Category: Guns

Friday Quote – Edmundo Mireles Jr.

July 18, 2014 / / 0 Comments

You have to be mentally prepared for a possible violent confrontation. I can say with some authority that if you give up, if you lay down to die, than that is exactly what will happen. You will die.

FBI Special Agent Edmundo Mireles, Jr., participant in the 1986 FBI Miami Shootout

This was one of the lessons repeated at my MAG-20 class. You may be in severe pain, physically and mentally exhausted, but you must continue the fight. If you stop fighting before the bad guy, you will lose, and you will die.

Good Article on Self-Defense Shootings

July 15, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Here’s an article by Tom Givens on what we should be training for based on what his students have faced when they had to draw their sidearms.

Excerpt:

Based on this data, we believe the following are key skills the private citizen should concentrate on in their training:

Quick, safe, efficient presentation of the handgun from concealed carry.

Delivery of several well-placed shots at distances from 3 to 7 yards.

Keeping the gun running, including reloading and fixing malfunctions.

Two-handed firing. We train our students to use two hands if at all possible and most have done so in their fights.
Bring the gun to eye level. This is the fastest way to achieve accurate gun alignment. All but two of our students brought the gun to eye level, and as a result got good hits. Two had to shoot from below eye level due to unusual circumstances.

Some effort expended on the contact distance problem, including empty hand skills and weapon retention skills. However, these are secondary skills for the private citizen.

Some effort dedicated to longer shots in the 15- to 25-yard range.

RTWT

Anti-Gunners Call For Executions of Gun Owners – Again

June 25, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Hitting our end of the blogosphere have been a couple of pieces from the anti-gunners about how the incident at the Bundy Ranch proves that gun owners are all insurrectionists and should be dealt with violently.

Please explain how this is supposed to enhance “the conversation” our opponents keep telling us they want to have about guns in America. You are advocating murder over political differences.

Of course, it’s easy to spout hyperbole when you don’t have to be the one to pull the trigger.

Bearing Arms analysis here.

Miguel speaks here.

Tampa MAG-20 Live Fire Class Review

June 18, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Last weekend, I attended a MAG-20 Live Fire class conducted by local firearms instructor, Brian Wang.

So I don’t keep you in suspense, I qualified with a score of 277.

Instructor – Brian Wang was our primary instructor. I found him to be energetic, knowledgeable, and ready to take extra time to help a student who needed it (namely me.) It also helped that there were only three students, which allowed for more one-on-one time. Friday we had Christine, who I found to be pleasant and knowledgeable. The last half of Saturday we were joined by Basil Wang who helped prep us for our qualification. I felt very comfortable with their teaching styles and fully enjoyed the course.

Course – This was the first defensive pistol class I had taken. I learned a lot about drawing from concealment, the pluses and minuses of different stances, grip, and stress point firing. Interspersed between learning and practicing the techniques, Brian talked about real world examples. One that was brought up repeatedly was the 1986 FBI shootout in Miami. I’m really going to have to go back and read more on that particular episode. I will admit the crouching, high kneeling, and low kneeling were not the most comfortable positions, but I certainly feel more confident if I ever had to use them in real life.

Range – The course was held at the Tenoroc Shooting Range in Lakeland. This is an outdoor range with sporting clays, rifle, and pistol ranges. I, having never participated in shooting clays, didn’t understand why there was a line of strollers available for rent in the clubhouse.Yes, I did finally figure out what they were supposed to be used for. This was the first time Brian had conducted MAG-20 at this range, so there was some trial and error as we worked to find out the best methodology for shooting exercises. It also didn’t help that we had a lot of rain on both days. At the end, we had to do our qualifications in a light downpour, including having to do the high kneeling and low kneeling in puddles. I’m not complaining. It’s typical Florida weather, and there’s probably a better than average chance that if I had a defensive shooting in summer, it would be under similar weather conditions.

Overall – If you want to take a defensive pistol class, I would highly recommend MAG-20. If you live in the Tampa area, I would similarly recommend Brian Wang’s firm for any firearm instruction. He’s having a Defensive Carbine class in July, and assuming I don’t have any major issues crop up, I’ll probably take that one as well.

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You Can’t Trust That Police Know Gun Laws

June 12, 2014 / / 0 Comments

The NRA sent out an email about this video:

The FHP trooper continually refers to the fact that “what they’ve been told,” which makes me wonder what information is being put out to the troopers. My suspicion is that this trooper is confusing federal firearm transport rules and those regarding how Florida CCW holders and residents may legally carry their firearms in a car.

I think this gentleman handled it appropriately with polite questions and explaining his understanding.

What this demonstrates is the fact that those who are charged with enforcing the law are sometimes ignorant of it. Keep this in mind when dealing with line officers.

Some Feminists Think Learning Self-Defense Is Wrong?

June 11, 2014 / / 2 Comments

There are some mind sets that I intellectually realize are out there, but just can’t wrap my head around. Apparently (because FSM knows I hate watching pageants and wouldn’t know if not for the blogosphere), Miss Nevada remarked that women should learn self-defense against rape and several feminists collectively lost their shit.

This is the tweet that blew my mind:

“Women shouldn’t need to learn to protect themselves against rape #missnevada educate and respect yourself as a woman #rapeculture” – @annabethwest

I would be ecstatic if women didn’t have to learn self-defense because of no rape, murder, or other violence in our society.

That being said, it is the height of foolish arrogance to demand that women suffer the physical, mental, and emotional anguish of violence simply to conform to your worldview.

To Anna Beth West and those like-minded, quite simply, you sicken me.

And Larry does his normal job of tearing apart the foolishness.

H/t Weerd

The Gold Coast Trying to Destroy State Pre-Emption

June 6, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Palm Beach County managed to find a judge that ruled against part of Florida’s strengthened pre-emption law.

A judge on Monday sided with the county by finding it unconstitutional for the governor to remove a county official from office for trying to enforce local gun control rules. State lawmakers maintain that they are the only ones empowered to pass firearms regulations in Florida.

The article states this ruling doesn’t shield the locals from the fines, but it wouldn’t surprise me for them to try and get those ruled as unconstitutional as well.