Category: Interesting stuff
A Different Way of Preventing Violent Crime
Even if we can’t do all that much about guns, we can make real progress on gun violence by reducing interpersonal violence. In fact, a growing body of data and evidence shows that preventing shootings in the first place is not only possible, but enormously cost-effective compared to the traditional policies of U.S. partisan politics.
This, in fact, is the central problem: going back at least to the 1930s the Left and Right have bitterly disagreed about how to reduce violent behavior. The Right tends to think of violence as being caused by intrinsically bad people who are unafraid of the criminal justice system. The only response, under this perspective, is to try to disincentivize gun violence with the threat of ever-more-severe criminal justice punishments.
The Left tends to think of violence as due to bad socio-economic conditions, which leads desperate people to resort to crime and violence in order to feed their families. The only response in this view is to disincentivize violence by improving the alternatives to crime and ending poverty.
But the root of gun violence is not what we think it is. Both the Left and Right, despite their heated disagreements, share an implicit assumption about gun violence: That before anyone pulls a trigger, they carefully weigh the pros and cons beforehand. That gun violence is a deliberate, rational act.
That’s not what most shootings in America are. Most shootings are not premeditated. Most shootings, instead, start with words—arguments that escalate and end in tragedy because someone has a gun.
Whatever people are doing in the middle of a heated argument, it’s most definitely not a careful, deliberate weighing of pros and cons. In those moments, most people are instead acting emotionally, almost automatically—not even really thinking about what we’re doing, in the usual sense of “thinking.”
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There are social programs that help people better understand their own minds and how to prevent their emotions from taking over. My research center has partnered with a remarkable set of non-profits in Chicago including Youth Guidance, Brightpoint, and Youth Advocate Programs to study programs that help young people recognize when they’re about to engage in something like catastrophizing (or something else) that makes the risk of violence more likely, and how to avoid that. These sorts of programs, and even lower-cost versions that detention-center staff can deliver, have been shown to reduce crime and violence by 20 to 50%.
Jens Ludwig
May 15, 2025
This sounds plausible. But the study was published in 2016. If it was that successful and that inexpensive, why was it not adopted statewide or even nationwide by now?
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GOING HOME BY WILL DABBS, MD
Flying Army helicopters was the coolest job in the world.
I’m on my fifth career. You really cannot start medical school at 32 and convince anybody that’s what you always wanted to do. I like to tell folks that if it paid a little better, I’d be just as happy being the guy manning the drive-through at McDonald’s. Like most professional storytellers, I just like visiting with people.
Despite being a physician, I actually have little interest in the technical aspects of medicine. I don’t read medical journals recreationally (some actually do). Truth be known, I am much happier discussing the development of the WWII-vintage German FG-42 parachute rifle than I am explaining how Ozempic works to control blood sugar.
Part of that is timing. Young folks are impressionable. When I was young, I flew tactical helicopters for Uncle Sam.
I made some great friends as a soldier. I’m the guy in white on the left.
This is me going over the top of Mt. McKinley, Alaska — the highest point in North America.
Arguably the only thing more exhilarating than flying
Army helicopters is hanging underneath one. This was a wild ride.
Army helicopters is hanging underneath one. This was a wild ride.
Conditioning
This can be frustrating for my family. Despite not having donned a pair of fatigues for nearly half my life now, my longsuffering bride tells me that on my deathbed, my final word will be, “Hooah!” Suffice it to say, that poor woman sighs a lot.
God has been inexplicably good to me. The fact that I am currently curled up in front of a roaring fire on a cold December morning, banging out yet another Guncrank Diaries column, is the ultimate example of that profound, unmerited grace. That same good fortune followed me into the military. Most Army aviators track into a single airframe and stay there. By contrast, I was fortunate enough to fly four. When I left the military, I had around 800 hours flying D-model CH-47 Chinook helicopters.
That’s like spending 24 hours a day in that cockpit for 33 days straight. After a while, that enclosed space starts to feel pretty familiar. That’s the point. You get to where you can find the switches without a great deal of conscious thought. Uncle Sam invests breathtaking amounts of time, effort and money inculcating those skills. And then, it was all suddenly gone.
Some new friends were kind enough to show me around the latest, greatest CH-47 Chinook variant.
Plopping down in this rascal again was a bit like going home.
Flashbacks
While in med school, with a wife and three kids, I was lucky to have time to change into fresh underwear. There was no discretionary brain space to ponder Army helicopters or the similar detritus from that former life. And then, 26 years later, I made a new friend with the right connections. The next thing I knew, I was walking into a big Army hangar crammed full of sparkly new F-model Chinook helicopters, and it all came rushing back.
For starters, the place is spotlessly clean. You could safely eat off the floor of an Army maintenance hangar. And then there is the smell. It is a unique milieu consisting of JP-8 jet fuel, hydraulic fluid, sweat, love and freedom. I paused for a moment, closed my eyes and just let it wash over me.
I climbed into the cockpit of the nearest aircraft in the company of a profoundly competent warrant officer pilot. I plopped my antique carcass down into the right seat and felt the joyfully familiar claustrophobia of radios to my left, instruments to my front, and boron carbide armor plate to my right. It was briefly as though I had never left.
The controls were right where I had left them, as were most of the switches, levers and circuit breakers. The steam gauges of my era had been replaced by a series of high-tech display screens, and there were no paper maps to be found anywhere. A fresh new multi-function control grip sprouted from the rear aspect of the center console. My new warrant officer buddy explained this was there solely to control the panel displays. What hath God wrought?
I mourn the passing of paper maps. Manual navigation at 160 knots and 10 feet off the deck under night vision goggles is hard. I think doing that likely makes you a better pilot. However, nowadays, GPS also makes it essentially impossible to get lost, so there’s that.
My mom and I had some business down in Meridian, Mississippi, recently. I zipped us down in my own sexy cool little airplane.
After a while, I had dominated enough of the young folks’ time, so I climbed into my own sexy, cool little fighter plane and blasted off for my home ’drome. I suspect in the event of a true national emergency, I could take a brief stroll through the Dash-Ten manual and still make one of those big, beautiful $65 million machines walk and talk. Even if Uncle Sam never again needs my services, I will be forever grateful to the young studs of B Company, 1-111th Aviation for my brief visit back home.
There’s a difference between book smart and bar smart. You may not be book smart, but this series can make you seem educated and interesting from a barstool. So, belly up, pour yourself a glass of something good and take notes as we go under the covers of Lewis and Clark’s famed expedition.
Prior to embarking across the continent with the Corps of Discovery, Meriwether Lewis trained under Dr. Benjamin Rush, whom President Thomas Jefferson considered to be the best physician in the nation. Following the two-week crash course on medicine, Lewis stocked up on over 5,000 doses of drugs, including laudanum to treat coughs, opium to treat pain, calomel to treat worms, and mercury to treat syphilis.
Syphilis was common among the tribes of the Missouri River, and so were sexual encounters with white travelers. Lewis packed accordingly: The mercury was used copiously throughout the expedition.
In one journal entry, Lewis wrote that multiple tribes had a “curious custom” of offering wives and daughters to traders. Plains Indians believed that spiritual powers were passed between people during sex, and that a husband could become a better hunter or more knowledgeable of medicines if his wife had sex with a powerful man, and then had sex with him.
Clark’s black slave, York, was a novelty to the tribes and did as much spiritual power passing as anyone. While visiting the Arikara tribe, a warrior volunteered to stand guard outside a lodge all night while York and his wife were inside. On one evening with the Mandan tribe, York was offered four women.
Other tribes pimped out their women for more worldly possessions. In the Pacific Northwest, multiple groups bartered with sex. One tribe that often visited their camp had a lower price tag than most, Lewis noted. “They do not hold the virtue of their women in high estimation, and will even prostitute their wives and daughters for a fishing hook or a strand of beads.”
That wasn’t all the expedition would leave behind, though. Nine months after the crew departed the Nez Perce in Idaho, an elder’s daughter gave birth to a son that was said to be Clark’s. Similar stories are told by the Teton Sioux, Sioux, and Salish, who claim to have decedents of Lewis and Clark in their tribes.
While some experts question their authenticity, most believe the expedition leaders weren’t exempt from the urges that the rest of the crew acted upon. As my favorite Corps of Discovery historian, Frances Hunter, put it, “I believe that Lewis and Clark were professionals who always put safety, discipline and their mission above everything else. That said, it stretches credibility to think they kept their buckskins buttoned up the whole time.”
Feature image via Charles M. Russel.
_________________________________________________ This expedition also was a major cause on why huge swathes of the Tribes were wiped out by the diseases that the Lewis & Clark troops carried with them. That their European / African ancestors had & of whch they were immune to but not the Indians.
Gee, just another thing that the US Media has missed AGAIN!!! Why am I so not surprised by this? Grumpy
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From The UK Daily Mail
In the English language, the word legacy has multiple meanings. It can be used as a noun or an adjective to describe outdated computer software, a gift by will of an heirloom or money, or something transmitted or received from an ancestor or predecessor.
When we consider the origins of modern pistolcraft, the legacy of Jeff Cooper is without peer. The doctrine he pioneered well over a half-century ago rings true to this day and has yet to be surpassed in my opinion. In recent times, a few contemporary trainers have indeed advanced the art, but for me their contributions pale when compared to those of Lt. Col. Cooper.
Throughout his life, Jeff Cooper wore many hats with distinction. He was a Marine officer, shooter, race car driver, big game hunter, instructor and the world’s foremost expert on small arms. He was born in Los Angeles, California in 1920 and was a graduate of Los Angeles High School and Stanford University where he was enrolled in the ROTC.
Just prior to World War II, he was commissioned as an officer in the Marine Corps where he served in the Pacific Theater. After the war, he was transferred to the Marine base in Quantico, Virginia, where he became an instructor in firearms. Because of its close proximity to the FBI Academy, Colonel Cooper was able to interact with members of the Bureau and explore and develop his thoughts on handguns for personal defense.
After leaving the Marine Corps, Lt. Col. Cooper moved to Big Bear Lake in California, where he organized shooting contests called Leatherslap. With his highly analytical mind, he was able to make a determination on what techniques worked best and how they might be applied to personal defense. In many ways, this was the genesis of the Modern Technique of the Pistol.
Around the same time, Lt. Col. Cooper had established himself as a gunwriter of note and soon developed a huge following. In 1976, he established the American Pistol Institute, the first training school to offer combat pistol training to the general population. The school is now known as Gunsite and is widely recognized as one of the world’s most prestigious shooting institutions.
The Modern Technique of the Pistol
Prior to the introduction of the Modern Technique, combat pistolcraft had not evolved much since the 1930s. Large unobstructed targets were the order of the day along with generous time frames. A great deal of unsighted fire was proscribed, often at unrealistic distances. When I first entered law enforcement, this was still the prevailing doctrine and it would be quite some time before things began to change.
The Modern Technique of the Pistol is a total system that addresses mindset and gun handling as well as practical marksmanship. There is much more to winning a fight than being a good shot, and placing equal focus on mindset and gun handling was a revolutionary thought back in the day. Giving equal attention to practical marksmanship, gun handling and mindset describes the Combat Triad, part of his training and the ultimate key to success in armed conflict in my mind.
In many ways, the Modern Technique of the Pistol represented a 180-degree flip over what came before, and much of it was in conflict with what I had been previously taught. I absorbed pieces of it through Cooper’s articles, but at that time I wasn’t able to buy into it fully. However, change was in the wind.
Without question, the FBI holds great influence with other domestic law enforcement agencies relative to both training and equipment. In the early 1980s, the FBI adopted a great deal of the philosophy of the Modern Technique of the Pistol and began to teach many of the components to its agents.
I still have a VHS tape produced by the Bureau at that time and used it for years in my training. With the FBI endorsement of many of its elements, the Modern Technique quickly became very popular in law enforcement circles. As a pretty green firearms instructor at that time, I knew where I had to go to get the real message and shortly thereafter I was able to travel to Arizona and take a class at API.
For those not familiar with it, the Modern Technique is comprised of five elements. They include:
- The Weaver stance
- The flash sight picture
- The compressed surprise break
- The presentation
- The heavy-duty pistol
Even the most casual observer of combat pistolcraft associates Lt. Col. Cooper with the 1911 .45 ACP pistol, and the reason is quite simple. The single-action 1911 pistol is an easy pistol to shoot to a high standard and, back in the day, the .45 ACP cartridge was far superior to the lesser options. Today, with improvements in handgun ammunition, that point may be debated. But at one time, the .45 ACP was the undisputed king of the hill.
