For about the last 5 years or so the popular Dot-Torture drill and target have been showing up in a multitude of defensive courses, both introductory and advanced in nature. If you aren’t familiar with this routine, it is a simple 50-round defensive pistol drill that incorporates nearly every aspect of using a gun for self-defense. While the program encourages a smooth draw, transition and trigger squeeze, it has two fundamental flaws:
- There is no time limit.
- The targets are incorrect with respect to their application.
Not having a time limit just isn’t realistic. The maneuvers that are being taught (or perfected) need to be performed under stress, as someday your life may even depend on them. Perfect sight picture is seldom a part of shooting on the move, or in unorthodox positions. This leads me to my second point-improper target style. Standard Dot Torture utilizes a series of small, round, bullseye-style targets. The problem here is that these are intended for, well, bullseye shooting. These targets command perfect sight alignment, sight picture and nothing short of a perfect trigger squeeze. Again these are all fundamentals that take a backseat in life or death scenarios and even the practical shooting sports to some extent. So what takes the front seat then? Well, I believe it is speed.
A few years back, I got together with some of my top instructors and re-evaluated the traditional Dot-Torture drill. We kept what we loved and changed what we didn’t to produce a version of this drill that would be more relevant to defensive shooting. Essentially we kept the same routines, but instead of the classic 10-dot target, we subbed in a standard IPSC silhouette at a fixed distance of 7 yards. If IDPA is your sport of choice those targets are easily adopted as well. The major change comes in our scoring system. Our drill is based on the same 50-round count, but instead of having to maintain a 100-percent hit rate, you need to make the time requirements for each repetition to be valid. Hits also have a quality rating on our version, as you can only reach your top score if you consistently hit in the A-zone(s). For each shot in the center A-zone, the shooter will receive two points and one point for each hit in the C-zone. Zero points are awarded for D-zone hits and unintentional headshots.
So let’s begin with the first drill, which is designed as a warm-up. On the original, the start position was from the low ready and on command five well-placed rounds were to be applied to target number one. We kept this the same except from an audible start tone the shooter must place those same five rounds into the center A-zone in under 7 seconds. If the shooter doesn’t get all five off in that time period they receive a zero……there’s your stress factor.
The second drill is fired on target #2 and is one simple shot from the holster, repeated five times. This is exactly how it goes in the original as well, except in ours the student has 2.5 seconds to get out of the holster and score a center A-zone hit. Each attempt that is outside of that time allowance doesn’t count towards their score, no matter how accurate.
The third drill is the first drill where the shooter is tested on their transitioning skills. The original dot requires a holstered start and a single shot to target #3 and then a single shot on target #4. This is to be repeated four times. Our full-sized dot torture carries this same routine but instead of two dots, we utilize the center A-zone and the A-zone in the head portion of our IPSC target. The shooter is allowed 4.5 seconds for each attempt.
Drill number four is a strong-hand-only drill, just the same as in the original. Again the shooter will start from the holstered position. Once the buzzer goes off they have 15 seconds to get out of their holster and get those same five rounds off. Just like drill number one five alphas are worthless unless they are all in on time. This also introduces the shooter to decision making under stress—“Should I yank the trigger and lose a point to keep the eight I already have?”
I consider our fifth drill to be the biggest improvement over the original Dot-Torture version, as it not only utilizes the proper target, but the proper approach as well. If you aren’t familiar with the original I am talking about the double-tap drill. In the original version, shooters had to place two shots on target #6 and then immediately place two shots on target #7….tiny target #6…..and tiny target #7. Double tapping a target isn’t about having a perfect sight picture. In fact, that second shot should be delivered with absolutely no sight picture at all. Slowing down to find your sights to score a hit on your second shot isn’t the performance of a successful double-tap, it’s just two well-placed shots kinda quick. So again we use the center mass area and the head of the target and allow the students to get their four rounds downrange in 8 seconds. Here the focus is on proper indexing and follow-through, not sight picture.
The second to last drill is weak hand only. Our only change is the addition of a 25-second time limit. This is certainly obtainable and designed to swiftly change gears on the shooter, forcing them to use their sights and pay attention to their trigger control once again. Those shooters who find themselves in trouble on stages that go from CQB-type targets to plates at 35 yards will find this drill very helpful as long as it is immediately preceded by the one prior to it.
And wrapping it up is the reload and transition drill. Just like the original, we transition after the reload, except it follows our pattern of starting center mass and transition to the head. We allow 7 seconds for each run to be valid for score. This is even enough time for the revolver crowd to dig out their speedloader and refill the ol’ wheelgun, or at least realize why they need to go out and buy one.
When you have finished the drill you will have fired 50 rounds, if you did it perfectly you should have scored 100 percent. This, of course, poses the follow-up question of “Then what?” Well, cut your time allowances in half. In fact, every time you graduate cut it in half again. The beauty of this math is that meeting the next milestone is much easier than meeting the one prior to it. Getting drill #1 down to 3.5 seconds from 7 seconds is tough, but getting it down to 1.75 from 3.5 is much less of a jump. This routine promotes steady growth and keeps a developing shooter optimistic as they improve.
So next time you are looking to get someone into their first routine for defensive or practical competitive shooting, consider this drill. We utilize it in Renaissance Firearms Instruction as it starts them on the right foot without contradicting some key principals in pistol shooting. A free download of these instructions overlaid on the original dot torture is available in the printable targets section at rfimediaevents.com. With that, all you need is a standard IPSC target and one lonely box of ammunition to train as you fight.
After Democrats Purge All the ‘Nazis,’ Who Will Be Left?
Trigger warning: This essay is about America’s growing Nazi problem. Some Nazis may be offended.
Democrats are on the hunt for Nazis. Their own elected officials tell us so. Senators and congressmen assure us that in Donald Trump’s America “hate is on the rise.” Nobody can feel safe, they say. Not Jews, not blacks, not immigrants, not women, not even American Indians drumming in the faces of young school boys. Everyone must be on constant guard for hate. It must be confronted and nipped in the bud. If you’re not sure who is spreading this hate, look for red ball caps with catchy political slogans. Otherwise, your default presumption should always be that white males, no matter how ordinarily dressed, are secretly plotting to oppress, harass, and threaten you. Sometimes they do so with smiles on their faces while opening doors.
The important thing to know is that Democrats are all over this problem. They have lawmakers all across America pursuing legislation that targets language for its hatefulness. No longer will people have to sit back and endure distasteful points of view; there are now laws that will allow us to throw people in jail based on what they say and write.
Thank goodness we have reached the Enlightenment’s final stage of liberalism, where we finally understand the danger of words. It has always been an oversight of freedom. Some words are hateful and must be banished. In fact, every day, more and more words are discovered to be hateful, and it turns out there is no shortage of people who believe they have the right to use them.
Here’s the important lesson: if you hear or read something from a person you believe to be oppressing you, then it is best to report that person’s words so he can be added to the list of things we are not allowed to say.
Next to the list of banished words is the list of approved education. Democrats are here to inform, not influence. It is appalling that in this year of 20 A.G. (After Gore), there are still people perpetuating the lie that man-made global warming is a con meant to justify huge increases in taxation, expanded government coercion, and international socialism. Just the idea that people could be so ignorant as to believe that the very molecule they exhale with every breath is not also a pollutant that will force us to cut back on those allowed to exhale boggles the mind.
If you can’t understand that killing off four fifths of the global population and returning to Stone-Age comforts is necessary in order to prevent free markets from destroying the modern world, then you are brainwashed and beyond reach. The best we can do now is censor any of your pseudo-science research from publication so the larger public’s enthusiasm for one-world government is not dampened.
This goes for sex and babies, too. The Dark-Ages superstition of believing that XX and XY chromosomal pairings determine whether a person’s DNA contains the genes unique to males is so absurd that it hardly merits discussion. Anyone who refuses to believe that genetics is simply a social construct imposed on one’s state of mind is living in an age before science and should be openly mocked.
If you don’t believe that men can have babies, then you probably live in a red state where education is low and concentration of Nazis is high. If you don’t believe that males should shower with high school girls after gym class, you are a Nazi. This goes, too, for the outdated patriarchal notion that an expectant father should have any say in what happens to the baby who shares half his DNA. If, after a suitable amount of time has passed after birth, the mother decides to keep the baby, then by all means that the sperm donor is financially beholden to that child for the rest of his life.
Until that time, however, interfering with a woman’s choice to cancel her pregnancy up to and including delivery is nothing less than an assault on her constitutional rights and an unacceptable threat to her “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.” When Thomas Jefferson wrote those words, he said nothing about the life and liberty of an unwanted fetus. You would think the very Nazis who prattle on about originalism and the “Founding Fathers” would understand that a baby doesn’t have any rights until the man/woman giving birth makes it official with a legal birth certificate.
That’s what happens when you give fascism room to breathe, though. Nazis begin to insist that the constitution protects everyone, even those too premature to speak up.
That brings us to guns. For too long, Nazis in America have been untouchable because they own all the weapons. That is why Democrats have a plan to end this injustice once and for all. There is no reason in the modern world why anyone needs a weapon to survive. Supermarkets give us food, not hunters. Anyone claiming otherwise is lying to you, or worse, secretly arming himself against the government. There is absolutely no reason in a free society for anyone but the police, military, and federal agencies to be heavily armed. An armed country is a dangerous country. That is why Democrats have the wisdom and strength to demand all citizens hand over their weapons as their first piece of legislation. They have made a promise to the people that they will collect all the guns before pursuing any fundamental changes to the nation in the future.
But before they do that, they have to get rid of the Nazi in the White House. Because Americans refuse to do what’s in their best interest, Democrats will do it for them. It’s never really about the votes, after all. It’s about who counts the votes, and in 2020, Democrats will make certain that Democrats are counting the votes. Just to be certain, they’ve spent years preparing for every contingency.
While American Nazis go overseas to die for American freedom, Democrats have been building a secret army of anti-fascists right here at home. They are trained, armed, and ready to go. Democratic mayors have been giving them space to breathe and grow for years.
Unlike the Nazis in America, Democrats know their history. Using armed paramilitary units in uniform under the color of law is exactly how Heinrich Himmler transformed a little-known outfit of beer hall troublemakers into one of the most feared agencies of surveillance and terror throughout Europe. Whereas he used his thugs for fascism, Democrats will use their peaceful protesters for socialism. There is a big difference.
So, to the American Nazis out there, know this: you have nowhere to hide, nowhere to go, and no future in front of you. Democrats will save freedom from itself, even if they must put some of us up against a wall before tearing it down. They know what they’re doing. They have met the enemy; from every mirror, he stares back at them.
Suspect fatally shot by Orlando security guard after pulling firearm on him
ORLANDO, Fla. – An Orlando security guard shot a man after the man pulled a gun on him on Tuesday, police said.
According to the Orlando Police Department, a security guard was sitting in uniform in his marked car on Tuesday morning when he was approached by three suspects. One suspect reportedly stated to talk to him in another language and while doing so, brandished a firearm.
They said that the suspect then pulled his firearm, so the security guard did as well. The guard shot one of the suspects and the remaining two fled the area.
The suspect shot was transported to the hospital, where he died, police said.
The suspects were said to be black males between ages 18 and 23 years old.
Man shot and killed, woman defended herself in Chunchula shooting
CHUNCHULA, Ala. (WKRG) — Deputies are investigating a shooting in Chunchula. According to the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office Neighborhood Crime Map, the shooting was reported just before 1 a.m. on Cleborne Road.
UPDATE: (2/17/2020 11:30AM)– MCSO says a man was shot and killed on Clebourne Court in Chunchula Monday after a woman claims he attacked her with a rifle.
Deputies found Johanna Harbison outside the home bleeding from her head where her boyfriend, David Bailey had assaulted her with an AK 47 rifle.
According to the press release, Harbison told deputies that Bailey hit her in the face during a altercation inside the home. Harbison armed herself with a 9mm handgun and shot BAILEY in the chest. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
This case will go to a Grand Jury.
PA Paper Freaks Out As 2A Sanctuary Movement Hits State
The Second Amendment Sanctuary movement has come to Pennsylvania, and with the growing support among citizens there’s growing backlash among the press. The latest to try to take down the movement are the editors of the York Dispatch, who seem awfully upset about something they say is meaningless and purely symbolic.
in yet another example of the privileged majority feigning minority victimhood, gun owners in rural communities nationwide are buying into the so-called “Second Amendment Sanctuary” movement. This despite the fact that:
• There are more guns than people in the United States.
• More than 45% of the world’s civilian firearms are owned by Americans.
• Even as 2019 saw a record number of mass shootings — more than 400 — Congress continues to ignore the issue of gun safety.
• The most recent substantial federal law regarding firearms — signed by President George W. Bush in 2005 — protected gun manufacturers from being sued by victims of gun violence.
Still, just the suggestion of something as mildly inconvenient — and widely popular — as, say, universal background checks for gun purchases elicits howls of opposition and, now, arguments for special protections for gun owners.
Actually, my main argument against universal background checks isn’t that they’re unconstitutional, it’s that they’re completely ineffective at reducing violent crime or even increasing the number of background checks performed. In order to even attempt to be effective, universal background check laws need a gun registry, and that’s where the constitutionality of the law comes in to play for me. I live in a state where anti-gun lawmakers just tried to turn me into a felon for keeping my AR-15, and then told me I’d be allowed to keep it as long as I registered it with the state police. I don’t think it’s crazy to believe that these same lawmakers would love to use a list of gun owners to eventually confiscate their firearms, or at least declare them felons for continuing to own them.
The Dispatch‘s editorial board is really steamed that West Mannheim Township, Pennsylvania will be considering a Second Amendment Sanctuary ordinance on Tuesday that states no town funds will be used to “interfere with a gun owner’s rights” (in the words of a Dispatch reporter). The editorial board calls it a “vague and troubling broad assertion.”
Been there to pay my respects to a warrior.
On This Day
On Feb. 17, 1909, Apache leader Goyahkla more commonly known as Geronimo died while still under military confinement at Fort Sill, Okla.
The only restriction on visitors to the grave site in the Beef Creek Apache Cemetery at Fort Sill is if you can get on post.
44 Americans on the Diamond Princess Cruise Ship Diagnosed With Coronavirus
Nice laboratory experiment they’ve got going there.
Another 70 cases of the coronavirus infection have been confirmed aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, currently quarantined in Japan, according to Japanese health officials.
This brings the total number of cases aboard the vessel as of Sunday to 355, the largest confirmed cluster outside mainland China. People with confirmed infections have been taken to hospitals in Japan.
After the ship’s two weeks of quarantine at sea, officials from various countries, including Canada, Italy, Hong Kong and South Korea, are in the process of extracting their citizens from the vessel. The Diamond Princess is reported to have around 3,700 passengers and crew members.About half the passengers are from Japan, according to Reuters.
Approximately 400 U.S. citizens are aboard the Diamond Princess. According to Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, 44 Americans on the cruise ship have been infected, though not all are sick.
Taiwan Confirms First Coronavirus Death
Taiwan on Sunday confirmed its first coronavirus death — marking the fifth fatality outside of mainland China.
The man, a 61-year-old taxi driver, was living with diabetes and hepatitis B when he died of the virus, according to Health Minister Chen Shih-Chung.
There’s an investigation underway to determine how the man, who had not recently traveled outside of Taiwan, contracted the illness, Chen said.
Man shot, killed after allegedly forcing his way into home
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Pa. – Police in Montgomery County are investigating a shooting where an alleged home invader was killed.
Police responded to a house on East Third Avenue for reports of a shooting at around 11:30 p.m on Saturday in Collegeville Borough.
According to a release from the Montgomery District Attorney’s Office, police found a 55-year-old man with a gunshot wound when they arrived at the scene, and was pronounced dead.
Initial reports say that the man was shot by someone that lived in the home after he forced his way in, according to the release.
An autopsy is being conducted by the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office. The identity of the man is not being released until next of kin has been notified.
Homeowner shoots suspect in reported home invasion
RUSSELL, Ky. (WSAZ) — One person is in serious condition after a shooting during an alleged home invasion in Russell, Kentucky.
Police Chief Ned Crisp tells WSAZ it happened just after 1:30 Sunday morning on the 300 block of Short White Oak Road.
Crisp says a 31-year-old man was shot by the homeowner and was flown to Cabell-Huntington Hospital where he remains in critical condition.
Detectives were still on scene early Sunday, and no other details are available at this time.
No one has been charged.
Man shot, killed while attempting robbery in Birmingham
BIRMINGHAM — Police in Birmingham said a man was shot and killed while attempting a robbery early Sunday morning. Detectives are conducting a homicide investigation, according to Sgt. Rod Mauldin.
“On Sunday, February 16, 2020, at 4 a.m. an off-duty officer was working an extra security detail when shots were fired at 528 3rd Avenue West,” Mauldin said.
Upon further investigation the officer discovered the subject laying on the ground suffering from a gunshot wound. Birmingham Fire and Rescue responded to the scene and the wounded subject was transported to UAB Hospital where he was pronounced deceased.
“Preliminary investigation suggest the subject approached a person in a robbery attempt which resulted in the subject being shot,” Mauldin said. “This is an ongoing investigation. Additional details will be provided as they become available.”
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Situation Report – 26
SITUATION IN NUMBERS total and new cases in last 24 hours
Globally
50 580 laboratory-confirmed
(1527 new)
China
50 054 laboratory-confirmed
(1506 new)
1524 deaths (121 new) †
Outside of China
526 laboratory-confirmed
(21 new)
25 countries (1 new)
2 deaths
Chinese doctors say Wuhan coronavirus reinfection even deadlier
Instead of creating immunity the virus can reportedly reinfect an individual and hasten fatal heart attack
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — It’s possible to get infected by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a second time, according to doctors on the frontline in China’s city of Wuhan, leading to death from heart failure in some cases.
The claim is made by doctors working in the Hubei Province capital that is at the center of the epidemic, which has to date infected 64,201 people and killed 1,487. One of the doctors reached out to a relative living in the United Kingdom, who then informed Taiwan News.
Both the relative and doctors asked to remain anonymous, out of consideration they might face retribution from the Chinese authorities. The doctor, Li Wenliang (李文亮), who first raised warnings about the Wuhan virus, was rebuked by the authorities before succumbing to the devastating disease himself earlier this month.
According to the message forwarded to Taiwan News, “It’s highly possible to get infected a second time. A few people recovered from the first time by their own immune system, but the meds they use are damaging their heart tissue, and when they get it the second time, the antibody doesn’t help but makes it worse, and they die a sudden death from heart failure.”
The source also said the virus has “outsmarted all of us,” as it can hide symptoms for up to 24 days. This assertion has been made independently elsewhere, with Chinese pulmonologist Zhong Nanshan (鍾南山) saying the average incubation period is three days, but it can take as little as one day and up to 24 days to develop symptoms.
Also, the source said that false negative tests for the virus are fairly common. “It can fool the test kit – there were cases that they found, the CT scan shows both lungs are fully infected but the test came back negative four times. The fifth test came back positive.”
According to the BBC and other media outlets, some laboratory tests are incorrectly telling people they are virus-free. There is also anecdotal evidence of people having up to six negative results before being diagnosed correctly.
Do the Gun-Grabbers Really Want to Save Lives?
My first impression is ‘No’.
We often find ourselves arguing statistics with anti-gun people. Let’s put the conversation into perspective. I will give you some statistics and I’ll also expose the anti-gun left’s real motives for gun control. First of all, don’t you think that if someone really wanted to save lives, they would focus their attention on an area where the most lives are lost? If you’ll notice, Anti-Gunners miss that piece of logic and gravitate toward any justification for gun control laws regardless of its inability to save lives.
The gun grabbers like to use the number of 30,000 to 40,000 gun-related deaths per year but if we take out suicides, which are 60% of those deaths and we take out law enforcement-related deaths, we’re left with about 14,880 gun-related homicides. Let me add something here. After seeing the results of Australia’s gun ban, we know that suicides do not go down in the absence of guns. People find other means; just in case there are some Anti-Gunners out there still trying to blame suicides on guns.
Here’s where it gets interesting.
The majority of those gun-related homicides are gang-related. So, let’s say we didn’t have the gang problem we have in this country. If we take out gang/gun murders the number of gun-related homicides shrinks to 2,976 per year in America. here’s another interesting fact that the anti-gun left doesn’t want you to know. The majority of gang-related violence occurs in Democrat-run cities across this country, which by the way are highly gun restricted and often allow violent Illegals safe harbor. Which means, the good people living within those cities are denied their right to protect themselves against the human violence that Democrats encourage with their bad policies. Now let’s compare 2,976 gun-related homicides to some other things that the anti-gun left could be working on if they really wanted to save lives.
- 2,976 gun-related homicides, consisting of many different causes. None of which are caused by “the gun.”
- 11,000 lives lost per year in America to drunk driving accidents.
- 47,000 lives lost per year in America due to suicide, (bipolar disorder and schizophrenia being two of the leading causes of suicide.) Not guns. Remember, take away the guns and that number doesn’t change.
- 330,000 lives are taken per year in America by people committing abortion. One of the biggest causes of preventable deaths in America is abortion. Didn’t the gun-grabbers say they wanted to save lives?
Now let me give you a piece of information that the anti-self-defense crowd doesn’t want you to know. How many lives do you think are saved every year because of guns?
- 2,500,000 lives are potentially saved every year in America because of guns. These are called Defensive Gun Uses (DGU’s). Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean good guys killing bad guys. This most often means just the mere presence of a gun deters a bad guy. 46% of those lives saved are women. This is from a study that was done by Gary Kleck, a Florida criminologist and backed by data from the CDC.
*[Data collected from Pew Research Center, FBI Statistics, Armed Resistance to Crime Report (Kleck/Gertz), Center for Medical Progress, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.]
Why do you think the gun grabbers never share this information? Some would argue that they don’t really care about saving lives as much as they care about disarming their fellow citizens and preventing them from independently protecting themselves and their families.
Gun control is a top-down method that puts the government in charge of the lives and safety of people under the guise of “public safety.” It’s the first step in stealing the freedom our founders fought for. The anti-gun left has already decided that they are willing to give up their freedom to government.
The problem is, they can’t have their government-controlled Utopian society unless everyone gets on board. Real Americans are clearly not getting on board. In fact, just the opposite is true. People across the country are fighting back as the left-wing ideology tries desperately to embed itself into traditional America. Gun control is a way of forcing you into dependence whether you like it or not.
We’re never going to cure the evil in the hearts of killers but thanks to our Founding Fathers recognized the importance of firearms, we can stop them.
So, to the gun grabbers, do you really want to save lives? Then get to work on the real causes of human-violence and help us restore our gun rights so good people can protect themselves. Help us save lives, rather than ending them before they get a chance to take their first breath.
The 2nd Amendment is not a privilege. It’s your right.
Cholesterol drugs may help fight ‘high-risk’ prostate cancers.
Definitely something for further research.
Drugs that many men with prostate cancer might already be taking — cholesterol-lowering statins — may help extend their survival if they have a “high-risk” form of the disease, new research suggests.
High-risk patients include men with high blood levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA) and a “Gleason score” of 8 or more. Gleason scores are a calculation used to gauge prognosis in prostate cancer. Men with a high Gleason score may develop difficult-to-treat cancers.
Prior research had suggested that statins and the diabetes drug metformin (often prescribed together) have anticancer properties. However, it hasn’t been clear which of the two drugs is the bigger cancer-fighter, or whether either might help against high-risk prostate cancer.
To help answer those questions, a team led by Grace Lu-Yao of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center–Jefferson Health, in Philadelphia, tracked data on nearly 13,000 high-risk prostate cancer patients. All were diagnosed between 2007 and 2011.
The study couldn’t prove cause and effect, but it found that statins, taken alone or with metformin, did seem associated with an increase in survival.
Men who took both statins and metformin had higher median survival (3.9 years) than those who took statins alone (3.6 years), metformin alone (3.1 years), or those who did not take either drug (3.1 years).
Vancouver homeowner shoots, kills suspected burglar
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A man was shot and killed while breaking into a home overnight, according to Vancouver police.
Vancouver PD responded to what they believe was a burglary around 10:20 p.m. in the River View Neighborhood along Southeast Beach Drive. Police said an unknown man kicked in a back door and was inside the home when he was confronted by the homeowner, who had a gun.
The burglar charged the homeowner, who fired and shot the suspect. The suspect ran outside and collapsed. When authorities arrived the suspect was already dead.
The homeowner and his family were not injured.
One woman who lives in the neighborhood said she’s sorry for the tragedy that someone died “for trinkets or whatever. It wasn’t worth it. But I totally support the homeowner’s desire to protect themselves.”
Mike Murphy, who lives nearby, said it seems people are more desperate and brazen these days.
“Homeowners have a right to protect themselves. You can’t just expect to break into somebody’s home and there’s not going to be repercussions to their actions.”
Murphy said it’s a nice, quiet area. “You just don’t think there would be those kind of people down here up to no good.”
Suspects shot breaking into home a second time
RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – The Reno Police Department released new details into a shooting and house fire in the 900 block of Bates Avenue early Monday morning.
The incident was reported just before 3AM on February 10, 2020.
Investigators say two juveniles, broke into an addition off the main house, looking for a 14-year-old who lives at the home. They were confronted by an adult who was armed with a gun. Investigators say one of the suspects pointed a gun at the adult, and the adult opened fire, shooting both suspects.
One suspect was found at the scene. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition. The other suspect left the scene, but checked into a hospital after getting shot in the leg. He was later arrested.
Part of the home also caught fire. It’s unclear how the fire started.
Investigators say two days prior to the shooting, the same suspects had broken into the home and beat up the 14-year-old who lives there. Police also say the suspects had threatened to return.
The names of the suspects involved are not being released at this time
Oklahoma State Senate passes bill making it easier to arm teachers
The Oklahoma Senate passed a bill on Wednesday that could make it easier for Oklahoma teachers and school personnel to carry a firearm at school.
The bill by Republican Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, and Rep. Sean Roberts, R-Hominy, would change requirements for teachers to be able to be armed at school.
Bullard said the rural school districts in his area want the legislation because it could take a significant amount of time for law enforcement to respond to a mass shooting on campus.
“We have students right now that are vulnerable if someone walks in with a gun,” he said. “It’s a manslaughter and there’s nothing they can do about it.”
Teachers would no longer be required to complete a 240-hour Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training certification course in order to be armed at school. Bullard said the requirement is cost prohibitive and time intensive to a point that it deters teachers from participating.
Instead, under House Bill 2336, school personnel who undergo the eight-hour concealed carry class or the 72 hours of armed security guard training would be eligible to carry on campus at K-12 schools. The personnel also would have to go through “campus-specific active shooter training” as stipulated by local law enforcement agencies.
The campus-specific training would vary based on a school’s size and layout and would be intended for law enforcement to work one-on-one with teachers or school staff who intend to be armed, Bullard said.
Senate Democrats said the legislation could result in teachers having various levels of training depending on which district they teach.
Virginia’s Model for Both Sides of Gun Debate
As Democrats advance anti-Second Amendment measures, Patriots fight back.
Like all would-be tyrants, as soon as Virginia Democrats took power following the last election, they began an all-out assault on the right to keep and bear arms, unleashing a package of gun-control measures intended to strip Virginians of their right to defend themselves.
The newest proposed measures include a ban on “assault weapons” such as the AR-15 and AK-47 rifles, magazines holding more than 12 rounds, and sound suppressors (“silencers”). That bill passed the House of Delegates yesterday.
As a means of reducing mass shootings, such measures are worthless. According to the FBI, in 2018, just 297 of the 6,603 gun-related murders (4%) nationwide involved a rifle of any kind. In fact, knives (1,604) and fists/kicking (656) were used to kill far more often.
The “progressive” obsession with the AR-15 is rooted in abject ignorance of all things gun related. Though they refer to AR-15s as “assault weapons” and “weapons of war,” they are neither.
“AR” stands for “ArmaLite Rifle,” after the company that designed it. Furthermore, the Department of Defense defines an assault rifle as a “selective fire” rifle that can alternate between semi- (one shot fired per trigger pull) and full-auto (continuous fire). The AR-15 is semiautomatic, firing a .223 (or 5.56) round, which is smaller and less powerful than many hunting rifles. If we ban AR-15s, why not all hunting rifles and handguns? They are functionally equivalent.
Gun grabbers claim the AR-15 is especially “dangerous and unusual,” attempting to get around the Supreme Court ruling in DC v. Heller, which found the Second Amendment protects weapons “in common use by law-abiding citizens.” But the AR-15 is the very definition of “common use” — more than 15 million AR-style rifles are currently in the hands of American citizens, and more than a million more are sold each year. In fact, one in five new firearms sold in the U.S. is an AR-style rifle.
Yet far from America turning into the Wild West, as anti-gun hysterics claim, America has become more peaceful with the proliferation of firearms. Gun crimes fell to historic lows after the expiration of the 1994 ban on “assault weapons.”
In reality, full-auto weapons have been effectively banned for civilian use since the National Firearms Act of 1934, and there have been only two deaths by full-auto weapons in the last 40 years.
But in the grand scheme of things, this is all just semantics and details. The Constitution protects our right to keep and bear arms, period, regardless of arguments and statistics.
Yet Socialist Democrats reject the meaning of “shall not be infringed.” For decades, Democrats have sought to erode or eliminate this most fundamental of human and American rights. They couch their assaults in terms like “public safety” and “commonsense gun control,” insisting that no one needs certain types of weapons for hunting and sport shooting. Untrue, but irrelevant. The Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting and everything to do with providing a firm check against the rise of tyrannical government.
In 1787, Thomas Jefferson warned of the dangers of conspiring men and asked, “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. … The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Is it any surprise the state seal for Virginia is an image of a robed Virtus (Virtue) standing, spear in hand, over the body of Tyranny? The state motto is “sic semper tyrannis,” meaning “thus always to tyrants.”
Jefferson was a native of Virginia, and it seems many of his fellow Virginians still have the fire of Liberty, and resistance to tyranny, burning in their breasts, judging by the 22,000 gun owners protesting at the state capitol recently. Or the fact that 141 counties and cities have declared themselves “gun sanctuaries.”
After the announcement of the proposed gun-control laws, Virginia gun sales nearly doubled, with nearly 70,000 gun background checks in a single month. Gun owners continue to show up at rallies, chanting “We will not comply!”
Gun owners are by nature peaceful and law-abiding. They seek peace, but are prepared to defend themselves and their families, whether from armed intruders or a tyrannical government. That is a fact that Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam and the Democrats in the state legislature would do well to remember.
No peak in sight as China reports 5,000 new coronavirus cases
BEIJING/SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (Reuters) – China’s coronavirus outbreak showed no sign of peaking with health authorities on Friday reporting more than 5,000 new cases, while passengers on a cruise ship blocked from five countries due to virus fears finally disembarked in Cambodia.
Policymakers pledged to do more to stimulate Asian economies hit hard by the virus, helping Asia stock markets edge higher, with Chinese shares headed for their first weekly gain in four.
In its latest update, China’s National Health Commission said it had recorded 121 new deaths and 5,090 new coronavirus cases on the mainland on Feb. 13, taking the accumulated total infected to 63,851 people.
Some 55,748 people are currently undergoing treatment, while 1,380 people have died of the flu-like virus that emerged in Hubei province’s capital, Wuhan, in December. The latest toll takes account of some deaths that had been double counted in Hubei, the health commission said.
The new figures give no indication the outbreak is nearing a peak, said Adam Kamradt-Scott, an infectious diseases expert at the Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney.
“Based on the current trend in confirmed cases, this appears to be a clear indication that while the Chinese authorities are doing their best to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the fairly drastic measures they have implemented to date would appear to have been too little, too late,” he said.
Chinese scientists are testing two antiviral drugs and preliminary results are weeks away.
The head of a hospital in Wuhan, a city under virtual lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus, told reporters on Thursday that plasma infusions from recovered patients had shown some encouraging preliminary results.
Japan confirmed its first coronavirus death on Thursday – a woman in her 80s living in Kanagawa prefecture near Tokyo. The death was the third outside mainland China, after two others in Hong Kong and the Philippines…………
Evacuee at Lackland Air Force Base is 15th virus case in US
NEW YORK — U.S. officials on Thursday announced the country’s 15th confirmed case of the new coronavirus — an evacuee from China who had been under quarantine in Texas.
The patient, who had been flown to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio last week, is now in isolation at a hospital and was reported in stable condition. The infection was confirmed through a Wednesday night lab test, making the person the first coronavirus patient in Texas.
“There may be additional cases we identify. I do want to prepare you for that,” said Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control’s division of high consequence pathogens and pathology.
Two earlier U.S. cases were found among evacuees flown to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in Southern California.
Hundreds of people, including U.S. State Department employees and their families, were brought to military bases in Texas, California and Nebraska aboard chartered flights from Wuhan, a city of 11 million that is at the center of the outbreak.
There are 57 evacuees being held in quarantine at the Nebraska National Guard’s Camp Ashland southwest of Omaha, Nebraska, none of whom have shown any signs of the virus, Nebraska Medicine spokesman Taylor Wilson said. He said the Omaha hospital prepared to treat any of the evacuees if needed.
Convenience Stores, where crooks can go to conveniently get shot
Suspect shot during armed robbery attempt outside gas station
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – The Fort Wayne Police Department is investigating an attempted armed robbery that ended with the suspect getting shot.
Officers responded to the Sunoco gas station at 1416 Oxford St. around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.
According to an FWPD lieutenant at the scene, witnesses told police a group of people walked out of the convenience store and got in a car at one of the pumps.
That’s when a man wearing a mask apparently walked up to the car, pulled out a handgun, and tried to rob them at gunpoint.
While that was happening, another man with the group walked out of the store and saw what was unfolding. He pulled out a gun and exchanged fire with the robbery suspect.
The suspect and some of the victims then ran from the scene.
As police searched the area, they found the suspect about a block away with a handgun and a face mask nearby. Police said he was suffering from a gunshot wound.
Medics took the injured suspect to a hospital, but doctors determined his injuries were not life-threatening.
Police also eventually found all of the robbery victims that left the scene. Detectives took them to the police station to interview them about the incident.
During their search for more evidence around the area, officers found multiple guns in various places. It’s still not clear whom they belonged to, and police said it was too early to say what other charges, if any, may result from the situation.
The robbery suspect is being guarded at the hospital and will likely be charged with armed robbery once he is discharged from the hospital, according to a lieutenant at the scene.
One woman who lives across the street from the gas station where the shooting happened said bullets came into her apartment during the incident, but they didn’t hit anyone.
Nobody besides the robbery suspect reported any serious injuries.
Detectives interviewed victims and witnesses, and also planned to review security video at the scene to learn more about the incident and confirm the details of what happened.
Man shot, critically wounded by security guard at Garfield Park liquor store
CHICAGO – A man was critically wounded after being shot by a liquor store’s security guard Wednesday in Garfield Park on the West Side.
The man, 28, got into an argument with the guard about 11:30 p.m. inside Madison Food, Wine and Spirits, 3900 W. Madison St., Chicago police said. When the argument turned physical, the guard shot him in the leg and back.
The man was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, police said. The guard was taken in for questioning.
Area North detectives are investigating.
Why scientists are encouraging people to drink more coffee
Coffee, just what can’t it do?
The promise of strong bones meant something very different to us as children. We thought obtaining the physique of our favorite superhero was as simple as drinking as much milk as possible. Turns out, we were wrong about the prize and the best way to achieve it.
According to a new study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, there is a robust association between habitual coffee consumption and the prevention of bone fracturing later in life and the development of metabolic illnesses. In other words, more coffee for everyone!
Coffee, coffee, coffee
“Inconsistent associations between coffee consumption and bone mineral density (BMD) have been observed in epidemiological studies. Moreover, the relationship of bioactive components in coffee with BMD has not been studied. The aim of the current study is to identify coffee-associated metabolites and evaluate their association with BMD,” the authors wrote in the report.
In actuality, bone strength refers to mineral density. The amount of minerals present in bone tissue is a strong correlate of several metabolic bone diseases, including osteoporosis, rickets, osteomalacia, osteogenesis imperfecta, and fibrous dysplasia.
For many years research has been suppressed by a long-standing (and anecdotal) assumption that caffeine poses a negative effect on calcium absorption. Scholarly inspection concluded this impact to be a fractional one.
“There is no evidence that caffeine has any harmful effect on bone status or on the calcium economy in individuals who ingest the currently recommended daily allowances of calcium.” celebrated osteology expert, Dr. Robert Heaney wrote back in 2002.
Coffee Consumption and its Association with Bone Mineral Density
The Hong Kong University researchers began their analysis with 564 healthy community-dwelling adults previously involved in an osteoporosis study from a few years back. The participants were tasked with documenting the frequency of their coffee consumption in the followup examination logged in November of last year.
Twelve serum metabolites important to bone mineral density were significantly more concentrated among regular coffee drinkers—three molecules (quinate, 3-hydroxypyridine sulfate, and trigonelline) evidenced particular relevance to the study’s premise.
“Among these metabolites, 11 known metabolites were previously identified to be associated with coffee intake and 6 of them were related to caffeine metabolism. Habitual coffee intake was positively and significantly associated with BMD at the lumbar spine and femoral neck,” the authors continued.
The health benefits linked to coffee consumption are almost all preventive in nature. The abundance of anti-oxidants contained in a single serving effectively disarms free-radicals which in turn delays many of the physical markers of the ageing process. These very same agents have been confirmed to be instrumental measures against cavities, diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver and various forms of cancer.
A study conducted back in 2018 that used mouse models determined that drinking four shots of espresso a day boosts heart health by reinvigorating important proteins and cardiovascular cells.
“For all those folks who drink lots of coffee and are concerned about the health effects of coffee, this is good news,” Cleveland Clinic’s Dr. Chad Deal, who was not directly involved in the study, said in a press release. “It appears to show that coffee is, in general, probably good for bone health.”
Joe Biden doesn’t get why gun rights are a bulwark against tyranny
Oh, Plugs understands RKBA alright enough. He, like other elitists, can’t stand that it confounds their tyrannical desires for power so they have to try an discount its effectiveness. And it does have effect on them, or they wouldn’t be so adamant about gun bans.
As Joe Biden’s flailing campaign headed toward a fifth-place finish in New Hampshire, the former vice president managed to get off some doozies. Perhaps most memorable was the time he jokingly dismissed a student questioner at one of his events as a “lying, dog-faced pony soldier.” But the man who first held federal office during the Nixon administration also managed to reveal his ignorance about one of the key arguments for gun rights.
“Those who say ‘the tree of liberty is watered with the blood of patriots,’ a great line, well, guess what?” Biden lectured his audience in the “Live Free or Die” state. “The fact is, if you’re going to take on the government, you need an F-15 with Hellfire missiles. There is no way an AK-47 is going to take care of you.”
Even though we believe that the Biden candidacy is fated to pop soon, the argument he made is such a prevalent misrepresentation of why gun rights supporters view the Second Amendment as a bulwark against tyranny that it’s worth addressing.
Yes, of course, critics are right that civilian gun owners wouldn’t be able to overthrow completely a government willing to deploy a vast, expansive, and technologically elite military force. But that’s not the point. Our founders believed that every man has the fundamental right to resist tyranny.
Furthermore, one doesn’t need to defeat the government in armed civil war for an armed populace to still serve as a bulwark to tyranny. What matters is that citizens can put up a fight. An armed populace dramatically increases the cost of imposing and maintaining tyranny. Sure, perhaps a tyrannical future president could subdue a resistance, even in a country with more guns than people, such as America, but it would require months of bloody conflict, substantial military losses, and a protracted political nightmare.
Contrast this to a scenario in which an unarmed citizenry is completely at the government’s mercy, able to sweep in and crack down on its people with immediacy and ease. It’s clear that just imposing a higher cost to repression in and of itself is a check on would-be tyrants, even if the people couldn’t, in fact, overthrow the government successfully.
Just consider what has happened in other countries such as China and Russia, where citizens are disarmed and left helpless.In China, the tyrannical government under Xi Jinping has launched a brutal crackdown on the Uighurs, rounding up people of the Muslim ethnic minority and putting them in reeducation camps. It’s an international outrage and human rights disaster. But it’s also one that would have been less likely to have happened if the 1 million Uighurs had AR-15s at home.
A similar scenario has unfolded in Russia, where Vladimir Putin’s regime has allowed a vicious, anti-gay purge to occur in the Chechnya region. Surely those innocent gay men facing electroshock torture would disagree with Biden’s assessment that a citizenry’s ability to offer armed resistance to tyranny isn’t worth protecting.
For a man who is running on his half-century of experience in politics, it’s amazing that Biden doesn’t understand the Second Amendment or its supporters.
Yes, 3D Printed Guns Render Gun Control Moot. That’s The Point
However, some are upset by this revelation. They argue that 3D printing completely renders gun control efforts null and void, as if that’s an argument for, well…anything.
3D-printed guns are dangerous because they circumvent existing policies. They are considered “ghost guns,” a term used to describe firearms that do not have an identifying serial number that can be used to match gun purchases to their owner. By law, legal firearms sold in a gun store or by a manufacturer must have a serial number. Printed guns and their parts do not.
All firearms must contain enough metal in the weapon to be able to set off a metal detector. With a 3D-printed firearm, the person printing the weapon must add that metal themselves and there is no way to ensure they have done so. In a licensed gun store, background checks are required to see if the user should be allowed to own a rifle. But with 3D-printed guns, no background checks are done and anyone can buy the blueprints and use a 3D printer to create the weapon.
Yes, that’s kind of been my point. That’s why Cody Wilson worked so hard to develop a viable 3D printed firearm. The very point was to make gun control less than useless. After all, gun control has only ever applied to the law-abiding citizen anyway.