2 Nov 10

American Bison

Today, for the first time in my life, I went bison hunting! We were at a private hunting preserve in OH.

When I got my opportunity, I had a broadside shot at fifty meters, but I had no tree upon which to rest my rifle, so I opted to seize the opportunity immediately, shooting from a standing position. The animal could have easily closed the distance that separated us within three seconds! Fortunately, we practice a lot of this during our Urban Rifle Courses.

I used my PTR-32 in 7.62×39 with Cor-Bon DPX (125gr) ammunition. My rifle is equipped with an Aimpoint T1 on a LaRue Quick-Release mount and medium riser. Rifle, optic, and ammunition all performed superbly!

First shot hit at the point of the shoulder. Rear legs immediately collapsed, and the animal rolled over and went down, without ever taking a step. She tried to get back up, but ultimately could not. However, having no desire to chase after wounded animals, I hit her twice more, again on the shoulder. The last shot was the “finisher” to the neck.

Only the neck shot exited. The other three did not. However, the effect, which I watched through my Aimpoint, was dramatic. The animal weighed 1,100 pounds! I was not sure the 7.62×39 was up to the task, but my worries were in vain. As always, Barnes bullets went about their deadly work with frightening efficiency!

With her M1 Carbine, also shooting DPX ammunition, Vicki took a wonderful Hawaiian Goat and an African Bush Pig. With his heart disintegrated, the pig still walked about nonchalantly for most of a minute. They’re tough!

I believe it is important that we hunt big game with our military rifles every chance we get. There is no testing quite so realistic as actually using your serious rifle to hunt and kill live animals. I do it at every opportunity!

We hunt at Shawnee Ridge, and you can contact them at http://www.shawneeridgehuntingpreserve.50megs.com/custom.html

Recommended!

/John

 

4 Nov 10

Comments on scenario-based training, from a well-known Instructor and colleague:

“We just finished a Building-Search Class here at the Academy.

I was an ‘actor’ and played the role of a burglary suspect. Like you, I couldn’t help but notice mistakes that were made over and over:

1) Closer is not better! Many officers want to get close enough to lay hands on dangerous suspects, rather than remain distant and in a position of advantage. The closer you get, the more your options dry up.

2) Your supply of ammunition is extremely limited. Don’t press the trigger until you have a legitimate target in your sights. Launching rounds harum-scarum produces multiple bullet holes in places where you don’t want them, and runs down a already scant supply!

Losers panic. Operators stay in control.

3) Keep suspect’s hands in view. When he refuses to cooperate, stay behind cover and get ready to light him up!

When officers failed to track my hands, I was able to draw and fire before either could respond. I usually hit both!

Interestingly, the best team-performance came from two female recruits. Neither were particularly good shooters, nor particularly aggressive. But, good tactics saved their lives! They used flashlights to blind me, immediately spotted the outline of a pistol in my pocket, issued logical, clear verbal commands, didn’t rush forward, kept barking at me to keep hands high, and ultimately moved me into a position of complete disadvantage.

I never got the chance to launch a round at either of them!”

Comment: Sound tactics will assist the Superior Gunman in abstaining from the necessity of a display of his superior skills!

/John

 

4 Nov 10

Tax Cuts?

Between 1999 and 2006, NBC ran a television drama-series called, “The West Wing.” Not surprisingly, a Kerry-like president, played by Martin Sheen, endlessly espoused Liberal causes. GWB was, at the time, the real president, but so rabid was the liberal media’s hatred for him, and all other non-Socialists, that they “made-believe” with Sheen.

However, in an uncharacteristic moment of clarity, we find an advisor saying this to the vice-president:

“… every time your boss gets on the stump and says, ‘It’s time for the rich to pay their ‘fair share,’ I hide under a couch…

I left my last job making $400,000 a year, which means I paid twenty-seven times the national average in income tax. I paid my ‘fair share,’ and the ‘fair share’ of twenty-six other people!

… but I don’t get twenty-seven votes on election day. The fire department doesn’t come to my house twenty-seven times faster, and the water doesn’t come out of my faucet twenty-seven times hotter.

The top one-percent of wage-earners in this country pay a vastly disproportionate percentage of taxes.

Let’s not call them names while they’re doing it…”

Comment: Yes, I’d much rather Sheen’s successor (BHO) just say “Thank You,” and leave it at that!

/John

 

4 Nov 10

Comments from a friend and student in the System:

“In the not-too-distant past much of our national income was based on the actual design, manufacture, and marketing of tangible goods. When liberal politicians, none of whom had ever produced anything of value in their entire lives, saw hard-working, private-sector owners and managers as cash-cows, who existed only to be plundered, subsequent tax-hikes proved intolerable. Over the next few years, to no one’s surprise, nearly all manufacturing was moved to other countries.

So at present, the rich in the USA earn their wealth almost exclusively from financial services, and other ‘brains-only’ activities. Like it or not, the ‘financial-services’ industry is attracting the best brains, from our best universities, who, in the past, would have focused their intellectual efforts on innovative products, innovative manufacturing, and scientific research.

One third of Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science Department of Mechanical Engineering students are now majoring in ‘Financial Services Engineering.’ Nearly all of them are US Citizens.

The other two-thirds are foreign students, and they, you’ll never guess, are concentrating their efforts on fuels, energy, water treatment, emissions, manufacturing, robotics, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices, all the stuff that we need to survive as a civilization!

The scary part is that our entire financial-services industry itself will shortly relocate offshore, and on short notice, needing only to transfer business data to computer systems in other countries, and subsequently book one-way airfare!

Yes, they would be subject to US income taxes, but only for the short period they remain US Citizens. They will all be more than welcome in any number of other nations. Dubai isn’t building all of those sky-scrapers just to attract tourists!”

Comment: “It is certain that the two World Wars in which I have participated would not have occurred had we been prepared. It is my belief that adequate preparation on our part would have
prevented, or materially shortened, all our other wars beginning with that of 1812. Yet, after each of our wars, there has always been a great hue and cry to the effect that there will be no more wars, that disarmament is the sure road to health, happiness, and peace; and that by removing the fire department, we will remove fires. These ideas spring from wishful thinking and from the erroneous belief that wars result from logical processes. There is no logic in wars. They are produced by madmen. No one can say when future madmen will reappear. I do not say that there will be more wars; I devoutly hope that there will not, but I do say that the chances of avoiding future wars will be greatly enhanced when we are ready.”

George Patton

How can we be “ready,” when we can’t make anything, when the best brains in the country are sitting around a table trying to sell each other insurance?

/John

 

10 Nov 10

“Well-intentioned” gun-control in SA, from a friend there:

“A complex and highly-touted ‘Firearms Control Act’ was voted in here in South Africa in 2005, and was scheduled to be phased-in over the following five years. It was endlessly praised by many American politicians as an example of what is needed everywhere.

Each year, twenty percent of licensed firearm owners would be required to reapply for their licenses.

It is now 2010, and there has just been a major, and shocking, admission by the political head of our National Police that, despite a huge new bureaucracy and endless budget overruns, the entire system is broken beyond any possibility of restoration.

The ‘process’ is now up to five years in arrears. It never really started!

We are supposed to re-apply every five years for self defense weapons, and every ten for hunting weapons and collectibles.

People who applied five years ago, still do not have their ‘new’ licenses, and probably never will.

We all now realize we were duped into believing leftist politicians had any interest in reducing violent crime.”

Comment: A nearly identical situation is currently ongoing in Canada, with identical results!

The foregoing is ever the story of ‘gun-control’ legislation.

Autocratic politicians don’t want us all disarmed in order to somehow protect us from violent criminals. They want us disarmed in order to protect themselves from us!

/John

 

10 Nov 10

Another Rifle Optic:

I just finished an Urban Rifle Course in UT last weekend, and several of my students had rifles equipped with Trijicon’s “RMR” red-dot.

It is small when compared with the EOTech, even the Aimpoint T1, and is available with or without fiber-optic lighting (as a back-up to the battery.) However, the fiber-optic addition adds bulk and requires the lens to be tinted.

The RMR is available in a variety of dot-sizes. Most of the ones we’ve seen in our Courses have been four MOA, which works fine for our purposes.

One feature I really like is the fact that the brightness of the red dot is self-adjusting! No need to constantly monitor it, and, as with the Aimpoint, the dot is always “on.” No need to ever turn it “on,” nor turn it “off.”

I’ve always been concerned about the durability of these small red-dot optics, but, in my experience, the RMR is adequately rugged, and it holds zero. While not as precise, nor as “militarized,” as the Aimpoint T1, the RMR works well enough to recommend.

/John

 

11 Nov 10

Help for concealed carriers:

With my waist-band routinely occupied with two pistols (currently SIG P250 and Kahr PM45), spare magazine, and Firstlight Tomahawk, in addition to several Cold-Steel blades in pockets, my trousers, even when held in-place solidly by my Wilderness Instructor nylon belt, have to be manually pulled up now and then, particularly when I am rapidly walking up and down the line at Training Courses

A colleague recently showed me his copy Spec-Ops Combat Suspenders. For those of us who routinely go armed, they are vastly superior to standard clothes suspenders. When wearing them, it feels as if I’m wearing a web-belt with suspenders again. They are designed for serious use, and the suspender material is a mixture of Cordura and natural rubber. Comfortable and conformable, yet with ample ability to support belt and mounted gear. Plastic release-buckles allow for quick connection and disconnection.

And, there is no metal in the entire thing, so I can fly with them in-place without being compelled to perform a strip-tease during airport screening!

There is no issue with motion, nor with sitting. Suspension points (two) are on the side, and the straps are wide. I can now go through the entire day and not have to adjust my waist-band!

Sudden visits to the throne-room can get intriguing, however. Planning is important!

They’re available from rangerjoes.com. Search for “Spec-Ops Combat Suspenders”

Recommended!

/John

 

15 Nov 10

Developments in the Phillippines, from a friend there:

“Today, I dropped by the local arms industry gun show. It’s held here twice a year and put on by an association of domestic firms who manufacture and import guns and ammunition.

It’s been a while since I shopped retail, and I was shocked by prices!

Examples:

DAO Ruger SP101 w/Crimson Trace stocks, $1,455.00
Ruger SR9, full-Size, $830.00
S&W M&P, 9mm, full Size, $1,360.00
G17/Gen 4, $1,700.00
H&K P30, $1,910.00

Figures above are US dollars, and even they represent discounted prices. After the show, they go back to regular pricing, which is higher by 20%, and excludes license fees. Figure a additional $200.00 for paperwork on each gun purchased.

In terms of restricted weaponry, I spotted the following:

Chinese copy of H&K MP5, $2,500.00
Chinese copy of the M4, $4,000.00
Current version of Israeli Galil, $6,200.00
Tavor (Israeli bullpup, currently replacing M4s in Israel), $8,500.00
Sauer Marksman’s Rifle, bolt action, 308, excluding optic, $13,650.00

At this rate, I’m persuaded the ‘gun control’ that has given politicians here wet dreams for decades will come about via economics, rather than legislation!”

Comment: Phoney shortages, combined with enforced dependancy, is a tactic used by would-be monarchs for centuries as a way of manufacturing political loyalty, loyalty they could never earn any other way!

And, this sleazy tactic is not restricted to the Phillippines. Any critical commodity, from food, to personal safety, to access to health-care, that politicians can forcibly withhold from those who refuse to support them, becomes a weapon!

Nothing is beneath them!

/John

 

15 Nov 10

Injury accidents on training ranges:

Nearly all independent trainers, like myself, have witnessed students perpetrate NDs on ranges. Genuine ADs, resulting from defective guns and/or ammunition, do occur, but they are extremely rare.

The vast majority of NDs involve single shots, and the errant bullet subsequently impacts harmlessly. However, every so often a student is shot accidentally, due to an ND.

The vast majority of these injuries involve handguns and are self-inflicted.

In nearly forty years of conducting shooting instruction on ranges, I’ve personally witnessed three. All involved handguns, and all were self-inflicted.

The first (early 1980s) involved a student getting his support hand in front of his muzzle during a low-light exercise. The single, 9mm hardball round passed through the side of the small joint of his ring-finger. Doctors subsequently fused the joint, so all he got out of it was the inability to flex his ring-finger completely.

His pistol was a S&W with a two-stage decocking lever, and the student had failed to decock after firing his first rounds. As he fumbled for the lever, one of his other fingers found the trigger just as his support-hand wandered out ahead of the muzzle.

The next took place on an outdoor range in the Midwest eight years later. A student, a gunsmith, dropped his G17. Instead of just letting it fall to the ground, he fumbled with it. Again, a finger made contact with the trigger. The single round (hardball) went through his thigh, inside to outside. In fact, I saw the bullet hit the ground next to him after it exited.

Happily, the bullet passed through-and-through, without hitting his femoral artery, nor his femur, nor anything else particularly exciting. We transported him to the local hospital emergency room where they did little more than put a band-aid on entry and exit wounds and send him on his way. He was never admitted, and, less than an hour after his arrival, departed and returned to the Range with us and completed the Course, albeit with a slight limp!

The last took place at an indoor range on the West Coast fourteen years ago. A student holstered her Taurus copy of Beretta. It was Taurus’ 1911-style Beretta-copy and was thus correctly carried cocked-and-locked. She had a generic, external hip-holster, but her finger was wrapped around the trigger, and the pistol’s manual safety was mysteriously “off,” as she slid the pistol into the scabbard. Of course, the holster itself shoved her finger into the trigger, and the pistol functioned normally.

She was a slim gal, so the bullet (9mm hardball) made nothing more than a twelve-inch streak-mark down her right leg. It then demolished itself on the concrete floor. The bullet never actually penetrated her skin, so there was scant bleeding. She was treated and released at the local hospital, again spending less than an hour there. Unlike my gunsmith, however, she did not return to the Course.

Fortunately, none of the three foregoing incidents produced significant injury, but they did happen on my watch, and any one of them could have been much more serious. More to the point, I was standing within a few feet of each student when the NDs took place. In the second case, I saw trouble in the making and moved to prevent the accident. I was not fast enough!

The lesson here is:

Realistic training with guns is dangerous! In relative terms, it is far less dangerous than driving to and from the range on a public road, but risk can never be completely eliminated. It can be reduced, monitored, and managed, but risk is always present.

Even reverting to cold ranges does not eliminate risk. In fact, I believe cold ranges are actually more dangerous than hot ones, but, however you want to argue the issue, no trainer I’ve ever heard of, in the public or private sector, claims to run a range that is “completely safe.” Anyone who does is a naive fool!

It is the mission of us trainers to “manage” risk, avoiding unnecessary and extreme risks, but accepting the fact that some risk attaches to every exercise we put students through.

Many “career-minded” in military and law-enforcement training have decided to “dumb-down” firearms training in an effort to eliminate the possibility of anyone getting hurt. That attitude is cowardly and fraudulent, and, in addition, fails on both counts:

No one receives quality training, and we still have accidents!

When accidents, and near-accidents, occur, we need to look as what we’re doing, tweak as necessary, and then boldly drive on, ever looking for opportunities to make training ever more realistic and relevant.

We can never forget who is working for whom!

/John

 

 

16 Nov 10

Comments on the conduct of range training, from a friend:

“At our IDPA Club we, per ‘regulations,’ run a cold range. Several months ago, one of our experienced participants was presenting an orientation lecture to new members.

He was showing everyone where the ‘dry-fire area’ was, and stated, ‘… when you need to dry fire, this is the place to do it,’ as he pointed to a brick wall.

He then ‘demonstrated’ the procedure by facing the brick wall, drawing his pistol, and firing a live round! His bullet struck the wall leaving a large divot, but producing no personal injury. However, the incident surely got everyone’s attention, and forever confirmed his ‘credibility!’

He had worn his pistol in from outside, and had apparently forgotten to unload it prior to entering the range area.”

Comment:

Watch these experts!

Here is yet another example of a “Cold-Range Commando” who, due to our notorious “culture of compromise,” talks a great fight, but doesn’t personally live it. Like so many others, he evidently assumed that guns magically unload themselves the instant one crosses the threshold onto a cold range!

Many, as in the foregoing example, who are demonstrably good at hitting targets on ranges, are still dangerously incompetent, and altogether unsafe, gun-handlers. The problem is, of course, that they are too accustomed to handling “safe” guns.

Conversely, during hot-range training exercises, I’ve found that clearly articulating to students the behavior that is expected of them, and then trusting them to live up to the standard, simultaneously produces better training and fewer accidents than when you, in effect, tell them that they are all idiots who can’t be trusted with anything dangerous, and then proceed to treat them like children.

My students take great personal pride in living up to expectations of competency, rather than living down to expectations of stupidity. When you treat students like idiots, don’t be astonished when they consistently fail to disappoint you!

Another friend puts it this way:

“Unintentionally shooting someone (including yourself) you don’t want to shoot, requires a monumental failure of intellect. You have to blunder twice, coincidentally. You have to misuse the weapon, as you’re simultaneously pointing it where you don’t want bullets to go.”

“Safe gun” is a ridiculous, and dangerous, contradiction of terms!

/John

 

17 Nov 10

The Case for Hot Ranges, from an esteemed Colleague:

“When we run cold ranges, we discredit ourselves, in public!

We say, for all to hear, that our guns aren’t tools with real uses, only instrumentalities for self-indulgence. We concede the argument that, since our guns are solely accouterments for superficial games, and furthermore we consider them too dangerous, and ourselves too unstable and incompetent, to keep them around for immediate, serious use, it is indeed foolishly negligent on our part to allow even ourselves, who profess to be experts, to walk around with them in a high state of readiness, even on a shooting range!

In an activity that depends upon transcendental grace and skill at the highest level, cold ranges curiously announce: ‘No one with a loaded gun can be trusted, unless encased in a rigidly stylized milieu, and even then, only temporarily.’

Hot ranges, contrastingly, publically proclaim that we confidently, audaciously keep and bear arms for genuine, indeed profound, reasons. We unapologetically enforce our dedication to the advancement of our Art, beyond game-playing and banal lip-service, by keeping, bearing, and deploying these ultimately consequent weapons correctly, indeed reverently.

We can, and must, make each other as expert in their serious use and management as a physician in surgery, or a lawyer in oral argument.

To do otherwise is to live a lie!”

“Don’t be buffaloed by ‘experts’ and elites. ‘Experts’ possess more data than judgment. Elites become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs who bleed to death the moment they are nicked in the real world.”

Colin Powell

/John

 

22 Nov 10

“Normal?”

We conducted yet another Scenario-Based (Airsoft) Program last week at the wonderful Safe Direction facilities in Addison, IL.

I had one student from NYC, two from CO, and the rest were from the Midwest, mostly northern IL.

In one interactive scenario, students were in a restaurant. Two tables over, a couple gets into a slowly-escalating, hostile verbal interchange. There are no weapons showing, and no physical contact, but violent verbal threats are loudly exchanged.

My NYC student continued eating his meal as if nothing was happening! My Midwest students slowly became nervous and eventually exited the restaurant. My CO students got up and left at the first hostile comment!

It struck me as curious what we all consider “normal.”

My NYC student indicated that, where he lives and works, chaos is so commonplace, one might say it is the standard pattern of personal behavior. Said he, “If I got up and left the restaurant every time a violent argument broke out next to me, I’d starve to death!”

Conversely, my CO couple indicated that they had an extremely low tolerance for such pandemonium and would separate immediately from any situation where voices were even raised.

The interesting observation was that none of my students knew what their reaction would be until they actually went through the drill!

It all comes down to your personal definition of “normal.” Some personal risk is inherent to everything you do every day. What we try to do in these Courses is help students quickly and correctly differentiate “normal” risks from overtly dangerous ones, and then develop an intelligent disengagement strategy for immediate deployment in the latter case.

Such strategies must not only be thought about. They need to be actually exercised. Students at our Scenario-Based Courses are routinely astonished at their own behavior!

/John

 

25 Nov 10

ITOA Conference, 2011

Brother Jeff Chudwin, as always, put together a wonderful Annual Conference for the ITOA (Illinois Tactical Officers’ Association) this fall in Oakbrook, IL.

ITOA is an extremely influential organization in our Art, and Jeff, like all great commandants, is personally out front, leading the way.

Old friend, John Klein from Sage, was on hand to reacquaint me with his TSA (Telescoping Stock Assembly) for the 870 Remington 12ga. He makes a similar one for Mossburg’s pump-gun. I enables us to correctly fit nearly anyone to the 870, as the factory stock is too long for most.

His replacement chasses for the M-14, the ALCS (Aluminum Chassis Stock) thoroughly modernizes the M14. It is designated the M-39 by the USMC.

The “Deuce” is a short, over/under 37/40mm munitions launcher. Breaks open like an over/under shotgun and launches a wide assortment of less-lethal munitions, including baton rounds, multi-ball, et al. Really handy, and inexpensive when compared with other multiple launchers.

M&A Parts in IL has to have the largest selection of AR parts in the country! They were nice enough to assist me in upgrading one of my ARs with a quad-rail, co-axial flashlight, Magpul stock, and sling. One-stop shopping!

Mark Krebs of Krebs Custom had on display his line of Siaga 12ga Kalashnikov shotguns. I’ve had these in Classes, and they run just fine. Mark’s version is particularly nice. He has four, eight, ten, and twelve-round box magazines. Eight-round is the way to go. Ten and twelve-rounders are too big and clumsy.

Mitch Shore of Shore Galleries had an elaborate display. He must stock every flashlight there is!
Steve Camp of Safe Direction showed me his latest version of his security container. It enables one to secure his handgun in a locked bag, and then secure the bag inside of vehicle. Getting the gun out without a key is nearly impossible! In addition, one side of the bag is 3A Kevlar, so it provides a safe direction in which to point the pistol for loading and unloading. He is currently selling these to the Border patrol and a number of other agencies.

It was my privilege and honor to meet and talk with Ed “Doc” Pepping of Easy Company of the famous 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. In his eighties, but still intensely interested in what we do, he was there to lend his prestige and support to ITOA.

ITOA, along with ILEETA and ILEFI and others, served an important purpose in getting us all together and updated. We’re living through some exciting world history, and we can’t afford not to stay current!

As the saying goes, “Yesterday’s ‘advanced weapons platform’ is today’s museum exhibit!”

We have to keep looking forward. The status-quo never wants for an advocate!

/John

 

26 Nov 10

Dignity, Decency, and Privacy

In the immediate aftermath of 911, the GWB Administration posted National Guardsmen, in full battle-dress, at major airports. They paraded around with their rifles and pistols in full view, ostensibly to “send a message” that, as a nation, we were really serious.

Fat chance!

It was quickly revealed/leaked that rifles and pistols so prominently displayed were all unloaded! Not only were they unloaded, but all magazines, also prominently displayed, were empty, and there was, in fact, no live ammunition anywhere in the area. None of those weapons were even remotely capable of being fired.

So, it was all a sham, an empty pseudo-exhibit, so distrustful were commanders of their own people, and so skeptical were they of their own small-arms training!

Patriotic National Guardsmen were thus obligated to participate in this disgusting fraud. A few objected and even pointed out the patent illogic of carrying empty weapons while “on duty,” but, of course, their righteous protests never saw the light of day.

Today, under the BHO Administration, we’re being treated to something similar:

In airports, innocent American citizens, in America, are being humiliatingly stripped of what little human dignity we have left, in public. When they object, or even cry out in pain, they are bullied and threatened with prison and financial ruin. The same fate awaits TSA employees who suspect they, too, are participating in a fraud. As Americans, we are apparently no longer entitled to decency, nor human dignity, in any form, nor are our most private body parts off-limits to whimsical government view and intrusion.

Dignity, decency, and privacy are three things that distinguish “citizens” from “subjects.” In America, we’ve always celebrated the difference between the two. Apparently, no more!

I hope that at least part of Western Civilization is about to re-embrace sanity.

We clearly aren’t!

/John

 

30 Nov 10

Upside-down?

From a friend who carries regularly:

“Yesterday, while preparing to put a string of Christmas lights on my front, roof border, I placed S&W M&P into my ky-dex/IWB holster.

Spare magazine in my left, front pants pocket, warm coat, warm cap, glasses. Ready to go!

Through experience on previous Christmas seasons, I’ve discovered the easiest way for me to attach the lights at the roof’s gutter, is by laying on my stomach and side-crawling on the roof.

So, there I was, laying angled downward, head slightly below my feet. Suddenly, I felt a cold, heavy object moving downward, through my coat, toward my neck!

I gently located my errant pistol, retrieved it discretely, and placed it in the bag of lights that I had on the roof with me, so it remained out of sight.

All of this was done so that my nosey neighbors, who were probably already enjoying my graceless crawling act, would not see a pistol in my hand.

This time of year, in my neighborhood, a guy on a roof with a string of lights is not particularly suspicious. A guy on a roof, with a pistol in his hand, surely is! And, the last thing I wanted was for my well-meaning neighbors to call the ‘unnecessary police.’

I then noticed at least a dozen other (less critical) items that had begun a downward migration from my pockets.

In the end, I recovered most of it, finally got the lights installed, and managed not to break my neck in the process.

But, it struck me how, with virtually all our weapons training done while right-side-up, I had been altogether ill-prepared to confront an upside-down world!”

Comment: Just as we like to do all our weapons training on bright, sunny, warm days, we also like to do it all while upright, and on our feet!

Fighting for your life in the cold and dark, on slick, uneven ground, in the rain, laboriously slogging through mud, broken glass, and dog-shit, while wearing heavy clothing… is bad enough. Now, imagine yourself simultaneously hanging onto something in order to keep from falling and finding your body angled downward, as in the above illustration.

Perhaps we need to test our emergency equipment carry strategy now and then, by at least assuring that it will stay in place during a backward roll, as you will likely involuntarily perform the next time you’re unceremoniously knocked on your fanny.

When we train, sometimes we’re too interested in “looking good,” rather than “training good,” by strenuously testing ourselves and our equipment.

/John