This is a guest post from Dr. John Giduck. John is a well known author and trainer who specializes in writing about international symphonic mass terrorist attacks. John originally prepared this article for a lecture on international travel safety. I thought it was so good, I asked him to allow me to […]
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Institutional Memory
Written by: Greg Ellifritz My friend and mentor Ed Lovette recently passed away. Ed was a CIA paramilitary officer who worked undercover for many years in Africa and South America carrying nothing but a Smith and Wesson Model 10 snubnose revolver. After his CIA career, he became a firearms trainer and famous gun writer. […]
The Role of Wonder in Teaching and Training
One of my favorite authors/teachers is David Deida, the author of The Way of the Superior Man. As I am recovering from last week’s knee surgery, I’ve been reading and listening to some of Deida’s material I find inspiring. I listened to one of his audio lectures yesterday. He started out […]
Survival Lessons from a Wilderness Fall
I fell while hiking down a small mountain last week. I was fairly seriously injured, stranded in an area with no cell coverage, and ended up needing an EMS rescue to get me to the hospital. After cogitating about the incident for a week, I have some lessons learned to share so that the rest […]
Active Killer Advice Compendium
Written by Greg Ellifritz A lot of folks write to me wanting to know what tactics and strategies will help them prevail should they be present during an active killer attack in a public place. I’ve been writing about the topic for almost two decades. Other folks have been studying the problem for […]
“I’ll Just Hold Him for the Police”
I hear this statement with some regularity from some of my students and the folks who comment on the articles I post in the context of apprehending a criminal suspect. Have you ever actually tried to hold someone on the ground when they don’t want to be held? It’s not as easy as you […]
The Cat is Out of the Bag
This is a guest article from Dr. Lauren Pugliese, a DVM and board-certified veterinary surgeon. Readers contacted Lauren after her previous articles and requested a similar article about treating injuries in cats. I cover lots of trauma medical techniques (for people) on the blog. Here is some knowledge about our furry friends. -Greg […]
Cops: The Young versus The Old
In my last year as a police officer, I worked with a very young crew of cops. I usually worked the street with four other officers and a sergeant. It wasn’t unusual to have the combined years of service of those five guys adding up to a number significantly less than the 25 years […]
“Peace Officers” vs. “Law Enforcement Officers”
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Last week, I became involved in a discussion about the term “law enforcement officer.” That’s what many cops are calling themselves these days. The words sound almost professional. The problem isn’t really with the term itself; it’s when officers embrace the idea that their sole occupational mission is to find […]
Words of Wisdom from Louis Awerbuck
Ten years ago today, one of the world’s truly great firearms instructors passed away. Louis Awerbuck served in the South African Defense force before moving to the USA to teach at Gunsite. He was chief range master at Gunsite until 1987 when he formed his own company, Yavapai Firearms Academy. He wrote […]
Bandaging and Splinting Injured Dogs
After the outstanding responses to Dr. Lauren Pugliese’s previous article on emergency trauma management for dogs, she had numerous readers contact her for followup information. One of the most common questions she was asked was how to apply a longer term bandage once bleeding has been controlled. She wrote an excellent followup post to address […]
Ammo Related Problems
A couple weeks ago, I saw that Tom Givens had posted the article below on his Patreon page. I’ve been seeing the same things in my classes and wanted to warn my students. I asked Tom for permission to reprint the article and he graciously agreed. If you aren’t a member of Tom’s Patreon page, […]
Using Blanks in Scenario Training
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Did you hear that a soldier was shot last month in a training exercise when someone mistook a live round of ammunition for a blank? Read about it below. Soldier Shot During Special Forces Training Event After Live Ammo Mixed in with Blanks “The incident occurred during force-on-force training […]
Emergency Management of Severe Bleeding in Dogs
This is a guest article from Dr. Lauren Pugliese. Lauren is a DVM and board-certified small animal veterinary surgeon. After her wildly successful pet first aid classes at the Lone Star Medics Field and Tactical Medicine Training Conference, Lauren has been contacted by several students asking for followup information. Lauren wrote this article (and one […]
The Best Tourniquets- A Research Review
Written by: Greg Ellifritz With the growing number of commercially made tourniquets, an increase in availability of medical courses focusing on gunshot wounds, a greater chance of getting caught up in an active killer event, and the classes like Stop the Bleed being offered everywhere, the issue of tourniquets is on many of my […]
Bird Shot, Binder Clips, and Bullshit
Last Sunday I taught a shotgun class. A curious thing happened. I snapped a quick picture and shared it on Facebook the day after the class. Here’s what I posted: “A thought for all you folks who prefer bird shot for self defense… In the shotgun class I taught yesterday, […]
2024 Rangemaster Roundup
Two weeks ago, I spent three days teaching and learning at the Rangemaster Tactical Training Conference in Dallas. I’ve now taught at the last 11 Tactical conferences and my TacCon blocks are regularly some the most fun classes I teach every year. The conference consists of three days of material taught by […]
Apocalyptic Revolvers
Last weekend I attended the Rangemaster Tactical Conference. I put my new Lipseys .32 revolver through a workout during Wayne Dobbs’ revolver fundamentals class and then drove home right before the total eclipse. My drive home was directly in the path of the eclipse’s totality. People were acting insane. Everyone was massing chaotically […]
Do I Still Have It?
I imagine it’s a question quite a few of you folks ask yourselves. I have to admit that I ask the question myself more regularly as I age. When I was a cop, I had a reputation of staying calm in life threatening emergencies. I’ve been retired almost four years now. Since my […]
An Alternate Look at Handgun Stopping Power
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I’ve been interested in firearm stopping power for a very long time. I remember reading Handguns magazine back in the late 1980s when Evan Marshall was writing articles about his stopping power studies. When Marshall’s first book came out in 1992, I ordered it immediately, despite the fact that […]