New Defensive Pistolcraft Post for July 2020

Jon Low published a new monthly roundup of articles, videos and commentary yesterday. Be sure to check it out. He mentions the book, In the Name of Self Defense, by Mark MacYoung. As I noted back in March when I was still only half-way through the book myself, I believe it may be the most consequential book on the topic of self-defense in the past few decades. I wish I had come across it sooner. I highly recommend that you add it to your library.

    Other topics discussed include stockpiling and storing ammunition, habits that you need to develop as a defensive shooter (which may not be the same as you learn with range practice and/or competition), questions and things to look for in order to vet your shooting instructor, the importance of having confidence in your training/abilities, reloads with revolvers and AKs, the importance of being able to get into and out of a squat in combat, reading body language, and a lot more.

     One that I want to point out in particular has to do with whether to shoot with both eyes open or closing one eye. Jon writes, in response to an article advising shooting with both eyes open:

Yes, you need binocular vision.  Yes, you need peripheral vision.  The problem is that if you shoot using the non-dominant-eye sight picture, the right-eyed shooter will impact way off to the left, and the left-eyed shooter will impact way off to the right.  Murphy's Law says that you will be using the wrong sight picture, because, especially in high stress situations, anything that can go wrong will go wrong.  So, you must eliminate the possibility of shooting at the wrong image by closing your non-dominant eye at the moment prior to releasing the shot.  In a high stress situation your eye dominance may change.  All kinds of strange things happen under stress. "High stress" is not an IDPA match where no one is shooting at you.  High stress is when you urinate on yourself, defecate on yourself, vomit, shake uncontrollably, and maybe faint.  Training and practice, especially visualization, can mitigate these occurences, maybe.