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 […]
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News and Tactical Advice
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 […]
Women and Violent Crime

Written by: Greg Ellifritz You ladies are better behaved than us men. It’s somewhat rare to see female violent criminals. Depending on the type of crime and the study, you’ll find that about 95% of violent criminals have a Y chromosome. Does that mean all women are angels? No. Far from it. […]
The Bag Trick…How to Easily Conceal a Weapon in Public

Written by: Greg Ellifritz Students who have taken my knife fighting class will likely remember “The Bag Trick”. I demonstrate it in every 2-day class I teach. My students all give me the same feedback after seeing it “That’s so simple, but it’s genius! Learning that one technique was worth the price of the […]
Enough Gun?

Written by Greg Ellifritz I recently read the article linked below. It discusses what the average person should be carrying on his person in order to be properly prepared for a criminal attack. Concealed Carry: How Much Gun And Gear Do You Need? The article makes the point that statistically, you will never need […]
Shooting Through Doors and Walls

Written by: Greg Ellifritz As I was scanning my news feed last week, I came across yet another mistaken identity shooting where the “defender” fired through a door or wall. Dad mistakes daughter for intruder, shoots her to death According to the article: “Pressley’s father told investigators he fired through a door […]
Guns, Gear, and Training Issues in Last Weekend’s Shotgun Class

Written by: Greg Ellifritz Last Saturday, I taught Active Response Training’s very first open enrollment shotgun course. It’s kind of odd that I’ve never done one, considering that the very first firearms instructor certification I got was Phil Singelton’s Benelli shotgun instructor class. I’ve been teaching cops how to shoot shotguns since the year […]
Tourniquet Musings

Written by: Greg Ellifritz I spent some of my day off today working with three of the new CoTCCC-recommended tourniquets. I self applied the TMT (Tactical Mechanical Tourniquet), RevMed TX2, and RevMed TX3 to each limb. I was able to achieve full occlusion (no distal pulse) on all applications. I like the extra […]
Compliance Doesn’t Always Ensure Your Safety

Written by: Greg Ellifritz Many of my students tell me that, should they ever be robbed, they plan on complying with the robbers’ demands. While I can’t presume to tell anyone the individual best course of action during a dangerous situation, I can provide some general statistics about past events. Statistically, complying […]
When the Criminal Doesn’t Obey Your Commands

Written by: Greg Ellifritz It’s a rewarding thing to watch my firearms students as they learn and progress. They start with safe gun handling skills, the basics of marksmanship, and learning when it is legally appropriate to shoot someone. If they continue training, they might learn more “tactical” or combative shooting skills. As […]
Purse Carry

Written by: Greg Ellifritz Let me get this out of the way first. I am not an expert in the subject of carrying a gun in a purse. I have never once carried a purse, let alone one with a gun inside. I probably will never in my life have such occasion to carry a […]
The Gas Station Clerk

Written by: Greg Ellifritz *I posted the article below on my Facebook page a couple days ago. I got a lot of feedback and the post generated a massive amount of commentary. Several people asked me to expand upon my original post and turn it into an article on my site for those who […]