The Legend Reborn

By

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March 3, 2020

In 1985, after a close competition between two passing finalists, the Beretta 92F was chosen by the US Military as the successor to the M1911A1. The new pistol, designation M9, would become the standard sidearm of US Armed Forces for the next four decades.

Rumors and innuendo surround the adoption and the poor opinion of troops who had no idea how to shoot a pistol have colored its reputation in a rather unique way. The M9 suffered many of the same problems that the M16 did, namely the military didn’t treat its own gear properly and buy the right parts (magazines, in one epic case failure) to be sure it did. The M9 didn’t fail the military, the military failed itself with the M9 and by being cheapskates on training/parts.

This developed into a strange duality where units and departments, as police acquisitions followed the military example and bought Beretta’s, used their guns and loved them. These units trained with them, they maintained them, and they bought proper equipment for them. What resulted was a respect for a well designed and durable pistol.

In contrast you had the military majority who didn’t train with them, didn’t maintain them, were given a supply of garbage tier magazines for them, and in general didn’t know jack about this weapon because it wasn’t a service rifle. These people hated the M9. They circulated the stories of how much it ‘sucked’ and because they were ‘military’ their word was taken as gospel.

The duality came in that ‘Military M9’s’ were garbage and ‘Civilian M9’s’ were great. If you’re curious how that’s possible, so was I. I didn’t know better and parroted that philosophy for awhile myself.

Boy, that was dumb… I’ve since learned.

The M9 earned its stripes, in spite of misguided ‘common wisdom’, and has emerged today as an outstanding TDA handgun. But it, and even the Marines M9A1, are old. The M17/M18 are a worthy successor and since the military wanted a striker gun, they got it. Sig, in an ironic twist, won this contract in a manner similar to how Beretta won the 1985 contract. The P320 was cheaper per unit than the Glocks.

Beretta, in spite of the stagnation that military contracts can engender in a product, didn’t let the 92F stay still. The 92FS, 92G, and M9A3 have all emerged to great acclaim. LTT and Wilson Combat offer custom variants of the full size and compact pistols that are beloved of discerning shooters.

Then Came the 92X

beretta 92x centurion pistol in a phlster floodlight holster iwb — 17 rounds with a light in an alloy frame pistol on your hip? Damn right.

Originally launched as a competition geared frame (92X Performance) the line expanded to cover every niche of duty, concealed carry, and the demands of the discerning consumer. Beretta delivered a modern configurable sidearm with all of the original soul and durability of the M9.

Just give it the right magazines for pity’s sake… Beretta, Mec-Gar.

The 92X has four (kinda five) models, I’ve been shooting three of them with, my hands down favorite being the Centurion (Compact slide on a full size frame). Given that my favorite Glock is the 19X, I can see all your shocked faces from here.

One size doesn’t fit all. The 92X was painstakingly developed to suit a wide variety of needs. Whether in Competition, Combat, or Concealed Carry situations, there is a 92X that is right for you.

MODEL	MAGAZINE CAPACITY	CALIBER	OVERALL LENGTH	OVERALL HEIGHT
92X Performance	15 rds	9 mm	8.7 in	5.75 in
92X Full Size	17 rds	9 mm	8.5 in	5.5 in
92X Centurion	17 rds	9 mm	7.75 in	5.4 in
92X Compact W/Rail	13 rds	9 mm	7.75 in	5.25 in
92X Compact	13 rds	9 mm	7.75 in	5.25 in

The 92X is among the apex of modern TDA handguns. From the M9 origins, every feature has received detailed attention and performance upgrades. The sights are dovetailed fiberoptic from the factory, with multiple options for end user preference. The safety comes either active or decocker only (as is the way). Your grip circumference is selectable via the panels and you are able to choose between the straight line narrow panels with the new grip angle and the classic larger grip profile (my preference).

It is a legend. They claim it reborn. I just like shooting it.

Guns, Women, and the Medical Literature

By

DRGO

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March 3, 2020

[Ed: This was originally published October 1, 1994 on Hacienda Publishing. Dr. Faria discusses the breakthrough take-down of Arthur Kellerman’s “seminal research.” [sic] It is still relevant 25 years later as we face even more pseudo-scientific assaults on reason. Women training for self-protection is thankfully becoming widespread. Edited for DRGO in form and length .]

It is becoming abundantly clear that the mainstream liberal media and the entrenched medical establishment support draconian gun control measures that would ultimately lead to the confiscation and banning of firearms. Driven by liberal medical journal editors, vociferous administration officials, and taxpayer subsidized, gun control-oriented research, the political establishment has propounded the Public Health/Epidemiologic model to confront the conveniently media-tagged issue of guns and violence.(1)

This is, in reality, a campaign orchestrated by gun prohibitionists and proponents of big government who are willing to exploit our understandable concerns about street violence and sensationalized crime statistics to advance their agenda for an ever-increasing government power via the emasculation of constitutional government, that in the final analysis can only come about through total citizen disarmament.

The monolithic wall of the entrenched political medical establishment was breached with the January 1994 issue of the Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia. In that issue preeminent criminologist, Professor Gary Kleck of Florida State University, author of the influential book, Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America (1991), analyzed work by Arthur Kellermann, MD and associates at the Center for Injury Control at Emory University. Their study purported to find that 76% of people killed at home were shot by a family member or an acquaintance. They concluded that persons who keep guns in their home are themselves more likely to be victims of homicide than those who don’t. In the words of the authors, “Rather than confer protection, guns kept in the home are associated with an increase in the risk of homicide by a family member or intimate acquaintance.”(2)

Methodology Flaws

Kleck discloses serious flaws in the methodology. First, “violent households” would be expected “to be more likely to own guns than people in less violent households, even if guns themselves made no contribution at all to the violence.” Second, “because their study did nothing to distinguish cause from effect . . .” we know nothing about the “risk-increasing or risk-decreasing, of keeping guns for self-protection.” In other words, we do not know what portion of gun uses were for self-protection and which ones were criminal.

For example, 63% of the “victims” were men; yet we do not know how many of these homicides represent acts of self-defense by women against abusive partners, and so were justifiable homicides. In fact, according to the authors, “a majority of the homicides (50.9%) occurred in the context of a quarrel or a romantic triangle.”(1) It should be pointed out that other investigators have concluded that “about half of shootings by one spouse or the other are defensive killings of husbands by victimized wives. So it misleadingly characterizes many cases in which guns save innocent lives as gun murders.”(3)

Moreover, only gun uses that resulted in death were analyzed, thus the study excluded the vast majority of gun uses that do not result in death, and which are more likely to be defensive uses by victims of crime, to protect themselves.(2-4) In fact, Kleck points out that “at least ¾ of all uses of guns in crime-related incidents are defensive uses by the crime victims.”(3)

Kellermann et al adopted faulty post hoc ergo propter hoc reasoning (“after it therefore because of it”), which blames the rise of crime and violence in America on guns. As a neurosurgeon who has spent incalculable hours in the middle of the night treating victims of gunshot wounds, I also deplore the rising violence and crime in America—but we must have the moral courage to seek the truth in another side of the story that is seldom reported.

Physicians have the professional obligation to base our opinions on objective data and scientific information rather than on emotionalism or political agendas. That issue of JMAG, entirely devoted to the topic of guns and violence, concluded that accumulated objective data shows that indiscriminate gun control disarms law-abiding citizens while not preventing criminals from perpetrating crimes. Guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens deter crime and enable self-protection.(6)

FBI statistics reveal that 75 percent of violent crimes for any locality are committed by six percent of hardened criminals and repeat offenders. The typical murderer has at least a 6 year prior criminal history with four felony arrests when he first commits murder. This compares with the fact that less than 2% of crimes committed with firearms are carried out by licensed law-abiding citizens. The vast majority of criminals obtain their guns illegally which is not difficult since there are already over 200 million guns in circulation in the U.S.(5,6)

A ban on gun ownership would not only be unconstitutional but also impossible to execute. Americans know that they have a right to self-protection, and understand that the right embodied in the Second Amendment is the right that secures all others. There are approximately 500,000 police officers in the United States.(7) Assuming three 8-hour shifts every day and other circumstances (vacations, leaves, etc.), there can only be 125,000 police on duty at any time to protect a population of 250 million.

The duty of the police officers is not to prevent crime (they cannot), but to apprehend criminals and bring them to justice after a crime has been committed. They cannot be in all places at all times. And contrary to popular belief, the police have no legal duty to protect the public against criminals. According to several court opinions including a1982 ruling (Bowers vs De Vito), “there is no constitutional right to be protected by the state against being murdered by criminals or madmen. The constitution . . . does not require the federal government or the state to provide services, even so elementary a service as maintaining law and order.”(8)

In the final analysis, the state has no responsibility to protect citizens from crime. At best, the state assumes only a collective duty to the community. This is one reason that law-abiding American citizens must preserve their constitutional right “to keep and bear arms,” and must assume responsibility to protect themselves from violent criminals, as the 1992 Los Angeles riots so well demonstrated.

Kleck has noted that “citizens acting in self-defense kill about three times more assailants and robbers than do the police.” In his book, he gathers statistics evidencing that defensive uses of handguns by citizens surpass their criminal uses because so many Americans own guns for self-protection. Firearms are used more frequently by law-abiding citizens to repel crime than by criminals to perpetrate crime.(2,5)

Criminologist Don B. Kates, Jr. and medical editor Patricia T. Harris maintain that “. . . by focusing on homes the statistics exclude the numerous instances in which shopkeepers kill robbers. When the number of abused wives and shopkeepers who shoot criminals is accounted, the figure for defensive killing increases by about 1,000 percent”(4) Furthermore, “firearms (including handguns) are used another 215,000 times each year by citizens to defend themselves against dangerous animals (i.e. snakes, rabid skunks, etc.).”(4,7)

Likewise, “assault weapons” have been used by private citizens to protect themselves and their property during crises, as Korean shopkeepers amply demonstrated protecting their property during the L.A. riots and Florida residents demonstrated during the looting rampages that followed in the wake of devastating hurricane Andrew.

It is not surprising that in a survey of 1,800 prison inmates, 81 % would to know if potential victims were armed, 74% said they avoid houses when people are home because they fear being shot, and 34% have actually been scared off, shot at, wounded, or even captured by armed citizens.(9-10)

Further data gathered by Kleck (1993) reveals that the “life-saving uses of guns annually . . . would dwarf the nearly 37,000 lives taken with guns.”(3) As Edgar Suter, M.D., chair of Doctors for Integrity in Research and Public Policy, points out in his review of the literature, “as many as 75 lives are potentially saved for every life lost to a gun.” Clearly, the beneficial uses of guns have not been properly portrayed in the medical literature or the popular press.(11)

Women and Guns

National Victims Data suggests that “while victims resisting with knives, clubs, or bare hands are about twice as likely to be injured as those who submit, victims who resist with a gun are only half as likely to be injured as those who put up no defense.”(5) Similarly, regarding women and self-defense, “among those victims using handguns in self-defense, 66% of them were successful in warding off the attack and keeping their property. Among victims using weapons other than firearms, only 40% were successful.

Only 35% of victims fled the scene successfully. Only 22% of victims invoking physical force succeeded. Only 20% of those using only shouting were successful. (5) The gun is the great equalizer for women on the street or defending themselves and their children at home.

In the U.S., women will continue being opportune targets of crime. According to a survey by William Barnhill of The Washington Post, “73% of all women now over the age of 12 will be victimized, more than a third of them raped, robbed, or assaulted at some point in their lives.”

But women are beginning to fight back. In the U.S., at least 12 million women now own handguns. According to Tracey Martin, former manager of the National Rifle Association’s Education and Training Division, “a gun can make the difference between being the victim or the victor in a confrontation with a criminal.” Paxton Quigley, who once advocated gun control but now recommends that women learn handgun defense, states “guns in the hands of women who know how to use them do deter crime.”(12) Robert J. Kukla wrote in his book Gun Control, “today . . . a dainty and delicate woman, with courage and determination, is more than the equal of any brute who ever trampled the sand of a Roman arena. The difference is the firearm.” (13)

Firearm safety training is essential for citizens, including women who intend to use firearms for self-protection. And it does reduce crime. Robert W. Lee recounts that a few years back “in the wake of a rampage of robberies and rapes, more than 2,500 women were trained to use firearms in Orlando, Florida. Within nine months, robberies and attacks plummeted 90%; rapes, 25%; and aggravated assaults and burglaries, 24%.”(8,13) When woman are armed with guns, she will be successful at preventing rape 97% of the time, and only half as likely to be injured in the process.(14) And what is more, women are easier to train than men—a notion that few readers of Women Guns magazine would quarrel with!

As regards the much feared “crimes of passion” that take place impulsively in the heat of domestic conflict, criminologists point out that homicides in this setting are the culmination of a long simmering cycle of violence. A study of police records in Detroit and Kansas City revealed that “in 90% of domestic homicides, the police had responded at least once before during the prior two years to a disturbance,” and in over 50% of cases, the police had been called five times or more.”(15) Surely, these are not uniquely impulsive crimes of passion, but the result of violence in dysfunctional families, often with alcohol or drug abuse. These may be abusive partners who, after a long history of spousal abuse finally commit murder. We can hope to see women increasingly defending themselves against abusive partners.

Yes, domestic shootings sometimes are acts of self-defense by women. In his critique of Kellermann et al, Dr. Suter writes:

“No effort was made by the authors to assess the protective uses of guns by women. In fact, the authors attempted to portray legitimate self-defense as “murder.” Women are abused 2 million to 4 million times per year. Their children are similarly abused, even fatally. Almost all the “spouses and domestic partners” killed by women each year are the very same men, well known to the police, often with substance abuse histories, who have been brutalizing their wives, girlfriends, and children”(11) and who could well end up killing these women. [emphases added]

Dr. Suter further points out that 20% of homicides are justifiable due to self-defense. FBI data, because it is based on “preliminary determination rather than final determination,” dramatically under reports justifiable homicides. He comments, “the FBI’s definition of ‘acquaintance’ includes the maniac in one’s apartment building and dueling drug dealers.”(11)

It should be noted that handguns, ordinary shotguns, and hunting rifles, not the so-called paramilitary or falsely termed “assault weapons,” are the firearms most frequently used in domestic violence and street crimes. So-called “assault weapons” are used in less than 1% of gun crimes.(13) Edward Ezell, Curator of the Smithsonian Institute and National Firearm Collection, testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1989 that the “12-gauge shotguns and the .38-caliber revolvers continue to be the primary firearms used in crimes and shootings.”(7) If draconian gun control measures are instituted, law-abiding citizens can be certain to feel the impact—they will be the ones with the most to lose.

The Founding Fathers held that man’s constitutional rights were natural, God-given and inalienable. The role of the government was to be the guarantor of those rights, though it was ultimately on the people themselves to keep them. Informed citizenry were to be the ultimate enforcers, and the Second Amendment itself was to be the vehicle by which this right was to safeguard and secure all others. As if to underscore this fact, the same Congress that passed the Bill of Rights (with the Second Amendment) also passed the Militia Act of 1790 which defined the militia as “every able-bodied man at least 17 years of age . . . and under 45 years of age.”

In the 1990 U.S. v. Verdugo decision, the Supreme Court held that when the phrase, ”the people” is used in the context of the Second Amendment, it means “individuals” –as in, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Like it or not, to assert that the phrase “the people” implies a collective right which, when coupled with the locution “well regulated militia” restricted the meaning of the Second Amendment to a state “militia” of citizen-soldiers, as in the National Guard, is preposterous. If that were the case, the Second Amendment would be the only one in the Bill of Rights that does not support individual liberties as a bulwark against government power.

Gun control activists want to implement draconian gun control measures, step by step, until they reach their true and ultimate goal: prohibition and confiscation of guns held by law-abiding citizens. Finally, it should be noted that in U.S. v. Miller (1939), the U.S. explicitly protected an individual’s right “to keep and bear arms” especially and explicitly the ownership of military-style weapons or so-called “assault weapons,” as “part of the ordinary military equipment.”

Towards a Solution

An effective approach to diminishing murder and violent crime should never involve infringing on law-abiding citizens’ right “to keep and bear arms.” Serious attempts to decrease violence committed with firearms should involve keeping guns away from minors (to prevent accidental shootings) and, most importantly, from convicted felons and criminals who have forfeited their right to possess guns.

There are over 20,000 federal and state gun laws on the books. They need to be enforced, yet they are not. More laws are not the answer. In states where waiting periods have been instituted, there has been no noticeable decrease in gun use by criminals or decreases in violent crime rates. There have been too many victims waiting to obtain defensive firearms who have been killed by attackers who were threatening them.

The Public Health/epidemiologic anti-gun model appears to be intended to deflect accountability from individual transgressors. These models heap blame on society by default, or on inanimate objects such as guns and bullets by implication. The criminal becomes “the victim,” of circumstances. It is in this atmosphere that draconian gun control measures—that restrict the law-abiding but do nothing against lawbreakers—have been instituted in Washington, DC, New York, Chicago and Maryland, to no avail.

A tougher criminal justice system without revolving prison doors, a larger dose of individual responsibility and accountability, and more gun safety education courses are needed. Societal decay, moral disintegration and failure of America’s criminal justice system—not inanimate guns and bullets—are the real culprits behind killings in America.

We must not permit draconian gun control measures that disarm law-abiding citizens and leave them at the mercy of criminals who will continue to have guns. Serving political correctness and joining the bandwagon of political expediency are neither the answer nor are they worthy of American citizens, let alone physicians.

References

1. Adler KP et al. Firearm violence and public health — limiting the availability of guns. JAMA 1994;271 (16):1281-1283.
2. Kellermann A, et al. Gun ownership as a risk factor for homicide in the home. N Engl J Med 1993;329(15):1084-1091.
3. Kleck G. Guns and self-protection. J Med Assoc Ga 1994;83(1):42.
4. Kates DB Jr. and Harris PT. How to make their day. National Review 1991 ;43(19):30-32.
5. Kleck G. Point Blank — guns and violence in America. Walter de Gruyter, Publisher, 1991. For the 6% of criminals, see the Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Department of Justice. Uniform crime reports: crime in the United States 1992. Washington DC: US Government Printing Office 1993. For the prior felony arrests, see Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice. Guns and crime. Washington DC: US Government Printing Office. April 1994; NCJ-147003.
6. Faria MA, Jr. On guns and violence. J Med Assoc Ga 1993;82(7):317-320.
7. Gottlieb AM. Gun rights fact book. 1988. See also Lee RW. Going for our guns. The New American 1990;6(9):21-28.
8. U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Bowers vs DeVito. Cited by Robert W. Lee in Police protection or self-defense? The New American 1992;8(8):16-17. See also Court of Appeals ruling, Riss vs City of New York (1968), and the Superior Court ruling, Warren vs District of Columbia (1981) in reference #13.
9. Wright JD and Rossi P. Armed and Considered Dangerous. Transition Publishers. New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2nd edition. 2008.
10. Blackman PH. The armed criminal in America. Cited by Don Feder in Gun control doesn’t work. New Dimensions 1991 ;5(4):44- 45. Kleck G. Targeting Guns. Firearms and their control. Aldine de Gruyter. New York, 1997.
11. Suter E. Guns in the medical literature — a failure of peer review. J Med Assoc Ga 1994;83(3)133-148.
12. Quigley P. Armed and Female. Cited by Robert W. Lee in Gun report — ladies in waiting. The New American 1992;8(7).
13. Lee RW. The right that secures all others. The New American 1992;8(19):20.
14. Pratt L. Health care and firearms. J Med Assoc Ga 1994;83(3): 149-151.
15. Kates DB. Cited by Robert W. Lee. Going for our guns. The New American 1990;6(9):21-28.

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— Miguel A. Faria, Jr., M.D. 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 and World Affairs Editor of Surgical Neurology International. He served on the CDC’s Injury Research Grant Review Committee.

All DRGO articles by Miguel A. Faria, Jr., MD

“Mass Shooting” or “Workplace Violence”

By

Keith Finch

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March 3, 2020

Words. Matter.

The attacker in Wisconsin, a 51 year old Molson Coors employee, killed five of his fellow co-workers before shooting himself and ending the incident. The specific motive is not known, but evidence suggests he was terminated while on leave for an injury. Reports suggest he believed he was being spied on by Molson Coors to be certain he was injured, which isn’t an unheard of practice by companies with injured employees. Based on his reported employment and the things noted to be happening within the company, it could be he thought his employment was coming to an unjust end. It could have been stress specific to one or more of the employees he shot. It could have been any number of stress factors that led him to believe he must respond violently.

We don’t know.

Additionally, I’ve seen reports that a suppressed pistol was possibly used in the shooting. That makes it the second such incident (if true) behind the Virginia Public Works workplace shooting. Other reports are stating he built his own firearms and may have done so with a suppressor (they aren’t complicated).

On Language

Any of the recent hearkening back references to Virginia seems to focus on the term ‘Mass Shooting’ alone and downplays, through omission, the fact it was a public works employee who had not been fired (he resigned that day) and who had no criminal record.

We are ‘left’ to imagine *cough* Vox *cough cough* that this was somehow just the NRA handing out silenced pistols to lunatics while handing a 5 spot to legislative body members to stay on their side. Lost is the information that this was a workplace event, that it was a trusted insider, and are instead presented with an image of an outsider attack. The image of some random gun wielder who just happened to pick VPW.

It wasn’t, and pretending it wasn’t doesn’t help anyone prepare their own workplaces and keep an effective eye on the stress of their staff and co-workers to head incidents off earlier, before they approach violence.

The usual calls of, “we cannot accept this”, “these tragedies happen so often”, and the other valueless platitudes from talking heads are out in force, or were as they have seemed to quiet is the more solidly rooted itself as a workplace incident. Why?

Certain aspects of the shooter became human, and humanized people garner sympathy. Someone who was fired while on injury leave is a far more sympathetic figure from a neutral observer standpoint than, say, the attacker in Texas who targeted Walmart to kill illegals.

The former, the Molson Coors employee, can garner some level of humanistic sympathy for his situation while his actions are still reviled. The latter, the racist mass murderer attacking the back-to-school sale, garners only horrific disgust from all but those rare few of exact like mind. One had a sympathetic motive, and sympathetic motives erode public outrage that anti-gunners use to stir up anti-gun activism.

Of course ‘we cannot accept this’. We abhor senseless death as a society. Of course ‘these tragedies happen too often’. That is literally any occurrence of an event even remotely like this.

But back to the title “Mass Shooting” or “Workplace Violence”?

Both? Yes. But which descriptor gets repeated? That tends to telegraph the angle or message an outlet wants to frame the story as, and not simply deliver the details of the occurrence.

The classifier and the principle term would be Workplace Violence. That classifier covers part of the motive sphere and does so with more clarity than Mass Shooting. When we think of a Mass Shooting we think of an occurrence that could be entered into the MAPS report.

Mass Attacks in Public Spaces is the Department of Homeland Security report, compiled by the United States Secret Service, that complies data on attacks like Virginia and Wisconsin. But it also would look at attacks like Pulse, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, and Garland Texas.

The motivations behind these attacks, those that we know for certain, are varied widely. This omission of detail we are falling dangerously into, when it comes to reporting, can warp perceptions and alter effective responses. Media is segmenting motive out of the equation entirely, the result is these attacks start to look the same when they are very differently driven.

“But response is independent of motive. You’ve said that.”

Now, protecting against attacks in progress is amotivational. The motive behind the person or persons pulling the trigger is no longer a usable preventive factor. It, at best, will be a social factor used as leverage to encourage the event to end under very specific and often dire circumstances. It is by no means a reliable tool.

A teacher who is able to talk a student away from that edge of madness is a hero, but TV dramas and the publicized times it has luckily worked condition us to believe that it is somehow the norm that is does work. If we can just ‘talk them down’ no one will get hurt, or no one else as the case might be.

Scripted violence has done us a great disservice here, in my opinion. Scripted violence has caused us to lose touch with the absolute chaos and very real danger of an attack and the myriad of factors that go into it by putting it in this nice little mental box of, ‘X person really doesn’t want to do this, they just need someone to tell them that nicely.’

Then the world gives you a Brenton Tarrant or a Stephen Paddock.

The sans motive responses are all about turning the attack into a gunfight and winning that gunfight quickly. Nothing else can take back the initiative and give it to people who were attacked. Legally hamstringing people from defending themselves only helps their potential assailants. It does nothing to promote more ‘peaceful work spaces’ or any such nonsense.

Knowing the motivations can help the most before an incident. Knowing before can allow a community to work to quell hatred, fear, stress, panic, and all the emotions that can lead to violence. Being an engaged and caring community, whether through work or school or faith, is a very good defense. Keeping an eye out for warnings of danger and being prepared to meet them.

It’s that second part. Being prepared to meet the danger to protect yourself, your family, and your community, that is the scary part. That’s the one that politicos who choose whether this was workplace violence, or a mass shooting, or terrorism, don’t want to tell you is your responsibility. Telling you the secret, that it is your job and they can’t do it for you, costs them votes. It costs them social/political credibility and capitol. It is highly unpopular to say you (the government) cannot do anything effective to help, especially when your platform is built on ‘the government’ doing as much for you as possible.

It’s even more so to say that, even if you do something you might not win, you might not survive. We live in an era where the privileged end of our world population (the whole first world) believes they are entitled to safety from a chaotic and sometimes hostile environment, one that they live in but don’t believe they do anymore.

They have equated our progress and efforts to live safer with a false right to safety. That false right can only be “ensured” through the curtailment of other rights in the name of public safety which never seems to mesh with an individual private citizen’s rights.

Trijcon’s Statement on USMC SCO Announcement

By

Keith Finch

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March 2, 2020

Wixom, MI — Trijicon, Inc., global provider of innovative aiming solutions for the hunting, shooting, military, and law enforcement markets, is pleased to announce the selection of the Trijicon VCOG (Variable Combat Optical Gunsight) 1-8×28 riflescope as the U.S. Marine Corps’ Squad Common Optic (SCO). The $64,000,000 contract award will begin with delivery of units in 2020. Trijicon will manufacture the SCO at its Wixom, Michigan factory.

“Our warfighters deserve the very best equipment in defense of our nation. The Marine Corps’ SCO evaluation process was extremely rigorous, and we are honored that the VCOG was selected to continue the tradition of battle-proven riflescopes that the Trijicon ACOG began in 2004 as the Marine Corps’ first Rifle Combat Optic,” said Stephen Bindon, Trijicon President & CEO.

Specifically designed for Close Quarter Battle and long distance marksmanship, the Trijicon VCOG 1-8×28 is forged from a nearly indestructible 7075-T6 aluminum housing and is waterproof to 66 feet. The first focal plane reticle allows subtensions and drops to remain true at any magnification. Featuring ruggedized electronics, the VCOG includes eleven user-selectable brightness settings, including two night vision settings. An integrated dial fin allows easy rotation through the magnification range, and a near-constant eye relief means no head or stock position adjustments are needed. An integrated mounting adapter eliminates the need for conventional ring mounts, allowing users to quickly and easily mount the VCOG to any rail system.

“We introduced VCOG 1-8×28 to the commercial market in early 2019, but its design was inspired by requests from our warfighters. During design, development, and testing, we constantly challenged ourselves to produce a scope that would deliver the performance necessary in the most punishing of conditions,” said Chuck Wahr, Trijicon’s Global Vice-President of Sales & Marketing.

Trijicon is proud to count among its users every branch of the U.S. military, Special Operations Forces, U.S. Government agencies, state and local Law Enforcement, and many of America’s allies.

Tennessee, with Governor’s urging, looks at Constitutional Carry legislation

By

Keith Finch

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February 28, 2020

Concealed carry licenses may become optional equipment for Tennessee residents who are legally able to own a handgun.

Gov Lee announces legislation to remove handgun carry permits within Tennessee

Governor Bill Lee, joined by several key members of the Tennessee legislature, announced today a new bill that will allow a constitutional carry law in Tennessee.

The bill will be introduced as an administration bill, however the Governor acknowledged many in the state legislature have advocated for this change as well.

What’s an Administration Bill? It is legislation proposed at the specific request of the governor by the head of that legislative body and not by a normal legislative member. It is the strongest possible support a governor can give to a potential law since it is coming at their request and with their direction to its drafting.

This doesn’t mean the original won’t be amended in the legislative process or that if the amendments go to far from the original intent the governor might veto it, but it clearly indicates to the legislature what the governor wants.

The bill would not only allow Tennessee residents the right to carry without a permit, but would also introduce stricter penalties to those who commit a crime involving a firearm. Increased penalties would be introduced for those who steal a firearm, including a mandatory minimum sentence for those who steal a firearm.

The right to carry and stiff penalties for behavior contrary to that of a good citizen. Seems alright to me. Tennessee would be the 17th state to legalize carry for residents. Permit would likely still be issued at request for reciprocal purposes, as is the case with the other constitutional carry states.

Vox claims there have been 45 mass shootings since the start of 2020…

By

Keith Finch

-

February 28, 2020

I shouldn’t be surprised.

I shouldn’t be surprised by the tone of vague nebulous blame that Vox lays at the feet of “Wisconsin”. I also shouldn’t be surprised that outlets like Vox have broadened the meaning of ‘mass shooting‘ to include nearly every criminal act involving a firearm discharging at more than one person.

Wisconsin rejected new gun control laws. Then a mass shooting happened.

Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales speaks to the media following a shooting at the Molson Coors Brewing Co. campus on February 26, 2020, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images

Via Vox

And yet..

Five people were killed Wednesday when a shooter opened fire at the Molson Coors beer company complex in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

According to local police chief Alfonso Morales, the shooter, a 51-year-old former employee of the brewery, also died as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

I will give Vox props for not adding the dead shooter into the victim count to inflate the number from five to six, Everytown will though so don’t worry about him being forgotten. That’s about all good I can grant them though, the claim about 45 mass shootings is coming up oh so swiftly…

For those unsure of their newsworthy orientation on this one, we are talking about the Molson Coors employee who, while still employed as far as I can find at this moment, killed five of his co-workers and then himself. I don’t know what work stresses or home stresses lead to the violent snap but we know the company was going through a lot of changes internally. I suspect either a change in his employment status was imminent or he had reached a social breaking point with one or more of the victims.

I don’t know, but the facts as seen right now seem to indicate this was workplace violence. This was not terrorism, a heist or greater crime against the company, or anything else so complex. This was a man who took his anger out on his place of employment and those he worked with.

This doesn’t make the crime any better or worse, it just frames the motivating factors… a subject that ideologues love to obfuscate to fit the narrative they’ve ascribed to.

Nidal Hasan always comes to mind during conversations on ‘workplace violence’ because of the mental cartwheels needed to fit that descriptor in the place of terrorism. If Major Hassan had left a note that had basically said, “Fuck the Army and just the Army and especially Colonel Fuckface.” before the shooting, it would have been one thing. That would have fallen clearly under the motivational sphere of workplace violence. But, while the official report states workplace violence, Hasan’s motivations fell solidly under the sphere of terrorism too as his contact with Anwar al-Awlaki supports. Al-Awlaki would be later killed in a drone strike by President Obama for his role as an Al-Qaeda recruiter and was the first U.S. Citizen killed by drone and extra-judicially as a terrorist.

But back to the article.

It was at least the 11th mass shooting in Wisconsin since 2004. There have been 45 mass shootings in the US since the beginning of 2020.

There.. it.. is..

There have only been 11 mass shootings in Wisconsin in the last 16 years but there have been 45 mass shootings in the past 59 days? Wisconsin is feeling pretty safe. Yet reports like MAPS listed only 27 incidents in the whole of 2018. Numbers aren’t adding up.

And just hours before the shooting, Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers called on lawmakers to push forward legislation aimed at tightening the state’s gun laws.

I’m sure if the Wisconsin legislature had just immediately given into Gov. Evers call for whatever generic box of gun control that was called for, that the shooting at Molson Coors could not have happened. At least that seems to be Vox’s direction.

Of course it is not stated which law would have prevented this shooting. There was either a failure of current under-enforced systems, if the employee was a prohibited person, or there was no background to criminally pick up on. A new rule wouldn’t change these realities, it cannot change them.

In response to Evers, “Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, made it clear that Wisconsin’s gun laws would not change under a Republican-controlled Legislature,” USA Today reported, “reminding voters of the longstanding divide that all but ensures deadly incidents like Wednesday’s aren’t going to spur new gun policies anytime soon.”

And there is the blame game, for everyone except the man who chose to kill his co-workers. It is actively mind-numbing how palpably gun controllers believe in their solutions, as if belief alone will carry the policy to success. The fundamental logical disconnect, that these policy drafters are actively engaged against the free wills and physical freedom to act of other human beings seems to completely escape them.

Shed Hunting?

By

Dr LateBloomer

-

February 28, 2020

A661487E-467D-4393-A313-EE778147A890 — Not actually shed antlers.

Shed Hunting. No, not garden sheds – deer antlers that have been shed.

When I first heard about this activity, I was like… what?

I had honestly never thought about the fate of last season’s deer antlers before. But combing the woods in search of deer antlers dropped when the rut is over is an actual thing. It is called shed hunting and I was intrigued. I set about educating myself. What follows is some of what I learned.

What is Shed Hunting?

The short answer to the question “What is shed hunting”, is that this is the practice of walking through woodland and field areas frequented by deer with the express purpose of trying to find antlers that have fallen off the heads of bucks who survived the most recently completed hunting season.

The “why” is a little more complicated. Let’s start with a short biology lesson on antlers. So what are antlers anyway?

Antler Biology

Antlers are actually bone (they aren’t “horns”, which are biochemically different and more akin to fingernails). Like skeletal bone, antlers are made up of calcium and phosphorus. Except unlike skeletal bone, antlers are grown and shed annually in male deer-type species in response to testosterone levels, thyroid hormone, and other influences both biochemical and environmental (like the amount of daylight in the season).

Although influences such as genetics and age control the ultimate size of antlers, antler growth is also heavily dependent upon nutrition. So a well-fed buck with a nice rack is essentially advertising his health and vitality to female deer and male breeding rivals (and also to trophy hunters).

After the breeding season (the rut) is over, testosterone levels drop. In response to that signal, osteoclasts (cells which break down bone) act at the site where the antler connects to the pedicle on the skull. The bone connection is gradually broken down, connective tissue invades, the antler loosens, eventually falls off, and is left wherever it fell. One article said that deer behavioral study suggests that there may be some pain involved in the shedding process. I never thought about that before.

If the antler stays where it is on the ground, it will be eventually gnawed upon and eaten by rodents and other woodland creatures as a source of calcium and phosphorus. It doesn’t go to waste.

Why Shed Hunt?

For some people shed hunting is just an excuse for a late winter/early spring walk in the woods. For other people it can be considered part of the scouting and patterning process. Woods walking and shed hunting can help in the learning curve of understanding buck habits in the area you hunt. That can help to better predict future activity for subsequent hunting seasons.

In addition to the use of game cameras, shed hunting gives landowners a way to assess the health and rack production of their local herd in the off-season, since a buck would have to survive the hunting season in order to shed in the spring.

State Laws Vary

Check your state game law before you go, though. In some areas it is technically illegal to posses a part of a game animal that you didn’t kill yourself. (Stupid, I know). Some states require a permit or training class (yes, really). Some states say you cannot take antlers if they are still attached to a skull. This article outlines some of the state laws from 2018. Some of the weird ones are being addressed by state legislatures.

Where and When

Through my reading I’ve learned that prime spots for shed hunting include: Winter bedding and feeding areas, south-facing slopes, evergreens (which can provide the deer thermal cover and shelter from snow), water sources, and obstacles such as fences or streams (where jumping might cause a loose antler to fall off). Prime time to do this is late December through March or even April depending upon your geographic area.

Uses for Antlers

-Dog chews – Because antler bone is formed differently than skeletal bone, antlers apparently don’t splinter like skeletal bone and are thus safer for your dog to chew on.

-Home decor

-Buttons

-Jewelry

-Knife handles

Be aware however that antler cannot legally be sold in some states.

Deer antler – whether shed or on the hoof – is big business. Because of this, there is a huge and growing market for deer feeds and supplements so that hopeful landowners can grow trophy bucks.

I found this all very interesting, and may try looking for antlers on my next woods traipsing. Maybe I’ll get an idea of what’s out there that I didn’t catch on my game camera. And maybe I’ll have better luck hunting something that doesn’t run away!

IWA (European SHOT) Postponed due to Corona Virus

By

Keith Finch

-

February 27, 2020

Due to the new situation regarding the spread of the corona virus, NürnbergMesse has decided to postpone IWA OutdoorClassics 2020 from the planned date of 6-9 March 2020 to a date in 2020, which has yet to be determined.

We hope you will understand the decision taken. The aim of every trade fair must be to create a special experience for exhibitors and visitors alike and to facilitate the diverse establishment and expansion of business relationships. Unfortunately, this goal cannot be achieved under the current circumstances.

This is the latest update on the IWA Show held in Germany. Due to infection concerns they are calling it for now. Many vendors had already voluntarily expressed they didn’t want to go as trade shows are infectious hives. They are great way to get sick and spread the sickness to a bunch of people in close contact.

Break out the hand wash.

COVID-19 is not Covert Anymore

By

Dr LateBloomer

-

February 27, 2020

0505BB07-54D1-4878-BE8B-B0AAB4EA5B66 — An ounce of prevention...

There it is. Even the CDC is admitting that it’s not “if” but “when” for widespread disease caused by the novel coronavirus in the U.S. And even the CDC is telling us to “prepare” because there may be “significant disruption”.

Yep. Even the CDC is telling us to prepare. They have had plans in place for pandemic flu for years and are hanging the COVID-19 preparations and advice on that framework. Links to that information can be found here, and here.

I talked about this already earlier in the month, but I’m going to talk about it again. Although the overall risk may still be low, it pays to be prepared ahead of time.

Do you have food supplies enough to get through a quarantine? There may even be supply chain interruptions in our “just in time” store inventory world. Even if you can get to the store, are you ready for supplies to not even be on store shelves?

Do you have basic home sick care supplies enough to last through several family members becoming ill? We’re talking fever reducers, cough syrups, a thermometer, oral electrolyte solutions, tissues, disinfectants, soap and hand sanitizer? Don’t forget comfort food care items like bullion cubes, crackers, jello, popsicles, soup, etc.

Masks and gloves are a consideration, but may be hard to come by at this point. If you are handy with a sewing machine, you could consider sewing some masks yourself. Although these won’t be as good as N-95 masks, they may be better than nothing, especially if you are already immune compromised (or have a family member who is).

Sewing your own mask.

If your place of work is closed because of a public health order, can you get by financially for awhile? Does your office have a work-from-home option? If they close schools, do you have childcare fall backs? These are all things to consider and plan for.

All of that said, basic hygiene and infection control practices still apply.

WASH. YOUR. HANDS.

Try not to touch your face.

Cough or sneeze into your elbow, not your hand.

If you must use your hand, use a tissue, and wash immediately.

Try not to touch potentially contaminated public surfaces and disinfect home surfaces regularly, especially if a family member is ill.

If you are sick, STAY. HOME.

Did I mention WASH. YOUR. HANDS?

Hopefully, this will all turn out to be over-preparation and the virus will remain well-controlled here in the U.S. But as Benjamin Franklin advised in 1736, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

That axiom is as true today as it was 280 years ago.

Outdoor Lifestyle Clothing for Range, Travel or a Day Out

By

Scott Smith

-

February 26, 2020

Late last year 5.11 Tactical sent a care package of ladies clothing. We found all of the items ran true to size. My partner in crime wears a 6 pants and medium in tops. None of the items bound or fit like a second skin. The jackets allowed for layering without sacrificing comfort. Since she travels for FEMA, she liked the fact that there was minimal shrinkage when things were washed and tossed in the dryer.

One of the hardest things of clothing to find is a versatile long lightweight coat that you can layer under. The Atlas is 5.11’s newest outerwear option to help correct that. In medium, from the collar to hem it is 32” long or more practically speaking on a 5’4” frame it comes to the upper thigh. This protects your bum when sitting down and from rain dripping off an umbrella. It also ensures if you are carrying an outside the waistband holster it is totally concealed.

You can add a morale patch on the left sleeve if you so choose, thanks to the hook and loop patch.

5.11 paid great attention to all the pockets. The chest pockets have double hook and loop closures and the bottom of these pockets is 4” below the seam and bottom closure. This ensures items like a phone, keys, etc. will not fall out. The large zipper similarly designed. Inside of these pockets is a zippered pass through so you can readily access your firearm, pepper spray, wallet, etc.

Comfort is further enhanced using polyester/elastane fabric. This fabric “stretches” in all directions so you do not bind when moving. While not waterproof, the material is highly water and wind resistant so will not get soaked if you get caught in a sudden downpour. At $129.99, this jacket is a good buy and will serve you for years to come.

The shorter sibling to the Atlas is Emma full zip. This jacket can be worn as a standalone piece or layered under the Atlas or other heavier duty rain gear. With its lay flat hood, the Emma is an ideal year round jacket. Like the Atlas this jacket uses what 5.11 calls a scuba knit. This fabric gives you true full range of motion stretch and will not bind when worn inside rain gear.

The small chest pocket is large enough for your ID, cash, etc.

While stylish, the Emma is all about function. The full length zipper makes the jacket easy on/off with quick access to a holstered pistol or belt carried cell phone. The sleeves are cut to give you full range of motion without them rolling up. To ensure the sleeves don’t slide up and to keep your hands warm(ish) each sleeve has a thumb hole placed to protect the entire palm.

Thumb holes keep the sleeves in place when the Emma is worn as a base layer.

The Emma is 24” long from hood to that bottom hem which will lie just below your hips. Unlike many jackets the hem of the Emma is wide, nearly 5”. This helps it to lay flat and not to “print” if you are carrying and because it is double layer, it will not roll.

If you like a good sweatshirt, the Emma Full Zip ($79.99)will meet and exceed your needs. I was told to share some advice on sizing; the Emma runs snug, if you plan to layer buy the next size up.

The Victoria is a traditional sweatshirt on steroids. The polyester/jacquard blend is 54% poly/46% cotton keeps its shape after numerous washings and warm as well. If you wear the Victoria to workout in this blend will wick moisture and dry quickly.

There are zippers on either hip of the Victoria so you can access anything on your belt.

The Victoria will set just below your belt/waistline. It is a full body cut so it is not form fitting. You will find angled zippers in front of each hip allowing you to wear the Victoria while shooting a pistol match and not have to take it off for easy access to your magazines and pistol. At $49.99 the Victoria is competitively priced against any name brand athletic apparel.

If you prefer a comfortable casual shirt, the Cheyenne ($59.99) flannel is just what you are searching for. While this shirt is flannel, it is not cotton flannel. 5.11 uses a 64% polyester/34% viscose/2% elastane which will wear better and not shrink or bunch.

The Cheyenne is a modern version of the classic check flannel shirt.

Since this shirt is built for ladies who carry concealed, 5.11 uses their Rapid Draw placket. Instead of buttons, 5.11 installs snaps that look like buttons. A quick tug on the shirt tails opens your blouse giving you access to your holstered handgun. These are not lightweight snaps that pop open every time you brush against something so you do not have to worry about a wardrobe malfunction.

The snaps look like buttons but open quickly should you need to access a handgun or other personal protection gear on your belt.

The last item looked at was the Wyldcat pants. They look fashionable yet have belt loops that are properly sized and spaced to accommodate holsters. For comfort in all activities they are made from cotton/polyester/elastane stretch sateen with Microsand finish which is stain resistant. These pants fit like a glove, yet they allow for virtually unrestricted movement.

The Wyldcats look good, but they were built for function. Properly place pockets securely carry your cell phone, wallet, and other stuff without fear of these items falling out. Concealed just above and at the leading edge of the pocket are AR magazine pockets sewn into the contoured waistband.

The rear pockets of the Wyldcat allow you to carry a magazine, wallet or cellphone.

Front slash pockets too are deep enough to carry a clip-it knife, money, ID without fear of losing your stuff. The lower slash pockets will readily carry pistol magazines or your cell phone without the bulk of a cargo pocket.

What sets these pants apart from other ladies “tactical pants” are the legs. They are taper cut to tuck into the tops of a fashion ankle boot. When you look closely at the outer seam, you will notice a zipper from knee the knee to the cuff. This allows the pants to become a boot cut pant for freedom of movement if you wear the Wyldcats as a range pant. The added room will allow you to zipper the legs over a riding/western style boot.

Leg zippers allow for easy on/off of the Wyldcat.

5.11 Tactical has listened to their beta testers and pro staff to create a growing line of clothing specifically for women. You will find everything from outerwear to workout clothing as well as belts and a vast array of other accessories so you are ready for travel, range or just going out to the store. Look for more items in the future.

The Benelli M4 – The King of Combat Shotguns

By

Travis Pike

-

February 26, 2020

I’m not a snob about guns, and while I make a few ‘Poors’ jokes here and there I don’t mean it. However, after many years of wanting and waiting I finally pulled the trigger and bought one of my dream guns, the Benelli M4. I had fired the Benelli M4 just a bit in the Marine Corps. It was just a familiarization fire, not active training, but I fell I love with the gun. The Benelli M4 was developed for the USMC and became the M1014 Joint Service shotgun.

The M4 was developed because the Marines wanted a semi-auto shotgun they could attach optics to. Specifically, they wanted the ability to attach night vision optics to the gun. These optics are typically larger and heavier than your traditional day optic. Benelli made their name on their inertia driven guns. The M4 was their first gas-operated gun and it was purpose-built. The downside to inertia guns is that when you apply weight to them they are prone to malfunction. Gas operated guns have no such problem.

The M4 utilized the ARGO system, which stands for Auto-Regulating Gas-Operated system. The ARGO system uses two pistons that directly impact the bolt to cycle the weapon. The gas is drawn from further down the barrel than most and this results in a cleaner and hotter gas. The cleaner gas means less fouling and less likely the gun is going to malfunction after hundreds or even thousands of rounds.

The ARGO and the Benelli M4

The biggest benefit to the ARGO system is the reliability it offers semiauto shotguns. The Benelli M4 set a standard that a lot of companies have only recently reached in the name of quality and reliability. When the Benelli M4 premiered 20 years ago it changed the game. It showed the effectiveness of semi-auto combat shotguns.

Gas-operated guns can be a little finicky. To illustrate my point the new Mossberg 940 JM Pro was recently bragging that it has a cleaning interval of 1,500 rounds. That’s a gun released in 2020. The Benelli M4’s ARGO system gives you that same level of performance at a minimum. In fact, it’ll go a lot longer than that and still run.

Better yet, the gun is built for military operations. This means the gun is designed to operate in the worst conditions possible. It’s meant to perform after firing hundreds or even thousands of rounds. Or after it’s been bouncing around an MRAP for convoy after convoy, or after a sand storm, or in a jungle, or wherever else duty calls.

You can say it’s built for every clime and place you can bring a gun.

Breaking down the M4

The Benelli M4 comes in a few different configurations. This includes a fixed stock with pistol grip, a fixed straight stock, and a fixed version of their collapsible stock model. The collapsible stock and 8 round tube model are available to LEO and to those willing to fulfill the 922R requirements to make it so.

Every model comes with an optic’s rail that’s perfect for any red dot you can toss on it. Additionally, the gun is equipped with a durable set of ghost ring iron sights that make the use of slugs very accurate out to 100 yards. With buckshot its quite precise and easy to get on target as well. Buckshot is a little more forgiving, but the ghost ring sights keep it precise with loads like 00 Flitecontrol.

The front sight is AR-style and quick and easy to pick up. The forend is long enough for a variety of shooters to obtain a good grip. The loading gate is nice and wide and this makes loading rounds quite easy. The ejection port is also nice and long and wide that it’s easy to do a port load with if you run the gun dry.

The Benelli M4 I have has the fixed faux collapsible stock and it provides an excellent cheek weld. It’s rock solid and extremely stable. You can get right behind the sights and comfortably let off your most powerful shotgun loads without the pain of a typical collapsing stock.

Pew Pew With the Benelli M4

Speaking of, shooting this thing is a dream. The ARGO system does a great job of reducing recoil and keeping the gun nice and comfortable. The gun offers a very light recoil, especially if you start blazing away rapidly. Speaking of, the gun cycles extremely fast and you can throw five rounds out before the first shell hits the ground. Well, you can once you get a little trigger time in.

The ghost ring sights make putting both buckshot and slugs on target very precisely. With a normal shotgun load a bead does perfectly fine, but if you use slugs or even Federal FliteControl loads the ghost ring sights really allow you to reach out and precisely hit a target. With ghost ring sights and Federal Flitecontrol I could take hostage targets at 10 yards with complete confidence.

With slugs I could step back to 75 yards and hit the chest of a man sized tagret. At 25 yards I was making three leaf clover patterns in a headshot target. For me the gun was nearly dead on and adjustments were minimal.

I found the LOP of the stock to be perfect. It’s 14 inches and that’s about a quarter inch shorter than most. It’s comfortable and my big arms do make this just about perfect. Smaller shooters would likely prefer a 13.5 inch LOP and I most certainly could see why.

I can drill five rounds of Flitecontrol into a chest sized target in about 3 seconds from a low ready with complete control. The scene in John Wick where Mr. Wick fires three rounds into a single target quite quickly. That scene is not just Hollywood magic, but a very capable feat with this gun. The Benelli M4 is the king of combat shotguns for a reason.

Hail to the King, Baby

This boomstick would most certainly have made quicker work of the Deadites than S-Marts top of the line 12-gauge double barrel Remington. The M4 is a rapid cycling, fast firing monster of a shotgun. It’s insanely reliable and more than accurate enough with it’s ghost ring sights available optic’s rail. The Benelli M4 is also quite expensive and that often leaves the gun to collect dust on the racks of gun stores. However, if I firmly believe the juice was worth the squeeze.

The Altor Single Shot Pistol – The Modern Liberator

By

Travis Pike

-

February 26, 2020

The United States has twice now designed a single shot pistol meant for partisans and enemies of freedom, democracy, and apple pie. The first being the legendary Liberator, a 45 ACP pistol meant to be dropped to partisans in France to kill Nazis. The second being the Deer Gun, a gun designed for the CIA to drop to help kill communists. Both were simple little single-shot handguns and the Altor follows in their footsteps in many ways. It’s a 9mm or 380 ACP single-shot handgun with a unique design and trigger.

The Altor single-shot pistol isn’t designed to be dropped behind enemy lines, but to be a reliable, and extremely affordable pistol designed for utilitarian purposes. Is it the best self-defense firearm out there? No, of course not, but for the 109 dollar street price, it’s a very affordable pistol. If we ignore self-defense for a moment and focus on the utilitarian aspects of the pistol you can start seeing a lot of value in that 109 dollar price tag.

The Value

First off in some situations a gun that hardly looks like a gun is valuable. Some people panic at the sight of a firearm and the Altor’s design allows it to hide in plain sight without causing a commotion. It looks like a hot glue gun to me personally.

Second, single shot guns can be suppressed very well. The barrel isn’t threaded but it easily could be and others have already done so. B&T Famously makes a single shot silenced pistol aimed at veterinarians and the Altor could sever the same role as a much cheaper and easily available option.

Third, when loaded with rat or snake shot it’s a very small and effective pest destroyer. Smaller than a .410 and more effective than a 22 Loaded with snake shot.

Keeping it Simple

This is all great and dandy but it doesn’t matter if the gun doesn’t work right? Well, the gun seemingly works rather well. The simplistic design is unbeatable and to me it’s rather fascinating. The gun only has six parts. That’s it. One freaking spring and that’s all.

The frame is made from polymer and the rest from stainless steel so water and corrosion aren’t a major issue. You could toss it on a tractor, an ATV, or other outdoor’s vehicle and always have a handy little snake popper on hand. For the small price tag, it’s more of a tool and less of a weapon.

The sights are molded into the frame and are black on black. A little paint would help add contrast to the front sight and that’s an easy fix. Loading it requires you to twist the barrel off and slide a case onto the cartridge holder. Screw the barrel back on and you’re ready to rock and roll. You can do the entire process without putting your hand in front of the barrel.

Does the Altor Work?

Shooting it was slightly challenging when I began. The trigger is odd, it doesn’t pull and break like any other gun. You simply pull it to the rear and it slides into the frame. Once it’s full slid into the frame your finger loses its grip and it flies foward firing the weapon. It somewhat slam fires, but not really. Once I learned the trigger I figured out how to accurately shoot the little gun and stay within the 9 ring at 10 yards. If you decide not to fire slowly let your finger go foward and it’s completely decocked and safe.

The gun has a decent bit of recoil and will tire your hand out within fifty rounds or so. It’s the nature of a lightweight gun without a reciprocating slide to absorb some of the recoil. Getting through those fifty rounds takes a good deal of time due to the single-shot design so you won’t be finished quickly.

At the end of the day, I have several 9mm handguns of varying sizes but the Altor will remain a part of my stable because I like the design. It’s so simple that the concept itself intrigues me. This little 9mm is impressive as what I can only think of as the simplest handgun on the market. It’s reliable, and very well made. The fit and finish is spot on. You can likely find a gun for a hair more money in a semi-automatic design, but I’m betting it won’t be as high material quality as the Altor.

It always goes bang and it’s super lightweight. My personal use will be as a kayak gun in which I can dispatch poisonous snakes, invasive critters, and not worry about rust or reliability in a harsher environment.

SIG SAUER Electro-Optics Introduces ECHO3 Thermal Reflex Sight with BDX technology

By

Keith Finch

-

February 25, 2020

NEWINGTON, N.H., (February 25, 2020) – SIG SAUER Electro-Optics is pleased to introduce the ECHO3 Thermal Reflex Sight. The ECHO3 is a direct view thermal sight, utilizing SIG SAUER BDX technology, with the capability to capture images and record video in eight different color palettes.

“The ECHO3 is an ultra-compact, lightweight direct-view thermal sight,” said Andy York, President, SIG SAUER Electro-Optics. “The innovative direct-view thermal display on the ECHO3 is a massive improvement over traditional eyepiece style thermals which induce eye fatigue and force the shooter to look through the sight. The ECHO3 allows the shooter to sit back and view the thermal display and when targets are identified, the new BDX reticle technology allows for exact aiming solutions in real time.”

The SIG SAUER Electro-Optics ECHO3 is a compact thermal reflex style sight available in a 1-6x or 2-12x magnification, equipped with Ballistic Data Xchange (BDX 2.0), the ECHO3 can be used with 9 different onboard SmartBDC™ ballistic holdover reticles or it can be paired with any KILOBDX rangefinder. The ECHO3 features a motion activated MOTAC™ display that powers up when it senses motion with over 6 hours of continuous runtime, and offers video and image recording in eight color palettes, and six brightness settings. The ECHO3 Includes a quick disconnect mount, with an easy to adjust zoom lens with throw lever attachment.

ECHO3 Thermal Reflex Sight Specs:

Sensor: 320×240 12UM VOX LIWR Core
Magnification: 1-6x or 2-12x
Adjustment Increments: 0.5MOA
Objective Lens Diameter: 23mm (1-6)/ 40mm (2-12)
Illumination Settings: 6 Brightness Settings
Color Palettes: 8 Color Palettes – Red, Red Hot, Black Hot, White Hot, Edge, Tyrian, Iron and Fire
Overall Length: 4.1 in (1-6) / 4.7 in (2-12)
Overall Width: 2.6 in.Overall Height: 3.1 in (1-6) / 3.6 in (2-12)
Weight: 14.5 oz. (1-6) / 16.6 oz. (2-12)
Waterproofing: IPX6
Battery Life: Greater than 6 hours of heavy usage utilizing two (2) CR123 Lithium Batteries
Total Elevation Travel: 150MOA x 150MOA
Assembled In USA

MSRP (1-6x): $3,899.99
MSRP (2-12x): $5,199.99

The SIG SAUER Electro-Optics ECHO3 Thermal Reflex Sight will be available this spring for purchase at retailers nationwide and on the SIG SAUER Webstore. Complete product specs and information for the ECHO3 are available at sigsauer.com.

About SIG SAUER, Inc.

SIG SAUER, Inc. is a leading provider and manufacturer of firearms, electro-optics, ammunition, airguns, suppressors, and training. For over 150 years SIG SAUER, Inc. has evolved, and thrived, by blending American ingenuity, German engineering, and Swiss precision. Today, SIG SAUER is synonymous with industry-leading quality and innovation which has made it the brand of choice amongst the U.S. Military, the global defense community, law enforcement, competitive shooters, hunters, and responsible citizens. Additionally, SIG SAUER is the premier provider of elite firearms instruction and tactical training at the SIG SAUER Academy. Headquartered in Newington, New Hampshire, SIG SAUER has almost 2,000 employees across eight locations. For more information about the company and product line visit: sigsauer.com.

Marines Choose Trijicon for the Squad Common Optic

By

Keith Finch

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February 25, 2020

Soldier Systems Daily is reporting the that Trijicon has been awarded the $64 Million Dollar contract for the Squad Common Optic (SCO).

The United States Marine Corps is staying with the Wixom, MI based optic company, who they’ve purchased their fleet wide ACOG RCOs and SDOs, going forward.

The SCO is likely a tailored variant of the incredibly tough VCOG and is the first large force adoption of a Low Power Variable Optic. The selection makes sense when looking at the mounting requirements to keep the optic level and allow it to quick mount.

This is a big win for Trijicon as the USMC was the most visible user of the aging ACOG and they will be buying thousands of new scopes from the well regarded manufacturer.

I’m looking forward to seeing the USMC SCO be released and the SKU become available, I’ll likely get one for my M16 just to keep it (mostly) Corps compliant.

Bringing an Iconic Cold Warrior into the 21st Century

By

Scott Smith

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February 25, 2020

pixlr_20200221101900366 — The modernized pre-B C75.

In the dark ages of the 80s, the CZ75 was as rare as a unicorn here in the U.S. This was because it was built behind the Iron Curtain in the U.S.S.R. occupied country of Czechoslovakia. Very few found their way here and they commanded ridiculous prices.

I was fortunate to get one from a friend who was assigned to a unit in West Berlin. Until last year it sat in my vault, because it was a traditional DA/SA. It was built years before decocking levers were installed pistols. It also had sights that were as useless as those on early 1911s and Hi-Powers.

Since I am not a fan of “safe queens”, this past year I decided it was time to upgrade the CZ. With the front sight being machined into the slide, a new one would need to be machined in and an appropriate height rear sight would be needed. The pistol would need to be converted to single action only as well.

Without a mill, this job was out of my skill set. The obvious choice for work on a CZ was the CZ Custom Shop (czcustom.com). After all CZ pistols is what they specialize in. After a few emails to exchange FFLs, she was off to Arizona. The work order was simple; new sights with a fiber optic front and convert her to single action only with a new hammer and flat trigger.

This is the original front sight of the pre-B CZ75. It is hard to see and needed changed.

A few months later I received notice the CZ was ready to ship. When the big white FedEx truck arrived, I was thrilled. It was like getting a brand new pistol, but at a substantially cheaper price.

The sights are awesome. The rear is a Novak style with square notch that mated perfectly with the fiber optic front. I was amazed; there was a visible front sight. I knew this would make the pistol instantly more user friendly and bring out the accuracy CZs are known for.

CZ Custom installed these Novak-ish sights which aided in accuracy and made them more user friendly.

I then realized the tang hammer was gone, replace by a “commander-esque” one. Also the long curved trigger was replaced by the flat trigger I wanted. CZ Custom also replaced the trigger pin. Apparently the original was had broken and the troops replaced it with an appropriate sized Allen wrench cut to fit. As instructed the trigger pull was four pounds to match my other single action pistols. I know many folks who run and gun prefer them much lighter, but I am not a fan of two poundish pull weights.

The flat single action trigger greatly reduced the distance to the trigger and made the pre-B CZ75 feel like a 1911.

Installing this commander style hammer gave the pistol better lines. CZ Custom did a trigger job that rivaled custom 1911s.

The pistol needed one more item, good looking functional grips. The Hogue rubber grips were serviceable but that was it. When I perused VZ Grips (vzgrips.com) there a pair of blue and black Diamondback G10 grips on clearance that were perfect. A few days later they arrived and fit like a glove. To finish the grip, I applied anti-skid tape to give a secure grip in any weather condition. These additions are visible in the photos throughout the article.

With blue and black grips, the all black pistol needed a new look. Thanks to Duracoat (duracoatfirearmsfinishes.com), the CZ would soon sport a blue and black camo finish. I know this will not set well with diehard traditionalists, but I wanted my pistol to be unique. This finish would do that and protect it from the elements as well.

The finished CZ Custom CZ75 with its test ammunition. Biker Buillets were a limited edition from Super Vel for Sturgis’ Bike Week.

A good looking improved pistol is all well and good, but it has to shoot well too. It was time to head to the range and check the accuracy. I gathered up mixed loose factory ammunition to test the reliability and several boxes of factory ammunition. Test ammunition included Black Hills (black-hills.com), Federal (federalrpemium.com), Hornady (hornady.com), Remington (remington.com) and Sig Sauer (sigsauer.com). Bullet weights ranged from 100 grains to 147 grains and included BHA’s Honey Badger, full metal jacket and various hollow points. This mix would cover ammunition for practice, competition and self-defense.

Not surprisingly the CZ had no feeding or extraction issues. I had not expected any issues since it never had any reliability issues before. What surprised me is the accuracy. Having functional sights dropped the 11 shot group from 4” at 25 yards to 2 ½”. I shot 11 because that is the maximum capacity in some progressive socialist states. When I shot 5 shot groups they were all sub 2 ½”, for a beat up old GI that’s about as good as it gets.

Firing off hand at ranges from 7 yards to 25 yards it was easy to keep all rounds in the A zone of a USPSA target. The all steel pistol with the perfectly executed beavertail kept the pistol on target and the new sights quickly settled where I wanted they needed to be for accurate shots.

If you find an older used pistol, be a CZ75 like this or GI style 1911; do not overlook them. You can build a pistol to fit your needs and for a fraction the cost of a new custom pistol. When you get that new rebuild, get out to the range and shoot safely, accurately and have fun.