I had a conversation with a friend of mine a while back. This guy is a great guy. But he is a liberal and has ideas that I have a hard time understanding. He also happens to be a member of the LDS Church and one of my leaders. He was raised in Chicago, Illinois and that is part of his problem. I’m not sure how a member of the Church can be a liberal but that’s another post. (LDS and Liberal? I Say Unto You, Nay, 11/7/15).
We were talking about guns and he asked the typical questions, “Why do you need an AR15?”, “Why do you need to carry a gun?”, and “Why do you need more than 10 rounds?” Most of us have been there. Someone ignorant of self-defense, ignorant of guns themselves, and someone who has never had to defend themselves. Some of you reading this may have some of the same questions.
The question I’d like to address here is “Why do you need more than 10 rounds?” Well, to be honest, sometimes you don’t. The problem with this question is it comes from ignorance. I can’t really blame them but I do wish they would believe those of us that know when we tell them “I may not always need 10 rounds, but what happens if I do?” Sometimes I get the impression that those that aren’t into guns think that we that like them sit around trying to figure out how we can spend more money on guns and ammo! Please believe us, we, and you too if you carried a gun, need more than 10 rounds. Do not get your gun training from TV and movies. One or two shots is all the good guys need. This is not true and think about where you are receiving information. A fictional show is usually for entertainment, not education.
Masaad Ayoob has been a weapons instructor since the 1970’s. He has written several books and articles and is considered a gun expert. Check out this article:
http://www.personaldefenseworld.com/2014/10/5-gunfighting-myths-debunked-massad-ayoob/#armed-and-ready
I think it’s interesting that some politicians and others believe I shouldn’t have more than 10 rounds but the police, who they think are highly trained and skilled in arms, should have double that number. Some Law Enforcement (LE) are very skilled at arms and some just do what they have to do to qualify and have a job! Not only that, if the need for more rounds is just simply not needed then why don’t LE still have .357’s? LE should have everything and anything that will be a force multiplier to ensure that they go home every night. That is why they carry auto-loaders.
There is an officer in Skokie, Illinois north of Chicago, population 65,000, who had an experience that changed his “load out” from 47 rounds to 145 everyday.
The story he tells to Police One.com goes:
“I didn’t have time to think of backing up or even ramming him,” Gramins said. “I see the gun and I engage.”
Gramins fired back through his windshield, sending a total of 13 rounds tearing through just three holes.
A master firearms instructor and a sniper on his department’s Tactical Intervention Unit, “I was confident at least some of them were hitting him, but he wasn’t even close to slowing down,” Gramins said.
The gunman shot his pistol dry trying to hit Gramins with rounds through his driver-side window, but except for spraying the officer’s face with glass, he narrowly missed and headed back to his car.
Gramins, also empty, escaped his squad car — “a coffin,” he calls it — and reloaded on his run to cover behind the passenger-side rear of the Bonneville.
Now the robber, a lanky six-footer, was back in the fight with a .380 Bersa pistol he’d grabbed off his front seat. Rounds flew between the two as the gunman dashed toward the squad car.
Again, Gramins shot dry and reloaded.
“I thought I was hitting him, but with shots going through his clothing it was hard to tell for sure. This much was certain: he kept moving and kept shooting, trying his damnedest to kill me.”
In this free-for-all, the assailant had, in fact, been struck 14 times. Any one of six of these wounds — in the heart, right lung, left lung, liver, diaphragm, and right kidney — could have produced fatal consequences…“in time,” Gramins emphasizes.
But time for Gramins, like the stack of bullets in his third magazine, was fast running out.
When the suspect bent down to peer under the car, Gramins carefully established a sight picture, and squeezed off three controlled bursts in rapid succession.
The whole shootout had lasted 56 seconds, Gramins said. The assailant had fired 21 rounds from his two handguns. Inexplicably — but fortunately — he had not attempted to employ an SKS semi-automatic rifle that was lying on his front seat ready to go.
Gramins had discharged 33 rounds. Four remained in his magazine.”
This is only one example. Would this happen to you or me? Maybe. But what if 3 guys with guns burst through your front door looking to kill everyone in the house and take what they want? How would you feel about those 10 rounds then?
I carry a subcompact 9mm that holds 7 rounds in the magazine and 1 in the chamber. I always carry a spare magazine. That’s only 15 rounds. In my vehicle I also carry another 7 round magazine and then a box of 50 rounds. So if I can get to my vehicle (pretty unlikely) I have the possibility of 72 rounds if I can reload magazines, another big “If”. Like any other preparation it’s always better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
Other things that happen in a gunfight are a tunnel vision and tunnel hearing. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University ran a series of audible and visual tests on human subjects, measuring the loss of acuity while engaging them in activities designed to narrow attention. The results were a shocker.
The experiment was designed to tunnel vision – and it did. But a completely unexpected event occurred. While the vision was being tunneled, the performance of the audible control center decreased. That was not a typo. Tunneled vision led to diminished hearing. Turns out, focusing on something intently led the audio cortex to turn down the volume.
When the researchers performed an experiment to tunnel the hearing, the performance of the visual control center decreased. Again, no typo. Tunneled hearing led to diminished vision.
This led the researchers to conclude that a person intently listening to audible cues, like a radio or cell phone, could have diminished visual performance. It also led the researchers to conclude a person intently focused on something visual could have diminished hearing.
Most people involved in a shooting experience report several things. One, it all happened so fast, yet in slow motion. Does that make sense? It seems slow, but actually is a few seconds. And two, they can only remember vague things about the experience until they think about it or some time passes. Traumatic experiences teach us that you think you shot 4 shots when you actually shot 12.
I write this article not to convince you of the need to fight the silly legislation of only 10 round magazines, but so that you may reconsider your own load out. I love my subcompact. It is so small and yet still accurate. It is so easy to conceal that it has spoiled me. I’ve been considered lately a compact double stack giving me a 35 round capacity with just 2 magazines.
If you carry concealed my counsel to you would be three fold. Always have 1 in the chamber, carry at least 2 magazines, shoot in 3 round bursts. (2 to the chest, 1 to the head)
I’d like to think that I really only need about 3 rounds, but I want the option of more if I find myself in a world of hurt (trouble).
Semper Paratus
Check 6
Burn
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