Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend.
Basic Tactics: 360 Degree Security and Formations
A few formation options for moving with multiple people. Each formation has certain advantages and drawbacks. It’s up to you to practice so that you can understand the relative strengths and liabilities of all your options.
Anatomy of the Room Part 3
In last week’s Knowledge Dump, I linked to a couple of Spotter Up’s articles about room clearing. Here is the next in the series. It covers their thoughts about clearing corners.
FN SCAR 16s Field Strip
The SCAR is becoming a more popular choice as a primary assault weapon all around the world. You should probably know how it works in case you have to shoot one.
A few Survival Tips and Tricks
A few quick tips that may save your life.
Actions to Take in the Event of an Active Shooter
Some basic advice for defense against active killers and a very good list of all the major active killer attacks that have occurred in America since the year 2000. This article provides some more quality active killer advice.
Restraint in the use of Deadly Force
Interesting study on police officers exercising restraint in using deadly force. Stats from the article:
• 80% reported that “they had been assaulted at least once during their career” (the average was seven assaults in the line of duty), with 27% injured severely enough to require time off work
• 96% said they had drawn their firearms “at least once each year…under threatening or critical circumstances”
• 70% said they had been “involved in at least one situation where they legally could have discharged their firearm.” On average, each had experienced four such situations;
• Yet only 20% had actually fired their weapon in a critical incident
Officer Involved Shooting Shows Danger to Bystanders
Even though the study above says that cops exercise lots of restraint, when the police guns come out, you REALLY don’t want to be anywhere around them! The astounding ignorance of the bystanders in this event is frightening.
Children, Guns, Home Invaders, and Likely Events
Play the odds. Your children are far more likely to be hurt or killed by an unsecured gun than you are likely to need that same gun faster than the three seconds required to operate a quick access safe.
Clinch Pick on Amazon
My friend Craig Douglas of Shivworks designed the clinch pick to be used as a very close range backup knife. It is one of the best designs on the market for that purpose. These blades have only been available from custom and semi-custom sources for years. Recently, Craig got them up on Amazon. This is a tremendous deal on a great blade. Pick one up. Then schedule a class with Craig.
Pre-attack indicators: Conscious recognition of telegraphed cues
Do you know how to recognize the signs of an immanent criminal attack? This article has some great information as well.
Would-Be Hero Almost Gets Shot By Police Responding To “Mall Shooting”
I’ve talked a lot about how you will be perceived by the responding police if you are in the vicinity of an active killer event and carrying a long gun. This guy is really lucky he’s alive. Don’t do stupid things like this. Instead, heed the advice of Short Barrel Shepherd.
Threat Model-Based Deadbolt Selection
For those of you who really geek out on locks and home protection strategies. You’ll also want to read “Enhancing Your Deadbolt Security.”
Mass media shootings: The connection between massacres and TV ratings
Important ideas about media coverage of active killer events. Extensive media coverage most certainly spawns additional killings.
The article closes with “What it’s going to come down to, however, is whether the media values ratings over responsibility.”
The unfortunate answer is “yes.”
Why Were Little Cartridges Ever Good Enough?
An interesting article about why the .25s and .32s were considered “good enough” 100 years ago, but are “under powered” today.
Proportional Response: Understanding Self-Defense Statutes
The legal difference between proportional and excessive use of force.
“According to the Department of Justice crime statistics, we are five times more likely to be faced with a non-deadly attack than with a deadly-force attack. Yet that handgun we’ve so carefully trained with cannot lawfully be used against a non-deadly attack.
We’re all familiar with the saying, “If your only tool is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail.” But use a deadly-force “hammer” against a non-deadly-force attack and that defensive force simply does not quality as self-defense, as a matter of law. I’ve always urged my clients that anyone who carries a deadly weapon for personal protection is foolish if they are not at least equally prepared to counter a non-deadly attack with an effective non-deadly defense.”
Since we are talking about legal issues, you should also know all about “Excited Utterances”
Evolution of the Beretta 92
Everything you would ever want to know about the Beretta model 92. You may also want to read the followup piece “Enhancing the Beretta 92.”
New York To Shell Out $4.1M To Family Of Man Killed By Incompetently-Trained Cop
Unfortunately, the author is correct:
“New York City will gladly pay out a few million dollars every few years for the negligent discharge deaths of citizens by poorly-trained officers such as Peter Laing instead of embarking on the much more expensive task of adequately training the largest police force in the United States.
It’s a simple cost/benefit equation for the City: good firearms training is expensive, in terms of hiring quality instructors, adopting current training technologies and methodologies, building adequate modern range facilities, firing millions of rounds of ammunition every year in practice, and budgeting hours for officers to train and other officers to cover their shifts.
Life is cheap.
Training is expensive.
Until cities are sued to the point of pain—tens of millions to hundreds of millions per negligent discharge death—many cities are going to choose to go with minimal firearms training and minimal competence, playing the odds that officers probably won’t have a negligent discharge that kills a citizen, and if they do, the city will be able to pay a pittance for the life taken.”
Why Civil(ian) Unrest Scares Me
While I am openly critical of inadequate police training practices, I don’t think it would be a good solution to abolish our police forces as some are suggesting. Read Marc MacYoung’s account of living through the L.A. riots in 1992 to understand why. If you are interested in the riots and how they affected both the citizens and police department in Los Angeles, you need to read the book Official Negligence.
* Some of the above links (from Amazon.com) are affiliate links. If you purchase these items, I get a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.
