Written by: Greg Ellifritz I found a very interesting piece of research linked up on the Practical Eschatology website. The report “Understanding Decisions to Burglarize from the Offender’s Perspective” provided the conclusions researchers amassed after interviewing more than 400 incarcerated burglars. The study proposed to answer the following questions: 1. What motivates […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I had two different friends send me messages last weekend requesting my thoughts on what policing is going to look like in the future. I thought about it quite a bit and here are my predictions. We have to recognize that police are a part of our […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz Do any of you shoot with a tactical light mounted on the rails of your self defense or police duty pistol? If so, you have likely experienced immense frustration trying to remove the burnt carbon residue from the light’s lens after a long shooting session. The lenses get […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I find it endlessly fascinating to listen to my students’ thoughts about the “best” course of action to take in a crisis situation. Especially when teaching female students, I hear a one very common response. Whenever I ask the students how they would respond to a challenging and dangerous situation, […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz With predictable regularity, the media and various civil rights groups become indignantly incensed when the cops or an armed citizen shoot a criminal in the back. It somehow violates society’s ideal that all confrontations should be settled “face to face” and be a “fair fight.” That doesn’t happen very often […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz It’s like clockwork. At least once a week, I open my email and see some version of the following question: “I’m worried about (your choice: crime, the declining economy, right wing politicians, mutant zombies, societal collapse, left wing politicians, etc) and want to buy a gun. I don’t have […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Dan Ariely’s book The Upside of Irrationality is a book about making rational and irrational decisions. Books like these are a goldmine of information for firearms and combatives trainers. We regularly see people making irrational decisions in the context of self defense. It’s nice to figure out why they are doing […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz When listening to experts describe how to flee from an attacker who is shooting, the most common statement heard is “Don’t run in a straight line.” Many people advocate running in a zig-zag pattern or running in a crouched position instead. A target that is small or that moves randomly […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I spent all of last week attending Massad Ayoob and Marty Hayes’ Deadly Force Instructor class as a student. We spent some time discussing the use of weapon mounted lights and the safety concerns associated with them. It caused me to realize that I haven’t written about this topic […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I was working day shift police patrol when a call went out at about 9:00 a.m. I was dispatched to a very large house in a nice neighborhood. The dispatcher said that the resident had called to report suspicious activity. The resident said that she had heard someone banging on her […]
Violent protests, mob action, and rioting scenarios fill up your news feed. Lots of folks are contacting me about mob violence issues. Let’s look at some of the issues involved… To date, the majority of mob violence events have occurred in very large public gatherings and at the sites of large political protests. […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I was recently re-reading Mark MacYoung’s book “In the Name of Self Defense.” It’s an amazing resource for anyone interested in better protecting himself.. I want to share a quote from the book: “Until you: 1. Develop the ability to take a hit without having an emotional meltdown 2. Have […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Take a moment to imagine one of the following scenarios: – While stopped in traffic at an inner-city intersection, a man with a gun approaches you. He begins striking your closed window with the weapon, demanding that you give him your car. You fear that if you get out […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Lots of folks have contacted me asking for my perspective on the recent police shooting of Rayshard Brooks. For those of you unfamiliar with the incident, police received a 911 call about a man unconscious behind the wheel in the drive through lane of a Wendy’s restaurant. A cop arrived, […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I hear this statement with some regularity from some of my students and the folks who comment on the articles I post. Have you ever actually tried to hold someone on the ground when they don’t want to be held? It’s not as easy as you may assume. I […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz I’ve been working lately with a very young crew of cops. I usually work the street with up to four other officers and a sergeant. It isn’t unusual to have the combined years of service of those five guys adding up to a number significantly less than the 25 years […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz In a Weekend Knowledge Dump a couple of weeks ago I mentioned the fact that police officers have been increasingly under attack from flammable objects and incendiaries. Police officers on riot duty are regularly getting pelted by Molotov Cocktails and other flaming devices. Looking for a solution to such a problem, […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz With the recent COVID-19 pandemic and lots of civil unrest, I’m getting more and more people asking questions about stockpiling ammunition. Online ammunition outlets have been sold out of popular products lately. Ammo availability at local gun stores is starting to increase, but prices are high and many stores are […]
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 […]
*This is an excerpt from the chapter “Surviving Third World Riots and Political Demonstrations” from my book Choose Adventure. With the riots we’ve seen over the last couple days, and calls for more rioting this weekend, the information will be useful for you. As our country descends into chaos, the advice from a third-world safety […]
