True Happiness?

05 Jan 10

Weapon Maintenance, from a friend and Instructor:

"I bought a Kahr P9 some time ago. My wife and I both used and carried it. We ran it with all brands of high-performance ammunition and, for practice, some pretty wretched junk. That little pistol effortlessly digested all of it, with nary a failure. We both trusted it implicitly!

One day, I decided to ask a well-known pistolsmith to polish the pistol's trigger linkage, since, while the trigger, as it came from the factory, was certainly north of tolerable, it had an annoying little hitch in its git-along that I decided a sophisticated connoisseur such as myself simply shouldn't have to tolerate!

After his expert ministrations, I couldn't get the damn thing to run a full magazine (with any of the four I owned, all of which had fed flawlessly beforehand)! In addition, I couldn't get the situation to improve, even after several thorough cleanings, intermixed with a 250-round break-in.

From that day forward, the pistol never ran satisfactorily again. I finally traded it, at a loss.

My sad lesson: When your business-piece runs just fine, be certain you really need whatever fiddling you've decided you have to have done. "True Happiness" may prove far more illusive than you ever imagined!

Comment:

"But, at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near The grave is a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace."

Andrew Marvell

/John

... at your Doorstep!

05 Jan 09

Beware of Dangerous People, even at your Doorstep! This from an LEO in the Midwest:

"Yesterday, we had a bank-robbery in our small town. The first one ever at this bank!

Two suspects in ski-masks brandished guns and quickly entered and exited the bank, after receiving several thousand dollars in cash.

Both suspects made it out of the bank before local police arrived, and they fled towards the interstate in a vehicle, but were boxed-in by our marked units before they could reach the on-ramp. They then exited the vehicle and fled on foot into a swamp and subsequently into a residential neighborhood.

We were right behind them, with dogs, but they split up and separately entered two local homes.

One conned his way into a house by convincing the single, male home-owner that he needed to use a phone to call a friend for a ride, and in fact subsequently talked the home-owner into giving him a ride to a local shopping mall. As the vehicle, containing home-owner and suspect, attempted to leave the neighborhood, it was stopped by our marked units, and officers questioning both quickly saw through the phoney story and arrested the suspect, without further incident. The home-owner was unhurt, through no fault of his own!

The second suspect entered another residence through an unlocked front door, quickly found the home-owners car keys in his jacket pocket which was hanging near the doorway, and made off in a stolen car! He successfully made it out of the neighborhood and is still at large.

Lessons for me:

Keep doors (home and car) locked! Keep your electronic security system turned on when you're not there. Be armed, even at home. Don't engage strangers at your doorstep in conversation, and don't unlock the door! Tell them that you can't help them, and that you're calling police.

Be aware that dangerous, criminal suspects are everywhere, including your doorstep!"

Comment:

"Opportunity may knock, but seldom nags!"

David Mamet

Now is the time to make important changes in your physical situation and in your personal philosophy, changes that harden you, yours, and your home against criminal violence.

"Hope" is not a strategy!

/John