Weekend Reading: Greg Ellifritz's Weekend Knowledge Dump

Since it is the weekend, that means another Weekend Knowledge Dump from Active Response Training. Lot's of good articles on self-defense, firearms, and prepping. Some that caught my eye in particular:

• An article on home defense from CCW Safe, apparently based on an interview or presentation by Tom Givens. It primarily focuses on burglaries, which is just a term that historically has meant entering a home for the purpose of committing a crime (generally a felony). I thought the following statistics to be interesting and revealing:

Tom has studied data released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and he has calculated that each year in the United States, there are more than 3 million burglaries, and about 260,000 result in physical harm to the resident.  40% of burglars, Tom says, walk in through unlocked doors. Another 10% gain entry through unsecured windows. As an armed defender, if you’re smart enough to lock your windows and doors, the next most likely way for an intruder to get into your home is by breaking through your front door. According to Tom’s calculations, that’s how 34% of burglars gain entry.

Just by locking your doors and windows, you can reduce the odds of a burglary by 50%.  There was a string of burglaries in my neighborhood about 15 years ago--mostly thieves stealing power tools--where the burglars simply were entering through unlocked sliding doors or rear garage doors. I'm pretty sure that I didn't suffer any losses simply because my wife and I are always careful to keep doors locked, even when we are at home.

• Last week Greg had linked to one of the sap/blackjack videos which I'd previously mentioned. Some of his readers were curious about sources of such weapons, so this week he included an article from Recoil Magazine discussing some sellers of saps/blackjacks and some of their offerings. 
• Greg has included a couple articles on weapon-mounted and tactical flashlights.
• He's linked to an article by Clint Smith on situational awareness and personal tactics to avoid becoming a crime victim. He also links to a Modern Survival Blog article on situational awareness.
• For those interested in the medical side of things, he links to a paper looking at controlling massive bleeding in the groin or lower limb by applying pressure through kneeling on the groin crease, and that it did not require that much pressure. The purpose of this is to control bleeding temporarily while applying a tourniquet. 
• Finally, I would recommend checking out the link to Paul T. Martin's article to building an emergency water filtration system.