Violence: A Writer's Guide

by Rory Miller

  -Paintballs have been modified to fire OC powder

  -Media and civilians freak out over LL technology regardless of lives saved

  Chapter 13: Concealed Carry

  There are weapons for battle and weapons for emergencies. For emergencies, you want something light enough to carry at all times, easy to conceal (and that is cultural-- people in our culture panic when they see weapons, in another place and time NOT carrying a weapon openly might mark you as a peasant) and quick to get into play. That makes most of the weapons you can carry concealed inferior to the ones you would take into battle. A stiletto up you sleeve is inferior to a broadsword. A handgun is an inaccurate, anemic compromise compared to an assault rifle.

  Concealed weapons usually fall into the 'emergency category'.

  There are three approaches your characters may consider- concealing a weapon; training and practicing with something not considered a weapon; or fashioning something that doesn't look like a weapon.

  I'm going to start with the last two because they will be way shorter.

  Practicing with a non-weapon: We've already mentioned canes. Something that can be carried everywhere, doesn't ping the radar as a weapon and can be very versatile. There are stainless steel pens (I believe Cross is the brand name) that can thrust through a sheet of plywood. Old school Marines used to practice with their belts and heavy buckles. I'm not big on the keys through your fingers idea, it rarely hits squarely and will tear the shit out of the flesh between your fingers, but it is the idea that is important.

  What do you carry with you that can be a weapon? There's a lot, it just takes some creativity.

  You also have to think through which are really only useful for assassination. A pen, for instance, is not intimidating. No one will decide not to fight you just because they see that you are holding a pen. It is useless for defense, in that it will not stop another weapon. It is not particularly effective. You can kill someone with a pen but it will take either extreme precision, an unmoving target and/or some fairly extensive time. You have to have it clear in your mind (and so must your experienced protagonists) that some weapons may be used to make it slightly easier to kill someone else but are not good tools for self-defense.

  Non-obvious weapons. You can change things, a lot or a little, and turn them into weapons or shields. You can now buy kevlar sheets for your briefcase that make it bullet resistant. I think a holy book with a stainless steel cover (possibly kept in a sturdy purse with a long handle) would make a great weapon. I've seen chain mail pouches for sale at Ren Faires. Even a good leather pouch on a short rope filled with half a pound of coins would make a hell of a weapon. Two hefty bunches of keys on the end of a three-foot length of chain would be, for all intents, a kusari-gama. I've been looking for stainless steel solid beads for some time. Many religions have some sort of prayer bead and it would be cool to say, "I didn't hit him, I just blessed him vigorously." When chopsticks for hair pins were stylish, I had a pair made for my wife with long steel needles concealed inside.

  This overlaps with the found weapons somewhat. Be creative.

  Concealing a regular weapon: Most people are incredibly unobservant, so it is not nearly as hard to carry concealed as you might think. There are some pointers, though: shiny weapons don't hide as well as those with flat finishes. Small weapons conceal better than large weapons, but tend to either have less ammo, less power, or both.

  Make sure you have retention (like a thumb strap), or the weapon may fall out and people will notice (like, my personal shame, if you are dancing with the bride at a wedding and your .45 pops out of your inside-the-pants holster onto the dance floor.) Make sure you can get to it. I'm not big on pouches and purses because most people keep them closed and they are complicated to access quickly... and if you need a handgun, you need it quickly. If you had time, you'd be going for a rifle or shotgun.

  Make sure you can get to it and practice drawing in different places-- in the car with your seatbelt on (an officer in my state was killed when she couldn't undo her retention straps while seated in her car. Investigators estimate that she had over three seconds. It wasn't enough time. Practice.) On the toilet. Your most vulnerable times are the times a bad guy will pick.

  When you start carrying all the time you may develop severe lower back problems. The key is to balance the weight on the other side- a spare magazine, leatherman tool and tactical flashlight do it for me. It does make me look fatter, though.

  If your weapon has an external safety make damn sure the safety won't pop off by rubbing against you as you move. If you ever kill somebody, you want it to be on purpose. And you never want to shoot yourself in the leg. Most of my holsters keep the weapon pointed away from me. Just in case.

  Be careful with placement. The waistline is convenient and I prefer it (your hands are in that vicinity most of the time, so it's fast), but if you get knocked down, it will hurt. The small of the back is an excellent place for concealment, but if you fall on that it can do serious spine injury. You (or your character) will have to make some choices. Shoulder holster is decent concealment, especially on big-chested people, but it is slightly slower and you have to reach across your body, which means in close you can be easily slammed and have that armed trapped with no weapon. Also in a shoulder draw, when you pull the weapon, the barrel will briefly be pointed at your own left arm and will pan across 90 degrees on the way to lining up with your target. Every shooter is taught from the first day, never to point a weapon at anything she does not wish to destroy. ‘Muzzle control’ the constant awareness of where the barrel of a gun is pointing and the ability to never accidentally point it at others is considered a basic skill. Anyone who fails to control the muzzle is despised by serious shooters.

  The shoulder holster automatically sets you up for this problem. A shoulder holster, however, is the absolute easiest way to carry concealed and draw while sitting.

  Unconcealed, given my choice, I prefer a drop holster.

  Basically, the weapon should be near wherever you habitually hold your hands. If you put your thumbs on your belt, a weapon may go there. If you wear a shoulder rig, uncrossed arms (arms like a crossed arm position, but the weapon hand on or near the weapon, the other arm over it, nothing crossed) puts thing in reach.

  We've found that wasp-waisted and/or wide hipped women have trouble drawing from a waist holster, especially a high-rise. There are holsters that fit on the belt but lower the weapon a few inches that make drawing easier.

  Another point—your skilled characters should practice drawing with the off hand. Just in case.

  The weapon and placement is only part of concealment. What you wear comes into play. Shorts and a t-shirt make it hard (but I have a small Makarov, roughly equivalent to a Walther PPK .380, that is invisible at the small of my back under a t-shirt, as long as the shirt is untucked and I have good posture.) Your character will have a need for jackets or big loose shirts, which won't be appropriate everywhere.

  You have to check your state ordinances for unlawful carry. The USSC (United States Supreme Court) just handed down some rulings that are really rocking the gun control world. Your bad guy characters won't care about the law. They are worried about dying. Jail (as a concern) ranges from an inconvenience to a vacation, unless they have made a lot of enemies inside. (Understand the difference between Jail and Prison.)

  Your good guy characters will be more complicated. They can get permits, but that varies by state and in some it is almost automatic provided there are no histories of felonies or Domestic Violence and no mental health issues. In other sates, it is almost impossible unless you are hooked into the political machine. A CCP (Concealed Carry Permit) is for the state that issued it, though some states have reciprocity agreements.

  If the good guy can't get a permit and chooses to carry, there is some risk. For most people, no big deal. They will never be in a position to use it, the handful of people who might notice are friends, blah, blah, blah.

  But
that's not what makes characters. The big risk with the character (or real people) is that if they use a concealed weapon that they carry illegally, they will be prosecuted and the state will make a convincing case that carrying the weapon is proof of premeditation. Especially in states that have made a strong political stand on banning guns, they will really pull out all the stops to get a conviction and maximum sentence.

  Cops are a special case. Since the passage of HR 218, officers and retired officers may carry concealed in any state. If stopped, they will show their ID, the officer that stopped them will call in to have it confirmed and, provided they haven't done anything illegal or stupid (such as drinking) they will be on their merry way. Be aware that the on-duty officer making contact will not know or necessarily believe that the armed stranger is another cop and he will make himself safe. That may include doing a full felony stop-- "turn around, get on your knees, lace your fingers behind your head" and calling for back-up. Unless the off-duty guy is really stupid, really arrogant, or drunk, he will cooperate. It's stupid not to. Never make a nervous guy with a gun and a badge make a fast decision.

  If a citizen wants to bring a firearm on a flight, he has to have it in a locked box in checked luggage with the ammunition in another box. The weapon must be declared and will be labeled. I hear anecdotally, that labeled weapons are frequently stolen. The TSA regs are here.

  The TSA regs on officers carrying on a plane are here. So, the opening scene in DieHard couldn't have happened.

  One other stupid little detail. When I was very young and thought I would be a bad guy, I carried a flat throwing/fighting knife under my shirt down my spine. So if anyone ever said, "Put your hands behind your head and lace your fingers" my hands would be right on it...

  Recap:

  -Concealed weapons are usually for emergencies and less powerful than would be ideal

  -You can train in a non-weapon, create a non-obvious weapon, or conceal a weapon

  -Safety, accessibility, concealment

  -Clothing choice is part of the equation

  -Laws exist pertaining to citizens on a state by state basis

  Chapter 14: Mass Combat

  I think I was shot at. We were tearing through Kirkuk on our way from our camp in Sulaymaniyah to FOB Warrior for our weekly mail and grocery run.

  Tony came over the radio, “Did you guys hear that? I think somebody was shooting at us.” By that time we were probably a half a kilometer away from the ambush site.

  Maybe I should amend the first sentence to: I think I may have been shot in the general direction of.

  I have been in a war zone. I’ve never been blown up by IEDs or caught in a successful ambush or engaged in a firefight. My time in Iraq was spent as a teacher. So there are better sources for some of the nitty-gritty details. Keep that in mind.

  Wars are based on politics, getting something-- either a tangible thing or a concession. Their purposes can be very cold-blooded because the people making the decision are far enough removed from the fighting that they can see the 'big picture' or what Liddell-Hart called 'Grand Strategy'. That's important. It rankles most of us, but war is one of those things that should be entered logically and coldly, never emotionally.

  However, to get people to fight and support a war (in a liberal republic) you have to build up support. That's where the othering comes in, the ability to dehumanize the enemy. In the actual combat, you've bonded enough with your teammates that it becomes very tribal: "These are my people and those bastards are trying to kill my people." The part of your brain that would reason that, in fact, you are in their country, doesn't register. That bonding is emotional, limbic system stuff.

  The farther we are away from a tribal core (always with definite us and them), the more we are taught that people are people (and this is a huge shift in thought, something that would have appeared literally insane at most points in human history) the harder it is to kill. Even in modern warfare with all of our technology, the current wars have an unbelievably low incidence of collateral damage. Soldiers, not just by policy but by character are risking their lives and taking extra chances to avoid killing potential non-combatants. An unintended side-effect of this is that what our culture sees as strength, morality and restraint, specific cultures we are fighting see it as fear and timidity and frequently use it against us.

  "I don't understand Americans," Haider said, "From the time I was a little boy I always saw men walking the streets with rifles. Until the Americans, I never saw anyone trying NOT to shoot." -Baghdad, 2009

  Those who were raised with a tribal identity 'other' very quickly and easily. Not only can they resort to violence quicker and easier and more extremely, there appears to be absolutely no PTSD or mental anguish associated with it. (In one of the last chapters of "Machete Season" the author talks about a prison holding seven thousand perpetrators of the Rwandan holocaust. Less than a dozen have mental illnesses. Or nightmares about the killing or any of the effects that we would expect.

  Different cultures see war differently.

  Until the modern era almost everyone everywhere held that winning in war involved looting, raping and enslaving. When one culture steps beyond that and chooses to take a more moral way, the other cultures they are fighting might not recognize that they are losing.

  Another example: Some Native American nations preferred 'counting coup' to fighting. You proved your bravery by closing with and touching an enemy. Everyone knew who was brave and skilled and it kept the body count low. When nations that expected their very civilized and moral concept of counting coup to be the norm ran into peoples (such as the Europeans) who just simply killed, the skilled and noble warriors were slaughtered. Not because of technology-- until the mid 1800s a bow was a far superior weapon to a musket (except for the intimidation of noise, smoke and flame, which was important). Nor because of skill: a few of the colonists were soldiers or former soldiers, but every Native American man was a trained raider and hunter. Cultural attitudes and beliefs about winning left them vulnerable.

  That wasn't, believe it or not, a political diatribe. Especially if you are writing in speculative genres (this is one of my pet peeves) the late 20th/early 21st century middle class white American ideals of right, wrong, noble, ignoble are not the way the world works. Not most of the world, almost never in all of history anywhere in the world. Quite frankly, we've never before had enough excess food to be able to afford to look beyond tribal and family lines and recognize other's humanity.

  So a buke (the warrior caste of Japan, that included the samurai) would cut down a peasant (heimin, farmer, one of the other castes) without hesitation for a perceived rudeness (rudeness, as is common in hierarchical societies usually translating to a lack of sufficient deference). A modern Federale will slap a child to the ground who dares to look in his eyes. A friend, raised in a California barrio, believes it is an insult not to use a weapon on a man: "Bare hands are for women and children," he says.

  Back to war and soldiers. Politicians make a cold-blooded decision. It would be ideal if they could then turn to a group of predators to carry out that decision, but predators are notoriously difficult to control. Small numbers of predators would be effective but the politicians wind up using large numbers of regular people.

  Regular people can't kill cold. Many can't kill at all. So they have to get excited, "motivated" in military terms. They turn their squad into a tribe. It is like trying to do a predator's job with a troop of monkeys (which, given that we're primates, it is). It will be inefficient and political, feelings will get hurt and there will be stress and drama.

  There will also be a core of professionals. Some will be natural predators, people who have found that they ‘other’ people easily, enjoy the job or at least excel at it and have found a home in one of the few places that what they enjoy is legal. Some will be true believers who don't need to be 'motivated' and have decided on their own terms and for their own reasons that it is okay to pull the trigger. This small core
of professionals can get a lot done and often wind up mentoring the rookies, trying to teach their worldview because it is both efficient and pretty robust against PTSD.

  In the big picture, war can be looked at as a war of attrition or a war of maneuver. In a war of attrition, both sides beat themselves bloody, sending men and material en masse head to head to wear out the other side. Perhaps to kill all the soldiers, perhaps to use up all the weapons and ammunition and food and supplies. The war of attrition is a giant meat grinder, a test to see who gets exhausted first.

  Conquest is easier after a war of attrition since the means to fight, including many of the able-bodied warriors and leaders have been eliminated. Taking the land presents little problem.

  A war of maneuver relies on breaking the adversaries psychological will. By rapid action, great flexibility and an ability to put arms and men where the enemy has no hope of prevailing, you overcome the enemy’s ability to cope. Shock and awe. Guerrilla hit and run tactics. Early horse archers.

  It leaves the enemy with many resources intact, and the peace that follows is often only as good as the paper the treaty is inscribed on. It tends to cause a political change in regime, which may or may not benefit the winning side.

  As John Keegan described eloquently, the goal of war is not to destroy the enemy but to break the enemy’s will. In a war, to truly ‘beat’ a nation, you would have to kill every last person capable of throwing a rock. Wars are over when one side becomes afraid or too tired to throw rocks. Or when factions within a side start forbidding retaliation in order to forge peace.

  (This is true also in single combat. Unless every long bone is broken or the brainstem is shut down, a sufficiently motivated person could keep fighting. Exhaustion or fear of injury or fear of humiliation or … is what stops most people.)