Guns, Cars, and Tech

Author: wizardpc

  • Basic Gunshot Wound Kit

    Alternate title: Roll your own IFAK

    Back in February, oddball and I took a “First Aid for Gun Toters” class put on by our local Zombie Squad chapter. It was, in my uneducated opinion, a pretty good class. My one complaint was that the guy wasn’t selling any of the products he was pimping. 😀

    I hopped on Amazon a couple of weeks later and bought pretty much the minimum equipment required for a good gunshot wound kit. Actually, I bought two of each so I could keep one in my car and one in the wife’s car.

    The C-A-T Combat Application Tourniquet is a small tourniquet that is currently issued as individual equipment to our infantrymen. It’s easy to use and has a locking mechanism in place so that you can self-apply it.

    QuikClot Combat Gauze is basically your standard gauze, only it’s infused with QuikClot. The way you’re supposed to use this, and any other gauze in a gunshot wound, is to take your finger and stuff the wound. This has the new formulation of QuikClot that doesn’t produce heat. The original formulation would actually cause serious burns in the wound, so make sure you don’t get old stuff.


    The HyFin Chest Seal is used for the infamous “sucking chest wound.” The instructor told us that we could just use something like this instead, but I opted for the purpose-built (and significantly more expensive) option. UPDATE 1/5/2014: See this post for an important update about the Hyfin Chest Seal.


    The famous Israeli Bandage, which I now understand how to use thanks to the class. Here’s where I have to give a shout-out to Acme Approved, the vendor that actually supplied the bandages. One of the two I originally received had a small hole in the package, rendering it non-sterile and unusable. I sent them an email, and they sent me TWO replacements! Now I have an extra that I keep in my laptop bag.

    I wanted to get everything together before buying a bag, and it turns out that they fit perfectly in a quart-sized Zip-Lock bag:

    That’s it. Those are the basics. I keep my kit in between the door sill and the driver’s seat in my Jeep, and the one in my wife’s car is just in her glove box. All medical equipment has an expiration date, so take note of what expires first in your kit. For me, the chest seals expire in about 18 months so I have set a reminder to buy more around that time. Prices on these items seem to fluctuate, so be sure to shop around.

    I gotta tell ya, having the equipment and the knowledge to treat a GSW certainly makes me feel better. 

  • No one needs a gun on a college campus

    Rapes on campus are only up 47% from last year.

    Violent crimes in general are only up by 20% on college campuses.

  • My first IDPA match!

    Last Sunday I participated in my first IDPA match. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, and I finally decided it was time when I out shot everyone else in the NRA instructor course. Like I said then, “[t]hat’s probably because all I practice is slow, aimed hits at a known distance against a stationary target with no stressors present.”

    I headed down to the match with oddball and New Shooter Drew (who, by the way, has logged over 6,000 rounds since he shot a pistol for the first time 8 months ago–what’s your excuse?) as my entourage. I had four goals. In order of importance, they were:

    1. Don’t shoot myself.
    2. Don’t shoot anyone else.
    3. Don’t get disqualified.
    4. Don’t come in last place.

    I’m happy to report I met all four goals. Sort of.

    See, there was a match and a classifier. I came in second to last (of 25) in the match, but I was the worst performer in the classifier. I actually told the Safety Officer, “I swear I’ve shot a gun before today.”

    I want to blame the poor performance on the fact that I was running a Glock 23 instead of a larger 9mm like a Glock 17 or an M&P9 Pro. Several times during the day I entertained the thought of buying a new pistol, but I think the real answer is just to get better with the one I have been carrying for years.

    Although I do hear that the kool-aid is delicious.

  • Fail

    I was reading a news item about a website. The name was hyperlinked. What happens when you click on it?

    It displays all stories on the news site that mention the website in question, instead of going to website.

  • One more thing on Zimmerman

    Something that’s struck me in the last few days is how, despite all the media attention, no one who actually knows George Zimmerman has come forward and said “oh, yeah, that guy is totally a racist jerk!” Not his neighbors (the ones who bothered to meet him), not his coworkers, not even an ex girlfriend. If he really is evil incarnate like he’s being portrayed, I don’t think it’s possible for him to have hidden it so thoroughly.

  • What’s happening to Zimmerman can happen to any of us

    How many times have self-defense advocates joked about the “he was good boy that wasn’t doing anything!” stories the families of recently-deceased criminals always seem to tell? Or that they were “trying to turn their life around” when they were shot while trying to rob/rape/assault someone? Hell, we call them choirboys on a regular basis.

    The only* difference between those stories and George Zimmerman’s story is that the family of Trayvon Martin got traction in the media. And they did that by being dishonest about Trayvon (using old pictures, etc) and flat out making things up about Zimmerman. The local and national media were all to eager to help.

    What’s to stop that sort of thing from happening again? Do you think it is less likely to happen in the future, based on the media reaction? Media loves a narrative. They also hate gun owners generally, and permit holders specifically. Expect to see a lot of “Echoes of Trayvon Martin seen in [local self-defense shooting]” stories over the next year or two.

    When it’s all said and done, Zimmerman will be this decade’s Richard Jewell (you mean the guy who bombed the Olympics?) or Bernie Goetz (that’s the guy who opened fire on a bunch of guys on a subway because they were black, right?). I just hope he gets to live to sue Al Sharpton.

    *Now, you can argue that Martin would still be alive if Zimmerman hadn’t gotten out of his car, and that’s probably true. But Martin would still be alive if he hadn’t attacked Zimmerman. Any of the stories in The Dead Goblin Count could be framed in such a way.

  • Unpossible

    Mississippi State Student shot and killed in his a dorm.

    MSU is my Alma Mater. It is both illegal and against policy to have firearms on campus (though when I was there, the campus police would happily store your guns for you. Lots of students would go hunting before 8AM classes.)

    Just as I remembered, the article states that to get to where Sanderson was shot, you had to pass through three access-controlled doors and walk past security.

    The three shooters got in and out with no problems and are still on the loose.

    It’s almost as if campus security is just window dressing.

    I don’t fault the campus police, here, nor the Starkville cops. The Highway Patrol has a station less than a mile from here, too. You literally couldn’t have a larger police presence given the resources at hand. Response time was less than one minute.

    But none of that mattered.

    In the end, you are responsible for your own safety, unless someone legislates that ability away from you.

    UPDATE: Two suspects have been arrested by US Marshalls. Drug related, and the victim in this case did 7 months in prison in 2010 for a couple of felonies. Shoulda followed Tam’s advice.

  • Monday morning quarterbacking

    Saturday afternoon, Casey and I were out running errands. I got on to the main road–a four lane divided by a wide grass median–and saw something odd at the next light. I was about 200 yards away, but it looked like some teenagers were playing Chinese Fire Drill.

    When I got within about 50 yards, I discovered it was two guys wailing on each other. In the middle of the road, in broad daylight. Both had abandoned their vehicles, though one had three freinds with him.

    I got on the shoulder and pulled up within about 20 feet of them. There were probably 10-12 cars stopped behind these guys. I unbuckeled my seatbelt, but then observed behavior from both participants that suggested mutual combat rather than a beatdown.

    At that point I made the decision to not intervene. My inner libertarian told me, “not your fight, no victims here, let em settle it. ”

    I did stick around to the end to make sure nobody was going to get killed, ie no one grabbed a weapon, the freinds didn’t get involved, and no one wound up on the pavement getting his skull bashed in. The whole thing lasted less than a minute, and at the end both guys took off in separate directions. No one was bloody or visibly injured.

    I think I did the right thing, setting up the intervention but not going through with it. What do you think? What would you have done differently?

    Note: I didn’t call the police because I could see other people already on the phone.

  • EDC Flashlights: Fenix PD20 vs Sipik

    Regular readers know that after the first of the year I decided to start carrying a flashlight every day. I asked for suggestions and got quite a few good ones. I ultimately decided on the Fenix PD20 and wrote a review of that light.

    SayUncle linked to that review, and the first comment to that post was a link to a $9 light that the commenter claimed “performed about the same.”

    Well, I had to order one. It came in Friday.

    The verdict? It’s not even close.

    Now, let me go ahead and say that it’s a very good $9 light. I don’t feel ripped off or cheated or anything like that. But, comparing it to the two Fenix lights I have is about like me comparing my 13 year old Jeep Cherokee to a brand new Toyota 4Runner. They might perform the same function, but one does it a whole lot more…elegantly than the other.

    The first thing I noticed was that the crenelated bezel slides up and down to get that spot-to-flood effect anyone who’s ever had a MagLite is used to. Note that it slides, not screws. That means that if you set it to “spot” and then put it in your pocket, it may be on spot, flood, or anywhere in between when you pull it out again. Not only does it slide up and down, but it also twists. The twisting isn’t functional, it’s just a byproduct of the way the bezel is attached.

    Now, I’m not familiar with using those crenelations to get all stabby on someone, but it seems to me that you would want to be able to have them twist the skin of the guy you’ve just pressed your light into.

    It’s also rather large compared to the PD20. That may or may not be a factor to you, but since I have to cram everything in to one pocket (when I pocket carry my PF9) that’s a major thing for me.

    The big thing, of course, is the light output. Again, it’s very good for a $9 light. It vastly out performs the $5 LED light we used to use, but when put up against the PD20 its just…disappointing. In “flood” mode the coverage area isn’t any better than the PD20 (note: the PD20 does not have an adjustable beam) and in “spot” mode….well it gets a little weird there.

    The beam turns from round to square. Let me show you what I mean:

    See what I mean? It’s wierd. It’s also not nearly as bright:

    Bottom line: The Sipik is an okay light, and well worth the money. The PD20 is much better and priced accordingly.

    More pictures after the jump.
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  • Breaking

    Tennessee Attorney General says that the parking lot bill is unconstitutional. Happened in a committee meeting a little bit ago. More later.

    ETA: I misheard