U.S. Concealed Carry
“Armed American Report”
Visit Here for Membership Information!
May 23rd, 2008
Dear Friend,
You’re in for a treat this week! I’ve put together an ultra-informative Armed American report for you that you’re absolutely going to love.
So while Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama fight between themselves, you can strategize with some on-the-spot Armed American Report action!
Before we begin this week, I just wanted to pause for a moment to honor Memorial Day. This is the last time I’ll get a chance to say it before Monday, and I think it’s pretty important. I’m afraid that for too many Americans, Memorial Day is just a great excuse to go camping. Now don’t get me wrong, I have some great memories from Memorial Days of the past… but as you all know, it’s very important that we do not forget the real reason for the holiday- to honor the fallen American troops, who died so that I could have the right to carry a gun, and print a magazine about how to do it better.
Some of my favorite memories of Memorial Day are of watching our local parade, when the Veterans march with their M-14 rifles- representing those soldiers who never came back. The soldiers- the most worthy Americans; and the M-14 rifle- the best combat rifle ever produced, and a beautifully utilitarian symbol of personal independence, strength, and marksmanship. (In my humble opinion!)
With that, I’d like to wish you all a fun and safe weekend, and kick off this edition of the Armed American Report.
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== USCCA Laugh of the Week ==
See all of Chaim’s Cartoons at his website:
http://www.chaimcartoons.com/
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== “Self defense, stopping power, ==
and caliber”
by Grant Cunningham
This week’s article is from a GREAT Blog, written by a great Revolver-Smith. I don’t have any experience with this guy’s work, but from what I hear, he’s one of the best there is. This is the first part of an EXCELLENT series that he just wrote. At the end, I’ll give you a link to where you can find the rest! Here goes…
I’ve gotten a bunch of emails recently regarding the choice of an appropriate self-defense caliber and/or bullet. Around this one topic swirls more misinformation - and outright inanity - than any other I can think of.
And now, here’s mine! What follows is a layman’s understanding, backed by years of hunting and shooting experience, of the practical mechanics of wound ballistics. It is not intended to be a complete and exhaustive study of the subject. Instead, I hope to give my readers - who are, in all likelihood, layperson’s themselves - a solid base of information to help make good decisions when choosing self defense ammunition.
Let’s start by understanding that in a self-defense scenario our goal is simply to cause the perpetrator of a crime to cease immediately his/her antisocial activities. That’s it - we want the miscreant to quit doing whatever it was that caused us to draw our gun in the first place. The closer to “immediately” that this occurs, the better for all concerned.
There are two mechanisms by which this can be accomplished: psychological incapacitation and physical incapacitation.
The first - psychological incapacitation - is the least predictable of the two. Some people will stop and run when grazed by a well-thrown rock, others will soak up all manner of chemical, electrical, and physical deterrents without so much as flinching. Since we cannot count on delivering a reliable jolt to a criminal’s psyche, we must focus on doing enough physical damage to cause cessation of action through reduction of motor skills.
On this subject has been constructed all manner of measures, each attempting to quantify the unquantifiable: “One shot stops.” “Knockout index.” “Wound channel volume.” There are more, and none of them ever seem to agree (at least most of the time) on what actually works.
Well, folks, hunters have known something for a very long time, and it has been proven in the field again and again: to reliably put the brakes on a living entity, a bullet must do what I call The Twin Tasks.
1) It has to get to something the body finds important, and
2) It has to do rapid and significant damage to that thing when it arrives.
That’s it. Either, by itself, simply won’t deliver the results we seek - at least, not in the physical sense. If the projectile fails at either of these Tasks, any success that occurs is in fact a product of psychological incapacitation, which we already know to be both unpredictable and unreliable.
Keep in mind that as the bullet traverses the target, it may repeat the Tasks; in other words, it may encounter more than one thing the body finds important. The more times that it does, and then completes the second Task, the faster the incapacitation is likely to occur. (Note that I didn’t say “will”, only “likely to”. Handgun rounds are underpowered things, and with them nothing is ever certain.)
Within certain limits, it doesn’t really matter what the caliber is or what the bullet is made of or how fast it travels, as long as it does both of the Tasks. That’s why there seems to be such a wide range of calibers, weights and velocities that have shown “good” results in self defense shootings, and why arguments about “stopping power” rage on the gun forums: there is, as the saying goes, more than one way to skin a cat.
Remember, as long as both Tasks are accomplished, the envelope of “how” they are is large enough to encompass a variety of approaches.
The reason that the “heavy and slow” and “light and fast” bullet camps exist is because, generally, their choices just happen do both of those Tasks on a fairly regular basis. Arguing about which is the “better” approach is really quite silly, because when they work it’s because they did both Tasks, regardless of the actual mechanism; when they fail, it is simply because they didn’t do one (or both) of the Tasks, again regardless of their physical attributes.
It’s at this point that someone invariably chimes in “but my cousin is engaged to a girl whose brother-in-law heard about a guy who saw someone shot a fifteen times with a 9mm, and the victim was still able to walk into a French restaurant, order a 5-course meal, eat, chat with the sommelier, and stiff the waiter before finally collapsing on the sidewalk while waiting for his cab! That’s why I carry a .467 Loudenboomer Ultra Grande - if it hits them in the pinky the hydrostatic shock wave will knock them down!”
I’m exaggerating, you understand, but if you regularly haunt the gun forums you’ll recognize that it isn’t all that far off.
Yes, small caliber bullets fail. Guess what? Large caliber bullets fail, too. As someone once told me, “put on your big-boy pants and deal with it!”
A good friend of mine gave me a first-hand account of a battle incident wherein a fellow absorbed several large caliber, solid torso hits, and was still able to jump from his vehicle and cross a road before finally collapsing. The gun in question? A .50 caliber heavy machine gun.
Yes, you read that correctly. Sometimes, folks, nothing works.
Our job, then, is to choose those calibers and bullets which seem to do the Two Tasks fairly reliably, and prepare to deal with the times that it just isn’t enough. (With handgun rounds, those times are more common than the gunshop commandoes would have you believe.)
In the next installment, we’ll take a layman’s look at the physics involved.
END
Pretty good, huh? CLICK HERE to read the rest of the series!!
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== Concealed Carry Clothiers==
Double Thickness Dress Gun Belt
USCCA GEAR REVIEW
This is the first gear review that I’ve honestly been excited about in a long time. See, the way these gear-reviews works, is whenever I come across a product that I think interests the Armed Citizen, I get in touch with the company that makes the product and request a sample of the product for review. I tell them that it’s a win-win, because they get product exposure (free advertising!) and I get to show my readers a useful and potentially life-saving product that they may not have otherwise heard about.
Now to me, this seems like quite an offer. But believe it or not, it’s like pulling teeth to get companies to participate! Sure, I could just BUY products, but I believe that for this free exposure, a company has to show me some level of commitment… That is why it is SO refreshing when a gear-review candidate is genuinely interested in having their products featured here… which leads me into this week’s gear review…
A while ago, I came into contact with the owner of Concealed Carry Clothiers, at http://www.ConcealedCarry.com. Her name is Gingee, and her and I had a GREAT conversation. She ended up sending me a few of her products to have a look at, and one of them is a Double-Thickness Dress Gun Belt- which is what I’m going to be reviewing this week.
But first, I’d like to say a few words about Concealed Carry Clothiers. Their shop is located in Rhode Island, and ALL of their goods are produced right there by Americans. I know darn well she could easily hire an overseas company to do the job, but she is adamant about buying American, and selling American. I thought that was pretty darn refreshing and admirable!
Now on to the belt itself…
I love this thing. When they say it’s ‘double-thickness’, they aren’t kidding! Check out the picture on the right- it’s comparing this belt’s thickness to my ‘normal’ belt…
Pretty Heavy Duty, eh? Speaking of heavy duty, look at the left half of that picture I took. That shows the way the buckle is attached, the TWO retainer loops, and it’s general solid-as-a-rock construction… I didn’t test this, but I have a feeling you could pull a car out of the ditch with this thing.
Okay… so this belt is touch as nails, and could be the last belt you’ll ever buy based on strength and quality… but can a belt this heavy duty really look ‘classy’?
You be the judge:
Did I mention that this thing has a solid brass buckle? How about perfect stitching? This thing looks great… it’s absolutely all the dress belt I’ll ever need. They come in black and brown too!
When the perfect company makes the perfect product… it’s like a perfect storm. I can’t really say enough good about this belt. If you want to have a look at this belt on Gingee’s website, or any of her other products, here is a link to their home-page… you’ll know what to do from there: http://concealedcarry.com/
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== USCCA Members-Only ==
Forum Highlights
Every Member has complete access to the USCCA forum, which is constantly being accessed by members sharing information, knowledge, insight, and fun. With well over fifty-thousand posts and growing by the hour, this is one heck of a valuable resource!
New York State Carry Laws? by ‘demersj’
Do any of the New Yorkers on here know of specific conceal carry laws for New York State (Not NYC)? I cannot find anything specific from the NYS police website or anywhere else. I was told the only places we can’t carry are schools, airports, and government buildings. Any info would be appreciated.
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Ammo Capacity by ‘BullseyeBud’
I just received an old Mossberg 22 Bolt Action Model 346KA 22-S-L-LR from a family with no knowledge about gun itself. Does anyone know how much ammo can be loaded into this rifle? Thanks in advance.
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Pocket clip? by ‘Little Tex’
I’ve always carried my clip knife on my belt between belt and pants, hidden by my shirt. But after seeing everybody carry theirs in their pocket I thought I’d do that. Big mistake. I just honed my karambit to razor sharpness and clipped it inside my pocket. Somehow it opened and when I reached in my pocket my middle and ring fingers got stabbed and cut pretty bad. Don’t know how the thing came open since I have to tug to open it on purpose. Anybody else have this sort of problem? It’s back on my belt where it belongs.
Want a cheap karambit? Go buy a carpet cutting knife at the hardware store. You’ll need a scabbard to carry it.
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The “Tie-Knot Shot” by ‘tenthmountain’
The comments below are from Gabe Suarez’s latest newsletter, written by someone claiming to be a physician. It talks about a shot that may offer a better probability of quick “deanimation” of a threat:
“So, where is this area?
It is along the midline of the body, in the area from the “Adams apple” to the notch at the top of the breastbone (feel that notch with your index finger tip at the top of the breastbone?).
Deep to that region are the blood vessels and one of the many nerves in the lower neck that controls the muscles of the thumb and index finger commonly referred to as the C8 nerve. Am I saying that this is the one-shot stop area with pistol rounds? Of course not! It is however, more anatomically and/or neurologically correct in accomplishing immediate deanimation than the chest COM and awaiting for enough blood loss to cause the threat to loose consciousness.”
This area is just above where a tie knot would be, thus my coining the term “tie knot shot.”
I usually practice the zipper technique, and my last/highest chest shot in the string tends to go into this area. I’m not sure I would aim for this area exclusively - it may be hard to hit under stress - but it is worthwhile to consider as the last shot in a zipper low-mid-high chest string.
I figured I’d present it for those who do not get the newsletter from Gabe.
Bottom line is to maximize the probability of severing the nerves in the spine - whether via penetration through the center of the chest, or via the thinner base of the neck.
Comments welcome.
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Storm /Survival shelters by ‘jgray’
I personally don’t know to much about shelters,but I thought this would be a great thread to start so we could get some info from those who do. I am specifically looking for info on under ground shelters in Florida where I imagine the water table could be a problem. I have seen photos of shelters that appear to be installed like a septic tank,partially below ground with the structure above ground covered by an earthen mound.
Thanks ahead of time for the info.
Here is a great web site I was looking over,some cool shelters here.
http://www.shelters-of-texas.com/home.html
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Very Dramatic!!! by ’shirt001′
This happened to my wife way before we met. She was 13. My wife and her 2 sisters were at home listening to music one night it was 8pm. They lived in Germany in the semi country. 3 guys had escaped from a local prison and broke in. They threatened to kill all of them if they made any noise. As they were ransacking the house her mother and father came up the driveway. Her father was retired Air Force. He stayed in Germany and opened a bar. Anyone ever stationed at Ramstein has probably heard of his place Toms Golden Nugget. Anyway, Tom was armed with a 9mm. Very rare in Germany. As they came up the drive they saw one of them through the curtains. Inside, the guys turned the music up to max and told the girls if they came in everyone dies. What did Tom do? Since this is a scenario type, what would you guys have done?
I will tell you what happened after your replies.
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One Eye or Two ? by ‘Popajones’
What is considered the proper method of looking down the sight of a hand gun? One eye or both open? I see double when I try both eyes open.
I have not yet taken the training courses necessary for the permit for CC and I’m sure all this will be addressed when I do but just a question I am curious about.
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== “Shots from a Home Owner ” ==
USCCA VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Note: Because some email programs don’t display the newsletter very well when the Video of the Week is included, I’ve decided only display the video on the website itself. This change will make the newsletter load a lot faster for you, so I think you’ll like the change! To go to our newsletter site to watch it, visit the following link:
http://www.usconcealedcarry.org/news/newsletter/
To me.. this seems like playing with fire and seeking pity when you get burned…
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== “Tim-spiration” of the Week ==
USCCA PHOTO OF THE WEEK
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USCCA QUOTE OF THE WEEK
- Sometimes a good quote will inspire or motivate you. Sometimes, they’ll just put a smile on your face! Here is the quote for this week…
“The press is our chief ideological weapon.”
-Nikita Khrushchev
…Just a reminder to stay on your toes!
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Self Defense Story OF THE WEEK
- Every day, thousands of Armed Americans use their firearms to preserve human life. Let this section of my newsletter serve as a record of this fact!
- “Don’t try to Rob a Texan”
found at:http://www.claytoncramer.com/gundefenseblog/blogger.html
A man who invaded a Missouri City residence ended up bleeding in the street after being shot by a man who lives there with his mother, police said.
The 27-year-old resident grabbed a pistol and fired after two intruders forced their way through a door at the house in the 1600 block of Grand Park about 11:40 p.m., Missouri City police said this morning.
The wounded man, who fired at least one shot before the resident returned fire, ran out of the house and collapsed at the intersection of Grand Park and Quail Feather Court with a chest wound, officers said.
He threw a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol into a storm sewer, police said, but it was recovered. Investigators found that it had been stolen in a burglary in Houston.
The wounded man, 41, was flown to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston. His condition was not disclosed, but police said he had been stabilized and apparently will survive. No charges have yet been filed.
Police are searching for the second intruder, who fled after the shooting. Police did not say whether he was in a car or on foot.
The resident, whose mother owns the house, was not wounded, officers said.
For more GREAT Self-Defense stories, please visit THIS site!
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Closing Thoughts
Well friends, I hope you have enjoyed this rock-solid edition of the Armed American Report. I cleaned the format up a bit this week, and I hope it seems a little more organized!
One last thing- I received an email from a member this week that I wanted to post here- a great movement that we all need to get behind!
Tim,
I think it would be important to inform all the newsletter recipients of the Concealed carry issues the National Park Service has proposed.
They are proposing to ALLOW concealed weapons on NPS lands and refuges!
This is huge. Just send in the comments.
http://federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2008-09606_PI.pdf
Please be safe out there!
Tim Schmidt
Founder - U.S. Concealed Carry
http://www.usconcealedcarry.com
