Category: California

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Ammo California

Bismuth 12 Ga. Slug by E.M.Smith

Bismuth 12 Ga. Slug by E.M.Smith

For those who do not know, California has banned the use of Lead in ammunition used for hunting. Why? Supposedly to reduce toxicity in birds eating lead lumps and shot. In reality, more likely IMHO is that the goal was to make it harder to get any ammo to shoot and raise prices.

The result has been a lot of use of Bismuth in shot as the weight is about the same as lead and it is non-toxic. Also it isn’t that expensive. For hunting rounds in rifles, the use of solid copper and related alloys has been common.

Copper is much harder than lead, so many of those hunting rounds now penetrate more soft body armor than the prior rounds. (Note: NO soft body armor is “bullet proof”, each is only rated to stop certain classes of rounds. There is no “bullet proof vest”. There is no “cop killer bullet”, only a necessary energy and hardness to penetrate any given level of vest.)

But what happens with a Bismuth slug?

Well, the Taofledermause folks tested it. Results are fascinating to say the least. Due to increased brittleness, the slug tends to disintegrate on hard targets. BUT it also tends to make a few larger chunks in the process on softer targets. As a result, it penetrated a Level 3 soft body armor test panel that will stop a Foster Slug of lead.

In a block of ballistic gel, it was an amazing effect. Shedding some fragments that stopped in a few inches, while some large chunks traveled the whole length, and the rest formed an expanding cone of destruction in between.

I would not want to be on the wrong end of one of those slugs.

Now, this was an alloy of mostly Bismuth, a bit of Antimony, and some tin (12%) so as to stop the tendency of Bismuth to expand on cooling. That let them use a regular lead casting mold to get a proper sized bullet / slug. I have no idea how much of this peculiar performance comes from that particular alloy, but it will matter to some degree.

Bismuth  - 87.25%
Antimony -  0.75%
Tin      - 12%

An interesting result, to say the least. Attempting to make it a pain to go shooting your shotgun resulting in a spectacular increase in lethality. Leftists – Accidentally increasing lethality for 53 years… (Banning “Saturday Night Specials” moved uninformed shoots / buyers up caliber and up quality into more lethal guns and calibers…)

I’m no longer concerned about the effectiveness of Bismuth in shotgun rounds 😉

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All About Guns California Cops

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout by Luke C

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout
On Friday, February 28th, 1997 the Los Angeles Police Department would face one of the most dangerous criminal acts in its history – The North Hollywood Bank Shootout. On that Friday morning, after months of planning two armed bank robbers entered and robbed the North Hollywood Bank of America branch in California. The ensuing shootout between the heavily armed bank robbers and LAPD would go down in history as one of the largest gun battles in United States history. Today we’ll breakdown the facts leading up to and throughout the infamous North Hollywood Bank Shootout.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to sit in judgment of any party that was involved in this incident. The purpose of this article is to take the facts which have been presented to the public to show readers a clinical, unbiased and truthful look at an unfortunate chain of events.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

BEST-LAID PLANS

The robbers – Larry Eugene Phillips Jr. and Decebal Ștefan Emilian Mătăsăreanu – were familiar with firearms and prepared for the bank robbery by heavily arming and armoring themselves. Included in their arsenal were illegally modified rifles including two Norinco Type 56 S rifles, one Norinco Type 56 S-1 rifle and a Bushmaster XM15-ES2 Dissipator all of which were modified to be able to fire fully automatic. The robbers were also armed with an H&K Model 91 .308 rifle.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

The HK-91 Rifle used by Phillips during the robbery (note the destroyed lower receiver and magazine)

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

An illegally modified XM15 used by the robbers to fire fully-automatic – Beta mag attached

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Norinco Type-56 Sporter modified to fire full-auto by the robbers – an attached Romanian 75 round drum magazine.

Phillips and Mătăsăreanu also armored themselves with varying degrees of body armor. Mătăsăreanu wore a Type IIIA bulletproof vest with a trauma plate to protect vital organs while Phillips was found to have worn more than 40 lbs of equipment including his armor. Phillips wore a Type IIIA vest which included a groin guard and he supplemented this with several pieces of homebrewed body armor salvaged from pieces of other vests. All together Phillips was nearly covered from head to toe in body armor.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout: Recreation of Phillips (left) and Mătăsăreanu on the day of the robbery

In addition to their armament, both robbers made an extensive reconnaissance of the Bank located at 6600 Laurel Canyon Boulevard – this reconnaissance included finding the exact person they needed to gain access to the bank’s vault which was their main target. The robbers also made use of police scanners to determine the estimated response time and included watches sewn onto the back of their gloves to monitor their timing.

THE ROBBERY

At 9:17am the two robbers arrived at the bank and set their watch alarms for 8 minutes. As the two made their way into the bank they were spotted by two patrolling officers. Loren Farrel and Martin Perello were on patrol and driving down Laurel Canyon when they spotted the robbers. Perello immediately called in the possible 211 – the code for robbery.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

After entering the bank the robbers proceeded to harass both customers and bank employees. Mătăsăreanu opened fire into the bank’s ceiling declaring “This is a F*cking holdup!” As Phillips secured the main bank lobby Mătăsăreanu proceeded to track down the bank’s assistant manager John Viligrana.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

The metal door jam was shot along with the bullet-resistant glass leading to the tellers and bank vault.

Viligrana was located inside the tellers where the vault door was. To gain access to this area, Mătăsăreanu shot through the 1/4″ thick bullet-resistant polycarbonate and acrylic composite panels with his converted Norinco Type 56 Sporter rifle. The short burst destroyed the panels and riddled the striker plate with bullet holes.
John Villigrana encountered Phillips after he blasted the door open and was immediately met with demands to “Get the money or we kill you.” Even though Villigrana immediately complied with the demands he was still struck in the back of the head with the wire-frame stock of Phillip’s rifle.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Upon entering the vault Villigrana began filling Mătăsăreanu’s bags with cash. However, due to a recent change in delivery times and practices, the bank had not yet received its bulk delivery and the amount of cash inside was not what the robbers had expected (roughly $750,000). Assistant Manager Villigrana recalls that Mătăsăreanu became visibly and audibly upset with this revelation. In a display of rage, Mătăsăreanu unloaded a full 75-round drum into one of the vault’s cash lockers (Burgher Box).

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

After this incident, Villigrana had finished loading up the robber’s bag with a total of $303,305 which included 3 dye packs that would all detonate as the robbers were leaving the building. With their 8 minutes up the robbers marshaled the terrified customers into the bank vault and at that point, Phillips exited the Northwest door of the building while Mătăsăreanu remained inside for another 4 minutes – it is still unknown what he did inside the bank during this time.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

THE SHOOTOUT

During the bank robbery, LAPD officers had managed to surround the building setting up patrol cars along Laurel Canyon Boulevard as well as the intersecting streets surrounding the bank. Officers began to arrive only minutes after the initial two-eleven call was made by Officer Perello.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Phillips as he opened up with his initial barrage of fire at the LAPD

As Phillips exited the building he immediately encountered LAPD officers. Phillips opened fire with the first of what would eventually be 1,100 rounds reportedly fired by the robbers during the ongoing battle. LAPD Sgt. Haynes along with 3 other officers were the first targets of Phillips and the first barrage of full-auto fire riddled the police cruiser with bullet holes as the officers took cover. Phillips continued to pursue the officers and present civilians and even fired on the police helicopter AIR-8 which had arrived just seconds before Phillips exited the bank.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Although it may not seem like it the distances that the gunmen were engaging the officers at put officers armed with pistols at a significant disadvantage.

Phillips continued to fire till he emptied his 75-round drum and then proceeded to retreat to where he had exited the bank. Officers used this opportunity to return fire with their Beretta 92F 9mm pistols. Some other officers had S&W Model 15 revolvers and others brought Ithaca Model 37 shotguns to combat the robbers. Shortly after reloading, Phillips stepped out again and in a single 128-degree arc of fire, he wounded three police officers and one civilian.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Phillips was initially shot by officer James Zboravan. Zboravan used his Ithica Model 37 and two blasts of buckshot to hit Phillips from the rear with 9 total projectiles but only one managed to injure Phillips by striking his right buttock which was unprotected by armor. Phillips turned to engage the officer and those around him and eventually wounded officer Zboravan with one round striking his lower back and other striking his hip and exiting through his thigh.
A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout
A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

ATTEMPTED ESCAPE – PHILLIPS

This portion of the battle would go on between officers and Phillips until he decided to return to the bank Phillips may have been struck several times by both LAPD officers and detectives with 9mm rounds as several officers engaged him from multiple angles. After discarding several empty ammunition drums Phillips and Mătăsăreanu exited the bank both carrying the large money bag.
A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout
LAPD SWAT arrived 18 minutes after the shooting had begun and were much better armed than the patrol officers. LAPD SWAT brought AR-15 rifles to bear and commandeered a nearby armored truck to extract the wounded civilians and officers from the area.

LAPD officers and SWAT team members use a commandeered armored transport to rescue a wounded man, under fire from a robber at the Bank of America across the street. (Gene Blevins/Los Angeles Daily News)

As Mătăsăreanu and Phillips exited the bank and began to flee, Mătăsăreanu was shot twice in the right buttock and once in the left forearm which forced him to drop the bag of money which had been ruined by the detonation of the dye packs.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

The glove from the right hand of Phillips

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Autopsy report showing Phillips right hand which was shot

Mătăsăreanu then proceeded to enter their getaway vehicle and start the engine while Phillips retrieved the HK-91 from the trunk and continued firing at officers by walking along with the car as it moved. The HK-91 was struck on the receiver and magazine forcing Phillips to abandon the rifle. Phillips was simultaneously struck in the shoulder by officers.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Phillips quickly picked up a second Type 56 rifle and exited the parking lot and onto the street where Mătăsăreanu had driven the getaway vehicle. It is at this point that he continued to fire at police until his rifle jammed at which point he drew his Beretta 92FS and continued firing at police. Phillips was shot in the right hand which caused him to drop his pistol. After retrieving the pistol, Phillips chose to end his life with it while officers simultaneously shot him several times while the pistol was under his chin.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Phillips firing his Beretta 92FS at police shortly before his death.

ATTEMPTED ESCAPE – MĂTĂSĂREANU

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout
Mătăsăreanu continued down the street until the original getaway car was disabled by having two of its tires shot out. He attempted to steal a Jeep Gladiator by shooting at its driver. The driver ran away but not before activating the electrical kill switch which disabled the vehicle. As this was happening SWAT arrived and engaged Mătăsăreanu who had taken cover behind the original getaway car.
A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout
For almost the next two and a half minutes, there was a stream of near uninterrupted gunfire between the officers and Mătăsăreanu. The bank robber survived a direct “double-tap” to his vest and continued to fire at officers after catching his breath. Eventually, a swat officer chose to fire underneath the vehicles at Mătăsăreanu’s unprotected lower body which eventually wounded the bank robber and caused him to surrender, Mătăsăreanu put his hands up to indicate this.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Just seconds after his surrender, police officers rushed to pin the man down and cuff him. Officers questioned him about his own name and if there were any other suspects and Mătăsăreanu reportedly retorted with a vulgar “F*ck you! Shoot me in the head!”

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A photo of the “double-tap” shot sustained to Mătăsăreanu’s vest during the final exchange of gunfire.

Ambulance personnel, following standard procedure, refused to enter “the hot zone” where Mătăsăreanu was as he was still considered dangerous and there were reports that a third gunman might be on the loose. EMTs were not allowed to reach the scene until almost 70 minutes later after police radioed for an ambulance and Mătăsăreanu died at the scene from excessive blood loss. In total, he was shot over 20 times in the legs although the two fatal shots were from his left thigh.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

AFTERMATH – CONCLUSION

In just under 45 minutes, over 300 law enforcement officers had responded to the city-wide TAC alert. At that same time, over 1,100 rounds of various ammunition had been fired by just the robbers with an additional estimated 650 rounds fired by police. Miraculously the only two deaths were those of the two perpetrators. In total 11 police officers were wounded and 6 civilians were wounded during the 44-minute robbery.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

This single incident in which two heavily armed and highly motivated men chose to rob a bank at high risk proved to be one of the motivating factors to standard patrol officers being armed with more lethal weapons. If anything this incident proves just how ineffective standard patrol weapons (pistols and shotguns) can be against those with heavier firepower.
This thought process led to the Department of Defense giving 600 surplus M-16 rifles to the LAPD which were then issued to each patrol sergeant. Today weapons like these can be considered “standard issue” by many police departments.
A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout
I hope that this brief breakdown of the facts has been informative and enjoyable to read. The story of the North Hollywood Bank shootout has many complex and intricate details, many of which I was not able to include for brevity’s sake. If you have questions many of the links in the article have a bounty of information that I was unable to include in the article. As always, thanks for reading and please feel free to leave a comment down below.
Photo Credits: CNN, National Geographic, Adrian Martinez, L. Mindham, LAPD Crime Scene Photos

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All About Guns Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" California Cops

California May Soften Gun Crime Laws, Citing Impact On People Of Color By Jeffrey Cawood

BERKELEY, MISSOURI - DECEMBER 24: In this handout provided by the St. Louis County Police Department, a handgun is pictured that was recovered following the officer involved shooting at the Mobil on the Run gas station on December 24, 2014 in Berkeley, Missouri.

A California state assembly committee gave its stamp of approval on April 27 to legislation that would significantly soften sentences for people convicted of some firearm offenses, with proponents saying laws against using guns in the commission of crimes disproportionately affect people of color.

The Assembly Public Safety Committee voted 6-2 to approve the Anti-Racism Sentencing Reform Act, though the proposal still has several hurdles to clear before becoming law.

Assemblyman Alex Lee’s office said he agreed to co-sponsor the bill “to correct decades of harm done to communities of color.” Staffers recently created a “fact sheet” that argues imposing stiffer sentencing laws added on to the charge of an underlying offense drives up incarceration rates, crowds prisons, and serves as “a legal monument to racism.” 

“If a gun is used during a violent felony offense – such as a robbery – California’s ‘10-20-Life’ gun enhancement applies,” it said. “A 10-year enhancement is available for any use of a gun, which is increased to 20 years if the gun is discharged, and to 25-to-life if great bodily injury or death occurs.”

AB 1509, as the bill is known, would eliminate the use of most gun enhancements and significantly reduce the others, modifying them from 10-20-life to 1-2-3 years.

“In essence, the bill decriminalizes the use of a firearm in California for the most severe, most violent felonies,” Siddall told The Daily Wire. “What this bill would do is encourage violent criminals to use guns during their crime because the penalty is so insignificant.”

Its passage would be retroactive, meaning some prisoners currently incarcerated on firearm enhancement charges could be released. However, Lee’s office said the bill limits retroactivity based on the crime, and not everyone would be eligible for resentencing.

According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, approximately 40,000 inmates in custody, or about 40% of the prison population, have a firearm enhancement attached to their sentences.

Lee, a 25-year-old progressive Democrat from San Jose, describes himself as “the first Gen Z, youngest Asian American, and first bisexual state legislator in California history.” He was living with his mother last November when he beat his Republican opponent in a landslide. Lee was endorsed by Bernie Sanders and worked part-time for an app-based delivery service to generate income during the campaign. His priorities emphasized “fighting for the marginalized” but did not mention criminal justice reform.

 

Lee introduced AB 1509 in February. Four fellow Democrats signed on as co-authors, including  Assemblymembers Wendy Carrillo (Los Angeles), Ash Kalra (San Jose), Mark Stone (Monterey Bay), and Sen. Scott Weiner (San Francisco).

During the committee meeting last week, Lee thanked “the over 370 incarcerated individuals who have written in support.”

Here is a look at four advocacy groups and co-sponsors that, according to Lee’s office, played an extensive role in drafting AB 1509 and remain partners in considering any amendments.

Initiate Justice

According to its co-founders, Initiate Justice was established “to activate the political power of people in prison, formerly incarcerated people, and their loved ones.” The organization claims more than 19,000 members inside California state prisons, including more than 150 organizers mobilizing inmates to change laws. Initiate Justice also trains organizers on the outside to “build our collective power and make our presence felt with legislators” through its Institute of Impacted Leaders initiative.

 

The group’s website highlights “prison abolition” as a featured project and has received at least $750,000 from two San Francisco-based grantmakers: the Libra Foundation and Rosenberg Foundation.

Taina Vargas-Edmond, Initiate Justice’s co-founder and executive director, was the executive chair of a committee that pushed a successful statewide ballot measure last year that restored voting rights to felons who have completed their prison terms. Initiate Justice was the lead organization on the Yes on 17 campaign and mobilized outside organizers on parole to direct communication efforts. The drive was also supported by the other activist groups working with Lee to reduce gun crimes punishment.

“The current approach of piling enhancements on top of convictions is an antiquated practice that needs to be rooted out from the core of California’s criminal legal system,” said Vargas-Edmond, who describes herself as an abolitionist and intersectional feminist.

Re:Store Justice

Established inside San Quentin State Prison, Re:Store Justice was created “to re-imagine our justice system.” It works “to end life and extreme sentences by changing the way society and the carceral system responds to violence and harm.” The group promotes restorative justice education sessions within prisons, bringing together homicide victims’ families with people incarcerated for murder.

Executive Director Adnan Khan co-founded the organization while incarcerated at San Quentin. He describes sentencing enhancements as “racist” and “abusive.”

“Sentencing Black, Brown and people of color to 10 additional years, or 20 additional years, or life in prison in addition to the sentence is excessive and unreasonable. We have to undo mass incarceration and the abuse we’ve normalized,” said Khan. “We are grateful for Assemblymember Lee leading transformative change.”

The organization has publicized progressive organizing actions that seek to decarcerate and close California prisons.

 

LaNeisha Edwards, program director at Re:Store Justice, served as a member of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón’s transition team and is part of his office’s Crime Victims Advisory Board.

Patty Quillin, the wife of Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings, sits on the board of directors. She was also a major donor to the Yes on 17 campaign and funded drives supporting Gascón’s candidacy during that same election cycle.

Essie Justice Group

Made up of women with incarcerated loved ones, the Essie Justice Group boasts about “advancing demands that would bring about a reality where prisons are abolished and systems of healing, accountability, and wellness are the norm.” The organization also pushes for the dismantling of policing.

“We are building a membership of fierce advocates for race and gender justice – including Black and Latinx women, formerly and currently incarcerated women, transgender women, and gender non-conforming people,” Essie’s website says.

 

The group has received more than $4 million in grants from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which, in turn, received significant funding from Quillin and Hastings.

Silicon Valley De-Bug

Silicon Valley De-Bug group runs a criminal justice community organizing program where families with loved ones facing incarceration try to impact the outcomes of their cases. They often assist public defenders and produce videos that aim to tell the court a fuller story of a defendant in the hopes of securing more lenient sentences.

 

Its Twitter account has referenced “our movement to decarcerate and abolish jails.”

The nonprofit has received financial support from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and George Soros’ Open Society Institute.

“Gun enhancements add years to loved ones’ sentences, are often used as a plea bargaining tool, and have no real correlation to public safety,” the group said in a statement. “We’ve seen dozens of families bear the burden of excessive sentences that don’t lead to real rehabilitation.”

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All About Guns Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" California

Oh God not again! ‘Gun violence will not end on its own’: CA lawmakers push to tax guns, ammo after recent mass shootings

‘Gun violence will not end on its own’: CA lawmakers push to tax guns, ammo after recent mass shootings

CALIFORNIA

by: 

Posted:  / Updated: 

Police respond to the scene of a multiple shooting on March 31 in Orange. In response to recent mass shootings, California lawmakers want to tax guns to pay for anti-violence programs.(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)
Police respond to the scene of a multiple shooting on March 31 in Orange. In response to recent mass shootings, California lawmakers want to tax guns to pay for anti-violence programs.(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

Citing recent mass shootings in Orange, Boulder, Colo., and the Atlanta area, state lawmakers on Tuesday advanced a proposal for a new tax on the sale of guns and ammunition in California to boost funding for violence prevention programs.

The legislation by Assemblyman Marc Levine (D-San Rafael) would place a $25 excise tax on retailers for the sale of each new gun and an as-yet-undetermined levy on ammo sales to raise millions of dollars to fund the efforts.

“Gun violence will not end on its own,” Levine told the Assembly Public Safety Committee during a hearing Tuesday. “We must take responsible action to end the public health crisis that is gun violence in our state, in our nation.”

The panel voted 5 to 2 along party lines to approve the legislation, which still needs approval from the full Assembly.

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All About Guns Allies California Stand & Deliver This great Nation & Its People

The Handguns of James W. Hoag By David Tong

Hoag Longslide Hi-power pistol
A Hoag modified Browning Hi-Power with 5″, 6″ and 7″ slide/barrel assemblies.

As an example of a fine human being in all respects, and my first employer over thirty years ago, this article is dedicated to Jim Hoag.
James Hoag is a pistolsmith. While he is now more of a general gunsmith, his abiding passion was to create highly and tastefully modified service pistols.
Before he was involved with firearms, Jim Hoag was an aircraft armorer in the U.S. Navy. He served aboard the carrier USS Bonhomme Richard with the Navy’s first squadron of Douglas A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft.
After his stint serving Uncle Sam, Jim became a tool and die maker, before deciding to become a gunsmith specializing in handguns. In the late 1950s, he became acquainted with a certain Mr. Jeff Cooper, a retired WWII lieutenant colonel of some notoriety and the foremost proponent of the Model 1911 pistol and its .45 ACP cartridge.
Jim participated in the genesis of the “Modern Technique,” the use of the two-handed Weaver Stance, named after Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Jack Weaver. Weaver could famously place center hits on a silhouette target at 100 yards with his six inch Smith & Wesson K-38 revolver.
Col. Cooper started a shooting club in Big Bear, California, called the Bear Valley Gunslingers. At first this was a group of guys interested in fast draw and point shooting, but Cooper developed other ideas. He believed, correctly as it turned out, that shooting a pistol most accurately required a two-hand hold for both steadiness and recoil control.
Not long after this, Cooper started writing a long-lasting column for Guns & Ammo magazine, called “Cooper on Handguns.” He was a historian, an opinionated raconteur and, the few times I met him, a consummate gentleman.
Outgrowing the developing Big Bear City, Cooper then moved his range operations to Wes Thompson’s Juniper Tree Range, outside of Saugus and near the current Highway 14. It was there the techniques he developed found many adherents and the Southwest Pistol League was born.
This group was dedicated to the use of the pistol in rapid fire, on multiple targets, including movement and reloads. If one mastered these things, Cooper reasoned, he or she could be reasonably assured of prevailing in a personal defense situation.
Jim Hoag and Col. Cooper, among other notables including Ray Chapman, Thell Reed and Ron Lerch, saw the international interest in such training and together formed the beginnings of the I.P.S.C., the International Practical Shooting Confederation. While this organization has rather lost its way, attracting gamers and becoming a “race gun” league, it remains to this day one of the largest groups of people dedicated to understanding the service pistol in rapid fire.
Jeff Cooper moved his training facility to Paulden, Arizona and named it “Gunsite Raven.” Cooper passed away in 2010 and, while some of his techniques are no longer popular, his tutelage moved defensive handgun training away from one-handed target stances on static bullseyes to the type of “practical” shooting done today by hundreds of thousands of shooters around the world.
While they have not seen each other for years, Mrs. Janelle Cooper remembers Jim Hoag fondly. Jim spent time at their home for dinner on many occasions.
Jim worked for a time at now defunct King’s Gun Works of Glendale, California, before striking out on his own in 1972. His shop at 8523 Canoga Ave., Suite C, Canoga Park, CA remains at this location to this day (2016).
He became, primarily, a student of the 1911 pistol, understanding its mechanical advantages and correcting its issues. At first building pistols for his own use in competition, he later decided there was enough demand for him to go into business building them for other competitors and his business flourished.
He was featured in the Guns & Ammo cover story several times, showing his “long slide” 1911 pistols (6″, 8″, and 11″ barrels). In addition, Jim’s standard and long slide Browning Hi-Power pistols (standard-length, 6″ and 7″ barrels) have been featured.
Jim will also build custom, bull-barreled Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Mag. revolvers into superb target revolvers. These receive a Douglas barrel, hooded front sight and action work.
During the short period of my tenure there, Jim was building 1911s for Mickey Fowler, Mike Dalton and Ron Lerch. These men were three of the founding members of the Southwest Pistol League.
Mickey Fowler was the IPSC international champion for several years in the 1980s. He was a very good shot. On one occasion he came into the shop to show us a target with a hand held, 50 yard, 5-shot group from his 6″ Hoag Master Grade pistol measuring just 3/4″.
Jim still builds his 1911 pistols for all budgets and levels of experience. The base model is the “Police Special,” and it is a good starting point. The barrel is fitted to the slide and a new barrel bushing is fitted. Link lugs are fitted to the slide stop pin, high-visibility fixed sights are fitted, the front sight is made of precision ground tool steel and silver-soldered into a Woodruff key cut. The barrel is lightly throated and the extractor tension and hook are adjusted for reliability. Finally, the trigger pull is reduced to a crisp 4.5 pounds.
The second model is the “Class B.” All of the features of the Police Model are included, along with extra niceties. These include a low mounted Smith & Wesson adjustable sight and hand checkering of the frame and mainspring housing at either twenty or thirty lines per inch. Twenty lines is better for a secure hold, but thirty is less abrasive if you have tender hands. The length of the trigger blade is optional and an over-travel stop is fitted.
The third model is the “Class A” pistol. This is a further refined Class B gun. Formerly, a Bo-Mar low mounted adjustable sight was fitted. An equivalent sight is now used, as the Bo-Mar company is no longer in business. The top of the slide is given fine serrations to help reduce reflections. A one-piece steel recoil spring guide rod of Jim’s manufacture is fitted, while additional internal polishing is done to all operating surfaces to ensure smoothness and reliability. A wide grip safety of Jim’s conservative design is installed to help prevent hammer bite with the spurred hammers preferred by many. An extended, single-sided thumb safety of Jim’s design is fitted.
The fourth model is the “Master Grade.” This is the top model and no expense or time is spared. The price is on application. The slide is fitted to the frame for a free-running, yet tight and slop-free fit. This actually makes the pistol more reliable, so long as it is not used in a military context, as the slide, cartridge pickup and barrel location relative to the frame are all in closer and consistent proximity.
A match grade Kart stainless steel barrel is provided. These barrels have additional metal on them that require careful fitting to ensure precise alignment of the barrel within the locking lug recesses and standing breech, the bushing and link lugs and the position of the primer relative to the firing pin. These pistols are tight as delivered and several hundred rounds should be fired to adequately determine their reliability. This said, most of them run just fine right from the shop.
Additional features of the Master Grade include 50 line per inch hand checkering of the rear of the slide, extractor, ejector and magazine latch thumb piece. The buyer has the option of a standard (rounded) trigger guard checkered at 30 lpi, or a similarly checkered squared trigger guard. While most folks do not use the square guard anymore, it is a viable option for those who do. An ambidextrous safety lever is fitted per customer selection.
Finally, additional work is performed to make the pistol look better and work smoother. A stock Colt pistol usually comes with its machined curve lines around the trigger guard and forward dust cover area looking pretty wobbly. Using Dykem solution, scribe lines and very well-practiced eyes and hands, Jim uses files and increasingly fine grades of sandpaper to make these lines dead horizontal and smooth.
Your choice of trigger blade length and width is also fitted. The trigger pull weight is approximately 3.5 pounds and absolutely clean. All functioning machine cuts, including the trigger stirrup and magazine chute, are hand polished to perfection.
Master Grade pistols can be (expensively) modified into “Longslide” versions, with 6″ or 8″ barrels and slides. Jim has made two 11″ Longslide 1911s and these featured barrel locking lugs personally hand cut by Mr. Hoag.
These pistols have a slide shortened to the standard barrel bushing retaining lug slot. Then, a section of 4140 steel is precision bored and reamed to match and welded onto the slide.
The Longslides are annealed to make them easier to machine. A “shaper” is used to cut the basic contour of the slide and then both horizontal and vertical mills are used to bring the steel surfaces down to a few thousands proud of the original slide.
Then, the REAL work begins! A process of draw filing, using fine “mill bastard” files, reduces the Longslide to the original slide dimensions, resulting in a perfect blend to the original part. I have done one of these 8″ slides myself and I can say, without doubt, that I spent well over thirty hours time getting those lines dead straight and flats level.
The Master Grade is also subject to meticulous hand polishing of the flats of both slide and frame. Increasingly fine aluminum oxide paper backed with a 12″ file is used, down to worn-out 600 grit wet with polishing oil. A buffing wheel is nowhere to be found in this process, which takes the better part of a full day to complete on just the two parts.
All parts are then hot blued in house, to maintain complete control of the finishing process. A thorough function and safety check are performed after reassembly and Master Grade guns are test fired to ensure function and accuracy.
The Browning Hi-Power is Jim’s other favorite semi-automatic pistol, as it shares the same single-action trigger pull, manual of arms, all steel construction and fine balance. These days he mostly builds Police Special practical carry pistols or full-house Master Grade Hi-Powers.
One difference between a top drawer Hoag Hi-Power and that of others is Jim manufactures his own screw-removable barrel bushing, to ensure tight tolerance and accuracy of the fitted barrel. He also builds a special order long-slide Hi-Power now and then, although this is rare these days.
My personal experience with Jim’s work includes a Class A 1911, Master Grade Colt Delta Elite 10mm Auto and an almost full-house Browning Hi-Power. I have also shot a 6″ long-slide and that thing tracked silhouette targets during rapid fire like it was radar guided.
Mr. Hoag is now in his eighties. He is probably the last of the “old masters,” the only one who remains a one man shop and the only one I know of who has a Jeff Cooper connection. Those ranks once included the late Armand Swenson and Frank Pachmayr, both from Southern California.
I plan to have Jim Hoag build me one more bespoke 1911 before he retires. If you love this pistol as much as I do, so should you.
ADDENDUM
March 28, 2017 – It is with great sadness that I must let the readers know that Jim has retired after 44 years at his Canoga Park shop. The business is closed, his machines have all been sold and none of his family members were interested in keeping it going. I last visited him in March 2016 and he seemed about as enthusiastic as ever, but after having a stroke three years ago, plus the increasing amount of regulation and scrutiny in the city of Los Angeles and the state of California, he decided it was time to hang it up.
I hope that those of you who were fortunate enough to have Jim build a pistol for you will not immediately relegate it to a safe, but get out and shoot it. That is what he built them for: competition, personal protection and general target shooting. They are all fine instruments that deserve to see the light of day.

 

 I was lucky enough to have met the Old Boy once. He seemed to be to me at least to be a good man. I am just sorry that I did not have the time & money to have him work on some of my guns. Grumpy

Categories
All About Guns Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" California

California: Committee Passes Gun Tax & Further Restrictions for “Precursor” Parts
Last week, the Assembly Public Safety Committee voted to pass Assembly Bill 1223, to place an additional excise tax on firearms and ammunition, and Assembly Bill 311, to restrict firearm “precursor parts” from display or sale at gun shows. The committee sent AB 1223 to the Revenue and Tax Committee, and AB 311 to the Appropriations Committee for further consideration.

Assembly Bill 1223 taxes firearms at $25 each, and ammunition at a certain percentage yet to be determined, in order to fund social services programs for “gun violence.” The taxes are to be collected from California retailers on new firearms sold, and on their retail sales of ammunition. It is unjust to saddle law-abiding gun owners with special taxes to fund social service programs. Such a measure makes it more expensive for law-abiding citizens to exercise a constitutional right, and discourages them from practicing to be safe and proficient with their firearms for purposes such as self-defense, competition, and hunting.

Assembly Bill 311 prohibits the display or sale of any “precursor firearm parts” at gun shows in the state. So called “precursor” parts are not regulated as firearms under federal law, however, they are regulated and limited to being transferred by licensed vendors in California. Such restrictions continue to cut off access to law-abiding individuals who are looking to acquire firearm parts in accordance with existing law.​

On Tuesday April 13th, the Assembly Public Safety Committee is hearing AB 1237. Please contact committee members and ask them to OPPOSE AB 1237.

Assembly Bill 1237 mandates the California Department of Justice (DOJ) to supply state information, including personal identifying information, to the UC Gun Violence Research Center at UC Davis, and allows the DOJ to provide this same information to certain non-profits and state agencies. This legislation creates grave privacy concerns, as well as concerns that this information could be provided to groups that create biased “research” to push gun control policies without actually researching root causes of violence.

Again, please contact committee members and ask them to OPPOSE AB 1237.
Categories
California Grumpy's hall of Shame

Evil can take many forms!

In 1979, 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer was arrested
after the infamous Cleveland Elementary School shooting in California,
which killed the principal and a custodian. When asked why she did it,
her reply was, “I just don’t like Mondays.
Categories
California Cops

The Sound Behind You Is Reality Catching Up (and It’s Carrying a Gun) BY JACK DUNPHY

Bryan Chan/County of Los Angeles via AP
What value is there in a newspaper that ignores or subverts the truth in the service of  some fashionable agenda? And if this abuse of what once were universally observed journalistic standards isn’t shameful enough, how much worse is it when it results in needless death and bloodshed?

It should be obvious to anyone not ideologically blinkered that the Los Angeles Times has wed itself to the social justice cause, so inextricably so that no one at the paper seems cognizant of the fact that social justice, with its appeals for compassion for criminals, comes at the expense of actual justice and the welfare of crime victims.

The Los Angeles Times is hardly alone in its descent into woke activism. Indeed, the entire mainstream media complex seems to have abandoned its pretense of objectivity (and it has long been just a pretense) in favor of open left-wing activism. Nowhere is this more evident than in the reporting on issues relating to crime.

On Tuesday, the L.A. Times ran a story concerning one of the paper’s favorite ongoing themes, to wit, allegations of bias on the part of Los Angeles Police Department officers patrolling the more crime-ridden sections of the city. “LAPD admits it made hundreds more traffic stops in South L.A. than it told The Times,” reads the headline, reflecting the glee no doubt shared at the newspaper that the Department had been caught providing inaccurate data regarding this contentious issue.

This is not to excuse providing bad data to the Times, but the story itself seems to be more concerned with the “gotcha” aspect than with the far more important issue underlying the data, which is the problem of violent crime in Los Angeles, particularly in South L.A.

What’s more, the story is a muddle of unclear information from which the reader is unable to draw a sound conclusion. Times staff writer Kevin Rector opens the story with the “gotcha.” “Los Angeles Police Department officials earlier this month downplayed a return to controversial investigative traffic stops in South L.A.” he writes, “in part by telling The Times that the number of stops was dramatically lower than it used to be — with just 74 stops so far this year.” He goes on to cite the belatedly revealed accurate data. “But on Tuesday,” Rector writes, “LAPD Chief Michel Moore told the L.A. Police Commission that figure was wrong, and that the true count was more than eight times as high, with 639 stops having been conducted.”

Only by reading deep into the story, and by reading a linked Feb. 12 article, also by Rector, can the reader learn that it is stops by Metropolitan Division officers that is being discussed. Officers assigned Metropolitan Division, or Metro, do not respond to routine radio calls. Rather, they are traditionally deployed to inhibit crime in those areas of the city where it is most disruptive, which in Los Angeles means the four patrol divisions that make up South L.A.: Newton, Southwest, 77thStreet, and Southeast. (I worked at all of these stations at various times in my LAPD career.) L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and LAPD Chief Michel Moore were characteristically spineless and curtailed the patrols in 2019 after the L.A. Times ran stories claiming the tactic “disproportionately affected Black and Latino drivers.”

It would have been malfeasance on the part of the police had the stops not done so. Consider: these four divisions (of the LAPD’s total of 21) are home to about 640,000 people, or 16 percent of the city’s population, yet they accounted for 44 percent of the 349 homicides investigated by the LAPD in 2020. Nearly every single resident of these areas is black or Hispanic, as were the homicide victims and those who killed them.

The LAPD no longer publishes the racial breakdown of homicide victims and suspects as it once did, but it’s fair to assume that the city’s homicide figures run parallel to those of Los Angeles County, of which L.A. is by far the largest city and biggest driver of crime numbers. (Los Angeles County has about 10 million residents, of whom about 4 million live in the city of L.A.) According to the L.A. Times Homicide Report, last year there were 691 homicides committed in L.A. County, excluding those killed by police. Of these victims, 50 percent were Hispanic, 35 percent were black, 10 percent were white, and 5 percent were Asian. The county’s population is 47 percent Hispanic, 26 percent white, 15 percent Asian, and 9 percent black.

From these numbers one can see that homicide figures do not track perfectly with each racial and ethnic group’s share of the overall population. Yet the Los Angeles Times continues to insist something nefarious is afoot when LAPD stop figures align more closely with crime patterns than with population data. “The move to reinstate ‘investigative stops,’” writes Kevin Rector in the Feb. 12 story, “immediately raised concerns among some longtime police observers at a time of increased scrutiny over LAPD tactics in communities of color.”

As is now oh so fashionable, these “longtime police observers,” to include the writers and editors at the Los Angeles Times, apparently, are more discomfited by the prospect of police officers conducting investigative stops in high-crime neighborhoods than they are by the crime itself. It is precisely in those “communities of color” that law-abiding residents are most in need of protection from those who would prey on them.

Black Chicagoans Eviscerate Black Lives Matter Narrative, Booting Activists From Their Neighborhood

And yet the L.A. Times, along with nearly any other media outlet you can name, continues to peddle the lie – there is no better word for it – that what is most injurious to these “communities of color” is police harassment rather than the crime police seek to prevent.

How else to explain the paper’s uncritical devotion to George Gascón, L.A. County’s new district attorney and the latest of the George Soros-funded “progressive” prosecutors elected to office? The Times endorsed Gascón over incumbent Jackie Lacey last fall, and in the last two months has printed two editorials (here and here) defending Gascón and his lenient policies, the effects of which are fewer criminals sent to prison and shorter sentences for those who are.

Granted, Gascón was only recently elected, and one may argue, as does the L.A. Times, that his policies should be given time to bear their intended fruit. But what evidence is there that the fruit will be any less poisonous than that already produced in cities where progressive prosecutors have held office for longer? Larry Krasner took office as district attorney in Philadelphia on Jan. 1, 2018, and homicides in that city rose by 8 percent that year. Homicides declined by 1 percent in 2019, offering a hopeful sign, but then rose by 35 percent in 2020. They’re up an additional 33 percent so far this year.

In Chicago, Kim Foxx ran on a progressive platform and took office as state’s attorney for Cook County on Dec. 1, 2016, and was re-elected in 2020. Homicides in the city declined from 769 in 2016 to 492 in 2019, but then increased horrifyingly to 792 last year.

Chesa Boudin, district attorney for San Francisco, is the son of Weather Underground members and convicted murderers Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, a lineage that would understandably warp one’s views on law and order. He was elected in 2019 after promising progressive reforms to the criminal justice system in that most progressive of cities. The results so far? San Francisco saw a 17 percent increase in homicides in 2020.

In short, there is precious little to suggest the progressive policies instituted by this new wave of prosecutors have brought about anything but a rising tide of bloodshed among the very populations they claim to champion. The only people profiting from all this “progress” are the undertakers.

It was the tough-on-crime measures enacted in the early and mid-1990s that stemmed the rising tide of violence seen across the country (2,245 homicides in New York City in 1990, 1,092 in Los Angeles and 943 in Chicago in 1992) and brought about the relative placidity of recent years. Those gains have been reversed with staggering speed, all with the blessing of these progressive prosecutors and their enablers in academia and media outlets like the Los Angeles Times, all of whom share the naive, even childlike belief that showing compassion for the cruel will make them less so.

You can run only so far from reality. Like a bullet, it catches up with you quickly

Categories
All About Guns Allies Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" California

Sadly there is way too much true in there to be funny!

No photo description available.

Categories
All About Guns California

California Gun Sales Skyrocketing, Media Asks Why? By Tom Knighton

AP Photo/Andrew Selsky
California has a reputation as the most anti-gun state in the nation and for a very good reason. It’s hard to imagine too many gun control measures that wouldn’t gain support in the state. They don’t like guns there unless Hollywood is the ones with them and you’re not going to change their minds about it.

Or, you weren’t, anyway.

Like pretty much everywhere else, Californians are buying guns at a prodigious rate. It’s made some in the media ask just why would such a liberal state completely embrace guns so suddenly?

A surge in gun sales — fueled by economic insecurity, racial and political unrest and the pandemic — isn’t slowing down in California, home to some of the strictest gun laws in the country.

About 1.17 million new guns were registered in California in 2020, and as many as 369,000 people went through the state’s firearms background check process for the first time, according to newly released state data filed in federal court. The numbers are the latest evidence that Californians went on a gun-buying spree last year.

It was the most gun sales since 2016. State data shows that 1.28 million guns changed hands that year in California as buyers stocked up on firearms in advance of a host of new laws voters and the state legislature approved that year and amid fears that Democrat Hillary Clinton would win the presidency and pass new gun regulations.

…

WHY THESE CALIFORNIANS BOUGHT GUNS

Gavin Jeffries, 28, of Fair Oaks was a first-time buyer last year. He said he’d been meaning to pick up a 9 mm Glock for home defense for a while, but the rush on guns in 2020 had him worried he’d lose out.

“I was nervous that there was going to be a big delay in purchasing firearms just because of the backlog with popular guns like Glock pistols,” he said. “And I’d always planned on getting a Glock; it was just more of a timing thing.”

Stacy Williams, 44, of Fresno also bought her first gun last year — also a 9 mm — but for drastically different reasons.

She’s a local progressive activist who says she got worried last year after seeing a surge in white supremacists in the Fresno area, and she said she has been troubled by police officers appearing to side with the Proud Boys, suspicions that were confirmed Monday when the mayor said one of them was under investigation for being a member of the group.

Now, Williams is an interesting case and one I really want to address. I mean, while I suspect Jeffries is more indicative of much of the increased gun sales, Williams is the one that I think we need to talk about.

She’s a progressive activist. She probably disagrees with me on just about everything politically. Yet when she believed something represented a threat to her, she didn’t call the police. She didn’t trust the police. She armed herself.

While I’m sure I disagree with her on plenty, I don’t disagree this was the smart move.

See, even if I think here fears are unreasonable, that doesn’t negate them. It also doesn’t necessarily mean she’s wrong. She’s the one in the best position to determine whether or not she’s in need of a firearm. So, she used that judgment and purchased one.

Good for her.

Yet it’s funny how many of her fellow progressives can badmouth police out of one side of their mouth and, out of the other, demand we give up our guns and trust our security to those very same police. It makes absolutely no sense.

I don’t know Williams, so maybe she does it as well, but in this instance, she did exactly what I think anyone with concerns should do. They should be proactive about their own safety and get a firearm.

In the meantime, gun sales don’t appear to be slowing down much in California or anywhere else.

Tags: GUN CONTROL GUNS CALIFORNIA GUN RIGHTS GUN SALES SURGE