Hebrew Hogger 2016, held in Nashville, has come and gone. It was a great one day training event held to defray the costs associated with a justified self defense shooting by a member of our community. There were 58 attendees, some of whom came from other States to attend. Six presentations were given, both in the classroom and hands-on. There was no livefire firearms training at all. Following are a few of my notes from the speakers. If I have butchered anything they said, it’s my responsibility.

Dr. William Aprill – Violent Criminal Actors

• Get VCAs to pick someone else; fail the interview.
• Too much eye contact with VCAs can trigger their aggression.

Dr. Sherman House – Becoming the Civilian Defender

• Better to have an option to avoid a situation than to have a tool to get out of a situation.
• The importance of Defensive Driving training.

Dana McLendon, Esq. – Dealing with the aftermath of a shooting

• The goal is to go home without dealing with law enforcement or emergency medical services.
• Mitigation of risk.
• Very few people will attend training events like Hebrew Hogger because they don’t think deeply enough about the issues associated with personal protection.
• Assume everything is being recorded. He noted how often recordings of incidents include a shout about being posted to WorldStar.
• A shooting may happen in an area where you are unsafe afterward. You may need to arrange to meet the police at some place they specify. Do NOT simply flee the scene.
• Trials are now about stories and narratives.
• A shooting is likely to have at least a five figure cost, assuming it doesn’t have to go to trial. The incident leading to the Hogger is a perfect example.
• “You will rarely regret having said too little.”
• His favorite movie lawyer movie is My Cousin Vinny because he thinks it’s the most realistic.

Eli Miller – emergency wound treatment. I wasn’t able to attend this one because of all that was going on.

Dr. William Aprill – disarms. I couldn’t attend this one, either.

Andrew Branca attended and contributed copies of his book the Law of Self Defense to the cause. He and I had an interesting discussion about the tortured nature of personal protection law in some areas of the country.

My presentation was a small segment from our upcoming class, Violent Criminal Actors and You. Given the situation, I thought Strategies, Tactics, and Option for Personal Protection (STOPP) would be the most appropriate. Some of the highlights were:

• “Immature strategy is the cause of grief.” –The Book of Five Rings
• Parallels exist between the Book of Five Rings and Boyd’s work
  • “…timing of cunning by knowing the enemies’ timing, and thus using a timing which the enemy does not expect.” – The Book of Five Rings. This is a more succinct way of expressing Boyd’s O-O-D-A Loop.
  • This is a link to a free download of Five Rings
• If you have any weapon at all and aren’t familiar with the law about self defense of your State or any State you travel to, “You are wrong as two left legs.” One of my First Sergeants was fond of saying that to our Beetle Baileys.
• At least be able to cite the number of the code section for your State. Don’t assume the police will even know it exists, much less know where to find it.
  • 16-3-21 for Georgia
  • 39-11-611 for Tennessee
• I provided several references – ACLDN pamphlet on What Every Gun Owner Needs to Know about Self Defense Law, The Law of Self Defense, Deadly Force – Understanding Your Right to Self Defense.
• The importance of Defensive Driving training (echoed from Sherman’s presentation)

A lady who attended and I had an interesting discussion about the differences between 20^th Century feminism and 21^st Century feminism. Her interpretation is that 20^th Century feminism was based on actual empowerment and the desire for true equality. She contrasted this with 21st Century feminism, which she feels is based on inherent victimhood and the need for safe spaces, which she cannot identify with. The discussion came about from the Woman’s Gun Pamphlet I posted a while ago. She and her husband had driven 14 hours to attend the one day training event.

Without going into details, the event was necessitated by the unfortunate politics a shooting resulted in. It’s a great case study of how a very justifiable response can be muddied when the recipient is politically connected or a prosecutor is politically motivated. Even justifiable shootings can have enormous consequences. It emphasized to me the need to think ahead of time about the third battle ahead of time.

The extremely cool morale patch for the event is available for sale, for those who would like to make a contribution to the cause but couldn’t attend. I will post an update with the purchase link when it’s available.

Sidenote: I have made a small update to my Indoor Range Practice Sessions eBook. The download now also includes a separate Excel worksheet for logging the results of your practice. The Excel worksheet is included in the price. I will be emailing it to previous purchasers shortly.