Calling the Shot
#Fridayfundamentals
Last week, I shot the IDPA Match at my gun club. Oddly enough, the shot I was happiest with the whole day was one I missed.
The lighting in one bay illuminated the smoke and cloudiness of each shot during the shooting. This added to the difficulty of transitioning between targets and immediately establishing a sight picture.
When I transitioned to the far left target, my view was still obscured by the smoke from the previous shot.
But at the moment the shot fired, the smoke had cleared and I had a decent view of my sight picture in relation to the target. I called it low and moved on.
When the targets were scored, sure enough there it was, low in the -3 Zone.
Calling that shot correctly during a challenging stage was the single best aspect of the match to me. It occurred to me later that in competition we only fire one, two, or three shots per target. Because of that, we have the opportunity to evaluate our shot calling for most of our shots. It’s an advantage competitive shooting has that never occurred to me before.
Shot calling with iron sights is an important skill to work on. When you can do it, it means you’re seeing your sight alignment and its relation to the target at the moment of the shot. That is sight picture in the moment and leads to good marksmanship.
Fall of the Wall Day
#throwbackthursday
Trigger Warning! This is a series of posts about my personal experiences. It has nothing to do with self-defense, hand guns, or Personal Protection.
On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall started to be torn down. It is sometimes called Fall of the Wall Day. The tearing down of the Wall was one of the most momentous days in human history. Those who didn’t live through the Cold War can’t imagine the emotional impact it had on those of us who did.
The Wall wasn’t demolished by governments. People broke through en masse and then started to tear it down. Even the border guards, who had killed over 140 escapees over the years, were no longer willing to enforce the rules against crossing.
The German experience of the event was different from ours here in the United States. East German people wanted freedom; they no longer believed in their government. It could almost be said that the Communist governments no longer believed in themselves.
A young woman was driven across the border the next day. Then, “she opened the door, stuck her leg out, and touched the floor with her foot. Then she smiled triumphantly.
‘It was like the moon landing,’ recalled [the man who drove her], ‘a kind of Neil Armstrong moment.’
Later, back in the East, she had called her parents and said, ‘Guess what, I was in the West.’ ”
To Americans it was somewhat different. I remember it as if it was yesterday. I was standing next to a friend’s cube while he was listening to the radio. When the broadcast said the Wall was being torn down, my knees got weak. If there hadn’t been a short wall for me to support myself on, I would have fallen down.
The Wall was the most visible symbol of the Cold War. Tearing it down meant the Cold War was over. The Sword of Damocles of thermonuclear annihilation was no longer hanging over our heads. Thermonuclear effects Soldiers didn’t have to wonder about dying in the Fulda Gap Memories of the Fulda Gap or undertaking one-way missions into Soviet occupied territory. The feeling was stupendous.
A series of events led to the Wall’s destruction. People who had lived under Communism for their entire lives realized it didn’t work.
https://blogs.loc.gov/international-collections/2019/11/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-berlin-wall/
“It was on 9 November 1989, five days after half a million people gathered in East Berlin in a mass protest, that the Berlin Wall dividing communist East Germany from West Germany crumbled.”
Gunsite Glock Service Pistol
I find this development entertaining beyond measure.
A Commander style 9mm Glock with Optical sight and various other enhancements specified by Gunsite instructors.
The question in my mind is whether Jeff Cooper would have embraced this concept or viewed it as a “Rooney Gun.”
But as a lady was quoted in this article about Jews taking up arms in response to anti-Semitism:
“I’ve seen the way the world is changing,” she explained. “I need to change with the world.”
I hope her training includes some commentary about Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make.
https://store.payloadz.com/details/2617872-ebooks-true-crime-serious-mistakes-gunowners-make.html
Fuddzilla
#throwbackthursday
Just missed Halloween.
I’m not wearing sweatpants, though.
I will be at TacCon next year. My topic is “Off-duty Shootouts of the LAPD.”
Tend To Your Own Business
#fridayfundamentals
Tend to your own business
the Assassin
That’s a sage comment the Assassin made while he and I were talking years ago. His comment was about the perils of intervention. I had my own experience with it a couple of days ago and learned some important lessons about the entire concept.
While at a large retailer, I observed a low level criminal teaching his son how to be a vandal. The criminal was not merely watching but was actively guiding his son through the process of how to vandalize the inside of the store. The boy was about ten years old. It was clear that he was being groomed in a similar way to the youth who tried to rob one of my University professors many years ago was being taught the trade of robbery by his uncle.
The criminal and his son were right next to me and the brazenness of the criminality surprised me so I reflexively asked them to stop. The criminal immediately threatened me for saying something about their criminal act. At that point, I realized he was a seasoned criminal and my conscious mind took over so I withdrew.
Upon reporting the incident to the store’s management, they asked me if he was still in the store and if I could point him out. The criminal and his entire family were only two aisles away so I indicated who he was. The manager and a security person asked me to step away and then they went over to speak to the criminal.
A few minutes later, they came back to me and said there was nothing they could do even though he admitted committing the vandalism. Further, they said they were not even going to ask him to leave the store. I pointed out that he had threatened me, to which they said since it hadn’t been a physical battery they wouldn’t be able to do anything about it and the local POlice wouldn’t even respond to a call.
Rather than choosing to stick my head further in the lion’s mouth, I immediately left the store. As a precautionary measure, I took a Surveillance Detection route [Surveillance Detection post] home. Although a remote possibility, I didn’t want to a take a chance on the criminal deciding to follow me to escalate the situation.
Lessons from the incident
First lesson. It takes two or three seconds to make a conscious decision. As soon as things began to escalate, my conscious mind kicked in and I decided to withdraw. Before that, I had been acting reflexively as most decent people would; i.e., “Please don’t commit crimes in my presence.” I said it despite the fact that I have been preaching about the perils of intervention in criminal acts not involving ourselves for well over a decade.
Second Lesson. The incident was clear example that Boyd’s Process [link to OODA category] is not about making decisions in the moment. Boyd’s best work, the Aerial Attack Study [link] is about not only making decisions in advance but also formulating a plan for how to implement the decision. My plan now is to immediately turn on my heel and walk away from such a situation. This replaces my previous and more nebulous idea of “don’t get involved.”
Third Lesson. It is extremely unlikely that the benefactor of an intervention will appreciate it or even support the intervention. It’s just not worth it. As a fellow student commented to me years ago:
“What is the benefit? NO BENEFIT!”
Falah Al-Mutairi
Empty Chamber Carry – II
#fridayfundamentals
As mentioned last week, the discussions of Empty Chamber Carry rarely include any commentary about what to do after the pistol is loaded during an incident. A simplistic explanation of what the person will do often reduces to this.
“If I don’t have to shoot, I’ll immediately download the chamber when I get back to my car.”
There are several contextual issues with this.
- The car may be some distance away. Is the person going to walk to the car with gun in hand? Or are they going to holster a loaded pistol, something that they’re not used to doing, before they walk to the car?
- Once they reach the car, are they going to unload outside or inside the car?
- What procedure will be used to unload the pistol? Doing it standing outside the car? If so, is the pistol pointing at the car or away from the car? If the idea is to unload after entering the car, is the pistol in hand when getting in, placed on the seat before entering, or holstered?
- What direction is the pistol pointed inside the car during the unload process? There is no direction inside the car that doesn’t violate Rule #2 “Never point your pistol at anything you’re not prepared to destroy.” However, pointing it at yourself is the worst possible direction.
- Has the person ever practiced their unloading procedure with dummy ammunition?
If the incident occurs while the defender is in the car, the situation becomes even more complicated. The February 2022 Armed Citizen page
of the official NRA publications contains this incident in which a woman foiled a carjacking attempt. https://www.americas1stfreedom.org/content/the-armed-citizen-january-24-2022/
Woman With Concealed Carry License Fires At Would-Be Carjackers
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/ccw-holder-fires-gun-attempted-carjacker-roseland/
“I had just come out of the bank and was sitting in my car about to lock my door to pull off [and] leave, and he opened my door and put a gun in my face”
In a situation like this, both loading the gun and later unloading it come into play. Complicating the issue is that ‘workspace’ behind the steering wheel of a car is extremely limited.
If she hadn’t fired at the carjacker and had carried Empty Chamber, she would have then had to unload her pistol. However, she fired and then went for help.
“She reversed her Nissan Versa, and pulled up right outside the Chase Bank – then ran inside for help.”
If there was no malfunction, the chamber was now loaded. She then chose to go to a place of safety, the bank she just left. Obviously, running into a bank with a gun in hand wouldn’t be a great idea. Her choices at that point were:
- Holster the loaded gun or put it back in her purse. Her carry method wasn’t specified so it’s possible she just leaves the gun in the car in general. In that case, she would only have options 3 or 4.
- Unload the gun while sitting in the car, secure it somewhere on her person, and then go into the bank.
- Run into the bank and leave the gun in the car loaded.
- Unload the gun, leave it in the car, and run into the bank.
For those who choose to carry with an Empty Chamber, practice at gun manipulation is vital. Dummy rounds are a very useful training aid and every gunowner should have some. Empty Chamber carriers in particular should use them regularly to practice loading and unloading under realistic conditions.
Empty Chamber Carry – I
https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2023/10/13/empty-chamber-carry-i/
Shoot Yor Guns
#wheelgunwednesday
Before he passed away, the late Paul Gomez made a post about “Shoot Yor …. Guns.” This story is an example of why shooting your guns is important.
A couple of years ago, a colleague brought me her friend’s gun to fix. The friend said she had tried to shoot a coyote in her backyard one afternoon and the gun wouldn’t fire. It was a moderately used Model 64 Smith & Wesson revolver that had been gifted to her by a relative.
When I unloaded it and snapped it, everything seemed okay. There were three different kinds of ammo in it but none of them had a primer strike. The hammer nose protruded through the recoil shield properly so I took it to the range and fired it. It worked fine.
As it turns out, she had never fired it and didn’t realize a revolver has a heavy trigger pull. Her assumption was that the trigger pull was so heavy because the gun was broken. I cleaned it, put some proper ammo in it, and gave it back.
Just as well it didn’t fire because she lives inside the city limits of a municipality where shooting is prohibited. Unloading a cylinder of .38s probably would have brought the POlice, along with at least a citation. Also, although Georgia allows coyote hunting year-round, a hunting license is required. So it might have become a Department of Natural Resources game hunting issue. Coyotes can only be shot on your property without a license if they are attacking, which this one was not.
Moral of the story: don’t assume your gun works or that it will work for you until you’ve fired it. It’s also good to know the law about shooting animals, which is not as simple as people think. That’s true regardless of whether the animal has four legs or two.
Click on the image below for more information about shooting two legged animals.
Empty Chamber Carry – I
#fridayfundamentals
Empty Chamber Carry is strongly opposed by the US private sector training community and the ‘cognoscenti’ of the firearms community. However, carrying with the chamber empty is still a very common practice by large swathes of gun owners. Regardless of opposition to the concept, it is what it is. Some discussion beyond “Don’t Do It” is in order.
This is the first in a series of Fridayfundamentals posts about carrying with an empty chamber. The series is intended neither to advocate nor oppose empty chamber carry but rather to discuss aspects of it not typically examined. A sidenote is that many aspects of the discussion also apply to hammer down carry (Condition Two) with 1911 pistols but that is for another time.
First consider the advocates of carrying with an empty chamber.
- Fairbairn/Sykes in Shooting To Live.
- Israeli military/POlice, although it’s reported that this has relaxed in the past decade.
- Many foreign militaries and POlice forces.
- The US Army until the publication of the May 2017 version of TC 3-23.35 Pistol.
As one commentator noted when the May 2017 TC was published:
Since many people do carry with an empty chamber, let’s work with what we’ve got from the standpoint of instruction.
The single biggest problem with the method is the technique that new gunowners usually employ to load the chamber. The most common technique seen is to hold the pistol in the shooter’s workspace and pull the slide inward toward the body and out of the workspace. Most often the slide is held during the entire operation, retarding the strength of the recoil spring.
This is exactly opposite of what needs to occur. Pulling the slide inward significantly increases the possibility of not fully loading the chamber. This could be a disaster. At least one surveillance video shows an armed robber whose pistol didn’t load completely, which led to his demise.
Here’s a graphic from TC 3-23.35 that illustrates the workspace and its relationship to pistol operation.
Both Shooting To Live and the classic Israeli technique advocate holding the pistol in the workspace and then pushing the pistol forward to the outer limit of the workspace. The slide is held in place while the pistol is pushed outward.
Here’s a series of updated sketches from Chapter 3 of the edited and annotated edition of Shooting To Live that I will be publishing this year. A number of the original Shooting To Live sketches had to be redone due to finger in the trigger guard violations.
Similarly, the classical Israeli technique is to hold the pistol parallel to the ground in the workspace. The slide is held stationary and the pistol is pushed forward toward the enemy and fired.
Note that both Shooting To Live and classic Israeli use the slingshot method of grasping the slide rather than hand over the top of the slide.
The discussions of Empty Chamber Carry rarely include any commentary about what to do after the pistol is loaded, regardless of whether it is fired or not. One of the few comments ever seen was “If I don’t have to shoot, I’ll immediately download the chamber when I get back to my car.” Downloading or unloading afterward is an important enough topic for Shooting To Live to include it as part of the initial 30 round Recruit Training Program. Chapter IV states:
“In all practices at surprise targets, opportunity must be found for the performance of two very essential operations. In order of importance, these are:—
1. Making safe after firing only a portion of the contents of the magazine.
2. Inserting a second magazine after totally expending the contents of the first and continuing to fire without delay.
In the first instance, after firing one or two shots from a fully charged magazine, the instructor should give the order to cease fire. The shooter should then come to the ‘ready,’ remove the magazine, eject the live round from the breech, work the slide back and forth several times and finally pull the trigger, all as described [in] (Figs. 9 and 10).”
Note the order of importance Shooting To Live placed on unloading and reloading. Making the pistol safe after an incident was considered of greater importance than reloading during an incident. It’s probable to assume this priority came from their observation of hundreds of gunfights. Concerns and technique for After Contact actions will be covered in the next post.
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.
Surveillance Detection After a Confrontation
My friend Annette Evans https://onherown.life/ brought this incident to my attention on Facebook.
“A 26-year-old singer and model is in critical condition following a double shooting near a Home Depot parking lot in Brooklyn that appears to have stemmed from a dispute over a parking spot.”
https://abc7ny.com/model-shot-brooklyn-parking-lot-dispute/13767615/
She was shot in the head and her boyfriend was shot in the leg. She was removed from life support and died five days later. A convicted felon was arrested and charged with Murder.
As the saying about the opera goes:
“It’s not over until the fat lady sings.”
I never assume that just because the parties to a confrontation have separated that one side doesn’t harbor ill feelings and intends a follow-up. Having been in similar situations, I have plans to Escape and Evade any cuckoos who follow me afterward.
This is an excellent book on the subject. It deals mostly with targeted surveillance, e.g., stalkers, crazy ex‑partners, and the like, but even when dealing with randos, it has good advice. FTC Note: I have no affiliation with the authors or publishers and receive no commissions from any sales.
tacticalprofessor 
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