Planning #7.3 - Guns, hand guns, what to consider

Again we go down the hole to see what there is to see. This time we are going to get a little more detailed on what you should consider when looking to add firearms to your planning. 

As with our other planning we have to tailor the plan to our situation. The amount of money you have to put toward this, your particular situation and the amount of training you have are all factors which need to be considered. 

If you want to have something which is not very complicated, can be stored ready to use for long periods of time and will not break the bank, a revolver might fit the bill. Stored in a good pistol box, you can bolt down to somewhere, you do not have to really think about it. 

Maybe you want something small enough you can carry it on your person and have the ability to reload quickly if needed. A semi-automatic pistol might fit. Some of these can be picked up for only a few hundred dollars. These can also be stored inside of a secure box yet still accessed in a hurry if needed. 

Some pistols are not really good choices if you want to keep them loaded. The magazines have springs inside of them and if they are under pressure (loaded) for extended periods of time the springs go soft and the magazine might not work properly when you want it to. This is why a revolver is a better idea for long term storage. 

Revolvers and pistols are considered close range, 15 feet or less, tools. Some folks consider them only as backup tools. Yet in a confined space, such as your home, they might work better than some of the larger options. These tools are easier to manipulate when there is not much room. They are also easier to carry and of course they are easier to conceal if need be. 

As far as brands to buy and caliber to buy. This all depends on your experience and abilities. If you have little training or no experience a .38 revolver might be your best choice. Something to only be used during an emergency. The tool is easily concealed, range is not very good but if you are only using the tool as a last resort........ you just touch the bad guy with the barrel while you pull the trigger. Down side of this tool the round is not very large and unless you place the barrel in the right places the bad guy can keep fighting. 

  

For most people 9mm is the caliber you want to consider looking for. There are revolvers and pistols in this caliber. Of course revolvers and pistols both come in larger calibers. You can purchase what could be considered a 'hand cannon'. 

For most of us this is far more than we need or could handle. Believe it or not some people even hunt with pistols and revolvers! For most of us this is not a consideration when talking about firearms but nice to know you can utilize this tool for more than one use. Hunting bear with a .38 or anything smaller than a .357 is not such a bright idea!!!!

So let's take hunting with a pistol or revolver off the table for now. Let's focus on what most of us are considering these tools for, self defense and the defense of others. 

There are hundreds of companies which make these tools and I will not get into a 'discussion' about which one is the 'bestest'! Your personal price point will dictate what you purchase. Why wont you discuss the different brands? Because to some folks brands are like religion and no matter what they have a favorite. Remember we are looking for a tool which fits your needs. Let's focus on tools for self defense.

The Beretta M9 or 92f is a fine pistol. Thousands have been made and are in use. For the novice I think this is a good platform to start with. Most fellas out there can easily grip this tool, one drawback for the ladies is some might have trouble wrapping their hands around a full size version. They make smaller versions so this can be worked around. The pistol is reliable, easy to clean and I personally like the safety feature for those with limited experience. You literally can throw this pistol loaded, with the safety on and it will not discharge. (do not ever try this! do not ever ask me how I know this!)

You can purchase other brands and again it is a matter of what you can afford or have experience with. Look for something simple to use. Some pistols come with all sorts of extras, fancy triggers, fancy sights and all types of attachments. If you understand all of these good utilize them but keep in mind battery powered items might not work when you need them. A suggestion would be to keep your tools simple to cut down on the learning curve and chances of something not working. 

Again a revolver might be the best choice for some of us out there. You load the cylinder, close the cylinder and it is ready to go.  

TRAINING, TRAINING, TRAINING!  No matter what tool you add to your planning you absolutely need to be trained to use the tool! You can add a rocket to your tool box but if you do not know how to use it is useless. What kind of training?  

Here is another question were people like to get their feathers ruffled..... Whoever you go to for training their first priority needs to be safety! If they do not spend time ensuring you understand and manifest safety you need to walk away. If they tell you they can turn you into a Navy SEAL, skilled gunfighter in three easy lessons, walk away! Marksmanship should be the the focus after safety. 

You have to handle the tools safely and be able to hit what you are aiming at before you can do all the other 'high speed, low drag' stuff people want to learn how to do. What people forget is in order to do all the 'fun' stuff you have to have a solid foundation to work from.

If the person you go to does not offer some type of classes which increase your skill set over time just walk away. There really is not rules people have to follow when they decide to call themselves firearms instructors and as with other things some people might be able to do but have no idea how to teach.  

You have to have a solid foundation before you should even be shown a position like this one.

Most folks should never, never be put in this situation!!!!!!

 Most of us will never reach a level of training where this is appropriate!!! This level of confidence takes years to reach. If you find someone offering to show you how to do these types of things in a "Easy to learn, complete gunfighter system, you can master in just one weekend!" walk away!!! 

Ok, this one is getting long! Let's come back up for some air! Remember you need to tailor your planning to your situation. This carries over to what type of tools you add to your abilities. Take the time to research what fits your needs. Take the time to find a good instructor. Take the time to train! The time you spend now will be the difference if you ever need this skill set. 

As Always,

Stay Safe! 

     

Planning #7.2 Gun Knowledge

Down, down, down the rabbit hole we go....................

How much time do we spend in here? As much time as it takes. How much time is that? Until we are done........................

In the first installment concerning guns we talked a little bit about why you need to take firearms into account when planning. Second installment we talked about firearms being another tool you need to become familiar with. 

Hopefully by now people who might not want to discuss firearms have realized these posts are not about which gun is the 'bestest'. But let us cover that question for a moment......... 

Which firearm is best to own? 

What do you need it for?

To protect my family!

The tool in your hand at that moment is the 'bestest'.

 BUT only if you know how to use the tool.

Firearms are just an improved method for throwing rocks at someone. You have to learn to throw a rock before you can hit anything.

Than someone made a more complicated way to throw things at someone else. At the end of the day this is still just a rock thrower...... See the rock at the end of the spear? 

These are just more complicated ways to throw rocks. 

All rocks come in different sizes, bullets or rounds are no different. All the complicated sounds which come out of a gun nut's mouth come down to two things. How big is the rock and how fast is the rock going? 

Bigger the rock and the faster you throw the harder it is to control where the rock goes. A .38 caliber pistol is easier to control than a .45. A .45 round has move power behind it than a .38 round. Theoretically you should be able to stop a threat sooner with a .45 than a .38 based just on the physics. 

Unless of course you are one of these guys....... Or maybe you were taught by one of these guys? Because these guys have proven even if everyone had ray guns but no training the tool is wasted. 

What is the difference between a pistol, rifle and shotgun? Size of the rock and how far you can throw it. The barrel of the tool decides how far you can accurately throw the round. The "thrower" has to be the proper type to throw the proper rock. If you want to throw a little .22 caliber size rock you need a barrel which the rock fits in. 

If you take the same .22 caliber bullet and put it in a .22 caliber pistol you can not throw the rock as far.

Why? The length of a barrel determines how far you can throw the rock. The barrel is the part sticking out the bullet passes through. Longer barrel = throw farther. Yes there is a more complicated answer but let's stick with this one. 

Shotguns are diffrent because they do not fire just one rock, they throw several rocks at one time. Yet the same basic idea works, the longer the barrel the further you can accurately throw the rocks. 

As in the above photo shotguns throw a bunch of rocks. You can buy different numbers of rocks to throw with the lowest numbers being in the '00' range. 

See how the number of rocks has been decreased? 

If you aim at the center of the target odds are the rocks will come out and make a pattern similar to this one, shotguns are not precision tools. The further away the target the greater the spread of the pattern. 

Alright one last bit of foundational knowledge..... nomenclature. All firearms have the same basic parts. Some might add or take away parts but all of them have to have these basic parts. 

Barrel, every firearm has one! It is where the rocks come out of and is the dangerous end of the tool.

Doesn't matter if the firearm is a pistol, double barrel shotgun or a cannon they all have a barrel and the open end where the rocks come out is the place you do not want to be at. Trigger is the next thing they all have in common

Be it a modern pistol or rifle

Or maybe an antique pistol

Knowing these two parts of any firearm is really important. Because if we know these two parts of the gun we can follow the next and most important part about understanding firearms. SAFETY!!! 

If you remember nothing else remember these four things when dealing with firearms. Because if you do not you can look like these guys................

But you might as well be this guy....................

Remember treat every firearm as if it is loaded

DO YOU KNOW IF THEIR GUNS ARE LOADED? NEVER ASSUME!

Never point a firearm at anything or anyone you are not willing to destroy

NOTICE PISTOL AIMED AT OTHER GUYS UPPER CHEST AND HEAD?

REALLY? JUST &^%$%^& REALLY?

Keep your finger of the trigger and out of the trigger guard until ready to fire.

Know your target and what is behind it.

Following these rules are the most important thing you can learn about firearms! Yes these rules are more important than anything else you can learn!!! You might be able to reach out a thousand yards and hit a target........... but if you forget to clear the weapon, assume it is unloaded and put a round through the wall when you are cleaning your rifle......... a round which goes through the wall and hits the neighbor's kid........ you hopefully get the point. Alright this is getting long so let's cut it here for now.

As Always,

Stay Safe!  

Planning #7.1 - Guns con't. this might take a few posts

Here we go again...... Going back into the rabbit hole......... Yes this subject can go very deep and will take more than one or two posts to cover..........

I might say some things here which you do not want to hear..... If your mind is closed to the idea of firearms you might want to skip this one.

If you keep reading you are agreeing to come down the hole with an open mind!!!!!!

An axe is a tool you can use to cut trees down. You can turn the axe over and use the axe as an improvised hammer if need be.

If you want to use an axe to fell trees you will want to know a thing or two about using the tool properly. The axe can be dangerous if you do not use the tool properly. Heck, the tree can hurt you if you do not stand where the tree is going to fall.

Some of us know how to use these tools. Some of us, including me, need to learn how to use these! Some of us can think of three things off the top of our heads which can go wrong with these if we do not use them properly!

Some of us know how to use these tools. Some of us can think of things which can go wrong with these if we do not use them properly!

Some of us know how to use these tools. Some of us, including me, are learning how to use these tools. If we do not know how to use these tools properly we will be disappointed with the results.

How do we learn to use these tools? We read up on it, surf the net and ask people who have the knowledge already. Take a class and eventually get some experience with how to use the tools. No different than the new set of tools we need to be able to use. If we do not learn how to use these tools properly we can hurt ourselves, others and fail at what it is we are trying to do.

Firearms, guns, rifles, pistols, assault weapons, black scary guns, high powered rifles or a horse by any other name is just a tool! Get over it! They are just tools and if you think otherwise you are ill informed. I know that might hurt someone's feelings but this is the part I warned you about........

Assault weapon and high powered rifle or other such words are used to scare you. Why? Because people have agendas personal or public and we will leave it at that.

This is an axe...................................

This is a fully automatic axe with high capacity, multiple cut, long distance, motor driven, fossil fuel burning, greenhouse gas contributing, butcher of trees and was designed for no other reason than to KILL TREES!!!!

This is a chainsaw.............. I guess it is how you see it?????
 

Anyone remember these cases? You know people being arrested for selling or trading raw milk? What's wrong with raw milk? It can make you sick and kill kids!! Do you know how the milk makes people sick? Do you know the types of milk? Do you know the laws concerning milk? How many cows does it take to make a gallon of milk? What time is the best for milking cows? How many types of cows are there?

Don't know? Me neither, until I asked my favorite Hippie. (side note: he better be reading this!)

If you do not know how to do this and do not know how to do this....................

Then there are two new subjects for you to master!!! Shouldn't life be about learning new things??? The more you know about something the less intimidating or scary the thing is. Learning more things increases your abilities and during an emergency your abilities might be all you have to count on.

Knowledge is the key to things, right? Let's start putting some knowledge out there and start to round out people's knowledge base. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?" someone asks defensively. Here is what I mean......

You and the children are at the park and there is a GUN lying on the ground. What do you do? Do you leave it there? What if there are a lot of kids and you are not in charge of all of them? Every park full of kids has those two or three kids whose parents are not watching and they run out of control. What if they pick up the gun you do not know how to handle? Are you willing to just leave the gun there and hope nothing happens? Do you know how to handle the gun so you do not hurt anyone on accident? No, let's learn a few rules to follow.

These are the foundational rules everyone should know. You can never go wrong if you follow these four rules. Yes there are variations depending on who you ask but they all should cover the same concept. If the person you are talking to does not cover these concepts stop listening to them!!!!!

Here is what you sit down and tell your kids ASAP!!! Do not make them afraid of the tools! Just explain to them what to do if they see one. The same as you would do if you were telling them what to do if they see a kitchen knife on the ground, stray dog or anything else they might hurt themselves with.

I just like this picture! But you can see the basics of safe weapons handling are covered here. If you do not break these rules you will not hurt someone by accident.

 Another use for these rules....... I see a lot of self defense training being offered and some of them will cover firearms. Most of them do not address these rules and treat the firearm as a simple thing to use.

Do you know how to milk a cow, do you know how to clear a 'stovepipe' stoppage on that pistol? No? Than you need to follow the four rules! Keep control of the tool and leave the area. Pointing the tool at the bad guy is just a bad idea if you do not know how to use the tool.

As with other subjects we have covered this subject has more uses than just barricading ourselves in the closest big box store and holding off the hordes of the undead. Understanding the basics of firearms and understanding these rules can help you deal with situations you might come across. Everything from a child finding a gun, hunting trips with the buddies, to you disarming an attacker and suddenly you have a firearm you know nothing about.

Is she doing it right????????????

Before you plant a garden, can your harvest or treat a wound you had to gather some knowledge to do it correctly. Firearms are no different. Seek out the knowledge and beat back the ignorance which so many people put out there. Do not allow your family or yourself to become victims if a bad day comes simply because it is the 'trendy' thing to do. When you do buy a firearm the trek does not stop there. Training, training, training, you do not become a proficient fisherman by buying a rod and reel which just sits in the garage. Same with firearms, the day you need one is not the day to figure out how to use one.    

As Always,

Stay Safe