Short Break: I will be taking a short vacation so there will be no mailing on Monday or Tuesday. Depending on what time I return, I may put out a mailing Wednesday evening. --- Longenecker On DC Gun-Ban Repeal: John Longenecker weighs in on Mayor Fenty's attempts to ignore the Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and finds a parallel with the actions of New Orleans Mayor Nagin's contempt for the RKBA and a court that ruled against him and his police superintendent. http://mensnewsdaily.com/author/john-longenecker/ --- From Liberty Watch Radio: This week on Liberty Watch: most of you know by now that the D.C. Circuit has ruled against the D.C. handgun ban. At 12 PM MST, renown 2nd Amendment Attorney Don Kates, who is on one of the amicus briefs, talks about the decision, live. At one PM MST, national defense college professor James Robbins joins Charles about the rising threat of North Korea. Noon to 2 PM MST on AM 690 Tucson, AM 930 Douglas, AM 1240 Globe, Az, and simulcast on the internet at http://kvoi.com/listenlive.php. (Note: Arizona does not use Daylight Savings Time - we did not "spring forward" this morning.) --- From The FBI: "Officers, Offenders, and the Circumstances That Bring Them Together" offers some useful insights into how those whom John Farnam calls "Violent Criminal Actors" (VCA's) function. http://www.fbi.gov/publications/leb/2007/jan2007/jan2007leb.htm#page1 --- From John Farnam: 8 Mar 07 >From a friend in the security business: "To be frank, exciting incidents I can do just fine without, but, due to the nature of my work, such things are prone to occur, which is why I think it important to have a plan ready to activate instantly. It happens to me each time we have a potentially violent incident here. I go from great relief after the incident is successfully resolved, followed by a short-lived sense of euphoria. Once I am at home, I involuntarily, and repeatedly, replay the incident in my mind, from start to finish, analyzing each segment, trying to determine if a better approach could have been employed or if I could have done something differently and achieved an improved result. For the next few days I am tense and restless, sometimes even snappy. Elements of the incident appear in my dreams for several weeks. Our 'incidents' here range from actual shootings to close calls, and I am apprehensive and disdainful when asked, 'what was it like?' There is nothing 'gloriously exciting' about being personally involved such encounters, save the quiet satisfaction of knowing that, through my actions, I managed to prevent others from getting hurt. Such experiences and my personal feelings about them fall under the heading of 'private,' as much of it I will likely never share with anyone. I am beginning to understand why you, when talking about Vietnam, only speak to make an instructional point and nothing more, as I sense that such things are also private to you, and will be forever. Among warriors, that is the Way." /John 8 Mar 07 I love it when a Plan comes together! This from a student in WA: "Last weekend, I took my wife and eleven-year-old son to a large shopping mall. My wife soon broke-off in order to look over merchandise in department stores, and my son and I made our way to the hobby shop. As my son and I were walking, I noticed a uniformed, mall-security guard digging through a trash can. Soon, he was joined by more guards who were now furiously going through several trash cans in addition to some indoor shrubs. At that instant, I concluded there was a bomb threat. I grabbed my son by the shoulder, turned him and myself around, and said, 'We're leaving the mall, now!' My son was confused, but, from the tone of my voice, understood that there was some kind of emergency. We had discussed all this over dinner on several occasions. On the way out, I called my wife and alerted her to the threat, instructing her to take the nearest exit and meet us at the car as soon as she could. She, too, understood the seriousness of the situation, dropped what she was doing, and executed our action plan. On our way out of the mall, I was surprised that there was no general announcement. Even so, mall guards were soon joined by municipal police and firemen. We hurriedly passed several on our way to the exit. Once out of the building, we had to dash around several beat cars and fire trucks that were just arriving. We drove away, never knowing what had happened. There was no news story on the incident, and next days's local paper was devoid of a report or comment. When reflecting on our rapid egress from the mall, I remember seeing people casually window shopping, walking aimlessly with cell phones stuck to their ears, and chatting nonchalantly. All (except us) were oblivious to the situation that was unfolding right in front of them. I was gratified at the way my wife and son executed our plan, even though we had only talked about it." Comment: It is often only alertness and a plan of action that separates live professionals from dead amateurs! /John 8 Mar 07 Back in January at the SHOT Show, my friends at SIG showed me their new "short-reset" trigger. I tried it and considered is a significant improvement over the conventional SA/DA trigger found on SIG pistols. Now, my SIG friends tell me that SIG's 229, 226, 220, and 239 pistols in the manually-decocking (DA/SA) version are now all coming with the short-reset trigger, which has become the new standard. Second shots are now available via a significantly shortened reset, and the reset itself is distinct and crisp. Retrofits are available from SIG's Custom Shop. My personal preference is SIG's DAK trigger system, to which the forgoing-described improvement does not apply. However, SIG traditional SA/DA system is still immensely popular, both in and out of law enforcement, and I'm delighted to see them go system-wide with this wonderful product improvement. /John (Under range or match conditions "resetting the trigger" or "catching the link" may give a slightly faster follow-up shot, which is obviously not the case with a DAO trigger. In my estimation (http://www.spw-duf.info/emperor.html#reset), the value of training to reset the trigger is that it teaches not only good trigger control but that it prevents relaxation of the grasp of the pistol, which could result in failures to cycle with an autoloader.) 10 Mar 07 Safety Lesson, from a friend in SA: "I recently attended a local Urban Rifle Training Course, and we witnessed an incident that, once again, demonstrates how important it is to use safety gear when shooting. Of course, we were all required to wear safety glasses, ear muffs, and baseball caps. After we finished shooting and finished packing everything away, one of the instructors realized that he still had rounds left in one of his R4 (SA copy of the Israeli Galil) magazines. He went back to the shooting point and readied his rifle to discharge the remaining ammunition. However, he did not put his safety glasses back on, because they were already locked away in his vehicle. Other instructors reminded him to put on his safety gear back on, and he replied that it was 'only a couple of rounds.' After all rounds were discharged and the rifle cased, he was walking towards us. He started rubbing his right eye. When asked about it, he replied that it was 'nothing.' By the time we got to the gate, his eye was turning red and he was rubbing it continuously. By the time we all got to where were going to have dinner, his eye was colored deep red. We decided to take him to a local clinic. When the surgeon inspected his eye, he found embedded a tiny, crescent-shaped sliver of brass, from the last round's case. It had to be removed, via surgery, that evening. Prognosis is that no permanent disability is likely, but the incident surely served as a lesson for all of us. We can't say it too often: When around shooting, everyone needs to wear safety glasses. This instructor was, not so gently, reminded!" Comment: It is often difficult to enforce this important rule when half the magazine ads for guns and ammunition, and much of the industry's glossy advertising literature, depicts sexy models happily shooting away, without the benefit of safety glasses and without baseball caps! Sometimes this industry is its own worst enemy! /John (Those who have seen me in person or in rare photos may wonder why I wear eyeglasses with unfashionably large lenses. They are shooting glasses, designed for shotgun shooters. One of the valuable lessons that I have retained from my time working with Massad Ayoob is to wear safety glasses at all times, even if you have no need of corrective lenses. They will protect your eyes from flying glass in an automobile accident, irritating liquids that may be hurled at you by an assailant and hot gases that may be directed toward your face when you fire a handgun from a protected-gun position, among other scenarios. Aside from the risk of corneal ulceration and infection associated with the use of contact lenses, I urge those who do need corrective lenses to use spectacles instead for this reason.) -- Stephen P. Wenger Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .