Secrets of Escaping Duct Tape

 

I came across this via Greg Ellefrtiz’s site Active Response Training.

 

 

Stay Alert, Armed and Dangerous!

Shooting Mechanics: Trigger Slack

Trigger Slack

 

It is said that if you want to be a good shooter with any weapon, there are three words you need to learn: TRIGGER, TRIGGER, TRIGGER!!

I have not been seeing a lot of articles concerning the actual mechanics of shooting well.

The mechanics of shooting well are foundational and never change folks. Learn them, be aware of them and seek to master them all your life.

Being a Student of something and seeking to master it is always the mark of a true warrior.

Stay Alert, Armed and Dangerous!

Putting the FIGHT before the TOOL

From the Archives, 2014

Certain words in the English vocabulary produce very strong mental pictures when they are used. Take for instance the word “Gunfight”. When we hear it, despite the story that may go along with it, we often imagine two or more people blazing away at each other, bullets whizzing through the air. It could be the opening scene to Gunsmoke, with Matt Dillon quick drawing on the outlaw or maybe Stallone as Rambo, man-handling an M-60 while it breathes fire and spits brass. The point being, the prominent thing we see in our minds when we hear that word are the GUNS. 

The reason for this could aptly be termed “Verbal Conditioning”. Notice the placement of the two words: “Gun” first and “Fight” second. Using the precedent principle, we could deduce that the GUN (the tool being used in the fight) is the primary focus, while the FIGHT is secondary, having less importance in the overall scheme of things and being much more ambiguous as to it’s meaning.

Let’s face it, we live in a very GUN AWARE culture. Due to Hollywood movies,”Shooter” Video Games and the over abundance of mass shootings by mentally deranged assholes, Guns have become part of the national consciousness. Looking back in context,  today a 10 year old, (in part due to the Call of Duty Video game Series) is much more likely to be able to recognize an AK-47 or a Glock pistol than they would have 30 years ago, when Atari “Pac-Man” or “Pitfall” was the height of entertainment for that age group. What is tragic to me about all of this is not that guns are popular with kids, or that the youth of America are more aware of them, but that guns are fundamentally misunderstood for what they are.

You see, Americans love to put the GUN on a pedestal. They love to show them off in red velvet display cases and hang them over their fireplace mantle as a badge of honor. They love to go to the firing range not really to practice, but to “show off” their beloved rifle or pistol, secretly hoping that the shooter on the line next to them will say a flattering remark or ask them a question about it, so they can recite their pre-rehearsed speech about their new “baby”. And I am sure all of you have the seen “that guy” during a Shooting class who wants to clean his gun after every drill or refuses to get down on the ground, fearing his “baby” might get dirty. You think I am making all this up? I bet I am hitting home with a lot of you guys right now, or at the very least describing a good friend of yours!

As responsible CO’s we have to be careful not to become more TOOL focused than FIGHT focused. The entire mentality of WINNING THE FIGHT, lies not in the tool itself. As Jeff Cooper famously said,  “Any GUN will do, if you will do”; or to say it another way, “Any TOOL will do, if you will do!” It lies in having the mindset of “I am going to survive this day, no matter what it takes.” 

That is the beauty of Combative Principles in my opinion. They are brutally simple and cut to chase in terms of winning the fight; no katas or complicated techniques to remember, just pure, un-adulterated violence of action until your enemy is no longer a threat to you. These principles apply across the board to any weapon you can pick up, starting with empty hands, stick, knife and ending with a firearm. Combative Principles lie at the heart of the saying “One Mind, any Weapon.”

Being prepared AT ALL TIMES to go from zero to 100mph in terms of defending oneself lies at the heart of what the CO drills and rehearses for everyday. We have to be prepared to FIGHT. No matter where we may find ourselves and no matter what we may or may not have in our hands.

In closing, CO’s need to stop the gun (and knife) worship and devote more time to FIGHTING in all your training!! If we use the above video as a thermostat to measure the REALITY of the street, then we have to come to the conclusion that our attacker is gonna be close, despite our best efforts to have the textbook “Reactionary Gap”. We need to develop a tool box of empty hand strikes (or knife strikes) in order to gain distance and room to draw our firearm. We need to be aware of “gun grabs” and actively practice weapon retention. We need to be able to (as Southnarc puts it) to fight “from the clinch” or to put it plainly, to fight from that “OH SHIT!!!” moment when things have already went south.

Stay Alert, Armed and Dangerous!

Examining GW Tactics: Fire and Maneuver in Urban AO’s

From the Archives, 2016

In a recent Article, Law Enforcement told how they found a very large collection of ‘tactical writings’ in the home of Dallas Police Shooter and Army Panty Bandit Micah Johnson.

According to Police, the tactic of “Fire and Maneuver” or “Shoot and Move” was the tactic seen most often in Johnson’s “voluminous” notes.

Since Johnson’s MOS and military career was devoid of any real Combat training or experience while in Afghanistan, Where Johnson actually learned these tactics is up for debate. John Mosby in his superb Mountain Guerilla blog  makes the case that Johnson was taught these tactics possibly by somebody who had participated in Mil-Sim (Airsoft).

My personal opinion is that Johnson at some time or another, post-Army career, received training by Black Power militants within the BLM community, who are most likely, according to Robert Spencer from Jihad Watch connected with HAMAS through the help of CAIR, which is widely known to financially support Terrorism.

The student of history and Guerilla Warfare does not have to look very far back to see the deadly nexus between 1960’s  Black Power militant movements, like the Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam led by Louis Farrakhan, so the BLM/HAMAS-CAIR connection is by no means a conspiratorial stretch.

Below is a video of an Armed Black Panther Rally/March in Austin, Texas in 2015. Note the chants about how the streets are “Our Streets” and “Oink Oink, Bang Bang” (overtly alluding to how they will Kill Law Enforcement).

When one starts piecing together the Dallas attack, the “Shoot and Move” tactic used by Johnson was one of the main reasons police thought there were facing MULTIPLE shooters, instead of just one shooter, as the fire was coming from many different positions. Gunfire echo in an urban setting combined with the chaos and high stress most likely attributed to this confusion.

This is a very important lesson to learn, both in the study of Guerilla and Counter-Insurgency Warfare (COIN). The guerilla must use any and all “force multipliers” to his advantage to try to overwhelm the enemy (both mentally and physically.) One of the greatest force multipliers is the APPEARANCE that the Guerilla (or the Guerilla Force) outnumber the Conventional Force.

This tactic most often manifest itself as a psych-warfare tool first. Keeping the enemy confused and fearful creates hesitation in how they will respond both tactically and strategically, which gives the guerilla more time to plan and attack. We can understand this point better as we listen to the Police radio traffic from that day of the attack in Dallas.

Now that we have briefly touched on some of the offensive aspects of fire and manuever warfare, let’s talk about the DEFENSIVE aspects.

The armed citizen must understand that regardless if it is you and a perp facing off at 10 feet in a gas station parking lot or you pinned down in an urban shootout like the one in Dallas, MOVEMENT = LIFE!

I will be touching on some of the more detailed aspects of urban sniping and fighting in some later installments, but right now the key thing for you to remember is to ALWAYS MOVE TO SOLID COVER AND KEEP MOVING UNTIL YOU ARE OUT OF THE KILL BOX.

In Combat Shooting you will often hear the maxim: “GET OFF THE X” (With the “X” Being the Kill box.) For those of you that understand how the OODA loop works (Observe, Orient, Decide and Act) when you MOVE In a fight, regardless if it is empty hand, stick, knife or gun, you force your enemy to RESET their OODA Loop. Even something as simple as a side-step can buy you 1/2 a second of reaction time in a fight and that half-second may be all you need to neutralize your opponent  or escape.

When we are talking about a situation like the Dallas shooting, where civilians were caught out in the open with a shooter in an elevated position, Movement can be a tricky thing. Depending on the shooter’s elevation, your cover may be of little use since the shooter may be able to position themselves to look OVER and DOWN onto your position. This is what I mean by having SOLID or COMPLETE cover. Remember, If you don’t have a solid roof over your head, it’s a possibility he can see you and consequently, shoot you.

Combine this fact with the shooter using “Fire and Maneuver” tactics and this is how you can end up being PINNED Down and eventually overwhelmed and killed. I cannot stress enough how important movement is in these situations. Staying “planted” in a kill box, regardless of how “safe” you feel, is a sure-fire recipe for a funeral.

Pictures from that day show how officers and civilians alike were “hugging” the ground, Getting as LOW as possible behind vehicles or any cover that was available.

Staying low as possible is a good tip anytime shooting is taking place, however in an urban setting where the shooter is elevated, it is mandatory. We will discuss more on “Urban sectors of fire” in another post, but for right now it will suffice for you to understand that in an urban setting, depending on how elevated the shooter is, he may be able to shoot farther on the “oblique” than he can straight on, it just depends. Of course what type of rifle he is armed with and his skill level play heavily into that equation. I recommend John L. Plaster’s The Ultimate Sniper and his chapter on Urban Sniping for more advanced reading on the subject.

 

Stay Alert, Armed and Dangerous!

Beating the “Knockout Game”

From the Archives, 2014

I originally wrote this to address a rash of violent attacks back in 2013-2014 where innocent people were being senselessly attacked and “knocked out” on the street by groups of young thugs.

Seeing that mob street violence has made a HUGE comeback in 2020, I thought it might be smart to review this material.

As society continues to crumble  and random violence begins to be the norm, the CO must up his game in being prepared to meet that threat head-on. The most recent brand of this random type of street violence is the “Knockout” Game”.

A “Game” which to date has killed 7 people.

I do not intend to waste your time opining on why these assholes are doing this stuff. Frankly, I could care less in understanding a criminals reasoning; All I care about is me and my family’s safety.

Hopefully the following review will help you bring you and your family home safely too!

1. Awareness

Just simply being aware of what is going on around you is simple, pure logic, and in most cases, helps the CO avoid any hassles. ACTION on our part will always trump us having to REACT to our attacker. When we can put a hitch in our attackers OODA loop, (making them REACT versus the CO having to REACT) we stand a better chance of coming up on top. But the Knockout Game presents somewhat of a quandary in that dept. These idiots primary MO is come up to you on your blind side and deliver a knockout sucker punch. So how do you stay aware in a situation like that? Do you grow a pair of eyes in the back of your head? Do you walk around backwards?? Do you develop your “Inner-Ninja”?? I say that not to just get a cheap laugh out of you, but to raise an important “sidebar” point ” you need to be aware of. There are those in the self-defense training community that like to take very simple subjects (like Awareness) and make them overly complicated. Their reason for doing this is very simple: Money. The more in-depth they MAKE YOU THINK a subject is, the more classes, books and DVD’s you are going to buy. The problem with this besides it being terribly unethical is that most of the time they are teaching you a LOAD OF CRAP that is not realistic, not street-proven and has no true value as far as self-defense goes.

Let me be blunt and make this easy for you: You cannot maintain 360 degree awareness 100% of the time. No matter how much you keep your “head on a swivel”, no matter what kind of “reactionary gap” you SAY you give people, no matter how well your senses have been tuned and no matter how much “martial arts” training you have. We live in a society where we are in close proximity to people, it is that simple. I have seen people who say “When in public, I don’t let anybody get within 21 feet of me”, yet let them go to the grocery store and within 45 seconds I can prove them a liar. Being in “Condition Yellow” all the time is a state of mind guys, it is not a some LAW written in stone. Letting people get close to me does not put me in danger UNLESS I am unaware of what is going on with the particular situation. For example: What is their behavior like? What is in their hands? Where are their hands? How many of them are they?All of these factors will let you know if you need to put more distance between you and them.

To answer the primary question about how to stay aware of what is behind you and to avoid getting sucker punched, the best case scenario answer is to keep your head on a 360 degree swivel , which we know we cannot do 100% of the time, and try to address the threat before it has the chance to strike (Action trumps Reaction). Of course, that is BEST CASE scenario and in all probability will not happen that way. Your most logical course of action is to train yourself to REACT in such a way to avoid getting knocked out and at the same time neutralize the threat.

2. Reaction

There are numerous “positions” or “guards” combatives trainers have out there to teach people how to avoid getting knocked-out on the street; there is an extensive illustrated list of them on Lee Morrsion’s excellent resource site Urban Combatives. In my experience and training, I have found the best “guard” in a situation where you are being attacked from the rear (6 o’ clock) by an unknown number of assailants is a variation of the “Crazy Monkey”. I call it a “variation” because I combine it with my standard “Default” Guard position (Southnarc’s version); however, in drilling with the SN Default in full-on sparring, I found that when attacked from the rear, blind, by more than 1 assailant, the default left some holes, namely blocking angular punches and flowing with the dynamic movement of a street fight. The “Crazy Monkey” addresses those issues, while the variation I use helps to get a solid presentation of a weapon (knife or gun) into the fight. Understand that your intentions must not be to just keep from getting knocked out, but also to neutralize the threat attacking you!

The decision whether or not to introduce lethal force into this type of scenario is up to you; there are those who seem to think that this kind of “prank” does not warrant that extreme kind of reaction since these are just “kids” and “pranks”. I wholeheartedly disagree with that opinion for 2 main reasons:

1. Seven People have been killed thus-far in these so-called “Kids Game”. Read that story HERE.

2. The attackers are typically in a group from three to ten teenage males.

Training to introduce lethal force into any situation MUST always be precipitated by the CO understanding the Law in their respective states in regards to Self-Defense. In this particular scenario, TX Penal Code Sec 9.32 applies.

(B) To prevent the other’s imminent commission of aggravated kidnapping, murder, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, robbery or aggravated robbery.

Combine all of this with the lethal history of these types of attacks, the Disparity of Force (more than 1 attacker typically) and the CO typically feeling in “FEAR FOR THEIR LIVES” and the justification for applying LETHAL Force is very high.

3. The Fight

So getting back to the subject at hand. You have been attacked, you have covered up to the best of your ability with a default guard and are still on your feet. You are a tad dazed, confused and probably a little pissed off. What happens in the next 3-4 seconds is crucial and not something I can put in a bullet point presentation for you!

In the time that your mind is processing all the pertinent data, such as: Where did the blow come from? How many attackers are there? Am I wounded? You will need to create distance between you and the attackers. The reason for this is simple: Firstly, it will be harder to strike you, Secondly, if you plan on introducing a weapon into this fight, you will need some distance between you to do that. The closer the attacker is to you, the more likely he can foul your draw and/or grab the weapon. If that happens then you might find yourself in the worst case scenario: Fighting with the attacker over your OWN weapon! In CQ fights, retention of your weapon takes priority, because once the attacker knows you have a weapon, now he goes into self-preservation mode too! So we need to be prepared to “Create that Distance” by however we can: punches, kicks, elbows, knees, head-butts, eye-gouges, nut kicks, etc.

To address the issue of multiple attackers, it has been my experience both from the field and multiple CCTV & Dash-Cam videos of attacks, that once the first attacker is put down, the rest will scatter like frightened deer. Of course, vigilance demands that you cannot count on that, so the CO must prepare for the worst case scenario, which would be engaging multiple targets in succession. It is also a possibility that once the “knockout” is unsuccessful, the attackers will lose heart and flee. Again, you can never count on that, so always prepare for the worst.

In conclusion, the CO needs to ensure that padded Force-on-Force scenarios are part of his routine. Make sure and cover all the possibilities:

• Multiple Attackers

• Going to ground

• Fouled draws

• Weapon grabs

• Fighting from the “clinch”

• Drawing weapons from various positions

Spend a lot of time working on your Default Guard..remember this is what is going to keep you on your feet so you can fight. Think of the guard as your automatic “flinch response”; whenever attacked you go to your guard. This will take alot of practice,  so drill that way as often as possible! Find what guard works best for you and then tailor and dovetail that  into your weapon presentation.

Work on various positions to draw your weapons from, and don’t just fixate on one position either, for instance;  drawing a folding knife from your pocket, drawing a small pistol from a pocket holster, drawing a fixed blade from horizontal 12 o’clock or 6 o’clock concealed, drawing a handgun from AIWB or strong-side concealed. All of these positions are going to demand you fine tune your mechanics so they flow seamlessly. Remember, “Slow is smooth and smooth is Fast” in weapon presentation, so as you drill, eliminate any Un-needed movements or “hitches”.

Lastly, Fights are never STATIC!

People tend to move to avoid getting hit and/or hurt. Be prepared to have quick feet, shoot on the move and drive through your opponent like a sledgehammer!

Hope for the Best, Train for the worst and Stay Dangerous!