Handling of Firearms During a Cease Fire…

via Ry I came across this thread at ARFcom

I’m at a cease fire at the range and we have a few guys changing their targets.
One guy finished shooting and decided to case his rie and take it to his car, handling it while people are down range.
The rules of the club are if the range is cold no one touches the guns
There is no range officer as this is members only hours. I didn’t say anything to him but am wishing I had politey reminded him of the rules.
What would you have done?

The comments in that thread make me weep.  You do not handle firearms during a cease fire.  Period, end of discussion.  Now how would I react?  I have been in that exact situation.  Sadly the video of said situation the audio is washed out by the wind.  But here is a break down of what happened.

At the high intensity event 2010 the first wave shot their targets and the range was called safe.  All rifles were unloaded and shown clear.  They were instructed to ground their weapons and let them cool, or case them if they felt their rifles were cool enough to do so.  At this point we had everyone step back from their weapons, or walk off with their case.  Staff then proceeded to go down range to set up for the second wave of shooters.  I stayed behind to talk to Oleg and act as a RSO.  While talking to Oleg I see someone pick up an uncased firearm and sweep the staff down range as well as the other shooting line before bringing it vertical.  As he started to pick up the weapon I promptly started yelling to put the weapon down.  I was very vocal but evidently he couldn’t hear me.  He continued and when I finally got on top of him he realized I was yelling at him.  He continued to say he hadn’t done anything wrong or against the rules, and then attempted to claim we had given conflicting commands.  Except just prior to him shooting he had to recite the following:

    • Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.
    • Always keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.
    • Always keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.
    • Always keep the gun in its case unless the muzzle is pointed downrange and within two feet of the shooting line.

So he walked off the shooting line with an uncased rifle.  He was handling the weapon during a ceasefire, and in so doing had muzzled a bunch of the staff.  I handed the issue over to one of the “jacketed” ROs to deal with because he seemed to think I wasn’t someone he should be listening to.

The bottom line is that the rule of not handling firearms during a cease fire is to ensure that no one is muzzled and that there is a zero possibility of human caused discharge while people are down range.  If you’re so impatient that you need to be careless about safety, get the hell off my range and don’t come back.  In the incident above, I have not seen even the friends of this individual return.  Evidently it did cause a bit of a black eye.  You know what would have been worse, just ignoring it. 

Safety is a culture and if you don’t cultivate it and make sure people are thinking about it, especially in an event like Boomershoot, the next thing we know the event is no longer happening because someone was careless.

Seriously folks, is this that difficult to understand?  For any of those of you who recently started reading my blog, these types of things make me VERY angry.

Knife vs. Gun

Yeah, sometimes violence shows up on your doorstep unprovoked.  Our opponents would have preferred to just be unarmed and give them what the aggressor wanted.  Except in this case all he wanted with their lives.

If someone tries to kill you, you try to kill them right back.  I’m glad that it appears that the victims in this case all survived.

h/t David Hardy

SSCC Update – Lincoln County WY

Via Uncle I came across another article that paints an even worse picture.

A Wyoming sheriff’s deputy who detained a combat veteran in handcuffs for openly carrying a pistol offered to let him go if he agreed to let another deputy draw his weapon and shoot if the veteran made any sudden moves while driving away, court records show.

Your guess of what would be considered a “sudden move” is as good as mine.  Thankfully the victim in this case was smart enough to refuse, less they decided to ventilate him for fun using a ready-made excuse.

“I didn’t know whether kicking my leg over the bike, or walking away, or what they could possibly constitute as a hostile act,” Pierson said in a telephone interview Monday. “I didn’t like the terms. And I was a little unnerved by the fact that they were threatening lethal force with a deadly weapon against a man who was compliant, in handcuffs, who had been screened.”

Yet the department has supported the actions of these officers.  The clue about the cause of the problem though was this statement:

“We’re told every day, our safety is first,” he said. “We’re here to come home every night.”

Guess officers no longer in the business of protecting and serving now are they?  You would rather threaten lethal force against a law-abiding citizen and commit assault with a deadly weapon than do your job.  Yes there are risks for law enforcement, but that is the price of freedom and liberty and if you don’t like it, no one is forcing you to be a police officer.

The victim in this case understands the same:

Pierson said he is seeking damages, an apology and a statement by the jurisdictions involved that the open carry of handguns is lawful — and that the purpose of government is not officer safety but the protection of peoples’ lives, liberty and property.

There is nothing scarier than a guy with a badge and gun and thus has “qualified immunity” and having him so willing to deprive people of their liberty as well as use lethal force.  If you live in that county, contact the sheriff and voice your displeasure.

State Sponsored Criminal #415: Corry Bassett

State Sponsored Criminal #416: Rob Andazola

Because protecting and serving means you plug the law-abiding citizen who serves his country more fervently than yourself in the back because you feel like it, you just need to get his permission first.

SSCC #414 – Eldorado Illinois

A dog, confined within his own yard, was shot and killed by an Eldorado, Ill. police officer who had mistakenly arrived to the wrong house to investigate a report of a stolen ladder.

Best part was, the dog was chained up.  Hey officer, you want a clue how to not get bit by a chained up dog?  First, go to the right damn house.  Second, stay out of the reach of the chain of the dog.

Then you wouldn’t have to worry about the dog attacking you, and on top of that you wont look like an incompetent moron.

Unsurprisingly this happened in Illinois instead of out here in free America.  The reason being is in Eastern Washington, North Idaho, and Montana, shooting a man’s dog is a great way to get shot yourself.  Shooting the dog here is like shooting a member of the family and is considered a hostile act.  Shooting my dog gives me every reason to fear you as you just deployed lethal force on my property against my family.  Any cop that needs to do that is merely LAZY and doesn’t want to do his damn job.

Lastly why was the officer going to the back door and not the front door?  Again, another fantastic way to get yourself in trouble both with the home owner and their pets.

State Sponsored Criminal #414: Officer John Doe

Because cops are allowed to kill any animal they want any time they want.  The key is they just need to say that it tried to attack them.  Doesn’t even matter if it’s in a cage with a kid behind it.

Why do you carry a gun?

Recently an individual asked me why I carried a firearm in little old Pullman.  He was an elderly gentleman and I went through the standard statements:

  • No where is safe, I probably wont need it but it’s better to have it.
  • It’s like a fire extinguisher or first aid kid.
  • It’s a lighter burden than regret.

He made a comment that a fire extinguisher was safer than a firearm.  At which point I chuckled and said, CO2 in a confined space in a basement can easily kill you.  It’s just that the fire can kill you just the same.  My firearm has never jumped from its holster or magically discharged without my somehow being involved.  Though fire extinguishers if not properly maintained can burst on their own.

I bring this up because I saw this come across my news reader:

Police Chief David Duke said employees inside the restaurant were confronted by a man with a handgun wearing a mask and dark hoodie after responding to a knock at the door around 10 a.m. The man forced the four employees into the walk-in freezer and locked them in without saying anything, said Duke. One employee used their cellphone to contact law enforcement while another notified the manager of the Pullman restaurant.

Now why would an individual rob Pizza Hut?

Pizza Hut made the most money in its history Monday night when it hosted the The Sonia Todd FUNdraiser Day. Todd is a mother of two who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer.

So here’s the deal folks.  There is evil in the world.  There are those who would hurt others merely for the thrill of doing so.  These people don’t just exist in particular geographic or social areas, they can be found anywhere.  This incident occurred earlier this year in Pullman.

The bottom line is the real world isn’t wrapped in bubble wrap.  Sometimes evil shows up not just in your neighborhood but on your very doorstep.  Some would rather not worry about self-defense and consider the probability of evil finding them so small it is not worth the effort.  That is their choice and their choice alone.

My issue with that choice is that the effort to prepare for a fight against evil isn’t that difficult a task, recovering and becoming whole again after encountering evil is a mountain.  That mountain is even more treacherous if you were un-prepared to begin with.

As Sean said,

When I reach the Pearly Gates, I want the first thing I will hear to be “Unload and show clear.” I don’t ever want to hear, “Why weren’t you carrying your gun?” Or worse “Because you weren’t carrying, your wife will be along as soon as her killer finishes up.”

So why do I need to carry a gun?  Because I want to stack the deck in my favor as much as I possibly can.  I will do this so I can fight every last step of the way against anyone that would bring violence to my door.

Why?  Because I am worth it.

In Which I Demonstrate It’s Commonality

Last week I posted an incident from Moscow at the University of Idaho.  It was a classic game of fill in the blank, but all the answers were known in advance.  I know some of you probably though I was exaggerating how common this type of event is.  Well wonder no longer.

Police in Pullman say a Washington State University student fell three stories from a fraternity house window and was taken to Pullman Regional Hospital with undisclosed injuries.

Note how the Greek system was involve yet again.  No word on alcohol yet, but it’s hard to think it wasn’t involved.

Now many would wonder why things like this are becoming increasingly common.  The answer though is quite simple, kids now days live in a bubble wrapped world.  Instead of slowly being acclimated to the realities of the real world and personal responsibility they are shielded and sheltered from it.

This quote from Caleb puts it quite well:

People wonder why there seem to be an increasing number of kids filming themselves performing dangerous stunts for youtube – well gosh, if I was raised in a padded bubble of safety by helicopter parents, I’d probably try to ride my bike off the roof too just to see what danger felt like.

Not only are kids sheltered from danger, but adults who attempt to give their kids that taste of personal responsibility are reported to the police and arrested.

“I went out there to see what he was here for and he said, ‘Ma’am, we’re here for you.’ I said, ‘Oh really? Why?’ He proceeded to tell me he had received a call from one of my neighbors that my kids were riding their scooters unsupervised. 

Cooper said she was handcuffed, put in the back of a police car and forced to spend the night in jail. 

“Orange jumpsuit, in a cell, slammed the door, for 18 hours,” Cooper said.

The ages of the children involved were 9 and 6.  I remember at 6 regularly going with my sister different places without our parents.  Including down to the local park, and through the woods as well.

By 8 I was heading off doing things entirely on my own.  My rules were just the same as Robb’s.

What happens when you shield kids from everything in the world?  They simply don’t know how to deal with life when it actually shows up.  They always figure that life is safe and nothing can possibly go wrong.  For them they live in a world without consequences because they’ve never experienced any.

How nice is it though that the state is now trying to force everyone to live in the same bubble wrapped world.  There is one saving grace about this woman’s experience.

The charges against her were eventually dropped but she still describes the ordeal as humiliating and said her children were even questioned by police  and terrified.

(Emphasis mine).  Yeah, you think either of those two children will ever trust the police again?  They got to experience first hand exactly what government is.

On Today

Initially I wasn’t going to put up a post regarding today.  Then I went over to Weer’d’s place and read his post.  I was about to write a comment but instead I realized it was growing into a post.  Here’s what I wrote before I pulled the plug.

I haven’t forgotten, I may or may not put up a post this year.

Yesterday I was embracing the suck and someone was all too unhappy about it. You see our Federal overlords have declared everyone and their mother suspected terrorists for things as innocuous as going about their daily business.  Things such as using cash for a transaction.

I do remember that day.  I remember it quite well.  I remember staring at the TV in disbelief as I watched what was happening live as I prepared to go to school.  I remember the freedom and liberty I had prior to that day.  I also remember hour our government reacted.  They have reacted to the point where they label me with the same title as those monsters.  By god if they’re going to stick me with that title, I am going to embrace the suck and drag the meaning of that word right straight down.

Thanks to the behavior of our modern government, in 2001 terrorists were responsible for that atrocious act.  In 2012, the best that can be said is it was done by evil.  By monsters who despise and hate us.  The title of terrorist no longer fits because according to our overlords, those who fight these monsters are terrorists as well.

Every year on this day I used to be angry at just those who attacked us.  Angry at those who took the lives of so many innocent people.

As the years progressed though I found my anger including others.  While I am still mainly angry at the men who started this snow ball, I am just as angry at the American politicians for exploiting this tragedy for a power grab.  At the same time I am angry because the American people have been complacent with it.

The biggest difference for the majority of America between now and September 10th, 2001 is that we have considerably less freedom now than we did then.  Some would argue that “it was necessary” and it keeps us safe.  The only thing is, it doesn’t do anything to actually make you safe, it just makes a bunch of sheep feel safe.

Today is a day of mourning.  Mourning for not only those we lost, but an ideology that is slowly being destroyed, all in the name of the “War on Terrorism.”  Most of the things on the above list are things that I do as well as many of my friends.  Hell, you can go through all the flyers for different types of flyer’s here.

When you start labeling normal behavior as a “potential terrorist action” why don’t you just admit that you think anyone who isn’t just a good little sheep a terrorist that needs to be put down?

I would further like to note, the mere fact I’m willing to voice this dissenting opinion probably gets me labeled a terrorist as well.  See, they don’t outlaw speech anymore, they just tell you what you said makes you either a racist or a terrorist.  Isn’t all this freedom we have nice?  Never mind that the government actually fits the real definition of the word terrorist.

*I think I need to get one of these T-Shirts to wear on September 11th every year from now on.

Electricity is Dangerous….

Weer’d had an incident recently in his “Gun Death?” files that centered around a downed power line.

There, she saw a white SUV on the grass of a house. Water spewed from the broken hydrant – about 2,000 gallons per minute – and downed power lines carrying a charge of 4,800 volts lay along the ground, charging the water around the exposed wires.

Most people understand that electricity is dangerous but often they don’t understand how dangerous.  I started the power series and I keep meaning to go back and continue it, and one of these days I will.  For now though I’m going to try and explain just the specifics to try and help people understand what is going on.

To start off with, if you are in a vehicle and it strikes a power pole or a power distribution box.  Stay In Your Vehicle!  Your vehicle will actually help protect you from the voltages.  If you can, back away from the downed conductors and then call 911. In the incident of hitting a power distribution box, odds are the line will fault and a breaker will open.  However, be advised that doesn’t mean your safe.  The majority of faults in the distribution system are momentary.  Because of this fact there is an auto reclosing circuit which will reclose the line and energize it.  The fault will remain and the circuit will open again.  Usually after the 3rd shot failed they will lock out the re-closer.  Still, stay in your vehicle, don’t risk it unless there is a more pressing danger to your life such as a vehicle fire.  If you do need to leave your vehicle, use my notes at the bottom.

Now, if you see someone get in an accident with a power pole or distribution box, keep your distance!  If you see the line arching or sparking, keep your distance as much as possible.  Immediately call the utility and they can de-energize the lines.  While the power company wishes to clear faults when they occur on the power system there is a particular kind of fault that is very hard to detect.  Not only is it hard to detect, but it becomes exceedingly difficult when you’re in the distribution system.

Detecting this fault is difficult because there is not a lot of current involved which is one of the big items that is watched for protection.  The reason there is less fault current, especially at the distribution level is the distance from generation and the fact it is in parallel with numerous other loads.  Especially the further you get down a distribution line.

What is confusing in this case is the combination with water with the fault.  Normally high impedance faults are found on things like asphalt or in the desert on dry sand.  Where the ground itself isn’t a good conductor.  In this case water is an excellent conductor, however I suspect that the water was mainly on asphalt which was acting as an insulator and this fault was way down the distribution line.

So here’s basically what I figure happened.  When the line went into the water, all the water was basically at a potential of 4800 volts.  The water would have a low impedance so there wouldn’t be much of a voltage drop across it.  However, there is a massive drop between the water and the actual earth ground.  As someone stepped into the water they bridged a circuit with their body, especially if they stepped off of grass over a curb into the water.

Your body and electricity don’t really mix.  It takes only a mere 11mA to stop your heart, it isn’t voltage that kills you, it’s the current.  Your bodies natural resistance tops out at around 100 kilo ohms at the skin, if it’s dry and you’re not sweating.  Internally it’s only about 300-1000 ohms.  If you get your skin wet the resistance drops.

With dry skin if you were to grab on to a 4800V line you would get 48mA through your body approximately, that would be more than enough to kill you, though that would depend on the exact path taken through the body.  Wet, the current will be easily measured in Amps.  If some how it doesn’t stop your heart, odds are you will be lit on fire as your body will be dissipating approximately 27 kW of energy.

So everyone please listen to me, stay away from downed conductors.  Yes people may be injured, people may need help, but it will do no good for them for you to injure yourself in the process.  In fact it will divert resources from helping them to helping you.

Now if some how you find yourself near a downed conductor, do not walk towards it or away from it!  Do the following:

  • Keep both feet as close together as possible.  This will keep your feet at approximately the same electrical potential and will limit current flow.
  • Hop both with both feet away from the downed conductor.  Again, do not walk.  At most shuffle.  See there’s a reason they made you learn the bunny hop in PE in school!
  • If you need to exit a car.  Jump clear of the vehicle without touching the vehicle and the ground at the same time.
  • Keep your arms held tightly to your sides.

The explanation of this is think of the ground as a high impedance resistor.  Over a resistor is a voltage drop.  The further the distance on the ground from one point to another the bigger the voltage drop.  Your body has a much lower resistance than the ground, and if you step, that difference in potential will form a circuit through your body.  If you are not comfortable hopping, then shuffle away.