For those who interested in the art of self-defense, you should be checking out Active Self Protection, who goes by ASP. Their daily videos go through various real-life scenarios often from captured surveillance video. The crew over there go through the details on how good guys deal with bad guys “when the balloon goes up.”

ASP also runs an excellent Facebook page, looking at the various articles often by trainers. One of their latest referrals looks at one officer’s experience of the weapons that “bad guys” carry and the results are surprising. (Note – the officer is from an affuent suburb, not a major metropolitan area.) bFor example, by types of weapon:

–          67 were handguns

• 13 revolvers
• 52 semi –automatic pistols
• 1 Derringer
• 1 illegally-converted fully automatic machine pistol

–          11 were rifles

• 4 Bolt Actions
• 7 semi –automatic rifles

–          7 were shotguns

• 4 Pump Actions

• 3 single shots or double barrels

The most popular manufacturer? Ruger. Then again, there were quite a few cheap weapons in there from companies like Hi point, Lorcin, Norinco, and IntraTec.

–          Ruger-9

–          Smith and Wesson- 6

–          Glock-5

–          Hi Point- 5

–          Beretta- 4

–          Lorcin- 4

–          Remington- 4

–          Raven- 3

–          Jennings- 3

–          IntraTec- 3

–          Norinco- 3

Then looking at the the capabilities of the weapons to function?

Nine of the 85 weapons were completely broken and unable to function.  17 more of the guns had limited functionality because of frequent (at least 1 in the first 3 rounds I fired) malfunctions, lack of magazines (5 guns), and other problems like incorrect magazines, and internal parts breakage that lead to inconsistent firing ability.

The officer then goes into detail by caliber, type of ammo, and other items. For the full run-down, check out Active Response Training.