A Homework Assignment

As I am sure many of you know, the email and home addresses of many Democratic party staffers have been leaked.  This presents us with a wonderful opportunity to speak directly with men and women behind the men and women that represent you on Capitol Hill.  These are the gatekeepers of the Representatives and the same people that write the legislation to cut away at the very rights that were passed down through centuries,  They pick the winners or losers of a debate.  These are the deaf ears that your cries for "not one more inch" have fallen.  What will you tell them now?

What will you tell them?

I suggest educating them on the errors of legislatively backing a people up to a wall.  You can tell them that you will not be disenfranchised anymore.  Let them know of the ruinous foreign and domestic policies have only created unending poverty and conflict.  Let them know what their illegal immigration policies have cost you or about the elections they have stolen.  You can send them a copy of the III% Catechism and Valediction to let them know who you are.  There will be no Fort Sumter's on our part but there will be a genuine refusal to obey unjust laws.  You can send them your latest range card or target score cards.  You can let them know that their small tyrannies will be answered.

If nothing else.. let them know that the 100 Heads Life Insurance Company sends its regards.

Click on this link to see who you can tell.

For the benefit of our new Three Percenters - Welcome

I am seeing a trend of people that are familiar with the III% and even this blog, but that are not familiar with the concepts of the movement or why it was started.  

Don't mistake me, I think this is absolutely wonderful.  It means that more people are coming here for the first time and that means that new eyes are being opened.  This is my one goal: seeing the movement grow to dizzying heights and still remain true to the founding principles.

To that end, I am reposting "A Brief Three Percent Catechism -- A discipline not for the faint-hearted."

The original can be found here.

Catechesis is an education in the faith of children, young people and adults which includes especially the teaching of Christian doctrine imparted, generally speaking, in an organic and systematic way, with a view to initiating the hearers into the fullness of Christian life. -- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 5 (quoting John Paul II).

Wikipedia tells us that "in the early church, new converts . . . were instructed (catechized) in the basic elements of the faith such as the Apostles' Creed, Lord's Prayer, and sacraments in preparation for baptism." Although I'm a Baptist, this always struck me as a useful tool to make sure that all of the folks who professed a creed actually understood the faith. Catechism hardly contains all the elements of a particular belief system, but it puts the newbie on the right path of study. I have been convinced for some time that the Three Percent needed a catechism of our own, since there are a number of folks who seem to want to reinterpret (if not hijack) the original concept for their own purposes. To quote Obi Wan Kenobi, "It takes strength to resist the dark side. Only the weak embrace it!"

The Three Percent idea, the movement, the ideal, was designed to be a simple, powerful concept that could not be infiltrated or subjected to agents provocateurs like many organizations that I observed in the constitutional militia movement of the 90s. In this I was both correct and dead wrong, as I have been battling folks almost since the beginning who have misunderstood, deliberately or not, what the Three Percent was in history, what it is today and what its aims are for the future.

What is a "Three Percenter"?

During the American Revolution, the active forces in the field against the King's tyranny never amounted to more than 3% of the colonists. They were in turn actively supported by perhaps 10% of the population. In addition to these revolutionaries were perhaps another 20% who favored their cause but did little or nothing to support it. Another one-third of the population sided with the King (by the end of the war there were actually more Americans fighting FOR the King than there were in the field against him) and the final third took no side, blew with the wind and took what came.

Three Percenters today do not claim that we represent 3% of the American people, although we might. That theory has not yet been tested. We DO claim that we represent at least 3% of American gun owners, which is still a healthy number somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 million people. History, for good or ill, is made by determined minorities. We are one such minority. So too are the current enemies of the Founders' Republic. What remains, then, is the test of will and skill to determine who shall shape the future of our nation.

The Three Percent today are gun owners who will not disarm, will not compromise and will no longer back up at the passage of the next gun control act. Three Percenters say quite explicitly that we will not obey any further circumscription of our traditional liberties and will defend ourselves if attacked. We intend to maintain our God-given natural rights to liberty and property, and that means most especially the right to keep and bear arms. Thus, we are committed to the restoration of the Founders' Republic, and are willing to fight, die and, if forced by any would-be oppressor, to kill in the defense of ourselves and the Constitution that we all took an oath to uphold against enemies foreign and domestic.

The Doctrine of the Three Percent in a few sentences.

The Three Percent are the citizens the Founders counted on to save the Republic when everyone else abandoned it. And we will. There will be no more free Wacos and no more free Katrinas. For we are the Three Percent. We will not disarm. You cannot convince us. You cannot intimidate us. You can kill us, if you think you can. But remember, we’ll shoot back. We are not going away. We are not backing up another inch. And there are THREE MILLION OF US. The next move, if any, is up to the aspiring tyrants among the domestic enemies of the Constitution.

This is not to say that all politics, even in the rigged, corrupt game played by both political parties today, is futile. It isn't. The Founders did not cede that ground to the forces of the King until forced to do so and we must not. Indeed, this is one way that we make the local contacts and build the local networks so key to the Founders' concepts of the militia as the guardian of, and the true expression of the will of, the people. There is a place then, for all who adopt the Three Percent ideal, regardless of age, sex, fitness, infirmity. Resistance is an expression of a determined minority, but that minority comes from everywhere and contributes what it can, where it can.

One other point. The Three Percent idea, being an idea, is internalized and finds expression in action when required without any top-down organization issuing orders. This was on perfect display at the Bundy Ranch stand-off when Three Percenters from everywhere flocked on their own to the Bundy's defense, interposing themselves between the Bundys and the Feds. No call was issued, they just came because they understood the concept of "No More Free Wacos." The Feds were shocked -- first into inaction and then into retreat. Indeed, the Bundy confrontation may be seen as the proof of the successful weaponizing of the idea of the Three Percent.

The Three Percent as a modern expression of the Founder's model.

The reason why men enter into society, is the preservation of their property; and the end why they chuse and authorize a legislative, is, that there may be laws made, and rules set, as guards and fences to the properties of all the members of the society, to limit the power, and moderate the dominion, of every part and member of the society: for since it can never be supposed to be the will of the society, that the legislative should have a power to destroy that which every one designs to secure, by entering into society, and for which the people submitted themselves to legislators of their own making; whenever the legislators endeavour to take away, and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther obedience, and are left to the common refuge, which God hath provided for all men, against force and violence. -- John Locke, Second Treatise on Government, Chapter XIX, Of the Dissolution of Government, Sec. 222, 1690.

The Founders, it must be remembered, thought of themselves as Englishmen who were merely seeking their rights under the English Constitution from the depredations of a corrupt monarchy and its ministers. In this they were guided by the philosophy of John Locke's social contract theory. Locke declared that under natural law, all people have the right to life, liberty, and estate, further, under the social contract, the people could resist the government by force of arms when it acted against the interests of citizens and could replace it with one that served the interests of citizens. Such armed resistance, in Locke's mind, was an obligation which acted as a safeguard against tyranny. The language and reasoning of the Declaration of independence come straight from Locke.

Not only is the moral basis of the modern-day Three Percent movement the same as that of the Founders, but the tactics and strategy of resistance that was used by them, including the Sons of Liberty, the Committees of Correspondence and Safety and the Minutemen, are fully applicable to today's struggle. First, as I wrote over six years ago, Three Percenters recognize that with such a declaration of resistance comes responsibility:

"Take not counsel of your fears." In the coming period many rumors will sweep the blogosphere. Imminent danger will perceived from a million different directions. But here is how we should conduct ourselves.

"Wilson, I'm a damned sight smarter man than Grant; I know more about organization, supply and administration and about everything else than he does, but I'll tell you where he beats me and where he beats the world. He don't care a damn for what the enemy does out of his sight but it scares me like hell." -- William Tecumseh Sherman as recalled by James Harrison Wilson, in Under the Old Flag.

Now Sherman wasn't saying that Grant should fail to seek through intelligence-gathering or scouting what the dispositions and the intentions of the enemy were. He was saying that you don't let your fears affect how you fight the enemy in front of you. Sherman also recalled that Grant worried less about what the enemy was going to do him and more about what HE was going to do the the enemy. As Three Percenters, we must only react to what we see and know and not some rumored threat. Above all, we must not lose our cool. We must always remain under control, and ready.

We must not react to, or repeat, disinformation, for this is the principal way the domestic enemies of the Constitution have used to discredit us over the years. As Three Percenters we must always be the adults in the room. We do not have the luxury of reacting out of emotion, fear or hatred. This is made easier by the discipline of building deterrence.

Again, from six years ago:

Work on the credibility of your deterrence. Deterrence only works if it's credible. We must ready ourselves for whatever comes. That means training, physical fitness, building up logistical bases, more training, marksmanship competence, organization, more logistics, more training.

We have our enemy's promises that they will negate any possibility of our using the standard methods of politics against them. They have won the "majority vote" decision. Fine. But if we are to avoid conflict, we must convince them of how little this actually buys them in the way of power. We do that by building up the armed citizenry, one three-man buddy team, one six-man fire team and one squad at a time. Don't advertise. Friends and neighbors will do nicely. And remember, you're doing this in case the deterrence doesn't work. This is as real as it gets, folks. Act like it.

This is a major component of the discipline of the Three Percent. If you are focused on readiness you will be less likely to jump at shadows, less likely to take counsel of your fears. When in doubt about what is going on around you, train, organize, forge yourself and your teams into the sort of "well regulated militia" the Founders first created in the period leading up to 19 April 1775 and then later codified in the Second Amendment.

"Don't fire unless fired upon." -- Captain John Parker, Lexington Minutemen, 19 April 1775.

As Three Percenters we are bound by an ironclad commitment to no first use of force. We call this, "No Fort Sumters." From six years ago:

No "Fort Sumters." This means exactly and precisely what it says. We must not fire first.

Neither were the leaders of the Confederacy eager to start a war. Jefferson Davis and his cabinet, sitting in their offices in Montgomery (Alabama), much preferred to negotiate until they got their way. They always had, after all. In fact, Southerners in general considered Northerners to be incapable of standing up to them. They had seceded thinking the North would "just let them go." Should it come to civil war they were confident that the great European powers, desperately needing cotton for their mills, would intervene on the side of the Confederacy. The one possibility the South never considered was the one that actually happened: that the North would actually fight an all out civil war rather than let the Union be shattered and that England and France would not come to the aid of the South. Lincoln's adroit handling of the matter left Montgomery with few choices. If they attacked Fort Sumter, they'd lose both their moral high ground and their Northern allies. -- Joe Wheeler, Abraham Lincoln, Howard Books, 2008

We don't fire first, nor second, nor perhaps even third. This does not mean we can't defend ourselves. We must.

What it does mean is that the rest of don't react until everyone understands that it is collective self-defense. We must not cede the moral high ground.

If the Confederacy had not fired on Sumter, what would Lincoln have done? Whatever it was would have cost him the moral high ground and political legitimacy. And for the brave new world of imperial presidency that he was embarked upon, that might have led to an entirely different result. Division in the North, perhaps even impeachment. It is our enemies who are the revolutionists and the aggressors.

Take a stand on familiar ground and their appetites will do the rest. They will come to us. Just be ready. Then when it is apparent, ACT, at once and collectively, on familiar ground of our own choosing and in enlightened self-defense on a large scale seeking only the criminally culpable.

This absolute tenet of the Three Percent concept comes in for the most criticism from those who would have someone (someone, significantly, NOT themselves) take the first shot out of fear or other motives which may or may not be their own. It is in the interest of the domestic enemies of the Constitution to get us to go to proactive violence. The solution then is to refuse to do so. Their own tyrannical hungers combined with impatience at our defiance, like that of the Founders', will in time force them to cede this vital point or, far less likely, to give up the game. But it must be their choice and their action. Again, here it is vital not to take counsel of your fears and to assign some supernatural powers to the enemies of liberty. They cannot sweep down and bag the lot of us, as some Chicken Littles fear. We have them out-numbered by a long shot. If some of us are killed to make the point that THEY are the aggressors in Locke's "war against against the people," then we must recognize that this is what we signed up for when we took our oaths.

The other moral absolute that you sign on to when you become a Three Percenter is no targeting of innocents. We call this "No Oklahoma City bombings." And this includes the innocents who make up the non-combatants on the enemy's side. If you claim to fight monsters, it is important not to become one yourself. They target innocents in retributive terror operations like Waco, we do not. We are also criticized by some for this "weakness." It is, rather, not only a strength but our greatest strength. It is what defines us as defenders of liberty and the people. It is also what the tyrants most fear -- if innocents are taken off the target list, only the guilty remain. And the one thing the war-makers and decision-takers of tyranny fear is a Fourth Generation civil war targeted solely and precisely at THEIR miserable existence. It is the only thing they cherish, the only real thing they believe in -- their own existence and the power that existence gives them to feed their hunger off other people's liberty, property and lives. If the order-givers start to disappear, through death or desertion, the orders do NOT get given. With no Eichmanns to make up the schedules, no cattle cars depart to the East for "Arbeit Macht Frei." This strategy also takes advantage of our greatest strength -- our rifle marksmanship. The accurate rifle in the handle of a trained marksman is our "precision guided munition." Millions of such rifles, properly targeted, by people with the will to use them, amounts to utter defeat for any would-be tyranny, and death for any would-be tyrant.

These four principles -- moral strength, physical readiness, no first use of force and no targeting of innocents -- are the hallmarks of the Three Percent ideal. Anyone who cannot accept them as a self-imposed discipline in the fight to restore the Founders' Republic should find something else to do and cease calling themselves a "Three Percenter."

This is by no means a complete exploration of the subject and I will have more as time progresses. I invite comment and criticism.

Mike Vanderboegh, 29 June 2014.

If ever there was a case to be a Prepper

Starting your week off right

Badass of the Week

"Charging in, balls-out and guns blazing, Funk and his small team destroyed the three enemy positions Wolfenstein-style and wiped out twenty German soldiers without losing a man.  They cleared the landing zone for Allied gliders and paratroopers, and then proceeded to secure the area while the rest of the invasion force regrouped and organized.  Even though Market Garden ended up being a failed mission, Funk's impressive actions earned him the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest award for bravery offered by the Army."

.........

"Funk, of course, wasn't going to quit just because he'd single-handedly captured an entire town and its garrison with just thirty non-combatants, and he immediately left the eighty POWs under guard of four armed Americans and pressed on with his attack.  While he was out beating people to death with anything larger than a two-by-four, however, a group of Germans in arctic camouflage snuck back into the town Funk had just captured, overwhelmed the American guards, and freed the recently-captured POWs. Funk and one of his men returned to their camp to find a hundred cranky Germans waving guns in his face, and a Nazi officer pointing at Luger in his face from point-blank range."

The Core Principles of the III%

Feel free to distribute.

Anyone grab this before it was pulled?

You know, for educational purposes and such.

Hacker Publishes List Of Cell Phone Numbers, Private E-Mails For Most House Democrats

"After disappearing for a couple of weeks, the hacker “Guccifer 2.0” returned late this afternoon to provide a new headache for Democrats"

"In a post to his WordPress blog, the vandal--who previously provided nearly 20,000 Democratic National Committee e-mails to Wikileaks--uploaded an Excel file that includes the cell phone numbers and private e-mail addresses of nearly every Democratic member of the House of Representatives."

"The Excel file also includes similar contact information for hundreds of congressional staff members (chiefs of staff, press secretaries, legislative directors, schedulers) and campaign personnel."

"In announcing the leak of the document, “Guccifer 2.0” reported that the spreadsheet was stolen during a hack of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “As you see I wasn’t wasting my time! It was even easier than in the case of the DNC breach,” the hacker wrote."

"Along with the Excel file, “Guccifer 2.0” also uploaded documents that included the account names and passwords for an assortment of subscription services used by the DCCC, from Lexis-Nexis to Glenn Beck’s web site (password: nutbag)."

Tributes

If this past week has shown me anything, it is the dictum of it being better to be despised by the despicable than admired by the admirable actually may be false.  Well, perhaps at least it should come with a caveat that being admired by the admirable is an awesome thing to behold.  The outpouring of support from those that knew Mike and those that he affected has been overwhelming to say the very least.  I was unable to fly in for the funeral but I understand that there was a good many III% folks that showed up.  This is quite astonishing given the very short notice of the event.  Ken Lane over at Knuckledraggin gives us a short synopsis of the event.

Online and around the blogopheres support has continued to pour in.  Some from unlikely sources.

The Kansas City Star reporter, Judy Thomas, had contacted Mike months ago, (if memory serves it was around April), to produce a news story of his life and publish it upon his death.  This article was vetted and sanctioned by Mike, warts and all.  I was initially incredulous to the adding of SPLC semi-pro B.S. artist Mark Pitcavage as a source, but in a certain point of view it was appropriate if you want to look at Mike's life in the full spectrum.  The Old Man was good with it, so I am good with it.

David Codrea was, quite appropriately, the first blog to publish the notification of Mike's death: Freedom Movement Loses Important Voice with Passing of Mike Vanderboegh

In the article, David outlines some of Mikes accomplishments and his career in the Patriot Movement.  As a very close friend and associate, he was able to interact with Mike in a way that I could not.

Mr. Codrea observed:

"It’s also true he could at times be impulsive in his response to perceived injustices. There are more affronts to liberty and wrongs to right than any of us could hope to even hear about, let alone do anything about. When one came across Mike’s transom, he was on it like a pit bull, even if already overburdened – and that tendency was something he would not ease up on until the weakness of the flesh stripped him of any choice – and even then he would do what he could to defy."

Another longtime friend, Herschel Smith from the Captains Blog had a very poignant and touching viewpoint in "Remembering Mike Vanderboegh"

"I’ve heard it said that such-and-such a man had “redeeming qualities.” Hogwash. Men don’t have redeeming qualities. Men are themselves redeemed, or they are lost. The God-man Christ Jesus saves men or they perish without Christ but with all of the punishments due to them, and all men are under judgment."

"That’s the sweet thing about Mike. He knew this, and he believed it. Mike didn’t do a single thing to redeem himself, but he trusted Christ and the vicarious atonement for his very life. That means that it was a life well-lived. Everything else is wasted."

"But if man cannot redeem himself, that doesn’t mean he cannot redeem what’s around him by taking dominion of the world for God’s glory. Mike did exactly that, and today he is in heaven with his Lord. I don’t believe in the phrase “rest in peace” (and Isaiah 57:2 isn’t discussing ethereal floating of one’s spirit for eternity). I also don’t believe that man’s body cools to ambient temperature and that’s the end. Mike didn’t believe that either." 

III% news aggregation point, and another longtime friend, WRSA, had some excellent comments.  Thank you all for that incredible grassroots tribute.

On Facebook, I could not appropriately begin to describe the level of support the family has received from that community.  I am humbled that Mike's message of the III percent and teachings had been so pervasive.  What an honor it is to continue to push the reach of the message further than it ever has been before.  I am very proud that the social media referrals have effectively eclipsed and even doubled my Google site referrals.  It is only through the high engagement of the supporters there that this has been possible.

Sharyl Attkisson, fellow conspirator of the Fast and Furious scandal, had this to say in her post "Fast and Furious blogger Vanderboegh passes away"

"In my early interactions with Vanderboegh, he was patient and rightly skeptical. To him, I was the liberal, know-nothing press. He had terse dealings with other reporters. (He told one national reporter to f-off when the reporter “asked for the names and phone numbers of all my sources so he could contact them”). I knew little of guns and gun laws, and was not working from a pro-gun rights position, as he was. I saw it as a story of government misdeeds and corruption. He came to see my point of view and thought there was value in helping out. He encouraged ATF agents to speak to me and provide information. Some of those relationships continue today."

"So today, a nod to Vanderboegh and a moment to recognize his role in stopping a deadly practice that the government first denied, then later acknowledged. The gunwalking is responsible for many deaths, the government still won’t disclose how many, but surely many other deaths were prevented by the story being exposed and the practice being stopped."

Another tribute that came quite unexpectedly was that of Sebastian, NRA apologist, at the Pagunblog (formerly of "Snowflakes in Hell").  From a cursory internet search, the last public discussion was in 2015 in a Sipsey post defending Texas Open Carry. 

His article, simply titled "Mike Vanderboegh Dies" was as magnanimous as it was simple.  

"I had come to appreciate that regardless of whatever disagreements I may have had with Mike Vanderboegh strategically, he was quite a powerful public speaker and organizer (organizing gun owners is herding cats on a good day), in the way I could never hope to match. His work with David Codrea to break open Fast and Furious turned out to be top notch citizen journalism, despite a lot of initial skepticism. It was fine enough work that others in the media lined up to take credit and cash in."

"I will always think of him any time I put on my big Russian hat to go shovel the driveway."

Much to my surprise and delight, the best and most well known of the Mike Vanderboegh tribute articles came from his long time sparring partners, the Southern Poverty Law Center.  There is something to be said for having your enemies write your eulogy.

It starts out with a dramatic, salacious, bold sub-headline:

"Michael Brian Vanderboegh, who rose from the 1990s militia ranks to become the angry, vocal co-founder of the extremist, pro-gun III Percent movement, using an Internet blog to promote his antigovernment views, has died." 

I am positively bumfuzzled as to whom this other co-founder person or persons could be.  I am also left wondering after their candidate loses the election, how quickly they will go from "you must support your president and government" back to demanding that "dissent is patriotic".  They are nothing if not dependable in their hypocrisy.

On a whole, the article is filled with a laundry list of striking back at the empire.  One of which is an amusing anecdote of when he sent a plastic skull to self-proclaimed "militia expert" Mark Potok.  If I was told about this, perhaps I had forgotten it, but it did illustrate the creative lengths that the Old Man went to consistently jab at his enemies.  He was a master at riding straight up to the line and going an inch over to see what they would do.  Every time he did, they did nothing but howl loudly from their keyboards. A lesson could be learned here.

I found it curious that Kerodin did get an honorable mention of a couple of lines.  For all of the chest pounding and the division that was made between those two, if Kerodin is ever mentioned at all in future, it will always be as a minor footnote to the much better man.  

Several other "left" leaning articles seemed to parrot the SPLC language at least in part.

ABC, Yahoo, and AL.com, quite the lazy journalists, simply played the good parrot and re-posted the SPLC article.  Boring, but the AL.com comments are pretty good.  ABC got his age wrong but gets points for at least spelling the name right.  You have to just see the silver lining with some people.

Idavox (whatever that is) said quite simply Mike Vanderboegh, Rot in Hell!.  Oh my.  Dread indeed.  Mike would be proud for that indictment.  Despised by the despicable and such.

As for me?  I find that where I thought I had reached acceptance, I am struggling a bit now that the man is gone and his funeral complete.  After such a long illness that took him down below 75 pounds and robbed him of even the ability to speak, I can see that it was a mercy.  He needed to transition and the family needed to move on.  I still find it difficult that I cannot pick up the phone, as I did so infrequently, and talk for a bit.

While I cannot lift up the phone, my father left me with an incredible network of experts and allies that, combined, has been everything and more that I could need.  Other than this blog, that has been the best thing that I could have been heir to.  I am incredibly grateful that he thought that I was capable to take the mantle of this blog on and help grow the movement that he fought so hard to create.  I will continue to endeavor to let neither you nor he down.

The life of the dead is placed in the memories of the living. - Cicero

Edit:  I was not familiar with the piece that was run in the American Thinker until I started looking at the blog stats.  For some reason that was not coming up the Google queries.  The tribute is a very honest look at the man and well worth the look.

Sunday Jams - A Farewell

The Funeral will be held in Leeds, Alabama on Saturday, August 13, 2016 at 2PM,

Kilgroe Funeral Home

1750 Ashville Rd, Leeds, AL 35094  

205-699-3181 

Link to the Funeral Home

Link to Directions

A Patriot has passed on today.

Mike Vanderboegh, husband, father of three, and founder of the III% movement passed peacefully in his beloved Alabama home today.

In life, he fought tirelessly to restore the liberties that we had taken for granted. Because of his leadership and the movement that he created, we take them for granted no more. He was able to awaken minds to the possibility that a determined minority of free people could accomplish anything; so long as they did it together. They did not need a leader. They needed a cause and a banner from which to advance the cause of freedom. The III percent is that cause.

Mike continued to give everything after so much had been taken away by the illness. Through his struggle he became a symbol of what can be accomplished if we only have the indomitable will to make it happen. Through his words he was able to breathe life into the sails of a resurging Patriot movement. His work may be done, but for those that remain, it is just beginning,

A Patriot died today. But his work will live on in the everyday push for freedom. His was a voice that was made silent, but his work will continue to echo so long as free men and women have the means to resist The future doesn’t belong to the craven; it belongs to the brave.

Tacticool Tuesday - The venerable Woobie and GI Poncho

It has been said repeatedly that the best thing that the US military has invented, (other than advances in medicine, space travel, the internet, and robotics), is the Woobie, aka Poncho Liner.  Let's start there.

Poncho Liner

Our Hero

For the two of you in the free world that are uninitiated in its magic, the poncho liner is a camouflage synthetic blanket that is light, warm, and easily packable.  The poncho liner, affectionately and hereafter called a 'woobie", has largely remained unchanged since it was introduced to Soldiers in Vietnam.  It is by no means any more water resistant than any other light nylon, and it will not retain some of its warmth if it becomes drenched, (as wool would).  It will, however, dry much quicker and the weight savings and cost alone vice wool is enough to choose one over the other.  If you buy a gently used poncho liner at a surplus store for over twenty five dollars, you are being overcharged.

Necessity being the mother of invention, bright boys and girls have been improving upon the woobie for years.  According to BreachBangClear.com, the USMC has issued a product improvement in the way of a two way zipper.  Most often in temperate climates, a blanket is all that is needed when you are out in the elements. In adding a zipper, it keeps the heat in where it is needed and eliminates the need to carry a bulky patrol bag.   The addition of the zipper has two functions.  First, you can mate up two different woobies to make a double thickness blanket.  This also allows you to stuff some biomass insulation, (pine needles, cat tail down, leaves, etc.) in between the two mated blankets to increase the thermal retention capabilities in an emergency.  Especially in the field when the OPFOR is in the area, it is better to have a blanket on you that you can quickly discard than be wrapped up in a constricting sleeping bag.

The commercial market has produced some excellent ways for you to be able to buy your way out of a cold night.  There are a ton of excellent, undoubtedly tacticool, and pricey improvements to the woobie that are worth mentioning.  The top of the heap, Kifaru, makes the Woobie and and Doobie, (3.6 and 6 oz. of insulation). Hill People Gear has the Mountain Serape which comes also in two sizes.  Wiggys offers an improved poncho liner with zippers and with ties that is made with the same insulation found in their bags.  Snugpak has the cheapest of the bunch with their insulated jungle blanket.  The Kifaru and Hill People Gear blankets are designed to be snapped together around the body so you can essentially wear it in conjunction with your poncho.  You can, however, mod a USGI woobie to do something very similar with zippers.  That video you can find at the end of the article.

Poncho

The poncho is often overlooked with the introduction of Gore-tex and softshell overgarments.  In the military, I only ever really used the poncho to construct a hasty overhead cover, (just once), or to simply protect my rucksack from the rain when I had to ground it.  The poncho and poncho liner are on every unit packing list for the field but like the elbow pads or Camelbak cleaning kit, you rarely ever took it out of the plastic when it was given to you by the Central Issue Facility.

As I have started to look beyond the meat-headed military purpose, I see how much more useful the lowly poncho can be.  Normally, if I was out runing around in hot weather, (being a multiple heat casualty just about anything over 50 degrees is hot weather to me), and it began to rain, I would just keep going.  After all, I am made out of sugar.  I now see the poncho as something useful and breathable that can keep me from a fair amount of undue misery.  Contrary to popular opinion, you do not always have to "embrace the suck".  Not only is the poncho good for its intended purpose, it can be used in a variety of other ways.  The most popular being, of course, as a legitimate shelter.

Photo courtesy of Preparedness Advice

As I have stated before in another post, I am in awe of the ingenuity of the Alpha Tent.  With the addition of a couple of lightweight collapsible poles, you can make the poncho into a decent enough shelter for three seasons of temperate weather.  This is the most lightweight shelter system that I know aside from building a time consuming debris hut.  One Alpha tent with a tea candle can get you pretty far in a bad spot in the woods.

The poncho has also been product improved on the commercial market and thoughtful modifications have been done to make it more usable.  My favorite of the commercial ponchos are from Bushcraft Outfitters, the Poncho Tarp.  It is worth mentioning that they also produce the MEST Tarp which is 5x7 and weighs a whopping 13 ounces.  These two in conjunction, one cover, and one ground cloth, will weigh less than a normal two piece tent and are imminently more useful as they can be used for other things.  Had I to do it over again, I would have saved the money I spent on the Snugpak Ionosphere and bought these two instead.  We'll see what Santa brings.

I know that many foreign governments have also produced their version of the poncho and these can be found floating around the surplus world with varying regularity.  The Swedish and German are of decent enough quality.  I remember an eastern bloc version that was ridiculously reminiscent of a drab Klan outfit.  I'd stay away from that one.  I cannot personally speak for any of these, but I would recommend that you do the research before you purchase.  If, however, you find any of them for less than ten dollars, I would suggest you snap it up immediately.  Treat it to some Camp Dry on occasion, and you will can never go wrong with a lightweight groundcloth or cover.

Tying it all together

If you examine both the USGI poncho, and poncho liner, it does not look like it would mate up well,  I personally have not used the equipment this way, but that is not to say that my unique experiences will match up to yours.  This video illustrates now to put the two pieces together and some other small gear mods that you may find useful.

This mod video is in German, but it illustrates some wonderful ways in which you can product improve the poncho liner to create a more functional piece of equipment,  German over-engineering for sure, and God bless them for it.

If you wish to purchase a either USGI issue Poncho or Poncho Liner online, I would ask that you  to consider supporting patriot businesses like Main Gun.  You can find a link to that here.

Rawles offers solutions to the problems of a dying Leviathan

Madame President Clinton’s Coming War on the Blogosphere, and Your Countermeasures

by James Wesley Rawles

Now that Hillary (“Hitlery”) Rodham Clinton (HRC) has received the Democratic Party nomination for president, there is a strong likelihood that she will win the election in November and then be enthroned as president in January of 2017. I predict that she willwaste no time in launching an onslaught of punitive new policies via executive orders, presidential memoranda, and policy directives promulgated through her cabinet and Federal agencies to eviscerate our Constitutional rights (most notably the 1st and 2nd Amendments). A key goal this campaign will be silencing dissent in the alternative press and the American blogosphere. Given HRC’s history in government “service”, her outlook on life, her socialist agenda, and her vindictiveness, I anticipate that any or all of the following measures will be undertaken by the HRC Administration:

• The Department of Justice (DOJ) will be used to selectively prosecute dissenters for “hate speech”. For instance, simply objecting to illegal immigration or state sponsored relocation of Muslims will be called “evidence of hate.” They will also declare blogs, news sites, and podcasts to be “public accommodations” and hence saddle them with a long list of new restrictions that would effectively muzzle them from making any comments opposed to HRC’s agenda and “protected” classes. Even the use of “trigger words” could be restricted.
• The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) will be used to target dissenters who make any comments about any corporations, mutual funds, or banks, for “operating as unregistered investment advisors”.
• The Federal Election Commission (FEC) will be used to target Libertarians and other dissenters for “unlawful campaigning”.
• The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will use their newly-assumed powers over the Internet to enforce a new radicalized version of the moribund Fairness Doctrine upon bloggers, vloggers (video bloggers), podcasters, as well as newspapermen, magazine writers, and talk radio hosts. Under this new and improved fairness policy, any media outlet that is deemed a public accommodation will be forced to free of charge provide equal space to assorted perverts, leftists, and Social Justice Warriors. Failure to do so will open up these news outlets to both criminal prosecution and costly civil lawsuits.
• The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will be used to selectively audit tax filings, levy bank accounts, garnish wages, and refer criminal prosecution of anyone who voices dissent of HRC’s statist/collectivist agenda. Lois Lerner’s group was just the precursor!
• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be used to target dissenters who own property with seasonal puddles that could be deemed “wetlands” or creeks that could be arbitrarily declared “navigable waters”.
• The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency will be used to target dissenters living within 50 miles of the Mexican or Canadian borders for harassment and intimidation, searching their homes without warrants.
• The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and associated Tribal Police will be used to target dissenters living within 100 miles of any Tribal Reservation for harassment and intimidation.
• The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will crack down on any bloggers who make posts that might be construed as a product review or product endorsement.
• The Transportation Security Agency (TSA) will be used to limit the travel of anyone deemed by HRC’s cronies to be an Enemy of the State (through expansion of the No Fly List, Terror Watch List, and Selectee List).
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will crack down on producers of raw milk and nutritional supplements (and also on the bloggers who promote them).
• The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will prosecute anyone operating unlicensed drones weighing more than just a few ounces.
• The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will use both its own agents and paid (or coerced) surrogate agent provocateurs to infiltrate militias, patriot groups, and secessionist organizations. There, they will foment schemes that can be prosecuted under loosely-worded Federal conspiracy laws. (This is precisely what was done with the Bundy Ranch and Malheur Wildlife Refuge protestors.)
• Working in conjunction with the FCC, the U.S. Coast Guard will board any ship within Territorial Waters that they suspect of operating an unlicensed transmitter.

I can see all of this coming, and I refuse to be muzzled. I aim to misbehave. If need be, I will relocate so that I can still blog freely. In anticipation of HRC’s possible upcoming coronation, here are some possible countermeasures for my fellow bloggers to seriously consider:

1. Contract for the use of an offshore server in a country that has minimal influence from the United States government, and move your web pages there.
2. Get set up for encrypted e-mail. (The free GPG software installed on your local PC works quite well. And for those who are less tech savvy, the paid Unseen.is service in Iceland works fine.)
3. Post provisos on your web site that are similar to my own. (Most importantly, these provisos must declare that you do not operate a “public accommodation.”)
4. Buy an Iridium satellite telephone and a set of Iridium international power adapters. (Unlike cell phones or other sat phones, calls made from Iridium constellation phones can be traced only to a particular oval satellite “footprint” that measures hundreds of miles across.)
5. Buy several inexpensive prepaid “burner” cell phones. Pay greenback cash for these phones, and use an assumed name when you eventually activate them.
6. Buy a nondescript camping trailer or RV and quietly (via face-to-face contacts only) develop a “hospitality list” of like-minded families who own parcels of land that you can bounce between, in the event that you need to take refuge.
7. Buy a spare laptop computer (preferably one that is ultra-reliable, such as aPanasonic Toughbook), a 12 VDC car adapter, and a set of international power adapters.
8. Buy a USB external long range Yagi wireless antenna to use with your laptops. (The standoff distance that these provide will make it harder to pinpoint your location when using a public wi-fi hotspot.)
9. Buy a batch of at least 40 inexpensive 2 GB USB memory sticks that you can use to physically mail (or courier) digital content, to keep your locale secret.
10. Make sure that your passport is updated.
11. Do some research to develop a short list of countries where you would consider relocating. Ideally, a country should have respect for the freedom of speech, minimal taxation, minimal influence from the United States government, and NO rendition (extradition) treaty with the United States.
12. Establish an offshore bank account.
13. Beyond just offshore residency, if you can afford it, then buy a second passport. (Typically, this is done with a “Citizenship Through Investment” program.)
14. Via encrypted e-mail, develop contacts with foreign bloggers, and get their tentative agreement to post your ghost-written articles, if circumstances change.
15. Pray hard.

I don’t mean for the foregoing to sound alarmist. Consider me a realist. – JWR

Note: Permission is granted for re-posting of this entire article, but only if done so in full, with proper attribution to James Wesley, Rawles and SurvivalBlog, and only if the included links are preserved.)

Only the dead have seen the end of war

Rifle Cleaning - Long Range Shooting Tip

If you read nothing else all day...

The Myth of the National Three Percent Organization

by Kit Perez

A lot of people claim to be part of the Three Percent. A lot of people claim to know what the Three Percent stands for…but do they? There are quite a few myths out there about who we are and what we believe, and sadly, even some of the folks who claim to be in the Three Percent believe those myths. Truth is important; we’ll be dispelling one of the biggest myths today, and we’ll do it by going back to the source of the III% founder himself. Why is it important? Because of this: “there are apparently many people who have adopted the moniker of Three Percenter, for whatever reason, but who wouldn’t recognize these principles if they came up and bit them in the ass.”

Let’s get started.
The Three Percent is a National Organization: False.

All over social media, you can find groups claiming to be III%. They post the symbols, use the lingo (or try to), and talk about things like unity and their “national affiliation.” Some of these groups pattern themselves after the military, and wear self-assigned rank (usually an O-3 or above; no one wants to be the butterbar, apparently). They call themselves every variation of Three Percent you can think of, and many of them claim national legitimacy.

The following statement needs to be very clear:

There is no national Three Percent organization, and there was never intended to be one. In fact, the idea of a national Three Percent organization goes directly against what the III% was designed to be. The III% is a local concept, meaning that its entire purpose was to foster cooperation and small groups locally for the purpose of active resistance, defiance, and preparation. Your neighbors, your church, your family and friends. Mike Vanderboegh, the founder of the III%,wrote the following:

"I deliberately formulated the Three Percent idea as a movement, an idea, a philosophy and a discipline BUT NOT AN ORGANIZATION. Attempts at large regional, state or national organizations, anything beyond local formations, are subject to infiltration, dysfunction, discredit and collapse. Anyone who tells you different is selling something."

There is a huge push, especially by groups on Facebook and other social media, to bring in as many people as possible. They want unity, they want a huge crowd of people. Some militia groups attach III% to their names, and call each other Colonel and Captain and Major and even General. They claim to be networking and ‘working intel,’ but all of this effort goes in direct opposition to what the entire point of the III% concept is–and ruins its potential and efficiency. The strength of the III% concept is its small-group, locally-focused resistance model.

By insisting on a pyramid, top-down, crowd leadership structure, folks claiming to be part of a III% national organization miss some very basic points that Mike outlined above. There’s a reason why the III% was designed NOT to be a national organization. Let’s take a closer look at why.
Infiltration

The bigger the group, the more vulnerable it is. There are many who may feel as though they need the comfort of a large group. Part of that comes from a need to share responsibility. People claim to want to fight, or resist, or claim to be ready to do “violent things,” but they want to make sure they have a crowd behind them. This is why you see so many people say things such as “How much longer are we going to stand for X?” What they’re actually saying is, “I want to go and do something but I don’t want to do it by myself, I want to follow someone else who is going to do it.” This is incredibly exploitable because all someone needs to do is hone in on that need. Those are the folks who can be manipulated, who can be talked into taking actions that are immoral—and also against the III% catechism and values. The sheer math of group dynamics means that the more people you have, the more chance you have of being compromised. It’s that simple.

This is one of the many reasons that the III% was set up as a local concept. Your group is not your four states’ worth of guys who get together every few weeks or months, put on some face paint, and run around in the woods with you. Your group is your family, your close friends who understand what’s going on and would show up at 3 am no questions asked if you needed it. A group of five people, who have known each other for years and know each other’s secrets and weaknesses and strengths, is a lot harder to infiltrate than a Facebook group of 250+ people who have never met but call each other “brother,” or even a real-life unit of 50 people who get together to shoot their rifles or go to rallies. Infiltration is happening all the time, all over the movement–and nowhere more obviously than in these huge groups who insist on needing a following.

If you are strong enough in your beliefs, you don’t need a crowd to stand for them with you. A III% member following the catechism, following the principles and values, will probably not be part of a large group because they understand that the III% was not ever designed to BE a large group, but a network of local groups and local resistance. As Mike wrote:

"The Three Percent idea, being an idea, is internalized and finds expression in action when required without any top-down organization issuing orders."

Dysfunction

If there’s anything in the patriot movement, it’s dysfunction. Groups run by ego-driven individuals who insist on total obedience from their “troops,” people running around calling themselves “General” and complaining that someone took action without “proper protocol,” people spreading gossip and rumors while calling it “intel.” The level of drama in many patriot groups right now calling themselves III% is staggering. They use words like “opsec” as a catch-all phrase, throw around terms like “deploy,” and try very hard to copy the military in many of their endeavors, completely missing the point that the III% was never intended to be an organization at all, let alone one structured after the military.

Discredit
When a group chooses to deviate from a small group mentality, instead choosing to chase after numbers, they run the risk of their members eventually discrediting them and what they stand for. As has been written elsewhere, by bringing someone into your group and allowing them to be a part of your activities, you are saying that you identify with their belief system, and you are willing to let their actions help define your group culture. Unless every single member that you bring in shares your group culture and values, they will end up discrediting you. By default, this means you need to keep your groups small; this ensures that your group has a shared cultural value (much like John Mosby’s concept of tribalism) that will be enhanced and carried on by its members instead of morphed and changed or even discredited. If you say, “No, we aren’t defined by our members and they don’t all speak for us,” then why are they in your group? Just for the numbers? Would you allow a member of ISIS in your group? How about a neo-Nazi? Why not? Because they do not share your values.

In any large, top-down organization (which you seem determined to have out of whatever motive that can only be guessed at — failure to understand the nature of your enemy in a 4th Generation Warfare world; lack of imagination as to the probable negatives of such a move; misplaced enthusiasm at spreading an idea you apparently have failed to properly grasp; or, the simplest explanation, plain ego), personnel, my friend, is policy.

What does this mean to you? It means that your members are who YOU are, as a group. The loudmouth in your group who consistently says inflammatory things and derides others for not being ready to “rise up and fight” reflects on you and your group. The guy who insists on being a security risk because he’s “not doing anything illegal” reflects on you as a group. Whoever you take in must share your values. It’s not about being an echo chamber; you don’t all need to be Mormons or atheists or Presbyterians or Christians or home schoolers or whatever else. You do, however, need to be very clear on what your group goals are, and what you as a group believe or want to accomplish. Regardless of whatever else you believe, you MUST share the values and the catechism of the III% itself.

Collapse

The natural end result of large groups with infiltration, dysfunction, ego and problems, who operate outside the established framework of what the III% was designed to be and to do, is a collapse. This is why groups fail, over and over. Someone will rise to prominence as head of a group, will call themselves by some self-appointed rank and issue “orders,” and eventually the problems happen. Members ‘go rogue’ and do things to embarrass the greater group, seek more power or publicity, turn on their fellow members or leadership. Leaders themselves let the power go to their head, and find themselves acting like they are kings and tyrants themselves. Their groups implode, or split, and the various members form more groups, where they incorporate the same top-down model, the same poor vetting practices, the same refusal to study and understand the original concept of the III% and what it stands for. What happens to these new groups? The same things, over and over.

The Three Percent is a Local Concept

After 1500 words or so explaining what the III% is not, it’s time to explain what it is. We’re all familiar with the story of the colonists and their stand against the British. But while many who claim the title of III% know that story, they forget—or simply don’t know—that it is only a part of what the III% purpose is. The person best equipped to explain what the III% means is the person who designed the concept, who founded the very movement we claim to be a part of. In short, “Any stupid ass can call himself a Three Percenter, the proof is in the practice of principle.” It’s that simple. It’s not enough to claim the title. You must also live the life–a life of training, of self-discipline and discernment. A life spent forging relationships and networks that are close, solid, and trustworthy.

We have our enemy’s promises that they will negate any possibility of our using the standard methods of politics against them. They have won the “majority vote” decision. Fine. But if we are to avoid conflict, we must convince them of how little this actually buys them in the way of power. We do that by building up the armed citizenry, one three-man buddy team, one six-man fire team and one squad at a time. Don’t advertise. Friends and neighbors will do nicely. And remember, you’re doing this in case the deterrence doesn’t work. This is as real as it gets, folks. Act like it.

The III% has values and principles. Those who claim to be part of the Three Percent either must follow those values and principles, or they are not a Three Percenter. Those who commit actions that go against the catechism are not Three Percenters. Those who seek violence while claiming to be part of the Three Percent are not part of us. Those who set aside the small group, locally-focused concept of the III% in favor of vast bands of people only marginally held together by false ranks and fantasy are not Three Percenters. As Mike wrote:

These four principles — moral strength, physical readiness, no first use of force and no targeting of innocents — are the hallmarks of the Three Percent ideal. Anyone who cannot accept them as a self-imposed discipline in the fight to restore the Founders’ Republic should find something else to do and cease calling themselves a “Three Percenter.”

Anyone can wear the patch or claim the name. What matters, as always, are their actions.

Statistics tells us it does not matter what you carry, so long as you carry

I count myself very lucky that I have never had the opportunity present itself wherein I had to defensively pull a firearm from concealment to diffuse a situation.  As they say, it is only a matter of time for anyone.  The Old Man did tell me of an encounter he had in a side street of Birmingham earlier this this year when he was still mobile.  Having just come back from, (I think), the Birmingham Public Library, he was walking down a five foot or so wide passageway that was created by a gap in two large municipal buildings.  Not big enough for cars, but it did provide a decent enough place for foot traffic.  As he walked down the path, he was approached by a younger gentleman who noticed that Mike had a hat on that read, in part, "All Lives Matter".  I say in part because the portion that was written underneath was covered up, and said simply. "That's why I'm armed".  Valuable information that the guy would have taken into consideration had he seen it.  The kid, whom was guessed to be of reasonably athletic build and in his late teens to early twenties, saw the hat about 15 feet out and immediately changed his facial expression to stone cold hate.

When the two were just within striking distance, the kid changed his direction and punched at Mike.  The blow was so angry and forceful, he threw the full force of weight into it and became unbalanced.  Mike was able to just dodge the punch to his head and the attacker's kinetic energy carried him to the ground.  Thugs, of either the fake or very real variety, are by nature not the most pleasant bunch, so when they telegraph their intentions it is best to capitalize on it.  When Mike noticed a change in the guys demeanor, he had already started to reach in his front pocket to get a handle on the 380 Taurus.  When the thug struck at him, he was able to step away, pull out the pistol and aim it at his attackers face.  This did not entirely deter his assaulter from resuming the attack.

"It is going to be pretty sad day for your Mama when they have to pick your fucking brains off of the fucking wall after I shoot you", was the only thing that Mike could summon to say.  The kid was still visibly enraged and started to rise.  Fortunately for our would-be attacker, self-preservation took over and he deflated.  Upon seeing that the lead taken from the kids pencil, Mike said, "Now git".   Trayvon ran off in the direction he was originally going and Mike was able to continued going on his.

This was not the first time that he had to pull a pistol in Birmingham.  I believe it was in the mid to late 90's he occupied in one of his favorite things to do, which was to sit in his car and read a news paper that he had just bought at a gas station.  An older gentleman, that appeared to be homeless, approached his car from about 50 feet and said over and over, more loudly each time, "Give me 10 dollas".  When the guy reached to about 10 feet out, Mike produced a Keltec P11 9mm with an extra magazine, and told him, "How about I give you eleven plus ten".  Mr. Mugger made a surprisingly quick 180 degree turn and left without his 10 dollas.

An Alternate Look at Handgun Stopping Power

A 2011 article by Greg Ellifritz of the Buckeye Firearms Association aggregates the stopping power of various common calibers of pistol and compares the data by several factors.  Data is compared by the number of individual incidents per caliber, whether the incident netted one shot or multiple shots fired, if the shots incapacitated the target (or not), and the general shot placement of the bullet.  Math is hard to argue with but I would agree with the author that there are circumstances that are not addressed.  The study does, however, indicate that it is as much of the size of the dog in the fight as it is the size of the fight in the dog.







Now before we get into the weeds with that the venerable small game round, the 22, (or any particular pet round) as the "be all, end all" self defense round, the author has this to consider:

"In a certain (fairly high) percentage of shootings, people stop their aggressive actions after being hit with one round regardless of caliber or shot placement. These people are likely NOT physically incapacitated by the bullet. They just don't want to be shot anymore and give up! Call it a psychological stop if you will. Any bullet or caliber combination will likely yield similar results in those cases. And fortunately for us, there are a lot of these "psychological stops" occurring. The problem we have is when we don't get a psychological stop. If our attacker fights through the pain and continues to victimize us, we might want a round that causes the most damage possible. In essence, we are relying on a "physical stop" rather than a "psychological" one. In order to physically force someone to stop their violent actions we need to either hit him in the Central Nervous System (brain or upper spine) or cause enough bleeding that he becomes unconscious. The more powerful rounds look to be better at doing this."

I contacted Mr. Eillifritz to see if I he could, perhaps, shed any more light on the subject or if he had altered his opinion in the years since he wrote the article. To my honor and delight, he is a regular reader and gave this very thoughtful response:

"After a few years, I am realizing that two additional factors come into play when determining how quickly an attackers stops after being shot. 

"The first is whether the attacker is shot by a cop or an armed citizen. A criminal knows that if he flees an armed citizen, he is likely to survive and not be arrested. The same does not hold true after being shot by a cop. The cop is going to continue the fight until the criminal is either incapacitated or arrested. That means criminals fight harder against cops than they do against armed citizens. 

"Many of the 9mm and .40 shootings are police incidents. I think that leads to a potentially inflated number of rounds taken by criminals in those incidents. 

"The other factor is the speed at which the rounds can be fired. Most people can fire a 9mm faster than they can fire a .45. In scenarios that are psychological stops (not physical incapacitations). it takes a certain period of time for the criminal to recognize that he has been shot and either flee or comply. 

"For the sake of argument, let's say that period of time is 3 seconds. In three seconds, I am likely to hit you with more rounds if I am shooting a 9mm than if I am shooting a .45. In reality, one bullet from either caliber would have likely caused the same reaction. The number of hits ends up more being a function of how quickly the shots can be fired rather than how effective the cartridge is. 

"I think these are the prime reasons why the .22 and .25 did so well. Both are primarily shot by armed citizens. The criminals got hit with one shot and fled. Also the .22 mini revolvers and tiny autos tend to be slower to fire than a full sized auto pistol. They are also more prone to malfunctions. Those factors may be the reason that those particular calibers required such a small number of shots to stop the attack. 

"Overall, that's about the only thing I can add to the information that I wrote back in 2011. If anything, it leads me to believe that there is even LESS difference between all those cartridges than my original study determined."

I could not find definitive numbers, one way or the other, of instances where the mere presence of a firearm brought about a peaceful resolution to the crime.  However, I think it is fairly self-evident that the presence of a firearm, any firearm, is usually enough to make an attacker question their life choice.  If you are going to choose to carry, and I sincerely hope you are even if a little state funded bureaucrat is telling you that you cannot.  But if you choose to carry, the Rawlesian philosophy of ATGATT, or All The Gear, All The Time, would mean you carry the weapon plus spare mags.  All. The. Time.  At the very least it just might save you 10 dollas.

One clear takeaway from the data is that we can argue about pistol calibers in perpetuity.  What trumps them all are rifles and shotguns.

Makes you wonder why, if handguns are the overwhelming winner in firearm related deaths, that the Social Elites want your long guns so bad.  You know...for the children.

Get off my lawn.