Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend.
Gunfighters I Have Known
Some “lessons learned” through conversation with some of the world’s most experienced living gunfighters.
Skills Check: 4 Pocket Pistol Training Drills
A lot of you carry pocket pistols for concealed carry. Here is a set of drills to help you gain proficiency with this type of weapon. If you would like to see some more useful shooting drills, read Gun Digest’s 10 Best Shooting Drills And Firearms Training Posts.
2Adoc.com Connects Patients with Gun-Friendly Providers
This may be a good reference for my gun-owning readers in search of a friendly medical provider. You may also want to read When to Say No to your Doctor.
Trigger Pulls: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Don’t Glock Yourself: A Review of the Striker Control Device
If you appendix carry a Glock, this may be a useful addition to your concealed carry piece. Although I don’t currently have one installed on any of my guns, I think they are a good idea and have never seen any problems with them in my classes.
Pepper Spray Laws by State: A Simple Cheat Sheet With All You Need To Know
Useful information for those of you who travel to different states.
A Johns Hopkins Study Reveals the Scientific Secret to Double How Fast You Learn
“Say you want to improve a skill; to make things simple, we’ll pretend you want to master a new presentation.
1. Rehearse the basic skill. Run through your presentation a couple of times under the same conditions you’ll eventually face when you do it live. Naturally, the second time through will be better than the first; that’s how practice works. But then, instead of going through it a third time …
2. Wait. Give yourself at least six hours so your memory can consolidate. (Which probably means waiting until tomorrow before you practice again, which is just fine.)
3. Practice again, but this time …
Go a little faster. Speak a little — just a little — faster than you normally do. Run through your slides slightly faster. Increasing your speed means you’ll make more mistakes, but that’s OK — in the process, you’ll modify old knowledge with new knowledge — and lay the groundwork for improvement. Or …
Go a little slower. The same thing will happen. (Plus, you can experiment with new techniques — including the use of silence for effect — that aren’t apparent when you present at your normal speed.) Or …
Break your presentation into smaller parts. Almost every task includes a series of discrete steps. That’s definitely true for presentations. Pick one section of your presentation. Deconstruct it. Master it. Then put the whole presentation back together. Or …
Use a different projector. Or a different remote. Or a lavaliere instead of a headset mic. Switch up the conditions slightly; not only will that help you modify an existing memory, it will also make you better prepared for the unexpected.
4. And then, next time, slightly modify another condition.
Keep in mind you can extend this process to almost anything. While it’s clearly effective for improving motor skills, the process can also be applied to nearly any skill.”
Hat Tip to Claire Wolfe for originally digging up this link.
The Underwear Gun (T.U.G.)
5 Tenets of a Negative Self-Help
“The point is, being a pissed off asshole of a human has evolutionary advantages because it motivates you to compete and dominate others. And while striving for domination doesn’t make us feel good, it’s a good evolutionary strategy. And while being happy all the time does feel good, it is a terrible evolutionary strategy. Perpetually happy people would just lay around all day and be tiger food.
Happiness research shows that we’re all pretty much mildly dissatisfied all the time, regardless of income or gender or marital status or what stupid car you drive.2 But rather than accept this fact, being dissatisfied humans, our minds play the constant jet ski game with us, telling us if we could just get our jet ski, everything will be great.”
Making Sense of Magnified Optics on a Tactical Carbine
Trying to decide between an LPVO and a red dot for your AR-15? This article and Part Two will provide you with some quality information.
The Dry Fire Primer
What I’m reading…
It’s a sin to admit this in the tactical community, but I absolutely hate dry firing. I recognize its benefits, but it is pure drudgery for me. Annette promised that it wouldn’t be so bad if I just followed the principles in her book. We’ll see.
Concealed Carry Corner: Limitations Of Concealed Carry During Mass Shootings
Have you considered that you may not actually be able to engage the bad guy in an active killer event? That’s why I wrote this article. For many of you, escaping the scene while using your firearm to protect yourself and family during your exit will be the best option.
Wadcutters For Self Defense
I have absolutely no problem recommending full wadcutter bullets as defensive loads in snubnose .38 revolvers for the reasons listed in the article. I will note, however, that wadcutters will slow down your reloads with speedloaders or speed strips. The sharp shoulder doesn’t feed into the cylinder as easily as a more rounded bullet profile.
Clear Evidence For Quality Holsters
If you are carrying in a similar manner to these two guys, you may suffer a similar fate. Unacceptable.
Business genius Seth Godin says marketing always comes down to stressing that “people like us do things like this.”
People who read this site carry quality firearms in quality holsters. We don’t do things like this.
Some things you might want to consider before you try to hold someone at gunpoint until police arrive.
Learning How to Master Red-Dot-Equipped Pistols
Tips for mastering your pistol red dot sight.
Mastermind Tactics
My favorite AIWB carry belt is the Graith Specialist. A couple months ago, the company announced that it was going to stop producing these belts. I’m happy to see that they changed their mind. A Graith subsidiary called Mastermind Tactics will be producing the belts in the future.
For more gun belt information, check out Choosing the Best Concealed Carry Belt for You.
Web Exclusive: More Hotel Security Q&A
Extremely useful hotel security information.
Don’t Chamber AR-15 Duty Rounds Multiple Times
I’ve written about this topic numerous times, but some folks still haven’t received the message.
7 Trees Every Survivalist Should Know
Most of my readers don’t know this, but my bachelor’s degree is in Natural Resources. Before I was a cop I worked as both a park naturalist and an outdoor educator teaching inner-city kids how to survive in the woods. I know a lot about edible and medicinal wild plants.
Most folks get overwhelmed when they start trying to learn about that topic. Start slowly. Pick a few easily identifiable plants or trees and learn about them. This list provides a good starting place.
If you want to learn more, read 52 Plants In The Wild You Can Eat. Despite calling the oak an “acorn tree,” this article provides some decent information
Are Pistol Champs Alcoholics?
It’s stunning to me how attitudes on this topic have changed over the years. In the 1950s it was commonplace to get drunk before marksmanship competitions.
Lead toxicity from retained bullet fragments: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
If you’ve ever suffered from a gun shot wound (either accidental or otherwise) periodic blood lead level assessments may be in order.
Building Rapport With Your Outer Cordon (aka Neighbors)
An important aspect of emergency preparations that many of us neglect.
When myths are more dangerous than reality
A commonly-cited “danger” of giving Narcan to opioid overdose patients is that the patient will become violent when they awaken. This article provides a little mythbusting about the idea. I’ve personally dosed OD victims with Narcan. I’ve also been on scene when paramedics have dosed victims a couple dozen times in my career. I’ve never seen a patient get violent when dosed with intra-nasal naloxone.
Former Punta Gorda officer who shot and killed librarian during training demo to get no-jail plea deal
This article goes into great detail about the absolute horror story of an innocent person killed during a police training exercise. This is nothing less than a systemic failure on the part of everyone concerned.
“There was no appointed safety officer for the exercise. The department had adapted its exercise from a YouTube video without developing written lesson plans or scripts. Officers couldn’t distinguish between blanks and live ammunition. The immediate vicinity was not cordoned off, and protective gear was not required. Participants and onlookers were not searched for unauthorized weapons or live ammunition, and no safety briefings were conducted before the exercise — just some of the revelations uncovered by investigations following Knowlton’s death.”
I’m personally saddened that the higher ranking officers supervising the idiot who “planned” the exercise weren’t held more liable. I don’t think there will be any systemic improvements unless the supervisors are held accountable for their officers’ actions. Shit rolls down hill. The lowest level officer takes all the heat while his supervisors remain blameless.
Don’t get me wrong. The officer should most certainly be punished. But until we can get some Jocko Willink-style leadership accountability, these “accidents” will continue to happen.
The same author’s followup article on the plea deal this officer got should disgust anyone reading it.
Finally, read Ken Murray’s (the founder of Simunitions) editorial on the incident.
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