Mindset: Should You Carry a Gun?

     Before choosing to spend the time, money, and effort required to get a firearm and a concealed carry permit, one should seriously consider whether carrying a gun is right for them. Today’s post is my attempt to provide some insight into the questions that you should ask yourself before choosing to carry a firearm or other weapon in public.
     Most people are familiar with the red pill-blue pill reference from the movie The Matrix. Like Morpheus from that movie, I want to encourage you to think carefully and choose wisely between the red pill (adopting the lifestyle of an armed citizen, or sheepdog) and the blue pill (remaining a sheep).
     I have seen and heard a lot of professional instructors who unequivocally say that all able-bodied men and women should be armed. For what it’s worth I agree with them. But not all men and women are willing to take the responsibility of arming themselves. That is their choice and they are welcome to it.  It’s a shame that more instructors don’t encourage people to ask these questions more often.
     For those of you who are considering carrying a firearm or other weapon in public, I suggest you ask yourself a few questions and answer them honestly before carrying in public.
     First, are you ready for the changes in mindset and lifestyle that go along with being an armed citizen?  Make no mistake, going armed is a lifestyle change. You will have to change your ways of thinking, dressing, and acting.
     With proper training you will begin to see the world as a very different, possibly scarier place than you did before you took that red pill. You will notice danger and the potential for violence where you may not have previously.  You may have to dress differently to conceal your gun and be mindful of how you move to keep it from printing through those clothes.
     Can you commit to a life of studying the topic of personal defense and bettering your skills? As my friend Paul Markle at StudentoftheGun.com says, “You are a beginner once, but a student for life.”  You will need to train and read as much as possible and train regularly.
     Next you have to ask yourself if you have the temperament to carry a weapon in public.  As a sheepdog, you need to keep in mind that you are bringing a gun into any altercation you may find yourself in. If you instigate or escalate a situation, the law will come heavily down on you. You cannot have pride and carry a lethal weapon. You have to be able to walk away from any disagreement before it becomes physical.
     Thirdly and closely related to the above question, do you have the judgment for an armed lifestyle?  Can you apply the “reasonable man” standard to your actions to defend them in a court of law?  You have to know when to avoid, evade, escape, negotiate and de-escalate any potentially contentious situation you may find yourself in.
     Are you responsible enough?  Can you remember to keep control of your weapon in public? For those of you who want to carry off body, is it possible that you would ever let that carry method out of your immediate control?  Could a child get their hands on your weapon without supervision?
     Is carrying a weapon legal where you live, work and play? If not, are you willing to accept the consequences that may arise should you get caught with it?  Are you willing to face the legal battle that will result in even a clearly justified use of force?
     Finally, do you have the stomach for going armed?  Do you think you could injure, kill, or potentially maim your attacker for life? Can you stand the thought of seeing their blood coat the ground, your hands, and your clothes?  What about your own blood?
     Only you can answer those questions. But if you answer them in the affirmative, welcome to the team. The one thing this country needs more of is people willing to step up and take responsibility for themselves and their loved ones.

Stay safe.

Mitch

Mindset: We’re All Civilians (Unless You’re Not)

    Have you noticed how prevalent throughout the gun and law enforcement communities the distinction between civilian and LEOs is?
     I for one am tired of it. In America, law enforcement is made up of civilians. It’s time for LEOs to stop buying into the “us versus them” dichotomy that they’re being sold.
     Law enforcement officers are public servants. Their role is to protect and serve the public. We as Armed Citizens need to remember that as much as the police do.
     We all have something in common- the same sheepdog instinct that drives us to provide for our own safety and for that of our loved ones.
     The only people who can make a distinction between civilians and themselves are those in the military.
     So from now on can we stop buying into the Civilian-LEO-Military distintion and realize we’re on the same team? After all, continuing in the us vs. them mindset only plays into the hands of those who wish to divide us.

Stay safe.

Mitch

CCW Sight Modification

     One of the things I typically do to my carry guns is modify the sights to aid with rapid acquisition of the front site. I have found that the typical white dot front sight is decent but can easily be improved. I invested in a bottle of blaze orange nail polish and found that color to really stand out against almost any background.

     Most of the time I black out any white on the rear sight, preferring a less busy sight picture. On my CZ I have actually found that the white outline rear sight helps in low light.

     In addition to painting my front sight I took a file to my rear sight. Taking my queue from Rob Pincus’ recent focus on one-handed manipulations I decided to test the CZ in the same manner.
    What I found was that it was possible to hook my factory sights on my holster. However, the snag free design left a lot to be desired. After some searching I found that suitable replacement sights are hard to find.
     As a stopgap measure while my search continues, I decided to take a file to my CZs polymer rear sight. I cut a ledge into the front face of the sight. The results aren’t pretty but they are functional, facilitating efficient one-handed slide manipulation.

     If your gun’s sights don’t fit your needs, change them. If you can’t find replacement sights that fit your needs don’t be afraid to do a little modification of your own. Your carry gun has to be as efficient for you as possible. If you can’t make your sights work for you it may be time to get a different carry piece.

Stay safe.

Mitch

Modern Minuteman: EDC 2013 Update

  

     This year saw my EDC gear evolve in a direction that I thought was worthy of discussion here.  I still carry a CRKT M16-10KZ for my knife. Since my primary use for a knife is utilitarian, a cheap tough blade that I’m not afraid to lose or beat up fits my needs. My knife is carried on my dominant side in my front pocket.
     For white light I chose to carry a 5.11 ATAC A1. The Streamlight I previously carried works great but the ATAC throws nearly half again as many lumens (103 vs. 70) in roughly the same size light. It rides in my front pocket on my support side.
     For a firearm I chose to go with the CZ 75 P-07 Duty in 9mm. I know carrying a traditional DA-SA action gun is a departure from typical CFS thinking but I chose it for two reasons. It fits my hand perfectly and its points very naturally.  Of course a capacity of 16+1 doesn’t hurt either.
     I loaded my P-07 with Hornady Critical Defense 115gr standard pressure loads. Ballistics testing shows this round to penetrate 14 inches through four layers of denim and ballistic gel blocks. That should do the job. Its polymer tip allows the 115gr bullet to penetrate a little better than Hornadys Custom 147gr load, which is what I load my second magazine with.
     I carry my CZ in a hybrid leather and kydex ACE-1 from SHTFGear.com. Clay Moultrie is a talented holster maker and my ACE-1 has held up well to a lot of abuse. For a belt I went with a Maxpedition Liger. This belt is the perfect blend of flexibility and stiffness and I couldn’t be happier with it. For a good review of the Liger check out ITSTactical.
     I feel the Modern Minuteman should carry pistol, knife, and white light at a minimum and that is my current system. Whats yours?

Stay safe.

Mitch

Modern Minuteman: YOU are the First Responder‏

I was listening to Glenn Beck’s radio program the other day and he came to the conclusion that the modern use of the term “First Responder” in relation to emergency services is an outgrowth of the progressive movement in America.  I completely agree with that assertion.  Folks, we have to take accountability for becoming our own First Responders.  That is what being a Modern Minuteman is all about, as I have outlined in prior posts.  We are the people who have decided to step up and be the first to respond to those in need.  That may mean using a fire extinguisher, administering first aid, or stopping a lethal threat in defense of others. 

All being a first responder comes down to is making a decision in advance to be willing to act when no one else is.  I don’t mean waiting to see if someone else acts first, and then stepping in if necessary.  Rather, we need to be the first to step forward, the first to render aid, the first to respond no matter what the need is.  Make the decision now.  Get training in the areas you need to improve, and equip yourself.  Keep a first aid kit in your vehicle.  Notice where fire extinguishers are located.  If a disaster hits, get out and help your neighbors recover from it.  Carry your gun wherever legal. 

You don’t have to formally join your local volunteer fire department, become and EMT, or go to police academy to be a first responder.  Those are all great ways to serve your community and I highly recommend doing so if you can.  I personally am a member of my local CERT team, but that doesn’t make me a first responder.  My mindset does.  We cannot afford to rely on someone else to take care of our needs in the best of times, let alone when the chips are down and someone is in dire need of help.  Be a first responder within your community, because it is your responsibility to do so.
 
Mitch

Modern Minuteman: How to Use a Fire Extinguisher

Last week I was pleasantly surprised to see Brett over at ArtofManliness.com post an article about the proper use of a fire extinguisher.  I compared his article to the draft I had written up, and found his to be more comprehensive and better written.  Now you may be asking yourself why a self-defense blog is discussing the proper use of a fire extinguisher, and that is a fair question.  The answer is that you are far more likely to need to know how to use an extinguisher than you are a firearm or knife in defense of your life.  Yes, lethal attacks happen every day and are stopped by an armed citizen, but many times more fires are put out by a fast-thinking citizen than you realize.

Even the police and armed security guards are more likely to need an extinguisher than their firearm in the course of a normal day.  Take a moment to locate the fire extinguishers near you.  If you are in a public space, they are clearly marked.  If you are at home, you should have one in your kitchen and one in your garage at a minimum.  If you don’t have one located in those places, they are not expensive insurance against the loss of your entire home if you respond quickly enough.

Get over to ArtofManliness.com now and read Brett’s article here.

Mitch

The Importance of Structured Range Sessions

The current ammo shortage coupled with the average cost per round highlights the need for structured training while at the range.  No longer can many of us afford to plink with a couple hundred rounds of even the normally reasonably priced 9mm.  I recently made some acquisitions that allow me to conduct the vast majority of my training with .22-caliber understudies of my primary firearms.  Even the lowly .22 LR has become scarce where I live, and acquiring some has since become my top ammunition acquisition priority.  When I switched to training with .22’s I discovered I was able to make a significant improvement in my shooting skills.  Unfortunately, the side effect of that was a vast increase in the number of rounds I tend to shoot in a session.  Transitioning to training with a .22 caused me to shoot far more rounds than I normally would have, despite having a planned list of drills I intended to shoot.

Sadly, those days may have passed us by, at least for the foreseeable future.  That means it’s time for us to begin rationing our training ammunition to make the most of each round.  Right now, staring in the face of additional gun legislation is not the time for gun owners to go to ground.  Instead, we should be practicing our skills, training harder than ever before, and introducing as many people as possible to the joys of firearms use.  Make sure you get out and practice your skills as much as possible given the current state of ammunition availability.  Make the most of every pull of the trigger by making sure you go to the range with a specific set of goals in mind. 

For those of us who devise regimented training sessions for our range time, I have developed a form to lay out our training drills and track feedback on each drill.  Eventually I am going to find out a way to post it to the site.  In the meantime, if you would like a copy please feel free to contact me and I will email you a copy.  If you need some range regimens, I happen to have several posted on this blog including round counts for each drill.  Feel free to use them as a template to train specific areas of your defensive skill set and if you come up with a good set of drills let me know and I will share them here.

Now is not the time to let your skills get rusty.  Keep practicing!

 

Mitch

Modern Minuteman: Planning to Better Yourself in 2013

The new year is here, which means it’s time to take a look at developing a plan to better ourselves in 2013.  Learning new skills and practicing new ways to apply our existing skills is a big part of what being a Modern Minuteman is all about.  We also are always striving to become more self-reliant.  Figuring out how to set appropriate goals for the next year and then tracking my progress toward those goals is always a challenge for me, but when I heard Jack Spirko promoting his 13 in 2013 Challenge, I knew that I had found a good way to do exactly that.

The idea behind 13skills.com is to promote the learning of new skills among the modern survivalist community.  The heart of the site is a fairly comprehensive list of skill categories.  When you create a profile on the site you are asked to pick 13 different categories and are given the opportunity to elaborate on your selections under each category, further defining the skills you aim to learn.

I will not go into each of my skills in this post, but will highlight some of them and explain why I chose to focus on learning those skills:

Self-Defense: Because not every fight is a gunfight, I have chosen to take more Krav Maga instruction.  Krav Maga is the best choice in martial arts for real world self-defense applications available where I live.

Knots: The knowledge of a variety of knots is a skill that I had as a younger man and sadly have since lost.  By setting this goal I hope to regain that knowledge.  I want to learn the tying and proper use of ten different knots and hitches.

Welding: This is one of those skills I have always wanted to learn and have never gotten around to pursuing.

Fitness: Again, not every fight is a gun fight.  I would also like to graduate to a smaller pair of blue jeans.

Foraging: If you know what to look for, nature provides plenty of wild edible and medicinal plants, especially in a temperate climate such as mine.  I’ve never developed much knowledge of local edibles and figure it’s time to do so.

These are just a snapshot of the kinds of skills we should be looking to further our knowledge in.  As a Modern Minuteman, we should try to have at least a working knowledge of first aid, as well as a basic skill set in empty-handed self-defense and firearms use.  Make sure to get some training with your pistol, rifle, or shotgun this year.  Take some empty-hand self-defense instruction, work on your fitness levels, and stock up some extra food and water in your pantries for those rainy (or snowy, or icy) days.  However, being a Modern Minuteman doesn’t stop there.  Take some time to think about where your skill set is lacking and make an effort to develop those areas.  After all, a Minuteman isn’t just someone who can save the day during the big emergencies.  They should be able to save the day during those common smaller everyday emergencies too.

– Mitch

A Pair of Tragedies; Don’t Be a Victim

I’ve held off writing about the tragic shooting in Colorado in an effort to show respect for the victims and their families.  I think a few short words with respect to avoiding and preventing similar catastrophes in the future is the best tribute I can pay to the dead and wounded of the Colorado theater shooting.  Before continuing, I want to make something clear.  The words written here are in no way meant to be taken as a criticism of those men and women who protected their loved ones by shielding them with their bodies or by ushering them out of the theater and away from danger. 

A short time after the Aurora shooting, we heard of yet another shooting in a Sikh temple.  This is another terrible tragedy.  I have studied Sikhism and respect their beliefs and way of life.  I recognize the value of some of their teachings, while others are not compatible with my Christian beliefs.  One of their key teachings is that of Ahimsa, which translates as “active prevention of violence.”  Sikhs believe, as do I, that the individual is the weapon and it is our individual role to fight evil wherever we find it.  Unlike other Eastern pacifist religions, Sikhism teaches that we that we should not seek a fight, but that it is the role of the believer to be ready to counter violence wherever we find it. 

I believe that the solution to countering violence is to call on more people to take up the mantle of sheepdog instead of sheep.  In Sikhism, baptized male members actually take the surname Singh, which means lion.  Females take the surname Kaur, or lioness.  This is to serve as a reminder that they are to fiercely defend the helpless.  We should seek to adopt the same mindset.  Decide now that should you find yourself in a lethal encounter, you will act decisively to protect their families.  This means different things depending on the situation, but physically shielding your loved ones and escorting them away from danger are, in fact, two valid courses of action.

One of the most frequent comments by the CCW crowd regarding the theater in which the shooting took place is that if one armed citizen was present in the crowd things may have turned out differently.  While I agree with those who have made that observation, I think it’s important to keep in mind that the active shooter in that scenario surrendered at the first sign of a threat to his own person.  On the other side of the argument, the shooter was wearing body armor and a helmet, requiring that any responding armed citizen have the presence of mind to aim for exposed body parts, such as the leg or groin, rather than shooting ineffectively at the murderer’s chest. 

Yes the theater posted the premises with anti-gun signs, and the Sikh worshipers in their temple saw no need for weapons in a place of worship. I believe both mindsets are wrong.  We need to be armed and mentally prepared to defend ourselves wherever we are most vulnerable.  While a movie theater seems like a relatively innocuous place to be, I believe that any time there is a large crowd there is a risk of a lethal threat.  Likewise, our houses of worship are historically vulnerable places.  How many church shootings have taken place over recent years?  How many massacres happened at churches, temples, and cathedrals across the world over the centuries?  It’s time for our religious leaders to stop pretending that a house of worship is no place for armed citizens.

Now is the time to speak to your pastors and priests on this topic.  Don’t wait until something has happened.  It is also time to prepare yourself to counter a lethal threat in a crowded environment.  That means it’s time to train.  Do you carry a flashlight with you?  Compact, powerful lights are abundantly available and reasonably priced.  Ask yourself this; if you were in that theater or temple and were unarmed, could you have charged the shooter and dispatched them with a knife or defeated them in a physical attack?  Incorporate elements of the theater and Sikh temple shooting into your training and learn to counter the threats and obstacles faced at each.  Train yourself mentally and decide how to react to each scenario.  Develop specific scenarios based on places you frequent and train yourself to notice exits wherever you are.  Become proficient in some basic hand to hand, if you carry a knife learn to use it, understand how to incorporate movement into your shooting and understand how to find a good angle to make a shot in a crowd and let the bystanders know you’re the good guy.  In short, learn to shoot, move, and communicate.  Lastly, make sure that you’re in good physical shape.  We can’t defeat those who wish to do us harm if we can’t get in the fight in the first place.

Wherever you are, whatever you do, please be prepared for the worst and pray for the best.  While you’re at it, pray for the families of the victims of the Colorado and Sikh Temple shootings.

-Mitch

Revisiting the NRA Gun Safety Rules

I was thinking about gun safety on the ride home from work today and how the NRA Gun Safety Rules fit in with the CCW community.  As an NRA Instructor I recently got notification of a NRA Defensive Pistol training module that has recently been developed, and that notification provided the line of thought for this article.  Just to clarify, the fundamental three gun safety rules are:

1. Always keep the firearm pointed in a safe direction.
2. Always keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot.
3. Always keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.

Additionally, the NRA advocates the following rules of safe gun handling:

• Know your target and what is beyond.
• Know how to use the gun safely.
• Be sure the gun is safe to operate.
• Use only the correct ammunition for your gun.
• Wear ear and eye protection when appropriate.
• Never use alcohol or drugs before or while shooting.
• Store guns so they are not accessible to unauthorized persons.
• Be aware that certain types of guns and many shooting activities require additional safety precautions.
• Clean your gun, making absolutely sure that it is unloaded before doing so.

For the purposes of this article, I want to focus only on the three fundamentals and how they fit into concealed carry and personal defense in general.  I believe we can all agree that rule number one is universal.  We never want to point the firearm at anything that we are not willing to shoot.  Rule number two is a little more suspect in my opinion when considered in a defensive context.  If I ever have to draw a gun on a threat I am probably going to have my finger on the trigger while I demand compliance.  This is one of the reasons that I advocate double-action triggers on defensive handguns.  I want a long relatively heavy trigger pull on my defensive handguns so that I mitigate the risk of unintentional discharge when I have drawn a gun to defend myself and my loved ones.  I have seen instructors who trained their students to keep their trigger off the finger until they want to pull it, but I find doing so results in more slapped triggers when shooting in a defensive context than placing your finger on the trigger does.

Rule number three, however, is the rule that people have the most trouble with.  I doubt seriously that the NRA intends rule three to advocate carrying an unloaded gun in your holster.  I personally believe the NRA considers carrying a gun for defensive reasons to be a “use.”

Either way, I’m very interested in getting further details of the NRA Advanced Pistol Instructor certification and the Defensive Pistol course.  It will be interesting to see if the NRA’s rule get redefined to encompass this new direction in their training modules.  So far the NRA Gun Safety Rules have stood the test of time and have served us well.  As a student of self-defense, it is our duty to know them by heart:

1. Always keep the firearm pointed in a safe direction.
2. Always keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot.
3. Always keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.

Stay safe out there!

-Mitch