17 May 04

On Training and Equipment, from a Friend and Colleague:

"An H&K P7/M8 blew out its extractor, but the pistol continued to work! The only thing it would not do was eject manually. Shooting was not affected. I now think a lot more of P7's!

Lots of stoppages and related gun problems due to poor ammunition. If only we could get rid of hobby reloads! Wolf is not much better. We experienced two Wolf squibs within an hour (40 S&W). The bullets had to be pounded out of the barrels.

The 'Israeli' (=98Mossad') method of carrying a handgun with a n empty chamber is the ultimate in self deception. I had one student last week who insisted I allow him to use this technique. I refused and suggested he either 'humor me' or find another range.

A student showed up with a G35 (long slide), equipped with a brightly colored, 'Hi-Viz,' plastic-tube front sight. They're all the rage t hese days. After a high-volume drill, we all noticed that the entire sight had melted! The two ends were still captured in the metal frame, but the middle had drooped, and the plastic was making a puddle on the G35's slide. This stuff may be fine for duck hunting, but has absolutely no business on a serious gun.

Lots of feeding problems with Para Ordinance 1911 double-column, reduced capacity magazines. Bullets (hardball) nosedive due to inadequate magazine spring pressure. We also had several of the signature oversized baseplates move to o far forward and thus prevent complete insertion. A number of such 'problem' magazines had to be sidelined.

SIG DAK is extremely popular with SIG owner/users. Saying goodby to manual decocking is something none regret."

Comment: Emergency equipment upon which your life may depend needs to be tried and true. Test your stuff. Don't allow yourself to fall in love with everything that glitters.

/John

17 May 04

Confrontation, from an LEO friend in Australia:

"Late last month I was informed three thugs were out front of the local hote l beating a woman to death. Since I am the 'local police,' I got out of bed, ' armed' myself with a cell phone, jumped in my personal car, and drove up to the hotel.

Sure enough, outside were three of the biggest thugs I'd ever seen with a half clothed, bleeding woman lying at their feet. As my headlights shone on her she reached toward my direction and pleaded, 'Help me!' As soon as I got out of the car, all three blokes started walking toward me. The smallest one outweighed my by at least fifty pounds. The biggest was well over six foot, skinheaded, bare chested, covered in muscles, and full of tattoos, including a Nazi swastika on his left chest.

I was not in uniform, as there was no time to put it on. I had no gun, OC, or baton. As I instruct martial arts locally, I did have a 'boken' (long, hardwood staff) in my car. I retrieved it and confronted them squarely. 'Hello boys, what's going on here then?' I obtained the eloquent reply, 'W ho the f___ are you?' I replied that I was the local, f______ policeman, and again asked what they were up to. They looked at each other and then said that they wer e just 'helping' this woman. I replied that their definition of help' was curious indeed. As we talked, the woman crawled over and begged me to resc ue her.

Swastika boy then got too close. I showed him my boken and told him to go sit down on the curb while we waited for the other nice policeman to arrive. He ignored me and kept coming, so I said, 'Let me put it another way: t ake another step and I'll start using this.' He aggressive demeanor instantly c hanged as he backed off with his hands in the air, mumbling that he really didn't want to fight after all.

Then, Godzilla decided to have a go. He comes at me, and I tell him the sam e thing. He stops, grins, utters the statement of the night, 'Mate, y our not good enough to use that!' He then bunches up his fists and moves in on me. The next sound was the defining 'crack' made by the boken at it stru ck this guy's right leg, just above his knee. It sounded like a pistol shot, which c ause the local pub to empty out. Godzilla hit the ground with a crash, clutching his leg, and screaming that it was broken. The other two quickly backed off , became suddenly docile and compliant, and sat down on the curb as I had originally asked.

The woman was taken off to hospital. She recovered. All three thugs were arrested without further incident. Godzilla's leg was not fractured, but my boken was, split down the middle.

I learned my lesson. No matter how much of a hurry I'm in, next time I'll b e sure I have all my gear with me. I was lucky this time."

Lesson: Aside from the obvious, when you're confronted by multiple people wh o indicate they mean you harm, select the biggest/most aggressive/closest and take him out decisively, emphatically, and without warning. In most cases, the fight will be over at that point, as it was in this case. If you fail to take out the biggest one, first and fast, your situation will deteriorate rapidly. If there must be a fight, the best kind is the short kind!

/John