We canceled the Law of Armed Defense Class previously scheduled for April 2 but will be announcing the new date and location very soon. Watch the ADTA calendar page for this and other upcoming events.
Members of the Armed Defense Training Association recently participated in two live-fire events at Paul Bunyan Range in Puyallup. Dave Farrow and Bruce Wood, both experienced USPSA competitors and Range Officers, ran the courses of fire for the ADTA. Additionally, Dave is President of Paul Bunyan and Chairman of USPSA activities at Paul Bunyan.
At the first event, on March 23rd, Dave explained the rules for using the action bays at Paul Bunyan and a safety-check. Safety-checks are critical for any shooters that want to shoot-on-the-move because there is more going on than most of us have experienced in normal target practice and it is absolutely essential to understand the range commands, procedures and rules that keep everyone safe.
Some ADTA members still don’t have the right equipment. Choosing a firearm is an entirely personal decision. Nevertheless, .44 magnums, .22 pistols and .380s are not ideal for normal self-defense purposes. Most police departments require officers to carry a round that is at least .38 caliber. I have seen USPSA and IDPA competitors shoot revolvers much faster than most of us shoot semi-automatics. The speed with which a revolver can be reloaded would surprise most of the critics that want to ban high capacity magazines.
It is true, however, that most of us can reload a semi-auto faster than we can reload a revolver. If you choose to bring a revolver to an action shoot, you should have some speed loaders or moon clips and start practicing how to reload on the move.
And think about your holster, too. Some shooters showed up without any holster. If you are on a budget, Uncle Mike’s has very good Kydex holsters for all calibers. Outside the waistband holsters are safer for action shooting and will be required by ADTA in most instances. You can invest in a good inside the waistband leather holster for everyday concealed carry. I have several but increasingly wear OWB under my suit coat. IWB holsters are often needed for casual wear during hot weather when you won’t be wearing a coat.
We have to make sure we keep our muzzles pointed away from the top of the berms. One accidental discharge that gets over the top of the berm will destroy years of hard work by many generations of shooters that built Paul Bunyan.
We had twelve ADTA members participate in the second event, on Wednesday March 30th, including a few that shot on the previous Wednesday. We had some very experienced shooters and some inexperienced shooters, too.
Bruce administered safety-checks and Dave got us shooting a course of fire that was very similar to a relatively easy USPSA course of fire. We engaged multiple targets, reloaded while transitioning to a window. We engaged three steel targets with the strong hand from the window and then proceeded to another series of cardboard IPSC targets.
There was good sense of fellowship and some frustration as we experienced some of the stress that is normal while developing proficiency and making transitions under the eagle eye of Dave Farrow. Dave let us know when we made mistakes that involve safety and also had some helpful hints for better shooting techniques.
The evening was not complete without taking turns on shooting at a Texas Star that spins around with plates for targets. Then we engaged in a “billet drill”- five shooters in front of five targets shooting six shots into a target as fast we could. I am suggesting that we take up a collection and make both Dave and Bruce ADTA members. I hope they will continue to be involved even when we start holding live-fire events at the West Coast Armory. The ADTA Board also will be meeting and formalizing our intent to donate some nine millimeter ammunition to Paul Bunyan’s youth programs.
The following is a report from one of our members that attended the second ADTA event and recently participated in his first USPSA practice at Paul Bunyan:
Subject: BEFORE you get to the Range preparation-
Learn the commands, safety check procedure and where the safety area is and its purpose.It is complicated and there is STRESS!! You need it to be second nature.
Practice drawing, reloading and firing with blanks/dummy rounds/snap caps.Wear a big strong belt. Get all your gear on your belt as you will have it at the range.
Best procedures for perfecting your draw, presentation and other information about getting started can be located at Getting Started- USPSA Practical Shooting.
http://northwestsection.org/newshooter.html
Research them on line, books, acquaintances.
Bring at least 3 magazines and belt mag holders, ‘More is better’. I saw some with a rack of 6-8 magazines on their belt.
Holster on one hip(outside the waistband)- muzzle straight down (I didn’t see any ‘FBI cants’); magazines on other hip.
No Rambo stuff – clothes, gear or attitude.
No cross draws, shoulder holsters (the muzzle points away from downrange. More on this below).Range preparation:
Your time to shoot is announced:
START of shooting sequence-Step to the firing station
Face downrange and await instruction from Range Officer.
Know how to prepare your weapon for the start of the firing sequences at the firing station.
Face downrange. You have an unloaded pistol with NO magazine in gun in your hip holster.
Range Officer will tell you to “Make ready” (Remove pistol from holster keeping muzzle downrange, insert loaded magazine in your pistol and cycle a live round into the chamber, place safety on and return pistol to holster).
Stand facing downrange waiting for Range Officer behind you to issue these commands:“Are your ready” (no response required unless there is a problem; nod head if want to); “stand by” ;"BEEEEEP” . Draw and Engage targets.
END of shooting sequence-Know how to show clear to the Range Officer when directed.
To ‘Show clear’ after each shooting session:
While muzzle is facing downrange - remove magazine, cycle out last round, lock or hold open slide to display empty chamber, close slide and dry fire straight downrange.)
Oh, did I mention to keep the muzzle always pointing downrange?
If you break 180 by turning too far to the left or right you will be disqualified and not allowed to complete the match for that day. (See ‘DQd’ below).
Move and Shoot-When you move between targets, change magazines. It saves time from running out (10 with one in the chamber is IDPA round limit/mag. IPSC-USPSA does not have a limit in the open category.)
One way in which IDPA differs from USPSA is that there are situations in which you will be required to retain the magazine when you reload.
When shooting at targets through a window, don’t stick your pistol through the window (you are thinking ‘the closer I get to the targets the better’). The window is small and if the pistol recoils or you jam it going into/out of the window - it can cause a firing interruption, or worse- a dropped gun- a DQ!
DQ’d…
So many things will get you disqualified (see ‘muzzle downrange’ and ‘dropped gun’ above.)Read and study the USPSA and IDPA rules material!!!
We represent a fledging organization and first impressions count. Make them good ones. You represent more than just yourself.
http://www.shootonthemove.org/
View YouTube “idpa or ipsc shooting” and see what you will be doing BEFORE you arrive.http://northwestsection.org/newshooter.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dQNKN58ZDc for Renton facility. A good video.Watch everyone else to see what they are doing. Copy/steal any technique that works! This is the American way.
Range Duties-
After the “all clear” (RO confirms recent firing sequence is done, pistol is clear of rounds and re-holstered) is sounded, help paste paper targets / paint steel and pick up spent brass (most reload so they want it back).IDPA has a strong focus on shooting from cover which is important to our objectives. USPSA, IDPA and Steel Targets are all good ways to build skills. Paul Bunyan’s steel match is the third Sunday of every month at 10:00 AM and IDPA at Paul Bunyan is on the fourth Saturday of evey month.
Many folks have observed that we are bonding together as neighbors in love and good fellowship that will continue to grow!
Federal Way gun owners are letting us know that they are serious about the proposed gun range for our city.
We appreciate all the support we have received for our Armed Defense Training Association to achieve our training objectives.
I don’t know whether we will be shooting like SWAT operators but we can all become proficient at shooting on the move and from behind cover. LEOs call such procedures Reality Based Training. Front Sight and excellent local schools like the Firearms Academy of Seattle (in Onalaska, Washington) are well worth the considerable time and expense — if you plan to own a weapon for self-defense.
Incidentally, at FAS you will shoot on the move, from cover and under low-light conditions! We are lining up similar opportunities locally by negotiating range time as a group and then bringing in various instructors and other professionals to make the events safe and productive.
We received encouragement to get going with this plan of action from several business leaders, including members of the Chamber of Commerce. Before the recent proposal for a Shooting Arts Center was published in the Federal Way Mirror, I spoke to the Noon Kiwanis Club and a local Rotary Club about armed self-defense. Soon after I spoke at Rotary, a Rotary Club member asked when we are going to get started with a range.
All ADTA scheduled events are posted here. As our membership grows, ADTA will continue working towards establishing a local Federal Way shooting facility with the flexibility to provide tactical shooting events.
We hope the proposed range will be a resource for law enforcement (at very little cost to local government) and ADTA members for training. There are quite a few of us working to make all these things happen!
Please watch this location for updates!
Another Federal Way resident, Rick Cook (USMC), and I wrote a book entitled, He Trains My Hands for Battle. The book is a primer on Scriptural Kingdom principles relating to armed defense. In order to obtain an electronic copy ofthe manuscript that you can printout on your own printer, go to www.firearmslawyer.net and use the e-mail address there to send $9.00 via Pay Pal. You can make additional copies for church groups and other nonprofit organizations at no charge. Please contact us if you wish to present a seminar or class based on the materials.
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Attorneys for various municipalities around Washington State have issued legal opinions that RCW 9.41.290 “only applies to the regulation of firearms themselves” and “excludes regulations that only secondarily affect firearms… that do not embody a punitive regulation”. The Washington State Attorney General’s Office issued a legal opinion last week that thoroughly rebuts such opinions based on Cherry v Metro and another case that dealt with certain narrow issues applied to a venue for a gun show leased from the City of Sequim, washington.
We previously pointed out in a letter dated May 22, 2008, that the so-called “legal authority” on which many jurisdictions are relying is contrary to any reasonable analysis of the law. Incidentally, the City of Federal Way is now in full compliance with state law as of January 8, 2009.
The legislature has put cities and counties in Washington on notice that local governments’ hands are tied when it comes to restricting our gun rights- even inside the building where the jails and police stations are located. If the City can’t disarm you inside City Hall, how can it force you to be defenseless in the City’s Parks? Keep in mind- cities can only enact those laws and ordinances relating to firearms that are specifically authorized by state law.”
There was recently a mass shooting in another state where the attacker shot and killed a uniformed police officer as a prelude to killing several other people during a City Hall meeting. Our state’s legislature has decided that the solution to such scenarios is not to disarm the people but to make sure that many honest people will be armed when violence occurs.
The key case is Cherry v Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle, a case in which a Metro employee was fired for bringing a gun to work. The folks that seek to repeal or subvert the state preemption law assert that Cherry is authority for disarming you when you cross onto City property. Despite such bold assertions, the Cherry case just stands for the premise that if you work as a municipal employee, you may be prohibited from carrying a weapon while on the job.
There are presently cities all over Washington State receiving legal advice based on legal reasoning that has already been repudiated by every jurisdiction that has honestly looked at the state preemption law and the cases. The reason they get bad advice advice is because many politicians in our state of Washington, like Mayor Greg Nickels in Seattle, don’t like the state preemption law and have announced publicly that they want it repealed.
Lawyers often provide advice that will provide justification for the client’s agenda (e.g., to restrict your gun rights). Prior to the AG issuing the opinion putting anti-gun politicians in their place, cities were being advised by counsel to rely on the case of Pacific Northwest Shooting Park Association v Sequim in order to wage their quiet jihad on your ability to protect your family and loved ones and remain safe at public meetings.
In Pacific Northwest Shooting Park Association v City of Sequim, 158 Wash.2d 342 (2006), the court held that the City of Sequim was acting in a private capacity when leasing out a city convention center to an association conducting a gun show within the premises belonging to Sequim. The court decided that the laws that apply to public parks, public meetings and other municipally owned premises and property are not the same as restrictions imposed on private parties per a city’s contractual relations with private parties.
AGO Opinion 2008-8 essentially states that the City of Federal Way’s conclusion that the city has the right “to decide as an owner how its property is used” would render the preemption statute meaningless. In the event civil litigation becomes necessary, attorney’s fees for the defendant can be very high especially in the face of the unequivocal legal authority outlined herein.
As stated already, there are several jurisdictions within the State of Washington that are not presently complying with the preemption law and firearms owners are becoming very concerned that such callous indifference to state law may endanger the lives of Washington citizens in direct contravention of legislative intent!
The best defense for the citizens of Washington state, all of whom are vulnerable to random shootings and street violence is to limit the number of “gun free” zones that are available as kill zones to criminals, terrorists or other deranged individuals seeking publicity by mass shootings. Almost all such shootings have occurred in areas where honest citizens have been rendered defenseless by laws or policies that violate RCW 9.41.290.
See also The Living Constitution?
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Robert M. Utley is a historian that appreciates the part that firearms technology had in transforming the Old West into what we know today. It is hard to imagine a more appropriate arena in which to study the impact of innovation on a society than Texas in the Eighteen Hundreds. The story of innovation in the design of pistols and rifles contributes a great deal to the story of how Texas acquired its renowned character as a state.
Until 1874, Mr. Utley tells us, Texas Rangers were true citizen soldiers that armed and equipped themselves, fighting Indian, Mexican and outlaw alike with little or no pay. Some of these Rangers were men that just enjoyed a fight enough to go looking for it and many had little discipline beyond natural outdoor skills, superb horsemanship and the ability to fight with any weapons available. After 1874, the Frontier Battalion was established as a permanent fixture of law enforcement in Texas, the primary purpose of which was to fight outlaws.
Mexican authorities granted Stephen Austin civil and military power over Anglo-Texans, mostly Southerners, that colonized Texas under contract with Mexico in 1825. The Mexican rationale was to create a buffer between Mexico and Indian raiding parties from the North.
The governor authorized ten paid volunteers to serve as militia. The Ranger concept had roots in the colonial militias that ranged the frontiers even before England’s war with France in the New World. The bands of fighters would give up “ranging” at harvest time but, as the Anglo society in Texas grew, so did the number of citizens with experience in patrolling the frontier and the concept of permanent units was proposed; thus, the Texas Ranger tradition was gradually conceived in Texas.
John Coffee Hays probably arrived in Texas early in 1838. Jack and his brother, William, came from Mississippi and introduced themselves to Sam Houston as surveyors. To survey the Texas Hill Country north of San Antonio was to make oneself a target for Comanche raiders. Fighting Indians and surveying toughened Hays and developed the young man’s leadership skills. In 1839, the people of San Antonio made Hays the captain of a band of “Minutemen” ready to answer the alarm when the Comanches struck. Units were formed on an ad hoc temporary basis (as the need arose) but by 1844 there were many veterans that had served quite a few enlistments under Hays.
The Rangers, as they gradually came to be known, wore their own frontier clothing, carried two or three pistols, preferred a short rifle and a bowie knife. A Mexican blanket, salt, ammunition, tobacco and dried corn were among the few provisions carried by each Ranger. They borrowed from Mexican vaqueros, employing heavy Mexican bits (the better to manage weapons) and the hair rope called a cabrista, rawhide riata (lariat) along with Mexican saddles.
They constantly practiced horsemanship, imitating the Comanches by tricks like hiding on one side of a horse and shooting from under the horse’s neck with a pistol while galloping full-speed. The rangers could run their horse full-speed, hit a marked post with a rifle and then, switching to pistol, hit the mark on another post 40 yards away without slowing down. Before you all decide to go out and manage your gunfights like that you need to need know that when the lead started flying, the Ranger normally got off his horse. Dismounted is the best way to get good results with a rifle or a pistol unless you are in Hollywood!
Their early rifles were mostly flintlock Kentucky long rifles and shorter, heavier Tennessee rifles, in 1843 converted to percussion cap in 1843. The calibers were often .55 caliber and some barrels were forty-two inches long. Handling a flintlock pistol or rifle on horseback is no easy feat and the caps provided by the government were unreliable. In combat most of the actual fighting was done by Rangers that had dismounted and the men fired in volleys. Comanche could repeatedly shoot arrows in less time than it took to separately ram a ball and patch down a tight fitting barrel.
In 1844, Hays obtained 130 Paterson Colts, the .36 caliber Colts that became available when the President of Texas, Sam Houston, disbanded the Texas Navy. Incidentally, the author does a good job of describing the difficulties of reloading the five-shot Paterson Colts on horseback. The test for the new equipment came at Walker Creek, June 8, 1844. Hays, his lieutenant and fourteen men went looking for Indian sign and found ten Comanches following the Rangers’ trail. The Comanches acted as decoys but unable to draw Hays into an ambush, about seventy warriors attacked.
Hays, outnumbered five to one, led his men into a ravine out of view of the enemy, raced three hundred yards down the ravine and then made a flanking charge, emptying rifles and then deploying Samuel Colt’s revolving pistols. Hays pursued the Indians for a distance but, sensing that the chief was about to turn the tables on his men, ordered anyone with a round remaining to shoot the chief. A careful dismounted shot from Ad Gillespie’s rifle dropped the chief and resulted in the Comanches fleeing from the battlefield, leaving twenty-three dead Comanche and at least that many wounded. Hays’ unit lost one with very few wounded. At Walker Creek, the Colt revolver and the Texas Rangers both began down the road toward legend.
Lieutenant Sam Walker was one of those legendary Rangers that routed the Comanche warriors at Walker Creek. In 1846, after outstanding service in the Mexican-American War, Walker became a captain in the regular U.S. Army. Samuel Colt, approaching the captain in order to promote Colt’s revolving pistols within the ordinance department, heard the story of Walker Creek. At that time Captain Walker proclaimed, “With improvements, I think they (Paterson pistols) can be rendered the most perfect weapons in the World for light mounted troops.”
Despite the usual bureaucratic opposition from the ordinance department, Walker proceeded to assist Colt in obtaining a contract and worked with Colt to develop the first six-shooter.
Named the Walker Colt and weighing four and one-half pounds, it had a nine inch barrel and fired heavy .44 caliber rounds. It was easier to load than the Paterson and packed the power of an army rifle at 100 yards.
In 1847, one month after the fall of Mexico City, Jack Hays reached Vera Cruz with five companies of Texas Rangers. Their task was to deal with guerilla warfare and Hays’ men had Model 1847 Walker Colts, 394 of them, to be exact, and a number of the five-shot Patersons. The Walkers were supposed to go to Captain Walker’s regular mounted units but the ordinance department sent Walker single-shot pistols instead. Walker died at the Battle of Huamantla shortly after the ordinance department punished him by diverting the pistols that were named after Walker to Hays’ Rangers.
Hays’ regiment of Rangers was assigned to anti-guerilla operations in Puebla in November, 1847. Thirty men of Hays’ Rangers under Ranger Captain Jacob Roberts were attacked by two hundred of Santa Ana’s lancers but put the Walker Colts to such good use that a Mexican retreat ensued. Next confronted by five hundred lancers, Ranger firepower prevailed once again. They were a motley, independent bunch, but the Rangers’ reputation was that every insult would be returned with a slug from a Walker Colt. In fact, the episode at Walker Creek was repeated over and again many times, with Colt revolvers overcoming impossible odds in the hands of irregular Texan militiamen.
John B. Jones, like Jack Hays, wasn’t a big man. He dressed impeccably and was religious, abstaining from tobacco and alcohol. The governor named the former Confederate officer as commander of the Frontier Battalion in 1874. Jones transformed the Battalion by discipline, including diligent attention to administrative matters that had previously received casual treatment.
Rangers spent their own money on rifles and pistols but the State of Texas was insisting on mostly .50 caliber Sharps carbines. Compared to the .44 caliber repeating Winchesters, however, the single-shot Sharps, was better for buffalo hunting than Ranger duty.
It was easy to see why a 12 shot lever action carbine in .44 caliber with center-fire cartridges might come in handy and the Winchester ’73 and Colt “Peacemaker” became the Ranger weapons of choice.
During Jones’ leadership, the Rangers focused more on law enforcement. The characteristics of Texan culture seemed to dictate violent feuds that lead to violent death and protracted warfare that stemmed from ethnic, family and political rivalry. Feuds like the Sutton-Taylor feud gave rise to men like John Wesley Hardin. He may have gunned down as many as fifty men, including Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb. Hardin left Texas for the Florida panhandle. After the murder of Webb, the Texas legislature had voted a $4,000.00 reward for Hardin.
A Dallas police officer with a reputation as an investigator was recruited as a Ranger and proceeded to “work up” some detective strategies that led to Hardin’s capture as he disembarked from a train in Alabama. Hardin was extradited from Alabama, stood trial and was convicted. Sentenced to twenty-five years in Huntsville Penitentiary, Wes Hardin went from being one of the most violent prisoners to the study of law and theology and even wrote his own autobiography (well worth the read). In 1894, Hardin was pardoned and set up a law practice in El Paso. Hardin was gunned down (three slugs from a .45 revolver) in a saloon by a constable, John Selman, himself a vicious outlaw, according to Mr. Utley. In violent times, El Paso was a violent town in a violence prone state.
Incidentally, El Paso is now one of the most crime-free cities in the U.S.. Right across the Rio Grande, Juarez is awash in blood and police officer’s severed heads are showing up in unexpected places. Gun control is so strict in Mexico that the police often have to leave their service weapons behind when they go off duty even though many of them have a price on their head! Meanwhile, the drug dealers in Mexico have state of the art guns and the Mexican government blames the U.S. for not curtailing the flow of weapons into Mexico. When the violence starts flowing across the border, history may repeat itself when the Texans start showing the world that a well-armed citizenry is still something to be reckoned with. Remember the Alamo?
Thus, we have see in Utley’s lovely little prose-poem how the not so graceful equation of pre-Civil War “triggernometry” created the formula for the modern state we call Texas. In a sense, this is the history of every “civil” society. Men carve law and order from chaos. Those of us that ride on the shoulders of men like Hays and Walker and Jones can easily forget that, but for such men, less civilized warriors like Wes Hardin and Santa Ana and Comanche raiders would be butchering, raping and looting everything we have worked for.
It can be objected that many of the Rangers were not far removed from their opponents when it came to “racial profiling” and dispensing a slug at the slightest provocation but ultimately they were led by men like John B. Jones and placed under institutional control. Hopefully, warriors with the right combination of independence and respect for legitimate social institutions will always be ready to range the borders wherever disorder tempts lawless and violent predators to cross legitimate boundaries.
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The Washington State Board of Education, at the behest of the federal government, has finally released their “Accountability Index” that rates the quality of every public school in this state.
The choice of descriptions leaves something to be desired. The rankings are:
State Board terms with more commonly used letter grades.
Exemplary- A
Very Good- B
Good- C
Fair- D
Struggling- F
You didn’t notice any terms such as. “Failing,” “Inadequate,” “Marginal” in their assessment.
11.3% of the schools are “Struggling.” You might say “Failing.”
48.7% are “Fair.” This might be better categorized as Marginal.
29.4% are “Good” and we might want to call these average.
6.5% are “Very Good” and we might want to agree with this.
4.0% are “Exemplary” and this might also be called best.
NOTE: 60% OF THE SCHOOLS ARE IN THE LOWEST TWO CATEGORIES!
Washington State is rated 35th in the nation in high school completion and 6 out of 10 of our state’s schools are Marginal!
Federal Way Secondary Schools have earned the following ratings:
Decatur High School Fair! 3.2
Federal Way High School Fair! 3.95
Thomas Jefferson Good 4.4
Todd Beamer Good 4.7
Federal Way Public Academy Exemplary 5.88
Kilo Middle School Fair 3.62
Illahee Middle School Fair 3.75
Lakota Middle School Good 4.19
Sacajawea Middle School Good 4.25
Saghalie Middle School Fair 3.88
Sequoyah Middle School Fair 3.56
Totem Middle School Fair 3.38
Technology Access Fair 3.64
