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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 function is the same: the circumstances which ...
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With the recent attack on a church in Texas, in which 26 people were killed and dozens injured, many people are looking for ways to prevent or respond to such attacks. And there are others ready to prey on that need with bad or incomplete information. Everyone, it seems, is suddenly a “Church Security Consultant”.
As a result you can find lots of misguided articles and ...
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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 ...
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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 out as running to a wilderness area where they ...
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More great articles to help you and your family stay safe and sound!
…but do you know how to use it? Caleb Causey from Lone Star Medics shows you the basics of applying a tourniquet properly.
…but have you practiced applying it to yourself under a realistic scenario? Caleb’s back, this time with ...
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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 after the fact.
In self defense terms, it means that ...
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Another Wednesday, another Hump Day Reading List! I’ve got quite a variety today, all aimed at helping you live a safer, more secure life.
We’ve all seen them, and perhaps even consulted them from time to time. Maps showing gun laws and concealed carry restrictions are common on the ‘net, but how reliable are they? As it happens, ...
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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 whole. If you’ve ever been a little overwhelmed ...
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It’s starting to look like spring around here — great articles are popping up! This week: sighting in your defensive handgun; making fitness a priority; some questions about revolvers; defeating a dog attack; some great hotel safety tips; how to use body language to stay safer; and time out doesn’t necessarily mean giving up on your progress.
One of the things I find myself doing on a regular basis is serving as a counterpoint to the fantasies running rampant in the defensive shooting world. I do this by bringing rational thought to the topic of personal defense, and today I’m doing it again!
A recent article on the Concealed Nation website dealt with what to with your carry ...
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It’s Wednesday — time to get your personal security in gear! This week: an expert looks at “going to the ground” in a fight, and why you should consider grappling in your training; easy ways to blend in with the locals while traveling; how to decide between a rifle or a shotgun to protect your home; why a bug out trailer beats ...
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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 that didn’t make them any less miserable.
As ...
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I’ll start this week’s reading list with some shameless self-promotion: I’ve appeared on two different shows this week! Also: some considerations before you jump into someone else’s problem; your gun isn’t magic; don’t worry about what should be, focus on what is; how to handle “that guy” at the range; and how to avoid getting fleeced on your vacation.
Last weekend I appeared on Gun Freedom Radio with Dan & Cheryl Todd. We had a great conversation ...
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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 the door. There were no ...
Continue Reading →Get ready, because on January 24 I’m releasing the best guide to the defensive snubnose revolver ever written.
[waiting name=”Snubby Book Launch”]
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Just a few days ago a man with a history of mental issues boarded an airline in Alaska, after declaring his gun in checked luggage as required by law. He sat down in his seat and the suitcase containing his pistol and ammunition was placed in the cargo hold beneath him. When he got to his destination in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, he retrieved his luggage, went into ...
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I recently posted about the need for instructors to teach, and for students to learn, how to think during a defensive incident. Everyone agrees that it’s a necessary thing to do.
The problem is that many of the people agreeing don’t really know what it means.
Case in point: someone sent me a link to yet another video of a shooting drill. In it, ...
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A couple of weeks ago someone posted an interesting video on social media. It wasn’t the video itself which was interesting, but rather the reactions to it.
The video was of an exercise from a defensive shooting class. The exercise was a good example of forcing cognitive processing rather than a Pavlovian draw-and-fire response, which is good; a defensive encounter requires far more information processing ...
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My apologies if you’re not a fan of the show South Park, but an old episode has a training lesson for us.
On that episode, some little people known as Underpants Gnomes presented their 3-part success plan:
Phase 1: Steal underpants.
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: Profit!
The joke, of course, isn’t that there’s nothing in Phase 2; it’s that you can’t ...
Continue Reading →A really interesting List this week! We start with geese as a defensive tool (no, I’m not kidding); considerations to make before deciding to engage an active killer; a woman is dead because of an irresponsible and untrained gun owner; women shopping for defensive handguns; what to do and what not to do at a drive-through; how to secure private information on your smartphone; and how to use that phone to deal with 9-1-1.
I’ll admit ...
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I had a couple of great discussions with Rob Pincus and Caleb Causey on last night’s Training Talk show!
Rob talked about reality based training, force-on-force, and scenario training. Lots of people in the business use those terms interchangeably, but as Rob points out they’re not synonymous. It’s completely possible to have reality based training without running scenarios, and ...
Continue Reading →I found some more good stuff this week: a look at mindset; how to properly lock the slide open on a pistol; being aware of the psychopaths in your midst; how to avoid getting stomped in a fight; some thoughts on security in hotels; Greg Ellifritz looks at surviving the mob around your car; and thinking about vacation preparedness.
I’m sharing this article because it has some great information on preparing yourself mentally for the realities ...
Continue Reading →Another Wednesday brings more great defense and preparedness information! This week: how to make a response plan for a terrorist attack; an armed intervention gone horribly wrong; some novel methods to deter people from your home; some online privacy and security tips; considering the dynamics of criminal attacks; preparing for a power outage; a great pistol-caliber carbine to consider; Greg Ellifritz looks at the need to recognize gunshots. Enjoy!
How ...
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In the dim past (which wasn’t really all that long ago), if you needed to change something on your carry gun you took it to a gunsmith. You’d wait for him to do the work, pay him lots of money, and go home happy — more or less.
That was the state of things largely because making the available guns suitable for concealed carry and self defense required modifications. In fact, not all that many years ago it was difficult just to find ...
Continue Reading →Is it Wednesday already? Well, no fear — I have information for you! Today: a look at the problems with secure areas, especially when they’re really secure; an article explaining striker-fired pistols; a civil suit can be worse than the criminal trial; Greg Ellifritz shares how NOT to take care of your carry gun; Sheriff Jim Wilson looks at “scanning”; what training overload is and how to avoid it; some information about kidnappings; if you’re at work when a disaster ...
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I received quite a number of emails, blog comments and social media interaction about Friday’s topic, “Meaningless increments of precision.”
A large percentage of them asked questions or made statements which revealed that the person was fixated on the notion that becoming a better shooter makes or keeps someone safer. This is going to sound strange coming from a “gun guy”, and it’s going to make a lot of gun guys (and gals) mad, but that’s a really bad notion.
Because ...
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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 “meaningless increments of precision” to refer to those measurements which don’t add to our self protection knowledge or to our ability to defend ourselves. The measurement ...
Continue Reading →More great self defense articles this week, including: Julie Loeffler takes a look at common concealment methods for women; a realistic approach to defending schools; Greg Ellifritz shows you what to do if your attacker has pepper spray; the Taurus Judge is a joke for self defense; how to tell if the place you’re in is about to get dangerous; why you should carry more than one trauma kit; and dissecting the post-shooting “scan”. As always, you’ll find something you ...
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Every once in a while I see the tired old cliché “we face the same criminals the police do!” It’s usually used to justify some particular type of defensive firearms training, too often centered around the trainer’s police experience.
The idea, of course, is that we need to adopt the attitudes, tactics, and armament of law enforcement. (If you know anything about typical police training, it’s usually substandard — so much so that cops themselves joke about it. With rare exceptions, ...
Continue Reading →Wednesday is school day here on the blog! This week: how predators choose who to attack; window stickers might give you away; Cecil Burch says it’s okay to stay in your own lane; Greg Ellifritz has an important look at cultural norms and why you need to be aware of them; Rob Pincus talks about response planning for mass casualty attacks; parallax in non-technical terms; a story about a guy who understands the proper role of the defensive firearm; and ...
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