Free For All Friday 9-26-2014: Ankles, Gun Fit and Shooting with a Cane…
I worked for a couple of Dot-Bombs back in the day. For those not familiar with the term, there was a big industry growth in the 90’s where tech and internet companies were given absurd amounts of investment money to come out with stupid websites that never had important words like “profit” appear in their business plans. A large percentage of these “dot-coms” went belly up in hilarious ways which earned the name “dot-bomb”. Once such company I worked for was one of the first completely online banks. It had no branches or ATMs and was about 10 years too early. Even those who were knowledgeable about the internet at the time didn’t trust the internet (and the smart people today still don’t) and didn’t like the idea of putting all their money in with a digital bank.
Anyway, you know that phrase “just enough knowledge to be dangerous”? This place had an amazing in-house datacenter (the “datacenter” is where all the servers sit). They spared no expense and this thing was so well put together that they should have taken a photo, framed it and sold it as a work of art. As such, anytime any of the reps wanted to impress potential investors, they would give them a tour of the datacenter because even to an untrained person, it was that spectacular. Now, one day while I was there, the VP of marketing was giving a tour to some bigwigs who showed up in a Bentley. At some point prior to this tour, who knows how long ago, this VP was either told or overheard at network administrator talking about “hot swap drives”. A hot swappable drive means that, after going through a certain (and very specific) process, a failed drive can be removed and replaced without powering down the server or losing the data. In an attempt to impress these Bentley driving checkbooks, the VP said something to the effect of “and you can even remove the drives while the computer is running” and before anyone could stop him, yanked the main drive out of the most important server in the room.
Now, a while back I spoke of disaster planning and how there comes a point where you have to stop because there’s no way to plan for every eventuality. In this case, no one ever figured that someone would just yank the main drive out of the most important server in the room. Keep in mind, there are quite a few steps one must do before one can “safely” remove a hot swappable drive. Failure to do so can have disastrous and permanently damaging results to the drive and the server itself. The network went down. It went down hard. The website flat out stopped. Everyone in the office stopped being able to work. The main server was fried. Network alarms were going off left and right and the beeper (yes, beepers) on every netadmins’ belt was flashing with the code “911” as even the automated notification system knew the apocalypse had just happened. Due to some events there were also hilarious in hindsight, there were no spare parts available (genius management decision of “let’s either sell off or repurpose these spare parts sitting around because it’s a waste of money to not use them). All in all, it was well over 12 hours before the minimal skeleton of the network came back online and a couple of days before it was back to 100%. The 40+ year old VP wasn’t fired but he left the CEO’s office crying that day and there were only 4 people who were ever allowed to be inside the datacenter ever again. Even the CEO barred himself from being able to enter, as a precaution. The IT budget was also doubled to implement a failover site in another state so that if this place got flattened the site wouldn’t go down. Why do I tell this story? Because I think it’s hilarious and there are multiple lessons to be learned from it. Someday I’ll tell you the story about when the know it all manager spilled his coffee on a $200,000+ stack of servers. Fun times.
Oh wait, it’s Friday. There are questions…
I want to get an ankle holster for my derringer. What do you recommend. I pocket carry my primary gun. -Fred S.
Full disclosure: I would never recommend ankle carry or a derringer for your primary defense. The “something is better than nothing” rule always applies, of course, but neither of those two options are idea for your main defense choice. As a backup to use in case your main gun breaks? That’s a whole other story. Brand-wise, Galco makes some of the best ankle holsters out there and you can get them for a variety of guns. I’ve seen them for sale at Gander Mountain and Bass Pro Shops and, of course, online.
How to tell if a firearm ‘fits’ or not. -Kurt S.
First and foremost, comfort is key. Can you grip is securely? Can you reach the controls without having to twist your hand into some crazy configuration (a small amount of adjustment of grip to reach the controls is perfectly fine)? Gun companies spend a lot of money on ergonomics and such so many guns are going to feel good. The difference in hand size and shape, however, means that some guns are going to feel noticeably better in your hand. Finally, take a look at the gun’s natural point. Having a gun whose aim matches up with your body’s aim is a huge advantage. We did an article on just this subject a while back. Check it out here for more details.
Got any advice for concealed carry while physically disabled? My wife recently had her second surgery to correct a broken foot from 9 years ago. Neither surgery helped much and she is now forced to walk with a cane, which seems like a major obstacle for CC. Any suggestions? -Mike H.
The good news is, requiring a cane isn’t the end of the world. The bad news is, it’s going to require a bit more work. In the interest of conserving text, I’m going to continue under the assumption that your wife (or anyone else reading this with a similar problem) is right handed. If you’re left handed, just reverse the stuff. The first requirement is that you get proficient with shooting one handed. That’s not as hard as it sounds. You won’t be able to fire as quickly, mind you, but with a little work you’ll quickly build up the strength to deal with it. Having a lighter gun or one with a smaller round (which means less recoil) makes a big difference in accuracy here. That’s the first bit of practice you’ll need.
Secondly, doctors recommend you use a cane on the same side as the good leg. With that in mind, if you’re right handed and you’ve hurt your right leg, that’s not as much of an issue as your left hand will be the one holding the cane. If that’s the case, simply learning to draw and fire one handed is your only worry. If, on the other hand, you are right handed and you’ve hurt your left leg, things get a bit funkier. This means that your strong hand is going to be occupied holding the cane. Now you’re going to have to shoot with your weak hand. The bright side is, this isn’t nearly as bad as you would expect. Pretend you’re learning from the first time again and start off slowly then work your way up. Let your body and mind get comfortable with the new configuration. After a couple of hours, you should be arguably comfortable. After a couple more range trips, you should be at your normal skill. Then it’s time to start drawing and firing with your weak hand. It goes without saying that dry fire practice is infinitely beneficial in this situation and will only help you get that comfort level faster.
Also, it helps to seek out guns that are ambidextrous friendly. Some guns have full time ambi-controls and others let you swap the location most (if not all) of your controls.
Thanks for the questions!
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