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Safe storage and self defense aren’t incompatible

I recently shared to my social media accounts a story of an attempt by a local government to impose storage restrictions on gun owners in their city. The ordinance specified that firearms had to be locked up, except when they were “in use” (whatever that means). Of course this drew the ire of many people, […]
  • By Grant Cunningham
  • Posted July 30, 2018
  • In integrity

“Justifiable” isn’t the same thing as “desirable”.

It’s been my observation that only a very small percentage of gun owners think deeply about this business of shooting another person. By that, I mean beyond the aspects of sight picture and trigger press. What brought this to mind were the reactions of people to a recent story out of Oklahoma. A landowner’s tale […]

Self defense, quantum physics, and negative outcomes

The great physicist Werner Heisenberg is responsible for describing a very interesting phenomenon in quantum physics: our observations effect the behavior of quanta (quantum particles). In other words, by simply observing an experiment, it’s possible that we inadvertently change the outcome. Quantum physics gets really weird after that, but this is as far we need […]

What if nothing happens?

No matter what the preparedness focus, be it just self defense or a full-blown disaster, in the back of everyone’s mind is a little voice that wonders if they’re not being just a little silly. “After all”, the little voice says, “you’re spending a lot of your time, energy, and money on something you don’t […]

Keep your perspective as safe as you keep your jewelry

Believe it or not, the job I do isn’t actually all that pleasant. I’ve run into a lot of people who tell me they’d “love” to have my job; they tell me that “it must be fun”. They see the travel, or focus on the guns and shooting, without thought to what those things represent. […]

The fishing hook fantasy

Why do so many survival kit suggestions have fishing gear in them? Over the years I’ve noticed that survival/escape/bugout/get-home kit contents always seem to include fishing gear. I don’t mean poles, reels, and aluminum boats with fish-finding radar, but hooks, line, and perhaps some weights. The idea is that if you’re stranded somewhere you can […]

When friends are strangers

Let’s assume, for the moment, that you have a perfect teenager. He or she is always polite, gets schoolwork in on time, excels in extracurricular activities, has above-average SAT scores, and has never been in trouble at school — or anywhere else, for that matter. This is a kid you can trust, and who has […]

“But what if…”

In my job I get some wonderful emails from people who’ve read one of my books or taken one of my classes. I also get awful emails, usually from people who’ve done neither of those things. There is a special class of email, though, that I really dislike getting. It’s the “but what if…” question […]

Can buying less actually give you more safety?

The concept of minimalism intrigues me, because of its emphasis on personal growth rather than the acquisition of things. It forces one to ask “what’s important to me?” and “what do I really need?” rather than “oh, look, free shipping if I spend more money than I originally intended to!” Sadly, in this case the […]

A new way of looking at likelihood and plausbility

A couple of decades back I started to talk to my defensive shooting students about the likelihood of being attacked and needing to use their firearm to defend themselves. It seemed to me that some people, based on their lifestyle and habits, were more likely to need to use lethal force than others. It also […]

The importance of rifle balance

A recent talk with a colleague reminded me that in our zeal to embrace the new, we sometimes lose sight of the virtues of the past. Before you get all worked up and start calling me a “Fudd”, understand that I love the things modern technology has given us. Whether in firearms, electronics, or anything […]

Yet another tactical hobbyist fantasy bites the dust

Last week I received an interesting email from a reader of my latest book, Protecting Your Homestead: Using a rifle to defend life on your property. The sender was wondering about the utility of a lever-action rifle as a defensive tool, and said that he’d been told his lever action was only suitable for “short […]

Selling defense without talking about prevention

“F**k marketing. There are too many people in marketing.” — Steve Jobs A while back I saw a slick promo video for a training organization (which will remain nameless), and it’s bothered me ever since because it makes the job of teaching people how to truly stay safe so much harder. The video showed footage […]

You can find perspective in some odd places

It must be said that I’m not really a travel bug. Don’t get me wrong; I’m no hermit, but I don’t have the intense wanderlust many people do. I can appreciate it, even envy it to an extent, but I’ve never had it. So it was something of an oddity for me to be reading […]

How fast should you shoot?

For at least a decade I’ve subscribed to the idea that a teacher needs to be open to change, and that in fact one of the best ways to gauge the quality of a teacher is to ask what he (or she) has changed their mind about. If they’re learning, if they’re growing, they’ll experience […]

You don’t need to win. You need to survive.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a fan of macho nonsense. And I don’t particularly care where it comes from. So much of the defensive training world is built around the lifestyles of people who spend all their free time on the range or at the gym; some shooting instructors quite literally live at […]

Porn takes many forms

Ever heard of “defensive gun use porn”? It’s a term to describe a genre of stories where good guys use their guns to beat the bad guys. Such stories are a staple of many firearms-centric blogs and news sites, and they serve not so much an educational role as they do a cheerleading one. You’ll notice […]
  • By Grant Cunningham
  • Posted January 29, 2018
  • In CCW, mythbusting

Things people say: “Don’t carry a nice gun.”

If you have a concealed carry firearm, and you use that firearm against another person, the chances of the police seizing that gun for evidence are very high. If your attacker is injured or dies, it’s a certainty that your gun will end up in the evidence locker. Once in evidence, your gun will not […]

What does “preparing for the worst case” mean?

In both the self defense and prepping communities, people talk about preparing — training and equipping — for “the worst case scenario”. “We train for the worst case”, schools brag (and their students claim). What, actually, is the worst case? The mind runs wild If you were to take a little time (or perhaps watch […]

Where are your tripwires?

Whether you’re prepping for survival or studying self defense against a criminal, you need to consider the circumstances under which you’d respond — where your tripwires are, the things that will trigger your response. Some people call them “a line in the sand” or “point of no return”, but no matter what the term the […]

More is not necessarily better, especially when you can’t take care of it

Any preparations you’ve made for your safety and protection — whether physical skills, gear and equipment, or storage commodities — need to be maintained to be useful. There is a cost to maintenance, and it’s one we often ignore in our zeal to always acquire more. That cost may affect your ability to respond efficiently […]

No, I don’t sell t-shirts. Here’s why.

Someone sent me a an email recently, and I’m sure the answer he got wasn’t the one he was expecting: “Why don’t you make up t-shirts for sale?”, he asked. “You could put quotes from your books on them, some of the cover art, etc. I’ll bet they’d do well.” Why not, indeed? I’ll admit it’s […]

After Las Vegas: Don’t be paranoid.

Following my recent post about the Las Vegas attack, someone sent me an email that said, in effect, the best way to survive such an attack was to not be there in the first place. If one only stayed away from all crowds, such as concerts and sporting events, one would never be the victim […]

Some lessons from the Las Vegas attack

As I write this it’s been five days since a man opened fire on a country music festival in Las Vegas, killing 58 people and wounding over 500. While information is still being processed by law enforcement, and there are still many unanswered questions about the motives of the attacker, enough information has come out […]

Bugging out, revisited.

As I’ve mentioned (and expanded on in Prepping For Life), I’m not usually a fan of the “bugout” concept — at least as it’s typically conceived. As many people think of it, bugging out is a semi-permanent relocation to a retreat preselected for its defensibility and likely stocked with survival provisions. Others think of bugging […]

You win 100% of the fights you don’t have

Ever heard the old saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”? It should be engraved on concealed carry licenses all across the country. You’re always better off taking small precautions (regular immunizations, checkups, and eating properly) to prevent getting sick than you are spending lots of money trying to get well […]
  • By Grant Cunningham
  • Posted July 25, 2017
  • In mythbusting

There’s a difference between “infuriated” and “threatened”

I’ve noticed a trend in the last year. More and more news stories are covering incidents where gun owners (usually with concealed carry licenses) use their firearms inappropriately or even recklessly. Along with this trend I’m also seeing more gun owners cheering them on, usually from a “get tough on criminals” point of view. As […]

Things people ask: “How do you write a book?”

I was finishing up the manuscript for my 10th book this week when I received an email asking, in essence, how to go about writing a book. I don’t know that I’m very good at it yet, nor that anyone should follow my example, but I certainly have some experience under my belt! Every author […]