Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend.

Read through some of these horrific shooting incidents described by Massad Ayoob. Don’t expect your gun to immediately incapacitate anyone.

Some ways to make your AIWB holster more comfortable and concealable.

A scam to watch for if you are driving in Mexico.

The facts around the mythical “gun show loophole.”

A valuable perspective on the role of the rifle in your everyday life.

“There’s a common reference with firearms; your ‘primary and secondary’, meaning your rifle and pistol. We believe that if you’re not at war, this is backwards.”

“You don’t need training to successfully defend yourself with a gun in most circumstances. You do need training however if you want to begin to learn what it is exactly that you don’t know. You do need training to force your mind into making vital and potentially life altering decisions, under stress, in very short periods of time without relying on blind luck to get you through. You do need training to recognize some of the very subtle indicators that a predator is running you through their victim selection process. And you certainly need training to come any sort of close to understanding what a violent encounter is actually like if you’ve never found yourself in one.”

An interesting interview with one of the heroes from the battle of Benghazi.

I generally don’t recommend automatic knives for self protection. In order to carry them safely, you must use the safety. Getting the safety off and pushing the button under stress is often slower than opening a manual folder.

The one time I would recommend an auto opener is if you only have the use of one hand. I’ve had students who had strokes or cerebral palsy, leaving one hand and arm very weak. Those folks benefit from automatic knives.

If you want a fast knife, get a fixed blade. I like the Ka-Bar TDI knife as a great place to start.

One of the few articles about garrote use on the internet.

An interesting perspective here. Do our minority citizens really fear the police? The author doesn’t think so.

On a similar topic, you may also like Don’t Blame Police Racism for America’s Violence Epidemic.

I don’t know what exactly tipped the criminals off that a cop owned these cars, but those of you who have thin blue line stickers or FOP placards on your car are asking for trouble. Is it worth getting your car torched and painted just so you can flash your gang sign?

Yes. That’s exactly what you are doing. You are flashing a gang sign to tell a certain knowledgeable subset of the population that you are a cop. It’s no different than wearing gang colors or flashing gang hand signals. You are trying to covertly identify yourself to a particular group of people.

The problem is that your FOP placard or thin blue line bumper sticker isn’t covert. The bad guys know what that means too. Why invite trouble? Strip that shit from your personal vehicles.

A challenging marksmanship drill.

The Firearms Blog continues its excellent series of videos on field stripping common guns with this installment covering the Makarov. Any of you who travel in Eastern Europe, Cuba, or the former Soviet Bloc countries should probably know this information.

I know a lot of you don’t read books. This article isn’t for you. It’s for the tiny percentage of the population who still read. This article will help you read better. I actually use the author’s strategy of copying important quotes from every book I finish. I don’t place them on note cards, I put them in notebooks. I have eight notebooks completely full of important ideas from all the books I’ve read in the last 20 years. I regularly review those notebooks. Besides being a repository of information, they also serve as a journal or diary about the things I thought were important a long time ago and how my opinions might have changed over the years. I highly recommend the practice.

A comprehensive reference for each state’s firearms and self protection laws.

Sensible advice about shooting with cross eye dominance. Everyone agrees that shooting with both eyes open is desirable in combat. But the bottom line is that some people can’t shoot cross eye dominant with both eyes open. They may have to close the eye that isn’t behind the sight. I’d rather have them hitting their target with one eye closed than missing with both eyes open.

If you are interested in the topic, you might also enjoy Shooting With One Eye or Two Eyes Open: Which is Correct?

Lots of “lessons learned” from this shooting…

A rookie cop was off duty eating at a taco stand with his girlfriend and her two brothers. He observed a gang member vandalizing a nearby building and ran the vandal off. The vandal gang member came back with a gun and a few buddies. The cop tried to leave the scene, but the gang member opened fire, killing the cop and wounding one of his girlfriend’s brothers.

1) If you are off duty, you don’t get involved in anything that isn’t a direct risk of serious injury or death to you or someone you care about. You don’t confront vandals off duty. You call the on-duty cops and give them a description. Or you just ignore the vandal and enjoy your tacos. Nothing good can come from trying to confront this guy.

2) Carry your gun. Everywhere. There’s no mention about this officer being armed or not. One would think that he would draw his gun to defend himself when the gangbanger came back and displayed a firearm. That didn’t happen. My guess is that the cop wasn’t carrying his gun. It’s astonishingly common for our young officers not to carry guns off duty.

3) De-escalation doesn’t work without the criminal’s cooperation. This cop attempted to peacefully leave the scene and drive away rather than force a confrontation with the gang member. The gang member shot him anyway. You must understand that the bad guy gets a vote in these proceedings. You can “de-escalate” all you want, but it won’t stop a sociopathic killer from putting a bullet in your brain.

“The reality is that anything someone does to make themselves a little more prepared, a little safer, a little more resilient, is good. It doesn’t matter how small the step is, or what the topic is, only that they take the step.

It doesn’t matter that they’re not “fully committed”. One little step today will make anyone a little better off than they were yesterday. Another step tomorrow will make someone better than they are today. Each step, no matter how small, will better their life in a meaningful way. If they keep it up, in a month there will be real progress.”

Massad Ayoob agrees with my advice about defensive shotgun loads. My work here is done.

I’m sure this article will inspire the wrath of the birdshot devotees in all the gun forums.

Check out Massad’s shotgun book. A lot of new knowledge can be learned by reading an old book.

Speaking of shotguns, you should also read this article. I agree with the author’s opinion.

Considering the recent deaths in Costa Rica, this is probably good advice. But what if you want to sample the local hooch? As a person who has enjoyed local brews on five different continents, I can tell you there is a safe way. You don’t buy this stuff at your resort or at a tourist liquor store. You ask a local to take you to the person who makes it. Taxi drivers, hotel concierge staff, and tour guides know where to get the local homemade brew.

When you arrive you ask to sample a shot. Of course, you are polite and offer to buy the seller a shot as well so that he drinks with you. If he won’t drink his own brew, run away. If he drinks with you (out of the same bottle) you are probably pretty safe. I’ve done this a lot of places and I’m not blind yet.

I think it’s very important for anyone who truly wants to be prepared to have a stash of real cash money in their home. If the power goes out for a significant period of time, you will need cash to survive. Have a stockpile of cash, but take care that it doesn’t get stolen. Here are some unique hiding places.

Some excellent mythbusting here.

Hock’s thoughts on “killer instinct.”

What makes radical terrorists less radical? Opens to PDF.

It’s great to see Dave Spaulding writing again. You should read everything this man writes.

You may also like his tips for dealing with sticking Glock mags.

What I’m reading…

“Bob the Nailer” is back. Stephen Hunter just published the latest installment this week. I don’t read a massive amount of fiction, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every novel Mr. Hunter has written. I have my new copy and just started reading it. All of my gun friends will like the entire series.

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