New Fight/New Gear

June 21, 2010 | Category: Jim Shepherd | By: Jim Shepherd

Seems there’s a knife fight brewing between New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and knife owners infuriated over his so-called sting operation against knives he classified as “illegal gravity knives”.

Seems statement claiming seven of fourteen New York dealers have removed folding knives from their shelves and forfeited any sales profits from earlier sales, might not be anymore accurate than Vance’s description of what constitutes an “illegal” knife.

In fact, we’re told by Doug Ritter at Knife Rights (www.kniferights.org) that some of the knives Vance used in a show-and-tell presser last week are legal in New York – with a federal court opinion (United States v Irizarry) that affirms their legality.

That ruling was issued by one of the federal judiciary’s most vehement anti-gunners, Senior Federal District Judge Jack Weinstein after Mr. Irzarry purchased a folding utility knife essentially identical to the Husky folding utility knives shown as examples of “illegal gravity knives” by Vance and was arrested on a knife possession charge by the NYPD.

In his ruling, Weinstein wrote: “The prevalence of this instrument and its everyday use by law abiding mechanics makes unreasonable any inference of illegal activity drawn merely from the observation of such an instrument clipped in an individual’s pocket.”

In fact, Weinstein continued, “…the instrument which defendant had in his possession is a common tool. Its open possession is the equivalent of a carpenter carrying a hammer or an individual in the street carrying a cellular phone. The law cannot define as criminals tens of thousands of mechanics who are required to carry such tools in order to earn a living. Claw hammers, used by carpenters, can be used to smash skulls, screwdrivers, used by electricians, can be used to stab bodies and wall board cutters can be used to cut jugular veins, but those are not the intended or designed for uses of such instruments.”

(The full ruling is available at www.KnifeRights.org/USvIRIZARRY.pdf )

Looks like there may be a (bad pun alert) knife fight brewing. And the NY DA may not be carrying enough blade to pull this one off.

Just another reason why we should all be supporting the Knife Rights organization. Ritter and his group are regularly fighting politicians and law enforcement officials with considerably deeper pockets. After all, they’re spending OUR money.

But it’s not all strife and conflict today. This spring, we’ve had some new items come through our hands we believe have made a positive impact on our shooting.

First, Remington’s pushing it as an accessory item for their 1911R1, but the Remington 1911 multi-tool might be one of the best items we’ve seen in some time for 1911 shooters.

The test of a tool is seeing it in use. Here, Tiger McKee uses the Remington 1911 tool to work on an essential part of every 1911- the magazine. He got everything running with the tool, but seemed a bit reluctant to give it back.

It carries a multiplicity of the usual pocket tool items, in addition to some specific tools designed to help you work on a 1911 pistol.

Like any good tool, this one’s not inexpensive, looks like it will be in the $50 -55 MSRP range.

And finally, we’ve all come to realize that lasers on firearms help with quick target acquisition. But what about using a laser to help with front sight acquisition?

For the past few weeks, I have been using a Pistol Laser Trainer Pro from Laserlyte and I think it’s been very helpful to correcting what had been some pretty spotty shooting on my part.

It's small enough to fit snugly in the barrel of your favorite handgun. But it goes a long way toward showing you where you're really aiming - and how much you're waving around your handgun.

The PLTP uses an adjustable arbor and spacer system (like their boresighters) to get a sung fit in 9mm, .40 S&W, .45ACP, 38.Spl, .380 Auto, .357, .357 Sig, 10mm, and .45 Colt barrels. Essentially, it inserts a small laser and sound sensor down the barrel of any of those calibers with a two inch or longer barrel.

When the pistol is dry fired, the sound activated switch causes a laser beam to be activated for 100-milliseconds – essentially a simulated bullet impact.

Pay attention to the where the beam winds up and and you'll find yourself a better shooter.

Having limited time and budget for training actual range sessions, I’ve used the Laser Trainer Pro to help me concentrate acquiring a good sight picture before dry firing. When I squeeze the trigger, I know where my shot would have impacted.

Initially, shots were breaking off the mark. After practice, I learned to get on my sights faster and press through my triggers rather than my tendency to guess at the sight and “slap” the trigger in an attempt to shoot faster.

It gave a definite feedback as to where my shots are going based on my bad technique. That enabled me to use a basic handgun diagnostic target to identify my tendency to hold my pistol with the front sight down.

When I started consistently leveling my pistol, shots went into the center of the target, not low center. If you’re shooting steel plates (I learned the hard way at the Bianchi Cup) low hits do not always cause the targets to fall.

One complaint- if you leave the batteries in place, they’re going to be dead the next time you try to use it. There’s no case to hold the device- but a simple zip lock top plastic bag (snack size even) more than does the job. There was a transparent plastic spacer that could be used to keep the batteries from making contact, but it was transparent plastic and, I lost it.

The MSRP on the Laser Trainer Pro is $99.95 and includes your first set of batteries. Buy spares.

Jim Shepherd

www.shootingwire.com