Why Would You Ever Need a Magazine With More Than 10 Rounds

Lately people have been throwing around the need argument.  It is an argument that honestly doesn’t really matter.  Drunk driving kills how many people every year and does anyone need to drive?  Why not just use public transportation?  Why does anyone need to drive themselves from point A to B?  But again, the argument doesn’t matter, it’s pointless.  Does law enforcement limit themselves to 10 rounds? What about the military?  But they’re different I hear you cry?  Are they?  Do they really need 30 round magazines that turns their guns into mass killing machines?  They should just reload like the rest of us!

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Image by Oleg Volk.

As I am writing this I am coming down off a serious adrenaline dump.  I had wrapped my knee for the night and was dressed in such a manner as not to rapidly exit my door grabbing my weapon and having nothing more than was on the belt of my pants.

Let me start at the beginning.  My local neighborhood gun shop is a block away.  The owner is quite literally my neighbor.  I wave hi to him and his wife on my way to work every morning, we are literally on the same street.  I am merely an additional 100 yards from his business than he is from his house.  Due to my proximity, my willingness, and the fact I hang out and help because one of his sons is my age and he’s a cool guy I’m basically on the business roster.

Early this month they had to attend their buy show in Vegas along with SHOT show.  The shop owner closed up and he and the regular employees headed down for a “business vacation”.  While gone I was put on the alarm system call list, still am actually.  If any of the sensors goes off, they called the shop followed by my phone.

Tonight the alarm went off.  I missed the call and rolled out after my voicemail buzzed.  The shop owner was ahead of me and I texted his son immediately I heard the voice mail and head out.  They were finishing up clearing the building as I walked in the front door.  I had my side arm and a few other tools but I was brining up the rear so bad I wasn’t too worried.  We met up, did some debugging, notice that some of the sensors use batteries and we replaced all of them.  We reactivated the system and went home.

After the first adventure, I figured my night was over, went to a Robb life style of “Pants Free” and wrapped up my left knee.  Two hours later, my phone rang again.  I was out of the house in under 2 minutes, with my pants on, rifle, side arm, and knife.  I merely had the immediate possessions I was able to grab.  I went flying out of the house and flew down my road at about 60 mph flew into the parking lot and slid to a stop just before the front door.  I slipped past the front door, unlocked it, and proceeded to clear the building carefully and methodically. Nothing was out-of-place, nothing was wrong other than the alarm had gone off again.

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Image by Oleg Volk.

I bring all this up because I want to emphasize a point.  I left the house with merely the equipment I could grab.  I wasn’t tossing on magazine carriers.  I wasn’t tossing on multiple weapons.  I grabbed one weapon that total gave me 61 rounds to put on target.  I grabbed one weapon that could I could accurately and easily manipulate in the variety of conditions seen within the shop.  I had my side arm on my belt which gave me an extra 13+1 should my primary weapon fail.  If I had not left my firearm clipped to my belt, it would have been left at home.

Now some would say, I didn’t need to go down there, or go inside.  Police response where I live is 30-45 minutes if we’re lucky.  Further the cost of a false alarm is expensive and best dealt with.  Yes it could be considered a high risk maneuver, so is letting the criminals inside steal firearms and ammunition.  I’m comfortable entering that environment, I’m familiar with it, I know the layout, I know where I can find cover and concealment, and I know the better ways to get around to avoid kill zones.

Even more than that some would say, it isn’t my business so it isn’t my problem.  To them I would say, stay in suburbia, stay in the city, and leave those of us who like rural life to live among our like-minded neighbors in peace.  I would help my neighbor as he would help me.  Our community as a whole would be shamed by an event like this, and I will be damned if I will let the, “Let someone else deal with it” and “Not my problem” attitude take over.  The owner felt bad it interrupted my night, but in the end I told him I don’t care, doubly so because if anything was happening I don’t care if he’s on site first or I’m on site, the bottom line is the security of the business and the weapons inside.  I would rather them call me so I can give immediate support than have him out numbered in a worse situation waiting for the eventual police arrival.

The whole point of this  though is I was limited to what I could grab and head out the door with.  In this case my AR-15 and my side arm.  In the middle of the night someone is limited to what they can easily grab by their nightstand.  Be it a XDm 9 with a 20 round capacity or an AR-15 with a 30 round magazine. The point is any citizen deserves to be able to take as much fight with them as they possibly can at the drop of a hat.  Criminals do not call ahead or provide advanced notice and they will not give you a chance to go get more ammo.  Why do people like normal capacity magazines, because it’s less you have to worry about when something goes bump in the middle of the night.  It’s less you have to fiddle with.  No one has ever come back from a gun fight and said, “Damn, I wish I hadn’t brought so much ammo.”

*I have two 30 round magazines attached together like this in my rifle.  It was this that allowed me to quickly deploy with 61 rounds in hand.  I have a second set that will be taped up in the near future and relocated to quickly grab.

Quote of the Day–Oleg Volk(01/01/2013)

Gun control pushers have even less shame than typical rapists. A repulsed rapist doesn’t start whining: “OK, so I can’t rape you now, but how about just dropping your pants? I won’t penetrate you now, but you can’t refuse a reasonable compromise! How about just an inch, no more than two, honest.” Taking away defenses and property of innocent people is a molestation and should be treated as such.

Oleg Volk : The ethics of gun control

December 30, 2012


[I have heard of no better analogy than the one Oleg gives there. –B]

Quote of the Day – The Redneck Engineer(06/27/2012)

Now, for those who tell themselves, “Oh, that could never happen to me. I live in a GOOD neighborhood!’ or “That sort of thing doesn’t happen around here!”, let me tell you about my neighborhood. Most of my neighbors are retirees, many are veterans. Everybody is fairly close-knit, we all look out for each other. This is not a “poor” neighborhood, and while not quite a “rich” neighborhood, crime is all but non-existent here. Defense situations can (and do) happen to almost anyone, anywhere.

The Redneck Engineer Defensive mindsets can prevent defensive shootings.
June 27th, 2012


[First let me say, go read the whole thing.  Seriously, click over there and read it.  It is every man’s worst nightmare come to pass.  This nightmare had a happy ending though in that not even a shot was fired.  Even if it had turned south, it was obvious who had the deck stacked in their favor.

Evil doesn’t call ahead, it doesn’t give advanced notice, and it doesn’t have set boundaries.  While some places may have more frequent incidents no place is exempt from a visit by goblins.  There is a reason I carry a gun, even with how quite it is where I live.   

There is only one person I can absolutely guarantee will always be present when the SHTF.  Myself.  A cop may or not be present, friends may or may not be with me, but one thing is for certain, I am in that situation and the conditions will not magically change.  I have to depend on myself to get out of the situation, just the same ultimately my wife has to be able to depend on herself.  There is no question if danger comes around while I am present, I will be in the middle of that incident.  That however is of no benefit when I am not present.  She must be capable of defending herself from anyone who would wish to do her harm.

I don’t want my wife to have to depend on me.  Far from it actually.  I want my wife to be able to think and act independently so that when the SHTF she knows how to react.  Not only can she react, but I know she’ll be able to have my back without my asking or instruction.

My Spouse has my back - By Oleg Vok

Why would I want that?  See The Redneck Engineer’s story.  He didn’t need to be there and she rocked that situation like a boss. Yeah, it could have been a horrible nightmare, but in the end it had a happy ending.

This however also skips over what he said in his post title, that type of awareness and level headed thinking can mean that there won’t even be a shot fired.  So remember, be careful out there and carry your guns. There’s goblins in them thar hills, remember it.  -B]

h/t Bob S.

Good news and Bad news

First the good news, Guess who’s coming for Boomershoot this year and staying at my place?

Oleg

Now for the bad news.  My goal this year was to manage at least one blog post every day.  This was to hopefully improve my ability and to decrease the amount of time it takes me to make a post; practice that’s how it’s done.  However I may end up blogging a little more on home projects or quick links than thought out posts.  The reason being is I have a couple projects that I figured would be handy for Oleg that have now been confirmed as being something that would be helpful.  Thus for the next many weekends the project for above ground storage in the garage, as well as reorganizing and storage of stuff in the shop.  The goal is to have everything in the shop properly stored, and everything in the garage cleared out by end of March.  This also includes moving all my shop tools currently living in my garage.  Due to conflicting schedules though most of this work is going to be relegated to the weekends.  I don’t run power tools at home by myself, it’s a great way to end up dead.

In the mean time here’s a couple pictures that Oleg took last year at Boomershoot.  If you think my face looks pink, you should have seen it the next morning.  I had second degree burns all over my face.

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