Training

Shotguns

This began as a single post, but quickly became too long for one post. So let’s make it a series.

Yesterday’s post talked about stopping power and how it is a myth. Today I want to tackle the topic of what you should be using for self defense. Remember that a bullet is simply a means of transferring energy from gunpowder to target.

Lets start with shotguns.

Shotguns are a great self defense weapon for short to medium range, say 10 to 50 feet. They aren’t the cone of doom that many people think they are-the rule for shotgun patterning is that you usually get about 1 inch of spread for every yard from the target. So at 50 feet, you get a 16 inch pattern. In the distances involved inside of an average house, say 21 feet, you are looking at a pattern that is only about 7 inches.

In shotguns, the most effective self defense loads are not birdshot, as many people claim. The problem with lighter shot is that it frequently doesn’t penetrate. To me, the lightest shot that is suitable for self defense work is number four shot. So let’s take a look:

  • Number 4 buck has 20 grain pellets that are 0.24″ in diameter travelling at ~1300 feet per second.
  • #0 shot has 49 grain pellets that are 0.32″ in diameter and travelling at ~1200 feet per second.
  • #00 shot has 70 grain pellets that are 0.36″ in diameter and travelling at ~1100 feet per second.

My opinion, #0 buck is the best for home defense, especially when being fired from a 12ga with a 3″ chamber. Why?

Remember that our goal is to cause one of three things: a hit to the CNS, massive and rapid blood loss, or disabling shots. #0 buck offers enough penetration to reach vital organs, and 15 of them means having a high enough pellet count to punch lots of holes in the vascular system.

If you are going to consider slugs, I think that a rifle or a pistol caliber carbine is a better choice. We will talk about this in a later post.

The main disadvantages to shotguns are that they are long and difficult to work in tight spaces, and are not precise in the event that you need to shoot at targets that are located in close proximity to non-threats unless you are using slugs.

I prefer pump actions, but I can easily imagine the pure shock and awe of firing a semi-auto magazine fed 12 gauge. I will admit that I don’t own a mag fed semi-auto shotgun, but I have thought about it from time to time. Still, for home defense, a shotgun is a great choice for home defense, but I would not use a break open in that role. I would go with either a pump action or a semi-auto.

By Divemedic, ago

Where I tackle a sacred cow

Stopping power is a myth. There, I said it. Every time there is a shooting, some yahoo comes forward to talk about how this gun or that one would be better because stopping power…

It’s bullshit. There are only four ways to stop a determined attacker:

  • A catastrophic hit to the brain or spinal cord (CNS)
  • Lower his blood pressure to the point where his brain is incapable of operating
  • A ‘mission kill’ where his body is so damaged that it can’t continue the attack (for example: damage his pelvic girdle so an attacker armed with a melee weapon can’t close the distance)
  • Convince him that he is out of the fight

Hitting the brain or spinal cord will usually end an attack. A hit to the head that misses the brain will not work. I can think of seeing at least three shootings from my years as a street medic where a bullet hit a person in the head, but didn’t penetrate into the brain. One of them was a suicide attempt. A good example of a head hit NOT taking someone out of the fight is Navy SEAL Matt Axelson. He took a bullet to the head that left his brain matter exposed, yet continued the fight.

Punch enough holes in someone’s vasculature, and they will lose blood pressure to the point where the brain is no longer being supplied with oxygen, and the person is rendered unconscious. Even a lucky shot with a small caliber like a .32 is capable of doing this- say if it hits the aortic arch and causes a transection. Sometimes it takes several hits. I have seen people take multiple hits to the torso from a .223 and stay in the fight.

A mission kill is where you damage a person’s body severely enough that they physically can’t continue the fight. Say, a hit to the pelvic girdle preventing someone from chasing you down. An excellent example of this was Kyle Rittenhouse shooting Gaige Grosskreutz in the arm. The hit not only rendered that arm as incapable of firing shots, but also made it impossible for that arm to release the handgun it was holding.

Then there is simply convincing someone that they are done. This is a well documented phenomenon where a person will be shot, and the wound is far from incapacitating, but the person simply lies down and is out of the fight.

There are people out there, however that still insist in the magical properties of this caliber or that bullet. Bullets are simple tools. They are a tool that delivers the chemical energy stored in the gunpowder to the target in the form of kinetic energy. The force with which a bullet hits the target is equal to the force that’s directed back into the shooter. It’s one of Newton’s laws- every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Any bullet that has enough power to “knock down” the target will do the same to the shooter. It is at this point that many will point to Marshall and Sanow’s work, and I will admit that I was a follower and believer in this study when it first came out.

The Marshall and Sanow “study” was fatally and egregiously flawed. The most basic flaw was “selection bias” in that the study excluded any shooting where it took more than one shot to halt the attack. So if I have a situation where I shoot someone and he doesn’t go down, so I shoot him three more times before he does, that shooting would be excluded from the study, even though that shooting demonstrated a complete failure to stop the attack.

What a bullet does is simple: the chemical energy in the gunpowder is converted to kinetic energy that is transferred to the bullet. That energy is then transferred to whatever that bullet strikes. If the object struck is a person, then physiology takes over from physics there. The damage done is dictated by how much energy was transferred to the targeted person, and what body parts of that person where targeted.

So there are a couple of things that are important in stopping an attack: the amount of energy transferred, and what part of the body that it is transferred to. Suffice it to say, you want a bullet to have enough energy to damage the body system that it strikes, and that means you want it to penetrate far enough to transfer that energy into something physiologically important. You don’t want a bullet bouncing off of the grizzly’s skull or getting stuck in a denim jacket. It does not do any good if that happens. You also don’t want that bullet to over penetrate. What ever energy that bullet has left after passing through the target is useless in stopping the target from doing things that you don’t want them doing.

You also want to work on shot placement. Hitting a right handed shooter in the left arm isn’t going to do you a bit of good.

Buy yourself a gun that you can shoot well, then spend time practicing. Load it with some high quality defensive ammunition, make sure the firearm functions well with that ammo, then practice.

Why? Because you want to keep shooting until the attack is over. That means if you have to shoot him to slide lock to stop the attack, then shoot him to slide lock. Make sure that you can hit a person-sized target 100% of the time at 10 yards, rapid fire WHILE UNDER STRESS. Make sure that you can hit a person sized target 80 percent of the time at 20 yards while under stress. Sounds easy, but studies show that shooting to this level is rare while experiencing the stress of an actual gunfight.

If you do carry a handgun, use a .38/9mm or larger if you can. If you can’t carry something that large, carrying any firearm is better than not carrying one at all.

Put good quality defensive ammo in it. Don’t worry about finding the perfect latest and greatest ammo, but do get something that is modern as well as being accurate and reliable with your chosen firearm.

Practice. A lot. At least 100 rounds per quarter at a minimum. Shooting is a perishable skill. The more you do it, the better you get at it.

To all of you 10mm or .45ACP fans: If you really believe in stopping power, then provide the physics or physiological basis for stopping power. How does it work, what causes it, why do you think your caliber is different from all of the others?

By Divemedic, ago

Killers Planning and Training

The Parkland shooter admitted to a psychiatrist that he had planned a school massacre for over 5 years. He looked at previous shootings and studied what previous shooters had done. He learned to pie corners, he learned police response times, he learned to not let people get close.

He knew that he would have 20 minutes to carry out his plan without police interference.

Think about that while carrying in your day to day life. The shooter has a plan, he has the initiative, and you will be playing catchup.

By Divemedic, ago

Remember

The person urging you to do illegal shit is probably an FBI agent. You can’t trust anyone, not even family. Even if you ARE among those you can trust, letting someone new into the group is a huge threat. That person may be, or may become, an informant.

Trust no one, or you may wind up like this guy.

The guy who keeps telling you he isn’t a cop? He is a cop. This guy was an undercover informant twice- for a total of over 10 years. How many people are in jail because this guy gave them a little nudge? Made a couple of suggestions? Keep in mind that informants only get their deal or get paid if they continue to serve up the goods. That means they will frame or entrap you, if that is what it takes for them to get whatever it is that the cops have promised them: clemency, leniency, or simply money.

It is nearly certain that some of the commenters on the blogs you read, perhaps even some of the bloggers themselves, are informants or even cops who would love to see you behind bars. The more tyrannical the government becomes, the more informants there will be.

Comport yourselves accordingly.

By Divemedic, ago

Airplane Medical Kit

Because of the comments to the post about the doctor on the airplane, I wanted to do a follow up. So let’s first talk about what is in the medical kit on a commercial aircraft. The FAA requires an AED, and a medical kit that contains the following items:

The most common inflight medical events are:

  • Gastrointestinal/Nausea (31%)
  • Neurological, such as fainting or seizures (26%)
  • Respiratory (7%)
  • Cardiovascular (5%)
  • Dermatological (5%)

My wife was on an aircraft flying from JFK to Heathrow where there was a death in flight. The flight attendants cleared out the back row of the plane and put the body on the seats, covering him with a blanket. That is where he stayed for the remainder of the flight.

I myself have been on two flights were there were medical issues. In both cases, the flight crew called for medical personnel. I wasn’t going to volunteer, but no one else did, so I raised my hand. The FA brought me a radio headset that was connected to the airline’s on call doctor, who consulted with me and we agreed upon a course of action.

The first was a moderate allergic reaction (urticaria, wheezes, pruritus) on a flight from Orlando to Boston. The passenger got himself 50mg of IV diphenhydramine and some inhaled albuterol. He was fine and slept the rest of the flight.

The second was on a flight from Las Vegas to Orlando. It was a guy who was having himself an anxiety attack. He was hyperventilating and complaining of shortness of breath, chest pain, along with numbness and tingling to his fingers and lips.

The reason for it was hilarious. He had gotten married to his fiancé (a white woman) while in Vegas. He was Puerto Rican, and was dreading his mother’s reaction when he told her that he had married a woman (who wasn’t Puerto Rican) that his mother hadn’t even met yet. If you know anything about Puerto Rican mothers, you would know that they are much like Italian mothers. He had every right to be afraid.

Anyway, I told the doctor that his vitals looked good and I felt like it was an anxiety attack. The doctor agreed. I traded seats with his wife for about half an hour and talked him down. Once he felt better, I went back to my seat. An hour later, his wife came and got me a second time. During that second visit, his wife told mine that I was a very patient and nice man.

That’s it for my aircraft stories.

By Divemedic, ago

Ally

Ran into an old friend while at the grocery store today. I hadn’t seen him in about two years. He is a teacher who used to work at my old school. He is even more into guns and self defense than I am. He is no poser. He paid his way through college as an MMA fighter and holds black belts in at least two different martial arts.

He owns more AR patter rifles than anyone else I know, and has an extensive collection of cans. His favorite shooting is distance shooting, and he loves shooting .300 Blackout. He has a couple of sweet shooting rifles.

We caught up a bit. He just graduated a school in Georgia in CQB, and we made promises to get to the range soon.

In the times we are facing, it is a good idea to have like minded friends. Ones that you have known for years, that you trust, and know aren’t Feds. We are soon going to need all the friends we can get.

By Divemedic, ago

Dispersal of Forces

Now that there is a Red Flag law that will soon be signed by Biden, there are some realities that must be faced. Think about what the left has been doing and saying for the past two years: anyone who disagrees with Fauci is crazy, anyone who argues with a leftist is a fascist, and other arguments intended to make you an unperson. How easy has it been to get banned from social media? That same moron that complained about the meme you posted on Facebook now has the ability to send an armed SWAT team to your house to have you killed. SWATting on steroids.

Of course Red Flag laws will be abused. Divorce attorneys salivating at this idea.

Those attempts at destroying your First Amendment rights will soon be applied to your Second Amendment rights. The Disinformation Bureau will soon have a counterpart for guns, bet on it. The agents of the ATF have a collective boner at the thought of new budget money. Government informants will soon get rewards for turning you in.

I have experienced this first hand. A couple of years ago, I was made into a prohibited person, thanks to an ex-girlfriend who used allegations of domestic violence to get a domestic violence injunction from a court. It took me weeks to clear my name, thousands in legal fees, and was a real inconvenience.

The first hint that you have of this is there will be a knock at the door, and you will open it to find the cops standing there with a court order to take your guns. Now in my case, they were stupid. I handed them a couple of token firearms and the left without searching. I don’t expect cops in these future red flag cases to be so casual. So here is my suggestion:

The military has had a policy of “dispersal of forces” ever since nuclear weapons became a thing. The idea is not to put all of your forces in one spot, thereby ensuring that all of your weapons won’t get caught up in one giant fireball. We can do the same thing.

  • Make sure that you cache some of your weapons and ammo in locations away from your property. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.
  • Bury some in the backyard. You do have some 6 inch CPVC, don’t you?
  • Have others at a trusted friend’s house.
  • If you get a visit from the confiscation police, don’t immediately go retrieve your cache. They will likely return, looking for you to do exactly that.
  • Best if those cached weapons are “ghost guns” or guns bought on the secondary market, so there is no record of you having them.

Be paranoid, because as we have explained here on this very website, someone IS out to get you. If you DO get raided, get the word out. Make sure others know that they are taking guns. Maybe you can keep it from happening to someone else.

By Divemedic, ago

Childhood Development

When a child is very young, from birth to about 18 months, their first attraction is to their primary caregiver. The secondary caregivers are added to that, and the child remains firmly bonded to those caregivers until about 9 years of age. This early childhood bonding is important, because that is how children learn about trust: a parent being loving while caring and nurturing the child teaches them to trust. That the parent doesn’t “spoil” the child by over coddling also teaches the child a healthy mistrust that is important to a child’s development. If a person learns to trust others too much, then wind up in unhealthy, dependent relationships and never learn self reliance.

Anyway, the child at age 9 has learned a healthy balance between trust and mistrust, and soon this develops into a sense of independence that allows them the confidence to begin exploring relationships outside of the family.

At that point, children become attracted to (not in a sexual way) same sex peers (usually same sex peers, but there are some exceptions- think the traditional tomboy who played baseball with the boys) who are outside of the household. They begin to emulate those peers, children their own age, plus or minus a year or two. This learning behavior is a normal part of childhood development, and is driven by the fact that humans are social animals.

We emulate the behavior of other humans so that we can enter societal groups and not be outcasts. This normal attraction to same sex friends has been called the “normal homosexual phase.” Homosexual in this case not referring to an erotic, sex driven attraction, but to an emulation of those who would become a child’s social peers. Those of you reading this who are boys might remember this as your “girls are icky” phase. These are the days of summer camps, fishing with your best friend, or girls playing house and dolly. Skipping rocks, making mudpies, and playing pickup games of baseball. This is when children learn traditional societal roles and responsibilities.

There are adults who use this phase as an opportunity to confuse children. It is during this phase that children begin to form friendships and a sense of their role as it relates to the society in which they live. Those adults who want to take advantage of this have a narrow window of opportunity, because beginning about two years later, children begin to show the first signs of sexual attraction to the opposite sex. It is during this “normal homosexual phase” that children are most easily groomed into being confused about their role and can be swayed into accepting a nontraditional role such as transgenderism or homosexuality. The formative years from about 9 to 12 or so is when children form their sense of who they will become. It would be easy for a manipulative adult to convince a child that his deep friendship for his same sex best friend is really some sort of homosexual attraction of a more erotic nature, rather than of a developmental nature.

Children who are emotionally, sexually, and mentally abused or those who receive emotional trauma during these formative years are those who go on to experience mental health issues as adults. This is why allowing teachers to push these alternative roles upon children in the age groups from Kindergarten through seventh grade is so damaging to children.

This is also why there are teachers who are fighting so hard for access to children in this age group. It is access to young children that allows them to build the next generation of adults with misaligned emotional and psychological compasses.

By Divemedic, ago

Moar Training Manuals

Look at the “training manuals” link at the top of the page. I have added four manuals on making homemade firearms to that page. All of the manuals are in alphabetical order. The new ones all begin with “homemade.”

Since it is easier to make fully automatic firearms than semi, three of them are for submachine guns, and one is a break open. They can all be made with common parts found at a hardware store using inexpensive hand tools.

As a disclaimer, please note that they are being provided for educational purposes only. If you make any of the firearms there, remember to follow the law in making these evil “ghost guns” and you do so at your own risk.

By Divemedic, ago