You believe in women’s rights. You believe in a woman’s right to choose. Rape and rape culture disgusts you. Every woman should not just feel safe, but be safe – especially on campus.
What is your response to rape-survivor Shayna Lopez-Rivas?
I do have nightmares from being raped on campus. Sometimes they are so bad I wake up at three in the morning sweaty and terrified because in my mind I am being raped again. In my mind I am there: I am forced into a secluded area, forced to unzip my pants, forced to lay down as tiny cuts are made all over my body and a man I do not know rolls on a condom and forces himself on top of me. I remember how cold the asphalt felt as I distracted myself from the sting of the knife. I remember looking into his eyes and realizing there was no emotion behind them, no sympathy just sadism. And I remember thinking: this is how I’m going to die and then getting up after it was done, tears streaming down my face and neck wondering how I even survived.
Ms. Lopez-Rivas continues:
I fight for my Second Amendment rights because I believe I should never have a chance of getting raped again. I won’t deny the possibility of getting injured, but my gun gives me a chance that pepper spray, stun guns, and pocketknives never will. It prevents a knife being held at my throat and the voice of a stranger promising me he won’t kill me. And I won’t be denied the right to have that chance of surviving a potential attack rather than being assaulted again.
Sen. Diaz de la Portilla, why are you so adamant in denying me my right to protect myself and have a gun on campus? Why have you not schedule the campus carry bill for the Senate Judiciary Committee you chair? Why have you not met with me for 15 minutes since October when I began sending you and your legislative assistant weekly emails asking for an appointment?
I hope this open letter will engage opposition to campus carry. I hope everyone will understand why it’s so important that the bill be scheduled for a vote. Senator Diaz de la Portilla: Don’t let me be raped on campus again, let me arm myself, and whether you vote yes or no, at least schedule the campus carry bill for a vote.
It was good to get outside, away from the computer, and spend the day teaching. Truly, helping people learn and grow is a wonderful thing, and I’m fortunate to have the ability and opportunity to do so.
For the record, once again classes did not uphold the stereotype some wish to paint of gun owners. The BP1 class was 2/3 female. Both classes ran the gamut of young to old, male and female, and had a mixture of well… everything: you pick the arbitrary criteria of gender, race, socio-economic status, education level, whatever. Sorry, but the only thing you can truly “stereotype” about gun owners is they are people interested in their freedoms and their personal safety.
Overall, both classes ran smoothly, tho we did have a couple hiccups.
Takeaways for the students:
The gun is just a tool, just a piece of hardware. Yes, it’s important to find on with the proper fit, but once you get in the ballpark it becomes more important to get training and practice. Again, if you have any questions or troubles finding the right one, just drop us a line and we’re happy to help you out.
Still, hardware is one of the cornerstones, and you can’t build a strong house with cheap, flimsy hardware. Get good supporting gear, like belts, holsters, magazine pouches, and yes… more magazines. It pays off.
A lot of folks came to BP2 with small guns, few magazines, and those magazines held little ammo. The more magazines you can have, the faster and smoother class can run.
You can buy a big supply all at once, or do like I do: every time I’m shopping at a store (brick&mortar or online) that sells magazines, just throw one in the basket. Over time, you build up your supply and it’s rarely a big hit to the budget.
Get an UpLULA. Speeds and facilitates the mag-loading process.
Dry fire costs you nothing, but pays big benefits. Practice the skills and drills we worked in class. Do this regularly and you will see improvement.
After the BP2 class, I was talking with one student and another student joined the conversation. This other student was an accomplished competition bow shooter and he reinforced a good point to the first student about measurable skill. Do you know where you stand? Do you know how you perform? If not, measure it against some standard, then continue to measure it to see where you need work and where you do not. If you can’t measure your skill, how do you know if you’re getting better?
So in this case, the BP2 class ends with shooting the Texas LTC (formerly CHL) test. There we go: there’s a measurable drill and performance standard. The students saw how well they shot it, now they have a baseline. A way to work this is to pick a drill (the LTC test is a good one for students at this level). Shoot the drill as written but without time-limits: just work to shoot the drill 100% clean without any time pressure. Once you can do that, put your shooting against a stopwatch to figure out how long it takes you to shoot it — don’t worry about limits, this is open-ended trying to determine what your limits are. Once you know how long it takes you, now you have limits. So say the published string of fire is “2 seconds” but it takes you 5 seconds. Fine: it takes you 5, now you know, and now you have something to work against. Figure out: why am I not shooting to the established standard? Am I taking too long to get the sight picture? Am I slapping the trigger? Self-analysis, video, instructor/coaching can help here. Once you know the problem, work on it in dry practice and work to beat your standard: maybe getting it done in 4 seconds, maybe 3, working down to that established standard of 2 seconds. Once you can do it in the standard, can you beat the standard? Once you can, consider moving to a tougher standard. And repeat, while skill improves in a measurable way.
As for that thing that didn’t run so smooth: we did have a student with an interesting vision situation. We did what we could to work with the student, but unfortunately the time limits and class format didn’t permit us the time needed to fully diagnose the issue. She’s coming back out in a couple weeks to work directly with Karl – we will get it sorted out. What we (the instructors) took from it is a few things we could do a little better on the range. For example, having a gun with a laser on it as a part of the BP1 “buffet”. I also remembered a trick Tom Givens taught me towards helping diagnose sight picture issues, so keeping a “red gun” (a fake, plastic gun) in the range wagon would be useful for such events (alas, I didn’t remember the trick until we instructors were discussing the situation afterwards). There’s always ways we can make things better.
All in all, the day was good. A really good group of students, everyone leaving demonstrably better than they started. I’m happy.
And Greg is just a workhorse; the man’s got a fantastic work ethic. 🙂
KR Training’s primary focus is on the handgun. For a number of years, Karl has offered his unique Defensive Long Gun class, but it’s an all-day class (which means a lot of time/resources to allocate) and over the past some years customer demand has been oriented towards handgun instruction, so the DLG class was mostly backburnered.
But, with so many people buying rifles the past few years, certainly people were coming to Karl wanting instruction on how to use this new purchase. Karl responded by offering Basic Rifle 1, which is akin to Basic Pistol 1 for a person who may have little to no prior experience to obtain a basic introduction to the concept of rifles. As well, Karl took the Defensive Long Gun class and trimmed some things to take it from a full-day class to a half-day class: Defensive Long Gun Essentials. DLG-E maintained the basic curriculum of DLG, but dropped some things such as the role-play scenarios. This class worked well to provide people with some fundamental instruction, but didn’t require a long day to do so.
Still, once people completed that, they wanted more; they wanted to continue to improve their skills. After I returned from taking Paul Howe’s Tactical Rifle Operator course back in October 2015, Karl asked me if we might be able to use learning there to create an “intermediate rifle” class. While we certainly could, I wouldn’t feel right about teaching it. As Karl and I continued discussion and who could perhaps teach such a course, I suggested Aaron Marco. Karl and Aaron got to talking, and here we are.
Aaron is certainly a proper person for such a class. Aaron is a USPSA Grandmaster-level shooter. He’s an avid 3-gun shooter. He’s also a member of a full-time Central Texas SWAT team. So consider, Aaron has knowledge of both the “gamer” side and “tactical” side of things. He can speak to both sides equally well, and he’s uniquely positioned to comment on both “gamer” and “tactical” topics, including all the back-and-forth that those exclusive to one side or the other lob about in disparaging the other side. Aaron’s got it pretty simple: if you’re a better shooter, because the fundamentals apply to either problem set, it will always help you. Granted, there are differences (and I was a good example of that; I’ll detail this later), but on the whole if you can be a better shooter, that will always be to your advantage.
Class
It was an unusually pleasant day: mid-70’s/low-80’s in January, sunny, clear; just an excellent day to be out on the range. We had a sold out class of 10 students, with a lot of familiar faces. I attended with my friend Charles from Tactical Gun Review, and Oldest came with me as well. Aaron running the class and Karl assisting. A range of equipment, with a number of suppressors and short-barrel rifles. I believe all but one person was running an AR-patterned rifle, some set up for “fighting” some set up for competition. Two people were running irons, the rest had optics (most popular were 1-4/5/6x scopes, a few red dots).
The class was certainly set up to be a competition class (3-gun, etc.). That wasn’t my expectation going into the class, but I was fine with it. I knew whatever skills were taught would still help me become better.
We started by checking zero. This is a good thing to have done, because people were zeroed in different places, which was fine and you could keep whatever zero you preferred. Aaron was mostly ensuring people were zeroed somewhere, but also understood the zeros. Furthermore, Aaron discussed zeroing in a 3-gun context. Whereas a lot of tactical shooting might zero at 100 yards because it rarely cares about more than a 300 yard engagement, in 3-gun you may be shooting out to 600 yards, so different zeros may be needed, such as a 200 or even 300 yard zero! The game is so much about a balance of speed and accuracy, and speed is sometimes about minimizing manipulations that consume time (e.g. reloads, adjusting your scope, getting in and out of positions). In fact, much of the class had that as the undertone.
After zeroing, we ran various drills to illustrate important concepts. For example, issues of holdover. Aaron set a target and we walked back: 10 yards, 15, 25, 50, 75, 100, shooting it standing offhand each time (let me tell you, 100 yards quickly offhand is humbling), working to help manage speed vs. accuracy, how holdover changes, and so on.
We also worked in different positions such as kneeling, prone, around barricades, off low barrels, etc.. We worked on target transitions, working on being smooth with a steady cadence.
One fun drill we shot was Kyle Lamb (VTAC)’s “1/2 and 1/2 Drill)
10 rounds at 20 yards in 10 seconds
10 rounds at 10 yards in 5 seconds
10 rounds at 5 yards in 2.5 seconds
Here’s a video from Kyle himself:
Of course, it’s a lot of fun to blow through 10 rounds in 2.5 seconds, but it’s also very challenging. On the longer distances, you have to slow down, use all that time, get acceptable hits. On the shorter distances, you have to really go but even then you can’t rush: you still have to ensure the front sight post, the dot, whatever, is still bouncing within the target area. Then we ran the drill backwards (5, 10, 20), and that’s also a tough one because
Oh, and if you watch the video and see the results? Notice how all the hits are in the lower portion of the A-zone? That’s the holdover problem, and it’s tough because on a pistol there’s holdover but it’s not much and usually we don’t worry about it. But on a rifle it’s significant, and in running a drill like the 1/2 and 1/2, your brain gets so focused on “that target spot” that it’s easy to forget to adjust. All telling learning points.
One fun part of the day was Aaron set up a competition stage on the shoothouse berm. We pulled out some .22 rifles and ran though the stage. When Aaron was critiquing my run, he pointed out how he could easily tell I was more of a “tactical shooter” than a competition shooter because of how I ran the stage: how I’d shoot OR move (instead of shooting on the move), how I’d approach doorways, etc.. Interesting observation for sure.
Take-Homes
I appreciated the class. It was great to finally meet Aaron (we’ve know of each other for a while, even exchanged some on Facebook comment threads; but never met in person until today). He’s very easy going, very skilled and knowledgeable. I also appreciated the extra time he took with Oldest to help him with some things.
For a first class, it was generally good. I do think there’s some room for improvement in the class flow. For example, the typical mode of operation in our pistol classes that might utilize the shoothouse berm will be to break class, everyone goes over to the berm for a briefing on the exercise/drill, then everyone goes back to the main range and continues class. Since the shoothouse drill is generally a one-person operation, then we’ll have 1 person break out from the main group, run the shoothouse, then rejoin class. By doing this the rest of the class keeps going, doesn’t stand around bored, everyone gets a run through the special drill/scenario, and things just run a little smoother in terms of time and curriculum management. In this class we didn’t do that: everyone stood around and watched while each person ran the stage. Sure, that replicates how a match works 😉 but a class doesn’t have to run that way. It’d would have been cool if perhaps the large range was set up with an array of paper targets and people worked on “with 15 yards” walking and target-transition engagements, or some other skill. Basically, keep everyone moving.
Small issue tho, and again, this was the first run of the class so of course we’re going to find room to improve.
Me personally?
The biggest thing I got was reinforcement of fundamentals. Again, I felt the CSAT course was not a beginner course, not an advanced course, but a fundamentals course; something that anyone and everyone can benefit from. I saw how the fundamentals worked, even in “competition”; it’s all the same. I also saw how when I forgot to apply the fundamentals, I stunk up the joint. It really reinforced to me that these skills are not fully engrained in me. Need more practice.
I also continue to see how rifle shooting and pistol shooting are more alike than different. Sure there are differences, but not as much as my brain wants to put into it. My brain needs to just “shut up and shoot”; it generally knows what to do.
I was happy for the class. It was just what I needed, both in terms of instruction, and just a bit of fun! A great day, excellent weather, good people, and yeah… getting to spend time with my friend Charles (we haven’t seen each other in a while) and my Oldest… hey, all good things.
Newport News police are investigating after a man reported he was pushed to the ground and had his handgun stolen late last week…. He was wearing his handgun in a holster, open carry, on his hip, Eley said.
The article continues telling about an informal survey about open carry vs. training.
Among those who responded, there was a clear trend.
A significant percentage of open carriers had no formal training at all (no, the various required concealed carry permitting classes are not training), and those who were serious students of armed self defense (most attended at least one defensive firearms class a year) almost never open carried by choice.
The more professional defensive firearms training someone had, the less likely they were to choose open carry.
So yeah… take from that what you will.
File it under “the more you know, the better decisions you can make”.
Also file it under “you don’t know what you don’t know”. But it seems the less you actually know, the more you think you know. Y’know?
As I’ve said before, I see no particular advantage to open carry (at least for myself), and I see a lot of downsides. It’s good to have the option, but just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
Stay safe. Be smart. Get smarter (get training, get educated).
When was the last time you articulated where that line was drawn?
When you articulated that line, have you subjected it to scrutiny? Have you read stories, considered scenarios, applied it (as a training exercise, in your head) while you go about your daily life? Does it hold up? Does it need adjustment and refinement?
What was more interesting to me was flipping through all the forum discussion of his account. The majority of it was comments such as “you shouldn’t have gotten involved”, or “wasn’t your fight”. But there were also counters such as “JV_” saying:
It’s interesting to watch incident videos, like the thug beating up on a big bus driver (who won in the end) and many people seemed surprised that no one stepped in to help the bus driver.
And here we have an incident where someone does step in to help out, and we’re back to the “it’s not my fight”. On the other hand, it’s a domestic incident, and if she turned on the helper, he’d still be in jail.
I don’t look forward to living in a society where everyone stands around and watches bad things happen.
And the discussion raged on, as Internet forums do, tho was overall quite civil.
Still, the armchair quarterbacking was interesting for me to observe and it mirrors responses I received in regards to my own incident.
It’s not really that people are trying to tell me or LittleLebowski that we were right or wrong (tho yes, some are certainly trying to scold or correct), it’s more that people are articulating their own feelings against the backdrop of our event. They might be saying “you shouldn’t have gotten involved” but they really mean “I wouldn’t get involved”.
Really, it’s tough to tell someone they shouldn’t have gotten involved – especially after the fact. “Gee, thank you for pointing out my mistakes… as if I’m totally unaware of them.” You may mean well, but think about what you’re really trying to say and why you are saying it. Someone telling their story is making themselves vulnerable, in hopes of helping you (including learning from the mistakes made). Don’t punch them in the gut over it.
And from that, work to learn. If after hearing the story you find yourself (re)assessing how you would respond to such a situation, good! That’s the point of sharing. You should be using the story to figure out where you stand, and if you need to adjust, if you need to change yourself, if you need to further your education.
Remember: as a result, we will all draw our lines in different places. What’s right for you may not be what’s right for me. It’s good to help guide people towards finding, improving, and making articulable where their line is drawn; just don’t look down on them or chastise them for drawing their line differently from yours. So long as they have a clearly defined and defensible line, so long as they can reasonably articulate where and why, that’s what’s important.
How do you internalize the idea that it’s the other stuff you do that really keeps you safe? How do you get over the irrational notion that it’s your CCW that does this? As I’ve told more than one class, I think a valuable drill is to occasionally practice NOT carrying your gun. I know it sounds odd, and I know the overly-shooting-oriented defensive training community will excoriate me for saying that, but I believe there are benefits to be had by occasionally doing such an exercise.
About a week ago, I responded to a Letter to the Editor about how “My gun kept you safe” saying “No, it didn’t. My original response to that letter had nothing to do with Grant’s proposal, but Grant’s proposal came in while I was composing and it was good food for thought, so I changed my response. As well, I figured that it’d be worthwhile to partake in the drill myself. I already have times when I don’t carry a gun, such as when I go to concerts. While I lose the use of a tool, I don’t necessarily feel “unarmed”. Again, it’s not the gun keeping me safe, it’s me keeping me safe. But I thought it’d be good experiment to try in a different context.
Different Context
I spent the past week on a business trip. Due to the nature of the trip and the events that would be participating in, having a gun on my person was going to be complicated. I’m sure I could have found ways to manage it, but I thought this would be an interesting context in which to try Grant’s drill. So I made the decision to leave the gun at home.
I also started going “naked” a couple days before the trip, just because I could. But those couple days started to give me my first insights.
Alternative Tools
There are other tools one can utilize.
Knives are a good example. Pepper spray is another. There are times I have a hickory or oak cane. What I might have can be affected by circumstance and situation, but realize there’s more out there. And if you opt to handle one of these others, it behooves you to obtain some sort of training and skill with that tool. Yes, even pepper spray. No, you don’t have to spend 10 years and become a black-belt in it, but knowledge and skill will aid you if you have to use the tool.
One downside? I lost a good ranged tool. While typical self-defense incidents happen in the 0-5 yard range (within the length of a car), there’s still more than enough data on incidents happening at longer ranges. But even 0-5 can be out of reach for some of these tools. A knife is really only useful if the person is WITHIN arms reach, which is already too close. Pepper spray has a degree of reach, but it’s limited and even more so if there’s wind blowing (which there always is to some degree). That is one thing that I was bummed about losing was the ranged weapon.
Change of Habits
For years I’ve carried my keys in my left front pocket. I’m right-handed, but use my left hand for keys. Why? Because it keeps my right hand free for other things. When I started carrying the ASP Defender (pepper spray, and quasi-kubotan), I actually retained my existing habit of the left-hand pocket. Well, going naked for those couple days made me think more about the Defender being a primary tool, and I realized I needed to switch and put my keys (and thus the ASP Defender) into my right-front pocket. Granted I could still work it from my left if needed, but it makes more sense for me now to have it on the right. The unorthodox drill forcing me into this different paradigm paid that benefit of having me rethink and improve my strategies.
Awareness of Awareness
One of the biggest take-homes from the drill was regarding awareness.
For sure, you perk up your awareness. What does that mean? That you weren’t running as aware as you thought you were.
Throughout the week my awareness went to various places.
When I was walking the dog, I realized how easily she caused distraction and my focus to shift. Same thing would happen when I’d be walking around with other people, talking to them. There just are times you have to pay attention to other things, to have the majority of your focus on something else. Your attention is easily divided, and you likely don’t realize it.
This is reality, I’ve known this, and anyone that denies slipping into Condition White from time to time is dishonest with themselves.
I did find myself paying more attention to things. Had one opportunity for some light MUC (Managing Unknown Contacts) practice. Being in semi-familiar surroundings, I spent time looking, watching, orienting myself in ways to survey what was going on and adjust behavior. But that’s another thing: when you’re “just passing through” there’s only so much you can fully assess.
The bottom line is: we can never be 100% dialed in, 100% aware, 100% knowledgable of all things. So what can we do to help manage that reality? How can we make decisions, have behaviors, etc. that, if they can’t help us gain advantage, at least minimize the loss.
There’s no single answer here. It’s just something to think about. It’s something to seek solutions on.
Sometimes you gotta go
There’s sayings like “don’t go to stupid places, with stupid people, and do stupid things” (Thank you, John Farnam). For sure, that’s a valuable piece of advice to keep you out of most trouble. But sometimes, you have to go to less than desirable places. For example, the place I had to go on business, I had no control nor choice over. Is it in a bad part of town? Not really, but for sure there are elements of “less than desirable”. Even speaking with other people working in the area, they all had minor reservations about the area. In fact, I spoke with someone else during the trip that said he was walking to get lunch and came onto an encounter with some dudes, a gun, and something “going down”. He immediately removed himself from the situation (he was no way involved; just walking down the street), but still.
Or on a more mundane note, some of the evening activities were known to be “unfriendly” to someone carrying a gun. For example, attending a Dallas Stars hockey game denies licensed firearms carry by law, and also requires passing through a metal detector. Or having a happy hour at a microbrewery that would have 51% signs posted. How to manage your carry gun, on a business trip, in such situations?
Sometimes you gotta go. And if you gotta go, what can you know ahead of time to help you with your decisions and course of action? The more you can know, the more you can learn ahead of time, it will be helpful in determining your course of action.
Drill Conclusion
I’m back home. My gun is back on my hip.
Of the drill, Grant writes:
If you find yourself feeling different, more careful or less confident without the gun, that’s your cue that you haven’t been paying nearly enough attention to your real safety. It means that you’ve assigned too much of your well being to a device of very limited utility. Your gun is a talisman, not a tool. It also means that you need to devote some of your training resources to those other skills I listed above and integrate them into your life.
If, however, you feel completely confident and change nothing about your routine or your habits, then you probably have a good understanding of your concealed gun’s real place in your personal security planning. That’s how you know you’re at a point of balance, which means you’re safer overall than someone who isn’t.
Strive for balance.
I didn’t feel too different. I changed a couple of things, I was given opportunity to think about some things from a different angle. But overall? Didn’t feel too odd or weird, I didn’t feel naked, I didn’t feel vulnerable.
I’d say, at least in terms of how Grant summarizes things, I have a good understanding of my gun’s real place in my personal security planning.
Of course, there’s always room for improvement, and I’m happy for having undertaken the drill.
I can’t believe that this “debate” is making rounds again.
Yet, I guess I can see why. I know better than to read the comments, but sometimes I’m a sucker for punishment. From that it’s evident that even today, with mounting evidence – both anecdotal and scientific, with technological progress, and with so many other factors today, that there’s zero reason to have this “debate” any more.
But you know… some people still believe the Earth is flat and wish to continue that “debate”.
Can we please discuss things that actually matter and merit discussion? Nah.. never mind. Doesn’t get clicks.
My friends from outside the USA often ask me “Why do cops in the USA shoot so many people?” The answer is that we deal with violent crazy people who are trying to kill us or someone else. Take a look at this National Review study on all the police shootings across America last month. Read the short narrative on each case. Sure, there are a couple of shootings that look unjustified, but in almost all of the others, the cops were being attacked by an armed criminal at the time of the shooting.
Throughout time there have always been people that don’t like the police/law-enforcement, but it’s become rather a popular topic as of late. The narrative/spin that tends to be promoted/hyped is that cops just like to kill people, or something along those lines.
But when you really look at the facts behind most OIS (Officer-Involved-Shooting), you find most are quite justified and there’s really no other way to solve the problem.
Facts are pesky things, especially when you don’t ignore them.
So like so many things in the world, if you’re upset about the symptoms, stop trying to just address the symptoms. Look deeper. What’s causing these people to commit their crimes in the first place? Can we solve those deeper problems? Solve those root causes and you’ll solve both their base problem and the issue of cops having to shoot people.
I know. It’s easier to get angry and outraged and Tweet about it, than to actually work to solve the tough problems. But solving the tough problems is the only way to make things better.
When I boarded the commuter rail, you were already in the midst of a spirited phone conversation and didn’t seem to care about how loud you were talking. You were talking with someone about the Paris train attack and the growing epidemic of gun violence in America.
You spoke about the “murderous NRA” and “bloodthirsty gun nuts” who were causing our schools to “run red with blood.” You spoke profanely of the Republicans who opposed President Obama’s call for “sensible gun control,” and you lamented the number of “inbred redneck politicians” who have “infiltrated Capitol Hill.”
I found myself amazed at the irony of the situation. While you were spewing your venom, I sat quietly next to you with my National Rifle Association membership card in my wallet and my 9mm pistol in its holster.
I see where this letter is going, and frankly I do understand and agree with the general tone and sentiment of the letter.
However, there’s one thing I strongly disagree with. The letter poetically ended with (emphasis added):
Your liberal self-righteousness and ignorance may have made you feel superior and comfortable, but during that 40-minute train ride to Boston, my gun kept you safe.
No it didn’t.
Your gun didn’t keep you safe. It didn’t keep the other guy safe either.
“Our side” likes to parrot how “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. That guns are inanimate objects and they (alone, in and of themselves) can’t kill.
Well then, by the same token, guns can’t keep people safe. It’s the same inanimate object.
But then by the same token, what keeps people safe are people willing to keep people safe, be that keeping yourself safe, or keeping others safe.
The author of the Globe piece does tacitly admit this, and I grant the prose is constructed and presented for artistic impact. However, let us not blindly parrot the phrase lest we suffer from the sting of our own words used against us.
When I first sat down to write this piece, this second part was to go in one direction. However a couple days after I started writing, respected firearms trainer Grant Cunningham wrote an article Do you carry religiously? You may not be as safe as you believe which actually dovetails perfectly.
The firearm is a very limited-application device in the totality of self defense situations and, being a reactive tool of restricted application, doesn’t keep you safe because it doesn’t prevent an incident from unfolding. It simply gives you a tool to defend yourself once a very specific type of event has occurred.
This is apparently a new concept for a lot of people, even (maybe especially) for those who have been in this field for a while! With such limited application there is no way the gun can really keep you safe — it’s all the other stuff you do that keeps you safe; the gun simply gives you a way out when things go horrendously bad. The gun has often been compared to a fire extinguisher: does a fire extinguisher prevent fires? Of course not. It’s just a tool to allow immediate response in case one breaks out.
Grant’s article was nourishing food for thought, and so I opted to change the rest of my article because of what he wrote.
Grant asserts:
I submit that if you find yourself acting differently, more cautious or fearful, when you can’t carry a gun you have a problem that results in you not being truly prepared for violence. The gun has blinded you to both its proper use and what actually keeps violence from being visited upon you.
And he’s right.
And I know a lot of people believe they are tuned in and “get it”, but this is NOT a place for ego. If any life-context requires humility, it’s the context of personal safety. You need to be humble, you need to be honest, even if it bruises or destroys your ego. Put it in check, step back and truly examine yourself within the context of Grant’s assertion; you probably suffer from it to some degree. Better to be hurt now and have a chance to correct the problem, than to be hurt later and forever denied the chance to correct.
Grant suggests “an unorthodox drill”. I think it’s a good one. I get some degree of practice in it when I do things like go to concerts. But I tend to only do this when I’m put into such specific contexts. Why not other contexts? So I’m going to do that from time to time. I know learning will occur, and I know I’ll be overall better for it.
Put it this way:
If, however, you feel completely confident and change nothing about your routine or your habits, then you probably have a good understanding of your concealed gun’s real place in your personal security planning. That’s how you know you’re at a point of balance, which means you’re safer overall than someone who isn’t.
Strive for balance.
If we can say anyone is a master of balance, it’d be an Olympic gymnast. Even an Olympic gymnast stumbles, even an Olympic gymnast can improve – that awareness of self is part of what brought them to the Olympic level. Have that awareness about yourself. Work to improve.
Stuff From Hsoi 