Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend.
Mass Shootings Are Actually Pretty Rare, but Here’s What to Do if You’re Ever in One
One of the best articles I’ve read about unarmed response to an active killer event.
WD-40 as a Firearm Lubricant?
Please do not use WD-40 to lubricate your firearm. I’ve had to spend a lot of time de-greasing the gummy residue this product leaves on the internal parts of some of my officers’ firearms. There are lots of good gun lubes. I prefer Slip 2000 EWL.
DA/SA: Not the Best Choice for Newer Shooters
The first autopistol I carried defensively was my police issue S&W 4506. It was a DA/SA gun. Having grown up shooting revolvers, the DA trigger was no problem for me. Overall, I don’t recommend this action type for new shooters. Learning two trigger pulls takes longer. Forgetting to de-cock is a huge issue.
When the department went from the DA/SA guns to Glocks in 2003, some of my officers kept their DA/SA backup and off duty guns. After about a year of shooting the Glocks, they would regularly forget to de-cock their DA/SA guns before holstering. Not good.
Tropical Travel Trouble 006 Watery Diarrhoea
In collapse situations worldwide, contaminated drinking water is a huge problem. This article covers the different types of bacterial infections caused by bad drinking water and provides guidelines for treatment. If you are interested in austere medicine, this is a great read.
Shorty Shotty Gel Test: Ventura 12ga #0 Mini Buckshot
This seems like a pretty good option for the new short barreled “not shotguns” that are on the market now.
Want a look at some testing of a couple other types of “non-traditional” 12 gauge shells? Check out the testing they did on rubber buckshot and rubber slugs.
Arming teachers: Science or shot in the dark?
Computer modeling of active killers in schools shows that having armed teachers/SROs significantly decreases fatalities.
“What we found was profound,” said Dietz. He said a single resource officer “or even an armed teacher in a defensive position between attacker and students can reduce the number of victims by up to 70 percent.”
The Health Benefits of Sun Exposure
Some facts that challenge the conventional wisdom on sun exposure.
Overreacting and Fear
“Key point: To a person who doesn’t have a confident knowledge of what normal looks like and how to deal with it, everything is abnormal and therefore scary.”
Deadly Force in the Protection of Property – A Very Risky Business
A useful discussion covering the dangers of using deadly force to protect your property.
Lead Is Far Worse Than We Know
If you aren’t eating paint chips and don’t have lead plumbing, your highest chance for lead exposure will likely be your shooting/reloading activities. Don’t treat lead exposure lightly.
Ernest Langdon explains efficient presentation to the target
Pure gold from Ernest Langdon.
LAPD’s New ‘Lieutenants List’ and the ‘Club’
Do you ever wonder how police leadership can be so screwed up? Here is the answer. This describes the promotional process in virtually every larger police department across the country. The process ensures that the most unfit for leadership positions are promoted.
“Qualifications for admission are simple: Memorize the slogans and buzzwords in vogue among those already admitted, secure administrative jobs that offer contact with those already admitted and where exposure to physical dangers and personnel complaints are at a minimum, and, most important of all, avoid working patrol, most especially in those parts of town where crime is highest and the exposure to danger and personnel complaints is greatest.”
For my cop readers, here’s another great post on Toxic Police Leadership.
Craftsmanship in Preparedness
The Mountain Guerrilla shares some important perspectives on preparedness.
Tactical Manual: Small Unit Tactics
What I’m reading…
Max has some of the best information available on small unit and team tactics.
Get Your Head Outta Your Ass! Situational Awareness with Pat McNamara
“Everyday schmucks with their heads up their asses are myopic. They couldn’t spot a psycho with a shotgun if it were hanging a foot below his trench coat. So it is our job to protect and serve. Don’t be one of the zombies constantly in the “white” according to Jeff Cooper’s color code. If you find yourself there, say, “Pop.” That’s the sound it makes when you pull your head out of your ass.”
You can find perspective in some odd places
“We tend to be over-concerned with safety and with cleanliness in ways that stand between us.”
For me, that comment encapsulated a lot of what I see wrong in the world of self defense and preparedness: people lose sight of why they started down the path of self-sufficiency in the first place.”
Every Mass Shooting Shares One Thing In Common & It’s NOT Weapons
Lots of people are talking about school shooters being on prescribed anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medications. Is that a factor in their crimes?
I found this article from a couple years ago that lists some of the major school shooting incidents and what drug(s) the killer was taking.
One caution in interpreting the data…correlation does not imply causation. Just because the shooter was on the drugs doesn’t mean that the drugs caused the shooting.
It’s certainly possible, but it isn’t evidence of proof. If your kid was so mentally deranged that you think he could shoot up a school, wouldn’t you want to put him on a drug in the hopes that it works? A lot of parents are stuck in that spot. They recognize their kids are screwed up and try to get them medical help for their problems. Sometimes the medicines work. Sometimes they don’t.
While I think the psychotropic drugs are a likely factor in these shootings, they may not be. It could be that the shooter is screwed up, so he gets drugs. If the drugs don’t work, he’s still screwed up and then commits his crime.
The Smith & Wesson M&P Shield Range Session
A 50-round practice session for your smaller weapons. If you shoot a revolver, you should focus your practice sessions using these guidelines.
Double-Action Wisdom: Why Your Revolver Hammer Should Be Down
A list of reasons why you may want to avoid using your revolver in single action mode in a defensive encounter.
Ruck Training Programs – PART 1
Rucking (long walks while carrying a weighted backpack) is an incredible way to improve your fitness. Here’s how to do it correctly. Read Part Two as well.
George S. Patton: Guns That Made Him Great
Some neat historical information in this piece.
Everybody’s Lying About the Link Between Gun Ownership and Homicide
“There is no clear correlation whatsoever between gun ownership rate and gun homicide rate. Not within the USA. Not regionally. Not internationally. Not among peaceful societies. Not among violent ones. Gun ownership doesn’t make us safer. It doesn’t make us less safe. The correlation simply isn’t there. It is blatantly not-there. It is so tremendously not-there that the “not-there-ness” of it alone should be a huge news story.”
Instructor Ethics 101
Kathy writes a great post that all instructors should read.
“In order to fulfill my most important responsibility to my students, I have to risk pushing them beyond their comfort levels. And I have to do it in a way that will cause them to work harder rather than to shut down. If I’m not willing to take that risk for the sake of my students’ lives, I have no right to call myself a self-defense instructor.”
That’s Gotta Hurt
Speaking of discomfort in training…
“People want things to be easy. They want something for nothing. I get that. But there are some subjects where it is not possible. Your body is not designed to improve under conditions of comfort. It improves under stress. With stress, muscles grow. Without stress, muscles atrophy. You don’t get better at running by sitting.
You can get to a certain level of knowledge without pain or exhaustion. You can get to a certain level of skill. But you can’t get good. You can convince yourself you’re good. As long as you hang with other people who have avoided the same things you have, you can be comparatively good. But you can’t get good. Not at fighting and not at competition level anything.
It’s gonna hurt. It has to. People want a magical method where they can learn to deal with shock, surprise, pain and exhaustion without feeling shock, surprise, pain and exhaustion. That’s not the way the world works, kids.”
Never Let Them Take You to a Second Location
There are very few hard and fast rules when it comes to self defense. This is one of them. Never let them take you to the second crime scene.
The ‘Nice Girl’ Who Saved the Second Amendment
A well written long-form article that introduces Joyce Malcolm, one of the few pro-Second Amendment academic researchers. Malcolm’s book Guns and Violence- The English Experience is an insightful read.
Dynamics of Group Violence and Parenting
I’ve been catching up on some of my Ballistic Radio podcasts lately. This one was incredibly informative. In it, Dr. William Aprill discusses some of the psychological factors leading to crowd violence as well as seemingly “random” violence between individuals. I find it fascinating how the internet and social media are causing our culture to evolve in a negative manner.
Some of the above links (from Amazon.com) are affiliate links. If you purchase these items, I get a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.
