Written by: Greg Ellifritz Compared to the average American, I read a massive number of books. I try to read between around 10 books a month. I accomplish this because I don’t have TV in my house and I carry a book wherever I go. Whenever I have a few spare moments, I spend […]
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Book Reviews
Scenario Training Ideas from “The Upside of Irrationality”

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 […]
Book Stuff

My new travel safety book is out in all formats! You can buy the Kindle edition HERE. You can get a paperback copy HERE. If you have a NOOK reader or are looking for the book in Apple Books, Kobo, and for library editions, you can get a copy on Smashwords. […]
Book Reviews

My new travel safety book Choose Adventure- Safe Travel in Dangerous Places has been on the market for 10 days now. It’s doing pretty well. The book has been the #1 New Release in both the “Adventure Travel” and “Travel Reference” categories. Other authors have told me that it’s fairly difficult to hold that spot […]
Book Review- Survival Mom by Lisa Bedford

Lots of folks are asking me questions about the best way to hunker down and survive the pandemic lock down. There are lots of survival books on the market, but most of them focus on “bug out” scenarios and surviving in the wilderness with nothing but a knife and some paracord. That isn’t the […]
The Best of What I Read- 2019

Written by: Greg Ellifritz Compared to the average American, I read a massive number of books. I try to read between around 10-15 books a month. I accomplish this because I don’t have TV in my house and I carry a book wherever I go. Whenever I have a few spare moments, I spend […]
Two Quick Recommendations…

Written by Greg Ellifritz Here are two quick reads written by some friends of mine. I finished both of them this week and found each to be a valuable resource. The first is Annette Evans’ book The Dry Fire Primer. Annette introduces the book as: “Dry fire – practicing without live ammunition – […]
Gunsmithing Modern Firearms

Written by: Greg Ellifritz I will admit right up front that I am not the most mechanically inclined guy. I don’t really enjoy fixing things or working on “projects.” With that said, I have accumulated some knowledge about fixing guns after attending a whole bunch of armorer certification courses. That doesn’t make me a […]
“Survivalist Lite”…Survival Book Recommendations for Reluctant Spouses and Families

Written by Greg Ellifritz My obsession started early. As a teenager in the 1980’s I would annoy my school teachers by using class time to catch up on my fictional reading. The late Jerry Ahern’s “Survivalist” series was always a favorite. Ahern wrote entertaining stories about living in the USA following a nuclear bombing […]
Strategies and Standards for Defensive Handgun Training

Written by: Greg Ellifritz A couple days ago I finished Karl Rehn and John Daub’s new book Strategies and Standards for Defensive Handgun Training. I really enjoyed it and found it to contain a whole bunch of valuable information. The authors’ book description follows: “What percentage of carry permit holders attend training […]
In the Name of Self Defense

Anyone who has studied the science of self protection for a long time will recognize the name Marc “The Animal” MacYoung. I first started reading MacYoung’s books when I was in high school. Back in the late 1980s, he was one of the few authors who wrote about real life street combat and the psychology […]
The Best of What I Read Last Year

Written by: Greg Ellifritz Compared to the average American, I read a massive number of books. I try to read between ten and 15 books a month. I accomplish this because I don’t have TV in my house and I carry a book everywhere I go in case I have a few spare moments […]
Eyes Pried Open

This is a guest post from my friend and long time Federal Law Enforcement officer, John Hearne. John is a gifted instructor and skilled tactician. In this post, he reviews a book written by a guy who quit the FBI after a couple years of service. Things seem to keep getting progressively worse. These are […]
The Best Handgun Practice Drill Resources

Written by Greg Ellifritz I got the following question from a reader last week. As I think this answer has a universal appeal, I chose to answer it here so that all of you can benefit as well. Here’s the question: “I want to assemble/integrate your suggestions for practice sessions, but I’m overwhelmed by […]
Sources of Power

Written by: Greg Ellifritz The ability to make fast decisions under stressful and time-pressed conditions is a critical component of winning a lethal force confrontation. Unfortunately, it is also very hard to teach. Research on decision making has traditionally been conducted in laboratories under calm conditions. The implications derived from such studies don’t […]
Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement

About 15 years ago, I attended a seminar taught by Dr. Kevin Gilmartin. It was one of the single most useful training seminars I’ve ever attended and I’ve used the information I learned in that class every single day since. Gilmartin distilled his lecture concepts into a short book called “Emotional Survival for Law […]
Survive a Shooting

All of my readers who are interested in active killer response tactics will love this book. The author sent me a pre-production draft looking for feedback before publishing it. I read the book, gave Alain a few comments, and was honored when he asked my to write a “blurb” for the front […]
Locusts on the Horizon

Written by: Greg Ellifritz I was contacted several months ago by a group of writers who wanted to use my handgun stopping power data in a new book they were writing. After some discussion with one of the writers, I allowed them to use my data. The book was published last month and […]
How to Be Your Own Bodyguard

Written by: Greg Ellifritz A couple months ago, I taught a class down in North Carolina for Nick Hughes’ Krav Maga Lake Norman school. While there, Nick gave me a pre-release copy of his recently updated book How To Be Your Own Bodyguard. I recently finished reading it and I have to say that […]
Prepper Guns

I just finished reading Prepper Guns: Firearms, Ammo, Tools, and Techniques You Will Need to Survive the Coming Collapse. I genuinely enjoyed the book. I had honestly thought I had already read all the worthwhile firearms books on the market. I was wrong. I missed Prepper Guns. It’s a significant contribution to the world […]