Joséphine Wattier-Picard
in Berlin, Germany
Ça s'arrange pas avec le temps . . .
Greetings Sheepdogs,
Tom Givens is retiring in 2027. Better take a class while you can.
I received a handwritten thank you letter from the Nashville Dolphins today.
They teach mentally and physically disabled children to swim. Great therapy
(for the volunteer instructors as well as the kids). I'm not a hypocrite.
I wouldn't ask you to donate, if I hadn't already. The program is free for
the kids and their families. The swim instructors are all non-paid volunteers.
(I had volunteered to teach swimming, but at 66, I'm not as strong a swimmer
as I used to be. They really need young people for the teaching positions.)
But somebody has to pay for the flotation equipment, web site, mailings
and such.
Table of Contents:
Software --
Prevention
Mindset
Situational Awareness
Safety
Training
Psychology
Practice
Intervention
Strategy
Tactics
Techniques
Postvention
Aftermath
Medical
Survival
Education
Legal
Instruction
Hardware --
Gear
Intelligence --
Signals Intelligence
Cryptology
Religion and Politics --
"No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
-- Thomas Jefferson
This is your working definition of a free man. If you live in a state that infringes
the keeping and bearing of arms, you're not free.
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Prevention ***** ***** *****
Things you can do to avoid the lethal force incident.
“To those who have fought for it,
freedom has a flavor that the protected will never know.”
― P. McCree Thornton
You will often hear people talking about the U.S. Armed Forces fighting to keep
us safe. That is not and has never been the goal of the U.S. Armed Forces. Their
goal is to keep us free.
Table of sections:
Mindset
Safety
Training
Psychology
Practice
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Mindset and Attitude --------------------------------
Figuring out the correct way to think.
Excerpt from "Principles of Personal Defense" by Jeff Cooper --
George Patton told his officers,
"Don't worry about your flanks. Let the enemy worry about his flanks."
Please read this.
"The Priorities of Survival" by Michael E. Wood
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
‟Fear is an instinct. Courage is a choice.”
-- Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, U.S. Navy
"The Most Dangerous Cognitive Bias" by Veritasium
The Real Dunning-Kruger Effect Graph.
It's just arrogance.
---
"The best way to become good at something might surprise you" by David Epstein
"I do not carry a pistol so that I may impose my will on others.
I carry a pistol so that others may not impose their will on me."
-- Tom Givens
"Low Cost Handguns for Self-Defense" by CarryTrainer
Because spending money on training is better than spending money on gear.
"Before all else, be armed." -- Nicolo Machiavelli
"The line between everyday life and sudden violence is thinner than most realize."
-- Tim Larkin
"Gear and Guts
You need them both."
by Sheriff Jim Wilson
At Front Sight they would say, "Any gun will do, if you will do."
Any improvised weapon will do. Your hands and feet will do.
As long as you have the guts.
“The Man in the Arena”
by Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909), 26th President of the United States
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how
the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have
done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in
the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who
strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again,
because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who
does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms,
the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at
the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and
who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who
neither know victory nor defeat.”
"Survival is a mindset, not a skill set."
-- Greg Shaffer
"Your gunfights will always be anomalies.
So are those of all the instructors you venerate.
It’s useful to keep those facts in mind."
-- Greg Ellifritz
“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
‷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
"Have your affairs in order."
-- John Hearne
"An unarmed man can only flee from evil and
evil is not overcome by fleeing from it." -- Jeff Cooper
"Your life is as good as your mindset." -- Nicola Cavanis
"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
"Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist.
Children already know that dragons exist.
Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed."
-- G.K. Chesterton
---
"There Are Monsters Among Us, and That’s Why I Carry"
by Mitch Goerdt
https://www.concealedcarry.com/firearms-ownership/there-are-monsters-among-us-and-thats-why-i-carry/
‟If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it.
The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury.
Therefore what he must fear is his victim.”
It is high time for society to stop worrying about the criminal,
and to let the criminal start worrying about society.
And by "society" I mean you.
-- Col. Jeff Cooper, "Principles of Personal Defense"
"Be so focused on watering your grass that
you don't have time to check if someone else's is greener."
-- Nicola Cavanis
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Situational Awareness --------------------------------
How to avoid being taken by surprise.
"Many people don't realize that your awareness skills
are more important than your marksmanship skills.
Well, you can't shoot something you don't know is there,
or don't know it needs to be shot!" -- Tom Givens
This is why you must get training and practice, and always go armed.
“Chicago man who has "been arrested at least 20 times dating back to 2012
but keeps being released from custody" finally charged for punching women”
by Joel Abbott
Hat tip to Carlton Young.
Only you can prevent your battery. (Channeling Smokey the Bear.)
"Punching" results in permanent debilitating injury, permanent disfigurement,
and life long pain (which can lead to addiction to pain killers, which can lead to
loss of job, income, and family). So, you must take punching seriously, because
it does constitute grave bodily injury, as in "death or grave bodily injury".
Email from Gabriel Suarez --
"VEHICLE COMBAT - PART 2 (YOU ARE NOT IN FALUJAH)"
While it is fun to grab your rifle, don your chest rig, roll out of an armored
Hummer, and work break contact drills like Greg Nichols and I are doing here
ten years ago, the reality of vehicle combat for YOU in urban America is different.
If you are the CEO of a Fortune 500 Company, or have dirt on Hillary you
could be a target for a pro hit team . . . but more likely, some homie and his
friends want your ride.
Conducting casual tail checks while you drive are so second nature to me
that I don't even think about them. Who is behind you . . . who is behind you
constantly . . . and how many times have you seen that driver and car?
When you are arriving at your destination, pick a parking spot farther than
normal people. Walking is not bad for you . . . even in the rain.
Who and what is around you? Don't park in a clump of cars. Maybe don't park
under street lights. You may or may not want clear visibility. Think like a predator
not a victim.
When walking back to your ride . . . is your draw hand free? Are you watching
a 360? Who is parked next to you in the empty parking lot? Can you draw and
shoot right now!?
When you get in - turn on the engine and get the fuck moving. Don't worry
about seat belts or GPS. Move the fuck off the X . . . casually but certainly.
I make it a point to not engage seat belts or GPS until I get into traffic.
Do I break the rules? Yes . . . every god damned day.
In traffic, always take the open lane. Drive with purpose not like the State Farm
commercial. Note who is on the road with you . . . next to you. The more of a target
you are, you conservative white CEO type guys . . . the more watchful you must be.
I was once offered a discount on car insurance if I allowed a monitor unit in my
vehicle to track my driving habits. When I stopped laughing - the insurance lady
had left.
The 10th Precept - Live as if there was an enemy around every corner and behind
every door. Adding - EVEN WHILE DRIVING.
-- Gabriel Suarez
---
Jon's comments --
Paranoid? Maybe. But as my sister says, just because you're paranoid doesn't
mean everyone's not trying to kill you.
My sister has been the target of more attempted murders than I have.
Both of my children have seem more combat while in military service than I have.
More than one of my attorney friends (high school classmates) have seen more
law enforcement combat than I have. They would go in with raid teams to ensure
the arrest warrants were executed correctly. The Feds will sometimes do that.
I remember sitting in a car talking to my attorney friend classmate late one night
in an empty parking lot. A Honolulu Police Officer approached and tapped on the
car window. My friend, displayed his badge and waved the Officer off. Oh, there
is definitely a hierarchy.
"Jeff Cooper's Color Code exists to help you get your head
around the need to kill someone in the immediate future."
-- John Hearne
---
Jeff Cooper's Color Code of Mental Awareness
UNAWARE - of what's going on around you. (White)
AWARE - of who is around you and what they are doing. (Yellow)
ALERT - to a POTENTIAL threat and taking action to avoid the threat. (Orange)
ALARM - by a REAL threat and taking action to escape the threat,
which might include shooting to PREVENT the attack. (Red)
COMBAT - front sight, press. Shooting to STOP the attack. (Black)
The colors are meaningless, requiring a level of indirection.
So you should use meaningful words instead. So the student doesn't
have to decode the meaning of the color. Using insider jargon is WRONG!
If you don't pay attention to who is around you and what they are doing,
i.e. if you lack situational awareness, you won't notice the two smoking hot
chicks sitting next to you, trying to figure out how to start a conversation with you.
After the ladies leave, your colleagues will chide you for being a total loser
nerd.
"An officer may be forgiven for losing a battle,
but never for being taken by surprise."
-- Jeff Cooper
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Safety --------------------------------
How to prevent the bad thing from happening in the first place.
How to avoid shooting yourself, friendlies, and innocent bystanders.
How to prevent unauthorized persons from using your guns.
"Holiday Safety Tips Every Woman Needs" by Tatiana Whitlock
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Jeff Cooper′s Rules of Gun Safety
RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED.
[Hundreds of persons in America shoot themselves or others while cleaning their
unloaded guns, while showing their unloaded guns to others, or while handling their
unloaded guns. With amazing regularity, the responsible party will say, "I thought
the gun was unloaded."]
RULE II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING
THAT YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY.
RULE III: KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER
UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET.
[Many instructors teach to get your finger on the trigger as soon as possible once
clearing the holster and to begin taking the slack out of the trigger, so that when
the sights are on the target you may immediately fire. This might be faster, but
it violates our safety rule. You don't have to follow the safety rules. You MUST
take responsibility for your negligent discharges and those of your students /
subordinates. Because you knew the safety rule and chose not to obey.]
RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET.
[And what's behind your target, because your bullet might pass through your
target. And what's beside your target, because you might miss your target.
And who might run into your line of fire, because untrained persons panic.]
---
RULE V: Maintain control of your gun. -- Stephen P. Wenger
(If you don't know where it is, you're not in control.)
"Housecleaner Shot Dead Through Door When She Went To Wrong House"
by Docent
Violation of safety rule,
RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET.
Shooting through a door that you cannot see through is not reasonable,
unless you have positively identified the target in some other way. Ring
doorbell camera, perhaps? Calling out, "Who is there?"
---
"Shooting Through Doors and Walls" by Greg Ellifritz
"Gut feelings are guardian angels."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"Do Armed Civilians Stop Active Shooters More Effectively Than Uniformed Police?*"
by John R. Lott and Carlisle E. Moody
Click on link to download or to display in browser.
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger.
Stephen's comments --
In light of the comment about constitutional carry, I believe that “civilians with
concealed handgun permits” ought to read “lawfully armed civilians.”
List members may recall that the murderer in the 2022 attack inside the
Greenwood Park Mall in Indiana was stopped by 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken,
who had no carry license, mere months after the state had adopted constitutional carry.
---
This study is the first to systematically compare how uniformed police and
civilians with concealed handgun permits perform in stopping these attacks.
We find that civilians with permits reduce the number of victims killed,
the number wounded, and the total number of casualties more than responding
police officers do. They also stop the attacks more frequently and face a lower
risk of being killed or injured than police. We also provide evidence that these
numbers significantly underestimate the advantages of civilians over officers
in stopping these attacks. We find that officers who intervened during the attacks
were more likely to be killed or injured than those who apprehended the attackers
later. We explore the implications of two possible identification problems.
There is some evidence that Constitutional Carry laws reduce deaths and injuries
from active shooting attacks . . .
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.
"Project: Set Up A Disaster Dollars Program For Your Kids" by Paul T. Martin
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
"Not allowing law-abiding citizens to carry guns on the pretext of public health
or safety makes as much sense not allowing sober people to drive cars in order to
protect them from drunk drivers."
-- Stephen P. Wenger
"It’s the Same Old Story!" by John Farnam
Excerpt:
You won’t “get over it,” but you will “get past it,” and,
you’ll be alive to worry about it.
For one, I don’t consider being dead a “viable alterative!”
---
The reaction to trauma is different for everyone. There is no "standard". There is
no "normal". There may be an average, but that is a meaningless deceptive statistic.
If killing the scum bag doesn't bother you, if you don't get nightmares, it doesn't
mean you're psychotic. Reactions to trauma are distributed over a wide spectrum.
-- Jon Low
"Safety is something that happens between your ears,
not something you hold in your hands."
-- Jeff Cooper
"Little Fingers" by Tom McHale
Excerpt:
The 1½-year-old toddles around the house saying, “Upahhh!”
While that may sound like “up,” meaning I want you to pick me
up for a half a picosecond until some new shiny object catches my
eye, it really means, “I can get into most anything in the house
now that I am walking and climbing and have no fear of bodily
harm from falling off furniture. And while you might not think
I can mess with a firearm enough to do something dangerous,
do you really want to test me on that? Bring it noob!”
---
RFID tracking tags on all of your guns? What a good idea!
Especially if hidden inside the hollow of the grip or inside the
frame. Yes, there is space in the frame. You just need to disassemble
the pistol to get to it. Something the thief probably won't do.
The pawn shop? Hell, they don't even bother to clean the pistols
before selling them.
"It's easier to stay out of trouble than to get out of trouble."
-- Claude Werner
"Gun Grab Attempt Washington SRO Deputy" by tacticalprofessor (Claude Werner)
Excerpts:
"Every time a POlice officer is attacked in a gun grab, it’s a reminder that
Open Carry is not necessarily a deterrent. It may be to a rational criminal but
many folks are irrational."
"The taser had no effect on an adrenalized and pain resistant opponent."
[Pepper spray doesn't have any effect either. Baton strikes used in a non-lethal
force manner don't have any effect either. That's why instructors who advocate
less than lethal tools are WRONG! Don't be naïve. Carry a gun and aim to
the heart or brain, because that's the only way to immediately stop the attack.
-- Jon Low]
"You are not responsible for negative reactions to your boundaries."
-- Nicola Cavanis
Mike Willever interviewed me for his pod cast.
"Approached By A Stranger with Bad Intentions -Jonathan"
Active Self Protection Podcast
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always
possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Richard Henry Lee
Our “Unarmed Forces”
by John Farnam
How you walk matters.
*************************************************************************
********************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Training --------------------------------
Figuring out the correct tasks to practice.
Ignorance runs rampant --
There are a lot of videos on the internet purporting to teach you how to solve
the PROBLEM of right-handed pistol shooters scattering low left (or left-handed
shooters scattering low right). Almost all of these videos are wrong.
The REASON some right-handed shooters scatter low left is that they are
anticipating the recoil, and pushing against it. This push is an autonomic nervous
system response to the learned recoil. (It doesn't matter how small the recoil is.
The recoil is felt, because it exists in reality.)
The SOLUTION to this problem and all other autonomic nervous system
responses (push, jerk, flinch, freeze, etc.) to the recoil and report of the firearm is
the "surprise trigger break". To the best of my knowledge, the surprise break was
first codified in a formal curriculum for pistols by Jeff Cooper. The surprise break
was well known as the correct technique for archery in the United States of America
by at least the early1940's as evidenced in "Zen in the Art of Archery" by Eugen Herrigel,
1948 A.D. (English translation. So it was known in German even earlier. And
since Herrigel learned it in Japan, it was know earlier in Japan.) To the best of my
knowledge the first mention of the surprise break for shooting, archery, was in
"Toxophilus" by Roger Ascham, 1545 A.D. So the surprise break is nothing new.
[It's just not known by some. Because they do not strive to learn. They think that
what they have discovered or invented is the best. As John Farnam says,
"I've never had an original thought. Everything I teach, I have stolen from others."
We should all be stealing from the ancients, because they knew. Solving the
problem is not a research exercise, it is a literature search.]
The PSYCHOLOGY of the surprise break is
"Do not intentionally release the shot."
Do not make it happen. Do not force it to happen. Relax and let it happen.
(Ya, I know. Very Taoist. Very Zen. But correct. As Bruce Lee said,
"Use only that which works,
and take it from any place you can find it."
-- Bruce Lee
)
Jesus commands you not to worry. Obey Jesus. Do not worry about your wobble
(your inability to hold the sights on the target). The surprise break will ensure a
good hit, no matter how much you wobble. Yes, as a matter of fact, it is magic.
Any sufficiently advanced technology will appear to be magic to the ignorant.
God's masterpiece of creation, the human, is extremely advanced technology.
Far beyond the comprehension of "modern medical technology".
The MECHANICS of the surprise break are --
* Touch the trigger. Just touch it to find out where it is. No, as a matter of fact,
you don't know exactly where it is, because in a high stress combat situation, you
might not have gotten a perfect grip as you would have during your practice session
in your air conditioned carpeted indoor range.
* Take the slack out of the trigger. [Slack means trigger movement without sear
movement.] If your trigger doesn't have any slack, change your trigger, if you can't,
change your pistol. Combat (self-defense is combat) pistols MUST have slack in
the trigger. Otherwise, under the debilitating stress of combat, you're going to get
a lot of negligent discharges (shooting friendlies and innocents). To avoid that,
use a proper pistol.
* Recite the mantra, "Keep pressing, keep pressing, keep pressing, . . ."
Use this mantra. Kaery Dudenhofer et al have put a lot of time, effort, and research
into perfecting this mantra. Use it! The mantra that you thought up is NOT better.
[Eventually, you will be busy observing and making tactical decisions, so you won't
be consciously reciting the mantra. If you skip the mantra stage of training, you
won't achieve the on demand accuracy that you are striving for. You will automatically
revert to the mantra when you need the precision. Trading time for accuracy is a thing.]
The pistol will fire at the correct time. Trust the process. As Tiffany Johnson
says, "Execute the process and you will get the desired outcome." I paraphrase.
In the context of, "you can drive a car or you can ride in the car as a passenger."
"You are driving the trigger; you are not riding the trigger." -- Tom Givens
---
The following is not part of the surprise break, but I include it in this essay to
give you a complete picture of the trigger control portion of the shot process.
Follow through --
⬢ Trap the trigger to the rear. Keep aiming. Keep pressing the trigger.
Do not release the trigger. Releasing the trigger as an involuntary reaction to
the BANG! is one of the reasons the bullet did not impact where you aimed.
⬢ Get your sights back on target (the target you just shot, not the next target).
Every shot must have two sight pictures, one before the shot and one after the shot.
Because you must assess the condition of the target that you just shot. What is the
target doing? Do I need to shoot that target again? (You probably won't be able
to tell if you hit or missed the human target. Reality ain't like the TV or movies.
So your decision is based on what the bad guy is doing.)
Sight alignment and sight movie tell you where the pistol is aimed when the
firing pin hits the primer. Follow through tells you where the pistol is aimed as
the bullet exits the muzzle, a millisecond later. A millisecond is more than enough
time to push the pistol off the target. So lack of follow through is the primary
reason point of impact does not match point of aim.
Prepare for next shot --
⬣ Reset the trigger. Maintain contact between trigger finger and trigger to maintain
control of the trigger. Move the trigger forward and feel the click of the reset.
Economy of motion is efficiency. You are driving the trigger; you are not riding
the trigger.
⬣ Take the slack out of the trigger.
---
"Staff, this is a long complex process that will take way too much time."
False, completely false. With practice the shot process will compress in time
and become very fast.
Slow is correct (if you strive for perfection). Correct is efficient. Efficient is fast.
Failure to execute the shot process correctly guarantees you will get misses
(unintended hits), damaging property, injuring friendlies and bystanders,
maybe killing them.
When they are actually shooting at a correctly identified target (which is not always
the case), why do law enforcement officers in America average 15% hits on intended
targets? Because they don't execute the shot process correctly. Why don't they execute
the shot process correctly? Because they were never taught the correct shot process.
The vast majority of U.S. Armed Forces are not taught the correct shot process either.
And those who were taught the correct shot process, don't practice it enough to
automatically execute it under the debilitating stress of combat.
Jeff Cooper started teaching his modern technique of the pistol, because he was
frustrated by the bad teaching in the Marine Corps and the U.S. Armed Forces in
general, and in the law enforcement community.
---
How is the surprise break executed in Olympic style recurve archery?
⧫ Establish a deep Mediterranean grip on the bow string. A shallow grip will not
allow a cleaner release, quite the contrary. A shallow grip requires much more
muscle tension. You can prove this to yourself by grabbing a heavy pail of water
by the handle. If you wrap your fingers around the handle, you can relax your
arm without fear of dropping the pail. If you only use your finger tips to hold
the pail, your whole arm will be tense, because you fear dropping the pail.
⧫ Draw with continuous backward motion. The arrow never stops. The arrow
never moves forward. The arrow may slow as you come into anchor, but it never
stops, it never moves forward. The arrow is always moving backwards.
By drawing smoothly continuously, you will get tight groups at 90 meters.
Watch your arrow move relative to your riser.
⧫ At anchor, trigger the clicker by using the muscles between your shoulder
blades to pull your shoulder blades together.
⧫ Let the clicker cause you to release the string. When you feel / hear the
click, relax your fingers. (Do not throw your fingers open. This is wrong on
many levels. It is impossible for you to move your fingers faster than the string.)
⧫ Your follow through should be your elbow continuing backward and your
hand sliding along your jaw bone. Your hand should be hanging limply under
your ear.
"De-escalation" by Carl Chinn
"Proper training ingrains the proper responses. Repetition is the mother of all skill.
With skill comes confidence. With confidence comes the ability to think under pressure
and make sound tactical decisions." -- Tom Givens
The more I study the shooting sports (IDPA and USPSA), the more I think they don't
relate much to combat. If you shoot such matches in a tactically correct manner, you're
going to come in dead last in any field. Because you're taking your time to think. The
other competitors are not thinking, they are acting; that is, they are executing a rehearsed
choreographed dance, where all movements (reloads, shooting positions, target positions,
etc.) are known before the start of the stage. Some will adjust the number of rounds in
each magazine to force reloads (dropping empty magazines, because there is a penalty
for dropping a magazine with ammo in it) at appropriate times. Last night I shot an
IDPA match that required the shooter to slice the pie and so take the targets in a particular
order, but the arrangement of the targets made this tactically suboptimal, because you had
to move out of cover to engage the targets in the prescribed order. I don't think any of the
other 60 shooters noticed this.
It's not the execution of the grand ploy that allows you to win,
it's the avoidance of the little mistakes that prevents you from losing (getting shot).
The competitors are racing to win the game. They don't care about hitting the wrong
target. That is the opposite of what you want to do in combat. In combat, you want to
move and shoot carefully and correctly. In civilian combat, you must never hit the wrong
target.
-- Jon Low
"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
Sentient Being vs. Being Sentient
-- Randy Harris
If you don't get it, stop, take your time, think about it.
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)
Please read this carefully.
"The Reactive Shooting Canard" by Dustin Salomon
---
"Without discrimination,
you're going to shoot the wrong person really fast."
-- Paul Howe
"Master the Basics
These three critical skills are imperative for proper handgun shooting."
by Steve Tarani
"If you’re not measuring your training,
what you’re doing is called playing."
-- Chris Sajnog
"In order to measure, we must be able to quantify."
-- Aaron Cowan
"Crime & Criminals: 2025 Update" by John Hearne, $28.52
Hat tip to Tiffany Johnson.
Online event
December 29th, 2025 A.D. from 7pm to 9pm CST
"When you're training to protect yourself and others, speed always comes last.
In the more than twenty-five years I've been training people in self-protection,
I've never heard from someone who used self-protection tools in the field and
felt like they suffered from a lack of speed at the moment of truth. In fact, I
usually hear the opposite: it's much more common to suffer from a lack of
accuracy or force."
-- Tim Larkin
"Jim Cirillo: Modern-Day Gunfighter"
Scroll down to see the chapters. Fascinating. Fear affects everyone differently.
"In reality, we are training for an unknown event, against unknown threats,
by developing as many known skills as possible."
-- Jeff Gonzales
"What You See: Lessons From John Hearne" by Massad Ayoob
"Having a gun is important.
But knowing WHEN to use it is even more important."
-- Greg Ellifritz
I watched a girl's hockey tournament this morning (28 November 2025) at the
Ford Ice Center in Antioch, TN. They come early, hauling a huge amount of gear,
and stretch and practice before their match. In preparation, they have practiced
regularly for years. They take private lessons with their coach. Such dedication!
Their lives don't depend on the outcome of the match.
The lives of their loved ones don't depend on the outcome of the match.
Do they train and practice more than you?
"Most deadly force encounters occur spontaneously, without warning and
at extremely close ranges. Realistically, you may not have the time or the
space to effectively draw, no matter how fast your draw stroke."
-- Jeff L. Gonzales
"Focusing Your Skills For Mastery" by Trident Concepts, LLC (Jeff L. Gonzales)
Progress, not perfection.
Speed is a natural by-product of good technique. So concentrate on accuracy.
Minimum (not maximum) half second splits allows you time to evaluate, to
think, to see, to process the information. Remember what Paul Howe said,
"Without discrimination, you're going to shoot the wrong person really fast."
How to allocate your time, talent, and treasure --
Primary:
1. shots from the ready
2. shots from the holster
3. shots to reduced size target (head shot, target obscured by cover, etc.)
4. multiple hits to body (failure to stop, because you missed, etc.)
5. half second splits
Secondary:
1. reloading
2. clearing malfunctions
3. draw strong-hand only, shooting strong-hand only
4. handling multiple threats
Tertiary:
1. challenging the threat (before drawing, with grip on pistol, from the ready,
while pointed in, etc.), tape look that you can recite without thought
2. shooting at longer ranges
3. low light work (hand-held flashlight, weapon mounted light, etc.)
---
I [Jon Low] would add:
Secondary:
1. drawing weak-hand only, shooting weak-hand only
2. reloading strong-hand only, reloading weak-hand only
3. reducing stoppages strong-hand only, reducing stoppages weak-hand only
Remember Murphy's Law -- "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong,
at the worst possible time."
The only way to defeat Murphy's Law is to eliminate anything that can go
wrong. NEVER do anything that can induce Task Overload Confusion.
ALWAYS carry the same pistol in the same location. ALWAYS carry factory
new ammunition. Clean and lubricate your gear before initial use, after every
use, and monthly if carried and not used. Every cleaning is an inspection. So,
you will discover the broken spring in your trigger group during cleaning, not
during combat.
What is the primary thing you can do to minimize the probability of a mishap?
get TRAINING and PRACTICE (dry practice counts)!
"There are three different areas, or disciplines,
in which the armed person must train.
These are mindset, gun handling, and marksmanship.
Each is equally important, and you must be at least
competent in all three areas."
-- Tom Givens
"A mistake that makes you humble is better
than an achievement that makes you arrogant."
-- Nicola Cavanis
We make our mistakes in training and practice,
so we don't make them in combat.
Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, at the worst possible time.
The only way to defeat Murphy's Law is to eliminate anything that can go wrong.
That means preventative maintenance on ALL of your equipment. Check magazine
springs and change them if they are weak. Always use factory new ammunition.
Carry the same pistol in the same position, all the time. I could go on, but you get
the idea.
“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
I am amazed by these gun schools that offer many different classes.
I work about ¼ time on preparing my classes, including: attending conferences,
attending other instructor's classes as a paying student, assisting other instructors
with their classes, researching and preparing my newsletter for my student's continuing
education, answering student's questions (usually by email), asking questions of my
mentors and colleagues, and such.
I work about ½ time for income. I work my retirement job, armed security, 2 or 3
days a week, 12 hours a day.
The other ¼ of my time is baby sitting the grand kids and life maintenance stuff.
A lot of dental work. I've got a mouth full of implants. I got 3 teeth extracted, just
in time for this past Halloween. Not good for my modeling career.
I only teach one class, Defensive Pistol (an expansion of the NRA Defensive
Pistol course and similar to the Front Sight 4-day handgun course). I spend a lot
of time rewriting my curriculum, because I learn things in every class that I attend
or assist with.
In the past, I attempted to teach other classes, but the research to prepare and
update a class consumes a huge amount of time.
So, I am amazed by these gun schools that offer many different classes.
A reader of this newsletter searched the internet for my book,
"Defensive Pistol", by ISBN and found it in the Ramapo Catskill Library System.
Ramapo Catskill Library System Serving Public Libraries in
Orange, Rockland, Sullivan, and Southern Ulster Counties, NY.
"Practical Concealed Carry Tips They Don’t Teach Anymore"
by InSights Training Network
Hat tip to Docent.
Stephannie Weidner and Kaery Dudenhofer
Stephannie gives a detailed description of the aftermath of a negligent discharge,
an avalanche of repercussions.
Excerpt:
"You and I are both graduates of the Force Science Institute
and we know that our brain doesn't always see what is there.
And doesn't always process it in a way that we think that it should.
So we are always at risk for something like this [a negligent discharge]."
It's not enough to point the pistol in a safe direction when dry practicing.
You must point at something that will stop the bullet. Your body armor,
perhaps.
Other ways to ensure there is no cartridge in the chamber --
Barrel block (colored plastic sticks out of the muzzle).
String your gun (run a brightly colored cord through the barrel and
magazine well and tie a knot with the two ends).
Chamber check, magazine check (one second of cheap insurance).
"Steph Weidner, ASP: Lessons from Life, Business & Training | Defenders LIVE -P"
by Lora Thorson
Excerpts:
Personal responsibility and having a defensive mindset is a choice.
(Some people refuse to think about it.)
"I was willing to die to protect my children (five children all under the age of 10 years),
but that wouldn't do any good, because if I were dead, I wouldn't be able to defend anyone."
Professional ethics. Some instructors don't know what they don't know.
Power differentials. Boundaries.
*************************************************************************
Apparently this concept hasn't been passed along to those DC elitists who
have us $38 trillion in debt, nor the Nashville establishment that grew our TN
budget by 59% in just six years ($37.5 billion in 2019 to $59.5 billion in 2025).
Foreign spending by the DC crowd is killing the dollar and corporate welfare
spending in TN is taking too many dollars from our pockets.
Liberty & Less Govt must be the direction forward.
-- Monty Fritts
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Psychology --------------------------------
"Be stronger than your strongest excuse."
-- Nicola Cavanis
Email from Orion Taraban, Psy.D. --
"Notes from a runner."
Wednesday, November 19th, 2025
I'm a runner. I run long distances several times a week – and have done so for
over 10 years. But never once have I enjoyed running. I run because I like how
I feel afterwards. However, I don't find the activity itself satisfying or pleasant in
the least. Most of the time, I'm doing math in my head, trying to calculate exactly
how much longer I have to run before I can stop.
That said, being a runner has taught me a number of important lessons.
One of them is that you only ever have to be able to do half. Reaching the halfway
point of any run indicates that I can make it all the way. Why? Because I now
have both the evidence and the lived experience that what lies ahead is within
my power to complete. After all, I had just finished as much.
If you can finish half a project, you can finish the whole thing. All you have to
do is what you've already done. And of course, this reasoning can be expanded
ad infinitum. Define your objectives in terms of smaller and smaller goals, and
you can make your larger accomplishments foregone conclusions. Try it out for
yourself.
This week's behavioral experiment:
What is the smallest next step you can take in the direction of your goals? Do that.
Warmly,
Orion
[Apparently, Orion is one of those who has never achieved the runner's high.
The euphoria that many runners experience. How sad. Orion is at one end of
the spectrum. At the other end are those who enjoy the euphoria so much that
they push themselves for more, until they die. Oh yes, there are many
documented cases of such. Horses will run till they die if pushed to by a stupid
rider. That scene in "True Grit" is quite real.
-- Jon Low]
“Training deals not with an object,
but with the human spirit and human emotions.”
--Bruce Lee
They are not evil. They just believe things that are not true.
Any government program requires taxes extracted from the tax payers by coercion.
Failure to pay taxes get you fined, arrest, imprisoned, etc. So you can't opt out.
Liberty without responsibility is nothing more than licentiousness.
"Train and practice so that you can stay in your rational mind,
and force your enemy into his emotional mind. The emotional
mind makes bad judgments which will allow you to win."
-- John Hearne
How to assess a person. (Also known as registering the person.)
"What The CIA Really Thinks Happened to Jeffrey Epstein . . . "
by Andrew Bustamante
You must be curious. Assume that what you know is WRONG.
Faking a death is how you evacuate a person from a foreign country,
when you don't want anyone to know that he has been evacuated.
Complicated, but so fun.
"Experts getting out of their own way,
to allow outsiders to observe and recommend"
by Diana Kander
Excerpt: (paraphrased)
Generally speaking, experts are so arrogant that they cannot get out of their own
way to take advice from anyone else. Deaths result.
[That is why God tells us to be humble. You can't learn if you are arrogant. -- Jon Low]
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Conferences --------------------------------
Attending classes and conferences is required for growth.
Stagnation is complacency. Complacency kills. Even worse,
your complacency will kill your students.
"The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword;
because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force
superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense,
raised in the United States."
-- Noah Webster
2A Freedom Fest, Free
9TH ANNUAL 2A FREEDOM FEST (2026)
February 21, 2026
9:30 am - 5:00 pm
7700 SE 129 Place
Summerfield, FL 34491
United States
Organizer: Kevin Sona
Email: kevins@2afreedomfestival.com
Rangemaster Tactical Conference, $639
TacCon26 is scheduled for
March 27-29, 2026
at the Dallas Pistol Club in Carrollton, Texas
Check out this video.
Jeff Struecker was a U.S. Army Ranger with the 75th Ranger Regiment deployed
to Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993 as part of Operation Gothic Serpent. That battle was
depicted in the movie “Black Hawk Down.” See a preview of what he will be
presenting at SOS.26,
Security Operations Summit 2026, $150.00
July 23-25, 2026 A.D.
With hands-on pre-event options on Wednesday, July 22nd!
Wednesday to Saturday, so as not to interfere with church on Sunday.
Southeast Christian Church
920 Blankenbaker Parkway
Louisville, KY 40243
Bullets & Bibles 2026 (The registration fee is a tax deductible charitable donation).
Friday, August 21, 2026 – Sunday, August 23, 2026
Hosted at Living Water Ranch, north of Manhattan, KS.
Food and lodging included in registration price.
The Guardian Conference, $700 early bird, $800
September 18th - 20th, 2026 in Oklahoma City, OK.
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Classes --------------------------------
Attending classes and conferences is required to avoid teaching
obsolete material, and to ensure you are teaching best practices.
Gunsite Academy
928-636-4565
Classes,
Lee Weems
Massad Ayoob Group
Blog
West Coast Armory North
Active Response Training, Greg Ellifritz
Rangemaster Certified Instructors
Map of Rangemaster Certified Instructors
Dustin Salomon
KR Training
Kari Grayson
Citizens Safety Academy
Carry Trainer, Mickey Schuch
Paladin Training, Inc.
Citizen-Defender, John Murphy
Virginia Private Firearms Training (for private lessons), John Murphy
Defensive Training International, John Farnam
Rangemaster, Tom Givens
Trident Concepts, Jeff Gonzales
Apache Solutions, Tim Kelly
"Low Light One: Defensive Application In Compromised Lighting Conditions"
by Tim Kelly
Harris Combative Strategies, Randy Harris
Mead Hall Range & Tactics
Two Pillars Training, John Hearne
Classes,
Mike Seeklander
NRA Instructors and their classes.
‟Training is NOT an event, but a process.
Training is the preparation FOR practice.”
-- Claude Werner
*************************************************************************
Su Eda, "I ate my banana."
You ever notice that the Turkish language is very similar to Japanese?
*****************************************************************************
"Now there's a happy smile."
------------------------------ Practice --------------------------------
How to get proficient at that task.
"People rust faster than equipment."
-- John Hearne
Last night, 20 November 2025 A.D., I went to an IDPA match at Royal Range
hosted by the Average Joe Shooting Team. They hold IDPA matches on the 1st
and 3rd Thursday of every month. Four stages, indoor, air conditioned, large
clean restrooms; a nice facility.
As usual, the ~60 persons (~15 per stage, 4 stages) had a wide variety of
equipment and skill levels. Unfortunately, there were a lot of equipment failures
due to bad ammo (she had reloaded the ammo herself), dirty pistols
("I can't remember the last time I cleaned it. I don't need to clean it."),
and fancy pistols that had had too much work done on them (the action was so tight
[for accuracy, don't you know] that it would not function unless recently cleaned
and lubricated).
Lessons learned:
Use factory new ammo.
Clean your pistol (and all other equipment) before first use, after every use,
and monthly if carried and not used (because your body is a moist warm
environment that will rust the small springs in your trigger group), and
because lint, dust, your sweat, and dead skin will accumulate on your pistol
and stink.
Combat pistols (self-defense is combat) should rattle when you shake them.
They need to be that loose to be reliable. Tight actions are fine for target shooting.
For combat, loose reliability actions are paramount.
"Remember, the day you plant the seed is not the day you earn the fruit."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"Friday Fundamentals for 2026" by tacticalprofessor (Claude Werner)
Excerpt:
"For the past two years, I’ve been writing a monthly column for the digital
edition of the NRA magazine Shooting Illustrated.
Sadly, we authors have been notified that both the digital and print editions
of the magazine will cease to be published at the end of this year [2025 A.D.]."
"Your speed doesn't matter. Forward is forward."
-- Nicola Cavanis
“Willingness is a state of mind. Readiness is a statement of fact!”
-- Lt. Gen. David M Shoup, USMC Commandant 1960-1963
"Remember, growing may feel like breaking at first."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"You have to be lucky to win. And the more you practice, the luckier you get."
-- Col. Lones Wigger
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
"Good habits and skill beat luck every time."
-- Sheriff Jim Wilson
‶Practice is the small deposits you make over time,
so that in an emergency, you can make that big withdrawal.″
-- Chesley Burnett Sullenberger, III
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
"Why are the little things called little things?
They are everything."
-- Nicola Cavanis
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Intervention ***** ***** *****
Suggestions on how to deal with the incident that you failed to avoid.
Table of sections:
Strategy
Tactics
Techniques
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Strategy --------------------------------
Deciding on the end state and how to achieve it.
“How do you win a gunfight?
Don't be there.”
-- John Farnam
"MAP: Where have Austin’s homicides occurred in 2025?"
by Christopher Adams
Greg Ellifritz's comments --
Most big city newspapers have articles like this at the end of the calendar year.
They are solid gold tactical information. The map is useful in identifying “hot spots”
you should probably avoid, but the synopsis of each murder case is what is really
important. Read about the circumstances of each case and think about how you
can use that information to avoid being killed yourself.
"You win gunfights by not getting shot."
-- John Holschen
"Never let fear decide your fate."
-- Nicola Cavanis
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Tactics --------------------------------
Maneuver and fire in support of your strategy.
“Fortuitous outcomes reinforce poor tactics.”
-- Chuck Haggard
"Defender Casts Fireball To Repel Armed Robbers" by Active Self Protection
I took a class from Stephannie at the Bullets & Bibles conference.
“When you’re in the dark, stay in the dark;
when you’re in the light, light up the dark.”
-- Stephen P. Wenger
"Bullets Follow Walls – Explained" by Travis Pike
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
"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
---
When was last time you practiced your in-holster weapon retention skills?
Have you taken a class to learn such techniques?
-- Jon Low
---
". . . if the assailant has a gun, it may actually be the easiest
gun for you to access, if you know how to take it from him."
-- Stephen P. Wenger
[Take John Farnam's class on weapon retention and disarming. -- Jon Low]
"THREE STEP Force-On-Force COUNTER ATTACK DRILL"
by Suarez Tactics
or
“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.)
"Slow and Methodical CQB Tactics Prevents Tragedy" by Kinetic Concepts
". . . only shoot as fast as you can assess, and . . . assess after each shot,
both of which we should be training to do all the time anyway."
-- Ralph Mroz, "Street Focused Handgun Training"
Email from Claude Werner --
"Boyd on Weapon Capabilities"
Failing to include Boyd’s Aerial Attack Study in the study of Boyd’s Process
leaves out a significant part of Boyd’s concepts. The AAS is almost diametrically
opposite to how most people think of the ‘OODA Loop.’ Ignoring it is a huge
mistake at the tactical level.
“Tactics – … – are developed according to the performance capabilities or
limitations of the weapons or weapons systems used. In other words, effective
tactics reflect the best way to employ a given weapon against a given enemy
with known or estimated capabilities. Assuming this to be true, tactics are
functional – that is, they reflect the capabilities and limitations of the opponent’s
weapons as well as our own. Therefore, in our discussion of [personal protection],
we must determine the operation envelopes of our weapons systems (this includes
the [operator] and [his/her] associated armament).”
– Introduction to the Aerial Attack Study by John Boyd . . .
*********************************************************************************
"One major omission by Boyd in his work is exploring the iterative nature
of the O-O-D-A Loops of Attackers and Defenders." -- Claude Werner
*********************************************************************************
"Superior judgment trumps superior skills." -- Dan Millican
"Are Warning Shots Worth It? Legal Consequences After Firing Your Gun"
by Rachel A. Moss (criminal defense attorney)
Read that table of mental states carefully.
Read the table of burdens of proof carefully.
Excerpt:
In North Carolina, a person who fires a warning shot in response to deadly
physical force is not entitled to a self-defense jury instruction. North Carolina
courts have found someone must shoot to kill or injure their aggressor to be
entitled to the instruction.
---
Jon's opinion --
Firing a warning shot is an act of criminal stupidity. The safest backstop to
shoot into is the assailant, and he might not stop the bullet. You will not be
on a multi-million-dollar range with soft dirt berms to catch your bullets.
Every warning shot downward will ricochet off the concrete sidewalk,
the asphalt pavement, or a rock in the ground, injuring someone, maybe you.
Every warning shot upward will come down on someone's head, maybe
killing him.
Every warning shot will destroy property and injure innocent bystanders,
maybe killing them.
If you immediately feared death or serious bodily injury, you would have
shot the assailant. The fact that you did not shoot the assailant is prima facie
evidence that you did not have the requisite state of mind to shoot at all.
"Real fights are short." -- Bruce Lee
"Hostage Targets:
Dangerous Practice — or Useful Skill?"
by Ralph Mroz & Claude Werner
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger.
Stephen's comment --
I was trained – and taught in my CWP course – that life partners should use a
code word, such as “relax,” in the event that one is taken hostage. As the non-hostage
partner seeks the attention of the hostage taker by negotiation, the hostage monitors
for a shift of focus to the negotiator and a loosening of the hold on him. When the
hostage feels that, he says something such as, “Relax, just do as he says.”
This signals that, within the next few seconds, the hostage will go limp and drop
low enough for the partner to take the rescue shot.
"The shorter the fight, the less hurt you get."
-- John Holschen
"How Fast Can You Run?
Can you get out of trouble when it's time to go?"
by Shelley Hill
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
"You often don't know where the bad guy is who is shooting at you."
-- Phillip Groff
“People shoot you because they see you.
They see you because you let them.
Don’t let them see you.”
-- Clint Smith
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Techniques --------------------------------
Ways to execute a given task in support of your tactics,
especially when disabled or under stress.
It's not strength. It's technique.
Thanks to Tom Givens.
Tom will be retiring in 2027 A.D. So take a class from him before he does.
"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
"Move and Shoot or Shoot and then Move?" by Travis Pike
Excerpt:
"Sadly, I’m beginning to think there is never a simple answer when it
comes to anything to do with guns, self-defense, or shooting in general."
---
Compare to what John Holschen taught.
---
When you shoot a stage in an IDPA match or an IPSC match, the entire event is
planned (your path, when you're going to reload, etc.) and choreographed. That's
what the "walk through" is for.
But, in self-defense, every decision is in response to the enemy's "surprise" actions.
Not quite the same.
Even quality force-on-force training is against trained role actors. Not necessarily
displaying the behaviors of an erratic drugged up violent criminal. And never doing
the meth dance.
"It's not daily increase but daily decrease - hack away at the inessentials!"
-- Bruce Lee
"How to Shoot Better at 25 Yards" by Chris Baker
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
---
If you want to avoid anticipating the shot, DO NOT intentionally fire the shot.
Rather, line up the sights, touch the trigger, take the slack out of the trigger, and
repeat your mantra "Keep Pressing, Keep Pressing, Keep Pressing, . . . "
Thanks to Kaery Dudenhofer.
As Jeff Cooper taught, the surprise trigger break defeats all of your autonomic
nervous system responses to the report and recoil. By not allowing your brain to
know exactly when the shot is released, the bullet will be out of the muzzle before
any flinch, jerk, push, freeze, etc. So, the bullet will impact where you aimed it.
When you achieve a surprise break, you will have an epiphany. It will be like
magic, amazing. Any sufficiently advanced technology will appear to be magic
to the ignorant. The human is God's masterpiece of technology, far more advanced
that modern medicine can comprehend.
“What’s the number one reason for reloading?
Missing the target!”
-- Claude Werner
This is in the technique section because as stated in the article, it takes a different
technique to shoot a red dot sight than to shoot iron sights.
"Red Dot vs. Iron Sights: Which is Better?"
by Richard Nance and James Tarr, with photography by Alfredo Rico
Excerpt:
The one that most people seem to refuse to acknowledge is speed. Red dots are
slower. Studies have shown that, no matter your skill level, you’re a bit slower with
a red dot than iron sights at realistic defensive distances. In a defensive situation,
speed is a tactic. Whoever scores the first hit usually wins.
"Grip first, then press."
-- Mike Seeklander
"The vision behind precision
Train more than just your trigger finger"
by Todd Fletcher
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
"Why grip strength matters more than you think
A strong, consistent grip shapes accuracy, control and confidence —
and it remains critical even as trigger skills evolve or injuries set in"
by Warren Wilson
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
"Use only that which works,
and take it from any place you can find it."
-- Bruce Lee
Hello Jonathan,
Your grip controls recoil, speed, and accuracy. If your grip fails, your shots fail.
You can have perfect sights and a clean trigger press, but poor grip mechanics will
still ruin your performance. You can fix this by mastering three rules that good
shooters follow on every single shot. These rules apply to training, competition,
and most definitely real-world use.
Consistent placement
You must grip the gun the same way every time. High on the backstrap, with both
thumbs pointing downrange. Weak-hand locked into the same position on every
draw. Your hands should meet the gun without hesitation. This removes wasted
motion and cuts time to first shot. Many shooters lose time because they try to
correct their grip after the gun is already up. That costs speed and consistency.
Or they run with a poor grip; which can be just as bad. vThe goal should be to
develop a consistent grip whenever the gun leaves the holster.
Constant pressure
You must keep the same pressure from the first shot to the last. Most shooters
grip hard on the first shot and then relax as recoil builds. When pressure drops,
the gun shifts and follow-up shots slow down. Your splits grow. Your accuracy
drops. Set your grip pressure before the first shot and hold it through the entire
string. If the gun moves in your hands, your pressure is too low. Film your
shooting and watch for movement between shots. The camera never lies.
Crushing force
You must actively squeeze the gun. Apply force to as much surface area as
possible just shy of vibrating or shaking. The secret is applying extreme force
with the pinkies and working your way up the rest of the digits. This reduces
muzzle rise and keeps the sights tracking flatter. More force equals less
movement and faster shot recovery. More force can even minimize poor
trigger control because the gun moves less with a crush grip. If your sights
bounce high and wide, your force level is too low.
Train these three rules every session. Apply them on every rep.
Test them under speed. Your performance depends on it.
Good luck. Stay safe or be dangerous.
JLG
P.S. Feel free to share this with any like-minded folks who might benefit.
"Denn jedes Mal, wenn was geht, ist Platz für Neues.
Und wenn es gestern nicht sein soll, dann klappt es heut 🦋"
-- Nicola Cavanis
There are many techniques for doing any given task.
Search and experiment until you find one that you can perform reliably.
"The foundations of your grip are established
before you even draw the pistol from the holster."
-- Tanner Denton
"Ineffective and potentially dangerous, point shooting should be avoided
at all costs and aimed fire employed in any lethal-force scenario."
-- Massad Ayoob
"The secret is applying extreme force with the pinkies and
working your way up the rest of the digits."
-- Jeff L. Gonzales
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Postvention ***** ***** *****
Suggestions on how to treat your wounds or the wounds of your loved ones.
Suggestions on how to avoid prosecution, conviction, and prison time.
Suggestions on how to avoid the civil law suit and judgment.
Table of Sections:
Aftermath
Medical
Survival
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Aftermath --------------------------------
You must be alive to have these problems: criminal and civil liability.
“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
"Should You Report a Grizzly Bear Self-Defense Shooting?"
by Dean Weingarten
---
In my classes, I tell my students to imagine there is a mosquito on your arm.
Swat the mosquito. Most students will. Some won't. I then explain that the mosquito
is carrying West Nile virus that will kill them and their children. At this point, just
about all students will kill the mosquito. That is the way you must view your assailant.
Otherwise, you will hesitate, and the assailant will kill you, and your children.
Which is what grizzly bears will do. Sorry, that's reality.
In urban areas in the U.S. the clearance rate for murders is ~50%. Murders are the
most important crimes. So other lesser crimes have much lower clearance rates.
In rural areas, the clearance rate is much lower.
To clear a crime, means that the police are satisfied that they have a suspect for the
case. At that point the case gets turned over to the prosecutor.
If you talk to any prosecutor, he will tell you that the primary evidence that he will
use at trial is the suspects statements. So if you keep your mouth shut, it's very difficult
to convict you. If the case is difficult, the prosecutor won't take it to trial. Because the
prosecutor's record of convictions vs. acquittals is his reputation, which he will passionately
guard. That's reality.
If the prosecutor sees an expensive competent defense attorney and big money (in
the form of your self-defense insurance policy from a company that actually pays claims)
he will be scared to take the case to trial, even when politically motivated by political
donors. Remember, the prosecutor has limited funds for your case. You're not the big
time drug dealer or cartel boss (at least I hope you're not). So you probably have more
money than he does to expend on your case. Think about that.
In the right hand column, click on the link labeled "Self Defense Insurance".
Or, the link is,
Read this before you buy insurance. You need to make an informed decision.
The various policies are drastically different.
"You need to read the fine print." -- Massad Ayoob
“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
In the right hand column of this web page, click on "Never Talk To The Police"
or use the address,
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Medical --------------------------------
"If you prepare for the emergency,
the emergency ceases to exist!"
-- Sherman House
"Vision 2 with Paul Howe"
"Grid-Down Medical Care Podcast Appearance" by Greg Ellifritz
"The New Mountain Man Medical Chest Seal Trainer:
Clean, Reusable, and Essential for Real Training"
by Mountain Man Medical
"Medical Series Pt. 1 – The Armed Citizen’s Duty: Why Medical Training Matters"
by Jacob Paulsen
"Medical Series Pt.2 – Stop the Bleed: Essential Trauma Skills for Armed Citizens"
by Jacob Paulsen
"Medical Series Pt.3 – The Armed Citizen’s Medical Kit: Essential Equipment and Setup"
by Jacob Paulsen
"Medical Series Pt. 4 – Legal Considerations: Rendering Aid as an Armed Citizen"
by Jacob Paulsen
---
[If you haven't prepared your tourniquet by removing it from the plastic wrapper,
folding it correctly, and placing it in a place where you know it will be; it's going to
take you a long time to properly apply it on the victim. Similarly for every other
piece of your equipment.
As a civilian defender, your primary objective is to escape the attack. Rendering
aid to the assailant is NOT escaping from the attacker. In fact, it is moving toward
the attacker. Now there is excellent opportunity for the assailant to attack you again.
And there is excellent opportunity for the plaintiff's attorney to argue that you did
not render aid, rather you made sure the assailant was dead by killing him, when he
would have survived, if you had left him alone. The smart move as always is to
find cover while awaiting the responding officers or to leaving the scene because it
is not safe for you and your loved ones.
-- Jon Low]
"Sword Wounds" by Docent
Tactical Emergency Casualty Care Course - NAEMT Certified, $495.00
Tracey Mendenhall | VP of Operations
(Life Saving Ninja)
DEFEND SYSTEMS
(615) 480-7758
Why it's good to lose weight, if you're overweight.
“Your character is what you do when no one is looking.”
-- Thomas Jefferson
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Survival --------------------------------
"Survival is not based solely on technique. Survivability may hinge on the use
of the correct technique appropriate to the environment you are fighting in.
Oh, and yes, marksmanship is always valuable."
-- Clint Smith
"Oklahoma City police investigating after shooting suspect calls police
Oklahoma City police are investigating a northwest OKC convenience store shooting"
by Christian Hans and Jarred Burk
---
"I heard the employee on a rebroadcast of The Vince Show last night.
She has already been fired for violating 7-Eleven's carry ban and she made
it very clear that she valued her life more than her job."
-- Stephen P. Wenger
---
"7-Eleven Clerk Shows Why Self-Defense Can Still Ruin Your Life"
by Colion Noir
---
I will never buy from 7-Eleven. Vote with your dollars.
"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
Hip mobility exercises.
"Survival is a mindset, not a skill set."
-- Greg Shaffer
Whether you believe you can or can't, you're right.
Stop saying, "I can't do that." and start saying, "I'll figure this out."
Yes, I can do that.
‟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
"October Was Deadliest Bear Attack Month In Japan" by Docent
Excerpt:
"This is what happens to a disarmed population."
---
[The bears eat the people. And you thought all your training was to protect
yourself from human predators. The 88 maulings were that the bear got full
and left, and the human survived (at least long enough for the incident to be
reported). Bears, unlike other predators, don't necessarily kill their prey before
eating it, unless they are feeding their young. And sometimes not even when
feeding their young. Fresh food you know. They have been known to drag the
living prey into their den to feed the young. You ever see bears eating salmon?
They will eat tasty parts and throw the rest away. The fish is often still alive,
at least for a little while. There are a lot of parts of the human that aren't very
good eating or hard to get to. Ever try cracking a skull to get to the brain?
It's not like a coconut. It's much harder and stronger. The bears know,
so lots of humans survive, at least for a little while.
I lived in New Jersey when they outlawed bear hunting. Within a couple of
years the bear attacks on humans skyrocketed. Won't read or hear about it on
the news. Doesn't fit the narrative, don't you know. But the death counts tell
the story. But the politicians live in the cities, they don't care. And even if the
bears came into the cities, the politicians have bodyguards, so they still wouldn't
care. Because they would never be affected.
-- Jon Low]
"Free State Maps & Travel Guides"
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
"Project: Outfit A Starlink Mini for Emergency Communications"
by Paul T. Martin
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
The sleeper cells are being activated. I strongly suggest that everyone
should be vigilant of their surroundings during this holiday season.
Don’t become a victim because you weren’t prepared.
-- Van L. Evans
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Education ***** ***** *****
Table of contents:
Legal
Instruction
Gear
*************************************************************************
"Cogito, ergo armatum sum." (I think, therefore armed am I.)
-- John Farnam
2025 Training Survey
Please help out by taking the survey.
"Gun & Prepping News #56" by Docent
Excerpt:
As much as I like to malign the poor souls who carry small guns
(it’s not the guns fault its small, its the owners fault for carrying it),
the truth is that for civilian self defense in America, the size, capacity,
and shootability of the gun is actually not that important most of the time.
Situational awareness trumps gun size any day. Good tactics trumps the
size of your gun. A moderate amount of skill trumps guns size most days.
Having the gun on you all the time certainly trumps a bigger gun left in
the range bag.
"Terrified New Gun Owners Say the Same Thing . . . " by Colion Noir
Kanye West.
Taylor Lowery.
Taylor Lowery
"Head Shots - When and How?" by Dick Fairburn
"Nice quote about free men and their guns . . ." by AJAX556
"Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes,
I read the book in middle school.
Rangemaster DECEMBER 2025 NEWSLETTER
Excerpt:
March 27-29, Tac Con, Dallas, TX
The annual Tactical Conference
Still a handful of tickets left. [I find this amazing. TacCon used to sell out within
hours of the tickets going on sale. The only reason I was able to get a ticket in 2024
was that Tom sent me an email with the early purchase web site. -- Jon Low]
---
Free Educational Resources
Active Self Protection (analysis videos)
Active Self Protection Extra (training videos)
Active Self Protection (classes and such)
Active Self Protection (live training classes)
Active Self Protection Podcast (where defenders tell their stories)
"Defenders LIVE" by Lora Thorson
Citizen-Defender, John Murphy
Blog posts,
Rangemaster Newsletter, Tom Givens
Active Self Protection, John Correia
"My Gun Culture" by Tom McHale
Quips, John Farnam
Active Response Training, Greg Ellifritz
The Tactical Professor, Claude Werner
American Handgunner Magazine
Tactical Science
International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors
Alien Gear blog
Shooting Classes Blog
"You will never get smarter or broaden your horizons
if you're unwilling to learn from others and read."
-- Becca Martin
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Legal --------------------------------
"Firearms are second only to the constitution in importance,
they are the people's liberty's teeth." -- George Washington
“Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore,
be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not
to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean
everything or nothing at pleasure.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1823)
Massad Ayoob: 5 Cases Where You Should Settle or Plea Bargain
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpt:
It grinds my teeth as much as it does yours to see an innocent, wrongfully
accused man or woman plead guilty to anything, or have to pay anything.
But this column is not about how you or I would like things to be—it is about
how things are. The stark reality of the criminal and civil justice systems is
that sometimes a plea bargain in the one or a settlement in the other is the
best option for the defendant and his family.
This is why people call for defunding the police.
" 'Tennessee got it right.' FOX 17 News investigation leads to new 'sober dui' law "
by FOX NASHVILLE
Over 600 false DUI arrest per year in Tennessee. Elect Bill Lee and this is what you get.
Lots of people told him about this problem. He could have fixed it. But it didn't affect him
or any elite, so why bother?
Please view this video, because knowledge is power and ignorance is tragic.
This is why people call for defunding the police.
"UPDATE: Felonies for Self-Defense Against Town Official"
by Liberty Doll
---
(in)Defensible: One man’s fight to prove self-defense
against a top small-town fire official
“This case says that if you’re in a small town and somebody who is in the in-crowd
decides to victimize you, you could have some problems”
by Dave Biscobing
“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
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
-- Second Amendment, Constitution of the United States of America
Don't chase bad guys. Let the cops do it. That's what you pay them for.
"Michigan man charged after fatally shooting teen who broke into garage"
by Mikella Schuettler
"Chasing Thief In Underwear:
Canadian chases a thief in his underwear in freezing temperature"
by Faded
Hat tip to Claude Werner.
"Sent To Prison For Defending Himself - THIS Is Why We Fight Anti Gun Laws"
by Guns & Gadgets 2nd Amendment News (Jared Yanis)
No one in their right mind would live in New York City. No one in their right
mind would visit New York City.
"Calls for Derek Chauvin pardon go viral after shocking
court filing alleges prosecutorial misconduct"
by Alpha News
"California Restricts ALL Gun Parts??" by GlockStore (Lenny Magill)
"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
Bad gun control laws.
"Why Do DEFENDERS Get CHARGED?" by Active Self Protection Extra
(Kaery Dudenhofer)
Sometimes the cops and prosecutor are just incompetent. That's why you MUST
have a self-defense insurance policy.
You may have heard of this when it happened in Kentucky.
There is always another side to a story. Often many other sides.
Dear Jonathan:
This past week, I finished an amicus brief for the U.S. Supreme Court on
gun-free zones in Wolford et al. v. Lopez, a case out of Hawaii.
I prepared the brief with the California Peace Officers Research Association
and the California Association of Highway Patrolmen. It draws extensively
on our research—citing sixteen of my papers, including three co-authored
with our research director, Carl Moody.
The brief leans especially heavily on our newly updated study comparing
how armed civilians and uniformed police stop what the FBI defines as
active-shooting attacks.
I believe this research will prove crucial. Many people simply don’t grasp
how extraordinarily difficult it is for police to stop these attacks.
Their uniforms make them immediately identifiable, giving attackers a tactical
advantage. Shooters can wait for officers to leave, pick a different location,
or target the officers first. These dynamics increase the risks officers face while
limiting their ability to prevent or halt attacks.
I hope you read the new paper and see how substantial these factors are.
For example, armed civilians not only stop more of these attacks than
police do, but police are also eleven times more likely to be killed when
responding.
The research has angered gun-control advocates, and Newsweek
published a “news” article summarizing their criticisms.
Devin Hughes, who runs the gun-control site GVPedia, told Newsweek,
“The paper is fraud, which I do not use lightly.” He argues that we failed
to follow the FBI’s definition of active shootings because we excluded
incidents involving gang violence, drug-related violence, or shootings
tied to other criminal activity. The frustrating part is that the FBI’s
own reports clearly show they exclude exactly those cases — yet even
after I pointed this out, the reporter merely updated the article to say
that I claimed it wasn’t true.
Dan Webster, a professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health
and a recipient of extensive Michael Bloomberg funding, also attacked
the work. He asserted, “Lott has promoted — with flawed data and
logic — the idea that the USA has so many mass shootings because
we have too many gun-free zones.” You can read their claims and my
responses and judge the arguments for yourself.
I wish we had a thousandth of the funding Webster's Center for Gun Violence Solutions gets.
Crime Prevention Research Center
358 S 700 E, Ste B, B409, Salt Lake City, UT 84102
johnrlott@crimeresearch.org
(484) 802-5373
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Instruction --------------------------------
"Remember,
the students who require the extra effort
are the ones who need us the most!"
-- John Farnam
*************************************************************************
----- Instructors -----
“Qui docet, discet.” (Who teaches, learns.)
-- American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers
"That is either a very stupid question or a very deep question.
I will assume it is the deep question and I will answer accordingly."
-- Prof. Baltay
I think all instructors should follow Prof. Baltay's example.
You need not make the statement, just answer the deep question,
if you can, or say, "I don't know. I will have to do some research.
I will get back to you and the other students via email when I
find a satisfactory answer."
“He who dares to teach must never cease to learn.”
-- Richard Henry Dana
"Every time I teach a class,
I discover I don't know something."
-- Clint Smith
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
"You must teach skill sustainment as part of training."
-- John Hearne
"Your curriculum needs to be recent, relevant, and realistic."
-- Austin Killmer
"The limited time you spend with students may be the only training they ever receive!"
-- John Farnam
“The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other.
Without collaboration, our growth is limited to our own perspectives.”
-- Robert John Meehan
“The student’s purpose is to expand their body of knowledge and social network.
The instructor’s purpose is to help the student achieve the student’s goals.”
-- Amy Schwartz
"A false path will always be tensely, angrily, violently defended by those
it has deceived, because who are so easily deceived are ever too arrogant to repent.”
-- Instructional axiom
Colonel Robert Lindsey to his fellow trainers:
"We are not God's gift to our students.
Our students are God's gift to us."
************************************************************************
----- Students -----
"Try.
Try again.
Try once more.
Try differently.
Try again tomorrow.
Try and ask for help.
Try find someone who's done it.
Try to fix the problem.
Keep trying until you succeed."
-- Nicola Cavanis
“It may seem difficult at first but everything is difficult at first.”
-- Miyamota Mushashi
"It's better to be wrong than to be vague."
-- Freeman Dyson
“Train, Practice, Compete
are the key elements in the development of humans.”
-- John M. Buol, Jr.
"Keep in mind that this is some seriously next level material.
It is totally normal that the first time you see this stuff, you find
it confusing. You find it difficult to understand. So, confusion
should not discourage you. It does not represent any intellectual
failing on your part. Rather, keep in mind that it represents an
opportunity to get even smarter."
– Tim Roughgarden, Professor of Computer Science and other
stuff at Stanford University
*************************************************************************
----- Andragogy (as opposed to pedagogy) -----
‟An instructor should not expect any learning to
take place the first time new information is presented.”
-- ‶Building Shooters″ by Dustin Salomon
"Growth is uncomfortable because you've never been there before."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"Thinking is the hardest thing a person can do.
That's why so few people do it."
-- Henry Ford
*************************************************************************
I love spaghetti. (Appendix)
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Gear --------------------------------
And the safe storage thereof.
The best gun for home defense is the one that you practice with the most.
The best gun for concealed carry is the one that you practice with the most.
"What Is Really Going On With The SIG P320? | Ben Stoeger"
Dalton Fischer Podcast
Excerpts: (paraphrased)
Instructors must demo.
Military background don't mean shit. [I would add that police background
don't mean shit either. -- Jon Low] Competitive shooting shows the skill level
of the instructor. [Ya, but shooting well and teaching well are not correlated.
Competitive shooting and combat shooting aren't correlated either. -- Jon Low]
Sig P320 problems: not drop safe, out of battery detonation, uncommanded
detonation.
Ported barrels. Some are dangerous, some are not.
"There are no dangerous weapons, only dangerous men."
-- Robert A. Heinlein
Camo
“Your car is not a holster.”
-- Pat Rogers
Falco Holsters
“Mission drives the gear train.”
-- Pat Rogers
Glock Series V Fiasco? (No Link): Someone (whom I hope has an SOT 2 stamp)
posted photos on Reddit of a Series V slide fitted with a “switch.” The body of the
switch was apparently reconfigured to fit the lower recess for the slide-cover plate
and the longer reach to the cruciform trigger bar. The poster apparently ground off
the protrusion intended to obstruct the replacement of the slide-cover plate with the
switch. Meanwhile, it is rumored that Series V is an interim ploy by Glock to hinder
legal attacks on the original design and that Glock will debut a Gen6 line of guns at
the 2026 SHOT Show in January.
-- Stephen P. Wenger
---
"THE MAD LADS ALREADY DID IT" by Brandon Herrera
---
"Glock V vs Gen 5: A Quick Look At the New Glock V Series"
by Gritr Sports
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger.
Excerpt:
The most significant changes are internal, specifically within the slide.
Slide Internals: The V series slide features added ramps on either side of the
firing pin channel. These are not present on the Gen 5 and are intended to block
the area where a switch’s disconnector would engage. To accommodate this change,
the firing pin (striker) lug on the V series is thinner and the channel it sits in is
narrower.
Backplate: The slide cover plate has a slightly different shape and notch design
and is slightly smaller compared to the Gen 5 (this might make some of the
aftermarket triggers incompatible). The disassembly process remains the same.
Frame and Trigger Housing: Glock reinforced the rear of the trigger housing by
adding a small metal ledge to the “nub”. Previously, this small plastic piece could
be cut off with a simple knife, but now it’s reinforced with metal, requiring a
cutting wheel to remove.
Beyond that, many parts remain the same. The trigger bar, connector, and
ejector all carry the same part numbers as the Gen 5. The core of the gun remains
unchanged.
Interestingly, Glock V still uses a cruciform trigger bar, meaning it still can’t
be sold in California. So the changes were more likely an attempt to protect
Glock from lawsuits in other states rather than to enter the California market.
The purpose of a high capacity magazine is NOT to let you shoot more;
it is to let you reload less.
-- Tom Givens
Looks like Dustin has finally gotten the NURO ready for prime time.
I rememer John Holschen having a lot of problems with the system when
using it to teach at Tac Con.
"NURO System Par+ Range Demo Video" by Building Shooters
"Sons of Liberty Gun Works Awarded USSOCOM Contract for MK1 Rifle"
"Shooting Range Knife pocket Checks!" by Melissa Backwoods (Milissa Miller)
Can Con in Clinton, SC. So cool!
"His gun just went off":
Guard says SIG P320 fired unexpectedly at USAA Guard Gate
by Walt Maciborski
"I Tested the Byrna Launcher and Found Issues You Need to See"
by Christian Warrior
The Byrna Launcher is ineffective. Byrna radio advertisements claim that police
departments use their launcher. I haven't found any police department issuing or
using it. If you have, please let me know.
Ammo sources:
Unlimited Ammo
Target Sports USA
GunMag Warehouse
If you know of any others, let me know.
*************************************************************************
I can do that.
With a little practice, I could do that.
With a lot of training and practice, I could do that.
I could never do that.
Whether you believe you can or can't, you're right.
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Intelligence ***** ***** *****
Please accept my apologies for sharing false information from Cipher Signal.
I was fooled. I should have known better.
Who else do we know that was recruited like this?
Excerpt from the "Economist"
by Shashank Joshi, Defence editor
Good afternoon. We all know that the war in Ukraine embodies a new sort
of battlefield. We could see it coming before the war, and I’ve been writing
about it for years. In essence, drones are everywhere and see everything.
If you’re spotted, strike drones, shells or missiles will land swiftly and accurately
on your position. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s ambassador in London and
previously the country’s commander-in-chief, recently described a 20km-deep
“kill zone” in which “every heat signature, radio signal or unnecessary movement
triggers an immediate response.” The result, he said, is that “death, injury or
mental breakdown are practically inevitable consequences of a prolonged stay
on the front line.”
How is any army supposed to go on the offensive under these conditions?
A fascinating new paper by Jack Watling of the Royal United Services Institute
(RUSI), a think-tank, describes how some Ukrainian brigades are attempting
to answer that question, based on extensive fieldwork in the country.
Let’s say Ukraine wants to retake territory. First, under this new approach,
it surveys the area to work out where Russia has its guns, drone operators and
electronic warfare (EW) equipment. Then it tries to knock out these things
using a combination of drones and artillery. After that it tries to isolate the
area by using drones to lay landmines and to crater roads, so that Russia can’t
replace any losses. All of that takes one to two days.
In the next phase, Ukraine uses first-person view (FPV) drone patrols
to fix Russian forces in place—if they move, they get hit. Ukraine can then
deploy weapons mounted on uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs)—essentially,
tracked robots—within line-of-sight of Russian positions. It uses EW to jam
Russian drones and to hinder their ability to send back timely targeting data
to Russian guns. It uses supersonic rockets whose approach, by definition,
cannot be heard. And it uses unguided artillery which, unlike many drones,
keeps working even under intense jamming.
Ukrainian assault forces can then clear Russian positions. Contrary to the
popular view of the battlefield, they are supported by tanks and armoured
personnel carriers, which also bring their own mounted guns. Ukraine’s
armour, says Mr Watling, can survive 10 to 15 hits by FPV drones—something
that would obliterate a soft-skinned vehicle. When the Ukrainian infantry
get out of their vehicles, they need to fight their way through with grenades.
If they capture the position, they resupply it with drones and UGVs.
This is a grim business, ultimately requiring soldiers to wade through
mud under awful conditions. The RUSI paper also describes how Russian
forces infiltrate in groups of two to five. They use thermal sheeting,
which blocks their body heat from being picked up by drones, holding it
away from their bodies with handles. They hang a radio around their neck
and a torch between their legs, just so they can see their own feet.
"The Price of Pokrovsk: 110,000 Russian Soldiers CRUSHED by Ukrainian Force"
by Business Basics
"Why Tucker Carlson's NEW Report on Trump Shooter Raises SERIOUS Questions"
by Glenn Beck
"Mexican Government Arming Cartels" by Docent
Who do you think the big political donors are in Mexico? Which persons or
organizations have large amounts of money to donate? Which persons or organizations
are motivated to donate? Why is the U.S. Armed Forces attacking Venezuelan ships,
but not Mexican convoys, ships, and subs?
"#173 Marine Commandant Called Out By Troops - Not in Proper Uniform"
by Sentinel 🇺🇸
All leadership is by example. General Smith has been caught lying about the
Marine Corps having a woke diversity department and many other such things.
Bad leadership.
"Iran Has No Water Left, 28 Million People WITHOUT Water" by Business Basics
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps owns and runs a civilian construction
company, not a unit of combat engineers. What's wrong with that picture?
What could possibly go wrong?
Sons of Liberty [One of the best intel organizations in history, and still active.]
If you have a worthy cause, people will flock to your cause. There are many
units in the Marine Corps that just won't die, because the Marines who were
once in those units understand how important the unit's mission was / is.
Sympathetic congressmen fund the units in the black budgets. "Charlie Wilson's
War", "Lord of War", etc. Even without funding, these units would still survive,
because the personnel would volunteer, would work without pay, for the cause.
It's not just Marine Corps units, Old Crows, regiments named after heroes you've
heard of (or haven't heard of, depends on where you live), etc. And it's not just
a Southern thing. You may think that the liberals have taken over Massachusetts,
but while 100% of Massachusetts congress worms are Democrat, 40% of
Massachusetts people are Republican. It's like that every where.
"They can't stomp us out. They can't make us run."
From Soldier Systems --
The Department of War has reevaluated their Critical Technology Areas (CTAs),
moving form 14 to six. This new focus will “represent the priorities that will
deliver the greatest impact, the fastest results and the most decisive advantage
on the battlefield."
They are:
[The Emperor has no clothes. -- Jon Low]
* Applied Artificial Intelligence (AAI)
[AI hallucinates. This is not an anomaly. This is systemic. -- Jon Low]
* Biomanufacturing (BIO)
[The bureaucrats who wrote this section don't know what
they are talking about. -- Jon Low]
* Contested Logistics Technologies (LOG)
* Quantum and Battlefield Information Dominance (Q-BID)
[Quantum computing is bogus. Quantum communication is bogus.
Quantum Cryptology is bogus. Quantum Mechanics isn't a complete
theory. Quantum Mechanics conflicts theoretically and philosophically
with General Relativity (which we know to be correct).
-- Jon Low]
* Scaled Hypersonics (SHY)
[Because faster kinetic weapons will make any difference to
energy beam weapons? See next point. -- Jon Low]
* Scaled Directed Energy (SCADE)
[The Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle says that short pulses will
result in huge uncertainty in energy of the pulse. So this is a
theoretically correct and experimentally correct technology.
-- Jon Low]
To learn more, visit
---
“I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought,
but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
-- Albert Einstein
---
“The general who prepared his men to live off the land,
fight without GPS, and communicate by physical means will
prove more modern than any AI strategist.”
-- Casey Christie
smallwarsjournal.com/2025/11/20/future-war-will-be-fought-with-sticks-and-stones
---
We’ve got exactly the same problem here in the US. Commanders are
taking matters into their own hands and purchasing 3D printers which
“phone home” every time they are connected to the internet.
Since “home” is China, all of the stl files as well as how many, when,
and where they were printed are available to our adversaries.
This has got to stop. Fortunately, at least here in the US, Congress is
working on legislation to restrict the use of Chinese manufactured 3D
printers. More on that soon.
---
If I was going to transfer control of our strategic missile forces to anyone,
the last group would be the United States Army. All you have to do is look
at any of their aviation programs and realize that they don’t have the expertise
to maintain the level of readiness required for this critical mission area,
let alone properly resource it. Still need evidence? Just take a gander at what
they did to Air Defense Artillery during the GWOT. They practically gutted
it and now are scrambling to rebuild a capability they should have had all along.
If I were going to recommend moving the ICBM force from the Air Force,
it would be to the Space Force before we completely lose the expertise that
already exists within that formation, as senior Space and Missile officers have
transitioned to the new service. By the way, I’d go one step further and move
the Ground Based Interceptor force to Space Force as well.
-- Todd Harrison
Why is "Moby Dick" by Herman Mellville a classic? Because it is well written.
How did it get to be so well written? Mellville rewrote and rewrote and rewrote
(some passages as many as 13 times) until all extraneous words, phrases, sentences,
and paragraphs were eliminated; all errors were eliminated; until the prose said
exactly what he intended.
If you are not rewriting your text, and having others proofreading your text,
your audience will not think as highly of you, as would be possible, if you had.
Your command of your native language will only shine through if you rewrite
dilligently deliberately.
If the top center of your prose are stamp, "Developed with AI assistance"
or "Produced with AI sources", you're a fucking idiot and need to be summarily
executed immediately. You are directly responsible for deaths in the fleet.
"#175 The Marine Commandant Is Assigning Non-Combat Arms Commanders
to Key Commands. Is DEI Back?"
by Sentinel 🇺🇸
The Commandant, Gen. Smith, never left DEI. Trump needs to replace him.
"#176 Does The Marine Corps Have A Shadow DEI Program?"
by Sentinel 🇺🇸
"US Navy RACING to Recover Crashed Jet From South China Sea" by Roman Balmakov
"Illegal alien Afghan National Guard shooter was trending BEFORE the shooting"
by Legally Armed America
"Who Is Jin Keyu?
Inside the CCP elite family behind the Summers–Epstein connection"
by Lei's Real Talk
"Keyu Jin:
China's Economy, Tariffs, Trade, Trump, Communism & Capitalism |
Lex Fridman Podcast #477"
Why is Lex Fridman interviewing her? Why is she doing this interview?
What is she doing?
We are warm blooded. We never stop operating.
"Get Ready For This! Something CRAZY Just Happened...” - John Kiriakou
There are a lot of innocent people in prison.
"13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi"
A true story. They use Obama's voice from a broadcast. They never mention
the U.S. Secretary of State. They're not stupid. Many who have pointed the
finger at Clinton die or disappear unnaturally.
"Joe Rogan Experience #2411 - Gavin de Becker"
Do you remember Gavin de Becker? (The author of "Gift of Fear". A book
that a lot of gun people like to cite.) The fact that he cites Wikipedia says much.
Wikipidea is not peer reviewed. It isn't reviewed at all. It is a liberal propaganda
outlet. His dependence on Wikipedia is staggering.
Step back and look. Which way is he pushing the pendulum?
The Dispatch
Strategy Page
"The Merge"
Breaking Defense
Intrigue
1440
29155
Global Recaps
Timber Sycamore
Ground News
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Signals Intelligence,
Ground Electronic Warfare,
Cyber Security,
(sometimes Air Electronic Warfare too) ***** ***** *****
"A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined,
but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain
a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them,
which would include their own government."
--George Washington
Just because you get an email saying that your email bounced, was not delivered,
or words to that effect, doesn't mean the intended recipient (or someone) didn't get
the email. Emails can be generated showing any text and any return address and any
routing path.
Soldier Systems
Our mailing address is:
4701 Old Canoe Creek Rd, Box 702515, Saint Cloud, FL, 34770
Our web site is:
To subscribe to our newsletter:
To unsubscribe from this list
Excerpt from the latest newsletter --
An Army Security Agency (ASA) listening post staffed by the
USMC 1st Composite Radio Company. From left to right a
Motorola R-220 VHF receiver, a Magnavox AN/TNH-11 recorder, and
a Collins R-388 HF receiver. This is from Lonnie M. Long and Gary Blackburn's
"Unlikely Warriors."
The Motorola R-220 is also mentioned in Jeremiah Davis's
"Snow Mountain Misfits” where the ASA used them in Germany
along the Czech border. He writes that they were replaced by
GLR-9 saying, "The GLaRe-9s are nice because they have a scope
where you can see signals popping up and down. The R-220s didn't
have a scope, and that made it harder to search for signals."
[Scope = oscilloscope. -- Jon Low]
---
From Soldier Systems --
Cyber / IEW
Can the Latest Plan for CYBERCOM Stave Off Calls for a New Service?
www.airandspaceforces.com/cybercom-force-generation-plan-new-service
--
Is UK defence ready for rising electronic warfare threats?
ukdefencejournal.org.uk/is-uk-defence-ready-for-rising-electronic-warfare-threats
--
Electronic warfare generation system delivered to DoD test facility
--
2 Minutes. That's How Long Many Drones Survive In The
Constant Electronic Duel Over Ukraine.
--
Drones / Unmanned
Pentagon Creating Amazon-Like Shopping Portal For Counter-Drone Equipment
--
U.S. Army trials long‑endurance tethered drone with EW pod
--
New Navy Unmanned Acquisition Office Could Oversee up to 66 Programs,
Consolidate 6 PEOs
--
DIU approves hydrogen-powered drone for Blue UAS list
defensescoop.com/2025/11/20/diu-blue-uas-cleared-list-heven-aerotech-z1-drone-hydrogen-powered
--
British firm Kraken wins USSOCOM deal for new drone vessels
ukdefencejournal.org.uk/british-firm-kraken-wins-ussocom-deal-for-new-drone-vessels
--
Ukraine Packs Long-Range Anti-Mavic Jamming Into a Telescopic EW System
thedefensepost.com/2025/11/21/ukraine-anti-mavic-jamming
--
On October 20th, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment proudly conducted an
Activation Ceremony for I Troop, marking the beginning of a new chapter in
the Blackhorse legacy. The activation symbolizes the Regiment’s continued
growth, readiness, and commitment to excellence in all missions. The activation
of I Troop is vital Blackhorse marking a shift in how units train and respond at
NTC, providing unmatched aerial reconnaissance, surveillance, and targeting
capabilities that enhance every aspect of training realism and effectiveness.
[My Army Commendation Medal is from Blackhorse. -- Jon Low]
--
Soldiers with the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division,
1st Cavalry Division, train on and test C100 sUAS and small unmanned aircraft
systems during a recent rotation at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin,
California.
The rotation marks the first armored Transforming in Contact (TiC) 2.0
combat training center rotation, where new concepts and emerging capabilities
were tested in realistic, contested scenarios.
--
The US military came up with some wild concepts during the
Vietnam War including this “People Sniffer.”
This is the caption:
“The device, recently developed in the United States for use by troops
defending South Vietnam against invasion from the north con detect snipers
and concealed enemy concentrations by scooping up samples of air and
analyzing their content of human perspiration. The device is sensitive
enough to detect men at distances greater than the range of most rifles.”
If you can't find something, it's usually because you can't see it. Which means it's
under something or behind something. Or, you need to put on your glasses. Living
in a blur, prevents you from positively identifying your enemies. Scanning faster
than you can perceive is an error, because a complex cluttered background camouflages
all kinds of things.
Occasionally, you can't find it because you can't hear it. Wear your hearing aids.
The lack of ambient sound will speed the onset of dementia. Use your electronic
ear muffs to amplify the sound. You should be able to hear the game moving in the
forest. And they'll keep your ears warm in the winter.
Turn on your sonar. Turn on your radar. Turn on your intel networks. There has
never been a time of world wide peace on this planet. And there never will be,
because we value freedom above safety. And the enemy values conquest above peace.
(Some enemies value chaos above law and order. Just because they don't think as
you do doesn't mean anything. It certainly doesn't mean that they are crazy or stupid.
Never underestimate your enemy.)
If you're using small arms fire or grenades to find things, or to determine what's
out there, you're wrong! No, as a matter of fact, it's not the same as using dogs
to flush pheasants or to drive deer. If your officers are ordering you to do such, it's
time to transfer out, become a sick bay commando, request other duty, Red Cross
emergency back home, etc. (Ya, removing the officer may be the cleanest way to
solve the problem. If he were to lose his rifle or pistol. Humans die of heart attacks,
accidents, etc. all the time. Some times people get lost and disappear. On a mission
in Korea, we had a 2nd Lt. jump on a helicopter for a joy ride in the demilitarized
zone. We never saw him nor heard from him again. Hey, he was not my subordinate.
I was not responsible for him. I advised him not to go.) We don't commit war crimes.
Death Before Dishonor. (That death need not refer to you.) The guys in Vietnam
fragged their officers because they were incompetent. So there is precedence.
"they installed linux. thats the hack." by Low Level
Look at the hair. Hair and fur are still very difficult to do in computer graphics.
Artificial Intelligence can do certain things, but it still relies on computer graphics
to render hair and fur, including eye brows (if not dyed, eye brow color matches
pubic hair color). ACM SIG Graph.
Association for Computing Machinery
Special Interest Group
on Computer Graphics
Is the resolution the same throughout the picture? When you magnify, do some
areas pixelate or blur before others?
Artificial Intelligence generated pictures are a real problem for steganography.
Don't get caught.
There are those who want to talk to you, but can't. They cannot be seen
listening to you either. So they scream into the wind, hoping someone will
hear and pass along the message.
I pulled off my shirt to read what was written on the back.
"Liberty and Independence Forever" -- Davy Crockett
Have you seen the movie "ANNA" staring Sasha Luss?
Governments have 'software engineer's. Corporations have 'software engineers',
corporate espionage. Just expendable assets. When they get a contract,
they staff up for the project. When the project ends, they lay everyone off.
They don't care what you do between jobs, or so they say. Don't freelance in
their garden. They are very jealous of their turf.
Sometimes they don't clean up properly and some get left out in the cold.
Don't be bitter. Just get home. God says for you not to take revenge. You
really don't need to. The opposition party will take revenge for you. That's
their mission in life. Just come home. No one will care. No one will notice.
Which is all for the best.
"Your dead drop in the red telephone booth in the Red Bicycle is under
surveillance."
Thank you very much.
Breaking Defense has a weekly newsletter, "Networks & Digital Warfare" at
Crypto-Gram by Bruce Schneier
2600
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Cryptology ***** ***** *****
Always cite open source.
Cryptosystems are considered "arms" by federal law, ITAR,
International Traffic in Arms Regulations. That means cryptosystems are
protected by the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Never let the
government infringe on your right to keep and bear cryptosystems, to
include home made cryptosystems, to include sharing cryptosystems with
others.
If you take your plaintext (PT) and perform a bit-wise exclusive-or with
a random bit sequence (RBS) to generate your ciphertext (CT), is the CT
the ciphertext or is the RBS the ciphertext? If you take the RBS or the CT,
and XOR with another bit sequence (BS), do you know how to get back to
the PT? Anna knows. And you know.
When the B and C students complained that the homework problems
were too hard, Prof. Lee Lady would explained that he had to give some
problems to keep his A students entertained / engaged / challenged (I can't
remember exactly. It's been a long time.). Then he would give a hint:
It's easy.
[Of course, if they were hard problems, he couldn't very well give them
as homework problems. Could he?]
There was a female professor who taught a Theory of Computing class
for the Citadel and the College of Charleston. (I would chauffer her to
and from the civil aviation airport. She would always fly private.)
The final exam was easy for some students and impossible for others.
The trick was using a theorem that was in the textbook. Some students
had read the textbook and were familiar with the theorem, but those who
had not done the reading were not aware of the theorem. Not a test of
understanding of computational complexity, just a test of reading the
textbook. Such is undergrad school.
The script kiddies are still in high school. If they are giving you
trouble, you might want to consider another line of work.
"A Visual Explanation of Lyapunov Stability" by Prof. Giordano Scarciotti
"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
"Penrose's Brilliant Proof That Quantum Mechanics and
General Relativity Are Logically Inconsistent"
by Curt Jaimungal [Jonathan Gorard is talking]
I think his use of groupoid is the second definition in,
The full interview is at
"Jonathan Gorard: Quantum Gravity & Wolfram Physics Project"
by Curt Jaimungal
"Computer science has nothing to do with computers or science."
-- Donald Knuth
Knuth (It's German. The K is pronounced.) meant that the academic
field of Computer Science is pure math.
Knuth used a computer program to justify the spacing on his thesis.
[Left aligned means the text touches the left margin with ragged right side.
Right aligned means the text touches the right margin with ragged left side.
Justified means the text touches the right and left margin on each line of text.]
This was long before typesetting software existed.
Galois is French. It is pronounced gal-wa.
Ya, I know that superscript / subscript / summing over doubled indices / etc.
notation is difficult. May I suggest Chapter 2 of
"Introduction to the Mechanics of a Continuous Medium"
by Lawrence E. Malvern ?
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 69-13712
ISBN-13: 9780134876030
ISBN-10: 0134876032
Your question about how the enemy is able to correctly decrypt, even when
the cypher text is scrambled. Well, the cypher text is not scrambled. It is a
cyclic permutation. For 2nd rank tensors (a subclass of matrices) A, B, and C,
tr(A • B • C) = tr(B • C • A) = tr(C • A • B) ,
where tr = trace, the sum of the values along the main diagonal of the matrix,
id est tr(T) = Tₖₖ = T₁,₁ + T₂,₂ + T₃,₃ + . . . ,
where • is standard matrix multiplication, though it has a fancier definition
and restrictions when we talk about tensors.
This works for any number of 2nd rank tensors. The trace is unaltered in value
by any cyclic rearrangement of the factors. (Which is kind of interesting, because
tensor multiplication, as with matrix multiplication, is not commutative and not
associative. Think of rotations in space.)
You may be thinking, "What a huge amount of overhead. They are transmitting
the tensors, but only using the trace of the product." No, no, this is a very
sophisticated error-correcting / error-detecting coding, useful redundancy. Also,
by taking non-cyclic permutations of the tensors, we have back channels.
Lots of back channels. (Or, side bands, as the ham radio operators would say.)
"We've been missing a huge amount of information."
Probably. Yes. Definitely.
Note that the values in the tensors may be from any reasonable number
system: integers (a finite subset in our computer systems), Reals (floats in
our computer systems), Complex (pairs of floats), Quaternion (quadruples
of floats), Octonion (octuples of floats), any finite field, any finite algebra,
any finite ring (?), etc. Remember, we are only doing multiplication and
addition. And certain processors are optimized for such.
Now that you've read "Introduction to the Mechanics of a Continuous Medium",
you're in a position to understand this video at a deeper level,
"Why Don’t Jet Engines Melt?" by Veritasium
Just as any machinist worth his salt can get the heat to come off in the chips to
avoid heating the object, so any jet engine designer / engineer can get the heat to
come off in the exhaust to avoid heating the turbine blades.
Circulation theory says the flow velocity is zero at the blade-gas interface.
So the gas sticks to the turbine blade surface. Does it? Even if there is an
electric repulsion between the blade and the gas?
My favorite mistake.
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil."
-- Donald Knuth
"Russian Teacher Tricks Americans With Impossible Problem"
by MindYourDecisions (Presh Talwalkar)
Albert Einstein took 55 minutes to define the problem and
5 minutes to solve the problem; but modern tests give the
student only 5 minutes to solve the problem, so no thinking
takes place, just plugging values into formulae.
Did they teach you this at crypto school? They should have.
Gunny Wheeler made a point of teaching this to us.
"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
From "Handbook of Applied Cryptography", by A. Menezes, P. van Oorschot,
and S. Vanstone, CRC Press, 1996. Chapter 10.
"Objectives of identification protocols"
From the point of view of the verifier, the outcome of an entity authentication
protocol is either acceptance of the claimant’s identity as authentic (completion
with acceptance), or termination without acceptance (rejection). More specifically,
the objectives of an identification protocol include the following:
1. In the case of honest parties A and B, A is able to successfully authenticate
itself to B, i.e., B will complete the protocol having accepted A’s identity.
2. (transferability) B cannot reuse an identification exchange with A so as to
successfully impersonate A to a third party C. [Similarly, A should not be able
to impersonate B to any other party. -- Jon Low]
3. (impersonation) The probability is negligible that any party C distinct from A,
carrying out the protocol and playing the role of A, can cause B to complete and
accept A’s identity. Here negligible typically means “is so small that it is not of
practical significance”; the precise definition depends on the application.
4. The previous points remain true even if: a (polynomials) large number of
previous authentications between A and B have been observed [by Eve the
eavesdropper, as opposed to any other party in the system -- Jon Low]; the
adversary C has participated in previous protocol executions with either or
both A and B; and multiple instances of the protocol, possibly initiated by C,
may be run simultaneously.
. . .
1. something known. Examples include standard passwords (sometimes used to
derive a symmetric key), Personal Identification Numbers (PINs), and the secret or
private keys whose knowledge is demonstrated in challenge-response protocols.
[Strong passwords never go stale. Weak passwords are not strengthened by being
changed periodically. Forcing users to change passwords effectively forces the users
to record their passwords somewhere because they can't remember the password.
That's a vulnerability. So anyone who implements a policy of periodically changing
passwords is demonstrating an ignorance of basic cryptology. Avoid such persons
like the plague. They will get you killed. They have gotten a lot of people killed.
-- Jon Low]
Some techniques, such as fixed-password schemes, may be susceptible to an entity
posing as a verifier in order to capture a claimant’s password. [Man in the Middle
attack]
2. something possessed. This is typically a physical accessory, resembling a
passport in function. Examples include magnetic-striped cards, chipcards (plastic
cards the size of credit cards, containing an embedded microprocessor or integrated
circuit; also called smartcards or IC cards, [CAC cards]),and hand-held customized
calculators (password generators) which provide time-variant passwords.
[Which only work if they are time synchronized to the other system. The faster
you move, the slower your clock runs. The more you accelerate, the slower your
clock runs. Just sitting in the Earth's gravitational field puts you in an accelerated
frame of reference. A different accelerated frame of reference from the satellites
orbiting our planet. The physics textbooks that say that when you are stationary
on the Earth's surface, you are in an inertial frame of reference, are WRONG.
These are the same physics textbooks that have diagrams of the electric and
magnetic fields in phase and have captions stating that the electric and magnetic
fields propagate in phase. This is, of course, FALSE. The electric and magnetic
fields are always π/2 radians or 90 degrees or ¼ cycle out of phase.
Those physics professors who think they know everything,
irritate those of us who do.
-- Jon Low].
[And of course, the USB drives that fit flush in the USB port. -- Jon Low]
3. something inherent (to a human individual). This category includes
methods which make use of human physical characteristics and involuntary
actions (biometrics), such as handwritten signatures, fingerprints, voice,
retinal patterns, hand geometries, and dynamic keyboarding characteristics.
These techniques are typically noncryptographic and are not discussed further
here.
[They are not discussed here further because they suck. Unlike a password,
you can't change your finger print when it gets compromised. If your hand is
covered in mud or blood, or is cut up from combat, the reader won't recognize
your hand. I could go on, but you get the idea. Avoid all biometric readers.
Avoid any vendor who tries to sell you one.
-- Jon Low]
---
If your protocol grants or denies access upon completion of the protocol,
when the verifier denies access, the verifier is giving away too much information
to the claimant. The claimant now knows that the messages that he passed in
the protocol don't work. Better would be to grant access to a honey pot. Let
the claimant think that he has gained access to the intended resources and
monitor the claimant's behavior and any identifying information (the IP address
of whatever VPN he's using, which files he's accessing, what commands he is
issuing, etc.). If you're competent, you could string him along for years.
I once had a girl tell me, "I have a boyfriend. I'm sorry for leading you on."
Don't be sorry. Lead him on until you identify him, and then lead him on until
the teams kill him. The politicians can't nuke him from orbit, but you can.
*************************************************************************
Summer Lyn Glau
Best remembered for "Firefly" and "Serenity".
I wish I could forget she was in the "Terminator" series.
"All that we don't know is astonishing.
Even more astonishing is what passes for knowing."
-- Philip Roth
Trusting intuition can lead you astray.
"The Simple Problem Mathematicians Got Wrong" by DIBEOS
"Never memorize anything. Rather, study it until it becomes obvious."
-- Norman Christ
This is in the Cryptology Section because it is a serious math / statistics problem.
"How a Comedian's [Will Rogers] Math Joke Exposed Modern Medicine's Biggest Lie"
by Weird Math
---
Dr. Sidney Ontai's comments --
This is true but it’s actually worse. There is actual misdiagnosis;
mammograms find “cancers” that would not have killed the patient.
They are technically cancer in that they exhibit markers and microscopic
appearance, but would have regressed spontaneously without treatment.
Michael Greger is an Internist who used to work for CDC. He takes
no money from industry. He did a 14 part (3-4" videos) series
on why mammograms are probably not worth doing from a patient
standpoint and almost no one would get them if they knew the math.
-- Sidney Ontai
"You don't have to memorize theorems.
Because you can always derive them from first principles."
-- Sven Hartman
"The Graph Reconstruction Conjecture - Numberphile" with Elise Raphael
Do you see how we can use this? Graph theory is great fun. If it's uniquely
constructible, you can decrypt. If it's not unique, you have a set (multi-set?),
one of which is the plaintext. Would it be easy to determine which one was
the plaintext? Would it be possible?
Do you understand the game she is describing? Game theory.
There are classified theorems.
Elise Raphael
"Handbook of Applied Cryptography"
by Alfred J. Menezes, Paul C. van Oorschot and Scott A. Vanstone
"Computer Security and the Internet:
Tools and Jewels from Malware to Bitcoin", Second Edition
by Paul C. van Oorschot
ISBN: 978-3-030-83410-4 (hardcopy), 978-3-030-83411-1 (eBook)
"An Introduction to Error Correcting Codes with Applications"
by Scott A. Vanstone , Paul C. Oorschot
Research and Publications (P. Van Oorschot)
Alfred J. Menezes
Scott A. Vanstone
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Religion and Politics ***** ***** *****
Rest In Peace Robert Nosler.
"We should not forget that the spark which ignited the American Revolution
was caused by the British attempt to confiscate the firearms of the colonists."
-- Patrick Henry
"Nat'l Guardsman Dies--Suspect's Motive Unknown (wink, wink)" by Docent
"Trump Has Reached His Final Form | Episode 101" by Brett Cooper
Lindsey Olin Graham (Senator SC, Republican) is always on the wrong side.
Tyranny doesn’t start with force — it starts with fear.
“The trouble with Communism is Communists.” -- Mencken
"NYC" by John Farnam
"Like Venezuelans, they will regret their grievous stupidity!"
Dear Jonathan:
Democrats and the media keep pushing the emotional claim that guns are the
leading cause of death among children. Despite the constant repetition, the claim
is a lie. In my new piece at The Federalist,
I walk through the numbers for both those under 18 and under 15.
For children under 15 in 2023, there were 1,654 suffocation deaths
compared to 778 firearm deaths—even using the counting methods
preferred by gun-control advocates.
Sincerely,
John Lott
Crime Prevention Research Center
358 S 700 E, Ste B, B409, Salt Lake City, UT 84102
johnrlott@crimeresearch.org
(484) 802-5373
This is why people call for defunding the police.
"FBI & DEA Arrest 20 Officers Working for Cartels in Mississippi —
$3.4M Fraud Network Uncovered" by Shield of Honor
"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."
-- Mary Flannery O'Connor
"Trump Names Robert Cekada as His Pick to Lead the ATF ~ VIDEOS"
by F. Riehl
"History teaches us that history teaches us nothing." -- James Bachmann
"Greg Gutfeld: We REALLY dodged a bullet here . . ."
by Fox News
The purpose of war is not to die for your country.
The purpose of war is to ensure that the other guy dies for his country.
—George S. Patton
"Professional Degrees No Longer Professional?
PLUS Thanksgiving Prep: Handling Political Differences"
by Unbiased Politics with Jordan Berman
Ah, the nuances of the law.
“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
***************************** Begin Psychology ***********************
"How relationships work: on value" by Orion Taraban
"Body count: beyond the number" by Orion Taraban
If you punish the truth, you are asking to be lied to.
"Why Men Wife Up Women Like Tianna Trump" by Pearl
"The love trap: she can't fix you" by Orion Taraban
Dave Ramsey says, graduate high school first, then marry, then have children.
Out of that order, leads to poverty.
When I asked my mother about "love at first sight". My mother said, you
cannot love a person until you know that person. Love at first sight is just lust.
So how do you get to know a person? Date the person? No, that does not work.
Dating is a dance, a façade, rather like running the bulls in Spain (that's what they
call it in Spain), as opposed to bull fights in Mexico; in any case, there is no
meeting of the minds.
If you want to know a person, give them a class (before any sexual relationship,
professional distance and objectivity are essential for teaching, never attempt to
teach anyone with whom you have an emotional entanglement). And then take a
class from the person (again before any sexual relationship).
You don't teach classes? Well, then you are not mature enough to marry.
Take your favorite thing. Write a curriculum. Now, teach it to someone. There
are always newbies eager to learn in any discipline, in any field.
"She is not interested in Galois Fields."
Perhaps not. But she is assessing you, registering you. (See article by
Andrew Bustamante above.) If she isn't, you might want to keep looking.
Your person of interest doesn't teach? Non-sense. Ask her to teach you how
to cook her favorite dish. She doesn't cook? Well that's a red flag.
She is a high jumper? Ask her to teach you how to high jump. As Mark Twain
said, "There are no uninteresting subjects. Only uninterested people." It is a
fascinating sport, if you are curious. Be curious. She may wonder what motivates
your curiosity, thinking that you just want to get into her pants. She will be able
to tell if your curiosity is sincere. Be sincere. Learn something.
She has no sports acumen? Okay, ask her to teach you how to do whatever
she does in her vocation or hobby.
She doesn't have a vocation? Well, that's a red flag.
She doesn't have a hobby? Well, bless her heart. What's going on? She
didn't do her research before enticing you.
---
Graduate high school first, get to know her (this will determine whether or not
you want to love her), then marry, then have children.
Out of this order, you're asking for divorce and losing half (if not more).
Of course, it depends on how honorable you are. There are expedient methods.
Or perhaps (as my college classmate) you can pay her a million dollars to sign
the papers to make her go away. I wasn't able to do that. But there was a silver lining.
To prove to new acquaintances that I am an honorable man, I invite their attention
to the fact that my first ex-wife is still alive and well. They wouldn't be meeting with
me in the first place unless they had done their research. So it always works.
Deep truth.
***************************** End Psychology ************************
This ain't Wal Mart where they tell the employees not to bother shoplifters.
This is TruPrep gun store.
Do you recognize her? She travels with two bodyguards.
$15 million dollars U.S., that's quite a reward.
Olivia,
"I hate it when I'm trying to eat a salad and
it falls in the trash and I have to eat a taco instead."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"You only live once." False. You only die once. You live everyday.
Well, some do.
This morning after brushing my teeth, my friend cleaned the threads of the
toothpaste tube with a paper towel and then cleaned the inside of the cap with
a Q-Tip. I was thinking, "OCD? Anally retentive? Attention to detail?"
Then she glared at me. I knew she was thinking, "Sloppy pig."
She showed the same attention to detail when cleaning her pistol on the
kitchen table. We were at her place, so she had all the tools to disassemble,
not just field strip. You ever seen Johnny Glock disassemble and reassemble
a Glock on YouTube? That's the way she did it, as if she had done it thousands
of times before. She did it while looking at me and talking to me. It was scary.
I had never seen such a pistol before. So I asked her what it was. She replied
in Russian. I asked her to spell it. She replied using the Cyrillic alphabet.
So, I asked, what's that in English. She said she didn't know. She said she didn't
read or write English.
"But your spoken English is so good."
"I've never operated in an English speaking region."
"Hong Kong."
"Hong Kong is Chinese."
"Hong Kong used to be a British colony."
She gave me a quizzical look.
"Don't they teach you history?"
"You are so old and wise." (In Russian, it's even more sarcastic and caustic.
Alluding to why your penis is flaccid.)
"Every German State Explained By a German" by Brofessor Stein
"THANKSGIVING MY WAY" by Olivia
My kind of girl.
That's Susi Vidal drunk on the floor. (Concussion? Ya, right.)
Ben and Jerry's ice cream in the freezer. What a bunch of libtards.
Fortunately, political persuasion is not correlated with hotness.
Semper Fidelis,
Jonathan D. Low
Email: Jon_Low@yahoo.com
Radio: KI4SDN
"Dass der Sommer schon vorbei ist passt mir wirklich gar nicht in den Kragen."
Nicola Cavanis
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