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I recently read the new book “American Gun, A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms” by Chris Kyle. Chris is the former Navy Seal who wrote the autobiography “American Sniper.” “American Gun” is a history book as much as it is a book about guns. I found the first three chapters a joy to read. The rest of the chapters were still interesting; however, they were just different. With both of Chris’s books, they are very easy to read. I would recommend this book to anyone. You don’t have to be a gun person to appreciate this book.

If you have followed Chris Kyle’s career then you know that he is considered “the most lethal sniper” in U.S. history. He wrote “American Sniper” because it was getting to the point where someone was going to write his story so he decided to do it himself. A very nice touch was how his wife, Taya, was included in the book. In many of the chapters, she would write about what she was doing and feeling while Chris was out doing his job.

There is a sad story behind “American Gun.” Chris was killed before it was finished. He and a friend were shot by a veteran they were helping recover from PTSD. Taya stepped in and worked to finish the book. I am sure this is why some of the chapters read differently. Taya Kyle has since become quite popular in gun rights circles. She was a speaker at the NRA national convention. You can watch her seventeen minute speech on YouTube by searching “taya kyle nra speech.” Because you get to know Taya from her writings in “American Sniper”, I believe she says what she believes and not just for profit.

12/31/2013 The gun and ammo drought (from club newsletter)

2013 has been exciting times for gun owners. It wasn’t always pleasant with higher prices on guns and ammunition when you could find it. I call these times “droughts.” What I have seen in the last several decades is that there is a pattern to these droughts. Knowing this pattern can help you save money and hopefully not get too stressed. I get stressed when I have less than 500 rounds of any caliber; but, I’m not going to pay $1 per round to restock.

I will use the recent school shooting in Connecticut on December 14, 2012 as an example of the drought process. First the anti-gun movement grabs ahold of the massacre and it gets taken up nationally. Gun bills seem to get pulled out of drawers and presented to Congress. Once this happens, the drought officially starts. Guns start to get purchased in record numbers. Ammo disappears. Sporting goods web sites put up banners that read: STOP BOTHERING US. WE DON’T HAVE ANYTHING. After about three months, guns start to trickle back into gun stores at very high prices. Ammo, when you can find it, is limited to one box.

Now for the good news. Gun and ammo droughts historically last 9 months. It has been nine months since December. Availability is good. I will use Georgia Arms, an ammunition maker, (www.georgia-arms.com) as an example. When the drought started their banner read something like “at least 3 month delay to fulfill orders.” Two months ago it was limiting buyers to 500 rounds per caliber. Now there are not any limits.

1/7/2024 Spot Shooting of Handguns By Matt Walker

As a martial arts instructor I am constantly searching for ways to group skills so that they are easy to teach and learn. When it comes to handguns, my focus is accurate self-defense shooting. I found that working on the seven fundamentals of marksmanship was not enough. And, as I found out, it was probably too much work on things that didn’t matter much. I recently stumbled on the concept of spot shooting. If you google search it, you will not get very many results regarding guns. Pistol-training.com is a good website with information on various drills.

Finding this little gem helped bring most of the concepts that I had learned in the past 22 years together into a quickly taught system. The concept of spot shooting is that you need to aim at a small spot no matter how big the target is. Let’s use an 8” steel plate as an example. You move your handgun to cover the plate, align the sights, and pull the trigger. Sometimes you hit it and sometimes you don’t. So you slow down and still occasionally miss. The problem is that you are aiming at the entire 8” plate.

Now take the same plate and visualize a 2” dot in the center of it. When your sights are aligned on the spot you press the trigger. Sometimes you will miss the dot by an inch or two (assuming you didn’t lose sight alignment). This puts your bullets in a 6” circle. You need to be honest with yourself; we tend to shoot worse than we think we do. However, there is hope with effective practice.

Looking at an imaginary dot is not enough; but, it’s a huge start. Out of the seven fundamentals of marksmanship only three are really important for pistol shooting. These are sight alignment, sight picture and trigger control. I will talk more about trigger control in another article about shooting small pocket guns. But, basically the sights should not be moving when the gun fires.

Here’s the formula putting spot shooting and marksmanship skills together: LCP. No, I’m not talking about the Ruger pistol. LCP stands for Look at the dot, Confirm the front sight, Press the trigger. As you begin practicing this, say ‘Look’ ‘Confirm’ and ‘Press’’ as you go through the steps. The LCP cycle works because it is natural. When you are attacked, you will focus on the attacker. Transitioning your focus to the front sight is difficult during stress. We need a way to practice it so that it becomes automatic.

When you get comfortable with the LCP process, you can speed up by just using the word ‘Confirm.’ After looking at the spot say confirm as you change your focus to the front sight. Pull the trigger through the word ‘firm.’ Do the LCP process each time you fire the gun. When you first start to practice this the LCP process may take 1.5 seconds each time. After a few range sessions you can get it down to ½ second between shots at the same spot and under 1 second between multiple targets.

The LCP cycle has these steps: (L) Looking at a visualized dot on our attacker or a target is the first thing. It will be natural to look at him but we need to place a dot on him also. Next, the gun’s sights come up to eye level. (C) Confirm that the front sight is on the dot. Then confirm the rear sight position. (P) Begin pressing the trigger as you focus on the front sight and keep your sight picture lined up. If you chose to use a flash-sighting method then ignore the step about the rear sight.

Now that you have fired your first shot, you will want to shoot it again or shoot at a new spot. Just repeat the LCP cycle. If you move to a new target, then look at the spot first and let the gun follow. Don’t use the sights when moving to a new target. It is too slow.