iCarryUtah – Firearms and Utah Concealed Carry

I was originally going to avoid posting anything about this incident, but I have learned enough details about the shooting incident in California that I have to.  Please read this very carefully.  This has to change.

On Sunday 29-August-2010, Bishop Clay Sannar was shot and killed in an LDS meetinghouse (Church) in Visalia, CA.

The shooter was Kenneth Ward.  He was a former member of the LDS Church.

He walked in between meetings and asked to see a leader or Bishop.

He went into the Bishops office with Bishop Sannar and shot him in the foot.

HE THEN DRAGGED HIM OUT OF THE OFFICE AND INTO THE HALLWAY WHERE HE SHOT HIM IN THE HEAD IN FRONT OF WITNESSES FROM THE CONGREGATION.

Because those witnesses were unarmed and did not have a prepared mindset, they simply looked on as it happened.

Gordon B Hinckley decided on a POLICY (not a DOCTRINE)  prohibiting firearms in LDS Houses of Worship in the State of Utah.  They had the law modified to allow for this.  The LDS Church is the ONLY Church that does this.  They discourage the practice in all LDS Meetinghouses outside of Utah.

We have had one sister in Utah killed because no one there had a firearm and was prepared to act.

We have now had this incident in which a good man was dragged like a sheep to the slaughter in front of his congregation.

IT IS TIME FOR THIS POLICY TO BE REVERSED IMMEDIATELY.

I call on President Thomas S. Monson to reverse this policy and permit licensed and trained Concealed Firearm Permit holders to carry in any and all LDS houses of worship.

I know he has armed bodyguards in attendance when he is in the Temple, the holiest of places for LDS members.  He takes that precaution when he is in that place where only good-standing Mormons may go.  Yet we have had crazy people rush in to them before, and threaten those inside.  LDS Meetinghouses are far more common and far more accessible.

Personally, I never carried while in the Temple, but before the law went into effect I did carry up to the locker room in the Temple.  I never felt the need to go beyond with a firearm.  But as I said, LDS Meetinghouses are far more common and far more accessible.

If they are worried about accidents, this can be taken care of very simply.

If you are carrying a firearm, keep it on your person and under your control at all times.

If you have children, keep them under control.

Situation solved.

How many more must die before this POLICY will be reversed?  In both of these cases, an armed and trained member might have been able to help.  At least it would have given them a fighting chance.

God and Angels did not step in and intervene in these two shootings.  It seems clear to me that God would expect us to do our best to take care of ourselves.

Please.  President Monson.  Give us that chance.

The EPA announced late yesterday that they are not considering the ammunition ban portion of the request discussed in my previous blog entry. They are – however – considering the request to ban fishing sinkers.

You can read their press release here…http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/48D939B5009411038525778C00768006

In this was a clear example of the incrementalism that our foes love to employ. They openly admitted that they could not ban ammo, but hoped that they could ban the components to make it.  They tried to find a loophole (having the EPA regulate components that go into ammo instead of the ammunition itself), but in this case they failed.

At the very least the EPA honored the bounds of their authority. We have to be vigilant to make sure that this remains the case.  I’ll keep you updated if anything new happens on this.

A group of organizations have recently asked the EPA to ban all “Lead Fishing Sinkers and Ammunition Components” – using the 1976 Toxic Substance Control Act – which EXEMPTED these items at the time.  They want the government to take MORE control and to make shooting virtually impossible.

The organizations in question are…

• CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
• AMERICAN BIRD CONSERVANCY
• ASSOCIATION OF AVIAN VETERINARIANS
• PROJECT GUTPILE
• PUBLIC EMPLOYEES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY

You can view their complete petition here.  I thought the “lead poisoned” Bald Eagle on the cover was an especially sick touch.  I’d love to see an independent autopsy on that bird to verify the cause of death.

The important thing is that the EPA is taking public comments on this topic.  I’d recommend ALL of our readers contact the EPA and request that they DENY this petition.  You can do so by clicking HERE and typing your comment in the box on the right side of the form.

Please don’t give up your rights.  Fight for them.  In this case, you can do so by sending your comments to the EPA.  You can also e-mail Lisa Jackson (Administrator of the EPA) by sending her a note at jackson.lisa@epa.gov

I’d also recommend that you contact your elected representatives and let them know.  You can easily do so by clicking HERE.

Get involved, and preserve your rights and freedoms.  This is an active fight against those that would take them away.

I try to keep a good list of places to shoot for my students.  In Northern Utah it’s pretty much Impact Guns at either their Ogden or Salt Lake City locations, Rangemasters in Springville (Utah County), or finding a SAFE area away from other shooters west of Utah Lake – which is becoming more and more difficult.

In Southern Utah (St. George area), there aren’t any indoor ranges.  I’d really love to see that resolved, but I have customarily recommended heading out South and West on Navajo Road (west of Bloomington) and going down by the Arizona Strip.  It’s nice to be able to go out whenever you want.

This last weekend I was down there and wanted to verify the zero on an XPS 3-0 on a PS90.  I had moved the position of the optic which meant I needed to get it zeroed back in. We were in the Hurricane, UT area, and decided to check out the Southern Utah Shooting Sports Park.  I found their website and it turned out that they were open on Friday morning.

The Southern Utah Shooting Sports Park (SUSSP) is located by Quail Creek Reservoir, at the Fairgrounds off of Highway 9.  Just turn right at the Driver’s License office and keep going straight past the fairgrounds.  There are signs to direct you.

There are actually several venues there – including the rifle and pistol range, a sporting clay shooting range, a cowboy action range, a tactical range, and an archery range.  Each one seems to operate on an independent schedule, and on this trip we visited the rifle and pistol range.

It’s a controlled range with at least one RSO.

When we got there, we got signed in quickly and got a lane.

For those of you from the SLC area – this is NOTHING like the controlled range at the Lee Kay Center.

They had shooters on the line firing everything from a black powder rifle, Ruger 10/22’s and defensive caliber pistols to AR-15’s and my PS90.  Everyone is welcome and they were very nice people.

For those of you not familiar with the Lee Kay Center, it’s an outdoor controlled range just west of Salt Lake City.  It’s primary focus is Hunter Safety Education.  The people that work there have a (deserved) reputation for being very unfriendly to people shooting non-hunting arms and pistols.  It has been often reported that they make derogatory comments about anyone shooting anything they consider to be non-hunting related such as AR-15’s, AK-47’s, FAL’s, etc.

Even though they have a pistol range at Lee Kay, they do not permit firing more than one round every couple of seconds.  I interviewed some of their folks a few years back, and they openly stated that…

“There is no legitimate reason for anyone other than the police or military to practice “double taps” or any other rapid firing.”.

I hope none of them are ever in a defensive shooting situation.  If they practice what they preach, they may not survive the encounter.  I haven’t been there since that interview, but I hear from folks all the time that say it hasn’t changed.

Enough about those people.  Let’s get back to the GREAT experience at the Southern Utah Shooting Sports Park.

There are plenty of lanes, and they are equipped from 100 to 200 yards.  They have target stands, sandbags, and well marked ranges out to 25 yards, with longer distances marked as well and longer-range target stands available.  When they call for – and have established – a “cold range”, you are free to position your target stand wherever you need to.

Once everyone is off the range and they go hot, you are free to load and fire.  They use the NRA standards for range safety, and did a good job of it.

I positioned myself at the bench and used that to steady myself as I sighted it in.  I dialed it in over about 15 shots, and then went to town.  I made a few minor adjustments and had it right on the 1 MOA dot at about 20 yards.  I fired a few rapid sequences alternating between two 8″ Shoot-N-C targets and had no issues with the RSO.

During the next cold range, I placed two more 8″ targets out there, and at the start of the next hot range period I fired off some slow shots into the 1 3/8″ Shoot-N-C dots I placed around the 8″ targets.  I was able to hit each with 1 shot.

I then fired 50 as fast as I could into the top target.  All 50 were inside that 8″ circle.  I consider that very effective for the intended purpose of the PS90.  The RSO was looking on, and when I was done he was smiling and said “It looks like you have it dialed in just right”.  I had to agree.

If you are looking for a place to practice your shooting skills in the Hurricane, UT area, I recommend that you check out the Southern Utah Shooting Sports Park.  It’s a fantastic facility run by some great, professional people.  They are open Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 08:00 to 12:00.  They are also open on Wednesday from 17:00 to 20:00.  Their hours change seasonally, so check out their website at http://sussp.net/public/index.html

As some of you may be aware, I have been working on a big project for JeepGunner.com covering home defense.  We are going to start producing videos as well as technical articles, and I’m kicking off the series with our recommendations on Home Defense.

Good home defense includes having good, functional locks on all outside-leading doors and windows, lighting to make your home less inviting to the bad guys, and a working alarm system with contacts on all outside-leading doors and windows.  Keeping that alarm system armed when you are home (in the home mode, disabling any interior motion detectors) will give you advance warning of any intruders if they make it past the physical defense layer.

Think about it.  If an alarm is blaring and alerting you and your neighbors to an intruder, are they likely to stick around?  It’s a sure bet that if they do, they have more than a simple home burglary in mind.

Most folks consider the shotgun to be the end-all-be-all of home defense.  It’s true that at close range they are generally quite devastating.  However, they also have a number of drawbacks.  There is one big one to keep in mind.

Remember…

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERY PROJECTILE THAT LEAVES YOUR FIREARM.

While shotguns may indeed allow you to hit a target more easily without a good sight picture – they do so by firing multiple projectiles at a time.  YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERY PROJECTILE THAT LEAVES YOUR FIREARM.  That includes every pellet from your shotgun.

I hear a lot of rumors and crap on the Internet about “bird shot won’t go through walls but it will destroy an intruder” or “if the shot goes through the wall it won’t penetrate skin”.

You need to keep in mind that what you see on television – and a lot of what you read on the Internet – is FANTASY.  This was again driven home at work this week when I was trying to dispel this myth to a customer.  Two gentlemen were standing nearby, and they were nodding in agreement as I educated this gentleman on the reality of home defense.  I thought they looked familiar.  It turned out that they were the Editors of another publication that I had met at the SHOT SHOW a couple of years ago in the Press Room.  They chimed in their agreement, and he started getting the idea.

The outer walls of houses are made of siding (often plastic or thin metal), plywood, fiberglass insulation, and drywall.  These things, even put together, will not stop rifle rounds.  Plywood has a better chance of stopping bird shot, but drywall will not stop it.

DRYWALL WILL NOT STOP BULLETS, AND WON’T STOP MOST SHOTGUN AMMO.

So, while you are tearing apart the bad guy, the pellets that miss him are going to hit whatever is in their path.  Maybe nothing.  Maybe your kids in their room.  Maybe your neighbors home.  Maybe the car in your driveway or across the street.  Whatever they hit, you just bought.

I had some exposure to the FN P90 earlier this year.  It’s designed as a personal defensive firearm, is fully automatic, and is perfect for protective details and home defense.  There are rounds for it that are devastating, yet limit over-penetration.  However, being fully automatic, short-barreled, and made after 1986, there is no chance for anyone other than law enforcement agencies or the military to own them.

However, FN does make the PS90.   It has a longer barrel, and is semi-automatic only.  And to learn more about why we recommend it highly for home defense, you will need to check out this upcoming series from JeepGunner.com.  We have one we are testing, and so far it has proven that it has what we feel you need.

You can even get them from Impact Guns – unless you live in California.   Just enter PS90 into the search bar.