Mark Shean

Archive for July, 2009

“As a six-year prisoner of war, I learned freedom is our most important commodity. We keep it through personal responsibility. Freedom is the flip side of responsibility.” Leo K. Thorsness, Air Force, Vietnam

    You may want to consider this information if you are looking to buy a hand gun for home defense or personal protection reasons, it is important to know. The study/science of Kinetics, (motion) is way over my head, but I understand the general properties of how a bullet works, and for this segment that is good enough for me. Glazer Safety Slugs are made by the Dakota Ammunition Co. www.dakotaammo.net , if you need to find a store that sells their ammo you can contact them. I do not own stock in this company or benefit in any way from their sales, I just want to pass on information that will help keep you safer concerning firearms.

    For home defense you need to be concerned about “over penetration” if you were ever forced to fire shots in your home,(and I hope that you never do) but if you did, in defense of your family and or yourself, you need to understand the danger of “over penetration”. Conventional bullets such as ‘ball’ ammo or lead cast ammo or jacketed hollow points, shotgun slugs or buckshot, all have their place in the world of firearms, I just do not think that ‘place’ is in the home for personal defense. A bullet, once fired, delivers energy known as kinetic energy. If the bullet strikes a mass, travels through that mass, and continues on, it has not yet delivered all of its kinetic energy and will need do so somewhere else. This is what you want to avoid happening, and keep to the utmost minimum at all costs in your home.

    The danger of over penetration is obvious, if you took a shot at an intruder, and missed, the bullet could easily pass through the walls of your home, leave your house, entering the house next door endangering your neighbors before its flight path ends. You do not want that sort of thing happening, it could as easily kill a person in that house next door. In protecting your family you would not feel very good about injuring/killing a neighbor.

Glazer Safety Slugs have a very unique design, they are filled with tiny compressed ‘ lead shot’, the walls of the bullet that contains this ‘lead shot’ are very thin and designed to fragment on impact. This fragmentation immediately disperses all of its kinetic energy on the ‘target’, (intended or not), causing abrupt stopping power and a large cavity wound. If you miss your intended target, and this could easily happen under the stress of the situation, the bullet will then strike a wall and fragment, dumping its energy on the wall and not delivering any lethal fragments through to people that may be in another room, very important. Chances are good that even if you miss the intruder that he will not hang around letting you take ‘pot shots’ at him.

    The usefulness of these Glazer Safety Slugs should now be apparent, the down side to them (if any) would be their cost, they are about $4.00 per bullet, but there is only 5 or 6 in a pack, so it will not ‘break’ the bank, and you will not use them for shooting tin cans at the range, they are for defensive use only, hopefully you will never have to use them.

     Another thing that you may want to consider for a great home defense firearm is a pump shotgun of any gauge. A pump shotgun has a very distinctive sound when it is ‘pumped’ to chamber a shotgun shell, this sound is universally known and carries with it an ‘intimidation factor’ for the intruder in your home. If someone is not willing to exit your home after you warn them that you have a shotgun and especially after you make the sound of pumping the shotgun, then in all probability that person is either insane or has a death wish. In either case it would then become a form of natural selection weeding out the idiots. He will be of no great loss to mankind.

    You still need to be aware of the problem of over penetration with the use of a shotgun. Do not use shotgun ‘slugs’ they carry with them far to much kinetic energy, a shotgun slug will pass through the bad guy, through your house, through the next two houses, and kill someone in the third house down the lane, not good. Do not use ‘buck shot’ for the same reason, though it does not have as much over penetration as a shotgun slug it can still make it into a next door neighbors home, again, not good.

    The best defensive load to use, in my opinion for a shotgun is #6 bird shot, with a ‘full choke’ smooth bore barrel. The average bedroom is around 17 feet wide, if an intruder were to enter that room and you let loose with a load of #6 bird shot you could put a hole the size of a silver dollar and two dimes in that criminal, the bird shot would deliver most all of its kinetic energy on impact, keeping the # 6 shot confined to your bedroom. It would make one heck of a debilitating wound, stopping the threat to you and your family. If you were to miss, the criminal probably would not stick around for you to try again, and the bird shot would loose its energy before leaving your home, it would not carry very far, and the chance of it killing someone in another room would be greatly minimized due to the way bird shot disperses as distance increases.

   Again, I hope that you never find yourself in a situation were you have been forced to shoot at anyone breaking into your home, but if you are ever in that situation it is your first duty and responsibility to protect your family and yourself. The police have a very important and dangerous job to preform, but they are not assigned to sit at the foot of your bed and guard you all night long, you are on your own when the criminal(s) enter your home in the early AM, it is up to you to defend your family. {The Supreme Court has ruled that police have ‘no obligation’ to protect the individual and they have no responsibility to protect you from madmen or murderers.} That says it all in my book, we are on our own.

   We should all have a plan to follow in case of a fire, right? We should also have some idea as to what to do in case of a criminal(s) breaking into our home. Even if that plan is as simple as quickly going to the kids room with a gun a cell phone, house keys, a flashlight and staying there. If you can, start the ball rolling by calling the police and telling them the situation, but be prepared to act in the interim. Do not go looking for the criminal, again, stay put! Let him steal everything in your house, so what, it is only stuff, you can replace stuff!  If your car keys and house keys are together and you can set off your car alarm, do it, it may help pressure the criminals to leave.  This is not the movies where the good guy will go and catch the bad guy(s), that is not your job, your job is to protect your family,  not to catch the bad guy(s) , let the police do that. This is not some phony Hollywood script, this can be life or death for real. 

   When the police do come, do not meet them at the door with a gun in your hand, they will be hyped up and do not know who you are so be careful. If your in contact with the police by cell phone and the intruder is still in your home, direct the police to a window were you can throw the house keys to them. The police, generally speaking, are the ‘clean up’ crew, they come after the fact in most instances. Make sure that if you had to act, then the scene they come to ‘clean up’ or sort out, does not include the body’s of any of your family members.

   Remember, Firearm Education Will Save Lives, Firearm Ignorance Can Take Lives. Sincerely, Mark Shean, NRA Law Enforcement Firearm Instructor, www.mafirearmsafety.com  written 7-13-2009

Your comments/insights are welcomed.

“You have never lived until you have almost died…for those who fight for it, life has a flavor the protected will never know.” Hershel W. Williams, USMC, WWII

    Safeties, and where they are placed on firearms vary from one maker to another, and cover a huge variety of firearms. I am not going to go into each type of firearm, that would take far to much space and bore you, (and me) to tears. I am going to generalize the subject by giving you some good advice, and coupled with your own common sense,(that I know you have) this should suffice if taken seriously.

    When you go to the store to buy a new firearm it will come with a manual telling you all about it, please be sure to read the manual before you go shooting the gun. Make sure you understand everything about the gun. If you buy a second hand firearm from someone and it does not come with the manual, you can find the address of the gun maker on the barrel. You can write them and ask for a copy of the manual for the model you bought, the model number will be on the gun also. That is what I did decades before computers, (showing my age) but now it is easier to go on-line to the gun maker and simply down load the manual, free in most cases.

    Some firearms do not have external safeties, revolvers are prime examples, keep your finger off the trigger and it will not go bang! Glock semi-autos are another good example of no external safety, it has a series of internal safeties activated by the trigger, read the book. So, some guns have only one safety, others have multiple safeties, some have none, internal or external, none what so ever, understand this. Now I am going to let you in on a secret; YOU are any firearms best safety, you can not EVER trust a safety on ANY firearm! Firearms are man made and anything man makes can fail, and does fail. Simply because a safety is on a firearm do not think for a second that it gives you license to carelessly handle that firearm! Remember that number 1 rule, TREAT EVERY FIREARM AS LOADED AT ALL TIMES!!  Because they are all loaded! That has to be our mindset. Weapons safety is every one’s responsibility, especially yours. Practice safe weapons handling until it becomes a habit. Please pass this information on to your family and friends.

Remember, {Firearm Education Will Save Lives, Firearm Ignorance Can Take Lives}. Ignorance of History could cost us our freedoms.

Sincerely, Mark Shean, NRA Law Enforcement Firearm Instructor, www.mafirearmsafety.com  written 7-12-2009

Your comments/insights are welcomed.

“Our freedom, envied the world over, was attained at great personal sacrifice by our nation’s founders; we cannot allow it to wither away through apathy, or tolerance for actions that could jeopardize it.” Thomas J. Hudner, Navy, Korea

    Dry firing, there are two camps on whether or not dry firing can or cannot do damage to a firearm. I lean to the side that says damage can be done to the internal workings of a firearm. I am not going to chance doing damage to any of my investments, and that is exactly what firearms are, investments. The firing pins in firearms are designed to to strike the primers of the ammunition being used in the chamber. If there is nothing for the firing pin to strike it can over extend, it was not designed to take that kind of punishment from the viewpoint of my camp.

    There is a solution to this dilemma though, the solution is called snap-caps. Snap caps are nothing more than artificial, or ‘fake’ bullets. They do not fire, they do not make noise, they come in most common caliber sizes, usually 5 or 6 to a pack, and can be used over and over again, they are of a color that can not be confused with real bullets so you can tell immediately that they are not real ammunition. They can be manually functioned through semi-auto’s and are easily used in revolvers. They are specifically designed to give the firing pin something to strike to avoid any possible damage to the firearm. Whom ever invented snap-caps must be in my camp on this issue. Remember that when you practice dry firing in the home, NEVER have any live ammo in the same room.

    Why would you want to dry fire you might ask? Dry firing is a tool to practice the mechanics/fundamentals of shooting, mainly at home, prior to going to a range, without putting holes in your walls. The idea is that by practicing the ‘elements’ of shooting while dry firing you will produce better results on targets when you actually shoot at the range. The ‘elements’ that we strive to become proficient with are, 1. Concentration, we can not shoot well if our minds are wandering, we must stay focused. 2. Breath Control, we must know how to regulate our breathing so that we are not all over the target, this takes additional coaching and practice, as does every aspect of shooting. 3. Good Positioning, whether this will be standing, kneeling, sitting, or prone, you will need to find what is most comfortable and effective for you in each position, and practice it, muscle memory will develop over time. 4. Proper Grip, again, this can simply mean what is most comfortable and effective for you, depending on the size of your hands, the length of your arms, the type of firearm, be it handgun, rifle or shotgun. How to ‘mount’ a rifle or shotgun to your shoulder consistently for consistent results, these are all consideration’s to be looked at and figured out. 5. Proper Trigger Squeeze, learning where best to place your finger on the trigger, learning not to ‘slap’ the trigger, your trigger ‘work’ along with every other element of shooting will begin to blend together becoming ‘second nature’ eventually. They all boil down to this, the holy grail,# 6. Proper Sight Alignment, without every other element coming together correctly, your target will not look as good as it would when everything does come together correctly. The main theme throughout the entire breakdown of these mechanics/fundamentals of shooting is simply this, practice, practice, practice, and some more practice.

    Dry firing does not prepare you for muzzle blast or felt recoil. Expolsions a few inches in front of our face is not a natural thing, it may cause us to flinch, recoil may hurt slightly which may cause us to anticipate recoil which also causes us to flinch, we must learn to ignore these , it can be tough to do, especially for larger calibers. I recommend you start with a .22 cal. if you are new to firearms.  With proper coaching you will learn to ‘work’ through these shooting distractions. As your skills improve, the satisfaction that you receive will be reflected in the scores you produce on your targets. Dry firing is an aid in developing all these aspects of shooting. These skills do not come over night, but they will come and become second nature.

Remember, {Firearm Education Will Save Lives, Firearm Ignorance Can Take Lives}. Ignorance of History could cost us our freedoms.

Mark Shean, NRA Law Enforcement Firearm Instructor, www.mafirearmsafety.com  written 7-12-2009

Your comments/insights are welcomed.

“Moral courage….doing what has to be done because it is the right thing to do regardless of the consequences to yourself or what others will think….that is the mark of a true hero.” Thomas G. Kelley, Navy, Vietnam

  I know, I know, your going to say that when you hear a command like ‘cease fire’ at a gun range, you stop shooting, of course you are correct, to a point. But what else do you do, and should you do? Well that is what I am here to let you in on, there are those of you that may already know, so please be patient. For safeties sake I can not take for granted that everyone knows this information, that would be irresponsible on my part.

  When we are at a gun range we naturally will be inundated with loud gun fire, especially if there are more than just a couple of people there. We need to protect our hearing under this barrage of noise. If we ever damage part of our hearing it can never repair itself, we lose it forever, so we must protect our ear drums. In the course of doing this we don various forms of hearing protection, not only do we muffle the sharp sound of gunfire we mostly block the lower sounds of human voices. Lets say there are 7 people shooting at the same time on the range today, they are all concentrating on their targets when suddenly a ten year old kid,(or anyone) that has been watching his parent screams CEASE FIRE!!! At that point in time you will not immediately know why he yelled cease fire, but you must obey the command instantly, it can be a life and death command.

   The second you hear the command you must loudly repeat the command so that the people to the right and left of you hear it, they in turn loudly repeat the command, while all are repeating the cease fire command they should also be simultaneously unloading their firearms and placing them on their shooting benches, with the actions open. The reason that it is so important to repeat the command down the line is so that everyone on a loud firing line will hear it.

   That little ten year old kid,(or anyone else) is the ‘boss’ at the second he yelled cease fire, and everyone had better comply. He may have seen someone coming out of the woods down range chasing a dog, who knows, but never second guess a cease fire command! When the issue is resolved, what ever it was, then an all clear will be called and the shooting may resume. Anyone has the right to call a cease fire on a gun range if they feel there is an unsafe situation, and everyone must repeat that command, for safeties sake.

Remember, {Firearm Education Will Save Lives, Firearm Ignorance Can Take Lives}. Ignorance of History could cost us our freedoms.

 Mark Shean, NRA Law Enforcement Firearm Instructor,  www.mafirearmsafety.com  written 7-9-2009

Your comments/insights are welcomed.

“There are two kinds of people in the world; those who get things done and those who take credit for getting things done. Belong to the first group if you can; there is much less competition”. Francis S. Currey, Army, WWII

   If you are not some kind of control freak in your day to day personal life, that is probably a good thing, I mean, no one likes a control freak. They are overbearing, domineering, insensitive, rude, crude, socially unacceptable, (probably your boss) and usually end up in divorce court. But when it comes to firearms we all have to be control freaks where bullets are concerned.

   I have mentioned common sense before and I will bring it up again, engage your common sense every time you handle a firearm, take common sense for a walk around the block, give it a bit of exercise. You do not need to be a ballistics or trajectory expert to know that bullets can go far and do damage beyond your field of vision if you are not careful. If you are setting up targets, think of your backstop, be it dirt, tires, wood, whatever, be aware of what is behind those targets. If there are stones, (for instance) large enough to cause a ricochet, move them out of the way, if you can not move them, find another safe spot for your targets.

   A short definition of a ricochet is; ‘an uncontrolled bullet’. Gun clubs have been closed down due to ricochets, pending investigations as to what may have caused it and how it will be avoided in the future before reopening, that is no fun for the membership. Another form of uncontrolled bullet is to indiscriminately shoot a bullet up into the air, this is very irresponsible, and dangerous. If done at a ‘rainbow pitch’ a bullet as small as a .22 caliber rim fire can carry a mile or more before coming back to earth, you have no idea where it will land,  (you will be held responsible for what it may do, you own it),  that certainly fits the ‘uncontrolled’ category.

   Bullets are not meant to be shot at water, the speed of a bullet will cause it to ‘glance’ off , and it will carry clear across that pond, and if your unlucky, into someones camp ground. Again,you are responsible, and will be held responsible for your negligence, weather it be known or unknown to you as to the damage the bullet has done. So make a point to at least understand the caliber(s) you own, and the capabilities of those calibers, that is the responsible and right thing to do, when you own firearms. The only firearm that is meant for over the water shooting is a shotgun. The bird shot from a shotgun does not carry very far. A shotgun shell with bird shot, once fired, will lose its energy rapidly, the pellets will fall and sink at around 150 yards give or take. The utmost effective range is about a third of that distance.

   If you intend to hunt you must always be diligent as to what is beyond your intended game. It is not as controlled as a shooting range. If you are deer hunting you may be carrying a rifle or shotgun , both with the capability of shooting a long distance with large game loads. If you see a deer, look beyond it for the color orange, that will be another hunter, (he/she is on your side) that means you do not take the shot. If your really hungry go to McDonald’s and get a burger, that deer will never be worth risking someones life. You may say; gee that’s just common sense! Well, if it is such damned common sense, why are hunters shooting each other out in the woods most years all across this country? Because they are not taking their common sense around the block and giving it a little exercise now and then, that is why. Common sense is simply thinking something through before acting.

    Once you squeeze off that shot you can not suddenly say ‘oops’ that was a mistake, gee whizz, come back here little bullet and let me do that differently, it is far to late for that, you will have to live with the consequences. Firearms are very unforgiving, the mistake you make could be someone else’s last breath.  My point here is to think  BEFORE  you shoot. If everyone did that we would all be much safer. Avoid uncontrolled bullets at ALL costs! Please Pass This On.

    Remember, Firearm Education Will Save Lives, Firearm Ignorance Can Take Lives. Please, always err on the side of caution.  

Sincerely, Mark Shean, NRA Law Enforcement Firearm Instructor,

www.mafirearmsafety.com  written 7-9-2009

Your comments/insights are welcomed.