Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend.
The Speed vs. Emergency Reload: When, why, how
Dave Spaulding shares his thoughts on reloading your pistol. Read his book Handgun Combatives.
Police Release More Information on State Trooper Attack
One of the relatively few occasions on record where a police officer uses a knife in a deadly force confrontation.
If one truly does the research about the actual types of encounters where cops and armed citizens use knives to defend themselves, one sees this type of scenario happen quite regularly. It’s a positioning issue. The victim is armed with a handgun and would have shot his attacker, but was unable to do so because he could not reach his firearm.
In this case, the trooper was laying on his gun in a creek with a man sitting on top of him trying to choke (and drown) him to death. An off-side knife saved the day.
Training in scenarios like this is far more valuable than “knife dueling” with another opponent who is also armed with a blade. If you take a knife class from me, you will be practicing for events like this and the other most common defensive situations when victims justifiably use a knife. If your knife training looks like something out of “West Side Story,” you are doing it wrong.
Practical Drills for the Home Defense Shotgun
A couple of good shotgun drills from Lucky Gunner. Speaking of shotguns, you’ll also want to read Sherman House’s shotgun modification article.
Street Smarts 101 To Avoid A Mugging, Assault or Worse
The most common scams and distractions criminals use to victimize you on the street.
When in doubt, blame the machine
It’s probably not the gun….
When Baby Reaches For Your Gun
I get more requests for family safety articles than any other topic. Here are a couple good ones. In the first, Melody talks about how to keep little baby hands off your holstered firearm. In the second, Kathy Jackson talks about the need for quick opening gun safes for families with children.
31 Safety Tips for Solo Female Travelers from the Experts
Quality safety advice for solo female travelers. Male travelers would benefit by following most of these rules as well.
After The Shoot: 7 Real-Life Cases Imperative to Gun Owners
When Mas Ayoob and Marty Hayes write about legal issues, you should pay attention.
On Situational Awareness
Quite a few good exercises for enhancing your situational awareness.
Why You Shouldn’t Use .410 Shotshells for Defense
As the article states: “There are better choices for personal defense.”
15 Wild Edible Plants: How to Identify, Harvest and Consume Them
A very good reference for those of you looking for easy to use information about common edible plants that might be growing around your house. The photos in the article aren’t the best. Use a plant guide book to make sure you have the correct identification before you eat anything. This infografic would also be a good resource.
Wounded store clerk explains how violent robbery unfolded
A very good video and story that show how lookouts and accomplices are utilized in armed robberies. Nationwide, more and more criminals are using accomplices as lookouts for cops and to intervene if an armed citizen acts.
Before you jump in to a situation like this, make sure you know who all the players are.
For those of you who are newer to the gun world, here is a very comprehensive article about how rifles have developed and changed through the course of history.
After 11,000 Posts, This Blogger Reveals All the Problems With the Media
A “big-picture” perspective about the changing nature of blogging and the internet by a man who has written 11,000 blog posts for some of the largest sites on the internet.
“PR people have learned to game blogs the way record labels used to game radio DJs. Because there are so many outlets you make each one feel very special and then force them to post at exactly the same time. This makes a perfect funnel cloud of useless knowledge. Think about that next time you read five reviews of the same product at the same time: the bloggers basically are advertising that product for free and, because they think they are doing the world a favor, they feel special. They shouldn’t.“
How the US ends up in a real Civil War this Fall
An unpleasant thought, but one you should probably be considering…
Shooting Down Gun License Myths for the Black Gun Owner
A very insightful article from the unlikely perspective of a liberal, black gun owner. I like his take on the topic and think he is a damn good writer to boot. I’ve been enjoying his site all week and think you should check it out too. Special thanks to Samuel Hayes of Caliber Training Group for sending me the link.
A Visual Guide to Identifying Tax Scams and Fraud
It’s tax season. That means it’s also the time that tax scammers come out to play. Take a look at this infographic to ensure you don’t become a victim. While you are checking out infographics, take a look at one that will show you how to avoid social engineering scams.
Goodbye, Todd
In the event you haven’t heard, the shooting world lost one of its most innovative and deep thinking stars last week. Todd Louis Green passed away after a long battle with cancer.
I first met Todd in 2004 at the IALEFI international training conference. We were both teaching there. I was competing in the shooting contest and planning to take home a trophy. My first opponent in the single elimination match was Todd Green. “Who is this guy?” I asked myself. “He’s not even a cop, there’s no way I’m going to let some sales rep beat me.” Not only did the “sales rep” beat me (knocking me out of the contest), he beat me BADLY. I’ve been paying attention to Todd’s work ever since he schooled me so badly all those years ago.
I was honored when Todd took the “Unthinkable” class that William Aprill and I taught in Washington, D.C. last year. I wish I had spent more time with him.
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* Some of the above links (from Amazon.com) are affiliate links. If you purchase these items, I get a small percentage of the selling price.
