Christmas Reading

Okay.  You are ready.  Right?

You’ve taken a course or two.  You shoot a match once in a while and make it out to the range at least once every two weeks.  You carry your gun in a quality holster in condition one.  You have a spare magazine and a tactical flash light, just in case.  And of course you have your CCW.

You’re set.  Right?

You know the mechanics of the draw, the reload, how to pie a door way, but how about we put a little extra between the ears?  Self-defense is as much a mental activity as it is a physical activity.  Understanding your environment, both the physical and the legal one will help you survive. 

I just enjoy reading the darn thing!

Here’s a little candy for the frontal lobes. 

Left of Bang   by Patrick Van Horne and Jason A. Riley

This will help you understand the actions and situations around you.  You may not be in a war zone, but recognizing the cultural signals people give off is always a useful tool.

Gift of Fear  Gavin de Becker

We’ve read these stories, maybe even experienced them.  The guy on the elevator doesn’t look right, or you don’t like the increased nervous pacing the panhandler is suddenly doing.  That’s your years of life experience talking to you.  Find out more about this and what to do.

Principles of Personal Defense  Jeff Cooper

Jeff Cooper was a controversial person.  But his ideas about self-defense are spot on.  By the way, he never once talks about firearms in this publication.  Find out why it’s a bedside reader for many people.

In the Gravest Extreme  Massad Ayoob

This is the gold standard of legal self-defense.  Massad Ayoob is readable, personal and needs to be understood by anyone who anticipates defending oneself or others.

Law of Self Defense  Andrew F. Branca

After your read Ayoob, read this.  It is at times, a little densely packed.  Stick with it.  The law can be your friend, if you understand it.  This will help.

Newhall Shooting – A Tactical Analysis  Mike Wood

People make mistakes and die from them.  Learn from them to avoid similar mistakes and bad habits.

Contemporary Knife Targeting  Christopher Grosz and Mike Janich

It isn’t likely you need to silently kill a sentry, but knowing why a knife attack can be so deadly could be your legal ace-in-the–hole.  We’ll always go places you can take a knife but not a gun.  Just saying……

Any others?

Yes, but you need to do your own voyage of exploration.   Anyone can publish a book.  Anyone can make a video, post a website.  You need to step over the horse apples and author ego and find core truths.  And you do that by starting with nationally and internationally acknowledged experts and read what they have to say.  Does it match your actual experience?  It probably will.  When you understand them you can begin to evaluate the blogs you read, the books you read and the instructors in front of you.