If you don’t know it yet, the Obama Universal Health Care proposal is so bad that neither the President nor any member of Congress will be covered by it. Instead they will maintain their privately run insurance with all the great benefits that carries with it. Since this seems to be a tad hypocritical, Congressman John Flemming from Louisiana proposed and amendment that would demand that everybody our members in Congress to have the same health care they are trying to impose on the common folk.

If you think that our elected members in congress should not have special privileges and deal with the health issue as we do, I urge you to go to Congressman Fleming’s website (http://fleming.house.gov/) and sign the petition that states:

Sign up here if you believe any member of Congress who votes for a government run health care plan should be forced to participate in the plan themselves?

I mean, if the Socialized Health Care is the solution, why aren’t they taking it?

I just got off the phone with a fellow IDPA shooter who spent three days at Blackwater shooting till he dropped. My buddy is just a civilian who enjoys sports shooting and has guns for that purpose and self-defense, period. Unfortunately he had to deal with a couple of Civilian Armchair Commandos also attending who tried to indoctrinate him in the black arts of Bullshit Tactical Shooting and have him change is ways that were not “tactical enough” for the commandos.

First, some definitions: A Civilian Armchair Commando is a regular guy (as opposed to Operator or LEO) who spends time and money attending assorted shooting academies in order to become Walker Texas Ranger or Jack Bauer and equips himself with the latest and best operator gear in the market . He also expels amazing amounts of carbon dioxide telling everybody how they will react and kick the ass of any Bad Guy with the skills he acquired during his many pilgrimages through all these centers of shooting instruction. This is what I call Bullshit Tactical Shooting or believing that you as a civilian dictate the what, when, where and the outcome of a deadly force encounter.

In case you haven’t learned yet, let me spell it for you: We as Civilians do not get to choose the what, when, where and the outcome of a deadly force encounter. It is thrown on us by the Criminal who decided that a) You look like a soft target, b) He needs monies or some sort of instant gratification you can provide and c) thinks he can get away with it. A Civilian does not read minds, feel intentions or has supernatural powers or NSA electronic surveillance that will tell them that a Bad Guy is about to attack. And if by chance you get to know you are about to be attacked, the best thing to do is to get out of there! Who in his right mind will want to dance in front of a hail of bullets?  I am not a bulletproof super hero so I will exit stage left if given a quarter of a chance to avoid the situation. We are also bound by law not to be the aggressors because no crime has been committed. A Civilian will and can only react when there is imminent fear of death or grave bodily harm as stipulated in the law. If we don’t heed to this precept, we ourselves become the Bad Guys.

So, when I hear a Civilian Armchair Commando explaining in full detail about the tactics he is going to use, the super-duper equipment he will have and the dozen of magazines loaded with the latest magical man-stopper rounds, I feel the urgent need to laugh in his face. First because I know this idiot has never faced a feces-runnin’-down-your-pants situation and secondly because I can see this guy actually buying (if they were available) a set of pajamas in MARPAT with MOLLE and a whole bunch of attachments and weapons carrier to use in case the Bad Guy attacks while he goes to the fridge for a midnight snack.

We are not in a war zone so we cannot walk the streets armed with a rifle hanging from a sling and a sidearm on a thigh holster. Even at home we don’t (at least the sane majority do not) wear a MOLLE vest loaded with mag pouches, bowie knives and trauma kits or rig the doorbell to a claymore mine because you don’t know if it is the UPS guy delivering a package or an AlQeada terrorist trying to kill you. We do take the precautions, set the equipment according to our mission, capabilities and legalities which are the ones of a civilian encountering your run-of-the mill Bad Guy in the street or trying to break into our homes while we are inside.

The same apply for “Tactics” during a Deadly Force Encounter and that is to say, What frigging Tactics? The only Tactic is to pray to God you don’t get shot and for the other guy to stop being a threat. If you think you have time yo sit down and design a cohesive and invincible strategy when an attack is happening, then you better have you Life Insurance paid up and hope that the beneficiary will enjoy the monies for your hide. Some people still do not get that training is nothing more that the gathering of tools to be used instinctively in case of emergency. These tools (Mindset, Marksmanship and Gun Handling) are to be practiced over and over until they are deeply embedded in our brain and muscle memory so they are used without hesitation, without the need of retrieving them from the file cabinet of our brain; in other words, they become the instantaneous reaction to an aggressive, deadly and unlawful stimulus against you or your loved ones.

Rant Over, carry on.

Liberals consider that the life of a criminal convicted of a heinous crime is too precious and that he should spend the rest of his life being fed, clothed, housed and his health paid by our taxes instead of being executed. Yet the life of a law abiding, tax-paying senior citizen who was an example to the community, raised a family and built the American Dream can be disposed of if the computations of a bureaucrat indicate that it is not worth the money to extend his or her life under the provisions of the new Health Care Bill now being proposed in Congress.

Have politicians in Washington taken leave of their senses?

In order to obtain my concealed weapons permit, I had to take a class, be fingerprinted, photographed and checked by the FBI. I am certified not to be a criminal or an habitual consumer of alcohol or hooked on drugs.

However, we have alcoholics, self-admitted drug users, bad check passing corrupted officials in Washington that by virtue of their own “human mistakes” exude sympathy, simulate regret and posture for forgiveness in order to get re-elected. At best they would be suspicious and put on hold if they apply for a CWP. Yet they feel that they are smart enough to legislate my disarmament and to rely on the police which has no duty to protect me. Or they confiscate my earnings to bail out companies that they themselves set up to collapse with previous laws while paying for bodyguards and guns to protect them from the crime in D.C. which is nothing more than a failed experiment in the social engineering of Gun Control.

If a man with a gun kills 30 people, he’d be hunted down, prosecuted and given a free ride in the Needle Express while the corrupt Washington politicians renew their war cry for more gun control and increased infringements on People’s rights. But when a member of the Media Bordello publishes a story that ends up killing 30 human beings, he gets away with a lame excuse and claims the protection of the First Amendment while its clients in Washington cover them and pamper them and no thoughts on Laptop Control even cross their minds.

Maybe it is time that we kick D.C. off the Union of These United States. We have no reason to secede but we can be choosy about who we have in the Union.

Another shooting over the weekend in the Miami neighborhood of Overtown left 12 people injured at a block party. Witnesses say that three males wearing black trench coats opened up with a “chopper” (slang for an AK-type weapon) and possibly two handguns in 9mm. The shooter with the AK-type weapon was seen shooting from the hip, Hollywood style while people ran for cover.  Of course, Miami PD Chief Timoney and Mayor Many Diaz once more cried to the heavens requesting the federal renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban which according to the zeal you hear them talk about will eliminate crime, reduce male impotence, bring back the housing market and bring Michael Jackson back to life. Of course, doing some actual law enforcement in that area and in the Miami area in general would be a bit too much to ask to Chief Timoney and Mayor Diaz but that is the politics of the inefficient bureaucrat for you.

But guess what has happened in the Land of Perfect Gun Control? The Daily Mail from the United Kingdom brought us the following headline: The most violent country in Europe: Britain is also worse than South Africa and U.S. How’s that for a kicker? You folks remember how tough Brits got on private posession of firearms and how the politicos went to the extreme of de facto criminalizing any type of self defense (check for references about Tony Martin’s case but not before ingesting you high blood pressure medicine) and promising all British Subjects a more peaceful and human living in the kingdom.  Apparently it did not happen and Great Britain has beaten everybody in violent crimes. They even provided a cute little graphic with the stats:

Right under the graphic we find the following statement:

The U.S. has a violence rate of 466 crimes per 100,000 residents, Canada 935, Australia 92 and South Africa 1,609.

Damn, it seems the problem was not the guns as the “intelligentsia” was tired of telling us. Remember when they told us to watch “advanced” countries like UK and adopt their ways so we could live a better life? Well, it seems that not only socialized medicine failed but also the concept of the Nanny State defending you against all evil if you gave up the right and tools to defend yourself. By the looks of it, England’s criminals are having a fair thanks to the government-sponsored nationwide Gun Free Zone.

Let’s see if government types get it this time: By definition criminals choose to ignore the law.  Capisce? If you still don’t get it, please order a copy of Guns, Violence, and Criminal Behavior: The Offender’s Perspective by Mark Progebin where he states: “convicts involved in gun-related crimes aren’t deterred by laws designed to limit the availability of firearms.” and “that gun control only affects law-abiding people and not criminals.” Now the research for this book was paid for by the US Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods program with our money. Will the legislators even pay attention? Don’t count on it.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

When

in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

I know you read it in a gun forum somewhere, IDPA will get you killed. There are some illustrated fools who make their life in forums by bad mouthing IDPA for whatever silly and/or nefarious reasons. Some are just repeating what they read somewhere, some have a vested interest in you attending their Ninja Gunfighter School of Magic Tricks and some probably sucked so bad at the sport that their egos still have not healed.

I am not going to launch into another tirade in defense of IDPA and other shooting sports but rather describe a teaching moment courtesy of an IDPA match. Yours truly is called to the line to face a 9 target Course of Fire to be shot on the move. The rationale behind the stage was that you were caught in the open when a gang of miscreants decide to come after you. You were to draw and engage all of the Bad Guys with at least 2 good shots on each target as I made my way to the safety of my vehicle.  Bad news: All but 2 of the bad guys are behind some sort of hard cover and I wasn’t and that meant shooting on the move and fast. As per Safety Officer’ instruction I load my gun and get ready…BEEP!

I had decided to play it safe, shoot fast and shoot every target at least three times and by golly I did. By the fourth target I perform a reload from slide lock that was a smooth as if I was Head SWAT Master of the Ninja  Tactical Academy. I keep going fast making all sort of neatly placed 9 mm holes in the targets and reaching the last target that receives one shot before the gun goes again in slide lock. I reach for the remaining spare mag in my waist and….. it was not there. Oh Crap!

I knew I reloaded all the mags and had them in place before the stage started. Stupidly I look down and I see the freshly empty & ejected magazine at my feet and then I look to my side and see 2 magazines laying on the ground some 15 feet away. I run back and identify the loaded mag, retrieve it, load the gun and proceed back to the last target that gets 3 more rounds on account of me being royally pissed at myself.

After unloading, showing clear and holstering, I found out what happened. My mag carrier is a leather Bianchi double stack, double mag pouch with tension screws. The right pouch is a bit looser than the left and somehow while retrieving the mag for the first reload, I somehow managed to unseat and drop the second one. My fellow squad members were torn between pity for a run that was going great and laughter at the Keystone Cops performance at the end by yours truly.

It was not a total loss. My equipment was not in combat condition, my fault alone. Did I forget to mention I shoot what I carry everyday? So I learned the cheap way that my lack of maintenance might have cost me dearly if the situation was real. Although I dislike eating humble pie, be subject to public ridicule and administering myself several hard ones to my rear end, I rather have that than be full of holes and being attached to a feeding tune at the local hospital.

So now my pouch is fixed, my holster was given a thorough check and even the belt got a nice cleaning. Contrary to the expectation of the nay-sayers, IDPA did not get me killed but it might have seved my life and taught me a lesson.