The Dan Lee Report

After purchasing my Smith & Wesson Military & Police model .45 ACP pistol, I decided I’d look into some night sites or laser sight options for my new personal protection pistol.

That search eventually led me to a few different manufacturers, but the one that most impressed me was Viridian Green Laser sights. But hey, I’ve been around for a while now, & I know that many companies sometimes find ways to make their product look a lot better than it really is, in advertisements.

So, I put sort of a little challenge to Viridian Green Laser’s Brian Hedeen to send me one & let me bang it around in the real world a bit. Without hesitation Brian agreed, & sent me a Laser designed to fit my M&P.

When the laser arrived, the first thing I noticed was that it was shipped & packed very well. The second thing was that they supplied you with everything you need to get started. Adjustment tools, detailed instructions & batteries were all included.

I brought the laser to MatchMasters pistol range in Columbia Tennessee, where we put the The Viridian Green Laser to the test. The laser fits on the M&P accessory rail snuggly, & clicks in securely with a key-way that can be released with a push of a button.

One of the things I really like about this product is the ability to remove it easily before cleaning the weapon.

The laser was tested at 18 & 25 yards in very bright sunlight conditions, & showed up incredibly well on the black bullseye area of our targets. Usually most of the light would be absorbed by that portion of the target, but the Viridian laser overcame that obstacle with surprising efficiency for such bright conditions.

Soon after firing the pistol at 18 yards an maintaining a 2-3″ shot group of 5 rounds, I in inadvertently fumbled the laser sight while removing it from the pistol, & dropped it about 4 ft. onto the cement pad under the shooting lanes. There was no change in operation after dropping it, & then putting it back on the gun. One subsequent drop test “off the weapon” again from 4′, convinced me of the laser’s reasonable durability.

Battery life was not what we hoped it would be with the provided Duracell CR2 battery, but research into Laser Pointers indicates that this is an industry challenge for portable lasers in general, & not a challenge that is exclusive to Viridian. Realistic battery run times were 3 to 4 hours of continuous, or nearly continuous use, before there was a noticeable decrease in performance. With that said, rarely (if ever) would you need a firearm laser aiming system to be on for that long in the first place. Overall, the Battery power/runtime is sufficient, & with the availability of ultra heavy duty CR2 batteries out there, we don’t see this as a design flaw in the product itself. Additionally, battery changes were simple & required no specific tools, but just a small pointed object to unclip the battery door.

Many competing lasers seem to have on off controls that are hard to get to, or cause the shooter to alter their grip, or over grip the gun to activate them. In the case of the Viridian however, all that’s needed is a quick touch with your trigger finger just forward of the trigger guard to activate the laser. It also features parallel buttons on each side forward of the trigger guard that control the various modes of operation. Those include a solid pointer, & 3 other modes that blink at different speed. This is desirable in an LE or Swat type situation when each officer needs to know where their specific weapon is pointed on the target.

Viridian claims on their website that their laser is an: “Extremely bright green laser fully functional for daytime use, highly intimidating for night time use.”

As illuded to above, we found that in bright sunlight the laser could be seen reasonably well up to 50 yds away, as well as in dusk to dark conditions where the Viridian Laser could be seen easily at up to 250 Yards. That’s far beyond the useful & accurate range of any pistol or handgun ammunition. From our experience the Viridian Green Laser lives up to its creator’s claims to be effective in all light conditions. Pointing this laser across a field on a humid hazy night showed a constant beam all the way out to the target. We also tested a more expensive “red laser” product, & found that its visibility in bright conditions paled in comparison to the Viridian Green Laser. The green laser was brighter in all conditions, & would certainly be an intimidating deterrent to any assailant who had a half a brain to work with. For the other half, you probably wouldn’t miss them with the help of an accurate handgun equipped with this laser.

The best turn out in a gun related incident is one where nobody has to pull the trigger. We feel that the intimidation factor of this laser could not only prevent shootings, but also that it could improve accuracy in a chaotic situation, & save the lives of innocent bystanders who could be struck by potentially wild shots.

Overall we feel that the Viridian Green Laser site is an excellent product, & a great stocking stuffer for anyone who owns a handgun model support by their brand. Glock, H&K USP, S&W M&P, Springfield XD, Taurus PT 24/7,Walther P22/P99, are all supported, with a Universal Model coming in late 2008.

The laser we tested was a “standard power” model. Viridian Green Lasers are also available in higher powered laser models, but only to Law Enforcement & Military at this time.

For more information on Viridian Green Laser sites, please visit them here, & click on the product drop down menu. Also be sure to watch the excellent product demonstration videos, & other products on their site!

After purchasing my Smith & Wesson Military & Police model .45 ACP piston, I decided I’d look into some night sites or laser sight options for my new personal protection pistol.

That search eventually led me to a few different manufacturers, but the one that most impressed me was Viridian Green Laser sites. But hey, I’ve been around for a while now, & I know that many companies find ways to make their product look a lot better than it really is, in advertisements.

So, I put sort of a little challenge to Viridian Green Laser’s Brian Hedeen to send me one & let me bang it around in the real world a bit. Without hesitation Brian agreed, & sent me a Laser designed to fit my M&P.

When the laser arrived, the first thing I noticed was that it was shipped & packed very well. The second thing was that they supplied you with everything you need to get started. Adjustment tools, detailed instructions & batteries we all included!

I brought the laser to MatchMasters pistol range in Columbia Tennessee, where we put the The Viridian Green Laser to the test. The laser fits on the M&P accessory rail snuggly, & clicks in securely with a key-way that can be released with a push of a button.

One of the thinks I really like about this product is the ability to remove it easily while cleaning the weapon.

The laser was tested at 18 & 25 yards in very bright sunlight conditions, & showed up incredibly well on the black bullseye area of our targets. Usually most of the light would be absorbed by that portion of the target, but the Viridian laser overcame that obstacle with surprising efficiency for such bright conditions.

Soon after firing the pistol at 18 yards an maintaining a 2-3″ shot group of 5 rounds, I in inadvertently fumbled the laser sight while removing it from the pistol, & dropped it about 4 ft. onto the cement pad under the shooting lanes. There was no change in operation after dropping it, & then putting it on the gun. One subsequent drop test “off the weapon” again from 4′, convinced me of the laser’s reasonable durability.

Battery life was not what we hoped it would be with the provided Duracell CR2 battery, but research into Laser Pointers indicates that this is generally an industry challenge for portable lasers in general, & not a challenge that is exclusive to Viridian. Realistic battery run times were a couple of hours of continuous, or nearly continuous use, before there was a noticeable decrease in performance. With that said, rarely (if ever) would you need a firearm laser aiming system to be on for that long in the first place. Overall, the Battery power/runtime is sufficient, & with the availability of ultra heavy duty CR2 batteries out there, we don’t see this as a design flaw in the product itself. Additionally, battery changes were simple & required no specific tools, but just a small pointed object to unclip the battery door.

Many competing lasers seem to have on off controls that are hard to get to, or cause the shooter to alter their grip, or over grip the gun to activate them. In the case of the Viridian however, all that’s needed is a quick touch with your trigger finger just forward of the trigger guard to activate the laser. It also features parallel buttons on each side forward of the trigger guard that control the various modes of operation. Those are include a solid pointer, & 3 other modes that blink at different speed. This is desirable in an LE or Swat type situation when each officer needs to know where their specific weapon is pointed on the target.

Viridian claims on their website that their laser is an: “Extremely bright green laser fully functional for daytime use, highly intimidating for night time use.”

As illuded to above, we found that in bright sunlight the laser could be seen reasonably well up to 50 yds away, as well as in dusk to dark conditions where the Viridian Laser could be seen easily at up to 250 Yards. That’s far beyond the useful & accurate range of any pistol or handgun ammunition. From our experience the Viridian Green Laser lives up to its creator’s claims to be effective in all light conditions. Pointing this laser across a field on a humid hazy night showed a constant beam all the way out to the target. We also tested a more expensive “red laser” product, & found that its visibility in bright conditions paled in comparison to the Viridian Green Laser. It would certainly be an intimidating deterrent to any assailant who had a half a brain to work with. For the other half, you probably wouldn’t miss them with the help of an accurate handgun equipped with this laser.

The best turn out in a gun related incident is one where nobody has to pull the trigger. We feel that the intimidation factor of this laser could not only prevent shootings, but also that it could improve accuracy in a panic situation, & save the lives of innocent bystanders who could be struck by potentially wild shots.

Overall we feel that the Viridian Green Laser site is an excellent product, & a great stocking stuffer for anyone who owns a handgun model support by their brand. Glock, H&K USP, S&W M&P, Springfield XD, Taurus PT 24/7,Walther P22/P99, are all supported, with a Universal Model coming in late 2008.

The laser we tested was a “standard power” model. Viridian Green Lasers are also available in higher powered laser models.

For more information on Viridian Green Laser sites, please visit them here, & click on the product drop down menu. Also be sure to watch the excellent product demonstration videos on their site!

Dick Heller is the man who brought a much needed lawsuit against DC, to lift the unconstitutional handgun ban that has threatened the personal safety of it’s citizens for years.

Despite a recent ruling by the high court, Heller’s (post SCOTUS decision) registration of his hand gun was recently denied on the basis that it was a bottom loaded semi-auto, & therefore the same as a “machine gun”. So here we are again, with liberals in DC being completely dishonest & playing with semantics.

Webster’s Dictionary defines a “machine gun” as the following:

Main Entry: machine gun
Function: noun
Date: 1867

:a gun for sustained rapid fire that uses bullets; broadly : an automatic weapon

Sustained rapid fire with seven rounds??? Doesn’t sound like Heller’s pistol even comes close to qualifying as a “machine gun” to me.. Clearly the DC moonbats had long ago gotten away with taking it upon themselves to break away from societal standards (such as the trusted Merriam Webster dictionary) to completely & arbitrarily redefine what a “machine gun” actually is.

The problem is that their little games will lead to more court cases to define the obvious for them, & it will be at the expense of the taxpayers. Meanwhile, the liberal media will black the stories out, & most of the public will never know that DC is wasting their money on trying to deny the Constitutional rights of it’s own citizens, unless people start to speak up for their rights.

Remember in November.. REMEMBER come November.. ~ Dan Lee

Liberals seem to never run out of ways to be stupid. Seriously, they think they can stop gun owners from carrying a lot of firepower by banning Semi-Autos?

Like most things the Democrats do, it makes no sense, but that’s not stopping the fascist anti-gun nuts in the Washington D.C. government from trying to impose more unconstitutional laws on citizens. Of course it will backfire in their face when people start carrying a revolver on each hip just like the old west, & speed loaders to make up for the low ammo capacity of revolvers..

They will also carry larger caliber/more deadly weapons to make sure that 6 bullets is enough to stop an attacker..

But just like most liberal policy, they didn’t think through any of that before they rushed to please the MoveOn.borg & the like, by putting out this saber rattling press release about banning semi-autos..

Go ahead D.C., ban them.. I’m sure there are plenty of people who are just waiting for a good excuse to get one of these:

However wonderful this may seem for the manufacturers of revolvers, I don’t think the D.C. anti-gun loons have thought this through long enough, & I’m not the only one.. My guess is that they’ll have an epiphany any day now & realize how incredibly dumb they are to even suggest a semi-auto ban.. If they continue with this talk, they will be seriously embarrassed in the end.

~Dan Lee

We’ve all heard the horror stories. The worst & most embarrassing one I’ve ever seen was this DEA agent doing a Gun safety class in front of adolescent School Children. He makes a HORRIFIC misjudgment in handling a weapon that has a full clip in it, & especially in the presence of children.

The Result? He was lucky. He only shoots himself in the thigh, & the bullet stays there & thank God does not further injure him or the children & other adults in the class.

Watch the video below, & how the children unfortunately used better judgment than the officer who partially tried to save face in the situation. He misguidedly tries to keep from alarming the kids further by picking up a rifle, & trying to foolishly go on with the presentation. The kids tell him to put it down! Good call kids!

Do I feel bad for him? Yes of course I do. However he broke several important rules that are absolutely not to be broken in regard to gun safety. I think unfortunately he got a little too caught up in his dramatic approach to gun safety, & forgot about the gun safety part in the process.

1. On the video, he stated himself that “This is an unloaded weapon. This is an empty weapon.”
he then goes & gets gets a “nothing in my hat, nothing up my sleeve” type confirmation from an assistant asking if it’s an empty weapon, the assistant concurs, but probably only looks in the chamber. The officer does NOT clear the weapon himself by ejecting the magazine, as well as looking into the chamber. As a result, when he locks the slide back, & then releases it, he unwittingly cycles a live round from the magazine into the chamber. Again, He did not treat the gun as loaded, & check both the magazine & chamber himself before handling it.

2. He’s handling a Glock 40 cal, (likely a model 22 or 23 with no thumb safety lever) & not the best weapon to bring into a classroom or demonstration.

3. There should have been no ammunition present in any weapon on his person, or he planned to un-holster for any demonstration. Any weapon he planned to demonstrate with, should have been void of a magazine & had the slide locked back at all times, or disabled with the firing pin completely removed, & devoid of a magazine or ammunition. It would also have been handled very minimally, & placed on a table with the muzzle in the most currently safe direction.

4. Though he eventually points the gun down to possibly put it away (not sure), somehow he gets his finger on the trigger, or gets the trigger hung on something. The gun discharges, & he’s hit in the thigh with what is mostly likely a very damaging hollow point bullet. Hollow point bullets are designed to inflict the maximum damage, without exiting the intended target & possibly injuring an innocent bystander. Also notice that in the commotion, his female assistant hands him the rifle at one point, & has the muzzle pointed at the man standing against the wall!

Now, I believe this officer in his heart of hearts truly wanted to teach Gun safety to these children this day, & had nothing but good intentions for being there. Unfortunately he ended up giving an even better example than was necessary, or safe, by forgetting some of his own training.

I recently took my Handgun Safety course with The Academy for Self Protection in Joelton Tennessee. My instructor was Rob Corcoran. Rob is a former USAF Combat Arms Instructor and Security Police Officer. Rob currently teaches all Handgun Carry classes for A.S.P. He is an NRA certified Pistol Instructor and a Tennessee State certified Pistol Instructor.

Rob’s training skills were very clearly & well defined throughout the 8 hour course. During the training, He always got us to the point of the matters at hand, while at the same time keeping things light enough with a perfect balance of humor, gun trivia, & mechanical composition, without being too distracting from the serious nature of gun safety as a whole. He warned us ahead of time, that if he repeated something several times, it was probably going to be both highly important, & also on the written exam, or part of our firing range test. He covered everything from good/bad gun handling practices, to good/bad guns & ammunition by themselves, & the types that we may encounter in the real world.

Rob’s approach was not only to make sure that we knew how to fire a gun safely, but also that once the bullet left the barrel, there are potentially serious consequences, both legally & morally. His course also covered tips on being a more controlled shooter, which is also important to safety, & limiting your targets to only intended ones.

While my impression on his feelings about handguns was that he’s clearly an enthusiast, I felt that he made it glaringly obvious that a gun is not like a golf club or ball. When you go to the range with a gun & make a mistake, it could mean more than someone getting a concussion from a golf club that’s slipped out of your hand, or a wayward ball. It could mean instant death for you or an innocent bystander, or lives changed forever, & he made that responsibility very clear in his course, by covering Tennessee law on the use of firearms for self defense.

After having completed this course, I can tell you that as soon as he saw someone holding a weapon up with the magazine still in it like in the video above? He would have said: ” Clear that weapon immediately by removing the magazine, & I don’t want any ammunition in this classroom. Period”

He has signs in the classroom to remind everyone.

If you’re thinking about taking a handgun safety course in the middle Tennessee area, I highly recommend Rob & his Academy of Self Protection. I don’t see how the course could have been any better to be honest. After taking it, I’m only reasonably confident that I’ll never have an accident. I say “reasonably”, because one of the sentiments Rob was able to get across was to “never get cocky or overconfident handling a firearm.” The gun is always loaded, period. No exceptions.

~Dan Lee