Good talk on blocks

[Van Canna]

As you go through your weekly routine, look around you and see what areas you regularly travel are fringe. Learn to recognize those areas that you regularly find yourself in where you would be in danger. These are the places that you know you don't want to be trapped. If you see something you don't like...don't go there.

[Van Canna]

The loud bang

I was transacting business at the teller window in my local bank. I immediately heard a loud BANG behind me. As I turned around a man in a ski mask yelled "Every one on the ground, this is a robbery" and fired another shot into the cieling. I noticed he was armed with some sort of 1911.

I was prone on the floor and my mind started to go a million miles an hour trying to figure out what to do, because I was armed also. Several times I had a clear shot at his back or side.

I did nothing. The individual received his cash and turned to walk out of the bank. As he passed me he pointed his weapon at me in a gesture of power. When he passed me I again had a clear shot at is back.

I was not afraid nor did I freeze. I just did not act.

As the police and FBI arrived I was questioned and had no problem from either agency that I was armed.

Several hours after this event I have been analyzing every moment. I have been going through some guilt worrying that if he robs another bank maybe that time he will kill someone.

What would you have done?

[Van Canna]

Always keep your cell phone on your body

A janitor had left his cell phone in his jacket, which he was not wearing, when he accidentally locked himself in a small room in a courthouse. He was not "rescued" until 60 hours later.

Not always having your phone on your body can lead to a very 'crappy' situation.

Another point I'd like to make is to always keep your phone on your body while driving.

My sister-in-law recently rolled her convertible (It was an Olds Cutlass with a roll-bar, thank God) and since she kept her phone in her cup-holder, she had no idea where it went (still don't).

Luckily someone happened down the road only 5 or 10 minutes later, otherwise, the single-digit temps and the fact that she didn't have any warm clothes probably would have done her in.

(The car ended up upside-down and seeking shelter back inside the car that she barely managed to squeeze out of wasn't an option- not that she was thinking clearly afterwards).

Also guys- strap down stuff in your vehicles, and keep them clean. I'm not one to talk.

I am on the road a lot, and my car is TRASHED. Everything from computer parts to empty water bottles piled high enough to where my car is a 'one-seater'.

My point is that the CRT monitors in my trunk probably wouldn't feel too good coming through the back seat in a head-on, and at the very least, 5 or 6 months of car-garbage strewed about would be pretty embarrassing after a roll-over.

Lucky for her, she kept her car spotless. And she didn't die.

[Van Canna]

Loose objects (including humans) in vehicle have killed people. Sometimes we forget Newton's laws. A can of beans in your back seat can have a pretty high speed relative to the back of your head during a collision.

I've heard that people have been severely injured when the corner of a Kleenex box hit their head when launched from its resting position on the back dash (or what ever you call that little spot where I used to sleep as a kid during long car trips).

[Van Canna]

I did ambulance work for several years in the Chicago area. Of all people injured or seriously killed (industry joke), most were thrown about the vehicle or struck by loose objects. The clear majority were not wearing their seat belts or they were wearing them improperly.

Improper would include putting the shoulder strap under your arm because it cuts into your neck. Seat belts depend on your body being thrown forward quickly to "lock up". If it's under your arm, it won't lock up soon enough. When it does lock up, the forces are likely to result in several broken ribs, possibly a punctured lung. Even at relatively low speeds.

Many folks ignore, deny or simply do not realize the effects of a collision on the human body, even at relatively low speeds. Compare a 20 mph collision to falling out of a tree from about 10 feet and landing on your face. You'll be spittin' bloody Chicklets.

Wear the seat belt and DEMAND that everyone else in your vehicle also wears theirs. Properly. No compromises. You may be an excellent driver, but you're sharing the road with a million morons. 'Nuff said.

[Van Canna]

That Little Voice


Written by Combat Handguns December 2008. Author Archive »

Do you ever hear that little voice? The one that tells you, “Don’t!” in the moments before you do some ultimately regrettable and overtly stupid thing, and suffer for it?

Whether you are reaching just a little farther to paint that one small place on the house without getting down to move the ladder, or trying to ease the car through that space that just might be a little too narrow, or prying just a wee bit harder on some object with a screwdriver tip dangerously near some body part?

Do you always think back while sitting in the ER or lying on the ground in pain, or staring at the fender crease, “Something told me not to do that…”

[Van Canna]

In the mid to late 1970s I had a 28-mile commute from my hobby farm to work at a Federal Prison. Being a thrifty, some would say cheap, individual I used a 1973 Volkswagon Beetle to keep costs down.

The good thing about the bug was that for the time it was very thrifty at 32 MPG. The bad thing is that it was an underpowered vehicle that had a bad time just getting out of its own way. There were three instances where carrying a Colt Combat Commander in the VW’s glove box saved me.

The first event happened on a summer Sunday, I was working a 2:30 to 10:30 shift in a psychiatric ward of the facility. Leaving the farm at 1:30 I had a uneventful trip, however on entering a four lane street with a turn lane in the middle, I found myself behind a late model Corvette that was cruising at a leisurely 25 MPH on a 45 MPH street.

Being in a hurry I moved into a different lane to pass the Vette, but the Vette driver moved into that lane cutting me off. Again I tried to get around the Vette and again I was cut off.

Finally after several attempts to pass this guy and being cut off, I sped up and passed him by using the center turn lane. For some reason the fact that I passed him seemed to “set him off.” The next thing I knew this moron was tapping my rear bumper with the nose of his plastic rat.

This continued for about three blocks when we came to a stoplight where he started to get out of his Vette when the light changed.

[Van Canna]

I didn’t wait around and got off the mark as soon as I could, only to have the Vette again begin bumping the rear of my Bug.

Trying to diffuse the situation and letting the Vette and its driver have a symbolic victory, I pulled off the road into a closed liquor store parking lot, hoping the idiot would just keep going and leave me alone.

Unfortunately, the Vette followed me into the parking lot, and parked behind me so that escape was impossible. The driver then got out, reached back into the Vette and pulled out a baseball bat put it on his shoulder and walked to my VW.

While he was doing his thing getting the bat I reached over to retrieve my Colt, racked a round into the chamber, put the safety on and waited to see what happened next.

[Van Canna]

When the Vette driver reached my VW he yanked the driver’s door open, raised the bat and I yelled, “STOP!” and came up to a firing position focused on the front sight and his midsection.

He stopped, I then told him, “Turn around! Go back to your car! Do not drop your arm or I will blow a hole clean through you!” Thankfully he complied, walked back to his car with the bat held at an upright level, jumped in his Vette and was gone.

[Van Canna]

Second time I was driving down on an old route where you could encounter some hills. Again, going to work, I was attempting to pass a Chevy Impala going up a hill.

He had been doing around 45 MPH in a 55 MPH zone and I decided to pass. As I pulled even with him in the on-coming lane he looked at me, grinned and began pacing with me. If I would speed up, so would he, if I would slow down, so would he. Looking ahead I saw on-coming traffic and I had nowhere to go except into a deep ditch which would certainly wreck my bug.


Again, reaching into the glove box I found the Colt, established a grip and pointed it in the direction of the other driver. His grin suddenly vanished and he floored the Chevy leaving me in the dust and allowing me to get back into the right lane without further incident.

[Van Canna]

Subject: Fwd: CoronaVirus Prevention
THIS IS WORTH YOUR TIME TO READ:

some of you may have already seen this on social media, its been sent to all hospitals.

Dear Colleagues, as some of you may recall, when I was a professor of pathology at the University of California San Diego, I was one of the first molecular virologists in the world to work on coronaviruses (the 1970s).

I was the first to demonstrate the number of genes the virus contained. Since then, I have kept up with the coronavirus field and its multiple clinical transfers into the human population (e.g., SARS, MERS), from different animal sources.

The current projections for its expansion in the US are only probable, due to continued insufficient worldwide data, but it is most likely to be widespread in the US by mid to late March and April. Here is what I have done and the precautions that I take and will take.

These are the same precautions I currently use during our influenza seasons, except for the mask and gloves.:

1) NO HANDSHAKING! Use a fist bump, slight bow, elbow bump, etc.

2) Use ONLY your knuckle to touch light switches. elevator buttons, etc.. Lift the gasoline dispenser with a paper towel or use a disposable glove.

3) Open doors with your closed fist or hip - do not grasp the handle with your hand, unless there is no other way to open the door. Especially important on bathroom and post office/commercial doors.

4) Use disinfectant wipes at the stores when they are available, including wiping the handle and child seat in grocery carts.

5) Wash your hands with soap for 10-20 seconds and/or use a greater than 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer whenever you return home from ANY activity that involves locations where other people have been.

6) Keep a bottle of sanitizer available at each of your home's entrances. AND in your car for use after getting gas or touching other contaminated objects when you can't immediately wash your hands.

7) If possible, cough or sneeze into a disposable tissue and discard. Use your elbow only if you have to. The clothing on your elbow will contain infectious virus that can be passed on for up to a week or more!

What I have stocked in preparation for the pandemic spread to the US:

1) Latex or nitrile latex disposable gloves for use when going shopping, using the gasoline pump, and all other outside activity when you come in contact with contaminated areas.

Note: This virus is spread in large droplets by coughing and sneezing. This means that the air will not infect you! BUT all the surfaces where these droplets land are infectious for about a week on average - everything that is associated with infected people will be contaminated and potentially infectious.
The virus is on surfaces and you will not be infected unless your unprotected face is directly coughed or sneezed upon. This virus only has cell receptors for lung cells (it only infects your lungs) The only way for the virus to infect you is through your nose or mouth via your hands or an infected cough or sneeze onto or into your nose or mouth.

2) Stock up now with disposable surgical masks and use them to prevent you from touching your nose and/or mouth (We touch our nose/mouth 90X/day without knowing it!). This is the only way this virus can infect you - it is lung-specific. The mask will not prevent the virus in a direct sneeze from getting into your nose or mouth - it is only to keep you from touching your nose or mouth.

3) Stock up now with hand sanitizers and latex/nitrile gloves (get the appropriate sizes for your family). The hand sanitizers must be alcohol-based and greater than 60% alcohol to be effective.

4) Stock up now with zinc lozenges. These lozenges have been proven to be effective in blocking coronavirus (and most other viruses) from multiplying in your throat and nasopharynx. Use as directed several times each day when you begin to feel ANY "cold-like" symptoms beginning. It is best to lie down and let the lozenge dissolve in the back of your throat and nasopharynx. Cold-Eeze lozenges is one brand available, but there are other brands available.

I, as many others do, hope that this pandemic will be reasonably contained, BUT I personally do not think it will be. Humans have never seen this snake-associated virus before and have no internal defense against it.
Tremendous worldwide efforts are being made to understand the molecular and clinical virology of this virus. Unbelievable molecular knowledge about the genomics, structure, and virulence of this virus has already been achieved. BUT, there will be NO drugs or vaccines available this year to protect us or limit the infection within us. Only symptomatic support is available.

I hope these personal thoughts will be helpful during this potentially catastrophic pandemic. You are welcome to share this email. Good luck to all of us! Jim

James Robb, MD FCAP

~~~~~~~~~~

CORONAVIRUS

1. If you have a runny nose and sputum, you have a common cold

2. Coronavirus pneumonia is a dry cough with no runny nose.

3. This new virus is not heat-resistant and will be killed by a temperature

of just 26/27 degrees. It hates the Sun.

4. If someone sneezes with it, it takes about 10 feet before it drops to the ground and is no longer airborne.

5. If it drops on a metal surface it will live for at least 12 hours - so if you come into contact with any metal surface - wash your hands as soon as you can with a bacterial soap.

6. On fabric it can survive for 6-12 hours. normal laundry detergent will kill it.

7. Drinking warm water is effective for all viruses. Try not to drink liquids with ice.

8. Wash your hands frequently as the virus can only live on your hands for 5-10 minutes, but - a lot can happen during that time - you can rub your eyes, pick your nose unwittingly and so on.

9. You should also gargle as a prevention. A simple solution of salt in warm water will suffice.

10. Can't emphasise enough - drink plenty of water!

THE SYMPTOMS

1. It will first infect the throat, so you'll have a sore throat lasting 3/4 days

2. The virus then blends into a nasal fluid that enters the trachea and then the lungs, causing pneumonia. This takes about 5/6 days further.

3. With the pneumonia comes high fever and difficulty in breathing.

4. The nasal congestion is not like the normal kind. You feel like you're drowning. It's imperative you then seek immediate attention.

[Van Canna]

Last but not least happened at a stoplight when a group of young thugs thought a single driver in a VW was easy picking.

These folks had cased me by driving in front of, beside and behind me while displaying various hand signals and issuing verbal threats.

Again the Colt played a vital role when we came to a stoplight and three of these misguided youths bailed out of their car and ran towards mine.

Reaching into the glove box, retrieving the Colt and simply placing it on my leg with the hammer back/safety on, the first hooligan to my car saw I was armed screamed, “He’s got a gun!”

At that point they all turned around ran back to their car and blew through a red light to get away.

Thankfully I didn’t have to fire the weapon in these incidents. The paperwork would have been endless.

[Van Canna]

KNOCK - KNOCK
Post by ... Patrick James

It was the scariest night of my life. In fact, it was almost the last night of my life.

I was 16 years old, and about to come face-to-face with 4 men armed with 1911s and cut off shotguns.

I was over visiting my dad late one night when I saw the Buick pull up behind the house. I pressed my face against the back door of the house and tried to figure out who was coming to visit in the middle of the night.

I didn’t know my dad had any friends who’d come over so late.

Little did I know, these weren’t friends at all.

When I finally caught a glimpse of their weapons, I ran screaming into my dad’s bedroom. It was right about then that I knew I was going to die…

What It Really Feels
Like to Be Helpless

As the men circled the house trying all the ground level windows and doors, I knelt behind my father’s bed shaking in fear and praying as he frantically told the #911 operator our rural address.

The emotions I had at that moment are really too intense to put into words.

I could never do justice to what it feels like to regret all the moments you didn’t spend with loved ones and doing things that actually mattered… all the invitations you declined to spend quality time with friends… all the travelling that you’d never do… the graduation that you would never experience.

I can’t convey to you how miserable it is to know that in a few short minutes, your soul will be disconnected from your body. I can’t tell you about the misery of imagining your mother’s reaction to hearing that her son had been murdered.

But the worst part of it all (and the part that still makes me mad to this day) is knowing that, at that exact moment, my future was squarely in someone else’s hands. Under someone else’s control…

You see, my dad was no stranger to guns. But his little Smith and Wesson 6-shot revolver was no comfort to me—and it would do little to help us against these four adversaries…

Not because 6 shots of .38 special are ineffective, but you have to understand that my dad had probably bought the gun with the same ammunition that was in it.

I don’t think he ever even practiced. It was at that instant that I learned that the mere presence of a gun is no comfort, as I used to believe. You have to know how to use it, and use it effectively.

My dad didn’t. And our lives were going to end because of it…

There was nothing left to do but lay in wait. My dad sprawled out on the floor, phone set down so he could hear what was going on outside the room, with his little revolver pointed at the door, and a small pile of .38 special hollow points scattered on the floor nearby.

All I could do was wait…

Obviously, my life did not end that night, years ago, that I spent in fear on the floor of my dad’s bedroom.

After ten minutes of an agonizing wait that seemed like hours and hours, three State Police cruisers and two county police SUVs had our house surrounded and flooded with spotlights, and the #911 operator was instructing my dad to leave his weapon in the bedroom, and for the two of us to walk out of the room and toward the back door with our hands raised.

The Buick was gone. The only things they had left were fingerprints.

By the grace of God, the men didn’t see fit to gain entry to the house at any cost, because by a simple kick of any one of the windows, they certainly could have- easily. To this day, I have no idea what their intentions were.

Patrick James

[Van Canna]

It's Either You, or Him

I like this article from Tim Larkin

Someone's going to get it right first. Someone's going to get stabbed in the neck, and someone's going to be doing the stabbing.

So... In a life-or-death situation, which do you pick?

While 'none of the above' is the hands-down best choice, that's not always an option. So of the two, 'do' or 'get done,' which one is you?

Yes, it's a stupid question--when given such a stark, limited choice we'll all choose to be the one doing it, right?

And yet, unless you're actually training to be the one doing it, you won't pick the obvious answer, even though you know in your gut it's the right one.

When viewed through a social lens, taking into account self-defense laws, societal mores, and even spiritual concerns, 'hitting first' is wrong. It's aggressive, offensive, and only the 'bad guys' do it--it's a defining feature of the violent criminal.

When taken at face value, the facts of violence show that second place is first loser. The first one to get it right--the first one to cause a serious injury and take advantage of that fact--is almost always the winner.

The first one to take an eye, break a leg or bounce a head off the concrete usually gets the chance to do it again.

Training to wait and see, to block and counter is training to die. It's training to let the other guy dictate what happens--it puts him in charge and sets you up for disaster. It puts you permanently a half-step behind.

Such training causes people to try to block having just been stabbed--they get stabbed, they try to block it as he pulls the knife out and sticks it in them again, they try to block that over and over and so on to the inevitable end.

Violence, as a survival tool, has but one purpose--shutting off a human brain. To that end you have to focus your efforts on injuring the other man. Instead of worrying about what he's going to do to you, you want to make him worry about what you're doing to him.

Hit first, break things, and keep going until you're finished with him.

(Now, context is everything--violence, the way I'm talking about it, is only appropriate where you could expect him to do the same to you if you didn't act, and where inaction could cost you your life. It's stupid to do this to someone over a barstool... but it becomes chillingly 'normal' during a workplace shooting.)

It's simple cause and effect. You can either:

1) ACT to cause injuries in him, or

2) REACT to what he's doing, setting yourself up for failure.

It's funny how when this is presented as it was in the beginning of this letter (stab or be stabbed?), everyone agrees that the choice is obvious; whereas when it's time to train everyone gets into their defensive 'fighting' stance and wants to wait and see what the other guy's going to do.

There is no scale to the facts of violence--either you're the one doing it, or the one getting done. Period. Guns, knives, sticks, fists & boots... it doesn't matter. You're either on him or he's on you.

Injury is the fact that makes the difference. If you don't know how to reliably cause crippling injury, and what to do with it, I don't blame you for wanting to ball up and hang back. Without injury violence is a chaotic crapshoot.

But once you know how to ACT on him to make him REACT--once you know how to injure him & drop him so he can't get back up, once you know how to cripple a criminal who was dead-set on doing it to you, so that he has NO CHOICE in what happens next, well, then you'll understand what I'm talking about and you'll always want to be the one doing it first.

Knowledge breeds confidence--the confidence to be the one doing it instead of the one getting done. Knowing how to injure a man--and knowing what to do with that injury--is the shortest route to victory in life-or-death violence.

[Van Canna]

When taken at face value, the facts of violence show that second place is first loser.

The first one to get it right--the first one to cause a serious injury and take advantage of that fact--is almost always the winner.

The first one to take an eye, break a leg or bounce a head off the concrete usually gets the chance to do it again.

Training to wait and see, to block and counter is training to die. It's training to let the other guy dictate what happens--
it puts him in charge and sets you up for disaster. It puts you permanently a half-step behind.

Such training causes people to try to block having just been stabbed--they get stabbed, they try to block it as he pulls the knife out and sticks it in them again, they try to block that over and over and so on to the inevitable end.

This is the scary part of a violent street fight...and the how we train...not that blocks should not be practiced...but an understanding of what we are ingraining.