Stephen Hunter: Pretti’s pistol

Just reading the 'extract', the author nails if pretty well. As far as I can see, this is not a 'protest', this is a well-organized, well-(foreign)-funder Insurrection! If a single person can infiltrate the 'Signal' chat and give us suck a detailed report, then the FIB'bers can do it as well, then track down the 'foot soldiers', the organizers, and the financial backers, then use the RICO laws to put the ones that they can in Prison, and sue the 'money men' down to their Fruit-of-the-Looms.

Stephen Hunter is a terrific novelist. I've read probably ten of his twenty novels (and should read the other ten). He's absolutely correct to note that Pretti was armed for a mass killing. The Sig Sauer P320, the US military's most recent choice of a sidearm, is a duty sized pistol with 17 or 21 round double stack magazines available. 9mm is the most common caliber for the 320, which is also available in .40 S&W and .357 Sig. The decedent had at least one loaded spare magazine on his person. If he was reaching for it, it wouldn't have taken him very long to get that pistol with the red dot laser sight into action. He brought to the "protest" the necessary ingredients for a massacre. As Hunter points out, a snub nose revolver in .38 Special or a small Sig P365, although deadly, would run out of ammunition way before the P320. The 320 would be a potential mass murderer's preferred pistol. I don't know what in the heck Pretti was trying to do, but he got what he deserved. Rubber bag time, Alex. You messed up. No second chance. Would you like a mulligan? You don't get one.

Everybody is talking about this guy’s gun. I was looking to buy a SIG P320 a few months ago. I looked at one, and handled it, and liked it. However, I started hearing about, and reading about, a number of unintentional discharges involving P320’s, when no one touched the trigger. A couple of these incidents happened to law enforcement and military types; the guns were holstered when they discharged and injured the people carrying them. SIG settled at least one lawsuit prior to trial. SIG issued a recall on them and supposedly fixed the problem. However, Pretti bought that gun at least 3 years ago, and there’s no indication that he had that gun worked on. Did it discharge unintentionally when tye ICE agent took it from him? The P320 he owned was a custom model; with the optical sight, it would have cost him over $1,500. Hunter’s analysis of Pretti and his actions are spot-on. Hunter is a knowledgeable guy, but I’d disagree with him about the SIG P365. I bought one a couple of weeks ago, and I like it. I don’t think the recoil is objectionable; I put 100 rounds through it. It will probably be my everyday carry piece. With one spare magazine, I don't feel outgunned.

Pretti was a patsy, Just like the vile Ms, Good.

According to his ex-wife Pretti had one automatic pistol when they divorced two years ago. He had gotten a CC permit three years ago. She said he went to protests (George TFloyd) but "probably just shouted". His ex-wife did not give a reason for their divorce but ssid she'd moved out of state and they had not spoken sine the divorce. Altghough Pretti had a CC permit, his family said he did not usually carry. He'd also joined the Renee Good protests and was found to be a member of the activist Signal chat organization. One of their dispatchjers would have sent him to the ICE appehension that was in progress where he involved himself. The arms he carried should be very important to the fed investigation.

A red dot sight doesn't make you into a more skilled shooter, and for the great majority of people, it slows them down dramatically in getting lined up for their first shot. Very helpful device if you practice incessantly for months, but absolutely no panacea. Without lots and lots of practice, what you see when you look thru the red dot is.....absolutely nothing. Then you flail around angling the gun left, right, up and down until finally, you find the dot, then put it on the target. It usually takes two or three extra seconds. In case you wonder about Keano Reeves in the John Wicke movies.....yes, he is actually that good, on a range with live ammo. He has spent years with a top shooting instructor learning to do it, with live ammo. I seriously doubt that Pretti had anything remotely like that skill level. Few are willing to get the professional, expensive training and shoot tens of thousands of rounds or more per year, for years to develop the skills. The ammo cost alone put off most people. How many are willing to spend $5000+ per year on ammo alone? And without professional level instruction, you just keep practicing the WRONG moves.

Re#6, I believe Pretti bought this particular weapon beause he b elieved it would ,make up fror his lack of experience ...that fhe weapon's featurbes would do the job.

Re #7, yes, I agree with you completely. The good news is that "a better gun" does NOT make up for lack of skill. When I was competing actively for decades in handgun speed/accuracy competitions, some of the more skilled shooters began using red dot sights as they became available. This was in the 1990s, when the sights were bigger, bulkier and less reliable. Some of our new shooters would see a few of our best shooters going very quickly and very accurately with expensive custom guns with red dot sights. I heard more than a few say "Wow, I have to get myself one of those fancy high dollar 'race guns' so I can score higher." I told them, accurately, "You could swap your stock gun for his race gun and he'd still beat you by a LOT. Far better to spend your money on more ammo and instruction, and time on practicing rather than buying a fancy gun. In about three years, you MIGHT start to benefit from a better gun." Pretti was making the same greenhorn mistake, imagining that 'better gun' makes up for basic shooting skills. It doesn't. But, you are almost certainly correct that this was his idea.

Re #2. I am aware that you are a pro level golfer. Here is what I THINK may be an apt analogy. I might be full of beans, this is not my field of expertise at all. If a entry level golfer trades in ordinary golf clubs and obtains a very expensive, pro level set of golf clubs, it is my guess that he (or she) will see very little benefit. But, with professional instruction and lots and lots of practice, using ordinary grade golf clubs, eventually the golfer would begin to have the skills necessary to benefit from the better quality golf clubs. Please correct me if this is off base....I know relatively little about golf, other than the few times I went with friends to "hit a bucket of balls".....the club, in my hands was a 'random angle and distance generator' with the direction completely beyond my control I found it quite frustrating....to the point that I never pursued it. I find the aerodynamics of golf balls and the high rotational inertia design drivers and putters to be technically interesting, for sure. An engineer at work was a big golfer and we discussed the engineering concepts of golf clubs and balls many times. But I have no skills, am impressed with those who can do it at a high level. I very much prefer pistols and rifles, being only moderately capable with a shotgun.

Mrs C bought us a couple 320s (his and hers) for Christmas a few years ago. They're ok, but not terminator killing machines. Accuracy is better than average but It is still a 9mm, so its effectiveness is limited. I've never had the accidental discharge problems some report, but then I carry the chamber clear on the rare occasions when I carry it. My chances of getting into a no notice firefight are near zero, but any time the chamber is hot there is a chance of it firing.

As a concealed carry permit holder, I'm required, by law, to have a current permit and identification, which Pretti didn't have. Any time I have an encounter with law enforcement, I tell them that I am carrying and never have a problem. Discussion usually ends up being about gun types or my dog, a Belgian Mal. Simple rule of thumb, do what the cops tell you to do and everyone goes home safely.

Re #9: Equipment is important, whether one is at the shooting range, or at the golf range. Pretti had a "custom" Sig P320 that must have cost him around $1,500. Bringing that weapon to a "protest," knowing that he was going to resist law enforcement, physically, while carrying extra ammunition is close to suicide by cop, close enough to become a Darwin Award winner. There've been two Darwins in recent days. There will doubtless be others. The kind of golf equipment with which I learned to play, starting in 1961 when I was 6, were wooden woods and blade irons, a long way from the perimeter weighted game improvement clubs of today. My first titanium driver didn't come until I was past 40. As a pro, my irons were Ben Hogans, blades. Mr. Hogan himself was one of the two or so best ball strikers who ever lived. He personally tested all new equipment, but he wasn't alone. There was another golfer from the Dallas-Ft. Worth area who was a pure a ball striker as Mr. Hogan, and Mr. Hogan used to sent him new equipment so he could test it, too. Once he knew about this other player, Mr. Hogan would say, "Send the new set to that Mexican boy." "That Mexican boy" was unknown sixty or sixty-five years ago, but he is now in the Hall of Fame. Who is it? The great Lee Buck Trevino. Nicklaus has said that no one he ever played was tougher to beat than Trevino. So gear is important, but not as important as the one holding the gear. When I was a kid, I used to practice until after dark, hands sometimes bleeding. I wasn't the only one. That's how one got good. I was a scratch golfer at age 16.

self-righteous vanity ? No : Crazy as a toilet rat.

IMHO: I bet the autopsy will show this guy had a terminal disease! Suicide by cop.

Excellent article and astute comments by obviously experienced people. In Pretti's case, there is no way to guess his true intentions but, surrounded by many officers, he may have squeezed off five or six shots before they made swiss cheese of him. His extra capacity mags and type of sight is irrelevant at the distance he was standing from them but all the ammo that he carried is an indication that he intended to use it if he could.