9mm Resurgence

Lately I've been seeing a resurgence on the Interwebz of people professing to carry 9x19mm rather than .45 ACP.  The conventional wisdom had been that 9mm lacked wound potential relative to the larger cavity created by the .45.  In recent years, there's been data claiming that the wound channel and penetration is similar between those calibers.  Furthermore, there've been claims that the .45 can't consistently embed or penetrate in low-grade soft body armor as well as 9mm, including some YouTube videos demonstrating the difference.

For CCW, I'm starting to think that having more rounds is better, because depending on the situation, you may need more.  Contrast that with the case of the AWB, where (new) mags were limited to 10 rounds, so bigger was better.  For CCW, bigger means more weight for less rounds, so if 9mm has acceptable penetration, and since one doesn't know when he might be facing an attacker with soft body armor, it may be a better choice.

Self-Defense

An old friend (who happens to have become a Democrat) messaged me the following link on Facebook: What Everyone Should Know About Trayvon Martin (1995-2012)

From those details, it doesn't sound like the shooting was justified.  Permit-to-carry holders, in MN anyway, are required to retreat (unless in one's home).  Chasing down a suspect isn't acceptable, also because it doesn't demonstrate a reluctance to participate in a confrontation.  Neither is shooting someone who doesn't exhibit immediate intent to inflict great bodily harm or death.

It's hard to tell from the news who the victim is.  The novel Bonfire of the Vanities comes to mind.  (Where the outraged community and leaders twist the facts to make one of the perps out to be a victim.)

I also came across a forum thread on Minnesota Carry where a permit-holder shot a guy who'd robbed another woman, and according to some accounts was pistol-whipping her, after he was fired upon.  Again, it's hard to tell from the news, but it sounds like the bad guy was really a baddie, as he was a felon who had been freed on a catch-and-release program.  (A felon possessing a firearm is also illegal.)  The guy's mother and sister claimed injustice, but they too have criminal records: the mother for drug possession and the sister for receiving stolen property.

The really fucked up thing is that the judge, Toddrick Barnette, who released the dead perp, is the same asshole who stuck the late MN gun-rights icon Joel Rosenberg with $100k bail after Joel was arrested on a technicality (apparently there was an unused courtroom in the building that allowed them to claim he carried in a prohibited place).  Hmm.  I'm guessing the judge is a Democrat.

CCW AAR & Lessons Learned

One gunblog had a link to an after-action report on Arfcom of a shootout between a concealed-carry type and a bad guy.  There are two lessons to be learned from this: 1) Carry a weapon without a grip safety, as you might not be able to operate it with your hand(s) shot, and 2) Either carry a weapon without a manual safety, or leave it off, since the bad guy might hear you switching off the lever.  #1 kind of disqualifies 1911s and XDs from being a good CCW gun.  Maybe they're ok for competition, but there are features that compromise their usefulness.

Concealed Carry Info

Apparently packing.org no longer exists. Some forum posts pointed to the following replacements:

usacarry.com
carryconcealed.net
handgunlaw.us.