Wednesday Wisdom: 17 December 2025

Medal of Honor: Jose Mendoza Lopez 

Occupying a shallow hole offering no protection above the waist, he cut down a group of 10 Germans. Ignoring enemy fire from an advancing tank, he held his position and cut down 25 more enemy infantry attempting to turn his flank. Glancing to his right, he saw a large number of infantry swarming in from the front. Although dazed and shaken from enemy artillery fire which had crashed into the ground only a few yards away, he realized that his position soon would be outflanked.

Again, alone, he carried his machine gun to a position to the right rear of the sector; enemy tanks and infantry were forcing a withdrawal. Blown over backwards by the concussion of enemy fire, he immediately reset his gun and continued his fire. Singlehanded he held off the German horde until he was satisfied his company had effected its retirement.

 

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Some Notes on Using Blanks for Training

There are significant dangers involved in using blanks for training. An insufficiently-trained individual can mistake live rounds for blanks, as in the 2016 fatal training accident in Punta Gorda, Florida. Remember, blanks themselves can sometimes cause death or serious injuries.

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Man Tackles, Chokes Armed Walmart Shopper

Don’t be stupid. Wanna-be hero – took matters into his own hands and landed in hot water when he attacked a concealed weapon permit holder.

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Meditations on Paper Armour

A single sheet of paper can hold ideas, hopes, dreams; it can carry a song, orders, love; it can recall history, bear witness when none are left and it can serve as the base of art for bairns as well as their great-grandsires.

For all of it's utility and history, though, there is one area in which paper is sorely lacking: It makes lousy armour.

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Personal Boundaries 

The purpose of analyzing this stuff beforehand is to make sure that even my frozen brain and my in-denial guts cannot lull me into cooperating if I am ever in one of the extreme places where a victim really needs to fight if she is going to survive. Because I’ve thought about this stuff in advance, if something like it ever happens, even my frozen brain will have a definite decision point.

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The Right, Responsibility, and Readiness of Carrying a Handgun

Watch the news on any given day and you will clearly see we live in difficult times. Grab a history book and you will learn this is nothing new. Log onto social media and you will notice there are a lot of experts on both subjects, and they are more than willing to tell you all about it. Whether you believe the news is fake, history is a lie or social media experts are idiots does not change the fact the fight is coming, and we need to be ready.

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Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam, May 1954

A short History of Viet Nam. In 1858, the first French colonists arrived in what was then called French Indo-China, which included modern-day Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Over succeeding decades, French missionaries converted many locals from Buddhism to Catholicism. Ethnic Chinese came down from the north, at the invitation of the French, to become shopkeepers, as the area was increasingly influenced by French culture. The French built schools, dams, hospitals, sanitation systems, factories, churches, and plantations. However, like the Romans before them, they had zero tolerance for rebellion. French secret police ruthlessly tracked down local dissidents. Most were quietly executed. Like so many civilizations facing colonization by external forces, indigenous Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians saw their ancient cultures relentlessly dissipating. Rebellion was always just under the surface. 

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The “21 Foot Rule”

Hint: There is no such thing. To put everyone in the readership on a level playing field, this “21 Foot Rule” is what many of us also know as the Tueller Drill. In the early 1980’s, Sgt Dennis Tueller conducted studies involving how quickly a subject armed with a knife could cover a given distance, before an officer could react, draw and fire effectively at the knife wielding attacker.

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Threat Modeling: Profile Elevation

Profile elevation is a fairly intuitive concept. For our purposes we can describe it as† “the generally undesirable condition of:

-- becoming more visible to one’s adversary, and/or

-- becoming more interesting to one’s adversary.”

Being either or both more visible and/or interesting to your adversary is a bad thing in nearly any adversarial situation (Murphy’s Laws of Combat: Try to look unimportant, the enemy may be low on ammunition). If you are highly visible to an adversary your movements, whether online or in the real world, are easier to track. If you are interesting to your adversary, he or she will be willing to invest time and money to pursue you, digitally or physically.

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British Man Arrested in England for Posing with Shotgun While on Vacation in Florida

Richelieu-Booth Posing with a Remington 870

John Richelieu-Booth, a 50-year-old self-employed IT contractor from England, was arrested by British police after returning home from a vacation in Florida for posing awkwardly while holding a Remington 870 shotgun in the Sunshine State.

Richelieu-Booth told the British newspaper The Telegraph that he was completely shocked by the “Orwellian” decision made by his local constabulary, the West Yorkshire Police, who first warned him about the picture he posted on his social media but then arrested him several hours later.

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Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS makes its closest approach to Earth on 19 Dec 25

Every now and then the Universe reminds us of just how small we are. Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS will make its closest approach to Earth on Friday, Dec. 19, marking a key moment in the journey of one of the rarest visitors ever observed in our solar system.

Discovered on July 1 by the NASA-funded ATLAS telescopes in Chile, 3I/ATLAS is only the third confirmed interstellar object known to have passed through our cosmic neighborhood, following 1I/'Oumuamua in 2017 and comet 2I/Borisov in 2019. Its trajectory shows that it originated from beyond our solar system and will eventually travel back into interstellar space.

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A Modified Department of Energy Shotgun Low Light Qualification Course

In the November 2025 Sensible Self Defense Academy Home Defense Shotgun Low Light Match, I modified the Department of Energy (DOE) Shotgun Qualification Course* for low light competition. I did not use kneeling for safety reasons and substituted moving to cover on one string where the DOE course uses kneeling. The DOE Protective Force are the guys and gals that protect nuclear weapons in transit (within the United States) and nuclear facilities.

For practical purposes and to save time during the match, we use steel silhouette targets. Fired in three strings from the twenty-five-yard line, the fifteen yard line, and the seven-yard line, firing ten total rounds. For this match, we scored time only as long as the competitor made the hits.

The competitor in the video for this course of fire used a standard Winchester SXP Defender pump shotgun. The video is available here.

Course of fire:

String I: Immediate response to a lethal threat at a moderate range while moving to more advantageous (cover) position. From the twenty-five-yard line: four rounds, two targets.

From standing with four rounds in the shotgun. At the start signal, fire one hit on each target, move to cover (barricade), and fire one hit on each target.

String II: Immediate and continuing response to a lethal threat at a moderate range while reloading. From the fifteen-yard line: four rounds, two targets.

From standing with three rounds in the shotgun. At the signal, fire one hit on each target, load one round in the magazine tube, and fire one hit on each target.

String III: Immediate and continual response to a lethal threat at a short range, using an alternate method to load. From the seven-yard line: four rounds, two targets.

Load with two rounds in the shotgun, chamber empty (house or cruiser ready). At the signal, charge the shotgun, fire one hit on each target, load one round in the chamber and one round in the magazine tube, and fire one hit on each target from a standing position.

Lessons: This home defense shotgun low light match demonstrated some lessons that we seem to repeat each match.

    -- Know your shotgun’s manual of arms. I saw the same shooters having the same challenges they had in the last low light match. One competitor using a Berretta 1301 forgot that the 1301 will not load from the magazine simply by pulling the charging handle. You must place a shell on the lifter first.

    -- Depending upon your personal circumstances, you may not need to have a light on your shotgun; however, I believe you must have practiced manipulating the shotgun “by feel” rather than relying on seeing what you are doing. If competitors did not have lights, the Safety Officer illuminated the target area with just enough light to see the target. Even so, the competitor still had to manipulate their shotgun by feel. Some struggled with this. One competitor took eight seconds to find the ejection port on his shotgun so he could insert a shell.

So, with my modifications is still the DOE shotgun qualification? No, it is not. To see the standard DOE qualification click here.

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 * DOE Protective Force Firearms Qualification Courses, July 2011

Wednesday Wisdom: 10 December 2025

Medal of Honor: John Upshur Dennis Page

On the night of 10 December 1950, the convoy reached the bottom of the pass but was halted by a strong enemy force at the front and on both flanks. Deadly small-arms fire poured into the column. Realizing the danger to the column as it lay motionless, LTC Page fought his way to the head of the column and plunged forward into the heart of the hostile position. His intrepid action so surprised the enemy that their ranks became disordered and suffered heavy casualties. 

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A Burner Phone?

Whether you should be using a burner phone depends on your risk model—the factors and concerns that are specific to you. Every one of us is exposed to a different set of risks that can vary depending on your nationality, citizenship, political views, profession, and much more. For example, lawyers, activists, and journalists may be at higher risk of being targeted than, say, an electrician or a stay-at-home mom.

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Learn Interrogation Techniques from a Professional

Professional interrogators are just that — professionals. Their techniques are not rocket science or mysterious sorcery, but they work. If you want to figure out what happened in a given situation or if the person you are talking to is lying and how to get them, as we say in the trade, to make statements against their best interests, read on.

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The Modern Version: The Ant and the Grasshopper

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

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What is Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) and why do you need it?

U2F security keys help to keep your online accounts secure even if your passwords are compromised.

Passwords alone aren’t enough to secure your online accounts. Too many passwords are easy for hackers to crack, and even if you use unique, strong passwords, they could still be stolen any day in a phishing attack or data breach.

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Red Dots – Are We Training to Use Them Best?

The thinking is that officers would save the time typically spent shifting back and forth between the intended target and their sights to make an accurate shot. Thus, officers could fire their pistols sooner and hopefully more accurately.

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Myth: Criminals buy guns at gun stores and gun shows

Fact: Fewer than 1% of crime guns are acquired at gun shows, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Fact: In total, about 10-11% of crime guns come from retail sources where background checks are conducted. About 2.3% of guns used in violent crime come from retail sources.

Fact: One study of adult offenders living in the Chicago area determined that criminals obtain most of their guns through their social network and personal connections. Rarely is the proximate source either direct purchase from a gun store, or even theft. This agrees with other, broader studies of incarcerated felons.

Fact: Another city-wide study, this one in Pittsburgh, showed that 80% of people illegally carrying guns were prohibited from possessing guns, and that at least of 30% of the guns were stolen.

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Cooper Commentaries: Vol. 2, No. 14; 10 November 1994

Per Jeff Cooper: Let us consider the "L-shaped Pepper Popper." The standard Pepper Popper goes down when it is well hit, and stays down. This makes it necessary for somebody, usually the shooter, to step forward and set it up again. This is fine for pistol activity where the ranges are short, but when one uses the Popper as a rifle target the problem of getting it to come back up again becomes "labor intensive." At the recent Gunsite Reunion at Whittington Center, John Gannaway showed us some heavy-duty Poppers which were designed to bounce but not fall when struck solidly by a rifle of adequate power. They worked quite well, but they were somewhat difficult to judge at 300 meters - or even 200. Now then, let us consider the provision of a forward-extended counter-weight affixed to the base of the popper. This could be a smooth metal rod on which a sliding weight could be adjusted for calibration. When properly set up this popper would flinch to a hit by starting over rearward and then it would come back to vertical due to the adjusted weight on the rod. Such a device would be more complicated to manufacture and hence more expensive than a standard popper, but it would be more useful for training and practice purposes, and if made of proper armored steel it could be made reactive for almost any caliber, even including the 223. Why didn't we think of this before? (Many years ago, I shot matches in Maryland with THE John Pepper – the inventor of the Pepper Popper. He was a great shot.)

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Out Where the West Begins: A Deputy and His R8

I think I’ll do okay,” he told me with a slowly-developing wry smile under a horseshoe mustache (not to be confused with a Fu Manchu) and an immaculate platinum four-inch brim Serratelli western hat. I always wondered how he kept that thing so clean patrolling our infamous red dirt roads. In retrospect, I had probably come across a little incredulous as to Garfield County Deputy Cory Rink’s choice of new duty pistol while we were discussing the dynamics of modern law enforcement shootings, split times, reloading speed and accuracy. 

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Wednesday Wisdom: 3 December 2025

“False is the idea … that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it … The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm those only who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides …” Cesare Bonesana di Beccaria (1738-1794)

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 The Definitive Guide to Flying with Guns

A good overview concerning flying with firearms.

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Border Patrol is monitoring US drivers and detaining those with ‘suspicious’ travel patterns

The U.S. Border Patrol is monitoring millions of American drivers nationwide in a secretive program to identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious.

The problem of course is that people going about their daily business is not probable cause that a crime has been or is being committed; however, it can be flagged as suspicious. 

The predictive intelligence program has resulted in people being stopped, searched and in some cases arrested. A network of cameras scans and records vehicle license plate information and an algorithm flags vehicles deemed suspicious based on where they came from, where they were going and which route they took. Federal agents in turn may then notify local law enforcement.

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Understanding the VPN Threat Model

Proton VPN is one of the best VPNs available. Its paid version is quite fast and Proton has a free plan if you'd like to try it out first. Proton’s VPN is feature rich and the pricing is reasonable for the features the program contains, especially if you bundle Proton VPN with the company's other software. I have been using Proton Mail since it was launched in 2014 and started using their VPN when they released it and I am very satisfied with the product.

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Cornwallis’ Last Guard — A Carolina Sportsman’s Ghost Story

The year was 1919. The shrill of hounds broke the night’s silence on Abbotts Creek. A huntsman followed their barking on horseback through the Carolina brush. His gun dogs, Cash and Mean, had just bolted to chase what he thought was a racoon. Gun in hand, he dismounted and made his way through the cockleburs to see his dogs barking frantically up a tree.

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You can take the clans out of Africa; but you can't take Africa out of the clans.

In Africa national borders — and thus nations — are matters of political convenience, if not flat-out arbitrary. Only newbies to Africa even think about nationality, old hands know that tribal affiliation trumps all. Remarkably, these tribal affiliations can have a direct impact on who sits in the mayor’s office in a major US city.

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Reputation 

After assisting a pair of detectives with an evidence search I escorted them out of the jail. One turned and said, "You must have a major reputation. That guy was NOT going to go easily, and you showed up and he calmed right down."  

"Naah, I'm kind, sweet, innocent and gentle. Everybody loves me."

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Doorbell Camera Shows Dekalb Woman Killed Confronting Burglars

Be careful about confronting burglars. A woman was shot and killed Saturday night after driving up to confront suspected burglars outside her DeKalb County home, police said. Doorbell footage shows the burglary in progress and captures the moment Scott pulled up to the house in her vehicle. One of the suspected burglars then opened fire, according to police.

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American Rifleman Archives: Oxford Gunsight

A very early dot sight using a small incandescent bulb. The working principle is this: The bulb is positioned at the focus of the rear surface of the lens. Light rays striking this surface are partially reflected back to the eye of the shooter. All rays from the same point of the bulb are reflected parallel, and because the aperture for the special little bulb is so tiny the total rays are effectively parallel.

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Notes on Building a Warrior Culture

Yet the truth remains: a society that cannot build warriors cannot defend anything it values. We can talk endlessly about rights, but without the men and women who can protect those rights under threat, they are fragile illusions.

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