Crime Plummets After QuikTrip Stores Add Good Guys with Guns
Awr Harkins
QuikTrip convenience stores added good guys with guns in Wichita, Kansas, and the results were so good that they are expanding the program to stores in other areas.
The NRA noted, “After implementing the new strategy at its Wichita, Kansas locations and seeing success, QuikTrip, the massive gas station and convenience store chain said it would expand the policy to other stores.”
KWCH reports that the good guys with guns will be armed security, but QuikTrip also left the door open to armed clerks in situations where the clerks “have previous experience and necessary licenses.”
QuikTrip stores in Tulsa will soon get good guys with guns, as those stores are the targets of repeated crime.
KTUL spoke with QuikTrip’s Mike Thornbrugh about adding good with guns in the Tulsa area. He said, “The police and sheriff’s department has bent over backwards to help us, and we really appreciate it. But there’s simply not enough of them to make a dent. That’s where the armed employees come in.”
Imagine my surprise. The rest of the article may be found at Breitbart News
Category: Guns
Houston had “shotgun squads” back in the 90s. They got cancelled because they were blasting too many poor disadvantaged youths that were getting ready to turn their lives around.
Well, they only got one guy to take the dirt nap. They disbanded because the police chief thought it was unfair.
NYC “stakeout unit” was another anti-bandit effort, rather successful. That success in defeating armed robbers led to outcry, thus to its demise. But while operational, it was a major deterrent.
Once upon a time in my first go-round of college, there was a little convenience store just off campus. It was on a busy intersection, and two blocks away were some really low-end projects and streecorner chemical vendors.
Naturally, it got robbbed frequently.
After one series of thugs robbed it several times in one day, the owner said “enough” and dropped off his pair of 12gage side-by-side shotguns with the clerk. The one was kept in the back, handy for the back room worker. The other hung on the film rack next to the cashier, broken open with two rounds of buckshot chambered, ready to hand.
Like “grab, snapclosed, snapshot” ready. Wouldn’t even have to lift it to the shoulder to get a robber.
Not -one- robbery, not even a -hint- of one, for the next three years.
When the store was sold and the franchise rules changed as a result, the corp-boss typessaid “no guns” and the robberies resumed.
Go figure.
Back in the ’70s, one of my college acquaintances was working at a stop-n-rob. Due to laws & such he could not have a modern firearm with him, so he had a blackpowder revolver under the counter.
A young man “jus’ fixin’ to turn his lif’ aroun'” came in an pointed a gun at him. He pulled out the blackpowder pistol, and a cloud of smoke later the perp was headed for a dirt nap.
Collge bud may have lost his summer job, but he came back to school that Fall.
Blasted a dindu with a black powder revolver? Wow, that’s classy!
“I’ll make ya famous!”
That had to have been a heck of a conversation with the responding cops. “You shot him with a what?”
A black powder revolver will kill you graveyard dead. Various calibers available and not classified as “guns” in many areas. May be an option for the TAH Lioness since her area has such weird laws and such. Have several in .36, .44, .45 calibers. Very accurate, PITA to load, and you have to unload/fire and reload to ensure the powder/caps are still good. Well, that is I had those, till the tragedy of the tornado/flood.
Yes, they are a PITA to load. But they are such fun to shoot!! I’m actually more accurate with my .44 Pietta 1851 Navy replica revolver than with my modern handguns. My youngest calls it my 5/30 gun – it takes 5 minutes to load and 30 seconds to shoot.
They do tend to encourage deliberate aim, reloads being minutes, not seconds.
My Dragoon is an instant hit on range day. Nothing else sounds like 45 grains of blackpowder.
One better, my BIL had a kit built .50cal ball ammo single shot percussion cap pistol. Looked like it came from a pirate movie. What fun to shoot, although after five or six rounds the barrel needed scrubbed out with a wire brush. There was a distinct pause between pulling the trigger and the thing firing, and the recoil was mild. Sweet shooter, too. At 15 yards I was in the ten ring, standing free hand.
The obligatory cloud of gunsmoke was just bonus.
I have a pair of .45 flintlock pistols.
After I had fired each five times into a paper plate target at 25 meters, one handed, one of the other shooters said
“no one better insult -him-”
(Grin)
Another application of the principle that “Old, fat, and slow sometimes still gets the job done.”
A .44 mini with 25g of FFFg behind it has filled a lot of slots in Boot Hill over the years.
You should see the damage a .577 Snider does.
A soft 600gn Minie ball pushed by 75gn of FFg from a Carbine barrel will leave a foot sized exit wound, as well as setting the target on fire if you are close enough. My farmer(sheep and goats) neighbour donates his deadstock for ballistic testing. We both have a lot of fun!
Until the development of the .357 magnum, 44 cap & ball was the most powerful handgun in the world. So it was related to me.
Sorry, .45 Colt holds that honor. No need to bore everyone to death with the numbers.
Me, I prefer the 1858 Remington or 1860 Army. For real fun, .45 Colt loaded with black is best. .44 Special with black comes close.
I believe she is referring to the Colt Walker, specifically.
It was loaded with either a 44 roundball, at about 145 grains weight or a 200 grain conicle slug.
And either one was driven by -60- grains of FFFg black powder. Velocity was well supersonic.
That load outclassed all other repeating handguns in energy until the advent of the .357 magnum, which drove a 158 grain slug a bit faster.
The Colt 1873 “Peacemaker”, while quite powerful, wins on -momentum- mass times velocity, where the Walker won on -energy-, mass times velocity squared. The Peacemaker had far less kinetic energy than the Walker.
Note also that only early military .45 Colt loads were full charge. They added a cork filler to drop the charge down from 40 to 30 grains, to reduce recoil, which was -fierce-.
So the assertion about the capguns is correct, provided one is referring to the .44 Walker, which was in fact the repeating sidearm energy king until the .357 Magnum.
Thank you,.44 Walker is a cap gun. I am not a “She”. My ship at one time was the USS Saratoga CV60 “Sara”, I was a Snipe on board her. I prefer the Ruger Old Army.
600,000 dead in the 1861-1865 war prove black powder matters.
I’m glad to see this. I hope Mr. Swallowswell drops in at one of these stores while he’s campaigning for California votes in Kansas and has a hissy fit. And sits in it.
I have a question about GUNNSZZZ, which might find an answer here. With Spring weather starting (sometimes) early, I will be out on the trails with a camera a lot more than I have been (roads and bridges rebuilding and repairs are nearly done).
The coyote population is growing around here. I’m less concerned about other people on the trails than I am about coyotes because they aren’t hunted here, and have become nonfearful. And they don’t get rabies shots.
So would it be out of line to get a handgun to shoot it if it approaches me and won’t run when I start toward it. The ‘move toward the critter’ usually works because it’s running that triggers the ‘chase the prey’ instinct.
Just askin’, because while my small cat could probably take down an adult coyote with ease, she would probably have a speciesist complaint filed against her by the local pack. And they do hunt both singly and in packs in these parts.
Any wild critter that displays disease, or acts irrationally (lack of fear, etc), should be put down immediately, if for no other reason to stop the spread of whatever it has. The Department of Natural Resources or its equivalent should be notified to collect the critter for tests.
If you want to carry, and you should, get the required training and license before doing so.
And then there’s the horror of this:
https://www.foxnews.com/science/west-virginia-police-apprehend-a-racoon-drunk-off-of-fermented-crabapples
Nice. They’re enough trouble sober.
There is a cemetery in Chicago inhabited by raccoons that get fed by the idiots in that neighborhood. The coons are enormous. They weigh up to 65 pounds. And they show up at the fence for their “meals” because they know that the humans are stupid enough to fall for that ‘starving raccoon’ look.
The real problem is that raccoons don’t get distemper or rabies shots, and if they contract distemper, they become zombie raccoons. https://patch.com/illinois/chicago/fearless-zombie-raccoons-can-be-fatal-pets
I’m telling you, we’ve got it all here in the Midwest: zombie raccoons, cougars in the Loop (three years ago) coyotes hunting in the Loop in packs at night and scaring cab drivers to death.
I fully expect a parrot to land on my neighbor’s roof some day. And that’s possible because a cold-climate parakeet, the Monk parakeet from South America, lives in colonies on Chicago’s South Side. https://www.windycityparrot.com/blog/2017/07/12/at-last-the-secret-to-how-do-birds-stay-alive-during-winter-is-revealed/
It’s a strange, strange world we’re living in now.
The exotic reptiles and other critters loosed in south Florida are a whole nuther story.
Pythons, iguanas, and armored catfish that walk between puddles. And more…
Handguns are -handy- and provide the option to use one handed when needed. Long guns (rifles and shotguns) are less handy, and generally require two hands to be effective.
It is essential to understand the laws that apply on the trail, and encounter from home to there.
Federal and State parks can have -very- different rules. Know the applicable laws, or risk major legal hassle. Felony-level.
Personally, if the law allows, I -always- carry a sidearm when out on trails. The two legged varmits can be worse than the four-legged ones. Either way, a handgun can buy you the opportunity to go home again, undamaged.
Serviceable .357 Magnum revolvers can be acquired for fairly low cost, and are quite suitable for trail gun use. One can select a wide variety of ammunition from mild .38s to maxed-out .357, based on comfort and skill set. Almost any of it will suffice to deter all but the most determined or brain-addled varmit. And one does have six tries of it.
But back to the law, find out first. What is permissible?
Then address your own mind-set. Will you use it? If not, it is just something to lose, or surrender to some creep. Be certain, as much as one can before a critical event, that your game plan includes gunfire.
Then, learn to use it. Don’t just go shoot the thing. Find folks who can teach you how, and how -not- to use one for “social purposes”.
It is not a magic talisman. Properly done, it is a lifelong commitment to being a stable and reasoning person in a crunch, because no earthly power can call those little slugs back out of some wrongfully perforated person.
And one is -never- the same, having crossed that particular Rubicon of a gunfight, even if it is totally “righteous” and one is not arrested and charged. You -will- have to live with it.
^^Very sage advice^^
As for park laws, I was particularly stricken that guns were not allowed in Denali Natl Park. We were backcountry camping and had to have a 30 minute “How not to get eaten by our 1500lbs grizzlies” orientation before setting out. Also had to given them our planned route and a detailed description of out packs and gear, presumably for identifying our corpses. Had to have their approved bear-proof containers.
Only thing we couldn’t have? A gun. Not that anything short of a 12ga slug to the cranium would really put a grizzly down, but I’d have felt safer sleeping with a gun than with the can of pepper spray we could have.
I don’t think you’d be out of line at all. When I would go into the woods, when I could actually get out there, I would leave my 9mm at home and carry either my 1911 or .357 Magnum revolver.
For coyotes which have lost their fear of humans, a handgun may work – even a hit with a .22 can make a coyote decide to go elsewhere. A .380 may be nicer to have for 2-legged coyotes.
If you have the capacity to carry it along with the photog gear, a single-shot .410 shotgun with #7 birdshot can be easier to tag a moving critter with, and the noise is a definite deterrent without endangering too much of what is downrange.
I have seen a rig on guards for armored cars where they have a shorter-barreled (not “sawed off”) .410 hanging on their belt by a hook, easy to grab but reasonably out of the way. May be easier to work with than a 2-point sling.
For the 4-legged coyotes I don’t expect you to need much in the way of fire-power, unless rabies is an issue. Then the more lead you can put in the critter quickly, the better – IMHO. I’ve had rabies shots in my youth. Don’t really want to do that again.
Things have changed with rabies shots since your younger days, Graybeard. Now it’s four shots, over a two week period, given in the upper arm muscle.
A tetanus vaxx is painful enough, but it’s still a necessity.
And I’d fire into the ground first. If that didn’t deter a coyote and make it run, then it’s diseased.
Yeah, this was ’59/’60 in Venezuela. 21 daily injections in the lower abdomen will leave a child with a life-long aversion to needles.
Of course, back then (as I’m sure most of us here remember) the needles used were thicker-diametered reusable things on a glass-bodied syringe that needed resharpened from time to time. More than once I got stuck with a needle that had a barb on the point.
There are a lot of medical advancements for which I am grateful.
Works for me. Make the non-criminal customers feel safer, also. I, too, am surprised ‘disadvantaged yuts’ were somehow involved. Go figger.
Good to see. I’m sure it will make libtard heads go all ‘splodey. Got several of their stores in our AO, and a new truck stop sized one coming real soon. Some of the other retailers should look closer at it. Family Dollar Stores that are being built right and left in questionable hoods are getting robbed on an almost daily basis. Certain politicians were screaming that the ‘hoods were not being served and it was raciss. One of the store managers quietly chuckled when I asked if being robbed weekly was calculated in their annual budget. An armed society is a polite society. Pay no attention to the small framed, nondescript, and bespeckled gentleman buying snacky stuff, he’s harmless. (little dogs bite too, and their teeth are sharp)
https://youtu.be/uIy-CKvHoMk
Ex,
I would imagine getting a CCW (or whatever) in Illinois isn’t a *cough* walk in the park. In between finding that perfect hand gun* that “fits” there are other options to consider. Again, local laws permitting, pepper spray or a taser of some sort, while not optimal, would be among the choices available. I have what I fondly refer to as my ‘Convincer’ on my key chain. Its a 1″ steel ball wrapped in 550 cord, and is on an eight inch tether. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination. I also carry a knife, usually an auto-folder of some sort.
These are mostly contact weapons- pepper spray being the outlier. So for four footed critters carry a stout walking stick. This could be effective against the two footed kind, too. Don’t swing it like a ball bat, but jab at the softer spots. Thugs don’t want a fight, they want a victim.
Stay safe out there,
AW1
*I’m thinking something in .380 made by Ruger.
From personal experience: a solid center mass hit with +P 110 grain Silvertip from a J-frame.38 on a -big- standing-up rabid raccoon just pissed it off. It snarled a weird noise, dropped to all fours, and scurried about. My second shot on its next pause was brain, and decisive. The first one exited just off the spine, messily. I up-gunned to a .357 after that.
That raccoon might not have noticed a .380.
Despite not being hunted around here, coyotes are still critters that will normally react to being approached by running off. The sound of a round fired into the ground may also frighten them, as will yelling and acting aggressive toward them.
But: if they won’t run or start toward you, then they’re sick and neither pepper spray nor a tazer will stop them. That’s my point.
Kel Tec makes a good 380. It is my personal carry piece. It fits very nicely in my front pants pocket and is very accurate. I’ve put several hundred rounds through it with no problem. You’re right … Ruger also makes an excellent 380.
If I have to shoot what I think is a rabid animal … fox, raccoon, skunk, etc., I’m shooting that thing until it stops moving. I’m too fat and old to run. I can just imagine that thing lunging at me.
As above, be safe. Around animals but especially around people. I very rarely make eye contact with others any longer. Too many immature whackos who might take offense to it. Nowadays, many people feel it a sign of disrespect and have to act aggressively to ‘prove their manhood’ or some such crap.
You had a gun in your pocket?
Gee, I could have sworn…. 🙂
Left yourself wide open for that one, Chief.
Get a bond Arms derringer..maybe a .410/.45 long colt? would stop most anything imo
Have you ever fired one of those “derringers”? I have. The trigger is -not- nice. Some folks, like small handed ladies, can’t pull it at all it is so lawyered-up heavy. The recoil is also way out of whack for most shooters. -not- suitable for a first gun. No way.
That .45 round in a decent revolver is controllable, and the trigger will be useful and controllable.
The .410 shot loads are -way- less effective than a slug. The birdshot loads are for sparrows, not preadators. Number four buck is the reasonable minimum for Coyote, four leg or two.
They’ve fixed the trigger issue, 11B. Firing a .410 2 3/4″ round’s recoil is very manageable, a 3″ magnum round is a different story. I carry the 2 3/4″ No. 1 Buck, which gives me three .30 caliber pellets per shell.
I also have .38/.357 and .22Mag barrels for it. The .357 will get your attention, as you can imagine. It’s also impressive with a flash about the size of a basket ball. A real attention getter at the range. I like it for a deep concealed back-up.
Cue the false outrage of “I’ll never step foot in their location again”. Probably just fine with the owners in this case!
Would someone help my ignorance? In the picture at the top, the hammer of that semi-automatic is cocked. How safe or how unsafe is that?
That depends on who you talk to. Government models should not fire unless the safety is off, and the grip safety is depressed. Everybody I have ever known to shoot themselves down the leg while drawing, did so with a government model 1911. More than one person. It is a very painful wound to treat since the bullet cauterize the tissue as it travels through it. I like my 1911, but do not feel safe carrying it like this. I have seen holsters that have a strap that goes between hammer & carriage, but stil…
I had classmate in college who shot himself in the calf with .357 magnum Ruger single action. He claimed he accidentally snapped the hammer on the lip of his holster when holstering I always thought he cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger while attempting a QuickDraw. In any event, he lost his right lower leg from the gunshot wound (which was worse than those I later saw in RVN).
In the SAS CQB course I attended in 1972, we carried cocked and locked in cross draw holsters with no retention strap. According to the instructors, there was never an ND/AD from this carry method.
Your surmise on the draw-whoops is highly likely.
On the other hand, I have personally witnessed an in-holster AD at a Cowboy match. He was checked at the loading table, so we know the guns were hammer down and holstered properly to start. The revolver was a heavily gun-smithed Ruger single action, with a super light trigger and hammer spring. When shooter was manipulating a prop, the shooter managed to cock the hammer, unnoticed, and when he started to draw he touched the trigger. (Holster did not cover trigger)
Bang.
He missed his foot by about three inches, and the bounced .38 slug went past my head. Noisily “whmmm” like a large bee.
I received a few style points for “that was not what you intended, right?”
So -maybe- as your acquaintance said, but I would still believe you are correct, as your version is -far- too common.
I didn’t buy his story because me first pistol was a Colt frontier scout single action. I couldn’t see how holstering would draw the hammer far enough to set off a round without moving the cylinder out of primer alignment. Anyway, it is proof of why we put the hammer down on an empty chamber in CAS.
SaraSnipe – with all due respect, nonsense.
1) A properly maintained 1911 WILL NOT fire without the grip safety being depressed and some idiot’s finger on the trigger. Anyone who would do that will also shoot themself in the leg with a Glock, Ruger, whatever.
2) The bullet doesn’t cauterize crap. The hot propellant gas may, but not the bullet, especially a slow-roller like a .45ACP.
3) Condition 1 carry (round in the chamber, safety on) is considered a safe carry for anyone who doesn’t grab the trigger on the draw. If you do that… well, you deserve whatever you get. (See Rgr’s post)If you can’t be bothered with that (as you say below, developing proper muscle memory is key) you should not carry a firearm. Of any caliber.
Rgr769- Hate to say it but he could possibly be right. Most gun manufacturers introduced transfer bars decades ago to reduce accidental discharges… Ruger Blackhawks were some of the last. It’s old technology, my 1909 Colt had one.
1) ok, you can depend on whatever mechanism you want. It should be fine
2) Gee whiz, you got me. I left my medical degree at my last job. The people I knew that shot themselves had to have cauterized tissue removed.
3) As I stated,”it depends on who one asks”. Evidently, if someone asked you, it is fine.
Thanks for squaring me away Cliff Clavin
I regularly have shot old Ruger 3-screw Blackhawks for over ten years which have no hammer blocks. Many of my “pards” shoot them as well. They are perfectly safe if one puts the hammer down on an empty chamber.
Sarah,
The 1911 was specifically designed to be safe with th hammer back. The rear of the fram has a lever that disengages the trigger mechanism unless gripped properly. (Grip safety) the manually operated thumb safety has a stiff detention spring, and also blocks the mechanism. Some versions include a third lock on the firing pin, mainly for drop-safe reasons.
The Glock is the current king of holster kabooms. The safety is actually part of the trigger,and if one’s finger or shirt tail gets in the trigger guard on holstering, bang.
I carried a 1911 daily for two decades, and never once had a problem with it firing unintentionally, including in two bicycle wrecks. I also maintained it properly, and trained on it, which are two things that help reduce unwanted bangs.
IMHO, it is safe for experienced shooters who have developed a muscle memory of keeping their boogerhooks off the trigger when drawing the pistol and before they thumb off the safety and after putting the sights on the intended target.
Practicing to develop that muscle memory is the tricky part.
Agreed. I would not call a 1911 a carry gun for a novice.
Thanks, people.
About the time I posted, I did remember (of all things) a “Magnum PI” episode where Thomas take his .45 out of someone’s hand who hand it pointed at him saying, “There are some automatics that will fire with the hammer not cocked, but this isn’t one of them,” but TV so, yeah.
I have fired a .45; years ago I put about half a box of cheap ($7.50, aluminum cased) ammo through my uncle’s old one that he brought home, with a shoulder holster a Belgium cobbler had made for him.
Or get a Kahr and not be bothered with safeties at all. Kidding- Kahrs are not for novices. The only ‘safety’ besides the shooter is a rather long trigger pull. This is made up for what is probably the best double action trigger in a semi-auto hand gun available from the factory. It compares well to my S&W 686’s trigger; S&W invented ‘smooth.’