Sunday, August 14, 2011

Will We See London. USA?

I strongly suspect we will see a form of London, USA. The flash mob robberies and beatings will continue and sooner or later some intended victim will be armed. Emptying his or her gun into these idiots will cause more unrest.

Then we will see things like we saw in the LA Rodney King riots, Korean shop owners forting up to keep the idiots at bay.

I, of course, don't hardly have to worry about it, it ain't like the denizens of Lake Tawakoni are going to riot, we're all armed. Plus my neighbors don't have any more than I do, what would be the point?

Actually, most folks will not have to worry much about any unrest. If the "youths" in Chicago start getting too out of hand, most folks will stay out of Chicago. Eventually, the responsible folks will have all moved away and those feral "youths" will get mighty hungry. Meanwhile the suburbs will be forted up. This, of course, will be called raaaaacism. No one in government or the media will notice the middle class minority people helping to man the "barricades".

A lot of folks are buying guns. A lot of folks are going to some of those shooting schools. And a lot of folks are wondering which of the twelve gazillion shooting schools to attend. Meanwhile the new people buying shootin' irons are often buying the wrong kind of weapon. Everyone and their mother with machine shop capabilities are making clones of the AR15. Folks, if you want something to defend your home, this is the wrong gun. The geniuses in the Defense Dept. (notice we have not really won a war since we got rid of the War Dept.?) decided that it's far better to wound an enemy than to kill him. Something about the hospitalization taking more resources. Well, wounding a bad guy is fine, as long as the wound completely paralyzes him. Otherwise he can still kill you.

Oddly, most areas where ordinary folks are most vulnerable to unreast, it's hardest to get and keep arms. So, like in California, you cannot buy an AR15 clone anyway, without a ten round maximum capacity, etc, etc. So a lot of folks tout pump shotguns for home defense. Sorry, wrong again. The pump shotgun is too big to handle in the house. I know we tell civilians to fort up the whole family in one room, defend that room and wait for the local police. That is a great idea except we hear a noise? Is it the dog? Is it one of the kids going to pee? Is it your daughter's no good boyfriend sneaking over, again? Sure, call 911 every time you hear a noise. Umm, no. What works is to grab your good bright flashlight, tuck your handgun just behind your back, in your strong hand, and check it out.

You do not want a rifle or shotgun then, how do you handle a two handed gun and light switches, kids and dogs all at once? So, the first thing you need is a good flashlight and then a handgun. If you don't get a good flashlight, don't bother with a gun.

What gun? I will go against common wisdom here. Unless you shoot for sport I say choose a revolver. Autoloaders have advantages for police and military. Revolvers have other advantages. Put a loaded revolver in your bedside table and thirty years later it will still fire those corroded-green shells. An auto? Probably not. Naturally I'd like you to practice a lot but most folks won't. Truth is, skill doesn't matter all that much. If a citizen gets into a gunfight it's going to be really close. What really counts is willingness. Gunfights happen within the width of a car or the length of a car. The width of a room, the length of a room. Once a citizen learns to hit a target at the range of the biggest room in her house, she's good enough.

Now for a house gun I say there are only a few choices left, the S&W Military and Police K frame and other revolvers of that size are the most common. They come in .38 Special and .357 Mag. Either one is fine. Load it with Winchester Plus P lead semiwadcutter hollow points or that new Speer Gold Dot 135 grain load. Don't bother with flashlights or lasers on the gun, your handheld flashlight will do. Don't waste money on stuff like that, instead invest in practice ammo. When you can hit one of those cheap paper plates every shot at the length of your biggest room, well you're good enough.

Forget all that horsecrap about running around, crawling through pipes, kickin' in doors that some of these schools teach. Half of them give drills that would get you killed if you wore Kevlar to work, all of them teach stuff you and I will never do. I'm too old and fat to be takin' down crack houses or busting MS13 clubhouses. My gun is to protect my family, my life and my home.

There are a couple of other choices in house guns. Those with small hands might well decide to choose one of the little five shooters like the S&W Chief's Special, the Ruger SP101 or one of the Brazilian copies of that S&W. These are also the best guns for carrying. There are lots of autoloaders but, really, those are for soldiers and cops. The simple reality is that if a civilian needs more than five shots he's so outnumbered that all he's doing is taking an escort to Hell with him.

There is another cartridge out, that new Federal .327 Magnum. That little pocket rocket loads six rounds in the same Ruger SP101 that I carry, mine only holds five .357s. It's six to one, half dozen of the other for carry. Ain't nobody gonna laugh if either cartridge hits center mass.

Those are the house guns, or store guns, for that matter. Now there is one more kind of gun I'd like to talk about. The long gun, a rifle or shotgunfor the urban dweller who fears what we saw in England, or for that matter, Detroit in '67. During the Rodney King riots we saw a lot of buildings and businesses burned. We also saw rioters turning away from those Korean-owned stores where the men and women were standing by with rifles and shotguns. Any kind of repeating shotgun will keep bad guys out of Molotov Cocktail range, so will just about any repeating rifle.

I would not bother with an AR 15 clone. The 5.56 will kill, and it will wound. Thing is, if the bullet does not hit something immediate like the heart, spine or brain the bad guy can still do a lot of damage before he finally bleeds out. The average mule deer is about the same size and weight as a full grown man and there is almost no one who says "let's hunt mule deer with our .223s!"

The 12 guage shotgun has a lot going for it at close range. Even better is a little pistol caliber carbine. A .357 or .44 Mag, a .45 Colt lever action holds at least nine rounds and they are all deadly. out to ranges where if I shot anyone I'd go to prison. Put some men and women up on the roof with those and the bad guys would never live to throw a Molotov Cocktail at your business or home.

I could be wrong. When the Democrats run out of other people's money the "youths" might just buckle down and get jobs and I could be John Holmes long lost identical twin. Everyone is buying commodities to weather the recession. Some bought gold. I bought lead.

2 comments:

pamibe said...

'Some bought gold. I bought lead.'

I used to use a revolver but do love my Sig P230... though I've had many nightmares about it jamming, it never has.

Still want that shotgun. Thought that would be best for home defense, but after reading this, our handguns may work very well after all...

My teachers, a sheriff's deputy and Texas DPS officer, taught me that if I had to shoot, shoot to kill. Otherwise, like you mentioned, they'll only be hurt -and pissed. Thank God I've never had to shoot at anyone.

Peter said...

So, will a comment work since I am unable to post?