Poll on the .22 LR

When is it the best choice for personal defense?

Take the poll at GunPundit:

Personal Protection Survey

UPDATE: If you read the comments over at Gunpundit, don't miss this:

Something in the water today.

Self-defence on the road

More specifically on the road in motels/hotels. A really valuable piece here:

MOTELS AND GUNS...

Good lessons even for us civilians

I found two very interesting articles on police survival and deadly force.

This one is filled with insight and lessons learned:

STAYING ALIVE ON THE JOB - A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR PEACE OFFICERS

Not everything is applicable to civilians and some of the lessons require modifications. For example:

FBI’s annual “Officer Killed” summary, the statistics show that officers tend to die in close, not just at 7 yards but at 7 feet, and they tend to neutralize their attackers and survive unscathed as the distances increase.

Distance buys time. Waiting buys time. Time buys survival.

There are few “immutable laws” of police officer survival that go to 100% but this one reaches about 99%. Distance and time will generally favor the police officer that is the first to respond to a life-threatening crisis that involves armed criminals.

Very true, but sometimes hard to apply in self-defense situations. Often, trouble (i.e. the criminal) finds us; we do not have the option to wait for reinforcements or maintain a safe distance. Nonetheless, it is always smart to train with the idea that distance is (usually) our friend.*

This advice, however, is true for everyone:

W- Have a plan, Twining and Davis had a plan and they out gunned twice their number of highly trained lawman. The responding CHP officers didn’t…and they died.

A - Always Maintain the Advantage over the opponent. Gore and Frago initially had the tactically dominant position and officer survival experts who interviewed the surviving Bobby Davis believe that he and Twining would have surrendered if the two officers had not abandoned their tactically superior position.

This refers to the Newhall Incident when two ex-cons murdered four CHP officers. This defense trainer has a slide show that illustrates the events of that night.

I especially like it because he proves that you do not need fancy CGI software to make a useful training tool.

This article has a chilling glimpse into the mindset of one of the Newhall killers.

“I talked to him for quite a bit,” he recalls. According to Madden, Twining described for him the moments leading up to the shooting of Gore and Frago. The two cons had briefly contemplated surrendering as they were pulled over.

“He told me that he was looking in the side-view mirror and they were debating whether they were going to give up. And he looks in the mirror and he could see [Frago] with the shotgun as he walked up to the car and there was still tape around the slide, which means there was nothing happening,” Madden says. The tape around the slide meant the patrolman had not cycled a round into the chamber – he wasn’t locked and loaded.

For a criminal like Twining, that was like the scent of blood in the air.

“He told me the patrolman actually looked embarrassed, like he didn’t want to be there. So [Twining] just said ‘Fuck it’ and bailed out and started shooting.”

I've heard (and read) too many people talk about the wonderful intimidation power of their chosen weapons. "All i have to do is rack the slide on my shotgun and they will run away." "Once they see the size of the hole at the end of my .45 they'll give up."

It is hogwash and dangerous to boot. Unless you are prepared to use the gun, it is just a hunk of metal. Twining's confession shows that criminals can be frighteningly savvy in sizing up the threat. (Hint: they are seldom scared of a chunk of steel and wood.)

It also is important to remember that it only took 2 or 3 seconds for Twining and Davis to seize the tactical initiatve.

So mindset matters and so does focus.

* This is a problem i have with many "practical pistol" courses. I've seen many that require the shooter to move toward distant targets. Dumb idea. It makes for a good game but represents poor tactics.

Don't' be French

The German victory in France in 1940 is one of the most decisive campaigns in military history. In six weeks, the Blitzkrieg re-ordered the balance of power in Europe.

The striking thing about the German victory is that the defeated Western allies enjoyed both a qualitative and quantitative superiority in men, tanks, guns, and planes. The Germans won because they had superior doctrine and training.

The French expected to fight methodical battles in which their material advantages would blunt the German offensive and roll back the invader. The Germans were able- through superior strategy and initiative- to disrupt the French plans and win operational victories that paralyzed the French High Command.

I have to admit that I hear French accents in a lot of self-defense advice on the web and in the gun rags. There is an obsessive focus on the material-what bullet/caliber works 'best', shotgun versus AR15-and little attention to the decisive factors-mindset, planning, practice.

I mean, a tactical shotgun is great, but how do you use it when you have to answer the door late at night? What's the best way to carry a 1911 so that you can deploy it in the event of a carjacking? (Is it even possible to get it into play with seat belts on?)

An effective personal defense strategy should not begin with the abstract evaluation of various weapons, calibers, or loads. Rather, it should start with an honest risk assessment: what are the likely dangers, what weapon is best suited to meet them, what are the best actions to counter those dangers if they arise?

There is one other applicable lesson from this historical period. Some of the propagandists for rearmament actually ended up strengthening the forces of appeasement. They overstated the might of Hitler and claimed that only massive rearmament could let the French and British catch-up. This helped create a sense of resignation and hopelessness that Hitler exploited in 1937-39.

I wonder how many newbies are dissuaded from buying a personal defense firearm because of the advice they receive from pixilated Rambos. Here is a man or woman with limited experience with firearms who is pondering whether to take that first, crucial step. When they ask a simple question, they get flooded with the macho posturing that made the internet famous.

"You need a tactical shotgun, and an AK-47. A high-capacity .40 S&W and a back-up subcompact that uses the same magazines. Yeah, always have four spare magazines with you at all times. Plus two for the AK. Get a tactical vest. Oh, and a bowie knife, an Akita, and a high-end home alarm system…"

I wonder how many potential new shooters just throw up their hands and do nothing?

That's sad because the 80/20 rule applies in the defense realm as it does in most aspects of life. Even worse, to return to my first point, this obsession with ordnance-lots and lots of hardware-ignores the crucial lessons of 1940.

Serious thinking about home defense

Two great posts at To which i replied. The discussion continues at South Park Pundit.

More good sense on self defense

Hell in a Handbasket has it.

I left a comment over at James's place and want to expand a little. I wrote "If i could add one point it is this: the "style" as you put it should also reflect an honest assessment of what sort of risks one faces. No point developing the skills if they are with a weapon inappropriate to the most likely SHTF scenario."

What i should have added is this: The biggest risk a civilian faces is not that they will be outgunned. It is that they will be ungunned. It is great to have a tuned AR-15 and being able to nail 20 out of 20 steel plates at a hundred yards in 22 seconds. But that will do you no good when you step out of your car in a dark drive-way at 11.00 pm on a night when some junkie has decided he needs your ride and your wallet.

Training to survive

James Rummel has a post up that should be read by everyone interested in personal defense.

Avoid the Bucket

James’s example is not an isolated case. Most of the changes in police procedure and equipment are fueled by calamity. It takes a Newhall Incident, an FBI-Miami shootout, or a North Hollywood robbery before the powers that be will accept change.

There is a big downside to this. In the aftermath of a tragedy, no one wants to blame the victim. The public after-action reports and resulting policy debates will, therefore, focus more on technology and less on tactics. The training recommendations can focus on the wrong elements because it addresses "safe" subjects and not the factors that really determine life and death.

Ross Seyfried—hunter, guide, gun writer, and former IPSC champion—has a phrase for one facet of the problem:" buying skill." Instead of practicing their long-range shooting, hunters buy "flat shooting" magnums. High capacity magazines can be a similar trap. Seyfried again: "you can’t miss fast enough" to make up for poor accuracy. In a worst case scenario, hi-caps just delay the moment of truth.

James also provides some recommendations that need to be taken heart and put into practice by anyone who is serious about civilian CQC.

My one quibble is ISPC/IDPA/CAS. They can be great training—if they are approached as practice. If you try to win (or even just emulate the winners) they teach dangerous lessons. (I grit my teeth every time I watch a shotgun stage at a CAS match. What sane individual would operate a pump like that if their life was on the line?)

Many years ago I read an article that made a good point about the value of IPSC, personal defense, and mind-set. Three competitors were eating in a restaurant after the match. Two of them were serious IPSC shooters and had finished high in the standings. Thee third was a cop who had finished well back in the pack. The subject of concealed carry came up. One of the shooters was unarmed. His tricked out race gun was locked in the trunk of his car outside. So was the competition gun of the other IPSC demi-god. After showing his stuff with a custom .45, he stowed it away and carried a J-frame .38 Spl. The cop was carrying the same service auto he carried every day—the same pistol he shot the match with.

Even though he had the worst score at the match, the cop was the only one of the three who was really benefiting from the practice and competition.

James offers up a lot of good advice on his site. I really like his emphasis on dry-firing practice and shooting prone or from a chair. Only the lucky get to use the standing Weaver when the SHTF.

Now, since this is a blog, I’ll throw in my two cents.

Where possible, add moving targets. They don’t have to be complicated or expensive. Balloons bobbing in the breeze are a neat wrinkle when paper targets get boring.

Practice dealing with unexpected malfunctions. Even when shooting multiple targets, it is easy to fall into a rut. Bang, bang [shift] bang, bang, [shift] bang, bang. Reload.

Put some snap caps into the mix and it changes the experience. Bang, bang, [shift] bang, click, [shi….,damn, clear] bang, [shift] bang, bang.