Community Watch, Texas Style: A man accused of raping a woman at knifepoint in a Dallas apartment was beaten by an angry group of people and shot at least twice, authorities said. The 26-year-old man, who was not identified, underwent surgery Friday after being hit with a baseball bat and shot, apparently once in the head, according to The Dallas Morning News..."He got what he deserved," Sharon Ivy said. "You don't go into (a) house ... do things to (a) momma and think it's all right. That was just a community watch." ...The boyfriend and some others confronted the suspect in the apartment, and a fight began. Police said the fight led out into the parking lot, with an unknown number of people taking part. The suspect in the rape eventually broke free and ran into another apartment, where he was shot. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5527818.html --- NRA-ILA Alerts: Alerts for the week (and there are a lot this week) are posted on the NRA-ILA website. http://www.nraila.org/ --- From John Farnam: 3 Feb 08 2008 SHOT Show, Las Vegas, NV, Second Day: This is, of course, Super-Bowl Sunday, so the Show started clearing our about a hour before the Big Game. More notes: Beretta is offering their PX4 Storm Pistol with both the "C" model, ("Constant-Action Trigger," Beretta's version of the DAK) and the "D" model, with its longer trigger and longer reset. I can't imagine anyone wanting a "D" model when the "C" is available, but Beretta continues to make both. However, one useful feature of the "D" model is that the hammer can be "double-dropped" on a dud round. The "C" model's hammer cannot. None-the-less, my personal preference is the "C" model, and that is what I carry. On Beretta's Compact version of the PX4, a nice, small pistol, the magazine floor-plate is hinged to provide a pinky-finger-shelf for even the biggest hands. Extremely clever! Gunvault, a company famous for quick-access lock-boxes, intended to be kept in night-stands, now makes full-size gun-safes, with the same raised, finger template! They are designed for quick access. However, one model features an electronic fingerprint reader, so it is not only extremely secure, but also continues to provide quick access. When the finger-print reader proves reliable, this may be the start of a trend! Blackhawk is marketing 511-style trousers and shirts with built-in tourniquets! The tourniquet is concealed, but already around your arms and leg, in two separate places. All you need do is tighten it when necessary. These garments may prove useful for people wearing lots of gear. You don't have to take any gear off in order to apply a tourniquet! Blackhawk's famous "Galdius" flashlight is being superceded by the "Gladius Maximis." Looks and works the same, but puts our nearly twice the light! ASP is marketing "air-weight" handcuffs. They are extremely light and handy, making it possible for nearly any officer, no matter what his capacity, to always have a set of cuffs on him. ASP's famous expandable baton now features the "lever-lock." It extends centrifugally, as before, but elegantly collapses with a simple twist of the extended segments. An end-cap with ceramic, glass-breaking spikes is also available, making it possible to break car-glass with a modest and low-profile strike. One may even combine an extendable baton with a high-output, LED flashlight. Makes a versatile tool that performs three separate tasks! Surefire is finally manufacturing Matt Graham's famous "Combat Ring." It is a rubber ring and finger ring that fits onto the end of most Surefire flashlights and facilitates the "Graham Method" of holding both pistol and flashlight together. With distinct advantages over both the Harries and Goode flashlight techniques, I'll be evaluating the Graham Method over the next few months. The whole kit retails for under ten dollars! Among Cold Steel's new products this year is the "Kudo" folding knife. It is Lynn Thompson's interpretation of the low-tech folders traditionally made in South Africa, and it is his expression of admiration for the determined ingenuity of non-technical people. Inexpensive and rugged, the Kudo is designed as a utility knife that anyone can own. Filson, famous for rugged outerwear, is introducing, finally, their line of clothing intended for women. Lots of interest! Steel M-16 magazines are appealing to many, because of their strength advantage over aluminum. C-Products is a popular manufacturer, as I've mentioned before. Another is the "Fusil," marketed by Elite Arms. My copies of Fusils run very well indeed. Speaking of M-16 Magazines, Magpul's plastic model runs fine too. I have one copy, and it runs well in all my rifles. An excellent feature of Magpul's magazine is that each comes with a locking "cap" that is designed to keep upward cartridge pressure off the magazine lips. It does that, but it also seals a fully-charged magazine, protecting ammunition from the elements. It is also extremely handy for air travel, as TSA insists all ammunition loaded into magazines be "protected" on the feeding end. Magpul's magazine cap satisfies TSA and gets ammunition out of sight. Excellent feature! Magpul's long-awaited "Masada" 223 rifle is now going to be manufactured, under license, by Bushmaster. It is called the "ACR," Adaptive Combat Rifle, and Bushmaster is already promoting it! First-Light has added the "Tomahawk" to their line. A short, right-angle tactical flashlight with a rubber, finger ring, it is compact and bright. I like the small size! I'll be working with a copy. Action Target's "Evil Roy" portable steel pistol target is perennially popular as is their "Dueling-Tree." Both are extremely well designed and very useful on the range. Action target knows steel! More tomorrow! (Note that any flashlight technique that couples the beam with the muzzle is likely to violate Rule Two as searching with the muzzle means the you will be pointing it at many things you don't intend to shoot, possibly including innocent bystanders.) /John 4 Feb 08 2008 SHOT Show, Las Vegas, NV, Third Day: More items of note: Aluma-Grips now makes thin, aluminum grip panels for the Browning Hi-Power, as well as for the 1911 Pistol. Aluma-Grips make the pistol thin and easy to carry concealed. I love them, and I surely wish they would expand their line to include other popular pistols! Eric Rohrbaugh, of Rohrbaugh Pistols, examined my copy of the R9 and found it to be within factory specifications and eminently serviceable, after digesting 250 rounds of +P 9mm ammunition, mostly DPX and PowerBall. Although Rohrbaugh doesn't recommend +P ammunition for this pistol, I assured him that was ALL I ever shot in it! I am not concerned about shooting +P ammunition through my R9, not that I ever was! I consider it a very acceptable backup gun. Tactical Design's "Professional" duty holster is making a comeback. The trend in duty holsters has been to load them up with multiple release-levers, to the point where a quick draw becomes all but impossible. It's the wrong direction! The molded nylon professional holster has only one release button, and the pistol automatically re-secures itself instantly the moment it is reholstered. My old friend, Brian Hoffner, is making the ingenious "Tac-Rail" system, where a tactical package (rifle magazines, shotgun ammunition, IBDs, smoke grenades, et al) can be instantly attached to a patrolman's duty belt, and detached just as fast. Excellent way to have emergency gear handy! Fred Choate, of Choate Industries, now has magazine extensions for nearly every shotgun made. Also on display were folding/collapsible stocks for many rifles and shotguns. Everything Fred makes is top-drawer! His shotgun magazine extensions are among the few I would ever trust. The Taurus 24/7, compact Version, makes a nice package! The trigger has a long, light take-up and a shallow, distinctive reset. It is basically a Glock with a two-position, manual safety, but ergonomics are wonderful. Mossburg is now offering a clever, segmented stock on plastic-furnitured 12ga and 20ga pump shotguns. Segments can be added and removed in order to instantly alter the stock's length. Excellent way to correctly fit small-statured shooters! John Ring, of Ring's Simulators, maker of the wonderful "Blue Guns" that we use all the time in Retention and Disarm training, is now offering a series of realistic-looking weapon props for force-on-force scenarios. He had on display several large pipe wrenches, crow bars, and hammers (made of rubber) that were so realistic looking I was astonished! Great stuff. Dave Skinner, at STI, has a new, small, thin, 9mm, 1911 pistol, called the "Rogue." It is designed to compete directly with SA's excellent EMP. Again, the concealment market in America is hot! At the DSA booth, on prominent display were the "Spartan" series of FAL's and AR-15s. Inspired by friend and colleague, John Krupa, Spartan rifles make liberal use of parts treated with Robbie Baarkman's incomparable NP3 coating. Light, short, and extremely reliable, even by DSA standards, these are excellent, fighting weapons. I love mine! The AXR is an American-made AUG that takes AR-15 magazines. We all liked it. Very well put together. AUG fans now have a place to go! Hi-Viz is now making a light-tube, AR-15 front sight. Light-gathering is exceptional, and it provides a front sight one can really see clearly, even through the small, rear peep. A friend at Springfield Armory asked me if I thought poorly of their XD pistol. I asked whatever gave her that idea! As I've said on numerous occasions, we see many XDs in Classes, and they run fine. They have a few sharp edges that need to be rounded, and the grip safety, when not depressed completely, prevents the slide from moving all the way back. Those are the pistol's only two real weak points, and the former is easily corrected. The latter can be address in training. SA is a fine, American, gun company, and, like all America gun companies, I want to see them widely successful! Next time you see me, I may be carrying an XD! Last day tomorrow! /John 5 Feb 08 2008 SHOT Show in Las Vegas, NV, Last Day: The 2008 SHOT Show is now officially over. It is a big trade show, and I didn't get to see some things I intended to, but the great strength of our industry was on display, and I suspect the rest of 2008, an election year, will see brisk trading indeed: Some additional notes: I took a closer look at Ruger's LCP, 380Auto Pistol today. Unlike the Kel-Tec version, Ruger's has a manual slide lock and a distinctively shallow trigger reset, both significant improvements. This is going to be a popular concealment gun for some and back-up gun for others. The LCP represents a marketing masterstroke by Ruger! Ruger's larger SR9 pistol garnered interest also, as it represents Ruger's active competition with Glock, SIG, S&W, Beretta, and H&K. Surely useable, but the trigger's substantial over-travel will negatively influence accuracy. Ruger's excellent five-shot snubby, the SP101, comes well-melted and with the hammer spur removed. Nice concealment pistol! Charles Daly is, along with everyone else it seems, now marketing an AR-15, as well as both single and double-column 1911 pistols. They look and feel nice to me! The "Shadow Shield" is an ingenious barricade that is a large, continuous mirror on the front side (except for a small observation hole)! When tilted slightly downward, the mirror reflects the ground in front of it back forward. The effect is that whoever is standing behind it effectively vanishes! Designed for covert observation, The Shadow Shield, like a chameleon, instantly adapts to whatever terrain it is being used on. Amazing! LiveSight produces conventional, paper targets, featuring good guys and bad guys, printed with a 3-D pattern! When observed normally, the target looks out-of-focus, but, through 3-D glasses, the target takes on a life-like, three-dimensional appearance. The effect is eerie indeed! The three-dimensional effect is retained, even when one eye is closed. This target will add realism to training, but wearing 3-D glasses is disorienting and, after a few minutes, nauseating. Sessions will have to be short. Glock's "SF" (for "Short Frame") modification, now standard on the G21 and G30, makes the trigger reach slightly shorter, contributes to a generally improved grip, and thus represents a positive improvement. I predict the "SF" modification will quickly become standard on all Glocks's models. It certainly should! The 2009 SHOT Show will be back in Orlando, FL. /John (Invariably, every year I am asked a few times if I will be attending the SHOT Show. No doubt there is an occasional quantum-leap product that debuts there but, if it's that great, I will either hear of it or see it within the year. I continue to believe that the operator is more crucial than the equipment and prefer to spend my vacation time and travel dollars on training, typically at IALEFI conferences these days. Remember, this comment comes from a guy who still carries revolvers.) 8 Feb 08 2008 has been the snowiest winter in the history of the state of WI! By five pm Wednesday, most of Madison's streets were unplowed, had at least a foot of snow, and were littered with abandoned cars, trucks and busses. Everything in the City abruptly stopped! An unexpected catastrophe took place out on Highway 90/94. A nineteen-mile stretch just south of Madison became impassable and stranded over eight-hundred cars! All those cars, AND THEIR OCCUPANTS, were still there the next morning, twelve hours later. No one could get to them. The snow was too deep, and wind reduced visibility to zero while creating monstrous drifts. Some didn't live through it! Four lessons here: (1) Don't travel lightly! Be always prepared. Have what you need to live through foreseeable unpleasantries. Warm clothing, food and water, and appropriate arms and ammunition should be in the kit of every motor vehicle. Keep your gas tank full! (2) Pay attention! Don't blunder into known/predictable emergency situations. Smart people don't try to drive through storms! (3) Have a well-tuned "This-Is-Not-A-Good-Idea" internal alarm. And, when your "TINAGI" alarm goes off, pause and listen! Getting caught in a life-threatening circumstance that was easily avoidable is pretty stupid! (4) Don't expect someone from "the government" to rescue you! Police, fire, and all other public emergency services are, in most areas, inadequate to address even "normal" circumstances. During a wide-spread calamity, they are all, in short order, hopelessly overwhelmed! They'll be no one to help you. You'll be on your own! /John (When seconds count, the police are minutes away. When disasters occur, the waits are longer. In some communities fire departments or other EMS providers offer emergency medical training through Community Emergency Response Team [CERT] programs.) -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .