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The post Strength, Balance, and Shooting in a Fine Suit: Lynx Brutality 2026, Day 1 first appeared on Forgotten Weapons.
The Evil Princess and I just finished up a great fifty-year reunion of shooters from the early days of practical pistol matches. Hosted by Bill and Joyce Wilson at their Circle WC Ranch in Texas, it encompassed two days of shooting the old-fashioned way: 1911 pistols, in the kind of holsters we wore half a […]Aggravated Assault: 300 Block Edgewood Ave
Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. When Is Using Your CCW a Mistake? “If you bring a firearm into this equation, will it help or hurt your cause? While there is no simple answer and an almost infinite number of […]
I've loved baseball all my life. The ballet between a pitcher and a batter, the way the infield covers the bases. The routine plays and the strategy in the game. I don't follow teams, can't give you stats, I simply love the game.
Tonight, I'm watching clips from The Love Of The Game, a movie released in 1999.
So, the question for y'all. What is the best baseball movie?
Not to avoid sanctions but to circumvent the Irsnian blockade. 6/10/26 CNBC:
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. military has secretly helped 200 commercial ships and more than 100 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
I have found the relatively low price of oil globally with the Strait of Hormuz closed. The amount moved (at night without lights) is a fraction of thr normal transport so oil is still tight but at least our allies (Australia, Japan, South Korea) should get some benefit. Our erstwhile allies even benefit. If only they were helping! Of course, the Royal Navy is now not even a shadow of its former self, more like a shadow of a ghost so expecting their help is unrealistic. Besides, they have emerging impolite opposition forming.
While not used for duty as much anymore, the 1911 can still get the job done. This is how we optimized one for duty-carry!By Dave Workman The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division on Tuesday launched an investigation “to determine whether Philadelphia Police use a vague ‘good cause’ standard to cancel permits to carry legal firearms.” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon announced the investigation, explaining, “I have directed the Civil Rights Division, through our Second Amendment Section, to defend law-abiding citizens from local authorities […]
The post DOJ Launches Investigation into Philly P.D. Gun Permit Revocations appeared first on Liberty Park Press.
A preliminary investigation determined that the 44-year-old suspect approached a 37-year-old woman with a firearm while she was taking out the trash, according to police.
The suspect was known to the woman, and she fled back into her house. Police said the suspect then shot the 41-year-old man who was inside the house with her, leading to a struggle over the firearm.
According to investigators, an intruder who was attempting to rob a home awakened a couple residing there at around 1:30 a.m.
Investigators said the female victim, the homeowner’s girlfriend, ran to her next-door neighbor’s home for help. Shortly after, the neighbor retrieved a firearm and came to the couple’s home.
“That neighbor fired his weapon, striking the subject in the head,” said Delgado.
Police and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue units responded shortly after.
“The subject was rushed to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead,” said Delgado.
Written by Greg Ellifritz I got the following question from a reader. As I think this answer has a universal appeal, I chose to answer it here so that all of you can benefit as well. Here’s the question: “I want to assemble/integrate your suggestions for practice sessions, but I’m overwhelmed by the […]
The party that drew brush mustaches on Bush Jt. and/made every wave of the hand by Trump or Musk into a Nazi salute just picked a World War II buff with a SS tattoo their nominee for U. S. Senate.
Why? 6/5/26 OpenSecrets reports billionaires are funding his campaign that claims rich people have too much influence.
If billionaires are upset about their wealth enough to back one of their opponents would it not be simpler to do this wholesale (give away your billions) rather than retail (putting in office intent on taking that wealth). This suggests that he has no intention of doing so.
The Karmelo Anthony trial is over. He's guilty of murder, sentenced to 35 years in the Texas prison system. They will give him a state ID with a TDC (Texas Department of Corrections) number. The evidence was plain, it could not have been more cut-and-dried.
The usual suspects are playing the usual cards. And nobody wants to hear it. You can go search, or I'll give you a link. You've heard it before. The race card and the culture card, worn and threadbare, poorly played.
"It was an all-white jury."
The defense played a huge part in picking the jury. They didn't pick any black jurors.
"I'm a mother of five black boys. What do I tell my kids?:
Tell them not to stab people in the chest.
Karmelo Anthony brought a knife to a high school track meet and stabbed another student to death. That is the whole story. Karmelo will be eligible for parole in 17.5 years. If he makes it that long.
Tell your kids not to stab people in the chest. Better yet, don't stab people at all.
By Dave Workman Tucked a few paragraphs into a recent report from the Montana-based Crime Prevention Research Center regarding the number of homicides involving Glock pistols illegally altered with so-called “Glock switch” devices is a startling revelation the mainstream media has overlooked. According to the report, during the period of 2021-2024, FBI data says there […]
The post CPRC Report: Lightning Kills More People than Modified Glocks appeared first on Liberty Park Press.
A wise man once said that happiness is a belt-fed weapon. Making your AR-15 belt-fed might be one of the coolest things you can do to an AR-15!A little disturbance in the Bay of Campeche showed up on the NHC's tropical map.
The post FN’s New ARKA: Revamping the SCAR for Military Tenders first appeared on Forgotten Weapons.
Bear spray proponents claim bear spray can be deployed faster than handguns, rifles or shotguns can. This is not obvious or certain. The claim is simply made and assumed to be true. It is not true. The truth is all four systems can be reasonably fast *if* the users train and practice with the system. This correspondent believed handguns to be the fastest method. An experience trainer in Canada showed bear spray could be practically as fast as holstered handguns.
A reasonably fast response is to access and use a defense against bears system in under two seconds. Very fast is to effectively utilize the system in a fraction of a second.
Holstered bear spray and handguns can be about the same speed. Rifles and shotguns, with a chambered cartridge, held at the ready, are faster. All four systems, when trained and practiced with, held at the ready, are very fast. None of the four systems is fast if the user is not trained, has not practiced, and/or keeps the system in a location or state where it cannot be used quickly.
All four systems can meet both standards with a little training and practice if good carrying/ holstering systems are used. In practice, this is harder to do with long guns, because using both hands is nearly essential. Unless a person is dedicated as a guard, there are often times when at least one hand is occupied with other tasks. The temptation to set a long gun against a tree or wall, or inside a tent, or to sling it over the back is great. Bureaucracies may insist on carrying a long gun without a cartridge in the chamber. Handguns and
bear spray overcome this by being compact and light enough to use a holster. With about a half day's practice and training, the time to draw and use either system can be reliably reduced to under two seconds.
This correspondent was skeptical about the potential speed of bear spray draw and use. The Internet was searched for actual data. Data became available from Dave Evert. Dave Evert spent 23 years teaching the Bear and Cougar Encounter Courses and 14 years of teaching the Western Canada Wilderness Handgun Course, both of which he developed. Dave taught hundreds of students to quick draw and employ bear spray in under two seconds. From Dave:
But having watched perhaps a few hundred employees doing this, I can say that some were able to pivot, draw, ready to spray in one second; more of them in 1.5 seconds and all of them within 2 seconds. Some were phenomenal.
Dave emphasizes this requires a proper holster for the bear spray. His students practiced with inert training spray, a necessity for such practice. Dave insisted his students carry two canisters of bear spray in a specific cross draw configuration, because it gives redundancy and the potential to deter a persistent bear. Dave highly recommends a sharp fixed blade knife be carried opposite the bear spray (4-6 inch thick sharp blade, with a guard and non-slip handle) as a last line of defense.
The holsters for the bear spray are flap type, which require two hands to draw fast. One hand to retract the flap, the other to draw the spray. Dave is currently using a Kodiak holster https://kodiakcanada.com/
Dave also recommends handguns as a bear defense. In Canada, bureaucratic burdens make obtaining a carry permit for animal defense in the wild extremely difficult. Few are able to navigate the system and obtain an Authority to Carry (ATC). The law has this provision for people whose work requires them to be in the wild. The law has been interpreted by the bureaucracy in such a way as to make it impractical for most people to comply.
Dave's experience with bear spray is the same experience firearms instructors have noted for decades. It take's an afternoon's practice and training for novices to draw and hit a target at close range in under two seconds. With consistent practice, 1.5 seconds is achievable by most. Dedicated practice can bring the time to under a second. The same times can be achieved with long guns using tactical slings, if carried with a cartridge in the chamber. Practice is required, just as with handguns and with bear spray. In practice, it is important to keep your eyes on the target, not on the weapon in the holster.
Dave Evert had similar experiences with training for handguns. The choices were much reduced in Canada because the bureaucracy insisted on regulating both the choices of handguns and of holsters. Dave, as his individual choice, prefers a chest holster for a handgun.
The Gunsight academy week long course fits into the "consistent practice" category for handguns. The standard is to draw and shoot two rounds to the chest in 1.5 seconds at 5 yards. Draw and shoot 2 rounds to the chest in 2 seconds at 10 yards. This is achieved by most students in a week long, intense course.
How much time a person has to react is seldom controlled by the actions of the bear or other animal. The limit is almost always situational awareness. Much of situational awareness is the willingness to accept the reality of dangerous situations and need to act rather than saying to yourself "this cannot be happening". Do not ignore warning signs. Training helps people become more aware of surroundings.
In defense against bears, where there is little danger of hitting other people, if you perceive a dangerous situation, draw your weapon. This will cut a second off of your reaction time. With all four weapons (if long guns are carried with a cartridge in the chamber) this means most people can employ them effectively in less than a second, if you practice just a bit. With consistent practice, this becomes "muscle memory" and the time becomes a fraction of a second. With your weapon in your hands and ready for use, this gives you precious fractions of a second to evaluate and choose the correct response.
Bear spray is much more affected by wind, temperature, and precipitation than firearms. Wind and very cold temperatures limit the effectiveness of bear spray by reducing the range from roughly 30 - 44 feet to 5-7 feet for most wind, except a wind from you toward the threat. Such is the result found by Tom Smith, in his paper on bear spray limitations. Tom Smith is a noted bear spray proponent, and author of the bear spray studies. Firearms are effective to distances where a bear is not considered an immediate threat (beyond 100 feet), according to Stephen Herrero, in Bear Attacks Their Causes and Avoidance, p. 243:
To give a bear a reasonable chance to stop and to give yourself reasonable safety, the person expert with firearms should perhaps wait until a charging grizzly is from 50 to 100 feet away or even closer.
Stephen Herrero is also a co-author with Tom Smith of the original Efficacy of Bear Deterrent Spray in Alaska paper.
Bear spray does not reach to 50 to 100 feet unless the wind is from you to the bear. Tom Smith admitted the original bear spay study authored by him and Stephen Herrero showed bear spray is not particularly effective at stopping charging grizzly bears (interview with Wes Siler for Outside). Wes recently expanded on this with another article "Bear Spray is a Placebo". Wes was a bear spray enthusiast who changed his mind.
Recent research on the effectiveness of bear spray and firearms, using data collected by Smith and Herrero and Internet searches, has more than doubled the original sample of 72 incidents where bear spray was used. The expanded data set is now 231 incidents where bear spray was present , and 173-186 times when bear spray was used, depending on the way the incidents are scored in the statistical analysis in the paper. This is the most extensive data set collected on bear spray used against bears to date.
Of the 231 times bear spray was present, bears were successfully deterred 67.1% of the time. From page 122 of the paper, based on 155 successful uses:
• 67.1% of incidents where bear spray was present it was used successfully to deter the bear
When the firearm type was identified, the results were strikingly similar.
P. 13 When present, rifles successfully deterred bears in 68% (n = 156) of encounters, shotguns 72% (n = 28), and handguns 71% (n = 50) of the time.
When rifles were present bears were successfully deterred 68% of the time, based on 156 successful uses.
When shotguns were present bears were successfully deterred 72% of the time, based on 28 successful uses.
When handguns were present bears were successfully deterred 71% of the time, based on 50 successful uses.
This shows the mere presence of a weapon is not enough. It has to be available. The training and practice of the user is of high importance. The slight difference between weapon types indicate the problems of access is very similar. It is a problem of training and self discipline, not weapon type. The numbers above show: the opinion that bear spray is easier to use is not supported by the data. In the latest research, the author makes this clear, by inserting a caveat about bear spray. The current paper restates this from previous claims, p. 30, bold added:
In contrast to firearms, bear spray, when properly carried (i.e., holstered in an easily accessible location), is more readily deployed and requires less skill and accuracy than all firearm types, thus contributing to their higher overall success rate than that of firearms. (Smith & Herrero 2018, Smith et al. 2007, and Herrero & Higgins 1999).
The data does not support the claim. As shown above, sufficient speed and accuracy can be found with any of the systems given a few hours training and practice. Without the training, all systems fail due to human factors, not the limits of the weapons system. Speed of draw and deployment take about the same amount of training for both bear spray, handguns, and long guns if a cartridge is kept chambered in long guns. Extreme speed and accuracy are seldom required for firearms to successfully be deployed in defense against bears. Two seconds is almost always sufficient for the first shot. In the vast majority of the cases examined by this correspondent, the victims had more than two seconds of warning. They often claimed they had no time to react. Their actions demonstrated they had more than two seconds they did not use to draw their weapons or come to a ready state.
They failed because they did not have a weapon or they failed to deploy the weapon. In a few cases, there were weapon malfunctions. This can happen with all weapon systems. The data shows it happens a little more often with bear spray than with rifles, shotguns or handguns. The total success percentages are all very close.
The major differences between handguns and bear spray becomes apparent in two ways. First, when success rates are compared where the systems are used, not just present. Second, in the number of fatalities.
This correspondent and colleagues have collected all the documented cases where handguns have actually been used in defense against bears. If readers know of any others, we welcome the additions. The current number is 173 incidents in North America where only handguns were used. There were three failures for a 98% success rate and no fatalities. There were 39 incidents where people were injured, handguns were present and used. In 21 of those incidents, the injury occurred before the handgun was fired.
In the latest bear spray data, there are 175 incidents where bear spray was used in North America. There were 17 incidents where bear spray failed when used. (P. 122). There were five incidents where there were fatalities. There were 41 incidents where there were human injuries. It is unknown how many injuries occurred before the bear spray was sprayed.
The criteria for failure in the bear spray studies is essentially the same as in our study about handguns. The major exception is this: bears are killed with handguns, stopping their behavior. Bear spray does not kill bears.
The bear spray data collection for the latest paper ended in 2020. The handgun data collected by this correspondent and others has been updated to January
of 2025.
There have been five more people killed in four incidents where bear spray has been sprayed in defense against a bear between 2020 and 2025. The recent case where Anthony Pollio was killed by a bear in Glacier National Park, will likely make the total six more in North America, for a total of 12 worldwide, 11 in North America.
Fatalities are scrupulously investigated and reported. They avoid the problems of inherent selection bias. World wide, one incident has been documented where a .22 rimfire handgun was fired in defense against a polar bear. The person was killed by the bear. There will be others, but once in 130 years is not bad. While the numbers are small, the message is clear: Bear spray works about 90% of the time. Handguns work about 98% of the time. Bear spray is not faster to deploy or easier to use. All the methods take about the same time to learn to use effectively. An afternoon's worth of training is effective. A minute a day of practice improves response time by a half second or more in a week or two. Do not practice with a loaded handgun outside of a safe place to shoot. Do not practice drawing an active can of bear spray.
The chances of being killed by a bear while using bear spray are much higher than that of being killed by a bear while using a handgun.
There have been three incidents where handguns alone were used in defense against a bear, and a person was wounded by gunfire. All three happened with 10mm Glock pistols. All three were self inflicted. All three said the injury from the handgun was less than the injury prevented by shooting the bear.
©2026 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
The Metro Nashville Police Department said the shooting occurred after a man walked in after store hours and asked for a haircut. After he was denied, he allegedly pulled up his shirt and flashed a gun at the employees. An employee then pulled out his own firearm and shot the man.
The man was shot in the arm and suffered non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
According to court records, the man told officers he was attempting to break up with Swanson, and as he left her home, she attempted to hit him with her vehicle multiple times. He said these attempts continued as he walked into the Kroger parking lot, court records state.
I see that the Iranians managed to shoot down an Apache helicopter. The crew was rescued by an unmanned surface vessel. That's cool. That is verry cool. The Iranians should not be patting themselves on the back. The Apache is basically 1980s technology. Oh, it's been upgraded, but it was designed to kill Soviet tanks in an Eastern Europe environment.
I've also been getting bits and pieces of the Karmelo Anthony trial. From everything I've seen, Karmelo is guilty as hell. However, it appears that some of the melanin rich members of society want to make Karmelo the OJ Simpson or George Floyd mannequin of the year. That is sad, because Karmelo is not a sympathetic character. He's just another street thug who thinks he can get away with murder.
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