S. 593
Bill S. 593 – sponsored by Senator Shane Martin (R-Spartanburg) – was signed into law on June 2nd by Governor Sanford. This law allows SC concealed weapon permit holders to have a firearm in the glove compartment, console or trunk of a vehicle while on school or college property in this state. The full bill can be read here.
This has once again raised the issue of law-abiding citizens having access to firearms on school grounds or on campus. Author Gordon Hutchinson has some highly relevant information: No More Victim Disarmament Zones.
August CWP class scheduled
The August CWP class will be on Sunday, August 2 starting at 8:00 at the Mid Carolina Rifle Club.
The Four Rules
The Four Rules:
1. Treat all firearms as though they were loaded
2. Always point the muzzle in a safe direction
3. Keep your finger outside the trigger guard until the weapon is pointed at the target and you are ready to fire
4. Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.
A 26-year-old Phoenix man accidentally killed himself early Sunday morning while explaining gun safety to two Sierra Vista residents. Samuel Benally Jr. was at an apartment on West Tacoma Street when he said people should keep their guns unloaded because someone could point it at their heads, said Sierra Vista police Sgt. Brett Mitchell. Benally then demonstrated by putting his own .9 mm Rueger, which he believed to be unloaded, to his head and firing it, Mitchell said.
What can we learn from this?
1. “But it’s not loaded” is not an excuse.
2. Choose your handgun instructor wisely. Those who cannot exemplify gun safety cannot teach it.
3. A “.9 mm Rueger” ??? Journalists know very little about guns.
Hattip to Xavier.
Atlanta Home Defense
WSBTV.com reports on a home invasion in Georgia:
A group of college students said they are lucky to be alive and they’re thanking the quick-thinking of one of their own. Police said a fellow student shot and killed one of two masked men who burst into an apartment.
Channel 2 Action News reporter Tom Jones met with one of the students to talk about the incident.
“Apparently, his intent was to rape and murder us all,” said student Charles Bailey.
Self-defense works. Carry.
Intro to IDPA Course Added
An Introduction to IDPA Course has been added on the afternoon of May 9th. There are currently still two openings available.
Hopkins Home Defense
WIS reports that a Hopkins homeowner successfully defended himself against a home invasion:
“He believes he was being broken into. As he came out of his residence, he shot several rounds and hit the suspect one time in the upper body…. What the victim is telling us is he believed his life was being threatened at the time the incident occurred and he felt like he needed to defend himself,” said Lt. Cowan.
Self-defense works. Carry.
SC IDPA State Match Update
This weekend’s South Carolina IDPA State Match was a huge success. Over 100 shooters competed in eleven stages at Mid Carolina Rifle Club. The squads moved through so quickly thanks to the great work of the Safety Officers and volunteers that a Texas Star side-match was set up to fill the time between the last stage and the banquet, and to give the stats folks time to recover from a power failure.
Alex, Training for Life’s Lead Instructor, came in 3rd out of 14 in the Stock Service Pistol Expert category. He also had best match accuracy with only 17 points down for the entire match and was the best Expert in the Texas Star side-match. The video below shows Alex shooting Stage 6, one of the most challenging stages with a two-target charger and two pop-up targets activated by shooting a steel “pepper popper” target.
On Sunday, Team Eotac organized a shooter’s clinic for around 40 of the registered shooters that had returned to see how they could have improved their scores on four of the stages. Eotac is a manufacturer of well-designed tactical clothing located in West Columbia. Many thanks to Eotac and the Team Eotac shooters for doing this clinic. Everyone learned a lot.
Sumter County Home Invasion
WIS10 reports that on Wednesday, April 22, two robbers picked the wrong house to invade in Sumter County:
Kenyatta McClary says around 4:00am Wednesday two men broke into her bedroom and pointed a shotgun at her.
“Something sound like boom, I don’t know, just heard a big boom noise,” says McClary, who says she immediately knew the loud noise at her front door wasn’t right.
But the would-be burglars didn’t know that McClary owns a gun, which her boyfriend used to shoot one of the burglars.
What would this family have done without a gun? Self-defense works. Carry.
Training, Practice and Testing
Brillianter.com has a piece up defining learning to shoot as being split up between training, practice and testing. Tam had this to add in response to the testing phase:
The only way you’re really going to get to use skills under pressure and in a measurable environment is competition. In the May ’09 issue of SWAT magazine, there was a writeup of a three-day Carbine/Pistol Course from TigerSwan by Victor Wong. In the closing paragraphs of the piece, they had some interesting comments from TigerSwan’s head honcho, a former senior NCO in a very high-speed, low-drag unit. According to the writer
“Having shot almost every type of competetive [sic] sport from skeet to bull’s-eye to Service Rifle and IPSC, Searcy believes it is impossible to improve without shooting in competition, as you will inevitably plateau if shooting only on a square range by yourself. The stress of being against the clock, against other shooters and having an audience watch you forces you to develop the mental management necessary to execute the correct subconscious weapons handling skills under pressure.“
Shooting IDPA allows you to test your handgun skills with adrenaline cruising through your veins, identifying areas for further training and practice. Rapidly establishing acceptable sight alignment, proper trigger control under stress, fast reloads, clearing malfunctions, and thinking on your feet to solve the problem when your plan falls apart are all skills that will serve you well in IDPA as well as in the real world.
Finally, Tam adds:
When your gun pukes, do you just stand there staring at it like a duck in thunder, or do you reduce the malf without pausing and drive on? (If your gun doesn’t puke, you’re not shooting enough. Go shoot more.)
The Glock is one of the most reliable handgun designs made, but even a Glock can’t make a bad primer go off. Anyone carrying a semi-automatic for self-defense should train and practice clearing malfunctions. You will know your training and practice have been successful when you finally get that “click” that should have been a “bang” and you automatically do a tap-rack-assess drill.
Five Points Robbery Attempt
The State has an interview with the lawyer who ended a robbery attempt in Five Points using his concealed weapon on Saturday, April 11.
These days, he said, he carries a concealed pistol “because at this point, I feel almost undressed without it. I don’t have a problem leaving it in a car when I go to church or into the courthouse. I can live with that.”
He has rehearsed shooting scenarios in his mind. “Have I ever thought about such a scenario before? Sure. Everybody who carries a gun has thought about it.”
Yet, it still came as a surprise to have to fire Saturday, he said. “That was the last thing on my mind that night.”
Self-defense works. Carry.
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