Firearms are relentlessly unforgiving
Firearms are relentlessly unforgiving of the smallest lapse in attention or good judgement.
The shooting of a special police officer during a training exercise at a D.C. library came as the group of trainees had gathered to take a picture and were ‘joking around,’ according to court documents.
[The shooter, a retired POlice lieutenant], who conducted the training as a private contractor, was arrested Friday and has now been charged with involuntary manslaughter in Manyan’s death.
Before, during, and after training or dry practice, there’s no room for “joking around.”
One of the very first things I learned in the Army from the men who had just returned from Vietnam was:
F8ck around, f8ck around, get yourself or someone else killed.
It’s a lesson I’ve kept in mind for 50 years. RIP Officer Manyan.
Gun Training from Friends and Relatives
This is a good example of why “My uncle is a veteran and he taught me to shoot” isn’t the hot ticket.
Watching the video in slow motion and looking at the track of the hits, it’s fairly clear that every hit on the roof and back of his car was created by the homeowner. Negative Outcome. There’s a hit on the side glass that probably came from the criminals and started it all.
This story was sent to me by a friend from the original tip on Gun Free Zone https://gunfreezone.net/thats-a-lot-of-dumb-luck-and-spent-brass/. I agree with this commentary.
He is very lucky to have survived and to have not been charged with a crime for filling a neighborhood with bullets.
Suppressive fire has its place in a combat zone but not in your own neighborhood.
SSS Summit Roundup from Active Response
Greg Ellifritz wrote an excellent article about the Summit. I’ll just link it here for those who are interested.
Greg asked me to open the links to my Patreon articles about the Summit and those are now public. The links are available in his article.
Surgical Speed Shooting Summit 2022 – An Overview
Twenty-one years ago, Andy Stanford researched and wrote the book Surgical Speed Shooting https://www.amazon.com/Surgical-Speed-Shooting-High-Speed-Marksmanship/dp/1581601433 about combat shooting technique. He began teaching classes based on what his research had found. A number of people in the industry, myself included, became part of a group Andy formed to spread his knowledge.
Fast forward to June 2022. Andy organized a four day event, the Surgical Speed Shooting Summit, https://www.tacticalresponse.com/products/surgical-speed-shooting-summit to further update what he learned subsequent to writing his book. The event was held at the classroom and range of Tactical Response https://www.tacticalresponse.com/ in Western Tennessee. The purpose of the Summit was not only to update Surgical Speed Shooting but also to bring together a group of some of the top trainers in the industry, many of whom were not SSS related, to add their expertise to the knowledgebase. The final group of instructors was:
- John Holschen
- John Hearne
- Greg Ellifritz
- Michael Green
- Claude Werner
- Michael DeBethencourt
- Allan McBee
- John Johnston
- Karl Rehn
- Don Redl
- Lee Weems
- Melody Lauer
The first day started with a half day update of what Andy has gleaned about combat pistol shooting since the book’s publication. For the second half of the day, the group went to the range to shoot a few drills and see some targets Andy has developed for Surefire https://www.surefire.com/.
Day Two was spent at the Tactical Response classroom with each trainer giving a presentation of his or her own choosing. The topics all related to personal defense but did not have to be specifically on Surgical Speed Shooting.
On the third day, 47 students arrived at the Tactical Response range to begin training with the 12 instructors who had been divided into three different groups of four instructors each. The students were divided into equal sized groups based on an initial skill evaluation by shooting one of the Surefire drills. The student groups received 2 hours of training each by each instructor group. The instructors divided their two hour time frames among themselves to that the students received 12 total short blocks of instruction.
The final day’s range activities for the students were similar to the third day’s but the instructor groups were reorganized and the instructors had the option to present different material than they had on the previous day.
Finally, everyone returned to the Tactical Response classroom for a wrap-up of the Summit’s events. The instructors and students invidually gave examples of two things that they had personally taken away from the Summit’s training and presentations. As each person gave their take-aways, they were presented with a certificate testifying to their attendance at this historic event.
More about each day’s activities in the next few posts.
Special Forces Advisor – The Big Picture
#throwbackthursday
A long, long way from northern Iran. In the airspace over North Carolina, that’s where the story of any Special Forces advisor really starts.
Note that at the time this film was made, Eye-ran was not our enemy.
North Carolina or North Iran, a jump’s a jump. The same tension as you shuffle toward the plane door, the same big lift in your chest as you see that silk billowing out above you, and the same hard meeting with Mother Earth.
And one thing more that’s the same for any Army man who comes down in a parachute, even at a tactics class, one part of our course at Fort Bragg Special Warfare School. When he lands, it may be the safe ending to a flight but his job is just beginning.
You five students know your part in this exercise. You’ve been dropped presumably into enemy-held territory but guerillas friendly to us are operating. You’re to link up with the guerrilla force in your area, train them in the tactics which we’ve been teaching you, and follow through on a bridge destruction mission with them.
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.
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.
Special Forces – The Big Picture
#throwbackthursday
February’s weekly episodes of The Big Picture will feature the role of Special Forces during the Cold War. https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history
Guest Narrator for the first episode is Mr. Henry Fonda, the famed screen actor.
This man wears the uniform of the Special Forces. To use the word special in describing him is no mistake as you’ll see during the next half hour. He’s a mature, dedicated, and skillful professional and his line of work is demanding. It takes in a full scope of unconventional or guerrilla operations.
Special Warfare involves three types of activity; unconventional warfare, psychological warfare, and counterinsurgency operations. This last includes the complete range of military, political, economic, and sociological action. New emphasis is being placed on unconventional warfare and the reason isn’t hard to see.
Today, the threat of war takes three forms; general nuclear war, conventional war, and guerrilla or unconventional war. Fortunately, the world has never yet seen a general nuclear war. Conventional warfare, the regular forces of two or more nations in combat but without using nuclear weapons we know all too well but at the moment no such traditional war is going on. Unconventional warfare is a different story.
In a number of key spots around the world intense guerrilla operations are underway right now. It makes little difference to the people of a country whether they lose their freedom to an invading army of regulars or through the action of guerrilla forces sponsored by an outside power.
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.
Commence Firing – The Big Picture
#throwbackthursday
“Since the earliest days in American history, marksmanship has played a vital role in the growth and development of our country. The rifle was essential to those pioneers who marched westward, often the means of survival. Marksmanship continues to be fundamental right down to this day. Weapons change, tactics change but being able to hit the mark has never lost its importance. Sometimes it means the difference between life and death. From colonial days, marksmanship has been an American tradition. The right to bear arms was one of the basic freedoms demanded by the Continental Army and rifles and the spirit of the man who manned them were decisive factors in our country’s initial fight for independence.”
STOPP Presentation now available
My Strategies, Tactics, and Options for Personal Protection presentation given at the Rangemaster 2019 Tactical Conference is now available for download. It is the culmination of several years of research and analysis into the issues that confront private citizens when trying to keep themselves and their families safe from criminal predators.
Many people have expressed interest in training with The Tactical Professor but haven’t had the opportunity. This movie is the next best thing. It is The Tactical Professor as his authentic self and is definitely not “Death by PowerPoint.” There is some coarse language but it has been kept to a minimum.
A short sample is available on my YouTube Channel.
Topics covered include:
- Strategy
- Tactics
- Options
- Personal Protection
- Our end goal (STRATEGY) is to make good decisions
- Decisions determine outcomes
- Take charge of the situation, don’t let the situation control you.
- Priorities
- Decide ahead of time
- Choose a response
- Options for Personal Protection
- Protecting Others
- Three inputs to good decision making
- The fun input
- Use of Force law
- Know the rules (other)
- What were you thinking?
- Have adequate skills
- Cognitive load
- Practicing your skills
- Understand the situation
- Inputs to bad decision making
The file is an MP4 movie created from the slides and a full recording of the presentation. The movie is 90 minutes long and includes a Question and Answer session with the audience at the end. The file is about 554MB so a fast connection is desirable to download it.
You can purchase the full movie for download at https://www.payloadz.com/go/view_cart.asp?id_user=337896
I think you will find it’s $14.99 well spent. As with all my products, my ebook Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make is included.
Training during uncertain times
My friend David Yamane has an interesting blog post about training last year.
https://gunculture2point0.wordpress.com/2021/05/14/shooting-lessons-during-and-from-covid-times/
The NRA Pistol Marksmanship Simulator Training is a really good course. I’ve taught it several times as private lessons and found the results to be very worthwhile. I’m glad David and Sandy got something out of it.
tacticalprofessor 
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