The Tactical Life

Off Topic
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Thought for the day (2): Mobility equals survivability

I am going to attempt to post a Instagram link to Mike Pannone on a drill called “walking back” and his comments. The USG server system I have to use blocks out most pages, so, I don’t know if you will be able to listen or not.

  • as suspected, I am unable to post the link.

This “walking back” drill in similar to the one I teach for engaging a shooter on traffic stops, crowded areas and confined spaces, where you have to vacate the area due to poor cover, overwhelming odds, creating distance from your opponent, pulling a wounded partner to safety, etc.

Learning to fire with accuracy backing up is rarely taught, but, used in almost every gunfight.

From Mike:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BeohA0CFDRy/?hl=en&taken-by=cttsolutions

Walking Away”

Just a simple drill to work on rapid engagement off a turn and while backing away aggressively. It’s a drill that we used to do before deploying for high threat protection details overseas. The goal is to get three good hits in 2.0 seconds or less, while backing away rapidly.

The concept behind it is that something has been problematic during the visit and as you leave a ruckus starts that draws your attention. You must turn away from your principal toward your threat while still shielding him with your body and engage the threat surgically… More than likely within a crowd of important people. For that reason no misses are accepted . Adapt your training so that it mirrors or mimics something that you either very likely will see or worst-case scenario could see.

Don’t stand still and train if you don’t have the option to integrate movement. If you need to move and engage rapidly for real and you haven’t trained that way, your performance will be extremely poor outside of pure good luck… and as I always say, “good luck is for novices, bad luck is for everyone,count on skill,at least you control that.”

726

I know this is a few months down the road but after a long bit of consideration… First off, thank you gabby for adding to the conversation, I appreciate it. While batman did answer the question your input also gave me a lot to consider. First aid kit and training, great point and I’m going to work on this one right away. Ill get the kit and start working on the training. Presently there are others around that have these skills but I know I need to learn them too.
I think your idea of a fire extinguisher is really good, along with a bunch of other non-lethal options. I’m going to look into this as using a firearm against a knife wielding assailant would land a person in jail up here.
For some perspective here’s an interesting link to how things kinda work here in Canada regarding self defense and reasonable use of force.
https://www.google.ca/amp/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.1229180

From what I can tell in the reading I’ve done is that storing a non-restricted firearm has a huge gray area. The HOW is clearly stated but the WHERE… Well that depends on who you ask, when you ask, how the person you ask is feeling that day, who your lawyer is, who the judge is, and so on.
But as batman pointed out, using a shotgun in a crowded church building would in all but one or two very specific situations would be irresponsible to say the least.
So my plan now is to get the ball rolling on passive security, things like more security cameras and some method of remote electric door locks, something I can operate from my booth.
Anyway thanks again for everyone’s help and for the good work you guys do in here and especially out there.

727

Thought for the day:

In your firearms training always have realistic accuracy standards. Remember that accuracy will generally suffer in the real world for reasons beyond your control as well as the unpredictable nature of most encounters. If you train for minimum accuracy standards on the range expect even less when bullets start going both ways.”
-Larry Vickers

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Flashback Friday:

Flashback Friday:

In his book The Epigraphy of Death: Studies in the History and Society of Greece and Rome the writer G.J. Oliver tells us that, “Spartan burial customs denied the erection of private grave memorials to all men except those who had died in war and those women who had perished in childbirth”._

In the book **Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta by Stephen Hodkinson we are told that near the Aegean and eastern mainland of Greece that funeral rites were fuller and more evidenced, however in the regions of Sparta there were no marked funerary monuments with inscribed epitaphs. Decorated amphoras were perhaps an egalitarian touch and not suitable for the draconian temperament of Spartan men.

Some times markers were used to mark Spartan graves and some bodies were brought back to Sparta but in most cases no headstone let passersby know who they were or where they lie.

The Spartans wrapped their dead in a red robe covered in olive leaves and performed intramural burials instead of laying their warriors outside the city boundaries. More often these warriors were buried upon the battlefields where they fell because it was impractical to transport so many back to their city states.

The Spartans were to have no memorials yet consider this profound fact: At the place where Leonidas made his doomed stand against the Persians at Thermopylae (480 BC) the Spartans erected a monument.

"Go tell the Spartans, passerby,"
“That here, obedient to their laws, we lie”

The ancient Spartans believed in religion and the gods like the majority of the ancient Greek states. Know this, in ancient Greece the, “continued existence of the dead depended on their constant remembrance by the living. By the time of Plato, however (4th century BCE) the after-life had changed in character so that souls were better rewarded for their pains once they had left the earth; but only in so much as the living kept their memory alive.”

729

A number of years ago I, here in Canada, ran into a situation that rankled me a bit.

I had moved into a new apartment, in an area that was a bit dodgy, and a few days into it something happened. A few people from down the hall decided to come down and try my door. As makes common sense, I had it locked, so then they knocked. So get it, they tried the door first, and only knocked when they found it locked.

I felt threatened, and picked up an ice pick. I thought to throw the door open and harpoon some fucker. It then occurred to me that I could hear people talking, so there was more than one, and if I nail one another could grab the handle before retracting, and it would be anybody’s game.

So I chickened out and called the police. Oh, just before that I noticed a moment of calm, and opened the door and one who I could see said, “hello”, but I could tell it was in a mocking sense. Then I called.

2 uniforms showed up and said I had no right to ream anyone’s head. At the time I wasn’t sure which apartment was the culprit, so they said to tell them if I figured it out and eventually left.

I did eventually figure out the apartment, but never ended up calling, although I did tell building management.

Damn, it would have been good to ream those m----------s.

730

Thanks Idaho. Your insight is appreciated, as always. I will definitely work in some of those suggestions. I make it to the range 3-4 times and probably rip off about 2-300 rounds a week, mixed service pistol/carbine. I make it a point to train in my working gear if not always in uniform. I completely agree that training with sexy racing gear that you’ll never have when it counts is a bit stupid. The club I belong to has a 25 metre indoor range that’s available 24 hours. This is very convenient.

It’s interesting, I often find there’s a conflict between training for a firearms qual and training to stay alive. Our extended range carbine qual is shot at 100 m, standing/kneeling on barricade and prone. It’s not difficult per se, but I don’t always do as well as I’d like. I tend to perform pretty well at the closer range movement/transition/manipulation portion (i.e. the shit that is more likely to keep you alive in a gunfight) but the extended range stage is a bit of a pain in my ass. A little movement on the line has the optic bouncing around like crazy at 100. I find I spend probably an inordinate amount of range time practicing this on small targets at 25 m with an AR chambered in .22lr.

At 25 m I’m generally shooting 2-3" groups fairly consistently ( a little low but that could be the zero on my optic). I occasionally throw a shot, occasionally keyhole a whole string and occasionally I shoot for shit. But 2-3" low centre/slight left is the standard (I shoot carbine left-handed). I suppose this isn’t terrible, but it’s not what I’d like to see and at times I can be a bit self-critical. Naturally that only serves to increase muscle tension and makes for sub-optimal shooting (of course, someone shooting back tends to increase muscle tension as well). The past two sessions were so-so. My breathing was a bit janky and I could feel my shoulders/upper back getting tight.

I’m well aware that training to stay alive trumps training to look like a stud at a qual every day and twice on Sunday. Still, there’s a temptation to work what you know you will be tested on, especially those areas where you are less strong. Many of the guys who run the quals are tactical officers and naturally a certain amount of ‘talent scouting’ happens on the line.

I’m mostly thinking out loud and venting a little frustration with my progress here here, but any thoughts/suggestions are appreciated.

731

I think it is safe to say that if you shank somebody for trying your doorknob you are likely to have legal difficulties.

1 Like
732

Then you are way ahead of the game for almost all LEO’s. I have actually trained officers and soldiers who only had to qualify once a year and then would bitch about that. Good job there, because if you don’t train on your own, most departments could care less and then when you die because of your own laziness, they will give you a good funeral.

True, Training for a qualification round is NOT training to stay alive. I know we have to have standards, but, because of civil liability departments are paranoid about not having each officer qualified on “department approved course” . When the lawsuit comes down over a shooting, the department will furnish the “qual records” and say, see, Mr. attorney, he was qualified, not our fault he missed and killed a kid".

Good, that’s the range that counts. Its good to put the bullet where it needs to go at 100 meters, but, in an urban environment, that is a long shot, even in the suburbs or rural areas, I have never taken took a 100 meter shot in a domestic police situation. That’s a SWAT sniper shot. Even 25 meters is along shot in police work. I realize that you probably patrol areas where that may be common place, but, unless you are rural area in the states, that will be along shot. Once on a SWAT call out from another jurisdiction, our sniper took shot across a sub-division roadway, later it was measured at 110 yards, that was the longest shot we ever took when I was there.

If you take a yardstick (36 inches) and measure it across a man’s chest and then place the stick under his chin and measure to his belt buckle, its roughly 18 to 22 inches of space. You job is to stop the fight, get a couple of bullets into that space and unless they are wearing heavy armor, you have done your job. Its better to be calm enough to place those bullets than shooting sub- minute groups. you are fine.

If we care, we are self critical. That’s just a natural by product. Personally, I am never good enough in anything and at times that can really be damaging. McNamara once said, "we are perform to our abilities, reach your own, don’t worry about someone else. He was right, but, it doesn’t make it any easier. I fight this myself all the time. I look at it this way, it’s better than those slobs who don’t give a shit .

You are so right, I have never fired a qual where I didn’t want to beat everyone. Even shooting like a machine on the range will not really test someone for the real thing, but, we have to go back to those “department standards” again. It’s a game we all have to play to make the “selection” for whatever goal we are trying to achieve.

Don’t worry about this. From my experience, when the real thing comes along, you will fall back on your level of training and I have never felt “muscle tension” during the actual event. Scared going in, yes, once things kicked off, no. On the domestic side, unless its a SWAT situation, it will usually happen so fast, you will not have time to tense up.

Getting back to “standards” I am the senior firearms instructor for my agency over here and I have to run agents through this course for qualification standards. I think the course sucks, but, I have to get it out of the way before I can go on to more realistic shooting. Take at look at this crap:

image
image1603×1042 468 KB

733

Sorry about the copy,best I can do here.

734

Saturday Morning Coffee Break:

nude

nordic

735

Coffee Break:

1

crossfit%20girl

736

Coffee Break:

Future%20girl

classic

737

Motivational Monday: What is your mental game?

Mountain_Bluebird

I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself.
D.H Lawrence.

"_Humans have the greatest ability to pity themselves. No animal can do this. Animals live in each moment without any philosophic forethought or reflection on the past. A man can starve and feel sorry that he hungers. A bird can starve and yet continues to exist without pitying its circumstance."

I saw this play out yesterday in very stark terms.

So tell me, are you soaked in the juices of self-pity this morning?

I hear from others, read from others, and even talk about it myself, but, what really is your “mindset” really what is it? What are you training for? Or are you even training at all? I am going to post some things about mindset this week, but, seriously, what’s yours? Do you even have one you can articulate or you just locked into some daily habits? Food for thought.

2 Likes
738

Thought for the day: Knife Attack

I want you to watch this video several times, not to critique the officers’ actions, because, he lived and the attacker died. That is a win in my book. I want you to watch, so, you can see how fast a knife attack can be and how fast you would have to react.

Now, the officer already had his weapon in the ready position and he still had to create distance and think fast on what was happening. Any hesitation on making a decision and he would have died. That guy was not playing around, was he trained? No, I could tell by the movements. Was he absolutely determined to kill the officer? Yes.

When dealing with a knife attack, they don’t have to be trained to kill you, attack fast and violently with single mined focus and you will likely kill your target. That’s is why I carry a scar on my left arm, slashed by a stupid 100 pound meth bitch. Never underestimated the power of a knife attack. Period.

For those of you (LEO’s, civilian, or even military) who carry a concealed handgun for protection, think about your carry method and setup. The officer had his handgun out in the ready position, you will have your concealed weapon in whatever holster and method of carry. Go back and watch the video again, could you have created distance and drawn from concealment fast enough, fired an accurate shot and stop the attack? If you cannot, you have hard work to do.

For those of you who have been denied the right of self-protection and have to rely on martial skills and impact weapons, what would you do? Even if you carry a blade for protection, could you deploy that blade fast enough with enough skill? It there was ever a time to create distance and run away to fight another day, this was it.

Watch if again. Notice the advantage in creating distance, if this had been in a room or crowded area, would the officer been able to get out of the line of attack? No. That’s is why creating distance is so important. Also, for those who think handguns are death rays, even after multiple shots, the attacker was still coming forward. As I have said before, killing determined and focused attackers is not easy.

Final thought: A very nice touch was the officer and deputy performing medical aid, even thou, a defense attorney will say they were pressing on the bullet holes to push out more blood.

1 Like
739

Thought for the day (1.): Rest easy , my brother.

cop%20dead

“Flick, a 34-year-old who was called an “outstanding member” of the department, is the third sheriff’s deputy shot and killed in the line of duty in the state of Colorado since Dec. 31”.

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Thought for the day (2.): More on the mental game.

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A view on “mindset” from Mike Pannone:

SARAH MCKINLEY INCIDENT AND MINDSET

On New Year’s Eve 2011, alone except for her infant son and scared for her life and the life of her child, 18 year old Sarah McKinley still had the composure to give her infant a bottle to keep him quiet and ask a dispatcher if it was okay to shoot an intruder if he entered her home before she did in fact shoot and kill him. She never had a mindset brief; she got it done just the same.
I’m often asked why I don’t put greater emphasis on mindset in the form of “mindset briefings” or what I like to call “popcorn pep-talks”. I call them that because in the end, they’re really mostly hot-air. The concept of having a proper mindset is crucial in not only a combative environment but literally anywhere that an individual wants to compete, excel and succeed. The desire to persevere, endure, survive and win is a requirement for success in all but the rarest of events that just by sheer chance end positively. That said, here is something to keep in mind with all these flamboyant diatribes about how “you need to be the guy that’s going to get it done” and save the day.

I’ve been a couple of places and done a couple of things and have served amongst the best our nation, two different services, and three different special units could produce. I have seen what a good mindset can do in a bad situation and how it sometimes is all that saves lives even when the odds are not in your favor. In those dark times of consequence it has never been a briefing that got a guy through. It has never been someone yelling over their shoulder that has gotten them through. It is simple and pretty easy to explain how they got the mindset needed to persevere and win. It was the culmination of decisions and actions long before the event.

Understand that nobody can convince you to do something that you can’t convince yourself to do first. Mindset is not a brief you get; it’s not a condition of thought that just “happens” to you over time. Mindset comes from the life you lead. Be candidly honest with yourself. Be under no illusions as to who you are and what you are willing to do.

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Thought for the day(3.): Ranting when it will do no good:

“We’ve always allowed uniformed law enforcement officers to carry their side arms inside our restaurants. A manager made a mistake and we have discussed this with her. We have contacted the guest personally and apologized.”

Ward said the chain told him “there was another customer that was ‘scared for her life’ who was seated across” from the couple, and said “she was afraid because ‘police are shooting people.’”

According to Ward’s post, “This customer went on to demand to be escorted to her vehicle out of fear of being shot.”

I have a lot of time in the Middle East and SWA. When I go back to the states, it is becoming increasing clear that I have virtually nothing in common with most of the Americans I am exposed to. Even going to the gym where I maintain a membership, I really cannot relate to anyone there.

Thou I assume they are “good” people until proven otherwise, they come off as being alien. Wired to the max with their electronic devices, oblivious to any scale of situational awareness, like the gym is the safest place on the planet, where nothing could ever happen. I guess the victims in the Texas church shootings would tell them a different story.

I wonder when I walk around a commercial business, where do all these fat people come from? How could you defend yourself? Even if you are armed and know how to use it, you could not even run to cover. I don’t understand how Americans think anymore.

Which brings me to the statement above.

Outback Steakhouse has now declared itself a “gun free zone”. One of the most stupid things I have ever heard of. So, the manager tells a Tennessee wildlife officer, in uniform to leave, because he is carrying a gun. Anyone who has ever wore the uniform for as little as two weeks, will tell you that laws mean nothing to criminals. By creating a “gun free zone” you are simply telling a vicious predator to come here and do what you want. Unbelievable.

Now, in fairness, according to the article, Outback management apologized because he was in uniform, however, big fucking deal. It’s the original thought that counts.

It’s the woman customer I cannot understand. I am not a genius, but, I am not stupid either. In my line of work, Darwin weeds out stupid. But, really, you are terrified of a Tennessee wildlife officer in uniform because “police are shooting people” and you have to be escorted to your car by Outback staff?

What the fuck are you? Are you real? Are you so stupid that you don’t know that LEO’S are getting killed about every three days? What happens if an active shooter walks into Outback’s and opens fire? You going to do something about it? Because you know, you don’t want the police there because they kill people like you. Please, Please, whoever you are, don’t breed. You are waste.

I don’t understand my country anymore, I don’t know why I should care, I don’t think you are worth dying for. Our citizens are sheep and our government is in shambles, and, you want me to die for you?

3 Likes
742

Perhaps this has always been the case but you see it more now…? You must have your reasons to put your life on the line in your profession. It may not be the civilians back home but the brothers who fight at your side?

743

Thanks Brother. I realize you’re right, of course. One of the difficulties with training alone is that you’re working in a vacuum. It’s tough to know if you’re on the right track or just turning money into and shredded paper.

You’re right, our engagement distances are longer than average. I was talking to a guy who was in an OIS, carbine vs bolt action at 60m. Of course, we get into scrapes up close as well. It’s a real mixed bag up here.

Concerning tension when the real thing goes down, I hear you. The more dynamic a scene is the less anxiety I feel. I guess you’re just consumed with what’s in front of you and any possible anxiety or overthinking just evaporates. You’re not worried about impressing anyone or embarrassing yourself. You just get it done.

Our course of fire is similar. Like you, our training guys get us through the mandatories and try to use the remainder of the time teaching useful things haha.

Thanks again and watch your 6.

744

The Outback Steakhouse situation is interesting. First of all, what happened to firing people? I’ve been really wondering about this since the false alarm in Hawaii. You can’t repremand stupid away. Now, it may not just be the fault of the employee who sent the message, but heads need to roll (figuratively speaking) to maintain public trust.

In this case, the manager should be fired. I would prefer to eat at the kind of place that would tell that pathetic escuse of a human being (the whiny customer) to get the fuck out. I will not eat at Outback or any place that caters to that kind of gross stupidity.

As far as the whining customer I think there have always been people that stupid around, society just didn’t put up with their stupidity, and after getting told to fuck off a few times they learned to keep it to themselves.