Hi Sheepdogs,
I address you as Sheepdogs because I recognize your ability and willingness to
protect the innocent. As my pastor says, you have a duty to protect the innocent.
You don't have to protect yourself. That's up to you. But you have a moral obligation
to protect the innocent. Even if they are not yet born. Even if they are old, useless,
and a burden to society. Even if they are mentally retarded.
This blog is continuing education for my students, friends, and interested parties.
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***** ***** ***** Software ***** ***** *****
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----- Safety ----- (How to prevent the bad thing from happening in the first place.
How to avoid shooting yourself, friendlies, and innocent bystanders.)
Jeff Cooper's Rules of Gun Safety
RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED.
RULE II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY.
RULE III: KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET.
RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET.
"If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it.
The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury. Therefore
what he must fear is his victim."
-- Col. Jeff Cooper
"Why Shooters Should ALWAYS Wear Eye & Ear Protection" by W.H. "Chip" Gross
https://www.nrafamily.org/content/why-shooters-should-always-wear-eye-ear-protection/
Excerpt:
"Guns and ammo are mechanical devices that can and do fail. You must be prepared."
“The problem with soft plugs alone is that some people don’t use them correctly;
they don’t insert them deeply enough into the ear canal, so the plugs don’t stay in place.”
[Roll and press the foam ear plug between your thumb and fingers until it is long and thin.
Insert it into your ear. It should slip in easily because it is so thin. If it doesn't, go back to
rolling and pressing. Once you have the ear plug inserted, hold it in place until it expands
completely. You should feel congested. You should not be able to easily pull the ear plug
out. -- Jon Low]
". . . always wear your “Eyes and Ears” on the range and in the field."
"6 Things You Need for Your First Visit to the Range" by Wendy LaFever
https://www.nrafamily.org/articles/2017/4/30/6-things-you-need-for-your-first-visit-to-the-range/
"Basic Firearm Safety" by Danyela D'Angelo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UhdgSCrg4g
John Farnam's rules to keep you out of trouble:
Don't go to stupid places.
Don't do stupid things.
Don't hang out with stupid people.
Be in bed by 10 PM. Your own bed.
Don't look like a freak.
Don't fail the attitude test.
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----- Mindset (figuring out the correct way to think) -----
If you look at someone bigger, faster, and stronger and immediately think,
'I'm at a disadvantage,'
I have news for you: you are.
But that's only because you just put yourself there for no reason.
The truth is that anyone can do debilitating violence to anyone else.
Your size, your speed, your strength, your gender --
all the factors that untrained people think make the difference when it comes to violence --
all matter far less than your mindset and your intent.
-- Tim Larkin
"The Fear of Guns Is No Gift; Here's How to Return It"
by Wendy LaFever
https://www.nrawomen.com/content/the-fear-of-guns-is-no-gift-here-s-how-to-return-it/
Excerpt:
"Fear serves a valuable purpose in our lives, but phobias don't."
"If your fear of guns has prevented you from learning about them or considering keeping
one for emergencies, I implore you to give it one more shot before you decide. We here at
the NRA are ready to help you, and we here at NRA Women are rooting for you."
"Lena Miculek on Conquering Fear"
https://www.nrawomen.com/content/brave-lena-miculek-on-conquering-fear/
Excerpt:
"The fact is, bravery isn't the same as fearlessness. Bravery is acknowledging fear,
accepting fear and facing it head-on. Fearlessness is your goal, but bravery is the only
road to it."
"The Problem with the Sheepdog Analogy" by Jo Deering
https://www.nrawomen.com/content/the-problem-with-the-sheepdog-analogy/
Excerpt:
"I have no interest in running around defending the sheep. If they don’t want to take
responsibility for their own safety, that’s their decision. I’m not one to put myself in harm’s
way to protect grown adults who have abdicated their responsibility to protect themselves.
Every person is going to feel differently about this, but I’m not likely to insert myself into
situations that aren’t my business. That’s not to say I would never intervene in a violent
situation, but in general, if I can get out instead of getting involved or using violence, I will.
The sheep (the adults, anyway—vulnerable children, elderly, disabled, etc. are a different
story) can live [or die] with the consequences of their own choices."
"Whatever you call me, I’m not a warrior seeking the chance to protect strangers. I don’t
even consider myself to be “walking the hero’s path” as Grossman said. I guess I don’t care
what you call me—just don’t call me a wolf, a sheep or a sheepdog."
"How to Carry a Gun and Feel Normal" by Jo Deering
https://www.nrawomen.com/content/how-to-carry-a-gun-and-feel-normal/
Excerpt:
"Don’t feel like you have to change everything about yourself
in order to fit a concealed carry handgun into your life."
"Panic is simply the lack of preprogrammed responses."
-- Tom Givens
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"Train, Practice, Compete
are the key elements in the development of humans."
-- John M. Buol, Jr.
----- Training (figuring out the correct tasks to learn) -----
Get your training now. The great ones are getting old and will retire or die soon. Many
have already died.
"Louis Awerbuck - Combat Shotgun"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdOJRRlVtwI
"Col. Jeff Cooper: Pistol readiness and marksmanship" (also Louis Awerbuck)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-Q8Mke3Om4&t=1376s
Rangemaster AUGUST 2022 NEWSLETTER
https://rangemaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/2022-08_RFTS-Newsletter.pdf
Lots of good stuff. But in particular for us,
"Engaging Moving Targets with the Handgun" by Tom Givens
and
"Ankle Holsters"
and
"DRILL OF THE MONTH"
"6 Conceal Carry Considerations For New Shooters" by Jeff L. Gonzales
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ox43nwdC84
Actually, this applies to old shooters too.
This was filmed at The Range in Austin, TX. I went there with my sister. She lives in Austin.
The Range is VERY nice. You can sip cognac and smoke cigars while watching (through sound
proof glass walls) people shoot on the second floor range while enjoying hors d'oeuvres. Hey,
some people like to watch.
You need training because:
You don't know what you don't know.
Much of what you know is false.
It's good to the have the answers before the criminal tests you.
-- Claude Werner (paraphrased)
"Parrying In A Gunfight? (like a sword)" by Mike Ox
https://dryfiretrainingcards.com/blog/parrying-in-a-gunfight-like-a-sword/
Are you training for this? ". . . close and on-the-move. . . . with loved ones and
innocents in almost every direction."
That blood trail is from the good guy. Even when you win . . .
"Take training from different instructors.
We are all wrong about something."
-- John Farnam
“The secret of success is this.
Train like it means everything when it means nothing –
so you can fight like it means nothing when it means everything.”
-- Lofty Wiseman
"Mindset, Gunhandling, and Marksmanship are the 3 disciplines you need to know."
-- Tom Givens
When I shot the Low Light match at the Glock Store in Nashville, TN, some of
the guys were using weapon mounted lights (WML) (which are necessary for long
guns, because you need both hands for holding the weapon). Guess what they were
doing with their WMLs? They were searching for targets. This violates our Safety
Rule II.
"So what? It's just a game."
It's a training scar. A very dangerous scar.
For civilians who are carrying concealed for self-defense, a weapon mounted light
is WRONG! Because they will use the WML to search.
"So what to do, Staff?"
Harries flashlight technique. Flashlight on the crown of your head. Flashlight on
your cheek bone. Flashlight in your hand with your arm stretched out as far as you
can (once taught at the FBI). There are lots of options.
"Be careful what you practice.
Because you will do in combat whatever you have practiced,
no matter how ridiculous."
-- "Shooting in Self-Defense" by Sara Ahrens
"When it comes time to learn self defense . . . you need to understand that there’s
a lot of things violence is not.
Violence is not a rough cage-match . . .
It is not a bar fight where everyone’s sharing beers ten minutes later . . .
And it’s definitely not words that “triggered” you . . .
However, many people who learn self defense would call those things violence.
Which is why they tend to call violence repugnant, negative, and something to be
avoided.
Now while the avoidance part is common sense . . . none of these are violence as
we define it.
In simple terms . . . violence is what happens when someone sustains an injury.
If you understand that . . . you understand what violence really is.
But the question now becomes . . .
Do you know what to look for to avoid violent situations? Or what to do if you
have no choice but to use violence to protect yourself and your loved ones from a
predator?
It’s one thing to understand violence for what it truly is . . . but it’s another to
understand what to do to survive if violence strikes.
-- Tim Larkin
---
Violence is smooth elegant effortless technique. No strength needed. At least
that's how it's been when I used it. That's how the Marine Corps taught it.
I was sitting in a coffee shop with wooden tables and wooden benches. A guy
came in, recognized me, and started moving toward me. I did not want to get attacked
sitting on a bench with my back to a wall and table in front of me. So I got up and
moved between the tables to meet him. I put my arms up and pushed him away (feint).
He grabbed my shirt and pulled me towards him, which was my intended purpose
(because he was much stronger and bigger than me). Because I was also pulling him
toward me, we came together much faster than he expected. I moved to my left, his right.
Swung my right leg up and down catching his right ankle/heel with my right ankle/heel,
kicking his right leg out from under him. Causing him to fall backwards, as I pushed
forward. I had intended to smash his head against the concrete floor. But, things
never go as planned. His head hit the edge of a table and snapped his head forward,
breaking his neck.
Yes, with practice, it is that effortless. It was one of the first techniques the
Drill Instructors taught us in recruit training. Twenty years later, it was still in
long-term memory and worked just fine.
-- Jon Low
Every month, I give a 4 hour lecture for students to get their Tennessee Concealed
Carry permit under the auspices of Concealed Coalition. (The students don't need the
permit to carry in Tennessee as we have had "Constitutional Carry" since July 1st of
last year. But it's good for reciprocity and other things. There is also a higher level permit,
the Tennessee Enhanced Handgun Permit, that allows for open carry and carry in
more places.)
When we have deaf students, Concealed Coalition will pay for two American Sign
Language interpreters for the deaf students. Which makes it much easier on me, as my
sign language skills are mediocre.
The deaf students are not very warm to the police, as their interactions generally
turn out badly. The police are not trained, nor are they familiar with the deaf community.
The police are slow to figure out that shouting instructions is the wrong thing to do.
For those of you who have been in law enforcement, you know that there is never enough
budget or time for training. Especially for training in such specialties as dealing with deaf
people. So the police officer will often shoot the deaf person, because the deaf person is
refusing to obey lawful commands. Because the deaf person cannot hear the lawful
commands.
With the proliferation of law abiding citizens purchasing pistols for self-defense
and the proliferation of training, I expect to see many more police officers shot. Police
must be careful, because deaf suspects make very sympathetic defendants. They've got
their sign language interpreter in the courtroom. They've got their family, friends, and
community in the gallery. It's politically difficult for a prosecutor to prosecute a disabled
person.
"I didn't now he was a police officer. He came up behind me without warning and
drove me to the ground. So, I shot him. Previous attacks on me and fellow members
of the deaf community informed my decision to defend myself with lethal force. The
police officer should have identified himself to me. His failure to do so is on him.
His failure to be cognizant of my disability is on him. I am not responsible for wearing
a sign on my back saying, 'Deaf Person'. Because that would attract an attack from
nasty persons. Which the police have consistently refused to protect me from."
I could go on, but you get the idea.
Claude Werner had asked if a conscious observer of an event (such as shooting
something) affects the event. And my answer was that there are certain denominations
of the religion of physics that claim that a conscious observer does affect the outcome
of an experiment. And depending on your interpretation of the model, may even be
required for a resultant quantum state to exist. The tree falling in the forest makes no
sound, unless there is a conscious observer to hear it.
May I invite your attention to
"How Many States Of Matter Are There?" by PBS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=184eP_KuXek
where the narrator talks about Prof. Max Tegmark's proposal that consciousness is a
state of matter (in the sense of solid, liquid, gas, plasma, etc.) in the information
theoretic sense. [See Jade's video cited below.]
We are not talking about whether or not a witness to the shooting will affect your
decision to shoot or not to shoot. We are talking about whether or not the presence
of a witness (as opposed to a security camera) will affect whether or not your bullet
hits the intended target. Yes, I know that I am talking about events at the macroscopic
level. But, even macroscopic events are affected by the Heisenberg Uncertainty
Principle.
In my physics classes, I would ask my students, "Can you get bowling balls to
diffract when passing through a doorway?" The answer is yes. The bowling ball
just needs to be moving very slowly, which is physically possible.
De Broglie wavelength = Plank's constant ÷ the momentum of the bowling ball
As long as the wavelength is equal to or longer than the width of the doorway, the
bowling balls will diffract. (The bowling balls will not go straight through the door
way, even if they don't hit the doorway. Rather, they will go off at some angle with
probability determined by the Schrodinger Wave Equation.)
"Wait a minute, Adjunct (sometime, part time) Professor Low, even at 0 Kelvin,
the zero point energy of the bowling ball will be high enough to make the wave
length of the bowling ball shorter than the width of the doorway."
This is of course a thought experiment, performed in deep space far away from any
mass. Zero point energy (vibrations of the bowling ball or heat of the bowling ball,
induced by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle) does not affect the translational
momentum of the bowling ball. If you were to do a statistical mechanics analysis you
would find that the zero point energy (or any other perturbation) would cancel out.
"Why Pure Information Gives Off Heat" by Jade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY-mbr-aAZE
Actually, there are reversible gates. The XOR (exclusive or) operation is reversible in
the sense that if you perform an xor operation using bit sequence A and bit sequence B
resulting in bit sequence C, A xor B = C, then it is now true that C xor B = A and that
C xor A = B. So, the original bit sequences can be recovered, so the operation is reversible.
(That's why XOR is so heavily used in cryptology.)
Of course, I may be wrong. I haven't played with these concepts in several decades.
Training is NOT an event, but a process.
Training is the preparation FOR practice".
-- Claude Werner
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----- Practice (how to get good at that task) -----
Practice is the small deposits you make over time,
so that in an emergency, you can make that big withdrawal.
-- Chesley Burnett Sullenberger, III
"3 Gun Basics" by Danyela D'Angelo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yw1F7-0tjI
Lots of useful videos.
Remington1816
https://www.youtube.com/c/remington
Why practice?
"To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment
when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and
offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique
to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if
that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that
which could have been their finest hour."
-- Winston Churchill
"Be careful what you practice.
Because you will do in combat whatever you have practiced,
no matter how ridiculous."
-- "Shooting in Self-Defense" by Sara Ahrens
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----- Strategy (deciding on the end state and how to achieve it, which tactics to use) -----
How do you win a gunfight?
Don't be there.
-- John Farnam
More details on the Greenwood Park Mall incident.
"Greenwood Park Mall mass shooting: First victim had a gun, no time to use it"
by Vic Ryckaert
https://www.wrtv.com/news/local-news/crime/greenwood-park-mall-mass-shooting-first-victim-had-a-gun-no-time-to-use-it
Just shows, you've got to have situational awareness, even when going to the
bathroom.
The good guy had no military or law enforcement training. His grandfather taught
him how to shoot. Good job, Grandpa! The good guy practiced tactically sound
techniques to accomplish his mission.
The good guy made the decision to execute his mission immediately. Bravo!
Awareness, Avoidance, De-Escalation, and Escape
You win gunfights by not getting shot.
-- John Holschen
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----- Tactics (tasks that you should strive to be able to do in support of your strategy) -----
"Real fights are short."
-- Bruce Lee
"Hero Elisjsha Dicken stopped Indiana mall gunman in 15 seconds,
not two minutes, police say" by Valerie Richardson
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jul/20/elisjsha-dicken-killed-indiana-mall-shooter-in-15-/
Forty yards. Your pepper spray ain't going to reach 40 yards.
Dicken has no police or military experience. He says his training was from his grandfather.
But the article doesn't say how extensive that training was.
"There Is No Sanctuary" by Sheriff Jim Wilson
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/there-is-no-sanctuary/
Excerpt:
"Crooks like it when you have all of your guns locked up in the gun safe, or stashed in a
closet in the back bedroom. To put it bluntly, when the door flies open, if you can’t put your
hand on a defensive firearm, you are probably going to lose."
"I live my life being able to put my hand on a defensive firearm at all times. I wish my
friend had chosen to live that way. And I hope that you do, too."
[You are at the top of the food chain because your ancestors chose to use tools. Honor
them and ensure your decedent's survival by using tools. -- Jon Low]
“And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and he wants you strong. So, take everything
the Master has set out for you, well made weapons of the best materials. And put them to
use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no
afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours.
This is for keeps, a life or death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.”
– Saul of Tarsus (The Apostle Paul)
Ephesians 6:10 - 12, The Message (a modern translation of the Bible)
"Parking Lots and Car Seats . . . " by John
https://civiliangunfighter.wordpress.com/2017/07/13/parking-lots-and-car-seats/
Excerpt:
". . . when your kids are involved, the threshold for employing lethal force is lowered.
Think critically about this before lethal force is required. Kids are one instance where
protection of others is likely going to be viewed through the lens of being justified."
"The shorter the fight, the less hurt you get."
-- John Holschen
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----- Techniques (ways to execute a given task in support of your tactics) -----
"Use only that which works,
and take it from any place you can find it."
-- Bruce Lee
"Yet Again – Entangled Weapons Fight" by Cecil Burch
https://www.iacombatives.com/2022/07/14/yet-again-entangled-weapons-fight/
Excerpt:
"I, for one, refuse to accept that I am helpless without gun. And here is a shining example
of how well that concept works for real."
"Use the Pinkie!
60 Second Shooting Tip"
by Tom McHale
https://americanhandgunner.com/discover/60-second-shooting-tip-use-the-pinkie/
The support-side hand little finger has the longest lever arm to the point of rotation and
hence the most effect on muzzle flip. That's why moving the support-side hand up in front
of the trigger guard is WRONG! Because it reduces the length of the lever arm.
Sorry, Lena Miculek, your grip is just wrong.
Push with the firing-side. Pull with the support-side. Works every time.
"It's not daily increase but daily decrease - hack away at the inessentials!"
-- Bruce Lee
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***** ***** ***** Instruction ***** ***** *****
Colonel Robert Lindsey to his fellow trainers:
"We are not God's gift to our students.
Our students are God's gift to us."
[And God has blessed me with many serious dedicated students. For which I am
eternally grateful. -- Jon Low]
----- Instructors -----
"Remember, the students who require the extra effort are the ones who need us the most!"
-- John Farnam
"Shooting with Hypermobility & Muscle Weakness: Physical Therapist’s Tips"
by Dr. Joseph Logar, PT, DPT
https://www.nrafamily.org/content/shooting-with-hypermobility-muscle-weakness-physical-therapist-s-tips/
You must know about this because your students may have these problems.
"Remember, the students who require the extra effort are the ones who need us the most!"
-- John Farnam
I am teaching a Defensive Pistol course at my church, Stephens Valley Church in Nashville,
TN. On Sunday, we determined that one student's pistol (Glock 23, Gen 4, 40 caliber) fits his
hand, but the trigger was too far forward for the length of his trigger finger. First thing Monday
morning he goes to the Glock Store and has the trigger replaced with a Pyramid trigger. He
tells me that the trigger is smooth and the break is crisp. Monday afternoon he calls me with
questions about the material we covered yesterday. It is such a blessing to have a serious
dedicated student.
Be careful what you teach.
Because your students will do in combat
whatever you have trained them to do,
no matter how ridiculous.
-- "Shooting in Self-Defense" by Sara Ahrens
----- Andragogy -----
An instructor should not expect any learning to take
place the first time new information is presented.
-- "Building Shooters" by Dustin Solomon
Excerpt from an email from Patrick Kilchermann --
Hello Responsibly Armed,
I believe it was the University of Kansas professor John Senior who I first heard speak
of the differences between convergent solutions and divergent solutions.
Convergent solutions, he said, are those that - once solved - are solved universally.
His example was the bicycle. To invent a bicycle (or lightbulb, or an umbrella) in one
place and at any time is to have invented them everywhere. Improvements can be made,
but those too are universal.
Divergent solutions (on the other hand) are those solutions that are 'correct' only for a
certain person or culture or situation or scenario, or only at that particular time. Educational
models, types of government, and utility clothing are good examples.
In the realm of 'concealed carry for the purpose of armed defense', if we are looking,
we can divide everything we discuss into these two categories.
Some things are objective realities, which we ourselves have to bend and conform to . . .
in our training, our gear selection, in our mindset development. Such as the wisdom found
within the Combat Dynamics physical and psychological principles and models. Or, what
pistol bullets are and aren't capable of. The philosophies of self defense. The governing
strategies for how fights avoided are won.
Other points within concealed carry are much more personal and subjective, and our
quest is an individual one, where we are looking for the things that work for us, personally,
right now. Tactics are all divergent (that is how you'll avoid a confrontation with 'this' man
here on 'this' night; how you'll fight a particular 'field problem'.) They are divergent because
every single scenario is made up of many unique and probably never-before-seen balances
of factors. (This is why the WISE WARRIOR learns to THINK . . . not to memorize a
bunch of asininely mechanical one-size-fits-all-drills).
To be even more egg-heady about this I'll say: This is why the art of concealed carry
proficiency, then, comes down to: (1) Learning the governing principles, and then
(2) learning to dynamically implement them as fast as possible in tons of unique situations.
These are two very different abilities! Most people are naturally good at only one of these
two aspects . . . but we must push ourselves out of our comfort zone and get good at both!
And we must become knowledgeable with #1 before we can effectively practice #2.
Many of our personal gear selection choices require divergent solutions. For this reason,
you've noticed that I don't spend a whole lot of time talking about specific pieces of gear.
Anything I could offer would at best be a starting point; at worst a derailment or distraction.
I'd rather educate on the bare minimum requirements of - say - a pistol, based on the
average demands of reality, and then let the individual user choose the pistol with the
preferred ergonomics and luxury features that fit within those constraints.
-- Patrick Kilchermann
"The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other.
Without collaboration, our growth is limited to our own perspectives."
-- Robert John Meehan
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***** ***** ***** Education ***** ***** *****
"You will never get smarter or broaden your horizons
if you're unwilling to learn from others and read."
-- Becca Martin
"Cogito, ergo armatum sum." (I think, therefore armed am I.)
-- John Farnam
*************************************************************************
----- Aftermath ----- (You have to be alive to have these problems: criminal and civil liability.)
“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him,
but because he loves what is behind him.”
― G.K. Chesterton
"What Do I Say After a Shooting?" by Greg Ellifritz
https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/what-do-i-say-after-a-shooting
High stress will induce diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain.
You will have false memories and temporary amnesia. So, you will NOT tell the responding
officers things that actually happened because you don't remember them. And you will
tell the responding officers things that did NOT happen because you have false memories.
You will not have seen obvious things that everyone else saw because you had tunnel
vision induced by high stress. You will not hear things that everyone else heard because
you will have auditory exclusion induced by high stress.
If you shit and piss on yourself, don't hide it. Tell the police officer, because it is physical
evidence that you feared for your life. Which is different from having a subjectively reasonable
fear of death or serious bodily injury, or having an objectively reasonable fear of death or
grave bodily injury. Now you have physical evidence. Politely ask the officer to let you go
to change your clothes and to take a shower because you defecated and urinated on yourself.
Your initial emotion may be elation, survivor euphoria. I'm alive! I won!
You may feel regret. I just took a human life.
You may feel self doubt. If I had waited, I might not have had to shoot him.
You may feel fear and panic. STOP! Don't flee. Don't tamper with evidence.
Don't lie to the responding officers. Just move yourself back into a state of regret
as best you can. You're not going to lie to the officers, because you're not going
to talk to the officers.
In the right hand column of this web page, click on "Never Talk To The Police"
or use the direct address
https://defensivepistolcraft.blogspot.com/p/never-talk-to-police.html
In the right hand column, click on the link labeled "Self Defense Insurance".
Or, the direct link is,
http://defensivepistolcraft.blogspot.com/p/self-defense-insurance.html
“Your understanding and consent are not required
for someone to take your life, kill your loved ones,
and destroy all you hold dear.”
-- William Aprill
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Legal ***** ***** *****
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.
It is wholly inadequate for the governance of any other.
-- John Adams, October 11, 1798
"OOPS! When Bystanders are SHOT: The LEGAL Consequences!" by Andrew Branca
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL0FsLL3EJU
Deep analysis.
Mens Rea: (the state of mind, the intent)
1) Accident, you didn't know there was a danger, you could not have known. No liability.
2) Negligence, you should have known there was a danger. Civil liability.
(Self-defense is not a defense against negligence.)
3) Reckless, you knew there was a danger, but you didn't care. Criminal and civil liability.
(Self-defense is not a defense against recklessness.)
4) Intentional, you intended to kill him. Criminal and civil liability.
(Self-defense is a perfect defense against intentional homicide. No criminal or civil liability.)
Good Samaritan laws don't apply.
Doctrine of "Transferred Intent".
Strict liability.
"Kansas court: Self defense does not apply when a bystander is hurt"
https://www.foxnews.com/us/kansas-court-self-defense-does-not-apply-bystander-hurt
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger, W2MRA.
Excerpt:
"A Kansas law allowing deadly force against an attacker doesn't protect people from
prosecution if a bystander is injured, the state's highest court declared Friday. The Kansas
Supreme Court ruled in the case of a Wichita police officer whose shots at a charging dog
wounded a 9-year-old girl. The justices ordered a trial in Sedgwick County District Court
for former Officer Dexter Betts on a felony reckless aggravated battery charge. The December
2017 shooting happened after Betts and other officers responded to a call about domestic
violence and a suicide threat at a Wichita home. Once inside, the dog charged at Betts, and
he fired twice. His shots missed and hit the floor, and bullet fragments hit the girl above an
eye and on a toe, according to the court's decision. Betts argued that he acted in self defense.
A judge dismissed the case before trial, and the Kansas Court of Appeals upheld that decision.
But Supreme Court Justice Dan Biles, writing for a unanimous state Supreme Court, said
Kansas law grants immunity from prosecution for force used specifically against an attacker
and doesn't mention bystanders. Kansas Supreme Court rules that self-defense laws don't
apply when the bystander is injured. "If the Legislature wishes to extend self-defense
immunity when an innocent bystander is hurt, it can do so," Biles wrote. "In the meantime,
we find nothing in the statutes providing a blanket shield for reckless conduct injuring an
innocent bystander who was not reasonably perceived as an attacker."
---
The real problem of course is that Betts missed. Lack of training and practice has dire
consequences. A friend of ours from the Palmetto Gun Club fired 5 copper jacketed round
nose 45 ACP bullets into a dog that attacked him. None of the bullets passed through the dog.
They all remained in the dog. So it's obvious to me that if Betts had hit what he was
aiming at there would have been no problem. -- Jon Low
---
This is of course a thought experiment, performed in deep space far away from any
mass. Zero point energy (vibrations of the bowling ball or heat of the bowling ball,
induced by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle) does not affect the translational
momentum of the bowling ball. If you were to do a statistical mechanics analysis you
would find that the zero point energy (or any other perturbation) would cancel out.
"Why Pure Information Gives Off Heat" by Jade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY-mbr-aAZE
Actually, there are reversible gates. The XOR (exclusive or) operation is reversible in
the sense that if you perform an xor operation using bit sequence A and bit sequence B
resulting in bit sequence C, A xor B = C, then it is now true that C xor B = A and that
C xor A = B. So, the original bit sequences can be recovered, so the operation is reversible.
(That's why XOR is so heavily used in cryptology.)
Of course, I may be wrong. I haven't played with these concepts in several decades.
Training is NOT an event, but a process.
Training is the preparation FOR practice".
-- Claude Werner
*************************************************************************
----- Practice (how to get good at that task) -----
Practice is the small deposits you make over time,
so that in an emergency, you can make that big withdrawal.
-- Chesley Burnett Sullenberger, III
"3 Gun Basics" by Danyela D'Angelo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yw1F7-0tjI
Lots of useful videos.
Remington1816
https://www.youtube.com/c/remington
Why practice?
"To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment
when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and
offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique
to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if
that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that
which could have been their finest hour."
-- Winston Churchill
"Be careful what you practice.
Because you will do in combat whatever you have practiced,
no matter how ridiculous."
-- "Shooting in Self-Defense" by Sara Ahrens
*************************************************************************
----- Strategy (deciding on the end state and how to achieve it, which tactics to use) -----
How do you win a gunfight?
Don't be there.
-- John Farnam
More details on the Greenwood Park Mall incident.
"Greenwood Park Mall mass shooting: First victim had a gun, no time to use it"
by Vic Ryckaert
https://www.wrtv.com/news/local-news/crime/greenwood-park-mall-mass-shooting-first-victim-had-a-gun-no-time-to-use-it
Just shows, you've got to have situational awareness, even when going to the
bathroom.
The good guy had no military or law enforcement training. His grandfather taught
him how to shoot. Good job, Grandpa! The good guy practiced tactically sound
techniques to accomplish his mission.
The good guy made the decision to execute his mission immediately. Bravo!
Awareness, Avoidance, De-Escalation, and Escape
You win gunfights by not getting shot.
-- John Holschen
*************************************************************************
----- Tactics (tasks that you should strive to be able to do in support of your strategy) -----
"Real fights are short."
-- Bruce Lee
"Hero Elisjsha Dicken stopped Indiana mall gunman in 15 seconds,
not two minutes, police say" by Valerie Richardson
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jul/20/elisjsha-dicken-killed-indiana-mall-shooter-in-15-/
Forty yards. Your pepper spray ain't going to reach 40 yards.
Dicken has no police or military experience. He says his training was from his grandfather.
But the article doesn't say how extensive that training was.
"There Is No Sanctuary" by Sheriff Jim Wilson
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/there-is-no-sanctuary/
Excerpt:
"Crooks like it when you have all of your guns locked up in the gun safe, or stashed in a
closet in the back bedroom. To put it bluntly, when the door flies open, if you can’t put your
hand on a defensive firearm, you are probably going to lose."
"I live my life being able to put my hand on a defensive firearm at all times. I wish my
friend had chosen to live that way. And I hope that you do, too."
[You are at the top of the food chain because your ancestors chose to use tools. Honor
them and ensure your decedent's survival by using tools. -- Jon Low]
“And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and he wants you strong. So, take everything
the Master has set out for you, well made weapons of the best materials. And put them to
use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no
afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours.
This is for keeps, a life or death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.”
– Saul of Tarsus (The Apostle Paul)
Ephesians 6:10 - 12, The Message (a modern translation of the Bible)
"Parking Lots and Car Seats . . . " by John
https://civiliangunfighter.wordpress.com/2017/07/13/parking-lots-and-car-seats/
Excerpt:
". . . when your kids are involved, the threshold for employing lethal force is lowered.
Think critically about this before lethal force is required. Kids are one instance where
protection of others is likely going to be viewed through the lens of being justified."
"The shorter the fight, the less hurt you get."
-- John Holschen
*************************************************************************
----- Techniques (ways to execute a given task in support of your tactics) -----
"Use only that which works,
and take it from any place you can find it."
-- Bruce Lee
"Yet Again – Entangled Weapons Fight" by Cecil Burch
https://www.iacombatives.com/2022/07/14/yet-again-entangled-weapons-fight/
Excerpt:
"I, for one, refuse to accept that I am helpless without gun. And here is a shining example
of how well that concept works for real."
"Use the Pinkie!
60 Second Shooting Tip"
by Tom McHale
https://americanhandgunner.com/discover/60-second-shooting-tip-use-the-pinkie/
The support-side hand little finger has the longest lever arm to the point of rotation and
hence the most effect on muzzle flip. That's why moving the support-side hand up in front
of the trigger guard is WRONG! Because it reduces the length of the lever arm.
Sorry, Lena Miculek, your grip is just wrong.
Push with the firing-side. Pull with the support-side. Works every time.
"It's not daily increase but daily decrease - hack away at the inessentials!"
-- Bruce Lee
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Instruction ***** ***** *****
Colonel Robert Lindsey to his fellow trainers:
"We are not God's gift to our students.
Our students are God's gift to us."
[And God has blessed me with many serious dedicated students. For which I am
eternally grateful. -- Jon Low]
----- Instructors -----
"Remember, the students who require the extra effort are the ones who need us the most!"
-- John Farnam
"Shooting with Hypermobility & Muscle Weakness: Physical Therapist’s Tips"
by Dr. Joseph Logar, PT, DPT
https://www.nrafamily.org/content/shooting-with-hypermobility-muscle-weakness-physical-therapist-s-tips/
You must know about this because your students may have these problems.
"Remember, the students who require the extra effort are the ones who need us the most!"
-- John Farnam
I am teaching a Defensive Pistol course at my church, Stephens Valley Church in Nashville,
TN. On Sunday, we determined that one student's pistol (Glock 23, Gen 4, 40 caliber) fits his
hand, but the trigger was too far forward for the length of his trigger finger. First thing Monday
morning he goes to the Glock Store and has the trigger replaced with a Pyramid trigger. He
tells me that the trigger is smooth and the break is crisp. Monday afternoon he calls me with
questions about the material we covered yesterday. It is such a blessing to have a serious
dedicated student.
Be careful what you teach.
Because your students will do in combat
whatever you have trained them to do,
no matter how ridiculous.
-- "Shooting in Self-Defense" by Sara Ahrens
----- Andragogy -----
An instructor should not expect any learning to take
place the first time new information is presented.
-- "Building Shooters" by Dustin Solomon
Excerpt from an email from Patrick Kilchermann --
Hello Responsibly Armed,
I believe it was the University of Kansas professor John Senior who I first heard speak
of the differences between convergent solutions and divergent solutions.
Convergent solutions, he said, are those that - once solved - are solved universally.
His example was the bicycle. To invent a bicycle (or lightbulb, or an umbrella) in one
place and at any time is to have invented them everywhere. Improvements can be made,
but those too are universal.
Divergent solutions (on the other hand) are those solutions that are 'correct' only for a
certain person or culture or situation or scenario, or only at that particular time. Educational
models, types of government, and utility clothing are good examples.
In the realm of 'concealed carry for the purpose of armed defense', if we are looking,
we can divide everything we discuss into these two categories.
Some things are objective realities, which we ourselves have to bend and conform to . . .
in our training, our gear selection, in our mindset development. Such as the wisdom found
within the Combat Dynamics physical and psychological principles and models. Or, what
pistol bullets are and aren't capable of. The philosophies of self defense. The governing
strategies for how fights avoided are won.
Other points within concealed carry are much more personal and subjective, and our
quest is an individual one, where we are looking for the things that work for us, personally,
right now. Tactics are all divergent (that is how you'll avoid a confrontation with 'this' man
here on 'this' night; how you'll fight a particular 'field problem'.) They are divergent because
every single scenario is made up of many unique and probably never-before-seen balances
of factors. (This is why the WISE WARRIOR learns to THINK . . . not to memorize a
bunch of asininely mechanical one-size-fits-all-drills).
To be even more egg-heady about this I'll say: This is why the art of concealed carry
proficiency, then, comes down to: (1) Learning the governing principles, and then
(2) learning to dynamically implement them as fast as possible in tons of unique situations.
These are two very different abilities! Most people are naturally good at only one of these
two aspects . . . but we must push ourselves out of our comfort zone and get good at both!
And we must become knowledgeable with #1 before we can effectively practice #2.
Many of our personal gear selection choices require divergent solutions. For this reason,
you've noticed that I don't spend a whole lot of time talking about specific pieces of gear.
Anything I could offer would at best be a starting point; at worst a derailment or distraction.
I'd rather educate on the bare minimum requirements of - say - a pistol, based on the
average demands of reality, and then let the individual user choose the pistol with the
preferred ergonomics and luxury features that fit within those constraints.
-- Patrick Kilchermann
"The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other.
Without collaboration, our growth is limited to our own perspectives."
-- Robert John Meehan
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Education ***** ***** *****
"You will never get smarter or broaden your horizons
if you're unwilling to learn from others and read."
-- Becca Martin
"Cogito, ergo armatum sum." (I think, therefore armed am I.)
-- John Farnam
*************************************************************************
----- Aftermath ----- (You have to be alive to have these problems: criminal and civil liability.)
“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him,
but because he loves what is behind him.”
― G.K. Chesterton
"What Do I Say After a Shooting?" by Greg Ellifritz
https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/what-do-i-say-after-a-shooting
High stress will induce diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain.
You will have false memories and temporary amnesia. So, you will NOT tell the responding
officers things that actually happened because you don't remember them. And you will
tell the responding officers things that did NOT happen because you have false memories.
You will not have seen obvious things that everyone else saw because you had tunnel
vision induced by high stress. You will not hear things that everyone else heard because
you will have auditory exclusion induced by high stress.
If you shit and piss on yourself, don't hide it. Tell the police officer, because it is physical
evidence that you feared for your life. Which is different from having a subjectively reasonable
fear of death or serious bodily injury, or having an objectively reasonable fear of death or
grave bodily injury. Now you have physical evidence. Politely ask the officer to let you go
to change your clothes and to take a shower because you defecated and urinated on yourself.
Your initial emotion may be elation, survivor euphoria. I'm alive! I won!
You may feel regret. I just took a human life.
You may feel self doubt. If I had waited, I might not have had to shoot him.
You may feel fear and panic. STOP! Don't flee. Don't tamper with evidence.
Don't lie to the responding officers. Just move yourself back into a state of regret
as best you can. You're not going to lie to the officers, because you're not going
to talk to the officers.
In the right hand column of this web page, click on "Never Talk To The Police"
or use the direct address
https://defensivepistolcraft.blogspot.com/p/never-talk-to-police.html
In the right hand column, click on the link labeled "Self Defense Insurance".
Or, the direct link is,
http://defensivepistolcraft.blogspot.com/p/self-defense-insurance.html
“Your understanding and consent are not required
for someone to take your life, kill your loved ones,
and destroy all you hold dear.”
-- William Aprill
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Legal ***** ***** *****
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.
It is wholly inadequate for the governance of any other.
-- John Adams, October 11, 1798
"OOPS! When Bystanders are SHOT: The LEGAL Consequences!" by Andrew Branca
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL0FsLL3EJU
Deep analysis.
Mens Rea: (the state of mind, the intent)
1) Accident, you didn't know there was a danger, you could not have known. No liability.
2) Negligence, you should have known there was a danger. Civil liability.
(Self-defense is not a defense against negligence.)
3) Reckless, you knew there was a danger, but you didn't care. Criminal and civil liability.
(Self-defense is not a defense against recklessness.)
4) Intentional, you intended to kill him. Criminal and civil liability.
(Self-defense is a perfect defense against intentional homicide. No criminal or civil liability.)
Good Samaritan laws don't apply.
Doctrine of "Transferred Intent".
Strict liability.
"Kansas court: Self defense does not apply when a bystander is hurt"
https://www.foxnews.com/us/kansas-court-self-defense-does-not-apply-bystander-hurt
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger, W2MRA.
Excerpt:
"A Kansas law allowing deadly force against an attacker doesn't protect people from
prosecution if a bystander is injured, the state's highest court declared Friday. The Kansas
Supreme Court ruled in the case of a Wichita police officer whose shots at a charging dog
wounded a 9-year-old girl. The justices ordered a trial in Sedgwick County District Court
for former Officer Dexter Betts on a felony reckless aggravated battery charge. The December
2017 shooting happened after Betts and other officers responded to a call about domestic
violence and a suicide threat at a Wichita home. Once inside, the dog charged at Betts, and
he fired twice. His shots missed and hit the floor, and bullet fragments hit the girl above an
eye and on a toe, according to the court's decision. Betts argued that he acted in self defense.
A judge dismissed the case before trial, and the Kansas Court of Appeals upheld that decision.
But Supreme Court Justice Dan Biles, writing for a unanimous state Supreme Court, said
Kansas law grants immunity from prosecution for force used specifically against an attacker
and doesn't mention bystanders. Kansas Supreme Court rules that self-defense laws don't
apply when the bystander is injured. "If the Legislature wishes to extend self-defense
immunity when an innocent bystander is hurt, it can do so," Biles wrote. "In the meantime,
we find nothing in the statutes providing a blanket shield for reckless conduct injuring an
innocent bystander who was not reasonably perceived as an attacker."
---
The real problem of course is that Betts missed. Lack of training and practice has dire
consequences. A friend of ours from the Palmetto Gun Club fired 5 copper jacketed round
nose 45 ACP bullets into a dog that attacked him. None of the bullets passed through the dog.
They all remained in the dog. So it's obvious to me that if Betts had hit what he was
aiming at there would have been no problem. -- Jon Low
---
Jon,
There are several problems with the reporting of this event, however.
First, it appears the decision focused on the question of self-defense IMMUNITY,
not SELF-DEFENSE. One might act in complete consistency with the law of self-defense,
but still have to make the case at court and not qualify for pre-trial immunity.
Second, the argument by the State is that the officer acted recklessly. Conduct that is
reckless can never be lawful self-defense, by definition, because self-defense must be
reasonable, and recklessness is the absence of reasonableness.
Best regards,
Andrew F. Branca
"Can you FIRE your lawyer? The SURPRISING Answer!" by Andrew Branca
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG9v7m2CYT8
Your attorney is not your butler. He's not there to answer all your questions.
The court appointed attorney is a Constitutional right (if you can't afford an attorney),
but you don't get to choose which attorney (The court decides.).
Strickland test.
Nelson hearing.
Your court appointed public defender is handling 100 to 200 other cases beside yours.
You think he is going to spend any time with you? How much time do you think
he is going to spend on your case? That's why you have to hire your own attorney
and pay him in full up front. After the case is resolved, the client has no incentive
to pay the attorney, and all attorney's know this. So, if you don't have a million
dollars in a savings account, you better have a premium self-defense insurance policy.
---
There was a high profile murder case in Hawaii many decades ago. Because of
the politics, the optics, the judge felt he had to appoint a politically powerful reputable
attorney, so the public, the activists, wouldn't complain about the defendant getting
There are several problems with the reporting of this event, however.
First, it appears the decision focused on the question of self-defense IMMUNITY,
not SELF-DEFENSE. One might act in complete consistency with the law of self-defense,
but still have to make the case at court and not qualify for pre-trial immunity.
Second, the argument by the State is that the officer acted recklessly. Conduct that is
reckless can never be lawful self-defense, by definition, because self-defense must be
reasonable, and recklessness is the absence of reasonableness.
Best regards,
Andrew F. Branca
"Can you FIRE your lawyer? The SURPRISING Answer!" by Andrew Branca
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG9v7m2CYT8
Your attorney is not your butler. He's not there to answer all your questions.
The court appointed attorney is a Constitutional right (if you can't afford an attorney),
but you don't get to choose which attorney (The court decides.).
Strickland test.
Nelson hearing.
Your court appointed public defender is handling 100 to 200 other cases beside yours.
You think he is going to spend any time with you? How much time do you think
he is going to spend on your case? That's why you have to hire your own attorney
and pay him in full up front. After the case is resolved, the client has no incentive
to pay the attorney, and all attorney's know this. So, if you don't have a million
dollars in a savings account, you better have a premium self-defense insurance policy.
---
There was a high profile murder case in Hawaii many decades ago. Because of
the politics, the optics, the judge felt he had to appoint a politically powerful reputable
attorney, so the public, the activists, wouldn't complain about the defendant getting
railroaded by the system. So, the judge appointed my father, thinking that dad would
make a good show of it and the riots would be avoided. But dad's reputation was on
the line, because it was a very high profile case.
The court has a fixed amount that they pay court appointed attorneys, which was
far below dad's normal fees. But in Hawaii, when the court appoints a member of the
bar, the member cannot decline. So dad was effectively taking the case pro bono,
including private investigators, expert witnesses, etc.
Courtroom battles are just like wars. If you've got all your evidence and witnesses
lined up and your arguments are researched and backed with citations, you know you're
going to win. And your intelligence and counter intelligence units should make sure
your enemy knows that you're going to win. Because that controls the enemy's behavior.
So over dinner at Oahu Country Club, dad told the prosecutor, "Do yourself a favor and
drop all charges, otherwise you're going to look like an idiot."
That's the kind of attorney you want, not the overworked public defender.
Buy an insurance policy. They are dirt cheap, because good guys rarely use them.
"Law of Defense of Others: Defense of Family v. Strangers v. Active Shootings"
by Andrew Branca
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGWpKdp3q8A
Only 11 states require all 5 elements of self-defense. The other 39 states have no "Duty to
Retreat". So the principle of avoidance is off the table. The prosecutor can't claim that you
didn't have the privilege to use lethal force because you could have run away.
---
Reasonable person standard. In just about all states.
Alter ego standard. In South Carolina and maybe other states depending on how the trial
court interprets the case law.
---
Defense of strangers. High legal risk. High ambiguity.
In a domestic, she will testify against you. Sorry, that's just reality. In some cases, the wife
and kids will show their appreciation for you stopping the man from beating them by
stabbing you with scissors, jumping you and scratching your eyes, etc. What? You thought
they were the Brady Bunch? You're going to end up Macing all of them. And they will all
testify that you were the initial aggressor.
Defense of people you know. Low legal risk. Low ambiguity.
Defense of strangers in an active murderer event. Zero legal risk. No ambiguity.
---
Res Ipsa Loquitur.
"If you carry a gun, so you're hard to kill, know the law, so you're hard to convict."
Free infographic on the 5 elements of self-defense.
https://LawOfSefDefense.com/elements/
Free one hour webinar, every Wednesday at 13:00 Central Time, register at,
https://www.hardtoconvict.com/
"Law of Self Defense" by Andrew Branca
https://lawofselfdefense.com/freebook/
The book is free of charge. Just pay shipping, so you don't have to drive to Colorado
to pick it up.
Law of Self Defense YouTube.com channel
https://www.youtube.com/c/Lawofselfdefense/videos
Law of Self Defense Rumble.com channel
https://www.Rumble.com/lawofselfdefense/
"Educate yourself. So, you don't spend the rest of your life in a cage."
"Take 2! Shooting the Fleeing Aggressor: Can That EVER Be Lawful?" by Andrew Branca
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1T5RBVfDsI
"House Passes ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban" by Stephen Gutowski
https://thereload.com/house-passes-assault-weapons-ban/
Excerpt:
". . . the bill would not have passed except for support from Republican representatives
Jacobs (N.Y.) and Fitzpatrick (Pa.) since five Democrats voted against it."
"The Senate has not announced any scheduled votes on its version of the ban."
[Both of these Republicans have committed political suicide. Jacobs has already announced
that he will not be running for re-election. What do you think Nancy Pelosi gave them for
their vote?
It's not the same for Democrats. They are like the Mafia. They may go to prison, but they
never commit suicide. Only the law enforcement and military types commit suicide when
they get caught. Few people practice, "Death Before Dishonor". Having it tattooed on your
arm doesn't mean shit.
-- Jon Low]
"Gun shop in residential area near governor's mansion does not need zoning permit,
city officials say" by Grace Altenhofen
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2022/07/28/gun-shop-iowa-governors-mansion-does-not-need-zoning-permit/10161406002/
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger, W2MRA
http://spw-duf.info
Excerpt:
Elizabeth and Travis Aslin of Des Moines appealed to the Des Moines Zoning Board of
Adjustment for a conditional use permit to allow their firearms business to operate out of their
home on Forest Drive. The home, located across the street from Terrace Hill, the Iowa
governor's mansion, will be used for online firearm sales and on-premises customer pickups.
A public hearing with the Zoning Board of Adjustment had been scheduled for Wednesday.
Neighbors who signed a petition against the business's conditional use permit planned to
attend. However, the hearing was removed from the agenda after Zoning Enforcement Officer
Erik Lundy announced Tuesday that the business does not need a zoning permit, and
"the proposed use is permitted in this zoning district." A new law signed by
Gov. Kim Reynolds last month, codified in section 414.33 of the Code of Iowa, prevents cities
from prohibiting any "no-impact, home-based business" – home businesses that do not
exceed municipal occupancy limits or create parking issues. The law also says a city may not
"otherwise require a person to apply, register, or obtain any permit, license, variance, or other
type of prior approval from the city to operate a no-impact home-based business." Aslin's
business is protected under this law, according to Lundy's decision, and therefore does not
need a conditional use permit to operate. A 2020 law signed by Gov. Reynolds also prohibits
cities from regulating the ownership and storage of firearms.
“Is there no virtue among us?
If there is not, we are without hope!
No form of government, existing nor theoretical, will keep us from harm.
To think that any government, in any form,
will insure liberty and happiness for a dishonorable population
represents the height of self-deception.”
-- James Madison, 1788
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Hardware (which includes you) ***** ***** *****
*************************************************************************
"I would like to see every woman know how to handle
guns as naturally as they know how to handle babies."
-- Annie Oakley
----- Gear -----
“Mission drives the gear train.”
-- Pat Rogers
"Random Thoughts From CCW Qualification" by Mike Wood, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.)
https://revolverguy.com/random-thoughts-from-ccw-qualification/
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger, W2MRA. The following are Wenger's excerpt and comments.
" I [Mike Wood] attended a state-mandated refresher class to renew my CCW permit last
week, and had the opportunity to see about sixty “regular folks” (versus hardcore gun
enthusiasts, like us) complete a basic qualification test with their chosen gear . . . I had an
autopistol to shoot in addition to my revolver, so I shot that one first, and spent the rest of my
time helping other shooters load their mags, policing brass, and observing the festivities, as
I waited my turn to shoot my revolver, at the end. Boy, did I get an eyeful . . . This qualification
event was quite remarkable, as I’ve never seen so many failures to fire in one setting. It was
honestly, breathtakingly, shocking! I must have seen three dozen failures to fire across the 60
shooters and 160+/- guns that attempted the course, and I probably didn’t even catch all of
them. I’ve never seen so many malfunctions in a group of shooters before. The course of fire
required shooters to load five rounds in their magazine for each of the ten strings of fire, and I
saw several shooters who were lucky to fire one or two of those five successfully, on some
strings, with the other three or four winding up on the ground. It was hard, from my vantage
point, to determine the reason for all of these failures. Most of them appeared to be
shooter-induced failures. I saw a large number of slides that did not go into battery, and while
some of these stoppages may have resulted from equipment or maintenance issues, I’d be
willing to bet most of them were caused by a weak grip/platform, or by riding the slide when
the first round was chambered. I also suspect that errant thumbs and fingers interfered with
the free travel of the slide in many cases, especially on the smaller guns. A couple rounds
looked like they were jacked out when typically-ignored safety levers inadvertently worked
their way into the ON position, and deactivated the trigger, prompting the confused shooter to
cycle the slide in an attempt to remedy the problem. I was actively policing the brass between
strings, and got the opportunity to inspect a lot of the unfired rounds that had been manually
ejected by the shooters as they attempted to fix their pistols. There were a few duds in the mix,
that didn’t go off with a solid primer strike, and I actually witnessed a handful of these as they
happened, but they didn’t account for more than about 10% of the unfired rounds . . . About a
third of the rounds had light primer strikes, and these were probably the most concerning of all.
These light strikes hinted at a mechanical problem with the gun, such as a broken firing
pin/striker, or a firing pin/striker that was “glued” in place by a buildup of excess solvents,
lubricants, and debris — a condition which is entirely avoidable, given proper maintenance
practices, but appears to be distressingly common, particularly in law enforcement circles,
where firearms maintenance doesn’t always get the attention it deserves. It’s also possible
that the ammo could have been a problem (improper dimensions, resulting in too much
headspace, or a particularly robust primer), but again, my brief visual inspection of these
recovered rounds didn’t suggest it. The ammo looked good, outside of the light primer
strikes . . . While I was policing all that brass, I found an ejector rod for some kind of revolver.
The darned thing had unscrewed, and was just sitting there on the deck. Oops. Someone was
in for a bad surprise. Hopefully they figured it out before the gun was placed back into service.
It was a good reminder for all of us to check screws and ejector rods during our normal
maintenance and function checks. Screws really do back out under recoil, and every
RevolverGuy should have a properly-fitting screwdriver in his cleaning kit . . . Alas, it turns out
that all was not well in revolver-land, either. As we loaded our cylinders for the first string of
fire, I saw the shooter to my right point his gun at me, as he attempted to load the gun using
the most . . . creative, method I’d ever seen. If you can imagine, this shooter had the gun lying
flat on its right side, with the grip pointing towards his belly and the barrel pointing to his left
(at me!). He held the gun by pinching the top strap between the thumb and index finger of his
left hand, while his right hand tried to feed the chambers by sliding rounds into them from
right to left, parallel with the deck . . . After I pushed the gun away and told him to keep it
pointed downrange, he apologized and explained the obvious – that he didn’t have any
experience with the gun. We took a time out and I showed him how to accomplish the task
safely and properly, and things went uneventfully after that. It proved an important point,
though. Revolver shooters are a minority these days, and well-trained revolver shooters are
even more scarce. There was a time, in the not-too-distant past, when the revolver was the
baseline – the handgun everyone grew up with, the handgun that dominated the shooting
sports, the handgun that most institutional training programs were based upon – but that time
has passed. It’s an autopistol world now, and the “institutional knowledge” of the revolver in
the greater “gun community” is at a low . . .
---
Something that I've observed in a community with a lot of firearm enthusiasts is the many
spend big bucks on fancy pistols to shoot at the range but shop for “inexpensive” snubby
revolvers to carry on the street and spend very little time honing skill with them. As Mike
suggests and I have stated repeatedly the “institutional knowledge” of us Revolversaurus rex
types is fading and those square-gunners who do own a revolver as some form of insurance
would do well to learn from us while we're still around.
-- Stephen P. Wenger, W2MRA
---
If you have a thumb safety on your pistol that you press down to deactivate, you must
keep your thumb on top of the safety when shooting to ensure it stays down. Otherwise,
something will bump it and the pistol won't work. (model 1911's, Browning Hi Powers, etc.)
If you have a thumb safety that deactivates by being pressed up, the design is WRONG!
Get another pistol.
The court has a fixed amount that they pay court appointed attorneys, which was
far below dad's normal fees. But in Hawaii, when the court appoints a member of the
bar, the member cannot decline. So dad was effectively taking the case pro bono,
including private investigators, expert witnesses, etc.
Courtroom battles are just like wars. If you've got all your evidence and witnesses
lined up and your arguments are researched and backed with citations, you know you're
going to win. And your intelligence and counter intelligence units should make sure
your enemy knows that you're going to win. Because that controls the enemy's behavior.
So over dinner at Oahu Country Club, dad told the prosecutor, "Do yourself a favor and
drop all charges, otherwise you're going to look like an idiot."
That's the kind of attorney you want, not the overworked public defender.
Buy an insurance policy. They are dirt cheap, because good guys rarely use them.
"Law of Defense of Others: Defense of Family v. Strangers v. Active Shootings"
by Andrew Branca
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGWpKdp3q8A
Only 11 states require all 5 elements of self-defense. The other 39 states have no "Duty to
Retreat". So the principle of avoidance is off the table. The prosecutor can't claim that you
didn't have the privilege to use lethal force because you could have run away.
---
Reasonable person standard. In just about all states.
Alter ego standard. In South Carolina and maybe other states depending on how the trial
court interprets the case law.
---
Defense of strangers. High legal risk. High ambiguity.
In a domestic, she will testify against you. Sorry, that's just reality. In some cases, the wife
and kids will show their appreciation for you stopping the man from beating them by
stabbing you with scissors, jumping you and scratching your eyes, etc. What? You thought
they were the Brady Bunch? You're going to end up Macing all of them. And they will all
testify that you were the initial aggressor.
Defense of people you know. Low legal risk. Low ambiguity.
Defense of strangers in an active murderer event. Zero legal risk. No ambiguity.
---
Res Ipsa Loquitur.
"If you carry a gun, so you're hard to kill, know the law, so you're hard to convict."
Free infographic on the 5 elements of self-defense.
https://LawOfSefDefense.com/elements/
Free one hour webinar, every Wednesday at 13:00 Central Time, register at,
https://www.hardtoconvict.com/
"Law of Self Defense" by Andrew Branca
https://lawofselfdefense.com/freebook/
The book is free of charge. Just pay shipping, so you don't have to drive to Colorado
to pick it up.
Law of Self Defense YouTube.com channel
https://www.youtube.com/c/Lawofselfdefense/videos
Law of Self Defense Rumble.com channel
https://www.Rumble.com/lawofselfdefense/
"Educate yourself. So, you don't spend the rest of your life in a cage."
"Take 2! Shooting the Fleeing Aggressor: Can That EVER Be Lawful?" by Andrew Branca
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1T5RBVfDsI
"House Passes ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban" by Stephen Gutowski
https://thereload.com/house-passes-assault-weapons-ban/
Excerpt:
". . . the bill would not have passed except for support from Republican representatives
Jacobs (N.Y.) and Fitzpatrick (Pa.) since five Democrats voted against it."
"The Senate has not announced any scheduled votes on its version of the ban."
[Both of these Republicans have committed political suicide. Jacobs has already announced
that he will not be running for re-election. What do you think Nancy Pelosi gave them for
their vote?
It's not the same for Democrats. They are like the Mafia. They may go to prison, but they
never commit suicide. Only the law enforcement and military types commit suicide when
they get caught. Few people practice, "Death Before Dishonor". Having it tattooed on your
arm doesn't mean shit.
-- Jon Low]
"Gun shop in residential area near governor's mansion does not need zoning permit,
city officials say" by Grace Altenhofen
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2022/07/28/gun-shop-iowa-governors-mansion-does-not-need-zoning-permit/10161406002/
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger, W2MRA
http://spw-duf.info
Excerpt:
Elizabeth and Travis Aslin of Des Moines appealed to the Des Moines Zoning Board of
Adjustment for a conditional use permit to allow their firearms business to operate out of their
home on Forest Drive. The home, located across the street from Terrace Hill, the Iowa
governor's mansion, will be used for online firearm sales and on-premises customer pickups.
A public hearing with the Zoning Board of Adjustment had been scheduled for Wednesday.
Neighbors who signed a petition against the business's conditional use permit planned to
attend. However, the hearing was removed from the agenda after Zoning Enforcement Officer
Erik Lundy announced Tuesday that the business does not need a zoning permit, and
"the proposed use is permitted in this zoning district." A new law signed by
Gov. Kim Reynolds last month, codified in section 414.33 of the Code of Iowa, prevents cities
from prohibiting any "no-impact, home-based business" – home businesses that do not
exceed municipal occupancy limits or create parking issues. The law also says a city may not
"otherwise require a person to apply, register, or obtain any permit, license, variance, or other
type of prior approval from the city to operate a no-impact home-based business." Aslin's
business is protected under this law, according to Lundy's decision, and therefore does not
need a conditional use permit to operate. A 2020 law signed by Gov. Reynolds also prohibits
cities from regulating the ownership and storage of firearms.
“Is there no virtue among us?
If there is not, we are without hope!
No form of government, existing nor theoretical, will keep us from harm.
To think that any government, in any form,
will insure liberty and happiness for a dishonorable population
represents the height of self-deception.”
-- James Madison, 1788
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Hardware (which includes you) ***** ***** *****
*************************************************************************
"I would like to see every woman know how to handle
guns as naturally as they know how to handle babies."
-- Annie Oakley
----- Gear -----
“Mission drives the gear train.”
-- Pat Rogers
"Random Thoughts From CCW Qualification" by Mike Wood, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.)
https://revolverguy.com/random-thoughts-from-ccw-qualification/
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger, W2MRA. The following are Wenger's excerpt and comments.
" I [Mike Wood] attended a state-mandated refresher class to renew my CCW permit last
week, and had the opportunity to see about sixty “regular folks” (versus hardcore gun
enthusiasts, like us) complete a basic qualification test with their chosen gear . . . I had an
autopistol to shoot in addition to my revolver, so I shot that one first, and spent the rest of my
time helping other shooters load their mags, policing brass, and observing the festivities, as
I waited my turn to shoot my revolver, at the end. Boy, did I get an eyeful . . . This qualification
event was quite remarkable, as I’ve never seen so many failures to fire in one setting. It was
honestly, breathtakingly, shocking! I must have seen three dozen failures to fire across the 60
shooters and 160+/- guns that attempted the course, and I probably didn’t even catch all of
them. I’ve never seen so many malfunctions in a group of shooters before. The course of fire
required shooters to load five rounds in their magazine for each of the ten strings of fire, and I
saw several shooters who were lucky to fire one or two of those five successfully, on some
strings, with the other three or four winding up on the ground. It was hard, from my vantage
point, to determine the reason for all of these failures. Most of them appeared to be
shooter-induced failures. I saw a large number of slides that did not go into battery, and while
some of these stoppages may have resulted from equipment or maintenance issues, I’d be
willing to bet most of them were caused by a weak grip/platform, or by riding the slide when
the first round was chambered. I also suspect that errant thumbs and fingers interfered with
the free travel of the slide in many cases, especially on the smaller guns. A couple rounds
looked like they were jacked out when typically-ignored safety levers inadvertently worked
their way into the ON position, and deactivated the trigger, prompting the confused shooter to
cycle the slide in an attempt to remedy the problem. I was actively policing the brass between
strings, and got the opportunity to inspect a lot of the unfired rounds that had been manually
ejected by the shooters as they attempted to fix their pistols. There were a few duds in the mix,
that didn’t go off with a solid primer strike, and I actually witnessed a handful of these as they
happened, but they didn’t account for more than about 10% of the unfired rounds . . . About a
third of the rounds had light primer strikes, and these were probably the most concerning of all.
These light strikes hinted at a mechanical problem with the gun, such as a broken firing
pin/striker, or a firing pin/striker that was “glued” in place by a buildup of excess solvents,
lubricants, and debris — a condition which is entirely avoidable, given proper maintenance
practices, but appears to be distressingly common, particularly in law enforcement circles,
where firearms maintenance doesn’t always get the attention it deserves. It’s also possible
that the ammo could have been a problem (improper dimensions, resulting in too much
headspace, or a particularly robust primer), but again, my brief visual inspection of these
recovered rounds didn’t suggest it. The ammo looked good, outside of the light primer
strikes . . . While I was policing all that brass, I found an ejector rod for some kind of revolver.
The darned thing had unscrewed, and was just sitting there on the deck. Oops. Someone was
in for a bad surprise. Hopefully they figured it out before the gun was placed back into service.
It was a good reminder for all of us to check screws and ejector rods during our normal
maintenance and function checks. Screws really do back out under recoil, and every
RevolverGuy should have a properly-fitting screwdriver in his cleaning kit . . . Alas, it turns out
that all was not well in revolver-land, either. As we loaded our cylinders for the first string of
fire, I saw the shooter to my right point his gun at me, as he attempted to load the gun using
the most . . . creative, method I’d ever seen. If you can imagine, this shooter had the gun lying
flat on its right side, with the grip pointing towards his belly and the barrel pointing to his left
(at me!). He held the gun by pinching the top strap between the thumb and index finger of his
left hand, while his right hand tried to feed the chambers by sliding rounds into them from
right to left, parallel with the deck . . . After I pushed the gun away and told him to keep it
pointed downrange, he apologized and explained the obvious – that he didn’t have any
experience with the gun. We took a time out and I showed him how to accomplish the task
safely and properly, and things went uneventfully after that. It proved an important point,
though. Revolver shooters are a minority these days, and well-trained revolver shooters are
even more scarce. There was a time, in the not-too-distant past, when the revolver was the
baseline – the handgun everyone grew up with, the handgun that dominated the shooting
sports, the handgun that most institutional training programs were based upon – but that time
has passed. It’s an autopistol world now, and the “institutional knowledge” of the revolver in
the greater “gun community” is at a low . . .
---
Something that I've observed in a community with a lot of firearm enthusiasts is the many
spend big bucks on fancy pistols to shoot at the range but shop for “inexpensive” snubby
revolvers to carry on the street and spend very little time honing skill with them. As Mike
suggests and I have stated repeatedly the “institutional knowledge” of us Revolversaurus rex
types is fading and those square-gunners who do own a revolver as some form of insurance
would do well to learn from us while we're still around.
-- Stephen P. Wenger, W2MRA
---
If you have a thumb safety on your pistol that you press down to deactivate, you must
keep your thumb on top of the safety when shooting to ensure it stays down. Otherwise,
something will bump it and the pistol won't work. (model 1911's, Browning Hi Powers, etc.)
If you have a thumb safety that deactivates by being pressed up, the design is WRONG!
Get another pistol.
-- Jon Low
If the gun store clerk tells you that the trigger on your pistol cannot be moved to
accommodate the length of your trigger finger, he lies. A competent gunsmith can move the
trigger. Some gunsmiths won't do the job for fear of liability. But some will.
"Some girls don't like guys like me. Ah, but some girls do." -- Sawyer Brown
Moving the stock trigger may not be the best option. You may need to replace the trigger
with an after market trigger. That's fine.
Your grip must fit your firing side hand. The tips of your middle finger and ring finger
must be able to point back towards you.
Your trigger must fit your trigger finger. When the pistol is gripped correctly (barrel in line
with the bones in the forearm, web between the thumb and index finger up high and tight
against the tang, middle finger tight against the bottom of the trigger guard) and the slack is out
of the trigger, your trigger finger should be pressing the trigger straight to the rear. No vector
component of lateral force.
You would never wear shoes or gloves that did not fit. Why would you use a pistol that
doesn't fit your hand and trigger finger? The life of your loved ones will depend on your
competence. So get it right.
"4 Ways to Choose Your First Concealed-Carry Gun
Don't worry about what's "best." Here's how to find what's best for YOU."
by Brad Fitzpatrick
https://www.nrafamily.org/content/4-ways-to-choose-your-first-concealed-carry-gun/
Excerpt:
"Chances are you wouldn’t ask someone else to choose a car for you to purchase, to order
your dinner, or to select and furnish your next home. But new shooters often allow others to
make decisions about the firearm that they will use for personal protection."
"Pistol Red Dots: What Happens When They Fail" by Dave Merrill
https://www.recoilweb.com/water-is-wet-red-dots-break-136643.html
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger, W2MRA
The article gives several suggestions for aiming the pistol when the red dot sight fails.
Excerpts:
"Iain Harrison tells us he replaced Tasco PDP2s every couple thousand rounds, simply
because the early red dot sights couldn’t handle the recoil. In the world of competitive
shooting, this is partially why larger custom frame-mounted, non-reciprocating dots gained
in popularity. Physically mounting a red dot to a pistol slide is rough as hell on an optic.
How rough? 10,000Gs with some setups. That kind of force can make a whole helluva lot
fail, especially when an optic gets hammered for thousands of rounds . . . "
[The real problem with slide mounted red dot sights is that it changes the mass of the slide.
That affects the reliability of the pistol. Have you cut the slide to compensate for the extra
mass of the sight? Have you changed the recoil spring to compensate for the change in mass
and mass distribution? -- Jon Low]
"Some day we’ll reach the point where slide-riding red dots will be as durable as their rifle
brethren."
[Red dot sights on rifles don't reciprocate. So they are not getting banged back and forth
with every shot. So the comparison is specious. -- Jon Low]
"It’s not just dots dying either. The window can become obscured from cracks, rain, an
accidental drop in the mud, or merely severe fogging from rapid environmental changes like
stepping out of an air-conditioned car into hot, muggy weather."
[If there are water droplets on your window, you will see many red dots. If there is fog
on your window, you will see large star bursts. -- Jon Low]
---
[The window is a concave reflector that creates a virtual image. The red dot is a virtual
image, not a real image. This is a problem on many levels. But, you'll need to take an
optics class at your local college physics department to understand why. The problem
for combat purposes is that if the red dot sight gets knocked out of zero, you won't be able
to tell. With iron sights, the sights will look wrong, pushed off to one side or the other. But
with a red dot sight, the error in the sight could be microscopic and internal. So you will
never notice it. Until you hit the wrong guy. But in combat, you might not notice that either.
-- Jon Low]
If you live in an apartment where the maintenance guys (or others) have keys to your
apartment, you need to keep your guns (and other valuable stuff) locked up; in a closet,
in a foot locker, in a toolbox, etc. Steel cable through the pipes under your sink might help.
But not much if they are plastic. A safe bolted into the floor or wall would be nice. But who
can afford such? Putting a lock on a closet door is pretty easy and cheap.
Craft Holsters
https://www.craftholsters.com/
Free Economy Shipping From $199
I prefer IWB holsters.
https://www.craftholsters.com/iwb-holsters
Galco Holsters
https://www.galcogunleather.com/
I prefer IWB (Inside the Waistband) holsters.
https://www.galcogunleather.com/holsters_8_1.html
Coupon Code: WELCOME15
“Your car is not a holster.”
-- Pat Rogers
----- Technical / Maintenance -----
"Fear is an instinct. Courage is a choice."
-- Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, USN
How Terminal Ballistics Helps You Choose the Right Ammunition (Pt. 1)
https://www.nrafamily.org/articles/2018/7/31/how-terminal-ballistics-helps-you-choose-the-right-ammunition/
Terminal Ballistics & How to Choose the Right Ammunition (Pt. 2)
https://www.nrafamily.org/articles/2018/8/7/terminal-ballistics-how-to-choose-the-right-ammunition-pt-2/
Excerpt:
"The range of impact velocities over which a hollowpoint bullet will expand is considerably
narrower than soft-point bullets. Hollowpoint bullets striking at velocities that are below their
expansion threshold behave like full-metal-jacket bullets, i.e., they do not expand at all."
Terminal Ballistics & How to Choose the Right Ammunition (Pt. 3)
https://www.nrafamily.org/content/terminal-ballistics-how-to-choose-the-right-ammunition-pt-3/
[For self-defense, use the heaviest bullet you can get. Penetration is king. Over penetration
is not an issue. Missing is the issue. -- Jon Low]
"The Association of Firearm Caliber With Likelihood of Death
From Gunshot Injury in Criminal Assaults"
by Anthony A. Braga, PhD and Philip J. Cook, PhD
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2688536
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger, W2MRA.
Bottom Line Up Front: Shoot the largest caliber bullet that you can shoot accurately,
because it does make a difference statistically and in real world gunfights.
This is why I carry 45 ACP and recommend you do. Accurate shooting is a matter of
technique, not strength. Pistol recoil is very light compared to rifle or shotgun.
Stopping the attack requires penetration. Because you must strike a vital organ in order to
stop the attack. The heavier bullet will give you deeper penetration.
"But my bullet already has way more penetration than needed to pass through a human."
False! Ballistic gelatin tests don't contain any bones. Your bullets in combat will need to
penetrate bones, human arms and shoulders, heavy leather jackets, thick leather belts, sheet
steel car doors, car windshields, windows of buildings, etc.
You need deep penetration. That means +P ammo. That mean 230 grain bullets.
You win gunfights with speed, power, and accuracy. Speed and accuracy can be controlled
in real time during the gunfight. Power is what you choose to carry. It is fixed long before
the gunfight.
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
-- Second Amendment, U.S. Constitution
(capitalization as in the original document, militia refers to YOU)
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Personal Security, Medical, Survival, etc. ***** ***** *****
"If you prepare for the emergency,
the emergency ceases to exist!"
-- Dr. Sherman House
Don't live in flood zones. Don't go into flood zones when it's raining.
Don't live in gun-free-zones. Don't go into gun-free-zones. Don't send your children into
gun-free-zones. Gun-free-zones are criminal magnets.
Heed tornado warnings. Heed hurricane warnings. Heed flood warnings.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
"If you stay fit, you do not have to get fit.
If you stay trained, you do not have to get trained.
If you stay prepared, you do not have to get prepared."
-- Robert Margulies
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** War Stories, History, Politics, and such ***** ***** *****
"Good habits and skill beat luck every time."
-- Sheriff Jim Wilson
"Conceit and Arrogance!" by John Farnam
https://defense-training.com/conceit-and-arrogance/
“Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied”
-- Otto Von Bismarck
"Trust?" by John Farnam
https://defense-training.com/trust-2/
“A basal suspicion (and simultaneous distrust) of government and of all politicians,
is both healthy and essential in a free republic”
-- Newman
A place to shoot.
Nilo farms (Olin spelled backwards) Open to the public.
https://nilofarms.com/
15025 IL-111, Brighton, IL 62012
Phone: 618-466-0613
"NILO Nirvana: Winchester's Gift To American Sportswomen Turns 70"
https://www.nrawomen.com/content/nilo-nirvana-winchester-s-gift-to-american-sportswomen-turns-70/
A premier sporting clays venue. Pheasant pie.
Hoping to see you all at the Tennessee Firearms Association annual banquet.
https://tfalac.org/2022-annual-event/
Saturday, September 3, 2022
Admission starts at 9:00 AM CST
Event Activities start approximately 10:00 AM CST
Farm Bureau Expo Center at the at the
James E. Ward Agricultural Center on the
Wilson County Fairgrounds.
945 East Baddour Parkway, Lebanon, Tennessee 37087
“Tyrants are the children of vanity” -- Sophocles
"Disarm a Nation" by John Farnam
https://defense-training.com/disarm-a-nation/
“To conquer a nation, first disarm its citizens.” -- Adolf Hitler
Remember, Hitler lead the NAZI party. NAZI stands for National Socialist. He and his
followers were socialists. The liberals lie when they say that the NAZIs are right wingers.
The NAZIs, Klu Klux Klanners, Aryan Nations, etc. are all left wingers, because they are
all socialists. Just as the Democrats are socialists. Not all Democrats were KKK, but all
KKK were Democrats.
"The Final Images We Will Ever See of Pluto and Arrokoth" by Astrum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5XPuS-Y0fg
Political correctness runs deep. The narrator refused to pronounce Uranus correctly.
"FURY INCOMING:
ATF Director backs SCOTUS decision as “Law of the Land”
Brace for impact!" by Langley Outdoors Academy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df5Zl_lxNDY
Actually, this is exactly what a competent ATF Director would say. The ATF is not
political, is simply here to enforce law, not to make law, and the U.S. Supreme Court
decisions are the law of the land. Notice the Director's body language.
“Racist!” by John Farnam
https://defense-training.com/racist/
“I wonder if you realize that when you browbeat people who disagree with you into silence,
because they don't want to be called ‘hater,’ ‘bigot,’ whatever, their silence will create for you
the illusion that you're winning.
But, it's just an illusion, an illusion you find so intoxicating that you're completely
unprepared when the moment of truth comes . . . and you lose.”
-- Dan Calabrese
No one is coming for your abortions, all we want is common sense abortion control.
https://www.tiktok.com/@unpopular_opinion_queen/video/7107402018238532907
"The FBI data from 2014 to 2021 claims that 18 times someone legally carrying a gun
stopped a mass public shooting. By contrast, our list contains 46 cases."
-- Dr. John R. Lott, Jr. PhD
"UPDATED: Compiling Cases where concealed handgun permit holders have stopped
likely mass public shootings"
https://crimeresearch.org/2022/07/uber-driver-in-chicago-stops-mass-public-shooting/
"Crime Prevention Research Center"
https://crimeresearch.org/
In case you don't understand the state of our economy.
"Tucker Carlson: It turns out we're insane"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TdRdn6BqrA
"Your character is what you do when no one is looking."
-- Thomas Jefferson
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Cryptology ***** ***** *****
"Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe,
and preserve order in the world as well as property.
Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of their use."
-- Thomas Paine
[Cryptosystems are considered "arms" by federal law.
ITAR, International Traffic in Arms Regulations]
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Used to be National Bureau of Standards (NBS) when I worked there.
Still in Gaithersburg, MD.
"Cryptography, Overview"
https://www.nist.gov/cryptography
This page contains links to the things they are interested in. Notice what they are not interested
in.
"Post-Quantum Cryptography PQC"
https://csrc.nist.gov/Projects/Post-Quantum-Cryptography/Post-Quantum-Cryptography-Standardization
This page contains the links to the meat.
"Cryptographic Standards and Guidelines, Overview"
https://csrc.nist.gov/Projects/Cryptographic-Standards-and-Guidelines
In Cryptologic Communications School, I remember Gunny Wheeler explaining to us
how the two crypto systems were moving back and forth in time trying to synchronize with
each other, as we listened to the audio output from the machines. Good memories.
But, memories are not all we old farts have left. As my pastor says,
"Why aren't you dead yet? Because God has stuff for you to do. So do it."
A college classmate called me and asked for help with a ransomware
attack on a friend's company. I told him to ignore the attack and just
restore the data from back up. He told me that the company did not
have any back up system. I told him, that's the problem, not the
ransomware attack. Eventually, the local disk drives would fail
(naturally, or by natural disaster, or by design) and they would have
the same problem. My classmate told me that his friend who ran
the company told him that they could not afford to back up their data.
I said that doesn't make sense, as memory is free (as taught in all
engineering schools when designing databases, storage systems, etc.).
My classmate got back to me later saying that his friend told him that
they could not do remote back up because the data was sensitive
and the vendor could not guarantee data security in transit or at
the remote site. I said that doesn't make sense, as they could encrypt
their data before back up.
And then I realized that I was talking to the risk mitigation guy
at the company (through my classmate, his friend, and others). They
were trying to figure out what they were going to say to the insurance
company to justify their stupidity.
It's rarely a research endeavor. It's usually a literature search. Sometimes it's hard to
search. Google is particularly bad for our searches. You must use the other search engines,
as the old or retired professors. Quickly, before they die.
Section 8.5 Jacobi Methods
". . . they are inherently parallel."
[We never brute force anything. -- Jon Low]
Section 7.2 Pertubation Theory
"None of the decompositions in the preceding section can be calculated exactly because of
roundoff error and because eigenvalue algorithms are iterative and must be terminated after
a finite number of steps."
[So you must understand the underlying. -- Jon Low]
"Matrix Computations" by Gene H. Golub and Charles F. Van Loan (yes, that Van Loan)
John Hopkins University Press, 1989.
ISBN 0-8018-3772-3
ISBN 0-80183739-1
Library of Congress Catalog Number 88-45404
Check out the dedication.
---
May I invite your attention to
T. F. Chan (1988). "An optimal Circulant Preconditioner for Toeplitz Systems", SIAM.
J. Sci. Stat. Comp. 9, 766-771.
I remember playing in SIAM. Great memories.
"Why you can't solve quintic equations (Galois theory approach)" by Mathemaniac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCU9tZ2VkWc
I love such videos.
“Worried about Quantum Computing?” by Jonathan D. Low
If you fear the bad guys will be able to decrypt your encrypted data using quantum
computers, you’re worrying about the wrong thing. Cryptanalysis is hard. (Persons who can
do it are rare. Persons who can do it, who also have the hardware resources to do it are
extremely rare.) Bribery, sexual seduction, extortion, blackmail, etc. are easy. Social engineering is
very easy.
Scenario 1. I drop a few thumb drives (perhaps labeled “Salaries” or “Payroll”) out in your
parking lot, I guarantee one of your employees will plug it into a computer on your network,
it will infect your network, and I’ll be in your network by this evening.
Scenario 2. I investigate your employees and find one with a special interest. I accidentally
bump into the employee and strike up a conversation (admiring her tattoos “Were those done
by Diego?”, “Your children are so well behaved, it says a lot about you.”, etc.) We accidentally
discover our common interest in her special interest. I tell her that I must share information
with her. I ask her for a thumb drive to copy files onto, or I pull out a flash drive that I copy
files onto from my laptop computer and give it to her. The information will be of high value.
She will be delighted. I will adjust my level of excitement to her level of excitement. When
she sees her husband, she joyfully shares the information with him by plugging the drive into
his computer. The next time he logs into his work computer from his personal laptop, I’m in.
(He never transferred malicious files onto a company computer, nor did he break any of the
company’s security protocols.)
If you want to make your computer network more secure:
0) Train your employees. There is no substitute for training. You can’t install software or
hardware that will defeat human stupidity. You must train your employees. Don’t plug
unknown devices into the network. Don’t click on links in emails, until you verify the link
with the sender as to purpose and authenticity. Don’t open email attachments, until you
verify the attachment with the sender as to purpose and authenticity. If the sender is just
sending you something that he thought was cool, you should assume that the sender was
duped and is unknowingly passing malicious material to you. I could go on, but you get the
idea.
1) Stop forcing your employees to change their passwords. Good passwords never go stale.
Bad passwords are not improved by being replaced by bad passwords. So have your
employees create good passwords and leave them alone. If you have a policy of changing
passwords on a periodic basis, you are cryptologically wrong. And the enemy will take
advantage of your stupidity.
2) Stop forcing your employees to create passwords that they cannot remember. This forces
them to record the password somewhere, which defeats the security of having passwords.
Forcing the user to use certain characters restricts the space of passwords. That means the
space is smaller and therefore easier to search. If your policy forces your employees to use
particular characters, you are cryptologically wrong. The enemy will take advantage of your
stupidity.
3) Stop forcing employees to work at home. Every link you put between your users and your
servers degrades security (and increases ping time). If you fear Covid-19 (or any other variant
or any other disease), stop, gather data, and think. Believing Dr. Anthony Fauci is not thinking.
It’s believing, which is not the same as thinking.
“Thinking is the hardest thing a person can do.
That’s why so few people do it.” – Henry Ford
Okay, Staff, so how do you create strong passwords? Consider a string of numbers that has
significance to you and so is in your long-term memory. The social security number of your
wife is not good. Your wife is public knowledge. Social security numbers are findable. Your
mistress’ street number, birth date, measurements, and phone number would be a reasonable
string. Hold down the shift key, type in the string, release the shift key. That would be a
reasonable character sequence to embed in your password.
Avoid words that appear in any dictionary in the world, including names of people, places, or
things. Dictionary attacks are a thing. Rather, consider poems, phrases, or clauses that you
know well. “and in the darkness bind them.” Which would compress to “aitdbt” or
“AITDBT” or “AiTdBt”, etc. That would be a reasonable character sequence to concatenate
in your password.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
---
Communication security requires at least two things: Something you know and something
you have.
The something you know could be your password, which can be changed if you allow it to
be compromised.
The something you have may be a pseudo-random number generator that is synchronized
with the generator running on the server. Or it may be a number sent to your phone. The
possibilities are limited by your imagination. Your fingerprint or iris scan is not something you
have. They cannot be changed. Once they are compromised, you’re screwed forever. If your
hands are cut up, covered with blood or dirt, the biometric readers won’t recognize your
fingerprint.
The next level after "something you know" and "something you have" would be the
"user’s ability to satisfy a zero-knowledge proof protocol" with the server. You claim to be
Alice. The server asks you a question based on the identity of Alice. You respond. Based on
the response and the profile of Alice, the server asks a question. (Consider how the Israelis
interview persons at their airports. Go deep, digging for more detail with each question.)
You respond. At worst, the protocol should be halving the probability of you not being Alice
with every correct response. But the server does not end the game until a set number of
questions are answered (correctly or incorrectly). If the server is satisfied, it grants access to
whichever accounts are appropriate. If not, it grants access to a honey pot. Pooh Bear loves
honey.
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil."
-- Donald Knuth
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Intelligence ***** ***** *****
“You are no more armed because you are wearing a pistol
than you are a musician because you own a guitar.”
from "Principles of Personal Defense" by Col. Jeff Cooper, USMC, (1920 – 2006 A.D.)
"OSINT At Home #9 – My Top 4 Free Satellite Imagery Sources"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OONjbRAR-TM
OSINT = Open Source Intelligence
“If you are reading this and can’t put your hand on your defensive firearm,
all of your training is wasted.” -- Col. Jeff Cooper
*************************************************************************
Semper Fidelis,
Jonathan D. Low
Email: Jon_Low@yahoo.com
Radio: KI4SDN
If the gun store clerk tells you that the trigger on your pistol cannot be moved to
accommodate the length of your trigger finger, he lies. A competent gunsmith can move the
trigger. Some gunsmiths won't do the job for fear of liability. But some will.
"Some girls don't like guys like me. Ah, but some girls do." -- Sawyer Brown
Moving the stock trigger may not be the best option. You may need to replace the trigger
with an after market trigger. That's fine.
Your grip must fit your firing side hand. The tips of your middle finger and ring finger
must be able to point back towards you.
Your trigger must fit your trigger finger. When the pistol is gripped correctly (barrel in line
with the bones in the forearm, web between the thumb and index finger up high and tight
against the tang, middle finger tight against the bottom of the trigger guard) and the slack is out
of the trigger, your trigger finger should be pressing the trigger straight to the rear. No vector
component of lateral force.
You would never wear shoes or gloves that did not fit. Why would you use a pistol that
doesn't fit your hand and trigger finger? The life of your loved ones will depend on your
competence. So get it right.
"4 Ways to Choose Your First Concealed-Carry Gun
Don't worry about what's "best." Here's how to find what's best for YOU."
by Brad Fitzpatrick
https://www.nrafamily.org/content/4-ways-to-choose-your-first-concealed-carry-gun/
Excerpt:
"Chances are you wouldn’t ask someone else to choose a car for you to purchase, to order
your dinner, or to select and furnish your next home. But new shooters often allow others to
make decisions about the firearm that they will use for personal protection."
"Pistol Red Dots: What Happens When They Fail" by Dave Merrill
https://www.recoilweb.com/water-is-wet-red-dots-break-136643.html
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger, W2MRA
The article gives several suggestions for aiming the pistol when the red dot sight fails.
Excerpts:
"Iain Harrison tells us he replaced Tasco PDP2s every couple thousand rounds, simply
because the early red dot sights couldn’t handle the recoil. In the world of competitive
shooting, this is partially why larger custom frame-mounted, non-reciprocating dots gained
in popularity. Physically mounting a red dot to a pistol slide is rough as hell on an optic.
How rough? 10,000Gs with some setups. That kind of force can make a whole helluva lot
fail, especially when an optic gets hammered for thousands of rounds . . . "
[The real problem with slide mounted red dot sights is that it changes the mass of the slide.
That affects the reliability of the pistol. Have you cut the slide to compensate for the extra
mass of the sight? Have you changed the recoil spring to compensate for the change in mass
and mass distribution? -- Jon Low]
"Some day we’ll reach the point where slide-riding red dots will be as durable as their rifle
brethren."
[Red dot sights on rifles don't reciprocate. So they are not getting banged back and forth
with every shot. So the comparison is specious. -- Jon Low]
"It’s not just dots dying either. The window can become obscured from cracks, rain, an
accidental drop in the mud, or merely severe fogging from rapid environmental changes like
stepping out of an air-conditioned car into hot, muggy weather."
[If there are water droplets on your window, you will see many red dots. If there is fog
on your window, you will see large star bursts. -- Jon Low]
---
[The window is a concave reflector that creates a virtual image. The red dot is a virtual
image, not a real image. This is a problem on many levels. But, you'll need to take an
optics class at your local college physics department to understand why. The problem
for combat purposes is that if the red dot sight gets knocked out of zero, you won't be able
to tell. With iron sights, the sights will look wrong, pushed off to one side or the other. But
with a red dot sight, the error in the sight could be microscopic and internal. So you will
never notice it. Until you hit the wrong guy. But in combat, you might not notice that either.
-- Jon Low]
If you live in an apartment where the maintenance guys (or others) have keys to your
apartment, you need to keep your guns (and other valuable stuff) locked up; in a closet,
in a foot locker, in a toolbox, etc. Steel cable through the pipes under your sink might help.
But not much if they are plastic. A safe bolted into the floor or wall would be nice. But who
can afford such? Putting a lock on a closet door is pretty easy and cheap.
Craft Holsters
https://www.craftholsters.com/
Free Economy Shipping From $199
I prefer IWB holsters.
https://www.craftholsters.com/iwb-holsters
Galco Holsters
https://www.galcogunleather.com/
I prefer IWB (Inside the Waistband) holsters.
https://www.galcogunleather.com/holsters_8_1.html
Coupon Code: WELCOME15
“Your car is not a holster.”
-- Pat Rogers
----- Technical / Maintenance -----
"Fear is an instinct. Courage is a choice."
-- Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, USN
How Terminal Ballistics Helps You Choose the Right Ammunition (Pt. 1)
https://www.nrafamily.org/articles/2018/7/31/how-terminal-ballistics-helps-you-choose-the-right-ammunition/
Terminal Ballistics & How to Choose the Right Ammunition (Pt. 2)
https://www.nrafamily.org/articles/2018/8/7/terminal-ballistics-how-to-choose-the-right-ammunition-pt-2/
Excerpt:
"The range of impact velocities over which a hollowpoint bullet will expand is considerably
narrower than soft-point bullets. Hollowpoint bullets striking at velocities that are below their
expansion threshold behave like full-metal-jacket bullets, i.e., they do not expand at all."
Terminal Ballistics & How to Choose the Right Ammunition (Pt. 3)
https://www.nrafamily.org/content/terminal-ballistics-how-to-choose-the-right-ammunition-pt-3/
[For self-defense, use the heaviest bullet you can get. Penetration is king. Over penetration
is not an issue. Missing is the issue. -- Jon Low]
"The Association of Firearm Caliber With Likelihood of Death
From Gunshot Injury in Criminal Assaults"
by Anthony A. Braga, PhD and Philip J. Cook, PhD
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2688536
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger, W2MRA.
Bottom Line Up Front: Shoot the largest caliber bullet that you can shoot accurately,
because it does make a difference statistically and in real world gunfights.
This is why I carry 45 ACP and recommend you do. Accurate shooting is a matter of
technique, not strength. Pistol recoil is very light compared to rifle or shotgun.
Stopping the attack requires penetration. Because you must strike a vital organ in order to
stop the attack. The heavier bullet will give you deeper penetration.
"But my bullet already has way more penetration than needed to pass through a human."
False! Ballistic gelatin tests don't contain any bones. Your bullets in combat will need to
penetrate bones, human arms and shoulders, heavy leather jackets, thick leather belts, sheet
steel car doors, car windshields, windows of buildings, etc.
You need deep penetration. That means +P ammo. That mean 230 grain bullets.
You win gunfights with speed, power, and accuracy. Speed and accuracy can be controlled
in real time during the gunfight. Power is what you choose to carry. It is fixed long before
the gunfight.
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
-- Second Amendment, U.S. Constitution
(capitalization as in the original document, militia refers to YOU)
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Personal Security, Medical, Survival, etc. ***** ***** *****
"If you prepare for the emergency,
the emergency ceases to exist!"
-- Dr. Sherman House
Don't live in flood zones. Don't go into flood zones when it's raining.
Don't live in gun-free-zones. Don't go into gun-free-zones. Don't send your children into
gun-free-zones. Gun-free-zones are criminal magnets.
Heed tornado warnings. Heed hurricane warnings. Heed flood warnings.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
"If you stay fit, you do not have to get fit.
If you stay trained, you do not have to get trained.
If you stay prepared, you do not have to get prepared."
-- Robert Margulies
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** War Stories, History, Politics, and such ***** ***** *****
"Good habits and skill beat luck every time."
-- Sheriff Jim Wilson
"Conceit and Arrogance!" by John Farnam
https://defense-training.com/conceit-and-arrogance/
“Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied”
-- Otto Von Bismarck
"Trust?" by John Farnam
https://defense-training.com/trust-2/
“A basal suspicion (and simultaneous distrust) of government and of all politicians,
is both healthy and essential in a free republic”
-- Newman
A place to shoot.
Nilo farms (Olin spelled backwards) Open to the public.
https://nilofarms.com/
15025 IL-111, Brighton, IL 62012
Phone: 618-466-0613
"NILO Nirvana: Winchester's Gift To American Sportswomen Turns 70"
https://www.nrawomen.com/content/nilo-nirvana-winchester-s-gift-to-american-sportswomen-turns-70/
A premier sporting clays venue. Pheasant pie.
Hoping to see you all at the Tennessee Firearms Association annual banquet.
https://tfalac.org/2022-annual-event/
Saturday, September 3, 2022
Admission starts at 9:00 AM CST
Event Activities start approximately 10:00 AM CST
Farm Bureau Expo Center at the at the
James E. Ward Agricultural Center on the
Wilson County Fairgrounds.
945 East Baddour Parkway, Lebanon, Tennessee 37087
“Tyrants are the children of vanity” -- Sophocles
"Disarm a Nation" by John Farnam
https://defense-training.com/disarm-a-nation/
“To conquer a nation, first disarm its citizens.” -- Adolf Hitler
Remember, Hitler lead the NAZI party. NAZI stands for National Socialist. He and his
followers were socialists. The liberals lie when they say that the NAZIs are right wingers.
The NAZIs, Klu Klux Klanners, Aryan Nations, etc. are all left wingers, because they are
all socialists. Just as the Democrats are socialists. Not all Democrats were KKK, but all
KKK were Democrats.
"The Final Images We Will Ever See of Pluto and Arrokoth" by Astrum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5XPuS-Y0fg
Political correctness runs deep. The narrator refused to pronounce Uranus correctly.
"FURY INCOMING:
ATF Director backs SCOTUS decision as “Law of the Land”
Brace for impact!" by Langley Outdoors Academy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df5Zl_lxNDY
Actually, this is exactly what a competent ATF Director would say. The ATF is not
political, is simply here to enforce law, not to make law, and the U.S. Supreme Court
decisions are the law of the land. Notice the Director's body language.
“Racist!” by John Farnam
https://defense-training.com/racist/
“I wonder if you realize that when you browbeat people who disagree with you into silence,
because they don't want to be called ‘hater,’ ‘bigot,’ whatever, their silence will create for you
the illusion that you're winning.
But, it's just an illusion, an illusion you find so intoxicating that you're completely
unprepared when the moment of truth comes . . . and you lose.”
-- Dan Calabrese
No one is coming for your abortions, all we want is common sense abortion control.
https://www.tiktok.com/@unpopular_opinion_queen/video/7107402018238532907
"The FBI data from 2014 to 2021 claims that 18 times someone legally carrying a gun
stopped a mass public shooting. By contrast, our list contains 46 cases."
-- Dr. John R. Lott, Jr. PhD
"UPDATED: Compiling Cases where concealed handgun permit holders have stopped
likely mass public shootings"
https://crimeresearch.org/2022/07/uber-driver-in-chicago-stops-mass-public-shooting/
"Crime Prevention Research Center"
https://crimeresearch.org/
In case you don't understand the state of our economy.
"Tucker Carlson: It turns out we're insane"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TdRdn6BqrA
"Your character is what you do when no one is looking."
-- Thomas Jefferson
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Cryptology ***** ***** *****
"Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe,
and preserve order in the world as well as property.
Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of their use."
-- Thomas Paine
[Cryptosystems are considered "arms" by federal law.
ITAR, International Traffic in Arms Regulations]
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Used to be National Bureau of Standards (NBS) when I worked there.
Still in Gaithersburg, MD.
"Cryptography, Overview"
https://www.nist.gov/cryptography
This page contains links to the things they are interested in. Notice what they are not interested
in.
"Post-Quantum Cryptography PQC"
https://csrc.nist.gov/Projects/Post-Quantum-Cryptography/Post-Quantum-Cryptography-Standardization
This page contains the links to the meat.
"Cryptographic Standards and Guidelines, Overview"
https://csrc.nist.gov/Projects/Cryptographic-Standards-and-Guidelines
In Cryptologic Communications School, I remember Gunny Wheeler explaining to us
how the two crypto systems were moving back and forth in time trying to synchronize with
each other, as we listened to the audio output from the machines. Good memories.
But, memories are not all we old farts have left. As my pastor says,
"Why aren't you dead yet? Because God has stuff for you to do. So do it."
A college classmate called me and asked for help with a ransomware
attack on a friend's company. I told him to ignore the attack and just
restore the data from back up. He told me that the company did not
have any back up system. I told him, that's the problem, not the
ransomware attack. Eventually, the local disk drives would fail
(naturally, or by natural disaster, or by design) and they would have
the same problem. My classmate told me that his friend who ran
the company told him that they could not afford to back up their data.
I said that doesn't make sense, as memory is free (as taught in all
engineering schools when designing databases, storage systems, etc.).
My classmate got back to me later saying that his friend told him that
they could not do remote back up because the data was sensitive
and the vendor could not guarantee data security in transit or at
the remote site. I said that doesn't make sense, as they could encrypt
their data before back up.
And then I realized that I was talking to the risk mitigation guy
at the company (through my classmate, his friend, and others). They
were trying to figure out what they were going to say to the insurance
company to justify their stupidity.
It's rarely a research endeavor. It's usually a literature search. Sometimes it's hard to
search. Google is particularly bad for our searches. You must use the other search engines,
as the old or retired professors. Quickly, before they die.
Section 8.5 Jacobi Methods
". . . they are inherently parallel."
[We never brute force anything. -- Jon Low]
Section 7.2 Pertubation Theory
"None of the decompositions in the preceding section can be calculated exactly because of
roundoff error and because eigenvalue algorithms are iterative and must be terminated after
a finite number of steps."
[So you must understand the underlying. -- Jon Low]
"Matrix Computations" by Gene H. Golub and Charles F. Van Loan (yes, that Van Loan)
John Hopkins University Press, 1989.
ISBN 0-8018-3772-3
ISBN 0-80183739-1
Library of Congress Catalog Number 88-45404
Check out the dedication.
---
May I invite your attention to
T. F. Chan (1988). "An optimal Circulant Preconditioner for Toeplitz Systems", SIAM.
J. Sci. Stat. Comp. 9, 766-771.
I remember playing in SIAM. Great memories.
"Why you can't solve quintic equations (Galois theory approach)" by Mathemaniac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCU9tZ2VkWc
I love such videos.
“Worried about Quantum Computing?” by Jonathan D. Low
If you fear the bad guys will be able to decrypt your encrypted data using quantum
computers, you’re worrying about the wrong thing. Cryptanalysis is hard. (Persons who can
do it are rare. Persons who can do it, who also have the hardware resources to do it are
extremely rare.) Bribery, sexual seduction, extortion, blackmail, etc. are easy. Social engineering is
very easy.
Scenario 1. I drop a few thumb drives (perhaps labeled “Salaries” or “Payroll”) out in your
parking lot, I guarantee one of your employees will plug it into a computer on your network,
it will infect your network, and I’ll be in your network by this evening.
Scenario 2. I investigate your employees and find one with a special interest. I accidentally
bump into the employee and strike up a conversation (admiring her tattoos “Were those done
by Diego?”, “Your children are so well behaved, it says a lot about you.”, etc.) We accidentally
discover our common interest in her special interest. I tell her that I must share information
with her. I ask her for a thumb drive to copy files onto, or I pull out a flash drive that I copy
files onto from my laptop computer and give it to her. The information will be of high value.
She will be delighted. I will adjust my level of excitement to her level of excitement. When
she sees her husband, she joyfully shares the information with him by plugging the drive into
his computer. The next time he logs into his work computer from his personal laptop, I’m in.
(He never transferred malicious files onto a company computer, nor did he break any of the
company’s security protocols.)
If you want to make your computer network more secure:
0) Train your employees. There is no substitute for training. You can’t install software or
hardware that will defeat human stupidity. You must train your employees. Don’t plug
unknown devices into the network. Don’t click on links in emails, until you verify the link
with the sender as to purpose and authenticity. Don’t open email attachments, until you
verify the attachment with the sender as to purpose and authenticity. If the sender is just
sending you something that he thought was cool, you should assume that the sender was
duped and is unknowingly passing malicious material to you. I could go on, but you get the
idea.
1) Stop forcing your employees to change their passwords. Good passwords never go stale.
Bad passwords are not improved by being replaced by bad passwords. So have your
employees create good passwords and leave them alone. If you have a policy of changing
passwords on a periodic basis, you are cryptologically wrong. And the enemy will take
advantage of your stupidity.
2) Stop forcing your employees to create passwords that they cannot remember. This forces
them to record the password somewhere, which defeats the security of having passwords.
Forcing the user to use certain characters restricts the space of passwords. That means the
space is smaller and therefore easier to search. If your policy forces your employees to use
particular characters, you are cryptologically wrong. The enemy will take advantage of your
stupidity.
3) Stop forcing employees to work at home. Every link you put between your users and your
servers degrades security (and increases ping time). If you fear Covid-19 (or any other variant
or any other disease), stop, gather data, and think. Believing Dr. Anthony Fauci is not thinking.
It’s believing, which is not the same as thinking.
“Thinking is the hardest thing a person can do.
That’s why so few people do it.” – Henry Ford
Okay, Staff, so how do you create strong passwords? Consider a string of numbers that has
significance to you and so is in your long-term memory. The social security number of your
wife is not good. Your wife is public knowledge. Social security numbers are findable. Your
mistress’ street number, birth date, measurements, and phone number would be a reasonable
string. Hold down the shift key, type in the string, release the shift key. That would be a
reasonable character sequence to embed in your password.
Avoid words that appear in any dictionary in the world, including names of people, places, or
things. Dictionary attacks are a thing. Rather, consider poems, phrases, or clauses that you
know well. “and in the darkness bind them.” Which would compress to “aitdbt” or
“AITDBT” or “AiTdBt”, etc. That would be a reasonable character sequence to concatenate
in your password.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
---
Communication security requires at least two things: Something you know and something
you have.
The something you know could be your password, which can be changed if you allow it to
be compromised.
The something you have may be a pseudo-random number generator that is synchronized
with the generator running on the server. Or it may be a number sent to your phone. The
possibilities are limited by your imagination. Your fingerprint or iris scan is not something you
have. They cannot be changed. Once they are compromised, you’re screwed forever. If your
hands are cut up, covered with blood or dirt, the biometric readers won’t recognize your
fingerprint.
The next level after "something you know" and "something you have" would be the
"user’s ability to satisfy a zero-knowledge proof protocol" with the server. You claim to be
Alice. The server asks you a question based on the identity of Alice. You respond. Based on
the response and the profile of Alice, the server asks a question. (Consider how the Israelis
interview persons at their airports. Go deep, digging for more detail with each question.)
You respond. At worst, the protocol should be halving the probability of you not being Alice
with every correct response. But the server does not end the game until a set number of
questions are answered (correctly or incorrectly). If the server is satisfied, it grants access to
whichever accounts are appropriate. If not, it grants access to a honey pot. Pooh Bear loves
honey.
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil."
-- Donald Knuth
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***** ***** ***** Intelligence ***** ***** *****
“You are no more armed because you are wearing a pistol
than you are a musician because you own a guitar.”
from "Principles of Personal Defense" by Col. Jeff Cooper, USMC, (1920 – 2006 A.D.)
"OSINT At Home #9 – My Top 4 Free Satellite Imagery Sources"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OONjbRAR-TM
OSINT = Open Source Intelligence
“If you are reading this and can’t put your hand on your defensive firearm,
all of your training is wasted.” -- Col. Jeff Cooper
*************************************************************************
Semper Fidelis,
Jonathan D. Low
Email: Jon_Low@yahoo.com
Radio: KI4SDN
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