WARRIOR TALK NEWS

The Warrior Parent - Part 2: Are You As Fit As A Third-Grader?

By Uli  Gebhard, Suarez International Staff Instructor Los Angeles

For some people who read Warriortalknews, this article may be preaching to the choir, others will probably find it embarrassing.
It should be obvious: the better the shape you're in, the better your chances to prevail in a fight. This does not start when things devolve into a physical altercation. Criminals are not out for challenge. Which one of the following two do you think a mugger would pick as a target: a person that looks like the can hold his ground easily in his weight class, or a guy that is 60lbs overweight and out of breath when he walks 45 feet from the ATM to his vehicle?

Physical fitness is key factor in winning a fight

I looked through a lot of accounts of self-defense on various online forums. Most of them had in common that people either attributed their success to a better-than-average fitness level or they commented that while they prevailed, a higher level of fitness would have given them more of an advantage. Anyone who has done martial arts will be able to tell you that two minutes of sparring take a lot of energy. Factor into this the strain that comes with an adrenalin-induced accelerated heart rate of an dangerous encounter. Any form of endurance training will work in your favor:



These kids sparr for the last  10 minutes of their class - could you do the same?

Ten years ago I was very active in Martial Arts. I was in my early thirties and routinely sparred with people who were quite a bit younger and faster than I was and who managed to get through my blocks – as long we sparred in round one or two of our six – to eight round sparring sequence of the class. If I got to spar with them in one of the later rounds, they were too worn out to stay effective in the fight. This happened routinely with all of them. In addition to martial arts, I spent a lot of time doing cardio such as running and roadbike-rides. They did not. When we got to the later sparring rounds of the day, they had a hard time keeping their hand up and maintaining their focus.

Again, this happened ten years ago – before an accident shut most of my training down for several years and way before my wife and I had kids.
After two surgeries and physical therapy, I gradually started training again. During the AK Force-on-Force course in Prescott, we worked with Kettlebells and I got hooked on this training tool. Pair Kettlebell swings or snatches with burpees and you have a workout that will leave you gasping for air in short order.

One of the best all-around pieces of exercise equipment - the Kettlebell

30 Minutes exercise per day will make a huge difference

20-30 Minutes a day will help burning excess calories and it will strengthen your overall system. Figure 5 minutes stretching, 20 minutes of actual exercises and 5-10 minutes to cool down are a good workout sequence. For many parents that I talked with half an hour seems to be the threshold that they can set aside between work, the day-to-day itinerary at home, errands and helping their kids with their homework.
You don't need to look like a linebacker, but you want to be able sprint 400 meters and have enough stamina to dish out a couple of decisive blows afterwards. Why is this so important? One of the first things that happen under stress is that your heart rate goes up. If you are not capable to handle some strenuous activities, you will have severe problems in a fight.

That brings me back to an evening a couple of weeks ago, when my son's martial arts class was getting ready for belt testing. On a normal training day, the instructor runs the kids through warmup exercises, before they start practicing their punches and kicks. Since he had a lot of students coming up for testing they had to warm up on their own. None of the parents, save for one, got their rear ends out of the chairs to work with their kids. My son and I did jumping jacks, burpees and the usual stretching before he headed into the gymn... the other parents did -at most- tell their kids which exercises to run.
Granted – and that's where the title originates- some of them would not be able to complete 10 burpees without taking another look at the last BicMac they shoved down on the way to the Dojo... The sad part is that the class their kids are taking is focused on self-defense. What kind of a message are these parents sending to their kids? Looking like a donut is OK as long as you know the techniques? Sorry, that does not compute.

A fun ride for the daughter and an opportunity for the dad to cram in some jogging into a busy day...

So, here is my challenge to all parents on this forum. Check yourself against the capabilities of your son or daughter. Can you keep up with your kids? If you can't - it's time to start working out!!! Make your kids part of the program and you'll find that a lot of motivation can come from them. This motivation may come subtle – like watching your son or daughter hammering out 17 burpees in 30 seconds. Sometimes the motivation may come with a bit of a sting when your kid sees you gasping for air and proclaims - “This is easy, you just need to exercise more”.

Additionally, I recommend the kind of motivation that my fellow SI instructors Richard and Corinna Coplin introduced me to and that I have since found numerous times on Warriortalk and other forums: find your trigger... think of what you hold the most dear in life and figure that you are up against someone who wants to destroy this – violently and viciously – and the only thing separating this predator from his prey is you. Find that trigger and you will find that you can push yourself farther and harder than you thought. I also found that this trigger helps me to get off my rear end when I don't feel like working out. And just as a sidenote - I'm quite a bit above my ideal weight, but I'm consistently working on it. Sometimes family visits and the like will set you back. The key is to stay on it as far as your schedule permits.

“Charlie don't care” was one of the phrases used during the Vietnam war to remind GI's that their condition or opinion did not mean anything to the enemy. Today “Scumbag/Jihadi don't care.” would be more appropriate. I believe you get the picture...

For most of us who have kids, time comes at a premium. You may not have the luxury of two hours of free time in one piece to get to the gymn, run through your exercises, shower and go home... a lot of work can be done with a couple of Kettlebells and a chinup bar in the doorframe. The equipment will cost you about the same as two months of membership in some fitness clubs – and you can use it every day without a lengthy drive to the studio. Instead of veggying out in front of the TV, grab your exercise gear and make better use of your time.

Work out with your kids

Work out with your kids:  you will reap multiple benefits from this:  Pick exercises that your kids enjoy and you will get some fun family time out of it - doing it in the evening it may help your son or daughter find their way into bed a little sooner. Those among us who have active kids know what I'm talking about.  On a more serious note consider that 30 minutes of exercise, five days a week, paired with the right diet will help significantly preventing type 2 diabetes (source Harvard School of Public Health).  This goes for you and for your kids, especially if both of you log around a couple additional pounds around.
Some people are not sure how to start exercising.  Many healthcare providers offer tips on their websites.  Suarez International has a great DVD with very basic fitness training that is geared for use in fighting skills.  If you're still not sure, use the free "check us out"-type offers of a local fitness club to get things off the ground.

It does not take a lot of gear to get started.... what are you waiting for?

For the parents among you – start a healthy competition with your kids. 

For all others – find your trigger and get going!

Uli Gebhard is Suarez Interantional Staff Instructor in the Los Angeles Area. He lives with his family in Orange County, California.

Please follow this link to find out more about his classes.

The “Do’s” and “Don’ts” of Open Carry Part II

By Roger Phillips, Suarez International Speicialist and Tier One Instructor

The Mental Aspect of the Fight

 Some people may want to call this “mindset” but that term is very vague and does not do justice to the things that you should really know when it comes to open carry. If we can all agree that there are risks to carrying handguns (open or concealed) and that there is a certain responsibility attached to that decision, then it is clear that we need to “get our head right” about what we are doing, why we are doing it, and how to do it best. If you are open carrying for the reasons mention in the first part of this article, then you need to understand that the mind is the ultimate weapon and the handgun is just the tool that the mind uses to be as efficient and effective as you can possibly be inside of the limitations of “just walking through life.” In other words, it is the mind that turns the talisman into a devastating weapon. Without the mind it is just a chunk of metal, wood, and plastic.

I think that we can all agree that the very best life threatening confrontation is the one that you can avoid. If you don’t feel this way, let me warn you “be very careful what you wish for.” Being a hero is not all that it is cracked up to be. It can be alright (that is the extent of it, that is why almost all hero’s say “I just did what anyone else would do”) or it could be absolutely devastating.

 

“If you spend your life hunting monsters, be very careful to not become one yourself. Because, when you stare into the abyss, the abyss will eventually stare back into you.”

 When it comes down to avoidance, awareness is our number one tool. When you are open carrying, you need to learn the difference between people looking at you and thinking “hey that guy has a gun” and looking at you and thinking “hey that guy has a gun, I bet he thinks he is a bad @$$. I could so take that gun if I wanted to.” Do not make the mistake that people do not ever ponder this. I am a certified good guy and I have pondered it. There are times that I have wanted to teach a lesson or two. But of course being a certified good guy, I did not do it……….but oh was it tempting! To think that people will not take your gun “just because they can” is a huge mistake. That is why everyone that you do not know personally needs to be looked at with a critical eye. I am not saying to be paranoid, but use some common sense and good judgment. If you do not know the person……do not trust the person. We all need to be aware of the bad guys ploy of sending in a “friendly” to set the person up for what they want.  If it seems too good to be true……guess what……it is too good to be true. 

 When you are open carrying, keep your head up and your radar on. Let people know that you see them, when they see you. A little eye contact is good…….too much is bad. A nod of acknowledgement is acceptable, but do not come across as being too friendly or too much of a hard @$$. You should not be striving to engage people, you should not be looking to “educate.” That leaves you open. You should be striving to do what you need to do, inside of your life, and then fulfill your mission and go home. One of the main stay ploys for a bad guy is to get you to stop and have a conversation, so they can close distance. Once the distance has been closed, you are theirs! If you doubt this then you do not know about the OODA loop or “initiative deficit.” Allowing people to engage you in order “to educate” is playing into one of the most successful bad guy ploys that there is.

“Be polite, be professional, but have a plan that will allow you to dominate everyone that you meet.”

 Situational awareness is all about profiling. This has nothing to do with race. We all know that bad guys come in all races, sizes, ages, and sex. You are profiling anything that is simply out of place or unusual. It can be as simple as a glance that is adverted quickly when eye contact is made. It can as simple as a certain type of car. Yes, we do profile cars……right? One of my favorite profiling games that I play is the “who is the most dangerous person in the general vicinity?” As long as the answer is a resounding “ME!” than I am safe. As soon as I begin to question that answer, then I know that I really need to be on my toes. Ego can never be part of this game, the truth is the truth and everything less is a lie. This question cannot be answered through target shooting. Fighting and target shooting have next to nothing to do with each other.

As Gabe pointed out in his book "The Combative Perspective" the term "mindset" is very vague and does not do justice to the necessary mental aspect of the fight. People think that mindset is just awareness and willingness. In my opinion that is less that 10% of the true combative perspective. Gabe sets out the combative perspective into four categories. Inside of each of these four categories are subcategories. The mental aspect of the fight that people refer to as mindset is much more than just awareness and willingness. Gabe’s book is 97 pages. Over half of my “Point Shooting Progressions” book is about the mental aspect of the fight.

Gabe's book is set up as;

Desire for Victory

Elimination of Uncertainty

Situational Awareness

Willingness to act

While most of this is covered in Gabe's book we can also consider;

Know yourself

Know the adversary

Know the dynamics of a fight

Know the correct context of a fight

Know avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation

Know that the situation is the dictating factor

Know the best strategies for your very personal mission

Know when to apply your wide range of tactics

Know which skill sets facilitate the best use of your tactics

Your tactics are worthless without having your head straight.

Your skill sets are worthless without having your head straight.

Your equipment is worthless without having your head straight.

Mindset

Tactics

Skill sets

Equipment

In that order!

The brain is the ultimate weapon....everything else is just a tool.

Discuss this here

Check out Roger's schedule here

Force on Force with Randy Harris

By Chris Upchurch, Suarez International Staff Instructor

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to assist with the Force on Force class that Randy Harris taught here in Columbia, SC. Force on Force was one of the very first S.I. classes I took back in 2007. While the fundamentals are still the same, the class has evolved quite a bit since then.

The other host for the class was fellow S.I instructor Alex Nieuwland. We were also joined by S.I. Staff Instructor J.D. Lester. Both of them took the course as students. There were nine other students, including some repeat customers from Alex and my previous courses in Columbia. Most were from South Carolina or neighboring states, but a few came from as far afield as Pennsylvania and Missouri.

I brought my usual FoF gear. I ran a pair of KWA airsoft Glock 17s in Archangel holsters. Not only does a class like this give a good chance to practice dual carry, I also find that it takes two airsoft guns to keep one running. They may look like Glocks, but they definitely don't have the Glock level of reliability. I also brought a couple of Nok trainers, for stabbing people with. This isn't a 0-5 class, but it's still an important part of the threat spectrum. My bag also held the usual complement of blue guns, since even when working with airsoft they're useful as demo tools. I brought an airsoft mask for when I was participating in scenarios, as well as some safety sunglasses, for eye protection when I was just observing. One thing I didn't bring was any airsoft armor (no sweatshirts or other padding). This is both because I wasn't planning to participate a lot and because I like to maintain some pain as a reminder that it's a good thing not to get shot. I brought a long sleeved cover shirt (though it got warm enough I kept the sleeves rolled up when I wasn't actively participating). 

Other folks brought a mixture of the traditional airsoft guns and the Umarex CO2 powered pistols. They also generally brought more airsoft armor (sweatshirts) than I did, though they were getting shot a lot more. One place a couple of people were caught short was headgear. If you get an airsoft BB in part of the head the mask doesn't cover it's going to sting quite a bit. Some kind of hat or a hood on your sweatshirt is very helpful (particularly for some of our follicly challenged students).

Saturday

Randy started the class off with a safety lecture. Interestingly for a class involving no live fire, he started by going through the 4 safety rules. He talked about how these applied in the airsoft environment. Even though we'll be pointing airsoft guns at each other, we still don't want to be careless with our muzzles. When we point a gun at someone in FoF, it's with the intention of destroying them (as thoroughly as they can be destroyed with airsoft BBs anyway). He also went through some airsoft specific safety precautions, concentrating on eye protection. This is the one place where airsoft BBs can really hurt you. As he put it, "It's all fun and games until someone looses an eye." Accordingly everyone participating in a drill needs to wear a paintball mask, and even if you're not actively participating everyone needs to wear eye protection.

To provide some context to the class, Randy talked about how S.I.'s FoF compares to other handgun training, using IDPA as an example. In an IDPA stage, the shooter faces static targets, in a known configuration. They aren't going to maneuver, or shoot back, or try to stab you. None of these things are true in a real fight.

Next, Randy went through his excellent PESTS lecture. Rather than recapitulating this, I'll just point you to his recent, epic post on the subject. 

After the lecture, Randy had the students put up their real guns, knives, etc. Alex and I patted everyone down to make sure they didn't have any live weapons on them. The first FoF drill was the Matt Dillon drill. Two students faced off at about four yards and on command they drew and shot the other guy. The most common result was simultaneous shots, with both students getting hit. We call this the suicide drill for a reason.

Randy asked the students what kind of sight picture they were getting. Nobody claimed to have had a perfect sight picture, and most admitted they weren't getting any sort of sight picture at all. Despite this, everyone was getting good hits. This developed into a short discussion of point shooting.

To put the Mat Dillon drill into context, Randy went through the basics of how pistol bullets stop people: fear, pain, lower the blood pressure to the brain, sever the spinal cord, and destroy critical parts of the brain. Of these the only ones that are both sure stoppers and instantaneous are the spinal cord and the brain. Any other hit may to take some time to take effect. Beating your opponent to the draw by a fraction of a second hardly guarantees victory. In fact it probably leaves him plenty of time to try to kill you before he expires.

The solution is to take advantage of the adversary's OODA loop, rather than trying to outdraw him. The OODA loop is a description of the human decision making process. We Observe a change in our environment, Orient by putting that change into the context of our knowledge and previous experience, Decide what we're going to do in response, then Act to carry out that decision. Running through this loop in personal combat takes 1.5 - 2 seconds. 

We can take advantage of the adversaries OODA loop by getting off the X: moving off our original position and forcing our opponent back to the beginning of the loop. While he goes through the OODA cycle, we can be drawing, maneuvering for a better position and getting shots on board.

Randy showed the Pekiti takeoff, some footwork that we've borrowed from Fillapino knife fighting that can help get us off the X quicker. This is one of those things that's difficult to describe in writing, but essentially you drop your body weight and use that drop to shift one foot back to drive off of. It allows for a very quick GOTX.

After the students practiced their takeoff for a bit, Randy discussed the merits of choosing different directions to get off the X in. Generally, versus an assailant armed with a firearm we prefer the forward oblique angles, since these provide the biggest change in angle, from the adversary's point of view.

To test how well people were getting off the X, the students went up against Randy. Randy has one of the fastest elbow-up elbow-down drawstrokes I've ever seen, but even against this students were able to get off the X before he could shoot when they executed everything correctly.

At this point we broke up into groups of two and practiced getting off the X. Initially, one student drew and fired at the spot where the other student was standing while he got off the X. Once they had this down, to make it a bit more challenging we started working GOTX against the drawn gun. This time the student playing the bad guy role could shoot as soon as he saw the other student move. Even with the gun already out, students could generally get out of the way before the shot.

Up until this point we'd been focusing on the good guy getting off the X. Now we added in some return fire. After moving off the X the good guy now drew and fired a single shot in return. This managed to mess some people up. As soon as you start thinking about drawing and firing, there's a tendency to prioritize this over movement. Ideally, moving and drawing should initiate at the same moment, but if one has to happen before the other, it should be movement.

After a late lunch, we resumed practicing getting off the X. To keep the student playing the bad guy from cheating, because he knows the student is going to get off the X, and can probably make a good guess about the direction, Randy had them draw and fire their first shot with their eyes closed. 

Since everyone seemed to have the basics down, Randy upped the ante a bit. Rather than just firing a single shot, the bad guy student fired one at the good guy's original position, then tracked began tracking them and firing a second shot. This simulates the assailant working through his OODA loop and adjusting to your movement. In return, we let the good guy fire a pair, rather than just a single shot. Once the students had worked this for a while, Randy allowed each student to fire multiple shots. 

We picked up some discussion of point shooting from earlier and talked about what kind of sight picture people got while getting off the X. The universal answer was that they weren't really using the sights, this was pure point shooting. 

To finish up the day, Randy had everyone work the GOTX drill without any sort of OODA lag on the adversary's part. They could draw and fire directly towards the good guy as he moved, without having to shoot at his original position.

With this, we wrapped things up for the day. Alex arranged for a neighborhood eatery to cater a nice spaghetti dinner for us. After we were done eating, Randy got things going on the Glock Armorer class.

Sunday

We picked up on Sunday morning with a few more GOTX drills similar to what we'd been doing at the end of the day on Saturday to get everybody warmed up. Then we moved on to dealing with opponents armed with contact weapons (knives, clubs, etc.). The nice thing about contact weapons is that if you can stay out of arms' reach, you're safe. The problem is that's easier said than done.

When confronted by a knife armed assailant, most peoples' instinct is to backpedal away. This is one of the worst ways to handle the situation. The assailant can probably run forwards faster than you can backpedal and backpedaling increases the risk that you'll trip on something and end up falling and bouncing the back of your head on the asphalt. That's a pretty good way to knock yourself out. Far better to point your toes and hips in the direction you want to go and run.

Which direction? Well, there are basically two options: increase distance or change the angle. If you are far enough and have enough speed, you can just turn tail and run. Then, as you're running, draw your gun and twist around to shoot. How well turning it into a footrace like this works is going to depend on how fast you are relative to the assailant and how much distance you start off with. The other option is to take a page from our pistol GOTX techniques and change the angle. This doesn't require as much speed and it works at shorter distances (provided you're outside of arms' reach to begin with).

Randy had everyone start out working this as a big group. One student was the good guy, another the bad guy and everyone else watched. After running it a couple of times the bad guy became the good guy and a new bad guy rotated in. This allowed everyone a chance to see what worked and what didn't and to get some feedback from Randy on what they were doing. One important element that became obvious pretty quick is that it works much better if you go to their non-weapon side. If you go towards the hand with the knife in it the slightest miscalculation means you'll end up running right into the knife. After everyone had a chance to go a couple of times, we broke up into pairs and worked on it some more. 

Next up: multiple adversaries. If you're the bad guy, working in a two-man team, from your perspective the best place for the victim is between you. If you're the good guy, the best place for the bad guys are lined up, so one bad guy is between you and the second bad guy (this is called "stacking"). Exactly how this unfolds in real life depends a lot on how each side maneuvers. To demonstrate the dynamics of this, we worked though it as a group, with two bad guys and one good guy, rotating through all the students. What generally worked best for the good guy was moving quickly and decisively. Trying to go between the bad guys generally didn't work out. The real killer, however, was waiting too long to move. When you're outnumbered you can't allow the enemy the initiative. By the time you see what he's committed to its probably too late. 

We broke for lunch, then returned and continued with multiple adversaries, this time three on one. The difficulty really ramps up here. This is one of the things I really love about Force on Force. Against static, paper targets, gunning down three in succession looks pretty cool. The three target array is a staple of many gun games and training courses. In reality, going up against three adversaries that actively maneuver and shoot back is extremely difficult. It's not impossible, but it's going to take a lot more than just a quick trigger finger and good target to target transitions. You need to be decisive, smart, and aggressive, and deploy good GOTX tactics to come out on top.

To finish up the class, we ran through some scenarios. We had the student's hang out in the garage and sent them down the driveway one at a time. I played the bad guy, allowing Randy to stand back and observe.

In the first scenario, I acted as an aggressive panhandler. Randy told me to turn it into a robbery if I really got them into an advantageous position, but none of the students let me get that close. I moved to intercept the student, block his progress down the driveway and insistently ask for money. If the student got around me, I let them go, and if they gave me a really strong verbal "back off" I did (though I didn't move out of their way). Other than that I was pretty insistent. 

The students' responses covered quite a wide range. Those who were quick, decisive, or willing to walk of the path often got by me. Those who were more tentative usually didn't. A few of them pulled guns on me, and one of them lit me up.

The next scenario was more of a straight up robbery. It also included Alex as a second opponent coming up behind the student. I stopped their forward progress and distracted them while Alex came up behind, then we proceeded with the robbery. 

Again, the students had a range of responses. One student managed to get in a gunfight with Alex before he ever got down to me. The quick, decisive ones managed to slip by me and avert the robbery altogether. This time, those who ended up stopping ended up in a real bad spot, trapped between me and Alex. The way it usually unfolded was almost comical: the student heard Alex coming up behind him and looked over his shoulder, he looked back at me, then back at Alex, then when he looked back at me he found himself staring down the muzzle of my airsoft gun. I was able to pull this sort of thing off several times. 

Our last scenario was a carjacking. The setup was that the students were coming out of the gym and getting in their car. J.D. Lester parked his car in the driveway. The students were given a duffel bag with their gym gear in it and they had to come out of the garage and get in the car. Alex or I were crouching down on the far side of the car and when the students were occupied with the car door we ran around the back and tried to jack them. Despite being hypervigilant in a way that only a scenario-based self-defense class can make you, most students didn't walk around and check for someone hiding behind the car. Most of them did manage to pick up on the BG before he got right up to them, but in a few cases the assailant got within arms' reach.

With this, we wrapped things up. Alex and I pitched our upcoming classes (including Randy's 0-5 class in Columbia next April) and Randy handed out the certificates. 

Conclusions

As usual, Randy ran a great class. The students were enthusiastic and eager to learn. IThe curriculum did a good job of getting the students to understand the usual S.I. fundamentals of getting off the X and point shooting. 

One of the big differences from the last time I took the full Force on Force class is the addition of the scenarios on Sunday afternoon. I think they did a real good job reinforcing Randy's PESTS lecture and emphasizing the need for quick, decisive movement. If you keep moving it's going to go a lot better for your than if you stand around dithering.

One thing several incidents during the class reinforced was that airsoft magazines are nowhere near as durable as the real thing. Students broke several mags, both from traditional airsoft guns and from the Umarexes. Generally the culprit was accidentally dropping the mag, usually during the draw. Another problem we saw a couple of times was difficulty with the safeties. In particular, the sliding safety on the Umarex guns sometimes gets engaged as you put it in the holster. Another reason to grind that thing down and perhaps glue it in the fire position.

In sum, I would highly recommend this class, along with anything else Randy Harris teaches.

Guerilla Sniper Kingman Oct 2011 - What Students Say

Wow! never did I imagine I could take a stock FAL throw on a $300 weaver 3-10 and make head shots at 600 and body shots out to 1000 (not without some work on the 1000 but none the less accomplished the task). 

If you ever wanted to push the limits of your platform and your abilities this class is for you! 

We had every kind of rifle imaginable at this class bolts to semi's .223 to 50cal (that was a treat from Gabe for fun) for the most part everyone was shooting .308 and hitting steel all day. Day one was spent from 100-500 getting things dialed in and getting our Dope the amount of useful info you get from this class about you and your weapons capabilities is priceless. 

Day 2 the wind picked up steadily blowing around 8-10 and gusting up to 15 at times being in a valley surrounded by peak added to the challenge of reading the wind properly but we all manged to get good hits out to 800-900 yards. I actually made a first round hit at 800 with the FAL and was able to get good hits at 900. 1000 became a challenge mostly because I was zeroed at 100 and ran out of mill hold over. 

Day 3 we were given scenarios and target identification drills these were a real eye opener to the limited window a sniper might have to acquire, identify and eliminate a target all after doing a 50-75 yard sprint.

Hasty hides were the next order of business major lesson taken away from this exercise - the world is not a prone place, if all your long distance training is done from prone you will be disappointed when you get into position and realize you have no shot from prone-practice alternate shooting positions as much as possible! seated, kneeling standing use your spotter for support all manor of improvised positions will be greatly beneficial.

 

I could keep going with all the great things you will take away from this course but I think everyone should find out for themselves just how much they can get out of it. Sign up get your gear and get ready to hear the magical sound of- "on scope, on trigger, send it- bang.... wait for it... wait for it... ting!!" you just made a 1000 yard shot at a torso size steel!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kingman Gurilla Sniper Class (Oct. 2011)... Another Point of View 

I had been searching for a "long range rifle class" for some time when I somehow ran across Suarez Int's. web site and found a class titled "Guerrilla Sniper". I had not even clicked the link to the course description yet but somehow I knew this would be the training I had been searching for. Any outfit with the balls big enough to name the class Guerrilla Sniper had my attention. 

My gut told me this wouldn't be like your mommas, run of the mill, milk toast, wussafide, treat you like a your no-nothing douche type of class. Reality confirmed my initial feelings.

There were a couple of things the course was NOT:  It was NOT the place for Government haters to gather and conspire or even swap theories on how to bring down the current regime. Gabe made that clear early on, “This is not the place to have those types of discussions, don't even go there.”  

It was NOT a Marine sniper course or any other branch of service’s course. Stalking or map and compass work was not included. Ghillie suit construction was not covered, nor should it have been.

 

I will say offer that for a 3 day course the principals of marksmanship were probably up to par with most of the training an aspiring sniper in the service of his Country will get. Gabe seems to have a way to cut right to the bone and strip away the nonsense and fluff.

 

It was NOT a “this is the kind of rifle you must obtain if you are to be a true sniper” course either. There was none of the holier than thou attitude that seems to be prevalent elsewhere. As it turns out that whatever you have you can pretty much make work. Learn what your rifle is capable of, know its limitations, know your limitations and train, train train. 

It was (for me) an eye opening study of violence. 

What has history shown us on the subject of Guerrilla Sniping? Well, when the question was asked it caused me to think about... the IRA and Kosovo or wars in the Balkans. Oh, and those nasty folks in the Southern Philippines, they seem to employ their own brand of Guerrilla sniper tactics. How about our own home grown D.C. sniper? Apparently they studied tactics that are used in the middle east even today.

 

So many examples in history and even current events show us the various ways this specialized violence has been employed. It was very interesting to think about. We were encouraged to Ignore the label of Good guys and Bad guys and just contemplating various tactics used through out time. 

The GS course taught me alot about my own equipment that I presently own and brought to light some shortcomings. Let me say that Muzzle suppression and better optics are in my future... 

My confidence at getting first round hits at distances heretofore thought not do-able has been greatly bolstered. Smacking steel at 600 yards with a cold bore shot? Me? Well, yes as a matter of fact, quite doable. Hitting steel from 1000 yards from a standing position? Me? No. Not even remotely close to that skill level BUT I have the tools and basic foundation to someday check it off my bucket list. 

Being physically fit and flexible is another little gem of truth that was made painfully clear to me. 

During the sitting shooting position training I got zero sympathy from anybody when I started to whine about my damaged hip and lack of flexibility. “Yeah, Gabe cracked several vertebrae in his back and look how flexible he is” offered Dale Hunter who was assisting Gabe during the course.

Coordinated fire, target recognition and clear concise communication were taught and experienced by each class member.

Have you every shot a rifle from a vehicle? Do you have any idea what it sounds like to have rounds coming at you? How about suppressed fire from a .308 or a .223 or a pistol? Ever heard of a “wet” suppressor? How far can you reliably shoot sub-sonic ammo?

The GS course answered those questions and much more.

 

I could go on an on but at the risk of sounding like a hyperventilating, cool-aid drinking, SI groupie, let me just say the Guerrilla Sniper course exceeded all of my personal expectations. A nice bonus were the considerate, well prepared (rifle zeroed and generally squared away attitude) class mates. 

The real world, no BS training and information from Gabe and Dale made my 3 days in the Arizona desert a great experience not to mention a mind expanding event that I will not only remember but apply in my life to further my quest to be an effective rifleman. 

Avery

When I signed up, I knew this would be an excellent class. It turned out to be epic. Many, many thanks to Gabe and Dale for teaching a fantastic class! Also, having seriously awesome classmates made it an even better learning experience. 

In all honesty, I showed up a tiny bit nervous about shooting a .223 AR when I was pretty sure everyone else would be shooting something more formidable. I had tried to make peace with my competitive perfectionista streak and accepted the possibility of facing some massively frustrating moments beyond 700. ...turns out that wasn't really necessary. Even with wind and rain complicating things, hitting body sized targets out to 1000 was actually a perfectly reasonable goal to try for beyond the class goal of heads at 200 and bodies at 600. And BTW, hitting the head at 700-800 can be done just fine. I didn't have time to try at 900, however, at 1000, with those conditions, getting the head got a little maddening and giving the target repeated "haircuts" produced my most expletive-filled couple of minutes in recent memory, but, you know what, I managed to, even with .223. All in all, I was very pleased with the results.

 

That said, if you can handle running around and shooting well with something larger, common sense dictates using that. It may very well be in store for me at a later date, but at this point, being relatively new to rifles, smaller than most and not being the strongest ox on the farm, it's what made sense for me. I wanted to use a weapon that was a realistic option for me right now and find out what my limitations are - whether gear-based or user-based. I absolutely did not want to use something that I would need to hire a freakin' team of sherpas to cart around for me, simply for the sake of doing well in a class -- talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face! I figure if you're going to have a moment of cold hard reckoning with the limitations of your gear and abilities, during a class with amazing instructors and terrific classmates is just about the only good time & place for that.

Rifle: AR w/ 16" barrel, 1:7 twist, a lovely Geissele trigger, and stock collapsed down to nothing for my T-Rex arms. The rifle itself did great. Misses & inaccuracies were on account of my shortcomings.

Learning to read the wind better, knowing/understanding my numbers, getting better at plain old running the rifle, etc are all on my skills-to-improve-upon list.

For what it's worth, I liked running the semi-auto. Granted, I haven't spent much time with bolt guns, so I am biased. Follow-up shots were stupidly easy and in changing wind conditions, being able to fire off another shot or two before it changed again was nice. The virtually non-existent recoil helped in that regard too, along with making it simple to spot your own shots. I'm sure the aforementioned would have been harder had I been shooting a semi-auto .308 that kicks like a PCP-addled mule with anger management issues. But perhaps someday I'll see fit to school that mule... 

Ammo: .223, 77 gr match ammo (So as to avoid Dale's wrath, I won't mention the manufacturer... ) 

Scope: Nikon 4-14X, mildots w/ MOA dials. I had mine cranked up to 14X for most everything beyond a few hundred yards. The ability to adjust the scope was key while I was sitting in the shrubs -- peering through a couple hundred yards worth of branches & leaves at 14X gets really stupid really quickly. The mildots worked nicely for me. I had to go on a few mad dialing sprees: at 700, 900 & 1000. However, with the numbers handy, it was easy. In fact, if I had to do it over again, I'd probably dial up even more since I had dialed in increments that gave me just enough to make hold overs work.

That said, I still owe Gabe 44 burpees on account of screwing up the redial back to my 200 yd zero after Day 2 and consequently, turfing my target acquisition drill shot on Day 3... Yeah, good gear will never fully compensate for end-user-idiocy. Lesson learned: if you messed with your gear, get it back to where it should be before you leave the range/while your head's still in it. DO NOT wait til you've got a big dinner & a couple of beers in your belly and are on the verge of falling asleep on your feet to start messing with numbers & dials... because that's when bad things happen. 

Ruck/bag: My bag was on the small side, so from prone, the adjustable bipod won out. But in the shrubs, I ended up needing the bag + my partner's ruck under my leg for a seated-ish shot. Given how well others did with it, I'll be playing with using a larger bag in lieu of the bipod though. 

Bipod: This was an immensely helpful tool to me when prone, especially when paired up with a sandbag under the butt. However, during the hides, I either didn't use it at all or didn't use it in its intended way, and then removed it entirely for the vehicle hide (hooray for quick release).

Small sandbag: for under your rifle's butt when prone and under your butt, or thereabouts, when not. It's worth its weight in... ummm, well, sand. 

Sling: Using the sling made a huge difference for one of my awkwardly seated shots from the shrubby hides and certainly helped for getting back on target quickly when we worked the sling/hand/wall supported position. I also realized that I had practiced shooting righty and lefty, but neglected ambidextrous practice for wrapping the sling... Lets just say that I had a TMCO tourniquet flashback during my initial attempt when I went lefty. Given the amount of time and attention it took (ie, perplexedly staring at my arm thinking "nope, that cannot possibly be right" and then fidgeting around, probably shaking the heck out of the shrub I was hiding behind), I will be working on making that skill second-nature, not second-look. That way, I can keep my eyes up instead. 

Suppressors: *sigh*sniff*sigh* went the Californian, with tears of envy staining the AZ dirt below. Silly whining aside, hearing the shots at different distances was quite educational. Ditto the compare/contrast session on subsonic ammo. On the opposite end of the scale, the crack-boom of a .50 cal is really just one of the most satisfying noises EVER.

 

Sniper veil: Pros - lightweight & compact, easy to quickly throw over yourself in any position, and it's a decent quick fix to better controlling where your brass goes - I figured that out after forgetting to clean up one of my hides and getting a friendly reminder from some classmates who found my brass on their way out. (Eagle-eyed classmates rock!) Cons - can get caught up in twigs at inopportune moments, flimsy & a bit fluttery in wind. Extra-Big-Con - if placed imperfectly, a strong gust, such as from a car window opening, can move it so that you can no longer see well. 

Fitness: As with all other combatives-related endeavors, being fit will only help you. A lack of fitness will hasten your early demise. Strength, flexibility, speed, endurance - everyone needs these. Even in this fairly sedentary class, the extra 10-12 lbs I've let creep on over the last 18 months got in the way.

Pink Gorilla suit: ESSENTIAL!!!!! 

I didn't have the following on me during class, but... rangefinder, wind meter & binos seemed like they were used to good effect by others & will be finding their way into my ever growing Pile O' Gear. When I upgrade to a smarter smartphone, one of those nifty apps will get added first thing. Uhhh, I'm allowed to have all of those in CA, right...?!? :P 

Also, I owe many thanks to SI Instructor Extraordinaire, Uli Gebhard, for getting me squared away on my rifle fundamentals earlier this year at Rifle Gunfighting and to my friend and classmate Chris for putting in a huge amount of time & effort over the last few months tinkering with the AR to get it "just right" for me and familiarizing me with all of the bells n' whistles on it/the optic. My only other rifle experience having been my Saiga w/ iron sights, the poor guy had to answer a lot of different iterations of: what the heck is this? and it does what? why? how? uhhm, did I just break it? 

So, in a nutshell: GS is an amazing class. To get the most out of it, use good gear, get it in order beforehand, make sure you've got your fundamental skills down pat and show up willing to tackle any and all challenges given to you in class.

***************************************

GUERRILLA SNIPER TWO IS IN THE PLANNING STAGES FOR FALL OF 2012

TSD Combat Systems Video

 

Changing, Evolving, Adjusting--What, When, Why

Is it a mistake to be corrected, or a change from something that works to something that works better? If you're an instructor, what about your students? Is there only one right way for them as well? Thoughts on the subject of evolution and advancement.

CR Williams, Suarez International Staff Instructor

I've been an active Suarez International Staff Instructor about a year now, which means that I don't have a lot of 'time on the clock' actively teaching gunfighting. Even in that short time, interesting ideas that bear some thinking about have come up, one of which I wrote of in The Fifty-Percent Trap. That idea started with a statement.

This other idea started as a question: What have you changed about your techniques or methods of handling a gun or gunfighting since you started training?

My answer was, and still is, that I can't think of anything that hasn't changed since I started learning how to fight with a gun. I've got many years on the clock as a student of the fight. I did not actively train that whole time, but I still studied and watched,  asked questions and worked over concepts, considered and practiced techniques, systems, and methodologies of combat armed and not. I can name five separate gunfighting systems alone that I have examined over time. In one posting on that thread I said could not remember about certain specific changes I have made in my own practice, only that I suspect that I've made them, because of how long I've been considering the fight. I suspect that others of you, even those that have not been looking at this as long as I have, are the same way. We've seen a lot of things, learned a lot of things, and changed so much since we started that it seems like everything even if it's not.

So "pretty much everything over time" was my answer. So then another question was asked just for instructors: What have you changed about what you teach or the way you teach it since you started?

My answer to that was that I haven't been instructing long enough, (as this article is posted, just one year) to see changes that are needed in what I teach or the way I teach it so far. My limited experience told me first to wait for additional experience. I said that I expected that in time I would make changes, but that so far I didn't have enough 'time on the clock' to make considered judgments about it.

The response to that was revealing as to how the questioner, and probably others, appear to define things, which is  apparently very definitely in terms of right and wrong. The expressed determination and definition is apparently that you go from doing something wrong to doing something right, from mistake to correction as you progress in your knowledge and capability. This is not the way I think of it, and so it bears some thinking about the idea of "changing".

The questions and the answers raised more questions: When is a change the result of a realized mistake, something you discovered you were doing wrong, and when is it the result of a realization that something else works better and is more effective than what you were doing before? How do you define what is wrong and what is not current or state-of-the-art? Was I wrong to have adopted those other methodologies as I did, and was I correcting a mistake when I progressed to another methodology that I believed was better, or simply going from less effective to more effective methods? As an instructor, should I push what I believe to be correct on to my students, even if it doesn't work for them as well as it works for me?

Revolver, Semiauto: One doesn't work at all, or one just works better than the other for more people and places?

Here's where the apparently stricter position and definition breaks down: The other methodologies can and do still work. As I point out in Where Modern Technique Went Wrong, Modern Technique, like the Traditional Martial Arts it has joined, can still save lives and continues to do so. But it is no longer the best solution for the civilian gun-carrier. Does that make MT wrong as a methodology? For some, certainly...but for everyone?

I've been a student of the fight long enough to understand that there is no "one size fits all" kind of technique or methodology. What is right for one person may be wrong for another. Seen from this perspective, there is only what works best and what doesn't, not what is right or what is wrong in some over-arching sense. It is possible that, although other instructors have more time on the 'instructing clock' than I do, that I have more time on the 'student of combat' clock than they do, and this can explain the different ways we view the same thing. It is also possible that they believe that what they teach is so flexible and adaptable and/or over-arching that even though they acknowledge better specific techniques and specific methods within their methodologies, they have locked themselves out of the idea of a technique or concept, class of concepts, or methodology that doesn't work as well sometimes and for some people as it does for other times and other people.

Consider the Modern Technique vs. what Suarez International currently teaches. SI instructor Randy Harris has accurately stated that we do indeed teach aspects of Modern Technique. Those aspects are presented in our basic handgun courses, Introduction to Defensive Pistol and Defensive Pistol Skills and in our one-day HITS handgun courses. What would be wrong in this case would be if SI taught those aspects to our primary student group (civilians facing reactive gunfight situations) beyond that point. MT methodology is not as effective for them and is not as adaptable to their needs, as what SI teaches at the intermediate level and beyond. As I have said, though, that doesn't make MT totally ineffective, doesn't make it wrong as a fighting methodology. It, like other Traditional Martial Arts, just doesn't fit our current 'battlefield' as well as it did in the past.

Here lies, I believe, the source of the discrepancy of viewpoint between me (and SI) and these others, both students and instructors. They appear to be looking at techniques and methodologies as wrong or right, whereas I (and SI) look at them as being current or applicable to a given threat environment or group (or even a specific student's need) or not.

One to the other: Outright change, or simple adjustment based on considered judgment?

In my view, I would be wrong to use an inappropriate methodology. In my view, I move from what is not current to what is, from less effective to more effective, from less applicable to more applicable. I move from what still works but not as well to State Of The Art. Others apparently move from mistake to correction and from what is wrong to what is right.

Perhaps their estimation of the gap between what is best and what is not, what is right and what is wrong is too large and rigid. Perhaps they really believe that what works best for one works best for everyone, or that the technique they discarded for something better isn't just not as effective or useful, but that it doesn't work at all anymore. I doubt this belief is as rigid as it reads like it is, but I also see some 'cookie cutter' teaching outside the military and law enforcement arena (where one-size-fits-all training is understandably common) that is simply unsuitable to the needs of the student.

I've become increasingly conscious of this reality: What I teach someone can have a direct bearing on whether they live or die. This makes it important--very important--for me to be rigidly flexible, absolutely adaptable, and conservatively considerate of everything I pass on to them, and to know more and different things than just what works for me. People I teach and people I write for here and in other venues need more from me than to be nothing more than wrong or right by definition. They need me to be current and adaptable, to be flexible and informed of present and past and to be able to pull from all of that to meet their needs, even if what they need is something I don't define as 'current' or that others define as 'right'. They need me to be as sure as I can be that a change or evolution or adaptation, however it's defined, is useful and beneficial before I teach it or promote it, no matter how new it is or how good it looks on TV and DVD.

For their sake, I can't afford to change, and I can't afford not to. There is the paradox of it.

Whatever they need to stay alive and win. Whatever they need to be the ones that go home when the fight is over. That is what I provide now, that is what I will continue to provide as long as I am able to. That is my word on it to you.

It would be wrong of me do anything else.

Stay safe out there. And if you can't stay safe, be dangerous.

Train with CR Williams

Train with a Suarez International Instructor in your area.

 

Interview Of Gabe Suarez by Military Arms Channel

We spent some time with David Fortier at the recent Big Three Event.  Military Arms Channel was there and did an interview with us regarding the new TSD Combat Systems.  You will find the entire video extremely interesting.  We appear at about 9:25 

 

Conditioned Response

          

Conditioned Response
By Scott Vaughn

    Have you ever wondered why we train in and with weapons, tactics and combatives? The reason is to learn the best techniques for our application and how to train and develop the muscle memory, those instinctive values, so we ingrain into our muscles and minds the Conditioned Response! What makes or allows us to respond/react to a given stimulus? If a car slams on the brakes at a distance of 500 feet ahead of you and you are travelling at 60 MPH, how do you react? If you see this as it happens, you probably start braking to a controlled stop, if necessary. Of course, if you are not paying attention at the time the car slams on the brakes and moment you realize this has occurred, the car is at a distance of 50 feet in front of you and you are travelling the same speed as above, what is your reaction now? Most likely you stomp on your brake pedal while trying to veer the car into a path to avoid the crash. Maybe you don’t try to veer but only slam the brake. Maybe you only veer and no brake. However you handle this crisis, it will most likely be different than the response to the first mentioned situation. Agreed? The response taken is conditioned, whether from years of driving experience or a new driver lacking the driving experience to help make snap decisions. The difference in the response will be from experience, training, instruction or maybe yesterday’s movie. Yes, we have all been mentally conditioned all of our lives from media, school, peers, family, the neighbors, etc. How deeply fixed in your subconscious the conditioning is will help determine how you respond/react.

    These are all typically conditioned responses of a variety of people. The first instinctive reaction from the stimulus comes from the mid-brain and depends on 1: experiences we have been through in our life. 2: the wrong type of information instilled in our mid-brain (where our instinctive reactions are housed) for given stimuli. 3: the lack of training, experiences and mental conditioning. 4: ingrained/habitual reactions that we have developed through repetition of training and practice.

    Remember when we were kids? We were indestructible, we could do anything given the right chance, we would never get ‘old’ but always get stronger, faster, better, smarter and would live forever! We had not experienced life but only a fraction of it. Then most of us started driving and learned dangerous situations could happen fast, our fault or not. Some never made it through their first year of driving, but those of us that did, understood driving could be dangerous and not as easily done like we assumed from watching our parents or from television. Some continued to take chances and others didn’t. Some took drivers training to learn to be a better/safer driver and most others didn’t. Of those that took the driver training, did it ensure the successfully safe driving experience for life? Of course not as there are no guarantees in life, period! But it did help condition them with, hopefully, better responses to more stimuli while driving and faster reaction time from not having to think all the way through the response. In highly stressful situations, the fore-brain (the part of the brain that we use to think rationally) shuts down and the mid-brain takes over to instruct us to react from our mental conditioning. –Conditioned Response-

    When we were kids we started developing reactions or habits. Some of these habits we carried with us to adulthood. These conditioned reactions, habits, are hard to unlearn sometimes. If you don’t develop better, safer, quicker habits and just continue to feel what you do is ‘OK’, you will never reach your potential and ALL of the bad habits/responses/reactions can get you and/or yours killed! I’m reminded 4 times a month by those that attend my concealed carry classes. Most have been around guns a long time and have developed habits from their parents and friends for things like the grip, the way they look through the sights (one eye closed) and how to stand while target shooting. Even though they are shown the best way to do some of these, once a pistol goes into their hands, their old habits automatically take over! They also are reminded repeatedly throughout the class of gun safety rule # 3, yet when they finally get to handle their guns….finger goes to trigger for too many of them.

    When our men and women of our military go over a technique once, they are soon convinced they will revisit this particular lesson numerous times, sometimes until some are sick of it! Repetition is necessary to build the muscle memory for a conditioned reaction to combat that can save their life, and/or the lives of their friends. Most of this training is done under circumstances to build the best response to the situations they may face on the battle field. These consist of training in the rain, the cold/heat, with the sound of guns firing and bullets buzzing overhead! Conditioned response! Some martial art students learn maneuvers and techniques for combat. They train these moves repeatedly to develop the muscle memory it takes to use the moves automatically. Most of the training and techniques are new to these men and women but they still learn it, just like you can. Occasionally they fight under controlled circumstances to help develop the ideal conditioned responses to the stimuli shown to them via opponent.

    It is proven that training and experience can be developed properly and with it, conditioned responses for certain circumstances, i.e. FOF, CRG, 0-5 feet GF, etc. That trained and experienced people generally survive more than those who are not, is a given. My brothers and sisters at SI understand this and I think most others would agree. The difference is this: We study and train to develop the techniques that are proven to work under combat. We work to build the muscle memory and habits for those reactive situations we all know can happen anytime/anywhere. We put ourselves in the Lion’s Den to help condition the mind and body. The ability to make immediate decisions under stress needs to be developed. To fine tune the OODA Loop.

    If you can see the threat coming toward you from 100 feet away, how would you react? Think about this for a few seconds, but I think you already have a plan of some type for this situation. Maybe you get set in mind and body for the fight. Maybe you take off to avoid the fight, if you have this option. Possibly you move to cover or just haul ass out of there. Whatever you decide will depend on the situational elements: Inside or outside- Family with you or not- Dark or light- Raining or not- Armed with gun or knife- or not…. If, when you first realize the threat is there, you are 25 feet apart, how will you react? Maybe you freeze! Maybe you bust a ‘GOTX’ to cover or to avoid the BG’s attack or shot, possibly to line up the 2 BG’s to make your defense easier (yeah, we know multiple advisories are anything but easy). The relative distance between you and the threat will definitely make a big difference in the immediate level of necessity to respond with the best decision. If your BG is standing behind you holding a pistol to the back of your head and says “Get in the car and drive or die right here”, how will you react? Freeze and give-up? Or mess up your BG’s OODA Loop by explosively moving your head to one side while turning to wrench his shoulder and arm to control his pistol while you bash this POS in the face, knees, ribs, etc. to keep yourself/your family safe! You got it, Conditioned Response.

    Training is what we do at Suarez International. When is the best time to train for your fight? Yes, before the fight! Where is the best place to learn how to fight? You got it, Suarez International! Training people to fight with their hands, knives, guns and minds like Warriors. Helping to understand and develop the muscle memory, to build the mindset to think, act, train and fight like Warriors!

    We won’t teach you how to drive, but we will teach you how to fight with your gun from your ride! We want you to win your fight as bad as you do! Come train with us to help develop and/or sharpen your skills with SI. You are never too old or too young to become a warrior in mind, body and spirit.

      

Stop Being Afraid of Your Gun

By: Greg Nichols, Suarez International Staff Instructor

The more I train people, and train with people, the more I notice how many are afraid of their own firearm.  I find I keep running into folks who coddle their gun like they think they are going to break it or handle it like it‘s going to bite them and I find it to be a strange phenomenon that inhibits positive control of the firearm.

I find this phenomenon to be more prevalent in regards to hand guns than in rifles or shotguns.  So the only causes I can figure are two, proximity to the muzzle and overall size of the firearm.  I see people cautious of over-hand racking of the slide, riding the slide, rapid fire, loading, reloading, malfunction drills, and draw stroke.  To me a firearm is no more dangerous than a blender, toaster or automobile and I find myself wondering at the caution used in its manipulation.  A firearm is a mechanical device with a predictable result and is no more dangerous than a blender.  As long as you are operating a blender as intended it won’t hurt you.  The same goes for a handgun. If you don’t put your hand inside a toaster it won’t burn you.  If you don’t put something you care about in front of a firearm, it won’t get hurt.

Firearms are made of highly durable metals and polymers that for all intents and purposes are designed to contain and direct an explosion.  The handgun is designed to take use, abuse, and manual manipulation that comes from decades of ownership.  Do you believe that you can do more damage in manipulation than from normal functioning?  Do you not swing a hammer for fear of dropping it?  Do you not use a blender for fear that you will put your hand inside at the same time you press the button?  The caution I see isn’t from the lack of manual dexterity or strength involved in properly functioning the handgun, it’s a mental block caused by years of conditioning making a gun seem evil or inherently dangerous.  If you buy into this mode of thinking you’ve allowed a two pound inanimate object make you its bitch, and you need to become more familiar with the use and operation of the proper tool for the job. 

So how do you get more familiar with the handgun?  Well lets look at the way you learned to move a 2500 pound hunk of steel without killing yourself or others. What are some of the things in the process of learning to drive that you went through?

1. Desire:  You had the desire for the final result of being fully functional behind the wheel

2. Observation:  You watched a qualified driver function the vehicle

3. Reading:  You educated yourself in the operation of the vehicle an the rules and laws governing its use

4. Introduction:  A family member took you out and let you handle their vehicle under their supervision.  

5. Instruction:  You took a drivers education class where you gained, under direct tutelage, the basic skills needed to function your vehicle without breaking the law, hurting yourself, or hurting someone else.  You also learned about common maintenance procedures to keep your vehicle running strong.

6. Testing:  You took written and physical testing so you could demonstrate that you had a practical, working knowledge of the functioning of that vehicle.

7. Practice:  You put in hours upon hours driving under supervision with a constant stream of input from your coach to fine tune your ability.

8. Exercise:  You took the keys from Pops and began driving on your own.  You developed from the point of 10 and 2 and consciously checking your gauges, mirrors and windows, to the point that you can drink your cup of coffee, change the radio station and talk on the cell phone all while operating the vehicle.  You have ingrained that the vehicle is under your control and will do what you want it too.

So rilddle me this Batman, why is working a gun treated so differently from working a car?  I will give you two reasons.

1. The car hasn’t been vilified to the public (aside from it’s evil carbon footprint).
2. When driving a car you have no ability to skip from step 4 to step 8. There is an established, accepted process.

When you learned to drive you spent countless hours over just a few months or years learning the process. It was compressed learning and immersion instruction that allowed you to retain the information and the constant application of that process on a daily or weekly basis allowed you to own it.  Now you’re an adult learning a new skill with no point of reference other than paint-ball or Playstation.  You have learned the fear of hand guns from the media and “Experts” who fear their own their guns so now what do you do? 

FOLLOW THE PROCESS!  Go sign up for some SI classes, and set aside the time and money to learn from those that aren’t afraid of their gun.  Go learn from those that don’t treat you like the lowest common denominator.  Go associate with those who are at the top of their game and want you to join them at whatever level of competence you wish to achieve.  Go participate in regional training groups to get coaching so you can improve on the content you’ve learned in the classes you have under your belt.  Finally go practice and make these skills your own and,


STOP BEING AFRAID OF YOUR GUN!

 

TSD Combat Systems Mk 48 Feed Adapter

 

TSD Combat Systems was approached to fabricate a better feed adapter interface for the Mk 48 Machine Gun in use by special units in the middle east.  The original feed adapter, made from stampings, was deconstructing itself during extended firefights.  As soon as TSD was given the sample unit, we stopped regular production and dedicated all personnel to this project.  TSD Combat Systems turned out working proto-types within 48 hours.

These units are made of heat treated 17-4 aerospace quality steel, and guaranteed to hold up to repeated fire and extremes of heat that were destroying the original units. We supplied these in the AquaTerra™ finish and in various Cerakote colors.

Interested US Military can contact TSD at info@tsdcombatsystems.com, or call our Military Liason - Tom Cornelius at 928-776-4492.

Dealing With PESTS (Part 5 - More Practical Application)

This is going bad quickly. He was looking kind of nervous. The fence and the verbage did not dissuade him and now I'm getting forward pressure fom him as he gives some classic "facial grooming".


He shows me the triangle as he reaches for something...no time to stand around....get off the X and do something ...here we

Explode off the X
Acquire Better Position
Take the Fight to them

and we FIGHT!

Getting off the X and the ruthless counter attack completely disrupts the bad guy's OODA loop...... a burst to the chest from the TSD Glock completely disrupts the bad guy's internal organs.....




Now we

Assess (is he down? Did it work? )
Scan (Does he have friends? Are they behind me?)
Top Off (How's my Ammo?)


Instead of turning my back on him I orbit around him to check my 6 so I can Scan, Topoff and Treat injuries or Talk to who needs to be talked to without ever losing sight of the bad guy.

Dealing with PESTS (Part 4 - Practical Application)

STOP encroachment.......and Tape Loop....

Step to 3 or 9.....

We see where stepping off the X and off the line of force now opens up what was previously behind us. If we allow ourselves to get sucked into tunnelling in on the known threat the unknown might be maneuvering up on us......so step to the known threats flank as you talk to check your six!

From here if they continue to show threat signs I will bust off the X to my 10 o'clock in order to stack them and limit the#2 man's ability to engage me. Hopefully he won't shoot through his buddy to hit me..............

Dealing with PESTS (Part 3)

Suarez International Tier 1 Staff Instructor Randy Harris

 

At this point we have tried to evade and avoid we have stopped their encroachment and used the fence and our feet to stop their encroachment, get better position, and check our 6 o'clock. We have been working on deescalating the situation if possible. A fight we can avoid and walk away from is a fight won.



If confronted with an agitated individual then maintaining a calm demeanor and making sure you do not instigate a fight may well be your best strategy. Be polite and try to break contact. We obviously want to avoid a streetfight with no rules if we can. But many victims get sucked into talking far longer than is productive or practical. There is a time to talk . There is a time to act. And there is not a whole lot of overlap between the two. Sometimes verbal deescalation is not possible. Sometimes ballistic deescalation is the right answer.



If you need to fight you need to fight. If your attempt at verbal deescalation is going nowhere and he is still manuevering and now if they give us either a shift in weight (the precurser to a physical or contact weapon attack) or a furtive movement to their waisteline/belt line (reaching for a weapon) we will then...





EXPLODE OFF THE X.

I use the term "explode" because it plants the seed in your mind that this is a rapid dynamic movement . It is not a shuffle. It is not a waddle. It is not a plodding movement. It is an EXPLOSION off the spot you were previously standing on. If the fight is on, then the blade, bullets or blows that the bad guy will try to deliver are going to be addressed to your last known address. You do not want to be there when they arrive. We certainly do not want to stand rooted in place and play "Rock'em Sock'em Robots" when bullets and blades are involved!



Also if done quickly without warning this will have them reacting to you instead of them just following their "script" of how they assumed this would play out. That buys us time. It buys us the time to take the initiative and counterattack. It helps us to turn the predator into the prey. By exploding off the X we get out of the way of the initial attack and begin our immediate counter attack as we...





ACQUIRE BETTER POSITION.

I used to say "Acquire dominant position". And while that is a laudable goal I have to be realistic and admit that when caught in a reactive situation acquiring dominant position may not always be possible. But I can almost always get BETTER position than I previously had.





Even if it is just getting out of the way of the initial attack that is BETTER position than we previously had. Ideally though we will use our head start we got from stepping to 3 or 9 o'clock to allow us to not only get off the X but to move to flank them. A rapid forward oblique movement not only works to make us harder to hit initially but also gives us better position for a physical counter attack. This movement makes a firearm based counter attack simpler too since the marksmanship problem just got easier due to us getting farther from his weapon and getting the muzzle of our weapon closer to him at the same time. It also tends to rock them back on their heels and have them reacting to your attack, not carrying out their own attack.





TAKE THE FIGHT TO THEM.

This is really a mindset issue. We can not win a fight by playing defense only. Muhammed Ali may have beaten George Foreman by laying on the ropes and letting Foreman throw punch after punch until he was gassed but that does not work in a street fight with weapons involved.That was a boxing match with rules not a street fight and Foreman was not shanking Ali with a butcher knife for the first 8 rounds.....





If we are to stop them NOW then we need to STOP them now.That requires us to do as much damage in a short amount of time as possible. The only way to do that is ruthless counterattack.





Do not hit them once and look for the result. Hit them until they are out of the fight. Shoot them to the ground. Stab them to the ground. Knee and elbow them to the ground. Whatever you have, use it until they are no longer a threat and make your escape. This is fast and dirty and if you are timid or worried about hurting them they WILL hurt you. You are trying to destroy them as quickly as you can.





At this point we employ what is widely taught and is known in some circles as the "Wyatt Protocol" as coined by Lyle Wyatt of Andy Stanford's old company Options for Personal Security. I have used a modified version as the original stopped at TAC LOAD which I replace with the term TOP OFF.



I personally do not like the term TAC LOAD as it plants the seed of having two mags in the same hand at the same time which I really do not think is a good idea under extreme stress. And how do you TAC LOAD a tube fed gun like a lever action rifle or a pump action shotgun? You don't. You top it off. So I use that verbage. It is very specific and paints a very specific picture in your mind.



We essentailly teach a "reload with retention" instead of the "old school" circa 1980 Tac Load. We simply take the partially depleted mag out, stow it , grab new mag and insert. DONE. This is far simpler and less fumble prone under stress than "Get new mag. Bring it to gun. Take out old mag. Insert new mag. Stow old mag. Put support hand back on gun". So that is why I do not use the "TAC LOAD" term.



I also add a few more "T"s to cover a few more bases. We will.....

FIGHT

Pretty self explanatory. Take it to them HARD and don't stop until they are down and no longer a threat.

ASSESS

Did it work? Are they down?

SCAN

Do they have friends? Are they behind me? Is he still down? then we

TOP OFF your weapon (How's my ammo?)

TREAT INJURIES (How am I? How are my friends/family?)


TAKE COVER (what here can I get behind that will stop bullets?)

TAKE OFF (Can I safely escape now?)

TALK TO WHO NEEDS TO BE TALKED TO (You, Go call 911!, You, get down! , "Ma'am , you appear to be injured, Officer, that man tried to kill me! I was in fear for my life, etc)





I view these last four not as a list but as a wheel. Depending on the situation any one of those may be more important than the others and roll to the top.

Did you beat them down with hands and elbows and knees? Then TOPPING OFF is not relevant so TAKE OFF might rotate to the top.





Maybe there is a dumpster or a vehicle close by that would make good cover. It then might be best to TAKE COVER first and then TOP OFF.



Or it might be that the lone bad guy is down but you were wounded and bleeding profusely. TREAT INJURIES might take precedence over TALKING or TAKING OFF in this situation.



We simply employ the appropriate "T" for the particular situation we find ourselves in.

And there we have it from A to Z (or from P to T) from pre fight through talking to responding officers.



As we see there is quite a bit more to winning a fight than shooting small groups. And a great many fights can be avoided by simply recognizing a criminal assault in the early stages and either avoiding, escaping or getting to better position.



If your training is all about shooting tiny groups on paper then you really are spending 95% of your time working on the last 5% of the problem. So get out and work on your awareness. Practice your pre fight skills.Interact with other live adversaries in Force on Force training . Make the after action assessment (Is he down ? Does he have friends? Are they behind me? How's my ammo? and How am I? ) a regular checklist in your training regimen. Remember there is a lot more to self defense than just shooting.

And remember be careful out there because PESTS EAT FAST.

To discuss further join us at Warriortalk.....http://www.warriortalk.com/showthread.php?90849-Dealing-with-PESTS

Dealing with PESTS (PART 2)

Suarez International Tier 1 Staff Instructor Randy Harris

 

A big part of recognizing the threat is understanding what to look for. Unfortunately while many self defense schools pay lip service to awareness many really do not offer any structure for dealing with it other than advice to "pay attention" and be able to "shoot tight groups". Unfortunately those are two differnet sides of the Grand Canyon with a huge chasm in between.You basicly set people up to maybe pick up on something that looks out of place and then their next link in the chain is to use their gun. If that is all you have in the tool box then you will likely shoot someone who did not need to be shot . The other end of the scale is "paralysis by analysis" where you wait far to long to act. That comes from not being familiar enough with what you are witnessing to make decisions in a timely manner. We do not have to wait until we can determine the caliber of his pistol by carefully measuring the diameter of the muzzle to act.





So I prefer to offer some structure based on sound principles to help mitigate the attendant fear of the unknown and anxiety that can happen when we are approached by an unknown person on the street. Often we can read the cues that teh bad guy is giving off and make reasonable predictions about what is coming next. Unfortunately many people have never been exposed to the cues so they do not know what to look for.





Who here likes to watch boxing? When does a boxing match start? When the first punch lands? How about when the first punch is thrown? No? When does it start?

When the bell rings. "Well that is obvious, but the bad guys are not going to tell me when they are about to assault me" you say. I say if you know what to look for they will tell you by their actions. Let's say we are deaf boxing fans that cannot hear the bell ring. Even though we cannot hear the bell ring can we still determine when the match starts? Of course. How? We see the two fighters approach and begin MANUEVERING on each other.





The fight does not start at the first blow. It starts when the manuevering begins. Often out in the real world the victim never sees the manuevering or when they do see it they do not recognize it for what it really is and do not realize the fight has started until the first blow lands.



At this juncture I will unveil our structure for dealing with people who approach you on the street. We would largely consider those people to be.....PESTS.



People have a hard time remembering long lists of things. Often though if you can use a mnemonic device like an acronym then people can remember lists easier. The term "chunking" refers to this. If we look at a list of 16 number we may not be able to easily remember them . Look at 1776186119171941 and try to remember it. Difficult? Now look at it like this 1776 1861 1917 1941. Now instaed of 16 unconnected numbers it is simply four years with significance in American history. Or look at 12 unrelated letters. ATFFBICIADEA . But by chunking it together we have ATF FBI CIA DEA. Much easier to remember?





So I take the core concepts of making it more difficult for someone to approach you and gain an advantage and apply an acronym to it and we get PESTS. I then combine that with 2 other words -EAT and FAST and it gives us an A to Z (or P to T) checklist from prefight to post fight. It plays out like this....



Pay Attention

Evade/Escape

Stop their encroachment

Tape Loop (Tell them you can't help them or tell them to back off)

Step to 3 or 9 o'clock / step off the X and orbit them

If this does not dissuade them and the fight is on the we will

Explode off the X

Acquire better postion

Take the fight to them



and then we



Fight

Assess

Scan

and either

Take Off

or

Take Cover

or

Top off

or

Treat Injuries

or

Talk to whoever needs to be talked to





PAY ATTENTION

This is or should be obvious. As we said earlier. If you are engrossed in texting or listening to your IPOD or whatever else that keeps you in Condition White in public then you are going to make a much more desirable victim than someone who is alert. If you never see it coming (remember the victim card..."I never saw it coming") then you have done a lot of the perpetrators work for him.





EVADE / ESCPAPE

If you are paying attention and see the guy who looks a little nervous and out of place who is paying too much attention to you and then looks around as if looking for witnesses and then begins to approach you then that might be a clue that something is up. At this point you might want to evade him by either putting something between you and him or escape by simply leaving the area.



When someone not in your peer group or socio- economic/cultural group approaches you in public you really need to ask "Why me"? Usually when you approach people in public people will want to approach someone they are comfortable with and who are in roughly the same groups. If I have the choice between asking directions from someone who looks pretty much like me or from someone who does not then people will usually go to what they know and are comfortable with.



So we really need to ask ourselves "why?" when someone approaches who seems to have nothing in common with us. This is NOT racial. That can be a COMPONENT, but not the entire picture.If we are at the NAACP businessmen of the year awards and suddenly a big bald white dude with white wifebeater t shirt, black BDU pants and combat boots, spiderweb tattoos on both elbows and an SS tattoo on his neck and a glock stuck in his belt comes in the door we need to be looking for an exit due to the TOTALITY OF CIRCUMSTANCE.



The fact that the guy is white is not the issue. It is all the other info combined with that fact that makes him not only out of place, but also a likely threat. So if we can evade or escape then that will prevent us from having to risk fighting this guy.





The way they approach will also give us information. Most polite people will stop a few yards away and show their hands before approaching to ask directions. Even then they will still maintain some distance. The criminal on the other hand will want to get as close as he can.



If we recognize the threat but cannot evade or escape then we will want to...





STOP THEIR ENCROACHMENT

Distance can be your friend or your enemy. The closer someone gets to you the easier it is for them to injure you. Most muggers will not haul out a bullhorn and hail you from across the parking lot telling you to stop so they can come rob you. If they did you'd just run away. Instead they want to get as close as they can so that they can not only close the distance and show a weapon and physically control you, but they have to get close to take your stuff (or you).





Here is where we see the use of a weapon or violence as INSTRUMENTAL. The mere use of the weapon is not the objective. The weapon is an instrument to get something else. If they had better verbal skills they'd be talking you out of your money like Bernie Madoff. But since they don't they will close the distance and show a weapon to get you to comply. As such they need to get close so you cannot escape and so that no one else that may be a witness sees exactly what is going on.





The closer they get the more difficult it is to counter any kind of physical attack. In class I have a couple of time and distance exercises that the students perform to see for themselves how big a deal maintaining at least two arms length distance is (and more is better). Inside that distance someone can stab you before you even realize the attack is coming. So how exactly do we maintain distance and stop encroachment? Draw our gun on anyone who looks suspicious? Not if you plan to stay out of jail.

Geoff Thompson was a bouncer in the UK who coined the term "The Fence". The Fence looks like a two handed "stop sign" that appears to witnesses like we are putting our hands up in a submissive manner. But it also allows us to get our hands up between us and the threat and monitor and intercept physical attacks. The FENCE is what keeps the badguy from reaching the house (our body). It allows us to either cover up our head if they launch an attack and it allows us a chambering to throw preemptive blows from if that becomes necessary.


Would you find it easier to punch someone who has both hands in their pockets or somoone who has both hands up between you and him? Probably the guy with hands in pockets becasue he cannot get them out and up before you hit him . The other guy will be much harder to land a blow on because you will have to fight through the hands to hit him. It forms both a physical AND psychological barrier. It also makes a great launching point for preemptive strikes. Your hands are already up and all you have to do is launch from there if things start to spiral out of control to a point where all the info he is feeding you cause you to determine you need to strike first.


TAPE LOOP/ (Tell them you can't help them or tell them to back off)
The term tape loop refers to having a pre planned response for when people approach you trying to engage you in conversation. The "Tape Loop" plays on auto pilot without the need for you to have to think of things to say in respnse to the individual that is approaching. A simple "I'm sorry Sir, I can't help you" goes a long way toward heading off further conversation.


Often a criminal will try to engage us in conversation to get closer and gain a positional advantage. During this a key to look for is facial grooming. If they are touching their face, chin, mouth, forehead as they are talking then there is a good chance that they are practicing deception. Watch videos of interrogations. The guys who are lying will often touch their faces in a "nervous tick" like way. This is usually a sign they are lying or trying to somehow deceive you. If you see this then you need to recognize it for what it is and break contact if possible. "I'm sorry Sir I can't help you" and be on your way if possible.




A key element to this is not having to stop and think about a response to what he is saying. If they can lure you into a conversation with them then they can hold your attention while posssible accomplices manuever up behind you. Even if they are alone you do not want to get bogged down in a discussion with them. While your conscious mind is occupied thinking of answers to questions you have essentially turned off your ability to quickly respond to an attack. Your accessing areas of your brain to answer the questions slows your ability to access other areas that control the motor movements to react. When do we shoot the hostage taker? While he is answering a question.

This is the point where we are deescalating the situation if possible. If confronted with an agitated contact then maintaining a calm demeanor and making sure you do not instigate a fight may well be your best strategy. Be polite and try to break contact. We obviously want to avoid a streetfight with no rules if we can. But many victims get sucked into talking far longer than is productive or practical. There is a time to talk. There is a time to act. And there is not a whole lot of overlap between the two. If you need to fight you need to fight. If your attempt at verbal deescalation is going nowhere and he is still manuevering and now reaching for a weapon it is time to stop talking and


If "I'm sorry Sir I can't help you" does not get the desired result then we may follow it up with something a little less polite like BACK OFF! If that does not send them looking for easier pickings then that is an awful lot of info they are feeding you. If at this point they have not broken off the encounter we need to ask ourselves "why are they still here?". And we need to move our feet...NOW.




STEP TO 3 OR 9 O'CLOCK/Step off the X and orbit them
As mentioned before, if we stand still talking to the individual who approaches us it is easy for his cohorts to approach us from behind. A simple solution to this is to step laterally to either 3 or 9 o'clock and continue moving around them in an elliptical motion. This will expose to you what was previously behind you. I prefer to think of it as orbiting the known threat. If we stand still and turn our head we will be opening ourselves up to a sucker punch or a tackle attempt.

On the other hand if we maintain a squared up posture to the known threat and step off the line of force to 3 o'clock and then step again to 3 o'clock we will not only see what was previously behind us but we will essentially be moving to flank the known threat. Bad guys will recognize this. It is not the behavior of a good victim. It will often completely change their perception of the situation and kick them back to Observe in the OODA cycle. It is also a good way to keep your feet moving in preparation to get off the X in case the "interview" goes badly.

Dealing with PESTS ( A comprehensive structure for Pre, Mid and Post Fight Issues)PART 1

Suarez International Tier 1 Staff Instructor Randy Harris

 

The subject of self defense is a broad one that encompasses many areas. There is not just one way to defend yourself. People can spend a lifetime working on one area or another and still there is much more to learn. Most people spend their training time working on a "delivery system" of one type or another. For some it is the gun, for others the knife, for many it is the empty hands and others might be the stick.



When we look at delivery systems we really are looking at what we will use to end the fight. As our friend Sonny Puzikas says most people spend 95% of their time working on the last 5% of the solution. Having spent most of my life in pursuit of martial excellence I find this to not only be true, but also profound. No matter how hard you hit (which is important) and no matter how well you shoot (also important) the point where these attributes come into play is not at the beginning but rather well into the fight.





The following is the structured strategy that I use and teach for dealing with people of unknown intent who approach you on the street. I have been using this in both Suarez International classes and Tennessee Handgun Carry Permit classes for the last 5 years. I have actually had students use this material out in public at lunch on the first day of class when approached by a panhandler. In fact the student actually thought I had set the whole thing up. He did not realize that this encounter was in fact REAL. The student used the verbal and positioning skills we discussed that morning in class and the encounter ended with the panhandler walking away. When I arrived at lunch the student asked where I had found the guy who approached him. I didn't know what he was talking about.The student thought that I had set that encounter up since I had told them that it was something they could very well end up using at the gas station or at lunch that day..... He then realized that his encounter was not staged but had been real and that the material we had just discussed in that morning in class made it easier to make himself less enticing to an unknown and possibly dangerous individual .



I did not originate all of the material. In fact it is largely taken from Craig Douglas's Managing Unknown Contacts. I simply organize it a little differently in order to make it more structured and easy for the end user to remember. Without further adieu I present "Pests Eat Fast."



In the martial arts and self defense world we often want to know how to end fights. But scant attention is really paid to avoiding fights. In civilian America there are two most likely scenarios for you to employ armed violence against an aggressor.One will be in your home. The other is being approached on the street by muggers or aggressive panhandlers or maybe by individuals who are "protecting turf".



First we'll look at the home invasion. How can we limit our exposure to this? Be smart. Don't thoughtlessly brag to anyone who will listen about what you have and then tell them where you live. If you have $100,000 in gold bullion it is not a good idea to tell everyone you know. What do most home invasions have in common? The perpetrator knew in advance what the victim had that was of value and the perpetrator thought it was worth the risk he would be taking in trying to acquire it.





Home invasions are not normally fishing expeditions. It is likely a directed assault with the purpose to gain some specific resource that they believed to be there. Usually it will be either drugs or money. So if we do not advertise what we have of value we will make ourselves less likely targets in our home.





Add to this some simple measures like good locks on doors, actually LOCKING THE DOORS, motion sensing lights outside, maybe a dog that will bark and bite and you have gone a long way toward making yourself a less inviting target. We want to have a layered defense where our assailants will not have an easy time of it if they decide to try to take whatever it is that they think we have of value. Which house is easier to rob? The one with the door standing wide open or the one with a fence, motion sensing lights, solid locked deadbolt doors, a barking dog, and armed occupants?





Now aside from the home robbery scenario our most likely place to be victimized will be on the street after being approached by an unknown person. This could be an aggressive panhandler looking for a handout or it could be a potential mugger sizing us up as victims. This is often referred to as the interview phase. Here the potential assailant is assessing his potential client and determining whether they would make a good target. Some might be familiar with the phenomena of sharks "bumping" prey before they bite it to see if it is in fact edible. The same thing applies here.





In this phase the criminal will likely be feeling you out to see if you are worth the risk. There is no "benefit package" to a job as a street criminal. There is no 401K and there is no medical plan. If you get injured in the process of acquiring resources (robbing someone) then your ability to acquire more resources will be somewhat limited until you can heal. And during that time you will be a more inviting target to other criminals who now may see you as a potential victim.....no honor among thieves.





Another worry is if you show up at the hospital with a stab wound, or worse a gunshot wound, the hospital will call the police and there will be a discussion with the responding officers you'd rather avoid if you are somone making a living victimizing your fellow man. Of course it goes without saying that if there is a catastrophic failure in the victim selection process and you choose a victim that kills you then there is no recovering from that. So what is a criminal to do? Simply make sure you choose victims well.





So who makes a good victim? Someone who is not aware of their surroundings, and someone who is less likely to fight back effectively makes a much better victim than a prize fighter who is paying attention. This usually means that people who are either injured, elderly, obviously not a physical threat, and unlikely to be armed and unlikely to offer resisitance are going to be right at the top of the list for victims. Why? The likelihood of success is high and risk of injury is low.





If you were going to choose a victim who would it be? The 6'4" powerlifter with the Navy SEAL Trident tattoo on his forearm and a bulge on his waistline that is probably a large caliber pistol or the 5'7" overweight upper middle class 50 year old guy sitting in his car not paying attention to anything but his text messaging on his phone? One of these guys will probably never see you coming and the other will probably smoke you. Which is which? Who would YOU choose?





So just like with our houses we can make a layered defense. The biggest part of this total defense package is making good lifestyle decisions. We use a specific term for this. It is called the "Three Stupids Rule".I first heard this from John Farnam. Simply put it is....

1. Don't go STUPID places.

2. Don't do STUPID things.

3. Don't hang with STUPID people.





If we avoid stupid people, places and things then we are much less likely to have bad things happen to us. If you decide to go to the worst part of town at 3AM in your $90,000 sports car to buy cigarretes then that might fall under stupid things. If you are riding with a friend who needs to make a quick run to the ATM and then stop off at a shady apartment complex in the bad part of town to "run inside for just a minute" then that might be a stupid place. And any time you are with people who are likely to say "hold my beer and check this out" that is probably in the realm of stupid people. We can see where often one of the "STUPIDS" will often involve the others. Frankly, stupid people tend to be at stupid places and do stupid things quite often so avoiding them altogether makes us less vulnerable to bad things happening to us.





I usually add as a companion rule to the Three Stupids Rule the exhortation to avoid Drugs, Whores, and Booze.



Point number one is avoiding drugs. I'm not just referring here to "just say no" as I am referring to the danger of violence and death at the periphery of the drug trade. If you want to occasionally partake of marijauna in the privacy of your own home, you can maybe argue as to whether that is really hurting anyone. While I see the libertarian side of this it does not mean I think it is a good idea. If you are going to do it then please do not do it and then drive to the convenience store for doughnuts. We can maybe argue that you are hurting no one but your own brain cells. But the issue is really the stupid people, places and things that you will come in contact with when you are involved in that lifestyle.





I personally knew 2 people when I was in college who ended up dead simply due to their involvement in some capacity with the drug trade. One died of an overdose. It was more than a week before they found him. We just thought he hadn't been around for a while because he was studying for mid term exams.While God may have given us the plants and seed bearing herbs to use (a verse from Genesis I have heard used to justify marijuana use) Chrystal Meth is not something that is positive in any way for you to ingest. If they key ingredients are toxic on their own then do you really want to mix it and ingest it?





The other guy I mention was murdered in a drug deal. He was murdered after being lured to an abandoned apartment complex for what he thought would be a simple money for drug transaction. The other participants saw him as a willing victim who would deliver cash to them at a place where no one would hear him scream. He produced the money and they produced weapons and killed him. As I say, there is violence at the periphery of the drug trade. The guy you got the weed from may be a friendly acquaintance. The guy he got it from is probably not quite so nice. And the guys he got it from will leave someone cut into little pieces in a garbage bag if they feel they have been disrespected, cheated or taken advantage of. These are NOT the kind of people you want to have to come into contact with if it can be avoided.





Point two is avoiding whores. I'm not only referring to the street walking types, but also to picking up random people in bars. Not only is there the very real concern for contracting sexually transmitted diseases, but the possibility of angry boyfirends, husbands, ex boyfriends and ex husbands, girlfriends and wives, etc. You probably do not want to be sitting there flirting with his girl when the guy who has decided he's had enough of her running around on him shows up with a gun. Being involved with women (or men) who are involved in other relationships is the fast track to ending up in a violent confrontation with the other point of that love traingle. A guy who lived in my apartment building in college was stabbed in the heart with a steak knife and died after an argument with his lover over his running around on them. Best advice is to avoid problems like that it altogether if possible.





And point number three is booze. I'm not some kind of Puritan who says you should never drink. If you do then be responsible and don't drink to excess in public. Quite simply if you are drunk in public you will be far more likely to be victimized. Your ability to recognize an altercation beginning or an ambush being set will be greatly reduced. Also your physical ability to react to it will be slowed as the alcohol has a negative effect on your reaction time.





Who would you rather pick as a victim? Would you rather try to rob the stumbling drunk guy who doesn't even realize you are closing in on him or the stone cold sober guy who is already alerted to your presence and moving to get better position? Alcohol also lowers people's inhibitions and makes people do things they would not ordinarily do. Having worked as a bouncer in a bar for several years in my 20s, I can tell you for certain that some people are just not physically well adapted to drinking. The world is full of angry drunks and things you'd normally overlook when sober are reasons to fight when intoxicated. We never had to break up fights between sober people in the bar.....

So we can see here where just like the 3 stupids often overlap, drugs, whores and booze also have a great bit of overlap and often paralell and overlap the three stupids. Again, I worked in the bar and entertainment industry long enough to see that the three stupids and drugs, whores and booze led to many a confrontation that would otherwise never have happened and often led to violence that both parties would have avoided had they not come together through involvement with those other things. As I often say...."Things like that just don't happen in church". Thus endeth the sermon.





So if we make a habit of making good decisions regarding lifestyle and we do not work in an occupation that puts us in regular close contact with the criminal element, then we can pretty well limit our exposure to violence. Now with good decison making on our side our biggest area of vulnerability will be being approached while out in public by persons of unknown intent. From my own experience this will most likely be in a parking lot or at a gas station in urban areas though it could honsetly be anywhere people are milling about.

The key to either avoiding a fight or to getting a tactical advantage before the fight starts is awareness . Many schools teach "awareness". Many use Jeff Cooper's Color Code. The colors are

1. White-you are oblivious to the world around you.

2. Yellow- a condition of relaxed awareness

3. Orange- a specific person place or thing has caused you to feel uneasy or threatened

4. Red - the fight is on.



The color code is a sliding scale of awareness. You will be constantly shifting from yellow to orange out in public if you are paying attention. You will go from "people watching" to focusing on a potenetial problem, asessing the possibilities and returning to people watching. No big production, just paying attention to the information that is there for all to see. It is much like driving on the interstate. You are aware of cars around you but not keyed to a particular one until it starts to veer into your lane or drive erratticly. At that point you shift focus to it to determine whether it is someone loading their CD player, texting, or a drunk driver. You may tap your break to create space and avoid them or you might even get off at the next exit. But if you are not paying attention to begin with you might get your first clue about the other driver when he veers into your lane and hits your car.....

Some people live in condition white. Many simply move about like herd animals with their head down their whole lives and then wonder what happened when they find themselves the victim of crime. We assume that there must be a "Victim Card" issued because they almost invariably say the same thing.



1"I never saw it coming".

2."All of a sudden there they were".

3. " Why would anyone want to hurt me?"

4."These things only happen to other people".

We see the obvious connection between mindset and awareness. They had not realized that they COULD be victimized and therefore did not recognize it for what it was when it began. To everyone else in the world YOU are "other people. If it can happen to them it can happen to YOU. It does not just happen in BAD parts of town. There isn't much to steal in the BAD part of town. So if the bad guys want to find victims worth robbing they come to the GOOD part of town. So be aware that you can find yourself the victim of crime and prepare for it now. A good thing to do is start training yourself to recognize threats before they are obvious.

The “Do’s” and “Don’ts” of Open Carry Part I

By Roger Phillips, Suarez International Specialist and Tier One Instructor

A serious look at making the open carry operator as squared away as they can possible be.

I know there are people out there that believe that I am “anti-open carry.” This is not really the truth of the matter. What I am is “anti-ignorance” and I admit that I am very hard core in this belief. For those that know and train with me, they know why I am like that. They know that I really care about their ability to be the very best they can be when it comes down to the ability to defend their lives and the lives of their loved ones. To me, this is the paramount reason that we carry and any other reason pales in comparison.

I do not carry for a political agenda, or because it is my right, or because I want to be a hero, or because I want the mere presence of the gun to stop a crime, or because of the coolness factor, or to educate people, or the stir up awareness. I carry for one reason and one reason only.

I carry to be the very best that I can be inside of a life threatening encounter involving myself or my loved ones!

Everyone can feel free to call that “one way” or “self centered” but the reality of the matter is that “me and mine” are more important than everyone else. That does not mean that I will not risk my life help innocent people, heck I’ve done it before on a few occasions. What it does mean is that I want to have the choice whether I get involved or not. Open carry cuts down on my options.

Any attack on me is an attack on my loved ones. I am the one that keeps them in good neighborhoods. I am the one that keeps them in good schools, I am the one that keeps them from hanging out with the wrong people, I am the one that keeps them away from drugs, alcohol, crime, teenage pregnancies, and especially the violence that comes out of those issues. I am the one that instills “the three stupid rule” into them. You will be amazed how living with “the three stupid rule” as a guide will cut down on your violent encounters.

Do not go stupid places, with stupid people, and do stupid things.

The importance of a solid parental figure inside of the home can be the difference between life and death for the children inside of that home. That has been my reality! I lost my older sister at 28 years old due to the life style that we had led as children and young adults. Living outside of “the three stupid rule” as we did, for over thirteen years, cost her her life. She made decisions at thirteen years old that were not survivable. I spent thirteen years of my life protecting her and my family from the extremely violent world that she brought into our lives. Never underestimate the value of a strong parental figure inside of the home. As the parent, no matter how important that you think that you are, you are much more important than that. You can be the difference between your children living or dying…….and that is a fact!

IMHO, as a parent or future parent, you should have one mission that overrides all other missions. That mission is to go home and take care of your family. I do not need to be a hero, I do not need to push a political agenda, I do not need to educate anyone about their rights. All I need to do is go home and make sure that my family has everything that I can give them, to give them the ability to acquire the very best life that they can have. I did not fight my way out of the gutter to have my children need to do the very same thing.

This is why I am so vocal on the issue of being the very best that you can be inside of a life threatening encounter. This is why I risk being seen as an “anti-open carry” guy, even though I am not. All I want is for people to get the best information so that they can make the best choices for themselves and their love ones. All I care about is you fulfilling your paramount mission.

Now that people have some insight on “why I do what I do” how about we look at the things that will allow you to be the very best that you can be while open carrying.

The Gun is not a Talisman that wards off Evil

I think it is time for us all to agree, without having to call for links to prove it, the mere presence of a gun may stop a crime from ever being committed. On the flip side we need to agree that the presence of the gun may also be the catalyst of the crime that is committed. Yes, there are plenty of cases that show that people were targeted for their guns……..in their homes and on their person. This is all well documented and backed by common sense. Once we understand this, it becomes very clear that carrying a gun (open or concealed) comes with certain responsibilities. If the gun is a deterrent, not having the teeth to use it efficiently and effectively is like bluffing while playing poker. If you carry (open or concealed) you need to know how to use it efficiently and effectively. You do not want to bluff while holding one ace! If I am concealed, I never have anyone “call” my bluff because I am not bluffing. But if I am open carrying I am always in the position to be “called.” This means that if you decide to open carry you may need a higher skill level than those that carry concealed. Since the gun is visible, you may be in the position where you are more likely forced to use it.

With concealed carry I have more of an option to get involved or to not get involved. Since no one knows that I am carrying, I will be less likely to have my hand forced. I can make the rational decisions, on what to do based on “my mission.” I can watch the confrontation unfold and make the decision “when” or even “if” I go on the offensive. This is what people are talking about when they talk about “the tactical advantage.” This is all about the manipulation of the OODA loop, understanding “initiative” and the huge problems inside of “initiative deficit.” Once again this leads us to the point that open carry individuals may need a higher skill level and tactical understanding than those that carry concealed.

Simply put, action beats reaction! So many gun people do not understand this fact. Until you experience this firsthand you will not understand just how far behind you are most likely going to be. Open carry requires that you have your situational awareness tuned to a higher level, your “line in the sand” drawn clearer, your ability to work through the OODA loop quicker, and that your skill sets inside of the reactive gunfight at a higher level. You may be quicker getting your gun into play (depending on your mode of carry) due to not having a concealment garment, but that may not be even close to being good enough.

If the open carry gun deters the crime from ever taking place……great! But this is something that you cannot rely on. Crimes can also be deterred just by the way you carry yourself and how you handle yourself. There is one stat that will never be sure of, how many times is a crime deterred because of an open carry gun, compared to how many crimes are deterred due to being deselected due to the way you handle yourself and how you carry yourself.

You may want to consider getting some information about the streets. There are certain neighborhoods in Las Vegas where open carry may be seen as a sign of disrespect to the criminal organization that controls those neighborhoods. I know we all want to “go where ever I want to go.” But, is it really smart to fly the one finger salute in the most dangerous neighborhoods in Vegas, to the most dangerous people in Vegas. Going to those areas cover the “going stupid places” which makes you “the stupid person, doing the stupid thing.” Open carry requires a little more discretion than concealed carry. Information about the streets can be had if you know where to look.

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