https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/16/asian-americans-gun-ownership
The Pandemic years have produced some significant changes to the American Sociopolitical landscape, and not all of them good. So when one sees another story about how X is changing, Y is new and scary, or those got-dang Millennials are killing yet another industry, it’s easy to click away and sigh about the state of the media. But here we have some relative good news brought on by the chaos of the last few years: 5,000,000 new gun owners were minted in that same time frame, and a significant portion of them were Asian Americans. Being one of the least well represented demographics in the gun owning public, any change would seem large, but the number went up by a whopping 43%.
Asian Americans have been reporting a significant increase in race-motivated violence, and threats of violence since early 2020. It’s an unfortunate reason to see such an awakening to the value of armed self defense, but reality isn’t often fond of wearing kid-gloves, and boy is it making a comeback recently. Whether it’s caused by fraying social and political norms, poverty and homelessness, or the generally more negative tone of… well… everything lately, it’s what the Asian community in the US is experiencing, and they seem to be of a mind to do something about it.
Chris Cheng, noted Top Shot winner and gun rights activist recently started the Asian Pacific American Gun Owners Association to help train, educate, and in many cases introduce his community to firearms for the first time. As mentioned above, as a demographic, the AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) community is poorly represented among gun owners, for complicated social and cultural reasons, but APAGOA is working hard to change that. While the cause of this change is unfortunate, the outcome is positive and we hope that our fellow Americans of all stripes continue to join us in our pro-rights attitude and activism.
AAPI Gun Ownership Up 43%
Heat 2 – Book Review
Saying you love Heat in the gun world is a bit like saying you drink water. It’s expected. I love Heat, and while the gunplay is good, I love it more than that. I love the characters, the complexity, and the cinematography. The main character’s plots and plans are great and seeing smart people do smart things and succeed is nice. The movie sets up some fairly specific rules with the disciplined McCauley, and when he breaks his own rules, he pays for it. Recently Heat 2 came in the form of a crime novel.
Michael Mann coauthored the book with award-winning crime author Meg Gardiner. I had never read Meg Gardiner before, but after reading Heat 2, I plan to pick up The Shadow Tracer or Phantom Instinct and read more of her work. I’m writing this as spoiler free as I can, but if you don’t want anything revealed, then stop after this section. Here is the bottom line up front, it’s a good book. It’s enjoyable, fast-paced, and interesting. If you enjoyed Heat for more than the gunplay, then you should enjoy this book.
Heat 2 – Where it Starts and Where it Goes
Heat 2 pulls a Godfather 2 and is both a prequel and a sequel. That’s funny because that’s also a movie that used DeNiro and Pacino. The book opens right where the first film ended. The shootout had just occurred, and Hanna is tracking down Shiherlis in 1995. The story moves forward but also backward.
It flashes back to 1988, and we begin to learn a lot more about both Hanna and McCauley. Things that were only briefly mentioned in Heat pop up in Heat 2. For example, in the film, it’s mentioned Hanna took down a heavy hitter in Chicago. In the 1988 portion, Hanna is with CPD tracking down a violent crew.
We also see McCauley’s crew pull off multiple scores, and each time, they are professional planners. Like the film, it’s enjoyable to read about these smart characters doing smart things. One heist isn’t even violent. It’s just clever.
Throughout the book, it jumps to 1996, and we examine Chris and his life in a new country under a new name working for an international crime family. It’s an interesting evolution of his character. We get to see him mature a bit and focus less on scores on more on the ability to build an empire.
Finally, the book jumps to the year 2000, and we see more of Hanna and the world post the big shootout. We go back to LA in the year 2000 to wrap things up and finish all the plotlines.
The Grandness To It
Admittedly there seems to be less grandness to Heat 2 than to Heat 1. The ending to Heat and themes throughout it that explore loneliness and the focus of two men who are the best at what they do are gone. The theme now seems to be about dealing with your past in the present and what that entails.
In the last scene of Heat, as McCauley dies at LAX, he says to Hanna, “Told you I wasn’t going back.” Hanna hotels his hand as he dies, and the credits roll. It gave me chills. I didn’t get that same experience with Heat 2.
Also, throughout the book, there is a villain, a real nasty guy that has dealings with both Hanna and Neil. Both have a not very friendly personal connection to the man. The problem with this character is that he’s basically Waingro but nastier. Also, in the end, it feels like a way to tie Chris into Hanna’s story, and I didn’t necessarily buy it.
While I did enjoy the book and seeing what happened and happened to the characters, I never got the big ensign Heat gave me. In fact, while it’s not exactly sequel baiting, I do feel they left room to keep the story going. If they released the third book in the modern era, say 2024, then Chris would have a grown son, and that would be an interesting route to take.
If you enjoy crime thrillers, then you’ll enjoy Heat 2. It’s a fast-paced, fun book with good action and fun characters. It’s a quick read, and I finished it five days because I enjoyed it so much. That’s five days with two jobs and three kids, so take that for what you will.
Heat 2 and Fan Service
Michael Mann is not a novelist, but he does write his movies, and the book does read like the Heat movie. Heat 2 does feel like a Mann production, and it’s not like they slapped his name on it and let Meg Gardiner write the whole thing. She probably provided the expertise of a novelist and likely helped the novel get a good fine edge to it.
Before you read the book, you might want to watch Heat. This will make the book more enjoyable, and you’ll catch some of the fan service. For example, you learn why Neil randomly brought up the iridescent algae in Fuji. You also get some brand-name weapons and model numbers thrown at you. The way the men are described as using the guns also makes a lot of sense and is realistic.
There are also scenes that elaborate on characters we barely saw. Characters like Kelso get some background, and Nate even gets some love. We even see what happened to Eady and how Chris and Charlene met. In one of the few heartwarming portions, we learn that even after Hanna’s third divorce, he talks to his stepdaughter and cheers her on.
Heat 2 delivers some deep lore into what makes McCauley the McCauley we met in 1995. We learn more about Hanna as a cop and what lines he will cross to obtain justice.
My Complaints
I have a few complaints. My petty complaint is Chris had a G36 in 2000. He mentions it’s been in storage for five years, meaning he got one in 1995. In 1995 the G36 was brand new and unlikely to be on the black market just yet. That’s a petty one.
Another complaint is a change in the character of McCauley. In Heat, McCauley is a Marine complete with an EGA tattoo. In the book, this is swapped to him being a soldier with the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam. Sure, Neil could have done both, but that seems unlikely.
Finally, I just can’t believe that Hanna and McCauley would both give up on finding the big bad guy after he takes actions that affect both of them in personal ways. Especially McCauley, who in Heat hunted down both Waingro and Van Zandt.
Even with my complaints, some of them being petty, I really enjoyed Heat 2. I hope Mann can get it made into a movie and give us that neo-noir film the theatres are missing. If you’ve longed for a Heat expanded universe, dig in. If you want to preserve Heat as you remember it, then you can skip the book and not have anything taken from the film.
Fundamentals Are Fundamentals For A Reason
When looking at training classes, it’s important to ensure you’re constantly improving, and that a given class can benefit you beyond giving you an excuse to bust caps or LARP with your Carbine+PC. Certainly that stuff is fun, and fun is all the reason you need to want to go. That said, if that’s what’s eating your annual training budget (you have a training budget, right?) as a non-sworn, non-doorkicking regular citizen, then you’re not actually training for anything you’re likely to encounter. Do rifle classes all you want, but not to the exclusion of something that will make you a better concealed carrier, home defender, or whatever skillset that best fits in the tactical envelope that is your life. A basic, or advanced pistol class would likely serve the majority of us much better, as it’s the fundamentals, and keeping them fresh, that make a shooter good.
Fundamentals are never more fundamental than when they mean the difference between life and death, or continued freedom and living in a cage for 10-20. Officer Privette in the Active Self Protection video below, seems to have ignored Rule 1 to his own detriment, and that of the suspect he was attempting to apprehend. We weren’t there, we didn’t see what happened, but from the video, it’s difficult to imagine another scenario. He exits the vehicle, gun up, and almost before he can finish his demand to see hands, the pistol discharges, to which his response is “Oh shit!”.
If this truly was an unintentional discharge, it’s probably because his finger was on, or near the trigger, as he completed his shooting grip. Maybe as his left-hand fingers squeezed together, he had a sympathetic response and his right-hand fingers did the same, maybe he slipped, but whatever it was, there doesn’t seem to have been a threat that reached the level of lethal force. An investigation will determine this, but it seems plain this discharge wasn’t intentional, and the officer keeping his trigger finger in a high-register would have served him better than whatever he actually did.
How Video Games Helped My Carry Selections
Most people are fairly critical of the media portrayals of gun handling, and the related content and behaviors. Everything from “cup and saucer” grips on cop dramas, to the infamous “cocking Glock” on The Walking Dead. TV, movies, and even video games generally give us a pretty unrealistic perspective on how living with and carrying guns generally works. But there are those rare instances where you find something useful:
Ok, so it’s not exactly a direct correlation, but I do find myself configuring my daily carry setup along similar lines to how modern FPS games have you equip your character.
Stick with me here, I promise this will make sense in a minute.
One compliment that modern game designers have been getting is paying more attention to the realism of their games; both in the visuals, but also in the performance of the equipment and how much a character can carry. With the current crop of Ghost Recon/Rainbow Six/Call of Duty titles, you get to customize your character’s loadout. You’re generally limited to:
- A Primary weapon
- A Secondary/Backup weapon
- A Grenade or Less Lethal
- A Med Kit
- A Gadget or Special Skill
- Gone of the days of Goldeneye and Grand Theft Auto where you can carry literally every gun, bomb, and attack helicopter that you pick up. And it makes for more interesting gameplay. As luck would have it, that same basic framework is actually a pretty good guideline for structuring your EDC loadout as well. Here’s how I’ve structured mine:
Level 1 (always with me with no exception): MEDICAL. Why is this at the top of the list? Because it’s the solution to the widest scope of problems I might encounter. I can find myself (or someone else) in need of medical aid whether or not a confrontation has taken place.
The bare minimum that I carry for this is a tourniquet and a pack of Quikclot carried in a Wilderness #8 Pouch. If I want to add chest seals and other gear, I’ll bring in an ankle IFAK. I also keep IFAKs in all my vehicles, one in my range back, and another one if I’m carrying a briefcase or shoulder bag.
Level 2 (with me wherever possible, unless prohibited by law): LESS LETHAL. Wait what? Not the gun!?!?!?! *unsubscribes intensify* Hear me out. There are plenty of interpersonal conflicts where some level of force might be appropriate, but deadly force may not be necessary. Additionally, there are places I like to go (namely the extensive list of cocktail bars my town offers) where carrying a firearm is legally prohibited. But I can still have
POM Pepper Spray: It allows me to basically perform the “eye jab” that Craig Douglas teaches during his Managing Unknown Contacts (MUC) block at greater than arms reach. (Literally, after taking ECQC one of the first things I did was buy pepper spray because the class showed me how easily people can encroach on you, and how unpleasant it is having to go hands-on with someone). The legal threshold* (at least where I am) for using OC is dramatically lower than it is for deadly force. It can help dissuade someone that’s not taking “no” for an answer, but not posing a deadly threat. It offers a solution that’s “between harsh words and a gun” to shamelessly steal the title of Chuck Haggard’s OC class.
A Sap: They’re legal to carry in Texas for the last few years. I took a short form class from Larry Lindenman at Tac-Con back in March, and it showed me the real value of a purpose-built impact weapon. The biggest advantages are that they’re flat, low-profile, and easy to carry. You can modulate the level of force being applied, depending on if you’re striking with the flat vs. the edge, and where on the body you’re striking. They can also be discreetly “staged” during the MUC process, so that it’s ready to use if needed.
Level 3 (with me wherever possible & when appropriate): FLASHLIGHT. There are also those that insist on carrying a light everywhere, all the time. for me, that’s a little excessive. Don’t get me wrong I’ll throw it in my pocket, especially if I’m dressed down and more casual, but I don’t make it a point to bring a light unless I’m going out past 5 PM. My current light of preference is the Cloud Defense MCH High Output. The combination of size, output, and overall build helped edge it out ahead of the competition.
Level 4 (with me wherever legally possible): DEADLY FORCE. Generally the only time I’ll carry a knife for defensive application is if I’m going somewhere where firearms are legally prohibited (like bars in Texas). Most of my edged weapons are either Shivworks designs, or variants thereof. As for firearms, it’s either going to be my Glock 19 in a Dark Star Gear Orion on a PHLster Enigma, a Ruger LCR either in a pocket or in a DSG/Enigma combo, or my KelTec P32 in a Mika pocket holster. I virtually never find myself carrying an extra magazine.
- The type of pistol I’ll carry on a given day is not decided by my mood, the alignment of the planets, or some other silly motivation. It’s strictly based on what I’m wearing, what I’ll be doing, and my risk assessment of wherever I’ll be going. Therefore, this is not a carry rotation, but a situationally dependent decision tree.
That’s right. The firearm is the last item on the list of tools I’ll carry. This is because of a few different reasons: Firstly, my job and interests regularly take me to places where I’m prohibited from carrying a gun. Secondly, because of how I live my life, there is a greater chance of me encountering a non-gun problem.
There are folks out there that will espouse that “I won’t go anywhere I can’t carry”, and that’s certainly their prerogative, but I think that limits one’s potential life experiences. There are also those that will say “Concealed means concealed. What they don’t know won’t hurt them”, suggesting that they would carry their firearm in violation of posted laws. Again, that’s certainly their call (not that this blog advocates law-breaking). But understand the risk you’re taking on. I’ve known people to lose their jobs or suffer other negative social outcomes that could have been otherwise avoided had they carried smarter and more appropriately.
One of the “catchphrases” you’ll hear regularly within the gun-carrying community is “Two is One, One is None” And that’s used to justify carrying 2 guns, extra mags, more than one blade, etc. For some people, depending on their lifestyle, that might be a realistic and appropriate loadout. For most of us who live life with a gun (as opposed to it being part of our job), preparing for the least likely event can prevent us from going about or day to day lives. Everyone likes to gear up for the Hollywood-style, “save the day” type of defensive gun use (DGU). John Johnston of Citizen’s Defense Research calls these “Sentinel Events”, and I think they warrant their own article.
Ultimately, everyone’s context will be different. What is appropriate for me may not be appropriate for you. I would encourage you to take a long, realistic, analytical look at your lifestyle, and make sure that your chosen equipment list accurately reflects that.
As always, Your Mileage May Vary. Only you know what’s best for you.
*I’m definitely not a lawyer, and nothing on this blog constitutes legal advice of any kind. You are solely responsible for everything your chosen carry gear complies with all local, state, and federal laws. I don’t know you, so I’m sure as hell not going to jail for you. It’s called being a responsible adult.
The Premier Armor Concealable Armor Vest – Keep It Hidden
I love the fact that in the last fifteen years, the body armor industry has exploded, and the civilian purchase of body armor has exploded. It gives me a warm and fuzzy. Most of us likely own a plate carrier and some form of rifle plate, and that’s amazing. Today we are looking at something a little less tactical and maybe even a little more practical. What we are looking at is the Premier Armor Concealable Armor Vest.
Concealable armor isn’t for everyone, but for certain people, it can be quite handy. I did repo for a bit and would have loved a vest to wear. People who transport money or even work in cash businesses like check cashing places would certainly be well served by a concealable vest. Hell, maybe someone has just threatened you, and you don’t want to take the risk. For $659 dollars you can have a Level IIIA vest that could save your life.
Breaking Down The Premier Armor Concealable Armor Vest
There are plenty of companies that produce armor, and there are lots of terms that you should look out for. One of the more important terms is NIJ Certified. The National Institute of Justice sets standards for body armor and acts as an unbiased testing program. To achieve NIJ Certified, the armor has to be tested to NIJ Standards by the NIJ.
NIJ certification is a lot like TCCC approval for tourniquets. You really want that certification. A lot of armor companies produce what they refer to as ‘built to NIJ Standards.’ This is a slippery way to say that the armor hasn’t been tested, but it kind of makes it sound like it has and is built to established standards.
The Concealable Armor Vest and its IIIA soft armor are NIJ Certified. IIIA armor is not rifle-rated armor, and this thing won’t stop an M193 from zipping through it. It’s mainly produced to stop pistol rounds and shotgun rounds. The armor is rated to stop a 44 Magnum moving at 1,400 feet per second. To top it off, the vest is special threat rated to deal with shotgun slugs, that crazy Liberty Defense 9mm ammo, and SS197SR 5.7x28mm rounds.
Throwing on the Concealable Armor Vest
The Premier Armor Concealable Armor Vest has six points of adjustability to fine-tune the fit, which is fairly important. This isn’t just for comfort but to ensure the vest covers the vitals properly and conceals them easily. The vest has two points at the shoulder and four around the waist. Getting a good fit is easy and takes some adjustment to get it right.
Since this is a Concealable Armor Vest, it’s smartly designed to deal with heat and discomfort. Without a doubt, it’s going to be hot when you wear this thing. It’s just the nature of the beast with body armor. Until they get the same kind of cooling my gaming PC has, it’s gonna be hot. Yet, Premier Armor took some effort to make it a little comfier.
This includes a breathable material that is also moisture-wicking and gets rid of sweat when possible. The material on the inside is fairly soft and comfy too. It doesn’t chafe my nips, and that’s pretty dang important when wearing your best concealed. With that said, I still suggest a shirt under the vest and a shirt over it.
Concealment
How concealable is this Concealable Armor Vest? Well, it depends on your normal clothing choices. Under a flannel, it absolutely disappears. The flannel style patterns really help break up any printing the vest creates. A button-down shirt conceals it without a problem. The black outer carrier might stick through a white shirt, so darker colors might work a bit better.
Any kind of hoodie or jacket will also completely make this vest disappear. It does fit tight to the body, which is important to me because I conceal carry. With the Concleable Armor Vest being tucked tight to the body, it doesn’t get in the way when I try to draw my firearm. If I’m in a situation where I’m wearing armor, I’m gonna be packing a piece as well. Even with appendix carry, the vest isn’t in the way of your draw.
Armored Up
It might not offer all the advantages of hard rifle plates and a plate carrier, and I might not be Master Chief in his Spartan armor, but I’m a bit more prepared than just wearing a layer of cotton. This is a niche case use item, but if you fall in that niche, you likely want the best armor you can get. The Concealable Armor Vest is a fantastic piece of gear. It’s protective, NIJ Certified, concealable, and even comfy.
It’s Not A Glock! But Does it Suck?
The XD was an early contender against the Glock. Many people (often those who favored all-steel guns over any polymer one) complained about the grip angle, the lack of active, external safety mechanisms, the shape of the grip, and many other, less valid arguments. How a gun feels in your hand is usually a function of familiarity more than quality. Certainly a very small person trying to manipulate a very large gun like a 5.7 or Desert Eagle is going to have legitimate biomechanical problems that no amount of acclimation or training can overcome; that’s not what this is about.
This is (generally) about people finding a reason to justify their bias. Unfortunately the first company to hear and respond to those complaints was Marko Vuković, of HS Produkt, a Croatian arms manufacturer perhaps best known at the time for the HS95, an unlicensed copy of the Sig P226. They produced a polymer framed pistol called the HS2000 that had a different grip angle, a grip safety, and an absurdly tall upper, otherwise fairly similar to a Glock, but priced about $100-200 less. It is decidedly Not A Glock, though many of the genpop might mistake it for one.
In the last decade or so, many firearms instructors have kept track of the guns that show up in their classes. They’ve also kept track of which ones performed well, and which choked hard: John Correia is one, and Greg Ellifritz is another, out of many. In the article linked, Greg goes into detail about how after years of watching these “Just as good!” not a Glocks go down with any sort of hard use, as well as the issues that come with getting one repaired. It seems that if a serious issue arises (as can happen when the grip safety locks up because a fatigued shooter didn’t depress it completely while manipulating the slide), the gun must be sent back to the factory. As we have mentioned, despite being sold by Springfield Armory, the guns are made by HS Produkt. That means if your XD chokes hard enough, you have an international freight fee, and a long wait ahead of you.
Don’t take my word for it, read Greg’s article yourself and consider if the moderate savings on an XD is worth the pain in the ass that might follow.
Everything Wrong with the RATS Tourniquet
The RATS is still kicking around, and it seems like regardless of what the tactical medical community does, they remain somewhat popular. Not popular with police, military, or professional emergency medical technicians, but with the everyday joe crowd. I see why. They are admittedly very easy to carry and quite convenient. I get it because I was even once a fan at first sight. I saw the design and thought it looked like a great idea.
Luckily, I got slapped with some truth and have learned from my ways. It seems like some other folks, everyday Joes, need a little truth slap. Admittedly searching through medical information can be dull and difficult, but I wanted to gather the main reasons and turn them into easily digestible bites of information on why you should toss the RATS and get a CAT.
The RATS Is Too Thin
The use of an elastic-like band to treat bleeding wounds isn’t new. We used similar tourniquets during the Second World War. Tubing was used with various clips to help prevent bleeding. Although it bears mentioning the German forces had windlass tourniquets. The tubing likely did save lives, but we moved on from M1 Garands and Tommy guns, and we should move one from elastic bands.
They can work, but they are not optimal or even suboptimal. The thinner design of the RATS creates less reliable occlusion. There is less room for error, and in a situation where you are saving a life, you are bound to make mistakes. Stopping arterial hemorrhage requires a nice wide strap.
Additionally, the thin nature of the band can create excessive pain in the patient when you finally achieve occlusion and stop the bleeding. In the CoTCCC testing, the RATS scored a one out of five for pressure.
The RATS is Too Slow To Apply Effectively
To stop the bleed with a RATS, you have to apply it in near-perfect concentric wraps. Good luck doing that when time is of the essence, you’re wounded, or your patient is covered in blood and screaming. It takes significant effort and practice to perfect. Everyone advocates training, and you should train with your TQ, but the RATS would require a lot more time to perfect the wrapping technique and ensure occlusion.
That time could be spent training in other life-saving techniques. When the CoTCCC tested the RATS compared to other tourniquets, it scored a 0 out of 5 for time to occlusion. It can achieve occlusion, but it takes a lot longer.
They Are Difficult To Apply One Handed
I can twist a RATS around my arms with one hand plenty easy. It’s just a cord, right? Well, doing it and doing it right are two different things. Unlike a CAT which I can just slide up my arm and tighten the windlass, I have to make sure the cord wraps around my arm just right to get the right amount of dispersion to occlude blood flow. This takes time, and the coordination required to do so is quite high. Imagine trying to do so while potentially covered in blood, with injuries, and all that jazz?
Taking It Off Blows Clots
Without a windlass, there is no way to slowly loosen the tourniquet. Eventually, you’ll have to remove it and to do so, you’ll have to apply a CAT or similar tourniquet above the RATS. This way, you can slowly let off the windlass. Removing the RATS without another tourniquet will essentially let the blood rush back to the wound at full force. With a windlass, it can be backed off slowly to ensure the blood has stopped flowing. This would only ever be done by higher-level medical, but it is worth noting.
They Are Not CoTCCC Approved
RATS has a bit of a sketchy history with TCCC approval. TCCC, or as the acronym is properly laid out, CoTCCC, is the committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care. The CoTCCC is a brilliant organization that works for the Defense Department. They evaluate, gather data, and interpret it to help improve and produce modern casualty care. While they are the CoTCCC, everyone just called them TCCC.
RATS used to advertise that they were TCCC-approved. They have never been CoTCCC approved but are USTCCC approved. USTCCC is a separate organization with nothing in common with CoTCCC. CoTCCC does not endorse products per se, but they do recommend products based on testing and evaluation. This is why the CAT tourniquet is so well regarded and is the standard by which tourniquets are judged.
Ultimately the decision is yours to make, but most unbiased medical sources see and point out the issues with the RATS. The CAT still dominates for a reason, it works, and its saved countless lives at this point. Hopefully, I’ve helped make the decision a little bit easier.
The Doctor Talks Shotgun Wounds
Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Chris Raynor has a YouTube Channel.
In this video he duets Garand Thumbs shotgun video and goes over shotgun wounding and why the shotgun is so dang devastating inside its effective range.
I had a blast, pun intended, watching the video and going over why the shotgun and 00 (or slug) does a number on the interior organs.
Short answer, its like dumping most of a magazine of 9mm into a concentrated spot all at the same time.
As Clint Smith puts it,
“Pistols put holes in people. Rifles put holes through people. Shotguns, at the right range with the right load, will physically remove a chunk of shit from your opponent and throw that shit on the floor.”
Later on, Dr. Raynor actually goes into the surgical steps necessary for wound diagnosis and treatment, if anything can be done in the first place, and what a trauma center needs to do in order to save someone who’s been critically wounded with a shotgun and a fighting load at close range.
The short short answer to that one is… good luck bud.
Gunday Brunch 68: Larry Correia
The boys have a guest, and it’s award winning author, gun nerd, and Post Malone’s neighbor Larry Correia, author of the Monster Hunter International series and many many many more books! One of those books is soon to be released non-fiction, In Defense of the Second Amendment, and you can pre order that at this link: https://amzn.to/3evDDlT
21 Years Hence
21 years.
21 years since I was pulled into a middle school assembly hall like, so many others, and told that the United States of America had been attacked by an unknown group.
21 years since I took a bus home and walked in on my father crying while staring at a smoke choked New York skyline.
21 years since I watched two towers fall and a smoldering hole belch flames in the Pentagon, thousands of people had lost their lives.
21 years since the illusion of a peaceful 21st century was extinguished.
I think that is my takeaway now, that 9/11 crushed the idea that humanity had moved on from more base impulses of violence and would lean on reason rather than violence to try and solve their grievances. We were starting the information age after all, who would need to argue and fight when we could look it up and see?
The 21 years that followed saw us commit to GWOT and that hasn’t ended spectacularly. We got Bin Laden but Afghanistan is back in Taliban hands and Iraq is still a hot bed of discontent. The violent corners of the globe that were still are, and I think we were just insulated in our western spaces assuming that the world would take our example because we had it pretty damn good.
We’ve made stupid mistakes. We’ve been naïve. We errantly believed at some level that the changing of the calendar had solved our greater violent impulses and our destructive motivations.
It did not.
We jumped the gun.
It has cost us.
In the decades that followed, we’ve been hamstrung by our own egos and prejudices. We made enemies, stupidly, where we could have had friends. We made the bold and absurd claims and are now reaping the harvest of those choices as we see division and prejudice in the place of respect and cooperation.
We didn’t slide backwards, no. At least not very much. We instead made the hubris fueled error of assuming we had made much more progress than we had. That the world thought like we did and that we would never have to faceoff against anyone seriously again at anything more than a debate table.
As we continue to traverse the 21st century, getting toward the middle years, we have had harsh reminders that nobody is required to think like we do, respect what we respect, or value life as we do. Someone or some group can always take exception to us, and use violence as their means to do so.
The skyline is no longer on fire, but it could be again one day. We have enemies, and until they are destroyed without the ability to grow back or they decide we are better as friends we will be required to have the ability to respond. We can come into conflict over resources or ideology again and again, at the national or personal levels both. This will always necessitate our remembering how to be violent in our own defense.
But it is my hope that, when taken in its full measure, these 100 years will be dramatically improved from the 20th century. That 2025 will show dramatic progress from 1925, 1950, 1975, and even 2000. That 2050 will show more progress still. It is my hope that we get over our juvenile illusions of not needing violence in our toolkit, but that we continue to strive for a world ever more peaceful than the day before.
We have a tremendous amount of work to do.
The series of global and regional catastrophes, as well as the shallow and stupid efforts of the political elements, have set up 2020 to 2030 as a challenging decade. We are discontent, more divided, and more distrustful of institutions who have failed us spectacularly time and time again. But I do wholeheartedly believe that we haven’t arrested our positive momentum, not even close, and if we could just continue to fight through our own egos to keep reason as our guide, even if those we are reasoning with aren’t reasoning so well, we will see a tremendous century in the grand scale.
The world is still a dangerous place, gone is the myth that it will ever not be. But it can be a less dangerous place and we can be ready for the dangers.
That must be good enough.
ArcFlash EMG-02: Shooting The Future
Is there anything more sci-fi, cyberpunk, or space-gun than a Gauss Rifle? Ok so it’s not a rifle, but the EMG-02 fits the form factor, and despite current tech limitations, it’s cool as hell, and the development we’ve seen in these products over the last few years is astounding.
The newest model from ArcFlash is the EMG-02, which has improved from the previous iteration both in performance, and user-friendliness. Using an off-the-shelf drill battery, having a massive capacitor that doubles as something of a stock, and overall better balancing make it much more accessible as a weapon. It’s more powerful, while still not quite reaching modern service-caliber pistol capability, but it’s not difficult to imagine that in another decade or so, this thing will be launching magnetically stabilized projectiles of sufficient mass and velocity to be relied upon in a hunting, or self-defense scenario.
Check out the video, and be sure to watch to the end to see how it handles improvised ammunition!
Why HK ‘Hates’ the US Market Space
James Williamson and 1911 Syndicate crew go into why H&Ks product lines here in the US are… thin.
The answer is the combination of US and German regulations on the import/export of “military” weaponry. The Germans are VERY sensitive about selling commercial weapons that are similar to their military rifles. We in the US want the military rifles, semi-auto, but we want them to remain the MP7, G36, or 433, and not come in a neutered format like the SL8.
In short, H&K has a hand tied by the ATF and the German government and making an importable variant is insanely expensive. You have to submit it for approval and await both import and export approval from the ATF and German government. The Germans are meticulous about the paperwork and justifications for selling their select-fire systems or their non-commercialized inventory.
The US had a similar series with the AWB guns and making certain that the commercial and military weapons were indeed very different. Colt, most famously perhaps, used different trigger pins and a very different semi-auto bolt carrier in their rifles for a long time to differentiate the commercial rifles and the select-fire assault rifles.
So listen to James, HK doesn’t hate us. Not really. But they can only do what they can do, they aren’t the only company experiencing these setbacks and covering rough terrain in the pursuit of getting product into our consumer hands. The ATF can literally, at will, just decide that a gun that was good isn’t anymore, and does. The same goes for imported parts, which can be declared a firearm… just because.
Mountain Man Medical And Their Free Online Course
I love free stuff. Who doesn’t? In the firearms and tactics world, the best information does have a price point because it takes a lot of trial, effort, study, research, and work to develop modern tactics, techniques, and weapon handling. That’s real work, and the creator certainly deserves to be paid to teach you that work. With that in mind, sometimes a company is gracious enough to provide information for free. Mountain Man Medical has released its Emergency Trauma Response training for free online.
This is brought to you in coordination with ConcealedCarry.com, and Riley Bowman pops up surprisingly enough to introduce the course, and we see him in a few reenactments worth noting. This course does require you to sign up and walk through the purchase aspect, but once that’s done, the entire 105-minute course is completely free and certainly worth watching.
As a disclaimer, this kind, of course, doesn’t necessarily replace hands-on training. It does, however, establish a good baseline for emergency medical treatment. The course is a great refresher, good introductory course, and solid overall course, from the content to the presentation.
The Mountain Man Medical Emergency Trauma Response Training
The Mountain Man Medical course is headed by Brian McLaughlin. Brian was a green side Corpsman with the United States Navy. Meaning he was tasked to keep grunts from getting killed. He was also an EMT and ER Technician, and he is our primary instructor throughout the course.
There is a lot to love about this course information-wise, but before I dig into that, let’s talk about the presentation and organization because that is equally impressive. The footage is filmed in crystal clear high definition that’s well lit and easy to see. The sound is great, and the presentation is always easy to understand.
The organization of the course is also impressive. Instead of just giving you a single one-hour and 45-minute video, the course is broken down into small segments. Each covers a specific subject and is as long or as short as it needs to be. There are 14 segments total that vary in length.
None of the segments are super long, and this makes the course easily digestible, especially when you’re a busy person. The longest section is 17 minutes, and the shortest (outside of the conclusion) is three minutes long.
The organization of the Mountain Man Medical course is ingenious. I’m a busy person, and I’m betting most reading this are as well. Being able to jump in, watch a single lesson and bounce to whatever else I have to do is very convenient. If it was a 105-minute video, I’d be jumping around everywhere to see where I left off. That’s not the case here.
The Medical Content
The Mountain Man Tactical Emergency Trauma Response class starts from the outside and works its way in. What do I mean by that? Well, the class is organized in a realistic manner. It starts with what you should be doing prior to any emergency. You establish a mindset, the gear, and then move into the medical content.
The gear advice is spot on with recommendations for tourniquets, chest seals, and where and how many medical kits are good to have. The man knows his stuff in the gear world. He also goes on to show he knows a fair bit about medicine as well.
Mountain Man Tactical sticks to the MARCH acronym and uses that as its lesson guide. MARCH standard for
Massive Hemorrhage
Airway
Respirations
Circulation
Hypothermia and Head Trauma
Reassessment
From there, the lesson goes into Other injury types, a deeper section on tourniquets, and then your role as a medic. After each lesson, there will be a short quiz covering what you just learned to better reinforce the core lessons of the section. It’s clearly established at the beginning that hands-on training is superior, and this course won’t make you a doctor.
Getting Traumatic
The free Mountain Man Medical course is a great way to familiarize yourself with these concepts, and since it’s free, it’s time better spent than mindlessly browsing Reddit. I’d certainly suggest giving it a listen, and check out Mountain Man Medical. Their website and products are organized by the MARCH acronym as well, and that’s fairly convenient, and they have kits as well.
For a mere two dollars, you can do a Range Medicine class, and I plan to tackle that next. They also have a schedule of live events worth checking out for that invaluable hands-on training.
Gun Control Is Racist, Per Democrats.
Anyone with a marginal education in the history of US law, will recognize that many of the gun control laws enacted since the civil war (and before) have been direct, overt efforts to keep people of color disarmed. The “Slave Codes” of the pre-war south and the fact that Native Americans weren’t covered by the Bill of Rights until 1924 are only the most overt, and perhaps easier to look at through this lens because of their seeming remoteness from today. But from Jim Crowe laws after the Civil War, to the California Mulford Act banning Open Carry in the 1960s, there are numerous more modern examples, and the evidence points to an obvious conclusion: Gun control is racist, and always has been.
The Anti-gun lobby, and the largely Democrat legislators who follow it have mostly avoided this issue, likely suspecting how poorly linking your cause to centuries of the suppression of natural rights of people based on race goes over with their constituents. Side-stepping the racism inherent in gun control seems to have gone out of vogue though, and with impressive speed.
Instead of ignoring the racist roots and remnants in these laws, they seem to have embraced them, with NY and CA both referencing them as justification for current attempts at skirting Bruen and other recent right-affirming SCOTUS decisions. Somehow this hasn’t struck them as a negative, and in their desperation, they’d started saying the quiet part out loud.
Hopefully this does two things:
- Wakes up the electorate to the reality of putting heavy restrictions and paywalls on enumerated rights
- Turns some of their supporters against them, because of the incongruity of touting yourself as “The Resistance” while oppressing minorities.
Of course cognitive dissonance is the national pastime these days, so the impact may be small, but it’s good to see the anti-rights crowd is running out of untainted arguments, and currently tearing out the kitchen sink, prepping to throw it too.
Dr. Edeen Tells Texas to Keep Its Children Well
[Ed: DRGO’s Dr. John Edeen delivered this testimony on June 23 to the Texas legislature’s Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety strongly advocating effective school protection of our children, which is DRGO’s long-held position.]
Thank you, Chairman White, for inviting me to give my testimony today. My name is John Edeen, MD. I am a pediatric orthopedic surgeon who has practiced in San Antonio for almost 25 years. I am a Navy veteran and a firearms instructor certified by the NRA, Massad Ayoob Group and Rangemaster. I am also the Membership Director for Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership. (www.drgo.us).
The events of May 24, 2022, at Robb Elementary, hold a personal connection. Eva Mireles, one of the two teachers murdered that day, was the sister of my medical assistants in my orthopedic practice. In addition, one of the surviving children was surgically treated by one of the pediatric trauma surgeons that night. I was the on call orthopedic surgeon for the Children’s Hospital that night.
Ed Monk (Last Resort Firearms Training), LTC, USA, Ret., former law enforcement and high school teacher has studied and analyzed all the active shooter events since the UT Clock Tower Shooting in 1966. He has simply broken down each of these shootings and planning should consider two factors: MATH + TIME. On average, one person is shot every 10 seconds. The numbers are worse in the first minute and do not account for a single person being shot multiple times:
TIME in minutes 1 2 3 4 5 6
Average casualties 6 12 18 24 30 36
Adjusted casualties 12 19 24 29 33 36
When someone walks into a room and starts shooting, when do you want it to stop? 10 minutes? 8 minutes? 5 minutes? 3 minutes? Or RIGHT NOW? You need a plan to make it happen.
IF there is an armed person in place, 1-9 victims. IF you wait for 911-police response 30+ victims.
J. Eric Dietz, PhD of Purdue University did a computer modeling study of active shooter response in schools. He looked at 4 scenarios:
1. No access control or any type of security within the school
2. Concealed carry individuals (5-10% of work force) present within school
3. Assigned School Resource Officer
4. Assigned Resource Officer and concealed carry individuals (5-10%)
He did 50 runs of each proposed scenario and found that decreased response time = decreased casualties:
- No access control/security Highest casualties
- Concealed carry 5% 6.8 % decreased casualties, 5.4% decreased response times,
” 10% 10.6% decreased casualties, 16.8% decreased response time
3. Resource Officer only 66.4% decreased casualties, 59.5% decreased response time
4. Resource Officer + CC 5% 69.9% decreased casualties, 59.7% decreased response time
Resource Officer + CC 10% 70.2% decreased casualties, 62.7% decreased response time.
The answer is having armed, trained and willing people in place at the time the active shooter chooses to attack. Gun free zones are like shooting fish in a barrel for the active shooter.
Ed Monk recommends these steps be taken to mitigate the effect of an active shooter in a school:
- Completely change response plans from passive (call 911 and wait on someone to travel here and save us) to active (we will stop him).
- Develop response plans focused on immediate counterattack- fighting and stopping the active shooter within the first 30 seconds, well before the first ambulance or law enforcement officer arrives.
- Train, resource and practice the counterattack response.
- Wargame the plan against real, evil, thinking, motivated attacker.
- Base the plan on the attacker and start locations most likely for their school.
- Base the plan on the End State= the number of victims.
- Take responsibility for the victim count.
- Teach staff and students their 3 options of response (Fight, Flee, Barricade).
- Give staff & students permission to make their own decisions
- Give staff & students permission and encouragement to fight
- Encourage fighting immediately: teach staff & students how to fight
- If legal, have enough armed staff members spaced out so that at least one is likely to hear or see the first shot of the attack
- If not legal, change the law.
We do not have to reinvent the wheel. In Ohio, FASTER (Faculty, Administrator, Safety Training & Emergency Response) has 3000 school volunteers, in 300 school districts in 20 states over the past 10 years. They have also established a program in Colorado and are working on Arizona and Florida. The training begins with a one-day foundation class to assess baseline skill level and requires a concealed handgun license. Those who are accepted participate in a three-day Level 1 course which covers the history of active shooters, mindset and adversary tactics. There is a shooting instruction component and qualification test that exceeds that of the Ohio State Police Standard. They also get training on shooting while moving, use of barricades and room entry tactics. They do training in Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) and learn to stop hemorrhage and manage airways until EMS arrives and is allowed into the scene. On the last day they do realistic force on force scenarios. Level 2 training builds on Level 2. Level 3 training takes place in the schools with first responders (medics & police).
In a recent conversation with Jim Irvine, one of the founders of the FASTER program, he pointed out some added benefits of the collaboration between school administrators and law enforcement. A double homicide in a convenience store was solved when the juvenile murders were identified by the video when reviewed by school staff. Also, competition between school staff and law enforcement during joint training has improved pistol marksmanship on both sides. (www.fastersaveslives.org).
In conclusion, armed response time is the most important factor once an active shooter event in a school occurs. Some schools in Texas have already gotten the message and have armed volunteer teachers and staff. All need to. The days of planning to call 911 and wait for police to respond should have been over since Columbine in 1996. The lessons have not been learned. How many more Sandy Hooks, Marjorie Stoneman Douglases, Santa Fe High Schools and Robb Elementary Schools do we need before we protect our most valuable asset with armed personnel that have a chance to disrupt and deter the active shooter in the school?
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—Dr. John Edeen is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon in San Antonio, TX and is active in seeking the right to carry for qualified hospital staff. He is DRGO’s Membership Director.
All DRGO articles by John Edeen, MD