New Zealand Mass Shooting

Random Shots

Mid-March saw another mass shooting, not in the United States or some third-world country, but in peaceful New Zealand. There, a lone gunman walked into two Mus-lim mosques in Christchurch—New Zea-land’s second largest city—and opened fire. By the time he finished, 49 people were dead—one later died in the hospital bringing the total deaths to 50—and almost that many were wounded. The event shocked residents of the small Pacific nation near Australia where violent crime is rare and gun control laws are strict. More people were murdered in this attack than typically occur in a year in the country. In 2015, there were just 8 people murdered with a gun. It was the deadliest attack in New Zealand’s history and the worst mass casualty crisis since an earthquake in 2011 killed 185 people.

In this case, the assailant was a 28-year-old avowed “neo-Nazi white supremacist” Aus-tralian citizen living in New Zealand. Minutes prior to the shooting, he issued a lengthy manifesto complaining about for-eigners taking over the country. He was complaining that New Zealand’s govern-ment policies were allowing too many for-eign refugees into the country and in the process, they were destroying country’s culture.

His attack was timed to coincide with mid-day prayer services at the two mosques. He live-streamed it on social media by using a body-mounted camera to record what he was doing. The video documenting the attacks lasted for over 15 minutes and shows the gunman had at least five long guns with him (but no handguns), large quantities of ammunition, and gasoline bombs.

In carrying out his attacks, the gunman used several semi-automatic rifles and shotguns—all legally obtained under New Zealand’s strict gun laws. As a result, New Zealand’s Prime Minister has said the nation will act to outlaw the private ownership of all semi-automatic firearms—a typical liberal re-sponse to such tragic events. There were also calls to allow more foreign refugees into the country and for the local rugby football team to change its name—the Crusaders—to one that was more sensitive to the reli-gious feelings of minorities. (The “Crusades” were a series of wars during the 11th, 12th, and 13th Centuries by European Christians to gain control of Jerusalem and other part of the Holy Land from the Mus-lims.)

New Zealand authorities had no inkling that such an event was about to take place. Ap-parently, they live in such a state of denial that they thought there was no need to col-lect “intelligence” on potential internal threats except those from radical Muslim groups. The gunman was not on any terror-ist watch-list and was unknown to law en-forcement officials. He had no prior crimi-nal history. As with many individuals in mass shooting events, he was a loner and was addicted to playing violent “first-shooter” video games.

After shooting up the first mosque, he got back into his car and drove to a second one about four miles away and renewed his at-tack. While traveling between the two loca-tions, he fired at pedestrians and other vehi-cles from his moving car and passed several police vehicles responding to the scene of the first attack. (Responding police officers were so focused on getting to the scene of the attack that they failed to notice the shot-out windshield and side windows of the gunman’s car as they passed it.) Forty-two people were killed at the first mosque and seven more at the second one. The attack ended when a caretaker at the second mosque rushed at the gunman and seized one of his guns. The gunman then fled from the scene. After a brief car chase, the police arrested him. They also discovered that his vehicle had been rigged with impro-vised explosive devices, but they failed to go off. From the time the police received word of the attack and began their response until the gunman was apprehended was approxi-mately 36 minutes.

Of course, liberal politicians in the United States took this opportunity to call for strict-er gun control laws here, including a ban on semi-automatic firearms.

Unlike in the United States, residents of New Zealand do not have any “constitutional right” to own or possess firearms. Yet, New Zealand is among the top 20 countries in the world when it comes to private ownership of firearms. To own a gun, New Zealanders must first obtain a license to legally purchase one, along with the ammunition it uses. Part of the process of obtaining the license includes undergoing a background check for prior criminal be-

May/June 2019 Volume 9, Issue 3

Edited and Published by

Gary Evens, Rangemaster and

NRA Certified Firearms Instructor &

Range Safety Officer

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to

keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed in Random Shots are those of the author(s), and

do not necessarily represent the positions of any other individual or

organization.

“Skill with a handgun is needed, but that skill is useless without an understanding of the dynamics of fighting, and the commitment to take control of one’s own fate.” — Tom Givens

havior, mental health issues, drug or alcohol abuse, or associations with potentially dan-gerous people. They must also complete a firearms safety class. The process of obtain-ing a license often extends for several months. After the license is issued, the indi-vidual may still require “special endorse-ments” from local law enforcement officials to be able to purchase a handgun or certain semi-automatic rifles, such as AR-15 style “assault rifles”. Licenses must be renewed every 10 years and can be revoked by the police if the individual is no longer deemed to be fit to own a firearm or is a potential threat. The firearms themselves are not registered, but there are strict rules for stor-ing them. In the case of handguns, they must be stored at a gun club, not in the owner’s residence. They can only be used at authorized gun clubs or shooting events sponsored by gun clubs. The only time a handgun can be removed from the gun club is when it is being transported to another gun club for an event. Rifles and shotguns may be stored in the owner’s home, but the police have the right to periodically inspect the home to ensure the guns are being properly stored in some cases.

Once again, this attack follows a familiar pattern. The gunman was a loner who had grievances against the group he attacked. (In this case he felt they were a racial minor-ity and were ruining his culture.) He ob-tained his firearms legally. Authorities were unaware of the impending attack. No armed security was present at the site(s) of the attack.

The gunman’s decision to move to the sec-ond mosque to continue his attack confused the police response to this incident. There was no police presence at either location prior to or during the attacks and the mosques had no one providing security to worshipers. His attack on the first mosque lasted for about six minutes and he was long gone by the time the police arrived.

The lessons learned from this attack are eerily similar to those from previous attacks:

• You cannot depend on the police to protect you! They won’t be there when the attack starts and it is most likely they won’t arrive until it is long over. The only one you can depend on to protect you is yourself, so get training so you can do it.

• Cowering in a corner will not protect you from the gunman’s bullets! While it might be an instinctual reaction to freeze in place, doing so won’t help for very long. If you have any hope of surviving you must become invisible to the gunman and that means you have to be somewhere that he cannot see you, and preferably where his bullets cannot reach you, and usually that means you need to move and do it right now!

• Doing nothing will not save you or anyone else! Do something unex-pected. Make the gunman change his plan. Action is always faster than reac-tion. Instead of running away, consider running towards the attacker—with the help of everyone else with you. Some of you might be shot, but others will likely be able to get to the gunman and grapple with him, stopping his attack.

• There are no “gun free” zones just be-cause a sign is posted! Only law abid-ing citizens obey signs and laws.

The media in the United States jumped on the opportunity to blame President Trump for the actions of the gunman in New Zea-land because he was mentioned in the kill-er’s manifesto. They continued to provide extensive coverage to this event even after a suspected terrorist attack in the Netherlands resulted in a Turkish immigrant killing three people and wounding nine others—barely mentioned in media reports—and after a terrorist group in Nigeria killed 50 Christian villagers—no mention at all. This is further evidence of the media’s strong anti-Trump bias and their continuing anti-gun agenda.

As I have said before, you cannot depend on others to protect you. You can only depend on yourself!

-- G.R. Evens

Every gun, but especially those chambered for the .22 Long Rifle (LR) cartridge, seems to have a preference for a certain type of ammunition. And, the preference is often different between individual guns even if they are of the same make and model. Since I have been struggling with the accuracy of my .22-caliber target pistols, I decided that

maybe it was time to do a little ammunition testing, but could I find enough different brands to do this?

In the past, it was not uncommon for own-ers of .22-caliber guns to buy several differ-ent brands of ammunition and shoot them to determine which was the most reliable and accurate, but all of that changed starting in late 2012, following the Sandy Hook trag-edy. A “perfect storm” occurred as a result of calls by liberals for increased gun control laws following President Obama’s re-election to his second term, and more peo-ple buying guns out of concern that they might not be able to get what they wanted in the future. With the surge in firearms pur-chases, people also bought up the ammuni-tion for them (and for the guns they already had). Supply could not keep up with de-mand and within a few short months the shelves at many firearms retailers were emp-ty of the most popular calibers of ammuni-tion—the “Great Ammunition Drought” had begun.

Ammunition manufacturers ramped up to full production capacity, running their plants 24/7 and they still seemed to be unable to meet the demand. As a result, the price of ammunition increased sharply. I can re-member paying less than $10 per 50-round box of 9mm Luger range/training ammuni-tion and $18-$20 for a “brick” (300-500 rounds) of .22 Long Rifle ammunition be-fore the shortages started to occur. Sudden-ly the price of 9mm ammo had easily dou-bled or tripled. “Bricks” of .22 ammunition were selling for upwards of $100 each. Whereas retailers had many different brands and loadings to chose from before the drought began, now they were lucky to have a single brand in stock in a single loading.

Since they could not keep up with demand, ammunition manufacturers began to expand their production facilities and build new ammunition plants. However, it would be a couple of years before this new production capacity was available. In the meantime, new companies entered the American ammuni-tion market, including some foreign manu-facturers. To reduce the hording that was occurring, retailers began implementing rationing to limit the amount of ammunition that anyone could purchase at one time. By the latter part of 2013, stocks of the com-mon self-defense ammunition began to re-appear on retail shelves, but prices remained high and the range of selections was limited. Rimfire .22 LR ammunition remained in

Page 2 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 3

short supply despite the fact that millions of rounds were being produced each day.

The retail price for ammunition slowly be-gan to return to pre-drought levels as the new production once again filled retailer shelves. Starting in 2016, I began seeing commercially reloaded/remanufactured 9mm ammunition being sold at the pre-shortage prices for newly manufactured ammunition, and it was really in 2017 when newly manufactured ammunition also began selling for pre-drought prices.

I began participating in the Greene County Fish and Game Association’s weekly (during the Spring and Summer) NDR League in 2014, and .22 Long Rifle ammunition was still hard to find. I would need 750-1,000 rounds to be able to compete each year. That first year I had to rely on what I could find—40 grain CCI Standard Velocity Tar-get, 40 grain Lapua Standard Plus, and 36 grain Remington High Velocity ammuni-tion—to get through the season and “feed” my High Standard Supermatic Military Cita-tion target pistol. For the next year—2015—I had to settle for using my remain-ing supply of the CCI Standard Velocity and Lapua Standard Plus ammunition—I had shot up all of my Remington .22 ammo. Finding a consistent supply of .22 LR am-munition was still difficult. However, late that year—after the NDR League had con-cluded—I began to see 300-round “bricks” of CCI’s 36 gain Mini-Mag “Troy Landry” Signature Edition ammunition starting to appear at some of the local retailers that I frequented. I was still limited to purchasing just one “brick” at a time, but I started buy-ing one every time I saw them in a store. Eventually I had acquired enough to get me through the 2016 NDR season. I repeated this process for 2017, but I no longer had to just buy one “brick” at a time as rationing was eliminated.

Frankly, I don’t know if the CCI ammo was the most accurate in the guns I used for the league shoots—my High Standard and a Ruger Mark III Hunter that I acquired in 2015—but it was what I could find. I fig-ured if I used the same brand/loading each time, at least I would have more consistent accuracy than I would if I switched to a different brand of ammunition for each shoot as I had been forced to do that first year.

It wasn’t until mid-2018 before I saw the retailers’ stockpile of .22 LR ammunition

returning to pre-draught levels and a lower-ing of prices. Now I would have an oppor-tunity to find a brand/loading that was not only plentiful, but also that resulted in the best accuracy in my guns. In future articles I’ll tell you how that quest goes.

-- G.R. Evens

First Impressions

The Colt Single-Action Army

Ever since I started competing in Cowboy Action Shooting, I had dreamed of owning a genuine Colt Single-Action Army (SAA) revolver. Not just any one, but specifically one with a 4–inch barrel and chambered in .45 Colt caliber—aka the “gunfighter” model.

The SAA was first introduced in 1873, and over the years, it has also been known as the “Peacemaker”, the “Colt .45”, the “Model 1873”, and the “Model P” (the official Colt model designation). When it was intro-duced, the Colt SAA was chambered for the .45 Colt (aka “Long Colt”) cartridge and had a 7–inch barrel. First issued to the U.S. Army’s cavalry regiments in the western part of the country, this model became generical-ly known as the “cavalry” model. It re-mained the standard issue handgun of the U.S. military until 1892, when it was re-placed with a .38-caliber double-action Colt revolver. Many of the Army’s Colt SAA’s were modified with shorter 5-inch barrels and remained in use until 1902.

At first, it was difficult for civilians to get one of the new Colt revolvers as the entire manufacturing capacity was dedicated to filling military orders. As those orders were

filled, production could be more focused on filling civilian demand. They were very pop-ular in the West and became the most com-mon handgun found in the holsters of cow-boys and townsfolks.

Over the years, Colts with various barrel lengths were named:

• Cavalry Model: 7-inch barrel.

• Artillery Model: 5-inch barrel. Colt began offering this barrel length in 1875.

• Gunfighter Model: 4-inch barrel. Colt began offering this barrel length in 1879 and it has become the most popu-lar option.

• Buntline Special: 8 to 12-inch (and longer) barrel.

• Sheriff’s/Banker’s/Storekeeper Model: sub 4-inch barrel.

• Bisley Model: Special grip frame. Colt started offering this version in 1894.

• New Frontier Model: Adjustable sight version of the SAA introduced in 1961.

The Colt SAA has been in production since 1873 and chambered for over 30 different cartridges, with .45 Colt, .44-40, .38-40, and .32-20 being the most popular chamber-ings (with the .38 Special, .357 Magnum, and .44 Special also becoming popular op-tions during the 20th Century). Various modifications were made along the way. The spring-loaded cylinder base pin latch was introduced in 1896 and is probably the biggest cosmetic change that has been made to the gun other than the use of different grip materials and different barrel lengths.

Colt’s production of SAAs has been divided into three different “generations” with “1st Generation” guns being made from 1873-1941, “2nd Generation” guns from 1956-1974, and “3rd Generation” guns—the cur-rent production models—being made since 1976. Since about 2010, SAA’s have been only made in Colt’s Custom Shop.

Page 3 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 3

When I first started competing in Cowboy Action Shooting, I used a clone of the Colt cavalry model made by Uberti and a 5-inch Ruger Bisley-Vaquero, both chambered in .45 Colt. However, I decided to change calibers—most competitors were using guns chambered in .38 Special/.357 Magnum—which had a milder recoil. Doing so would also be cheaper since it would cost less to reload .38 Special ammunition than it did for .45 Colt ammunition. As a result, I bought a regular Ruger Vaquero with a 4-inch barrel and another Colt SAA clone with a 5-inch barrel, both chambered in .357 Magnum. When Ruger came out with their New Model Vaquero single-action revolvers, I bought two of them—both with 5-inch barrels and sold my 5-inch Colt clone, and older model Ruger Vaquero and Bisley-Vaquero. I kept the Cavalry Model clone.

I have looked for a Colt SAA “gunfighter” model for several years. The ones that I found were either older ones that had be-come collector’s pieces (and were very ex-pensive), or were in calibers that I was not interested in. Finally in late 2018, I found one at a meeting of the Ohio Gun Collec-tors’ Association in my preferred caliber of .45 Colt. The individual that was selling it was asking more than I had wanted to pay, but the cost of all Colt SAA’s had been steadily increasing—well north of $1,000—and the chances of finding a new-production one were very remote. I decided to bite the bullet and get this one since it looked almost new. It is an early “3rd Gen-eration” model (made in 1977). It has a blue steel cylinder and barrel, a color casehard-ened frame, black “eagle” rubber grips, and is in very good condition with only a few tiny marks on the cylinder indicating any wear.

To me, the “gunfighter” model has the best balance in the hand of any of the various configurations of the Colt SAA. While I do not intend to shoot this gun a lot, I couldn’t resist getting to the range to see how it shot. The accompany target shows how it went when shooting from 7 yards.

For the first five shots, I used “.45 Short” (i.e. .45 S&W/Schofield) reloaded cartridges—they are interchangeable with the .45 Colt cartridge in the SAA—and I shot with a one-hand grip. These were very mild reloads that I had made and felt recoil was comparable to shooting .22 Long Rifle ammunition in my target pistols. Three of my hits were in the black bullseye and two

were off to the right (see the holes in the target indicated with a blue circle around them). Next I switched to a two-handed grip and .45 Colt reloads. The three shots, indicated with blue squares around the holes, were mostly in the black bullseye. I finished off my range session with five shots of commercially-loaded .45 Colt “cowboy” loads, all shot with a two-handed grip. All of these hit within the black bullseye. I con-sider this accuracy pretty good given the rather primitive fixed sights that come on Colt SAA revolvers and their tendency to shoot to the left of the point of aim.

I am very pleased with my Colt SAA. Is it a viable self-defense handgun? While it might be slow to reload, this gun has certainly proved itself in many gunfights in the 19th Century. While there are more modern designs with higher ammunition capacities and faster reloading, I won’t consider myself at a disadvantage with my SAA should that be what I have available at the time I need a gun to defend myself

-- G.R. Evens

My Ruger Obsession

Part IV: The Ruger Mark IV Competition Pistol

When I was first considering acquiring a Ruger Mark IV pistol, I had a hard time choosing between the Target Model and the Competition Model with its longer barrel and target grips. As I mentioned in the last edition of Random Shots, in the end it came down to price—the Competition model cost

almost $100 more than the Target Model did. I do not regret the decision, but a few weeks after I bought the Target Model I found a Competition Model on sale at a price I couldn’t ignore, so I bought it.

The Ruger Mark IV Competition Model is at the top of Ruger’s line of Mark-series semi-automatic pistols. It comes in stainless-steel only with a 6.88-inch slab-sided bull barrel and adjustable sights. It also comes equipped with walnut target grips that fea-ture a thumb rest on the left grip panel. The gun’s overall length comes in at 11.12 inch-es, the height is 5.5 inches, and the width is 1.75 inches (due to the thumb rest on the target grips). The trigger pull weight out of the box—as measured on my Lyman digital trigger pull gauge—was an average of 4 lbs., 2.7 oz. (As I found with my Mark IV Tar-get Model, that is a little heavy for a pistol intended for precision target shooting.) The weight is 45.8 oz. (empty). The barrel rifling has 6 grooves with a 1:16 right-hand twist. It comes with two 10-round maga-zines. MSRP for the Competition Model is $749, but I was able to get mine for about $120 less.

The Competition Model is very similar to Ruger’s Mark IV Hunter Model—as previ-ously mentioned, I have a Mark III Hunter Model—with the main differences being the Hunter Model’s barrel is fluted rather than slab-sided, and it has a shallow “V”-notch rear sight blade and fiber-optic front sight. It is available with target grips but of a dif-ferent design than those that come on the Competition Model. The Hunter Model is more popular than the Competition Mod-el—probably because it is viewed as more of a recreational/hunting pistol—and is priced about $20 higher in Ruger’s catalog.

Because of the issues I had with my Mark IV Target Model, I measured the trigger pull weight on the Competition Model as soon as I got it home and found it to be about the same as what I found initially on my Target Model. Knowing this, I still headed out to the range to see how it would shoot. I took my modified Target Model along to do some comparisons between the two guns.

I started my shooting at the 7-yard range using my standard sighting-in target and shooting from a pistol rest. The bottom edge of the center 1-inch black square was my point of aim. Once again, I used Feder-al’s American Eagle 40 grain solid high ve-locity .22 Long Rifle ammunition. The re-

Page 4 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 3

sults of my first five shorts were disappoint-ing. Only four out of the five hit the piece of paper (see the accompanying photo).

Wow! Was this a fluke or was this gun a terrible shooter? I decided to fire another five shots to see what would happen. My next group was better—about 1.25 inches wide by just over 0.5 inches tall—but about 3 inches to the right of my point of aim. Now it was time to start “dialing in” the sights.

Unlike when I first went to the range to sight-in my Target Model, I did remember to take along the user manual, but the in-structions for adjusting the sights were not that helpful. It only said to turn the windage adjustment screw clockwise to move my hits to the left and move the elevation adjust-ment screw clockwise to move my hits low-er. The manual did not indicate how far each “click” of adjustment would move the hits, so once again I had to guess. I put in six “clicks” of clockwise windage adjustment and fired another five shots. These five shots were all over the place like my first group had been. I put in another four “clicks” of clockwise adjustment and those five shots went into a nice tight group, but they were in the same place as my second group was, about 3 inches to the right of my point of aim. I put in some more clockwise adjustment and got virtually the same result with my fifth 5-shot group. What was going on here? I then remembered that I had some difficulty getting my Target Model’s windage to adjust when I first shot it so I decided to run the adjustment screw as far to the left as it would go and then bring it back a few clicks to see what would happen.

Now I shifted my point of aim to the upper left black square and fired another group. This group was centered about 2.5 inches to the right of my point of aim while the eleva-tion was just slightly below my point of aim.

Two more adjustments and I managed to “march” my group to the left finally, ending up hitting about an inch below my point of aim and slightly to the right of it (see the accompanying photo). Now I just needed to make an elevation adjustment to get my hits going where I wanted them to.

It was at this point that I discovered Ruger had changed the type of screw used for ele-vation adjustments. Instead of being a slot-ted-head like the windage and elevation ad-justment screws on my Target Model, the Competition Model’s elevation adjustment screw required a small Allen-wrench to turn it and of course I did not have one of the proper size with me.

I continued shooting and the resulting group sizes continued to be larger than what I expected from Ruger’s top-of-the-line target pistol. I wondered if the heavy trigger pull was affecting this, so I decided to do something novel. I switched grip frames between my Target Model and Competition Model pistols—yes they are interchangeable. I had modified my Target Model by in-stalling a Volquartsen Accuracy Kit in it to improve the trigger pull weight and I wanted to see if a better trigger would improve my accuracy. My group size was smaller—about 1 inch by 0.5 inches, with three hits in the lower right quadrant of the 1-inch bull-seye—and just slightly right of where I wanted them to be without making any ele-

vation adjustments to the sights which were mounted to the pistol’s receiver (see the accompanying photo). How could this be? I expected the group size to shrink because of the better trigger pull weight, but this didn’t explain why the elevation of the group improved so much—unless of course the heavier trigger pull with the original Competition Model frame meant I was also pulling down on the grip by tightening the lower fingers on my shooting hand as I pulled the trigger. But I was using a pistol rest so this shouldn’t be a factor.

I decided to do some more experimenting. I put up a different target and fired a 5-shot group at the bullseye using the modified grip frame from my Target Model on the Com-petition Model and then another five shots using the original grip frame that came with the Competition Model on a separate bull-seye. The following photo shows the re-sults. My point of aim was the bottom edge of each bullseye—which was about 0.875 inches in diameter—on each target. With the modified grip frame installed, my group measured about 0.5-inch by 0.25-inch and all my hits were in the bullseye just above my point of aim (like it should be if the sights are adjusted for a 6 o’clock hold in target shooting). With the unmodified grip installed, my hits were low and to the right, with one hit being 2.25 inches from the cen-ter of the bullseye, and the group size was 1.63-inch by 0.75-inch. (I repeated the ex-periment, this time with my Target Model, and got similar results—my group using the grip frame with the Volquartsen trigger was smaller.)

Some of the variation in my group sizes

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Arrows

indicate

Points of

Aim

Mark IV Competition Model

Modified Grip Frame

Unmodified Grip

Frame

Point of

Aim

Point of Aim

must be attributed to how steadily I was able to hold my pistols as I supported the front of the grip frame on my pistol rest, and because of the different contours of the grips—and thus the way my hands held the guns. The fact that these guns are relatively new with only about 100 rounds fired through their barrels may also account for some of their initial inaccuracy. Still, I con-sider the accuracy improvement with the Volquartsen Accuracy Kit significant in a pistol intended for bullseye target shooting and as a result I will be installing one on the Mark IV Competition Model.

The Ruger Mark IV Competition Model is not for everyone. Someone looking for a general purpose and accurate pistol would probably be better served by getting a Mark IV Hunter Model or one of the other mod-els Ruger makes. However, if you are into target shooting and can afford to make the modifications necessary to maximize the accuracy, the Competition Model might be just what you need.

-- G.R. Evens

Have you thought about how far you are willing to go to protect yourself from harm should you be confronted by a criminal as-sault? A couple of months ago I read a short artic le by Greg Ell ifr itz ( w w w . a c t i v e r e s p o n s e t r a i n i n g . n e t /boundaries) on this topic and it caused me to consider what I would be willing to allow a criminal to do to me.

Greg’s post is based on an event that hap-pened in late November 2018, in St. Louis, Missouri. A 53-year-old man there is ac-cused of walking into a Catholic Supply store and assaulting the occupants. He or-dered three females into the store’s back room at gunpoint and told them to undress. He then ordered the women to perform sex acts on each other and on him. When one of them refused, he shot and killed her.

The murdered woman had set a boundary that she was unwilling to cross. The other two women had a different boundary and they lived through the encounter by doing what the criminal demanded.

Ellifritz goes on to explain that criminals often try to place their victims in a situation where they fear for their lives and are also helpless to resist. Making them undress is one way of doing this. (The Nazis used this strategy frequently and as a result millions of Jews and other minority groups went to their deaths without resisting during World War II.)

Greg states that he would not allow some-one to force him to undress, not because he “would be embarrassed to be seen in my birthday suit”, but because it limits his op-tions to respond. For instance, with his pants down around his ankles, his ability to move and escape become very limited. If he is carrying a concealed firearm, it would likely be discovered when he takes his clothes off.

Where would you “draw the line” when it comes to complying with a criminal’s de-mands? Would you take your clothes off? How about:

• Giving up your wallet?

• Giving up your cell phone?

• Giving up any weapons you may have?

• Giving up your car keys?

• Your car?

• What if your child is in the car?

• Getting into a car with them?

• Getting into the trunk of a car?

• Being tied up, gagged, or restrained?

• Being directed to go into separate rooms based on your sex (or race, na-tionality, religion, etc.)?

• Performing a sex act?

Good things seldom happen when a crimi-nal attempts to move you to another loca-tion. They do this to give them more time to do what they want to with you and that usually does not work out in your favor. The FBI indicates that resistance is often better than complying with a criminal’s de-mands in such situations.

When confronted by a criminal assault, each of you will need to decide just how far you are willing to let a criminal go with you.

Your boundaries will probably be different than those of everyone else. It would be better if you had thought about this ahead of time and decide what you are willing or not willing to do and then what actions you will take when you are confronted with that boundary.

-- G.R. Evens

Part III: Clearing Hallways and Corners

Most structures have interior walls and cor-ners to demark various rooms. The walls may form a hallway that you will need to move down to get to other areas in the building. As you move down a hallway, you will be exposed and will have very little in the way of obstacles to hide behind should you suddenly be confronted by a threat. If the hallway has several rooms opening off it, each of those rooms could hide a potential threat that could attack you. If the doors are closed, you might be able to pass by the rooms more freely because someone inside of one of them will not be able to observe you—assuming the doors are solid like they are in most homes. If one or more of the doors are open or have a window in it, you will need to take more care as you move down the hallway.

If you see an open door, you should move towards the opposite wall so you will have a

Page 6 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 3

better view into the room as you approach it. If there are multiple doors open on op-posite sides of the hallway, you will want to move in a weaving pattern, so you are as far away from the open door as possible as you approach it. If the open doors are opposite each other, you will need to modify your tactics by moving close to one wall so you can see into the room across from where you are, and then move to the other wall to see into the other room. As you pass by an open door you will want to look into the room for threats as you move past it until you can no longer be observed by someone in that room. At the same time, you must continue to look ahead of you to make sure a threat doesn’t appear there, and occasion-ally behind you in case a threat approaches you from the rear. That is an awful lot to have to do all at once. No wonder search-ing through a building for threats is a high stress situation!

When approaching a corner, your view into the area ahead of you will be limited. You need to be careful to not expose too much of your body to potential attack from an intruder as you approach the corner, so you need to do so carefully. The images below should give you some idea of the dilemma you will face.

As you are about to move around a corner you should start as close to the wall nearest to the corner as possible and slowly step to the side away from that wall to expose a little more of the area ahead of you. (See the image below). This process is known as “pie-ing the corner”, i.e. moving so that you

see the area you are about to move into a little “slice” at a time.

If you are working with a partner, the sec-ond individual should observe the area be-hind you as you “pie the corner” so no one can approach you undetected from the rear.

When approaching the corner, you want to make sure that you do not extend your fire-arm in front of you so that it sticks out past the corner before you can see what is imme-diately around that corner. This could alert the intruder that you are coming, or it may enable them to grab your gun before you can see them.

If the corner you are approaching is part of

a “T” intersection of hallways, you will have

the challenge of clearing things in two dif-

ferent directions to the extent possible be-

fore moving out into the other hallway.

Once again you will want to “pie the cor-

ner”. You should clear the hallway in the

direction you do not expect to find a threat

first.

If you are working alone, you should clear the area in one direction and then move to the opposite wall in the hallway you are in and clear the area in the other direction. The problem is that you will not be able to entirely clear the area in one direction with-out exposing part of your body to being viewed from the other direction. At some point you will have to commit to enter the intersecting hallway to clear the remaining area. When you do, you need to remember

to periodically look behind you to make sure it remains clear of threats.

If you are working with a partner, one of you can clear the intersection in one direc-tion while the other does it in the other di-rection. If you do this, you need to be care-ful that neither of you point your muzzles at the other. Your partner can also keep an eye on the area to your rear as you move ahead in the desired direction.

The materials that make up the structure of the walls may or may not protect you from bullets fired in your direction by an intruder. Fortunately, the vast majority of people are reluctant to shoot at something they cannot see, so even if the walls won’t protect you, as long as you are being as quiet as possible you may be able to see the intruder before they are aware of your presence.

If you think other family members are in danger, you will want to rush to their aid. However, as you move towards them you need to do so carefully and methodically so that you can reach them safety and not be-come a victim of the intruder. This means you will need to move slowly to make sure the areas behind you are free from threats. It is much easier to do this if you have someone helping you by keeping an eye on the area behind you, but you will probably not have this option available to you.

Moving down hallways and around corners in the process of searching a building is stress-inducing, but it needs to be done. In the next article I’ll deal with the tactics in-volved in entering and clearing rooms within a structure. Until then, be safe!

-- G.R. Evens

What is the Best Handgun for Self Defense?

Page 7 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 3

Grant Cunningham is a top-tier firearms instructor and author. I have been reading one of his books, Defensive Pistol Fundamen-tals, and in it he presents some very thought-provoking concepts regarding the nature of the threat we should be preparing for and the equipment we should use if we are really concerned about protecting ourselves from a violent attack.

Grant feels that the vast majority of con-cealed carry training and self-defense hand-gun classes ill-prepare students to face the most likely threats that they may be con-fronted with. He feels that most handgun training, once you get beyond the basic fun-damentals, focus on helping you to prepare for an attack by emphasizing the importance of situational awareness to recognize an impending attack and on developing a plan to respond to that attack. However, he points out that the majority of attacks occur suddenly and without warning. Either your “situational awareness” has failed or your assailant was able to hide their intentions until the moment of their attack. As such, you will not be able to prepare yourself by attempting to escape, to de-escalate the situ-ation, or draw your handgun and assume a proper shooting stance before the first blows are delivered. Instead, you will have to depend on your instincts and on automat-ic responses to the attack because your brain will be too occupied with trying to figure out what is going on to be able to come up with a plan for how you should react. Your conscious self will be in a “freeze” state, and you must depend on your instinctive reac-tions to protect you from harm. Indeed, he states that, “Your body’s natural and instinc-tive reactions, happening as they do without cognitive thought, will be your first indica-tion that something is wrong.”

I don’t disagree with Grant’s thoughts on this. However, before someone can move on to the advanced skills that he advocates, they must learn the fundamentals, not just shooting skills. Situational awareness is important to understand, and while it won’t help you anticipate all attacks, it will help with some. Learning all of the necessary self-defense skills take much longer than can be taught in a 1 or 2 day shooting class. (This is the main reason I have divided my ad-vanced concealed carry training into four separate classes taught over a period of sev-eral months, with the first class being the foundation upon which the subsequent clas-ses are built.) One reason for this is that

many of the skills must become instinctual. In order for an action to become instinctual, it must be practiced hundreds (or thou-sands) of times so that you can perform it automatically without conscious thought. That means to prepare to defend yourself with a handgun, you can’t just take a class or two, but you must devote a lot of time prac-ticing the skills you learned in the class until you can perform them without thinking about them. Very few people will do that, and thus they will have to depend on luck more than skills to protect themselves dur-ing a violent encounter.

Some people think that they can compen-sate for a lack of skills by shooting fast. Grant feels this is a big mistake. Instead of shooting fast, individuals should be con-cerned about being efficient. He defines efficiency as making the best use of the “resources” you have available to you to achieve a specific goal.

While you are being attacked, your assailant will be inflicting damage on you, potentially to the point of ending your life. In such a situation, your goal is to get your assailant to stop their attack as quickly as possible. You will need to use the resources available to you to make them stop their attack. Those “resources” consist of:

• Time

• Distance

• Your strength and energy

• The environment around you

• Any weapons that are available to you

• If you have a gun, the amount of am-munition you have in that gun

Unfortunately, you will not have control over some of these. By picking the time and place of their attack, your assailant will con-trol the environment around you, how much distance there is between you and them, and how much time you have to respond to the attack. Most surprise attacks take place within two to five yards of the victim and happen so fast the victim does not have time to react before the first blows strike, they see the barrel of a gun pointed at their face, or they feel a knife at their throat.

You can train to increase your strength and be well-rested to maximize your energy, but while the attack is taking place both will steadily be declining. If your assailant chooses to attack you late in the day, your

energy levels will be much less than when you first awoke that day. If they attack you along your favorite jogging trail, your strength and energy will be reduced from what it was when you started your run.

You can choose if you have a weapon to defend yourself and, if it is a gun, how much ammunition you have—but this will be largely dictated by the gun you have with you.

If your response to the attack is to shoot fast, you will likely be wasting resources. Any rounds you fire that miss a vital area on your assailant will not do anything towards helping you achieve your goal of ending the attack and each missed shot takes time that you cannot get back. Instead, you will want to be as efficient as possible, using as few of your “resources” as necessary to achieve your goal. In turn this will end the attack sooner and so it will be fast.

If you are carrying a handgun, you will not want to run out of ammunition before you can end the fight. While you may choose to carry one or more reloads for your hand-gun—and I highly recommend that you do—you may not have time to accomplish a reload during the fight. Therefore you will want a gun that carries as much ammunition as possible. This means a high-capacity semi-automatic pistol. Revolvers are just too ammunition-limited to be a serious choice as a primary self-defense firearm. (Carrying a revolver as a back-up to your primary gun is fine, but very few armed citi-zens will do this.)

Being efficient, also means keeping things as simple as possible, so you will want your pistol to be as simple to operate so you can do it instinctively and not have to think about it. To keep it simple, you will want a pistol that has the minimum required oper-ating controls and nothing more. That means it must have a trigger, a magazine release button, and a slide lock. Thumb and grip safeties are just extra controls that you have to operate in a time of crisis and may require the use of fine motor skills that you will lose almost as soon as the fight starts. (Safeties that are incorporated into the act of pulling the trigger are fine.) Magazine dis-connect safeties are also a complicating fac-tor that you can do without. And, you will want to have a round in the chamber be-cause you won’t have time to put one there while the attack is underway.

Your pistol needs to be large enough for

Page 8 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 3

you to be able to get a good grip on it and point it instinctively towards the threat. It must fit your hand properly. (That is the subject for an entirely different article.) It needs to be chambered for ammunition that is capable of stopping the threat with the least number of rounds fired.

These factors go a long way towards nar-rowing your choices for a self-defense pis-tol. Basically what you are left with is a striker-fired pistol, chambered in 9mm Lu-ger. (I recommend 9mm Luger because its recoil is easier to manage and guns cham-bered for this caliber typically have a one or two round capacity advantage over the same gun chambered in .40 S&W. Additionally, the ballistics performance in real-world gun-fights is essentially identical between the 9mm Luger, the .40 S&W, and the .45 ACP cartridges.) Striker-fired guns have a more consistent trigger pull from shot-to-shot and are less complicated to operate than other styles of semi-automatic pistols are—and they require less training time (and ammuni-tion expenditure) for you to become profi-cient with them.

Appropriate guns would be the high-capacity (15 or more rounds of ammunition) Glock Model 17 or 19, the S&W M&P9 full-size or compact models (not the Shield be-cause of their limited ammunition capacity), or the Sig Sauer P320. The grip sizes on all three manufacturers’ guns can be adjusted to better fit the shooter’s hand size, with the M&P probably offering the greatest range of flexibility. However, some people with small hands may find that a high-capacity pistol is too large for their hands and they may have to settle for a single-stack version of the gun with its smaller ammunition capacity (i.e. the S&W M&P Shield, the Glock 43/43X/48, or the Sig Sauer P365). Realize, however, that felt recoil will be greater with a single-stack gun than it is with a double-stack one from the same manufacturer and chambered in the same caliber.

The Glock 19 or S&W M&P M2.0 Compact (4-inch barrel) would be excellent choices and are a good compromise over the full-size guns for concealed carry and have bet-ter ammunition capacity that their sub-compact versions. Their shorter grip frame makes them easier to conceal than the full-size versions, while their longer sight radius over their sub-compact counterparts means you are able to more precisely place your shots on the target, especially at longer dis-tances. (While I have shot the Sig P320, I

have not done it enough to make a recom-mendation one way or the other for that particular gun. Additionally, with the P320, rather than replaceable backstraps to change the size of the grip, entirely different sized grip frames, which must be separately pur-chased, are used to change the size of the Sig’s grip.)

Glocks and M&Ps are very popular choices among civilians and law enforcement, and the U.S. military has selected the Sig P320 as the replacement for the Beretta M9 and Sig M11 (P228) and P226 pistols that have been in use since the mid-1980’s. While there are other pistols that meet the basic criteria out-lined above, such as those from FN, Wal-ther, Steyer, etc., Glocks and M&Ps are much more widely available, easier to main-tain, and have greater parts availability than other manufacturers’ models.

My current personal choice for concealed carry is an M&P M2.0 Compact pistol in 9mm Luger, although the Glock 19 and 48 are also strong contenders.

-- G.R. Evens

HB 228 and “Shockwave

Fix” Become Law

In early March, newly-elected Ohio Gover-nor Mike DeWine signed House Bill (HB) 86 into law. The purpose of this emergency legislation was to correct a drafting error when HB 228 was enacted over then-Governor Kasich’s veto at the end of 2018. Prior to his signing it, HB 86 was approved in the Ohio House by a vote of 75 to 20, and in the Ohio Senate by 23 to 9.

HB 228 included several improvements to Ohio’s firearms laws. One of the intended improvements was to bring Ohio into line with Federal and other states’ laws regarding what is considered “dangerous ordnance”, specifically the legal length of “sawed-off”

shotgun barrels when they are exempted from the National Firearms Act of 1934. The way Ohio’s law previously read, the “Shockwave”-style short shotguns that are not shotguns were illegal because they did not meet the state’s overall length require-ment. One of the provisions in HB 228 was designed to correct this, but a drafting error resulted in the wording being placed in the wrong section of Ohio’s firearms law. This error was interpreted by some as making it possible to ban some rifles and shotguns that had previously been legal in Ohio. Un-fortunately, the error was not discovered before the General Assembly adjourned at the end of 2018. To correct this error, the new General Assembly had to pass legisla-tion to reflect the legislature’s original intent.

The provisions approved in HB 228 took effect on March 28, as did the “fix” ap-proved in HB 86. The improvements made by HB 228 and HB 86 include:

• Shifting the burden of proof from the defendant to the prosecutor when a claim of self-defense is made. Under the previous version of Ohio’s law, the defendant had to prove that they acted in self-defense. Now the prosecutor must prove that the defendant did not act in self-defense. Ohio was the only state to place the burden of proof on the defendant in self-defense cases, in effect making the defendant guilty until proven innocent rather than the other way around.

• Removes the requirement for concealed

carry holders to carry a second form of identification in addition to their con-cealed handgun license (CHL).

• Strengthens “preemption” provisions in Ohio law to prevent local governments from passing their own gun laws.

• Eliminates the requirement to post “no guns” signs in locations that have au-thorized the carrying of firearms. It also requires churches to place “no guns” signs on their buildings if they do not allow firearms.

• Aligns the definition of what a “shotgun” is with Federal law.

• Strengthens Ohio law regarding the prosecution of individuals making “straw purchases” of guns for convict-ed felons.

Page 9 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 3

• It expands the definition of “law en-forcement officer” to include correc-tions officers and others and it expands the places where law enforcement offic-ers are allowed to carry their firearms when they are off duty.

-- G.R. Evens

Glock 48 Update In the last edition of Random Shots, I wrote about the introduction of the Glock 43X and 48 and a more extensive “first impres-sions” review of the G48 that I bought. Since then I’ve done some more testing with the gun, as well as made a couple of modifi-cations.

As I previously noted, the Glock 48 is, in effect, a slim version of the Glock 19, which is the most popular semi-automatic 9mm pistol in the world. Along with being slim-mer, it has a reduced magazine capacity—10 rounds vs. 15 rounds in the G19. The G48’s (and G43X’s) 10+1 round capacity is the same as the sub-compact Glock 26 and four more rounds than the slimline equiva-lent to the G26, the Glock 43.

So, where does the G48 fit in as a self-defense handgun? From my perspective, the thinner profile of the G48 has definite

advantages when it comes to concealability. It is also about 6 ounces lighter in weight when fully loaded compared to the G19. The longer grip on the G43X/48 also makes it easier to hold than the shorter grips on the G26 and G43. The longer slide on the G48 gives it a greater sight radius than is available on the G43/43X/26, making it slightly easi-er to get more accurate hits on the target.

In shooting the G48, it’s felt recoil does not appear to be that much different from the felt recoil of the G19, despite having a much narrower grip width. I did find that the narrow grip on the G48 was a little small for my hand when shooting it, resulting in the gun twisting a little under recoil. I solved that by installing a rubber sleeve that in-creased the G48’s grip width slightly and that also filled my hand much better. At its greatest width the grip sleeve makes the G48 just as wide as the G19, but it is over a much smaller area, so it is not as noticeable.

One thing that my additional testing has shown is that ejecting a live round can be problematic. The length of the loaded round is about the same as the length of the ejection port. If the slide is not retracted fully and vigorously to the rear, the loaded round can get hung up on the ejector and not get ejected from the gun. If the slide goes forward with a round in this position, it is likely that the round will be rechambered, or a double-feed jam may result if the maga-zine has rounds in it and it is still inserted in the pistol’s grip.

One complaint that I’ve heard is about the G43X/48 magazines. Some Glock fans ask why the magazines are not interchangeable like they are for other Glocks such as the G26 being able to use G19, G17, and the 30-round Glock magazines. (For some rea-sons these same people didn’t complain when the then-new G42 and later G43 mag-azines were not interchangeable with the larger Glock magazines. Most vocal are the G43 owners. Apparently they would like a larger capacity magazine to go with their small pistols.) The answer, at least to me, is simple. In order to get the added magazine

capacity, without making the grip overly long, or having it extend beyond the bottom of the grip, the magazine design had to be changed from a true single-stack to a slightly staggered single-stack. This made the G43X/48 magazines wider so they will not fit into the G43 magazine well. At the same time, the new G43X/48 magazines are too narrow to work in the G19 or G26.

At a recent range session, a friend brought along his G43 and wanted to do some com-parisons with my G48. In looking at the grip frames when the two guns were disas-sembled, they appeared to be the same ex-cept for the grip length. So, my friend tried to install the G48 slide on his G43 frame. It fit. The next experiment was to see if the hybrid gun would function, so he fired a few rounds through it. It worked just fine, as did shooting with his G43 slide on my G48 frame. So, it appears that owners of the original 6+1 shot G43 now have the option of installing a longer G48 slide on their guns, giving them a longer sight radius.

This should not have been too much of a surprise since many of the parts for the G43 are also compatible with the G43X/48. This is especially true for frame parts, but the only G43 slide parts that I’ve found that work with the G48 are the sights. Existing third-party G43 parts suppliers may already have the parts needed to upgrade the G43X/48, so I ordered a couple—a new slide latch lever and a new connector—from Brownell’s. I got a Ghost, Inc. “E-S-R G42/43 Extended Slide Releases” along with a Ghost “G42/43 Edge Connector”. Total cost for the parts was less than $50.

I am comfortable doing parts replacement on Glock pistols, so I had no concerns about installing these myself. I have in-stalled replacement slide latches and con-nectors on many of my other Glocks and found that they have worked well. It took me about 10 minutes to disassemble my G48, install the new parts, and reassemble the gun.

Before installing the new parts, I checked the G48’s factory trigger pull weight with my Lyman digital trigger pull gauge. It aver-aged 4 pounds, 7.7 ounces. After in-stalling the Ghost Edge Connector,

Page 10 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 3

the average trigger pull weight is now 3 pounds, 12.2 ounces, a reduction of 11.5 ounces, or almost ¾-pound. The larger tab on the slide latch makes it much easier to engage and disengage.

Next, I needed to find replacement sights and a different trigger. I have installed AmeriGlo I-Dot night sights on my other Glock pistols, but this time I decided to go with AmeriGlo’s Combative Adaptive Pistol (CAP) night sights. The CAP sights differ from the I-Dot sights in that it has a lime green/yellow square insert in the front sight and a lime green/yellow horizontal bar in the center of the rear sight below the notch. My I-Dot sights have a round or-ange insert on the front sight and a small “dot” in the center of the rear notch that glows in the dark. (Renowned firearms in-structor Dave Spaulding worked with Amer-iGlo to design the CAP night sights.) In preparation for installing the new sights, I checked with Midway USA to see if they had an adapter that I could use with my MWG Glock sight pusher that I got from them a couple of years ago. The one I have works on full-width Glock slides, but since the G43X/48 slides are narrower, some sort of adapter is needed to be able to replace their sights using this tool. Midway’s cus-tomer support told me that no such adapt-ers were available and that I should check with MWG to see if they were going to make any. I did notice that Midway offered a G42/43 adapter for the MWG sight push-er that I have, so I took a chance and or-dered one. It works just fine on my G48 slide. (I guess Midway’s customer support personnel just are not familiar enough with the new Glocks to realize they already had the needed adapters.) It only took me about 10 minutes to disassemble the slide from the frame, mount the slide in the sight pusher, push out the factory rear sight, push in the new CAP rear sight, remove the front sight, and replace it with the CAP front sight. I like the contrast the new sights provide, and they are sturdier than the plastic factory Glock sights since AmeriGlo’s sights are made from steel. I got the new sights on Amazon for about $65.

I replaced the factory Glock trigger on my G48 as well. I do not like the grooved face on the factory trigger and have replaced them on my other Glocks with smooth-

faced trigger shoes like those found on the full-size Glock pistols such as the G17/22. I decided to use the Apex Tac-tical replacement trigger, while retain-ing Glock’s factory trigger bar. It took me another 10 minutes to complete the trigger replacement. Then I reassembled the slide to the frame and performed a function check. Everything seems to be working fine and I do like the feel of the smooth, flat-faced Apex trigger. The new trigger cost me about $75 from Apex Tactical.

I did a quick check of my sights the next time I went to the range a few days after making the final modifications to my G48. As you can see from the accompanying pho-to, accuracy was quite acceptable at seven yards. There was just one “flyer” (low) when using a center hold and shooting using a pistol rest. For this quick test I used Win-chester 115-grain FMJ ammunition. I guess my eyeballs did a pretty good job getting the rear sight centered on the pistol’s slide using the MWG sight pusher.

(No that isn’t rust on the slide in the above picture; its

just the way the sunlight is reflecting off it.)

Holsters to go with the G43X/48 may be a little hard to find right now. G43 holsters may work with the new guns, but the hol-sters designed for the G19 or G26 will likely be just a little too wide, making the G43X/48 fit loosely in the holster. I did find a couple of holsters in the box of hol-sters that I have. They seemed to work, but my G48 “rattled” a little bit when I carried it in a kydex holster that I had for my G19. (That same holster was too tight for my G19.) I did have Billy Martin (Defensive Training Solutions, Troy, Ohio) make a cus-tom kydex pancake-style holster for my G48, and it works very well. (Since I had

this done DTS now offers it as part of their standard holster line-up.)

I will be placing my G48 into my regular concealed carry routine once spare maga-zines become available. The gun comes with two magazines, but I like to have more than that, especially with their reduced ca-pacity compared to my G19, but Glock dealers do not currently have any spare G43X/48 magazines in stock. (I have a couple more G43X/48 magazines pre-ordered from Brownell’s.)

The new Glock 43X and 48 are certainly worth considering if you are in the market for a concealed carry handgun. About the only difference between them is the slide length and slightly greater weight of the G48 over the G43X. In making my decision, I felt the longer sight radius of the G48 was worth the 1.42 ounces of increased weight, and I am very happy with my decision, espe-cially now that I have completed the modifi-cations to it.

-- G.R. Evens

Random Shots Reading List

“A mind needs a book like a sword needs a whetstone.” — Tyrion Lannister, in George

R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones.

I have hesitated to add this book to my rec-ommended reading list because it reads more like an academic research paper. War-rior Mindset: Mental Toughness Skills for a Na-tion’s Peacekeepers by Dr. Michael J. Asken and Lt Col (Retired) Dave Grossman, with assistance from Loren W. Christensen, is not for everyone. But I decided to include it because de-veloping mental tough-ness is an essential sur-vival skill for high stress situations. As I have written before and say in many of the fire-arms classes that I teach, your attitude (i.e. mental skills) are as important or even more important than your skills in using a firearm. As it says in the book, “Train with the un-derstanding that firearms practice is 75% physical and 25% mental; however a gun-fight is 25% physical and 75% mental.”

Page 11 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 3

To survive a lethal encounter, you need to decide that living is more important than doing anything else. That may mean you will have to take the life of someone else. While this book is written especially for those in the military and law enforcement (and elite athletes), it has value to others that need to develop the necessary defensive mindset to prevail, no matter what.

During a lethal encounter, or any other high stress situation for that matter, you will need to be able to overcome psychological and physiological factors.

One of the things that I found most useful in this book was a series of exercises—both physical and mental—that you can do to improve your performance. One of those is simply learning how to relax by creating a code word that you can say to yourself that you associate with relaxation. I tried it, and it works. I say my relaxing code word to myself and it creates a mental image of a very relaxing situation. As a result, I can feel the stress and tenseness flowing out of my body.

The book also addresses how improving your physical fitness can improve your men-tal abilities. That was something I resisted for a long time, especially as I’ve gotten older, but now I recognize how important it is and I am doing something about it.

If you feel a lot of stress in your life, you may find value in some of the lessons that this book provides.

Reading List:

1. Deadly Force: Understanding Your Right to Self Defense, by Massad Ayoob, ISBN-13: 978-1-4402-4061-2, ©2014

2. The Law of Self Defense: The Indispensable Guide for the Armed Citizen, 3rd Ed., by Andrew Branca, ISBN-13: 978-1943809141, ©2016

3. gunFIGHT!: An Integrated Approach to Shooting and Fighting in Close Quarters, by Richard Nance, ISBN-13: 978-1-6088-5140-9, ©2016

4. On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learn-ing to Kill in War and Society, by Lt Col (Retired) Dave Grossman, ISBN 0-316-33000-0, ©1996

5. On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and Peace, 3rd Edi-tion, by Lt Col (Retired) Dave Gross-man with Loren Christensen, ISBN 978-0-9649205-4-5, ©2004, 2007, & 2008

6. Left of Bang: How the Marine Corp’s Com-bat Hunter Program Can Save Your Life, by Patrick Van Horne and Jason A. Riley, ISBN 978-1-936891-30-6, ©2014

7. Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unex-pected, by Rory Miller, ISBN 978-1-59439-213-9, ©2011

8. Counter Ambush: The Science of Training for the Unexpected Defensive Shooting, by Rob Pincus, ISBN 978-0-9791508-8-3, ©2012

9. Handgun Combatives, 2nd Ed., by Dave Spaulding, ISBN 978-1-60885-024-2, ©2011

10. The Gift of Fear: And Other Survival Sig-

nals that Protect Us From Violence, by

Gavin de Becker, ISBN: 978-0-440-

50883-0, ©1997

11. The Tactical Shotgun: The Best Techniques

and Tactics for Employing the Shotgun in

Personal Combat, by Gabriel Suarez,

ISBN: 978-0-87364-898-1, ©1996

12. Defensive Pistol Fundamentals, by Grant

Cunningham, ISBN-13: 978-1-4402-

4280-9, © 2014

13. Warrior Mindset: Mental Toughness

Skills for a Nation’s Peacekeepers,

by Dr. Michael J. Asken, Lt. Col.

Dave Grossman with Loren W.

Christensen, ISBN: 978-0-9649205-5-

2, © 2010

-- G.R. Evens

Upcoming Classes LongMeadows Shooting School

Dave is still teaching the Ohio Concealed Carry Course, but it is by appointment only. Contact LongMeadows Shooting School if you want to schedule a time to attend.

Defensive Training Solutions

DTS offers a full range of firearms and self-defense instruction. Hojutsu classes are held starting at 6:30 PM on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month in the “dojo” (hand-to-hand skills) and the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays at the range (shooting skills). No previous martial arts experience is required to partici-pate in Hojutsu classes.

Beginning in April, and lasting through Oc-tober 24, DTS will be offering weekly Skill-

builder classes on Thursday evenings (5:30 to 8:00 PM) at Olde English Outfitters. Separate sessions will be held on the defen-sive use of handguns, shotguns, and rifles. This is an excellent opportunity for you to polish up on your shooting skills and per-haps learn some new ones.

Internationally renowned firearms trainer John Farnam will be returning to DTS in late July to offer his Urban Rifle (AR-15) class. If you want to learn how to proper-ly run your AR, this is an excellent op-portunity to learn from one of the best in the world.

Other upcoming classes include:

⬧ 13 Apr—Ohio CCW (Ladies Only)

⬧ 14 Apr—Ohio CCW

⬧ 27 Apr—Ohio CCW

⬧ 11 May—Ohio CCW (Ladies Only)

⬧ 18 May—Ohio CCW

⬧ 18-19 May—NRA Personal Protection Outside the Home

⬧ 15 Jun—Ohio CCW

⬧ 13 Jul—Ohio CCW (Ladies Only)

⬧ 20 Jul—Ohio CCW

⬧ 27 Jul—Urban Rifle with John Farnam

NOTE: DTS classes are taught at either DTS’s training facility in Troy or at Olde English Outfit-ters in Tipp City. See the DTS website for details (i.e. times, location, costs, course requirements, etc.) and to sign-up.

Page 12 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 3

LongMeadows Shooting School

4910 State Route 201

Tipp City, Ohio 45371

(937) 478-8201

2826 Stone Circle Drive

Troy, OH 45373

(937) 335-2998

https://defensivetrainingsolutions.com