This is a guest article from Dr. Lauren Pugliese, a DVM and board-certified veterinary surgeon. Readers contacted Lauren after her previous articles and requested a similar article about treating injuries in cats. I cover lots of trauma medical techniques (for people) on the blog. Here is some knowledge about our furry friends. -Greg […]
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Cops: The Young versus The Old
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In my last year as a police officer, I worked with a very young crew of cops. I usually worked the street with four other officers and a sergeant. It wasn’t unusual to have the combined years of service of those five guys adding up to a number significantly less than the 25 years […]
“Peace Officers” vs. “Law Enforcement Officers”
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Written by: Greg Ellifritz Last week, I became involved in a discussion about the term “law enforcement officer.” That’s what many cops are calling themselves these days. The words sound almost professional. The problem isn’t really with the term itself; it’s when officers embrace the idea that their sole occupational mission is to find […]
Words of Wisdom from Louis Awerbuck
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Ten years ago today, one of the world’s truly great firearms instructors passed away. Louis Awerbuck served in the South African Defense force before moving to the USA to teach at Gunsite. He was chief range master at Gunsite until 1987 when he formed his own company, Yavapai Firearms Academy. He wrote […]
Bandaging and Splinting Injured Dogs
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After the outstanding responses to Dr. Lauren Pugliese’s previous article on emergency trauma management for dogs, she had numerous readers contact her for followup information. One of the most common questions she was asked was how to apply a longer term bandage once bleeding has been controlled. She wrote an excellent followup post to address […]
Ammo Related Problems
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A couple weeks ago, I saw that Tom Givens had posted the article below on his Patreon page. I’ve been seeing the same things in my classes and wanted to warn my students. I asked Tom for permission to reprint the article and he graciously agreed. If you aren’t a member of Tom’s Patreon page, […]
Using Blanks in Scenario Training
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Written by: Greg Ellifritz Did you hear that a soldier was shot last month in a training exercise when someone mistook a live round of ammunition for a blank? Read about it below. Soldier Shot During Special Forces Training Event After Live Ammo Mixed in with Blanks “The incident occurred during force-on-force training […]
Emergency Management of Severe Bleeding in Dogs
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This is a guest article from Dr. Lauren Pugliese. Lauren is a DVM and board-certified small animal veterinary surgeon. After her wildly successful pet first aid classes at the Lone Star Medics Field and Tactical Medicine Training Conference, Lauren has been contacted by several students asking for followup information. Lauren wrote this article (and one […]
The Best Tourniquets- A Research Review
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Written by: Greg Ellifritz With the growing number of commercially made tourniquets, an increase in availability of medical courses focusing on gunshot wounds, a greater chance of getting caught up in an active killer event, and the classes like Stop the Bleed being offered everywhere, the issue of tourniquets is on many of my […]
Bird Shot, Binder Clips, and Bullshit
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Last Sunday I taught a shotgun class. A curious thing happened. I snapped a quick picture and shared it on Facebook the day after the class. Here’s what I posted: “A thought for all you folks who prefer bird shot for self defense… In the shotgun class I taught yesterday, […]
2024 Rangemaster Roundup
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Two weeks ago, I spent three days teaching and learning at the Rangemaster Tactical Training Conference in Dallas. I’ve now taught at the last 11 Tactical conferences and my TacCon blocks are regularly some the most fun classes I teach every year. The conference consists of three days of material taught by […]
Apocalyptic Revolvers
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Last weekend I attended the Rangemaster Tactical Conference. I put my new Lipseys .32 revolver through a workout during Wayne Dobbs’ revolver fundamentals class and then drove home right before the total eclipse. My drive home was directly in the path of the eclipse’s totality. People were acting insane. Everyone was massing chaotically […]
Do I Still Have It?
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I imagine it’s a question quite a few of you folks ask yourselves. I have to admit that I ask the question myself more regularly as I age. When I was a cop, I had a reputation of staying calm in life threatening emergencies. I’ve been retired almost four years now. Since my […]
An Alternate Look at Handgun Stopping Power
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Written by: Greg Ellifritz I’ve been interested in firearm stopping power for a very long time. I remember reading Handguns magazine back in the late 1980s when Evan Marshall was writing articles about his stopping power studies. When Marshall’s first book came out in 1992, I ordered it immediately, despite the fact that […]
Rule One?
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A couple months ago, Alex Ooley interviewed me on the topic of travel safety for his “Forge of Freedom” podcast. Alex was an excellent host and I really enjoyed talking with him. You can watch/listen to the podcast at the link or embedded video below if you are interested, but doing so isn’t necessary to […]
Skill Degradation Over Time
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Since my police retirement, I have been spending a large part of the each winter living in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Last year, between living out of the country without a gun and my cancer surgery, there was a period of approximately two months where I didn’t fire a single round or do […]
Are You Replaceable?
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I was just re-reading Tools Of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers and came across the following quote: “Are you doing what you’re uniquely capable of, what you feel placed on Earth to do? Can you be replaced? Life is short. Put another way: a long life is […]
Acquiring Guns in a Foreign Country- A Cautionary Tale
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I love to travel and tend to visit some crazy third world countries. For the past two decades I’ve spent at least four to eight weeks a year traveling in places where it isn’t safe to drink the tap water. As a retired cop, I can carry a gun almost everywhere in the […]
The Definitive Guide To Flying With Guns
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Written by: Greg Ellifritz I travel by air quite a bit. Last year I took 67 flights. Fifty-two of those flights were domestic and I traveled with guns on every one of them. I’ve flown with guns on over 50 flights a year for the past three years since my police retirement. Even though […]
Danger?
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Have you ever considered the difference between being in a dangerous situation and being in one where you have limited response options? I think a lot of us in the gun/self-protection world get those feelings confused. I reached this conclusion on New Year’s Eve. I’m spending a good chunk of the winter […]