Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend.
Are Pistol Sights Actually Useful For Self-Defense?
“The real paradox of the point shooting versus sighted fire debate is that learning to quickly acquire a sight picture essentially trains you to point the gun at the target. If you practice sighted fire the correct way, you will automatically get pretty good at point shooting at the kind of ranges where a lot of people claim you will not have time to see the sights.”
Sight Picture: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?
Since we are talking about sights, let’s take a look at this thorough discussion about sight picture and sight alignment.
Stanford Study: Most Mass Shooters Have Undiagnosed Psychiatric Illnesses
A lot of “experts” want to blame mass shootings on various psychotropic or mood altering drugs. That does not seem to be a valid hypothesis.
“We found that most mass shooters in our study experienced undiagnosed and unmedicated psychiatric illness,” the researchers noted.
Describing the findings as “striking,” the study notes that symptoms of clinical psychiatric disorders were identified in almost all the shooters, 32 out of 35.
Over half of the perpetrators, 18, were found to have schizophrenia, with psychotic symptoms including the belief they were receiving messages from demons and seeing hallucinations ordering them to “kill, burn or destroy.”
A further 10 of the shooters were diagnosed as bipolar, delusional and suffering from personality disorders.
The study also noted that “None were medicated or received other treatment prior to the crime.”
Stop Using Your Car as a Holster: 6 reasons
These are universally bad ideas.
Ammo Weight Charts: Handgun, Rifle, Shotgun
This is useful information, especially for those of you who travel by air and have to contend with checked bag airline ammunition weight limits.
Simple Knife Carry Hack – The Static Cord
Me using static cords to carry both a pistol and a blade.
The static cord is a very good way to carry a fixed blade knife for optimal concealment. It provides easy access, but you can shove the entire knife down into your pants if necessary and nothing will be seen. This is how I carry my fixed blade knife when I travel internationally. For more covert weapons advice, check out Choose Adventure.
A Cure for Tight Traps, Stiff Necks, and Headaches
I hold a lot of tension and stress in the muscles of my neck. These exercise and stretches have helped me.
TOP 25 GUNSMITHS IN THE U.S.
American Pistolsmiths Guild lists who they consider the 25 best pistol smiths in the country.
Prepping Others: The Handout Fire Kit
A great idea for equipping your loved ones.
The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer
What I’m reading…
I love Kotler’s work and am a huge fan of creating peak performances. Thanks to Emily for the thoughtful gift!
Brandishing And When You Can Legally Display A Gun
I get a surprising amount of questions about this topic. If you are in reasonable fear that you will be seriously injured or killed, you are not likely to be arrested for “brandishing” if you display a firearm to discourage your attacker from harming you.
Could You Weak-Hand Draw If You Had To?
You may have to draw weak handed if your dominant hand/arm is injured in the gunfight. Master that skill NOW rather than trying to figure something out when someone is trying to kill you.
Get Your Trauma Priorities Straight: Mindset, Education, Then Tools
My friend Caleb Causey from Lone Star Medics hits it out of the park with this one:
“If you have to ask, “What items should I keep in my Medical Kit?” or “Which IFAK is the best?” The answer is “EDUCATION!” Yes, I’m yelling. When you ask me these questions you’re telling me two things. First off, you don’t have a clue what you’re doing. Second, you probably don’t have a clue how to use a med kit even if you had one.”
Training the trigger finger
Most of my students’ shooting problems are the result of a trigger press that isn’t smooth or straight to the rear. I talked about the importance of adding a visual component of watching their trigger press during dry fire, we can also watch ourselves pull the trigger without even having a gun in our hands. Watch this video and give Claude’s exercise a try.
Target Evolution: B-21, B-21X, to B-27 and beyond
Karl Rehn discusses the evolution of common defensive pistol training targets from 1917 to the present.
6 Worst Shotgun Tactics You Should Avoid
“Remember, the beauty of shotguns is their simplicity. You don’t need anything crazy to be successful with a tactical shotgun.
All you need is a good gun and buckshot load, a light, maybe a sling, and possibly an optic. Then pattern your gun, get some training, learn how to run it, and run it well.”
Why cities can expect 2020’s violent crime spike to last
As I have mentioned in past articles, the crime wave will get worse. You best be able to protect yourself, rather than relying on police going in to the future.
Skill Drills: Mad Half Minute
If you have a range where you can move, give this shooting drill a try. Want another drill? Try the FBI shotgun qualification.
How To Safely Travel With Your Firearm to National Parks
This is essential information for you outdoorspeople.
Gerber Gear 31-003741 Prybrid X, Pocket Knife with Utility Blade and Prybar
While we are talking about travel, this might be a neat low key knife for travelers. It uses a #11 scalpel blade (what I patterned the LDK after) like a utility knife. You can’t find a knife that looks less like a weapon than this one.
I’m thinking the pry bar other end would do a lot of damage if used as a fistload with hammerfist strikes.
Reasons to Consider the 1911
“If you are a casual gun owner that is going to purchase whatever is commonly available on your gun store shelf, then stick with the mainstream stuff. But if you are the type of guy that will go to Gunbroker with a specific manufacturer SKU then you can probably venture outside the safe harbor of Glocks, M&Ps. If you are willing to objectively and thoroughly evaluate your performance (against time and accuracy standards) and carry a gun based on the results, the 1911 might be an option for you”
Portland Riot Squad Quits?
“Put simply a dilemma action is a strategy using carefully-targeted types and degrees of civil disobedience to cause security forces to either concede the space and thus exhibit weakness, or respond in a manner that appears disproportionate and evokes negative sentiments in the population…
The dilemma action put the police in a conundrum: police have a responsibility to enforce order and control space, so doing nothing and allowing antifa to occupy and destroy property causes them to appear weak and ineffectual, thus inciting further acts against police. If they appear to respond too aggressively however -or intercept the march before it reaches its location, giving grounds for claims of a first amendment violation- they risk facing allegations of being tyrannical and overbearing…
However it plays out, the fact the Riot Team has been disbanded and PPB is (by most accounts) broken and demoralized (while hemorrhaging sworn officers to less contentious departments) indicates that the attritional, dilemma action strategy initiated last year appears to have been a qualified success.”
The Unteachable
I don’t get many unteachable students, but, like Jeff, I eventually cut them off. They aren’t worth the energy fixing. If you are “that guy” don’t waste either your time or mine by coming to one of my classes.
Holster Qualities Redux
John has very good advice about desirable qualities in a defensive holster.
3 Tips For Shooting Snubby Revolvers
Jeff Gonzales gives us some snubby tips that you’ve likely never heard.
The Three Blade Rule
Contemporary wisdom dictates that you should carry one knife for utility functions and a different knife for defensive roles. The argument is that your utility knife should not cause panic when you use it to open a box. You don’t want to freak out the Karens by whipping out a fixed blade whenever the mail arrives. People also fear dulling the defensive knife if also used for utility purposes. I don’t subscribe to this theory.
I carry a defensive knife that is relatively small (Spyderco Delica) and doesn’t attract much attention. I use it daily for utility purposes. Every time I pull the knife out to cut a box open, I get an extra rep of drawing, opening, and using my defensive knife. I think being able to get a few practice draws in every day during your normal activity gets you useful repetitions you wouldn’t otherwise get.
With that said, you must be diligent about keeping your single knife blade sharp. I find that I have to sharpen mine about every two months. I use the Spyderco Sharpmaker for that task. I think it’s the fastest way on the market to get a razor sharp edge on your knife.
Attempted Robbery While Stopped At A Traffic Light
How many of you daydream or space out while checking your phone as you wait for the traffic light to go green? Watch the video. Still think that’s a good idea? Put yourself in this scenario. When is better to drive away? When is it better to draw and shoot? Can you access your gun quickly in your vehicle? After you shot the robber, would you stay there or drive to a safer location?
Nevada Ends Concealed Carry Permit Reciprocity With 6 States : OH, FL, MS, SC, SD, VA
As of July 1, Nevada will no longer have reciprocity with Ohio CCW licenses. If you are a frequent traveler to Nevada, there may be a solution in the works. BFA is working on solving the problem.
Ammo Recall: WINCHESTER® 9mm Luger 115 grain
Check your ammo. This is a big recall.
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