Since John and I went live with the blog in May of 2015, there have been many mass shootings in the United States. The mass shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, the Dallas, Texas police shooter, the Las Vegas shooting, the Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida, and the recent shootings on a […]
I first trained with John Murphy of FPF Training in the Spring of 2016, and I have returned to him numerous times since. As an educator myself, it has been interesting to watch his curricula and his instructional methodology change over time. The first class I took with him was called “Street Encounters Skills” (AAR […]
I cannot imagine there are too many people in my shoes. I have been to many classes over the years, almost all of them documented here on the blog. I have met a lot of people in those classes. Accountants, police officers, information technology specialists, lawyers, doctors, army reservists, etc. I cannot ever recall meeting […]
As I like to do each year, I thought it would be a good time to set some general training goals for the year. I like to do this as I am a “To-Do List” kind of guy. I also tend to find it interesting how I veer off course each year. As a teacher, […]
As I have done each of the previous six years (see previous installments here, here, here, here, here, and here), and separate from my annual Pay to Play article, I thought it would be a good idea to review my year. What classes did I take? What goals did I achieve? Any surprises along the […]
Well, 2021 was a bit different than past years. I went into the year with less of a plan than usual in terms of which classes I might take. On the flip side, I had a definite theme to most of the classes I did take. So, for the sixth year running (see my previous […]
One would have thought, with the hundreds of hours of training that I have now accrued, that I would have taken several classes more than once. Honestly, I had to go through my AARs to confirm that I had never done so. Well it WAS true…until now. And how fitting it is that the first […]
Since I started shooting competitively in 2016, the articles I have written outlining each match have been some of our least read articles. I get it. READING about a match is not as interesting as participating or even watching one. So I thought this year I would just do a “wrap-up” article on my performance […]
My year with Kelly McCann (see reviews of my prior classes with him here, here, here, and here) continued a couple of weekends ago when I took his defensive handgun class. In my other (and future) coursework with Kelly I have been focused on physical violence of the up-close-and-personal variety. Really liking Kelly and how […]
I must confess that I was pleasantly surprised by the reception we received from my first article on this topic. Having top-tier instructors like Cecil Burch and Spencer Keepers comment right here on the blog, and also having the article shared by other top instructors like Karl Rehn and Greg Ellifritz, meant a lot to […]
CIVILIAN GUNFIGHTER 