Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend.
The Wolf’s Fangs: Observable Indicators Of An Illegally Armed Person
Keep in mind these are also indicators that criminals use to identify if you are carrying a gun as well.
Prep Your Apartment or Suburban Home for Riots and Civil Unrest: How to Get Ready FAST
Good advice here. If you don’t want to board up windows with plywood, you can quickly cover them on the inside with thicker gauge chicken wire. I have rolls of chicken wire and heavy duty hooks stored in my garage for such use.
The chicken wire won’t stop a person from climbing through if he has enough time, but it will certainly delay him long enough to allow the homeowner to shoot. It will, however, repel both rocks and Molotov cocktails. That provides a tremendous amount of utility.
Fake Courier Opens Fire On Homeowner
The very first time I deployed as a police sniper started out similarly to this incident. Two guys who had delivered a new mattress to the homeowner the day before knocked on his door. They asked him to rate their furniture delivery skills. Seeing the same guys who had delivered his mattress the day before, he opened the door. Perp #1 pistol-whipped the resident and took him to a bank with orders to withdraw $10K in cash. The second guy stayed at the house holding the wife as a hostage.
Their plan was to get the money, return to the house, kill the residents, and burn down the house. An alert bank cashier hit the silent alarm. Cops arrived and got in a high speed chase with the kidnapper. He crashed and we arrested him. That’s when the victim told us another man had his wife as a hostage back at the house. After a brief negotiation, the second kidnapper surrendered.
Be aware of situations like this. It’s very easy to let your guard down.
The Cognitive Biases that Make Us All Terrible People
“Our cognitive biases are fundamentally embedded in our cognition. They will not go away. The best we can do is learn to tame them, to wrangle them under control so that they serve us. Otherwise, we are doomed to serve them.”
Should you carry or keep your self defense gun on an empty chamber?
I’ve stopped trying to convince people not to carry guns with an empty chamber. It isn’t worth my time and effort. The folks who carry empty chamber aren’t generally convinced by the logical arguments presented in articles like this. They won’t be persuaded by my arguments either. I’ve come to realize that if someone “doesn’t feel comfortable” with a round in the chamber, maybe it’s safer for all of us if they carry chamber-empty. Let natural selection take its course.
Brilliance In The Basics
“There exist countless measures and standards of accuracy, but a good rule of thumb handgun accuracy is:
- Four sets of five shots in 4 inch circles at 10 ft
- Four sets of five shots in 4 inch circles at 15 ft
- Four sets of five shots in 4 inch circles at 20 ft
- 16 out of 20 shots in an 8 inch circle a
- If you cannot meet these standards, then you need to attend a basic course if you have not, seek private coaching, or develop the skills on your own prior to seeking “advanced” training.”
Preparing for Acute Events (i.e. the Election)
Excellent preparation information.
This Is Where The Rubber (Shotgun Slug) Meets The Road
Ballistic gelatin tests of rubber shotguns slugs and rubber buckshot. If you shoot someone with one of these rounds when lethal force isn’t justified, you will probably go to prison. He also gelatin tested shotgun beanbag rounds.
How to Shoot Small Pistols Better
A few tips to help you keep your mouse gun rounds on target.
10 Best Ways to Defend Yourself Against Civil Unrest
Advice from Steve Tarani.
Timing Is Everything
Everything you would possibly want to know about revolver timing.
Project: Identify and Monitor Impactful News Sources
I think it’s important for us to consciously control what information we allow into our brains. I do not watch television news. Ever. I don’t read social media news reports. I do not monitor twitter. I get my news from following trusted sources using an internet RSS feed.
Paul lists some other good options in this article as well.
New Gun Owners: How to Pattern Your Shotgun for Home Defense
You definitely want to pattern your defensive shotgun and chosen load. Here’s how to do it.
Downrange drill target
Claude Werner shares a simple (but not necessarily easy) shooting drill and downloadable hostage target.
Ed’s Manifesto: Beware Of The J-Frame Revolvers Known As Chatas
How snubby revolvers are used in the Mexican criminal underworld.
How To Predict Weather With Clouds
A very useful article for when your phone’s weather app stops working.
I Lived Through Collapse. America Is Already There.
“So I’m telling you, as someone who’s been there, in similar shoes to yours; this is it. America has already collapsed. What you’re feeling is exactly how it feels. It’s Saturday and you’re thinking about food while the world is on fire. This is normal. This is life during collapse…
Collapse does not mean you’re personally dying right now. It means y’all are dying right now. Death is sometimes close, sometimes far away, but always there. Usually for someone else, but someday, randomly, for you. I used to judge those herds of gazelle when the lion just eats one of them alive and everyone keeps going but, no, humans are just like that. That’s the real meaning of herd immunity. We’re immune to fundamentally giving a shit.”
Marine Animal Bites and Stings
Simple first aid tips for handling marine animal bites and stings in the field.
Cryptojacking: A Rising Threat to All Internet Users
A technological risk that I hadn’t heard of before reading the article. On the same topic, you might also like How to prevent security breaches when working from home.
The Failure Point Cycle
“This is the pace I want you to push—I want you to push to your failure point, and then I want you to correct the technique. Back off the pace, correct your error, and then push your limits once again.”
The process is a cycle: push – fail – fix – push.
Homeowner attacked for showing support for police, suspect in custody
A couple years ago, I wrote an article discouraging folks from displaying blue porch lights in support of the police. A reader sent me this news release today.
A man walking by a house got in a verbal argument with a resident who had a blue porch light. The resident went inside. The suspect broke a window in the guy’s door, made entry, and beat the resident for having a blue porch light.
Be smart, people.
No blue lights. No “back the blue” signs. No “thin blue line” bumper stickers. That advice is equally pertinent for you cops as well. I know you may think you are a badass, but what happens when your wife or kid is targeted for your FOP license plate or thin blue line window sticker?
Gifts, Military Neuroscience, Undercover Operations, and Mirror Neurons
Marcus Wynne talks about some strategies for developing your ability to “read” pre-conscious thoughts and emotions in your adversary.
Implicit Bias Training: A Pseudoscience Scam
Read this to understand the real research on “implicit bias.”
Tips for Staying Armed While Running and Exercising
An option for carrying weapons while running outside. I’ve never used the belly band mentioned in the article. I would provide two overall belly band cautions:
1) It is almost impossible to reholster quickly or with one hand when using a belly band
2) Some of the softer belly bands allow a bad guy to pull the gun’s trigger through the thin nylon “pocket.” That’s bad.
The Ultimate SIRT Training Pistol Buyer’s Guide
I use my SIRT pistol in every class I teach and find it to be an invaluable piece of gear. For some more information, check out Rich Nance’s article in Guns and Ammo Magazine.
2019 FBI Crime Statistics Show Hammers, Clubs Again Outrank Rifle Murders
Last year’s crime stats have been released. Please note that there were more homicides committed with knives, impact weapons, and bare hands than there were homicides from rifle fire of any type.
NEW STUDY: Muzzle position can have major impact on your shooting decisions
A study that shows the relative benefits of using a low ready position. Read the details. It seems more a study comparing “gun pointed at bad guy” to “gun in ready position.” The information is still useful. If you are intrigued by the research, you may also like Tier Three Tactical’s analysis of the paper as well.
The Bear
What I’m reading…
I saw this as a book recommendation from Tim Ferris. A review describes it as “A tender apocalyptic fable.”
Essential Spares For Your Guns
Advice about useful spare parts to have on hand for each common weapons platform.
All Choked Up
As fewer and fewer people grow up with a background in hunting, I see a diminishing knowledge about shotgun chokes. Here is a primer if you are unaware of the difference.
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