New Defensive Pistolcraft Post

Jon Low has a new Defensive Pistolcraft post up and available for you to read. If you don't already know, these are a compendium of links to articles or videos, often with short excerpts, and with added commentary by Jon. Now, although I haven't trained with Jon, I have followed his blog for many, many years and corresponded with him and he has good information. And by that, I mean that you can trust him to provide you with the straight scoop on any topic. He is an experienced firearms trainer but also constantly updates his skills and knowledge, including following advances in training and taking classes from others. Although he doesn't think it important in a trainer, other do, so I would point out that he does have a military background as well as private security. Something that is important, in my mind, is that he has experienced a defensive shooting and gone through (and survived) the legal aftermath. And, most important of all, he has a great deal of integrity. 

    In short, he is a solid source of information. So if he picks out an article or video, recommends a product or technique, or comments, you can be sure that he has thought about it and based his selection or comments on good, solid information. You might not fully agree with everything he says, but what he says is an honest appraisal based on the best available information. 

    I always like to highlight certain links or comments just to give you a taste of what is in the post, so here are a couple from his latest:

• Jon links to an article at Conflict Manager Magazine by Rory Miller and Terry Trahan on the issue of aggression. If you don't know anything about Rory Miller you should: he has written several books on the topic of violence and analyzing violence, including Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected, which I consider a must have reference for anyone seriously interested in self-defense and understanding how to identify the signs of violence before it starts. In any event, the article discusses aggression and why it can be bad in a self-defense case because it is an emotion, but also notes that sometimes we need some emotion to get through our social programing that teaches us to be peaceful and passive. The authors recommend another emotion: decisiveness.

    Decisiveness encompasses explosive motion, violence of action, speed of perception, processing and execution, all working towards a goal. The difference between decisiveness and aggression is that decisiveness is aimed at an objective, professional goal: to escape or to disable or to handcuff or to… Aggression is aimed at an internal goal. An emotional goal. Usually to assuage fear. As a rule, novices use force because they are afraid, they use as much force as their fear dictates and they continue to use force until the fear dissipates.

    In a word, aggression makes you stupid, not decisive.

    And this goes into language again, because being stupid is generally safer and more effective than being passive. And if you equate stupid with uncivilized, well, most civilized people don’t fight very well.

Jon adds his comments as well, so be sure to read the whole article and Jon's comments. He also links to a couple other articles on mindset.

• Jon links to an article on protecting against school shootings by Marcus Wynne and adds:

If your child's school policy is to "lock down" or "shelter in place", know that the persons who wrote the policy are idiots with no knowledge, experience, or training in the subject; and are advocating criminal stupidity. 

  

     The correct solution is always for the child to flee.   

 

     The correct solution is always for the adults to be armed and to fight the assailants. If they are not willing to fight, they are WRONG!  If they are not trained to fight, they are WRONG!  If they are not armed, they are WRONG!   

 

     If you don't understand this, take Ed Monk's class.  Unfortunately, Marcus Wynne

is no longer with us.  

• Jon links to an NRA Women article on "Running Away the Right Way." The gist of the article is that you don't want to be blindly fleeing as this could get you into an even worse situation, but be running toward something--a means of escape, other people, or some other location that offers safety--while being conscious of your surroundings and what is going on. One of the points raised in the article is the following:

Learn the difference between resource predators and process predators, and when you’re clearly dealing with a resource predator who just wants your purse or your car or your wallet, understand that your best option is to comply. Throw your purse or your keys and then run in the opposite direction. He’s got what he wants and you’re getting farther away from danger by the second.

That's probably true in many (most?) cases, but as Jon points out:

     You are never "clearly dealing with a resource predator".  Any predator can easily change into a "process predator".  If your gait is enticing to the predator he will want

to rape or sodomize you.  If the predator perceives that you have shown disrespect to him, he will attempt to kill you.

• Another link is to an article from Armed Citizens Network on "Defending Against Empty-Hand Attacks." Jon excerpted the following bit which I think everyone that carries a concealed weapon needs to understand:

[Discussing the concept of drawing a gun in a physical, close-contact situation] First, if someone has already grabbed you, you are too far behind the curve to be able to get a firearm – especially one from concealment. We really do have to be prepared to use defensive tactics to make time and space. The average police officer needs 1.7 seconds to get a gun out of a triple retention holster and make a retention shot.

This is why people like Greg Ellifritz, who teaches combined firearms and empty-hand techniques, advocates for carrying a small fixed blade knife at the 12 o'clock position. 

• Finally, as someone that has recommended that your EDC should include a nail clipper, I was glad to see this: "Keep your fingernails cut short and filed smooth.  Ripping a fingernail or losing a fingernail in training can ruin your day."

Anyway, there is so much more there that you need to check out the whole thing.