When I was researching for my first handgun purchase, I seriously considered a Glock pistol, but I heard of too many incidents like this one:
"On the day of the shooting, Counceller's hands were not on the trigger, but his fleece jacket's drawstring found its way into his holster.
"When pulling up on that jacket, this thing comes up, basically hits the safety and fired," he said.
Based on the store video, an internal police investigation concluded that the jacket's drawstring "caused the weapon to fire.""
This is clearly an incident in which a trained and experienced individual was let down by the design of the gun. I am sure that the Chief did everything correctly, but somehow failed to notice the drawstring inside the trigger guard. I elected to get a 1911 in part because it has an external thumb safety on the left side of the slide. While this requires one to train to make disengaging the safety an automatic act during presentation, there is the added benefit of having a tactile indication of the state of the gun: safe or ready to fire. One must also train to engage the safety when coming off-target. Not to bash Glocks, but the trigger safety used on Glocks, S&W M&P pistols, and others, simply gave me the willies, and I elected to go with a different gun.
A very good article about firearms accidents on Real Clear Policy. Here is the money quote:
"Not only are gun accidents rare to begin with, but when they happen, they overwhelmingly happen because people were not following the rules. Someone who's careful doesn't need to panic about the idea of having a gun in the house -- they just need to keep being careful."
Follow the four rules, and you will be all right. Also, never let children have unsupervised access to firearms.
Here is an interesting active shooter training video, a collaborative product of the San Antonio PD and WOAI News 4. Note that among the advice given, is acknowledgement that armed citizens can be effective in stopping an active shooter. This is a concept that is to new to many of us, but might be surprising, and unwelcome, to the anti-gun crowd.
It is said that history does not repeat itself, but that is does rhyme. We have been hearing a lot of rhyming this week from Russia attempting to justify its invasion of Ukraine. In this article from Fox News we read:
"Putin has defied calls from the West to pull back his troops, insisting that Russia has a right to protect its interests and Russian-speakers in Crimea and elsewhere in Ukraine. However, there has been no sign of ethnic Russians facing attacks in Crimea or elsewhere in Ukraine."
This paragraph, especially the part about protecting "Russian-speakers" reminded me of another territorial dispute in Europe, from 76 years ago: the Sudetenland Crisis of 1938. During this episode, Adolf Hitler proclaimed himself the protector of German-speakers inside certain border regions of Czechoslovakia. Here is Hitlers demand:
"I am asking neither that Germany be allowed to oppress three and a half million Frenchmen, nor am I asking that three and a half million Englishmen be placed at our mercy. Rather I am simply demanding that the oppression of three and a half million Germans in Czechoslovakia cease and that the inalienable right to self-determination take its place." - Adolf Hitler's speech at the NSDAP Congress 1938
Of course, Hitler orchestrated the entire crisis in order to occupy the Sudetenland in order to gain territory at Czechoslovakia's expense. This indeed happened when the Western powers signed the Munich Agreement in which Great Britain and France pressured Czechoslovakia into accepting the loss of territory in order to avoid war. Make no mistake, Great Britain and France threw Czechoslovakia under the bus. The similarities between Russia and Ukraine in 2014, and Germany and Czechoslovakia in 1938 are striking. I believe the goals are similar: grab territory from a weak neighbor supported by indecisive and irresolute partners, especially the United States. We should all keep out eyes open over the next few weeks for the bus trundling down the road, probably driven by President Obama, with Secretary Kerry acting as the conductor. Consider also, that the main base for the Russian Black Sea Fleet was surrounded by the territory of a different sovereign nation, and we see a ready motive for Putins' aggression: he want to control the Crimea to protect and secure Sevastopol. Russia intended to keep the Crimea. Further, Russia will attempt to grab and hold any other parts of Ukraine it can get. Barring enormous diplomatic pressure, I believe that these territorial changes will be permanent.
