This recent murder in rural Alaska highlights the fact that the namesake of our operation here, the backwoods home dweller, tends to be on his or her own when violent crime threatens in the far hinterlands:

http://www.adn.com/2011/01/23/166331…t-husband.html

Might things have come out better if the homeowner had been armed when he stepped outside? If he’d had a solid piece of cover from which he could have issued a challenge?

Over the past month since the tragic atrocity in Tucson, we’ve discussed here the dangers presented by the violent mentally ill. Gun laws won’t solve it.  More stringent mental health protocols? Well, let’s see…in some totalitarian countries, anyone who disagrees with the government is deemed mentally ill, and sent to a “re-education camp” that’s more like a gulag.  What if the psychiatrist who examines a devoutly religious patient is a militant atheist who interprets prayer as talking to people who aren’t there, and diagnoses the believer as a paranoid schizophrenic who should lose the right to own guns, and perhaps other perks of good citizenship?  What if the psychiatrist who examines the patient is of the opposite bent, and believes that anyone of a belief system other than his is an infidel who must be killed?  Oh, wait, we’ve met him already: Dr.Nidal Malik Hasan, the fanatical Muslim and US Army psychiatrist who perpetrated the mass murder at Food Hood in late 2009.

No wonder society in general, and legislators in particular, won’t touch the idea of locking up dangerous mental patients. Complicated issues abound there.

There’s only one simple answer to stopping murders by the criminally insane, and that’s to be able to stop them one at a time by ourselves. When you’re in the Alaskan bush two hours away from Fire Department response, you damn sure need your own battery operated smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, and firefighting knowledge. When you’re in the same place two hours from the nearest law enforcement officer, you need to possess – and have the ability to competently use – the primary rescue tool the officer would bring for an emergency such as this.

That tool, of course, is a defensive firearm.

But for some elements of society, I guess that’s just too simple…

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A few days ago, the weather forecasters said the eastern side of Connecticut was gonna get hit today by Hurricane Earl, shortly after it wiped out the Carolinas at Category Five horsepower, and mere minutes after it had devastated New York City.  The NYC papers told folks to brace themselves…storm shelters were in place for the suddenly homeless…and evacuations were put into effect in parts of the Atlantic Coast.

Well, I spent yesterday and today in the middle of Earl.  There was a sprinkle of rain yesterday. Today the sun shone from a blue sky with a few fluffy white clouds, there was a gentle breeze, and the storm had apparently turned the temperature down from Indian Summer Hell to Paradise setting. We were maybe half an hour inland from the north coast of Long Island Sound. Of the handful of hurricanes I’ve experienced, Earl was by far the most pleasant.

Yeah, you got it…it blew out to sea. I can’t even say “We dodged the bullet,” because to be semantically correct, that would mean that we had wisely seen it coming and cleverly taken evasive action. Hell, I was stupid enough to drive TO the predicted hurricane. There was work I had made a commitment to do there. Nope, no tactical cleverness involved: the damn storm simply missed us, blowing out to sea and petering out to tropical storm level at that.

A lot of folks cancelled Labor Day vacation plans, and a lot of taxpayer money was spent in emergency preparation. But was that all WASTED?  Hell, no!  It was a dry run for The System to deal with something that COULD have trashed the Eastern Seaboard population center, so it damn sure wasn’t for nothing.

It also reminded us of a few things. The Governor of North Carolina activated their proprietary and incredibly stupid law which forbids citizens with permits to carry their guns off their own property during time of declared emergencies.  In short, NC criminalized an entire class of citizens.  Including me and my companion, each carrying a gun as we passed through NC, and doing so legally as far as we knew. Of course, unless the traveler was tuned to the right radio station at the right moment, they could not have known they’d just been criminalized, as we didn’t until we’d already passed through. This does not make me warm and fuzzy.

You can read about it HERE.

North Carolina gun owners have tried to fix this idiocy, and have not yet succeeded. Let’s hope that this time there’s enough outcry that NEXT time they WILL succeed. Deny vetted, law-abiding citizens the right to protect themselves AT a time when localized society is MOST likely to break down, and police service is LEAST likely to be available to protect them?  It’s a perfect storm of madness.

What’s everyone else’s take on this?

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You’ve read here, and in the pages of Backwoods Home Magazine, about the Appleseed Project, a great combination of American Revolution history lecture and strong, basic rifle marksmanship and safety training. Phil Wylie alerted me to a way cool event coming up soon in his home state, Illinois.
The organization is hoping to get its biggest turnout ever, three hundred participants on the firing line simultaneously, at an Appleseed scheduled for September 11-12 at the Aurora Sportsman’s Club in Waterman, Illinois. What better date to make a personal commitment to patriotism and the heritage of the American spirit?
The Appleseed folks expect to have sixty firearms instructors on the line, the best and the brightest of their nationwide cadre of skilled shooting coaches and history lecturers. Maximum cost will be $70, and the event will be FREE for kids, women, military personnel, and graduates of previous Appleseed programs. You can be part of the history of a worthy organization at its largest event to date, and meet a great many like-minded people.
Information is available at www.appleseedinfo.org/300html, and you can make reservations through Illinois state coordinator Dan Hendrickson at IL@appleseedinfo.org. I’d be there if a long-standing training schedule didn’t preclude it, and I think everyone who does manage to get there will have a great experience they’ll remember for a lifetime.

The Backwoods Home cover for the “Appleseed issue”…

…and, thanks to Annie and the headquarters crew in Gold Beach, the poster for the upcoming Appleseed mega-shoot.

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So, here we are in the dead of summer. It’s a safe bet that “Backwoods Home” kinda folks are outdoor kinda folks, and whether it’s work or play, are gonna be out in the sun a lot. It pays to be attentive to the dangers of that.

Just finished shooting the East Coast US Championships of the International Defensive Pistol Association in Prospect Hill, NC, still ongoing through the weekend. Temperatures were estimated at mid-90s to 100 degrees ambient, with a “real-feel” heat factor estimated at 107 to 110 degrees. We were on the outdoor ranges with virtually no shade from 8AM to 5PM, relieved only by a refreshing ten-minute thunderstorm in the afternoon. The skies finally opened with a major squall just after we finished shooting.

The Caswell Ranch range and shooting club, our hosts, did a splendid job and so did all their great staff. They were out there in the heat longer than any of us shooters were.

I had never done a twenty-stage match in one day before, and we were kinda draggin’ from the heat and the high humidity by the time the last shot was fired, but we made it through OK. That was largely because we followed the advice earned hard over the years by centuries of American farmers, and by wise shooters. You can find an excellent compendium of that advice here, at Gun Rights Radio Forums, which has a LOT of good advice on tap for shooter folk. http://gunrightsradio.com/forums2/index.php/topic,4394.0.html

Pay particular attention to the advice from Miggy, Miguel Gonzales, who runs matches in Miami through the year including the depths of summer, and Larry Piekarski, who reminds us that humid heat can be dangerous to shooters even in the temperate heartland of Indiana. In the past, I’ve seen a shooter ambulanced off the range with heatstroke, a life-threatening condition.

Stay hydrated! Dehydration brings on fatigue, fatigue leads to carelessness, and careless people with loaded guns are ticking time bombs. We got through thanks to lots of water; Gatorade to replace lost electrolytes; the occasional banana; that miracle of modern life, the Cool-danna; and common sense.

Modern, high-tech warm weather clothing is good stuff. I had the good fortune to be sponsored by EOTAC (www.eotac.com), and was wearing their lightweight BDU pants and their newest high activity polo, with a smooth silky feel that dries out from sweat VERY quickly. Hugely improved comfort factor. It kept me way cooler than jeans and a tee shirt. One reason I often wear their clothing when I DON’T “compete in the heat.”

My adult supervisor, the Evil Princess, forgot her sun block and left looking like the main course at a lobster restaurant. While crimson is not her best color, she left on her own feet, up and running, and that’s what due care when outdoors in dangerous heat is all about.,

The shooter will spot Mas’ left hand closing the cylinder of the S&W Model 15 .38 with his left hand, and bringing his right hand back into firing grasp as the Safariland Comp III speedloader falls away. The hot and sweaty shooter, however, will notice that Mas is wearing a Cool-danna and looks pretty comfortable in EOTAC vest, pants, and moisture-wicking shirt, while the Safety Officer’s t-shirt is plastered to his body with sweat.

When the safety officers (and the shooters) are wearing towels around their necks, you KNOW it’s a hot and humid day!

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There have been indications that America’s enemies intend multiple terrorist attacks in this country, patterned after the 11/26-29/07 incident in Mumbai, India that left 168 civilians and authorities dead, and 308 wounded. It was perpetrated by ten members of Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba group, armed with explosives and automatic rifles. Only one of the terrorists survived.

Note that some of the responding police in India were unarmed, and some others were equipped with hastily-issued WWI technology Lee-Enfield bolt action rifles, and cartridges issued by the handful. They were poorly trained by American standards. By contrast, American police have gone heavily to coordinated “active shooter response” training since the Columbine tragedy more than a decade ago, and AR15-type patrol rifles are widely distributed. US law enforcement can be expected to respond much more swiftly and effectively to a Mumbai-style incident.

In India, the citizens were effectively unarmed and helpless against the ten terrorists who slaughtered them at will. Armed Americans are likely to respond differently, particularly in the Southwest where there are indications that such potential terrorists have already crossed the border, and may “stage” near it. In Southern Arizona recently, it became apparent to me that more ranchers and even townsfolk are now storing rifles in their cars, and carrying handguns routinely. They can be expected to shoot back, an assessment that comes not from this writer’s guesswork, but from history.

Northfield, MN September 1, 1876: The Jesse James/Cole Younger gang raids the community, and armed citizens use guns to drive off the most feared bandits of the time. It ends with two dead on each side.  Coffeyville, KS October 5, 1892: The five-man Dalton Gang, armed with Winchester repeaters (the “assault rifles” of the day), attempts multiple bank robbery and is annihilated in minutes by the rifle fire of armed citizens, with only one wounded gang member surviving. Death toll is four on each side.

Fast forward to August 1, 1966: the Texas Tower massacre perpetrated primarily with a long-range rifle by Charles Whitman. When his position in the 300+-foot tower proves impregnable to outgunned police with .38s and shotguns, rifle fire from armed citizens on the ground pins Whitman down and stops his death toll at 14 until citizen Allen Crum, armed with a .30 caliber rifle, leads police officers to the top of the tower, where they kill the sniper.

An American Mumbai? Yes, it could happen, and seems more likely than ever based on recent intelligence projections. If it does occur, look for a MUCH faster and more decisive response by American police than those of India…and if it happens near the Arizona or Texas border, look for bullets from armed citizens’ hunting and defense rifles in the bodies of at least some of the dead terrorists.

Cochise County, Arizona deputy, right, shows visiting out of town cop Colt AR15 with ACOG reflex sight and MagPul magazine that is standard equipment for all deputies in his agency. Yes, the cops on that Southern “Edge” are ready… Photo courtesy American Handgunner magazine.

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