Articles by Herschel Smith

Dan Reedy at Ammoland.

Recently while I was at Petco, a man walked in, and he was quite a sight to see. This man was in his late 50’s to early 60’s, in decent shape. He wore green Condor BDU pants bloused on his black 511 Tactical boots, a black 2A moto tee was tucked into his BDU pants. On his hip was an openly carried Springfield XDS, with extended magazine, jammed into a Serpa holster. He was buying some dog food.

Immediately after paying, his head dives into his smartphone like his neck is a wet noodle. I watch him as he exits, and he remains like this all the way until he gets into his new Chevy Colorado. The man is almost is (sic) struck by two vehicles on his way through the parking lot, with him completely oblivious to the world around him. Bad gun, bad holster, bad outfit, bad mindset. Classic. I’ve seen guys like him dozens of times and it’s always something painfully similar to this.

… open carry is often a sign of incompetence, and I almost exclusively advise people against the practice. I’ve never seen anyone publicly open carry with good equipment, nor with any serious amount of awareness or training.

[ … ]

Open carry doesn’t deter people from attacking cops, and they actually have some level of training to defend against that on top of holsters designed to defeat a gun grab. In addition to training and quality retention holsters, police can call for backup in a jam. I doubt many of you, if any, can say the same thing.

[ … ]

Open carry also presents issues outside of the gunfight. Now you’re alerting everyone to the presence of your firearm, threat or not. This means it is automatically in play in any defensive encounter, not something you can choose to reveal or continue hiding based on the situation at hand. With the gun openly displayed, you are now someone who can be dealt with quickly, instead of you waiting for your moment to counterattack.

[ … ]

Go get good training, read quality resources, and buy good equipment. If you don’t take my word for it, trust people like Greg Ellifritz, who has an awesome piece compiling over 60 recent examples of open carriers losing their guns or being killed due to carrying openly. He then goes on to link dozens of other articles where various experts like Massad Ayoob, Jeff Gonzales, and others give their opinions on the subject.

Dan has made about every mistake you can make in this article.  It’s difficult to know where to begin.

First of all, he displays a very off-putting and bigoted objection to the man’s chosen weapon, a Springfield Armory pistol.  I do not have a SA pistol, but I once did.  I traded it because I wanted a non-striker fired gun.  I only shoot hammer fired pistols.  But while I had it, it was reliable, accurate, trustworthy, and virtually indestructible.  You could have beaten it with a sledgehammer and it wouldn’t have changed a thing about its performance.  It would still be accurate and reliable.  I never had a failure in thousands of rounds.  His bigotry doesn’t do his argument any favors.  I hate it when others lampoon the possessions of others, whether weapons or something else.  I hate it.  He literally lost me with that statement.

Next, “open carry is often a sign of incompetence.”  He doesn’t really know that.  He just made it up.  This isn’t analysis, journalism, or anything else of value.

Next, he makes a hero out of cops who have had all of this “training.”  My wife and I were eating a dinner recently when we saw a cop directing traffic in the adjacent road.  She had to ask me, “How did he pass the test to qualify as a cop, and how does he even move, much less run?”  Of course, he doesn’t.  He probably weighed 350 pounds.  I’ve had a police captain from a major city in the U.S. tell me that most carriers – concealed or open – can shoot better than cops.  Cops normally qualify once a year and never get range time in between.  I’ve had another police sergeant tell me that they shoot striker fired guns because he would never trust his people to de-cock a hammer.

Give me a break with all the super-cop talk.

Next, he cites “examples” of open carriers who have had their weapons taken from them.  Well, then get a retention holster and do better at situational awareness.  There are also downsides to concealed carry, from being slower to presentation, to sweating your weapon (there are many more not listed here).  It’s all just a choice.

Besides, as many instances of both open and concealed carry that happen in America every day, I doubt that this number of situations where a person has had their weapon taken from them even moves the needle in terms of a statistical analysis.  Put another way, this small number of instances would constitute a statistically insignificant metric and I’m not the least impressed by it.

Next, I object to the notion that as a Christian man, I have some sort of duty to be the last one shot at because I want to plan my attack while I see women and children gunned down.  That’s obscene.

Finally, he cites Massad Ayoob.  Yea, he also advises talking to cops without the presence of an attorney.  I do not read anything he has to say.

But I will remark that this guy gets my vote (if I was a citizen in Florida).

An Escambia County man running for a commissioner seat was arrested on July 4 after officers found him openly carrying a prohibited gun and waving at people on a street corner, according to officials with the Pensacola Police Department.

Officers said Stanley McDaniels, 39, was standing on the corner of Baylen Street and Main Street waving at people for just over five hours. When officers approached McDaniels, they saw that he had a black gun in the waistband of his pants. Officials told McDaniels open carry was not allowed in the state of Florida and asked if he had any identification. McDaniels then pulled out his Florida Conceal Carry Permit and showed officers.

Officers noticed that McDaniels was holding a pamphlet and, when asked what it was, McDaniels told officers it was the Constitution. One officer said while he was having a casual conversation with McDaniels, he talked about all the work he had done within the community. McDaniels also had a camera set up on a tripod filming and he allegedly said he was going to take it to the Supreme Court.

McDaniels is running as a Republican for the Escambia County Commissioner District 4 seat, according to the county’s website.

Officers ran McDaniels criminal history and it came up with no results. An officer then removed the gun from McDaniels waistband which turned out to be a Beretta M9 with nine rounds in the clip and one in the chamber. All of the gun-related items were turned into the property management as evidence.

I admire his courage to challenge the idiotic law against open carry in Florida.

As for whether you carry openly or conceal your firearms, I couldn’t care less.  Make your own choice.  Unlike the author at Ammoland, I wouldn’t presume to know your situation or try to tell you what to do.

The gun community has its controllers too, and I object to controllers.

Source.

Amalgamated Bank CEO Priscilla Sims Brown says the reasons major credit card companies have given for not supporting the tracking of gun purchases don’t hold up.

Merchant category codes (MCC) are used for all kinds of purchases by card companies, but not firearms.

Whether you’re getting your car repaired, or buying dinner, nearly every business that takes a credit card has a unique merchant code that reports your purchase — except when you buy a firearm.

A merchant category code, typically referred to as MCC, is a four-digit number used by credit card companies to classify different types of businesses and identify the types of goods or services that a company sells. They were first mandated by the Internal Revenue Service in 2004, and currently, the MCC guidelines are maintained by the International Organization for Standardization.

If you have ever been called by your bank, asking you to confirm prior purchases that were detected as potentially fraudulent, that was by way of an MCC. Credit card companies use MCC intelligence and data to find aberrations or patterns in consumer purchases to prevent things ranging from fraud to human trafficking.

Priscilla Sims Brown, president & CEO of Amalgamated Bank, told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin at the Evolve Global Summit on Wednesday that the banking and financial industry can, and should, use these codes to track gun purchases in order to help prevent acts of gun violence.

“While there are merchant codes for the hair salon and the shoe shine place and every other retailer, there’s no merchant code for gun stores,” said Brown. “If we did have a merchant code for gun stores, we could detect patterns that would indicate that there had been something unusual going on.”

Credit card companies could detect any unusual activity, and submit a suspicious activity report with law enforcement, if needed.

Okay mommy hen.  We know you want to be controller of the whole world.  All CEOs of big corporations do.  Your job is just a chance to run the lives of other people because you know best.

But you see, I see things a little differently.  I see your desire to control others as sinful.

I think this is useful because to be frank, oftentimes we aren’t carrying full size pistols, depending upon the circumstances (for instance, in non-permissive environments).  So I suspect there are more than a few readers who carry “pocket pistols” from time to time.

I prefer wheel guns over pistols for pocket carry for a whole bunch of reasons I won’t outline.  It looks to me like the 38 special performed significantly better than the 9mm.

First look at Recoil.

The larger model (the only one that would interest me) torches at 1000 lumens.  I’ve never used a laser before.

I can see the use in a laser, but a real need to zero it with the optic at the range, as well as the need to limit the use in a gun fight (for fear of flagging your position).

The price is a bit cheaper than the equivalent SureFire models (lumens, that is).

What do readers think?

Via Clayton Cramer.

Here is the letter from the Hawaii AG sent to CLEOs.

I’m not so sure.  They may be tired of fighting it.  I had inquired of friend of TCJ Dave Hardy on the status of Young v. Hawaii right after Bruen came out, and he thought it would be granted, vacated and remanded.  He was right.

Then friend of TCJ Stephen Stamboulieh told me on June 30th that he was working on a filing to the Ninth Circuit on Young.  We’ll see what happens.

Then again, the legislature may be working hard behind the scenes to figure out how to follow New York and make applicants sit through days of classes and qualify for a week at the range.

This is something most carriers should be able to do, since most handgun carriers I know are better with their weapons than cops.  But still, this should not have to be done.

From a Reddit/Firearms post.

“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” – Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution, Draft 1, 1776

“The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.” – Samuel Adams, Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, 1788

“As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms.” – Tench Coxe, Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789

“What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms.” – Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, December 20, 1787

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined…. The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun.” – Patrick Henry, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778

“The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” – Thomas Jefferson, Commonplace Book (quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria), 1774-1776

“A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks.” – Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, August 19, 1785.

“The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.” – Thomas Jefferson, letter to to John Cartwright, 5 June 1824

“I enclose you a list of the killed, wounded, and captives of the enemy from the commencement of hostilities at Lexington in April, 1775, until November, 1777, since which there has been no event of any consequence … I think that upon the whole it has been about one half the number lost by them, in some instances more, but in others less. This difference is ascribed to our superiority in taking aim when we fire; every soldier in our army having been intimate with his gun from his infancy.” – Thomas Jefferson, letter to Giovanni Fabbroni, June 8, 1778

“To disarm the people…is the most effectual way to enslave them.” – George Mason, referencing advice given to the British Parliament by Pennsylvania governor Sir William Keith, The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adooption of the Federal Constitution, June 14, 1788

“I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers.” – George Mason, Address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 4, 1788

“Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops.” – Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, October 10, 1787.

“A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves…and include, according to the past and general usuage of the states, all men capable of bearing arms…  “To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.” – Richard Henry Lee, Federal Farmer No. 18, January 25, 1788

“This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty…. The right of self defense is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.” – St. George Tucker, Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1803.

History is on our side.  More important, God is on our side, which means the truth is on our side.

News from Atlanta.

It looks to me like he was in retreat to cover and didn’t aim well or land any shots.  Too bad.  But at least the presence of the rifle made the assailants flee.

No one needs an AR-15 for self defense.  Tell that to the man who was just on the receiving end of 20+ rounds.

Or tell that to Stephen Bayezes.

Or tell that to the pregnant woman who used an AR-15 to defend her family.

F&S.

A new pill undergoing trials at Duke University may be the answer to poisonous snakebites. Currently, snakebite victims need specific antivenin for the species they were bit by, and that medicine needs to be administered intravenously at a hospital. The antivenin called varespladib-methy in pill form may change that, curing a broad spectrum of bites from different snakes.

According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 2.7 million people get bit by venomous snakes each year around the world. Venomous snakes kill between 81,000 and 138,000 people annually and leave three times that many people with disabilities. Many victims are struck in remote, rural areas with limited access to antivenin, making time one of the biggest factors in saving those bitten by snakes. But researchers hope that a pill-form antivenin would change that.

I’m not sure what “pretty long time” means, and I don’t like the sound of that.  But I do like the idea of something other than what we currently use.  I’ll communicate with the doctor and see if I can’t dig up some more facts.

For those of you who don’t currently know anything about how this all goes down, I do know a little something.  My dog Heidi always had a penchant for messing with snakes.  It was something pathological about her.  She started pawing at a Copperhead one night on a walk and got bitten in the paw.

It swelled up the size of a softball and I feared she would lose the leg, or part of it.  The emergency Vet I took her to gave her some anti-inflammatory medicine and antibiotics and sent her home.  I slept with her that night.  She was pitiful.  She recovered though.

When I asked the Vet about antivenin and studied it later, as it turns out each treatment of that stuff ranged up to $15,000 (at that time, several years ago).  It is biological material and degrades with time, and they don’t give it to animals.  I wouldn’t have been able to afford it anyway.

They create antivenin by injecting cattle (usually in Mexico) with small amounts of snake venom and then extracting the blood products over time after the cattle have adapted to it.  For it to be viable, it has to be refrigerated.  This isn’t something every hospital has sitting around (sometimes it has to be delivered via a “life flight”), and even if most or all did, snakes bite at the most inopportune time, well away from hospitals.

If Heidi had gotten bitten by a Rattlesnake, she would have been dead within minutes or perhaps a couple of hours.  So would a human without treatment.  Oftentimes, humans lose arms, legs, or other body parts, when bitten by Rattlesnakes.  Water Moccasins (Cottonmouths) also kill with a neurotoxin.  Copperheads aren’t quite the deadly threat that Rattlesnakes or Water Moccasins are, but in order to keep from losing appendages, you have to seek treatment.

A tablet like they’re describing would go a long way towards reducing the cost of this treatment and expand its availability when most needed.

As I said, I’ll try to communicate with the doctor and find out more.  For those of us to bang around in the bush or work on farms or ranches, this is important stuff.

UPDATE: Related, a little boy in Colorado was killed by a Rattlesnake.

I guess Tim has discovered the tactical lever action gun.  I think this is the first video he’s done on lever action rifles.

Via Radley Balko, news from NM.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An overnight SWAT standoff with a suspect ended with a house fire in southeast Albuquerque. Police have confirmed that a 14-year-old boy was found dead inside the home after the fire was put out.

Police said the suspect, Qiaunt Kelley, was wanted on a federal felony warrant for robbery. Police said they tracked the suspect to the home on the 8100 block of San Joaquin Avenue SE at around 10 p.m. Wednesday, but the suspect and the teenage boy hid in the home.

Several hours later, at around 3 a.m., police saw smoke emerging from the windows. Firefighters were eventually able to put the fire out, but officials said the front half of the house was engulfed in flames.

The suspect reportedly exited the home as Albuquerque Fire Rescue was extinguishing the fire. He was taken into custody and then transported to a local hospital for burn injuries.

The 14-year-old boy, however, was found dead by fire crews and police officers. No official cause of death has been determined at this time.

Albuquerque Police Department Chief Harold Medina said in addition to the felony arrest warrant, the suspect was a person of interest in several violent crimes in Albuquerque.

[ … ]

KOB 4 spoke with a woman whose sister and her family lived there. She said the people involved in the SWAT standoff weren’t related to her family and did not live there, but were acquaintances of her nephew who stopped by to pick up a bike. Now, she’s questioning how police and the SWAT team handled the situation.

The family is also blaming police for starting the fire, claiming flash bang grenades ignited it.

Police confirmed that multiple “munitions” were used at the scene – they’re used in SWAT situations to get suspects to surrender. They are working with AFR to determine if one caused the fire.

Good old fashioned police work – staking out, investigation, interviews, questioning suspects, arrest warrants signed by competent judges – is out the window.

Just call SWAT and throw grenades.  It’s how business is done these days.