“A criminal attack is always the fault of the attacker. The purpose of self defense is to limit your vulnerability to criminals, not to make you responsible for their bad actions.”
H/t – Kathy Jackson, ”The Cornered Cat” on FB
The Stories and Novels By Derek Ward
“A criminal attack is always the fault of the attacker. The purpose of self defense is to limit your vulnerability to criminals, not to make you responsible for their bad actions.”
H/t – Kathy Jackson, ”The Cornered Cat” on FB
I’m not sure what to say on this that hasn’t been said in previous murders. The dude was sick and found an ideology that encouraged his desires. Blasting his name and picture all over the media is giving him what he wants. Politicians and the chattering class will use this to gain advantage. The same talking points will be debated. No solutions will be found.
And we’ll do this song and dance again.
Turning to the continuing fiasco that is the NRA, John Richardson over at No Lawyers, Only Guns and Money that Allen West has agreed to run against Wayne LaPierre for EVP of the NRA.
Lawrence Peterson, over at his Battleswarm Blog agrees that WLP needs to go, but West might not be the best person to clean house.
Randy Weaver passed away last week. I agree with McThag that he wasn’t the hero some in the gun community make him out to be. That didn’t mean he or his family deserved what happened to them.
Speaking of notable deaths, Fred Ward passed away last week as well. Tremors had a lot more influence on a young Derek Ward’s taste in movies than I like to admit. And Tremors 2.
To end this post on the lighter side, Lego is releasing an Optimus Prime set in June. And it transforms! I’m interested, but $170 is a little steep for me at the moment. Got things to save up for.
According to various press releases the Army has awarded Sig Sauer the contract for the replacement of the M4 carbine and M249 SAW.
Sig Sauer will develop and supply the XM5 rifle and the XM250 automatic rifle variants of the NGSW over 10 years. It will also produce the 6.8 Common Cartridge Family of Ammunition.
What I find interesting is that depictions for both the carbine and SAW have silencers attached. So, it looks like the military is going to put cans on all their small arms. Which makes sense.
I’ve also heard rumors that the new cartridge was going to be polymer-cased to save weight, but there was no mention of that in the article. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
This is a weird time in politics. Both of the major parties are being swept by their extremes, and its turning politics less about solving issues and more about performance art with state-sanctioned violence.
Case in point, the Florida legislature rescinded Disney’s special district. Over at National Review, Charles Cooke does a masterful job of explaining why that’s a bad idea.
Those who have defended the move argue that sticking it to Disney in this matter demonstrates that the Republican Party is willing to “fight” and will thus represent a victory for conservatism. But this is silly. Admirably, Governor DeSantis has already fought Disney, and he has already won. The policy about which Disney chose stupidly to complain is now Florida law. It passed both houses of the state legislature; it was signed by DeSantis, who had been correctly defiant in the face of Disney’s gripes; and it enjoys the support of broad majorities of Floridians. There is no need for the Republican Party of Florida to salt the earth here; it has prevailed in every particular.
Just as DeSantis is using his position as governor to prepare for a run for the White House, we have Nikki Fried suing over marijuana users being prohibited from possessing firearms. While I personally agree with this move, I do not believe for a second that Fried is doing this out of personal conviction. Other than the personal conviction that she doesn’t want to be a felon for holding both a medical marijuana card and a concealed weapons license. Considering all the money she’s taken from gun control groups, as well as all the clusterfucks she’s thrown into the CCW system.
A trio of recent Reason articles for you today.
First, an article from the Volokh Conspiracy on two policies Zelensky enacted that should be repealed. Plus, there’s the whole criminalizing other political parties.
Second, a semi-secret organization spying on Americans- the post office.
Lastly, an article on the failure of gun control studies. Not just that they failed to show gun control works, but that the vast majority were just badly done studies.
There’s been a local story going around in my area where a group of “utes” beat down a man. I think it needs some analysis for lessons. First, let me be clear as I go through some of this article. I do not think the victim “deserved the beating” or was in the wrong from a legal/moral standpoint. However, going through this scenario could give us some perspectives to consider if we are in a similar situation.
From the article:
Officers say, Evan Purcell, 40, was walking his dogs with his 10-year-old niece around 9 p.m. at Anna Maria Elementary School when he saw a group of teens drinking and possibly vandalizing the school. That’s when the police department says Purcell yelled to the group to “stop and move along.” The teenagers instead became aggressive and approached Purcell, according to a press release.
First item: did Purcell need to yell at the group or just call the cops? I can understand the desire to get involved with what Purcell considered a minor issue. However, there are some factors to take into consideration that I would have taken into account before yelling at a bunch of teens. One, he had his niece with him. That was someone who was under his protection. Two, he suspected alcohol was involved and possible criminal mischief. Both of those would make me hesitate to get directly involved. I’m guessing that Purcell didn’t expect the group to attack.
“The victim was in fear for his safety and pulled out a pocketknife to scare off the group. Several of the males in the group attacked the victim knocking him to the ground,” police wrote in a press release.
During the attack, officers say Purcell was possibly hit with a skateboard and punched and kicked in the head until he became unconscious. The group of teens then reportedly fled in a Kia Sportage.
Second item: Pulling the pocketknife. I’m going with the assumption that lethal self-defense was justified based on disparity of force. Several teens against one man who needed to protect a pre-teen girl. I’m also fully aware that often the simple act of brandishing a lethal weapon will often defuse the situation. So, my first question. Considering he was only armed with a pocket knife, would it have been more prudent to look for an avenue of retreat? Was there one available? A mitigating factor was another article stating that the niece was running away. Perhaps Purcell felt he needed to stand and fight so his niece could escape. If that was the case, then retreat is not available.
Here are my takeaways. If I’m observing a criminal act that doesn’t involve an immediate threat to life, I should consider a few things before putting myself into the situation. First, what is the anticipated danger to me and those under my immediate protection from the criminals? Second, do I have appropriate tools or evasion routes if I screwed up number one?
I was listening to Econtalk where Michael Eisenberg was the guest. He’s an Israeli venture capitalist. One of the techniques he discussed was “backcasting”. Essentially, he looks at a technology, determines the endpoint, and then works backward to determine the feasibility of the steps needed to get to the endpoint. He was using the example of driverless cars to show how the underlying technology needed to get to fully autonomous cars was still not there to expect a truly fully autonomous car in the near future. I thought it was neat, because I use a similar technique in writing. So, I may come up with a scene or an idea. Okay, what do I need to get to there?
Speaking of podcasts, on an episode of Words & Numbers, the hosts were musing about the downfall of Amazon. The harbinger of this was the degrading of the level of customer service. The hosts were musing that brands that fell in the past were often preceded by a degrading of the little things – cleanliness of the stores, friendliness of the employees, etc. It’s an interesting point, and I’ll have to bear in mind as I watch Amazon in the future.
And for something completely different, I’m kinda excited about Mossberg’s new auto shotgun. It looks like what I’ve been wanting in terms of styling and it looks like it may price under $1K. I’ll wait to see what some of the reviewers say, as well as seeing how one feels in my hands, but this may be a contender.
Going around my feeds and podcasts was a recent poll on if Americans would fight if the country was invaded.
From National Review
As part of a recent survey of attitudes toward Russia’s execrable invasion of Ukraine, the polling firm Quinnipiac asked Americans whether they would stay and fight if the United States were invaded by Russia. The results make sobering — and often disgraceful — reading. Sixty-eight percent of Republicans said that they would “stay and fight,” with 25 percent indicating that they’d run away. Among independents, those numbers are 57–36. Among Democrats, they’re in negative territory, at 40–52. Among 50- to 64-year-old men and women, the stay/leave numbers are 66/28. Among 18- to 34-year-olds, they are 45/48. Or, to put it another way: A majority of the prime-aged Americans whom the United States would need were such a crisis to arise imagine that they would flee if that crisis ever came.
There’s been a lot of hay being made on how few 18 to 34 year-olds said they would stay and fight. Most of the ones I read/heard talk about “failure to instill respect of country”, “nothing at stake”, or “doesn’t understand the importance”. Some of that’s probably true, but there’s one theory I haven’t heard. Deferment to authority.
We’ve been telling kids for a generation to let the grown-ups handle conflict. Don’t do it yourself, but wait for the proper authorities. Could that have bled into letting the proper authorities fight? Particularly in a society that keeps stressing letting only those trained to do a specific task? That you need credentials to do something?
Another in my series of seeing how things change year over year. I tend to carry a lot of stuff. Here are my previous posts:
2018 post.
2019 post.
2020 post.
2021 post.
For 2022, there’s been significant changes to my EDC. Shortly after my 2021 post, I had trouble finding the cargo jeans that I normally wore. Plus, they weren’t holding up to my normal wear and tear. So after much discussion with The Wife, I decided to go from carrying a bunch of stuff in various pockets, I started carrying a bag with many of the items. Further, after nearly two years of full-time telework, I don’t go out as much. So, most days, I’m just walking around my house.
This is the EDC I will carry most days that I don’t go outside the house.
I’m using an iPhone 12. I have the 128 GB model. I used to need to have all teh space, but since I work from home, I can manage more under Wi-Fi and need less space. I use a simple case that has the texture of a MagPul P-MAG.
I’ve recently switched to a pair of Jabra Elite 75t earbuds. They’re still in the “testing” phase. If these don’t work, I’ll probably go back to my Apple AirPods Pro. I particularly like Apple’s “transparent” mode which allows more of the outside sound through. I’ve been having battery issues with them though. which prompted the switch to the Jabra’s.
I carry a Leatherman Skeletool for just around the house. Much to The Wife’s chagrin, I’ve found I need a knife or one of the myriad of little tools far too often.
For walking around the house, I carry an older Streamlight ProTac. It’s good for quickly looking in shadowed and/or darkened areas. Like under the bed. It’s also surprisingly good at finding where one of the cat’s decided to mark its territory.
I’m using a 44mm Series 5 Apple Watch. I like the always on feature.
Additional stuff when I’m going out.
I use a Saddleback Large Leather wallet.. I keep a Tool Logic Credit Card inside it. It’s not that I use it that much. Mostly, it’s because I’ve had the damn thing for probably twenty-five years, and my wallet feels empty without it.
My brother picked me up a Lifelong Ring 300 key ring system. I mainly use the main big ring and have all of my keys on the wire key rings. In addition to my keys, I have:
Kingston 32GB Flash Drive – Because you never know when someone has a file they want to give you
Gerber Artifact – I’m not sure if Gerber is still selling these, but their Shard would be a good substitute
Surefire Sidekick – Of course, I have to have another flashlight. It doesn’t get used as much as it did when I was commuting in the dark early morning, but it’s still come in handy a couple of times.
If I’m out of the house, the Leatherman gets switched out for a Kershaw-Emerson CQC-10.
For going out of the house, I carry a Streamlight ProTac 750 lumen flashlight. It’s too big to really be a pocket flashlight, so I carry it in one of my IWB spare magazine holders.
I carry a small Sabre Pepper Spray for when I need something between strong words and deadly force.
I carry around a CRKT tactical pen.
Unless I’m going to someplace I’m not legally allowed to carry, I generally have my Smith and Wesson M&P9 (First Gen) equipped with a Streamlight TLR-1 and Trijicon night sights. I keep it and the spare magazine loaded with 124-grain Speer Gold Dots (since that’s what the local cops use). I’ve switched to using a Bravo Concealment kydex IWB holster after the leather on my hybrid started folding over and preventing good holstering. I’ve started using a pair of IWB kydex magazine holders for a spare magazine and my flashlight. When I can finally do some test firing, I’ll be switching out my sidearm to an M&P9 M&P2.0. The new one has an upgraded TLR-1 (all the lumenz!).
After much discussion with The Wife, I switched to carrying a 5.11 LV10 Sling Pack for carrying all the bits and bobs I normally carried in the pockets of my cargo jeans. Since I switched out to the bag, some of the items I normally carried were switched out for bigger items.
In addition to the spare batteries for all my various items, I make sure I have the needed cords for all my devices. For charging, I use an Anker PowerCore I also keep a spare set of Apple Earpods in case my wireless earbuds aren’t working or out of power.
The “Boo-Boo” First Aid Kit – Coleman Mini First Aid Kit– This handles handles minor emergencies, and I like the tin as a container. It generally has band-aids, disinfecting wipes, and small antibiotics.
The “Oh-Shit” First Aid Kit – ResQue 1st Trauma Kit – It’s a small kit that has QuikClot, gauze, tape, bits and bobs, and a spare tourniquet. I’ve supplemented with scissors and tweezers and additional bandages.
Tourniquet Right the Fuck Now – Phlster Flatpack with CAT Tourniquet – I picked the CAT because that’s what I was trained to use.
Spare Meds – I generally keep small bottles of ibuprofen and Pepcid AC. Because that’s generally what I need to deal with the aches and pains of going outside.
Bic disposal lighter – Must Have Fire
Gerber Dime – This is a good little multi-tool for quick jobs. And the purple one I have is just cute.
Leatherman Skeletool – This is not the one I carry around the house. This is another that I happened to have. It lives in my bag since this one came with all the little bits Leathermen made to fit into the modular screwdriver.
Mini Tape Measure – I think mine is actually from Tractor Supply, but running around with The Wife necessitates having a tape measure when she finds stuff for the house.
Reusable twist ties
Smith and Wesson M&P tactical pen – Because writing. And tactical. And there may be more than one.
Streamlight Polytac X Flashlight – Yes, I have another flashlight. Don’t judge. I like this one because it has a rechargeable battery, but will also run on a couple of CR123’s.
Amazon Microfiber Cloth – These are really handy for cleaning my eyeglasses and my electronics’ screens.
Handkerchief – General purpose cotton handkerchief. This may get switched out for a shema (I can never remember how to spell that).
Hand Sanitizer – I prefer the small little bottles from Bath and Bodyworks.
Post-It Notes – Because you never know when you’ll need to write something down or leave a note for someone. I like the vibrant colors in case I need my note to draw attention.
Travel Pack Tissues – Because allergies. And occasional cleaning.
More magazines – Since I had the space, I figured I could keep a couple more spare magazines in a Blackhawk Double Magazine Pouch. Yes, the likelihood I’ll need these is very low. It’s still comforting to have another thirty-four rounds available.
Emergency cash – No, I’m not going to say how much