One Year Later...: Law-enforcement officials in Delaware see no change in crime patterns one year after the sunset of the federal ban on cosmetically impaired firearms. http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050918/NEWS01/509180317/1006/NEWS --- Partial Victory In New York: A judge has struck down a portion of a law that mandates background checks for firearm transfers at gun shows. The affected portion was one that too vaguely defined a gun show. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050917/NEWS01/509170325/1002/NEWS --- Katrina Aftermath Likely To Erode Posse Comitatus: President Bush's push to give the military a bigger role in responding to major disasters like Hurricane Katrina could lead to a loosening of legal limits on the use of federal troops on U.S. soil. Currently the military role, by law, may not include actions that can be defined as law enforcement - stopping traffic, searching people, seizing property or making arrests. That prohibition is spelled out in the Posse Comitatus Act, enacted after the end of Reconstruction. http://www.breitbart.com/news/na/D8CM6FB00.html --- Arizona Universities Remain Defensless-Victiom Zones: Both a rape and an attempted kidnapping are reported this past week at Northern Arizona University, possibly the most liberal of Arizona's state universities. Avoiding any mention of the ban on firearms on campus, "We have a responsibility to protect our students by keeping them informed of situations that could endanger them," stated Tom Bauer, spokesperson for NAU, of the decision to issue the alert. http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=115580 http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=115522 --- Teaching Kids To Hunt: The New York Times discusses how some people are taking steps to ensure that hunting does not die out in this country. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/18/national/18hunting.html?ei=5094&en=2a878b1ea14dce4c&hp=&ex=1127016000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all --- Teaching Hmong Hunter Safety: In the aftermath of the conviction of Chai Vang for the killing of six hunters in Wisconsin, a brief article describes a hunter-safety course specifically for Hmong hunters. http://nbc15.madison.com/news/headlines/1722701.html --- New Orleans Firearm Confiscation In Historical Perspective: Commentary discusses the terrible precedent set by the firearm confiscation policy implemented in New Orleans and casts it in the light of the genocides that followed confiscation in other lands and times. http://groong.usc.edu/news/msg123006.html --- NOPD - The Other Side Of The Story: Not directly related to the usual content of these mailings, this account of a heroic NOPD officer's experience during the hurricane and flooding may interest some of you. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-officer18sep18,0,6755213,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines --- Mississippi vs. New Orleans: I felt that this account was worth sharing. WELCOME TO MISSISSIPPI O.K. I'll make an attempt to tell what's going on down here right now. It's hard to do for several reasons. First, because there is so much , it's hard to talk about. Let's try to focus on the positive. You're right to be sick about New Orleans. They've turned into a bunch of animals over there. The idiots are shooting at the people who are trying to help them???? I think for the most part it's due to the frustration caused by the lack of response by their State Government....I mean, an SOS call? Give me a break. Everybody is so focused on what's going on in the Superdome, the Mississippi story is going un-reported. It's one of the bright things that are happening here now. We are NOT leaving our people to wallow and starve in their own filth ,and the cadavers of loved ones. Were finding the live ones and getting them north as fast a possible. Most of the hundreds showing up here have at least had a meal, and a bath. Haley Barbour the Governor and his administration will come out as true heroes in this disaster once the total story is told. The differences between the Louisiana and Mississippi responses are truly startling. Haley and MEMA had already had Mississippi declared disaster areas TWO DAYS before Katrina hit......What does that mean? A lot........ It means we had a two day head start on recovery. It means we had pre-positioned response teams...FULLY EQUIPPED ! It means we already had supplies being loaded on trucks to go to the coast while the hurricane was still going on. It means Federal representatives from FEMA were already IN State when it hit. Which means somebody on the Satellite Phone moving troops and aid our way while Louisiana was still trying to get . . We have been dealing with looters a little differently on the coast. Once you shoot a few and leave their bodies laying in front of the store with their arms full of booty, the rest get the idea pretty quickly. Hasn't been a big problem. In the case of breaking in to get survival supplies...food and water. The police have shot the locks off the doors and helped take the stuff to distribution points. School buses to haul refuges to shelters north, an idea Louisiana JUST figured out by the way, have been running shuttle since Wednesday morning. They are pouring in here by the hundreds. Red Cross has been doing a GREAT job on setting up relief shelters in our area. The local Governments have opened all of the convention centers and school auditoriums to them. I know it's hard to believe, but the local Friday night Football games have ALL been canceled this week. Our efforts are going elsewhere this weekend. My daughter is the editor for the local University newspaper. She asked me what she could do for these folks, and I told her" The main thing they need right now is bottled water". So she made a few phone calls and set it up with her newspaper and the local T.V. stations....in 24 hours they had collected over 600 gallons. This story is typical and is happening all over this part of the state. Pulpwood haulers (lumberjacks to you Yankees) who showed up at Interstates and main feeder hi-ways heading south. Started cutting up the downed trees with their own chainsaws, and loading them up with their hydraulic boom hauling trucks. Opening the way south for our relief effort...nobody called them....they just showed up and started doing what had to be done. Welcome to Mississippi The local churches are jumping in too. Emmanuel Baptist has been cooking and serving three meals a day for 1500 people at the shelter there since Wednesday. Where is the food coming from? Strangers are just showing up at the convention center and dropping it off. Red Cross is providing some of it, but the majority is just showing up....from people who aren't seeking and never will be recognized. It's happening all over the state. again and again. Welcome to Mississippi. Our local hotels are full of people here from New Orleans......most are starting to run out of money, so we have begun collecting for their hotel bills and providing them with meals at the shelters. Quite a few in town have taken them in to their own homes...knowing they may be there for months. I filled up one guy's tank at the gas station Tuesday because he only had enough money for a few gallons. Welcome to Mississippi. Just stopped and put an antenna on one of our E.O.C. Trucks headed south to Ocean Springs. Their headed down to do a fuel supply run. While here, my daughter came in with another 300 gallons of bottled water, asking where she could store it. I said" How 'bout the back of this truck?" )) This is how it works, over and over and over . Sorry if this E-mail seems a little jumpy, I've been adding to it all day. As I get a minute and as thoughts occur to me. Things are happening all around me, and it's hard to sort it all out while "in the moment". I think that's the way this story will be told.....later .It's going to take a while. While I'm thinking about it.....BIG thank you to Motorola. I'm almost as proud of being a Motorolan as I am a Mississippian. You guys may not know about it yet, but Motorola has put on a Herculean support effort. I was involved on the fringes for a while, but the effort to send radios and infrastructure has been nothing short of phenomenal! My guys on the coast called with a SEVERE need for repeaters and W.T's. They had a few towers and antennas still standing, but the repeaters were in about three feet of water. After a few phone calls around the campus there in Schaumburg, I was given the Bridge call number for the emergency request line. Made a call back to my guys and passed it on. I'll be sheep dipped if Motorola didn't have equipment THERE the NEXT DAY!!!!!! HOT DANG!!! That's the way you do it. )) Mississippians have loooong memories. This one will NOT be forgotten. Anybody see Jim Geary up there....kiss him for me. Lord knows I won't. )) And anybody else that you know was involved in Motorola's support effort. Tell them Mississippi gives a heartfelt "God Bless You"' Most of us cry at least once a day. You can't deal with the hundreds we have coming in here everyday and not be affected. I've seen big bears break down and just fall apart. Mostly blaming themselves for not getting out in time. That choice cost him a wife, child or in some cases both. They all usually say the same things. "I didn't think it would get that bad." All you can do is listen and try to comfort. Sometimes you see guys just staring into the sunset....not saying anything....but you see those jaw muscles working hard to hold it in. I had one tell me yesterday "We had to choose,Stay in the attic and drown,or climb on the roof into a 150 mile an hour wind. She was screaming my name as she flew away." How do you respond to that? You don't.....you just cry with him and listen.... Loose children who don't know where Mamma or Daddy are, or even if their alive. Ten year olds, trying to be "mama" or "daddy" to a little sister or brother......it will tear your heart out. Most also know there is NOTHING to go home to. The house is gone, and in most cases the job too. They show up here with the clothes on their back, and that's it. It's all they have left. It's hard, just too hard for words.................you do what you can,but.......... FORGET about Mississippi burning. That was our dark, distant past. Watch us NOW. This is Mississippi today. We've opened our Homes,Hearts and wallets to strangers in need. We don't care if their White, Black, Brown or Polka -dot. Were going to be O.K., It will take years, but we're dealing with it. We will deal with it the way only a true southerner can...one day at a time. Were out of gasoline today. All the local stations have run out. My phones are still acting squirrelly on out of state calls and my cell phone has been a paper weight since Tuesday. But I did sleep in my own bed last night, and took a hot shower this morning. There is food in my house, and I know where all my family is. You take these things for granted, until their gone........ Forward as you see fit.... Mark Flemmons Modern Communications Cleveland, Mississippi --- From John Farnam: 12 Sept 05 NDs A student experienced an ND in his motel room recently. The single, errant bullet penetrated to an outside wall and impacted into a hill behind the motel. Fortunately, it resulted in property damage only, along with a large dose of embarrassment. The accident occurred at the end of a long and exhausting day of shooting. The student was tired. He took his backup pistol out of its holster and began to unload it, then became distracted by a news bulletin on TV. When he "dry-fired," the pistol unexpectedly discharged. This kind of accident can happen to anybody, and those of us who carry and handle guns regularly needn't think ourselves exempt! The two causative factors, operating simultaneously are always: Fatigue, and Distraction. Sometimes, we're just too tired to be handing guns! This student told me later that he had decided to wait until morning to continue with maintenance, but then changed his mind. When loading, unloading, performing a chamber check, and performing user-level maintenance, we need to have an attention span sufficient to complete the process. Interruptions will provide the deadly catalyst! As with parallel parking a car, handling guns requires that we pay full attention to what we're doing throughout the procedure. Finally, I recommend to all my students who carry guns to own and use a Safe Direction gun bag. Safe Direction is not designed to prevent accidents. It is designed to limit the damage. It is a containment system that will stop and contain a errant pistol bullet fired unintentionally during administrative gun-handling processes. All serious gun owners should have a copy. Every time you touch a gun, you are presented with yet another chance to have an accident. Be alert. Follow the correct procedure without interruptions. Use a Safe Direction bag. The consequences of your errant bullet causing injury are too grievous to do less. /John 14 Sept 05 The 1911 Pistol and the Swartz system As originally designed and produced, John M Browning's 1911 pistol had no mechanical interlock that prevented the firing pin from going forward when the pistol was dropped on the muzzle or when the slide went forward in the normal loading procedure or during the normal cycle of operation. These two theoretical circumstances through which the pistol could conceivably fire unintentionally (or even go full auto) were considered so astronomically unlikely, Browning was unconcerned. History has proven him correct! I, for one, have been training people to carry and shoot 1911s since 1968 and have had thousands of 1911s come through classes, including many that were manufactured during and before WWII. My students have loaded them, unloaded them, performed chamber checks on them, shot them, and even dropped more times than I can count. In those thirty-seven years, I've never once personally witnessed a 1911 slam-fire, a 1911 go full-auto, or a 1911 discharge as the result of being dropped. Maybe these things happen, but they have never happened in front of me. Yes, like all of us, I've heard many third-hand stories, but my experience causes me to believe Browning was right, as we have discovered over the years that he usually is! Today, nearly all major manufacturers of pistols, other than the 1911, have trigger-activated firing-pin locks, standard on all their products, and have had this feature from the first gun they produced. In the 1980s, Colt added a trigger-activated system to their version of the 1911, and all Colt's 1911s have come with it ever since. A trigger-activated firing-pin lock makes it mechanically unachievable for the firing pin to reach the primer of the chambered round without pressure being applied to the trigger. Other modern-day 1911 manufacturers, specifically Kimber and S&W, instead use a version of the "Swartz System," which is a grip-safety-activated firing-pin lock. The Swartz System was designed specifically to address the drop-safety issue only. It does not address the slam-fire issue, as the pistol is properly gripped (depressing the grip safety) when it is loaded. Since most pistols don't have grip safeties, the Swartz System is found only on 1911s. Kimber makes the "Warrior" model, which has neither a grip-safety nor a trigger-activated firing-pin lock, and that is the one currently being purchased by the USMC. My Detonics too has neither of the above. I became concerned with this system when I witnessed several female students shoot my S&W Scandium Commander one-handed last week. On several occasions, S&W's version of the Swartz System worked only too well! The hammer dropped all the way forward as the trigger was pressed, but the pistol, to the astonishment of the shooter, failed to fire. The primer on the chambered round, upon examination, was unmarked. I'm persuaded that this failure was due to the fact that the grip safety was not fully depressed. It was depressed far enough to allow the hammer to fall but not far enough to fully unblock the firing pin. The phenomenon was not observed with shooters with bigger hands, nor did it happen when my female students held the pistol with both hands. Upon examination of the firing-pin stop itself (a spring-loaded plunger), I could see that it had been battered by the firing pin hitting it. A friend who also owns a S&W 1911 observed that the firing-pin stop on his pistol was badly battered too. He sent his back to S&W, and they, of course, replaced the part, but he, and I, are concerned that eventually that part (the firing-pin stop) will batter itself into incompetence. S&W has a good product here, but I am concerned about these occasional failures to fire. When I get a chance to talk with gunsmiths at S&W, I'll report back. /John 1. I can recall when one American police department, testing the then-new Glock 17, dropped a loaded one from a helicopter and it failed to discharge. 2. I can recall, a few years later, when Glock issued a "voluntary product upgrade" after one of their pistols discharged when it was dropped on a locker-room floor. 3. I can recall, when I used to teach with one of the big-name instructors, hearing him advise 1911 fans to carry Series 80 models on the street and save the Series 70 (or older) models for use in competition or other use on the range. As I started to see the chinks in his armor I realized that the statistical probability of dropping a loaded pistol is greater at the range, particularly during some sort of action-pistol match, than it is while carrying a holstered pistol on the street. 15 Sept 05 Colt's new NRM Colt is now making and marketing the NRM, or "New Rollmark" or "New Series 70" 1911 pistols. Colt is still offering their current "Series 80"1911s also. The new Series 70 pistols, designed to directly compete with the Kimber Warrior and the new Detonics 1911s, are sold as a "Custom Shop" item, signifying nothing, except that they apparently now consider themselves justified in turning out guns with no trigger-activated or grip-safety (Swartz) firing-pin block. As with S&W, we all wish Colt would reclaim some of their proud heritage and rebound as a serious competitor for Glock and SIG, but their labor problems (Teamsters) probably nix any possibility of that. /John 15 Sept 05 On Tape Loops, from a student: "I want to tell you about a recent experience that illustrates the effectiveness of a well-rehearsed 'tape loop.' My wife and I were in Atlanta two weekends ago for a Convention at the downtown Hyatt. Like many big towns, Atlanta has 'anti-begging' laws, but they are largely unenforced. Sure enough, we were approached by a local sleaze who tried the old, 'Hey mister; can you help me?' ruse. I was ready for it, and, halfway through his sentence, I interrupted, raised my left hand in a half-wave/half-dismissive chop and said politely, but firmly, and in a clear voice, loud enough for everyone nearby to hear, 'Sorry sir; we can't help you.' We continued walking without so much as dragging a foot. It was as if he walked into an invisible wall! He turned to his right and drifted aimlessly away without another word. Fortunately, my tone left no doubt in his mind that he had selected his 'victim' most unwisely! Your tip on memorizing and rehearsing short phrases came in handy that evening, and this was the first opportunity I've had to use it. It worked!" Comment: Successful disengagement can usually be accomplished via posture and firm verbalizations, but you must be practiced and have your "tape-loops" ready to go! /John (Some of my students feel silly when I have them use some of these "tape loops" during range exercises. We tend to fight as we train and that includes the communication skills, along with the shooting skills.) 16 Sept 05 A Training System Founded Upon Fear: In GA there was an accidental, fatal shooting of a police trainee by an instructor last week. Details have been actively withheld, but we do know this: The training was conducted in a state-administered "Safety Facility." Standard "safety" rules mandated at such facilities include: No functioning firearms, nor even live ammunition, are allowed in buildings or classrooms, even though firearms handling and tactical use of firearms are among the subjects taught in such classrooms. Cold ranges. Not even charged magazines are allowed in weapons unless on the firing line. Weapons are immediately, indeed frantically, unloaded the instant any shooting phase is completed. Unloaded guns are repeatedly placed in holsters and carried that way during the course of the day. Students are assumed to be blithering idiots and/or criminals and are consistently treated as such. The "no guns/ammo rule," aside from being stupid, is, as anyone would guess, poorly and inconsistently administered. Instructors soon contrive and implement "work-arounds," so that they don't waist so much time. Metal detectors are posted at building entrances, but all those carrying tin simply walk around them. Upon entering, armed officers are then supposed to place their unloaded firearms in lockers, but lockers are inconsistently and inconveniently located, and no useable "safe direction" is provided for the unloading process. So, the unworkable "no gun/ammo rule" is eventually disregarded. Instructors have "red guns" for instructional use. Naturally, they must bring them to class, and, in this case, the teacher apparently forgot his and used his service pistol instead, which he had doubtless "unloaded." There have been varying reports as to what was actually being taught at the time in question, but obviously muzzle awareness was not on the curriculum! More stringent and draconian "rules" will not prevent these tragedies, any more than they prevented this one, although that is surely what this academy will do in response. The problem is not a lack of rules. The problem is that the entire system is based on fear and personal revulsion of guns. Bureaucrats who set this system up are so frightened and hateful of guns, they re paralyzed with fear any time they get near one, and they despise and dread all those who are not frightened and who carry guns proudly and audaciously. Indeed, cold ranges and "no guns/ammo zones" are little more than crystallized fear. Training institutions embodying such a fear/loathing approach to firearms can never be successful and will consistently experience firearms accidents, such as this one, until they finally repent of their arrogant folly and admit they're doing it all wrong! On the other side of the ledger, our ranges are all hot! Everyone, students and instructors alike, is armed all the time, usually with several guns. We encourage our students to think of themselves as professional gunmen, and we treat them as such. One can respect guns without fearing them. We have seen some progress with institutional training, but fear still has a chokehold on most training academes. We need fewer bureaucratic attaboys and more audacious heroes! /John -- Stephen P. Wenger Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .