Massad Ayoob » Preparedness

HOT LEAD VERSUS COLD BLOOD

Mas — Tue, 22 May 2012 11:52:58 +0000

Holcomb, Kansas, late 1950s. Two vicious punks named Perry Smith and Richard Hickock invaded the farmhouse of the Clutter family. Minutes later, Herb Clutter and his wife, and their son and daughter, lay dead. In April of 1965, both of the murderers would die at the end of righteously-tightened nooses…but it would not bring back the four innocent lives they had extinguished. The killers, motivated by the erroneous belief that the prosperous farmer had a safe full of cash, left the murder scene with approximately forty dollars.

This mass home invasion murder in a rural home was the focus of Truman Capote’s classic book “In Cold Blood.” I read it as a high school kid when it came out in 1965 or ’66, and reread it over the past few weeks. I was reminded of the same stark lessons I’d seen when I first read it.

The Clutter home was not an unarmed household…but the guns weren’t where any of the victims could reach them in time. Capote wrote that the police “found some shotguns in a closet.” They didn’t do much good there when the murderers, armed with a hunting knife and a Savage 12 gauge shotgun one of the parolees had taken without permission from his parents’ home, caught Herb Clutter alone and unarmed and forced him to lead them to the bedrooms where, one by one, they bound and then murdered his wife and his son and his daughter, and Clutter himself.

A gun you can’t reach in an emergency is useless. When I read that book as a high school kid, it struck me that since I had long possessed guns in my bedroom including a loaded Colt .45 automatic, I would have had a lot more options than Clutter’s son did when the homicidal intruders entered his bedroom…and, knowing my dad, in Herb Clutter’s situation my old man’s regularly-carried Colt Cobra .38 revolver would have probably gone into action long before things got even that far.

In a lifetime among cops since, I’ve noted that investigators who piece together the aftermaths of home invasion murders tend to keep their guns on all the time after that, even when off duty in their own house, and keep them by the bed when they go to sleep.

They have learned from the helplessly-murdered dead.

The rest of us can learn from them in turn.

If an intruder’s footsteps sound outside your bedroom right now, how soon will your hand be able to reach something with which you can defend yourself and your loved ones?

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MORE ON GUN/AMMO AVAILABILITY

Mas — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:09:20 +0000

We recently kicked around the ammo shortage situation. Here’s a look from a fresh business-oriented eye at current and short-term future availability of guns and ammo:

http://www.emissourian.com/more_news/business_news/article_b891b686-95eb-11e1-8f32-0019bb2963f4.html

Most of us shooter folk have enough guns to last us for a while – they are, after all, the ultimate in durable goods – but ammunition is a different commodity altogether.

Dunno about y’all, but I just got in a small pallet of 9mm ammo for competition and training purposes. “Buy it cheap and stack it deep” is the mantra, but the trick these days is the “buy it cheap” part…

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GUN AND AMMO SHORTAGE COMING?

Mas — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 00:10:57 +0000

We’ve all heard that amusingly hypocritical line, “Lay in a big supply before the hoarders get it all!” Indeed, we shooters all lived through that in 2008 and for a good time after. People who feared the Obama administration would make good on the new President’s previously declared wishes to ban assault rifles bought up every AR15 and AK47 clone in sight, and ammo was so scarce people were waiting in line to buy the six measly boxes that WalMart allowed per customer. Some of those folks in line were gun dealers, who took the six boxes back to their own shops to sell for inflated prices.

Whether you call yourself a survivalist, a prepper, or simply self-reliant, it makes sense to “buy it cheap and stack it deep” when it’s something you need, like food or medicine. At least in terms of ammo, it’s too late to “buy it cheap,” but since I need a continuing supply of ammunition for training and match shooting, I’m stacking it deep right now myself. The rumor mill whispers of coming shortages, due partly to the strongly-grounded perception that the Obama administration’s anti-gun leanings will come out of the closet once he’s re-elected. There are also certain other market factors. Foreign countries fearful of the second term President pulling US troops out of their countries are rumored to be ordering small arms ammo in large quantities from US manufacturers, who have a finite production capacity.

Much has been made of Homeland Security’s recent contract with ATK for 450 million rounds of Federal HST 180 grain hollow point ammo, caliber .40 Smith & Wesson. I don’t see that as a harbinger of martial law and civil war as some do. Being in law enforcement myself, I’ve seen the severe shortages that have plagued even police agencies in the last several years. The contract is for up to all those millions of cartridges, and may mean nothing more malignant than that a huge government agency wants a contractual guarantee that they’ll be able to get enough to train and qualify their people, even if their actual deliveries never come close to the top level to which that contract holds the manufacturer.

If you’re a reloader, stock up on components, particularly primers. Keep both components and loaded ammo in a cool, dry place. If nothing else, if inflation runs rampant and turns hundred dollar bills into toilet paper, ammo is always worthwhile for barter…

What’s you folks’ take on the situation?

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