Armed Home Defense Tactics 6.13.19

Attended my annual Personal Defense Network your class at Rob Pincus came through Iowa. This year was all about home defense. Some old information and some new information. Thoroughly enjoyable class. I have some things to work on.

How the "Gun Culture" Broadened my Horizons

My very first job on my very first Special Forces A Team was as the junior "Weapons Guy". My military occupational specialty even spelled it out, 18B3VW8RU Special Operations Weapons Sergeant Ranger Qualified Freefall Parachutist Russian Language. I was the commander's advisor on tactics and weapons. I was an NRA member, I was a gun guy. But my horizon's were narrow. I knew everything about guns but I didn't know what I didn't know. I progressed up the ranks and my knowledge served me well.  In 2004 I retired from Special Forces as a Master Sergeant and Team Sergeant of a Military Freefall team that I had deployed to combat with. Successful but still narrow scope.

So there I was in civilianland with no context. My knowledge really didn't mean anything to these people. I knew how to set the headspace and timing on a M2 .50 cal machinegun or zero a 106mm recoilless rifle but there wasn't a lot of call for that. Even though I had been formally and informally teaching for decades I had no credibility, I had no sheepskin. So I decided to take some handgun and rifle courses.  Two things happened. I discovered a shooting program that made complete sense to me and really should be the basic foundation for any firearms training. That program was then known as Combat Focus Shooting and is now known as Intuitive Defensive Shooting. IDS is based on the counterambush methodology and is backed by evidence and empirical data. The other thing that happened is I was pretty sure I could teach this stuff.

So I attended the prerequisite courses as an end user and then worked my way through the Defensive Firearms Coach and Intuitive Defensive Shooting Instructor development courses. Along the way, I picked up the National Rifle Association and the United States Concealed Carry Association Instructor credentials. Cool right? No, not cool because I realized that firearms were not the end all be all after taking these courses. They apply to a very narrow set of circumstances in regards to personal defense.

So the journey continued I became a Stop the Bleed Instructor, Pre Hospital Trauma Life Support, and Tactical Emergency Casualty Care Instructor. Because I realized if you carry a gun for self-defense you better know how to take care of a wounded person. Could be you, could be a loved one.

Then it hit me, what if I didn't have a gun or what if the person was so close I couldn't use a gun?  I became an Active Shooter Response instructor through several organizations because you need a plan for those situations. I started taking edged weapons classes which got me into my original weapons based grappling class. I took Krav Maga for a few years and for the last 3 years I have taken Brazilain Jiu Jitsu. I also continued my exploration of weapons based grappling through the Shivworks collective.  Shivworks got me interested in Managing Unknown Contacts and the psychology behind criminal activity.

My study of martial arts had turned me on to the Stoic philosophy among others. I started to try and practice stoicism in my daily life. Stoicism and the knowledge I learned from MUC and Martial Arts has made me a humbler and more forgiving person. I read more. I think more, I study more.

I will continue to expand my horizons in an effort to live a life worth living. Gun culture did that for me. I am still a gun guy.

CVO Guntalk 027 “What Now?”

Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT)

I was recently afforded the opportunity to attend the two day 16 hour ALERRT course with some other officers from the department I am a Reserve Officer for. ALERRT advertises itself as the "National Standard" for law enforcement response to active shooter situations. 

The instructors were experienced LEO from departments in LA,TX and IA. They all had SWAT or tactical team backgrounds however this is not a tac team course. ALERRT is for the patrol officer that may respond to an incident of this type and often may work with 1 or 2 other officers with whom they have never trained . There is a potential for even a single officer to engage. The context was very appropriate to my situation, as my department is small with only a few officer's on duty at one time. Our back up potentially could be delayed based upon geography.

I won't go into specifics of training as this class was for LEO only. I want to talk about my impressions however. On day 1 our head instructor made a statement which instantly won my respect. He stated that ( I am paraphrasing) "LEO are not adequately trained." My first thought was YUSH!!! I am on the same sheet of music here!! I have long maintained that many LEO and more specifically anyone who carries a firearm for self defense do not take training seriously enough. There is a responsibility we have to the community to be the best trained individual we can be. And not just with our weapon. We need to be familiar with  pre assault cues, grappling, trauma management, communications, de escalation, physical fitness and a myriad of other subjects. We need to continue to advance our abilities without the attitude "They aren't paying me" or " It won't happen here". It is unfathomable to me why this class did not have a waiting list. It wasn't even completely full and that is a problem that needs to be corrected.  I will make mention however that my department had the single biggest contingent and we acquitted ourselves well during the training. 

This course also validated many other things that I teach during my own instruction. Although if I didn't believe in it I wouldn't be teaching it, it is satisfying to get independent validation. Primarily how the body reacts under stress and how these reactions affect our ability to engage a threat. For instance I teach kinethestic alignment of the shooter and the fact that you will not need your sights or find them particularly interesting when the threat is inside 9-15 feet. This point was validated when during a room clearing sequence I was ambushed by an unexpected second gunman. I recall lowering my center of gravity, squaring towards the threat, punching my weapon out until it stopped and pulling the trigger as fast as I could. What I don't recall is ever looking at my sights. I was looking at the chest of the gunman as they fired back, my weapon was vaguely in my line of sight somewhere between us. I achieved 3 center mass hits acrossed a standard class room. This information was extremely valuable to me. 

I enjoyed this course and am glad I had the opportunity to go. Any of my LEO friends that haven't gone need to get themselves to the next available course

MAG 20 6.24-25.2017

This past weekend I attended Massad Ayoob's MAG 20 Armed Citizens Rules of Engagement. Take some time to read Mas's bio. I won't repeat it here but he is the foremost expert on civilian use of force and self defense shootings in the United States. He has 43 years of LEO experience and expert witness testimony. He has also written several authoritative texts on the the subject. I have been trying to attend this course for several years so was glad I finally had the opportunity

MAG20 stands for Massad Ayoob Group 20 hours. This course was all of 20 hours. 10 hour days with 10 minute breaks after every block. Lunches were working affairs eating with one hand and taking notes with the other. It was definitely a grind. I wrote at least 20 pages of notes over the two day course. 

There were about 15 people in the class from all walks of life. I won't get into specifics of the course as much of it is proprietary and I don't want to inadvertently post something I shouldn't. I will say however there was lots of information that will take some time to digest and I will definitely need to reread my notes to aid in my comprehension.

Mas is not considered the Subject Matter Expert on this for nothing. He constantly interjected cases by name to illustrate his points. Looking up and researching all of them will be a class in itself. If you carry a gun or anything else to defend yourself or others if needed, you would be negligent not to get this information.