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Surviving An Active Shooter – A commentary

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So I saw this in passing last week but didn’t really have time to watch it or talk about it.  Alan posted it today and well it gave me the urge to comment.  So to start off with watch the video.

First off is with its emphasis on running and hiding the immediate thought was of Bert the Turtle and if you don’t know what I’m talking about.  Here is an educational video from on how to survive a nuclear attack, like the above, this one is made by your government.

At least with Bert it made a little bit of sense because you couldn’t do anything to change or alter the damage from a nuclear weapon.

Amazingly though this video does give some insight that we can all take home. The first notable item is that the attacker plainly and clearly ignored a gun free zone declaration on the door, this can be seen at 1:00. Attackers do this to know their victims cannot fight back.  Attacks frequently happen within gun-free zones, including the most recent one.  Secondly it guarantees the outcome discussed and noted at 4:20, specifically:

Improvise Weapons

It’s pretty hard to improvise a weapon equivalent to firearm, doubly so when you know the attacker has one.

Even the agency which put this video together admits what the pro-rights side of the argument has said from the beginning.  A criminal intent on doing harm will not be effected or restrained by law.  The intended victims of the attacker however will be left without the most effective means of self-defense.

Next up are the comments about first responders at 4:40.  Let this be a lesson to everyone because it is correct.  They are not there to evacuate you, they are not there to give you medical aid, they are there to stop the threat and secure the area so that medics and other emergency personal can do that.  Just because the Johnny Law has shown up doesn’t mean you are safe, that you are clear, or will receive immediate medical attention.  Let me translate this for people who still may not understand.

You are still on your own!

Emergency services will arrive on scene when they can, there is no guarantee for the response time for either medical personal or police to show up with their guns since this particular location wouldn’t let you have yours.

Hopefully the gun grabbers are crying in their beer because even the educational videos on surviving mass shootings emphasize the lack of rationality in their logic.  Can you say “Winning?”

*Overall I think the video was actually well done and decently educational.  I am not going to go running through an area looking for the shooter, but if I see him and have an opportunity I will fight, I will not run.  Running just serves to allow others to become victims or allow him a chance to shoot me in the back.

Today’s Reminder and Lesson

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When you end up in a rush is usually when you do something wrong.  Last Thursday night, before leaving on my current trip, I spent a bunch of time cleaning a gift for the in-laws.  I cleaned it from top to bottom after test firing it.  After I was done I did a full functional test to make sure everything still was working correctly.  Packed it up and all was well.

While I was busy doing all of that I decided that I should clean my XD.  It hadn’t been cleaned since April and it was looking pretty crusty.  While cleaning it was about 85 degrees in my shop, I was sweating like mad and mid cleaning my latex gloves bit the bucket.  I couldn’t get a new set on so I just gave up and decided to soak my hands in chemicals.  I hate doing that because many of them will absorb through the skin but the biggest dangers were already done.

I quickly finished scrubbing and cleaning the weapon. Put it back together and in a rush to go pack other stuff for the trip I missed a step.  I put all the parts back in.  I didn’t break anything either.  What I didn’t do though was dry fire it before reloading.  Normally I test every part individually before loading the weapon and holstering it.  Verify all the safeties, make sure all feels well and nothing is out-of-place.  Since I decided I didn’t need to test all the safeties I didn’t bother with functional testing.  Well there was one test I really still should have performed but didn’t.

I pulled out the gun and unloaded it today for the mother-in-law to take a look at.  She squeezed the trigger but nothing happened.  She hands it to me and I say, “there’s the slack and it should break about here.”  Nope trigger is total mush.  I promptly start trying to remove the slide.  There is one problem though, you have to drop the striker to remove the slide and barrel assembly.  I start playing with the slide and notice that the striker will fall if I slightly pull the slide back out of battery.

I promptly look inside and see something that is wrong.  There is  a small piece that normally springs up and down but it is fixed in place and isn’t moving.  I pull apart the striker mechanism and find exactly what happened.  The spring fell over and was not providing positive movement to the piece to allow the safety to disengage correctly.  Fix the spring reassemble and promptly dry fire.  Works just like it should now.

So here’s the lesson.  Always functional test the most important aspect of the firearm after being reassembled.  My new rule is if it comes apart even in the most basic way, in the XD for example I remove the slide, it gets dry fired immediately when it has been reassembled. I had a gun that was useless the past couple of days, not freaking cool, but it was my own damn fault.  Learn from my mistake.

SSCC #374 – Dallas

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A rookie Dallas police officer was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving early Wednesday morning after he nearly hit two squad cars near the scene of Tuesday’s officer-involved shooting in south Dallas.

Yeah, that right there isn’t too bright.  You would have thought he would have at least known to avoid the area.  Then again he probably felt safe since it was just his buddies in the area.

If all else fails though I’m sure he will probably transfer to IMPD.

State Sponsored Criminal #374: Officer Matthew Gaines

Because drinking and driving is acceptable when you’re an officer of the law.

via Bob S.

Quote of the Day – Law Dog (07/26/2012)

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So, I have to ask: if gun control is the panacea these folks think it is, why aren’t they clocking in to the safety, peace and quiet of a boring shift at Sing-Sing or ADX Florence? Complete and total gun control means those should be amongst the safest places in the world, right?

Law Dog – Meditations on Gun Control

July 25th, 2012

[Go read the whole thing Law Dog as always has a way with words.  -B]

SSCC #373

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An internal affairs investigation into his activities concluded that Paventi had sex on duty throughout the span of his 20-year career and even rented hotel rooms for the trysts while he was working.

Investigators determined that he rented rooms at the Days Inn on the Berlin Turnpike, in Berlin, 15 times in 18 months while he was on the clock and department and hotel records indicated that at least twice Paventi was receiving overtime pay during the trysts. He also met a woman for sex on the day in August 2011 the allegations were revealed, the report said. Many of the meetings for sex occurred as Paventi was the commander of the Professional Standards Division and while he was being sued by four female police officers.

That’s bad, but what’s really bad is the fact he retired with one hell of a pension.  Nothing like having the people continue paying for the resource wasting moron well after the fact.

State Sponsored Criminal #373: Captain Anthony Paventi

Because since the hard-working people are already paying for those too lazy to work, we need to pay for officers who got laid while on the job to make more doing nothing than most while doing something.

via Joe

SSCC #372 – Phoenix

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Phoenix police higher-ups refused to release any information on the circumstances which led to Davis’ leave. Sources told CBS 5 News that the supervisor was caught on surveillance video pocketing several thousands of dollars in cash from a business while he was responding there on official duty.

Heaven forbid you inform the public of corrupt officers within your department.

State Sponsored Criminal #372: Sgt. Arnold Davis

Because when you respond to a criminal robbing an establishment, you’re free to take cash from the drawer, it’s a reward for doing your job right?

Yeah I’ll be on and off this week…

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I am currently on “vacation” visiting friends and family.  Yesterday I met up with Phil and Scott from RNS down on the Tacoma water front.

Phil’s awesomeness was just radiating from him while at the restaurant.  It was a fun evening and was nice to catch up with friends I usually only see once a year at Boomershoot.

Earlier in the day though the wife and I went to Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium for the first time since our wedding.

I wasn’t smiling because well, I don’t normally smile.  Don’t know why, but I just don’t smile that much if it’s a staged photo.  We paid a visit to where we had our reception too. 

The Gibbons were out just the same as they were during our reception.  Just as adorable too.

We also found the Sumatran Tiger that was on display at our reception.

Here she is now, evidently she is most likely pregnant too.

And there’s even more cubs at the zoo, here’s baby snow leopards.

Yes, they were just as adorable in person.  There were a couple other cats that were adorable but I only have pictures.  If you have kittens, that’s exactly how they were acting but they were bigger.  I wanted to play with the kitty cats.  We did however stumble across a red wolf puppy.

Yes I know all of these are wonderful cell phone quality, I didn’t feel like lugging around my SLR and backpack.  Yes I had an urge to shoot the little bastards.  The only good wolf is a dead wolf however I consider a zoo a sanctuary and given they are nothing like the Timber Wolf or Grey Wolf.   That brings me to a story of someone who needed blunt force trauma to the face.

You see there are peacocks that run around the zoo uncaged.  They’re beautiful with gorgeous tails. When we finally ran across one it looked like it was shedding its feathers, but still seemed odd.  As TMW and I were talking a couple overheard us and told us that a woman was chasing the peacock earlier and stepping on its tail to get its feathers.  Yeah I was filled with rage when I heard that.  While I am not fond of some animals in the wild, I understand their role and don’t want to drive their extinction.  That said, something like that just disturbs me on so many levels.

So yeah, I’m going to be visiting other friends all this week and will blog when I can.