Month: April 2015

I dedicate this post to my dad. It’s his birthday today. Both he and my mom passed away when I was a teenager in a car accident.
My dad taught me many lessons in life. He raised me, made me into the man I am today with the limited time he had. Many of the lessons included: respect others, especially your elders, work hard in life, enjoy life, always do the right thing because it is the right thing to do, be responsible for your actions.
I’m going to focus on the last lesson for this post. In my experience, professionally and personally, I see too often that adults do not take personal responsibility seriously. Professionally, I don’t know how many people that I have talked to over the years, whether it was in jail or in court, that pass the responsibility of their own actions on others. It’s rare to hear someone own up to why they are in their current situation.
Personally, I see and read about pretty much more of the same.
I can only speak for my own experiences. I am not perfect and never say that I am. I myself am responsible for every decision that I make. I was forced into making adult decisions at an early age. I decided to do whatever it takes to make my parents proud. I am where I am today due to the decisions that I have made. I stand by each of those decisions, both good and bad. Bad decisions, without making mistakes and acknowledging them, you are definitely doomed to repeating them. I know I am a better person by being responsible one. It is difficult at times to swallow my pride and admit fault when I make a bad decision, but that’s life and I’m only human. My dad was a good man. He worked hard to support our family and I strive everyday to be a man he’s proud to have raised.

AR-15’s, there are so many different manufacturers to choose from. I myself only have one. I choose a gas piston rifle: the LWRCI M6A2 chambered in 5.56 or .223. As with all firearms, it comes down to the owner’s preference. I’m not here to say that gas piston is better than direct impingement. Don’t know what I’m talking about, Google it! There’s plenty of articles and opinions out there. I used to have a Frankenstein AR-15 with a CMMG upper. I sold it to a friend not long after I had the M6A2. Anyone who owns a DI AR-15 knows that it’s a pain to clean after a long day of shooting. With the M6A2’s short stroke gas piston system, cleaning is an easy task; just clean the barrel and wipe down the bolt and that’s pretty much all there is to it. I didn’t choose my AR just because it was easy to clean, I choose it after I did my research. I do a lot of research before I come up with my decision to purchase anything, especially firearms.
LWRCI is known for making high quality short stroke gas piston rifles. All of their rifles are made here in the USA. I originally wanted an HK MR556, but with msrp starting around $3,000.00, that was out of my reach financially. So LWRCI was my next choice. The M6A2 along with all of the rifles they make have 41V45 steel alloy barrels that are cold hammer forged and coated with a NiCorr finish. A standard M4/AR-15 barrel usually lasts about 6-10,000 rounds before needing to be replaced, the LWRCI barrels are rated to last 20,000. The Bolt Carrier is nickel coated to enhance reliability. Overall, every piece in their rifles are of high quality and made to last. This is why I only need one AR-15-want is another story as I always want more! I bought my M6A2 many years ago for $2,100. It’s considered a legacy rifle system on their website currently. If you follow the gun industry, there’s always something new coming out. My M6A2 is still relevant even today and probably for my entire lifetime. It has a mid-length Troy picatinny rail and BUIS.
Appearance: My personal M6A2 has Magpul furniture all over it: an ACS stock, MIAD grip, XTM rail covers, AFG1. All of the furniture has been customized with a dye job by a good friend of mine and it looks close to Multicam.
Optics: I have a Trijicon RX30 reflex sight with a 6 MOA Amber dot. I choose this optic because it requires no batteries to operate, it uses fiber optics to catch ambient light and self adjusts brightness automatically. In low light/no light, it uses tritium. The dot is a bit big at 6 MOA, but it is easy to acquire and it is good enough to engage a man sized target over a 100 yards and beyond. It is zeroed in at 50 yards. The Troy HK style BUIS are heavy duty and well made.

Weapon Light: currently attached is a Streamlight TLR-1 HP LED weapon light. It has an output of 200 lumens and runtime of 1.75 hours. I have a remote switch that attaches to the picatinny rail, which makes it easy to switch on with my support thumb.
Muzzle Device: it came with a standard A2 birdcage and a good friend of mine gave me a Surefire MB556K, which is now attached. I still have yet to shoot it with it on, but I am sure it’s going to be loud! Surefire is developing a concussion reduction device that will attach to it and I plan on getting one when they’re available.
On the range: the M6A2 is accurate. At 50 yards where it is zeroed, it shoots groups much smaller than a dime. I’ve run it through classes and training days at the range with no failures whatsoever.
In conclusion, the LWRCI M6A2 exceeds my expectations and requirements of a carbine. It’s much heavier than most other AR-15’s, and has a price tag of more than double of a standard rifle. It’s not the latest and greatest rifle out there, but it has been reliable and accurate. I am confident I got my money’s worth out of it.

This is my first gun review post. I am a firearm enthusiast if you don’t know that yet. I’m not the best shooter out there and will never claim to be. I am however, very effective with my pistol and am comfortable with almost any weapon system that is in my hands. This comes from owning different types of firearms, shooting my friends’ and renting guns at gun ranges. Some of you will be surprised to the fact that most cops are not ‘gun people’. A lot of cops have one firearm- their department issued duty weapon. To many it is just a job. As long as they qualify, they’re good to go. To me, it is probably the most important tool on my duty belt for many reasons: 1. It is the only tool that can solve the most dire of situations, a deadly force incident. 2. It is a deadly weapon and it can be used against myself if it is taken away. 3. I am responsible for each and every round that I fire.
As you can see, it is a lot of responsibility to have carrying a gun. Training is always ongoing and having confidence in your ability to use your duty weapon will one day make a difference when it counts.
Onto my review: my current duty weapon is the Sig Sauer of Sig Arms P229R 9mm, equipped with a Surefire X200b.
Sig Sauer is a high end weapons manufacturer. They are a Swiss company that has all of their weapons built in Germany. They now have factories in the US. The handguns are expensive, with msrp starting out at $800 and up (for the classic full metal framed pistols) you definitely get what you pay for when it comes to firearms.
The P229R is considered a compact version of the P226R. Commander Steve McGarrett from Hawaii Five-0 (my wife and I love the remake) carries one of many versions of P226 throughout the show; with his SEAL background, it makes sense since the MK25 is the handgun of choice for the US Navy SEALs.

The P229 has a shorter barrel and grip. Why not carry a full-size P226? My P229 was my off-duty weapon and I decided to make it my duty weapon mainly because I already had it and didn’t want to buy a new gun with all of it’s accessories. If I had a P226 I’d be carrying it. The trigger system is DA/SA or Double Action/Single Action with a decocking lever. It has a passive firing pin safety and doesn’t have a physical safety switch. It can be safely carried in a holster with the hammer down or decocked. With the hammer down, the first DA trigger pull is heavy at 10 lbs. The following SA trigger is set at 4.4 lbs. It takes a lot to get used to a DA/SA trigger system. It requires a lot of practice to master the heavy DA trigger. This setup originates from European Law Enforcement, they deemed it safer for officers to carry a pistol that had a heavy first trigger pull to make sure that the first shot is deliberately pulled. Although I agree with that way of thinking; if you train correctly, your trigger finger never enters inside the trigger guard until you are on target and ready to shoot. It however, makes it very safe to carry.
Sig Sauer guns are known for their durability, reliability and accuracy. That is why the Navy SEALs carry them and many law enforcement agencies.
My P229R is probably the single pistol that I have the most experience shooting. I had my department armorer install Sig’s Short Reset Trigger (SRT). Before the SRT, there was no real positive reset, you’d have to totally disengage from the trigger to let it reset. With the new trigger, making faster, accurate follow up shots easier to accomplish. If you have a Sig Sauer pistol, I highly recommend this upgrade!
I have put thousands of rounds through it from qualifying, practicing and through training classes. Other than some rare magazine failures, the gun always fires. It has been drug through the dirt, while in a drop leg holster and it never stopped shooting.
Weapon Mounted Light (WML) in my opinion every duty weapon should be equipped with one. Doesn’t matter what your assignment is, or even if you’re law enforcement. You never know when you might find yourself in a low-light/no-light scenario. If you carry a gun, you better have at least a flashlight on your person. If you think shooting in a high stress environment is tough, (look at the shooting statistics of Officer Involved Shootings) try shooting one-handed with a flashlight in the other. If you train often, then that’s no problem. If you had a WML on your gun however, you can identify your target and shoot with a two-handed grip, allowing you to make (more) accurate shots. This is why I have one on my duty weapon. Surefire needs no introduction. They are also very expensive. Again, you get what you pay for. The X200b is a bit outdated with the 500 lumen X300U now available, but it still works fine and therefore doesn’t need to be replaced. The LED bulb puts out 80 lumens of light and is indestructible, never bothered by recoil.
Together, the P229R and the X200b makes a reliable and accurate duty weapon for me.
In the near future: I am waiting to pick up my Heckler and Koch VP9. That may one day be my duty weapon, we’ll see!
Please let me know what you think about my review and if you have any questions, I’ll answer them!

*Note: whatever I mention in this post or any of my posts for that matter, are NOT here to be used as legal advice!*

Traffic Court is probably my least favorite calendars to work for many reasons:
1. In my opinion, the fines and fees are ridiculous. The State takes the majority of it. I therefore have some empathy for everyone that comes in…keyword is some; many however are deserving of the ticket they were issued.
2. The defendants aren’t usually fun to deal with. They are not used to the criminal justice system, therefore they tend to act more aggressively in some cases than a person who has much more serious charges against them.
3. The calendar is usually huge with hundreds of cases to get through in a day.
A judge once said: “Traffic infractions aren’t crimes of intent…”
Some facts, through my observations:
1. Those who challenge their tickets in court and have the Officer testifying usually lose 80-90% of the time.
2. Those who choose to testify during their trial, usually incriminate themselves in their testimony.
3. Those pesky traffic red-light cameras are spot on! Not only are they accurate, they also record video of seconds before, during and after a violation.
I want to share some of the excuses that don’t seem to work, that I’ve heard:
1. “I was only in the Carpool lane because I had to avoid an accident because traffic just stopped in front of me.”
2. “I was just keeping up with traffic, everybody was going the same speed.”
3. “The radar/laser/lidar must’ve mistaken my car for someone else’s!”
4. “I was not going as fast as the Officer said I was…I was going __mph” (usually over the posted)
5. “I don’t think the Officer saw me…I didn’t see them. I wouldn’t have been ______ if I saw them there!”
These are some of the most common excuses I’ve heard. Bottom line, traffic officers write these citations in order to save lives so please drive safe!