Greetings Sheepdogs,
On 4 July 2026, we will be celebrate our country's semiquincentennial.
"Don't have a gun? Buy one.
Don't know How to use it? Learn.
Don't believe in guns? Get ready to hide behind someone who does."
-- Charlie Daniels
"Hey, Staff, what's with all the pictures in this blog?"
Picture books are much easier to read than pure text.
"But the pictures don't have anything to do with the text."
Don't they? Reading text can be tiring. Popping a bright, colorful,
high contrast, high resolution picture in every few paragraphs
makes a world of difference for comprehension and retention.
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
This and That --
"No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
-- Thomas Jefferson
So if you live in a jurisdiction that has debarred you, you are not free.
If this doesn't cause you to move, you are a prisoner.
Oh yes, there are many types of prisons.
If this doesn't bother you, take a step back and observe your culture.
“To those who have fought for it,
freedom has a flavor that the protected will never know.”
― P. McCree Thornton
Because some have never known freedom. When born on the plantation,
you don't know any better.
*************************************************************************
Lexi Ashton
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Prevention ***** ***** *****
Things you can do to avoid the lethal force incident.
This is not preparation for the fight. This is preparation to avoid the fight.
Because preparation will give you confidence, and will allow you to see the
fight coming, and so avoid the fight.
Table of sections:
Mindset
Safety
Training
Psychology
Practice
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Mindset and Attitude --------------------------------
Figuring out the correct way to think.
“Your character is what you do when no one is looking.”
-- Thomas Jefferson
"The FBI and Media Don’t Tell You How Many Lives Guns SAVE"
Subscribe to CPRC
“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
"The Most Important Lesson of the Iran War Is to Buy Guns and Ammo"
by Kurt Schlichter
“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.”
"Escaping the Gun Debate Trap | David Yamane | TEDxWakeForestU"
by TEDx Talks
Referred to in the talk,
"Bridging the Divide on Firearm Policy"
"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
Most people think defensive shooting is about standing still and hitting a target.
That's cute. Real defensive scenarios don't care about your comfort zone,
your stance, or your perfectly rehearsed routine. They're chaotic, fast, and
unforgiving.
Stay sharp,
Joe "make my day" Shahoud
"Survival is a mindset, not a skill set."
-- Greg Shaffer
"INTERESTING STUDY FROM THE FBI" by Massad Ayoob
Hat tip to Docent.
Excerpt:
"A recent study of justifiable homicides by the FBI shows that nationwide,
law-abiding armed citizens have been killing more violent criminals than the
nation’s law enforcement community.
Why? Because the citizen is right there when the deadly attack on him
or her takes place, and the waiting time for lawful armed response is essentially
zero. Remember, homicide is justifiable only in situations of immediate,
otherwise unavoidable danger of death or grave bodily harm . . . meaning that
every dead criminal is potentially one or more innocent lives saved."
Primary source,
"Justifiable Homicide, 2015-2024" by U.S. Department of Justice
Western Rifle Shooters Association
"Your gunfights will always be anomalies.
So are those of all the instructors you venerate.
It’s useful to keep those facts in mind."
-- Greg Ellifritz
"If you’re just learning to shoot because it sounds like fun or because your
friends are doing it, you likely won’t get far. On the other hand, if you’re
training because your life depends on it or the lives of your family might one
day depend on how well you can shoot in the middle of the night — that
passion will give you the dedication to be the best shooter possible."
-- Chris Sajnog
‷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
Here's something nobody tells you about defensive shooting . . .
The range is lying to you. Not on purpose. But every time you show up,
plant your feet, take your stance, and run your drills in perfect sequence,
your brain is quietly building a false sense of security. It's cataloging all
that repetition and whispering "you've got this" when the reality is that
real defensive scenarios don't care about your routine, your comfort zone,
or how clean your draw looked on a Tuesday afternoon.
Real threats are chaotic. They're fast. They close distance before
your brain has even finished processing what's happening. And the shooter
who freezes isn't always the one who doesn't know how to shoot.
Sometimes it's the one who only knows how to shoot when everything
feels controlled.
That gap between "I can shoot" and "I can defend myself under pressure"
is a big one. Most people don't find out how big until it's too late to do
anything about it.
Stay sharp,
Joe "get off the x" Shahoud
"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
"Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist.
Children already know that dragons exist.
Fairy tales tell children that the dragons can be killed."
-- G.K. Chesterton
‟If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it.
The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury.
Therefore what he must fear is his victim.
It is high time for society to stop worrying about the criminal,
and to let the criminal start worrying about society.
And by "society" I mean you.”
-- Col. Jeff Cooper, "Principles of Personal Defense"
"Be so focused on watering your grass that
you don't have time to check if someone else's is greener."
-- Nicola Cavanis
‟Fear is an instinct. Courage is a choice.”
-- Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, U.S. Navy
"The line between everyday life and sudden violence is thinner than most realize."
-- Tim Larkin
*************************************************************************
Vasilina Kireenko
There's a happy smile.
------------------------------ Situational Awareness --------------------------------
How to avoid being taken by surprise.
Brink Fidler spoke at the Tennessee Firearms Association meeting on
21 April 2026 A.D. He asked the audience which way is north? Only 5
persons pointed in the correct direction. During his talk, the Sun was setting
and clearly visible through the windows of our meeting room. But the other
20 or so persons could not figure out which way was north.
You must always be aware, because you must be able to tell the
911 operator that you are in the north-west corner of the building on the
second floor and the bad guy is at the double doors on the east side of
the building on the first floor. That kind of specificity is essential to allow
the responding officers to do their job. The building might be huge.
Pay attention. Always know where you are and which way is north.
And where the exits are. When choosing a seat, place your party half-way
between two exits, just in case one exit is blocked or the bad guy comes
in through one of your exits.
I strongly recommend you attend his lecture, given by Defend Systems,
If you call and ask to audit a class that they are giving to another group,
Brink will let you attend.
info@defendsystems.com
(615) 236-6484
P.O. Box 726 Brentwood, TN 37024
"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
"Karen Hunter and Kelly Sayre - Situational Awareness"
"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!
---
"Jargon Does not Equal Expertise"
-- Rick Billington
"The Lost Intent
How Jeff Cooper’s Combat Mindset Became “Situational Awareness” "
by Jeff Boren
"Lessons Still Taught?" by Rich Grassi
Comments by Stephen P. Wenger --
In the Mental Awareness chapter in my book
[free download from any page on my own website],
I use the Five Keys of the Smith System of defensive driving [that I was taught
in high-school driver education] as an aid to build and maintain situational
awareness. The first of those, expressed by Rich in different wording,
is “aim high in steering.” Do you take the time to look through the windows
before entering business establishments? Do you pause to look inside before
entering elevators?
"Always stand on principle, even if you stand alone"
– James Madison
"What Everyone Sees . . . But I Don't (The Johari Window) - Smarter Every Day 314"
by SmarterEveryDay
"The Johari Window: A Graphic Model of Awareness in Interpersonal Relations"
by Joseph Luft
"Printable Johari Window PDF" by Smarter Every Day
If you don't think you have blind spots, you're delusional.
I remember a buddy telling me that his wife had asked him for a divorce,
out of the blue. She completely blindsided him. He thought everything was fine.
He got taken by surprise because he wasn't paying attention.
---
"An officer may be forgiven for losing a battle,
but never for being taken by surprise."
-- Jeff Cooper
Zugzwang is a thing. But with situational awareness, you can avoid it.
"Gun & Prepping News #77" by Docent
Excerpt:
"This point was driven home by a on-line conversation with someone who
has been following me for years, who happily informed me that they
“scanned for danger all the time”.
That’s . . . not what situational awareness is. “Scanning for danger” means
you’re looking for things that are already a threat — and only looking for active
threats puts you way behind the power curve.
Situational awareness, for lack of a better term, is observing and determining
what is “normal” for the area and time, and looking for things that aren’t normal.
The professional term is “baseline”.
"Pay Attention!" by Tom Givens
"Trump Assassination Attempt Thoughts" by Randy Harris
The video that is available now of the assassin running through the
magnetometer area at the White House Correspondents Dinner Saturday
night is quite interesting. Not because the agents were caught unaware
as the assailant ran through their "secure area", but it was interesting to
me because you can see the uniformed officer at the bottom of the
screen fire at least 2 shots at the runner and then see the middle of the
three officers standing against the wall by the door fall to the ground.
I'm pretty sure that we witness an instance of friendly fire caused largely
by not being aware of the "downrange issues" from where the officer
was firing. RULE 4 IS ALWAYS IN PLAY. We have to be aware of
what is between us and the target and what is beyond the target because
sometimes it is other good guys or uninvolved innocent bystanders!
-- Randy Harris
[In case you don't understand or refuse to believe the truth. Randy is correct.
The mass media and government propaganda claiming that the bad guy shot
the U.S. Secret Service agent is false. -- Jon Low]
Rangemaster May 2026 Newsletter
"Situational Awareness Isn’t Just Paying Attention"
by Jim Shanahan
Excerpt:
"Without a way to organize information, attention is just noise.
People don’t need sharper senses. They need a filter."
"The Decision Engine asks four questions:
• Who can help me?
• Who can hurt me?
• Where am I going?
• Where are my people?"
*************************************************************************
Willow Hand
------------------------------ 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.
"Weasel Words!" by John Farnam
---
In Nashville, TN, USA it is common practice for judges to release violent criminals.
The criminals then murder and rape (violently, resulting in eventual death).
But as long as the victims are homeless street persons and not politically connected
persons, the law enforcement agencies don't care. Why should they? Doesn't affect
their raises or promotions.
The judges don't care. They have qualified immunity. And they know that liberals
in Nashville will vote for them; no matter what they do.
"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 the 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
"It's Not The Guns . . . It's The Gang Bangers" by Docent
If you see a gathering of gang bangers, LEAVE! As a matter of fact,
they do wear distinctive uniforms and are easily recognized.
If you adjust your behavior so as not to appear racist,
you're a damn fool. LEAVE! Because,
"It's easier to stay out of trouble than to get out of trouble."
-- Claude Werner
"You are not responsible for negative reactions to your boundaries."
-- Nicola Cavanis
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.
Harvard Researcher Catherine Barber
Never use your pistol as an impact weapon. It might discharge and shoot you.
"Firearm discharged in convenience store,
arrest made for assault after gunshot wound to foot"
by Derrick Stuckly
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger.
"Safety is something that happens between your ears,
not something you hold in your hands."
-- Jeff Cooper
Jeff Cooper′s Rules of Gun Safety
RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED.
RULE II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING
THAT YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY.
RULE III: KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER
UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET.
RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET.
---
RULE V: Maintain control of your gun. -- Stephen P. Wenger
(If it's not locked up or on your body, you don't have control.
If you don't know where it is . . . shame on you.)
"Gut feelings are guardian angels."
-- Nicola Cavanis
*************************************************************************
I love dressage.
------------------------------ Training --------------------------------
Figuring out the correct tasks to practice.
A CCW Safe pod cast.
Bob High, Phil Naman, and Bryan Eastridge are talking, but the transcript
labels every person as "Speaker". I guess I could have viewed and listened
to the video, but it's 1:11:22 long. Too much for me. I read much faster.
"On the cop side of the house, we have this word that I absolutely loathe called
qualification. People mistake that for training. Qualifications, the vast majority of
the qualifications, and I’ve shot hundreds of them from other agencies in other
states, most of them are a really bad field sobriety test."
-- Bryan Eastridge (I think.)
"Every shot laying there sideways, the actions opens up the concussion,
the dust comes up, and then into the action and grinds it, polishes it all day
and the gun quit running, and I had to go over the car and get a couple of
more guns to finish the day, but everything I had a SIG 220 sport, I had the
GSR, and all those nice high awesome pistols. I had issues with dirt, and I
looked around at all these guys shooting these Tupperware guns [Glocks]
that ran all day long, and they didn’t even clean them."
-- (I'm not sure.)
"I know you guys see it, but you still see guys dropping the magazine out here,
and still trying to insert from arm’s length, instead of bringing everything into
your workspace and back up on target, and marrying your hands together and
that kind of thing. Just learning how to prep that trigger and dry fire. There’s
so many little things."
-- (I'm not sure.)
"Draw to first shot. That’s probably the most critical skill that you ever
need– If you ever need to master one that’s the one. Anchor the first shot,
period, because you can’t miss fast enough to win anything, a competition,
a gunfight, you can’t miss fast enough to win."
-- (I'm not sure.)
" “Let a shot surprise you.” I tend to call those negligent discharges,
but I understand the theory behind it."
-- (I'm not sure.)
[Well, obviously you don't understand the theory behind it. Jeff Cooper taught
the 'surprise trigger break' to defeat all of the autonomic nervous system responses
to the report and recoil. There is nothing negligent about it. -- Jon Low]
"Superior judgment trumps superior skills." -- Dan Millican
Plan your training. Get a calendar and decide that you are going to take one
course a year, or that you are going to attend one training conference per year.
Or, that you are going to take a series of classes. Write the events on your calendar
to reserve those dates. If something else comes up, say, "Sorry, I have a previous
engagement." Don't let yourself be distracted. There is always the shiny object
or the get rich quick scheme. Stick to your plan and progress.
After the day's training, write down in your journal what you learned, what
you will experiment with (making a good faith effort), what you intend to change,
what you decided that you will not adopt, and explain why. So that your older
self will know that your decision was not capricious. Because your older self may
not remember your younger self's reasoning. Memory degrades with age and
dementia (especially when you've done drugs in your youth).
Keep a highly detailed journal. You will will be grateful to your younger self
for doing so.
Care enough to continue your training.
Greg Ellifritz's Facebook.com post on allocation of your invaluable time.
"Never believe anything you read or hear.
To figure out what’s best for you,
experiment until you have no doubt."
-- Brian Enos
So you've completed your 4 or 5 day defensive handgun course,
Congratulations! That was a lot of money, time, and effort.
What's next?
If you did the course right-handed, do your next class left-handed.
If you did the course left-handed, do your next class right-handed.
All you need to get is a new holster. Everything else should work
just fine. Right? If not, why not?
Just because you're right-handed, doesn't mean you're going to
be right-handed in combat. Strange things happen in self-defense
combat. Self-defense combat is surprising, unlike military combat.
You might be holding a high value item in your firing-side hand
during the fight that you just can't drop. You might have had shoulder
replacement surgery. You might have arthritis.
"Without discrimination,
you're going to shoot the wrong person really fast."
-- Paul Howe
---
"Tactical vs Competition with Paul Howe" by The CSAT Way
You need training because:
You don't know what you don't know.
Much of what you know is false. [If you don't believe this,
you have an attitude problem and need to fix yourself. -- Jon Low]
It's good to the have the answers before the criminal tests you.
-- Claude Werner (paraphrased)
"Getting sucked into the bluff" by Ben Stoeger
Point shooting is not substantively faster than aimed shooting.
Training to aim and confirm to be accountable for your bullets,
and then discarding that training to shoot without aiming when the
stakes are high is nonsensical.
---
People who think they know everything, irritate those of us
who do. And they are doing the newbies a grave disservice by
teaching them nonsense.
Ansatz is a thing. And the better your training, the better your guesses / estimates.
Email from Tim Larkin --
No [criminal] picks a random target. The criminal who steps out of the
shadows already made a decision. Before he said a word. Before he took a step.
He ran the math. Older. Smaller. Slower. Out alone. Late hour. Low traffic.
In the competition model, the one he's running, the one most people are running.
That adds up cleanly. This one.
That's the part nobody in the self-defense industry will put in a brochure.
Every system that teaches you to out-speed, out-muscle, or out-maneuver a
threat is training you to compete in a game where your attacker specifically
chose you because he believes he's already won. But that model has a fatal
flaw. A flaw an 84-year-old retired Marine exposed on a Thursday afternoon
in San Jose when a knife-armed teenager stepped out from between two parked
cars. The kid was fast. Young. Armed. The Marine was 84 years old.
The Marine didn't try to out-compete him. Didn't calculate size or speed or age.
He looked at that kid's body the way an engineer looks at a load-bearing wall.
Found one structural failure point [and there are many -- Jon Low]. Drove his
full bodyweight straight through it. One move. The kid folded sideways like a
hinge pushed past its limit. Hit the pavement. The Marine picked up his groceries
and walked home.
That's not a story about toughness. That's physics. Here's the specific
distinction that makes this possible for anyone. Any age. Any size. Any fitness
level. A man full of adrenaline can ignore pain. He can push through burning
muscles, absorb strikes that would stop someone else cold, override discomfort
entirely. But he cannot override a mechanically broken structure. A shattered
knee does not hold weight. It doesn't matter how many fights he's survived.
A crushed throat does not breathe. It doesn't matter how angry he is. An
overloaded carotid shuts the brain off like a light switch. It doesn't care what
he bench presses. That distinction. Pain versus Injury. That is what changes
everything.
[It is vital to always cause debilitating injury. That's why pepper spray
does not work on everyone. It does not cause injury. So it only works on
persons that are not dedicated. And it physically doesn't work on 10% of
the population. (Citation, U.S. Marine Corps Military Police training.)
That's just genetics.
-- Jon Low]
Stay Safe,
Tim Larkin
"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
I helped with a pistol class for civilian concealed carry, as an assistant
instructor. In a lot of classes that I've attended, they take a group photo and
publish it on social media or the school's web site. Some people like to let
their friends know that they shoot. This class was composed of people who
preferred that their friends and colleagues not know that they were doing
gun training.
There were 5 adults in the class. Three of whom were female. (A married
couple and a husband-wife-daughter.)
On the theory that in any real scenario there will be lots of innocent bystanders
and maybe one or two bad guys (think crowded shopping mall, church, movie
theater, etc.), the range was littered with air filled balloons and helium filled
balloons. Some were tied by strings to the target frames, some were tied by
strings to weights that allowed them to float round the range with the wind and
drag the weights around with them. Some were hanging from branches of
overhanging trees. The balloons and plastic bags (plastic garbage bags filled
with helium and sealed by running a hot iron over the opening) were sturdier
than your typical birthday party balloons; so did not pop easily.
The students were instructed to go to their favorite grocery store to buy a
couple of helium filled Mylar balloons. These expensive balloons were labeled
with the name of a loved one and were kept in the immediate vicinity of the
student. Sometimes the balloons representing loved ones were placed down
range, representing persons who panic in chaotic situations, or get separated
from the family by the stampeding crowd, etc.
"When in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout!"
There were about 30 balloons floating around the range.
The idea was to teach the students to be careful and cause stress by not
shooting the balloons representing innocent bystanders and loved ones.
It was actually a very difficult, continuous, on going exercise, for two days.
If there is no consequence for popping a balloon, there is no training effect.
So the penalty for shooting a balloon or a no-shoot target was similar to a safety
disqualification in an IDPA or USPSA match, "You're done for the day."
You MUST hang around and observe and attend the lectures, but you are done
shooting. You are expected to help paste targets and run errands.
If the student did pop a balloon (shoot an innocent person), the student
explained to the grieving next of kin why he shot the innocent person.
This was an exercise in analysis and humanity. The insurance company or
your attorney may advise you not to apologize, but unless you are claiming
that you did not shoot the innocent person, the instructor thought it is a morally
good thing to do. (And I agree.) Radical accountability, as Dr. Taraban would
say. Accepting responsibility for one's actions. Dr. Aprill had thoughts on this,
but I refrain from quoting him as my memory is not good (old age and
organic dementia).
The students were also instructed to bring plastic gallon water jugs with
handles. These were used to simulate a dog attacking the student. The jug
is filled with water. A cord is tied to the jug handle. A carabiner is attached
to the student's belt. The cord is run through the carabiner and back to an
assistant instructor behind the shooting line. So the jug is always pulled toward
the student. The dog changes direction with the student's movements; always
charging toward the student.
It is important to use copper jacketed round nose ammo in training,
as hollow point ammo will cause the jug to explode.
If you're going to kick the attacking dog, you must avert your pistol, so
you don't shoot your foot. Pulling your pistol into a close contact retention
position would be best. So the dog doesn't bite your arm, causing you to
lose your pistol.
One of the exercises was doing a sit-up from behind cover to shoot a
target. In front (isosceles), to the right (left-handed Weaver), to the left
(right-handed Weaver). Everyone in this class was physically fit and able
to do sit-ups easily. The students had to do several reps, because sometimes
the target was not available or there was a balloon floating around behind
the target or . . .
[I was wondering about persons not physically able to do sit-ups. A lot of
classes in our industry are only for persons who are physically fit. If you're
teaching, you need to be prepared to accommodate those who physically or
psychologically struggle to do the exercise; through disability or lack of
physical fitness or the exercise inducing traumatic memories.]
By lunch time, the gentlemen had each popped a balloon. (I think they
were showing off for the ladies. And so shooting faster than they could
think.) So in the afternoon, only the ladies were shooting. This caused
some tension, as the two gentlemen were emotionally connected to the
ladies.
We did several psychological exercises that caused confusion and
consternation. If you've ever taken a course at Tactical Response in Camden,
TN (founded by the late James Yeager) and done the inhibition exercise,
you know what I'm talking about. I'm not going to describe the exercise,
because it is lack of knowledge that makes the exercise effective.
[If you knew before hand what the Force-on-Force scenario would be
there would be no surprise. Hence, ineffective training.]
On the second day, there were a lot more balloons (perhaps 50) and
no-shoot targets. But no balloons were popped. Attitudes had changed.
The students were careful not to shoot the no-shoot targets. The shooting
was very slow and controlled. It was an entirely different mindset. Sort of
the opposite of the Rogers Shooting School and many others.
We did not use any steel targets, as the splatter would have popped a lot
of balloons.
Gabrielle Opro
"Ineffective and potentially dangerous, point shooting should be avoided
at all costs and aimed fire employed in any lethal-force scenario."
-- Massad Ayoob
I have noticed when observing newbies in pool or darts, that they hit the
cue ball too hard or throw the dart with too much force, using too much muscle.
One of the things my coaches taught me was "soft touch". This is true when
playing the table top Foosball games in bars too. Never move the Foosball
rods to the limits of motion, never bang the table.
Controlling your pistol is a matter of technique, not strength. Get expert
coaching. Learn to do it properly. My father would always send me to take
lessons in any sport that I wanted to learn. He would say, "It's much more
fun if you do it correctly. And you'll win more." He liked to bet on golf or
whatever game he was playing. It made it more interesting for him.
We are betting our life, or the lives of our loved ones, or maybe even the
lives of innocent strangers. So get training to learn how to do it correctly.
Because you need to win.
"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
"Competition – Alternate POV [point of view]" by Claude Werner
A response to Greg Ellifritz's article at
---
"Discipline for Me" by Claude Werner
"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
"Top Concealed Carry Errors Explained" by Matthew Maruster
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
1. Firing Warning Shots
2. Leaving the Gun in The Car
[Nashville, TN police say that just about all guns used in crimes were stolen out of cars.
-- Jon Low]
3. Not Carrying With a Round in the Chamber
4. Thinking the Gun is a Shield
---
"The 10 Most Important Rules To Carrying Concealed Firearms" by Massad Ayoob
"In reality, we are training for an unknown event, against unknown threats,
by developing as many known skills as possible."
-- Jeff Gonzales
Some consider reloading your pistol a training scar. Because the better thing to do
might be to drop your pistol and present your BUG (back up gun). But if you do that
in any IDPA or USPSA or IPSC match, you're disqualified from the match.
Something to think about.
"I never carry a back up gun. So, I'll just practice my reloads."
Are you willing to bet the lives of your loved ones that you will have sufficient
time to preform such a reload? That's a hell of a bet.
"Having a gun is important.
But knowing WHEN to use it is even more important."
-- Greg Ellifritz
I don't use a shot timer in the classes that I teach. Because I don't teach that
type of class. I tell my students that we are going to do everything slowly and
correctly. It is then up to them to practice on their own to develop the ability
to do the task quickly. Speed will come automatically with practice. Just as
starting your car and driving out of the parking space can be done quickly,
because you've done it so many times.
NEVER rush. If you rush when backing out of the parking space, you will
run over the child on the tricycle behind your car. You didn't see him because
you were rushing. It's an accident (legally). But the child is still dead.
Similarly, if you rush when presenting your pistol, you will shoot your leg
or support-side hand or innocent bystander.
The Marine Corps says, mishaps are caused by time compression (rushing),
distraction (not paying attention to what you are supposed to be doing), and
breaking habits (doing something you were not trained to do, for whatever
reason; we train to form habits so we don't have mishaps, you're not smarter
than the training, especially not in a high stress situation).
Some instructors teach that shooting fast is different from shooting slowly,
so the only way to learn to shoot fast is to shoot fast. I think they are WRONG.
"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
"Concealed Carry Tips" by Tom Givens
"A mistake that makes you humble is better
than an achievement that makes you arrogant."
-- Nicola Cavanis
Email from Jeff L. Gonzales --
“Fast” is impressive—until it isn’t.
A blazing draw that ends in a miss doesn’t solve the problem. It creates a new one.
That’s the trap many shooters fall into. They chase speed before they’ve built the
one thing that actually matters: First shot accuracy.
Accuracy is the standard. Speed is the bonus. Your first shot is what counts.
It’s the moment that defines performance. And if that shot isn’t reliable,
if it isn’t consistent under pressure, then everything built on top of it is unstable.
That’s why training must start here. Not with a timer. Not with pushing pace.
But with repeatable, dependable precision.
A consistent grip.
A clean presentation.
A clear sight picture.
A controlled trigger press.
Once those are locked in—then we earn speed.
So the real question becomes:
How do we push the envelope without sacrificing accuracy?
Here are the top 3 ways to do it:
1. Build Speed Through Efficiency, Not Force
Speed isn’t about moving faster. It’s about moving better.
Most people try to rush the draw. That’s where accuracy breaks down.
Instead, strip out wasted motion. Tighten your mechanics. Make every
movement intentional and direct. Efficiency creates speed naturally.
If it feels rushed, it’s wrong. If it feels smooth, you’re getting closer.
2. Increase Pressure Gradually
You don’t jump from perfect reps to full speed; you layer it.
Start at a pace where your first shot is consistently accurate.
Then slowly increase the demand. Shorten the time. Add pressure.
But hold the line:
The moment accuracy drops, you’ve gone too far.
Back off. Reinforce. Build again.
Speed is earned in small increments; not leaps.
3. Let Your Eyes Drive the Gun
Your hands don’t determine speed; your eyes do.
The faster you can confirm what you need to see,
the faster you can fire without hesitation.
If your vision is slow or uncertain, your body compensates;
and accuracy suffers. Train your eyes to lead. See sooner.
Confirm faster. Execute clean. That’s where real speed lives.
At the end of the day, this isn’t about being the fastest.
It’s about being effective. Accuracy is what solves problems.
Speed is what supports it. Build your foundation first.
Then push the edge—without ever losing control.
Because true performance isn’t just fast. It’s fast and right.
-- Jeff L. Gonzales
"Shoot sooner, not faster."
-- Matt Little
Rangemaster May 2026 Newsletter
"Shooting Incident, Valuable Lessons"
Lessons from this incident:
1. Handguns usually take multiple hits to stop an aggressive attacker.
2. If the Bad Guy goes down, don’t assume it is over. When one is
lying on the ground, getting blood to the brain only takes 1/3 of the
blood pressure it takes when standing upright.
3. When he goes down, track him to the ground with your weapon,
remaining ready. If he is armed with a firearm, he can return fire
from the ground as long as he is conscious. Don’t relax too soon.
4. Pistols suck, all of them. In this case the defender had a .45ACP.
Still just a handgun. Rapid, precise hits are needed, regardless of
pistol caliber.
“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
"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
“The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns,
we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise,
they will win and decent people will loose.”
-- James Earl Jones
"Proper training ingrains the proper responses.
Repetition is the mother of all skill. With skill comes confidence.
With confidence comes the ability to think under pressure and
make sound tactical decisions."
-- Tom Givens
“You are no more armed because you are wearing a pistol
than you are a musician because you own a guitar.”
from "Principles of Personal Defense" by Col. Jeff Cooper, USMC,
(1920 – 2006 A.D.)
Simple is faster. Simple is more reliable. So, simple is better.
"Before all else, be armed." -- Nicolo Machiavelli
"Safe gun handling and knowing how to operate the gun competently is one thing.
How to fight with the gun is a whole other plane of knowledge."
-- Tiger McKee
*************************************************************************
Sophia Rose Baser
I love spaghetti.
------------------------------ Psychology --------------------------------
“Training deals not with an object,
but with the human spirit and human emotions.”
--Bruce Lee
"Make your own mistakes: you have a right to your pain" by Orion Taraban
Intellectual understanding versus Emotional understanding that you
feel in your bones. Intellectual understanding is largely useless.
---
The personality transformation.
[I often tell my athletes (3-position riflery, Olympic style recurve archery, defensive
pistolcraft) to exercise, because if they are not physically fit, their attitude by the
end of the long grueling match will be "I'm tired. I want to go home." But, if
they are physically fit, their attitude will be "Ya, this is fun. This feels so good,
I could do this forever." -- Jon Low]
"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
"What Everyone Sees . . . But I Don't (The Johari Window) - Smarter Every Day 314"
by SmarterEveryDay
"The Johari Window: A Graphic Model of Awareness in Interpersonal Relations"
by Joseph Luft
"Printable Johari Window PDF" by Smarter Every Day
---
If you don't think you have blind spots, you're delusional.
I remember a buddy telling me that his wife had asked him for a divorce,
out of the blue. She completely blindsided him. He thought everything was fine.
He got taken by surprise because he wasn't paying attention.
---
"An officer may be forgiven for losing a battle,
but never for being taken by surprise."
-- Jeff Cooper
"Be stronger than your strongest excuse."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"The wisdom of detachment." by Orion Taraban, Psy.D.
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026
We hear a lot about attachment theory these days. And while the theory
isn't wrong, it is – in my opinion – woefully overgeneralized. Contrary to
popular belief, the secret to successful relationships is not always to be found
in attachment. In fact, given their significantly different levels of oxytocin,
attachment might be more important for women in relationship than it is
for men.
We need a theory of detachment to balance this perspective,
and – fortunately – we have several. Detachment theory has a very robust
presence in the literature, as literally every single wisdom tradition developed
on this planet has utilized detachment as one of its core principles: from the
Cross of the Christians to the amor fati of the Stoics.
The Buddha even called attachment the root of all suffering. Detachment
is the ability to be in the world but not of the world, to be invested in the
process without becoming identified with the outcome. This is the mark of
a master. Cultivating detachment can instill a kind of spaciousness in your
relationships – and an absence of emotional reactivity – that can combine
freedom with commitment.
This week's behavioral experiment:
Imagine losing something that you value. Picture yourself dealing with the
situation successfully.
Warmly,
Orion
People will not act unless they know the reason why.
"The wisdom of pragmatism." by Orion Taraban, Psy.D.
Wednesday, April 29th, 2026
Learning how to navigate life is a skill – and one that we generally learn in
time and through hardship. In my time on this planet, I've discovered that
commitment to your means and commitment to your ends are inversely
related to each other. What does this mean?
It means that the more committed you are to one, the more flexible you
ought to consider your relationship to the other. For instance, if you have a
very specific way of doing things, then you might need to be accepting of
how they turn out. On the other hand, if you have an outcome you want to
secure, then you may need to be adaptive with respect to how you attain it.
As they say in war: “no strategy survives first contact.” It's functionally
impossible to be rigidly committed to both means and ends,
and – of the two – I believe it is more important to be committed to your ends.
Stick to your idea of what “should” work and you may end up losing the battle.
Those who are overly adherent to their means often don't end up where they
want to go.
This week's behavioral experiment:
What aspect of your approach to a non-optimized domain of your life are
you open to changing? Experiment with alternatives.
Warmly,
Orion
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Conferences --------------------------------
Attending classes and conferences is required for growth.
There is nothing worse than teaching obsolete shit. Because your
students don't know any better.
"Tac Con 2026 Roundup" by Greg Ellifritz
"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
Christian Warrior Training- Securing Sacred Spaces
Saturday, 2 May 2026 A.D.
9 AM - 4 PM
Cornerstone Baptist Church, Inverness, FL
Use promo code CWT to attend for FREE.
Gun Owners of America is advertising
National Women's Range Day 2026, $125
Sig Sauer Academy, 223 Exter Road, Epping, New Hampshire
Saturday, June 6th, 2026 A.D.
8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Wine & Cheese Social, $50.00
Security Operations Summit 2026, $150.00
July 23-25, 2026 A.D.
With hands-on pre-event options on Wednesday, July 22nd!
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 A.D. – Sunday, August 23, 2026 A.D.
Hosted at Living Water Ranch, north of Manhattan, KS.
Food and lodging included in registration price.
To register,
If you have already pre-registered,
The Guardian Conference, $800
September 18th - 20th, 2026 A.D.
in Oklahoma City, OK.
Gun Rights Policy Conference, Second Amendment Foundation, $25
September 25–27, 2026 A.D.
in Dallas at the Westin Dallas Fort Worth Airport hotel.
Click on the link to book a hotel room for $159.00 per night.
Rangemaster Tactical Conference
(registration is open, unlike previous years, it has not sold out in hours)
Friday-Sunday, April 2-4, 2027 A.D.
Dallas Pistol Club; Carrollton, TX
*************************************************************************
Toni Marie Graham
------------------------------ Classes --------------------------------
Attend classes so you know what the best practices are.
For those of you considering Pacific West Academy,
note that they require you to submit,
Physical Fitness Videos, 3 videos total:
- 30 push-ups in 1 minute - Starting position should be with back straight,
arms locked, head forward. On the way down, elbows should rub against
the rib cage. 90 degree bend in the arms on the way down, arms locked
on way up. No back arching or kipping.
- 30 sit-ups in 1 minute - Hands interlocked behind head, knees bent with
calves making contact with thighs. Chest must touch the legs on the way up.
No arching of the back or swinging allowed on the way up or down.
- 3 pull ups - From dead hang position, elbows locked out. No kicking,
swinging, or jerking allowed. Chin must come over the bar. Over hand or
under hand is acceptable.
Just for comparison, when I was in the Marine Corps, the numbers to
max out the physical fitness test (PFT) were:
20 pull ups, 100 sit ups in 2 minutes, 3 mile run in 18 minutes.
[I was always able to get the pull ups and sit ups. Took me about 21 minutes
and 30 seconds to do the 3 mile run.]
The Army wanted 50 push ups in 2 minutes when I played with the
Hawaii Army National Guard during grad school. (They paid for my grad
school, so I didn't have to use my GI Bill.) So 30 in one minute seems
kind of high.
Save yourself the expense of round trip air fare to Arizona, hotel, rental car, and
eating at restaurants.
Gunsite – 250 Defensive Pistol, $2,135
Royal Range, Nashville, Tennessee
Monday, May 25, 2026 - Friday, May 29, 2026
or
Monday, August 24, 2026 - Friday, August 28, 2026
Duration: 5 Days
Prerequisite: None
Ammunition: 1000 rounds ball (ball means copper jacketed round nose bullets)
available for purchase on-site.
The student will also have to purchase approximately 1 box of Simunitions
from Royal Range for the indoor simulators.
DTI Urban Rifle - 1 Day, $550.00
6 Jun 2026 - White House, TN
DTI Defensive Shotgun, $550.00
7 Jun 2026 - White House, TN
DTI Urban Rifle / Defensive Shotgun Combo, $850.00
6-7 Jun 2026 - White House, TN
Advanced Firearms Instructor Course, $ 495 (prerequisite is the Instructor course)
Sat, Aug 15, 2026 – Sun, Aug 16, 2026
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM CDT
Royal Range, 7741 Highway 70 South, Nashville, TN, USA
Intensive Pistol Skills, $ 495
Sat, Aug 22, 2026 – Sun, Aug 23, 2026
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM CDT
Royal Range, 7741 Highway 70 South, Nashville, TN, USA
Protective Pistolcraft Instructor, 5 Days, $ 1350
Mon, Nov 2, 2026 – Fri, Nov 6, 2026, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM CST
Last Resort Firearms Training, 4220 Gravel Pit Road, White Hall, AR, USA
This is the 3-day Firearms Instructor Development Course and
the 2-day Advanced Firearms Instructor Course given in 5 days.
Taught by Tom Givens, Tiffany Johnson, Aqil Qadir, and John Hearne.
No prerequisites. Includes a night shoot and much more.
Tom is retiring at the end of 2026.
The following are in random order. I list them because I have taken a class from
them and thought well of the class, or because someone that I trust recommended
them.
Last Resort Firearms Training (Ed Monk)
Agile Training and Consulting (Chuck Haggard)
Thunder Ranch (Clint Smith)
Classes,
ConcealedCarry.com (Jacob S. Paulsen et al)
Project Appleseed
Agile Training and Consulting
Gunsite Academy
Lee Weems
Massad Ayoob Group
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
Defensive Training International, John Farnam
Rangemaster, Tom Givens
Trident Concepts, Jeff Gonzales
Apache Solutions, Tim Kelly
Harris Combative Strategies, Randy Harris
Mead Hall Range & Tactics, Bill Armstrong
Two Pillars Training, John Hearne
Mike Seeklander
Claude Werner, The Tactical Professor
Tatiana Whitlock - Training in Context
NRA Instructors and their classes.
‟Training is NOT an event, but a process.
Training is the preparation FOR practice.”
-- Claude Werner
*************************************************************************
Fortune Cookie Wisdom:
Whenever you're feeling sad and lonely, don't forget
you're also not doing well financially.
-- Nala Knight
------------------------------ Practice --------------------------------
How to get proficient at that task.
"Maybe you can't achieve it in one day.
But you can achieve it one day."
-- Nala Knight
In classical (normal) chess, the chess clock is not to force you to play fast.
It is to prevent you from winning by forcing your opponent to die of old age.
Similarly, the shot timer should not be used to force you to shoot faster,
faster than you can see, faster than you can think. Rather, the par time beep
is to prevent you from dithering. To encourage you to be decisive.
Subtle, but important. Most training and practice is done in the mind,
not the body. Getting your attitude right. Getting your mindset right.
Taking classes to learn the correct fundamentals is essential. But once
you know what you're supposed to do, dry practice and visualization are
by far the best methods to perfect and engrain skills. The report and recoil
of live fire are gross distractions, that cause all kinds of autonomic nervous
system responses. Best to avoid the distraction, and dry practice or visualize
in your bedroom after waking up and before going to sleep. That's what
world class Olympic athletes do. It will work for you.
“Training deals not with an object,
but with the human spirit and human emotions.”
--Bruce Lee
"Remember, growing may feel like breaking at first."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"The LAPD SWAT Handgun Qualification" by Travis Pike
Hat tip to Dee Carlile.
I assume you can use a supported kneeling position anytime a kneeling position
is called for, because you are not shooting around barriers in this course of fire.
I don't see any sense in using a non-supported kneeling position.
The close retention position should have the firing side elbow pulled as far
back as possible with the bottom of the grip pressed against the rib cage and
the top of the pistol canted away from your body to prevent your shirt from
fouling the slide when it cycles. The further forward your pistol, the easier
it is for the bad guy to grab it.
The author refers to a PDF file, but doesn't give a link to it.
Perhaps he is referring to
TEST: QUALIFICATION COURSE
on page 13 of 68 in
"You have to be lucky to win. And the more you practice, the luckier you get."
-- Col. Lones Wigger
You can use your shot timer in dry practice. Set it to beep twice. The first is
your go signal. The second is your par time (i.e. when a competent practitioner
would have finished). You can get par times from instructors that you have taken
classes from, or from magazine articles, or from friends. Ask your friends how
much time they take to execute a particular drill. [ If they can't tell you or they
give you a ridiculous time, you've learned something about them. (When I was
a child, I was very angry with a friend who borrowed money from me and didn't
repay me. My father explained to me that I had gained valuable information
worth far more than the money that I had lost. But because I am stupid, I made
the same mistake with the same friend a couple of decades later. People don't
change. But they do remember who they can take advantage of.) ]
Presentation from concealment to click (of the trigger mechanism indicating
the firing pin or striker has been released) with the sights properly aligned and
on the point you are aiming at, not just in the area of the target, with a surprise
trigger break would be about 2 seconds. That is 0.5 seconds to clear the
concealment garment, 1.2 seconds to present the pistol to the target, and 0.3
seconds to smoothly press for a surprise break. Do not intentionally make
the pistol go click. Rather, smoothly press while concentrating on the the
front sight, that means to focus on the front sight (look for, and see, the
serrations on the front sight, see the scratches on the front sight). You can
say to yourself, "Keep pressing. Keep pressing. Keep Pressing. . . . " Strive
for a surprise trigger break to defeat all of your autonomic nervous system
responses (such as flinch, jerk, push, etc.).
If you are anally retentive, you can set beeps for start, 0.5 seconds your hand
should be on your pistol, 1.7 seconds your sights should be on the target, 2.0
seconds the pistol should go click.
If you don't make the par times, you are not "slow", you are inefficient,
you are indecisive. You must decide that you are going to do this, to eliminate
any hesitation. You must remove any extraneous motions. Watch yourself in
the mirror or on video recording. I bet you will see yourself doing all kinds of
silly things to waste time. Ben Stoeger isn't any faster than you, he's just more
efficient than you. He has eliminated all extraneous movement. And he is
decisive. Watch his videos, you'll see. (I don't think he has published any
videos of him presenting from concealment, but you get the idea.)
Transitioning from one target to another target 90 degrees apart should
take you about 0.5 seconds from click to click. We are assuming you have
to find the target in a cluttered background. You can use a Where's Waldo
picture (if you've already found Waldo, search for the guy holding up his
right hand, or the guy with his left knee bent to pull his left foot off the ground,
etc.) or a particular image in a collage.
Transitioning from one target to another target 180 degrees apart should
take you about 1.0 seconds, assuming you have the range of motion.
If there is only the one target in a clear background, the exercise is so unrealistic
as to be meaningless for training purposes.
If you have limited range of motion, you're going to have to move your
feet. That's going to take more time. If you've got arthritis, you may be moving
much slower. Everyone is different. Please adapt the times to your ability,
not your laziness, your potential.
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
*************************************************************************
Islamova Kseniia
Buried in powder.
Here's something you might want to try.
Positively identify, and then based on identification decide to shoot or
not to shoot. If you live in a jurisdiction (Germany et al) that forbids the
use of photo realistic targets or humanoid targets, this will still work.
Go to the range with a training buddy. Have your buddy draw 5, 6, 7, or 8
randomly oriented line segments in a well defined area of the target. Black felt
tip pen works well. Adjust the size of the target and your distance from the target,
so that you can barely resolve the line segments. Have you buddy draw 6 of
these target areas on your target sheet and number them 1 through 6. Your buddy
will give you a number from 1 to 6.
When the bag is removed from your head or you are given the signal,
turn to face down range, find the appropriate target and if there are an even
number of line segments, shoot it. Otherwise, don't shoot and bring your
pistol to a ready position.
If you can't resolve the lines, don't shoot. Remember, there is a 50%
chance you will be shooting an innocent bystander.
Cheap and easy to prepare. Not easily gamed, unless you lie about your
ability to see the targets.
If your vision is so good that you don't have sufficient range, remove glasses
and contact lenses, put on shooting glasses, and proceed. If your vision is
too good without glasses or contact lenses, smear a light coat of Chapstick on
the lenses of your shooting glasses or try a veil (you can find such at Goodwill
at negligible cost). Or, draw smaller line segments. A ball point pen works
well.
Positively identify and decide. Yes, squinting is allowed. Michelle Whitford
has a nice technique. She pulls the outboard corner of her eyelid to create a
smaller aperture for her eye. The technique might work for you. Try it.
"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
"The First Shot Problem
Why Your Draw Practice Might Be Lying to You"
by Tom McHale
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
---
"Stop Chasing Fads" by Kenneth Stretz
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpt:
"He was so disappointed because he wanted to believe his modifications
made a difference. They didn’t."
"Good habits and skill beat luck every time."
-- Sheriff Jim Wilson
"Skills Check: The Event Horizon Drill
Instant feedback can distract us from shooting fundamentals."
by Tatiana Whitlock
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Another option would be to cut out the center of the target. I've seen instructors
do this in classes. Some call it a negative target. You only see your misses.
‶Practice is the small deposits you make over time,
so that in an emergency, you can make that big withdrawal.″
-- Chesley Burnett Sullenberger, III
"Accuracy Vs. Effectiveness" by William Starnes
Excerpts:
"It’s not so much accuracy I was aiming for (pun intended), but effectiveness.
He called it combat accuracy. The goal was no longer rounds touching each
other in a tight group, but having hits that stopped the deadly encounter with a
bad guy. Effective shooting took the place of accurate shooting."
"I still have a copy of a book from my academy days called Street Survival,
and remember vividly a picture of a suspect who was shot 33 times before
being incapacitated. It’s a scary thought. I could cite the FBI Miami shootout
against two former Army police officers or the L.A. bank robbery where the
suspects were wearing body armor. Stopping a deadly threat is difficult."
[And may take much more ammunition than you are carrying. -- Jon Low]
"Effectiveness in a combat situation (police, military or civilian) doesn’t
just mean how well you shoot. It involves accurate shooting, to be sure,
but it also involves many other elements most people haven’t seriously
considered. It’s the use of cover and or concealment. It’s the ability to fight
through the body’s natural reactions to the fight-or-flight syndrome. It’s about
making the brain work during one of the most trying times in your life."
"I tell the above story hoping you’ll reconsider what you’re striving for
and practice appropriately. Don’t just practice for accuracy alone — think
about being effective in a startlingly chaotic environment when your body
is experiencing combat-type stress reactions."
"Why are the little things called little things?
They are everything."
-- Nicola Cavanis
VIDEO + Article: "What Effective Training Can Look Like With 100 Rounds"
by Docent
"People rust faster than equipment."
-- John Hearne
"To build myelin the fastest, your movements need to be flawless,
but not necessarily fast. The best way to learn and reinforce motor skills
is through slow, perfect practice."
-- Chris Sajnog
"Remember, the day you plant the seed is not the day you earn the fruit."
-- Nicola Cavanis
". . . you need to practice dry weapons training. You need to perfect
your shooting skills before going to the range and having small explosions
going off in your hands as you’re trying to learn. If you do, those explosions
won’t distract you because you have cemented your path to perfection by
insulating the neural pathways."
-- Chris Sajnog
“Willingness is a state of mind. Readiness is a statement of fact!”
-- Lt. Gen. David M Shoup, USMC Commandant 1960-1963
"As you’re starting off, you might feel like you’re learning slower than
those who are burning through ammo on the range. Don’t give in to these
thoughts. Stick with dry training, conserve your ammo for a later time and
you’ll be amazed at how quickly you progress. You will soon be the one
on the range not just pointlessly burning through your ammo but, instead,
shooting with true skill, deadly accuracy and impressive speed. That’s right.
You will meet two types of people on a range: those who choose to build
up expensive piles of brass and those who build priceless pathways of myelin."
-- Chris Sajnog
"Your speed [in mastering the art and science of your discipline] doesn't matter.
Forward is forward."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"DRY WEAPONS PRACTICE
• You are paving the path to perfection.
• Do your movements perfectly every time.
• Speed does not help, but it does happen through perfect practice.
• It might not be fun, but it works."
-- Chris Sajnog
*************************************************************************
Visa: Your balance is outstanding.
Me: Awww, thank you so much.
-- Nala Knight
"Psychologist K. Anders Ericsson, a professor of Psychology at
Florida State University, has been a pioneer in researching deliberate
practice and what it means. One of Ericsson’s core findings is that
how expert one becomes at a skill has more to do with how one practices
than with merely performing a skill a large number of times.
An expert breaks down the skills that are required to be an expert
and focuses on improving those skill chunks during practice or day-to-day
activities, often paired with immediate coaching feedback. Another
important feature of deliberate practice lies in continually practicing a
skill at more challenging levels with the intention of mastering it."
-- Chris Sajnog
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.”
-- Aristotle
". . . speed will be the natural by-product of a smooth path . . ."
-- Chris Sajnog
***** ***** ***** Intervention ***** ***** *****
Suggestions on how to deal with the incident that you failed to avoid.
Table of sections:
Strategy
Tactics
Techniques
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Strategy --------------------------------
Deciding on the end state and how to achieve it. Generally speaking, you want to escape.
"Never let fear decide your fate."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"This Church Security Team Stopped a Disaster — Incident Debrief"
by Christian Warrior
How do you prevent this? How do you react to this, if you failed to prevent it.
Layered security. The parking lot is the most important place. Your presence
in the parking lot will often cause the bad guy to choose another target. WIN!
“How do you win a gunfight?
Don't be there.”
-- John Farnam
ABC = Always Be Carrying
-- Keith Graves
"You win gunfights by not getting shot."
-- John Holschen
************************************************************************
------------------------------ Tactics --------------------------------
Maneuver and fire in support of your strategy to escape.
Sometimes you must close with the enemy and destroy him with fire and close combat.
“When you’re in the dark, stay in the dark;
when you’re in the light, light up the dark.”
-- Stephen P. Wenger
"Samuel Reineberg - They Eliminated an Active Shooter in 4 Minutes | SRS #295"
by Shawn Ryan
---
Greg Ellifritz's comments --
If you are interested in active killers, terrorism, knife fighting, and
close quarters combat, you should watch/listen to this one. It’s an
interview of one of the ROTC cadets who helped to kill a terrorist
who burst into his college classroom and shot the professor last month.
Interesting things to note:
– The killer used a Glock 44 .22 pistol stolen from a gun owner’s car.
– Several of the cadets intentionally took the slide out of battery to stop
the gun from firing.
– One cadet used a 2″-3″ blade folding knife to stab the terrorist
“a lot and everywhere.”
– Samuel actually popped the terrorist’s eye from the socket with an
eye gouge during the fight.
– Belts make shitty tourniquets.
– The terrorist had been released from prison (for providing material
resources to ISIS) early into a drug abuse halfway house despite no
history of drug use.
"You often don't know where the bad guy is who is shooting at you."
-- Phillip Groff
So your first priority should be to get behind cover. Yes, I understand you won't
know which way is "behind" if you don't know where the shots are coming from.
But you can hear. Yes, I understand that audio direction finding with your ears
doesn't always work with echoes and such.
“People shoot you because they see you.
They see you because you let them.
Don’t let them see you.”
-- Clint Smith
“Fortuitous outcomes reinforce poor tactics.”
-- Chuck Haggard
“No possible rapidity of fire can atone for
habitual carelessness of aim with the first shot.”
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States,
"The Wilderness Hunter", 1893
"Real fights are short." -- Bruce Lee
*************************************************************************
"Once I dated a guy who talked so much about his ex, that I started missing that girl."
-- Nala Knight
------------------------------ Techniques --------------------------------
Ways to execute a given task in support of your tactics,
especially when disabled or under stress.
"I can always do nothing more consistently than I can do something."
-- Ben Stoeger
"Handgun Ergonomics" by Karl Rehn
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpts:
"It’s only been in the past 5 years that the skinny double stack polymer guns,
starting with the SIG 365 family, now including the Glock 43X/48, Hellcat Pro,
Shield X, and similar guns have provided practical solutions."
In the context of trigger finger length as measured from where the index finger
meets the palm,
XL – 3.50″ or longer – any gun
L – 3.25″ - 3.50″ – Glock 17/19 or similar
M – 3.00″ - 3.25″ – Glock 48, Hellcat Pro, Shield X, SIG 365, 1911
S – less than 3.00″ – EZ 380, Springfield EMP, S&W Shield, Glock 42,
S&W Bodyguard and others
[So Karl is selecting the pistol based on the pull length which corresponds
to the trigger finger length.
I think it is better to select the pistol based on the girth of the grip which
corresponds to the length of the middle finger. Best to have the tip of the
middle finger pointing back toward the shooter. And then adjust the pull length.
Yes, as a matter of fact the trigger can be moved. It takes a competent gunsmith,
but it can be done. Trigger groups can be replaced. Connecting rods can be
changed. This is very easy with 1911 type pistols. -- Jon Low]
"Handgun Ergonomics (Manipulations)" by Karl Rehn
"Grip first, then press."
-- Mike Seeklander
Practice isolating the trigger finger from the other fingers of both hands
will pay dividends. Grip your pistol tightly with both hands. Relax the trigger
finger and thumbs. Push the pistol forward with the firing-side hand. (If your
firing-side arm is straight, you will be using the large smooth muscles around
your torso to do the work.) Pull pistol back with support-side hand. (If your
support-side elbow is bent and down, you will be using the bicep of your
support-side arm to pull.)
While maintaining grip tension, align sights with the target. Move your
trigger finger from the register position to touch your trigger. If necessary,
adjust the position of the trigger finger relative to the trigger. Your trigger
should touch the center of your fingerprint. (center of the loop, whorl, or arch)
You should be touching the trigger in exactly the same position every time.
You may want to file a nick in your trigger to act as an index to feel for.
Consistency is accuracy. If you're not pressing firmly into every index,
you are doing something different every time. (Firing-side web between the
index finger and thumb pressed up into the tang, middle finger pressed tight
up against the bottom of the trigger guard, thumb flat against the side of the
pistol. Support-side index finger pressed tight against the bottom of the trigger
guard. Base of thumbs pressed against each other, thumbs touching. Fingers
touching, no gap between fingers.)
Watch the sights as you press the trigger smoothly to remove the slack.
Do not click the trigger. Because you will have to rack the slide to reset the
trigger. That's a different exercise. Isolate, concentrate, and perfect.
If you see the sights move relative to the target, you have some work to do.
With practice, the sights won't move relative to the target.
If the sights don't move on a stationary target, your next step is to track a
moving target, keeping the top of the front sight on the point of the target that
is your intended point of impact. Have you chosen your point of impact
correctly? (You don't need to have a moving target. You can imagine, visualize.
Or, you can use things that naturally move around your environment. Perhaps
balloons, open a window if they don't move enough. Limited only by your
imagination.)
If you can smoothly and consistently track a moving target, your next step
is to do so from lower positions and awkward positions (e.g. squatting while
shooting under a table). Or while being jostled. (e.g. your dogs jumping on you)
If you can track moving targets, your next step is to track the moving target
while you are moving. Initially, you'll be bouncing all over the place. Bend
your knees and take small steps. Strive to move your upper body without up
and down motion. You could practice in a dance studio in front of the mirrors.
Or anywhere there are large windows that allow you to see your reflection.
No gun needed. Get into position and track over the top of your thumbs.
You'll be far ahead of the enemy because you've been there, done that.
(The psychology literature that I've read indicates that your brain can't tell
the difference between practice repetitions and combat engagements. Reps
are reps.) You will have confidence. In the back of your mind, you will be
thinking, "I've done the practice. I'm going to win." Just a statement of fact.
You will not be able to prevent leaking this information and it will scare
the shit out of your enemy.
"Use only that which works,
and take it from any place you can find it."
-- Bruce Lee
If you don't have the range of motion to hold your pistol vertically, cant it over.
A strong grip is more important than a "correct" grip. Don't worry about it. At
self-defense ranges, your cant won't make any difference.
If you are taking a long range shot, 25 yards to 100 yards, you need to find a
rest to brace against, and you need to hold the pistol vertically, so the bore and
sights are vertically aligned.
Do not rest the hard pistol against a hard surface. Always hard against soft
(like your body). When your cartridge ignites (That's the correct word, it does
not detonate. There is no explosive, so there is no supersonic detonation shock
wave. There is only a propellant, that ignites and burns rapidly.) there is a shock
wave that will cause your pistol to bounce off whatever you are holding it against,
if the surface is hard. So brace your elbows or shoulder against the rest.
"Whatever you leave alone is perfect." -- Brian Enos
"Teaching Fudds to Find Their Dots" by Ben Stoeger
"The foundations of your grip are established
before you even draw the pistol from the holster."
-- Tanner Denton
"In my strategy the footwork does not change.
I always walk as I usually do in the street."
-- Miyamoto Musashi
The late James Yeager proving that it's grip, not checkering or stippling,
that make a stable pistol grip.
Fresh blood is slippery. Drying blood is sticky. Dry blood shouldn't cause
a problem, because it is neither slippery nor sticky.
"Ineffective and potentially dangerous, point shooting should be avoided
at all costs and aimed fire employed in any lethal-force scenario."
-- Massad Ayoob
"Squatting as a Tactical Skill" by Richard Hough & Hannah Burkhart
Excerpt:
". . . the squat is not just a gym exercise. It is a human movement pattern."
"Strength without endurance—or endurance without strength—leaves gaps
in performance."
"The secret is applying extreme force with the pinkies and
working your way up the rest of the digits."
-- Jeff L. Gonzales
"Your eye naturally wants to move. These small movements are called
Saccadic Movement. Your eye is trying to help you see what’s around you
by moving only 1-2 degrees. You need to fight this to truly FOCUS."
-- Chris Sajnog
---
To fight Saccadic Movement, hard focus on the front sight. See the
serrations on the front sight. See the scratches on the front sight. If you
need to put on reading glasses to see the front sight, do so. You may not
have your glasses during combat, but they are very important for training.
You will remember the image, even when you don't have your reading glasses.
"It's not daily increase but daily decrease - hack away at the inessentials!"
-- Bruce Lee
"How to Install the USGI Cotton Web Sling"
by Maximum Ordinate
For you rifle shooters.
". . . 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"
[Never shoot faster than you can see. Never shoot faster than you can think. -- Jon Low]
“What’s the number one reason for reloading?
Missing the target!”
-- Claude Werner
*************************************************************************
Sophia Rose Baser
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** 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
"Ten Things To Do After A Self Defense Incident" by Gary Eastridge
I took a course from the author's son, Bryan, at the Guardian Conference.
Small world, eh?
“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
"Sticky Issue!" by John Farnam
If you can't go though the day without a drink, you are an alcoholic.
Stop! Fix yourself.
"Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery."
-- Ephesians 5:18
In the right hand column of this web page, click on "Never Talk To The Police"
or use the address,
In the right hand column, click on the link labeled "Self Defense Insurance".
Or, the link is,
Read this before you buy insurance. You need to make an informed decision.
The various policies are drastically different.
"You need to read the fine print." -- Massad Ayoob
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Medical --------------------------------
"The shorter the fight, the less hurt you get."
-- John Holschen
Brink Fidler says tourniquets are life savers. Carry one with you at all times.
Learn how to correctly apply it. Apply it immediately. Don't remove it, no matter
how much the victim complains of pain.
String does not work. Belts do not work. Get a real tourniquet!
"If you prepare for the emergency,
the emergency ceases to exist!"
-- Sherman House
Tactical Emergency Casualty Care Course - NAEMT Certified, $495.00
Tracey Mendenhall | VP of Operations
(Life Saving Ninja)
DEFEND SYSTEMS
(615) 480-7758
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Survival --------------------------------
"If you stay fit, you do not have to get fit.
If you stay trained, you do not have to get trained.
If you stay prepared, you do not have to get prepared."
-- Robert Margulies
Can you take a cold shower? instead of a hot shower, cold water only.
Try it. If you physically cannot do it, you have a problem that needs to
be fixed. A complete shower where you wash your entire body, not just
a rinse. Some people have never done this. So they don't know whether
or not they can do it. Some people physically cannot do it. Do you
understand? This is important information that you need to have about
yourself. Don't assume you can do it, if you've never done it. You may
be surprised. You may be shocked. Better to be shocked in the safety
of your bathroom than in combat. Yes, as a matter of fact, this does
apply directly to your behavior in combat (and other high stress /
uncomfortable situations). That's why we take cold water showers in
Marine Corps boot camp. Or, at least we did in 1981.
This is a small step toward courage. Dr. Taraban recommends starting
with small steps. Your success will encourage you toward further success.
---
"Turning it around: how to start winning in life" by Orion Taraban
"Survival is a mindset, not a skill set."
-- Greg Shaffer
Hannah Palmer
Exercise matters.
It allows you to avoid, to escape, to win, to heal, to recover.
‟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
Willow Hand
You must be comfortable under water. You don't need to be a strong swimmer
(though that of course would be good). You just need to be comfortable,
so you don't panic. The rescuer is trying to give you the regulator so you can
breathe. But if you panic and start grabbing him, using him as a ladder to get
to the surface, well, he's not going to let you drown him. He's a rescue diver,
so he knows how to control you or disengage from you underwater.
If he's not a rescue diver and you panic, you are going to get both of you
killed. So you can't panic, so you must be comfortable underwater.
"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
Accidents [not homicides] By The Numbers [2018 A.D.]
⬣ Elevators: 30 fatalities
⬣ Commercial Airline: 534 fatalities
⬣ Passenger Train: 818 fatalities
⬣ Trucks & Buses: 5,005 fatalities
⬣ Walking: 6,227 fatalities
⬣ Automobiles: 36,560 fatalities
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
--Benjamin Franklin
*************************************************************************
There's a happy smile.
***** ***** ***** Education ***** ***** *****
Table of contents:
Legal
Instruction
Gear
*************************************************************************
"You will never get smarter or broaden your horizons
if you're unwilling to learn from others and read."
-- Becca Martin
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Gun University
"Defensive Use of Firearms" by Stephen P. Wenger
Get on his emailing list for his newsletter,
Greg Ellifritz's reading list,
American Rifleman and American Hunter are now online free of charge.
Practical Eschatology
2nd Amendment News & Articles
Citizen-Defender, John Murphy
YouTube.com channel
Blog posts,
Rangemaster Newsletter, Tom Givens
Active Self Protection, John Correia
"My Gun Culture" by Tom McHale
Quips, John Farnam
Active Response Training, Greg Ellifritz
Make sure to check out the Weekend Knowledge Dumps.
The Tactical Professor, Claude Werner
American Handgunner Magazine
Tactical Science
International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors
Alien Gear blog
Shooting Classes Blog
"Cogito, ergo armatum sum." (I think, therefore armed am I.)
-- John Farnam
*************************************************************************
Daria Zefir
Just yesterday you were a successful good — lady.
------------------------------ Legal --------------------------------
“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)
Gun Law Database
"Build A Reciprocity Map:" by Concealed Carry, Inc.
"Firearms are second only to the constitution in importance,
they are the people's liberty's teeth." -- George Washington
"Initial Aggressors and Provocateurs" by Bob O'Conner and Joe Hahn
You have to be careful with this sort of article. The authors are making a point.
So they leave out the facts that might dissuade you from their point of view.
Michael Drejka was not arrested by responding officers who viewed the
parking lot security camera videos, because it was self-defense. A couple of
weeks later, the County Sheriff publicly stated that he would not charge
Michael Drejka with any crime, because it was self-defense. That should
have been the end of it. But then Drejka, in an act of criminal stupidity,
went into the police station without an attorney and ran his mouth for two
hours (the video and audio are on YouTube.com). The two hour rant was
played to the jury, who then convicted Drejka. The police officer conducting
the interview did not coerce, did not lead. The officer just sat there, saying,
"Okay, okay."
Markus Kaarma was convicted because he ran his mouth to his neighbor
and others, always an act of criminal stupidity. And because his attorney did
not hire private investigators to find the exculpatory evidence. The jury only
got the evidence from the police investigation. The police are NEVER working
for the defendant. The police are never going to turn over exculpatory
evidence to the defense. Because their job, promotions, and raises depend
on convictions.
So you must have enough money to hire private investigators. Which
means you must have a self-defense insurance policy; that actually pays.
The premiums don't matter. All that matters is their reputation for paying
in full, up front. Some insurance companies deny claims or ignore your
cries for help until after your conviction. Don't buy from them!
“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
"Feds agree not to return rapid-fire trigger switches to Democratic-led states"
by Stephen Dinan
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger
---
On Apr 24, 2026, at 3:03 PM Central Time,
Jonathan Low <jon_low@yahoo.com> wrote:
Dear Mr. Dinan,
In your article,
"Feds agree not to return rapid-fire trigger switches to Democratic-led states"
you have confused forced-reset-triggers, which allow rifles to shoot rapidly
by allowing fast repetition of trigger presses (not machineguns)
with
Glock switches, which allow rapid fire with a single trigger press (a machinegun).
Cheers,
Jon
Jonathan D. Low
Phone: +1 (615) 372-9627
Email: Jon_Low@yahoo.com
Radio: KI4SDN
---
From: sdinan@washingtontimes.com
To: Jonathan Low
Fri, Apr 24 at 2:16 PM Eastern Time
Oh my. I see that now. Thank you for the nice note. I will get it changed.
"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
"Tenn. House passes bill extending ‘Stand Your Ground’ protections to
homeowners’ property"
by Lillian Mann and Brooke Mallory
---
"Tennessee’s 2026 “Defense of Property” Act:
Mere Smoke, Mirrors, and No New Rights"
by John Harris, Executive Director of the Tennessee Firearms Association
---
Rebuttal to the TFA post by Andrew Branca --
The Tennessee Firearms Association post doesn’t explain with any clarity
what their objection with the statutory language is with the revision to §39-11-614,
other than a broad claim that the statute still requires a deadly force threat to
persons before one can use deadly force in defense of persons. This, however,
is incorrect.
Their hang-up with the statutory language may be here:
(1) The person reasonably believes the other had no claim of right when the
other dispossessed the person; and
(2) The other accomplished the dispossession by threatening or using force
against the person.
This is very similar to, but importantly different from, the Texas deadly force
in defense of property statute, Penal Code §9.42.
In the Texas Penal Code 9.42, the conjunction between paragraphs (1) and (2)
above is an “or”—so either taking of property with no apparent claim of right OR
taking by threat or using force against the person would satisfy §9.42. To put it
another way, if condition (1) is met (the repossession case), then there is
NO REQUIREMENT for the threat or use of force condition of (2).
In the TN statute BOTH (1) AND (2) are required, so there MUST be a
“dispossession by threatening or using force.” The TN statute REQUIRES that
there be SOME THREAT TO PERSONS.
This requirement of a threat to persons in the TN defense of property statute
makes it less broad and less good than the Texas statute.
(By the way, that language we’ve just discussed is the PRE-EXISTING defense
of property language already in place even before the new deadly force language
is added—for our purposes this was ALREADY the law in Tennessee.)
So it’s certainly fair for the TFA to argue that the TN revision fails to put TN
defense of property statute on parity with the TX defense of property statute.
That’s not the same thing, however, as claiming that the TN revision doesn’t
make any substantive change to TN defense of property law.
In particular, TFA’s claim (quoting their blog post) is simply incorrect:
"Despite being framed as a “protection of property” measure, the statute,
as amended in 2026, expressly prohibits the use of deadly force unless there
is an imminent threat of death, serious bodily injury, or grave sexual abuse
to a human being, or on circumstances where lesser force would expose a
person to those same risks."
This is wrong.
The prior version of TN defense of property law prohibited the use of
deadly force unless there as a deadly force threat to persons.
The REVISION of the TN defense of property, however, NO LONGER
requires a deadly force threat to persons before deadly defensive force can
be used. It mere requires that there BE SOME threat, NOT that the threat
be a DEADLY FORCE THREAT.
That’s the relevant language in (2):
(2) The other accomplished the dispossession by threatening or using force
against the person.
TFA would be correct in arguing that the revision accomplished no change
if that sentence read “The other accomplished the dispossession by threatening
or using DEADLY force against the person.” But that’s NOT what it says.
It merely says “threatening or using FORCE against the person,” and therefore
does not require DEADLY force to be satisfied.
So, under the prior TN defense of property law, deadly force was not justified
unless there was a DEADLY FORCE threat to persons. Under the revision,
deadly force may be justified if there is ANY threat to persons—that threat need
NOT be a deadly force threat, as was required before the revision.
Again, this is more limited than the TX version of the deadly force in defense
of property statute, which doesn’t necessarily require ANY threat of ANY force.
But the TN law HAS changed—it lowered the threat or use of force required
to justify deadly defensive force in defense of property from a DEADLY force
threat to a mere NON-DEADLY force threat.
And that IS an expansion of TN use-of-force law.
Best regards,
Andrew
Andrew F. Branca
Attorney at Law (MA)
Law of Self Defense LLC
(720) 386-2250
Facebook: Law of Self Defense
Instagram: law.self.defense
"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
Even though acquitted, the two year process was the punishment.
"Barstow veteran acquitted of murder, manslaughter in fatal shooting"
by Brian Day
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger.
“When you will not fight when you can easily win, without bloodshed,
and when you still will not fight when victory is sure and not too costly,
you may well come to the moment when you will have no choice but to
fight with the odds against you, and you have only a small chance of survival.
There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no
hope of victory, simply because it is better to perish as warriors than to
live as slaves.”
-- Winston Churchill
"Perhaps There Is Redemption For Murderers" by Docent
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Instruction --------------------------------
"Remember,
the students who require the extra effort
are the ones who need us the most!"
-- John Farnam
*************************************************************************
----- Instructors -----
"A false path will always be tensely, angrily, violently defended
by those it has deceived, because those who are so easily deceived
are ever too arrogant to repent.”
-- Instructional axiom
"Confidence Before Competence: Training Women for Real-World Self-Defense"
by Lorraine Crescimanno
Excerpt:
Most women who come to train aren’t there for recreation. They’re there
because they feel a responsibility — to protect themselves, and often, their
children. That mindset is very different from what we typically see with male
students, who are more likely to have been introduced to firearms through
sport or a hobby.
That difference matters. And as instructors, we need to teach accordingly.
The most effective way to train women in firearms is to build confidence
before focusing on performance. Starting with low-pressure, hands-on learning
helps reduce fear, improve retention, and create a strong foundation for skill
development.
Women are often walking into class with:
Fear of the unknown
Fear of doing something wrong
Fear of the firearm itself
They’re not just learning a skill—they’re stepping into something completely
unfamiliar, and often uncomfortable.
As instructors, our job is to meet them there—not push past it.
What works for someone already comfortable around firearms does not work
for someone who is not.
If a student is overwhelmed or intimidated early on, you risk shutting them
down completely. And when that happens, they’re far less likely to return for
future training.
If you’re teaching women, remember this:
⬣ Slow down more than you think you need to
⬣ Focus on comfort before performance
⬣ Create an environment where questions are welcomed, not judged
⬣ Understand that confidence is the foundation of everything else
You’re not just teaching mechanics—you’re shaping how someone feels about
their ability to protect themselves.
---
And here all these years, I had thought that competence causes confidence.
-- Jon Low
"You must teach skill sustainment as part of training."
-- John Hearne
"Instructor Tips | Making Targets Work for You"
by Daniel Reedy
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpt:
" . . . but unfortunately most seem to blow the advice off as pedantic."
[That is a real attitude problem. Avoid this attitude and encourage others
to avoid this attitude. -- Jon Low]
". . . use Scotchguard or Rain-X spray on his targets to help prevent moisture
from being absorbed by the paper. Simply spray your target, give it a few
moments to set, and you’re good to go."
Thanks to John Murphy of Citizen Defender.
"You don't have to memorize formulae.
Because you can always derive them from first principles."
-- Sven Hartman
"Most of you are gun and combatives enthusiasts. Do you think the advice
you give your friends, family, and students might be seen as “over the top”
from their perspective and ultimately ignored? Is that an effective
communications / education strategy?"
-- Greg Ellifritz
"Your curriculum needs to be recent, relevant, and realistic."
-- Austin Killmer
“We are not “competing” against one another, even if another company
views you as a competitor against whom to counter-market and model their
products and services. The REAL opponent is our prospective student’s
habitual resistance to positive transformation, and against his or her disbelief
in his or her unlimited potential.”
– Scott Sonnon
"The limited time you spend with students
may be the only training they ever receive!"
-- John Farnam
"Tools for Better Firearms Coaching" by Dave "Boon" Benton
Excerpt:
Explain – Use only your voice to describe the technique or drill
Demonstrate – Show your students how to do a technique or drill
Imitate – Have your students do the technique or drill themselves
after watching you
Practice – Have your students practice the task at 50% speed before
building to the regular speed of the technique or drill.
“The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other.
Without collaboration, our growth is limited to our own perspectives.”
-- Robert John Meehan
"5 Tips for Firearms Teaching from Kris “Tanto” Paronto"
Excerpt:
1. Don’t be a tough guy.
2. Run some of the drills with the students.
3. Be clear in your instructions. And, be open to questions.
4. At the beginning of class, check out the gear everyone brought.
(You and the students can learn a lot from this.)
5. You have to genuinely care about your firearms students.
“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
"How do you rate yourself as an instructor?" by Bruce Corey
Colonel Robert Lindsey to his fellow trainers:
"We are not God's gift to our students.
Our students are God's gift to us."
“He who dares to teach must never cease to learn.”
-- Richard Henry Dana
"Every time I teach a class,
I discover I don't know something."
-- Clint Smith
“Qui docet, discet.” (Who teaches, learns.)
-- American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers
Be careful what you teach.
Because your students will do in combat
whatever you have trained them to do,
no matter how ridiculous.
-- "Shooting in Self-Defense" by Sara Ahrens
************************************************************************
----- Students -----
"It's better to be wrong than to be vague."
-- Freeman Dyson
"Getting sucked into the bluff" by Ben Stoeger
Point shooting is not substantively faster than aimed shooting.
Training to aim and confirm to be accountable for your bullets,
and then discarding the training to shoot without aiming when the
stakes are high is nonsensical.
---
And they are doing the newbies a grave disservice by
teaching them nonsense.
"Thinking is the hardest thing a person can do.
That's why so few people do it."
-- Henry Ford
“Train, Practice, Compete
are the key elements in the development of humans.”
-- John M. Buol, Jr.
"Keep in mind that this is some seriously next level material.
It is totally normal that the first time you see this stuff, you find
it confusing. You find it difficult to understand. So, confusion
should not discourage you. It does not represent any intellectual
failing on your part. Rather, keep in mind that it represents an
opportunity to get even smarter."
– Tim Roughgarden, Professor of Computer Science and other
stuff at Stanford University
"Try.
Try again.
Try once more.
Try differently.
Try again tomorrow.
Try and ask for help.
Try find someone who's done it.
Try to fix the problem.
Keep trying until you succeed."
-- Nicola Cavanis
“It may seem difficult at first but everything is difficult at first.”
-- Miyamota Mushashi
*************************************************************************
----- Andragogy (as opposed to pedagogy) -----
‟An instructor should not expect any learning to
take place the first time new information is presented.”
-- ‶Building Shooters″ by Dustin Salomon
"Growth is uncomfortable because you've never been there before."
-- Nicola Cavanis
*************************************************************************
Maria Churchy
If she puts on a jacket for no reason,
it's because you were staring at her nipples.
You may not have noticed that you were, but she did.
Be careful.
------------------------------ Gear --------------------------------
And the safe storage thereof.
"Trust No One: an insider’s perspective" by Todd Louis Green
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
A sad commentary on the state of the gun manufacturing industry.
Gun companies don't test fire the guns before shipping, to cut costs. Sad.
The purpose of a high capacity magazine is NOT to let you shoot more;
it is to let you reload less.
-- Tom Givens
"Handgun Ergonomics" by Karl Rehn
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpts:
"It’s only been in the past 5 years that the skinny double stack polymer guns,
starting with the SIG 365 family, now including the Glock 43X/48, Hellcat Pro,
Shield X, and similar guns have provided practical solutions."
In the context of trigger finger length as measured from where the index finger
meets the palm,
XL – 3.50″ or longer – any gun
L – 3.25″ - 3.50″ – Glock 17/19 or similar
M – 3.00″ - 3.25″ – Glock 48, Hellcat Pro, Shield X, SIG 365, 1911
S – less than 3.00″ – EZ 380, Springfield EMP, S&W Shield, Glock 42,
S&W Bodyguard and others
"Handgun Ergonomics (Manipulations)" by Karl Rehn
“Your car is not a holster.”
-- Pat Rogers
"NRA Show and Convention, Second Day" by John Farnam
Excerpt:
"Vendors at the NRA Show are permitted to sell product directly
to attendees (unlike the SHOT Show), and much stuff changes hands
during the three-day event!"
"There are no dangerous weapons, only dangerous men."
-- Robert A. Heinlein
"The Dark Reason the M1911 Pistol Is Still in Service"
by Warfare Unclassified
Why are so many units still using the 1911 chambered in 45 ACP
or variants thereof?
"Why are the little things called little things?
They are everything."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"P365 Armorer’s Notes" by John Hearne
Hat tip to David Rodgers.
Excerpts:
"A detailed strip and examination is recommended every 5,000 rounds."
"Outside of the recoil guide/spring, every other part requires replacement
at 20,000 rounds which makes 20,000 rounds the effective life cycle of the P365."
". . . I was contacted by several folks who related failures of the FCU
(fire control unit) with higher round counts but not anywhere near 20,000.
This matches the experience of other on-line friends who have had P365s
fail at round counts far below 20,000 rounds."
"We need to remember that reliability and durability are different aspects
of design."
---
Make sure to view the photo at the end of the newsletter.
“Mission drives the gear train.”
-- Pat Rogers
"New Fiocchi Ammo Turns Any NATO Rifle Into a Drone Killer"
by Eric B
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger.
---
Another anti-drone munition.
---
Shooting at drones is a very bad idea, because the projectiles will come down
on some innocent bystander. And the report of your gun will attract unwanted
attention.
Much better idea to use electronic warfare, jamming. Russian jammers are
cheap and easily available. And they don't attract attention. It is highly unlikely
that anyone with the correct equipment to detect your jamming is in the area.
And your jamming will only last for a few seconds, just enough to crash the drone.
Extremely difficult to detect. WIN!
Stop Box (gun storage)
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger.
Scroll half way down the web page to view the video explaining how it works.
No batteries. No electronics. All mechanical.
I have never use this. I just got an email about it.
Ammo sources:
Unlimited Ammo
Target Sports USA
GunMag Warehouse
SGAmmo
True Shot Ammo
The Mag Shack
If you know of any others, let me know.
*************************************************************************
Vasilina Kireenko
***** ***** ***** Intelligence ***** ***** *****
Always cite open source. There is always some conspiracy theorists who has said
what you want to say. Quote him. Everyone will understand.
UAE leaves OPEC.
From Task & Purpose
"Right to repair: Why the US military can’t fix much of its own equipment
Restrictive agreements with defense contractors leave service members unable
to fix the expensive ships, fighter jets, and ground vehicles they depend on."
by David Roza
This is going to get a lot of our people killed.
One of the cited articles,
"Governor Of California PANICS As Apple May LEAVE To Texas
Taking $391 billion Out Of California!"
by New York Reports
"String of 11 Missing or Dead Scientists with Ties to Classified Info
Prompts Trump Investigation" by New York Post
"BREAKING NOW:
Scandals ROCKS the Supreme Court — The FBI Is Called In"
by Explain America
Everyone knows which liberal Justice staffer is leaking.
He just hasn't been caught yet.
ALWAYS CITE OPEN SOURCE ! ! !
Email from Patriot Post --
U.S. soldier charged with insider trading: "Prediction markets" is the
euphemism for gambling services like Polymarket and Kalshi that have
exploded in popularity as people have placed bets on everything from
presidential elections to a potential confirmation of alien life. One savvy
gambler won $400,000 on bets related to the capture of Venezuelan
dictator Nicolás Maduro by American forces. As it turns out, however,
those bets are believed to have been placed by
U.S. Army Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who was a participant
in Operation Absolute Resolve. Van Dyke has been indicted for insider
trading based on classified government information. President Donald Trump
bemoaned the situation created by prediction markets, saying,
"The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino."
Van Dyke faces charges of theft of government information, wire fraud,
and more, which could land him in prison for up to 60 years.
Email from Shanaka Anslem Perera --
Iran just pulled a thirty-year-old empty supertanker out of retirement and
began towing it toward Kharg Island. She is moving so slowly that a voyage
that should take a day and a half is taking four days.
Her name is NASHA. IMO 9079107. Built 1996. A two-million-barrel
very large crude carrier that has been anchored empty off Kharg for years.
TankerTrackers confirmed her reactivation yesterday. Gulf News,
Iran International, and Fox News all picked it up within hours.
The reason she is moving at all is that Iran is running out of places to put the oil.
Kharg Island handles roughly ninety percent of Iran’s crude exports. Its onshore
tanks had about thirteen million barrels of spare capacity when the US blockade
began on April 13. Net inflow since has been running at one million to one point
one million barrels per day because exports have collapsed to single digits of
vessels while upstream production continues. The math is mechanical. Roughly
twelve days of spare capacity. The calendar says that window closes this week.
NASHA is not a strategy. NASHA is what you do when you have run out
of strategy.
A two-million-barrel floating storage vessel buys Iran approximately forty-eight
hours of continued upstream production. After that, either the wells get shut in
or the crude goes somewhere else. The parallel options being pursued, ship-to-ship
transfers in the Riau Archipelago, AIS-dark transits, sanctioned VLCCs returning
home through the blockade line, are not enough. Lloyd’s List Intelligence has
tracked roughly twenty-six Iran-linked vessels evading since April 13. That cannot
absorb a million barrels a day.
The wells will shut in. The question is which wells, for how long, and whether
they come back.
The Asmari and Bangestan carbonate formations that sit under most of Iran’s
giant southern fields are high-permeability, strong-water-drive systems. The Society
of Petroleum Engineers
literature on this specific reservoir class is unambiguous.
Remove continuous pressure support for a prolonged shut-in and four damage
mechanisms activate simultaneously: water coning upward through the fracture
network, fines migration into pore throats, formation compaction under increased
effective stress, and clay swelling under altered salinity and pH. The damage is
not theoretical. It is documented. And it is measured in months to years of
recoverable production capacity, not days.
Maleki and Gordon estimate three hundred to five hundred thousand barrels
per day of permanent capacity loss if the current shut-in trajectory completes.
That is a directional estimate, not a lab measurement, but the direction is not
in dispute.
NASHA is the archaeological signature of the clock.
When a country with the world’s third-largest oil reserves reactivates a
thirty-year-old retired tanker to float on top of its main export terminal and
buy forty-eight hours of time, the institutional systems designed to absorb
shocks have already failed. The insurance market, the shadow fleet, the
diplomatic channels, and the reservoir physics are all converging on the
same conclusion at different speeds, and NASHA is the one that shows
up on satellite.
The market is pricing a ceasefire.
The Pentagon is pricing six months of mine clearance.
Iran just pulled a corpse out of the Persian Gulf and asked it to buy two days.
That is not how a reversible crisis looks. That is how a regime tells you,
operationally, that it has run out of options between the blockade and the shut-in.
The reservoir does not negotiate.
by Shanaka Anslem Perera
Hat tip to Sidney Ontai.
[Perera cites the Society of Petroleum Engineers which is not a
society of geophysicist specializing in petroleum exploration, as I am
(Society of Exploration Geophysicists, https://seg.org/). But I won't quibble.
-- Jon Low]
"Have The UK, France And Germany Been Sharing Intelligence With Iran?"
by Docent
Email from Shanaka Anslem Perera --
For five years, Iran built an alternative financial architecture on the explicit
theory that cryptocurrency would be sanctions-resistant. Bitcoin mining was
legalized in 2019. Subsidized power was redirected to industrial farms. Mined
coins were sold to the Central Bank of Iran for hard currency. The IRGC
moved over three billion dollars through digital assets in 2025 alone. By year
end the Iranian crypto ecosystem had reached seven point eight billion dollars
per Chainalysis, with the central bank holding at least five hundred seven million
in USDT reserves per Elliptic.
The architecture was the bet. The bet was that the dollar could not follow
Iran onto the chain.
On April 23, 2026, the United States Treasury froze three hundred forty-four
million dollars of that architecture with one smart-contract call.
Tether executed the freeze on receipt of intelligence from US law enforcement.
Two Tron wallets, beginning TNiq9AXBp9 and TTiDLWE6fZ, were blacklisted
at the smart-contract level. The first held two hundred thirteen million. The second
held one hundred thirty-one million. The funds had accumulated approximately
three hundred seventy million across nearly one thousand transactions since
March 2021. Less than seven percent ever flowed out. The wallets had been
dormant since late 2023. This was not operational money. This was a sovereign
war chest stored on the chain because the IRGC assumed nobody could touch it.
Treasury touched it on Thursday.
Treasury Secretary Bessent named the campaign Economic Fury and stated
the doctrine in plain English. “Treasury will continue to systematically degrade
Tehran’s ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds. We will follow the
money that Tehran is desperately attempting to move outside of the country
and target all financial lifelines tied to the regime.”
The five-year theory collapsed in one paragraph.
The IRGC built crypto rails to escape the dollar. The dollar followed onto
the rails, identified the wallets through TRM Labs and Chainalysis behavioral
clustering, instructed Tether to freeze them, and demonstrated that the
seven-point-eight-billion-dollar parallel economy is permissioned at the issuer
layer. Tehran now knows what every Russian, North Korean, and Venezuelan
sanctions desk is reading: USDT is a US Treasury asset that sanctioned actors
cannot store value in.
The timing reframes the entire conflict.
Tehran’s negotiating posture for forty-eight days assumed crypto reserves
provided sanctions cushion. That cushion is now provably three hundred
forty-four million dollars smaller. The Pentagon is photographing three carrier
strike groups. Treasury is photographing the Tron blockchain. Both are
publishing the order of battle.
The market is reading this as tactical sanctions enforcement. That reading
is incomplete. CNN noted yesterday it had not independently corroborated
the Iran attribution, and Bitcoin maximalists are noting that three hundred
forty-four million is under five percent of the seven-point-eight-billion-dollar
ecosystem. Both points concede the floor of the argument. Stablecoins are
now Treasury extensions with smart-contract APIs. The GENIUS Act, signed
July 2025 and operationalized through April rules, codified it. The freeze
made it visible.
Three readings of this week.
A successful sanctions enforcement against the Iranian regime. Priced.
A diplomatic pressure tactic ahead of fragile ceasefire talks. Narrow.
The first publicly verifiable demonstration that Iran’s five-year
sanctions-evasion architecture is permissioned end to end, that the dollar
followed the IRGC onto the chain, and that every sanctioned sovereign on
earth must reprice its crypto reserves before the next Economic Fury Friday.
The market is pricing the first.
Tehran is repricing the third.
-- Shanaka Anslem Perera
Hat tip to Sidney Ontai.
"How an Old Iranian F-5 Busted Epic Fury's High-Tech Defenses"
by Ward Carroll
Citing the source,
"How A Cold War Relic (F-5) Beat The World’s Most Advanced Air Defense Network"
by Denver Riggleman
Hat tip to Sidney Ontai.
Counter Intelligence
The frame is the problem, not the model.
"Wilder: China's War On The U.S." by Docent
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Institute for the Study of war
The Dispatch
Strategy Page
"The Merge"
Breaking Defense
Intrigue
1440
29155
Global Recaps
Timber Sycamore
Ground News
Soldier Systems
*************************************************************************
Vasilina Kireenko
Nice foot.
***** ***** ***** Signals Intelligence,
Ground Electronic Warfare,
Cyber Warfare,
(sometimes Air Electronic Warfare too) ***** ***** *****
Always cite open source.
"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
"i don’t think this ends well for cybersecurity . . . . " by Cyb3rMaddy
Email from Patriot Post --
Meta cuts 10% of workforce: Big Tech giant Meta announced that it will
lay off 8,000 employees, roughly 10% of its workforce, as part of its
Artificial Intelligence development plans and to improve efficiency.
Fellow Big Tech firm Microsoft also announced it will offer voluntary buyouts
to roughly 8,750 workers, or 7% of its U.S. workforce. None of these cuts
comes as a surprise, as industry experts have warned that as AI expands, it will
eliminate jobs. Wedbush analyst Dan Ive sees Big Tech's embrace of AI tech
as a benefit, as it will "automate tasks that once required large teams, allowing
the company to streamline operations and reduce costs while maintaining
productivity, driving an increased need for a leaner operating structure."
As it turns out, "learn to code" was not the solution to job losses that
politicians pretended it was.
---
Having been a software engineer for a few of decades, I can assure you that
learning to code well is an extremely difficult thing to do. Requiring a great deal
of study, research, experimentation, and failure. You can't "learn to code" quickly.
You can't become proficient quickly. It requires a high IQ, high conscientiousness,
and serious work ethic. So I suspect that the employees being laid off are the script
kiddies, the dead wood. Because competent coders are more valuable than gold,
because they are rare. I think "AI is replacing them" is just an excuse for firing
the affirmative action hires.
"US Military Uses “Ghost Murmurs” in Iran: What are they?"
by Sabine Hossenfelder
Ya, she ain't buying it either.
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Breaking Defense has a weekly newsletter, "Networks & Digital Warfare" at
Crypto-Gram by Bruce Schneier
2600
Soldier Systems
*************************************************************************
Meg
***** ***** ***** 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.
Ya, I cited this in the last newsletter, but on second viewing and deeper
study, I found it useful for many problems we are working on.
"Parity of permutations, impossible puzzles and the magical determinant"
by Mathologer
Burkard Polster and Marty Ross, app for visualizing
"Never memorize anything. Rather, study it until it becomes obvious."
-- Norman Christ
Ivars Peterson suggests you study Ramsey Theory. The tools of Graph Theory
can be used to great effect in exploring Ramsey Theory. (If nothing else, they make
pretty pictures.) The Ramsey Numbers can be used in our cryptologic protocols,
and not just as cryptologic primitives. You can avoid the combinatorial explosion
with a little thought. Using thousands of desk top computers or supercomputers
to test all possibilities lacks elegance. You can figure it out without such brute
force methods. As Prof. Lee Lady would say, "The solution is easy. I've given you
a big hint by saying that." And once you know that finding the solution is easy,
it becomes so. (Of course, those were homework problems. Some problems are
not easy.)
I used to think that the writers of the SAT and ACT questions would find trick
problems that were hard, unless you recognized the trick to solving the problem.
But I was wrong. All problems have a trick. All problems are easy, once you find
the trick. That is why open source works so well. Any problem is easy for someone.
The trick is to find that someone for whom the problem is easy. So the trick is to
have a huge number of persons looking at the problem. It's the light bulb problem.
What's the probability of the light bulb in your office burning out? Very low,
probably won't in your time in that office. What's the probability of a light bulb
burning out in the high rise office building that your office is in? Very high, that's
why your building has a full time staff of maintenance persons.
Was Paul Erdös (1913 - 1996) a genius? Yes. Was he a math genius? Partially.
I think his real genius was collaboration. He found persons whose minds he could
fertilize. He found persons who could fertilize his mind. His wanderings were not
random.
Collaborate. It will make you a better person. Maybe a better mathematician.
"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
My first manager at Lockheed Martin, Mr. Pinkham, told me that the customer
does not know what he wants. He said it was my job to explain to the customer
what he actually needed and therefore wanted. So I explain to you.
"Computer Security and the Internet: Tools and Jewels" (2e) [citation and link below]
8.6 Secure email overview and public-key distribution
page 235.
Yes, secure email is important, but reliable email is even more important.
As Tom Givens says,
"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
If you don't know that you didn't receive the email, or if you don't know that
your email was never delivered, you've got a real problem. Email servers will
block email (and sometimes tell you about it), because they think the email
contains spam or malicious software. It's the two commanders problem.
Two commanders know that if they attack their enemy together, they will win.
But if they attack individually, they will lose. So they send messages to each
other to coordinate their attack. Can they ever be sure that they have a meeting
of the minds? No. For example, "The river has flooded. We must build a bridge
to cross it. Delay attack for one day." The message is sent, but was it received?
If it was received, was the acknowledgement sent? If so, was it received? Etc.
Daria Zefir
Nice foot.
"You don't have to memorize theorems.
Because you can always derive them from first principles."
-- Sven Hartman
"Scott Vorthmann - Algebra and Serendipity:
The Beautiful Mathematics of vZome - CoM February 2025"
Ya, Linus Pauling (1901–1994) was a nut. Remember his vitamin C thing?
"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
"Fourier Transform" by Elliot Schneider
"Computer science has nothing to do with computers or science."
-- Donald Knuth
"Calculus is Super Fun!" by Brain Station Advanced
r = ∞
∑ r³ / r! = 5e
r = 1
"All that we don't know is astonishing.
Even more astonishing is what passes for knowing."
-- Philip Roth
"Penrose: The “Ridiculous” Flaw in Quantum Mechanics" by Curt Jaimungal
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil."
-- Donald Knuth
"Awkward Primes" by Numberphile
"Prime at the End of the Line by Numberphile2
"Death by infinity puzzles and the Axiom of Choice" by Burkard Polster
Finite sets can also be put into equivalence classes. Do you see how we can use that?
"What's so wrong with the Axiom of Choice ?" by MetaMaths
Sophia Rose Baser
NRA Foundation giving all the money to the shotgun clubs.
This has nothing to do with race.
"Why do Asian kids outperform Western kids in math?" by Malcolm Gladwell
Attitude is everything. This is good news, because you can change your attitude.
If you want to. And more importantly, you can instill / inculcate a good attitude in
your children. "I can solve this problem. It's just a matter of working on it until
I do." as opposed to "My ability to solve this problem depends on my innate ability
which I may or may not have."
"TEDxHampshireCollege - Sarah Mullens - The Continuum Hypothesis:
A Biography" by Sarah Mullens
There is a misstatement, but it is obvious, and so shouldn't confuse you.
Just as physics is a religion with its many denominations, so mathematics
is a religion with many denominations.
Be careful how you visualize your data. Humans love finding patterns, so they
look for patterns, so they find patterns.
Random sequences of coin flips will have long strings of heads and long
strings of tails.
If a human is asked to think of a random sequence, he won't think of long
strings of heads or long strings of tails. It causes psychological tension. (Using
a psychological term in the technical sense.)
If an algorithm is designed to generate pseudo-random bits, the human designer
won't be happy if it generates long strings of ones or long strings of zeros. Because
it won't pass certain statistical tests.
If you take a subsequence of n elements in your sequence, and then use the
elements as coordinates to plot points in n-dimensional space, will you be happy
if you see patterns? Probably not. Will you be happy if you see a uniform
distribution in n-space? Probably. But what do we know of random anything?
Random events cluster. Because clusters have higher entropy than uniform
distributions. Stars cluster. Galaxies cluster. So a uniform distribution in n-space
means the sequence is not random. There should be clusters.
As we saw in previous blog postings (go back and look if you don't remember),
counter-intuitive things happen in higher dimensions. Coding Theory depends on
sphere packing in higher dimensions. Do these counter-intuitive things affect our
sphere packing? Remember, we are using Hamming distance as our metric, not
the Pythagorean Theorem.
"Axiom of Choice"
---
Do you understand the Axiom of Choice? It implies (through a rather difficult
argument) that in any subset of the Real numbers, there exists a least element under
some ordering (who knows what the ordering is). Let ⪯ be the operator for this
strange, unknown ordering that the Axiom of Choice says exists.
In particular, it implies that in any open set of the Reals, there exists a least element.
ᗄ (x, y) ⊂ R, ∃ z ∈ (x, y) s.t. z ⪯ w, ᗄ w ∈ (x, y).
For any given open set of the Real numbers, there exists a number, z, in the open set,
such that z is less than or equal to (under this unknown ordering) every element of
the open set.
∴ (x, y) = [z, y).
By the same logic,
(x, y) = (x, q] for some q.
Therefore, the open set (x, y) = [z, q], the well defined closed set for some z and q.
In particular,
(-∞, ∞) = [n, m], where n and m are well defined Real numbers.
You see the problem with the Axiom of Choice? You see the problem with
doing your math under the assumption that the Axiom of Choice is true?
---
"Axiom Of Choice"
Excerpt:
Here is a typical example of a proof using Zorn's lemma that every vector space
has a basis:
<proof given in the article>
Again, this is by no means an obvious result. For instance, the Real number system,
R, is a vector space over the Rational number system, Q. The axiom of choice
implies that R, as a vector space, has a basis over Q (and it is not hard to show
that such a basis must be uncountable); but finding an explicit basis is basically
impossible.
---
Also from the above article,
"Any two sets either have the same cardinality,
or one of them has a smaller cardinality than the other."
This equivalence to the Axiom of Choice means that all sets are comparable
with respect to cardinality. Of course, you can easily imagine two sets that
are not comparable. But the Axiom of Choice says there exists a bijection
between the sets, or a bijection does not exist and one of the sets is less than
the other set in some well defined ordering of cardinality, even if you can't
construct the ordering, even if you can't conceive of the ordering, even if the
ordering is not constructible.
Remember, the Continuum Hypothesis is independent of the other axioms
of set theory.
---
I wouldn't mention this stuff if it didn't directly relate to our cryptology.
"The Insane Math Of Knot Theory" by Veritasium
Why do knots untangle (become the unknot) in dimensions above 3?
Do the links come apart in dimensions above 3? Is there anything you can
do to prevent knots from untangling when lifted into higher dimensional
spaces?
Bit Coin and lap dances.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WZYTICMAuyQ
It's true. The underlying math of Bit Coin and all other crypto currencies is wrong.
The math behind the exchange protocols is also wrong.
****************************************************
Excerpts from "The Jungles of Randomness" by Ivars Peterson
QA273.15.P48 1997 A.D.
ISBN 0-471-16449-6
"From a purely operational point of view . . . the concept of randomness
is so elusive as to cease to be viable." -- Mark Kac , 1983
"Iacta alea est." -- Julius Caesar (100 - 44 B.C.)
("Stop gambling." This is the difference between studying Latin in school
[because Latin is a dead language] and a machine fed dictionaries and textbooks.
None of the online translators even came close to a correct translation.
Even when the machine was told who the speaker was, and who the audience was,
and what the context was.)
"A U.S. penny spinning on a surface rather than in the air, for example,
comes up heads only 30 percent of the time. To ensure an equitable result,
it's probably wise to catch a coin before it lands on some surface and rolls,
spins, or bounces to a stop." -- Ivars Peterson
Frederick Mosteller (statistician, Harvard University) used the data collected
by William H. Longcor (of millions of real dice throws, some cheap store bought
dice, some Las Vegas casino dice) to check reality against theory. . . . The
Las Vegas dice were very close to perfect in comparison with theory.
-- "The Jungles of Randomness" by Ivars Peterson, page 8.
Consider rolling a pair of dice and only considering the sum of the face up
faces. You could have two octahedrons with faces labeled
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
or you could label one die
1, 3, 5, 5, 7, 7, 9, 11 and the other die
1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5. And you'd get the same probabilities for the sums.
[You can do this sort of thing with any of the regular convex polyhedra:
tetrahedron, hexahedron, octahedron, dodecahedron, or icosahedron.
What if you used the sum of 3 or more dice? How many different labelings
are there? Do you see how you can use this? -- Jon Low]
****************************************************
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS)
"Handbook of Applied Cryptography"
by Alfred J. Menezes, Paul C. van Oorschot and Scott A. Vanstone
"Computer Security and the Internet:
Tools and Jewels from Malware to Bitcoin", Second Edition
by Paul C. van Oorschot
ISBN: 978-3-030-83410-4 (hardcopy), 978-3-030-83411-1 (eBook)
"An Introduction to Error Correcting Codes with Applications"
by Scott A. Vanstone , Paul C. Oorschot
Research and Publications (P. Van Oorschot)
Alfred J. Menezes
Scott A. Vanstone
*************************************************************************
*************************** This and That **********************************
Nicola Cavanis
Bad leadership gets people killed.
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
Let us never forget.
Kristen Bailey's Post concerning the Ruby Ridge incident.
---
The son shoot the FBI guy, because the FBI guy had shot and killed the
boy's dog. So the FBI started the gunfight by killing the dog.
"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
"The Gun Debate Hasn't Changed in 500 Years
Guns disrupted the established order—and sparked modern-sounding
debates over whether they could be effectively regulated."
by J.D. Tuccille
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger, http://spw-duf.info
Review of the book,
"The Firearm Revolution:
From Renaissance Italy to the European Empires"
by Catherine Fletcher
ISBN-10: 0691272670
ISBN-13: 978-0691272672
"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
The government is now referring to our Social Security checks as a
"Federal Benefit Payment." This isn't a benefit. It is our money paid out
of our earned income! Not only did we all contribute to Social Security
but our employers did too. It totaled 15% of our income before taxes.
-- Van Evans
"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
"Indictment: The SPLC Funded the Hate It Opposed
For decades, the Southern Poverty Law Center has acted as a hate group
while raising and spending money to ostensibly combat hate. Now comes
an indictment for fraud."
by Nate Jackson
The indictment,
Excerpts:
[The "Blanche" referred to below is Acting Attorney General
Todd Blanche.]
"The Southern Poverty Law Center’s (“SPLC”) stated mission included
the dismantling of white supremacy and confronting hate across the country.
However, unbeknownst to donors, some of their donated money was being
used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups, including the
Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, and the National Alliance. The SPLC’s
paid informants (“field sources”) engaged in the active promotion of racist
groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups
on its website. The SPLC also had a field source who was a member of
the online leadership chat group that planned the 2017 “Unite the Right”
event in Charlottesville, Virginia."
"The SPLC “was doing the exact opposite of what it told its donors it
was doing — not dismantling extremism, but funding it to carry out this
scheme,” Blanche added. “SPLC created bank accounts in the name of at
least five completely fictitious organizations that had no bona fide employees
or legitimate business purpose.”
“The money was passed from SPLC to one sham account, to a second
sham account, and then loaded onto prepaid cards to give to the members
of the extremist groups,” Blanche continued. “This was designed to shield
the source of those funds, and because of this, SPLC is also charged with
one count … of conspiracy to commit money laundering.”
---
I escorted a Goyim Defense League (Nazi) person out of the
Gordon Jewish Community Center in Nashville, TN at gun point.
After the incident, the Director of the Jewish Community Center,
Jesse Feld, asked me to do an interview with the Southern Poverty Law Center.
I politely declined.
For anyone not blinded by politics, it has been obvious for decades
that the Southern Poverty Law Center is a radical liberal organization
devoted to destroying political enemies of the left, such as the NRA.
SPLC is corrupt to the core, just like the NRA.
*************************************************************************
Sophia Rose Baser
************* Psychology **************************************
"Give him the money: women don't share" by Orion Taraban
"Use the city: get in, get out" by Orion Taraban
Deep truth.
"Disagreeable women: the duty to follow" by Orion Taraban
Everyone follows someone. If you don't know who you are following,
you're probably following someone who is not good.
---
"Jordan Peterson: The Mind of Highly (Dis-)Agreeable People"
by PhilosophyInsights
Do you understand?
Actual, documented, solution to opioid crisis.
We did the Prohibition experiment. It failed. So we repealed Prohibition.
Let us learn from our experience.
"When I told them that I came from a toxic relationship
and they start hugging me like I'm the victim."
-- Nala Knight
"There is very little difference between a rut and a groove."
-- Ram Jam
If you think you are spontaneous, you are delusional. Humans fall into habits,
consciously or unconsciously. Any objective observer watching you could easily
record your patterns. They are obvious.
So the question is, "Are your habits good or bad?" Are they constructive or
destructive to your life?
The reason security professionals teach their clients to take a different route
to work everyday is because if they don't, the client will drive the same route
everyday at the same time. Such is human nature.
What is the side effect of taking a different route to work? You can't turn on
automatic pilot. If you've been driving for a few years, it's easy to arrive at
your destination without noticing anything on your journey from your starting
point. Is that dangerous? Could be. Because you don't notice any anomalies
(assuming you know what the baseline is).
Tom Givens writes about the joy of noticing things (as part of situational
awareness or maybe just as part of life). If you notice the birds singing, you're
in a groove. If you don't, you're in a rut (or in Los Alamos, NM).
As Chris Sajnog says, wiggle your toes to determine if you are relaxed.
Because that's the longest nerve in your body. If you can't wiggle your toes,
you're not calm / relaxed enough to notice the anomalies.
Hyper vigilance is not a good state to be in. Looking around for threats like
a scared bunny does not send the correct message to those observing you.
So do your breathing exercises (inhale on a slow count of 4, hold for a slow
count of 4, exhale on a slow count of 4, enjoy the respiratory pause between
the exhale and the inhale, repeat) to calm yourself, and then determine
who is around you and what are they doing.
************* End of Psychology section*********************************
The weather is warming up in Middle Tennessee. So I've sprayed my pants,
socks, and shoes with Sawyer insect repellant.
Turn clothing inside out, spray. Turn outside out, spray. Let dry.
Good for 5 or 6 machine washings and dryings before you need to re-apply.
Keeps the fleas, ticks, and chiggers away. Which is good for your health.
Marine Corps uniforms come impregnated with this stuff, permethrin:
(3-phenoxphenyl) methyl (+ / -) cis/trans 3-(2,2-dichloroethenyl)
2,2 dimethylcyclopropanecarboxylate Cis / Trans Ratio: minimum 35%
(+ / -) cis and maximum 65% (+ / -) trans.
(Bet you always wondered where that woke "cis" and "trans" terminology
came from.)
Good thing I took organic chemistry in high school and college. I can
actually read and understand that. No, it won't hurt you. But it will kill
your cats, or make them twitch uncontrollably.
"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."
-- Mary Flannery O'Connor
"Some people will tell you that I'm the nicest girl in the world,
other will say I'm a bitch. Please believe both.
They got the version they deserved."
-- Nala Knight
“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
On April 18th of 2026, three of us private security officers were controlling
traffic at the intersection of Davidson (1st Street) and 2nd Street in Nashville, TN.
One of those Waymo cars with the spinning cameras and radars drove up and
tried to make a right turn. We signaled it to stop and turn left. It just stopped
and continued to indicate, by turn signal, that it wanted to turn right. When we
approached the car, we realized that there was no human driver. We could not
get the robotic vehicle to turn left. So we radioed to the officers and police
down the street and let the Waymo go, as it was blocking traffic. Sure enough,
it ran head on into oncoming traffic (there was only one lane, the other lane
was blocked). Not a major collision, just a bump. But clearly not ready for
prime time. Be careful.
Hi Lauren,
God does not make some poor and some rich. God does not make
some happy and some miserable. God gives everyone opportunities.
It is up to the individual to seize the opportunity or to waste it. Such
is the nature of free will.
Fear and cowardice are often the reasons for wasting opportunity.
People who don't make it in life are risk averse. The winners
embrace risk and often fail many times before tasting success. My
friend John Farnam says, we are here to fail magnificently, because
that is the path to achievement.
There are those who never fail. They are the timid souls who never
attempt to do anything, always playing it safe.
"Failure is evidence that someone tried to do something."
-- Ingersoll
Cheers,
Jon
"WHCD (White House Correspondent's Dinner)"
by John Farnam
"There is no difference between Communism and socialism,
except in the means of achieving the same end:
Communism enslaves by force
Socialism, by vote
It is merely the difference between murder, and suicide!"
-- Ayn Rand
I've know a lot of girls who went to college on a sugar daddy scholarship.
A lot of people don't have what it takes to get a ROTC scholarship or an
academic scholarship. When I was in grad school, I shared an office with
a young lady who had some scholarship money from an ethnic organization
because she was of that ethnicity. But it wasn't enough to pay for everything.
So she was in the gym everyday working out to stay physically fit, because
that was what the sugar daddy liked. A lot of jobs have physical fitness
requirements.
Sophia Rose Baser
Tulane University Class of 2023
"What's the point, Staff?"
I refuse to let the steganographers put pictures of bimbos in my newsletters.
If I don't know them, they must have at least an undergrad degree. Many
have graduate degrees.
I don't allow prostitutes either. Of course, there is a price point above
which it is hard to classify them as prostitutes anymore. Gore Vidal called
them professional widows.
Of course, if she were a medical doctor in Ukraine and fled to the U.S.
with her two kids to live with her parents here in Nashville, TN when the
Russians invaded, I wouldn't hold anything against her. The U.S. won't
accept medical degrees from foreign countries. The U.S. medical
establishment would require her to take all the exams and do a residency
all over again. Hard to do when you've only started to learn English a
few years ago. Ya, they learned English in high school, but it's not the
same as the English necessary to operate in the U.S. medical field.
Semper Fidelis,
Jonathan D. Low
Email: Jon_Low@yahoo.com
Radio: KI4SDN
