RKBA Stymies Democrats: ...But there is one issue that retains the power to leave Democrats quivering: gun rights. Gun issues still persistently tie the party in knots and have been used by Republicans to stall two major bills this year, with more likely to come... It is a particularly hot-button topic with veteran Congressional Democrats who believe the party's strong support for a 1994 assault weapons ban was the real reason they lost control of the House that year - not the House bank scandal, the failed health care initiative, the Contract with America or Newt Gingrich. The power of that bad memory was unmistakable a few weeks ago in the immediacy with which Speaker Nancy Pelosi shot down the suggestion by new Attorney General Eric Holder that Congress might reinstitute the assault weapons ban... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/us/politics/14web-hulse.html?_r=1&ref=us --- The Beat Goes On: The number of Oklahomans seeking a license to carry a concealed firearm has spiked in recent months, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation reported. The state reports an 87 percent increase in concealed carry permit applications for February 2009 over the same month last year, and the OSBI pulled in additional help last month so it could process concealed-carry permit applications, the agency reported. The state issued a total of 18,510 permits in 2008. The bureau's annual reports show the state issued 16,426 permits in 2007 and 9,529 in 2006. Meanwhile, gun dealers across the state have reported an increase in sales of firearms and ammunition... http://www.kjrh.com/news/state/story/More-Oklahomans-seeking-gun-permits/LGNXr7tSGkqBa6eikiNb-g.cspx --- Utah Gun Owners Upset over Negligent Discharges: People were just tucking into their all-you-can-eat salad and breadsticks when they heard a pop. "My mom said, 'No way.' And I said, 'I think that was a gunshot,' " Talia Hudson told KSL-TV. An Olive Garden diner fiddling with his weapon shot his chair into submission last week. Two months ago, another carrier shattered a Carl's Jr. toilet when he dropped his pants. Turns out, concealed-weapon carriers are as mad as the rest of us about the doofuses plugging bullets into helpless furniture and commodes... Aposhian and others on the Bureau of Criminal Investigation's Concealed Weapon Review Board are talking about drafting an administrative rule to allow them to dig into cases like these - when a concealed carrier's gun goes off in public and the police are called. The board could order additional training or suspend a permit. "I don't think it's necessarily a big problem - unless I was sitting next to him," says Aposhian. "That would be a huge problem." http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11914544 --- NRA-ILA Alerts: List members are encouraged to check the alerts for the week on the NRA-ILA website. http://www.nraila.org/GrassrootsAlerts/read.aspx --- From John Farnam: 10 Mar 09 A student emerges victorious from a dangerous confrontation: "Back in 2000, you provided handgun training to a large class, including me. I had been a target competitor for many years, but your class changed my paradigm to serious, tactical application, rather than casual recreation. Two things stuck with me most: (1) Spin your OODA Loop quickly, and (2) when a fight is unavoidable, be stitching and moving! Thank you! That philosophical shift saved my life this last February! Late on a weekday afternoon last month, two home-invasion suspects kicked in the front door of my home, as I sat watching television. I was alone in the house at the time. There was no warning, nor did I have any reason to suspect such a thing would happen to me that day, or any day. I remember being astonished as I saw the bottom of a foot still raised as my door lurched open, amid a shower of splinters! The door-kicker, and an accomplice, burst in, and, seeing me, rushed toward me. I was wearing my G38 (45GAP) in a Comp-Tac holster. It was loaded with WW 230gr Ranger ammunition. I sprung to my feet and drew my pistol simultaneously. At a distance of less than eight feet, I found my front sight and began firing at the closest suspect, while I was still in motion. As it turns out, I fired seven shots. All seven struck the first suspect (the door-kicker). His accomplice was behind him and immediately fled, unharmed as far as I know. In fact, he fled in such haste that he abandoned his getaway car, leaving the engine running! Police subsequently found much stolen property in the car. The suspect I shot stumbled backward and fell in the doorway, never moving after he went down. I scanned, reloaded, took cover behind a corner, and checked myself over. When police arrived, they found the suspect I had shot, DRT. The second suspect has not been arrested as far as I know. I was unhurt. Of the seven hits on the first suspect, one in the neck and one in the chest proved fatal. I was told that either of those two shots would probably have been fatal by itself. Being cold at the time, both suspects were wearing heavy clothing, and multiple layers of clothing frustrated expansion, and penetration, of the other five. They may have been effective, but I'll never know. Here is what others among your students can learn from my experience: (1) When at home, stay armed! If my gun had been locked in a safe, or even in a drawer and unloaded, I never could have reacted effectively in time. Be armed all the time, no matter where you are! (2) Multiple shots from your pistol will probably be necessary to stop any fight decisively, no matter what caliber or brand of ammunition you're using. As a category, pistols are poor fight-stoppers. Accordingly, pistols that hold lots of ammunition, and that can be reloaded quickly, represent a real advantage! (3) Be prepared to react instantly! Sometimes, there are warning signs. Sometimes, there are none! In order to live through your next lethal encounter, you'll have to be able to spin your OODA Loop fast. (4) Finish the fight! Don't relax too soon. Scan, reload, get distance, get cover. Be prepared for anything! (5) Whatever you do, it won't be perfect! Don't worry about being perfect. Just act decisively, without hesitation. Do what has to be done, with grace and enthusiasm. Don't look back, and don't worry about what might have been!" Comment: I'll add: (6) Use ammunition that penetrates adequately! Your bullets may have to plow through many layers of clothing before ever reaching flesh, as was the case here. There are many fine, high-performance rounds available, but Cor-Bon DPX tops the list, because it penetrates and expands, without fail! It's what I carry. My student is a real hero. He dared, and he won. Victory! /John (I think that John's advice not to be lulled into dividing your life into "safe" and "unsafe" time may prove to be his greatest contribution to the discipline. This is the second case of which I'm aware in which a Farnam student successfully repelled a home invasion because he remained armed inside his home. The OODA loop - Observe, Orient, Decide, Act - is the brainchild of USAF fighter pilot John Boyd [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_Loop]. Stitching is a term John uses for placing the first shot in the vicinity of the navel and working your way up the torso. Obviously, if you are programmed to fire several rounds in this manner, when some may not be striking vital areas, more ammo in the gun is particularly comforting.) 10 Mar 09 Magazine exchange: A student recently pointed out that a magazine for his 45ACP S&W M&P will fit into a G21, but won't lock in place. However, when it is inserted into the G21 anyway, and then held firmly in place by the shooter's little finger, the Glock will run normally! The trick won't work in reverse, however, as the G21's magazine is too fat to fit into the M&P's magazine well. Actually, most magazines, when you can get them into the magazine well of pistols for which they are not designed, will still run the pistol, as long as they are held securely in place, via a finger or a strip of tape. Many 40S&W magazines, in fact, will hold, and reliably feed, 9mm ammunition in 9mm pistols for which they were never designed! All trivia, I suppose, but, when forced to use a hodge-podge of mixed equipment, such knowledge may come in handy. Remember also that you can fire most pistols, at least at one shot at a time, when all you have is the pistol itself, a handful of rounds, but no magazines. Simply insert a single round directly into the chamber through the ejection port (as the slide is locked to the rear), send the slide forward smartly, and you're ready to fire. I don't recommend doing the foregoing except as an emergency procedure, as the practice of sending the slide forward on a chambered round will, in short order, break the extractor on most pistols. However, the day may come when you have no choice! Of course, this emergency procedure won't work on pistols equipped with a "magazine safety." This is one reason I consider magazine safeties a death trap and highly recommend against them! /John (It's worth noting that John entitled this mailing "Emergency Improvisation!" While magazines may function in pistols for which they were not designed, it's not likely that they will function as reliably as a magazine specifically designed for that pistol.) 13 Mar 09 More on bumbling attempts at "gun-control," from SA: "South African Police have 'lost' 4,900 firearms during the last three years! Note that these guns are not those items seized as evidence (thousands of those have been 'misplaced' also!). These are pistols, shotguns, and rifles that have been purchased by the government and subsequently issued to police. Keep in mind that the above figure is just what they're unable to cover up, and are thus sheepishly owning up to. The actual figure is likely between twice and three-times that number. To put this into perspective, our cops are 'losing' at least five guns every day of the year! Many of these 'missing' firearms have, in fact, been stolen and subsequently used by criminals during the commission of violent crimes. Armored-car heists, for example, frequently see robbers armed with R4s, the same military rifle issued to police and the Army. These rifles are nearly impossible to come by legally and are no longer in production. The only way to get a copy is to steal it from police! If one were cynical, he might suspect the government is, in fact, deliberately supplying violent criminals with these weapons, because it is VCAs who, in fact, do the government's bidding, by robbing, maiming, and murdering political opponents. Can we say that VCAs and the government have formed a partnership? When one reads high-sounding, fictitious 'stated-intents' of our notorious Firearms Control Act: '... to prevent the proliferation of illegally-possessed firearms and, by providing for the removal of those firearms from society, and by improving control over legally-possessed firearms, to prevent crime...' and, even better: ' ... enable the State to remove illegally-possessed firearms from society, to control the supply, possession, safe storage, transfer, and use of firearms, and to detect and punish negligent/criminal use of firearms.' He can only wonder why the government itself insists on demonstrating the very 'negligent/criminal use' they're so frightened we peons might engage in! Arrogant, two-faced, Communist elitists who write this drivel are, of course, heavily armed themselves, with the very weapons they so hypocritically deny to the rest of us. ... and, when 'lost,' they are simply replaced!" Comment: I have every confidence the current US administration will soon treat us to this same deceitful language, the same weary, long-discredited arguments, the same elitist arrogance for which all Marxists are so famous. The result will also be the same, as will subsequent, lame excuses when it fails miserably, as it always does The ever-unarticulated agenda, both here and there, the enslavement of us all, will, of course, be well served! /John -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .