Greetings Sheepdogs,
Rod of Iron Freedom Festival 2024 (tickets are free)
https://www.rodofironfreedomfestivaltn.org/
Fountain Plaza
2809 W. Andrew Johnson Hwy.
Morristown, TN 18425
March 16th, 2024
12:00 noon to 17:00 (5:00 PM)
Table of Sections:
Prevention
Intervention
Postvention
Education
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Prevention ***** ***** *****
Things you can do to avoid the lethal force incident.
Table of contents:
Mindset
Safety
Training
Practice
*************************************************************************
----- Mindset -----
Figuring out the correct way to think.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
(If you want peace, prepare for war.)
“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.)
‟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
‟Fear is an instinct. Courage is a choice.”
-- Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, USN
‷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
***** Situational Awareness *****
How to avoid being taken by surprise.
"Jeff Cooper's Color Code exists to help you get your head
around the need to kill someone in the immediate future."
-- John Hearne
Unaware (white) of what's going on around you.
Aware (yellow) of who is around you and what they are doing.
Alert (orange) to a potential threat and taking action to avoid the threat.
Alarm (red) by a real threat and taking action to escape the threat,
which might include shooting the threat.
Combat (black) front sight, press.
“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
*************************************************************************
----- Safety -----
How to prevent the bad thing from happening in the first place.
How to avoid shooting yourself, friendlies, and innocent bystanders.
Jeff Cooper′s Rules of Gun Safety
RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED.
RULE II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER
ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY.
RULE III: KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER
UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET.
RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET.
"Keep Your Hand Away From the Muzzle" by tacticalprofessor (Claude Werner)
https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2024/03/09/keep-your-hand-away-from-the-muzzle/
Referring to
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4LsHBArwtl/
Where a guy points his pistol at his hand to check to see if the laser is working.
"IRS special agent for criminal investigation indicted on involuntary manslaughter charge"
https://justthenews.com/nation/crime/special-agent-irs-ci-indicted-tucson-involuntary-manslaughter-charge
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger. Stephen thinks it's a complacency problem.
I suspect it's an arrogance problem.
"It's easier to stay out of trouble than to get out of trouble."
-- Claude Werner
"Envy, celebrated!" by John Farnam
https://defense-training.com/envy-celebrated/
You must stay out of these cities. You should stay out of these states.
What are the residents of these cities doing? They are moving to Tennessee.
"Anarchy!" by John Farnam
https://defense-training.com/anarchy-3/
"While The People are virtuous, they cannot be subdued
But, once they lose their virtue,
then they will be ready to surrender their liberties
to the first external or internal invader."
-- Samuel Adams
"Baldwin Criticizes George Clooney's Safety Advice" by Law of Self Defense
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Fu6KELtrk
Chamber check is your responsibility. Every safety rule is your responsibility.
Claiming that safety is someone else's responsibility is WRONG!
"If I had my teaching career to do over, I'd include flashlight techniques
in daytime courses; with today's inexpensive, high-intensity lights, the center
of the beam is not required for target identification at across-the-room
distances. Sometimes it's feasible to use a light switch to illuminate a
suspected intruder. Barring either of those options, preferably from cover
or concealment, one can always call out for the suspected intruder to
identify himself."
-- Stephen P. Wenger
---
Especially in a home defense situation, Positively Identify the target!
Turn on the lights. Use your flashlight to illuminate the subject. Using
your command voice, say, "Who is there?"
Ya, you're giving away your position, but it's better than mistakenly
shooting a loved one.
I guard an elementary school. The Kindergartners have a multi-million dollar
playground with the best equipment. Instead of playing on the equipment, they
drag chairs and benches to the perimeter fence and attempt to scale the fence as
if they were prisoners trying to escape. The teachers tell the kids to stop doing that
and to go play on the jungle gyms and climbing houses and slides and climbing walls
(which are challenging for me).
Telling a child not to do something is a challenge that the child cannot resist.
So it was with Eve. So it will be for every child of Eve. Teach your children how
to use your firearms and explain to them how deadly they are. Tell them that the
firearms are used to kill bad guys to protect the family.
And then lock up any firearm that is not securely attached to your body by a
properly designed holster made specifically for your pistol and a study belt.
(All of my firearms are behind a door with a lock in the door knob and a dead
bolt lock above it. I would never ask you to do something that I had not already
done.)
Firearms in use are on your body. Firearms not in use are locked up.
There are no accidents. There is only negligence borne of ignorance and
carelessness.
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.
*************************************************************************
----- Training -----
Figuring out the correct tasks to practice.
“If you are reading this and can’t put your hand on your defensive firearm,
all of your training is wasted.” -- Col. Jeff Cooper
"Aiming Center Mass vs. Quick Stop–Which is Better?" by Mike Ox
https://dryfiretrainingcards.com/blog/aiming-center-mass-vs-quick-stop-which-is-better/
Excerpt:
"For years, this kind of confused me. Heart-lung shots would get me good kills,
but rarely instant stops. It really made me question self-defense teaching, because,
at the same time, almost all of the self-defense literature said that you need to aim
center-mass in a lethal force encounter – even with severely inadequate defensive
pistol rounds."
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)
Excerpt from an email from Mike Ox --
In strength and conditioning programs for professional athletes, there's a concept
known as "training for the scoreboard." What it means is that strength training
should make athletes better at their sport, not distract them from it. The key is
doing strength training that wins more games (functional strength) rather than just
strength training to increase raw strength.
What does this mean for firearms training?
Basically, that you should make sure that your training is setting you up for
success in a real world situation and not just sucking you into a hole of training
to max out a particular standard, qualification, or drill. Train for the fight . . . and
use the clock to do it . . . just don't train to become a slave of the clock.
-- Mike (Ox) Ochsner
"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
For that matter, when was the last time you practiced your holstered weapon
retention skills? Do you have such skills? Have you ever learned such skills?
Better get on it. Your time is coming.
"Firearm Retention Failure Ends in Disaster" by Active Self Protection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR8HSvwc2wQ
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Bite him! Gouge his eyes! Break his hand!
"The Empirical Fighter: Rules for the Serious Combatant" by Mark Hatmaker
https://indigenousability.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-empirical-fighter-rules-for-serious.html
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpts:
"The Rule of Specificity dictates, broadly, that the largest gains will be in the
area of focus with some [some] spillover effect to contiguous areas."
"Choose what supports your end aims—trim the rest."
[If you're going to practice disarms, you must cut the trigger guard off the dummy
pistol. Practicing with a real pistol is a bad idea. Ya, you can keep your trigger finger
in the register position. But that does not mean it will stay there. -- Jon Low]
False testing. As a practicing scientist (Geophysics), I can assure you that false
testing is real and pervasive. Hundreds of papers are retracted from peer reviewed
journals every year for false testing. And those are the ones that are caught.
Thousands need to be retracted.
“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
"Awesome Marine MARSOC Shooting Video" by Mike Ox
https://dryfiretrainingcards.com/blog/awesome-marine-marsoc-shooting-video/
Rod of Iron Freedom Festival 2024 (tickets are free)
https://www.rodofironfreedomfestivaltn.org/
Fountain Plaza
2809 W. Andrew Johnson Hwy.
Morristown, TN 18425
March 16th, 2024
12:00 noon to 17:00 (5:00 PM)
Table of Sections:
Prevention
Intervention
Postvention
Education
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Prevention ***** ***** *****
Things you can do to avoid the lethal force incident.
Table of contents:
Mindset
Safety
Training
Practice
*************************************************************************
----- Mindset -----
Figuring out the correct way to think.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
(If you want peace, prepare for war.)
“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.)
‟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
‟Fear is an instinct. Courage is a choice.”
-- Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, USN
‷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
***** Situational Awareness *****
How to avoid being taken by surprise.
"Jeff Cooper's Color Code exists to help you get your head
around the need to kill someone in the immediate future."
-- John Hearne
Unaware (white) of what's going on around you.
Aware (yellow) of who is around you and what they are doing.
Alert (orange) to a potential threat and taking action to avoid the threat.
Alarm (red) by a real threat and taking action to escape the threat,
which might include shooting the threat.
Combat (black) front sight, press.
“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
*************************************************************************
----- Safety -----
How to prevent the bad thing from happening in the first place.
How to avoid shooting yourself, friendlies, and innocent bystanders.
Jeff Cooper′s Rules of Gun Safety
RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED.
RULE II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER
ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY.
RULE III: KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER
UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET.
RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET.
"Keep Your Hand Away From the Muzzle" by tacticalprofessor (Claude Werner)
https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2024/03/09/keep-your-hand-away-from-the-muzzle/
Referring to
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4LsHBArwtl/
Where a guy points his pistol at his hand to check to see if the laser is working.
"IRS special agent for criminal investigation indicted on involuntary manslaughter charge"
https://justthenews.com/nation/crime/special-agent-irs-ci-indicted-tucson-involuntary-manslaughter-charge
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger. Stephen thinks it's a complacency problem.
I suspect it's an arrogance problem.
"It's easier to stay out of trouble than to get out of trouble."
-- Claude Werner
"Envy, celebrated!" by John Farnam
https://defense-training.com/envy-celebrated/
You must stay out of these cities. You should stay out of these states.
What are the residents of these cities doing? They are moving to Tennessee.
"Anarchy!" by John Farnam
https://defense-training.com/anarchy-3/
"While The People are virtuous, they cannot be subdued
But, once they lose their virtue,
then they will be ready to surrender their liberties
to the first external or internal invader."
-- Samuel Adams
"Baldwin Criticizes George Clooney's Safety Advice" by Law of Self Defense
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Fu6KELtrk
Chamber check is your responsibility. Every safety rule is your responsibility.
Claiming that safety is someone else's responsibility is WRONG!
"If I had my teaching career to do over, I'd include flashlight techniques
in daytime courses; with today's inexpensive, high-intensity lights, the center
of the beam is not required for target identification at across-the-room
distances. Sometimes it's feasible to use a light switch to illuminate a
suspected intruder. Barring either of those options, preferably from cover
or concealment, one can always call out for the suspected intruder to
identify himself."
-- Stephen P. Wenger
---
Especially in a home defense situation, Positively Identify the target!
Turn on the lights. Use your flashlight to illuminate the subject. Using
your command voice, say, "Who is there?"
Ya, you're giving away your position, but it's better than mistakenly
shooting a loved one.
I guard an elementary school. The Kindergartners have a multi-million dollar
playground with the best equipment. Instead of playing on the equipment, they
drag chairs and benches to the perimeter fence and attempt to scale the fence as
if they were prisoners trying to escape. The teachers tell the kids to stop doing that
and to go play on the jungle gyms and climbing houses and slides and climbing walls
(which are challenging for me).
Telling a child not to do something is a challenge that the child cannot resist.
So it was with Eve. So it will be for every child of Eve. Teach your children how
to use your firearms and explain to them how deadly they are. Tell them that the
firearms are used to kill bad guys to protect the family.
And then lock up any firearm that is not securely attached to your body by a
properly designed holster made specifically for your pistol and a study belt.
(All of my firearms are behind a door with a lock in the door knob and a dead
bolt lock above it. I would never ask you to do something that I had not already
done.)
Firearms in use are on your body. Firearms not in use are locked up.
There are no accidents. There is only negligence borne of ignorance and
carelessness.
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.
*************************************************************************
----- Training -----
Figuring out the correct tasks to practice.
“If you are reading this and can’t put your hand on your defensive firearm,
all of your training is wasted.” -- Col. Jeff Cooper
"Aiming Center Mass vs. Quick Stop–Which is Better?" by Mike Ox
https://dryfiretrainingcards.com/blog/aiming-center-mass-vs-quick-stop-which-is-better/
Excerpt:
"For years, this kind of confused me. Heart-lung shots would get me good kills,
but rarely instant stops. It really made me question self-defense teaching, because,
at the same time, almost all of the self-defense literature said that you need to aim
center-mass in a lethal force encounter – even with severely inadequate defensive
pistol rounds."
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)
Excerpt from an email from Mike Ox --
In strength and conditioning programs for professional athletes, there's a concept
known as "training for the scoreboard." What it means is that strength training
should make athletes better at their sport, not distract them from it. The key is
doing strength training that wins more games (functional strength) rather than just
strength training to increase raw strength.
What does this mean for firearms training?
Basically, that you should make sure that your training is setting you up for
success in a real world situation and not just sucking you into a hole of training
to max out a particular standard, qualification, or drill. Train for the fight . . . and
use the clock to do it . . . just don't train to become a slave of the clock.
-- Mike (Ox) Ochsner
"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
For that matter, when was the last time you practiced your holstered weapon
retention skills? Do you have such skills? Have you ever learned such skills?
Better get on it. Your time is coming.
"Firearm Retention Failure Ends in Disaster" by Active Self Protection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR8HSvwc2wQ
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Bite him! Gouge his eyes! Break his hand!
"The Empirical Fighter: Rules for the Serious Combatant" by Mark Hatmaker
https://indigenousability.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-empirical-fighter-rules-for-serious.html
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpts:
"The Rule of Specificity dictates, broadly, that the largest gains will be in the
area of focus with some [some] spillover effect to contiguous areas."
"Choose what supports your end aims—trim the rest."
[If you're going to practice disarms, you must cut the trigger guard off the dummy
pistol. Practicing with a real pistol is a bad idea. Ya, you can keep your trigger finger
in the register position. But that does not mean it will stay there. -- Jon Low]
False testing. As a practicing scientist (Geophysics), I can assure you that false
testing is real and pervasive. Hundreds of papers are retracted from peer reviewed
journals every year for false testing. And those are the ones that are caught.
Thousands need to be retracted.
“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
"Awesome Marine MARSOC Shooting Video" by Mike Ox
https://dryfiretrainingcards.com/blog/awesome-marine-marsoc-shooting-video/
---
My experience is that a standard sort of self-defense pistol (4 to 6 inch barrel)
in .45 ACP (850 feet per second) that is zeroed for self-defense (~ 2-5 yards)
will also be zeroed at 100 yards. Plug your data into any online ballistic calculator
and find out what your bullet is supposed to do. Go to the range and find out what
My experience is that a standard sort of self-defense pistol (4 to 6 inch barrel)
in .45 ACP (850 feet per second) that is zeroed for self-defense (~ 2-5 yards)
will also be zeroed at 100 yards. Plug your data into any online ballistic calculator
and find out what your bullet is supposed to do. Go to the range and find out what
your bullet does. To attempt a 100 or 200 yard shot without knowing where your
bullet will impact is reckless.
---
"MARSOC | Tactical Driving and Shooting Course"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6-nuuRhOz0
"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
"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
--- Start of Classes ---
"Annual Rangemaster Instructor Conference"
Saturday, November 2
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/annual-rangemaster-instructor-conference-tickets-688837911737
Rangemaste schedule in the newsletter,
https://d74722.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024-03-RFTS-Newsletter.pdf
Rangemaster training,
https://rangemaster.com/calendar/
"Tactical Pistol 2 | Ogden, UT" $525.00
April 13-14, 2024
https://tridentconcepts.com/product/tp2-240413-ut/
FPF Training
https://www.fpftraining.com/fpf-calendar
--- End of Classes ---
Excerpt from an email from Mike Ox. --
He called them the "pre-fight," "fight," and the "post-fight" skills.
Awareness is more important than shooting.
Accurately assessing threats is more important than shooting.
Avoidance is more important than shooting.
Deterrence is more important than shooting.
All of these can prevent you from even needing to shoot.
For the fight . . . did you accurately determine that you needed to shoot?
Did you keep shooting after the threat was stopped or
holster only to have the threat "re-animate?"
Post-fight, did your interaction with 911 or law enforcement
turn justified self-defense into legal jeopardy?
. . .
"Don't just train hard. Train smarter than the other guy!"
Stay safe and God Bless,
Mike (Ox) Ochsner
[You should have confidence in all of the above.
If not, more training is in order. -- Jon Low]
‟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
"Competition, Practice, Training, and Testing – Redux" by tacticalprofessor
https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2024/03/04/competition-practice-training-and-testing-redux/
Claude says that shooting in competitions has a high Return On Investment.
I agree. The assistant instructors and I would set up scenarios for the
''Tactical Scenarios" portion of our classes. But that turned out to be way
too much work for the effect (result) that we got. So for the last decade or so
we have been taking the students to IDPA and USPSA (IPSC) matches.
Those clubs do a better job of it than we ever could. They have all the
resources and manpower to put on a good match. Fortunately, in the Nashville
area, there is a pistol match every day of the week within driving distance.
‟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
"Stable Flex
Consistent accuracy begins with a stable firing platform."
by Steve Tarani
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/stable-flex/
“Willingness is a state of mind. Readiness is a statement of fact!”
-- Lt. Gen. David M Shoup, USMC Commandant 1960-1963
Now this is well worth reading.
"The Secret to the Secret
To become a better shooter,
practice one thing at a time by starting with trigger control."
by Richard Mann
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/the-secret-to-the-secret/
Excerpt:
". . . I’m still not convinced they’re ideal for personal protection.
This is partly because they sometimes fail, and partly because sometimes
the sun or artificial light can make them unusable." [Also, rain, fog,
mud, dust, and such on the reflector will make it unusable. If you
get beads of rain on the lens, you're going to see lots of red dots.
If the lens fogs, you're going to see bright stars, not necessarily where
the red dot should be. -- Jon Low]
---
Great illustrations. Notice the diagram labeled "Proper Sight Alignment".
Notice the large amount of light on either side of the front sight in the rear
sight notch. No pistol sights on standard pistols come from the factory like
this. You will have to machine out the rear sight by 2/100ᵗʰ of an inch,
1/100ᵗʰ on each side (depending on the vision acuity of your aiming eye,
the length of your arms, what kind of corrective lenses you are using, etc.).
If you're wondering why you are scattering horizontally, it's because you
can't center the front sight in the rear sight notch, because the rear notch is
too narrow or the front sight is too wide.
If your sights have dots painted on them, take a dental pick, remove the
paint, pack the indentations with body putty, and paint the entire sight the
same color (front and rear should be different bright colors). The dots are
a different sighting system than the silhouette of the sights. Thus a different
point of impact. [Appeal to authority, Tom Givens says so.]
"People rust faster than equipment."
-- John Hearne
From an email from Mike Ox.
Go into any gym and tell people who are pumping iron that they’re not building
muscle and they’re going to get a little upset at you.
They may think they are building muscle in the gym, but they’re not.
They’re increasing blood flow and pump, but they’re not building muscle.
In fact, they’re probably tearing it down. That's part of the process,
but the building happens after the workout. During rest and recovery . . . and sleep.
Learning a new skill or improving an existing one is similar. With shooting,
it’s natural to go to the range, see some improvements, and THINK that you built
some skill. But you didn’t . . . yet. You laid the seeds for better skill, but any
improvements that you make in practice are happening in short term memory.
And it gets wiped clean each night when you sleep. In order to actually build
skill -- build skill that you can depend on in an instant in a life and death
situation -- the improvements that you made in practice need to be hardwired into
long term memory . . . which doesn’t happen until late in the night.
At that point, a magical thing happens and I want to share a story from a 2001 MIT
study to explain it. The MIT researchers hooked electrodes up to the brains of rats
as they went through a maze and recorded the impulses from their brains to their legs.
Then they left the electrodes hooked up and recorded the brainwaves of the rats as
they slept. When the rats got into a specific stage of sleep, the scientists started
seeing the EXACT same signals from the motor cortex as when the rats were going
through the maze! (the rats didn’t move because of a safety mechanism we have
called sleep paralysis . . . it keeps us from acting out most of our dreams)
The signals were so clear that the scientists could tell where the rats were in the
maze in their dreams and what they were going to do next. That’s cool . . . and powerful.
Here’s what’s really cool . . .
If we can take advantage of this phenomenon, it is like getting free reps at no cost!
And here are 3 tricks to maximizing this little phenomenon.
1. Place an emphasis on quality sleep. Quantity matters too. In humans,
the most profound skill transfer to long term memory happens between the
6 & 6.5 hour mark. You'll learn physical skills up to 40% faster if you get 6.5-7 hours
of sleep per night than if you get 6 or less.
2. Make sure that you’re re-living high quality reps in your dreams by doing
high quality reps when you’re awake. Don’t grind out half-ass reps just for the
sake of racking up numbers. It’s OK to train hard, but make sure you’re training
smart too.
3. Take advantage of leverage. You can activate this process with only 5-15
minutes of deliberate practice doing the right kind of drills. It doesn’t take hours
of practice or a ton of ammo. Just a few minutes of smart training is like pulling
the string on a top and you can keep doing reps in your dreams all night long.
Stay safe and God Bless,
Mike (Ox) Ochsner
“Train, Practice, Compete
are the key elements in the development of humans.”
-- John M. Buol, Jr.
‶Practice is the small deposits you make over time,
so that in an emergency, you can make that big withdrawal.″
-- Chesley Burnett Sullenberger, III
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Intervention ***** ***** *****
Suggestions on how to deal with the incident that you failed to avoid.
Awareness, Avoidance, De-Escalation, Escape
Table of contents:
Strategy
Tactics
Techniques
*************************************************************************
----- Strategy -----
Deciding on the end state and how to achieve it,
which tactics to use, which includes walking away.
“How do you win a gunfight?
Don't be there.”
-- John Farnam
From an email from John Murphy.
"Shootout between firefighter, neighbor video released; ruled self defense"
by WRTV Indianapolis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFzCYLqJtq8&rco=1
In this nightmare scenario a long running dispute between neighbors
spills over into an exchange of gunfire.
Among the lessons learned:
1) Moving away from conflict is always preferable . . . but what if the
friction is with a neighbor? Short of selling and leaving there isn’t much
you can do, and that isn’t remotely practicable.
2) Marksmanship matters. We need to hit specific spots with our pistol
bullets to stop the threat.
3) People are crazy! You just don’t know who you’re dealing with,
but in this case there were plenty of clues.
-- John Murphy
"You win gunfights by not getting shot."
-- John Holschen
*************************************************************************
----- Tactics -----
Maneuver and fire in support of your strategy.
"Real fights are short."
-- Bruce Lee
“Fortuitous outcomes reinforce poor tactics.”
-- Chuck Haggard
"The shorter the fight, the less hurt you get."
-- John Holschen
*************************************************************************
----- Techniques -----
Ways to execute a given task in support of your tactics,
especially when disabled or under stress.
"Use only that which works,
and take it from any place you can find it."
-- Bruce Lee
"Getting people to pass the qual is a low bar" by Ben Stoeger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS77kRDgSOI
The title should be "A discussion about riding the reset".
You don't need to ride the reset. Ben says you should not be teaching it at all.
Because he believes that it is limiting in the long run.
Speed and accuracy are not competing factors. You can do both at the same time.
You don't need to prep the trigger, which I assume Ben means taking the slack
out of the trigger before starting the press to fire the shot.
---
I don't agree with Ben, but I think it is important to present conflicting views.
"The foundations of your grip are established
before you even draw the pistol from the holster."
-- Tanner Denton
"Downed Limb Malfunction AR15 Drill"
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-sL5It0CNEo
"It's not daily increase but daily decrease - hack away at the inessentials!"
-- Bruce Lee
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Postvention ***** ***** *****
Suggestions on how to treat your wounds.
Suggestions on how to avoid prosecution, conviction, and prison time.
Suggestions on how to avoid the civil law suit and judgment.
Table of contents:
Aftermath
Medical
Survival
*************************************************************************
----- Aftermath -----
You must be alive to have these problems: criminal and civil liability.
NEVER TALK TO THE POLICE!
"Kayla Giles Shares Her Side of the Story with Attorneys On Retainer"
by Attorneys On Retainer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRAr5Hq2TYY
A table of contents is listed below the video with links to sections of the video.
Intel Analysts, what do you notice about Miss Giles' demeanor and presentation?
Remember what they taught you at NMITC (Navy and Marine Corps Intelligence
Training Center, Virginia Beach, VA) about debriefing the Snipers returning from
missions? [I wonder what they teach now days, since we don't have Scout Snipers
anymore.]
The U.S. Supreme Court says it's okay for the police to threaten you to get you
to talk. It's okay for the police to lie to you to get you to talk. The police are not
your friends. They are your enemy. Treat them as such. Invoke your right to remain
silent and remain silent. Invoke your right to counsel and wait for your attorney.
Otherwise, you're going to end up in prison for life without any chance of parole,
with a consecutively 30 year sentence on top of that.
Police who threaten to charge you with murder unless you talk are lying to you.
They will charge you with murder whether or not you talk to them. Welcome to
reality.
The prosecutor never offered her a deal. Do you understand that? All prosecutors
offer plea deals to all defendants. The prosecutor's goal is to clear as many cases as
possible. An accepted plea deal is a win for the prosecutor. So why was a deal never
offered? Because the late husband's family is powerful in that Parish of Louisiana.
That's why they were in Louisiana. That's why the first attorney wanted to change
the venue of the trial.
Do you understand what's going on? Do you see what's going to happen?
In the right hand column of this web page, click on "Never Talk To The Police"
or use the direct address
https://defensivepistolcraft.blogspot.com/p/never-talk-to-police.html
I know several instructors teach their students what to say to the responding officers.
They are wrong. NEVER talk to the police. Anything you say WILL be used against
you by the police and the prosecutor. They will twist your words to use them against
you. They will fabricate things you never said to use against you. Don't give them the
opportunity. Keep your mouth shut. Holding your tongue is Biblical. Not speaking,
is not lying. Not speaking is preventing the police and prosecutors from lying. So,
you're actually doing them a big favor, as well as yourself. You're preventing them from
committing perjury. You're preventing them from suborning perjury. Oh, yes, they will.
That's the game. They win by convicting you. There is no morality. There is only
promotion, and pay raises.
“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
In the right hand column, click on the link labeled "Self Defense Insurance".
Or, the direct link is,
http://defensivepistolcraft.blogspot.com/p/self-defense-insurance.html
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
“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
*************************************************************************
----- Medical -----
"If you prepare for the emergency,
the emergency ceases to exist!"
-- Sherman House
I just found out on Lee Weems' podcast that Sherman has moved to Washington
state. He used to live here in Nashville.
*************************************************************************
----- Survival -----
"If you stay fit, you do not have to get fit.
If you stay trained, you do not have to get trained.
If you stay prepared, you do not have to get prepared."
-- Robert Margulies
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Education ***** ***** *****
Table of contents:
Legal
Instruction
Gear
*************************************************************************
"You will never get smarter or broaden your horizons
if you're unwilling to learn from others and read."
-- Becca Martin
As Tom Givens says, bad guys do not beam down from the mothership,
and magically appear next to you. If you pay attention, you will see them coming.
Of course, you have to know what to look for to recognize a criminal predator.
The following may help you.
---
"PACT Newsletter" by Greg Ellifritz
https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/pact-newsletter
Send Ron Borsch an email and subscribe.
---
"Precious Foreknowledge to Recognize Threats" by Ron Borsch
https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/precious-foreknowledge-to-recognize-threats
---
"How to Spot a Bad Guy- A Comprehensive Look at Body Language and Pre-Assault Indicators"
by Greg Ellifritz
https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/how-to-spot-a-bad-guy-a-comprehensive-look-at-body-language-and-pre-assault-indicators
"We have also continued collecting cases where people legally carrying guns
in public have stopped crimes." -- John Lott
"Defensive Gun Uses By People Legally Carrying Guns:
30 Cases During November 2023"
https://crimeresearch.org/2024/02/defensive-gun-uses-by-people-legally-carrying-guns-30-cases-during-november-2023/
What do you notice? What are the common threads?
Practical Eschatoloty
http://practicaleschatology.blogspot.com/
The Tactical Professor
https://thetacticalprofessor.net/
"Weekend Knowledge Dump" by Greg Ellifritz
https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/
Rangemaster newsletter
https://rangemaster.com/newsletter/
The Reload
https://thereload.com/
Sign up for their newsletter.
"Cogito, ergo armatum sum." (I think, therefore armed am I.)
-- John Farnam
*************************************************************************
----- Legal -----
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.
It is wholly inadequate for the governance of any other.
-- John Adams, October 11, 1798
"Media Blackout as 56% of States Enact Constitutional Carry"
by Facts Matter with Roman Balmakov
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNv04uAQPsc
Source documents are cited below the video.
"Law of Self Defense" by Andrew Branca
(free book, just pay for shipping so you don't have to go to Colorado to pick it up)
http://lawofselfdefense.com/freebook
"Ohio Supreme Court Says 'Warning Shots' Count as Self-Defense"
by Cam Edwards
https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2024/03/08/ohio-supreme-court-says-warning-shots-count-as-self-defense-n1224127
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger.
Excerpt:
"According to the state's highest court, warning shots do count as self-defense."
Primary source document,
https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0/2024/2024-Ohio-776.pdf
---
NEVER fire warning shots. They are illegal in every state of the United States of America.
There is no place to safely fire a warning shot. Any shot into the ground will ricochet
off the concrete sidewalk, the asphalt road, or a rock in the ground; injuring or killing
someone, maybe you.
Any shot fired up into the air will fall down with equal speed on someone's head,
maybe killing the innocent bystander. [Many documented cases.]
The best backstop for a fired bullet is the center of mass of the bad guy's body.
Any other target is reckless.
"The 5 Elements of Self Defense" by Andrew Branca (free of charge)
lawofselfdefense.com/elements/
“Your character is what you do when no one is looking.”
-- Thomas Jefferson
“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
*************************************************************************
----- Instruction -----
Colonel Robert Lindsey to his fellow trainers:
"We are not God's gift to our students.
Our students are God's gift to us."
"Thoughts on Instruction and Conflict" by Dave Spaulding
http://www.downrange.tv/blog/thoughts-on-instruction-and-conflict/27734/
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpt:
". . . an instructor who has faced conflict will teach combative firearms
“better” than an instructor that has not."
"What I am referring to is having a better understanding of what is being
taught and its application under stress and duress."
----- Instructors -----
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
My student was having a lot of malfunctions initially, and then wasn't.
She asked me what I did to cause the malfunction in her pistol at the beginning.
She had assumed that I was doing it intentionally to give her practice reducing
stoppages. I told her that I hadn't done anything. She wasn't getting malfunctions
anymore because she had learned to hold the pistol tightly. And so was not
letting the frame move as much during recoil, thus allowing the pistol to cycle
properly.
Knowing (intellectually) to grip the pistol tightly is different from experientially
learning to physically grip the pistol tightly.
This student had started with a small grip on her pistol. By the third day of
class she needed to change to a medium grip because the grip on the pistol was
getting too small for her to grip properly. Things change with practice. Be
prepared for such change. Initially, she was gripping tentatively. By the third
day, she was gripping aggressively. Things change with attitude.
"Teach them diligently . . . "
-- Deuteronomy 6:7
A student was shooting tight groups and her sights were correctly zeroed.
As the sun set, we went into civil twilight. And her point of impact went up
6 to 7 inches; iron sights, same 5 yard range, same target. We couldn't figure
out what was going on. Any suggestions?
I suspect some sort of optical illusion was taking place, but I couldn't for
the life of me figure out why the point of impact moved to be 6 inches high.
She was wearing prescription eyeglasses (for nearsightedness).
When we went into the night shoot with flashlights, her point of impact
returned to normal.
---
Response from Tom Givens.
Jon,
It's caused by reflection on the front sight. If strong light comes from the right,
for instance, the POI will often shift to the right. The reflection makes the edge
of the sight on the same side as the light optically disappear, so the post gets
moved in that direction to make it look centered to the shooter.
The other possibility is that as light faded she was lining up white dots on her
sights, rather than using the top edge of the front sight. This assumes she has
3 dot sights. The dots are always poorly aligned.
TG
---
Response from John Farnam.
Dear Jon
Thanks for your note and for training those folks!
Sunlight on pistol sights, particularly front sights, can change one's perception,
and hence actually change the appearance of the sights, hence changing the
shooter's perceived "sight picture".
Not uncommon!
In most cases, this perceived change does not affect the bullet impact point
enough to worry about, at least at ranges we're most likely to need pistols!
You need to tell this student that the slight change in impact point is perfectly
normal and that she probably needn't worry about it!
/John
"Remember,
the students who require the extra effort
are the ones who need us the most!"
-- John Farnam
Now this is well worth reading.
"The Secret to the Secret
To become a better shooter,
practice one thing at a time by starting with trigger control."
by Richard Mann
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/the-secret-to-the-secret/
Great illustrations. Notice the diagram labeled "Proper Sight Alignment".
Notice the large amount of light on either side of the front sight in the rear
sight notch. No pistol sights on standard pistols come from the factory like
this. You will have to machine out the rear sight by 2/100ᵗʰ of an inch,
1/100ᵗʰ on each side.
If you're wondering why your student is scattering horizontally, it's because
your student can't center the front sight in the rear sight notch, because the
rear notch is too narrow or the front sight is too wide.
If your sights have dots painted on them, take a dental pick, remove the
paint, pack the indentations with body putty, and paint the entire sight the
same color (front and rear should be different bright colors). The dots are
a different sighting system than the silhouette of the sights. Thus a different
point of impact. [Appeal to authority, Tom Givens says so.]
"You must teach skill sustainment as part of training."
-- John Hearne
My Aunt Lois told me, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything.
And that is good advice in general. But when someone is teaching stuff that is bad,
you really owe your students and readers a duty to call out the bad instruction. So,
your students don't get misled.
"Zero steps in it again" by Ben Stoeger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PV6KneRLjQ
Years ago, I thought Zero had some innovative training tools, such as a rig that
allowed him to move with his student, he in back of his student and the target in
front of his student.
All of these sorts of "discussions" could be avoided by not allowing public
comments in one's posts. I don't allow public comments in the blog you are
presently reading. If you want to comment to me, send me an email. My email
address is always at the end of each post. There is no point in letting persons
argue on your web site. Critics are free to post their criticism of you on their web
sites. Or their YouTube.com videos. Or their . . .
"Some instructors can't shoot" by Ben Stoeger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mra8TMuhjB8
----- Students -----
Pay attention! Make a good faith effort to learn.
Your life depends on it. The lives of your loved ones depend on it.
----- Andragogy -----
‟An instructor should not expect any learning to take
place the first time new information is presented.”
-- ‶Building Shooters″ by Dustin Salomon
“The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other.
Without collaboration, our growth is limited to our own perspectives.”
-- Robert John Meehan
*************************************************************************
----- Gear -----
And the safe storage thereof.
“Mission drives the gear train.”
-- Pat Rogers
"WHY I NO LONGER CARRY A SPARE MAGAZINE" by Tessah Booth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUL4sbYtq2E
Cost benefit analysis.
"A Non-Binary Look At Carrying With An Empty Chamber"
by Tom McHale
https://americanhandgunner.com/our-experts/vantage-point/carrying-with-an-empty-chamber/
Cost benefit analysis.
"New Girlfriend Syndrome" by Ben Stoeger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLbVcbUMn2M
Your pistol grip must allow you to have the tip of your middle finger pointing back
towards you when in a correct grip. If not, modify the grip, change pistols, etc.
Your pistol must allow you to press the trigger straight to the rear when in a correct
grip. If not, take your pistol to a gunsmith and have him move the trigger. Anyone
who tells you that it can't be done is lying to you.
The holster you choose must meet these minimum requirements:
retain the pistol (turn upside down and shake, the pistol should not fall out),
protect the trigger (impossible to touch the trigger with a toothpick),
secure to the body (this means a strong stiff gun belt), and
allow for a firing grip (while the pistol is completely in the holster).
-- Jeff L. Gonzales (paraphrased)
Psychological stop.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DXAe20FOpKg
"Defensive Shooting Indoors: The Overpenetration Problem"
by Josh Wayner
https://gundigest.com/gear-ammo/ammunition/overpenetration-problem
"Gun Science: What's the Best Metal for Gun Barrels?"
by NRA Staff
https://www.nrafamily.org/content/gun-science-what-s-the-best-metal-for-gun-barrels/
“Your car is not a holster.”
-- Pat Rogers
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Cryptology ***** ***** *****
"Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe,
and preserve order in the world as well as property.
Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of their use."
-- Thomas Paine
Cryptosystems are considered "arms" by federal law, ITAR,
International Traffic in Arms Regulations. That means cryptosystems are
covered by the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Never let the
government infringe on your right to keep and bear cryptosystems, to
include home made cryptosystems.
"Computer science has nothing to do with computers or science."
-- Donald Knuth
"C++23: An Overview of Almost All New and Updated Features" by Marc Gregoire
at CppCon 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cttb8vMuq-Y
C++ was once very useful when Bjarne Stroustrup created it. Over the years
lots of changes. Who sits on these standards committees?
"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
"Shape Of An Imaginary Circle" by Ron & Math
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUrwKp4f4V8
x² + y² = r² ,
x = (a + bi) ∈ C,
y = (c + di) ∈ C,
r = i → r² = -1.
∴ (a + bi)² + (c + di)² = -1.
Ron then graphs a, b, c, and d in 4 dimensions and projects to 3 dimensions,
and then rotates the 3-d projection in a 2-d screen. Pretty neat.
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil."
-- Donald Knuth
So you've used your computer to generate a random sequence. But that's not random.
It's pseudorandom, because you've used an algorithm to generate it. It's deterministic.
And certainly not unique. But all is not lost. Can we get the sequence closer to random?
How about flipping every pᵗʰ bit in the sequence, where p is an odd prime and much less
than the size of the sequence? Just more data processing. Is it unique? Has the sequence
---
"MARSOC | Tactical Driving and Shooting Course"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6-nuuRhOz0
"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
"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
--- Start of Classes ---
"Annual Rangemaster Instructor Conference"
Saturday, November 2
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/annual-rangemaster-instructor-conference-tickets-688837911737
Rangemaste schedule in the newsletter,
https://d74722.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024-03-RFTS-Newsletter.pdf
Rangemaster training,
https://rangemaster.com/calendar/
"Tactical Pistol 2 | Ogden, UT" $525.00
April 13-14, 2024
https://tridentconcepts.com/product/tp2-240413-ut/
FPF Training
https://www.fpftraining.com/fpf-calendar
--- End of Classes ---
Excerpt from an email from Mike Ox. --
He called them the "pre-fight," "fight," and the "post-fight" skills.
Awareness is more important than shooting.
Accurately assessing threats is more important than shooting.
Avoidance is more important than shooting.
Deterrence is more important than shooting.
All of these can prevent you from even needing to shoot.
For the fight . . . did you accurately determine that you needed to shoot?
Did you keep shooting after the threat was stopped or
holster only to have the threat "re-animate?"
Post-fight, did your interaction with 911 or law enforcement
turn justified self-defense into legal jeopardy?
. . .
"Don't just train hard. Train smarter than the other guy!"
Stay safe and God Bless,
Mike (Ox) Ochsner
[You should have confidence in all of the above.
If not, more training is in order. -- Jon Low]
‟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
"Competition, Practice, Training, and Testing – Redux" by tacticalprofessor
https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2024/03/04/competition-practice-training-and-testing-redux/
Claude says that shooting in competitions has a high Return On Investment.
I agree. The assistant instructors and I would set up scenarios for the
''Tactical Scenarios" portion of our classes. But that turned out to be way
too much work for the effect (result) that we got. So for the last decade or so
we have been taking the students to IDPA and USPSA (IPSC) matches.
Those clubs do a better job of it than we ever could. They have all the
resources and manpower to put on a good match. Fortunately, in the Nashville
area, there is a pistol match every day of the week within driving distance.
‟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
"Stable Flex
Consistent accuracy begins with a stable firing platform."
by Steve Tarani
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/stable-flex/
“Willingness is a state of mind. Readiness is a statement of fact!”
-- Lt. Gen. David M Shoup, USMC Commandant 1960-1963
Now this is well worth reading.
"The Secret to the Secret
To become a better shooter,
practice one thing at a time by starting with trigger control."
by Richard Mann
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/the-secret-to-the-secret/
Excerpt:
". . . I’m still not convinced they’re ideal for personal protection.
This is partly because they sometimes fail, and partly because sometimes
the sun or artificial light can make them unusable." [Also, rain, fog,
mud, dust, and such on the reflector will make it unusable. If you
get beads of rain on the lens, you're going to see lots of red dots.
If the lens fogs, you're going to see bright stars, not necessarily where
the red dot should be. -- Jon Low]
---
Great illustrations. Notice the diagram labeled "Proper Sight Alignment".
Notice the large amount of light on either side of the front sight in the rear
sight notch. No pistol sights on standard pistols come from the factory like
this. You will have to machine out the rear sight by 2/100ᵗʰ of an inch,
1/100ᵗʰ on each side (depending on the vision acuity of your aiming eye,
the length of your arms, what kind of corrective lenses you are using, etc.).
If you're wondering why you are scattering horizontally, it's because you
can't center the front sight in the rear sight notch, because the rear notch is
too narrow or the front sight is too wide.
If your sights have dots painted on them, take a dental pick, remove the
paint, pack the indentations with body putty, and paint the entire sight the
same color (front and rear should be different bright colors). The dots are
a different sighting system than the silhouette of the sights. Thus a different
point of impact. [Appeal to authority, Tom Givens says so.]
"People rust faster than equipment."
-- John Hearne
From an email from Mike Ox.
Go into any gym and tell people who are pumping iron that they’re not building
muscle and they’re going to get a little upset at you.
They may think they are building muscle in the gym, but they’re not.
They’re increasing blood flow and pump, but they’re not building muscle.
In fact, they’re probably tearing it down. That's part of the process,
but the building happens after the workout. During rest and recovery . . . and sleep.
Learning a new skill or improving an existing one is similar. With shooting,
it’s natural to go to the range, see some improvements, and THINK that you built
some skill. But you didn’t . . . yet. You laid the seeds for better skill, but any
improvements that you make in practice are happening in short term memory.
And it gets wiped clean each night when you sleep. In order to actually build
skill -- build skill that you can depend on in an instant in a life and death
situation -- the improvements that you made in practice need to be hardwired into
long term memory . . . which doesn’t happen until late in the night.
At that point, a magical thing happens and I want to share a story from a 2001 MIT
study to explain it. The MIT researchers hooked electrodes up to the brains of rats
as they went through a maze and recorded the impulses from their brains to their legs.
Then they left the electrodes hooked up and recorded the brainwaves of the rats as
they slept. When the rats got into a specific stage of sleep, the scientists started
seeing the EXACT same signals from the motor cortex as when the rats were going
through the maze! (the rats didn’t move because of a safety mechanism we have
called sleep paralysis . . . it keeps us from acting out most of our dreams)
The signals were so clear that the scientists could tell where the rats were in the
maze in their dreams and what they were going to do next. That’s cool . . . and powerful.
Here’s what’s really cool . . .
If we can take advantage of this phenomenon, it is like getting free reps at no cost!
And here are 3 tricks to maximizing this little phenomenon.
1. Place an emphasis on quality sleep. Quantity matters too. In humans,
the most profound skill transfer to long term memory happens between the
6 & 6.5 hour mark. You'll learn physical skills up to 40% faster if you get 6.5-7 hours
of sleep per night than if you get 6 or less.
2. Make sure that you’re re-living high quality reps in your dreams by doing
high quality reps when you’re awake. Don’t grind out half-ass reps just for the
sake of racking up numbers. It’s OK to train hard, but make sure you’re training
smart too.
3. Take advantage of leverage. You can activate this process with only 5-15
minutes of deliberate practice doing the right kind of drills. It doesn’t take hours
of practice or a ton of ammo. Just a few minutes of smart training is like pulling
the string on a top and you can keep doing reps in your dreams all night long.
Stay safe and God Bless,
Mike (Ox) Ochsner
“Train, Practice, Compete
are the key elements in the development of humans.”
-- John M. Buol, Jr.
‶Practice is the small deposits you make over time,
so that in an emergency, you can make that big withdrawal.″
-- Chesley Burnett Sullenberger, III
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Intervention ***** ***** *****
Suggestions on how to deal with the incident that you failed to avoid.
Awareness, Avoidance, De-Escalation, Escape
Table of contents:
Strategy
Tactics
Techniques
*************************************************************************
----- Strategy -----
Deciding on the end state and how to achieve it,
which tactics to use, which includes walking away.
“How do you win a gunfight?
Don't be there.”
-- John Farnam
From an email from John Murphy.
"Shootout between firefighter, neighbor video released; ruled self defense"
by WRTV Indianapolis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFzCYLqJtq8&rco=1
In this nightmare scenario a long running dispute between neighbors
spills over into an exchange of gunfire.
Among the lessons learned:
1) Moving away from conflict is always preferable . . . but what if the
friction is with a neighbor? Short of selling and leaving there isn’t much
you can do, and that isn’t remotely practicable.
2) Marksmanship matters. We need to hit specific spots with our pistol
bullets to stop the threat.
3) People are crazy! You just don’t know who you’re dealing with,
but in this case there were plenty of clues.
-- John Murphy
"You win gunfights by not getting shot."
-- John Holschen
*************************************************************************
----- Tactics -----
Maneuver and fire in support of your strategy.
"Real fights are short."
-- Bruce Lee
“Fortuitous outcomes reinforce poor tactics.”
-- Chuck Haggard
"The shorter the fight, the less hurt you get."
-- John Holschen
*************************************************************************
----- Techniques -----
Ways to execute a given task in support of your tactics,
especially when disabled or under stress.
"Use only that which works,
and take it from any place you can find it."
-- Bruce Lee
"Getting people to pass the qual is a low bar" by Ben Stoeger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS77kRDgSOI
The title should be "A discussion about riding the reset".
You don't need to ride the reset. Ben says you should not be teaching it at all.
Because he believes that it is limiting in the long run.
Speed and accuracy are not competing factors. You can do both at the same time.
You don't need to prep the trigger, which I assume Ben means taking the slack
out of the trigger before starting the press to fire the shot.
---
I don't agree with Ben, but I think it is important to present conflicting views.
"The foundations of your grip are established
before you even draw the pistol from the holster."
-- Tanner Denton
"Downed Limb Malfunction AR15 Drill"
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-sL5It0CNEo
"It's not daily increase but daily decrease - hack away at the inessentials!"
-- Bruce Lee
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Postvention ***** ***** *****
Suggestions on how to treat your wounds.
Suggestions on how to avoid prosecution, conviction, and prison time.
Suggestions on how to avoid the civil law suit and judgment.
Table of contents:
Aftermath
Medical
Survival
*************************************************************************
----- Aftermath -----
You must be alive to have these problems: criminal and civil liability.
NEVER TALK TO THE POLICE!
"Kayla Giles Shares Her Side of the Story with Attorneys On Retainer"
by Attorneys On Retainer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRAr5Hq2TYY
A table of contents is listed below the video with links to sections of the video.
Intel Analysts, what do you notice about Miss Giles' demeanor and presentation?
Remember what they taught you at NMITC (Navy and Marine Corps Intelligence
Training Center, Virginia Beach, VA) about debriefing the Snipers returning from
missions? [I wonder what they teach now days, since we don't have Scout Snipers
anymore.]
The U.S. Supreme Court says it's okay for the police to threaten you to get you
to talk. It's okay for the police to lie to you to get you to talk. The police are not
your friends. They are your enemy. Treat them as such. Invoke your right to remain
silent and remain silent. Invoke your right to counsel and wait for your attorney.
Otherwise, you're going to end up in prison for life without any chance of parole,
with a consecutively 30 year sentence on top of that.
Police who threaten to charge you with murder unless you talk are lying to you.
They will charge you with murder whether or not you talk to them. Welcome to
reality.
The prosecutor never offered her a deal. Do you understand that? All prosecutors
offer plea deals to all defendants. The prosecutor's goal is to clear as many cases as
possible. An accepted plea deal is a win for the prosecutor. So why was a deal never
offered? Because the late husband's family is powerful in that Parish of Louisiana.
That's why they were in Louisiana. That's why the first attorney wanted to change
the venue of the trial.
Do you understand what's going on? Do you see what's going to happen?
In the right hand column of this web page, click on "Never Talk To The Police"
or use the direct address
https://defensivepistolcraft.blogspot.com/p/never-talk-to-police.html
I know several instructors teach their students what to say to the responding officers.
They are wrong. NEVER talk to the police. Anything you say WILL be used against
you by the police and the prosecutor. They will twist your words to use them against
you. They will fabricate things you never said to use against you. Don't give them the
opportunity. Keep your mouth shut. Holding your tongue is Biblical. Not speaking,
is not lying. Not speaking is preventing the police and prosecutors from lying. So,
you're actually doing them a big favor, as well as yourself. You're preventing them from
committing perjury. You're preventing them from suborning perjury. Oh, yes, they will.
That's the game. They win by convicting you. There is no morality. There is only
promotion, and pay raises.
“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
In the right hand column, click on the link labeled "Self Defense Insurance".
Or, the direct link is,
http://defensivepistolcraft.blogspot.com/p/self-defense-insurance.html
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
“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
*************************************************************************
----- Medical -----
"If you prepare for the emergency,
the emergency ceases to exist!"
-- Sherman House
I just found out on Lee Weems' podcast that Sherman has moved to Washington
state. He used to live here in Nashville.
*************************************************************************
----- Survival -----
"If you stay fit, you do not have to get fit.
If you stay trained, you do not have to get trained.
If you stay prepared, you do not have to get prepared."
-- Robert Margulies
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Education ***** ***** *****
Table of contents:
Legal
Instruction
Gear
*************************************************************************
"You will never get smarter or broaden your horizons
if you're unwilling to learn from others and read."
-- Becca Martin
As Tom Givens says, bad guys do not beam down from the mothership,
and magically appear next to you. If you pay attention, you will see them coming.
Of course, you have to know what to look for to recognize a criminal predator.
The following may help you.
---
"PACT Newsletter" by Greg Ellifritz
https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/pact-newsletter
Send Ron Borsch an email and subscribe.
---
"Precious Foreknowledge to Recognize Threats" by Ron Borsch
https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/precious-foreknowledge-to-recognize-threats
---
"How to Spot a Bad Guy- A Comprehensive Look at Body Language and Pre-Assault Indicators"
by Greg Ellifritz
https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/how-to-spot-a-bad-guy-a-comprehensive-look-at-body-language-and-pre-assault-indicators
"We have also continued collecting cases where people legally carrying guns
in public have stopped crimes." -- John Lott
"Defensive Gun Uses By People Legally Carrying Guns:
30 Cases During November 2023"
https://crimeresearch.org/2024/02/defensive-gun-uses-by-people-legally-carrying-guns-30-cases-during-november-2023/
What do you notice? What are the common threads?
Practical Eschatoloty
http://practicaleschatology.blogspot.com/
The Tactical Professor
https://thetacticalprofessor.net/
"Weekend Knowledge Dump" by Greg Ellifritz
https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/
Rangemaster newsletter
https://rangemaster.com/newsletter/
The Reload
https://thereload.com/
Sign up for their newsletter.
"Cogito, ergo armatum sum." (I think, therefore armed am I.)
-- John Farnam
*************************************************************************
----- Legal -----
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.
It is wholly inadequate for the governance of any other.
-- John Adams, October 11, 1798
"Media Blackout as 56% of States Enact Constitutional Carry"
by Facts Matter with Roman Balmakov
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNv04uAQPsc
Source documents are cited below the video.
"Law of Self Defense" by Andrew Branca
(free book, just pay for shipping so you don't have to go to Colorado to pick it up)
http://lawofselfdefense.com/freebook
"Ohio Supreme Court Says 'Warning Shots' Count as Self-Defense"
by Cam Edwards
https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2024/03/08/ohio-supreme-court-says-warning-shots-count-as-self-defense-n1224127
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger.
Excerpt:
"According to the state's highest court, warning shots do count as self-defense."
Primary source document,
https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0/2024/2024-Ohio-776.pdf
---
NEVER fire warning shots. They are illegal in every state of the United States of America.
There is no place to safely fire a warning shot. Any shot into the ground will ricochet
off the concrete sidewalk, the asphalt road, or a rock in the ground; injuring or killing
someone, maybe you.
Any shot fired up into the air will fall down with equal speed on someone's head,
maybe killing the innocent bystander. [Many documented cases.]
The best backstop for a fired bullet is the center of mass of the bad guy's body.
Any other target is reckless.
"The 5 Elements of Self Defense" by Andrew Branca (free of charge)
lawofselfdefense.com/elements/
“Your character is what you do when no one is looking.”
-- Thomas Jefferson
“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
*************************************************************************
----- Instruction -----
Colonel Robert Lindsey to his fellow trainers:
"We are not God's gift to our students.
Our students are God's gift to us."
"Thoughts on Instruction and Conflict" by Dave Spaulding
http://www.downrange.tv/blog/thoughts-on-instruction-and-conflict/27734/
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpt:
". . . an instructor who has faced conflict will teach combative firearms
“better” than an instructor that has not."
"What I am referring to is having a better understanding of what is being
taught and its application under stress and duress."
----- Instructors -----
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
My student was having a lot of malfunctions initially, and then wasn't.
She asked me what I did to cause the malfunction in her pistol at the beginning.
She had assumed that I was doing it intentionally to give her practice reducing
stoppages. I told her that I hadn't done anything. She wasn't getting malfunctions
anymore because she had learned to hold the pistol tightly. And so was not
letting the frame move as much during recoil, thus allowing the pistol to cycle
properly.
Knowing (intellectually) to grip the pistol tightly is different from experientially
learning to physically grip the pistol tightly.
This student had started with a small grip on her pistol. By the third day of
class she needed to change to a medium grip because the grip on the pistol was
getting too small for her to grip properly. Things change with practice. Be
prepared for such change. Initially, she was gripping tentatively. By the third
day, she was gripping aggressively. Things change with attitude.
"Teach them diligently . . . "
-- Deuteronomy 6:7
A student was shooting tight groups and her sights were correctly zeroed.
As the sun set, we went into civil twilight. And her point of impact went up
6 to 7 inches; iron sights, same 5 yard range, same target. We couldn't figure
out what was going on. Any suggestions?
I suspect some sort of optical illusion was taking place, but I couldn't for
the life of me figure out why the point of impact moved to be 6 inches high.
She was wearing prescription eyeglasses (for nearsightedness).
When we went into the night shoot with flashlights, her point of impact
returned to normal.
---
Response from Tom Givens.
Jon,
It's caused by reflection on the front sight. If strong light comes from the right,
for instance, the POI will often shift to the right. The reflection makes the edge
of the sight on the same side as the light optically disappear, so the post gets
moved in that direction to make it look centered to the shooter.
The other possibility is that as light faded she was lining up white dots on her
sights, rather than using the top edge of the front sight. This assumes she has
3 dot sights. The dots are always poorly aligned.
TG
---
Response from John Farnam.
Dear Jon
Thanks for your note and for training those folks!
Sunlight on pistol sights, particularly front sights, can change one's perception,
and hence actually change the appearance of the sights, hence changing the
shooter's perceived "sight picture".
Not uncommon!
In most cases, this perceived change does not affect the bullet impact point
enough to worry about, at least at ranges we're most likely to need pistols!
You need to tell this student that the slight change in impact point is perfectly
normal and that she probably needn't worry about it!
/John
"Remember,
the students who require the extra effort
are the ones who need us the most!"
-- John Farnam
Now this is well worth reading.
"The Secret to the Secret
To become a better shooter,
practice one thing at a time by starting with trigger control."
by Richard Mann
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/the-secret-to-the-secret/
Great illustrations. Notice the diagram labeled "Proper Sight Alignment".
Notice the large amount of light on either side of the front sight in the rear
sight notch. No pistol sights on standard pistols come from the factory like
this. You will have to machine out the rear sight by 2/100ᵗʰ of an inch,
1/100ᵗʰ on each side.
If you're wondering why your student is scattering horizontally, it's because
your student can't center the front sight in the rear sight notch, because the
rear notch is too narrow or the front sight is too wide.
If your sights have dots painted on them, take a dental pick, remove the
paint, pack the indentations with body putty, and paint the entire sight the
same color (front and rear should be different bright colors). The dots are
a different sighting system than the silhouette of the sights. Thus a different
point of impact. [Appeal to authority, Tom Givens says so.]
"You must teach skill sustainment as part of training."
-- John Hearne
My Aunt Lois told me, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything.
And that is good advice in general. But when someone is teaching stuff that is bad,
you really owe your students and readers a duty to call out the bad instruction. So,
your students don't get misled.
"Zero steps in it again" by Ben Stoeger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PV6KneRLjQ
Years ago, I thought Zero had some innovative training tools, such as a rig that
allowed him to move with his student, he in back of his student and the target in
front of his student.
All of these sorts of "discussions" could be avoided by not allowing public
comments in one's posts. I don't allow public comments in the blog you are
presently reading. If you want to comment to me, send me an email. My email
address is always at the end of each post. There is no point in letting persons
argue on your web site. Critics are free to post their criticism of you on their web
sites. Or their YouTube.com videos. Or their . . .
"Some instructors can't shoot" by Ben Stoeger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mra8TMuhjB8
----- Students -----
Pay attention! Make a good faith effort to learn.
Your life depends on it. The lives of your loved ones depend on it.
----- Andragogy -----
‟An instructor should not expect any learning to take
place the first time new information is presented.”
-- ‶Building Shooters″ by Dustin Salomon
“The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other.
Without collaboration, our growth is limited to our own perspectives.”
-- Robert John Meehan
*************************************************************************
----- Gear -----
And the safe storage thereof.
“Mission drives the gear train.”
-- Pat Rogers
"WHY I NO LONGER CARRY A SPARE MAGAZINE" by Tessah Booth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUL4sbYtq2E
Cost benefit analysis.
"A Non-Binary Look At Carrying With An Empty Chamber"
by Tom McHale
https://americanhandgunner.com/our-experts/vantage-point/carrying-with-an-empty-chamber/
Cost benefit analysis.
"New Girlfriend Syndrome" by Ben Stoeger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLbVcbUMn2M
Your pistol grip must allow you to have the tip of your middle finger pointing back
towards you when in a correct grip. If not, modify the grip, change pistols, etc.
Your pistol must allow you to press the trigger straight to the rear when in a correct
grip. If not, take your pistol to a gunsmith and have him move the trigger. Anyone
who tells you that it can't be done is lying to you.
The holster you choose must meet these minimum requirements:
retain the pistol (turn upside down and shake, the pistol should not fall out),
protect the trigger (impossible to touch the trigger with a toothpick),
secure to the body (this means a strong stiff gun belt), and
allow for a firing grip (while the pistol is completely in the holster).
-- Jeff L. Gonzales (paraphrased)
Psychological stop.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DXAe20FOpKg
"Defensive Shooting Indoors: The Overpenetration Problem"
by Josh Wayner
https://gundigest.com/gear-ammo/ammunition/overpenetration-problem
"Gun Science: What's the Best Metal for Gun Barrels?"
by NRA Staff
https://www.nrafamily.org/content/gun-science-what-s-the-best-metal-for-gun-barrels/
“Your car is not a holster.”
-- Pat Rogers
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Cryptology ***** ***** *****
"Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe,
and preserve order in the world as well as property.
Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of their use."
-- Thomas Paine
Cryptosystems are considered "arms" by federal law, ITAR,
International Traffic in Arms Regulations. That means cryptosystems are
covered by the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Never let the
government infringe on your right to keep and bear cryptosystems, to
include home made cryptosystems.
"Computer science has nothing to do with computers or science."
-- Donald Knuth
"C++23: An Overview of Almost All New and Updated Features" by Marc Gregoire
at CppCon 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cttb8vMuq-Y
C++ was once very useful when Bjarne Stroustrup created it. Over the years
lots of changes. Who sits on these standards committees?
"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
"Shape Of An Imaginary Circle" by Ron & Math
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUrwKp4f4V8
x² + y² = r² ,
x = (a + bi) ∈ C,
y = (c + di) ∈ C,
r = i → r² = -1.
∴ (a + bi)² + (c + di)² = -1.
Ron then graphs a, b, c, and d in 4 dimensions and projects to 3 dimensions,
and then rotates the 3-d projection in a 2-d screen. Pretty neat.
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil."
-- Donald Knuth
So you've used your computer to generate a random sequence. But that's not random.
It's pseudorandom, because you've used an algorithm to generate it. It's deterministic.
And certainly not unique. But all is not lost. Can we get the sequence closer to random?
How about flipping every pᵗʰ bit in the sequence, where p is an odd prime and much less
than the size of the sequence? Just more data processing. Is it unique? Has the sequence
ever been generated before? Does it pass all of the statistical tests?
Consider a linear feedback shift register (LFSR) with two taps (Why 2? Efficiency.
Do we gain anything with more than 2 taps?) based on an irreducible polynomial
over some finite field of characteristic 2. (Ya, all finite fields of order n are isomorphic.
So we're talking about different size fields. The bigger the better.) We go through and
flip every pᵗʰ bit. Does it make sense to then go through and flip every qᵗʰ bit, for q ≠ p ?
Why not? Is the sequence now ∻ homothetic to a sequence we could have gotten
off Hot Bits? Why? Why not?
***** Signals Intelligence and Ground Electronic Warfare,
Cryptologic Communications, Cyber Security, and such *****
"Under the Sea" by The Merge
https://themerge.co/p/underthesea
"The Merge"
https://themerge.co/
Do you know the guys who work for the Merge? Yes, you do.
In case you don't understand.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zwYwjbNLotg
In case you don't understand how incompetent the FBI cyber security department is.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AyZfW-ihOzs
"The New BIOS Hack That Bypasses Every Antivirus" by ThioJoe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QFJLszvDwg
---
"The Malware So Tricky Even Programmers Fall For It" by ThioJoe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25Txv9MmrYA
Meat starts at 4:21.
"Stop Your Programs Reporting Your Activity with Little Snitch"
by NBTV (Naomi Brockwell TV)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0EiqiPuR4Q
‟If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it.
The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury.
Therefore what he must fear is his victim.”
-- Col. Jeff Cooper, "Principles of Personal Defense"
Jake (a label that I will use) wrote me an email asking me all kinds of interesting
questions. I was honored and flattered to answer (As best I could. I cited books and
journal articles that had the explanations as to how the answer was derived and the
proofs of the theorems in question).
***** Signals Intelligence and Ground Electronic Warfare,
Cryptologic Communications, Cyber Security, and such *****
"Under the Sea" by The Merge
https://themerge.co/p/underthesea
"The Merge"
https://themerge.co/
Do you know the guys who work for the Merge? Yes, you do.
In case you don't understand.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zwYwjbNLotg
In case you don't understand how incompetent the FBI cyber security department is.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AyZfW-ihOzs
"The New BIOS Hack That Bypasses Every Antivirus" by ThioJoe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QFJLszvDwg
---
"The Malware So Tricky Even Programmers Fall For It" by ThioJoe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25Txv9MmrYA
Meat starts at 4:21.
"Stop Your Programs Reporting Your Activity with Little Snitch"
by NBTV (Naomi Brockwell TV)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0EiqiPuR4Q
‟If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it.
The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury.
Therefore what he must fear is his victim.”
-- Col. Jeff Cooper, "Principles of Personal Defense"
Jake (a label that I will use) wrote me an email asking me all kinds of interesting
questions. I was honored and flattered to answer (As best I could. I cited books and
journal articles that had the explanations as to how the answer was derived and the
proofs of the theorems in question).
At the end of my email response, I asked why Jake was asking. I meant,
is this a hobby for you? Is this part of your job? Are you working on some project
that needs these answers? Etc. Jake responded with a word tossed salad reminiscent
of our U.S. Vice President. But on second viewing, I realized that it was obfuscated
English. (There is an Obfuscated C competition every year, where contestants write
source code that must correctly compile and execute under a standard C compiler.
If the judges can read the code and figure out what the program does, the entry fails
the first test. Ya, there's a lot more to it.)
Jake told me that his organization had tasked him with monitoring me. [He said
Jake told me that his organization had tasked him with monitoring me. [He said
that he last saw me in a U.S. Federal Court in San Francisco, CA. I remembered.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation was arguing a case and I was observing for my
Marine Corps unit. I was standing in the back of the courtroom and he had asked
me who I was with. I said Marine Corps, and he said he said, "Oh, you're on the
government's side." I responded honestly, "No." Signals Intelligence always asks
the Commanding Officers not to attack the antenna farms or the transmitters, because
we want to monitor the information in those channels. The CO may respond, it's all
encrypted, you can't read it anyway. So we explain to him that all of the information
in his morning intel brief was derived from traffic analysis. We don't need to decrypt
anything.]
I responded with "Thank you." He responded with "PC".
I responded with "Thank you." He responded with "PC".
I'm pretty sure it stood for Professional Courtesy.
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Intelligence ***** ***** *****
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
-- Second Amendment, U.S. Constitution
The art and practice of Intelligence is an arm protected by the 2nd Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution. Never let anyone infringe upon your God given right
to keep and bear intelligence. (The enemy will try to dumb you down. Resist!)
Always cite open source. After that any analysis is just your opinion. Can't be
prosecuted for an opinion. If Jack Douglas Teixeira had cited open source, he would
have avoided a lot of trouble. Yes, there were lots of open source citations available
to him. He was just too lazy to find them.
An interesting use of the 2nd Amendment.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pMtSNYlkUuE
In case you don't understand snipers.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/F2cCfHfHPG8
Marine Corps Scout Snipers were tasked by the Commanding Officer at the
request of the S-2 (Intel OIC, Officer-In-Charge) and reported to S-2 (Intel).
SS's primary mission was reconnaissance, deep behind enemy lines. SS's don't
shoot because then the enemy knows that they are there and the enemy starts
chasing them. Then we have to expend resources to cover their escape or
rescue them. A competent SS team will go in and come out without the enemy
noticing anything.
"Deep Intel on the Air Force's Major Reorganization" by Ward Carroll
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAbGY_EfseA
“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
"Coming Soon To A Location Near You:
Cartel Uses Mines, Drones In Attack On Mexican Troops"
by Docent
http://practicaleschatology.blogspot.com/2024/03/coming-soon-to-location-near-you-cartel.html
Pay particular attention to
"Biden secretly dumped 320,000 ‘inadmissible’ illegal immigrants into US cities"
by Paul Bedard
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2900755/biden-secretly-dumped-320000-inadmissible-illegal-immigrants-us-cities/
These are ChiCom PLA (Chinese Communist Party, People's Liberation Army) soldiers.
Why would Brandon do this? Because the ChiComs paid Brandon. Follow the money.
The PLA considers these soldiers Special Forces. We recognize them as sappers.
(I was on a sapper team when I was in the Marine Corps. So I sort of know what
I'm talking about.) They are congregating around Tucson, Arizona. Because Raytheon
builds the Tomahawk cruise missiles there. No, the microwave weapons are not the target.
Do you understand why?
Meat and 3 has spaghetti on the menu. They use capellini (angel hair pasta),
which is more expensive than spaghetti. Why? Capellini cooks faster because
it is thinner. Yes, Strongman, I am talking to you. That's as far as I can go.
"Counterterror Agent Exposes Hezbollah Infiltration in America" by Christian Warrior
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdVnUeASSB8
Do you understand the distractors? As the magicians teach, distraction and misdirection.
CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations).
They are all on welfare. We, tax payers, are paying for the jihad.
Defund the police → police departments are grossly understaffed → police departments
lower their standards (e.g. don't need to be a citizen, don't need to pass an IQ or literacy
test) to fill the ranks with warm bodies → the police departments become infiltrated with
gang members (e.g. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department) and foreign terrorists.
"Every time we got a new captain, I would brief him on the traitors in our organization
and the other organizations. That briefing was never well received." [Stop and think
about that. At the request of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, I had prepared a
Meat and 3 has spaghetti on the menu. They use capellini (angel hair pasta),
which is more expensive than spaghetti. Why? Capellini cooks faster because
it is thinner. Yes, Strongman, I am talking to you. That's as far as I can go.
"Counterterror Agent Exposes Hezbollah Infiltration in America" by Christian Warrior
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdVnUeASSB8
Do you understand the distractors? As the magicians teach, distraction and misdirection.
CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations).
They are all on welfare. We, tax payers, are paying for the jihad.
Defund the police → police departments are grossly understaffed → police departments
lower their standards (e.g. don't need to be a citizen, don't need to pass an IQ or literacy
test) to fill the ranks with warm bodies → the police departments become infiltrated with
gang members (e.g. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department) and foreign terrorists.
"Every time we got a new captain, I would brief him on the traitors in our organization
and the other organizations. That briefing was never well received." [Stop and think
about that. At the request of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, I had prepared a
list of persons in Tennessee law enforcement who were participating in human trafficking.
I called the Special Agent in Charge of the TBI Human Trafficking department to arrange
a meeting to give her the list. She refused to meet with me. She refused to accept the
list. That is reality. -- Jon Low]
---
The video referred to,
"⚡️Hezbollah Sleeper Cells and the Risk to American Churches✝️" by Christian Warrior
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wet9FFETjnE
---
"Vanishing Police!" by John Farnam
https://defense-training.com/vanishing-police/
“Why doesn’t our government protect us?
Why aren’t criminals following gun laws?
Why do we have to protect ourselves?”
-- John Glassy
"Two Year Battle for Documents on ATF Chief Ends in 318 Redacted Pages"
by John Crump
https://www.ammoland.com/2024/03/two-year-battle-for-documents-on-atf-chief-ends-in-318-redacted-pages/
Understanding the persons in a bureaucracy will allow you to predict the behavior
of the bureaucracy and to control the bureaucracy (more so than the supervisors and
politicians).
---
"The ATF Director and his mysterious 75-round clip" by Lee Williams
https://saf.org/the-atf-director-and-his-mysterious-75-round-clip/
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger, http://spw-duf.info
Appointing loyal incompetents is the hallmark of tyrants.
"Good habits and skill beat luck every time."
-- Sheriff Jim Wilson
"Opinion
The all-volunteer force is dying. Here’s how to save it."
by Mark T. Esper
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/09/21/military-all-volunteer-force-mark-esper/
I guess I was optimistic. Only 0.5% of our population serve in the Armed Forces.
It means a very small number of persons will fight in the next civil war. A very small
number will decide the future. I hope you've thought about whose side you will be on.
Waiting till the last minute to decide would be tragic. Like the German officers during
Operation Valkyrie, "Yes, it's a coup, but whose side are we on?"
"Under the Sea" by The Merge
https://themerge.co/p/underthesea
"The Merge"
https://themerge.co/
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** After Thoughts ***** ***** *****
In case you don't understand taxes in the U.S.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nJaGjG1E6w0
In case you don't understand propaganda.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ct2f_xQgCN4
In case you don't understand why communism has never worked.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bkjHJwjddN0
The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/memes
https://patriotpost.us/cartoons
"U.S. Supreme Court Unanimously Strikes Down Colorado Ban On Trump"
by Docent
http://practicaleschatology.blogspot.com/2024/03/us-supreme-court-unanimously-strikes.html
Primary source document,
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-719_19m2.pdf
"Even Worms React To Pain" by Docent
http://practicaleschatology.blogspot.com/2024/03/even-worms-react-to-pain.html
You may remember President Trump offered to send troops to combat crime
and restore law and order to these cities and others. All Democrat Governors and
Mayors declined the offer. They let their cities burn.
The New York Police Department is under staffed by thousands. Stop and
think about that.
On the radio, the Nashville Mayor brags about the low crime rate in Nashville.
But, it's not his policies.
The Metro Nashville Police Department is under staffed by about 400. So,
why does Nashville not have the problems that New York City has? Many
Nashvillians are armed, willing to shoot, and pick up their trash. CSX is
especially good about clearing homeless camps and clearing out the trash.
The Jewish security organizations are especially good about picking up the
trash. Many Christian churches proactively pick up the trash around their
facilities. The police and ambulances dump a lot of trash in the hospital
emergency rooms. Hospital security takes out the trash and are rewarded,
as it saves the hospital staggering amounts of money in services and civil
judgments. The trash sue the hospitals, it's like winning the lottery.
There are persons who loiter in emergency rooms with attorneys on speed dial.
Big finder's fee. Enough to stay high for a week.
I remember watching a lady doing the meth dance in the parking lot at
Southern Hills Medical Center. May you never have occasion to see such.
No trash, no statistic. Win, win.
The Democrats are using Lawfare on Trump. Trump is wealthy and powerful.
When they use Lawfare on you, will you be able to survive?
Disabled, wheelchair ridden persons in Tennessee have been killed by FBI
agents. "While resisting arrest." When they attempt to arrest you, will you know
what to do? If you don't know what to do, if you don't have a plan, you won't have
a choice. You'll just have a reaction. The FBI agents will have a plan, they will
have trained. If you want peace, prepare for war. Of course, that's not enough.
You have to be willing to pull the trigger. Everything changes at that point.
It's not going to be like Lexington, MA. These are different times. During the
American Revolutionary War, 10% took up arms and fought the government.
We expect less than 1%. And we are very optimistic. The sheeple are not just
oblivious, they are cowards. They will not rally around you. You must be able
to avoid capture to fight. You must be able to survive to fight. Can you live off
the land (in modern times)?
Practical Eschatoloty, Friday, March 8, 2024
http://practicaleschatology.blogspot.com/
Did you know about this mission? If you knew, do you remember?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9ZGeDtG_DI8
In case you don't understand capitalism.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bZmoaUVBMFA
Go to the Patriot Post at
https://patriotpost.us/subscription/new
and subscribe. The memes and cartoons are hilarious.
---
The video referred to,
"⚡️Hezbollah Sleeper Cells and the Risk to American Churches✝️" by Christian Warrior
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wet9FFETjnE
---
"Vanishing Police!" by John Farnam
https://defense-training.com/vanishing-police/
“Why doesn’t our government protect us?
Why aren’t criminals following gun laws?
Why do we have to protect ourselves?”
-- John Glassy
"Two Year Battle for Documents on ATF Chief Ends in 318 Redacted Pages"
by John Crump
https://www.ammoland.com/2024/03/two-year-battle-for-documents-on-atf-chief-ends-in-318-redacted-pages/
Understanding the persons in a bureaucracy will allow you to predict the behavior
of the bureaucracy and to control the bureaucracy (more so than the supervisors and
politicians).
---
"The ATF Director and his mysterious 75-round clip" by Lee Williams
https://saf.org/the-atf-director-and-his-mysterious-75-round-clip/
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger, http://spw-duf.info
Appointing loyal incompetents is the hallmark of tyrants.
"Good habits and skill beat luck every time."
-- Sheriff Jim Wilson
"Opinion
The all-volunteer force is dying. Here’s how to save it."
by Mark T. Esper
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/09/21/military-all-volunteer-force-mark-esper/
I guess I was optimistic. Only 0.5% of our population serve in the Armed Forces.
It means a very small number of persons will fight in the next civil war. A very small
number will decide the future. I hope you've thought about whose side you will be on.
Waiting till the last minute to decide would be tragic. Like the German officers during
Operation Valkyrie, "Yes, it's a coup, but whose side are we on?"
"Under the Sea" by The Merge
https://themerge.co/p/underthesea
"The Merge"
https://themerge.co/
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** After Thoughts ***** ***** *****
In case you don't understand taxes in the U.S.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nJaGjG1E6w0
In case you don't understand propaganda.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ct2f_xQgCN4
In case you don't understand why communism has never worked.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bkjHJwjddN0
The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/memes
https://patriotpost.us/cartoons
"U.S. Supreme Court Unanimously Strikes Down Colorado Ban On Trump"
by Docent
http://practicaleschatology.blogspot.com/2024/03/us-supreme-court-unanimously-strikes.html
Primary source document,
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-719_19m2.pdf
"Even Worms React To Pain" by Docent
http://practicaleschatology.blogspot.com/2024/03/even-worms-react-to-pain.html
You may remember President Trump offered to send troops to combat crime
and restore law and order to these cities and others. All Democrat Governors and
Mayors declined the offer. They let their cities burn.
The New York Police Department is under staffed by thousands. Stop and
think about that.
On the radio, the Nashville Mayor brags about the low crime rate in Nashville.
But, it's not his policies.
The Metro Nashville Police Department is under staffed by about 400. So,
why does Nashville not have the problems that New York City has? Many
Nashvillians are armed, willing to shoot, and pick up their trash. CSX is
especially good about clearing homeless camps and clearing out the trash.
The Jewish security organizations are especially good about picking up the
trash. Many Christian churches proactively pick up the trash around their
facilities. The police and ambulances dump a lot of trash in the hospital
emergency rooms. Hospital security takes out the trash and are rewarded,
as it saves the hospital staggering amounts of money in services and civil
judgments. The trash sue the hospitals, it's like winning the lottery.
There are persons who loiter in emergency rooms with attorneys on speed dial.
Big finder's fee. Enough to stay high for a week.
I remember watching a lady doing the meth dance in the parking lot at
Southern Hills Medical Center. May you never have occasion to see such.
No trash, no statistic. Win, win.
The Democrats are using Lawfare on Trump. Trump is wealthy and powerful.
When they use Lawfare on you, will you be able to survive?
Disabled, wheelchair ridden persons in Tennessee have been killed by FBI
agents. "While resisting arrest." When they attempt to arrest you, will you know
what to do? If you don't know what to do, if you don't have a plan, you won't have
a choice. You'll just have a reaction. The FBI agents will have a plan, they will
have trained. If you want peace, prepare for war. Of course, that's not enough.
You have to be willing to pull the trigger. Everything changes at that point.
It's not going to be like Lexington, MA. These are different times. During the
American Revolutionary War, 10% took up arms and fought the government.
We expect less than 1%. And we are very optimistic. The sheeple are not just
oblivious, they are cowards. They will not rally around you. You must be able
to avoid capture to fight. You must be able to survive to fight. Can you live off
the land (in modern times)?
Practical Eschatoloty, Friday, March 8, 2024
http://practicaleschatology.blogspot.com/
Did you know about this mission? If you knew, do you remember?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9ZGeDtG_DI8
In case you don't understand capitalism.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bZmoaUVBMFA
Go to the Patriot Post at
https://patriotpost.us/subscription/new
and subscribe. The memes and cartoons are hilarious.
"Communist Manifesto or Democratic Platform?" by Ami Horowitz
in the DailyWire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAXVZGog2DY
The person on the street can't tell the difference between the
Communist Manifesto and the Democratic Party Platform,
because there is none.
In case you don't believe Brandon's Department of Justice is terrorizing Catholics.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wW7JMhEQ2l8
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9F3y6zolalQ
In case you don't understand sex change operations.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OvkV5wFcwlU
In case you think our justice system works.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NDfQglUbDnI
In case you don't understand morality.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Bff2gHmnv7A
In case you haven't trained your children yet.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/yo6lQXk5lds
In case you don't understand the death rate attributed to Covid-19.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jPPAwDAupqw
In case you don't understand the advancement of permitless carry.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OBlDOH7_Hcw
In case you don't understand the pervasive child sex slave trade at our southern border.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Mj3evWRswws
“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
From 1981 to a few years ago (at least until 2014) I ran about 3 miles per day.
A habit I picked up in the Marine Corps. Then one day I felt this pounding in
the back of my head and neck. The running coach told me that my gait had changed.
When you get old your body changes. I accepted that and moved on with swimming
and yoga. Then last year my doctor diagnosed the pain in the muscles between my
neck and right shoulder to be arthritis in my neck and shoulder. She prescribed
10,000 units of vitamin D₃ daily and physical therapy. One of the exercises the
physical therapist prescribed was to tuck my chin and pull my head back. Over
the intervening months, I have changed the position of my head relative to the
rest of my body. Amazingly, I can run again. No pounding in my head and neck.
Ya, there were a lot of other exercises too. But I'm pretty sure it was the chin
tuck, pull head back, that did the trick.
Literary criticism.
"Tolkien's Problem with Dune" by Jess of the Shire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaLvkqZ4VZc
Check out Tetiana Gaidar on YouTube.com.
Semper Fidelis,
Jonathan D. Low
Email: Jon_Low@yahoo.com
Radio: KI4SDN
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