New Arizona Law Aids Ill Kids: A new law in Arizona authorizes compassionate transfers of hunting tags to children who are battling life-threatening illnesses. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0807newlaws-hunting07.html --- Time To End National Park Gun Ban: Article describes the hazards of conducting scientific research in National Parks and National Monuments in the vicinity of Arizona's border with Mexico. http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/news/87558.php --- NRA Has First Jewish President: Jewish News Weekly of Northern California offers an interesting view of Sandra Froman, an Arizona resident who was born and raised in San Mateo County CA. http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/26571/format/html/displaystory.html --- From The Fifty Caliber Institute: FCI disputes JPFO's concern about armor-piercing ammo restrictions in the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. http://www.fiftycal.org/news.august.2005.php#s397050805 --- From Force Science Research Center: I. NEW FINDINGS EXPAND UNDERSTANDING OF TUNNEL VISION, AUDITORY BLOCKING & LAG TIME Brain researchers at Johns Hopkins University have shed new light on the auditory blocking and tunnel vision officers often experienced during deadly encounters, while researchers at the University of Utah have surfaced new information related to lag time. In both cases, the findings will help advance studies at the Force Science Research Center regarding officer behavior during shootings. The Hopkins study, led by Dr. Steven Yantis, a professor in the Dept. of Psychological and Brain Sciences, tracked how the human brain handles competing demands for attention. In a neuroimaging lab, adults ranging in age from 19 to 35 were asked to view a rapidly changing computer display of multiple numbers and letters while listening through headsets to 3 voices simultaneously speaking numbers and letters. This was intended to simulate "the cluttered visual and auditory input people deal with every day." Using sophisticated imaging equipment, Yantis and his team recorded the subjects' brain activity. They found that when the subjects directed their attention to visual tasks ("tunneling in" on the computer screen), the parts of the brain that record auditory stimuli registered decreased activity. By the same token, when they focused on listening to spoken messages, brain areas that respond to visual images showed diminished activity. In effect, when a subject concentrated on one source of sensory input--looking at something, in this case--that essentially "turned down the volume" on the part of the brain that monitors hearing. And vice versa. As Yantis puts it: "When attention is deployed to one modality, it necessarily extracts a cost on another modality. The brain can't simultaneously give full attention to both." Yantis uses this finding, reported in last November's issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, to explain why cell phone conversations diminish a driver's visual acuity for what's happening on the road. But Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of the Force Science Research Center at Minnesota State University-Mankato, sees important law enforcement implications. "This explains why officers defending themselves in a shooting may not hear things accurately--or at all," he told Force Science News. "Their intense focus on a powerful visual stimulus--a threat to their life--causes their brain's hearing receptors to shut down. "We've known for a long time that shooting survivors often don't hear their rounds going off, can't remember hearing their partner screaming in their ear, may have perceived their gunshots as puny pops and so on--many sound distortions or omissions. Now we know why this so-called auditory blocking takes place. "Likewise, we understand why they may not see something within their field of vision--where their partner was standing, where civilians were--when they are focused on listening to audible stimuli. And we know that these phenomena are real, an unavoidable part of the human condition, not just something cops imagine." In a web-posted video explaining his experiments, Yantis references work at the University of Utah that, like his study, would seem to most civilians to have primarily road safety implications. (The video can be accessed at: www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/audio-video/brain.html. You can click on the photo of Professor Yantis to launch the video or click the link at the end of the printed news release.) At Utah, researchers monitored subjects talking on a cell phone while "operating" a visual driving simulator. This study measured reaction time and found, for example, that a driver's reaction to the brake lights of a car ahead is "significantly slower" if he or she is engaged in a phone conversation. Lewinski believes this finding, too, "has important law enforcement implications, concerning the impact of distraction. In this case, if you are listening to something (a cell phone conversation) it will delay your reaction to something that occurs in your visual field." But distractions within a particular sensory realm--within your visual field, say--will produce delays, too, he points out. "If you are focused on watching one thing you won't detect changes as rapidly in the other parts of your visual field that you aren't concentrating on. "For example, if you are intently watching a suspect's right hand because you think he might produce a weapon there and instead he comes up with a weapon in his left hand, your reaction time will be significantly impaired." In the practical world of the street and in court the ramifications of these perceptual studies are "profound and wide ranging," Lewinski stresses. They show, for instance, how "dealing with multiple suspects in a high-stress encounter presents an extreme challenge to you as an officer. Not only will you be able primarily to see only what you are focused on at any given moment but your own brain may sabotage or delay your ability to perceive and react to threats outside your immediate focus. If you're not anticipating a threat from beyond your point of concentration, you can be caught flat-footed and be way behind the reactionary curve when a threat is presented." Moreover, you may be held to unrealistic standards in court or during departmental investigations after a major use of force if the persons probing or judging your actions don't understand the psychological influences involved. "People questioning you are seriously deluding themselves if they think you can perceive, pay attention to, react to and remember everything with clarity and precision, even if it happened directly in front of you," Lewinski says. "The reality is that most of us are pretty poor-in fact, incapable-of perceiving and recording everything that occurs to us at any particular moment. Not perceiving the totality of an event is how we normally operate. Even in non-stress situations, not to mention a life-threatening confrontation, once we focus on anything, even if it's a thought in our own head, we significantly compromise our ability to perceive and remember what else is occurring around and to us. "The uninformed person will wonder why in a lethal situation you can't remember how you moved or shot or how many rounds you fired or the movement of the very person you are shooting at to save your life. "The bottom line of Dr. Yantis' work is that the brain has limited capacity for paying attention and recording what it perceives. It shifts among competing stimuli to accommodate what seems most important, and blocks out the rest. "In reality, you may be capable only of vague generalizations after an experience like a shooting. Those investigating or judging you need to realize you are not feigning lack of memory. Details that were not important to your survival during the microseconds of a shooting may not have been recorded. You will simply remember what you were focused on at the time, not what someone who was not there at the moment of crisis may think later is important." Part of FSRC's mission is to research how officers can cope with the phenomena revealed in the university studies cited above. A number of experiments are underway or planned at the Center to explore perception and reaction time in complex new ways, Lewinski says, and these latest studies will assist in that research. "Later," he says, "we will investigate how training can best be designed to help officers better overcome the challenges they face." For a more complete discussion of the recent university studies and their implications for law enforcement, go to: http://www.forcesciencenews.com/visuals/newdev.pdf There you'll find a special report Lewinski has prepared, including a detailed examination of one reaction-time challenge in particular, the time it takes officers to respond to a change in circumstances and stop shooting at a previously perceived threat. II. FORCE SCIENCE NEWS MAILBAG We've received considerable feedback from FSN readers about Transmission #23, in which we reported on the analysis of officer-involved shootings and firearms tactics by trainer Tom Aveni, a member of FSRC's National Advisory Board. Representative comments include the following. The views expressed are those of the writers and are not necessarily endorsed by FSRC. Training Officer Mike Rayburn of With Saratoga Spring (NY) PD writes: I've spoken to over 100 officers who have been involved in a shooting, some in multiple shootings. About half had their flashlight with them, yet it was never used. I believe this falls back to training, in that the flashlight techniques we are using are not instinctive and there is no way to make them instinctive no matter how many repetitions you perform. FS News Member Norman Goldberg writes: What an eye opener! I once got chewed out for using my flashlight too much. I would rather replace batteries than get shot or shoot for no reason. FS News Member John Bonner with Los Angeles Co. (CA) SD: We had a low-light shooting a few years ago, where a suspicious person was lit up by a vehicle-mounted spotlight. The suspect turned and began shooting at the light and continued to shoot at that as a target as the deputy bailed out of the vehicle. Light can be and is a safety issue. Tim Houghtaling, a retired agent from INS observes: When I went through the Detroit Police Academy in 1977 most departments trained their recruits to use a pistol in what was akin to the Camp Perry style of shooting: sight alignment, trigger control, hit the center of the target (not anywhere on the silhouette). Most also participated in Camp Perry-style bull's-eye target competitions. Rumor had it that even the hot shots in California were known to use a bull's-eye to separate those who talked from those who shot well. That course of fire included rapid-fire strings, mostly single handed. Accuracy was the key to success. My friends and I would go to the range and practice shooting in "totally dark" conditions. Hitting "the one on the right" rather than the "innocent" target was the goal. I felt and still feel that it was the "muscule memory" gained from hours of Camp Perry-style shooting that allowed proper sight alignment and trigger control without seeing the weapon. Now we've all transitioned into "combat style" shooting, with small group or scattergun being okay. I believe the foundation provided by those early Camp Perry courses would have increased our successful hit rates. It may be worth the time and effort to reconsider "basic training" in firearms possibly saving a life--or ten. Executive Officer Dominic Chan of the Human Rights Dept. of the Bar Council of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur writes: This article is good enough to warrant research that could shed more light on accidental shootings of unarmed suspects by police. There is a case like that going on now in Malaysia. One of the questions that has been raised is whether the officer was afraid. Obviously when a person is in fear and his own life is at stake he may overdo things, like firing a weapon inappropriately. Adrenaline starts pumping, the heart beats faster, the officer starts sweating and there is the confusion of multiple decisions to be made. Officers who are unconfident or fearful bring risk not only to others but to themselves. The officer in the Malaysia case was removed from active field duty because of poor judgment. If the situation on the streets is war, can we afford to lose soldiers because of poor judgment? EDITOR'S NOTE: In Transmission #22, we included a letter from an inspector at a police academy in Canada which referenced a "natural flinch reaction" as a successful tactic for countering a spontaneous, close-quarters attack. Several readers pointed out that this tactic appears to mirror the research of Trainer Tony Blauer of Montreal, developer of the Spontaneous Protection Enabling Accelerated Response (S.P.E.A.R. system). However, Lt. J.T. Goodman of the High Point (NC) PD, for one, cautions that Blauer's flinch technique, while constituting "a missing link in officer survival," is more complex than suggested by the inspector and that to attempt it without proper training could be dangerous. For more information about Blauer's training, consult the website of our strategic partner PoliceOne.com [www.policeone.com] where Blauer conducts a column on defensive tactics issues. Finally, Mailbag received this from Trainer Ron Borsch, of the SEALE Regional Training Academy in Bedford, OH, on the subject of tactical retreat: Discretion being the better part of valor, there is of course a time and place for retreat. But the manner in which one retreats is important. We should avoid more than a couple of steps directly backwards since there is a serious risk of tripping and falling. The danger from this self-created hazard seems to increase with our rearward speed. In speed trials measuring the time difference between forward and rearward speeds in the combative distances between 6 and 21 feet, we found that in-service officers range between 17 and 25 per cent slower going rearward. The longer we remain on the "railroad tracks" by moving straight back, the more likely our attacker is to catch up to us. Our unanticipated discovery was the serious risk of falling. Our floor is smooth and uncluttered. There was no stress other than that of competing against the clock. Yet stumbling and falling was so frequent that we discontinued the rear timing for safety. I am certain if that if a serious threat (even simulated) were the stimulus, officers retreating by rapidly backing up directly rearward would unintentionally worsen the threat by inviting disaster. We tend to project our upper body further backward than can be supported by our leg speed. Without support, we fall, and the faster we are traveling, the harder we fall. The earlier one breaks the back-pedaling for lateral movement, the less likely they are to fall. ================ (c) 2005: Force Science Research Center, www.forcescience.org. Reprints allowed by request. For reprint clearance, please e-mail: info@forcesciencenews.com. FORCE SCIENCE is a registered trademark of The Force Science Research Center, a non-profit organization based at Minnesota State University, Mankato. ================ --- From John Farnam: 1 Aug 05 Speaking of clothing... Comments from a friend in SA: "Drawstrings and toggles on overgarments are gadgets that sell clothing without contributing to the health of the wearer. Recently, when hunting in the mountainous portion of the Karoo, I sat on huge rock. When I subsequently tried to get up in order to get a shot at a springbuck I had just spotted, I discovered, to my unhappiness, that my jacket was stuck. A toggle had found its way into a crevice in the rock, and I could hardly move! Fortunately, I managed to dislodge the toggle without disturbing the buck. Happily, I made the shot and took the animal cleanly. I also found that yet another toggle was swinging against my holstered pistol, making an irritating and unnecessary noise. These things we can live without! As is the case when we buy weapons for serious purposes, when we buy clothing, we should make sure that it serves the real purpose (and that is not "to be fashionable") and remove whatever is defeating the real purpose, while adding whatever may be necessary to serve that purpose. As you are aware, this is a philosophical point is made only with extremely difficulty when training some women (some men too!), as fashion is often foremost in their minds. Advising them on choosing between fashion and personal victory often falls on deaf ears." Comment: My friend is an experienced, professional gunman. His advice should not be taken lightly! /John 1 Aug 05 Retort from a female colleague: "Okay Farnam, now you've hit on a sore spot. While we gun-carrying girls are hulking around in bulky shirts and jackets that smother all our curves, our gun-carrying guys are checking out the less encumbered beauties dressing in ways that 'accentuate the positive.' We are not naive about readiness, we're just constantly trying to contend with basic, and conflicting, issues. I am frustrated by the lack of selection of ladies' clothes, accessories, and carry methods that allow us to look stylish and smart, yet be prepared to defend ourselves. I really don't want to have to dress like a dyke just because I want to carry a gun! It's even worse for small women, like me. Recently I had to buy a gun belt that is several inches too long, and I now have to spend more money and time getting it shortened, because the best quality and most suitable was only available in men's sizes. Even the smallest was still way too long." Comment: Absolutely right. Gun manufacturers have only recently actively courted the female market. Accessory manufacturers are still way behind. As I watch young women's public dress today (they all look "young" to me), it strikes me that some compromise is going to be necessary with the current generation of "painted-on" styles. However, people who know how to design women's clothing need to get to work on this issue. We need our female colleagues to be interested in guns and to seriously contemplate carrying on a regular basis. When the issue is portrayed as nearly impossible, they lose interest, and our side loses another active voter! /John 2 Aug 05 Relief for Women, from Gingee Brewer of Concealed Carry Clothiers: "CCC currently features a women's concealment vest. In addition, we do a significant amount of custom work for women, involving unique fabrics and finishing touches that make vests stylish, yet practical and comfortable. Our gunbelts are comfortable too. I wear mine regularly. It features a feminine buckle that lowers its profile as a gunbelt. As your colleague noted, there are lots of women who carry, and many more who should! CCC is prepared to help anyway we can." Comment: Gingee is a good friend and dedicated to the advancement of the Art. You may get hold of her at: Gingee Brewer CCC PO Bx 237 Saunderstown, RI 02874 888 959 4500 828 645 2130 (Fax) _gingee@concealedcarry.com_ (mailto:gingee@concealedcarry.com) /John 2 Aug 05 I know little about dressing women, but here is some advice from a female colleague in FL. She carries every day: "Coronado Leather's 'Hobo' model handbag is suitable for most circumstances. It has plenty of room, is smart looking, and provides quick access to the pistol. Galco makes something similar, but dressier. Expensive, like all of Galco's stuff, but top quality. I'd rather have a pistol 'on' me, but sometimes a handbag provides the only viable carry option. I live in FL, and here is my usual uniform: I wear a version of what guys do with 'Hawaiian' shirts. I get stretch jeans or chinos and a suitable belt. The pistol goes on my waist, along with a single spare magazine. I like Cambio jeans. They come in a variety of acceptable colors and hold up well. Then, I get a tank top or t-shirt in a bright color and wear a loose shirt/blouse over it. My blouses are long enough to cover the gun. Floral designs provide camouflage, and the material is light enough to wear indoors. Add some fetching jewelry, and one doesn't have to look dour or grim. Check out Chico's (chicos.com). Sales people are adept at helping you put together complementary outfits. Jewelry needs to be creative, lively, and coordinated with the clothing. My ensembles are stylish and youthful without making me look as if I'm trying to play catch-up with Brittany Spears. Carrying constantly is surely more challenging for women than for men, but it is a subject that has become suddenly relevant, and women everywhere need to start thinking about it!" Comment: It strikes me that all of us (women and men) who carry regularly need to have a "dual personality." A "public" personality, which is businesslike and detached, a persona that is not unpleasant, but that does not encourage "congenial approach." Then, we need a "private" personality that we reveal in circumstances where we have control and are among people we know. In a private setting, women may be comfortable wearing clingy, alluring clothing, high heels, and dangling, expensive jewelry. Men may appear in stiff, formal wear. An outfit like that is difficult to fight or run in, but, in a controlled setting, it is probably fine. In public, however, where we have little control of the setting, high heels need to be replaced with practical shoes, and alluring, sexy, or stiff outfits need to give way to methodical attire. /John 6 Aug 05 Good News (for a change) from the Supreme Court: In the latest in a series of decisions confirming the non-existence government's obligation to provide protection for citizens, the Supremes, in the Castle Rock v Gonzales Case, have reaffirmed that US citizens have no right to expect any level of police protection, even when a restraining order is in place. Good news? Yes, at least from the standpoint that the stale "You don't need guns, because the police will protect you" argument has now been irreversibly discredited. The Court has proclaimed that no unit of government is obligated to so much as lift a finger to help you, or anyone else, even in an emergency. The Court has, in effect, said to us all, "You're on your own!" Of course, the smart among us have always known that, and have prepared accordingly. Now, even naive grasseaters will have to face facts. /John -- Stephen P. Wenger Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .