Why do Liberals Bleed? is article posted in one of the forums I belong.  An Internet search reveals that the author, Robin of Berkeley (probably a Nom de Guerre) has published this and other articles in American Thinker.  I have no idea who she is but I’ll give American Thinker the benefit of the doubt.

It makes for a interesting reading.

But it was a major street, at high noon, and I didn’t want to seem racist, so I turned the corner a few feet to reach my car, and a minute later, had my purse stolen as well as all my feelings of being safe in the world

“Berkeley is a city of victims.  You try to understand the street people and the criminals and sit down and talk to them and then they hit you on the head and steal your purse.  The police come and then you refuse to press charges.  The criminals know this and prey on you.”

As a good, loyal liberal, I always expected others to take care of me.  If I gave my unqualified loyalty to the system, I could sleep well at night.  But now, with victims left bleeding, a dangerously naive government, and sheep like masses, I see the absurdity of my thinking.

Besides the obvious political viewpoint on self defense and guns, what I thought was more amazing was the absolute lack of proper mindset that the victim showed. Let’s ignore the political cause of such failed strategy since it is not important in a general level; even though the signs of danger were present and acknowledged and the gut was screaming the alarm klaxon, the victim made a conscious effort to ignore them resulting in an attack and its consequences. Ignoring warning signs is stupid and stupid hurts. Sometimes we choose to ignore them because we are tired or we feel cocky as in “He wouldn’t dare” or the old “It won’t happen to me”  for those who live their lives in a constant state of foolish optimism.

The old adage of Trust Your Gut is valid. Act upon it and stay safe.

I am one of those freaks that believe in IDPA as a valuable training tool. I shoot any stage as if the cardboard targets had the ability to shoot back and produce involuntary ballistic piercing in my body. Today was an absolute manure maelstrom of a match for yours truly. Between doing scores in the computer, BSing with other shooters and just not paying attention, I got my carcass raked over the coals of procedurals. I had my mind so disengaged that I did not scan for targets and in two stages I was about to get Failures to Neutralize but for the good graces of the Safety Officer who was kind enough to point out the pristine targets requiring my attention. I got the procedurals because I opened myself to the “unseen” targets so much they had a good chance to pop my arse without a sweat. First I felt stupid but later I was absolutely pissed at myself. My mind was not in the fight and I got self-screwed by it. I failed to do such a simple thing like PAYING ATTENTION and I mildly suffered in my scores but in real life, my wife would be collecting the life insurance and paying all debts incurred.

I got cocky, my mindset was off, I paid a cheap price but I learned my lessons. In Real Life you don’t get second chances.

PS:We do our IDPA scoring courtesy of Beach Bunny Software. If you dont use it, you are working way too much on those scoresheets.

Well, I took the classes, passed the tests and waiting for the NRA to send me the card/certificate.  Working on my presentations and making a list of all the ancillary  I will need. And truth be told apprenhensive about the responsibility of teaching people about firearms.

One thing I know is that I am not one of the Great Ones. My last name is not Tarani, Awerbuck, Cain, Rogers Cooper or Smith. Even though Mr. Ego wants to go there, I have to plant myself into the reality of what can I teach and make it the best possible. I want to concentrate into bringing new people on the Gun Culture by the way of Safety, Responsibility and the development of Mindset.

We’ll see.

I just finished with my NRA Instructor’s classes and one of the things covered was the need to have talk with counselor/chaplain/shrink after a self-defensive shooting. I have to admit that the one thing I never thought about but makes to have an understanding person so you can open up and share the events with confidence.

I understand that we civilian shooters tend to be independent and that we firmly believe on depending on the fewest amount of people possible (and zero from the government) but the aftermath of a defensive shooting is something not to take lightly or be unnecessary proud to ask for help. Let’s imagine (God forbid) that you have just shot a Bad Guy that attacked you or your loved ones, there are plenty of witnesses that will corroborate the righteousness  of your actions and even plenty of video cameras that recorded the whole thing. The police arrives and if they are any good, they will initially treat you and anybody still standing as suspect. It makes sense, they were not there where it happened and they must perform an investigation. You are still draining adrenalin and this guy in blue will listen with detachment, keep you at arms’ length and you will feel bothered at best, insulted at most. You know you did the right thing. All the training paid off, you saved a life and yet it is not recognized by the responding officer and later by the investigators. That will shake anybody at anytime and you are not the exception.

Later, and depending where you live, you may have to go through the hands of the local district attorney and even a grand jury. You will be put under the microscope, examined up and down, questioned, challenged and doubted. Even though if the D.A. decides to call the shooting self-defense and announce it to the world, even if the Grand Jury returns with a No Bill, the experience will affect you. And let us not forget our dear Media people, desperate for news and your comment more likely to portray you as a rabid vigilante while showing the crying mother of the critter saying that her little angle was not a criminal and spewing venom against you. This will enrage you.

And last, your friends and neighbors. You will have those that will see you with new eyes and not the best. You have broken the ultimate societal taboo: You killed a human being: The Mark of Cain.  Whispers will be exchanged as you walk by. Some parents will tell their kids no to walk by your house or play with your kids. Some will openly question your actions and offer alternative solutions on how you should have faced the situation. Each and every comment, gesture, look will lay heavily on your mind and may change you for the worst. At the end, you will find yourself wallowing in self doubt, self recrimination and an assorted menu of feelings that will make you miserable.

Police and Military are smart. They have established support systems to deal with this kind of stuff. First the individual belongs to a fraternity that will immediately support his fellow officer or serviceman. Then they have counselors standing by and even make it mandatory for the individual to attend. Even if the person involved in the shooting gets unloaded upon by civilians and the press, he has a group of supporters backing him up. We civilians do not have that. It is up to us to prepare for it.

At the class I mentioned earlier, I was lucky to meet a counselor for a local police department. He is a Rabbi and a shooter plus his experience with officer involved shootings give him a special outlook on what happens to an individual after a self defense situation. I spoke some with him and he struck me as a very well prepared and empathic person who knows when to listen, when to comfort and when to counsel. He even offered one other advantage about talking to a counselor/chaplain/shrink: Confidentiality. What you say to a counselor/chaplain/shrink, stays private and privileged under the eyes of the law.

Right now his card is in my wallet, a part of my urban survival kit. I hope I never have to call him other than saying hello and invite him over to shoot with our club.

PS: I forgot to mention something. I am catholic (way lapsed) and have a rabbi on standby. You don’t have to be choosy about what type of counselor you need, just find somebody who will help.

The Mexican Drug War Weapons lie still goes strong in the media. In today’s Washington Post’s editorial we see it once more:

Mexican President Felipe Calderón and President Obama said during a news conference in Mexico City last month that roughly 90 percent of the weapons seized in operations against organized crime in Mexico came from the United States.

But MSNBC’s “hard hitting” article on the same subject accidentally provides the truth.David Berryhil at the 10-8 forums posted the math behind the media bullshit:

Doing the math gives a much lower number of firearms traced to the U.S. than the media would like you to believe:

“In all, the military has 305,424 confiscated weapons locked in vaults….”

“The Mexican government has handed over information to U.S. authorities to trace 12,073 weapons seized in 2008 crimes…”

“About a third of the guns submitted for tracing in 2007 were sold by licensed U.S. dealers….”

One third of 12,000 = 4,000 firearms traced to U.S. firearms dealers in 2007. That number is quite a bit smaller than what the media has reported. They report the large number of illegal weapons in Mexico and imply (or lie) that all of them come from the U.S.

Or in much simple numbers, only 1.3% of firearms confiscated by the Mexican Army from Drug Dealers can be tied to licensed firearms dealers. Sorry but fucking up the data by 300,000 firearms is not a mistake, it is a boldfaced lie in anybody’s book. Then again, “journalists” do not care as long as their legs tingle anticipating acknowledgement in the form of a waving of the pinkie from the White House Supreme Being.

Enough with the ammo hoarding people! Yes I understand that the Obama administration wants our rights deceased and that many state legislatures have put forward microstamping, ammo registration and other assorted loads of legal crap, but enough is enough. This madness is starting to affect shooting sports and and we are begining to lose new shooters because they can’t find ammo for the new gun they just bought. We are poisoning our own well and killing the joy of shooting. Even reloading supplies have disappeared from stores.

The last batch of 1,000 rounds of Wolf 7.62×39 I bought cost me $120.00. This is just absurd!

And this is just insane! Not two months ago or so you could buy 4,000 primers for that price including shipping and Hazmat fees. Now people are being auto-shafted  because they are buying in full panic mode. It has to stop. And no, there is no conspiracy by the manufacturers, just our own idiocy.

Be very afraid. At the end of this month and coinciding with my hotel firing everybody including yours truly, I’ll be taking the NRA Instructor’s class.  Hopefully I’ll be an instructor in Basic Pistol, Home Firearms Safety Instructor and Personal Protection in the Home. Amazingly, I already have 4 people interested in classes so there is certainly a demand. I gotta figure how to set up the whole thing and get to it. We need more shooters!

If you have spent more than 10 minutes in any handgun related forum, you are bound to bump into a thread regarding the need (or lack) for spare magazines/speedloaders. The Armchair SWAT Members will beat their chest and proclaim how good shooters they are and that will only need whatever their gun carries to win the battle. The Legal Worrywarts fear that if they are faced into a confrontation and survive, a slick District Attorney with a political agenda may use the spare loading devices as proof you were itching for a murder.  Both points are hogwash and I am saying this in the nicest way I can muster. You carry spares because you may need them.

Am I saying you will be facing a horde of Zombies and carrying 21, 31 or 50 rounds may be necessary? No, but what may happen is that you will have a malfunction that will leave you hanging for dear life if you cannot solve it in a fast and resolute manner. I have seen shooters of all calibers experience magazine related malfunctions at IDPA matches and if a malfunction cannot be resolved with the standard Tap-Rack-Bang, they go for the spare mag and solve the problem. This applies also to real life where you must immediately drop the troublesome magazine and replace it immediately with a fresh one because you won’t be able to call time-out and figure out what’s wrong. Criminals are impolite that way.  About the only acceptable variation is if you carry a back up gun and go for it after a malfunction happens (also known as a New York Reload) which provides you with a functioning firearm to save your life.

For the last couple, three years and thanks to the impositions at work, I had my shooting skills lapse somewhat. Not that I was any good from the beginning (far from it) but they were at such a low that I was actually embarrassed to shoot at my local IDPA matches. I am back to standard in my mediocre pistol skills but I had not shot rifle in a long long time till last Tuesday when I had the chance to attend a South Florida Defensive Carbine Club match. SFDCC is the bastard child of Rob Sloyer of TacticalYellowVisor, curmudgeon extraordinaire and a new writer for SWAT Magazine.  SFDCC is basically a group of South Floridians gathering to practice and run matches with Evil Black Rifles. The gamut of participants run from the very lousy (yours truly) to some very gifted and trained individuals shooting from AK Klones to tactically pimped ARs .

During the SFDCC match, I was an absolute mess. I forgot about holdover costing me two failure to neutralize targets on just one simple vanilla stage. The fact that I wanted to be fast and slick also added to the clusterfuck and eventually general piss poor attitude when I reached the next stage.  This stage (a handgun to rifle transition)  was shot better and slower although one of the steels was set to be knocked down by a S&W 500 only so my 9mm couldn’t knock it down and I gathered another Failure To Neutralize. The last stage was a rifle to pistol transition which again I took slowly and managed to shoot clean although you could have timed me with an hourglass.

What were the lessons learned? Lack of practice will screw you up. Shooting is a perishable skill that requires practice and more practice to keep fresh. In a situation, you do not have time to stop and think what you are doing wrong and carefully deduct what you must correct. You either do it right from the start or you will end up with assorted new holes that were not there the day you came into this world. So lots of dry fire are in my future. Also I will need to get some sort of reliable mag pouches but the pickings for AK mags are slim still. I was using a modified soviet block 2 magazine belt pouch, but the crappy canvas material gives too easy and made for a lousy reload. The craze nowadays is chest rigs but I am not very fond of them. I see them as clumsy unless you have a flat stomach or are slim which I am neither. I must also look for a new sling or figure out a better way to use the Specter Gear AK CQB sling since it gets in the way of my reloads.