Got the wife to agree to a situational awareness class this coming weekend.
One of these days, I’m going to get a firearm in her hands. ;7)
Good job, and good luck!
My wife still won’t touch a firearm, but she does look for seating at restaurants etc that have the “position of best tactical advantage,” as she’s had to deal with me asking for particular tables then explain why for years…
I’d bet $1k that if I ever get her to the range and get her to compete against me shooting, she’d carry from then on just to prove she can. Presently, id bet that same $1k I’d not get her to a range any time soon. She’s aware at least, and utilizes me a lot for transport and personal safety - that’s to say, I’m always armed and she prefers me to drive her wherever…
Best of luck with it bro! We all want our ladies safe…
Question for the group:
Just finished my application for a concealed carry. Going to be a few months before it is all the way processed, but I’m active duty in a shall issue state, so it’s pretty much a go.
Looking for a good CCW to pickup. Currently, only pistol is a Glock 17, which is bigger than I would ever carry.
Looking into the Sig p365 and the Sig p365 xl. Not sure which I like more. Definitely appreciate the size of the regular, especially for carry. But the xl looks to be a bit more capable. I’m not a collector, don’t care to own a surplus of guns, would rather be well versed in the ones I own. Part of me is thinking to trade in the Glock, and make the p365 xl my go to pistol. Can throw in a 15 rd mag and use it as more of a primary, or pop in the 12 for concealed carry. Not sure if I would be comfortable doing that with the regular p365, just small enough that I worry about accuracy. So I guess my quandary is, should I get the xl and make it my one gun I train everything on, or stick with the regular and then use my Glock as my primary home defense option.
While I’m asking, definitely would love some recommendations for a good IWB holster, or any other pistols you think I should take a look at
Cool thing about the 365 series is that they’re modular, as the fire control unit is technically the serialized firearm. So basically, you could swap that control unit in and out of a regular and XL frame/slide/barrel as you see fit.
Never fired an XL but my friends 365 is a nice shooter. I do a bit better with my hellcat but that’s just due to time on it probably. Would imagine the XL to handle nicer than the two smaller options, but I’d only be able to pull off carrying that one when I’m dressed like a bum or in the colder weather when I’m layered.
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I haven’t actually seen an xl in person. Definitely need to do that before I make a decision. On paper, the size difference doesn’t seem like much, but that doesn’t mean a whole lot until you actually see how it feels on your waist
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Training on one weapon system is always the correct decision, especially for serious situations. A violent encounter is not the place to “try out” a new gun. A home defense encounter should be with the gun you have constantly trained with, due to the myriad of factors involved. Accuracy with the correct ammo is paramount.
Check out the Glock 19X. A good comprise on concealability , size, and mag capacity.
Thank you for your service to our country.
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Good news, brother. Would you come back and give a synopsis of the course? I am curious about what they are focusing on. Thanks.
Thought for the day:
Something that came up yesterday:
Make the effort to train in your gear at least once a week. 100+ degree heat and high humidity will turn that tactical vest into a man killer.
Nearly 65% of recently surveyed Law Enforcement Officers wear 20 pounds of additional gear or more to work routinely. In Afghanistan, the typical US soldier had to carry an average external load of 99 pounds, with some carrying more than 140 pounds of additional load.”
Do NOT underestimate what carrying a heavy external load can do to your body, mind, and how it can hinder your performance.
Preparing and training your body for what it must do daily or what it may encounter on the job should be a #1 priority.
Thought(s) for the day:
A breakfast buffet this morning:
Law enforcement spokespeople say the suspect, who has now been identified as XXX, stabbed the officer in the head from behind, disarmed him and then proceeded to shoot at the officer with his own gun. He died later from his injuries. His identity has not yet been released.
violence doesn’t care what martial art you study.
violence doesn’t care how you voted
violence doesn’t care if you’re a pacifist
violence doesn’t care if you’re trained.
violence doesn’t care if you’re evil or a saint.
Hell yell, you go woman!
U.S. wrestler Tamyra Mensah-Stock was asked a simple question by a reporter after she won gold at the Tokyo Olympics in the 68kg final over Blessing Oborududu of Nigeria. “How does it feel to represent your country like this,” Mensah-Stock was asked.
“I love representing the U.S. I freaking love living there,” the Olympic gold medalist said before pumping her fist, smiling, and pulling the stars and stripes tighter to her body.
Mensah-Stock, who began wrestling in the 10th grade in Katy, Texas after being prodded by her sister said that she didn’t have role models to look up to early in her career, but she always had her sister to fall back on.
“When I first started wrestling, I wanted to be an emblem, a light to younger women and show them that you can be silly, you can have fun and you can be strong,” Mensah-Stock told USA Today. “You can be tough, you can be a wrestler and you don’t have to be like this,” – growl – “I’m gonna be mean to you.”
Mensah-Stock, an unknown to Mainstreet USA before today’s interview after winning gold, is easily the most likable athlete to come out of the Games. Her smile, love of country, and positive nature have captured the attention of citizens who’ve been beaten over the head by social justice warriors who’ve sucked the fun out of the Games.
Asked what she plans to do with the money that comes with winning a gold medal, Mensah-Stock knew exactly what she would do with the cash.
“I wanted to give my mom $30,000 so she can get a food truck, ‘cause it’s her dream,” she said. "And I told her five years ago, ‘Alright mommy, I’ll get you your food truck.
“So my mom’s gettin’ her food truck! She’s gonna have her little cooking business. She can cook really, really, really well. Barbecue!”
Most people don’t realize how Karate played such an important role in making martial arts mainstream.
Thought for the day:
Watch the video at the end of this post. How would you respond?
Put yourself in positions where you have multiple options and once a violent physical Attack has happened you have to initially answer back with an equal to or greater amount of violent physical action. This is especially true when the risks are high, where he can be punched in elbowed in the face or in self-defense situations when there may or may not be multiple opponents, but the attack is aggressive and violent. Being methodical and technical is great until you’re getting overwhelmed in the shit kicked out of you, then you better be able to fight back with a greater amount of well placed violence of action.
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Notice after the predator’s attack and the victim is unable to fight back, the hyenas rush in to pick over the bones. Disgusting.
*The incident began just after 11:10 p.m. on July 24 at a gas station in the northeast quadrant of the city. *
The footage appears to show three people surrounding a male near a car parked at the station. One of them is on a bicycle.
*As the victim begins to walk away, one of the suspects grabs him from behind while another appears to reach into his pants pockets. *
*The victim is then shoved to the ground and kicked several times. At that point, another suspect comes and appears to help the other two standing over him as they appear to go through the victim’s pockets. *
*As the attack is happening, a person gets into the driver’s seat of the car where the confrontation initially took place and pulls away. *
*The suspect on the bicycle watches as yet a fifth person comes and appears to rob him as well. *
They all leave as the victim is on the ground.
The sub-compact Glock (43 series) and Sig (365 series) products are both outstanding. Try to shoot the offerings from both manufacturers and experience which feels better to you. At the very least, get your hands on them and see how they naturally point in your hand. They are different in grip angle and sights.
If you are open to something a bit larger, consider the Glock 19 sized pistols. Being a bit bigger gives your hand more to hang on to. It may make for a more pleasant shooting experience.
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I’ve carried a Glock 19, SW Shield and now a Sig P365.
I thought the Glock 19 was going to be my do-everything carry gun, but I didn’t care for the size and the need to dress around the gun to avoid obvious printing.
The Shield solved that problem for me, carried fantastic and shot well. Carrying in my typical summer clothes is very discreet.
The Sig is, for me at least, an upgrade in every way from the still outstanding Shield. 3 extra rounds, standard night sights, a really nice, smooth trigger and great stippling out of the box.
All in a very similar form factor and carry rig.
I’ve got thousands of rounds through the Glock and Shield and I’m working on getting up there with the Sig, but ammo shortage has limited that.
Only one malfunction, a stove pipe in my Glock 19 while shooting some really cheap ammo. No issues with the Sig or Shield. Carry ammo is Speer Gold Dot 124gr +p.
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@idaho you make a good point about the one gun for all situations. It’s smart, I’ve seen in my own role when we try to teach guys on new sigs instead of the m9, and guys just drop the ball once any dynamic action is added to the shooting. Definitely need to factor that in when I’m thinking about my carry piece.
@mixicus i definitely should get my hands on a slim line glock and see how that feels. Truth be told, I kind of hate Glocks. It’s often the first gun I recommend to someone, I own one myself, I can shoot it accurately and i know damn well every time I pull the trigger it will go bang, but every time I hold it I just…. Meh. Feels awkward in my hand, and even when I’m shooting well, I always think “this is just a little off”. No idea why, but the feeling hasn’t shaken after shooting my 17 for…6 years? 7? I forget really.
@twojarslave your experience right there is what’s pushing me to the P365. I worked at a shooting range in high school (technically a shooting club, since that meant legally they could run a bar…. Awesome job for a high schooler, terrible job for firearms safety), where I got to help along with the concealed carry classes. There was a distinct trend between the size of the gun the guy ran in class, and the likelihood he had it on him a few months later. No one ever was awestruck by the ruger lc9 or those little kel Tec pocket pistols, but the dudes running those had something on their carry while other guys just carried an excuse. I’d love to say that I was going to carry a steel frame 1911 everyday…but just being honest with myself, I think comfort and concealability are going to rank far higher than firepower for me. Still, with 10 rds, the sig isn’t exactly short on firepower. Hmm.
Thanks for the discussion gents. Definitely going to get my hands on a few of these, maybe see if I can see how they fit in an IWB, and go from there.
Another aspect of the smaller nines I really like is lazy carrying. Not that I recommend this as a go-to carry option, but both the Shield and the P365 can be carried in a Remora brand holster or similar. This is not ideal for an active full day’s carry, but fine for a quick trip to the store, gas station or something like that.
My normal carry rig is a bull’s hide belt from the Beltman, which I highly recommend and an IWB kydex holster plus a mag pouch made by a friend that I carry at 4 o’clock. I finally found my setup after different several holsters and one crappy belt over the years.
But hey, if I’m in sweatpants and I need to go pick my kid up somewhere or make a quick run outside the house, I’ve got a quick and viable option. Now that I mainly carry my Sig in the rig, I’ve got the Shield living in the Remora holster inside my truck. Just stuff it and go, you’ll be fine unless you get into a wrestling match or start doing cartwheels. No need to change clothes, belt up and carry in a full rig. The Remora material just sticks, even after I’ve had it for close to 10 years now.
It also makes a decent pocket holster, especially for a winter coat. Grab and go, again no need to belt up. The Glock is a little too big for that type of carry, at least for my winter coat choices.
This is all keeping with the notion that it’s better to have something rather than nothing, and I do that by making carrying an easy option no matter the situation.
I still have my Glock 19 and will never sell it, but the P365 has probably become my “If I had to have one handgun” gun. I also have an extended 12 round mag and that carries fine too, but I prefer the more compact 10 round package for summertime carry. If I have one complaint about the Sig, it is the price of their magazines. The gun wasn’t cheap either, but I felt like it was well worth the $550 price tag.
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Thought for the day:
We are ruled by the weak to pacify the terrified.
When smart people are silenced to not offend the stupid.
Read the article and if you feel if makes some salient points share with your family, especially if you have a family member leaving soon for their first semester in college.
In my experience, women suffer from one of two things: they don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings and want to be nice. So if they feel uncomfortable or their intuition is sending them a danger signal, they don’t want to acknowledge it and definitely don’t want to make another person, usually a man, notice he made them scared. If they are waiting for an elevator at night, with a stranger, they won’t let him go first and wait for the next one. But this is also where men need to be aware, which is why I, in that situation, would tell the woman to go and I’ll wait for the next one. Because I have taught self defense to women, I want to validate the idea that it’s ok to “offend” a man. Men should also, in an elevator situation, not stand behind a woman.
The other thing women might suffer from is not wanting to look weak or vulnerable. It’s almost a sense of entitlement. Think of the whole take back the night events. Why tell women not to be afraid and that the night belongs to them? I’m sure the rapists will respect and admire your courage.
A lot of the advice for women, like don’t go out alone but in groups, don’t split up, don’t take drinks from strangers, let people know where you are going and when you’ll be back, call if something changes, etc., is seen by many women as fear based (in a way it is) and an acknowledgement of vulnerability that is for the most part based on sex, so it’s sexist, and almost like you are treating women like girls who need to check in with their parents.
And that’s a big problem for those who teach self defense to women, at least those teachers who are in touch with reality. Women, and men, want to believe they are being taught the skills to physically overcome any attacker. Women in movies, who weigh 110 pounds, beat up 200 pound plus men. When they are being told how to avoid violent situations and to think almost like a prey animal, it’s a turn off. They want to be taught how to be tougher but it’s more important to learn how to be smarter.
What I’ve been doing with my daughter to create a habit that might save her one day, is to make consistent communication between us normal. When she was going to school, I would text her from work to just ask if she was ok. I knew when she had study hall so she could text me back. Then when the pandemic hit and she was learning online, I would do the same thing. She doesn’t complain anymore about it because I explained why I’m doing it. Now it’s just the normal thing we do. She will also text me sometimes. I told her this will continue when she’s in college, and beyond, and she’s ok with it.
A great post and something everyone here with a daughter needs to read. I don’t have that much teaching experience with women out side of the LEO field, but, your post nailed what I picked up from women.
Thought for the day:
Have the right tools for the job.
As you can see in the image above, this is a bad car accident. One that likely resulted in serious injuries to the passengers in both vehicles. It might be several minutes before emergency services will arrive to help you. What do you do till they arrive?
Sit there with your seat belt and enjoy the smell of all that leaking gasoline?
What you should do is react to the situation you are in. Shake off the brain fog you have from that airbag going off in your face, do a quick assessment of your injuries, and GET OUT of the vehicle as fast as you can. Grab your extraction knife and flashlight kit and go to work.
Oh wait, you don’t have one, do you?
The kind of knife you need in a car accident is not the kind you need to skin a bear in the woods. It needs to be able to do a couple of things besides just be sharp.
It needs a punch to break the side windows in your car doors for ventilation and escape.
Then, it needs a special seatbelt cutter that can get through that nylon webbing of your jammed seatbelt. (Yes, the releases jam pretty often in an accident.)
It also needs a saw-type blade to cut away plastic and other crushed material that might have one of your feet trapped.
You also need a flashlight to see in order to do these things in the dark or, God forbid, at the bottom of a canal.
It really doesn’t have to cost a fortune, either.
The XXXXXX Store offers a reasonably priced but high-quality extraction knife and flashlight from XXXX products that we think fits the bill perfectly in an emergency like this.
*Thought for the day:
I am a day late on this due to power outages from a major storm system.
From Rick Hogg:
HISTORY OF PURPLE HEART DAY
The original Purple Heart, designated as a Badge of Merit, was awarded by George Washington in 1782. There was a lack of funds in the Continental Army at the time so the award was a way to honor enlisted and deserving people. The honor is presented to soldiers for “any singularly meritorious action.” It was designed with a piece of silk bound through it with a thin edge of silver. Washington only gave out three of the badges himself, and instead authorized subordinates to issue the badges as they saw fit.
The Badge of Merit faded from use but was revived and relaunched in 1932, this time as the Purple Heart. As well as honoring those wounded in combat, this iteration of the Purple Heart recognized commendable action. It was in 1944 that the policy was tweaked slightly and the Purple Heart was given the purpose we know it for today, specifically to honor those who have been wounded or died.
The first service member to be given the modern Purple Heart was General Douglas MacArthur for his service in the Pacific theater during World War II. In total there have been 1.8 million Purple Hearts awarded over the years.
Purple Heart Day was first observed in 2014 and has been observed every year since. It’s a chance to reflect on the bravery of those who have fought for the U.S. and to ensure that their courage is never forgotten.
Men should learn this too. Avoiding fights is the best manner of self defence whenever possible.