This Friday morning I was sad to discover an article on emergency management.com in the “Disaster Academia” section entitled Doomsday Preppers are Socially Selfish. Why do people think Preppers are selfish? It amazes me how someone in emergency management that claims through her “academic” title to be intelligent fails to grasp how preppers actually contribute to safer communities.*
Both federal, state, and local emergency management agencies, as well as NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) like the Red Cross constantly educate the public on the need to have basic preparedness kits to be able to take care of themselves until the emergency response resources can be organized and distributed. The CERT program (community emergency response teams) is a federal/state program with a proven track record. The program takes citizens with an interest in disaster response/emergency preparedness and provides training in urban search and rescue, first aid, and other vital response skills. The goal of this emergency management program is to reduce the load on “professional” responders by using trained citizens based in their own communities. No one is better suited for CERT than preppers.
Ms. Valerie Lucus-McEwen goes on to say:
You might wonder why someone like me, who has been in the business of encouraging disaster preparedness for a very long time, is so critical of people who are doing just that. It’s because they are being socially selfish – preparing themselves and the hell with everyone else. Instead of spending time and energy making changes that would benefit the larger community, in their very narrow focus of loyalty they are more concerned about themselves.
This is false on many levels, but I will pick out a couple. First, even if Preppers are Selfish, by logical extension so is buying car insurance. It is spending personal resources to protect against a potential future problem. Does Ms. Lucus-McEwen want me to pay for everyone’s car insurance if I am to have some for myself? Prepping, like insurance, is something everyone can get, and everyone makes a decision how much they want to invest. It is not saying ”to hell with everyone else”, its saying I am going to be socially RESPONSIBLE, and spend time and energy making changes that benefits the larger community by freeing governmental resources to go to those truly in need. No government, organization, or person can afford to be totally prepared for everything, we have seen the devastation caused by Presidential Disasters like Katrina, Gustav, and most recently Sandy. The government has good plans, and some great people, and a deep pocket to pay for response, but it is not the solution to every problem, nor can it be.
She then goes on to say:
Emergency Managers can’t afford that kind of attitude. It is diametrically opposed to everything we do. Our job is to prepare individuals and communities and jurisdictions and regions and – ultimately – the globe for disasters, knowing we won’t always succeed. I could find statistics about how unprepared some citizens are, and then show you hundreds of active and volunteer CERT teams preparing whole communities. In major disasters (think 9-11 or the Christ Church earthquake or Superstorm Sandy), survivors for the most part WANT to help each other.
I too am a professional emergency manager, my degree is in Emergency Management, and I have responded to several large disasters during my tenure in this field. My experience causes me to feel the exact opposite. I cannot afford to not assist preppers. Personal disaster preparedness is EXACTLY what we should strive to induce in the American populace. Personal responsibility and self-reliance has made this country great. Instead of looking down our noses at citizen preppers, and smugly judge their reasons, we should focus on what we have in common, and learn to work with them because we, as emergency managers have more in common with preppers than we have differences.
*Update
The website has changed names and the article has since been removed.
If you have any defensive firearm training of any sort, you have to have heard the term “Reasonable Force” at some point. The Reasonableness standard is probably the most important test when someone is trying to decide if your defensive action is justified or not.
However, you may ask just what is reasonable?
This is a large part of any firearm training I provide because I believe it is a lot easier to teach an individual HOW to shoot than it is to teach the WHEN to shoot.
Each state has its own laws, and I am not an attorney so I cannot give you a legal opinion on the law, but based upon my training and experience as a firearm instructor I can give you some points of consideration for you to research on your own.
I also feel the need to inform you that my training is geared more toward armed professionals (LE and Security), and that the majority of legal case law that I know is geared toward them. However, I do believe that many of the lessons learned from police shootings apply to civilians as long as the armed citizen understands the entire situation, including the legal differences between LE and citizen.
In my security classes I talk a lot about Tennessee vs. Garner and Graham v. Conner, but they are just the starting point for learning about legal use of force.
For citizens, it is important to know that you do not get to decide if your action is reasonable. Of course you think your action was right – otherwise you probably would not have done it.
The first person to decide on the reasonableness of your act will be the responding officer, then prosecutors, judges, the media, your family, friends, and the general public.
We know that no single person is perfect – and as a group we are not perfect – there is no real person that we can hold to be perfectly reasonable 100% of the time, but by creating the legal fiction of a reasonable man –Our legal system can use this fiction as an objective tool to avoid subjective decisions. This creates a system where the law works in a foreseeable, uniform and neutral manner when attempting to determine fault.
The reasonable person standard assumes that each person has a duty to behave as any reasonable person would under the same or similar circumstances.
The law cannot predict specific circumstances of each case, but the reasonable person standard does not change. You have act in a reasonable way, no matter what is happening.
The question on reasonableness is; would a reasonable person, in the similar circumstances act as you did.
This is not democratic – it is not comparing your actions to that of the average person, the average person may be wrong (look at the last couple elections or the ratings for reality TV)– but the fictional Reasonable Person is not.
The Reasonable Person weighs:
The foreseeable risk of harm his actions may create against the utility of his actions.
The extent of the risk he is going to create;
The likelihood such risk will actually cause harm to others;
Any alternatives of lesser risk, and the costs of those alternatives
Taking such actions requires the reasonable person to be informed, capable, aware of the law, and fair-minded. Such a person might do something extraordinary in certain circumstances, but whatever that person does or thinks it is always reasonable.
This is pretty hard for the average person to live up to without a certain amount of preplanning, training, and serious thought.
Calculus of Negligence
Federal Judge Learned Hand wrote about a concept called the “calculus of negligence” he wrote that the duty to provide against injuries is a function of three variables: probability of injury; the gravity of the resulting injury, and the burden of adequate precautions.
It can be expressed as B<PL
B is the cost (burden)
P is the probability of loss.
L is the gravity of loss.
The product of P x L must be a greater amount than B
As this applies to self-defense –
B (The cost in life caused by your actions in shooting the bad guy) has to be less than the product of the probability of him hurting you and how serious your injuries would have been.
If we used a scale from 0 – 100 for injuries – 0 being no injury and 100 being death:
and you shot someone and killed them(100) because he said he was going to kill you but he had no ability to do so (0 for probability 100 for the gravity)
Is your action reasonable? Since you did the highest harm (100) against a 0% probability but with a 100 gravity of loss (100*0)=0
You’re obviously going to jail.
Now – this is an unrealistic formula to use in a self-defense situation, please so not call a time out on the two way range so you can whip out your calculator to decide to shoot back or not. However, since understanding the concept essential, I threw it in to help illustrate the concept.
Reasonable Officer Test
The “reasonable officer” standard is a method often applied to law enforcement and other armed professions to help determine if a use of force was correctly applied. While the use of officer will seem to exclude the armed citizen, and the armed citizen is not a professional, I would posit that the test is useful to them as a guide for their actions.
The test is usually applied to whether the level of force used was excessive or not.
If an appropriately trained professional:
Knowing what the subject of the investigation knew at the time and following their agency guidelines (such as a force continuum)l;
Would have used the same level of force or higher;
Then the standard is met.
For the armed citizen:
If an appropriately trained individual:
Knowing what the shooter knew at the time and following the applicable laws on self defense;
Would have used the same level of force or higher;
Then it would be hard to say the citizen’s action was unreasonable.
What is appropriately trained?
Carrying a gun creates a risk to others – the reason it is called a gunfight is because you have a gun. Whenever a person undertakes a skills-based activity (like shooting) that creates a risk to others, they are held to the minimum standard of how a reasonable person experienced in that task would act, regardless of their actual level of experience. By deciding to be armed you are taking on the responsibility to know what you are doing and will be held accountable – even if you don’t know anything about your gun, the law, or accepted self-defense shooting technique.
However, factors external to the defendant are always relevant. So is the context within which each action is made. It is within these circumstances that the determinations and actions of the defendant are to be judged. There are a virtually unlimited amount of factors that could provide inputs into how a person acts: individual perceptions, knowledge, the weather, etc. The determination of reasonableness has to be made after taking into account the totality of the incident – how big was the attacker, how skilled, was it dark, how fit was the citizen, what was their level or training. It is because of this concept that things like “New York Triggers” and DA only guns were built – lawyers make fortunes attempting to prove or disprove how things such as ammunition type and who manufactured it, firearm modifications, training records apply in specific cases.
Emergency versus Non-Emergency
Lastly, since self-defense is a circumstance that requires urgency is important to preventing hindsight bias from affecting the trier of fact. Given pressing such circumstances, a reasonable person may not always act in a manner similar to how she would have acted in a more relaxed setting. An example would be toy guns versus real guns – if your being kidnapped, and someone is pointing a gun at you and telling you to get in their car, you may not have the presence of mind to tell if the gun is real or airsoft (actually many states have laws that state that for the purposes of determining the crime, the fact that a gun is loaded, unloaded real or fake do not change the charge). If you defend yourself and it later is found that the gun is a fake, this concept may protect you from prosecution.
This is a complicated concept, but if you are an armed citizen you need to understand it. I spend a lot of time thinking about it, and how this concept would change how I act in a situation where I had to protect myself or my family. No internet article or video is going to be enough – I don’t know your state law, and I am no lawyer. Please get training from someone in your area, and if you decide to carry a firearm I would recommend spending a little money and finding a lawyer to talk with you for an hour or two about the specifics of your state’s law.
A close friend of mine sent me this email, and while I cannot find the source to give a citation, I feel it is very important to share.
I feel it has a dual meaning, both for Christians, as well as preppers. I hope you enjoy it, as it gave me something to ponder on.
Years ago, a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast.
He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic . They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic , wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops.
As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received a steady stream of refusals. Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer. “Are you a good farm hand?” the farmer asked him.
“Well, I can sleep when the wind blows,” answered the little man.
Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man’s work.
Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore.
Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand’s sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, “Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!”
The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, “No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows.”
Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm.
To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down.
Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while the wind blew.
When you’re prepared, spiritually, mentally, and physically, you have nothing to fear.
Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life?
The hired hand in the story was able to sleep because he had secured the farm against the storm.
We secure ourselves against the storms of life by grounding ourselves in the Word of God.
We don’t need to understand, we just need to hold His hand to have peace in the middle of storms.
There are many misconceptions about firearm suppressors or “silencers”. That is a shame since suppressor information is very easy to find if you just look. This post is about firearm suppressor basics.
Suppressors were one of the items that became regulated under the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934. This means that suppressors are classified as a restricted “firearm” and each has its own serial number. As with all gungs the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) is tasked with enforcing suppressor regulations in accordance with federal law.
While the federal government regulates suppressors, they do not outlaw them. That is a state action. Therefore, depending on what state you live in, you may or may not be able to own a suppressor. Since a basic tenet of common law is that everything is legal until it is made illegal, I will give a list of what states currently outlaw suppressor ownership (if the state allows ownership, but narrowly defines who can own one to special classes of people I consider that to be outlawing them).
Suppressors are outlawed in:
California
Delaware
Hawaii
Iowa
Illinois
Massachusetts
Minnesota
New Jersey
New York
Rhode Island
Vermont
Washington (You may own, but you cannot use it on a gun).
If you live in any other state, and are willing to navigate the NFA regulations then you can own a suppressor.
As the video below shows, a suppressor does not “silence” a firearm. It just makes it quieter, which makes shooting safer and reduces friction with the neighbors. I think it makes shooting more fun. They are the most effective plash suppressor you can buy, and if shooting from the prone, they reduce dust being raised by the muzzle blast.
Suppressors reduce audible sound to differing degrees. They do this by diffusing the gas released at the muzzle so that it is diffused. It is kind of like opening a champagne bottle or popping a balloon. High pressure and a single opening make a loud noise, but slower release of the pressure, or multiple openings make a much quieter sound. A suppressor has openings that are 20-30 times the size of the muzzle which allows the gas to be released in a more controlled manner.
Of course, the reduction in sound only occurs at the muzzle. If you are shooting a semi-automatic some sound will escape at ejection port, the mechanics of the gun (such as bolt cycling) are not dampened, and projectiles still make noise on their way to the target. If you are shooting supersonic ammunition, no matter how well you suppress the gun, the bullet will create a loud “crack” when it breaks the sound barrier.
Some suppressors are designed to be used “wet”. This means the shooter has the can fill the baffle cavities inside the suppressor with water or possibly manufacturer specified oil. While not very practical in the field, firing a wet suppressor will provide more sound suppression than when dry. If you have a “wet” suppressor, follow the manufacturer’s instructions carefully. Water does not compress, and improper suppressor filling can break your expensive gun into large non-repairable pieces.
Suppressor sound reduction is usually expressed as sound pressure level (SPL). SPL is measured in decibels. Most manufacturers publish SPL either as a reduction from the unsuppressed sound or as a total decibel measurement. Differences in the type of sound meter used, microphone placement, calibration, weighting scales, ground surface and many other factors can change the actual reading, so take the numbers with a grain of salt and use it more as a comparison rather than as a firm number.
There are several different popular suppressor designs, and a quick patent search will show you hundreds more. But for the recreational shooter, I feel the material a suppressor is made of is more important. Due to the high heat of the muzzle gas, and how it circulates inside the suppressor body suppressors are exposed to a lot of wear.
Suppressors are rated for with semi-auto or full auto fire based upon the alloys used to create them. All things being equal, a fully auto rated suppressor is made of materials that better handle heat. If you use a full auto rated suppressor on a semi-auto you will enjoy a much longer suppressor life. However, if you reverse this and put a semi-auto suppressor on a full auto firearm you could melt the darn thing.
As with gun in general, suppressors are tools, and all tools have specific purposes and problems.
When you attach a suppressor to a gun, you will increase the pressure inside the barrel. This is especially true in centerfire, semi-auto rifles. A semi-automatic that relies on gas to drive the operating system only needs a specific amount of that gas to function properly. The excess gas normally expands out of the barrel’s muzzle after the bullet leaves the gun. When using a suppressor, some of that gas remains in the bore, expanding back into the gas system, which can result in malfunctions.
Any semi-auto rifle intended for regular sound suppressor attachment will benefit from an adjustable gas block or regulator. Many of the piston-driven semi-automatics have adjustable gas systems that allow for some modulation of pressure. By contrast, AR type rifles are typically nonadjustable. Just you need to find out what type of ammo your particular gun likes to eat the best; it is a good idea to several ammunition types to see what your gun works with best when it is wearing a suppressor.
The world of suppressors is much like the world of guns, how deep you want to delve into the specifics depends on your personality and end goals. But they are useful and useful tools. It’s a shame that, in the United States, suppressors have such a negative stigma and are seen as tools of the hit man. In many European countries, suppressors are seen as polite hunting accessories. It was really interesting, as the guys helping me in the suppressor video came down for a class, and brought several suppressed guns. While running the class at the indoor range we got lots of looks from the other shooters. I could just feel the side conversations wondering who we were and what we were doing. But, when offered the chance to shoot the guns, there were a lot of very excited guys enjoying shooting such neat tools.
The guy in the video is Terry Hassler from http://www.rockinguns.com/. He is a very knowledgeable guy, as well a registered firearm manufacturer. I want to thank him for helping me put this information out to you, and if you are in the Cookeville or Crossville TN area and are looking for a gun, you ought to check them out.
