Author: photog
Guest Contributor – TomD – 09JUN2024 – Guns for Home Defense (Updated to 12JUN2024)
What you need to do is to go buy a suitable pistol for home defense. Then you can practice your photographic skills by composing shots of your new weapon in various backgrounds.
Learning to shoot it well is a rewarding challenge.
reply by photog
I’ve been thinking about it. I wanted something that Camera Girl could fall back on when I’m out of the house. Some people have told me to get a shot gun for her because of its ease of aiming. As far as the photographic opportunity I see what you’re saying. Pistols are beautiful machines. The gun show isn’t a very photo friendly environment. No control over lighting or camera support.
reply by TomD
I’m not sure I would recommend a shotgun as a first and only weapon for a female who has absolutely no prior gun experience. I’ve got a shotgun for home defense but I got my first shotgun 65 years ago, at the age of 9. I’ve hunted and shot competition skeet, trap and sporting clays, all extensively.
Shotguns have significant recoil, enough to intimidate, probably scare, a first time shooter. And you really don’t want to start training a new shooter by scaring and intimidating them.
I’d like to see you buy a .22 pistol for learning how to shoot, practice gun safety and taking to the range. There’s no recoil to speak of and the noise is just fine with ear plugs. You’d need to get around 500-1000 rounds each to get comfortable and learn the fundamentals. ESPECIALLY GUN SAFETY! Get someone to teach you. I’d love to take you to my home range but it’s about 900 miles SW of you.
And your home defense weapon would be something like a Glock in 9mm. Maybe a revolver.
Below, my Benelli Nova 12 ga, it’s chambered to accept all 12 ga up to 3-1/2”. With 3” OO buck, it recoils hard enough to intimidate the devil out of me, approaching retina detachment levels.
Update
Comment from War Pig
Working the slide on an autoloader can be a problem for women who may lack hand strength. Especially mature women. Milady’s 25 auto is easier but as far as I’m concerned the 25 is a cap gun and highly likely to malfunction. I always recommend a revolver for women who lack significant experience. The .38 is fine. Deadly at close range and a lot less recoil than a .357Sig. Since she’d likely be firing at very close range she can use a shorter barrel. I would recommend using special personal protection ammo. Say, Winchester Defender for the .38 special. The expanding defender type bullets maximize torso damage and she needs less accuracy. With a torso hit with defense ammo she would likely not require a second shot.
There are revolvers in .410 shotgun but they are very loud and flash a lot. Okay to intimidate the bad guy but the inexperienced shooter may drop it after the first shot.
Personally, I prefer a knife first, then a 45 ACP. But most people don’t like up close, look them in the eye and smell the adrenalin that fighting with knives requires.
The absolute worst thing about teaching women to shoot is their female reaction of closing their eyes in anticipation of or in reaction to, a loud noise. Teaching marksmanship to female officer cadets I had to overcome that first. I kept a length of 50 caliber cleaning rod on hand. I had them dry fire. Every time they closed their eyes I’d smack them on the top of the helmet liner they wore and shout “WRONG HOG”. Then when I broke them of that I’d do the same during live fire. Getting them to keep both eyes open was almost as bad.
Now, you can’t do that to Mrs. Photog unless you want to sleep with one eye open for the rest of your life and hire a food taster. So a mildly recoiling revolver is probably the best bet.
Comments from photog
Thanks Tom and War Pig for your very helpful advice for my home defense decisions. Hopefully this will also be valuable for other readers on the site.
In reply to War Pig.
I tend to advise revolvers for limited experience people. In extreme high stress situations, people with little to no training to fall back on tend to brain lock. In that situation, chambering a round and flipping a safety needs to be every bit as thoughtlessly automatic as going for the brake pedal on your car. No think, just done.
That takes practice and experience.
Revolver? Just point and pull the trigger, no boom, pull again.
Here’s a revolver I bought sometime back. It’s not exactly up there with my S&W’s and Colts but it performed it function as a VERY light and small carry piece. At that time, as a structural engineer, I commonly found myself alone in old powerless and boarded up buildings in downtown Atlanta to see if they could reasonably be repurposed. I didn’t do that for long unarmed.
I never had to pull it on anyone, thank God. But one time, it may have saved me some serious trouble. A couple of the “residents” came upon me in some dark hallway. They were almost certainly measuring me when I put my hand in my pocket, a decision was instantly made and they left. At that time, I had 5-6 projects going in the area and the Mexican workers who usually kept all of their earnings with them were being robbed too many times to count.
This is a Taurus Titanium Ultra Light, .38 Special +P. It’s no larger than my hand and weights less than a pound.
Downside is when firing +P, it has a pretty sharp bark and recoil. It is ported, so that helps with muzzle flip.
War Pig In reply to TomD.
That’s good. Hammerless can be good but the trigger pull is heavier than cocking and firing. But, it removes another step so that outweighs the extra trigger pull. As you said, point and pull. Keep pointing and pulling until he goes down and stops moving. Yeah, plus-p does bark a bit. My late wife had a pistol. I started her out with the 38 and she progressed to the Python in 357 mag. Back then defender type rounds were mostly just hollow points. So she had 6 hollowpoints. Never had to fire it and only pulled it once to chase away the idiot. Actually not quite true. She did use it on an overbold coyote once. Made mincemeat out of him. Another advantage of a revolver is you can leave it fully loaded all the time with no worries. No magazine spring to fade if left loaded at max over time.
Chemist In reply to War Pig.
Look into the Shield EZ. It is a semiauto .380 where the slide is very easy to manipulate.
Full Moron
I watched these two Biden clips. One has Biden spouting absolute gibberish. Honestly, I couldn’t even guess what he was trying to say. It was just jibber jabber. The other has a scene where his toadies are dancing to Juneteenth dance music around him but he is frozen in a posture that makes him look like an animatronic mannequin. Watching both of these video clips should be enough to convince any reasonable adult that Joe Biden is now hopelessly senile. He can’t speak coherently, even when reading from a teleprompter. His ability to perform minor tasks like walking, climbing short flights of stairs and recognizing things in his environment like entrances and exits from the platforms he is being exhibited on is evaporating. There are even indications that he is becoming increasingly incontinent.
Under these circumstances how are we supposed to believe that he is the current leader of this country? Other people write his speeches and executive orders and map out the agenda that is followed by the executive branch under his cabinet. There is virtually no way any of this could be the work of Joe Biden. Calling him a puppet is a remarkably apt expression. That is exactly the way he looks and acts. The only way it could be clearer is if he literally had visible strings attached to his wrists and ankles.
And yet Biden is barely a point or two behind Trump overall and even a point or two ahead in some swing states. Can half of the country really hate Trump enough to vote for a dementia patient to lead this country through some of the most dangerous circumstances we’ve seen since the Cold War? I guess the answer is absolutely!
So, I won’t be surprised when Joe makes his first State of the Union speech for his second term zip-tied onto a mobility device like some kind of cyborg scarecrow with a prerecorded AI voice track emanating from speakers while his mouth remains half open in a mute grimace of confusion and gas pain.
But what if Joe expires before 2029? Will Kamala succeed to the Oval Office? Well, somehow it seems unlikely. And not because she’s much stupider than a mush-brained mental patient. It’s because she’s an unpleasant idiot that makes those around her go through hell while she pretends that she’s not a moron.
So somehow there has to be a plan to move onto someone slightly less awful than Harris. But who? I’m going to reject the Michelle Obama theory and go directly to Oprah Winfrey. Yes, it’s definitely Oprah’s time. She combines many important qualities. She’s fat, she’s a woman, she’s black, she’s rich and she’s stupid. She’s got it all!
So as much as I’ve enjoyed the Biden years, I’m very excited to see Oprah replace Joe and lead this country into a future that staggers the imagination to visualize. Her stupidity and her popularity will usher in a new age where all we expect from our president is an afternoon time slot on ABC and book and diet recommendations for all of the women of America. A virtual golden age. So, then, Vice President Joy Behar? Oy!
12JUN2024 – Quote of the Day
Satire should, like a polished razor keen,
Wound with a touch that’s scarcely felt or seen.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
12JUN2024 – Photo of the Day
Global Revolt. Sort Of.
The last few days the results of the EU elections came in and the “far right” parties did extremely well across the various countries of the Union. There was a coinciding drop in the Green and Far Left parties across the EU. And the national far right parties in France, Germany, Austria, Holland, Italy and even Belgium are all either increasing or have already become major parties.
Europe is not the United States. But the same policies; runaway immigration, green policy sticker shock and woke repression, are souring the populaces of these countries against Leftist governments. Of course, the globalists are fighting tooth and nail to suppress this revolt. The various leftist and “centrist” parties band together to try and quarantine these populist parties and label them racist, fascist, reactionary and illegal. Germany keeps threatening to shut down their AfD (Alternative for Germany) party for being anti-immigrant.
But slowly and surely it seems that things are swinging away from these policies. Last year the Netherlands voted Geert Wilder’s party into power because they’re tired of the immigrants and the green assault on prosperity. The Dutch are hardly xenophobic fascists. They’ve just had enough of the madness. And it looks like France is getting sick of it too. After the French gave the highest vote total to their far-right party in the EU vote, Macron dissolved the French parliament and will call for new elections. It is expected that Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party will end up with the largest number of seats in the body and there is a slight possibility they could cobble together a coalition. Italy already has a populist right government. So do Austria and Hungary. Even Belgium; the very heart of the globalist bureaucracy, has a growing populist right party. Even in the lefty haven of Sweden the right has come to power although what passes for the right in Sweden still looks like woke communists from where I stand.
Now don’t get me wrong. None of this progress means Europe is becoming conservative. This is like the spasmodic flailing that a drowning man experiences just before he expires and sinks to the ocean floor. I think the chances of any of these countries escaping the grip of their leftist elites at this point are vanishingly slim. It would take a miracle. But it does show that they haven’t completely lost all instinct for survival. And it might allow for a real revolt when things become even more desperate.
It is interesting that the United States, England and France are all about to have major elections within months of each other. What I’m interested in seeing is what tell-tale clues can be gleaned from the results of the elections and the reactions of the citizens to these results. In each case there will be quite different results and different reactions but, in each circumstance, we may learn a lot about what the future holds based on these reactions.
For instance, in the United States I’m expecting Joe Biden to be re-elected. And I expect this result to produce widespread shock, anger and disillusionment with the political system here. And that disillusionment may be a better result for bringing about change than a Trump win. But a Trump win would also be an opportunity to learn about the state of our country. Could the elites be very worried by how angry the populace has become over their manipulation of the government? An honest election might show that to be likely. So, there are things we could learn from this election either way.
And likewise with the British and the French. Each of these countries is suffering from stress and are very angry at their leaders. With the correct new leadership large changes are possible. So, I look forward to all this activity. But I confess I’m impatient for the results to be known. I don’t want the drama. I just want to read the end of the book.
11JUN2024 Photo of the Day
11JUN2024 – Quote of the Day
The world will not reform for all your meddling.
Molière
What is the Normal Focal Length Lens?
What lens best represents the angle of view of human sight? Turns out it’s kind of complicated. Watch.
Make It Stop!
(Apologies to the estates of Alfred Lord Tennyson and Simonides)
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
Into the valley of boredom, I crawl.
O stranger, tell the readers of OCF that
I lie here, obedient to their reading preferences.
This summer and fall will be well-nigh unbearable. How many thousands of stupid posts by moronic pundits and half-witted lefty hacks will I have to read. And how many polls of the “swing states” will we see announcing that the electorate is finally waking up to this or that inane platitude about the race?
How many more times will some hysterical Democrat-water-carrier wring his hands and beg Joe Biden to stand aside and let Gordon Gecko look-alike Gavin Newsom jump into the race? And at the same time how many more progressive lickspittles will wax rhapsodic about Joe Biden’s towering intellect and astounding oratorical skill?
Of course, I will be rewarded by the weekly comedy of Biden fumbling over one syllable words or his feet. And every once in a while, we’ll have the Benny Hill-like hilarity of Joe being dragged away to the nearest bathroom before his pants explode. Sure, this stuff is great. We all need a good laugh.
But all in all, we’re all just marking time until we find out whether the Democrats are going to fake the November election results or let Trump win as he obviously would under an honest election.
Some of you might say I’m whining.
Well, I am!
You see, I’ve been trying to come up with an alternate strategy for getting through the five months before the election. I keep thinking I can replace political news with book and movie reviews and photography and science articles. And maybe I could but I find that I’m spending too much time reading the political news to also keep up with these other areas and so it’s a vicious cycle of dependence. Alas, alack.
Well, maybe I’ll learn and straighten up and fly right. After all the universe is full of interesting things. Like:
- Colliding neutron stars giving rise to stellar sized ejection clouds of pure gold.
- Rising tides of “far right” parties in Western Europe.
- Government warnings about the deadly “bird flu” and the miraculous appearance of an amazing vaccine!
- Nigel Farage running on the Reform UK Party ticket and predicting Reform will replace the Tories.
So, I’ll stop whining now and start looking for things to write about that don’t include the words Biden, Trump, Washington or boring.
So, let’s start with Farage. A recent article lays out his read on how the Tories abused the gift he gave them in the Brexit issue and instead governed as leftists. And now that they’ve burned away their whole voter base, he wants to replace them with the Reform UK party. Of course, in the upcoming election this year Labor will be the primary recipient of the Tories’ implosion. Labor will be the majority party. But if Reform can get a decent handful of seats, they can begin the long process of replacing the Tories and giving the English people a party that actually represents the opinions of the people. Interestingly, the election this year is on July 4th. Maybe if Reform gets off to a good start on the Fourth of July some of that magic might infect our politics too this November.
At the very least the founding of the Reform party should be a lesson for our country. The Republicans have been fake conservatives for long enough. Someone should either dramatically reform it or start a legitimate conservative third party to drive it out of business.