Show #43 - Special guest Dave Skinner from STI

[Marshal Halloway]

This week on DOWN RANGE Radio, our exclusive interview with STI International President Dave Skinner on what this innovative company will be taking to the SHOT SHOW. Bane also ponders the rise of the 9mm 1911 "mini-gun" — a trend he favors — and bids good-bye to Presidential candidate Fred Thompson, who dropped out of the race for President this week.

http://www.downrange.tv/radio/43.htm

[karlrehn]

Michael makes some comments about carry methods, action types and his perception of what is "safe" in gun design near the end of show #43 that are just flat wrong.  First he advocates putting a carry gun "loose" inside a bag or a briefcase or coat pocket. This is a BAD idea for many reasons.  Start with bad tactics: if you need the gun you will need it quickly and not knowing exactly where it is within the pocket or the bag requires you to take your attention away from the threat and waste time fumbling for the gun.  There is a whole subsection of the industry that makes off body carry gear and pocket holsters to provide people that don't use holsters with options that put the gun at a consistent position, with the trigger guard covered.  Carrying the gun with the trigger guard exposed is risky. It is surprising that someone with so much experience is publicly admitting to this unsafe and tactically poor practice. A cheapo holster and some adhesive velcro can be used to make a safe gun 'pouch' in almost any bag, briefcase, backpack, etc for those too cheap to buy something made for that purpose. 

Perhaps even more disturbing is his statement that he considered "cocked and locked" mechanically unsafe compared to hammer down, safety off carry.  A cocked and locked 1911 has multiple safeties preventing the gun from firing: grip safety, thumb safety and for Series 80 models, a firing pin safety.  Guns carried hammer down - particularly those that only have a trigger mounted safety - are EXTREMELY dangerous to carry "loose" because anything that snags in the trigger guard will cause the gun to fire. 

The solution to both problems is simple: NEVER carry a pistol "loose" without something to hold it in a consistent place, with the trigger guard covered, whether that's in the pants, in a pocket or off body. 

FYI the audio on this particular podcast was bad. Skinner's responses were at way lower levels than Michael's for most of the show which made it very difficult to listen to.  I know you are producing multiple shows per week but there should be some production quality control on what goes out.  Could have been fixed by running the whole show through a compressor with some front end gain, if going through the show with a digital audio editor to boost individual responses was too much work.

Overall the shows are entertaining and informative but please think about what you are putting out there since people are prone to assuming that what they hear and read is "good advice" and good practices.