Very good info, and it contains MANY useful concepts. However, I offer one important caution. Highly trained and experienced professionals and hobbiests tend to get this mindset that without tons of training and practice, a person will be a useless trembling waste, unable to defend theirself or a loved one. The problem is that its simply not true. Every day we hear about the mom, the elderly person, the clerk at the market,,etc, that save the day with a handgun they otherwise rarely touch. When you get down to it, if you have the strength and hand & eye coordination to use a blow drier, you can handle a pistol sucessfully. I wonder how many people read articles like this and then, too intimidated at being level 1 or 2, or so strapped financially that a trip to thunder ranch is unobtanium, don’t later have a gun with them, precisely when they really wish they did? When its for real, the bang and blast just aren’t hardly even noticeable.
If you buy a revolver, take a basic course or make a few range trips, you will amaze yourself years later when you can still use it. Last, enthusiastic shooters tend to prepare for Armageddon, or Friday the 13th part VII.
While there’s not a single thing wrong with this, in the real world, most people will be facing a bully or coward who never expected ANY resistance. And even though they would easily be overwhelmed by a band of nazi al-queda frogmen in nomex operator-suits, brandishing Kimbers with flashlights, these moms, regular guys in their 40’s who were in the army 20 years ago, and octenogerians will continue scaring off and successfully shooting bad guys just as they always have. Dear beginner,,,just remember the first and the *main* rule of gunfighting. “Have a gun”.
Armed citizens, regardless of training levels are rarely defeated or disarmed as the anti-gun crowd tells you is likely. And excessive requirements for training are the tool of Sarah Brady, designed to scare away beginners and to increase expense for the others. OK,,now that you have my opinion, i’d advise you to go back and read his post again carefully,,*and take heed*, because despite my post,,he’s still as right as I am. I mean it. He correctly mentioned number 5’s might have just been lucky,,,all you might need is to just have ONE idea of his to sink in to get you through.
WERD, Rhino.
In a gunfight, you must HAVE A GUN. All else is secondary.
Spot on. The world is full of violent amateurs. (I think Murphy said something to this effect). Unless you're going force-on-force with a squad of enemy infantry, your opponent is just a two-bit thug. One who almost certainly spends less time at the range, cleaning his weapon, or otherwise preparing for his life being on the line. He's resorted to violence because life's other options have proven too taxing, and his application of violence, while enthusiastic, will also be amateurish.
The one time in my life an enemy got a completely free shot at me, he missed a <150m shot at the unguarded back of a stationary target. Likely because his sights were closer to his bellybutton than his eyes when he pulled the trigger.
That's inexcusably incompetent for an allegedly trained anti-crusader combatant, rolling the dice against Team Infidel, but hardly uncommon.
Even with training and experience, most thugs are idiots. That's why they're thugs. Their inability to make sound decisions puts them at a strong disadvantage against an aggressive opponent that acts rationally. Grandma doesn't have to be hard as woodpecker lips, 300+ on her PT test, and at the range every Sunday after church to put steel on a half-wit criminal. She just needs a gun where she can get at it, and the sense to do it at the right time.
On a macro scale, that's what society needs; brave amateurs who will fight back. On a micro scale, sure, you-the-individual want to be as ready as possible to defend your own life, and the life of others. But be real. Most Americans aren't going to spring for a few weeks at Blackwater learning combat rifle and pistol, though. We should be happy if most able bodied Americans just owned a gun, were willing to use it, and practiced adequate weapons handling and safety.
> However, I offer one important caution. Highly trained and experienced professionals and hobbiests tend to get this mindset that without tons of training and practice, a person will be a useless trembling waste, unable to defend theirself or a loved one. The problem is that its simply not true.<
The ones that I have known who walked away fine and slept fine that night were the ones who were pissed off that a punk would dare to engage them in a robbery, burglary, mugging or car jacking. They had the frame of mind, “Here I was minding my own business and this POS dares to think of me as a victim. I grabbed my gun and put as many holes in him as fast as I could.”
They truly resented being seen as a victim type. Now, everyone of these people is self supporting, self reliant and doesn’t ask for assistance from anyone if there is any chance that they are capable of handling the situation. They have earned their self confidence.