Charles L. Cotton wrote:This guy must be a legend in his own mind, but it's an idiot to the real world. This line from his "About Me" section of his blog speaks volumes; "I have sold more than 40,000 guns and I know as much about guns and hunting as anyone." Really? Nothing indicates he has any advanced training, has served in the military or as a peace officer, or has any credentials whatsoever, other than being an NRA Instructor. Yet he knows as much about guns as anyone. Hello Walter Mitty.
First, he makes a grossly inaccurate assumption that someone in the 50-person congregation at Southerland Springs had a gun and simply didn't try to shoot. Garbage! If that were true, then it would have come out by now. Also, with slightly over 4% of the population having an LTC, the chance that any of the 50 people (which includes several kids) had a License and a gun is almost non-existent. Those that do have a License could well have believed that their church was in no danger and didn't carry to church.
As to not being able to respond because they were not trained, again . . . GARBAGE!!! Look how many times we see homeowners shooting burglars, many of whom are under fire when they do so. Some of them have effectively returned fire even after being wounded. Most of these people don't have a License, so in all likelihood, they have no training whatsoever. In just the last year, there have been three or four untrained women well into their 60's who have successfully defended themselves against armed intruders.
Chas.
Amen. There's a reason firearms are known as "the great equalizer." Someone with a basic understanding of shooting will have a much easier time dealing with an attacker than a trained martial artist would. While I value my military and law enforcement training greatly, a gun is a gun is a gun. I would still be willing and able to defend myself without all that training.
Never bring a knife to a gun fight.
Carry gun: Springfield XD Tactical .45
), which isn’t really a mistake, the unloaded magazine thing really jumped out at me when I first heard both him and his cousin’s oral recounting on video of what he did. He described grabbing “a handful” of loose cartridges (5 sounds like a “handful” to me), and said that he literally had no idea how many that was, and then started loading the magazine on the run. Not knowing myself the actual distance that he had to run, although I understand that it wasn’t far at all, I thought geez, what if he got there before he had finished loading the mag? Like I keep repeating, I don’t want to take away from his heroism at all. God love him for having the courage to do what he did. But I just think that a big takeaway for the rest of us is to have at least ONE fully loaded magazine ready to go......more if that’s what makes you comfortable (15 is the number that makes me feel cozy)......and I’ll bet dollars to donuts that our hero made the same calculation after it was wall over. I worry less about damage to magazine springs from long term compression - not really an issue with modern magazines - than I worry about not having enough ammo available when I most need it.
