Friday Fundamentals – Getting Started
#Fridayfundamentals
Shooting To Live for the 21st Century – Concealed Carry Skills and Drills
Session 1
This session derives from two contemporary Courses of Fire, the original Michigan Council On Law Enforcement Standards Basic Pistol Safety Training Assessment and the New York State Concealed Carry License Live-Fire Proficiency Assessment https://troopers.ny.gov/minimum-standards-new-york-state-concealed-carry-firearm-safety-training to mimic and expand on the Recruit Training Programme described by Fairbairn and Sykes in their classic text Shooting To Live. Together the Assessments mimic the first live fire Practices of the RTP. To expand on it, the distance is increased from two yards used by F&S to 4 yards, the boundary in Proxemics between Social Space and Public Space.
The target consists of three sheets of printer paper stacked vertically in landscape mode. Fold one in half and use it as the top sheet. Put this array on whatever target backer is convenient. The Shoot-N-C is an optional addition on the middle sheet, used as the ‘aiming mark’ mentioned in STL.
This session can be done either at an outdoor range or almost all indoor ranges. The draw for the NYS Assessment is dry, i.e., no ammo in the gun, and most indoor ranges will permit it. There is no time limit so even ranges that require shooting no faster than one shot every three seconds can be placated.
Part I – MCOLES Safety Training Assessment
- String 1
- Load five rounds in the pistol and come to Low Ready.
- Bring the pistol to eye level, acquire a sight picture, and fire one shot.
- Return to Low Ready.
- Repeat four more times for a total of five shots.
- String 2
- Repeat String 1 for another five individual shots.
- String 3
- Load five rounds in the pistol and come to Low Ready
- Bring the pistol to eye level, acquire a sight picture, and fire two shots.
- Return to Low Ready.
- Bring the pistol to eye level, acquire a sight picture, and fire three shots.
The passing standard established by MCOLES was hybrid. Of the three strings, two had to have all five shots hit anywhere on all three sheets of paper. So it’s basically a 100% standard but you get to throw out your worst String.
The second part of this session is the New York State Concealed Carry License Live-Fire Proficiency Assessment. It uses the same target as the MCOLES Assessment. The distance is also four yards.
Part II – NYS CCL Live-Fire Proficiency Assessment
- Verify that the pistol is unloaded.
- Safely holster without loading.
- Draw the unloaded pistol, acquire a sight picture on the target, and dry snap one time.
- Safely holster without loading
- Draw the pistol and load with five rounds.
- To load, use the push method of loading as described by Fairbairn and Sykes.
- “To load the pistol, turn it over, grasping the slide firmly with the thumb and forefinger of the left hand.”
“Push forward with the right hand until the slide is felt to be open to its fullest extent.”
“Immediately that point is reached, release the hold with the left hand. The slide flies forward, taking with it and forcing into the breech, the topmost cartridge of the magazine, the pistol pointing to the ground meanwhile.”
- Achieve a proper firing grip and come to Low Ready.
- Bring the pistol to eye level, acquire a sight picture, and fire five shots.
- Verify that the pistol is unloaded.
- Safely holster
The passing standard for the NY State Proficiency Assessment is that 4 of the 5 shots (80%) must hit somewhere on the three sheets of paper.
The total round count for this session is twenty rounds. While that may seem low by some people’s standard, it is as much as many owners of snub nose revolvers and small pistols like the Ruger LCP will want to fire at one session. As a beginning, shooting this session provides some familiarity with shooting the pistol, what its concussion and recoil feel like, and an indicator of the shooter’s capability within a distance envelope that most criminal victimizations take place in.
Why re-enact the losing gunfight?
#wheelgunwednesday
The subject of ‘The Pence Drill’ came up today in the context of reloading a revolver during an incident. I posted a video explanation of what ‘The Pence Drill’ is on my Tactical Professor https://www.facebook.com/ATLFirearms/ Facebook page.
Someone asked, “Why re-enact the losing gunfight?” That’s actually a meaningful question. Two of my friends posted the answers that I would have.
“He is showing a solution that may have saved the officer. Why waste time loading all 6 when two will do?
It’s the teachable moment. Learning from the mistakes of others.”
As my colleague Michael de Bethencourt of Snub Noir https://snubnoir.com/ says, “when you’ve got at least one live round back in the gun, it’s loaded.”
It’s good to hear a meaningful question asked rather than just expressing a criticism.
Boyd’s Process In Application Not Theory
From a post on my personal Facebook page.
I avoid Stop and Robs in general. One of my men was murdered in one while working an evening part time. It scarred me forever. The hardest thing I ever had to do in the Army was sit with his mother while he was dying in the hospital and listen to her tell me how that POS had killed her son. It was heart breaking.
Many years ago, Evan Marshall, a long time Detroit policeman, wrote a column in Combat Handguns magazine. One month he described his plan if he was caught up in a convenience store robbery.
As long as all they’re doing is robbing the till (register), I’m going to act like a CPA from Akron and be a good witness. But if they start searching people, making people get down on their knees, or herding people into a back room, my wife knows to get away from me because I’m going to start shooting.
My soldier’s murder was captured on grainy surveillance video. He did everything the robbers wanted and opened the safe. They made him get down on his knees and then one of them shot him in the head. He survived for two weeks in hospital before he passed away.
When I went to visit him, his mother took me into an unoccupied waiting room and told me the story of what happened. I will never forget it as long as I live. Evan’s words came to mind and I decided then and there it would never happen to me.
This is Boyd’s Process; know ahead of time what your capabilities are and what you are going to do when the time comes. Then execute your plan without hesitation.
“He threatened me, and said he was gonna slice my head off, and that’s when I tried to call the police. He started throwing things at me, came behind the counter. I tried to run off, but he grabbed his hands around my neck, and pushed me out of the counter space, and that’s when I pulled out my gun and I shot him.”
https://okcfox.com/news/local/7-eleven-clerk-fired-after-shooting-attacker-in-self-defense
The 1950 Assassination Attempt on President Truman
This post and article are dedicated to the memories and heroics of Officer Leslie Coffelt, who made the ultimate sacrifice, and Special Agent Floyd Boring, who kept his cool under fire.
In the afternoon of November 1, 1950, two Puerto Rican Nationalists made an assassination attempt on President Truman. It’s been described as the biggest gunfight in Secret Service history. Before the assassins were able to enter Truman’s temporary residence on Pennsylvania Avenue across from the White House, their attack was stopped by the White House Police and the Secret Service.
https://www.thetacticalwire.com/features/546e4b74-c821-4f5c-a59d-8ddbbb64aba7
It’s worth noting that the assassins were stopped by two shots by two men armed with revolvers, who knew how to shoot them well.
If you would like to read more in-depth information about shooting and personal protection, consider subscribing to my Patreon page.
Another Mistaken Identity Shooting and Killing
Odds are that the ‘bump in the night,’ has no more than a 3% possibility of being an intruder. The other 97+% is either a family member, friend, or some harmless dumbass.
I calculated this based on information in the National Crime Victims Survey overlaid on several other authoritative sources. The analysis is slightly fuzzy but I stand by the general numbers.
CSU professor accidentally shot by roommate who mistook her for intruder
[Muscogee County Coroner] Bryan said [Professor] Anderson’s roommate had been receiving terrorist threats from her son, including threats of bodily harm and to burn down the house. When the roommate heard a noise while sleeping, she grabbed her pistol and walked into the hallway.
‘She fired one shot and then fired another one and hit her roommate,’ Bryan said.
Calling out “WHO’S THERE” would save many a life. The concept that using a flashlight and/or issuing a verbal challenge will ‘draw the intruder’s fire’ is foolish and unsupportable.
Flashlight skills at home are important enough that I made the flashlight chapter of Indoor Range Practice Sessions a free download on my ebook store.
https://store.payloadz.com/go/?id=2505573
Note also that she was killed by one hit; this is not uncommon when a shooting victim is not highly adrenalized. Modern bullets are very lethal.
If you would like to read more in-depth information about shooting and personal protection, including making good decisions, consider subscribing to my Patreon page.
ARMED CITIZEN – OCTOBER 2025
Anyone is free to quote or reproduce these accounts.
WalMart Mass Stabbing Foiled
On July 26, a homeless man in Traverse City, Mich., allegedly began attacking customers in a Walmart with no provocation. The man was reportedly armed with a folding knife and managed to quickly injure 11 people, some of whom were in their 70s and 80s, before a group of customers contained the assailant. A bystander’s video shows one of the customers, a retired U.S. Marine, drawing his gun and forcing the alleged assailant to drop his knife. The armed citizen then held the suspect at gunpoint until the police could respond. The hero later told reporters that he chose to try to de-escalate: “I didn’t think of anything other than trying to get him away from people and get him isolated and get him to put the knife down.” He also noted the bravery of the other men confronting the suspect, stating “the only thing that separated me from the other gentlemen … was what I was carrying.” The homeless man was being sought by law enforcement just before this event, though authorities did not specify why a warrant had been issued for his arrest. Additionally, he had previously been deemed mentally unfit to stand trial for grave-robbing charges and was instead committed to a psychiatric facility in 2016. The man now faces 11 counts of assault with intent to murder and one charge of terrorism. (abcnews.com, New York, N.Y., 7/28/25 and 7/29/25)
Authorities were searching for Walmart stabbing suspect prior to incident
Armed bystander who helped confront Walmart stabbing suspect speaks out
Road Rage Defense
During the early morning hours of July 6, a man driving an Audi overtook a man driving a Prius and forced him off the road in Allentown, Pa. The Audi driver then exited his vehicle and began striking the Prius driver’s door with a metal baseball bat. The Prius driver was a licensed carrier and defended himself by shooting the assailant in the torso. The victim then drove a few blocks away and called police, and the suspect was pronounced dead a short time later. The incident was fortunately caught on security video, and the district attorney ruled the incident a self-defense case with no charges filed against the armed citizen. The Allentown mayor told reporters it was a “senseless” case and claimed it was a product of people “having too easy access to guns.” Reports did not indicate his opinion on the accessibility of metal baseball bats. (6abc.com, Philadelphia, Pa., 7/7/25 and 7/23/25)
Man killed in Allentown road rage shooting is believed to be the aggressor, investigators say
Allentown road rage shooting determined to be self-defense, no charges to be filed
https://6abc.com/post/allentown-road-rage-shooting-determined-defense-no-charges-filed/17259858/
https://www.americas1stfreedom.org/content/the-armed-citizen-september-26-2025/
AI gets it wrong again
Grizzly Bear Attack
The grizzlies in Montana seem increasingly disgruntled. In the fifth such incident for the state, a man in Great Falls heard a disturbance with his chickens on the night of July 10 and left his residence to check on them. A grizzly bear was getting into the chicken coop, and reportedly charged the man, who shot it dead. Of the five reported incidents in Montana since April, this is the third involving a grizzly on someone’s property. (krtv.com, Great Falls, Mont., 7/17/25)
Grizzly bear shot after charging a man in Montana
https://www.krtv.com/news/montana-and-regional-news/grizzly-bear-shot-after-charging-a-man-in-montana
Warning Shot Foils Smash and Grab Robbery Attempt
On July 17, a mob of thieves attempted to rob a jewelry story in Anaheim, Calif. Security video shows about 20 people, several of them armed with pickaxes and sledgehammers, exiting four or five cars in the parking lot. They began smashing the store’s door, but the employees armed themselves, and the store owner fired a shot at one of the vandals, causing all of them to flee. The same store reportedly had been previously targeted as well, but the robbers were unable to get in, and another jewelry store nearby had been robbed after a vehicle was crashed through the storefront. The store owner bewilderingly attributed the robbery attempts to hunger. (foxla.com, Los Angeles, Calif., 7/20/25)
Anaheim jewelry store owner scares off mob of thieves by firing warning shot
https://www.foxla.com/news/anaheim-jewelry-store-owner-shoots-mob-thieves
Home Invasion by Multiple Intruders
On July 25, several armed men in masks broke into a home in Fort Worth, Texas, around 3 a.m. The resident shot at the intruders and then escaped through a window and called 911. Responding police found a wounded suspect one block away and transported him to the hospital. They indicated they believed the home invasion to be random, but the investigation was ongoing, and they were still seeking two other suspects. (wfaa.com, Dallas, Texas, 7/25/25)
Fort Worth man shoots home invasion suspect, escapes through a window, police say
Home Invasion by Intoxicated Agitated Neighbor
A man was inside his home around 3 p.m. on July 27 in Forney, Texas, when an intoxicated neighbor approached the home “in an agitated state.” Several people tried to stop the man, but he reportedly forced his way through a glass door and began assaulting the homeowner. The homeowner, however, was armed and defended himself by shooting the suspect once in the stomach and once in the chest. The homeowner suffered minor injuries from the attack; the suspect was airlifted to a hospital and faces first-degree felony charges upon recovery. The investigation was ongoing at the time of reporting. (cbsnews.com, Fort Worth, Texas, 7/29/25)
Police say “ongoing neighbor dispute” led shooting of suspect in Forney
https://www.americas1stfreedom.org/content/the-armed-citizen-september-26-2025/
OCTOBER 2025 SHOOTINGILLUSTRATED.COM
Man Shot by Deputy after Calling 911
#NegativeOutcome
After a Defensive Gun Use, don’t have your gun in hand when the POlice arrive.
[After the man called 911 saying he had killed someone,] The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the man’s home in the 4300 block of Central Avenue in Camarillo around 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 31. The 79-year-old man was allegedly armed with a gun and the dispatcher, who was still on the line, had asked the elderly man to step out of the house.
The man was allegedly still armed and behaved in a ‘threatening matter,’ prompting one of the deputies to shoot him, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.
Most likely after a Defensive Gun Use, a person is going to be very excited. Plan ahead of time to put your gun down before exposing yourself to the POlice. In my first class with John Farnam, he advised us to say “You might want to look over there” and point to your gun that’s in a recognizable place. Probably best for it to be unloaded to preclude the possibility of an Unintentional Discharge.
This type of incident falls into the Negative Outcome category of Undesirable Police Involvement. https://store.payloadz.com/go/?id=2617872
I had a different idea for #fridayfundamentals today but not getting shot is definitely fundamental.
If you are interested in more in-depth commentary about shooting and Personal Protection incident analysis, please consider subscribing to my Patreon page. https://www.patreon.com/TacticalProfessor
My Favorite Pressure Testing Drill
This is an old post of mine on Facebook from 2013. It was reposted today by my friends Phil Wong and Rob Reed. My thanks to them for resurrecting it. The post follows:
The concept of livefire pressure testing one’s shooting skills came up on a forum. This was my contribution.
My favorite drill is simple to set up but complex to administer. It requires comfort with an execution matrix to do correctly.
Conceptually, it’s best done with a group of about 2 dozen people or less. I’ve done it with 3 dozen, but it’s a lot of work.
It’s called ‘Everyone shoots against everyone.’ Using an execution matrix, I have every student shoot a short bout against every other student. Not consecutively, though. It’s not a mystery, I just run down the matrix and pair up names.
Logistically, all that’s required is two pepper poppers and two shoot boxes. The shooting is static. The drill is simple. Two shooters, two poppers, one signal. First to drive his/her popper down is the winner.
Where it gets difficult for the shooters is ramping their focus up and down over the course of an hour or so. Shooters do a lot of standing around and then get quickly called to shoot while the poppers are being reset. I do that timing deliberately.
When I did this for a large police department’s firearms instructors several years ago, their lead firearms instructor was the hands down favorite to win because he was easily the best shot in the department. However, that turned out not to be the case. He became complacent after awhile. The guys that had to shoot against him were jacked up every time. There ended up being no clear cut winner. The guys at the top of the winning curve were all reasonably proficient but not equal to him. Not surprisingly to me, the dedicated point shooters ended up at the bottom of the curve. One even told me he had decided to re-evaluate his philosophy because he got beaten so consistently.
At the end I commented that the amount of time they had to prepare for each bout after being called was similar to the amount of time they had from when they turned on their lights for a ‘routine traffic stop’ until they exited their patrol cars. Some of them do dozens of stops each day because they work traffic on the Interstate.
The psychology of approaching combat is as important as skill. Complacency, among other things, kills. After two years at Rogers, how students dealt with the problem mentally became far more interesting to me than the technique.
One of the difficulties of the Rogers Testing Program is that it requires students to take turns loading magazines, watching/evaluating someone else, and then standing and delivering. It goes on for over an hour, which is psychologically nerve racking. This evening, I was watching some footage of a huge firefight in Afghanistan and was struck at how similar the pacing was to the Testing Program at the School.
Close Quarters Handgun Training
My latest Shooting Illustrated article is posted.
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/close-quarters-handgun-training/
The topic is the ‘Close Quarters Handgun’ class I attended last month. It was taught by Chuck Haggard of Agile Training https://agiletactical.com/ and hosted by The Complete Combatant https://www.thecompletecombatant.com/.
Fair disclaimers up front: Chuck, Shelley, and Brian are all dear friends of mine and I didn’t pay for the class; in fact, Chuck picked up my range fee. Furthermore, I shot the class with the HK CC9 https://hk-usa.com/cc9/ that HK gave me. Chuck called it my “stubby gun,” which it is. Almost everybody else was shooting full size service pistols, most with Red Dot Sights. That said, nobody is paying me for my comments.
If you are interested in more in-depth commentary about shooting and Personal Protection incident analysis, please consider subscribing to my Patreon page. https://www.patreon.com/c/TacticalProfessor
Fraternity Picnic Shooting
A précis of the incident:
- Fraternity holds picnic at an Atlanta park
- Uninvited intruder wearing ski mask crashes picnic and starts a confrontation
- Fraternity members try to de-escalate the situation
- Masked intruder pulls out a gun and starts shooting
- A fraternity Brother is shot in the head and dies on scene
- Other fraternity Brothers, who have Weapons Carry Licenses, are armed
- They draw their guns and shoot the masked intruder
- Intruder is neutralized with bullets and later expires in hospital
Sad that carrying a pistol has become a necessity even at a pleasant fellowship event but I’m glad the Brothers had theirs. It could have been much worse. There are a lot of emboldened wackos wandering around. The report indicated that the intruder had been walking down the sidewalk next to the park and just decided to make trouble for an unknown reason.
RIP Mr. Pearson.
tacticalprofessor 
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