As we learn more about the man who shot 40-some people, leaving 13 dead thus far, at our largest military base, we predictably see certain forces in society demonizing the weapon, not the demon who carried out the act. From the first day, we saw CNN et al emphasize that the slayer had used a (shudder!) semi-automatic weapon.
When it came out that he had used a 5.7X28mm pistol, to wit the FN Five-SeveN, some in the media and among the brie-and-chablis crowd seemed almost to wet themselves. This gun had already become a focus of the anti-gunners, who call it a “cop-killer.”
Now, I’m a little more on top of murders of police, and officer survival issues, than the average bear, and I’ve not yet found a case of a police officer being murdered with this particular handgun. But, I’m an old guy and probably getting forgetful. Can anyone ELSE document such a case? If so, post it here, please. Forgive me if I don’t hold my breath too hard…
The mainstream media is, in large part, overlooking the fact that the accused mass-murderer had studied under a radical Islamist who had also taught some of the 9/11 terrorists (LINK HERE). And that the accused killer had allegedly posted on the Internet, comparing suicide bombers with soldiers who throw themselves on grenades to save their comrades in battle (LINK HERE). AND that he was a totally hypocritical FALSE Muslim. Out of one side of his mouth, he sought a traditional Muslim bride who would wear the hajib and pray five times a day. Out of the other side of his, uh, mouth, he apparently sipped light beer and bought lap dances for $50 a time from American blondes at strip joints. (LINK HERE)
My heart goes out to the victims and their families. I have family at Fort Hood myself. And I feel for the estimated 3500 followers of the Islamic faith who honorably serve at this writing in our nation’s armed services. I hope these loyalists won’t be tarred by the same brush as Hassan.
And I am saddened to see clueless journalists instead blame and demonize the gun, which has roughly the on-paper ballistics of a .22 Magnum rifle that you or I might use to shoot woodchucks on the farm to keep them out of the lettuce patch.
The 5.7 in its original SS190 military load was indeed designed to pierce armor, and still tumble through flesh, creating substantial wound potential. From its inception a score of years ago to now, there has been much controversy over whether it’s a magic man-stopper or an impotent mouse-gun. Morbid as it sounds to say it, a LONG time from now, once the medical reports and autopsy results have been tallied and declassified, this terrible incident will give researchers information that may answer that question.
For now, it suffices for logical people to recognize that the pistol was not the demon.
In this terrible incident, the demon was the one holding the pistol.
The FN Five-SeveN with its 5.7X28mm cartridge.
Note that at the moment of discharge, mild recoil of the 5.7mm leaves muzzle on target, ready for next shot.
Friday’s tragic atrocity at Fort Hood brings to mind many questions. A friend who’s an appellate attorney in New Mexico has commented privately that almost any public place in his state would have seen a different outcome, with the perpetrator shot down by a random armed citizen as soon as he shouted “Allah Akbar!” and raised his FN pistol. Dave Workman, my colleague at the Second Amendment Foundation, notes HERE that had the trained warriors present had weapons with which to fight back, the casualty toll would have been minimized. He compares it to the incident years ago in the Luby’s Cafeteria in nearby Killeen, where a mass murder of the people legally required to be unarmed led directly to Texas passing a shall-issue concealed carry law to arm the helpless. As Dave notes so well, there’s a lesson there.
Fred Zera sends along THIS LINK to remind us that the Fort Hood massacre is not the first time GI blood has been fatally shed stateside by a cowardly assassin acting in the name of radical Islamic beliefs. Major Hassan apparently showed his hostility and even his murderous inclination well in advance. Someone should have reported it, and someone it was reported to should have acted upon it. I don’t intend for this blog space to become a host for anti-religion sentiments of any kind, but the fact is, our nation is in global conflict with people who commit mass murder for the sake of their belief system, and it cannot be ignored in the interest of either religious freedom or political correctness.
I’m still wondering why, for all those hours, the authorities told us the killer was dead, and only later revealed that he was alive and on a ventilator? Was someone perhaps pumping the SOB with sodium pentathol “truth serum” to find out whether his actions constituted a conspiracy or not? If so, the ACLU will have a problem with it, but the pragmatists among us will not.
When someone asked a Fort Hood spokesman why there was no soldier with a gun among the crowd to stop the religious fanatic, the spokesman almost indignantly replied that they didn’t need to be armed, because at the base they were “at home.” Someone might have told him that so many of us “backwoods home” folks DO keep guns at home for protection, because self-protection is already there and “official protection” takes time to arrive. At Ft. Hood it took some three minutes. A long-declared jihad has made American soldiers stalking victims. They have a right to be able to protect themselves any time, anywhere, just like the unarmed citizens they serve to protect.
Finally, kudos to Sgt Mark Todd and the wounded Sgt. Kimberly Munley, who courageously “rode to the sound of the guns,” shot down the mass-murderer, and ended the carnage.
When you buy a firearm, it generally comes with disassembly instructions. If you’re gonna shoot it, ya gotta clean it…and when it gets dirty enough, ya gotta take it apart to get it cleaned right.
Actually, taking it apart is the easy part. As so many of our experienced readers know, the challenge comes when you try to put the damn things back together.
Hint…leftover parts are NOT a good sign, and were NOT usually extraneous to the design…
As a kid, I was proud of my ability to disassemble, clean, and most importantly, reassemble the family firearms. And I remember my frustration at age twelve when I ran into the first gun I couldn’t properly do that with, the Ruger .22 caliber semiautomatic pistol. (I was later relieved to learn that grownups went nuts getting it apart and back together, too. There are actually tools to help you do this. Google “Brownell’s.”)
Today I am old and lazy, and probably go too far between cleaning guns – well, at least the play guns as opposed to the work guns. Some of my match guns don’t get cleaned until I realize that lower life forms are beginning to evolve in the mechanisms. I knew I was getting sloppy when a friend asked me, “Mas, what do you use to clean guns?” I heard myself answer, “Armorers.”
In rural America, where guns are handed down through the generations and bought or swapped between friends, owners’ manuals tend not to last as long as the hardware. Today, most gun manufacturers will happily furnish you with the manuals. Trouble is, in “backwoods homes,” there dwell lots of guns whose manufacturers are no longer in existence..
Two good friends in law enforcement recently passed on a tremendously useful website for this stuff. It’s called “Steve’s Pages” and you can find it HERE.
It’s an absolute treasure trove of info for maintaining firearms, including the ones that are rare, and exotic, and obsolete.
Many thanks to the cops who turned me on to this – I’ve thanked them already, and they know who they are – and particular thanks to Stephen Ricciardelli who makes “Steve’s Pages” available as a resource to the rest of us.
The daylight savings time thing got a smart enhancement this year when they postponed the turning back of the clocks to today. It allowed the trick-or-treaters another hour of daylight last night, and made things safer for all those excited little pedestrians running around the streets in the evening hours. (I noticed last night that ninjas seem to be “in” for Halloween this year. Black clad in the dark, scampering across streets…sigh. And I didn’t see a one of the little ninjas wearing the usual light-stick around their neck. Doesn’t go with the ninja costume, I guess.)
I dunno who came up with the idea of changing flashlight batteries and especially smoke alarm batteries at time change, but it made excellent sense and has probably saved lives. I’ll be doing that today. (As noted in an earlier blog entry, flashlight batteries can be expensive, especially the modern lithium type, but not being good-to-go in fast breaking emergencies is MORE expensive.)
As a gun person, I extend the concept a little and on “spring forward, fall back” days also change out the magazines in my autoloading firearms. For instance, the standard “load-out” for a duty pistol is three magazines, one in the gun and two on the uniform belt, so I try to keep at least six mags on hand for any auto pistol I use regularly. When I change the clocks and the batteries, I’ll also unload the carry mags that have been full up, and “let ‘em rest” until the next time change. The ones that have had their springs at rest will be filled up and put into the “carry rotation.” A good way to keep track of them is with a tiny spot of white or yellow paint on the floorplates, yellow for summer and white denoting winter.
I’ve heard many engineers say that this isn’t necessary, and that they learned in metallurgy class that it’s flexion of the springs caused by action and use that wears them out, and they’re not under stress when compressed. Well, I ain’t never been to metallurgy class, and can’t speak to that. However, there are other studies that say otherwise, and tell us that being constantly under maximum pressure can cause magazine springs to “take a set,” resulting in them being too weak to keep doing their job when the cartridge reservoir in the magazine has been reduced by firing, and the tired spring has to keep pushing them up. Mike Izumi is one who has studied this, and he holds several aerospace patents. When guys who are literally rocket scientists talk about this, I tend to listen. In his avocation as a part-time cop and firearms instructor, Mike determined that it was a good idea not only to rotate full and empty magazines, but to store the full ones a cartridge or two down from full capacity to lighten their load, and top them off only when he was “taking them to work.”
Maybe it’s a belt-and-suspenders approach, but that kind of caution is what firearms are all about.
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