Major Van Harl [via Ammoland.com] writes:
The Hi and Lois cartoon in the Monday paper caught my attention because I did not think it was funny. In the first panel Hi while driving his car is beeping the horn. In the next panel you see a pretty young woman jogging with ear buds in her ears. The caption in the second panel has Hi saying “she must be wearing honk-canceling headphones.” We are suppose to laugh but the truth is the young woman is a future victim of an accident she could have avoided or worse yet the dead or injured subject of a criminal attack. All because she has music blaring in her ears via tiny little speakers she pushed deep into her head that block out the sound of the real world she is traveling in . . .
We are talking about sensory deprivation.
You are moving so fast while running that the need for our hearing in order to interpret and react to an emergency is almost as important as eye sight. You can see what is in front of you but you have to hear what is coming up to you from behind or off to your side. Wearing anything that cuts down on your ability to hear danger and then adding loud music to mask most surrounding sounds is a recipe for disaster.
The noise canceling headphones are even worse. They are designed to block out sound. In advertisements you see happy airline travelers enjoying their flight as the headphones they wear block out the noise of the plane and afford a quiet and serene journey. This is great because no one is going to jump out of the bushes on an airplane and attack you since you cannot hear the bad guys coming at 30,000 feet.
The socialists ran Milwaukee County for almost 100 years. One of the few good things to come out of that era is the fact they took control of most of the Lake Michigan lake front property. Instead of expensive high rise condos sitting at water’s edge like in Chicago (80 miles to the south) you have this great system of county parks and miles and miles of paved jogging / biking trails, many going through thick wooded areas.
One of my duties with the Cudahy Police Departments it to patrol the county park jogging trails that pass through our city. In the past year we have had a number of attempted assaults on female joggers in our city and even more throughout the county park system.
Our part of the jogging trail sits right on the lake and is just beautiful. The athletes love it and so do the perpetrators.
In every case the victim of the attempt assault was wearing ear buds and did not hear the assailant coming.
I drive the trails in a marked police jeep. I constantly come up from behind on joggers who do not know I am there, even with the vehicle engine running. I dare not honk my horn because they startle and then we have falling accidents. A little sex-education 101 needs to be understood here. Women bounce when they run. This combined with the minimalist types of athletic apparel they wear is a major attraction to males who have no intention of attacking anyone.
Now add all these factors to the equation, interject the person who is out there on the “hunt” and then disrupt the ability for the jogger to hear danger coming and the woman is going to lose.
When you go to Yellowstone National Park with plans to hike in the “back country” you have to register with the Rangers. What you need to understand is this is so the Rangers have an idea where to start looking for your body when you don’t come out on time. The Rangers are not guaranteeing your safety simple because you told them of your unsafe plans to sleep amongst the bears and other predators.
If you are going to go jogging tell someone and tell them where you are headed. Sadly it is easier even in the big city park system to find your body if we know where to start to look. The world does not owe you safety. Take your cell phone and some pepper spray.
Men get attacked while wearing ear buds also. Take the ear buds out and never ever wear headphones while outside jogging or even walking.
The rate of people hit by trains has almost tripled in the past ten years where electronic head devices were involved. In most cases the dead person had on headphones and did not even hear the very loud train horn blaring at them. You have to hear the bad guys and the trains coming.
Think twice this year about giving your women folk these electronic-devices for Christmas gifts. Safety is more important than short term entertainment.
About Major Van Harl USAF Ret.:Major Van E. Harl USAF Ret., a career Police Officer in the U.S. Air Force was born in Burlington, Iowa, USA, in 1955. He was the Deputy Chief of police at two Air Force Bases and the Commander of Law Enforcement Operations at another. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Infantry School. A retired Colorado Ranger and currently is an Auxiliary Police Officer with the Cudahy PD in Milwaukee County, WI. His efforts now are directed at church campus safely and security training. He believes “evil hates organization.” [email protected]
I don’t know, maybe it’s the fact that I’m always working with my hands, but my callused meat hooks don’t have problems racking the slide on Glocks-the issue seems exaggerated.
No
As a hearing conservationist, I often use situational awareness as a reason (besides my obvious goal of preserving people’s delicate hearing!) to keep earbuds turned down. The example I typically use is someone walking their dog, stepping off of a curb- and not realizing there was a truck approaching. The potential for being caught off-guard by an assailant is an excellent teaching point, as well, especially with my customers who are defense-minded folks. I hope you won’t mind if I share this post with them!
I have to ask:
what is a hearing conservationist?
I’m imagining proto-anarchists storming into rock concerts, spiking the speakers and quietly murmuring “hearing first…” and then quietly shuffling off.
You can not stop technology and information. Losing battle…. and the freedom crushers go back to the drawing board.
I guess I’ll chime in here with my experience with my Mk XIX .50AE Desert Eagle. I had wanted a Desert Eagle for years and finally decided to cough up the cash and just get one, now I’m seriously considering getting a second one for a “counter balance” with my shoulder holster (Anyone know of a double shoulder rig made for the Desert Eagle?).
I initially purchased the Desert Eagle .50 because I absolutely fell in love with the gun the first time I ever laid eyes on one. I thought it would be a fun range toy and that would be about it. Well, I am so impressed with this gun that it has become my primary carry gun. I used to carry either a Ruger Redhawk .44 Magnum or my Sig P220 (when I felt like going small). I have fired 840 rounds through it to date and have not had one singe jam (nor have I had any casings hit me). Any gun I have ever owned that jammed just once with defensive ammunition has been thereout designated a “range gun”. I simply will not carry a gun that has ever jammed or misfired for me even once. The Desert Eagle fits my hand very well, especially with the Hogue wrap around grip with finger indentions (very comfortable). The recoil is not anything more then my .44 Magnum revolver and second shot target reaquisition is very fast. I can draw the Desert Eagle from my my shoulder holster, spin 180 degrees, and put two shots in center body mass in under 3 seconds, this is with a round chambered of course. Time is substantially more (around 5 seconds) when I have to chamber a round before my first shot. The accuracy is amazing, completely on par with my Sig P220. It is a very reliable design with the gas cycle system borrowed from an AK-47 which is easily known to be one of the most reliable automatics ever built and the bolt design borrowed from an M-16 (the only good thing about the M-16).
The bad: Why was carry never considered in the design of this gun? It is lacking single/double functionality and needs a decock that will disengage the firing pin for safe chambered carry. It takes too much time to rack the slide to chamber a round, it takes too much time to disengage the safety and the safety lever is not in a very friendly location for one handed operation. There is also a complete lack of good defensive ammunition for this gun. Even with the UHP Gold Dot rounds from speer the penetration possibility is enough that you damn well have to know exactly what is behind your target (possibly even what type of wall is behind your target). I would give my left nut for a Winchester Platinum Tip PTHP round in .50AE to be developed (the ammo I use for carry in my .44 Mag. revolver).
If a Mark XX is built that ditches the safety lever in favor of a decock and also has single double functionality but leaves everything else the same I’ll be the first in line to buy one. Guaranteed!
“Stand your ground” enables people who perceive a threat to use deadly force without first trying to retreat from a confrontation…”
There was time when you could legally duel to the death because of feeling dishonored or insulted. Now we are expected to run away or cower when threatened or attacked? Harden the f*ck up, America.
WORD.
Damn, that looks like it hurt
Hmmm…probably no provision for perp to be open to litigation if said perp hits an “innocent bystander,” let alone the victim.
Yes, we are people of the gun.
What does a “Gotcha Cap” do? I see the pix at the link, it looks like a plastic thingy apparently carried in the bill of a cap. Is ti some kind of hand-held mini-bat’leth or something?
You are describing Washington DC. I visited last year and 8 of 10 folks had dual earbuds and their nose in their phone/MP3 player/etc. I could have reached out and slapped any one of them at any time and they would have never seen it coming. Match this with their propensity to wait on a street corner on the very edge of the curb (or in the flippin’ roadway!) and it could have been mugger city. Along with the Millennial Generation’s need to listen to their music/post to MyTwitterFaceSpaceBook and you’ve got a boatload of victims just begging to be taken advantage of. If I only had such faith in the goodness of my fellow citizens…
Adam Kokesh….
a special kind of stupid.
AS MUCH as i dont like him ( i think my cat is more qualified) did anybody else cringe when reading those charges?
the america i love is disappearing.
NYC is “different”. I heard a former ESU Sgt describe how, years ago, his raid team had to force their way through rush hour pedestrians. Physically pushing their way through the stream of people, all of whom were looking at their feet. This was a team of uniformed cops in tactical body armor, helmets and carrying long guns at port arms. No earbugs then, it’s just that everyone in NYC avoided looking at anyone else when in public.
“Gun rights, who has them, and who does not, are inextricably tied to our history of racial oppression.”
The only true sentence in that stupid paragraph. Just look at Chicago, New York, and LA/ Oakland. Gun laws specifically designed to outlaw poor minority ownership. I wonder how he sleeps at night? “On a large pile of money, surrounded by naked women.” Suppose that would help stop those pangs of conscience.
This bill never really had a snowball’s chance, beyond letting Dem politicians tell their constituents they were “doing something.” Still, it’s good to see it shot down. If the Senate bill makes it out, look to see the same thing happen to it.
Doesnt he realize that most black people are killed by other black people. It is almost a guarantee that when you find someone who is crying about racism they are actually some of the biggest racists out there, just against whites, but I guess it is only racism when you are against blacks, oriental, mexican etc. I guess they dont consider Caucasian a race.
I have no problem with the Darwin effect, but one of the problems is that the one who runs over the oblivious one can get into a lot of trouble. I also use my bike, but on the sidewalk I think pedestrians have the right of way, so I try to accommodate them in any case. When they pause to let me go by, I always say, “thank you” with a smile.
Matt, to be fair, Kokesh’s attorney quit without a public explanation. Many think “they” have some sort of leverage on him since he is friends with Kokesh and has always represented him when in D.C. trouble. Don’t know it that had anything to do with changing the plea, but I wouldn’t expect this to be the end of the line for Kokesh.
People do stupid things. they die, thins the herd.
Don’t so stupid things, survive and have kids who do not do stupid things.
Pretty simple, really.
There are very few times in my life that I actually wish I was a lawyer. This is one of them.
I hear you. Sometimes you just can’t make this stuff up. My wife is a lawyer and she knew of the case below before I did. Her comment was that the legal community across the state is having the same reaction… “I sure wish that was my case!”
http://www.policestateusa.com/2013/innocent-man-given-anal-cavity-search-colonoscopy-after-rolling-through-a-stop-sign/
“Those who push the cause of citizen disarmament work hard to demonize guns. They try to make the public display of arms a shameful thing, something that “decent” people simply don’t condone. And they’ve had a considerable amount of success.”
Especially on this blog
…I’m sorry, did I miss where the story said why the principle was checking out this facebook page?
‘I’m going to stop there. Anyone who says “I believe in the Second Amendment but–” does not believe in the Second Amendment. They are not friends, they are not frenemies, they are enemies of The People of the Gun.’
The Second Amendment does not specifically mention guns, just “arms” which can refer to any type of armament (and there is no court precedent saying that it should be interpreted to mean only firearms, see http://www.volokh.com/2012/06/27/michigan-court-of-appeals-strikes-down-stun-gun-ban-says-second-amendment-applies-to-open-carry-in-public/ for example). Do you really mean this blanket statement to imply there can be no “buts” to the private ownership of any type of weapon whatsoever, including things like cannons, anti-aircraft missiles, tanks etc? And would you disagree with the Supreme Court’s 1939 ruling in United States v. Miller, which said that states could restrict ownership of weapons which don’t have a “reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia”? Note that the recent District of Columbia v. Heller decision, generally seen as a victory for gun rights advocates, cited the Miller case as a precedent that the Second Amendment does not cover all arms: “Miller stands only for the proposition that the Second Amendment right, whatever its nature, extends only to certain types of weapons.” If you agree with this, then like it or not you have placed yourself squarely in the “I believe in the Second Amendment but–” camp.
I expect a “what’s wrong with a little compromise?” angle. If you really want to get them on the defensive, drill them on the compromises that have already been made (I.e., existing laws), and how nonsensical they are. Bring up David Gregory’s 30 round magazine of an example of how easy it is to unknowingly, unwittingly commit a felony that no reasonable person would believe is a harmful transgression.
Also, wouldn’t it be a reasonable “compromise” to promote the 4 Rules of gun safety to *everyone*, including people who don’t own guns and aren’t normally around them? Why does “compromise” take the form of tighter restrictions, new regulations, and more hoops for gun owners to jump through to demonstrate good faith?
Some of the best RKBA arguments I ever hear, and you are so good at these rf, are the ones that just sweep the legs out from under the disarmarment ideas as they have nothing to do with actually protecting people. (ie, banning ar’s vs handguns, universal bg checks that are voluntary, etc.)
Remember, we’re the people of the gun because we TRUST the people around us to be able to use firearms for good. We TRUST our neighbors, teachers, military personel on bases, and we trust the residents of cities like Chicago, New York, and the state of CA. We are the one’s that trust and believe in people.
Most of their audience isn’t going to care about constitutionality; they’re going to care about results.
Take a copy of the 1993-2011 FBI crime report along with gun ownership stats and CCW issue stats that shows gun ownership up and crime down.
Take a copy of the Harvard Study and the CDC study that Obama pushed for after Sandy Hook that show no link between gun ownership and crime.
Also, prepare for the common rebuttals:
We license cars & drivers. There was a great take down of that argument on here yesterday.
Nobody needs an “assault rifle”. Provide the stat that they’re not used in crimes much.
A gun owner is more likely to get killed by his own gun. That study was debunked, take a copy of the debunker study.
40% of criminals get their guns at gunshows. That study was pre-NICS, and is completely moot at this point. Find the more recent convict survey that showed they get them from burglary and straw man family/friends. And point out the miniscule prosecution rate of NICS violators.
Sadly I lost all mine on a strange kayaking accident
just rambling all the things that you may need to be able to counter: sorry for the lack of formating
Get the mass shooting stats, that they have been consistent through out the years.
Get the stats that rifles are used less then hammers.
Get the true crime stats from england and how they don’t report crime stats unless there is someone charged.
Get the latest obama requested studies that more guns don’t increase gun deaths. and the other studies which undermine the guncontol arguments.
get the stats that suicide stats do not change during gun bans, just the means, not the death toll
get the stats on how little of the cwp carriers commit violent crime.
get the stats that civi defensive gun use causes less colateral damage then LEO gun use.
get the stats for the actual back ground checks which get denied, are actually turn out to be criminals trying to buy guns and hence get prosecuted, that most are just clerical errors or common names, etc.
the 1st is only restricted when it is going to cause imminent harm, just like the 2nd, you can’t murder or injure someone with a gun. We prosecute the people that yell fire in a full theater, not the ones that yell fire in their car, that think fire, that know the word fire, that can speak or force them to duct tape everyone mouths when going to a theater.
the 40% of guns bought without background checks was from a survey which was done partially in the year before NICS was put in place. so the 40% is useless statistic.
Open NICS up to civis, so we can use it, for free when they do private transactions. gun owners don’t want to sell guns to criminals. Just give us the tools and we will use them.
There is also a database of stolen firearms that anyone can check before they agree to the private sale.
FBI research of where criminals buy guns, it is not gunshows.
Many states already have laws on the books that make it a crime to leave unlock guns around minors in their home.
The actual ruling was back in 2011. This appears to be a last ditch appeal by the state, which thankfully failed. Maybe this is why, even though the law was found to be unconstitutional it was still in the Penal Code as a valid law.
Now if only we could get all of the out of state manufacturers/suppliers to understand that they can, in fact, ship to the city of Los Angeles, we’d be in good shape.
Further proof that we have far too many LEOs in this country.
It is the oddest coincidence, but I only know of one other person who, apparently for sport, shot his best friend with his father’s pistol. After drinking. And drew only probation. And was named Shawn (spelled Sean). Odd. Is this an ethnic thing?
Absolutely.no acceptable justifiable reason
ing ,two recent assaults murders in New
York. These women were daughters , sisters and wives possibility . What would
be your response then , if you happened
upon them in your search to find them ,
only to find your loved ones violated then
murdered , Think about this now .