Mississippi Democrat Pushes RKBA for DC: To the dismay of the Washington, D.C., police chief and others who are trying to limit gun ownership in the nation's capital, Rep. Travis Childers is pressing legislation that would rollback restrictions. Childers, a Democrat from Prentiss County, won a special election in May to represent the 1st District. He hopes to offer his bill this week as an amendment to a much narrower bill sponsored by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C. Childers says his legislation is needed to comply with the Supreme Court's ruling in June that the city's wide-ranging gun ban violates the Second Amendment's right to bear arms... http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008809140368 --- Rule Two, Rule Three Reminder: Monday night at approximately 10:45 p.m., Martin County Deputy Daniel Foote was responding to a call for service at 1225 NW Federal Highway. During the course of the investigation, Deputy Foote was retrieving a Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolver from the trunk of a vehicle present at the scene. The weapon discharged striking Deputy Foote in the left leg. Martin County Fire Rescue responded to the scene and D/S Foote was transported to Martin Memorial North for treatment. The injury is not life-threatening. (Rule Two: Don't let the muzzle cross anything you're not prepared to shoot. Rule Three: Keep your finger out of the trigger guard, up on the frame, until your sights are on the target and you're prepared to shoot.) http://www.wptv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=9c16cf19-e46b-4e5f-a276-df7f3ba853c4 --- Japan Fails to Provide Adequate Sickle Control: A Japanese man killed one person and injured six with a sickle at the grounds of a Shinto shrine where an autumn festival was winding down, the police said Sunday...Kyodo said the man told the police that he had become angry after being teased by a customer, and that he went home and returned to the grounds of the shrine, where around 20 or 30 people remained after the festival, and began slashing at people with the sickle. Japan, where crime rates are relatively low, was shocked last June when a man who said he was tired of life went on a stabbing rampage in the crowded Tokyo shopping district of Akihabara, killing seven people and wounding a dozen others. (If Japanese crime rates are relatively low it's because organized Yakuza crime is ignored in the statistics.) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/world/asia/14japan.html?ref=world --- From John Farnam: 8 Sept 08 Relative preparedness, from and colleague in the Midwest: "This is a 'first' for me: As is my habit, and yours, I started last week's Intermediate Defensive Pistol Class with a dry-fire drill. I commanded students to report to the line, face downrange, and unload. One student interrupted me and said his pistol was loaded. I replied that I expected all pistols to be loaded, and that we would thus all unload at once. He emphatically responded with, 'You don't understand! There's a round in the chamber.' 'Yes, that is perfectly normal,' said I. 'We'll now unload them all before we run this exercise.' By now, he was panicked, as we obviously were not communicating. He nervously swept his cover-garment back, only to expose an empty holster! He, and I, were baffled, as was the rest of the Class. Suddenly changing subjects, he asked he if he could borrow a gun! I asked if his pistol was in his range bag, or in his car. He then started to tell a convoluted story about earlier in the day when he went to the... , and his voice trailed off. I asked the rest of the Class to take a break, as I took this student off to the side. I indicated to him that, although he had passed our Basic Program some weeks earlier, today was not a good day for him to have any kind of gun and that he needed to go home and get his wits together. He departed, and we haven't seen him since! It's a free Country, and no one is required to demonstrate that he is a non-idiot before buying a car, a gun, or becoming a parent! We all have bad days, but there are some people who need to either (1) get serious about life and personal goals or (2) voluntarily pass on at least the last two!" Comment: "Somewhere, a True Believer is preparing to murder you. He is making do with minimal food, water, supplies, facilities, and sympathy. He has learned to depend upon nothing and no one, except himself. To his superiors, he is expendable. He trains day and night. He lives in filth and has lost count of his scars and brushes with death. The only clean things on him are his weapons, and he manufactured his own web gear. He doesn't obsess over cardiovascular health, body fat, blood-pressure, carbohydrates, nor what workout is best. He is thankful to have anything to eat! His gear weighs what it weighs, and his runs "end" only when his enemies stop chasing him. This True Believer has scant concern with pain and discomfort, neither his nor anyone else's. Brutalized from infancy, he has become brutal himself, and he knows with each encounter, he either wins, or dies, and, either way, nobody cares, nor ever will. He expects no mercy, nor will he have any. He doesn't plan on living to old age, and he doesn't go home at 1700. He is home!" He lives his "...ism." Do you? /John 9 Sept 08 Seattle cops indicted in SD biker-bar shooting incident: Friends in Sturgis, SD tell me that their grand jury last week indicted, for aggravated assault, a City of Seattle, WA police officer in the wake of a shooting incident in a local biker-bar during Sturgis' annual Bike Week last month. Several other SPD officers in the same group have also been indicted on lesser charges, mostly for carrying concealed guns while drinking in a drinking establishment. Members of the Hell's Angels contingent who were involved in the same incident have also been indicted, also for aggravated assault, and at least one for illegally carrying a concealed gun. The grand jury has obviously said: "Enough is enough! When you come to our town (1) carrying guns and (2) obviously looking for trouble, don't be astonished when you find it, more than you ever wanted, and we don't care whom you are nor where you're from!" The fight in question erupted in a notorious biker-bar in Sturgis during the equally-notorious "Bike-Week." Members of various biker groups, all displaying "colors," descend in droves upon Sturgis once a year for the one-week event. Local biker-bars, all but deserted the rest of the year, have standing-room-only during bike-week! Wounds received by the Hell's Angel member who was shot were serious, but not fatal. Gun involved was a G22. Two shots were fired. Both hit. Brand of ammunition was not reported. No one else was hurt by gunfire. It is unclear who "started it," but the SPD officer who shot the Hell's Angels member, at the moment of the shooting, was getting the worst of a physical fight. In fact, many consider the shooting to be legitimate self-defense, and, had it taken place anywhere but a rowdy bar, late at night, and among a bunch of people who had been drinking, the grand jury likely would have seen it that way. There will be criminal trials, and, of course, and the outcomes are anyone's guess, but this grand jury has apparently decided to put its foot down, hard! I'm not sure these indictments represent a "trend," those of us who carry concealed, and regularly travel out-of-state, need to take note! Most otherwise perfectly-respectable franchises, like Outback, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Ruth Chris, Texas Road House, et al have bars and serve liquor, and, when traveling around the Country, I patronize all of them on a regular basis for the purpose of partaking of a nice dinner. I don't sit at the bar, and I don't drink, but I often find myself in a place that serves liquor, while I'm carrying a concealed pistol (usually several), an act which may or may not technically violate some local ordinance or state law, all of which may or may not be locally enforced. I usually don't know, nor is there any real way of knowing. Sometimes, I'll elect to eat in a restaurant without a bar, like Cracker Barrel or Bob Evans, when convenient, and that, of course, solves the problem. But, while both serve wonderful breakfasts, you won't find a good steak at either, and sometimes, after a long day of flying or driving, I'm in the mood for a good steak! Laws, and local police agendas, with regard to concealed carry vary widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, sometimes from season to season, particularly on the subject of carrying in bars and restaurants that serve alcoholic beverages. In addition, many such laws and ordinances are so confusingly written as to be indecipherable! Enforcement is sporadic and arbitrary. Look at all the "charts" you want. They're mostly irrelevant, and all out of date! My advice: (1) Don't go to bars, particularly raucous ones that don't serve food, and most particularly when patrons are displaying "colors!" When in otherwise-respectable restaurants that serve liquor, don't sit at the bar. (2) Stay out of the 'bad-part-of-town." Stay out of the entire town during events like Bike-Week! There is little to be gained from attending inherently seedy, frowzy, dangerous events and gatherings. Unless you really fit in with that crowd, it's a pretty stupid place to go! (3) When carrying, you can't drink, not anywhere, not any amount, not even "a little!" An otherwise clear case of self-defense will rapidly dissolve into a muddled can of worms when it is subsequently revealed that you had been drinking prior to the incident. When you've been drinking, don't expect "understanding" from any jury! (4) When traveling out of town, be always polite and congenial, but maintain a low profile and keep to yourself. Don't engage in animated conversations with people you don't know. Even an offhand and harmless remark about something as unimportant as a sports team can precipitate violent reactions on the part of otherwise "normal" people! (5) Don't stay out late! Eat dinner early and get to bed early. Most violent events take place at night. Few happen during daylight hours. (6) Dress so as to be "invisible." Avoid bright colors, stark contrasts, glittering jewelry, expensive watches, and particularly logo-patches and T-shirts with a "message." Dress conservatively. Be grey! (7) Assure that your gun(s) stay discretely concealed. Don't talk about guns, yours or anyone else's. (8) Stay alert! When you see "trouble-in-the-making," get up and leave without delay, no matter where you are, whom you're with, and even when it seems you're the only one who noticed. Get out of there before it gets any worse! (9) When people you don't know approach and attempt to engage you in a conversation, politely dismiss them! When communicating with restaurant hostesses and servers, one to three-syllable commands and responses are all that are usually necessary. All others should hear something like, "I'm sorry sir. I can't help you," or words to that effect. /John (If you care to ignore legal prohibitions on carrying where alcohol is served, that is your own choice but there are websites [http://www.handgunlaw.us/, http://www.usacarry.com/] that will at least refer you to state laws on the matter - don't carry where it is illegal simply because you did not check the rules for the road you will be traveling. I heartily endorse most of John's advice but have never found it necessary to be as "standoffish" with strangers as John advises. In my experience, carefully selected words and body language will let people know that you're not their pigeon for the night. I usually say, "No, thanks," when people ask me for money; it tends to put them off balance but shows them a measure of respect, lessening the likelihood of an aggressive response.) 10 Sept 08 Self-esteem? "When you walk, just walk. When you sit, just sit. But, whatever you do, don't wobble!" Ummon All so-called "self-concepts" are illusions. They don't really exist. They are just contrived limits you put on yourself. To add insult to injury, you then endow them with license to influence your life. You may expand and improve self-concepts, but a superior solution is to simply revoke their license, watch them subsequently evaporate into space, and then operate without them! "Safety" provided by this or that self-concept is delusory. In fact, "security" itself is merely a term we've manufactured for the purpose of describing a non-existent phenomenon! Our spiritual antecedents called it "mushin," or "no-mindedness." It simply means operating without self-imposed limits and self-manufactured speed-bumps. It means dismissing "I am," "I am not, "I don't, couldn't, wouldn't, shouldn't, mustn't, could never, etc." The mushin mind unfearingly confronts the challenge at hand, not worrying about the horizon. When in mushin-mode, the mind flows, always forward, never hesitating nor stumbling, audaciously observing no limits nor barriers. The opposite is "ushin," or self-consciousness. The ushin mind spends its time saying, "What wonderful thing will happen when I win?" or, "What terrible thing will happen when I lose?" The ushin person worries about results and forgets about confronting the challenge before it. When in ushin-mode, the mind is apprehensive, timid, fearful. It constantly missteps, pauses, and over-corrects, converting each trivial speed-bump into Mt Everest! The ushin person is thus ever-bewildered, unfocused, afraid, confined. He flounders forward, charging first this windmill, then that. He goes down to defeat with monotonous regularity! I have noticed some aspiring Operators, whom I know to be competent, who shoot like blundering amateurs as soon as a prize is involved. They are beguiled into thinking about the prize, to the exclusion of the path before them. The prize imposes a rigid matrix into which they believe they must fit themselves. They thus become progressively unfocused, confused, befuddled. Their mind is disarticulated, spread out over too many irrelevant places. Victory is out of the question! Conversely, mature Operators think about neither winning nor losing. They don't think about anything! With icy determination, they dash forward joyfully, firm in the knowledge that the Almighty must have great confidence in them to present them with such a magnificent challenge. They become a seamless, flawless, unconfined whirlwind of motion, effortlessly flowing from one subroutine to another, unstoppable, unbeatable. They seldom miss! "The mind of a perfect man is like a mirror. It grasps nothing. It expects nothing. It reflects, but does not hold. Thus, the perfect man can act without effort." Chuang Tzu /John (Yes, John has lapsed into "warrior talk" again but there is some merit in it. My former teaching partner used to speak of being goal-oriented in general but having to become task-oriented for the split-second or so that you have to take a shot. In my book, I refer to going into what Carlos Hathcock called "the bubble" for those instants. I recently experienced a spinout on a wet road. I noticed that my concentration was entirely on the process of trying to correct the skids and counter-skids until the vehicle came to a stop on the shoulder. When I described the incident to someone the next day he remarked, "After your knees stopped shaking..." I then realized that when I got out of the vehicle to check for damage, there was no shaking of knees, no dry mouth, etc. Decades ago, when the Army stationed me in snow country, on a nearly abandoned base, I took advantage of every opportunity to learn the limits of the vehicles I drove and how to handle them when I exceeded their limits. It was the same for me, nearly a decade ago, when I was caught in the robbery of a business I was patronizing - it felt as though I had a calculating machine in my head that continually recalculated the shifting equation, with absolute confidence that I would be able to draw, fire and hit, with either hand, if it became necessary. This is the purpose of training - to make life-saving responses reflexive.) -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .