Articles by Herschel Smith

OutdoorHub:

Back to the second portion my original point: What constitutes an effective defensive handgun? A firearm designed for self-defense (either military, law enforcement or civilian) needs to meet a minimum of four criteria to be considered effective:

• Function reliability even without lubrication or regular maintenance
• Able to consistently hit a 6-inch target within self-defense range (typically within 25 feet)
• Fire a round proven to reliably stop an attacker with reasonable shot placement
• Carry at least five rounds of ammo and be easily reloadable

The 1911 barely meets the first criteria. Not because the design isn’t capable – I’ve seen 1911s that rattle like an old toolbox that run like a scalded dog – but because its magazines can be a total crap shoot. The overwhelming majority of 1911s that suffer from reliability issues can be traced back to faulty magazines.

Shooters should stick with new-production magazines from companies with solid reputations like Chip McCormick Customs. These guys have been working on, running and building 1911 magazines for 3 decades. So I called the owner, Chip, and asked him about the importance of magazines.

“Magazines lie at the heart of (the M1911’s) reliability,” Chip explained. “Browning never intended 1911 magazines to be extended, or be run as hard as competitors tend to these days.”

[ … ]

Because the 1911 meets or exceeds all the aforementioned criteria, it’s not only a solid choice for serious self-defense use, but also on par with more modern designs, right?

Yes and no.

[ … ]

The 1911’s design could certainly benefit from higher magazine capacity, like something on par with the Springfield XDm in .45 ACP or the Glock 21 in the same caliber. Higher capacity frames like those from Infinity and STI exist, but are vastly more expensive than standard capacity 1911s. But it’s safe to say, as the 1911 continues to evolve, it’s far from obsolete.

No, the 1911 couldn’t benefit from a lot more rounds in the magazine if that means giving up the single stack design.  And as for what Chip McCormick said, while I have been intending on purchasing some of his higher capacity magazines for the 1911 (I have not yet), the ones I have work just fine, and I have never had a FTF or FTE with my 1911.  Not even once.  I don’t know what they’re talking about.

I’ve said it before, but I like the grip angle (11 degrees), the slim single stack design (and resulting narrow frame profile), and the push of the .45 compared to the snap of the 9 mm.  What’s works best for you is the best choice for you.  What doesn’t is not.  There is also an article at Cheaper Than Dirt entitled Every Man’s Defensive Caliber – The 9 mm.

The only legitimate point the author makes, in my opinion, is that the 9 mm is cheaper than the .45.  True that.  But you get what you pay for.  The 9 mm isn’t every man’s defensive round if every man doesn’t like it and use it.  I don’t use 9 mm.  I use .45 because I like it.  If you use 9 mm, do so because you like it and shoot it well, not because somebody said something on the internet about it.

These debates are stupid, and anyway, why would someone feel that it’s necessary to talk someone else into liking something he doesn’t use well?  The only time this debate becomes important is for something like an entire department that issues a standard service weapon.  I guess in this case if you don’t like what they issue, you need to practice with it until you do or find another job.

Finally, I wonder what it would have been like for John Basilone if he used had the 9 mm instead of the .45?  I wonder if perchance we would have been able to win at Guadalcanal if John hadn’t lost the battle for Henderson Field?  Oh, wait.  Nevermind.

The Age:

The notion that a military-grade weapon could be in the hands of local criminals is shocking, but police have already seized at least five machine guns and assault rifles in the past 18 months. The AK-47 was not among them.

Only a fortnight ago, law enforcement authorities announced they were hunting another seven assault rifles recently smuggled into the country. Weapons from the shipment have been used in armed robberies and drive-by shootings.

[ … ]

Despite Australia’s strict gun control regime, criminals are now better armed than at any time since then-Prime Minister John Howard introduced a nationwide firearm buyback scheme in response to the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.

Shootings have become almost a weekly occurrence, with more than 125 people, mostly young men, wounded in the past five years.

[ … ]

Crimes associated with firearm possession have also more than doubled, driven by the easy availability of handguns, semi-automatic rifles, shotguns and, increasingly, machine guns, that are smuggled into the country or stolen from licensed owners.

These weapons have been used in dozens of recent drive-by shootings of homes and businesses, as well as targeted and random attacks in parks, shopping centres and roads.

“They’re young, dumb and armed,” said one former underworld associate, who survived a shooting attempt in the western suburbs several years ago.

“It used to be that if you were involved in something bad you might have to worry about [being shot]. Now people get shot over nothing – unprovoked.”

Sounds rather like Chicago, yes?  But wait.  I predict that they’ll try to make a new set of laws that makes it illegal to disobey laws already on the books.

In response to the violence, it can be revealed the state government is planning to introduce new criminal offences for drive-by shootings, manufacturing of firearms with new technologies such as 3D printers, and more police powers to keep weapons out of the hands of known criminals.

They’re all the same everywhere, these collectivists.  The law abiding citizens turned in their weapons, and so now they are defenseless against the criminals.  What they need is to rearm peaceable men and women to shoot the criminals and Melbourne will regain a sense of peace.  The police can’t stop this.  No police anywhere can stop this.  Since that’s the only option that will work, they will studiously avoid it.

Denver Post:

SWAT officers raided a Mesa County home they believed to be full of methamphetamine early Wednesday, breaching its front door and breaking several windows, only to find inside an innocent family with five children.

Authorities from several agencies are now apologizing to the family, saying they had out-of-date information from an informant. The suspects sought by investigators had at one time lived at the house in Clifton near the intersection of 32 and E roads, officials said, but had since moved away.

“We are deeply regretful of the experience to which this family was subjected,” Grand Junction police and the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office said in a joint statement. “We have met with the family, including the children, to explain in detail how such a mistake was made.”

The kids range in age from 3 to 12 years old.

[ … ]

Heidi Davidson, spokeswoman for Grand Junction police, said investigators are still working to determine which agency will pay how much for the repairs.

“It should have been vetted better,” Davidson said. “We should have done a better job from the beginning.”

Davidson explained that investigators believe their informant, a woman, was not lying about the suspects she believed lived in the home and that an investigation into the alleged criminals remains ongoing.

“We don’t have any information at this time that the information was made up or fabricated,” Davidson said.

And there’s the problem right there, or at least one of the problems.  An individual – a single individual – can say something and dispatch an armed home invasion team supported by the officers of the court.  One individual.

The police sound more like a drug gang retaliating for some offense in the organized crime world than “peace officers,” yes?

I want one.

Jim Wilson writing for American Rifleman:

In some circles the pistol-mounted light has become quite popular as a personal-defense tool. The theory in the use of such lights is, of course, that you need to be able to identify the person as an actual threat before you employ deadly force. Further, we find that when we light up the target at night or in poor light, we can deliver our hits with much greater accuracy. However, there are some problems that can arise with the use of pistol-mounted lights that the defensive shooter should consider before making the transition.

Armed citizens often have two problems when considering carrying the defensive handgun. The first is that a suitable pistol, in a substantial caliber, often seems heavy, especially when one has been wearing it all day long. The other is that this same pistol can be more difficult to conceal. Unfortunately, mounting a light on the defensive handgun makes it even heavier. And it makes it more difficult to properly conceal the handgun.

Another potential problem that occurs when a person is using a pistol-mounted light is that he is tempted to use the pistol as a flashlight. I know of several cases in which the defensive shooter shined his light—and loaded pistol—on people and things that he had no intention of shooting.

We’ve dealt with this issue before of a light on the front of your handgun, and the lack of police officer discipline causing negligent discharges because of the trigger-like actuation of the light (pressure switch near the trigger guard, along with the fact that officers stupidly go around with their finger on the trigger of their weapons while pointing them at people and things).

Don’t do it this way, and keep your finger off the trigger.  Simple discipline solves that problem.  Lack of time, discipline and training also causes sympathetic muscle reflex responses like it did with poor Eurie Stamps (Jesus was that my rifle?).  But in general I am a huge fan of pistol-mounted lights for the right reason and under the right circumstances.

I think I’ve told the story about my purchase of one, but it bears repeating.  Before my wife’s grandmother passed away, I had to work on her house, oftentimes late into the evening on the weekends, and oftentimes not getting started until after dark.  The home was once in a great neighborhood, but it had turned for the worse because of gang activity, and it was in another town so we couldn’t be there except for me on the weekends.

There were also reports of ne’er-do-wells hanging around, and visual evidence of home entry when we weren’t there (along with electronic evidence such as unexplained power bills).  The home was left dark in order to minimize power bills, and every time I had to begin work after dark, I had to perform a sweep of the entire home.  Sometimes I had my Doberman, Heidi, and I was always safer and happier to have her.

But sometimes I didn’t have her with me.  The first time I ever did entry and sweep of the home, I did so using the hand over wrist method for holding a weapon in one hand and light in another.  The home had many rooms, many closets, multiple bathrooms and a garage as well as exterior structures.  I swore I would never use that method again.  It led to exhaustion and loss of fine motor skills associated with use of my hands and arms.

Before the next time I got a weapon mounted light and haven’t looked back.  I did entry, sweeping and room clearing using proper grip technique and without exhaustion.  I’ll grant the point that the handgun is unable to be concealed, and it’s a bit too heavy to carry without a rigger’s belt.  With a rigger’s belt and the proper holster it isn’t a problem, but you don’t usually carry a rigger’s belt, holster, firearm and weapon-mounted light to the grocery store (I wish we could all do that without people freaking out).

So my gun with the weapon-mounted light sits under my bed.  I’ll carry it in the car on trips, and sometimes I’ll carry it backpacking.  Otherwise, I do the classic routine of carrying a gun and tactical light (separately) with my other weapons.  You get something, you give up something.  No solution is perfect, and one size fits all doesn’t work with firearms.

I use this exact grip, but I find it natural and comfortable.  Others may not.  I also find .45 1911 natural and comfortable, while I do not find 9mm natural or comfortable (nor do I find double-stack magazine guns natural or comfortable compared to the 1911).  It may come down to choice if a shooter doesn’t come to terms with this grip, but it isn’t trivial that all the top competition shooters use this grip.  It does have a number of advantages.

Via WRSA, Max Velocity has this video.

Go read his comments on the engagement.  I sent this video to my former Marine, Daniel, who had this to say.

… if you have a team stopping behind a doorway for cover to shoot that creates a bottle neck, that’s what body armor is for.  Go in clearing the room with the bulk of your armor between you and the guy shooting at you and don’t stop moving, that way more guys filter in behind you clearing areas.

Everyone in the team has a very specific area in the room they cover.  You practice over and over again until it’s smooth and fast.  Did you see how long it took for that guy to actually start engaging the fighter?  By the time he started shooting from behind cover three guys could have filtered into … putting rounds in his chest.

The idea that a single individual in a team will clear the entire room is dumb.  So that basically means a team of 4 guys will clear the room 4 times. That’s what they need to do is clear an area and then more importantly keep that area covered and controlled.  So let’s say I am first in the door.  Everyone has to clear their front, but first guy always cleared left after the front is clear.

You clear your front by basically moving into the room – it is cleared by default.  So once the left is clear you keep side stepping left into the corner as you clear from left to right … the next guy is literally right on your ass behind you clearing his front by default and then immediately to his right.  Doing the same thing, side stepping to the right …

The next guy is going straight in forward.  You do it damn fast. This way you can get a entire fire team in a single room … I don’t know about you but 4 rifles is a lot better than one.

To which I replied this.

Okay, so in summary (a) they didn’t follow a protocol, (b) they didn’t act as a team, and (c) they didn’t go fast enough. But what if your family is in the structure, somewhere, you don’t know where, and there is a threat in the structure too, somewhere, you don’t know where, and you’re totally alone without a team?

Daniel.

Then you are forced to clear the whole house systematically room by room following a structured room clearing procedure and being consistent with it. Sometimes I had too [in Fallujah] because we were too spread out in different houses.  So you practice.  Main thing is If you can’t do it perfectly going at slow speeds, then how the hell are you going to do it fast? What I always told my Marines.  Even the hardcore team guys would practice the fundamentals at very slow and systematic speeds to fine tune.

Offered up for your edification.  He did it many, many times in Fallujah and lives to tell about it.

Breitbart:

The CT Post quoted Murphy saying:

In an era where anti-government positioning is a hallmark of the modern right, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that increasingly Republicans are absolutist in their views on the right of citizens to own guns. They want to preserve the right of revolution as a means of showing how much they truly hate the current government, administered by President Barack Obama.

Interestingly, Murphy has been bashing claims that gun rights are “God-given” for some time; this is not a new issue for him. In fact, when the Senate rejected new gun controls in the wake of the attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School, an angry Murphy reacted by assuring Second Amendment supporters that gun rights were not “God-given.” He told MSBNC’s Rachel Maddow, “The Second Amendment is not an absolute right, not a God-given right. It has always had conditions upon it like the First Amendment has.”

Breitbart is a strange animal indeed.  They have Milo Yiannopoulos as an editor, who wouldn’t have anything to do with claiming that rights of any sort are granted by God, but then they will post an article like this basing the right to own firearms on God’s law.  They can’t have it both ways.

It’s easy for me, and hard for them (or easy if they don’t care about logical consistency).  Murphy is confused, or simply a disbeliever in God.  God doesn’t simply grant the right of self defense to men, He commands it as a duty.  It is based on the Decalogue, and since that is based on His character, it is immutable.

The right of revolution doesn’t exists as some sort of perfunctory statement about how we feel about our current government, and Murphy is only saying that to insult men who believe in the second amendment.  The right of revolution is based on covenant law, eternal contracts, and the basis for this is to be found directly in the Holy writ.  It applies to all men, everywhere and in all times and epochs based on violations of agreements to live together under stipulations and within strict boundary conditions.  When the covenant is broken, it is no longer valid.

Newsmax:

Leading the troop of Republican lawmakers, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is inching towards a September showdown with the White House over transfer of internet control, according to The Hill.

“To stop the giveaway of our Internet freedom, Congress should act by continuing and by strengthening the appropriations rider in the continuing resolution that we will be considering this month,” said Cruz.

Cruz has already initiated a website warning about the dangers of the Obama administration’s strategy, Politico reports.

This fight with the current government could be a repeat of the 2013 Obamacare fight, according to The Hill, which threatened to plunge the federal government into a financial crisis after passage of the resolution.

The Texas lawmaker warned it can be dangerous if the U.S. ignored the internet powers it enjoyed as countries like Russia, China and Iran would take over. GOP lawmakers don’t want the Obama administration to surrender its authority to ICANN, the global nonprofit organization that manages the internet’s domain name system.

According to The Hill, few Republicans, however, prefer to stay away from the showdown. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, are not keen on pursuing the fight to retain internet power.

Go get ’em Ted.  And of course Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan aren’t interested in helping.  They are captains of a den of demons.

As far as I’m concerned, Ted should keep charging until the whole gang of the ne’er-do-wells are hung from the nearest lamp post on Pennsylvania Avenue.