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 […]
This past weekend, I spent two days at the gun club where I’m a member taking part in a Project Appleseed event. This class took place shortly after the April 19th anniversary of “the shot heard around the world.” This is an important point, as the Appleseed Project is fundamentally based on Revolutionary War history […]
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 […]
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 […]
“Go see Kelly McCann,” my mentor said. “Learn violence,” he said. Mission Accomplished! My “year of Kelly McCann” was completed last weekend with the best of the bunch, his “Basic Combatives” course. Unlike the other “physical” classes I took with Kelly earlier this year (see reviews of all the classes I did with him here, […]
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 […]
CIVILIAN GUNFIGHTER 