The real question is, could he have stopped rolling once he'd started?
Posted on 06/03/2010 5:20:05 AM PDT by marktwain
“A pistol is only good for fighting you way to a rifle.”
It’s a common quote, often attributed to Jeff Cooper and other well-known tactical experts.
In today’s increasingly complex battlefield, and in times of economic collapse and the shrinking legitimacy of the state, we often find that rules of thumb once taken for granted have been turned upside down. Perhaps it’s time we reconsider the tactical utility of pistols.
Perhaps the biggest fallacy held among modern patriots, militia groups and survivalists is the idea of SHTF. This isn’t to say there won’t ever be SHTF type situations, but the idea that one day everything is going to be perfectly normal and the next day life is utter chaos…it’s just not going to happen.
Those in government are usually too smart for that. Even when the whole rotten system is collapsing around them, they are pretty good at finding ways to keep things seeming ‘normal’ for just a little longer to stay in power.
A survivor of the Argentine economic collapse, Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre, wrote all about his experiences on various internet forums and blogs. He eventually published a book and has his own blog. He describes what it’s like to live in an economic collapse, and how in some ways life goes on while in other ways it doesn’t.
Much of what survivalists in the states believe is turned on it’s head by his experiences.
Some of what he shared sheds a lot of light on the pistol vs. rifle argument:
(Excerpt) Read more at itakeliberty.com ...
Situations where you need a gun, of course.
“Wrong! I remember seeing Frank Cannon out gun many snipers at long range with his snub-nosed 38 revolver.”
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His karate was amazing too!
I love the TV and movie scenes where the hero takes a handgun and overcomes a half dozen assassins using full auto rifles. They can’t hit him with twenty rounds from a rifle but he knocks them off with one round from a handgun. It’s almost as much fun as the ones where the 110 pound model beats up a half dozen 200 pound martial artists.
You can’t take your rifle to work, or to the store etc. Even during a collapse such as in Argentina 2001, or for that matter, Sarajevo in the middle of the siege, people still have to go to work (to get money to buy food) and they need to buy food (in a store or a black market.)
95% of the time, it’s the pistol you will have on you. As ferfal says elsewhere in his book, while you are out fixing your fences etc, you will not have a rifle on your shoulder.
Ping
Ferfal has written the best and most practical survival guide yet.
“It’s almost as much fun as the ones where the 110 pound model beats up a half dozen 200 pound martial artists.”
That isn’t real?
What are you going to do next...tell me James Cameron isn’t qualified to stop the oil leak? Sally Field isn’t an expert on farming? Where does it stop?
I will let you experts and professionals have your say, but I would not be alive today if it weren’t for my antique, outdated .45.
There were people fighting for the last food on the shelves of grocery stores last year during the snow storms. It seems that a simple nation-wide truckers' strike could do more damage to civilization than a nuclear weapon.
The best weapon is the one on your person ready for action.
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Spot on!! The first rule of gun fighting is; bring a gun. The gun in your pocket is far more likely to save your life than the one in a closet.
Also, a small gun you carry EVERYWHERE is more likely to save your life than the high caliber, heavy pistol you leave at home just to run to the store when you are wearing short pants and a tee shirt because it’s 100 degrees outside.
“That being said, if one has used a pistol enough so that it is instinctive some amazing shots can be made under amazing conditions.”
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That is true I can shoot a pistol but not well enough to brag on my skill. I have seen some who are amazing, I have one brother who used to pop pecans at thirty feet with a .22 revolver. He almost never missed. I am more in the Pepsi can category at that distance.
Indeed. Most people are blissfully ignorant about how thin the veneer of civilized behavior is, and how rapidly things can descend...
The article assumes someone is in charge, but no one is. There are many people all taking from the system and each could not care less what happens to the system so long as they get what they want. A collapse actually helps many people so there are even those that desire collapse.
“Time comes I need one (an M-16) there’ll be plenty of them lying on the ground.” Sgt Maj Basil Plumley, 1Bn 7th Cavalry before Ia Drang.
He could start the roll. Stopping and getting back up could be a problem...
I loved the way the bad guys had to lean in over his stomach so he could reach them when he threw a punch.
You obviously have no idea of who Frank Cannon was...
That’s the point! Most situations are not going to require a gun, because most stuations are not conflict.
Displaying a rifle communicates your potential threat from a long way off, and 360 degrees.
He could also cook and charm the ladies...
The real question is, could he have stopped rolling once he'd started?
Katrina is a good example of a pistol being more useful than a long gun. When the authorities went house to house confiscating guns the only ones they didn’t get were the pistols in people’s pockets.
People who didn’t tell the cops and solders who searched their homes that they had a pistol in their pocket lost their long guns but not their pocket pistols.
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