Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend.
The Dark Side of Disasters: Looting and Criminal Exploitation During Storms
With the upcoming election and the extensive damage done by recent storms, the USA is in a very turbulent place right now. Until things calm down, I’m going to start each week’s knowledge dump with a few articles covering current events and how you can best avoid becoming a victim. The article linked below is a good start. Check out the links below as well.
How to Make It Through the Election!
Eight Observations On The “Several Unfolding Crises” We’re Seeing
Port Strike WILL Affect Ammo Supply! – Tactical Sh*t
How to Comfort Someone Who Has Just Lost Everything – The Survival Mom
Hurricane Helene And The Value of Cash
What if no one answers 911 after your shooting?
There are not 13,099 Illegal Immigrant Murders Roaming Free on American Streets
One more “current event” story you might want to examine. This is a deeper dive into the “criminal immigrant” stats reported last week. You might be surprised to note than many of the media outlets you all follow sensationalized the story in the most dramatic manner possible.
Rifle Tips for Fighting Around a Car
Solid information from Kyle Lamb. If you haven’t read his books, you should.
Trust A Process
Erick helps us with some best practices for the carbine.
Our Defender In Canada Pays The Price
No one is coming to save you.
Revisiting The 21-Foot Rule
The “21-foot rule” has been widely misunderstood and misapplied in the years since it was first published. Here is a good discussion of the evolution of this “rule” with links to a lot of contemporary articles describing why the “rule” might not be all that useful.
Right Now, Someone Somewhere in the World is Training to Kill You
“You can’t stop a deranged criminal or jihadi from entering your church, your grocery store, your shopping mall, etc., but you can make the mental commitment to be prepared to deal with that situation if it happens. That commitment begins by deliberately enrolling in a reality-based firearms training program. Shooting games aren’t the same as training to fight and defend yourself.”
Verbal Agility Development
An underdeveloped skill set in the firearms training community.
October Rangemaster Newsletter
In addition to the normal columns in Tom’s newsletter, this edition also contains a very valuable glossary of terms used in the firearms training world. Share it wih your new students.
The Special Application .22LR for Home Defense
A thorough examination of the issues around using a .22 rifle for home defense. Part two discusses how the author’s personal rifle is set up.
If the face fits: predicting future promotions from police cadets’ facial traits
Future police cadet promotions can be reliably predicted by facial features. You wonder why your police bosses are so ineffective? They are being chosen for how they look rather than how they perform or how they think.
Three Practical Pistol Drills For Better Personal Defense
Three basic shooting drills you all should be doing on a regular basis.
Benchmade Full Immunity- A Small Knife with a Big Knife Feel
Dave Spaulding reviews a new knife from Benchmade. The Full Immunity looks like a great daily carry option.
ONE EYE — OR TWO?
This is probably the single most common question students ask me in beginning handgun classes. I think too many people make a big deal out of nothing. Shooting a pistol with both eyes open is the better option as it provides superior peripheral vision. Doing this, however, in nearly impossible for some people without considerable practice and training. Some folks have to partially or fully close their non-dominant eye. That’s OK. I’d rather you get accurate hits with one eye open than miss doing things “the right way.”
BEST SHIRT PATTERNS FOR CONCEALED CARRY
The Suited Shootist does an interesting clothing comparison.
How To Choose A Self-Defense Attorney
Valuable advice.
Revolver Gunsmith Roundup, Part III
I regularly get questions from readers about revolver gunsmith recommendations. Here are a couple good ones.
AR-15 Basics: Where To Place Your Support Hand
This is a hotly debated issue in the tactical community. There is no simple answer. The “correct” way of holding your rifle depends on what you are trying to do.
That far-forward, locked elbow support side stance optimizes “driving” the gun between horizontally-oriented multiple targets. It is also fatiguing and can expose too much of your arm when shooting behind some types of cover.
The scorned “mag well grip” is not very good for target transitions or weapon retention. It’s really useful if your rifle gets hot on extended firing strings. Holding the mag well isolates your support from the hot parts of the rifle. It’s also faster than moving your hand farther out on the forend. After doing a reload, using this grip will get you back into the fight in the shortest amount of time.
Don’t be doctrinaire. I hold my support hand in the middle of the forend for most situations, but I know how to fire from other positions as well. I will use these alternate hand placement strategies if they provide me with an advantage on any particular rifle deployment incident.
AR-15 vs AK-47 Wood, Concrete, and Steel penetration test
Speaking of AR-15s, this video shows the penetration differences between the .223 and the 7.62 x 39mm.
Safe in the City: Reducing Your Risk
Very good general safety tips explaining John Farnam’s “rules of stupid.”
Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged
“Change one minor thing, and the whole show collapses. You can do the same thing over and over, but when a variable you are not prepared for happens, then it’s like batting left handed (assuming you are correct handed).”
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