Nov. 12th - New NRA Instructor Rating!

Nov. 12^th

Well last weekend I earned another instructor rating with the NRA.

Up until now I’ve been credentialed to teach students Basic Firearm Safety, as well as the NRA pistol course.  Now I can teach you skills you hopefully never need to use:

NRA Personal Protection in the Home.

I was a little dubious about this class.  Self defense encounters are typically unmanageable affairs often at extreme close quarters.  For the National Rifle Association to codify certain “dos” and “don’ts” seemed a bit like writing the rules for how and when a river is going to flood.

Nonetheless, I’ve never been one to claim that too much training is a bad thing.  So this last weekend I spent sixteen hours in a classroom and at a live fire range learning how to deal with the unthinkable.

First off….the class was fantastic.  TJ, my NRA Training Counselor at AllSafe Defense in Orange California did an exceptional job of preparing us on how to teach our courses, as well as some of the underlying dynamics of the subject matter itself.

The NRA breaks down defensive strategies to two areas : Personal Protection in the Home, and a second class of Personal Protection Outside the Home.   This second class is really intended for people that have made the decision to get a concealed carry permit, and the class serves as the mandatory training requirement for most jurisdictions across the country.

Personal Protection in the Home encompasses a broader student base.  Many people live in jurisdictions that prohibit the carrying of concealed weapons.  Thereby making use of a firearm for personal protection outside the home illegal.  All Americans enjoy a recognized fundamental right to use a firearm for home defense though, and by and large the most common firearm used for home defense is a pistol.

Now I should pause and state that the use of a firearm in someone’s home defense strategy plan is an intensely personal decision.  Frankly it is not right for everyone, and most importantly, the willingness to use that firearm must be developed well before the actual need arises. 

Debating the spiritual and emotional consequences of stopping a human threat with lethal force during the encounter is totally unacceptable.  That decision should have been completed before the firearm was ever purchased.  Some people are fundamentally unprepared or refuse to use lethal force to end a threat scenario.  That is not to be read as a negative.  It is what it is, and the self-analysis is to be respected. 

As many of you know I am a hunter.  I believe that we are genetically predisposed to hunting or gathering, much as some warriors and police officers will confide that they believe that people are inclined to be sheep or sheep dogs.  (Well….they can also be wolves as well.)

I would never try and convince a non-hunter…someone predisposed to gathering...that they “need to hunt”.  Much as a gatherer will have little success in convincing me to pack away my rifle and only eat grains.  We are just predisposed to a certain mindset, and must respect that predisposition.

But we must acknowledge it! 

If you are not prepared to use lethal force to protect you or your family, why the hell are you going to use a gun in your self defense plan?

Now, many of you know that I am quite the fan of live fire drills.  And this class afforded me the opportunity to test out my shooting prowess in a unique method…..timed rapid fire drills. 

The theory here is that in a life or death situation it is incumbent on us to put as much lead into our threat until it stops being a threat.  Normal range safety requires us to limit our shots to one per second.  A normal threat fire scenario might require five or six shots in a second, while moving in low light! 

Tactical drills like this on a live fire range is first and foremost a hell of a lot of fun. 

Secondly, it can be an eye opening experience.  For someone who prides himself on accuracy there is a concept called “defensive accuracy” that is difficult to wrap ones brain around.  Defensive accuracy means shooting well enough to put all your rounds on a 9inch plate at about 15 yards.  If your holes are touching each other, (something I normally strive for when shooting) it means you are shooting too slow.  Our live fire portion of the class demanded speed from us, as well as consistent defensive accuracy. 

So, kudos to the NRA, and to TJ at AllSafe for helping me become a Personal Protection in the Home instructor. 

My pedigree continues to expand!

Nov. 9th...The Election Aftermath

Nov 9^th

Well we are now election + 2 days.

I rarely discuss politics, save my usual rants about the 2^nd amendment or obvious political corruption…issues that should transcend partisanship.  Like religion, sexual orientation, or a preference of dogs to cats these are deeply personal issues.  What I write will neither motivate a change in belief amongst my readers, nor seriously bolster one who agrees with me. 

Frankly I’m just not that good.

That said, I will disclose that I voted for Romney.

I did not vote for him because I salivated over his economic plan.  He ran as a “business man” and frankly I’ve been intimately involved with “big business” for the last seventeen years…what I’ve seen does not fill my heart with tremendous resolve.

I did not vote for him because of his position on social issues.  Other than saying he would not stop a woman from buying a condom….what the hell “social issues” were involved here???

I didn’t even vote for him because of his stance on the 2^nd amendment.  The party platform was the most pro-second amendment platform in history, but Romney’s own record on gun rights is checkered.

I voted for him because I seriously don’t like people telling me what to do, and I felt…well still feel… that the chance to push government apparatchiks away  from my life had a better chance under a Romney administration than under another Obama administration.

Well….that is over with now.

The majority here in California also voted to confiscate the wealth of minorities.  Yep….you read that right.  Not racial minorities, but rather, economic minorities.  It seemed perfectly reasonable to allow one large group of constituents to confiscate through force the property of a smaller group of constituents. 

Interestingly there were no provisions made for going after the minority constituents when they decide to flee the state and set up shop somewhere else.  What to do then???

Yes the 2^nd amendment took a blow.  How it manifests itself we must wait and see. 

That said my paradigm has shifted, and in some sense possibly elevated about the American people.  52ish percent of the population voted to make sure that the goodies taken from the other 47is percent keep flowing too them.  What’s worse is that the majority has become collectivists.  They think of themselves as free thinkers, but they are not. 

They are conformists.

They have accepted a lifestyle where others demand behavior from them, and they have acquiesced….after all the Mandarins from above think the “right” way and therefore must be correct in their executions. 

We saw this disaster manifest in the Cultural Revolution in China.  In a sense it is coming to pass here in the States.  It didn’t end well there, and I fear it won’t end well here.

One passing ray of hope though….

John Locke articulated a political philosophy which watered down went something like this:  Each of us is born Sovereign.   Completely free and in control of our destiny.  To make a society function efficiently and ensure that others don’t use brute force to take our stuff and enslave us we slice off a tiny portion of that sovereignty and place it in trust with our government.  Their control over us is limited to that tiny slice we willingly surrendered.  If the leaders attempt to expand this sphere beyond what has been enumerated the covenant is broken and the power reverts to the individual to await a new legitimate government in which to once again place our faith.

The President offered two things to the masses: Social freedom, and economic slavery.  They couched Romney as offering the opposite…though as I mentioned earlier that was probably a bit unfair. 

What history teaches is that slaves are not content to remain slaves.   They are destined to through off their yoke of oppression.  Will the 47ish percent break their chains soon?

I don’t know.

It might take awhile, and self recognition may motivate the majority to see things in a new light too….eventually.

That said a catalyst might speed things up:

Margaret Thatcher said that socialism is fine until the other guy’s money runs out. 

What will the majority do then?