Tag Archives: opinion

In defense of the 1911, and all others.

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I don’t know how any of those hundreds of thousands of GI’s who carried 1911’s ever made it home alive… All with FMJ, too! It’s not about the tool, it’s about how you use it, maintain it, and train with it. Capacity is a factor, of course, as are many other things, but anyone who wants to try to tell me that 1911’s are unreliable and finicky and hard to work on I will HAPPILY take to a VFW hall of your choice and let the guys and gals there show you how fast someone who has TRAINED WITH THEIR WEAPON SYSTEM can tear down, clean, and reassemble one, and then we’ll go to the range and they can show you how horribly these guns shoot. Sure, it’s a 100 year old design, and there are newer, perhaps better designs, but the 1911 is NOT some mystical anachronism. Strangely, the United States Marine Corps just went BACK to a modified 1911 for their Close Quarter Battle Pistol. You can prefer a newer design, you can find it to be something that works better for you, but this bullshit of people saying it’s an unreliable and incapable firearm is getting on my nerves. Pick what works best for YOU and stop telling other people why they’re wrong. The gun YOU want is the gun YOU should shoot, use, carry, whatever. But don’t dog on someone else because they’ve decided to go a different route. If one design were the be all and end all, everyone would make it, carry it and use it and nothing else would need to be sold. the 1911 has stood the test of time, has been copied, modified, upgraded and made in nearly every caliber you can think of from .22LR to 32acp, 380acp, 9mm, .38 super, .40 S&W, 10mm, .45 ACP and yes, even .357 magnum. If it were such an inferior design, no one would bother.

Personally, if I wanted a 1911 for carry today I’d probably go buy a Colt® M1070CQBP, which is what the USMC is going to be using. I would then learn the few changes it has over the 1911’s I am familiar with, and love it long time. If you want to carry a Glock 17, a Walther PPK, a Smith and Wesson J-frame or a North American Arms .22LR revolver, well, God Bless You. Everyone has their own reasons for picking what they pick. I don’t understand the constant need to proselytize one design over another. There are VERY few bad firearms designs out there anymore, and even fewer poorly made weapons. In the day of the Internet, word gets around too quickly and a bad design or process can kill a company.

As to the Ruger SR1911, before you consider one I would HIGHLY recommend you google search “sr1911 rust.”

Sorry for the soapbox, but people need to understand that there is no one solution for everyone. Use what works for you, and be ready for what you have to. Period.

http://www.colt.com/Colt…/Products/ColtM1070CQBPM45A1.aspx
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On CCW firearms…

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I was recently involved in a conversation on a discussion forum at my friend Adam Litke’s Facebook page for his company, Shield and a Sword Academy.  I felt that the information was worth sharing with others because I managed to give a short, succinct, detailed answer that quite a few people found informative.

Carry guns are totally a compromise.  I’m somewhat old school. Function over form, as much power as you can manage, and figure out how to tuck it away if you have to.

The average person, however, is much more driven by easy of conceal-ability and price. There’s a different mindset between “gun guys” and a person who just wants to be able to protect themselves. Another thing to consider is that a lot of people think you need to arm yourself to “go to war” in order to carry. In my mind, a carry gun is most often a “last stand” weapon and should be adequate to meet the ‘rule of 3’s.’ (The average self defense scenario happens in less than 3 seconds, at 3 feet away with 3 shots fired.)

My personal preference, due to the fact that I can’t wear restrictive clothing or anything that puts long-term pressure against my body, is for either a Walther PPK/s or my wife’s J-frame Smith and Wesson 642 Airlite .38 special. For a last stand, .380 or .38 special is more than adequate. Even .32 ACP will suffice from me to you in a close fight, given the right ammo. If I were to absolutely KNOW I was going into a situation where I has a huge probability of having to defend myself, my Para p13.45 .45 ACP would be on my person loaded with Golden Saber’s or HST’s.

There are so many factors in carry weapons to consider, function, features, price, power, but the only one that matters to begin with is this… Is it a hassle to carry it to the point that someone will think about making a compromise and NOT carrying it? If it is, it’s the wrong weapon for that weapon. A .22 mouse gun you’re comfortable sticking in your pocket EVERY TIME you walk out the door is worth more than a $2500 Kimber 1911 that someone lets sit because they have to go through gyrations to conceal it.

At the end of the day I feel it’s important to educate people on the best option, encourage them in any way we can to seek out the best options for them, and then support them and teach them how to use what they decide to carry. The gun you have is worth 1000 of the one you don’t.

The Icons of Kent No More…

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by Jerod J Husvar on Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 8:17pm ·

“I WENT BACK TO OHIO / BUT MY CITY WAS GONE / THERE WAS NO TRAIN STATION / THERE WAS NO DOWNTOWN.”

 

Chrissie Hynde was writing about changes to Akron when she penned and recorded this song in 1982.  I wonder if she knew it was to be prophetic of Kent.  The town I came to be around in 1976 is slowly fading off into the realm of “That used to be…”

When Denny’s closed, few people appeared to give it a second thought; most of us were beyond the age of closing the bars and then drinking coffee and having breakfast at 3am.  But it was the first in a string of places that many of us came to know and love that have since passed by the wayside.  The College Street Library (it had a few other names, as well,) must have served one too many underage drinker and became a parking lot.  Cheers became FedEx/Kinkos when they expanded.  The Stuffed Mushroom, a foreign car garage and a few galleries were lost between the replacement of the Crain Ave. Bridge and the new Sheetz.  The building that was Long John Silvers for years and years, and then an ice cream store and, finally, a cell phone store, was demoed to build the first Sheetz.  The Dog House was there one day and gone the next.

None of these are nearly as iconic as the recently leveled Robin Hood Inn.  Even the old Kent Hotel is being changed and renovated and developed into something new.  Sadly, a living icon of Kent also has now passed away, Bob Wood, dead of a heart attack at 65.  Captain Brady’s, his long-time haunt, became a Starbucks a few years back.

Change and progress is expected, needed, absolutely necessary for growth.  Maybe part of the fact that I am turning 40 this year makes me feel that some of it happened too fast, and maybe not for the greater good.  All of these are missed in some way, some by many, especially Bob, even if his passing is still fresh.

I want to see Kent prosper, it’s just sad to see so many memories fading into obscurity.  Some of these losses are minor and will never really matter to most people, others are hugely significant.  The coffee at Starbucks will never be as good as the stuff from Brady’s.  The hipsters and others who hang out there will likely never be the artists, such as Bob Woods, who hung out there, making art, or poetry or just playing cards. 

The Acorn Alleys, new bus terminal, and other new business are marvelous additions to the city.  I don’t know that they’ll ever become iconic, as they’re already seeing tenant churn.  I hope that we’re left with a few icons to admire.  If Ray’s, or Mike’s, JB’s or Taco Tanto’s fall by the wayside, great connections to the past will be lost forever.

I’m with Dr. Laura…

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by Jerod J Husvar on Wednesday, August 18, 2010 at 8:35pm ·

Nigger.  Injun.  Spic.  Barbarian.  Retard.  Moron.  Cripple.  Mulatto.  Idiot.  Lard Ass.  Kike. 

 

Shocked?  I’m not.  Ashamed?  Nope, I’m not that, either.  Why?  Because they’re words.  What is a word? A unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning.  They are simple, descriptive, and all were formed with no ill-intent.  The define a state of being, or a condition.  They have no power.  They cannot run my car, my computer, or my life.

 

There is a continuing, in my opinion stupidly, push to stop the use of words such as those above and others like them.  The reason?  They’ve been used in a negative connotation and so someone might be hurt, or at least, offended, by them.  It’s called Political Correctness.  If something causes someone to FEEL BAD, we must not DO IT.  People shouldn’t ever FEEL BAD, and if simply using a different word will alleviate that pain, we should STOP USING IT.

 

Bullshit.

 

I’ve grown up around prejudice and hatred, I have seen it first hand, I have shed blood for it, both my own and that of others.  At no time were the WORDS used to express this hatred what I was fighting.  I wasn’t fighting a Redneck or a Hillbilly or a Cretin.  I was fighting a human being who used WORDS to express hatred and then went beyond words to using ACTIONS to INFLICT hatred.  The WORDS didn’t bust my knuckles open, nor did they strike me.  The person did.

 

Almost every word used to describe someone in a derogatory manner started out as a simple description. A few have very LONG histories of carrying hatred with them (Nigger, for example,) while others only in the past 20-30 years have gained status as words used by people to express contempt (cripple, retard.)  The idea now seems to be that if you stop the use of the word, you’re going to stop the hatred behind it…  The contempt…  The fear.

 

Bullshit.

 

When it becomes out of fashion to use the word “retard” to describe someone with diminished mental capacity or mental defect, a new word will take it’s place and rise to the former prevelance of the last.  No one calls someone of mixed racial decent a Mulatto any longer, or a half-breed all that often, but I’ve heard the word “mixed” used with equal contempt.  The same goes for nigger, or black or colored or African-American.  Spic is out of fashion, so is wetback, now “illegal immigrant” is tossed around as a slur.

 

Are people such SHEEP???  It is not the WORDS CHANGING that will lead to TOLERANCE.  Tolerance, like prejudice, is learned, taught, and passed along from people who are respected to those who respect them.  Parents to kids.  Teachers to pupils.  Role models to fans.  Older peers to younger. 

 

Racial slurs and contempuous descriptors come from a FEAR of THAT WHICH IS NOT LIKE US.  Human beings have an instinct to distrust that which is different, but the HATRED of it is learned, taught and developed.  What needs to changes is what is taught.  Not the words used to describe the difference.  Only through embracing difference as a challenge to learn and grow will tolerance become reality. 

 

Is this an easy solution?  Yes, it’s amazingly easy.  And impossibly hard.  But let’s call a spade a spade.  The WORDS are not the issue.  The attitudes and fears behind them are.