Make up your mind, before you need to

Daydreaming can be a good self defense technique. Here's an excellent example.

Posted by Grant Cunningham
On August 2, 2019

The critical skill no one teaches

The ability to judge risk is critical to the long game of self defense. (As it happens, it’s also critical to efficient preparedness, investing your retirement funds wisely, and the choice between flying or driving to your vacation destination.) Yet, despite its importance, it’s very rarely talked about — especially in the self defense community. […]

Posted by Grant Cunningham
On October 15, 2018

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 […]

Posted by Grant Cunningham
On November 6, 2017

An excerpt from my next book!

I’m writing another book, this one dealing with a structured approach to preparedness and personal security. It’s a different approach to the topic, and I think it will be tremendously useful to help you achieve a balanced approach to your safety. It integrates self defense, medical response, and disaster preparedness into a cohesive and manageable […]

Posted by Grant Cunningham
On April 28, 2017

Things people say: “If it ain’t raining, it ain’t training!”

I remember my first serious (multi-day) defensive shooting course. It was a spring day in the early 1990s and, as is normal here in the Pacific Northwet (no, that’s not a typo) it was raining like crazy. It was a cold, wet, miserable day. Being a native Oregonian I was prepared for the conditions, but […]

Posted by Grant Cunningham
On March 6, 2017

Think before you shoot. A long time before.

A sad tale crossed my desk earlier this week. It seems one Billy Williams was awakened in the night by one of his children, who reportedly told him that someone was trying to break into their house via the front door. Mr. Williams retrieved a handgun from a safe in his bedroom and walked to […]

Posted by Grant Cunningham
On January 27, 2017

Meaningless increments of precision — and why you should avoid them

When we talk about self defense (and particularly when gun people talk about self defense), the topic of measurement will eventually come up. In the gun world we love to measure things, and we can measure just about anything. The problem is that the measurements we make may not be important. I use the term […]

Posted by Grant Cunningham
On September 30, 2016

“It’s a training issue.” I don’t think that means what you think it means.

Hoo boy, I heard it again just the other day: “it’s a training issue”. The subject at hand was a discussion about the traditional double action pistol, the kind that has a long and heavy double action first shot and a shorter, lighter single action (DA/SA) for each subsequent shot. I’m not a fan of […]

Posted by Grant Cunningham
On April 11, 2016

You don’t need to be a SEAL to defend yourself with a firearm. You need more relevant skills.

Last week I got two emails about my front page headline: “You don’t need to be a Navy SEAL just to be safe!” One applauded me for “telling it like it is”, but the other one insisted that I was doing people a big disservice by saying that, because if everyone trained to the level […]

Posted by Grant Cunningham
On March 7, 2016

Airsoft for defensive shooting practice: good idea or a waste of time?

A question I’m frequently asked regards the value of non-firearm projectile launchers like Airsoft and BB guns as training devices for defensive shooting. This is a discussion that doesn’t lend itself to soundbites; there are some important principles which need to be understood to be able to gauge, for yourself, the value of any non-firearm […]

Posted by Grant Cunningham
On March 1, 2016

Do you carry religiously? You may not be as safe as you believe.

I know that most of the people reading this blog are here to learn about defensive shooting, concealed carry, firearms training, and related topics. The rest are interested in things like rifles, revolvers, reloading, and other technical issues. In other words, regardless of the group into which you fit, if you’re reading this you’re probably […]

Posted by Grant Cunningham
On January 18, 2016

The important role of a training partner in your defensive shooting skill development.

In the defensive shooting world we talk a lot about carry guns, calibers, holsters, belts, and all manner of accessories from flashlights to scopes. A large reason for this focus on things is because they’re easily understood and readily quantifiable; it’s easy to compare things by numbers, charts and graphs. We pay comparatively little attention […]

Posted by Grant Cunningham
On December 7, 2015

No, things really haven’t changed: self defense in a post-Paris world.

The bodies in Paris hadn’t even been buried when the agendas got trotted out. No, I’m not talking about gun control or immigration restrictions; I’m not talking about refugees or intelligence sharing or air strikes or border checkpoints, either. I’m talking about the “you need to prepare to deal with this new threat!” brigade. If […]

Posted by Grant Cunningham
On November 23, 2015

How many self defense classes have you taken this year? They may be holding you back!

One of the common recommendations in the training world is to study with as many different people or schools as you can, to get as many different perspectives as possible in order to get a more fully formed opinion of the subject of defensive shooting (or self defense in general.) I think the idea is […]

Posted by Grant Cunningham
On October 19, 2015

What’s the difference between tasks and skills in defensive shooting training? Does it matter?

When training defensive shooting techniques, it’s common — too common, in fact — to focus on the skill used rather than the task to be performed. Now some people will say that those are the same thing, but they’re not. In fact, they’re very different. I recently read an article on the importance of and […]

Posted by Grant Cunningham
On September 11, 2015

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