Tag: Miscellaneous Gun Stuff

Poor Decisions All Around

If you’re stupid enough to concoct a plan that involves arresting a suspect at a crowded theater you’re likely lacking basic cognitive functions. I’m guessing this lack of cognitive functionality is what lead to one officer shooting another while trying to apprehend a man suspected of possessing child pornography:

Two policemen are recovering after they were shot by fellow officers as they tried to arrest a man on child pornography charges outside a crowded move theatre.

The incident happened as undercover officers tried to apprehend the unarmed man in the parking lot as he left a screening of Harry Potter in Plainville, Connecticut.

First of all I’m curious why the police decided it was a swell idea to arrest a man at a crowded theater instead of at the suspect’s home. It seems to me that a parking lot full of people leaving a theater is not the best place to perform an action that may lead to gunfire. At least if a gunfight broke out at the suspect’s home the chances of innocent bystanders getting hit would be greatly reduced compared to a gunfight breaking out in a parking lot full of people. Of course that’s just my opinion and I’m sure somebody will be more than happy to say I don’t know what I’m talking about without giving a good reason why the police chose this strategy over the one I presented.

Second of all we’re constantly told that the police are the only ones responsible enough to carry firearms. Responsibility with a firearm involves knowing your target and what lies beyond it. You shouldn’t be firing your gun, especially in a parking lot full of people, without being absolutely sure of what you’re aiming at. Ignoring the four rules of firearm safety leads to incidents like this where unintended persons are harmed or killed (thankfully in this case everybody involved was harmed and not killed).

I see a complete lack of intelligence stemming from this situation. Going after a suspect in a crowded area seems like a poor tactical choice. Not being sure of your target is also a poor tactical choice. Thankfully nobody was killed in this case but that very well could have been different. A gun is a weapon and like any weapon should be treated with the utmost respect

Is Your Glock Not Big Enough

Is your Glock simply too small? Do you want a larger more unwieldy gun? If so Command Arms Accessories has you covered with their RONI conversion kit:

The $350 kit allows two handed operation of the Glock, one hand on the pistol grip and one hand on the fore end, as well as a better mounting platform for optics on its 9.4″ picatinny rail.

So why would you want to make your compact handgun into a much bulkier handgun? For fun is the only good reason I can give. Unlike the RONI Carbine Kit, the RONI Recon does not turn the pistol into a Short Barrel Rifle and therefor is not subject to NFA rules and taxes.

In my book “just for gun” is a perfectly valid excuse to purchase a firearm or firearm accessory. I will admit that the conversion kit would be fun simply because it makes a standard Glock look like something from a science fiction movie (which always seem to believe small arms will become much bulkier in the future). It’s a completely ridiculous accessory and if it were much cheaper I’d probably get one for the sci-fi pew pew feel.

It should be noted that the RONI also has two side mounted Picatinny rails and one underneath the gun meaning you could mount three laser sights to it and get that whole Predator laser aiming affect. Or you know, go more practical by mounting three pistol bayonets to it.

New Bullet Promises Equal Under and Above Water Performance

The Firearm Blog points out something that is just wickedly cool:

The DSG Technology ammunition type DR is going to focus on in this article is DSG Multi-Environment Ammunition (MEA) Series Supercavitating Rifle Ammunition (underwater rifle ammo) round, that’s going to be an absolute game-changer for naval and Special Operations waterborne ops of various types, including, but not necessarily limited to, diver protection (defensive) and enemy diver neutralization (offensive) applications, VBSS/MIO (Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure/Maritime Interception Operations) and GOPLATS (Gasoline and Oil Platforms) boarding operations, speedboat interdiction and neutralization, anti-submarine warfare, anti-torpedo operations, and anti-piracy ops.

With DSG Technology’s MEA Supercavitating Rifle Ammo, you can fire at an underwater enemy target from above the water, an above-the-water enemy target from below the surface, or at an underwater target while you are also underwater.

The that the bullet works properly underwater is amazing in of itself, but that it works equally well above and below water is a rather spectacular feat of engineering. Not only does the bullet work above and below water but it’s capable of being fired into the water at very low angles:

The kicker is that DSG MEA supercavitating ammo also has a unique low-angle capability, allowing an operator/shooter to fire the ammo from above the surface into the water at a very low angle of attack, as low as two degrees in choppy water and 7 degrees into glass-smooth water without ricochet. After entering the water, the bullet will continue its true line of flight. There’s no bullet deflection whatsoever, so the operator only need deal with the aforementioned optical refraction of the water.

I’m not going to lie, if this bullet works as advertised it’s going to be freaking amazing. The limited factor of this technology would certainly be the launching platform as few firearms are built to operate reliably underwater (although some are). But as with any advancement in technology other devices will need to play catch up for a while.

It Appears St. Paul Police are Little Girls

I found a news story that demonstrates how girly St. Paul police must be:

The department is switching from .40-caliber Glocks to a choice of 9mm Glocks or Smith & Wessons.

Police Sgt. Cory Tell says the department’s current firearms aren’t necessarily outdated, but police want to make sure they’re using the most reliable equipment possible.

He says 9mm guns are easier to control than .40-caliber Glocks because they don’t have as much recoil.

I guess they’ll never be able to handle the manliness that is the .45 Auto. OK on a serious basis (if you’re a cop in St. Paul note that I wasn’t being serious when I said your department is girly) I can see justification for this move. Police receive inadequate firearms training, albeit very expensive inadequate training:

The guns, plus training, cost $137,000. The nonprofit St. Paul Police Foundation has raised about $80,000 toward the cost, and the department will get some money for trading in its old guns.

That’s a lot of money. Either way with less than adequate training I could see a 9mm being a better choice because the .40 does have pretty snappy recoil behind it. Personally though I think I would have taken the money going towards new firearms and used it to hire a good instructor and get the police department up to snuff with their current equipment. Changing out guns isn’t the only thing that will need to be done as ammunition and magazines will differ as well.

Stupidity and Firearms Never Mix

Update: 2013-02-20: 11:26: The story, as originally presented, was not accurate. As it turns out, as with most cases, the situation was far from black and white. According to the court ruling [PDF]:

Velure said that when they returned to Kurer’s apartment, Kurer went back into his bedroom and lay on the bed. Velure observed a Taurus Judge multicaliber handgun lying on the box spring area outside the mattress. He observed that the cylinder of the Taurus Judge was loaded with three .410 shotgun rounds and three .454 handgun rounds.

Kurer got out of bed and went into the living room, where he lay down on a short couch. Velure said that he followed, taking with him the Taurus Judge handgun. Velure said that he attempted to talk Kurer into going uptown with him, but Kurer was reluctant to do so.

According to Velure, he then made some comment, something to the effect of that he is going to squeeze the trigger if Kurer did not go with him. In reply to this Kurer had made the statement, something to the effect of, go ahead. Velure had told officers how just prior to the to this particular conversation with Kurer he had opened the cylinder on the Taurus handgun and had dumped what he thought were all six rounds into this hand and then placed all six rounds into his cargo short pants that he had been wearing. He then had utilized his right hand only and had flipped the weapon, causing the cylinder on the weapon to close. He was made the assumption that all of the rounds that had been in the handgun had been removed from the cylinder and had been placed by himself into his own short pockets. Assuming the weapon was empty, he then pointed the handgun at Kurer. At the time he was about one to two feet away from Kurer. With the weapon in his right hand he had engaged the trigger on the firearm. No explosion occurred. Kurer was still lying on the shorter couch at the time and was lying on his back. Velure continued to stand over the top of him more towards the area of his feet and continued to have his right arm extended, having the handgun in his right hand. Some comment had been made about not going uptown, at which time Velure again engaged the trigger on the handgun and this time there was an explosion as the handgun fired a round that had been left in one of his cylinders. Velure did tell officers that he had observed the wound to Kurer’s chest. He saw what he described as being pellet holes and knew that it was a .410 round that had fired, striking Kurer. Velure said he then applied first aid.

Originally the story said that both individuals had been pointing, what they assumed to be, empty guns at one another. As it turns out Velure was the only person with a firearm and had, according to him, assumed it was empty. Velure did mentioned that he and Kurer had pointed empty guns at each other in the past but that information is hearsay and irrelevant to the actual murder as Velure’s own statement indicated that he was the only one in possession of a firearm at the time. In the end this story is a demonstration of the importance of the four rules of firearm safety.

Below is the original post I wrote for historical purposes.

There are four simple rules to follow in regards to firearm safety:

  1. All guns are always loaded.
  2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
  3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
  4. Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.

If you follow all of these rules you’ll never encounter a negligent discharge and two of these rules must be broken for somebody to get hurt. On the other hand if you violate those rules bad this happens as demonstrated by this article:

Twenty-four-year-old Joshua Kurer was hit in the chest Monday night and later died. Twenty-six-year-old Anthony Velure was charged Wednesday with first-degree reckless homicide in St. Croix (KROY) County. Velure told police he didn’t mean to harm his friend and that he assumed the gun was empty.

You never assume a gun is unloaded, that violates rule one. You never let the muzzle cover anything you’re not willing to destroy so rule two was violated. I would talk about rules three and four being violated but after reading the following I believe the man was sure of his target and may have even kept his finger off of the trigger until his sights were on that intended target:

The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram says Velure told police he and Kurer had aimed guns at each other and pulled the trigger at least a half dozen times in the past.

There are two lessons to learn from this; firearms are not toys and Darwin will catch up to you eventually. A firearm is a deadly weapon and should be respected as such.

This is What Combining Stupidity and Guns Gets You

One of the most dangerous combinations is stupidity and firearms. That is because such a combination goes along with other lethal combinations like automobiles and stupidity. When you are being stupid with a weapon it’s likely somebody will get hurt and that’s exactly what happened in Hill City:

John Ellis thought someone had thrown something at him during the Old West shootout in downtown Hill City on Friday night.

Seconds later, he laid on the ground clutching his bloodied elbow as his two young daughters watched in horror.

“I got shot in the forearm, and it went through the other side of my elbow,” said Ellis, an optometrist vacationing with his family from Pennsylvania. “I had surgery around midnight Friday to remove bone and lead fragments.”

Ellis was standing 40 feet from the mock gun battle performed by the Dakota Wild Bunch Reinactors, when what he believes was a live round buzzed through his arm.

If you’re using firearms for reenactments the utmost caution must be taken. There should be no live ammunition on the site where the reenactment is taking place, all guns should be checked by every person participating in the reenactment, and shooting should be done in such a way as muzzles never cross the area where spectators are located. It would even better to use replica firearms that are unable to even chamber and use life rounds.

When firearms are involved lack of caution needs to be checked at the door. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being paranoid about firearm safety, especially when other people are involved. On the other hand not being paranoid about firearm safety can lead to people being injured or killed. There is a reason people haven’t been shot at United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) matches, everybody is paranoid about safety and if you violate the safety rules you’re disqualified and sent home for the day (or permanently if the error was egregious enough).

I Concur

I’ll just leave this thought for you guys to mull over:

If you have 3 visible holsters containing 3 handguns, attached to tactical gear at the range, I’ll automatically jump to the conclusion that you’re a douchebag.

I agree completely. Nothing says douchebag like the guy with the tactical gear which includes three handguns attached to various parts of his body. That shit may be funny if you’re purposely making fun of mall ninjas but if you’re wearing it because you honestly think it’s a good tactical decision then you’re likely a moron.

This Could be a Good Thing

Apparently the wars we’re fighting throughout the world is causing a shortage of available ammunition for police officers in the United States:

Police chiefs around the state spoke of rising costs and long waits to get ammunition.

“We used to spend between $12,000 to $13,000 a year but now it’s around $16,000 to $18,000,” Hazlet Police Chief James A. Broderick told the news service.

Some chiefs said orders take a minimum of six months to get filled, and often take up to a year.

I think ultimately this is a good thing. Two things would occur if the police are no longer able to obtain large quantities of ammunition; they would need to learn how to shoot well and wouldn’t be able to murder as many innocent people. I’m sure a shortage of ammunition would have benefited Jose Guerena as the police not only murdered him in cold blood but also took 70 rounds of ammunition to do it.

Thanks goes to Uncle who lead me to Bob’s Gun Counter which had posted a link to the story.

Double Your Fun

With some things in life more is generally better. One of these things is ammunition capacity, the more rounds you can hold the more fun you can have and California Competition Works is here to help with their PMAG coupler. Basically it’s a small device that allows you to take two PMAGs and couple them together to create a larger magazine thus you can get a 60-round magazine by coupling two 30-round PMAGs together.

A hat tip goes to Every Day, No Days Off for bringing this product to my attention.