Would you let your kid touch a machine gun?

SOURCE: FOX NEWS -

Photos of officers from the Santa Rosa Police Department letting kids handle the department’s SWAT team weaponry at a community event has sparked a debate over how much exposure to guns is healthy for kids.

Community organizer Attila Nagy, who took the photos, told FoxNews.com that he was concerned it might encourage kids to use guns in the future.

“My main concern is for kids who handle these things. They’re fascinated by them, and it makes them familiar with guns,” he said.

One city councilwoman, Marsha Vas Dupre, told her local paper that she was “alarmed and devastated” by the photos.

But the police department is pushing back, saying they see nothing wrong with how they handled the event.

“The weapons are rendered safe and are unloaded. We ensure the safety of those weapons,” Santa Rosa Police Capt. Gary Negri told FoxNews.com, adding that the police attend the event to build ties between the police and the community.

“Our goal is saying to people, ‘hey, don’t be intimidated by the police.’ We want to break down that barrier… Once these events are over, people will be more comfortable having conversations with officers.”

Another goal, Negri said, was to educate kids about guns.

“Education and gun safety is a component of what we do… We teach kids the difference between a real gun and a Toys R’ Us gun.”

But the department’s response hasn’t convinced everyone. One woman, Elaine Holtz, was so concerned by the SWAT team’s weapons that she approached the police officer at the community event and asked what was going on.

“I would not want my child to be involved with something like that… Those guns, they should have been behind glass — to teach the kids that you don’t want to deal with this gun, because it kills.” Holtz told FoxNews.com.

“I am coming from the heart of a woman, a mother, a grandmother,” she added.

Despite the complaints, some gun safety experts say the police are right — and that data shows kids who grow up with legal guns are actually less likely to get into trouble.

“A U.S. Department of Justice study showed that children introduced to firearms by their fathers had a lower rate of delinquency than children who learned about guns on the street, or even children who had no experience with guns at all,” Dr. Tim Wheeling, of the group Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, told FoxNews.com.

The 1994 Justice Department report concluded: “Boys who own legal firearms… are even slightly less delinquent than nonowners of guns.” Specifically, 14 percent of kids with legal firearms committed street crimes, compared to 24 percent of kids with no guns at home.

Given that, Wheeling said, the response to the police actions seemed overblown.

“If this controlled lesson in firearms helped the kids understand that guns are not toys, some good could come from it. The knee-jerk rejection to the police outreach by locals was clearly excessive.”

The pro-gun control Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence declined to comment.

Whether the police event actually helped the kids understand that guns are not toys is a matter of debate.

“It wasn’t a safety thing,” Nagy said, contesting the police version of the story. “That’s misinformation. I was there. The gun was displayed, and kids just picked it up and played with it.”

Nagy cited his photos as evidence.

“In one of the photos I took, as Elaine Holtz was talking with the officer, you can see a little boy is reaching up to the table and grabbing a gun… the youngest kid there was maybe 5 years old.”

Holtz said that when she asked the officer what was going on, he replied that they were doing “training,” but that she did not find his answer convincing.

“I did not see any education going on; it looked like it was just fun,” she said. “And I think we generally have a good police department. But what happened here was poorly thought out.”

Police Capt. Negri said that the department is looking at “whether we want to change our tack in the future.” But for now, the police are sticking to their guns.

“Gun safety is a part of the discussions we have with the kids,” Negri said. “These kids, what do they learn about guns from video games, movies and TV? A lot of the questions we get from kids are way off base… So it’s helpful to have some realistic dialogue.”

In any survival situation there are several things that need to be in place to insure a successful survival. Finding water, shelter, food and creating fire are all on the top of that list. Although all of these are very important, in this post I would like to address the basic of fire starting.

There are many techniques for wilderness fire starting which range from the very primitive to the technically advanced. All of which work very well with a little practice under the best conditions. At ATACTV.com we show you how. Waiting until you are out in the wilderness and fighting unknown conditions is not the place to try a new method for starting a fire. Finding a technique that works well for you and prior preparation before going out into the wilderness is always best to ensure your success. In order to start a fire with routine success you need a dry spot for the fire, a spark, plenty of oxygen and dry tender, kindling, and fuel.

Keep in mind that a fire always starts with a spark. How you obtain that spark is not of importance, weather you use a hand drill or bow drill techniques that were perfected by the Aborigine or flint rocks and or even more modern devices such as flint steal, 9volt battery against steal wool and spark igniters, all of which produce a spark that is needed to start fire. What is important is how you treat that spark. Keeping in mind that the spark is the infancy stage of the fire, treating it with gentle care lots of oxygen and fuel it will produce a fire. Moisture is not your friend!

Like most things in life start small. Fire starting is the same, introducing the spark to your fuel start small with tender. Tender is fine ignitable fuel that burns very quickly such as dry moss, grasses, shredded wood bark, tissue paper and cotton balls. Adding alcohol or petroleum jell to your tender will enhance it catching fire and may prolong its burn time. While introducing the spark to the tender, lots of oxygen is also needed to create flame. Once you have flame you have only a short time to start the kindling on fire. Kindling is small pieces wood twigs, paper and other fuel that has a longer burning time and will produce a small amount of heat. Once the kindling has starting on fire you are on your way and all that is needed it to introduce larger forms of fuel like wood logs and rolled up paper. For the most part as your fuel burns you will create a good bed of hot coals and all you need at that point to keep your fire is to keep adding more fuel as needed.

ATACTV.com survival can show you the tools and skills that you will need to do wilderness fire starting.

As with any shotgun or firearm, you should know how to properly store, transport and maintain prior to shooting. Do you want to breakdown your Saiga for a detailed cleaning and inspection?  This is just what you needed to get started. Tom Clarke & Mark Flinn take your through the process of your shotgun cleaning.

Many firearm owners think that the only contaminants are carbon and copper.  Not totally correct, shotguns use a plastic wad so during the firing cycle it is layered inside the barrel with each round fired.  Over and over again.  If you are shooting slugs then you will also have lead as a contaminant inside the barrel. You may be surprised how much plastic fouling is in your Saiga.  But the guys will show how to get it out of the barrel & gas chamber; it’s a tougher job than you may think.

The Saiga 12 has a rotating bolt, gas-operated system and has an external magazine feed.  It weighs just less than 8 lbs and since it is a magazine-fed shotgun, it is very simple to operate.  It is made almost entirely from sheet-metal stampings.  Its adjustable two-piston gas system allows hot loads of slugs and buckshot to be fired as well as less lethal ammo with just a minor adjustment.  The bolt is the same length as that of an AK-47 and it fits into the receiver easily by a metal piece, which is located inside the recoil spring.  With this design, the Saiga can be pushed up against debris and you can remain confident that it will remain sealed.  The bolt head rotates and locks into battery. To understand more and know your shotgun, keep reading then watch the programs.

Watch the Free Siaga 12 Gauge Bench Cleaning Programs by clicking on the below direct link!  Check back tomorrow for the start of the Siaga 12 shotgun training programs only on ATAC TV’s Firearms Channel.

Watch Now:

SAIGA Shotgun Cleaning Free Program Part 1

SAIGA Shotgun Cleaning Free Program Part 2

AtacTV.com is a free source for Raw, Unscripted Firearm Training.  Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, it’s Free!

Trigger control is a very important component in the sequence of shooting for the sniper rifle. This is a five part series; make sure you understand the first 3 parts of the Sequence of Shooting with optics before you continue on with Part 4, Trigger Control. Tom Clarke and Lenny Bolton with ATAC TV Firearms share with you insights about the proper way to make hits at long distance.

Assuming your D.O.P.E (Data On Personal Equipment) is correct and your wind calls are accurate, most misses can be attributed to poor trigger control. Although trigger control is very important with any weapon platform, it has greater relevance when shooting at long range. An example of this: A sheet of standard writing paper is .003 thousandths of an inch. Upset the rifles bore axis .003 at the rifle will affect the point of impact .300 thousandths at 100 yards and 3 inches at 1000 yards.

Trigger control is described as: The first pad of you index finger is centered on the trigger, and the free slack (movement or slop) of the trigger is taken out of the trigger movement, sight is aligned, you have achieved sight picture, you are at repertory pause, and you begin your smooth press the trigger straight to the rear and achieve a controlled trigger break without disrupting sight picture or alignment.

At the moment that the decision has been made to start the trigger press, ideally breathing should be at the empty lung pause of our regular breathing cycle and our ocular focus should be on the cross hairs of the riflescope. These are discussed in previous installments of the sequence of shooting. Pressure on the trigger should be ever increasing until the trigger breaks smoothly without weapon upset. Rifle set-up should allow the trigger finger to apply pressure centered on the trigger with the middle of the pad of skin covering the distal phalanges of the index finger. The trigger should be held to the rear disengaged position momentarily after firing. This is much like the top of a golf swing after hitting a golf ball.

This brings you to the beginning of Follow Through, discussed in a Part 5 segment.

Watch the video with Lenny and Tom to pick up fine details of this incredibly important part of the Sequence of Shooting with optics.

Watch Now: Sequence Of Shooting Part 4 of 5 Trigger Control

Atac Tv is a free source for Raw, Unscripted Firearm Training.  Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, it’s Free!

Click with no Bang?  Failure to Fire, finger straight, rack the slide of your Remington 870 shotgun as you roll it over on the ejection port, back on the sights and target!

Mark Flinn and Lenny Bolton with ATAC TV Firearms demonstrate the proper way to react to a trigger press that doesn’t result in a bang.

All firearms platforms can suffer from failure to fire. Here is a quick list of possible causes of this malfunction.

• Loaded the shotgun magazine and did not rack a shot shell into the chamber, or check the chamber to make sure that you did load it.
  
• Bad primer of a shot shell in the chamber, the shell did not go off when the trigger was pulled and the firing pin struck the primer. (Bad primer or shell)
  
• You shot the firearm empty.  This is common with a low capacity pump shotgun and having to continue firing without the time to tactical reload. (Gun empty, see Combat Reload program)
  
• Your shotgun is broken.  Firing pin is broken, some other parts have failed and non-repairable in the field.  Immediately do a transition to back-up firearm such as your pistol.

Ok, there are several reasons this will happen, but the remedy to each situation is the same.  Trigger finger goes straight on frame, rack the slide while rolling the gun on ejection port to help remove any shot shell that might happen to be in the chamber, close slide as you get back on the sights and target.  Simple but must be practiced to react with the first sign of this issue, a click.

If the 870 shotgun is empty, you will get a second click.  Your reaction to the second click is to rack the slide to the rear leaving the bolt back and ejection port open, access a spare shot shell and drop it into the ejection port, close the slide and shoot.  For the description of the Combat Reload, go to ATAC TV Firearms Channel and learn how to load your shotgun in a hurry.

Click on the video link below and watch Mark and Lenny demonstrate this procedure for more clarity.

Watch Now: Remington 870 Shotgun Failure to Fire Malfunction Clearance

AtacTv.com is a free source for Raw, Unscripted Firearm Training.  Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, it’s Free!

Viewers Firearm Question: Why Should I Underload my Magazines?

ATAC Firearm Reply and Answer:

When guys like Tom Clarke and Lenny Bolton tell most people they should under load their magazines, they wonder “how come?” If the magazine holds 15, why on earth would you short yourself a round or two by not filling it up? There are a few valid reasons to avoid topping off that magazine.

There is just so much room inside the magazine body and if loaded to capacity, once the last cartridge loaded under the feed lips, the spring, follower and cartridges are tight with little room to move around inside the body. Insert this magazine into a firearm with its bolt closed and the top cartridge will hit the bottom of the bolt. If the cartridge can not move down slightly into the body, there is a strong possibility that you will not get the magazine seated correctly into the magazine well. Guess what? You will induce a malfunction, or worse, the magazine will fall out and you will end up with an empty firearm.

Another good reason to under load your magazines depends on the type and quality of the spring inside the body. Fully loaded, the spring is compressed to its limit in the bottom of the body. If left in this condition, depending on the type of spring, it could rapidly lose its flexibility and create malfunctions. A better technique is to leave some room for the spring to retain its shape, and allowing the follower and cartridges to move inside the magazine when loaded into a mag well against a bolt, will give you the best of both worlds. Reliable magazines and the ability to load into your firearm without thought of the condition or readiness of the firearm. For more details on this subject, watch the video program linked below so Tom and Lenny can explain in more detail.

Watch the Gun Q&A Video: Why Should I Under Load my Magazines?

Ask Firearms Questions and Get the Answers on ATAC TV Firearms Channel 24/7 all for FREE!

Lenny Bolton, Venom Tactical, Custom Sniper Rifle, Cottonmouth

H&K USC Fail to Fire Malfunction Clearance

What do you do when you are pointed in at a target with your H&K USC Carbine, press the trigger and you get a click instead of a BANG!? Tom Clarke and Mark Flinn with ATAC TV Firearms Channel show you the correct technique to clear the Fail to Fire malfunction. There are usually only two reasons for this issue. You forgot to load the chamber when you inserted the magazine, or the cartridge in the chamber is faulty or “bad”. Either way, you meant to shoot at something, and need to fix this and get the firearm running fast.

Here is the Clearance for Fail to Fire:

• You get a click, trigger finger goes straight to reference point on frame.
• Support hand moves to and pushes the magazine into the well and pulls out to make sure the magazine is seated.
• Support hand then moves to cocking lever, pulling the lever back till it stops and releases the cocking lever allowing the recoil spring to close the bolt.
• Back on sights and target.

This is an easy malfunction clearance, but most people do not train these movements to become proficient in the clearance. Train like your life may depend on it, because someday it might? Are you going to win or lose?

Watch Now: H&K USC Fail to Fire Malfunction Clearance

AtacTv.com is a free source for Raw, Unscripted Firearm Training.  Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, it’s Free!

Robert Drysdale is a Master in Jiu Jitsu, explains the types of basic guards, open, butterfly, sitting up, half guard. Also in this program Rob goes into north south position, mount, low mount with grapevine, high mount, lateral mount, front headlock transitioning to turtle guard and take back seat belt guard. A ton of information packing into a short program! Check out the ATACTV MMA Channel!

WATCH VIDEO HERE

AtacTV.com is a free online video source for raw, unscripted reality Mixed Martial Art Training. All programs are Free, anytime 24×7