Arizona Gun Club Profiled: ...Club leader Paul Lerma has been with the club for decades and loves to load bullets into his AR-15, but not as much as he loves to shoot them. "This is one of the best ranges in the state," Lerma said. "It has 1,000 yards and it's open to the public, and when we are out here we're happy." Lerma said the feeling he gets when he is shooting his gun is simply the best. "This was a learned skill when it needed to be, and I liked it," he said. "It's therapeutic. You feel a rush with the first bullet. It's very relaxing as you try to improve yourself." ...Club member Russell Prentiss, a retired master sergeant, said the members generally shoot "match" guns, or modified rifles that have been tweaked for performance. "A match gun is a regular rifle that has been modified through fine tuning, which makes you more accurate when you shoot," Prentiss said. "I've been in the club for four months and it's a great hobby. It keeps me off the streets and out of trouble." ... (Shooting was actually our nation's first spectator sport and is a great sport and hobby. However, it is wise to recognize the difference between sport and, as Fairbairn and Sykes put it, "shooting to live." John Farnam periodically reminds us that match guns tend not to do well in serious training. Thursday I took a couple of friends to visit Tim Sheehan of Hexsite Sighting System [http://www.goshen-hexsite.com/]. The retired law-enforcement firearms instructor jumped on the concept like white on rice. The target shooter, who had previously seen it on one of my pistols, remained blasé. Yesterday I shared a news item about a prominent Illinois gun collector who was smothered to death in his home by a pair of burglars who broke in to steal firearms. Merely owning firearms and knowing how to shoot small groups on paper or shooting unsuspecting deer and elk does not prepare one for shooting to live. Note the following article.) http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AZ_TOPIC_RIFLE_CLUB_AZOL-?SITE=AZMES&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT --- Why Alaskans Carry Guns: ... The slightest noise - a twig snapping - prompted Brush to glance over his shoulder. Less than 20 yards away, a brown bear was charging, "ears back, head low and motorin' full speed. "Came with zero warning," Brush said. "No woof, no popping of the teeth, no standing up, nothing like what you think." Brush said he wears a pistol on his walks because bears have chased his dogs in the past. He drew a Ruger .454 Casull revolver. There was no time to aim, barely time to squeeze the trigger. He's not sure whether he got off two shots or three, but one proved fatal. "Total luck shot," he said. "It doesn't get any closer. He slid by me on his chin when I shot him," Brush said. "I was backpedaling as fast as I could. I wasn't even aiming. I tripped over my own feet as I pulled the trigger." ... (Again, relatively contorted shooting positions, which may require specific foot placement and cocking the head to see the sights, generally vanish when one suddenly has to shoot to live. This is why the techniques I offer are designed to function under the worst of circumstances, not the best of circumstances.) http://www.adn.com/front/story/897940.html --- The Prohibitionist Who Cried Wolf?: ...Twenty years ago, when Sugarman made the above quote, the universe of "black rifles" and those who possessed them was a small fraction of what it is today. Now, the AR-15 is the most popular rifle in the country and other military pattern semi-auto rifles are selling better than ever as well. Based on sales and common usage within the shooting community, it would not appear that the gun control lobby's demonization of semi-automatic rifles has worked as planned. Moreover, I'm beginning to think that, to those who have believe the lie [sic], the proliferation of semi-autos does in fact appear to be a proliferation of full-auto weapons - and the because sky has not fallen, they aren't terribly bothered by the idea. Now, I'm not referring here to the rabid hoplophobe, but to the non-shooter who doesn't have a particular interest or a strong opinion on the subject... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2325606/posts --- From John Farnam: 26 Aug 09 Airport notes, from a student who just completed our Pistol Course in MI: "When I went through TSA Security at DTW (Detroit), TSA was swabbing each traveler's hands. Swabs were then run through an analyzer that is supposed to detect explosives residue. I passed! No residue was detected. I asked the TSA screener if their machine detected residue from recent firing of guns. He answered in the affirmative. Happily, I had taken a shower prior to departing for the airport, and my shower seems to have rid me of all detectable residue." Comment: Participants at firearms-training events, who have to catch planes quickly after they leave the range, may run into this dilemma. Only rarely do I encounter this screening method at most airports, but it is still good advice to shower and change clothes before reporting to TSA screening! /John (Several years ago, prior to September 2001, my former partner and I had a student return to California, from Washington, to take a two-day handgun course. He left the range in haste, to catch his plane home. He placed his unloaded 1911 pistol in a locking briefcase without cleaning it. The briefcase went home as checked luggage. A few months later he was on a business trip when a pre-TSA "sniffer" detected nitrate residues from the same briefcase, which he was then attempting to carry on board. He spent the next couple of hours in a small room, "chatting" with a couple of men in suits. As I recall, he had to find another flight I order to complete his trip.) 26 Aug 09 Ammunition availability: Physically checking Cabela's store in Omaha, NE on Monday revealed plenty of 223 (both hardball and high-performance), as well as modest quantities of high-performance 9mm and 40S&W, including Cor-Bon DPX. The only brand of 380Auto on display was high-performance (jacketed/lead HP) ammunition from a Montana-based start-up company called Buffalo Bore. They are relatively new, and I don't know much about them. On Tuesday, I stopped in Cabela's store in Sidney, NE. There, I found several hundred rounds of 380Auto DPX on display, at $28.00/box (of 20), or $1.40/round. This is the round I currently carry, and recommend, in my Kahr P380. Again, plenty of 223, 9mm, and 40S&W. I conclude the only calibers that are currently still in short supply are 380Auto and 410 Buckshot. The later I found at neither store! Several progressive police departments in IL have now adopted Cor-Bon DPX exclusively, for both pistols and 223 and 308 rifles. Nothing matches it, but it is expensive, owing to the phenomenal Barnes bullets. Most all competent instructors I know (including me) routinely carry it in their personal pistols and rifles. /John 27 Aug 09 More ammunition news, from friends across the Country: In most parts of the Country, 223 is back in good supply. Many police departments are, at long last, receiving orders dating back from the first of the year. 7.62X39 is also currently plentiful. The only rifle calibers still scarce are 308 and 30M1 Carbine. There is also no current shortage of 9mm and 40S&W, al least in hardball configuration. 380Auto, in any form, continues to be unavailable nearly everywhere! The supply pipeline is slowly filling back up, but there continues to be much private hoarding. Small-arms ammunition, in unprecedented quantities, is cramming millions of basements and garages! In addition, the Pentagon, deprived of its once-impressive archipelago of Army Ammunition Plants, continues to rely heavily on the private sector for small-arms ammunition. A sizeable percentage of American production capacity is permanently dedicated to ongoing military orders. So, "normal" may have to wait a few more months. However, between then and now, a major "incident" anywhere in the world, even (yet another) thoughtless word from the White House, and a whole new layer of formally-naive Americans will suddenly wake up, smell the coffee, and enthusiastically re-fuel the demand. Within days, we'll be right back where we were last spring, maybe worse! Those of us who started smelling coffee long ago need to see to it that we have adequate supplies on hand, both for serious purposes and for training. Maybe those Mormons aren't so dumb after all, eh? /John (I think John really meant "formerly naïve." Anyhow, a recent student, new to the world of firearms, is definitely smarter than the average bear and decided that she needs to be capable of reloading. We've got her set up with press, powder scale, dial calipers, case tumbler, primer flipper, bullets, primers and powder but her 9x19mm dies are still on back order.) 28 Aug 09 Wise, albeit sarcastic, comments from a student in NY: "The wisdom of P Burris' School-of-Gun-Handling! Burris told reporters that he was (illegally) carrying his Glock pistol inside the waistband of his jeans, Mexican-style (no holster). As he ascended a stairway in the seedy NYC 'club' he frequented, he felt the pistol slipping down his leg, grabbed for it, and 'touched the trigger.' It is unclear if he grabbed from outside his jeans or from inside. He claims he neither felt nor heard the single discharge, and was aware 'something was wrong' only when he saw blood on his trousers and shoes. When asked why he didn't wear a holster, we are treated to the classic understatement: '... uh, that was a mistake.' " Comment: Why is it that rich people, no matter how they acquired their wealth, sincerely believe they must be geniuses and therefore, be it with airplanes or guns, they are just too good to lower themselves enough to be exposed to competent training. As Burris dolefully discovered, glib bimbos at his Club may be impressed his status, and interminably forgiving of his blunders. Ammunition, Glocks, and gravity are not! /John (People who carry illegally tend to avoid holsters because getting caught with a holster "strongly suggests" that the person was carrying a handgun, even if the handgun is no longer present. It's not just the wealthy who tend to settle for all the training that comes in the box with the gun. Safety-wise, generally the worst students I have had in rural Arizona have been those who have been hunting and shooting most of their lives and learned to do so on their own or from friends and family. As John notes, Glock pistols, marvelously simple as they are, are particularly unforgiving of blunders. However, a startle reaction will usually produce a clenching of the fist, generating between 25 and 50 pounds of pressure, so even a double-action trigger is no guarantee that a handgun so equipped cannot be discharged unintentionally. Burress [sic], by the way, must have had a modicum of training, in order to have qualified for his now-expired Florida CWFL. Additionally, he was apparently given the wink-and-nod treatment by the club security officers who patted him down, a courtesy he repaid by ratting them out to the press [http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4420263].) -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .