The Tactical Life

The thing is, had there been some change in gun laws that suddenly made them more easily available to everyone, maybe they could be approaching some point. But, since I doubt it has become easier to get guns in the past couple of years, in fact where I live it has gotten significantly harder, I think it stands to reason that violent behavior is increasing. I do know there are a lot of people walking around who should be behind bars but for some reason, in spite of long criminal records, are not. Then you have the large number of mentally people who should be receiving some sort of 24/7 treatment and supervision.

Violent crime has actually dropped off pretty significantly over the last 20 years, the media and politicians just make it sound like we’re living in the new Old West to feed their agendas.

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Motivational Monday:

When it comes down to it, you can’t hide your preparation. You can’t hide the fact that you did or didn’t do the work. Are you training the way to save yourself and others?

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Thought for the day: _My sincere condolences.

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Thought for the day (2);

https://www.instagram.com/p/BlkiaPznx8n/?hl=en&taken-by=thefirefighterway

Thought for the day(1): Some general information:

Keep an eye out for strangers who seem nervous and out of place. In an ordinary situation, someone who is sweating, looking around anxiously, or otherwise acting panicked may have violent intent. Be especially suspicious of anyone who seems out of place, is wearing a uniform that does not match or otherwise isn’t quite right, or who doesn’t seem to know anyone in a social space.

Recognize impersonators. Aside from people who seem out of place, look out for people soliciting donations for charities you don’t recognize, workers in incomplete uniforms or uniforms that don’t fit, or anyone presenting false or incomplete documents. Report it if someone tries to access a building, perhaps where you work, if they cannot prove they are authorized to enter.
Recognize the attire and posture of a suicide bomber. An imminent suicide bomber might exhibit signs the US government refers to as ALERT.

A – Alone and nervous. Report someone who is alone and seems nervous, sweating, eyes darting around, muttering.

L – Loose and bulky clothing not compatible with weather conditions. If you see someone strangely overdressed, or who looks like they have something hidden under their clothes, report them.

E – Exposed wires. Wires sticking out of clothing could indicate a bomb.

R – Rigid mid-section. Wearing an explosives belt or harness makes some terrorists sit very upright. If you see someone with unnatural posture who exhibits other signs of ALERT, alert the authorities.

T – Tightened hands. Someone with tightened hands may be holding a detonation device in place. Report someone in this posture immediately.

Notice people who feel personally damaged by unrelated political developments. If you hear a friend, family member, or acquaintance complain that they have been personally wronged by political events that are remote, listen carefully. 80 percent of future lone wolves are known to take politics personally, and claim that they have been wronged enough that violence would be justified.

Recognize when a lone wolf is broadcasting their intent. Report any messages on social media, any personal messages, and anything that is said to you that suggests an individual is contemplating violence. This can include suicide threats as well as threats against others. Watch out for anyone espousing the belief that violence is rational or necessary. It is extremely common for a lone wolf to make public announcements when an attack is imminent. Combinations of political and personal complaints that are followed by veiled threats should be reported immediately. Listen for people who claim affinity with extremist groups. Many lone wolves speak admiringly of white supremacist groups, anti-abortion groups, or foreign terrorist groups.

Thought for the day (2): Something off the beaten path, a useful tool for the campers out there.

http://soldiersystems.net/2018/07/23/gerber-reimagines-backcountry-meals-with-new-multi-tools-compleat-devour/

Wednesday’s Weapon: Krav Maga

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Krav Maga has a philosophy emphasizing aggression, and simultaneous defensive and offensive maneuvers. Krav Maga has been used by the Israel Defense Forces’ special forces units, the security apparatus, and by regular infantry units. Closely related variations have been developed and adopted by Israeli law enforcement and intelligence organizations. There are several organizations teaching variations of Krav Maga internationally.

Basic Principles

Krav Maga encourages students to avoid physical confrontation. If this is impossible or unsafe, it promotes finishing a fight as quickly and aggressively as possible. Attacks are aimed at the most vulnerable parts of the body, and training is not limited to techniques that avoid severe injury; some even permanently injure or cause death to the opponent.

Students learn to defend against all variety of attacks and are taught to counter in the quickest and most efficient way.

Ideas in Krav Maga include:

Simultaneous attack and defense

Developing physical aggression (not to be confused with emotional aggression or anger), with the view that physical aggression is the most important component in a fight

Continuing to strike the opponent until they are completely incapacitated.

Attacking preemptively or counterattacking as soon as possible

Using any objects at hand that could be used to hit an opponent.

Targeting attacks to the body’s most vulnerable points, such as: the eyes, neck or throat, face, solar plexus, groin, ribs, knee, foot, fingers, liver, etc.

Using simple and easily repeatable strikes.

Maintaining awareness of surroundings while dealing with the threat in order to look for escape routes, further attackers, objects that could be used to strike an opponent.
Recognizing the importance of and expanding on instinctive response under stress.

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Thought for the day: If you decide to carry a concealed firearm (legally) , better learn how to fight to keep it on you or you may end up dead. I have said numerous times to military/LEO’s during training, " you carry your death with you"

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I’ve kicked around the idea of getting a concealed carry, haven’t pulled the trigger (pun sort of intended) because I’m a very thorough thinker, I tend to like to be over qualified when it comes to things (big or small) and this is really a thought that has stuck with me, the fact that it isn’t a ‘Wild West’ type of gunfight, most encounters (I would have to imagine) are up close and personal (within 3 feet seems realistic) as the encounters I can think of where a concealed carry would be a plus are mostly in your face encounters (car jacking, mugging, etc.).

Honestly, it frightens me when I see certain folks carrying, not because I’m scared of the weapon, or even that I’m afraid that they don’t know how to use them, it frightens me because I don’t see how these individuals could keep the gun under control in a 1 v. 1 confrontation with a younger, desperate, and possibly drugged up individual in close quarters. (Most of the guys I see carrying here are not on the positive side of fitness, let alone any other type of self defense training.)

A bit of a tangent, but something that I think about each time I see someone with a firearm, “How quickly will that firearm end up as a liability if there is a confrontation in this setting?”

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That’s the number one reason to practice situational awareness, avoidance, de-escalation and escape of you’re armed. Any confrontation you end up in will be an armed confrontation because you brought the weapon. Even if you don’t draw it you could lose it if you get tossed.

Lethal force is no joke.

I second your observation that some gunshop commandos that carry are obese has beens or never was’s.

Thought for the day (1): 2 more brothers dead, one from his own gun. All my respect for both of you . You stepped up and paid the ultimate price for your country.

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Thought for the day (2): Some general medical information:

1. Do no harm. – Good medicine at the wrong time is bad medicine. Obtain good training in how and when to apply medical care. Start with a self-aid/buddy-aid program and build your skills from there.

2. Prevent Injury – An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In combat this may mean that we defer medical care until after the threat has been eliminated. The old adage of “the best medicine is fire superiority” comes to mind. Beyond bullet wounds and explosions, avoid misery and illness by dressing appropriately for conditions, avoid dehydration, and use appropriate protective equipment (eye protection, gloves, body armor, etc). If you train with live fire, be sure to appoint a safety officer and make sure he or she is not included in the scenario. Good people die in training from preventable errors. Always follow the strictest safety practices when training with any kind of weapon system.

3. Shock is the enemy. Preventing shock is key to survival. Get life saving care started as soon as possible, even if you have to treat yourself (self-aid). A previously healthy body will immediately start trying to offset the changes caused by an injury. Early on, these processes are helpful. In cases where severe injury or significant delays in care occur, these internal processes can spiral out of control and survival becomes less likely. Get yourself a good tourniquet and some hemorrhage control training and be ready to act immediately. I also recommend learning CPR and knowing how to treat choking and near-drowning.

4. If shock doesn’t kill you, infection might. Infection begins at the time of injury. Any disruption in the natural barriers of the body (skin, mucous membranes) allows nasty bugs already on the skin and in the environment to set up infection. Do everything you can to avoid adding to the burden of infection. Survival decreases rapidly when you combine deep shock and infection.

5. Err on the side of caution. When circumstances permit, have a trained medical provider evaluate an injury as soon as possible. It can save trouble down the road.

6. Know how to access the emergency system no matter where you are. A good sheepdog always has an exit strategy. Take a little time to figure out your medical contingency and emergency plans. Medical emergencies place huge demands on attention and delays can cause irreversible injury or death. Trying to figure out your emergency plan in the middle of a crisis just plain sucks. Get comfortable with the emergency resources in your area and know how to activate them.

Thought for the day (3); Since we are reviewing the fundamentals of medical care, lets take a look at some thoughts on the proper handgun grip.

Grip Is Why You're Missing - YouTube

I would like to chime in on tourniquets. If you apply a tourniquet to a life threatening bleed before the patient goes into shock, the survival rate is 96%, after they go into shock it drops to 4%.

Don’t hesitate to apply a tourniquet because you believe it will cause the patient to lose the limb. That is an old wives tale, based on bad data that dates back to WW2, when casualties faced evacuation times of 24 hours or more. A tourniquet can be left in place for 2 hours with absolutely no ill effect. Between 2 and 8 hours the probability of long term nerve damage goes up, but still, you’re talking about walking with a limp, not an amputation. Don’t be scared.

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I don’t know if this is the right thread to ask this on, maybe it is, but we’ve been hearing for a while now because of police shooting suspects, who shouldn’t have been shot, that they need more training. I don’t want to get into whether there is an epidemic of police shooting Innocent people but talk about the training part.

Add to that cops getting killed whether by their own guns or someone else’s, which has gone up recently, it also brings up the issue of training. Besides the firearm aspect you have things like Eric Garner, again I’m not getting into whether or not the cops acted properly.

So the question is, if cops were training more consistently and training harder. Like actually training martial arts at least twice a week and tactical wepons training at least once or twice a week, since all of these are perishable skills, how much time would they have to actually be cops? I know cops who work well over 40 hours a week. If this training were all done on the clock and we also reduced how many hours they can work since fatigue is a known factor when it comes to work performance failures, we would need to hire more cops.

But it seems like the two areas where we hear a lot of talk are law enforcement and education and just like with schools and teachers, there are complaints but no one wants to invest the money necessary to improve things.

IMO it comes down to money. More training and higher standards to qualify/graduate for academy would do good things. But training costs time and money, and higher standards means higher salaries.

In a perfect world with unlimited resources that extra training would be great, but it comes down to money and willingness. On top of that those skills take time to acquire. Do we require police to grapple at a blue belt level before they hit the streets? That’s like getting an associate’s degree. If you don’t pick it up quickly it can be years before you’re a competent grappler against new students in class, let alone some high-as-a-kite crazy who is hell-bent on self-destruction.

In my opinion the bigger problem is that media frenzy and social justice mobs are making the profession less and less attractive to enter, and actual policework less compelling to do once you’re hired. Who wants to be the next cop plastered all over the news for doing his job while people riot in the streets over a lie?

It’s not a perfect world, if it were we wouldn’t need cops, and it wouldn’t take unlimited resources but like you said there needs to be a willingness, a sense of priorities.

I think that’s a detail to work out but the general point I’m getting at is if we agree that cops should be training more regularly then we would need to reduce how much time they spend actually working. The training would technically be working.

I remember training with a group of police from a particular dept in weapons retention. The information and training was valuable and eye opening for them but, it’s not like after a few hours they will have these skills forever.

Even in the military we spent very little time on training the specific skills we needed. We did lots of powerpoints and weapons cleaning and maintenance. And we were getting paid, in theory at least, to train. And when we did actually train almost everyone would say, “why aren’t we doing this all the time?”

That could be true. Where I live none of that has been an issue though. But I guess what I’m getting at is that, all of these people talk about better training and more training but never talk about what exactly that means. Is some inner city really prepared to see the police budget go up significantly? Do they think a simple 4 hour class will fix everything?

I wonder how cops would feel about less time on the streets but more time training. The thing is, if it were something that cops were doing from day one it would just be part of the job. It would be a habit of sorts.

I hope I’m not coming off like I want an argument. It just gets to me a little when I hear about cops getting killed and wondering if there could have been something to have prevented it. I guess it’s the same way I feel when I hear about innocent people becoming some scumbag’s victim. It’s what we do on this thread. Talk about what someone could have or should have done.