Weekend Knowledge Dump- June 27, 2014

Here are a few links to articles and videos I found interesting this week. Some are intellectual. Some are informative. Some are just fun. If you have some free time, check them out this weekend.

Staying safe while traveling

Grant’s advice about travel safety is spot on. I carry a rubber door stop like this often when I travel. It’s cheap insurance for about $5.00. If you want an even better one, check out the “Wedge-It.” It works for extra security (like your bedroom door) at home as well.

Inside the mind of a mass killer

A fascinating study of some of the most infamous active killers. It showed that paranoia and intense rage drove their actions, not the “bullying” that is commonly reported. I’ve written many times that most of the killers I’ve studied were not bullied. It’s nice to see people with letters behind their names coming to a similar conclusion.

“The researchers also dispelled another myth of mass murderers – that bullying plays a huge part in their development after finding no references to being teased by classmates or colleagues.”

Chaos Drill

Kyle Lamb explains an excellent drill for training target-to-target transitions with a rifle. I use the same drill with a pistol and reduced steel silhouette targets as well.

Is Endurance Exercise Really Beneficial?

“I think it is the volume that kills. This can hold for any type of exercise. So, aside from a few overzealous body builders and over-trained seniors following a similar level of volume, it is the endurance exercisers who are more likely to see damage from their exercise. And, the least benefits but for stylized measures of endurance that do not relate so well to the natural world.”

Nine (9) Things New Shooters Need to Know About Competition

Words of wisdom for the new competitive shooter…

Vision Under Stress

A very deep dive into the science of how the eyes function under stress. The issue of sighted versus unsighted fire often comes up. I think Dave Spaulding explained things most simply. In his extremely large study of gunfight participants he found that people who had a couple seconds of preparation before the gunfight saw their sights much more often than those who were surprised by a spontaneous attack.

Merely asking someone if he/she saw sights in the gunfight doesn’t really give us a true account of what happened in the fight. You may see your sights subconsciously. How many of you remember hitting your brake pedal as you pulled into your work parking space today? You obviously stopped your car, but you did it subconsciously out of repetition. Shooting can be the same way.

I favor training to use the sights in most situations. That builds proper kinesthetic gun positioning. If you can’t see your sights or don’t have time to look at them, your proper body alignment will likely be good enough to get adequate hits at close range.

You’ll also want to read Hock Hockheim’s research on the issue as well.

Down and dirty solutions to hiding your handgun

Lots of great information about potential hiding places for your guns. It may be a good idea to stash a couple guns away in “deep storage” to ensure that if you are burglarized not all of your weapons will be found.

What Does a Career Survivalist Think of Preppers?

A valuable perspective here…

12 Gauge Shotgun Chamber Adapters: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The down and dirty on shotgun chamber adapters.

If the grid fails, will you die?

“I’m not here to argue about the odds of an EMP taking out the grid. I’m not going to discuss the technicalities of Faraday cages or the hardening of electronics. I’m here to state that if you think life in America without electricity will merely revert us to pioneer days, you are dead wrong (no pun intended, I hope). We wouldn’t regress to the 1800s; we would regress to the 1100s or earlier. Life would become a bitter, brutal struggle for survival.”