Thoughts On ‘The Distance Issue’
#mousegunmonday
Rich Grassi of The Tactical Wire recently posted an article about distances at which Defensive Gun Uses can be successfully resolved. https://www.thetacticalwire.com/features/a45b09c4-5997-4cd2-b959-a15df74293ac
One of his comments is well put and bears remembering in all cases of personal protection. It applies regardless of the implement used, whether personal weapons, impact tools, or firearms.
“Anyone who tells you that ‘if you shoot beyond (whatever) distance, you’ll have a lot to explain,’ forgets to add, ‘if you ever use deadly force to stop an immediate deadly threat, you’ll have a lot to explain.’”
This is an interesting topic and bears some further testing. Here’s my unlocked Patreon post about it.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/thoughts-on-140908907
To quantify his questions a little further for myself, the LCP II .22 provided a good platform. The standard I chose was well established and very basic, no pun intended. The NRA Basics of Pistol Shooting standard is to put five hits out of five shots into a four inch circle. Coincidentally, four inches is also the size of the -0 head zone on the IDPA target. To apply this standard to the question of ‘maximum effective range,’ two circles were shot at 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 feet. The question was at what distance did I fail to meet the standard.
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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
Optimizing the J Frame EDC Revolver
#wheelgunwednesday
“The small-frame revolver has been a mainstay of everyday carry and personal protection in the U.S. for the better part of two centuries. They’re not the easiest of guns to shoot, but they have an uncomplicated manual of arms and are easy to carry, which is why they remain popular. Some simple improvement can be made to them to make them easier to shoot. Main among those improvements are improving the visibility of the sights and using stocks that properly fit the shooter’s hands.”
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/upgrading-the-small-frame-edc-revolver/
Here are a few illustrations that didn’t make it into the online article.
I know everyone likes fancy wood boot stocks on their revolver but shooting 5^5 https://www.luckygunner.com/lounge/start-shooting-better-5×5-drill/ with them shows how hard they are to hold onto. Except for an ankle, pocket, or barbecue gun, they’re not very useful.
A decent set of larger rubber stocks is a huge improvement. On a belt gun or for FlexCarry https://www.flexccarrysolutions.com/ , they’re no more difficult to conceal. Even rubber boot stocks are better than wood ones.
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LCP II Hogue Handall Grip Sleeve
#mousegunmonday
Many people comment that the LCP and LCP II are not particularly pleasant guns to shoot. Putting a Hogue HandALL® Hybrid Grip Sleeve on my LCP made it much more comfortable. I purchased (with my own money: FTC) a HandALL® Beavertail Grip Sleeve for my LCP II to see if the result was comparable.
The Handalls are rubber and much wider than the naked backstrap of the LCP. Consequently, they spread the recoil across a broader area and reduce its impact on the hand.
The instructions for installing the Grip Sleeve say to warm it with a hair dryer prior to the installation. I found this to be very helpful. As an experiment, I tried putting it on without warming. This didn’t work at all. Warming it with the hair dryer worked much better and I was able to get it on per the instructions.
Note also that the front sight of my LCP II is painted with orange model paint on top of a white undercoat. This makes the sight picture much improved and shooting more accurate.
At my local indoor range, I shot two different courses of fire. The ammo was a mixed bag of different types I wanted to shoot up and I didn’t bother keeping track of what I shot when. The total for the two CoF was 48 rounds, which is a decent practice session for a small pistol.
The first thing I shot was my Old West Shootist’s Challenge. https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2025/02/05/shootists-challenge-the-final-word/ with a second string inspired by Marty Robbins’ song Big Iron. “There was 40 feet between them when they stopped to make their play.”
The Shootist’s Challenge now consists of two strings, one at 25 feet and the other at 40 feet.
1) Six shots, 10 paces (25 feet/8 yards), Primary Hand Only, Untimed. I shot this twice because I obviously need more practice.
2) Six shots, 40 feet/13 yards, Two Hands, Untimed.
The second Course of Fire I shot was a modified version of the Warshington State Basic Covert Carry/Off-Duty Proficiency Course. Because the range doesn’t permit drawing from a holster, I used a bench start for the strings that are specified as holster starts. I didn’t time it because other people were shooting and a shot timer would have been useless. Times for qual courses have never been an issue for me so I don’t worry about them. Unless the shooter is dawdling, I’m not convinced timing is as important as is generally regarded in the community.
There were four modifications added. The first was shooting Sequence 1 as a pair of 3 shot Failure Drills. Failure Drill, as I use the term, is as taught by Larry Mudgett and John Helms to the LAPD after returning from Gunsite. https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2022/12/20/failure-drill/ Two shots to the chest, bring the pistol down to Low Ready at the target’s waist level, a pause to assess, and then a face shot. This Sequence was six shots as I did it.
Sequences 2 and 3 were shot as described in the Course of Fire, except using a bench start for Sequence 2. All the subsequent five shot Sequences were increased to six rounds. The six round Sequences were shot in three strings using 1 shot, then 2 shots, then 3 shots, as taught by Jim Cirillo. https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/jim-cirillo-s-1-2-3-6-drill/ For the 3 shot strings, I once again did them as Failure Drills and marked on the target where the face shot went for each Sequence.
The end result was that I met the standard for the Course of Fire.
Qualification Courses are structured to efficiently cycle numerous officers through as quickly as possible. We can use them as practice regimens but that doesn’t mean we have to blast long strings of fire that provide little in the way of marksmanship practice. Breaking longer strings down gives us more accountable practice on our sight picture and trigger manipulation.
I found 48 rounds through the Handall equipped LCP II to be much more pleasant than it would have been with the bare gun. It’s a worthy and inexpensive modification.
If you would like to read more in-depth information about shooting and personal protection, consider subscribing to my Patreon page.
Testing A New Gun
#wheelgunwednesday
As I work on the updated Second Edition of Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make, a chapter I’m adding is ‘Not Testing Your Gun.’ Several industry surveys indicate that the average gun purchaser fires less than a box of ammunition through it, perhaps only a cylinder or magazine. However, this is an average and many people never fire their guns at all. Legacy guns, i.e., inheritances and passed down guns, are probably even worse. Not knowing if your gun works or if you can make it work is a Serious Mistake.
One client of mine thought her gun, a S&W revolver, was broken because she couldn’t pull the trigger. When I examined it, there was nothing wrong with it. She just didn’t have the hand strength to pull the trigger. This was fortunate because she found out when she tried to do some shooting that would have been unlawful. Not knowing the laws about shooting is another Serious Mistake but that’s for another post.
Two other clients had revolvers, one cheap and one a nice S&W snub, that wouldn’t fire when they came to the range with me. This was a bit of a shock to them. They shot my revolver adequately but both had to get their revolvers repaired before they were serviceable. Yet another client had a nice S&W Model 36 but had never gotten around in four years to purchasing any ammunition for it. After an attempted burglary, her boyfriend called me to ask if I ‘had any spare bullets.’
Yesterday, I was able to acquire in a trade a nice S&W Model 10-7 snub. The first thing I did was to head to my gun club to test it. Not only for functionality but also to find where various loads hit because it is a fixed sighted gun. Different bullet weights and velocities can result in a gun hitting at very different points of impact. If the only thing someone is concerned with is hitting a full size Q target at four yards, e.g., 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 it’s not a big deal. If the target is obscured behind a car 17 yards away and is shooting at you https://www.patreon.com/posts/armed-citizen-132185205, where the bullets hit becomes more important.
There were three loads that I tested; 158 grain Fiocchi FMJ, 130 grain Remington UMC FMJ, and the last of my 148 grain lead Winchester SuperMatch wadcutters. The test protocol was my Old West Shootist’s Challenge. https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2025/02/05/shootists-challenge-the-final-word/ To it, I’ve added a second string inspired by Marty Robbins’ song Big Iron. “There was 40 feet between them when they stopped to make their play.”
The Shootist’s Challenge now consist of two strings, one at 25 feet and the other at 40 feet.
1) Six shots, 10 paces (25 feet/8 yards), Primary Hand Only, Untimed.
2) Six shots, 40 feet/13 yards, Two Hands, Untimed.
All shots must hit in the large (5 inch) square, one must hit the center (1 inch) stamp.
The Remington 130 FMJ seemed to give the best results.
As I texted to my colleague Chuck Haggard https://agiletactical.com/, “I care a lot less about Magic Bullets than I do about hitting right.”
An interesting thing occurred while shooting the Winchester SuperMatch. One of the rounds had a high primer and simply would not come under the recoil shield. This is why czeching ammo that’s intended for serious social purposes is so important. SuperMatch was considered to be a very high quality ammo in its day but here was a round that couldn’t be made to fire.
The next test was the Washington State Basic Covert Carry/Off-Duty Proficiency Course.
This is a good course for carry revolvers and is 5 shot friendly. The times aren’t particularly demanding but they’re not a total piece of cake either. A good aspect is that it requires shooting with Primary Hand Only and Support Hand Only. I’ve had a client who couldn’t pull the trigger of her revolver with her Support Hand. That’s a problem.
Finally, I shot the IDPA 5X5 Classifier.
The light was changing and as can happen, it affected where my rounds impacted. This is because it changes the sight picture.
It’s probably not necessary to test fire a gun to this extent but at least knowing it will fire is a worthwhile exercise. It’s also important to know what the recoil is like. An incident occurred in Florida years ago in which a woman had a revolver she had never fired. When she fired it, it flew out of her hand. Things didn’t go that well for her after that. I’ve had a similar experience when a friend’s wife wanted to shoot my Charter Arms .44 Bulldog. It flew out of her hands and knocked her back. If I hadn’t caught her, she would have fallen flat on her back.
As the late Paul Gomez was fond of saying, “Shoot Yor Guns!”
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Parking Lot Tactics
Greg Ellifritz recently wrote an excellent article about mitigating the risks we encounter every time we go into a parking lot. https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/five-parking-lot-precautions It’s great advice; much like my own protocols that I developed after LCDR Schaufelberger was assassinated in his car in El Salvador. https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2018/05/25/in-memoriam-albert-schaufelberger/
Two points in particular resonated with me. First,
Walk against traffic going to and from your car. … You may also be able to detect the driver distracted by texting or scrolling the internet on his phone before he runs you down as well.
Every time you go into a parking lot, you will see people who simply cannot put their cell phones down for ONE Minute between their cars and the store. As soon as they get out of the car, they start texting or talking, completely obvious to the two ton homicide machines moving all around them. When they leave the store, they continue blabbing even while they’re backing out of their parking space and driving down the lane.
The title of Colonel Rex Applegate’s most famous book Kill Or Be Killed comes to mind. Such people are ready and willing to kill you as they distractedly put their manslaughter machines in motion or they’re ready to be killed while yapping about something of no importance.
By walking against the traffic, you’ll have more chance to see the distracted driver before they run you down and then say “I’m so sorry” while you’re leaking and being loaded in the ambulance aka ‘amber lamps.’ https://youtu.be/53Bx5PLrOIk?si=zCk8BcJyDLOVFUS0&t=173 Note: in the first part of the video there “may be strong language used by those shown in the video. Viewer discretion is advised, especially for young children and sensitive viewers.”
The second point that resonated with me was:
If I do carry a shopping bag, I always carry it in my non-dominant hand. I like to keep my gun hand free for a faster draw should I decide I want to respond with my weapon.
I disagree with Greg about this. My comment on his Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/posts/five-parking-lot-138083166 was:
One point of difference. I carry the bag in my Primary Hand. During 10 years (around 400 iterations) as a role player in Force on Force scenarios, we never saw any clients drop something in their Support Hand when they were forced by the scenario into shooting. Even Rogers Advanced Level shooters would shoot Primary Hand Only. Same thing for less skilled shooters. That observation changed my mind about how to set myself up for success.
Parking lots are spaces in-between other places of relatively greater safety. Ramp up your level of awareness for two minutes when you drive into the parking lot and when you leave the store to exit the parking lot.
If you would like to read more in-depth information about shooting and personal protection, consider subscribing to my Patreon page.
The Evolution of Police Revolver Training
#wheelgunwednesday
Looking at the history of POlice training and how it began ….
Police revolver training goes back to the 19th Century and President Theodore Roosevelt. Before he was President of the United States, he was President of the New York City Police Commission from 1895 to 1897. When he began that position, New York policemen furnished their own revolvers for duty. Roosevelt was impressed by the .32 Colt New Police revolver and ordered 4500 to be issued to the New York police. Being dismayed by the lack of proficiency of the officers, Roosevelt instituted a school of pistol practice. He required officers, or ‘roundsmen,’ as they were called, to practice and qualify with their issued revolvers.
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/the-evolution-of-law-enforcement-revolver-training/
Small Gun Accuracy
#mousegunmonday
The Washington State Basic Covert Carry/Off-Duty Proficiency Course for Law Enforcement Officers includes shots out to 15 yards. This is perfectly workable with small guns like a Ruger LCP, even though it has a double action trigger.
Here’s my YouTube video of the Course of Fire.
If you would like to read more in-depth information about shooting and personal protection, consider subscribing to my Patreon page.
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.
tacticalprofessor 
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