Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend.
Self-Defense and the Law: Is Shooting Long-Distance in Defense Defensible in Court?
Massad Ayoob talks about the realities of taking longer shots in a gunfight.
An Innovative Take on Mental Awareness
In last week’s dump, I linked to the free download copy of this book. Here is an excerpt where the author describes the tricks he uses to maintain better situational awareness.
Why Choose An Enclosed Emitter Red Dot Sight?
Closed versus open emitter pistol red dots.
Teaching the Snub Nose Revolver
There aren’t many instructors in this industry who will publish their entire class lesson plan online. Claude Werner did just that. Here is the complete content for his introductory snub revolver class. If you carry a snub (and you know many of you do), you could follow his drills as sort of a self-study progression until you get the chance to train with the Tactical Professor in person.
Revolver Speedloaders: Proven Designs and New Innovations
Since you just read how Claude teaches revolver shooting, your next question might be about what reloading devices you should use with your revolver training. This is a fairly comprehensive evaluation of the primary revolver speedloaders on the market.
One more revolver article: Using Taurus Model 85 Boot Grips On J-Frames.
How to Get Started Shooting a Muzzleloader Rifle
Shooting muzzle loaders is incredibly fun. Here’s how to get started.
Needless Tragedy At The Gas Pump
Gas stations and big box store parking lots may be the most dangerous places the average concealed carrier is likely to visit. Have a plan when you are going to either.
Marksmanship at a Medium Pace
Grip adjustments for shooting tiny pistols.
Going shooting in the wilderness? Be safe!
Good safety tips for any of you who shoot on public land in national forests and the like.
Implicit Bias Training for Police: Does It Work?
For my police readers.
Focusing on Manual Safeties
Operating manual safeties “wrong handed.” I never found much success using the method in the photo above. With lefties and shotguns with non-ambidextrous safeties at the rear of the trigger guards, I prefer to have the shooter keep the safety “off” and use excellent trigger finger discipline than to use the author’s suggested technique.
The School Shooting Solution
While the proposal at the end of the article is obviously comic relief, the rest of the piece provides an honest assessment of the options that are often suggested for stopping school violence. While on the topic, you may also want to read Armed School Teachers Thwart Mass Murders.
Why Your AR-15 Shoots Low
AR-15 mechanical offset is an issue than continually frustrates my students. It takes lots of close range practice to reflexively remember that you need to hold higher at closer ranges.
Sight Regulation and Point of Impact
Speaking of sights and point of impact, this article explains how it can be an issue with revolvers as well.
Evolving is Hard
Some insights on lights and lasers in both training and combat. The author also notes that due to work primarily done by Dustin Solomon, John Holschen, John Hearne, and John Murphy some trainers are starting to incorporate visual shoot signals (primarily using lasers) rather than audible start signals on the range. For an example of this, check out Murphy’s description of how he uses the “determinator” in his classes.
Red lasers are cheaper to buy than green lasers. In a police context, using red lasers as a shoot signal may have some unintended consequences.
“Side note on lasers. Red for non-deadly, and green for deadly. What is a common non-deadly device carried by law enforcement? Taser. And, what does Taser have? A red laser. Think it could be a problem using a red laser as a visual stimulus to have an officer shoot? I do.”
Candela & Lumens
One more article on low light issues for you today.
Documents reveal what led up to shooting death of Ohio corrections officer
Read about the “mirror drill” that led to the CO’s death. This is a horrific practice. We firearms instructors need to do much better than allowing or conducting dangerous and pointless drills like that on our ranges.
Five or Six?
As we discuss handgun safety after the link above, I find it interesting to note that “best practices” for safe handgun carry and use have been vigorously debated by professionals in the field for more than 150 years.
Does Bear Spray Work?
A review of some of the studies of bear spray effectiveness. Bear spray is just a highly concentrated version of the regular OC spray you carry on your key chain. Some of the models intended for humans have the exact same strength as those designed for bear. Bear spray = Pepper spray. One can likely extrapolate effectiveness models against humans as being very similar to those deployed against aggressive bears.
The Value of Others: Understanding the Economic Model of Relationships to Get (and Keep) More of What You Want in the Sexual Marketplace
What I’m reading…
How Much Should You Actually Weigh for Martial Success?
I have a slightly different take on things. During my police and martial arts training career, my bodyweight has changed a lot. I fought criminals on the street weighing anywhere from 185 pounds to 270 pounds. I can tell you that there is an incredible difference in performance between those weights. While I didn’t have the gas to go 10 rounds boxing at 270, in a 30 second street fight, I was devastating. I felt I had the best combination of mass and endurance in my martial arts sparring weighing between 210 and 220. But when it comes to real-life combat that doesn’t last forever, I think there is a tremendous advantage to weighing 250+ if most of that weight is muscle.
The Pioneers of Handgun Sight Designs: Ira Paine, E.E. Patridge, A.O. Niedner
Thanks to Karl Rehn for helping to keep the history of our art alive.
Learning Takes a Lifetime
Tamara discusses what she’s learned about gripping a handgun from some of the top instructors in the business.
You’re surrounded by killers while pretending you are not
This is incredibly important information for my female readers to understand. This article ties in very well with the summary of the first video I posted on today’s knowledge dump.
“… as a woman, fighting head-on against a man is generally a losing proposition. The odds are against you as there are factors beyond your control that put you at a distinct disadvantage. Once the girls finished expressing their “that’s not fair!” outrage, I explained that this is why the prevention and avoidance techniques I spent most of the course teaching and roleplaying with them are so important: If you can avoid a fight in which you have terrible odds, then that’s a win. You only fight when you have no other choice. But when you do, you do so with all you’ve got because you know just how much trouble you’re in.”
HOW TO CONCEAL A GIANT Gun
Some tips for hiding large guns on small waists.
Smith & Wesson Vehicle Escape Tool with Glass Break, Strap Cutter, USB Charging Ports and Compact Design for Emergency, Charging and Survival
This is a really interesting piece of kit I recently picked up. I recommend the ResQ-Me brand of window breaker/seat belt cutter and have one attached to all my medical kits because the seat belt cutter also cuts clothing off of trauma victims.
But I don’t carry the Resq-Me when I fly because TSA freaks out about the seat belt cutter.
This device has the same window punch and seat belt cutter but the whole package is disguised as a functional USB car charger. Brilliant idea!
I took a black sharpie to the Smith and Wesson label on mine. It’s not very low profile if it has a gun company logo written on it.
We bought everything needed to make $3 million worth of fentanyl. All it took was $3,600 and a web browser
Reuters investigates how easy it is to make a drug that is killing more than 100,000 Americans every year.
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