Year: 2014

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New Yorkers Ignore AR15 Registration Law

Leftists have been rocked to their foundations by several developments in the past year… starting with the enormous failure of their gun control campaign following the Sandy Hook massacre (which, was clearly a coordinated publicity campaign involving the Democratic politicians and the anti-gun mainstream media), followed by the gigantic failure of Obamacare rollout and the public outcry against it from all quarters (including leftist news outlets), then the abysmal failure of the Connecticut AR-15 ban followed now by the equally complete failure of the New York “SAFE” Act “assault weapon” grab, and of course last week’s BLM backdown from the the Nevada stand-off, it has not been a good year for the Democrats. 

Under the provision of the SAFE Act, citizens of the Empire State were given until midnight on April 15, 2014, to register any “assault weapons” in their possession, thereby creating a state registry. Governor Andrew Cuomo, who pushed this bill through the legislature in only 3 days under circumstances that would be called shady at best, is now faced with the fact that the first real test of his anti-gun law has been an almost complete failure. Unnamed sources from within the NY state government have said that less than 5000 weapons were voluntarily registered by New Yorkers. It has been estimated (by the NY state govt) that there are at least 1 million “assault weapons” in the state, which means that 99.995% of New York’s assault weapons are now illegal, unregistered, and firmly in the hands of private citizens who don’t give a tinker’s damn for Cuomo’s gun law. These citizens are now, by the definition of the SAFE Act, felons.   

But New York gun owners clearly don’t care. For that matter, neither do gun owners in Connecticut, who similarly defied an “assault weapon” registration law in their state earlier this year. 

Cuomo’s law, which faces several serious legal challenges on its constitutionality, is in big trouble. The flat refusal of hundreds of thousands of New York’s citizens to comply with the “assault weapon” registry is a wake-up call for the gun-grabbers, and they appear to be totally confused by it.  

Cuomo is faced with the fact that Connecticut Gov. Daniel Malloy had to swallow earlier this year: a law of this type that the people choose to disobey en masse is a ticking time bomb, and the incumbent is stuck with it. The people who oppose the SAFE Act, which is by polls a majority of New Yorkers, are voicing their intent to throw Cuomo out of office at the next election. The people who applaud the SAFE Act are furious with Cuomo for not enforcing the law vigorously, and they vow to replace him with someone who will. He can’t win. If he backs down and repeals the law, he loses the liberal gun-control vote. If he enforces the law, he risks inciting violence between police and gun owners and an even greater public outcry as bloodshed is visited upon the good people of New York.   Gun control zealots like Cuomo and Malloy are re-discovering the political consequences of being a gun-grabber in America… it’s political suicide.

When I read the liberal press they are either conspicuously silent on the issue, or they express puzzlement that New Yorkers have en masse engaged in one of the biggest acts of civil disobedience to ever take place. They fail to grasp the implications of this watershed event. Americans are saying in numbers like never before that they are sick and tired of the overreach of elected officials, and they are not going to take it any more. 

And almost simultaneously with New York’s quiet rebellion, a rancher in Nevada along with an awful lot of supporters around the country have forced the Federal government to back down. 

I get the sense that the Nevada standoff was a watershed event in this nation’s history. It doesn’t matter to most Americans that, as many legal analysts have pointed out, the law was against Rancher Bundy. Yes, we are a nation of laws; but when the government has made so many bad laws that even the lawyers and tax accountants can’t make sense of them, the people will cease to have respect for the law. They necessarily revert to Natural Law, the law of Right. Many Americans, perhaps, most Americans, just don’t care that Rancher Bundy has defied the law. They recognize that any law that steals cattle and property from a citizen is bad law, and bad enforcement of a bad law just makes it worse. And as the backstory of Harry Reid and other crooked Nevada politicians profiting from this boondoggle comes out, Americans are even more incensed  and even more committed to defiance of bad law. 

There is no doubt in my mind that the Obamacare rollout fiasco and the intense criticism it drew made the Washington Democrats nervous, but it was and is apparent they thought that they could steamroll over that speed-bump in the road to total power. But the failure of the BLM tactical teams to accomplish their objectives, and the failure of their control of the mass media to keep the story out of the public eye (thank God for the internet!), and the realization that they were on the verge of an actual shooting war with American citizens, and now the NewYork (and Connecticut) “assault weapon” registry’s failure, well… in my mind’s eye it’s like a virtual hard left jab between the eyes.  They are stunned, confused, and temporarily at least set back.

However, I expect them to recover and pick up where they left off, with renewed purpose. And like a stunned palooka who’s too punchy (and wasn’t that bright to start with) to know that he’s about to walk into the beating of his life, they’re going to regroup and attack again. It might be at the Bundy ranch, or it might be on Texas’ Red River, but it’s going to happen. It makes me unutterably sad to realize that the powers that be are committed going to war against their fellow Americans in the blind pursuit of and addiction to power, but it seems to me to be inevitable. But I believe we can rest assured that they will attack again, and American blood will be spilled on American soil. 

Unless we can elect a Republican Senate  in November, and a united Congress can force a bloodless revolution, I fear the outcome is going to be unthinkable. 

 


 

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Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes of the War on Terror

 
I just finished reading a fascinating new book. Written by Erik Prince, the founder and CEO of Blackwater, it’s the inside account of the founding and operations of the famous–some say infamous–security private military contractor (PMC) corporation that made headlines for a decade in the Sandbox. 
 
I have to admit I’ve been wishing for this book for several years. During the conflicts in the Sandbox from 2001 to the present, but especially during the peak years of counterinsurgency operations, I was fascinated by the stories coming out about Blackwater and other PMC’s. The mainstream media and left-leaning internet bloggers portrayed these organizations and contractors as “mercenaries” (which by definition under international law they were not), and as “cowboys” and “unaccountable” operators–again, false. I got the sense early on that these contractors were an essential element in America’s war on terror in the Sandbox. And Prince’s book confirms this in spades. 
 
Prince’s book illuminates the period of Blackwater’s operations in a manner only its owner and CEO could. He touches on the history of private military contractors in America (going back to the Revolution, and ongoing in every armed conflict since). He tells the untold stories of heroism and sacrifice of Blackwater contractors that the mainstream media refused to tell. He tells the backstories to the events that the mainstream media and internet blogosphere distorted and outright lied about, which eventually  made Blackwater the target of Washington politicians. And he gives his account of the blatant attempts by congressman Darrell Waxman (C-CA) and other Democrats to politicize the controversy over use of  PMC’s in Iraq and Afghanistan. 
 
Anyone who questioned the media reports of the various Blackwater incidents–the ambush and deaths of 4 Blackwater contractors in Fallujah, the Nisour Square shooting–at the time they were first reported will be gratified to read Prince’s account, which harmonizes well with the “fair and balanced” reports of these happenings that were released months later (with no headlines, of course) that exonerated the PMC organization. 
 
This is a highly readable book, and for anyone who wants to be informed of the full scope of PMC’s in our nation’s military ventures, it is a must-read. 
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Competitive Shooting: Use it to Hone Your Training

 
“Are you competing to create training scars, or are you competing to hone your training?”  -David Maglio
 
This pithy bit of wisdom from my warrior-brother and longtime training partner is the Word of the Month from Tactical Anatomy Systems.

 
I have been shooting action pistol competitively for 15 years, and hope to be shooting action pistol sports when I’m 80. It’s an incredible way to maintain your proficiency with your chosen weapon(s). I’ve had arguments with folks who refuse to regard competition as a component of your training, and aside from the willfully ignorant people whose minds are made up, I’ve persuaded more than a few to use their competitive experience to hone their training. 
 
Competitive shooting forces you to put your skills and your equipment up against a clock, and in front of witnesses. Unlike your private training time at the range, in competition there are no self-bestowed “mulligans”. You perform, and your results are glaringly indisputible. You hit the targets, or you didn’t. You shot the course of fire in XX seconds, period. And if you have a friend video-record your runs, you can analyze the things you did right or wrong afterwards and adjust your training accordingly.   
 
I have recently taken up 3-Gun competition, and in the course of doing so have been challenged to revisit some of my choices: of guns, of holsters, of ammunition, of sights, the whole gamut.  In the process, I have revisited my ongoing defensive firearms training and have found some things I need to change, and some things to keep as they are.  
 
Understand that I am not shooting 3-Gun to win matches, although I hope to shoot and place well each time I shoot. I am shooting these matches to challenge myself to keep as proficient as possible with my chosen weapons: pistol, shotgun, and rifle. I do not shoot “race” guns. I shoot guns that I carry/own for personal defense, or guns as similar to my personal defense weapons as possible. 
 
For instance, I have switched from a straight kydex holster to a Blackhawk SERPA holster for competition. Two reasons: first, I have come to value the retention feature on this holster for personal carry… I never want to have someone take my gun from me. But the second reason is also valid: I don’t want to have my gun fly out of my holster during a competition, as it did to one of my friends a few months ago. He had cleaned the targets at Position A and was running with his rifle to Position B when his pistol popped out of his holster and hit the ground. Fortunately, the gun didn’t fire when it hit the ground (it’s happened, people, despite the claims that it can’t!), so all he got was a match disqualification, no GSW’s thankfully. He now uses a holster similar to his duty holster when he shoots 3-Gun. Your gun will NOT pop out of a Level-3 retention holster! 
 
Shooting competitively using your daily carry rig, or gear as close to your daily carry rig as possible, makes great sense. It forces you to use your daily carry equipment under the stress of competition. And those of you who haven’t had the experience of shooting in competition, it is VERY stressful. Not as stressful as returning fire on a felon who’s trying to kill you, of course not; but it puts far more pressure on you than your weekly target practice sessions. 
 
So, you may ask, what am I shooting at these 3-Gun matches? My pistol is a Lone-Wolf customized Glock 17 Longslide 9mm, action customized by David Maglio (a trained and certified Glock armorer) with a NY-1 trigger and 3.5 pound trigger connect. The trigger setup is identical to my personal carry Glocks, a G19 and a G23. The sights are also very similar to my carry pistols. I carry it in the previously mentioned SERPA holster, just like the SERPA I use for my carry guns. My rifle is a Smith & Wesson M&P M4 carbine with 16″ barrel, using a Burris Fullfield Tactical 1-4X optic with red dot and reticle in a Larue Tactical  QD mount. When I pack up after the match, I dismount the Burris optic and replace it with an Aimpoint Comp3 optic in its own Larue QD, my preferred CQB battle sight. It takes less than 10 seconds and my zero is always correct with either sight. (The only reason I don’t use the Aimpoint in competition is that I can’t see the damn targets at 300+ yards with it.) But truth to tell, if I had to fight with the Burris sight on my rifle, it would be transparent to me in functional terms. The red dot on the Burris is the same size and color as the red dot on the Comp3. Lastly, my shotgun is a Remington M&P 11-87 12-gauge, with 6-round magazine. The same shotgun that sleeps beside my bed ever night. Yes, all the other guys have 9-round mag tubes on their scatterguns, and only having a 6-round mag costs me precious time when I’m shooting competition, but I don’t want to create a training scar.
 
So, getting back to David’s quote at the top of the page: what exactly is a training scar? I first learned the term from my friend Dean Sparks, who used to run the firearms program at the Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy. A training scar is something you build into your shooting skillset without meaning to that puts you at a disadvantage in a real gunfight. And being at an unexpected and unnecessary disadvantage when your life is on the line can be fatal. 
 
Ken Hackathorn famously said, “Train the way you expect to fight, for you will surely fight the way you’ve trained.” This is true in competition and in combat. When the adrenalin hits your bloodstream, you WILL not be a thinking person, you WILL revert to your level of training. If you’ve trained appropriately, you will overcome your adversary. If you’ve unintentionally trained a maneuver or “skill” inappropriately, you will default to it when the shit hits the fan. It might only cost you a couple of seconds, but your adversary can put 15 rounds into your body in a couple of seconds. 
 
A well-known example of a training scar occurred at the Newhall Incident, where California Highway Patrolmen were found dead with their spent revolver cases in their pockets. When training, they had been required to put their empty cases into their pockets to save on range upkeep and maintenance… and when they were fighting for their lives at Newhall, they reverted to their training, and wasted precious seconds they could have used to reload their revolvers by carefully extracting their empty cases into their hands, then putting them into their pockets. The desire to save time picking up brass at the range had unwittingly created a training scar that cost good men their lives. 
 
If I shoot 3-gun with a 9-round magazine, I will get used to shooting a shotgun that holds 9 shells. And if I should get into a fight with my 6-round home defense shotgun and run it empty, I may well spend precious seconds racking the gun to put a fresh round that doesn’t exist into the chamber instead of dropping the bitch on the ground and transitioning to my blaster!!  (Pat Rodgers taught me a great drill at his 3-day Advanced Carbine class a few years ago: have a buddy load an unknown number of rounds into your rifle magazine, then on signal engage the targets. When your rifle runs dry, let your rifle hang and draw your pistol/blaster and clean up the rest of the targets. Don’t waste time trying to clear a malfunction when you’re in combat. I use this drill every time I train with my rifle. You just never know.) 
 
Okay, that’s my thoughts on competition, training, and training scars for today. 
 
Keep your weapons ready, folks. And remember your most important weapon is your mind. Train it well. 
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Mythology, Superman, and the Real Heroes

As human beings, mythology is implicit in our nature. It compels us.
 
We seek tales of uncommon valor, of brave deeds beyond mortal limits, of Beowulf, Achilles, Odysseus, Hiawatha, and the archetype, Superman.
 
Superman… think about it: if you knew what was really involved, who would aspire to be him? Did you ever really think about it? He’s an orphan, abandoned, the last survivor from his en…tire planet. He has to pretend he’s a myopic, uncoordinated wimp 99% of the time. He can’t reveal who he truly is to the woman he loves, so he sleeps alone, and ever will. And even though bullets bounce off him, he’s vulnerable to radiation from a stupid green rock that nobody else gives a shit about. He is Totally Alone. Who would pick that life?
 
But Superman (or Batman, or Spiderman, or Ironman, or any number of other made-up flawed and deeply unhappy heroes) has been the subliminal goal for boys and men and America for decades. “Be heroic, but be unfulfilled, lonely, and miserable as a human being.” How did this become something to be admired, to be aspired to? This is totally fucked up.
 
It has not only fucked up two or three generations of men, it has fucked up two or three generations of women, marriages, and kids. The great PIXAR movie “The Incredibles” captured the gist of it… but it took the cheap (and admittedly entertaining!) out by letting the entire Incredibles family express their “super” sides. But the truth is that we human beings do not have a “super side”. And the myth of superheroism is destroying us.
 
Learning how to be Not-Superman has been a hard focus for me for a while now. And as I work for success in this endeavor, I’m persuading some pretty damn good real world heroes and heroines to this view.
 
Don’t be, or expect to be, a Superhero. Be a Dad-hero. Be a Coach-hero. Be a Husband-hero. Be a Cop-Hero, a Nurse-Hero, a Platoon-Commander-Hero, a Boss-hero, a Barrista-hero. Be a hero where you are, but above all be a hero who is YOU. 
 
Do NOT put on a costume or a mask, do not hide behind a secret identity, do NOT exile yourself from who you truly are because someone you think you love wants you to, or how forcefully Society pushes you to do it.
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If You’re Not Trained, You’re Just Pretending

I’ve neglected this blog for several months now, I apologize. 2013 was a difficult and chaotic year for me, personally, and I had to let Tactical Anatomy business take a backseat to personal and professional challenges. I am glad to see the end of 2013. 

I hope to be able to put more time and energy into Tactical Anatomy this year, but the first three months of 2014 are going to be very busy for me, so it might be a slow start. At this point I have NO CLASSES scheduled for 2014. Of the 4 SXRV and TTGSW classes scheduled in 2013, only one class gathered enough students to make it possible to hold the training, and I still posted a financial loss on my books. Two of the other three classes had ZERO registrants, despite a lot of emails, etc. I know that trainers across the country are having trouble filling their classes due to the poor economy and the uncertainty caused by the impending Obamacare onslaught, but still… It’s discouraging to see so little tangible support for the training I offer. 

If you are interested in attending a SXRV or TTGSW class in 2014, please consider the possibility of hosting the class in your area. If you are willing to take this job on, I’ll give you the tools you need to get students signed up (and paid up!), and in turn you’ll get up to 3 free slots in the class for you and your friends/family. This is the only way we can get these classes off the ground, so please consider hosting. 

Training has always been less popular with the vast majority of shooters than hardware is. Yesterday a friend posted a link on Facebook to a training article on The MOAT Group’s website that I thought was spot-on. I reposted it on my Facebook page, and got a few interesting comments. 

In particular, I love this quote from the article: “Far too many folks are under the impression that buying and carrying a blade and/or firearm makes them more prepared or inclined to defend themselves. This mindset is like assuming you know how to play guitar simply by going to a store and buying one.” 

As a guitar player of many years’ experience, this parallel struck me as being particularly appropriate. Learning to shoot a firearm well, particularly a pistol, is a slow and sometimes frustrating journey. So is learning to play a guitar (like the Bryan Adams song goes, “Got my first real 6-string down at the five and dime, played it till my fingers bled in the summer of 69”). Learning how to play a guitar well enough to stand up in front of people and entertain them is another thing entirely, though… it’s a whole ‘nother level of learning and training to get to that point of musicianship. 

The parallel in firearms competency is apt. A man might be able to punch holes in paper at the range with accuracy, and even shoot his deer every fall, but that is not the same as knowing how to fight with that firearm. Learning how to fight with a rifle or pistol is akin to learning how to play your guitar well enough to stand up on a stage and entertain.

The people you can go to for that sort of training aren’t on every street corner. The average concealed handgun permit instructor has no training in gunfighting, nor are you likely to find someone at your local gunclub who can competently teach that class. You aren’t going to learn gunfighting by taking classes from big-name IDPA or IPSC competitors. And you aren’t going to learn it by buying a DVD set from an advertisement in the back pages of American Handgunner. No, you’re going to have to do the research and find one of the schools scattered around the country that do it right, you’ll have to invest the money to travel and pay for that school. It’s not real expensive, but it ain’t cheap.

The problem is that most people look at the cost of a school that will teach them something about gunfighting and they think, “Man, that is way too much money!”… but they never take the time to put it into perspective. You can attend a class at Gunsite or Thunder Ranch for about what you’d pay for a midrange-priced custom 1911. Open up your gunsafe and count your guns, then multiply by an average price of, say $600. If you’ve got 10 guns, which is not a lot of guns for a regular shooter, that means you’ve got $6 thousand invested in guns alone, never mind the money you’ve invested in ammunition, reloading equipment, holsters, match fees, and so forth.

So be realistic: doesn’t it make sense to spend 25% of what you’ve already invested in your firearms & shooting equipment, to learn how to use it effectively in defense of your life?  

Last month I read a story about a guy who was fishing for sharks in one of those sit-on-top sea kayaks, with his legs dangling in the water. A shark took his foot and part of his lower leg off, and he was bleeding to death rapidly. Fortunately, he had the foresight to carry a trauma kit with him, and had a tourniquet. Unfortunately, neither he nor his fishing partner knew how to apply it. He bled to death despite having the perfect lifesaving equipment right there, because he never bothered to get the training in how to use it!!!


I urge every reader to think long and hard about this. You never know when you may face a life-threatening emergency that you will only survive if you use the emergency equipment you have on hand: your pistol, your rifle, your fire extinguisher, your tourniquet. Are you sure you have trained with this equipment enough that you will be able to use it effectively when the shit hits the fan, your heart rate is 150 bpm, and your hands are shaking from the adrenalin dump?

If your answer to that question is not a 100% confident YES, then you have just told yourself you need to spend the money and time to get the training that will take you to that level. Tactical Anatomy Systems offers two classes: Shooting With Xray Vision which is school covering the mental aspect of gunfighting, and Tactical Treatment of Gunshot Wounds, which is a school training in the critical trauma care skills needed in the tactical environment once the bullets start to fly. I teach these classes anywhere in the USA, provided enough people sign up for them. Think about hosting one of my classes, or putting together a group of your friends to come down and take the class from me here in Texas. If you want a more comprehensive course in either discipline, drop me a line and I will be glad to help direct you to the schools and trainers you require.

But please, get serious about your training. If you’re not trained, you’re just pretending.  

Best wishes to all for 2014.