Tactical Talk

Terry Pitman recently published a link on Facebook to his article on surviving the legal challenges of self-defense. It's a good idea. Too many instructors and students focus on the mechanical aspects: the draw, reload, Mozambique drill, moving and shooting - that’s where the fun is. But it is very likely you'll put yourself in expensive lawyer trouble if you are unprepared for the legal challenges, both civil and criminal. Your car. What do you want to do and what should you do? What you do could put you in jail. Let's look at his five elements of self-defense; 1) Innocent: not the initial aggressor, 2) Imminence: the threats must be happening now or immediately about to happen 3) Proportionality: the force you use must not be greater than the force used against you 4) ...

Gun VS Knife

Recently, I came across a Facebook post by, let's call him, John. John runs a firearms training school and has tapes / photos of an actual knife-gun interaction. Maybe not this gun or knife Here's what he has to say ( italics) : First actual, legit, no joke defensive knife use I have ever seen caught on camera, and the lesson it teaches is that a knife is a really sketchy defensive tool and I don't recommend them as defensive tools almost ever. It's only in films that security cameras take great photos or they can be 'sharpened' Pic 1: armed robber jumps off the back of the moto with a gun in hand. Defender accesses his knife and hides his right hand. A gun is clearly visible in AR's right hand. The hidden knife? Pic 2: robber approaches, gun in hand, to take defender's property at threat of his life. Counter attack with knife Is that a sheath on D's right side belt? Pic 3: Armed robber closes distance to take property, and when he gets ...

Tueller Drill Revisited

I've made some minor changes to this post on 19 April 2026. Why? I'll tell you later. Read it over again and perhaps you'll challenge some of your tactical assumptions. A child might ask a parent, “How do I tell if someone is trying to just frighten or really harm me?” It is an excellent question and one not simply answered. There are many excellent articles on pre-attack behavior, concealed weapon indicators, verbal judo to de-escalate, and tactics to give you the ‘higher ground’ advantage, effectively giving you a greater disparity of force. The list goes on and on. But none of them actually address the question, "How do I distinguish between someone trying to frighten me and someone attempting to harm me?” Making yourself seem more dangerous is a common strategy in nature. So much so that cartoonist Gary Larson makes fun of it. One way to answer this question is to break it down into a flow sheet of questions with either a yes or no answe...

Night Vision

Mk 1 Human Eyes “Don’t get a light that’s so bright it blinds you, kid,” the elder said to me one night over beers. “You want a light that saves your night vision, just enough to let you move through a dark basement at night.” We learn from experience, but nobody says we can’t learn from other people’s experience. That is the definition of wisdom and the foundation of an education system. But that doesn’t mean we should take everything on face value either. How bright should a tactical flashlight be? One school of thought says as bright as possible. You want, they claim, eye-searing, sunburn-causing, uber-bright light that make the VCA (violent criminal actor) blind and cringing in fear. Faced with that hype, other manufactures with less bright lights have retreat to claims about run time, size and functions. It’s all marketing. I haven’t heard one manufacturer advertise a tactical light that preserves your night vis...

The Cardboard Whisperer

Stay....Stay.....Easy boy!...

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