Category: Protecting Yourself and Others

Backup Your Backup Plans

I found a story that reminds us to have backups to our backup plans. Let me just yank out the relevant part:

Wellman said the 911 call was received after the apparent shooting. He said the home’s phone line was cut during the burglary forcing the homeowner to call from a neighboring residence.

Having a cell phone is a good idea. Pick up a cheap used one and turn it on. Even if it’s not authenticated with whatever carrier it’s locked to (in other words you don’t have a cell phone plan) the phone can make emergency calls. For instance before I configured my Palm Pre to my Sprint account it would allow me to call 911 and Sprint customer service. All modern cell phones have this capability. Keep one around just in case some hood decides to cut your phone line before entering the premises. You should also keep that defensive firearm handy either way as that backup plan isn’t easily bypassed by invaders.

Why the 9mm is Inadequate

How’s that for an inflammatory post title? Sorry to disappoint but the title has nothing to do with the post, I’m just an ass.

The Firearms Blog linked to a story which involved a man who was shot 21 times and survived:

More than 50 bullets were fired, almost all of them by the police. At least 21 of those bullets pierced Alvarez’s body.

Luckily for Alvarez — whose criminal record includes at least eight prior arrests — none of the bullets hit his brain, heart or major arteries.

This story really brings up why emphasis needs to be placed on shot placement. Yes the human body can survive 21 gunshot wounds depending on where those shots hit. It doesn’t matter what caliber you’re using if you don’t hit something critical you’re not going to stop the threat in a timely fashion and you’ll be putting your life in prolonged danger. Aim the gun and practice shooting center of mass.

But I Thought if You Cooperated with a Criminal You’d be Safe

Remember the anti-gunner rhetoric that you’re safer cooperating with a criminal, giving them what they want, and not resisting them? Those of us in the pro-self-defense community bring up the fact that cooperating with a person who has already openly stated they are willing to harm you is a bad idea because you have no guarantee that the criminal will tell the truth.

Here is a story about a man who cooperated with a mugger and it cost him his life:

Dropped off at Penn Station after a weekend trip to New York to visit his sister, 23-year-old Stephen Pitcairn was talking to his mother on his iPhone at about 11 p.m. and walking north in the 2600 block of St. Paul St. when a man and woman demanded money.

Police say he turned over his wallet, then took a knife to the chest.

A resident was in his home ironing when he saw three people who appeared to be fighting, then heard a scream. He ran outside, saw Pitcairn lying on his stomach in the gutter and called 911.

Sadly the knife wound proved to be fatal for Pitcairn. This should show that criminals are not always going to just take what they want and leave. If you’re ever in a self-defense situation you need to have a plan to fight back. That’s why those of us who carry guns, well, carry guns. It’s our plan to fight back and save the lives our our loved ones and our selves. Whether it be pepper spray, a gun, a collapsible baton, or a Tazer, you should have some means of fighting back should a criminal decide to threaten your well-being.

Ireland Wising Up

It appears Ireland is wising up:

THE new home defence bill has shifted the balance of rights back to the house owner “where it should always have been”, say gardaí.

The Association of Garda Sergeants (AGSI) and Inspectors also said it was ridiculous to suggest the bill provided a “have-a-go charter” to homeowners and said the current situation, which legally demands a house owner retreat from an intruder, was “intolerable”.

Assuming a criminal’s life is worth less than the rightful owner of a home? That’s just crazy! Now people are going to shoot their friends when they come over! It’ll be blood in the streets! Death will be everywhere! Dogs and cats will be sleeping together! At least that’s what the anti-gunners are going to say about this.

It’s nice to see Ireland is looking at making criminals a lower form of life than law-abiding citizens. If only Britain would figured that out.

Criminals Lie

A popular concept that seems to be completely ignored most of the time is the fact that criminals are dishonest and may in fact lie to you. What am I getting at here? Well a post over at Walls of the City brought up a case of a couple who was robbed by two thugs posing as police officers:

But Monday night, police cars surrounded a Woodycrest Avenue home. Earlier, at about midnight, two men yelling “police” pounded on the door, the family said. They were let inside.

The family said the two men wanted two things: drugs and guns.

The family said the whole thing lasted 10 or 15 minutes. They said they have every reason to believe the two crooks were, in fact, police.

OK we’re going to start today’s lesson in Gulliblity 101. Just because somebody says they are something doesn’t mean they actually are that thing. For instance when I was in college and attending college parties I would make up all sorts of stories about who I was and what I did to people I didn’t know. I wasn’t trying to impress them, instead I liked to amuse myself by seeing how outrageous of a story I had to make before the person I was conversing with finally caught on I was bullshitting them. Believe me I could get pretty far with some people. Did you know I’m actually a gun runner who is an exile from the former Soviet Union? Well I had two people believing that one night.

The point is people lie and we’re pre-programmer to assume that’s not the case. This of course presents a predicament. Let’s say somebody is pounding on your door yelling “police” what should you do? After all if you don’t answer the door and they are actually police officers you’re in for a world of hurt when they decide to bust in the door. On the other hand if they aren’t police you’re letting criminals into your home which is one layer of your defense strategy down the tubes already.

And the answer is… dial 911. This is advice usually given in driver’s ed to women who see a police car with lights on behind them while they’re cruising down a deserted road in the country at 0300. Real police call in any actions they’re taking which means if they are going to investigate your home somebody at the station knows about it. If people are at your door claiming to be police you should dial 911 and ask if the people at your door are actually police. If they’re not real police officers will be dispatched to come to your door.

If the people at the door actually are police then you can open the door and kindly inform them that they may no enter unless they have a warrant.

That’ll Teach ‘Em

Rapists are some of the lowest scum on the planet. They are the ultimate authoritarians, forcing themselves upon another just because they get off on power. Well as Dvorak Uncensored points out things may get a little more difficult for these scumbags in South Africa:

A South African doctor has developed a new female condom that she hopes will combat rape in the most painful way possible.

Dr. Sonnet Ehlers has invented Rape-axe, a female device with jagged hooks that latch onto a man’s penis during penetration.

The doctor is distributing 30,000 of these condoms in South Africa during this year’s World Cup.

“It hurts,” Ehlers told CNN. “He cannot pee and walk when it’s on. If he tries to remove it, it will clasp even tighter.”

Not quite as satisfying as blowing a few new holes through them but still awesome. Just good look at the picture, that thing looks vicious.

HTTPS Everywhere

I like this idea a lot. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has released a new plug-in for Firefox that attempts to encrypt every web page you visit via HTTPS. This prevents people from being able to sniff your web traffic when you’re browsing sites. Obviously I’m going to install it and give it a spin then let you know how well it works.

This is Why I Keep it Concealed

A Wisconsin man was held a gun point while he was open carrying. Now I’m all for open carry but there are consequences to every action. Open carrying a gun probably does work as a deterrent most of the time, but if it doesn’t deter the criminal they are going to see all the cards in your hand. That’s the main reason I don’t open carry most of the time (sometimes if I’m really lazy I’ll open carry while taking my trash out or something along those lines), I like the element of surprise.

I’m cagey with information to begin with and the last thing I want some random criminal to know is that I’ve got a gun (of course if that criminal knows me and reads this page he’ll know I have a gun but that’s targeted not random). This means I’ll have a few seconds upon drawing it where the criminal will be dealing with the new and unexpected criteria of an armed victim whom was thought a harmless threat.

But again if a criminal believes somebody is armed they are most likely going to go after somebody easier. Heck the story is so scarce on details we don’t even know if the criminal targeted the man because he was openly carrying or didn’t see the gun (you would be surprised how many people lack basic perception) until he was already sticking the man up.

One of the comments made by somebody who apparently knew the guy was interesting:

“It was kind of scary to just see him walking around all the time with that gun kind of just out in the open,” said Shambria Mayham Autman. She lives near Teutonia and Good Hope and said they called him “The guy with the gun.”

Well if it’s scary seeing the gun you should be helping to get concealed carry laws passing in Wisconsin. Right now the only way to carry a gun for protection in Wisconsin is openly. They are one of only two states that lack any form of concealed carry laws (even The Peoples’ Republic of California has a form of concealed carry law on hand).

Happy Belated Mothers’ Day

And for all you mothers out there here is a heart warming story from the UK via Says Uncle:

Schoolboy James Killen, 18, was held by police after next-door neighbour Jonathan London, 46, died of stab wounds.

It is believed Mr London attacked the teenager’s mother, former air stewardess Sandra Crawford, at her home in St Alban’s, Herts on Friday.

Mr Killen was arrested on suspicion of stabbing to death Mr London but later released on bail.

It is believed the teenager, a student at nearby Sandringham School, attacked Mr London after he discovered him slashing his mother.

The kid should have called the police and stood by watching his mother get slashed to death until the cops finally arrived. That way he wouldn’t be sitting in jail. See making self defense illegal is perfectly logical.

This is Why I Have a No Shortened URL Rule

One rule I have here is any comments containing a link that uses a URL shortening service gets removed, no questions asked. I do this because as Bruce Shcneier shows us those shortened URLs are a huge security risk. Cory Doctorow recently got screwed by a phishing attack via a good old URL shortened link:

I opened up my phone fired up my freshly reinstalled Twitter client and saw that I had a direct message from an old friend in Seattle, someone I know through fandom. The message read “Is this you????” and was followed by one of those ubiquitous shortened URLs that consist of a domain and a short code, like this: http://owl.ly/iuefuew.

Never click on a URL from a URL shortening service. You have no idea where they will lead you or what the page they link to will contain.