Comments on: Survival Shotguns: Not Just for CQB

By: Tanstaafl

Tanstaafl — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 09:05:44 +0000

Scott Wagner is evidently who he says he is. His opinion carries some weight, not only because of his career in law enforcement, but because he’s backing up his words with his name and reputation. He has also been quite polite and civil in his response to you.

Who the hell are you? Had I been moderating this exchange I would have been tempted to delete your comments and ban you from the site. The use of ‘all-caps’ and excessive exclamation points is like raising your voice in conversation to try to make a point. After a little of that your position has lost all credibility. But feel free to continue to hide behind your anonymity. For all we know you could be a fourteen year-old airsoft ‘fan-boy’. If you are an adult, please try to behave like one. If you do own any firearms, please consider getting some training. Maybe enroll in an anger management course while you’re at it.

Sincerely, Scott Hicks
Oakland, California

By: swagner59

swagner59 — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 02:24:36 +0000

If Hunter480 had taken a bit of time to look at my background information, listed at the end of my post, he might have seen that I have had 32 years of experience as a cop dealing in interpersonal confrontations with difficult people. Different people require differing forms of control,ranging from taking verbal control, through all levels of physical control techniques, which includes baton, OC and Teargas Sprays, Taser and oh, yes, firearms-(handgun, shotgun, full-automatic assault rifle, and sniper rifle). In all these areas except for the sniper rifle, I am a state certified instructor.I am also certified to train in-service officers and recruits in the overall application of force against others. The police shotgun, and for that matter, patrol rifle, is carried cruiser ready in condition three-slide forward, hammer down,safety OFF, chamber empty, magazine full as basically a nationally standardized method for law enforcement. It is kept in the locked cruiser rack or case this way. Once pulled out, it becomes the fastest and safest firearm there is to deploy on a suspect. It may be pointed at a suspect in complete safety initially, and as the situation escalates, it can, in a split second, be brought to full ready condition one, by activating the pump action, which chambers a round. THE SAFETY IS LEFT OFF, until such time that the action begins to settle down, then it may be applied, which brings the shotgun into condition two for the moment, then returned to conditon one or three as needed. Condition four is empty. Having had the experience at actually pointing the shotgun at difficult people, and chambering a round from condition three does indeed garner the attention of the person it is being pointed at. I said the sound of the slide being operated and chambering a round is INTIMIDATING. Nowhere did I say that I expected the criminal or attacker to flee. My job, again for 32 years, has been to CAPTURE or subdue the criminal at gunpoint, not have them run and just walk away. Hunter480 is right about one thing. Deadly force is not a game. When we deploy deadly force against an opponent, we deploy it as soon as we draw a weapon and point it at another person. Many agencies require a “Use of Force” report simply by doing that. Moving forward with that level of force will at the least, assuming that an officer is not injured, unleash a cascade of paperwork, interviews, visits with psychiatrists, department investigators, prosecutors, and perhaps personal physicians to deal with the ensuing stress.
Hunter480 may want to slow down a bit and do a couple of things before writing responses to blogs by people who have some background in their topic. First, take a look at the background of the author and second read and reflect more accurately on what was said. The purpose of blogs is to disseminate information and discuss topics. It might be a nice thing to try.

By: hunter480

hunter480 — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 22:05:43 +0000

3.The appearance of survival shotguns are worth noting. They are large bore, and the sound of a pump action being operated has always been intimidating to the bad guys.

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Survival, lethal force is NOT a game, it is NOT a B-movie!!!!!!! You do NOT rack the slide of your shotgun, expecting to make a criminal/attacker flee. If you find yourself, in the unfortunate situation of the need to use deadly force, you already have a round racked, you flip off the safety, and you END THE THREAT, IMMEDIATELY.

I have no idea why this ignorant notion is still out there, but it`s foolish, and more than likely, a deadly mistake.