Bitter, Clingy Gun Owners: I'm a bitter/clingy gun owner - and I'm happy about it! Obama, the great healer of America, the hope of our nation, came out last week and whizzed on millions of Christians and firearm fans calling us bitter Cling-Ons to religion and guns. I, personally, wasn't insulted because I really like God and my rifles, and I make a good living off my rage...As the old adage goes: "With guns, we are citizens. Without them, we are subjects." Therefore, I'll cling to my gun because I really enjoy being a free bird and truly hate kissing someone else's backside, but that's just me... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2008/04/26/bitter,_clingy_gun_owners_of_america?page=full&comments=true --- New Hampshire Professor Bans Empty Holster: A University of New Hampshire student who was told by a professor that he could not wear an empty gun holster in her class as part of a protest responded by posting the correspondence on the Internet, which earned the professor several angry e-mail from strangers...Ham, an active National Guardsman who works at Pease Air National Guard Base, said he told each of his four professors about the demonstration beforehand and asked to speak briefly with fellow students to explain what he was doing. All but one granted his request, while a fourth, sociology teacher Priscilla Reinertsen, sent him an email that specifically forbade him from wearing a holster. (Any bets on whether Reinersten considers herself an advocate of academic freedom?) http://www.theunionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Gun+rights+protest+puts+heat+on+UNH+prof&articleId=c53b45fb-faed-4dd2-8669-950ec16a481c --- Oops, Wrong Burglar: A Phoenix homeowner has been arrested after police determined that he used unjustified force when he shot someone suspected of an auto burglary during a car chase. Investigators found the force used by Terrell Andy Moore was not reasonable under the circumstances of the case to justify a claim of self-defense, police said. Moore, 28, fired several rounds early Friday in an area containing businesses and apartments although nobody else was struck, police said. He was booked into a Maricopa County jail on two counts of aggravated assault and one count of unlawfully discharging a firearm. http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/114895 --- Do As I Say, Not As I Do: Mayor Richard Daley said Saturday Chicago police officers will he armed with high-powered assault rifles when they're on the streets fighting gangs and other criminals. "Many times they're outgunned, to be very frank," Daley said at an event in the Englewood neighborhood. "When they come to a scene, someone has a semi fully-automatic weapon and you have a little pistol, uh, good luck." (A "semi fully-automatic weapon" appears to be a semantic one in Daley's ongoing battle to disarm honest citizens.) http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-chicago-police-assault-rifles,0,2104512.story --- While Down on the Border...: Some U.S. Border Patrol agents along the Mexican border are packing paintball rifles, but they're not being used for games. Agents in the patrol's Tucson, San Diego and Yuma sectors have been armed with guns that launch pepper spray and paintball projectiles and are trained to fire paintballs when they come under attack along border fences. Splattering paint on rock throwers at high velocities is intended to dissuade them and to combat what has become a sharp increase in the number of rockings and other assaults on agents along the Mexican border. http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/83623.php --- From John Farnam: 22 Apr 08 Full-auto 1911! Last weekend, at a Pistol Course we were doing in KS, a student brought an expensive 1911 pistol from a well-known, custom pistolsmith. These monstrosities go for between two and three thousand dollars/copy. Its trigger was between two and three pounds, much too light for a serious gun. I allowed him to use it, after explaining that, in my opinion, such a light trigger was unsuitable for a concealed-carry pistol. It was a mistake! His pistol started doubling. Normally, when that happens, I let it go the first time, thinking it might just be a quirk. When it happened for the third time with this pistol (the second time I was unaware of), I pulled the pistol out of the Course! The student used a borrowed 1911 for the duration, which ran fine. I know I keep bringing this subject up, but it is difficult to me to say enough unkind things about the vast majority of the hyper-expensive, custom 1911s we see in our Courses! They are, nearly without exception, tight, temperamental, unreliable, maladroit clunks. For all that money, one gets a pistol that is a good deal less reliable, and less practical, than plain-vanilla ones costing a third as much! Two-pound 1911 triggers are way to light for any down-to-earth purpose. In addition, they are inherently unsafe, as we can see. Highly not recommended! /John (Many people know that I consider the 1911 to be an obsolescent platform - most modern pistols have replaced the swinging link with a cam cut and the internal locking lugs with the Pedder system, in which the entire barrel hood locks into the ejection port. The 1911 is a great design for its original purpose but is prone to problems when used as a sow's ear as the basis to create a silk purse.) 22 Apr 08 Kahr (Auto-Ordinance) M1 Carbine I finally get the opportunity to wring-out Kahr's M1 Carbine last weekend. It is hard to beat! It comes with fixed, flip-up sights, and it is dead on, right out of the box. It gobbled up several different brands of ammunition, and it was popular with everyone who shot it. It is a 100m rifle that is light, short, and easy to carry. My copy is equipped with a Vickers sling from Blue Force Gear. As a car-gun, it is second to none. Whatever start-up problems Kahr may have had with this weapon are no long gone. For M1Carbine-o-philes, this one is an excellent choice. Recommended! /John (One can only hope that John is correct about Kahr having debugged the Carbine. Among other attributes, the M1 Carbine is an excellent choice for the small-statured, so long as it is recognized as being best suited for distances no longer than a city block.) 22 Apr 08 Developments! This observation from a friend in the Philippines: "The.45ACP is a desirable personal-defense, pistol cartridge, and, when one is limited to hardball, it makes great sense! While we may live in a 9mm world, dare I say a Glock-9mm world, the .45ACP refuses to die. For a long while, when one wanted the terminal effect of the 45ACP, only the 1911 pistol was versatile enough to fit a wide variety of hand sizes and still provide good usability and handling. We've tried 45ACP double-columns, SIG P220 and the G21/30, but only those with large hands can run these pistols well. Enter the 'new' 45s! The XD45 looks like a clunk from the outside, but it is sleek where it counts. The grip is genuinely usable for small handed folks. Durability has been excellent. S&W's M&P45 is another slick piece of kit. Grip circumference and trigger reach can be adjusted to accommodate just about any hand size. Accuracy and reliability are exceptionally good. Both the XD and the M&P hold a few more rounds than your standard single-stack, yet remain concealable and legitimately operational. Where I live, these new pistols are breathing new life and interest into the 45ACP cartridge. I am not surprised to see many die-hard 1911 folks retire their steel pistols and invested in these new handguns." Comment: Over here, we also see 45-o-philes taking a significant interest in these pistols. The 1911 will be around for the foreseeable future, but one can't ignore the genuine advancement these two pistols represent. /John (Without going into a treatise on the concept of "expansion ratio," it is my opinion that the ballistic advantages of the .45 ACP, when one has access to hollowpoint loadings, start falling off when barrel length starts dropping below four inches.) 23 Apr 08 Good advice, from a friend in SA: "We all teach our students to scan constantly, looking for potential threats, but also for cover and disengagement/exit routes. At the risk of contributing to 'scan-overload,' I suggest adding one item, and dropping another: To add: When you shoot an attacker, and he subsequently turns into a body by falling down, his involuntary assumption of the horizontal is actually excellent therapy for the blood-pressure loss that caused him to fall down in the first place! We thus need to emphasize to our students to include in their scan a continuous sweep across the 'body,' lest the 'body,' unnoticed, becomes reanimated and passionately re-enters the fray! To delete: When shooting cardboard targets, students quickly, unconsciously acquire the habit of lowering their firearm and scanning the paper target to see where the last round hit. The habit is a poor one that results in inconsistent, slow shooting. In a real fight, of course, those nice, neat holes that our student is accustomed to seeing on paper will be invisible amongst various layers of clothing worn by the VCA. And, we can expect resultant double-take/hesitation on the part of our student when what he expected to happen is not happening. All Operators know to hesitate is to die. Accordingly, we need to teach our students NOT to scan for bullet holes. Rather, they need to assess, while moving laterally, behavioral changes on the part of the VCA which will indicate whether on not additional shooting is necessary. This is the best strategy for ending the fight quickly and simultaneously keeping entry wounds out of 'Sunday-School-Johnny's' back!" Comment: Adding steel targets, such as Safe-Direction's wonderful "Rotators," to your training program is excellent therapy for the annoying "shoot-and-gawk" syndrome, described above. /John (Unfortunately, in many schools, students are taught to scan while remaining stationary, in the position on the firing line from which they have just fired. While this may reduce the risk of students crossing their fellows with muzzles, it violates the crucial principle of "shoot and scoot." By use of the "safety circle," students can be taught to move safely without endangering each other. For those unfamilar with the concept, it, and the related "navel postion" with the handgun, are described in my book.) -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .