30June05

From an LEO friend in WI:

Last weekend, a local resident and his date went to a hip-hop, dance club. While there, a fight developed between members of rival gangs. This guy and

his date wisely decided to leave. Of course, they would have been even wis er to not go there to begin with.

Private security officers tossed out participants in the fight, so all left

the club at the same time. One faction decided (in error) that the guy and

his date had an allegiance to the other group. They followed him to his car and threatened him. He popped the trunk, took out his diminutive Phoenix 25auto, held it by his leg, and asked the militants to leave quietly. They apparently decided he was serious, so they ran off.

Our guy then got in the car and called the police. Dispatch garbled the details (who'd a thought?), so it took a while to sort it all out. The guy's story was eventually corroborated, and, after the customary confusion, we cu t him loose. He was not charged.

I did discover that with that particular model of Phoenix pistol requires a

magazine to be inserted before the slide can be manipulated, so it cannot be unloaded the usual way, by first removing magazine and then removing the rou nd from the chamber. Nobody could figure out how to get the gun unloaded, because the magazine had been (correctly) removed first. So, they got me, because I'm the 'Gun Guy.' I eventually figured it out, but I was stumped at first. Why would anyone design a gun like that?"

Lesson: Going to stupid places carries with it considerable risk. Being around stupid people compounds the risk. This guy and his date did the rig ht thing by leaving at the first sign of trouble, but it was a dumb place to g o to begin with. It is amazing he was able to retrieve a gun from the trunk of a car as his attackers just stood there and gawked. Most gang members would have been more aggressive. These punks were obviously amateurs. Next time he may not be so lucky. Under most circumstances, guns in trunks of cars have

scant chance of ever being put to use in an emergency.

Comment: The Phoenix pistol in question is not one often seen, and we can see why! What kind of "design engineer" would contrive a pi stol whose slide cannot be reciprocated with the magazine removed? The point is that cheap/trash guns like this one are the exclusive province of fools who haven 't thought the issue through, and, in the last analysis, don't place much value on there own lives.

/John