Weekend Reading

 First up, although I'm several days late on this, Jon Low posted a new Defensive Pistolcraft newsletter on 12/15/2024. He includes this bit from Orion Taraban, Psy.D. about preparing for death:

     For two years, I worked in an outpatient setting as a therapist for folks with cancer, and I conducted many sessions with people who had just received their diagnosis.  One thing that consistently surprised me – because it ran counter to my expectations – was that a patient's age had little to do with his acceptance of mortality.  I spoke with dozens of men in their late 70s who apparently hadn't even considered the possibility that death was approaching, despite the fact that they had outlived the average life expectancy.  

     This experience taught me that it takes a long time to prepare to die.  It takes more than a few weeks – or a few months – to fully accommodate to death's inevitability.  You might even think of living as a protracted preparation for death:  it can take that long to be able to face it with some degree of acceptance and equanimity.  This is not something that occurs organically as a function of growing old:  it is the product of intentional practice over many years.  

     We facilitate this acceptance by having our affairs more or less in order.  It is not a good idea to face death with a lot of outstanding business to attend to.  And since we have no idea when death with come for us, we are incentivized to not put off for tomorrow what can be done today.  Heal that relationship.  Make those emends.  Prioritize what you truly want to do in this life.  That way, you won't be scrambling to do so when the end draws near, and you will have the emotional bandwidth to face it forthrightly.  

It reminds me of comments I've often heard on the Active Self Protection You Tube channel of being right with God and your family because you never know when you might be killed in an accident or in an attack, or die of a sudden health emergency. 

    I don't know about other people into prepping, but I find that I'm one of those that tends to hang on to things because I might someday need it. This works great for bin of screws, nuts and bolts, but it can cross the line into hoarding. Jon reminds his readers: 

My mother told me, "If you haven't looked at it in a year, you never will.  Throw it away."  "Ruthlessly throw things away.  Otherwise, you'll end up hoarding.  Everything has sentimental value.  If it has real sentimental value, you'll have the memory."  

    Jon relates that earlier this month he assisted John Farnam with his Instructor Development class. He offers a lot of notes and tips from that class which are worth your while to check out. Not all of them are just for instructors.

    Jon has a lot more, including non-defense/gun items (such as an excerpt about the current state of Roscosmos), but let me just end with this: He links to an article entitled "Gun fights: is the 'three threes' rule accurate?" by Mike McDaniel (the three 3s being that the average gun fight is 3 shots, at 3 yards, in 3 seconds). But this is based on statistics of gun fights involving law enforcement. McDaniel references the data compiled by Tom Givens from his students that have been involved in gun fights which is probably more accurate when it comes to civilian carriers. But in those cases, the average distance is between 3 and 7 yards. Jon adds additional comments from Stephen P. Wenger on why the civilian distances are more than the 3 yards in the 3-3-3 rule. Jon adds his own thoughts, which is that Givens' students have better situational awareness than the typical civilian. 

    Last, but not least, Greg Ellifritz has a new Weekend Knowledge Dump at Active Response Training. Some of the notable articles to which he links:

• "Alternative Concealed Carry Methods as the Seasons Change." For those living in colder climates, the primary issue that arises in fall and winter is you now have to wear a coat, which makes accessing a concealed weapon worn on the belt very problematic--particularly if you are wearing a coat long enough to cover your hips and buttocks. The author considers three solutions: coat pocket carry, ankle carry, and pocket carry in your trousers. 
• "5 Targets You Should Always Have." These are targets that are useful for different drills and tactically relevant. I should expand mine more, but I pretty much stick to four types of targets: a target with one-inch squares for sighting purposes; adhesive dots of various sizes which can be stuck on cardboard backers, steel targets, or other objects just because they are so quick to put up; and the B8 and Sage Dynamics vital anatomy targets mentioned in the article. I like the anatomy targets because I think it is useful to get a rough idea of the anatomy of a potential threat and where you have to shoot to strike the anatomy.
• "Trigger Control is the Most Important Thing!" This is something that Jon Low emphasizes again and again in his newsletter and in emails because it is important. 
• "We’ll Never Solve Our Gun-Related Violent Crime Problem Until We’re Willing to Talk About Race." Consider this bit from the article: "While non-Hispanic white and Asian Americans have overall homicide rates of 2.8 per 100,000 and 1.7 per 100,000 respectively, black Americans are at 28.6 per 100,000." Hispanics and Native Americans also have much higher homicide rates than whites and Asians, but still significantly less than black Americans. This is a topic I've raised in the past. But to even suggest that there are racial differences in crime is to be labeled a racist.
  
• And just because it is interesting, "14 Best Service Pistols Of The World." The article splits up the handguns according to which country (or groups of countries) use them, finishing up with Israel which doesn't seem to have single service pistol, but uses several. This is nothing new, and was one of the primary reasons that Israel adopted a policy of carrying weapons with empty chambers.