Where Even Prosecutors Can't Carry

Uncle links to a story about a man who fires some warning shots because a gang of, well, gang members was threatening him. The comments discuss the wisdom of warning shots and legal implications.

Here's some additional background. The Nassau County DA's Office is reeeaaaally anti-gun. The office has a policy of barring handgun ownership by its employees. That's in great contrast with a lot of places like Virginia, where prosecutors can carry concealed anywhere, even in bars while drinking, without the training necessary for a concealed handgun permit. Because they're like you and me, only better.

Here is the application for assistant district attorney, and here is the one for interns. Note the following in background questions:

Applicant Questionnaire: Yes or No
3. Have you ever had a license to possess a firearm in this state or any other state?
...
NOTE: AN AFFIRMATIVE RESPONSE WILL NOT NECESSARILY SERVE, IN AND OF ITSELF,
AS A DISQUALIFICATION FOR EMPLOYMENT

And the closing (signature-required) condition:
Gun ownership: I understand that assistant district attorneys are not permitted to apply for a handgun permit nor own or possess a handgun while employed by the Nassau County District Attorney. Any exception to this policy must be in writing and approved by the District Attorney.

So, anybody think that this attitude may, even unconsciously, affect the judgment of the prosecutors in this case?

There's nothing so egregious as this in Virginia, but I discuss a lot of relevant self-defense considerations such as the standards for the use of deadly force in Virginia in my legal seminars. Next one is October 23, 2010; contact me to sign up.

Required Reading for Concealed Carry

Here is a good write-up of a self-defense shooting that went to court twice. HT Snowflakes in Hell

The defendant, Mr. Hickey, was involved in a self-defense shooting when he was attacked by three neighbors in his own driveway. He was charged with aggravated assault and spent 71 days in jail. Massad Ayoob gave expert testimony in the second trial, possibly saving Mr. Hickey's bacon.

One of the commenters notes that Mr. Hickey's wife might have been treated better by the police, and that's probably true. Hickey is a part-time firearms instructor and trains troops preparing to deploy.

The write-up is the September newsletter for the Armed Citizens' Legal Defense Network, an organization that provides legal assistance to members that have to defend their self-defense actions in court.

SIRT Pistol for Training

Caleb has a post up on the SIRT pistol, a dedicated dry-fire handgun that shoots a laser out the barrel whenever the gun is "fired."

While this seems like a good way to train, I'd be afraid that it would make me look for the laser and not call my shots - see the sights, take the shot, and move on knowing that I'd hit the target.

I dry-fire with a trigger kit from Southwest Shooting Authority. The kit replaces the trigger for your Glock, and automatically resets. Print out some 1/3 scale targets (available here), post them on your basement/garage wall, and dry-fire away.

Getting Out of Traffic Ticket by Carrying a Gun

Extreme Tolerance relates his story of getting out of a ticket by virtue of legally carrying a gun. The officer that pulls you over will know as soon as he looks up your license plate that you have a concealed carry permit, which with many cops is a "certified upstanding citizen" indicator.

I had a similar experience. I was riding my motorcycle (back when I still had such vestiges of my single days) here in Northern Virginia, going down a really big hill. Light turned yellow as I was approaching a T-intersection traffic light at the bottom, and when I made it through the intersection it had already turned red. This wasn't so much a case of me not paying attention to the light, but more of a case of not wanting to slam on my front brake so much that I endo (bring the bike up on the front wheel for the non-biker crowd) at the stoplight and dump the bike. A police officer was waiting at the light, and he pulled me over.

I had just moved to VA and was still carrying with my reciprocal out-of-state CCW. I didn't have to tell the officer I was carrying (VA law doesn't require it) but did so anyway. The officer was surprised; carrying in your own state means that an officer running your license will know you have a permit when he runs your plate or driver's license, but to my knowledge states don't generally share carry permit info with each others' DMV systems.

He asked me where I was carrying, and I told him it was on my left ankle. I didn't make any sudden moves to show him what caliber it was.

He checked my traffic record - clean since 1997 or so - and sent me on my way. He thanked me for notifying him that I was carrying, and suspect that this played a part in not getting a ticket.

Side note: when riding a motorcycle, I recommend carrying ankle carry. I once laid a bike down while ankle carrying with no ill effects, but if I'd been carrying on my hip I suspect that the gun would've become a semi-permanent part of my pelvis.

Value of a Quick Draw

In this post, Hell in a Handbasket says that a quick draw of your defensive tool may not be that big of a deal:

I’ve never been very keen on developing fast draw skills. Though necessary for
competition, they should be unneeded for defense as long as someone maintains a
decent level of situational awareness.

Caleb disagrees, and outlines the value of having your defensive tools out and ready lickety-split in this post on his encounter with a would-be mugger. I'm with Caleb on this one - practicing your draw from your carry setup is a valuable use of your time.

Uncle approximates his draw time as such:

I can draw and fire center mass accurately in over a second but less than two.
Not a real spiffy time but, you know, not a slouch either. And that’s with a
Glock and a CompTac. It’s faster with a Serpa holster and much slower when I
pocket carry.

That's a good place to be and I'm somewhere in that band of performance. So are federal air marshals - their standard is to draw from concealment and fire two rounds in 1.65 seconds.

As Todd G at pistol-training.com says, "Call me crazy, but I'm going to keep working on my draw."

AR vs. Shotgun for Home Defense

James Rummel takes me to task for my first and second posts on whether an AR makes a good home defense firearm.

As he puts it:

In the second post, Dave devotes the very first paragraph to the issue of verpentration. After that it is rather pointedly ignored. Strange, as I think
that it is the one issue that should be discussed the most.

What I said was:

Let me start by saying that I'm not making a recommendation one way or the other. If you can intelligently explain your choice of defensive tools, then drive on with your bad self. If I decide to equip the hearth and home with an AR, I've got the fact that Uncle Sam spent a bunch of time and money teaching me how to use it, I've fought overseas with one, and there's simply no firearm that I perform better with. Apartments may not be ideal keeping AR rounds out of your neighbor's place, but according to the Box O' Truth, pistol rounds go through sheetrock pretty well too. So maybe the overpenetration concern is universal if sheetrock is all that separates you from next door. I wonder what separates townhouses from each other. Anyone
in construction have a line on this?

I'm not sure where James gets a lack of concern on my part on overpenetration liability in urban settings. I said that if you live in an apartment any round could punch through the walls. I wondered what the barriers are between townhouses, the norm in Northern Virginia. I don't have my place AR-equipped for the reasons he lays out - because I don't know what ballistically separates me from my neighbors. That's concern for overpenetration, and I asked about what separates me from shooting a neighbor. I'm not blowing the issue off.

'Cause houses come in different forms. The average NoVa townhouse was built in the late 1970's or so. If it were a slap-dash early 2000's structure there's no way I'd shoot an AR inside the house, but I don't know how much sturdier the older places are. New construction in parts of Florida is hurricane-resistant, so there's a cinderblock skeleton underneath that retro-Miami Vice adobe exterior. So go crazy down there. Here? My place? No idea.

Checking at The Box O' Truth reveals a few things. In Installment #1, we find out that pistol rounds and .223 penetrate pretty well. Here we discover that shotgun rounds penetrate to a varying degree - small shot not so much (but it doesn't do a good job of stopping a pissed off assailant) - slugs too much. 00 Buck may fit a sweet spot, who knows? In Installment #3, we find that 00 Buck penetrates 8 sheetrock boards, which is 4 walls.

As the folks at Box O' Truth put it:

But doesn't 00 Buck penetrate too much in interior walls to be a "safe" load in a home?
Yes, it does penetrate a lot. But any load that is going to be effective will need to penetrate walls to have enough power to penetrate bad guys. If our only concern was to be sure we didn't penetrate walls, we would use BB guns. However, BB guns will not stop bad guys.

And, as they said at the end of #2:

I have brick exterior on my home. I do not have to worry about any round exiting my home. The brick stopped all rounds tested.

So, we must use loads that will STOP bad guys, and this means that they will also penetrate walls. Be sure you hit the bad guy and do not shoot into walls where innocents are on the other side, because anything short of brick is really just concealment, not cover.

The guys in the comments at Snowflakes in Hell make the case for a short-barrelled and suppressed AR. Which, if you want to shoot a rifle indoors and reduce the overpenetration risk is a good way to go. So is frangible ammunition, as these guys point out. There's a spread of opinion at Uncle's place.

Bottom line:
1. What are the your exterior/dividing walls made of?
2. What bullet weight/type are you using, and through what length of barrel?
3. Will #2 punch through #1?

Calibrate your home defense rounds accordingly.

Shoot Him to the Ground - and Yourself in the Foot

Matthew Temkin has a video out he calls "Shoot Him to the Ground." I think that this is neither good shooting technique nor smart tactics, as Jason points out. Worse yet, it could help get you prosecuted. Here's the YouTube of the promo:



The tactical implications of charging one-handed at your assailant are bad enough. Guns are effective missile weapons because they take you out of melee distance. If you have to shoot someone at arm's length, so be it. Many self-defense encounters happen at spitting distance, but that's no excuse to put yourself there if you don't have to. It's worse with multiple assailants, where retreating to cover while firing, or sidestepping to "get off the x," may be the best course of action. Distance is your friend.

The legal implications, depending on the state, could be terrible. Some states, in spite of a strong "Castle Doctrine" statute, maintain a generalized duty to retreat (if possible) outside the home. I'm looking at you, North Carolina, California of the South. If you have a duty to retreat when possible, then charging your assailant and firing your last round while standing over him is a pretty bad idea. Witnesses may provide a less-than-flattering account of your actions. "Joe was just talkin' to this guy and reached in his pocket, when the defendant whipped out his gun, ran at Joe and blazed away, puttin' the last round in his eyeball!"

That defensive shootings outside the home that occur in North Carolina (and other states with a duty to retreat) where sumdood's intended victim didn't retreat is a testament to prosecutorial discretion, or at least prosecutors' recognition that the upstanding citizen defended herself against a violent assailant, and that no jury will convict on those facts. Like in this case.

Bottom line: I don't plan to buy Temkin's video, nor use his tactics.

More on the AR for Home Defense

My post yesterday on using an AR (or AK, I suppose) for home defense elicited a few comments worth discussion.

Let me start by saying that I'm not making a recommendation one way or the other. If you can intelligently explain your choice of defensive tools, then drive on with your bad self. If I decide to equip the hearth and home with an AR, I've got the fact that Uncle Sam spent a bunch of time and money teaching me how to use it, I've fought overseas with one, and there's simply no firearm that I perform better with. Apartments may not be ideal keeping AR rounds out of your neighbor's place, but according to the Box O' Truth, pistol rounds go through sheetrock pretty well too. So maybe the overpenetration concern is universal if sheetrock is all that separates you from next door. I wonder what separates townhouses from each other. Anyone in construction have a line on this?

As Tim pointed out, Harold Fish's prosecution for murder was an outlier, and not a good gauge of what to expect if you use force in self-defense. However, Arizona's laws at the time, where self-defense is an affirmative defense, remains the rule in the overwhelming majority of the states. That's IF you get prosecuted. Prosecutorial discretion is the factor that makes most self-defense shootings remain news stories and not court cases.

Frank W. James weighed in to point out that the castle doctrine makes the weapon a non-issue inside the home. That's true in certain instances. But all "castle doctrine" statutes are not created equal. Some are really "stand your ground" statutes that remove the duty to retreat outside the home. Some are just laws strengthening defense of habitation claims.

Take North Carolina, the California of the South in terms of gun laws. The Castle Doctrine statute is really a defense of habitation measure. If a lawful occupant is preventing or terminating unlawful entry that they reasonably believe is going to harm/kill someone inside or commit a felony, then the lawful occupant can use any level of force against the intruder. But once they are inside, then the proportionality of force requirement applies, but without the duty to retreat (if reasonable) that exists outside the home. If you come downstairs for a glass of milk at night and find an intruder already inside who does nothing to threaten you, then ejecting a trespasser is supposed to be done first with "gentle hands." The NRA-supported bill to change this state of affairs bogged down.

Virginia doesn't have a castle doctrine statute, but the case law on self-defense is such that you'd have to really screw up to get prosecuted for shooting someone in your own home. There's a lot more to that explanation, and it takes about three hours.

Frank also had some smart things to say about magazine retention and bugging out if society breaks down or the zombiepocalypse hits us. Then he said some more smart stuff. Good blog, now on the blogroll.

Only Bacon Could Improve This

Proficient firearm handling, high quality video, and Johnny Cash for a soundtrack. Only the addition of bacon could make it better. H/T ENDO

George the Travelling Salesman and the Joy of Go-Pants

A story about pants compelling enough to make Robb wear some.

A couple of weeks ago an odd fellow dropped by the house late on a Saturday night claiming to be a travelling salesman named George. He wasn't much of a salesman, and it seemed like a ruse to determine who was home that night and who wasn't. Plus, there was a white van trolling the neighborhood that was probably linked to George. Presumably it contained his accomplices who had plenty of cargo space in their vehicle to cart off televisions and the like.

I called the cops and suited up in my Go-Pants.

What are Go-Pants? Somewhere in between not being armed and strapping on a tactical vest and an AR-15 to survive the zombiepocalypse is a useful set of tools to deal with the problems that present themselves on a more regular basis. If you are out and about running errands, it may be a concealed handgun, a spare magazine, and a cell phone. When things go bump in the night it helps to have an emergency kit set up to deal with it. I'm a firm believer in being able to wear my emergency kit - my Go-Pants.

Go-Pants are what I have staged under my bedside gun safe. Handgun is locked up in a small safe, loaded and equipped with a rail-mounted light. Go-Pants have a retention holster, magazine pouch, two loaded magazines, and a separate flashlight with a neck lanyard. Plus plenty of pocket space to hold a cell phone, keys, and identification. If I have to leave the bedroom during a break-in (not Plan A) I'll be wearing them.

Picture of said Go-Pants below:



Yes, technically they are Go-Shorts - it's summer. I've played with a different name for them, but Readiness Trousers doesn't have the same ring.

Here is Clint Smith of Thunder Ranch describing a similar concept, a pouch with a neck lanyard to hold your spare magazine, cell phone, light, and keys:



The great thing about shooting competitively is that this is essentially my IDPA competition rig. So, all that time spent standing around with a gun on one hip and two magazines on the other isn't wasted - my magazines are where I am used to them being and I've got tools to deal with a lot more than I do with just a gun.

Back to George the Travelling Salesman. The police showed up and took him into custody for unlicensed soliciting. When they came to the door to take a statement from me, I stepped out on to the porch with my Go-Pants on. This is another advantage over carrying your defensive handgun around, a legal one. Open carry is legal in Virginia, but it ought to be done sensibly when the police are called to your location to investigate suspicious activity. A conversation with the police with a gun on your hip and one with a gun in your hand are two entirely different experiences. I'd bet there's a pretty clear change in tenor when you walk out of the front door with a gun in your hand.

Feedback from a friend in law enforcement advises me that I ought to add a cover garment to my kit to avoid being mistaken for the suspicious activity the police are looking for. This seems sensible, especially if something drew me out of the house while they were on their way. I can't think of what that might be, but it's a good reason to stage the whole IDPA kit, vest and all, under the nightstand.

Feel free to give some feedback on what I ought to add to the Go-Pants kit. Does anybody else keep a similar setup handy?

Calling 911 in the Woods

That would be nice. Thing is, if you need them right now it's too late for a phone call. Brigid has a post up on her walkabout carry rig, a Sig P220 in a Blackhawk SERPA holster.

Some trainers don't allow you to use a SERPA holster in their courses. The theory is that the trigger-finger release lever translates into trigger-finger on the trigger. Which translates into accidental discharge.

I don't have a problem with the SERPA, and use it for open carry. As I've said earlier, I prefer a hybrid holster for concealed carry. Any thoughts on the SERPA? Anybody else see a safety issue with it?

Pick My Carry Sights! Fiber Optic for Carry?

I'm thinking of changing my carry sights. I'm thinking of something radical. Should I switch to an iron rear-fiber optic front carry configuration?

Here's the deal. I shoot competition with a full-size Glock, I carry a compact Glock. I'm committed to the platform because common ergonomics translate into proficiency when I switch between the guns.

But the sights are different. For competition, an iron rear with fiber-optic front works better than any other configuration I've seen. But I carry with a different set-up - TFO Tritium Fiber Optic Sights. I'll illustrate the spread of options here.

These are the "dot and bucket" factory Glock sights - the picture gives them more credit than they are probably worth because the front sight caught all of the flash. In a low-light defensive situation they probably wouldn't be worth that much.

Here are my competition sights - Heinie iron rear, Dawson Precision fiber optic front.

With a good amount of light the single red dot in front is very precise; it tracks, traverses, and stands out well against most any background.

The picture doesn't do them justice - the front sight really catches the light and focuses your vision. I've shot the Smith & Wesson IDPA indoor match with these sights; if you're using a flashlight or have a reasonable amount of ambient light the difference between this and a tritium sight is huge and in the fiber optic's corner.

Here are my current carry sights.

They are TRUGLO Tritium Fiber Optic (TFO) sights - a bit of tritium and a fiber optic rod to pick up the light the tritium puts off. Theoretically, they should be the best carry sights available. However, the big dots aren't very precise, and the front sight is fainter than the rear sights after a few years. Plus, I'm used to looking at one dot in a slot, not aligning three dots. I'm seriously considering moving to one dot made of fiber optic, one dot of tritium, or Heinie's top & bottom dot alignment.

If I switch to a new sight setup, what should I use?

Here are the options:

a. Be edgy! Heinie iron rear (ledge configuration for carry cockability) with fiber optic front sight

b. Heinie iron rear with tritium front sight

c. Be two-dotted! Heinie top & bottom dots

d. Be three-dotted! Meprolight three-dot
e. Do something else. I'll explain...

Please give your feedback in the comments.

Slide-Lock: Practical

Richard Mann recently asked whether a handgun's slide-stop serves a practical purpose or if it is just an administrative function of the handgun.

Here at TDHB, we see it as a practical tool for the simple reason that it lets you know that you are out of ammunition and need to reload. In the endless debate over the respective merits of the AR vs. the AK, the AK loses out on reloads because it does not lock the bolt to the rear when the last round in the magazine is fired (unless you find some magazines with specialized followers - I have some Yugo mags that do this).

The loudest sound you will ever hear is a click when you expect a bang (or a bang when you expect a click).

While Mr. Mann may be comfortable with removing the slide stop from his Glock, I'll keep mine installed.

Uncle has some similar thoughts, and GunPundit as well.