Posted on 04/17/2013 4:37:45 AM PDT by Kaslin
* Editors note: TOWNHALL News Editor Katie Pavlich is participating in a multi-day firearms training course at the Gunsite Academy in Paulden, Arizona. Stay tuned for daily dispatches. This is the fifth dispatch. As the dispatches accumulate, they'll all be available here.
PAULDEN, Ariz. - Much of the recent gun control debate around the country has been centered around “high capacity magazines,” which begs the question, just how many rounds of ammunition should a law abiding citizen be legally capable of putting into their gun? The answer is, as many rounds as it takes to stop a violent threat.
During my classroom session Tuesday afternoon at Gunsite Academy, I learned that “knock-down” power does not exist with small arms. As one instructor put it, “Real life isn’t like in the movies when somebody gets shot with a handgun and they go flying across the room.”
I also learned that, “handguns of all types don’t reliably stop a dedicated adversary from stopping their actions.”
In my training today, it became even more obvious to me why I, and millions of others, would need a “high capacity” magazine in my handgun. I’m shooting a Glock 19 this week. I have three magazines, each holds 15 rounds. Is 15 rounds enough to stop the actions of a violent attacker? If I were to place a few rounds in the correct area, they could be enough, but even that doesn’t guarantee a stop in action.
Take for example the Miami shooting of 1986.Video and photos of Katie Pavlich at the pistol range on page two.
“On April 11, 1986, at Miami, Florida, special agents of the Miami Division attempted to apprehend two suspects responsible for a series of armed bank and armored car robberies. In the attempted apprehension, the subjects William R. Matix and Michael Lee Platt opened fire on the special agents. In the ensuring gunfight, Special Agents Benjamin O. Grogan and Jerry Dove were killed. Special Agents Edmundo Mireles, Jr., John F. Hanlon, Jr. and Supervisory Special Agent Gordon G. McNeill received serious wounds and Special Agents Gilbert M. Orrantia and Richard A. Manauzzi received minor wounds. The remaining agent in the gunfight, Special Agent Ronald G. Risner, was unharmed. Both subjects were killed by fire of special agents. No civilians were hit either by agents’ fire or by fire from the subjects. Some property damage was done to neighboring residences and vehicles. Best estimates are that approximately 145 shots were fired in this exchange of gunfire.”
Matix was hit with a 9 mm handgun round (standard ammunition being used by the FBI at the time) through his arm and lung and still went on to kill FBI special agents Grogan and Dove before dropping dead. The will to survive mindset of those intent on doing harm is strong, and it’s important to have enough ammunition to stop it.
Overseas, the average number of rounds per enemy casualty is 50,000. The truth is, it’s not always easy to hit your target when you’re under stress. Luckily at Gunsite, they teach you how to use the proper techniques of handgun self defense which can work every time under pressure if applied correctly.
“Training allows you to survive,” Instructor Walt Wilkinson said Tuesday during a demonstration.
Training is key and it’s extremely important to train as if you’re confronting a real life threat, both mentally and physically with your firearms skill set. During training on Tuesday, after using stationary targets, we switched to moving targets to help simulate a real life situation.
Below is a slideshow demonstrating a speed reload, which is used when the gun runs out of ammunition during a fight.
Wednesday we will start the morning in the classroom, Tuesday were started out on the range. By the end of the week, our shots are expected to get faster and more accurate.
“Fast is the absence of excess motion,” Instructor David Starin says, adding it is important to be smooth first and that eventually speed will follow.
BS! The best defense is to shoot your door with a double barrell shotgun. Or pee on yourself. /s
The real question is why does anyone need a 6 qt pressure cooker. 4 qts should be enough for anyone with no evil intentions. And did I mention we absolutely need background checks on anyone attempting to buy a pressure cooker of any size?
What if instead of backpack bombers you had a dozen or more terrorists with fully automatic weapons spraying into the crowds and runners?
I had a reply as my post that I will be carrying more often, and the reply was what good would that have done in Boston?
Nothing against placed bombs but who says it would always be the same case, sadly I must say here at FR there is a flood of moron posters, are they like a pack of morons hoping to spread their idiocy, you gets these yahoos on almost every thread. Like some thinking popcorn makers or electric woks or crockpots are pressure cookers.
Watched Red Dawn recently. I live on a barrier island on the Atlantic. Is it so much of a stretch to think a band of kamikazi types bent on maximum damage could do a D Day style landing here, or somewhere else, and kill many before “the authorities” found out about it or worse were able to get some counter force in? Hardly. If you think not, consider the Nazi’s landed about 30 miles to my south here in WW2. I would probably go down with the ship but I expect to be able to take out a good number before then. That is one reason for large capacity magazines. There are others like complete civil break downs too. When seconds count, the police are minutes away and when minutes count, the FBI is apparently in Quantico.
“SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED” AND NEED HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.
LLS
But if YOU are able to stop bad guys,
that makes you less dependent on government,
and that’s a bad thing.
NO ONE needs a 10 round magazine until the moment when 7 or 8 isn’t enough to put the target down.
NO ONE needs a 7 round (mine!) until the moment that 5 or 6 isn’t enough.
NO ONE needs more than the 5 in a “wheel gun” until 5 isn’t enough.
In other words, no one NEEDS anything at all until the moment when it is really, really, really needed.
It's not about "needs" it's about our rights - our civil and constitutional rights.
Kudos.
It is why the Second Amendment mentions ARMS instead of Assault Weapons, Magazines and bayonet mounts.
Arms means current weapons technology and choice. Screw the equivocators and bleeding heart liberals. It says what it says.
personally I don’t give a rats behind about any Fed magazine law because everyone that wants to kill me won’t be obeying that law, can’t play fair when the enemy isn’t.
Playing by the rules is just a twisted liberal dream of everyone being equal, equality dooms all, there MUST be winners and losers to create a strong society.
You just have to ask yourself which side you need to be on.
And usually the right way is often the toughest, the most difficult and mostly non rewarding.
And even illegal by other people laws.
The difference is going to be in the housing ~ which may be aluminum or ceramic ~ but they can be readily modified to give you the effect you want.
There's a common everyday appliance in India that serves as a pressure cooker ~ they make them out of ceramic and clay. Been working well for hundreds of years.
There is an open market of materials such as carbon fiber, spectra, kevlar that can be placed inside a thin walled non pressure cooker style of container.
Ballistic cloth designed to suppress a blast, even plain herculiner impregnated canvas can be made in layers as a suppression material that increases a slow moving explosive mixture into a vague directional shaped charge from cobbled up readily available common materials.
Yup ~ they’ll want a reference to this good stuff ~ it’s out there.
Good thing your post on making pressure cookers more effective wasn’t in an email, or DHS would be knocking on your door right about NOW. ;)
Spot on, well said.
***What if instead of backpack bombers you had a dozen or more terrorists with fully automatic weapons spraying into the crowds and runners?***
Think of how many more dead there would have been if the bombs had been placed about four feet off the ground. It would probably exceeded the Wall Street Bombing in deaths.
I believe in the Wall Street Bombing, the bomb was in a wooden barrel in the back of a wagon. Sash weights were placed around the explosive for shrapnel.
If you are not familiar with sash weights, they are a solid cast iron bar with a hole through one end. They weigh about 3-5 lb each. They were a counterweight to hold an old fashioned window open.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.