Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend.
Concealed Carry in the Era of Terror Revisited — Citizen-Defender
Feeling like the world is getting a bit crazy right now? You might want to read and heed Murph’s advice.
Staging Your Long Gun – American Cop
Erick brings up some issues you might have never considered.
Ayoob: Cross-Dominant Handgun Shooting
Strategies to mitigate some of the problems created by crossed eye/hand dominance.
Why you should NEVER rechamber the same AR-15 round twice
This is important information for any of you who carry defensive firearms, pistols included. Re-chambering rounds can damage them. Most shooters don’t know that. Read the article. With all that said, I will re-chamber a defensive round 3-4 times before I throw it in the practice bin.
POM Pepper Spray Home Defense Unit, Maximum Strength OC Spray with Pistol Grip Handle and Safety Pin
I carry a POM pocket pepper spray canister everywhere. I’m glad they’ve decided to introduce a larger canister of their excellent product. I think this is the best option for folks who can’t or won’t defend their home with a firearm. Even if you do own or carry a gun, you should probably pick up a couple of these for situations where lethal force isn’t yet legal or has undesirable consequences. It’s an ideal bear spray as well. This particular model is high quality and is priced about $5.00 cheaper than a lot of the competitive large spray cans.
Defend the house: Protecting police buildings and personnel
After the recent ICE facility sniper attack, I published an article about defending government buildings. My friend Mike Wood sent me a message commenting about how we’ve both been talking about this problem for years, but no one seems to be listening. We keep re-learning the same lessons we should have internalized in the last century.
Mike shared this article that he originally wrote five years ago. If police agencies had taken our advice back in the day, we’d probably have a lot fewer problems now. Mike’s older article is every bit as useful today, but somehow I still don’t think police administrators care enough to implement his suggestions..
Skills Check: Posture Patrol Drill
Tatiana gives us a simple drill to optimize our handgun shooting stance. Want a more advanced drill? Try the Six Squares Drill
Criminal Mindset – Make Yourself Harder to Kill
“Examine yourself with a criminal mindset throughout the day and see your vulnerabilities. Examine where you work, shop, and even where you get gas. Actively pay attention to your habits and try to correct them. Corrections are often just simple subtle shifts in behavior, however they must be consciously made to be effective.”
SAK (Swiss Army Knife): The Original Multi-tool
In my travels through more than 60 different countries or territories, I find that Swiss Army knives are rarely seen as weapons. I particularly like this model if you are considering using a SAK in a defensive role. It has a locking blade and a hole for easy one handed opening. Not the ideal defensive blade, but I can put it to good use if necessary and no one looks twice if they see you carrying it.
Does Your Gun Work? | Tactical Wire
“Before you carry them, check your guns.”
The Limits of Hick’s Law: Split-Second Police Decisions – Force Science
I think Hick’s Law has done more damage to police training than any other single concept in the last 50 years. Yes, if you have to consider more options, your decision making process will be slower. In reality, no one is truly considering all of their available options. There is a significant difference between what happens when university freshman psychology students have to push a button in a lab and what experienced cops do on the street in life threatening encounters.
Looking for Concealment
“Matthew Allen” is one of the few out of the box thinkers in the tactical industry. Check out his valuable insights on the relative merits of cover versus concealment. His original website is also a veritable goldmine of quality information. I especially like his series “Dark Arts for Good Guys.” He doesn’t write much any more and doesn’t use this name when he does. I link to his new material as he publishes it, but you could get a graduate degree in criminal psychology reading all his older stuff.
Same as it Ever Was: 2A Content Creators Getting Squeezed by Censorship, Decreased Ad Dollars
I don’t think that most folks in the firearms/self defense community understand how bad this problem is. Content creators in our world are being stifled. I’ve been writing three articles a week on my blog since 2012. The years between 2015 and 2017 were my peak in numbers of readers and page views. It’s been a rapid downhill slide since then.
My current readership is approximately 10% of what it was in 2015. I once made enough income from the blog that I could stop working police overtime or special duty assignments. Now my ad revenue barely covers my web hosting costs. My writing has improved in the last 10 years, but no one sees it. The future is in platforms like Substack, Patreon, or private email lists.
Following Dan’s advice in Why You Should Write Somewhere other than Social Media, I’m now sharing stuff I once wrote on social media exclusively with my Patreon supporters or on my own site. If you are finding me through Facebook or Twitter, you are only seeing half of my content at best.
25 Years of Data on Officers Shot During Active Shooter Events
“Twenty-five years of data clearly demonstrate that the outside environment poses significantly greater danger than the inside. Why doesn’t our training reflect this reality?”
The Gunfighter’s Dream
I don’t regularly get the gunfighter dream any more. Unlike the author, I have never found that intensive training triggered my nightmares. Instead, I realized that my gunfighter dreams were triggered by a subconscious recognition that my training was inadequate. I started going to the shooting range after every one of those dreams. They slowed in frequency. Now I train regularly and have also mentally accepted that I have fewer days ahead of me than I do behind me. I no longer have the nightmares described in the article.
Why You May Want a Laser on Your EDC Pistol – The Armory Life
Rob Leatham’s thoughts on lasers for defensive handguns.
Review: KelTec PR57
Tamara’s experiences with the new 5.7mm KelTec.
Texas Ranger Frank Hamer: Lone Star’s Lethal Lawman
If you are interested in gun fighting history, you owe it to yourself to read about Frank Hamer. He was one of the most legendary gunfighters of the 20th century, winning more than 50 gunfights and being shot 23 times. If the article inspires you, read Texas Ranger: The Epic Life of Frank Hamer, the Man Who Killed Bonnie and Clyde.
On the anniversary of the ambush killing of Bonnie and Clyde (which Hamer organized) a few months ago, I visited his grave. Take a look at the photo below.
Knowledgeable lawmen and gun fighters are still dropping challenge coins, badges, and live cartridges on his grave stone 70 years after his death. If you don’t know who he was, you should be fixing that knowledge deficit posthaste.
Speed vs. Accuracy in the Revolutionary War
One more history lesson for you this week.
Evaluation of SEAL Hemostatic Spray: Marketing Claims vs. Published Data
I’m getting a lot of questions about this product in my medical classes. Buyer beware.
Robbery Starts A Cat-And-Mouse Gunfight At A Car Wash
Have you considered that your gunfight might not be “average?”
Rules
“There’s a powerful lesson in all of this that applies throughout life when the stakes are high and the course unclear. Life isn’t always black and white. The intersection of legality and ethicality, the border between self interest and social contract, these are seldom clean straight lines. To navigate these we have to learn to live in the grey…”
You should read the author’s book The Way is in Training.
Rangemaster October Newsletter
Tom Givens reliably posts excellent content in his monthly newsletter, but he outdid himself with this edition. I think it’s the best one he’s ever published. Tim’s article on semi-auto shotgun maintenance is a must-read if you run an autoloading shotgun.
Concealed Carry Corner: The CCW Growth Curve
Which stage are you in?
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