A cab driver shot and killed a would-be robber around 10 p.m. Sunday at Carowinds Boulevard and South Tryon Street, Charlotte Mecklenburg Police said.
The cab had been dispatched to the Colonial Village apartments at the intersection where he picked up a fare, said Capt. Allan Rutledge, of the Steele Creek Division of Charlotte Mecklenburg Police.
The cab driver told authorities that the man he picked up pulled a gun, at which point the driver pulled his own handgun and shot and killed the man, Rutledge said.
The driver then called 911. Two handguns were found at the scene and police were not looking for any other suspects, Rutledge said.
The driver, who was not identified, was being interviewed by police late Sunday. The victim's identity was not available late Sunday.
Nearby resident Sean Wilson said he heard gunshots outside his apartment. He went out a short time later and saw police pull up and pull a cab driver out of his car and into a squad car.
Wilson said he saw a person in the front passenger seat of the cab and that he appeared to be dead.
He said police told him it was an attempted robbery. “It was an apparent robbery that went wrong,” Wilson said. “Or, it went right, depending on how you look at it.” Read more
Knives: Small and large Junkyard Dawgs Maker: Tim Galyean Blade Lengths: 3 & 3.75” Blade Steel: CPM 154 stainless Rockwell Hardness: 61-62 Rc Blade Grind: CNC flat Blade Finish: Stonewash Handle: 6AL4V titanium textured a la airplane skin Lock: Frame lock Pivot: IKBS bearing system Approximate Closed Lengths: 4 & 4.9” Maker’s List Prices: $350 & $400
Tim Galyean Customs and his Junkyard Dawg was a referral from a friend of mine. I am glad my friend introduced me to Galyean’s work. Though the knives boast a lot of CNC machining, Galyean does 95 percent of it himself in his shop. I wish I could run a CNC as well as he does.
The old-style aircraft design on the knife’s handle adds a touch of class.
Galyean sent me large and small versions of his Junkyard Dawg. As long as I had two knives, I played with both. I was hoping they would perform as well as they look.
Show Dawgs
After carrying the small Dawg around for a few days, I switched to its bigger brother for a few more. The small Dawg carries extremely light and secure and was very useful at doing standard day-to-day tasks. The big Dawg also carries light but takes up more room in a pocket, and is more usable than the small Dawg. Galyean’s CNC flat grind is outstanding on both knives. The edge geometry tapers to a thin edge, allowing very fine cuts.
I grabbed some half-inch plastic foam and cut it into half-inch strips. Next, using the folders like chef’s knives, I diced the foam. Both knives diced away without tearing the material, leaving a lot of thin slices sticking to every surface.
I moved on to some 8-to-9-ounce leather scraps. Both knives cut as if I were using scalpels. You could hear a little crunch as they slid through the leather. Thick or paper-thin cuts, both knives easily went through the medium. It was time to test those flat grinds!
I had my trusty cutting board set up with half-inch sisal rope. The small Dawg bit first—92 times through roughly 24 inches of sisal. What a nasty little Dawg! I bumped the rope size up to 1-inch manila. I stropped the edge twice on each side just to make sure it was in top shape. The small Dawg would almost make it through on a single cut but always left a little hanging on the backstroke. The knife still made 24 cuts in the manila.
It was time for the big Dawg to paw up. The half-inch sisal was like an appetizer to the large J.D. I went to 120 push cuts in record time. It needed something bigger to bite! Seventy-four cuts later on the manila and my arm was getting tight. The big Dawg loves to perform. Both knives are very comfortable cutting with a thumb on the side. However, the thumb grooves on top are a tad sharp when pressing down during use.
A friend gave me some scrap material for making large drive belts, about a quarter-inch thick with bands of cloth running through it. The knives slid through the rubber and cloth 30 and 40 times. Both beat a razor knife in cutting the material.
It was time to get the wood out. Some 1-inch pine boards needed whittling. The small Dawg made shapely curly-cues and was very controllable throughout. It would make a deep bite on the way in but, because of the blade’s size, I had to really pressure it out. The big Dawg was amazing on the pine—little bites or large ones, it did not matter. A flick of the wrist and it ate through the wood. Controlling the large blade of the big Dawg was a pleasure.
A wave of summer storms knocked downed some branches in the backyard. It was chowtime for the Junkyard Dawgs! The small Dawg, not much for chopping because of its size, took junior-sized bites from the branch. On the other hand, the big Dawg excelled at chopping. The shape of the blade and the knife’s overall balance made chopping a 3-inch-diameter branch a breeze.
Hanging Rope Cut
The author said the small Dawg cut through the 8-to-9-ounce leather scraps as if it were a scalpel.
I took both knives to the shop to let my knifemaking partner, ABS journeyman smith Gary Wheeler, take a look. Even though we both like the small Dawg, the large Dawg made a bigger impression. Gary was playing with a William Scagel-style camp knife he had just completed, so I had to bet him whether he could cut the 1.25-inch hanging manila rope with a folder.
As he warmed up, he looked doubtful. All we heard was a snick, then Gary rubbing his shoulder. The big Dawg went through the rope fast, so Gary did not need to swing that hard. He finally got it right; a quick wrist snap and the big Dawg parted the hanging rope. Both of us were impressed. The flat grind is ideal for the hanging rope cut.
Recommendations
Soften the thumb notches some in case the user likes to cut with the thumb up.
More Bite Than Bark
Both Dawgs performed flawlessly. They are excellent knives for most any cutting job. I like the feel of the big Dawg best—it exhibits top-notch folder construction and is rock solid.
For more information contact Tim Galyean, Dept. BL12, 205 Bina Dr., Newberg, OR 97132 503.799.7779 www.galyeancustom.com.
Most of the time you don't need a big knife. Sometimes you specifically need a smaller knife. The Columbia River Knife and Tool Carson F4 fits the bill perfectly as either a back-up blade or small primary knife that doesn't take up much gear in your kit.
The beauty of this knife is in the sheath; called the convertible carry system by CRKT. The tough Zytel sheath offers at least five different carry options and folks more creative than I am will certainly find others. With holes and slots and a reversible clip, the Carson F4 can be anything from a belt knife to a neck knife to back-up blade woven into MOLLE gear or laced onto a backpack.
The sheath holds the knife firmly in any of the carry positions and yet provides for an easy draw when you reach for the handle. There is one issue with the design. It seems that with one exception, no matter how you affix the knife for carry, you will be drawing it with a reverse grip. Only if you wear the sheath inside the waistband with the clip on the outside of your pants will the knife come to your hand in a standard grip. Not really a design flaw, just something you should know when trying to rig up the knife.
Based on Kit Carson's custom design each knife has molded contoured and textured Zytel scales for comfort and safety. A black neck chain is included. MRSP is about $20
AUS 6M stainless steel 55-57 HRC. Overall length: 5.5″ Thickness: 0.10″ Cutting edge: 2.5″ Weight: 1.3 oz Sheath weight:1.4 oz.
This is a great knife that would serve well in most situations. Get your hands on one.
Mr. Sunstein has been assuring Second Amendment advocates, including key Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, that he strongly believes the Constitution protects an individual right to bear arms. In a July 14 letter clarifying his positions at the request of the senator, Mr. Sunstein wrote: “Your first question involved the Second Amendment.
I strongly believe that the Second Amendment creates an individual right to possess and use guns for purposes of both hunting and self-defense. I agree with the Supreme Court's decision in the Heller case, clearly recognizing the individual right to have guns for hunting and self-defense. If confirmed, I would respect the Second Amendment and the individual right that it recognizes.”
There's no wiggle room in that statement, and Mr. Chambliss dropped his hold on the nomination based on Mr. Sunstein's assurances. But it turns out that the professor has held a certain contempt for the very viewpoint he suddenly claims to espouse.
A videotape has surfaced of a lecture Mr. Sunstein gave on Oct. 23, 2007. Here is what he said: “My coming view is that the individual right to bear arms reflects the success of an extremely aggressive and resourceful social movement and has much less to do with good standard legal arguments than [it] appears.”
Discussing the anti-gun laws in the District of Columbia, he said a critic of such strict gun control would say that a “trigger lock interferes with his efforts at self-defense against criminals. What on Earth does that have to do with the Second Amendment as originally understood?”
Later in the lecture, Mr. Sunstein said, “My tentative suggestion is that the individual right to have guns as it's being conceptualized now is best taken as a contemporary creation and a reflection of current fears – not a reading of civic-centered founding debates.”
Mr. Sunstein's overt hostility to the idea that the Constitution protects an individual right to bear arms, including for purposes of self-defense, is not something that should be welcomed from somebody whose job might entail weighing in on the value of anti-gun regulations. It also makes his more recent assurances that he is a Second Amendment stalwart seem rather disingenuous, at the very least. Read more
Some believe the agency capable of reform. In May, Rep. Zack Space (R-OH) and Rep. Steve King (R-IA) re-introduced “reform legislation” they tell us is backed by “defenders of the Second Amendment” in the House of Representatives. This is a “companion bill” to legislation introduced to the Senate in April by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID).
Here's what we're told this will do:
–Create a system to provide more flexibility in punishing those who are found to have violated gun sales laws.
–Establish a solid legal requirement for determining the willful violation of the law.
–Create specific sentencing guidelines for dangerous felons convicted of a gun offense.
–Set limitations on the availability of electronic gun owner information to protect the privacy of law-abiding citizens.
–Allow security companies and ammunition manufacturers to purchase machine guns for product testing and international security personnel training.
–Ease the restriction on the importation of replacement parts for semiautomatic rifles.
–Direct that a suspension or fine be vacated if a court determines a licensee did not willfully violate the law with attorney’s fees awarded to a cleared defendant.
–Direct that the number of warnings, amount of fines, or suspensions or revocations shall not be a factor in firing, promoting, or transferring agents.
We're told this will be an improvement. The National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action says:
The bills would roll back unnecessary restrictions, correct errors, and codify longstanding congressional policies in the firearms arena. These bipartisan bills are a vital step to modernize and improve BATFE operations.
Of highest importance, S. 941 and H.R. 2296 totally rewrites the system of administrative penalties for licensed dealers, manufacturers and importers of firearms. Today, for most violations, BATFE can only give a federal firearms license (FFL) holder a warning, or totally revoke his license.
So: Is this an important incremental step in bringing critical reforms to a troubled agency?
We'll look at another point of view tomorrow. Read more
Larry Pratt has backed Second Amendment rights for Americans to bear arms for nearly three decades.
The executive director of Gun Owners of America has more help now to pressure national government actions as the Tea Party movement attracts thousands of United States residents who are opposed to heavy federal spending, taxes and say in their day-to-day lives.
“Americans have increasingly come to the conclusion that our government is out of control,” said Pratt in a telephone interview from his office in Springfield, Va.
“It's time for elected officials to behave as employees and listen to what the boss wants.”
He makes his first appearance in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., on Sept. 12 in an event dubbed 9/12 Tea Party. It's hosted by the Northern Michigan Liberty Alliance and Soo Tea Party.
The gathering runs from noon to 2 p.m. at Peck and Ashmun streets.
Examples of groups such as the Michigan Sault tea party, formed by five men who met in a coffee shop “wanting to do something” earlier this year, encourages the GOA head.
“Americans are evidently on a path to take back the government,” he said.
“There are powers that have been slipping out of our hands that should never have been yielded, never been ceded . . . I think it's a very healthy thing for the sake of freedom and prosperity that we're finally telling the government, ‘You cost too much,' both in terms of money and what we can do in our daily lives.”
Pratt hopes Michigan will follow states such as Montana and Tennessee that have introduced Firearms Freedom Acts.
Under the law, firearms manufactured and kept in those states are exempt from federal weapons regulations. Read more
That's the word from the Nebraska Attorney General's Office, which was required by a new state law to determine which states have comparable concealed handgun permit laws to Nebraska's. That determines which states' residents could legally carry concealed handguns in Nebraska, as well as their home state.
The review found that 34 states have standards equal to or greater than Nebraska's.
People who have obtained concealed weapons permits in those states have reciprocal rights here and can legally carry concealed weapons in Nebraska, said Leah Bucco-White of the Nebraska Attorney General's Office.
The review, however, found a dozen states, including neighboring South Dakota, where the standards are less stringent than Nebraska's. Permits from those states will not be honored here.
A 13th state, Vermont, allows concealed carry but does not issue permits. So Vermont residents and permit holders from the dozen other states won't be allowed to carry hidden handguns here, said Chief Deputy Attorney General David Cookson. Read more
The late Dan Shideler never had much use for semi-auto pistols. Compared to revolvers, they always seemed to be clunky, awkward things. The Taurus PT 1911, however, was another matter.
I suffer from an acquired distrust of semi-auto pistols, one that undoubtedly springs from an unfortunate encounter I had some 20 years ago with an old European cavalry pistol.
It happened in the Mile Corner Gun Shop in Garrett, Indiana, a nice little place where I've spent many a delightful lunch hour. One day I dropped in and spied a weird-looking pistol sitting in one of the display cases.
The affable, unflappable proprietor, Dan Yarde, was only too happy to let me examine it: a Budapest-made Model 1907 Roth-Steyr chambered in 8mm Steyr. If you've ever seen a Model 1907, you know what an odd little duck it is. I had never seen one, which accounts for what happened next.
Being habitually cautious around unfamiliar guns, I pulled back the bolt handle to check the chamber. True to its design, the bolt stayed in the open position, held to the rear by the magazine follower. Without thinking I stuck my right pinky down into the magazine well and, sure enough, the bolt slammed shut on the tip of my finger.
Scalding tears sprang to my eyes. The pistol hung on to me with all the tenacity of a moray eel. I wanted to yell, cry, thrash around like a harpooned seal — anything to get that damned gun off me. In a heroic attempt to preserve my dignity, however, I just stood there, frozen in time and space, with the pistol dangling off my mangled fingertip and tears rolling down my cheeks.
The pain was so intense, I think I had an out-of-body experience. I noticed how funny the top of my head looked and saw myself playing in a sandbox at age three. Finally Dan Yarde spoke up. Staring at my hand, he casually said one word: “Ouch.”
Suddenly re-entering my body, I managed to hold out my wounded member and whisper hoarsely, “Would. . .would you mind. . . pulling back the bolt handle?” He did, and sticking my hand in my pocket, I bade him a rather hurried goodbye. I still have the scar. The emotional scar, that is. My finger healed long ago.
So let's just say that semi-auto pistols and I have had a checkered past. Oh, for a while there I caught the 1911 bug and bought every Colt I could find, but eventually I recovered and have remained happily bereft of 1911s ever. That is, until I found a Taurus PT 1911 in a local dealer's display case last week.
I am a big believer in Taurus. My Thunderbolt shoots as well or better than any of my original Colt Lightning Magazine Rifles ever did, and my Taurus Model 4410 .45/.410 shotshell revolver is a continual hoot. So when the Boys from Brazil came out with a 1911 that retailed — now, get this — for $459 new in the box, I had to give it a try.
I've owned a number of entry-level 1911s, and they were all based more or less on the standard 1911-A1 with no bells or whistles whatsoever. The Taurus PT 1911, however, is something altogether different. It bears Heinie Straight Eight combat sights, a skeletonized hammer and trigger, an ambidextrous safety, and two eight-round magazines complete with rubber baby buggy bumpers.
But wait! There's more! (Would you believe “But Wait! There's More!” is actually a trademarked phrase owned by the Ronco Corporation? It really is. But I digress.) The PT 1911 also has slide serrations both fore and aft, which is a real convenience for me. A decade ago I suffered an injury to my left hand, compliments of my old Mercedes 280C, and I have had difficulty racking the slides of most 1911s ever since. The PT 1911's front slide serrations give me the leverage I need, and I can cycle its action with no trouble.
Then there's the beveled magazine well, the oversized mag release button, the radiused ejection port, the flat mainspring housing and probably a dozen more nice little touches that I haven't noticed yet. And throw in a lifetime warranty. Frankly, I'm amazed at what $459 will buy these days.
Taurus claims that the PT 1911 is made entirely of forged steel, and it appears that it actually is. To me that's important. Call me prejudiced, call me dumb as a turnip, but I have had it up to here with the investment-cast and MIM (metal injection molded) parts found in many new pistols. You can wrap this “innovative” (i.e., cost-cutting) technology in all the gee-whiz marketing baloney you want, but in my mind pistols were meant to be made out of forged, milled steel. Not molded parts, not polymers. I will probably never shoot a pistol enough to break an investment-cast or MIM part, but give me one blanked out by a 40-ton forge any day.
Die-hard 1911 fans will probably be turned off by the PT 1911's integral Taurus safety lock, which is a key-activated device set into the top of the hammer. Me, I can ignore it. Others may choose to replace it with a conventional hammer, which is possible, according to what I've read. If there is one fault I can find with the PT 1911, it is its finish. Its bluing is a rather muddy matte black with enormous “Taurus” and “PT 1911” legends lasered into the sides of the slide. I have seen photos of a protoype PT 1911 in polished stainless steel and it looks quite nice, but the blued version is just plain ugly. It's no Kimber or United States Fire Arms 1911, that's for sure — at least in the looks department.
The PT 1911's owner's manual states that it is intended for use with standard .45 ACP ammo, not +P or +P+. I have no doubt that the pistol would handle hotter-than-standard ammo, but I'd install a beefier recoil spring first. A 230-grain hardball at about 850 fps is quite good enough for my purposes.
So how's the PT 1911 shoot? I got mine on the first day of an unprecedented late December/early January two-week rainy spell, so I haven't had much range time with it. (My wife frowns on my shooting centerfire pistols in the basement.) I can tell you that I managed to put all eight rounds of the first clip in a 10-inch group at 65 yards, shooting offhand from the open doorway of my garage in the middle of an Indiana monsoon. Yes, I know I'm not Jeff Cooper or Elmer Keith, but that's as good as I expect to do with any 1911, though hope is not entirely dead.
While shooting the PT 1911, I noticed that it had an unusually nice trigger pull. So I got out my old Zebco De-Liar scale and performed some highly unscientific measurements. Based on what my jerry-rigged scale tells me, my PT 1911 has a trigger pull of just under three pounds. And it's a nice, crisp pull, too, like breaking an icicle off grandma's back porch.
I have heard through the jungle telegram that Taurus may be considering bringing out the PT 1911 in a Commander-type version as well as a .38 Super chambering. If either of these rumors is true and the PT 1911's price point holds, I'll be first in line.
I'm no expert on 1911s. In fact, I'm a true-blue revolver guy. But to those of you who are 1911 experts, I respectfully suggest that you put the PT 1911 through its paces as soon as you can. You may be as pleasantly surprised as I was.
Author STRONGLY recommends some type of security holster to those who feel they must practice open carry. This carbon fiber Blackhawk SERPA with proprietary trigger-finger lock release mechanism is carried by a state police trainer in casual clothes. Pistol is baby Glock.
Will criminals attack an obviously armed person just to get his gun? Sure. It has happened. I know a guy who was a young cop out West who was walking foot patrol when the lights suddenly went out. He groggily regained consciousness to discover that he had a massive headache and an empty holster. A two-by-four was lying nearby. The department determined that an unknown, never-caught malefactor had come up behind the officer stealthily, smashed him in the back of the head with a board, and taken his custom Smith & Wesson and sauntered away from the cop’s unconscious form. The officer recovered from the blow, and his assailant did not choose to execute him as he lay helpless. He was lucky. And he knows it.
More recently – this past winter, as I write this in the summer of 2007 – a perpetrator in New York City decided the best way to pay off his debts was to commit a string of robberies, and he determined he’d need a gun for that. Where to get a gun? He came up behind a uniformed rookie cop and smashed him in the head with a baseball bat. When the cop fell to the pavement, his attacker beat him about the head some more with the bat, then managed to get his 16-shot 9mm out of the duty holster. The suspect was captured shortly thereafter by other officers, and he confessed, which is how we know not only what he did, but why. The officer was seriously injured and possibly permanently impaired when last heard from.
So, yes, there have indeed been cases of people who attacked those visibly carrying guns for no other purpose than to get the guns. In is not an everyday thing, but it is something to worry about. The private citizen around other people unknown to him, with an exposed gun clearly visible, runs the same risk.
A good choice for open carry or concealed, this Bianchi Evader requires middle finger of drawing hand to hit a paddle to unlock this Glock 22.
“Out of Sight, Out of Mind”: A Two-Way Street Concealed carry advocates are often heard to say, “Concealed means concealed! If they don’t know it’s there, they can’t grab it away from you!” I’m afraid it isn’t quite so simple. First, the assailant may know where your concealed gun is before the assault begins. This can come about in any of several ways.
Perhaps the assailant knows you carry a gun, and even knows where you carry it. This in turn can come from several directions. The attacker could be an estranged former significant other. He could be the disgruntled former employee you had to fire, and he hates you for it and wants revenge. He might be your son-in-law, whom you found out was abusing your daughter and who has seen you with a gun and wants to hurt you to punish her.
Perhaps the attacker is a stranger, who didn’t decide to attack you until your concealed handgun inadvertently became exposed, and he saw it. In many areas, a $500 handgun is worth $1,000 on the black market. Guns and prescription drugs are about the only two things crooks can steal from you and re-sell for more than their intrinsic value, instead of fencing for dimes on the dollars. Did you or a friend ever unintentionally expose a concealed handgun to one another? If that happens in front of the wrong person, you could be targeted in a disarming attempt.
And perhaps the gun becomes visible or palpable in the course of a fight that has not yet reached deadly force proportions. Watch armed men in plainclothes punching or grabbing each other, and you’ll see coats sweeping back, shirts being pulled loose, pants cuffs coming up…things that will expose hip holsters, shoulder holsters, and ankle holsters. A common wrestling maneuver in a streetfight is to grab the other man around the waist with your arms. If the antagonist does that to you, he’ll almost certainly feel your holstered gun, and now the struggle for your weapon is on.
There is also the absolute fact that in concealed handgun carry, “out of sight, out of mind” goes in both directions. That is, the person who is perhaps falsely confident that no one will spot his gun, is less motivated to be alert to a grab for that gun.
I guess what I’m saying here is that, concealed or open carry, recognizing beforehand that you might experience a gun-snatch attempt is a wise thing. It follows that it is equally wise to plan ahead to defeat that attempted gun grab. Proven Retention Strategies Handgun retention is the corollary science to handgun disarming, and it encompasses both a hardware side and a software side. Let’s look at the hardware first.
Security holsters have been available for some time that will ride on a conventional dress gun belt and don’t require a police officer’s or security guard’s big, heavy utility belt. The most popular of the breed these days seems to be the Blackhawk SERPA. This synthetic rig has a discreet trigger-finger panel that is biomechanically natural for the wearer’s draw angle, but not for the hand of an unauthorized person coming in on it from an angle other than straight above…and your own gun arm and shoulder are blocking his access to that particular angle. I know a lot of cops are now wearing the SERPA when they do open carry in plainclothes on investigative duties, or in the not-readily-recognizable permutations of the various “administrative uniforms.”
Strong Holster Company has long made their Piece-Keeper, which uses a special thumb-break design to require a double release movement before the draw can begin. Bianchi has a wide line of holsters with “level two” retention. Safariland has produced a whole series of holsters with hidden releases, or niche locks that require the gun to be pulled in a certain specific direction before it will come out. All have great promise for low-profile open carry, and for that matter, these holsters are concealable.
I would strongly recommend a thumb-break safety strap as a bare minimum of security for anyone openly carrying a loaded handgun in public.
Mechanical safeties are another good thing in these circumstances. History has shown us again and again – with cops, armed citizens, and security professionals alike – that when a bad guy gets a gun away from a good guy and tries to shoot him with it, he often takes several seconds to figure out how to make the gun work. Those seconds have often been the difference between life and death.
Are these hardware fixes desirable even for those trained in handgun retention? Yes. When my older daughter briefly open-carried in Arizona, she had an on-safe Beretta 92 in a Strong Piece-Keeper holster, and appreciated the peace of mind that combination gave her. (She also quickly grew tired of people staring at her, pointing, and mouthing “The little girl has a gun!”) My kids learned handgun retention early – this daughter was the youngest instructor ever certified to teach the Lindell Handgun Retention System by the National Law Enforcement Training Center – but remember the cops I mentioned earlier who were cold-cocked before they had a chance to defend their guns. For situations like that, hardware that is “proprietary to the user” can be a lifesaver.
The software fix is every bit as important. When I first discovered I had to carry open or not at all in North Carolina, I was carrying a point-and-pull revolver in an open top holster. I was damn glad that I was an instructor of long standing in Lindell weapon retention. The same was true more recently, when I posed for some photos walking around the greater Phoenix area open-carrying a rig I had intended to carry concealed: a point-and-shoot SIG P226 in an open top LFI Concealment Rig by Ted Blocker. Since the gun-grab may come after you’ve already drawn and off-safed, being able to successfully grapple with the grabber and peel him off the gun is an essential skill in any case. Bottom Line Some carry openly to make a statement about gun owners’ civil rights. I can sympathize with that. Some few do so to make a spectacle of themselves. No sympathy here. Either will experience the word “make” in another context: they will be “made” as someone carrying a deadly weapon in public.
The more the gun can “hide in plain sight” through discreet selection of the color of gun finish, stocks, holster, and surrounding clothing, the less trouble the exposed handgun will cause instead of quell.
The more difficult the gun is for an unauthorized user to get out of its holster, and the more difficult it is for an unauthorized person who gains control of it to activate, the better. These are not just political correctness issues. When you look at the number of people who have been killed with their own or their partners’ weapons in the history of law enforcement and professional security, you can see just how significant the risk is that we are talking about. Only a fool would ignore it.
Open carry may not be this writer’s choice, but for many of our brothers and sisters, it is the only legal way they can be armed in public to protect themselves and their loved ones. Whether or not we choose to exercise it, we want to keep the right of open carry. The above advice is offered in the hope of doing so with maximum safety for ourselves and others.
Especially since being a watchdog (as opposed to lapdog) of government is one of the traditional roles of a free press.
This is not only a David-and-Goliath story about a citizen fighting for his rights and freedom against a zealous government with bottomless resources, but it goes much deeper in challenging the accuracy of government records, and the governments willingness–and ability–to subject those records to scrutiny.
It's appalling, especially when you realize the ATF and the Justice Department were doing their damnedest to put a man away, and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to do so at a time we're told resources and manpower are stretched.
So why is it we'd have never known about this story at all if we relied on the “mainstream media”? See for yourself what a Google News search yields.
Now compare that with something really important to keep the sovereign public informed on, say, “Twilight” or “Jon & Kate Plus 8“…
Aside from blogs and forums frequented mainly by activist gun owners, our fellow citizens would never know the Friesen story happened. Most still don't and never will. Read more
Police said a 60-year-old man shot a teenager who tried to rob his home Saturday night.
Metro police said the break-in happened on Lindy Murff Court in south Nashville.The 60-year-old resident shot one of the two robbers in the chest. Later, the two robbers showed up at the Shell station on Haywood Lane in Antioch, asking for help, police said.
The wounded man claimed he had been robbed and shot during the robbery.
Paramedics rushed the wounded man to the hospital, and he is expected to survive. The other man has been arrested. Read more
The shooting occurred in the back of Gipson's Discount Foods, 1434 U.S. 80 in west Jackson.
About 4:50 p.m., police responded to a call of a man being shot at the business, Jackson Police Department Assistant Chief Lee Vance said.
The grocery store is closed on Sundays.
“Our preliminary investigation shows the deceased was attempting to break in when a resident living inside shot and killed him,” Vance said.
The suspect, who did not have any identification, was carrying a large knife and a handgun, Vance said. He was shot when he reached for one of the weapons.
Police found the suspect dead near the rear door.
Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart said the suspect was shot once in the chest with a shotgun.
She said she hopes finger prints will be able to help identify the suspect, who is believed to be in his mid-20s.
The death is the city's 28th homicide.
Police are not releasing the name of the shooter because he is not expected to be charged. Read more
Gun Digest is the source for firearms news, pricing and guns for sale. Readers benefit from in-depth editorial expert advice, show reviews and practical how-to instructions. Subscriptions are the First Amendment way to stand up for your Second Amendment rights. Click here to begin your subscription to Gun Digest.
Inside This Issue
• Rich Grassi revisits the reproduction government models of Colt.
• Dave Morelli shows how to improve your cowboy action speed with a few simple steps.
• Editor Kevin Michalowski gets the debate going in his “Editor's Shot” column. Click here to read it.
A number of jurisdictions allow law-abiding private citizens to carry loaded handguns, exposed, in public. This chapter will focus on two specific elements of open carry, which have been called into discussion by those in the gun owners’ rights movement who think carrying concealed is a better idea.
Those two particular elements are discretion, and handgun security against snatch attempts. By discretion, we mean a method of carry that, while exposing the gun, does not call attention to it. You don’t want to “frighten the horses.” You don’t necessarily want any criminal in sight to realize that if he blindsides you with an ambush from behind, your firearm is his for the taking. Unless you’re a show-off screaming silently for attention, you want as few people as possible to notice the exposed handgun.
Handgun security against snatch attempts is something cops came to terms with long ago. Any officer will tell you, “In any conflict where someone is within arm’s reach of you, they have a gun within their arm’s reach: your gun.” Since open carry allows a present or potential antagonist to see that you do have that gun, you want it to be held in something that will not yield it up to the first clutching hand.
Discreet Appearance
I learned early that “protective coloring” extends to the visibly armed citizen as surely as it does to the beasts of the forests, the denizens of the sea, and the fowl of the air. For polar bears, protective coloration is “white on white.” The reflective surfaces of metal are such that a chrome-plated, pearl-handled gun may actually be more conspicuous against a white shirt with white slacks. However, a matte black gun and holster almost disappear against black clothing.
Some years ago, in North Carolina, I arrived to teach a deadly force class and was told that, cop or not – even though I was officially on police business and teaching in a police academy setting – I could not carry concealed as an out-of-state policeman unless I was extraditing a felon. I asked about non-resident carry permits or permit reciprocity: no dice. I asked if there were any avenues at all. “Sure,” said one indigenous cop, “just carry it exposed in the holster. We have ‘open carry’ here.”
I do not care for the “frighten the horses” effect of open carry. However, I also do not care to be unarmed and, therefore, all but helpless against the armed. Suddenly, open carry was looking more attractive. In fact, I took to it like a duck to water. (Well, maybe like a reluctant duck that didn’t like water very much.)
The handgun I was carrying that week was a blue steel Colt Python 357 Magnum revolver, with black Pachmayr grips. I wore it most of the time in an inside-the-waistband holster I had designed for Mitch Rosen, the Ayoob Rear Guard (ARG). Even with most of the mass of the weapon obscured from view by the inside-the-waistband design, the weapon was clearly visible against the royal blue trainers’ shirt generally worn by my school’s staff.
While on that trip, I had to do a film for a trial that showed how rapidly a certain suspect could have disarmed and shot the officer who had been forced to kill him to keep that from happening. On the day of the filming, I happened to be wearing a black polo shirt and black BDU pants. A photographer was taking stills while the cinematographer was shooting the video.
Later, in court, I had occasion to closely examine not only the videotape, but also the giant blow-ups of the stills that were introduced as evidence. A couple of people in the courtroom told me that they’d hadn’t realized that I was armed, even though the big 41-framed revolver was toward the cameras and in plain sight. I asked a few other folks, showing them the pictures, and most when subsequently asked hadn’t noticed that I was wearing the big six-gun.
Hmmm…interesting.
Black clothing helps make a black pistol less obvious.
I thereafter made it a point to bring black or very dark gray gun, holster, shirts, and trousers whenever it looked as if I would have to “open carry.” The gorgeous, high polish Royal Blue of the Python had not reflected enough to show up in the pictures or the video, but that was only because the ARG holster hadn’t exposed much of its sideplate. Later experience with flat black Glock pistols, and a Kimber with a flat gray/black finish that resembles Parkerizing, showed me that these finishes blended beautifully with black holsters and belts, and black clothing.
The holstered guns were still in plain sight. They could be spotted by someone looking for them. But they did not draw the eye.
One evening I found myself stopping on the way home from the range at a supermarket that must have had a hundred people in it. I was open-carrying the dark Kimber 45 cocked and locked in a black basketweave Gordon Davis thumb-break holster on a matching Bianchi dress gun belt, with black polo and black BDUs. The old “one of a hundred people will notice” prediction absolutely came true. The only person who showed indication of having spotted the big military auto pistol was a little girl, and that was probably because she was only a couple of feet away from me in the aisle, and her height put her at eye level to the gun.
I saw the little tyke’s eyes widen in alarm, and watched as she urgently grabbed her dad’s sleeve and began tugging. When he looked down, she wordlessly but vigorously pointed at the 45. I had made a point to wear my police badge clipped in front of the scabbard, and her dad spotted it at the same time he saw the pistol.
“Aw, it’s OK, honey,” I heard him tell her gently. “He’s a po-lice.”
So far, so good. There are some dads out there who might be macho enough to feel a need to impress their kids if those kids were alarmed by what the father perceived as an ostentatious display of a deadly weapon. In this case, there was no problem. And the lesson is, black gun in black holster against black clothing draws very little attention from those who aren’t at eye level with the handgun.
As noted earlier, an inside the-waistband holster buries much of the gun in the lower body’s clothing. The gun is still exposed per se, and therefore still openly carried. In a jurisdiction where the given person is legal to carry openly but not concealed, that’s an important distinction to bear in mind.
In theory, one could resort to genuine camouflage. Several manufacturers have produced pistols and revolvers with camouflage finishes, including recognized patterns such as Woodland. I’ve often wondered about getting one of those, and a matching camo set of belt and fabric holster, and wearing it outside pants and shirt in the same camo pattern. Would it conceal as well as black on black on black on black? Probably. Maybe better.
I haven’t tried it yet. The reason is, while a camouflage thing is going with the black on black, the color black is not considered camouflage per se. A regular camouflage pattern most certainly would be. One definition of “camouflage” is “concealment.” If a camo gun was openly carried in a camo holster against camo clothing, all matching, could a creative anti-gun prosecutor convince a grand jury to indict for concealed carry, if the latter was against the law in that time and place? Almost certainly.
Now, whether that case would be decided against the armed citizen at trial would be something else again. It would make a fascinating test case. Since my mother did not raise me to be a test case, I’ve never undertaken the experiment to find out. If y’all want to do so, feel free, and let me know in care of the publisher how it worked for you. However, neither the publisher nor I will take any responsibility for what happens. And, yes, my tongue is slightly in my cheek as I write this…
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