Elitism, Police and Guns in New York: The New York Post recently ran a story about New York State Governor Paterson's doubling the size of his security detail during the last year to "over 200" members. This comes at the expense of New York's taxpayers, who must tolerate reduced police services as a result... According to Tom King, President of the New York State Rifle and Pistol and Pistol Association, it's easier to purchase a defensive firearm than most people think. If a homeowner wants to purchase a rifle or shotgun for home defense, there are no restrictions. New York state requires licensing only for handguns, and the process varies by county. Outside New York City (NYC), it takes anywhere from 1-6 months to get a handgun license after you apply. By law, the county has six months to reject a handgun license application, usually for serious reasons like felony, drug possession and trafficking, or violent misdemeanor convictions. By contrast, in NYC, it may take 6-9 months to obtain a license to own any firearm, and the city can deny you for any reason. New York allows home rule for cities over 5 million in population, and NYC has its own gun laws... King said that outside NYC, obtaining a concealed carry permit can be relatively easy. Some counties require a four-hour safety course, after which they issue a carry permit in lieu of a pistol license, enabling you to carry throughout the state and purchase additional handguns. King says the one exception is NYC. King notes a curious twist: While upstate carry licenses end at the NYC boundary, NYC licensees can carry anywhere... (I invite correction but my understanding is that state law requires a pistol license. Unless restricted, such a license is a license to own and to carry. Counties vary widely in policy, with some routinely issuing unrestricted licenses and some doing so rarely. I am under the impression that those counties where the judges have delegated the police to handle licensure tend to issue fewer unrestricted licenses. Broome County, where police provide the required training, may be an exception.) http://www.examiner.com/x-2879-Austin-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m1d10-New-York-Governor-Paterson-boosts-private-security-detail-while-state-patrols-shrink --- RKBA in the Tennessee Gubernatorial Race: Tennesseans who support or oppose the expansion of gun rights, or who fall somewhere in between, probably will find candidates for governor this year who share their views on the issue. A Tennessee Newspaper Network survey of the major candidates - four Republicans and three Democrats - shows candidates taking a range of positions on several gun issues up for debate at the State Capitol. Those issues range from guns in bars, parks and college campuses to guns on employer-owned parking lots and on leased property. They also include whether the public can find out if someone has a state-issued permit to go armed, and whether the state should declare that guns made and sold inside Tennessee are exempt from federal regulation... Three Republicans - Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey of Blountville and U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp of Chattanooga - said they support renewing the guns-in-bars law. The Democrats - Senate Democratic Leader Jim Kyle of Memphis, former House Democratic Leader Kim McMillan of Clarksville and Jackson businessman Mike McWherter - and Republican Shelby County District Attorney General Bill Gibbons expressed opposition to guns in places serving alcohol... (I find it interesting that Republicans support guns in bars but Democrats oppose guns in places serving alcohol.) http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100110/NEWS0201/1100383/TN+gubernatorial+candidates+are+divided+on+guns --- Identification of Firearms: Ever wonder why so few National Crime Information Center (NCIC) inquiries on firearms result in hits? Or why so few entries seem to be recovered? Perhaps you complain about ATF tracing, that rarely finds the information you're looking for. The answer may be in the old computer term, GIGO - garbage in, garbage out... The serial number (s/n) sounds like a simple entry - but not quite so. First, which number is it? Many firearms may have multiple numbers - serial, model and parts-matching - on the firearm. Once, the S&W s/n appeared on the butt of the grip; now it's found on the frame, inside the crane. Early Ruger revolvers had the s/n on the butt; today it's on the side of the frame, below the cylinder. Since 1968, ATF has required that the s/n appear on the frame of a firearm. Thus, on any current handgun it will appear on the frame and not the cylinder, barrel or slide. However, older firearms (pre-1968) may find the number in some other location. Many older double-barrel shotguns will find the s/n hidden on the bottom of the barrels or on the flat of the frame where the barrel rests when closed... (To my knowledge, most revolvers still have the serial number stamped or engraved on the bottom strap of the grip frame. However, when it became popular to fit revolvers with oversize grips, the serial number was also placed on the frame, in the area that is exposed when the action is opened. Confusion often occurs with S&W revolvers, which often also have "assembly numbers" stamped in the same area; this may require removal of oversize grips if the person seeking the serial number is not familiar with S&W serial numbers. Model designation can also be a point of confusion. I once had a friendly disagreement with a deputy sheriff because I identified a revolver as a S&W Model 25-2. He insisted on calling it a Model of 1955 because that was marked on the barrel, in neater and larger characters than the "25-2" stamped on the frame, adjacent to the serial number. These issues take on importance to the gun owner when firearms need to be identified in cases of loss and recovery.) http://www.lawofficer.com/news-and-articles/columns/Laska/firearm_investigations_1.html;jsessionid=F5C87B94F3164527C5E1EB7504CC9EDD --- Coatings and Plating: This is a fairly technical article, intended for gunsmiths. It provides some useful information, particularly if you function in an environment where people brag about all the additional money they spent on a gun after the initial purchase. I have two comments. Several years ago, a friend showed me a 1911 pistol that had just been returned to him with NP3, a Teflon-based coating. I found the pistol itself a bit slick to handle but was favorably impressed at how nicely the coated magazines fed and ejected from the magazine well. I don't know if they would have done so as smoothly if only the magazines had been coated. The discussion of plating leaves me with a question. In conventional plating, it is a rule to plate a white metal onto a red metal and vice versa. Thus a steel gun will receive a "flash" plating of copper before being plated in nickel. There is no mention of this in the linked discussion. I have never been fond of conventional nickel plating, in part because I don't like the glare off the bright nickel when shooting in sunlight. Owners of nickel-plated guns are cautioned about the use of conventional cleaning solvents containing ammonia. The reason for this is that if the nickel layer gets scratched deeply enough, the ammonia can leach out the underlying copper, leading the overlying nickel to flake off. http://www.gunreports.com/special_reports/accessories/American-Gunsmith-magazine-Coatings-teflon-Electroless-nickel-plating1766-1.html?ET=gunreports:e608:183810a:&st=email --- Winchester 94: My Christmas gift to myself was a carbine I'd always wanted: a lever action Winchester complete with saddle ring. It was the iconic gun of the Western movies. If it was good enough for John Wayne, it was good enough for me... My example also an old working gun, and also a Winchester Model of 1894, but in the more common .30-30 chambering. The serial number dates it to the year 1926. This short-barreled rifle's gray patina indicates that it spent much if not all of its 84 years on this Earth in the woods or on a farm, and so do the many dings on its time-darkened walnut stock and fore-end. It still has the old-style steel crescent butt plate, which can make the mild recoil of the .30-30 actually hurt. Yet its bore is bright and smooth, and its well-worn action works like glass. I took it to my hundred-yard range, and from my solid Caldwell bench rest table it still kept all its shots in a group the size of a deer's heart with both 170 grain and 150 grain hunting loads. It had been sighted for the latter, and I left it that way. For the relatively small deer around where I live, a good 150 grain softnose at sedate .30-30 velocity will do just fine... (I share this because I recently learned a disappointing lesson about the Winchester 94. Unlike Winchester's 92's, which were designed around the WCF cartridges [e.g., .44-40 WCF, etc.] the 94 was designed around the .30-30 and related cartridges. Late in its production, rather than reintroducing the 92, the 94 was offered in Magnum revolver cartridges and .45 Colt. This apparently required machining a round-bottom groove the length of the forward tab of the carrier, which lifts the cartridge from the magazine to the chamber. This seems to weaken the carrier and breakage of this part is fairly common. If you already own a 94 chambered for a revolver cartridge, you may wish to purchase a spare carrier from Browning, while they are still available. If you are contemplating a lever-action rifle in a revolver chambering, consider a Marlin 1894 or one of the replicas of the Winchester 92. By the way, when I purchased my Winchester 94 Trappers, back in 1999, the first thing I did was to unscrew and remove the saddle rings so as not to have them rattling at inopportune moments.) http://backwoodshome.com/blogs/MassadAyoob/2010/01/07/blast-from-the-past/ --- From John Farnam: 4 Jan 10 On pocket-pistols, from a friend in WA: "I picked-up a used Kahr PM9 late last year. Its prior owner was frustrated with its occasional hiccups, but I know many Kahr-owners who say all Kahr pistols require a 'break-in' of between two-hundred and five-hundred rounds. They're right! After spending a day at Marty Hayes' wonderful Range in Onalaska, WA, all problems gradually worked themselves out, and the little gun now runs just fine. My PM9 resides in a Stephen McElroy Pocket-liner. It comfortably disappears in my front pocket. Loaded with CorBon DPX, I am dangerous in non-permissive environments where I work, and I don't worry about 'printing.'" Comment: Friends in the retail gun business tell me that "pocket" pistols are red-hot these days, as increasing numbers of nervous Americans come to the realization that they need to be armed all the time. S&W Scandium Snubby revolvers, Kahr P380s, and SIG's P238 do not stay on store shelves for more than a day or two. Artfully concealing these small pistols, particularly for women, is a much easier task than is the case with bigger guns. All new guns, regardless of manufacturer, need to be "broken-in" to one degree or another. You should not carry a gun (for serious purposes) in which you have only marginal confidence. Shoot it now and then. Make sure it runs! "In the long-run, there is no such thing as luck. However, the 'short-run' is often longer than many individual lifetimes!" Operator's Axiom /John (Kahr advises a 200-round break-in period for all its pistols. All of my Kahrs have functioned flawlessly, with FMJ ammo, during those 200 rounds. The PM9 took a relatively long time to debug. Unfortunately, once it was debugged, Kahr dropped my personal favorite, the P9 Covert. While I am not fond of the .380 round, I have come to accept that it may be the best some people can manage. I am keeping my eye on the Kahr P380 and the new, less costly Diamondback DB380. I have yet to see any negative reports on the P380 but the DB380 does not yet appear to have gotten over its hiccups. I firmly believe that people handicap themselves seriously with small, lightweight revolvers, particularly the ultralights [see comments at http://www.spw-duf.info/handgun.html]. For those who insist on using them, I believe the Federal Nyclad 125 gr. .38 Special hollowpoint is the optimal round but it is still extremely hard to locate.) 4 Jan 10 More Revelations from Scenario-Based Training, from an Instructor and Colleague: "I conducted Airsoft, scenario-based training this past weekend with a group of DTI Instructors and students. I set it up my shop (indoors) in low light. Actors were all given rolls to play, but no one knew what rolls [sic] were being played by the rest of the participants. In the first scenario, there were two VCAs, armed with blades, one otherwise-uninvolved eye-witness, one armed citizen (selected for victimization by the VCAs), and one responding police officer, who arrives after all significant events are concluded. Armed citizen is aggressively stalked and ultimately approached by VCAs, who demand money. One VCA, amid belligerent, verbal threats, lifts his shirt in order to display a large knife in his belt, even referring to it and the damage it can do. He made this threatening display several times. Our armed citizen later said he never saw knives, nor was aware of their presence, until they were actually brandished in the hands of the VCAs, as he was being attacked! Our armed citizen didn't even attempt to draw his pistol until both VCAs, knives in hand, charged him! He learned, graphically, the crux of the 'Tueller Drill" that day! VCAs were in physical contact with him before his first shot was fired. The exercise continued with the armed citizen wounded, one VCA DRT, and on the ground, and the second VCA running away. Armed citizen, gun still in his hand, stood at the scene, dazed. Then, police show up! At gunpoint, police command armed citizen to drop his gun. Citizen is then frisked, cuffed, and placed in the back of a marked beat-car. A 'witness' shows up. He is himself a neighborhood punk and gang-member. He says, "Some dude just shot my friend" loud enough for the armed citizen to hear. Police go back to the car and question the citizen. He sings like a canary! His high-pitched, gravely-voiced statements to police are disjointed, inarticulate, mostly incomprehensible, and factually incorrect. It is all little more than panicked blather! Five minutes into it, as he is vainly trying to recall how many shots he fired, it finally dawns on him to take a long breath and say, "Officer, I'll be more than happy to answer the rest of your questions as soon as my lawyer is here." Our hero had been through DTI Basic and two of Henk Iverson's Courses. He knew what he should have done, but even the small amount of pressure we generated in the scenario caused him to unnecessarily hesitate in responding to a deadly attack, and then subsequently blow it with police." Comment: The lesson here is that a single exposure to competent training, when it is not regularly reinforced, will not adequately prepare most to competently deal with the potentially-lethal encounters that motivated us to go armed and seek training in the first place. Critical skills must be learned and then regularly exercised. We can't just "take the pill" and then naively think we're "good to go" from that point forward. Training is not an "event." It is a life-long commitment. You're either "one of us," or you're not! "Lucky fools rarely bear the slightest suspicion that they may be lucky fools" Nassim Taleb /John (I am informed by a list member who has a closer relationship with John than I do that "VCA" actually stands for "Violent Criminal Assailant," a seemingly redundant term. "DRT" stands for "Dead Right There." Those not familiar with the "Tueller drill" may contact me for a copy of Dennis Tueller's seminal article "How Close Is Too Close?" I also have a couple of articles that examine the concept in greater depth. There are two philosophies on role-playing. One approach is to use it to show students how easily they can be killed. Another is to use it to prompt the appropriate response. At some point, everyone will benefit from training under pressure but most will respond better if they have first had the chance to perform correctly. I suspect that the incident described was the first time the student ever played the role of a suspect. It has been shown that stress does not enhance memory and it probably does not enhance initial learning.) 5 Jan 10 Weapon Maintenance, from a friend and Instructor: "I bought a Kahr P9 some time ago. My wife and I both used and carried it. We ran it with all brands of high-performance ammunition and, for practice, some pretty wretched junk. That little pistol effortlessly digested all of it, with nary a failure. We both trusted it implicitly! One day, I decided to ask a well-known pistolsmith to polish the pistol's trigger linkage, since, while the trigger, as it came from the factory, was certainly north of tolerable, it had an annoying little hitch in its git-along that I decided a sophisticated connoisseur such as myself simply shouldn't have to tolerate! After his expert ministrations, I couldn't get the damn thing to run a full magazine (with any of the four I owned, all of which had fed flawlessly beforehand)! In addition, I couldn't get the situation to improve, even after several thorough cleanings, intermixed with a 250-round break-in. From that day forward, the pistol never ran satisfactorily again. I finally traded it, at a loss. My sad lesson: When your business-piece runs just fine, be certain you really need whatever fiddling you've decided you have to have done. "True Happiness" may prove far more illusive than you ever imagined! Comment: "But, at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near The grave is a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace." Andrew Marvell /John (I recently purchased my first true hunting rifle, at a local gun shop owned by a friend. A Ruger M77 Hawkeye variant, it comes with Ruger's nonadjustable but "lighter and crisper" LC6 trigger. My friend immediately detected a slight amount of pre-travel or creep in the trigger, which he would like to eliminate for me. It took me a few dozen dry-fire cycles to notice it. I am not uncomfortable with a slight amount of pre-travel in a single-action trigger that is likely to be used under stress. My friend is very proud of his trigger work but I know nothing about it. I have no idea who the "well-known pistolsmith" is in the above account but, if he is a reputable gunsmith, he should have been afforded the chance to make good his unsatisfactory work. The key issue is that he may be well known for work on a genre such as 1911 pistols and have had no significant prior experience with Kahrs. One list member recently got back a S&W revolver with a trigger job from one of the few gunsmiths in Arizona who specializes in S&W trigger work. A double-action revolver, as the latter friend learned, can really benefit from a good trigger job, so long as it's done by someone who knows his art and focuses on street reliability, not target shooting. The issue is being able to recognize when you've got something that's good enough for its mission. As George Patton was fond of remarking, "The perfect is the enemy of the good." For those unfamiliar with the saying, it means that the quest for perfection may keep you from actually accomplishing your goal with means that are already good enough.) 5 Jan 09 Beware of Dangerous People, even at your Doorstep! This from an LEO in the Midwest: "Yesterday, we had a bank-robbery in our small town. The first one ever at this bank! Two suspects in ski-masks brandished guns and quickly entered and exited the bank, after receiving several thousand dollars in cash. Both suspects made it out of the bank before local police arrived, and they fled towards the interstate in a vehicle, but were boxed-in by our marked units before they could reach the on-ramp. They then exited the vehicle and fled on foot into a swamp and ubsequently into a residential neighborhood. We were right behind them, with dogs, but they split up and separately entered two local homes. One conned his way into a house by convincing the single, male home-owner that he needed to use a phone to call a friend for a ride, and in fact subsequently talked the home-owner into giving him a ride to a local shopping mall. As the vehicle, containing home-owner and suspect, attempted to leave the neighborhood, it was stopped by our marked units, and officers questioning both quickly saw through the phony story and arrested the suspect, without further incident. The home-owner was unhurt, through no fault of his own! The second suspect entered another residence through an unlocked front door, quickly found the home-owners car keys in his jacket pocket which was hanging near the doorway, and made off in a stolen car! He successfully made it out of the neighborhood and is still at large. Lessons for me: Keep doors (home and car) locked! Keep your electronic security system turned on when you're not there. Be armed, even at home. Don't engage strangers at your doorstep in conversation, and don't unlock the door! Tell them that you can't help them, and that you're calling police. Be aware that dangerous, criminal suspects are everywhere, including your doorstep!" Comment: "Opportunity may knock, but seldom nags!" David Mamet Now is the time to make important changes in your physical situation and in your personal philosophy, changes that harden you, yours, and your home against criminal violence. "Hope" is not a strategy! /John (We have seen before that the request to use a phone to call for assistance, typically for a claimed emergency, is a common ruse to get inside a home. If you feel compelled to provide assistance under such circumstances, offer to call 911 for the requestor, while he remains on the other side of your locked door. I recently learned the value of having installed a backup generator, which comes on automatically when the power goes out for one minute, in my home. On one of my rare trips out of town a snowstorm took out power for several hours in my neighborhood and for days in others. The maintenance of electrical power allowed everything else, including heating, to continue to function in my absence. I am awaiting the assistance of the friend who installed my generator in running the wiring for an inexpensive set of surveillance cameras that will allow me to see who may be at selected points outside my house, even in the dark. With Social Security as my primary source of income, I am currently contemplating when to invest in an intercom system that will allow me to speak to someone outside the door without having to stand behind it. Times are not getting any better.) 7 Jan 10 Re-emergence of an old scam, from a friend on the East Coast: "Last week, a woman pulled into a local bank parking-lot, went in, and withdrew several thousand dollars in cash. When she got back into her Mercedes, a smiling 'good-Samaritan' approached, waving a stack of bills, and saying, 'Lady! You dropped this." Instead of leaving her window up, locking all doors, and quickly checking, she rolled down her window. He grabbed her arm, took her purse, and fled. Two accomplices then came from behind and quickly slashed all four of her tires. They then fled also. Police arrived shortly thereafter. The trio is still at large. The woman was not hurt, but she was badly shaken, lost her purse, inherited a towing bill, and had to buy a new set of tires! However, she could have just as easily been murdered!" Comment: VCAs are working in pairs and groups, especially in big towns. Smart ones select victims carefully. Thus women, infirm, and elderly need be particularly observant and careful. In big towns, with paranoid, power-hungry mayors who invariably have anti-gun agendas, VCAs know that most potential victims are not armed. In states and towns where CCW permits are available, there is currently a rush to get them. In those places, VCAs can't be quite so smug! /John (A key word in the above account is "Mercedes." I spent many years collating Asian gang intelligence at a Los Angeles sheriff's station. A large proportion of the crime reports I processed were of home-invasion robberies. These were an art from among the street-level Vietnamese youth gangs in the 90's and one that was subsequently shared with other nationalities during periods of incarceration. As practiced by the Viets, these were not crimes of opportunity. Victims were carefully targeted, typically by spotting Asian women wearing more than the usual amount of gold or jade jewelry in shopping places. The next step was to follow them discreetly to their cars. Those driving Mercedes, BMW, Lexus and Cadillac vehicles would likely be followed home. A period of surveillance would ensue, often for a few weeks, during which a subterfuge to gain entry would be developed. Asians were targeted because those Asian immigrants who possess them will generally keep large amounts of cash and jewelry in their homes. When the robberies went down it was common practice to threaten rape of the youngest female if the goods were not surrendered. Ostentation can command a very high price. Shun fancy jewelry and flashy cars. Even if you live in an upscale neighborhood, don't make your home the most attractive one on the block.) -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. The tactics and skills to use a firearm in self-defense don't come naturally with the right to keep and bear arms. http://www.spw-duf.info .