ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – A Florida woman said her love handles saved her life when she was shot entering an Atlantic City bar. Samantha Lynn Frazier said she heard two pops when she walked into Herman’s Place early Saturday. The 35-year-old then felt pain and saw blood on her hand after she grabbed her left side. Atlantic City police said Frazier was an innocent bystander.

Frazier told The Press of Atlantic City that ‘I could have been dead. They said my love handles saved my life.”

I don’t know who “they” are, but if she means doctors, I highly doubt any of them told her that the fact she had love handles actually saved her life.  Muscle is far more dense than fat, so having less fat and more muscle would have actually been even better at stopping a bullet.

Also, I highly doubt she was shot with anything but a mouse caliber and probably not a direct hit either.  My guess is that she got grazed, because the bullet wasn’t intended for her in the first place.

Frazier also told the newspaper that she had been “hollering” that she wanted to lose weight. She now said “I want to be as big as I can if it’s going to stop a bullet.”

Great perpetuation of a stereotype Associated Press, to print that she was “hollering” in quotations.  That made me LOL

Samantha wants to be as big as she can now to stop a bullet?  I’d suggest the opposite, and start working out and trimming down… that way she would be less of a target.  Another con of trying to be as “big as you can” is the health aspect… even if you think that will save you from bullets, how is it going to save you from dying prematurely from heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other diseases associated with obesity.

Samantha, please think this one through before you start eating McDonalds 5 times a day to stop bullets.

Source: Associated Press

Hat Tip: Stuff From Hsoi

CONNEAUT, Ohio – Michelle Pryor said early Monday morning their German shepherd Sirus began barking so she let him out and was stunned when she heard gunfire outside the home.  Sirus got shot in the chest and on the muzzle between his eyes.

Full Story – HERE

The dog sure doesn’t look any worse for wear in the video, I’m he is alright!

It’s stories like this that make me wish I had a dog.  German shepherds are my absolute favorite.  I’d have a couple of them in a heartbeat if I had a big yard for them to stay in.

Have any of your dogs helped you in a similar incident?

If you haven’t yet seen this movie, please go buy it (HERE) or rent it!

This is definitely one of the best opening movie scenes ever.  Not only is the camera work and computer graphics work well done, but the choice of song ( Buffalo Springfield – For What It´s Worth ) is absolutely perfect and sets the tone for the rest of the movie.

That song gives me goosebumps… it’s going on my ipod a.s.a.p.

Hopefully this was just done temporarily as “proof of concept”:

Looks like .308 for everything but the one through the nose, which appears to be 7.62×39

Look how much his ear lobes are stretched too.   He should have went all the way and put some 37mm (grenade! ) rounds through them!

Definitely not a look you would catch me sporting.

Miguel Caballero makes fashionable lightweight bulletproof clothing designed for the world’s elite.

A reporter from VBS.tv goes to Bogota Colombia for a tour of their factory, and gets shot with a revolver from about 1 foot away while wearing one of their jackets.

“I shoot all my employees” says Miguel.  It’s an initiation if you are an employee.

Sounds like a pretty good idea to me, although some of it does look a bit bulky.  Any protection at all beats no protection, and that clothing would definitely save some lives.

Very neat stuff.

Miguel Caballero website – HERE

CoBIS

Combined Ballistic Identification System

A system where the shell casing of a bullet, (or brass) from a fired round is supplied by a gun manufacturer in an approved container shipped with a new handgun that is shipped to the NY State Police when the gun is sold or if the new handgun is shipped to the Federal Firearms License holder, the FFL takes the gun to the State Police Lab to be test fired and the lab keeps the shell casing and the fired bullet.

• The shell casing is scanned into a computer data base to be compared against shell casing recovered from a crime location.
• This program has has NO success in NY while costing $4,000,000 to start and an estimated $4,000,000 a year to maintain or an average cost of about $200 per legal gun.
• CoBIS only collects information from legal guns that are new and have not been linked to a crime and the size of the data base in New York alone is in 10s of thousands of guns and will, within the first 3 years included almost 66,000 data files with almost 22,000 new handguns being added each year. (Source)

Questions:

1. This program is been around for 8 years and has had no success… so why is it still sucking up millions of tax payers money?
2. Does the shell casing always has to be matched to striations (marks from the guns rifling) on a bullet found lodged in something at the scene, and both of those tied back to the gun?  Or is it considered enough evidence if just two out of three are available?
3. Why would someone that is legally buying a gun want to take the risk of being in a database such as CoBIS?
4. Should we all take collecting our own brass at the range a lot more seriously if systems like this are going to be used to assign guilt?
5. Doesn’t the firing pin, and barrel rifling slightly change over time with normal wear?  How is this taken into account?
6. We know that criminals can pick up their casings at a scene, modify the rifling of the gun, modify the firing pin to produce a different imprint.  So why have a costly system that is rendered useless if even one of those happens?
7. Since New York isn’t an impenetrable fortress, where nothing can get in or out. What use is this database if a criminal can just bring in a gun from another state to commit a crime?

Hat Tip: Say Uncle

Recommended cure for the common criminal.

Wow.. this is a SERIOUS vehicle.  Not that I’m really surprised:

Defense Accessories:
Equipped with night vision cameras and pump action shotguns.  Also armed with tear gas cannons.

That’s what I’m talking about!  I wonder if Obama is surgical with that shotgun or what?  Those definitely would have been some top secret training visits to the range if he is.

This is how the actual vehicle looks, for those that don’t know:

Hat Tip: Knockin On History’s Door Blog

Body Armor Performance Standards:

Level IIA

New armor protects against 8 g (124 gr) 9×19mm Parabellum Full Metal Jacketed Round Nose (FMJ RN) bullets at a velocity of 373 m/s ± 9.1 m/s (1225 ft/s ± 30 ft/s) and 11.7 g (180 gr) .40 S&W Full Metal Jacketed (FMJ) bullets at a velocity of 352 m/s ± 9.1 m/s (1155 ft/s ± 30 ft/s). Conditioned armor protects against 8 g (124 gr) 9 mm FMJ RN bullets at a velocity of 355 m/s ± 9.1 m/s (1165 ft/s ± 30 ft/s) and 11.7 g (180 gr) .40 S&W FMJ bullets at a velocity of 325 m/s ± 9.1 m/s (1065 ft/s ± 30 ft/s).

Level II

New armor protects against 8 g (124 gr) 9 mm FMJ RN bullets at a velocity of 398 m/s ± 9.1 m/s (1305 ft/s ± 30 ft/s) and 10.2 g (158 gr) .357 Magnum Jacketed Soft Point bullets at a velocity of 436 m/s ± 9.1 m/s (1430 ft/s ± 30 ft/s). Conditioned armor protects against 8 g (124 gr) 9 mm FMJ RN bullets at a velocity of 379 m/s ±9.1 m/s (1245 ft/s ± 30 ft/s) and 10.2 g (158 gr) .357 Magnum Jacketed Soft Point bullets at a velocity of 408 m/s ±9.1 m/s (1340 ft/s ± 30 ft/s). It also provides protection against the threats mentioned in Level IIA

Level IIIA

New armor protects against 8.1 g (125 gr) .357 SIG FMJ Flat Nose (FN) bullets at a velocity of 448 m/s ± 9.1 m/s (1470 ft/s ± 30 ft/s) and 15.6 g (240 gr) .44 Magnum Semi Jacketed Hollow Point (SJHP) bullets at a velocity of 436 m/s (1430 ft/s ± 30 ft/s). Conditioned armor protects against 8.1 g (125 gr) .357 SIG FMJ Flat Nose (FN) bullets at a velocity of 430 m/s ± 9.1 m/s (1410 ft/s ± 30 ft/s) and 15.6 g (240 gr) .44 Magnum Semi Jacketed Hollow Point (SJHP) bullets at a velocity of 408 m/s ± 9.1 m/s (1340 ft/s ± 30 ft/s). It also provides protection against most handgun threats, as well as the threats mentioned in Level II and Level IIA

Level III (Rifle)

Conditioned armor protects against 9.6 g (148 gr) 7.62×51mm NATO M80 ball bullets at a velocity of 847 m/s ± 9.1 m/s (2780 ft/s ± 30 ft/s). It also provides protection against the threats mentioned in Level IIIA, Level II, and Level IIA

Level IV (Armor Piercing Rifle)

Conditioned armor protects against 10.8 g (166 gr) .30-06 Springfield M2 armor piercing (AP) bullets at a velocity of 878 m/s ± 9.1 m/s (2880 ft/s ± 30 ft/s). It also provides at least single hit protection against the threats mentioned in Level III, Level IIIA, Level II, and Level IIA

If you are going to get a vest, your best bet is to get a Level IIIA (or higher if you are worried about rifles) just to be safe and cover all the bases.

Original chart from BulletBlocker.com

R Lee Ermey from the History Channel show Lock & Load:

Making your own:

What I Did:
I started off with my favorite set of ear plugs The Com-fit AB corded ear plugs. DB 26 rating.

Then took my Px4 outside and fired 2 rounds into the hillside as to retrieve 2 spent .40 s&w casing (winchester 165 gr target ammo; 100 rnds $30 @ walmart). all my other brass i pawned at the gun shop for a few bucks.

Took a small nail; and hammer (because im too lazy to dig out my fathers reloading equipment) and gently taped, from the inside, removing the primer from both shells.

using a drill bit fed into the hole in the ear plug (ment for the cord) and put the ear plug into the casing, bit thru the primer hole, and filled it with hot glue from a glue gun. (WARNING CASING WILL BECOME HOT; use a vice or gloves when doing this step)

now on the .40 i had to drill the primer hole out a slight bit as it was too small for the cord to fit through. i then threaded the cord in thru the rear of the casing and viola…. spent casing ear plugs. novelty and hearing protection brought together as one.

Note: cord is NOT needed; but helpful to keep from loosing them. Also it helps secure the ear plug into the casing as it might slide back out after the glue settles (in testing it was rare but did happen; some super glue on top of this wouldn’t go amiss; however with the cord i don’t have that problem at all)

Source – mXm Community

This is why you always have to make sure you keep the barrel clean and free from obstructions.  The pressure becomes too high and then this happens:

This happened at the 2009 US Nationals – Stage 5, Production.   Pretty neat!  I’m sure this does not happen very often.

Very impressive!

You can find the Reuters article HERE

I was surprised to hear that its ranked 3rd in the US in the “Shopping and Classifieds-Auctions” category ( only beat by eBay and eBay motors )

I’ve been using gun broker on and off for a while.  If you haven’t already checked it out, its a great place go and even just browse and collect some ideas for your “Want” list

The link to GunBroker of course is www.GunBroker.com

No he doesn’t regret it.  I was right about the vest being expired.  Pretty risky… Play stupid games, win stupid prizes

This guy and his “friends” are likely to win Darwin awards someday.

Not only is that vest likely expired, but the guy shooting aimed for the heart!

The gun appears to be a Glock 19

This wraps up the tragic story from March 9, 2009 when one Marine shot another by accident while playing a deadly game involving guns and trust, throwing common sense and weapon safety rules to the wayside.

The game typically begins when one service member partially inserts a bullet magazine into the handle of a pistol and pretends to pull back the gun’s slide to make it appear that the weapon is ready to fire.

He then points the weapon at a fellow service member before either pulling the trigger or lowering the gun. Typically, even if he pulls the trigger the weapon will not discharge because a bullet is not in the chamber.

When I read that my first thought was “WHAAAAATTT? Marines actually do that?”  I guess it must get pretty boring on base if they have to resort to games like that.

That unfortunately was not the first time a U.S. soldier has died playing games like that.

More info in the Associated Press article HERE

We have all been there, but this guys reaction is priceless…

If I didn’t only like glacier party ice I would definitely buy one of these. 7.62×39mm is a good sized round to make an ice cube out of, I approve. At a capacity of 12 rounds though it will not be legal in Canada or California (unless the tray is permanently modified so that a person couldn’t easily convert it back to regular capacity)

You can buy buy it here