Personal Protection Inside the Home
The images used in this video are posters by Oleg Volk.
How leather holsters are made
Gunsmithing?
Modifying firearms is best left to a professional. Innovative Arms, a full-time gunsmith located in Elgin, do beautiful work. They can handle anything from sight installations, to refinishing, to dehorning carry guns, to building custom sound suppressors. They also do gun transfers.
Personal Protection In the Home now available
Personal Protection In the Home (PPIH) has now been added to the Training for Life, LLC courses.
The NRA course outline defines the PPIH course goal as follows: “To develop in the students the basic knowledge, skills, and attitude essental to the safe and efficient use of a handgun for protection of self and family, and to provide information on the law-abiding citizen’s right to self-defense.”
PPIH is course number two in the progression from Basic Pistol to Personal Protection Outside the Home (PPOH). PPIH satisfies the prerequisites for PPOH.
The next PPIH course will be offered when there is enough interest from qualified students. Contact alex@trainingforlifellc.com to get on the list.
Why Carry?
Hat tip to Xavier for finding this.
What is IDPA?
From the 2005 IDPA rulebook:
The International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) is the governing body of a shooting sport that simulates self-defense scenarios and real life encounters. It was founded in 1996 as a response to the desires of shooters worldwide. The organization now boasts membership of more than 11,000, including members in 19 foreign countries.
One of the unique facets of this sport is that it is geared toward the new or average shooter, yet is fun, challenging and rewarding for the experienced shooter. The founders developed the sport so that practical gear and practical guns may be used competitively. An interested person can spend a minimal amount on equipment and still be competitive. The main goal is to test the skill and ability of the individual, not equipment or gamesmanship.
To make the playing field as level as possible, handguns are grouped into five divisions and shooters are classified by skill level. The shooter classifications progress from Novice (NV); to Marksman (MM); to Sharpshooter (SS); to Expert (EX); and, finally, to Master (MA). See the rulebook for a more detailed explanation.
In the Columbia SC area, we are fortunate to have an IDPA match every 4th Saturday of the month at the Mid Carolina Rifle Club (MCRC). The five scenarios (also known as stages) are different every match. Stages range from simple, short, up-close-and-personal like the “ATM robbery” scenario below, to much more complicated involving different shooting positions, shooting on the move, reloads and moving targets.
In pistols, 9 mm Luger (9×19) is the smallest caliber allowed, and in revolvers .38 Special is the smallest caliber allowed. Smaller calibers are allowed during BUG (Back-Up Gun) matches. BUG-legal guns need to have a MAXIMUM barrel length of 3.8” for pistols and 3” for revolvers, and be at least .32 ACP. There is an annual BUG match at MCRC that is a lot of fun.
What to bring to an IDPA match:
• A handgun (at least 9 mm Luger or .38 Special, except for the annual BUG match)
• At least 100 rounds of ammunition for your handgun
• Four magazines or speed loaders (or as many as you have)
• Eye and ear protection
• A strong side holster (i.e., the holster is on your right side if you are right handed).
• A carrier for two magazines (alternatively, magazines may be stowed in the competitor’s pant pockets)
• A belt suitable for use with your holster and magazine carrier(s)
• A baseball type cap or a hat with a wide rim, folding chair, sun block and bug spray (optional)
Each match at MCRC begins with a new shooter briefing to go over the safety rules and range commands. The competitor does not load his or her gun until the safety officer gives the “load and make ready” command. After the competitor has finished shooting, the safety officer gives the “unload and show clear” command, whereupon the competitor removes any remaining rounds from the gun and stows it in his holster. The safety officer holds an electronic shot timer that records the time between the start of the stage and the final shot. When the competitor has finished, the targets are scored and pasted. Whoever shoots the scenarios the most accurately in the shortest amount of time wins.
It is important to remember that IDPA is a game, just like IPSC or Steel Challenge. The shooter typically knows where all the targets are located, and the targets aren’t actually shooting at him. However, IDPA is the most practical of all the gun games. Aside from its obvious practicality as a way of practicing shooting accurately under pressure, it forces the shooter to use cover, to draw from concealment from the holster and to shoot on the move. It encourages the shooter to think, to remember, to develop a plan, and to react appropriately if the plan goes wrong (which if often does). It allows the shooter to practice vital gun handling skills like reloads and clearing malfunctions. In addition, it allows the shooter to figure out the limitations of his equipment in a more forgiving environment than an actual real-life self defense situation.
No Safe Areas II
The Orange County Register brings us this story about an unprovoked attack in California:
Off-duty Costa Mesa police officer was jumped from behind and beaten by a crowd of men outside a Mexican restaurant in Old Town Temecula before pulling his gun and opening fire Saturday, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday.
The officer killed one of his attackers and injured another. The beating left the officer with at least six staples in the back of his head.
The officer, whose name has not been released, had been eating with a group of family and friends at the Bank of Mexican Food restaurant in the heart of Old Town Temecula on Saturday evening, when he felt ill and stepped outside for some fresh air, said Riverside County sheriff’s spokesman Jerry Franchville.
The officer was sitting outside the restaurant about 7:15 p.m. when he was suddenly hit from behind with a heavy object, possibly a chair, Franchville said. The blow knocked the officer to the ground, temporarily dazing him.
Bleeding from the head and blood running into his eyes, the officer realized he was being attacked by four or five men, Franchville said. The officer identified himself as a police officer and begged for the men to stop beating him.
Several witnesses not connected to the officer or his attackers heard the officer identify himself as a police officer, and some even saw him flash his badge, Franchville said.
Despite the officer’s cries for the attack to stop, the beating continued, Franchville said. The officer pulled out his gun and fired five times, hitting Shaun Adam Vilan twice in the chest and arm, and 22-year-old Taylor Willis twice in the thigh.
Vilan, who was on parole for assault with a deadly weapon, later died at a local hospital. Willis remained hospitalized Tuesday evening.
The attack was unprovoked, Franchville said.
Fortunately for this law-abiding citizen, he was allowed to carry off-duty because of his job as a police officer. Unfortunately for most law-abiding citizens in California, they are denied the same access to life-saving tools by their local politicians.
The deceased attacker had a long history of similar criminal activities, and yet he was allowed to roam our streets looking for new victims.
“None of the victims did any provoking – Vilan and his cohorts did all the provoking. All the victims were outnumbered. All the encounters featured ‘low blows,’ i.e., unfair fighting by Vilan and his cohorts,” wrote Manuel A. Ramirez, presiding justice of the California Court of Appeal, 4rth Appellate District, in the October 2001 opinion rejecting Vilan’s appeal that evidence admitted in his two trials was improperly admitted.
The lessons from this event mirror some of the lessons from my own experience:
- There is no such thing as a magical Safe Area. Granted, there are high and low risk areas, but even low risk areas are only safe until an attacker makes them unsafe.
- Some criminals are not interested in your wallet or your possessions. They cannot be reasoned or bargained with. They want you. They want to harm you in any way they can for reasons that law-abiding citizens can only guess at.
- An attack will continue until the victim starts fighting back, or the attackers run out of desire to inflict more harm.
- An attack may come at any time, whether you are prepared for it or not.
- Being young, tall, or male does not make you safe.
- Unarmed self defense is not sufficient when one unarmed victim is attacked by multiple attackers armed with various weapons.
- If fleeing is no longer an option, having a handgun and the skill to use it may be the only things that will save your life.
- It is GREAT to be alive and in good health. Your life and your continuing good health are priceless, and are worth defending.
Hat tip to Peter for linking to this story.
No Safe Areas
Xavier has a slam-dunk post regarding the non-existence of magical Safe Areas where violent crime doesn’t happen.
Vu Kim Son grips for 1911
If you’d like to prettify your 1911, you could do a whole lot worse than a set of grips from Vu Kim Son. Xavier has the details of this unusual story.
Jacksonville.com
Xavier has a link to a surprisingly positive article in the Florida Times-Union about citizens getting concealed carry permits in Jacksonville, FL. As usual, the article indicates an inherent anti-gun bias, but overall it is clear why Jacksonville citizens choose to get their permits: “I carry a gun cause a police officer is too heavy.”
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