Written by: Greg Ellifritz Since I don’t have TV in my house, I spend a lot more time reading than the average American. I have more than 400 websites programmed into my RSS reader. On the average day I scan about 1200 articles in my feed. I deeply read more than 100. You can […]
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News and Tactical Advice
Active Shooter Incidents 2000-2018
Written by: Greg Ellifritz The US Department of Justice recently released a useful new publication titled Active Shooter Incidents: Topical One-Pagers 2000-2018. The publication is an 18-page summary of active shooter statistics for every attack that met the FBI definition between the years 2000 and 2018. It is a valuable reference for anyone who […]
Born to Intervene?
Written by Greg Ellifritz Read the story and take a look at the video below. A convenience store customer named CJ Stout was chatting with a store clerk when a robber entered the store. The robber pointed a gun at both the clerk and Mr. Stout before demanding money from the cash register and […]
The “Date Night” Restaurant Robbery
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Last week, some friends and I had a discussion on my Facebook page about a recent incident where two off-duty police officers (husband and wife) interrupted a robbery in progress at a local restaurant. The incident was captured on surveillance video. The two cops spread out, flanked the bad […]
“Preclusion”- The legal concept you must understand
Written by Greg Ellifritz The news articles linked below describe the actions of a retired firefighter with a concealed carry permit who shot and killed an elementary school teacher after a confrontation about a loud party. The entire confrontation (22 minutes long) and the shooting was videotaped by the shooter. He was charged […]
Criminal Weapon Selection
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I’ve written before about criminals and the guns they carry. My study was obviously limited by the relatively small number of guns my upscale suburban police department seizes. Other police departments seize far more guns than we do. Currently, the Chicago Police Department seizes the largest number of firearms […]
Head Shots and Bouncing Bullets
Written by: Greg Ellifritz By now, you’ve likely seen the news article from a couple weeks ago. An armed robber shot a compliant victim in the face. The bullet ricocheted off the victim’s skull and hit the second robber, killing him. Read about it HERE. It may seem strange, but it happens all […]
Timing…a Missing Component in Training
Written by Greg Ellifritz One of the hardest things I do as a firearms and self defense trainer is convincing people that their lives are worth defending. Many students come to my classes with an attitude that displays an extreme lack of self worth. It’s hard for me to comprehend, but many people do […]
Lessons Learned from a Successful Use of Pepper Spray
Watch the excellent surveillance video of a store owner and his wife fighting two robbers armed with knives. The store owner is able to access a large can of pepper spray and blast his attackers. He then holds one attacker down on his counter while his wife kicks the dude in the face. Nicely […]
Protecting Your Outdoor Gathering
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Have you seen the four recent attacks on large outdoor parties? The most recent was in Fresno, California on Sunday. Two unknown attackers crashed a family outdoor football viewing party. The attackers fired numerous handgun rounds, killing four people and wounding six more. There were two outdoor Halloween […]
The Saugus High School Shooting
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Details are starting to come out about last Friday’s shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California. If you haven’t seen any of the details, you can read a brief summary here. This was a school shooting that would be categorized as pretty “typical.” There was nothing exceptional […]
Insults and Challenges- 5 Tips for Effective Verbalization During a Violent Encounter
Written by: Greg Ellifritz The news story I read wasn’t all that remarkable. It described something that happens every day with unfortunate regularity. An armed robber shot one of his victims. This particular story, however, yielded a worthwhile learning point. The robber walked into a store and fired a couple of shots from […]
Recent Active Killer Trends
Written by: Greg Ellifritz A short post today containing my observations about two recent active killer attacks. The first was an attack on a police station in Vermont. In that case, a man (who had likely just murdered someone) drove up to the front door of a local police station at 5:30 am. […]
Distracting Questions
Written by Greg Ellifritz In order for a criminal to get close enough to commit his crime, he has to appear non-threatening. If he appears dangerous, his “prey” are likely to spot him earlier and either run away or call for help. Hence, the criminal will close the distance, often using the pretense of […]
Real-Life Disparity of Force Case
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I often write about my encounters with CCW licensees at work. I’m regularly disappointed at how few CCW licensees are actually carrying their guns when I have contact with them. I encountered a CCW carrier last week. The scenario was a bit different from my normal pattern of encounter. […]
Active Killer Ambush Tactics for Unarmed Defenders
Written by: Greg Ellifritz You can prevail against an active killer even if you are unarmed. One of the most famous cases where unarmed men stopped an active killer was on a train traveling between Amsterdam and Paris a few years ago. Four unarmed Americans and one unarmed Brit teamed up to take […]
Active Killer Pre-Assault Behavior
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I found a couple articles yesterday that I would like to share and comment upon. Both articles cover some behavioral characteristics two recent active killers displayed before their attack. The first one is about the active killer in Dayton. Surveillance Video Shows Shooter Preparing to Carry Out Mass […]
A Critical (but often overlooked) Holster Function
Written by: Greg Ellifritz While reading my news feeds in the past few weeks, I’ve seen accounts of a couple preventable accidental shootings. I’d really prefer to see that my readers and students learn to better secure their weapons so that people aren’t injured or killed by unintentional gunfire. Let’s examine these negligent discharges […]
Throwing Water on the Police
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Cops around the country have recently been targeted by members of the community who have thrown buckets of water on the officers as they are making arrests. If you haven’t seen the news and videos about this new trend, check out Dangerous new viral challenge: Assault police officers with water […]
Taking a Look at the Athens, Georgia Police Shooting
Written by Greg Ellifritz My cop friends should watch this police body camera video footage. It highlights many of the problems created by poor officer selection practices and subpar training. What can we do differently to create a better outcome? – When responding to the call of a man threatening people […]