Author: Kim du Toit

Breaking The Index

Self-Defense, The Gun Thing

I’m talking about yesterday’s post, and more specifically about this EwwChoob mini-video (which you should watch now if you haven’t already, because otherwise what follows may be incomprehensible).

As everyone here knows, I’ve spent most of my life shooting the 1911 pistol — most often the Government model, but a great deal of the Officer’s and Combat Commander model as well.  There’s also been quite a bit of IDPA shooting, less so of competition, but mostly as training because I’ve always thought that IDPA is quite good practice for what one might encounter in a truly bad self-defense situation.

I am of course therefore well acquainted with the concepts of “indexing” (keeping the gun aligned with the shooting arm) and “breaking the grip”, i.e. moving the gun out of the “proper” firing hold — in this case, to reload magazines.

Let’s talk about that reloading thing for a moment.

While I have fairly beefy hands, my fingers are not especially long.  So my shooting grip looks like this (please excuse the crappy photography):

As you can see, my thumb isn’t long enough to reach the mag release at all — which means that in order to drop the empty mag, I have to break the grip:

Not only has the grip been compromised, but the handgun is no longer indexed to my arm, being pointed both off to the side and upwards.

Is this important?  No, it absolutely is not — because the only reason for indexing the gun and having a proper grip would be if I were about to pull the trigger, which I’m not, because I’m busy reloading.

Once the fresh mag has been inserted, my left hand immediately comes up to assume the combat hold, and it forces the gun back into the proper indexed position relative to my arm, and the grip back into the locked position for firing.

I have practiced this action countless thousands of times, both “dry” (i.e. with an unloaded gun and mag) and “hot” (fully loaded, in the act of actual shooting), and the operation is as flowing and mechanical as changing gears in a car with a manual transmission.

In other words, I can’t see what all the fuss is about.  Of course all the approved positions are going to be compromised while I’m reloading, but who cares?  As long as it all gets back to the proper upright and locked position* in time to fire the gun, everything’s fine and dandy.

Or have I missed something?  (If I have, it’s probably too late to change anything anyway — some habits are just too ingrained to change.)

* even my shooting position is not in the “popular” manner;  instead of locking my arm straight, I have my elbow slightly bent, in the manner of Jeff Cooper:


…because I’ve found that it makes it easier to shoot from cover, and quicker to reacquire the target from recoil.   YMMV.  (Caveat:  it’s not for everyone, so adopt with caution.)

I probably sacrifice some accuracy thereby, but not enough to concern me — I’m shooting combat/IDPA, not Bullseye FFS.

News Roundup

Bad News

You’ll need a martini too, after reading this lot.


...hey, they’ll try anything to get Angela Merkel to commit suicide.

In Billionaire Tech Wizard News:


...what bullshit.  a.) he’s trying to get sympathy from Lefties for palling up with DJT, or b.) he’s just another delusional Lefty like Whoopi Goldberg.  (I know:  embrace the power of “and”.)  Although maybe this had something to do with it:


...it should have been $25 billion, which may have made the androgynous little asshole take notice.


...says the guy who wants to coerce the whole world into being injected with experimental vaccines, and who’s wasted billions on trying to eliminate Third World hunger.

And speaking of insane shit:


...have they not yet realized that the world has changed since November 2024 and this bullshit ain’t gonna fly?  On the other hand, keyword:  Pennsylvania.

Speaking of a changing world:


...you don’t say.


...in the list of Things To Worry About, this probably ranks well below “millions of badgers raining from the skies”.

From the Dept. of Education:

...or does this just mean that minorities aren’t such good students, have lower graduation rates and therefore need disproportionate assistance to compete with Whitey?  Discuss.


...thus joining all the other universities in the world.


...only one hundred?  Talk about under-achievers.


...should have kept it to a carefully-vetted dozen.  But, Floriduh.

And of all those things we call 


...and the happy couple looks kinda like you’d think they would:

And as we drive down :


...and she’s using pictures rather than text to get her message across:

And that’s all the news under the sun.

Dept. Of Righteous Shootings

Righteous Shootings

A couple Readers sent me this most excellent report (thankee), and I’ve waited a while to see if there have been any developments since but so far, no luck.  Anyway, here we are:

Chicago police said the gunfight unfolded just before 5:30 a.m. in the 900 block of South Homan Avenue in Homan Square.

According to police, the victim, a 28-year-old man who was operating a garbage truck for Flood Brothers Disposal and Recycling Services, was outside of his truck in the area when he was approached by two men, a 42-year-old and a 20-year-old.

Officers said the two suspects then pulled out guns and announced the robbery, but the victim, who has a valid FOID and CCL opened fire on the would-be robbers.

Amid the shootout, the 42-year-old suspect suffered a gunshot wound to his head and was pronounced dead on the scene. The 20-year-old was shot in the neck and was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

Almost a twofer, but he came thisclose.

I have to say that as a one-time (and long-time) resident of that putrid city, all these Righteous Shootings bring a tear or two to my old eyes, because back when I lived there the only dead people in scenarios like this one were generally the innocent victims, prevented by law from being able to defend themselves.

That situation has now been reversed, and it’s A Damn Good Thing, say I.

Girls & Boys

Good Stuff, Seen On Campus

…just like they used to be.  From the Department of Common Sense (Title IX Division) comes this news:

Trump’s Dept of Education released a “dear colleague” letter to every school in the country, stating that the social experiment of “trans inclusive” facilities, sports, bathrooms, & scholarships is done. “Sex” under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is back to being interpreted as male & female, as it always was.

The Department relies on a recent federal court ruling vacating the rule & indicating that the rewrite violated civil rights, administrative, & constitutional law.

My favorite part:

Any school, recipient, college that doesn’t comply with the directive could lose federal funding.

Keep rolling back the Leftist lunacy, folks;  we ain’t tired of it yet.

And when you’re done undoing, close the whole fucking department down.