Don’t Play with Guns in Vehicles
“A student is dead after a firearm was accidentally discharged in a vehicle in the parking lot of Dalhart High School.
…
According to [Superintendent] Byrd, a student not enrolled in the district went to the high school at lunch and picked up three students when the firearm went off in the parking lot.”
Just don’t do it. Fooling around with guns in cars is a Serious Mistake that can easily lead to a tragedy.
If you have to put it in a lockbox, have a lockbox that’s big enough for the holstered gun and put the gun in the box without removing it from the holster.
Duel at the Dumbster (Part VIII)
“Hey Claude what are your thoughts on the dad getting convicted and the son getting acquitted in the ‘Duel at the Dumpster’ Trial?”
The “Duel at the Dumbster” saga has finally concluded after almost five years. For those unfamiliar with the incident, it started as the 2018 killing of a man in an Abilene, Texas alley over the disposal of a mattress. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tasneemnashrulla/father-son-texas-shooting-neighbor-trash-video The elder shooter will now spend the rest of his life in prison but his son will go free, except for the debts he owes to his lawyers.
As a friend of mine commented:
“We aren’t supposed to kill each other over who is king of the landfill until *after* society collapses.”
My thoughts about it are remembrances of what other knowledgeable people have said about personal protection in general. This incident shows the wisdom of their words.
“Any time you go into court, there is a greater than zero chance you will be convicted.”
–Andrew Branca Law of Self Defense
“Stupid people, stupid places, doing stupid things. Avoid them and you’ll probably be alright.” and “The best way to win a gunfight is to not be there.”
–John Farnam https://defense-training.com/
“Forget Stand Your Ground.” and “Don’t Go Outside.”
–Steve Harris http://modernserviceweapons.com/?author=12
“The process is the punishment.”
–John Murphy https://www.fpftraining.com/
Note that their combined bond was $500,000, which means they had to give a bondsman at least $50,000 to get out of jail. They don’t get that back, it’s the bondsman’s fee for posting their bail.
Also, assume that in any confrontation you will be on video, most likely from the perspective least favorable to you. The framing of the story in the media will also be as unfavorable to you as can possibly be made. The picture of the participants in the Buzzfeed story is a good example. Both the shooters are portrayed as shirtless toothless gun-armed rednecks. The shootee is portrayed as a happy smiling person, not the hulking angry foul-mouthed behemoth with “Intermittent Explosive Disorder” holding a baseball bat that the video shows.
There are so many lessons to be drawn from the incident that I wrote a series of articles about it.
https://tacticalprofessor.wordpress.com/2018/09/21/lessons-from-the-duel-at-the-dumpster-part-i/
https://tacticalprofessor.wordpress.com/2018/09/22/lessons-from-the-duel-at-the-dumpster-part-ii/
https://tacticalprofessor.wordpress.com/2018/09/28/lessons-from-the-duel-at-the-dumpster-part-iii/
The year after the Duel, I made a visit to the site as part of my trip to the SHOT Show.
Visit to the Site of the Duel (Part IV of the series)
Visit (continued) to the Site of the Duel (Part V of the series)
This is a quote from The Godfather that is worth repeating.
“There are men in this world,” [Don Corleone] said, “who go about demanding to be killed. You must have noticed them. They quarrel in gambling games, they jump out of their automobiles in a rage if someone so much as scratches their fender, they humiliate and bully people whose capabilities they do not know. I have seen a man, a fool, deliberately infuriate a group of dangerous men, and he himself without any resources. These are people who wander through the world shouting, ‘Kill me. Kill me.’ And there is always somebody ready to oblige them.”
That doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences for such a killing, as the Duel at the Dumbster demonstrates. In The Godfather Sollozzo noted:
“Blood is a big expense.”
How to Make a Bad Decision
A woman in Chattanooga detected a bum aka ‘homeless person’ in her backyard Monday morning (2/6/23). After verbally warning him to leave, she decided to fire a ‘warning shot’ at him. However, the shot hit the man in the ankle. When the POlice arrived, the man was taken to hospital in an ambulance, the woman made a statement to the POlice about the incident, and she was arrested for Aggravated Assault. As in every other State, Aggravated Assault is a felony in the State of Tennessee.
All three of the inputs to Bad Decision-Making were part of this incident.
She didn’t Know the Rules – In most places, you can’t shoot at people who are trespassing without having some consequences. The consequences may only be getting arrested but the bail bondsman’s fee (10-15%) comes out of your own pocket. Fortunately for her, Affordabail Bail bonds is nearby. $50,000 bail means that decision costs at least $5,000 just to not spend a night in jail surrounded by ne’er-do-wells.
Her Skills were Inadequate – She didn’t intend to shoot the bum but managed to hit him anyway. A ‘warning shot,’ by definition, is intended to miss.
She didn’t Understand the Situation – at 4:30 am in your backyard where there is no lighting, you can’t tell what’s going on 20 yards away without a flashlight.
“the distance between Teem’s back porch and the place where the victim was shot was about 60 feet.”
Bottom Line: Don’t go outside.
My thanks to Reed Martz of Freeland Martz PLLC https://freelandmartz.com/ for the heads up about the incident.
Don’t go outside and don’t chase criminals
Since it’s a recent theme in the training community, let me reinforce the principle that going outside your home to confront thieves and other criminals is a bad idea. Stay inside and let them come to you. Conduct a Defense not a Movement to Contact. A military axiom is that the defense has at least a 3 to 1 advantage over the Offense.
http://modernserviceweapons.com/?p=18502
Not only does it make justification iffy but you could become a casualty in the process.
Another bad idea is chasing criminals you encounter while driving around when you suspect them of having stolen your property.
Shooting at them makes it even worse.
“At about 4:45 p.m., a man spotted his stolen Chevrolet truck in the Mt. Baker neighborhood while he was out driving in his Toyota Camry. He followed his stolen truck until it stopped, and then confronted the driver. When the driver sped away, the man fired two shots, striking two nearby residences.
…
Officers booked the 27-year-old man into King County Jail for drive-by shooting and submitted his firearm as evidence.”
Drive by shooting in Washington State is a Class B felony. https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=9A.36.045 It is punishable by up to 10 years in jail and a $20,000 fine. Odds are that since no one was injured, he won’t do hard time but, as a felon, his Second Amendment rights will be gone.
Thanks to one of my correspondents for bringing the incident to my attention.
Terms
MOVEMENT TO CONTACT
2-8. Movement to contact is an offensive task designed to develop the situation and establish or regain contact. (Refer to ADRP 3-90 for more information.) It creates favorable conditions for subsequent tactical actions. The leader conducts a movement to contact when the enemy situation is vague or not specific enough to conduct an attack. Forces executing this task seek to make contact with the smallest friendly force possible. A movement to contact may result in a meeting engagement, which is a combat action occurring when a moving force engages an enemy at an unexpected time and place.
THE DEFENSE
4-1. A defensive task is a task conducted to defeat an enemy attack, gain time, economize forces, and develop conditions favorable for offensive or stability tasks. (Refer to ADRP 3-90 https://www.benning.army.mil/Infantry/DoctrineSupplement/ATP3-21.8/PDFs/adrp3_90.pdf for more information.) Normally, the defense alone cannot achieve a decision. However, it can set conditions for a counteroffensive or counterattack that enables Army forces to regain the initiative.
In other news, don’t defraud school systems of $1.5 million dollars’ worth of chicken wings. Even in Ill-Annoy, it will get you in trouble.
“District funds were used to pay for the food, according to prosecutors, who did not reveal what became of the chicken wings.”
Failure Drill?
A friend of mine sent me a link to the Maine [POlice] “Plain Clothes Course of Fire” Pistol Qualification.
https://www.maine.gov/dps/themes/dps/mcja/documents/PlainClothesPistolQualificationCourse2019.doc
As with many current POlice Qualifications, it includes a “Failure Drill = (2 to the chest and 1 to the head),” in this Course three times. The terminology evolved from what was originally called the “Mozambique Drill.” https://www.shootingillustrated.com/articles/2017/5/18/the-mozambique-drill-a-history-and-how-to/
Consider the “Failure Drill” as it’s currently taught and evaluated. It has been bastardized the same way the “OODA Loop” has been. The drill isn’t actually structured to deal with a Failure. The concept of Failure requires an assessment of the efficacy of the original effort. Assessing the target’s reaction or lack thereof to the first two shots was an explicit part of the drill as originally taught by LAPD Officers Larry Mudgett and John Helms.
When the structure of the drill is such that the transition from the two chest shots to the head is immediate and pre-programmed, no assessment is involved. Rather such a drill is structured to ensure the recipient is killed from the get go. It should be called the “Anchor Drill” or “Kill Drill.” That’s not to say there might not be a justifiable reason to anchor the adversary. However, let’s not have any illusions about what the object of the exercise is and call it something it’s not.
Decision and Determination
“The document details how [Michaela aka Micky] Shunick fought back against her attacker by spraying him with Mace, stabbing him several times and fighting relentlessly until he ultimately shot her in the head.”
ABC News
Synopsis of the incident
- The Culprit intentionally hit Shunick’s bicycle
- Insisted that she enter his truck
- He put her bike in the bed of his truck
- The Culprit was in possession of a knife and a semi-automatic handgun
- When Shunick attempted to grab her cellphone to call for help, the Culprit threatened her with his knife
- She sprayed Mace [or some other chemical weapon] into the Defendant’s face
- Micky fought off the Defendant who succeeded in wrestling the chemical weapon from her
- She grabbed the Defendant’s knife and proceeded to stab the Defendant several times in what would later be called life threatening wounds
- The Culprit tried to grab the knife from Shunick, which caused him to cut tendons in his hands
- Micky struggled with the much larger and stronger Culprit
- He succeeded in taking the knife from her
- The Culprit then stabbed her at least 4 times and she fell over
- Micky lay motionless and the Culprit was unable to detect a pulse
- The Culprit then drove her motionless body to a secluded area 40 minutes away
- He planned to dump her body there
“Suddenly, Micky jumped up [after having been initially rendered unconscious], with the Defendant’s knife she had regained possession of and lunged at the Defendant stabbing him again in the chest, the court document said The Defendant pulled his semi-automatic handgun, which he had armed himself with, and shot Micky in the head, killing her instantly.”
That was one tough and courageous woman. She decided to make the crime as hard as possible for the Culprit. She had the determination to fight as long as she could, even after initially being rendered unconscious. I give her a lot of credit. We can all learn something from her example.
The Culprit pleaded guilty to her murder and to the 1999 murder of another woman, Lisa Pate. He was sentenced to life in prison, where he has proven to be a less than model prisoner. https://www.katc.com/news/around-acadiana/2018/10/25/convicted-murder-brandon-scott-lavergne-disciplined-often-in-jail/
Awareness saved my life
For many years, in every one of my classes I have commented to the class that the typical middle class person is more likely to become a casualty at the hands of a motor maniac than from a criminal.
Yesterday was nearly the day for me. Fortunately, being aware of my surroundings kept me from getting killed or seriously injured. As Tom Givens says:
“Who is around me and what are they doing?”
On my daily walk, I crossed a four lane local street. There’s no intersection nearby so I had to cross the street where I could. A rape/murder van https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rape_van (beat-up full size van with no windows) was approaching so I waited for it to pass and then crossed behind it. Although those vans usually have rear windows, this particular one was even worse since the driver side rear window had been replaced with plywood.
As I crossed behind it, the driver immediately stopped, threw it into reverse, and hit the gas. Because I had my head up and was paying attention, I saw the white backup lights come on. This was a clue to me that I had better quickly move out of the way, which I did by sprinting to the other side of the street.
Then as I quickly walked down the sidewalk, the maniac continued to back up the street in the same direction I was going. Starting to think it was some Central American assassin coming to make amends, I got my hand on my pea shooter under my shirt but didn’t draw it quite yet.
Finally, he stopped and turned into the driveway of the shopping center on my side of the street. Then he drove into the drive-thru of the Burger King and ordered something. I proceeded on my way after visually verifying that he wasn’t an assassin but was actually just a moron like Joe Biden. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moron_(psychology)
The incident is a good example of why I never wear ear buds to enjoy distractions on my cell phone when I’m walking. Further, I follow Bill Rogers’ advice to ramp up my awareness when the situation changes. Crossing the street is a situation change.
“When you’re driving and you see the first few raindrops on your windshield, it’s time to stop daydreaming and pay more attention to what’s going on around you.”
I was only a few feet behind the van and had, at best, two seconds to get out of its way. If I had been distracted and not acted instantly, I would have ended up under his wheels.
After surviving all the health issues I have over the past four years, getting killed by a fool in a motor vehicle who’s only thinking about a Bacon, Sausage & Ham Fully Loaded CROISSAN’WICH https://www.bk.com/menu/picker-picker_4740 would have been a real tragedy. But I’m in one piece because I pay attention to what’s around me.
As a general protocol, I stay as far away from those vans as I can. If there’s one in a parking lot, I drive to the other side of the lot to park, regardless of how far I have to walk.
This post is also an opportunity for me to plug the idea of taking a Defensive Driving Class, which is the point of my comment in my firearms training classes. The last time I took it, I was the only one in the class who wasn’t there because a court made them. That’s sad.
Weaponized math!
Legendary Lawman Chuck Haggard sent me a video on Facebook showing an interaction between an individual and a car. His comment was:
People don’t realize how violent even low speed cars can be
Being a math nerd, I wanted to quantify this so I calculated the kinetic energy (KE) of a typical sedan of 1000 kilograms going 5 miles per hour. Then I calculated the energy of a 158 grain .38 bullet going 750 feet per second.
The comparison came out like this:
- car @ 5 mph KE = 2,498 Joules
- 158 gr bullet @ 750 fps KE = 267 Joules
So a barely moving car creates ten times the KE of a bullet. Let’s keep that in mind.
I’m not sophisticated enough to capture the video but these screencaps should give you an idea of the interaction.
Dude literally got scraped out of his shoes. My guess is the he will be spending some time in the hospital.
It’s a great example of don’t f8ck around in traffic, reach into another car in a hostile manner, etc…
Chuck
Firearms are relentlessly unforgiving
Firearms are relentlessly unforgiving of the smallest lapse in attention or good judgement.
The shooting of a special police officer during a training exercise at a D.C. library came as the group of trainees had gathered to take a picture and were ‘joking around,’ according to court documents.
[The shooter, a retired POlice lieutenant], who conducted the training as a private contractor, was arrested Friday and has now been charged with involuntary manslaughter in Manyan’s death.
Before, during, and after training or dry practice, there’s no room for “joking around.”
One of the very first things I learned in the Army from the men who had just returned from Vietnam was:
F8ck around, f8ck around, get yourself or someone else killed.
It’s a lesson I’ve kept in mind for 50 years. RIP Officer Manyan.
Duel at the Dumbster (Part VI)
#throwbackthursday
“Another delay is expected this month in the murder trial of an Abilene father and son accused of killing their neighbor over a dispute about a mattress in 2018, a court official said this week.”
Read more at: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/crime/article264129071.html#storylink=cpy
“A new date has not been scheduled, but the Millers are expected to go on trial in early 2023, court officials said.”
They’re probably happy that they’re out on bond. It appears that they had to spend from September of 2018 until April 2019 in the can (jail). Whether they had their Man Locks during their jail stay is unknown.
Killing someone, no matter how obnoxious the person is, over a mattress is a Serious Mistake.
“Court documents said police reviewed the video and determined the Millers were likely tired of Howard acting out and threatening them verbally.”
As anyone who has been involved in the court process can tell you, it’s a living Hell, even before you go to trial. It will be around four and a half years for them, assuming they get to trial in early 2023. My colleague John Murphy https://www.fpftraining.com/ commented:
“The process is the punishment.”
This incident was so ridiculous and avoidable that I have written a series of articles about it.
Unjustified Killings
https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2018/09/20/serious-mistakes-unjustified-killings/
Lessons from the Duel at the Dumpster (Part I) https://tacticalprofessor.wordpress.com/2018/09/21/lessons-from-the-duel-at-the-dumpster-part-i/
Lessons from the Duel at the Dumpster (Part II) https://tacticalprofessor.wordpress.com/2018/09/22/lessons-from-the-duel-at-the-dumpster-part-ii/
Lessons from the Duel at the Dumpster (Part III)
https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2018/09/28/lessons-from-the-duel-at-the-dumpster-part-iii/
Duel Site Visit (Part IV)
Duel Site Visit (Part V)
Be dedicated to Stanford’s Paradigm.
- Avoidance
- Deterrence
- De-escalation
- Disengagement
tacticalprofessor 
You must be logged in to post a comment.