Known Assailant violence outnumbers Stranger violence, and we got a good reminder from Ohio recently. A young man decided that the best response to a breakup in 2019 would be leave a creepy voicemail, and then show up at his ex’s house the following day (which apparently happened to also be her parent’s house) and start banging on the door. The father of his ex girlfriend announced to James Douglas Rayl that he was armed, and that James needed to leave.
Knowing this was someone his daughter had dated, and once cared for, must have given him plenty of incentive to let the guy go, and usually “I have a gun, GTFO” is enough to dissuade. However, duly warned, Mr. Rayl decided that rather than leave, he would attempt to shoulder the door in. Given the terrible quality of modern construction materials, it was unfortunately quite soon that the door began to give way. Police reports indicate that the deadbolt was locked, but the doorjamb failed. The father, watching this happen, made the terrible but ultimately justified decision to fire 3 shots through the decorative door window, which would prove fatal to Rayl.
Besides the best possible advertisement for up-armoring your door frames, this is a lesson many of us need to take more seriously: Per FBI UCR statistics, you’re way more likely to shoot someone whose name you know (a known assailant), than you are a stranger. Does any of your training take this known assailant risk into account? Have you ever sat down and really considered who among your acquaintances you could, or couldn’t shoot? Who might be the most likely candidate to earn the title?
These aren’t fun or easy questions, but if you go by the numbers, it’s a lot better to have considered them now, than in the moment when your cousin’s high school friend shows up in your hallway with a bat because he heard said cousin talking about the pair of new SOLGW rifles you just bought. Being surprised by an assailant is always a poor way to start a lethal force encounter, but being surprised, and having you OODA loop blown apart because that assailant is someone you know or at least recognize. Now is the time to think about known assailant encounters, not in the moment when you’re scrambling to process the situation and react appropriately.
The Known Assailant
REASON: Are the Media Making Mass Shootings Worse?
The short answer is, probably.
REASON has a 12 minute video here exploring that hard question but the numbers are chilling on it. I know that as we cover mass shootings too, they’re horrific events that do need coverage and exploratory examination.
Unfortunately, that coverage is also part of what is sustaining the problem.
The absolute tsunami of attention that is given to these events is intoxicatingly seductive to the attention starved, isolated, violent, and disassociated individuals who are most likely to carry out an attack. The coverage, the amount of people who will be talking about them, is an ultimate high that cannot be replicated outside that extreme outburst of violence.
Sure, we universally cover it as horrific. But the negative coverage isn’t a deterrent because the sheer volume of coverage is the incentive. These people do not, or have stopped, judging life by the positive average that most people do. People, by default, place some value on life. Some life, at least, usually most prioritizing theirs, then their close family and friends, and then assigning a neutral but positive value to people in general.
But that scale is broad, there are people who do not prioritize the continuation of any life, except usually their own. There are far more people who will put no more effort into the sustainment of life than voicing aloud that they’d rather not see bad things happen to people. The percentage of the population who will actively engage and do something, often titled active responders, is lower than we like to imagine. Even some first responders aren’t active responders, despite it being their job.
So while the population as a whole is unlikely to be influenced negatively by this coverage, the population is also rather lackadaisical in the grand scheme. They rely on the efforts of others whose ‘job’ it is, because it certainly isn’t theirs.
Meanwhile, the coverage is like the universe’s greatest hit of methamphetamine to a very small and very dangerous group of addicts who fall into a perverted category of active responders. Those who will use their faculties to destroy and get that high. Some may regret it, at least a little, afterward but that is too late, damage done. The temptation, the motivation, the event are already triggered. The past coverage and knowing the coverage will come is firmly emplaced in their minds and no other possible outcomes, nor the condemnation of the populace, matter in the slightest.
There is no replacing the need to cover world events, but it is also absolutely fueling the rare fires who crave this sort of macabre attention.
Anti-Gun Bill So Bad CA Won’t Accept It
What precisely it was that the California legislature, and their anti-gun proponents hoped to accomplish with this bill is still unclear. It plainly places restrictions on carry that have been outlined by the supreme court as unconstitutional as recently as 70 days ago, and was fated to die in court the moment it was conceived. Virtue signaling to voters is apparently the way to get re-elected nowadays, so it perhaps shouldn’t be surprising that this is going on, but we’re still impressed every time it’s this blatant.
Moms Demand Action were quick to take to twitter with their own hot take on the issue, with the decidedly Anonymous style hashtags #Novemberiscoming and #Expectus, seemingly suggesting that those who voted against this crusade to die gloriously in court after wasting taxpayer money pushing an obviously unconstitutional law were going to get voted out for their prudence and sensibility. It’s good for fundraising though, I suspect. Californians get to pay this anti-gun org to push legislators to pass a law that will then cost Californians even more money to defend in court, through appeals, and into its inevitable death. If we were more cynical, we might start our own grift to profit off of, and bankrupt people we hated too, but MDA and other anit-gun orgs seem to have that market cornered.
Anti-gun orgs and politicians will likely attempt to use this as proof that their liberty minded opposites are standing in the way of the will of the people, because who would oppose “common sense” gun laws, after all?
The Behlert Model 39 Mini Combats
The art of gunsmithing seems to be mostly lost these days. I mean real independent gunsmithing, from the days of custom 1911s and crazy cut-down firearms like the ASP. It’s sad to see, and I think the 1970s established gunsmithing as an art and that a gunsmith could take a gun and make it exactly how you wanted. These days gun companies seem to produce so many different models it’s tough not to get exactly what you want. One legendary gunsmith that you should know is Austin Behlert.
Austin Behlert was a master gunsmith, and his work was something of an art form. The Behlert guns were absolutely gorgeous guns, and he customized Hi Powers, K-Frames, 1911s, and S&W Model 39s and 59s. Today we are more or less going to focus on the Model 39 guns. In the 1970s, the Model 39 was a popular choice with master gunsmiths.
Specifically, these smiths liked to trim the guns down to a smaller, more concealable size. At this time period, small automatics were in calibers like .22LR, 32 ACP, and maybe .380 ACP. If you want something potent, you went with a j-frame. A small 9mm wasn’t a thing, at least from the factory. So companies like Devel, ASP, and Behlert made them.
Devel and ASP are very well known for their trimmed-down Model 39s, and Devel did do smaller 59s as well. Behlert turned nearly everything into a Mini Combat, as he called them.
The Behlert Mini Combat S&W Pistols
The Model 39 and 59 were both 9mm handguns that were fairly popular in the 1970s. The 39 was a single stack, and the 59 used a double stack magazine. The 39s modified to use 14-round magazines were popular with SEALs in Vietnam, and some were eventually turned into Hushpuppy pistols. These modified 39s eventually became 59s.
These were both full-sized pistols. They were DA/SA, hammer-fired guns with the 1970s design we all know and love. As we know it now, the 9mm round does fairly well from short barrels and is easy to control. This made them natural adaptions for men like Behlert to turn into compact fighting pistols.
Making Behlert Mini Combat Guns
Behlert trimmed the frame, slide, and barrel of the Mini Combat pistols to reduce their overall size. You could just fit most of your hand on the grip. Austin trimmed the barrels to 3.5 inches. The package included a bobbed hammer to increase concealment. The trigger guard is reshaped and slightly squared with a slight hook to it.
Rear sights were often pushed to the rear as far as possible to increase the sight radius. The rear sight would be adjustable, and the front sight rounded and reduced. The front sight wore a bright orange insert for quick sight acquisition. Edges of the slide were melted and rounded.
One of the most eye-catching changes is the addition of finger grooves. He seemingly carved them into the steel of the gun. While I’m not a finger groove fan, I am impressed by the work. They are sharp finger grooves that look like they held your hand on the little grip. At the rear, Austin trimmer the beavertail and rounded it for easy concealment.
The trigger is reportedly wonderful. There isn’t a ton of information out there on these pistols. However, in researching this article, I found one constant comment: how nice the triggers were. Specifically, the double action trigger is reportedly wonderful, and a man who owned a Devel, ASP, and Belhert Model 39 commented that the Behlert had the best trigger.
These upgrades were a little less flashy than the ASP or Devel but impressive nonetheless. These guns are gorgeous, and
The Legacy
Sadly Austin’s Custom Gunshop closed upon his passing. He originally aimed to pass the shop down to his son-in-law, but his son-in-law lost his battle with cancer. Austin Belhert’s legacy is on fine work and master gunsmithing. He also frequently posted on the pistolsmith.com forum. His stories are wonderful, and it’s worth a read if you want inside knowledge on an age of guns and gunslingers lost to us.
SIG Sneaks in the Littler, Lighter SPEAR
With the launch of the M5 and M250 we saw that SIG had mapped out several updates to the MCX line. The VIRTUS was their generation 2 and offered significant improvements over the 1st generation. Most notable was the handguard, the original MCX handguard wasn’t rigid at all and the was problematic for mounting zeroables.
The SPEAR LT appears to be all that again and a little more. All the nice creature comforts we’ve seen on the SPEAR, namely trigger, full ambidexterity, and handguard, all brought to the shorter action platform. No, it isn’t a side charger. So if you like that feature you’ll need to await the full SPEAR.
Mike and several others all dropped videos on the updated rifle, it is further proof that the future holds three rifles primarily. The AK, the AR-15, and the AR-18. To be fair SIGs, production and update style nearly rivals tech companies.
The new iOS is dropping? The new 365 updates are too!
Steam just pushed a massive platform update? New MCX Time!
WordPress dropping new features and rearranging everything? That’s just a day ending in Y actually, SIG doesn’t go that mad lad with their items.
I’m ordering a LT, I’m a sucker for service carbines in FDE.
Grand Thumbs video in the meantime.
Sig Sauer at National Rifle League Hunter Finale
The NRL Hunter Grand Slam presented by Sig Sauer was held in Hammett, Idaho on August 19-22. Multiple vendors set up tents during sight in day. Some of the vendors who attended were Sig Sauer, Nightforce, Proof Barrels, Defiance, and Leupold. Independence Training also held a “Stop the Bleed Course” and provided certification to those who attended and passed the course.
Three of the vendors, Sig Sauer, Nightforce, and Independence training set up side stages during the match. This was a cool concept due to while it didn’t count for score vendors got to show off their products and if you participated you would be entered into a raffle.
Sig Sauer showed up with three of their newest products and gave a magazine of ammo to shoot at two steel targets. Below are some key features and some takeaways after putting a few rounds through them.
“The latest addition to the SIG P320 family brings all of the features of the XSeries into a carry style handgun in 10mm for shooters and hunters looking for performance to the power of 10.”
Features:
- Optic Ready Slide compatible with Romeo2 and Trijicon RMR (requires sealing plate)
- 5” Bull Barrel
- All-new XSeries 10mm/45 Auto Grip Module
- Flat XSeries trigger with 90-degree break
- Front and Rear Serrations
- XRAY 3 Day/Night Sights
- (2) 15rd Steel Magazines
- Picatinny Rail
Before we go into my experience shooting 15 rounds during the Sig Sauer Side stage let’s go over the X-series grip which is a big proponent to why this gun shoots so well. The redesigned X series polymer grip module is made with a beveled magwell, newly designed undercut of the trigger guard and beavertail, and comes fully stippled. The grip is very small and manageable so while it doesn’t feel like a 10mm the angle of the grip allows enough meat to be in your hands but still having the ability to control it.
The XTen without RDS was the first firearm they handed off to shoot. Honestly I have shot the Glock 20 and while it wasn’t uncomfortable to shoot, it definitely wasn’t a 9mm. Being handed the X-ten I was a little nervous and I voiced that. However, I had no reason to be. It shot like a 9mm. Sig even stated that if they don’t tell the consumer it is a 10mm before firing the consumer automatically thinks it’s a 9mm. It was ringing steel with easy follow up shots, there was zero hot spots on the hand, and the irons lined up easy. The only drawback was that I wasn’t strong enough to hit the slide release and had to slingshot it, however Sig stated that many others had issues with it just due to this particular gun being brand new. The standard P320’s also have this problem, they are just super stiff when first starting out.
“With an innovative new magazine design the P365-XMACRO packs a full-size 17+1 round capacity into the thin, iconic profile of the P365.”
Features:
- All-New Macro-Compact Grip Module Featuring Standard 1913 Rail
- Integrally Compensated Optic Ready Slide
- (2) 17rd Steel Magazines with High Visibility Followers
- Interchangeable Small, Medium, and Large Backstrap Included
- 3.1″ BARREL
- XRAY3 Day/Night Sights
- Compatible with SIG SAUER ROMEOZero
From a previous article on the Sig P365-XMacro..
Quick takeaways
For those who don’t want to look it up, it’s pretty much the same size as the G48, a smidge taller and slide a scoshe shorter (very scientific measurements), with +2 rounds (over shield magazines, +7 over factory), with an integral comped slide instead of a 4″ barrel. It’s rocking the 3.1″ barrel of the P365/P365X, hence X Macro and not XL Macro. -Keith Finch
The next gun they handed off was the P365-XMacro. Coming from a person who carries a Sig P365 each day with RDS I was very intrigued about this gun. For me the plusses already before shooting it was that it is optic ready and 17+1. After shooting it I came away with two more plusses. The integrally compensated slide made this a very flat shooting gun with no need to worry about another piece, cleaning included. The redesigned magwell and magazine compared to the 365 made it feel a lot more natural in my hand and loading mags quickly was a lot easier. The grip on the 365 is shorter so often your palm can get in the way of reloads. Due to the XMacro having a longer and straighter magwell the reloads were night and day. Even compared to the XL, the Macro is a lot more ergonomically sound when it comes to the grip module.
“The highest capacity, most advanced 22 pistol in its class.”
- 20 Round Magazine Capacity
- Optic Ready Removable Rear Sight Plate
- Suppressor-Ready With Included Threaded Barrel Adapter
- Interchangeable Trigger Shoes (flat and curved included)
- Fiber Optic Front and Rear Sights
- Ambi Controls With Reversible Magazine Catch
- Magazine Loader Included
- Includes (2) 20rd magazines
While I didn’t get to shoot the P322 they did have it on the table with a suppressor installed due to it coming suppressor ready with threaded barrel adapter included.
.22 pistols can be tricky just due to weight. A big thing with the P322 is that it doesn’t need two different slides when running it with an optic or not. According to Sig Sauer, the P322 has ran multiple .22 ammo both with RDS and without and had no issues. While I LOVE my Taurus TX22 I did have to go through hell and highwater to find an optic ready slide in stock that was milled out and weighted to run a red dot efficiently.
Hate Snakes But Love The Environment? This One’s For You!
https://phys.org/news/2022-08-pythons-florida-profit-therapy.html
In what may be the strangest combination of topics we’ve published in recent years, the article linked above details how GWOT veterans, earn money, help the environment, and work out their trauma by rounding up snakes (Burmese Pythons specifically) for fun and profit at a 10-day python hunting contest. Yes, that was all in one sentence, and it’s a lot to process but it’s a very cool story.
Burmese Pythons are not something you’d normally expect to encounter in the US, a minimum of 6700mi from their native range. But as with all things, Florida has to be special, and the best guess is that some likely well-meaning snake owners released their pet when it started getting too big to handle. Now these monster snakes that can reach over 23′ long, 200lb, and can be as big around as a telephone pole are taking over the everglades. They’ll eat anything they can catch, including alligators and even whitetail deer, and the damage they are doing to the ecosystem is immense.
So the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) holds an annual contest to see who can bring back the most snakes, with a grand prize of $2500 in both Professional and Amateur categories. Yes, Florida recognizes Snake Hunter as a profession. If you’ve got an eye for spotting wildlife, a wallet begging for money, and a desire to wrestle with what is basically a two-dozen foot long, living thigh muscle that can swallow you, this may be the break you’ve been waiting for!
The Devel Pistols – A Refined Concealed Carry 9mm
In 1976 a gunsmith from Cleveland, Ohio, placed an order for an ASP pistol. The ASP pistol was a design made by Paris Theodore that was a very heavily modified S&W Model 39. Paris and his team designed the weapon to be as concealable as possible and smooth for an easy draw and for deep concealment. The man, Charles Kelsey, must have appreciated the craftsmanship. Sadly he never received his ASP, which created a competitor known as the Devel pistol.
Charles Kelsey must’ve been a little annoyed at not receiving his ASP. Still, he wanted one and was a gunsmith, so why couldn’t he just make one? Charles Kelsey teamed up with legendary firearm instructor Ken Hackathorn to create something known as the Devel pistol. It’s worth noting that there weren’t many micro 9mms on the market. Most small autos were .22LR, .25 ACP, 32 ACP, and .380 ACP and were typically made by Walther and Beretta.
This was an untapped market. Charles Kelsey might not be well known these days, but he is a rather impressive gunsmith who did a number of modifications to firearms like the Hi-Power that are well regarded. Devel became the company that fronted the gunsmith.
The Devel Pistol
Charles Kelsey designed the Devel pistol to both compete with ASP and to improve upon the idea. He didn’t just want to make an ASP clone but to produce a high-quality pistol that would improve upon the idea of an ultra concealable 9mm pistol. While the ASP used an S&W 39, the Devel would use both a Model 39 and the double stack Model 59.
Kelsey would shorten the barrel, frame, slide, and grip. They’d have to trim the magazines to match as well. This reduced the Model 59’s capacity from 14 to 10 rounds, and the Model 39 featured an 8-round magazine.
Devel pistols feature micarta grips with a see-through window to allow the user to check their ammo supply. The slide was fluted to reduce weight, and it’s honestly a striking appearance. The barrel bushing is redesigned as a fixed part of the slide, which reportedly improved accuracy and reliability.
Kelsey would use an improved spring because the little gun was much different than the bigger versions. The front sight is ramp style that’s bright red for easy visibility. The hammer is despurred for extra smoothness. The magwell was funneled for faster reloads. The mainspring housing was completely replaced and not just a reworked device.
Devel pistols featured an enhanced magazine release as well as a checkered lower backstrap. The trigger guard was reworked with a hook added to it. Additionally, the gun features a bit of a relief cut into the trigger guard to encourage two-handed shooting. The safety was swapped to an ambidextrous design, and the magazine disconnect was removed.
In Real Life
The above description represents a Full House Devel pistol. A number of more affordable options are available with fewer fancy features, but the Full House understandably gets all the attention.
After all these cuts and clean-up, you get a beautiful pistol. While the ASP pistols were functional, they wouldn’t win a beauty contest. Devel pistols were functional and gorgeous. These guns were very highly regarded, but only a few hundred were created. Like the ASP, you sent Devel a Model 39 or 59, and they produced a Devel pistol.
If you take a peek at the Kelsey pistols and then look at the S&W Third Gen guns, you will see some very familiar features. In fact, I would argue an S&W 3rd Gen looks more like a Devel than an S&W 2nd gen. Look at the 3913. It’s a less fancy version of the Devel gun.
The trigger guard on the 4506 looks like Charles Kelsey designed it…because he likely did. Several certified gunslingers own the Devel pistols. Specifically, Rex Applegate owned one, and it’s a beautiful pistol.
The End of Devel
Eventually, the company folded. He designed and produced an 8-round 1911 magazine, and the magazine ended up failing. Charles Kelsey was an honorable man and spent a fortune refunding those customers with bad magazines. Devel had designed some 1911s and custom Hi-Powers as well that are very well regarded.
Charles founded a second company called Leved to work on some small projects, but sadly he is no longer with us. If you’d like to see some of Devel’s guns, check out the Novak website. Wayne Novak is probably the premier Devel collector, and his website has some beautiful photos of Devel pistols.
Sadly the Devel guns just aren’t as well known, and they deserve some credit. The Devel guns had a number of features we still see popping up today.
Gunday Brunch 69: Nice
Welcome to the nicest episode of Gunday Brunch you’ll ever hear. We’re just nice to everyone on this one, except for people who think the 2011 makes a good duty gun. Caleb goes in on those guys a bit.
Surprise Surprise…”Visa Finds New Gun Control System As Ineffective To Check Mass Shootings: Report” – Yahoo!/Benzinga
- Visa Inc (NYSE: V) warned against the new system that gun-control proponents saw as restricting mass shootings, Bloomberg reports.
- The International Organization for Standardization approved a new merchant category code that banks will use when processing transactions for gun and ammunition stores. The MCC will likely help banks flag suspicious activity at these retailers.
- However, Visa found MCC lacks access to data showing what products consumers are buying. That means the network and its banking partners would be clueless about whether consumers buy an automatic rifle or safety equipment at these stores.
- Visa and its rivals battled continued criticism over their network usage for commerce.
- Earlier, Visa banned using its cards on Pornhub and other sites owned by MindGeek over child abuse and non-consensual violence content allegations.
- Visa was against private companies serving as moral arbiters. Further, it would invade consumers’ privacy.
- The gunshot detection system market will likely reach $2.16 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 13.25% following higher gunfire, particularly on school grounds, and increasing investments in border security.
- Price Action: V shares closed lower by 3.37% at $199.67 on Tuesday.
So tagging gun store purchases a slightly different code in a spreadsheet won’t magically fix mass shootings, won’t give a meaningful data point to prevent and intercede on mass shootings, and in general will not be an overly useful in any way to anyone except Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.
Color me shocked.
“How a new credit card code could help stop mass shootings” – ABC News
Spoiler Alert: It won’t. It can’t. It can only build general purchaser and regional purchaser data, which is super useful for the credit card companies, but not for stopping mass shootings. But hey, if they can pretend to help while get something useful out of it, why wouldn’t they?
Think about it.
The false positive rate on NICS for flagging non-prohibited buyers is high. Very high. The subset of proceeds who then turn out to commit a criminal attack of any kind, of which a mass shooting is a tiny further subset, is even more miniscule. Additionally we have to filter by ‘time to event from purchase’, and that additional chaotic variably basically turns it into staring at a crystal ball and hoping. We are now talking about successfully flagging a tiny subset of proceeds from the NICS system, who are going onto commit a mass casualty attack, who also somehow have an identifiable purchase habit that is different than a typical firearm consumer.
So what is the media portraying this code as?
Code offers “significant” new tool for identifying shooters, one advocate said.
If by shooters you mean anyone who owns a gun and possibly shoots, yep. It will certainly provide consumer data.
A gunman in Aurora, Colorado, who killed 12 people in a mass shooting at a movie theater, in 2012, legally acquired weapons and ammunition using a credit card.
And a background check.
So did a shooter in Orlando, Florida, in 2016, who killed 49 people at a nightclub. After a shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas, in 2017, which left 59 dead, police found credit cards on the countertop in the shooter’s hotel room.
And background checks. Let’s not pretend the FBI didn’t flag Pulse or Mandalay Bay because they didn’t have a credit card receipt (and the Mandalay Bay shooter was stacked with firearms and the income to support the purchases) but that a credit card processor itself could absolutely flag “unusual” purchase behavior?
Unusual comparative to what? Firearms are big purchases, and niche purchases, meaning that in most income brackets there isn’t a pattern to compare against for even their own behavior to monitor for a change. That means a company would have to match it against the few identified behaviors of prior shooters, assuming there are identifiable behaviors at all. We’ll see the sample size below.
I know the current meme is don’t sell a Daniel Defense and an EOTech to a rail thin white kid, but that isn’t a patterned behavior/biographic combo that Visa can just be like, “NO, BLOCK!”
In recent years, gun reform advocates and some lawmakers have called on credit card companies and banks to bolster their tracking and reporting of unusual purchase activity tied to firearms in the hopes that it would help authorities identify potential mass shooters before they carry out attacks.
Hope? Oh, you mean like a thought combined with a prayer? Is there any evidence that their (mass shooters) purchase history is different enough to be usable is a flaggable metric?
Late last week, major credit companies took a step that could allow them to do just that. Visa, Mastercard and American Express announced plans to use a specific code for categorizing credit and debit card purchases made at gun stores.
Which is a fantastic way to collect and file consumer purchase data and better service a large and profitable market space. It is not in any way confirming that there is a purchase pattern to be found?
The move follows a decision from the International Organization for Standardization, or ISO, a group that makes guidelines for such transactions, which said on Friday that it would create the unique code that allows gun stores to mark credit and debit card purchases.
Gun reform advocates applauded the step,
Because they’re stupid and were told this was a good thing.
No, seriously.
They don’t comprehend consumer data collection practices for marketing and services and they don’t understand the data anomaly that they are praising as being findable with this change. I’d hazard a guess that the odds of using this to find and stop a mass shooter and finding another planet in our solar system a roughly the same.
while gun rights groups, such as the National Rifle Association, condemned it.
As we would expect, it can be used as an invasive way to collect information and information can be used to abuse the consumer, especially by government. The credit card companies have no significant reason to abuse the consumer, they want that consumer healthy, happy, and spending. The government has no such restraint on the misuse of that purchase data and can bring pressure onto the credit card companies to “do something about gun violence” via regulatory influence.
Experts told ABC News the move may help authorities intervene before a mass shooting, but its effectiveness depends on how banks and credit card companies implement the new tool.
“May help” is not confidence inspiring, especially given the needle in a stack of needles type of data pull we are talking about here. If we compiled all the purchase history of anyone who committed an atrocity with their otherwise legally purchased firearm would we have any data to work with?
This gushing review seems to assume their is a magic purchase habit that will trip a censor and send the authorities in hot pursuit, as if firearm purchasers don’t vary from occasional to continuous across various types, income brackets, and preferences. There are people who purchase dozens of firearms and accessories in a given year and will get bored, sell them, and do it again. What purchase behavior are we trying to isolate?
Buys an AR?
A little broad and probably not very useful considering it is the nation’s most popular rifle. I can’t count how many I’ve bought to be honest. A dozen? Two? Buys a case of ammo? Good luck with that, you’ll just be flagging every serious trainee and competitor around the nation over and over and over again. Sub-optimally unhelpful.
Nothing about making a special code for gun stores in transactions history is set to give us mass shooter data, it will generate loads of consumer data which credit card companies will love to better tailor products and make more money though.
Here’s how the credit card code works and what happens next:
Sure, enlighten me ABC.
What do credit cards have to do with mass shootings?
I’m sure this will be good.
Many mass shooters have legally purchased weapons and ammunition using credit or debit cards.
Ah, so nothing.
I bet they also drove or rode in a motor vehicle, bought food or drink with a credit card, and breathed air.
Between 2007 and 2018, there were 13 mass shootings that killed 10 or more people, the New York Times found. Of those 13 shootings, the killers financed their attacks with credit cards in eight of them, the Times said.
So the number of attackers who financed their attack via credit is lower than the national average of adults who have a credit card. Cool.
It remains unclear whether the credit cards found in the hotel room of the Las Vegas shooter were used to purchase guns, since government officials have not disclosed how the guns were purchased, beyond saying that some were bought with cash and some online, the Times reported.
So we don’t even know if a credit card was involved in this massacre for certain. We just suspect it was because both online purchases and hotel rooms are usually credit card transactions.
The new purchase code will help banks and law enforcement discover unusual purchases,
How? What is the unusual purchase behavior we found in the 8 examples we have that is even moderately indicative, losely correlative, or possibly causative as a pre-attack indicator? What behavior? What is the mass shooter purchase? Do they all always pay for expedited shipping? What is the magic indicator?
and provide an additional means for identifying and stopping potential attackers before a mass shooting, said Adam Skaggs, chief counsel and policy director of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
What data are you basing this on!? Or are you just saying it because anything you can do to segregate gun owner behaviors is considered positive in your book?
We have 8 examples in the last decade and according to every model I can pull we would need 30, at minimum, to begin to have a prayer of pulling a useful clue out of the havoc. That isn’t saying there is something to find, it is saying we need 22 more events where credit cards were used to purchase the massacre tools before we could even look with anything approximating hope for any information.
“It’s significant,” Skaggs told ABC News. “This creates a tool that will allow suspicious activity around illegal gun trafficking and around mass shootings to be detected and flagged to the authorities.”
Will it? We know this from the grand total of 8 examples we have in 10 years? That we can pull a pattern of illegal gun trafficking around mass shooters? The mass shooters who purchased guns legally mind you, because they had no NICS flagged disqualifiers prior to their attack. We can track their illegal gun trafficking after the legal and NICS cleared purchases? We got all that from 8 mass shooting examples…
Right…
How does the new credit card code work?
Nearly every category of a retailer in the U.S. has a code, called a merchant category code, or MCC, that marks each credit card transaction. For instance, purchases at grocery stores, movie theaters, and hair salons each carry a different code.
Typical consumer information filing stuff. Retailers also track your purchase history so they can better sell to you from their catalog by showing you the items you’ve been interested in and items purchasers similar to you have also been interested in. Seriously folks a gun store code has been a smart idea for a long time.
Until late last week, sellers of guns and other gun-related products shared a code with sporting goods stores.
Which, while useful, is overly broad for good consumer data collection since the person who buys a Glock as a concealed carry piece is not always interested in kayaks.
“There was no way to tell whether somebody spent a thousand dollars on guns and ammo or on soccer balls and hockey sticks,” Skaggs said.
Until now!
Now, credit and debit card transactions at gun sellers will carry a unique code that marks them as such.
Which benefits who the most? Oh! Yeah! The credit card companies hoping to better market to the consumer base.
Gun advocates hope the new code will push banks to report some gun purchases, since a law passed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks requires the banks to alert authorities to suspicious transaction activity. For example, banks use algorithms to flag unusual activity that may indicate money laundering or human trafficking, Skaggs said.
And we are back to defining what the red flag behavior is. The assumption by ABC and the mentally mediocre Skaggs here seems to be that that Visa, American Express, and Mastercard already know this magic behavior of the deranged killer. They just needed this code in order to act on it for some reason…
Right…
It remains unclear if and how credit card companies and banks will apply a standard that deems some gun-related purchases worthy of flagging, especially when the code only shows that a purchase was made at a gun seller but not the products that were purchased, said Kevin Sullivan, a former fraud investigator with the New York Police and founder of the Anti-Money Laundering Training Academy.
Uh huh, there is that. You’re just being charged a dollar amount, not tagged that you are buying five AR-15’s. Even if you are buying five AR-15’s, that is probably more common than people assume. Or buying a rifle every month. Or buying two handguns in a month. Or any other variations on higher frequency than X person believes is reasonable, but is actually not all that weird when the data is taken in as a whole, and especially when compared to the purchase histories of killers and/or criminals who passed NICS.
“The bank is aware you shopped at a gun store — now what?” Sullivan told ABC News. “What are the parameters going to be now? What are the lines you’re going to cross?”
Exactly. Mr. Skaggs seems excited over the fact that we’ve effectively changed a color in a spreadsheet from green (for outdoors) to OD green specifically (for guns) but haven’t meaningfully changed the data flow in any other meaningful way.
What are the credit card companies saying?
Late last week major credit card companies said they plan to use the code, including Visa, Mastercard and American Express. The companies did not respond directly to a question about how the new code will be enforced.
Because the answer is won’t. You cannot enforce this, its raw data. If you flag a transaction and block it and get it wrong, you get in hot water. If you let a transaction through and something bad happens, you get in hot water. If you inform the authorities and they do nothing or don’t act fast enough and they blame how little data was in the report, you get in hot water. There is no world in which purchase flags are going to start reporting reliably outside the baseline to stop bad actors.
“Following ISO’s decision to establish a new merchant category code, Visa will proceed with next steps, while ensuring we protect all legal commerce on the Visa network in accordance with our long-standing rules,” Visa told ABC News in a statement.
Similarly, Mastercard said the company would implement the new code as it would for any other category of retailer.
“With ISO approving the proposed MCC, we now turn our focus to how it will be implemented by merchants and their banks as we continue to support lawful purchases on our network while protecting the privacy and decisions of individual cardholders,” Mastercard told ABC News in a statement.
“This is exactly how we would manage the process for any other appropriate MCC, like a bicycle shop or sporting goods store,” the company added.
So literally just raw consumer data with a slightly different number attached to it… neat.
Likewise, American Express told ABC News in a statement that it would move forward with putting the code in place.
“When ISO develops a new Merchant Category Code, we follow our usual business practices and will work with our third-party processors and partners on implementation,” the company said.
“It is important to note that MCC codes are one of many data points that help us understand the industries in which our merchants operate,” the company added. “We are focused on ensuring that we have the right controls in place to meet our regulatory and fiduciary responsibilities, as well as prevent illegal activity on our network.”
How have gun rights groups responded?
The National Rifle Association condemned the new code for credit and debit card transactions at gun stores.
Predictably.
“The ISO’s decision to create a firearm-specific code is nothing more than a capitulation to anti-gun politicians and activists bent on eroding the rights of law-abiding Americans one transaction at a time,” NRA Spokesman Lars Dalseide told ABC News in a statement.
Which will raise funds for them and their ILA. The FPC and other gun rights orgs will be making statements of similar effect say they can continue to fund the actual in process lawsuits against places like New York who are continuing to rage against Bruen.
“This is not about tracking or prevention or any virtuous motivation – it’s about creating a national registry of gun owners,” he added.
Eh… kinda. Again, they’re tracking dollars spent, which they could pretty much do already, and they would then have to tie it to a 4473 to track a purchase. If they’re pulling 4473’s they likely have other actionable data points, or they’re acting extrajudicially which is problematic. But the code doesn’t tag specific guns, just purchases from gun stores. You could buy $500 of coffee from a gun store and it will carry the same code as a $500 pistol.
Skaggs, of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, rebuked that characterization of the new merchant category code.
Because he’s been a beacon of reliability and reason on this topic.
“There are merchant category codes for bookstores, newspapers and religious institutions,” he said. “Making a contribution to your faith institution on your credit card or purchasing books from a church-affiliated bookstore, those are all coded differently and those are all constitutionally protected rights that are widely practiced and respected in this country.”
“It’s not any different for guns,” he added.
I… I don’t understand what his counterpoint was. There are codes for other things therefore this isn’t an ostracization of gun owners? I suppose that is correct, but you also seem to believe the credit card issuers are going to be able to see which AR-15 purchase is the evil one based on the fact that they bought 11 boxes of ammunition instead of 13 or something like that so… allow me to take that opinion less than seriously.
Just because the gun lobby may be crying a bit of chicken little (that is what lobbyists do, pretty much their entire job actually) doesn’t mean the codes are magic macguffins of anti-crime. They’re merchant codes. Consumer data. It will be used to market you a gun store specific credit card before it produces a single other useable thing from data.
Old Man Yells At Cloud
While it’s a reference to Grandpa Simpson from “The Simpsons”, the phrase “Old man yells at cloud” perfectly encapsulates the absurdity of what’s going on in the video above. What it doesn’t encapsulate, is the danger inherent in powerful, influential people spouting observable nonsense in a public forum. Every administration has its gaffes, fuckups, and outright lies, and all of them, from everyone, deserve the same treatment, but “AR-15 bullets travel 5x faster than any other” certainly caught our attention.
We know that 5.56 (which one has to assume is the cartridge being referenced here) is fast, ranging between the high 2,000’s and low 3,000 FPS out of a 16″+ longarm. And, if you intentionally compared it to one of the slowest common handgun rounds, out of a barrel less than 5″, you can probably arrive at a number like that.
What we don’t know, is how whoever wrote this for Biden to say happened to ignore every other modern pistol and rifle cartridge in the process. Functionally any decent medium-big game round will push the same sorts of speeds, and carry a lot more mass in the process. Hell, lower grain .50BMG can outrun some larger 5.56, and if you really wanna see a cartridge that can extract people’s lungs (a previous episode of Old Man Yells at Cloud), we should start there.
Whether this is a pointed attempt to further villainize the AR-15 platform for obvious political gain, or the ramblings of a dude who, whether you love or hate him, one has to admit is in the twilight years of his effective cognition, it should be roundly and immediately called out as BS by anyone in the media with a lick of sense or integrity. Because it’s either a lie or ignorance, and neither should be allowed a pass, no matter who is offering them.
“Assault Weapon” Bans, Mendacious Statistics, And Obscenities When All Else Fails
[Ed: This was first published on GOPUSA July 21. Slightly edited for DRGO.]
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A concerned citizen in South Carolina brought to my attention that Lee Turner, a former Democrat congressional candidate for South Carolina District 04, is claiming as truth the following statistics and justification for a renewed “Assault Weapons Ban.”
“After Bill Clinton banned assault weapons in 1994, mass shooting deaths dropped by 43%. After the Republican Congress let the ban expire in 2004, they shot up by 239%. We don’t need to arm teachers; we need to BAN assault weapons again!”
Turner’s statistics are concocted and categorically, bold-faced lies. No matter how she wants to torture the statistics, they will not confess to such a pack of lies! The assault weapons ban of 1994 did not reduce crime at all! Nor is it true that when the ban expired in 2004, crime shot up a single percent!
To begin with, the appellation “assault weapons” is a misnomer, a disparaging political term, not a proper military term. It was invented by Josh Sugarmann, a media-lionized gun control advocate, as a political term to demonize semiautomatic firearms that frequently have a military appearance but are not strictly speaking military weapons.
The term was taken up by the Democrats in Congress in anticipation of the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 that was enacted into law and remained in effect until it lapsed in 2004. It was shown that the ban did not have an effect on crime or in preventing mass shooting incidents.
“Assault weapons” in self-defense and in saving lives of good citizens
The use of so-called assault weapons for self and family protection has proven to be life-saving. In November 1990, Brian Rigsby and his friend Tom Styer left their home in Atlanta, Georgia, to go camping in the Oconee National Forest, not too far from where I live in rural Georgia. Suddenly, they were assaulted by two drug-crazed crack-heads, who fired at them with 12-gauge shotguns, seriously wounding Styer. Rigsby returned fire with a Ruger Mini-14, a semiautomatic weapon frequently characterized as an assault weapon. It saved his life and that of his wounded friend.
In January 1994, Travis Dean Neel was cited as “Citizen of the Year” in Houston, Texas. He had saved a police officer and helped the police arrest three dangerous criminals in a street shooting, gunfight incident. Neel had helped stop the potential mass shooters using, once again, a semiautomatic, so-called assault weapon with a high-capacity magazine. He provided cover for the police who otherwise were outgunned and would have been killed. What would have happened if these citizens had not had the “assault weapons” that saved their lives from these mentally-deranged, mass shooters or outright criminals?
“Assault weapons” during national catastrophes and civil unrest
In 1989 after Hurricane Hugo assailed the city of Charleston and surrounding coastal areas in South Carolina, Governor Carroll Campbell Jr. issued “shoot on sight” orders to the South Carolina National Guard. The authorities, in some cases assisted by armed citizens, deterred some of the thugs from looting.
Likewise, in 1992, during the catastrophic Hurricane Andrew that devastated Florida, looting was limited because law-abiding citizens protected residential property by patrolling with high-capacity magazine “assault weapons”—just as Korean shopkeepers in Los Angeles had done earlier in the Spring of that same year, when they protected their commercial property from the usual parasitic thugs roaming the land and capitalizing on the suffering of others.
The myth that 16 percent of homicides are perpetrated with the dangerous “assault weapons” is a lie. The fact is that less than 6 percent of criminals use any firearm that can even be mischaracterized as an “assault weapon.” Criminals are five times more likely to use a handgun in crime than an “assault weapon.”
Consider that when the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban was in full force, it failed to prevent the infamous 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colorado, or any other mass shootings that occurred during that time.
This is because gun control laws only affect law-abiding citizens, and not criminals, psychopaths, or deranged individuals who are in need of committal to prisons or to mental health care facilities.
Authoritarian politicians along with their allies in the mainstream media have demonized semiautomatic rifles calling them “assault weapons” and gathered mendacious statistics that their anti-gun activist associates promulgate to deceive the public. But, as we have seen, “assault weapons” can be very useful for self, family, and property protection, not only during natural disasters and civil unrest but also when the police cannot (or are not willing to) protect us—as during the 1992 Los Angeles riots or during George Floyd looting and burnings in 2020—or when assaults or shootings involve multiple assailants.
Unfortunately, progressives do not respond to facts, much less to logic or reason. They respond with faked outrage or indignation; and when all else fails, then outright obscenities!
So it is no wonder that when Mrs. Turner’s statistics were contradicted and her socialistic policies were criticized as not being good for South Carolina, she wrote in big letters on her Facebook page (June 24, 2022): “Today, I wanna tell a bunch of people to just F*CK OFF! You feeling’ me?”
And that is, my friends, what we have to contend with in the battle to preserve our Constitutional Republic and restore freedom in the 2024 midterm elections and beyond!
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— Miguel A. Faria, Jr, MD is a retired professor of Neurosurgery and Medical History at Mercer University School of Medicine. He founded Hacienda Publishing and is Associate Editor in Chief in Neuropsychiatry and World Affairs of Surgical Neurology International. He served on the CDC’s Injury Research Grant Review Committee. His latest book is America, Guns, and Freedom: A Journey Into Politics and the Public Health & Gun Control Movements (2019).
All DRGO articles by Miguel A. Faria, Jr., MD
Illegal Machineguns Soon Illegal-er!
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/30/us/automatic-machine-gun-fire-invs
Remember when Amazon sold NFA items (illegal machineguns/parts) with Prime shipping? Pepperidge Farms can go to hell, but we remember. That was 2017, but Wish.com kept selling them after Amazon stopped, and just two years later, we remember this. Hell, if you go to the BATFE website, they certainly remember, and cite an example as far back as 2003!
Some have suggested that the ATF either setup, or allowed this to continue happening in order to generate A Problem for them to solve. We don’t know if that’s the case, and there doesn’t seem to be any direct evidence supporting it, but it does seem like they might have done something about the importation of illegal machineguns in the intervening 19 years besides occasionally bust someone.
Cut to today: Reports of converted Glocks being seized by police are stacking up, and predictably various anti-rights legislatures are champing at the bit to “Do Something”. Naturally, they want to do the only thing they seem to know how to do: Prohibition. Somehow the threat of a federal firearms felony isn’t stopping people from importing, or more commonly nowadays, 3D printing auto sears and switches, so surely a state law will scare them into compliance, right?
Right?
[Oh and one was just used in Memphis, so that’s fun]
Elements of Tuckable Holster
With the advent of the PHLster Enigma, why would anyone ever think about opting for a belt-mounted holster when they need to tuck in a shirt overtop of it? Well, it could be that there isn’t an Enigma-compatible holster for their preferred carry gun, the Enigma isn’t available or in stock, or a litany of other reasons. While the Enigma has become my preferred option for carrying in dress clothes, it’s still important to know how to make a conventional holster work in that role as well.
I started appendix carrying back in 2012, and my first AIWB “holster” really wasn’t. It was the Raven Concealment Systems Vanguard 2 (the original configuration, before they introduced the wing). Holsters are expensive, and I didn’t want to invest a ton of money in this experiment, but $20 was a manageable gamble. Over the span of the last 10 years, I’ve experimented with multiple configurations from various manufacturers, some well-known, and some boutique. Through the course of my trial and error, here’s what I’ve found that works best for me:
The Holster Body:
I’m not going to go into too much depth on this, because for the purpose of a tuckable holster, it’s arguably the least important part of the equation. Now that’s not to say it doesn’t matter, but as long as it’s from a reputable maker, is of quality construction, has mounting holes low on the body to accept tuckable clips, and is long enough, you can probably make it work for you. My personal litmus test for a holster maker is that they actually train regularly, preferably in the realm of applied violence (i.e. not just square range or competition shooting), or at least solicit input from people in that arena. This is a good indicator that they’ve actually pushed their designs to the point of failure.
The Attachment Points:
As mentioned previously, there have been multiple different attempts in this arena. Most of them have simply been hasty retrofits of existing attachment methods pressed into service on a tuckable platform: Soft loops, j-hooks, over-hooks, and clips of various sizes/shapes have all been tried. The problem is that they are not suitably discreet, and generally look out of place, as can be witnessed in the photos above.
The Ulti-Clip was getting a lot of press and love over the last few years. It kinda works and it’s certainly secure, but I found the camming flap to add an unnecessary level of bulk that creates a bulge behind the belt, and I have some real concerns about the finishing of the edges and the wear & tear it would create on the cover garments.
In my mind there has only been one truly successful solution to this problem: The Discreet Carry Concepts Mod 5.1 – HLR Discreet Gear Clip™ – Behind the belt – SHS clips. Not only are they the lowest profile option, resulting in minimal bulk behind the belt, but they’re amazingly secure. There are numerous reports of these clips surviving the vigorous force-on-force evolutions of ECQC. Here’s a comparison of how the DCC clips look behind the belt compared to the RCS Overhooks. Nothing against the RCS hooks per se. I was pressing them into service in a role for which they weren’t intended. Mostly because I hadn’t discovered the DCC option yet.
One other thing that bears mentioning: For most guns, it behooves you to have 2 attachment points, and to have those 2 points be as far away from each other as possible. This distributes the weight more effectively, as the waist of the trousers is the only thing supporting the weight of the gun. A single point or narrow spacing can result in the clips sagging below the belt, and defeating the purpose of this configuration. Also, the trousers need to fit correctly, which is probably more snug (not tight) than most men are used to. The pants themselves need to offer a certain level of tension to keep everything in place.
The Claw:
No, not that one you basic, alcoholic degenerate.
This should be pretty self-explanatory after Jon’s Concealment Principles video above. The function of the claw is to drive the grip of the pistol in towards the body. This is one you’re going to have to play with to see what combo will work best with your build, holster, belt, etc. The big 3 on the market are the RCS VG Claw, the ModWing, and the Dark Star Gear Dark Wing. I’ve tried all 3. For me, I like the teeth on the Dark Wing. I’ve found that it helps to keep the cover garment tucked in and in place. Some folks don’t find the claw to be necessary. Try it yourself and see what works best.
The Wedge:
The wedge serves 2 basic functions: First it helps push the muzzle away from the body and therefore presses the grip of the pistol in towards the body. Secondly, it increases the surface area of the holster that’s pushing against your body, reducing hot spots and discomfort in what Matt Jaques calls “The Lego Principle” (i.e. if a Lego were the size of a loaf of bread, it wouldn’t hurt when you stepped on it. It only hurts because the pressure is applied on such a small area). Again there are 3 basic styles of the wedge. Some holsters like the PHLster Classic and the Tenicor Velo have a wedge molded into the body of the holster itself. I have no personal experience with these types, but based on what I know about the guys that use it in their designs, I can’t imagine it’s anything but effective. Then there’s the rubberized RCS Wedge. Personally I’m not a fan of these because I’ve found that they don’t really have enough give to be comfortable, and they offer a relatively small surface area, unlike the integrated wedges mentioned previously.
My preferred are the squishy wedges, attached with heavy duty velcro. Not only does that method let you adjust the ride height of the wedge, but the little bit of give results in increased comfort over a long period of time (I’ve done an 8 hr drive wearing holsters like this). Keepers Concealment (my other preferred holster manufacturer) makes what they call the “Gabe White Wedge” which is 2” thick at the base, and offers amazing concealment. The only drawback I’ve found is, because of the type of foam they use, it does have to be replaced periodically (~6 months with daily wear for me). Dark Star makes a wedge that I’ve been playing with as well, and it seems to hold up a little bit better over the long term. It’s more expensive up front, but it seems to be slightly more optimal long term solution. Either way you can’t really go wrong.
By now you may have noticed that no one supplier offers everything that goes into my preferred tuckable rig. That’s usually how it goes. You’ll buy an “off the rack” solution, and then play with it for a while. You’ll find something that’s less than ideal for you, and replace it. It’ll either improve things or it won’t. Lots of the guys that are making good holsters today started out because they couldn’t find something that satisfied their exact needs. At the end of the day, what works best for you will probably be a Frankenstein-like amalgam of parts from a couple different sources.
Everything that’s been discussed thus far is built around my default carry pistol, which is a Glock 19. That’s right, I’ve found a way to conceal a full sized handgun in a reasonably effective and discreet method that suits about 85% of the social situations I’ll find myself in. Some folks prefer to opt for a single stack pistol (Glock 48, Sig P365XL, etc). If that works for you (or you just really want an excuse to buy a new toy) go for it.
Hopefully this has proven useful. Like with most gear-related solutions, the most effective answers tend to be more principle-based instead of there being a singular, blanket statement that’ll work for everyone.