Special Forces – The Big Picture
#throwbackthursday
February’s weekly episodes of The Big Picture will feature the role of Special Forces during the Cold War. https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history
Guest Narrator for the first episode is Mr. Henry Fonda, the famed screen actor.
This man wears the uniform of the Special Forces. To use the word special in describing him is no mistake as you’ll see during the next half hour. He’s a mature, dedicated, and skillful professional and his line of work is demanding. It takes in a full scope of unconventional or guerrilla operations.
Special Warfare involves three types of activity; unconventional warfare, psychological warfare, and counterinsurgency operations. This last includes the complete range of military, political, economic, and sociological action. New emphasis is being placed on unconventional warfare and the reason isn’t hard to see.
Today, the threat of war takes three forms; general nuclear war, conventional war, and guerrilla or unconventional war. Fortunately, the world has never yet seen a general nuclear war. Conventional warfare, the regular forces of two or more nations in combat but without using nuclear weapons we know all too well but at the moment no such traditional war is going on. Unconventional warfare is a different story.
In a number of key spots around the world intense guerrilla operations are underway right now. It makes little difference to the people of a country whether they lose their freedom to an invading army of regulars or through the action of guerrilla forces sponsored by an outside power.
My book Shooting Your Black Rifle seems appropriate to this series of films. If you would like to purchase it, click on the image below.
To Keep and Bear Arms – The Big Picture
#throwbackthursday
The Big Picture was a long running weekly TV series produced by the United States Army. This episode is a co-presentation of the US Army and the National Rifle Association. It is partially narrated by Craig Stevens, who played Peter Gunn on the TV detective series of the same name. The program also contains scenes from the National Championship at Camp Perry.
For those unfamiliar with Peter Gunn, the series is available on YouTube. The theme song, played by Henry Mancini, has been described as perhaps the coolest and most suave of any TV theme.
Teach your children to shoot
In the current political situation, if you have teenage children and haven’t taught them how to shoot a rifle adequately, you’re wrong, PERIOD.
I have taught a number of teenage boys to pass the Ohio POlice Rifle Course in just a couple of hours. Girls could do it just as easily. It’s not the greatest qualification course but it’s short, easily administered, and someone who can pass it is a force to be reckoned with, especially from a fixed position or support role.
With the exception of the reload in Stage Six, the entire Course can be done even using a tube fed autoloading .22 rifle with iron sights. The reload can still be done with a tube fed autoloader but probably not in the time frame allotted. Although many people think that a .22 rifle can only cause a bee sting, they are sadly mistaken. Rifles in .22 caliber are highly lethal within 25 yards, often even with only one shot.
Our great Nation is in perilous times and it behooves us to be ready for what’s to come.
In Memoriam and Lessons to be Learned
Twenty-two years ago today, two Border Patrol Agents, Susan Lynn Rodriguez and Ricardo Guillermo Salinas, were murdered in a shootout with a dangerous criminal who was on the run.
https://apnews.com/f7fa562c42655a5874bf491be86adff7
The criminal had previously murdered two people and wounded another. He fled the crime scene. Local deputies gave chase and asked the Border Patrol for assistance.
Agents Rodriguez and Salinas set up a perimeter around where the criminal was suspected to be hiding. As they walked back to their vehicle, the suspect emerged from a cornfield and began firing with an AK rifle on them and the other law enforcement officers on the scene. During the ensuing gun battle, Agents Rodriguez and Salinas were killed.
Lessons to be Learned:
The criminal had gone to the home of the initial victims in search of a former girlfriend. When sheltering someone who has been a victim of Domestic Violence, it’s wise to increase our level of Awareness and Defense Condition.
Rifles are devastating weapons in pistol distance gunfights. Although there has been a lot of discounting the efficacy of .22 rifles as deadly weapons lately, this is ill-advised and foolish. Regardless of caliber, rifles are dangerous weapons.
RIP Agents Rodriguez and Salinas.
Tactical Professor books (all PDF) (not Free)
- Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make http://seriousgunownermistakes.com
- Indoor Range Practice Sessions http://indoorrangepracticesessions.com
- Concealed Carry Skills and Drills http://concealedcarryskillsanddrills.com
- Advanced Pistol Practice http://bit.ly/advancedpistolpractice
- Shooting Your Black Rifle http://shootingyourblackrifle.com
- Package deal of Serious Mistakes, Indoor Sessions, Concealed Carry, and Shooting Your Black Rifle (20% off) https://store.payloadz.com/details/2644448-ebooks-sports-shooting-drills-package.html
FREE gun books
Many basic aspects of rifle marksmanship are a completely mystery to new gun owners and often long time owners. While not all the information in FM 3.22-9 is applicable to civilians, there’s a lot that’s worthwhile. If nothing else, read the sections about Trajectory (exterior ballistics) and Zeroing Procedures. People who have only worked with handguns and not rifles probably don’t have any notion of how important those things are when shooting a rifle. The truth is that many soldiers and veterans don’t understand them either.
There are a bewildering array of handguns and techniques out there. A decent reference is:
Since these are FREE, at least for now, there’s no excuse for not upping your knowledge about your weapon and how to use it.
You might even be interested in putting your new found knowledge to use by shooting the drills in my books. They’re written specifically to take you from the theoretical to the practical.
Tactical Professor books (all PDF) – Not FREE
- Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make http://seriousgunownermistakes.com
- Indoor Range Practice Sessions http://indoorrangepracticesessions.com
- Concealed Carry Skills and Drills http://concealedcarryskillsanddrills.com
- Advanced Pistol Practice http://bit.ly/advancedpistolpractice
- Shooting Your Black Rifle http://shootingyourblackrifle.com
- Package deal of Serious Mistakes, Indoor Sessions, Concealed Carry, and Shooting Your Black Rifle (20% off) https://store.payloadz.com/details/2644448-ebooks-sports-shooting-drills-package.html
Get some structured practice in
Things are starting to open back up, so we can get back to the range. To help you use your time and other resources productively when you go to shoot, here’s a package deal of my three most popular shooting workbooks:
- Indoor Range Practice Sessions
- Concealed Carry Skills and Drills
- Shooting Your Black Rifle
Ordinarily, these three together would sell for $23.97 but as a package, they are 20% off at only $18.99.
As an added Bonus, the ebook Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make is included at no extra charge. It’s a free gift with a value of $7.99.
The package is available as an immediate download of all four ebooks at this link:
https://store.payloadz.com/details/2644448-ebooks-sports-shooting-drills-package.html
At one time, shooting was the American pastime, let’s get back to it.
A Well Regulated Militia
The Bill of Rights
Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
There continues to be controversy about the meaning of the Second Amendment. Advocates of Gun Control maintain that it only refers to the National Guard. On occasion, even firearms owners will say that regulated means ‘trained.’
The Federalist Papers (#29 by Alexander Hamilton) gives this interpretation of a ‘well regulated militia.’
“Little more can reasonably be aimed at, with respect to the people at large, than to have them properly armed and equipped; [emphasis mine] and in order to see that this be not neglected, it will be necessary to assemble them once or twice in the course of a year.”
I.e., everyone should own an assault rifle, a basic load of ammunition and be required to show up for an inspection thereof at least annually.
Hamilton alludes to the difficulty of having the entire citizenry participate in military maneuvers sufficient to develop proficiency at a unit level. Any soldier who has been on a Field Training Exercise (FTX) can understand this. But having military weapons in the hands of the People seems to be a viable solution to him. Maintaining individual proficiency with those weapons isn’t something he speaks about.
James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 46:
“Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation … Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”
Yet another reference to the value of citizens owning arms.
Madison also makes reference to “that the traitors [emphasis mine] should, throughout this period, uniformly and systematically pursue some fixed plan for the extension of the military establishment.” In a time when a member of Congress talks about using nuclear weapons against the American people, it’s even more important that the people at large possess military weapons.
Professor Eugene Volokh of the UCLA Law School provides some References to the Militia in The Federalist.
The Second Amendment has never been about hunting. That has always been a fiction. The intent of the Founding Fathers was for the people to able to resist a tyrannical central government.
Shooting Your Black Rifle book
http://shootingyourblackrifle.com
Scaled target rifle qualification
One of the challenges with rifles is evaluating proficiency with limited resources. One approach is the US Army Scaled Target Alternate Qualification Course. The Course is found in Field Manual 3-22.9 . It can be shot on any range that has 25 meters (28 yards) of space. Even if your range only has 25 yards, it’s still a good course; just recognize that the targets are 10 percent closer than the values on the target.
There are three Tables (stages) totaling 40 rounds.
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