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SPRINGFIELD HELLCAT: BEST CCW 9MM EVER?

Full disclosure, here. I normally carry full-size guns for CCW. I prefer the increased capacity, enhanced shootability and superior adaptability of bigger guns and simply accept the added weight, bulk and discomfort as the price of doing business. Although there are many little guns I like, the relative trade-offs in capabilities with them always pushed me back toward bigger guns.

Hellcat with RMSc red dot sight from springfield armory
The new Hellcat from Springfield Armory offers shooters an EDC-ready 9mm pistol with an astounding 11+1 capacity and the ability to accept micro red dot optics.

To switch, all I needed was to find a gun with all the features of a full-size pistol, but small enough for comfortable carry. Easy, right? Not so much. It was always basic physics that seemed to get in the way. That is, until now. It seems there’s a pistol that might just offer the best of both worlds — full-size capabilities and CCW-ready dimensions.

That pistol is the brand new 9mm Hellcat from Springfield Armory. The development of this seemingly physics-bending compact pistol was, in the words of Springfield Armory CEO Dennis Reese, “shaped by a singular mission — to deliver the ultimate concealed carry handgun.” Did Springfield succeed? Let’s take a look and see.

close up of the RMCs on the Hellcat
The Optical Sight Pistol (OSP) version of the Hellcat accepts red dots like the excellent Shield RMSc. Note the exceptional co-witnessing “U-Dot” sights with a luminescent tritium dot front, standard on all Hellcat pistols.

Standing Apart

While the micro-compact semi-auto pistol market is packed with options, the new +P rated Hellcat sets itself apart with some very unique features. But first let’s discuss its dimensions so you can appreciate how small it is. The pistol weighs around 18 oz., has a short 3″ barrel and is a mere 1″ wide. Yet within these tiny dimensions the pistol packs an impressive 11-round capacity within its patented magazine — and bumps it up to 13+1 with the included extended magazine. Springfield describes it as “the world’s highest capacity micro-compact,” and I haven’t been able to identify an alternative to refute that claim.

Freedom Follower AR-15 Auto Mag Release

Image via ATG

If you’ve wanted that greater edge in reload mechanics that Kobalt Kinetics rolled into their space age looking AR’s, Adaptive Tactical Solutions has it. Utilizing a new PMAG compatible follower, modified mil-spec bolt catch, and magazine release the AMR allows for the release and ejection of magazines from the AR-15 upon the last round fired.

From ATS, Inc. –

San Diego, CA— 10/3/19 — Adaptive Tactical Solutions, Inc. has just released their new patent pending Freedom Follower, AR-15 automatic magazine release system (on last round fired) which comes in both non-restricted capacity configuration for 30 round body magazines, and restricted capacity for 10 round body magazines.

The Freedom Follower is designed to operate seamlessly in your Gen, 1, Gen 2 and Gen 3 Magpul magazines for use in your mil-spec AR-15 rifle. The system includes the Freedom Follower, proprietary ambidextrous magazine release and modified timing bolt catch. 

Through years of testing Freedom Follower achieves auto magazine release by actuating our proprietary ambidextrous magazine release when the magazine runs dry.   A spring-loaded button exposes itself at the moment the magazine is empty actuating the proprietary magazine release automatically dropping the magazine for you.  This timing is precise, the moment the magazine begins to leave the magwell it still has the job of locking your bolt back.  We have designed that seamless timing into the Freedom Follower system to retain full function of your mil-spec AR-15, with no permanent modifications to either your rifle or your magazines. 

The Freedom Follower is a plug-n-play solution with mil spec receivers. Although most forgings are similar we have spent a lot of time ensuring function, which is why we offer a complete system from bolt catch, to magazine catch to the follower itself. Installation of our components will NOT affect your rifle reliability in any way including using non Freedom Follower equipped magazines, they will work just the same as always.

Other ambi mag catches can be used if they are not integrated to the platform or a separate unit from the magazine release button on the right side of the gun. If the gun accepts a standard mag catch and is not proprietary with the mag release button our Freedom Follower ambi mag catch will work. The Freedom Follower will also work with the Geissele bolt catch if you are willing to modify it yourself, which only takes a few minutes. Details are in the installation video on our website. The system is flexible if you are utilizing mil-spec AR-15 platforms without proprietary integrated components.

Many customers, including competition shooters, training instructors and law enforcement have already benefited from testing the Freedom Follower. Many law enforcement organizations and competition shooters have recently expressed heavy interest in Freedom Follower as the product will enable them to more aggressively engage their rifle platforms as it frees them from having to manually eject mags.

Is this a solution in search of a problem? A gamer mod for better reloads and splits in a variety of AR-15’s? I’m not sure. It could certainly help in competitive shooting.

Tyranny, ‘Mandatory Buybacks’, and Why Militias Matter – A Rant [Language Warning]

If you like reasoned political commentary with a spice of entertaining add on, you’ll like this guy. If you’re at work and they are language sensitive, use those earbuds. RazorFist – The Rageaholic, brings forth several of the valid modern arguments for supporting the ability of the population to form a militia. Additionally he highlights a lot of the weak bait-and-switch language utilized for optics over substance arguments by gun grabbers like O’Rourke.

Now… those who know me know that I am ‘unimpressed’ with most self proclaimed modern militias. They range from well meaning and woefully underprepared to dangerously misguided and probably going to hurt themselves. Comprised of a myriad of lowest possible budget folks, never wanting to invest in quality training (but they will certainly talk about it), and usually isolating themselves from community emergency communication channels rather than working to improve them. In my experience, the same guy who “can’t afford a ‘good’ rifle or buy into a ‘good’ class” is the one who buys endless accessories and gadgets because they saw an advertisement about it (RIP ammo) and it will be the thing to stop all the tyranny.

I had a discussion among some state concealed carry instructors. I made tongue in cheek comment about making a quasi-militia member “cry” from giving my opinion on the state of self styled “militias”, I was asked my opinion, I gave it.

They are, nearly universally visibly, doing things poorly. Instead of a citizen grass roots group prepared to bolster their community in a time of crisis the image is a bunch of mismatched old camo wearing military LARPers… I’ve seen real LARP, it’s pretty freaking cool, and they aren’t it. I’d rather hang out with the crowd of way-to-serious airsofters…

None of this was to disparage the spirit of self-sufficiency or to say, “No, militias are bad.” They aren’t bad. They’re necessary. The capability is necessary. Just because X local group is made of goofballs does nothing to invalidate the militia concept anymore than the local PD or FD hiring someone who can’t do the job invalidates the department.

Militia’s matter. I just wish the public facing ones were less, well.. you know.

The Militia. The REAL Militia will be made of a volunteer corps of professional and semi-professional workers who all have day jobs now. If the need arises we see it, we see it in the waves of volunteers who go and help after disastrous events, that is the militia. People rising up, getting together, and taking care of business. We still have it, and we need these folks to have skill and access to arms. We don’t know when the next event will throw somewhere into lawlessness and chaos.

The “VIPER Militia” case highlighted in the video is a solid case law example of optics vs. reality.

And Now… The T-90

I, in my stumbling through the highways and backroads of the internet, occasionally stumble across things that I just… like. Things that are just fun and informative. Koala Explains is one such channel and here he is talking about some mainline russian armor hardware. The T-90, specifically a little bit of the background and one of the T-90’s active defenses.

The T-90

The T-90 [7] is a third-generation Russian battle tank that entered service in 1993. The tank is a modern variation of the T-72B and incorporates many features found on the T-80U. Originally called the T-72BU, but later renamed to T-90, it is an advanced tank in service with Russian Ground Forces and the Naval Infantry. The T-90 uses a 125 mm 2A46 smoothbore main gun, the 1A45T fire-control system, an upgraded engine, and gunner’s thermal sight. Standard protective measures include a blend of steel and composite armour, smoke grenade dischargers, Kontakt-5 explosive-reactive armour and the Shtora infrared ATGM jamming system. It was designed and built by Uralvagonzavod, in Nizhny Tagil, Russia. Since 2011, the Russian armed forces have ceased any further orders for the T-90, and are instead increasing their numbers of the T-14 Armata that began production in 2016.[8]
-Wiki

While not their most modern piece of armor anymore it is still a mainstay of the Russian armored contingent and a neat piece of tech.

Taking it from the Enemy

Royal Marines conduct combined arms exercises to refine the skills of taking and controlling urban territory from an enemy force, whether uniformed or insurgent. Being able to take and hold critical terrain is the essential element of maneuver warfare.

It’s not just about pulling up a rifle and hitting a target at X distance, that is just a foundational skill and one of many. Moving efficiently to force control over an objective is even more important than the shooters being able to hit their targets. If I have 10 commando types take a building from 2-4 bad guys it doesn’t much matter if those 2-4 end up dead, captured, or just ran when they knew they couldn’t hold.

War is far more than just dealing casualties to the enemy. Taking the territory that offer them the control they were exercising, that will complete objectives.

Review: “America, Guns, and Freedom: A Journey . . . ” by Miguel A. Faria, Jr., MD

Let’s be up front—America, Guns and Freedom is a bait-and-switch job. This brand new book (released TODAY on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and via all good booksellers) is not just A Journey into Politics and the Public Health & Gun Control Movements. It is far broader than that—which is all to the good. Its 377+ pages are chock full of the people, the events, and the fights that have been waged for decades against Second Amendment deconstructionists and for political freedom at large.

Fully disclosing, Dr. Faria is a friend of mine and of DRGO—you often see his byline here. He has been in the forefront of opposition to the public health/anti-gun complex since the 1990’s. And he has quoted our Dr. Wheeler, me and other DRGO stalwarts liberally in his book.

You can read more of Dr. Faria’s impressive resumé elsewhere. Apart from excellence in neurosurgery, he bravely challenged organized medicine’s gun hate when he founded the Georgia Medical Society’s Medical Sentinel in 1996, and published gun truths as its editor-in-chief for 6 years—which was enough for the GMS. He continues to do so writing for his own site HaciendPubishing.com and others, and as an associate editor-in-chief of the journal Surgical Neurology International.

Faria how he and DRGO founder Timothy Wheeler, MD, late criminologist and civil rights attorney Don Kates, and William C. Waters, IV, MD (then of Doctors for Integrity in Policy Research) testified before the Labor, Health and Human Services Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee in 1996. The result was that the Centers for Disease Control has been forbidden ever since by the Dickey amendment to propagandize for gun control, as it had blatantly been doing. This conflict is the meat of the beginning of the book’s narrative.

But understanding America, Guns, and Freedom: A Journey into Politics and the Public Health & Gun Control Movements starts with Dr. Faria’s own journey. He and his family lived through the destruction of thriving Cuban society by Fidel Castro’s revolution, which “thrashed [everything] into the infamous cesspool of collectivism.” But their suffering culminated in escaping to the United States–penniless, grateful and highly motivated.

His dedication to the values of a free society of individuals rather than fidelity (my pun intended) to the state marks everything Faria does and says. Critically for modern America to grasp, he tells the stories of registration and disarmament that enabled the 20th century tragedies of the Weimar Republic’s descent into Nazism, the Warsaw ghetto’s hopeless self-defense, the Soviets overrunning Hungary, as well as Cuba’s helplessness versus communism. I’d add the genocide and expulsion of the Armenians from their ancient homelands before, through and after World War I to this list. There are even more modern stories that fit, like Cambodia and Rwanda.

Yet he points out counter-narratives too, as in the success of armed civilian militias in the Philippines and Guatemala during the 1980s. Today, the United Nations’ Small Arms Treaty threatens societies worldwide that accept it, requiring registration and regulating international firearm commerce. The United States Constitution still protects Americans against such internationalist interference—if it is respected.

He dissects every gun control issue in American history, though focuses on his own witness beginning with 1986. That’s when Arthur Kellerman, MD kicked off the war by claiming that having a gun in a household increased the odds of a family member’s dying by gunshot by 43 times! As we know, it turned that neither his use of “in the household”, nor “family member”, nor “homicide” nor any other term was accurate or properly evaluated. Even Kellerman’s own downward revision in the 1993 to 2.7 times was still fallacious. Now that some 30% of gun owners decline to reveal their possession to unknown surveyors, anti-gun “researchers” are as unable to document patterns of firearm ownership as they are unable to recognize the vastly greater lives (and injuries and property) saved by defensive gun uses annually.

But that doesn’t stop them. One of their repeated ploys is to conflate adolescents and young adults as “children” in order to play on our sympathy. But those “child victims” 14 and older should not only be an order of magnitude more responsible ,but are largely involved in drug and gang shootings.

Faria elucidates the many faults in most official medical publications’ data manipulation. These extend from presenting simple statistics as science, claiming cause and effect for mere correlation, ignoring confounding variables, refusing to share raw data for confirmation, the “ecologic fallacy” and, always, blaming a tool instead of the people who wield them for the violence they commit.

“Ecologic fallacy” was a new term to me, referring to when “complex analytical techniques are combined with large data sets involving general populations extending over long periods of time.” In other words, they dazzle us with statistics when the study is so grandiose that it is actually impossible to draw precise, justified conclusions. That is, there are too many variables to boil down, inherently including too many potentially confounding factors to account for.

Do we ever hear established “public health experts” address the enormous, calculable benefits of civilian gun use? Do they recognize that violence overall has declined as dramatically as permissive carry has expanded? Do they understand that National Instant Background Check System denials are nearly all false positives, while NICS is a sketchy, hole-ridden tool itself? Do they have any grasp on how blunt force trauma can be as or more deadly as gun and knife attacks? No.

Do they know how important the word “Equalizer” is for women, the elderly and minorities? Do they have any concept of the righteousness of justified homicide? Do they know that legal gun owners, and permitted carriers of guns, are far more law abiding than even police, let alone the general public? Of course not.

Faria diagnoses their followers, fairly I think, as having a “passivity disorder akin to Dependent Personality Disorder” in which participants see risks as problems for others to protect them from, avoiding accepting agency to deal with threats themselves. We should not equate this attitude of the preferentially blind and helpless with the personality disorders that infect many violent criminals. But one can think of their sociopathy and psychopathy as the countervailing, prevailing force to those who would disarm and leave the populace defenseless. Serial and mass killers are more extreme version of them.

Faria suggests “Mass Shooting Derangement Syndrome” as a disorder needing urgent study, but I’m afraid that goes back down the road of pointing to guns rather than people. Every mass shooter is deranged, either sociopathically (doesn’t care about others given his own goals) or psychopathically (actually enjoys the pain and horror he causes). If they can’t do it with guns, they do it with explosives (Oklahoma City), trucks (Nice, France), airplanes (9/11), poison (Tokyo) or any other of a thousand other ways.

He has a great deal of valid criticism for the failings of our mental health system since the deinstitutionalization of chronically ill, poorly adjusted and less than capable psychiatric patients since the 1970s. Faria also points to the growth of political terrorism of all sorts, and to the increasing urge by maladapted individuals to seek meaning in notoriety and infamy. He easily debunks the myth of the Old West as territories terrorized by non-stop gunfights, when the greatest role of firearms was their use by citizens to suppress outlaw violence.

The importance of a capable, armed citizenry is evident to all who take out the beams in their own eyes and look at all the evidence. (My metaphor, not Dr. Faria’s.) Rising violent crime in Great Britain and Europe tells the tale of their increasingly restrictive gun control laws, even to forbidding self-defense.

Meanwhile, besides our generational drop in crime rates with vastly increasing numbers of civilian guns (including millions of those rarely implicated, widely reviled “assault rifles”), he pulls out interesting local examples to be considered. In 1966 in Orlando, Florida, firearm training was offered to women, resulting in a significant decrease in the incidence of rape. In 1982, Kennesaw, Georgia legislated that every household must be armed. Not every one did, of course, but even though this was a political statement by townspeople who already believed in arming themselves, crimes of all sorts dropped (or continued to drop). We’ve never seen the blood bath among legal gun owners that is constantly predicted by ignoramuses.

Quibbles? . . . just a few. There are glossy pages of very relevant pictures and diagrams midway in the book. Unfortunately, the diagrams are too small to make out their content in the detail they deserve. And very few images are referenced in the text where they obviously pertain. You’ll find a few odd phrasings here and there, but Faria is a skilled writer so only obsessives like me may notice.

Exceeding expectations, there is a very thorough index in the back, which will make this an excellent reference given the scope of his survey. His sterling use of historical quotes to begin each chapter brings the wisdom of our greatest thinkers into immediate relevance.

America, Guns, and Freedom wraps up with conclusions we know, but which have to be emphasized over and over in order to penetrate contemporary American discourse:

  • The “public health model” for “gun safety” and to reduce “gun violence” has failed from Day One to tell us anything useful or to contribute to reducing violence in our society.
  • Its anti-gun propaganda is not science, because the “omissions, commissions, distortions and myths” that fill it are agenda-driven, not objective results of disinterested inquiry.

Let’s conclude with several of those spot on quotes:

John Locke wrote that “he who would take away my Liberty would . . . take away everything else.” Consequently, in Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story’s words, “The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered the palladium of the citizens of a republic.” As a result, Abraham Lincoln recognized that “. . . as a nation of free men, we will live forever or die by suicide.”

We can add Dr. Miguel Faria to the list of thinkers whose hard won wisdom we should follow, perhaps not in such pithy terms, but just as meaningful.

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faria-13wmaz-sml

—  Miguel A. Faria, Jr., M.D. is a retired Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery and Adjunct Professor of Medical History at Mercer University School of Medicine. He 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

Barrett REC10 .308 Carbine Going Grey

(Photo: Barrett)

Tungsten Grey

Tennessee-based Barrett announced they have changed REC 10 .308 carbines to include an offering in Tungsten Grey Cerakote.

Barrett is offering the third color option as a response to customer demand and is it now shipping to dealers. The company introduced the rifle to the consumer market last December. At the time the REC10, after 10 years in development, had received a military contract win and would be entering service under those terms.

The REC 10 is a high grade direct impingement SR-25-style semi-auto carbine. Weighing in at an impressively svelte 8lbs with a 16″ free floated barrel, M-LOK handguard, and fully ambidextrous controls. Barrel is 1:10 twist, chromed CMV steel, and button rifled ending in a 3 prong flash hider.

The REC10 is already available in black or FDE cerakote finishes in addition to the new Tungsten Grey. MSRP is in the $2,750 range and is the company’s first semi-auto .308 offering to the public. They’re building for a demanding customer base that they know well, their M107A1 and MRAD are serving with distinction.

But Barrett has always been one to offer their product to any discerning customer who demands their rifle run. The REC 10 is their continued answer to that demand for a new market segment.

Battle Rifle Battle Royale

If you don’t follow InRange TV, start. If you have the time, it’s worth the information gained.

In this particular episode InRange and P&S have gone to the range with a variety of shooters to grab raw data on using various 7.62 NATO Battle Rifles and collect the thoughts on each as they measure certain tasks on the clock. For those not wanting to sit through all 5 videos the data is collected in this one.

And further if you don’t want to sit through this video, well that’s sad but… the XCR-M won.

Robinson Armament XCR-M won the InRange trials for 7.62 NATO 308 Battle Rifles
Well done Robinson Armamnet. Image via Robinson Armament Gallery

Over the various shooters and platforms a clear delineation emerged where modern designs that took ergonomics in mind in their development drastically out performed older platforms. Rifles like the M1A/M14 and G3 suffered from their design layouts. Rifles like the AR-10, SCAR, and XCR-M excelled in many of the tests because of their ergonomics and live fire operating characteristics.

It’s a very interesting data set for anyone considering .308’s as a rifle for a serious purpose. Whether that’s a patrol rifle for duty or an end of the world SHTF zombie buster big igloo riot special. Everyone has their criteria, everyone who is looking at a tool for a job has a requirement list. Thanks to InRange, there’s more data to make a decision.

You can agree or disagree with their observations. You might believe your G3 or clone is exactly the rifle you need. You might laugh at me because my favorite rifle, the SCAR, gave a mediocre showing in tests. That’s fine, these aren’t the only tests on every rifle in this data set. But the value is in exploring the dataset and the ‘why’ of where the rifles placed.

NGSW Competitor Olin Winchester Wins Contract to Run Lake City Ammunition Plant

The Army’s Lake City Army Ammunition Plant was established in World War II and provides small arms ammo to the military. Winchester stands to run the plant until 2029. (Photo: U.S. Army)

Illinois-based ammo maker Olin Winchester won the contract to run the Army owned, but contractor run, facility. The result of various .Gov business rules and agreements allow companies to bid to run the factory, keep it up to date, and produce the majority of ammunition for the U.S. Military. That will now be Winchester.

The Missouri located plant was first established in 1941 and provides small-caliber military ammunition to the military for both training and combat. Winchester previously operated the 4,000-acre facility from 1985-2000 and it is currently run by Northrop. All that LC marked M855, M193, and M80 was run out of this facility.

Olin Winchester’s contract, valued at $28,313,481, was announced Friday by the U.S. Army Contracting Command at Rock Island Arsenal. They take control of the facility next year and could run the plant until Sept. 27, 2029.

“Winchester is honored to have been selected by the Army to operate, maintain and modernize this unique, strategic asset of the U.S. Government’s munitions industrial base,” said Brett Flaugher, President of Winchester, in a statement. “Our team is fully prepared and 100 percent committed to the safe, reliable, and responsible operation of Lake City, in the best interest of and service to the U.S. Military.”

The Lake City plant, which encompasses 408 buildings, 43 magazines, nine warehouses, 11 igloos and a storage capacity of 707,000 sq. ft, also serves as a national and regional test center for ammunition performance and weapons firing.

The question I have is… does this mean the team will win the NGSW contract too? The base of the contract was a new 6.8mm round for the Rifle and Automatic Rifle. Partnered with Textron and H&K, Winchester has a Small Arms dynamo power house gunning for the full system.

Image via Defense-Blog of the Textron NGSW Submission

They (Winchester) are now in control of the ammunition supply. Now, they could easily be told by the DoD to produce Sig’s ammo design or another entirely based on DoD needs. Stranger decisions have been made. But as for producing ammunition at most efficient cost per round, keeping it all in their hands is usually a winning formula. With Textron and H&K taking the lead on the actual mechanics of the rifle and SAW replacement, the Army and Marines already bought into H&K weapons, and Olin Winchester running Lake City, that NGSW team is set to make serious ground in that contest.

R.I.P. ACU Pattern

It’s over… It’s done… the worst uniform pattern in U.S. Army history has been put in the shallow grave where it belonged. ACU is dead. Long live knock off Multicam (OCP) which the Army scrambled to adopt after finally acknowledging they had made a mistake. The Navy has also canned the oddly chosen “Blueberry” blue camo uniforms for a more useful camouflage pattern that they have been using groundside and forward when deployed with the Marines and other ground elements.

Today puts to rest the two worst camo ideas the military adopted. Granted they were based off a very good idea that the Marine Corps implemented with an updated digital camo pattern. The desert and green uniforms the Marines utilized were effective and for some reason the Army and Navy wanted the same thing… but different… and so they picked patterns that worked nowhere. The uniform wars of the late 2000’s was a weird time.

Funny enough the most rational alternative choice to the Marines was the Airforce and their tiger stripe. Unsurprisingly, after a stint of derision (yet long enough to justify the uniform buy), the Army and Navy have completed the change away from the bafflingly useless camos.

The OCP Multicam pattern and the new green/black digital navy pattern still delineate the services as different, something I can support as a matter of pride and esprit de corps for your individual service. Knowing who’s a Sailor, Soldier, Airman, or Marine at a glance of uniformed service members is valuable. Camouflage is supposed to work though, and two branches rocking completely ineffective patterns was… embarrassing. It looked incompetent and tryhard, like a B or C rate action movie… except this was the U.S. Military.

RIP Weird camo choices. We won’t miss you. I do miss Desert Digi’s though… so comfy.

Video Credit: Angry Cops

SAINT .300 BLK PISTOL VS. WOLF PACK?

Backpacking a compact, powerful gun like the SAINT Pistol in .300 BLK can be a life-saver.

If you’ve ever been out in the woods and felt like someone (or something) was following you, that can be a very unsettling feeling to shake. That racing feeling in your chest can quickly crescendo to a deafening level of anxiety if you don’t have something to adequately protect yourself. And what if that thing stalking you is a deadly predator?

For me, that threat is wolves. When I’m out hunting whitetail deer, grouse, and other game in Minnesota, wolves are disconcertingly common. In fact, I’ve been that guy standing on a logging trail, miles from civilization staring down a wolf wondering what’s going to happen next.

While many of us carry a pistol daily for defense, something like a traditional 9mm can feel wholly inadequate while out in the wild and potentially facing down larger threats such as wolves who hunt in packs. For that reason, it can be tremendously valuable to backpack with something with more capacity and ft.-lbs. of energy. This is the perfect argument for a firearm like the Springfield Armory SAINT .300 BLK Pistol. It’s compact enough for packing, but powerful enough to face down serious threats like these.

Springfield Armory SAINT 300 BLK Pistol with MLOK
One of the advantages of an AR-style gun is that it is easily broken down, which can be very helpful if space is at a premium.

Layers of Defense

For those who hike or enjoy spending a lot of time in the great outdoors, I would fully advocate backpacking a compact, stout firearm like the Springfield Armory SAINT .300 BLK Pistol where legal. Simultaneously, I am not advocating for anyone to do away with their everyday carry (EDC) pistol – large or small. If you are trained and proficient with something like a 911 .380 ACP or even a 1911 .45 ACP, by all means carry it. That will always serve as your fastest and most familiar line of defense.

Being alone and isolated in the wild means that you might have to face a deadly threat on your own.


AK’s Aren’t Accurate

Why does this myth persist?

Brandon Herrara AKa The AK Guy (see what I did there?) takes on the 4 reasons the myth of AK inaccuracy is among us, still… seriously why? Anyway, if you cannot or don’t want to watch the highly entertaining 15 minutes with him. Here is some of the info a nutshell.

1. Vietnam/GWOT

The AK legends out of Vietnam established its reputation of legendary reliability. Not a hard bar when US Troops were being supplied with ammo filled with gunpowder that completely screwed the pooch on their early variant M16s or were lugging the obsolescent M14 around in a warped wood stock.

The AK’s legend grew, but honestly Americans didn’t understand a hell of a lot about the rifle so we just kind of made stuff up from limited experience. Those made up best guess details got repeated until they were the gospel of the AK.

Enter the GWOT era. Now a bunch of US and NATO service members have fresh experiences with the AK. They’re terribly maintained AKs held by people ranging from poorly trained to untrained conscripts, but its AK experience. This led to the inaccurate reports of extreme inaccuracy because of course… these were AKs. It couldn’t be the folks using them didn’t know how… could it? Nah.

So mythical accuracy factoid #1 was from limited military experiences filling in the blanks with assumption.

2. 7.62x39mm

The traditional AK caliber also fed the fires of the inaccuracy myth. Why? Everyone KNOWS 7.62×39 isn’t an “accurate” round.

True on the grand scale of ballistics and accurate rounds, yes, the 7.62×39 is meh. The short OAL and slowish velocity in the 2300-2400 fps don’t make it one for the precision rifle series. But that is a far cry from an “inaccurate” rifle, it just put realistic limits on what a rifle can do. A 9mm isn’t a great ballistic round but those carbines aren’t rumored to miss buildings at close distances.

3. “Loose Tolerances”

In the same way the the 7.62×39 got the “inaccurate” moniker by overblowing a physical limitation into a myth, the loose tolerances of an AK rifle’s operational parts spiraled into ‘common knowledge’ as well. Those tolerances in certain parts of the rifle are necessary to allow the rifle to function and it can function, in a technical sense, with a great degree of variation. But if items like bolt headspacing aren’t taken care of properly the AK will run just as poorly as anything else done equally poorly.

4. Sh*t Tier Quality AKs

Consumers can be a miserly bunch. When poor quality, inexperienced, and could care less about final product builders want to make the least expensive variant of a rifle to cash in on a demand… they do. Putting together a bunch of sub-standard AK parts in a substandard way makes a bunch of sub-standard AKs.

There’s very good reason that Arsenal, Krebs, and Rifle Dynamics are the quality names in this space and that the selling point of many others is literally just price.

Anyway, Brandon does an excellent job explaining this so circle on back to the video!

Sig Elite Hunter Tipped

Available in .308 Win, 6.5 Creedmoor, and several more. Just in time for the season.

It’s that time of year again and Sig Sauer has the ammunition to feed it, Elite Hunter Tipped. Around the nation, deer seasons and other medium and large game hunts are opening with the autumn. That means grab a box of ammo, confirm zerom and be ready to wander into the woods and fields.

SIG SAUER ELITE HUNTER TIPPED™ ammunition gives the serious sportsman unmatched, long range accuracy, with devastating on-target performance. Massive expansion delivers instant knockdown and terminal energy on small to medium game. -Sig Sauer

Sig has been doing great things with their ammunition line and the attention to detail is paying off. Their 77gr OTM is among my favorite home and social rounds, boasting incredible accuracy and consistency. Their EHT line is looking to capitalize on that attention to detail, but with a line of high ballistic coefficient polymer tipped rounds instead of soft points or open tipped match designs.

Specifics on the EHT Elite Hunter Tipped ammunition from Sig Sauer
  1. Translucent yellow tip increases ballistic coefficient, improves terminal performance, and aids in consistent reliable chambering.
  2. Exclusive jacket design delivers devastating on-game performance for small to medium game at extended ranges.
  3. Concentric blackened jacket ensures reliable expansion.
  4. Enhanced boat tail design provides superior flight characteristics over a wide range of velocities.
  5. Custom formulated and precision loaded powders deliver consistent velocities regardless of atmospheric conditions.
  6. Nickel plated cases aid in extraction while providing significant anti-corrosion qualities.
  7. Industry leading primers are matched to proprietary powder blends to ensure dependable ignition.


We have some here in the testing chute and we’re not done with it yet. Preliminary results have it running in any semi-auto .308 that we have tried. That that covers 2 SCARs, 4 .308 AR-10’s, a M+M11, and a Tavor 7. Like the .308 Elite Copper Hunter before it the ammo has had no issues cycling and striking anything I’ve asked of it. I’ll have it haul home some food to the freezer come November.

Gun Control Doublespeak…

Image via The Daily Wire

It’s frustrating… truly truly frustrating trying to pin down the perspective of people looking to curb and influence violent crime. Gun control doublespeak spins my head. Say a thing, state a goal, and then implement an opposing policy.

Durham County DA criticizes felons with firearms report: ‘Not well researched’

Out of Durham County, North Carolina the DA is criticizing a report that stated they dropped 53% of their ‘Felon in possession’ firearms charges. Out of the 363 arrests listed (121 a year) the majority were voluntarily dropped.

Firearm by a felon is “a status” offense, not a gun crime, DA Satana Deberry said. “Just because somebody is a felon doesn’t mean they are a violent person. There are many felonies in which violence is not involved. That is a tenuous, at best, connection, and I don’t think it is true.”

But… but the Red Flags!?

I happen to agree with DA Deberry, possession is not a sole indicator. A ‘felon’ who has served their time and been released should have their rights like anyone else. But felons have all been permanently ‘naughty listed’ and failing the background check is the ultimate red flag… in theory. We know that failed background checks rarely result in arrests and those arrests rarely result in prosecutions.

So why are we using “status” charges if they’re so ineffective?

“When that charge is filed alone, the DA’s office considers whether a person is truly a danger to our community, which is not indicated by his or her status as a person with a prior felony conviction.”

So is or is not a felony a disqualifying factor for owning a firearm? Federally, it’s as illegal as it gets. But laws ineffectually enforced have no teeth. The ‘do as I say for this moment until it comes out this sucks and then we do something else’ method.

Beto and Kent State

No greater example of gun control doublespeak was given to us than that of Robert ‘Beto’ O’Rourke telling us we needed to ban guns and pass laws because of the Kent State massacre…

By… the government. The Ohio National Guard, the “Militia” that gun controllers place on the pedestal of people who should only have ‘these assault weapons’ killed four unarmed students.

I honestly don’t know if this is just a play on ignorance so deep that referencing a shooting happened is enough to advance the narrative… The only other conclusion is O’Rourke is that out of touch himself.

It’s a weird Monday, readers. I am baffled.

Red Flags for ERPOs & GVROs

(from alloutdoor.com)

[Ed: DRGO has returned from the 34th Annual Gun Rights Policy Conference, hosted in Phoenix by the Second Amendment Foundation. On Sunday, Dr. Edeen discussed the problems with firearm confiscation orders. Watch DRGO here at about 1:00, with Dr. Edeen at 1:18. He reminds us that he is NOT an attorney.]

What are these laws and why are they so dangerous?

“Red Flag” laws are currently in effect in 15 states and the District of Columbia. Hawaii’s and Nevada’s Red Flag laws will take effect on January 1, 2020.  Red Flag laws allow courts to issue orders to temporarily confiscate the firearms of individuals deemed to be a risk to themselves or others. Individual states differ as to who can request this.

In most states, family members and/or law enforcement can request the order from a state court judge to confiscate the firearms of the person who they believe to be at risk. The exact details vary from state to state. The hearing is ex parte, which means that the at-risk individual has no notice, no representation and no opportunity to rebut the claims of those who would have his firearms taken. In most cases, the only warning is the knock on the door when law enforcement comes to take his property.

The subject of the Red Flag order gets his day in court at some later date to plead his case. If the order becomes final, it can last for six months to a year before needing to be renewed. In New Jersey it is indefinite until the subject can convince a judge that he is no longer a danger.

Many Constitutional protections are turned upside down or violated by these laws.  The most obvious are, of course:

— the Second Amendment: “[T]he right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

— the Fourth Amendment: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation and particularly describing the place to be searched , and the persons or things to be seized.”

— the Fifth Amendment: “Nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use , without just compensation.”

— the Fourteenth Amendment: “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due processes of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Your accuser has no obligation to prove your guilt. The order to deprive you of your Constitutional rights is given using completely unsubstantiated, arbitrary terms. You then have to stand before your government to prove your innocence.

These laws also have a chilling effect on the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, . . or the right of the people to peaceably assemble.” What you say on social media (e.g., “I support the Second Amendment”) or which organizations you belong to (e.g., National Rifle Association, Second Amendment Foundation) in San Francisco can label you a terrorist and subject you to being Red Flagged and have your property confiscated. What crime did you commit? The exercise of Constitutionally protected rights.

Since these proceedings fall under civil rather than criminal law, your Sixth Amendment protections are bypassed. These include “the right to a public and speedy trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence.”

The Seventh Amendment states: “In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court in the United States, than according to the rules of common law.”  However, the civil proceeding against the individual by the state is regarding property worth far more than that $20 civil threshold. Why do firearm confiscations not permit trial by jury? A judge holds your rights in his sole hands.

The Eighth Amendment reads: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”  Is not having your property seized without trial or due process cruel and unusual? Is it not essentially an excessive fine to have to pay an attorney $10,000-20,000 to get your property back even though you committed no crime?

These laws turn “innocent until proven guilty” on its head. They allow unreasonable search and seizure, and void due process. They deny trial by jury and punish innocent persons before they are found guilty of a crime. The punishment (confiscation of property) happens without any criminal conviction or an adjudication of mental incompetence. The ex parte nature of the original hearing only presents one side of the argument. Is there a police investigation to confirm the claims of the person asking for the order prior to accepting the petition? Many Red Flag laws hold the complainant harmless from civil damages even when the claims are false. In some states the rules of evidence are waived.

These laws bypass important existing processes. They take away the firearms but do not address any other potential self-destructive or criminal behavior of the person subject to the ERPO.

There are civil commitment processes in place in every state for people to be evaluated by a mental health professional for a limited period of time. During the confinement, a psychiatric evaluation can be done in order to ascertain if they are truly a danger by reason of a mental illness. They can then be adjudicated as being a danger or not, with all due process. This has the added benefit of getting help for those who need it, while separating the person from all dangerous weapons.

If there is criminal intent, the person can be arrested and be charged with a crime. They can then be tried with all their Constitutional protections in place.  In any event, due process is preserved.

Let’s look at the practicalities of the ERPO system. What judge is going to deny a petition claiming danger? The only risk they have is if deny it and then the person does something dangerous. Most judges are elected and seek re-election.

On the other hand, the accused now must shoulder a significant financial burden to prove his innocence. He would have to pay for his own mental health evaluation to try to to recover his property, rights and reputation? Let us not forget that many in the mental health professions are biased against firearms and the Second Amendment. It may be difficult to find someone to give a fair reckoning on your behalf. How do you prove a negative?  Our judicial system should put the burden of proof on the state here too, not on the accused.

Red Flag laws can be used against women defending themselves against domestic abusers. They can be used in divorce and child custody litigation as leverage against their partners. They can discourage those who might need mental health treatment for depression or suicidal ideation from seeking help for fear of triggering a Red Flag report.

Who is responsible for preserving your property for the duration of an order? Police departments have been known to damage or destroy seized firearms. You might never get your property back.  You will not be compensated for its value, and to add insult to injury you may be charged a storage fee too!

Red Flag laws deprive you of you Right to Keep and Bear Arms. They subject you to unreasonable search and seizure. They deprive you of due process of law and deprive you of your property without just compensation.  They contravene your rights to a speedy and public trial, an impartial jury of your peers and to confront your accusers, without even accusing you of a crime . You cannot call witnesses on your behalf or have counsel represent you until after your property and rights have already been violated.

It is cruel and unusual punishment to be forced to prove your innocence, costing tens of thousands of dollars to prove a negative. Of course, this abridges the privileges and immunities of the citizens it is used against. These laws have already deprived people of their life, liberty and property. In jurisdictions that abuse the rights of citizens, will we see Federal prosecutors charge those who violate citizens’ rights in these ways under 18 USC 241 (Conspiracy against rights) or 18 USC 242 (Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law). We are still waiting.

As an alternative, a writer named Ian Williamson has proposed a “Purple Flag Law”. When an accusation is made, instead of confiscating the person’s guns, the person is escorted to a facility where his state of mind can be evaluated. This addresses the critical concern, separating the person from the guns. If a person is dangerous, he doesn’t need guns to hurt or kill a lot of people. It keeps the firearms out of the hands of the state, since experience has proven that once they have been taken you are unlikely to get them back in good condition, if at all. And the person, unlike the guns, has the right of habeas corpus.

Second, if the accusation that leads to the evaluation turns out to be unfounded, the accuser gets a mandatory one year in prison, and is named in a mandatory civil lawsuit demanding $1 million in damages. That will deter bitter ex-spouses, disgruntled employees, spiteful neighbors or anyone else with an ax to grind from initiating a Red Flag petition as a form of harassment.

Finally, when an accusation is well-founded and a person turns out to be too dangerous to release, this framework has the crucial advantage of focusing attention where it belongs — on the person, not on the gun.

It is obvious to me that those who create Red Flag Laws are not really interested in public safety. They only want another means to confiscate firearms and to create more prohibited persons.

References:

  1. Constitution of the United States of America
  2. KrisAnn Hall, JD, You Tube video, The Truly Insidious Nature of Red Flag Laws
  3. Tea Party Action Patriots. Say NO to “Red Flag” laws.
  4. CBS News. What are “red flag” laws, and which states have implemented them? August 9, 2019.
  5. DRGO on Firearm Confiscation due to dangerousness, March 13,2018, drgo.us

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erdeen

—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