New Defensive Pistolcraft Post

Jon Low has a new Defensive Pistolcraft post. Well, not exactly new because it came out last week, but I hadn't referenced it before. He always offers up a lot of wisdom and I really enjoy going through his compilation of articles, videos, quotes, and commentary. I generally try to pick out a few things to whet readers' appetites, and this time is no different. So without further ado: 

• Jon suggests to trainers: 

     Practice backward chaining in your teaching.  Start with the final position that you want to achieve.  Then move backwards through the process, one step at a time.  

     Difficult for you to design and execute.  But, much better for the student's retention and understanding.  Hat tip to Lee Weems.  

He provides an example of this using a simple draw and fire exercise. 

• Jon begins his piece by discussing the difference between self-defense training and other training out there (e.g., offensive (military), law enforcement, competition, etc.) before moving to discuss some basic elements of self-defense with a firearm and a bit about dealing with the aftermath. An excerpt:

 1.   The purpose of self-defense is to prevent your injury.  So, you have to strike preemptively.  In order to be able to do this you have to be aware.  No law in the United States requires you to suffer the first strike before defending yourself.  If you allow the bad guy to strike first, you will not be able to defend yourself.  You'll be on the ground getting stomped to death.  Your loved ones will be kidnapped, raped, and eventually murdered.  

2.   If you fail to prevent the attack, the purpose of self-defense is to stop the attack so you don't get injured anymore.  You are shooting or striking to stop the attack, not to kill.  The condition of the bad guy is incidental to our purpose of stopping the attack.  In order to stop the attack, you must either zero the bad guy's blood pressure or break his central nervous system.   

* * *

3.   If the assailant is walking away, after having beaten and raped you, shooting him in the back is not self-defense.  Self-defense only works to prevent the attack or stop the attack.  Shooting the assailant as he is departing is murder.  Such are the laws of our civilized society.  

Read the whole thing. He chains together a lot of other tips, so read the whole post. 

• Jon links to a video from Tom Givens on "How Powerful Is A Handgun?", or more accurately, how little power has a typical defensive handgun. Givens demonstrates this using a Glock 9 mm, putting his thumb behind the slide to hold the slide forward and then discharging the firearm. No injury to the thumb and, of course, the pistol failed to cycle. 
• Finally, he discusses encryption and secure communications near the end of his post. Check it out.