The purpose of gun-free-zones is to create unarmed victims for armed criminals to prey upon.
So putting your children in a gun-free-zone is an act of child abuse.
Greetings Sheepdogs,
Ella Langley
Official web site,
"It will not be doubted, that with reference either to individual,
or National Welfare, Agriculture is of primary importance.
In proportion as Nations advance in population, and other circumstances
of maturity, this truth becomes more apparent; and renders the cultivation
of the Soil more and more, an object of public patronage."
— George Washington (1796)
(800) 422-4453
Note the pop up window that appears a few seconds after accessing this web site.
Hat tip to Mike Rafi.
“When we are planning for posterity,
we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.”
― Thomas Paine, Common Sense
The latest revision of my book,
which is the outline for my Defensive Pistol course,
"Defensive Pistol" by Jonathan D. Low
ISBN: 9781311454133
is free at
Course description --
⬧ = no live fire.
⬣ = live fire of some sort.
⁕ = homework done on your own.
The part that I teach, 45 contact hours:
⬧ Theory, 20 hours (seven 3-hour classes every Monday, Wednesday, Friday),
classroom, all equipment and dummy ammo.
⬣ Practicum, 20 hours (five 4-hour classes: 2 hours live fire, 1 hour lunch and
lecture, 2 hours live fire, continuing every Monday, Wednesday, Friday),
outdoor range, all equipment and live ammo.
⁕ 90 hours of homework done between classes; dry practicing the stuff you
learned in class; reading the documents; sending emails, text messages, and
phone calls to me with your questions.
⬣Tactical scenarios, 5 hours, you will shoot an IDPA or USPSA match in a
tactically correct manner (not racing to win the game), $25 entry fee.
You will need all of your equipment and at least 200 rounds of ammunition,
much more if you miss a lot. I will coach you through the match. If you don't
get disqualified, you Passed!
The part that others teach, 36 hours:
⬣ Force-on-force using Simunitions, 4 hours, instructor Bob Allen of Royal Range USA;
$100 per person. Royal Range will supply all equipment.
⬧ Judgment exercises using video simulators, 8 hours, instructor Bill Hayes of
Axiom Training; $100 per person. Axiom Training will supply all equipment.
⬧ Law of Self Defense, 8 hours, instructor Andrew Branca, $99 per person.
This is a live online lecture, no equipment needed.
⬧ Tactical Emergency Casualty Care, 16 hours, instructors Jason Rader and
Josh Black of Defend Systems; $200 per person. The instructors will supply
all equipment. A TECC certificate will be awarded.
This Defensive Pistol course would be a semester course in any
university system. The prices may increase as inflation progresses.
If you would like all of the documents for the course, send me an email.
I had permission to use certain documents, but not to electronically copy and
distribute. But all such organizations have gone bankrupt and disappeared
or the copyrights have expired or the copyright owner has made the document
publicly available. So I can now distribute electronically. Longevity and
patience defeats all.
4 or 5 day courses conducted on contiguous days is suboptimal, because
a couple of sleep cycles are needed to move skills from short term memory
into long term memory. And then 2000 or more repetitions are needed to
move skills from procedural long term memory (allowing intentional
conscious recall and execution) into declarative long term memory (allowing
unconscious recall and execution). If you don't understand this, take a class
from Dustin Salomon.
Also classes should be no longer than 90 minutes.
(45 minutes of instruction, 5 minute bathroom break, 40 minutes of instruction)
It is counter productive to overload and overwhelm the student. Drinking from
a firehose is not a good thing. The student may feel that he is getting his money's
worth, but the student would be wrong.
"Don't have a gun? Buy one.
Don't know How to use it? Learn.
Don't believe in guns? Get ready to hide behind someone who does."
-- Charlie Daniels
********************************************************************
Table of Contents:
Software ---
Prevention --
Mindset
Situational Awareness
Safety
Training
Psychology
Practice
Intervention --
Strategy
Tactics
Techniques
Postvention --
Aftermath
Medical
Survival
Education --
Legal
Instruction
Hardware ---
Gear
Intelligence ---
Counter Intelligence
Signals Intelligence
Cryptology
Politics and Religion ---
"No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
-- Thomas Jefferson
I spent my entire Marine Corps career fighting Communists.
We must fight them to the death. Communists / socialists / woke / etc. are foreign
and domestic enemies of the Constitution. We swore to defend the Constitution
from them. Let us uphold our oath.
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
A dung beetle walks into a bar and asks, is that stool taken?
***** ***** ***** Prevention ***** ***** *****
Things you can do to avoid the lethal force incident.
Table of sections:
Mindset
Situational Awareness
Safety
Training
Psychology
Practice
“To those who have fought for it,
freedom has a flavor that the protected will never know.”
― P. McCree Thornton
*************************************************************************
“Then Jesus said to His disciples,
whoever does not have a sword should sell his coat and buy a sword.”
– Book of Luke 22:36, New Life Version of the Bible
------------------------------ Mindset and Attitude --------------------------------
Figuring out the correct way to think.
"Principles of Personal Defense" by Jeff Cooper
Click link at bottom of page to download your copy.
“When you will not fight when you can easily win, without bloodshed,
and when you still will not fight when victory is sure and not too costly,
you may well come to the moment when you will have no choice but to
fight with the odds against you, and you have only a small chance of survival.
There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no
hope of victory, simply because it is better to perish as warriors than to
live as slaves.”
-- Winston Churchill
"THE TWIN FALLS ACTIVE SHOOTER INTERDICTION
Special Post - Private Citizen CCW Saves The Day"
by Gabriel Suarez
In reference to this incident,
Gabe's comments --
For over a decade I have been teaching Active Shooter Interdiction Courses.
The premise is simple. Street criminals are not a pressing concern for most of us.
We are physically fit, train, and carry ourselves like predators and not like food.
Coupled with a developed situational awareness and demeanor, we look look
like challenging targets. There is no telling how often you have been deselected
by the hyenas of society simply based on those traits.
So rather than the underachiever’s “three rounds at three yards in three seconds”,
we train for an event like this. Facing an active shooter or terrorist. We carry
fighting weapons, not convenient mini-pistols. We train for accuracy, not to beat
a timer’s beep. And we train at extended distances as well as standard distances.
And time and again, these practices have been shown to be the deciding factor
in events like this.
An active shooter armed himself with a rifle and began killing people at an
In and Out Burger joint until he was met with gunfire by a private citizen.
The good guy has yet to be identified and I an certain we will get more
information on the event in the coming week but some important points must
be made -
1). The active shooter will be identified by his actions and by his weapon.
Arm yourself with a rifle and you risk being killed by a good guy or a police
officer. All AR-15 proponents aside, it is a handgun world.
2). The mini pistols so convenient to carry, forgotten in a pocket, will not do
here. I am not certain what the gentleman is shooting at the active shooter,
but it looks like a full size fighting pistol to me. While I doubt the suppressor
had any bearing on the conclusion, it does add to the cool factor. Carrying a
duty or compact sized pistol concealed is not the issue the internet would
have you believe.
3). Tactics are a huge factor. While marksmanship is paramount, the ability
to get closer, and shoot the killer from ambush to conclude the event are just
as important. The killer should not know that he just got killed if you apply
tactics and marksmanship properly.
4). Patreon member BrianK wrote this morning on our forum -
“I’d like to point out that neither draw nor split times mattered,
but accuracy at non-traditional pistol distances certainly did”.
Well how about that! It is not and never has been about your time on the clock,
or the split second “C”, you got on the cardboard. It is about tactics, timing,
and accuracy under duress.
5). Many of the news sources have been washing over the role of the
Twin Falls pistoleer. That is not unexpected. Same with the socialist
disarmament movement, using it as a cry for more limits on the second
amendment. Yet it was the very freedom they want to curtail that stopped
what all of their laws could not. An American with a weapon that received
Churchill’s figurative tap on the shoulder, realized his role in the universe
at that crucial, and stepped up to change history.
“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
Things we want to know -
What pistol system was he using and what were the engagement distances
involved and the hits obtained on the bad guy. I will also make a prediction -
he will not be charged with anything nor require any legal assistance for
anything other than publishing his book and arranging his speaking
engagements.
-- Gabriel Suarez
---
Email from Andrew Branca --
This past Saturday we had proof once again of the adage that a gun is rarely
the answer to whatever problem you are facing—but when a gun IS the answer,
it is generally the ONLY answer.
On August 1, 2026 Chad Williams decided to commit an active shooting at
a just-opened In-n-Out burger joint in Twin Falls ID. Using an AR-style rifle,
Williams opened fire on occupied vehicles and nearby people, killing three and
severely wounding others.
The tragedy would have been far worse had we not been blessed with the
intervention of two heroes. One of these was off-duty Idaho state trooper
Austin “AJ” Scott, present in the drive-through with his family, and whose
heroism is in no way diminished by his choice of profession. Scott charged
Williams, received a bullet that shattered his arm and severed his brachial artery,
and had his life saved only by the swift intervention of his wife, a nurse.
A second hero, Jordan Salinas, was not a sworn law enforcement officer,
and had no professional duty to intervene in an active shooting to save
others — but Salinas had long prepared for exactly such an event, was equipped
with the only effective means of doing so—a gun on his person—and brought
fire onto the murderous Williams, inducing him to cease his killing of innocents
and turn his gun onto himself, with fatal results.
-- Andrew Branca
---
"In-N-Out Shooter Lost Bravado When He Came Under Fire" by Docent
Cited video,
"Hero civilian describes gun battle at Idaho In-N-Out restaurant" by ABC News
---
"In-N-Out Shooting: More Video" by Docent
Cited article,
"Horrifying footage shows In-N-Out mass shooter kill worker at drive-thru window
— as terrified employees scramble for cover"
by Georgia Worrell
---
Paywall. (John Correia opened the paywall for us. Check out the link in the descripton
of his video below. Ctrl-F search for his name, you'll find it.)
Excerpt:
"Mr. Salinas said in an interview.
“As I was watching him and taking shots at him,
I could tell that he didn’t know where I was.” "
---
"You often don't know where the bad guy is who is shooting at you."
-- Phillip Groff
---
"Running to the Guns" by Rich Grassi
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpt:
"Not learning from his misfortune is disrespectful."
"Survival is a mindset, not a skill set."
-- Greg Shaffer
“In a state of tranquility, wealth, and luxury, our descendants will forget
the Art of War and the noble zeal which made their ancestors invincible.
Every corruption will be employed to loosen the Bond of Union, which
renders our resistance formidable. When the Spirit of Liberty, which now
animates our hearts and gives success to our arms, is extinct, our numbers
will accelerate our ruin and render us easy victims to tyranny.”
-- Samuel Adams
"Worse than the Tsar!" by John Farnam
"Without discrimination,
you're going to shoot the wrong person really fast."
-- Paul Howe
THE GOAL IS NOT TO SAVE LIVES, OR TO STOP THE KILLING,
OR GET ANYONE TO SAFETY. THOSE THINGS MAY HAPPEN
SUBSEQUENT TO YOUR MISSION SUCCESS, BUT THEY ARE NOT
YOUR MISSION.
THERE IS ONLY ONE MISSION -
LOCATE, IDENTIFY, AND TERMINATE THE SHOOTER.
EVERY PIECE OF GEAR YOU CARRY, EVERY TRAINING SESSION
YOU EXECUTE, AND EVERY STEP AND ACTION YOU TAKE AT
THAT EVENT MUST BE ORIENTED TO ACCOMPLISH THAT MISSION -
LOCATE, IDENTIFY, AND TERMINATE THE SHOOTER.
-- Gabe Suarez
". . . only shoot as fast as you can assess, and . . . assess after each shot,
both of which, we should be training to do all the time anyway."
-- Ralph Mroz, "Street Focused Handgun Training"
Some guys practice because they know it might happen.
Some guys don't because they don't believe it will happen.
Which are you?
"Your gunfights will always be anomalies.
So are those of all the instructors you venerate.
It’s useful to keep those facts in mind."
-- Greg Ellifritz
Changing American mindset.
"Number of Americans That Carry Concealed Continues To Rise" by Docent
Cited article,
"New Survey on the Rate that People Carry Concealed Handguns:
Percent of Americans Carrying Continues to Increase from
24.3% in December 2024 to
29.8% in May 2026 to
30.9% in July 2026"
by Crime Prevention Research Center
Dear Jonathan:
Our new McLaughlin & Associates survey shows that the share of general
election voters carrying concealed handguns continues to rise. Today, 15.7% say
they carry all or most of the time, while another 15.2% carry sometimes or rarely.
With Constitutional Carry eliminating permit requirements in many states, surveys
have become increasingly important for estimating how many people actually carry.
Since the end of 2024, the share of voters who carry has risen by more than six
percentage points. Just as importantly, Black and Hispanic voters report
particularly high rates of carrying."
John Lott
johnrlott@crimeresearch.org
Crime Prevention Research Center
358 S 700 E, Ste B, B409, Salt Lake City, UT 84102
(484) 802-5373
‷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
A correct grip, surprise trigger break, and correct follow-through will allow
you to achieve precision.
Once you are able to shoot a tight group, all bullets through the same hole
at 3 yards or all bullet holes touching at 5 yards, you have demonstrated precision.
Now you are ready to move your sight to achieve accuracy, which means your
point-of-impact matches your point-of-aim.
Move your sights to move your point of impact to match your point-of-aim.
Fixed iron rear sights in a beaver tail can be pushed left or right with a sight
pusher. Fixed iron front sights can be ground down if the point-of-impact is
low or replaced with a taller front sight if the point-of-impact is high.
Correct zero is essential for confidence. Confidence is the difference
between taking the shot, and not to taking the shot because you're not sure
you will hit your target, or because you fear that you will hit the hostage.
Cool calm confidence is achieved with training, practice, and a properly
zeroed pistol.
If you are using an adjustable sight on your pistol, it's too fragile for combat.
Self-defense is combat. Yes, I know it works in the pristine conditions of your
training and practice. But that is not combat. All kinds of strange things happen
in combat. Murphy's Law is in full force in combat.
"The Marine Corps uses red dot optics."
Yes, I know. But that doesn't mean it is best practice. Remember, the Army
used Blackhawk SERPA holsters, which was an act of criminal stupidity.
Institutions, no matter how reputable, do not necessarily follow best practices.
Rather, they suffer from institutional inertia, bureaucracy (not meritocracy),
and lowest bidder contracting.
"An unarmed man can only flee from evil and
evil is not overcome by fleeing from it." -- Jeff Cooper
The bad guy chooses the time and place of the attack. So you won't have your
rifle. If you did, the bad guy wouldn't have attacked you in the first place.
Uniformed armed cops and security don't get "mugged". But they do get
ambushed and murdered for their pistols (a high value item).
It's nice to carry a rifle in your car (if you've got it secured and out of sight,
because just about all guns used in crimes are stolen from cars), but to think
you will use it for self-defense is not within probability. You're not going to have
time to get it. If you did, you had time to escape. If you retrieve your rifle from
your car and go to the bad guy, that's not really self-defense. It might be defense
of others, but is that your job? your duty? Are you willing to risk your life for
strangers? Are you willing to risk your families future income for strangers?
"Your life is as good as your mindset." -- Nicola Cavanis
"Violence is the last resort, but I'm great at it."
Seen on Greg Ellifritz's tee-shirt.
"Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist.
Children already know that dragons exist.
Fairy tales tell children that the dragons can be killed."
-- G.K. Chesterton
‟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.
It is high time for society to stop worrying about the criminal,
and to let the criminal start worrying about society.
And by "society" I mean you.”
-- Col. Jeff Cooper, "Principles of Personal Defense"
"There are no victims, only volunteers.
You volunteer by looking uncertain and afraid.
You volunteer by being, as grass-eaters invariably are,
unprepared to confront the hazards of life."
— Jeff Cooper
"Be so focused on watering your grass that
you don't have time to check if someone else's is greener."
-- Nicola Cavanis
‟Fear is an instinct. Courage is a choice.”
-- Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, U.S. Navy
"The line between everyday life and sudden violence is thinner than most realize."
-- Tim Larkin
“You need to have the capacity for danger. You need to be ‘dangerous’.
Yet, you need to learn how to not use it except when necessary.
And, that is not the same thing as being harmless.
There's nothing virtuous about harmlessness.
Harmless just means you’re ineffectual and useless.”
-- Jordan Peterson
“Your character is what you do when no one is looking.”
-- Thomas Jefferson
“The Man in the Arena”
by Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909), 26th President of the United States
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how
the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have
done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in
the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who
strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again,
because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who
does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms,
the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at
the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and
who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who
neither know victory nor defeat.”
"I do not carry a pistol so that I may impose my will on others.
I carry a pistol so that others may not impose their will on me."
-- Tom Givens
"Nobody is coming to save you.
On the bright side. . . it means
nobody is coming to stop you either."
-- Gabe Suarez
"Without courage, all other virtues lose their meaning."
-- Sir Winston Churchill
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Situational Awareness --------------------------------
How to avoid being taken by surprise.
"An officer may be forgiven for losing a battle,
but never for being taken by surprise."
-- Jeff Cooper
He was aware of his environment, recognized the pops as gun fire (many
people never do), and ran toward the sound of the gun fire to stop the
murdering. The lady he was with was only a "girlfriend". He had no duty
to protect and support her for the rest of her life. His decision might have
been different if he was leaving wife and kids behind, or it might not have
been different.
"When gunshots rang out at a Twin Falls In-N-Out,
this Idaho man shot back"
by Mark Dee
Stephen P. Wenger's comments --
Not only is the the first use by a private citizen of a suppressed pistol being
used in a Defensive Gun Use that I recall, it is also the first defensive use that
I recall reported with a 5.7x28mm pistol [list members may recall that the
jihadist murderer in the 2009 massacre at Ft. Hood chose a 5.7x28mm pistol
for its low recoil and large magazine capacity]. Note that, with a suppressor
mounted, the pistol required the use of a shoulder holster. List members may
recognize Salinas preparing mentally with the “OODA loop” concept,
developed by Col. John Boyd to train USAF fighter pilots. Autopsy reports
on the murderer have yet to be released but, so far, I've seen no reports that
either Salinas or the off-duty officer scored any hits on the murderer but,
regardless, their fire sufficed to “change his channel.”
-- Stephen P. Wenger
"FBI vows ‘thorough investigation’ after deadly shooting at In-N-Out in Twin Falls"
by Mark Dee
Zugzwang is a thing. But with situational awareness, you can avoid it.
Just to show you how unaware I am, I was 67 years old before I notcied that my
left hand is bigger than my right hand. (I am right handed.) I had always felt that
my Glock 21 (double stack 45 ACP) was more comfortable in my left hand than
my right hand, but I hadn't noticed that my left middle finger wraps farther around
the grip when held correctly in a left handed grip than my right middle finger when
held properly in a right handed grip. When I put my hands up against each other,
I can't tell the difference. But there is a difference.
Putting your hand up against another person's hand means nothing. My last
student and I compared hands by placing our hand against each other's with palms
touching. For all intents and purposes our hands appeared to be the same size.
But they were not.
"Always stand on principle, even if you stand alone"
– James Madison
Email from Joe Shahoud --
I saw something crazy yesterday at Starbucks. A woman walked to her car
in a parking garage. Earbuds in. Face buried in her phone. She had zero clue
what was happening around her. She was basically screaming
"PLEASE ATTACK ME"
without saying a word. Look, I'm not trying to scare you. But I see this
everywhere I go. People willingly make themselves deaf and blind in public.
Then they act shocked when bad things happen. We only have five senses.
When you're out and about, you really only need two of them to stay safe.
Hearing and sight. But what do most people do? They stick earbuds in their ears.
They stare at their 2.5" x 5" phone screen like it holds the secrets of the universe.
You know what attackers look for? The easiest target. The person who won't
see them coming. The person who won't hear them approaching. Don't be that
person. Your family is counting on you to come home safe. Don't you think
they deserve that? Leave the earbuds at home when you're walking to your car.
Put the phone in your pocket when you're in public. Your Instagram feed will
still be there when you get home safely. Stay alert out there.
-- Joe "your safety matters" Shahoud
P.S. If someone you care about walks around like a zombie with their face
in their phone, forward this to them. It might save their life.
In Matthew 10:16, Jesus says,
"Stay alert. This is hazardous work I'm assigning to you.
You're going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack,
so don't call attention to yourselves. Be as cunning as a snake,
inoffensive as a dove."
-- The Message (The Bible in Contemporary Language)
"Criminal Clues: Tips to Avoid Appearing Like a Soft Target"
by Steve Tarani
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
"Many people don't realize that your awareness skills
are more important than your marksmanship skills.
Well, you can't shoot something you don't know is there,
or don't know it needs to be shot!" -- Tom Givens
"Jeff Cooper's Color Code exists to help you get your head
around the need to kill someone in the immediate future."
-- John Hearne
---
Jeff Cooper's Color Code of Mental Awareness
UNAWARE - of what's going on around you. (White)
AWARE - of who is around you and what they are doing. (Yellow)
ALERT - to a POTENTIAL threat and taking action to avoid the threat. (Orange)
ALARM - by a REAL threat and taking action to escape the threat,
which might include shooting to PREVENT the attack. (Red)
COMBAT - front sight, press. Shooting to STOP the attack. (Black)
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Safety --------------------------------
How to prevent the bad thing from happening in the first place.
How to avoid shooting yourself, friendlies, and innocent bystanders.
How to prevent unauthorized persons from using your guns.
Always unload your firearm before cleaning. Hundreds of persons shoot themselves
or others every year in America with unloaded firearms. Don't be that guy. Remember,
RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED.
Don't pretend that they are loaded. Believe that they are loaded.
"Safety is something that happens between your ears,
not something you hold in your hands."
-- Jeff Cooper
"The Lifetime Likelihood Of Needing A Gun For Self-Defense" by Alex Ooley
Excerpts:
". . . in 81.9 percent of those incidents no shot is fired, since the mere
presence or display of the firearm is enough to end the threat."
"Just over half of all defensive incidents, English found, involved more
than one assailant."
". . . defensive gun uses outnumber criminal firearm victimizations
by more than five to one."
"Run that through the standard formula for cumulative probability,
and the personal-owner figure becomes a roughly 70 percent lifetime chance
of a defensive gun use."
Jeff Cooper′s Rules of Gun Safety
RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED.
RULE II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING
THAT 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.
---
RULE V: Maintain control of your gun. -- Stephen P. Wenger
"Slaves again!" by John Farnam
Excerpts:
"Thus, righteous self-defenders must confront the fact that violent crime
is actively promoted by leftist politicians, politicians who falsely purport to
represent them. So, personal attacks will continue to be precipitous,
unannounced, and likely. In order to have any chance of success,
countermeasures must be well-contemplated, well-rehearsed, precise, and
altogether overwhelming (and will always inherit oh-so pious disapproval
from the same leftist politicians and their media stooges)."
"We’re talking here about personal survival against savage predators, . . ."
"You’ll be fighting for your life and freedom against a vicious,
violent criminal who will make his best effort to take it all from you."
"Gut feelings are guardian angels."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"What “Easy Target” Really Means:
The Body Language That Gets You Picked by Criminals"
by Robert Richardson
Excerpts:
' It’s the Walk, and You Trained It Into Yourself '
"The ones who get passed over move like their body is one connected piece.
Upright, smooth, everything working together, a stride that fits their frame.
They look present. Awake. Like the lights are on.
The ones who get picked move in pieces. A stride too short or too long
for their height. A slow, dragging pace. Feet that lift and shuffle instead of
rolling heel to toe. Head down, shoulders caved, eyes on nothing, moving
like somebody who already gave up before anything happened. Slow feet
and a slow pace are the loudest tells of the bunch.
Here’s the brutal part. Nobody’s born walking like a victim. You practiced it.
Every day you spend shuffling to your car with your face buried in your phone,
every walk where you’re a thousand miles away instead of where your feet
actually are, you’re rehearsing the exact sign that tells a predator you’re the one.
You built that habit yourself. Good news is you can tear it down just as easy."
' Then Comes the Test '
"He’s reading three things. Did you notice him before he was on top of you?
When he stepped into your space, did you hold your ground or did you fold,
back up, and start apologizing? And when he pushed, did you freeze?
The person who clocked him from thirty feet out, faced him, and answered
with a flat “no” just flunked him as a target. The person who never looked up,
mumbled, and kept shuffling passed with flying colors."
' How to Stop Being the One He Picks '
"Pick your head up. . . . "
"Get off the phone . . . "
"Walk like you’ve got somewhere to be . . . "
"And when somebody runs the test on you, pass it. Notice him early.
Face him. Put space between you. Answer short and flat and keep your
feet under you. You don’t have to be rude and you sure don’t have to
be scared. You just have to show him the lights are on, because the second
he sees that, you stop being worth the risk and he goes looking for somebody
who left theirs off."
"You brought a gun to the fight. That doesn’t mean it’s YOUR gun.
The gun belongs to whomever can keep it. Think about that before
intervening in other folks’ problems. When is the last time you practiced
your in-hand weapon retention skills?"
-- Greg Ellifritz
"Safety Glasses for Shooters: Standards, Fit, and Lens Selection" by Jacob Paulsen
---
Quality ain't cheap and cheap ain't quality.
---
"Guide to Prescription Safety Glasses – Options and Recommendations"
by Jacob Paulsen
Excerpt:
"Consider however that repairing eyes is much more difficult and expensive.
If you lose an eye it can't be replaced."
"It's easier to stay out of trouble than to get out of trouble."
-- Claude Werner
"How Are There So Many Of These?" by Neil Weidner (Active Self Protection Extra)
Safety criticism of another instructor.
"You are not responsible for negative reactions to your boundaries."
-- Nicola Cavanis
You must question the underlying assumption that your round will stop a bear.
A bear does not do a risk-benefit analysis when deciding to attack you.
John Farnam's rules to keep you out of trouble:
Don’t go to stupid places.
Don’t associate with stupid people.
Don’t do stupid things.
Have a “normal” appearance.
Be in bed by 10:00 PM (your own bed).
Don’t fail the attitude test.
"The Good Samaritan Strike:
Armed Bystander Kills Shotgun-Wielding Suspect at Riverton Chevron"
by Brandon Curtis
Excerpt:
"Safety Tip: If you are a concealed carry holder who engages an active
threat inside a public business, your immediate post-shooting protocol is
critical for your survival. When police officers flood through the doors
on an active shooter dispatch, they are looking for anyone holding a gun.
Keep your hands empty, raise them high with fingers spread, and clearly
identify yourself as the reporting citizen who stopped the attacker."
The people had not fought the British only to be "brought under despotic rule
under the notion of ‘Strong government,’ or in the form of elective despotism."
-- Richard Henry Lee to Samuel Adams October 5th, 1787
"Ladies, It’s OK to be Mean . . ." by Greg Ellifritz
Excerpts:
"That means it’s even more important for potential female victims
to stand up for themselves. No one is coming to help you."
"The ladies didn’t do any of that. They just meekly complied.
I don’t think they wanted to be considered “rude” or “mean”.
It’s disappointing."
"Listen, ladies. You don’t have to be nice to people who are clearly
trying to victimize you. You don’t have to help every stranger who asks
for your assistance. It’s OK to be mean. If you are confronted by a criminal,
respond quickly and decisively. You have my permission. I don’t care what
you do . . . hit the guy, run away, scream for help. Do something!
Don’t meekly enable your own victimization."
"And ladies, if you are waiting for someone to give you permission to
stand up for yourselves when you are feeling threatened, permission is granted!
Be mean. Be rude. Refuse to be helpful if your safety is at risk.
And more importantly, encourage the women you love to do the same."
“It is usually impossible to know when you’ve prevented a bad outcome.”
-- Mokokoma Mokhonoana
“All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust!”
-- Peter Pan
"Pixie Dust!" by John Farnam
---
NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) effectively eliminates 911 service.
Eliminates nearly all of the "very expensive" 911 human dispatchers,
and ensures 100% of calls will be answered immediately by a recording,
I mean an artificial intelligence (which of course is better than a recording).
NOT!
If you live in NOLA and haven't bought a gun and gotten training,
you're a damn fool.
If you live in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose,
et al, LEAVE! You live in a free country. You don't have to live in a slave state
or slave city. Freemen own guns, slaves don't. Freemen keep what they earn.
Slaves are forced by taxation to give their earnings to the slave master (the
government). Free states have no income tax. MOVE! No, it's not easy.
It is simple, move.
"Dry Practice Safety Protocol" by Justin Carroll (Swift | Silent | Deadly)
The text is the same as the audio in the video. So you can read it or listen to it.
Excerpts:
"If you dry practice a lot (or even a little), you need some kind of dry practice
safety regimen, ritual, or protocol."
"I choose the time of day when I am at my sharpest. For me, that is first thing
in the morning. I wake up, work out, and shower. Once I’m dressed I dry practice.
I like this because it gives me some focused practice before I walk out the door.
If I get in a fight, I have practiced my firearms manipulation skills as close as
possible to the fight."
"Bullet safe targets." (Body armor, bucket of sand, etc.)
---
If you want to avoid the unloading and reloading everyday to dry practice,
you can get another copy of your carry gun and use it as your practice gun.
Tom Givens advocates such.
Your primary is kept loaded in your holster. When you have to take it off
to dry practice, bathe, or sleep, secure the holstered pistol. Do not take the pistol
out of the holster. (I, of course, sleep with my holstered pistol securely attached
to my body. Doesn't everyone?)
Your secondary gets all the wear and tare (correct spelling, simple past tense
and past participle of tear) from practice and dry practice.
*************************************************************************
Дарья Чирко
Because squatting is an essential part of your repertoire.
Practice it.
"I lost a testicle to an accidental discharge." by North Wind Aerial
Comment by Gabe Suarez --
"STUDYING THE ACCIDENTAL DISCHARGE" August 13, 2026
This video caught my attention. The title is almost impossible to ignore.
Appendix carry of a Glock 23, by an ostensibly well trained individual in a
professional training event. Lets discuss this one.
The strong side carry advocates will immediately point to the deficiencies
of the appendix carry concept. I don’t think that is it. There are the Gun Karens
that will say that all unintentional discharges are negligent discharges. That is
nonsense as all we need to do is point to the follies with the SIG P320.
Sometimes, as the video states, “shit happens”. It should be our understanding
of that truth and then organizing our training to avoid the tolerance stacking
that causes it.
Appendix carry of a striker pistol, likely a customized trigger during speed
drills, likely during the latter part of the day - tolerance stacking.
Did appendix contribute to the end result? Without a doubt, but the very
real advantages in concealment and draw access of appendix cannot be denied.
Did the striker fired Glock pistol contribute to the end result? Also without
a doubt, bit we all know that trying to convince a Glockster to trade his pistol
for a TDA* would be like convincing a jihadist to eat a BLT†. I am not sure,
nor did the video mention any “improvements” that were made to the pistol,
but I suspect it may not have been a “stock trigger”. Not that stock Glock
triggers are brag-worthy.
Was the fact that they were working on speed drills a contributing factor?
Also without doubt. And I will discuss that one as well here.
In my thirty years of teaching - mostly intermediate to advanced personnel -
I have seen a few unintentional discharges (UD). Invariably they involved an
attempt to exceed natural contextual speed (speed drills involving drawing),
all were with striker fired pistols (both stock and custom), all had a competitive
element to them (team of SEALs seeing who would be faster and more accurate),
and all took place during the second part of the day.
I saw a US Army operator - using the same kit he had used in combat on
multiple tours - draw, snag on his chest rig and shoot himself in the right leg.
I saw an LE Counter Terror Officer draw and put a round into the deck with
his Glock when doing a move off the X drill in class. I could go on and list
all six that I have seen. But I am aware of more at other training venues.
These are not advertised by anyone of course, which gives this video greater
credibility. And the courage of the speaker is to be commended . . . I would
certainly not have said a thing.
So on to tolerance stacking.
Appendix carry is something I started doing in 2005. I don’t recall anyone
else in the training space doing so at the time. I didn’t invent it, I simply
popularized it. First time I saw it was with a DEA operator I worked with.
He wore a Sig P226 that way and he was very quick, as well as very subtle
and smooth. But Appendix Carry is not for everyone. It requires a certain
level of skill and attention from the gunman, and the margin for error is
considerably slimmer than any other form of carry. You must earn appendix
carry through careful repetitions. I can’t help but think that few of the
appendix pistoleros out there have actually put in the time to earn it.
Striker fired pistols are the norm for much of the CCW and LE worlds now.
But I know that they also reduce your margin of error considerably. They are
great when you are at your best, but a liability when you are not. Like the man
said, “shit happens”. I think it happens more easily with a striker fired pistol.
I had a very successful doctor student. This guy was not quite Elon Musk,
but I would not be surprised if they had met at some point. He always had
a very nice tuned high end pistol in class. But it was always a double action
weapon. It was initially a Sig P226 of some sort, and later an HK P30 series.
All with marvelous DA triggers and optics and everything you could ask for.
All the others, myself included, were using Glocks. I asked him once why
he chose that system. He told me that he had been an ER Doctor for years
and he had handled a plethora of self inflicted gunshot injuries. And that
these ranged from a neophyte that had little skill, to high level sport shooters,
to legitimate police operators. All of them without exception, involved striker
fired pistols.
There is an old term - Speed Kills. The phrase means that moving or
doing things too quickly potentially causes great harm. It is used both literally
for driving excessively fast and metaphorically for rushing through your work.
I agree with that term, and specially in the context of gun fighting. The training
space has become obsessed with the idea of speed. They sacrifice accuracy for
faster times on the clock and call it success. I wrote and videoed posts here on
Contextual Speed. That is what I train and teach, not the clock. Some of us
will be faster than others, but that is irrelevant in a gun fight. It is timing,
smoothness of movement, and accuracy that will win.
Knowing that, as the speaker notes, “Shit happens”, and understanding my
discussions on Tolerance Stacking, (that holster, weapon, and the quest for
speed were the cause of this) - could this “shit” have happened in a gunfight?
The answer is in the affirmative.
Examine your weapons, holsters, and most importantly your training.
Then be brutally honest with yourself and examine if you are creating any
“tolerance staking”, that can lead to a similar situation at the worst possible
time. Driving on the edge is great when you are 100% focused, but we all
know that we are not at our best 100% of the time.
-- Gabe Suarez
Using acronyms in your essays is a grave disservice to your readers.
* TDA
In the gun community, TDA stands for Traditional Double Action
(also known as Double Action/Single Action or DA/SA).
This term refers to a specific type of semi-automatic pistol trigger mechanism
with two distinct firing modes:
First Shot (Double Action): The pistol is carried with the hammer decocked.
The first trigger pull is long and heavy because it performs two functions:
cocking the hammer and releasing it to fire the round.
Subsequent Shots (Single Action): After the first shot is fired, the slide’s
recoil automatically re-cocks the hammer. All following shots are fired with
a short, light, and crisp single-action trigger pull.
[This means you have two different trigger actions. This means you must
train to shoot two different trigger actions. Choosing to carry such is an act
of criminal stupidity. Your pistol should have the same trigger action on every
shot. To complicate your manual of arms by having two different trigger actions
is madness. -- Jon Low]
† BLT = Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato sandwich. Muslims consider bacon to be haram.
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Training --------------------------------
Figuring out the correct tasks to practice.
Ansatz is a thing. And the better your training, the better your guesses / estimates.
Pacific West Academy
"How to Build a Proper Pistol Grip" by Mark Akenback
Not much useful information.
"Why Moving Faster Ruins Your Draw" by Mark Akenback
Frenetic energy = wasted movement.
"Why You're Shooting Low Left" by Mark Akenback
Isolate your trigger finger from the rest of your hand. Because gripping the pistol
with your hand when attempting to press the trigger is causing the problem.
I disagree. I think anticipation of the recoil and pushing against it is the problem,
which is solved by the surprise trigger break.
"Faster Pistol Target Transitions" by Mark Akenback
I disagree. I think it is essential to follow-through on each shot. Which means
getting a second sight picture after the shot, while your trigger is still being
pressed and held to the rear. Because sight-alignment and sight-picture determine
where the pistol is pointed when the firing pin hits the primer, but follow-through
determines where the pistol is pointed when the bullet exits the muzzle a
millisecond later. A millisecond is more than enough time to move the sight off
the target.
"Those motivated by a desire to improve their gunfighting skills
as opposed to a quest for trophies, must be willing to bleed ego on
the match results to avoid shedding blood in combat."
-- Andy Stanford
"15 Gun Myths That Get You Killed or Locked Up" by dntb20
I find these to be correct.
"Ineffective and potentially dangerous, point shooting should be avoided
at all costs and aimed fire employed in any lethal-force scenario."
-- Massad Ayoob
"The Art of One-Handed Shooting" by Bud Thomas
I agree that support-side-hand only shooting practice is essential.
I disagree with the one-handed grip shown. I think with a 1911,
the shooter should keep his thumb on top of the safety to hold it
down, preventing it from getting pushed up, to ensure the pistol will
fire. The pistol should of course have a thumb safety on both sides
of the pistol.
"There are three different areas, or disciplines,
in which the armed person must train.
These are mindset, gun handling, and marksmanship.
Each is equally important, and you must be at least
competent in all three areas."
-- Tom Givens
"The Armed Defender's Dilemma, 36 Lessons" by Shawn Vincent
---
"Don't Be the Initial Aggressor"
The transcript is included. I prefer to read rather than listen.
"If you’re not measuring your training,
what you’re doing is called playing."
-- Chris Sajnog
"In order to measure, we must be able to quantify."
-- Aaron Cowan
"Make The Aggressor Work For The Fight" by Don West and Andrew Branca
"When you're training to protect yourself and others, speed always comes last.
In the more than twenty-five years I've been training people in self-protection,
I've never heard from someone who used self-protection tools in the field and
felt like they suffered from a lack of speed at the moment of truth. In fact, I
usually hear the opposite: it's much more common to suffer from a lack of
accuracy or force." -- Tim Larkin
"Initial Aggressors and Provocateurs" by Shawn Vincent
"In reality, we are training for an unknown event, against unknown threats,
by developing as many known skills as possible."
-- Jeff Gonzales
"Why am I not able to shoot tight groups?"
Because you have inconsistencies. Because your grip is different on each shot.
Because you haven't practiced enough to recognize or feel that your grip is different
on each shot.
If you CAN feel that something is wrong with the shot process, you lack the
self-discipline to abort the shot, revert to fundamentals, and start the shot process
over from the beginning. Instead you fire the bad shot that you knew would be bad,
because you could feel it was bad.
To get your physical grip correct, use index points.
Firing-side-hand: The web between your thumb and index finger must be
pressed up high and tight into the tang of the pistol grip. The thumb must be
high (because the wrist is straight) and lay flat against the side of the pistol.
The middle finger must be pressed up tight against the bottom of the trigger guard.
The trigger finger must be in the register position, straight along the slide or
frame of the pistol. Middle finger, ring finger, and little finger are pressed
tightly against each other, no space between the fingers. The finger grooves
in the front strap of the grip is criminal stupidity. Grind them off and checker
the front strap.
Support-side-hand: The index finger must be pressed firmly against the
bottom of the trigger guard. The bases of the two thumbs must be pressed
firmly against each other. Index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little
finger are pressed tightly against each other, no space between the fingers.
All fingers must be on the grip. If the grip is too short to allow all of your
fingers to grasp the grip, the grip is too short for your hands. Get a pistol
that fits you or change the grip on your pistol.
Wrists should be straight for a strong grip. That means your thumbs will
be pointed up, not forward. If you are pointing your thumbs forward, you
are bending your wrists, which weakens your grip. Stop it!
To get your muscle tension correct, grip as tight as you can without trembling.
If you are using a Weaver arm position or the Chapman version of the Weaver
arm position, push with your firing side hand and pull with your support-side
hand.
If you are using an isosceles arm position, do not lock your elbows. Your
arms are shock absorbers, not rigid structures that transfer the recoil impulse into
your body. You don't want the recoil to disturb your stance.
To get your self-discipline, dry practice! Do not let the trigger click unless the
shot is correct. If it doesn't feel correct, if it doesn't look correct (sight alignment
and sight movie), abort the shot, pull back into close contact, take a breath, revert
to fundamentals, talk yourself through the shot process. "Sight alignment, sight
movie, touch the trigger, take the slack out of the trigger, keep pressing, keep
pressing, keep pressing . . ." Do not fire the shot. Strive for a surprise trigger
break. Let your subconscious fire the shot. Let God fire the shot. Your job is
to keep the sights on target and to keep pressing.
When the pistol goes click, your job is to perform a correct follow-through:
Keep pressing the trigger, trapping the trigger to the rear after the over travel,
keep aiming at the target, acquiring the second sight picture after the shot.
The second sight picture is the end of your shot process, only then will you
reset the trigger. If you reset your trigger before this time, you have disrupted
your follow-through.
Consistency is precision (tight groups). Once you have precision (tight groups),
accuracy is just a matter of moving your sights to make your point-of-aim match
your point-of-impact. So eventually, consistency is accuracy.
"A mistake that makes you humble is better
than an achievement that makes you arrogant."
-- Nicola Cavanis
*************************************************************************
Анастасия Клепнева
"Neuroplasticity on the Range:
Designing a Firearms Training Regime Around the Mind"
by Leo H.
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpts:
"By leveraging how the brain naturally processes stress, retains memory,
and builds myelin pathways, we can move away from mindless YouTube.com
influenced range drills toward scientifically optimized performance."
"Skill development requires one to transform conscious effort into
subconscious execution through myelination. This can be accomplished
by visualizing proper weapon handling from your recliner or by correctly
performing the firing accurate shots on the range." [I would add dry practice.
-- Jon Low]
"Earning the metaphorical “been there, done that” shirt generates the
psychological conditioning needed to dampen the amygdala’s panic
response, thus teaching the brain to remain analytical and precise amidst
the chaos of an aggressive encounter." [The operative word is 'earning'.
Taking the training doesn't necessarily earn you anything. You have to
pay attention in the training and process what is being taught.
Practicing doesn't necessarily earn you anything. You have to deliberately
and correctly practice what you were taught. -- Jon Low]
". . . use a shot timer to allow you to record progress . . ."
[In dry practice, this means you set the timer to beep once as a go signal and once
as a par time. You start at the go signal and strive to finish before the par time beep.
Adjusting as necessary.
-- Jon Low]
"Perform a perfect trigger press."
[I think the author means: touch the trigger, take the slack out of the trigger
(the trigger is at break dawn), smoothly press the trigger, (the trigger breaks),
(the trigger moves through over travel), trap the trigger to the rear, reset the
trigger, take the slack out of the trigger. -- Jon Low]
". . . elite shooting is not a product of mechanical upgrades,
but of biological conditioning."
"Shoot sooner, not faster."
-- Matt Little
"The Twin Falls In-N-Out Incident" by John Correia (Active Self Protection)
Articles giving further details are linked in the description below the video.
John has kindly opened the New York Times article for you.
Excerpts: (paraphrased)
"Wait 72 hours before opining." [Initial news reports are often wrong.]
If you're worried about being identified as the bad guy, establish a grip on your
pistol while keeping your pistol in your holster and covered by your concealment
garment.
ALWAYS carry with a round in the chamber! Good guy was injured by the
bad guy, attempted to draw with support-side-hand, and could not get his gun
into the fight because he did not have a round in the chamber. (And apparently
could not rack the slide with only his support-side-hand.) You're not going to
have a second hand to chamber the round. You're not going to have time to
chamber a round.
If you're in a car in the drive through line, jump the curb and GET OUT!
[Can your car jump the curb? My Nissan Sentra cannot. You need to know.
-- Jon Low]
First hero shot at the bad guy, but failed to neutralize him. (No hits on
target.) It's not enough to have the courage, attitude, mindset, and will;
you MUST have the skill to put multiple hits into vital organs.
Second hero shot at the bad guy, but failed to neutralize him. (No hits on target.)
Bad guy died of self inflicted gun shot wound. Bad guy had no wounds from
being shot by anyone else. Everyone who shot at him missed.
Three persons hid in the gift shop. None of them were armed. So all they
could do was hide and pray as the bad guy roamed around the gift shop looking
for victims. That's why you must always carry.
[John recommends a red dot optic sight, because they make longer shots much
more doable. That's true. On the other hand, at this past weekend's shoot in
which 24 law enforcement officers from all over Tennessee gathered to test
equipment, I witnessed an officer spend several seconds turning on his optic,
adjusting the brightness, and adjusting the reticle before he could shoot.
He was forced to make the adjustments because we were shooting under dense
tree cover. So it was fairly dark. -- Jon Low]
1. Have a gun on you.
2. Have significant skills. (Seek out and take expert training.)
3. Have confidence. (There is only one way. Train regularly and always have
practiced recently.)
“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
"Your brain was hardwired to copy
Why every master you admire was a copycat first"
by Sam Elsner
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
---
"Creativity is not rewarded.
What is rewarded is precision and analytical thinking."
-- Magnus Carlsen
"Most deadly force encounters occur spontaneously, without warning and
at extremely close ranges. Realistically, you may not have the time or the
space to effectively draw, no matter how fast your draw stroke."
-- Jeff L. Gonzales
"3rd hand knowledge in tactics is not real." by Mike Pannone
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
“The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns,
we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise,
they will win and decent people will loose.”
-- James Earl Jones
"Your Body Is Going to Betray You in a Fight.
Here’s What Science Says Happens — and How Training Rewrites the Story."
by (no individual takes responsibility for this article)
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
The author makes reference to many sources, but none of them are
properly cited. Making it impossible to read the primary source,
making this article sketchy.
"Proper training ingrains the proper responses.
Repetition is the mother of all skill. With skill comes confidence.
With confidence comes the ability to think under pressure and
make sound tactical decisions."
-- Tom Givens
“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.)
Simple is faster. Simple is more reliable. So, simple is better.
"Before all else, be armed." -- Nicolo Machiavelli
"Safe gun handling and knowing how to operate the gun competently is one thing.
How to fight with the gun is a whole other plane of knowledge."
-- Tiger McKee
"Superior judgment trumps superior skills." -- Dan Millican
Care enough to continue your training.
"Never believe anything you read or hear.
To figure out what’s best for you,
experiment until you have no doubt."
-- Brian Enos
"Having a gun is important.
But knowing WHEN to use it is even more important."
-- Greg Ellifritz
"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)
*************************************************************************
*******************************************************************
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Psychology --------------------------------
“Training deals not with an object,
but with the human spirit and human emotions.”
--Bruce Lee
"Train and practice so that you can stay in your rational mind,
and force your enemy into his emotional mind. The emotional
mind makes bad judgments which will allow you to win."
-- John Hearne
"Be stronger than your strongest excuse."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment
to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor."
-- Vince Lombardi
*************************************************************************
Анастасия Клепнева
------------------------------ Conferences --------------------------------
Attending classes and conferences is required for growth.
There is nothing worse than teaching obsolete shit. Because your
students don't know any better.
"The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword;
because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force
superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense,
raised in the United States."
-- Noah Webster
The Guardian Conference, $800
September 18th - 20th, 2026 A.D.
in Oklahoma City, OK.
Gun Rights Policy Conference, Second Amendment Foundation, $25
September 25–27, 2026 A.D.
in Dallas at the Westin Dallas Fort Worth Airport hotel.
Click on the link to book a hotel room for $159.00 per night.
2026 Combatives Summit, $897
When:
Range Day: October 22, 2026
Conference: October 23, 24, and 25, 2026
Where: American Top Team
10380 Auto Mall Pkwy, D'Iberville, MS 39540
Rangemaster Tactical Conference
Friday-Sunday, April 2-4, 2027 A.D.
Dallas Pistol Club; Carrollton, TX
*************************************************************************
Homosexual men protesting Anthony Fauci's policies.
Do you remember? Do you understand?
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Classes --------------------------------
Attend classes so you know what the best practices are.
Gunsite – 250 Defensive Pistol, $2,135
Royal Range, Nashville, Tennessee
Monday, August 24, 2026 - Friday, August 28, 2026
Duration: 5 Days
Prerequisite: None
Ammunition: 1000 rounds ball (ball means copper jacketed round nose bullets)
available for purchase on-site.
The student will also have to purchase approximately 1 box of Simunitions
from Royal Range for the indoor simulators.
Firearms Instructor Development Course by Tom Givens, $ 795
Fri, Sep 18, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT – Sun, Sep 20, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM CDT
Georgia Gun Club, 1951 Braselton Highway, Buford, GA, USA
Red Dot Sight Handgun Instructor by Sage Dynamics, $700.00
open enrollment
September 23 – 25, 2026 A.D. (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday)
Royal Range USA, 7741 US-70S, Nashville, TN 37221, USA
Course description:
To register:
Firearms Instructor Development Course by Tom Givens, $ 795
Fri, Oct 2, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT – Sun, Oct 4, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM CDT
17 South Rod & Gun Club, Fleming, GA
Church Security Team Critical Skills, $200.00
October 10, 2026 A.D.
8:30AM-5:00PM
Dallas Pistol Club
1830 W Belt Line Rd
Carrollton, TX 75006
Register at
Protective Pistolcraft Instructor, 5 Days, $ 1350
Mon, Nov 2, 2026 – Fri, Nov 6, 2026, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM CST
Last Resort Firearms Training, 4220 Gravel Pit Road, White Hall, AR, USA
This is the 3-day Firearms Instructor Development Course and
the 2-day Advanced Firearms Instructor Course given in 5 days.
Taught by Tom Givens, Tiffany Johnson, Aqil Qadir, and John Hearne.
No prerequisites. Includes a night shoot and much more.
Defensive Handgun by John Farnam, $850
14 - 15 November 2026 A.D.
Description of course at
Deer Hollow Range, White House, TN
"The Tactical Anatomy Summit", $650.00
January 30-31, 2027 A.D.
Lakeland Training Center
1421 Fish Hatchery Rd
Lakeland, FL
Time: 8 a.m - 6 p.m.
*$35 per day Range Fees will Apply at Location
Suggested Lodging: Best Western Auburndale
Last Resort Firearms Training (Ed Monk)
Agile Training and Consulting (Chuck Haggard)
Thunder Ranch (Clint Smith)
Classes,
ConcealedCarry.com (Jacob S. Paulsen et al)
Project Appleseed
Gunsite Academy
Lee Weems
Massad Ayoob Group
West Coast Armory North, Martha Holschen
Active Response Training, Greg Ellifritz
Dustin Salomon
KR Training
Kari Grayson
Citizens Safety Academy
Carry Trainer, Mickey Schuch
Paladin Training, Inc.
Citizen-Defender, John Murphy
Defensive Training International, John Farnam
Rangemaster, Tom Givens
This appears to be a new web site for Rangemaster classes,
Trident Concepts, Jeff Gonzales
Apache Solutions, Tim Kelly
Harris Combative Strategies, Randy Harris
Mead Hall Range & Tactics, Bill Armstrong
2026 Schedule
Lone Star Medics – Caleb Causey – Contingent Medic 26-27Sept2026
Full Spectrum Shotgun – Cox/Willis/Roth –3-4Oct26
Sentinel Concepts – Steve Fisher Critical Handgun Oct 24 2026
Sentinel Concepts – Steve Fisher Critical Shotgun Oct 25 2026
Cougar Mountain Solutions – Erick Gelhaus- 6,7, and 8November26 (Prelim)
Low Light Carbine 1 day course
Low Light Handgun 1 day course
Judgmental Handgun 1 day course
Presscheck/Two Pillars - Pressburg/Hearne - 13-15Nov26
2027 (Prelim)
Symtac Consulting (Rob and Matt Haught) – Shotgun Skills 13-14Mar2027
Presscheck Consulting (Chuck Pressburg) No Fail Pistol and Precision Performance 16-18April2027
Tactical Anatomy Systems (Dr Williams) Shooting with Xray Vision Instructor 24-25April2027
Onsight Firearms Training (Ben Dewalt) Two Day Comprehensive Pistol 15-16May2027
Sentinel Concepts (Steve Fisher) Practical Urban Carbine 22-23May2027
Edwina Parker Defensible Force 5-6June 2027
Sentinel Concepts 9-10Oct2027
-Bill Armstrong
MeadHall Range
405-823-2433
bill.armstrong@meadhallrange.com
Two Pillars Training, John Hearne
Mike Seeklander
Claude Werner, The Tactical Professor
Tatiana Whitlock - Training in Context
Rangemaster Certified Instructors
Map of Rangemaster Certified Instructors
NRA Instructors and their classes.
‟Training is NOT an event, but a process.
Training is the preparation FOR practice.”
-- Claude Werner
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Practice --------------------------------
How to get proficient at that task.
"Where to Shoot" by National Shooting Sports Foundation, Inc.
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
"Shooting quickly in a staged environment under no stress
does not make you tactically proficient."
-- John Hearne
"Good habits and skill beat luck every time."
-- Sheriff Jim Wilson
‶Practice is the small deposits you make over time,
so that in an emergency, you can make that big withdrawal.″
-- Chesley Burnett Sullenberger, III
"Why are the little things called little things?
They are everything."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"People rust faster than equipment."
-- John Hearne
"Remember, the day you plant the seed is not the day you earn the fruit."
-- Nicola Cavanis
“Willingness is a state of mind. Readiness is a statement of fact!”
-- Lt. Gen. David M Shoup, USMC Commandant 1960-1963
"Your speed [in mastering the art and science of your discipline] doesn't matter.
Forward is forward."
-- Nicola Cavanis
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.”
-- Aristotle
"Maybe you can't achieve it in one day.
But you can achieve it one day."
-- Nala Knight
"Remember, growing may feel like breaking at first."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"You have to be lucky to win. And the more you practice, the luckier you get."
-- Col. Lones Wigger
"Calluses are a status symbol that money can't buy."
-- Jim Beaumont
“An ounce of practice is worth a ton of theory.”
-- EF Schumacher
"Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."
-- Henry Ford
*************************************************************************
************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Intervention ***** ***** *****
Suggestions on how to deal with the incident that you failed to avoid.
Table of sections:
Strategy
Tactics
Techniques
*************************************************************************
Elizaveta Genich
As a professional model, is she holding that pose on command? or is she incapable
of squatting? Can you tell? Do you know what to look for?
Sort of like observing a guy in a wheelchair. Does he need the wheelchair or
is it a fake? Do you know what to look for?
Sort of like observing the guy approaching. Can he fight? Better than you?
Will he fight like a professional fighter? or will he strike to immediately incapacitate?
------------------------------ Strategy --------------------------------
Deciding on the end state and how to achieve it.
Generally speaking, you want to escape.
"Never let fear decide your fate."
-- Nicola Cavanis
“How do you win a gunfight?
Don't be there.”
-- John Farnam
"You win gunfights by not getting shot."
-- John Holschen
------------------------------ Tactics --------------------------------
Maneuver and fire in support of your strategy to escape.
Sometimes you must close with the enemy to
destroy him with fire and close combat.
“When you’re in the dark, stay in the dark;
when you’re in the light, light up the dark.”
-- Stephen P. Wenger
"Considerations for Fighting With a Little One at Your Side" by Melody Lauer
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpts:
"As a parent of a a baby or a toddler, consider the way you carry your firearm.
Access to your pistol will be complicated when carrying your child or a diaper bag.
Consider and practice alternate carry methods."
Melody Lauer
"When family defense is discussed, it often defaults to traditional gender roles:
the woman’s job is to whisk the children to safety; the man’s job is to stand and
defend the family.
While this very well may be the best practice for your family, I challenge you
to consider alternatives." [Who is the more competent defender? -- Jon Low]
"My husband and I are fairly evenly matched when it comes to our defensive
skills. But while I sometimes struggle to carry just one of our children, my
husband can collect all three of them in his arms and carry them with ease.
He’s also the family breadwinner. He’s capable of getting the rest of our family
to safety and can provide for our children long term if I don’t survive a violent
encounter. That makes flipping traditional gender roles a smart choice for our
family, and it might be for yours too."
"You often don't know where the bad guy is who is shooting at you."
-- Phillip Groff
“People shoot you because they see you.
They see you because you let them.
Don’t let them see you.”
-- Clint Smith
“Fortuitous outcomes reinforce poor tactics.”
-- Chuck Haggard
“No possible rapidity of fire can atone for
habitual carelessness of aim with the first shot.”
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States,
"The Wilderness Hunter", 1893
"Real fights are short." -- Bruce Lee
*************************************************************************
Ashley Smouter
Squatting on unstable ground. Can you shoot accurately from such?
"I would never be shooting from such a position."
“There are things that you cannot imagine,
but there is nothing that may not happen!”
-- CIA Axiom
------------------------------ Techniques --------------------------------
Ways to execute a given task in support of your tactics,
especially when disabled or under stress.
“What’s the number one reason for reloading?
Missing the target!”
-- Claude Werner
"Rappelling for the Prepared Citizen - Introduction and Basics"
by Echo Mike
Hat tip to Docent.
"The secret is applying extreme force with the pinkies and
working your way up the rest of the digits."
-- Jeff L. Gonzales
"Extreme Close Quarters Shooting: A Critical Analysis of
Contact-Distance Shooting Tactics (1999)"
by Ralph Mroz
"It's not daily increase but daily decrease - hack away at the inessentials!"
-- Bruce Lee
"Ability to Reholster – Again?" by Rich Grassi
Stephen P. Wenger's comments --
Back when AIWB carry came into vogue with those favoring striker-fired pistols
with short-stroke triggers and no thumb safeties, I made what was probably my
last post in an online firearms forum. In a thread praising that mode of carry
for those guns, I asked, “Aren't you guys concerned about crossing your femoral
artery if you have to reholster while seated?” The angry replies fell into two
groups: “Most people reholster too quickly” and “why would you need to
reholster while seated?”
As to reholstering while seated, two scenarios come to mind:
You're seated at a table in a restaurant when you observe what appears
to be a robbery at the register. You surreptitiously draw your handgun, keeping
it under the table. The robber leaves after getting the money from the register
or it turns out that it really wasn't a robbery. Do you want to have to stand up
to reholster in full view of the other diners and staff?
You draw your handgun when you perceive a potential carjacking while
stopped at a traffic light. The light turns green and the vehicle in front of
you moves, allowing you to accelerate away from the scene. Do you want
to drive with gun in hand until you can pull over to exit the vehicle to reholster,
in public view, while standing?
Longer-term list members may recall the case of a police officer – a firearms
instructor for his department – who shot out his femoral artery with his off-duty
S&W Shield, apparently as he reholstered in AIWB position on his drive to work.
Ironically, his Shield had the optional thumb safety but he'd chosen not to engage it.
As to learning to reholster without looking at the holster, with the caveat that my
command to reholster began, “with finger straight, up on the frame of the gun,”
all my students – many of whom were new to handguns – were trained that way,
with loaded guns, from the outset. I can't recall a single student who was not
doing so comfortably by the fifth or sixth repetition.
-- Stephen P. Wenger
". . . only shoot as fast as you can assess, and . . . assess after each shot,
both of which, we should be training to do all the time anyway."
-- Ralph Mroz, "Street Focused Handgun Training"
"Trigger Reset Simplified:
3 (or More) Reasons Why Everything You Know About it is Probably Wrong"
by Riley Bowman
Excerpt:
"A Correct Reset Is Performed As the Gun Recoils,
Prepping the Trigger For the Next Shot"
[I disagree. Resetting the trigger during recoil disrupts your follow-through.
It's just as bad as looking to see where your bullet hit. The only thing that
you should be doing during recoil is getting your sight back on target for
your second sight picture. You should not be playing with your trigger
during follow-through (don't reset the trigger, don't take the slack out of
the trigger, don't do anything with the trigger, just keep it trapped to the rear).
-- Jon Low]
"Contrast That With An Incorrect Reset
Where The Shooter Pins The Trigger And
Only Resets In Anticipation For The Next Shot"
[I believe Riley is conflating reset and slack-out into
'Reset In Anticipation For The Next Shot'. Resetting the trigger and
taking the slack out of the trigger are two different steps in the shot process.
-- Jon Low]
---
Losing contact with the trigger is not a good thing. To control a physical
mechanism it is important to maintain physical contact with the mechanism.
Have you ever played Foosball? The untrained will spin the rods and bang
the rods into the table. But the high level players will never do such things.
They always maintain physical contact with the rods.
Have you ever played pool? The untrained will hit the cue ball too hard.
The high level players will have a soft touch. That is to say they exhibit a
high level of control through physical contact.
You can't feel what's going on with the trigger if you're not touching it.
You control the trigger by touching it.
---
The solution to the "snatch" is the surprise trigger break.
---
No, the sights do not tell us when to shot. Because the sights will always
wobble around the target. (You would need a machine rest to stop the wobble.)
The trick to getting good hits is to accept the wobble and let your subconscious
(or God) release the shot. That is the surprise trigger break.
The surprise break defeats all autonomic nervous system responses
(flinching, freezing, pushing, jerking, snatching, etc.) to the report and recoil.
By not letting your brain know exactly when the pistol will fire, all autonomic
nervous system responses occur after the bullet has exited the muzzle.
Or, they don't occur at all, because of the surprise break.
---
I disagree with Riley. I think pinning the trigger to the rear during
follow-through is a good technique, not a bad habit. Resetting the trigger
during follow-through is effectively destroying your follow-through.
Follow-through is essential for accurate shooting, because sight alignment
and sight picture determine where the pistol is pointed when the striker
hits the primer. But follow-through determines where the pistol is pointed
when the bullet exits the muzzle a millisecond later. A millisecond is more
than enough time to move the sights completely off the target. Because
the pistol moves very fast under recoil, because the pistol has very little
mass.
Follow-through is important, because it ensures your accuracy.
Resetting the trigger sooner is not important, because the split time difference
is not significant.
---
I have taken classes from Riley. I have great respect for Riley. We just
disagree on this point of technique.
"I can always do nothing more consistently than I can do something."
-- Ben Stoeger
"Best demonstration I have done" by Ben Stoeger
---
Instagram video,
"Grip first, then press."
-- Mike Seeklander
"The Rifle High-Ready Drill!" by Tactical Rifleman
How to mount a rifle.
"Use only that which works,
and take it from any place you can find it."
-- Bruce Lee
"I claim no advanced sniper knowledge beyond attending a couple
police SWAT sniper schools and getting certified to teach the topic to
cops in my former state. I was my agency’s sniper for a long time,
but seldom deployed. For what it’s worth, I always shoot better off a
ruck than off a bipod."
-- Greg Ellifritz
That's because the ruck is soft and the bipod is hard. When using
support, always hard against soft, never hard against hard. When the
gun fires, a shock wave travels through the gun. That shock wave
will cause the gun to bounce off any hard object that the gun is in
contact with. That will disturb recoil, which in turn will disturb
point-of-impact.
"Whatever you leave alone is perfect." -- Brian Enos
"The Art of One-Handed Shooting" by Dan Abraham
"The foundations of your grip are established
before you even draw the pistol from the holster."
-- Tanner Denton
"In my strategy the footwork does not change.
I always walk as I usually do in the street."
-- Miyamoto Musashi
*************************************************************************
Email from John Murphy --
"The big lesson to extract from this one is that someone will kill you over a
parking spot dispute. This is particularly true if, after they’re produced a pistol,
you insist on advancing towards them. “Movement is eloquent communication”
has long been one of my teaching points, and by chasing her around those
vehicles he gave her the reasonable belief of imminent bodily injury. Regardless
what had transpired prior, in that moment, she may well have been justified in
firing that fatal shot. Ultimately this will be up for a prosecutor, and potentially
a jury, to decide. (Click the link for ONE video perspective.)
Bottom Line: You just don’t know who you’re dealing with, so avoiding
unnecessary interpersonal friction is a good policy. It has been said that
you win 100% of the fights you’re not involved in. Parking a little further
away from the entrance gives you a chance to get some more steps in, and
we all need more steps. Plus you avoid door dings!"
---
According to the monthly Metro Nashville Police notices sent out to anyone
who cares to subscribe, just about all violent crime (by chance, not by design)
occurs in Wal Mart parking lots. That's a clue.
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Postvention ***** ***** *****
Suggestions on how to treat your wounds or the wounds of your loved ones.
Suggestions on how to avoid prosecution, conviction, and prison time.
Suggestions on how to avoid the civil law suit and judgment.
Table of sections:
Aftermath
Medical
Survival
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Aftermath --------------------------------
You must be alive to have these problems: criminal and civil liability.
“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
"The Next Fight" by Don West
A series of videos walking you through the aftermath of a lethal confrontation
and the nightmare that is our legal system. Best to know what reality is and what
it has in store for you.
In the right hand column of this web page, click on "Never Talk To The Police"
or use the address,
"Avoid Blue-on-Blue During Active Shooter Events
Since the Twin Falls Active Shooter event I have been discussing
the event and what we could all improve on when it is our turn."
by GABRIEL SUAREZ
In the right hand column, click on the link labeled "Self Defense Insurance".
Or, the link is,
Read this before you buy insurance. You need to make an informed decision.
The various policies are drastically different.
"You need to read the fine print." -- Massad Ayoob
“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
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Medical --------------------------------
"If you prepare for the emergency,
the emergency ceases to exist!"
-- Sherman House
"The shorter the fight, the less hurt you get."
-- John Holschen
Tactical Emergency Casualty Care Course - NAEMT Certified
DEFEND SYSTEMS
(615) 480-7758
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Survival --------------------------------
"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
"Survival is a mindset, not a skill set."
-- Greg Shaffer
‟We don’t decide what is necessary to survive a
lethal force encounter initiated by someone else.
That person decides what’s necessary for us to survive.”
– William Aprill
"Survival is not based solely on technique.
Survivability may hinge on the use of the correct technique
appropriate to the environment you are fighting in.
Oh, and yes, marksmanship is always valuable."
-- Clint Smith
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
--Benjamin Franklin
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Education ***** ***** *****
Table of sections:
Legal
Instruction
*************************************************************************
"You will never get smarter or broaden your horizons
if you're unwilling to learn from others and read."
-- Becca Martin
Project Appleseed
"Are You A Cook Or A Rifleman?" by C. B. "Hoppy" Hopkins
"Historical Events of August 1775" by AH1Tom
[No, that is not a lower case 'f' in place of the letter 's'.
No, that is not the letter 'v' substituted for the letter 's'.
It's older typography. It is a mistake of youth to think
that the way things are, is the way they have always been.
Such is never true.
-- Jon Low]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Langdon Tactical Technologies.
Gun University
"Defensive Use of Firearms" by Stephen P. Wenger
Get on his emailing list for his newsletter,
Greg Ellifritz's reading list,
American Rifleman
and American Hunter
are now online free of charge.
Practical Eschatology
https://practicaleschatology.blogspot.com/
2nd Amendment News & Articles
Citizen-Defender, John Murphy
YouTube.com channel
Blog posts,
Rangemaster Newsletter, Tom Givens
Active Self Protection, John Correia
"My Gun Culture" by Tom McHale
Quips, John Farnam
Active Response Training, Greg Ellifritz
Make sure to check out the Weekend Knowledge Dumps.
The Tactical Professor, Claude Werner
American Handgunner Magazine
Tactical Science
International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors
Alien Gear blog
Shooting Classes Blog
"Cogito, ergo armatum sum." (I think, therefore armed am I.)
-- John Farnam
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Legal --------------------------------
"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, Constitution of the United States of America
"Armed Homeowner Stops Car Burglar With An AR-15" by Colion Noir
As Noir says, the result of the incident depends on your zip code.
"Law of Self Defense" by Andrew Branca
(free book, just pay shipping so you don't have to go to Colorado to pick it up)
"Ignoring the No Guns Sign Is the Weakest Option" by Jacob Paulsen
Excerpt:
". . . don't give them your business at all."
" 'Your Money Is a Vote, and Some Companies Count It'
The usual objection to boycotting is that it's pointless. One customer is a rounding
error. A few thousand gun owners quietly shopping somewhere else won't register
against quarterly revenue in the billions.
'Dick's Sporting Goods AR-15'
Except we have a case where somebody put a number on it. In February 2018,
Dick's Sporting Goods announced it would stop selling certain semi-automatic
rifles and standard capacity magazines and would not sell any firearm to anyone
under 21. The company later estimated the policy change cost it roughly
$150 million in lost sales, about 1.7 percent of annual revenue. Guns had also
driven sales of boots, jackets, and other soft goods, so the damage spread past
the gun counter.
The industry responded too. The National Shooting Sports Foundation
expelled Dick's from membership, and manufacturers including Mossberg
cut ties with the retailer entirely.
Now, here's the part I'm not going to spin. It didn't work, at least not in the
sense of changing their mind. The CEO said it was worth it. The company
doubled down, pulled hunting departments from store after store, and never
reversed course.
So if you want the honest version: gun owners did not force a policy change
at Dick's. What we did was make the decision expensive and visible enough
that the company had to publicly account for it. Every retailer watching that
story now knows there's a price tag attached to picking that fight.
That's not nothing. That's actually how consumer pressure usually works.
It rarely flips the company that took the hit. It changes the math for the next
ten companies deciding whether to take the same position."
"Levi Strauss asked customers to stop bringing firearms into its stores in 2016.
Two years later the company went considerably further. It established a
$1 million Safer Tomorrow Fund to finance gun control nonprofits and activists,
partnered with Everytown and Michael Bloomberg to form a coalition called
Everytown Business Leaders for Gun Safety, and doubled its matching rate
for employee donations to aligned organizations while offering paid time off
to volunteer for them. The first grants went to Everytown, Giffords, and Live Free."
---
Don't go into gun-free-zones. Never send your children into gun-free-zones.
The purpose of gun-free-zones is to create unarmed victims for armed criminals
to prey upon. Any other reason given for gun-free-zones is a nonsensical lie.
-- Jon Low
Gun Law Database
"Federal Court Rules Key National Firearms Act Restrictions
Are Unconstitutional in GOA Lawsuit "
---
"Federal Court Knocks Out Key NFA Rules Regarding Suppressors
and SBRs But Most Tennesseans Are Not Yet Protected"
[Join Gun Owners of America and you'll be protected.]
by John Harris
"Build A Reciprocity Map:" by Concealed Carry, Inc.
NFA (National Firearms Act) gutted, because it was never about a tax, it was
always about gun-control.
“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
"OnlyFans Model Courtney Clenney Plea Deal!" by Andrew Branca
(It's members only, so I will paraphrase and recap for you.)
OnlyFans model Courtney Clenney (presently age 30) claimed self-defense
in her killing of her boyfriend Christian Ombuseli. She stabbed him in the
chest with a kitchen knife. He was male and much bigger and stronger than her.
He was Black. She is white. So she had disparity of force and maybe
race going for her. Though her profession worked against her. You know
what OnlyFans is, right?
Plea deal, pleading guilty to manslaughter, 6 years in prison (credit for time
served, she's been in prison for four year since her arrest and denial of bail),
5 years supervised release (probation), and completion of various programs:
mental health evaluation, drug rehabilitation, anger management, et al.
Both prosecution and defense waive the PSI (Pre Sentence Investigation).
Branca notes that the defendant has the right to a speedy trial, the prosecution
does not. Generally speaking, the more guilty you are, the longer you want to
drag things out. Because evidence disappears, witnesses disappear, memories
change or get fuzzy, etc.
As Branca notes, she didn't go to Hawaii for rehab treatment, she went to
evade Florida's jurisdiction.
DO NOT answer questions without your lawyer present. With your lawyer
present, DO NOT answer questions. Let your lawyer speak for you, because
what your lawyer says cannot be used against you. What you say, WILL be
used against you. Oh yes, your statements will be twisted, taken out of context
and used against you.
"That's not what I said! That's not what I meant!"
Too late, you ran your mouth, now you're screwed.
She spoke to the police without her attorney present (an act of criminal
stupidity) and effectively buried herself.
Never talk to the media. Only bad things can happen from you talking to
the media.
---
My father (who was a prosecutor, judge, and defense attorney) would say
it has nothing to do with guilt or innocence. All that matters is whether you
do smart things or stupid things. Smart behaviors allow the person to never
become a suspect in the first place. This is primarily KEEPING YOUR
MOUTH SHUT and calling your attorney immediately. Stupid behaviors,
such as talking to the police, ensures your arrest, conviction, and imprisonment.
No, you're not smarter than the cops. No, you're not a Constitutional expert.
So you don't know what you're doing. Stuff you've seen on TV or in the movies
is completely false, and if it's not completely false, it doesn't apply to you.
The cops are not here to help you. The cops are not on your side. The
cops are not your friends. The cops will lie to you. (U.S. Supreme Court
says that's A-Okay.) If you lie to the cops, that's a felony. (The stress of
self-defense will cause false memories and amnesia. So any statements you
give will be false. They won't match security video. They won't match other
witness statements. They won't match the physical evidence. So the police
will claim you lied to them. How do you avoid this? KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!)
You must invoke your rights. They don't attach automatically.
Hand the officer your Tennessee Firearms Association card that has written
on it,
"I invoke my right to remain silent."
"I invoke my right to counsel."
And then shut up! Because if you start talking, you have waived your right
to remain silent. The body cameras are running. The flawed memories of
the police are watching you and listening to you. The erroneous notes of
the police are being written down in their notebooks. And the cops will
happily read their notes in court, even though the notes are completely false.
Let them arrest you. Arrest doesn't mean anything. Just keep your mouth
shut.
Ask any prosecutor, "What's the primary evidence in any criminal prosecution?"
He will tell you, the statements of the defendant.
If the prosecutor doesn't have your statements, it's very difficult to prosecute
you. But you must have faith. Faith in God, faith in your innocence, faith in
your attorney.
The prosecutor will try to scare you with long prison sentences. Keep your faith.
The prosecutor will try to scare you with stories of how you will be raped,
sodomized, and beaten in prison. Keep your faith. The prosecutor will be
"generous" and offer you a plea deal, that drastically reduces your prison sentence.
If the prosecutor had a solid case, he wouldn't offer you a plea deal. The plea deal
means the prosecutor is scared of losing the case. Or, doesn't have the resources
to prosecute your case.
If your attorneys and private investigators and expert witnesses have created
a strong case for you, the prosecutor may drop your case rather than face the
embarrassment of losing the case. Prosecutors are very protective of their
win-loss record, their reputation. Of course, you must have the money for such.
But you do, because you are smart, and have a self-defense insurance policy or
attorneys on retainer. It's cheap, because people like us rarely need such and
so rarely file claims. Of course, the insurance premium is meaningless.
All that matters is whether or not the insurance company pays claims, in full,
up front, without limit. Some don't. If you buy a policy from a company that
has a reputation of denying claims, you're a damn fool. If you don't know who
the bad insurance companies are? Ask me. I'll tell you.
If there is a big name insurance company that does not appear on my list of
insurance companies at
you bet there is a good reason. And lots of documentation to prove that they
deny claims on a regular basis.
First time in 94 years.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wK2YC0IwM-Y
************************************************************************
Ashley Smouter
"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
"Walking into a store with a shotgun doesn't mean you're now in control.
It means you're taking a poll and you don't get to know the result until it's too late.
More people are armed than at any time in my life." -- Colion Noir
“Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore,
be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not
to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean
everything or nothing at pleasure.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1823)
Email from Andrew Branca,
Two weeks ago a federal judge in Texas ruled that the NFA's registration
and application requirements for suppressors and some other normally
tightly-controlled gun-related items — because Congress zeroed out the
transfer and taxes that used to justify them under the taxing power. No tax,
no revenue, no constitutional basis. That's a massive win for gun owners
tired of fingerprints, photos, and months-long waits just to make or transfer
these firearms.
Yesterday the deadline for the Trump administration to file for a stay
of that order expired, and today some very brave Second Amendment
champions began transferring suppressors free of the ATF registration
requirements for the first time in 94 YEARS!
But don't pop the champagne for everyone just yet. This is a district court
decision, not a nationwide rule — the injunction only protects the named plaintiffs,
[Members of Gun Owners of America (like me), et al -- Jon Low]
their members, and their customers, machineguns and destructive devices aren't
touched, and the order is stayed seven days for an expected appeal.
Also, although yesterday was the deadline for the government to ask for a
stay of this trial court decision, the government still has 6 weeks in which to
seek an appeal to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which could reverse."
-- Andrew Branca
"Firearms are second only to the constitution in importance,
they are the people's liberty's teeth." -- George Washington
Email from Andrew Branca --
Trump’s Office of Legal Counsel just handed gun owners a major win — and
almost nobody's talking about it yet. In a new opinion dated August 12, 2026,
OLC concludes that the federal ban on carrying firearms in post offices doesn't
actually apply to law-abiding citizens carrying for self-defense, and raises serious
doubts about whether a blanket ban would even survive Second Amendment
scrutiny under Bruen and Wolford.
I'm breaking down exactly how OLC gets there: the "lawful purposes"
exception buried in 18 U.S.C. § 930(d)(3), the historical argument that post offices
were never treated as "sensitive places," and why the Postal Service's own no-guns
regulation may now be unenforceable.
But the real story is what this opinion doesn't say — because the reasoning
here isn't limited to post offices. If you carry for self-defense, or you're just
tired of watching federal agencies pretend the Second Amendment stops at
their front door, you need to understand where this logic could go next."
-- Andrew Branca
"Silencer Shop v. ATF – What it means in Tennessee" by John Harris
*************************************************************************
Arynne Wexler explained it. "What do you call a Christian who leaves Christianity? An atheist.
What do you call a Jew who leaves Judaism? A Jew."
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Instruction --------------------------------
"Remember,
the students who require the extra effort
are the ones who need us the most!"
-- John Farnam
*************************************************************************
----- Instructors -----
“The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other.
Without collaboration, our growth is limited to our own perspectives.”
-- Robert John Meehan
I attended an event put on by an international manufacturer. If I mentioned
the name, you would recognize it. I understand that most of the helpers were
volunteers. I understand that that day was hot and humid.
If you're going to put on an event, you must make sure your people are clean
and that their clothes are clean. Stinky humans and the smell of mildew in clothing
is WRONG and terribly unprofessional.
You and your assistant instructors should be clean shaven. Beards stink,
because food and such get caught in them. You may not notice, because it has
become normal for you. But I assure you, others notice. That is one of the
reasons Marines are always clean shaven and keep their scalp hair short.
Don't ever let this be you or yours. Reputations are easily tarnished.
People remember these things.
“The student’s purpose is to expand their body of knowledge and social network.
The instructor’s purpose is to help the student achieve the student’s goals.”
-- Amy Schwartz
"Love the label: put yourself in a box" by Orion Taraban
Specialize.
Colonel Robert Lindsey to his fellow trainers:
"We are not God's gift to our students.
Our students are God's gift to us."
Always best not to change or correct too many things at
once. The student gets overwhelmed.
“He who dares to teach must never cease to learn.”
-- Richard Henry Dana
"Every time I teach a class,
I discover I don't know something."
-- Clint Smith
“Qui docet, discet.” (Who teaches, learns.)
-- American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers
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
"A false path will always be tensely, angrily, violently defended
by those it has deceived, because those who are so easily deceived
are ever too arrogant to repent.”
-- Instructional axiom
"You must teach skill sustainment as part of training."
-- John Hearne
"You don't have to memorize formulae.
Because you can always derive them from first principles."
-- Sven Hartman
"Your curriculum needs to be recent, relevant, and realistic."
-- Austin Killmer
"The limited time you spend with students
may be the only training they ever receive!"
-- John Farnam
“Pick a lane, master that lane, and stay in it.”
-- Chuck Haggard
************************************************************************
----- Students -----
"It's better to be wrong than to be vague."
-- Freeman Dyson
"Thinking is the hardest thing a person can do.
That's why so few people do it."
-- Henry Ford
“Train, Practice, Compete
are the key elements in the development of humans.”
-- John M. Buol, Jr.
"Keep in mind that this is some seriously next level material.
It is totally normal that the first time you see this stuff, you find
it confusing. You find it difficult to understand. So, confusion
should not discourage you. It does not represent any intellectual
failing on your part. Rather, keep in mind that it represents an
opportunity to get even smarter."
– Tim Roughgarden, Professor of Computer Science and other
stuff at Stanford University
"Try.
Try again.
Try once more.
Try differently.
Try again tomorrow.
Try and ask for help.
Try find someone who's done it.
Try to fix the problem.
Keep trying until you succeed."
-- Nicola Cavanis
“It may seem difficult at first but everything is difficult at first.”
-- Miyamota Mushashi
*************************************************************************
----- Andragogy (as opposed to pedagogy) -----
‟An instructor should not expect any learning to
take place the first time new information is presented.”
-- ‶Building Shooters″ by Dustin Salomon
"Growth is uncomfortable because you've never been there before."
-- Nicola Cavanis
*************************************************************************
Agatha León
"Dress well
Stay weird
Make art
Confuse people"
------------------------------ Gear --------------------------------
And the safe storage thereof.
The third wife (Saudis generally have four) won't let you spend the money
to buy a safe for your guns? Consider a closet or cabinet. Drill a few holes,
install a hasp and padlock.
Your consort has the closets and cabinets under her control and won't allow
such? (Saudis generally keep each "wife" in a separate house.) Consider a
lockable toolbox. They come in all sizes, may be bolted to floors or walls,
or be chained to pipes or structural columns in your abode.
The concubine is a anti-gun flaming lib who won't let you store your guns
in the house? Consider a rental storage space. Keeping your extra guns off
site is not a problem, as long as your carry gun is securely attached to your
body by gun belt and holster.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
America won't let you marry more than one? Go to Saudi or any number
of other countries. Marry and return to America. U.S. government policy has
always been to not interfere with legal marriages in foreign countries. Of course,
that doesn't mean the Social Security Administration or the insurance companies
or the courts will recognize it, but life is never perfect. It's just enjoyable,
if you have a good attitude.
The purpose of a high capacity magazine is NOT to let you shoot more;
it is to let you reload less.
-- Tom Givens
Check out this magazine charger.
“Mission drives the gear train.”
-- Pat Rogers
"Should I Have A Comp On My Carry Gun" byActive Self Protection Extra
---
NO!
Putting a compensator on your self-defense pistol is an act of criminal stupidity.
Because in a close contact position (close quarters combat) the compensator will
blow hot gas and burning propellant into your eyes. Close quarter combat is
defensive pistolcraft.
If you run hot ammo through your compensated gun to make the compensator
work correctly, it's going to blow LOTS of hot gas and burning powder into your
eyes, and concussion into your head, when firing from a close contact position.
John and Chris talk about jacket shavings and port spall. Pieces of metal from
the bullet getting blow up through the ports into your eyes. Who in their right
mind would use such a pistol for self-defense? "Very rare." Ya, Murphy's Law
says anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, at the worst possible time;
especially rare events that you thought would never happen to you (Such things
only happen to other people. Well guess what, to everyone else, you are the
'other people').
Never use an open holster (muzzle end is not closed), as they show in the video.
Something will bump the muzzle and push the pistol out of the holster, just enough
so that now it is loose; now the pistol will fall out of the holster when you move.
"But the bottom of my holster needs to be open for drainage."
No, it doesn't. If you're concerned about drainage, drill holes in the holster.
As John says, take the money that you would have spent on the compensator
and spend it on training instead.
"Why are the little things called little things?
They are everything."
-- Nicola Cavanis
If you go to use the bathroom, NEVER take your pistol out of its holster!
NEVER take your holster off your belt!
Leaving your pistol in the bathroom, especially a public bathroom is an act
of criminal stupidity. Don't be that guy.
"There are no dangerous weapons, only dangerous men."
-- Robert A. Heinlein
What if your magazines are loose in your leather magazine pouch? (I assume
you don't have a screw to tighten the pouch or that the pouch is already too tight
for the flashlight that the pouch also holds.) I punched or drilled holes along the
mouth of the mag pouch and wrapped heavy duty waxed nylon thread (the kind
you would use to sew leather) around the mouth of the pouch until I built up
enough bulk to hold the magazine securely.
If your mags are loose in your Kydex mag pouch, you can heat the Kydex to
350℉, mold it as desired, and hold in place until cool.
“Your car is not a holster.”
-- Pat Rogers
GXT67 GMRS 5‑Watt Walkie Talkie - GXT67PRO
You have to go to the user's manual to find the frequencies that it uses.
But it's worth noting.
"Irons vs Optics: Why Pistol Optics is the Clear Winner" by Swift/Silent/Deadly
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpts:
"Shooting with an optic is just so much easier and less mentally taxing."
[I agree. This is a huge advantage. -- Jon Low]
"One of the most important reasons to switch, at least in my mind,
is the brain’s natural tendency to focus on the threat." [I agree. Target
focus is a huge advantage over front-sight focus. -- Jon Low]
[Modern optics have 3 to 4 year battery life (depending on usage).
Many models will turn off automatically when no movement is detected
and turn on automatically when movement is detected. (movement of
the optic, not movement of the target) -- Jon Low]
"Downsides of Optics . . . Expense . . . Bulk/Weight"
[I would add: fogging when going from cold air conditioned indoors to hot
humid outdoors, multiple red dot images when the lens is wet with rain,
interaction with astigmatism or other eye problems, failure to work in
extremely hot or cold environments (important to know what the limits are,
not just what the user manual says they are), susceptibility to water or dust
(fine dust as in Saudi, Arizona dust storms ain't that bad), vulnerability to
strong electric fields (near power lines, you ever hear or feel your car
vibrate when parked under high voltage lines?) or magnetic fields (MRI in
a hospital or industrial magnets as in junk yards or laboratories), If there
are warning signs about wearing a pacemaker in the area, will that affect
your other electronic devices?, interaction with your weapon mounted light
(if you don't know what I'm talking about, dry practice in the dark),
interaction with your hand held light (If you're using a cheek or crown index,
are you getting glare off the lens? Would you in an awkward position?), etc.
Using you gear in the pristine conditions of your air conditioned indoor
range don't mean shit.
-- Jon Low]
Downloadable - Printable Targets
(Each prints on a standard 8.5x11 sheet of paper)
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
"BFG Monday: The Damage You Can’t See" by Tony Grist
My recommendations for pistols:
Full size, especially the grip. The grip is the human-pistol interface.
You must be able to get all of your fingers on the grip in order to
control the pistol.
I believe the pistol should be ambidextrous. Just because you're
right-handed doesn't mean you will be right-handed in combat.
In the recent Idaho "In and Out burger" shooting, the bad guy shot
the first hero in his firing-side arm, breaking the bone and causing
serious bleeding. The first hero attempted to use his pistol with
his support-side hand, but couldn't; for two reasons:
1) the pistol was not ambidextrous
and
2) there was no round in the chamber (he chose to carry his pistol
without a round in the chamber) and he could not rack the slide with
support-side-hand only.
"Magazine Spring Myths" by Brent Wheat
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
"yield strength" should be "range of elasticity".
"Threadlocker How-To // The Glue That Binds Us" by John Brooks
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Tools to Track Ammunition Prices:
Ammo Seek
BulletScout
Caliber King
AmmoSquared Inc.
Ammo sources:
Lucky Gunner
Boro Bullets (manufactured in Murfreesboro, TN)
Unlimited Ammo
Target Sports USA
GunMag Warehouse
SGAmmo
True Shot Ammo
The Mag Shack
If you know of any others, please let me know.
Parts sources:
Numrich Gun Parts
Wolff gun springs
Brownells
Midway USA
*************************************************************************
Agatha León
Do you understand why the Steganographers are obsessed with this gal?
***** ***** ***** Intelligence ***** ***** *****
Always cite open source. There is always some conspiracy theorists who has said
what you want to say. Quote him. Everyone will understand.
The association chart.
"MARSOC Det One: I Took Over From Jocko Willink in Baghdad"
by Mike Ritland and John Dailey
"The intel guys set the stage for our success." [Ya, that's how it always is.
No credit, just work in the dark. Set the stage. -- Jon Low]
HVT = high value target.
---
The long form.
"MARSOC Marine Raider Instructor John Dailey | Mike Drop Ep. 215"
by Mike Ritland
In case you forgot, the Iran war is completely Obama's fault.
Just follow the money.
"Inside the Cartel Situation in Mexico" by Preston Stewart
Drone tech.
The Strait of Hormuz
Sarah Paine explains Putin's liquid playgrounds.
Mao was evil.
In long form,
Sarah Paine — How Mao conquered China (lecture & interview)
Air defense in Ukraine.
"The REAL Reason America's Destroying the Cartel" by Cappy Army
"God help anyone who gets in the way of Lockheed Martin's supply chain."
Russian recruitment.
Liberal Democrat New Yorker's who supported Zohran Mamdani,
become Mayor Mamdani's latest targets by name and address.
This is common practice. Some people are just to stupid to study history.
Or think that it would never happen to them.
"Google Just KILLED Russia's Secret Army"
by The Domino Effect and The Military Show
Submarine navigation.
"Wait, is Russia actually losing the war of attrition?"
by The Domino Effect and The Military Show
"A Shocking New Alliance Emerges in the Middle East | Ep. 9"
by John Kiriakou
"How to overthrow a country? Open McDonalds."
"Mecca agreement."
Training is for failure. That's how we learn.
"The Unnerving Details Behind Claude's Secret Training"
by Facts Matter with Roman Balmakov
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Counter Intelligence
"Traitors: Retired U.S. Generals Consulting For China" by Docent
Cited article,
"Top American Generals Joined a CCP Spy Front's Backchannel Pushing
China’s Military Agenda in Washington. Some Ended Up on China’s Payroll.
From Hillary Clinton to former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
it's treason at the highest levels."
by Natalie Winters
"Inside SEAL Team 6's Botched Raid in North Korea | Dave Philipps & Matthew Cole"
by The Team House
Title 10, not Title 50. That means Department of War, not Central Intelligence
Agency.
An example of the competence of the CIA.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Institute for the Study of war
The Dispatch
Strategy Page
"The Merge"
Breaking Defense
Intrigue
1440
29155
Global Recaps
Timber Sycamore
Ground News
Soldier Systems
Executive Order 12333
*************************************************************************
Agatha León
***** ***** ***** Signals Intelligence,
Ground Electronic Warfare,
Cyber Warfare,
(sometimes Air Electronic Warfare too) ***** ***** *****
Always cite open source.
"Trump Is Coming for the Man Who Put Me in Prison. | Ep. 8"
by John Kiriakou
Wikileaks Vault 7. Bread crumps.
"The FBI is notoriously racist."
Wow, Kiriakou is pro-gun.
"A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined,
but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain
a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them,
which would include their own government."
-- George Washington
"Kevin Mandia -
Cybersecurity Expert Hunting the World's Most Dangerous Hackers | SRS #328"
by Shawn Ryan Show
There are porn sites and gun sites that require age verification for access.
One of them asked to use the camera on my computer to look at me to estimate
my age. So I let it. It estimated my age as 57, and allowed me access to the
web site. I am 67. I wonder what it was looking for?
Legality of a duress password.
GXT67 GMRS 5‑Watt Walkie Talkie - GXT67PRO
You have to go to the user's manual to find the frequencies that it uses.
But it's worth noting.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Cover Your Tracks
To get the IP address you are presently using,
Breaking Defense has a weekly newsletter, "Networks & Digital Warfare" at
Crypto-Gram by Bruce Schneier
2600
Soldier Systems
*************************************************************************
Agatha León
***** ***** ***** Cryptology ***** ***** *****
Always cite open source.
Cryptosystems are considered "arms" by federal law, ITAR,
International Traffic in Arms Regulations. That means cryptosystems are
protected by the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Never let the
government infringe on your right to keep and bear cryptosystems, to
include home made cryptosystems, to include sharing cryptosystems with
others.
"Quantum Physics Found a Loophole in an IMPOSSIBLE Math Problem"
by Up and Atom
The notion of lifting problems up into a system of higher complexity.
3 dimensions to 4 dimensions to untangle knots.
Integer number system to Real number system to use the values between the Integers.
Classical physics to Quantum physics to use the states between the observed states.
Etc.
Discrete math to continuous math to improve our cryptology. Fuzzy logic.
Variables having a certain probability of having a certain value, as opposed to
a determined / fixed value. Allowing a given plaintext to encrypt into many
possible ciphertexts. Allowing many different ciphertexts to decrypt into a
given plaintext.
"You don't have to memorize theorems.
Because you can always derive them from first principles."
-- Sven Hartman
"Linus Torvalds Explains What Makes Linux So Fast" by mr27
"Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood.
Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that?
We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves.
We must believe that we are gifted for something,
and that this thing must be attained."
-- Marie Curie
String theory really is nonsense.
"Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of
producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin."
-- John von Neumann
Remember the Veritasium video on spinning disks?
"Computer science has nothing to do with computers or science."
-- Donald Knuth
"But Why Can No One Solve The Hodge Conjecture?" by Voyager
"All that we don't know is astonishing.
Even more astonishing is what passes for knowing."
-- Philip Roth
"What Happened to Borland? Why the Developer Tool King Disappeared"
by Ctrl+Alt+Fail
I had lots of Borland products. I loved them.
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil."
-- Donald Knuth
What is the purpose of testing?
"Never memorize anything. Rather, study it until it becomes obvious."
-- Norman Christ
Plain text → data compression → encryption → error correction coding
→ transmission (writing to storage) → communications channel (environmental noise) →
reception (reading from storage) → error correction decoding →
decryption → decompression → plain text (or so we would hope)
"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
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Arχiv
Sci-Hub.Pub
Explanation,
The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS)
"Handbook of Applied Cryptography"
by Alfred J. Menezes, Paul C. van Oorschot and Scott A. Vanstone
"Computer Security and the Internet:
Tools and Jewels from Malware to Bitcoin", Second Edition
by Paul C. van Oorschot
ISBN: 978-3-030-83410-4 (hardcopy), 978-3-030-83411-1 (eBook)
"An Introduction to Error Correcting Codes with Applications"
by Scott A. Vanstone , Paul C. Oorschot
Research and Publications (P. Van Oorschot)
Alfred J. Menezes
Scott A. Vanstone
*************************************************************************
Agatha León
*************************** Politics and Religion *****************************
The purpose of war is not to die for your country.
The purpose of war is to ensure that the other guy dies for his country.
— George S. Patton
Michelle Reneau (who is Korean, like me) is the Tennessee Representative in
the 27th District (Chattanooga et al). On 6 August 2026 she won her Republican
primary for the second time by 16.5%. Her previous win was by only 137 votes.
This proves that Tennesseans (outside of the cities of Memphis and Nashville
love Constitutional Conservative pro-gun Christians). Praise God!
This is exactly what my father would do.
Some people don't remember when we had a 70% tax rate in the U.S.
"Western Europe" by John Farnam
Marco Rubio Slams Communism
"The ancients aggregated wealth. America was built by creating wealth."
-- John Steele Gordon [Read his opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal,
"A Brief History of Wealth Creation"]
When the thing you sell is worth more than the components you
bought to build it, the difference is the wealth that you have created.
Unfortunately, some people are too stupid to recognize this. They don't
believe that wealth can be created. They believe that our economy is a
zero sum game. I have spoken to such persons. I have tried to expalin
capitalism to them. But they insists that capitalism is stealing money
from the poor and therefore exploiting the poor. The enemy of capitalism
is the stupid. Not the ignorant, because the ignorant can be educated.
Not the crazy, because the crazy can be medicated. The stupid, because
there is no way to fix stupid. As Rush Limbaugh said, you just have to
defeat them at the ballot box. Because if you don't, they will eventually
kill you [Jacobins, National Socialists (NAZIs), Communists, etc.].
"I hate it when I'm trying to eat a salad and
it falls in the trash and I have to eat a taco instead."
-- Nicola Cavanis
Justice is good economics.
Bail outs are not.
Change happens
one funeral at a time.
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always
possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Richard Henry Lee
"Why Democrats Really Fear Guns" by Colion Noir
Because they have never imagined themselves defending themselves.
It's not harrassment, it's corruption.
This is courage.
Danger of hiring stupid people.
We should follow Poland's example.
"When officers, police, and armed forces act to stop illegal entry,
they should never fear prosecution for doing their duty.
This common-sense measure prioritizes the safety of citizens
and the integrity of the nation's borders over the demands
of open-border activists."
Nicholas Freitas explaining the deceit of Pete Buttigieg.
20 years to wake up. Better late than never.
Sometimes the best way to show the lunacy of a things is to say it out loud.
Stories that lead to positive outcomes.
Some people create wealth, some don't. Some people are incapable of creating wealth,
otherwise, they would.
There is no fixing stupid.
Ya, they're rich, but that doesn't make them smart.
"We should not forget that the spark which ignited the American Revolution
was caused by the British attempt to confiscate the firearms of the colonists."
-- Patrick Henry
Hi Mark,
The ultimate DEI hire. Deputy Commissioner (2nd in command)
of Mount Vernon, NY Police Department. (Westchester County, just
north of New York City). No POST certification, no criminology degree,
no law enforcement experience, at all.
"NY Police Commissioner Arrested For Committing A Drive-By Shooting
For Gang." by Nate The Lawyer
A propaganda writer for a conservative news outlet could not have
dreamed this up.
Cheers,
Jon
---
Sounds like she probably had lots of law breaking experience, though.
-- Mark
"Tulsi Gabbard details bombshell claims of Obama-era cabal's
'treasonous conspiracy' against Trump
Former Obama officials accused of manufacturing Russia collusion narrative
to undermine Trump presidency"
by Taylor Penley
The Patriot Post
PO Box 507
Chattanooga, TN 37401, United States
*************************************************************************
************* Psychology **************************************
Starvation and homelessness are the primary motivations to work.
Eliminate the consequences and reap the havoc.
The moths and the flies.
An Urdu fable. Deep.
"Work keeps us from three evils: boredom, vice, and poverty."
-- Voltaire
Email from Orion Taraban, Psy.D. --
"Paying to feel." Wednesday, August 12th, 2026
People often balk when I explain that sexual relationships are transacted
when men exchange their resources for a woman's sexual opportunity.
And this is generally because they take a very literal view of the term “resources.”
They think it means “money,” when – in fact – money is only the crassest,
most obvious form of resource.
In reality, the most common – and most important – resource transacted
in sexual relationships with women is emotion. Emotion is a resource.
People often don't think of it as such, but it is. While emotion can't technically
be purchased – yet – it can absolutely be practically purchased.
Think about going to the movies. When you purchase a ticket, what you
are you actually buying? A seat in a theater from which to view projected
light on a screen after it passes through a celluloid film. But that's not what
anybody thinks they're getting for their money.
People go to the theater to engage with a movie – and they do so primarily
to have an emotional experience. They are willing to part with their money
for the opportunity to feel. Broadly speaking, people will do all kinds of things
to secure opportunities to experience preferred emotions and to mitigate
negative ones. Sexual relationships are no different.
This week's behavioral experiment:
What is your biggest unnecessary expense? Time to stop the bleeding.
Warmly,
Orion
"Gambling is a tax on stupidity."
-- Voltaire
Quote to Ponder:
“Assume life will be really tough, and then ask if you can handle it.
If the answer is yes, you’ve won . . .
Life is very likely to provide terrible blows, unfair blows. Some people
recover, and others don’t. And there I think the attitude of Epictetus helps
guide one to the right reaction. He thought that every mischance in life,
however bad, created an opportunity to behave well. He believed every
mischance provided an opportunity to learn something useful. And one’s
duty was not to become immersed in self-pity, but to utilize each terrible
blow in a constructive fashion.”
– Charlie Munger
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
************* End of Psychology section*********************************
*************************************************************************
When I went through Marine Corps recruit training, they gave us C-rats
(canned rations) to eat when we went on hike-camps. I remember in the morning
seeing that the Marines had left their cans outside their pup-tents. We were in the
California desert. The ants were crawling all over their canteens to get the water.
The ants were not eating the C-rats. I have avoided eating C-rats ever since.
Recently, the crafts department (food department) of the production company
that I have been working for, provides snacks for the crews. I picked up a Lance
Toast Chee Peanut Butter snack and a granola bar. Late at night after everyone
has gone home, the foxes come out to scrounge for food. I tossed the snacks to
the foxes. The foxes sniffed the snacks. They ate the granola bar, but would not
touch the Lance Toast Chee Peanut Butter snack. I think that's a clue.
One night I was driving to work and watched a opposum licking up a spilled
soda pop on the road. It was risking its life to get the sugar. When you risk your
life for something that has no nutritional value, that's addiction.
Ronald Reagan tells a joke.
"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."
-- Mary Flannery O'Connor
"Massive Tesla Giga Press 4.0 Detroys All Welding Robots!" by TESLA CAR WORLD
The poor robots are losing their jobs and being eliminated.
The number of parts is being reduced, just as our modern pistol have only 4 parts
when field stripped.
Welcome to the future.
Making Nylon.
“You can’t truly call yourself ‘peaceful’ unless you are capable of great violence.
If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful, you’re harmless.
Important distinction.”
-- Stef Starkgaryen
Beavers (The animals, get your mind out of the gutter.)
I love beavers. I would watch them make dams across streams in New Jersey.
If a girl sleeps with 5 guys, she's a whore. But if a guy sleeps with 50 gals,
he's a legend. Why?
If 5 keys can open a lock, it's a junk lock. But if one key can open 50
locks, it's a master key.
Ella Langley
Semper Fidelis,
Jonathan D. Low
Email: Jon@DefensivePistolcraft.com
(Hey, lookie lookie new email address. I'm so professional.)
Radio: KI4SDN
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