Helping or hurting your case
The justifiability of this shooting will be determined in the courtroom. However, it’s fairly safe to say that not reporting a shooting/killing to the POlice and subsequently tampering with evidence, i.e., throwing the spent shell casings in the dumpster and concealing the revolver, is unlikely to help your case.
Win, Lose, or Draw; the cost of this killing will be high, both psychologically and financially.
Also, the optics of two shots to the back of the head are not good.
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 Range Sessions, Concealed Carry, and Shooting Your Black Rifle (20% off) https://store.payloadz.com/details/2644448-ebooks-sports-shooting-drills-package.html
Thinking ahead during the current Insurgency
Part of dealing with the American Insurgency is thinking ahead about what to do when bad things start happening around you. There are no safe places during an insurgency.
Witnesses describe killing of Portland shooter Michael Reinoehl
https://nypost.com/2020/09/04/witnesses-describe-killing-of-portland-shooter-michael-reinoehl/
This was the reaction of one person near the shooting.
“I was sitting in my backyard and all I heard was pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. I was like, oh s–t. I come outside and there’s a million sheriffs out here and there’s a dude laying out here by the mailbox and he’s bleeding. They hit him.”
Note that there were at least 29 rounds fired during the incident. So far, it is unstated how many hit Reinoehl but based on general trends, we can assume that the majority did not. That means at least 15 rounds, perhaps some from rifles, were whizzing around the neighborhood.
According to Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacey,_Washington “Lacey is a city in Thurston County, Washington, United States. It is a suburb of Olympia with a population of 42,393 at the 2010 census.” Lacey is 120 miles from Portland and another State away from where the original murder took place. One lesson for us in this incident is that any place within driving distance of a well-publicized shooting is a possible location for a secondary incident. Kyle Rittenhouse went back to Ill-Annoy after the Kenosha shootings.
If you hear gunfire, don’t go outside to watch or video it. Think ahead about the most bullet resistant places in your home. The bathtub, which hopefully is iron, is an example. Even if it’s not iron, it is at least surrounded and supported by structural members. Rehearse a sheltering plan ahead of time. Make sure your loved ones understand it; they might have to use it when you’re not there. It might look something like this:
- If and when you hear shooting outside, gather your loved ones and take them to that sheltered place.
- Take your equipment, including your phone, with you when you take shelter.
- Don’t let strangers into your home after an incident.
- Call the POlice and report the gunfire outside.
The most important tool you have during a crisis is the one between your ears. As with almost all tools, it’s better if you sharpen it before you need to use it.
Tactical Professor books are available from the menu at the top of the page.
Priorities of Work
Someone on Instagram asked me about doing 65 yard headshots with a pistol. My response was that it doesn’t really concern me. I’m much more interested in teaching as many gunowners fundamental skills as I can and then integrating decisional training along with those skills. As long as a person can pass an entry level CCW Qual Course, they’re probably ready to start working on the decisional aspects of Personal Protection.
Skip Gochenour, who ran the National Tactical Invitational for many years, and I had a conversation about this years ago. Skip’s opinion was that we need to get training about human dynamics and decision-making into the training sequence much earlier. I agree with him 100 percent. Decision-making is what makes us or breaks us when the situation starts getting dicey.
I’ll be testing my theory at The Mingle 2020 in a couple of months. In the meantime, I’ll be starting a new 3 dollar Patreon tier for teaching marksmanship and manipulation skills early next month (September).
The way it’s going to be structured is by using CCW Qual courses as a baseline and a learning vehicle. The head of the US Army Ranger School once commented that the purpose of Ranger training is to teach leadership under conditions of stress. Patrolling is just the vehicle or method used to teach leadership to Ranger Students. I think we can use qualification courses in the same way. Given the ammo shortage, it will be largely dry practice with an occasional live fire session.
Here’s the first set of videos that show the first Course of the series. There will be demos for both autoloaders and revolvers.
One using the SCCY pistol:
One with a 317 revolver:
As always, Tactical Professor books can be purchased from the menu at the top of the page. They are NOT FREE but if you would be interested in knowing how to better operate the firearms you own during the American Insurgency, they will be useful.
Dry Practice Safety – Part II
#fridayfundamentals
The LAPD Categorical Use Of Force report about the UD of a snub revolver https://lapdonlinestrgeacc.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/lapdonlinemedia/2021/12/040-19-PR-NTUD.pdf generated a fair amount of interest. Here’s a follow-on idea.
These three Lessons To Be Learned From The Incident were mentioned last time.
- While we sometimes have to perform administrative functions with our guns, those administrative actions should mimic our actual handling and firing procedures, whenever possible. In this case, ejecting the rounds straight down as if getting ready to reload would be a better procedure.
- Count the rounds when they come out of the revolver. You should be aware how many chambers your revolver has. Five chambers but only four rounds indicates a problem. Note that a nickel plated single round in the cylinder of a stainless or anodized revolver is not necessarily immediately obvious. By counting the rounds and then carefully examining the cylinder, the chances of a round remaining in a chamber is mitigated.
- Dummy ammunition not only protects the firing pin, hammer nose, or striker of a handgun during dry practice, it also provides an additional layer of safety during the practice session. If a visually identifiable dummy is in the chamber(s), then a live round cannot be. This is also physics. Dummies are available from A-Zoom and ST Action Pro. They can be found on Amazon or better gun stores.
Keeping a speedloader filled with dummy rounds accessible allows you to accomplish all three of these tasks. You could do the same thing with a Speed Strip, pouch, or loops.
- Put your speedloader where you might carry it. If you don’t habitually carry a speedloader for your reload, just put it in your pocket.
- Eject the live rounds from your revolver on the ground.
- Reload with the dummies using the speedloader.
- Holster your revolver.
- Put the live rounds in the speedloader and secure it with your other live ammunition.
- Go to your dry practice area, which is a place where there is no live ammunition.
- When you have finished your dry practice, put your revolver away without reloading it.
- Do something else to remove dry practice from your thoughts.
- When dry practice is distant from your thoughts, reverse the reloading process and reload your revolver with the live ammunition. Replace the dummy rounds in the speedloader. This gives you a reminder that your revolver is now loaded with live ammunition.
- Put your revolver away or immediately exit your home to preclude the last repetition that makes a loud noise.
Using this procedure helps protect you, your gun, and gets in two good reloading repetitions.
Tactical Professor books are NOT FREE but if you would be interested in knowing how to better operate the firearms you own during the American Insurgency, they can be purchased from the menu at the top of the page.
Dry Practice Safety
#wheelgunwednesday
There are many valuable lessons to be learned from the LAPD Categorical Use Of Force reports. http://www.lapdonline.org/categorical_use_of_force Most of those lessons relate to the dynamics of Officer Involved Shootings. However, the reports also provide a detailed account for every Unintentional Discharge by a Los Angeles POlice Officer. This particular incident relates to the UD of a snub revolver.
http://www.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/040-19%20PR%20(NTUD).pdf
Incident Summary
Officer A brought his/her back-up service revolver home with the intention to clean it.
With the muzzle of the revolver pointed toward the ground, Officer A held the revolver with his/her right hand and used his/her right thumb to push the cylinder release button, disengaging the cylinder from the revolver. Once the cylinder disengaged, Officer A placed his/her left hand under the open cylinder and used his/her left index finger to depress the ejector rod, releasing the live rounds into his/her left hand. Officer A did not count the live rounds and placed them on top of the kitchen counter directly behind him/her. Officer A then closed the cylinder.
Officer A held his/her revolver with two hands in a standing shooting position. He/she raised his/her revolver and pointed it in the direction of the vertical blinds covering a sliding glass doors, which led to an exterior patio. Officer A placed his/her finger on the trigger and pressed it to dry fire the revolver. Officer A conducted two dry fire presses of the trigger.
According to Officer A, he/she normally conducted dry trigger press exercises approximately three times per week, on his/her days off. However, Officer A stated that he/she usually practices with his/her semi-automatic service pistol, and this was the first time that he/she practiced with his/her revolver.
According to Officer A, believing his/her revolver was still unloaded, he/she placed his/her finger on the trigger and pressed it a third time, which caused the revolver to discharge a single round. No one was injured by the discharge.
Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners’ Findings
The BOPC determined that Officer A’s actions violated the Department’s Basic Firearm Safety Rules and found Officer A’s Unintentional Discharge to be Negligent.
Lessons To Be Learned From The Incident
The value of reading about incidents like this is not to criticize or heap scorn but rather to learn hard lessons from someone else’s Negative Outcome.
- Revolvers have multiple chambers not just one like an autoloading pistol. Especially if the revolver is dirty, either from firing or carrying, it’s not uncommon for one or two rounds to remain in the cylinder when the rest eject. Two factors can contribute to this. One, the ejector rod of a snub is shorter than the cases so it doesn’t push the rounds completely out. Two, gravity has effect when loading or unloading a revolver. If the revolver is not held completely vertical when being unloaded, gravity causes the cases to drag on the bottom of the chambers. This is simply physics in action.
- “Officer A placed his/her left hand under the open cylinder and used his/her left index finger to depress the ejector rod, releasing the live rounds into his/her left hand.” This is pretty much impossible to do with the revolver held vertically. It is also a bad repetition of reloading procedure. While we sometimes have to perform administrative functions with our guns, those administrative actions should mimic our actual handling and firing procedures, whenever possible. In this case, ejecting the rounds straight down as if getting ready to reload would be a better procedure.
- Count the rounds when they come out of the revolver. You should be aware how many chambers your revolver has. Five chambers but only four rounds indicates a problem. Note that a nickel plated single round in the cylinder of a stainless or anodized revolver is not necessarily immediately obvious. By counting the rounds and then carefully examining the cylinder, the chances of a round remaining in a chamber is mitigated.
- Dummy ammunition not only protects the firing pin, hammer nose, or striker of a handgun during dry practice, it also provides an additional layer of safety during the practice session. If a visually identifiable dummy is in the chamber(s), then a live round cannot be. This is also physics. Dummies are available from A-Zoom and ST Action Pro. They can be found on Amazon or better gun stores.
- Dry practice should always be conducted at a specific target located on some kind of bullet resistant backstop. “[V]ertical blinds covering a sliding glass doors [sic] leading to an exterior patio” DO NOT fulfill this requirement.
Dry practice is a valuable way to build skill, especially with a wheelgun. Make sure that you are alert and focused on the task and observe safety procedures rigorously.
Tactical Professor books are NOT FREE but if you would be interested in knowing how to better operate the firearms you own during the American Insurgency, they can be purchased from the menu at the top of the page.
Another off body carry incident, with a twist
The incident occurred in September of 2016. The shooter was convicted of Aggravated Battery with a Firearm at a bench trial in November of 2017. This month, the Appellate Court reversed his conviction. He’s been in prison ever since his arrest.
Bottom Line Up Front:
A woman invites a man she’s never met in person over for sex. While they are in the midst of the act, her boyfriend shows up. The naked man grabs his pistol from under the bed and shoots the boyfriend because the man feels threatened. He is eventually arrested, tried, convicted, and sent to prison. Four years later, his conviction is reversed on appeal.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ROBERT D. WILLIAMS, Defendant-Appellant.
https://courts.illinois.gov/R23_Orders/AppellateCourt/2020/3rdDistrict/3180189_R23.pdf
Although the case has some lurid traits, it’s also very interesting from both the legal and tactical perspectives. I’m summarizing it on my Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/TacticalProfessor but the Appellate ruling provides a lot of detail you can read for yourself.
As always, should you or your loved ones be interested in learning to use your equipment better during the American Insurgency, my books are available at the menu at the top of the page.
Off Body Carry Incident
Parks, a legal gun owner, said he took a handgun out of his glove box and got out of his car, keeping the gun at his side.
Self-defense: No charges after fatal shooting in Kroger parking lot that left school protection officer dead
I’m not much in favor of keeping guns in glove boxes, door pockets, etc. but the idea that doing so will certainly lead to your demise is not true either. Many, many incidents have a build up to them, perhaps more than don’t.
Parks then shot Martin twice and called 911.
Note also that the defender fired two shots from his handgun and did not, in fact, need to fire two full magazines of ammunition to kill his attacker.
Tactical Professor books are NOT FREE but if you would be interested in knowing how to operate the firearms you own during the American Insurgency, they can be purchased from the menu at the top of the page.
Control your emotions
A Serious Mistake that will undoubtedly lead to a Negative Outcome.
Publix shopper allegedly shot another in the foot during confrontation, police say
As a friend of mine likes to say:
When you carry a gun, you give up the right to defend your honor.
She is being charged with Aggravated Assault with a Firearm on the first victim and Attempted Murder on the second.
She probably had not read my book Serious Mistakes and Negative Outcomes, which is available on the top of the page in Tactical Professor Books, along with my other books.
Question from a Patron
One of my Patrons https://www.patreon.com/TacticalProfessor sent me the following message:
I have been reading online ‘experts’ who say that with riots and increased numbers of unemployed, that the day of the lone attacker is over, and that concealed carriers need the additional ammo and quick reload capabilities of modern semi-auto pistols, to handle multiple attackers. According to these ‘wise’ folks, the day of the concealed revolver or low capacity pistol is past.
What are your thoughts? Is this paranoia, or an evolution of threat?
Here’s what I think.
It’s both. They’re right that there is some elevated risk of attack if you go to ‘stupid places where stupid people are doing stupid things.’ However, if you look at the FBI figures about the overall volume of crime v. the number of people who become casualties at mass gatherings, the percentage of casualties at mass gathering is infinitesimal.
The logic is skewed in a similar fashion to the way BLM logic is skewed. Just because we hear about a questionable incident doesn’t mean the other 999 don’t represent the reality of the big picture. For instance, the FBI reported in 2017 there were an estimated 810,825 aggravated assaults in the nation. https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/topic-pages/aggravated-assault As best I can tell, those are all the same kind of attacker situation (1 or 2) that has existed since the FBI started gathering statistics. The big picture hasn’t really changed, only what some people are looking for in it has. We’re all victims of selective perception at times.
I’m familiar with the comment “No one wants to be a statistical anomaly.” I’m also familiar with Tom Givens’ observation that the only students of his who have lost their fights were because of forfeits, i.e., they were unarmed. Let’s face a reality that every Infantryman knows all too well, ammunition is heavy and uncomfortable to carry. Periodically, I hear the quip “no one in a gunfight says they brought too much ammunition.” My response to that is that a lot of people who are attacked think “I wish I’d brought my gun.”
It seems like periodically we have to relearn the lesson that the pocket pistol on you is more useful than the service pistol left in your safe. With respect to one of my colleagues, the concept “It should be comforting not comfortable” is probably the most foolish and out of touch saying that has ever been uttered in the training community.
Thanks to my Patron for asking a good question.
Links to my ebooks are at the top of the page as TACTICAL PROFESSOR BOOKS.
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