Tactical Conference 2024 – Loot and Looted
At every Conference, Seminar, or industry gathering, the attendees always return with items given away by Presenters and other attendees. TacCon 2024 was no exception; I call this ‘Loot’ and I returned with some good items.
Loot
Books
Good reading material courtesy of Chuck Haggard, my hostess for the weekend, Andy Stanford, and Greg Ellifritz.
Targets and Drills
At the end of Andy Stanford’s Practical Handgun Drills class, he gave us laminated copies of the Surefire targets and a double sided sheet of drills for using them.
Cool Stuff
Yet another doubloon from Andy Stanford was a Surefire Stiletto flashlight, given to all the trainers at the event. Retention Ring gave me a nice laminated card as an aid for adjusting pistol and rifle optics. A friend in the Air Marshal Service presented me with a cool pin and Chuck gave me a unique and apparently one off revolver inert gun.
Looted
Notice that there is no picture of the package of Narcan gifted to me by Greg Ellifritz. That’s because it was ‘liberated’ from my suitcase while in the custody of Frontier Airlines on the trip home. Whether a sticky fingered baggage handler got it or it was ‘seized’ without notice or an inspection tag by the TSA is unknown to me. Sunny Hostin might think the Total Eclipse disintegrated it while in the aircraft’s hold. When I opened the suitcase, I thought things were arranged a little differently. A bit later I realized that the Narcan had taken a walk.
That’s the last time I’ll ever fail to secure my suitcase with a TSA lock and a zip tie. I didn’t feel it was necessary this time because I didn’t have a pistol in my suitcase but it’s a lesson learned.
Many thanks to my friends for their generosity. Whether presenting or attending, there’s always interesting stuff given out at conferences. I’m looking forward to duplicating the Surefire targets and shooting Andy’s drills for them.
In Memoriam to all the heroes of the Miami Massacre, April 11, 1986. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_FBI_Miami_shootout
Guerrilla, U.S.A. – The Big Picture
#throwbackthursday
Shortly after World War Two, the country that was formerly known as the United States was divided into three countries; Weston, Easton, and Floridan. The country of Easton has been in the Communist sphere since World War Two.
Throughout Easton, mainly in the inaccessible areas of West Virginia, bands of twenty to a hundred guerrillas have been conducting raids and ambushes against the Easton government forces.
Yesterday, the President of Weston directed the Secretary of Defense to provide appropriate military assistance to these guerrillas.
Men, your mission is to infiltrate into Easton, organize the guerrillas, and conduct unconventional warfare operations.
(Note: their mission was actually to conduct Guerrilla Warfare operations, a subset of Unconventional Warfare.)
This film was produced by the United State Army in 1963 for syndicated distribution to as many as 320 US commercial television stations. “The United States Army presents The Big Picture, an official report produced for the Armed Forces and the American people.” The video is presented as an historical document and in no way represents commentary on the current political situation of the United States.
My book Shooting Your Black Rifle seems appropriate to this series of films. If you would like to purchase it, click on the image below.
Package Deal Update
I’m gratified that Thinking Clearly about Self-Defense and Personal Protection has been well received. One reader sent me the following comment, which I found quite gratifying.
I went through the book quickly and my initial impression is that it is superb. Tremendous intellectual effort and incredibly sage and mature counsel on the subject. It’s also incredibly in-depth and thoughtful.
J.T.
I want to spread the word as far as I can so I’ve now included it in the Shooting Drills Package https://www.payloadz.com/go/sip?id=3348053
The Package still includes Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make, also.
I appreciate the loyalty of those who have already purchased the Package, so I will be sending previous purchasers a download link for the book.
Two non-gun related books heavily influenced me in writing the book. The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli and Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends by Martin Lindstrom are both very insightful books about topics that aren’t often discussed.
Without knowing a proper name for it, I’ve been working with ‘small data’ for decades. I think Lindstrom would have approved of the Deloitte & Touche Real Estate Capital Markets Database that I created years ago. It started out with a few notes in Word and eventually grew into the broadest analysis of Wall Street’s entry into the commercial real estate finance business that has been done. Even the Wall Street soothsayers were only tracking 20 percent of the data in my database.
Contrary to the popular opinion that “the plural of anecdote is not data,” Lindstrom’s work shows that the opposite is actually true. All of Gary Klein’s work about decision-making is based on small data. Concealed Carry Skills and Drills, one of the books in the Package, is based on the concept of small data.
The collection of books in the Package presents a very comprehensive view of using firearms and other tools for preservation of life. Tools, skills, philosophy, and pitfalls are all covered. Those who are serious about our Art will find them useful reading, I am sure. I hope you will consider purchasing the collection.
Free books of the day
Taking a page from Greg Ellifritz, I found a couple of free Kindle books for my readers today. Please czech to make sure they’re still free before ordering them.
In the current times of America, we are clearly in the early stages of an Insurgency against the American way of life. Understanding mob psychology in such situations is useful. The French Revolution, aka The Terror, is a good study ground.
The Book of Five Rings is considered a classic text for Warriors. It’s somewhat incomprehensible even after several readings but you have to have read it at least once to be considered a member of the cognoscenti. Just owning a copy will make you cooler than most of your friends.
To avoid any confusion, I won’t list my books in this post because they’re not free. If you would be interested in purchasing any of my shooting workbooks for handgun or rifle, they are available from the menu at the top of the page. As the Insurgency escalates, you may find having a functional knowledge of the weapons you own to be useful.
FTC notice: The links are not affiliate links. In any case, it would be difficult to collect a commission on an item that is free.
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