One of the many things that I consistently remember from two decades of training is Mike Pannone’s advice of “Avoid, Evade, Defend” as priorities of action. Similarly, Claude Werner, the Tactical Professor, refers to this as the “Avoid, Escape, Confront, Resist” paradigm. A few months ago, I found myself in a position to use this […]
Last week, I was fortunate enough to get to train with Bill Rapier again. For those that may not know, Rapier is a retired Nayy SEAL and the owner and lead instructor of Amercian Tactical Shooting Instruction, LLC. Back in 2017, both Robert and I attended his Integrated Combatives course in Pennsylvania. I didn’t make […]
Over the last three years, I have attended quite a bit of training with Tom Givens. I took two seminars with him at the Rangemaster Tactical Conference in 2017, and another seminar in 2019. I also took a one-day Defensive Shotgun class with him, a two-day Combative Pistol class, and his three-day Firearms Instructor Development […]
In one of our most popular articles of all time, I wrote in one paragraph about how gas stations and convenience stores are the water holes of our time. Even in the best neighborhoods, gas stations and their associated stores attract all manner of cretins. Of course, it all makes sense. Where commerce is taking […]
Separate from my “You Gotta Pay to Play” article for 2018, I thought I would again—as in past years—look back at some of my goals for 2018 and see how well I met them. I also thought it would be good to share some other nuggets from 2018. Formal Training I surpassed any year in […]
Blessed by my bosses with the Friday before Christmas off (odd, considering Christmas was on a Tuesday this year), I decided to treat myself to the Friday half of a Friday-Saturday IDPA match. As it happened, heavy rain for more than 24 hours prior, and more predicted rain for the Friday I would be attending, […]
New for this year, Kyle Defoor has begun to offer one day carbine classes held either immediately before or after his regular two day classes. Fortunately, one such single day class was scheduled within easy driving distance for me. Seeing that it was on one of my normal days off, I jumped at the chance […]
“Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” I’m not sure who first coined that phrase, but he or she was only right about half the time. For I know from first-hand experience that if you want to get really good at something, try teaching it. Once you have a room of students asking every […]
We’ve all heard it before, right? Borrowing from the series of classic lines from “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”, it is often said that there are two kinds of gun owners: those who have had a negligent discharge, and those who will. While this sounds defeatist on many levels, I believe that, if […]
This review will be different from most of the other AARs John and I have written. Some backstory: Regular readers of this blog should know by now that I am a special education teacher. The school where I currently work is a non-public special education facility. What this means is that we serve students with […]
CIVILIAN GUNFIGHTER 