Written by: Greg Ellifritz I’ve written a lot recently about the history of firearms instruction. That topic has only existed for about the last 100 years. Formal weapons training most certainly existed earlier, but it was pre-Civil War and reserved for the luxury class. Between the end of the US Civil War […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz The book Streetlights and Shadows highlights author Gary Klein’s research on decision making. This research is especially important for police officers or citizens who carry concealed firearms. Those groups of people are forced to make life-altering decisions under the most intense stress possible. Every bit of guidance is useful […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz The ability to make fast decisions under stressful and time-pressed conditions is a critical component of winning a lethal force confrontation. Unfortunately, it is also very hard to teach. Research on decision making has traditionally been conducted in laboratories under calm conditions. The implications derived from such studies don’t […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz I recently finished this very informative book on school shootings. It was published in 2008, but somehow it escaped my notice until now. The information contained within is timeless and just as relevant today as it was when it was published. From the author’s description: “In the last decade, school […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz My obsession started early. As a teenager in the 1980’s I would annoy my school teachers by using class time to catch up on my fictional reading. The late Jerry Ahern’s “Survivalist” series was always a favorite. Ahern wrote entertaining stories about living in the USA following a nuclear bombing […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz Do any of you shoot with a tactical light mounted on the rails of your self defense or police duty pistol? If so, you have likely experienced immense frustration trying to remove the burnt carbon residue from the light’s lens after a long shooting session. The lenses get […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I was contacted several months ago by a group of writers who wanted to use my handgun stopping power data in a new book they were writing. After some discussion with one of the writers, I allowed them to use my data. The book was published last month and […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I just finished reading Patrick Sweeney’s excellent book about gunsmithing the AR-15 rifle. If you own an AR-15, you owe it to yourself to pick up this book to learn how to diagnose any problems you might have and make your rifle perform better. I have attended three different AR-15/M-16 Armorer’s […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz It may come as a shock to you, but it’s a fact. Men and women are different. If you are married or in a relationship with a member of the opposite sex, you know this. Men think about things in a different way, process information differently, and are exposed […]
In 1994, Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington state was the location of two horrendous tragedies. One was the crash of a B52 bomber during an air show practice session. The second was when an active killer targeted the base’s hospital, killing five people and wounding 22 more. Andy Brown, an Air Force Security Police […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I’ve been studying the active shooter phenomenon for a long time. The one active shooter event that has occurred closest to where I live isn’t commonly discussed in the literature on the topic. The event to which I refer is the 2004 shooting at the Alrosa Villa nightclub in […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz According to the preliminary research put out by the FBI, violent crime went up in the first six months of 2015. The crime of Rape was the fastest growing of all violent crimes. The Number of reported rapes in the country rose 9.6 per cent. I will let the criminologists […]
My friend Tom Givens recently sent me an updated version of his extremely useful textbook on handling violence. I have been recommending the earlier editions of this book for years. After re-reading it, I’m happy to say that I’ll be recommending the latest version for years to come. It’s a great book. Tom’s description […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz First off, let me wish all my American readers a happy Thanksgiving holiday. I hope you are spending it eating good food and spending quality time with the folks you love. I’ll be spending my holiday in a police cruiser. I work all the holidays so that my coworkers with […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz I recently completed Massad Ayoob‘s new book Deadly Force: Understanding Your Right to Self Defense. I enjoyed the book and think it would be a valuable addition to any shooter’s library. Massad is well known to most shooters and one of the most prolific gun writers in the industry. […]
Links to some of the best tactical information on the web. If you have some free time, check them out this weekend. The Polygraph & Polygraph Countermeasures How a polygraph works and how to beat it. FO Podcast Episode 016 – Special Operations Veteran John Mosby An enlightening podcast episode about enhancing […]
Written by Greg Ellifritz I recently finished reading Andrew Branca’s book The Law of Self Defense. This is a book that belongs on the shelf of any of you who are interested in defensive firearms use and self protection. Buy it. Read it. I don’t know how I can give it a […]
Links to some of the best reading on the web. If you have some free time, check them out this weekend. 5 Gunfighting Myths Debunked By Massad Ayoob A very insightful article from Massad Ayoob. You’ve heard these myths espoused by gun store commandos. Ayoob dismantles them all. The Death Of Expertise […]
I recently finished John Mosby’s The Reluctant Partisan book. I read a lot of books in the field of survival, firearms, and tactics. I’m rarely impressed with most of the books I read. Not so with this one. The Reluctant Partisan gets a well-deserved five-star rating. Billed as “the prepared citizen’s answer to […]
Written by: Greg Ellifritz Having built my own website and managed it for almost three years, I generally consider myself relatively computer-savvy. Even though I know how to run the back end of a website, I’m not really up on all of the issues around online crime and the dangers associated with using social […]
