Target Identification and It's Importance

 Several years ago, I was on a military shooting range trying to qualify a young Air Force Captain so he could fly.  He had to qualify, or this pilot would not be on flying status.  This can be very stressful for someone who wants to fly but has a hard time shooting.  Finally, he was the last one, the others had already qualified and left the range.  It was one on one training now.  He was frustrated because he could not keep consistent and was hitting 18, 19, 17 rounds out of the 20 hits needed to qualify.  In his frustration he would wave his M16 around wildly and flag me.  I warned him about that, and he would calm down to try and qualify again.  After being flagged about 4 times I finally told him we needed to stop and come back the next day.

I felt for this guy.  He was trying so hard and barely missing it.  I almost told him when he missed it by one that I would sign off on that and to his credit, he would not “fudge” it.  We talked a bit in this process, and I got to know him better.  He talked about concealed-carry off duty.  As he was shooting, I mentioned target identification.  He asked about what I meant by that.  I told him a story I had read about a guy shooting his son by mistake because he thought he was an intruder.  A flashlight should be an integral part of your EDC so that target ID is not a problem. I’ve heard using a flashlight is a double-edged sword.  It gives away your position besides target ID. The notion that ‘the light draws fire’ or that criminals will wait in ambush for you if they hear you coming are nonsensical. Those are bad paradigms for us to insert in our thinking. If your background is such that having assassins waiting in ambush for you in your own home is a concern, you need to work on some serious hardening of access points to your home.  This thinking applies in combat or law enforcement where noise is your friend.  In a home invasion you want noise. Stealth is not your friend; it is your enemy.  In fact, you should train by speaking.  Next time you go to the range, take the flashlight with you. Instead of just blasting 50 holes in a silhouette, shoot two shots at the silhouette 25 times. Sequence is very important in how you do this.

• Have your gun in your shooting hand and your flashlight in your support hand. The gun is not pointing at the target and the light is off.
• Before each two-shot string, say out loud “Who’s there?”
• Wait and listen for an answer. If you go to the range with someone, have them stand behind you and sometimes respond with “it’s me, Daddy” or something similar.
• If they say that, immediately put your gun down on the bench and abort that sequence.
• Then illuminate the target without pointing the gun at it.
• Finally, bring the gun up and fire the two shots.

One of the things you will find when using this sequence is that the worthwhile two-handed shooting techniques don’t work well with it. It is both clumsy and dangerous to assume when you already have the light on the target and are keeping it illuminated while presenting the pistol. The Rogers/Surefire technique takes some time and manipulation skill to assume. What you will discover is that only the Cheek Technique or the FBI Technique work well in this context.

That means you must learn to:

• Speak while holding your gun.
• Abort the shooting sequence if there is not a threat.
• Do a dissimilar task with the other hand, i.e., orient the flashlight and work the switch, while keeping your gun off target and your finger off the trigger.
• Shoot with one hand only while continuing to perform the dissimilar task.
• Manipulate the safety or decock your weapon with one hand while holding something in the other.

For the final 5 repetitions (10 rounds), put up a clean silhouette target and shoot the LAPD Retired Officer Course (10 rounds at seven yards). Measure how well you do. You’re going to find it’s a lot harder than you think. From the LAPD manual:

“The starting position for this qualifying course of fire will begin at the 7 Yard Line. When the target faces, the shooter will draw and fire 10 rounds at a single silhouette target. A score of 70 percent is required to pass the qualification. All rounds impacting anywhere on the body and head will receive full value and rounds impacting upon the arms are half value.”

There is no time limit, so all you need to do is hit 7/10 shots in the torso or head of the target

That sequence is obviously rather involved; practice it before you must do it for real or you’ll forget to do it or get it wrong. Forgetting to do it is what leads to tragedies.

Some shooters may become overly anxious or excited, which can lead to careless behavior. They may fire at sounds, colors, movements, or unidentified shapes, or simply shoot too quickly. In the excitement after hitting their target, they may swing a loaded firearm toward their companions or run with the safety off toward the target.

Self-control is an essential aspect of safety. Only shoot when you know that no people, domestic animals, buildings, or equipment are in the zone-of-fire.

Slow, careful shooting is not only safer, but it also produces a higher degree of success.

Shooting accurately is a key safety factor. Some incidents, often deadly ones, have occurred when stray bullets have hit people out of the shooter's sight. Be sure you have a proper backstop before you shoot.

Being responsible for every bullet is the only way we as concealed carry or home defense participator can be.

Be safe and be deadly!

Semper Paratus

Check 6

Burn

Tactical Training for Your Family

Family Training

Broad & Inclusive Training

No one is safe at all if they only learn how to protect themselves in one type of situation. That is why even if you are focusing on one specific discipline of tactical training you will find that it is both broad and inclusive of a variety of potential scenarios. Any good tactical training course will provide you with multiple situations to overcome, preparing you for a variety of both physical and psychological tasks associated with your survival. Yes, you can learn to shoot the same menacing looking targets in different orders each time at the gun range, but this only covers one scenario and is not effective tactical training. True tactical training will also call on more than one level of physical and psychological needs at any given time, to ensure you are well rounded and prepared for any situation. A good tactical training session might even appear chaotic, but they are highly structured to call on multiple skills to test a trainee. If you can use your range of skills to make sense and survive the situation, the chaos melts away, which is exactly what you are hoping to be able to apply to a real-life scenario.

I had my family learn how to shoot, how to use pepper spray, and how to grapple.  We talked about tactical thinking and situational awareness all the time.  Try to be versatile. 

Drills

Remember you can help prepare your family with tactical training as well. There is a fine line between preparing and scaring your children, so always consider their age and understanding level in every training scenario. Drills, however, are important and can give you the lifesaving seconds you need in a disaster scenario. Many families have fire drills for instance, so considering a few potential events and outcomes that your loved ones can practice, increasing your chance of survival is a form of tactical training that can keep your whole family safe and better prepared.

Keys to Good Tactical Training

• Avoid highly specialized training classes and events. While it is good to practice in specific ways, broad range courses are best for beginners, so you can build a solid skill set. You can go on to more specialized training down the road.
• Look for a course with scenario-based training as it can help prepare you psychologically, as well as physically.
• Hone your instincts. One of the goals of tactical training is to take actions from being intellectual to instinctual. In high-stress situations, if you can rely on your instincts to help in your defense you have a higher chance of surviving a confrontation. Any few seconds you can spare in mental processing and decision making, due to effective, tactical training could be lifesaving.
• Self-defense is a lifelong journey. You must adopt it as part of your regular life and commit to continually practice if you want to truly become a master in the art of self-defense and be able to defend yourself no matter what the situation brings

·         One of the most popular forms of civilian tactical training  is with the use of firearms. Ranges offer tactical shooting courses that provide you situations that represent more realistic scenarios, rather than just standing at one end of a range and shooting at a stationary target. Classes are often the best course for many, however, if you do have the property, or can find a place where you can lawfully fire the rounds, you may consider setting up tactical training courses of your own. Remember that the element of surprise is a huge aspect of tactical training. If you do set up your own course, you will need a partner who can change the targets and situations to create a unique training experience every time.

 

Psychological Aspects of Tactical Training

·         Tactical training requires a level of psychological involvement that is simply not applied in ordinary self-defense training approaches. Of course, learning a specific technical skill for defense is extremely important. However, a technical skill that is only mastered in a controlled environment is only applicable to similar controlled environments, not to situations in the real world. In order to learn a technical skill that will be helpful in any situation, you must be conditioned psychologically as well as physically. With the psychological aspect of tactical training in mind, you will practice your technical skill in a variety of anticipated states, considering factors like stress or exhaustion.

·         Preparing your mind for the possibility of these stressful situations will enable you to perform with greater effectiveness when an actual disaster occurs.

 

Hoplology

·         Not all tactical training is physical in nature, and hoplology is a great place for many beginners to start. As with most things, research can be a huge asset to a person’s self-defense repertoire. Hoplology is the study of the development of human combative behavior and performance. It is in short, the relationship between different cultures in regards to how and why we fight. Becoming a student of hoplology opens you up to a slightly different tactical approach. Taking the knowledge of why and how we fight into consideration can give you a slight advantage when engaging in combat with a potential assailant. Studying other cultures and fighting techniques can also give you an advantage when approached with any self-defense situation as not only can you anticipate what might be coming, but you can take appropriate action to combat it as well.

There are many ways to improve your family’s training.  Tactical is just one of them.  Find a course, or person, who can teach tactical training in a simple way that is understandable to your entire family.  Develop or find drills that can be practiced easily.  Make it fun for the whole family and you will find that not only is your family prepared and safe, but healthy and happy.

Semper Paratus

Check 6

Burn

Terrorist Attacks and Lessons From Mumbai

 The terrorist attacks of 2008 in Mumbai provide a number of lessons for emergency-services agencies throughout the world. The attacks, which represented an ever-increasing level of sophistication and ingenuity of terrorist activity worldwide, started during the evening hours of 26 November 2008 when small teams of armed terrorists launched a well-coordinated series of assaults that challenged India’s local and national emergency-services capabilities for four days. The terrorist teams, which maintained radio communications with one another throughout the siege, moved swiftly and brazenly through the famous tourist city, initially firing on civilians and authorities alike before settling into hotels crowded with numerous Western tourists and businesspeople. The last of the hostage/barricade situations was resolved on 30 November, leaving almost 200 fatalities and over 300 injured. The terrorist tactics were relatively basic, but the overall operation was sophisticated. In contrast, the response by local and national emergency services agencies was much less coordinated. The terrorists used the now frequently experienced “multi-prong” approach by combining several IED (improvised explosive device) detonations in some areas with small-arms attacks in other areas. Separate teams used the small-arms fire to create a wider scope of carnage. The law-enforcement and military units responding were frustrated in their heroic but somewhat ineffective efforts to locate and contain the terrorist commando teams. The terrorist teams, using pre-programmed GPS devices, moved through Mumbai’s maze of streets like experienced tour guides. There were only ten terrorists in all; divided into killing teams of two to four, they moved swiftly from one crowded target to another, using taxis and stolen vehicles, but sometimes on foot. At one point, a terrorist team commandeered a responding police vehicle, killing its occupants, including Maharashta Police’s Anti-Terrorism Squad chief, Hemant Karkar.  Law enforcement should learn from this and prepare.  But as the average citizen, we should be on guard and ready to act.

Run. Hide. Fight. 

We are told when a shooting starts, those are, in order, the most effective ways to survive. A study done by The Rand Corp. included 65 cases in which people fought back. In 85 percent of those cases, they stopped the gunfire or made the attacker flee. In 12 cases, people rushed the shooter from different directions and in all 12 cases, they stopped the shooting.  So be careful about creating a run, hide, fight checklist.  If fight is presented in a responsible way, it can be effective.  But if we’re relying on 5 people throwing hymnbooks or chairs we may come up short and end up stopping the killer but getting one or two of those 5 shot.  But if someone, or “someones”, were trained and armed, things could be different. 

By studying the Mumbai attacks, we can better prepare for what may come.

There are some general precautions everyone should take to prevent themselves from becoming a victim of terrorism. These include:

Situational awareness – try to be aware of what is always going on around you. This is especially important when traveling in countries with higher incidences of terrorism than the United States.

If you feel uncomfortable with a situation, leave. Don’t be paranoid, just be mindful.

Never accept packages from strangers or allow your luggage to leave your control.

If you notice any unusual behavior, always report it immediately to relevant security personnel.

Any time you’re in a public place, make sure to briefly note the location of emergency exits. They’ll be a lot harder to find in the event of any incidents.

For any possible scenario, emergency preparedness is key. Have cash on hand, emergency food and water supplies, and determine how much ammo you should have as part of building a decent cache of ammunition.

If you live or work in a large building, talk to the owners about getting basic emergency supplies on every level of the building – including first-aid kits, hard hats, dust masks, portable radios with extra batteries, flashlights with extra batteries, and tape to mark off dangerous areas.

Also consider talking to the owners about implementing a security program if they don't already have one. For example, adding metal detectors, cameras, and other items could help prevent terrorism as well as preparation.

These are the most basic precautions any of us can take against the possibility of a terrorist attack.  

We live in interesting times.  Chances for attacks like Mumbai are becoming higher as the world becomes more dangerous.  The precious administration for some reason let in millions of un vetted, undocumented, people.  Many of them just wanting a better life but when you let in that many, you’re bound to let in some undesirable and those wishing harm on Americans. 

Be vigilant and keep your head on a swivel.

Semper Paratus

Check 6

Burn

Spec Ops Truths You Can Use

 In the Special Operations world, there are many things to learn.  As civilians we can learn from these ideas and concepts too.

The five Special Operations Forces Truths:
1. Humans are more important than hardware.
2. Quality is better than quantity.
3. Special Operations Forces cannot be mass produced.
4. Competent Special Operations Forces cannot be created after emergencies occur.
5. Most special operations require non-SOF assistance.

John Collins, a retired Army colonel, authored truths. He enjoyed a second career in the Congressional Research Service, and in 1987 found himself writing a publication titled "United States and Soviet Special Operations" for a House Armed Services Committee.

Oddly enough, Colonel Collins was not a special operator. He wrote "had to do with what special operations are all about," he later said. The truths were born out of the "SOF Imperatives" and originally included a fifth truth: "Most special operations require non-SOF assistance." However, this truth was lost for about 20 years, until Adm. Eric Olsen, a former SOCOM Commander, resurrected it in September 2009. Ever since they were brought to light, the truths became the mantra for only our special forces teams and over time, the fundamental guidelines for all special operations forces from all the services to follow.

Humans are more important than hardware.

Sometimes we think that a new computer or a new tech system is the most important thing in the field, but it’s the humans we’re surrounded with that will accomplish the task regardless of the gear and equipment you give them. While the stringent selection process for special operations works to weed out the wrong people, the private sector doesn’t have the same safeguards. Most companies don’t have an intensive training regime that includes psychological evaluations and leadership tests for prospective candidates, so these values need to be cultivated in a different way. Simply put, it comes down to taking the time to select the right people for the job. One poor person, or whatever poor quality that he or she possesses, spoils it for everybody else.

Which leads to the second truth.

Quality is better than quantity.

You don’t need 12 people if two people can do it. Pick the right people, pick the right machinery, pick the right technology, get that quality that you need and the quality that you want. You might be paying more for it, but the added cost for performance is worth it every time. If you choose the right thing, and it maintains the standard that you’re looking for, you’re never going to go wrong with having the right quality person, or the right quality machinery, and technology. The thing about quality is that it’s a limited resource.

Special operations forces cannot be mass produced.

When you try a cookie cutter approach, you get cookies, you don’t always get the right thing. If you try to have unique thinkers, by that very definition it cannot be mass produced. When you try to mass produce things, typically you eliminate the uniqueness right out of it. Realizing you’ve got the wrong gear, or the wrong guy on your team when you’re already in a bad situation is too late so, you need to think ahead.

Competent special operations forces cannot be created after emergencies occur.

The word competent in the fourth truth is pretty telling. This means that you need to be looking toward anticipated needs, or in military parlance, you need to prepare for the next war, not the last one. You just must be proactive and not reactive. You’re always looking forward and learning lessons.

Most special operations require non-SOF support.

This is probably the most misunderstood of all the truths. The reason: Ego.  Ego comes into play quite a bit, and you get a lot of ego when you label something special or unconventional or different. Taking the ego out of play and saying, ‘Everybody stay true to what you can do.’ In the private sector, it comes down to putting the right people in the positions they're best suited for. Let your guys do what they’re best and most capable of doing and have other people do other stuff.

These truths are true for many things from military operations to business.  Many may find them a valuable tool.

Semper Paratus

Check 6

Burn

 

The "Move" Part of Shoot, Move, Communicate

 In 1989 I had the opportunity to train at a shoot house ran by the US Army outside San Antonio, Texas.  In the entrance to this shoot house there was a large sign.  It states: “No one is coming to save you.” I had some great training and some fantastic times.  I got to know an instructor at this facility, Sargeant Major Roland “Rolo” Steward. He was a proponent of “Shoot, Move, Communicate”

Shoot, Move, Communicate is not a slogan. It is a mental framework for operating in chaos. It captures the three core actions required to succeed when conditions are uncertain and pressure is high.

Shoot represents decisive action. It means addressing the problem in front of you with precision and intent. You do not wait for perfect information. You act to gain advantage and create momentum.

Move is about adaptability and progress. Staying still makes you vulnerable. Movement allows you to reposition, improve your situation, and stay ahead of changing conditions. Progress only happens when you are willing to move.

Communicate is what keeps the team aligned. Information shared at the right time keeps everyone effective. It ensures teammates understand what is happening, what is needed, and where the mission is going next. Without communication, even strong individual effort breaks down.

Remember this: The single most important thing you can do in a gunfight is get the gun between you and your opponent

You must be an active participant in your own rescue.

Movement Drills

Let’s consider the primary drill, and then I will explain the logic and finer details. The drill doesn’t require much, just your preferred handgun and holster, two targets and a stick. (You don’t really need the stick.) You can start at the 7- to 10-yard line and place the stick parallel with your target. Standing behind the stick, you simply need to draw and put two rounds on each target, then two more rounds on each target, all while simultaneously stepping over the stick. The effort should be one continuous movement. Your step should begin with the draw, and your finish position should look identical to your starting position. From here, you can do the same thing with a backwards step. Do this several times moving forward and backward over your stick. Once you get the hang of forward and backward movement, turn the stick 90 degrees to practice lateral movements. The same approach applies. You will fire a total of eight shots, all while moving. You should be shooting two shots while transitioning between both targets. The left-and-right, or “side-to-side,” movement drill over the stick is trickier than forward and backward, but once you get the hang of it, this drill will improve your movement for both competition and tactical shooting purposes.

This drill seems simple but it’s a lot like walking and chewing gum at the same time. Simple until you start thinking about it. What are the finer details of what we’re training for. Performing the drill successfully is about stance. A good fighting stance is similar across many disciplines. The point of the stance is to enable you to begin your attack or react to your adversary. Most people can quickly figure out how to get into a good starting stance, but it almost always falls apart during training once we move to a new location. The goal of this drill is to end your movement in your starting stance. Regardless of where you end up, the next time you move, it will be from your starting fighting stance. This leads us back to efficiency of motion.

As we move around and shoot between different positions, people tend to “coil up.” This leads to inefficiency of movement, which means slower times in a competition and potentially a worse outcome in a tactical situation. By ensuring you start and stop in the same position every time, you can prevent that “coiled up” feeling. This also allowed us to start moving to the next position faster, while also engaging targets accurately.  It is a common myth that has seeped into civilian training from the military and law enforcement sectors: Don’t cross your legs while moving tactically. I suspect the concept stems from martial arts, where crossing your legs could lead to being forced off balance and into a poor fighting position. If you lose your gun in a fight, you can worry about not crossing your legs then. Everyone successfully walks around, crossing their legs while walking every day, most of us without tripping at all. You’re not going to suddenly forget how to walk because you’re holding a rifle or pistol. After all, you can probably walk and chew gum at the same time.

Once everything starts to click with you mentally, the fundamentals of these drills will apply to any situation that calls you to shoot while moving, even when you’re simply moving to the next target. Efficiency of motion helps to beat the bad guy. There are a few more points to keep in mind as you practice these drills. Don’t forget to focus on the target. As you start training, you’ll instinctively want to slow down when it’s time to shoot to focus on the dot or to align the iron sights. Focusing on the sights may cause you to overshoot the target when transitioning, meaning that you will lose time and efficiency while trying to reposition the sights back on the target. Finally, consider the pace of fire when shooting.   For most of us, we would engage the first target with two shots, then there would be a slight pause during the transition to the second target. Then, another pause while moving back to the first target, and a final pause with the last two shots on the second target. In practice, it sounds incredibly fast, but it is not. With a continuous, steady pace of fire without pausing while transitioning between targets it was three-quarters of a second faster than if you allow even a slight pause. These movement drills are so practical because they can be done with minimal space, yet they have unlimited application to shooting scenarios.   

Learning to move while you shoot and continue to engage at target, or targets, is one of the most valuable skills you’ll learn for a firefight.  Moving gets you to cover, in position to engage, and helps in transition from cover to cover.  You may not need this skill for self-defense, or you may need it.  It’s better to learn it and not need it, than to need the skill and not have it.

Remember, no one is coming to save you.

 

Semper Paratus

Check 6

Burn  

The Gun Known as the Mormon Avenger

 Never a factory option, the “Mormon Avenger” was a style of heavily modified single-action percussion revolver that appeared sometime after the Civil War and had both a ton of swagger and a good bit of history associated with them. In addition to being one of the forerunners of today’s snub-nosed revolvers.
Mr. Samuel Colt, with his early Paterson and later Dragoon series wheel guns of the 1830s and 40s ushered in revolvers. By 1851, his 36 caliber Navy-pattern six-shooter cap and ball revolvers were among the most popular combat handguns in the world. And his .44 caliber 1860 Model found adoption with the Union Army (while the Confederates used a good number of 1851s and unlicensed clones made in the South during the Civil War.)
By the late 1860s, over a half-million Colt wheel guns had been made and, in a country with only about 1/10th the population that we have today, a glut of Adams revolvers imported from England and domestic designs by Savage and Smith and Wesson, the market was flooded.
Which meant war surplus Colt percussion revolvers were cheap in the Old West and inexpensive guns can be readily modified without a lot of heartburn to the owner. Especially if they are carrying several of them about their person.
The history of the American West has a thread of Mormonism sewn through its fabric. Early Mormon settlements and pilgrims could be found extensively in all points west of Missouri from 1850 onward. As noted in “On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout, 1844-1861,” those headed to the frontier were often given a pistol to carry with them by the church and in many cases trained by those with experience on how to use them.
Mormon leader Brigham Young even kept as his personal bodyguard one Orrin Porter “Old Port” Rockwell who is often called the “Avenging Angel” and “Mormon Avenger.” Rockwell, a renowned mountain man and scout, was a Deputy U.S. Marshal and long-time marshal of Great Salt Lake City. Involved in numerous gunfights for various reasons (Some still controversial today), he once told a crowd; “I never killed anyone who didn’t need killing.”
He died of natural causes at age 64 in 1878 and is reputed to have carried several chopped down Colt cap and ball guns for personal defense.
Shortened to a 2-ish inch barrel, the cylinder-loading rod was removed and a new sight mounted on the end of the abbreviated barrel.
Other minor changes, including trimming the heel and toe of the wooden grips and adding a lanyard are also seen in these types of modified guns. While there are a few 1860 models that pop up, most tend to be the 1851 Navy gun, which coincidentally had a shorter trigger guard and smaller caliber which may have contributed to their choice.
Porter knew how to conceal-carry.  His stories are varied but many of his gunfights end with the deployment of a concealed carry gun.
One day a Sheriff Reynolds came to the jail and offered Porter a large sum of money if Porter would take him to Joseph Smith so that the Prophet could be captured. “I will see you damned first,” responded Porter.  Not only did Porter defend himself, but he defended Joseph and the Church.  Men and brethren, be like Porter.
 
Semper Paratus
Check 6

Burn