Classes held once
a month, kast weekend
Custom classes available
$80 if you come to
my class
$90 plus travel if I come
to you
State charges $60
for permit
Renews every five years
No gun registration
on permit
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_________________________________________________________
2009 Gun rights Policy Conference
2008 Gun rights Policy Conference CD Order Form
(Whole conference on one data disc, MP3)
N Name: _____________________________________________________________________
A Address: ___________________________________________________________________
C City, State, Zip ______________________________________________________________
P Phone: _____________________________ e-mail:________________________________
P Please print this form out and mail it with Cash or check for $27 for 2008 conference, or $52 for
2003 - 2008 conferences, payable to: Charles Heller, 7311 E. Brooks Dr. Tucson, Az 85730
T The 2008 conference fits on one data CD. 2003. all 6 years goes on a DVD, on which you can listen
to the greatest info on keeping your rights.
P Please print this form and mail it with a check to Charles Heller, 7311 E. Brooks Dr. Tucson,
Az. 85730
________________________________________________________________________________
Here I am with one of my favorite concelaed weapon pieces, the Browning Automatic Rifle. Note that this machine gun requires a nomex glove for heat protection.
My last concealed weapon permit class was working on an ankle holster for it....
I walked liked Chester Goode in Gunsmoke with it on, but hey, concealed is concealed!
Now the more astute of you looking at this will notice that I am in a WWII era military uniform top and helmet.
1) I'm not that old.
2) I was not ever in the military, and don't want to suggest that I was. This was part of a rental program that used to exist at Desert Trail Training Facility in Tucson. The idea was to demonstrate experientially the uniform and weapons of the day.
The purpose of the CCW class is to allow you a means of living your life in a more safe and confident manner. It provides the training that most people will newer get, mostly about the use of force in self defense.
CCW permit training classes are held usually the last weekend of the month. Normally, I Start at 5 PM Friday night until 10 PM, and then Sunday at the range from 3 PM until 6 PM. I asm also the resident instructor at Second Amendment Sports. The classes there are generally the middle week of the month, and are usually on Tuesday and Thursday nights from 5 - 9 PM.
The class covers use of force in self defense, safety with the defense tool, (known in my class as a rescue device) carry methods, firearm selection, draw, dealing with law enforcement after the use of force, situational awareness, preparedness, range etiquette, and gun cleaning. It is everything the novice needs to go from basic knowledge to a safe street carry of a concealed defense tool, if they do their part.
At the end of the class there is a written and a shooting test. You do not need to own or bring a firearm to the class to participate. At the range it is a good idea to use your own rescue tool for qualification, but I have some you can borrow at no charge if you wish. I only ask that you pay for whatever ammo you use.
Permit now takes 5 - 6 weeks to arrive from the state, and costs $60 from them.
Price for my class is $80. Gun shops & ranges usually charge about $7.50 for your fingerprints, also required.
_______________________________________________________________
On 4/29/07, these guns were stollen from my car. Any of you seeing these at
at gunshow, please summon local law enforcement and give them the case # below.
Thanks, Charles
4 29 07 Gun Loss List Pima County Sheriff Case # 070429 200
_________________________________________
Professional Ordinance Carbon 15 S/N 824413 with assault bag, 6 20 shot
mags and 180 rounds soft point
__________________________________
Springfield Armory M1-A S/N 130558 Mil dot scope, brown cheek rest.
5 - 20 & 1 10 shot mag, 100 rounds .308 Cleaning kit with bore snake. Assault
systems bag. This rifle had a large aperature mil dot scope and a cheek rest
mounted on it at time of theft.
______________________________________
Sendra Corp XM 15-E2 16" barrel S/N 04056
Galatti assault bag, 5 30 shot mags, 150 rounds .223
Cleaning kit with bore snake
_________________________________________
Hi standard 4" blue Sentinel with Tyler grip adapter S/N 197 8442
Charles Heller
870 2700
charles@libertywatchradio.com
WHY THE GUN IS CIVILIZATION
By Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another:
reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a
choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your
bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of
those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.
In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively
interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of
social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu
is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have
to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate
your threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon
that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a
75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and
a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with
baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size,
or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of
bad force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more
civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes
it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only
true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by
choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most of a
mugger's potential marks are armed. People who argue for the banning of
arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and
that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an
armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the
state has granted him a force monopoly.
Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations
lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is
fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are
won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on
the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't
constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings
and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun
makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender,
not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level. The
gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian
as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply wouldn't work as
well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily
employable.
When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a
fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side
means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because
I'm afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit
the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the
actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the
equation...and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.
From John Farnum:
On personal excellence, from a friend with a large, metro PD on the East Coast:
"... all patrol officers here are told, once deadly force is justified, we should seek cover and just shoot in the direction of the threat, keeping the bad guys' heads down and preventing them from getting close, as we wait for help. This unwritten philosophy is in no way confined to this department. They don't want us to get hurt, but they don't want us to hurt of kill VCAs either, even when they are representing a deadly threat. There is little ever said about individual marksmanship, how to effectively/lethally engage human targets, individual tactics, or 'winning the fight.'
We are required to assume help will always be just minutes away, that our radios will always work, and that we can always count on the department's 'backing.' We are not trained as the individual operators we will need to be in the next terrorist attack."
Comment: When politicians actively court the votes of criminals and their families, it is not surprising that they don't want any of their potential voting constituency shot by police. Thus, both police and good citizens become expendable, as violent criminals are coddled and protected as the valuable resource big-city politicians believe them to be.
/John
14 Nov 06
Grasping at guns
Lorne Gunter, National Post
Published: Monday, October 16, 2006
Almost a week after last month's tragic shooting at Montreal's Dawson College, the
National Post ran a guest column by the mother of a Dawson student.
Beverly Akerman suggested a "simple" response to the crime: "no more guns. Because
no one can accurately predict who among us will become unhinged enough to commit
bloody slaughter, I believe guns shouldn't be available to the public." We dubbed this a
"mother's radical solution for gun crime."
But suggesting a ban on guns is hardly radical. Every time there is a Dawson-like tragedy,
a chorus calls for a ban on guns.
Allan Rock, the former Liberal justice minister who was the legislative father of our current
gun registry, admitted he came to office in Ottawa believing "only the police and the military
should have firearms."
Since Ms. Akerman's commentary, this paper has run half a dozen letters (and received
perhaps a dozen more) from professors, psychologists, health care workers and gun
control advocates all calling for a gun ban, or at least wondering aloud why ordinary
people should be permitted to own such destructive objects.
Banning guns is one of the most common solutions offered by urban professionals,
bureaucrats and special interests in the face of each new high-profile shooting. But
consider this: A week after the Dawson shootings, Britain was transfixed by its own
similar shooting. Two 17-year-olds were shot in a South London McDonald's for
disrespecting their attacker during a conversation. The shooter used a semi-
automatic handgun.
Yet, there were no calls for a ban on civilian ownership of handguns. Why? Because
Britain had already banned civilian handguns nearly a decade ago. In response to the
horrific Dunblane, Scotland, school shootings in 1996, in which 16 five- and six-year-
old children and one teacher were killed, the U.K. eliminated all civilian handgun
ownership.
It's hard to call for a ban in response to a new newsworthy shooting when you already
have a ban thanks to an old one. Since 1997, it has not been legal for ordinary Britons
to own a handgun. Yet since the ban, handgun homicides have gone up, not down. In
the six years prior to the ban, there was an average of 33 handgun murders a year in
Britain. Since then, there had been an average of nearly 43, an increase of 30% despite
the ban.
In the years since the handgun ban, violent crime in Britain has spiked and the streets
of the major cities are awash in illegal guns smuggled in from abroad. By Scotland
Yard's estimate, as many as 4 million illegal handguns have entered the U.K. in the
past nine years.
In Manchester, for example, police report an average of two firearms offences each
day by 15 - to 20 -year-olds, alone. In most categories of firearms crimes other than
murder, Britain is now more violent than the United States.
Australia has had a similar experience. Following the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, in
which a crazed gunman killed 35 people at a Tasmanian resort, the Australian national
government banned most semi-automatic rifles and pump-action shotguns. Nearly a
million civilian guns were confiscated (with compensation) in the months after the
shooting.
Yet, while gun crimes in Australia are now noticeably lower than in 1996, shooting
incidents actually rose by more than two-thirds in the five years after the government-
imposed gun "surrender."
The Australian Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BCSR) credits the dramatic
gun crime decline since 2001 not to the gun ban, but to increased police efforts to
interdict illegal gun shipments and prosecute owners of illegal weapons, notably drug
dealers. Don Weatherburn, the head of the BCSR, sees no evidence "to be able to
say that gun laws have had any effect."
Indeed, lawful civilian gun ownership has jumped dramatically again in Australia since
2002, at precisely the same time as gun crime has been falling.
Once a disturbed individual has made up his mind to enter a school or hotel or other
public building and commit mass murder, no civilian gun control -- neither a registry,
nor a ban -- can stop him. Grabbing guns is grasping at straws. Outlawing civilian
possession of firearms might give worried people the sense something is being
done to make them safer. But that would just be a false sense of security.
lgunter@shaw.ca
© National Post 2006
SAFETY RECALL NOTICE
SW1911 Safety Recall Information
Smith & Wesson is committed to producing firearms of the highest quality. To accomplish this goal, we are constantly evaluating and monitoring the safety, reliability and performance of our products. As part of this ongoing evaluation process, we have received reports, in an extremely small number of cases, that the firing pin safety plunger of the SW1911 pistol can become disabled, creating a situation where the slide may jam and render the firearm inoperable. This only pertains to certain Smith & Wesson Model SW1911 pistols bearing serial numbers JRD0000 to JRD4750.
To date, none of these cases have resulted in any injury, and Smith & Wesson has not received any reports of any accidental discharge associated with the functioning of the firing pin safety plunger. While the company has not received any reports of injury, a failure of the firing pin safety plunger may affect the reliability and safety of your firearm. Therefore, given our commitment to quality and safety, we are initiating this recall campaign, and we are offering to repair, free of charge, any affected SW1911 pistol.
For more information please view the "SW1911 Safety Recall Notice" PDF file at the top of this page. If after viewing the document you believe your SW1911 requires service, click the "Enter SW1911 Return Information" link at the top of this page and enter all the required information. A special FedEx return label and shipping instructions to facilitate the return of your Model SW1911 Pistol will be mailed to you promptly. If you have any questions you may call 1-800-331-0852 for more information.
I have posted the url on my site, www.libertywatchradio.com/gun_class
http://www.smith-wesson.com/wcsstore/SmWesson/upload/other/SW1911_Recall.pdf
SAFETY RECALL NOTICE
CERTAIN SMITH & WESSON MODEL SW1911 PISTOLS BEARING SERIAL NOS. JRD0000 TO
JRD4750 CONTAIN A FIRING PIN SAFETY PLUNGER THAT MAY BECOME DISABLED
DURING OPERATION COMPROMISING THE PERFORMANCE OF THE FIREARM AND ITS
SAFETY SYSTEM. YOU SHOULD STOP USING THE PISTOL AND RETURN IT TO SMITH &
WESSON SO THAT AN IMPROVED FIRING PIN SAFETY PLUNGER CAN BE INCORPORATED
INTO YOUR HANDGUN.
WE HAVE ALREADY BEGUN THE CORRECTIVE ACTION PROCESS ON SW1911 MODELS.
TO DETERMINE IF YOUR SW1911 HAS BEEN CORRECTED, PLEASE DO THE FOLLOWING:
1. REMOVE THE MAGAZINE AND BE SURE YOUR FIREARM IS UNLOADED. 2. LOCK THE
SLIDE TO THE REAR AND LOOK ON THE BOTTOM OF THE SLIDE FOR A .PUNCH DOT.
MARK NEXT TO THE LETTER S (FIG. 1). 3. CHECK THE FIREARM BOX END LABEL FOR A
RED .SP. STAMP. (FIG. 2). IF THESE TWO INDICATORS ARE PRESENT, YOUR SW1911
PISTOL HAS ALREADY BEEN MODIFIED AND NO FURTHER ACTION IS REQUIRED.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE CALL 1-800-331-0852 FOR MORE INFORMATION
SERIAL NUMBER
FIGURE 1 FIGURE 2
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5 13 06 Today I had a new experience....
For years I have been teaching about gun safety, and one of the things one teaches about is a "squib." The English call it a "firecracker," and the Aussies, a "coward." It is a case where a cartridge is not loaded with enough powder to make the bullet leave the barrel when it is fired.
My student was firing my Scandium .357 with light .38 loads, BANG, BANG, pop.... and I told her to cease fire and set the gun on the bench. Lo and behold...
I then took this view, while standing behind it and the camera at an oblique angle:
Lessons?
1) Pay attention to everything when you are shooting. The next round fired from that gun would have been dangerous and
expensive.
2) Carry a multi tool and full cleaning kit when you go to the range.
3) ALWAYS carry a primary and a back up gun.
From a letter to John Farnum:
Oops!
"I was practicing drawing and deploying my Cold Steel Vaquero Grande yesterday.
Like you, I consider a good blade vital, but useless if you don't practice. On completion,
I folded the blade, but did not visually check that it was indexed completely inside the
handle. Of course, the inevitable happened. I stabbed myself in the meaty part of my
left palm just below the thumb, sinking the point to the bone. Man, those Cold Steel
knifes are sharp!
This injury has emphasized important points:
When handling weapons, don't disengage your brain while your body is still in motion! In other words,
don't relax too soon. This not only counts for tactical encounters, but for every time you handle weapons.
When you say to yourself, 'Whew; glad that's over,' watch out! It ain't.
A robust and seriously sharp blade is a must. That's why my first choice is Cold Steel. This blade
entered my skin with just the barest pressure. Had I been fighting in a weakened state, or with a poor
attack angle, my razor-sharp blade would have made the difference between a glancing blow and a
ruinous, fight-winning cut.
Sharp blades cause copious bleeding! This wound bled and bled, and then bled some more. Causing
your attacker to bleed profusely, even from a minor wound, can grievously impair his will to continue
fighting, which is one of the 'four Ds.'
When working with blades, expect to be cut, sooner or later! Be prepared for that stinging feeling and
the rush of blood. If you're not unconscious, it means that you can still fight."
Comment: My friend is absolutely right! As with guns, blades will bite you when you're careless.
However, for warriors, they are an inexorable part of our lives and very being. The risks associated
with having serious weapons around must be balanced against the risks associated with not having
weapons around. Life is meant to be exciting, not relaxing!
/John
19 Aug 06
No Charges in Shooting of Unarmed Man
Mother of Optometrist Killed by Police Calls Prosecutor's Decision 'Pathetic'
By Tom Jackman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 24, 2006; Page B05
The Fairfax County police officer who shot an unarmed man to death in January will
not be charged with a crime, the county's chief prosecutor announced yesterday,
and the man's family angrily responded by claiming that a civilian in the same situation
would have been arrested.
From the start, Fairfax police declared that the killing of Salvatore J. Culosi, 37, was
an accident and that the SWAT officer who fired had done so unintentionally. Fairfax
Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. said that when a person fires a gun
without malice and unintentionally kills someone, "they do not commit a crime."
"I feel for the family of the victim in this case," Horan said. "You have to. But I also feel for the police officer. This is a good police officer. Fine record, almost 17 years. He's as shattered by this as any good police officer should be."
The officer is Deval V. Bullock, 40, a longtime member of Fairfax's
SWAT team, numerous sources familiar with the case said.
Bullock declined to comment when contacted earlier this week.
"My son is lying in a cemetery," said Anita Culosi, the victim's mother. "His
whole life was ahead of him. That man pulled a trigger and shot my son
dead. I can't handle that. It's just pathetic that they don't find something
wrong with what they did to my boy."
Bernard DiMuro, the Culosi family's attorney, said: "A pointed gun with a
finger on the trigger is not an accident. There is no doubt that had the
shooter not been a police officer, he would have been charged criminally,
and a jury would have decided the issue." He said Horan could have charged
the officer with second-degree murder or manslaughter.
The Culosis also questioned whether the police could fairly investigate
themselves and whether Horan had received a complete investigation.
The family sent a letter to the Fairfax Board of Supervisors asking it to
review the case, and to review police policies on the use of force and
the use of SWAT teams as well.
Police spokeswoman Mary Ann Jennings said police are continuing to
review their policies on the use of force and also on the use of SWAT
teams in serving search warrants. Horan said he thought the use of
SWAT teams by Fairfax police was appropriate.
Police had been investigating whether Culosi, an optometrist with offices
in Manassas and Warrenton, was a sports bookmaker. An undercover
officer had been placing bets with Culosi for nearly four months and arrived
outside Culosi's townhouse in the Fair Lakes area on Jan. 24 to collect
$1,500 in winnings, Horan said.
Culosi was standing next to the officer's car, on the passenger side, when
the officer gave the sign for two SWAT officers to move in. They headed
toward the car, one to arrest Culosi and one to protect the undercover
officer, Horan said.
One officer pulled up in a car behind the undercover officer's. "As the officer
came out, he was bringing his weapon up," Horan said. "In the course of
bringing his weapon up, it discharged. He has no real explanation how."
Horan said the officer shouted the word "police" at Culosi. "Right after
"police,' " Horan said, "it went pow."
Horan said the officer was aware that he should not have had a finger on
the trigger and that he should not have had his .45-caliber H&K handgun
pointed at anyone. "As he says, you keep your finger straight," Horan said.
"He felt his finger was straight . . . but obviously his finger is not straight up.
His finger has to be on the trigger."
Horan said the officer's gun was tested and was not at fault. He said the gun
had a standard trigger pull and was modified only to add a flashlight on the
barrel, but the flashlight was not in use.
Horan's decision not to pursue criminal charges does not affect any civil
lawsuit the family might file, and DiMuro said one is likely.
The officer, originally placed on leave with pay, returned to work in an
administrative job a couple of days after the shooting, Jennings said. Police
said they will resume an internal investigation of the officer; they were
prevented from interviewing him while the criminal probe was pending.
Horan said the accident "could have been based on the number of hours
the officer was awake that day." He said the officer had started working at
5 a.m., overseeing a managed deer hunt in the Great Falls area aimed at
thinning the deer population. Horan said the officer went home at noon that
day, then returned to work at 8 p.m. Culosi was shot at 9:35 p.m.
Culosi's family members said they were launching a Web site,
http://www.justiceforsal.com , to provide friends and the public with information
about the case. "We are not going to sit by and allow this to happen to another
citizen of Fairfax County," said Salvatore J. Culosi, the victim's father. "Our
family will never understand this. And we will never be the same."
_______________________________________________________________________________________
25 Nov 05
Comments on military readiness, from a student currently assigned overseas:
"Ain't it the truth! In an hour my shift starts. My unit guards this base's entire
ammunition supply, and we're located in a not-especially-friendly, foreign country.
I have no guns with me now, nor do any of us where we're not technically on duty.
Shortly, I will be issued a dirty M9 pistol, with two magazines and twenty rounds
of dirty, 9mm hardball. Our orders are to carry the pistol in a flap holster, with
all flaps fully secured, so drawing with one hand, or quickly even with both
hands, is not possible. The weapon is to be carried with a magazine inserted,
an empty chamber, and the safety 'on' (decocking lever down). As you might
say, we're little more than cannon fodder here!
Clearing barrels litter this facility like horse crap. Those few weapons that are
carried, even by active-duty soldiers, are always unloaded and universally treated
with the utmost cavalierly. I have never seen firearms so casually thrown about
with such contemptuous disregard to unsafe directions in which they are
incessantly pointed.
I so much miss the comradery of your class where real gunmen bear arms
proudly, with true safety, honor, respect, and professionalism. It has yet to
filter down here!"
Comment: I'm disheartened when I receive notes like this. The True Way has
yet to shine forth at this remote outpost, and many like it. The thing I regret
most is that, with all our effort, we have (obviously) accomplished so little.
/John
26 Nov 05
Counterpoint, from a young lad in Country:
"Mr Farnam, I witnessed a negligent discharge in a mess hall over here. The
culprit was, of course, the mishandling of weapons. It is not uncommon. Thus,
here is the other side of the argument:
My unit deployed to Iraq on short notice, with little additional arms training. We
have eighteen-year-olds walking around with 9mm pistols, who have only touched
them on one previous occasion, and that was a paltry ten rounds of familiarization
firing just prior to departure from CONUS, and under the tutelage of instructors who
knew precious little more about the weapon than did their students!
Lack of muzzle consciousness is, by far, the biggest problem over here, and the l
amentable affliction makes no distinction with regard to rank or age! Accordingly,
unit commanders will not allow the carrying of loaded weapons inside camps.
The rational is that there is little reason to carry loaded inside a guarded area."
My reply: Thanks for your note, son, and I understand the hesitancy of you and your
colleagues to be "hot" all the time, even if it were permitted.
"Guarded area," huh? The fact that you're drawing"combat pay" should be a hint
to both you and your hesitant and naive commanders. When in Vietnam thirty-
seven years ago, OUR "CAMPS," SURROUNDED BY WIRE, JUST LIKE YOURS,
GOT OVERRUN ALL THE TIME! With any luck, that phenomenon will not become
a big part of your life over there, but it only has to happen once for a lot of hapless
and unarmed men to be wretchedly massacred, because they cannot shoot.
YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN CAN BE TRAINED TO SAFELY CARRY LOADED
PISTOLS ON A REGULAR BASIS. In our Marine Programs, we teach them to
do it in two days! We've never had an ND, and our students come away as
competent gun handlers, as well as fast and deadly-accurate shooters. They
think of themselves as professional gunmen, and they carry hot, proudly and
confidently.
The problem with the "no-gun" policy, common in CONUS, is that it creeps into
our daily routine, even in areas of active fighting, where you now find yourself.
Shifting gears becomes more and more indecisive and incomplete. Some are
even hesitant about carrying hot OUTSIDE the wire! When will we stop being
afraid of ourselves?
You better understand something about warfare, lad: Active war is going to be
a continuous part of world landscape for the remainder of your lifetime. On behalf
of my generation, I apologize to you and your colleagues for the hash you've
inherited from us. With that said, you better get used to a pitilessly indifferent
world, and YOU BETTER DECIDE RIGHT NOW TO BE A SERIOUS, DANGEROUS,
HARMFUL HEAVY-HITTER, and that you're going to be in a high state of readiness,
all the time, no matter were you are, regardless of "rules." I pray you make that
decision while you still can!
/John
21 Nov 05
ACOG into the sun:
"I tested a DPMS AR-15 yesterday. Rifle ran fine, but I was shooting almost
directly into the setting sun. Iron sights worked fine. However, when I mounted
an ACOG and attempted to continue, I discovered light spalling was sufficient
to wash out the target. I could see the sighting pyramid just fine, but nothing else!"
Comment: It's not just the ACOG. All rifle optics have an issue when shooting at
a target with a strong light source close to it. Many have assured me that iron
sights are obsolete. Not yet!
/John
21 Nov 05
Info on rifle optics, from a student and operator:
"Like you, I love Aimpoints, ACOGs, and scout scopes, but there is a critical
weaknesses that is shared by everything with glass, and it must be acknowledged
and dealt with during realistic training. Many of us carry rifles (car guns) in vehicles.
When the outside temperature drops, these rifles, and their attached optics, get
cold. When one must subsequently retrieve the rifle and then enter a heated
building, the optics will fog instantly, rendering them temporarily useless.
Moving back into the cold will cause the fog to turn to frost.
Training under all foreseeable the environmental conditions will help eliminate
painful, operational surprises!"
Comment: Once again, none of these issues are shared by iron sights.
/John
24 Nov 05
A Thanksgiving Day Story, from a friend and student in Country:
"For the second time since I've been in Country, a first sergeant approached me
today in the Thanksgiving-dinner chow line, put his arm around my shoulder, and
stated, 'I notice there is a magazine in your pistol, soldier. It's not actually loaded,
is it?' I calmly informed him I'm a CID agent, that my pistol was 'actually' loaded,
and 'that's just the way we do things.'
He backed off, put his palms up, and replied with the customary loser's self-
justification, 'I don't make the rules,' to which I retorted, 'You're part of the problem,
top. We're standing in an active combat zone, and I'm the only one in this entire
room with a gun that will actually shoot!' My reply flew over his head, of course,
but it was a sad reminder of how shamefully emasculated our armed forces have
become, even in an area of active fighting.
I wasn't issued ammunition until eight days after I arrived in theater. Fortunately,
per your advice, I brought my own. There is no excuse for such casual disregard
for the personal safety of troops. Unfortunately, I'm not holding my breath that our
commanders, or our politicians, will do anything that will push this floundering
system in the right direction."
Comment: We are fighting decades of gun-phobia, which has made its way into
every corner of our civilization, even our "armed" forces, and even when they are
deployed to a combat zone and actively engaged in a war!
/John
A Recent "Kaboom":
While recently performing some sound testing with various loads, I had some .38 spcl
wadcutter loads made by a friend. Because they are so light, I did not notice the
difference between a light load and one that evidently was not powdered and lodged
in the barrel. Next shot, "kaboom ."
No injuries, and a $28 used part solved the problem.
Here you can see the one lodged in the tube that caused the problem.
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