Much of Team Kimberlin’s behavior has been fodder for the Hogewash! ridicule machine. Take this I’m Not Making This Up, You Know post from five years ago tday for example.
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Self-awareness isn’t his strong suit, is it?
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He must have learned gun safety from the same trainer as Alec Baldwin.
Jar Jar with AR
Jar Jar Binger aims an AR15 at the Rittenhouse jury.
His finger is on the trigger, and he has admitted that he was relying on someone else to have verified the rifle was unloaded rather than check it himself.
Given the recent news of what appears to be an accidental shooting on a movie set, it may useful to remind ourselves of four important rules.
1. All firearms are always handled as if they are loaded.
2. Never point a firearm at anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until the sights are aligned with your target.
4. Be sure of your target.
I think so, Brain … but what if his mind was loaded with blanks?
I’ve read and heard some rather absurd comments about what the policeman who shot the knife-wielding teenager in Columbus should have done. Based on my training and experience (I’m a former soldier and a gunfight survivor), the silliest suggestion is that the officer should have shot the assailant in the leg.
The new video from a security camera across the street shows that the shots were taken at a distance of several car lengths. Under slow-fire, target shooting conditions, an above average pistol shooter could probably get an accurate, first shot hit on a stationary target the size of someone’s leg at that range. However, none of those conditions were present. The shot was taken under stress, and both the officer and the assailant were moving. The odds that a leg or arm shot would miss and continue past the target (endangering bystanders) was too great, so the officer aimed for the assailant’s torso, a larger target he was less likely to miss. He continued to fire until he saw the assailant was no longer a threat to the intended victim of the knife attack. Most of us living in the Real World can’t shoot as well as The Lone Ranger did on the radio.
Suppose the assailant had been hit in the leg? Would that have prevented a lunge toward the intended victim? If the femoral artery had been hit, how quickly would the assailant have bled to death? Any shot taken at a human being has the potential of being fatal. That being the case, the safest way of stopping an attack is to fire at the center of mass (for the highest likelihood of a hit without endangering bystanders) and to continue firing until the attack has been stopped.
Was the officer’s performance perfect? Probably not, but it was good enough to save a life.
Other dumb ideas include “warning shots”. A bullet fired in a random direction will strike something eventually. A bullet fired into the air will fall to the ground somewhere. All shots need to be properly aimed. What or who, other than the assailant, should have have been the target of a “warning shot”?
It’s reasonable to ask questions about safe gun handling and proper procedures. It’s counterproductive to offer uninformed advice about life and death situations.
Joe Biden seems to be having trouble with his memory. He is not only forgetting what did, he appears to be having false memories as well. However, he does seem to remember what he heard listening to The Lone Ranger as a kid. The Lone Ranger never shot to kill. Indeed, he tried disarm his opponents as painlessly as possible, often shooting their guns out of their hands. Things may have worked that way on old time radio, but in the Real World, the basic accuracy of the Lone Ranger’s Colt Single Action Army Revolvers and round-to-round variability of even match quality ammunition makes repeatably hitting something the size of another handgun at range beyond a few feet statistically unlikely. One lucky shot, maybe. Two in a row, nope.
Joe Biden says that cops should try to shoot people in the leg. He’s wrong.
Most defensive handgun shootings (whether by civilian police or other citizens) occur at ranges less than 25 feet. 21 feet is the distance often used for part of many handgun qualification course. Most people are doing well to keep all of their hits within a 6 inch group at that distance when shooting on a target range. Under the stress of a gunfight, most people don’t do as well.
Any gunshot at someone is a use of deadly force. It may be justified against an attacker; it’s never justified against an innocent bystander. While a trained sniper with the proper equipment may be justified in taking a shot a a small target, most of us need to aim for something large. That’s why the proper place for a cop to aim is for the center of mass, the torso. He’s less likely to miss and risk injury to a bystander. Aiming for someone’s leg risks missing with the certainty that the bullet will hit someone or something unintended. Of course, if a luck shot should land in the leg, the risk of hitting the femoral artery is substantial, and such a wound can cause someone to bleed to death very quickly.
It’s getting very hard to find practice ammo to use with some of my firearms. All the common calibers are in short supply. While I have reasonable quantities of 20 ga., .38 Special, .45 ACP, and 7.62 x 51 mm rounds on hand, I’ve deleted my stocks to the point that I’m now using other calibers for practice, .243 Win, .30 Carbine, .and .45 Colt, but mostly .22 LR. If the .22 stash runs low, I have a couple of bricks of .22 Short ammo and an old High Standard target pistol chambered for it. I may be using my 16 ga. for hunting this fall.
Which brings me to the point of this post: If you’re buying a firearm, also buy several hundred rounds of practice ammunition at the same time, and use that ammo to familiarize yourself with the new gun and verify that it functions properly. (And cleaning the gun after using it will help you understand how it works, so buy a cleaning kit too.) If you can’t buy enough ammunition for that introductory practice, you probably should buy a different gun.
If it’s your first gun or if it’s been a long time since you handled firearms, get training in safe gun handling. I recommend the NRA’s Home Firearm Safety Course or you state’s Hunter Safety Course. The online version of these courses will give you good information, but proper hands-on instruction will give you a better opportunity to practice safe handling skills.
Finally, make sure you have what is necessary (slings, holsters, storage boxes, or lockers) to safely carry and store your firearm.
It’s being reported that when rioters tried to move into a residential area of Kenosha, at least one person fired warning shots at them. I was afraid this sort of thing would happen.
It’s understandable that an armed citizen would attempt to repel rioters entering his neighborhood. However, one should not use deadly force irresponsibly, and in almost every instance so called “warning shots” are not justified.
First, a fired bullet is going hit someone or something. A random shot can kill or injure a bystander or do unintended damage. The person pulling the trigger would be responsible.
Second, deadly force is only morally and (IANAL, but lawyers tell me) legally justified in response to an imminent threat of death or serious injury. If deadly force must be used, it must be applied only to the actual threat.
Third, pointing a gun at someone else is an assault. One shouldn’t do it except in response to an actual threat.
I was taught—first by my father, a lawyer with law enforcement experience, and later in the Army—to keep a firearm holstered or pointed in a safe direction until there was no choice left but to open fire. I was also taught that because shooting someone is a use of deadly force, choosing to shoot implies shooting to kill. Not to warn. To kill.
It looks as if things are about to get very messy.
Today is yet another day when I wish things weren’t proceeding as I have foreseen.
One of the most amazing mistakes that Brett Kimberlin has made in his failed campaign of brass knuckles reputation management was recruiting Bill Schmalfeldt as one of his PR flacks. In addition to being ineffective at promoting Team Kimberlin’s interest, Schmalfeldt has been the source of much of the pointage, laughery, and mockification directed at Kimberlin and his minions. A Derp Brain Photo included in a post six years ago has been one of my favorite examples of Schmalfeldt unforced errors.
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Cabin Boy Bill’s bio says he served during the Viet Nam era as Navy Medical Corpsman and that he did a tour with a Marine Corps unit. Based on that, I assume that he would have qualified with the M16 rifle and that he should still retain at least a passing familiarity with it and the Marines’ standards of safe gun handling.
Schmalfeldt has spent the past couple of days whining about an unfairly cropped photo which he says unjustly portrays him as “crazed and evil.” This image is an unedited copy of one he posted at Breitbart Unmasked.
The Four Rules of Gun Safety (as stated by Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper, USMC Ret.) are
1. All firearms are always handled as if they were loaded.
2. Never point a firearm at anything you are unwilling to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until the sights are aligned on the target.
4. Be sure of your target.
This picture shows the Cabin Boy violating all four at once.
The picture clearly shows that Bill Schmalfeldt is irresponsible. The Gentle Reader may form his own opinions about “crazed” or “evil.”
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The Cabin Boy™ claimed that the rifle belonged to his step son. If that’s the case, Schmalfeldt was probably breaking the law when that picture was taken. The rifle appears to have a 30-round magazine, and at the time the picture was taken, the maximum legal magazine capacity in Maryland was 20 rounds. While the step son may have bought the magazine while it was still legal and his possession of it might have been grandfathered in, it was not legal for the Cabin Boy™ to have it in his possession.
Cabin Boy Bill’s bio says he served during the Viet Nam era as Navy Medical Corpsman and that he did a tour with a Marine Corps unit. Based on that, I assume that he would have qualified with the M16 rifle and that he should still retain at least a passing familiarity with it and the Marines’ standards of safe gun handling.
Schmalfeldt has spent the past couple of days whining about an unfairly cropped photo which he says unjustly portrays him as “crazed and evil.” This image is an unedited copy of one he posted at Breitbart Unmasked.
The Four Rules of Gun Safety (as stated by Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper, USMC Ret.) are
1. All firearms are always handled as if they were loaded.
2. Never point a firearm at anything you are unwilling to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until the sights are aligned on the target.
4. Be sure of your target.
This picture shows the Cabin Boy violating all four at once.
The picture clearly shows that Bill Schmalfeldt is irresponsible. The Gentle Reader may form his own opinions about “crazed” or “evil.”