This past weekend I assisted with a Beyond the Basics: Handgun class. This is an intermediate class, and while you didn’t NEED to have a concealed handgun license (CHL) as a prerequisite, certainly some students come that way. Before class begins, we need to ensure everyone is properly outfitted, so if you have gun on you, unload it (so we can do dry-fire drills); if you don’t have a gun on you, get a holster on and put your unloaded gun in it. So to make this happen, we intercept people at the parking lot, take them to the range and get them prepped.

Decided this time to approach things differently, opening with the question: “Do you have a CHL?”

Certainly, some people said no and we went about things as normal.

For those that did have a CHL? the follow-up question was, “so you have your gun on you, right?”

We were met with more than a few “no”, which I followed-up with a disapproving look and “Why not?”

Reasons were numerous. Some people misunderstood policy, so here’s an excerpt of KR Training policy:

In the Parking Lot Before Class

You should arrive with your guns unloaded, stored in a case or a bag.
“Unloaded” means no ammunition anywhere in the gun. Magazine out, chamber empty, hammer down.
Do NOT carry a gun uncased from the parking lot to the classroom or range.
If you have a CHL and you arrive wearing a loaded handgun, leave the gun holstered until directed to unholster by an instructor.
If you were not wearing your carry gun when you drove through our front gate, do NOT put it on and load it in the parking area.
Put it in a case or bag or in your holster and bring it to the classroom unloaded.

So, if you have a CHL and are wearing your gun, that’s not a problem. Just leave it in the holster until we tell you otherwise.

One person arrived carrying, but because he knew he was going to a class, he had loaded up at home with practice ammo. That’s not good. You should continue to carry your “social ammo” at all times. You will be given an opportunity to switch from social to practice ammo before things begin (and if you’re in doubt or we forget, you’re always welcome to ask or speak up).

But the bottom line is this: if you have a CHL, why aren’t you carrying?

The implication there is ALWAYS carrying.

You cannot know when the flag is going to fly. If you are so fortunate as to be able to know or predict that, then you should take the preferred course of action and avoid the situation entirely. But since I’m unable to predict when evil people will do bad things against me, I just have to be prepared — always. YMMV.

To paraphrase Tom Givens, carry your damn gun, people!

A cyclist here in Austin was robbed at gunpoint and yes, almost executed:

Robbery detectives are hoping to catch with two men still on the run after they rob an Austin cyclist at gunpoint. Police Det. Phillip Hogue says during his regular commute home a South Austin cyclist was approached by another man wanting to borrow his cell phone. Investigators indicate it was then that James Ray Perkins, Paul Rios and another unidentified man forced France Dulles to give up his bank account pin number and ATM card. “He didn’t have a lot of money in his checking accountant and the armed men were not satisfied at the amount of cash they were able withdrawal from the ATM” said Hogue. According to arrest reports, the three men decided Dulles should be executed and as Perkins aimed to shoot Dulles in the head the 19-year old cyclist took off on foot. After firing several rounds, Perkins managed to hit Dulles once in his buttocks. All three men have been charged with an Aggravated Robbery and Kidnapping, Attempted Capitol Murder and Organized Criminal Activity. Austin police have managed to arrest Perkins, while Rios and the other unidentified man remains on the run.

Things to note:

• Wanted to use his cell phone
  • Robberies and other such criminal/violent acts don’t happen at long-distances. The criminal needs to approach you, they need to talk to you, they need to “interview” you to see if you’ll make a good victim. You need to have skills to keep unknowns at distance.
• The cyclist “just gave ’em what they wanted”, and look what it got him.
  • You cannot think that giving them what they want will make them go away or that they won’t take any more than that. The cyclist almost lost his life.
• Executed. Just let that sink in a bit. You cannot apply your standards and values to that criminal. They were willing to kill a man just because he didn’t have enough money. That’s pretty fucked up.
• It was good that the cyclist fled. Our goal isn’t revenge, it isn’t to kill people, it’s to stay alive. He fled, he’s alive.

It’s getting to be an ugly, dangerous world out there. Take steps to keep yourself safe.

Gabe Suarez has an article about fighting in your house.

Fighting in houses…or fighting in your house can take on many forms depending on your mission. Having clarity of mission is essential so you know how to comport yourself in each event.

While the article doesn’t discuss tactics or strategy, it does bring up contexts and situations. The article gives you a lot of things to think about, and it’s worth thinking about these things and role-playing through the situations now. If you do it now, you have a gameplan should it happen. If you wait until the shit hits the fan, you’ll be scrambling for a solution.

But while it’s good to drill into specific situations, I think what’s good to do in trying to solve those situations is to eventually seek the guiding principle. That is, the situations are specific and what happens when you find yourself in a situation you didn’t specifically prepare for? What to do? This is where you need to have a higher-layer of guiding principles. If you don’t know what your guiding principle is, going through the specific situations can help you find it — just see what and why you make the choices you do, look for patterns in your choices, then step back and get a higher-level view. Then test that principle out to see if it still holds in other specific situations. Continue to refine from there.

For myself, one guiding principle is protection of myself and my family. I was just thinking about this the other night. We were out at dinner. As I sat down I took a moment to orient myself to the room, including looking for exits. My family was with me… if something went down, my #1 task is to keep them safe (generally, get them out of the area). I have thought that if I could do something to stop the event yes I’d want to — I would find it hard to live with myself thinking “I could have done something” but didn’t. However, keeping my family safe is more important, and so that guides me and my decisions. I cannot go engage the problem if it means my family could be endangered. If I am alone, then things are different. But by the same token, is it more important for me to stop someone being stupid, or to ensure that I get myself home alive and safe so I can continue to work and provide for my family?

These are the things you have to figure out for yourself so you can know how you can and should react, should something happen.

The following comes from Karl Rehn of KR Training.

I’ve talked with dozens of people who have firsthand experience in lethal force incidents: armed citizens, cops and military personnel, including several who were in multiple incidents.

One of the best comments on the subject came from one of them, who said that it was “like being in a car wreck.  Fast, loud, scary. When it’s over you are glad to survive it, but it’s not something you are in a hurry to experience again.”

Several of the people I’ve spoken with were involved in publicly debated incidents, and they suffered the additional stress and loss associated with getting fired and/or becoming publicly known/vilified as a result of the incident.

No one that is armed wants to imagine any outcome other than victory and exoneration, and sometimes that lack of concern over the consequences of a bad outcome leads to bad decisions….

The decision should be made based on what the worst case outcome is, not the best case.  For example, “if I do nothing, I will die.  If I do something, I still might die but my odds of dying are less than if I do nothing.”

Not “if I do nothing, I lose a TV, but if I act, I’ll have to use up all my vacation time from work going to meetings with lawyers and the grand jury, and spend my vacation money paying a lawyer, and have people on local talk radio Monday-morning quarterback my actions, and have everyone I know (neighbors, co-workers, family) forever treat me differently, and spend the rest of my life getting awkward questions about it.”  Every single person I’ve talked to that’s been in a shooting has had one or more of those post-shooting issues, even if they had no (or will admit to having no) PTSD after the incident.  You can’t wave your hand and say those things don’t matter and all that matters is what the Penal Code says.