The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – March 2024
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is an iconic movie in American cinema and arguably the best of the ‘Spaghetti Westerns.’ Rather than my usual boring rants about Serious Mistakes, Negative Outcomes, http://seriousgunownermistakes.net and excruciatingly detailed analyses of Armed Citizen incidents, I’m creating a short collection of a Good, Bad, and Ugly incident each month. Here’s the March 2024 issue.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/good-bad-and-101430615
My Patrons get first look at it on the last day of each month. The following month I unlock the Patreon post on the last Monday and link it here for my blog Followers. Today’s the day to unlock the March 2024 edition.
My hope is that it will be both educational and entertaining. The movie soundtrack is outstanding so a snippet from the soundtrack is part of each month’s post also.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – March 2024
The Good
Woman shoots 2 alleged intruders, killing 1, inside West Philadelphia apartment, police say
The Bad
The Bad section this month was difficult to decide which incident to use but the most tragic won out.
Mother accidentally shoots, kills daughter when searching for keys in purse, police say
The Ugly
Kentucky man accused of shooting roommate for eating last Hot Pocket, police say
Enjoy!
The GBU isn’t drawn from The Armed Citizen column of the official NRA Journals but the March edition of The Armed Citizen is attached. Rather than an obsessive interest in ‘the worst case scenario,’ it shows what the vast majority of Defensive Gun Uses really look like. Naturally, my hometown of Chicargo is prominently featured.
Home Defense Pistol Skills
My latest Shooting Illustrated article is up.
“In the process of defending one’s home with a pistol, several additional skills beyond marksmanship are useful and necessary. In particular, the ability to move through the home while holding a handgun and techniques to inform the all-important DON’T SHOOT/SHOOT decision are critical.”
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/home-defense-pistol-skills
Flashlight skills at home are important enough that the flashlight chapter of Indoor Range Practice Sessions is a free download on my ebook store.
https://store.payloadz.com/go/?id=2505573
Rangemaster Tactical Conference 2024
TacCon 2024, as we call it, is now in the books. [link] It is an annual teaching and learning conference for those who are, or want to be, serious students of the Art of Self-Defense and Personal Protection. This is the fourth year it has been held at the Dallas Pistol Club, a marvelous facility.
The Conference is three days long. This year there were 42 trainers, who taught 69 different classes in 10 different ranges/classrooms. Topics ranged widely from shooting technique to unarmed combatives to medical procedures to using social media effectively and safely. Some classes are live fire, some are hands-on non-live fire, and some are lectures.
There is also a pistol match for those who choose to shoot it. The match is not mandatory and some attendees don’t shoot it. Not everyone who attends TacCon is a gun person, although most are. The Pistol Match consists of 40 rounds shot on turning silhouette targets at distances of 3 to 10 yards.
The presentation I gave was Off-Duty Shootouts of the LAPD. The basis for my presentation was the entirety of shootouts by LAPD officers, while they were off-duty, during the period 2005 to 2022, the last year full reporting has been published.
Since there are generally 10 classes going on at time, it’s impossible to attend them all. Some of the classes are repeated once or twice but the majority are not. Classes I was able to attend were:
Friday
Beware of… Well, Just Beware by Tom Givens
As my colleague Craig Douglas likes to ask “How do you do ‘Situational Awareness?’” Tom provided some answers to that question.
Civilian Defender Philosophy by Dr. Sherman House
The Art of Self-Defense and Personal Protection has many different facets, as represented by the wide variety of topics presented at TacCon. ‘The Real Dr. House’ presented his thoughts on how to prioritize and integrate them.
SATURDAY
Off-Duty Shootouts of the LAPD by Claude Werner, the Tactical Professor. To start the day off right, my presentation was one of the 8AM offerings.
Why study Off-Duty POlice Shootings? LAPD officers are encouraged to NOT take “enforcement action” while off-duty. Off-duty lethal force incidents involving LAPD officers are almost always Self-Defense/Personal Protection incidents much like those that could be encountered by Armed Private Citizens. They provide a thoroughly researched and documented database of shootings and the circumstances that led up to them.
Pistol Match
I finished about middle of the field. But since I shot a Taurus 856 snub revolver and speedloaders against a bunch of red dot equipped service sized autoloaders, I’m okay with that. POV video of the match will be up in a few days on my YouTube channel.
10 Tips for Teaching Gateway Students by Karl Rehn
It’s heartening to me to see how many high level instructors are thinking about best practices for teaching entry level gunowners and shooters. Karl’s wasn’t the only such presentation at the Conference but the only one I could attend.
During lunch, Andy Stanford from Surefire did a video interview with me about Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make and Guns That Get No Respect. When he publishes the edit, I’ll link it.
More about the Conference tomorrow
NYC Subway Monkey Dancing
#fridayfundamentals
Today’s post is not about shooting technique, it’s about avoiding being an idiot. I’m writing a series of Patreon posts about the incident but Idiot Avoidance is the bottom line.
By now, probably everyone in America has heard about the shooting that occurred last week on a New York subway train. The full video is available on ABC 7’s video – Brooklyn subway shooting: the full video https://abc7ny.com/videoClip/nyc-subway-shooting-brooklyn-man-shot-on-train/14527921/
The most important lesson of the entire incident is not about weapons’ usage or unarmed combat or weapon disarms. The important lesson is to avoid ‘Monkey Dancing.’ Rory Miller coined this term years ago and it’s important.
“The term Monkey Dance was coined in the book “Meditations on Violence” to describe the human dominance ritual. It’s a deliberately ridiculous name for a ridiculous pattern of behavior.“
Rory Miller
Before the would-be shooter, who ended up being the shootee, began to access his weapon there were three and a half minutes of Monkey Dancing. It’s also worth noting that accessing his pistol took him 14 seconds because he had it in a zippered pocket of his jacket. He had taken off the jacket in preparation for the Monkey Dance, so it was off-body carry at that point.
It’s also worth noting that with two exceptions, the crowd watched and enjoyed the spectacle for four minutes. They only became unnerved by the introduction of a gun. Then, they began to panic and scream. “Let me out!”
The two exceptions were the woman in the face diaper behind the Black man and another man who took a big chance and stepped in to create a break. The woman, although not involved up to that point, immediately stabbed the Black man in the back several time when he began his Ground and Pound. It only took her a couple of seconds to get started so she must have had her knife in hand ready to go.
Monkey dancing is stupid and irrational. Don’t do it.
Keep Your Hand Away From the Muzzle
A friend of mine sent this link to me today.
Instagram video of Serious Mistake followed by Negative Outcome. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4LsHBArwtl
In the video, the person holding the gun is trying to get the laser to come on and repeatedly muzzles his own hand looking for the laser dot. Shortly after this frame, the gun discharges and shoots a hole in his hand, which was a definite Negative Outcome.
Sadly, the examples of dangerous gunhandling that gunowners and new shooters see while watching TV and movies are horrific. In the latest debacle by the ATF’s “expert” on the talking head TV show Face The Nation, he muzzles his own hand repeatedly. https://www.cbsnews.com/video/atf-director-and-firearms-expert-show-some-of-the-weapons-being-found-on-the-streets/
The ‘unboxing’ shows on YouTube by so-called wannabe gun ‘influencers’ are universally heinous, too. And before we get to feeling all righteous and self-congratulatory, even people we in the industry would consider legitimate Subject Matter Experts muzzle their own hands regularly when doing demonstrations on YouTube.
Probably the best firearm safety device that could be produced would be an extremely sharp Fairbairn Sykes British Commando Dagger with a 3 inch long 9mm diameter tang and no handle. If any knife producer wants to use this idea, feel free, no license or royalty required.
The 9mm tang could then be inserted all the way into the muzzle of a pistol so the dagger blade would be directly in front of the muzzle. It would teach the importance of keeping one’s hand away from the muzzle. In an emergency, it could also serve as a bayonet. 😊
Keep your hand away from the muzzle, PERIOD. It doesn’t matter if you think the gun is unloaded, keep your hand away from the muzzle. Rule 1: “All guns are always loaded” is a philosophical rule unlike Rules 2 through 4, which are operational rules. Not many people really understand this distinction.
Snub Dry Practice Training Aids
#wheelgunwednesday
All discharges of a firearm by LAPD officers must be reported to the LAPD Force Investigation Division. Each discharge is thoroughly investigated, adjudicated by the Board of Police Commissioners (BOPC) for LAPD policy compliance, and a public report posted on the BOPC webpage.
https://www.lapdonline.org/police-commission/categorical-use-of-force
Of particular interest are the off-duty discharges. These usually involve one of two situations. First, situations of self-defense similar to what would be encountered by any non-sworn person who owns a firearm for personal protection. Or, second, Unintentional Discharges due to administrative gunhandling such as: placing or removing the firearm in a storage location, cleaning the firearm, or dry practice “to improve accuracy.” In one rare instance, both situations were involved; a firearm was discharged while being retrieved during a ‘tactical situation.’
In adjudicating Unintentional Discharges cases, the LAPD BOPC subdivides them into two categories.
A. Unintentional Discharge
The definitions for an Unintentional Discharge, both Accidental and Negligent, are as follows:
Accidental Discharge: The unintentional discharge of a firearm as a result of an accident such as a firearm malfunction or other mechanical failure, not the result of operator error.
Negligent Discharge: Finding where it was determined that the unintentional discharge of a firearm resulted from operator error, such as the violation of firearm safety rules.
Administrative Disapproval – Negligent Discharge. Finding where it was determined that the unintentional discharge of a firearm resulted from operator error, such as the violation of a firearm safety rule (Los Angeles Police Department Manual, Volume 3, Section 792.05).
From 2005 to 2023, five Unintentional Discharges of five shot revolvers, which are authorized for backup and off-duty carry, occurred. All five were adjudicated as Negligent Discharges and received Administrative Disapproval. Negligent Discharges are one category of Negative Outcomes https://store.payloadz.com/details/2617872-ebooks-true-crime-serious-mistakes-gunowners-make.html and we obviously want to avoid them.
Four of the five involved preparation for dry practice. The cause of all four was the same. Not all five rounds were ejected from the cylinder when the revolver was unloaded. One round remained in the cylinder when the other four ejected. At some point during the dry practice, a loud noise occurred when a click was expected. That universal cause reinforces my concept of how to prepare for dry practice with a revolver.
https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2020/08/21/dry-practice-safety-part-ii/
Since that article was posted, Zeta6 and I teamed up to create the SafeSnap Training Disc.
https://zetasix.com/product-category/safesnap
I now keep a SafeSnap Disc in my storage box, along with an empty HKS speedloader, to make my dry practice even safer. Although I don’t carry an HKS, I find it’s the easiest of all speedloaders to put ammunition in.
I rotate the revolver so the muzzle is pointing straight up, eject the live rounds from the snub, place them in the speedloader, and then put the SnapSafe in the revolver. Holding the revolver completely vertical is an important aspect of ejecting the live ammunition. Holding it at angle and catching the rounds in the palm of the other hand is a dangerous technique and is “cruisin’ for a bruisin’.” Sooner or later, doing that will bite you in the ass; hard.
This procedure makes the possibility of having a Negligent Discharge during dry practice fairly remote. I also have a Zeta6 K-PAK2 https://zetasix.com/product/k-pak2/ with dummy rounds for reloading practice in the box. It is set up with a Retention Ring https://retentionring.com/ to mimic my EDC reload.
All the live ammunition stays in the box and the box gets closed while I’m practicing. When I’m finished practicing, I rigidly follow the post-practice safety protocols described in the above linked article.
Dry practice is a key component of learning how to shoot well. When doing it, we want to avoid having the Negative Outcome of “causing damage to equipment or injury to personnel,” which was a graded aspect required to pass the Special Forces Weapons Qualification Course that has stuck with me for the past 44 years. Having the right training aids and following safety protocols in a disciplined manner is how we can avoid those Negative Outcomes.
FTC Note: I have a relationship with Zeta6 and Retention Ring but receive no compensation for mentioning their products.
Negative Outcome from Opening the Door
Bottom Line Up Front
Do not open (nor even unlock) your [exterior] door[s] until you’re confident this person does not represent a threat.
John Farnam
Excellent advice on many items in John’s post.
Also read this post about ‘Castle Defense.’
http://modernserviceweapons.com/?p=18502
Forewarned is forearmed.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – December 2023
Rather than my usual boring rants about Serious Mistakes, Negative Outcomes, and excruciatingly detailed analyses of Armed Citizen incidents, I’ve decided to do something different for 2024.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is an iconic movie in American cinema and arguably the best of the ‘Spaghetti Westerns.’ A new feature in 2024 for my Patreon page is a monthly post based on this theme; the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. It will feature a Good incident by an armed citizen, a Bad incident resulting in a Negative Outcome, and a stupid and unbelievable Ugly happening.
My Patrons get first look at it on the last day of each month. The following month I’ll unlock the Patreon post on the last Monday and link it here for my blog Followers. Today’s the day to unlock the December 2023 edition.
My hope is to make it both educational and entertaining. I’m very excited about the idea and hope you enjoy it as much as I’ve enjoyed researching and writing it. The movie soundtrack is outstanding so a snippet from the soundtrack will be part of each month’s post also.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/good-bad-and-95600517
Enjoy!
The GBU isn’t drawn from The Armed Citizen column of the official NRA Journals but the December edition of The Armed Citizen is attached. Rather than an obsessive interest in ‘the worst case scenario,’ it shows what the vast majority of Defensive Gun Uses really look like.
Wedding officiant accidentally shoots grandson
#safetySaturday
“It was a blank,” Houchin said in response to a question from a local reporter. “What it was is: it was a .45 Colt ammunition. What he did was put black powder into the casing and then glued it. And what we believe is the glue is what injured the child.”
Actors Brandon Lee and Jon-Eric Hexum both died from blanks fired while filming.
After Alec Baldwin shot and killed his cinematographer on set, Hollywood weapons expert Larry Zanoff commented about blanks.
“[T]here is a minimum safety distance of 20 feet in front of the muzzle because even with a blank, smoke and burning embers can get propelled out of the gun. There should be nothing in front of it when filming is occurring with firearms.”
It was reported that the weapon fired at the wedding was a Pietta 1860 snub nose revolver with a .45 Colt conversion cylinder.
“When he decided to cock back the hammer of this revolver it slipped and it shot his grandson in the left shoulder, causing an injury,” authorities said.
Firearms are relentlessly unforgiving of the slightest lapse in attention or competence. The shooter has probably been ‘shooting for years.’ Unfortunately, as is sometimes said of the law enforcement profession:
“Some people have 20 years of experience and some people have one year of experience 20 times.”
This happening was eerily similar to an incident several years ago in which a father accidentally killed his teenage son at an indoor range. https://www.cnn.com/2016/07/04/us/florida-father-shoots-son/index.html Fortunately, the consequences of the Texas misadventure were not quite as tragic.
If you would like to learn more about Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make and the Negative Outcomes that result, please buy my ebook.
WWII Helicopter Rescue Mission – Unintentional Discharge Related
Dr. Mark Felton never ceases to amaze with his recounts of wartime exploits. The elaborate efforts made by the US Army to rescue a soldier involved a journey three-quarters of the way around the globe.
“A soldier based in a weather station atop a 4700 foot tall mountain [in Burma] had accidentally shot himself in the hand and infection had set in. He needed immediate evacuation to hospital.”
“On the 24th of January 1945, a helicopter undertook the first combat medical evacuation in history.”
Ironically, the first helicopter Medevac mission in history was not due to combat action but rather because of an Unintentional Discharge.
tacticalprofessor 
You must be logged in to post a comment.