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Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.7.2/349 - Release Date: 5/26/2006 Schools Teach Combat Skills To Civilians: The Washington Post bemoans the fact that America's private citizens can legally obtain training in how to fight with firearms, including room-clearing techniques which might be useful in escaping a building where hostages are being taken. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/27/AR2006052700854.html --- Michael Douglas Touts UN Gun-Ban Conference: Actor Michael Douglas - who for many years has been designated by the United Nations as a "U.N. peace messenger" - is backing the global body's upcoming conference on small arms trafficking in a "public service announcement." http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50407 --- 7.62x29mm Ammo Shortage?: Thanks to a posting by Teddy Jacobson, I located this article, which may explain why it's become so difficult to find that inexpensive Russian ammo for your SKS or AK-47 clone. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/22/warms22.xml --- Arizona Legislative Session Drags On: The bill that returned to burden of proof to the state in cases where there is a claim of self-defense contained an emergency provision and is already law. Without such a provision, legislation, such as the bill that eliminates the requirement for CWP renewal training and makes Arizona a universal-recognition state, takes effect 90 days after the close of the legislative session. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0528session0528.html --- From Force Science Research Center: The latest newsletter is devoted to reader feedback. http://www.forcesciencenews.com/home/current.html --- From John Farnam: 22 May 06 New Book! Diane Nicholl and Vicki Farnam's new book, WOMEN LEARNING TO SHOOT: A GUIDE FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS, is now available. ISBN is 0-9659422-6-0. Call 303 443 9817 to order direct. >From the back cover: "Hitting your target isn't luck, it's skill!" In this companion to the ground-breaking TEACHING WOMEN TO SHOOT: A LAW ENFORCEMENT INSTRUCTOR'S GUIDE, we switch to the student's point of view, particularly the female student. The techniques we have used to help hundreds of women improve their shooting are here for you to learn. A woman law enforcement officer with fifteen years on the job was often laughed at because of her poor performance on the range. The grip she had been taught did not work with the gun she used. Every time she pressed the trigger, she pushed the front sight out of alignment. Frustrated, she searched for help and read our book. There, she learned how to modify her grip. Now, she is able to simultaneously control the trigger and sights and thus consistently hit the target. She has gone on to share her knowledge with other female officers as well as her instructor. She actually enjoys shooting now! DTI Publications Inc. PO Box 18746 Boulder CO 80308 _http://www.dtipubs.com_ (http://www.dtipubs.com) /John (I have just received my copy of this latest book and have only had time to flip through it, not read it. Perhaps because I teach several of the gun-handling and shooting techniques differently, I am, at this point, not as impressed with this latest book as I was with its predecessor, Teaching Women to Shoot. In both cases, I feel that the books are primarily oriented toward teaching female officers to "qualify" with handguns, not necessarily how to use them in a fight. They are, nevertheless, useful additions to the library of any instructor and any woman who is struggling to master firearms equipment and instruction that was designed for men.) 24 May 06 S&W's M&P Pistol, continued: I now have my own copy of S&W's M&P Pistol, in 40S&W. As promised, it came to me with night sights and without a magazine safety. I am carrying it now, in a Comp-Tac, C-Tac IWB holster, and I find it comfortable and eminently carryable (concealed). No sharp corners or edges. Everything on the M&P is smooth, the way a serious gun should be. For the spare magazine carrier, I'm using one designed for my SIG229/DAK/357SIG. I works fine. I just had to open it up a slight amount. The M&P's magazines are ever so slightly wider than those for my SIG. There is little doubt that a "compact" version of the M&P will be out next year, specifically targeted toward the concealed-carry market. This current version of the M&P is pointedly targeted toward the uniformed police, duty market, although, as noted above, I, for one, find it very suitable for concealed carry as well. Compared with my SIG 229, the M&P is 3/4 inch longer, but nearly the same in all other dimensions. The M&P's grip is slightly longer (less than ¼ inch) than my 229's, but the M&P is a fifteen-shooter, where my 229 is a thirteen shooter. The M&P comes with adjustable grip panels, and I've personally gravitated to the smallest option (one has a choice of "Small," "Medium," and 'Large," and all three options come with every pistol). Thus set up, the grip is similar to my 229's, but it surely feels smaller! Vicki finds the M&P eminently useable with the small grip option, nearly unusable with the bigger options. Compared with my G38, the M&P is only 1/4 inch longer, but the M&P's grip is 3/4 inch longer. The M&P is ½ inch shorter than my Detonics 9-11-01, and the grip lengths of both are the same. The Detonics is, of course, the flatter of the two. Comparing the M&P, SIG229, G38, and Detonics 9-11-01 may not even be appropriate, but these are the guns I currently have with me for concealed carry, and these four are the ones I'll be using at this year's NTI in June. More at that time. The M&P does have an ostensibly visual "loaded chamber indicator," which I consider silly and superfluous, but, then again, there is no gun I've ever described as perfect. After two false starts (the Sigma and the P99), S&W finally has a mainstream, flagship pistol worthy of their name. I predict the M&P will boldly step forward and take its rightful place beside Glock, SIG, and H&K in the American police handgun market. I like mine! /John (Once again, [1] I'd prefer to wait at least a year, to allow for debugging, before purchasing a brand new design of firearm and [2] I remain mystified that someone with John's experience will go into a simulation of battle with four handguns of different design - I'd either carry four copies of the same gun or very close renditions thereof.) 24 May 06 Brain-stem shots, from one of our instructors, continued... "We have been including brain-stem shooting in our force-on-force class. We integrate these skills into real-time scenarios. We set up the drill with a burglary suspect in the process of kidnapping a child. Students confront the situation suddenly, and without warning. We use KSC G19 clones. They are reliable and extremely accurate. Students employ the "What do you want?" verbal challenge from low/ready, in an attempt to persuade the suspect to stand still during a two-second window. This is followed by a fast, snap-up presentation and an two, controlled shots to the brain stem. Nearly all students are eventually able to attain the required level of precision. The suspect (usually me) holds the kidnapping victim, with a training knife to his throat. When we have husband and wives, father and sons, or anyone else with a significant bond with another student, I employ the partner as the victim. The suspect begins by screaming at the student to drop his gun. He continues by making all sorts of unpleasant threats. This normally generates a good deal of emotional involvement on the part of the student! In the first few iterations, students predictably shoot wide, in an exaggerated attempt to miss the kidnapping victim. Poor shot placement is the inevitable result. Gradually, however, students become comfortable with their equipment and supremely confident in their own ability. Then, they start measuredly placing every shot exactly where it needs to be On student commented, 'I've had it drilled into me that such shots were impossible. Now, I know they are quite doable, when one is properly equipped, trained, and has the spittle for it!' My reply is that taking the chance when the window is open is surely less dangerous than allowing the suspect to leave with the victim under his control." Comment: In most lethal encounters, body midline (navel to neck) is still the best target, from most standpoints. However, in hostage situations, we need alternatives. Successful brain-stem shots are demanding and audacious, but we sometimes have no choice! /John (I agree with John that hostage rescue is one of the few scenarios where one should attempt a head shot with a handgun. However, I don't think we should delude ourselves that such shots will generally reach the brainstem - if you have not yet read it, please see my article at http://www.spw-duf.info/emperor.html#head%20shots.) 23 May 06 More New Stuff: Steyr is marketing its original AUG (with the addition of rails), now made in the USA! This American-made AUG was introduced at the NRA convention in Milwaukee last week. Complete with its integral, optical sight, for which it has been so well known, this new rifle will be a welcome addition to the current mix of 223, military rifles. DSA's wonderful American-made FAL now features an AR-15 rear sight. The sight works just fine, but adjustment is almost too easy. I'd like to see a way to lock it down, so that inadvertent, accidental adjustment could be prevented. That is one problem endemic with the current version of the AR-15. SIG is now marketing a cocked-and-locked version of its 220! Featuring a two-position, manual safety lever, similar to the one found on the 911, this version of the 220 is designed to be carried with the hammer cocked. For all practical purposes, my preference for a carry pistol is SIG's wonderful DAK trigger system. Manual decocking levers have fallen out of style, but SIG is now offering this additional option, at least on the 220. Interesting! /John (The Steyr AUG is possibly the best of the bullpup designs. If you will deploy it in a controlled environment where you will always fire it off the same shoulder, it offers the ballistics of a .223 rifle round in a platform that can be fired with just one hand, if required. As I recall, it allows you to adjust the ejection according to the shoulder from which you intend to use. The problem with bullpups is that they tend to forcibly eject hot, empty brass directly into your face when you fire them from the "wrong" shoulder. This one is tempting, after many years of kicking myself for not having bought one back in the 80's, when they were available and wholesaling for under $700.00.) 24 May 06 Personal Injury ND, from one of our Instructors: "Last weekend, a student generated an ND while holstering his pistol. He kept his finger on the trigger as he holstered his G17. The lip of his kydex holster forced his trigger finger against the trigger as the pistol was pushed into the holster, and the gun subsequently did exactly what it was designed to do! Fortunately, he suffered only minor injury. The bullet, 9mm hardball, struck a folding knife in his hip pocket, shattering the knife into a dozen pieces. However, the impact deflected the bullet. It the ground next to the shooter. He has a nasty bruise on the back of his thigh, but nothing penetrated his skin. This student is a competent marksman and competes regularly in target events. However, he doesn't carry a concealed pistol regularly. These types rarely do! After the ND, he confessed that he has developed the dangerous habit of keeping his pistol's trigger 'prepped' while on the line, waiting his turn to fire, pistol at a low-ready position. He said he knew it was a bad habit, but thought it wouldn't interfere during a defensive shooting course. His prediction was correct, until speed and stress was stirred into the mix! Here, we have a student who has actually trained himself to violate Rule Three, because he naively thought it would provide him with some competitive advantage! No problem surfaced, as long as he took the time to think about what he was doing. At our Program, in his first exposure to real training, he did what many new students do and tried to go too fast, too soon. His bad habit suddenly reared its ugly head! You will never impress your teacher by doing the wrong thing quickly! The foregoing is a classic example of someone who is still only Consciously Competent being overtaken by events. He was lucky this time!" Comment: There is no "right" way to do a wrong thing! "Prepping" the trigger, along with many other competitors' tricks, is foolish and dangerous, as we see. /John ( "Trigger prepping" on the first double-action shot was taught at the Chapman Academy, for DA/SA autoloaders, from whence it made its way onto the FBI training program at some point. I was surprised to see Andy Stanford advocate it, with Glocks, of all things, in his book Surgical Speed Shooting. When I trained with Andy, in December 2001, I queried him about this. His reply was that his own Glock was equipped with a New York trigger with the standard five-pound connector and that he felt comfortable doing it with that combination. When I asked him to try it with my Glock, equipped with the New York trigger and a 3.5-pound connector, he nodded and said that he would not try to "prep" the trigger with that gun. "Trigger prepping," for those unfamiliar with the term, means rolling back a double-action trigger before the sights are actually aligned on the target or taking up the slack on a single-action trigger before one is prepared to press off the shot. As John points out, it is a competition trick that does not mate well with using firearms under stress.) 26 May 06 I attended a lecture yesterday, presented by a Marine reserve officer (he is an LEO the rest of the time), on the subject of rifle optics. He indicated that the USMC selected the ACOG, over the EOTech and the Aimpoint, because it is more detailed and thus provides the shooter with more useable information than do the other twp. The ACOG has a reticule in the shape of a chevron. A graduated line down from the chevron is calibrated from 400M to 600M. Magnification is 4X. By contrast, the Aimpoint just has a dot, and the EOTech has a dot and a circle. He indicated that both were thus only useable out to 100M, although they are a good deal less "busy." After that, one must "hold over" a guessed amount. Magnification is zero. Both require batteries. For domestic law enforcement and domestic personal defense, 100M just about covers all engageable challenges. For most encounters within that range, magnification is actually counterproductive. And, the 223 round is only as effective as it is out to 150M anyway. The military community may continue to delude themselves into thinking they have a 600M rifle, but the rest of us know better. On the ACOG, the chevron is illuminated by a light-gathering fiber optic strip on the top of the unit. At night, it is illuminated by the same radioactive material that illuminates pistol night sights. So, it is useable all the time, and batteries are not required, something I consider a genuine advantage. However, during the day, many Marines have complained that the reticule is actually too bright! A field/expedient fix is to put a piece of duct tape over part of the fiber strip. This has not become a common practice in Country. It is my opinion that the 223 round, particularly Cor-Bon DPX, is eminently suitable for domestic policing and personal defense. For military use, it is inadequate, and that is now widely conceded. All the optics mentioned are fine, but I prefer a plain-vanilla, forward-mounted, scout scope. Leupold makes a great one. I also like the EOTech for its speed and wide field of view, but I keep getting reports that they don't hold up under heavy use. The ones I've used personally have all worked just fine, and their customer service is excellent. Time will tell. In the interim, anyone who can't use iron sights can hardly call himself a rifleman! /John (Another factor to consider with this sort of aiming device is its "downrange signature." I believe it was an ACOG that I was shown shortly before I left California, seven years ago. It looked great from the shooter's perspective. From the target's perspective, at least at night, it presented a glowing circle of a somewhat reddish color. That's what's known in the trade as a "target indicator," meaning that it indicates you as a target for your enemy.) -- Stephen P. Wenger Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .