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 interested in Mark’s article about the “J-frame Hotrod Project.”
Read Part Two of Mark’s series as well. A lighter trigger makes a huge difference when shooting snub revolvers.
7 Best Gas Masks, Respirators, & Filters [2019 Hands-On]
Good information about the variety of gas masks and filter options available for purchase.
Shooting Performance Defensive Handgun Skills Test
A shooting drill you can use to assess your abilities. You should also master these six drills as well.
The Jogging Delusion
I actually liked going for an occasional jog when I weighed 195 lbs. Not so much now that I am significantly heavier than that. I can tell you that jogging hurts and is not a viable option for me anymore. I sprint twice a week and take long walks instead.
Why Ballistics Gel Works and Caliber Arguments are Dumb
Pay attention to the true experts in the field of handgun ballistics.
Compiling Cases where concealed handgun permit holders have stopped mass public shootings and other mass attacks
A very long list of incidents where armed citizens have stopped active killer attacks.
Why We Snap: Understanding the Rage Circuit in Your Brain
What I’m reading….
Situational Awareness Training and Evaluating Human Behavior
“To be aware of your surroundings, not only do you have to look around you with some positive degree of regularity, but you also have to actually see what is around you and learn to recognize behavior that could represent a potential threat. To help accomplish this, there is a very simple formula to commit to memory.
Baseline + Anomaly = Decision.”
Doctor’s Rx To Defeat Ticks & Lyme Disease (Part 1)
A very good Lyme disease primer for those of you who spend a lot of time outdoors. Read Part Two as well.
MWAG—Man With a Gun
An open carrier recounts all the times the police have been called on him. Why would you want to endure that hassle? Each of those encounters had the potential to end with fatal consequences if the wrong cop answered the call. Don’t open carry. Besides scaring people and getting the cops called on you, there is a serious risk that you will be attacked for your open carry gun.
You should also read John Farnam’s article Discreet Concealment. In it he describes the police response to a reported “man with a gun” call in a doctor’s office. Every single “man with a gun” call I’ve ever taken contained very exaggerated and incorrect information. You may be doing nothing wrong, but that’s not the story the caller will be telling the police dispatcher.
Keep your weapons very well concealed in public. If you don’t, an incident like this one might happen to you.
‘You told me to…’: Charlotte man appeared to be lowering gun when police shot him
Speaking of “man with a gun” calls…
The suspect who was shot here made some very poor life choices (threatening restaurant employees with a gun and failing to immediately obey the officers’ command to drop said gun) that were the proximate cause of his death. With that said, I think the police could have handled this one much better. My police readers should be thinking very critically about exactly which verbal commands you choose to issue in a stressful “man with a gun” response.
I don’t know what the cops saw before the video started. They were responding to multiple 911 calls about a man with a gun threatening restaurant employees. As they roll up they see a man matching the suspect’s description near the door of a car parked in a strange manner in a handicapped space.
If the officers had seen the gun in the suspect’s hand, yelling “drop the gun” would be a good command. But that doesn’t appear to be the case here. It looks to me like the gun was in the suspect’s right side jacket pocket. Yelling “drop the gun” when he has the gun in his pocket is a poor choice of commands. When you tell him to “drop” a holstered or pocketed firearm, you are essentially giving him permission to draw.
That puts you in a very bad spot. You don’t know what’s happening when the suspect suddenly moves his hand out of his pocket. Is he trying to shoot you or trying to comply? If it is the former, he will fire on you first because action beats reaction. If he’s trying to comply, your orders force the suspect to put his hand on the gun. Is that really what you want him to do?
If you don’t actually see the gun in the suspect’s hand, you should not be ordering him to take his hands out of his pockets or to touch the weapon in any way. The command “take your hands out of your pocket” also serves as a tacit instruction to draw. You are expecting the suspect’s hands to become visible. If the suspect wants to shoot you, he feigns compliance by showing you his hands. When one of those hands is holding a gun, you will never be able to get a shot off faster than he can.
Stop telling suspects to take their hands out of their pockets. Every time you do so, you are giving him permission to draw a weapon should he have hostile intents.
Instead, order the suspect to the ground face down with his head pointing away from you. Move behind cover while holding the suspect at gun point. When you are behind cover and the suspect can’t see you, NOW is the time to tell him to remove his hands from his pockets. Those simple actions give you a better much tactical advantage than you would have by merely yelling “drop the gun” or “show me your hands.” When you are behind cover, you have a little bit more time to evaluate the situation before shooting.
Cops need to be role-playing these scenarios with Simmunitions, UTM, or airsoft several times a year to make this command process safer for both the officer and for the suspect. Unfortunately, I don’t know many police departments that will provide such extensive training.
How to Make the Best of a Long Haul Flight
Good advice for optimum comfort on a long haul flight. I’ve made several 22+ hour flights to Asia and Africa, along with dozens of 10+ hour flights to South America. My advice to you is to pay for the business class upgrade. It’s worth the money.
Skills Check: Cleaning & Ammo Cycling Drill
Have you replaced your defensive ammunition in the last 12 months? If not, it’s time to do so. Shoot these drills with your carry ammo and then replace the ammo with new stock.
7 Guns You Should Never Get
A pretty good list. I agree on all of them except the .25 auto. While in general, the .25 is a poor choice for a primary weapon, a well made .25 (Browning Baby, Beretta 950, FN 1905) can serve as a very good “Hideout Gun.”
Guys… don’t box yourselves in.
Using the toilet while armed.
THE GUN LAWYER: Is My Concealed Carry License Still Valid if I Move Out of State?
When you change states of residence, you need to also get a new CCW license.
How to Find Hidden Cameras In Your Airbnb or Hotel Room
The best information I’ve found about detecting video surveillance in your hotel room or rental property.
Retro 2,000-Round Challenge: Smith & Wesson Model 5906
My first duty gun was a 3rd generation S&W autoloader. It always ran well. I’m not surprised this one went 2000 rounds without a bobble.
The Most Dangerous Thing We Do With Guns
Based on pure probability, what’s the most dangerous thing we will do with our guns in our lifetime?
The answer is day to day administrative gun handling and living around guns. Every time the gun leaves or enters the holster, every time we set up for dry-fire, every time we take an EDC selfie for Instagram (don’t do that), every press-check, every time we transfer our pistol from our waistband to a car safe, every time we handle our gun, there is a small chance of making a mistake. Though the chance of negligence is very very tiny, we flip that coin every time we touch our gun. Over the course of a lifetime, that’s a lot of coin flips and the chance of messing up becomes a real possibility.
New Training Paradigms and The Courage To Go Outside The Box
Training a brand new shooter? Give Marcus’ method a try.
Uber driver drops passengers at airport, then tries to burglarize their home
I haven’t heard of this before. It might be a good idea to have your Uber pick you up at your neighbor’s house instead of your own. Even in casual conversation, you should never give your Uber driver details about where you are going or how long you will be gone.
Armslist [Review] & Avoiding Scams
Useful safety tips for buying/selling gun son Armslist.
Making the Case to Sling Up for Home Defense
I think the benefits of having a sling on a home defense long gun far outweigh the detriment. I use the BFG Sling Sleeve to fold up my sling and keep it from dangling when not in use.
Down Range Radio #618: Red Flag Laws
Michael Bane makes some salient points against the “red flag” laws being passed all around the country. With no real due process provisions in place, those of us who are publicly active in the firearms training/gun rights scene are especially vulnerable. As a political atheist, I don’t personally feel the level of hatred that Michael expresses when describing the actions of liberal gun grabbers, but I do think he makes some valuable points.
At any rate, all gun owners should have a plan for a Red Flag Warrant.
Review: The Folding Full Conceal Glock
Please don’t bet your life on this one-trick pony.
Make things better
“That authority pushes us to fit in, not to seek improvement, and deniability encourages us to whine instead of doing something about it. Power enjoys passivity in others.
Power doesn’t want you to get uppity, doesn’t enjoy your dissatisfaction, doesn’t want to be on the hook to continually upgrade all of its systems. And so power has sold a cultural norm of acceptance, deniability and ennui.”
Unaware Defender Is Lucky Enough
Yet another incident where an armed victim fails to scare off the predators who might attack him. I don’t know how many times I have to say it. THE CRIMINAL IS NOT SCARED OF YOUR FIREARM. If you plan to resolve any conflict with your gun’s deterrent value, you are making some very bad assumptions.
There are also lessons to be learned here from the folks who say that weapon concealment isn’t important because the average person won’t notice that you are carrying. It’s not the “average person” you are trying to defend against. This man’s gun was concealed by a T-shirt, but the attackers still saw it and tried to take it.
Medical Skills: Don’t forget the basics
In my third-world travels to more than 50 different countries where I have been the only person for several hundred miles who has any medical knowledge or training, I’ve had to treat lots of illnesses and injuries. In those scenarios, I’ve never used my tourniquets or pressure dressings. I have used a whole bunch of simple wound disinfection and bandaging supplies.
Cecil Burch on Importance of Teaching Conversation Distance Defensive Skills
“One benefit to the students is that by equipping them with non-lethal defensive skills that can be effectively deployed during a close-distance confrontation, they may be less likely to default to the handgun too fast, only to later find they are facing charges for criminal brandishment. It is my opinion that any person capable of carrying a concealed handgun would benefit from this knowledge, regardless of age, infirmity, or physical condition. Simply knowing what a motivated attacker can do at conversation distances combined with accurately assessing intent, ability, and opportunity and knowing our own physical limitations may provide the edge needed to not only win the physical fight but win the legal and civil fight that may take place afterwards.”
First Look: Birchwood Casey Gun Plumber Handgun Tool
While the tool I carry in my range bag is the Brownells Multitasker, I know a lot of you are not going to drop $140 on a gun-disassembling multitool. The Gun Plumber might be a viable alternative for just $11.
Avoiding Stupidity is Easier than Seeking Brilliance
This short article has equal applicability to carrying guns for self defense. Not “losing points” is far more important than “scoring points.”
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