Access to an empty gun...

Access To Empty Guns, A Dead End

By John Farnam

Ft Collins, CO --(Ammoland.com)- Access to guns:

“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg.” ~ CS Lewis

In the western feature film, “Silverado” (1985 tiny.cc/3xz0tx ), one of the main characters, “Emmett” (palyed by Scott Glenn) is shown out in the desert intensely practicing his shooting skills.

After demonstrating superlative acumen, knocking cans around, he smartly holsters his empty revolver and then walks toward his horse. Out of nowhere, the crooked deputy, “Garth,” (played by Sam Garney)appears and says,

“You’re empty, Mister!”

Emmett is subsequently captured and gets the snot beat out of him!

I am reminded that, no matter how skilled you are, nor how much you practice, an unloaded gun, even when in your hand, is still utterly ineffective for any practical purpose

I am also reminded of most “competition” participants. Nearly all leave the range with empty guns, locked away. This, after shooting all day in simulated “real life”scenarios! The minuscule few who do carry off the range, don’t carry a gun that even slightly resembles the one they “practice” with!

They piously exercise “real life,” but they don’t live it!

In their next lethal emergency, I wonder how much “prep time” they foolishly imagine they’re going to get. Are they really expecting a “miracle?”

The foregoing also unhappily describes nearly all military small-arms training, even “concealed-carry” classes conducted on military bases. We “practice” with guns, but we’re never allowed to even touch one outside the range. We’re supposed to be effective in battle, but our lives all the rest of the time are obviously not worth protecting!

We occasionally “do it,” but we never “live it!”

I am finally reminded of the attack of Pearl Harbor, 7 Dec 1941. All those soldiers, sailors, and Marines, and virtually none with loaded guns! Guns and ammunition were “safely locked away.” They still are!

We seem to have forgotten the Lesson, because we don’t want to remember how foolishly arrogant we were!

A few of us have adopted being continually “armed and dangerous,” as a lifestyle. All our practice is with the very gun(s) we actually carry the rest of the time. We really do “live it,” on a daily basis.

But, that lifestyle is officially discouraged at all levels of government, even among many police, and is absolutely prohibited among our military personnel.

As a civilization, we are in continual delusion! Accordingly, history will not deal kindly with us, nor should it!

“When we least expect it, life sends us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change. At such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened, nor in insisting that we are ‘not yet ready.’ The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back!” ~ Paulo Coelho

“You are remembered for the rules you break.” ~ Douglas MacArthur

/John

About John Farnam & Defense Training International, Inc
As a defensive weapons and tactics instructor John Farnam will urge you, based on your own beliefs, to make up your mind in advance as to what you would do when faced with an imminent and unlawful lethal threat. You should, of course, also decide what preparations you should make in advance, if any. Defense Training International wants to make sure that their students fully understand the physical, legal, psychological, and societal consequences of their actions or inactions.

It is our duty to make you aware of certain unpleasant physical realities intrinsic to the Planet Earth. Mr Farnam is happy to be your counselor and advisor.

http://www.ammoland.com/2015/02/access-to-empty-guns-a-dead-end/#axzz3Rp8PQggU

Illinois Concealed Carry Weapon Permit Class

$250 - Illinois Concealed Carry Weapon (CCW/CCL) License Training Class

BRING A FRIEND TO CLASS AND GET $50.00 OFF YOUR CLASS FEE!!!

Get your Illinois Conceal Carry License / Permit.... Plus get 3 other CCW's licenses FREE! (Utah CCW, Arizona CCW & Florida CCW) - together safely and legally conceal carry a handgun in over 35 States...!!!

Price: $250 (NO other class fees), 

price includes;

1. Range fees ($25)

2. Illinois Livescan digital fingerprints ($70)

3. Utah & Arizona ink fingerprints ($25)

4. Passport photos ($15)

5. CCW application paperwork 

6. Assistance with CCW application paperwork 

Class Date: Septmeber 26-27th (16 hours)

Location: VFW- Villa Park, Illinois 

331-642-8110 / www.IllinoisCC.com

Guns aren't the problem

"Guns Aren't The Problem" Moms Invade Warzone Chicago To Make A Difference

Aug 5, 2015 

“Army of Mothers” Presence Brings 5 Weeks of Peace, Hopes to Address the Real Issue Instead of Guns

Via Andrea V Watson at DNA Info

When Tamar Manasseh formed Mothers Against Senseless Killings to patrol the neighborhood after a murder in the 7500 block of South Stewart last month, she hoped to stop any retaliatory violence.

They see the city’s shooting epidemic as merely a symptom of the real problem, which can only be solved with a change of mindset, Manasseh said, and not by just simply taking away the guns. “It’s like Englewood is the land that time forgot,” she said. “It’s the land that has been forgotten, but I have hope, I see hope here.”

Manasseh said her ultimate goal is to inspire an example for more community patrols all over, and she is planning on gathering these patrols in the future to teach conflict resolution and strategic placement.

However since they began the patrols over a month ago, they haven’t had any growth in moms or adult volunteers. But one thing they have had is a growth of teenage volunteers, who also want to make a stand to keep their neighborhood safe. Johnny Banks, an executive director of a local community group focusing on family advocacy and workforce development has been also urging people to volunteer but says many are afraid.

With encouraging communities to come together and community police, Manasseh and her fellow moms hope to keep her children safe as well, but she wishes more parents would participate.

“It’s like some people want to put their children in a bubble because they have good kids,” she said. “They want to separate their good kids from all of these bad kids, but your kids are going to grow up in the world alongside those very kids that you tried to shield them from. So wouldn’t it be better if you tried to save them all instead of just yours?”

Donations always help and you can do so at getbehindthemask.org

People this is EXACTLY what needs to be addressed, this is exactly where we need people to take action. Even during the violent week of the 4th of July in Chicago, these moms proved that by addressing the problem in Englewood, a huge difference is made. They made preventative action in one of the most crime infested areas of the country even.

Miguel Faria is an associate editor-in-chief and a world affairs editor of Surgical Neurology International. He is a retired neurosurgeon and neuroscientist, editor and author, medical historian, ethicist, public health critic, and is pro Second Amendment. He critiqued recent studies done by the infamous David Hemenway and others attacking guns as the issue, and he believes this is exactly where people go wrong.

Faria highlights how firearms are always attacked as a smokescreen of the real problem, saying “No other societal causes are remotely considered for the endemic violence in the U.S., such as the decline in educational level, the influence of the popular culture, TV violence, increasing rates of single parenthood and broken families, drug trafficking and gang-related violence, permissive criminal justice system, the state of dependency and alienation fostered by the welfare state — a veritable cultural regression perpetuating immorality and violence that journalist Cal Thomas wrote in a recent column is morally “rotting from within.” This is exactly what I believe.

Guns are tools, they’re nothing but materials that make up an object, you cannot put blame from crime and violence solely on guns.

Unfortunately they will get in the wrong hands, but the criminals need to be addressed and preventative measures need to be made in society to stop crime before it even happens. These moms are addressing the real issue, and are stepping up in such a dangerous situation to ensure that people get love, hope and someone who cares before bad decisions are made.

She is attacking the issue, and we need to join her in bringing these issues to light. Both lives and time are lost by removing guns from the peaceful citizen’s hands who ensure lives and discourage future criminals by exercising their right to bear arms.

http://defendandcarry.com/guns-arent-the-problem-moms-invade-warzone-chicago-to-make-a-difference/

Truth about mass shooting statistics

The Congressional Research Service Center Releases The Truth About Mass Shootings

Aug 4, 2015 

New Study Confirms Mass Shootings Have Seen Little Increase Since 1970

Via Jesse Walker at the reason.com

The report shies away from finding a broad message in the data, but Fox—who praises the study as “very thorough”—sees a moral here. “No matter how you cut it, there’s no epidemic,” he says. “This report should calm the fears that many people have that these numbers are out of control.”

This report takes its data from two different areas. FBI’s series of supplemental homicide reports from 1999 to 2013, of which several scholars addressed to fix errors in the statistics, and then a dataset by Grant Duwe, a criminologist at the Minnesota Department of Corrections and author of Mass Murder in the United States: A History.

The report says that since 1970, the average of mass shootings varied but was just a little bit higher from 2009-’13 and the number of deaths was higher, but concludes “If 2012 were excluded, the averages would actually have been lower than the preceding five-year period.”

Expert on mass murders and professor of criminology at Northeastern University James Fox says something along the same line, that there is “no solid trend” in the numbers. He said there is a large range in the numbers and they tend to vary often.

The mass shootings with the CSR is defined as any gun crime where four or more people are murdered in a single accident. But that covers a large range of shootings, not just your “mass public shootings” which are like the Lafayette shooting where a person opens fire on random people in public. There’s “familicide mass shootings” which a person kills family and then there’s felony mass shootings committed at the same time as a robbery or other crime.

So this is a lot of technical information but just pay attention, 4.4 is the average mass public shootings per year since 1999, but familicide mass shootings came in at 8.5, and felony mass shootings was 8.3. So this means that all that hype about a growing plague of mass shootings is misleading, felony and family mass shootings are twice as common.

Public mass shootings are covered by media way more, because the average person is more fearful of a random public shooter than a person killing in their family. What prevents felony shootings, such as a burglar shooting? YOU. Citizens armed and prepared for defensive gun use, and we all know they happen every day.

Raw totals from this study show an increase of mass public shootings from 1.1 incidents per year in the 70’s to 4.1 in the 2000s. However this doesn’t take into account the population growth since then and the numbers are so minimal that Fox says “Basically, there is no rise, there are some years that are bad, some not so bad.”

So mass public shootings happen extremely rarely and the chart shows that per 10 million americans the victims start from about .5 a year and then goes to 2 at the highest. They’re rare and have had a small rise, but look at them compared to all gun murder victims that happen at the same time.

Firearm murders and crime has been steadily decreasing for quite some time, and the facts make us positive the credit belongs to defensive gun use.

So here are the facts and prepare yourself for some serious thought chewing. The FBI has reports that show a direct correlation between an increase of firearm purchases and reduced crime. Forbes also writes about studies done by Pew Research Center and the U.S Department of Justice that show the same link between reduction of crime and increased gun sales.

Not only that but the article talks about how Chicago and other cities, which are continually tightening gun control, have seen a huge jump in murders. Still unconvinced?

The number of Americans who believe having a gun in the house increases safety has doubled since 2000: 6 out of 10 Americans agree with this.

The Wall Street Journal also writes about how more guns = less crime.

It’s also worth noting that gun-ownership rates in the Midwest (39 percent) and South (50 percent) far exceed gun-ownership rates in the Northeast (22 percent), yet violent crime is down more in the Midwest and South than it is in the Northeast, according to the FBI statistics. And rural areas, where gun-ownership rates also are higher than average, saw a larger reduction in violent crime that metropolitan areas, where gun-ownership rates are lower than average.

This doesn’t include the bottomless pit of defensive gun use instances in which people’s lives are saved every day.

I think this large decrease of crime since the 70s has been because of the awareness of citizens like us, who have seen others be devastated by crime, and have refused to just stand by and let it happen. We refuse to continue watching leaders in our government weaken our country and we refuse be left defenseless at the most crucial moment. We have seen this happen to other countries in history and we refuse to become like them.

By arming ourselves and giving a heavy consequence to those with bad intentions, we refuse to let crime win. We refuse to let criminals and selfish people victimize us, and we will continue to refuse to have ours and our family’s lives threatened and possibly taken away by not exercising our right to the Second Amendment.

http://defendandcarry.com/the-congressional-research-service-center-releases-the-truth-about-mass-shootings/

$100 Utah, Arizona and Florida CCW Permit Class

$100 - Utah, Florida & Arizona CCW License Class - for Illinois residents

Get three (3) non-resident Utah, Florida & Arizona CCW permits / licenses - together legally and safely conceal carry handgun(s) in over 34 States. 

Location: Villa Park,  Illinois 

Date: September 26th (8AM - Noon)

Cost: $100.00 includes (UT & AZ) fingerprints, passport photos, non-resident paper applications and notary of the FL application.

331-642-8110 / www.IllinoisCC.com

Illinois Conceal Carry Weapon (CCW) Permit Class

$250 - Illinois Concealed Carry Weapon (CCW/CCL) License Training Class

BRING A FRIEND TO CLASS AND GET $50.00 OFF YOUR CLASS FEE!!!

Get your Illinois Conceal Carry License / Permit.... Plus get 3 other CCW's licenses FREE! (Utah CCW, Arizona CCW & Florida CCW) - together safely and legally conceal carry a handgun in over 35 States...!!!

Price: $250 (NO other class fees), 

price includes;

1. Range fees ($25)

2. Illinois Livescan digital fingerprints ($70)

3. Utah & Arizona ink fingerprints ($25)

4. Passport photos ($15)

5. CCW application paperwork 

6. Assistance with CCW application paperwork 

Class Date: Septmeber 26-27th (16 hours)

Location: VFW- Villa Park, Illinois 

331-642-8110 / www.IllinoisCC.com

AR 15 FOR HOME DEFENSE

How To Set Up Your AR 15 For Home Defense - Defend and Carry

Aug 6, 2015 | 

AR 15 Mods for Self Defense

The AR 15 seems to be the American darling of semi-automatic rifles. Every single gun shop sells twenty or more different varieties of AR 15 Mods including: upper receivers, lower receivers, grips, magazines, bolt assemblies, shoulder mounts, etc. What the AR 15 is great at is responsive shooting at distance. It is ideal at 10 to 300 yds and effective up to 500 yds* with proper sight alignment.

*Yes, the specs say 800 yds but by the time a 5.56mm NATO round gets to 800, the bullet has stopped spinning and is tumbling.

With all that said, the AR-15 is passably decent in close to short quarters. That distance, for this article, is relatively defined as 1-15 yds. And for that distance, the AR-15 will just have to do.

Home defense, however, has nothing to do with short range, small caliber rifles. It has to do with something that can clear doorways, entry ways, corridors, and rooms quickly and efficiently. And for this purpose, the AR-15 will do fine. Is it ideal? No. 

A semi-automatic or pump-action shotgun loaded with double-ought is ideal. A pistol with laser sight assembly and/or a flashlight is ideal. But let’s pretend those don’t exist. We’re going to discuss:

How you can make your AR-15 Home Defense ready

1. Non-Magnifying Holographic Weapon Sights

This is probably the best Ar 15 mod that would make a great holiday or birthday gift. While it’s not going to do you any favors in bright daylight, under an open field, it will help you out immensely when shooting in a dim indoor environment.

Most (if not all) holographic weapon sights are battery operated. So, make sure to change out the batteries when the time comes and stay on top of it.

We’d recommend keeping a clipboard inside your safe where you list off the dates for battery swaps.

Always calibrate these ar 15 sights on the range.

Never trust anything right out of the box. 

Make it prove itself to you by taking it to the range and training with it. If your AR-15 upper receiver has tactical rails for different sight assemblies – this is ideal. Because the AR-15 is a monster at medium to long range and there’s no reason to limit your capabilities by putting on a fixed (non-removable) non-magnifying holographic weapon sight.

You want specifically non-magnifying holographic weapon sights because you do not want to have to change your field of vision back and forth between magnified and non-magnified lenses.

2. Picatinny Rails or Tactical Rails

Go ahead and get a version of these picatinny rails that complies with other commonly manufactured AR-15 mods and accessories. Not only do they provide a bit more grip than the standard polymer AR-15 handguards, it allows you to customize any AR 15 mod position and is handy with any other ar 15 accessories to fit your needs.

3. AR-15 Front Hand Grip

Ar 15 Front Hand Grip is an important AR 15 mod for home defense. This Ar 15 mod allows a responsive grip action and positive reinforcement on the weapon while going around tight corners or moving through narrow spaces. With a picatinny or tactical rail system on the handguard, you can adjust the position of this hand grip to fit your needs.

4. Front Rail Flashlight

Ideally, we’d recommend a flashlight on the front hand guard assembly that accommodates both white and red light. This is ideal for low level light environments where you want to illuminate an area without sacrificing your night vision. White light can be handy, too, if you want to illuminate an area while blinding a potential opponent. Just remember with white light – it works both ways. And it also destroys your night vision if you need to turn it off.

You can position the front flash light on either the bottom side of the handguard or the side for effective switching on or off.

It’s not recommended to combine attachments into one attachment – i.e. have a flashlight inside the hand grip. This is because sometimes one piece breaks and the other doesn’t. Destruction of one means the necessity to replace the other.

Whatever combination of AR 15 mods and accessories you feel makes Home Defense AR 15 better suited, make sure to always train by “slicing the pie” around open doorways and corridors. That means dividing an open space into smaller segments and slowly clearing each open space until you’re ready to dive in and take a chance. Slicing the pie gives you an opportunity for situational awareness rather than just recklessly charging in.

http://defendandcarry.com/ar-15-for-home-defense/