Written by: Greg Ellifritz On May 7, 2019 two students conducted an attack on their classmates at the Highlands Ranch STEM School in Colorado. The shooting was quite unusual and doesn’t fit the normal narrative for an active killer who shoots up a school (that’s probably why the story disappeared from the media so […]
Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. Criminals Often Carry Ineffectual Guns that are Broken, Unloaded, or Toys An article about the types of guns carried by criminals, including a link and discussion of my research on the topic. […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Five years ago, I wrote an article titled Lock Your Damn Doors. In that article I looked at a month’s worth of burglary and theft reports from the city where I worked and tracked how many theft victims had left their houses or cars unlocked before the thefts occurred. […]
Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. 3 Ways to Escape Zip Ties: An Illustrated Guide An informative infographic about escaping zip tie restraints. This is useful, but the best advice I can provide is to AVOID BEING RESTRAINED! I don’t […]
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 […]
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 […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz There are a lot of folks who say that deep concealment of your carry pistol isn’t necessary. Those folks will tell you that people aren’t very observant and that most of the humans you encounter as you go about your daily life wouldn’t notice if you were open carrying a […]
Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. DIY Revolver Grip Modifications If you want to reload your revolver with speed loaders, you may have to break out the Dremel tool to reduce your grips. Speaking of revolver modifications, you will definitely be […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Different sized targets require a differing level of precision with regards to sight alignment. This issue is often described by instructors as “seeing what you need to see to make the shot.” When shooting at a human torso at five feet, no sights are even necessary. When shooting at a […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I made a rare trip to the gun store last week. I decided to replace what Recoil Magazine calls “the ugliest gun on the planet” with a new Gen 5 model 19. I’ve been carrying the old ugly 19 since 2001 and have almost 70K rounds through it. I have […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz When the weather is nice, I like to get out of my police car and do some foot patrols as often as possible. Every day (if calls allow) I’ll do at least one foot patrol around a shopping center, park, or school. Last week, a school in my patrol […]
Written by Lauren Pugliese, DVM Most of you reading this article plan ahead in case of emergency or disaster. This involves preparing for a short or somewhat longer term collapse of access to normal health care systems, resources, and access to day to day life necessities or potentially needing evacuation from your home. The […]
Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. Active Shooter Medicine: Are Tourniquets as Important as Everyone Thinks? In an active killer event, chest seals may be more important than tourniquets. Children and Violence 101: Overview “Bottom Line Up front: […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Training scars … we all have them. I’m not talking about training scars like the black eye you get when your partner goes a little too hard while sparring or the scars you get when you cut your finger trying to quickly open your fighting knife. The training scars […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz A reader recently emailed me a question: “What have you found that works best to keep cool while keeping dry (sweating), when wearing a vest? I find myself wearing a vest for as long as 12-hours a day.” It’s a great question. As temperatures broke 80 degrees here last week, […]
Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. The Old and the Bold: Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife A very interesting video series interviewing British WWII vets. In this episode the veteran being interviewed dishes the dirt on the famed Sykes Fairbairn combat knife. […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz A couple days ago I finished Karl Rehn and John Daub’s new book Strategies and Standards for Defensive Handgun Training. I really enjoyed it and found it to contain a whole bunch of valuable information. The authors’ book description follows: “What percentage of carry permit holders attend training […]
Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. How to Master the Double Action Trigger “The common thing that I see with most people when it comes to a double action trigger pull is they want to pull the trigger pull like […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz At the Rangemaster Tactical Conference last month, quite a few of my fellow instructors and I had some in depth conversations about the topic of teaching. The general consensus we came to was that there is an endless variety of information available concerning the relative merits of every tactic and […]
Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend. Italian Driver Sets School Bus on Fire After Kidnapping Students I bet most of you didn’t hear about this attack. In Italy, a school bus driver held 51 kids hostage on his bus. He […]
