Tuesday, February 1, 2011

My Two Cents…The Sig 220 Elite Dark TB

First and foremost, I am a tried and true 1911 lover. There is NOTHING better than a quality 1911 in my mind. If you see me out and about more often than not there is a 1911 on my hip. With that being said, I’m very smitten with the new Sig Sauer P200 Elite Dark TB that I picked up this past weekend after doing some trading. I expect Sig pistols to shoot very well. I own several different Sigs in various calibers and sizes and they all perform very well…but there’s something about this new 220 that just…fits.
One of the perks of being self employed is being able to schedule some “me” time during the week. Today was one of those days. I met a friend of mine at a local range to blow off some steam and send some rounds downrange. My normal routine for trying out a new pistol is to load every magazine I have on hand and run through them as quickly as I can get the front sight back on target. This will usually show me if there’s going to be a issue that needs to be addressed. I don’t particularly go for accuracy during this; combat accurate center mass shots are good enough for me during this stage. I loaded 5 magazines with a mix of Federal and Magtech 230 grain ball ammo, took a good stance and went to work. After those 5 magazines…there was one HUGE hole ever so slightly to the right of dead center mass. No failures of any kind during some rather rapid shooting, reloading, etc. (The one thing you have to remember is to remove the thread protector from the threaded barrel...or it will remove itself)

After this little non scientific test, I loaded out all 5 magazines once again and tested out its accuracy...no surprises. As with most modern pistols, it is capable of much better accuracy than I am. As long as I did my part, it was no problem poking holes basically right on top of each other.

I don’t know if it is the new Hogue ExtremeTM Duty aluminum grips, the SRT/Short trigger setup but this 220 is a definite shooter. From a low ready position with a flash sight picture in double action it was almost too easy to drill center mass every time. I can’t say it will replace my 1911 as a daily carry gun, but it will join them in carry rotation with a high level of confidence.

For more information:

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Time to take the fight to them

The time for sitting back and wondering is over. We have to take the fight to the antis. Use their tactics against them. Every single time one of the whack nuts shoots people ina "gun free zone" we need to start pounding it over and over again how the current laws are useless, and how a single permit holder might have saved lives. They don't give us any quarter when it comes to using these incidents against us, time to do the same.
For example, ABC is going to run a BS 20/20 hit piece called Americas toxic addiction to guns. Do you REALLY think it's going to provide ANYTHING other than misinformation making all gun owners look bad? It's a political hit piece designed to garner support for another far reaching and permanent AWB
Someone on AR15.com posted a letter to send to your local ABC stations that run 20/20 I've sent it out, and I suggest you do the same

"Dear Sir or Madam,

I am a responsible gun owner and a firm believer in the right of law abiding citizens to own guns to defend themselves and their families from criminal predators. While I believe that the vast majority of police officers are decent and honorable individuals who do whatever they can to protect the safety of private citizens, the undeniable fact remains that the police cannot possibly protect everyone, or even a small percentage of the population, because that is not their intended purpose, nor are they staffed or funded to do so. For this and many other reasons, we cherish our time honored rights under the Second Amendment.

It has come to our attention that your station intends to air a segment on an upcoming 20/20 program titled 'America's Toxic Addiction To Guns.' It would appear, based on the program title alone, that this segment will present a very negative and hostile view of the Second Amendment.

We are asking you to not air that segment of the program, please, because we view it as unacceptable for your network to disseminate false and misleading information that undermines our right to self defense to the viewing public.

If you do choose to air this segment despite our objections, we are going to organize a grassroots boycott, at the local level, of all the corporate sponsors whose advertisements appear during the program in question. We have thousands of members of the National Rifle Association here in this city, and our membership will no longer purchase goods or services from those corporate sponsors. Furthermore, we will be sending letters to each of them to explain why we have taken this action, so that they may understand the importance of not supporting anti-gun and anti-freedom lies and slander with their advertising dollars. While we feel it is unfortunate that we have to boycott local merchants, especially in this economic climate in which many companies are struggling for their economic survival, we nonetheless feel that a message needs to be sent directly to the advertising sponsors of this kind of false and misleading programming.

We hope that you will give favorable consideration to our request, and that in the future, you will consider an editorial policy that is more favorable to the rights of self protection for law abiding citizens.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

/you name here/

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Taco Bell

Sitting at home tonight, the lovely wife and I were trying to decide what to have for dinner.
You know the conversation..what do you want...I don't know...what do you want...repeat until something sounds good. After 2 days of Thanksgiving leftovers, we decided on Taco Bell.
I...being the great hunter/gatherer had to go out in the cold drizzling rain to procure said Taco Bell. While standing there waiting for their crack staff of employees to figure out what a taco was I noticed their employee signs. One in particular gave me pause. It shows a Taco Bell employee getting held up at gunpoint by the hoodie wearing thug.
The caption on top of the sign read
PREVENT HOLIDAY CRIME...COOPERATE.

Isn't that like having a sign saying...PREVENT DRUNK DRIVING...BUY THE DRIVER A BEER

Yes..I know the lawyers write the sign and if I had children I wouldn't want them to "risk their life for someone else's money" but...give the screaming two year old what he wants and he'll stop screaming...until he wants something else. It works pretty much the same way with crooks. Once they learn how easy it is to rob a Taco Bell...they'll have to start taking appointments.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Flying the Gadsden flag

There's an idea floating about on AR15.com and a couple of other forums on flying the Gadsden flag on election day. Actually...some of them want to fly the American flag upside down, a signal of distress, on Election day. I'm good with either idea.
America is about two inches away from falling down a dark well of socialism with Obama and Biden.
Now..before you dismiss this as another right wing attack..I voted today. My ballot was basically a 50/50 split between Republican and Democrat candidates. I never have and never will vote the party line. I am not a Republican or a Democrat, I am an American...and I vote as such.
Now..for those who don't know what the Gadsden flag is...


Sounds about right. From gun rights to From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs...it sounds like OBamas plan for our great nation. From Obama himself talking about I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you – that they’ve got a chance at success too.” to Barney Frank...Yes, I believe later on there should be tax increases. Speaking personally, I think there are a lot of very rich people out there whom we can tax at a point down the road and recover some of this money."

Seems like everyone has their hands out wanting to take your money and give it to someone else. That is part and parcel socialiam..hell full blown communisum at it core. It saddens me to see so many Americans taken in by their own greed and short sightedness as to believe the crap thats spewing forth from the mainstream media. If CNN, Fox, MSMBC would vet ALL the canidates equally I firmly believe Obama would be NObama as in no way in hell would he even have gotten the nod from the DNC.
God help this country...looks like we're in for a bumpy ride. Threats of violence if Obama loses, threats from abroad per Biden if OBama wins, hell....we're pretty much screwed either way. I'm not sure at this point which would be worse.

Monday, July 21, 2008

The best answer to "Why I carry a gun"

Here's the best answer I can give anyone who why I carry a gun. These SOBs have no reason to live any longer than it takes to load the rifles.
The story:
Three people were arrested Thursday night in connection with the murders of a Garland recording studio owner and his friend. One of the victim's cars, which was stolen from the murder scene, was also recovered.
Garland Police spokesman Joe Harn said the trio was arrested somewhere in East Texas along the I-30 corridor, but could not provide further details.
Police said Matthew Butler, 28, and Stephen Swan, 26, had been shot several times and there was spent ammunition scattered around the bodies.
A passerby on a bicycle discovered the bodies in downtown Garland around 1 a.m. Thursday.
The men were lying in a pool of blood outside the Zion Gate recording studio on State Street.
Butler owned Zion Gate, and Swan was his chief engineer and best friend.
Butler's wife Jamie said the studio and music were her husband's passions.
She had spoken to him around 12:30 a.m. and he told her they were wrapping up for the night. Not long after, she received a phone call from police informing her that her husband was dead.
Jamie had a message for the person who took away her husband and the father of their children.
"I hope that whoever did this that they would come to know Christ," she said.

"I hope and pray that my husband gets a chance to meet them in heaven and gets a chance to shake their hand and gets a chance to forgive them himself."




These people are out there. Not everyone is a fine upstanding citizen. There ARE people all over the "good" areas where YOU go that WILL KILL YOU FOR ANYTHING.

Get used to the idea.
Accept it
Plan for it
Equip and train yourself to deal with it if it comes up.

Make sure YOU go home to YOUR family.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Why "citizens" need battle rifles.

I flatly refuse to call AK-47s and AR-15s "assault rifles" A object that is incapable of moving cannot assault anyone. Stories like this will become more common as our government officials do nothing but pay lip service to securing our southern border. When the Canadians start attacking us with hockey sticks...we'll talk about northern border security.

This report may be forwarded or republished on your website with attribution to www.stratfor.com

By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart

Late on the night of June 22, a residence in Phoenix was approached by a heavily armed tactical team preparing to serve a warrant. The members of the team were wearing the typical gear for members of their profession: black boots, black BDU pants, Kevlar helmets and Phoenix Police Department (PPD) raid shirts pulled over their body armor. The team members carried AR-15 rifles equipped with Aimpoint sights to help them during the low-light operation and, like most cops on a tactical team, in addition to their long guns, the members of this team carried secondary weapons — pistols strapped to their thighs.

But the raid took a strange turn when one element of the team began directing suppressive fire on the residence windows while the second element entered — a tactic not normally employed by the PPD. This breach of departmental protocol did not stem from a mistake on the part of the team’s commander. It occurred because the eight men on the assault team were not from the PPD at all. These men were not cops serving a legal search or arrest warrant signed by a judge; they were cartel hit men serving a death warrant signed by a Mexican drug lord.

The tactical team struck hard and fast. They quickly killed a man in the house and then fled the scene in two vehicles, a red Chevy Tahoe and a gray Honda sedan. Their aggressive tactics did have consequences, however. The fury the attackers unleashed on the home — firing over 100 rounds during the operation — drew the attention of a nearby Special Assignments Unit (SAU) team, the PPD’s real tactical team, which responded to the scene with other officers. An SAU officer noticed the Tahoe fleeing the scene and followed it until it entered an alley. Sensing a potential ambush, the SAU officer chose to establish a perimeter and wait for reinforcements rather than charge down the alley after the suspects. This was fortunate, because after three of the suspects from the Tahoe were arrested, they confessed that they had indeed planned to ambush the police officers chasing them.

The assailants who fled in the Honda have not yet been found, but police did recover the vehicle in a church parking lot. They reportedly found four sets of body armor in the vehicle and also recovered an assault rifle abandoned in a field adjacent to the church.

This Phoenix home invasion and murder is a vivid reminder of the threat to U.S. law enforcement officers that stems from the cartel wars in Mexico.

Violence Crosses the Border

The fact that the Mexican men involved in the Phoenix case were heavily armed and dressed as police comes as no surprise to anyone who has followed security events in Mexico. Teams of cartel enforcers frequently impersonate police or military personnel, often wearing matching tactical gear and carrying standardized weapons. In fact, it is rare to see a shootout or cartel-related arms seizure in Mexico where tactical gear and clothing bearing police or military insignia is not found.

One reason for the prevalent use of this type of equipment is that many cartel enforcers come from military or police backgrounds. By training and habit, they prefer to operate as a team composed of members equipped with standardized gear so that items such as ammunition and magazines can be interchanged during a firefight. This also gives a team member the ability to pick up the familiar weapon of a fallen comrade and immediately bring it into action. This is of course the same reason military units and police forces use standardized equipment in most places.

Police clothing, such as hats, patches and raid jackets, is surprisingly easy to come by. Authentic articles can be stolen or purchased through uniform vendors or cop shops. Knockoff uniform items can easily be manufactured in silk screen or embroidery shops by duplicating authentic designs. Even badges are easy to obtain if one knows where to look.

While it now appears that the three men arrested in Phoenix were not former or active members of the Mexican military or police, it is not surprising that they employed military- and police-style tactics. Enforcers of various cartel groups such as Los Zetas, La Gente Nueva or the Kaibiles who have received advanced tactical training often pass on that training to younger enforcers (many of whom are former street thugs) at makeshift training camps located on ranches in northern Mexico. There are also reports of Israeli mercenaries visiting these camps to provide tactical training. In this way, the cartel enforcers are transforming ordinary street thugs into highly-trained cartel tactical teams.

Though cartel enforcers have almost always had ready access to guns, including military weapons such as assault rifles and grenade launchers, groups such as Los Zetas, the Kaibiles and their young disciples bring an added level of threat to the equation. They are highly trained men with soldiers’ mindsets who operate as a unit capable of using their weapons with deadly effectiveness. Assault rifles in the hands of untrained thugs are dangerous, but when those same weapons are placed in the hands of men who can shoot accurately and operate tactically as a fire team, they can be overwhelmingly powerful — not only when used against enemies and other intended targets, but also when used against law enforcement officers who attempt to interfere with the team’s operations.

Targets

Although the victim in the Phoenix killing, Andrew Williams, was reportedly a Jamaican drug dealer who crossed a Mexican cartel, there are many other targets in the United States that the cartels would like to eliminate. These targets include Mexican cartel members who have fled to the United States due to several different factors. The first factor is the violent cartel war that has raged in Mexico for the past few years over control of important smuggling routes and strategic locations along those routes. The second factor is the Calderon administration’s crackdown, first on the Gulf cartel and now on the Sinaloa cartel. Pressure from rival cartels and the government has forced many cartel leaders into hiding, and some of them have left Mexico for Central America or the United States.

Traditionally, when violence has spiked in Mexico, cartel figures have used U.S. cities such as Laredo, El Paso and San Diego as rest and recreation spots, reasoning that the general umbrella of safety provided by U.S. law enforcement to those residing in the United States would protect them from assassination by their enemies. As bolder Mexican cartel hit men have begun to carry out assassinations on the U.S. side of the border in places such as Laredo, Rio Bravo, and even Dallas, the cartel figures have begun to seek sanctuary deeper in the United States, thereby bringing the threat with them.

While many cartel leaders are wanted in the United States, many have family members not being sought by U.S. law enforcement. (Many of them even have relatives who are U.S. citizens.) Some family members have also settled comfortably inside the United States, using the country as a haven from violence in Mexico. These families might become targets, however, as the cartels look for creative ways to hurt their rivals.

Other cartel targets in the United States include Drug Enforcement Administration and other law enforcement officers responsible for operations against the cartels, and informants who have cooperated with U.S. or Mexican authorities and been relocated stateside for safety. There are also many police officers who have quit their jobs in Mexico and fled to the United States to escape threats from the cartels, as well as Mexican businessmen who are targeted by cartels and have moved to the United States for safety.

To date, the cartels for the most part have refrained from targeting innocent civilians. In the type of environment they operate under inside Mexico, cartels cannot afford to have the local population, a group they use as camouflage, turn against them. It is not uncommon for cartel leaders to undertake public relations events (they have even held carnivals for children) in order to build goodwill with the general population. As seen with al Qaeda in Iraq, losing the support of the local population is deadly for a militant group attempting to hide within that population.

Cartels have also attempted to minimize civilian casualties in their operations inside the United States, though for a different operational consideration. The cartels believe that if a U.S. drug dealer or a member of a rival Mexican cartel is killed in a place like Dallas or Phoenix, nobody really cares. Many people see such a killing as a public service, and there will not be much public outcry about it, nor much real effort on the part of law enforcement agencies to identify and catch the killers. The death of a civilian, on the other hand, brings far more public condemnation and law enforcement attention.

However, the aggressiveness of cartel enforcers and their brutal lack of regard for human life means that while they do not intentionally target civilians, they are bound to create collateral casualties along the way. This is especially true as they continue to conduct operations like the Phoenix killing, where they fired over 100 rounds of 5.56 mm ball ammunition at a home in a residential neighborhood.

Tactical Implications

Judging from the operations of the cartel enforcers in Mexico, they have absolutely no hesitation about firing at police officers who interfere with their operations or who dare to chase them. Indeed, the Phoenix case nearly ended in an ambush of the police. It must be noted, however, that this ambush was not really intentional, but rather the natural reaction of these Mexican cartel enforcers to police pursuit. They were accustomed to shooting at police and military south of the border and have very little regard for them. In many instances, this aggression convinces the poorly armed and trained police to leave the cartel gunmen alone.

The problem such teams pose for the average U.S. cop on patrol is that the average cop is neither trained nor armed to confront a heavily armed fire team. In fact, a PPD source advised Stratfor that, had the SAU officer not been the first to arrive on the scene, it could have been a disaster for the department. This is not a criticism of the Phoenix cops. The vast majority of police officers and federal agents in the United States simply are not prepared or equipped to deal with a highly trained fire team using insurgent tactics. That is a task suited more for the U.S. military forces currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These cartel gunmen also have the advantage of being camouflaged as cops. This might not only cause considerable confusion during a firefight (who do backup officers shoot at if both parties in the fight are dressed like cops?) but also means that responding officers might hesitate to fire on the criminals dressed as cops. Such hesitation could provide the criminals with an important tactical advantage — an advantage that could prove fatal for the officers.

Mexican cartel enforcers have also demonstrated a history of using sophisticated scanners to listen to police radio traffic, and in some cases they have even employed police radios to confuse and misdirect the police responding to an armed confrontation with cartel enforcers.

We anticipate that as the Mexican cartels begin to go after more targets inside the United States, the spread of cartel violence and these dangerous tactics beyond the border region will catch some law enforcement officers by surprise. A patrol officer conducting a traffic stop on a group of cartel members who are preparing to conduct an assassination in, say, Los Angeles, Chicago or northern Virginia could quickly find himself heavily outgunned and under fire. With that said, cops in the United States are far more capable than their Mexican counterparts of dealing with this threat.

In addition to being far better trained, U.S. law enforcement officers also have access to far better command, control and communication networks than their Mexican counterparts. Like we saw in the Phoenix example, this communication network provides cops with the ability to quickly summon reinforcements, air support and tactical teams to deal with heavily armed criminals — but this communication system only helps if it can be used. That means cops need to recognize the danger before they are attacked and prevented from calling for help. As with many other threats, the key to protecting oneself against this threat is situational awareness, and cops far from the border need to become aware of this trend.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Heller Decision

First let me say I'm glad that SCOTUS came down on the side of legal gun owners. I'm having a hard time understanding why it took so flippin long for them to take a 2nd amendment case in the 1st place. I can't see what all the fuss is. It's not like it was written in some ancient language. I believe that it was kept short and simple for clarity's sake. Leave it to lawyers and politicians to screw up the meaning of a comma. I think a 5 year old can understand the 2nd amendment. I shudder to think what the people that want us to be unable to protect ourselves would be doing to the laws today if for some reason they came down the other way. A bunch of gun owners would be buying up PVC pipe and looking for land I believe. Now..Chicago and San Francisco are “in the crosshairs” so to speak. It will be interesting to see what the outcome will be.

Now..Gun owners all over America are happy…and with good reason. My personal belief is SCOTUS didn’t go far enough. They left to door cracked open for the Bloomberg’s and the Brady’s in this country to try to convince people that the mere fact that there is a gun in their home that somehow this will make them turn into serial killers. The sad part is…some people WILL believe them. What amazes me to this day is there are people who…without doing ANY research on their own will fall lock step behind whatever some taking head on television tells them. God forbid you attempt to disagree with them. They have no time for the truth, only what someone tells them. What they fail to realize is the people who preach gun control are surrounded by guns, controlled by their security details. Try to take THOSE guns away and let’s see what happens. They will pull any string they can in order to make sure THEY’RE protected, while you sit cowering in fear while 3 or 4 bad guys, who by way way don’t care if there a ban on guns…are banging down your front door, all armed, ready and willing to rob, rape and kill at will because you, as a law abiding citizen have no means to protect yourself. Screw that. I am not willing to hand over the protection of my family to anyone other than myself. Anyone who sits back and waits on the government or the police to “do something about it” will be either sorely disappointed…or dead.

People who take the position that ALL guns are bad, no one should have guns, I hate guns….I used to want to change their minds. Anymore, I don’t care. If you don’t like guns, if you’re scared of guns, whatever, that’s your problem. When the bad guys show up, you’ll be easier for them to work with. I’ll stay “clinging to my guns” and making sure my ass is covered. My family’s life is worth much more to me than some holier than thou attitude that guns are bad.