The Danger of Higher Ready Positions
There’s a balance to maintain between safety and acceptable risk We can agree that there's room for a variety of techniques in firearms training and law enforcement tactics. However, we must also honor fundamental principles. [...]
Taser Weapon Confusion
You’ve probably seen videos of officers in stressful confrontations mistaking their pistols for their Taser (Electronic Control Weapon-ECW), causing them to shoot the suspect. There have been at least 18 incidents of weapon confusion in [...]
Press Checking The Trunk
"Now listen here, rookie. When yer makin' a traffic stop, you gotta push down on the trunk lid when you walk by, see? Or you'll get killed in the streets!" You've called out the [...]
Contact & Cover Re-Visited
Our profession – policing – has had some hard-earned lessons. Lessons that were caused by the deaths of or serious injuries to officers. Some of those lessons might be considered “old,” but their validity should [...]
Good Enough
One of the most beneficial soft skills one can develop is to complete a task well enough that it may ensure mission success. Whether it’s finishing a work project, going to the gym, or even [...]
Training Rule #2 and Don’t Shoots
Someone once said - know the rules well enough so that you can know when to break them. However, there are some rules we should not break. Gunsite's Four Safety Rules can be on [...]
STREET LEVEL | Morale Building: No Programs, Please!
Somewhere in the basement there’s a cigar box contain-ing military medals and commendations. The only mementos of that period on display in my home are the lone surviving photo of my best friend, killed on [...]
Managing Expectations
When learning any skill, it is incumbent upon you as an apprentice to also manage your expectations regarding how much and how long it will take to achieve the desired skill level. Before learning a [...]
Review – Active Shooter Response Training: Lone Wolf to Coordinated Attacks
Once again, Active Killer events are back at the forefront of everyone's mind. While there are a lot of questions, there are not always enough well-researched and thoughtful answers. This article reviews author Scott Hyderkhan's [...]
CIVILIAN INVOLVED DEFENSIVE SHOOTINGS | Be Fair, Be Honest and Be Clear
Civilian who uses deadly force may suffer post-shooting trauma and civil litigation, and will most certainly be subjected to widespread, mostly unqualified second-guessing. The civilian usually has no standing legal immunity, and no agency, union [...]
Driving While Shooting – Just Because We Can, Doesn’t Mean We Should
We have seen numerous officers across the country engage in officer-involved shootings (OIS), firing rounds out of their patrol car's windshield. You can explain shooting out of the windshield if your car is either parked [...]
Roka Arms’ Downrange Tab and Training for Off-body Carry
Most of us carry concealed firearms in or on our beltline, whether with a strong side hip holster, inside the waistband, or “appendix-ish” carry. At least one American Cop writer advocates for carrying smaller revolvers [...]
Trauma Care
In the middle of nowhere. How long will it take you to get an ambulance? What if the ambulance was for you? Most of you probably keep some sort of medical bag in your patrol [...]
Project Triage
By Ben Douglas Life-Saving Tourniquets. On August 18, 2012, St. Croix Police Chief, Christopher Howell and his partner, Officer Elsworth Jones, an experienced SWAT officer, were working a recent armed robbery series when they responded [...]
See The Threat Or Hear It?:Training for visual stimulus with Reactionary Gap’s Muzzle Flash Simulation System
Do we respond more quickly to an auditory stimulus or a visual one? A significant amount of the research I’ve looked at, including two papers linked at the end of the article, says we respond [...]
STOPPING THE THREAT | Pairing Natural Response with Engagement Method
To incapacitate a threat as quickly as possible, many will agree shot placement is a key factor, accomplishing this with the double tap or controlled pair, (two aimed shots) into a vital area being taught [...]
MANTIS LASER ACADEMY | Affordable High-Tech Firearms Training at Home
It takes time and practice to become proficient with firearms. It’s an art that needs to be developed. And no matter how finely tuned a shooter you have become, shooting is a perishable skill. This [...]
MAXIMIZING YOUR CCW PRACTICE WITH A CO2 PISTOL
Most of us don’t get to the range as we’d like to or should. I know I don’t. Few of us live where we can just step outside and shoot. Even when we do get [...]