Tag Archives: home protection

Gun Control Means Having a Good Grip

Posted on by Melissa

I wanted to take a moment and put in my two cents on the major shift in the anti-gun rhetoric since the tragedy in Connecticut. Unfortunately our country has become divided in yet another issue. Obviously I am widely against more gun control; more gun control will not stop these senseless shootings. Do you really think these psychopaths that are killing innocent and unarmed people will stop if there are more gun laws? Do you think they won’t be able to get guns illegally? Even if (and this is a big if) criminals couldn’t get guns anymore, they would find another way to spread chaos. The same day as the shooting in Connecticut, a man walked into a school in China with a knife and stabbed 20 children.

I actually do agree with one gun control law that should be passed. I feel that the gun show loop-hole needs to be closed. For those of you who don’t know what that is, the gun show loop-hole means anyone can walk into a gun show with a gun slung on his or her back with a sign that says “for sale.” Someone can walk up and buy the gun without a background check. Now as a responsible gun owner, I will not sell a gun to anyone without a background check, unless I know the person and trust that person. Not all gun owners feel that way though, and many guns get sold without background checks. By closing the gun show loop-hole, it could stop people who are ineligible to own guns from easily buying guns at a gun show.

At this point, the liberal media has whipped the anti-gun rhetoric into a frenzy. It is very rare that you hear about a gun saving a life in the national news. Did you hear that an undercover police officer in San Antonio stopped another possible movie theater shooting? Probably not. The main thing fueling the fire within the media and Washington DC is fear. People fear what they don’t understand. The liberal media and the anti-gunners in Washington don’t understand the gun community whatsoever and have no interest in sitting down and learning a little something. They think that a concealed weapons permit holder is liable to just whip out their gun whenever they are in a small altercation because they are pissed off. They also don’t understand the guns themselves. Have you seen some of the things Dianne Feinstein wants to ban? The one that I really don’t understand is front pistol grips on the AR-15. Because by having a front pistol grip, you can kill a lot more people if you don’t have one. Oh wait, that’s right, a front grip has nothing to do with the power of the rifle! It’s ergonomically more comfortable for people who prefer it, and can actually give you more control over your firearm. Doesn’t more control mean it would be safer? So to Senator Feinstein and all the others who want to ban our guns, please take the time to learn about the equipment you are trying to ban, but most of all, talk to the people it would affect the most: the American people.

My Review of the Sig Sauer P238

Posted on by Melissa

I’d heard a lot of good things about the P238 lately, so my husband and I decided to check one out. When I handled one at the gun store, I was really impressed with how easy it is to pull back the slide. I could literally do it with two fingers, this from a woman who has always had trouble with semi-automatic pistols. I was intrigued to say the least! I looked at some reviews online, and discovered very little complaints, with the exception of some stove-pipe issues. (Stove-pipe is a type of malfunction that after firing a round, the gun fails to eject the spent casing hard enough and it gets stuck in the ejection port, jamming the gun.) I had been interested in a gun I could carry concealed, and the P238 was looking like a good option. I really wanted to shoot it before I bought it, since it came with a pretty hefty price tag of $635. I called up a range in Denver where you can rent guns and shoot them on their range. Unfortunately, they don’t have guns less than 9mm to rent, and the P238 is a .380.

 

So  I decided to take a chance. I was able to sell a gun I had, but didn’t like all that much in order to put some money towards my new toy. Once I sold my Springfield, I went over to the Shootin’ Den in Colorado Springs to get my P238, which I named Rosie due to the rosewood grips, and also after Rosie the Riveter.

I finally found some time that Rosie and I could get to know each other better. The weather was in the 50′s, and I convinced my husband to go to the range with me to try the two new additions to our family. Did I forget to mention that we also are the proud new owners of a Thompson semi-automatic rifle? To those of you who like 30′s gangster movies and shows, that’s a Tommy gun!! It’s not a fully automatic one from the 30′s; those cost about $20k. Ours is a reproduction in semi-auto.   We got out to the range, and I could hardly contain myself. I hadn’t gone shooting in quite a while, and I was excited to shoot the P238 and the Tommy gun. My husband had some trouble at first with the Tommy, because one of the magazines was a little damaged, but once he figured that out and used the other magazine he had, he started having a blast (literally!).

Anyway, back to Rosie. The Sig P238 has a 6 round magazine that was very easy to load. No painful thumbs here. I had dry fired it before we went to the range, and the trigger pull is so much lighter than some other .380′s that I’ve shot. Once I started firing it, I was amazed at how low the recoil is on this gun. It’s a small gun, perfect for concealment, but it has a steel frame, which makes it heavy enough to absorb the recoil. I knew after the first 6 rounds that I was in love and had absolutely no buyers remorse. I let my husband try it out as well, and he really liked it too. Between the two of us, we shot a little less than 100 rounds, and I only had one stove-pipe malfunction. I would say compared to any other gun I’ve shot, that is not abnormal. The only complaint I had about this gun is the ambidextrous safety mechanism. It’s very easy to disengage, but to engage the safety, I have to break my grip on the gun.

In my opinion, this gun is perfect for women who have trouble with semi-automatic handguns. It’s small, has a very easy slide, light trigger pull, and low recoil. I will be recommending this gun to any of my female students, or any man who asks me what handgun is best for women.

Our Hearts in Colorado are Broken, but We Will Heal

Posted on by Melissa

As most of you know, I live in Colorado in a small town outside of Colorado Springs. We’ve had a rough couple of months, from the fire that destroyed 346 home and damaged countless others, to the senseless shooting in an Aurora movie theater that claimed 12 lives. Whenever a terrible tragedy like this happens, the rhetoric on gun control is always dialed up. Some people demand that we have stricter gun laws, then we would have less gun violence. Disarming the law-abiding population is not the answer. In fact, this particular shooting was an example as to why. All of those people in the movie theater were unarmed, because guns are not allowed in the building. The shooter knew he wasn’t going to have any opposition when he went on his rampage. Criminals, by definition, do not follow the laws/rules. If we have stricter gun control, the criminals will still find ways to get around them.

I’ll admit, if someone in that theater had broken the rules and was armed that night, he or she would have had little to no chance of hitting the shooter. It was dark, the movie was playing, there was tear gas in the air, and there were people screaming and trying to get out of the theater. The shooter was in head-to-toe body armor, and the only place to shoot him to stop him was an area approximately two by three inches on his face. However, if people were allowed to have their guns in more places, maybe criminals would think twice about taking on the public, because they wouldn’t know who was armed and who was not. The only way we can get our society to see this is education. People who are anti-gun are usually just ignorant of the real gun community. All they see is what is shown in the media, which is usually negative. Very rarely do I see a story where a gun has stopped a crime or saved a life. That is not the real gun community, and it is sad that we all have bad reputation because of the criminals that only want to hurt others with their guns.

My hat goes off to our Govenor, John Hickenlooper. First he was dealing with the fires all over our state, and then he has to go in front of the media about this horrific event. What I respect most about him is even though he is generally anti-gun, when asked about stricter gun laws, he didn’t go on the attack at all; “You know, I worry that if we got rid all of the guns, and certainly we have so many guns in this country, we do have a lot more gun violence than many other countries — but even if you didn’t have access to guns, this guy was diabolical. Right? He would have found explosives, he would have found something else, some sort of poisonous gas, he would have done something to create this horror.”

So come to Colorado and see us. We may have a few burn scars and scars on our hearts, but our community is strong. We have wonderful gun laws as I have said in other posts, and a state full of beautiful scenery and great outdoor activities.

Shoot like a girl if you can! My second trip to Frontsight

Posted on by Melissa

What an awesome week! I just got back from Frontsight Firearms Training Institute. This time I went with all “my boys,” my husband, brother-in-law, and 17 year old nephew. My husband took the four day tactical shotgun class, and my brother-in-law, nephew, and I took the four day defensive handgun class. If you’ve followed my blog before, you’ll know that I’ve already taken the two day defensive handgun class from Frontsight. The four day class goes above and beyond the two day class, and I was excited to review the skills I learned from the two day class, and to learn more advanced skills.

The neat part about this trip to Frontsight was that I was able to experience how easy it is to travel with guns. We had 3 pistols and a tactical shotgun with us. We were traveling with a lot of gear, so we were quite a spectacle! We had the shotgun and my Glock in a (very heavy) rifle case. Each of us had a suitcase, and we also had two carry-ons. We had the other two pistols in a hard sided case in one of our suitcases. You must have the guns in a hard sided case, and they must be padlocked, not TSA locks. So all we had to do was go up to the airline’s ticket counter and let them know we were traveling with firearms. The ticket counter lady’s reaction was the same as if we’d told her we were traveling with clothing. All we had to do was fill out a form that went into the cases, and the lady just wanted to see that the actions were open and the guns were unloaded. Then TSA takes them and x-rays the cases, and then they take the guns and put them in the belly of the plane. The only slight restriction is that you can only have eleven pounds of ammunition per piece of luggage. That’s it! We decided to buy the ammo in Las Vegas so we didn’t have the extra weight, since we needed 600 rounds each, and my husband needed 500 shotgun shells.

The class itself was intense. Our days started at 5:30am. We stayed in Las Vegas, so we had to drive about 45 minutes to get out to Frontsight, which is near Pahrump. We had to be at the range at 8am, except on the first day, we had to be there at 6:30am for check-in. We were on the range from 8am to about 5pm. There were forty students in our class, and we were divided up into two relays. One relay would be shooting, while the second relay lined up behind them acting as coaches. This made the range very safe, with twenty sets of eyes plus our instructors and our rangemaster. The only time someone got hurt was if their gun bit them, so a Band-Aid fixed that right up. Or, if it was me, I was in a hurry doing a tactical reload, and my magazine bit me, and I have a nice blood blister on my thumb.

Out of the forty students in our class, there were about ten women. Not to brag, but the women were out-shooting the men most of the time! At one point, we had a steel target competition. This included a hostage target, and two other “bad guys” behind him, all made of steel. Steel is extremely fun to shoot, because it moves when you hit it, and makes a very satisfying “tink” sound when you hit it. Most of the women in our class out-shot the men in the steel competition. Our rangemaster’s best quote for the entire class was “Shoot like a girl if you can!” Unfortunately I didn’t do as well in the competition, but I only lost because my opponent shot the bad guys faster, but I didn’t shoot the hostage, like a lot of people did!

The best part of this trip to Frontsight was going with my family. Even though my husband wasn’t on the range with me, I got to spend time with my brother-in-law and my nephew. It made our class so much more enjoyable, because we all get along really well. We had a great time on the 45 minute drive back to Vegas because that was our “debrief” time. We would talk about “that guy” on the range, or the funny things our rangemaster said. We also heard about what happened in the shotgun class from my husband. I was so proud of how much my nephew took in all the information and improved his shooting in four days. My brother-in-law wasn’t too shabby either, the last drill we did, he shot five shots within the size of a quarter. This is my biggest tip about going to Frontsight. If you can go with family or friends, it makes the experience more fun.

If you are planning a trip to Frontsight, here are my best tips:

Frontsight is in the middle of nowhere. During lunch, you do not have time to get lunch anywhere except right there. You can order lunch from their food company, but if you are with a large group and are there for four days, it can get expensive. We bought a $6 Styrofoam cooler, and every morning we hit Von’s (aka Safeway) and stocked up on bread, lunch meats, cheese, fruit, chips, drinks, and ice. It was so easy, and much cheaper. Now if you’re by yourself or with one other person, and just want to buy lunch, order it ahead of time; it’s very tasty.

Make sure you bring a lot of high SPF sunscreen. I used 70 SPF. You will be in the desert sun almost constantly. You need to apply in the morning, and reapply often. So have the sunscreen with you in your range bag, along with nail clippers and a nail file. Whether you are a man or woman, you WILL break a nail, if not a couple. Have the nail clippers so you can cut it down so you’re not scratching yourself or catching it on clothing.

Pay close attention to what clothing you bring. Wear high neckline, close-fitting shirts. A couple of women on our range were wearing V-neck blouses. Needless to say, they caught a lot of very hot brass down their shirts. I wore a high necked shirt, and I still caught a piece of brass down my shirt. It will probably still happen, but you’ll lessen your chances. In terms of pants, I suggest tactical pants. I bought 5.11 tactical pants because they are sturdy, and they have lots of pockets, which you will need in the class for storing extra magazines and loose ammo. Check out www.lapolicegear.com, they have lots of styles and sizes, including pants specifically for women. If you don’t want to spend the money on tactical pants, at least get cargo pants. Make sure to wear sturdy, comfortable shoes. You will be on your feet for eight hours a day and they will get dirty. I wore my combat boots, and they worked out great.

My biggest tip to anyone who is going to attend any class at Frontsight for the first time: Go there as a blank slate. I don’t care if you were Army Special Forces for 25 years, go there open to all of their training, and try their way first. If it doesn’t work for you, fine, you can switch back to your training after you leave. If you go there closed minded and don’t want to try any new techniques, there is no reason for you to go, so save your money. Frontsight is the best firearms training you can get in the civilian world, no matter if you are brand new to shooting, or if you have several decades’ worth of experience.

If you’d like to see the pictures from our Frontsight trip, head over to my Facebook page and “like” Women With Firepower.

Next item on my wish list: A Suppressor for my Glock

Posted on by Melissa

I was at an outdoor public range a couple weeks ago with a friend. It was a combination pistol and rifle range, and my friend and I were shooting a couple of my pistols. There was a lot of noise on the range, obviously, with about twenty people shooting their guns. But through all the normal gun shots, I heard something like you hear in an assassin movie. I looked to my left and saw a rifle with a suppressor, and I was so jealous! I would love to have a suppressor, but they are a little difficult to buy.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) categorizes silencers as a National Firearms Act (NFA) firearm. (Silencer is a common term for suppressors, and that is how the ATF refers to them, but I will always call them suppressors, because nothing can really “silence” a gun.) Other weapons categorized as NFA firearms include full-auto guns, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, “destructive devices” including Molotov cocktails and bazookas, and “any other weapon” which includes cane guns and gadget guns.

The process for buying a NFA firearm is pretty lengthy. When you’ve picked out your suppressor, you must fill out an application with the specific serial number for your suppressor. Before you send the application and $200 in taxes to the ATF, you must first have the “Law Enforcement Certification” completed by the chief law enforcement officer. Your gun dealer then holds on to the suppressor while your application is being processed, which could be up to six months! If your application is approved and when it’s sent back to you, then comes the happy day you get to go back to your gun shop and pick up your suppressor. You must do this with each NFA firearm you purchase. From then on out, any time you have the suppressor, you must have a copy of the ATF approval on your person. By the way, if you didn’t know already, I happen to live in Colorado, where suppressors are legal. If you live in state where they are illegal, then you are out of luck.

I don’t understand why suppressors are so restricted. I feel they should be as easy to purchase as any other gun. Suppressors actually make your gun safer. The most obvious way is that suppressors reduce the gun’s report (gunshot noise), which is safer for your hearing, with or without hearing protection. On the range this isn’t such a big deal, but if you’re protecting yourself in the middle of the night, are you really going to have time to put on your hearing protection? Probably not.

When you screw on a suppressor to the end of your barrel, you are adding weight on your gun. Extra weight is always a plus on a gun, and when it’s on the end of your barrel, it will reduce both recoil and muzzle climb, which will make you more accurate. In a home invasion scenario, you need to stop your target as soon as you can so you have less of a chance of you or others in your home getting hurt.

So yes, I really want a suppressor, but I am certainly not looking forward to the process to purchase one. The great part about being a gun-lover in Colorado is that if I want a gun, I go to my local gun shop (usually the Shootin’ Den in Colorado Springs), fill out the application, wait an hour or so, and then go home happy with my new gun. We don’t have a waiting period of several days or weeks. I don’t usually buy things online because I’m very much an instant-gratification kind of girl. So whenever I do go through the process of buying a suppressor, it will be so hard to wait!