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REVIEW!<br />
RUGER<br />
LCP<br />
T H E U LT I M A T E R E S O U R C E F O R T H E A R M E D C I T I Z E N<br />
DISABLED<br />
AND ARMED<br />
ADAPTING AND OVERCOMING<br />
CONCEALED<br />
CARRY<br />
SAVES LIVES<br />
POST<br />
SHOOTING<br />
TRAUMA<br />
TWo VIEWS<br />
volume 5 JULY 2008<br />
usconcealedcarry.com
M&P45<br />
TO UPHOLD.<br />
TO PROTECT.<br />
M&P340<br />
M&P15<br />
TO DEFEND.<br />
THE LINE OF DUTYTM<br />
TM<br />
NASDAQ:SWHC<br />
MADE IN THE U.S.A.<br />
smith-wesson.com/mp
CONTENTS<br />
14 POCKET PROTECTOR<br />
The Ruger LCP<br />
BY DUANE DAIKER<br />
22 HIGH NOON HOLSTER’S<br />
Bare Asset IWB Holster<br />
BY STEVE HENIGSON<br />
24 BOOK REVIEW<br />
How To Win A Gunfight By Tony Walker<br />
BY REV. DAVID BEESON<br />
26 CONCEALED CARRY SAVES LIVES<br />
Part II: Research And History<br />
BY ROBERT G. HEINRITZ, JR., J.D.<br />
32 DISABILITY, SELF-DEFENSE<br />
AND CONCEALED CARRY<br />
You Don’t Have To Be An Easy Target<br />
BY CAROLYN BOYLES<br />
36 POINT: Unraveling<br />
post shooting trauma<br />
It’s Real, And Must Be Addressed To Heal<br />
BY ART MIZE<br />
40 COUNTERPOINT:<br />
POST SHOOTING TRAUMA<br />
It’s The Shrinks’ Way To Keep Us Victims<br />
BY TONY WALKER<br />
JULY 2008<br />
COLUMNS<br />
08<br />
STREET<br />
TACTICS<br />
Take Effective Cover<br />
BY GABE SUAREZ<br />
12<br />
SIG SAUER<br />
ACADEMY<br />
Is “Match Grade”<br />
Really Necessary For<br />
A Combat Handgun?<br />
BY GEORGE HARRIS<br />
18<br />
PROFILE<br />
Joshua Benson<br />
42<br />
FORCE-<br />
ON-FORCE<br />
NOTEBOOK<br />
One Armed Draw<br />
BY JACK RUMBAUGH<br />
46<br />
IT’S J<strong>US</strong>T<br />
THE LAW<br />
Jury Duty:<br />
The Other Militia<br />
BY K.L. JAMISON<br />
49<br />
JPFO LIBERTY<br />
CREW<br />
Take Your Money Back<br />
BY L. NEIL SMITH<br />
50<br />
ARMED<br />
SENIOR<br />
CITIZEN<br />
Skills Maintenance Drills<br />
BY BRUCE N. EIMER,<br />
Ph.D.<br />
DEPARTMENTS<br />
06<br />
LETTERS TO<br />
THE EDITOR<br />
07<br />
TRUE STORIES<br />
54<br />
HOT BRASS
CONCEALED CARRY<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
Volume 5 - July 2008<br />
Publisher & Editor<br />
Timothy J. Schmidt<br />
Managing Editor<br />
Kathy Jackson<br />
Art Director<br />
Betty Shonts<br />
Circulation Manager<br />
Laura Otto<br />
Copy Editor<br />
John Higgs<br />
Column Editors<br />
Duane A. Daiker<br />
Bruce N. Eimer, Ph.D<br />
George Harris<br />
K.L. Jamison<br />
Jack Rumbaugh<br />
L. Neil Smith - JPFO Liberty Crew<br />
Gabriel Suarez<br />
Mark A. Walters<br />
Contributing Writers<br />
Rev. David Beeson<br />
Carolyn Boyles<br />
Robert Heinritz, Jr., J.D.<br />
Steve Henigson<br />
Art Mize<br />
Tony Walker<br />
Advertising Sales<br />
Bob Cole<br />
360-665-0542<br />
E-mail: bobcole@centurytel.net<br />
Signed articles in <strong>Concealed</strong> <strong>Carry</strong> Magazine<br />
reflect the views of the author, and are not necessarily<br />
the views of the editors at Delta Media, LLC. The claims<br />
and opinions in the paid advertisements published<br />
in this magazine are not necessarily the claims and<br />
opinions of Delta Media, LLC. Delta Media, LLC takes<br />
no responsibility for these views, claims or opinions.<br />
<strong>Concealed</strong> <strong>Carry</strong> Magazine and the U.S. <strong>Concealed</strong><br />
<strong>Carry</strong> Association are registered trademarks of Delta<br />
Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2004-<br />
2008 by Delta Media, LLC. Reproduction, copying,<br />
or distribution of <strong>Concealed</strong> <strong>Carry</strong> Magazine is<br />
prohibited without written permission.<br />
Published for U.S. <strong>Concealed</strong> <strong>Carry</strong> by:<br />
4466 County Road P - Suite 204<br />
Jackson, WI 53037<br />
(877) 677-1919 • Customer Service<br />
(262) 677-8877 • U.S. <strong>Concealed</strong> <strong>Carry</strong><br />
<strong>Concealed</strong> <strong>Carry</strong> Magazine - July 2008 <strong>Issue</strong> ; July 7,<br />
2008 (<strong>US</strong>PS: 022-302, ISSN: 1550-7866) is published<br />
8 times per year for $39.00 per year by Delta Media,<br />
LLC, 4466 County Road P - STE 204, Jackson, WI<br />
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WI and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send<br />
address changes to: <strong>Concealed</strong> <strong>Carry</strong> Magazine, 4466<br />
County Road P - STE 204, Jackson, WI 53037-9272.<br />
tIM’S THOUGHTS<br />
BASEBALL, MEMBERSHIP PRICES<br />
& “THE ECONOMY”<br />
My oldest son’s baseball season is well underway. Tim Jr. is ten years old and<br />
this is the first season where the kids actually pitch! When I heard this, I<br />
was afraid that every other batter was going to get hit. But as it turns out,<br />
these kids are actually pretty good pitchers! Tim’s<br />
team wins a little more than half the time they<br />
play and they are all very competitive. It is really<br />
fun to see my son grow up.<br />
I’ve decided to permanently lower <strong>US</strong>CCA<br />
membership/subscription prices. The normal<br />
annual price for a <strong>US</strong>CCA membership used to<br />
be $69. Well, now it is only $47. If you ask me, a<br />
<strong>US</strong>CCA membership is simply money well spent.<br />
Please tell all your friends and relatives about the<br />
<strong>US</strong>CCA!<br />
I am so tired of hearing about how bad the<br />
economy is. Heck, sometimes I think the mainstream<br />
media WANTS the economy to be bad!<br />
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not an ostrich with<br />
my head in the sand. I realize that gas is really<br />
expensive and the real estate market is rough.<br />
But I think a LOT of the reason the economy is<br />
bad is because people THINK it is bad. Nothing<br />
is ever going to be perfect, so you’re better off<br />
just making the best with the current situation<br />
than worrying and complaining about how bad<br />
everything is!<br />
Here is a picture of me and my<br />
son Tim Jr. He is ten years old and<br />
plays second base for the West<br />
Bend Little League Cleveland<br />
Indians. I don’t really know that<br />
much about the game of baseball,<br />
but I still ended up being one of<br />
the coaches!<br />
Finally, talking about having nothing to complain about, just wait until you<br />
read this month’s CCM profile. As far as I’m concerned, Josh Benson is a man<br />
among men. I was truly inspired by his never-give-up attitude!<br />
God Bless and stay safe,<br />
JULY 2008 COVER<br />
PHOTOGRAPHER: Oleg Volk<br />
MODEL: Joshua Benson poses with a Sig 226.<br />
He ordinarily carries a 9mm Browning Hi Power<br />
in a crossdraw FIST driving holster; sharp-eyed<br />
readers may spot the butt of that pistol peeking<br />
out from under his shirt in the cover photo. Josh<br />
experienced vaccine-induced poliomyelitis as an<br />
infant, which left him with limited mobility. His<br />
disability has not stopped him, however; he’s<br />
taken dozens of firearms courses from noted<br />
trainers and has become a handgun instructor<br />
himself. He notes, “Being in the chair I wanted to<br />
have all the advantages I could if something happened. “ Read more about Josh in<br />
the Profile on page 18.<br />
<strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n JULY 2008
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR<br />
Dear Editor:<br />
The “Cost-Effective Practice” article<br />
[by Duane Daiker], like the rest of Vol 5<br />
May/June 2008 CCM, is most excellent!<br />
However, I would like to add to the options<br />
enumerated therein. Specifically,<br />
I have found great value in using gas<br />
blowback AirSoft-type pistols as an aid<br />
in teaching pistol shooting fundamentals<br />
in my <strong>Concealed</strong> Handgun Permit<br />
classes, and for practice.<br />
Although it is not a substitute for<br />
some real live-fire experience, I perceive<br />
some advantages, especially for<br />
new shooters, to include:<br />
I have found great value<br />
in using gas blowback<br />
AirSoft-type pistols as<br />
an aid in teaching pistol<br />
shooting fundamentals<br />
in my <strong>Concealed</strong> Handgun<br />
Permit classes, and for<br />
practice.<br />
• Safety. With minimal precautions<br />
(eye protection), if a new or too-casual<br />
shooter fails to follow some gun safety<br />
rule, no one is really endangered. For<br />
presentation-fire-reholster exercises,<br />
an accidental discharge will hurt nothing<br />
more than pride!<br />
• Convenience. There is no need to<br />
travel to a range to practice or to evaluate<br />
new shooters’ sight picture, sight alignment,<br />
hold control, trigger squeeze, and<br />
follow through. Target backstops can be<br />
as simple as a large cardboard box with<br />
a piece of scrap carpeting hung inside.<br />
• Low noise/recoil. The sound of these<br />
toy guns is about the same as shooting<br />
.22 subsonic ammo in a suppressed pistol.<br />
Hearing protection is not necessary,<br />
and a new shooter is unlikely to develop<br />
a flinch. Also, the neighbors are unlikely<br />
to even hear it, much less complain.<br />
• Legality. All AirSoft-type guns sold<br />
legally in the <strong>US</strong> have a governmentmandated<br />
orange tip on the barrel, and<br />
are classified as toys. Hence they are (as<br />
far as I know) legal to own and use, at<br />
least in your own home, and on your<br />
own property, in every state.<br />
• Economy. Green gas is cheap, propane<br />
is cheaper, 6mm BBs are practically<br />
free, and the backstops I describe<br />
above capture the pellets, which fall to<br />
the bottom of the box and can be reused<br />
if you REALLY want to be frugal.<br />
• Utility. Aside from safety, convenience<br />
and economy, these pistols are<br />
a fun way to work out a flinch, build<br />
strength and endurance (they weight<br />
almost as much as the real thing), and<br />
otherwise improve your skill levels in<br />
the comfort of your own back yard,<br />
basement, or spare room.<br />
In my most recent classes, students<br />
have had excellent results shooting a<br />
Glock 23 replica from Taiwan (about<br />
$100), that uses green gas or propane<br />
to shoot standard 6mm plastic BBs and<br />
auto-cycle the slide. Transition to live<br />
fire at the range was easier, because the<br />
students were already comfortable with<br />
the basics, and knew they could hit a<br />
target.<br />
Keep up the great work!<br />
Dave Knight<br />
Certified Firearms Instructor<br />
Radford, VA<br />
Due to volume received, not all<br />
letters can be answered. Letters may<br />
be edited for space and clarity.<br />
Send your letters to:<br />
<strong>Concealed</strong> <strong>Carry</strong> Magazine<br />
Attn: Editor<br />
4466 Hwy P - Suite 204<br />
Jackson, WI 53037<br />
Or email:<br />
editor@usconcealedcarry.com<br />
I just want to say that “Point Shooting<br />
Versus Aimed Fire,” by Gabriel<br />
Suarez [page 46, CCM April 2008] is<br />
an excellent article. He hits the target<br />
dead center on that one.<br />
Bob Orlando<br />
Excellent article on Bill Akins by Mark<br />
Walters [“Mr. Bill Akins and the Akins<br />
Accelerator,” Ordinary Guy column,<br />
May/June ‘08]. He left out one thing:<br />
how can we send a check to Akins to<br />
help him fight?<br />
Clay Stuckey<br />
Contact for Akins’ defense fund is:<br />
John Monroe Trust Account<br />
9640 Coleman Rd.<br />
Roswell, Georgia, 30075<br />
Make checks payable to John Monroe<br />
Trust Account. Please make note on the<br />
check or cover letter that donation is for<br />
William Akins vs United States.<br />
Editor<br />
Corrections:<br />
The news article titled, “Muggers need<br />
to get real jobs in this town!” on page<br />
12 in the April 2008 issue of CCM incorrectly<br />
identified the location of the incident,<br />
which actually took place in Charlotte,<br />
North Carolina. Thanks to reader<br />
Phillip C., who brought the error to our<br />
attention.<br />
K.L. Jamison’s article, “Warriors of the<br />
Working Day” cited John Fortescue as<br />
the source of the title quote. While Fortescue<br />
may have been the first person<br />
to apply that phrase to the American<br />
militia, Will Shakespeare used it first, in<br />
Henry V. Thanks to the multiple readers<br />
who spotted this one.<br />
<br />
<strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n JULY 2008
TRUE STORIES<br />
CARRY A GUN... IT WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE.<br />
HIS PIPE SHOT BULLETS<br />
A 30-year-old man decided a central<br />
Mesa store would be an easy target for<br />
a robbery. He demanded money and<br />
struck the clerk with a pipe.<br />
The 55-year-old clerk responded by<br />
defending himself with his fists and a<br />
Taser. The Taser did not stop the attacker,<br />
so the clerk pulled out his gun and<br />
shot him.<br />
The clerk’s attacker was last reported<br />
as being in critical condition, and will<br />
likely face charges when he recovers.<br />
Police spokesman Chis Arvayo stated<br />
the clerk will most likely not face any<br />
charges, as “He’s got the right to defend<br />
himself.”<br />
The clerk did not require extensive<br />
medical treatment for his injuries.<br />
East Valley Tribune • Mesa, AZ<br />
THE TASER DID<br />
NOT STOP<br />
THE ATTACKER,<br />
SO THE CLERK<br />
PULLED OUT<br />
HIS GUN...<br />
PAWN SHOP ROBBERY<br />
A robber stormed into David Gardner’s<br />
pawn shop, smashed display cases<br />
and stole goods. Gardner grabbed his<br />
gun and opened fire, hitting the thief as<br />
he ran out the door.<br />
Investigators followed a trail of blood<br />
to a nearby neighborhood. They found<br />
20-year-old Willie Clarkson after his<br />
girlfriend called 911 when she found<br />
him hiding in her apartment. He was<br />
bleeding from at least two gunshot<br />
wounds.<br />
Gardner states he’s never had an incident<br />
like this before, and was badly<br />
shaken from the experience. Hopefully<br />
Clarkson will be so badly shaken from<br />
the incident he won’t try to rob another<br />
place again... after he gets out of jail.<br />
MyFOX • Tampa Bay, FL<br />
THERE WILL BE NO SEQUEL<br />
At 6:30 in the morning at the CNK<br />
Beverage Pit in Seffner, Kenneth Charles<br />
Heidkamp, 19, made a fatal decision.<br />
He hit the clerk with a can of frenchcut<br />
green beans in order to subdue him and<br />
rob the place.<br />
The clerk hit back by grabbing his gun<br />
and opening fire, killing Heidkamp.<br />
abcactionnews.com• Tampa Bay, FL<br />
TACKDRIVER<br />
Juan Ibarra, a roofer, was hitching<br />
a trailer to his pickup when a robber<br />
came up behind him and shoved a pistol<br />
to his back. He was ordered to go to<br />
the cab of his truck and hand over his<br />
wallet and cellphone. Ibarra complied,<br />
and the robber began to walk off, but<br />
stopped to pick up some of the stolen<br />
money that had fallen to the ground.<br />
That’s when Ibarra drew his licensed<br />
handgun and shot at the robber at least<br />
three times, shooting him in the chest<br />
and killing him.<br />
“If it’s a robber who got popped, that’s<br />
his problem,” said John Andre, who lives<br />
near the incident.<br />
Houston Chronicle • Houston, TX<br />
HE SAID StOP<br />
Kenneth Ross Jr. of Greet, South Carolina<br />
confronted his estranged wife and<br />
a male friend outside her home in Spartanburg.<br />
He attempted to run over her<br />
with his truck, but hit her car instead.<br />
Ross then began to approach his estranged<br />
wife when the male friend ordered<br />
him to stop. Ross refused to stop,<br />
so he drew his gun and fired, killing<br />
Ross. Police state the man was acting in<br />
self-defense and will not be charged.<br />
Aiken Standard • Aiken, SC<br />
SHOULD’VE HAILED A CAB<br />
Surveillance video from a Memphis<br />
gas station shows what happened to a<br />
would-be carjacker.<br />
The suspect approached the victim’s<br />
vehicle and demanded his keys. When<br />
he walked around the car, the victim<br />
drew a gun and started shooting.<br />
It is not known if the suspect was<br />
wounded, because the man ran off and<br />
has not yet been found.<br />
The victim was legally armed.<br />
newschannel5.com • Nashville, TN<br />
tHESE StORES<br />
DELIVER....ON tARGEt<br />
There has been a rash of armed robberies<br />
lately in the East Bay area of California.<br />
Ed’s Liquors in Oakland was targeted<br />
for a robbery by a man who entered<br />
and shot the store owner in the leg. The<br />
owner fired back, hitting the robber at<br />
least three times. The man’s condition is<br />
unknown.<br />
Two days earlier, a similar incident<br />
happened at the Wah Fey 8th Avenue<br />
Corner Market in Oakland. Two men<br />
tried to rob the store, but the store clerk<br />
shot and wounded one of the robbers.<br />
Last year in the same area, a pizzaria<br />
owner shot and killed a robber who<br />
was armed with an “assault rifle.” Only<br />
a month after that, a liquor store clerk<br />
shot and killed a 17-year-old robber<br />
who shot at him.<br />
There have been at least eight takeover<br />
robberies at restaurants in the area<br />
over the past month.<br />
San Francisco Chronicle • CA<br />
How would you have handled situations like these? Discuss scenarios and more online in the<br />
usconcealedcarry.com forums. Familiarize yourself with your local and state laws regarding self-defense.<br />
JULY 2008 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n <strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM
STREET TACTICS<br />
Stay back about six<br />
feet from the cover to<br />
prevent ricochets from<br />
hitting you.<br />
[ B Y G A B E S U A R E Z ]<br />
<strong>Concealed</strong> carry trainees<br />
are often admonished by<br />
their instructors to use<br />
cover in a gunfight.<br />
Use of cover is a good idea that has<br />
saved many good guys, but its<br />
tactical use must be understood<br />
and put in the correct context in order<br />
to be effective.<br />
The difference lies in the issue of who<br />
has initiative in the fight. In other words,<br />
who is being proactive and who is being<br />
reactive. Here are a couple of examples:<br />
An armed good guy sees a criminal<br />
with a knife attacking a woman and realizes<br />
that although he is not involved in<br />
the fight directly, he must get involved<br />
to save the woman’s life. So, he purposely<br />
and proactively draws his pistol and<br />
shoots the bad guy. There was no need<br />
for cover, but there was a need to take<br />
the initiative.<br />
A similar situation may be where the<br />
armed good guy happens to be at the<br />
scene of a robbery at a business. Seeing<br />
the bad guys draw their guns and approach<br />
the cashier, he may elect to take<br />
a covered position behind a stone pillar.<br />
At this point he may engage or not,<br />
depending on what he sees, but he had<br />
the ability to take a safer position than<br />
simply standing out in the open like the<br />
proverbial deer in the head lights.<br />
Both of these events developed such<br />
that the good guy had ample time to<br />
realize something was happening and<br />
make a decision to act. In the first one,<br />
cover would have been unnecessary,<br />
while in the second event, it may have<br />
been essential.<br />
There is also the second type of<br />
event—the pure surprise attack. As unpopular<br />
as it is in the gun culture to admit<br />
that these occur, not everyone can<br />
be alert in condition yellow all of the<br />
time. In these reactive events, the bad<br />
guy has the initiative, and to survive, the<br />
good guy must be able to react. In these<br />
cases, counter-attacking the assailant is<br />
probably a far better option than trying<br />
to look for cover.<br />
An example may be an armed good<br />
guy who is walking into a business. The<br />
next thing he sees is a bad guy pointing<br />
or firing a pistol at him from across the<br />
room. There is no time to do anything<br />
but move off the line of fire, draw, and<br />
shoot back. To think of cover at this<br />
point might cause a delayed response<br />
with terminal results for the good guy.<br />
Please don’t think I am eschewing<br />
<br />
<strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n JULY 2008
Shooting from around<br />
cover rather than over it<br />
exposes much less of you.<br />
Be certain that what you<br />
are using as cover will<br />
in fact protect you. <strong>This</strong><br />
plastic container is filled<br />
with sacks of concrete.<br />
the use of cover because I am not. I am<br />
simply pointing out that it must be used<br />
appropriately and its use kept in proper<br />
context.<br />
To use cover in a fight, one needs<br />
three things: The time to get to cover,<br />
the proximity and availability of cover,<br />
and (perhaps) the expectation that a<br />
fight is about to happen. Let’s examine<br />
these in detail:<br />
Time<br />
In the reactive event we described<br />
above, the good guy had no time at all to<br />
get to any sort of cover. Generally speaking,<br />
if the bad guy is closer to you than<br />
any point of cover, you must think of<br />
dealing with the bad guy first. If I have a<br />
man drawing a pistol to shoot me from<br />
ten feet away, and my nearest point of<br />
cover is 25 yards away, I can almost guarantee<br />
you that I will not make it in time.<br />
That is why we need to develop close<br />
range gunfighting tactics that involve<br />
getting off the line of fire, drawing and<br />
shooting on the move, alternative sighting<br />
methods, and so on. Cover is great,<br />
but it will take you time to get there. The<br />
relationship between time and distance<br />
is one that every student of close range<br />
gunfights must understand.<br />
Proximity and availability of cover<br />
Obviously, cover has to be nearby<br />
otherwise searching for it is a waste of<br />
time. If you can’t get to it because it is<br />
too far away don’t bother running to it.<br />
Attack instead.<br />
It is important to understand just<br />
what constitutes cover. If your adversary<br />
is armed with a knife, keeping a<br />
table between you and him may be sufficient.<br />
If he is armed with a .308 battle<br />
rifle, even a car may be a bad choice. You<br />
would be surprised how many things<br />
suggested as cover by tactical writers<br />
are easily penetrated by even the most<br />
common ammunition.<br />
A rule of thumb to follow is that the<br />
harder and heavier the item of cover,<br />
the better at stopping bullets it will be.<br />
Concrete is better than cinder block,<br />
and cinder block is better than a mail<br />
box. Many things may simply be good<br />
concealment, which is not bad, but will<br />
only hide you from the bullets, not protect<br />
you.<br />
Expecting the fight<br />
The final point is your expectation<br />
that a fight is going to happen. If you<br />
see the fight brewing, you can get behind<br />
cover quickly and use it effectively.<br />
If you fall into an urban ambush, we get<br />
back into the issue of time available.<br />
In a military context, reactively moving<br />
to cover as an immediate action to<br />
ambush is a viable tactic. As soon as a<br />
team receives fire, they will move off the<br />
line of fire, go to ground or cover, then<br />
go into whatever their plan for immediate<br />
reaction to an ambush would be. If<br />
you are being shot at and do not know<br />
the source of the gunfire immediately,<br />
you want to move rapidly to somewhere<br />
other than where you are. That rapid<br />
move off the line of fire may hopefully<br />
be to cover, but it may simply be off<br />
to the side and down, if that is all you<br />
have.<br />
Using cover effectively<br />
Assuming you had the time, reach<br />
and forethought to get behind cover,<br />
you need the skills to work the cover.<br />
Once there, you need to know how to<br />
shoot back, as well as how to maintain<br />
your position and to know when to<br />
abandon it.<br />
In general, it is better to shoot around<br />
cover than over it. Think about it. How<br />
much of your head has to protrude<br />
above the cover just so you can see?<br />
JULY 2008 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n <strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM
Compare that to looking and shooting<br />
from around cover—much better, is it<br />
not? Also, consider that much of gun<br />
training in the <strong>US</strong>A today is lop-sided.<br />
By this I mean that they only train one<br />
side of the body, the left or the right,<br />
whichever is dominant. Training the<br />
lesser side is rarely examined beyond<br />
the cursory discussion of the dominant<br />
hand being injured. At my school we<br />
seek to be as ambidextrous as possible<br />
and don’t consider strong side-weak<br />
side issues. Rather, we have a right side<br />
and a left side.<br />
Since we are shooting around cover,<br />
we are looking at right side and left side.<br />
How will you handle a piece of cover<br />
that only offers utility from the one side,<br />
especially if it is your traditionally “weak<br />
side.” The simplest and best answer is to<br />
put the gun in the other hand. Thus, the<br />
importance of completely training both<br />
the right and left sides.<br />
Consider also how you will handle<br />
the cover issue if you have non-combatants<br />
with you. These are the folks<br />
you are often protecting such as family<br />
members, friends and others. Will you<br />
How will you handle<br />
a piece of cover that<br />
only offers utility<br />
from the one side,<br />
especially if it is<br />
your traditionally<br />
“weak side?”<br />
jump behind cover and leave them in<br />
the open? Only a coward would do that.<br />
Give some thought as to how you will<br />
get them behind cover as well. In the old<br />
days we often joked that the best cover<br />
was a swarm of bullets heading toward<br />
the adversary. In these cases, as extreme<br />
and radical as it may sound, a short,<br />
intense burst of suppressive fire from<br />
your Glock or XD pistol may in fact buy<br />
you the time to get to safety. It may not<br />
be pretty or approved by certain ranges<br />
but it has proven effective.<br />
Don’t discount the use of cover, but<br />
certainly don’t over-emphasize it either.<br />
Taken in context, it can be a life saver.<br />
n<br />
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SIG SAUER ® ACADEMY<br />
IS “MATCH GRADE” REALLY<br />
NECESSARY FOR A<br />
COMBAT HANDGUN?<br />
[ B Y G E O R G E H A R R I S ]<br />
In reference to firearms,<br />
the term match grade has<br />
a certain mystique as being<br />
better or having an advantage<br />
over the standard model of a<br />
particular product.<br />
For our purposes here we are going<br />
to limit our ideas and comments<br />
to handguns even though long<br />
guns can also be classified as match<br />
grade.<br />
In most cases a match grade handgun<br />
started life as a standard model with<br />
service grade parts and a performance<br />
standard that is generally somewhat<br />
less than that of the match grade product.<br />
Converting a service grade gun to<br />
one of match quality encompasses a<br />
broad spectrum of ideas and processes.<br />
The objective of match quality is most<br />
often thought of as modifying the gun<br />
to make it more accurate intrinsically<br />
and practically. <strong>This</strong> can be done by<br />
tightening the tolerances of the moving<br />
parts, replacing the barrel with one of<br />
higher quality, installing high visibility<br />
sights, applying a custom finish, adding<br />
competition grips, and refining the trigger<br />
pull, among other things.<br />
From a concealed carry perspective,<br />
some of the attributes of a match<br />
grade handgun are valuable and others<br />
are detrimental. At the top of the list of<br />
desirables for a fighting handgun is reliability.<br />
It won’t matter how accurate the<br />
gun is if we can’t get a bullet out of the<br />
barrel when we need to. We have had<br />
students bring guns to our <strong>Concealed</strong><br />
<strong>Carry</strong> classes at the Sig Sauer Academy<br />
that were so tightly fit that they would<br />
only shoot ball ammo, and required a<br />
regular reapplication of lubricant during<br />
the day’s live fire drills just to keep<br />
them running. The intrinsic (mechanical)<br />
accuracy is usually outstanding in<br />
these pistols and is virtually always superior<br />
to the shooter’s ability to use it.<br />
The fact that it is unreliable determines<br />
that it is not a candidate for concealed<br />
carry or self defense.<br />
When it comes to reliability, those<br />
who replace their factory barrels with<br />
custom barrels that have match chambers<br />
are really walking a fine line. A<br />
match chamber is usually toleranced<br />
at a minimum dimension to achieve<br />
the highest possible level of accuracy.<br />
<strong>This</strong> allows no error for the cartridge<br />
that is on the large size of the ammunition<br />
specification to tolerate any firing<br />
residue left by previously fired rounds<br />
or any minor amount of dirt picked up<br />
from the magazine or carry medium.<br />
The mouth of the chamber at the transition<br />
point from the feed ramp, and the<br />
feed ramp itself, are critical areas in getting<br />
a single round from the magazine<br />
into the chamber. From a practical perspective,<br />
in order to insure reliability we<br />
must allow for the mechanical variables<br />
as well as the unknowns that seem to<br />
crop up unannounced.<br />
To be considered acceptable for self<br />
defense purposes, the gun should shoot<br />
any factory ammunition of the correct<br />
caliber with total reliability.<br />
The term match trigger has many<br />
definitions. Usually it alludes to the<br />
properties perceived as necessary for<br />
the shooter to deliver accurate fire on<br />
a specific target. These properties include<br />
trigger weight, smoothness, stroke<br />
length, and reset distance; all of which<br />
have diminishing value as the stress<br />
level increases. In fact, the higher values<br />
of trigger stroke length and weight,<br />
in moderation, serve to decrease unintentional<br />
discharges while having little<br />
effect on hit probability in street con-<br />
About the Author:<br />
George Harris has spent over 30 years<br />
in the field of adult education with<br />
more than 17 years<br />
at the SIG SAUER ®<br />
12<br />
Academy. He has<br />
focused his efforts<br />
in the arenas of<br />
small arms, small<br />
arms training and<br />
combat skill development.<br />
George<br />
has evolved from an infantry soldier,<br />
small arms repair technician, and<br />
drill instructor to become the coach<br />
and firing member of the internationally<br />
recognized United States Army<br />
Reserve Combat Marksmanship Team.<br />
As a competitive shooter, George<br />
has the coveted distinction of being<br />
Distinguished with both the service<br />
pistol and the service rifle. As director<br />
of the SIG SAUER ® Academy, George is<br />
committed to the safe and successful<br />
use of firearms by armed professionals<br />
and responsible citizens alike through<br />
using the SIG Principle of Training:<br />
Simple Is Good!<br />
Sponsored By:<br />
sigsauer.com 603-679-2003<br />
<strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n JULY 2008
frontations. Double Action Only pistols<br />
and Double Action revolvers in the law<br />
enforcement community have supported<br />
this on an ongoing basis.<br />
Mechanically, match triggers are finicky<br />
in that they require regular cleaning,<br />
lubrication and adjustment to maintain<br />
their peak level of performance. They<br />
may be more prone to breakage as well,<br />
due to the more complicated design<br />
features as compared to the standard<br />
trigger configurations.<br />
Match grade or target sights are popular<br />
in that they provide that perfect sight<br />
picture for the shooter to precisely place<br />
shots on the target. Unfortunately, these<br />
sights are not as durable or practical as<br />
fixed or drift-adjustable combat sights.<br />
The sharp corners on the Patridge front<br />
sights and the flat blade rear sights<br />
will naturally snag on anything available,<br />
and their high mounting position<br />
makes the gun somewhat unwieldy and<br />
inconvenient. A better choice is a variable<br />
height, drift-adjustable system that<br />
is durable and allows the shooter to zero<br />
to the desired sight picture with the ammunition<br />
of choice.<br />
Standard grips on most pistols are<br />
satisfactory as they come out of the<br />
box. Although target grips may enhance<br />
the ability of the shooter to hit a target,<br />
they usually are larger than standard<br />
and are more difficult to conceal. If the<br />
standard grips are not acceptable, find<br />
the most compact grip that positions<br />
the gun in the hand so that the muzzle<br />
points naturally toward the target. It is<br />
as if you were pointing your index finger<br />
at the bullet impact point on the target.<br />
Ensure that the grip has a non-slip surface<br />
in all weather conditions but still<br />
allows the gun to be easily concealed<br />
without clothing or holster interference.<br />
When all things are considered,<br />
match grade may not be as important<br />
as it seems. Think about the accuracy<br />
needed versus the reliability necessary<br />
to fulfill the requirements for a concealed<br />
carry handgun. Consider the<br />
location, situation and conditions that<br />
are likely to require the use of the gun,<br />
and the answers will be forthcoming<br />
as to whether you need a match grade<br />
gun for concealed carry, or whether service<br />
grade will do. Simple Is Good! n<br />
The Sig Sauer Academy offers training<br />
from entry to advanced level, on and off<br />
site, for the responsible citizen and the<br />
armed professional. Training DVDs are<br />
available from the Sig Pro Shop, on line<br />
at www.sigsaueracademy.com or at your<br />
local dealer.<br />
It won’t matter<br />
how accurate<br />
the gun is if<br />
we can’t get a<br />
bullet out of the<br />
barrel when we<br />
need to.<br />
10 <strong>Concealed</strong> <strong>Carry</strong> Magazine www.usconcealedcarry.com<br />
Volume 4 - October 2007<br />
JULY 2008 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n <strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM<br />
13
Pocket<br />
Protector:<br />
The perfect pocket pistol<br />
would be small, light, thin,<br />
chambered in an effective<br />
caliber for self-defense,<br />
completely reliable, and<br />
inexpensive. After spending<br />
some time with Ruger’s<br />
new and much talked about<br />
Light Compact Pistol (LCP),<br />
I think it comes very close.<br />
All carry guns are a compromise<br />
of sorts, and that is especially<br />
true for pocket pistols. But the<br />
Ruger LCP seems to make all the right<br />
compromises to be small enough and<br />
powerful enough, while remaining very<br />
affordable.<br />
Gun Details<br />
A true pocket pistol, the LCP is one<br />
of the smallest guns available in what<br />
A tiny gun with a<br />
slim profile means<br />
less printing when<br />
concealed.<br />
The Ruger<br />
many consider to be the smallest viable this type. The LCP also has a traditional<br />
round for self defense: the .380 Auto. As magazine release located on the left<br />
you can see from the specs, this gun is side of the frame just behind the trigger<br />
small, light and flat, while still packing guard.<br />
seven total rounds. <strong>This</strong> gun will almost One somewhat unique feature of the<br />
disappear in a pocket, and will print Ruger is a slide hold-open lever. <strong>This</strong> is<br />
much less than a wider J-frame revolver not a standard slide lock, and the gun<br />
or a heavier steel pocket auto. The polymer<br />
frame is molded to a hardened steel zine. However, when held to the rear,<br />
does not lock open on an empty maga-<br />
slide, resulting in an unloaded weight of the slide can be locked open by pushing<br />
less than 9.5 ounces. Add seven rounds up the lever. <strong>This</strong> can be useful in handling<br />
an unloaded weapon, or in clear-<br />
and a pocket holster, and it is still less<br />
than one pound! That is a lot of firepower<br />
for such a light carry package.<br />
Fit and finish on the LCP appears<br />
ing difficult jams.<br />
The LCP’s manual of arms is quite to be very good for a gun in this price<br />
simple. The gun is a double action of range. The polymer frame, which Ruger<br />
sorts, but the recessed hammer is partially<br />
tensioned by operation of the Filled Nylon,” has a nicely finished look<br />
describes as “High Performance Glass<br />
slide, so there is no repeat strike capability.<br />
The result, however, is a relatively checkering. The style of the grip gives<br />
with the Ruger logo and appropriate<br />
light eight pound trigger pull that is the LCP a family resemblance to Ruger’s<br />
easily managed. There is no external or other new polymer framed pistols. The<br />
manual safety, but the long trigger pull hardened steel slide is finished in a<br />
provides adequate safety for a gun of matte blue.<br />
14<br />
<strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n JULY 2008
K&D holsters offers<br />
a Pocket Defender<br />
Convertible 2-in-1<br />
holster for the new LCP.<br />
The LCP has extremely<br />
simple, low-profile sights<br />
for basic sight alignment.<br />
The LCP is<br />
small enough to<br />
tuck into most<br />
people’s pockets.<br />
LCP[ B Y D U A N E A . D A I K E R ]<br />
Ruger LCP<br />
Specifications<br />
Caliber<br />
Barrel Length<br />
Overall Length<br />
Overall Height<br />
Overall Width<br />
Overall Weight<br />
Trigger Pull Weight<br />
Capacity<br />
.380 Auto<br />
2.75 inches<br />
5.16 inches<br />
3.60 inches<br />
.820 inches<br />
9.4 oz.<br />
8 lbs.<br />
Suggested Retail Price $330<br />
6 + 1 rounds<br />
Unlike some pocket pistols, the Ruger<br />
does have small, but useable vestigial<br />
sights. In essence, you line up a small<br />
bump that serves as the front sight with<br />
a small groove that serves as the rear<br />
sight. You don’t get a true sight picture<br />
in the traditional sense, but it is enough<br />
to get a proper alignment of the gun,<br />
and it’s better than just looking down<br />
the top of a smooth slide. The benefit, of<br />
course, is that the sights are extremely<br />
low profile and snag proof, which is important<br />
for a pocket gun.<br />
Every LCP comes packaged with a<br />
single magazine, an external locking<br />
device, and a soft case. The suggested<br />
retail is $330, which should translate<br />
into street prices below $300 once the<br />
initial demand has been met.<br />
<strong>Carry</strong>ing the LCP<br />
<strong>This</strong> Ruger is clearly designed for<br />
pocket carry. While some might find<br />
a home in a purse or on an ankle, the<br />
JULY 2008 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE<br />
15
majority of owners will likely carry this<br />
gun in a pocket. Pocket carry, however,<br />
should never be undertaken without a<br />
pocket holster to stabilize the gun, minimize<br />
printing, and protect the trigger<br />
from a negligent discharge.<br />
My friend Kevin Manley at K&D<br />
Holsters provided me with one of his<br />
Pocket Defender Convertible 2-in-1<br />
holsters for this review. The 2-in-1 is<br />
one of Kevin’s standard pocket holsters<br />
with a removable anti-print panel that<br />
helps further disguise the shape of the<br />
gun. I find that some pockets need an<br />
anti-print panel for most effective concealment,<br />
and some do not. The K&D<br />
Holsters 2-in-1 gives you that kind of<br />
flexibility. A standard 2-in-1 will cost<br />
you about $50. The holster shown here<br />
has been dressed up with exotic ostrich<br />
skin at some extra cost. Kevin’s work is<br />
top notch, and he takes customer satisfaction<br />
very seriously. You can view K&D<br />
Holsters’ entire line at www.kdholsters.<br />
com or call (813) 601-0504.<br />
Shooting the LCP<br />
Pocket guns can be a handful to<br />
shoot. I find the LCP, however, to be<br />
better than most. The grip is just big<br />
enough to wrap two fingers around. In<br />
this lightweight package the perceived<br />
recoil of even the modest .380 Auto<br />
round is stout. While some recoil-sensitive<br />
people may find this gun objectionable,<br />
I think that most shooters will not<br />
be bothered. Recoil is manageable, and<br />
there are no sharp edges to draw blood.<br />
I fired over 100 rounds in a day with no<br />
significant discomfort. To me, the LCP<br />
is much more fun to shoot than a lightweight<br />
snubby revolver with hot loads.<br />
Functionality was exceptional, with<br />
absolutely no failures exhibited in well<br />
over 100 rounds fired. The gun happily<br />
digested all my test ammo—the<br />
Hornady .380 Auto 90 grain HP/XTP<br />
jacketed hollowpoint. An average group<br />
at seven yards measured two inches.<br />
That kind of performance is certainly<br />
“combat accurate,” and represents excellent<br />
performance for a gun with<br />
minimal sights. Average muzzle velocity<br />
with the Hornady rounds was 800 feet<br />
per second–not bad for a .380 Auto with<br />
a 2.75” barrel! Hornady’s excellent line<br />
of ammunition can be viewed at www.<br />
hornady.com, or you can call (800) 338-<br />
3220.<br />
In short, the LCP shoots and performs<br />
very well for its diminutive size.<br />
It exceeded my expectations for such<br />
a small piece. The limiting factor on<br />
shooting this gun is the sights, which<br />
are designed to be minimal. As long<br />
as you can do your part, I believe the<br />
Ruger will perform well in any realistic<br />
self-defense situation.<br />
Conclusions<br />
I am happy to see Ruger making a<br />
serious run at the civilian concealed<br />
carry market. Ruger’s reputation of<br />
building quality frames is well-known,<br />
and the company stands behind its<br />
products. Ruger has gotten some criticism<br />
of the LCP being a close copy of<br />
another manufacturer’s design. Clearly<br />
this is not an uncommon phenomenon<br />
in the firearms market. Ultimately the<br />
successes of any model will depend<br />
upon its functionality over time and<br />
the manufacturer’s support of the product.<br />
Given Ruger’s track record, there is<br />
every reason to believe the LCP will be<br />
well-received, and that Ruger will sell a<br />
bunch of them.<br />
The LCP is an excellent new offering<br />
from Sturm, Ruger and Company that is<br />
specifically designed for concealed carry.<br />
<strong>This</strong> pocket pistol should serve you<br />
well as a backup gun or a primary carry<br />
gun for deep concealment. As for me,<br />
when I finished shooting the LCP for<br />
this review, I cleaned it, loaded it, and<br />
put in my pocket. You can view the LCP<br />
at www.ruger.com or call (928) 778-6555<br />
for additional information. n<br />
[ Duane A. Daiker is a Contributing<br />
Editor for CCM, but is otherwise a regular<br />
guy—not much different from you.<br />
Duane has been a lifelong shooter and<br />
goes about his life an armed, responsible,<br />
and somewhat opinionated citizen.<br />
Duane can be reached at Daiker@<br />
RealWorld<strong>Carry</strong>Gear.com. His other<br />
feature articles and Real World <strong>Carry</strong><br />
Gear Columns can be viewed at: www.<br />
RealWorld<strong>Carry</strong>Gear.com. ]<br />
Shooting Results<br />
Load<br />
Hornady .380 Auto<br />
HP/XTP<br />
Average<br />
Velocity<br />
Extreme<br />
Spread<br />
Average<br />
800 83 2.0<br />
Velocity measured in fps 10 feet from the muzzle<br />
for 10 consecutive shots with a Shooting Chrony<br />
chronograph. Temperature: 75° F. Accuracy<br />
measured in inches for two, five-shot groups fired<br />
offhand at 7 yards.<br />
The Ruger LCP performed<br />
very well, and there were no<br />
failures in over 100 rounds.<br />
16<br />
<strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n JULY 2008
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Williams’ Picks for Big-Game Wheelguns<br />
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CCM PROFILE<br />
Josh Benson shoots with his left<br />
hand only, steadied somewhat by<br />
the atrophied lifting muscles in<br />
his right arm.<br />
PHOTO BY OLEG VOLK • A-HUMAN-RIGHT.COM<br />
Joshu<br />
The most remarkable thing about Joshua Benson is the words he doesn’t say.<br />
In a world full of whiny emo-boys and<br />
latte-sipping cowards, a man who<br />
never utters the words “I can’t” and<br />
who never asks for a drop of sympathy<br />
is a refreshing change.<br />
I met Josh for the first time last spring<br />
at the Firearms Academy of Seattle,<br />
during the last course Jim Cirillo ever<br />
taught. Cirillo’s class was a two-day<br />
adventure into close quarters shooting<br />
techniques, including alternative sighting<br />
methods and shooting from downed<br />
positions. Josh wheeled himself in on<br />
the first day of class, taking the far righthand<br />
end of the line so that his crossdraw<br />
holster and unusual one-handed<br />
reload would not cause his muzzle to<br />
cross any of the other students. <strong>This</strong><br />
class was designed for intermediate to<br />
accomplished shooters, not at all for beginners,<br />
and I confess that I wondered if<br />
the young man in the chair was going to<br />
be able to keep up—a worry that seems<br />
downright laughable in retrospect.<br />
Josh, it turned out, was no beginner:<br />
he is a certified handgun instructor<br />
through Tom Givens’ Rangemaster<br />
firearms training school in Memphis,<br />
TN. Now 25 years old, he’s taken dozens<br />
of professional training classes in the<br />
three years he’s been shooting defensive<br />
handguns. And he takes his personal<br />
defense very seriously, carrying a concealed<br />
firearm every day.<br />
The physical challenges that Josh<br />
faces are a bit out of the ordinary. An<br />
encounter with vaccine-induced poliomyelitis<br />
as an infant left him with<br />
no function in either leg, roughly five<br />
percent function in his right arm (very<br />
little in his right hand), and only about<br />
eighty percent function in his left arm<br />
and hand. While most shooters struggle<br />
to get shots on paper using both hands<br />
in a stable stance, Josh nails the target<br />
while holding the gun with his left hand<br />
only, steadied somewhat by the lifting<br />
muscles in his right arm.<br />
“<strong>This</strong> kid just impresses the hell out<br />
of me,” says Massad Ayoob, who taught<br />
from left to right: Tom Givens, Josh<br />
Benson, John Farnam, John Hearne.<br />
Josh’s LFI-1 and LFI-2 classes in 2007.<br />
“At LFI, we’ve had students in a chair<br />
before. We’ve had one-armed students<br />
before. But Josh is the first one-armed<br />
guy in a chair we’ve ever had. He taught<br />
us all some things.” Like many firearms<br />
classes, LFI-2 is physically demanding in<br />
a lot of ways. Josh, working one-handed<br />
from his wheelchair, kept up with this<br />
demanding class just fine. He successfully<br />
completed the LFI Qualification<br />
shoot at double speed, which included<br />
getting all his reloads well under time.<br />
“I can reload an auto-pistol in about<br />
four to six seconds,” Josh explains. “I<br />
recently have shaved off about two seconds<br />
by going straight to a backup gun,<br />
the New York reload.”<br />
Although Josh sometimes carries a<br />
snub-nosed revolver as a backup, his<br />
regular carry is a semi-auto. He considered,<br />
but ultimately rejected, making<br />
his primary carry gun a revolver—the<br />
gun type perhaps most commonly recommended<br />
for people with physical<br />
18<br />
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Assissted by Jim Cirillo<br />
Jr. during a Close<br />
Quarter Survival<br />
Course, Josh works<br />
on shooting from a<br />
downed position.<br />
Josh practices leveragebased<br />
handgun retention<br />
techniques with Massad<br />
Ayoob during an LFI-2<br />
class at the Firearms<br />
Academy of Seattle.<br />
a<br />
Benson<br />
challenges—for two reasons. First, he<br />
believed that he wanted more ammunition<br />
available to him than a revolver<br />
generally carries. The second reason<br />
was minor, but still worth considering:<br />
Less felt recoil. Josh explains, “The action<br />
of the slide absorbs some of the recoil.<br />
Since I have only one arm to hold<br />
the gun, less felt recoil means faster follow-up<br />
for me.”<br />
Was there a specific incident that<br />
caused you to carry a gun?<br />
No. I grew up with my dad carrying,<br />
so when I turned 21 it was one of<br />
those natural things. Plus, I moved to<br />
Memphis, and they kind of have a high<br />
crime rate down there. And being in the<br />
chair I wanted to have all the advantages<br />
I could if something happened. It was<br />
all just very natural.<br />
What training methods do you employ?<br />
Friday nights at Rangemaster we have<br />
shooting league, a competition basically<br />
similar to IDPA, that helps keep my manipulations<br />
and gunhandling skills up.<br />
For regular practice, I like just going<br />
to the range and dedicating 50 rounds<br />
to going through various qualifications.<br />
Tom Givens has a list of different qualifications,<br />
different tests from various<br />
places like the FBI Qualifications and<br />
others. I just take 50 rounds and run<br />
myself through one of those qualifiers<br />
so I’m doing something structured and<br />
not just putting holes in paper. I like using<br />
the qualifications because it’s a specific<br />
bar that tells you this is how well<br />
you’re doing. It gives you a structure<br />
to shoot and something to evaluate it<br />
with to see where you’re at. Plus I take a<br />
class probably every couple of months<br />
so that also helps. I take classes just as<br />
often as I can.<br />
Have you had any difficulties with<br />
safety in any of the classes you have<br />
taken, or with shooting while there<br />
are a lot of other people on the line?<br />
Not really. I’ve just gotta be aware of<br />
my muzzle during my one handed reloads<br />
and watch the angles from my<br />
crossdraw holster. I always take the far<br />
right hand side of the line so I don’t<br />
sweep anyone. It’s more positioning<br />
than anything, and making sure the instructors<br />
are aware of what I need, and<br />
also my fellow classmates.<br />
You’ve taken a lot of different classes.<br />
Which specific classes have been the<br />
most helpful to you personally?<br />
The most helpful class was LFI-1, easily.<br />
Judicious Use of Deadly Force, the<br />
classroom part of the class, covers what<br />
happens after a shooting, the aftermath<br />
and the legal concerns. That’s a subject<br />
a lot of people don’t like to talk about,<br />
but it’s probably the one thing that will<br />
save you after an incident. If you manage<br />
to survive the incident there’s a<br />
whole other world that a lot of people<br />
aren’t aware of.<br />
JULY 2008 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n <strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM<br />
19
Josh fires an AR<br />
during the final<br />
qualification shoot in<br />
Ayoob’s LFI-2 class at<br />
the Firearms Academy<br />
of Seattle.<br />
Other than that, I cannot name just<br />
one class—because I’ve taken so many<br />
from them—but working with Tom<br />
Givens and John Farnam, definitely. It’s<br />
not so much the course, it’s the instructor,<br />
and Tom Givens and John Farnam<br />
have both been very very helpful.<br />
Your primary carry gun is a semi-auto.<br />
Did you have a hard time learning how<br />
to rack the slide?<br />
Not really. I’m pretty quick at adapting<br />
some things. When I was younger<br />
my dad just ran it for me but obviously<br />
that wasn’t going to work for defensive<br />
handgun. My one-handed reload, my<br />
shooting ability and how I carry came<br />
from different instructors pretty early<br />
on.<br />
My shooting ability just came from<br />
working with Tom Givens. He’s really<br />
been very helpful. The cross-draw<br />
carry came out of a Gabe Suarez class.<br />
And then when I took the course with<br />
John Farnam, he taught me how to do<br />
a one-handed reload, so my reload<br />
technique came from John Farnam. I<br />
started shooting in August when I was<br />
21 (in 2004). I took my first class from<br />
Rangemaster in August, and took the<br />
Gabe Suarez class also in August, right<br />
after my first class. In September that<br />
year I took the class with John Farnam.<br />
So it all went really quick. I just kept<br />
taking classes, figured out what kind of<br />
holster I needed, and then was able to<br />
work out the one handed reloads. It all<br />
happened in a matter of just a couple<br />
months, bringing everything together.<br />
What weapons do you carry, and<br />
what ammunition?<br />
I carry a Browning Hi Power that’s<br />
been worked on by Jim Garthwaite, and<br />
also a Springfield XD, both in 9mm. I<br />
had a beavertail added to the Hi Power<br />
and a Teflon finish and all the parts fitted.<br />
It’s got Heinie sights with a gold<br />
bead front sight. You can pick the front<br />
sight up in any light conditions, or if<br />
it’s too dark to see the gold bead it’s too<br />
dark to see what you’re shooting at. My<br />
Browning Hi Power carries 15+1 and the<br />
Springfield XD-9 carries 17+1. I use 127-<br />
grain Winchester Rangers in those.<br />
What concealment holsters do you<br />
use?<br />
Right now I use a crossdraw holster,<br />
the FIST Driving Holster. The holster<br />
has a snap where you can move it<br />
around on your belt from driving to on<br />
20<br />
<strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n JULY 2008
your hip and back again. I just run with<br />
it in the driving position and it works<br />
great. It holds the mouth of the holster<br />
up a bit higher than the holster I was using<br />
before too.<br />
Do you have a big box o’ holsters?<br />
I really don’t. By taking the classes<br />
very early on I kind of avoided that.<br />
My first carry holster was actually<br />
made by Dale Fricke. My first two holsters<br />
were custom made by him, just<br />
for me. After that, I ended up looking<br />
around a little bit and I found that FIST<br />
driving holster. The other holsters were<br />
good, but I looked around because if I<br />
never try new things I’ll never know if<br />
there might be something better out<br />
there. The FIST was leather and I prefer<br />
leather over Kydex, it’s just more comfortable.<br />
I found it smoother to draw<br />
from, and it’s less clicky. Also sometimes<br />
I felt like my Kydex one was going to<br />
break on me. Since I’m sitting down and<br />
bending around a lot, moving around<br />
to a lot of different angles in the chair, I<br />
just felt like it was on the brink of snapping<br />
sometimes. Major paranoia there.<br />
So I just like the leather holster better.<br />
What specific adaptations have you<br />
needed to make in order to shoot well?<br />
I do a one-handed reload off my<br />
wheelchair. It’s just your basic onehanded<br />
reload like they teach in a lot of<br />
classes. You know, where you just stick<br />
the empty gun back in the holster, pop<br />
the old mag out, put the new mag in,<br />
and then draw the gun again and rack<br />
the slide. Instead of running the slide<br />
off a belt or a holster, I found a spot on<br />
the wheelchair I could press the slide,<br />
and just run the slide against that. It<br />
works pretty well.<br />
and someone else might have a good<br />
solution for something else. So get a<br />
lot of different perspectives. Everybody<br />
problem solves just a little bit different.<br />
With the different perspectives I was<br />
able to problem solve most of the things<br />
that I ran into.<br />
Do you have any recommendations for<br />
all of our readers?<br />
Yes. If you have the time and money<br />
to do it, get as much training as possible.<br />
I know not everyone has the money<br />
or the time, but if you can you really<br />
should. A lot of people don’t want to give<br />
up the time but they need to give up at<br />
least some time for training. Shooting is<br />
a skill that diminishes if you don’t do it<br />
for a while. Even just going to the range<br />
at least once a month will at least keep<br />
your skill where it’s at. n<br />
[ Each issue of CCM contains an article<br />
that profiles an everyday individual<br />
who carries a concealed weapon. <strong>This</strong><br />
article is an inspiration to our readers by<br />
helping them to realize that they are not<br />
alone in their lifestyle decision to always<br />
be armed. ]<br />
What do you recommend to other physically<br />
challenged people who are concerned<br />
about self-defense? What advice<br />
do you have for other people who have<br />
physical difficulties and want to figure<br />
out how to safely run the gun?<br />
I would say take as many classes as<br />
you can and learn from as many different<br />
instructors as possible. You want to<br />
get as many different inputs as possible<br />
because what one may come up with<br />
might work really well for one thing,<br />
JULY 2008 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n <strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM<br />
21
Bare As<br />
Comfortable to wear and<br />
at a convenient height, the<br />
Bare Asset stays in place.<br />
[ B Y S T E V E H E N I G S O N ]<br />
High<br />
Noon<br />
Holsters’<br />
My wife, Jean, finds wearing a belt or a tight waistband<br />
extremely uncomfortable.<br />
We found that High Noon<br />
Holsters’ Bare Asset Inside the<br />
Waistband (IWB) rig provides a<br />
useful solution to her problem. It clips<br />
firmly to the top of her beltless Polartec<br />
pants, retains her J-frame Smith &<br />
Wesson snubby securely, and allows a<br />
quick, smooth, and unimpeded drawstroke.<br />
There’s a bonus: it’s available<br />
to properly fit almost any gun off-theshelf,<br />
as fast as the Post Office can deliver<br />
it.<br />
High Noon Holsters makes the Bare<br />
Asset from what appears to be oil-impregnated,<br />
chrome-tanned leather,<br />
vat-dyed black and about 1 ⁄16” thick.<br />
The pouch’s mouth is reinforced with a<br />
second layer of the same leather, which<br />
also extends down one side of the rig<br />
to anchor the belt clip. Just aft of the J-<br />
frame’s trigger guard there is a tensioning<br />
device, consisting of a rubber grommet<br />
that is compressed by a Chicago<br />
screw and a finish washer.<br />
<strong>This</strong> holster isn’t wet-formed to fit the<br />
gun because chrome-tanned leather<br />
doesn’t work that way. The Bare Asset is<br />
a semi-soft holster that, over time, will<br />
shape itself only minimally to the pistol<br />
it carries. Since its pouch isn’t form-fitted,<br />
Jean has to push her pistol into it<br />
with some force to seat it properly. Once<br />
in, though, the gun stays put very securely.<br />
<strong>This</strong> calls into question the need<br />
for a tensioning device. It seems superfluous<br />
to us, so we’ve disabled it.<br />
The black, spring-steel belt clip is perfect<br />
for providing a secure grip on Jean’s<br />
waistband. It slips effortlessly into place<br />
over the thick fabric, and it stays firmly<br />
anchored during every drawstroke, yet<br />
this rig is very easy to remove. When I<br />
tried it out, I found that it also easily<br />
slides on and off belts up to 1 3 ⁄4” wide<br />
without making me undo any clothing<br />
at all. Although this holster has a 12-degree<br />
FBI cant built in, the clip is close<br />
enough to the pistol’s center of gravity<br />
to allow Jean to set it at whatever angle<br />
she chooses, confident that it will stay<br />
there.<br />
The width of the J-frame’s cylinder<br />
spaces the revolver’s butt just far<br />
enough from Jean’s body that she can<br />
attain a firing grip easily, even though<br />
the pistol is tucked neatly into her waist.<br />
Jean wears her J-frame snubby directly<br />
22<br />
<strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n JULY 2008
High Noon Holsters’<br />
Bare Asset rig.<br />
High Noon<br />
Holsters’ extremely<br />
effective clip.<br />
set IWB Holster<br />
behind her right hip joint and the grip<br />
is hidden by the vest or jacket that she<br />
always wears. The Bare Asset places the<br />
handle at a very convenient height and<br />
provides lots space for her fingers, so<br />
both her firing grip and her drawstroke<br />
are quick, smooth, and certain.<br />
Some people believe that in a self-defense<br />
situation, once a threat has fled<br />
or been eliminated, it is unnecessary to<br />
be able to smoothly reholster the pistol<br />
without looking at the holster. We disagree.<br />
We believe that there are many<br />
self-defense scenarios in which continuing<br />
to scan the area for other threats<br />
while reholstering the pistol could be a<br />
priority.<br />
Because the waistband of Jean’s pants<br />
is made of soft fabric and is never tightly<br />
cinched, reholstering is a continuing<br />
problem. We don’t want her to endanger<br />
her left hand by pointing her pistol at it<br />
during a reholstering maneuver, yet any<br />
rig she uses must be supported by that<br />
hand while she returns her gun to its<br />
pouch. The well-designed spring clip<br />
of the Bare Asset provides Jean a convenient,<br />
comfortable, and reasonably safe<br />
place to grip the holster while replacing<br />
her pistol and firmly shoving it home.<br />
The relatively soft leather of the Bare<br />
Asset complicates the reholstering issue<br />
a little. Even though a second layer of<br />
leather reinforces the holster’s mouth, it<br />
still collapses somewhat when the pistol<br />
is drawn. To put her gun back in, Jean<br />
has to wiggle the cylinder and frame<br />
into the pouch. Reholstering would be<br />
easier if High Noon Holsters had added<br />
a thin strip of metal stiffening inside the<br />
reinforcement layer to keep the pouch<br />
wide open. We suggest that they should<br />
do this, even if it raises the price a little.<br />
Jean finds the Bare Asset very comfortable<br />
to wear all day long. The extra<br />
width built into its design spreads the<br />
outfit’s weight out a little. One benefit<br />
of the somewhat soft leather is that<br />
it blunts a gun’s edges and corners,<br />
and keeps them from digging in. Her<br />
little J-frame revolver stays securely in<br />
place, no matter what she does, and she<br />
doesn’t need to think about it or check<br />
up on it as the day wears on. The pouch<br />
keeps the pistol’s butt out of her way,<br />
yet always readily accessible. Its excellent<br />
retention doesn’t clutch her gun<br />
too tightly, so her presentation is always<br />
smooth. She says that High Noon<br />
Holsters did a very good job when they<br />
created this rig.<br />
The Bare Asset holster is a stock item,<br />
so you don’t have to wait months for it<br />
to be custom made. High Noon Holsters<br />
has them ready to go in what seems to<br />
be about 100 different sizes, each made<br />
up to exactly fit one specific carry pistol.<br />
Every one of them sells for $24.95, plus<br />
$8.00 shipping. n<br />
Contact:<br />
High Noon Holsters<br />
P.O. Box 1923<br />
Tarpon Springs, FL 34688<br />
Phone or Fax: (727) 939–2701<br />
www.highnoonholsters.com<br />
Questions@HighNoonHolsters.com<br />
[ Steve Henigson is a retired leathersmith and<br />
long-time pistol shooter, a student of the late<br />
Michael Harries. From the mid-1970s, he<br />
competed in IPSC with modest success. When<br />
IPSC shooting became unrealistic, his club seceded<br />
to form a truly practical, experimental<br />
shooting discipline, the Southern California<br />
Tactical Combat program (SCTC). He edited<br />
and published COMBAT!, the SCTC monthly<br />
journal, until 2004 ]<br />
JULY 2008 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n <strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM<br />
23
Whatever you do, keep your co<br />
your temper… If you lose your<br />
will also be close to losing con<br />
BOOK REVIEW:<br />
How to Win<br />
A Gunfight<br />
by Tony Walker<br />
[ B Y R E V . D A V I D B E E S O N ]<br />
idea is to keep control of the s<br />
Short and Sweet:<br />
The first thing I noticed<br />
about Tony Walker’s book<br />
How to Win A Gunfight is<br />
its length.<br />
At slightly fewer than 100 pages, it<br />
is much shorter than most gun<br />
books. What a relief! While no gun<br />
book can cover the entire subject, that<br />
doesn’t keep a lot of authors from trying.<br />
Some people want to learn more about<br />
gunfighting, but they don’t want to read<br />
a book 250-350 pages long. Enter: How<br />
to Win A Gunfight.<br />
Walker opens the book with a great<br />
statement about awareness: “Although<br />
many crime victims have claimed that<br />
their attacker ‘appeared out of nowhere,’<br />
this is simply not the case….What really<br />
happened was that the victim was<br />
totally unaware of what was going on<br />
around him.” (p. 5).<br />
Chapter Two covers the psychological<br />
and physiological changes that occur in<br />
an armed confrontation. He mentions<br />
adrenaline increase, fine motor skills<br />
degradation, and the Tachy-Psyche<br />
Effect. Walker goes on to discuss “psychological<br />
domination,” commonly<br />
known as command voice. He recommends<br />
shouting “No!” to your adversary.<br />
<strong>This</strong> does two things. First, it alerts<br />
others to your predicament. Second, it<br />
lets the assailant know you are not going<br />
to be a victim. Chapter Three focuses on<br />
stress management.<br />
The Half Second<br />
Advantage<br />
Chapter Four addresses reaction<br />
times and how to decrease them. In the<br />
following section, Walker lists several<br />
ways to gain “the half second advantage.”<br />
One is particularly ingenious. He<br />
lays out the scenario: someone walks<br />
up to you and demands your wallet.<br />
As you comply and begin reaching for<br />
it, you clearly say, “Listen, I want to tell<br />
you something.” <strong>This</strong> puts the attacker<br />
into “receive mode” as he waits to hear<br />
what you have to say. <strong>This</strong> split-second<br />
delay will allow you to do whatever you<br />
feel necessary: go for your gun (instead<br />
of your wallet), turn to run, etc. Another<br />
neat suggestion involves a little foreign<br />
language. If someone approaches you<br />
and asks for money, respond in another<br />
language and tell them you don’t understand.<br />
While that person is processing<br />
what you just said, you can again take<br />
whatever action you deem necessary.<br />
In Chapter Six, Walker discusses verbal<br />
altercations and makes a good point<br />
about temper. “Whatever you do, keep<br />
your cool. Don’t lose your temper… If<br />
you lose your temper, you will also be<br />
close to losing control, and the idea<br />
is to keep control of the situation.” (p.<br />
31). <strong>This</strong> is an excellent point, but few<br />
mention it. A lot of writers focus on<br />
mindset, but don’t entertain the idea<br />
that you might go too far, get ticked<br />
off, and make the situation worse. You<br />
must be levelheaded when you carry a<br />
firearm! Walker also mentions Ayoob’s<br />
“cash stash.” If you need to deescalate a<br />
situation, give the other guy a few bucks<br />
and invite him to have a burger on you.<br />
Will you lose a few dollars? Yes. Will you<br />
avoid a potentially dangerous situation?<br />
Possibly. It’s worth a few dollars to try.<br />
Walker suggests that you learn how to<br />
count your shots to avoid running your<br />
gun dry. He is the first firearms instructor<br />
I have heard of who suggests this. I<br />
believe the consensus is that it would<br />
be too difficult under the stress of a<br />
gunfight. Extreme stress distorts our<br />
perception of time, gives us tunnel vi-<br />
24<br />
<strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n JULY 2008
ol. Don’t lose<br />
temper,<br />
“Although many<br />
you<br />
crime victims have<br />
claimed that their<br />
trol, and the<br />
attacker ‘appeared<br />
out of nowhere,’ this<br />
is simply not the<br />
ituation.”<br />
case….What really<br />
happened was that<br />
the victim was<br />
totally unaware of<br />
what was going on<br />
around him.”<br />
sion, and reduces our fine motor<br />
skills. How then, with all of these<br />
things working against us, can<br />
we manage to count how many<br />
shots we have fired?<br />
Guns and Ammo<br />
Chapter Nine covers weak<br />
hand shooting. Its descriptions<br />
and photographs are<br />
clear. The next segment addresses what<br />
occurs after the shooting. Walker does<br />
well to mention that some officers will<br />
make accusatory statements to try and<br />
get you to defend yourself and make a<br />
statement. In Chapter Eleven, the author<br />
covers choosing a handgun. He<br />
makes a good recommendation against<br />
derringers: “You should avoid derringer-type<br />
pistols in all their forms.<br />
These two-shot pistols have one single<br />
advantage, concealability, which is far<br />
outweighed by their disadvantages.” (p.<br />
68). Walker finishes this chapter commenting<br />
on laser sights. He correctly<br />
states that using a laser may not cause<br />
your attacker to freeze in fear.<br />
Chapter Twelve covers ammunition<br />
from .22 caliber to .45 Colt. Walker<br />
makes two good points here: first,<br />
women don’t need<br />
underpowered, low caliber<br />
guns. They can handle what we men<br />
can handle. Second, one should never<br />
use handloads for self-defense. There<br />
are too many good self-defense rounds<br />
out there for someone to homebrew his<br />
own. The only thing I didn’t care for in<br />
this chapter is the percentage effectiveness<br />
rating. I have never been a fan of<br />
stating a cartridge is “65% - 85%” effective.<br />
There are too many factors involved<br />
to label a cartridge with a rating.<br />
Chapter Thirteen covers shooting<br />
exercises, while Fourteen features holsters.<br />
He makes a great suggestion for<br />
fanny packs: “One way to disguise the<br />
fanny pack is to have a pair of Walkman,<br />
MP3, or iPod earphones hanging out of<br />
the front zipper pocket – perfect urban<br />
camouflage!” (p. 92)<br />
How to Win A Gunfight is a good<br />
book. Its brevity lends it to be popular<br />
among those who don’t like to or don’t<br />
have time to read. However, don’t let<br />
the page count fool you. <strong>This</strong> book has<br />
enough information in it to make it well<br />
worth the purchase. n<br />
How to Win A Gunfight © 2007<br />
by Tony Walker.<br />
Infinity Publishing:<br />
West Conshohocken, PA<br />
JULY 2008 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n <strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM<br />
25
CONCEALED CARRY<br />
SAVES LIVES<br />
Part Two: Research and History<br />
[ B Y R O B E R T G . H E I N R I T Z , J R . , J . D . ]<br />
“There may be a lively debate about whether the Constitution confers on individuals the right to bear arms, but that<br />
debate is not going on in American courts, its law schools, or its scholarly legal journals. Indeed, even the National Rifle<br />
Association could not recommend for this broadcast a single constitutional law professor who would defend the Second<br />
Amendment as conferring on individuals the right to bear arms.”— Nina Totenberg, National Public Radio<br />
As indicated in Part One last<br />
month, I will be eternally grateful<br />
for Nina Totenberg’s deliberate<br />
misrepresentation and lie. She knows<br />
better, but chose to perpetuate the deliberate<br />
fraud of those who believe they<br />
must take away your civil rights in order<br />
to rule you. Nothing could be more un-<br />
American.<br />
The article below summarizes some<br />
of the medical research, medical misrepresentations,<br />
legitimate self-defense<br />
data, and Constitutional cases. The<br />
Founders strongly defended the Second<br />
Amendment, not as conferring, but as<br />
confirming an individual’s God-given<br />
right of self defense. Americans must<br />
be worthy of this heritage.<br />
<strong>This</strong> summary, like our Constitution,<br />
is both topical and timeless. I urge<br />
all readers to follow up by reading the<br />
magnificent research published in the<br />
last ten years. Credible data is even<br />
more supportive of our God-given right<br />
of self defense. One of our Founders<br />
said it best: “No free man shall ever be<br />
debarred the use of arms.” 1<br />
Center for Disease<br />
Control: propaganda for<br />
the politically correct?<br />
What if you learned that a tax-funded<br />
agency of the government was funding<br />
research only if the research attempted<br />
to “prove” that, say, blacks are racially<br />
inferior or that the Holocaust didn’t<br />
happen or that the Earth is the center of<br />
the universe? Scientists have attempted<br />
to prove all of these in the past, but<br />
“Laws that forbid the carrying<br />
of arms...disarm only those<br />
who are neither inclined nor<br />
determined to commit crimes...<br />
Such laws make things worse<br />
for the assaulted and better for<br />
the assailants; they serve rather<br />
to encourage than to prevent<br />
homicides, for an unarmed man<br />
may be attacked with greater<br />
confidence than an armed man.”<br />
—Thomas Jefferson, quoting 18th Century<br />
criminologist, Cesare Beccaria, in On<br />
Crimes and Punishment (1764)<br />
would you consider that a wise or ethical<br />
use of tax dollars?<br />
Aside from outright incompetence,<br />
one of the worst criticisms that can be<br />
made of scientific research is that it is<br />
“results oriented.” What this generally<br />
means in its crudest form is the researcher<br />
begins with the conclusion he<br />
or she wishes to prove, selects only data<br />
that appears to support the predetermined<br />
conclusion, ignores or dismisses<br />
all evidence of other conclusions, attacks<br />
the sources of contrary evidence,<br />
and argues the research proves the<br />
intended conclusion irrespective of<br />
whether actual causation has been<br />
shown. Another “results oriented”<br />
method is to fund only that research<br />
which seeks to prove the results desired<br />
by the funding agency, while refusing to<br />
fund research that might show otherwise.<br />
That is precisely what the Centers<br />
for Disease Control (CDC) has been<br />
doing in its pseudo-scientific position<br />
that guns cause violence. Several studies<br />
funded by the CDC attempt to use<br />
risk-factor analysis to prove causation.<br />
<strong>This</strong> type of study argues that the gun<br />
(a “risk factor”) was present and therefore<br />
its presence must have caused the<br />
crime. Such studies studiously ignore<br />
all other risk factors statistically related<br />
to violent behavior, such as past criminal,<br />
gang-related or violent history, drug<br />
abuse, broken family, or mental illness.<br />
The CDC’s logic is equivalent to finding<br />
that on extremely hot days in St. Louis<br />
nearly everyone has their air conditioners<br />
running, therefore, air conditioners<br />
cause heat waves.<br />
What objective medical<br />
research shows<br />
Medical, scientific, and legal journals<br />
now contain many scientifically<br />
valid studies—none of which appear to<br />
be funded by the CDC—showing that<br />
firearms in the hands of law-abiding<br />
citizens actually save lives, deter violence,<br />
and reduce medical costs. Many<br />
of the studies were conducted by selfprofessed<br />
liberals who, before their<br />
research, believed guns should be outlawed.<br />
Still others expose the inherent<br />
biases and false statistics of the antigun<br />
medical organizations. 2<br />
In separate articles published in<br />
the March 1994 issue of Journal of the<br />
Medical Association of Georgia, Dr.<br />
Edgar A. Suter, and Dr. Miguel Faria, Jr., a<br />
medical professor at Mercer University,<br />
indicated that objective research proves<br />
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that guns, rather than causing deaths,<br />
actually reduce both crime and medical<br />
costs. The articles quantify in lives<br />
and dollars the role guns play when<br />
used properly to thwart crimes, and<br />
indicated that “as many as 75 lives are<br />
protected by a gun for every life lost to<br />
a gun, as many as 5 lives are protected<br />
per minute.” 3<br />
Further, “Defense with a gun results<br />
in fewer injuries to the defender (17%)<br />
“Arms discourage and keep the<br />
invader and plunderer in awe,<br />
and preserve order in the world<br />
as well as property. Horrid<br />
mischief would ensue were the<br />
law-abiding deprived of the use<br />
of them.”<br />
—Thomas Paine,<br />
Thoughts On Defensive War, (1775)<br />
than [any other method including] evasion<br />
(34.9%), physical force (50.8%),<br />
and not resisting at all (24.7%).” 4<br />
Their research clearly demonstrated<br />
that jurisdictions which have enacted<br />
stronger restrictions on the right of lawabiding<br />
citizens to keep and bear arms<br />
generally experience higher violence<br />
(by guns and other means), and therefore<br />
experience higher medical costs.<br />
For example, after Washington, D.C. enacted<br />
some of the most restrictive gun<br />
laws in the nation, its homicide statistics<br />
skyrocketed from 26.9 (per 100,000<br />
people) to 80.6—eight times the national<br />
average. 5<br />
Legitimate defensive<br />
uses of firearms<br />
undercounted<br />
Anti-gun groups use the numbers in<br />
misleading ways, and many successful<br />
defensive uses of guns are undercounted<br />
in official statistics. Anti-gun organizations<br />
consider a defensive gun use<br />
successful only if the criminal is shot<br />
dead, rather than merely frightened<br />
away. They pretend that the only criminals<br />
who attack women are complete<br />
strangers. If a woman shoots an exboyfriend<br />
who is stalking her and has<br />
made it clear he intends to kill her, it is<br />
misclassified as a “domestic homicide”<br />
that took place during “an argument,”<br />
rather than lawful self-defense against<br />
a violent predator. They undercount<br />
justifiable homicide, because they look<br />
only at the initial arrest records, rather<br />
then final case dispositions. Their studies<br />
deliberately ignore the distinction<br />
between households that are high risk<br />
for gun misuse (households containing<br />
violent criminals, alcoholics, and drug<br />
abusers) and all other households, for<br />
which the risks of gun misuse are quite<br />
low. And their studies deliberately ignore<br />
the vast majority of cases where<br />
crimes are stopped or criminals run off<br />
with no shots being fired and no one<br />
being injured. 6<br />
According to a 1990 Harvard Medical<br />
Practice study and analysis by “Doctors<br />
For Integrity In Research & Public<br />
Policy,” 7 Americans are still five times<br />
more likely to die from medical misadventures<br />
than from a gun. <strong>This</strong> is true<br />
even if we combine all three types of<br />
deaths by firearms:<br />
• Suicide (the largest proportion, and<br />
by all studies statistically unrelated<br />
to the means used)<br />
• Homicide (including justifiable police<br />
and civilian self-defense shootings)<br />
• Accidents (the smallest, and for the<br />
“Firearms stand next in<br />
importance to the Constitution<br />
itself. They are the American<br />
people’s liberty teeth and<br />
keystone under independence.”<br />
—George Washington<br />
last century a continually declining<br />
rate despite ever increasing numbers<br />
of guns)<br />
The life-saving benefits of an armed<br />
citizenry are consistent with the values<br />
that led to our Constitution. Our founders<br />
considered the right to protect one’s<br />
life was a natural, God-given right, and<br />
the most fundamental of all civil rights.<br />
HISTORY AND THE<br />
CONSTITUTION<br />
“Civil Rights” include, at a minimum,<br />
the right to protect one’s life<br />
Will Rogers once said, “We’re all ignorant,<br />
only on different subjects.” For<br />
anyone indoctrinated by the illusions<br />
of television and pop media, research<br />
Militia?<br />
“A militia when properly<br />
formed are in fact the people<br />
themselves...and include all<br />
men capable of bearing arms.<br />
To preserve liberty it is essential<br />
that the whole body of people<br />
always possess arms...”<br />
—Richard Henry Lee, Additional letters<br />
from The Federal Farmer 53 (1788)<br />
“I ask, sir, what is the militia? It<br />
is the whole people...To disarm<br />
the people is the best and most<br />
effectual way to enslave them.”<br />
—George Mason, during Virginia’s<br />
ratification convention, (1788)<br />
“Congress has no power to<br />
disarm the militia. Their<br />
swords, and every other terrible<br />
implement of the soldier, are the<br />
birth-right of an American...The<br />
unlimited power of the sword<br />
is not in the hands of either the<br />
federal or state governments,<br />
but, where I trust in God it will<br />
ever remain, in the hands of the<br />
people.”<br />
—Tench Coxe, Pennsylvania Gazette,<br />
February 20, 1788<br />
“In Switzerland, where the<br />
citizens are most armed, they<br />
are most free.”<br />
— Nicollo Machiavelli<br />
JULY 2008 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n <strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM<br />
27
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of the history and issues pertaining<br />
to the Second Amendment to the <strong>US</strong><br />
Constitution can be an eye opener.<br />
The scholarly debate was resolved<br />
years ago. Scholars now generally agree<br />
that the Second Amendment’s guarantee<br />
of the right to keep and bear arms<br />
referred to individual’s private arms,<br />
used for the purpose of protecting<br />
themselves, their families, their communities,<br />
their state, and their country—and<br />
as a last resort to protect<br />
themselves from the tyranny of their<br />
own government. Our Founders considered<br />
private arms both an individual<br />
right and a moral obligation of citizenship.<br />
Since 1980 there have been over<br />
60 published law-journal articles, and<br />
all but four of them find the individualrights<br />
view compelling. Of the four articles<br />
which take the states’-rights view,<br />
two were written by lawyers on the payroll<br />
of Handgun Control, Inc. or its sister<br />
organizations, one by a non-lawyer<br />
lobbyist of HCI, and one by an anti-gun<br />
politician. 8<br />
The plain meaning of the words of<br />
the Second Amendment are even more<br />
clear when one consults the hundreds<br />
of references to them by the Founders.<br />
Here are a few examples:<br />
“Arms in the hands of individual citizens<br />
may be used at individual discretion...in<br />
private self-defense.” — John<br />
Adams, A Defense Of The Constitution<br />
(1787-88).<br />
“The Constitution shall never be<br />
construed to prevent the people of the<br />
United States who are peaceable citizens<br />
from keeping their own arms.” —<br />
Samuel Adams (1788).<br />
“As civil rulers, not having their duty<br />
to the people before them, may attempt<br />
to tyrannize, and as the military forces<br />
which must be occasionally raised to<br />
defend our country, might pervert their<br />
power to the injury of their fellow citizens,<br />
the people are confirmed by the<br />
article [2nd Amendment] in their right<br />
to keep and bear their private arms.”<br />
— Trench Coxe, “Remarks on the First<br />
Part of the Amendments to the Federal<br />
Constitution,” Philadelphia Federal<br />
Gazette, June 18, 1789, p. 2, col. 1.<br />
In response to a proposal for gun registration:<br />
“Absolutely not! If the people<br />
are armed and the federalists do not<br />
know where the arms are, there can<br />
never be an oppressive government.”<br />
— George Washington.<br />
Under the laws of 18th century<br />
England, most of the thirteen colonies,<br />
and the United States for the first century<br />
of its existence, able bodied males<br />
age 16 to 60 were not only permitted,<br />
but required to possess military type<br />
arms (“assault weapons”). The same<br />
Congress that wrote the Bill of Rights<br />
enacted the Militia Act of 1790 that so<br />
stated. Current federal law also states:<br />
“The militia of the United States consist<br />
of all able-bodied males at least 17 years<br />
of age…The classes of the militia are (1)<br />
the organized militia, which consists of<br />
the National Guard…and (2) the unorganized<br />
militia, which consist of members<br />
of the militia who are not members<br />
of the National Guard…” 9<br />
The National Guard, which didn’t exist<br />
for the first century of this country’s<br />
existence, was specifically raised under<br />
Congress’s Constitutional power<br />
to “raise and support armies,” and not<br />
under its power to “provide for organizing,<br />
arming and disciplining the militia.”<br />
Why? Because an army can be sent<br />
abroad (as it has several times), while<br />
the militia can be used only to protect<br />
the home ground against invaders.<br />
(House Report No. 141, 73rd Congress,<br />
1st Sess. (1933), pp.2-5.) Furthermore,<br />
the Second Amendment could not refer<br />
to the arms of the National Guard, since<br />
the Guard’s weapons are owned by the<br />
federal government. 10<br />
The <strong>US</strong> Supreme Court has in all cases<br />
dealing with the Second Amendment<br />
affirmed the rights of individuals to<br />
keep and bear their private arms. For<br />
example, in <strong>US</strong> v. Cruickshank, Presser v.<br />
Illinois, and other post-Civil War cases,<br />
the Supreme Court clearly recognized<br />
that the Second Amendment protected<br />
individual rights to keep and bear arms,<br />
but rejected the defendant’s cases on<br />
the now discredited grounds that the<br />
Fourteenth Amendment didn’t extend<br />
the protection of the Bill of Rights to actions<br />
by the states. 11<br />
The following are examples of cases<br />
in which the Court explicitly recognized<br />
that the Second Amendment clearly<br />
guarantees individuals the right to their<br />
private arms:<br />
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Dred Scott v. Sanford, 60 <strong>US</strong> (19 How.)<br />
393, 417 (1875). The court held that if<br />
freed blacks were citizens they would<br />
have the rights of all citizens, including<br />
the right “to carry arms wherever they<br />
went.”<br />
<strong>US</strong> v. Cruickshank, 92 <strong>US</strong> 542 (1876).<br />
William J. Cruickshank and two other<br />
defendants were convicted under the<br />
Enforcement Act of May 31, 1870 for<br />
conspiracy to deprive (black) citizens of<br />
their right under the First Amendment<br />
“to peaceably assemble” and their right<br />
under the Second Amendment “to keep<br />
and bear arms.” After being forcibly<br />
disarmed, the black citizens were murdered.<br />
The court conceded that both<br />
rights existed as privileges and immunities<br />
of citizenship, but that the Bill<br />
of Rights “means no more than (those<br />
rights) shall not be infringed by (<strong>US</strong>)<br />
Congress.” Even Cruickshank’s attorney<br />
conceded, “The right of self-defense is a<br />
natural right; and the right to keep and<br />
bear arms for that purpose cannot be<br />
questioned.”<br />
Presser v. Illinois, 116 <strong>US</strong> 252 (1886)<br />
was nothing more than an affirmation<br />
that a private army could be required<br />
to obtain a permit before parading on<br />
a public street while armed. The Court<br />
also held, “It is undoubtedly true that all<br />
citizens capable of bearing arms constitute<br />
the reserved military force or reserve<br />
militia of the United States as well<br />
as of the states, and in view of this prerogative<br />
of the general government…<br />
the States cannot…prohibit the people<br />
from keeping and bearing arms.”<br />
<strong>US</strong> v. Miller, 307 <strong>US</strong> 174 (1939). <strong>This</strong><br />
is the only twentieth-century Supreme<br />
Court case on the Second Amendment.<br />
It deals not with individual’s right to<br />
private arms, which the Court affirmed,<br />
but what type of arms are protected.<br />
Jack Miller was charged with transporting<br />
a sawed-off shotgun in interstate<br />
commerce without paying the appropriate<br />
tax on such weapon under the<br />
National Firearms Act. The trial court<br />
dismissed the charges because the Act<br />
violated the Second Amendment to the<br />
<strong>US</strong> Constitution. Jack Miller departed.<br />
“Guard with jealous attention<br />
the public liberty. Suspect every<br />
one who approaches that jewel.<br />
Unfortunately, nothing will<br />
preserve it but downright force.<br />
Whenever you give up that force,<br />
you are ruined.”<br />
— Patrick Henry, during Virginia’s<br />
ratification convention, (1788)<br />
The federal attorney appealed directly<br />
to the Supreme Court. No one presented<br />
any evidence or arguments on behalf of<br />
Miller. The Court did not inquire whether<br />
Miller was a member of some organized<br />
Militia, but held in the absence of<br />
evidence it was unable to take judicial<br />
notice that the weapon was appropriate<br />
for the military and, thus, subject<br />
to Second Amendment protection.<br />
The Court specifically affirmed that all<br />
constitutional sources, “show plainly<br />
enough that the militia comprises all<br />
males physically capable of acting in<br />
concert for the common defense. These<br />
men were expected to appear bearing<br />
arms supplied by themselves and of the<br />
kind in common use (by the military) at<br />
the time.”<br />
Our Constitution is the first in the<br />
world to guarantee in writing that no<br />
person shall be deprived of life, liberty,<br />
or property without due process of law.<br />
Our Founders considered that the right<br />
to protect one’s life was a natural, Godgiven<br />
right. “The right of self-defense<br />
is a natural right; and the right to keep<br />
and bear arms for that purpose cannot<br />
be questioned.” 12 Perhaps this is the priority<br />
our citizens and our government<br />
should work harder to protect.<br />
A final footnote<br />
There is a temptation to think that<br />
because we now have more advanced<br />
technology we must now be smarter<br />
or that our social conditions are<br />
somehow different. As one studies our<br />
Constitution, its history, and values, it<br />
becomes clear that there is no new wisdom.<br />
The Founders were dealing with<br />
many of the same social issues we face<br />
to this day, and their thoughts on what<br />
made sense then are often equally valid<br />
today. The wisdom from their time has<br />
been born out by the modern scientific<br />
data of our time. n<br />
[ Bob Heinritz, an honors graduate in<br />
management and law, is a member of the<br />
Bar in Arizona, Illinois, and Missouri. A<br />
former trial lawyer, he is now a business<br />
attorney and management consultant<br />
who specializes in strategic planning,<br />
productivity, business turnarounds, and<br />
preventive law. ]<br />
1. Thomas Jefferson, Proposed Virginia Constitution (1776), Jefferson Papers<br />
344, J. Boyd, ed. 1950<br />
2. See, for example: [1] Don B. Kates, Henry E. Schaffer, PhD, John K. Lattimer,<br />
MD, George B. Murray, MD, and Edwin W. Cassem, MD, “Guns and Public<br />
Health: Epidemic of Violence, or Pandemic of Propaganda?” 62 Tennessee<br />
Law Review 513, Spring 1995; [2] March 1994 and [3] May 1994 Journal of<br />
the Medical Association of Georgia, Medical Association of Georgia, 938<br />
Peachtree St, Atlanta GA 30309, (800) 282-0224; [4] Doctors For Integrity In<br />
Research & Public Policy, Edgar A. Suter, MD, Chair, 5201 Norris Canyon Rd,<br />
Ste 140 San Ramon CA 94583; [5] Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership,<br />
Claremont Institute, 250 W. 1st St, Ste 330, Claremont CA 91711, (909) 621-<br />
6825<br />
3. Ibid at 136<br />
4. Ibid at 140<br />
5. Ibid at 144<br />
6. Mary Zeiss Stange, “Arms and the Woman: A Feminist Reappraisal,” Guns:<br />
Who Should Have Them, David B. Kopel, Ed., Prometheus Books 1995 at 15<br />
7. Edgar A. Suter, MD, 5201 Norris Canyon Rd, Ste 140 San Ramon CA 94583;<br />
“Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership,” the Claremont Institute, 250 W.<br />
1st St, Ste 330 Claremont CA 91711, (909) 621-6825; Medical Association of<br />
Georgia, 938 Peachtree St, Atlanta GA 30309, (800) 282-0224<br />
8. <strong>This</strong> article was originally written in 1996; HCI has since become the Brady<br />
Center to Prevent Gun Violence<br />
9. 10 <strong>US</strong>C. 311(a)<br />
10. 32 <strong>US</strong>C. §105[a] [1].<br />
11. See That Every Man Be Armed, The Evolution of a Constitutional Right, Stephen<br />
P. Halbrook, the Independent Institute 1984; pp. 146-152, in which<br />
Representative John A. Bingham, draftsman of the 14th Amendment, and<br />
Senator Thomas M. Norwood explicitly stated on the record in Congress<br />
that the specific purpose of the 14th Amendment was to apply the protection<br />
of the first eight amendments of the Bill of Rights to actions against<br />
citizens by states.<br />
12. <strong>US</strong> v. Cruickshank<br />
30<br />
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and Conc<br />
Disabled,<br />
but not an<br />
easy target.<br />
Boyles keeps her<br />
skills sharp at<br />
the range.<br />
Disability,<br />
Self-D<br />
As Dr. Bruce Eimer pointed<br />
out in his article, “Coping<br />
with Physical Disability<br />
in <strong>Concealed</strong> <strong>Carry</strong> and<br />
Defensive Handgun Training”<br />
(CCM February/March 2007),<br />
the elderly and people with<br />
physical disabilities tend to be<br />
victimized by criminals much<br />
more frequently than other<br />
groups of people. 1<br />
Not only are the disabled more<br />
likely to be the victims of criminal<br />
attacks, they are also more<br />
likely to be the victims of domestic violence<br />
and abuse. <strong>This</strong> includes sexual<br />
abuse by hired caretakers and family<br />
and friends serving as caretakers. 2<br />
In a horrifying example of abuse toward<br />
a person with a disability, The<br />
Guardian newspaper of Manchester,<br />
England reported in October 2007 that<br />
a drunken former soldier urinated on<br />
a disabled neighbor who lay dying on<br />
the street after a fall. Encouraged by his<br />
friends, the soldier first kicked the woman,<br />
who had collapsed and hit her head<br />
upon falling, in an attempt to get her<br />
to awaken. When that action failed to<br />
arouse her, he threw a bowl of water on<br />
her. Next, he covered her with shaving<br />
cream. After none of his actions roused<br />
the unconscious woman, the soldier<br />
urinated on her. His his friends used a<br />
mobile phone to record the entire scene<br />
which later appeared on YouTube. 3<br />
According to Randy LaHaie, owner<br />
of Protective Strategies, a company<br />
that provides personal safety training<br />
and consulting services, “Success in<br />
self-defense is not winning a fight, but<br />
avoiding it.” He says, “The ultimate<br />
success in self-defense is when nothing<br />
happens.” LaHaie has a philosophy<br />
about self-defense: “If you can’t<br />
prevent it [violent crime], avoid it. If<br />
you can’t avoid it, defuse it. If you can’t<br />
defuse it, escape. If you can’t escape,<br />
you may have to fight your way out<br />
of the situation. If you have to fight,<br />
32<br />
<strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n JULY 2008
When choosing a<br />
handgun, you must<br />
find one you can<br />
physically operate.<br />
efense,<br />
ealed <strong>Carry</strong><br />
[ B Y C A R O L Y N B O Y L E S ]<br />
it will be as a last resort, not a first.”<br />
You need to be able to read people<br />
and situations, says LaHaie. You need to<br />
know what to pay attention to, understand<br />
how to pay attention to safetyrelated<br />
details, and be able to match<br />
the degree of your awareness to your<br />
circumstances. He continues by saying<br />
you must accept full responsibility for<br />
your safety. You must identify situations<br />
in your own life that require a higher<br />
level of vigilance, build and refine your<br />
self-defense maps by continuous learning<br />
and analyze the news to familiarize<br />
yourself with criminal patterns and factors.<br />
You need to practice your observation<br />
skills and establish self-defense<br />
habits. 4<br />
So how does all this come into play for<br />
a disabled person? One of the best ways<br />
to avoid becoming the victim of a crime<br />
is to be aware of your surroundings at<br />
any given time, even in your own home.<br />
Situational awareness is even more important<br />
for a disabled person because<br />
they may not be able to flee. Many of<br />
the factors to be considered in protecting<br />
yourself from personal harm or from<br />
harm to property are different for the<br />
disabled. As Dr. Eimer has bought up<br />
many times, having a disability brings<br />
with it problems a non-disabled person<br />
does not have. <strong>This</strong> affects a person’s<br />
ability to accept full responsibility for<br />
his or her own safety. A disabled person<br />
is more distracted than a non-disabled<br />
person. <strong>This</strong> may be as a result of pain,<br />
spasms, medication, financial worries,<br />
or other reasons, depending on the disability.<br />
A disabled person may not be<br />
able to assess a situation and avoid it<br />
in the same way a non-disabled person<br />
can.<br />
Now to my own situation. I have a<br />
spinal cord injury in my neck. I am an<br />
incomplete quadriplegic. <strong>This</strong> means<br />
the injury affects my entire body. While<br />
I do have some feeling and some mobility<br />
below the level of the injury, I have<br />
very limited range of motion in my<br />
neck. I get around using either forearm<br />
crutches or a walker. I want to discuss<br />
my decision to obtain a concealed carry<br />
permit and some of the factors a disabled<br />
person needs to consider in selecting<br />
a firearm.<br />
I live in Arkansas, which is a shall-issue<br />
state rather than a may-issue state.<br />
A shall-issue state is one where the issuing<br />
authority processing the application<br />
is required to approve it unless<br />
the applicant is disqualified based on<br />
the law. 5 If I lived in a may-issue state,<br />
I would be worried about being denied<br />
a concealed carry permit because<br />
I am disabled, especially if the issuing<br />
authority had decided it did not want<br />
disabled individuals to have concealed<br />
carry permits.<br />
Given my disability, I realized I had<br />
few alternatives to self-defense. I did not<br />
want to become a victim. I knew I was at<br />
higher risk to be victimized. I knew that<br />
crimes in my area were increasing, as a<br />
result of meth use and production. I also<br />
knew there was insufficient jail space to<br />
house all the criminals and that as a result<br />
jail was becoming a revolving door<br />
JULY 2008 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n <strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM<br />
33
for many criminals. So I decided to go<br />
through the training and the range time<br />
and get my concealed carry permit.<br />
Let’s assume I have my concealed<br />
carry permit and a firearm I am capable<br />
of using. What kind of duty to retreat<br />
does a person have in relation to the use<br />
of deadly force? <strong>This</strong> will vary by state.<br />
Some states have no duty to retreat. You<br />
may need to check with an attorney in<br />
your own state to discover the applicable<br />
law. A person’s ability to retreat will<br />
be evaluated on a case-by-case basis,<br />
depending on the person’s physical and<br />
mental capabilities. As is more common<br />
in the southern states, in Arkansas<br />
I have a duty to retreat under the law<br />
unless I am in my own home. However,<br />
my own ability to retreat is very limited<br />
because of my physical disability and so<br />
my duty to retreat would be evaluated<br />
based on that disability.<br />
What choices of weapons are available<br />
to me as a disabled person?<br />
Typically, a chemical spray (containing<br />
tear gas, a combination of tear gas and<br />
pepper spray, or pepper spray alone), a<br />
Taser (with a clean background check),<br />
a stun gun, or a firearm. The legality of<br />
each of the items listed varies by state<br />
and locality. Massad Ayoob, an expert in<br />
the use of firearms for law enforcement<br />
and self-defense, sums up the choices<br />
this way: “Guns are the only weapons<br />
that put a physically small or weak person<br />
at parity with a powerful, very possibly<br />
armed, criminal.” 6 That leaves a<br />
firearm as the most practical choice for<br />
a person with a disability. As with any of<br />
the above self-defense choices, hopefully,<br />
a person (especially a disabled<br />
person) can discharge the weapon accurately<br />
and effectively to avoid either<br />
being disarmed or attacked by the assailant.<br />
Fortunately, I have never had to<br />
find out.<br />
A disabled person will have more<br />
problems choosing a firearm than a<br />
Just who exactly is this sign protecting?<br />
non-disabled person. For example, in<br />
my situation, it would be impossible for<br />
me to use a shotgun to defend myself<br />
inside my own home. I have four fused<br />
discs in my neck. I would not be able to<br />
tolerate the recoil from a shotgun, so I<br />
must use a handgun instead. The questions<br />
I had to ask myself in selecting a<br />
handgun were:<br />
1) Do I have sufficient grip strength to<br />
be able to hold the gun?<br />
2) Can I hold the weight of the gun?<br />
3) Do I have sufficient finger strength to<br />
pull the trigger?<br />
4) Can I remember to disengage the<br />
safety when I need to?<br />
5) Can I physically disengage the<br />
safety?<br />
6) Do I have sufficient hand strength<br />
and control to load a magazine, put it<br />
into the gun, and remove it from the<br />
gun?<br />
7) Do I have sufficient hand strength<br />
and control to pull the slide back?<br />
8) Can I physically engage the safety?<br />
The answers to the above questions<br />
lead directly to the choice between an<br />
automatic pistol or a revolver. When I<br />
first purchased a handgun, I bought an<br />
autoloader. I was able to perform the<br />
critical tasks listed above. As time has<br />
passed, my ability to control my arms,<br />
hands, and fingers has decreased. I am<br />
reaching the point where an automatic<br />
is no longer a practical choice for me.<br />
Before too much longer, I will need to<br />
test and purchase a revolver.<br />
I cannot emphasize enough if you<br />
have a disability that affects the control<br />
and strength of your arms, forearms,<br />
wrists, hands, and fingers, make sure<br />
you go to a gunshop which will actually<br />
allow you to try the pistol before you<br />
buy it. On paper, any pistol will look like<br />
it will work, but don’t risk several hundred<br />
dollars on it. If you are disabled,<br />
you need to practice shooting with<br />
your pistol more than a non-disabled<br />
person would. It may be more difficult<br />
for you to learn the proper procedures<br />
for loading and unloading your pistol<br />
because of the pain, medication, or<br />
other distractions you have. I am guilty<br />
as charged on this. I don’t practice as<br />
much as I should.<br />
If you live in a state where concealed<br />
carry is allowed, one question you need<br />
to ask yourself is, “Where am I going to<br />
conceal the pistol?” If you use a wheelchair,<br />
a fanny pack designed for that<br />
purpose may be your best bet. 7 If you<br />
use crutches or a walker, then where to<br />
conceal the pistol and be able to access<br />
1. Bruce N. Eimer. “Coping with Physical Disability in <strong>Concealed</strong> <strong>Carry</strong> and<br />
Defensive Handgun Training” <strong>Concealed</strong> <strong>Carry</strong> Magazine 4 (February/<br />
March 2007): 38-42.<br />
2. Gregor Wolbring. “Violence and Abuse in the Lives of People with Disabilities”<br />
International Centre for Bioethics, Culture, and Disability (1994): 1-5 www.<br />
bioethicsandsiability.org/violence.html (Accessed November 9, 2007).<br />
3. Martin Wainwright. “Jail for ex-soldier who urinated on dying disabled<br />
woman” The Guardian (October 27, 2007): 1-3 www.guardian.co.uk/crime/<br />
article/0,,2200320,00.html (Accessed November 9, 2007).<br />
4. Randy LaHaie. “The Nuts & Bolts of Awareness: Learning To Detect Trouble”<br />
Self-Defense Articles (2002): 1-8 www.protectivestrategies.com/awareness.<br />
html (Accessed November 9, 2007).<br />
5. “<strong>Concealed</strong> <strong>Carry</strong>” Pennsylvania Firearms Owners Association (February 25,<br />
2007): 1 www.pafoa.org/concealed-carry/ (Accessed November 12, 2007).<br />
6. Massad F. Ayoob. In the Gravest Extreme: The Role of the Firearm in Personal<br />
Protection. (Concord, New Hampshire: Police Bookshelf, 1980): 38.<br />
7. Bruce N. Eimer. “Bear Arms In A Wheelchair” <strong>Concealed</strong> <strong>Carry</strong> Magazine 2 no.<br />
8 (November/December 2005): 28.<br />
8. Bruce N. Eimer. “Bear Arms In A Wheelchair” <strong>Concealed</strong> <strong>Carry</strong> Magazine 2 no.<br />
8 (November/December 2005): 28-9.<br />
9. Carolyn Boyles. A Complete Plain-English Guide to Living with a Spinal Cord<br />
Injury: Valuable Information From A Survivor (Lincoln, Nebraska: iUniverse,<br />
2007): 305.<br />
34<br />
<strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n JULY 2008
it becomes a problem. A woman may<br />
be able to conceal the pistol in a purse<br />
specially designed for concealed carry.<br />
Otherwise, the options are the same as<br />
they would be for a person in a wheelchair:<br />
a concealed carry fanny pack, a<br />
belt holster positioned either on the hip<br />
or behind-the-back, or an ankle holster. 8<br />
A behind-the-back holster may not be a<br />
good idea because of the possibility of<br />
pressure sores if you have a spinal cord<br />
injury.<br />
The locations where a person can legally<br />
carry a concealed weapon vary<br />
state by state. State and federal office<br />
buildings typically ban carrying weapons<br />
on their property. Private businesses<br />
may also prohibit carrying concealed<br />
weapons. Disabled individuals who wish<br />
to carry concealed have a problem when<br />
hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices ban<br />
carrying concealed weapons. Disabled<br />
individuals spend more time than nondisabled<br />
people getting medical treatment.<br />
At any medical facility with a large<br />
parking lot, depending upon the level of<br />
security, a person may be at risk to be the<br />
victim of a crime. I am not advocating<br />
violating a medical facility’s rules about<br />
carrying a weapon. I do recommend that<br />
each person evaluate the safety risk of<br />
the situation and decide whether to carry<br />
a concealed weapon accordingly.<br />
As I stated in my book, “Spinal cord<br />
injury and being the victim of a crime<br />
have one thing in common. In both situations,<br />
most people think it will never<br />
happen to them. We’ve already been<br />
wrong once. Let’s not be wrong again.” 9<br />
In my opinion, it is better to be a live<br />
defendant than a dead victim. n<br />
The author would like to thank Doug<br />
Wood of the Criminal Investigation<br />
Division of the Arkansas Insurance<br />
Department for his help in researching<br />
this article.<br />
[ Carolyn Boyles is a freelance writer.<br />
She discusses self-defense in her book, A<br />
Complete Plain-English Guide to Living<br />
with a Spinal Cord Injury: Valuable<br />
Information From A Survivor. Boyles<br />
can be reached at cboyles@aol.com. Her<br />
websites are www.carolynboyles.com and<br />
www.livingwithspinalcordinjury.com. ]<br />
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POINT-COUNTERPOINT<br />
PHOTO BY OLEG VOLK • A-HUMAN-RIGHT.COM<br />
Unravel<br />
Post S<br />
[ B Y A R T M I Z E ]<br />
The whole idea of some sort<br />
of psychological hangover<br />
resulting from close<br />
encounters of the firearms<br />
kind is not new.<br />
The stories of the effects of war on<br />
combat veterans in American history<br />
go back at least to the Civil<br />
War. In World War I, the term shell shock<br />
was used to describe the symptoms of<br />
those severely affected by combat, even<br />
though they might have been nowhere<br />
near a bursting shell, as the name implies.<br />
Severely impacted vets from World<br />
War II were diagnosed as having combat<br />
fatigue by compassionate folks who<br />
were in charge of organizing treatment<br />
for warriors who carried debilitating<br />
mental wounds home from the conflict.<br />
There were significant limitations in the<br />
shrink community’s understanding of<br />
how strong, otherwise healthy young<br />
warriors were being mentally wounded<br />
in the wars they fought, and even less<br />
understanding about how they might<br />
be healed. That courage and valor were<br />
no shield against the effects of a long<br />
and bloody conflict are evidenced by<br />
the fact that our most decorated soldier,<br />
Audie Murphy, suffered from debilitating<br />
depression, insomnia and addiction<br />
to sleeping pills, problems which<br />
36<br />
CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n JULY 2008
ing<br />
hooting Trauma<br />
resulted from his combat experiences.<br />
Finally, after the Viet Nam War, significant<br />
gains were made in the understanding<br />
of the mechanisms and<br />
clusters of symptoms of the condition<br />
we now refer to as Post Traumatic<br />
Stress Disorder (PTSD). [Technically, it<br />
is called Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) if<br />
the symptoms are of less than 30 days<br />
duration.] The PTSD diagnosis provided<br />
a great deal of relief to men and<br />
women who were struggling to make<br />
sense of the internal turmoil they experienced.<br />
They could understand that<br />
they were normal people with normal<br />
reactions to the abnormal conditions of<br />
war. Since that time, treatment methods<br />
for PTSD have progressed to the<br />
point where there is a good chance the<br />
mental wounds of war can be healed in<br />
those who seek treatment.<br />
What does all this have to do with Post<br />
Shooting Trauma (PST) or Post Violent<br />
Event Trauma (PVET)? It seems to me<br />
that PST/PVET is not a separate condition<br />
from PTSD, but rather a handy way<br />
of discussing the psychological effects<br />
of lethal force encounters without having<br />
to mess with the problems of a formal<br />
diagnosis of PTSD. PST is a concept<br />
specific to shooting incidents, whereas<br />
PTSD covers a wide variety of traumatic<br />
events from shootings to rape to traffic<br />
accidents to natural disasters and<br />
more.<br />
At any rate, the great advantage to<br />
identifying and naming what is happening<br />
after a shooting is that the naming<br />
allows a person to get a mental grip<br />
on what’s happening. It provides the<br />
defender with a frame of reference for<br />
their unique internal experiences. The<br />
understanding can then be the starting<br />
point for the person dealing with an otherwise<br />
confusing bunch of distressing<br />
symptoms. Today, the information out<br />
there has helped to normalize the idea<br />
of folks having a psychological struggle<br />
after a life and death struggle, an advantage<br />
for any of us who may deal with the<br />
aftermath of a shooting incident.<br />
It needs to be emphasized that not all<br />
people will experience any particular<br />
symptoms of a post shooting trauma.<br />
The idea of PST and PVET may have<br />
originated in the psychological community,<br />
but the most significant communicator<br />
of the concept is Massad<br />
Ayoob, a well known and highly respected<br />
member of the shooting community.<br />
Ayoob was focused on the sad<br />
fact that the moral climate in America<br />
could often turn a lawful and necessary<br />
use of deadly force in the protection of<br />
innocent life into a community shaming<br />
and shunning event for the lawful<br />
defender. He publicized a number of<br />
symptoms of PST and PVET, including<br />
sleep disturbances, a period of depression<br />
or malaise, eating disturbances,<br />
increased use of alcohol, social isolation,<br />
sexual dysfunction or promiscuity,<br />
pharmacological cascade (use of drugs<br />
and alcohol together which increases<br />
their impact), increased aggression, and<br />
flashbacks.<br />
Perhaps the key feature of PST is the<br />
Mark of Cain, the “killer of my brother”<br />
tag laid on the defender. The mark can<br />
be shaming, as in, “What kind of person<br />
would do such a horrible thing?”<br />
Or the mark can be congratulating the<br />
defender in a way that doesn’t match<br />
their feelings about the event, as in,<br />
“Now that you have shot your man (the<br />
slimy creep, scumbag, goblin...), you’re<br />
awesome!”<br />
While most lawful defenders need to<br />
decide what the event means to them<br />
personally, insensitive comments either<br />
for or against the act tend to increase<br />
the feeling of isolation. Either way,<br />
The problem can come<br />
when we get stuck in<br />
negative emotional<br />
judgments about what<br />
we have done, in spite<br />
of all the evidence<br />
and opinion to the<br />
contrary.<br />
JULY 2008 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n <strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM<br />
37
the defender can feel misunderstood.<br />
I have not seen this more clearly demonstrated<br />
than in the homecoming of<br />
American servicemen and women from<br />
the Viet Nam War. Rarely were these vets<br />
asked about the meaning of combat and<br />
killing to them. Instead, many civilians<br />
simply ran their agenda on the vulnerable<br />
young military returnees, which vets<br />
continue to tell me was the hardest part<br />
of their adjustment. If a soldier was trying<br />
to come to grips with his taking human<br />
life, it was often no more helpful to<br />
cheer his killing of the “godless gooks,”<br />
than it was to call him a “baby killer.”<br />
Either of these extreme responses offers<br />
the Mark of Cain to the warrior, and his<br />
most likely internal response is to feel<br />
that he no longer fits in the country he<br />
recently defended.<br />
Sometimes the Mark of Cain is selfassigned<br />
as the person comes to understand<br />
his responsibility in a lethal encounter.<br />
In real life, things are rarely as<br />
neat as tactical scenarios where an IPSC<br />
target with a gun on it pops up and says,<br />
“I’m going to kill you.” It is natural and<br />
even healthy (to a point) to question<br />
what was done. <strong>This</strong> is a way we learn<br />
and integrate our personal experiences<br />
into a meaningful story of who we are<br />
and how we’ve been in the world. The<br />
problem can come when we get stuck<br />
in negative emotional judgments about<br />
what we have done, in spite of all the<br />
evidence and opinion to the contrary.<br />
Whether or not a person encounters<br />
PST or PTSD in the aftermath of their<br />
experience, it is important to recognize<br />
that the defender’s brain has gone on a<br />
strange ride and may take some time<br />
coming back to its usual mode of operating.<br />
<strong>This</strong> is too short an article to elaborate<br />
on the changes that take place<br />
and distortions of perception. The important<br />
point here is to understand that<br />
the person may have stored information<br />
about the event in a fragmented and<br />
highly-charged way in the emotional<br />
centers of the brain. <strong>This</strong> becomes possible<br />
as the brain switches to the fight<br />
or flight system to process what is happening.<br />
Under some circumstances,<br />
the brain can become overwhelmed<br />
and stay in that state for an indefinite<br />
period. When this occurs, the memory<br />
of the event cannot be accessed without<br />
bringing up the disturbing emotion<br />
that was stored with it. The result is<br />
that the person knows one truth about<br />
the event logically, but the logical mind<br />
gets overwhelmed by the emotionallycharged<br />
memory. That accounts for<br />
folks with PTSD and PST reliving the<br />
event through flashbacks, nightmares<br />
and all-too-realistic recall of the events.<br />
The same person is likely to avoid any<br />
person, place or thing that would serve<br />
as a reminder of the event. They live in a<br />
state of unending hypervigilance, which<br />
is not a fun place to be and they would<br />
do anything to get out. But stuffing the<br />
memory of the event is not successful<br />
Some of the folks that<br />
I have seen have the<br />
worst time with PVET<br />
were people that<br />
acquaintances would<br />
describe as strongminded.<br />
They are often<br />
the last to come to<br />
counseling due to their<br />
expectations that they<br />
should pull themselves<br />
up by their own<br />
bootstraps.<br />
and when they try to bring the event<br />
up in their mind, emotion overwhelms<br />
logic.<br />
The human brain is designed to process<br />
traumatic events and will do so<br />
over the days and weeks following the<br />
incident if it can. But if the wrong combination<br />
is present and the brain stays<br />
overwhelmed by the traumatic memories,<br />
what might have been an unpleasant<br />
short-term case of PST/PVET can<br />
harden into the longer-term PTSD.<br />
It is easy to get frustrated with a person<br />
who is undergoing this experience,<br />
especially if we don’t understand that<br />
their efforts to look at things rationally<br />
are getting overwhelmed by the emotional<br />
memories. Some of the folks that<br />
I have seen have the worst time with<br />
PVET were people that acquaintances<br />
would describe as strong-minded. They<br />
are often the last to come to counseling<br />
due to their expectations that they<br />
should pull themselves up by their own<br />
bootstraps. When they haven’t been<br />
able to control the emotional flooding<br />
that occurs, they believe themselves to<br />
be failures and they tend to become depressed.<br />
The advice of well-intentioned<br />
friends to suck it up and move on further<br />
deepens their sense of failure and<br />
depression, because they can’t get on<br />
with it.<br />
The point of all this is to encourage<br />
persons in the shooting community to<br />
understand that adequate, confident,<br />
competent, intelligent folks can and do<br />
fall prey to PST/PVET or PTSD. Again,<br />
not everyone who goes through a bad<br />
experience will go through these symptoms.<br />
But some will.<br />
Once a defender can accept that they<br />
have PST/PVET or PTSD, they can then<br />
take charge of the healing processes<br />
involved. Police officers have the resources<br />
of fellow officers who have gone<br />
through similar events, peer counselors,<br />
and privileged communications with<br />
a police chaplain. Armed citizens can<br />
form their own ad hoc support group<br />
from understanding friends. A great<br />
new resource for understanding with<br />
some clout is the Armed Citizens Legal<br />
Defense Network (www.armedcitizensnetwork.org).<br />
For those whose symptoms are persistent<br />
and troubling, therapy through the<br />
use of Eye Movement Desensitization<br />
and Reprocessing (EMDR) has been a<br />
helpful process in the resolution of trauma<br />
for law enforcement, civilians and<br />
military personnel. Information about<br />
the therapy and practitioners can be<br />
found through the EMDR International<br />
Association website (www.EMDRIA.<br />
ORG). n<br />
[ Art Mize is a Licensed Mental Health<br />
Counselor in private practice in<br />
Olympia, Washington. He also serves as<br />
a volunteer police chaplain and a defensive<br />
handgun instructor. ]<br />
More Resources<br />
“Post-Violent Event Trauma” (video)<br />
Massad Ayoob<br />
Deadly Force Encounters by Alexis<br />
Artwohl and Loren Christensen<br />
Into the Kill Zone by David Klinger<br />
CopShock by Allen R. Kates<br />
38<br />
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CROSSBREED<br />
HOLSTERS
POINT-COUNTERPOINT<br />
Post<br />
If, in your own<br />
mind you’re<br />
certain that you<br />
had no alternative<br />
but to pull the<br />
trigger in order<br />
to save a life, why<br />
should you feel<br />
any guilt?<br />
Shooting<br />
Trauma<br />
PHOTO BY OLEG VOLK • A-HUMAN-RIGHT.COM<br />
It’s not very often that I<br />
find myself in agreement<br />
with Tom Cruise, but the<br />
vertically-challenged<br />
Hollywood star had me<br />
standing and cheering at<br />
his recent outburst against<br />
psychiatrists, psychologists,<br />
and other “psychowhatsits.”<br />
Let me tell you why.<br />
In Arizona, where I teach the gentle<br />
art of self-defense handgunning,<br />
I also teach a <strong>Concealed</strong> Weapons<br />
class, the syllabus of which is strictly<br />
laid down by the Arizona Department of<br />
Public Safety. In this class, the student<br />
is required to learn about the effects of<br />
Post Shooting Trauma (PST). No doubt<br />
this was added at the request of a statesubsidized<br />
psychiatrist!<br />
Naturally, I teach the full syllabus, but<br />
when it comes to the PST segment, I<br />
have to admit that I give this part of the<br />
class my own spin. Here’s what I tell my<br />
students:<br />
“So here you are. Your worst nightmare<br />
has happened and right there in<br />
front of you is a dead body. The guy had<br />
[ B Y T O N Y W A L K E R ]<br />
just broken into your home with the intent<br />
to rob you, rape you, or kill you. You<br />
were legally armed and you fired your<br />
gun to defend yourself, your spouse, or<br />
your children. What’s the first emotion<br />
you will feel when you see the bad guy<br />
laid flat on your living room floor?”<br />
Surprisingly enough, the answer to<br />
that question is elation! You’ve won!<br />
You’ve slain the dragon, you’ve killed<br />
the monster, you’ve triumphed over<br />
evil, you have faced your biggest challenge<br />
ever, and you have survived.<br />
Of course, a few seconds later, the<br />
reasoning part of your brain comes into<br />
play, and you think; “Oh, no, what have I<br />
done?” Stick with the first emotion. After<br />
all, you’ve done nothing wrong. The guy<br />
wasn’t invited into your home, he made<br />
that decision, not you. You were simply<br />
minding your own business in your own<br />
home. It wasn’t your fault. All you were<br />
doing was exercising your right to defend<br />
yourself and your family.<br />
In addition, after undergoing a traumatic<br />
event like having to defend your-<br />
40<br />
<strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n JULY 2008
self, you must recognize that the human<br />
body can react in a number of ways. A<br />
common symptom is nausea, especially<br />
if blood has been spilled. Anyone who<br />
has ever worked in a slaughterhouse<br />
or dressed out his deer as a hunter will<br />
know that it’s not a pleasant smell.<br />
Another reaction, and this may sound<br />
strange, is extreme tiredness. <strong>This</strong> is<br />
called adrenaline dump, and is the<br />
body’s reaction to the huge amounts<br />
of adrenaline that have been poured<br />
into your bloodstream. You may yawn<br />
uncontrollably, and you could feel very<br />
sleepy. All this is natural, and a quick fix<br />
of caffeine in the form of coffee will often<br />
bring you back to normal.<br />
In this modern, touchy-feely world,<br />
we’re supposed to feel guilty when we<br />
take a human life. After all, doesn’t the<br />
Ten Commandments say, “Thou Shalt<br />
Not Kill”? Actually, no. The original<br />
wording was “Thou Shalt Not Commit<br />
Murder,” but later translations have<br />
changed all this.<br />
You are supposed to suffer from Post<br />
Shooting Trauma. Why? Says who? If, in<br />
your own mind you’re certain that you<br />
had no alternative but to pull the trigger<br />
in order to save a life, why should you<br />
feel any guilt? Sadness maybe, at the<br />
waste of a human life and perhaps sympathy<br />
if he left any relatives who mourn<br />
him.<br />
Guilt? No way! You did nothing wrong!<br />
The only thing you did was to make a<br />
decision to defend yourself and your<br />
family, and that’s nothing to feel guilty<br />
about.<br />
Post Shooting Trauma (PST) is an invention,<br />
dreamed up by psychiatrists in<br />
an attempt to make us come to terms<br />
with our “inner demons.” Let’s face it,<br />
if psychiatry really worked, Hollywood<br />
movie stars wouldn’t have to spend<br />
years (and lots of money) stretched out<br />
on a couch.<br />
The psychiatrists tell us that the<br />
symptoms of PST include (and could<br />
they be trying to plant a subconscious<br />
seed here?):<br />
• Constant worry about the incident.<br />
• Nightmares and bad dreams.<br />
• Withdrawal from loved ones and society.<br />
• Social or sexual dysfunction.<br />
Let's look at all of these symptoms:<br />
Constant worry and preoccupation<br />
with the incident. Well, that’s natural<br />
enough. You’ve just shot someone, possibly<br />
fatally. <strong>This</strong> is guaranteed to keep<br />
anyone from sleeping. Did you ever<br />
have a near-miss on the freeway late at<br />
night? Your mind keeps running it over<br />
and over as you try and get some sleep.<br />
Nightmares and bad dreams. Once<br />
again, if you do manage to finally get off<br />
to sleep, that’s a perfectly normal reaction.<br />
Withdrawal from loved ones and society.<br />
Let’s face it, you probably won’t be<br />
in the mood for conversation. You will<br />
just want to be left alone for a while to<br />
get over it. We’re told that your friends<br />
and neighbors will be pointing fingers<br />
at you and talking about you. So what!<br />
<strong>This</strong> is a perfectly natural reaction. They<br />
won’t think any less of you, in fact they’ll<br />
probably be secretly envious. After all,<br />
you’ve faced evil, and you have won.<br />
Social or sexual dysfunction. Maybe,<br />
but only for a short while. You certainly<br />
won’t want to be going out to a ball<br />
game with your friends, or to a party,<br />
and it’s possible that your sex drive will<br />
temporarily be put in neutral.<br />
Well, I’m sorry, but none of these<br />
symptoms sound too bad to me. In fact,<br />
they sound more like the symptoms of<br />
a bad dose of flu! So long as you can<br />
convince yourself that what happened<br />
wasn’t your fault, and that the bad guy<br />
left you no alternative but to shoot him,<br />
the symptoms of PST, if they appear at<br />
all, will disappear in a week or so.<br />
Think about this: in the military, a<br />
soldier in the front line is told to shoot<br />
his country’s enemies. If he does this<br />
enough times, he is awarded a medal.<br />
In WWII, before the pseudo-science of<br />
psychiatry took over the country, America’s<br />
heroes like Audie Murphy, Joe Foss,<br />
and Clarence “Commando” Kelly won<br />
the Medal of Honor for killing our country’s<br />
enemies. They, and thousands of<br />
other unsung heroes, came home from<br />
overseas and simply got on with their<br />
lives. They didn’t need counseling; they<br />
would have scoffed at the thought.<br />
Remember one other thing: there is<br />
now a huge industry comprised of psychiatrists,<br />
psychologists, stress counselors,<br />
and grief counselors. In a crowded<br />
profession, they all want to earn a good<br />
living, and the best way to do this is to<br />
keep their patient lists full by inventing<br />
new mental conditions for them to<br />
treat. One of these conditions is called<br />
PST.<br />
<strong>This</strong> country seems to be rapidly<br />
turning into a nation of victims always<br />
looking for an instant fix or for someone<br />
to blame for society’s ills. Whatever<br />
happened to good old rugged individualism?<br />
The pioneers who trekked west<br />
didn’t have the supposed advantages of<br />
a host of pill-pushers, stress and grief<br />
counselors, and psychiatrists to help<br />
them cross the plains and mountains.<br />
All they had working for them was courage,<br />
common sense and the determination<br />
to get themselves and their families<br />
safely to their destination.<br />
We are not saying that you should be<br />
proud of the fact that you’ve been forced<br />
to shoot someone. What you did at that<br />
particular moment in time was the only<br />
option you had. You made the choice<br />
between acting like a free American,<br />
risking possible death or serious injury<br />
to you or your family if you resisted, or<br />
acting like a sheep and surrendering<br />
and living in shame for the rest of your<br />
life. n<br />
[ Tony Walker is the author of the critically-acclaimed<br />
book How to Win a<br />
Gunfight, and he also wrote Snides,<br />
the action thriller that introduced ex-<br />
SAS trooper John Pilgrim and his swiftshooting<br />
wife Sally. The new John and<br />
Sally Pilgrim novel, Pilgrim’s Banner,<br />
will be published soon. Find more information<br />
on Tony Walker’s website, www.<br />
johnpilgrimbooks.com. ]<br />
JULY 2008 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n <strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM<br />
41
FORCE-ON-FORCE NOTEBOOK<br />
42<br />
MOVE! Get off<br />
the X and make<br />
yourself a harder<br />
target.<br />
Flag the thumb<br />
to hook the<br />
bottom of your<br />
garment while<br />
reholstering.<br />
When drawing, use your thumb to<br />
push your shirt aside.<br />
ONE-ARMED<br />
[ B Y J A C K R U M B A U G H ]<br />
Welcome to another Force-on<br />
<strong>This</strong> month’s edition examines the<br />
scenario where, for one reason or<br />
another, one limb is immobilized.<br />
We will examine what happens when either<br />
the strong or support side arm is not<br />
in the fight. We will take a hard look at<br />
techniques that allow you to carry and deploy<br />
a pistol from concealment when one<br />
arm or hand is out of action.<br />
The ability to use your firearms with either<br />
hand is a valuable skillset to develop.<br />
As we have seen in numerous force on<br />
force scenarios, there are a lot of shots to<br />
the hands and arms. There are two main<br />
reasons why this happens. First, your<br />
hands and arms are located in front of<br />
where your adversary would initially try<br />
to place his shots, your center of mass.<br />
Second, there is an element of target fixation<br />
on the gun. Like anyone else, your<br />
adversary will focus on the threat, and will<br />
tend to shoot what he is focused on. <strong>This</strong><br />
results in injuries to your hands or arms.<br />
The ability to smoothly transition from<br />
one hand to the other will keep you in the<br />
fight longer.<br />
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With an arm<br />
immobilized, you’ll<br />
sacrifice some balance<br />
and quickness.<br />
The thumb will hold the garment in place<br />
while you establish a firm firing grip.<br />
DRAW<br />
-Force Notebook.<br />
But what do we do if we have only one<br />
arm to begin the fight with? What do we<br />
do if we have had surgery for something<br />
like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, sprained<br />
our wrist playing a pickup game of<br />
basketball, or are in a cast for a broken<br />
bone? Do we just leave the pistol<br />
at home and hope we are safe until we<br />
heal? No way! All we have to do is modify<br />
our techniques to accommodate our<br />
injuries.<br />
Rather than work with the terms right<br />
and left, I’m going to use strong and<br />
support to describe our dominant and<br />
non-dominant hands. We should train<br />
ourselves to be ambidextrous, but for<br />
the sake of clarity, I’ll use strong and<br />
support as a way to differentiate between<br />
the sides of the body.<br />
Let’s look at immobilization of the<br />
support side arm. There goes that twohanded<br />
presentation from the holster<br />
that you worked so long and hard to<br />
perfect. I bet you wish you had taken<br />
the time to work on your one-handed<br />
skills a bit more. What do you have to do<br />
to make this work? Not all that much,<br />
really. If you look at strong side carry—whether<br />
you favor hip or appendix<br />
carry—your biggest concern is clearing<br />
your garment. With an open front cover<br />
garment, not much changes. You’ll<br />
still clear the garment with your strong<br />
hand as you acquire your firing grip.<br />
Holstering will be slightly different in<br />
that you won’t have your support hand<br />
to keep it out of your way, so make sure<br />
your garment does not snag or interfere<br />
with your pistol as it enters your holster.<br />
If you feel any resistance, carefully start<br />
over.<br />
With a closed front garment like a<br />
sweatshirt, you’ll need to modify things<br />
to make it work. You’ll need to use your<br />
thumb to push up the garment away<br />
from the grip of your pistol. Once you<br />
clear the garment, establish your grip<br />
with your thumb flagged to hold the garment<br />
out of your way. Holstering will require<br />
you to flag the thumb in the same<br />
manner to hook the bottom of your garment.<br />
Again, be aware of any resistance<br />
you feel during the holstering process.<br />
Appendix carry tends to be easier to<br />
holster one handed, and you may also<br />
want to investigate cross draw.<br />
With an injured strong side, you can<br />
carry on the hip or in the appendix position<br />
if you have the proper holsters. If<br />
you are like me, you haven’t invested in<br />
a large number of holsters for support<br />
side use. You may only have one or two<br />
options available to you. Personally, I’d<br />
opt for the appendix or cross draw positions.<br />
Your preferences are completely<br />
up to you. You would present the pistol<br />
and holster in the same manner as<br />
with your strong side, keeping in mind<br />
that unless you train with both sides,<br />
your dexterity will likely be diminished.<br />
If just the hand is injured, you may be<br />
able to use it to some degree to help<br />
clear the garment during the presentation<br />
or holstering.<br />
We always combine movement with<br />
our presentations, getting off the X. We<br />
have examined what the body does in<br />
the force on force arena during maxi-<br />
JULY 2008 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n <strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM<br />
43
above and right: It is easier to draw<br />
from an appendix position.<br />
mum chaos. We have noticed that the<br />
body naturally “figures things out” as<br />
you move. The old school method of<br />
keeping the support side hand and arm<br />
tight against the body, actually hinders<br />
dynamic movement. The support arm<br />
will act as a rudder of sorts enhancing<br />
your balance. If you need to turn your<br />
body, “flinging” the arm out will give you<br />
more momentum, allowing you to turn<br />
faster. Think of how a student of fencing<br />
uses his support arm to enhance his<br />
movement. The principles apply here<br />
as well. With an arm immobilized, you’ll<br />
sacrifice some balance and quickness.<br />
If it is in a sling, tight against the body,<br />
you lose your rudder.<br />
Now that we have an understanding<br />
of some the dynamics that will be involved<br />
in fighting with a hand or arm<br />
that is injured, it’s time to gas up the<br />
Airsoft pistol and run a few drills. We’ll<br />
be simulating injuries to the strong and<br />
support side hands and immobilizing<br />
the arms as well. What we want to do is<br />
realize how our bodies work when we<br />
take something out of the equation.<br />
The first scenario is an injured support<br />
hand. In order to concentrate on<br />
showing the techniques (instead of<br />
dealing with the problem of a live opponent)<br />
I used a static target instead<br />
of a real adversary. You can utilize the<br />
support hand to help control your over<br />
garment as you acquire your firing grip.<br />
As you present and move, your arm is<br />
still available to act as a counter-balance.<br />
The only technique not available<br />
to you is your two- handed grip. One<br />
thing you will want to keep in mind is<br />
that some angles of movement will be<br />
easier to utilize than others. For a right<br />
handed shooter, moving to the left will<br />
feel more natural. Moving to the right<br />
requires a transition to the support<br />
hand at some point fairly early on, but<br />
an injured hand or arm eliminates this<br />
possibility. If we completely immobilize<br />
the support arm, we find that our<br />
movement is affected to a degree. If<br />
your footing is a little bit unsteady, you<br />
won’t have the other arm to act as your<br />
counter-balance. As you explode off the<br />
X, you’ll clear the garment, acquire your<br />
firing grip, and present the pistol to the<br />
target.<br />
In the second scenario, we trade sides<br />
to an injured strong side; the dynamics<br />
change. You will be using your less<br />
dexterous hand to present and shoot<br />
your pistol. <strong>This</strong> is where prior training<br />
will come in very handy. The more you<br />
practice with both sides of your body,<br />
the easier these techniques will be. As in<br />
the prior scenario, as you acquire your<br />
pistol and present to the target the injured<br />
hand can assist with clearing the<br />
garment. <strong>This</strong> movement will be more<br />
familiar to your more dextrous, more<br />
practiced strong side. Again, you sacrifice<br />
the possibility of the transition to<br />
the other hand. You will also experience<br />
the same issues with your movement as<br />
before.<br />
Bilateralism is something that we emphasize<br />
in all our advanced courses. You<br />
should be able to shoot from either hand<br />
with a pistol and from either shoulder<br />
with a long gun. Along with the possibility<br />
of an injury prior to or during a gun<br />
fight, you may need to shoot from cover<br />
or concealment that forces you to use<br />
your support side. Train both sides of<br />
your body. Someday, your life may depend<br />
on it. n<br />
44<br />
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IT’S J<strong>US</strong>T THE LAW<br />
JURY DUTY:<br />
THE OTHER MILITIA<br />
[ B Y K . L . J A M I S O N ]<br />
A retired sergeant major<br />
wanted out of jury duty, but<br />
appeared as ordered and was<br />
fascinated, although he could<br />
never get those people to<br />
march in a straight line.<br />
The sergeant major was selected<br />
at random from a cross section<br />
of the local community. At one<br />
time, statutes excused vast sections of<br />
society from jury duty. The Missouri<br />
Constitution still contains a clause<br />
allowing women to opt out of jury<br />
duty. 1 One convict complained that this<br />
denied him the right to a jury drawn<br />
from a cross section of the community.<br />
Shirts bearing slogans will prompt<br />
questions during jury selection.<br />
The United States Supreme Court<br />
agreed. 2 The triumphant defendant<br />
was promptly re-convicted by a jury of<br />
the entire community. In 1935 a white<br />
defendant’s lawyer objected to the jury<br />
panel because it did not contain any<br />
minorities. 3 The objection was overruled<br />
as a silly obstruction of justice; now it is<br />
the law.<br />
<strong>This</strong> cross section is drawn primarily<br />
from driver’s licenses, voting lists, and<br />
property records. 4 Failure to report<br />
is punishable under statute or as<br />
contempt of court. The offender is still<br />
called for jury duty.<br />
Jury commissioners have some<br />
latitude to delay jury service in case of<br />
hardship. During the 1993 flood the Ray<br />
County, Missouri jury commissioner<br />
announced that Orrick residents were<br />
excused because their town was being<br />
evacuated. Several people got up and<br />
left; floodwaters were rising around<br />
their homes but they had reported for<br />
jury duty. <strong>This</strong> provides a standard of<br />
hardship. However, in order for a judge<br />
to excuse persons in cases of hardship,<br />
they must first report for jury duty.<br />
A Missouri juror went home for<br />
lunch and found a new jury summons<br />
in her mailbox. The judge relieved<br />
her of the summons and passed it on<br />
to a less experienced member of the<br />
community.<br />
Evading jury duty leaves justice to<br />
persons who may be less qualified. On<br />
occasion, a juror is discovered who does<br />
not speak English. 5 A borderline retarded<br />
man was a juror in a case involving<br />
an accident between a sheriff’s patrol<br />
vehicle and a police squad car. He could<br />
remember nothing about the facts, the<br />
issues, or who won. 6 A stabbing case fell<br />
to jurors who knew nothing of knives,<br />
and few had ever been in a fistfight<br />
much less a life or death struggle. 7 When<br />
the supply of jurors fails, courts have<br />
ordered sheriffs into the streets to drag<br />
in replacements. Missouri law wisely<br />
allows litigants to refuse the product of<br />
such press gangs.<br />
Potential jurors are first assembled<br />
in a hall with eccentric heating and<br />
cooling, where they are oriented to the<br />
process, and then they wait until they<br />
are called. A cushion and sweater are<br />
often welcome; books and knitting pass<br />
the time. Crisp dollar bills prove useful<br />
for the vending machines.<br />
Generally, a jury panel consists of<br />
forty persons or more. The venire [the<br />
panel of prospective jurors] will be<br />
taken to a courtroom to have a jury<br />
selected from its number. <strong>This</strong> process<br />
is called voir dire—old Norman French<br />
meaning to “speak the truth.” The jury<br />
panel will be questioned, usually by<br />
attorneys but sometimes by the judge.<br />
These questions determine if anyone<br />
has preconceived attitudes about the<br />
facts or issues in the case. For example,<br />
to ask a person who has suffered from a<br />
fire to dispassionately consider an arson<br />
case is more than can be expected of<br />
human character. Some questions will<br />
be personal. It is perfectly acceptable<br />
to answer these questions at the bench<br />
before the judge. If questions are not<br />
answered honestly it might force a<br />
retrial and a new jury. In that event,<br />
there will be at least twelve people who<br />
truly dislike the dishonest party. If the<br />
prosecution loses a conviction due to<br />
juror misconduct it is possible that<br />
they will be looking for revenge. Perjury<br />
charges are possible.<br />
One character thought that he had<br />
a clever way to evade honest answers.<br />
When the panel was sworn to tell the<br />
truth, he answered, “no,” his negative<br />
obscured in a chorus of “yes.” He then<br />
felt justified in lying. 8 His scheme<br />
violated the covenant of good faith.<br />
Fortunately he was more interested in<br />
parading his legal opinions, and was<br />
not selected.<br />
People who use jury selection to make<br />
speeches are never selected. Lawyers<br />
do not pick who they want for the<br />
jury; they pick who they do not want.<br />
Persons with strong feelings regarding<br />
a party, the subject, or the system of<br />
justice will be excluded. Exclusions may<br />
be for “cause” in which the judge rules<br />
that a juror cannot be fair or the juror<br />
has prior knowledge of the parties or<br />
the case. Each party will have a certain<br />
number of “strikes” which are used to<br />
exclude jurors for almost any reason.<br />
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Whoever remains from the panel is a<br />
member of the jury (plus alternates in<br />
case of casualties among the jurors).<br />
<strong>This</strong> remnant is composed of persons<br />
who are the least objectionable and least<br />
knowledgeable about the event that is<br />
the subject of the case. It is believed that<br />
they are the best possible jury for the<br />
particular case. F. Lee Bailey was pleased<br />
to find a chemist on the jury panel for<br />
a poisoning case because he could<br />
understand the complicated evidence.<br />
However, the law does not allow such an<br />
expert jury, and the prosecution swiftly<br />
excluded the chemist.<br />
The judge will caution the jurors not to<br />
speak to the lawyers, parties or witnesses. 9<br />
<strong>This</strong> is to avoid the appearance of<br />
improper communication, which leads<br />
to suspicion and mistrial, and twelve<br />
other people being very angry.<br />
Some jurisdictions allow jurors to<br />
take notes, but rarely are they allowed<br />
to ask questions. Where questions<br />
are grudgingly allowed, the judge and<br />
lawyers must vet them before they are<br />
permitted to be asked.<br />
On occasion, a judge takes the speedy<br />
trial rule to extremes and disposes of the<br />
scheduled breaks. In one such instance<br />
a juror raised his hand and asked for a<br />
break, which was immediately given.<br />
<strong>This</strong> juror was the hero of the courtroom.<br />
Songs were composed in his honor,<br />
epic poems written, and children were<br />
conceived specifically so they could be<br />
named after him. 10<br />
Juries are rarely sequestered. It is<br />
expensive and a burden to all. Bailiffs<br />
are solicitous of their jurors and can<br />
often ease the inconvenience of the<br />
experience.<br />
Some jurors have preconceived ideas<br />
of what the law says. They are often<br />
wrong. One juror proclaimed that a<br />
case was not self defense because the<br />
defendant fired on advancing armed<br />
thugs. She claimed that he could not do<br />
so unless they fired first. Giving thugs<br />
one free shot is not the law. The juror’s<br />
confidence led the jury to convict. In<br />
another such case, a juror proclaimed<br />
the defendant’s tactics to be “stupid” and<br />
therefore illegal. 11 But jury instructions<br />
are provided to define what is or is not<br />
legal, and these definitions override<br />
what is in the dictionary or the Bible.<br />
Jurors may take all evidence into the<br />
jury room. Some jurisdictions allow<br />
testimony to be read back to the jury.<br />
<strong>This</strong> may not be practical. In one case,<br />
a juror composed a list of testimony to<br />
be read back which promised to turn<br />
a ten-day trial into a career. 12 Others<br />
convinced her to rely on memory.<br />
The most important things the jury<br />
takes into deliberations are experience<br />
and common sense. In one case the<br />
victim testified that she had been raped<br />
while standing. One juror declared<br />
that it was impossible to have sex<br />
standing up. The remainder of the jury<br />
enlightened him. 13<br />
After hearing strong evidence of selfdefense<br />
one juror told his fellows not to<br />
bother him until they were ready to vote<br />
not guilty. <strong>This</strong> is a problem because<br />
jurors are required to participate in<br />
deliberations. An uncommunicative<br />
juror could be removed from the jury,<br />
forcing a mistrial. 14<br />
Jurors are forbidden from undertaking<br />
independent investigation. In a<br />
British murder trial four jurors held<br />
a séance to contact the victims, who<br />
named the defendant as their killer.<br />
The conviction was overturned on<br />
the grounds, among others, that the<br />
ghosts had not been cross-examined. 15<br />
Jurors are told that they must follow<br />
the jury instructions. They are supposed<br />
to follow the jury instructions, but juries<br />
have a practical power to nullify the law.<br />
A Wisconsin jury, declaring that their<br />
time had been wasted, nullified a firearm<br />
possession case on the grounds that<br />
the law could not have been intended<br />
to apply to the inoffensive retarded<br />
defendant. 16 Nullification is wrongly<br />
presented as a guaranteed acquittal<br />
for defendants claiming self defense.<br />
Defendants have been convicted after<br />
acting in self defense, but the danger is<br />
that once juries are told they can ignore<br />
the law, they may ignore the self defense<br />
law as well.<br />
Only in the United States does the<br />
accused have a constitutional right<br />
to a trial by jury. Our founders, many<br />
of them lawyers, believed that justice<br />
was too important to be left to lawyers.<br />
Lawyers are taught to find law in books<br />
and computers, but not justice. The<br />
founders of this nation believed that<br />
justice is found in the common sense<br />
of twelve unbiased people chosen at<br />
random.<br />
Militias come in all sorts. n<br />
[ Kevin L. Jamison is an attorney in the<br />
Kansas City Missouri area concentrating<br />
in the area of weapons and self-defense.<br />
Please send questions to Kevin L. Jamison<br />
2614 NE 56 th Ter Gladstone Missouri<br />
64119-2311 KLJamisonLaw@earthlink.<br />
net. Individual answers are not usually<br />
possible but may be addressed in future<br />
columns. ]<br />
<strong>This</strong> information is for legal information<br />
purposes and does not constitute legal<br />
advice. For specific questions you<br />
should consult a qualified attorney.<br />
1. Article I Section 22(b).<br />
2. Duren v. Missouri, 99 S.Ct. 664 (1979).<br />
3. Unger, Union Station Massacre, Andrews McMeel Publishing Kansas City MO<br />
1997 at 202.<br />
4. Refusing to register to vote does not get one out of jury duty. It may get<br />
people elected who pass laws concerning jury duty.<br />
5. Liddy, Will, St. Martin’s Press 1981 at 385.<br />
6. I knew him.<br />
7. Burnett, A Trial by Jury, Alfred A Knof pub. NY 2001 at 112. <strong>This</strong> book should<br />
be read by all lawyers doing criminal trials (not right now—it will keep until<br />
they finish the magazine).<br />
8. Email in author’s possession.<br />
9. Despite this instruction I frequently have jurors speak to my client or me<br />
during the trial, which requires me to report the contact to the judge.<br />
10. Not just then, but later on.<br />
11. “Enter the Jury Room” CBS Reports Transcript: Burrells Box 7 Livingston NJ<br />
07039. Video 1-800-934-NEWS. Videos of jury deliberations are rare and<br />
not done without jury approval.<br />
12. Burnett, A Trial by Jury, op cit at 105.<br />
13. And perhaps opened a new world for him.<br />
14. “Judge outs ‘failing’ juror from Reginald Denny case” Kansas City Star 12<br />
October, 1993 at A-3 com 4.<br />
15. Weird News, Kansas City Star August 17, 1994 at F-1 clm 6. R. v Young,<br />
[1995] QB 324.<br />
16. Video, Inside the Jury Room, Frontline April 8, 1986.<br />
JULY 2008 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n <strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM<br />
47
Mark Walters and Tim Schmidt Uncover The<br />
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<strong>Concealed</strong> <strong>Carry</strong> Basics Volume 2:<br />
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Here are some video screen shots and sample workbook pages from <strong>Concealed</strong> <strong>Carry</strong><br />
Basics Volume 2: The Ultimate <strong>Concealed</strong> <strong>Carry</strong> Holster Guide. Tim demonstrates<br />
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One of the more fascinating aspects of our 35-page workbook is our detailed 5-point<br />
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Audio Interview on CD: After Mark and Tim spent three grueling days under the<br />
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You’ll have your own CD of this recording where Mark and Tim talk candidly<br />
about their own personal carry-holster experiences.<br />
PAYMENT INFORMATION<br />
Check or Money Order Enclosed<br />
(Payable to <strong>US</strong>CCA)<br />
Please charge my VISA MasterCard<br />
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The <strong>US</strong>CCA “BulletProof” 100% money-back guarantee gives you<br />
a full year to return ANY of our products if you are unhappy!
JPFO LIBERTY CREW<br />
TAKE YOUR MONEY BACK<br />
[ B Y L . N E I L S M I T H ]<br />
For decades, many publications like this one have<br />
catalogued the dirty, dishonest, and brutal tactics of an<br />
illegal agency (the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,<br />
Firearms, and Explosives) charged with the enforcement<br />
of an entire body of unconstitutional law.<br />
Tell me where the Second<br />
Amendment mentions a government-approved<br />
privilege of<br />
certain government-approved individuals<br />
to keep and bear governmentapproved<br />
arms in a government-approved<br />
manner, exclusively at government-approved<br />
times and then only in<br />
government-approved places?<br />
For the same amount of time, despite<br />
endless scandals, massacres, investigations,<br />
exposés, and Congressional<br />
hearings of all kinds, the BATFE has<br />
continued to grow in power and appropriations<br />
until the very highest laws of<br />
the land (the first ten amendments to<br />
the Constitution, commonly known as<br />
the Bill of Rights) that were supposed<br />
to protect all of us from people like<br />
them have come to mean practically<br />
nothing. Our unconditional and absolute<br />
right to own and carry the means<br />
to protect ourselves from them is being<br />
eliminated altogether.<br />
Over the years we’ve tried everything:<br />
petitions, rallies, demonstrations,<br />
boycotts, running candidates<br />
and voting on initiatives. But nothing<br />
seems to work. With the aid and comfort<br />
of a conniving gaggle of socialist<br />
politicians, the criminal BATFE continues<br />
to grow while our rights—and<br />
our remaining alternatives—continue<br />
to diminish. Recently, my own teenage<br />
daughter, who had only heard about<br />
the BATF, wanted to know what the “E”<br />
stands for. “Everything?” she guessed.<br />
Still, there is one bright spot remaining<br />
on the horizon that may herald a<br />
sunrise of freedom, rather than the<br />
last sunset of liberty. A very wise man<br />
once said, “The answer to the question,<br />
‘Why don’t they...?’ usually comes<br />
down to money.” Not only does it take<br />
money to make money, it takes money<br />
to deprive 300 million people of their<br />
freedom.<br />
Or, as somebody else once observed,<br />
taxation is the fuel of war. Certainly<br />
taxation is the fuel of the BATFE’s<br />
evil war against Americans and their<br />
With the aid and<br />
comfort of a conniving<br />
gaggle of socialist<br />
politicians, the<br />
criminal BATFE<br />
continues to grow<br />
while our rights—<br />
and our remaining<br />
alternatives—continue<br />
to diminish.<br />
Constitutional rights. Taxation is the<br />
fuel of oppression. Cut off that fuel, and<br />
a greatly reduced number of BATFE<br />
agents will have to go back to counting<br />
revenue stamps on bottles of liquor<br />
and packs of cigarettes. Stop taxing alcohol<br />
and tobacco, they will be out of<br />
business altogether, and America will<br />
be a better, cleaner place. Don’t forget<br />
to outlaw civil asset forfeiture, as well,<br />
because if the BATFE can’t steal it one<br />
way, they’ll surely steal it another.<br />
How do we get started? With an idea<br />
called “Take Your Money Back,” a movement<br />
to abolish the federal income tax<br />
and make sure that the money BATFE<br />
would spend to take away your rights<br />
stays safely in your pocket instead.<br />
That’s right, we’re saying tax abolition<br />
is a public safety issue. Government<br />
will be forced to reduce its “services”<br />
to a minimum, while We the People<br />
suddenly save about 40 percent whenever<br />
we buy a new car, a home for our<br />
family, that special shotgun or elk rifle.<br />
That 40 percent isn’t pie in the sky, it’s<br />
our peace dividend—the reward we receive<br />
for ending the government’s war<br />
on individual liberty.<br />
At www.TakeYourMoneyBack.com<br />
you will learn about the easy steps that<br />
you can follow to make genuine freedom<br />
and prosperity possible in our<br />
lifetime. Do it now. Do it for your children<br />
and your grandchildren.<br />
Do it for yourself.<br />
Take your money back. n<br />
[ Four-time Prometheus Award-winner<br />
L. Neil Smith has been writing about<br />
guns and gun ownership for more than<br />
30 years. He is the author of 27 books,<br />
the most widely-published and prolific<br />
libertarian novelist in the world, and<br />
is considered an expert on the ethics<br />
of self-defense. Reach him at mail to:<br />
lneil@netzero.com[<br />
JULY 2008 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n <strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM<br />
49
ARMED SENIOR CITIZEN<br />
Skills Maintenance<br />
Given the fact that I am<br />
physically challenged<br />
with neck and back pain,<br />
arthritis, and spinal<br />
inflexibility stemming<br />
from some injuries, I am<br />
often asked how I keep my<br />
shooting skills intact—that<br />
is, how I regularly train. In<br />
this article, I shall address<br />
this question.<br />
50<br />
[ B Y B R U C E N . E I M E R , P H . D . ]<br />
I<br />
will discuss several skill maintenance<br />
exercises that I have learned over<br />
the years for both live and dry fire<br />
practice. Keeping in mind the old<br />
adage, “use it or lose it,” I incorporate<br />
shooting skill drills into my lifestyle.<br />
They encompass daily visual-motor<br />
coordination drills without a handgun,<br />
dry fire practice drills with my carry and<br />
home defense handguns, and live fire<br />
drills at the range.<br />
Visual-Motor<br />
Coordination Exercises<br />
First off, I frequently practice the<br />
following two visual-motor coordination<br />
exercises without a gun. In Visual-Motor<br />
Exercise One, you pick a spot to aim at,<br />
you visually focus on that spot, and then<br />
you point [your finger] at it. That’s the<br />
exercise. It’s one smooth flow. In Visual-<br />
Motor Exercise Two, you pick a spot to<br />
aim at, and you keep your visual focus<br />
on that spot as you simply imagine<br />
drawing your handgun and acquiring a<br />
sight picture on that spot. Both of these<br />
exercises build muscle memory.<br />
Dry Practice Drills<br />
The next step is to work at home with<br />
a triple-checked checked unloaded<br />
handgun. Make sure you have a safe<br />
backstop and that there is no live<br />
ammunition in the room. In Dry Practice<br />
Exercise One, you pick a target or point<br />
at which to aim, visually focus on it, and<br />
then bring your unloaded handgun up,<br />
with your finger off the trigger in the<br />
register position along your handgun’s<br />
frame. You focus on your front sight<br />
<strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n JULY 2008
Tracking target.<br />
Ten rounds are shot at<br />
each of the following<br />
distances: five, seven, ten,<br />
fifteen and twenty yards.<br />
Drills<br />
and acquire a sight picture (your front<br />
sight is centered in the rear sight notch)<br />
and superimpose your sights over your<br />
target. You repeat this drill ten times.<br />
Please understand the sequence as it is<br />
the key to hitting what you are aiming at<br />
when you are firing live. Also, see Tom<br />
Perroni’s online article: Being Able to<br />
Hit What You Aim at with a Handgun<br />
at www.<strong>US</strong><strong>Concealed</strong><strong>Carry</strong>.com for an<br />
excellent exposition of the fundamentals<br />
of accurate handgun shooting.<br />
In Dry Practice Exercise Two, you<br />
practice an additional ten repetitions,<br />
but now you bring your finger onto the<br />
trigger and slightly press the trigger<br />
rearward without taking the shot; take<br />
up the trigger slack but do not press<br />
the trigger all the way back to the point<br />
where the shot breaks.<br />
Dry practice<br />
from behind<br />
cover.<br />
JULY 2008 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE<br />
51
Support hand practice with<br />
laser sights. Aim point is<br />
high center of mass.<br />
Trigger<br />
finger in<br />
the register<br />
position.<br />
Make sure you have a safe<br />
backstop and that there is no live<br />
ammunition in the room.<br />
In Dry Practice Exercise Three, you<br />
practice ten repetitions of acquiring<br />
your sight picture and fully working<br />
the trigger. If your handgun is a double<br />
action revolver or a double action only<br />
(DAO), trigger cocking, semi-automatic<br />
pistol with a hammer—such as the DAO<br />
Sig Sauer, Heckler & Koch, and Smith<br />
& Wesson pistols, you can simply and<br />
easily dry practice double taps. A double<br />
tap refers to firing two shots in rapid<br />
succession. On the other hand, if your<br />
semi-automatic pistol is like a Glock<br />
or Springfield Armory XD series pistol,<br />
you must manually cycle the slide to<br />
simulate the gun’s slide cocking action<br />
in order to dry practice double taps and<br />
trigger reset drills.<br />
Keep in mind that you can set up your<br />
favorite range targets at home against<br />
a safe backstop and conduct these<br />
dry practice drills. I like to follow Jack<br />
Weaver’s advice quoting from the May/<br />
June 2008 issue of American Handgunner<br />
(page 109): “Your [dominant] eye, the<br />
back sight, front sight and the target<br />
don’t have to be perfectly lined up,” he<br />
says, bending his head down slightly<br />
and bringing the gun up to eye level,<br />
“but you can see the sights, and as you<br />
squeeze the trigger, you correct them<br />
as best you can. Pretty soon, you get to<br />
the point where you come pretty close<br />
every time.” (www.weaverstance.com)<br />
Practice, practice, and practice.<br />
Safe Room<br />
Dry Practice<br />
Another exercise that you can do at<br />
home is to simulate working within<br />
your safe room. I am talking about<br />
visualizing home invaders breaking<br />
into your safe room. First, unload your<br />
home defense handgun. Triple check<br />
it and sequester all live ammunition.<br />
The sequence entails verbalizing<br />
appropriate commands from behind<br />
cover: “STOP! DROP YOUR WEAPON!<br />
I’M ARMED. GO AWAY! LEAVE THIS<br />
HO<strong>US</strong>E NOW!” Acquire a sight picture<br />
on your imaginary home invader and<br />
dry fire if necessary. You should practice<br />
this drill with your trigger finger in<br />
register, taking up the trigger slack,<br />
and both with, and without dry firing.<br />
Remember, you hope that you do not<br />
have to fire, but you must be prepared to<br />
do so if the threat does not back down.<br />
Perceptual Awareness<br />
Learn to really notice and study<br />
your targets. Practice tracking multiple<br />
targets. <strong>This</strong> involves scanning and<br />
verifying each target in an array. As you<br />
verify each target, you establish an aim<br />
point and acquire your sight picture.<br />
<strong>This</strong> type of practice builds your visualperceptual<br />
and observational awareness<br />
skills. It also transfers to live fire drills.<br />
Live Fire Drills<br />
I try to get to the range for skills<br />
maintenance practice at least twice<br />
a month. When I go, I try to make the<br />
most of my time and ammunition. With<br />
my carry handgun or home defense<br />
handgun, I have found the following live<br />
fire drill to be an excellent way to keep<br />
my skills intact. The drill incorporates<br />
multiple skills: stance, grip, draw from<br />
concealment, trigger control, sight<br />
alignment and sight picture, varying<br />
distances, follow-up shots, speed, and<br />
accuracy. It is not a beginner’s drill. It<br />
is not a skills acquisition exercise. It is a<br />
skills maintenance drill. It requires just<br />
50 rounds—one box of ammunition.<br />
It does not require a shot timer. To<br />
52<br />
<strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n JULY 2008
paraphrase Clint Smith, when have you<br />
ever found a shot timer in a gunfight?<br />
The Drill<br />
The target is a humanoid silhouette<br />
target, either a Q, a B-27 or equivalent.<br />
I like to paste a five-inch diameter<br />
orange circle at high center of mass<br />
(HiCOM). All shots are taken from my<br />
concealment holster.<br />
Ten rounds are shot at each of the<br />
following distances: five, seven, ten,<br />
fifteen and twenty yards. That makes for<br />
a total of fifty rounds. At each distance<br />
I clear my covering garment, draw and<br />
fire a double tap at the HiCOM orange<br />
circle. That’s five draw and fire double<br />
taps (10 rounds) at each distance. That’s<br />
the drill.<br />
Secondary<br />
Live Fire Drills<br />
Tracking Drill.<br />
Here’s a second tracking drill that<br />
I find useful if you have the time and<br />
ammunition. Tracking means that you<br />
visually scan and shoot multiple targets.<br />
The set-up consists of four five-inch<br />
orange circles in a square numbered<br />
one through four. The drill requires a<br />
total of 56 rounds. Seven rounds make<br />
a complete cycle. You acquire Target<br />
One and fire. Then, you move your eyes<br />
to Target Two, your muzzle follows, you<br />
verify your target, you acquire your<br />
sight picture and then fire. Then, you<br />
move to Target Three and fire, and then<br />
on to Target Four.<br />
Then, you track backwards counterclockwise<br />
to Target Three, and from<br />
Three to Two and then back to One.<br />
That makes a total of seven rounds.<br />
Two complete cycles are shot at each<br />
distance. That’s fourteen rounds. The<br />
distances for this drill are five, seven,<br />
ten and fifteen yards. That makes for a<br />
total of 56 rounds. If you started with<br />
three boxes of ammunition, you are<br />
now left with 44 rounds with which to<br />
practice your rhythm and become one<br />
with your gun. That’s the third drill.<br />
Rhythm Drill.<br />
The Rhythm Drill entails loading your<br />
handgun to capacity and discharging<br />
your loaded gun as quickly as you can,<br />
maintaining a rhythm, and keeping all<br />
of your shots in a respectable grouping<br />
on your target. I like to perform this<br />
drill at distances of three, five and seven<br />
yards. Thus, with 44 rounds, I can shoot<br />
the Rhythm Drill nine times with my<br />
five-shot J-frame revolver. I can shoot<br />
the drill three times with my 13 + 1<br />
capacity .40 caliber Glock 23 and three<br />
times with my 17 + 1 capacity 9mm<br />
Glock 17. You get the idea. The Rhythm<br />
Drill also entails doing emergency<br />
reloads—nine [speedloads] with my<br />
J-frame using either a Bianchi Speed<br />
Strip or HKS Speed Loader, and three<br />
with my Glocks.<br />
So, there you have it. We’ve spent 150<br />
rounds—three boxes of ammunition–<br />
and we’ve gotten a great shooting<br />
workout. However, if you can only do<br />
one drill, do the first one with one 50<br />
round box of ammunition. The other<br />
drills are very valuable, but optional<br />
if you have limited time, energy, or<br />
ammunition. n<br />
With the introduction of the K9 pistol in<br />
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JULY 2008 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n <strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM<br />
53
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Not enough room to cram all those guns in your safe? Try<br />
the HySkore® Rotary Pistol rack. It holds up to 9 pistols and<br />
rotates a full 360°, perfect for storage. The rack measures<br />
12” diameter and 8” height, and features a woodgrain finish<br />
and protective foam padding at all contact points. The rack<br />
measures 12” diameter and 8” height. Other models of gun<br />
safe racks available. Visit www.hyskore.com for ordering<br />
information.<br />
Beretta <strong>US</strong>A<br />
Px4 Storm<br />
Sub-Compact<br />
The Px4 Storm Sub-Compact pistol is available in<br />
9mm and .40 S&W. It features a stainless steel barrel,<br />
interchangeable backstraps (included), Picatinny rail,<br />
ambidextrous manual safety, and a reversible magazine<br />
release button that can be replaced for optional<br />
smaller or larger size buttons. It has a locked breech.<br />
The small size is ideal for maximum concealment.<br />
SnapGrip magazine extenders are available.<br />
cALIBER 9mm or .40<br />
OVERALL LENGTH 6.2”<br />
BARREL LENGTH 3<br />
CAPACITY 13 (9mm), 10 (.40)<br />
SIGHTS<br />
FRAME<br />
Superluminova<br />
plastic<br />
MSRP $600 (9mm) , $575 (.40)<br />
SPYDErCO<br />
SPYDERENCH T01<br />
The T01 SpydeRench includes a one-hand open/close<br />
locking knife blade. The T01 is made of corrosion resistant<br />
stainless steel and features an adjustable crescent<br />
wrench. On the opposite end is a 2-setting slip joint plier.<br />
A set of four screwdriver bits (#2 and #3 Phillips, #1 and<br />
#2 flat-head) fits inside. The SpydeRench accepts standard<br />
1/4” sized bits, including Allen and Torx®. It also<br />
has a diamond-coated file, a small Phillips head on one<br />
side and a hole starter on the other. A pivot pin allows the<br />
tool to rotate into a lockable extended position to easily<br />
grip the screwdriver and crescent wrench functions. The<br />
pivot can be released, allowing the screwdriver and knife<br />
to completely separate from the SpydeRench to be used<br />
independently.<br />
54<br />
<strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n JULY 2008
Item No. Product Description Size Qty. Price Ea. Sub-Total
The best gunfight is<br />
one you are not in...<br />
You might call Para’s NEW Personal Defense<br />
Assistant (PDA) your “Rescue” gun<br />
• The 1911 has been a lifesaver. Only Para technology gives you its <strong>Carry</strong> Safe<br />
trigger system in a 1911 that is truly the WORLD’S SMALLEST.<br />
• Unlike single-action 1911s, it cannot become “cocked and unlocked” in<br />
your pocket.<br />
• You carry the PDA with the hammer down yet with one smooth stroke of the<br />
trigger it is ready for action.<br />
• Its light double-action (LDA) trigger gives you the same sweet, smooth trigger<br />
pull every shot. It is anti-jerk, making you a better shot even under stress.<br />
•<br />
Size matters: too small and you are carrying an ineffective mouse gun. Too<br />
large and you don’t have it when you need it. The PDA is the right stuff.<br />
• Flatter than a snub-nose revolver, the PDA holds<br />
9 rounds in 9mm and in .45 ACP you get Major<br />
Caliber firepower in a 24 ounce pistol.<br />
• Down dark<br />
alleys you<br />
will see<br />
your sights<br />
because every<br />
PDA comes<br />
with tritium<br />
night sights.<br />
Put a Para PDA in<br />
your hand today.<br />
www.para-usa.com/rescue<br />
North American Call Center: (954) 202-4440<br />
1919 N.E. 45th St., Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33308-5136