Wednesday Wisdom: 11 March 2026

Medal of Honor: Joseph Timothy O'Callahan

While serving as chaplain on board the U.S.S. Franklin when that vessel was fiercely attacked by enemy Japanese aircraft during offensive operations near Kobe, Japan, on 19 March 1945. A valiant and forceful leader, calmly braving the perilous barriers of flame and twisted metal to aid his men and his ship, Lt. Comdr. O'Callahan groped his way through smoke-filled corridors to the open flight deck and into the midst of violently exploding bombs, shells, rockets, and other armament. With the ship rocked by incessant explosions, with debris and fragments raining down and fires raging in ever-increasing fury, he ministered to the wounded and dying, comforting and encouraging men of all faiths. In addition to this, O’Callahan helped organize efforts to combat the flames and smoke that were paralyzing the ship and the men aboard.

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Who now speaks with authority on pistol technique? 

This question is almost impossible to answer. No one thought much about it up until the conclusion of World War II, and since that time the subject has been complicated by divergence and objectives between the public and private sectors.

 When we opened the Pandora-box of practical pistol shooting in California back in the late 50s, we did not realize that a definite split would develop between those who shot a pistol in search of excellence and those who shot a pistol simply because they had to. The feeling, which we sometimes hear from the mouths of idiots, that "only the police and the military should have weapons," ignores the fact that the police and/or the military are not likely to achieve any generalized level of excellence (though they indeed may turn out champions of highly specialized efforts). In any exercise in sporting competition only a limited number of champions will develop. It is possible that the techniques they use are not applicable to mass audiences.

We sympathize with the law enforcement people who are faced with the need to train increasing numbers of increasingly incompetent recruits forced upon them by politico-sociological conditions. For example, the late Bruce Nelson was once criticized when demonstrating the modern technique to some cop groups in California on the grounds that he "practiced a lot." I did not realize then, and neither did he, that people who practice a lot with their weapons may be excoriated as "politically incorrect."  Jeff Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 3, No. 3

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Diamondback Firearms Introduces the SDR-A; Lightweight, Hammerless Aluminum Revolver

Diamondback Firearms announces the launch of the SDR-A, an aluminum-frame, hammerless .38 Special +P revolver engineered specifically for modern everyday carry. The SDR-A expands Diamondback’s Small Defensive Revolver lineup with a lightweight, snag-free option designed for personal protection, concealability, and reliability.

Built on a forged 7075-T6 aluminum frame and weighing just 15.6 ounces, the SDR-A is Diamondback’s lightest revolver to date. Chambered in .38 Special +P SDR-A is purpose-built for defensive carry without sacrificing performance or durability.

The hammerless design eliminates snag points during draw while maintaining a smooth, non-stacking double-action trigger pull rated between 9.0 and 11.5 pounds, optimized for safe, consistent EDC use. A fixed orange fiber-optic front sight paired with a low-profile green fiber-optic rear sight enhances rapid target acquisition in defensive scenarios.

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It's Hypocrisy; We know it, and you know it.

One of the more illuminating things about the Iranian situation is the sheer amount of Western Liberal Hypocrisy they are inadvertently putting on display. Those liberal women cosplaying as Handmaid’s Tale Ketchup Bottles? Getting all hot and bothered over the prospect of losing their rights?

Mahsa Amini was an Iranian girl who wore her hijab in a fashion that the Iranian morality police didn’t approve of … so they beat her to death.

Zahra Bani Yaghoub was a Doctor of Medicine. The mullahs told her father — and I quote: "Iran does not need such medical doctors." The Basij (a paramilitary volunteer militia) saw her sitting on a park bench in public with her fiancé. The Basij snitched her out to the morality police. She and her fiancé were arrested, and she was raped and beaten to death in custody.

An IRGC officer repeatedly raped Atefeh Sahaaleh over a three-year period. She was finally put on trial for “immorality” and sentenced to death. When it was pointed out that she was only 16 years old (in Iranian “law” too young for the death penalty), the judge said she looked like she was 22, and that was good enough. She was hung from a crane and died by slow strangulation for the crime of being raped.

Iranian women have lived — suffered — under an oppressive regime that suburban white liberal women in the United States can only fantasize about, and the Iranian women would like it to end.

Silence from Affluent White Urban Liberals.

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A Very Brief Introduction to Hostile Surveillance

Though the term surveillance can be generally applied to various types of activities and electronic measures, this article is dedicated to the HUMINT type of physical surveillance, which can be defined as: The covert observation of a target for the purpose of collecting information.

This short sentence is loaded with the three key ingredients of surveillance. The first two ingredients are covertness and physical observation – take one of these factors out, and you no longer have what we consider surveillance. If physical observation is done overtly, willingly allowing the target (or anyone else) to see it, then this would simply be physical observation rather than surveillance. Conversely, if an operative is conducting him/herself in such a covert manner that he/she cannot really observe the target, then this would simply be hiding undercover rather than conducting surveillance. The fact that physical surveillance necessarily combines observation and covertness is one of the main reasons why surveillance is such a challenging undertaking.

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Operation Greif: German Commandos Sow Chaos Dressed in US Uniforms

When developing his strategy for the Ardennes Counteroffensive, Adolf Hitler knew it was essential to capture at least one intact bridge over the Meuse River. Speed was essential to Hitler’s plan, given its ambitious aims of driving a wedge between the US and British armies, crossing the Meuse, and driving to the coast at Antwerp. If the Germans failed to seize an intact bridge over the Meuse, the resulting delay would give the Allies time to recover from their surprise and enable them to amass forces west of the river before the Germans could cross. To avoid this, Hitler entrusted Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) Otto Skorzeny with a special mission known as Operation Greif.

Hitler called Skorzeny to his headquarters in October 1944 to give him his orders in person. Skorzeny had led secret missions for Hitler before, including the rescue of Benito Mussolini, but this would be his largest and most complex. He was to equip and train a unit of commandos that would advance alongside the 6th Panzer Army—the vanguard of the offensive’s northern thrust. In addition to seizing at least one bridge over the Meuse, the commandos would use espionage and sabotage to sow chaos in the Allied rear.

To do this, Skorzeny would rely on deception, employing English-speaking troops in US Army uniforms and equipment. Hitler told Skorzeny that the Allies had used this same ruse in recent battles. He assured his loyal commando that posing as Americans would only violate the laws of war if the German soldiers engaged in combat while disguised.

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Have They Ever Been Punched in the Mouth?

The average officer coming into law enforcement in 2025 was born in the late 1990s. They are, undeniably, from the generation that was taught anger and aggression were to be avoided. Fighting is “never acceptable.”

They weren’t given toy guns. They couldn’t play cops and robbers on the playground. If they got a B, parents put stickers on minivans applauding the mediocre accomplishments of their special children. They were rarely yelled at and lived under the parental umbrella of safety from all pain and discomfort.

An exaggeration? You decide. But again, inarguably, they lacked independence during their formidable years which is contrary to the entire history of human beings. They were certainly not allowed to disappear on their own, going outside for 8, 10, 12 hours and coming home only when the streetlights came on. They missed out on the all-important interaction lessons necessary for independent growth and maturity.

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Primary Concerns

"While there is some concern of over penetration with a handgun cartridge, your primary concern should be that your defensive round of choice will have sufficient penetration to reach vital organs and cause incapacitating blood loss in an attacker."

On the surface the statement is clearly logical enough, provided we remove one aspect of it.

"... your primary concern should be ...."

Lest you ever find yourself in a lethal use of force encounter...or potential lethal use of force encounter, sufficient penetration of your ammo is far from the primary concern. Your primary concern is to make sure that what you are seeing is in fact accurate, ala use exemplary judgement.

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Lesson from Pistol Competition -- Stress-testing your shooting skills

At the first Bianchi Cup in 1979, Massad Ayoob shot on the same squad as his friend Jim Cirillo, the legendary NYPD Stakeout Squad gunfighter. As they walked between stages, Cirillo blurted, “Jesus Christ, I never felt this much pressure in any of my gunfights!” Mas asked him why and he replied, “There weren’t all these people watching you, and there wasn’t all this time to build up to it!”

Just as there are lessons learned in race car driving that can translate to the street in terms of both more-capable vehicles and more-capable “emergency drivers,” there are things you can learn from the competition arena. These things translate directly to real-world handgun needs, including life-saving situations like those of Cirillo — who said that the best gunfighters on his squad were the ones who shot matches.  

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Well: Sucks to be a Mullah Right Now

1983: proxies for the Iranian mullahs car-bomb the US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Seventeen Americans killed. 

1983: proxies for the Iranian mullahs car-bomb the US Marine barracks in Lebanon and killed 241 US servicemen.

1984: proxies for the Iranian mullahs kidnap the CIA station chief in Lebanon, and spend 15 months torturing him -- We know this, because the Iranian proxies sent us video recordings of the torture sessions.

1984: proxies for the Iranian mullahs hi-jacked aircraft, singled out American passengers, and murdered them.

1988: proxies for the Iranian mullahs kidnapped the head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Lebanon — an American — and tortured him. They sent us a video of his murder via slow strangulation when they got bored with the torture.

1996 to 1998: proxies for the Iranian mullahs car-bombed US Air Force housing in Saudi Arabia, and United States embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, killing Americans.

2003 to 2011: the mullahs set up a factory making Explosively-Formed Penetrators of a Russian design, and trained militiamen in their use for the specific purpose of attacking US service members in Iraq. They succeeded in killing or injuring several hundred US troops with these EFPs.

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Wednesday Wisdom: 4 March 2026

Medal of Honor: Captain Albert Harold Rooks

For extraordinary heroism, outstanding courage, gallantry in action, and distinguished service in the line of his profession, as commanding officer of the U.S.S. Houston during the period from 4 to 27 February 1942, while in action with superior Japanese enemy aerial and surface forces. While proceeding to attack an enemy amphibious expedition, as a unit in a mixed force, Houston was heavily attacked by bombers; after evading four attacks, she was heavily hit in a fifth attack, lost 60 killed and had one turret wholly disabled. Captain Rooks made his ship again seaworthy and sailed within three days to escort an important reinforcing convoy from Darwin to Koepang, Timor, Netherlands East Indies. While so engaged, another powerful air attack developed which by Houston's marked efficiency was fought off without much damage to the convoy.

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Avoidance: Could You Have Safely Not Been There at All?

Comment: This opens to a FaceBook link.  You do not need to log into FaceBook to read the article however, just close the log in window. 

If innocence is about who lit the fuse, imminence is about whether it’s burning, and proportionality is about matching force, avoidance is the question everyone argues about after the fact: could you have safely not been there at all?

This is where otherwise solid self-defense claims don’t usually fail because of bad intentions. They fail because hindsight gets weaponized. Fear collapses time. Prosecutors stretch distance. Jurors imagine exits that didn’t feel real in the moment. Minnesota is not a stand-your-ground state. But it also isn’t a retreat-at-all-costs state. The duty to retreat exists only when retreat is reasonably possible and safe, and it primarily matters in cases involving deadly force. That qualifier does real work.

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Brass Matters: Variance, Longevity, and the Hidden Geometry of Case Life

Most people do not come to reloading because they are chasing some idealized version of precision or because they want to spend their evenings measuring things most people never think about. They come because factory ammunition became expensive, scarce, or unreliable, and reloading offered a way to regain some control over cost, availability, and consistency without depending on whatever happened to be on a store shelf that week. The press gets mounted, dies get set up, powders get compared, and the process starts to feel familiar. Brass, meanwhile, tends to get treated as a reusable container rather than a variable, something you keep using until it obviously fails and then replace without much thought.

That approach works for a while. Then it quietly stops working, usually in ways that cost money rather than announce themselves as a clear problem.

Brass is the only component in the reloading process that is expected to survive repeated firings, and it is also the only one that carries forward a record of everything that has happened to it. Every firing changes its shape slightly. Every sizing pass works the material a little more. Every decision about how hard a load is pushed or how aggressively a case is sized leaves behind evidence, whether the reloader notices it at the time or not.

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In Other News, 9th Century Tribesmen--Are Acting Like It's The 9th Century

The bleeding hearts of the United States have discovered that the Afghanistan Taliban are . . . acting like the Taliban. Huh. A couple of Women’s Studies types are all a-twitter because the Taliban have announced a permanent ban on the education of women. Oh, darlins, where the hell have y’all been the last four years? I ask, because — 2021 — is when the little bugsnipes started enforcing the ban which has y’all’s jimmies all rustled. Four years later.

What is new but what the pastel-coiffed types seem to be quietly overlooking, is the updated Penal Code the Taliban rolled out on 04 JAN 2026. While slavery is a de facto part of life in the Middle East, the new Taliban Penal Code makes it a de jure fact. Let me re-phrase that: they have acknowledged and written the status of slave into their law. 

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Understanding the Flashlight Hot Spot and Beam Pattern

When you turn on a flashlight, the light it emits forms a pattern known as the flashlight beam. This beam consists of distinct parts, each serving a unique purpose. The hot spot, located at the center, is the brightest and most focused area. Surrounding it, the spill provides broader, less intense illumination. These elements work together to shape how effectively a flashlight performs in different scenarios. This article details everything you might ever want to know about flashlight beams.

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Features of the Active Killer

A Ron Borsch summary concerning his research into the features of "active killers” as of May 2009. Ron at that time managed the Southeast Area Law Enforcement (SEALE) Regional Training Academy in Bedford, OH, and had been researching features of active killer incidents for a number of years.

Borsch defines an active killer as a mass murderer (four or more victims are intentionally murdered in the same episode and location) whose acts take place in no more than 20 minutes. This definition encompasses every active killer event since Charles Whitman’s rifle rampage at the University of Texas in 1966, and including the Columbine High School horror, among others. Borsch has analyzed almost 100 incidents. Borsch’s research shows that the modus operandi of active killers has remained consistent through time, and this knowledge has shaped his training for LEOs.

Comment: From what I can tell, Ron Borsch no longer openly publishes his research (at least I cannot find it).  However, Ed Monk does conduct seminars and instructor courses concerning mass shooting events.  For more about Ed's training: Click Here. I attended Ed's Instructor Course and wrote an after class review: Click Here. I have also published my own research on school shootings: Click Here

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 They Wear Our Faces

A Scam "Closure Sale" Website

AI-powered scam trends continue to emerge. In the US, Bitdefender has flagged a scam campaign using AI-generated photos and emotional ad copy used in “closure sales,” where fake websites create urgency around disappearing deals. With AI, even non-English-speaking cybercriminals can effortlessly generate polished English content, making their scams more convincing than ever. (Comment: Prior to encountering this article, I visited this website without realizing it was a scam.)

The United States has become the world’s primary hunting ground for scammers. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reports that Americans alone accounted for more than $12.5 billion in reported fraud losses in 2024, a dramatic increase from previous years. Unlike most other countries, scams in the US use every possible channel—email, SMS, social media, and even seemingly legitimate digital ads. For American consumers, distinguishing between genuine offers and fraudulent pitches has never been more challenging.

Bitdefender data confirms this. Between March and September 2025, the United States received nearly 37% of global spam, making it the world’s primary target. Within those emails, 45% of the global spam received by Americans was fraudulent or malicious. The leading threats flagged by Bitdefender Antispam Lab were scams, such as account and financial phishing, advance fee fraud, extortion attempts, and even dating scams. The most impersonated brands reflect the everyday services Americans rely on: Microsoft (18%), Costco (14%), Amazon (12%), American Express (10%), and DocuSign (10%) were among the top lures used to trick users into clicking malicious links or sharing sensitive data. 

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Maintaining the Edge: How Much Practice is Enough?

How much practice — dry practice and range time — is enough to maintain acceptable levels of defensive shooting skill? This article explores an IDPA six-gun Master (achieved with the original IDPA 90 round classifier) and well-documented shooting skills who, because of medical challenges, was effectively unable to practice his pistol skills at all for six months. Once he had recovered enough to begin practicing once again, we documented his progress over five practice sessions. 

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The Price of Forgetting Danger

Every civilization that rises to power eventually faces the most dangerous test of all: surviving its own success. Warrior cultures do not collapse because a stronger enemy defeats them. They collapse because they become so effective at providing safety that their own people forget the conditions that required warriors in the first place. Peace, prosperity, and comfort disconnect a society from the ancient realities of predation. Once the memory of danger fades, the virtues that once guarded the people begin to look unnecessary, then primitive, and finally offensive to those who no longer understand them. This dynamic is not cultural myth making; it is rooted in the basic evolutionary logic that shaped human behavior under conditions where violence, risk, and inter-group conflict were central forces.

Human beings are shaped by millions of years of evolution in environments where danger was constant. Courage, discipline, loyalty, readiness, and controlled aggression were not cultural decorations; they were survival strategies selected for in contexts of frequent threat and coalitionary violence. But when a society becomes peaceful for long enough, experience no longer reinforces these traits. A population raised far from hardship unconsciously selects for gentler dispositions, the kind that thrive in safety but fail catastrophically when the world becomes serious again. 

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Common 2011 Pistol Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)

If you enjoy firearms games (nothing wrong with that) and you have a “2011” platform, this video may be worth watching. The video discusses common safety and handling issues with 2011-style pistols, especially those with very light competition triggers. The speakers explain that these guns are more prone to negligent discharges if the shooter disengages the safety too early, touches or “preps” the trigger before sights are on target or tries to stage the trigger during target transitions. They emphasize that the safety should only come off once the gun is fully out of the holster and under control, and that trigger contact should happen only when the shooter intends to fire. Proper dry-fire practice, deliberate safety manipulation, and placing the trigger finger firmly on the frame during reloads are highlighted as essential habits for running a 2011 safely and effectively.

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Fastest Draw vs Reality | What Actually Works 

In this video, Mas breaks down the idea of the “fastest draw” and why speed alone isn’t the right metric in the real world. Drawing a firearm isn’t about winning a race — it’s about control, judgment, and protecting everyone involved in the situation. He discusses several common draw techniques and explains how experienced professionals balance speed with safety, legal considerations, and accountability. The focus isn’t just on how quickly a firearm leaves the holster, but on avoiding unintentional discharges, maintaining intentional control, and ensuring that every action is deliberate and justified. This discussion highlights why real-world effectiveness looks very different from competition using timers and why the best draw is one that prioritizes awareness, responsibility, and sound decision-making over raw speed.

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Any Doubt? Put Your Hand on the Pistol

While we are on the topic of drawing, we did a study where we timed the draws of 264 individuals over a period of several years during our local IDPA and Short Range matches. We measured 1,843 specific instances of drawing the pistol and firing a shot from concealment, 967 draws with the pistol not concealed, and 892 instances when the competitor started with their hand on the holstered pistol. We only included instances where the competitor's shot stuck inside the -1 or -0 of the standard IDPA target in the data set.

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Rideout Arsenal’s Dragon

Rideout Arsenal designed the Dragon from the ground up to be the fastest follow up shot competition pistol on the market. We've done this by addressing the primary delay between shots, reaquiring a sight picture. All traditional handguns place the barrel bore axis well above the shooters hand. This results in muzzle flip as recoil forces impart a twisting torque on shooters grip. The shooter then needs to push the barrel back down on target and line up the sight on target. Moving the bore in line with the web of the shooters hand essentially eliminates recoil induced muzzle rise. The smooth operating lever delayed blowback operating system gently applies recoil forces to the shooter resulting in a very flat and controllable shooting experience.

The Dragon uses a forward-mounted lever delayed blowback operating system. A lever mounted at the front of the bolt interfaces with the bolt carrier. When a cartridge is fired, the expanding gas pushes against the bolt face, initiating rearward movement. However, the lever's geometry and placement creates a mechanical disadvantage that delays the bolt's rearward travel. The lever pivots and transfers the force to the bolt carrier, effectively multiplying the apparent weight of the bolt. This delay allows the pressure in the barrel to drop to a safe level before the bolt unlocks and cycles. Once the pressure drops, the bolt and bolt carrier move together rearward, ejecting the spent case and loading a new round. 

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Wednesday Wisdom: 25 February 2026

Medal of Honor: Forrest Lee "Woody" Vosler 

For conspicuous gallantry in action against the enemy above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a radio operator-air gunner on a heavy bombardment aircraft in a mission over Bremen, Germany, 20 December 1943. After bombing the target, antiaircraft fire severely damaged the aircraft in which TSgt. Vosler (US Army Air Corps) was serving, forced it out of formation, and immediately subjected it to repeated vicious enemy fighter attacks. 

Early in the engagement a 20-mm cannon shell exploded in the radio compartment, painfully wounding T/Sgt. Vosler in the legs and thighs. At about the same time a direct hit on the tail of the ship seriously wounded the tail gunner and rendered the tail guns inoperative. Realizing the great need for firepower in protecting the vulnerable tail of the ship, T/Sgt. Vosler, with grim determination, kept up a steady stream of deadly fire. 

Shortly thereafter another 20-mm enemy shell exploded, wounding T/Sgt. Vosler in the chest and about the face. Pieces of metal lodged in both eyes, impairing his vision to such extent that he could only distinguish blurred shapes. Displaying remarkable tenacity and courage, he kept firing his guns and declined to take first-aid treatment.

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Performance of the Winchester 9mm 147 Grain Subsonic Jacketed Hollow Point Bullet in Human Tissue and Tissue Stimulant 

This particular 9mm load was vilified in the late 1980s and early 1990s as an inadequate manstopper. The article discusses the performance of the Winchester 9mm 147 Grain Subsonic JHP and correlates the load’s performance on the street with tests done in 10% ordnance gelatin. The San Diego Police Crime Laboratory reviewed twenty-seven shootings. The lab measured penetration depth of the 147 grain Winchester Subsonic JHP bullet in living human tissue at autopsy and measured the bullet's expansion from the recovered bullets. The lab compared the recovered autopsy bullets to the 147 grain Winchester Subsonic load’s performance in 10% ordnance gelatin shot at 4 degrees Centigrade. The lab found a close correlation.

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You Get What You Vote For: Repeat Offender Attacks 75-Year-Old Woman in Downtown Seattle

SEATTLE — Newly-released videos show the moments a man attacked a woman at random outside the King County Courthouse in downtown Seattle earlier this month. Fale Vaigalepa Pea, 42, was armed with a wooden board that had a screw through the end of it and used both hands to swing the weapon and strike the victim, 75-year-old Jeanette Marken, in the face, according to charges filed in King County Superior Court. The Seattle Police Real Time Crime Center recorded a video of the incident which has since been taken down.

Family members stated that the hit gouged out Marken's eye and she learned that she will not recover her eyesight in the affected eye. "To take a wood club with nails and hit her at full force in the face? I don't understand it," said Andrius Dyrikis, the victim's son.

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“The Gun Just Went Off! I Didn’t Pull the Trigger, Honest!”

Most of the time when someone characterizes a firearm discharge as "accidental," they should be saying it was a negligent discharge. Aside from the profoundly rare instances of firearms discharging because of an inherent mechanical malfunction, there are several other causes of unintended firearm discharges, from human performance errors – all of which have occurred, and not infrequently, in all groups of firearms users, civilians, police and military. In the law enforcement realm, unintended firearms discharges occur every year in North America. While most of these discharges result in minimal property damage and no human injury, occasionally the most tragic outcome of serious injury or death, to a civilian or fellow law enforcement officer, does occur.

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Local Governments Illegally Confiscating Firearms

Armed Attorneys Richard Hayes and Leslie Cross break down a troubling trend we’re seeing across Texas and beyond: police departments illegally withholding law-abiding gun owner’s firearms — even when no charges are filed. (Comment: I’m guessing this is happening most often in Texas's larger cities or counties)

In many recent cases, individuals are investigated, released, and never charged with a crime. Yet when they attempt to recover their lawfully owned firearms, police departments refuse to return them unless the owner obtains a judge’s signed court order or a “motion to return property.” If you legally carry a  firearm — this is an episode you might need to watch.

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Firearms Handling Refresher Part I: Handguns

While gun handling is not a perishable skill, it is certainly a corrosion-prone one. The skills don’t really die, but they sure can get rusty fast. The reader suggested that Backwoods Home’s firearms editor write a sort of handling refresher on firearms. John liked the idea, Dave Duffy concurred, and so did the gun editor. That’s all it takes, folks; Backwoods Home is your magazine, and the staff takes your suggestions seriously. Since the reader’s problems were with handguns, we’ll start there with this installment. 

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When you import the 3rd World; You get 3rd World values.

I lived many years in third world countries. Bribery is a way of life and often you cannot get a government employee to do their job without a bribe.

The ability of the average American to remain convinced that the entire World is just like them is rather cute. The ability of the average American leader — who is supposed to know better — to do the same is aggravating and dangerous.

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Don't Use FMJ Ammo for Self-Defense

Occasionally I'll see someone using cheap, ball ammo for self-defense. Sometimes this is borne out of simple frugality. More frequently it is the result of misunderstanding how modern, expanding, hollowpoint ammunition behaves. In this article I hope to convince you otherwise. Bottom line up front: don't use FMJ ammo for self-defense if (and only if) you have better options available.

Hollowpoints, as the name implies, have a hollow cavity at the tip of the bullet. Upon encountering fluid-filled tissue, a hydraulic action occurs, forcing the bullet to expand or "mushroom." Expansion is generally a good thing. Rather than making a very narrow, ice-pick style wound channel, expanding bullets cut a much wider wound track, which is more likely to cause rapid blood loss. Their larger diameter is also slightly more likely to strike a critical organ or structure.

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Uvalde Police Officer Who Hesitated Cleared of Any Wrongdoing

Every police officer in the country knows what to do if they’re ever at a school and some madman starts killing children: Run toward the danger and shoot the murderer until he’s very, very dead. Tactically, it’s pretty simple. It’s what police are trained to do.

Nowadays, officers no longer wait for SWAT to arrive if some maniac is shooting kids. It becomes an individual officer’s responsibility, because every second that tics by means another innocent child could be shot and killed.

If you can’t handle this responsibility, don’t ever raise your hand, take an oath and pin on a badge.

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Mindset and Decision Making

Caleb Causey of Lone Star Medics related a mind-boggling story recently about one form of mindset. He posed questions to some friends in the context of encountering two burglars in their home. The concept of giving scenarios and asking people questions about their anticipated reactions is often far more effective than pontificating about what they ‘need’ to do.

The friends are a couple who have a 10 year old son. The wife is a petite woman who is a practitioner of boxing; good for her. What Caleb did was to posit a scenario of initial violence and asked her what she would do. She replied she would fight them. Since the scenario was two burglars whose combined weight was three to four times hers, he continued escalating the scenario in his questions. In the event her resistance was overcome by the two burglars, the sequence of escalation he gave was: 

  -- her being badly beaten in the fight,
  -- her being raped,
  -- her child being raped,
  -- both of them being murdered.

The lady’s reply to the escalation of murder was the above quote about ‘being with Jesus.’ She apparently had accepted that as an outcome. However, her husband, who was listening to the conversation, did not find that acceptable. At the time of the conversation, they owned no weapons, other than perhaps a butcher knife. 

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The SSD-A Pistol Standards: A Low Light Test Update

Research indicates that criminals often choose the darkness or low light conditions to pursue their nefarious profession. A significant number of shootings involving police officers happen at night as well. Criminals view darkness as an asset and use it as an advantage against those whom they would victimize. These realities mean that if you are forced to defend yourself, odds are it will happen under low light conditions; however, few people pursue low light training even when the opportunity exists. 

Although shooting accurately with a flashlight is much more challenging than simply using a normal two-handed stance, my experience with students who have been practicing over the past several years is that low light mastery (like all shooting skills) comes with practice and the proper equipment. 

As of February 2026, I have participated in four Sensible Self Defense Academy (SSD-A) Low Light Matches(1) so far in this low light season. I have done well with my every day carry pistol (EDC), starting from concealment—just like I carry the pistol. In the matches I use a hand-held light since I do not have a light on my EDC pistol.

SSD-A Pistol Standards 

However, I wanted to test my skills using the SSD-A Pistol Standards under low light conditions. The pistol standards is a course of fire that gained inspiration from the Short Combat Accuracy Test that Tom Givens of Range Master conducts in his Advanced Instructor Course. (2) The SSD-A Pistol Standards are as follows:

Start all strings of fire with flashlight in hand, pistol concealed, hand at sides, drawing from the holster. 

-- Strings 1 & 2: At 3 yards, draw and shoot three hits on the target, do this two times.

-- String 3: At 5 yards, draw and shoot three hits on the target, do this one time.

-- String 4: At 5 yards, draw and shoot two hits on the body and one hit in the ocular cavity. Do this one time.

-- String 5: At seven yards, draw and shoot four hits on the body, reload, and shoot four hits on the body. Do this one time.

Target: The target we use for the Standards is the Shoot Steel cardboard target with a custom scoring area. The chest five-point area measures 6 x 10 inches. The ocular cavity five-point area is a triangle that measures 5 x 3 inches. We cover targets with a t-shirt or something similar so the shooter must aim at the anatomically correct (upper center chest) scoring area to achieve proper hits (see target image below).

Scoring: Hits inside the chest scoring area or the ocular cavity are five points. Hits outside the chest scoring area or the ocular cavity are three points. Hits cutting a line count for the higher score; however, hits outside the chest scoring area or the ocular cavity must have the bullet’s full diameter to count. We score edge hits as a miss.

The final score is calculated as follows: Record each string time and add together for a total time. Divide total points by total time, for an Index. Multiply index by 20 for a final score. The par score is 100; the goal is a score above 100. I use Tom’s scale to categorize the low light results as follows: 80-100 Competent; 101-125 Advanced; 126+ Highly Skilled. 

What I failed to state in the original version of this article: I designed this drill for daylight, two-handed shooting.  Obviously, low light drawing and reloading is inherently slower with a flashlight in hand. I compared numerous shooter's Highly Skilled times in daylight with their performance using the same firearm and a hand held light in low light.  The average time in low light was twenty-five'ish percent slower (even more on average for the reload) so I adjusted the times by multiplying by 75 percent. Thanks to Karl Rehn of KR Training for pointing out my omission.

My Performance 

 

For this particular test, I used the Building Shooters NURO® Shooting System to time my runs. The NURO® Shooting System uses visual start and stop threat cues. The target on the right has the red pistol start signal illuminated. My score on run #1 (shot cold) was a 124 with my P320 EDC pistol using reloaded ammunition that match the Hornady Critical Duty 135gr standard pressure load’s performance. My score on run #2 was a 101 with my P365 alternate EDC pistol using the same reloaded ammunition.

Flashlights 

Through experimentation over the past several years we have confirmed much of the conventional wisdom concerning low light gear. While the 60 lumens Surefire 6P was certainly state of the art decades ago, modern high intensity lights have come into their own. We have discovered that a powerful light (300 lumens and up) overpowers a weaker light and permits the shooter to identify and engage targets that might otherwise be hidden from view—someone standing behind a car’s headlights for example. 

The spot size of the flashlight beam and the beam’s spill are also important. Ideally when you illuminate a threat you want the spot shining directly in their eyes. Some lights have a very small spot designed to throw the light over longer distances. While this works well as a spotlight, it loses effectiveness when used as a self-defense light because the narrow spot requires too much precision to effectively blind the threat. A flashlight with a large spot requires less precision and therefore works better in this regard.

The flashlight’s spill is the amount of light surrounding the spot. A light with a generous spill allows you to see things or people you might not otherwise see. There are many good flashlights on the market that meet these requirements.

How about a flashlight on the pistol? We have had several police officers who attend our low light classes and matches, and some are issued pistols with mounted lights. I have no objection to pistol mounted lights, and they can make accurately engaging a threat much easier with the proper switch configuration. However, I believe everyone should master the hand-held light techniques for several reasons. Searching with a mounted light virtually guarantees that you will point the pistol in unsafe direction or at an innocent at some point. Police might get away with pointing their pistols about in this manner, a private citizen might get charged with aggravated assault. 

Challenges 

When I first started teaching low light classes (2014) we discovered that the two biggest challenges for shooters was recognizing the threat targets in decision-based scenarios and then hitting the threats. When initially exposed to low light problems, even very accomplished shooters who have very little difficultly hitting a target under normal lighting conditions often go through an adjustment period as they learn low light techniques. 

So what is posing a challenge for them under low lighting conditions? Almost every student with iron sights initially shoots high on the target or often over it. We discovered that shooters were subconsciously tilting the pistol up slightly to see the front sight better in the low light. 

Regardless of the lighting conditions, you must properly align iron sights and then concentrate on the front sight while simultaneously pressing the trigger. Hard to do under normal circumstances with good light--more difficult to do under low lighting conditions. 

The shooter in the image below is properly executing the Harries Technique with iron sights.  She is using a flashlight she borrowed from me for the match. This particular light has a very large spot and spill.  As you can see, it literally lit up the entire area. The targets are 15-yards from the shooter and you can see smoke from the shot she just fired.

Shooters with an optic on their pistol often have trouble finding the dot when they use low light techniques such as the Harries, the FBI Search, or the syringe if they do not grip the pistol properly and execute the technique correctly. 

Practice 

You must practice low light techniques to have any hope of using them under stress. Using a light in conjunction with a handgun is something that you cannot practice once and get it down pat. Thankfully you can practice the techniques with live fire during daylight if your range won’t allow night shooting. So how do you practice engaging multiple threats and shooting on the move with these techniques? 

If your local range has IDPA matches, shoot the course of fire using your flashlight if the match director will permit it. You likely won’t win the match; however, you will learn how to shoot and manipulate your pistol under some stress. Practicing how to search a structure (like your house when nobody is home) in the dark is important as well. DO this with AN UNLOADED PISTOL (check it 3 times!) or a dummy gun. This helps you identify how the various angles and corners in your house make one technique a better option than the other. 

Conclusion 

To my knowledge, no data exists concerning private citizen-involved shootings with criminals under low light conditions; however, since a lot of criminal activity occurs after dark we can assume that there is a likely correlation. There are several reasons to use a flashlight: to observe and detect, to illuminate and navigate, to eliminate anonymity, and to identify and engage threats. Used properly, a flashlight lets you see danger before it can affect you and it can encourage danger waiting in the dark to go elsewhere. 

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(1) We conduct these matches every year at Cedar Ridge Range, just north of San Antonio, TX.  We run matches once or twice a month (holiday and weather dependent) from November through March.

(2) I graduated from Tom’s Advanced Instructor Course in 2022. For Rangemaster’s SCAT go to: https://snubnoir.com/blog/2023/01/25/scat-drill/