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T H E U LT I M A T E R E S O U R C E F O R T H E A R M E D C I T I Z E N 

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CONTENTS 

28 the polite society 

and the psychologist 

BY glenn e. meyer, ph.d 

22 milt sparks 

executive companion 

BY tony walker 

24 national tactical invitational: 

higher education for those 

serious about self defense 

BY tom givens 

32 taser tactics: 

four simple rules 

BY don stahlnecker 

36 taser technology 

BY tim thorstenson 

40 Taser Tools: C2 Electrifies 

Civilian Market 

BY duane a. daiker 

AUG/SEPT 2009 

COLUMNS 

08 

THE 

ORDINARY GUY 

Nothing Catches God 

By Surprise 

BY MARK WALTERS 

12 

SIG SAUER 

ACADEMY 

Working The Gun 

With The 

Non-Dominant Hand 

BY GEORGE HARRIS 

14 

STREET 

TACTICS 

Notes From Five Years 

Of Force On Force 

BY GABE SUAREZ 

18 

PROFILE 

The Invisible Man 

And His Wife 

42 

FROM 

INCIDENT TO 

ACQUITTAL 

Trial Day: It’s Show Time! 

BY MARTY HAYES, JD 

44 

IT’S JUST 

THE LAW 

Victims’ Rights 

BY K.L. JAMISON 

46 

Real world 

carry gear 

BY duane a. daiker 

50 

ARMED 

SENIOR 

CITIZEN 

Teaching An Old Dog 

New Tricks 

BY BRUCE N. EIMER, 

Ph.D. 

54 

BALLISTIC 

BASICS 

Hollowpoints And 

Roundnoses 

BY DENNIS CANTRELL 

DEPARTMENTS 

04 

TIM’S THOUGHTS 

06 

LETTERS TO 

THE EDITOR 

07 

TRUE STORIES 

3

CONCEALED CARRY 

MAGAZINE 

Volume 6 - Aug/Sept 2009 

Publisher & Editor 

Timothy J. Schmidt 

Managing Editor 

Kathy Jackson 

Art Director 

Betty Shonts 

Circulation Manager 

Laura Otto 

Copy Editor 

John Higgs 

Column Editors 

Dennis Cantrell 

Duane A. Daiker 

Bruce N. Eimer, Ph.D 

George Harris 

Marty Hayes, J.D. 

K.L. Jamison 

Gabriel Suarez 

Mark A. Walters 

Contributing Writers 

Tom Givens 

Glenn E. Meyer, Ph.D 

Don Stahlnecker 

Tim Thorstenson 

Tony Walker 

Advertising Sales 

Bob Cole 

360-665-0542 

E-mail: bobcole@centurytel.net 

Signed articles in Concealed Carry Magazine 

reflect the views of the author, and are not necessarily 

the views of the editors at Delta Media, LLC. 

The claims and opinions in the paid advertisements 

published in this magazine are not necessarily the 

claims and opinions of Delta Media, LLC. Delta Media, 

LLC takes no responsibility for these views, claims or 

opinions. Concealed Carry Magazine and the U.S. Concealed 

Carry Association are registered trademarks 

of Delta Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 

2004-2009 by Delta Media, LLC. Reproduction, copying, 

or distribution of Concealed Carry Magazine is 

prohibited without written permission. 

Published for U.S. Concealed Carry by: 

tIM’S THOUGHTS 

There’s Always a Silver Lining... 

Armed American Radio goes NATIONAL! 

Even though I try to insulate myself from the news as much as possible, I 

still end up listening to Rush Limbaugh almost every day, so it is difficult 

to not hear about all the crazy things our current president is trying to do. 

Yes, socialism is now alive and well in the United States of America. It is hard 

to believe. I’m sure the patriots who shed 

their own blood to start this country are 

rolling over in their graves! 

But every once in awhile something happens 

that reminds me of how blessed I am. 

Sure, almost every freedom in our country 

is in trouble, but things could certainly 

be a lot worse. It is times like these that 

remind me to be grateful for all the blessings 

in my life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not 

getting soft! I’ll continue to fight this “soft 

war” for freedom until the day I die! 

My wife and I took the kids on a vacation 

this summer and we really had a blast just 

spending a lot of time together. My kids are growing up so fast... it is really amazing! 

They are turning into interesting little young adults. 

I challenge YOU to look for all the blessings in your life. Sometimes they’re 

right under your nose! 

Be safe and God bless, 

NEWS FLASH: Armed American Radio launches NATIONAL 

P.S. syndication. 

July 12th, 2009, marks the birth of the nationally syndicated Armed American 

Radio Network. Yep, that’s right, the USCCA started a local radio program recently 

and it has caught fire. In less than two weeks of national syndication, 

we’ve already picked up 6 affiliates and we’re in contract negotiations with another 

4 stations. Please help us continue the spread of the Armed American 

Radio Network by calling your local talk radio station and asking them to carry 

Armed American Radio. Visit www.ArmedAmericanRadio.org for more details. 

AUG/SEPT 2009 COVER 

Here is the Schmidt family sitting 

in a restaurant in Boston, MA. I just 

can’t believe how fast the kids are 

growing up. Heck, my 11 year old 

son is almost as tall as my wife! 

PHOTOGRAPHER: Oleg Volk 

MODELS: To learn more about the mystery couple on the cover, 

read their profile on page 18. 

4 

N173W21298 Northwest Passage Way, 

Jackson, WI 53037 

(877) 677-1919 • Customer Service 

(262) 677-8877 • U.S. Concealed Carry 

Concealed Carry Magazine - Aug/Sept 2009 Issue; 

August 21, 2009 (USPS: 022-302, ISSN: 1550-7866) 

is published 8 times per year for $37.00 per year by 

Delta Media, LLC, N173W21298 Northwest Passage 

Way, Jackson, WI 53037. Periodicals postage paid at 

Jackson, WI and additional mailing offices. 

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: 

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Passage Way, Jackson, WI 53037. 

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Become a USCCA member and have Concealed Carry Magazine 

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USCCA website, forums, PDF downloads and more! 

USCONCEALEDCARRY.COM n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2009

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 

Editor: 

I just received the latest edition of your 

magazine (July 2009). I have to take exception 

to your cover photo showing one of 

the women with a drawn revolver. Loaded 

or not, the photographer was downrange. 

This is an unsafe situation and was disappointing 

to see in a magazine that advocates 

safety and personal protection. Don’t 

we assume that a gun is always loaded? 

Charlie W. 

Delaware 

As noted in the cover page description on 

page 4, the participants were using inert 

dummy guns. CCM’s general policy on photos 

is to avoid doing anything that might 

get our photographer shot. ~ Editor 

Editor: 

Gabe Suarez’s article “In Steel We Learn 

the Truth” (May/June 2009) offers much 

to be commended but it offers a “fool’s 

choice,” implying that there are only two 

choices when there are actually more. 

While force on force training certainly 

has a place, it should not take the place 

of standard range training. Getting used 

to the noise and the recoil, and learning 

to throw a bullet downrange to hit what 

you’re aiming at are essential skills that require 

a conventional range. 

Military and police have proven this concept. 

They first familiarize their personnel 

with empty weapons via close-order drills, 

take-downs, and reassemblies. This is followed 

by standard range training on sight 

picture, shooting positions, trigger control 

and other skills with live rounds. Finally 

they engage in combat training using live 

incoming rounds (tactical course) and 

media-based tools. It’s a common-sense 

transition from one skill set to another and 

ALL of the skill sets are valuable. 

Force on force ranges and Airsoft tactical 

activities are wonderful follow-on training 

methods but not a replacement. 

Bill Card 

Editor: 

In his “From Incident to Acquittal” series, 

Marty Hayes is quite right to warn 

readers against and prepare them for the 

often baffling and sometimes ugly realities 

of the legal system. As an attorney who has 

defended some innocent but nonetheless 

vigorously prosecuted defendants, I can 

tell you that most people, whose ideas 

have been formed by TV cop shows, simplistically 

believe that the criminal law 

process is all about determining whether 

or not someone did something. But in 

many cases -- and self-defense cases are 

good examples -- the issue is not what 

someone did but rather the much trickier 

questions of (1) why he or she did it and 

(2) whether that was legally a good enough 

reason for doing it. The answer to the first 

will be guessed at by people who were not 

there at the time -- don’t count on them 

just taking your word for why you shot the 

guy -- and the second is, in practice, open 

to a surprising range of interpretation by 

police officers, prosecutors, and judges. 

And yes, once a decision is made to arrest 

and prosecute, the focus of any further official 

investigation will be to find evidence 

leading to conviction, not necessarily to 

truth. 

Pay close attention to Marty Hayes. The 

man knows what he is talking about. 

Michael W. Woodward, J.D., M.A. 

Florida 

Editor: 

I am absolutely appalled after reading 

the article concerning Uli Gebhard and 

the proposed revocation of his and many 

others concealed carry permits (CCM profile, 

May/June 2009). I’m a retired Police 

Lieutenant from the St. Louis metro area, 

with 31 years of service, and a graduate of 

the FBI National Academy at Quantico. I 

have to say that I am completely ashamed 

that Sheriff Sandra Hutchens is a member 

of my profession. I have to assume that 

rather than being a real cop, she’s a member 

of the “bumbling bureaucrat” school 

of police administrators that far too many 

of us have seen as the leaders of many police 

departments during our careers. Real 

police officers know that it’s their duty 

to protect and defend the United States 

Constitution and the rights granted to citizens 

by that document. 

During my career, St. Louis had a high 

crime rate, and I can assure you that it 

wasn’t due to concealed carry permit holders 

running wild in the streets. As a matter 

of fact, Missouri didn’t even have concealed 

carry until 2003. I wish patriotic 

residents of Orange County good luck in 

removing Hutchens from office. 

Mike Powell 

Due to volume received, not all 

letters can be answered. Letters may 

be edited for space and clarity. 

Send your letters to: 

Concealed Carry Magazine 

Attn: Editor 

N173W21298 Northwest Passage Way, 

Jackson WI 53037 

Or email: 

editor@usconcealedcarry.com 

ACROSS THE 

EDITOR’S DESK 

E 

arlier this summer, one of my 

children suffered a broken bone, 

a typical summertime injury. As we 

sat in the doctor’s office, I suddenly 

realized that within the past few 

years, four of my friends have suffered 

various injuries that prevented 

each from being to shoot with the 

dominant hand for awhile. 

The day after one friend broke 

his arm, we headed to the range. 

Fortunately, he was well-practiced 

with the off hand already and just 

needed a quick brush up. He dug his 

left hand holster out of the holster 

box and went on with his life. One 

of my other friends also asked me to 

proctor a trip to the range after an 

injury, and did not fare so well. This 

person had never really shot with the 

non-dominant hand, so we needed 

to start from the very beginning, 

which was difficult because pain was 

a distraction. After a lot of work, I felt 

my friend was a lot safer and more 

able to use the firearm efficiently, but 

it sure would have been much easier 

if the learning process could have 

started when there was no injury and 

no pain to complicate matters. Also, 

this friend’s wait for a left-handed 

holster took almost as long as the 

healing process did. What a shame 

there wasn’t one in the holster box! 

You don’t have to become Wyatt 

Earp with either hand, but just familiarizing 

yourself with the basic 

manipulations and having the tools 

on hand will go a long way if you ever 

injure yourself and want to continue 

carrying a handgun. 

6 


TRUE STORIES 

CARRY A GUN... IT MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE. 

THEY ARE VERY LUCKY 

Michael Dawes, 38, was smoking a 

cigarette on his home street when Albert 

Torres Jr. and an unnamed 17-year-old 

approached him. They asked him if he 

had a dollar or some marijuana. Dawes 

replied no to both requests, and that’s 

when the two men attacked him. 

Dawes pulled out his registered handgun 

and fired in self-defense. He fired 

two shots, causing his assailants to flee. 

When police responded, Dawes told 

the police about a suspicious car he saw 

lurking around the area just before the 

incident. Police located the car, and inside 

were the two attackers. 

Torres was charged with robbery, conspiracy, 

attempted theft and simple assault. 

The unnamed youth was sent to 

juvenile detention. 

mcall.com 

SAMARITAN SAVES THE DAY 

A brazen attempted robbery took 

place at the Golden Food Market on 2701 

Jefferson Davis Highway, Richmond, VA. 

A robber entered the store, shot the 

store owner and opened fire on patrons. 

The owner’s friend, who was “wearing 

a holster with a Western-style revolver,” 

shot the man once in the torso, took the 

robber’s gun and called police. The assailant 

suffered a serious injury, and his 

current condition is unknown. The store 

owner’s injuries were not life-threatening. 

Councilwoman Reva Trammell, 

whose district includes the Golden Food 

Market, said the good samaritan was a 

guardian angel. “Whoever did it probably 

saved their lives in there,” she said. 

Anthony Gregory, a Golden Food patron, 

said he was in the store only 15 

mintures before the incident. He said a 

man with a baby was making a purchase 

and the store owner told the baby, ”Welcome 

to the world. This is a dangerous 

world, so be careful. But don’t worry, 

God will protect you.” 

timesdispatch.com 

ANOTHER LEXINGTON 

PIZZA MAN 

In two separate incidents within several 

months, Lexington pizza delivery 

men have been victims of attempted 

robberies. On March 7, a Pizza Hut delivery 

man shot and killed a 17 year-old 

assailant who was beating on him. 

In the second incident, another Lexington 

pizza delivery man had to use 

his handgun to defend himself. The unnamed 

Papa John’s delivery man was 

ambushed during a delivery to what 

turned out to be an abandoned house. 

His attacker, Raymond Antonio Metze, 

17, pointed a gun at him and demanded 

money. The delivery man gave him $200, 

but the robber continued to point the 

gun at him as he tried to leave. 

That’s when the pizza man fought 

back, drawing his 9mm handgun and 

shooting his attacker once in the chest. 

The suspect fled and was found later by 

police, after which he was airlifted to the 

hospital. Police say the pizza man will 

not be charged because he acted in selfdefense. 

thestate.com 

BOTCHED ROBBERY 

Two men decided to rob the Brew 

Thru in Barberton, Ohio, not knowing 

the store owner was armed. 

One of the men robbed a clerk, and 

the store owner, Morad A. Fares, fired 

back at the robbers. The robbers fled 

with an undisclosed amount of money. 

Fares told police that one of the men was 

armed. 

Later that day, a man with bullet 

wounds was dumped outside Akron 

General Hospital, where he later died. 

Police believe the deceased was the man 

Fares shot at in his store. The case remains 

under investigation. 

ohio.com 

RETENTION SKILLS 

WOULD BE HANDY 

At a southwest Houston mini-mart, 

two masked gunmen burst in and took 

the money in the register and tried to 

flee. Store clerk Amir Borhani, angry 

about his family store being robbed yet 

again, went after them. 

Borhani pursued the robbers, firing 

two shots. Then he went for the one 

holding the money. 

“He grabs my 

hand, knocks 

the gun out of 

my hand, and 

we both dive 

to the floor.” 

“I grabbed him, held his collar, put 

the gun to his head and said, don’t move 

or I’m going to shoot you. At that time 

he starts pleading please don’t shoot 

me. I don’t,” said Borhani. 

The robber handed over the money, 

but Borhani states, “He grabs my hand, 

knocks the gun out of my hand, and we 

both dive to the floor.” 

The two struggled for the gun, but 

Borhani grabbed it and tossed it out of 

reach. The robber struggled free and 

fled, but was hit by a passing motorist. 

The motorist, George Garcia, was shot 

by the suspect when he tried to help 

him. 

The robbers fled in a getaway car and 

have not yet been found, but police 

say they have enough evidence to find 

them. 

39online.com 

How would you have handled situations like these? Discuss scenarios and more online in the 

usconcealedcarry.com forums. Familiarize yourself with your local and state laws regarding self-defense. 

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2009 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n USCONCEALEDCARRY.COM 

7

THE ORDINARY GUY 

NOTHING CATCHES 

GOD BY SURPRISE 

[ B Y M A R K W A L T E R S ] 

May, 2006, Jacksonville, Florida, 1:30 a.m. 

The shotgun wielding 

thug moved to the rear 

“JORRICK!” 

passenger door, forced it open 

and slid into the back seat of the Landry 

family SUV. Sitting on the back seat was 

Zachias, seven years old, and now being 

forced over to the other side of the seat 

by a shotgun toting madman. “Kids? Let 

me see some mother%$& kids,” yelled 

18-year old Jabray Davias Jones from 

inside the vehicle. 

Sitting up front in the passenger 

seat was Jorrick Landry, and alongside 

him in the driver’s seat was his wife 

Vernalise, cradling their two-year old 

daughter, Anaiyah. In the far back seat 

of the SUV sat their ten-year old son, 

Drevon. Jorrick watched the terrifying 

events unfolding before him, and with 

seconds to act to save his family, he 

reached frantically for the console while 

Vernalise assisted him, unsnapping the 

gun from its holster to allow Jorrick to 

remove it and put it into action. 

Jorrick turned violently around as 

the criminal entered the vehicle, and 

over his right shoulder he unleashed a 

volley of gunfire. The incredibly brave 

Vernalise dropped Anaiyah to the floorboard 

at her feet, and was able to swing 

around over her right shoulder and 

force the shotgun to the floor a split second 

before Jabray responded with two 

shotgun blasts. Thankfully, no one was 

wounded. POW, POW, POW, the gunfire 

continued until Jorrick had emptied 

his gun. Jabray Davias Jones had fallen 

out of the partially open rear passenger 

door, and lay mortally wounded on the 

parking lot pavement of Jacksonville’s 

McGirts Park. Jorrick took control of 

the would-be kidnapper’s shotgun, and 

then asked the dying Jabray Jones, “Why 

did you do this to my family?” Jones answered, 

“Because I needed the money.” 

On the phone with emergency operators, 

Jorrick stood watch over Jones 

until help arrived. As EMTs approached 

the dying criminal, Jorrick Landry 

peered into the rear side window of the 

SUV and saw his ten-year old son in the 

rear seat, slumped forward. Drevon had 

been wounded during the incredible 

violence that erupted inside the vehicle 

by a ricocheting round from his father’s 

weapon as Jorrick was saving the lives 

of his family. Drevon passed away one 

week later. 

Those of you who read the story, 

“Because I Needed the Money” on the 

8 


Jorrick took control 

of the wouldbe 

kidnapper’s 

shotgun, and then 

asked the dying 

Jabray Jones, “Why 

did you do this to 

my family?” 

©iSTOCKPHOTO - LAWRENCESAWYER 

pages of this magazine (July 2007) remember 

the harrowing details of that 

tragic night. The story generated emails 

and condolences to the family from all 

over the nation. It hurt me to listen to it 

as I interviewed Mr. Landry much less 

have to put it on paper. As a father myself, 

it was a very difficult story for me 

to write. 

June, 2009 -The aftermath 

Over the past two years I have 

spoken to Jorrick Landry, and received 

some emails from him thanking 

people for their support. I decided 

to call him, and ask how he and his 

family were coping after the extreme 

violence perpetrated against them, 

and the loss of their beloved son. 

What follows is a synopsis of how this 

terrible tragedy has affected the lives of 

these good people and the difficulties 

they now face together as a family. 

My conversation with Mr. Landry began 

as any conversation would with my 

asking him how he is doing. “I’m okay,” 

he responded. “It never gets any easier.” 

One week after the horrible events of 

May 6 th 2006, Jorrick and his family were 

faced with the death of Drevon. Dre, as 

he calls him. The Landrys returned to 

their home town of Norfolk, Virginia 

to bury their son before returning to 

Jacksonville in an attempt to move on 

with their lives. Vernalise couldn’t continue 

to live in the same home, so the 

family relocated shortly after returning 

from Dre’s funeral. A 13-year active 

duty member of the United States 

Navy, Jorrick and his family received 

immediate support from his command. 

“The Navy has been good to us,” he 

said. Returning home, Jorrick was given 

some time off from his duties, and 

two weeks later began counseling that 

continues to this day. Both Jorrick and 

Vernalise feel the Navy has done a good 

job in light of the circumstances. 

In an attempt to find some answers 

to why this horrifying event happened 

to begin with, Jorrick sought them from 

the attacker’s family. Given the phone 

numbers of Jones’ mother and father by 

the homicide detectives, Jorrick placed 

a call to each of them in an attempt to 

piece together the events of that night. 

His conversation with Jabray’s father, 

although uncomfortable, ended with 

both men wishing themselves a happy 

life. His call to the mother wasn’t so 

simple. Divorced from Jabray’s father, 

his mother reacted to Jorrick with anger 

and discontent. She asked him why he 

was out so late with his kids, as if he had 

somehow invited the actions wrought 

upon them by her shotgun wielding son. 

Jorrick reminded her that her son had 

placed the muzzle of a loaded shotgun 

to the face of his two-year old daughter. 

Jorrick was upset at her for blaming him 

and his wife for the actions of her son, 

and wisely ended the call. 

Anaiyah, who was two years old at 

the time of the incident is now five, and 

according to Jorrick, “She remembers 

everything, every detail of what 

happened. She’ll ask me from time to 

©iSTOCKPHOTO - TILLSONBURG 

time where Dre is, and whether we’ll 

ever see him again. We tell her he’s in 

Heaven, and that we’ll see him again.” 

She attends counseling sessions with 

the family. 

Zachias, seven years old at the time 

Jones burst into the back seat of the vehicle, 

shoving him to the side, has had 

a very tough time. He is now the same 

age as his brother was at the time of his 

death, and he has had some difficulty 

coping with that. “We didn’t celebrate 

his birthday,” Jorrick told me. “To be expected, 

Zachias has had some trouble in 

school, and acted out some, but is now 

doing okay under the circumstances.” 

The family has turned to their faith. 

Jorrick continues, “Spiritually I just 

tried to find something to stand on in 

regards to what happened. I just believe 

that God created each of us. God 

created all of us. God created Drevon 

and nothing catches God by surprise 

and so I just trust that God’s will prevails, 

and that Dre is in God’s hands 

and you know, he was given to us for a 

certain period of time, and I thank God 

for the time that we had. It saddens me 

that we’re not still together but I try to 

learn from the time that we shared, and 

I don’t question God in regards to Dre’s 


9

eing returned to him. That’s kind of what 

keeps me going; just the fact that nothing 

catches God by surprise.” 

Jorrick has been diagnosed with Post 

Traumatic Stress Syndrome by the Navy 

doctors; he has trouble sleeping, and has 

been given medication to treat his sleep 

disorders. “My wife knows not to wake me 

up. She says when I do sleep, sometimes I 

shake,” he said. But while the Landrys are 

able to do things together as a family, they 

can never put the incident behind them. 

“There are times when my wife absolutely 

has to go see Dre, and it doesn’t matter what 

bills have to be paid, it doesn’t matter what’s 

on our plate. We just have to get our stuff 

together and go to Virginia and go see Dre. 

It’s just that peace, and it does something 

for her. Zachias didn’t cry at the gravesite 

initially, and now as he gets older, he cries 

at Dre’s gravesite.” On Dre’s birthday the 

family does something special: “Release 

balloons or something in honor of him or 

something special just to celebrate his life. 

There’s a void. Something’s missing. I wonder, 

when I see other kids, what Dre would 

be doing,” Jorrick said. 

Jorrick has sought and received assistance 

from a local support group for other 

families who have lost children to homicide, 

and has found tremendous solace 

with that organization. The Landry family 

has been through more than most of us will 

ever have to go through as we wind our way 

down this highway of life. After getting to 

know Jorrick somewhat over the past couple 

of years, I can tell you that I am not sure 

I would have the strength of this man and 

his family. I hope I never have to find out. 

But through counseling, and with the help 

of family, friends, and support groups, the 

Landry family has pulled together to push 

on. May God bless this incredible family as 

they do their best to move on in the face of a 

tragedy that will never leave them. n 

Created for self-defense. 

Crafted for self-confidence. 

www.DesignerConcealedCarry.com 

ADVERTISE 

IN CONCEALED 

CARRY MAGAZINE 

Contact Bob at 

(360) 665-0542 

bobcole@centurytel.net 

[ Mark Walters is an NRA Certified Instructor in three 

disciplines, a member of NSSF and a vocal Second 

Amendment activist. Mark is the host of the USCCA 

sponsored Armed American Radio program every 

Sunday evening at 8pm Eastern on 920 WGKA in 

Atlanta. Listen to the show by visiting www.920wgka. 

com and clicking on the “listen live” button every 

Sunday evening. Please visit Mark at www.armedamericanradio.org 

and www.theamericangunfighter. 

com. Contact him directly at mark@armedamericanradio.org 

or theordinaryguy@comcast.net ] 

10 


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ADVANCED KALASHNIKOV RIFLE GUNFIGHTING 

Still Too Simple To Be Tactical – with Gabe Suarez 

What we do in this DVD will make any rifle training you have done before seem 

like a church picnic. Following on the material presented in the first DVD, we add 

advanced displacement methods, enhanced gun handling to help you run the AK 

faster and better. We show the incorporation, full speed, of the Pekiti Take Off 

with a rifle, full speed shoulder transfers, full speed transitions on the run, and a 

section on the ballistics of the popular AK rifle rounds. This one will move your 

AK Combat Skills to a whole new level. 

Color, Approx. 68 Minutes ADVAK.DVD: $43.99 

ADVANCED CLOSE RANGE 

GUNFIGHTING 

In this DVD Gabe Suarez shows you 

the very fast-paced full-speed 

concealed carry shooting action that 

has made his training world famous. 

This DVD will have you doing things 

most people think are impossible, and 

move the art of gunfighting another 

giant leap forward. 

Color, Approx. 70 Minutes 

ACRG.DVD: $39.99 

COMBATIVE PISTOL MARKSMANSHIP 

Suarez establishes the foundation 

necessary for future intermediate and 

advanced levels. The entire premise 

is that "SHOOTING IS EASY". He 

gives you all the steps needed to 

fire an accurate shot. All the secrets 

are here This DVD is suitable for both 

the advanced shooter as a refresher of 

things forgotten, and for the novice to 

learn the correct way the first time. 

Color, Approx. 50 Minutes 

CPM.DVD: $39.99 

THE GUERILLA SNIPER 

By Anthony James 

& Gabriel Suarez 

This is a totally different look at 

sniping. We examine the subject from 

the historical perspective of the Civilian 

Partisan Sniper as may have been 

seen in Occupied Europe during 

WWII. 

8-1/2x11, Softcover, 100 pp 

SIS-GSR-BOOK: $25.00 

POINT SHOOTING PROGRESSIONS 

By Roger Phillips 

The system discussed in this book 

is based on the series of classes 

that Phillips teaches via Suarez 

International. This book is essential 

reading for any student of 

gunfighting and is destined to 

become a classic in the sense of 

Shoot To Live, and Kill Or Get 

Killed. 

8 1/2 X 11, Soft cover, 122 pp. 

SIS-PHILLIPS-BOOK: $25.00 

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SIG SAUER ® ACADEMY 

WORKING THE GUN WITH 

THE NON-DOMINANT HAND 

[ B Y G E O R G E H A R R I S ] 

Last time, we took a look at working the gun with one hand only, and how beneficial 

that could be from a multitude of perspectives. 

In this segment we are going to 

focus on the non-dominant hand, 

and considerations critical to the 

successful use of that hand to run 

the gun. In addition, we will open the 

subject of multiple weapons introduced 

simultaneously or as a follow-on into 

the conflict resolution process. 

Most of us think of the non-dominant 

hand as our left hand. Depending on 

whose data you believe, somewhere 

between seven and thirty percent of the 

population have a different view point. 

Being primarily left hand oriented, they 

view the right hand as being the nondominant 

one. There are people that 

shoot equally as well with one hand as 

the other (I am one of those) but from 

a handling and operational perspective 

favor one side over the other. 

I believe that we are creatures of 

habit, and under stress will revert to 

our previously learned skills. In order 

to commit these skills to habit we 

must thoroughly think them through, 

and commit ourselves to the fact that 

they are the best option available to 

the challenge that we are most likely 

to be faced with. In addition, we must 

first practice these skills slow enough 

to recognize flaws and unnecessary 

movement in the process so they can 

be eliminated. This is particularly 

important when working with the side 

we are least comfortable with. Speed 

will come quickly as the action becomes 

smooth and we start to operate near 

peak efficiency. Track yourself with 

a timer and you’ll see first hand how 

economy of motion will generate 

speed with the least amount of effort. 

Competence breeds confidence, and 

when the call to action arrives, prior 

learning kicks in, and the probability of 

prevailing in a given situation is high. 

More often than not, if we train with 

the non-dominant hand in the conventional 

manner, the gun is already 

out and marksmanship is our primary 

focus. Granted, the object of shooting 

is to hit the target, but there is a pathway 

from the concealed carry location 

to the target that can’t be ignored. There 

are many questions here that must be 

answered. The first might be, “Do you 

have the range of motion to reach the 

gun while moving?” How about clearing 

the cover garment, unzipping the zippers 

or disengaging the retention devices 

with the non-dominant hand? What 

about the reload that you carry, can you 

reach it, and once you do can you get 

the gun reloaded and operational using 

only the non-dominant hand? We might 

address moving while shooting, use of 

cover, and clearing stoppages with the 

non-dominant hand. You have to put 

your own priorities on whether these 

or other steps are the most important 

to your individual needs, and practice 

your techniques accordingly. 

Another consideration requiring 

some work with the non-dominant 

hand is a technique called the New York 

Reload—made famous by the late, great 

Jim Cirillo, who was a New York City cop 

on the “Stakeout Squad” and a Federal 

Law Enforcement Center Instructor,. 

The New York Reload requires two guns 

rather than one gun and a reload. Some 

teach this technique with both guns 

carried on the same side fairly close 

to one another, and use the dominant 

hand to access gun one and then gun 

two after securing gun one. Time can be 

saved by becoming proficient with the 

non-dominant hand, and not having 

About the Author: 

George Harris has spent over 30 years 

in the field of adult education with 

more than 17 years 

at the SIG SAUER ® 

Academy. He has 

focused his efforts 

in the arenas 

of small arms, 

small arms training 

and combat 

skill development. 

George has evolved from an infantry 

soldier, small arms repair technician, 

and drill instructor to become the 

coach and firing member of the internationally 

recognized United States 

Army Reserve Combat Marksmanship 

Team. As a competitive shooter, 

George has the coveted distinction 

of being Distinguished with both the 

service pistol and the service rifle. As 

director of the SIG SAUER ® Academy, 

George is committed to the safe and 

successful use of firearms by armed 

professionals and responsible citizens 

alike through using the SIG Principle 

of Training: Simple Is Good! 

Sponsored By: 

sigsauer.com 603-679-2003 

12 


to wait for securing gun one before 

transitioning to gun two. Since life and 

death sometimes is decided in fractions 

of a second, taking time-saving 

measures is a benefit to your survival. 

Most of us carry an edged weapon in 

addition to a gun. The edged weapon 

has its own place in that it can be drawn, 

deployed and secured silently. If carried 

correctly, it can be produced quicker 

and easier than a gun in a sudden and 

or surprise attack. It isn’t considered 

prudent to carry the gun and the knife 

available to the dominant side only 

as the limitations are obvious. Most 

serious individuals that carry both a 

knife and a gun carry them on opposite 

sides so that they may be accessed 

as needed and operated in tandem if 

necessary. The proficiency advantage 

with the non-dominant hand usually 

dictates the manner in which the knife 

and gun are carried simultaneously. In 

each case, being useful once deployed 

is paramount. 

A great windfall to training with 

the non-dominant hand is that the 

concentration required to execute 

an action actually carries over to 

the dominant side, such that the 

proficiency of weapons handling and 

marksmanship improves all around. 

Speed and efficiency will improve as 

well, as we become more aware of 

how we move, and handle our tools of 

defense. As in golf, driving, or anything 

else you are serious about, seek 

professional training. You can read all of 

the books, and look at all of the videos 

you want to improve your intellectual 

understanding of a subject, but nothing 

improves your practical ability at 

motor skill development like hands on 

experience. Go online under firearms 

training and select an established, 

reputable organization that catalogs 

classes in the area of your interest, 

and take the plunge. Call several of the 

better academies and ask questions if 

you need to. Take the training seriously, 

as one day it might mean the difference 

between winning the fight and the 

alternative that is not an option. 

Simple Is Good! n 

I believe that we 

are creatures of 

habit, and under 

stress will revert 

to our previously 

learned skills. 


13

STREET TACTICS 

[ B Y G a b e s u a r e z ] 

Notes from Five Years 

of Force on Force 

We have been running force on force training sessions for almost five years now, 

and in that time, we’ve put about a thousand students through the course and drills. 

Here are some issues that we keep 

noticing with almost boring regularity. 

If your training does not 

take these issues into account, then your 

training may be preparing you to fail. 

All fights involve one party taking 

the initiative, and the other 

1) 

party responding. There are no mutually 

agreed upon fights today. You will 

either start the ambush, react to it, or 

avoid the danger area altogether. Most 

so-called modern gun training takes 

the assumption that, due to some super 

developed mindset, the “modern operator” 

will never be surprised, and thus 

will always have the initiative. If you ask 

me, that’s very wishful thinking. 

2) If you have good information, and 

can trust what you see, you can take the 

initiative on the adversary. This may 

mean preemptive drawing and shooting, 

as well as preemptively leaving before 

the fight begins. Distance benefits 

those who wish to be preemptive, which 

is why certain schools insist on always 

maintaining such distance, and always 

14 


above: The reality of street combat is 

that it will not be comfortably away, but 

rather close. You can’t wish yourself out 

this situation. 

being alert. The problem is, you can’t 

always do what you plan to do. If you 

can guarantee one hundred percent always 

being alert—24/7/365—and never 

being surprised, then just work on your 

marksmanship and don’t worry about 

anything else. In fact, why are you even 

listening to me? The rest of us normal 

humans will look at other solutions. 

If you have the initiative, and 

3) the adversary also has the 

There are no mutually 

agreed upon fights today. You 

will either start the ambush, 

react to it, or avoid the 

danger area altogether. 

initiative, the result will either be 

a “suicide drill” where each man 

kills the other, or a stand-off where 

nothing happens until one of them 

decides to either act or leave. We see 

the suicide drill a lot when training 

first time FOF students from typical 

modern gun schools. They rely solely 

on a fast draw without thinking that 

the other man may also have a fast 

draw, or that he might even get to start 

the fight. 


left: Your training on the range should 

match what you see in the force on force 

realm. First identify reality, then train 

to prevail there. Don’t try to force range 

exercises into a gunfight. 

Even in cases of unequal speed, 

4) but equal initiative, when men 

rely only on draw speed, unless one 

screws up the draw, the situation we 

described ends up with both men shot. 

The hits may be separated by 1/4 or 1/2 

second, but excluding a head shot, I do 

not believe a pistol shot will be likely 

to stop the other man from pressing the 

trigger. Street results are on my side. 

All gunfights are 50 percent shooting 

and 50 percent not being shot. 

5) 

I think most sane men would agree that 

the “not getting shot” is more important 

than the shooting part. Moving sharply 

off the line of attack drastically increases 

your safety from the adversary’s gunfire. 

Staying put in a perfect Weaver or 

Isosceles, increases the odds of taking a 

hit unless you are ambushing the other 

15

This multiple graduate of weaver-based 

school responds to a close range attack 

with...point shooting. 

man with total surprise or are behind 

cover (again, preemptive). 

Why do you think some schools 

avoid any force on force at all? Because 

the marksmanship-based system that 

they teach will not hold up under real 

pressure. 

Some directions of movement 

6) tend to increase the angle away 

from the gunman’s muzzle better than 

others. This means it takes more time 

for him to get his muzzle back on you. 

It also means it gives you more time on 

target with your muzzle and on the trigger. 

With sufficient hits, he may not ever 

be able to catch you. I say “may” because 

there are no guarantees in a fight. 

In a reactive event, which most 

7) CCW fights will tend to be, it is 

imperative to move off the “X” to avoid 

being hit. As well, drawing and getting 

your own shots moving toward him is 

highly important. If either one is delayed 

you increase the chances of getting shot. 

Most guys get shot when they 

8) stop. They initiate movement and 

avoid the first few shots using the classic 

gun school side step, but then stop to 

take a precise shot. At that point they get 

hit. Keep moving until he’s down, you 

have escaped, or you are behind cover. 

Movement is life; stationary shooting in 

the open is death. 

The most important step once the 

9) game opens is to step off the X.

Make that dynamic! But go for your gun 

at the very same time. 

As hard for some people as 

10) it is to hear this, in a reactive 

gunfight, your physical conditioning is 

a factor in your survivability. Agility is 

an issue. If you lack agility, you’d best 

be hard on the alertness phase so you do 

not have to be reactive. The problem is 

that it is hard to guarantee such things. 

Historically there is a belief that the 

gun trumps everything, and that there is 

no need to do anything else. Your first 

force on force evolution changes that. 

The fight will be whatever it will be and 

your adversary will not take it easy on 

you because of your age or frailty or 

anything. Unfair? Yes it is, but it is also 

reality. Instead of trying to shave a tenth 

of a second off your draw, or shooting a 

tighter group, get to the gym! 

Centerline draws are fast. 

11) Appendix draw and cross draw 

are markedly faster than strong side hip 

or behind the back. The lines of access 

and amount of motion required to get 

the gun on target are dramatically less. 

Why these two modes of carry have 

been ignored by many is primarily due 

to artificial restrictions at competitions 

and competition-focused venues. 

No one has seen a traditional 

12) sight picture for the first three 

shots in our Reactive Drills since I began 

teaching this material. Each FOF 

student must understand less than optimum 

methods of aligning the pistol. 

Point Shooting, Meat-N-Metal and other 

methods have value and their place in 

the fighting progression. You can wish 

to see a perfect sight picture and pop off 

a perfect pair with perfect trigger work 

all you wish, but I have yet to see anyone 

do so, including several distinguished 

modern technique school graduates. 

An understanding of the 

13) ranges of combat and what is 

applicable at each distance interval is 

important. When people are pressed, 

they change the interval by either running 

away, or closing the gap to a clinch. 

The idea that you will always be able to 

keep your distance “no matter what” is 

ridiculous. Learn how to fight up close 

when the time arrives. Your ability to 

understand this and exploit it will make 

you a better fighter. 

Concessions of accuracy and 

14) movement. When moving do 

not concede your speed of movement 

to gain an edge in accuracy. Rather than 

modifying your movement to accommodate 

range-based shooting, modify your 

range-based shooting to accommodate 

your movement. 

Well, those are just some of the 

things you will learn for yourself at 

your first Force On Force Gunfighting 

Session. Do you want to test your true 

survivability in a gunfight? Leave the 

shooting range and step into the light. 

n 

[ Gabe Suarez is the CEO of Suarez 

International, USA. 

www.SuarezInternational.com 

www.WarriorTalk.com 

www.OneSourceTactical.com ]

CCM PROFILE 

Just who carries a 

concealed weapon 

in America? 

©iSTOCKPHOTO - JHORROCKS 

THE INVISIBLE 

and his wife 

Ordinarily, CCM profiles feature a sharp-focus picture of a single USCCA member 

who regularly carries a concealed firearm. 

But in this issue, we’re going to do 

something a little different: we’re 

going to pull back the focus a 

bit, and look at the larger picture. Who 

carries a concealed weapon in America 

– and why? 

John and Jane Doe, who both regularly 

carry their concealed handguns, 

look a lot like the rest of America, although 

they may be a bit older and a 

bit wealthier than the average married 

couple. Unlike many of their neighbors, 

they have never been in trouble with 

the law, and if statistics are anything to 

go by, they are highly unlikely to do so 

in the future. To use only one example 

among many, Florida has issued more 

carry permits than any state (1.5 million), 

but has revoked only 0.01 percent 

(166) due to gun crimes by permitholders. 

Our picture of John and Jane is a little 

fuzzy in spots, simply because not all 

states track or publish demographic 

data about the people to whom they issue 

carry permits. But some fascinating 

tidbits emerge, nevertheless. 

The Doe family could live almost 

anywhere in America. As of this writing, 

36 U.S. states have shall-issue carry 

permit laws. In these states, the issuing 

authority may not arbitrarily or capriciously 

deny a permit to carry a concealed 

weapon, but must issue permits 

to all applicants who meet a specific 

set of standards defined by law. Eleven 

states have may-issue laws; practices 

in these states range from functionally 

shall-issue through practically nonissue, 

and there are many allegations of 

bias and corruption in the more restrictive 

may-issue states. Two states, Alaska 

and Vermont, allow concealed carry 

without a permit, although there are 

important differences between them: 

Alaska, also counted among the shallissue 

states, provides carry permits for 

those who want the card for the sake 

of reciprocity with other states, and 

Vermont allows permit-free concealed 

carry to out-of-state visitors as well as 

state residents. Two states, Wisconsin 

and Illinois, along with Washington DC, 

outright forbid concealed carry. 

Typical for most Americans, John 

and Jane have moved around a lot. 

Currently, they live in an upscale suburban 

neighborhood, but both of them 

fondly remember a five-year stint living 

in the inner city while they were going 

to college. And both of them grew up in 

rural areas. A quick glance at the county-by-county 

carry permit statistics in 

several states shows that people in rural 

areas are more likely to apply for carry 

permits, but population densities vary 

18 


Like many women 

who have carry 

permits, Jane has 

been victimized in 

the past. “It’s no big 

deal,” she insists, 

“but it made me 

aware of my need 

to protect myself.” 

©B.SHONTS 

MAN 

[ B Y k a t h y j a c k s o n ] 

Almost every state which issues 

statistical data about concealed 

carry showed a sharp jump in the 

number of permit applications in 

the last quarter of 2008. 

too wildly between these states to allow 

an overall nationwide comparison. 

Social climate, political realities, and 

state law all have a profound effect on 

these numbers. 

Although John and Jane Doe might 

feel a little unusual at times, they are 

far from alone in their firearms ownership. 

According to the 2007 Small Arms 

Survey by the Geneva-based Graduate 

Institute of International Studies, the 

United States has 90 guns for every 

100 citizens, owning approximately 

270 million of the world’s 875 million 

known firearms. According to that 

same report, about 4.5 million of the 

eight million new guns manufactured 

worldwide each year are purchased in 

the United States. Given these numbers, 

chances are strong that John and 

Jane’s next-door neighbors and other 

friends also own firearms. 

Nor are John and Jane truly unusual 

in their desire to carry a concealed 

handgun as they go about their lawful 

business. Nationwide, in shall-issue 

states, the percentage of the adult 

population who has obtained carry 

permits probably ranges from a high of 

more than seven percent down to a low 

of around one percent, with the lower 

numbers going to states with newer 

carry laws or more uncertain political 

climates. 

Speaking of uncertain political climates, 

almost every state which issues 

statistical data about concealed carry 

showed a sharp jump in the number of 

permit applications in the last quarter 

of 2008, and the first quarter of 2009. 

Tennessee, for example, has several 

counties where the permit application 

rate in 2009 has doubled or nearly 

doubled from the same time period in 

Where not otherwise cited, the 

statistics in this article are rough 

averages obtained from two or 

more state demographic data 

sources accessed online during 

the first and second quarters 

of 2009. Not all states track 

demographic data for their 

concealed carry permit holders. 

Among those that do track such 

information, many use strikingly 

different demographic categories 

(age groupings, for example), 

making specific numbers very 

difficult to find. The article is 

therefore a very rough and fuzzy 

sketch of permit holder trends, not 

an academically-rigorous study. 


19

2008. Since the new-application rate is 

significantly higher than the renewal 

rate in most cases, it is safe to believe 

that many of these new permit holders 

are also new gun owners –– and that 

many of those applying for concealed 

carry permits for the first time voted a 

liberal rather than a conservative party 

ticket. Jane, who voted for President 

Obama, enjoys participating in the forums 

at www.ProGunProgressive.com. 

John, who voted a more conservative 

ticket, hangs out on several conservative 

forums, while their son Jeremy 

considers himself a libertarian. 

Like most carry permit holders, John 

and Jane are a bit older than the general 

population. A quick glance at the numbers 

in several states gives us a very 

rough overall estimate: approximately 

30 percent of carry permits are issued 

to people in their 50s, while a little over 

20 percent go to people in their 60s. 

People in their 40s claim a little less 

than 20 percent of carry permits. People 

in their 30s claim roughly 15 percent of 

all carry permits, and young adults in 

their 20s receive roughly 10 percent. 

The remainder goes to people over the 

age of 70. Simply put, it appears that 

the more experienced you are with this 

thing called Life, the more likely you are 

to pick up a concealed carry permit. 

John Doe’s dad, Jim, also carries a 

firearm. At 80 years of age, Jim realizes 

he’s slowing down and is not as spry as 

he once was, so he cheerfully cites the 

old Colt ad: “Be not afraid of any man, 

no matter what his size. When danger 

threatens, call on me and I will equalize.” 

Jim is not alone: senior citizens 

and near-senior citizens make up the 

bulk of concealed carry permit holders 

in most states, and even extreme age is 

not a disqualifying factor. Since 1994, 

Arizona has issued more than 2000 

permits to people over the age of 80. In 

Louisiana since 1996, 54 permits have 

been issued to people age 91 or older. 

In Texas, as of December 2008, there 

are 40 people over the age of 90 who 

have an active permit to carry a concealed 

weapon – including one who is 

96 years old. 

While 80-year-old Jim might grumble 

about growing older and less active, he 

is not disabled. He sometimes wonders 

what percentage of permit holders 

might use wheelchairs or other assistive 

technology. Although no state 

appears to track that information, it 

seems to make good sense to believe 

that people who are faced with physical 

challenges might be more willing 

than the general population to seek out 

an equalizer. 

John and Jane have finished raising 

their three kids, and just sent their 

youngest child, Jeremy, off to college in 

Vermont last year. Why Vermont? Well, 

Jeremy decided to follow in his parents’ 

footsteps, and wanted to attend college 

in a state where he could legally carry 

concealed when he was off campus. 

Vermont allows non-felons over the age 

States where concealed 

carry is allowed have 

lower violent crime 

rates, on average, 

compared to the rest of 

the country. 

of 16 to legally carry without a permit. 

Jeremy’s other option was to attend 

school in Indiana, which issues carry 

permits to qualifying residents over the 

age of 18. If Jeremy had instead joined 

the military, he could apply for a concealed 

weapon permit at age 18 in any 

of several different states which have a 

military exemption to the typical 21-orolder 

age requirement. Common sense 

occasionally prevails in the statehouse! 

Young Jeremy is active in the gun 

rights group, Students for Concealed 

Carry on Campus that is lobbying to 

change carry laws to allow him to be as 

prepared to defend himself on campus 

as the state allows him to be when he is 

off campus. He is aware that if he were 

just a bit older, and thus eligible for a 

carry permit in Utah, he might instead 

have opted to attend college in that 

state. Utah is currently the only state 

that allows permit holders to legally 

carry concealed firearms on every college 

campus in the state (several other 

states allow individual colleges to determine 

whether or not carry will be allowed 

on their campuses). 

Jane is aware that, as a woman 

who carries a concealed handgun, 

she’s a bit unusual. Of course, simple 

gun ownership is not unusual for 

women: according to GunFacts 5.1 (a 

heavily-footnoted online resource), 

approximately 41 percent of American 

women either own or have convenient 

access to guns. But in states that track 

such data, roughly 17 to 18 percent of 

permits are issued to women, while 

an overwhelming 82 to 83 percent are 

issued to men. Jane is also comfortably 

aware that these figures are rapidly 

changing with the changing times. Just 

a few years ago, for example, she had 

serious difficulty finding a dedicated 

holster purse for concealed carry, with 

only two major companies selling such 

products. Today, however, she can 

choose from a dozen different brands 

of purses in a wide variety of styles, 

and she thinks that’s a hopeful sign for 

the future of concealed carry among 

women. 

Like many women who have carry 

permits, Jane has been victimized in 

the past. “It’s no big deal,” she insists, 

“but it made me aware of my need to 

protect myself.” There are no states 

which track the rate of crime victims 

who later apply for concealed carry 

permits, but anecdotal and empirical 

evidence suggests it may be high. After 

Jane was victimized, she contacted 

AWARE (Arming Women Against Rape 

and Endangerment), an organization 

that provides training, information, 

and support for people‐‐primarily 

women‐‐learning how to cope with 

violence and its aftermath. 

Although there’s a persistent myth 

that gun ownership in general, and 

concealed carry in particular, are not 

very effective in preventing violence, 

GunFacts places the number of occurances 

every year of people in America 

using firearms to defend themselves 

around 2,500,000 times – more than 

6,500 people a day, or once every 13 

seconds. Nearly eight percent of these 

instances were women defending 

themselves from rape or sexual assault. 

More than 15 percent of defensive gun 

users surveyed stated that they “almost 

certainly” saved their lives by doing so, 

and more than 83 percent reported that 

the criminal first used or threatened to 

20 


use force. More than 92 percent of these 

incidents were resolved without bloodshed. 

To put a human face on these dry 

numbers, Jane enjoys reading Clayton 

Cramer’s “Civilian Gun Self-Defense 

Blog,” a site which tracks ordinary citizen 

uses of firearms in self defense. 

According to the NRA, since 1991, 

the number of privately-owned guns 

has risen by about 90 million. There are 

more states where concealed carry is allowed, 

more gun owners, more people 

carrying firearms for protection, and 

more privately owned firearms than 

ever before. In the same time frame, 

the nation’s murder rate has decreased 

46 percent to a 43-year low, and the total 

violent crime rate has decreased 41 

percent to a 35-year low. States where 

concealed carry is allowed have lower 

violent crime rates, on average, compared 

to the rest of the country (total 

violent crime by 24 percent; murder, 28 

percent; robbery, 50 percent; and aggravated 

assault, 11 percent). 

Both John and Jane have more than 

one carry permit in their wallets. “We 

wanted to be able to travel more when 

we retire,” John explains. He opted to 

purchase a non-resident permit from 

Florida, which allows him to carry in 33 

other states besides Florida itself. The 

other possibility was getting a permit 

from Utah, which would also have given 

him 33 states; he ultimately chose 

Florida because Florida’s permit would 

expire seven years from the date of issue, 

in contrast with Utah’s five-year 

license. 

Although Jane’s Caucasian lineage 

fits the typical racial stereotype of a 

gun owner, John describes himself as a 

mutt, with a mixed heritage and a builtin 

suntan. In fact, he laughingly says 

his own racial makeup mirrors that of 

concealed carry permit holders: 85 percent 

white, 12 percent black, 2 percent 

Asian, and 1 percent other. “Especially 

‘other’!” he chuckles. 

So that’s the picture of John and Jane 

Doe, a composite of an American family 

interested in concealed carry. They 

are just ordinary people, there are 

thousands of them all across the country, 

and they look an awful lot like you 

and me. n 

SOURCES: 

AWARE 

www.AWARE.org 

Clayton Cramer’s Civilian Gun Self- 

Defense Blog 

www.claytoncramer.com/gundefenseblog/blogger.html 

GunFacts 5.1 

www.gunfacts.info 

NRA-ILA 

www.NRA.org 

www.NRAILA.org/ 

ProGunProgressive 

www.ProGunProgressive.com 

Small Arms Survey 

Graduate Institute of 

International Studies 

www.SmallArmsSurvey.org 

Students for Concealed Carry on 

Campus 

www.ConcealedCampus.org 

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21 

12/30/08 11:11:37 AM

Milt Sparks 

Executive 

Companion 

[ B Y T O N Y W A L K E R ] 

I do like the finer things 

in life: the Porsche 

911, Veuve Clicqot 

champagne, suits 

from Savile Row, and 

handmade shirts from 

London’s Jermyn Street. 

Add to this the occasional Cuban 

cigar (only when I’m in London), 

and I’m a contented man or at 

least I would be, if only I had the money 

to buy these things. 

However, when it comes to gunleather, 

I’m also a little fussy when it comes to 

finding the perfect holster for my handguns. 

I’ve been using inside the waistband 

(IWB) holsters from various manufacturers 

for more than thirty years 

now, and that’s why I was excited when I 

recently had the chance to run a test on 

the Milt Sparks Executive Companion 

IWB holster, made to fit a Commanderlength 

1911 .45 pistol. The Executive 

Companion is unusual, inasmuch as it 

is made from two vastly different pieces 

of leather. The back of the holster, the 

side that’s closest to the body, is made 

from horsehide because of its natural 

tendency to repel moisture. Living as I 

do in Arizona, where summer temperatures 

rarely dip below the hundred-degree 

mark, this is definitely a plus point, 

as carrying a loaded handgun in an IWB 

holster is definitely conducive to generating 

sweat! An extended flap at the top 

of the holster stops the gun from coming 

into contact with the body, and prevents 

oil from staining clothing. 

The front of 

the Executive 

Companion is 

made from topquality 

cowhide, 

with the smooth 

side on the inside, 

which helps in 

reducing 

drag on the 

draw stroke. 

The front of the holster is made from 

top-quality cowhide, with the smooth 

side on the inside, which helps in reducing 

drag on the draw stroke. The 

outer, rough side also helps keep the 

holster stabilized inside the pants. A 

sturdy belt loop and snap fasteners allow 

easy installation on and off the belt. 

The holster’s outline is also a little different 

from most IWB designs, having 

a paddle-like silhouette, which tends 

to anchor the holster and stop any tendency 

for it to slip around in use. 

Milt Sparks holsters have always been 

top quality products, and the Executive 

Companion is no exception to this rule. 

The holster is tightly molded to the 

gun’s contours, giving an excellent friction 

fit, and because of this, no safety 

strap or other devices are needed to 

keep the gun securely in place. I carried 

out my usual retention tests on the 

holster, which comprised several leaps 

into the air, with a quarter turn, all of 

which--apart from giving my wife a fit 

of the giggles, and causing her to ask if 

22 


I was practicing for the Bolshoi Ballet-- 

proved that the gun would not fly out of 

the holster. 

I always wear an IWB holster just behind 

the point of my hipbone, where 

the Gluteus Maximus (my rear end, not 

a Roman Gladiator) is flattest. This allows 

me to get a good firing grip on the 

gun with a locked wrist so that the draw 

can be made with just a simple rotation 

of the shoulder. Some people prefer to 

carry with the holster positioned a little 

further back, but experimentation will 

soon find which position is best for 

each individual. 

I was also surprised that the Executive 

Companion didn’t seem to need as 

much of a break-in period as some holsters 

I’ve tested, which seemed to need 

the assistance of a mule team to free the 

gun. Although a little snug at first, after 

a few draws the holster soon eased up 

and allowed me to make some respectable 

times on draw and shoot exercises. 

I’ve had the holster for a couple of 

weeks now, and it has been worn almost 

every day. Occasionally it has carried 

a Kimber Pro-Carry, but for most 

The back of the holster is made from horsehide because of 

its natural tendency to repel moisture. The extended flap 

at the top prevents body contact. 

of the time it’s been used to carry my 

Browning Hi-Power, which also fits the 

holster well. Although I hardly fit the 

description of “Executive,” I’d recommend 

the Executive Companion to anyone 

looking for a high quality IWB holster 

for daily carry. 

For more details of the full range of 

Milt Sparks holsters, check out their 

website. n 

[ Tony Walker is the author of the 

critically-acclaimed book How to Win 

a Gunfight, and he also wrote Snides, 

the action thriller that introduced 

ex-SAS trooper John Pilgrim and his 

slick-shooting wife, Sally. The sequel, 

Pilgrim’s Banner, is now available. 

Find out more at Tony’s website: www. 

tonywalkerbooks.com ] 

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www.miltsparks.com 

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23 

7/1/09 1:35:51 PM

Here a practitioner fights off 

a knife wielding assailant 

in The Village. 

National Tactical 

Invitational: 

Higher education for those 

serious about self defense 

[ B Y T o m g i v e n s ] 

During the past week I’ve been missed by an RPG rocket fired by a terrorist, shot 

in the leg by an armed robber, and talked my way out of a confrontation with four 

angry men. And that was just the beginning! 

I’ve been at the West Shore 

Sportsmen’s Association range complex 

near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 

for the 19 th annual National Tactical 

Invitational (NTI). The NTI is a unique 

learning and self testing event that runs 

from Tuesday evening through Saturday 

night each year, right after Memorial 

Day. Over the course of the week, participants 

are tested in live fire simulations 

against reactive mannequin type 

targets, as well as force on force simulations 

against live role players. In addition, 

nationally known trainers conduct 

classes throughout the day and in the 

evenings, and participants share experiences 

and network with like minded 

people from all over the country. This is 

a learning environment without equal. 

Each year there are ten separate stages 

to test each participant’s skills. As NTI 

Director Skip Gochenour noted, “this is 

more a software event than a hardware 

event.” Although shooting and gun 

handling skills are an essential part of 

the equation, the participant’s tactical 

thinking, verbalization, and self control 

skills are far more critical. Almost every 

stage demands interaction between the 

participant and other people who may 

24 


yards away. Once they were down, you 

moved to the caddy shack to get to 

your spouse, and found two more close 

range terrorists there, which had to be 

hit without hitting your spouse. The 

other outdoor stage is a standard skills 

test, and is the only stage involving 

shooting marksmanship and gun handling 

drills in a non-scenario environment. 

The standards involved multiple 

targets, rapid reloading, and a malfunction 

clearance, all under time pressure. 

The other four live fire stages involve 

scenarios inside shoot-houses constructed 

to allow movement, target discrimination, 

and tactical decision making. 

One of these shoot-houses is fairly 

dark, and the others contain pneumatiabove 

and right: The targets in 

the live fire stages are life-like 

mannequins that move, pop-up, 

swing out and perform other tricks. 

below: The NTI staff is 

composed of a highly 

talented and motivated 

group of role players and 

range staff. 

PHOTOS BY BOB SINGLE 

pose a lethal threat, or who may not. 

There are bystanders to deal with, and 

sometimes there are police officers who 

may not know you’re a good guy. The 

participant must move, think, communicate, 

and only if necessary shoot until 

the threat is neutralized. In the six live 

fire stages, the bad guys, bystanders, 

and others are life size 3-D fully dressed 

mannequin type figures that only fall to 

well placed hits. In “The Village,” bad 

guys, good guys, bystanders, and all 

other roles are portrayed by a huge staff 

of very talented role players, who interact 

with the participant in very realistic 

scenarios based on everyday life, plus 

the occasional violent incident. 

The six live fire stages this year consisted 

of two outdoor problems, and 

four stages that were conducted inside 

shoot-houses. The main outdoor stage 

was set at a golf course, and eerily simulated 

a terrorist attack on a golf tournament. 

If this sounds farfetched to you, 

it was set up to replicate just such an 

attack shown on captured Al Qaeda terrorist 

training tapes brought back from 

Afghanistan. The attack was initiated 

by an RPG rocket fired right past you, 

including a smoke-trailing, screaming 

rocket! The correct response was to 

move away from the rocket’s path and 

seek cover. There, you could see three 

armed terrorists across the golf course, 

and you had to engage them with your 

concealed handgun from about 50 


25

cally operated pop-up targets, targets 

that run on tracks, and all sorts 

of props that raise the stress level 

of the participant. Noise and other 

distractions are used to good effect 

here, and the Range Officer who 

accompanies the shooter supplies 

the voice for the mannequins. 

In each of these live fire shoothouses, 

before entry the participant 

is given a “bed-time story” by 

the staff. This involves a plausible 

scenario, and gives the participant 

a reason to be there. In one case, 

for instance, the participant is 

shown a photo of his “wife,” who is 

said to be in the rear of the building, 

in the process of applying for a 

job, while you, the participant, wait 

in the lobby. While waiting, you 

hear a gunshot and screams, and 

must find your way to your wife, 

rescue her, and get both of you out 

of the building. This particular drill 

was run in a true 360 degree live 

fire shoot-house, situated inside a 

fully bermed area. The NTI staff remain 

on the other side of the berm, 

watching the participant via closed 

circuit TV, all the while popping 

open doors and activating targets 

by remote control. Great stuff! 

The real test of the practitioner’s 

skills comes later, however, in The 

Village. Here, participants are relieved 

of all live weapons, searched 

thoroughly for safety reasons, and 

then issued a Simunitions gun, 

a few cartridges, and protective 

face mask. The Village consists of a 

number of buildings, with rooms, 

doorways, furniture, etc, all populated 

by male and female role players. 

The practitioner must conduct 

a number of normal daily tasks, 

which take him throughout The 

Village and bring him into contact 

with various people, under all sorts 

of circumstances. Like most towns 

in the real world, many of the occupants 

of The Village just want to 

conduct their business and get on 

with life, but a vicious minority is 

there to take what they want by 

force. This is where the ability to 

read people and their intentions 

becomes critical! Mis-use your 

26 


gun, and the Sheriff will arrest you, or 

at the least take away your gun. Fail to 

move swiftly or to shoot well when it 

really is necessary ends with you being 

shot. Those marking cartridges hurt, 

but often not as much as a bruised ego! 

In addition to the challenges offered 

in the live fire stages and in The Village, 

participants can attend a number of 

classroom lectures provided by professional 

trainers. This year the presenters 

included John Farnam, John Holschen, 

James Yeager, Skip Gochenour, Doctors 

Martin Topper and Jack Feldman, and 

several others. Classes are conducted 

throughout the week, both during the 

day and in the evening, and all participants 

are free to sit in on whichever 

classes interest them. 

Saturday featured a partner’s force on 

force exercise in the morning. Two participants 

worked together through two 

scenarios, which added communication 

and cooperation with a live partner 

to the list of required skills. In the afternoon 

there was a detailed debrief of the 

week’s events, followed by a banquet on 

Saturday night. After a very productive 

week of hard work, NTI XIX was officially 

declared over. 

The NTI team consists of a very 

large group of highly trained and 

very dedicated workers. They meet 

throughout the year planning this event, 

then spend Memorial Day weekend 

setting up all the elaborate stages. If 

you’d like more information, see the 

NTI website at www.teddytactical.com. 

n 

[ Tom Givens is the owner of Rangemaster 

in Memphis, TN. For more than 30 years 

Tom’s duties have included firearms 

instruction. He is certified as an expert 

witness on firearms and firearms 

training, giving testimony in both state 

and federal courts. He serves as an 

adjunct instructor at the Memphis Police 

Department Training Academy, the 

largest in the state. Tom’s training resume 

includes certification from the FBI Police 

Firearms Instructor School, NRA Law 

Enforcement Instructor Development 

School, NRA Law Enforcement Tactical 

Shooting Instructor School, Gunsite 499 

under Jeff Cooper, and more. ] 

This mannequin is 

a uniformed police 

officer, pointing 

a shotgun. Split 

second shoot/ 

no-shoot decisions 

have to be made 

under stress, just 

like in real life. 

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27

The author moving the baby 

to safety and engaging the 

bad guys with his Glock 19. 

PHOTO BY MARTY HAYES 

People have 

a built in 

quick fear 

activation 

circuit. 

The Polite Society 

and the Psychologist 

[ B Y G L E N N E . M E Y E R , P h D ] 

What metaphors or terms to use to describe Tom Given’s Polite Society Conference 

and Tactical Match held at the United States Shooting Academy in Tulsa, Oklahoma? 

It’s an excellent five star tactical tasting 

menu. The venue could not have 

been better. The USSA facility is absolutely 

gorgeous, with helpful staff, 

spacious bays, and high berms. 

The Polite Society is the baby of Tom 

Givens from Rangemaster in Memphis, 

TN. Tom came to Rangemaster after a 

25-year career in law enforcement, and 

is a tough, but outstanding instructor. 

The stated purpose of the Polite Society 

reads as follows: “The Polite Society is 

not about sport shooting or competition, 

though tests of marksmanship, 

gun handling or tactical skill are part of 

the program. The Polite Society is about 

information.” 

The conference has three major foci: 

One is a tactical shooting competition 

with standards, a saving a baby scenario, 

and a Mumbai type attack scenario 

in a shoot house as a stress and tactics 

test. The second is a series of two-hour 

firearms and action based mini classes. 

The third is a series of knowledge-based 

seminars for practitioners. 

First, the techniques courses: I participated 

in Rob Pincus’ (ICE Training) 

“Combat Focus Shooting Techniques.” 

The core idea is not to fight against automatically–and 

probably evolutionary–built 

in responses to threat. One 

interesting aspect of the course was a 

compressed ready position that had 

the gun forward at chest level, pulled 

in close to the chest. Important to the 

Combat Focus doctrine is that at close 

ranges, you may not need sight acquisition. 

One issue is that for some of us, 

we have well trained responses. Do we 

want to unlearn them? 

Another gun usage minicourse in 

28 


PHOTO BY MASSAD AYOOB 

Gail Pepin, of the 

ProArms team, shot “high 

woman” at the match. 

which I participated was Will Andrews’ 

(H&H Range) “Shooting on the Move.” 

His major point is that in a violent incident 

you probably won’t be standing 

with your body perpendicular to the 

threat. Will demonstrated a heel to toe 

step which creates a solid platform to 

avoid bobbing of the sights and muzzle. 

There were several other firearms 

or practical interaction seminars 

such as the one given by Steven 

Moses (Bluff Dale Firearms 

Academy) on the AK-47, 

Southnarc (Shivworks Training) 

on “Managing Unknown 

Contacts,” Mike Brown (United 

States Shooting Academy) on 

extreme close quarter tactics, 

and Mike Seeklander (United 

States Shooting Academy) on 

“Grounded/Wounded Shooter 

Drills.” 

One of the best opportunities 

at the Polite Society was to 

take part in force on force (FOF) training 

with Karl Rehn and his staff from 

KRTraining. The idea of FOF exercises 

is to train with actual opponents, innocent 

bystanders, the police, and other 

good guys who can interact with you, 

up to and including shooting back at 

you. Airsoft guns are commonly used in 

FOF, and Karl is one of the pioneers in 

their usage. Here’s an important point: 

you need to be ready to screw up, look 

stupid, and get “killed.” You cannot 

have an ego and complain when you 

“die” or “kill” an innocent. It is a learning 

experience. 

Karl ran several scenarios. One was 

based on a situation that occurred in 

Houston, where a motorist called the 

police and claimed that two guys beat 

on his car window and threatened to 

kill him. What really happened was that 

two men had a car break down on a 

busy highway and were asking passing 

motorists for help as they walked from 

their car down to a gas station. Later, 

the motorist admitted that he over reacted. 

This scenario’s test was to see if 

someone would over react to a quick 

situation that was a no-shoot scenario. 

In a second scenario, the good guy 

has parked at a public park, gone hiking, 

and comes back to find a flat. He 

is fixing the tire, when Henry and Otis 

roll up and offer to help. The test here 

is to evaluate whether the good guy 

PHOTO BY TOM HOGEL 

Going to guns during the flat 

tire force on force exercise run 

by KRtraining.

left: A female terrorist in the Mumbai 

Shoot House. 

above: A scene from the Mumbai Shoot 

House: in low light, participants could 

easily overlook the terrorist partially 

hidden by the “fleeing” innocent noshoots 

in front of him. 

can be fooled into letting his defenses 

down, be taken away, and get tortured. 

John Hearne, of Rangemaster and a 

federal law enforcement officer, analyzed 

the famous Newhall incident, the 

event that started a new look in firearms 

training and suggested range reloading 

practices caused the death of one officer. 

[ED. Newhall, California, April 6, 

1970. Four young Highway Patrol officers 

were murdered while in pursuit of 

two armed suspects. The incident initiated 

major changes to police training, 

with an emphasis on officer safety.] 

One popular question is: What is 

the appropriate long arm for selfdefense? 

John Farnam (DTI) presented 

“The Urban Rifle: The AR and its 

Alternatives.” John concludes pithily 

that the AR-15/M4/M-16 platform in 

5.56 is a terrible battle rifle, but a pretty 

good gun for civilian usage. Civilians 

don’t need a 600-yard rifle for the most 

probable applications. It’s not perfect 

but John thinks perfection is the enemy 

of “good enough.” 

Paul Gomez discussed “Immediate 

Trauma Management.” The purpose is 

to keep you, or an injured partner or 

spouse, alive until professional medical 

help arrives. Paul mentioned that 

tourniquets are not harmful. That idea 

is based on faulty research from World 

War One, and has since been discredited. 

Several talks concerned violent behavior, 

and the aftermath of engaging 

in a shooting incident. Skip Gochenour, 

the guru of the National Tactical 

Invitational, discussed violent criminal 

behavior. William Aprill, a licensed psychotherapist, 

discussed violent criminal 

actors who are at the top of a violent 

food chain, and use violence quickly 

and efficiently. Minor interactions may 

be seen as disrespecting them, and 

even an existential threat. Thus, if you 

hesitate and provide no instantaneous 

compliance, you have morally offended 

them, and have put yourself at serious 

risk. 

Hany Mahmoud, a Dallas/Fort Worth 

LEO and trainer, enlightened us about 

Islamic Terror Groups with an overview 

of their history and goals. One needs 

to understand the development of the 

Middle Eastern mindset and the differences 

between sects, tribes, and the different 

players to understand the threats 

to us and their amelioration. 

Two presentations focused on legal 

aspects for defensive gun usage. 

“Reducing Firearms Instructor 

Liability” was the baby of Marty Hayes, 

president of the Firearms Academy 

of Seattle and founder of the Armed 

Citizens Legal Defense Network. 

Instructors and students need a legal 

plan as well as learning tactics. In a 

similar vein, Massad Ayoob gave a talk 

on “Shooting Incidents and Aftermath 

Management.” Mas gave a simple set of 

instructions to use after an unpleasant 

interaction. 

Saving the best for last? My presentation 

was entitled: “Modern Psychology 

and Firearms Usage.” Many issues of 

concern to gun owners have been researched 

in the behavioral sciences. 

First discussed was the issue of what 

would hurt you in court. The internet, 

and the popular gun press have discussed 

whether a type of gun, ammo 

or appearance could be detrimental if 

30 


you go to trial on a defensive gun usage. 

Psychologists have conducted jury simulations 

on weapons issues and their 

influence. The premise is that weapon 

appearance, your behavior and gender 

(plus their interactions) can prime negative 

or aggressive thought in a jury to 

your detriment. The more the jury sees 

or handles a gun, the worse for you. In 

my work, stimulated by an article by 

Massad Ayoob, we posed the scenario of 

a home owner who confronts and kills a 

burglar holding the family VCR. Various 

weapons were used in different conditions 

(there was no ranting about evil 

guns, just factual presentations). The 

bottom line was the homeowner who 

used an AR-15 was treated more harshly 

in our mock juror judgments. Women 

“jurors” were more negative and–fascinatingly, 

women “jurors” judged a 

woman AR shooter most negatively. 

Gender stereotype violation seems active 

here. Based on my work, a police officer 

fellow NTI practitioner did an experiment 

in a police traffic-stop training 

exercise. The issue was whether the 

officer conducting the stop would use 

discretion over a minor firearms storage 

violation. It turned out that the passenger 

with an AR-15 was more likely to 

be “arrested” than one carrying other 

firearms. So empirically, it’s clear now 

that weapons type can influence decisions 

in legal matters. We are not saying 

to not to use an efficacious weapon, but 

you and your attorney should know that 

this factor is out there. Other issues we 

researched were whether getting firearms 

training could be detrimental to 

you in a mock jury scenario. It depended 

if the jurors were gun knowledgeable 

or not, with the expected direction. 

We touched on the rationale behind 

FOF training. FOF, scenario, and simulator 

training leads to better real world 

performance for police and civilians. 

FOF aids in more efficient use of working 

memory, boosts confidence that you 

know how to act in an emergency, and 

gives you germane heuristics and schemas 

(plans) to act when the world goes 

to Hell. The use of reactive targets in the 

Mumbai exercise makes you deal with 

failures to stop. People have a built in 

quick fear activation circuit through the 

amygdala, a part of the brain involved in 

emotions of fear and aggression, which 

can activate a freeze response. This 

is evolutionarily useful in the woods, 

but not in a modern violent incident. 

Stress inoculation from FOF exercises 

gets you off the X. As John Farnam says, 

“you don’t just dither.” Realistic training 

can reduce legal liability as one could 

articulate why they took a particular 

course of action. The Mumbai exercise 

had exploding bombs and dim lights. 

As in real life, shoot targets were mixed 

in with no shoots. In dim light and with 

multiple distractions, participants were 

expected to avoid shooting the innocent 

bystanders while taking out the 

terrorist targets with solid hits to the 

upper center chest or head. 

I ended with a discussion of stress 

disorders, especially PTSD. It hasn’t 

really been looked at with the aftermath 

of civilian DGUs. However, one 

above: Glenn Meyer’s 

presentation was titled, 

“Modern Psychology and 

Firearms Usage,” and discussed 

(among other things) mockjury 

studies, the physiological 

reasons for FOF, and stress 

disorders. 

right: The author being 

instructed on how to shoot on 

the move by Will Andrews. 

should be aware of stress syndromes 

if one is unfortunate in this regard. 

So what does a psychologist use at 

the Polite Society? A second generation 

Glock 19 with Trijicon fiber optic night 

sights, and a Glock 26 or SW 642 as a 

backup gun, Spydercos and a Surefire. 

The Glock had no problem knocking 

down the Hard Head Ted targets from 

DVC in the Mumbai test. I overheard 

somebody saying, “I should have used 

a bigger gun” when the targets were 

stubbornly still standing. Tom Givens 

replied that you could take them down 

with a snubby if you actually hit them 

in the upper chest or the noggin. Oops! 

How did I do in the competition? There 

were 91 scored competitors. I was 48 th . 

The scores ranged from about 90 (good) 

to about a 1000. Mine was 182.88. 

OK for a psychologist and fat old guy 

among the trainers and practitioners, I 

suppose. n 

[ Glenn Meyer is a psychology 

professor at Trinity University 

in Texas. Specializing in perception 

and social cognition 

of aggression, he has 

trained with Massad Ayoob, 

Karl Rehn at KRTraining, 

Tom Givens, OPS, Insights 

and Steve Moses. Meyer has 

participated several times 

at the National Tactical 

Invitational and Polite 

Society. ] 

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2009

Taser 

Tactics: 

Four 

Simple 

Rules 

[ B Y D O N S T A H L N E C K E R ] 

To use a tool effectively, you need to know what it can or cannot 

do. Here, Don Stahlnecker and Gila Hayes test the effectiveness and 

stopping power of the drive stun feature in a controlled setting. 

It was the late 1970s, I was a kid, and the advertisement was in the back of a comic book. 

Still, it had to be true. For just under 

ten dollars I could purchase 

my very own ELECTRONIC 

stun device that was guaranteed to 

PARALYZE an attacker of ANY SIZE. I 

was tempted. After all, I never missed 

an episode of Star Trek and I thought 

the phaser was the coolest weapon ever 

conceived. I figured that a phaser set 

to stun would be the best self defense 

tool ever. So the idea that I could actually 

own such a cool and handy contraption 

was overwhelming. However, 

ten bucks was a lot of money to a kid in 

those days, and I was still a little jaded 

from the x-ray glasses fiasco. So I never 

did order one. 

It is now 2009. I still can’t walk on the 

moon; I still don’t have my very own 

household servant robot. But I do indeed 

own my very own electronic stun 

device that will paralyze an attacker of 

any size. It is a Taser model C2. 

Over the last ten years, law enforcement 

officers across the nation 

have proven that modern Taser devices 

work. The general public has 

noticed this, and more and more 

people are purchasing Tasers for 

personal protection. Unfortunately, 

the Taser is not yet quite as effective 

as a good Star Trek phaser. I have 

hopes for the future, but meanwhile, 

32 


the Taser still has a few limitations: 

It only has one shot. True, the C2 

does also have drive stun capability. 

However drive stun generates pain 

only, and has no incapacitation effect. 

Consequently the Taser’s effectiveness 

against multiple attackers is limited. 

And even with one attacker, if you 

miss, well, that was it. 

It has a limited effective range. The 

maximum range of the civilian Taser is 

15 feet, but perhaps more important 

than the maximum range is the minimum 

range. Technically the Taser can 

be fired at point blank range, but the 

incapacitation effect begins to drop 

off rapidly as the distance drops below 

three feet. This means that if an attacker 

has managed to grab a hold of 

you before you can deploy the device, 

it may have a seriously limited incapacitation 

effect. It will still hurt like 

crazy but the attacker may still be able 

to move. 

There is no guarantee of incapacitation. 

Several factors can affect the 

level and duration of incapacitation. 

The electrodes may strike too close together 

generating plenty of pain, but 

little incapacitation. One or both electrodes 

might miss the attacker. The attacker 

may have friends near by willing 

to help him get free of the device. The 

attacker may have found out you own a 

Taser and contrived some type of body 

armor. These issues and more mean 

that you can’t rely entirely on one strike 

from the Taser to end an attack. 

Do these limitations render the 

Taser useless for self defense? Not at 

all! When used properly, the Taser is 

quite effective. The trick is to use the 

Taser properly. And I don’t mean simply 

that you have to know how to aim 

a laser and push a button. I mean you 

must have a plan of action that operates 

before, during, and after Taser 

deployment. The Taser isn’t an end all 

body guard. It won’t do all the work 

for you. You still have a part to play in 

the action. To this end I offer you four 

rules of effective Taser usage. Note that 

these rules apply to the civilian use of 

the Taser. Police use the same tool, but 

for a different purpose, and with completely 

different tactics. 

Rule 1: Get to safety NOW! 

The best purpose and function of a 

Taser for civilian use is to buy you time 

to move to safety. The Taser is a short 

term incapacitation device. After 30 

seconds the Taser C2 will shut off and 

the incapacitation will be over. The 

attacker may be fatigued, but not so 

much that an attacker of at least average 

health would be prevented from 

resuming the attack. Consequently 

your mindset must be to deploy the device 

and then move to safety as quickly 

as possible. And when I say move to 

safety, I don’t mean just run away. I 

mean get to the closest place where an 

attacker either can not or will not follow 

you. Don’t wait around to see how 

effective the device will be. Even an effectively 

incapacitated attacker may 

fall or thrash about in such a way as to 

dislodge an electrode or break a wire. If 

you hang out to make sure your attacker 

gets his full thirty second ride, you’ll 

have wasted all your opportunity to get 

out of Dodge. Use the device and go. 

If you are attacked by small group, 


33

deploying the device against one individual 

may buy you a few seconds time 

to get away from the rest. Certainly the 

other members of the group will pause 

to reassess their own safety. Maybe 

they’ll even take time to assist their 

fallen comrade. Either way, that’s a 

few seconds you didn’t have before. So 

make use of them. 

Do not let yourself get into the mindset 

that you will use your Taser to subdue 

and apprehend an attacker. I realize 

that some people have in the past, 

and will in the future successfully use 

a Taser to that end, but it won’t always 

work that way. Attempting to control a 

person is extremely risky business and 

generally requires overwhelming force. 

It is far less complicated and far less 

dangerous to move to safety. As a civilian, 

your first priority is to protect your 

own life, not to apprehend criminals. 

Do the thing mostly likely to keep you 

alive. 

Rule 2: 

Surprise is your friend 

I do not recommend threatening an 

attacker with the Taser like you would 

threaten a vampire with a cross. You 

may be able to effectively thwart a fairly 

non-committed aggressor by waving 

the Taser at him. But against a more 

committed attacker you will have simply 

given him an opportunity to strategize 

a better attack. 

I said previously that once the device 

shuts off there are very little lingering 

physical effects. There may, however, 

be some strong lingering psychological 

effects. The attacker may be disoriented, 

confused, scared, and with any 

luck has lost all interest in proceeding 

with the attack. These psychological 

effects will be significantly stronger if 

the attacker is surprised than they will 

be if the attacker has had time, even 

a few moments, to prepare for them. 

Even if an attacker is not fully incapacitated, 

the shock (no pun intended) of 

being seriously stung by something 

unexpected will almost certainly buy 

you valuable moments to obey Rule 

Number 1, get to safety NOW! 

Additionally, don’t let it become general 

knowledge that you carry a Taser. 

If you do, a long term aggressor, such 

34 

The business end of the Taser. Note the 

barb on the end of the probe. While it 

may look bad, the point is designed to 

penetrate the skin only far enough to 

achieve a good electrical contact, and 

can be easily removed with a sharp tug. 

as a stalker or a psychotic ex, will take 

pains to avoid and thwart your chances 

of using the Taser in self defense. 

Rule 3: Know your tool 

Unfortunately some people are going 

to buy a Taser, stick it in their pocket, 

and consider themselves fortified 

against even the most violent foreign 

invasion. Some of them won’t even 

bother to watch the convenient video 

that comes in the package. To use a tool 

effectively you must know what it can 

do and what it can’t do. Taser international 

provides excellent resources, 

so take advantage of them. Watch the 

DVD and practice some of the things 

shown there. Measure out fifteen feet 

in your living room or in your front 

yard. Stand in one spot and have someone 

else stand fifteen feet away. Get a 

feel for that distance, and learn to recognize 

when someone is that far away 

from you. 

I know the cartridges are expensive, 

but you should try to deploy at least 

one. You can purchase practice targets 

online but you don’t really need 

one. Simply stretch an old T-shirt over 

a piece of plywood, or a couple of layers 

of cardboard and lean it up against 

something outside. (Tip: don’t hang 

a T-Shirt or even a practice target on 

the wall in your house. The probes 

will punch two nasty little holes in the 

sheetrock, which will irritate you for 

a long time.) Stand five to seven feet 

from the target, aim the laser at the upper 

chest and fire. The Taser will make 

a rhythmic crackling sound, and a blue 

arc will be visible at the front of the 

unit. Keep your fingers away from there 

and don’t touch the probes. It is safe to 

hold onto the unit, though, and touching 

the wires won’t hurt you either. 

Don’t forget to practice Rule Number 

1 while you’re at it: Aim, Fire, Go. You 

want to have the whole process trained 

into memory. Not the part where you 

stand around and say, “Oh wow, that 

looks cool.” 

You should also consider enrolling 

in a quality martial arts or self-defense 

course. You don’t need to learn how to 

beat an attacker to the ground with 

your bear hands. But learning a few 

simple escapes from grabs and holds, 

may gain you the little bit of time and 

distance that you need to deploy your 

Taser effectively. 

Rule 4: 

Make sure it’s available 

The Taser won’t do you any good if 

you leave it at home or in the glove box 

of your car. It may not even do you any 

good if it’s buried too deeply in the bottom 

of a purse or inside a brief case. 

Criminals don’t like to give fair warning 

before they attack. So find a system of 

carrying the Taser that will allow you to 

access it quickly. 

During periods of greater risk, have 

the Taser already in hand. If you are, for 


example, required to lock up a business 

late at night, and walk to your car. 

Get your Taser out and carry it. Don’t 

wait till you see something suspicious 

to go digging around. For that matter 

if you see something suspicious, don’t 

wait for an attack before you start 

obeying Rule 1. The nice thing about 

Rule 1 is that often it can be effectively 

employed even before the Taser is. 

Taser International sells a holster 

for the C2 that will prove convenient 

for some people. In colder weather 

you may find it just as handy to carry 

in a coat pocket. But don’t let the unit 

get away from you when you step inside 

a warm building and take your 

coat off. 

If you plan to use it to defend yourself 

at home, make sure you find a 

place where it is easily accessible to 

you but where young children can not 

get a hold of it. The Taser may not be 

as deadly as a gun, but it still looks like 

a fun toy and can cause serious injury. 

In fact it is more likely to cause serious 

injury being played with than it is being 

used as intended. 

J-Max 

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Finally, 

The Unwritten Rule: 

I’d prefer to add one more rule 

to this list, however I suspect most 

people who elect to carry a Taser will 

disregard it, either because circumstances 

won’t allow them to follow it 

or because they have already decided 

they absolutely won’t. That rule would 

be: Carry a Firearm for backup. We 

are still a few years away from the ultimate 

less-lethal self defense device. 

It would be nice if we had a tool so 

powerful that we could stop any sort 

of attack, no matter how violent, with 

less than lethal force. But, for the time 

being anyway, there are some forms of 

violence that can only be stopped by 

the application of lethal force. n 

[ Don Stahlnecker earns his living 

as a computer programmer but 

he is also a student of Danzan Ryu 

Jujitsu and a certified instructor at the 

Firearms Academy of Seattle. Living in 

Washington state, Don has been involved 

in teaching self defense tactics 

and techniques since 2003. ] 

Be a Patriot! 

DateJOIN September 14, 2007 THE BLOG 

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35

Taser 

[ B Y T I M T H O R S T E N S O N ] Technolo 

The same but different: the C2 (top) and 

X26 (bottom) are essentially identical in 

performance but radically different in 

ergonomics. The preferred choice depends 

on your needs and intended uses. 

This article will examine some technical details about how Tasers work so you 

can make a better-informed decision about whether a Taser may fit into your own 

defensive plans. 

Any “alternative” weapon can be a 

double-edged sword when used 

in conjunction with a handgun. 

Having an extra tool can give you an 

option in cases where deadly force may 

be questionable or inappropriate, and 

it may serve to defuse a situation before 

it escalates to the point of requiring 

deadly force. But having multiple 

options can also complicate the defensive 

response and produce a dangerous 

hesitation in a moment of need. In addition, 

the required amount of training 

and mental preparation increases exponentially 

with the number of available 

tools. 

How does it work? 

It’s easy to carry on a conversation 

with a friend across the room, but if 

someone turns on a vacuum cleaner, 

communication becomes more difficult‐though 

not impossible, because 

you can shout over the noise. However, 

if someone starts jack-hammering concrete 

in the room, verbal communication 

is no longer possible, because the 

noise has become too loud to shout 

over. The Taser does the same thing 

to the central nervous system that the 

jackhammer does to spoken communication: 

the electrical impulses from the 

Taser are strong enough to effectively 

“drown out” the signals the brain sends 

to the muscles to make them work. 

The person being zapped essentially 

loses control of his or her muscles and 

typically drops to the ground. Taser literature 

refers to this as Neuro-Muscular 

Incapacitation (NMI). 

If you were trying to come up with 

a noisemaker that would keep people 

from being able to communicate across 

a room, the challenge would be to make 

something too loud for people to shout 

over, but not so loud as to cause permanent 

hearing damage. The same basic 

problem is at work with the Taser: the 

goal is to produce an electrical signal 

powerful enough to disrupt the signals 

from the brain, but not so powerful as 

to cause any lasting damage to the brain 

or body. By tweaking voltage, current, 

and pulse duration, Taser International 

allowed the electrical pulses delivered 

by its units to become potent enough 

to “out-shout” the brain while still remaining 

weak enough to prevent any 

permanent damage. 

Resisting the Taser 

Early Tasers (the original product was 

called the “Air Taser”) suffered an occa- 

36 


The Defensive “Burden”: Proper 

defensive preparedness means 

carrying a lot of stuff in addition 

to your handgun. Spare ammo, a 

tactical light, and a cell phone are 

widely recognized essentials. A decent 

knife, a backup light and even a 

backup handgun are often suggested, 

too. Fitting a “force option” like a 

Taser into the mix requires careful 

consideration. 

Stun guns 

The approach used by the Taser is 

in marked contrast to traditional “stun 

guns.” Such devices generally use simple 

circuitry to send a very high voltage 

to a pair of probes mounted on the unit. 

The raw voltages generated by both 

stun guns and Tasers would be lethal 

except that the circuitry of the devices 

restricts the total amount of electricity 

(the electrical current) that is delivered. 

The most obvious difference between 

a Taser and the traditional stun gun is 

that the Taser will work at a distance 

while a stun gun must be held against 

an aggressor at contact distance. But 

the other difference‐which is just as 

important‐is that the shock delivered 

by the Taser comes in the form of a 

repeating pulse that is specifically tailored 

to override the normal nerve 

signals sent by the brain. This is what 

gives the Taser a very high probability 

of temporarily shutting down an assailgy 

sional failure to incapacitate a person. 

On rare occasions, a really wigged out 

individual could be Tasered and still 

continue to function. As a result, the 

company refined the electrical shock 

delivered by their products. Current 

Taser products boast very high ratings 

of effectiveness, but there are still rare 

reports of the devices not successfully 

disabling the suspect. The “fog of battle” 

may be operative here, as in these cases 

there is always the question of whether 

solid contact with the target was actually 

made. Nonetheless, there have 

been a few demonstrations of highly 

trained individuals being able to fight 

through a full-powered and well-placed 

Taser shot in a controlled environment. 

Based on this, it is reasonable to suspect 

that a small fraction of the populace 

could fight through the Taser’s effects 

during real life violent encounters. 

Now, this little tidbit does suggest an 

interesting concept for a new reality 

show (“Who Wants to Beat the Taser?”), 

but I do not think it should be seen as 

a big negative against the devices. The 

pages of history contain many stories 

of people who have been able to “fight 

through” pepper spray, batons, and 

even well-placed bullets from majorcaliber 

handguns, at least for long 

enough to cause additional mayhem. 

The fact that the occasional individual 

may be able to fight through the jolt of 

the Taser simply establishes that the 

Taser is in the same category as every 

other defensive weapon ever invented: 

it is not 100 percent effective. As a practical 

matter, the limitations addressed 

in the “Taser Tactics” article are probably 

far bigger concerns. It may be less 

melodramatic than fighting through the 

effects of a successful hit, but a meathead 

armed with an empty pizza box is 

just as capable of defeating a Taser by 

simply blocking the probes before they 

hit home. 


37

Taser is seeking the “mass consumer market” (can you tell?) and this can 

make the serious defender wonder a bit about the products. But the C2’s 

incapacitation effect is comparable to Taser’s law enforcement products. 

ant when a solid hit is scored with the 

probes. Stun guns cause pain and other 

effects but, because they do not overwhelm 

the nervous system, they can 

easily be defeated by a motivated assailant. 

Further, the unit must be held 

in contact with a grappling, struggling, 

and angry individual. Many legitimate 

experts strongly discourage the use of 

such devices for civilian self-defense, 

and folks like Massad Ayoob and Gila 

Hayes have repeatedly demonstrated 

ways to defeat conventional stun guns. 

DiFferences between 

Taser products 

For simplicity, we have so far used 

“Taser” as a rather generic term. But 

Taser has four main models: the M26, 

the M18, the X26 and the C2. The “M”- 

series products deliver 0.50 joules per 

pulse, while the X-series and C2 models 

deliver a lower, but still effective 

0.07 joules per pulse. The joule is a unit 

of electrical energy and this difference 

would certainly seem to imply that 

the M-series products deliver a much 

more potent jolt. But here’s the rest of 

the story: The higher-energy M-series 

products are actually an earlier design. 

The M-series is very effective, but these 

products require a large amount of total 

power to get the job done, so a power 

plant of eight AA-sized batteries is 

needed. If you pick up eight AA batteries 

in your hand and then imagine trying 

to pack them into a pistol-shaped 

Taser, you get an appreciation for the 

size limitations imposed by these power 

requirements. 

With the newer models, Taser tuned 

the electrical pulse to correspond even 

38 

more closely to the electrical 

signals used by the 

human nervous system. 

The result is equally effective 

incapacitation 

with a lower energy demand, 

which results in 

a practical benefit of a 

smaller, more compact 

package. The newer X26 

and C2 units operate 

from a pair of the same 

small, light-weight lithium 

123A batteries commonly 

used in tactical 

flashlights. 

Of course, theoretical 

effectiveness is one 

thing, and a smaller 

package is great, but actual 

field performance is 

the important measure. 

After all, no legitimate defensive expert 

suggests carrying a .25 auto simply because 

it is smaller. Fortunately, the vast 

majority of Tasers sold to law enforcement 

in the last few years have been 

the newer, more compact X26 version, 

so a big body of field data is available to 

show that the X26 is every bit as effective 

as the M-series products in actual 

use. 

Civilian and 

law enforcement Tasers 

All Taser products available to civilians 

are limited to a range of 15 feet, 

while law enforcement units have ranges 

up to 35 feet. The civilian models also 

deliver fewer pulses per second than the 

law enforcement equivalents, at least 

for part of their cycle. For instance, the 

Power demands: the older M-series Tasers were 

quite effective, but they were also power hungry and 

required eight AA batteries. The newer X26 and C2 

are equally effective but use much less power. As a 

result, they can be run on a pair of lightweight and 

compact lithium batteries. 

law enforcement version of the X26 (the 

X26E) delivers 19 pulses per second, 

while the civilian X26C delivers 17 pulses 

per second for the first two seconds 

and then drops down to 10 pulses per 

second. The ergonomic C2 starts out 

at 19 pulses per second for the first five 

seconds (same as the law enforcement 

X26), but then varies through a slower 

pattern, a faster one and then a slower 

one again over the rest of its discharge 

cycle. The energy delivered by each 

pulse is the same 0.07 joules for both 

law enforcement and civilian products. 

The simple and practical reason for 

this difference has to do with intended 

use. In a law enforcement application, 

the usual post-Taser response is for officers 

to immediately throw down on the 

suspect and restrain him. In contrast, 


the goal in civilian use is to drop the bad 

guy long enough to allow the defender 

to get away. These different goals mean 

a longer total firing time is appropriate 

for the civilian units. The law enforcement 

X26E fires a five second cycle. But 

the new C2 model runs a thirty second 

cycle. The longer discharge cycle of the 

civilian units demands more energy, 

so the number of pulses per second 

was modified to insure that the battery 

packs could keep up with the demand. 

Whether it is the effectiveness of a 

product like the Taser, or the reliability 

of defensive ammunition, or the lumen 

rating of a tactical flashlight, or the hotness 

claimed by a pepper spray manufacturer, 

consumers must realistically 

assess the trust placed in the folks who 

make the products. Taser International 

confidently states that the modifications 

made to allow longer firing times 

for the civilian products do not reduce 

effectiveness. The company has been 

around for a while, its products have 

been subjected to a lot of scrutiny, and 

they boast an extremely solid track record 

for effectiveness. It’s worth noting 

that, for the first five seconds, the jolt 

delivered by the civilian C2 is absolutely 

identical to that of the law enforcement 

X26E (which has a very well documented 

track record). But after the five seconds, 

the law enforcement model stops 

(unless it is manually reactivated) while 

the C2 continues to fire a restraining 

pulse for another 25 seconds. 

The Taser is a legitimate tool that 

definitely has a role both in civilian 

self-defense and in law enforcement. 

Whether it has a role to play for you 

and your defense plans is your final call 

to make. But I hope that a little plainspoken 

background on how the things 

work, and the pros and cons that this 

creates, will help you make a better-informed 

decision if you are considering 

the Taser for yourself or for loved ones. 

n 

Are you DWA? 

(Driving While Armed) 

If you travel with your 

legally-carried firearm, 

you want it available yet 

secure. 

The SEATCARRY in-vehicle 

holster system keeps the firearm 

in front of your body for quick and 

easy access. 

CONCEALED CARRY 

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usconcealedcarry.com 

[ Tim Thorstenson is a chemist by education. 

His goal is to inform readers of 

the scientific aspects of self-defense to 

allow a better-informed evaluation of 

the available tools and information. 

Contact him at timthorstenson@yahoo. 

com. ] 


39

main: The 

unconventional shape 

of the C2 fits the hand well. 

inset: Taser with safety cover 

open and ready to fire. 

Taser TOOLS: 

C2 Electrifies Civilian Market 

[ B Y D U A N E A . D A I K E R ] 

Law abiding citizens have long searched for an effective non-lethal weapon. 

CS “tear” gas or OC “pepper” spray 

are common choices, but have 

significant drawbacks, including 

a lack of effectiveness on some individuals, 

and the possibility of “spray back” 

on the user, depending on which way 

the wind is blowing. Hand held electric 

“stun guns” have also been popular 

devices, but require sustained close 

physical contact to apply the electrical 

charge. For quite some time the most 

effective non-lethal weapon has been 

the Taser—an electrical stun gun capable 

of operating over a distance, and delivering 

multiple charges to the target. 

Such weapons were almost exclusively 

used by law enforcement agencies until 

Taser International introduced its civilian 

model—the Taser C2. 

The C2 operates in largely the same 

manner as the law enforcement models 

that everyone has seen on TV. When 

fired, the C2 propels twin electrical 

probe darts up to 15 feet. The probes 

are propelled by a high pressure compressed 

nitrogen charge. When these 

probes imbed in a human target, a circuit 

is completed, and allows the unit to 

deliver a pulsing electrical current to the 

body. The Taser charge results in neuro 

muscular incapacitation—temporarily 

impairing muscle control. Unlike other 

non-lethal weapons that rely on pain to 

coerce compliance, the Taser actually 

works directly to incapacitate the neuro 

muscular system. 

The Taser C2 looks amazingly like a 

futuristic stun gun. The appearance is 

more akin to an electric razor than a 

gun or other recognizable weapon. The 

shape, however, is very ergonomic and 

fits the hand well. The controls are very 

simple—just a single button with a sliding 

cover. Sliding open the button cover 

arms the unit, and makes it ready for 

use. It also activates a small, white LED 

light to help identify the target, and a red 

laser sighting device (if so equipped). A 

small, green LED indicates the Taser is 

ready to fire. A simple press of the trigger 

button fires the Taser, deploying the 

barbed probes. If you decide not to fire, 

simply closing the button cover returns 

the C2 to a safe condition. 

40 


A white LED and a red 

laser help identify the 

target and aim. 

left: Without the cartridge 

in place, the electrical arc 

can be seen. 

right: A fired Taser 

cartridge showing leads 

and barbed probes. 

Unlike the law enforcement units, 

the C2 is not designed to deliver short 

bursts of electrical charges. High voltages 

are utilized in the initial charge 

followed by a lower, steady charge to induce 

the full neuro muscular effect over 

a full thirty seconds. The C2 is designed 

to deliver a full thirty second cycle to 

the target. Taser suggests that once you 

have a hit, you drop the unit and use the 

time to escape while the attacker is incapacitated. 

In fact, Taser is so adamant 

about this tactic, they will replace your 

Taser C2 for free if you lose it as a result. 

The Taser is a single shot device, but 

can be reloaded with a new cartridge. 

Extra cartridges are available for the C2 

and can be swapped out pretty quickly. 

The lithium battery pack is also replaceable—but 

is good for about fifty firing 

cycles. 

To some, civilian availability of the 

Taser technology is controversial. Taser 

International, however, appears to 

have taken this responsibility very seriously. 

While you can purchase a C2 

from various sources, the unit cannot 

be activated or used by the consumer 

without completing a criminal background 

check. After purchase, the user 

must obtain an activation code for the 

C2, which can be done by phone or 

online. The process is simple, but sophisticated. 

You are required to answer 

questions about yourself obtained from 

public records—to ensure you are who 

you say you are. There is a $9.95 fee required 

to obtain the activation code. 

As a further deterrent to unlawful 

use, each Taser cartridge employs an 

Anti-Felon ID System. When the Taser is 

fired, it disburses a large number of serialized 

and bar coded confetti-like ID 

tags to allow authorities to identify the 

particular C2 unit used. 

The C2 is small, measuring only six 

inches in length and weighing seven 

ounces. The unit is easily carried on a 

belt or in a purse. Pocket carry would 

be possible, but is not recommended 

by the manufacturer. There are a 

few belt holsters available from Taser 

International, and I am sure we will see 

more as the C2 gains popularity. 

Please keep in mind that while the 

Taser is a non-lethal weapon, it is still a 

dangerous weapon. While some maintain 

the Taser’s electrical charge can be 

dangerous to certain individuals, there 

does not appear to be significant evidence 

of such danger. However, a target 

can easily be injured in a fall following 

the neuro muscular incapacitation. 

Also realize that the electrical probes 

are barbed like a fishing hook. Minor 

skin injuries are common, and a probe 

impact on the face or eyes could inflict 

serious injury. You should always treat 

the C2 with the same care and safety 

practices as a handgun. Tasers are serious 

weapons. Using a Taser without 

adequate provocation could bring 

criminal charges. However, when used 

responsibly, Tasers are legal for open or 

concealed carry in 43 states. You should 

check the law in your jurisdiction before 

purchasing a C2. 

The C2 comes in two configurations: 

with, and without an integrated laser 

aiming device. Retail is $350 and $300, 

respectively. Without a doubt the C2 is 

pricey, but the Taser technology does 

not come cheap. You can read much 

more about the C2 and Taser technology 

at www.taser.com. n 

[ Duane A. Daiker is a contributing editor 

for CCM, but is otherwise a regular 

guy—not much different from you. 

Duane has been a lifelong shooter and 

goes about his life as an armed, responsible, 

and somewhat opinionated citizen. 

Duane can be contacted at Daiker@ 

RealWorldCarryGear.com. ] 


41

FROM INCIDENT TO ACQUITTAL 

Trial day: 

IT’s show time! 

[ B Y M a r T Y H A Y E S , J D ] 

So far in this series “Incident to Acquittal,” we have discussed the expense of 

defending your actions in court; how to behave when the police show up to 

investigate the incident; what happens if you are arrested; and the roles of the 

police, experts and investigators in the case. 

What is left to discuss in this series 

is the court procedure itself: the 

role of the jury, the burden of 

proof and how to defend the case, along 

with what occurs after the verdict is read. 

With that in mind, let’s discuss what will 

happen the day of trial. 

After the opening gavel falls, there 

will be jury selection. Here, both attorneys 

(along with the judge) will have the 

ability to question potential jurors and 

eliminate them from being on your jury, 

a process called voir dire. You and your 

attorney will want to make sure there 

are no bunny hugging, anti-gun, antiself 

defense individuals on your jury. The 

prosecution will want to make sure there 

are no life members of the National Rifle 

Association, or people who themselves 

have been forced to kill in self-defense. 

The judge can dismiss any member of 

the jury pool if he believes the juror cannot 

be open minded and fair, and both 

sides get preemptory challenges (meaning 

they can simply remove a certain 

number of jurors without showing any 

legitimate reason to do so). A good example 

of the jury selection process is shown 

in the movie “A Time to Kill,” based on 

John Grisham’s novel of the same name. 

After voir dire, the jury will likely consist 

of retired folks who don’t need the 

paycheck to survive day-to-day, or unemployed 

individuals who have nothing 

better to do, along with a few business 

owners or self-employed people who 

can make adjustments in their schedules 

for this trial. We also see a good number 

of government workers, who still get 

paid their salary when on jury duty. In a 

perfect world, the jury would be able to 

identify with you and your particular circumstances, 

but we all know the world is 

not perfect, and thus jury selection is an 

extremely important and imperfect part 

of the process. If you don’t think you can 

get a fair jury (perhaps because of pretrial 

publicity) you can either file for a 

change of venue or request a bench trial 

(trial by judge only). Awarding a change 

of venue is a discretionary decision the 

judge makes, while you have the absolute 

right to a bench trial. If the law is clearly 

on your side, but perhaps the emotion 

of the incident isn’t, then the bench trial 

might be the way to go. This is a case 

where the advice of your attorney is critical. 

The bottom line is that unless you 

live in a very conservative area, your jury 

will likely be made up of people who do 

not carry guns on a daily basis, and probably 

don’t even keep a gun at home for 

self defense. Is this a jury of your peers? 

Obviously not, but life is not fair. 

After the jury is impaneled, both attorneys 

are allowed to make opening remarks, 

which is an effort to explain to the 

trier of fact (the jury) what their theory 

of the case is. The prosecutor will always 

go first, painting a picture of your alleged 

criminal culpability. The prosecutor will 

tell the jury what evidence they will see 

which will result in the belief that you 

committed the crime with which you 

have been charged. In addition, the defense 

will also get the chance to make 

opening remarks. In most criminal trials, 

the defense will waive making remarks 

at the start of trial, in order to see just 

what evidence the prosecutor will have 

presented. This is another area where 

you and your attorney need to have a 

serious discussion, because it is likely 

that allowing days or even weeks to go 

42 


y in the minds of the jury that you had 

no right to use deadly force in self-defense 

will create an insurmountable barrier to 

climb over, when you finally start your 

defense. Instead, you might want to make 

sure your attorney tells the jury during 

opening remarks, that you were justified 

in using deadly force in self-defense, and 

what evidence your case will consist of to 

prove this. The reason is that the elements 

of your defense are not going to change 

based on what the prosecutor says, and 

you want the jury to know both sides at 

the start of trial so they can weigh the 

evidence presented to them by the prosecution 

against your claim of innocence 

by reason of self-defense. This is critically 

important. 

After opening remarks, the prosecutor 

gets to call witnesses to present evidence. 

That evidence could be physical evidence, 

forensic evidence, witness recollections, 

circumstantial evidence, and expert testimony. 

What the prosecutor needs to do is 

to convince the jury that your actions met 

the elements of the crime being charged 

(likely murder, assault or manslaughter), 

and the prosecutor must prove each of 

these elements to the level of “beyond a 

reasonable doubt.” What is beyond a reasonable 

doubt? According to Black’s Law 

Dictionary “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” 

means: “Proof that precludes every reasonable 

hypothesis except that which it tends 

to support.” 

Layman’s interpretation: There is no 

other reasonable explanation other than 

that the defendant is guilty of the criminal 

act. 

Having said the above, in some jurisdictions 

(such as Arizona and Washington 

state) the prosecution must also prove the 

absence of self-defense (to a preponderance 

of the evidence), along with having to 

prove the elements of the crime charged. 

This will be a slightly higher burden of 

proof for the prosecution, so if you live in 

one of these states, you are fortunate. 

Once the prosecution has presented 

its case (which can takes days or even 

weeks), it is your turn to prove to the jury 

that your actions were reasonable under 

the circumstances. Yes, you read me correct. 

In a self-defense case you HAVE TO 

PROVE your innocence, as opposed to the 

prosecution needing to prove your guilt (a 

concept which we will explore next issue). 

But, before we close out this article, we 

should take a few words to discuss the 

plea bargain, which has become a pervasive 

part of the criminal justice system. 

Plea bargains exist because there are not 

enough resources to take every case to 

trial, so if you are charged with a crime, 

you will likely be offered a plea bargain to 

a lesser offense than that of charged. In 

theory, this seems like a pretty good deal 

for most defendants, and initially it was. 

For a person charged with 1 st degree murder 

and facing life in prison, taking a plea 

to 2 nd degree murder and only spending 

20 years in prison would seem like a pretty 

good deal, especially if the defendant actually 

did commit murder. The trade off 

In a self-defense case 

you HAVE TO PROVE 

your innocence, 

as opposed to the 

prosecution needing 

to prove your guilt. 

is that society believes justice was not 

served, and I could not disagree. To rectify 

this what has occurred in most jurisdictions 

is that people are now being greatly 

overcharged by prosecutors with the expectation 

that they will plead guilty to a 

lesser charge, (what the original charge 

should have been) as opposed to risking a 

jury verdict on the increased charge. 

For example, a person might be charged 

with the felony charge of 2 nd degree assault, 

when all the elements of the case 

suggest a misdemeanor brandishing 

charge is the correct charge. And, while 

this process also works, it is intellectually 

dishonest, which troubles me. Whether or 

not you accept a plea bargain is your personal 

decision, one to be made between 

you, your attorney, and your family. n 

[ Marty Hayes is President and Director of 

the Firearms Academy of Seattle, Inc., and 

one of the founders of the Armed Citizens’ 

Legal Defense Network. He has more than 

30 years experience in law enforcement 

and firearms training, along with extensive 

experience as an expert witness and legal 

consultant. ] 


43

IT DOESN’T HAVE TO MAKE SENSE... IT’S JUST THE LAW 

The Harrison County 

Courthouse in Bethany, 

Missouri has more 

victim’s rights posters 

than all the other 114 

Missouri courthouses 

put together. If one must 

be a victim, this might be 

a good place to start. 

VICTIMS’ 

RIGHTS 

[ B Y K . L . J A M I S O N ] 

The lady had been raped. 

She was interviewed by a very 

sympathetic female Kansas City, 

Missouri police officer. She was 

escorted to the hospital for a rape examination 

where she was met by her 

lawyer. The examination was delayed. 

The officer asked when she would be 

seen and was told to wait. The lawyer 

then asked the same question and she 

was immediately seen. 1 Because the 

lady had been taken into another jurisdiction 

she was required to repeat 

her story to another department. This 

report was taken by an obese sergeant 

who first protested that he could not 

possibly take a report because the victim 

had neglected to take careful note 

of the address where she was attacked. 

Being assured that the victim’s lawyer 

would correct this deficiency, he acquiesced, 

pausing at one point to chortle 

with a colleague over the proper spelling 

of “vagina.” The report went to the 

prosecutor’s office for review. 

In the fullness of time, there were results. 

The hospital sent the victim a bill 

for the emergency room examination. A 

stiff letter from her lawyer pointed out 

that state law forbade billing victims 

for such examinations and that ended 

the matter. 2 The county prosecutor decided 

that she did not have sufficient 

evidence to file charges citing a very 

brief previous relationship between the 

parties. The rapist, who reportedly took 

advice from the mummified corpse of a 

dead baby, thought that the relationship 

continued. The victim bought a gun. 

She also filed suit, and quickly received 

a million-dollar judgment which was 

nothing but a trophy, given the rapist’s 

income. However, a trophy was what 

she needed. It was a victory over the 

rapist, and it helped him understand 

reality; he heard about the gun too. 

Traditionally, victims are considered 

a piece of evidence at best, and 

a nuisance at worst. This attitude has 

changed in recent years. Following a 

self-defense shooting, the citizen is the 

victim. Victims have rights. While criminals 

are given their rights, victims must 

take theirs. There is a constitutional 

protection for victims in some state 

constitutions. 3 More commonly they 

are protected by statute. Federal law at 

42 U.S. Code §10607 requires that the 

victim or victim’s representative must: 

• Be provided with a responsible officer 

to inform the victim of rights and 

counseling 

• Receive protection 

• Be informed of the status of the investigation 

and court procedures 

• Be informed of parole hearings and 

dates, escape, or death 

• Have the costs of rape exams and venereal 

disease tests paid 

• Have property held as evidence well 

maintained and returned 

However, it provides no private cause 

of action. Victims’ rights laws typically 

allow victims to speak at sentencing to 

explain the impact of the crime. Victims 

also have the right to know when the 

criminal is released from prison. A 

unique situation results when the criminal 

is not a U.S. citizen. Upon conviction 

of a “crime of moral turpitude” (to 

include multiple DWIs) legal aliens, and 

all illegal aliens, are ordered removed to 

their home country when they complete 

their sentence. Often parole boards 

will see an Immigration and Customs 

Enforcement (ICE) detainer on the inmate, 

and rather than spend $25,000 

a year to house and feed him, they parole 

him early to ICE. The trouble is that 

some nations will not take back their 

wayward citizens. The Supreme Court 

has ruled that alien ex-convicts cannot 

be indefinitely imprisoned awaiting 

deportation. Consequently these felons 

are released into American society. 4 In 

such cases ICE must be notified of the 

victim’s interest. 

State prosecutors often have victim’s 

rights programs as a sop to the electorate. 

The program usually is an additional 

duty for an investigator or paralegal. 

The program itself consists only of a 

pamphlet explaining court procedure 

44 


and an orientation before the first court 

hearing. Most prosecutors would like 

to do more for victims. However, doing 

more requires hiring additional staff. 

The budget goes elsewhere. Victims 

must take their fate in their own hands. 

It is often therapeutic for a victim to assist 

in the process. Numerous victim’s 

rights organizations are active; primarily 

Parents of Murdered Children, and 

various rape counseling groups. 5 Most 

cases have some sort of hearing in three 

to six months after arrest. If the victim 

has heard nothing in three months the 

prosecutor’s office should be contacted 

for a status report. 

It is important that the victim provide 

the prosecutor working the case 

with phone numbers of home, work, 

and a friend or relative who will relay 

a message. A case may see several 

prosecutors who may need to contact 

a victim or witness on short notice if a 

case goes to trial unexpectedly. Persons 

who are injured in a criminal attack 

may make a claim on the state Crime 

Victim’s Compensation Fund. Persons 

attacked at work may make a claim on 

the state Worker’s Compensation fund. 

Compensation is limited to personal injury 

expenses. Convicts are required to 

make payments to the fund, however, 

being criminals, many do not. There appears 

to be little effort to enforce court 

orders to pay into the fund. As a result, 

there is little money in the fund and 

payments are slow. Suit can always be 

filed. The prisoner’s commissary fund 

at the department of corrections can 

then be garnished. 

The probation and parole departments 

typically have the responsibility 

of informing victims of their right to 

notification when “their” criminal is eligible 

for parole. At the time of sentencing, 

the victim should inform probation 

and parole in writing of a desire for notification 

and keep them informed of 

changes in address. Normally probation 

and parole will raise the question; 

however, one must never assume that 

the government will behave normally. 

The police are confused when the victim 

shows up with a lawyer. 6 However 

in a self-defense case the line between 

victim and defendant may waver. 

On October 11, 1981, a man entered 

a tavern and attacked two patrons with 

a hatchet; he was promptly shot and 

killed. The following day the Kansas City 

Star described the assailant as the “victim,” 

and the man who defended himself 

as the “gunman,” a la Billy the Kid. 

This terminology stands law and common 

sense on its head. Unfortunately, 

this terminology has become common 

in the media. 

At trial, the prosecution will take every 

opportunity to refer to the deceased 

or wounded criminal as a “victim.” This 

is an emotionally weighted word which 

prejudges the facts of the case. The 

prosecution must be prevented from 

abusing this term through a motion in 

limine. Such a motion is an order of the 

court to the attorneys and witnesses 

not to use the term. A person who defends 

himself does not become a “gunman.” 

A criminal does not become a 

victim simply because the object of his 

crime fought back. It insults victims of 

shootings, stabbing, assault, and rape 

to count unsuccessful criminals in their 

number. The term “victim” is defined in 

Black’s Law Dictionary as: “The person 

who is the object of a crime or tort, as 

the victim of a robbery is the person 

robbed.” A wounded criminal is a gunshot 

“victim” only if a drunk driver is 

the “victim” of his own traffic accident. 

The Supreme Court of Rhode Island 

ruled that a “…victim is an individual 

who is an involuntary participant in 

a criminal act or totally unaware that 

he or she is a potential participant in a 

crime. In other words, those who were 

not there by choice or with knowledge 

of the risk they were incurring.” 7 A convicted 

criminal had the temerity to apply 

to the Crime Victim’s Compensation 

Fund. The criminal was shot in the back 

while fleeing a robbery. His theory was 

that since shooting fleeing felons was illegal, 

he was a victim. The court upheld 

the fund’s denial of the claim on the 

grounds of “contributory misconduct.” 8 

An old California case warns against 

applying the term, “victim” to the deceased: 

“The word victim, in the connection 

in which it appears, is an unguarded 

expression, calculated . . .to create prejudice 

against the accused. It seems to 

assume that the deceased was wrongfully 

killed, when the very issue was as 

to the character of the killing. When 

the deceased is referred to as “a victim,” 

the impression is naturally created that 

some unlawful power or dominion had 

been exerted over his person. And it was 

nearly equivalent, in effect, to an expression 

characterizing the defendant as a 

criminal. 9 

One trial court sustained the defense 

objection to calling the deceased 

a “victim” and instructed the jury to 

ignore the reference. 10 However, appellate 

courts frequently uphold the use of 

“victim” as a sort of shorthand for the 

deceased. The courts tend to claim that 

in context it could not be prejudicial. 

Especially in context, it could not help 

but be prejudicial. Early assistance by 

an attorney helps to prevent such prejudice. 

n 

[ Kevin L. Jamison is an attorney in the 

Kansas City Missouri area concentrating 

in the area of weapons and self-defense. ] 

Please send questions to Kevin L. 

Jamison 2614 NE 56 th Ter Gladstone 

Missouri 64119-2311 KLJamisonLaw@ 

earthlink.net. Individual answers are 

not usually possible but may be addressed 

in future columns. 

This information is for legal information 

purposes and does not constitute 

legal advice. For specific questions you 

should consult a qualified attorney. 

1. The staff did not believe that the police officer 

would arrest them, but thought that the lawyer 

might sue them. 

2. Federal law at 42 U.S.C.§3796gg-4 withholds 

funds from any state, Indian Nation or local 

government that does not pay the costs of forensic 

exams for rape victims. 

3. See the Missouri Constitution at Article I §32. 

4. See Ames Holbrook The Deporter, Sentinel 

Penguin Group N.Y. 2007 for the story of an 

ICE removal agent who perhaps went a little 

too far in his efforts to fight the system. 

5. See www.crimevictims.gov and www.ncvc. 

org 

6. Author’s experience. 

7. Brown v State, 512 A.2d 875 (R.I. 1986) at 876. 

8. McCrimmon v Crime Victims Compensation 

Commission, 465 S.E.2d 28 (Ct. App. N.C. 

1995) at 30. 

9. People v Williams, 17 California Rpts 142 

(1860) at 147. 

10. State v Rodebaugh, 655 S.W.2d 652 (Mo.App. 

E.D. 1983). 


45

This column reviews a variety of high-quality personal 

safety, self-defense, and concealed carry related gear. Each 

item reviewed is thoroughly evaluated under real world 

conditions. 

Inert or “dummy” rounds 

can be an invaluable 

training tool. 

S.T. Action 

Pro Dummy Rounds 

Inert or “dummy” rounds can be 

an invaluable training tool. Loading, 

unloading, malfunction clearance, 

and other gun-handling skills are best 

practiced with dummy rounds rather 

than live ammo. There are a number 

of brands on the market with varying 

costs and utility. Recently, I had an opportunity 

to train with S.T. Action Pro 

Dummy Rounds. 

These practice rounds use 

genuine brass cases with 

brilliantly colored plastic 

“bullets.” The genuine cases 

provide realism, while 

the colored plastic makes 

the dummy rounds easy to 

identify at a glance. The recessed 

primer hole permits 

safe dry fire drills that won’t 

damage your gun’s firing 

pin. The primer holes are also colored 

orange to prevent any misidentification 

as live rounds. The Action 

Trainers’ design ensures both safety 

and durability. These rounds have 

been utilized by law enforcement, 

military, security and training agencies 

worldwide since 1999. 

Action Trainers are available in 

popular handgun, rifle and shotgun 

calibers. The rounds are sold in quantities 

of 50 or 100, and the price varies 

by caliber. The .38 Special dummy 

rounds shown here are about $43 for 

50 rounds (as of June ‘09). You can 

order Action Trainers direct on www. 

stactionpro.com. 

REAL W 

CARRY G 

[ B Y D U A N E A . D A I K E R ] 

Benchmade Mini-Barrage 

I like Benchmade knives, I like the 

Benchmade AXIS lock, and I like assisted 

opening knives. Now, for the 

first time, I can have all three in the 

same knife! The 585 Mini-Barrage 

is the newest Osborne design from 

Benchmade. Pairing the assisted opening 

feature with the very strong AXIS 

lock makes for the strongest assisted 

46 


locking mechanism on the market. 

The Mini-Barrage sports a drop 

point blade made from 154CM stainless 

steel and nicely sculpted black 

Valox handles. The assisted opening 

mechanism opens the knife smartly 

once the blade is started open with the 

ambidextrous thumb studs. The knife 

features a “safety lock” on the spine 

that will lock the blade in the closed 

position to prevent accidental opening. 

Interestingly, the “safety lock” will 

also act as a supplemental lock to lock 

the blade open in addition to the AXIS 

lock. Other features of this knife include 

a lanyard hole and a reversible 

carry clip. 

The Mini-Barrage features a 2.91 

inch blade and weighs 3.4 ounces. 

This is a nice size for pocket carry, 

and will not violate blade length 

laws in most jurisdictions. However, 

if you prefer a larger knife, the 580 

Barrage is the same knife with a 3.6 

ORLD 

EAR 

inch blade and weighs 4.2 ounces. 

This “Blue Class” knife retails for a 

reasonable $120 - $135 as of June ‘09, 

and can be found for considerably less 

if you shop around. That is a nice value 

for an assisted opening knife of this 

quality. Like all Benchmade knives, the 

Mini-Barrage is made in the U.S.A. and 

has a lifetime warranty. Furthermore, 

when it gets dull you can ship it back 

to Benchmade under their LifeSharp 

program to be tuned and sharpened 

for only the cost of return shipping. I 

sent in a Benchmade knife recently 

You have to appreciate 

a company that stands 

behind its products like 

Benchmade. 

If you could have Level 2 retention in a concealment 

holster that is fast and natural to unlock, why 

wouldn’t you want it? 

and it came back ten days later looking 

like a new knife! You have to appreciate 

a company that stands behind 

its products like Benchmade. You can 

view the Mini-Barrage and the entire 

Benchmade line at www.benchmade. 

com. 

Blackhawk Serpa 

CQC Holster 

Any number of companies make inexpensive 

black “plastic” holsters that 

work just fine. Retention of the gun 

is by tension on the trigger guard, or 

sometimes an old fashioned thumb 

break. Blackhawk has raised the bar for 

such holsters by creating a high quality, 

easy to use, Level 2 retention holster 

for concealed carry utilizing their 

patented Serpa Auto Lock Technology. 

The Serpa CQC concealment holster 

securely locks your carry gun into the 

holster automatically, every time you 

holster. You get an audible “click” as 

the gun seats, with no further action 

required. The lock engages on the trigger 

guard, and is very secure. When 

you are ready to draw, the lock is disengaged 

with your trigger finger on the 

outboard side of the holster body. The 

beauty of the design is that disengagement 

is nearly automatic if you place 

your extended trigger finger along the 

side of the holster the way most of us 

have already been trained to do. 

I have now practiced hundreds of 

draws from this holster, many during 

actual live fire drills. For the first thirty 

draws or so, I would have an occasional 

hang-up because I didn’t get my 

finger in the right place before starting 

to lift the gun. Once I got accustomed 

to the draw stroke, the motion 

became automatic and I didn’t have to 

consciously think about disengaging 

the lock. On the other hand, the lock 

is very difficult to disengage by anyone 

attempting a gun grab. 

The question you may be asking is: 

Do I need a Level 2 retention holster 

for concealed carry? Maybe not. Many 

popular concealed carry holsters have 

nothing more than passive retention 

devices. The idea is that a private citizen 

with a concealed firearm is unlikely 

to get into a struggle for possession 

of the weapon. While that may statistically 

be true, I would also suggest 

that the consequences of having your 

gun taken are very severe. If you could 

have Level 2 retention in a concealment 

holster that is fast and natural 


47

to unlock, why wouldn’t you want it? 

Even beyond the innovative Serpa 

lock, the CQC is an excellent holster 

that utilizes the highest quality materials. 

While most black “plastic” holsters 

are made from 1960s polymer 

technology like Kydex, Blackhawk 

uses a proprietary blend of high density 

polymer and carbon fiber for an 

optimum strength-to-weight ratio. All 

other parts of the holster are made 

from brass or stainless steel, so durability 

and longevity should not be a 

problem. 

The holster shape is well designed, 

permitting a full firing grip while holstered. 

I also like the low front “speed 

cut,” which makes for a quick draw, 

but also aids in reholstering. The gun 

can be reholstered by dragging it back 

through the speed cut until it stops, 

then pushing the gun straight down. 

This makes holstering much easier 

than hunting for the top of a level 

opening, and aids holstering without 

having to look at the holster. As a bonus, 

Blackhawk includes both a belt 

loop attachment and a paddle attachment 

with each holster for maximum 

versatility. 

There are literally hundreds of thousands 

of Serpa holsters in service with 

law enforcement and elite military 

personnel all over the globe. The Serpa 

is also an official-issue item to many 

units and government agencies in the 

U.S. and overseas. They have earned 

an outstanding reputation and are 

backed by a one-year warranty, though 

I have heard that Blackhawk will often 

go beyond the terms of their stated 

warranty to stand behind these holsters—and 

their customers who use 

them. 

The Serpa CQC concealment holster 

is available for most popular compact 

and full-size semi-autos, and a 

few revolvers. The matte black CQC is 

available for under $50 (as of June ‘09). 

There is also a carbon-fiber appliqué 

finish option that is about ten dollars 

more. If you are really on a budget, the 

Serpa technology is also available in a 

budget holster called the Serpa CQC 

Sportster, without the carbon-fiber 

blend material and without the belt 

loop attachment, for around $33 (as 

of June ‘09). In my opinion, spend the 

extra few dollars and get the top of the 

line model. 

You can view and order the whole 

family of Serpa holsters at www. 

blackhawk.com. 

Tuff QuickStrips 

I have previously written about my 

appreciation for Bianchi Speedstrips. 

Bianchi always had the corner on the 

market for revolver loading strips. The 

problem was that they came in only 

one size: .38 Special/.357 Magnum. 

If you carried a revolver in any other 

caliber, you were limited to a speed 

loader or a dump pouch. All that has 

changed now. 

Tuff Products now offers their equivalent 

product, the QuickStrips, in an 

unbelievable variety of calibers. In additional 

to .38 Special/.357 Magnum, 

you can also get QuickStrips in many 

other revolver calibers, including .22 

48 


The Tuff 

QuickStrips 

are top quality 

and should last 

forever. 

(Short, Long Rifle or Magnum), .327 

Magnum, .41 Magnum, .44 Magnum, 

.45 (Auto Rim or Long Colt), and .500 

Magnum. There are QuickStrips for 

shotgun shells and large caliber hunting 

rounds. If you have a need, there 

are even loading strips for rimless 

semi-auto rounds such as .40 S&W 

and 9mm. 

For revolver shooters, carrying the 

spare ammo in a flat strip, as opposed 

to a bulky speed loader, can sometimes 

make the difference between 

carrying a reload and not carrying 

a reload. A loading strip also offers 

much more flexibility for making partial 

reloads and keeping the gun at 

least partially loaded. 

The Tuff QuickStrips are top quality 

and should last forever. Prices are 

very reasonable, and run about $8.50 

for a pair (as of June ‘09). Tuff also 

produces a nylon belt pouch that 

holds two QuickStrips, giving you 

additional carry options. Check out 

the QuickStrips and other Tuff brand 

products at www.tuffproducts.com. n 

[ Duane A. Daiker is a contributing 

editor for CCM, but is otherwise a 

regular guy—not much different from 

you. Duane has been a lifelong shooter 

and goes about his life as an armed, 

responsible, and somewhat opinionated 

citizen. Duane can be contacted 

at Daiker@RealWorldCarryGear.com, 

and welcomes your comments and suggestions 

for gear reviews. ] 

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49

ARMED SENIOR CITIZEN 

Interview stance with 

Don Hume Top Security 

High Ride Retention 

Concealment Holster and 

Blackhawk Tactical Pants. 

Do not stop 

training. Stay 

in shape! Don’t 

become stagnant. 

Age is no excuse! 

Teaching 

an Old Dog 

New 

Tricks 

[ B Y B R U C E N . E I M E R , P h . D ] 

The world doesn’t seem to be getting any safer. 

In addition to the usual crimes, we 

now have an American city that is 

the number two kidnapping capital 

in the world, plus a real threat of middle 

east-style domestic terrorism. Our 

law enforcement departments are the 

thin blue line that protects Americans. 

At fifty-five, I may be too old to start 

a new career as a cop, but I can still 

serve by becoming a Law Enforcement 

Firearms Instructor. I’ve been a firearms 

and shooting enthusiast for more 

than seventeen years, I’ve attended 

numerous shooting schools, and as an 

NRA instructor for more than five years 

I’ve taught classes and coached police 

and members of the public to learn to 

shoot and prevail in a fight. But I can do 

more. I recently attended the NRA Law 

Enforcement Instructor Development 

School (handgun and shotgun instructor) 

at the Allentown Police Academy in 

Allentown, Pennsylvania. This consisted 

of forty-four contact hours over five 

days with one late night to accommodate 

reduced light shooting and tactics. 

NRA Law Enforcement Firearm 

Instructor Development Schools develop 

and enhance instructional and 

firearm handling skills so that instructors 

can effectively teach law enforcement 

officers to win lethal encounters. 

The curriculum is specifically designed 

to prepare students to develop and 

conduct safe, effective, reality-based 

firearm training. Classroom instruction 

and practical exercises on the 

range did indeed provide us with usable 

models for building instructional 

firearm programs for agencies, groups, 

and individuals. In addition, this school 

definitely enhanced my firearms knowledge 

and gun handling skills. 

The Instructors 

There were three school faculty. The 

chief and his two adjunct instructors 

were terrific instructors, clear and interesting 

lecturers, attentive range officers, 

good role models, and helpful coaches. 

They were extremely knowledgeable 

50 


While drawing a Glock 19, the user’s straightened trigger finger easily 

disengages the positive retention of Blackhawk’s Serpa holster. 

and skilled at arms, and clearly had 

been there and done that. They also 

practiced what they preached in that 

they employed state of the art instructional 

techniques, and they were very 

good at demonstrating all of the techniques 

covered. 

Students and equipment 

There were a total of 28 students 

attending school. Most were young, 

30-something active duty police officers, 

and a few were 40-something 

retired cops and correctional officers. 

Despite my enthusiasm, at first I felt a 

bit out of place, given my age, and the 

fact that I am not a cop. Keeping up 

with the mostly young cops challenged 

me to my limits. The chief instructor, 

a retired cop, and department firearm 

instructor, was a very accomplished 

gentleman in his forties. The only gentlemen 

who were near my own age were 

the two wonderful assistant course instructors. 

One is a retired FBI agent who 

had lots of entertaining and instructive 

stories to share, and the 

other is a veteran, active 

duty police officer. 

Students were instructed 

to bring their own duty 

weapons. For handgun 

school, most students 

brought Glocks in 9mm, 

.40 S&W, .and 45 ACP, 

with a few Springfield 

XD pistols chambered 

for .40 S&W and .45 ACP, 

one Beretta 92, a Smith & 

Wesson M&P 40, and two 

Smith & Wesson .40 S&W 

Model 4006 pistols. Most 

students wore duty gear. 

Several students wore 

concealment gear since 

they worked with plainclothes 

officers, but all 

holsters still had to have 

retention devices. Most 

students used 12-gauge 

pump action Remington 

870 or Mossberg 590 shotguns 

with required slings. 

My equipment 

Given my goal, which was to pass 

the courses of fire and graduate from 

school, I chose to bring my Glock 19, 

and I was glad that I did! I also brought 

my Remington Law Enforcement 870 

shotgun. My duty gear consisted of 

Blackhawk’s Level 3 Duty Serpa Holster 

mounted on their ergonomically designed 

Molded Cordura Duty Belt, mated 

to their hook and loop cordura trouser 

belt, belt keepers, a Blackhawk double 

snap flap cordura magazine pouch, 

and a Blackhawk CQC Compact Light 

Carrier for my Surefire G2 Nitrolon 

flashlight. I wore my Blackhawk duty 

gear the first day of school, and then 

switched to my Don Hume Level 1 retention 

concealment holster for the remaining 

four days. 

Blackhawk’s lightweight, injection 

molded, carbon fiber composite, Level 

3 retention, Serpa Duty Holster employs 

an Auto Lock System that uses 

one’s natural drawing motion to release 

the weapon from the holster. There are 

no unnatural motions or complicated 

sequences to remember, just grab and 

draw. Re-holstering is also a cinch. The 

Serpa Auto Lock System provides immediate 

Level 2 security upon re-holstering. 

My Don Hume concealment gear 

consisted of their Top Security High 

Ride open top holster equipped with 

the hidden release trigger locking device. 

This holster offered excellent concealment 

and weapon retention for 

my Glock 19, and the retention locking 

device automatically secured my Glock 

when I re-holstered it. To present the 

weapon, I simply had to obtain a good 

grip on my pistol as my thumb naturally 

traveled down to the trigger guard 

release. If you carry a gun, you need a 

strong gun belt to support the holstered 

gun’s weight. Gould & Goodrich’s comfortable, 

doubly reinforced, 1-1/2 inch 

Finding a senior-friendly 

firearms instructor 

L 

ook for a warrior who has at least celebrated his or her fortieth birthday. 

Life experience is important! Your instructor should know how to successfully 

fight through pain, and be old enough to have dealt with the frustrations 

of competing physically and mentally with younger people. Find someone 

who has an extensive training background, and who continues to train and 

go to school. You should look for someone who is not just a warrior, but who 

is also a true teacher—a person who not only tells you what to do and how 

to do it, but who also can show you how to do it. The instructor you choose 

should often say, “Let me show you,” to demonstrate how it is done. Finally, 

you should feel comfortable with your instructor, and confident that they care 

about you, their student. n 


51

Tips From Training Experience 

Do not stop training. Stay in shape! Don’t become stagnant. 

Age is no excuse! 

Recognize that you will fight as you have trained. Learn to train 

with pain. Train to win the fight, not just to survive. 

There is no substitute for good equipment. Make sure your 

equipment works, and that it fits you. 

Become intimate and competent with your equipment by 

training with it on a daily basis. Practice drawing your gun 

from the holster until it becomes a muscle memory, and you 

have become “unconsciously competent,” able to do the task 

competently without conscious thought. 

Training must be reality based. With that said, many useful ideas 

for drills can be obtained from competition and matches, such 

as IDPA and IPSC. 

Those who carry firearms should take continuing education 

in defensive firearms use, defensive tactics, and less lethal 

techniques. When you stop learning, you stop living. 

shooter’s belt did the trick. It provided 

a firm platform for a smooth draw, and 

did not sag when the weapon was holstered. 

A Don Hume double magazine 

snap down flap carrier completed the 

rig. 

Learning protocol 

All range work was conducted on 

the academy’s outdoor range. Students 

paired off with different partners, and 

over the course of the day, each partner 

alternated between being student and 

coach. Our three master instructors exposed 

us to a variety of shooting techniques, 

training methods, and tactical 

philosophies. 

School covered a wide range of essential 

survival skills for both weapons: 

transitioning from long gun to handgun, 

marksmanship fundamentals, 

close quarter and long range shooting, 

weapons handling, gun presentations, 

ready positions, scanning, two handed 

and one handed shooting, emergency 

and tactical reloading, immediate action 

procedures for clearing stoppages 

and malfunctions, switching hands, 

using cover and concealment, shooting 

from different positions, challenge 

command procedures, shooting and 

moving, addressing multiple targets, 

reduced light techniques, incapacitated 

officer techniques, decision making, 

and tactical problem solving. There 

were two qualification courses—one for 

handgun and one for shotgun. For both 

courses we covered core safety procedures, 

range safety procedures, range 

organization, coaching techniques, developing 

lesson plans, and range drills. 

To graduate, we had to demonstrate 

both teaching and shooting proficiency, 

and pass a written examination. No 

safety violations were tolerated. 

Mental and physical 

preparation for coping 

with the pain! 

One of the school mottos is that there 

are no right handed or left handed instructors—only 

ambidextrous instructors, 

as we will have to teach and demonstrate 

to right and left handed students. 

This is a good rule, but it proved 

especially difficult and painful for me 

when I had to work left handed with my 

side-saddle mounted, loaded, eight to 

nine pound shotgun. After surgery to 

my right shoulder and low back, this arthritic 

55-year old had a hard time of it. 

Nevertheless, I managed to perform all 

of the drills and smoke the qualification 

course of fire through pure willpower. I 

was determined to pass and show my 

much younger classmates that I could 

do it! My self coaching and motivational 

strategy included the following: 

• I performed dry practice in my motel 

room every night. I made sure to 

put all live ammunition away and 

did not allow myself to be interrupted. 

• I took the school’s mantra to heart 

and repeated it in my head throughout 

my waking hours: “My mind is 

my weapon. Stay in the fight and I 

will prevail.” 

• I made sure to read and understand 

everything in our course textbook 

regarding the proper procedures for 

performing each drill. 

• I made sure to wake up early enough 

every morning to have enough time 

to get myself together before class 

began. 

• I made sure to eat a good breakfast 

every morning. 

Conclusions 

As a result of this training, I believe 

that my perspectives about armed self 

defense and training have become 

more realistic. 

It is a personal liability to have no 

retention device even on a concealed 

carry holster. I do not consider the tensioning 

screws retention devices. I understand 

that on the range, at a shooting 

course, or at a combat match, it is 

a lot easier to have an open top holster. 

But, in the real world of personal defense, 

you want your handgun secured 

from unwanted hands, and prolonged 

violent movement. In my opinion, you 

should be able to do twenty jumping 

jacks without feeling it necessary to 

hold onto your sidearm or holster. It’s 

important to recognize that every time 

you are in a fight, there’s at least one 

gun involved‐yours. After attending LE 

Instructor School, drawing from my 

two retention holsters is just as fast as 

52 


Don Hume Top Security High Ride Level 

1 Retention Holster. 

my draw from an open top belt scabbard. 

A retention holster is not a “trick 

device”. It is a life saving device in that it 

can foil a bad guy’s attempted gun grab. 

Naturally, if one does not train with it 

and then just wears it on the street, that 

may be problematic. So, the solution is 

to get the right equipment and train, 

train, train to win the fight. 

For CCW, we must not wear too many 

different holsters, or carry too many 

different handguns. It can confuse our 

primitive brains when the balloon goes 

up. For survival purposes, we should 

practice working with the equipment 

we use. We will perform on the street as 

we train. 

Effective law enforcement requires 

intelligence, well honed skills, and 

physical fitness. Most cops are really 

good folks. They deserve our respect, 

and every advantage that good preparation, 

training, and equipment can give 

them on the mean streets. n 

Contacts: 

Blackhawk 

www.Blackhawk.com 

(800) 694-5263 

Don Hume Leathergoods 

www.DonHume.com 

(800) 331-2686 

Gould & Goodrich 

www.GouldUSA.com 

(800) 277-0732 

Surefire, LLC 

www.Surefire.com 

(800) 828-8809 

[ Bruce N. Eimer, Ph.D. is a clinical 

psychologist and NRA Certified Law 

Enforcement Firearms Instructor 

(Handgun and Shotgun) in Philadelphia, 

PA. Bruce teaches concealed carry classes 

that satisfy the training requirements 

for the Florida, Virginia, and Utah 

multi-state carry permits. He also 

provides private firearm instruction. 

Bruce is the co-author of the Essential 

Guide to Handguns and moderates 

the online discussion forum, www. 

DefensiveHandguns.com. For more 

information, to contact Bruce, or to sign 

up for FREE access to Dr. Eimer’s Arsenal 

for the CCW Permit Holder, go to: www. 

PersonalDefenseSolutions.net. ] 

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for defending 

yourself? 


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53

BALLISTIC BASICS 

Hollowpoint cavities vary in width, depth, and 

expansion design. The bullet in the middle has a 

post deep in the cavity’s center that aims to aid 

expansion. Regardless of design, heavier bullets 

may increase the overall length of a cartridge, 

and this might affect how reliably it feeds in 

your semiautomatic. Reliability testing with the 

load you actually carry is critical. 

Cartridges with 

roundnose (left) 

and hollowpoint 

(right) bullets. 

Hollowpoints and Roundnoses 

[ B Y d e n n i s c a n t r e l l ] 

Most owners probably break in their handguns by firing cartridges containing roundnose bullets. 

These so-called practice cartridges 

are less expensive than those with 

hollowpoint bullets marketed for 

self-defense. The cores of most roundnose 

and hollowpoint bullets are made of lead, 

and either bullet may be covered with a 

jacket--a thin layer of material, usually 

copper--that allows the bullet to be 

fired at higher velocities than plain lead 

bullets. Jacketed bullets also create less 

fouling (gunpowder ash, lead, and other 

particles from the firing sequence) which 

accumulates in the barrel and lessens 

accuracy. 

Of the two bullet designs, the simplest 

to understand is the roundnose bullet. 

Its parabolic shaped tip or nose is clearly 

designed for maximum penetration. 

In cartridges of equal bullet weight 

and velocity, the roundnose bullet will 

penetrate deeper than an expanded 

hollowpoint. And while the ability 

to reach vital organs is critical, over 

penetration (passing completely through 

the body) becomes a potential hazard to 

bystanders and property. The design of 

the hollowpoint addresses this concern. 

A hollowpoint, true to its name, is a 

bullet whose point is hollowed out to form 

a deep, cone-shaped cavity. The wider end 

of the cavity is at the bullet’s nose, and 

this cavity fills with fluid and soft tissue 

as the bullet punches through its target. 

The bullet’s velocity forces the trapped 

fluid and tissue against the cavity’s inner 

surface until the bullet separates into 

individual sections that curl backward, 

forming what looks like a lead mushroom. 

The cap of this mushroom, being wider 

than its bullet-stem, creates a larger hole 

or wound channel, which causes more 

damage. Having a larger surface than 

the frontal area of the original bullet, the 

cap also pushes against more fluid and 

tissue, thus encountering even greater 

resistance. This reduces bullet velocity 

and, therefore, penetration. Because of 

its design advantages, the hollowpoint 

is usually the superior bullet for selfdefense. 

Not all is perfect with hollowpoints, 

however. Due to problems such as 

inadequate velocity or the clogging of the 

cavity with materials like leather or cloth, 

hollowpoints don’t always expand, and so 

sometimes they are no more effective than 

roundnose bullets. This is not a common 

problem with high-quality self-defense 

ammo from the major manufacturers, 

but it can happen, especially if the bullet 

strikes hard materials such as glass, wood, 

or steel before striking its target. 

So, should you ever use roundnose 

bullets for self-defense? Yes. If no other 

ammo is available due to scarcity or 

affordability, for example, you use 

whatever is in your gun cabinet. If your 

carry gun is .32 caliber or smaller, you 

might be better off using roundnose 

bullets. This is because cartridges in small 

calibers have difficulty providing enough 

velocity for both reliable expansion 

and adequate penetration when using 

hollowpoint bullets. Since penetration is 

critical, it might be best to carry roundnose 

bullets in these smaller calibers. 

Arguably, and for the same reasons, 

bullets for the popular .380 ACP cartridge 

should be roundnose, not hollowpoint. 

For many, the .380 ACP sits on the 

fence separating cartridges suitable for 

self-defense from those that are not. 

Penetration testing by writer Dick Metcalf, 

using a .380 caliber Taurus Millennium 

PT138 with a 3.25 inch barrel, showed 

penetration of self-defense loads ranging 

from six to 11.25 inches, depending on 

bullet weight. Of the six rounds tested, 

four had penetration less than ten inches 

(Metcalf, Dick. “9mm Versus .380 ACP For 

Self-Defense,” Shooting Times, June 2000). 

Though not the point of Metcalf’s article, 

roundnose bullets in this caliber would 

have increased the chances of achieving 

a recommended minimum penetration of 

12 inches. 

A consolation for carrying smaller 

caliber guns is that if you do choose a 

roundnose bullet for self-defense, you will 

be practicing with the same ammo you 

carry, always a good thing, and at a lower 

cost than if you used one of the premium 

jacketed-hollowpoint cartridges. 

Far better than being consoled, however, 

is to have a gun that is chambered for a 

cartridge that is able to provide sufficient 

penetration and expansion when using 

quality hollowpoints. So, whenever 

feasible, carry a handgun in a caliber no 

less than .38 Special or 9mm. n 

[ Dennis Cantrell, an Ohio resident, hopes 

to promote firearms by helping others 

understand them better. ] 

54 


ARE YOU TIRED OF UNCOMFORTABLE 

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just makes it disappear. It holds the gun firmly, 

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conceal carry a full size gun? They never tried 

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