Massad Ayoob's Blog, page 118

NEW GUN LIGHT

In keeping with the last post here, regarding small self-defense revolvers, let me flag you to something an old friend of mine recently came up with.  Roy Huntington spent 20 years as a cop on the mean streets of San Diego, and today is one of my editors. We both started at a time when cops carried service revolvers, and detectives and off duty officers traditionally packed .38 snubs.  Handguns with lights attached were not a practical reality.

Roy has come up with a new product via Hyskore.  The Griplight fits any round-butt J-frame Smith & Wesson revolver, replacing the grips.  Grasping pressure of the firing hand activates 100 plus lumens of white light, much the way Crimson Trace LaserGrips send out a red aiming beam.  Light is more important, IMHO, since it lets you identify your target.  To give you half an hour of running time, it uses a CR2 battery which, storing more juice than flat batteries, needs to be put in the butt area.  This lengthens the grip accordingly.

Left, with Gunlight installed J-frame 5-shot S&W .357 is similar in grip profile to standard K-frame 6-shot .357, right.

This brings grip configuration to about the size of a service revolver with good, hand-filling combat stocks.  No longer an ankle holster or concealed-in-the-pocket proposition, but hell, folks of Roy’s and my generation and older have been concealing full-size service revolvers under sport coats and even un-tucked polo shirts in good hideout holsters for many decades.

On the farm or ranch, open carry is no concern, and the J-frame so equipped carries nicely tucked in the hip pocket or the front pouch of bib overalls; when you’re on your own property, concealment isn’t mandatory.  Right now, my test unit is on a Model 340 Military & Police .357 Magnum. The big grips really attenuate the recoil of a sub-fourteen-ounce super lightweight revolver with a full power Magnum load.

A lot of the vermin that needs to be shot in the countryside can be handled with a .22.  I’m thinking seriously of putting these grips onto my sweet old Smith & Wesson .22 Kit Gun, which is more accurate than a 2” barrel revolver has any right to be.  The last animals that had to be killed on my rural property – a rabid fox, and a water moccasin – were shot with Glocks in calibers .45 GAP and .357 SIG respectively, and both in poor light.  A .22 would have been easier on the ears.  The white light from the Griplight would have been perfect under those conditions.

The Griplight is an excellent value, I think, at approximately $130.  They can be ordered from another old friend, Bill Laughridge at Cylinder & Slide, be sure to click on “new products.”  A very useful product, designed by one good man who knows his stuff, and sold by another…what’s not to like?

The Evil Princess pierces the darkness with white light and orange fire from Griplight-ed S&W.

Ultralight S&W 340 M&P at height of recoil; Griplight absorbed recoil of full power Black Hills 158 grain .357 Magnum rounds very well.

 

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HOW TO SHOOT GREAT WITH A SNUB-NOSE .38

The “snub-nose .38” revolver, dating back to the Colt Detective Special of 1926, is a standard prop in noir movies. Most see it as an urban gun, something to hide under the suit in the dangerous streets of the big cities.  However, country folk like ‘em too.  Where I live nowadays, I often spot one in the jeans pocket of a workin’ man, or even the front chest pouch of a farmer’s overalls (where it’s pretty handy to get to, actually).

A general rule of little guns is that “they’re easy to carry, but hard to shoot.”  A Google or Amazon search should get you to some useful advice, such as the book “The Snubby Revolver” by my old friend Ed Lovette, who has “been there and done that.” Now we can add a small but meaty booklet by an old friend, Michael deBethencourt.

A lifelong martial artist, Michael is best known for his expertise with two weapons: the knife, with which he has developed his own simple, primal, and highly effective series of techniques, and the short-barrel revolver.  The reading matter in question is titled “Thirty Eight Straight Tips for Better Snub Shooting.”  The short-barrel Smith & Wesson .38 depicted on the cover sits under a fedora from the snub-nose .38’s heyday, appropriately enough.

While Michael and I differ on some things, as all instructors do – speed reload techniques for the revolver, in this case – brother deBethencourt gives you advice you can take to the bank. I’ve been in this game for a long time, and I learned some new stuff from “Thirty Eight Tips.” For instance, I hadn’t realized the JetLoader people (Buffer Technologies at www.buffertech.com) were making their super-fast loader for the J-frame Smith & Wesson.  I immediately ordered three, and they’ve become my new favorite speedloader for these little five-shot .38s and .357 Magnums.

You can order Michael’s monograph at http://snubtraining.com/thirty-eight-straight-tips-for-better-snub-shooting/, and you can get info on his excellent training at snubtraining.com.  In addition to knowing his stuff and imparting it superbly, Michael is a funny guy who uses his humor positively as “enter-train-ment,” and genuinely cares about his students.  He embodies something I learned from one of my mentors, the supercop Col. Robert Lindsey, and have shared with instructors I’ve trained ever since.  “We are not God’s gift to our students…our students are God’s gift to us.”

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A THOUGHT ON THE FOURTH OF JULY

As we celebrate Independence Day, we need to remember among other things not to take liberties with our liberties.

Open carry – that is, carrying or wearing a visible firearm out and about in public – has become a hot topic on both sides of the gun debate. On our side, there are some who claim “a right not exercised is a right that will wither away.” In recent years, it has turned out otherwise. Ostentatious open carry led to it being banned by the state legislature in California. More recently, a series of store and restaurant chains, most recently Target, have come out and asked customers not to come there armed with firearms. These have been direct results of AR15s, AK47 clones, etc. being carried in their premises for no reason other than “because I can.”

My own position is middle of the road. I would like to see the open carry of a handgun made legal in all fifty states without a permit, with the practice prohibited to convicted felons, those adjudicated mentally ill, and the like. First, legal open carry prevents arrest of concealed carry permit holders whose gun becomes visible when the wind blows their coat open. Second, when someone becomes a stalking victim or the target of death threats overnight, they don’t have time to wait for the bureaucracy to take weeks or months to process a concealed carry permit.

However, a growing majority of gun owners – including me – are fed up with clowns who sling a rifle over one shoulder, a camcorder over the other, and go out to show off and maybe taunt a policeman or two. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these people weren’t false-flag plants from the other side. Not all of them are, though.

It’s self-delusional to think that you’ll spread a positive Second Amendment image by frightening people already made leery of armed people in public by news reports of atrocities like Sandy Hook. The gay rights movement didn’t make the strides it did by having its members have sex with each other in Starbucks, and wandering into a coffee shop or department store with a loaded military style rifle won’t make positive strides for gun owners’ civil rights. A small handful of attention whores have done huge damage to the vast majority of responsible gun owners.

Enjoy the Fourth. I intend to be setting off some fireworks myself, but on the range. Hope you get some fun time for the holiday weekend as well.

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THREE WEEKS LATER…

Three weeks ago today, on Sunday June 8, I was in the fourth day of a MAG-40 class in Kankakee, Illinois. Among other topics of the day, I warned the students that one of the dangers of armed intervention was “tailgunners,” criminal accomplices who cover their “point man” while pretending to be shoppers, and will assassinate anyone who interferes with their fellow thugs. That same day, some 1800 miles away, that scenario was acted out with tragic results.

A vicious psycho couple walked into a pizza joint where two Las Vegas Metro officers were taking a meal break, and ambushed and murdered them. Taking the slain officers’ pistols and spare ammo, they made their way to a nearby WalMart. The male of the pair fired a shot into the ceiling and ordered everyone out. One armed citizen, Joseph Wilcox, drew his own Glock and moved toward the gunman. The tailgunner, the gunman’s wife, sidled up beside Wilcox and shot him dead. The two nutcases then shot it out with police, and died.

I’ve waited this long to address it because it takes that long for the facts to shake out. Early reports said one of the first two officers returned fire and wounded one of the perps; turns out that wasn’t true. Early reports said the armed citizen was female, and had wounded one of the cop-killers; turns out, no and no. First reports said the female psycho killed her husband and then herself; later reports say a police bullet killed him and she didn’t shoot him at all, though she did put a slug in her own head after being anchored by a police bullet in the final gunfight.

No one with a three-digit IQ has blamed officers Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo for their own deaths: they were bushwhacked suddenly and without discernible warning. Not so the private citizen, Joseph Wilcox. An amazing number of people on the Internet accused him of “getting himself killed,” with one idiot even suggesting that he died while “playing Barney Fife.” An interesting parallel was seen on two threads over at www.glocktalk.com. In the “Carry Issues” section, quite a few people thought Wilcox had overstepped his bounds. They took the position that the gun they carried was only to protect themselves and their families, not the public. Interestingly enough, in the “Cop Talk” section of the same forum, police officers felt he had done the right thing and agreed with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, who publicly proclaimed Wilcox to have died a hero and probably saved multiple innocent lives by interrupting the plans of the two whacked-out murderers.

Readers…I’d be very much interested in hearing YOUR take on this.

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IN MEMORIAM: LOUIS AWERBUCK

On Tuesday, we lost one of our great modern firearms and self-defense instructors, Louis Awerbuck. He had seen the elephant in South Africa, and came to the US to do what he did best: teach good people how to survive when other people were trying to murder them. For many years lead instructor at Col. Jeff Cooper’s famed Gunsite training center, Louie went on to establish his own school, the Yavapai Firearms Academy.

A master with pistol, revolver, and every kind of long gun, he was particularly noted for teaching the defensive use of the shotgun. His trademark was innovative shooting scenarios that duplicated real-world difficulties in which firearms had to be employed to protect the innocent. Awerbuck was one of the great trainers in his field, but more than that, he was a thinker. He understood better than most that in the word “gunfight,” the operative syllable was not “gun.”

In person, Louis was an absolute gentleman with a broad knowledge of relevant history and philosophy. He spoke with the same insight and dry wit that characterized his last page column in SWAT magazine, the one I always turned to first when my monthly issue came in the mail.

Fortunately, he leaves a legacy of books and training videos for those who didn’t have the opportunity to study under him personally. A list of these can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Louis%20Awerbuck .

Of the many eulogies pouring in from the training world, I think the most memorable came from our mutual friend John Hearne, who wrote, “They say that when an old man dies, a library burns. We have lost Alexandria.”

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CHANGING HATS

After three weeks on the road, about 36,000 shots fired by 90 or so students. I have some time at home, which will be devoted to writing. “Instructor” cap comes off, “gun writer” hat goes on. Ten or so guns will be tested in the coming days.

A couple of ‘em, I’ve already been running while “on the road” teaching. One was a P320, SIG’s new striker-fired pistol. It gave me a 300 out of 300 when I shot a pace-setter qualification with it for our Illinois class. If you’re testing a deer rifle for an outdoor sports magazine, you’ll want to go deer hunting with it; if you’re testing a combat pistol, well, you’ll want to shoot a “combat pistol course” with it to see how it performs. I spent a day carrying it; it rode perfectly in a Leather Arsenal inside the waistband holster made for a P250 the same length; no surprise, since the brilliant SIG engineer Ethan Lessard developed the P320 from the SIG P250 platform. The P320 in the full size configuration is not a small pistol, but it’s no trick to conceal a fairly large handgun if you know how.

If you’ve read many of my articles in the gun magazines, you’ve seen me refer to the “test team,” a group which varies depending on where I am when the gun is being tested. If you read my latest book, “Gun Digest Book of the SIG-Sauer, Second Edition” you saw the picture of me with designer Ethan Lessard, and the prototype P320 whose frame was marked “P250” because it was an early version photographed at the SIG factory in Exeter, NH before the final gun actually came out. Researching who developed the gun, and why, and how is part of the story, too. When I write a gun up for a magazine, it ain’t just me pullin’ the trigger and puttin’ holes in targets: there are small people and big people, lefties and righties, men and women, to see how the gun works for different potential users.

Sometimes I feel like Tom Sawyer whitewashing the fence: my friends do the work, and I get the credit, and my friends like being “the first on their block” to test a new gun most others have only “heard announced on the Internet” but haven’t actually seen or touched. But, the fact is, it gives me a helluva lot more useful feedback to pass on to readers about how the given gun is gonna work for a wide variety of users.

Confession: teaching may be the most satisfying part of my job description, but testing is sometimes the most fun part.

Spoiler alert: No, the slightly higher bore axis of the SIG P320 doesn’t make it kick noticeably more than any similar 9mm pistol, and yes, you can shoot a perfect score with it out-of-the-box with 40-some people looking over your shoulder.

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MORE ON NRA ANNUAL MEETING

Hillary Clinton’s ill-concealed campaign for nomination as President continues, with her accusing us NRA types of promoting views which “terrorize” the general public. Is she sure that concussion didn’t cause some brain damage? http://www.examiner.com/article/hillary-town-signing-books-raising-money-after-bashing-gun-owners.

Although the NRA annual meeting was discussed here in the blog, an expanded version can be found here: http://backwoodshome.com/articles2/ayoob1405.html.

The next big conclave for gun owners civil rights activists will be in September, the GRPC (Gun Rights Policy Conference). Info here: http://www.ccrkba.org/?page_id=2898.

Hope to see you there!

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A GREAT NOVEL ABOUT A GREAT COP

Every now and then, I read a historical novel in which the writer diligently researched the times and career of their protagonist, but didn’t really understand him or what he did, and let that slip out. They transfer their own values to someone in a world and a job where things had to be done differently, and it shows, and spoils the whole effort. People who’ve never ridden a horse or fired a Colt Single Action probably shouldn’t try to create words or thoughts for real cowboys, and maybe it takes a real physician to write a historical novel about a great doctor.

I offer you a real cop who has brilliantly executed a first novel about a real – and great – Twentieth Century lawman. I know Mike Conti, who retired a while back after a distinguished career with the Massachusetts State Police. He’s still a master firearms instructor, and if the name seems familiar, you may have read his well-written training manual or met him at a conference of IALEFI, the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors.

One of Conti’s passions is studying the great police gunfighters, which leads us to his new historical novel, “Jelly Bryce: the Legend Begins.” Delf Bryce began as an Oklahoma country boy with a phenomenal talent for shooting, a talent which got him recruited onto the Oklahoma City Police Department’s pistol team. Once he was patrolling that city’s mean streets, he had to use his gun more than once “on the two-way range.” Promoted to detective more for his skill in relating to people than for his wizardry with his favorite Smith & Wesson revolver, he found himself in still more shootouts. A natty dresser, he got his nickname from a would-be cop-killer whom Bryce trumped at his own game. As the downed gunman lay dying from the wounds Bryce had inflicted on him with his trademark S&W .44 Special, he gurgled to the stylishly-attired detective, “I can’t believe I was killed by a jellybean like you!” Those famous last words became a nickname, and he would ever after be known as “Jelly” Bryce.

Conti’s book mixes meticulous research into Bryce’s life with the insight of a real policeman. At one point, Bryce sadly tells an older and wiser cop that he considers himself a monster, because he feels good after gun battles in which he has killed his opponents. The old head explains to him, without using the modern term, that what he’s feeling is survival euphoria: the exhilaration comes, not from having caused death, but from having escaped it. Your ordinary wordsmith would have missed that, but Conti absolutely nails it – and that kind of insight, again and again, brings the book to life.

Beginning at Bryce’s birth and going up to the turbulent “Dillinger Days” when J. Edgar Hoover decided to reinforce the ranks of the fledgling FBI with street-proven police gunfighters, “Jelly Bryce: the Legend Begins” is a riveting read. Mike tells me it’s the first of a trilogy, and I for one am eager to read the next volume. I found “Jelly Bryce: the Legend Begins” a wonderful read. You can order the book from www.sabergroup.com, which also offers Mike’s work on police pistolcraft for modern times.

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ANOTHER SLICE OF SMALL TOWN AMERICA

I recently taught a class at the Illinois State Rifle Range in Kankakee, Illinois. Set in the “breadbasket of the nation” farmlands surrounding that small city, it’s a great range and getting greater, with substantial construction going on as I write this.  More ranges, and also a spacious classroom are being built. However, there’s not yet a classroom on the range per se, so we rented the nearest hall for that part of the program.  This year and last, that was the Lions Club in Bonfield, IL.

With a listed population of 364, there isn’t exactly a “downtown Bonfield.”  They used to have a café there.  The village restaurant is where the locals gather to talk about everything from crops to local politics to solving the problems of the world and hey, how are the grandkids? When the café closed its doors, the Lions stepped in to fill the gap.

They configured part of their meeting hall to a separate-able coffee shop, specifically a coffee-and-continental-breakfast shop.  Menu prices look as if they came back from the past in a time machine. Think “donation,” not “bill.”  I learned that the coffee shop is not run for profit.  They just ask enough to cover expenses.  The Lions Club is one of our great civic groups, and their purpose in opening their club for this purpose was to serve the community.  To maintain a gathering place for the citizens.

For the four ten-hour days of a MAG-40 immersion course, the ladies of the Lions did noble service feeding the thirty-some students and seven staff that MAG and its host entity, MTG, brought in.  They fed us splendidly, and we collectively groveled in gratitude.

I discovered that, at least in this chapter of the Lions, the ladies who fed us so well are not to be called Lionesses.  Apparently, that element of the Lions Club is falling by the wayside and the women are, in most chapters, Lions like the men.

The Lions Club is one of our greatest civic groups, particularly important to the smaller and more rural communities.  They embody all the best values of America.  Our time there was sort of a Norman Rockwell moment.

Have I mentioned lately that I love this country?

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“IN THE HALLS OF JUSTICE…

…most of the justice is in the halls.”

That classic phrase among lawyers aptly describes how things work.  When criminal charges are levied by the authorities, far more cases are closed by plea bargains than go to trial.  In civil lawsuits, far more result in out-of-court settlements than in full blown trials.

My own schedule as an expert witness in cases involving weapons, shootings, and assorted homicides is a good example. Let’s look at the second quarter of 2014 from the perspective of one denizen of The System.

April, 2014: Three cases, done.

Case One: A Federal lawsuit with heavy political overtones, which had to go to trial, both sides being implacable in their positions.  I testified for somewhere between two and a half and three hours (I don’t keep a clock, but it turns out the judge had a “Chess Clock” on the bench, having allowed a certain amount of hours for each side to state their case).  The opposing side chose not to cross-examine.  Never a bad thing. We are waiting now for judge in this bench trial to give a ruling, because it is a complicated matter. And, whichever side is ruled against, is sure to appeal, so the case is sure to remain alive…

Case Two: An excessive force case filed against a law enforcement agency, in which I was retained as expert witness on behalf of the involved officer and his department.  Plaintiff claimed that he was shot and wounded for nothing by out-of-control rogue officer; officer who unleashed his department-issue SIG stated that the suspect was trying to run him over when he fired. Case ends shortly after deposition of plaintiff, who claims under oath that he was backing up away from officer when officer shot him for no reason; plaintiff and his attorney are shown the video of the shooting in which the plaintiff can be clearly seen attempting to crush a police officer to death with his vehicle, at which time the cop opens fire.  Because judges in civil cases know how costly it is to the taxpayers to pay for days or weeks or months of trial – particularly when the plaintiffs have a bullshit case – they encourage the defendants in civil suits to at least attempt to settle. A chump change offer has been put on the table accordingly, shortly after the case was filed.  After seeing the video of the actual incident, plaintiff and lawyer take the chump change and run. Case closed.  It would have cost far more to try the case and win.  (I don’t like it… the lawyers defending the cops didn’t particularly like it…and the wrongfully accused officer couldn’t have liked it, but that’s how things work in this society.)

Case Three: Big strong guy tries to beat the crap out of little guy for no good reason. Little guy pulls out his legally carried gun, shoots big guy, makes big guy stop.  Big guy lies about it; little guy does what the Internet told him and doesn’t say anything; having only big guy’s word for it The State charges little guy with attempted murder.  I and another expert analyze the case, send in our reports, and wait.  Initial prosecuting attorney believes the big guy, who after all is the Injured Party and the Victim, and trial is scheduled.  New prosecuting attorney is assigned, and smart defense attorney sits down with new prosecuting attorney and explains exactly what is going on here.  Smart new prosecutor analyses the evidence and realizes, “Holy crap, this was clear-cut self-defense! I’m supposed to try to prosecute this? No Way!”  Case is dropped, ordeal is over. Nobody gives the defendant back the money he spent on his defense team, but justice has finally been done.

May,2014:

Quiet month for this sort of stuff on my end.  One coast-to-coast trip to view shooting scene and interview the involved officers I’ve been retained to speak for.  Evidence absolutely confirms what the criminal justice system has already determined to be a justifiable shooting…trial in the civil lawsuit over the matter is down the road.

Take-away lesson: Most of these things end without going to trial. By and large, the system works.  MOST prosecutors take seriously their role as ministers of justice, responsible for the exoneration of the innocent just as much as they’re responsible for the prosecution of the guilty.  SOME plaintiffs’ cases are absolutely righteous, but SOME are nothing less than legalized extortion.

June, 2014:

Well, the month is young…

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