New Monthly Post From Defensive Pistolcraft

A new collection of links to articles and videos, as well as commentary, from Jon Low. An excerpt:

    I took John Farnam's Instructor Development class this past weekend (5-6 October 2019 A.D.).  And I graduated!  (More of an accomplishment than you might think.)  Some of the things I learned: 

     Concerning gun shot wounds:

~75% are self inflicted accidents (incompetent gun handling)

~25% are self inflicted intentional (suicide or attempted suicide)

~1-2% are inflicted by another person

So, you are by far the most likely person to shoot you. So, you must know and practice the safety rules.  Yes, during a gunfight. Bad guys don't practice the safety rules, because they don't care about injuring or killing people.  We are the good guys.  We care.

Of those who get shot, only 3% die.

 * * *

     Avoid training scars.  Don't train things that you wouldn't do in combat.

     We load and unload guns.  Charge and void magazines.  [Overloading words is fine in computer programming languages such as C++.  But, it's confusing to beginners.  And when using guns, confusion is dangerous.  -- Jon Low]

     Unnecessary gun handling is an accident generator.

* * *

     In stranger kidnappings, one hour after the abduction, there is a 75% probability the hostage is dead.  After 24 hours there is a 100% probability the hostage is dead.  So, you can't let the kidnapper get away.  You have to take the shot. Don't fear killing the hostage.  If you don't stop the kidnapper, the hostage will die.

* * *

     James Yeager (the assistant instructor) suggested eliminating the tactical reload from your repertoire.  Instead, do an emergency reload.  He told us that Massad Ayoob has been searching for 20 years for a case where a partially loaded magazine that was retained during a reloading process was ever used.  Mr. Ayoob has never found such a case.

     Mr. Yeager also recommended eliminating malfunction clearing from your repertoire.  Instead, reload.  Because, most of the time, a failure to fire is due to lack of ammunition, not a malfunction.  And a failure to extract is rare.  But, attempting to reload will not fix a failure to extract.

     [There are pros and cons to every technique.  You have to calculate your probabilities and decide what compromises you are willing to make. If you believe in Hick's Law, Yeager's suggestions will significantly speed up your reloading and stoppage reductions operations. Hick's Law says that the fewer decisions you make, the faster you go. And the fewer options you have to choose from in any decision, the faster you go. Hick, W.E. (1952), “On the Rate of Gain of Information”, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Vol. 4, p11-26.

There is a lot more, so read the whole thing, and check out the article to which Low provides links.