Gun Free Zone

Last month in Michigan, two armed suspects entered a Walgreens pharmacy and thanks to the efforts of pharmacist Jeremey Hoven who confronted the bad guys with his gun and sent them flying, nobody was hurt. Walgreens response to Mr. Hoven’s heroic actions was to fire him on the spot.  The reason why he was fired according to Walgreens is that they have great surveillance systems that make his actions unnecessary and dangerous.

However, nobody will be fired from another pharmacy robbery that happened this past Sunday but this time in Medford, a suburb of NYC where an armed criminal entered to rob prescription medication. Yes, nobody will be fired because the four unarmed employees were murdered by the suspect.

But have no fear, there is great video of the suspect. All is well in this world.

Update: Tango makes the notation that 2 employees and 2 customers were murdered.

No, I haven’t forgotten these idiots. But they have been producing so much crap is a task to select the best and assign awards:

The “I Am A Whore and Go To Bed With Anybody” Award, (Third Class). For celebrating that the Bradys are having consensual Public Relations Sex wit Plaxico Burris. Nothing says integrity like dealing with a convicted felon.

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The “Yes, We Are The New Communists and We Are Proud!” Award (First Class) for collecting every Che-T-Shirt-wearing, patchouli-smelling, We-want-you-dead Hippie out there for their cause.

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The “Contradicting Ourselves is no Contradiction” Award (Grand Economics Prize.) The Gun industry sells, then doesn’t sell then sells again while citizens buy more and then less and then more and then the bubble burst or plateau. You guys wouldn’t happen to be in the White House Economic Advisory Panel, would ya?

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And finally the “Are You Really That Stupid?” Award (Royal Class with Oak Leaves and Farting Unicorns).

Mr. Summitt, the answer is well known and very simple: Two to the Body & One to the Head. Assess. Repeat if Necessary. It has been a well know solution for a while now.

Beside starting way too old in this shooting sport thing, I treat every cardboard target as a real bad guy which much better marksmanship than me. This leads me to use cover as tight as damned possible and wasting “precious” time in the game. Call me coward.

According to IDPA rules: “More than 50% of the shooter’s upper torso must be behind cover while engaging threat targets and/or reloading… and for vertical cover such as a wall/barricade, 100% of the shooter’s legs and feet must be behind cover.”

And that would translate to:

And if shooting from the side of a barricade we have:

As you can see, still there is what I consider a lot of of places where a bullet can make cute holes and create a lot of injury. We have the head, spine, lungs, Aorta artery, Carotid artery, both Subclavian artery and vein, Brachial artery and both pulmonary artery and vein. Also remember that even if the bullet misses a one of those blood vessels but happens to hit bone, fragments of such bone can easily damage arteries or veins with pretty much the same result as a direct hit.

Here are some examples:

While this is IDPA legal, the area exposed is too big for my taste but works from the game’s point of view.

This one offers more protection but makes for lousy stage times unless you are damn good which most shooters are and I ain’t.

Barrels are great to demonstrate both low cover and side cover. This pic shows a barely legal and maybe illegal cover position in IDPA. Safety Officer’s choice.

This is a much tighter and better use of cover from a defensive standpoint since it minimizes exposure of the shooter’s major blood vessels and other anatomically sensitive areas.

And a good IDPA Shooter will use cover sensibly and still kick butt. Notice his gun aiming at the target behind the No-Shoot (second from the left) and still maintaining an excellent cover exposing very little of his body.

And for those who will think I am engaged in an IDPA-Bashing trip, be advised it is not the intention here, just the opposite. No other shooting sport makes it a point to use of cover religiously and this is a great skill to have for real life situations. You can approach an IDPA match the gaming way or the tactical way, shooter’s choice. In any case you are imprinting on your brain that cover is not an option to easily discard but a must when the S hits the F.What I am talking here are degrees of cover, nothing else.

If the First Rule of a Gunfight is to have a Gun, the Second is Not To Get Shot. That is where the use of cover comes to play. It is nice to go home at the end of the day without any other holes that those God designed your body to have or as a result of voluntary piercing.

PS: Shooters in the images are from members of Tropical Sport Shooting Association and taken from the Club’s New Shooter Safety Refresher Course by Rick L.

On an earlier post I was talking about the Myth of The Shoot Me Vest and in the comment sections we ended up talking about what vest we use and buy.To make a quick point: Buy Good Stuff or buy more than once…or is it buy cheap and buy twice? OK, whatever you little heart desires.

Warning: How much you might have spent or the name of the label does not guarantee quality.  When I first started carrying, the Rothco Outback vest was one of the top recommendations I got from those who “knew.” It did last for about a year till the hammer of my Mini Cougar won the fight over friction.

Next I decided to go all tactical and stuff so I proudly put the money for the 5.11 Vest of Lore, Song and Fame among the Mall Ninjas. But the tooling of Verona Steel once again destroyed the inside of that vest. The only difference is that only took six months! I cannot offer pictures of the vest because it seems it is being wore by a rat in a landfill somewhere in South Florida. The damage was not as drastic as with the Rothco Vest, but it was bad enough it interrupted a smooth draw of the Mini Cougar. The vest would hung on my gun and I found myself fumbling for my sidearm. This is a mortal sin for any concealment garment and must be our primary concern when choosing one.

I went back to the Outback vest till the Woolrich line came about. Although it is a great vest, it had two small problems for me: It is a bit too thick for South Florida and the design of the collar is such it bothers me with all the weight I carried since I use the vest as man purse. But that is just me; the vest is top quality in both fabric and manufacture and I fully recommend it. In fact, I put all kinds of patches in it and use it whenever I go to IDPA sanctioned matches

I know use an Eotac Lightweight Vest. I actually own 2 of them and I couldn’t be happier. It is cool enough for the “balmy” hellish weather down here, very comfortable, the pockets are huge and the fabric has withstood pretty much what I thrown at it. I will probably buy a third vest just for kicks. The funny thing is that if you search carefully enough online, you might find the good quality vests at the same price of what the crappy ones used to cost.

One more for the list: Smith and Alexander Vest in black for serious affairs in hot weather.  This vest is very (and I mean very) lightweight and even though the picture at the website makes it look like a butcher’s apron, in real life is conservative stylish enough for parties or other social gatherings. However, if it is too windy, concealment is out the window unless you weight it down. Indoor soirees is just the ticket.

Before I forget. For those who refuse to wear vest because they are too gay (Sorry Unc! 🙂 ) Eotac has a couple of concealment shirts you may want to try. One is the 4-Pocket Tropical Short-Sleeve Shirt which is very lightweight guayabera-based and great for hot weather; the other one is the Mechanic Short-Sleeve Shirt which is thicker and I am guessing better for cooler climates.

Author wearing Woolrich Vest at the 2011 Florida IDPA Championship
where for once, he did not come dead last in his division…but was close.
Yes, that is a M.H.I patch on the right.

Mexican President Felipe Calderón reiterated that stance bluntly this week. “I accuse the US weapons industry of [responsibility for] the deaths of thousands of people that are occurring in Mexico,” Mr. Calderón said over the weekend, while on a visit to California. “It is for profit, for the profits that it makes for the weapons industry.”

Immediately after President Calderon flew to Switzerland and accused the Chocolate Manufacturers for Mexican deaths by diabetes saying “It is for profit, for the profits that it makes for the Chocolate Industry.”

No matter who you are, something will always splatter inside a microwave. By the time we decide to clean the darn thing, the splatter is well cooked and hard to get. I humbly submit two ways to clean the insides of your microwave.

Method One:

1. Get a cup, fill it with water and about 3 drops of liquid dishwasher like Dawn.
2. Place cup in microwave and set it in high for 1:30 minutes.
3. Let the water come to a boil and produce steam. If needed, add 15 second increments on the timer till half the water is gone.
4. Stop microwave and let the contents rest for five minutes! Stuff is bound to be hot inside.
5. Open microwave, remove cup and you may now clean easily the inside.

Method Two:

1. Make sure the Significant Other is not home. Lock cat in the bedroom.
2. Get a cup, fill it with water and about 3 drops of liquid dishwasher like Dawn.
3. Place cup in microwave and set it in high for 4 to 5 minutes. Go have a smoke or beer.
4. Wait for sound of small explosion.
5. Stop microwave and let the contents rest for five minutes! Stuff is bound to be hot inside.
6. Open microwave, remove cup and you may now remove the water from the bottom of the microwave. The rest should be sparkling clean after the explosive pressure wash.
7. Do not tell Significant Other how you cleaned the microwave. There should be some secrets in any marriage.

“The owner of this blog is not responsible for any injury to a person or damage to property if you choose to follow any of the above methods and shit goes wrong. You are solely responsible for any injury and damage and deserve it for following instructions posted in the Interwebs.”