The nice folks over at GunFreeZone posted a link to a video and expressed an opinion on posturing. I invite you to go and check it out. Unfortunately, that opinion is incorrect. JKB makes the claim that the loser of the fight is displaying decorticate posturing. He is wrong.
What you see in the video is decerebrate posturing. In the difference lies a huge change in prognosis. All posturing is a common outcome of severe brain injury. It refers to involuntary and abnormal positioning, and the presence of posturing after TBI suggests a poor prognosis.
Both types of posturing often indicate some extent of damage to the brainstem, which is the part of the brain that controls important functions like breathing. Decerebrate posturing, which is what we see in the video JKB linked to, is caused by damage to deeper brain structures and is much more common than the other type, decorticate posturing. Decorticate posturing is caused by damage to both hemispheres of the cerebral cortex and is rarer than decerebrate posturing, but is generally associated with better survival rates.
Generally, the recovery outlook for individuals with abnormal posturing after brain injury is poor. Even though there are instances where individuals regain consciousness and recover, only 37% of those who display decorticate posturing after a head injury survive. Only about 10% of individuals with decerebrate posturing survive.
In the video JKB links to, the individual displaying this posturing has one thing going for him: Youth. If he is admitted into the hospital within 6 hours of his injury, he is likely to double his chances of survival, even though it is still likely that he will have some permanent disability. So an 80% chance of death, and a 20% chance of permanent disability. All of that from a punch to the head.
Think about that the next time someone says that a concealed carrier should just take “his beating like a man.”
If a deer attacks you on your own front porch, and it’s outside of hunting season, I would assume that it’s still lawful to shoot his ass. I’m sure a couple of handgun bullets to the cranium would take him down, no problem. (mute the audio. The woman screaming is annoying.)
My question here is: Would you then be permitted to add his meat to the freezer? Some venison steaks would be delicious!
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?
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.
Your car is being burglarized right there in front of your house. You can see them on camera. Your impulse is to run out there and protect your property. I don’t recommend that, and would tell you not to. If you decide to any way, there is a right way and a wrong way. That is the subject of this post.
In the eight years that I have lived in this neighborhood, we have had two attempted burglaries of my pickup truck parked in my driveway. Since my truck is too big to fit in the garage, I have to leave it outside. Both attempts to break into it occurred in the summer, and I wasn’t home for either one. The first time was in June of 2017 while we were in Alaska. Several cars were broken into, and they stole the Jeep across the street. The idiot left the keys to the Jeep in the glove box of the unlocked car that was parked next to it.
The second attempt was a year later and was caught on my security cameras. The cops used my footage to catch the burglar, but he reached a plea deal that included expunging his record. All he got was probation, even though he broke into four vehicles, stealing one of them. One of the cars was a police cruiser that he stole a fingerprint reader from, another was a truck where he stole a handgun, and some items from a few other vehicles. In both break-ins sprees, my truck was spared simply because I lock the doors. The thief tried to blind my cameras with a flashlight, but was unsuccessful. At the time he was trying to break into my truck, he was already armed with a stolen handgun.
The point here is that thieves are frequently armed. That is why I don’t think it is a good idea to leave the house in order to confront burglars. My truck is both empty and insured. The only thing I keep in it are my work IDs and the HAM/CB radio equipment that is mounted in it. Not worth my life. Even if I *do* confront him, my truck will likely be the backstop to my gunfire, so either way I am filing an insurance claim, and the best way to survive a gunfight is not to get in a gunfight in the first place.
If you MUST confront car burglars, there are a few things that are important:
Wear body armor and ear protection. They will give you an advantage.
Don’t exit from the door closest to the burglars.
Don’t forget that there will likely be more than one. Keep your head on a swivel, focusing on the burglar in your car may cause you to miss the one in the getaway car to your right.
Bring enough gun and more than enough ammo. Say an AR with two mags, or a PDW like this one with at least one extra mag. Since you will likely be facing more than one assailant, you want a gun that will allow you to put a lot of accurate fire down range.
Have a good IFAK with a tourniquet and chest seals.
Call the cops before going outside, so backup is on the way. Hope they don’t shoot you by mistake.
Or you can just call the cops, stay inside, then call your insurance company.
Oh- don’t forget your gun in the car and lock the doors.
This video really impressed me. This cop had a criminal try to shoot him in the face, the miss was so close that he had powder burns on his face. Then he got hit in the leg. He exchanged shots with the critter, called for help, did a pretty good reload, exchanged more shots, then put a tourniquet on his own leg. The bad guy was found dead a few houses away. No matter what, stay in the fight. Don’t give up. Have a tourniquet in your car. Have two. Have several more in your house.
Several days ago, I posted about an active cell of Antifa operating in and around the Tampa Bay area of Florida. I have been doing some research and as much of a threat assessment of this as I can. I would have posted sooner on this, but I had several employees get COVID and have just worked a pair of 16 hour days covering their shifts. This is the first chance I’ve had to sit down and write this all out.
When the guy was caught, he had a checklist in his possession. The list itself shows that someone is training these guys to be good little insurgents. Read it for yourself, and you can see that they are being taught how to do this.
This also gives you an idea of the basic load carried by these guys. Note that they do not (yet) have firearms on the list, but as you will see below, many people in this group DO carry weapons as well as firearms.
Using this list and news articles on the arrestee, I was able to find quite a bit of information.
Here is the intel that I have on the cell he was operating with:
Command, Control, Communications
The particular unit he seems to have been affiliated with is the Florida Youth Liberation Front. The Front claims to have chapters in Oregon, Washington, California, Florida, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, New York, and Washington, DC, as well as in Canada. The Washington state version of the Front is known to have been around since 2018. The Florida chapter was formed in 2020.
They appear to be centrally controlled at the national level, and the different chapters coordinate their actions. The Portland chapter provides training for members of other chapters.
Their online presence is hosted by noblogs.org. This webpage is set up for insurgent groups. This platform caters to far-left causes, stating that it exists for the purpose of “connecting radical people.”
Their Twitter feed is not open to the public, but Twitter seems to have no problem allowing a group that advocates for violence, as long as that group is on the left.
One common theme I found on every site is the desire for the violent overthrow of government. I don’t understand how these guys’ meetings aren’t attended by a dozen cops. Every other criminal enterprise in the nation has been infiltrated to the point where they have more cops than real members, but these guys? This HAS to indicate some kind of government support. Reading the group’s website, and especially their “ezine” is fairly instructive.
Organization
The Front is broken down into smaller “affinity groups,” who operate at the local level. These groups participate in sabotage, vandalism, and other violent acts, which they call “direct actions.” This is a classic cell structure that has proven to be quite effective.
Other Antifa-affiliated groups claim they are not connected to YLF, but other left-wing extremist groups have shared the Front’s propaganda on social media, and YLF shares their propaganda and event announcements. The wording, images, and tactics are similar enough to indicate a common controlling entity at some level.
Violent Actions
The Front explicitly discourages peaceful protest. In June 2020, the Front advised protesters that they “can never be peaceful” if it means complying with police demands. Journalist Andy Ngo says that the Front “openly advocate[s] for violent uprisings.” In his testimony to Congress in August 2020, he identified YLF as the organizers of riots in Portland and other cities during the summer of 2020.
Their members are known to frequently carry loaded firearms, as well as use destructive devices such as Molotov cocktails, as well as commercial fireworks, which they sometimes modify into antipersonnel IEDs by wrapping them in duct tape and nails.
The Front is known to have carried out several violent acts:
The Front recently sued Andy Ngo for “stealing” their comments and photos. They dropped the suit when it was pointed out that Ngo was covered by “fair use.”
What is the threat?
It would be fairly easy to dismiss this group as a bunch of 20 something soyboy cucks who are cosplaying the revolutionary role while still living at home with mom and dad. That would be a mistake. While it is accurate that they are a bunch of man-children who still live at home and have no real career, this group is much more than that.
They have organization, a decent command and control network, funding enough for travel, attorneys, equipment, and an extensive propaganda network. Their members are motivated and becoming better equipped and trained by the minute.
Judge them by the fact that they are brazen and have no problem breaking the law. They have little to lose, and are out there carrying out violent attacks while the government sits on its hands, and those of us on the right largely sit around and complain on the Internet. Those on the right who DO stand up and say something are declared to be the terrorists and wind up being tortured for over a year in Federal prison, without trial and without bail.
They are dangerous and effective by the only metric that matters: they are succeeding, especially in Democrat controlled areas.
What can you do?
The best thing that we have going for us in Florida is our governor and our legal climate. So, the best thing we can do is stay right here in Florida.
