Motivation For Training: One woman describes an incident that enhanced her interest in more range time. (Perhaps some more specific training would be more useful than just going back to the range.) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1436951/posts --- Bullet Skipping: No discussion of the use of cover is complete without mention of the risk of bullet-skipping. Generally, bullets that glance off hard surfaces tend to do so at approximately 12 degrees, regardless of the angle at which they impact. Rob Pincus offers some more specific testing. http://www.imakenews.com/valhalla/e_article000423482.cfm?x=b5f0tQk,b3mc6Ctb --- From JPFO: ALERT FROM JEWS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF FIREARMS OWNERSHIP America's Aggressive Civil Rights Organization July 22, 2005 JPFO ALERT:"THE LAST GUN STORE IN AMERICA"? In the wake of the Supreme Court's June 23 ruling that governments can take anyone's property and give it to those richer and better connected, we're watching two contradictory trends. On the plus side, many states are rushing to try to prevent such outrageous misuses of the power of eminent domain. On the corrupt side, many municipalities, from Washington, DC, to Freeport, TX, to Daytona Beach, FL, expedited their plans to steal property the moment the Supreme Court gave the green light. (See links below.) It remains to be seen whether the abusers or the protectors will win. But currently, in all but eight states, the property marauders have the advantage. While we're waiting to see what happens, consider this. The _Kelo_ decision easily enables local governments to close gun stores or shooting ranges. What if some city councilperson and his developer pals think your local range would be a great site for a golf course? And of course, everybody knows that firearms- related businesses "blight" the neighborhoods in which they stand. How much "nicer" to have a hotel or a glitzy shopping mall on that block! We're not counseling alarm -- yet. But those who wish to protect private property have a long haul. They've got to pass legislation, and even state constitutional amendments. In the meantime, it's not just your home or business that's at risk. Once again, a court ruling seemingly unrelated to guns or the Second Amendment potentially threatens your right to purchase and use firearms. Keep your eyes open and your mind alert. - The Liberty Crew Links: The Castle Coalition to save private property http://www.castlecoalition.org/ (JPFO takes no position on any legislation or proposed political action; we provide this link for background information on this issue.) States move to limit misuse of eminent domain http://www.nwherald.com/MainSection/local/301648048609776.p hp or http://tinyurl.com/cakrn DC wants a ballpark http://www.washtimes.com/business/20050623-112427-8794r.htm or http://tinyurl.com/c6wfr Freeport, Texas only waits hours before moving to seize businesses http://www.voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/2005-07-06- voa23.cfm or http://tinyurl.com/dhoqc Daytona Beach, Florida, thinks only the well-off should access the waterfront http://www.sptimes.com/2005/07/18/Tampabay/Government_prope rty_s.shtml or http://tinyurl.com/8r6xj ============================================================ JPFO mirror site: http://www.jpfo.net ============================================================ LET JPFO KEEP YOU INFORMED -- Sign up today for JPFO Alerts! Just send a blank e-mail to jpfoalerts-subscribe@jpfo.org ============================================================= Regain your freedom - download the song "Justice Day" today! http://www.rebelfirerock.com/downloadjd.html ============================================================= Original Material in JPFO ALERTS is Copyright 2005 JPFO, Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce this alert in full, so long as the following JPFO contact information is included: Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership PO Box 270143 Hartford, Wisconsin 53027 Phone: 1-262-673-9745 Order line: 1-800-869-1884 (toll-free!) Fax: 1-262-673-9746 Web: http://www.jpfo.org/ ALERT FROM JEWS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF FIREARMS OWNERSHIP America's Aggressive Civil Rights Organization July 22, 2005 JPFO ALERT: THE SECOND AMENDMENT IS ALIVE AND WELL You may have seen an article that's been making the rounds of the Internet: "The Second Amendment is Already Dead" By David Brownlow http://tinyurl.com/cc3gh or http://www.newswithviews.com/Brownlow/david43.htm Although we think it's an interesting article, worth reading and discussing, The Liberty Crew respectfully begs to differ. Mr. Brownlow makes two main points. First, he says that the Second Amendment is dead because government dares to tell us what arms we can and cannot own. Next, he claims that since the weaponry possessed b today's U.S. government is so much more powerful than the weaponry in citizens' hands that citizens no longer have any hope of protecting themselves against another "long train of abuses" like the one the American colonists rebelled against. Wrong on both counts. And here's why. A RIGHT DOESN'T DISAPPEAR SO EASILY A right remains a right, no matter what any government says or does. Rights are G-d-given.* Rights are inborn. It is certainly true that governments ride rough-shod over rights. But to say that right is dead because a government abuses it is rather like saying that the sky is red with purple polka-dots just because some legislature says so. Many people mistake the Bill of Rights for a contract. Contracts can be altered at will by the parties involved. The Bill of Rights is NOT a contract. It is an acknowledgment of pre-existing conditions. When the government violates any of the Bill's provisions, then that government may cease to be worthy of our respect or obedience, but the rights remain. The damage can be undone. If someone tries to kill you, you still have the right to defend yourself with the best weaponry for the job. If a government tries to tyrannize you, you still have the right to arm yourself against it. Still doubt that? Then ask yourself this: If you had to sit down and negotiate today, would YOU make YOUR right of self-defense conditional on contract law? No, we didn't think so. And the Founders didn't, either. IT'S NOT THE WEAPONRY, IT'S THE WILL Anyone who has studied history -- or even lived through the last 30 or 40 years -- should recognize the fallacy in Mr. Brownlow's other point -- that because we are drastically outgunned, we have no hope of ever rebelling against government, should conditions get that bad. No long arguments are needed -- just a few words: the Warsaw Ghetto, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq. In each of these places, local people, sometimes with crude and improvised weapons, fought (or are fighting) global powers to a standstill. Guerrilla fighters in Afghanistan not only drove out the Soviet army; they triggered the downfall of the Soviet empire. And before that, they broke the will of the British empire. Likewise, the Vietnamese stopped both the French and the Americans. Here's another two-word phrase that demonstrates why Mr. Brownlow is wrong: The Liberator. The Liberator was a crude, cheap, American-made pistol, used in France, the Philippines, and China during World War II. It fired just one shot and had just one purpose: to enable local partisans to kill occupying soldiers and seize their -- far superior -- weapons. (Here's an article with photos: http://tinyurl.com/9tyd8 or http://www.nfa.ca/nfafiles/cfjarchive/firearms/liberator.ht ml.) Crude weapons obtain better ones. Simple weapons obtain sophisticated ones. And every abusive government also ends up training soldiers who later may have both the will and the skill to turn its own weapons against it. History everywhere shows that a fire in the belly -- the will to be free -- triumphs over superior weaponry. So read Mr. Brownlow's article and consider its arguments. But never despair. The Second Amendment is alive and well and will remain so as long as armed Americans possess the will to defend their own homes, neighborhoods, and families against some future tyranny. - The Liberty Crew ----- * We spell G-d this way because in Judiasm it is considered disrespectful to utter the name of the Creator outside of sacred settings. ============================================================ JPFO mirror site: http://www.jpfo.net ============================================================ LET JPFO KEEP YOU INFORMED -- Sign up today for JPFO Alerts! Just send a blank e-mail to jpfoalerts-subscribe@jpfo.org ============================================================= Regain your freedom - download the song "Justice Day" today! http://www.rebelfirerock.com/downloadjd.html ============================================================= Original Material in JPFO ALERTS is Copyright 2005 JPFO, Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce this alert in full, so long as the following JPFO contact information is included: Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership PO Box 270143 Hartford, Wisconsin 53027 Phone: 1-262-673-9745 Order line: 1-800-869-1884 (toll-free!) Fax: 1-262-673-9746 Web: http://www.jpfo.org/ --- From John Farnam: (This discussion gets more interesting as the comments roll in.) 21 July 05 Administrative/Tactical? Friend, Bob Willis, pointed this out to me yesterday: If you're a uniformed, police officer, your duty belt needs to be divided into "Tactical" and "Administrative" sections (we already classify firearms procedures that way). Generally best to declare the front portion, the half in front of your hips, the "Tactical" area, and the back portion, the "Administrative" area. The tactical part of your belt needs to hold all the stuff you need to protect your life and good health, ie: your weapons: pistol, spare magazines, OC, Taser, baton, backup pistol, blades, flashlight. Less important "administrative" items: handcuffs, radio transmitter, keys, pager, spare batteries, cell phone, etc need to be in the less-accessible, rear portion of your duty belt, the "administrative" area. Organizing your duty belt correctly helps you organize your thinking correctly, which assists you in a coordinated and efficacious response to threats. Placing items on your duty belt haphazardly, with scant thought to their relative importance, is a foolish mistake, and one that is easily avoided with a little critical thought. Good show, Bob! /John 22 July 05 Good comments from a colleague in OH: "(1) John, you'd need a sixty-inch waist to carry all that stuff (don't take that as a challenge)! (2) Be sure to remind everyone, no matter how much junk they have loaded onto their duty belt, to avoid having a hard object (like a cuff case) directly over their spine. Hard objects over the spine are an invitation to serious injury. (3) If officers are carrying both a Taser AND a handgun on their duty belt, how do they defend either/both from a gun grab? If a suspect goes for an officer's Taser, does he draw his sidearm and shoot? Does he employ a weapon-retention technique (involving both of his hands) that will leave his sidearm undefended? Does he put a hand on both and then head butt his opponent? I have asked these questions of agencies who carry both, and have never received a credible answer. It is apparent to me that they have put the latest technology in the field and had not yet thought the issue through." Comment: Good points, and I don't have good answers! /John 23 July 05 More excellent comments, this time from a friend in the Philippines, where it is hot and sweaty most of the time! "While your last post was geared towards officers in uniform, the same advice should be heeded by those who regularly carry concealed. Given all the stuff with which we routinely burden ourselves, keeping everything on the belt is not easy. Both the inventory and layout need to be thought out thoroughly. Like you, I've seen people attempt to stuff mobile phones, flashlights, folding knives, OC cans, and Leathermans into pistol magazine wells during tactical exercises. For this reason, many of us here use this system: Spare magazines are on the belt and vertically oriented. Leathermans are on the belt, but oriented horizontally. Blades are clipped to pockets or inside the waistband. Phones, keys, OC, and pagers are inside pockets. Flashlights are on the belt too, but horizontal like Leathermans. The only items that are on the belt and vertically oriented are spare magazine(s) and, of course, the pistol. Second pistols are off the belt and away from the waistband. Down here, we have little usable body real estate, so competent planning on what to carry and where is a real issue. I constantly have to remind students that their equipment inventory must be limited! You're not going to be able to regularly carry everything you can possibly imagine you'll ever need. Ditto the advice about not carrying hard objects over the spine. You don't have to get knocked on your fanny to appreciate this. A long ride in a car with supportive seats will be an eye-opener!" Comment: Too many choices can be as paralyzing as too few! Responsiveness and austerity have a direct relationship. Don't use equipment, or absence of it, as a convenient excuse to lose. First Rule of Tactics: Do the best you can with what you have. Don't dither! /John -- Stephen P. Wenger Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .