comments in () by the same
http://www.spw-duf.info
A List Member Replies: While the handgun cited was not a Glock, in
response to my comment yesterday about the utility of an accurate .22
revolver for taking small game in a survival mode, a list member has
pointed out that .22 conversion modules are available for some
centerfire pistols. I don't own such a conversion and have seen
reports suggesting that not all are uniformly reliable but it's an
interesting concept – a centerfire pistol for defense with a
relatively compact conversion kit for when one elects to go into
hunting mode. Comments about reliability and accuracy of the different
conversions are welcome and will likely be shared with the list.
---
The Beat Goes On: Strong nationwide gun and ammunition sales are
helping El Paso gun dealers buck the recession that is hurting other
businesses. "Certain items are practically impossible to get,
including ammunition for certain caliber guns," said Shane Cook,
manager at the Sportsman's Elite Hunting & Gun Pro Shop in West El
Paso. "The hottest items at the store have been the .380-caliber
pistol, which is our top seller, and the AR-15 style rifle. Ammunition
has also been hard to get from suppliers. For example, if we get a
case in on Monday with 10 to 20 boxes, and each box contains 50
rounds, by Friday it will all be gone." At the El Paso Gun Exchange,
which also sells firearms to law enforcement, the surge in demand that
began several months ago has started to slow a bit for some products
but not others… In Texas, the uptick in concealed gun permits appears
to correspond with a rise in purchases of small handguns that can be
carried easily by gun owners, dealers said. Last year, Texas had a
total of 314,574 concealed gun permits on file for the state, compared
with 288,909 in 2007. Although a breakdown of existing gun permits by
county was not available, more than 500 El Pasoans submitted new
applications in the past year to the Texas Department of Public
Safety…
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_13745075?source=most_viewed
---
Another Way to Revoke the RKBA?: Falling in lockstep with Speaker
Pelosi's "Are you serious?" dismissal of a legitimate Constitutional
question, 220 oath-breaking representatives voted to impose yet
another authority-usurping federal mandate, and take over yet another
huge chunk of the economy under cover of a shallow "power to regulate
interstate commerce" sound bite. So what does this have to do with gun
rights? …While my natural sympathies lie with GOA, I'm not weighing in
on that debate here. I'm raising another potential, with the caveat
that it depends on whether or not the Committee on Ways & Means
Republicans are also engaging in "overheated rhetoric." Because if
they're not, this bill as passed poses a more immediate and direct
threat…
More on the FN Five-seveN Myth: One of the pistols used by Army Major
Nidal Malik Hasan was the FNH USA's FN Five-Seven [sic], which
afforded the Austin American-Statesman an opportunity to promote gun
control. But their article hides the truth… While the article attempts
a disclaimer – buried in the middle – it mentions that the ammunition
is "available only to law enforcement and military personnel." No:
Federal law states it's available only to agencies. Hasan had no free
access to restricted ammo… The article's conclusion reiterates the
assault weapon theme: "An assault rifle that fits in your pocket" is
how one law enforcement official described the pistol in earlier
Congressional testimony. The author mentions Brady Campaign twice,
reiterating the armor piercing ability of the pistol… The Austin
American-Statesman uses tragedy to promote the very policy which
enabled a massacre. This is questionable journalism. (First, an
assault rifle, by military definition, is one that is capable of
full-auto fire from the shoulder; all military rifles are capable of
penetrating soft body armor with their standard ammunition. Second, as
I have sought to point out before, the issue of armor-piercing
ammunition was irrelevant in this scenario, as it was in the only case
of an American police officer known to have been shot with KTW
ammunition, the load that prompted the entire "cop-killer bullet" scam
– he too was not wearing body armor at the time he was shot.)
Related Commentary: …It may seem counterintuitive to many, but the
high velocities that enable the Five-seveN's .22 bullet to drive
through soft body armor are thought to be mostly wasted on unarmored
targets. The 5.7 is a relatively new cartridge with limited
distribution and so actual "real world" ballistic performance is
anecdotal at best, but high-velocity pistol bullets like the .38 Super
noted earlier and the 7.62×25 Tokarev have been around almost 80
years. Their established track record is that of bullets with
excellent penetration characteristics but with questionable stopping
power. The 5.7 round uses a far lighter bullet at higher velocities
and the high velocity gives the bullet the distinct possibility of
fragmenting. But even then, a high-velocity bullet that only weighs 40
grains (as does the legal SS197SR bullet Hasan used) is at a distinct
disadvantage when compared to other pistol cartridges. Instead of
dumping the bullet's energy into the body of the person shot, these
high-velocity rounds typically stab a long narrow wound channel
completely through a human-sized target, or they erupt into fragments
that cause narrow wound channels… ("Energy dump" is a disputed
concept, as is that of the temporary wound cavity, caused as bullets
exceed the speed of sound. Nevertheless, I believe it is fair to say
that a well designed modern hollowpoint round for a more conventional
pistol would probably do more damage than a bullet fired from FN
Five-seveN.)
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/thank-goodness-for-cop-killer-weapons/2/
---
Gun control advocates in this country know they are losing the hearts
and minds of more and more Americans every day. Poll after poll has
shown that support for gun control is at an all time low, repeatedly
their agenda has been defeated in the courts, and pro-gun laws are
still sweeping the country. Ever since the "assault weapons ban" (AWB)
sunset in 2004, they have been waiting for the right moment to try to
get it restated. Now, five years later, some think they have that
chance thanks to the Ft. Hood shooting. The fact that what have been
arbitrarily defined as "assault weapons" by these activists were't
even used in this shooting is immaterial, this incident is little more
than a means to an end for them…
…The argument that a prohibition against firearms will eliminate the
possession of firearms by anyone is clearly refuted by the ample
empirical evidence that prohibition simply does not succeed in its
intended objective when the subject of the prohibition is something
that enough of the population wants. No matter how draconian the
restrictions or dire the legal consequences prohibition is defeated by
desire. Prostitution, booze, and drugs are or have been prohibited by
law with no appreciable effect on eliminating any of them. In fact,
illegal drugs consistently find their way into prisons—the most
secured, restrictive institutions in society. Obviously, if prison
inmates can gain access to drugs, and military base personnel can gain
access to guns, in spite of heavy security and strict prohibitions,
how will laws prevent anyone from having either? …
http://www.thedailysound.com/opinion/111009rot
Folks, there are some people who are saying that the incident at Fort
Hood is just another glaring illustration of why we need gun control
in the United States. Why we need gun control. If you are one of
these people who think that the lesson of the Fort Hood massacre is
gun control, may I remind you...? As Jay Nordlinger posts at National
Review Online today: Yeah, yeah, right an Army base is no place for
weapons. Right? Gun control on an Army base? Guess who was unarmed?
There are 300 unarmed soldiers that were packed into cubicles in
there with five-foot-high dividers. It was a cop, a 5'2" woman who
took out the shooter. What a gutsy woman, a 5'2" local cop, 'cause
these soldiers were unarmed on their own base. That makes a lot of
sense, right? Gun control the lesson of this? Ha. I mean, that is
just typical liberal knee-jerk, blindness, template, doesn't see the
truth right in front of their eyes. Just amazing.
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_110909/content/01125113.guest.html
---
A Plea for CCW on Base: …The military rightly protects stealth bombers
and intelligence assets so a successful attack at such a post is
highly unlikely. They keep the number of personnel at such facilities
lower so tighter security measures can be used without disrupting day
to day life. Admitting that publicly at this point isn't giving
terrorists a helpful tip – the massacre at Fort Hood gave them a great
road map for similar attacks in the future. What most people don't
realize is the huge difference in how individual posts handle security
and access to the post itself. To be fair, in most cases it isn't a
failing of the administration but instead simple logistics that create
an opening for an attack similar to what happened at Fort Hood. The
huge number of soldiers and civilians that work on post make it
impossible to check every ID and every car. Looking at the Fort Hood
attack in more general terms exposes that it followed the same pattern
as nearly every killing spree in America, with the exception of the
fact that it occurred on a military installation… (Nearly 12 years
ago, I trained on a DOE range at one of the nation's higher-security
military bases. Base policy was that state-commissioned peace officers
were the only civilians authorized to bring firearms and ammunition
onto the base. As a result we had to put all our firearms and
ammunition into a van provided by the local police, then ride onto
base in a separate van provided by the same department. The fallacy is
that it is all basically an honor system, a fact confirmed recently by
a well know firearms instructor, who worked there a few years back as
a contract trainer.)
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=115494
---
Oops, Wrong Hunter: A Troy [MT] man shot and killed a grizzly in the
Cabinet Mountains and state wildlife officials say he did it in self
defense. Fish, Wildlife and Parks reports the man was hunting mule
deer on Dad Peak on last Friday. He told officials he spotted two
grizzlies about 50 yards ahead of him. The man said he yelled at them
and waved his gun. But he says the bears started to move toward him.
That's when the man realized there were three bears. He said he
yelled again and hoped the animals would run off. But the larger bear
reportedly charged and the hunter shot the bear about 25 yards out.
The man hiked out and reported the shooting to wildlife officials.
After an investigation, Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials ruled the
shooting of the adult female grizzly was justifiable. (I will leave it
to those who spend more time in the woods than I do to comment on
whether it is reasonable to expect today's grizzly bears to respond to
this type of display. My understanding is that, in some areas, the
bears have come to associate the sound of gunfire with the presence of
gut piles and are now attracted by it.)
http://www.keci.com/Montana-Man-Shoots-and-Kills-Grizzly-in-Self-Defen/5633307
---
Self-Defense Shooter Speak to the Media: Karen Hankins said Monday she
doesn't think she'll ever get over what happened last week, when she
says she fatally shot her ex-husband in self-defense. But she wants to
share her story to help heal and bring awareness of the dangers of
mental illness. In her first TV interview, the Redmond [OR] woman
talked tearfully about how, on a night much like any other, she had to
react to a situation not many people could ever dream of facing. "I
dropped the phone and took both hands on the gun, and pulled the
trigger. Without even thinking. It wasn't a choice. It was a survival
instinct… I said, 'Shane, I have a gun, do not come in here," Karen
recalled. "Well, he's crawling through the window at that point. He's
halfway in. So I shot into the ceiling, thinking I would scare him. He
said, 'You won't shoot me.' I said, 'Shane, you're not supposed to be
here. You're scaring me, please stop. And he says, 'I think you only
have one bullet left.' He says, 'You're going to have to kill me to
stop me." After firing another shot, this time into his arm, she says
Shane came after her, and she fired the fatal shot… (Note the
reluctance [lack of mental preparedness] to fire what proved to be the
fatal shot. Had that shot not sufficed, she probably would only have
had two or three left in the revolver. One of the problems with
warning shots is that they may waste precious ammunition.)
http://www.ktvz.com/Global/story.asp?S=11473874
---
Otis McDonald Speaks to the Media: Otis McDonald, lead plaintiff in
the case challenging the constitutionality of the City of Chicago's
handgun ban, has taken on challenges his entire life. And at the age
of 76, he's not done yet… "Where I live [on Chicago's South Side], I'm
always concerned about the neighborhood," he said. "I've lived here 30
some years, and I like it here, and I wanted to keep it clean, keep it
protected, and keep the property value up… I'm concerned heavily about
the kids, about the real young kids coming up in this environment,
because they are being trained to be what the older ones are," he
said. "They're recruited daily, nightly, to be drug dealers and
gangbangers… I will not be pinned down in my house without anything to
defend myself, while they walk the streets," he said. "I will not be
victimized by the law that tells me I cannot have a handgun in my own
home, when I know there's a right that's out there that's given to me.
The people out there on the streets don't have the right to have a gun
out there on the streets. But we law-abiding citizens - senior
citizens, I may stress - have the constitutional right under the
Second Amendment. It will make the residents, old people like myself,
feel a little more secure…"
Tangentially Related: L/Cpl Hodge, who was drafted in to compete in
the Miss World contest after Rachel Christie relinquished her title
following her arrest over an alleged nightclub brawl, said she planned
to join comrades on the frontline in Afghanistan. The 22-year-old
soldier has already served in Iraq but said she was hoping to join the
effort in Afghanistan after stepping down as Miss England in July next
year. She said: ''It is something I want to do'', adding: ''People
just do not appreciate the Army enough.'' …L/Cpl Hodge added that she
had been due to be sent out to Afghanistan before she was crowned Miss
England. She was previously given an award by her unit in the Royal
Anglian Regiment for her actions during a posting in Basra and has
earned the nickname ''Combat Barbie''… (What a breath of fresh air
from England!)
--
Jason Baird
214-495-9858
