Open Carry v. Concealed carry

Despite my ragging on Meleanie Hain for her open carry ways, I think that open carry is the way to go. Meleanie's problem was that she was toting around a piddly little glock to kids' soccer games. That caused the other soccer mom's to freak out.

They're no fun!

On the other hand, the Swiss know how to do it properly as this off duty soldier with his Sig demonstrates. Yeah, you've got to get a permit to carry (literally and openly) the thing around if you are off duty, but how many people are gonna fuck with you when you have an assault rifle?

Unfortunately, the Swiss are moving away from this sort of thing.

Active Shooter Protocol

The technique for dealing with mass shootings is called the "active shooter Protocol". This means that the first responder goes towards the sound of the shooting,ignores the dead and wounded, identifies the threat, and neutralises the threat. No verbal commands, no chance for the shooter to surrender. The threat is active and in progress.

Anyone with a firearm who is not reconisable as security service will be considered a target.

The tactic is to move fast and use your firepower. It is the tactic used for dealing with an ambush in combat. Agress the ambushers and use your firepower. That's your best chance to survive.

The problem is that most people confuse plinking and target practise at the range for defensive training. They are not one in the same. Lots of people who know their weapons well don't know shit about defensive shooting tactics, active shooter tactics, or have any real combat shooting experience.

Add in that it takes just minutes for a shooting spree to end

At Virginia Tech, the diminutive, South Korean gunman brandishing a 9mm Glock 19 and a Walther P22 took out his first two victims in the early morning hours. He returned two hours later, chained shut the three main entrances to an educational building and opened fire into second-story classrooms. Thirty others were slain before the gunman turned a weapon on himself.

"The [second] shooting spree took him 9 minutes — 9 minutes to shoot 170 rounds and kill 30 people (ed., I've seen other estimates of 10-12 minutes)," says Tom Turner, director of campus safety at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia. "The best thing a department can do is send in first responders to try to minimize death and injury, and neutralize the threat."

Likewise, the Fort Hood shootings were over quickly.

The minimum number of officers necessary to effectively utilize the active shooter protocol is three, though Gnagey recommends delaying entry until four officers arrive. A team of four in a diamond-shaped movement pattern — with one point officer, two flankers and a rear guard — permits officers to perform a 360-degree search and protect themselves from all sides. "We expect officers to use their head and evaluate the situation. They can go in by themselves if they have to," DeAndrea adds. "That's not the best way to operate. But if it's taking place in front of you, you don't wait. You go in and save lives."

The contact team treks toward the gunshots if they know where they're coming from. This team must disregard victims; it's only priority is to stop the threat, says DeAndrea. Traditional tactics go by the wayside in that officers move directly toward the threat. "They are marching to the sound of the gun," he says. "When they hear shots fired, that's where they respond to." On their heels, at least in the Arvada PD, is a rescue team, tagged with the responsibility of evacuating survivors and wounded individuals.

The response remains fluid and officers must adapt accordingly, Gnagey emphasizes. If officers arrive on-scene and notice large-caliber bullet holes in cars, buildings or houses, they know the shooter isn't firing a handgun and the superior firepower of a rifle is needed. Likewise, if gunshots cease and the shooter's location remains unknown, then officers slow their advance and begin opening doors and exploring empty rooms. If the gunman begins firing again, the team accelerates and foregoes searching until it reaches the subject.

Their ability to adapt cannot end once the shooter is found, adds Gnagey. For example, if officers discover the suspect in a room full of kids, they must transition to the response tactics prescribed for a hostage-barricade situation and summon SWAT. As the situation shifts to a tactical operation, responding officers must lockdown the room and maintain the perimeter until SWAT gets there. But if the gunman begins firing at hostages, and SWAT has yet to arrive, responding officers need to storm in.

Active Shooter Protocol
Active shooter events are unpredictable, dynamic, rapidly evolving, multi-variable situations requiring rapid response by law enforcement. If this facility experiences an active shooter situation, you should take the following actions:
5. Points to remember:
* There may be more than one (1) shooter
* Do not touch anything in the area, as it is a crime scene
* Prepare a plan of action in advance - predetermine possible escape routes for
yourself, and always know where exits are located
* DO NOT go to a Shelter-in-Place site
* When fleeing, get as far away from the shooting scene as quickly and safely
possible - do not take/carry anything with you
6. Police response and you:
* Police will quickly respond to the area in which shots were last heard and attempt
to immediately engage/contain the active shooter
* First arriving officers will not stop to assist the injured, or evacuate personnel
* Remain calm
* Do exactly as police tell you
* Keep your hands empty and visible at all times
* If you know where the shooter is, quickly tell the officers
* DO NOT get in the way of officers

Got that, Junior Rambos?

Or do you want to get your sorry arses shot? That isn't a bad thing though to have your idiotic arses shot for just being stupid.

A serious question about Melanie Hain

Did she actually practise shooting her gun, or did she just carry it and expect it would save her from harm?

The reason I mention this is that I used to blow through about 500 rounds a day on the range in practise when I carried.

These comics come from “Concealed Carry,” a comic drawn by the incomparable Mike Brace and written by Frank Naif. “Concealed Carry” appears in the Horrors Of War comic anthology produced by the DC Conspiracy comics collective, a bunch of super blokes in Washington, DC who make comics, drink beer, and get into barroom brawls.

I think they make the point really well of what the pros have to face when they carry, but somehow civvies aren't held to the same standard.

Yo, Frank and Mike, I owe you two quite a few beers for this. Is the Rathskeller OK? Go crazy on the Belgian brews at my expense.

Banned X-Box ad

I betcha that this was banned because it was "anti-gun".

Spread the word.

Untrained civvies shouldn't be walking around with loaded guns.

Let me get this straight...

The RKBA answer to the problem of out of control guns is always to add more guns to the situation. Usually handguns, which are perfectly useless for any real defensive purpose. The RKBA crowd also wants to have these guns concealed. Personally, I prefer a Remington 870 or an M4. In fact, I would like to walk around carrying a para stock minimi (M249 SAW to you septics).

I think that carrying a long gun in the open is far more of a deterrent than a handgun which is concealed in an inconvenient place. People are less likely to commit a crime is they know they will be shot. Besides the Second Amendment says "bear arms" and court cases have come out that concealed weapons are not under the scope of the Second Amendment. But, that is not really my point.

The RKBA answer is that criminal, lunatics, terrorists, and other disqualified persons from purchasing firearms will always have access to firearms, so why make it difficult for them to get them in the first place? I mean it makes far more sense to the RKBA crowd to deal with the crime that is generated rather than prevent it.

The RKBA line is akin to "stop rape, say yes" or "burglars will get into your house, so leave the doors and windows open".

I mean criminals walk around with concealed weapons, so let's make it easier for people to walk around with concealed weapons. School and bar shootings happen, so let's make it easier to go into schools and places where alcohol is served with a firearm.

It's rather funny that Eric Thompson, the owner of Internet-based TGSCOM Inc., this is the Internet firearms retailer who sold guns and accessories to the shooters involved in the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University incidents, is now promoting a concealed weapons law. Thompson called the purchases an unfortunate coincidence but said it's led him to believe he now has a "special responsibility to do all I can to try and prevent further loss of life."

Gee, Eric, maybe you should open a candle shop. It's too bad this guy isn't getting whacked with a serious law suit. Maybe that might make him think about personal responsibility. On the other hand, Eric probably doesn't feel too much guilt about being an instrumentality in two mass shootings. It's just a business to him.

Problem is, Eric, that your business is selling the instrumentalities used in killing. Think about that one.

Thompson is opening a website called www.gundebate.com, which is yet another one of those RKBA sites which will insist on more guns into an already oversaturated market and less responsibility.

Now, there is the dichotomy in the Liberal-Conservative debate which seems to get lost when the RKBA crowd come in and it's called "personal responsibility". Isn't the real responsibility if someone is selling dangerous items to make sure that people who will abuse them NOT have access to these items? Unfortunately, the RKBA crowd will use every linguistic trick in the book to try to hide the fact that they are putting others at risk. The RKBA crowd is as irresponsible as you can get when it comes down to public safety.

They hide behind something which was designed for "the Security of the Free State" and do everything to ensure that it is not a secure state. In fact, by claiming a right without accepting the incumbent responsibilities, they are putting the state at risk. In fact, they really aren't claiming the right which is mentioned in the Second Amendment.

The Second Amendment doesn't mention self-defence, hunting, and the right of revolt. The last one is an absolute absurdity (right of revolt against a tyrannical government). None of these concepts are mentioned in the Constitution. In fact, the last one (right of revolt against a tyrannical government) is mentioned, but not as a right. It is mentioned as the crime of treason in Article III, Section iii.

The debates about the Second Amendment deal with the Federal military establishment versus a State Militia. The fear was of a Standing Army, which 18th Century types believed was the tool of a tyrant. The Constitution is filled with devices to keep the military in check, one of which was the Second Amendment.

Unfortunately, the military budget is several trillion dollars, which is a violation of my right under the Second Amendment to be free of a standing army.

As I have said, the Second Amendment is an anachronism which needs to be understood. It doesn't need to be repealed, since it is meaningless. The militia system as conceived at the time the Constitution was written was non-existent. In fact, it was a military establishment (the French) that won the War for independence. The United States would be a whole lot better if its "leaders" would show some backbone and stop kow-towing to imaginary rights and silly myths.

As for RKBA attempts at patriotism, I refer to Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.