Should he have shot this homeless man?

A close friend of mine is a police officer who recently took a second job as a security guard to earn extra money. He works for a large department store and last week was his very first day on the job. After his first shift he called me and said, “you’re never going to believe what happened to me tonight.”

Well, he proceeded to tell me that there are a lot of homeless people in the area he works. He said one of his security guard duties is to clear the homeless people off the benches in and around the store, which to me sounds like a full time job in itself.

He said that while he was attempting to clear one of the homeless people off of a bench, the guy pulled a knife on him. Before he could finish his story I interrupted him and asked, “did you draw your gun and how close did you come to shooting the guy?”

A drunken homeless man…

My friend said the guy was very drunk and slowly pulled out the knife and that he simply slapped it out of his hands and then called the police. He then told me that he didn’t feel his life was in danger at the time and he didn’t feel deadly force was necessary, which was why he hadn’t drawn his gun and used it.

In short, my friend gave the perfect answer to why he hadn’t shot the man. In a large majority of instances, if someone pulls a knife on you then using deadly force is justified. However, the key factor is that you have to believe your life is in immediate danger or that the person threatening you could cause seriously bodily injury.

Luckily…

My friend is well trained and understands the law. But imagine if he didn’t. Imagine if he had drawn his gun and shot and killed the homeless man. A few hours later, police would be watching the security surveillance tapes and they would see a drunken homeless man who slowly took out a knife and probably appeared to be no serious threat. My friend could have gone to jail for a “bad” shooting.

Of course, a good lawyer could have probably gotten him off because the homeless guy did have a knife, but my friend would have had to live with the guilt for the rest of his life knowing that he had killed someone who he knew he shouldn’t have.  

The bottom line is, every single shooting and deadly force incident is different and only you will know if you feel your life is in immediate danger. Also, if you’re walking around with a gun and you’re still not clear on your state’s deadly force laws, please look them up today. You and I know that carrying a gun is a big responsibility and knowing the deadly force laws is a major part of that.

Where to put your finger on the trigger?

Trigger control is without a doubt the toughest part of becoming an accurate shooter. Most people can easily align the sights and acquire a proper grip, but when it comes to pulling the trigger, that’s when things start to break down.

The thing is, many people don’t even start out correctly learning how to master the trigger. In other words, they don’t put their finger on the trigger in the proper place from the beginning and that obviously affects the rest of their shooting.

So where exactly should you put your finger on the trigger? Well, like most things when it comes to shooting, there is no correct answer. You see, the majority of instructors will tell you that you want to pull the trigger using the middle of the pad of your finger.

Use the crease?

And a small percentage of instructors will tell you that you want to pull the trigger using the crease of your first knuckle. So who’s right? As I just mentioned, nobody is.

Personally, I pull the trigger using the pad of my finger. However, because of the length of my fingers I don’t pull the trigger using exactly the middle of the pad. The trigger happens to be slightly off center, closer to the crease of my knuckle.

Of course, since I’m always looking for ways to improve my shooting, I have tried pulling the trigger using the crease of my first knuckle. Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. I’m a good shot using where I place my finger now, but when I tried the crease it might as well have been a blind man taking target practice.

What Massad Ayoob does…

However, nationally known firearms instructor Massad Ayoob is someone who uses the crease of the first knuckle and he’s an excellent shot. So here’s what I recommend you do the next time you go to the shooting range:

I recommend placing your finger in the middle of the pad, in the knuckle crease, and even off-center of the pad. You just might surprise yourself and you might be the small percentage of people who shoot better using the crease.

You also might be someone who’s been using the crease and realize that you’re a heck of a lot more accurate when you only use the pad and don’t put so much finger on the trigger.

Just remember to always do what works best for you when it comes to shooting and the fundamentals. Don’t let any instructor or any friend of yours try and tell you to do it one way if you know your way is what makes you more accurate and a better shooter overall.

My bullet proof laptop bag

I’m always looking for the slight edge when it comes to my safety…

And for a while now I’ve been looking into bullet proof products.  Of course, I could be ultra safe and wear a bullet proof vest every day but that’s not going to happen. As any police officer will tell you, wearing a bullet proof vest is not comfortable and in 90 degree weather it’s downright miserable.

I’d say that anybody who tells you they wear a vest on a daily basis is either lying to you or they’re probably on the verge of doing something illegal and they know they’re going to need it.

So instead of sweating to death in a vest I started looking at other options such as bullet proof backpacks and laptop bags. However, they were very expensive (usually $500 or more) and I didn’t see anything I liked.

Well, I contacted a fellow I know that makes bullet proof products for the military and police. I told him that I simply wanted a bullet proof panel that I could use in my laptop bag and transfer to other bags. I also wanted to use it for dry fire practice in my house and for unloading and loading my guns in my house.

I told him it had to be level IIIA armor.  Level IIIA armor is the highest level of protection that is made for concealable armor. It’s the stuff SWAT teams use and stops up to a .44 magnum.

I decided that a 10 x 14 size panel would be ideal and my friend kindly agreed to custom make one for me.  As soon as I picked it up from him I began using it in my laptop bag, which comes pretty much everywhere with me.  

I also used it when unloading and loading my guns and dry firing in my house. Plus, it comes in real handy when I have to clean my Glock since you have to pull the trigger to clean it.

The thing is, as soon as I got it I wanted to shoot the panel and test it out. However, I couldn’t bring myself to sacrifice the panel as body armor does cost a decent amount of money. However, before a pistol course this past weekend I decided to finally put it to the test.

Let’s just say I was pleased with what I saw and feel much better about having the panel around for dry fire and other uses. Now I just need to contact my friend and get a new one.

To see the video you can go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2ZA9IMAHak&feature=youtu.be

Perhaps it will encourage you to get a panel for yourself. Even if you don’t carry it around in your laptop bag, at least you have a safe backstop to point your gun in your house.

Also, if you do want a panel send an email to lisa@concealedcarryacademy.com. My friend gave me a very good deal on the panel so I can get you one for a good price.

Learning from the NYPD Shooting

You’ve probably heard about the shooting that took place last Friday in New York City. In short, a former employee killed his co-worker and was then killed by two New York City Police Officers.  One officer fired his gun 7 times and the other officer fired his gun 9 times.

During this hail of gunfire 9 innocent bystanders were wounded all from shots fired by the NYPD. Luckily for the police, nobody was seriously injured by the stray bullets and all of the rounds ended up in a persons leg or arm.

Now, as any shooter knows, the fourth rule of firearms safety is “know your backstop,” and don’t take the shot if you may end up hitting an innocent bystander. And although the police obviously violated this rule, it appears that nothing is going to happen to the officers’ and they’ve already been raised by both the Police Commissioner and the Mayor.

But here’s the thing…

You and I know that most police departments are still a “good ole’ boy network” and the police are able to get away with things that you and I never could. After all, just imagine if you or I had stopped a crazed gunman but in the process had wounded 9 people with stray bullets?

Just imagine the TV headlines… The same Mayor Bloomberg who is praising his officers would be calling for more gun control and talking about how Americans shouldn’t be allowed to have guns. 

Also, before I forget to mention this, there are two reasons I don’t really blame the officers for what they did. First, when you’re in that type of situation you get incredible tunnel vision and they most likely didn’t see any of the bystanders and only saw the shooter.

Secondly…

Most police officers are very poorly trained when it comes to shooting, and I doubt could tell you the 4 rules of firearms safety if you asked them. I know this as a fact because I was a police officer and most officers aren’t really into shooting and only go to the range every 6 months when they are forced to qualify with their duty weapon.

So the lessons that you need to learn from this incident are that you need to be aware of your surroundings in a shooting. It’s not easy because you’ll get tunnel vision like everyone, but if you end up hitting 9 bystanders you may be looking at jail time.

Also, this incident proves once again you do not want to rely on the police when your life is on the line. If you’ve ever taken any of my training courses or any of the other schools such as Gunsite, I can promise you that you’re better trained than the majority of police officers. It may not be the most comforting thing to hear, but you’re the only one who is truly responsible for your family’s safety, which is why you should train as often as time and money will allow. 

A coming race war?

I think I’ll preface this by saying that I have zero respect for anyone that judges another person by their race or religion. (That’s putting it lightly.) The fact is, I’m Mormon and twice in my life I’ve had people tell me that they wanted to train with me but found out I was Mormon and couldn’t trust a Mormon to train them in the use of firearms.

In another instance, I was doing training when I walked up to a group of instructors from another school that I did not know. They began talking about how they could never train with a black man and they used a very ugly word.

In both cases, I wish I could say I did the Christian thing and tried to help these ignorant folks or something along those lines. But the truth is, I simply walked away because I knew if I opened my mouth I would tell them what I thought of them and a fight would likely ensue. And since guns were present, it was much better for me to not say a word, control my temper, and get away from them.

I bring all this up…

Because recently I was working for a client and I had to do some in-depth research on the KKK and the Black Panthers. I’m sure you’re familiar with them but if you spend 5 minutes searching online you’ll be amazed at how sick each of these groups really is.

And I say 5 minutes because after that short amount of time you’ll feel sick to your stomach from what you’re reading and won’t want to see anymore. In a way, I feel sorry for these people because they must have had horrible childhoods to now be spewing such hate.

But I was researching them because of the upcoming election and because each group has stated that there is going to be some outbreak of violence if their candidate doesn’t win. If Romney wins, the Black Panthers claim they’re going to go around killing white people. And if Obama wins, the KKK and skinheads claim they’re going to do the same to Black people.

I realize these groups having been saying this type of thing for years…

But lately the talk is becoming uglier and happening more often. If you don’t believe me, just read an article about Obama and then scroll down to where people can share their comments. It won’t take you long to see the hate in this world.

So what can you do about this? Well, I know that 99% of people reading this aren’t racists, but that doesn’t mean you still won’t get attacked by one of these hate groups. A stray bullet doesn’t care if you’re black or white or Asian. In other words, on the night of the election I wouldn’t be hanging out in any major cities… especially Chicago. That place is going to have an all out war any day now.

I’d also be extra vigilant in the days leading up to the election. If you want to see how quickly a city can collapse you should watch some of the videos of the Rodney King riots. In a matter of minutes society broke down and innocent victims were being pulled from their cars and beaten.

I know this week I didn’t share my usual firearms tips, but sometimes I just want to make you think. And a lot of people think the economy is the biggest danger this nation faces, but it’s looking more and more like a race war, which is just another reason why you need to carry a firearm to protect yourself and you need to have good situational awareness and not do anything foolish like hang out at a skinhead biker bar on the night of the election (or ever).

Do you shoot human-like targets?

Right now I’m still on the West Coast and I’ve been traveling around Utah and Nevada looking at new shooting ranges to use for future training classes.

And the other day while I was inspecting one of the ranges the gentleman who was showing me around said, “You don’t use targets that show real people do you?” I explained to him that I use several different targets throughout my courses and some of them are indeed human-like.

He then got a frown on his face and said, “we do mainly hunter education here and we don’t like to encourage people to shoot other people so we don’t want human-like targets on the range.”

A comedy routine?

When he said that, I almost laughed out loud thinking he was deadpanning some comedy routine, but when I realized he was serious I simply said “okay” and left. The sad fact is, I guess this illustrates, much to my surprise, that all gun people aren’t perfect.

I do realize there are a lot of ranges and even states that don’t allow human-like targets. (I don’t know if this true, but I was once told that the state of Massachusetts did not allow human targets.)

Now for people who have common sense, and I like to think I’m one of them, obviously, shooting a human-like target is not going to encourage me to want to go out and kill people. Normal people (like you and me) have no desire to kill another person and will try to avoid it at all costs.

The only people who want to kill others are already “messed up” in the head and I’m pretty sure they’re going to kill people whether they’ve been training on human-like targets or bottle-shaped targets.

The thing is…

Us “normal people” who carry guns for personal protection need to make our training as reality-based as possible. When someone breaks into your home at 3am and tries to kill your family it’s going to be a person, not a bottle-shaped cardboard silhouette.

And if you’re sitting on the range and you get queasy about shooting at a human-like target then carrying a gun is not for you. It’s better you find out now before the gun is taken from you when you hesitate to use it, and instead it’s used on you.

The bottom line is, at my pistol courses we shoot at human-like targets because that’s what the threat is most likely going to be one day (it could be an animal too) and you need to train as close to real life as possible.

So if your range allows it I encourage you to take a few human-like targets with you next time or if you dry fire in your house you can start dry firing on a human-like target. And if your friends or family members tell you it’s “inhumane” or wrong to use a human-like target, just remember that these will be the same people begging you to grab your gun and protect them when someone’s trying to break into your house or cause them harm.  

Locking up my guns from my daughter

On Friday, my wife and I welcomed the newest member of the Concealed Carry Academy family. Although, unlike my other employees, this one won’t prove useful for a number of years and will probably end up costing me a small fortune... Her name is Scarlet and she weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces.

Now that I’ve had my first child I can fully understand how someone could go all Charles Bronson Death Wish for messing with your child. I also understand why people’s gun purchases diminish after a child. (Let’s just say I almost had a heart attack when I found out the price of the baby pictures they take right before you leave the hospital. And yes, we got them. I may be cheap, but I’m wise enough to pick and choose my battles.)

And now that I’ve got my first child at home I thought it would be appropriate today to cover the topic of how I lock up all of my guns. I have a lot of guns in my house and I utilize a variety of safes and “gadgets” to keep them secure.

The two most common safes in my house are the Gun Vault and the Stack-On PDS 500.

Both of these safes are fast opening, allowing the gun to be accessed in 3 seconds or less. Personally, I have guns stored on every level of my house and thus, one of these safes is on each level so that I can quickly access a gun if need be.

Also, both of these safes require me to punch in buttons to open them and they don’t use any biometric/fingerprint scanning. The biometric technology in most safes is not good enough yet and you don’t want to be killed by an intruder because you swiped your finger 15 times and the safe still wouldn’t open.

For my long guns – shotguns and rifles – I do a few different things.

For some of my guns I have them locked in a hard side case. For guns that I want slightly quicker access to I use the Breechvault (made for shotguns by the Gun Vault Company) and the Magvault (for my AR-15, also made by Gun Vault.)

Of course, there a dozens of different firms that produce vaults and safes, but the important thing to remember is that all guns should be locked and secure somehow. In other words, I meet a lot of people who tell me they have guns hidden in their house in secret locations (like the clock the NRA sells that really holds a gun.)

These are obviously not a good idea, especially if you have kids around because they only hide guns, they don’t safely secure them. One other thing I want to quickly cover is what I discussed last week. When I’m in my house I’ll often carry my Ruger LCP or a S&W snubby in my pocket.

When carrying these guns I’m always mindful of where the gun is pointing to make sure I’m not muzzling anyone. And if I ever take off my pants to shower or change, then the gun obviously goes right into a safe and not on the ground still in the pocket of the pants.

And don’t forget, even if you don’t have young kids you probably still have friends, family members, plumbers, electricians, the cleaning lady, and other people walking through your house. So lock up those guns so nobody can access them, except you and your spouse.