Latest Defensive Pistolcraft

Jon Low had published a new Defensive Pistolcraft prior to my leaving on my vacation, but with trying to get things done before I left, and then catching up on some matters after getting back, I'm only just now getting to his post. Before continuing, though, I want to publicly thank him for referencing some of my posts and comments.

    Now, getting to the stories and his comments. First up, it is not infrequent to read accounts of police conducting raids at the wrong addresses. You would think that with multiple officers all being given the correct address and being able to see the incorrect address on the structure being raided that this wouldn't happen, but as I've noted before, raids and police shootings often resemble feeding frenzies. Anyway, Jon has some recommendations for such situations:

    One of those Ring door bells, https://ring.com/doorbell-cameras[,] attached to the front door or the wall next to the front door would have gone a long way to keeping the residents safe.  All of my neighbors have them installed.  You can see and talk to the guys outside without having to open your door.  Generally best to stay away from your front door, as the bad guys can and do shoot through doors.  

     Police are human. They make mistakes. No sense compounding the mistake and getting killed.  The officers might get convicted. The wife might get a big civil settlement. But, the husband is still dead. How could he have avoided getting killed?  

1.  Don't answer the door. Let the police get a warrant. They would not have been able to. Call 911 and tell the dispatcher that there are men claiming to be police at your door trying to make entry.  "Are they really police officers?"  Impersonating a police officer is a common thing.  

2.  Leave via the back door.  Leaving is always a good idea.  Go to a movie theater and see the new "John Wick Chapter 4" movie.  No, as a matter of fact, you don't have to get involved in the drama.  My father (who was a prosecutor, defense attorney, and judge) often said, "You can always walk away."  And it's true!  

3.  Answer the door from your smart phone, using your remote door bell video and audio system.  Lot's of them on the market, cheap as dirt.  

[4].  Answer the door from a side window, balcony, etc.  

And some practice tips:

     Hopefully, you have had expert training before practicing to ensure that what you are practicing is correct.  

     Practice should be planned (have a list of things to do and execute to your list), deliberate (as opposed to casual), and intentional (attitude, concentrate on what you are doing without distraction).  

     If you are practicing a new skill, practice should be slow to ensure you are doing it correctly and not engraining bad habits.  If you are practicing a skill you know well, practice should initially be slow to make sure you're doing it correctly (not unintentionally engraining bad habits).  

     You must keep a highly detailed journal.  

     Before going to practice, write down what you are going to work on at the practice session.  (What are you going to accomplish?  If you don't know, STOP!  THINK!  {Ya, I kow it's hard.  Don't hurt yourself.}  If you don't have any goals, you're wasting your time. )  

     During the practice session, execute the things on your list.  

     After the practice session, write down what you did at the practice session.  Write down what worked, and what didn't work.  Write down what you will be working on at the next session based on the results of this session.  

     Otherwise, you're wasting your time.  Wasting time can be fun, especially when doing it with someone hot.  Just don't confuse it with practice.  Only practice will improve your performance.  

     "I went to the range today with the guys and shot a thousand rounds, while drinking a cooler of beers, and grilling burgers and hot dogs.  What a great day of practice.  I'm ready for war.  NOT!"  

     If you're going to practice, you're probably going by yourself.  Or, possibly with your coach.  Team practices make sense for team sports.  Shooting is an individual sport / art /skill/ combat skill.  Going with friends is distracting.  If you want to accomplish your goals for the day, best to go by yourself.  You're not being anti-social.  You're being serious.  

I don't think that going with a friend (emphasis on the singular) is necessarily a bad idea. I learned more about shooting by going with a friend of about equal skill level and having games or contests to shoot small targets under a time limit than all the aimed target shooting I've ever done (e.g., shooting at a can or shotgun shell hull to try and bump it up a short slope to see who would be first to get it to a ledge; or setting up a line of bowling pins and drawing and, starting from each end, see who gets the most down the fastest). One of the reasons I learned to appreciate the 1911 is because it is one of the best quick draw and shoot firearms out there. 

    But that said, Jon is right in saying if your "practice" shooting is just aimless plinking, you aren't going to get much out of it beyond the mental and emotional catharsis that just comes with shooting. And you won't know if you are getting any better without using a journal of some sort to record information. And if you are wanting to shoot a longer ranges, you will need to record a lot more information in order to learn the proper dope for your rifle and the ammunition. You can get by without a journal or records early on because you are just learning the gross skills, but in order to fine tune what you are doing, you need the records so you can analyze the patterns and spot problems. It also helps to record yourself or, during dry fire practice, watch yourself in a mirror. Repeating something wrong 1000 times is useless; you want some incremental improvement as you practice.

    But back to practicing around other people. What I've found inhibits my practice is where I have to instruct or monitor other persons for the majority of a shooting session. There is some benefit because in order to teach them, I have to really think about what I do which works and explain it/demonstrate it, but mostly it is babysitting. It is one of the reasons that I stopped going shooting with my father-in-law: I discovered that I was only invited along on those occasions where he and his sons needed someone to watch their kids and/or teach their kids to shoot. The other was that after a few years of constant excuses on why he couldn't go shooting on most occasions, I realized that he would go shooting with me or my kids only if one of his sons or their children were also going. I don't know why he favored the grandkids from his sons over the grandkids from his daughters (he was the same toward the kids of his other daughters), but that was how he was. 

    Anyway, sorry about getting sidetracked there. But back to Jon Low's post: it is full of good stuff so be sure to read the whole thing.