My HideAway Habit

Years ago, I stumbled across an interesting knife mentioned on a gun forum. Called the HideAwayKnife, it was a small fixed-blade designed to be pretty much undroppable. The unique design made it perfectly suited to both defensive and utility purposes.

I always carried a folder (or three) and figured I could handle them effectively if I needed to use them for last-ditch personal protection. But as is so often the case, a bit of force-on-force taught me how foolish that was. There just isn't enough fine motor control to spare.

I ordered a HideAway, along with a training drone and SouthNarc's great training DVD. I know better than to think a DVD alone can prepare anyone to fight for their life, so I loaned it to an instructor (retired SEAL) I've worked with extensively in armed and unarmed technique. He was impressed, and helped me develop better competency with the little knives.

Only about an inch and a half long, they fall well within most jurisdictions' knife carry blade length limits. Some areas ban all fixed blades regardless of length. As with the confusing array of gun laws on the books, it is our responsibility to research what is and is not allowed where we live and travel. Nebraska, for example, defines a knife with a blade over 3.5" in length as a weapon, but then throws in "any other dangerous instrument capable of inflicting cutting, stabbing, or tearing wounds" for good measure. This state also defines a "deadly weapon" as "any firearm, knife, bludgeon, or other device, instrument, material, or substance, whether animate or inanimate, which in the manner it is used or intended to be used is capable of producing death or serious bodily injury." Animate or inanimate? Well, I did have a cat with an attitude years ago who qualified.

But getting back on topic, I don't want a bad guy getting any closer to me than absolutely necessary and a knife is absolutely an up-close-and-personal weapon. I also understand that I will not be able to set the parameters of any true defensive encounter. Having highly-concealable options for the worst-case scenario can only be a good thing.

HideAways are like potato chips, though. You can't have just one.

Another One Bites The Dust

Colorado Senator Evie "You Don't Need a Gun to Prevent Rape" Hudak is submitting her resignation.

Apparently after seeing two of her partners in (facilitating) crime recalled, she decided to bail so the Demonrats Democrats could appoint a replacement rather than lose their majority in the state legislature.

That's okay.  They see the handwriting on the wall.  Before, they never took recalls seriously.  Now, they fear a recall.  Because they've seen recalls work.

Now if we can only get more recalls going, augmented with a few select impeachments, prosecutions, convictions, and appropriate sentences . . .

What She Said

A Girl And Her Gun:  An Open Letter To The Anti-Gun Folks.

Don't Bet Your Life On The Police

They were AT THE SCENE and this felon-in-possession still managed to kill his girlfriend and try to kill himself.

Say again, both individuals were alive and (physically, obviously not psychologically) undamaged when the police arrived. While the police were there, Mitchel Hadan shot and killed Rita Eckhout and then shot himself in the back of the head.

And why was this career-criminal deleted-expletive out on the street?

Don't die waiting for somebody else to save your sorry @$$.

Catch And Release

A police chief's daughter is murdered in North Carolina. The primary suspect is a registered sex offender who had six felony arrests in the last 22 months. There is no record of him ever having served any time for any of these arrests.

WHY WAS THIS DELETED EXPLETIVE OUT ON THE STREET???

Protect yourself, because the revolving door injustice system sure as hell won't.

MAG-40 AAR

Two weeks ago, I took Massad Ayoob's MAG-40 class, two days covering the Armed Citizen's Rules Of Engagement and two days of StressFire-based live fire. The material covered was incredibly valuable, both in the classroom and on the range, but the greatest benefit I derived from this class had nothing to do with either law or shooting.

On the second day of classroom instruction, Mr. Ayoob discussed the physical and emotional aftermath of a defensive gun use. As he listed the effects someone who has had to shoot in self-defense should expect, I realized they were things I experience every day but have come to think were normal. Then he described how post-shooting police officers who have the same symptoms don't recognize them either. The ton of bricks hit me, big time.

A single extremely traumatic event causes many of the same difficulties as post-traumatic stress. The only difference is in the latter case, the trauma is endured for months or years instead of minutes. What I discovered was while I thought I had done such a good job of dealing with my personal trauma, it wasn't anywhere near as behind me as I thought.

My first reaction was feeling like a failure and a fraud, that all these years I had been lying to myself and everyone else. My family did everything in their power all my life to convince me I was worthless and I should be grateful they tolerated me at all. Others tolerated me only because they didn't know the "truth" and they would abandon me as soon as they saw through my facade. My role in the family was "scapegoat" and that indoctrination made me attractive to people looking for easy victims.

When that old pattern showed up again, I felt like I had also failed to beat my family's destructive indoctrination. Failure again. See where this mess was going?

I spent that night mostly in the bathroom, getting pretty much no sleep. A great way to hit the range the next day. Monday's first live-fire day was a waking nightmare. I was in full-on adrenaline dump the whole time, shaking so hard I could barely hold my gun. My bobtail Commander Wilson wouldn't lock the slide back on an empty mag, so I shot the rest of the class with my Government-size Wilson CQB.

I shot like crap. No, I would have had to do better to shoot like crap. I had run out of adrenaline by Tuesday, and spent that day in parasympathetic crash, spaghetti arms and everything. Even so, I managed to do a bit better than on Monday, and passed the qualifier.

So what's the bottom line here? I don't know yet. I am dealing with the old problem of "shoulding" on myself: I "should" have beaten this crap by now, I "should" have better control over my life, blah, blah, blah. Thanks to the information provided in the class, I have new directions to explore toward really overcoming what happened to me.

Or maybe the lesson is that some things you never fully can forget. Maybe they stay around forever. Maybe I need to learn how to turn these weaknesses into strengths. Maybe this is one more example of the destination being the journey.

This isn't your typical After Action Report. In deference to the usual model, I will say that Mr. Ayoob is a tremendous speaker and the legal information provided in this class is absolutely essential for anyone who has and carries guns for self-defense. What comes after the shooting may well be worse than the violent criminal action that precipitated it. It gives one pause to truly reconsider what using the most effective tools to preserve innocent life really means. And that is a good thing.

There was a great guest lecture by Bill Laughridge of Cylinder & Slide, one of the top pistolsmiths in the country. He described the evolution of our modern defensive handguns, and what features help and hinder their safe and effective use.

I brought a new 70-page narrow-ruled notebook to the classroom portion of the training, and nearly filled it. I'm glad I decided against bringing my netbook, because I could barely write fast enough to get everything down, never mind typing.

The live-fire sessions were also extremely valuable, despite being something of a blur to me under the circumstances. It was a great opportunity to experience shooting under extreme stress in safe surroundings. Nothing like actually experiencing how that affects your skill. As Mr. Ayoob said, we should expect some "post-LFI stress syndrome" for just that reason. I just got a bigger dose than anyone else. I absolutely want to take the MAG-40 again, once I come to better terms with what I learned about myself in this one.

Mr. Ayoob was also presented with a certificate signed by Governor Dave Heineman appointing him to the rank of Admiral in the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska. Governor Heineman has proven himself a strong supporter of the Second Amendment.

I cannot fully express my thanks to Massad Ayoob and Gail Pepin (aka "The Evil Princess") for this training experience. I might, however, respectfully suggest that Mr. Ayoob consult with his opthalmologist after referring to me in passing as a "baby fox."

Why Would ANYBODY Need A Gun . . .

In a National Park?

Oh, I don't know . . .

As an aside, what were these deleted-expletives doing in a medium-security prison? I'm just so glad our wonderful injustice system treats convicted murderers with such compassionate leniency.

Carry everywhere, all the time.

Hide In A Corner

That's what Karen Lofton, a 45-year-old nurse, was trying to do when she was murdered by a suspected serial killer in her own home.

No.

Her daughter Karissa, 16, was killed while trying to call 911 from her bed.

No.

The security system in their home had been disabled and all the doors were locked. A Maryland UPS worker has been indicted for killing as many as five or more women altogether. It is believed he used UPS databases in part to select his victims.

News like this fills me with disgust and anger. If you have time to try to hide in a corner, you have time to get behind cover or at least concealment with a gun. If you call 911 it should be from a position of strength while armed. A place where your assailant is forced into the "fatal funnel" in order to continue his attack.

Having a gun and the skill and will to use it would not have guaranteed these women's survival, but it would have given them a chance. The murderer was armed, and did in fact shoot them to death, but he didn't instantly drop them in their tracks. They had time to take action.

Too bad that action wasn't effective.

Hide and cower? No. Call 911 so someone else can come and stop the threat for you? No.

Stop the threat. Reload. Call 911 as soon as it's safe to do so, not instead of saving your own life. Calling 911 brings the people who put up yellow tape and take photos. It's up to you whether your body or the bad guy's is the star of their show.

Feeling Vulnerable

Now that I'm gimping around on a bum knee, my defense toolbox is significantly smaller. Many options such as good old Nike-fu (running away) are off the table entirely, and a lot of my empty-hand skills are seriously compromised. That means I'm more dependent on tool use.

Unfortunately, my new employer is so politically correct it hurts. On my first day, during the HR orientation spiel, I was warned that even pocket multitools are considered dangerous weapons and will earn equivalent disciplinary action. All company property and anything on it is subject to search at any time. And their posted criminal-empowerment zones include the employee parking garage.

Under state law, leaving a gun locked in a car in a posted parking area is not a violation as long as the gun does not leave the vehicle. State law does not, however, prohibit an employer from taking disciplinary action against an employee for violating their so-called safety policy. That means my new employer is rendering me helpless not only at work but also on the drives to and from, and for any other stops I might make during those drives.

Having been unemployed twice in the last less-than-a-year, I have a whole new appreciation for having a job in an at-will world. This last time I was job-hunting was right after Obamacare passed, and prospective employers were asking me wholly inappropriate questions about my health, whether I was on any prescription drugs, et cetera. If I lose this job, finding another will only get harder.

Being a professional geek involves working maintenance windows and callouts in the middle of the night. Where I work now is very near an area heavily frequented by the non-harmless variety of homeless people. It is the height of arrogant-liberal fingers-in-their-ears-la-la-la denial for this company to render me helpless from the moment I leave my house to the moment I return. Disarmed is not safe.

Yes, I'm looking into alternate parking arrangements. Other nearby garages are expensive and currently have waiting lists. Parking at a meter on the street is not an option.

Not looking like food is a big part of avoiding predators. That's a lot harder now that I'm temporarily mobility-impaired. I can't walk as fast or move with the same confidence and fluidity as before. That makes me look like prey, and I absolutely hate it.

So I'm being very careful to not do anything that can get me fired while looking for a way around the worst of my employer's helpless-is-safe newspeak stupidity.

And if anything happens that I can't handle with only a flashlight on a keychain, I will do my damnedest to sue them into bankruptcy for putting me in that position.

Feminists, Victim Advocates, and Victims

I've had a rant fulminating in the back of my mind for a while now, and some things that happened yesterday finally brought it to a head.

I was at a grassroots activism conference sponsored by the Second Amendment Foundation, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and the Nebraska Firearms Owners Association. I was one of only three women in attendance, and the only one who did not come along with a husband. I was the only woman there who had never been anti-gun.

As Alan Gottlieb was describing the value of letting the public know about the true diversity of gun owners, one man raised his hand and said that since (in his opinion) most gun owners are white male rednecks, why shouldn't grassroots groups focus on that demographic? According to this man, "experts" agree that women don't really want to protect themselves, they want "John Wayne" to come to their rescue.

At that statement, everyone in the room who knew anything at all about me looked in my direction.

Yes, the eye roll was everything they expected.

When I told my Significant Other* about that statement, he scoffed that anyone who would say such a thing had to be a man who wanted women helpless so he could be the big, strong protector and ride to their rescue.

I agree with his assessment. There are nonetheless many vocal self-proclaimed "feminists" who are truly focused on keeping women disempowered. This article, linked by Joe Huffman, is a perfect example.

Gun control laws are absolutely a feminist issue, but for the exact opposite reason simpering cowards like the author above believe. Gun control laws do absolutely nothing but make the most effective means of self defense difficult or impossible to utilize by innocent people. They do not nor have they ever made any reduction in criminal use of firearms, or any other crime. Just look at Washington DC, Chicago, and (formerly) Great Britain for example after example.

Whenever somebody tries to tell me what to do or how to live my life, I immediately look to their motivations. What do these people stand to gain if I comply with their direction? What do they stand to lose if I don't?

In the article linked above, the recurring theme is "women are victims who must be protected." The sources of this "wisdom" are uniformly women-advocacy and victim-advocacy groups. In other words, organizations who would not exist if not for women and victims incapable of acting on their own behalf.

Nobody can control everything that happens to them in life, but everybody is 100% in control of what they do about it. I was a victim, and I was set up by my family of origin to be a victim. If you give off a "victim vibe," you will attract victimizers. And by playing it their way, abdicating my responsibility to keep myself safe to external authority, I ended up raped when that external authority refused to act on my well-founded fears.

Let me remind you again, this happened in Chicago.

I could have chosen to wallow in self-pity and helplessness after that. Many do, and there's a whole advocacy industry built around them. Many of these organizations, including NOW, claim to be "feminist" while actually promoting the idea that effective personal safety is too icky, patriarchal, or dangerous for women. Their constant mantra is that women must be protected. Seems to me the only ones who need to be protected are those who cannot or will not protect themselves.

Too many women's and victims' groups don't want women and victims to be empowered at all. They really want them to continue to see themselves as helpless. Truly empowered women, and victims who have become survivors, wouldn't need them any more.

Without a steady supply of helpless women and victims, their donations and grants disappear. Their cushy jobs being professional whiners disappear. They lose all their power. They have no reason to exist.

Any effort to disempower anyone comes from those who want that power for themselves.

Women are, for the most part, smaller than men and not as strong. That's simple biology, not politics. My gun, along with my training and the will to use both, puts me on equal ground with any attacker of any size. Gun control as pushed by the "advocates" would deprive me of that, forcing me to rely on the strength of others for personal safety. I know first-hand how that works out.

I don't need any advocates to look out for me. I can look out for myself.

* He's a real HOTR Man, and I love him for it.

SCOTUS WIN!

From Justice Alito's conclusion in the majority opinion:

"The 14th Amendment incorporates the 2nd Amendment right… to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense."

Words to make Naked Emperor Mayor Daley cry.

Sheriff West: "Arm Yourselves."

Hudspeth County, Texas, Sheriff Arvin West understands the Mexican border situation much better than any of the fools in Washington DC.

He also understands the true importance of the Second Amendment.

This mess has nothing to do with American gun shows. It has everything to do with an utterly corrupt and hypocritical Mexican government, and a cowardly and ineffective American government. Arizona passes a law that does nothing but enforce what the Feds won't, and the Obama administration plans to file suit against it.

November can't come soon enough.

This Is What Disarmament Gets You

As if the recent spree-killings in gun-control-paradise England weren't bad enough on their own, it appears their police had actually cornered the killer fairly early in the event. Their unarmed police. All it took for him to escape and continue killing was pointing his gun at them.

As AztecRed points out here, why even have police when all they have to stop a sociopathic killer is strong language?

An American who'd been a police officer in Texas before moving to the UK was appalled at what he was told by his instructors while training to be a British police officer:

"If you ever see somebody carrying a gun, turn and run away as quickly as possible."

That's what they call police training? Gee, here in the barbaric Colonies, the good guys run toward the gunfire, not away. In any American jurisdiction, point a gun at police officers, especially multiple police officers, after you have already murdered people and they will shoot you to the ground. Even just one person with the tools, skills, and will can end a public killing spree.

I hope the panty-wetters in power accept responsibility for the blood on their hands resulting from their creation and enforcement of an utterly depraved public policy of defenselessness. They won't, though. They will undoubtedly use it as an excuse to clamp down even more on inanimate objects instead of their dystopian society that promotes violence by rewarding the violent with job safety and security. Ban weapons for the law-abiding, criminalize defending yourself in any way at all, then train the police to run away from danger? And they wonder why violent crime increases rather than decreases?

Insanity is doing the same unsuccessful thing over and over, expecting a different outcome. And welcome to the blogroll, Barack's Gun Lies.

Heller Who?

A mother of three receives threats after she helps a shooting victim. Gang members say they will kick in her door and "do things" to her and her children. That would certainly justify considering a firearm for personal defense, but the woman and her family live in Omaha Housing Authority public housing.

OHA has always prohibited legally owned firearms of any kind in their facilities. After the Supreme Court's decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, OHA debated the ramifications and decided they would continue to ban effective defensive tools for their residents.

But not only do they deny this woman the choice to obtain a firearm, they denied her request for an emergency transfer to a different OHA facility, saying she has to go on a months-long waiting list.

So if the gang members follow through on their threats, will OHA accept responsibility for any injuries or deaths that result?

What do you think?

Congratulations, Arizona!

Today, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed Constitutional Carry into law. Obtaining a permit for reciprocity is still available as an option for Arizona residents.

None of the states that have no training requirement for their concealed carry permits have any problems. None of the states that allow open carry without a permit have any problems (except for periodic hoplophobic panty-wetters calling overzealous police on armed citizens who are doing absolutely nothing wrong).

Congratulations, Arizona, and thank you, Governor Brewer. Now if Iowa Governor Chet Culver will only sign his carry-reform bill . . .

Who You Gonna Call?

When 911 is down?

Be prepared to defend yourself.

"The Perfect Is The Enemy Of The Good"

Nowhere is Voltaire's quote more true than when applied to concealed carry legislation.

There's a lot of angst flying around the Intertubes about the changes to Iowa's carry laws now awaiting the Governor's signature. The bill that survived running the legislature gauntlet is far short of the Vermont-style carry promoted by some in that state, but it's still a huge improvement over what Iowa had before.

Nebraska was the 48th of 50 states to pass a law allowing concealed carry. When our bill was slogging through the Unicameral, there were plenty of people complaining it wasn't good enough. Had those voices won out, I believe a more (dare I say it?) radical bill would have failed, and we Nebraskans might still be in the same sad boat as Wisconsin and Illinois.

Every year since, though, more bills have passed improving Nebraska's carry laws. What was wrong with that first landmark effort is gradually being whittled away.

Of course Vermont-style carry is the ideal. The bad guys don't get permits and would be disqualified if they tried. In states that don't protect their permit rolls, the lamestream media loves to use that information to demonize and denigrate those who have them while making them attractive targets for gun thieves. Not to mention the absence of a person's name from the list could reassure a stalker or home invader that his prey is helpless.

If you don't require permits, there aren't any lists of who has guns to be exploited.

Going for the whole works in the beginning is an all-or-nothing effort with the outcome heavily loaded toward nothing. There are still plenty of issues with the law in Nebraska that need to be resolved. A Castle Doctrine bill introduced this session languished in the judiciary committee because of the usual hoplophobic FUD about meter readers and firefighters getting shot. At least a good bill was introduced, and we'll probably get it done next year. Many more tries to get concealed carry at all failed before the Concealed Handgun Permit Act was finally signed in 2006.

Incrementalism works both ways. At least the majority of the chipping away at the status quo is currently going in our favor. We need to do everything we can to see it continues.

Congratulations, Iowa!

Today, March 29, the Iowa House of Representatives passed Senate File 2379 by a vote of 81 to 15. It will now head to Governor Chet Culver (D) for his consideration and hopefully signature. The bill had previously passed in the Senate by a vote of 44 to 4.

If Culver signs, on January 1, 2011, Iowa will go from may-issue to shall issue and will recognize all other states' permits.

Greatest of kudoes to the great folks at IowaCarry for all their hard work and dedication!

ETA: Countdown to PSH in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

Good Thing They Can't Have Guns In China

A knifeman* kills eight children and wounds five more in a brutal attack at a school in China. H/T to War On Guns.

People bent on committing violence will do so with whatever tools are available.

Of my five friends who have been murdered, not one was killed by gunshot. A sixth friend was shot in a public parking lot, in broad daylight. He survived. The FBI Uniform Crime Reports list knives or cutting instruments, blunt objects, hands-fists-feet-etc., poison, explosives, fire, narcotics, drowning, strangulation, asphyxiation, and "other or weapon not stated" as facilitators of homicide. Banning guns in other countries might superficially or temporarily reduce crimes committed with firearms, but overall violence increases when criminals know victims are helpless.

And that includes criminal governments.

* News writers are fond of calling criminals who use guns "gunmen." So why don't they prepend other criminals' weapons of choice?

"When Restraining Orders Cannot Stop A Killer"

That was the title of the ABC News "Nightline" segment I just watched, describing cases where women were murdered by exes who refused to take "it's over, now leave me alone" as an answer.

"Police patrolled the area, making extra trips to homes where Cindy Bischof stayed, and arrested Giroux several times, but Mike Bischof said there weren't adequate tools to safeguard victims like his sister.

"'They were as helpful as they could be to the extent that they had the latitude to be helpful,' he said. 'We believe that there weren't the tools available to safeguard these victims...it just wasn't part of the arsenal.'"

Interesting he should use the word "arsenal" to describe defense options in Illinois, the only state with absolutely no way for anyone to legally carry a handgun for protection, openly or concealed.

You might remember Illinois as the state where women are advised to vomit if attacked. Nowhere in the entire segment was the option of women arming themselves ever even mentioned.

"'[Domestic violence] can be stopped,' said Diane Rosenfeld, a Harvard Law school lecturer and expert on domestic violence and restraining orders. 'I think that law enforcement and the criminal justice system is not doing enough presently, obviously, to protect women from very predictable, very preventable types of violence.'"

How about women protecting themselves from very predictable, very preventable types of violence?

That's what I find most offensive about the idea that sole responsibility for keeping women -- or anyone, for that matter -- safe lies with law enforcement and the criminal justice system. It implies that women are incapable of taking responsibility for their own safety.

Oh, I agree a hundred thousand percent that putting violent offenders in prison and keeping them there is a good thing to do. But too many times, actions that would land somebody in jail in a heartbeat if taken against a male stranger are ignored or minimized by those same law enforcement and the criminal justice systems. I remember an acquaintance describing her soon-to-be-ex-husband running her car off the road into the ditch. She called 911, and when the deputies arrived, he was beating on her windows and yelling, "I'm gonna kill you, bitch." Was he arrested? No. The deputies just told him, "Aw, you don't wanna do that, Andy," and let him go. Nor did they investigate when he tampered with a gas line to try to blow up her house.

What finally got through to him was a new live-in boyfriend with a gun who made it quite clear that Andy's behavior was unacceptable.

Illinois has since passed a law to allow GPS tracking of stalkers, named after Cindy Bischof. A monitoring station will know immediately if a stalker wearing an ankle bracelet violates a restraining order.

If the monitors know where the intended victim is 24 hours a day so they can identify a violation. Then they notify the police.

The police still have to get there before it's too late.

The victim as her own first responder is already there to stop the threat. Now if Illinois would only let women carry concealed handguns to protect themselves.