Well, I havent posted in a while but since the CCW topic came up I thought I would throw my 2 cents in too.
I usually carry as big a weapon as I can safely conceal. Cooler weather has me carrying a 5" Springfield 1911. Occassionally I will carry a 5" Springfield .40 XD. On really really rare occassions it will be a glock 17. In hotter weather its a S&W 638 airweight in a galco pocket holster.
I try to carry legal with one exception. I will carry into restaurants where they serve alcohol. Not bars. I dont go into bars anyway. At any rate, I feel the gun is safer on me than left unattended in my vehicle.
I have always carried alot, but since I got road blocked out on a job in 2001 by a screwed up dope head I have carried religously. I had a 9mm S&W 5906 pistol with me that day. Luckily everything turned out ok and I didnt have to use it. Without getting into a long story though, it did end the confrontation. It also served as a learning experience for me too. I had to do some soul searching and admit that while I am a more than adequate shot with a rifle my pistol skills were in my opinion lacking and I needed to do something to get them up to speed.
I also realized that something as simple as the thumb safety can get you hung up when your under stress. De-safing it on the draw comes from practice. It needs to be mindless as does the presentation of the weapon, and flash sight picture. In a stressful situation those basics are the last things you need to be worrying about. However, without practice they can easily put you into a worse situation.
I havent heard it mentioned but IDPA shooting I have found is a very fun way to get some trigger time in on your carry weapons. Ya cant view it as anything but a muscle memory builder though. The tactics of the game in large part are not good in the real world, and you need to remind yourself of that right off the bat. However, it does let ya get practice on that flash sight picture and the concealed draw (if you will wear your normal rig). It also gets your feet moving to get you used to shooting while on the move, and from or around vehicles or barricades. The targets are man sized with no bulls eye. So, it trains your sight picture to the proper area for a center mass shot. It also often incorporates whats called a "failure drill" in some of the courses of fire. A failure drill is where you put a couple bullets center mass and then a head shot. It is simulating that you have hit the bad guy but he didnt go down. So, you went for the head shot for the stop. Another thing to think about is that it puts you under some small amount of stress while you are operating the gun. Not as much as a real life situation but enough to get you to do some silly things like try to shoot with the safety still on, etc. Anyway, its something to think about trying if you have a local club. Dont worry about getting embarrassed if your not an expert shooter. There are folks at these events that are at ALL skill levels and no one in my experience will say anything negative to you to embarass you. On the contrary they are quite willing to help you improve yourself. Please, if you try to do this or any other type of practice. Just be safe. Follow the directions of range officers and dont try to go dangerously beyond your skill level. You may see shooters that shoot really fast. Dont try to shoot at their speed. Watch the technique of these guys though. It can be very educational. Just shoot at your speed not theirs and practice the fundimentals. Push yourself, but not dangerously so. Thats where people get dangerous and lose muzzle control or have a round go off during the draw etc.
Also, I recently read an article about a concealed carry involved in a shooting in Baton Rouge. Here is the article. Some of you might find it interesting. The story is new and is still developing, but it appears that concealed carry had a legal kill in defense of a police officer who was under attack.
Article from channel 2 news------------------------------------------------------------
Police: Witness shot man five times
By KIMBERLY VETTER
Advocate staff writer
Published: Feb 21, 2006
Advocate staff photo by Richard Alan Hannon
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No arrests will be made in the death of 24-year-old George Temple II, a local businessman shot and killed by a witness during a scuffle with a Baton Rouge police officer on Friday.
“We are not arresting anyone,” Greg Phares, chief criminal deputy with the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, said Monday. “However, this is not the end of the process. Our investigation will be taken to the district attorney.”
Phares said Perry Stephens fired a shot to Temple’s head after witnessing a fight between Temple and Officer Brian Harrison.
Phares declined to release Stephens’ age and address.
He said Stephens shot Temple with a .45-caliber handgun five times, four times in the chest and once in the head. The incident occurred about 2:15 p.m. Friday in the parking lot of the AutoZone at 9007 Greenwell Springs Road at Joor Road.
Phares would not talk about bullet entry points, but said, “It is my understanding that Mr. Stephens attempted to place his shots in a way to minimize harm to the police officer since the two were so close.”
Stephens had a concealed handgun license, Phares said.
Phares said that investigators found a handgun in Temple’s car, but that it did not play a part in the altercation. Temple was the owner of Expert Sound, 7221 Airline Highway.
Harrison, 32, shot Temple once in the stomach during the struggle, Phares said
Attempts to reach Harrison Monday were unsuccessful. The Advocate left one message at his home.
While working for the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, Harrison accidentally shot a customer in 1995 when two men robbed a convenience store in Baker, The Advocate has reported.
In that robbery, the customer was armed with a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol. After the bandits left the store, the customer followed and fired at least one shot.
Harrison, who was in uniform but unarmed, obtained a .357-caliber pistol from the store owner and fired a single shot at a figure running west in the direction that the robbers also ran, accidentally shooting the customer in the lower back.
No charges were filed against Harrison, East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court records show.
Stephens also could not be reached for comment. The Advocate left two messages at his home and made a visit to his house on Monday but did not reach him.
At a news conference Monday, Phares said Stephens walked out of the AutoZone and got his weapon after hearing Harrison, who was fighting with Temple on the ground, yell for help.
As Stephens, who was wearing a neck brace and using a cane, walked toward the men, he heard shots and Harrison again call for help.
At that point, Stephens asked Temple to get off Harrison, Phares said. When Temple did not comply, he shot Temple four times in the chest.
Stephens ordered Temple again to get off Harrison. When he did not comply, he shot Temple in the head, killing him, Phares said.
How the fight between Harrison and Temple began is still unclear to investigators. What they do know is that Harrison was off-duty and working as a motorcycle escort for a funeral procession going west on Greenwell Springs Road when a black S550 Mercedes driven by Temple cut into the procession, Phares said.
Harrison pulled Temple into the AutoZone parking lot and wrote him a ticket for a traffic violation. That’s when an argument began. What the two argued about is still unknown because Harrison has yet to be interviewed, Phares said.
Phares said investigators have talked with Harrison’s attorney and feel confident an interview with the officer will happen soon.
Words turned into a fight after Harrison attempted to remove Temple from his car, Phares said.
The fight left Harrison with face contusions. He is on administrative leave during the investigation, Police Chief Jeff LeDuff said at the news conference.
“This is a tragic scene all the way around,” said LeDuff, who added it is a police officer’s duty to keep unwanted cars out of a funeral procession. “I’ve written that ticket a hundred times.”
Wayne Laird, manager of Rabenhorst Funeral Home East, said his funeral home was involved in the procession that day.
“People are bad about cutting in a funeral procession and cutting on their lights and following the process and then dropping off wherever they want,” he said. “We don’t know if that actually happened, but that sort of thing is typical. It is very dangerous.”
According to court records, Temple was on probation for simple battery and simple damage to property at the time of his death.
A case against him also was pending involving counts of simple battery, simple trespassing and simple criminal damage to property, according to records at the Clerk of Court’s Office.
