Lead-Ammo Ban Proposed In Arizona: Last year was a tough one for the California condor in northern Arizona...Now several environmental groups are asking the Arizona Game and Fish Commission to ban the use of lead bullets statewide to protect the federally listed birds, other scavengers and, possibly, hunters. http://www.azdailysun.com/articles/2007/08/11/news/20070811_front%20page_5.txt --- Attention, Illinois: An online petition has been initiated for the recall of Governor Blagojevich. (Blagojevich has pushed Chicago-style infringements of the RKBA for the rest of the state.) http://impeachblago.com/index.html --- From Force Science Research Center: New studies to reveal best methods for peak-performance training Force Science News #78 August 10, 2007 New studies to reveal best methods for peak-performance training Two major new studies of how best to train officers to maximize their street skills and win against potentially deadly suspects are being launched by the Force Science Research Center. One project will focus on finding and teaching the most effective techniques for verbally gaining cooperation and preventing assaults by difficult-to-control subjects, such as the criminally inclined, the mentally ill, the drunk and drugged, and the developmentally impaired. The second will be the most ambitious investigation yet undertaken by the FSRC. This study will explore how in-service and academy trainees can most reliably be elevated from mere competence to peak performance at all levels of the force continuum in a cost- and time-effective way. "Both these pioneering projects will allow the FSRC ultimately to recommend specific, vital changes for strengthening police training, if and when necessary. This has been a challenging goal of ours from the beginning," says Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of the Center at Minnesota State University-Mankato. "We expect the results to reverberate throughout the law enforcement community world wide. Officers and trainers will be the immediate beneficiaries, then the citizens and communities they serve." Preliminaries are already underway, with the studies expected to be fully operational by January. Running simultaneously, each is expected to last at least 3 years. The research has received 7-figure funding from the U.K. Police Federation of England and Wales, a staff association representing 140,000 police officers, from Constables to Chief Inspectors, as well as the Police Federation of the London Metropolitan Police Department. The research will be conducted predominately in the United Kingdom, although "the findings will be applicable to policing generally," Lewinski assures. The British unions, he explains, have taken an aggressive role in encouraging scientific inquiries into LE issues "because they want to do whatever they can to maximize the safety of their officers and the community." Lewinski will be the lead researcher on both studies. On-site project coordinator will be Cst. Dave Blocksidge of the London Metropolitan Police. Blocksidge will be based in a satellite office the FSRC is opening in England. In a recent interview with Force Science News, Lewinski described the basics of the 2 studies. 1. Verbal Communication & Persuasion Project. "One of the most powerful communication tools is persuasion," Lewinski says. "Yet it is the least understood and taught component of a law enforcement curriculum. "The core question this study will explore, he explains, is "how as a line officer you can be more effective verbally in persuading suspects to stop doing what they want to do but you don't want them to do and start doing what you want them to do but they may not want to do." In short, how can you best gain voluntary cooperation before force becomes necessary. "Broadly speaking, there are 3 methods of persuasion: logical, emotional, and characterlogical," Lewinski says. (Chacterlogical involves appealing to a person's self-image.) "Each of these approaches may work in gaining compliance with certain subjects in certain circumstances, but no one method of persuasion works universally with all people in all situations. "The key, then, to short-circuiting potentially dangerous confrontations before they escalate to a violent level requiring force is to learn to 'read' the subject and situation you're dealing with and tailor what you say to the persuasion style most likely to be successful under those conditions. "Officers often get in trouble because they aren't able to accurately pick up on the cues they need to tell what style is appropriate, or they only know one approach-most often one that depends predominately on logic, which usually has limited effectiveness with some of the difficult subjects they encounter on the street." Among other things, the study will attempt to identify: * specific behavioral cues to help officers easily determine the personality type they're dealing with; * how officers can learn to read these faster; * the persuasion strategies and techniques most likely to be successful and those most likely to fail with the subject an officer is trying to communicate with; * how cues and effective techniques alike may vary from one cultural or ethnic group to another; * the training methods most effective for enabling officers to master a range of techniques and be able to apply them effectively under stress in street situations. "London is one of the most diverse cities in the world," Lewinski says, "so it will be an ideal testing laboratory when we bring what we learn to the street." The study will have 3 phases. PHASE I. First, researchers will study police training curricula internationally to catalog what communication/persuasion techniques are currently being taught. Through focus groups of LE personnel, academic experts, professional specialists (those who work in clinical settings with the mentally ill and substance abusers, for example), and advocacy groups, they will also identify the kinds of situations in which vexing communication problems most often arise, and they'll probe for resolution techniques that seem promising enough for scientific testing. "It's important to remember that law enforcement has different needs and expectations, as well as a different level of urgency usually, than practitioners in the social work and psychological communities," Lewinski acknowledges. "But by the same token some techniques they find effective may be adaptable to common police situations, and we are looking here for fresh ideas not currently being widely exploited in police training and practice." During Phase I, researchers will also be examining instructional styles and how these can be adapted to the time and cost constraints of police academies. "Advisory boards will be established to help us decide which techniques and which teaching styles we are going to research in depth," Lewinski says. PHASE II. Lewinski terms this "nuts and bolts time." With the guidance of advisory boards of academic experts, the researchers will be "looking at effective tests to identify different student learning styles, and then identify the teaching style that best trains each type of student." As Lewinski explains, "There are trainees who learn best through seeing, others who are auditory learners, others who learn by doing, and some who only learn well through a combination of all three styles." If a student's optimum learning style can be reliably determined and then matched to the most compatible instructional style, then the researchers hope to establish how this linkage can be utilized within academy and in-service training limitations to maximize each student's comprehension and performance. PHASE III. Finally, there will be the evaluation or "pay-off" stage. Through computerized simulations, role playing, and ultimately street testing, the researchers will assess both content and instruction-what communication/persuasion techniques prove to work best in practical, real-life policing situations and what training method(s) best teach officers to use them successfully. By the time this study concludes, Lewinski is convinced, it will have yielded surprising new guidelines for persuasive communication in volatile encounters. He offers some observations on the kind of useful material that may emerge: * In dealing with EDPs, officers are often taught currently to "try to convince them you are their friend and want to help them," Lewinski says. "But if the subject is extremely suspicious or paranoid, that approach may only heighten his suspicion and make him more reluctant to cooperate. We may find that the best way to work with paranoids would be to encourage them to be suspicious of you while you work with them. Paradoxical, but possibly most effective." * With amoral or criminal personalities, an appeal to their emotions or self-esteem is rarely persuasive, he believes. "They're not interested in feeling good or in your opinion of their character. They'll seek whatever is in their best interest, how they can get out of the situation with the greatest 'cost-saving' to them. So I think we'll find that techniques employing logic are most likely to be effective: 'If you cooperate, this is what you get; if you don't, this is what you get.'" * Street experience shows that "if you find yourself liking someone greatly or hating them instantly, it may be that they are trying to play you, to read you to see how to manipulate you, and they're either connecting or missing. Start being suspicious that you're dealing with a dangerous psychopathic personality. If you get sucked in to the wrong persuasion style in trying to handle him, it could be extremely dangerous or even deadly for you." Lewinski explains that "cops aren't going to need to become psychiatric diagnosticians to be good persuaders. I believe we can come up with simple ways they can quickly characterize the difficulty they are having with an individual and then know how to overcome it. "Today we have many theories and techniques being taught for how to do that, and many methods of instruction. We haven't yet proven what's best. Thousands of officers will be involved in this study, helping us establish scientific answers." This study is being funded by the London Metropolitan Police Federation, a joint committee of the London Met staff associations representing constables, sergeants, and inspectors. 2. Skills Enhancement Study. This will be a broad-based examination of training methods across the full spectrum of force skills, encompassing verbal commands, empty-hand control, OC, electronic and impact weapons, and firearms. Pivotal to the study will be interaction between two "think tanks," to be created by the FSRC and drawn from the UK, the US, and Canada. One advisory group will consist of about 15-20 top academic authorities who have specialized in various aspects of human performance under high stress, including sports psychology, cognition (how the brain works), perception (how the brain and eyes work together), attention, and memory. The other group will be some 40-50 LE trainers who are considered experts in their particular force disciplines. Using Britain's national force curriculum as a reference, the trainers will identify what techniques need to be taught in what time frame and the academics, drawing on their expertise, will suggest instructional methods that can best maximize trainees' abilities. "A collaboration on this scale has never been done before," Lewinski says, "and it has the potential of significantly improving officers' chances of surviving and winning to everyone's advantage in violent confrontations." Currently, he claims, most training programs, especially in the realm of defensive tactics, "teach officers to a level of competency. To use a sports analogy, we lob softballs at them in training and expect them then to defend their life on the street when they're up against a world-class pitcher who's hurling hardballs at them at 90 miles an hour. "Training to competency means the student is adequate to qualify but the skill is not likely to be deep-seated. For instance, if you have to think about how to use a control hold in a street conflict, by the time you've thought about it the opportunity to use it may be gone. Your thinking has occupied too much of your mental resources for too long. "Ideally, we want to train to a level of proficiency. That's where you've developed your physical and mental abilities to the point where you can stay focused on the threat confronting you and no conscious thought is required to confidently and properly apply the skill that is required for a successful outcome. "The goal of this study is to determine how to train to this level-peak performance-with methods that work within law enforcement's time and cost restrictions. With the help of the think-tank advisors, our researchers will look at what is being taught, how it is taught, how students tend best to learn force-related skills, and what improvements need to be made to bring law enforcement training to the next level." At least a year of the study will be devoted to rigorously and scientifically testing whatever proposals are made, Lewinski says. "Too much of police training has been based on what seems logical, on tradition, and on what influential individuals lobby for. We want to move the profession forward based on the science of human behavior." Some recommended changes may prove to be relatively minor, he anticipates. For example, in one academy he's familiar with the entire class of D.T. students is required to watch while each member tries to pass the final qualification exam. "Nothing is gained by those watching, but 6 to 8 hours of their limited time is wasted, about a fifth of the total course. Without extending the course or incurring additional costs, that time could be devoted to gaining additional reps, if nothing else, to enhance the trainees' skills." He's confident that more profound means of strengthening training will also surface as the 2 think tanks work together to adapt to law enforcement various performance-enhancement techniques that have proven successful and are well-established in other settings. "From sports psychology, for example, we may learn how to teach control of attention in the midst of conflict as a cognitive skill," he says. "That, in turn, could help us train officers to direct their attention to the right tasks when under threat, and that could have a life-or-death impact on their survival." Financing for this study is provided by the National Police Federation of England and Wales, which represents all operations officers at the rank of constables, sergeants, and inspectors within those 2 countries. Find the next training course near you: Training Course / Location / Dates Winning Extreme Encounters: From Street to Court Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI Aug. 23-24, 2007 Winning Extreme Encounters: From Street to Court Northern Quest Casino, Airways Heights, WA Sept. 24-25, 2007 Winning Extreme Encounters: From Street to Court LE Training Academy, Virginia Beach, VA Oct. 2, 2007 Winning Extreme Encounters: From Street to Court Northwest Wisconsin Tech College, Green Bay, WI Oct. 10, 2007 Visit www.forcescience.org for more information ================ The Force Science News is provided by The Force Science Research Center, a non-profit institution based at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Subscriptions are free and sent via e-mail. To register for your free, direct-delivery subscription, please visit www.forcesciencenews.com and click on the registration button. (c) 2007: Force Science Research Center, www.forcescience.org. Reprints allowed by request. For reprint clearance, please e-mail: info@forcesciencenews.com. FORCE SCIENCE is a registered trademark of The Force Science Research Center, a non-profit organization based at Minnesota State University, Mankato. ================ --- From John Farnam: 6 Aug 07 "The worm that destroys is the constant temptation to seek approval from your critics." NM Governor-turned-presidential-candidate, Bill Richardson, who spent considerable state funds building an NRA/Police Range in Albuquerque, all to win NRA 's endorsement, has, thus far, been the only ostensibly pro-Second-Amendment candidate on the Democratic side. In fact, when campaigning for NM governor, Bill was a constant champion of gun shows and gun-show sales of firearms. Not any more! Now, groveling at the feet of the DNC, Bill has suddenly done an about-face and announced that "we have to close the gun-show loophole," meaning that gun shows, indeed all gatherings of gun owners, formal and informal, need to prohibited by law. As probably could have been predicted, Bill has knuckled under to demands of the DNC and, of course, as president would do the same. A bright light has fizzled, sputtered, and gone out! "In a state of tranquillity, wealth, and luxury, our descendants will forget the Art of War and the noble zeal which made their ancestors invincible. Every corruption will be employed to loosen the bond of union which renders our resistance formidable. When the spirit of liberty, which now animates our hearts and gives success to our arms, is extinct, our numbers will accelerate our ruin and render us easy victims to tyranny." Sam Adams /John (Granted that Richardson probably doesn't have a chance at the Democratic nomination, how does one assess, on the one hand, a governor who signed hotly contested legislation creating legal CCW in his state, obtained a CHL to show support for the program, then begins supporting his party's anti-RKBA line, and, on the other hand, a governor who signed bills further infringing the RKBA in his state but becomes a life member of the NRA when he seeks the presidential nomination?) 6 Aug 07 Walther PPS Today, I handled a new Walther PPS pistol in 9mm. Imagine a G26 that is VERY thin! The PPS is a 9mm, polymer-frame 9-shooter (8+1), designed for concealed carry. Trigger is similar to Glock's, including a trigger-tab/safety. The pistol is self-dococking (DAO), with a crisp and short reset. No manual safety (which would be a silly redundancy). The ambidextrous magazine-release "lever" is incorporated into the bottom of the trigger-guard. I'm not sure if Walther's engineers just wanted to be different, or if they really see an advantage here, but I found the lever difficult to use and would prefer a conventional button. The PPS retails for $560.00, which puts it in direct competition with any number of other high-quality concealment pistols, like the G26, Kahr-9, SIG 239, S&W M&P Compact, et al. I really like the pistol's flatness. I believe it will lend itself to comfortable carry in IWB holsters. /John (At the beginning of my Glock armorer course, we reviewed the designation of Glock's frame sizes. I then asked about a time frame for the introduction of the rumored slim-line Glock in 9mm. The response is that Glock will produce it when Gaston Glock decides to produce it. It sounds as though Walther may have gotten the jump on this one unless you believe that Kahr already did so years ago.) 6 Aug 07 LaserMax UniMas-6 LaserMax is currently marketing an extremely small laser unit and attached pressure switch that is designed to quickly attach to rifles via a rail. I have a copy, and I've put it on my RA/XCR. What attracted me to this unit was its small size and the ability to attach it securely and conveniently via a rail. Yes, I know I've been a fan of neither rifle rails nor lasers in the past, but I may have been wrong! I'll have an opportunity to use this slick LaserMax unit over the next few months. It adds almost no bulk to the rifle and, I may find it useful. It surely is bright and difficult to miss! LaserMax is an innovative outfit, and they deserve a lot of credit for this innovative product, which they have brought forth in the face of skeptical comments from old guys, like me. I may be compelled to change my mind! /John (My only knowledge of true field use of rifle-mounted lasers came from Clive Shepherd, formerly of the NRA Law Enforcement Activities Division, who said that the British Royal Marine Commando found them useful for dealing with IRA demonstrations. When the bodyguards of the leaders would notice the red dot on his chest they would start fading away and leader would inevitably go through some comic antics, attempting to brush the dot off his chest. This, in turn, would convulse the marchers in laughter and the demonstration would break up. There have been reports of rifle-mounted lasers proving useful as intimidation tools when used in that mode by prison guards.) 6 Aug 07 "Protest" at DSA in Lake Barrington, IL The Jackson crowd has been conducting protests at several gun dealers in upstate IL recently, and getting arrested in the process. On 28 Aug 07 (Tues), they plan a protest at DSA's facility in Lake Barrington, IL. Of course, protestors will be outnumbered by food-frenzied, media people who will stick a microphone into Jessie's face every time he clears his throat! They'll display scant interest in interviewing anyone else. DSA makes a wonderful product that many of us stake our lives on routinely. They supply rifles and accessories to police departments throughout IL and the entire nation. DSA rifles are on patrol every day. My friends at DSA will courageously face these bussed-in protestors. They will offer no excuses nor rationalizations for being good citizens and honest businessmen, although they probably won't be heard, nor even noticed, on the evening news. All of us, along with DSA, need to stand up to these bullies. We need not apologize for exercising our rights as Americans. Cowering before bullies, as S&W did several years back, never has a good result. You may as well bleed in front of a shark! "You probably have some habit or practice that I would find disgusting. If your actions do not affect me, I will leave you in peace, especially when I know as little about the subject as you obviously do about firearms. I ask of you the same courtesy. I have owned firearms my entire life. I neither owe nor offer you an apology. In addition, I resent being beaten (by the likes of you) with the same stick as what real criminals should be beaten with, and are not." Cooper /John -- Stephen P. Wenger Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .