“Living in a state where ‘vaqueros,’ cowboys, do not stand out in a crowd, and guns are just another dangerous tool that must be handled with care, it’s easy to have disdain for those ‘gun grabbers’ who don’t know the difference between semi-automatic and full automatic weapons. I don’t have bad feelings about those who advocate new gun laws with limited information, but I understand the friction when urbanites are brought to Texas by their jobs and find themselves living next door to somebody who owns enough firepower to turn back the siege of the Alamo singlehandedly.” – Steve Russell in America and Guns: To Understand That Deadly Obsession, Come to Texas [via newsweek.com]
“….somebody who owns enough firepower to turn back the siege of the Alamo singlehandedly.”
This sounds like a fun intellectual exercise. What number of modern small arms would you need to turn back Santie Annie’s army at the Alamo, at a minimum?
“…living next door to somebody who owns enough firepower to turn back the siege of the Alamo singlehandedly.”
A complement of the highest order! We should all aspire to this lofty goal.
What happened to the Texas brag:
One riot, one Ranger…
🙂
Shouldn’t need a squad of Marines – unless the Rangers are no longer a thing.
Pretty pathetic since Chuck Norris (Walker) retired.
Texas Rangers still a thing 😉
“What happened to the Texas brag:
One riot, one Ranger…”
Curious – Did the Mounties and their “One riot, one Mountie” steal that from the Texas Rangers, or was it the other way ’round?
M2A1 x 4
Well, I’m not sure how many it would take, but I do know how many I would use. I like to think I would make Davy and the boys proud.
There’s an obscure sf novel on just this subject: “Remember the Alamo!” by Kevin Randle and Robert Cornett. A squad of modern mercenaries time travels to 1836 to change history.
There’s another obscure novel where they pay Caligula, Claudius, and Nero a visit:
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Roman-Praetorian-Book-ebook/dp/B00AGDONCC
Depends how leery you are of casualties on your side. Don’t forget, even their muzzle loaders are still a way to shoot back and they do have cannons.
If you want to hold with the minimum force, a platoon and a few medium machine guns will do it.
If you want to smash the army a company with light armor support will do splendidly.
A battalion level force or a full MEU will get in its own way as there’s just not enough room to deploy inside the available structure.
Don’t forget, these are basically Napoleonic era units you’re up against. At 1800 men, that’s a very small force for the period and would have very few maneuver elements comparing to a modern force of comparable size. (Squad level, and to some extent company level, tactics are still a good century away with Von Moltke the elder.)
Hmmm…. A couple of ICE agents in a white paddy wagon with a big green stripe on the side ought to do the trick. They’ll scatter like quail. Problem is, they’ll just be back tomorrow
“Poor gun grabbers, they don’t know what they’re talking about and are easily frightened so they should get a free pass.”
Am I paraphrasing that right?
More like “poor gun grabbers, they don’t know what they’re talking about our even why they’re afraid, so let’s take them to Texas and explain using small words,” I’d hope.
That assumes both that they’re willing to listen and learn, and that they’d be willing to adopt a live-and-let-live attitude.
You know, we joke about this stuff and these people and its all forever amusing. However, when you see it in real life, it’s just trippy.
For example, earlier this week I had a business meeting with a man, a provider of professional services. This man is middle aged, trained and worked as a lawyer back in his Scandinavian homeland. He has lived in the U.S. off and on in four to five year stretches over the past twenty years, but always up in New England. He’s brand new to Texas. Here we go…..
In our meeting, he incidentally made mention of a local gun shop, which is also a new client of his. (He had no knowledge of my involvement in the firearms industry or community.) He recounted how when he had visited the shop that week, he had seen the two employees open carrying. This. Terrified. Him.
Even as he spoke, a couple of days after the the fact, there was still an unsteadiness in his demeanor and quiver in his voice. He was actually afraid of what might happen if people, you know, regular rights-bearing people, were allowed to carry self defense sidearms.
This was a bizarre, even surreal, encounter to see an actual hoplophobe in the wild on the verge of a meltdown. I didn’t have the heart, or didn’t want to risk his heart, to tell him that as I sat across the table from him, I was armed with my EDC and BUG.
I absolutely love my Sig 938!
I also carry a spare mag loose in my right pocket
I keep a Sig 290 mag in my 938 as the 290 mag holds 8 rounds
Works great after you cut a slot in it to fit the 938 mag release
I need the extra round because I carry Israeli style with an empty chamber
I’m going to the range today to practice drawing from concealment, racking and shooting
As I do at least once a month
I’m as fast as my buddies who carry loaded chamber and don’t practice as much
I will contact my 2 Florida Senators and urge them to vote for this bill
I care a lot more about suppressors than reciprocity
I will take whatever we can get in terms of firearms freedom
Nice for us to be on the offense for a change!
The full article is worth a read.
I am tired of seeing all these numbers released from Federal. You got my attention Federal, now I want to see some real world numbers. Is anyone going to run a 24″ barrel in an AR15? 20″ seems more realistic, which means less than 2700 FPS in a 90 grain bullet. Probably more like 2650-2600 fps at best. Which really only makes it marginally better than a 77 grain SMK at 2700 FPS in a 20″ AR15. The 77 grain would go subsonic around 850 yard with a pitiful 220 ft-lbs of energy. The 90 grainer goes subsonic at 1100 yards, with 261 ft-lbs of energy. I guess if I was forced to build precision gas gun in a .224 caliber, this would give me an advantage, but I don’t know if it’s enough to make me want to build something on an AR15 vs an AR10 lower.
Hmmm…. Safe minimum? A National Guard Infantry Platoon could stop Santa Anna dead in his tracks. Once the SAWs open up the fight would pretty much be over and you could cut that even further if you go with a scout platoon with a couple Bradleys and a couple up armor Humvees it gets even better running a tank platoon with 2 Abrams and 1 Bradley. Bare minimum? A good Infantry squad either Army or Marines with full load out could get the job done.
HK will not sell to Israel
Why not?
Israel is a democratic state with an army at or above NATO level
The Israel Defense Forces abide by the Geneva and Hague conventions on the laws of war
It will abide by any end user agreement not to furnish guns to 3rd parties
It has a large Arab minority that includes Palestinians who can vote and are protected by rule of law
Any of its soldiers or citizens who commit crimes against minorities are punished
It allows all faiths to pray at the Holy sites and prevents Jewish fanatics from entering the Dome of the Rock
So, where is the problem selling to Israel?
Jews?
What did Daniel Boone say to Davie Crocket when he looked over the walls and saw 6,000 Mexicans? I didn’t know we were hanging dry wall today…
Will somebody please get that man a sling?!
I can’t stop cringing about him banging his muzzle on the sidewalk.
It is a pleasure, joy and a benefit to be able to post comments to articles. To read other people’s opinions and comments about specific topics is enlightening at times.
Would be great if everyone would just state their position on the subject matter of the article and not berate, degrade or insult others. Yes some opinions are just plain looney but they have the right to be a loon. Simply write your position in a coherent manner without reference to others and no insults please. Let your comments stand on its own merits.
Get use to it or move!
I think the characterization of owning certain tools without prohibitively onerous bureaucratic red tape as a “dangerous obsession” tells me all I need to know about the article’s perspective, and lack of objectivity.
It’s TEXAS…what a maroon😖😫😋
a ma deuce, a squad automatic, 20 Clay-mores, a 1911A1, and a KaBar for up close and personnel.
God help these snowflakes when they get out in the real world! No safe places and have to work for a living. I don’t thing any of the snowflakes will make it!
Apparently you’re not familiar with the many Silicon Valley tech companies that brought in grief counselors after the 2016 election.
What does it say about you that you fear your neighbors that bad, but nobody else does?
When you come from a place that everyone lives on top of one another like a ball of snakes, or you can reach to shake your neighbors hand just by opening each of your kitchen windows, then it’s up to you to notice that your neighbors running your town hate you, and don’t trust you with any threat that they reserve for themselves. They’re the problem and you are part of it.
I got enough of the M-16 during my 26 years in the military.
I don’t care about “authenticity”. If it works, that’s good enough for me.
Does anyone know if the shooting took place on tribal land?
I still find people’s stereotypes of Texas amusing. Also, don’t use the word vaquero if you don’t know it’s not the same as a cowboy.
When urbanites move to Texas, they usually move to — wait for it — urban areas. Another thing I don’t get is why someone having guns next door would be a source of “friction.”
Urban areas, even in Texas, aren’t a 24/7 Open Carry Rally. In fact, I’ve only seen three open carries in a year and a half. The last one was changing someone else’s tire on the side of the road. Public image and relations for the win.
Guns don’t kill people, Dogs with shotguns do. And snakes sometimes, guy tried to club a snake, snake got his tail in trigger guard ,kabloowie
Depending on how far/fast your shot string goes down, that could actually be a good thing. If you are able to reliably put the first shot in the attacker’s upper chest area, subsequent shots would go down just like buttons on a shirt, eventually getting to your attacker’s pelvic girdle.
That could actually be a feature, not a bug!
“I’m shocked — shocked! — to find guns in Texas.”
Said nobody ever except maybe some East Coast idiots.
(1) Try shooting a lower caliber handgun like a .22 LR or use mild target loads for a while and then transition to larger calibers or defensive loads which have more recoil. Heavier handguns also have less felt recoil.
(2) Make sure that you are focusing your eye(s) on the front sight: before, during and 2 seconds after the shot breaks. Don’t let your sight picture and alignment change.
(3) Squeeze the trigger. The discharge should be a surprise. If you know when the shot will break then you are jerking the trigger and flinching. You need to slowly increase the pressure on the trigger until it breaks.
(4) The amount of muscle tension in your hands, wrists, arms, shoulders and back should be medium, not light or heavy and it should not change until 2 seconds after the shot breaks.
(5) I instruct my students to tell themselves “Focus on the front sight… focus on the front sight…..” continuously from the time they start a new shot until they hear the shot and one more time after the shot breaks. Then they can relax their muscles and look at the target.
(6) Drop your arms and rest them after a maximum of three shots. Fatigue leads to sloppy technique.
Accurate pistol shooting is a simple process but it’s not easy. All you have to do is minimize barrel movement after you properly align the sights, get the right sight picture, hold your breath and then slowly squeeze the trigger until the shot breaks and then continue to minimize barrel movement until the bullet hits your target. Simple, right?
Too bad the company sucks ass. You couldn’t give me a Springfield Armory rifle pistol or a Rock River anything after what they did to us. Never forget ladies and gentlemen they haven’t made it right yet.
AWESOME!
CRKT Field Strip FTW.
And nobody gives a flying F. 😮
At some point there is no other reaction to pelosi than to laugh… Hilarious!!
Nancy exhibits the symptoms for the clinical definition of a sociopath. Pathological lying without remorse and guilt transference. Since she has done this for decades it can’t be attributed to altzhiemers or dementia. It could possibly be a severe mental defect but most likely it comes from being a Liberal progressive democrat as it afflicts a great many people who claim this as their life’s guidepost.
I started shooting before hearing protection was a big deal, the concussion started hurting my ears, and it got worse, that’s when I started flinching. Now I double up, ear plugs and muffs, helps me a lot.
The last video – An exercise invented by someone who sell metal parts to replace the plactic guide rod and trigger in a beretta?
Trying to see the benefit otherwise.
My goal is not rounds through a gun but rounds on target in a brisk fashion.
Maybe this would work for that. I am skeptical.
There *is* a third possibility, that she is so stupid she needs someone to tell her what is true and what is not, and her designated understander is lying to her!
If you are going for a total M16 look the foregrip is totally WRONG!
I need to work on my weak hand shooting, only hit 60% on an 8 inch gong at ten yards -ugh. was 100% right hand only.
In the spring I’m going to invest in several full size steel silouettes and work more on my move and shoot drills.
Interesting article Dan Zimmerman, and well written. However, I disagree, completely. Wholeheartedly.
First, when you begin fear-mongering, and basing decisions and actions/support (or lack thereof) on SPECULATION, or, “what they could do”, you use a over-used tool of the left, to control people based on fear and speculation.
Second, the federal government has grown too large & overreaching, everyone agrees. But sometimes they get it right. This is one of those times:
Our Constitution states that NO STATE, may make a law, and no citizen is obligated to follow a law, that infringes on their constitutional right. California, or Time Square as you said, do not get to say whether other law-abiding Americans can, or cannot have guns in their little “safe space” States.
It is unconstitutional, and finally, Congress is addressing this issue with a Bill.
Blind mistrust of Congress benefits no one. Actually reading the bill and understanding it’s legal ramifications does help. Your article, while well written, informs no one of any facts.
Incorrect. “States rights” it’s a myth. States have powers and authorities, but no “rights”. The constitution goes both ways, no government should be trampling on individual rights, wether it’s state, federal, or local. If all the residents of SF California unanimously decided to ban freedom of the press within city limits, it would be deemed illegal by other branches of government. The same standard must apply to gun control.
A.B.C.D.F.U.C.K.Y.O.U. PELOSI
Nothing. I am a superb shooter, with no deviations what so ever. I don’t need to work on a thing, in fact, I spend most of my time telling other people what’s wrong with them, because I’m so superior. Doesn’t get any better than me.
Young law officer determined to do things by the book.
It’s the much better, safer law that only better, safer law-abiding citizens are complying with.