This is a book review
Not really. I just want to see if this idea works.
Gun Safety – Keep your finger off the trigger
A few days ago, I posted a story about a shotgun that seemed to be unloaded when it actually was loaded. Today, I’d like to talk about a different kind of safety violation—the one ultimately responsible for probably the majority of all gun accidents: putting your finger on the trigger. But a movie is worth 10,000 words, so watch the videos, and then we’ll talk.
So to reiterate, Jeff Cooper’s four laws of gun safety:
- All guns are always loaded
- Never let the muzzle cover anything you don’t want to destroy.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target [and you are ready to shoot].
- Always be sure of your target.
Jeff Cooper is reported to have said that the 3rd law alone could probably prevent something like two thirds gun accidents. Of course putting one’s finger on the trigger is the first thing most gun newbies (and even oldbies) do. Remember when Vice President Dick Cheney shot a hunting partner by accident? Finger on the trigger. The guy in the second video? Finger on the trigger when he fell? The guy in the third video? Violations of rules 1, 2, and 3. (And the next time you think only cops should have guns, remember that he was the only guy in the room professional enough to carry a Glock 40.)
People who have been using guns for years often put their finger on the trigger when inappropriate, even so-called professionals. Why? Well, ignorance and bad role models most likely. But even if you have the bad guy in your sights, your finger should still be off the trigger unless you want to shoot. We’ll discuss why in a moment. But it’s not enough to simply not put your finger on the trigger; you shouldn’t even have it in the trigger guard. Your finger should be straight and placed on the frame of the gun above the trigger guard.
Bad Role Models
Hollywood is replete with bad examples. Pick almost any movie where characters use a gun, and you’re likely to find people with their finger on the trigger. It seems that the generic bad guys tend to have better finger discipline than the stars. Take Jack Bauer of 24 for example. For the first five seasons, he consistently has his finger on the trigger.
Finally somewhere between season six and seven, he gained a small amount of finger discipline—at least on the poster—but in the actual show, his trigger finger discipline seems to disappear. Contrast that with the character of Samantha Carter in Stargate SG-1, and you’ll find that her trigger finger discipline is always impeccable. Still the bad examples outweigh the good ones ten to one (at least).
And you’re ready to shoot…
Generally speaking, Randy Cain doesn’t like it when people try to rearrange or edit the Four laws, but for rule three, he most certainly expounds the “and you’re ready to shoot addendum.” Go watch the first video again. The female policeman…person…officer had her sights on the target, but she most assuredly did not want to shoot. The problem is that our hands are made so that our fingers work together. Try this exercise. Hold your hand out straight. Now keep your pointer (trigger finger) straight while you curl your other three finger inward (like you’re holding a gun). I bet you can’t do it. There is a fancy name for it that escapes me at the moment (something like sympathetic grasp reflex), but the bottom line is, when you are in a stressful situation, adrenaline pumping, and you’re holding on to that gun for dear life, the stronger your grip, the more likely you are to accidentally pull the trigger due to the sympathetic grasp.
So the take home message is, don’t put your finger on the trigger unless you intend to actually shoot.
Avatar – Movie Review and Analysis
I saw Avatar yesterday. It is one of the most hyped and promoted movies of the year, yet many of the ads neglect to let you know that the movie is in 3-D. Here are some thoughts and opinions on the movie.
To 3D or Not To 3D
A
vatar certainly stands as a breakthrough in 3D technology and movie making, as the movie was shot and designed as a 3D movie from the ground up. The 3D takes a meh movie and turns it into something spectacular. There are moments in the movie where I thought, “If I were seeing this on the regular screen, I would be bored out of my mind, but because it’s 3D, I don’t mind so much.” Think of how the 12 minute podracing scene in the Phantom Menace bogged down the whole middle section of the movie. Well if George Lucas had made it in 3D, it wouldn’t have done so.
For the most part, James Cameron doesn’t engage in the cheap trick of having 3D objects being hurled at you in an attempt to get you to duck. Very few of the 3D effects pop out of the screen. Often the most effective use of 3D in the movie is simple ambiance. For example, as the scientists move through the forest the bees buzz around them and out of the screen, making it more immersive. It also highlights one of the current weakness of the 3D technology—fast moving objects lose focus and clarity. Certainly, the coolest 3D visuals are the virtual and holographic displays in the helicopters and in the science labs. The 3D image of the brain scan is simply amazing.
It will be interesting to see how the technology and movie making develop. For example, I felt distracted from the movie in several instances because the background of some shots is blurred, while the foreground is in sharp focus. Yes, this is similar to how the eye operates, but in real life, you could choose to focus on the background if you wanted to. In the movie, the choice has been made for you.
As many have pointed out, the 3D isn’t perfect, but it is a breakthrough, and in the same way that the first Star Wars trilogy’s effects are painful to watch now, at the time, there was nothing like them. I highly recommend watching it in 3D.
Of course then you have the question of which kind of 3D, RealD or Imax 3D? The best description of the different technologies I have been able to find is this article. Basically, the Imax screen is bigger and closer to you, so even without 3D, it seems more like you are in the movie. You have to turn your head to see different parts of the screen, because the screen is too big for your field of vision. Meanwhile, RealD is shown on a traditional (smaller) movie screen, so the 3D effects seem more “in the screen” than popping out at you.
We saw it on RealD. I don’t think I’m willing to spend the additional $12 to see it again on Imax 3D to see which one I would prefer. I’ll wait for a better movie to do that.
Update: I saw it again on a Liemax screen at Muvico. It was a bit underwhelming. This time, I wasn’t able to sit in the center of the theater, and that definitely made a difference when the effects were “out of the screen”. I really couldn’t tell any difference between the two technologies except that the Imax glasses are much less comfortable to wear for two and a half hours. On the other hand, another friend saw it both on RealD and at a real Imax theater, and he said there was no comparison, the real Imax blew away the RealD version.
Is this Dances With Wolves?
Avatar’s story is clearly derivative. It’s your basic, person goes to another culture and eventually identifies more with it and turns on his former “friends”. You’ve seen it done as boring as can be in Dances With Wolves. You’ve seen it done with visual flair in The Last Samurai. And now you’ve seen it in 3D in Avatar. As always, the best aspects of these movies are in the joy of discovery and gradual acceptance of the outsider into society. Avatar excels in the discovery department mostly because of the 3D visuals. The story aspect and gradual acceptance takes a back seat.
The movie is quite preachy on many levels, and this is its major flaw. No one wants to go to an escape movie to be preached at—especially an escape movie of this scale. The themes of terrorism, U.S. army occupation, ignorant Americans, and environmental destruction are all present even though some of them seem very strained. The cartoonish, over the top, Rambo-style head of security says, “We’ll fight terrorism with terrorism,” even though the guys in blue hadn’t done anything aggressive, let alone terrorism.
I also don’t understand why movie makers have to so confuse science and religion, nature and the supernatural. George Lucas completely ruined the force by making it the result of midachlorians. We were fine accepting that in the Star Wars world, the Force existed as a supernatural phenomenon, but once it is revealed that the Force is nothing more than the action of mitochodria midachlorians, the whole thing just becomes hokey. In Avatar, the aliens and animals have some kind of exposed neural interface that they can use to communicate. Some of the plants also have it, and when one of the aliens dies, they bury the body with a seed, and the consciousness of the person is preserved in the resulting tree, making the forest a giant planetary neural network of ancestors—a very cool idea. Then James Cameron has to ruin it by making it nothing more than tribal animism. For me, this is the weakest aspect of the movie.
Despite the preachiness, much of it is simply James Cameron being James Cameron. The Terminator shows his distrust of growing technology—ironic for someone who pushes it so. Watch Aliens, and you’ll see the same basic ideas and themes:
- Tough talking Hispanic soldier? Check
- Evil corporation exploiting aliens? Check
- Weaselly corporate suit who doesn’t understand what he’s up against? Check
- Cool military hardware? Check
- Epic battles ending up in a one on one mech duel? Check
- Sigourney Weaver? Check
Other thoughts and observations
Apparently you can show naked breasts on the big screen and still get a PG-13 rating as long as they belong to blue aliens. (Must be the 2010 equivalent National Geographic documentaries.)
Who would have thought that Zoe Saldana would be sexier as an eight foot, blue, tiger striped alien than as a Federation officer?
Is it just me or do the Na’vi look remarkably like Vincent (played by the ineffable Ron Perlman) from Beauty and the Beast which happened to also star Linda Hamilton who starred in both Terminator movies and married James Cameron?
So should I see it?
If you like movies, by all means yes. (In fact, you should see it in both Imax and RealD and then let me know which is better and why.) It’s a very entertaining movie with spectacular visual effects. So watch it, ignore the silly and preachy aspect, and be excited for the coming 3D developments in movie making…now if Peter Jackson would just go back and remake the Lord of the Rings in 3D…
Randy Cain’s Shotgun Class
One of the best things about Randy’s classes is his encyclopedic knowledge firearms equipment. Randy’s philosophy is that the most important aspect of a defensive weapon is that it is reliable, and the goal of shooting is to hit the target. As a result his gear selection tends toward the tried and true, with availability of replacement parts weighing strongly in his selection. Hence, his choice of shotgun is the Remington 870 as much for its ubiquity and availability of parts as for its inherent reliability.
Moreover, you will get a chance to see other people with various options and how they work, giving you ideas for your own gear, both what works and what doesn’t. And of course Randy will try to help you steer clear of transfer devices—gear whose main purpose is to transfer your money to the vendor.
This fall, I took Randy Cain’s Shotgun class. In preparation for the class, I have already posted a couple articles on the shotgun in general and what to look for in a Remington 870. Now that I have taken the Shotgun class, I will be posting an article on recommended modifications to the Remington 870. But this article is dedicated to the class itself.
Videos from the class are available for friends and family. E-mail me.
Day 1
Shotgun I is the second class that I have attended with Randy, and it followed the same pattern as Tactical Handgun 101. The first thing is a discussion on safety. You will learn Jeff Cooper’s safety rules for firearm safety word for word. Following safety is a general orientation to the shotgun as a whole and the Remington 870 in particular (everyone in our class had an 870) including how to load and how to unload the shotgun.
Then we were out on the firing line with buckshot to pattern the guns. Patterning consists of shooting buckshot at paper at varying distances to see what the pattern (or shot distribution looks like). You will need (at least) six rounds of two different types of buckshot (12 total) There are three reasons for this exercise:
- It helps you determine the best ammunition for your shotgun. Every barrel shoots every load differently.
- It helps you to understand your shotgun’s capabilities with buckshot at various distances.
- It demonstrates the folly of the Hollywood school of shotguns. At 7 seven yards (across the room distance), the pattern on my shotgun was only 4 inches across—so much for the “just point and you can’t miss” myth.
We exchanged our buckshot for birdshot and went to the steel plates and practiced various drills such as firing on the move, searching, and Rolling Thunder. Rolling thunder is a team exercise designed to put you under a bit of stress while manipulating the shotgun as quickly as possible just to keep it loaded. We would repeat Rolling Thunder with different variations several times over the next few days. This was followed by a competition to see who could knock down three steel plates the quickest.
Day 2
The next day, Randy showed us various slinging techniques and how to shoot from them. We then had a demonstration of how quickly one can shoot from African Carry. After some more birdshot drills, we exchanged shot for slugs and began the process of zeroing our shotguns, while Randy instructed us on prone shooting, the seven points of contact, and natural point of aim. The idea is that the prone shooting should be totally relaxed, and the sights should only move up and down as you breathe—easier said than done.
Randy’s preferred zero with the shotgun is at 25 and 75 yards. The parabolic trajectory of a slug makes the zero the same at 25 and 75 yards, allowing for a very versatile zero. Our day was scorching hot (the following weekend was cool and crisp), so we had frequent breaks where class members picked Randy’s brain for gear selection. Here we learned that the clamps that most extension tube manufacturers use affect the zero of the shotgun, and you must re-zero after every time you remove the barrel for cleaning. So Randy doesn’t use the clamp and has his gunsmith drill and tap the metal between the barrel and retention ring to mount his slings (see picture).
Then we learned various shooting positions, sitting, squatting, and reinforced kneel. We shot several exercises in various positions followed by yet another Rolling Thunder and called it a day. Depending on the time of year and level of the class, Randy sometimes has a night shoot, but our class did not.
Day 3
After recapping the basics and what we had learned the previous two days, we shot several birdshot drills, refined our zeroes, and proceeded to shoot several several slug drills and competitions (some of which you can see on my videos page). We also performed select slug drills and a drill where Randy gives you a sequence of slugs and birdshot to shoot, and then you must load the shotgun correctly and hit the appropriate targets (hint: don’t shoot slugs at the steel targets).
And then all too soon we were saying good-byes and driving back home.
Last thoughts
Randy’s courses are incredibly fun and educational. They can also be incredibly frustrating if you show up with the wrong gear. In the case of the shotgun, you’ll get the most out of the course if you have a Remington 870 with Rifle sights with a recoil pad. (A maxi pad under your shirt also helps.) A sling is mandatory. You should cut the stock down to a comfortable length of pull (this will help your shoulder immensely). Get a fanny pack or military style drop bag to hold your shotgun shells, but make sure you can close it with a zipper or pull string, because some of the drills have you getting up and down, going prone, and spilling your shells everywhere. Also bring a mat or blanket of some kind. If you forget to, you can use your car’s floor mat in a pinch. Other than that, wait until you complete the course before spending any additional money on your shotgun.
And finally come with an open mind. As Randy says, you’re paying him good money, so you might as well try it his way first. You can always go back to what you were doing if it doesn’t work out for you. Take good notes, and start saving up for your next class.
Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC)
Dr. Archie Carr wrote several books about his journeys. One of them, The Windward Road, was extremely popular. Several chapters described his adventures with sea turtles and Tortuguero. Joshua Powers, a publishing company representative, read it and became fascinated. He nominated Dr. Carr and several of his colleagues to the board of what he called the Brotherhood of the Green Turtle. It was decided that the Brotherhood would dedicate itself to raising of money to fund turtle research. It was incorporated as the Caribbean Conservation Corporation in 1959, and Dr. Carr became the technical director, so he dictated the course the CCC took.
Today the CCC still funds and operates the turtle research station at Tortuguero. With the help of volunteers, over 30,000 turtles have been tagged at Tortuguero, making it not only the longest running sea turtle research project, but also the largest.
Dr. Archie Carr and Giovanna Holbrook were old associates. He lead her first trip to the Galapagos, and was instrumental in her early success in the travel industry. Today, his son, Tom Carr, works for Holbrook Travel in the development department. So it seemed destined that the two organizations should eventually meet again. Holbrook Travel and CCC are partners in the volunteer turtle tagging project, and the Carr family still watches over Tortuguero.
The CCC offers two turtle tagging programs, one week and two weeks long respectively. Those with busy schedules who can only stay for shorter periods can also help by keeping a lookout.
Turtle Tagging: Then and now
History of Turtle Tagging
You can only do so much with a nesting turtle to study it. Weigh it. Measure it. Count the number of eggs. Describe it. But that isn’t enough. Dr Archie Carr was familiar with tagging birds and other animals for research purposes. So he talked to his brother Tommy, the physicist in the family, and came up with some sort of nickel alloy that was resistant to seawater. Punch four holes in the shell, stick nickel wire through the holes and wire the tag on. Now, the cow ear tag is used which is crimped onto the fleshy part of the trailing edge of the fore flipper.
The tags say “Reward. Premio.” and have the address of the department of biology at the University of Florida. The idea was that fishermen who caught the turtles would report them in order to collect their reward. In So excellent a fishe: A natural history of sea turtlesSo Excellent a Fishe, Archie records letters that he had gotten from local fishermen. Most are to the effect of, “Ah good sirs, if the Lord has been kind to you and it has been a good day, then please could you remember the reward you promised for fishing out a turtle…”
Once Archie started tagging turtles, he could start collecting information on growth rates, site tenacity, and population recruitment. Site tenacity is how often a turtle will come back to the same beach, and population recruitment is how many new turtles come to a beach. An interesting trend was noticed. The same female would return to the beach several times in a season and then some seasons not return at all.
There was a Caribbean lore which said that the turtles come and the turtles go. Archie Carr wanted to know where the turtles were going. The navy was extremely interested in tracking turtle movements for research on animal navigation. Archie received several grants from the navy as well as help from navy personnel. After several failed attempts, Archie devised a way to track turtles:
Attach a weather balloon to the turtle, and build two towers. Every two minutes for the next twenty hours, record the bearing of the turtle’s location. With the two towers, the turtle’s position could be triangulated. Interestingly, the turtles rarely dove below fifteen feet unless frightened. Archie found out that the turtle goes out and mates with new males, and then comes back to lay a new clutch. This was a breakthrough discovery.
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