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

An article about the types of guns carried by criminals, including a link and discussion of my research on the topic.

I would argue that wound packing is an essential skill for everyone (not just first responders) to learn and understand.

Some very common and easily identifiable “weeds” that are edible. Most of these grow in your neighborhood. I’ve eaten them all. Not all of them taste great, but I haven’t died yet. Here is another great article on the topic.

If you want even more information, I’ll be teaching an edible and medicinal wild plant class at the upcoming Paul-E-Palooza training conference,

This could be an incredibly useful skill set to have in a serious emergency. Do you carry a siphon hose in your car? In my vehicle survival kit, I carry a siphon that uses a pump so that I don’t have to get a mouth full of gasoline.

Your facial expression tells a criminal attacker a lot of information about you. If he sees someone scared and timid, he’s more likely to attack. If he sees someone, confident or a little crazy, he may move on to an easier target. This is an easy expression to duplicate and master in a crisis. Having done this on the street for years when dealing with criminals, I can tell you that it works well.

I modify it slightly. After relaxing all the muscles of the face, I then open my eyes slightly wider. It’s important to open only the lids so that no other facial muscles are affected. When the cheeks and the corners of the mouth move up with the eyes, it signals fear or astonishment. We don’t want that. Just open your eyes a little more and make them “sparkle.” The deadpan face combined with the “crazy eyes” gives you the perfect expression when dealing with potential criminal attackers.

The third installment of the P&S “Baselines” series. This one covers reloads. I like the tactical reload he suggests. I was first taught how to do it in a Phil Singleton (former SAS) shooting class. They called it the “TFE” tactical reload. “TFE” stands for “Too Fucking Easy.”

This may be over the heads of the TL;DR crowd, but it is worth the effort. What the author calls “identity protection” and most of the rest of the world calls “partisan politics” directly causes poor decision making. Don’t fall into the trap.

I share the author’s love for the Jungle Blanket. I’ve taken my “woobie” on several extreme adventures. I use it when I camp in the desert at Burning Man. Temperatures there regularly get down into the 40s at night. I’m usually quite comfortable sleeping with just the woobie. I did once overestimate the woobie’s power. I took it as my sleeping bag when hiking the Inca trail in Peru. It was NOT warm enough for 20 degree weather with 40mph winds at 14,000 feet of elevation. I froze my ass off on that trip.

Pick up a woobie. You’ll be glad you did.

Do you carry a reload for your defensive firearm? If you are reading this from my site, I would assume that you would answer “yes.” Have you ever asked yourself the question “why?” If you are carrying one spare magazine, why aren’t you carrying two? Three? Six? There comes a time when carrying so many magazines becomes more cumbersome than any potential benefit we see in carrying them. Everyone does a personal risk assessment and tries to balance comfort with what we think we “might” need. That’s a different calculation for all of us. There is no perfect balance. Think of that before deriding someone for not carrying spare ammo.

Craig Douglas discusses the design of the Clinch Pick and how to use it in a defensive context. For more about Craig and his classes, read CRAIG DOUGLAS ON MANAGING UNKNOWN CONTACTS.

You don’t want to end up in prison while traveling in the developing world. That’s one of the many reasons I always carry pepper spray during my travels. This case would have turned out very differently had the attacking maintenance man gotten a face full of spicy goodness instead of being beaten to death.

I hope this article causes you to question the contemporary dogma regarding salt intake.

What I’m reading…

Daniel Suarez has one of the most imaginative and devious minds in fiction. His book Kill Decision is a must-read look at the future of technology.

A very good article from Massad Ayoob about handling a traffic stop while armed. I think his advice is on point. I would, however, respectfully disagree with Mas regarding allowing a consent search of your vehicle. If the cop asks for a consent search, he’s likely on a fishing expedition. If he had probable cause that you were carrying contraband, he could search your car under the automobile exception without a warrant or your consent.

When the cop asks for consent, it most likely means that he doesn’t have probable cause to make the search. You have absolutely nothing to gain if the cop searches your car. If you have no contraband, you still have to endure a long wait while the officer tears your car apart. If you do have contraband, you will likely be arrested.

I would never personally consent to a search of my car. I would be very polite to the officer and say something like: “Officer, I understand you are doing your job, but my lawyer instructed me never to consent to a search of my vehicle. I don’t know much about the law, so I’m just going to trust my lawyer’s advice and say ‘no.'”

The fentanyl paranoia needs to stop. If inadvertent skin contact with this drug causes overdose, why would people need to inject it? The manufacturers, dealers, and users handle this stuff all day. Why aren’t they dying from accidental exposure?

I subscribe to Dr. William Aprill’s theory. Most cops are not in good shape. Many suffer from abdominal obesity. Their body armor and gunbelts make breathing more difficult.

They are often bent over searching cars in awkward positions when this “fentanyl contact” happens. It’s possible that the combination of abdominal obesity, body armor, gun belt, and bodily contortions combines to make the cops slightly hypoxic.

They start feeling dizzy from the lack of oxygen and then they freak out thinking they are going to die from an opioid exposure.

I think that hypothesis is far more likely than dozens of cops OD-ing after casual contact with fentanyl.

In this incredibly informative podcast, Sam Harris dissects an article published in an Islamic propaganda magazine titled Why We Hate You and Why We Fight You.

The history of four of the giants of firearm development.

Valuable lessons that all pistol carriers must learn.

A lot of details about an underrated defensive round. In my study I found it to be just about as effective as any of the more common self defense cartridges.

Good tips to minimize your losses in the event of theft, fire, or natural disasters.

As much as I dislike the .40 cartridge, I must admit that Caleb has a good point here. I’d rather you buy a police trade-in Glock .40 than a new Taurus 9mm.

You need to buy a shot timer. Here is a new option that I haven’t seen before.

“Instead of spending money on your “SHTF” truck gun, invest in some training. Make your primary carry a more effective option for you. Too many people buy more guns without any training with the guns they already own. Occasional shooting or competitions are not a replacement for actual training. Without training, you are a liability and you might as well take the strategy of many open carriers – hope.”

“I doubt I will ever need my gun; in fact I earnestly hope that I will not. I would happily live out my days without ever shooting another human being. But if I ever really, really need to I’ll have a gun to do it with.”

In almost every knowledge dump I link to at least one good shooting drill to help your practice sessions be more productive. I didn’t find any good new drills this week until Tom saved the day with this newsletter edition. It contains a great drill for smaller firearms. All the other articles are worth reading as well. Opens to PDF.

In addition to the points that John makes here, I’ll add a couple more. If stuff like this starts popping off, get away from there. You have no idea if the unhappy drunk guy will crush your skull or leave you alone. You also don’t know if one or both parties will go for a gun. You don’t want to be caught in the crossfire. Get out. This is also the ideal job for pepper spray. Big boy wouldn’t be smashing people with quite the authority he displayed in this incident if he couldn’t see following a dose of spicy treats.

Very astute commentary on a thought exercise we all should be considering.

“In order to maybe, hypothetically save thousands, you’d be willing to slaughter millions. Either you really suck at math, or the ugly truth is that you just hate the other side so much that you think killing millions of people is worth it to make them fall in line. And if that’s the case, you’re a sick bastard, and a great example of why the rest of us aren’t ever going to give up our guns.”

Caleb is absolutely correct with his assessment. If you want to read about nearly 50 instances I’ve catalogued over the last five years where open carriers were attacked for their gun, check out Friends Don’t Let Friends Open Carry.

For any of my readers who live in Washington DC or who may visit the area.

Michael Bane talks about last week’s NRA Show and discusses the future of the organization.

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