Having concluded that a shoulder-mounted projectile
launcher, of the type most commonly (and incorrectly) denigrated as an “assault rifle” is the
penultimate thing you should embrace as the heart of your personal security
system, we now move on to why they suck.
They’re heavy. 8-10 pounds usually, and another several pounds of
extra ammunition, plus pouches and load-bearing equipment to tote it around.They’re long. Three feet or more on average. Even a folded AK doesn’t sit easily slung under a coat unless you aren’t moving. And if trying to keep yourself alive is an issue, you should nearly always be moving to do something.
As a consequence of those two things, they aren’t very
concealable. And as not-pistols, and not-concealable, there are precious few
places in still semi-civilized life where you can tote them without making all
manner of needless criminal/judicial trouble for yourself.
And lastly, sometimes, through your own fault or not, they
jam, break, or otherwise fail to function, leaving you helplessly hoping for
more “bang” and getting instead just “click”.
So as part of a system of personal security you really ought
to consider a projectile launcher that, compared to a standard civilian version
of a military battle rifle, is relatively light, short, and concealable, yet provides a helpful amount of utility for protecting yourself. Those
are called pistols.
Aside from curiousities, pistols come in two flavors for the
last century or so: revolvers (with between 5-10 ready rounds) and
semiautomatics (with removable/replaceable magazines holding between 7-20 ready rounds).
REVOLVERS
A quality revolver (1st tier: Colt,
Smith&Wesson, Ruger, 2nd tier Taurus, Rossi, etc.) in a caliber
between .38 Special and .44 magnum* is caveman reliable. Pulling the trigger on
a modern double-action cocks the hammer and rotates the cylinder to position
the next round for firing. That’s about it, mechanically. Keep it reasonably
clean and oiled, check the ammunition every so often, and you can pull one
loaded from a drawer after 50 years with a virtual certainty of adequate
performance. But since you likely won’t have a convenient drawer in your
survival quest, as things do, it gets a small bit more complicated. Carrying a
weapon in the cold cruel world, and/or concealed on a regular basis, and a
weapon made of blessed stainless steel, far more resistant to rain, snow, salty
sea air, body oils and sweat, and all other manner of other environmental
insults, has much to recommend it over the more traditional and attractive
gunblue steel of earlier examples. Once again, you makes your choices, and you
takes your chances.
SEMIAUTOMATICS
A quality semiautomatic
(Glock/Sig/Colt/Beretta/S&W/Ruger/Taurus/Springfield/Kimber/ad infinitum), properly maintained, in a caliber
between .380 ACP and .45ACP* is nearly as caveman reliable as a revolver. And with
2-10 more rounds available immediately without reloading, and able to be
reloaded much faster than revolvers for the average person. Pulling the slide
back loads a round into battery the first time. Carried this way, pulling the
trigger generally not only sends that shot on its way, but forces the slide to
move itself rearward, and strip another round from a self-contained magazine
and place it into firing position all on its own, hence the “semiautomatic”
appellation.
A decent example of either of the above categories usually
weighs in the vicinity of 2 pounds, plus another pound for a couple or more
ready reloads. They are readily carried nigh invisibly and rapidly accessible
on an average person’s body. Google pictures of holster-maker par excellence
John Bianchi in a tuxedo with 30 or so such weapons from ankles to armpits if
you need proof.
Drawbacks: Pistols don’t stop large animals – linebackers,
grizzly bears, charging tigers – nearly as well as the most anemic of rifles,
because they have a fraction of the usuable accuracy, range, and deliverable energy. This can be
overcome to some degree, but it’s still a problem. It’s a boon that unlike
grizzlies, pointing any obvious weapon at a two-legged coyote usually notifies
the clearer-thinking of the breed that they’re about to be painfully resisted,
and possibly killed outright, and frequently causes them to beat a hasty
retreat. Also, such sudden panic among their species is contagious. But one
will occasionally encounter either a drug-impaired example, or one terminally
stupid, or simply determined that the prey is worth the claws, and the party is
on. This is where software again kicks in.
SOFTWARE
Software, as with rifles, comes down to frequent, diligent,
committed practice and training. Even more so with pistols, because like
selecting real estate, the most important thing with shooting a pistol in
self-defense is location, location, location. A pistol Jedi might be able to
self-defend with a humble .22, providing he could put the round(s) into a suitable
spot in his prey. This necessity decreases somewhat as caliber and power
increases, but even so, single shots to vital spots always trump splatter-fire
spray-and-pray delivered everywhere to whom it may concern. And as countless
police shootings testify, your body’s rapid dump of adrenaline in a life and
death situation, along with your vision tunneling down to the point of looking
through wrapping paper tubes, will make you Hulk strong and paddle hands lousy
at fine motor skills, and pistol shooting is absolutely a fine motor skill. The
keys to overcoming this are multiple. Punching paper reinforces only the basics
and teaches your body muscle memory, but like the piano, practice doesn’t make
perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect. Get instruction and again, lots
of practice in moving and shooting from cover. To the extent possible, you
might even consider some training aids. At a shooting range you usually already
have to wear ear and eye protection. Consider sacrificing a pair of safety
glasses by blacking out all but the center of the lenses to simulate
stress-induced tunnel vision. If it makes you feel better, they put instrument
pilot trainees “under a hood” of similarly restricted vision to simulate being
inside a plane in a cloud so they don’t flip over and dive for the ground in
their first vertigo-inducing cloudy experience, and it works. You might also
consider getting ascending sizes of latex or nitrile exam gloves, and put 2-3
pairs on over your hands, to simulate the fumble-fingers of an adrenaline dump,
then practice your pistol drills until you’re almost or as good while so
impaired as you are with no encumbrances. And don’t only practice on warm,
sunny, clear days. Within the realms of safety, practice on cold, wet, windy
days. Get used to handling wet weapons safely, and overcoming gusts blowing
your sight picture all to hell; the latter is great for simulating the
overcontrol adrenaline can dump on you, not to mention for being attacked on
cold, wet, windy days. And since an enormous amount of attacks happen in the
dark, because predators always see darkness as concealment and therefore gain
surprise, you HAVE TO practice in very low light. Try wearing the darkest
sunglasses you can find, and shooting at targets whose color matches the
backdrop, and are in shade or shadow, if possible. The do it again, with the
blacked out lenses and extra gloves. Then while moving and taking cover. Then
on a cold, wet, windy day. NOW you’re actually getting useful training. You can
also practice in other unorthodox ways. A personal friend and a world-class
champion shooter wanted to get practice time and slick up the internals of his
new weapons. So he squirted gobs of a mildly abrasive brand of toothpaste into brand-new
stainless guns, replaced the body panels, put in snap caps, and spent his free
time for the next week dry-firing each one at every badguy in every scene of
every western and action flick whose DVD he possessed. After a week, he
scrupulously cleaned out the toothpaste, and cleaned and lubricated his weapons
normally, as they were now smooth as glass, and he’d gotten in thousands of
dry-fire rounds of muscle memory and proper sight techniques, and watched all
his favorite movies. Total cost, just over $0.00. Another acquaintance and
Olympic figure skater athlete pointed out once that making it to the Olympics requires the
dedication to fall on your ass at least 10,000 times. He'd competed in three Olympics in his life at that point, so I'm thinking he knew what he was talking about. And in times of stress, it
has been noted by many experts that you won’t rise to the occasion, you’ll sink
to the level of your training. Fail to train, train to fail.
Next time, additional measures.
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