both can get you killed.

Short sweet, even tones and straight to the point.

Over the top would be “Motherfucker I'm gonna kill you now if you don't put down that gun!”

While just as equally bad is “Can we talk for a minute?”

Any aggressor who creates a situation with brandishing a gun whether he begins to actively shoot or threatens to, needs to be shot.

It is just that simple.

Don't complicate it.

Pull your gun (while going for cover if possible) put your sights on the target and fire.

No talky talk, fire.

A deranged man with a gun who hasn't shot anyone is generally recognized to be within ¼ of an inch as being later identified on the evening news as a deranged murderer with a gun. Shooting a bad man who is armed is preventing murder.

But diagnose the situation even if it requires a mere (or lifetime) of ten seconds. It's important to note that I said BAD GUY with A GUN. With the prevalence of people carrying concealed out there you need to make sure that just because you see a pistol drawn in public that it isn't a fellow good guy reacting to a situation that you may not be seeing.

Currently I am not aware of any CCW law in the country that requires a civilian to issue a verbal command before he or she can fire at an attacker (if I am wrong on this jump in an let me know).

Eleven: ID yourself

I don't carry a badge of any type. In my earlier days I did.

A very nice Blackington one that read PRIVATE DETECTIVE, but my work is a bit more....uh... specialized anymore and to be honest police officers don't appreciate it. I get it.

I worked with a Dade County undercover cop once who told me that if “the shit ever went down” open your wallet and show your ID, that's what undercover police officers do when badge carrying leads to life insurance policies getting filed.

Flashing your wallet open isn't claiming to be a cop it says “please make note I am a good guy”....or they will at least think you have a concussion and be slightly more sympathetic.

To voluntarily carry a handgun amongst the populace is a great and grave responsibility. It is the most serious of social purposes and since it is voluntary we must choose to do everything involving it better.

Lives are at stake.

And not just ourselves or that of the B-I-Q (bad guy in question), but also of any bystander. There is very little room to maneuver legally or ethically that a mother of three was collateral damage when you were forced to fire to stop an attacker.

The short of it is this. Some men are bent on destruction, their end goal is to inflict mental and physical trauma on people, make widows and orphans and take the lives of children from their parents. Know your target, accurately assess the crisis at hand and engage. Men and women who aren't willing to stand up and fight to safe guard life are in the way of those who are.

After every spree shooting, like the one that just happened in Florida at a School Board meeting, everyone wants to play amateur psychologist and find what the gunman's motivations was.

Here is the answer regardless.

He woke up and decided to be an evil bastard with a gun.

When you encounter an individual whose desire is violence, death and destruction you must meet him on equal terms. While it may seem brave for a man to try and lovingly talk a gunman into laying down his gun and save his life or for an old woman to swing her purse at a gunman it simply is not appropriate.

If you have a gun you shoot him, if you have a knife you make a strategic move to get behind him if you can and put the knife into the back of his skull or kidneys. If all you have is a fire extinguisher you blind him with the spray get out of the path of blind fire and use the canister to bludgeon him to death and leave his head a bloody pulp on the linoleum.

While it may sounds gruesome it is not as bad as a friend, a father, a mother, a husband or a wife not coming home.

Lying on the ground while a gunman walks around shooting people is never ever ever the right thing to do regardless what any police chief says at a press conference. Killing the son of a bitch is.

Stalked

Of the many situations I work at resolving for my clients, those who are victims of stalkers ranks right up there.

As I am continually gathering, studying and, compiling information on several issues. Of those Stalking in my opinion is the most personal. I have seen men and women and, in one case a child, pursued relentlessly until something is done. One client was harassed for no less than five years by a former co-worker's husband.

Ask any Cop and Victim how frustrating such cases can be. Proof is hard to come by (sometimes) and just like any other bad guy, terrorist, assassin or man eating lion they hold a lot advantages.

Catching and repelling Stalkers is one of those jobs that I hate to love, but I digress....

If you have ever been stalked I would appreciate you sharing your story with me. How it started, where it is at now, what it entailed in you successfully getting it resolved. Or did it ever get resolved?

Maybe it was an Ex, a casual acquaintance, a perfect stranger, a member of the opposite sex, or the same. You would be surprised the number of women who are stalked by other women.

If you would like to share please send it to an e-mail address I have specifically set up for this.

stalked@att.net

Thanks and there are new posts coming.

Carte Blanche Barney Fife

Sorry I've been "off air" so to speak. There has been a lot going on. The Wife suffering some harassment from a quasi-stalker, a client who's family may or may not be trying to kill her, another client who is a victim to a Ponzi scheme of which I=am actively trying to retrieve his quarter of a million dollars, a move to the new residence, and oh yeah the arrival of The Daughter. So life's been a little out there.

Somethings worth mentioning in this whole new debacle of "aviation security". The Pilots may be leading the way in the fight against this false hope of security. There is a lot to read so let's get to it.

PDF Links worth checking out.

First up. A Freedom of Information request to the U.S. Justice Department's Marshall's Service. The link is a response from the U.S. Marshall's Service General Counsel's office to an attorney for the

"Electronic Privacy Information Center". The response is based upon the wanting to know if the Backscatter body imagers can transmit the images downloaded [naked pictures of you] and, the short of it is...yes they can. I am assuming in good faith that the PDF is legit. Back channel resources assure me that it is, and that the response is from Uncle Same hisself. But hey it's the internets so you know....

Body scanners Disclosure letter August 2nd, 2010

The "other" PDF link
This other link for you tin foilers are the the TSA's requirement specs for WBI (whole body imagers) with a finalized date of September 23, 2008. My point being buried in this the TSA's Office of Security Technology System Planning and Evaluation outlined among many things that these body-imagers

be able to take detailed pics of the human body and transmit them electronically.

TSA Procurement_Specs

Finally I have pasted a copy of Captain David Bates of the president of the Allied Pilots Association (which represents 11,500 pilots) letter to his fellow members. It reads as follows:

Fellow Pilots,

In response to increased threats to civil aviation around the world, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has implemented the use of Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) body scanners at some airport locations.

While I’m sure that each of us recognizes that the threats to our lives are real, the practice of airport security screening of airline pilots has spun out of control and does nothing to improve national security. It’s long past time that policymakers take the steps necessary to exempt commercial pilots from airport security screening and grant designated pilot access to SIDA utilizing either Crew Pass or biometric identification. As I recently wrote to the TSA Administrator:

“Our pilots are highly motivated partners in the effort to protect our nation’s security, with many of us serving as Federal Flight Deck Officers. We are all keenly aware that we may serve as the last line of defense against another terrorist attack on commercial aviation. Rather than being viewed as potential threats, we should be treated commensurate with the authority and responsibility that we are vested with as professional pilots.”

It is important to note that there are “backscatter” AIT devices now being deployed that produce ionizing radiation, which could be harmful to your health. Airline pilots in the United States already receive higher doses of radiation in their on-the-job environment than nearly every other category of worker in the United States, including nuclear power plant employees. As I also stated in my recent letter to the Administrator of the TSA:

“We are exposed to radiation every day on the job. For example, a typical Atlantic crossing during a solar flare can expose a pilot to radiation equivalent to 100 chest X-rays per hour. Requiring pilots to go through the AIT means additional radiation exposure. I share our pilots’ concerns about this additional radiation exposure and plan to recommend that our pilots refrain from going through the AIT. We already experience significantly higher radiation exposure than most other occupations, and there is mounting evidence of higher-than-average cancer rates as a consequence.”

It’s safe to say that most of the APA leadership shares my view that no pilot at American Airlines should subject themselves to the needless privacy invasion and potential health risks caused by the AIT body scanners. I therefore recommend that the pilots of American Airlines consider the following guidelines:

Use designated crew lines if available.

Politely decline AIT exposure and request alternative screening.

There is absolutely no denying that the enhanced pat-down is a demeaning experience. In my view, it is unacceptable to submit to one in public while wearing the uniform of a professional airline pilot. I recommend that all pilots insist that such screening is performed in an out-of-view area to protect their privacy and dignity.

If screening delays your arrival at the cockpit, do not cut corners that jeopardize the safety of the flight. Consummate professionalism and safety are always paramount.

Maintain composure and professionalism at all times and recognize that you are probably being videotaped.

If you feel that you have been treated with less than courtesy, respect and professionalism, please submit an observer report to APA. Please be sure to include the time, date, security checkpoint and name of the TSA employee who performed the screening. Avoid confrontation.

Your APA Board of Directors and National Officers are holding a conference call this week to discuss these issues and further guidance may be forthcoming.

While I cannot promise results tomorrow, I pledge to dedicate APA resources in the days and weeks to come to achieve direct access to SIDA for the pilots of American Airlines. In the meantime, I am confident that you will continue to exhibit your usual utmost professionalism as you safely operate and protect our nation’s air transport system.