Paying It Forward

I am going to help a 23-year-old shoot the IDPA Classifier tomorrow.   He told me he doesn't have the money or the ammo to shoot The Classifier.  I waived his fee and said I would supply 200 rounds ammo.

Why?

Well, it's all about "paying it forward."  That's what all the Old Men in my life did for me.  They gave me all the Gifts of Their Shooting Lives and translated it down to my existence.  I didn't really understand what they were doing back when I was a kid but I "get it" now.

I look forward to each and every chance I get to "pay it forward" in The Shooting World.  It is up to us Old Guys to carry on The Tradition.

I will have a lot more about this story as it evolves. HAPPY Shooting!

REVO

Revolver.

The mere word elicits either scorn or curiosity about quaint firearms technology.

Well, we've decided to shoot REVO!  And we're danged proud to pick up a fading tradition.  REVO shooters are becoming few and far between.  They account for only a few percentage points of IDPA 23,000+ membership in 50 countries.

Frankly, we don't give a damn, My Dear!  Shooting a revolver is SO MUCH FUN!  And that's where we are right now.  We're in it for the fun.  We couldn't care less how we rank in the final scores.

If we had to pick only ONE pistol to own it would be a revolver. That's how much we love them.

As of late September 2015, we own two Ruger GP100 revolvers.  One is an older blued 4-inch and the other is 2014 production GP100 3-inch.

Lots of good things have been done to both revolvers.  Both have their "personalities" but both are in great shape for IDPA competition.

We are  excited about our new course of fire.

Documentation

Document Your Self-Defense Training

By: Marty Hayes | August 25, 2015

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Following a defensive gun use, your ability to prove what training you’ve had could make the difference should you find yourself in the crosshairs of the law.

If you ever wind up in front of a judge or jury in the unenviable position of having to justify an act of self-defense, you will need to prove that your actions were reasonable under the circumstances. Informing the triers of fact about the training you’ve had is the key.

Under the rules of evidence, you have the right to introduce evidence that will help court officials understand your mindset leading to your decision to shoot in self-defense. This evidence may include an instructor explaining what he or she trained you to do under those circumstances.

You can explain the nature and extent of your training and knowledge to the judge or jury, but only if you can document that you possessed that knowledge before the self-defense incident occurred.

For example, let’s say that you shot an individual who was threatening to cut your throat while that person was five steps away from you. If you’d had the right training, you knew before this ever happened that a person five steps away possesses both the ability and the opportunity to use that knife against you. The jury should understand your prior knowledge, so they can decide if a reasonable person would have pulled the trigger when you did, knowing that someone threatening with a knife is a deadly danger to you, even five steps away.

Your ability to introduce properly documented training will greatly aid the court in understanding that your actions were indeed reasonable—and hence justifiable.

Also check out, Deadly Force: Understanding Your Right to Self Defense. This guide, by Massad Ayoob, will help you understand the legal and ethical issues concerning the use of lethal force by armed citizens.

You need to document classes you’ve attended, books you’ve read and DVD lectures you’ve viewed so there is no question of what you knew ahead of time. This documentation can be done in several ways. At theArmed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, Inc. we provide members with eight lectures on DVD. On the DVD labels, we print lines for members to initial and date each time they view one of the lectures. You can and should do the same with educational and training DVDs.

Each time you watch an educational DVD, document the viewing with an indelible marker on the disk label and take notes on the material taught. Once you’ve developed a good set of notes, mail the notes to yourself by U.S. Mail, return receipt requested. When the notes come back to you, file the unopened, postmarked envelope in a safe deposit box.

If you ever get a judge who doesn’t believe you knew what the lectures taught, introducing a signed, sealed and delivered copy of notes made while watching the lectures on DVD should do the trick. The same strategy will work for professionally taught classes and books.

Another tactic is to give your notes to an attorney other than your defense attorney and have them filed with your records at the law firm’s office. There may be a small fee for this, but it is worth it. Again, do not secure the notes with your defense attorney, but with someone else so the lawyer holding your notes can testify as an officer of the court that you gave them the documents, something the attorney defending you cannot do. Next, you testify about how you took these notes. Let’s say that perhaps you watched the video three times as your notes would show.

Another way to document material learned by lectures on DVD would be to view training DVDs in a group setting, for example at your gun club. Make a list of all who were present and also saw the video, and then you could call one or more of these people as eye witnesses to having viewed the video.

Get good training, read books by knowledgeable authors and use DVD lectures to increase your understanding of self-defense issues, but do not fool yourself into thinking that is enough. Take good notes and preserve the integrity of those notes with the understanding that they may be the factor that ultimately proves the reasonableness of your self-defense actions.

Public Lands Shooting Shift?

We wonder if The National Forest Service "might" be phasing in a policy and management shift regarding where recreational sport shooting activities can take place on USFS-administered public lands.

Four Ranger Districts on Colorado's Arapahoe and Roosevelt National Forests (ARNF) recently released draft plans to manage where recreational sport shooting (RSS) activities may take place.

Here is the official website of the ARNF proposal:

http://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=46910

It has long been speculated by RSS enthusiasts that Federal Land Managers would someday begin to address uncontrolled RSS activities in areas where urban development interfaces with the "wide open spaces" of public lands.

Although there is no stated connection between the ARNF's proposals and a broader policy shift by Regional Forest managers, one would reasonably assume that other National Forest officials are closely watching how the ARNF approach to RSS issues plays out.

Clearly, uncontrolled RSS activities can be appropriate and dangerous in close proximity to dense urban development and heavily used travel corridors.

We have not yet had time to study the ARNF proposals in detail.  However, one aspect of the proposal literally leaps off the page to catch our attention.  In the attached map, you can see that the ARNF has designated only two sites as "Designated Shooting Area."

(NOTE: Here is the link to a full size version of the map graphic shown here:

http://a123.g.akamai.net/7/123/11558/abc123/forestservic.download.akamai.com/11558/www/nepa/101606_FSPLT3_2554011.pdf

Narrative continues below map graphic.

We have long been of the opinion that RSS activities will eventually become highly restricted, if not actually regulated, on public lands.  The transgressions of a few who trash public lands and who shoot in reckless and unsafe places and ways have perhaps forever tarnished the good behavior of the vast majority of RSS enthusiasts.

We have also long harbored hopes that the Forest Service would be pro-active and work with the RSS community to develop many accessible, safe Designated Shooting Areas, if not actual controlled shooting ranges.

As we move into an uncertain RSS future, we feel it would behoove both RSS enthusiasts and public lands managers to reach out to each other and engage in a productive, ongoing dialog regarding how to efficiently address what is certain to be a growing set of issues on public lands across America.

Reaction Time

Here's IDPA Master John Mercurio practicing his reaction time.

Post by John Mercurio, Rudy Project Shooting Squad.