Negligent Discharges:

Yeah I get-it that safety isn't exciting .. but it certainly can be a 'MATTER OF LIFE & DEATH.  

This is often called an 'A.D' or "Accidental Discharge" and I was prompted to raise the topic by a piece written by "The Cornered Cat" - a lady who writes very wisely in the U S .. 

https://www.corneredcat.com/no-live-ammo/

There is even a second "A.D' story in last week's 'Active Response Training' from Greg Ellifritz:

https://blog.krtraining.com/lessons-from-an-accidental-discharge/

I know of at least TWO shooters at my pistol club who have had at least one 'A.D' ..

I can say this totally without any smell of bullshit - because I was at the range when a shooter fired a round into the concrete much too close to that shooter's own foot for comfort .. we are talking inches. (I bet THAT got the heart-rate up.)

My early A.D. happened when I was around 20 y.o & I stumbled while crossing a frozen ploughed UK field - my "jerk" caused the nice old external-hammer 12 Gauge to bounce-fire one barrel into the air. - The old gun was closed but "safely" un-cocked and my hands were nowhere near the triggers - but my tripping and half fall was enough to send the shot so close to my mate's head that he said he felt it's wind pass overhead. (Oh my Gawd that was a long time ago (60 years?)).

Have you seen the damage one 12G round could do at close range?

TREAT EVERY GUN AT ALL TIMES AS LOADED.

NEVER POINT ANY GUN AT ANYTHING YOU DON'T WISH TO DESTROY.

KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER.

ENSURE YOUR TARGET AND BACKGROUND IS CLEAR & SAFE TO FIRE.

I don't want to use the phrase "Accidents do happen" because for some of my working life in air cargo I was a part-time accident investigator and they definitely DO happen .. and they usually have a chain of small but bad things leading up to the eventual hit. - Before that - for ten years - I worked in plastics injection molding and have been very close there to several accidental amputation victims.

Those "stupid rules" are there for very good reason.

Re-Holstering Can be Hazardous:

You will often hear people complain about guns with crappy heavy trigger pulls - typically the Glocks - and those same folk love a crisp light trigger that has been reduced & "TUNED" to perfection ..

Well - do you think  that you might excuse or ever forgive yourself after causing an accidental injury? 

I enjoy the company of a select group of fine licensed fit & proper - responsible, trustworthy, and lawfully behaved friends on range. - These endorsed License Holders form a safe environment such that you cannot find anywhere else in the whole world. 

- I have been inside a few Police Headquarters where immature and unsafe behavior was obvious.  Common sense and ability with arms is also NOT a feature of some military personnel either. - I have stood very close to an Army Major as he 'accidently' discharged a full magazine from a Glock 18 down-range & into the roof of the underground Federal Police range.

It is very strange how our occasionally armed and unlicensed NZ Police are said to enjoy ONE training session a year while The Commissioner of Police requires licensed & endorsed target pistol shooters to attend their club range 12 times every year .. not complaining about that rule as I would shoot every week if possible - but once a year (maybe - at best) for Law Enforcement?

BE SAFE

Marty K.

Best Caliber Choices .. How MUCH power Needed for The Gobsmacked ICBMs?

The U S air force currently has plans to spend 100 Billion on building 600 replacement ICBMs .. for deployment by 2019, - I may well not keep ticking to see these GBSD 6,000 mile range nukes snuggled-down into their bunkers. These new GROUND BASED STRATEGIC DEFENSE missiles - while each being 20 times more powerful than a Hiroshima bomb .. haven't yet been allocated a sexy name like Titan, Atlas or Arnie.S - So I'm going to name them  'GobSmackeD' as I'd be well gobsmacked with surprise if these mass murder machines serve any useful function other than to provide jobs for middle-Americans from the rust belt.

Looking For Nuclear Missiles in Wyoming or Nebraska?

 .. The Give-Away is the work site PORTA-POTTY

The worlds biggest weapons industry does like a G-rated name to promote it's ordnance sales .. so I doubt the Pentagon would name their new nuclear weapon The Porta-Potty .. despite them both spreading shit everywhere when they're dropped.

And don't kid yourself - If the apocalypse event does accept a local booking .. your chosen firearms may prove to be less than optimal protection from instant thermo-nuclear disassembly & incineration ..

Hmm .. is there actually one gun/cartridge combination that makes for the optimum choice?

Of course not .. because there are too many variables at both sides of the equation to determine the 'One Ring To Rule Them All'.

e.g. If you are a light-weight with small hands at the user end - one of your first considerations has to be .. can you achieve a solid aiming grip of the gun and also reach the trigger comfortably so as to maintain your front sight on target while pressing the trigger .. only then can you control the recoiling firearm efficiently so as to execute subsequent shots accurately and in a timely manner.

Halitosis Too  ..

- At the impact end  - are you seeking to 'stop' a charging 500 kilo Grizzly Bear (or a leaping 300 kilo Siberian tiger) - or are you concerned about penetrating vehicle bodywork & glass at a road-block?

It is widely recognized that a long-arm is far more capable for the legendary "stopping power" than any pistol .. but even there - conditions can vastly alter the results. 

The British .303" SMLE Battle Rifle showed remarkable variation in it's ability to penetrate the earthwork parapets of trenches in WW I - depending on velocity at distance. - At maximum long range the .303" bullet would slide through the earthen defenses and wound .. But at close ranges it's bullets would impact-shatter into dust with little surface penetration - Somewhat like a second nuke slamming into the same ground zero .. all it does is rattle the burnt bone chips in the rubble.

The short caliber answer is a  l o n g way away from finality. - While both small and larger hands each have limitations.

Get a Grip ..

My guess is that just about any available lesser caliber can function effectively .. while even the most powerful ordnance may fail miserably to perform .. You the shooter must try to learn it all &  select whatever brand and power levels that you personally can comfortably control - afford - and enjoy shooting regularly .. because PRACTICE & training are key to ability.

I was just recently reading (online) in a 1990 American Handgunner Magazine, a great story by Col.  Charles Askins discussing revolvers versus semi-autos. - NOT a story that could be published today as it's content is definitely 'non-PC.' and tells of unlawful shootings & mythical untruths .. What an excellent publication that was - with superb color pictures of guns.

So Much To Try - So Much Fun:

Perhaps we peasants ought borrow & sample more real guns on range - with full attention to the results - and forget about virtual experiences ..

Marty K.

Personalities Of Power .. Humans At Fault:

Can anybody explain to me the point of buying a sub-compact pistol made with a short 'two-finger' grip and then fitting an extended base plate to the magazines for the pinkie to grip? - Please?

I was listening to some smooth faced prick making excuses about why Wellington - NZ's Capital City - is falling apart from neglect of it's infrastructure .. geysers of raw sewage bursting from beneath it's pavements as the old crumbled pipes fail one-by-one .. toppling the rotten power poles onto the pot-holed streets. He might have been a mayor?

The wearing of regalia by minor officials indicates their aspirations to be treated as ROYALTY .. which further suggests their lack of intellect. - Respect needs to be earned by performance - not by gathering a sycophantic group of councilors for voting of mutual pay rises. Their first duty is to do their jobs.

Elsewhere you will find very similar neglect - Why do we elevate these charlatans, shysters and swindlers into comfortable seats and then pour tax money all over their gold chains and luxury cars?

Shitty Work as Auckland Simulates Rotorua's Smells & Slime.

We don't expect  ask for much from our governments - just organize for us the five basics of Health Care, Law Enforcement, Education, Social Welfare, and Emergency Services .. while locally we pay Councils to look after Transport, Water & Sewage, Power Supply, and 'Amenities'. WE will pay for it all out of taxation - and also pay management salaries as if these public servants were reliably professional.

Leaked Number 2s Go By road ..

I almost wrote the word 'EXPECT' there .. but we don't anymore expect these 'Gobs-on-sticks' to do a proper job - as they no longer plan properly but spend OUR money moving between emergency fixes of whatever has gone bad now.

- A lot of people are taking the money BUT NOT doing the job.

Have you heard that in Norway their elected MPs don't have cars provided? - THEY have to use public transport - so they naturally ensure that it is comfortable, dependable and convenient for all. - Governance doesn't need to be a center of privilege, and profit grabbing.

Our public services don't have to be corrupt and useless. - Our Commissioner Of Police should not be able to warn law-abiding shooters that they must now apply to renew their FIREARMS LICENCE at least six months before it expires - or they will risk having to surrender their legal guns - because The Police administration are an inefficient bungling mob who think that it's clever to mess-up shooters rights..

 The Firearms Office this month - February 2021 said that they are now processing Firearms License Applications from 2019.

- This is one way to reduce the numbers of lawful shooters in New Zealand .. plus they are now curtailing the effective validity of a FIVE YEAR License to under four & a half years. 

I remember when the New Zealand Firearms License was a 'Lifetime License'. - Have ANY of these political changes lowered the incidence of violent crime here?

- Don't forget that the reduction from a ten year license to a five year duration has DOUBLED the License cost ..

_______________

A Writ of Mandamus is a High Court Order taken by an aggrieved party for a government official to perform an act required by law, which he has refused or neglected to do. This type of court order is a remedy that may be sought if a government agency fails or refuses to do its public or statutory duty.

A person can be said to be aggrieved when they are denied a legal right by someone who has a legal duty to do something and abstains from doing it.

______________________

Shooters need to WAKE UP & SMELL THE COFFEE colored shit that is being poured all over us by authorities and politicians. 

United We Stand .. The first step has to be to support one organization.. Join  SSANZ .

Marty K.

Remarkably UGLY Pistols & stuff:

 I was 'on-hold' on the phone and while waiting I noticed these pistols in a Wikipedia list: ...

The FROMMER STOP ..

Well only a bit UGLY but it is in .32" ACP - while looking much like a Webley air pistol .. AND what is truly odd .. these pistols were mounted in pairs UPSIDE-DOWN on tripods for use as double barreled machine guns.

The Heckler & Hoch P11 actually has an excuse for being ugly ..

as it fires a load of five DARTS UNDERWATER:

The MARS AUTOMATIC PISTOL from Webley has no such excuse ..

It was extremely unpleasant to shoot (when it worked) and drew the rounds backwards from it's box magazine.

The NAMBU Type 94 was both Ugly and Dangerous ..

Nambu Type 94 had an external SEAR BAR that could fire the gun if mishandled.

Finally I want to add my very best UGLY-LOVELY GLOCK G 19X ..

Because while it is a little bit ugly in 'Coyote Tan' .. it is such a sweet shooting high capacity 9mm pistol for those of us with big hands & good sense.

Talking about sense .. we do seem lately to be treating feelings & opinion as more important than fact - even at our seats of learning ..

Dr Hera Cook is it seems - a Senior Lecturer at University of Otago and principal of GCNZ

 - specialized in female sexuality and cosmetic female genital surgery

Here she is Lecturing at work in NZ :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TDqv0Jb3AY&fbclid=IwAR00fnc3j73nlf08_4Mm8ep_WUpQo6o5LkopTe_GTB0mt29l64el1RpVaQo

Marty K.

Have you renewed your membership?

" Opinions are like ass-holes - Everyone has one"

Sirhan Sirhan .. American Revolver Assassin, of Bobby Kennedy?

 - Here comes another one - Just like the other one ..

He was an Arab Palestinian Christian from Jerusalem - belonging sequentially to the Lutherian Church, - Baptist,  - Seventh Day Adventist - and then Rosacrucian Order. Born in March 1944.

Five years after President J F Kennedy was assassinated .. Sirhan Sirhan is said to have shot Presidential Candidate Senator Robert F Kennedy - firing all loaded eight rounds from a revolver.

Ivor-Johnson Cadet 55-A .  8 shot 22" Rim-fire Revolver

RFK was hit three times from the rear .. dying the next day - and five other persons were also wounded as 24 y.o. Sirhan Sirhan emptied his gun - But witness Nina Rhodes-Hughes and audiotape of the shooting both indicate that there was a second shooter and that at least thirteen shots were fired..

 The eight-shot Iver Johnson .22 caliber Cadet 55-A revolver (serial number H-53725, Trial-People's Exhibit #6, was misidentified in trial testimony as S/N H-18602) at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California on June 5, 1968; Bobby Kennedy died the following day at Good Samaritan Hospital. The revolver, as well as the official police files, reports, interviews, ballistics reports, bullet fragments, - and other important evidence related to Kennedy's assassination, is currently housed in the California State Archives in Sacramento.. - However a wooden door frame from the site - said to have bullet holes and to have contained an extra bullet was seemingly removed by authorities.

Security guard Thane Eugene Cesar has frequently been cited as the most likely candidate for a second gunman. - Cesar stated that he did own a .22" caliber Harrington & Richardson pistol, and he showed it to LAPD sergeant P. E. O'Steen on June 24, 1968. - But when the LAPD interviewed Cesar three years later, he claimed that he had sold the gun before the assassination to a man named Jim Yoder - Cesar is recorded as having died years later in the Philippines.

- Sirhan's revolver had been bought second-hand illegally by Sirhan with his brother and he practiced with it on a police range before the shooting. The gun and most other exhibits are retained since 1987 by the California State Archives  .. donated there by the LAPD.

- August 30, 2019, Sirhan Sirhan was stabbed multiple times by another prisoner & subsequently reported by the hospital as 'stable'.

If you like to read fantasies and action stories you could get hours of entertainment from reading all about these intrigues from the sixties - Castro's Cuba and the happenings in Dallas and around The Washington Whitehouse .. with the Soviets pushing-in from the edges.  There are multiple bloodied shooting victims - with as many alternative theories - suggesting other possibilities to the disputed records.

https://flicense.blogspot.com/2021/02/lee-harvey-oswalds-38-revolver.html

https://flicense.blogspot.com/2016/12/jack-leon-ruby-colt-cobra-revolver.html

Marty K.

Lee Harvey Oswald's 38 Revolver:

FBI Exhibit

- I set-out to write how the 38 S&W was enough gun for an assassin to have killed Police Officer Tippet with four shots - but the story becomes VERY murky very quickly ..And, while debate still lingers over whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of U S President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, - many people accept that he did murder Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit later that afternoon. 

The weapon used is described as a modified Smith & Wesson Victory Model in 38 S&W, manufactured for export to England as part of the Lend-Lease program in W.W.II, and brought back into USA following the war.

 Patrolman Tippit was struck four times at nearly point blank range and died instantly. Despite their somewhat notorious record as an assassin's weapon, revolvers chambered for the .38 S&W cartridge are what they always have been - handy low-recoil firearms suitable for a wide variety of applications.

.. EXCEPT this gun likely was re- chambered into a larger .38" S&W SPECIAL caliber.

On January 27, 1963, someone, possibly Lee, mail-ordered a Smith & Wesson .38 revolver (Commando model number 1905, serial number V510210) from Seaport Traders, Inc, located at 1221 South Grand in Los Angeles, California. The purchaser used the name of A. J. Hiddel, to whom it was shipped. The price of the handgun was $29.95. 

As manufactured - it had a standard five-inch barrel, but L M Johnson, of Van Nuys, California, modified the gun by cutting down the barrel to two and a quarter inches and rechambering it to accept .38 special ammunition as opposed to .38 S&W short ammunition.

The "Commando" name was actually a Wartime Colts model Name.

Oswald was arrested at the Texas Theatre with, we are told, a revolver tucked away in the waistband of his slacks.... It was a Smith & Wesson .38 special two-inch 'Commando' model revolver and cost $29.95. Connecting the weapon supposedly taken from Lee to the shooting of Tippit is problematic. A radio broadcast by Sergeant Gerald Hill, one of the first policemen to arrive at the scene of the Patrolman Tippit murder, was transmitted as follows:

"The shell at the scene indicates that the suspect is armed with an automatic .38 rather than a pistol." The handgun allegedly taken from Oswald at the time of his arrest was a .38 revolver, not an automatic. Sergant Hill made his statement after Officer J. M. Poe, another officer on the scene, showed him a Winston cigarette package containing three empty bullet shells, which Domingo Benavides [witness in nearby truck] had turned over to him after the shooting.

 Ammunition for a revolver is not interchangeable with ammunition for an automatic, and the shells on either type of ammunition are clearly marked -- ".38 spl" (special for revolvers) or ".38 auto" (automatic)..

.After he was arrested, and accused of shooting President Kennedy and policeman Tippit, Oswald denied owning a Smith & Wesson handgun or a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle -- which were linked to him through a phony name and post-office box.

This man had to be stopped.
He was the most dangerous criminal in the history of the world.
Here was a man who was able
to go from one location to another with the swiftness of Superman,
to change his physical characteristics at will and
who pumped four automatic slugs into a police officer with a revolver --
indeed a master criminal!"
~ Roger Craig

The Gun That Did Not Exist?

Next, Newcomb/Adams shift focus to Oswald's possession of a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver at the time of his arrest. They cite the Dodd Committee hearings and claim that a chart based on ATF-prepared Seaport Trader records, shows that the gun dealer "did not ship a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver to Dallas in 1963." 

The chart, Dodd Committee Exhibit 28, is reproduced in the manuscript to underscore the claim. [8] This oft-cited passage has been used as the cornerstone of critical claims that the revolver attributed to Oswald was a "plant," dropped into Oswald's hand at the Texas Theater (or switched with Oswald's "real" gun), and that the paper trail later presented was fabricated to frame Oswald. Yet the record - and Newcomb/Adams' own manuscript - shows that Exhibit 28 was based on an incomplete record.

I don't have the means to untangle this story .. perhaps a professional investigative journalist might be able to clarify the 'facts' about Oswald's guns. - The story of Oswald's killer - Jack Ruby's 38" Special Lightweight Colt Cobra revolver is much clearer:

https://flicense.blogspot.com/2016/12/jack-leon-ruby-colt-cobra-revolver.html

Of course neither the 38 S&W (Bullet Dia .361 inch) nor the 38 S&W Special (Bullet dia. .357 inch) is actually measured at .380" ..

Once you have read both of my stories about these two killers .. you will feel much better after a nice long shower to wash-off the grime of New World corruption & violence..

Marty K.

Collective Denial Of Responsibility .. "It's The GUNS That Caused The Attack":

 Whenever there is an unlawful shooting - the local "Spokes-Mouths" twist the blame onto THE GUNS .. 

We all know that in reality anything used as a weapon has to be activated by a person - but the politicians and police management regularly choose the gun as an easy object to blame for the evil act and direct attention onto the "instrument of death".

For these political actors to accept that the root causes lay with socio-economic factors - would lead to them needing to start working on the issues that cause neglect - poverty - poor education - sub-standard housing - unaffordable health care - better law enforcement etc. etc. - and everyone understands that would involve re-directing taxes away from the privileged and focusing on the real areas of need.

.. NO PROFIT IN THAT.

It's very simple to work-out. - If I was unable to have a decent home and money to keep my family safe & healthy .. but had to stay in poor accommodation using food parcels to feed my kids .. what would I lose by making money from drugs or theft or violence? - I'd be just as happy or even better-off inside some penal institute for a while - as staying struggling to survive on the outside.

- Fiddling with 'GUN LAWS' is easy to do and lies to voters that we are doing something about it.  

Something .. but nothing useful.

- After WWII 10,000 STATE HOUSES were being built every year in New Zealand .. The Government even imported 500 pre-cut houses from Austria to relieve a shortage of materials. - They could do the same effective work NOW..

.. SO tell me why our current so-called LABOUR Government can't do as much and provide jobs & skills training at the same time?

Jacinda's gang are not a true Labour Government's backside. They fill a piggy-in-the-middle slot to keep National out .. that's all.

10 THOUGHTS TO IMPROVE LIFE & REDUCE CRIME:

Train every High School Student to DRIVE & get their LICENCE before leaving education

De-Criminalize Cannabis .

Build new State Housing with newly trained Trades People.

Require all new-build homes to fit Solar Hot Water Systems built in NZ

BAN Plastic Drink & Milk Containers - and plastic baby-bottles.

Teach girls exactly what ALCOHOL does to their Brains and to their BABY'S BRAINS.

Bring-Back CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Provide Birth-Control & Feminine Hygiene Products FREE in Schools.

Implement a new PRISON Building Program.

Increase Frontline Police Numbers

______________

IF you'd like an eye-opener about British CORRUPTION & PRIVILEGE at the top - watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YgFDZNXPyg

- That is not just Tax Avoidance - This is Rotten to the Core.

Marty K.

An ex Singapore Police .38/200 WEBLEY Revolver:

"Colt may have won The West .. But Webley Won All The Rest."

I bought this historic* Olde Fnglish Webley the other day .. it's in near new condition for a Brit Top-Break designed back in 1932 . - It is a .38/200 Mk. IV Safety Model revolver with character. and it is stamped SPF 4796 at the cross-bolt safety retaining screw - a Singapore Police Force Armory I.D.  - Said to have fired only fifty rounds it seems pretty well "as new" excepting some small handling dings.

* The Mk I Webley 'top-break' was adopted by British Military back in 1887.

Here's some shooting video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfcU0PoZ8nU&t=4s

This 2nd clip is of a Singapore Police 'Safety' Model:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jv0NTIEmkE

Royal Enfield Motorcycles now built in India - (where they also still build Webley type revolvers) use the motto "BUILT LIKE A GUN" .. whereas I read that "Webleys are built like a tank" .. Many of the old break-action revolvers such as H&R or Ivor Johnson are lightly built & badly worn now and one should think carefully before firing them. This Webley is as tight as when it left the old Birmingham factory.

- Just to be a little 'P.C.' "Other Break-Action Brands are available" from around these times .. including S&W and the Spanish made Ona .. one that even the British Army bought to ease their WWI supply shortages.

The .38 Mk. IV Webley Is Similar Size To My Ruger SP101 .22"

 - However the .38 S&W cartridge goes way-back earlier to 1877 and also has a "colorful" history of being made in different flavors by manufacturers through the years .. with plenty of service issue use.

.38 S&W, 38" S&W Short, .38 S&W Super Police, 38-200, .380-200, .38" Webley, 38 Rim, .38 Colt New Police, 9x20mmR,  9.65 mm Normal

That's TEN different names for this one Cartridge .. Plus the 'Anemic & Obsolete' that are often dismissively added ..

While this round is no MAGNUM - it was chosen by British Military to replace their 'Man Stopper .455" after WWI - so it must be reasonably effective .. as long as you reckon that English Generals are not all complete Hooray Henry idiots.

Lipsticks For Men? .. Nah  - I Am Using 9x19mm Dies to Load 38 S&W

With 160 grain Coated Cast Bullets in a light 'Development Load'

- Be aware that the .38 S&W is no way related to - nor is it any way interchangeable with the 38 SPECIAL. This old round is similar sized to 9x19 mm NATO but has much lower internal pressure and velocity ..

 

.38 S&W        9x19 mm Luger

.38" S&W is Slightly Bigger But Has Lower Internal Pressure

 & Slower Velocity Than 9x19mm.

It's interesting that many older cartridges such as this are labeled as inadequate and anemic having been replaced in popular usage by more modern rounds like the 9 mm Luger - which was itself developed back in 1901 .. one hundred and twenty years ago.

The British 'Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield produced the VERY similar 'Enfield No. 2' revolver that is widely accepted as being copied from the Webley design but with altered internal lock-work .. not the proudest achievement of this Government owned facility.

I write this stuff as a learning exercise for myself plus hopefully as a positive input re the use of firearms .. a sort of thinking-out-loud. - right now I'm thinking that break-open revolvers are a useful-functional design and I feel a modern version might readily be strengthened in it's pins & latch features to eliminate any possible weak-points .. Certainly the Russians have built  modern .357" 'REX' top-break revolvers.

https://flicense.blogspot.com/2019/04/russian-revolvers-longarms-in-us.html

Marty K.