Massad Ayoob's Blog, page 100

REFLECTIONS ON D-DAY

D-Day took place a bit over four years before I was born. My generation grew up revering those who fought there…the Greatest Generation, our parents’ generation.

Today, we are witnessing the passing of the last of that generation. They taught us the importance of fighting evil and the futility of denying its existence.  They taught us the importance of being ready to fight before the need to do so manifests itself. Today, I was reading “Hell In The Pacific,” Jim McEnery’s 2012 memoir with Bill Sloan of the Pacific campaign, and “Into the Valley” by John Hersey, written in 1943 when he was TIME-LIFE’s war correspondent in that theater. The Hersey book ended with a plea for readers to buy war bonds and help win this thing.  Both men recounted that the Marines landed on Guadalcanal with World War I vintage 1903 Springfield bolt action rifles.  Not until he was en route to the next island was McEnery issued the semiautomatic M-1 Garand, which General George S. Patton would later call “the greatest battle implement ever devised,” even though the M-1 had come out in 1936.

About the only homage I can pay today is carrying a Parkerized 1911-A1 .45, reading about the great American heroes…and remembering both their sacrifices, and the lessons they have bequeathed our nation, and us all.

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A MORNING IN THE LIFE…

I’m not sure it’s a Mars and Venus thing.  More a circadian rhythm thing maybe…

All I know is that my Significant Other, in one of the great understatements, says of herself: “I am not a morning person.” I would have said “creature of the night,” but perceptions can be subjective.

All I know is, waking her up in the morning looks kind of like this. I’m the one on the right…

Or watch Video Here.

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WHEN GUN KNOWLEDGE COMES IN HANDY

If you’re an armed citizen, shooter, hunter, etc., the more you know about guns and how they work, the better – obviously. It can make the difference between venison or macaroni in the larder during hunting season. It can determine survival or death when faced with a homicidal criminal. Heck, some of us have been able to earn a living from that sort of knowledge.

Every now and then, though, gun knowledge comes in handy in other ways.

A friend of mine, sadly no longer with us, did multiple careers as a cop, an educator, and a gun shop owner.  At one point, he signed up as a volunteer for the local suicide hotline.  The night came when he was on call, and the man on the other end of the phone told him he had a gun and was about to blow his own brains out.

As my late friend conversed with him, his mind racing to find the right persuasive answer, he bought time by asking, “What kind of gun do you have, anyway?” The man replied.  I’ve forgotten exactly what it was now, but my friend recognized it as a brand known to be a piece of junk.  He asked about the ammunition, and the suicidal man told him it was some old cartridges he’d found in the garage.

The light bulb went on. My friend explained to the man that he was a gun collector himself and knew a lot about them. He explained that old ammo might have weakened with age, and talked about cases he knew of where someone attempted suicide with that sort of cartridge and the bullet didn’t go in deep enough to kill, just enough to horribly cripple.  The outcome? He was able to talk the man out of it.

(Interestingly, the folks at the crisis hotline were horrified that he had taken that approach instead of following the usual script. Apparently, it was a case of “you didn’t save his life our way,” and he was let go from hotline duty.)

Then, there was the famous case of the teenage NRA member who stopped a mass murder at his high school. Young Jacob Ryker was wounded when a disaffected schoolmate who had just murdered his own parents went on a shooting rampage at the school in Springfield, OR in 1998. Taught early to shoot by his father, Ryker recognized when the killer’s gun went empty and jumped him, leading to successful disarm and restraint that stopped the killing.

I was recently re-reading “The Mad, the Bad, and the Innocent: The Criminal Mind on Trial” by forensic psychologist Barbara Kirwin. She tells of the time, in her role as a psychologist for the prosecution, she examined one Gustavo Nino, who was charged with murder in the shooting of his friend Ruben Gonzales and was pleading self-defense:

“I steered him into a conversation about guns,” she begins. “The murder weapon was a Colt Python .357 magnum. ‘I own a Colt Python three-fifty-seven,’ I told him, ‘and I love it, too.’ I began to rhapsodize about the gun – about the vented barrel, the striated grips, the feel of firing it.

“Gustavo joined in enthusiastically. ‘You know,’ he declared, a swagger in his voice, ‘I went to my house to get a gun to go after Gonzales. First I picked up an automag, but then I went back to get the three-fifty-seven – it was more accurate.’

‘I  sat back triumphant. Gustavo was busted. With those few words, he had revealed a motive of revenge and showed consideration, planning, and a full awareness of his acts.”

Trip up a clever murderer, stop a mass killer, talk a potential suicide victim into giving life another chance…I think that’s worthy use of firearms knowledge, don’t you?

Please share here any such incidents that come to mind.

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NOT BARBECUE DAY

Let none of us forget that Memorial Day is a time to remember the Americans who gave their lives to preserve our freedom, and we can’t forget our wounded warriors, either.

Yes, we’re still fighting our own politicians to keep some of those rights, as any gun owner who has listened to Hillary Clinton’s rants against the NRA (and, by extension, its five million plus members). But we can’t shape our future if we don’t understand our past.

I don’t particularly need to do any shooting on Memorial Day, but I always try to do so. The sound of gunfire in good people’s hands is the sound of freedom, a one-gun salute to those who gave their lives for the rights we enjoy.

Feel free to share here your plans for recognizing Memorial Day, as well as your memories of those in your family and circle of friends whose sacrifices we honor.

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CEREBRAL FLATULENCE STRIKES

I try like heck not to make mistakes, but every now and then I suffer a brain fart. This month, I’ve felt like the Cerebral Flatulence Poster Child.

For one thing, I learned I had made an error in my article on pistol-caliber carbines in the current print edition of Backwoods Home. I had described the neat little Tresna 9mm carbine, which runs on Gen4 Glock 9mm magazines in an AR15 format, as having a polymer lower. It does not: the lower is 7075 aluminum, thank you very much. The gun was not in front of me when I wrote the article, and I suspect what happened is that since I was impressed with its light weight, it looked polymer-ish to me in the photos I was working with that we’d taken while shooting it, and I also had an assignment at the time to write up the polymer-lower PolymAR from ROBAR, some conflation occurred.

All I can say is mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Within the same week, I found myself shooting a United States Practical Shooting Association match. Hadn’t shot one in a while, but remembered that while the International Defensive Pistol Association game I shoot more of has very tight rules about shooting sequence, shooting from behind cover, etc., USPSA is more free form. Basically, solve the shooting problem however you like so long as you’re safe, and whoever gets the best finish (time divided into target hit score) wins.

Not as free form as I remembered, though. On my first stage, the range officer told me I had four penalties because I wasn’t standing where I should have been when I shot a series of targets. Happened again on the second stage. And again on the third: acute and chronic brain farts! By then I had accumulated about 140 penalty points and was totally in the tank. Finally got focused and managed the next three stages with no penalties and won one of them in my division (I was shooting Limited Minor with a 9mm Springfield XDM 5.25 out of a Comp-Tac holster). The one I won was a classification stage that had no running and was therefore geezer-friendly.

I was reminded of a time a while back when I forgot something and asked my significant other, “Gail, could it be early Alzheimer’s?”

“No,” she replied sweetly, “at your age, it wouldn’t be early.”

Sigh…

Or Watch video here.

My one good run on brain fart day. Farthest distance, 6-reload-6 time into score. Intermediate distance, 6 rd. dominant hand only. Closest distance: 6 non-dominant hand only. 

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THIS JUST…AIN’T…RIGHT

So, I’m in Chicagoland. I pick up a Chicago Tribune. And I read this crap, taken from the Washington Post.

Good Lord.

A man tried for murder is totally acquitted after two brilliant lawyers lead a defense team which clearly establishes self-defense based upon hard evidence. Almost three years later, major newspapers show his pictures alongside those of serial killers John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, and Dennis Rader. They put the word “murder” in the story title. The same mass media that became the willing puppets of a plaintiff’s lawyer, his PR man, and an ambitious prosecutor and made George Zimmerman unemployable – “the most hated man in America,” some say – now declare that he’s able to sell his gun for significant money “because Americans have always been fascinated with murder.”

Those of us who followed the trial and the evidence instead of the headlines and the meme understand that he was righteously acquitted.  Those who aren’t up to speed on it can go to the archive next to this column and start reading my blog entry on the day he was acquitted, July 13, 2013, and read the nineteen subsequent entries to understand the reality.

Some, of course, are comfortable with dwelling in ignorance and anti-self-defense bigotry.

Contemporary journalism is reminding me of contemporary politics.

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SIGHTING IN

While deer season is the traditional time for sighting in, and that’s a ways off from now, it’s never too early to get things nailed down. Besides, self-defense knows no season, and the protection guns should always be sighted in, if only for verification. Something bumps the gun, eyesight changes…ya never know, so it’s best to be currently sure.

I had two guns to select and sight in last Sunday. For an upcoming class, significant other’s 19-year-old grandson will be attending, and needs us to bring a handgun for him. He asked for a Glock 9mm, and it seemed logical to select one of the three I had earned recently at matches.

Only one had already been sighted in, a 4th generation Glock 17, which I’d had fitted with Trijicon night sights. It had been dialed in with the three glowing green globes in alignment, but we wanted the kid to learn a conventional post in notch sight picture, and with that it hit a tad right. (LESSON: Dots, fiber optic modules, and conventional sight pictures don’t always send the bullets to the same point of aim/point of impact coordinates.)  Group size was a bit under three inches.

Next up was a 3rd generation specimen of the same pistol, just in. The 115 grain American Eagle full metal jacket training ammo put five shots exactly into an inch and a half, the best three half an inch apart center to center, but the group hovered a tiny bit to the left of point of aim. Finally, I tried a likewise new from the box Gen 3 Glock 19, the slightly smaller version of the 17. The group ran 3.65”.  I let the Evil Princess decide, since it’s her grandson. She chose the Gen3 G17.  There’s enough difference between two shooters’ eyes that what’s off for me might be spot on for him, and if it’s not, it’ll be no trick to push the rear sight a whisker to starboard.

 

The other thing I needed to sort out was the gun to wear on our next trip after this one, which will encompass a state with a strict ten-round magazine limit, so I decided I’d take a 1911 .45 with single-stack mag. Two that I pulled from the safe were Springfield Armory guns. One was a TGO-II match pistol I’d just gotten back from a friend, who’d borrowed it as a spare to his twin of it for a major match. (His ran fine and he didn’t need the spare.) He told me he’d adjusted the sights some, and sure enough, at 15 yards the group averaged two inches left for me. Fortunately, that’s easy to fix with adjustable sights. I was happy with the 1.70” group, three of them touching. REDUNDANT LESSON: What’s “sighted in” for one shooter’s eyes, may not be for another. A much less expensive .45 from the same maker – the Springfield Range Officer, which I consider the best buy in an all-around 1911 pistol today — ran 3.45” and a compact Nighthawk Custom T3, 3.70”. There were “called flyers” with both of the latter that expanded the groups: I caught myself starting to look over the sights to spot the shot with the Nighthawk, causing a predictably high hit I can’t blame on the gun, and with the Range Officer, I felt myself rush the shot that went lowest.

On that last set, since I’ve got time, I’ll give ‘em another run before the next trip. LESSON: The sooner you start sorting and sighting, the more time you have to get things right.

All those .45s, I know for certain from testing, will group two inches or better at 25 yards with the ammo they like best, from a bench rest. I wouldn’t be surprised if all those Glocks shoot better from the bench at that distance than I did here, shooting offhand from 15 yards.  LESSON: The bench rest is used intentionally to test the GUN more than the shooter. When I demonstrate for a class (or lend a gun to a student shooting that class), I want to know what the gun will do from the human hand, and in these upcoming classes the 15 yards I shot these at will be the farthest distance. LESSON: Once you’ve tested the gun, test the shooter with that gun, at a predictable distance. If testing for another shooter, test it the same way he or she is likely to be shooting it.

I suspect y’all out there have also learned some lessons about sighting in and verifying point of aim/point of impact. Feel free to share here.

 

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THURBER WAS AHEAD OF THE REST

A recent meme in the armed citizen community has been arming Little Red Riding Hood (and/or her grandmother) and predicting the outcome.

Turns out James Thurber was ahead of the rest of us. This, from his collection “The Thurber Carnival,” published by Harper Brothers and encompassing Thurber work from 1931 through 1945.

Enjoy!

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GETTING INTO THOSE TACTICAL YOGA PANTS…

I see more than one pair of dainty little feet kicking my butt for that title, but I couldn’t resist…

Back at the beginning of the year, at the firearms industry’s biggest trade exposition, the SHOT Show (stands for Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade for those who came in late) I wrote about 5.11 brand’s new Tactical Yoga pants.  And I promised, no, I won’t be the one testing them.

Our designated tester was the lovely Sonja McCarthy, a second degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and a competitive shooter and licensed pistol-packer.

Sonja reports: “I really like them!  I tested size medium, and they fit true to size.  At five feet tall, they fit all the way to my ankles instead of the usual Capri length, which is another plus in my opinion. I REALLY liked the fact that they were both flexible and supportive, you don’t see the dimpling that some of us over millennial age might show after having two children.  The wide waistband helps reduce muffin top.  For concealed carry they were tried with a number of holsters. I don’t like wearing belts. The pants didn’t support the weight of a 9mm in an inside the waistband holster on their own.  But, I have that problem with all my pants.  They do take a belt, which made it much better. They fit my Wilderness Instructor belt just fine, and I just got my Volund Gear Works belt, and that works fine too.”

Sonja adds, “I was able to move around with a great range of motion. Reinforcement in the groin area with heavier material, and the gusseted construction, are really great. The heavier lining inside the thighs makes me believe pilling isn’t going to happen. There’s also reinforcement at the hip, so holster wear on the pants shouldn’t be a problem.  I would love to see them come out with a more casual style, like a boot cut yoga pant, losing the tight look.  With that, I would wear them all the time.”

At the end of the SHOT Show, I was asked what I thought was the most successful product. I answered, without question the 5.11 Tactical Yoga Pants. Why? Because the purpose of a manufacturer being at SHOT is to promote buzz about their product, and in this, 5.11 succeeded beyond measure.

Thanks to Sonja McCarthy for doing a review I was chromosomatically incapable of doing with credibility…and for lookin’ good doin’ it!

The 5.11 Tactical Yoga Pants fit well and compress tightly to the body.

 

The pants really needed a belt to support a Springfield Armory XDs in a Concealment Solutions custom made holster with the Ulticlip.

 

Here Sonja is wearing her XDs in a Cancan Holsters belly band comfortably inside the 5.11 Yoga Pants and very well concealed.

 

Ready for the range with her Wilderness Instructor belt and XD Gear holster holding Sonja’s Springfield Armory XDm 5.25. 

 

Pants allow enough range of motion for a high kick.

 

Comfortable enough for playtime with Garrett the Labradoodle. (Yes, he was named after the world’s best popcorn)

 

 

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ANOTHER GREAT INSTRUCTOR PASSES

Word reached me today that Pat Rogers had passed away.  Many in our field are grieving for a man they knew, appreciated, and even loved. I and others are feeling the pain of not being able to meet someone we always wanted to train with.

Pat Rogers was on my short list of great instructors I hadn’t met yet. We shared many students, and Pat was one of the very few in the industry that no one ever seemed to have a bad word about.  His focus was on fighting with a gun, not recreational shooting, and by all accounts he did it spectacularly well. I regularly read his articles in SWAT magazine, and always found him to have a practical reason for every position he took.  He was known for being gruff but caring, and was famous for his sense of humor. He understood what many in that business do not: that judiciously applied humor alleviates the grimness of some of the subject matter, and prevents the learning circuits from shutting down. Being able to laugh – including at yourself – also makes the hard work of training seem less hard.

He leaves a legacy of several excellent training films done for Panteao.  I hope our mutual friend Denny Hansen, editor of SWAT, can get with Rogers’ survivors and see about creating a book of his collected articles encompassing “the best of Pat Rogers.”

I understand Pat spent full careers with the US Marine Corps, retiring as a Chief Warrant Officer, and the New York City Police Department, retiring as Sergeant – experiencing and winning mortal combat in both – before he set out on his third career as a private trainer. Damn shame he didn’t get a longer run in the last. His collective life experience (and his trademark practicality and logic) made him a strong advocate of armed citizens’ rights.

Rest in peace, sir, and thank you for your service.

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