Protecting Yourself and Others – Page 13

Truer Words Have Seldom Been Spoken

Whenever the subject of sport shooting comes up around the tacticool friends they inevitably start ranting about how United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) and/or International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) aren’t realistic. I think Miguel’s posts covering such criticisms expresses my feeling perfectly:

“But IDPA is not Real Life!”
But it is more useful than your whining.

While USPSA and IPSC are games they do offer useful practice for skills that are good to have in a self-defense situation. The biggest of which is operating your firearm under the influence of adrenaline. All the standing range practice in the world isn’t going to help you deal with elements involved in a self-defense situation such as a pounding heart, adrenaline, tunnel vision, selective hearing, or firing on the move. Both USPSA and IPSC allow you to understand the affects of these elements and practice under their influence.

Sure it’s unlikely that I’m going be sitting on the shitter when a cadre of thugs comes busting down my door requiring me to grab my conveniently place and loaded gun but the adrenaline rush is going to be similar regardless of the scenario’s likelihood. The first time I shot a USPSA match I was shocked how poor my shooting became when outside stresses such as a timer and audience were introduced. I’m not done with my second season of USPSA (along with several three-gun competitions) and my shooting under stress has greatly improved. I don’t even want to know how poorly my shooting in a self-defense situation may have been had I not fired under stressful conditions before.

Sure USPSA and IPSC may not be real but they’re far more useful than any number of statements regarding that fact.

Pain is Temporary

A police officer decided to demonstrate his basic knowledge of firearm operations, his testicular fortitude, and his desire to live all at the same time:

A quick-handed NYPD sergeant stopped a violent felon from shooting him in the gut by jamming his ring finger under the hammer of the felon’s .38 revolver, cops said today.
Sgt. Michael Miller and Officer William Reddin were on patrol when they noticed a livery cab speeding eastbound on Quincy Street near Malcolm X Boulevard at about 4 a.m. today. The plainclothes cops pulled the beige Lincoln Towncar over, but when they walked up displaying their shields they noticed that one of the passengers in the back seat, Eugene Graves, was making suspicious movements near his waistband.

[…]

Graves managed to press his Taurus .38 revolver into Miller’s stomach, but Miller grabbed hold of the gun, wedging his right ring finger between the gun’s hammer and cylinder, before the murderous Graves could fire a shot.

As Uncle pointed out that probably hurt but pain is temporary, death is forever. It commend officer Miller for having an impecable ability to think quickly enough to see the situation, concoct a plan, and execute that plan in the span of time it took another person to simply pull on a trigger. That’s a true display of badassery.

This is Why I Run My Own Cloud

With all the talk about cloud computing I finally decided to build my own cloud. I’m rocking in the cloud without relying on third-party solutions and absolutely loving it. What finally coaxed me into moving everything onto my own infrastructure was the ever increasing powers government officials have been claiming in the realm of data acquisition. The federal government can send a letter out to a company and demand information about a customer be turned over. While the government has been able to exercise similar powers in the past through acquisition of a warrant they weren’t able to force the target company to keep the request for information secret like they can today. Well it seems Google and Sonic were targets of a recent federal fishing expedition:

The U.S. government has obtained a controversial type of secret court order to force Google Inc. and small Internet provider Sonic.net Inc. to turn over information from the email accounts of WikiLeaks volunteer Jacob Appelbaum, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

[…]

Both Google and Sonic pressed for the right to inform Mr. Appelbaum of the secret court orders, according to people familiar with the investigation. Google declined to comment. Mr. Appelbaum, 28 years old, hasn’t been charged with wrongdoing.

As we’re hearing about this story it seems that Google and Sonic were successful in fighting the government demand of secrecy, this isn’t always the case though. The government very well could have obtained information about you from a company and you’ll never know unless they decided to move in and arrest you. If the government wants my data they’re going to have to send me one of those secret letters thus ensuring I know they’re spying on me.

The only way you can guarantee your data remains under your control is if you exercise complete control over it. If you store your data on a third-party service there is no way you can know other people don’t have access to it.

When You Need a Gun

There are times when you need a gun and then there are times when you really need a gun. Mark LaVelle found himself in a situation that would fall under the latter category:

ABOUT 11 P.M. on Sept. 9, dozens of youths with bats and pipes descended on a tidy residential area of Port Richmond looking for white teens who allegedly had attacked an African-American kid at Stokely Playground a couple of hours earlier.

Two fearful white teens spotted Mark LaVelle on Indiana Avenue near Belgrade Street and asked for help. Suddenly, the mob appeared. LaVelle, who said that he didn’t know the two kids, who looked to be 13 or 14, ran with them into his nearby house.

[…]

With the two teens hiding in the house, LaVelle, 5 feet 10, 220 pounds, a well-known sports-league organizer and coach in the community, went outside to try to calm the angry mob.

They were standing on his steps. One shouted, ” ‘Something’s going to happen now!’ ” LaVelle recalled in an interview Friday at his house. LaVelle got nervous and went back inside, locking his door with a deadbolt.

But the attackers pounded on his front windows and kicked his wooden door so hard, it flew open and some of them entered his house.

“The first guy hits me with a pipe. The second guy knocks me in the face. All I’m hearing is my wife and kids screaming,” said LaVelle, who feared that the next time they saw him, he would be in a casket.

Mob situations are examples of scenarios where your physical strength will likely count for nothing. If one very strong man is outnumbered by scrawny children with pipes by ten to one there is little hope of that one man surviving if those kids mean to kill him. This is one of those cases where a firearm can even the odds as it allows a single individual to engage multiple assailants.

This case also demonstrates that it’s very possible to get caught up in a bad situation without intending as such. Mr. LaVelle saw two teens being chased by a mob and let them into his home so they wouldn’t get beaten to death. For that act I commend him as his actions may very well have saved the teens lives. Another thing to note is that Mr. LaVelle was fortunate that the police arrived when they did as it seems he was entirely unarmed while is assailants were not:

He said that he was able to push the attackers out the door, but then a third man – who had a gun – tried to extend his arm. LaVelle grabbed onto the gunman’s lower arm and shoulder so he couldn’t raise the weapon. Then, police sirens screamed in the neighborhood, and the mob turned and ran.

Had the police been two minutes later Mr. LaVelle could have been shot dead. Having a gun at hand to protect you and your’s isn’t paranoid or even slightly over the top. Situations like this can happen and usually happen at the most unexpected times. Consider having a gun for self-defense like a spare tire on your car, except for the fact that the gun could save your life and the lives of your family while the spare tire will usually only save you form slight inconvenience.

On the Topic of Rape

In Minneapolis on Saturday an event dubbed a SlutWalk will be occurring. From how it’s been explained to me a SlutWalk is an event where hundreds of scantily clad woman march through town to make a statement against rape. I’m not sure what sadist decided that having such an event during October in Minnesota would be smart but suffice it to say there will likely be some rather chilly woman walking about.

Honestly this post really isn’t about the SlutWalk though, that was just a not so clever segway for me to talk about the subject of rape. Namely I want to talk about the prevention of rape. A misunderstanding many people have is that rape is about sex. Rape seldom has anything to do with sex and is almost always about power. There are people besides politicians who get pleasure out of having power over another human being. So long as such desires are suppressed or expressed between consenting adults it’s perfectly fine, the problem comes when a person is unwilling to suppress such desires.

I know a couple of rape victims and needless to say the after effects are almost as frightening as the act itself. A person who has suffered rape has experienced one of the ultimate violations against their person that can be experienced. Both of the rape victims I know have said many times that they would have rather killed themselves than again experience what they went through. Thankfully after therapy they mostly recovered.

Women are the most common targets of rape and genetics dictate that the average male is physically stronger than the average female. I’ve actually had one person claim this is a sexist thought but genetics are what they are. Thankfully our technology has advanced far enough where we have developed the great equalizer; the gun.

Nothing says “NO!” like gushing chest wounds. Part of the reason I’m such a proponent of the right to carry is because firearms can turn a physically superior attacker into an equal (or lesser if they are not also armed). While I strongly urge all people legally able to get a carry permit I put a lot of emphasis on women getting carry permits. Both of the rape victims I know are female and they both now have carry permits and almost always have a firearm on their persons.

While the goal of the SlutWalk may be noble, try to prevent rape, I believe a better mechanism of doing so is to arm the populace. Criminals prey on those they perceive to be weak and usually want to avoid an opponent that poses a legitimate threat. An armed person is one who is able to resist oppression by another. Were it common for persons to be armed instead of unarmed I believe the rate of violent crime would dramatically decrease (and in places that have passed right-to-carry laws they have often noticed a decrease in violent crime). The best defense against rape is to disable a would be rapist. Whether that disability comes from two bullet holes to the chest or one in the head (or a baseball bat to the face, etc.) is irrelevant.

I would urge those actively working to reduce rates of rape to advocate armed self-defense. Arming a person is one of the most empowering things that can be done and gives even the most physically outmatched individual a chance to walk away unscathed. If those participating in the SlutWalk really want to send a message to potential rapists they should strap a pistol on their hip while they march through the city.

Why Controlling Your Personal Information is So Important

Many people have a lackluster attitude towards control of their private information. When the fact that companies maintain a great amount of details about their customers is mentioned people will often cite laws forcing those companies to protect that information. Those laws may make you feel nice and all but what do you do when the company goes bankrupt? That’s the concern facing former Borders customers right now:

To perhaps to no one’s surprise, Borders bookstore collected a ton of consumer information – such as personal data including records of particular book and video sales – during its normal course of business. Such personal information Borders promised never to share without consumer consent. But now that the company is being sold off as part of its bankruptcy filing, all privacy promises are off.

Reuters wrote this week that Barnes & Noble, which paid almost $14 million for Borders intellectual assets including customer information at auction last week, said it should not have to comply with certain customer privacy standards recommended by a third-party ombudsman. In court papers, Barnes & Noble said that its own privacy standards are sufficient to protect the privacy of customers whose information it won during the auction.

Sure the company that currently holds your private information may be magnanimous but what about the next holder of that information? Concerns such as this should be at the top of everybody’s list as personal information of any sort is valuable both for good and bad guys. If you believe any personal information held by companies about yourself is unimportant you’re simply not creative enough.

What I’m Compensating For

Uncle pointed out a post by a Dr. Helen that asks gun owners what they’re compensating for (before going bat shit crazy about her being anti-gun her comment is actually derived from reading a certain self-defense book geared towards women).

I’m compensating for the incompetency of the state to provide adequate protection even though they claim a monopoly on the service.

Practicing Your Self-Defense Skills

People in the firearms community like to talk tactics and create bizarre scenarios that can only be solved by the application of a rocket launcher mounted on the back of a dinosaur. Meanwhile Robb Allen walks us through the self-defense situation a person is most likely to encounter:

Go to the food court at your local mall. Make sure you are carrying extra magazines for your heater which is well concealed or, if you live in a freer state and you feel inclined, wear it out in the open proudly. Grab a slice of pizza or a chicken sandwich and have a seat at a table that faces the main entry way to the mall. Consume your meal at a leisurely pace. Make sure you place your trash in the receptacles provided and leave the area.

You have now been trained on how to handle the most common, civilian self defense scenario known to man.

9,999 times out of 10,000 your visit to your venue of choice is going to be uneventful thus it’s wise to practice your skills at simply going about your life as your normally would. On the scale of threats a random mugger would be the most likely defensive situation which is where carrying a means of self-defense comes into play. But the chances of angry fire-breathing ninja-raptors from Io descending onto your venue of choice to reign death and destruction while you’re there is pretty slim.

Keep the scenarios you practice for realistic and practical. Knowing how to chew your food without choking is going to serve you far more often then knowing how deploy an orbital ion cannon (although granted not as fun).

Apple’s Response to the UK Riots

Let’s say you’re a store owner in a town that is being ravaged by riots, what do you do? If you’re Apple you move all of your inventory out of the store and close it down. That’s the best response a company could make in a place where violent criminals are attacking and looting private businesses. You’re far less of a target if you have nothing to take.

This is something that would also be smart for average people to learn. During times of civil unrest those who appear to have something worth stealing are more likely to be targets for the roving masses. Although a large number of random acts of violence will still make self-defense necessary, making yourself appears as poor as possible is one way to reduce the chances of you being directly targeted. Riots can often be kicked off by people angry with the actions of their government but it’s guaranteed that the rage of rioters will not be logically directed. As more and more people join the riots any possible message is lost as a large number of people will join in simply to loot and steal hoping they won’t get caught as there are so many people committing crimes. These thieves will target those who they perceive to have something worth taking so it’s smart to make it appear as though you have nothing worth their time.

Appearing as though you have nothing isn’t a fool proof way of voiding violence but it’s one additional step you can take in reducing your risk.

But According to the Anti-Gunners This Never Happens

Get this, a man used a firearm to prevent two would be invaders from invading his home. According to the anti-gunners this kind of thing never really happens but alas it did:

Jerry Bowen didn’t run and hide when two Hickory men kicked in his door at his Warwick Court home in eastern Lincoln County, according to law enforcement. Instead the 42-year-old grabbed his gun and took charge of the situation.

Bowen fired a warning shot and ordered the men to the ground, according to Lincoln County Sheriff David Carpenter.

James David Rubenstahl and his nephew, Robert Ray Rubenstahl, did as they were told. They dropped to the ground and waited for police to arrive, said Carpenter who mentioned that Bowen searched the men and even used their cell phone to call 911.

I’m not the biggest fan of firing warning shots. North Carolina has castle doctrine which includes using any means necessary to prevent intruders from entering the home so I don’t think Mr. Bowen will have to face charges for firing the warning shot. Firing a warning shot in Minnesota could land you in hot water since we lack castle doctrine (thanks “representatives” for refusing to vote on the bill until the session ended, fuckers) so the only way you can use a firearm in self-defense is if your life is in immediate danger, even if you’re at home. Firing a warning shot can make the defense of feeling your life was in immediate danger a bit shaky which is why we need castle doctrine here (and in every other state) desperately. By firing a warning shot Mr. Bowen was able to defuse the situation without harming anybody which most people would consider a good thing.

I also want to give some style points to Mr. Bowen for using the would be invader’s cell phone to call the police. That right there is humiliation you simply can’t buy. These kinds of scenarios play out fairly often which is why the right to keep and bear arms is so important, especially when the criminals are literally kicking down your front door and the police are minutes away.