Greetings Sheepdogs,
Please donate blood. American Red Cross says,
Blood cannot be manufactured; it can only come from volunteer donors.
A single car accident victim can require as many as 100 units of blood.
One donation can help save more than one life.
Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood.
Go to
to sign up for John Farnam's Quips.
"Don't have a gun? Buy one.
Don't know How to use it? Learn.
Don't believe in guns? Get ready to hide behind someone who does."
-- Charlie Daniels
Table of Contents:
Software --
Prevention
Mindset
Situational Awareness
Safety
Training
Psychology
Practice
Intervention
Strategy
Tactics
Techniques
Postvention
Aftermath
Medical
Survival
Education
Legal
Instruction
Hardware --
Gear
Intelligence --
Counter Intelligence
Signals Intelligence
Cryptology
This and That --
"No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
-- Thomas Jefferson
*************************************************************************
Anastasiia Volkova
The human on the left.
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Prevention ***** ***** *****
Things you can do to avoid the lethal force incident.
Table of sections:
Mindset
Situational Awareness
Safety
Training
Psychology
Practice
“To those who have fought for it,
freedom has a flavor that the protected will never know.”
― P. McCree Thornton
*************************************************************************
Elon Musk
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Mindset and Attitude --------------------------------
Figuring out the correct way to think.
"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
"The vast majority of criminal assaults are preceded by behavioral patterns
and indications. Body posture, positioning for proximity to the intended victim,
facial expressions and nervous “grooming gesture” type movements are part of
the pre-assault paradigm. Awareness of these indicators enables prompt,
decisive action in the form of departure, moving to cover or employing
appropriate force. Speed, real defensive speed, consists of a lot more than just
a blazing fast draw stroke."
-- John Murphy
"Survival is a mindset, not a skill set."
-- Greg Shaffer
"Your gunfights will always be anomalies.
So are those of all the instructors you venerate.
It’s useful to keep those facts in mind."
-- Greg Ellifritz
‷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
"Decades ago, one of my martial arts instructors scolded me for spending
an entire session practicing what I knew rather than learning. Instruction time
is “precious and should be spent learning, practice is your problem, and should
be done on your own,” he told me."
-- Dave Bahde
"An unarmed man can only flee from evil and
evil is not overcome by fleeing from it." -- Jeff Cooper
Creativity is not rewarded.
What is rewarded is precision and analytical thinking.
-- Magnus Carlsen
"Your life is as good as your mindset." -- Nicola Cavanis
If your thinking is unclear, your morality will be wrong.
"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
"How Young is Too Young For Martial Arts?" by Megan Postol
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpt:
"If the goal is teaching children awareness, confidence, discipline, and
basic protective skills, most experts would argue that there really isn’t an
age that is too young. It’s more about teaching kids at a level they can
comprehend."
‟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"
"Avoiding Attacks While Driving
An Interview with Marcus Wynne" by Gila Hayes
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpt:
"Your sensory channels (we’re primarily concerned with visual and auditory
at this point, but they also include taste, smell, kinesthetic feeling, somatic
marking, etc.) pick up EVERYTHING – to the tune of approximately
14 million bits of data per second. Your conscious mind can process in a range
of 5 to 11 bits per second. Those are the parts you CONSCIOUSLY attend to."
"Be so focused on watering your grass that
you don't have time to check if someone else's is greener."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"The Determined Mindset:
How the Decision You Already Made Wins the Fight"
by Jacob Paulsen
Excerpt:
"Makes the decision in advance. Sits with the question,
“if a violent attacker tries to harm me or someone I love, what will I do?”
and arrives at a clear, settled answer before ever leaving the house carrying."
---
Previous articles in series:
"Developing and Understanding A Strong Defensive Mindset" by Jacob Paulsen
"The Defensive-Only Mindset: Why Survival Beats Justice" by Jacob Paulsen
"The Avoidance Mindset:
Why the Best Self-Defense Story Is One Where Nothing Happens"
by Jacob Paulsen
"The Awareness Mindset:
Why Most People Lose the Fight Before It Starts" by Jacob Paulsen
‟Fear is an instinct. Courage is a choice.”
-- Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, U.S. Navy
"The Combative Mind" by Dave Spaulding
https://www.thetacticalwire.com/features/2026/06/guest-shot-the-combative-mindnbsp/
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpt:
"Having confidence in one’s ability, backed by a solid, easy to use
skill set is the single biggest deterrent to the onset of mind-numbing fear."
"The person that will prevail is the one that is more ruthless,
has no reservation to take a shot, and will go “toe-to-toe” with an opponent.
He will not hesitate, when the fight starts, to seriously injure or kill his opponent."
Never base a decision on how to deal with an armed opponent by
applying your logic. Noted combative skills trainer Kelly McCann
sums up how we need to think,
“Combat is 10 percent skill and 90 percent attitude.”
"The line between everyday life and sudden violence is thinner than most realize."
-- Tim Larkin
“You need to have the capacity for danger. You need to be ‘dangerous’.
Yet, you need to learn how to not use it except when necessary.
And, that is not the same thing as being harmless.
There's nothing virtuous about harmlessness.
Harmless just means you’re ineffectual and useless.”
-- Jordan Peterson
“Your character is what you do when no one is looking.”
-- Thomas Jefferson
“The Man in the Arena”
by Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909), 26th President of the United States
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how
the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have
done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in
the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who
strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again,
because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who
does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms,
the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at
the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and
who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who
neither know victory nor defeat.”
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Situational Awareness --------------------------------
How to avoid being taken by surprise.
In Matthew 10:16, Jesus says,
"Stay alert. This is hazardous work I'm assigning to you.
You're going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack,
so don't call attention to yourselves. Be as cunning as a snake,
inoffensive as a dove."
-- The Message (The Bible in Contemporary Language)
"Many people don't realize that your awareness skills
are more important than your marksmanship skills.
Well, you can't shoot something you don't know is there,
or don't know it needs to be shot!" -- Tom Givens
"Jeff Cooper's Color Code exists to help you get your head
around the need to kill someone in the immediate future."
-- John Hearne
---
Jeff Cooper's Color Code of Mental Awareness
UNAWARE - of what's going on around you. (White)
AWARE - of who is around you and what they are doing. (Yellow)
ALERT - to a POTENTIAL threat and taking action to avoid the threat. (Orange)
ALARM - by a REAL threat and taking action to escape the threat,
which might include shooting to PREVENT the attack. (Red)
COMBAT - front sight, press. Shooting to STOP the attack. (Black)
"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.
"Always stand on principle, even if you stand alone"
– James Madison
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ 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.
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.
"What Are The ODDS You Will NEED Your Gun?"
by Active Self Protection Extra (John Correia)
70% in your lifetime.
“It is usually impossible to know when you’ve prevented a bad outcome.”
-- Mokokoma Mokhonoana
"Summer Activities!" by John Farnam
“The shallow believe in luck or circumstance.
The strong believe in ‘cause-and-effect’ ”
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Safety is something that happens between your ears,
not something you hold in your hands."
-- Jeff Cooper
You need to know who in your congregation has a restraining order against
someone.
"Armed Man Tries to Drag Woman From Church Parking Lot at Gunpoint"
by Keith Graves
Excerpts:
Officers arrested him that evening in Hialeah with help from the U.S. Marshals.
Zamora is a convicted felon and is prohibited from possessing a firearm. His record
includes prior attempted kidnapping and witness retaliation arrests in Miami-Dade.
Most security teams build their coverage around the sanctuary and the entrances.
The parking lot gets a friendly wave. This attack happened in the lot, before the
victim reached the door, and that is the more common pattern than teams want to
admit. The lot is where your people are most exposed and least watched. They are
at their cars, distracted, often alone, and not yet inside the area your team is focused
on. An attacker who has studied his target knows he does not need to get inside the
building. He needs a few unobserved seconds in open ground. Coverage during the
arrival and departure windows is where you close that gap.
This is the part I want every team leader to act on this week. You need to know
who in your congregation has a restraining order against someone. That is not
gossip and it is not prying. It is information your team needs to do its job. A member
going through a violent separation is a risk to the whole congregation when her
abuser comes looking for her, not only to herself.
Build a quiet channel for that information to reach the team. When a member
tells a pastor or a leader that she has an injunction against an ex, the people working
security need to know, and they need it in a usable form. A name. A photograph if
one exists. A vehicle and a tag. A physical description. You cannot watch for a
threat no one has told you about.
Then you use it. When you know a member is under threat, you do not let her
cross that lot alone. Walk her from her car to the building, and walk her back to
her car when service ends. An escort requires no confrontation and no drama.
It puts a trained person at her side during the exact window this attacker used.
Had a team member been walking with this woman, Zamora would have faced a
very different problem than a 74-year-old alone in a parking lot. Most of what a
good team does is quiet and unglamorous, and that is what stops an ambush like
this one.
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
"The “Mostly Peaceful” Delusion" by John Farnam
Excerpt:
"Don’t delude yourself by foolishly thinking someone else will protect/rescue you."
"Gut feelings are guardian angels."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"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
"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
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Training --------------------------------
Figuring out the correct tasks to practice.
"Never believe anything you read or hear.
To figure out what’s best for you,
experiment until you have no doubt."
-- Brian Enos
Email from Active Self Protection --
Active Self Protection estimates that 40% of gun owners receive no formal
training and those who have a gun for protection get less training than those
who hunt.
We know - training can be costly, can be time consuming, and sometimes
extensive travel is involved.
[ So, Active Self Protection recommends online training, which allows:
Training at home. Training on demand. Training with minimal cost.
]
"Having a gun is important.
But knowing WHEN to use it is even more important."
-- Greg Ellifritz
Autonomic Nervous System responses are not just to recoil and report,
they are also in anticipation of recoil and report. That's why we, disciples
of Jeff Cooper, teach the surprise trigger break. The surprise break defeats
all autonomic nervous system responses (jerk, flinch, freeze, push, etc.) by
not allowing the brain to know exactly when the recoil and report will occur.
Any ANS responses occur after the bullet has exited the muzzle.
If you intentionally, consciously, make your pistol fire, you will induce
ANS responses. The trick / secret / technique is to:
1. Take the slack out of the trigger.
2. Smoothly increase pressure on the trigger. Do not fire the pistol.
Just increase pressure by repeating your mantra, "Keep pressing, keep
pressing, keep pressing, . . . " [Thanks to Kaery Dudenhofer. A lot of
research and experimentation went into developing this mantra.]
3. Eventually, the pistol will fire. But, because you did not intentionally
fire the pistol, there will be no ANS responses to disturb your shot.
The responses will occur after the bullet has exited the muzzle.
So, the bullets will go where you aimed them (if your pistol is zeroed).
"This sounds like magic to me."
Yes, any sufficiently advanced technology will appear to be magic to the
ignorant. The human is God's masterpiece of creation, extremely advanced
technology, far beyond the comprehension of man.
When students achieve the surprise break, they shoot one hole groups
at 3 yards (some as far as 5 yards). This direct feedback causes an epiphany.
It's not like riding a bicycle. Once learned, it can be forgotten. But it's
easier to achieve the next time, because you know what you're searching for.
"This is a long complex process. I won't have time to recite a mantra
in combat."
With dedicated practice, the process will compress in time and become
very fast.
Of course, the surprise break is only a small part of the shot process,
which is only a small part of the tactical exercise, which is only a small part of
the scenario. Real scenarios are surprising. No command to "Load and make
ready". No checking to see if you're "Ready?" No authority ordering you
to use lethal force. You must take responsibility.
You need training because:
You don't know what you don't know.
Much of what you know is false.
It's good to the have the answers before the criminal tests you.
-- Claude Werner (paraphrased)
"The Three Rs of Performance Shooting: Rise, Return & Realignment"
by Steve Tarani
Ansatz is a thing. And the better your training, the better your guesses / estimates.
You don't have to explain everything to the student. Front Sight loved to overload
their students with way more information than they could possibly absorb in a 4-day
course. They would brag about their classes being like drinking from a firehose. As
if that were a good thing.
The students would love it because they thought they were getting their money's
worth. But they were not, because they couldn't possibly retain that much
information in the given time period.
Tom Givens is smart to break up his Instructor Development course into a 3-day,
2-day, and 2 day class. Overloading the students doesn't accomplish anything
productive.
"Don’t rush to cover all the material. It is better to ensure the student
understands what has been taught and leave the rest for next time. If the student
doesn’t want to come back next time, that’s their choice."
-- Nathan Goode,
NGInvestigations.com
"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
"When not to use a timer" by Ben Stoeger
Sometimes using a shot timer is counter-productive:
When you're learning something new.
When you have a training problem you're trying to fix.
(Drag off is fixed by follow-through. Get that second sight picture after they shoot.)
When doing qualification courses of fire.
"Ineffective and potentially dangerous, point shooting should be avoided
at all costs and aimed fire employed in any lethal-force scenario."
-- Massad Ayoob
"The Allure of Accuracy" by Brian Hill
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpt:
". . . over training accuracy teaches perfectionism, which is essentially procrastination."
---
Shooting predicatively, reactively, or deliberately. Important to know the difference
and when to use each.
---
As always, Brian Hill, is deep and detailed. This article is worthy of your time and
attention. Scan, don't skim, this article. -- Jon Low
"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
At dinner, after Farnam's Rifle class, a gentleman said that he had taken a lot
of firearms training classes and that he had found most of the stuff that was
taught in the U.S. by competent instructors is the same. Only about 10% is
different. And that the differences were not significant. So I asked him who
he had taken classes from. And his list included a lot of names and schools
that I'm sure you would be familiar with.
I suggested to him that all of the instructors he had mentioned were disciples
of Jeff Cooper (1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation), and if he would take classes
from others, he would find more diversity of philosophy and techniques.
I know it is inconvenient to travel to foreign countries for training, but even
within the U.S. there are Israeli schools (e.g. Pacific West Academy or if you
ask around at any Jewish Community Center you can get referrals, often
incorporating Krav Maga), South African / Rhodesian schools (I am not listing
examples, because I have not received permission yet.), and European
(German, often in association with a weaponized version of Schutzhund dog
training, using the dog as a self-defense weapon) schools that I have found
to be very different from the American schools.
[Louis Awerbuck was South African, but he was a disciple of Jeff Cooper.
So, I do not include him in the South African school.]
"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
From a conversation with a former student -- (edited and paraphrased)
I was sitting in the lobby of my auto repair shop waiting for my car
(oil change and such) and dozing off. I hear screaming from outside in
the driveway. It was a lady's voice and sounded scared. So thinking that
she needs help, I run out and see a big man dragging a lady on the ground
by her hair. She had long brown hair. Other mechanics come out of their
bays holding mechanic's tools. I'm in a position where the bad guy is
dragging the lady toward me. One of the mechanics yells, "Let her go!"
The bad guy pulls a pistol and tells the mechanic to "Fuck off!"
The mechanic retreats into the garage. Now the bad guy already has his
pistol in his hand and I don't, so I'm way behind. But I remember the
magic lecture. I imagine / visualize a police officer walking round the rear
corner of a car parked behind the bad guy. The police officer is not aware
of what's going on. So I yell, "Officer, help!" My imaginary cop looks,
but doesn't understand what's going on. So, I yell, "HELP!" At this point,
the bad guy turns to look. I present to center-of-mass, but I don't shoot.
I've never shot anyone before. I know now, in retrospect, that I should have
shot him in the back. The bad guy turns back to face me and is now pointing
his pistol at me and has pulled the lady up in front of himself. So, I don't
have the center-of-mass shot anymore. A calm comes over me. It was
like the "Peace of God" that I had heard others speak of. I shoot him in
his right eye. That is to say, I aimed for his right eye, because it was in
the center of his head, as he was facing slightly to his left, my right.
And my bullet went through his right eye. The bullet did not exit his skull.
He instantly dropped.
I go into shock. I couldn't move. I must have been standing there for
a long time. The next thing I remember, someone is pulling my pistol out
of my hand. I look and it's a cop, so I let it go. I can see his mouth moving
and I know he is talking to me, but I don't hear anything. Everything starts
spinning. The next thing I remember, I'm lying on a bed in a hospital
emergency room.
---
The point is, the good guy needed time to present his pistol to the bad guy.
So the good guy used misdirection to gain time. There was no distraction.
I am not saying that if you are a good Christian, God will guide your hand
or your bullet. But the good guy feels that because of his faith, God gave him
the confidence, the calm, to execute under pressure.
"Without discrimination,
you're going to shoot the wrong person really fast."
-- Paul Howe
"Training v Reality: Let's Be Honest" BlackBeltBarrister Off The Record
Compliant training partners are a real problem.
Grade inflation is a real problem.
Creating a false sense of security / competence is a real problem.
"In reality, we are training for an unknown event, against unknown threats,
by developing as many known skills as possible."
-- Jeff Gonzales
"Learning How to Master Red-Dot-Equipped Pistols" by Mike Pannone
Hat tip to Stephen P. Wenger.
Excerpts:
"Orienting the support hand thumb parallel to the bore axis — and pointed
at the target — helps you find the dot immediately upon presentation."
[Pointing your thumb forward requires you to bend your wrist. This weakens your
grip. You should always strive for a straight wrist for a stronger grip. This means
your thumbs will be pointing up, the way Tom Givens and many others teach the
grip. -- Jon Low]
"Again, the eye will focus on the brightest object in its field of view.
So, make sure you set the brightness of your dot so it isn’t distracting
based on current conditions."
[Adjusting the brightness in real time during combat is not reasonable. -- Jon Low]
[There is a photograph showing a reload, where the pistol is pointed up. This
is not a safe direction to be pointing the pistol. Your pistol should always be
pointed down when performing any administrative action. (Administrative actions
are all those things you need to do with the pistol that don't include shooting.)
-- Jon Low]
"The problem is that every movement, every wobble, and every imperfection
is immediately visible and appears exaggerated."
[Nothing is exaggerated. What you see is real. That's why we, Level 3 Rifle
coaches, teach our athletes to shoot with front and rear aperture sights,
rather than scopes. And if the rules require scopes, we teach them to turn
the magnification down all the way. Because being able to see your wobble
in detail is not productive and can cause neurosis.
There is a famous psychology experiment where a dog is trained
to execute behavior X when shown a square and behavior Y when shown a circle.
As the images shown to the dog are changed, the circle becoming more square-ish
and the square becoming more like a circle, the dog cannot decide. It induces
a neurosis in the dog. Don't let that happen to you. If you feel the red dot sight
causing you psychological distress, use iron sights. Keeping up with the Jones
is an act of criminal stupidity.
-- Jon Low]
"It’s not complicated; . . . "
[I beg to differ. Using a red dot sight may not be physically complicated, but it
is psychologically complicated. Especially, if you understand what your eyes and
brain are doing with the red dot image, which is a virtual image, not a real image.
Virtual and real are terms from the physics of optics. A real image is where you
think it is. A virtual image is not where you think it is (down range at the target),
but rather it is an optical illusion created by a concave reflector causing your eye
to see an image at the target that is not at the target.
I know there are those who would argue that you don't need to know how
an internal combustion engine works, just drive the car. But the driver who
knows how the engine works will be able to use the data: tachometer, sound of
the engine, velocity (1st derivative of displacement with respect to time),
acceleration (2nd derivative of displacement with respect to time), and
jerk (3rd derivative of displacement with respect to time) caused by the engine,
etc. to better drive the car.
-- Jon Low]
"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
"A mistake that makes you humble is better
than an achievement that makes you arrogant."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"Shoot sooner, not faster."
-- Matt Little
“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
"Superior judgment trumps superior skills." -- Dan Millican
Care enough to continue your training.
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Psychology --------------------------------
"Be stronger than your strongest excuse."
-- Nicola Cavanis
Do you understand how this applies to your training?
“Training deals not with an object,
but with the human spirit and human emotions.”
--Bruce Lee
Innovation does NOT require improving technology.
All it requires is changing perspective.
"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
Email from Orion Taraban, Psy.D. --
"A tree in the wind." Wednesday, June 10th, 2026
Obedience is a big scary word for a lot of people – especially women in
relationships. But it really needn't be so frightening. The truth is that we're
all obedient to something. We cannot choose whether to obey. We can only
choose who – or what – we pledge our allegiance to.
To my mind, the greatest symbol for obedience is a tree in the wind.
A tree in the wind is always, ever obedient. It's always responding as
necessary to the moment-to-moment conditions of its life – no more no less.
It's in a perpetual dance with the wind, whom it follows like a receptive
partner. And of course, this is in the tree's best interests. If the tree only
obeyed its own inscrutable desires, it might not survive contact with the
elements.
And this – ultimately – is the function of obedience. It protects us,
preserves us, and helps us grow. When we find teachers, masters, and
mentors whom we trust and respect, then our situation is improved
when we submit to them within their duties. The alternative is allegiance
to self, which is the narcissistic position that one already occupies the
summit of existence.
This week's behavioral experiment:
Examine your life and notice what you are obedient to in practice.
Are you proud of that?
Warmly,
Orion
Email from Mike (Ox) Ochsner -- (edited and paraphrased)
Jonathan,
Amazingly enough, 3 years ago, former Florida Senator, Marco Rubio
introduced the "Sunshine Protection Act of 2023 to put an end to the
2x per year changing of the clocks and instead institute permanent
"daylight savings time." It didn't get signed into law . . . but Trump gave
it a big boost last month and hopefully it will get signed into law soon.
When it does, it will be the end of one of the largest, longest lasting, and
most harmful sleep experiments in history.
What they've found over the years is that the spring time change is associated
with a 24% increase in heart attacks! Similarly, the fall time change is associated
with a 21% decrease in heart attacks. What a difference an hour of sleep can make.
Now, as big of a deal as this is, the deadliest day of the year is traditionally
New Year's Day . . . also, presumably in part because of a lack of sleep AND
sleep quality.
In a society that puts those who don't sleep on a pedestal and for whom the
saying, "I'll sleep when I'm dead" is often heard, it can be hard to think about
sleeping more. But sleep is super-valuable. Not only are people who sleep less
than 7 hours 2.94 TIMES more likely to get sick than those who get more than
7 hours, sleep is especially [important] when you're trying to learn or refine a skill.
Do you know what the difference in learning speed is for someone who
sleeps 6 hours the night after learning vs. sleeping 7 hours? According to Cornell
University Professor, Dr. James Maas, sleeping 7 hours instead of 6 will increase
the speed that you learn/refine skills by 40%! Find something else that will do that.
All of a sudden, that hour of sleep is worth it. It's one of the highest leverage
things that we can do to improve health, performance, and longevity.
So how do we optimize sleep? Not "sedation" or simply being "not awake"
from self-medicating or taking stuff to knock us out, but high quality sleep?
Well . . . most of the focus in sleep today is "sleep hygiene" and doodads.
They CAN work, but almost all of them are missing a critical part of the equation . . .
It doesn't matter how much stuff you do right, if your brain doesn't feel safe,
you're not going to get high quality sleep.
The Problem with "Just Relax" -
Here's why the standard advice doesn't work:
You can't consciously override a neurological threat response.
When your threat detection centers are firing, telling yourself
to relax is like trying to talk yourself out of pain. The signal is
coming from a part of your brain that doesn't respond to logic or
willpower.
We just need a way to make the brain feel safe without sedating it.
-- Mike (Ox) Ochsner
---
[How to reduce your threat anxiety?
Lock your doors and windows.
Turn your alarms on. The ones that make loud noise inside your home,
not the ones that call the police (Police get lots of false alarms, so they are
conditioned to not respond.), not the private security company (They don't
care about you.).
Make sure whoever is on guard duty is competent, Corporal of the Guard,
Sergeant of the Guard, etc. If they are sleeping on post, not only will they
get killed, but you'll be killed.
Don't sleep with persons who have a financial incentive to kill you, such
as beneficiaries of wills or insurance policies.
Don't sleep with persons whom you have beaten or raped in the past.
Women don't forgive and they never forget. There is a
"battered spouse syndrome" statute in every state in our country.
So she has some legal protection, if she claims you abused her.
Dr. William Aprill explained this in detail at a Tac Con lecture.
"She would never kill me."
Really? Ask any detective who the prime suspect is in any non-gang related
murder. He'll tell you, it's the spouse.
Pray. Make peace with your God. Then you'll sleep like a baby.
And the primary sleep inducing thing for me is reading. Read an easy book.
I am presently reading "Sandman" by Neil Gaiman. As in the myth of the sandman
who sprinkles sand in your eyes when you sleep, so you have to rub the sand out
of your eyes when you wake. Perhaps your parents told you such stories, like
Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. Hey, I remember getting lots of dimes for
my baby teeth, under my pillow in the morning.
-- Jon Low]
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Conferences --------------------------------
Attending classes and conferences is required for growth.
There is nothing worse than teaching obsolete shit. Because your
students don't know any better.
"The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword;
because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force
superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense,
raised in the United States."
-- Noah Webster
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
3rd Annual GOALS Convention in Des Moines, Iowa, USA
August 1st and 2nd, 2026 A.D.
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.
https://fhftc.org/bullets-bibles-conference/
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.
2026 Combatives Summit, $897
When:
Range Day: October 22, 2026
Conference: October 23, 24, and 25, 2026
Where: American Top Team
10380 Auto Mall Pkwy, D'Iberville, MS 39540
Rangemaster Tactical Conference
Friday-Sunday, April 2-4, 2027 A.D.
Dallas Pistol Club; Carrollton, TX
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Classes --------------------------------
Attend classes so you know what the best practices are.
Gateway Instructor Development Course (Nashville), $ 450
Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 8:00 AM CDT – Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 6:00 PM CDT
Firearms Pharmacy, 705 Briskin Lane, Lebanon, TN
Rule #4, Round #2, & the Monkey:
Preparing to Counter the Active Shooter with a Handgun
When: July 16th, 2026 | 8:00 PM ET, 7:00 PM CT
Where: Online Webinar (Approx. 90 minutes)
Cost: $5 (Free for Guardian Nation Members)
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
Gunsite – 250 Defensive Pistol, $2,135
Royal Range, Nashville, Tennessee
Monday, August 24, 2026 - Friday, August 28, 2026
Duration: 5 Days
Prerequisite: None
Ammunition: 1000 rounds ball (ball means copper jacketed round nose bullets)
available for purchase on-site.
The student will also have to purchase approximately 1 box of Simunitions
from Royal Range for the indoor simulators.
Protective Pistolcraft Instructor, 5 Days, $ 1350
Mon, Nov 2, 2026 – Fri, Nov 6, 2026, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM CST
Last Resort Firearms Training, 4220 Gravel Pit Road, White Hall, AR, USA
This is the 3-day Firearms Instructor Development Course and
the 2-day Advanced Firearms Instructor Course given in 5 days.
Taught by Tom Givens, Tiffany Johnson, Aqil Qadir, and John Hearne.
No prerequisites. Includes a night shoot and much more.
Defensive Handgun by John Farnam, $850
14 - 15 November 2026 A.D.
Description of course at
Deer Hollow Range, White House, TN
"The Tactical Anatomy Summit", $650.00
JANUARY 30-31, 2027 A.D.
Lakeland Training Center
1421 Fish Hatchery Rd
Lakeland, FL
Time: 8 a.m - 6 p.m.
*$35 per day Range Fees will Apply at Location
Suggested Lodging: Best Western Auburndale
Last Resort Firearms Training (Ed Monk)
Agile Training and Consulting (Chuck Haggard)
Thunder Ranch (Clint Smith)
Classes,
ConcealedCarry.com (Jacob S. Paulsen et al)
Project Appleseed
Agile Training and Consulting
Gunsite Academy
Lee Weems
Massad Ayoob Group
West Coast Armory North, Martha Holschen
Active Response Training, Greg Ellifritz
Dustin Salomon
KR Training
Kari Grayson
Citizens Safety Academy
Carry Trainer, Mickey Schuch
Paladin Training, Inc.
Citizen-Defender, John Murphy
Defensive Training International, John Farnam
Rangemaster, Tom Givens
Trident Concepts, Jeff Gonzales
Apache Solutions, Tim Kelly
Harris Combative Strategies, Randy Harris
Mead Hall Range & Tactics, Bill Armstrong
Two Pillars Training, John Hearne
Mike Seeklander
Claude Werner, The Tactical Professor
Tatiana Whitlock - Training in Context
Rangemaster Certified Instructors
Map of Rangemaster Certified Instructors
NRA Instructors and their classes.
‟Training is NOT an event, but a process.
Training is the preparation FOR practice.”
-- Claude Werner
*************************************************************************
The Federalist Papers's Post
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Practice --------------------------------
How to get proficient at that task.
"Calluses are a status symbol that money can't buy."
-- Jim Beaumont
"STOP RACKING THE SLIDE:
A BETTER WAY TO DRY FIRE YOUR HANDGUN"
by ConcealedCarry dot com (Riley Bowman)
Hat tip to Docent.
---
It takes some experimentation, because every individual pistol is different,
but you can get a click on each trigger press by inserting a spacer to hold the
slide out of battery. Some pistols only need a shim. Some need a folded up
piece of paper. You will have to experiment to find the out of battery position
that works for your pistol. Some need a paper clip wrapped around the end
of the recoil spring guide rod. But, it can be done for any semi-auto pistol.
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
"How to Start Dry Fire Training (Without Overthinking It)"
by Grace Torrence
"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
When dry practicing, make sure all live ammunition is out of the room.
Dummy ammunition is fine.
"New York Times Advice About GUNS?" by Active Self Protection Extra
"Good habits and skill beat luck every time."
-- Sheriff Jim Wilson
"The Best Handgun Practice Drill Resources" by Greg Ellifritz
"Shooting Drills" by Greg Ellifritz
‶Practice is the small deposits you make over time,
so that in an emergency, you can make that big withdrawal.″
-- Chesley Burnett Sullenberger, III
"Why are the little things called little things?
They are everything."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"People rust faster than equipment."
-- John Hearne
"Remember, the day you plant the seed is not the day you earn the fruit."
-- Nicola Cavanis
“Willingness is a state of mind. Readiness is a statement of fact!”
-- Lt. Gen. David M Shoup, USMC Commandant 1960-1963
"Your speed [in mastering the art and science of your discipline] doesn't matter.
Forward is forward."
-- Nicola Cavanis
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.”
-- Aristotle
"Maybe you can't achieve it in one day.
But you can achieve it one day."
-- Nala Knight
"Remember, growing may feel like breaking at first."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"You have to be lucky to win. And the more you practice, the luckier you get."
-- Col. Lones Wigger
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** 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
“How do you win a gunfight?
Don't be there.”
-- John Farnam
"You win gunfights by not getting shot."
-- John Holschen
************************************************************************
------------------------------ Tactics --------------------------------
Maneuver and fire in support of your strategy to escape.
Sometimes you must close with the enemy to destroy him with fire and close combat.
“Fortuitous outcomes reinforce poor tactics.”
-- Chuck Haggard
From an email from Gabe Suarez --
"The Brave One (2007) | Metro scene | 1080p" by JD | QualityScenes
[I saw the movie when it first came out. It was Foster's first pro-gun, pro-self-defense
movie. At the time, she had gotten fed up with the flaming Hollywood and New York
liberals and was speaking out against them. -- Jon Low]
"At What Point Would You Have Shot?"
Patreon Member Edwin Bracey asks this question -
On the topic of disparity of force. For a hypothetical in the movie "The Brave One"
with Jodie Foster when her and her husband were attacked. At what point would
you have shot the attackers?
OK, lets break it down. The Brave One is a movie with Jodie Foster set in the
shittiest of blue cities. I haven't watched the movie, but I have read a synopsis of it.
Think "Death Wish" with Foster in the lead rather than Bronson. The above clip
is not the one he asked but wanted to lead with that as an example of being off
sides . . . or preemptive . . . or as I like to say using the karate terminology,
"deai timing".
First of all don't live in places like that, where there are people like that.
Having said that, I understand that you may find yourself there through life
circumstances. If you are, then be armed. Even if you must adopt the lifestyle
of breaking laws with impunity. It also requires absolute pre-justification, and
pre-disposition on your part so there is no need for debate in the moment.
I think there are some videos on this page dealing with such things.
To the scene - she sees the thugs doing thugs stuff. Victimizing three people
right in front of her. Three defenseless people I may add. Assuming she cannot
get off the train, or even if she can, decides to stay - her mind should already be
in the fight ready for deployment. In my opinion, as soon as the one thug says,
"This is too easy . . . she crazy", its on. Stand up, shoot them both. Done and
done, justified in all 50 states. [Don't need to stand up. She did not stand up.
-- Jon Low]
If it is in a true NPE [I assume this stands for Non-Permissive Environment,
guns prohibited], deploy NPE protocols and move swiftly off the stage.
This is an important point - being physically safe and unharmed is more
important than being law abiding. But that doesn't just happen. When the rules
are set to make you fail, you cannot have it both ways.
Choose the path and get good at doing what that entails.
-- Gabe Suarez
“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
Greg Ellifritz recommends,
"Check Your Six: Looking AND Seeing" by John
The author of the above article recommends,
"Searching and Assessing" by Robert
---
John Farnam teaches turning in a complete circle (360 degrees). I agree,
because there are all kinds of things that can restrict your range of motion, causing
you to miss areas. Turning completely around ensures you see all the way around
yourself.
"Real fights are short." -- Bruce Lee
“When you’re in the dark, stay in the dark;
when you’re in the light, light up the dark.”
-- Stephen P. Wenger
"You often don't know where the bad guy is who is shooting at you."
-- Phillip Groff
“People shoot you because they see you.
They see you because you let them.
Don’t let them see you.”
-- Clint Smith
*************************************************************************
From a Facebook.com posting with several RangeMaster-Certified Instructors
contributing -- (concerning identification of the Glock in 40 S&W pictured above)
. . . Gen 3, it has a trigger pin and locking block pin, whereas the gen 2
only had the trigger pin.
Later Gen 2s had the second pin, but no rail or finger bumps.
It’s a Gen 3. Light rail and finger groves is easiest way to tell.
Gen 2 didn't have a light rail or finger grooves.
Glock did not mark (or really acknowledge) generations
until the Gen 4 was released. They didn’t start making the generations
on the slide until 4.
There were no Gen 1 .40 cal Glocks. Gen 2 had no finger grooves or light rail.
Gen 3 had finger grooves and light rail. Each generation afterward is marked
on the slide.
Gen 3, Model 21, the “large frame” guns (21/20) started out without the
light rail. The 21 even had an edition with a full Picatinny rail. Most collectors
refer to them as a Gen 2.5 or transitional model. The ones with Picatinny rails,
I have seen and currently own. Also had an ambidextrous magazine release.
Not reversible and they are fragile.
[Wow, I never knew Glock made an ambidextrous mag release. -- Jon Low]
Gen 3 all day. Finger grooves, 3-pin design, distinct texture.
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Techniques --------------------------------
Ways to execute a given task in support of your tactics,
especially when disabled or under stress.
"Whatever you leave alone is perfect." -- Brian Enos
Finding Your Trigger's Red Zone by Active Self Protection Extra (Kaery Dudenhofer)
"The foundations of your grip are established
before you even draw the pistol from the holster."
-- Tanner Denton
"Pro Tips For Getting Used To Recoil"
by Active Self Protection Extra (Kaery Dudenhofer)
---
You can never get the timing right.
You should not be trying to get the timing right.
You should completely ignore the timing and strive for a surprise break.
"In my strategy the footwork does not change.
I always walk as I usually do in the street."
-- Miyamoto Musashi
"Your Winter Carry Setup Is a Lie (And How to Fix It Before Spring)"
by Tom McHale
Excerpt:
"Dry fire in full winter gear is the cheapest,
most effective thing you can do to close the gap
between your summer proficiency and your winter reality."
---
The photo in the article shows an incorrect grip.
When gripping a pistol with a thumb safety, your thumb MUST be on top
of the safety, ALWAYS! Otherwise, something will bump the safety, it will go
on, and your pistol won't fire.
When the trigger finger is in the register position, it must be high on the frame
or on the slide. In the photo, the trigger finger is too low. A startle response,
a loss of balance, or gripping something with the support side hand will cause
the trigger finger to contract and fire the pistol.
"Ineffective and potentially dangerous, point shooting should be avoided
at all costs and aimed fire employed in any lethal-force scenario."
-- Massad Ayoob
"AIWB: A Frank Discussion on Carrying Forward of the Hip"
by Dave Spaulding
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Excerpt:
"Some, maybe many, will argue that this is a training issue.
I have to disagree. I’ve seen very well-trained shooters make
these mistakes. The root cause is inattention, thus everyone is
susceptible."
"What is lag time? The amount of time it takes you to see, recognize, react,
and respond to danger. This is the [time] you should be working to reduce if
you wish to be truly prepared."
---
As Spaulding says, cops must holster their pistols to lay hands on the person
(not necessarily a suspect) or to handcuff the person (not necessarily a suspect,
sometimes it's just for officer safety). We are not (or no longer) cops. Our goal
is to escape, not to apprehend. We should always be moving away from the threat
and holstering only when safe. So we should holster slowly and carefully,
watching what we are doing to avoid a finger in the trigger guard, which would
cause the holster to press our trigger finger against the trigger when holstering,
or draw strings or clothing fouling the holstering.
"The secret is applying extreme force with the pinkies and
working your way up the rest of the digits."
-- Jeff L. Gonzales
Greg Ellifritz recommends,
"Low Ready: The Space Between Awareness and Action" by Tatiana Whitlock
"Ready Position vs. Defensive Display:
What Every Responsible Gun Owner Needs to Know" by Tatiana Whitlock
"Position Sul: The History, Purpose, and Truth
Behind One of the Most Misunderstood Ready Positions"
by Tatiana Whitlock
"It's not daily increase but daily decrease - hack away at the inessentials!"
-- Bruce Lee
Stuff I learned in John Farnam's classes this past weekend,
6th (rifle) - 7th (shotgun) June 2026 A.D.
---
If you are capable of shooting tight groups, your misses are not marksmanship
errors. Your misses are judgment errors.
[I believe that what Farnam is saying is that - You're misjudging the target to
be closer than it really is. You're misjudging the target to be moving slower than
it really is. You're misjudging the target to be bigger than it really is.
In high stress situations, pupils often dilate, causing you to lose depth perception.
Making it harder to determine the relative distance of objects, and hence the actual
distance to objects.
So, generally speaking, you must slow down to ensure your hits. You must
practice enough to know how much you need to slow down.
-- Jon Low]
---
In the context of rifle manual of arms, I know many of you were taught to
flip the safety on when not actually firing. John Farnam teaches to flip the safety
off when acquiring your firing grip, and leave it off, until you release your firing
grip.
This is exactly the same as the 1911 manual of arms. When you establish
your grip and pull the pistol from the holster, the thumb safety goes off (thumb
down). The safety remains off until you are about to holster at which point
the safety goes on (thumb up) as the pistol is inserted into the holster.
This is redundant, because the safety is only on when the pistol is in the holster.
The holster is the safety, as the holster prevents anything from touching
the trigger. So, many modern pistols don't have thumb safeties, because the
holster is the safety.
Since the rifle doesn't have a holster, but rather is worn slung on a two point
sling there is no holster to protect the trigger. Therefore, the thumb safety is used
to prevent the rifle from firing in the event of something pressing the trigger.
But it really makes no sense to be flipping the safety on and off as taught
in many police departments and many military units, while the rifle is in use.
One point slings are problematic, as they allow the rifle to swing around,
they allow the rifle to point at your feet, etc.
We used the three point slings on our shotguns when I was in the Marine Corps
military police, but they were way too complicated for use in high stress situations
with the level of training and practice available to real world police departments.
---
In the context of shotgun manual of arms, John Farnam teaches not using
the manual safety, because when the shotgun is in use the safety should be off.
And when the shotgun is not in use, there is never a shell in the chamber,
because shotguns are not drop safe. So there is no point in putting the safety
on when there is no shell in the chamber. So the safety is never used.
The shotgun modes are:
⬢ Storage mode - no shell in the chamber, no ammunition in the tubular
magazine, or no box magazine attached to the shotgun.
⬢ Carry mode (for shotguns, same as transport mode) - no shell in the chamber,
tubular magazine fully charged, box magazine fully charged and locked in
magazine well. Used when the shotgun is slung on you, or when you have it
in the rack in the center console of your car, or the rack in the rear window
of your pick up truck, or in the case in the back seat of your car.
⬢ Engagement mode - shell in chamber, tubular magazine fully charged,
box magazine fully charged and locked in magazine well.
Your repertoire should include:
⬣ Loading your shotgun. Charging the magazine and putting the shotgun
in engagement mode.
⬣ Speed loading. Getting one shell into the chamber quickly.
⬣ Taking your shotgun from engagement mode to carry mode.
⬣ Taking your shotgun from carry mode to engagement mode.
⬣ Voiding the tubular magazine or removing the box magazine,
without running shells through the chamber. Racking shells in and out
of the chamber is WRONG!
⬣ Ammo swapping, because your tubular magazine is loaded with 0-0 buckshot
and your slugs are on the side saddle (ammo caddy) attached to the side of your
shotgun. You will swap to slugs when you need deeper penetration (through a
car door) or longer range (20 to 75 yards). The slugs in your ammo caddy should
have rims up, so they don't slide out of the caddy. Buckshot is in the tubular
magazine, slugs are in the caddy.
Loading different types of shells in your tubular magazine is stupid. Don't do it.
Don't fool around with exotic ammo. Always use 2.75 inch shells loaded with
0-0 buck shot in your magazine, and 2.75 inch shells loaded with slugs in your caddy.
---
You need to be able to transition smoothly between your long-gun and your
hand-gun.
---
Never carry your gun in gun cases or anything that looks like a gun case.
There is a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, referred to as the "single use container",
that says a gun case is used to carry guns, so the police may assume that the
gun case contains a gun. So they may search for guns, without a warrant,
because the gun case establishes reasonable suspicion (as opposed to probable cause).
So, don't carry your pistol in Glock Tupperware.
Tennis racket cases, guitar cases, etc. work well.
---
Your projectile needs to be going at least 2400 feet per second to cause
neurological shock in your target. Your pistol bullets don't go that fast.
---
In Tom Givens' class I learned that with pistols 3% of gun shot wounds are fatal.
Predominantly due to modern medicine being able to keep the person alive.
In John Farnam's class I learned that with rifles, 80% of gun shot wounds are fatal.
---
With a shotgun on photo realistic targets, we strive for 80% fatal hits (in center
portion of human), 20% non-fatal hits (hit the human outside of center portion),
and 0% misses causing collateral damage down range. That represents good
judgment in compromising between speed and accuracy. And knowledge of
how your shotgun patterns at every distance.
If you're shooting tight groups, you're target shooting, not combat shooting.
You are well inside your performance envelope. You need to push yourself to
go faster, until you start missing. You need to know where the edge of your
performance envelope is. If you don't know where it is, how will you know if
it is improving with practice?
If your envelope is not improving with practice, something is wrong with
your practice. Get help. Fix your practice.
---
In the class, lots of student's equipment did not work. Learning what does not
work is important. But you should check your equipment before class to make
sure everything works. Otherwise, you will be damaging your learning experience.
One student's shotgun had a front sight that was too short. It was not matched
to the rear sight for that shotgun. So his point of impact was way high at 20 yards.
You must make sure all of your equipment works and that your firearms are
zeroed, before attending a non-beginner class.
---
Some people behave confidently, so I mistakenly assumed he knew how to
operate his rifle. I realized my error when he asked me how to release the bolt
on his AR-15.
Ya, treating a student like an ignorant newbie might be insulting to some.
So we have to find out the student's level of knowledge at the beginning
of the class, if not before the class. If they say something like, "I've lived with
guns all my life", be careful. Always safer to assume they don't know anything.
---
Some gun schools and some instructors train their students for obvious scenarios.
But real world self-defense is ambiguous and surprising, not obvious.
The guy with the chrome plated machete moving towards you and screaming
obscenities is obvious. The young pretty gals smiling and waving and asking for
help, not so much.
One scenario in the class required the student to shoot two young ladies
who were standing behind an innocent bystander. Hiding their pistols at waist
level behind the bystander.
Got to look at their hands. People carry weapons in their hands.
". . . 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"
“What’s the number one reason for reloading?
Missing the target!”
-- Claude Werner
"I can always do nothing more consistently than I can do something."
-- Ben Stoeger
"Grip first, then press."
-- Mike Seeklander
"Use only that which works,
and take it from any place you can find it."
-- Bruce Lee
*************************************************************************
Photo from Leroy Frink.
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Postvention ***** ***** *****
Suggestions on how to treat your wounds or the wounds of your loved ones.
Suggestions on how to avoid prosecution, conviction, and prison time.
Suggestions on how to avoid the civil law suit and judgment.
Table of Sections:
Aftermath
Medical
Survival
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Aftermath --------------------------------
You must be alive to have these problems: criminal and civil liability.
“Your understanding and consent are not required
for someone to take your life, kill your loved ones,
and destroy all you hold dear.”
-- William Aprill
Andrew Branca's email announcement,
Rich Chow self-defense trial coverage: The jury has just returned the proper
verdict of not guilty.
[Sometimes the good guys win. But, of course, the process is the punishment.
-- Jon Low]
---
"Store owner held without bond for 3 years acquitted of murder in teen's shooting death
Rick Chow shot and killed Cyrus Cormack-Belton in what jurors agreed was self-defense"
by Peter D'Abrosca
Acquitted (innocent), but held in prison for 3 years, lost his business (because
he couldn't work in his store for 3 years), left destitute and in debt. So the process is the
punishment. The prosecutor was sending a clear message:
If you shoot a Black, you will be prosecuted.
Statistically speaking, Blacks are released same day of arrest for such crimes,
in this jurisdiction, Columbia, SC.
But if you're a Chinese business owner and pillar of the community . . . 3 years in jail,
no bail, for defending your son's life.
Some commentators have said that Chow should not have shot the 14 year old
Black criminal (child), because he had only stolen a bottle of water. But that is a
false narrative. Chow shot the criminal because the criminal had threatened to
kill Chow's son with a pistol.
Some said that Chow should not have chased the criminal (possession of a gun
by a 14 year old is a crime). But chasing suspected shoplifters is legal under
South Carolina law. So Chow did nothing illegal.
You must wade through the propaganda to get to the truth. Fortunately, the
jury found the truth.
Notice that Chow and his son have a single word surname. Notice that the
criminal has a hyphenated surname. In case the politics weren't obvious. I could
go on, but you get the idea.
---
Fortunately, South Carolina has the strongest self-defense laws in the country.
I know of a case where the pretrial self-defense hearing found that the accused
had acted in self-defense. That pre-empted any criminal or civil trial. The prosecutor
appealed to the Circuit Court. The Circuit Court upheld the trial court ruling that it
was self-defense. So the prosecutor appealed to the SC Supreme Court. The
Supreme Court upheld the Circuit Court ruling that it was self-defense. The cost
of these appeals would have bankrupted any normal person. Fortunately, the
public defender handled the case from beginning to end. So South Carolina
picked up the tab all the way. Sometimes the good guys win.
---
"Jury hears closing arguments in trial of South Carolina store owner
who fatally shot Black teen" by Associated Press
Stephen P. Wenger's comments --
I am among those who've argued against providing first aid to someone who's
just forced you to shoot him because
[a] he may be faking the extent of his injury in order to re-enter the fight at
close range and
[b] he may be a source of blood-borne infection.
From time to time, we see reports of defenders nevertheless performing CPR
on downed assailants while awaiting a 911 response. This is the first case that
I can recall of CPR being cited in a legal defense. In this case, it may only
serve to get the potential conviction reduced to manslaughter.
-- Stephen P. Wenger
[My friends in Columbia, SC tell me that the African-American community
did not get upset about the incident. Because those who knew the criminal,
knew that he got what he deserved. The Associated Press is a propaganda
journal. That's why many news organizations won't carry AP stories. I'm
surprised that the Washington Times carried the AP story.
-- Jon Low]
---
"Gas Station Owner Not Guilty of Murder After Shooting
Armed Teenager in the Back | Chow Analysis" by Dr. Todd Grande
Excerpt:
"It appears the state's position is to prosecute whoever survives the gunfight.
This policy is as offensive as it is illogical."
---
It's easy to shoot a person in the front as he is attacking you and have the
bullet enter his back. Because everyone is moving fast in a chaotic high stress
situation. Much faster than humans can react or process. You'll probably need
an expert witness to explain this to the jury, because they won't know this truth.
In the right hand column of this web page, click on "Never Talk To The Police"
or use the address,
In the right hand column, click on the link labeled "Self Defense Insurance".
Or, the link is,
Read this before you buy insurance. You need to make an informed decision.
The various policies are drastically different.
"You need to read the fine print." -- Massad Ayoob
“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him,
but because he loves what is behind him.”
― G.K. Chesterton
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Medical --------------------------------
"The shorter the fight, the less hurt you get."
-- John Holschen
Email from Stephen P. Wenger --
List Members Reply:
Regarding the increased recognition that a blow or attempted blow with a hand
may justify a response with deadly force, a physician on the list adds:
"Open-hand or closed-fist strikes are dangerous not only to the head, but can
rupture a liver or spleen, and a hammer fist can damage the spine, not to ignore
the damage potential of shod feet. A shove can topple someone and being on
the ground is a very dangerous situation, in addition the possible damage from
the fall . . . "
(Based on my years of training in the martial art of Wing Chun, I couldn't agree
more on the potential to rupture one of the heavily vascularized abdominal organs
or to produce bleeding in the mediastinum that can gradually interfere with the
beating of the heart – cardiac tamponade.)
-- Stephen P. Wenger
Email from Mike (Ox) Ochsner --
Jonathan,
80 million people believe that they're "short sleepers" and can get by on less
than 6 hours of sleep. Do you know how many actually are? About 40,000 . . .
roughly the same as the number of people with net worth over $50 million.
That means that for every 2000 people who THINK they're a short-sleeper,
only 1 really is.
If you're reading this email, the odds are overwhelming that you're not that
person . . . but a few actually are (like my sister-in-law). Everyone else's brain
needs 7-9 hours of sleep.
It's just not permitting it right now. That's a critical distinction.
Not permitting vs. not needing. Cars don't adapt to water in the gas tank
and brains don't adapt to less sleep. Performance just degrades under the
stress of inadequate rest . . . which is fixable.
That means that brain fog isn't your new normal. It's chronic sleep
deprivation . . . which is fixable. And irritability isn't your personality.
It's a nervous system running on fumes . . . which is fixable.
The "I'm fine on 5 hours" story people tell themselves? That's not resilience.
That's a brain operating in crisis mode . . . which is fixable.
After just one bad night:
⁕ Attention and behavior challenges of ADHD
⁕ Inflammation & heart disease
⁕ 25% drop in insulin sensitivity
⁕ 4x more likely to catch viruses
⁕ Amaloyd beta and plaque accumulation in the brain
⁕ Prefrontal cortex loses 40% of its fuel budget
and more . . . a lot more.
That's not adapting. It's accumulating damage.
The good news . . . it's fixable. Your brain WANTS to sleep. It's designed to sleep.
Something is blocking it at the neurological level. When you identify what's
blocking it and address those specific factors, sleep doesn't require force anymore.
It just . . . happens. The way it was designed to.
. . .
-- Mike (Ox) Ochsner
Tactical Emergency Casualty Care Course - NAEMT Certified, $495.00
Tracey Mendenhall | VP of Operations
(Life Saving Ninja)
DEFEND SYSTEMS
(615) 480-7758
"If you prepare for the emergency,
the emergency ceases to exist!"
-- Sherman House
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Survival --------------------------------
‟We don’t decide what is necessary to survive a
lethal force encounter initiated by someone else.
That person decides what’s necessary for us to survive.”
– William Aprill
"Survival is not based solely on technique.
Survivability may hinge on the use of the correct technique
appropriate to the environment you are fighting in.
Oh, and yes, marksmanship is always valuable."
-- Clint Smith
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
--Benjamin Franklin
"If you stay fit, you do not have to get fit.
If you stay trained, you do not have to get trained.
If you stay prepared, you do not have to get prepared."
-- Robert Margulies
"Survival is a mindset, not a skill set."
-- Greg Shaffer
*************************************************************************
Lauren Marshall
Watermelon smuggler 🍉
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** 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
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Legal --------------------------------
ATF’s “Engaged in Business Rule” – struck down!
by John Harris
Excerpt:
". . . vacating the rule nationwide."
Documents and final judgment embedded in the article.
"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
"A couple of weeks ago the Texas Supreme Court handed down an opinion
which provides an excellent history lesson on the right to keep and bear arms
in Texas and the history behind it. It also addresses the interplay with the
2nd Amendment and judicial interpretation."
-- Edward Keith
THE SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS
JONATHAN TIMOTHY NOYES v. THE STATE OF TEXAS
FOR THE PROTECTION OF SAMANTHA JO VOGES;
from Comal County; 3rd Court of Appeals District
(03-22-00071-CV, ___ SW3d ___, 11-22-23)
Gun Law Database
"Build A Reciprocity Map:" by Concealed Carry, Inc.
As the Director of the ATF states, the rate of fire is not what defines a machinegun.
" 'That's An Automatic Weapon':
Jack Reed Presses ATF Director About Forced Reset Triggers"
by Forbes Breaking News
No, the Forced Reset Trigger not an automatic weapon because a separate trigger
press is required for each shot.
"Firearms are second only to the constitution in importance,
they are the people's liberty's teeth." -- George Washington
Automaticity. When you don't remember doing it.
“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
"Alex Murdaugh's Verdict Overturned" by Mike Rafi
It doesn't matter whether or not you think he's guilty. It doesn't matter whether
or not he is guilty. What matters is the impartial application of the law. This ruling
is not to protect this defendant. This ruling is to protect the citizen.
"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
"Trump ATF Targets Biden Gun Rules in Major Rollback" by Nicole Weatherholtz
Hat tip to Bob Grant.
“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
"Glock Bans Spread: 4 States Outlaw “Convertible Pistols” "
by Jacob Paulsen
Police are, of course, exempt from these laws. They must be first class citizens,
unlike us.
“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)
"Supreme Court Issues 8-1 Denial Order
Changing Second Amendment Preservation Fight!" by Armed Scholar
Dear Jonathan:
My new article at RealClearInvestigations
turned out very well. It takes a deep dive into how many Americans actually
carry concealed handguns. For the past twelve years, we have tracked concealed
handgun permits, but that measure has become increasingly incomplete.
But with 29 Constitutional Carry states, people no longer need permits to carry
concealed handguns in large parts of the country. Since 2021 alone, the share
of Americans living in Constitutional Carry states has grown by 34%. As a result,
permit totals no longer provide an accurate picture of how many people are
carrying firearms.
The findings are striking—and encouraging. The article reveals surprising
information about who is carrying concealed handguns and how carrying patterns
have changed over time. It is also hard to ignore the big increase in concealed
carrying at the same time we saw a record low murder rate this past year.
-- John Lott
Email from Joe Shahoud -- (in the context of South Carolina, USA)
You might be breaking the law right now.
Depending on where you are in South Carolina, that knife in your pocket could
get you arrested. Let me explain why this matters to you. I'm a huge fan of
carrying less lethal tools.
[Knives are not "less lethal tools". Using a knife is using lethal force. -- Jon Low]
They give you options when things get weird. But here's what most people don't
know about knife laws in our state.
Back in 2008, South Carolina changed everything. The state said "carry
whatever knife you want" as long as you're not in prison. Pretty cool, right?
Folding knives? You can conceal them anywhere. No permit needed.
Hell, even convicted felons can legally carry knives.
But fixed blade knives are different. They have to be carried openly.
No hiding them.
Schools have their own rules. Visitors can carry knives 2 inches or less on
campus. Bigger than that? Stay off school property completely.
Here's where it gets tricky (and expensive if you get it wrong). South Carolina
doesn't have preemption laws. That means cities can make their own rules.
And they do. Columbia bans knives completely. Charleston and Greenville both
restrict knives over 3 inches. Each city is different.
I've been carrying a knife for years. I'm not stopping now. But I am going
to start checking local laws when I travel.
The key is staying discrete.
[Don't clip a knife to your pocket with the clip showing. Unless you're in Tennessee.
No such thing as a knife law in Tennessee. -- Jon Low]
You can get charged with brandishing a knife just like brandishing a gun.
Know your local laws. Carry smart. Stay safe.
Talk soon,
Joe "always carry a knife" Shahoud
*** This is very important ***
"The “Fake Science” Cancer Destroying Law Enforcement" by Andrew Branca
Excerpts:
"There is a malignant cancer that is metastasizing through our legal system
that threatens to destroy law enforcement as a social construct capable of
protecting law-abiding citizens from the ravages of criminal predation.
This cancer kills law enforcement by creating standards for police officers
that are impossible to maintain in any real-world violent confrontation,
standards which are often never actually taught to the officers involved,
and standards for which violation results in decades in prison for the officers
snared in this trap.
This cancer is, of course, just another of the many fronts in the war of
America’s enemies to devolve our first-world society into a third-world
hellscape that is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short,” to quote
Thomas Hobbes. And like the others, it must be recognized and obliterated."
Andrew reads the text to us. The text is also visible on the screen. So,
you can read along if you wish or turn down the volume and just read the
text.
*************************************************************************
Lauren Marshall
The ability to squat is essential for real world combat.
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Instruction --------------------------------
"Remember,
the students who require the extra effort
are the ones who need us the most!"
-- John Farnam
*************************************************************************
----- Instructors -----
"Your curriculum needs to be recent, relevant, and realistic."
-- Austin Killmer
"An Interesting Experience at the Shooting Range . . . " by Greg Ellifritz
You have an hour and 50 rounds to teach a person, who has never touched
a pistol before, how to safely handle and shoot her pistol. She expects repeat
offenders to invade her home tonight. As Greg says, challenge accepted.
Would you accept such a challenge? Are you competent to do so? How
would you conduct such a one hour class?
"The limited time you spend with students
may be the only training they ever receive!"
-- John Farnam
Congratulations, Jamie Meyer!
“Pick a lane, master that lane, and stay in it.”
-- Chuck Haggard
Please read the comments in this post.
“The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other.
Without collaboration, our growth is limited to our own perspectives.”
-- Robert John Meehan
“The student’s purpose is to expand their body of knowledge and social network.
The instructor’s purpose is to help the student achieve the student’s goals.”
-- Amy Schwartz
Colonel Robert Lindsey to his fellow trainers:
"We are not God's gift to our students.
Our students are God's gift to us."
“He who dares to teach must never cease to learn.”
-- Richard Henry Dana
"Every time I teach a class,
I discover I don't know something."
-- Clint Smith
“Qui docet, discet.” (Who teaches, learns.)
-- American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers
Be careful what you teach.
Because your students will do in combat
whatever you have trained them to do,
no matter how ridiculous.
-- "Shooting in Self-Defense" by Sara Ahrens
"A false path will always be tensely, angrily, violently defended
by those it has deceived, because those who are so easily deceived
are ever too arrogant to repent.”
-- Instructional axiom
"You must teach skill sustainment as part of training."
-- John Hearne
"You don't have to memorize formulae.
Because you can always derive them from first principles."
-- Sven Hartman
************************************************************************
----- Students -----
"Keep in mind that this is some seriously next level material.
It is totally normal that the first time you see this stuff, you find
it confusing. You find it difficult to understand. So, confusion
should not discourage you. It does not represent any intellectual
failing on your part. Rather, keep in mind that it represents an
opportunity to get even smarter."
– Tim Roughgarden, Professor of Computer Science and other
stuff at Stanford University
"Try.
Try again.
Try once more.
Try differently.
Try again tomorrow.
Try and ask for help.
Try find someone who's done it.
Try to fix the problem.
Keep trying until you succeed."
-- Nicola Cavanis
“It may seem difficult at first but everything is difficult at first.”
-- Miyamota Mushashi
"It's better to be wrong than to be vague."
-- Freeman Dyson
"Thinking is the hardest thing a person can do.
That's why so few people do it."
-- Henry Ford
“Train, Practice, Compete
are the key elements in the development of humans.”
-- John M. Buol, Jr.
*************************************************************************
----- Andragogy (as opposed to pedagogy) -----
"Growth is uncomfortable because you've never been there before."
-- Nicola Cavanis
‟An instructor should not expect any learning to
take place the first time new information is presented.”
-- ‶Building Shooters″ by Dustin Salomon
*************************************************************************
Martina Di Giovanni
*************************************************************************
------------------------------ Gear --------------------------------
And the safe storage thereof.
"Equipment!" by John Farnam
Concerning 2-piece tube extensions for shotgun tubular magazines
and box magazines for shotguns.
John S. Farnam, DTI, Resource List:
---
Trauma Kits -
Ashley Burnsed
Blue Force Gear
PO Bx 853
Pooler, GA 31322
877 430 2583
ashley@blueforcegear.com
---
Rifle magazines -
Magpul
Lancer
2800 Milford Square Pk
Quakertown, PA 18951
610 973 2600
---
AR Parts -
Billy
M&A Parts
964 Donata Ct
Lake Zurich, IL 60047
847 550 8246
847 550 0654 (Fax)
info@mapartsinc.com
---
Covert Rifle Cases -
5.11 Covert M4 Case
4300 Spyres Wy
Modesto, CA 95356
209 527 4511
866 451 1726
Sneaky Bags
15000 Potomac Town Pl, #100-808
Woodbridge, VA 22191
727 228 4520
---
Holsters and accessories -
Mitchell Rosen
Mitch Rosen Extraordinary Gunleather
7 Perimeter Rd, Ste 7
Manchester, NH 03103
603 647 2971
603 647 2973 (Fax)
holster@mitchrosen.com
Galco
800 874 2526
Comp-Tac
3003 Farrell Rd
Houston, TX 77073
281 209 3040
Militis Defense
matt@militisdefense.com
Henry Holsters, LLC
1604 State Ferry Rd
Solsberry, IN 47459
812 369 2266
Blackhawk
Black Arch
sales@blackaarchholsters.com
435 261 2231
Enigma Holsters
---
High-performance ammunition -
Super Vel
Peter Pi, Jr
Defiant Munitions
PO Box 253
Sturgis, SD 57785
605 490 3247
Kevin Underwood
Underwood Ammunition
618 965 2109
sales@underwoodammo.com
---
Knives -
Cold Steel Inc
3036-A Seaborg Av
Ventura, CA 93003
800 255 4716, ext 126
805 656 5191
805 642 9727 (Fax)
Brian D Hoffner
1302 Waugh Dr, #727
Houston, TX 77019
281 855 8800
brianhoffner@hoffners.com
---
Rotating steel targets -
Steve Camp
Ravelin Group, LLC
1600 W Lake St
Ste 103B-127
Addison, IL 60101
630 977 9250
---
Rifle/Shotgun Slings and Web Accessories -
Ashley Burnsed
Blue Force Gear
PO Bx 853
Pooler, GA 31322
877 430 2583
ashley@blueforcegear.com
John Willis
SOE
Camden, TN
john@originalsoegear.com
Jacob Beach
Beachin Tactical
---
"Don't Shoot Me" Banners -
Mike Lessman
DSM Safety Products LLC
PO Bx 50909
Sparks, NV 89435
775 250 5523
mlessman@dsmsafety.com
---
Paper Targets -
Challenge Targets
800 859 5841
---
Range Timers -
Rhonan Colman
PACT, Inc
2100 N Hwy 360, Ste 1901
Grand Prairie, TX 75050
800 722 8462
972 641 0049
---
Combat Suspenders -
https://www.clothing-mart.com/cgi-bin/shop.cgi?i=B01IC1C6JQ&msclkid=a98a2ae7a7a5123a21f84b7abcac83b3
Perry suspenders
---
Mantis Training System
630 551 8171
Dummy (placebo) Rounds -
STAction Pro
3815 N US Hwy 1, Ste 50
Cocoa, FL 32926
321 632 4111
888 966 0668
321 639 2409 (Fax)
stactionpro@cfl.rr.com
---
Car rescue tool -
Resqume
718 E Mason St
Santa Barbara, CA 93103
866 473 7763
---
Flashlights -
FirstLight
P.O. Box 84
Monticello, IL 61856
205 South Main Street
Seymour, IL 61875
877 454 4450
877 454 4420 (Fax)
SureFire
17680 Newhope Street, Suite B
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
800 828 8809
Powertac
3702 Alliance Dr, Ste C
Greensboro NC, 27407
919 239 4470
Trey Smith
Nitecore
512 258 6649
trey.smith@nitecorestore.com
“De-Jammer Tool”
budsgunshop.com
---
Farnam Signature Rifles -
Vang Comp Systems, Inc
Cody Stewart
5965 W Wigwam Ave Bldg 1
Las Vegas, NV 89139
928 636 8455
928 636 1538 (Fax)
cody@vangcomp.com
---
Travel armor
---
Blue Guns -
John Ring
Ring's Manufacturing
99 East Dr
Melbourne, FL 32904
321 951 0407
321 951 0017 (Fax)
info@blueguns.com
---
Off-Body Carry Purses and Handbags -
Claudia J Chisholm
GTM
1912 Shermer Rd
Northbrook, IL 60062
847 466 0700
gtm@guntotenmamas.com
Coronado Leather
Ukoalabag
266 Sailor’s Dr, #5
Ellijay, GA 30540
800 214 9609
Julie L Willis
Zendira
julie@zendira.com
---
Andrew Branca
Law of Self Defense
https://lawofselfdefense.com/
200 S Wilcox St, Suite 186
Castle Rock, CO 80109
720 386 2250
Free book, just pay shipping to save you the cost of going to Colorado to pick it up.
"There are no dangerous weapons, only dangerous men."
-- Robert A. Heinlein
Proper pistol grip size for a proper grip and trigger press.
"Handgun Dimensions Decoded" by Massad Ayoob - Facts and Firearms
Hat tip to Docent.
---
⬢ For the firing-side-hand:
The bore must be inline with the bones of the forearm.
The web between the thumb and index finger must be high up in the tang so
that the skin is bunched up under the tang.
The thumb must lay flat against the side of the pistol, NOT sticking out to
the side.
The middle finger must be up tight against the bottom of the trigger guard.
When the slack is out of the trigger, the trigger finger should be pressing
the trigger straight to the rear. No vector component of force anywhere other
than straight back. If not, fix it! Yes, as a matter of fact, a competent gunsmith
can move the trigger on any pistol.
The tip of the middle finger must be pointing back at the shooter. If not,
the grip is too big. Fix it!
⬣ For the support-side-hand:
The base of the thumbs must be pressed firmly against each other.
The base of the thumb must be pressed firmly against the grip, no air gap.
The index finger must be up tight against the bottom of the trigger guard.
⬧ Both hands:
All fingers must be pressed together. If you have finger grooves on your
grip, grind them off, so that your fingers can touch each other and be
pressed firmly together. Finger grooves on your grip are an act of criminal
stupidity. If you spread your fingers apart, you will weaken your grip.
A weak grip will allow the enemy to more easily disarm you.
The purpose of a high capacity magazine is NOT to let you shoot more;
it is to let you reload less.
-- Tom Givens
"Irons Vs. Red Dots For Carry Pistols: Which Is Better?"
by Richard A. Mann
Excerpt:
Lessons Learned
What I can tell you, with some degree of confidence, is that you can make more
accurate shots with a red dot sight than you can with a fixed sighted pistol at any
distance. Also, if you’re capable of performing the drills in Test 2 and Test 3 to
standard with any pistol, you can probably perform them the same, if not faster,
with a pistol that has fixed sights. This, of course, goes against the common
narrative that red dot sights are better for concealed carry. Fixed sights performed
the same or better during these two tests and do not have the failure potential of
red dot sights.
Sometimes you're just paying for the name.
“Mission drives the gear train.”
-- Pat Rogers
Tik Tok selling parts to make a silencer.
"Why are the little things called little things?
They are everything."
-- Nicola Cavanis
"Ayoob: Don’t Make These Carry Gun Mod Mistakes" by Massad Ayoob
Hat tip to Greg Ellifritz.
Do not disable safeties.
Do not lighten triggers.
“Your car is not a holster.”
-- Pat Rogers
"Selling Guns Online!?!" by Tom McHale
GunTab.com is a sort of escrow service, designed to protect buyer and seller.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Ammo sources:
Unlimited Ammo
Target Sports USA
GunMag Warehouse
SGAmmo
True Shot Ammo
The Mag Shack
If you know of any others, please let me know.
Parts sources:
Numrich Gun Parts
Wolff gun springs
Brownells
Midway USA
*************************************************************************
Martina Di Giovanni
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Intelligence ***** ***** *****
Always cite open source. There is always some conspiracy theorists who has said
what you want to say. Quote him. Everyone will understand.
«Пришлось нам, получается, убить Сеню»
by Дмитрий Дурнев
Synopsis in English,
Russian Soldiers Turn on Each Other - "We Had To Do It"
by Preston Stewart
[When I served in the U.S. Armed Forces, we never ran short of food, water,
or ammo. It's not like that in 2nd or 3rd world countries. Israeli friends have
told me about running short of water and ammo. Saudi friends have told me
of running short of water. You really get spoiled serving in the U.S. Armed
Forces.
-- Jon Low]
"MASSIVE IRAN UPDATE |
I Wonder Why You've Heard NOTHING About This . . . Almost Like It's Good"
by Braden Langley
From Soldier Systems --
How well do we really understand the history of the People's Liberation Army (PLA)?
For the past eight years, the PLA has been considered our pacing threat, yet many
in the joint force still view its historical roots as that of a simple guerrilla insurgency.
In Part 1 of the online exclusive "An Army Rooted in Large-Scale Combat Operations,"
author Ian M. Sullivan takes a deep dive into the PLA’s combat experience during the
Chinese Civil War (1946–1949).
The reality is that the PLA rapidly mastered Large-Scale Combat Operations (LSCO).
Between September 1948 and January 1949, the PLA executed the "Big Three"
campaigns (Liao-Shen, Huai-Hai, and Ping-Jin). These operations were staggering
in scale—comparable in size to the US Army’s largest historical campaigns, like the
Meuse-Argonne and the Battle of the Bulge, and decisive enough to win control of
the Chinese mainland.
To understand what the PLA is today, and what it could be tomorrow, we must
study the commanders, doctrine, and massive campaigns that forged it.
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Counter Intelligence
I got an email with return address,
www.linkedin.com
<It's a spoof. The characters look like English letters, don't they?
Lots of characters in Unicode look like English letters.
Just in case I clicked on reply.>
<photograph of pretty Chinese girl>
Eva Hu
Director at Roche
United States
saying that she wanted to connect with me.
I did not click on the link, because when I inspected the html code,
it did not connect to the real LinkIn.com. I logged into my LinkedIn.com
account and searched for "Eva Hu". Surprise, surprise! No such person.
The ChiComs are really scraping the barrel if they are phishing me.
I got no clearance, no connections, nothing.
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Institute for the Study of war
The Dispatch
Strategy Page
"The Merge"
Breaking Defense
Intrigue
1440
29155
Global Recaps
Timber Sycamore
Ground News
Soldier Systems
Executive Order 12333
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** 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
"Advanced SIGINT - Drone Detection" by Civil Defense Engineer
"KARA DAG"
False alarms are very dangerous.
Do you understand why the device is alarming to his computer?
Yes, your computer too is a tempest hazard. Don't believe me? Check it.
You've got the tools.
"Listen To This Mystery Radio Signal From Day One Of US-Iran War |
RFE/RL Exclusive" by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
"Something is jamming GPS over Europe. Here's what we found"
by Veritasium
Russian satellite, Cosmos 2546, is jamming GPS (and others) on a regular basis.
The Russians are just making sure their system works.
Do you have a planned response?
"I decoded cell tower traffic . . . this shouldn’t be visible"
by Cyb3rMaddy
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Breaking Defense has a weekly newsletter, "Networks & Digital Warfare" at
Crypto-Gram by Bruce Schneier
2600
Soldier Systems
*************************************************************************
Analise and Isabella Erickson
*************************************************************************
***** ***** ***** Cryptology ***** ***** *****
Always cite open source.
My kids always check the wrapping paper and packing material when I send gifts.
Because I get annoyed when they throw away valuable stuff.
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.
"the most unhinged (recent!) computer science discoveries" by LaurieWired
"Completely meaningless"
"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
"Scientists publish studies today . . . and we (and even our doctors) take
them for granted. But then when other scientists ask the same questions
and perform the same experiments, they do not come up with the same
results. That means that a lot of the science we (and our doctors) take
for granted is not actually true." — Jay Bhattacharya on the replication crisis
Do you understand why this article is in the cryptology section?
Lots of false stuff published in cryptology journals. The NSA Journal is
notorious for this. Hiding behind classifications. Never gets corrected.
Never gets questioned. And the poor defense contractors are required to
implement the nonsense in the Red Book (Information Security criteria).
"You don't have to memorize theorems.
Because you can always derive them from first principles."
-- Sven Hartman
"Reinventing Entropy | Compression is Intelligence Part 1
by 3Blue1Brown
Note citations in description.
"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
"Rare Anomalies in Chess" by wintrcat
"Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits
is, of course, in a state of sin."
-- John von Neumann
"Computer science has nothing to do with computers or science."
-- Donald Knuth
"Turing Award Winner: Data Abstraction, Dijkstra, Distributed Systems |
Barbara Liskov" by Ryan Peterman
[I don't think the problem was modularity. I think the problem was incompetent
programmers. Because competent software engineers will automatically design
with modularity.
Liskov says, ". . . and finally in the 90's Java came along." No, it didn't.
Java is a crippled form of C++. Java originated as a proprietary language, owned
by SUN Microsystems. It requires a Java Virtual Machine, which means your
programs cannot touch the hardware. Java has automatic garbage collection,
which means it frees memory for which there is no reference in the present scope.
So in a distributed system, a program running on a remote server may be the
only thing holding a reference to a particular piece of memory. But Java will
free that memory, for your own good. It's insanity.
-- Jon Low]
"All that we don't know is astonishing.
Even more astonishing is what passes for knowing."
-- Philip Roth
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil."
-- Donald Knuth
"Never memorize anything. Rather, study it until it becomes obvious."
-- Norman Christ
Plain text → data compression → encryption → error correction coding
→ transmission (storage) → reception (recalling from storage) →
error correction decoding → decryption → decompression → plain text
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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
*************************************************************************
Ear buds out while walking around.
Can't keep you safe if you practice dangerous behaviors.
*************************************************************************
*************************** Politics and Religion *****************************
Ya, couldn't help myself. This section is back to Politics and Religion.
Aren't they the same?
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
I encourage STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) by giving
away geometry studies to children. Ingredients:
1. Glass jar or cloth bag or . . .
2. The 5 platonic solids (regular polyhedra). Available in any game store as dice.
Tetrahedron, hexahedron (cube), octahedron, dodecahedron, icosahedron.
3. Print out the following, fold it up, and put in bag with the dice.
"Regular Convex Polyhedra", aka Platonic Solids
Polyhedron Face Shape Vertices Edges Faces
Tetrahedron Trigon 4 6 4
(Triangle)
Hexahedron Tetragon 8 12 6
(Cube) (Square)
Octahedron Trigon 6 12 8
(Triangle)
Dodecahedron Pentagon 12 30 20
Icosahedron Trigon 20 30 12
(Triangle)
Euler's formula for convex polyhedra:
Given the number of vertices V, the number of edges E, the number of faces F,
and the number of holes H, it is true that
V - E + F = 2 - 2H.
A vertex has zero dimensions. An edge has one dimension. A face has two
dimensions. To generalize to higher dimensions requires adding higher
dimensional objects to Euler's formula.
"3rd proof that the coefficients of (x+2)^n count the numbers of
vertices, edges, etc. of an n-D cube" by Mathologer 2
If you take the centers of all the faces of one Platonic solid, and make those
the new vertices of another convex solid, you get the Platonic solid's dual.
Or, in the case of the tetrahedron, it is its own dual. The following are the
Platonic duals:
Tetrahedron ↔ Tetrahedron
Octahedron ↔ Hexahedron
Dodecahedron ↔ Icosahedron
You can also get the duals by truncating at the vertices. If you don't
truncate all the way down, but stop about half way you get some interesting
objects. For instance, if you take the Dodecahedron and truncate at the
vertices, but not all the way to get the Icosahedron, you will get the Adidas
soccer ball with 12 pentagon faces and 20 hexagon faces.
https://brilliant.org/wiki/regular-polyhedra/
Number of faces 4 6 8 12 20
Number of vertices 4 8 6 20 12
Order of the rotation group 12 24 24 60 60
Order of the symmetry group 24 48 48 120 120
The rotation group is made up of all possible rotations around a 1-dimensional
line that leave the vertices in the position of vertices before the rotation.
The symmetry group adds mirror reflections through a 2-dimensional plane
that leaves the vertices in the position of vertices before the reflection.
The mirror reflection may also be considered a rotation in 4-dimensional space
that leaves the vertices in the positions of vertices before the 4-dimensional
rotation.
"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
If you don't think wokism actually kills innocent persons, you're just wrong.
"More On The Police Assisted Murder Of Henry Nowak" by Docent
Cited article,
"Henry Nowak and the savagery of state wokeness" by Brendan O'Neill
"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 great purge has begun . . . " by Asmongold Clips
The CEO at META says he laid off the entire HR department, because they
were causing problems that disappeared when the HR department disappeared.
When I worked at the Gordon Jewish Community Center, they had never
had an HR department. Then a new Director was hired by the Board of Trustees.
The new Director hired a lady to be HR manager. They immediately started
firing people, some of whom had been working for the GJCC for decades.
Extremely disruptive to say the least. HR departments are not a good idea.
But it takes intelligence and courage to do what's right, as opposed to what's safe.
"The rise and fall of OnlyFans" by Michael Girdley
OnlyFans makes 46 million dollars per employee. An order of magnitude
more than its nearest competitor (Apple Corporation).
Artificial Intelligence creators. No humans. No employees. You can't abuse
or exploit or sexually assault an AI creation. No human trafficking. All complaints
that had previously been made against the porn platforms.
"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
*************************************************************************
Carmella Rose
*************************************************************************
************* Psychology **************************************
Email from Orion Taraban, Psy.D. --
"Choose what happens."
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026
One of my all-time favorite writers is George Orwell. That guy was very smart
and very attuned to the world around him. And while he's (deservedly) better
known for other work, it was a piece called “Clink” that forever secured my high
regard.
In this short story, Orwell sets out one day to get arrested. He's never been
arrested, and he decides that the only way to adequately satisfy his curiosity
about the experience is to get locked up. So he gets hammered and falls down
in front of a couple cops until they haul him in for public drunkenness. The rest
of the story details his process through the judicial system.
My point is that even “negative” experiences – like getting arrested – can be
recast in a completely new light when we choose them. This is the wisdom
behind the Stoics' amor fati, the love of fate. Most of our suffering comes
from getting what we don't want, but we are ultimately in control of our
wanting. Choose what happens and you take a good deal of the sting out of
the experience.
This week's behavioral experiment:
Tell three people in your life that you are grateful for them. See what happens.
Warmly,
Orion
A counter-intuitive truth.
Risk is rarely linear with respect to any other variable.
Some things are only obvious in retrospect.
************* End of Psychology section*********************************
*************************************************************************
"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."
-- Mary Flannery O'Connor
"Lilith: The Legend of Adam's First Wife" by Elon Gilad
Tornadoes.
I know this type. I've been with such.
A whole channel on defeating handcuffs.
"NOTTODEAD"
"NEW SERIES: Chess Steps!" by GothamChess
The first video in a series.
As long as you exhale carbon dioxide, you don't get any carbonic acid build up
in your body. So you feel fine.
Your body doesn't have any way to detect the over abundance of oxygen or
the lack of oxygen. Too much and you get oxygen poisoning and die. Too little
and you fall asleep and die. Remember your SCUBA training?
How did you do on the assessment.
If you trust AI, you're a damn fool.
The Mandela effect.
I applied for a job coaching a rifle team, and the school ran a background
check on me. It covered the following:
NATIONAL CRIMINAL SCAN (United States)
COUNTY CRIMINAL SEARCH (Davidson County, TN)
COUNTY CRIMINAL SEARCH (Dekalb County, TN)
COUNTY CRIMINAL SEARCH (Charleston County, SC [though I lived
and worked in Mount Pleasant, SC])
COUNTY CRIMINAL SEARCH (Los Angeles County, CA [though I have
never lived there, nor worked there, nor done anything there])
MOTOR VEHICLE REPORT (Tennessee)
NATIONAL SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY (United States)
OFFICE OF FOREIGN ASSETS CONTROL SEARCH (world wide, I guess)
CIVIL COUNTY COURT SEARCH (LOWER) (Davicson County, TN)
CIVIL COUNTY COURT SEARCH (UPPER) (Davidson County, TN)
HEALTHCARE SANCTIONS LEVEL 3 (United States)
The check was conducted by Paycom Payroll, LLC.
Just goes to show, if you don't post videos of your crimes on social media,
the background checks will come back clean. You think I'm joking. Ask any
law enforcement intelligence unit where they spend most of their time, and they
will tell you "searching social media posts". If no one knows you did the crime,
how do you establish street cred (street credibility, reputation)? You have to post.
"The statistical impossibility of L.A.'s mayor race" by Kelly Sadler
This is not politics. This is corruption.
"Judge Finds Iryna Zarutska’s Alleged Murderer Incompetent
To Stand Trial ‘At This Time’ " by William Buckley
In Nashville, TN, the Sheriff releases the criminals when the judges declare
the suspects incompetent to stand trial. The criminals then immediately murder
again. Not just murder, but brutal rape on the front steps of a church, causing
the victim to die days later. The criminal was only caught because firemen saw
what was happening and apprehended the criminal. You think the police catch
criminals in Nashville?
Democrats in Nashville elect these judges and the good citizens suffer for it.
"Valeria Vulpe: Exes, Ex-Soviets & Banana Education | Dutch Barn Comedy"
by Dutch Barn Vodka
It's always funnier when there is a punch line to the punch line.
And funniest when you get the joke later.
“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
Nerds rule!
"The Boy Who Read Too Much" by Pedro Santa Clara
Hat tip to Sidney Ontai.
Excerpt:
In 1820, roughly 90 per cent of humanity lived in extreme poverty.
In 1990 it was around 38 per cent. Today it is under 10. In the single
generation between 1990 and now — the era the global left brands as
neoliberal catastrophe — more than a billion human beings climbed
out of the worst poverty there is, the fastest improvement in the material
condition of our species in its entire existence. Child mortality has more
than halved since 1990; some 19,000 children died every day in 1990
who now get to live. Global life expectancy has roughly doubled over
two centuries, from about 30 to over 70. Literacy has gone from a
privilege of perhaps one in ten adults to more than four in five. Famine,
once a recurring visitor to every society on earth, has become so rare
that each instance is now news rather than weather.
"Why Are High Performers Unhappy?" by Greg Ellifritz
Wow! This is deep.
Semper Fidelis,
Jonathan D. Low
Email: Jon_Low@yahoo.com
Radio: KI4SDN
Carmella Rose
The experience. The memories.
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