More Active Killers

Random Shots

The epidemic of mass shootings continues and one of those has occurred very close to home! Early in the morning on August 4, shortly after 1 AM, a gunman opened fire in Dayton’s Oregon Historic District, killing nine and injuring forty others before he was killed by responding police officers. The gunman used a semi-automatic “AR-15-like” rifle/pistol, equipped with a dual drum mag-azine and spare magazines giving him a total of about 250 rounds of .223 ammunition. He wore body armor, dark clothing, a mask, and reportedly had hearing protection on, indicating the attack was premeditated.

The gunman was later identified as a 24-year-old man from nearby Bellbrook, Ohio. People that knew him describe him as being a bully in school, a little “off”, and were not surprised that he might have done this. One of the nine people that were killed was the gunman’s own 22-year-old sister, leading one to wonder if she was the intended target of the attack. Reports indicate that earlier that evening, the gunman and his sister had travelled together to the Oregon District, along with another companion (who was also wounded in the attack) but the three

separated at some point prior to the attack. It is unknown if the gunman had the items with him that he used during the attack when they originally arrived in the Oregon District or if he had left to go get them.

The attack ended at the entrance to Ned Peppers nightclub, one of several bars and nightclubs that make up the core of the Ore-gon District’s entertainment area. Those bars and nightclubs attract hundreds of young adults to gather there.

All of the shooting took place along the main street of the Oregon District, starting a few doors down the street from Ned Pep-pers. The casualty count undoubtedly would have been higher had not seven re-sponding police officers been on patrol nearby. They were on scene within 24 sec-onds of hearing shots being fired and they killed the gunman a few seconds later as he tried to enter Ned Peppers to escape the gunfire being directed at him. Still in less than a minute the gunman shot over 40 rounds and hit multiple victims.

One responding officer used an AR-15-style rifle, another used a shotgun, and four offic-

ers used handguns, with each responding officer firing at least one round to stop the gunman. One officer did not fire his gun.

Not all the injuries were a result of gunshot wounds, but 17 were. Eleven of those in-jured remained in the hospital the day after the attack, but the majority of victims were treated and released.

This was the second tragedy that has hit the Dayton area this summer, following more than a dozen tornadoes that swept through the area on Memorial Day, damaging and destroying hundreds of homes and business-es. Fortunately, there were no deaths in Dayton from the tornadoes, but several peo-ple were injured.

This was the second mass shooting to take place in the United States in just nine hours. Earlier, a 21-year-old gunman used a rifle to kill 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Tex-as, and wound 26 more. The gunman, a resident of the Dallas area, was taken into custody by the police. Initial reports indi-cate that the gunman there had a “manifesto” complaining about the “Hispanic invasion” occurring along the southern border of the United States.

Less than a week earlier another gunman

opened fire at the Garlic Festival in Gilroy,

California, killing three before he turned his

gun on himself. A motive for this attack is

not known. He did use an AR-style rifle to

carry out his attack.

These were only the latest attacks that seem to be increasing in number. On May 31, a disturbed 40-year-old lone gunman walked into a municipal government building in

September/October 2019 Volume 9, Issue 5

Edited and Published by

Gary Evens, Rangemaster and NRA Certified Firearms Instructor &

Range Safety Officer

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to

keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed in Random Shots are those of the author(s), and

do not necessarily represent the positions of any other individual or

organization.

“Just because you can press the trigger and randomly hit a target doesn’t mean you know how to apply the techniques of shooting correctly.” — Gabby Franco, Olympic and Professional Shooter, in Troubleshooting: Mastering your Pistol Marksmanship, Vol. 1.

Virginia Beach, Virginia, where over 400 people worked, and began shooting. In the end, he killed twelve and injured several more before he was shot by responding police officers. During the gun battle with the police, which ended about 40 minutes after the gunman had initially opened fire, one of the responding officers was wound-ed.

The gunman had been employed as a engi-neer for over 15 years by the City of Virginia Beach’s utilities department and he worked in the building where the shootings took place. Earlier that day he had submitted his letter of resignation, citing “personal rea-sons.” City officials said he was a good, dedicated employee with no known discipli-nary problems. However, apparently just recently he had conflicts with several of his co-workers and this is what is suspected of triggering his resignation and attack.

To carry out his attack, he used two legally-purchased .45-caliber semi-automatic hand-guns, one equipped with a sound suppres-sor.

In each case, the gunmen had legally ac-quired the firearms and other items they used to carry out their attacks.

The responses by politicians to these attacks were predictable. President Trump ex-pressed his condolences for those that were lost or injured and praised the efforts by first responders to limit the loss of life. Democrats called for more gun control laws. In one instance, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley claimed that the Dayton attack was the 250th mass shooting to take place in the United States during 2019. That is a significant exaggeration, made for its political impact, because the New York Times reported a few hours after the Dayton shootings that there have only been 32 mass shootings in the United States this year that resulted in three or more deaths. (The official definition of a “active shooter event” is three or more deaths, but liberals like to include anyone being injured as part of the criteria for de-scribing it as a “mass shooting”.) Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) once again called for “universal background checks”—although there is no evidence that such a law would have prevented any of these gun-men from obtaining the guns they used—and for an “assault weapons ban”—which studies have shown had absolutely no effect on gun violence in the United States while one was in effect in the 1990’s and early

2000’s. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio), when asked about the Senate approving stricter gun control laws, pointed out that there is something bigger at play, citing the dramatic increase in suicides and the use of opioid drugs in the U.S. In a statement made the day after the Dayton shootings, President Trump said more efforts were needed to deal with mental health issues, especially those that lead to violence. How-ever, liberals continue to refuse to consider dealing with mental health, claiming that looking into individuals’ mental health is a violation of their basic dignity and human rights. Meanwhile, conservatives are reluc-tant to approve any laws—like the “red flag laws” being proposed—that would confis-cate someone’s firearms on the mere report that they might use them to hurt people. They insist that such laws would result in individuals being denied their Constitutional right to keep and bear firearms without due process.

Other gun control proposals include:

• Limits on how many guns can be pur-chased each month. There is no evi-dence that these gunmen went out and purchased a firearm immediately prior to their attacks. Instead they had pur-chased them well before they carried out their actions. Thus a law limiting how many guns a person can purchase each month would have had no effect on preventing any of these attacks.

• Universal background checks. Howev-er, all of the guns used in these attacks were legally obtained by the various gunmen and they had undergone and passed the required NICS background check used to determine if someone is eligible to purchase a firearm. A uni-versal background check law would have done nothing to prevent any of these attacks from taking place.

• Magazine capacity limits, claiming that such magazines increase a killer’s ability to inflict casualties. Although extended capacity magazines were used in some of these attacks, there is no evidence that they increased the number of casu-alties. Because they have removeable box magazines, semi-automatic firearms can be reloaded very quickly, making magazine capacity a moot point.

In this contentious political environment, both Republicans and Democrats will try to

use events like these during the upcoming 2020 Presidential election campaign to gar-ner support for their candidates.

Everyone is curious about what motivated the gunmen to carry out such horrendous attacks, hoping that by knowing, future at-tacks can be prevented. In the case of Day-ton, Gilroy, and Virginia Beach, we may never know because the gunmen are dead, but mental health issues may have played a role. In the case of the El Paso gunman, his attack was racially motivated.

Several, but not all, of these attacks took place in “no gun zones”. While the Dayton attack took place on a public street where carrying concealed firearms is permitted, given the location in an area where there are a lot of establishments serving alcohol and the late hour, it is not surprising an armed citizen was not present. Fortunately the police were and they managed to bring an end to the attack quickly. In the other cases, the police response took longer and no armed citizens were present to deal with the attacker.

Some of the lessons learned from these at-tacks are:

1. The police cannot protect you from violence, even if they are on the scene when it starts. All they can hope to do is limit the number of casualties.

2. The casualty count was higher because the gunmen chose to launch their at-tacks where there were large numbers of people gathered. If you want to avoid such a horrendous event, avoid going to those places where there are large numbers of people, and if you do decide to go there anyway, have a plan for escaping.

3. Training for active killer and mass casu-alty events works. Unlike we saw in Parkland, Florida, responding Dayton police officers showed no hesitation in confronting the gunman and stopping his shooting spree—and those officers certainly had no prior experience deal-ing with active killers, except through their training. (While one had been a member of the Dayton Police Depart-ment since 1997, the others had only been serving with the department for about three years.) The Dayton area hospitals were well prepared and equipped to handle multiple victims with little or no advanced notice before

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they started coming through the doors of their emergency rooms—the closest one being just three minutes away. (So far, none of the Dayton victims have died after they arrived at a medical treatment facility. Federal authorities also jumped into action right away to assist the Dayton Police in their investi-gation. (I happened to be at one of the local gun shops about 12 hours after the shootings took place and the owner told me he had already been contacted by the FBI to see if the alleged gunman had purchased any guns there or done any business with them—he had not. Undoubtedly dozens of other such gun stores in the area received similar re-quests for information within that same timeframe.)

4. The people in the Oregon District

when the attack took place responded

quickly, either by running away or seek-

ing cover behind anything they could

find to get out of the line of fire.

5. There are determined individuals in the world that are dedicated to killing their fellow human beings and laws will not change that.

6. “No Gun Zones” only apply to law-abiding citizen and offer no protection at all from the actions of a determined killer.

7. None of the laws proposed by gun con-trol activists would have prevented the attacks that have taken place or the attacks that will occur in the future. Instead they are just symbolic, “feel good” efforts to make the liberal politi-cians feel like they are doing something.

-- G.R. Evens

There has been a recent trend in mass shootings that the liberal media and politi-cians are attempting to ignore or discredit—the idea of the victims fighting back against their attacker. They would like us to be totally dependent on the government for our security and thus do not want to empha-size examples of individuals taking the initia-tive to defend themselves.

In May (2019) there were two examples of unarmed victims fighting back against armed

attackers. At the University of North Caro-lina, in Charlotte (UNCC), a 21-year-old student died when he rushed to subdue a gunman that opened fire on a group of stu-dents. One other victim was killed and four were wounded. At the STEM School in Highland Ranch, a suburb of Denver, Colo-rado, an 18-year-old student was killed while he and a couple other students attempted to tackle a gunman who had entered their classroom and began shooting other stu-dents. The actions by unarmed students in both examples undoubtedly saved the lives of many of their fellow students.

In the case of the UNCC attack, it appeared that the gunman had specific students in mind for his attack. He used a legally ac-quired pistol to carry out his planned attack. As a result of the actions by students to turn the tables on their attacker, responding po-lice officers were able to arrest the attacker.

At the STEM School, a 17-year-old male student and a 16-year-old transgender fe-male student armed themselves with stolen handguns and attacked their classmates in separate classrooms. Three of their intend-ed victims attacked one of the gunmen, while a security guard managed to subdue the other one. The only person that was killed was the one student that decided to fight back against one of the gunmen. Eight other students were wounded during the attack. The two gunmen were taken into custody by the police.

Victims fighting back is nothing new. In 1998, a student at Thurston High School in Oregon tackled the gunman despite being shot in the chest, ending the attack. On September 11, 2001, passengers aboard American Airlines Flight 93 decided to fight back against the hijackers that had taken over their aircraft. In sacrificing their own lives, they undoubtedly saved hundreds of others had that aircraft crashed into its in-tended target like three others did that same day. And there are many other examples, but the media does not like to report about it because it goes against their basic non-violence agenda, a likely carryover from the anti-war movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s, and the feminist movement. Fol-lowing the STEM School attack, one very liberal media outlet—CNN—seemed to go out of their way to criticize one 12-year-old student that, while hiding from the gunmen, armed himself with a baseball bat so he could defend himself should they find him. The young man had vowed that he would

“go down fighting” rather than being anoth-er helpless victim.

Liberals often claim that “violence is never the answer”, but sometimes violence is the only answer when dealing with evil. If someone is trying to murder or seriously injure you, a member of your family, or a friend they are certainly displaying evil intent and you need to do whatever is necessary to stop that evil threat. There won’t be any time to negotiate with your attacker; to talk them out of carry-ing out their evil intent. Instead you will only have a second or two to decide what to do and then act.

Following the adoption of “no gun zone” laws, schools have adopted a “lockdown” strategy for dealing with active killers. Eve-ryone is supposed to “remain in place” but lock (or block) the doors to the various rooms they are in to keep the gunman out until the police can arrive and deal with the situation. Unfortunately, many schools do not have lockable doors on classrooms out of fear that a student might lock out their teacher. And sometimes, like was the case in Parkland, Florida, the police do not come to rescue victims and subdue the killer when they could have.

A common approach currently in use is ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate), which places priority on denying the attacker access to victims either by se-curing the rooms so the gunman cannot enter or by getting the victims to run away. Indeed, when it comes to the “Counter” phase—the “Alert” and “Inform” phases are designed to let others in the school and the police know what is happening—the strategy does not really encourage victims to fight back, but rather to attempt to distract the attacker by making loud noises, throw-ing things at them, etc., giving the victims a chance to escape. Adults and older students (i.e. high school-age) are sometimes told they can try to grab ahold of the attacker and hold him down until the police arrive. Rarely is anyone ever trained on how to

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disarm someone with a gun.

Another strategy, more often used in the business community, is called “Run, Hide, Fight”, where the victims are first encour-aged to run away—always a good plan if you can safely do it—hide from the killer—which may or may not work—or to fight back, but only if there is no other course of action available. In many cases, “hiding” means crawling under a desk and hoping the attacker doesn’t notice you.

At the STEM School, their official policy was known as “Locks, Lights, Out of Sight”—basically a lockdown approach—but a few students decided on their own to fight back. A new strategy that some schools are adopting is called “Avoid, Deny, Defend”, which is just a variation on the ALICE strategy.

One weakness of all these strategies is that power and control is really in the hands of the armed attacker(s). To change that, those that champion these strategies rely on vic-tims being able to delay their attacker long enough for the police to arrive. That may or may not happen in a timely manner.

More and more school districts are authoriz-ing the arming of teachers, staff, and/or hiring additional school resource officers or D.A.R.E. (Drug Awareness Resistance Edu-cation) officers, but this is still the exception rather than the rule. In some cases, it is a budget issue with school officials having to decide whether to hire additional teachers or make facility improvements rather than hir-ing someone to provide security. Some-times it is a case of denial—a violent attack would never happen in their school. Since many teachers tend to be liberals them-selves, I think this reluctance to arm teach-ers is more of a reflection of their own fear of guns than anything else, and a policy of teacher unions that overwhelmingly support the liberal Democrats. Still, I am encour-aged by this new attitude among victims to fight back.

Fighting back is not what the attacker ex-pects and thus they are often caught by sur-prise. They don’t expect to encounter any resistance, which is why they decided to launch their attack in a “no gun zone” in the first place. Turning the tables on the attack-er allows other potential victims in the area an opportunity to escape but does not guar-antee that no one will be uninjured. Still, those victims that have chosen to take the offensive often have said they did so instinc-

tively and that they felt they needed to do something rather than being a helpless vic-tim.

While obviously having a gun is the best way to fight back against an armed attacker, it is not the only means of doing so. There are options available, such as pepper spray, etc., that can be used. However, you need to realize that most of the other means of fighting back are range limited. Usually you must be within arm’s reach of your attacker to be able to resist if you do not have a gun. Timing is also an issue. An unarmed re-sponder must time their assault to when the attacker is distracted.

Facing someone armed with a gun while you are unarmed often makes you feel helpless. You are faced with the classic “fight or flight” dilemma—should you run away, or can you fight? Running away may not be an option, but many people feel they have no chance against someone that is armed so submission to their demands is a better choice. However, when the sole goal of the gunman is running up a body count, sub-mission means getting shot. Statistics, in-cluding those developed by the FBI, have shown that victims that fight back have a greater chance of survival than not resisting. In the end, the choice will be yours alone to make.

Recently John Farnam summed things up well in one of his daily quips (“Victims, by Choice!” on May 15, 2019) when he wrote, “Many of the intentionally unprepared thus perish every day, in amazement, all with surprised looks on their faces and crying, ‘This is so unfair!’”

-- G.R. Evens

First Impressions

The MantisX I’m a sucker when it comes to interesting technology so when I came across the Man-tis booth at the NRA Annual Meeting, I was intrigued by their demonstration of the MantisX Shooting Performance System. After using it myself briefly at their booth, I

saw the potential for this system to improve the shooting ability of both my students and me. As a result, I immediately purchased one of their MantisX3 systems and have been exploring its potential since I got it home.

Using technology as part of my firearms training efforts is nothing new. For several years I have used Next Level Training’s SIRT (Shot Indicating Resetting Trigger) laser training pistol. It greatly helps my stu-dents and I improve target acquisition, trig-ger press, and reloading. (I also use it to practice presentations from the holster dur-ing dry-fire training.) I have found it espe-cially useful in teaching students about sight picture and trigger reset. My SIRT is an early version that resembles the Glock 17 both in size and weight. It has two on-board red lasers, one that illuminates as soon as the trigger breaks—representing the gun firing—and the other that illuminates as soon as pressure is applied to the trigger. (Newer versions of the SIRT are available with plastic slides, both red and green lasers, and in versions representing the S&W M&P and a generic pocket pistol.) The purpose of the second laser is to be able to track the movement of the SIRT pistol’s barrel as the student prepares to fire a shot. (I usually keep this laser turned off because most stu-dents try to use it as an aiming device, which it is not intended to be.) By watching where the first laser illuminates on the target I can assess the accuracy of the shot(s) and adjust the students (or my own) stance, grip, trig-ger press, and/or aiming to improve shot accuracy. There are other training products that use similar technology, such as those offered by LaserLyte, to enable instructors and students to improve their shooting abil-ity without going through the time and ex-pense of going to a shooting range and fir-ing live ammunition.

The MantisX system takes a different ap-proach. It uses a small module that attaches to the Picatinny rail on your gun. (You can separately purchase adapters if your gun

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does not have an inte-grated rail.) It does not display any visual information on your target. Within the MantisX module there

are gyroscopes and accelerometers that rec-ord the movement of the gun as you fire each shot. Its internal battery is rechargea-ble with a supplied USB adapter cable. Mantis indicates you should be able to use the module for about 12 hours before need-ing to recharge it. The data collected by the module is transmitted, via Bluetooth, to your smartphone or tablet (iOS or Android), where it can be displayed and analyzed in real time. (The MantisX app can be down-loaded for free from the Mantis website or from the Google or Apple app stores.)

The app does not need to know anything about your target or the distance it is from you. Instead, it just measures the movement of your gun and the magnitude of that movement, starting 0.75 second before you fire your shot and ending 0.10 second after it is fired. The module is collecting this data the entire time it is turned on, but only transmits the data for the timespan just be-fore and after the trigger is pressed to fire the shot. (This time setting can be length-ened on the app’s advanced settings screen if you want to shoot in “bullseye mode”.) The system calculates a “point of aim” using the equilibrium of the hold movement dur-ing the time window that it is recording da-ta. Because of this, you don’t even need to have a target to aim at, just pick a point and press the trigger. This is especially useful in dry-firing mode.

The app analyzes each shot you fire and provides suggestions on what you are doing that moves your point of impact away from your point of aim and how to correct it. It also displays the movement of your gun graphically prior to the start of the trigger press, during the trigger press, and during the initial recoil impulse.

There are several different courses of fire that you can use within the app. These al-low you to practice different aspects of your shooting. A shot timer feature is included as well. A “group” mode allows you to shoot with others in virtual competitions, and a “history” screen allows you to see how your training with the device is proceeding.

You can configure the MantisX app to indi-cate whether you are shooting a pistol or a

rifle, the particular model and caliber of pistol or rifle, whether you are right-handed or left-handed, and if you are firing live am-munition, dry-firing, or using a CO2-powered BB/pellet gun or AirSoft gun. You also indicate whether the MantisX module is mounted facing forward or back-wards and where it is mounted on your gun. With this information, the app can analyze the data supplied by the module to give you some very detailed information about your shooting performance.

The MantisX system was originally intro-duced to the market around 2016. Since then it has been undergoing continual im-provement and the latest version, the Man-tisX3, is the most advanced yet. I’m not sure what internal improvements have been made to the module, but the X3 version incorporates a simpler, tool-free method of attaching it to the rail on your pistol, some-thing users of previous versions had com-plained about, and an enlarged power (on/off) button. As updates to the app are made, they become available for the users at no charge. The MantisX3 system is not that expensive, but is so new that it is not yet featured on the Mantis website. I was able to purchase it, at a discount according to the Mantis rep in their booth, for $150 at the NRA show. Earlier versions of the system sold at retail for about that same price, so I

suspect the retail price for the X3 version is about $169-$179 each.

For my initial evaluation of the system, I attached the module to my Gen 5 Glock 17 and used it in dry-fire mode after linking the module to my iPad where I had downloaded the MantisX app. I started out firing a cou-ple of 10-shot strings to get a feel for how the system worked. For the first one I got an average “score” of 76.3, and the app identified my main shooting problem as my wrist was breaking up—i.e. I was relaxing my wrists during the trigger press, causing the barrel to move up from my point of aim as I fired the shots. This somewhat sur-prised me since when I live fire, I typically hit somewhat low. It also indicated that I had much more “hold movement” than “trigger press movement”. For each shot it gave me a “score” and recorded the time it took me to take each shot—i.e. my split times.

I repeated this 10-shot drill and got an aver-age score of 83.7 this time. However, this time the app indicated that I was pushing forward on the gun and my wrists were breaking down. As a result, my hits were below my point of aim.

Now I went through the initial shooter eval-uation suggested by the app. It started with a 5-shot string on which I scored an average of 88.3 points. This time my major issue was tightening my grip on the gun as I fired the shots. My splits were consistent at 4.2 to 4.8 seconds between each shot.

Next, I shot the “MantisX Benchmark” of 10 shots. The goal on this drill is to have an average score of 90 or above. My average score was 89.5 points for this one. (Getting an average score of 100 is virtually impossi-ble unless you clamp your gun in a vise and then press the trigger.) As you can see, my average scores were improving with each stage of fire. My main issues this time were pushing forward on the gun and my wrists were breaking down, the same issues I had with my second 10-shot string of fire. For the first time, my “hold movement” and my “trigger press movement” were about the same. Previously my “hold movement” had been greater than my “trigger press move-ment”.

Now it was time to fire a 10-shot string us-ing just my support hand. I expected my “score” to decrease, and it did—to an aver-age of 85.6. The main problem was that I tightened my grip as I fired the shots.

Page 5 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 5

I finished my first session with the MantisX by shooting another 10-shot string. My average score for this one was 86.3 and my main shooting problem continued to be tightening my grip as I pressed the trigger.

Altogether, I fired just over 50 “shots” dur-ing my first session using the MantisX and I was impressed with the amount of data it provided to me regarding how I was holding the gun as I fired each shot. As the Mantis website says, “94% of shooters improve after using the MantisX for just 20 minutes”, and my shooting abilities certainly did. And, I now know what I need to focus on during future training sessions to im-prove my ability to hold the gun steady in my hand as I fire it.

In addition to the shooting drills mentioned above that I used during my initial session, other drills included in the MantisX app include a timed benchmark; a compressed surprise break drill where you fire a shot as fast as you can when you hear the buzzer go off; drills for in-battery, out-of-battery, and tactical reloads; one hand shooting drills with both the strong hand and the support hand; cadence shooting drills at 2 second, 1 second, and 0.5 second intervals; and the FBI qualification course (which is only shot in live-fire mode). There are also numerous illustrations and videos in the app to help the user improve their shooting ability.

After this initial evaluation, I can appreciate how the MantisX Shooting Performance System will help me improve my shooting ability and I hope to be able to use it with my students as opportunities present them-selves.

-- G.R. Evens

My Ruger Obsession

Part VI: Modifying My Ruger Mark-series Pistols As those of you that have been reading Ran-dom Shots for any length of time know, I like to “tinker” with my guns. I commonly make modification to guns to improve their

handling characteristics and accuracy. One of the most recent (and most extensive) examples of this is when I built an AR-15 pistol from scratch, using parts I was able to largely acquire over the Internet. I’ve also made modifications to a Remington 870 shotgun, converting it from a field gun to a tactical gun by replacing the stock and fore-end, adding an extended magazine tube, replacing the barrel, and upgrading the safe-ty. I’ve also upgraded sights and triggers on my Glock pistols and just about completely rebuilt a Ruger 10/22 rifle by replacing the stock, barrel, magazine release, bolt stop, and trigger assembly, turning it into my “go-to” rifle for use in Project Appleseed events. I draw the line, however, when it comes to needing to hand-fit parts. My skills with a file and honing stone are just not up to a level that I am willing to risk permanently damage a gun. So, I limit my “tinkering” to using drop-in parts. Many of the guns that I’ve worked on have lots of after-market drop-in parts available. Probably second only to the AR-style rifles, Ruger’s 10/22 rifle and Mark-series pistols have a wealth of such parts that can be user-installed so it was only a matter of time before I started “tinkering” with my Ruger pistols.

Of course, “tinkering” with a Ruger Mark-series pistol is not something that is under-taken lightly because of the difficult process involved in disassembling and reassembling them. All this changed with the introduc-tion of the Mark IV pistols. Now modifying their internal parts is far less intimidating.

As I indicated in a previous edition of Ran-dom Shots, one of the first modifications that I made to one of my Ruger Mark-series pis-tols was to install a red-dot optic on my Mark III Hunter for use in the NDR League. The first red-dot that I installed on it was an inexpensive Browning Buckmark reflex sight that refused to maintain a con-sistent “zero”. I decided to change out that red-dot for a Burris Fastfire III. It worked okay, but I continued to have difficulty find-ing the “dot” in the optic’s viewing window. Eventually, I replaced the Fastfire III with a Vortex Crossfire red-dot optic that I had taken off an AR-style rifle. Finally, I had a red-dot that seemed to work for me. (I also ended up installing a red-dot optic on my Mark IV Competition Model pistol.)

I decided to see if I could improve my Mark III Hunter’s trigger. I liked the light and crisp trigger pull on my High Standard and wanted to see if I could get my Mark III

trigger to feel similar. I installed a Volquartsen Accuracy Kit, which included replacing the Ruger hammer, sear, trigger, and some springs and plungers. This im-proved the trigger pull considerably, but I just couldn’t get use to the smooth Volquartsen trigger itself, so I ended up putting the Ruger trigger shoe back into the gun—I kept the other Volquartsen parts installed. Now the trigger pull weight on my Mark III measured an average of 1 lb., 7.2 oz. (according to my Lyman digital trigger pull gauge), quite an improvement over the stock Ruger trigger pull. (I’m not sure what the original trigger pull weight was since, at the time, I did not have a reliable trigger pull gauge to measure it.)

When I got my Mark IV Target Model, it didn’t take me long to realize that I also needed to install a Volquartsen Accuracy Kit on that one as well. When I measured it, from the box the Target Model’s trigger pull was an average of 4 lbs., 5.8 oz. The kit also included a bushing that allowed me to do away with Ruger’s magazine disconnect safety feature, so I also installed that. After making the modification, the trigger pull weight measured an average of 1 lb., 5.2 oz. This time I decided to use the Volquartsen trigger.

One big change when it came to modifying the Mark IV pistols is that I didn’t have to endure the aggravation associated with dis-assembling a Mark II or Mark III pistol and then reassembling it after the modifications were complete. Instead of taking a few hours, with my Mark IV Target Model the modifications took less than an hour.

One of the things I discovered while initially sighting-in my Mark IV Target Model and Competition Model pistols was the ability to swap grip frames between the two pistols. At one point, I had modified the Target Model with the Volquartsen Accuracy Kit, but still had the Competition Model with the factory trigger (and grips) installed. During a range session I swapped the grip frames between the two guns to get an idea of how much improvement I might get by installing the Volquartsen kit on the Compe-tition Model—and to also get an idea of how the heavy Ruger factory trigger pull was adversely affecting my accuracy when shoot-ing the pistol. These two targets show the results of my little experiment. I think they speak for themselves—with both pistols my accuracy was significantly improved when I shot it with the modified trigger assembly

Page 6 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 5

installed.

With the Target Model, the smallest 5-shot group on these targets measures just 0.94-inch by 0.50-inch, while the larger group came in at 1.75-inch by 0.25-inch. With the Competition Model, my smallest group measured about 0.5-inch by 0.25-inch and all my hits were in the bullseye just above my point of aim. The larger group, shot with the unmodified grip installed, was low and to the right, with one hit being 2.25 inches from the center of the bullseye, and the group size was 1.63-inch by 0.75-inch. This accuracy improvement did not surprise me as I had felt that it improved quite a bit when I had installed the Volquartsen Accu-racy Kit in my Mark III Hunter Model, but I had not done any specific comparison

shooting with it to get a “before-and-after” assessment.

Eventually I installed the Volquartsen kit in my Mark IV Competition Model too, result-ing in a trigger pull that averaged 1 lb., 14.5 oz.—it averaged 4 lbs., 2.7 oz. before I made the change. (While doing this modifi-cation, I re-installed the factory sear spring—by mistake—instead of using the one supplied by Volquartsen and this may account for the slightly heavier trigger pull weight between the Target Model and the Competition Model.) Once again, the job was completed in less than an hour and mi-nus all of the aggravation from having to struggle with disassembling and reassem-bling my Mark III Hunter when I did this modification.

Perhaps the biggest accuracy improvement came when I updated my Mark IV Competi-tion Model with a Volquartsen Accuracy Kit and put a Bushnell T-25 red-dot optic on it. During range sessions prior to making these changes, I was disappointed in the Competi-tion Model’s accuracy. Indeed, even when shooting it with the Target Model’s modi-fied grip frame installed on it, this gun was the least accurate of the several “target” pistols that I have. All of that changed when I made the modifications—it went from being the least accurate to being the most accurate!

Another modification that I made to my Ruger Mark-series pistols was to replace the factory-installed grips. Replacing stock grips on semi-automatic pistols is a relatively common user modification and I’ve done it to my Colt 1911’s and many other non-polymer frame pistols. (It should be noted that the grip panels are not interchangeable between the various Mark-series pistols due to changes in the location and shape of the bolt release lever, the magazine release but-ton, and the safety.) My Mark II NRA En-dowment Model came with imitation white “ivory” grips made of plastic. Small cracks began forming around the screws that at-tached them to the pistol. Not wanting to see those grips damaged any further, I re-placed them with a set of checkered Hogue laminated moss green and black G10 grips. When I got my Mark IV Target Model, it had similar plastic grips, black in color, as those on my Mark II. I de-

cided to also replace them, this time with a set of black and gray laminated G10 grips from Hogue. For some reason, these grips were not as aggressively checkered as the set I put on my Mark II, so I replaced them with a set of G10 “Slash & Burn” Competi-tion grips in laminated blue and black color from Stoner CNC (based in Archbold, Ohio). The Stoner grips have much more aggressive texturing.

I liked the feel of the factory-installed grips that came on my Mark IV Competition Model pistol—checkered walnut with a thumb rest on the left grip panel—but I did not like them on that pistol. So, I swapped them with the Stoner grips that I had put on my Target Model. When doing so, I discov-ered that I also needed to swap the maga-zine release buttons between the two pistols since a longer one is needed for use with the target grips because they are wider than the standard Ruger ones and the replacement G10 grips. This is when I encountered a stripped screw issue. When you remove the left grip panel it reveals a very small Torx-head screw holding the magazine release button in place—actually, the screw is not that small, but the Torx-head itself is. When I went to remove this screw, the Torx-head immediately stripped out with practically no torque applied to it. Now the screw was stuck in place and would have to be drilled out. I called Ruger and they told me that they put LocTite on the screw to hold it in place—I’m not sure why since the grip pan-el covers this screw and also holds it in place—and you need to “tap” the screw with a mallet and wooden dowel to break it free before it can be removed. Of course, this information is not published in the us-ers’ manual. They said I could send the gun back to them—at their expense—and they would replace the screw, but they would not be able to swap the magazine release but-tons between the Target Model and the Competition Model because that would change them from the factory specifications. Instead I had them send me the replacement screws and I took the guns to a local gun-smith to get the old screws out and swap the magazine release buttons for me.

With that problem resolved, the Target Model feels much more balanced in my hand and the Competition Model feels much more like a “race gun” when I grip it. The factory grips on my Mark IV 22/45 Lite are just fine, so I will probably not change them at all. (Despite having a polymer-like

Page 7 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 5

Mark IV Target Model

Arrows indicate

Points of Aim

Modified Grip Frame

Unmodified Grip Frame

Arrows indicate

Points of Aim

Mark IV Competition Model

Modified Grip Frame

Unmodified Grip Frame

frame, the 22/45’s grip panels are not mold-ed into the frame but are screwed on just like they are on the majority of 1911-style pistols, so I could replace them if I decide to do so.)

Yet another modification I made to my Mark IV Target Model and Competition Model pistols was to upgrade the bolt re-lease lever. I did not like the new bolt re-lease lever that Ruger installed on their Mark IV pistols. While larger than the ones on the Mark II and Mark III, they are also more rounded and sit flusher with the frame. I thought it would be easier for my thumb to slip off it during use. A replacement bolt release was included with the Volquartsen trigger kit that I installed in my Mark III pistol, but I decided to use the Ruger bolt release instead. A replacement bolt release was not included in the Mark IV kit howev-er, but they did have one that can be or-dered separately, so I did. (The bolt release levers are not interchangeable between the Mark III and the Mark IV.) They were easy to install and provide a much more positive feel when being used. The Volquartsen bolt release lever will not fit on the 22/45 pistol.

You may remember that I had challenges getting all three Mark IV pistols sighted-in, especially for the 6 o’clock hold that I prefer for target shooting. When I talked to the Ruger technician regarding the stripped screws, I also told him about the sighting-in problems I had experienced. He indicated that he had some taller rear sight blades that he would send to enable me to set my Tar-get, Competition, and 22/45 Lite pistols up for a 6 o’clock hold. Now they are working like I want them to.

Another modification that I made to both the Target and Competition models was to remove the ambidextrous safeties on these pistols. It is not really needed on a pistol used for target shooting. Ruger must have thought this would be a popular modifica-tion because they included the instructions and the part (a washer/spacer) needed to do this with each new Mark IV pistol.

I ran across some information about a mod-

ification that you can make to the Mark II and Mark III pistols to make it easier to reassemble them, so I decided to make that change as well. One of the common prob-lems reassembling the earlier Mark-series pistols is that the hammer strut can get caught behind a pin that runs through the rear of the pistol’s grip frame. To make the modification, a small wedge—a Hammer Strut Support®—is inserted and held in place by this pin. The wedge prevents the hammer strut from being caught on the pin. This was a relatively easy fix that took about 5 minutes to complete. I updated both my Mark II and Mark III pistols with this modi-fication.

The modifications that I made were intend-ed to improve my ability to shoot these pis-tols. If you are interested in modifying your Ruger firearms, check out the offerings from:

• Apex Tactical Specialties (www.apextactical.com)

• Hogue (www.hogueinc.com)

• HSS Corp (www.hammerstrutsupport.com)

• Stoner CNC (www.stonercnc.com)

• Tactical Solutions (www.tacticalsol.com)

• Tandemkross (www.tandemkross.com)

• Volquartsen (www.volquartsen.com)

You can also find parts from these suppliers and tools to modify your guns at Brownells (www.brownells.com) or Midway USA (www.midwayusa.com).

Of course, if you don’t feel confident in making modifications yourself, you can al-ways have a gunsmith do it. My gunsmith, Jake at Fern Hill Customs, is certainly profi-cient in fixing my Ruger’s when I mess something up.

-- G.R. Evens

A Different Perspective

on Target Shooting

As I was planning my trip to Indianapolis to

attend the 148th Annual National Rifle Asso-

ciation Meeting and Exhibits in late April, I

looked at the various seminars that would be

offered on the day that I attended. After

looking over the list, only one stood out—

"Mental Dynamics of Target Shooting” with

Gabby Franco.

Gabby is a professional shooter, currently spon-sored by Walther Arms and the National Shoot-ing Sports Foundation (NSSF). She was a con-testant on Season Four (2012) of the History Channel’s Top Shot televi-sion show where she became the first female contestant to make it to the final stage of the competition. She fin-ished in 8th place out of a total of 18 com-petitors. The next year (2013) she was the only female to be asked to compete on the “All Star Season” of Top Shot, where she finished in 12th place against 16 total com-petitors, many of them top finishers from previous seasons. She was born in Vene-zuela and was the first female shooter to represent that country in the Olympics (2000). She has won numerous gold and silver medals in international shooting com-petitions. She now lives in southern Florida and teaches firearms classes around the country. From 2014 to 2017, Gabby repre-sented Remington at USPSA and 3-Gun competitions. In addition to her shooting expertise, she is an author and public speak-er, advocating for the right to keep and bear arms.

The seminar that she offered at the NRA Annual Meeting was an abbreviated version of the 3-hour presentation that she offers around the country, most recently to the FBI. Even shortened, her formal presenta-

Page 8 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 5

Ruger Mark IV Factory

Bolt Release Lever

Volquartsen Mark IV

Factory Bolt Release

http://www.apextactical.comhttp://www.hogueinc.comhttp://www.stonercnc.comhttp://www.tacticalsol.comhttp://www.tandemkross.comhttp://www.volquartsen.comhttp://www.brownells.com

tion lasted for 1½ hours, and she spent time interacting with interested attendees both before and after the seminar.

Gabby started by reminding everyone that shooting is a sport of repetition—i.e. per-forming the same steps over and over again. She described the importance of perfecting the shooting fundamentals—stance, grip, aiming, breath control, hold control, trigger control, and follow-through—but reminded us that the mental aspects of shooting are just as important, if not more so, than the physical aspects. Indeed, she said that most problems that shooters encounter are men-tal rather than physical. To emphasize this, she described one of her Top Shot experienc-es where she and the other competitors had to shoot a S&W .500 revolver. The massive recoil produced while shooting it was very painful to a small-statured shooter like Gab-by. It intimidated her so much that the fol-lowing day when she had to shoot a .40 S&W pistol during the formal competition, she missed the target—something she should have easily done given her Olympic and International precision shooting experi-ence. Back in her room she realized that the negative thoughts she was experiencing from shooting a dozen .500 S&W rounds the previous day had so distracted her that she did not properly apply the shooting fun-damentals that she had perfected over the course of tens of thousands of repetitions. She then discussed how it was important to have a positive mental attitude while shoot-ing, especially if we are intimidated by facing a particularly difficult target, shooting posi-tion or distance. To do this we need to be aware of those negative thoughts and trans-form them into something positive.

She talked about issues surrounding anticipa-tion; things like our natural reflexes that ac-company setting off a small “explosion” in our hands, the recoil of the gun, our percep-tions, and our fears associated with shooting a gun. To overcome these, she reminded us that we need to “be true to yourself”, learn to “accept the recoil”, to “be comfortable with being uncomfortable”, and most im-portantly to “breathe”!

During this discussion on anticipation, Gab-by described what often happens when we think we have a perfect sight picture—we rush the shot by jerking the trigger, and in the process our shot doesn’t hit anywhere near where we intended it to. This is partial-ly a result of the natural arch of movement of the gun in our hands as we prepare to

shoot. This arch of movement (our “wobble”) cannot be eliminated so we need to learn to live with it. She mentioned the reaction delay between when our eyes see the sights perfectly aligned with the target and the time it takes our brain to recognize this and send a message to our trigger finger to presses the trigger and fire the shot—typically about a quarter of a second delay which means our sights are no longer per-fectly aligned at the moment the shot is fired because of that natural arch of movement. As she put it, “There is no perfect moment to shoot...learn to accept the arch of move-ment...trust the movement, don’t rush the shot.”

Some of the ways we can reduce the arch of movement is with our grip on the gun. Gabby said we should grip the gun with our shooting hand as if we were making a firm handshake. Most of the gripping strength needs to be supplied by the support hand, especially if we want to shoot fast. She also said it was important to lock our wrists and to emphasize this she asked me to help her with a demonstration. (Doing so convinced me that I’m probably not locking my own wrists when I shoot—something that I need to focus on during a future practice session.) One of the audience members asked her what she thought about using the Weaver “push-pull” grip while shooting a handgun. Her answer somewhat surprised me. She said she did not use the “push-pull” tech-nique, but that it does work for many people BUT,…it needs to be done with just the hands and not the arms as doing so with the arms creates too much muscle tension, re-sulting in it taking longer when a transition is need to a different target or to accomplish tasks like reloading the gun or clearing a malfunction because those muscles need to “disengage” first.

She also talked about some of the other things that happen while we are shooting that we probably don’t even realize are hap-pening, things like blinking while the gun is recoiling. This results in it taking slightly longer to get another sight picture before we can fire another shot. She reminded us that our front sight is our primary source of in-formation while we are shooting and thus it is important that we stay focused on it. She also suggested that pressing the magazine release button with our support hand thumb is preferable because otherwise, for most people, we must break our shooting grip on the gun to do it with our shooting hand.

Gabby talked about the importance of prac-tice, reminding us that confidence is built through training/practice and that dry-fire is an important aspect of training and practice. She discussed the need to visualize what you are going to do before you actually do it, and that while practicing we can/should focus only on one thing at a time. She said that we need to be aware of what we are thinking about during our practice sessions and that we should have a journal to write down what we do well and poorly on during each practice session. Then we need to go back and review that journal prior to going to our next practice session.

She then discussed the importance of having a plan for each of our practice sessions that lists the goals and objectives for that session. We should then document how well we did in meeting those goals and objectives in our journals following the practice session. When things are going well, we should stop and think about it and then write down in our journals what we are doing right. Just as important, is how we treat failure.

Gabby suggested that it was important to be relaxed when we start our practice session. A good way to do this is to stretch to ease any tension that has built-up in our muscles. Next, we should start by dry-firing before we begin firing live rounds.

The things Gabby discussed make a lot of sense to me. I should have realized that just as it is important to develop a “defensive mindset” for self-defense situations, it is also important—vital—to have the proper men-tal attitude when you are participating in recreational shooting activities, including practice sessions, training, formal competi-tions, and informal “plinking” sessions.

I’m glad I decided to attend her seminar as it caused me to think about some things that I had not seriously considered before.

-- G.R. Evens

Part V: More on Clearing Rooms

At some point after you have “sliced the pie” to see into as much of a room as possi-ble, it will be necessary for you to actually

Page 9 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 5

enter into the room to finish checking it for threats or to secure someone or something that is in it. To do so, you need to quickly step through the opening and move out of the “fatal funnel”.

As you step through the entry, take a quick look over your shoulder towards the oppo-site front corner of the room so you can make sure there are not threats behind you. Enter the room far enough along the front wall—the one closest to you—until you are clear of the “fatal funnel”. At this point you should hesitate and do a quick scan around the room to identify any threats that may be present, starting in the direction you were originally moving. (“Scanning” means you need to have your head on a swivel, continu-ally looking around you and listening, espe-cially if you are working alone. Continually scanning can also help you detect movement better in dark rooms because your peripher-al vision picks up movement better.)

Stay close to the wall that the door is in and clear the near corners first, starting with the corner that is in the opposite direction that the door opens. (This way the door itself to your back offers some limited protection to you). Move towards the front corner that you were least able to see into such as the “Critical Dead Angle 1” in the following image. As you do so, you need to be contin-ually scanning to identify any threats that might become apparent as you move into the room, especially someone hiding behind large pieces of furniture in the room. If you

have a partner with you, they should move in the opposite direction around the perime-ter of the room, making sure you do not point the muzzles of your guns at each oth-er. Move quickly, but not recklessly, since it will be harder for a threat to hit a moving target than a stationary one.

If the door or entry into the room is not located in the center, but to one side or the other, it may be easier to clear, especially if the door opens into a wall in the room. Then you no longer must worry about someone in the room being behind you as you enter. Instead of having to scan a 180° arc, you will only have to scan a 90° arc as you enter the room.

So, while you are scanning, what are you looking for? Color, movement, sounds, shapes, shadows, and/or contrasts, especial-ly when it is out of place in that room. In some cases, you may be able to use the re-flections off windows, mirrors, and other surfaces to see things. Don’t just scan/search at your eye level. Look at low areas first then higher. Also look from near to far for potential threats. Maintain good light and sound discipline so someone that is in your home does not hear or see you coming before you see them.

While you are scanning you should keep your gun in a low-ready, compressed low-ready, or Sul position, and move it in the direction you are looking to the extent that you can. Doing so will enable you to see more of what is around you and still be able to quickly extend your gun into a proper firing position if you need to. If you are using a flashlight, the gun should point in the general direction you are pointing the flashlight in as you conduct your search. If you identify someone, look to see what they have in their hands. Remember, just be-cause someone is there does not automati-cally mean they are armed or a threat. Maintain as much distance from potential threats as possible. You don’t want the threat to be able to reach out and try to take your gun away from you, knock it out of your hands, or knock you down. If it be-comes necessary to shoot, you want to have enough room so you can get your gun to full

extension to maximize your ability to make an effective shot if required. If possible, retreat to someplace where there is cover but from where you can still see and, if nec-essary, engage the threat. Use verbal com-mands to get the threat to stop and comply with your demands. Do so in a loud and commanding voice. If they decide to leave, let them. Give the police a good description so they can pursue the threat once they ar-rive at the scene.

Once you reach the corner of the room (i.e.

the “Critical Dead Angle 1”) turn 90° and proceed along the next wall to the next cor-ner, continuing to scan as you do. From

there, turn another 90° and proceed to-wards the next corner, staying as close to the wall as possible.

Don’t be in too much of a rush to clear the room before you move on. It may be neces-sary to look under beds, behind curtains and furniture, etc. Be aware of obstacles in the room that might become a tripping hazard as you exit the room. It may also become necessary to retreat of multiple threats ap-pear in the room. Once you have investigat-ed all the corners and behind/under all the furniture, you can proceed to the next room.

Clear rooms in sequence from where you start outwards. You need to have confi-dence that a threat will not appear suddenly behind you. Therefore, it is important to make sure that the only way the threat can get to those areas behind you is to go past (or through) you. If the rooms have doors that lock, close and lock the doors as you clear each room to prevent someone from getting into them without your knowledge. If they must break down the door to get in (or out if you missed their hiding place), you’ll hear it. If the building you are clear-ing has multiple floors, it is best to start clearing at the top and work your way down. In the typical home invasion scenario at night, this makes sense because the bed-rooms are most likely located on the upper floor.

When you reach the ground floor, check the exterior doors and make sure they are locked before you move on to check the basement.

-- G.R. Evens

Page 10 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 5

Some self-defense experts advocate that students attending firearms training classes should carry the same items they carry in their everyday life, i.e., their everyday carry (EDC) pistol, holster, spare ammunition, first aid kit, knife, flashlight, etc. They also say that students should dress in the same manner that they do every day when they take a class. By doing so students can get use to accessing and using their handguns and other self-defense items during the training class just like they would have to if they faced a violent encounter as part of their daily lives. Other instructors don’t worry about what the relationship is be-tween the equipment and clothing students wear to class and what they wear day-to-day, focusing on the fundamentals of shooting rather than on specific aspects of carrying and accessing the student’s EDC items.

I must admit to being conflicted on this. On the one hand, it makes tremendous sense to me for students to become very familiar with using the same gun they carry every day, using the same holster carried in the same position, and wearing the same kind of cloths they routinely wear each day. Doing so will enable them to better under-stand the strengths and weaknesses of their EDC equipment and limitations their cloth-ing places on them. However, I also believe that it is important to make the very best use of the range time available, and that means carrying more ammunition on your person and shooting many more rounds than you would on a day-to-day basis.

Many individuals carry a small, limited ca-pacity handgun for concealed carry, and they may only carry one spare reload, if that, as they go about their day-to-day activities. This means a gun with a 5-10 round capaci-ty, with another 5-10 rounds of spare am-munition. At the shooting range this means reloading a lot, up to ten times for each fifty-round box of ammunition. And, that is multiplied considering the typical 1- to 2-day firearms class consumes 300-500 rounds of ammunition per student. Indeed, more time can be spent going back and forth to re-

trieve additional rounds of ammunition than is spent on the firing line practicing the fun-damentals of shooting. Since we want to maximize the amount of time we are shoot-ing, using a higher capacity handgun makes a lot of sense because we spend less time reloading—maybe just three times per fifty-round box of ammunition. It only takes a couple of seconds to drop an empty maga-zine out of your handgun and insert a fresh one into it and be back to shooting. Carry-ing more spare magazines also makes a lot of sense—I typically carry five or six maga-zines with me during firearms classes, which means I can shoot up to 100 rounds before I need to reload my magazines.

It is difficult, and can be somewhat painful, to shoot a small concealed carry handgun more than about 20-50 times during a range session. Shooting a large-capacity handgun is much more comfortable because the grip is larger making it easier to handle the recoil. It is often difficult for people to carry such a large-capacity handgun concealed but carry-ing it in a strong-side outside the waistband (OWB) hip holster is relatively easy, and comfortable if you also have a good quality belt on.

I believe that for beginning students, it is important to dress comfortably for the class, while also taking safety into consideration. Normally this means wearing somewhat loose-fitting cloths, suitable for the weather conditions. Shirts/blouses should have a high neckline and sleeves so ejected car-tridge cases cannot get down inside next to your skin. These just-ejected cases are very hot and can burn you, resulting in the “hot brass dance” with the afflicted individual jumping around trying to get rid of that hot piece of brass that is burning them, while also point-ing the gun that is in their hands at everyone on the range, violating one or more of the fundamental safe gun handling rules in the process. Wearing eye protection is critical for this same reason, and everyone should also wear a hat with a brim to deflect spent cartridge cases away from their faces. It also helps protect your face from the rays of the sun.

I also advocate wearing long pants. Stu-dents are often asked to assume a different

shooting position, and this usually starts with them kneeling. With all the spent car-tridge cases and other debris on the range, kneeling or laying down on something sharp is a distinct possibility, resulting in potential injury. Having a layer of cloth between your skin and items on the ground protects you to a large degree. I often wear cargo pants which gives me extra pockets to carry spare magazines and even another 30-50 rounds of loose ammunition on me. (Carrying loose rounds in my pocket enables me to top off magazines without leaving the firing line. I can do this during lulls in the shooting, such as while the instructor is explaining something or working with an individual student to resolve a problem with their shooting or gear.) In addition, every-one should be wearing good footwear, not sandals or open-toed shoes. This enables shooters to have a more stable shooting stance and protects their feet from spent brass and range debris. For shooting classes that include a lot of movement, having shoes with good ankle support is also im-portant. The accompanying photo shows recommended apparel for women to wear while at the shooting range.

Shirts/blouses with high necklines and sleeves, long pants, and sturdy shoes are not how you probably dress daily, especially during warm weather. You will probably wear clothing appropriate to whatever your place of employment deems acceptable or what is comfortable for you given the envi-ronmental conditions. But firearms instruc-tors and shooting ranges have a different consideration—liability for injuries—and thus “comfort” is secondary to safety when it comes to suitable apparel.

As students progress to more advanced fire-arms training, I believe it becomes more important for them to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their daily con-cealed carry choices. They need to learn

Page 11 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 5

that it is much more difficult to shoot the small handguns typically used for EDC, and they need to learn how much longer it takes them to access such a handgun from a con-cealed carry holster (purse, vest, pocket, etc.) than it does to draw from a strong-side hip holster with no covering garment in the way. It also takes longer to access spare maga-zines/ammunition and reload their EDC handgun. During my Advanced Concealed Carry I course, I require students to use their EDC equipment just as they carry it daily. Most of them are quite surprised at how long it takes them to perform the vari-ous shooting tasks, especially those that choose pocket carry. They often discover that they need to make a change in some of their equipment or how they carry, and that is good.

Women often face difficult choices when it comes to concealed carry and how they dress. During a recent advanced handgun class, one of the female students wanted to experience what it was like to shoot from concealment while wearing her normal work attire. In her case that was a somewhat tight-fitting below-the-knee length dress. She carried one of those small, single-action semi-automatic pistols (like those made by Sig and Springfield Armory) in a thigh hol-ster. To draw her gun, she had to reach down and grasp the bottom of her dress and pull it up high enough to expose her gun and draw it. (To avoid embarrassing herself and other students, she wore biker-pants under her dress for the class.) It easily took her twice as long to complete each shoot-ing drill as it did for the rest of the students, but she learned the limitations she had and could adjust her situ-ational awareness to accom-modate for this. And, it is better to learn those lessons in a shooting class than it is on the street during a violent encounter where someone’s life is at risk.

So, as you prepare for your next training class, you need to carefully consider what equipment you will use, but also how you will dress. If the class is focused on “concealed carry” rather than “shooting fundamentals”, you may want to use your EDC equipment and method of dress so you can gain a better appreciation of how they will work for you should you be con-

fronted with a violent situation and have to respond to defend yourself or someone else.

-- G.R. Evens

If you have been following the news since the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) An-nual Meeting earlier this year in Indianapo-lis, you know that the organization is in cri-sis. There have been calls for Executive Vice President (and CEO) Wayne LaPierre to resign. Staffing changes have resulted in the ouster of Oliver North as the NRA’s President and Chris Cox as the Director of the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA), the NRA’s primary lobbying arm. Several members of the Board of Directors have been removed from the various committees they served on, and now some have resigned from the Board because of this. The State of New York has launched an investigation into whether the NRA should retain its tax-exempt status. There is an on-going legal dispute between the NRA and their public relations/marketing firm, Ackerman-McQueen. Other “casualties” include the termination of NRA-TV and now the Carry Guard program has come to an end. (I have a feeling that Ackerman-McQueen was the force behind both programs.)

I hate to see some of the NRA-TV pro-grams come to an end. I liked “Cam & Co.”, especially when it was broadcast on the Outdoor Channel. Some of there other programs were good, but many of them became very political in content or were targeted to specific groups like women and African Americans. By terminating NRA-TV, the NRA will be able to save millions of dollars but has lost its outreach programs.

The end of the NRA Carry Guard program does not bother me at all. Indeed, back in the September/October 2017 edition of Random Shots, I predicted that it would fall on its face, and it finally has. The NRA botched the whole rollout of the program and created a lot of hard feelings by the inept way it handled things. The “concealed carry insurance” the program offered was not as good as that provided by other organ-izations—indeed it was ruled to be illegal in some states. The “advanced training” pro-gram was a complete flop run by unknown instructors and limited to a couple of classes

that were held in Texas. Unfortunately, the Carry Guard program cost the NRA mil-lions of dollars to set up and run, money that has been completely lost now.

While all of this is going on, the NRA is also trying to launch a new training program. The NRA’s Training Department has an-nounced the NRA CCW course, and frankly I am confused. The new course was jointly developed by the Training Department and by the NRA/ILA. The information provid-ed by the Training Department indicates this course has been under development for two years and is designed to fulfill the concealed carry training requirements in all fifty states. To quote from some of the NRA’s on-line information, “the course covers 10 different classroom lessons and can range from 1 to 16 hours” in length. According to the an-nouncement, it is designed to eliminate the confusion that currently exists among those seeking concealed carry training about exact-ly what training they need to get and who can provide that training. (State laws are pretty clear on this so I’m not sure what the “confusion” is other than individuals not being familiar with the requirements of their own state in obtaining a concealed carry license.)

Individual state training requirements range from no training at all to several hours of training. Obviously to conform to individu-al state requirements, NRA CCW instructors will have to be able to tailor the training materials. In addition to providing class-room training, classes will also have to in-clude time for live-fire range training for those states that require students to demon-strate shooting proficiency before being granted a concealed carry license.

In looking at the student training materials for the new course, it primarily consists of two existing manuals—the NRA Guide to the Basics of Pistol Shooting and the NRA Guide to the Basics of Personal Protection Outside the Home. These references are used as the basic texts for the NRA’s 8-hour Basics of Pistol Shooting course and the 8- to 16-hour Per-sonal Protection Outside the Home course (8 hours if only the Phase I course is taught). While they are both good refer-ences to have, they contain much more ma-terial than can be covered in anything less than a two-day class. Each training package costs $30 per student.

From what I’ve seen so far, I don’t under-stand what the NRA spent two years doing

Page 12 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 5

to develop this course. It is just basically a very slight re-packaging of existing course materials. Rather than creating a new text-book for the course—which is what they should have done—they are just reusing texts from existing courses. I suspect the same is true regarding the “PowerPoint presentation” materials, and as an instructor I’ve never been impressed with the quality of the NRA’s PowerPoint slides.

This is not the first time the NRA has tried to find a way to meet the demands of the concealed carry community. A few years ago they tried to do it by introducing their NRA Defensive Pistol course, which used the NRA Guide to the Basics of Personal Protec-tion Outside the Home for its textbook as well. Originally that course was designed to be taught by a special cadre of NRA-certified instructors that had been awarded an “advanced instructor” certification. To meet this requirement, prospective instruc-tors had to be certified to teach both the basic pistol course and the outside the home course. To teach this latter course instruc-tors also had to be certified to teach the NRA Personal Protection Inside the Home course. In addition, prospective instructors had to have taught the outside the home course enough times that they were “thoroughly familiar” with teaching the course of fire and they also had to obtain letters of reference and be approved by the NRA Training Department.

As originally structured, the NRA Defensive Pistol course fell flat. Very few instructors could meet the certification requirements to teach it because there was so little demand among students for the Personal Protection Outside the Home course, especially when most of them could qualify for their state’s concealed carry license by finishing the basic pistol or equivalent course. Very few people seek additional training after they get their concealed carry license, and in order to take the Personal Protection Outside the Home course, they first had to take the 8-hour Personal Protection in the Home course. Thus instructors—including me—could not achieve the proficiency the NRA wanted them to have in teaching the Defensive Pis-tol course. With a lack of certified instruc-tors, the NRA dropped the “advanced in-structor” certification and began offering the course as an add-on module to the basic pistol course, usually taught on a separate day after completion of the basic course, that could be taught by any instructor that

held a Personal Protection Outside the Home certification—which I do have.

Now it appears the NRA is again trying to create an additional certification for instruc-tors to be able to teach the new course. Based on the information I have received from the NRA Training Department, in order to get certified to teach it I must first be certified to teach the basic pistol course—I am—, but I have seen indications that the requirement is also to have com-pleted that instructor certification within the past 24 months, which means I’d have to take it again since I took that course back in 2010. Then I must take the CCW student course, pass a shooting qualification, and then finally complete a two-day NRA CCW instructor course. Altogether that would probably cost me $300-$500 plus the cost of ammunition, travel, etc., and take about 4 days to complete.

I have not found any NRA-certified instruc-tors or training counselors yet that intend to seek this new certification to teach this course. Most have already developed their own concealed carry courses that incorpo-rate much of the material the NRA offers and that is compliant with their state’s con-cealed carry training requirement.

Unfortunately, it appears to me that this is just another attempt by some officials at the NRA to generate more revenue for the or-ganization. The NRA lost its “monopoly” (if it ever had one) on firearms training several years ago when states dropped the require-ment that concealed carry training had to be provided by NRA-certified instructors teaching NRA-approved classes. As such, the NRA Training Department has been scrambling to make up lost revenue ever since. Instructors for the new course will need to set up their fee structure to account for their costs to become certified and for the training packages that each student will require. As a result, I expect instructors won’t be able to offer the NRA CCW course for anything less than $150-$200 per student, which is far more than many state-approved CCW courses currently cost. Why would they do that when they can just continue teaching the courses that they cur-rently offer to qualify their students to get a concealed carry license in their state?

So, I predict the NRA CCW course will

follow the same path that the original NRA

Defensive Pistol, blended learning, and the

NRA Carry Guard programs did—it will fall

flat on its face.

I am hopeful that the NRA will work through its issues and come out stronger than ever by focusing on its core pro-grams—defending the Second Amendment and providing good basic firearms training. I’m sure in the meantime, the anti-gun crowd will take advantage of the NRA’s disarray, but I am hopeful that other gun rights organizations will step in to fight the “anti’s”.

If you are not already an NRA member, please join as distasteful as it may seem right now. Having 5 million+ members sends a powerful message to our political opponents and to those that seek our support.

-- G.R. Evens

Self-Defense Handgun

Comparison

Part IV: Glock 19 vs. Glock 48

I haven’t done one of these side-by-side comparisons in a couple of years so I thought I’d better do one. At the SHOT Show in January 2019, Glock introduced their new “slim” line of pistols, the G43X and the G48. These guns were aimed at those individuals that wanted a thin, con-cealable handgun, but one with more am-munition capacity than was available from the G42 (.380 ACP) and G43 (9mm Luger). The result was to increase the length and width of the frame and thus the ammunition capacity for the 9mm G43 from 6+1 rounds to 10+1 rounds. While they were at it, Glock also decided to put a G19-length slide on this same frame, resulting in the creation of the 10+1 shot G48. (I have previously written about the G48 in the March/April 2019 and May/June 2019 editions of Random Shots.)

So, how does the G48 compare with our baseline gun, the G19? (See the chart on the following page for a complete side-by-side comparison of their specifications.) The biggest difference between them, besides the G48 being a little narrower and thus lighter in weight, is in ammunition capacity. Here the G19 has a five round advantage over the G48. In addition, the G19 has replaceable backstraps enabling the user to increase or decrease the trigger reach distance, while the G48 does not have any replaceable back-

Page 13 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 5

Page 14 Random Shots Volume 9, I ssue 5

FEATURE

/DIMENSION Criteria Glock Model 19 Gen 4 Glock Model 48 Advantage

Looks

Subjective,

“beauty is in

the eye of the

beholder”

--

Action-Type Simple is better Striker-fired semi-automatic Striker-fired semi-automatic --

Caliber More powerful

is better 9mm Luger 9mm Luger --

Ammunition Capacity Larger is better 15+1 10+1 Glock 19

Barrel Length 3.5 to 4.5 inch-

es is optimal 4.01 inches 4.17 inches --

Barrel Twist Rate Caliber-

dependent 1:9.84 inches Unknown --

Slide More durable is

better Steel with Tenifer finish Silver nPVD finish --

Frame More durable is

better Polymer Polymer --

Grips Adjustable is

preferred

Molded into polymer frame

with medium and large re-

placeable backstraps Molded into polymer frame Glock 19

Overall Length Shorter is

better 7.28 inches 7.28 inches --

Overall Height Shorter is

better 4.99 inches 4.99 inches --

Widest Width Narrow is

better 1.18 inches 1.10 inches Glock 48

Grip Length

Long enough

to allow 3

fingers on the

grip

2.45 inches 2.25 inches --

Grip Width Narrow is

better 1.18 inches 1.10 inches Glock 48

Grip Angle (from the verti-cal)

Subjective ~ 22° ~ 22° --

Grip Circumference Smaller is

better 6.375 inches 5.250 inches Glock 48

Trigger Reach Distance Depends on

hand size 2.636 inches, adjustable with

different size backstraps 2.64 inches --

Trigger Pull Weight Less is better 88 ounces/5.5 pounds 86 ounces/5.4 pounds Glock 48

Overall Weight (empty) Lighter is

better 23.65 ounces/1.48 pounds 18.48 ounces/1.16 pounds Glock 48

Trigger Pull Weight to

Overall Weight Ratio

Closer to 1:1 is

best ~ 4:1 ~4.7:1 Glock 19

External Controls Less complicat-

ed is better Slide lock/release latch, magazine

release button, safe-action trigger Slide lock/release latch, magazine

release button, safe-action trigger --

Sights Easily visible Fixed with plastic white dot front

post and white outline rear notch Fixed with plastic white dot front

post and white outline rear notch --

Accessory Rail Desirable Yes No Glock 19

Felt Recoil Less is better √ Glock 19

Accuracy Smaller group

size is better ??

First Available N/A 1988 2019 --

Price (MSRP) Lower is better ~ $649 ~$538 Glock 48

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiksKb144fiAhUId6wKHQM9Af4QjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpalmettostatearmory.com%2Fglock-48-9mm-compact-pistol-two-tone-pa485sl201.html&psig=AOvVaw0pNGtqtoV429zOnp

straps. The texturing on the G19 tends to be more aggressive than it is on the G48, although both guns use the same texturing pattern. Whether you like more or less ag-gressive texturing is a matter of personal preference.

In shooting the two guns, I could not dis-cern an significant difference in felt recoil, although the G19’s does have been less be-cause the wider grip allows the recoil forces to be dispersed over a wider area of the hand.

If you need an accessory rail to mount a light or laser on, your only choice will be the G19 (or some other Glock models). The G48 does not have an accessory rail.

Some reviewers of the G48 have indicated they do not like the finish on the slide, pre-ferring the black finish to the new silver nPVD finish. (Glock listened and recently introduced versions of the G43X and G48 with black slides.) Again this is largely a matter of personal preference as it makes no difference in the functioning of the pistol. It remains to be seen if the nPVD will be more durable than the Tenifer finish on other Glock pistols. The forward cocking serrations on the G48’s slide are a welcome improvement.

When it comes to accuracy, both guns are certainly capable of achieving acceptable defensive accuracy. On a recent trip to the range, the G48 was more accurate than the G19 was, but I need to adjust the sights on the G19 since I had installed after-market sights on it. I also did this on the G48, but got those sights better centered apparently. I fully expect the accuracy difference be-tween the two guns to be a wash when all is said and done.

The G19 still costs a little more than the G48. I was able to get my G48 at a local gun shop for about $450. At the same time they were selling G19’s for about $40-$50 more.

So which gun is better? Well, first of all, they are both Glocks. I guess once you get beyond that it really comes down to how much ammunition capacity you want to carry with you—ten rounds should be suffi-cient for the vast majority of self-defense situations that an armed citizen might get involved in—and how slim you want the gun to be. I do like the extra capacity the G19 offers, but the G48 is easier to conceal, especially if I carry in the appendix position.

-- G.R. Evens

Random Shots Reading List

“A mind needs a book like a sword needs a whetstone.” — Tyrion Lannister, in George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones.

Tom Givens is a retired police officer, com-petitive shooter, the owner of Rangemaster Firearms Training Services, and one of the top firearms instructors in the nation. Since he became involved in firearms training in the 1970’s, he has trained thousands of stu-dents from the military, law enforcement, and private citizens. He is also an author, having written over 100 articles for various magazines and a couple of books. One of those books is the subject of this review.

Tom’s 3rd Edition of Fighting Smarter: A Practi-cal Guide for Surviving Vio-lent Confrontations is a “must read” for anyone that has not been able to take one of the many classes that he teaches across the country each year. It contains a wealth of information and lessons learned based on Tom’s many years of experience. As Tom says in his book (and classes), “The mental skills in-volved in gun fighting are more important than the physical skills, and mental skills require personal effort, just like learning physical skills.” As a result, his book in-cludes sections on “software” (i.e., legal issues, stress management, situational aware-ness, etc.) and “hardware” (i.e., gun and equipment selection, ammunition, shooting techniques, etc.).

Most of what he writes about in this book he also covers in