Willow Hand
Greetings Sheepdogs,
Happy U.S. Constitution Day!
On this day, 17 September, in 1789, our nation’s Constitution was officially ratified.
“Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom
which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity
have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of
resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits
them if we basely entail hereditary bondage on them.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1775)
"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
My thoughts are in yellow. Extended thoughts by others are in light blue.
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
Meaning that if your government has infringed on your right to keep and bear,
you are not free.
*************************************************************************
Because we didn't pay attention to school board elections.
***** ***** ***** 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.
"Meet the Sex Workers Forming Gun Clubs for Self Protection" by Kim Kelly
It is important to remember that "Playboy" is a flaming liberal propaganda
journal. U.S. President Jimmy Carter did his "I lust in my heart" interview in Playboy magazine.
"Survival is a mindset, not a skill set."
-- Greg Shaffer
Lena Miculek explains her mindset.
"Without discrimination,
you're going to shoot the wrong person really fast."
-- Paul Howe
"The FIVE Fitnesses" by Active Self Protection Extra
1. Spiritual fitness
2. Emotional fitness
3. Mental fitness
4. Perceptual fitness
5. Physical fitness
---
I think he skipped Perceptual fitness in the video.
". . . 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"
If you ain't willing to clean the toilets,
there's something wrong with you;
and you better be fixing it.
-- Homer (the one in Statesville, TN)
"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
“If you really want to be a game changer, become a master observer.
Just the willingness to stop and look at things that no one else has even
bothered to look at enables game changers to identify real points of meaning.
The simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted
can be a source of great power and creativity. We learn when we observe,
we pick up on clues, we figure things out. That is what preparation is all about.”
– Peyton Manning
"Self defense is the highest of all human rights."
-- Lord William Blackstone
‷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
*****
Some of John Hearne's favorite quotes:
"First, say to yourself what you would be, then do what you must."
-- Epictetus
"Happiness is not a reward - it is a consequence.
Suffering is not a punishment - it is a result."
-- Robert Green Ingersoll
"We cannot afford to differ on the question of honesty
if we expect our republic to endure. Honesty is not so much
a credit as an absolute prerequisite to efficient service to the
public. Unless a man is honest, we have no right to keep him
in public life; it matters not how brilliant his capacity."
-- Theodore Roosevelt
"When young men seek to be like you,
when lazy men resent you,
when powerful men look over their shoulder at you,
when cowardly men plot behind your back,
when corrupt men wish you were gone, and
evil men want you dead;
only then will you have done your share."
-- Phil Messina
"The only thing you have 100% control over in your fight is the
preparation you put into it."
-- no citation
"We as law enforcement officers need to have a clear idea of what the
hierarchy of safety needs really is. Officer safety is NOT our first concern,
if it were we would either hide out at the police station all day or, better yet,
just stay home and not go to work. Police work is not about risk avoidance,
it is about risk mitigation while also doing the job we have sworn to do.
The hierarchy of needs is, and has always been, that the people we protect
come first. We place ourselves in the line of fire to protect the citizens we
serve, thus the victims of any crime and the bystanders on scene are the
first and second priority of any police response. The safety of the officer
is almost always the third place consideration."
-- Legendary Lawman Lt. Chuck Haggard, Topeka, KS Police Department
*****
"An unarmed man can only flee from evil and
evil is not overcome by fleeing from it." -- Jeff Cooper
"Creativity is not rewarded.
What is rewarded is precision and analytical thinking."
-- Magnus Carlsen
"Your life is as good as your mindset." -- Nicola Cavanis
"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
“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
"You often don't know where the bad guy is who is shooting at you."
-- Phillip Groff
"Always stand on principle, even if you stand alone"
– James Madison
*************************************************************************
Head up, looking around, walking with a purpose.
------------------------------ Situational Awareness --------------------------------
How to avoid being taken by surprise.
"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
When issued a radio, or someone gives you a radio, or you pick up your radio
out of its charger, IMMEDIATELY do a radio check. Finding out that your
radio does not work in the middle of a crisis is no fun.
If you check it, it will always work. If you don't check it, it won't work when
you need it. That's how life works. Murphy is nasty.
Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, at the worst possible time;
not when it's convenient for you, not when it's easy to fix.
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)
"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)
"An officer may be forgiven for losing a battle,
but never for being taken by surprise."
-- Jeff Cooper
Zugzwang is a thing. But with situational awareness, you can avoid it.
*************************************************************************
Tatiana Bjork Franco
I love spaghetti.
------------------------------ 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.
Safety from FPV (First-Person View) drones.
"By Popular Demand!" by John Farnam
“Morality and expediency coincide more than the cynics allow.”
-- Roy Hattersley
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.
Know what it is, what is in line with it, and what is behind it.
---
RULE V: Maintain control of your gun. -- Stephen P. Wenger
"The Modern Technique of the Pistol" by Gregory Boyce Morrison
Page 7.
Excerpt:
"After years of referring to inadvertent discharges as accidental discharges
—A.D.’s— we abandoned the term. As pointed out, guns do not fire themselves.
The uncontrolled shot is a “negligent” discharge. Substituting “negligent” for
“accidental” places responsibility where it belongs, with the shooter."
---
This whole book is well worth reading.
"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 from bears.
"Alaska Moose Hunter Survives Brown Bear Attack" by Megan Postol
Excerpt:
"The Alaska Department of Fish and Game advises hunters to stay alert
and keep a deterrent accessible."
[If your pistol is not on your body, it's not accessible. -- Jon Low]
"It's easier to stay out of trouble than to get out of trouble."
-- Claude Werner
Safety from snakes.
This is the time of year when copperheads are born.
"You are not responsible for negative reactions to your boundaries."
-- Nicola Cavanis
Safety from humans.
Claude Werner invites our attention to,
"Good Guy with a Gun #325: Henderson, NV"
So, yes, it is possible to draw on a guy who already has a gun pointed at you.
That's why it is so important to study magic: distraction, misdirection,
inattentional blindness, time to initiate vs. time to react, the near impossibility
of talking and shooting at the same time, the real impossibility of answering
a question and shooting at the same time (talking is a high order intellectual
activity, answering a question is a complex high order intellectual activity),
etc.
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.
Safety from your equipment.
"History!" by John Farnam
“It is usually impossible to know when you’ve prevented a bad outcome.”
-- Mokokoma Mokhonoana
"Make Your Doors Secure with this Easy Trick" by CarryTrainer (Mickey Schuch)
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Hey, I know Mickey. I've taken classes from him.
Mickey's YouTube.com channel,
"Safety is something that happens between your ears,
not something you hold in your hands."
-- Jeff Cooper
"Secrets of a Professional Bodyguard: How to Stay Safe in a Crowd"
by Daisy Luther
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Safety at home.
"At Home!" by John Farnam
Excerpts:
Jeff Cooper put it best: “A gun that is perfectly safe is perfectly useless”
I ask students who go armed in public, yet disarm themselves the moment
they enter their own homes, “What makes your home any safer than anywhere
else you’ve been today?”
They [leftist politicians] are not good people, and you can bank on these
hypocrites ever portraying private ownership and bearing of arms as “paranoia.”
Yet, they all quietly arrange for themselves to live in heavily-armed
(with “weapons of war”) castles and are themselves ever surrounded by
heavily-armed bodyguards."
"Gut feelings are guardian angels."
-- Nicola Cavanis
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Training --------------------------------
Figuring out the correct tasks to practice.
Jimmy Carr explains achieving goals.
"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)
"The Modern Technique of the Pistol" by Gregory Boyce Morrison
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities,
but in the expert’s mind there are few.”
— Shunryu Suzuki
Practical marksmanship encompasses three principles, DVC:
Diligentia—Accuracy
(If you miss, you kill innocent bystanders in the background or foreground.)
Vis—Power
(If you hit with insufficient power, the enemy attack continues.)
Celeritas—Quickness
(If the enemy hits you before you hit him, your ability to defend is degraded
by injury or death.)
from "The Modern Technique of the Pistol" by Gregory Boyce Morrison.
Accuracy and Quickness are a compromise in real time.
Tom Givens says you should be able to shoot quickly, carefully, and precisely.
Your presentation is always fast. Your trigger press is crashing through to shoot
quickly, rolling smoothly through from touch to over travel to shoot carefully,
and slack-out then press to shoot precisely.
Power is what you brought to the gunfight. Too little power (anything
less than a 9mm) and your probability of stopping the fight is too low, forcing
you to shoot many times, exposing you to prosecution for using excessive force.
Too much power (anything more than a 40 S&W) and the recoil makes getting
accurate hits difficult, and makes getting subsequent hits difficult because the
recoil throws the sights too far off the target. (Dirty Harry was just a silly
Hollywood movie. Shooting a 44 magnum will not serve you well. Neither
will shooting a 357 magnum.)
[The 45 ACP is between the 9mm and the 40 S&W in recoil. And because
the 45 ACP bullet is more massive, it has better terminal ballistics (deeper
penetration, which is essential for destroying vital organs). That's why those
who can choose, as opposed to those who must use what they are issued by
the bureaucrats, always choose the 45 ACP. In my son's Marine Corps
Infantry unit, they all bought double stack 1911s in 45 ACP with the blessing
of their commanders, because they understood. The Marine Corps Special
Operations units in Tampa, Florida used the Kimber 1911 in 45 ACP with
Wilson Combat stainless steel magazines. The 45 ACP is subsonic from
muzzle to target, so the bullet never suffers a transition from supersonic to
subsonic.]
"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
"Some Free Training Resources" by Docent
"Ineffective and potentially dangerous, point shooting should be avoided
at all costs and aimed fire employed in any lethal-force scenario."
-- Massad Ayoob
"Terminal Ballistics 1: How Pistols “Stop” Bad Guys" by Swift/Silent/Deadly
“Terminal Ballistics, Part 1: How Pistol Bullets "Stop" Bad Guys”
by Justin "Danger" Carroll
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
"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
"Letters for hostage shots" by Ben Stoeger
A training discussion.
"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
Email from Tim Larking --
A group of researchers walked into the top music academy in Berlin
with one question. Why are the best violinists so much better than everyone
else? Not the good ones. The best. The students their professors said were
headed for careers as international soloists.
Most people would guess talent. Or better teachers. Or more time on stage.
So the researchers asked every violinist to rate 22 different activities. Lessons.
Performing. Playing with other musicians. Practicing alone.
Which one actually made you better? 27 out of 30 gave the same answer.
Practice alone.
Then the researchers counted the hours. By age 18 the best violinists had
put in more than 7,400 hours of practice. The good ones about 5,300.
The students training to become music teachers about 3,400.
In a normal week the best players spent 24 hours practicing by themselves.
The future teachers spent 9. Same school. Same instrument. The difference
was what they did when nobody else was in the room. Some of the finest
musicians alive built what they have . . . alone.
Now look at what is at stake for them. A missed note. A bad review.
A rough night on stage. That is the worst thing that happens to a violinist.
Self-defense is different. The day it counts . . . it is your life on the line.
Or the life of someone you love. There is no second take. And yet almost
everyone believes self-defense can only be learned with someone else.
A class. A partner. A seminar. So when nobody is around . . . they do nothing.
Here is what should give you hope. You do not need 24 hours a week
like those violinists. You do not need 7,400 hours. You need to know exactly
what to do with the time you have alone . . . and do it right.
Stay Safe,
Tim Larkin
---
Because it's easier to make mistakes when you're alone. And as John Farnam
says, we are here to fail magnificently. Because only by failing can we learn.
We really don't learn much from our successes.
"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
"5 Red Dot Pistol Drills to Find the Dot Faster and Shoot Better"
by Travis Pike
---
If you tape the front of the red dot sight to block the target so you only see
the red dot, you won't see the target.
"Well, you're seeing the target with your other eye. You're suppose to be shooting
with both eyes open."
I wonder how many people are able to superimpose the image of the red dot
from the aiming eye on the target image from the other eye?
I don't think this works, theoretically or practically. Hey, if it actually worked,
I couldn't argue. But, I've never seen it work. I've been to a lot of conferences
and I've taken and observed a lot of red dot training.
"In reality, we are training for an unknown event, against unknown threats,
by developing as many known skills as possible."
-- Jeff Gonzales
"The Smith & Wesson Academy is Open to the Public" by James Tarr
Smith & Wesson Academy
1852 Proffitt Springs Rd, Maryville, TN 37801
"A mistake that makes you humble is better
than an achievement that makes you arrogant."
-- Nicola Cavanis
Article: "Your Qualification Score Doesn't Predict Gunfight Performance"
by Docent
"Shoot sooner, not faster."
-- Matt Little
Actually, the following applies to your training in any discipline.
Email from Tim Larkin --
How do you train for self-defense when there is nobody to train with?
When I wrote my New York Times bestseller, Survive the Unthinkable . . .
I put my answer in print. Hit a pillow. "If you're alone, that's fine . . . a pillow
or a stuffed chair works well. Later, you can practice with a partner."
For most people . . . later never came. So the pillow is where the training
stayed.
Here is the problem. A pillow tells you that you hit it. Nothing else.
Not whether that strike would have hurt anyone. Not whether your weight
went with it. Not whether you were anywhere near the target. So you hit
it again the same way. 200 times. That is not training. That is practicing
a mistake until it is permanent.
A partner matters for one reason. When you move . . . a live body tells
you the truth. Take the partner away and the truth goes with them.
Here is why that matters . . . If someone ever comes through your
door . . . there is no warmup. No partner. No second try. Your body does
what it has practiced. Nothing more. Practice a mistake 200 times into a
pillow and that mistake is what shows up. Practice it right and that is what
shows up instead.
That difference gets decided in the time you spend alone.
Stay Safe,
Tim Larkin
Email from Tim Larkin --
What mistakes do you see more than any other?
I once asked my instructors that question.
Thousands of students had come through our seminars.
And every instructor came back with the same list.
3 things.
Standing too far away. The arm reaches the target. The body weight never does.
Kicking with the toes or the top of the foot. Parts you could never walk on.
Kick hard enough and the first thing that breaks is your own foot.
Dropping a knee onto someone on the ground with no weight behind it.
The knee touches. Nothing happens.
All 3 end the same way. Nothing breaks. Or the thing that breaks is you.
Stay Safe,
Tim Larkin
*************************************************************************
That's a happy smile.
*************************************************************************
“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
"The Dominant Eye Myth: What Shooters Really Need to Know"
by Tatiana Whitlock
Hat tip to Shannon Carr Pable.
Excerpts:
"One eye open is not automatically good or bad. It is a visual strategy
shooters should understand and decide when and why to use."
"Check your sighting dominance again from time to time.
Compare what each eye actually sees. Pay attention to what
happens when both eyes are open. If something changes dramatically
or suddenly, involve an eye-care professional rather than trying to fix
a medical problem with a shooting technique."
---
With both eyes wide open and relaxed,
extend your arm and point your thumb up.
That's your sight.
Focus on the target and you will see two sights.
Focus on your sight and you will see two targets.
That just means your eyes are working correctly,
normally.
Are you willing to risk lives on the fact that
you are aiming at the correct target when focused
on your sight; and seeing two targets?
Are you willing to risk lives on the fact that
you are aiming using the correct sight when focused
on the target; and seeing two sights?
-- Jon Low
"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
"Rapid Physiological Incapacitation and Torso Shot Priority"
by Matt Landfair
Hat tip to John Milton Peterson.
“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
At the latest Bullets & Bibles conference, Howard Marbury set up a scenario
where the student was presented by gun shots in the Wal Mart store with the
knowledge that his family was in the store. So the student would enter the store
and attempt to incapacitate the bad guys (make shots to vital areas, not just hit).
I did not notice that one of the shooters (plain clothes, aiming a pistol) was
not pointing directly at me. None the less, I shot him. That turned out to be
WRONG, as the guy was a good guy shooting at the bad guys.
Very easy to make mistakes in a no stress situation. Imagine the probability
of making a mistake in a high stress situation. You must be careful to avoid
such mistakes.
---
Greg Ellifritz's comment (concerning
Erik Gelhaus, John Hearne, Lee Weems, and Steve Havey's
"Cognitive Conclave" class
.) --
You probably don’t need another class to teach you to shoot faster.
You need a class to teach you to think with a pistol in your hand.
That’s what this is.
It isn’t my class, but it’s taught by three of my friends. I’ve personally
trained with all three and can vouch for their instructing skills. In the last
class I took from Hearne, one of his drills challenged me so much that I
shot a no-shoot target. If I shot when I shouldn’t have, after taking 4500
hours of professional gun training, why do you think you are good to go
after a one-day CCW class?
"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
"Myths & Facts Of Self-Defense Training" by Richard A. Mann
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpts:
"What it does require is less practice, that you must carry a spare magazine,
and that as mentioned earlier, movement when your gun is not working."
"I’ve been called a Fudd for that, but I have seen so many fail,
in so many ways, I do not trust them."
"Everyone says, “Well, if my dot doesn’t work, I’ll just use my open sights.”
Great plan, but how long will you look for your dot before you realize it does
not work?"
"When it comes to defensive handgun application there is no one way.
It is a martial art that needs to be tempered based on the situation and its
application needs to not only evolve but also be continually adjusted based
on the applicant. Sometimes without thinking about it we can train ourselves
into a corner because we train on a flat range and become slaves to the
shot timer."
---
Wow! Don't clear malfunctions with Tap, Rack, Assess.
Rather, reload on any stoppage. Because the highest probability
of the cause for the stoppage is an empty magazine. That's deep.
The late James Yaeger taught this years ago. He was way ahead of his time.
Mann uses the term "double feed". I don't think your semi-auto
pistol can double feed. At least not the way an M-16 can double
feed. I think he is referring to a failure to extract malfunction.
Ya, using the slide stop to release the slide is wrong, because
it doesn't work in all cases. And you must use techniques that
work in all cases. The slide stop releasing the slide only works
if the slide is locked back.
"But my slide always locks back on an empty magazine."
Murphy's Law guarantees that your slide will not lock back
on an empty magazine in combat. So always rack your slide.
“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.)
"VIDEO: Old School Street Fighting Techniques" by Docent
Excerpt:
"Techniques of distraction, deception, and surprise"
---
[What does this remind you of? Yes, magic. Study magic. It can teach you all
kinds of techniques of distraction, misdirection, inattentional blindness, and such
that will allow you to get your gun out and on target without the bad guy realizing
what's happening.
Of course, you must practice to be effective.
-- Jon Low]
Simple is faster. Simple is more reliable. So, simple is better.
"Train for the Distance You Hope You Never Need"
by Jim Shanahan
Excerpt:
"Think about the conditions under which we're normally
demonstrating that ability. We're standing on a range. We know
exactly where the target is. We know when we're going to shoot.
Nobody is shooting at us. Nobody is moving. We aren't injured.
We aren't trying to determine who the threat is while innocent
people move through our field of view. We aren't worried about
our family. We aren't processing the consequences of what we're
about to do.
Those are probably the best conditions we're ever going to
get. Why would we accept mediocre accuracy there?"
"Our training shouldn't be built around predicting the exact problem
we're going to face. It should be about developing enough capability
that we have options when the problem doesn't look like the one we
expected."
"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
"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
Ansatz is a thing. And the better your training, the better your guesses / estimates.
"Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."
-- Henry Ford
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Psychology --------------------------------
ALWAYS positive self talk → positive self thought → positive self talk →
positive self thought → <ad infinitum>. Create a positive feedback loop for
yourself. Never say, "I can't . . ." Because whether you believe you can or
you can't, you're correct.
"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
“Training deals not with an object,
but with the human spirit and human emotions.”
--Bruce Lee
“There are things that you cannot imagine,
but there is nothing that may not happen!”
-- CIA Axiom
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ 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
2026 Combatives Summit, $897
Range Day: October 22, 2026 A.D.
Conference: October 23, 24, and 25, 2026
10380 Auto Mall Pkwy, D'Iberville, MS 39540
Rangemaster Tactical Conference
Friday-Sunday, April 2-4, 2027 A.D.
Dallas Pistol Club
1830 W Belt Line Rd, Carrollton, TX 75006
Bullets & Bibles
August 20, 21, and 22 of 2027 A.D.
Hosted at Living Water Ranch, north of Manhattan, KS
4122 Living Water Rd, Olsburg, KS 66520
Guardian Conference
September 17th - 19th, 2027 A.D. in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City Gun Club
12465 NE 234th St, Arcadia, OK 73007
*************************************************************************
Taylor Lowery
------------------------------ Classes --------------------------------
Attend classes so you know what the best practices are. They change.
It is a mistake of youth to think that the way things are
is the way they have always been, or that they always will be.
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
Civilian Use-of-Force: The Legal Realities of Self-Defense, $ 99
Sun, Oct 11, 2026,
2:00 – 4:00 PM EDT // 1:00 – 3:00 PM CDT
R&D tactical Solutions - Shooting Range
1031 NE 16th Street, Ocala, FL, USA
Highly recommended by Tom Givens.
I know Howard Marbury, a federal prosecutor in Miami, FL, and
I have taken a couple classes from him. I too recommend.
2026 Cognitive Conclave, $ 550
Sat, Oct 24, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT –
Sun, Oct 25, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM CDT (this location appears to be in the Eastern Time Zone)
Red Hill Range, 2238 Toms Creek Road, Martin, GA, USA
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
Firearms Instructor Development Course, $785
(this is a handgun course)
Instructor: John Hearne
Fri, Nov 20, 2026, 9:00 AM CST –
Sun, Nov 22, 2026, 6:00 PM CST
Top Gun Academy
2770 Whitten Rd, Memphis, TN, USA
"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
"The Liberty Pole" (newsletter)
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
https://carrytrainer.com/training-courses/
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
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.
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
"Five Drills for Beginners at the Range" by Travis Pike
The purpose of any drill is to exercise your skills. The purpose is NOT to
get good at the drill. So repeating the drill with the goal of achieving a certain
time or accuracy on the drill is counter productive. Do the drill once, learn
what you can, and move on to the next drill.
"Where to Shoot" by National Shooting Sports Foundation, Inc.
"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
"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
“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
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
“An ounce of practice is worth a ton of theory.”
-- EF Schumacher
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Intervention ***** ***** *****
Suggestions on how to deal with the incident that you failed to avoid.
Table of sections:
Strategy
Tactics
Techniques
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Strategy --------------------------------
Deciding on the end state and how to achieve it.
Generally speaking, you want to escape.
“How do you win a gunfight?
Don't be there.”
-- John Farnam
"Immature strategy is the cause of much grief."
-- Miyamoto Musashi
"Cheap Advice!" by John Farnam
Excerpt:
“. . . sage advice asks, “What’s important now? Are you going to be able
to unilaterally finish the fight and immediately stop the threat?”
"You win gunfights by not getting shot."
-- John Holschen
"Never let fear decide your fate."
-- Nicola Cavanis
************************************************************************
------------------------------ 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.
"You often don't know where the bad guy is who is shooting at you."
-- Phillip Groff
"Warning Shots Left Him EMPTY When It Mattered" by Active Self Protection
Excerpts:
Using a firearm as an intimidation tool is really stupid.
---
Firing warning shots is an act of criminal stupidity.
“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
“When you’re in the dark, stay in the dark;
when you’re in the light, light up the dark.”
-- Stephen P. Wenger
"Shooting quickly in a staged environment under no stress
does not make you tactically proficient."
-- John Hearne
*************************************************************************
Squatting on uneven surface while distracted, but still paying attention.
------------------------------ Techniques --------------------------------
Ways to execute a given task in support of your tactics,
especially when disabled or under stress.
"It's not daily increase but daily decrease - hack away at the inessentials!"
-- Bruce Lee
"Sling Manipulation for Home Defense: Making Slings Work Around Corners"
by Duncan Johnson
Hat tip to Docent.
". . . 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"
"Get a Grip on Handgun Grip" by Austin Chamberlain
Excerpts:
"This next part can be a little uncomfortable,
but the weak hand will rotate forward at the wrist.
The weak hand thumb should be pointed forward
and can be placed on the left side of the frame."
[This is WRONG! A straight wrist is a strong wrist. A twisted wrist is a weak wrist.
If you want a strong grip, keep your wrists straight.
-- Jon Low]
"Ensure the thumb is not contacting the slide,
as that can slow the slide enough to prevent it from
loading the next round when you go to shoot the gun."
[This is nonsense. Letting your thumbs touch the slide won't hurt anything.
-- Jon Low]
"The rotated wrist creates a force that rotates
in the opposite direction (forward and down) to
help cancel out the force generated during recoil."
[No, it doesn't. I can't figure out why Chamberlain thinks this.
-- Jon Low]
---
"As a general rule of thumb, when it comes to
how tight you grip the handgun, you should grip it
tightly so that your hands are shaking, and then
back off the pressure until your hands become stable."
[This will happen at drastically different force points, because grip strength
varies drastically between shooters. It doesn't matter when your particular
hands start to shake. What matters is the amount of force you are able to
apply to the grip. I think a minimum of 80 pounds of grip strength is
necessary for a 9mm, minimum of 90 pounds of grip strength for a 45 ACP,
and a minimum of 110 pounds of grip strength for a 40 S&W.
If you can't generate such grip strength for the caliber that you are using,
better use the push with the firing-side and pull with the support-side of the
Weaver position. That way your are using the larger smooth muscles of
your arms and back, in particular the bicep of your support-side-arm.
-- Jon Low]
Chamberlain cites,
"Predictive vs Reactive Shooting 4K" by Ben Stoeger and Joel Park
---
Accuracy is consistency. Consistency requires index points.
Your index points for your firing-side-hand should be:
⬢ Web between your thumb and index finger up high and tight into the tang of
the pistol.
⬢ Middle finger pressed up tight against the bottom of the trigger guard.
⬢ Trigger finger as far up on the frame or slide as it will go.
⬢ Thumb flat against the side of the pistol.
⬢ Middle finger, ring finger, and little finger pressed tight against each other.
Your index points for your support-side-hand should be:
⬣ Index finger pressed up tight against the bottom of the trigger guard.
⬣ Base of thumbs pressing tight against each other.
⬣ Index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger pressed tight
against each other.
⬣ Thumb is high and relaxed.
If you relax your thumbs, they will naturally go high, which is correct.
It takes a great deal of muscle tension to pull your thumbs down. Do not
grip your pistol as a hammer. Relax your thumbs, let them go high. This
is a pistol, not a hammer. (Of course, I stole that from Massad Ayoob.)
"I can always do nothing more consistently than I can do something."
-- Ben Stoeger
"Grip first, then press."
-- Mike Seeklander
"Use only that which works,
and take it from any place you can find it."
-- Bruce Lee
"Whatever you leave alone is perfect." -- Brian Enos
"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
“What’s the number one reason for reloading?
Missing the target!”
-- Claude Werner
"The secret is applying extreme force with the pinkies and
working your way up the rest of the digits."
-- Jeff L. Gonzales
Toni Marie Graham
Feet flat on the ground. A proper squatting position.
Not demonstrating perfect posture, but we know she is capable of it.
And knows exactly how to do it (ballerina).
***** ***** ***** 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
From Andrew Branca --
On May 3, 2024 Deputy Eddie Duran was called to the Elan Apartments in
Okaloosa County Florida in response to a domestic violence call. The events
were captured on his body worn camera, which we’ll watch in today’s show.
Upon arrival Duran was informed of an apparently increasingly violent
confrontation occurring in one of the apartments—sadly, he was sent to the
incorrect unit.
Reaching the unit, he knocked on the door, announced himself as law
enforcement, and waited. Within moments the door opened to reveal a young
black man holding a pistol at his side in his right hand.
Duran drew and shot him dead.
That man would turn out to be an utterly law-abiding US Airman named
Roger Fortson, and now former-deputy Duran is facing trial for that killing.
A short while ago the court held a self-defense immunity hearing, . . .
by which a defendant claiming self-defense can hope to be immunized against
prosecution. Ultimately, this attempt at immunity was rejected by the court,
and Duran’s trial is now expected to begin September 29, 2026 A.D.
That said, there was some very interesting testimony in that hearing,
including from two world-class use-of-force experts retained by the
defense — Von Kliem and Massad Ayoob, both personal friends of mine.
-- Andrew Branca
Excerpts: (paraphrased)
People say the camera doesn't lie, but the camera lies a lot. The body camera
is a foot or so below eye level. The camera has everything in focus, whereas the
human eye can only focus on one thing at a time, everything else is out of focus
whether you notice it or not. The body camera is relatively stable, but your eyes
are moving all the time, your head is moving; so the images are not the same.
Looking without seeing. If you're not paying attention to it, you don't see it.
---
The video is available for members of "Law of Self Defense" only.
I post the intro here because there are many incidents that are tragic, while
also being reasonable and thus justifiable.
How could this have been avoided? DON'T open your door for anyone!
With the door closed (and hopefully locked), ask, "Who is there?"
"What do you want?"
If the police officer asks to enter, ask "Do you have a warrant?"
Even without a warrant, the cop may kick the door in. But, if you had
taken steps to secure your door,
you will have time to retreat to a safe place of cover. Which will increase
the probability of you winning any pursuant gunfight.
In the right hand column of this web page, click on "Never Talk To The Police"
or use the address,
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 --------------------------------
"The shorter the fight, the less hurt you get."
-- John Holschen
Tactical Emergency Casualty Care Course - NAEMT Certified
DEFEND SYSTEMS
(615) 480-7758
Tactical Emergency Casualty Care Course - NAEMT Certified - GHCC26, $695.00
"If you prepare for the emergency,
the emergency ceases to exist!"
-- Sherman House
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Survival --------------------------------
‟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
"Legally Carried Handguns Stop Two Brown Bear Attacks in Slovakia"
by Dean Weingarten
"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
Intentionally sleep. Just as you intentionally go to work or intentionally clean
your guns. Do not let yourself go to sleep only when you are tired or exhausted,
or you know you have to get up early tomorrow to get to work. Just as you set
your alarm to get you up at 06:00 because you need time to shit, shower, and
shave, get dressed, and eat breakfast before arriving at work at 08:00; so you
should set your alarm to ensure you sleep at the correct time and for the correct
duration. Such is the difference between a life span of 70 years and a life span
of 90 years.
If you do not sleep intentionally, you are undisciplined. And that leads to
all kinds of problems in life.
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
--Benjamin Franklin
"Why Every Armed Citizen Needs an Emergency Response Plan"
by Joel T. Nadler
Stress Inoculation Training (SIT)
"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
*************************************************************************
Willow Hand
There's a happy smile.
***** ***** ***** 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
"The Pros and Cons of IDPA [2026]" by Daniel Reedy
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Concealed Carriers' Book Club
Combatives Association
Gun Owners of America digital magazine
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
https://nramedia.americanhunter.org/
are now online free of charge.
Practical Eschatology
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 --------------------------------
"Self defense is the highest of all human rights."
-- Lord William Blackstone
"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
"Clarence Thomas:
The Second Amendment Assumes a Right — It Does Not Grant One"
by Duncan Johnson
“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
"FBI Director Confirms NICS Surveillance Five Years After AmmoLand Exposed It"
by Duncan Johnson Editor in Chief
“It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men
of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read,
or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.” —James Madison (1788)
"Synagogue Scores Early Win Against Maryland County’s Gun Restrictions"
by Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech
Court ruling,
"Concealed Carry Laws in America"
"Trump rolls back Biden’s hunting restrictions"
In a White House Rose Garden dinner attended by many important figures
in the hunting industry, President Trump signed an order rolling back Biden-era
bans on traditional lead ammunition and tackle. The president also signed an
order that opens public land and waterways to more hunting and fishing
opportunities, including recreational fishing. Lastly, he announced initiatives
aimed at increasing the popularity of hunting among American youth. This is
a continuation of the president defending the responsible firearm use of
regular Americans, and he said that these moves were “the right thing to do.”
Cleaning up the damage the Biden administration has caused has always
been a top priority for the White House, and this is another positive extension
of that trend.
"Trump praises hunters at White House dinner, rescinds Biden’s ‘absurd’ restrictions"
by Jeff Mordock
"Law of Self Defense" by Andrew Branca
(free book, just pay shipping so you don't have to go to Tennessee to pick it up)
"Colombia Restores Gun Carry Permits After Decade-Long Nationwide Suspension"
by Dean Weingarten
Gun Law Database
"Trump Pulls Rank on DOJ in Major Guns Rights Fight" by Ryan Ledendecker
---
Dear Jonathan,
President Trump personally ordered the Justice Department not to appeal
our NFA victory. The deadline to file would have been October 5th.
But, ATF still hasn't issued guidance for FFLs and gun owners on how to
proceed after the win. GOA has spoken with the ATF Director Cekada,
and he confirmed that the agency is actively working on it.
Our injunction covers the parties to the lawsuit and their customers.
This isn't a nationwide repeal, and your state's laws still apply.
[If you're a member of GOA, as I am, the ruling applies to you. No form 4.
Fill out the ATF Form 4473 (Firearms Transaction Record), pass the instant
background check, pay for the suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled
shotguns, or any other weapons, and walk out the door with them in hand.
Yes, I've done it. It's good to live in Tennessee.
-- Jon Low]
On August 5th, Judge Hendrix struck down the NFA's registration requirements
for suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and any other
weapons, and enjoined ATF from enforcing them.
That's thanks to our "One Big Beautiful Lawsuit," which we fought in court for
over a year to win. DOJ had until October 5th to appeal. The President told them
to let the clock run out.
In Liberty,
Erich Pratt
Senior Vice President
Gun Owners of America
"Build A Reciprocity Map:" by Concealed Carry, Inc.
"FPC VICTORY: Fifth Circuit Strikes Down Federal Interstate Handgun Purchase Ban"
by Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc.
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger.
Excerpt:
"The federal laws challenged by FPC categorically prohibit people from directly
purchasing handguns from licensed dealers outside their state of residence. While
federal law provides exceptions for interstate rifle and shotgun purchases, handgun
buyers are instead forced to arrange an additional transfer through a licensed dealer
in their home state—a process that depends on another dealer agreeing to participate
and typically imposes additional fees and delays.
The Fifth Circuit’s conclusion was unequivocal: “The Ban sullies the plain text
of the Second Amendment and is inconsistent with the nation’s tradition of
firearms regulation.” The Court reversed the district court and rendered judgment
for FPC and the other plaintiffs."
[The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals covers Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.]
"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
"Adamiak Attorney Calum Welch:
‘The Conditions That Produced This Case Are Still in Place’ "
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger.
Excerpt:
"Leave the arguing to the lawyers. You should not be explaining your
collection. If someone disagrees with you about whether something is legal,
they usually are not looking for you to change their mind. Honest, law-abiding
people can get themselves in trouble by trying to prove a point or explain too
much. Being right does not protect you from the time, expenses, and risks of
having to defend yourself at trial.
Exercise all your constitutional rights. You have the right to keep and bear
arms. You also have the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney.
If you are unlucky enough to find yourself being questioned by agents, or
worse, clearly and calmly invoke your rights. If you don’t invoke your rights,
it is very easy to lose them.” "
---
Having dealt with ATF agents for several decades, I can assure you that ATF
agents and inspectors are disgusting scum bags. Never talk to them, NEVER.
Their purpose in life is to entrap you, and to use you to entrap others. Because
they are lazy, and catching real criminals is dangerous, they might get hurt.
So, they entrap law abiding citizens, because they know the law abiding citizen
won't kill them.
If a friend refers a customer to you, and that customer asks you for illegal
items or to do something illegal, make sure to tell your friend and carefully
watch his reaction. The customer was an ATF informant attempting to entrap
you. Your friend might be involved. Be careful.
If your friend immediately kills the customer, that would be saying something.
I would expect nothing less. Of course, things in Hawaii biker clubs are different.
“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)
"Topic: Article I, Section 15 of the Tennessee Constitution"
by Attorney Christmas
Excerpt:
The proposed amendment to Article I, Section 15 of the Tennessee Constitution
should scare the hell out of anyone who understands how our criminal justice
system actually operates.
"Firearms are second only to the constitution in importance,
they are the people's liberty's teeth." -- George Washington
"Glock Sues Connecticut Over Convertible Pistol Ban
After State Refuses to Provide Guidance"
Deron Bo's Facebook.com Post (in a private group) --
A Belmont County, Ohio man was found not guilty of a felonious assault charge
but convicted by a jury on two charges for hitting two houses across the street
during a self-defense incident.
The Ohio Supreme Court just upheld his conviction.
This incident began when the defendant/defender, Timothy Bradley, fired a
contractor doing work in his home. When the contractor came to retrieve his tools,
the men began to argue. The contractor was armed when he entered the home to
retrieve tools, and Bradley, the defendant/defender, believed that the contractor
was making a movement toward his gun and that his life was in danger.
Bradley fired six times at the contractor, with two of the bullets crossing the street
and striking two homes. One round striking the home was an errant shot, the other,
from all that I can tell, was a pass-through shot that hit the contractor and continued
across the street to hit one of the homes.
This is a Rule Four problem at its finest, unfortunately.
The jury found him not guilty of felonious assault on the contractor but found
him guilty on two counts of improperly discharging a firearm.
Bradley’s lawyers argued on appeal that the court failed to instruct the jury that
the privilege of self-defense could have been transferred to all offenses, even the
errant shots striking the homes across the street.
From the Ohio Supreme Court’s Opinion:
{¶ 8} The trial court’s instructions to the jury included an instruction on
self-defense that Bradley and the State had agreed on before trial:
Self-defense: The defendant claims to have acted in self- defense to all three
of these charges. The defendant is allowed to use deadly force in self-defense.
The State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant, when using
deadly force, did not act in self-defense. The defendant is presumed to have
acted in self-defense when this occurred in his residence.
The trial court also defined “privilege”: “That’s an immunity, license or right
conferred by law, bestowed by express or implied grant, arising out of status,
position, office or relationship, and growing out of necessity.”
{¶ 9} During closing arguments, Bradley’s counsel argued that if the jury believed
Bradley acted in self-defense, then he had the privilege to shoot into the residences:
They charged my client with shooting into a habitation, right? One of the elements
of that offense, though, is “without privilege.” If you believe that he was acting in
self-defense or that they failed to prove that he wasn’t, then he had the privilege to
shoot into the habitation.
Interestingly, the most conservative justices of the Ohio Supreme Court banded
together to uphold Bradley’s conviction. Their opinion stated that Ohio Law has
never determined whether the doctrine of transferred intent can be applied to a
self-defense privilege.
Quite frankly, the issue here is that the defendant/defender believes that because
the jury was never instructed that the self-defense privilege may transfer to other
charges associated with the incident, he was wrongfully convicted.
The Ohio Supreme Court disagreed because it was unsure whether the privilege
is transferable, and even if it is, it believed there is no way to know whether the jury
would have found him not guilty on those charges if they knew that transferability
was possible.
The lone dissenting opinion in this case was from the most liberal justice of the
Ohio Supreme Court. She believed that if Ohio Law allows for, as she calls it,
“transfer of intent or justification from one offense to another,” which may create
an argument of self-defense for accidentally killing another person, then the
accidental shooting of another home should also fall under the same theory of
transferred self-defense. (She is citing an old Ohio Supreme Court case that
adopted the theory of transferred self-defense.)
This is one of the most fascinating self-defense cases I’ve seen in Ohio in a
long time. It’s a lesson for us that Rule Four ALWAYS applies, and, there are
no misses, only bad hits.
-- Deron Bo
---
State v. Bradley
Ohio Supreme Court
Fleeing from police in hot pursuit with a gun in your hand is an act of criminal stupidity.
Just drop the gun.
*************************************************************************
Karina Valéshna
------------------------------ Instruction --------------------------------
"Remember,
the students who require the extra effort
are the ones who need us the most!"
-- John Farnam
*************************************************************************
----- Instructors -----
“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
Colonel Robert Lindsey to his fellow trainers:
"We are not God's gift to our students.
Our students are God's gift to us."
“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
"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
“The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other.
Without collaboration, our growth is limited to our own perspectives.”
-- Robert John Meehan
"Let's face it, most of us are not half as smart as we may sometimes think we
are - and for intellectuals, not one-tenth as smart."
-- Thomas Sowell, "Random Thoughts," December 2010
************************************************************************
----- Students -----
“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
"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
---
"Most people can't think", Jordan Peterson.
*************************************************************************
----- 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
Nicola knows how to squat.
Before the photo was cropped,
you would have seen her feet flat on the ground.
------------------------------ Gear --------------------------------
And the safe storage thereof.
"Belly Bands?" and "New Covert Magazine Pouch"
by Tom Givens
Greg Ellifritz's comments with regards to strobe lights --
I, too, attended the Surefire Institute’s Low Light Instructor class and trained
strobes under Ken Good. I had a strobing light and carried it on the street for
several years. I don’t have a strobe on any of my lights right now.
I agree with Erick’s statement below:
Gelhaus has perhaps the best description of the fundamental problem with
strobing: “It does deny information, but it denies that info both ways.”
The best “tactical” light has an on/off switch (with momentary on) and
defaults to the brightest setting possible.
---
I agree.
Because it is ambidextrous and sells for $400.
IWI Massada
The manual is at
No really, I bought one at Outpost Armory in Franklin, TN for $400,
new in the box, including two 17 round magazines and 3 back straps
for small, medium, and large grip sizes which also adjusts the length
to the trigger for your trigger finger, and 4 adaptor plates to accommodate
various red dot sights.
Because it is ambidextrous and sells for $469.00.
"First Look: Rost Martin RM1X Series" by Adam Borisenko
Rost Martin,
Just because you're right-handed does not mean you will be right-handed in combat.
Remember the incident at In-N-Out Burger in Twin Falls, Idaho? The first shot from
the bad guy hit the good guy's right upper arm making it inoperable. The good guy
had to be evacuated by his wife and friend to the hospital emergency room.
You will do better, because you know how to draw your pistol with your
support-side-hand only, and you know how to do all administrative operations
(such as racking the slide to chamber a round) and combat actions (such as
shooting) with your support-side-hand only. Because you've taken the training
and practiced, as the lives of your loved ones depend on it.
Because it has ambidextrous mag releases and retails for $400.
"Springfield XD Mod.4 Review: Four Benjamins" by Patrick Sweeney
Springfield Armory,
"Why are the little things called little things?
They are everything."
-- Nicola Cavanis
Your 1911 type pistol MUST have a thumb safety on the right-hand side of the
pistol. Otherwise, how are you going to manipulate the safety when shooting
left-handed? If you can't defeat the thumb safety with the thumb of your left
hand, your pistol won't fire and your slide is locked.
Your pistol must be ambidextrous. If not, modify it so that it is. Or just
buy an ambidextrous pistol to begin with. Just because you're right-handed
does not mean you will be shooting right-handed in combat. All kinds of strange
things happen in combat.
Remember the incident at the In-and-Out burger in Twin Falls, Idaho?
One of the good guys was shot in his firing-side upper arm. He could not
competently and easily draw his pistol from his holster with his support-side-hand
only. Once he was able to get his pistol into his support-side hand, he could not
rack the slide to get a round into the chamber. (Why he was carrying a semi-auto
pistol without a round in the chamber is a mistake due to lack of expert training
and sufficient practice to make carrying a loaded pistol comfortable. With such
training and practice comes confidence.)
If you don't know at least three ways to draw your pistol support-side-hand
only (reaching around in front of your body or reaching around in back of your
body, etc.), ASK me! I will send you a detailed description. I will answer your
questions. Don't languish in ignorance. Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance kills.
(Or, as we saw in Twin Falls, Idaho, ignorance causes debilitating injuries and death.)
Jon_Low@yahoo.com
"There are no dangerous weapons, only dangerous men."
-- Robert A. Heinlein
"Loaded Magazines vs. Downloaded: What You Need To Know"
by Massad Ayoob
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Greg Ellifritz's comments --
Massad Ayoob gives us some info about a topic that isn’t often discussed.
I have four points to add.
1) You should have fired your gun enough to know if it is 100% reliable
when completely loaded. If it isn’t 100% reliable when fully loaded,
but is reliable when downloaded by one cartridge, download the gun.
2) As Mas mentioned, some full mags are very hard to insert if the
chamber is already loaded. If that’s the case, download your mag.
Why do you think the military traditionally loaded 28 rounds in a
30 round M-16 magazine? Before P-Mags, fully loaded AR mags
were difficult to easily insert into guns with loaded chambers.
3) It might make sense to download a shotgun magazine tube by one shell
to facilitate an easier “select slug” drill if your shotgun isn’t equipped with
a magazine cut off.
4) If you do regularly carry a less than fully loaded magazine in your pistol,
make sure responding cops know that fact if you get into a shooting with
that particular gun. I once investigated a police shooting where two different
officers each had downloaded magazines. We assumed their mags were full
and wasted hours scouring the scene for spent bullets and brass that never
existed.
*************************************************************************
Sarah
There's a pretty smile.
“Your car is not a holster.”
-- Pat Rogers
"What Makes A Good Handgun Holster?" by Tamara Keel
The purpose of a high capacity magazine is NOT to let you shoot more;
it is to let you reload less.
-- Tom Givens
"Self-Defense and the Law: Cases Where Magazine Capacity Limits Cost Lives"
by Massad Ayoob
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Steve Cooper
Paladin Training, Inc.
steve@paladintraining.com
says,
If you’re in the market for a suppressor, give Garry Evans a call at 843-610-9512.
“Mission drives the gear train.”
-- Pat Rogers
"Gun Owner 101: Choosing a Carry Gun" by Swift | Silent | Deadly
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
"Intro to EOTech: How Holographic Sights Actually Work"
by Forgotten Weapons
Holographic Sights (laser) are different from red dot sights (light emitting diode).
The cryptology analogy is messed up.
Description of differences starts at 11:41.
"Terminal Ballistics II: What Pistol Bullets Do (And Don’t Do)"
by Swift | Silent | Deadly
Excerpt:
". . . there is no appreciable difference in the effectiveness of 9mm and
the .45 ACP cartridges." ~ Dr. Vincent J.M. DiMaio
". . . if you compromise the heart, aorta, brain, or spine with a bullet,
it doesn’t matter much which bullet it is - you will get a stop. Conversely,
if you don’t hit the heart, aorta, brain, or spine, it doesn’t matter much
which bullet it is - you’re in for a long wait, or the bad guy to decide he
is done. No matter what caliber you use, you have to hit something that
FORCES a stop, otherwise you are permitting the bad guy to choose to
stop, or not."
"The primary ammo criteria for [caliber] is ensuring functional reliability,
followed by adequate accuracy, then reliable penetration beyond 12 inches."
~ Dr. Gary K. Roberts
"Expansion is a distant second consideration to penetration."
"In an article aptly titled, “The Very Real Danger of Over-Penetrating Bullets”
Mas details some cases where folks were hit with bullets that had passed through
others. This includes the 2024 case of an armed Citizen shooting a bad guy.
His bullet went through the bad guy’s head, killing him. It continued on and
struck a bystander in the head, killing him, too."
---
Part I is at
"What You Need to Know About Bad Ammo" by Tom McHale
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Willow Hand
Sight Height Calculators
Tools to Track Ammunition Prices:
Ammo Seek
BulletScout
Caliber King
AmmoSquared Inc.
Ammo sources:
Ammunition Depot
Use code: ALAND5
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
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Intelligence ***** ***** *****
Always cite open source.
Email from Business Basics,
businessbasicsyt@substack.com
Xi Jinping has basically hollowed out the top of China’s military.
He expelled Gen. Zhang Youxia and Gen. Liu Zhenli from the
Communist Party and military on September 21, 2026. This leaves
just 2 people on the Central Military Commission: Xi himself and
Gen. Zhang Shengmin. That’s 5 of the 6 other officials originally
named to Xi’s 2022 A.D. CMC now gone. Zhang Youxia was especially
notable because he was Xi’s top uniformed deputy and one of China’s
most powerful generals. Chinese authorities accuse Zhang and Liu
of political disloyalty, factionalism, corruption, and other serious violations.
Their cases have been sent to military prosecutors.
-- Global Recap
"Have Underestimated the Houthis for FAR Too Long. | Ep. 19" by John Kiriakou
Kiriakou refuses to believe that we had to attack Iran to prevent them from
developing an atomic bomb.
Kiriakou does understand about elite Arabs.
"U.S. government school system" by Jordan Peterson
"I’ve Been Saying This Would Get Ugly" by Cappy Army
Russian GRU 29155. 161st Intelligence, Special Training Center.
From the Patriot Post --
Russia is reportedly building up on the Estonian border.
According to intelligence, Russia has been building hospital facilities and clearing
shorelines across the river from Narva, Estonia. These are likely signs that Russia
is preparing for an invasion of Estonia and will soon be in position to do so when
Vladimir Putin believes his country should escalate. This has all come as a
continuation of Putin’s “hybrid war,” which has been a series of operations that
have damaged European communications and factories through third-party
means in order to maintain plausible deniability. How far is Putin willing to
press NATO members before he reaches the point of no return that forces
Article V [an attack on a member nation is an attack on all member nations]
to be invoked? Russia likely doesn’t want to incur NATO’s full wrath,
but it’s clear Putin will toe the line as close as he can.
"Who Had 'World War III Starting in Estonia' on Their 2026 Bingo Card?"
by Stephen Green
From Patriot Post --
Cartels now using Ukrainian know-how in Latin America drone warfare.
Latin American cartels are hiring fighters who have returned from Ukraine
to teach them about drone warfare. Colombia has sent many fighters to
Ukraine, drawn by higher salaries than they can earn back home. Some
cartels may even be sending members to Ukraine specifically to learn new
tactics. Back home, Colombian drone specialists find their skills in high
demand; some have been brought to Mexico to train large groups of cartel
“droneros.” The drones can be used for drug smuggling or, more nefariously,
for guerrilla warfare. Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico have all seen an
increased presence of drone warfare, and U.S. counternarcotics may not be
able to keep up. The U.S. State Department is working to minimize
battlefield skill transfer from Ukrainian warriors to cartel terrorists while
applying anti-drone lessons to better combat the cartels.
Behind a paywall.
"Trump has a Houthi problem, and no easy way out | Ep. 21"
by John Kiriakou
---
So why didn't the Iranian antigovernmental forces overthrow the Islamic government
when the Americans et al attacked? Because the Iranian Islamic government had killed
40,000 of the antigovernmental leaders in the months before the American attack. So,
there is no one left to lead the overthrow of the Islamic government.
Intelligence "analysts" have been using Artificial Intelligence agents to generate
reports for several years now. There is a stamp at the top center of many reports
saying that AI was use to generate the report or that AI was used in the report.
I hope you are not such an "analyst".
"China Thought Nobody Would Notice" by Cappy Army
"This is What Really Happens to Russia When Putin Loses | Sarah Paine"
by Pyotr Kurzin
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Counter Intelligence
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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
*************************************************************************
Islamova Kseniia
***** ***** ***** Signals Intelligence,
Ground Electronic Warfare,
Cyber Warfare,
(sometimes Air Electronic Warfare too) ***** ***** *****
Always cite open source.
"China Spy Satellite Broke Up In Orbit" by Docent
One could speculate that the spy satellite was destroyed by a satellite killer.
Got to test shit to make sure it works.
"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
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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
*************************************************************************
Kirstin Kruka
Heels on the ground for a more stable squatting position, especially when in the sand.
***** ***** ***** Cryptology ***** ***** *****
Always cite open source.
"You don't have to memorize theorems.
Because you can always derive them from first principles."
-- Sven Hartman
A colleague stopped by to discuss a math problem. She had been chasing an enemy
down a very deep rabbit hole for several months. Her people all thought that
something was wrong with the geometry that they were monitoring (eaves dropping).
[As opposed to the geometry that they were using to model what they were
monitoring. Models are for the lazy or those incapable of visualizing the
geometry. For instance, modeling elliptic geometry on the surface of a sphere
is wrong, because parallel lines (great circles) have two distinct poles on a sphere,
but in elliptic geometry parallel lines meet at only one point (and all lines are finite).
If you try to fix the problem by "associating" the north pole to the south pole by
making them equal, same point, then you lose the ability to separate the space into
two parts, you lose connectivity. The equator no longer separates the northern
hemisphere from the southern hemisphere, because you can go from the north pole
to the south pole because they are equal. There are all kinds of other problems.
When I was a child, I would always be making models. My father would tell me,
that's not how things work in the real world. My mother would tell me that's not
consistent with the given math structure. But, what did I care? In my imagination
I would make anything work the way I wanted.]
If you look out into space in an elliptic geometry with a very powerful telescope,
you will see the back of your head. But will you see your head right-side-up or
up-side-down? Or some other orientation?
There are many geometries. (Deceptive statement.)
Definitely inconsistent with Euclidean geometry. So their initial thoughts were
that it must be an elliptic or hyperbolic geometry (but of course there are many
many other geometries).
Parallel lines never intersect in hyperbolic geometry, so it's not hyperbolic.
In elliptic geometry, all lines parallel to a given line intersect at a single given
point (going forward or backward along the line), so it's not an elliptic geometry.
In an elliptic geometry, all lines must have finite length under some metric, some
curvature. In two dimensions, if you cut out a strip, you get a Möbius strip
(non-orientability). In three dimensions orientability is restored and a new kind
of parallelism occurs, Clifford-parallelism, where the two lines are equidistant from
each other as measured by the family of segments perpendicular to both lines.
The two parallel lines are skew lines.
In the geometry in question, all lines parallel to a given line intersect at two points,
the forward point and the backward point. So the geometry is a projective geometry.
Projective geometry has duality. (data also indicates a non-zero curvature).
Should be able to find a Riemann tensor.
Not all geometries are continuous. There are discrete geometries. There are
geometries that have only points as their elements. Be careful.
If you want to play, you might want to read:
"Projective and Euclidean Geometry" by W. T. Fishback.
Copyright © 1962 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 62-20162
Sorry, no ISBN.
"Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometries" by Marvin Jay Greenberg.
Copyright © 1972 by Marvin Jay Greenberg.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: QA445.G84
ISBN: 0-7167-1103-6
"Excursions in Geometry" by C. Stanley Ogilvy.
Copyright © 1969 by C. Stanley Ogilvy.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 78-83014
No ISBN. Even the 1990 Dover printing has no ISBN.
An excellent book for understanding the methods of the proofs is
"Plane Geometry" by D. Meade Bernard.
Copyright © 1927 by Johnson Publishing Company.
Sorry, no Library of Congress Catalog Card Number and
no ISBN. You understand why.
"The Geometry of Fractal Sets" by K. J. Falconer.
Copyright © 1985 by Cambridge University Press.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: QA447
ISBN: 0-521-25694-1 hard covers
ISBN: 0-521-33705-4 paperback
(You saw this listing and everything fell into place. Bravo!)
"Géométrie" by Marcel Berger (Volumes 1 - 5).
Copyright © CEDIC and Fernand Nathan, Paris 1977.
But you don't have to read the French. An excellent English translation exists.
"Geometry" Volumes I and II by Marcel Berger.
Copyright © CEDIC and Fernand Nathan, Paris 1977.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: QA445.B4713
ISBN: 3-540-11658-3 Springer-Verlag
ISBN: 0-387-11658-3 Springer-Verlag
If you are familiar with this book you know what we are talking about.
If not, you will understand after reading this book. Yes, a very deep
rabbit hole.
"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
"Claude Took On the Riemann Hypothesis. Here’s What Actually Happened"
by Ellie Sleightholm
Excerpt:
"Claude Didn’t Solve the Riemann Hypothesis. So What Did It Do?"
---
The reason 100% doesn't prove anything is because we are talking about a
measure in a measure space. The measure of irrational points on the interval [0, 1]
is one = 100%. So the measure of rational points on the interval [0, 1] is zero = 0%.
Within this zero measure, there are countably infinite rational numbers. Not zero
rational numbers.
There are also uncountably infinite sets with zero measure.
---
"Ueber die Anzahl der Primzahlen unter einer gegebenen Grösse."
by Bernhard Riemann published in the November 1859 edition of the
Monatsberichte der Königlich Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin.
[Glad I studied German in high school and college, and kept all my German
textbooks and dictionaries. -- Jon Low]
English translation by David R. Wilkins.
"Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of
producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin."
-- John von Neumann
OpenAI claimed to have solved the Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness
problem, one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems, on September 8, 2026.
This is the paper,
"FINITE TIME BLOWUP FOR NAVIER–STOKES" by OPEN AI
I don't find it convincing of anything. Do you?
Open AI claims LEAN checked their "proof" and found it to be valid and sound.
I don't think so. One AI system checking another AI system?
But then again, I still don't believe the silly computer generated "4-color map"
proof. If I can't read it, I don't believe it.
"Computer science has nothing to do with computers or science."
-- Donald Knuth
"All that we don't know is astonishing.
Even more astonishing is what passes for knowing."
-- Philip Roth
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil."
-- Donald Knuth
"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
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.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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
*************************************************************************
Lauren Marshall
Heels on the ground on rough surface. Excellent!
*************************** Politics and Religion *****************************
"BREAKING NEWS! TRUMP DOJ ANNOUNCES
MASSIVE NEW PRO-2A LAWSUIT!"
by The Four Boxes Diner
Excerpt:
"The U.S. Department of Justice has just announced a lawsuit
against the City of San Jose, California over allegedly unconstitutional
CCW licensing fees, $1600.
---
LICENSES DELAYED, RIGHTS DENIED:
HOW CONTEMPORARY FIREARM CARRY LICENSING REGIMES
CONTINUE TOVIOLATE THE SECOND AMENDMENT
by MARK W. SMITH
"Texas police department shut down for failing to provide ‘public benefit’
after arresting mom over dirty water Facebook post"
by Richard Pollina
Email from John Lott --
Our latest research finds that the FBI continues to make massive errors in its
Active Shooter reports. With the 2025 data now available, the FBI’s reports
indicate that armed civilians stopped only 3.9% of active-shooter attacks from
2014 through 2025. Our review puts the actual figure at 36.6%. When we
exclude gun-free zones — places where law-abiding citizens generally cannot
carry firearms — the rate rises to 52.9%. In 2025 alone, armed civilians stopped
58.3% of the attacks in places where they could legally carry.
"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
"New York Gives Up on Educating Kids Entirely" by David Strom
New York dumbs down education --
Recent years have seen declining student scores on Regents exams, the basic tests
New York required for high school graduation. On Tuesday, New York decided
to drop those exams and replace them with easier assessments that students don’t
have to pass to graduate. The state’s decision comes partially from DEI concerns.
Statistics show that white and Asian students do well on Regents exams, while
black and Hispanic students perform poorly, often failing. New York education
officials said that students couldn’t meet standards, so the standards needed to
change. Instead of rewarding excellence, New York’s new program will reward
participation. The decision sparked outrage online, as many asked why race
matters for educational outcomes.
---
Will any employer be willing to hire a peron based on a New York high school diploma?
---
"When A College Degree Stops Proving You Can Do The Work" by Andrew Branca
"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
When I helped my second ex-wife get her green card (permanent alien residency,
on her way to citizenship), I had to sign papers promising to support her and to
never take any type of welfare from any government. So illegal aliens getting
welfare is infuriating.
Of course, it was never an issue for me, because her family in Thailand was
wealthy. But it's the principle.
I remembering my father telling me to marry well, because it makes life easier.
But my mother said, you have to work harder married to a rich family than if
only supporting your family. I only came to understand what they were saying
in retrospect decades later.
-- Jon Low
"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
“Can someone explain to me like I’m 5 why a woman [Sydney Sweeney]
monetizing her sexuality is all of a sudden ‘setting women back hundreds of
years’ according to the very feminists who insist sex work is real work and
that women should be able to profit from pornographic content on Only Fans?
Was it all bad all along after all?”
— Isabel Brown
---
"Sydney Sweeney Makes Women Insane - Dumpster Fire 350"
by Bridget Phetasy
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
It would be best to get out of Massachusetts as soon as possible.
"Massachusetts Seizes Teen from Her Catholic Parents to Groom, Transition Her"
by Craig Bannister
"Massachusetts Takes Daughter from Catholic Parents for
Refusing to Affirm Trans Identity"
by Quinn Delamater
Truth about slavery in history.
Deep truth.
You're not confused. Bernie Sanders is just lying.
"2,293 Female Athletes Have Lost First-Place Medals to Biological Males.
This has translated to women in professional sports losing $501,498 in prize money."
by Dan Hart
Tim Pool explains why the left is a cult.
More evidence that the left is a cult.
The Patriot Post
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Milena Ioanna
Human included for scale.
************* Psychology **************************************
"Work keeps us from three evils: boredom, vice, and poverty."
-- Voltaire
"Never her fault: Lindsay Clancy" by Orion Taraban
If you think through the logical arguments, you see how ridiculous and dangerous
the results are.
"The five hard conversations: preventing divorce" by Orion Taraban
1. Sex
2. Money
3. Children
4. Politics and religion
5. In-laws
Email from Orion Taraban, Psy.D. Wednesday, September 16th, 2026
"The modern court of Solomon."
The year is 2026. King Solomon is presiding over a hearing involving
two women who both claim custody over a child. In his infinite wisdom,
the king commands that the child be cut in half, so that each woman can
receive her fair share.
One woman, horrified by the idea, decides to spare the child's life,
even if it means relinquishing her custody. King Solomon agrees.
He believes that the woman who wanted the child cut in half clearly loved
her more, and probably only wanted to dissect the child because she didn't
receive enough support at home.
This week's behavioral experiment:
Think of someone whose wisdom or intelligence you respect.
What would this person say about your situation?
Warmly,
Orion
Money is a proxy for competence. Women look for competence in men.
Beauty is a proxy for health. Men look for health in women (to bear children).
12% of the population can't do anything.
Except be an activist.
"Nowhere to hide." by Orion Taraban, Psy.D. Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026
Today I'm going to share with you one of my all-time favorite short stories.
It's “The Appointment in Samarra,” by W. Somerset Maugham. It's only a paragraph,
and it goes like this:
---
The speaker is Death.
There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy
provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling,
and said,
"Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a
woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that had jostled
me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your
horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to
Samarra and there Death will not find me."
The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he
dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went.
Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing
in the crowd and he came to me and said,
"Why did you make a threating gesture to my servant when you saw
him this morning?"
"That was not a threatening gesture", I said, "it was only a start of surprise.
I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him
tonight in Samarra."
---
One of the things I love about this story is the psychological truth it reveals.
We cannot run from ourselves. It is not possible. Not only is it futile, but it
tends to make the journey toward our ultimate destination even worse. I mean,
the servant in the story is terrified, right?
This is a call for all of us to stand and face whatever it is we may be
unsuccessfully trying to run away from.
This week's behavioral experiment:
What have you been running from? Stand and face it.
Warmly,
Orion
---
Well, I don't think the story is "by W. Somerset Maugham" (1874-1965).
Other sources say that the story is retold by W. Somerset Maugham, and
is an ancient Mesopotamian tale that first appears in the Babylonian Talmud
and came to Western attention with its retelling by British writer
W Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) in his 1933 short fable
"An Appointment in Samarra".
"The old man at the club: how to deal with aging out" by Orion Taraban
Deep truth. My second ex-wife was 20 years my junior (50 - 30).
My present girlfriend is 37 years younger (67 - 30). Friends ask why
I can't find girlfriends my own age. I answer, beggars can't be choosers.
"Gambling is a tax on stupidity."
-- Voltaire
************* End of Psychology section*********************************
Nala Knight
Facial expression and body language to cause you to misjudge me.
*************************************************************************
*** Jon's stuff ***
“To cherish and stimulate the activity of the human mind, by multiplying the
objects of enterprise, is not among the least considerable of the expedients, by
which the wealth of a nation may be promoted.” — Alexander Hamilton (1791)
Bucee's
Christianity explained by analogy.
"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."
-- Mary Flannery O'Connor
"Holdout Clancy Juror Breaks Silence.
What He Says About 'Activist' Jurors Makes Them Look Worse."
by Kyle Becker
Excerpt:
"Devlin has publicly said she viewed the case as an opportunity to
"get a conversation started" and potentially "change something."
You can draw your own conclusions. But a criminal trial isn't supposed
to be a vehicle for changing society.
It isn't a public-awareness campaign. It isn't a referendum on women's
mental healthcare. And jurors aren't there to "start a conversation."
They're there to decide the case in front of them based on the evidence
and the law."
*************************************************************************
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“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
In case you don't understand the Penguin meme.
"Left, Right, and a Penguin" by Feral Historian
In case you don't understand the Amelia meme.
Phenylalanine
Aspartame
The U.S. Constitution is the greatest piece of technology that we have.
Semper Fidelis,
Jonathan D. Low
Email: Jon@DefensivePistolcraft.com
Radio: KI4SDN
Nicola Cavanis
