How To Teach New Shooters

Getting new shooters interested in and comfortable with firearms doesn't need to be too difficult.  Some folks have grown up around guns but had never really spent a lot of time with them as an adult.  And yet others have never shot firearms at all and maybe grew up in families that did not like firearms. But regardless of experience levels, it is great to get new shooters out to go shooting and get them comfortable around firearms. Many new shooters do extremely well because they have not built up a lot of the bad habits that we old-timers have.  They just need some training in the fundamentals and safety, and then some hands-on coaching as to how to improve grip, trigger control, aim, and presentation.  I have found that many brand new shooters are like sponges - they are extremely open to and absorb what I am teaching them very quickly.

Today, many of my former students who I stay in touch with are crack shots and can handle a firearm with the best of them.  But I know that some people who, even though they just aren't comfortable around firearms, tend to warm up to them and actually enjoy the shooting sports if taught properly.  So here are some of the things I have learned along the way, not only teaching my wife and daughters to shoot but in teaching some of my brand new students as well:

• Do not pressure the new shooter. This is not military boot camp; you will find that high-pressure tactics are counterproductive. Trying to pressure newcomers to do something they do not want to do or are not familiar with will only ensure that they will never accept it.

• Have the appropriate safety gear. Having eye and ear protection ready and explaining their use will help allay any fears. Also, before the firearms are introduced, go over the four basic firearm safety rules:
• Every gun is loaded, even if it is disassembled.
• Never point your gun at anything you do not intend to destroy.
• Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire.
• Be aware of your target, what is behind it, and is between you and the target.

• Start with a simple, small caliber firearm. Explain and show the basic operating principles of the firearm you use. For teaching long guns, I like either a .22 semi-auto like a Ruger 10/22, or a single shot break action .410. If I am teaching pistol use I prefer to start with a .22 or a .38 revolver. Make sure that if you start with a magazine fed firearm, you still have them try out a revolver to see what they are most comfortable with, and so that you can explain the differences between the two types of firearms.

• Do not use humanoid targets until you start to get into defensive shooting. If it's an outdoor range and we are using long guns, clay pidgeons also work well.  They break in a satisfying way and are biodegradable.  I like to use simple bullseye targets for rifle shooting also.  For pistols, a regular target turned around with a paper plate stapled to the center gives a large non-threatening target.

• Last but not least, go slow. Answer any questions simply without going into a long technological lecture. The point of the first few sessions is to allay fears and allow your newbie to become accustomed to shooting.

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You will find, as I have, that if you make new shooters feel secure, allow them to go at their own pace and do not pressure them, people new to the shooting sports will rapidly begin to enjoy this activity. My wife and daughters took to shooting like naturals, and now they get better range scores than I do.

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Who's At The Door?!

Awareness is especially important at night, and particularly when you have "visitors" coming to the door at odd hours.  Those hours that you relax from a hard day before you turn in for the night is not the time to let your guard down.  We live in an ever-changing and dangerous world, and the criminals are not taking a break or finding ways to let their victims off the hook.

As shown in the video below, a lone female coming to the door can be as innocent as someone needing your help, to a setup for an ambush and home invasion by armed thugs.  Take a look...

Some things that you can do to prevent this type of situation:

• Beef up your entryway hardware.  Have good deadbolts, hinge guards, and bolt guards.
• Always be thinking ahead.  Be that "Wargaming Sheepdog" who thinks about all the possibilities and then has already thought of how to deal with those possible scenarios.
• Never open the door to unexpected strangers, especially late at night.  Look through the peep-hole and ask who they are and what they want.
• Consider a door-bell style or porch mounted security camera that allows you to see them and ask who they are.  Turn the camera's record feature to "on."
• Consider having pepper spray or even a firearm close by or preferably in hand.  At the very least, have a powerful tactical flashlight in hand.
• If you have an alarm system, consider mounting a panic button near the entryways.  Most alarm entry keypads have a panic button built in.
• There is no law stating that you have to answer the door.  Just don't answer.

Armor Concepts

Be aware, be cautious and think before opening your door at night, and have a plan for how to deal with a potential home invasion.

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NRA Membership is Affordable! 

A one-year regular membership is just $30.00 per year, with savings for multiple years or life memberships.

A full membership also includes your choice of magazine subscriptions to the most informative firearms publications available today.

Additional insurance and other great benefits. 

Support the NRA through your membership.  JOIN THE NRA TODAY. 

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Paintball Guns as a Training and Self Defense Tactic

Let me just say up front:  Colorado law gives me criminal and civil immunity from prosecution should I decide to use deadly force in the event of a home invasion.  In a home invasion scenario, I will take full advantage of the legal protections afforded to me by law.  The main objective of any self-defense method is to stop the attack, and my philosophy is to stop the attack and protect my family by the most effective means available to me at the time.  For me, that method of self-defense includes having ready firearms, being trained to use them, and then employ them where needed. 

But not all people are comfortable having firearms in their homes, and not everyone is comfortable shooting firearms.  That is fine.  The methods that are right for me are not necessarily the methods that are right for others, and I respect that.  I wrote an article a while back on "Principles versus Tactics" to explain that you have to decide what you are willing to do in a particular situation, then for you to decide how you will accomplish that.

It is also important that I maintain my training and proficiency in my primary self-defense tool as well as a variety of other self-defense methods that I may need to employ to stop an attack.  It is not always time or cost effective to schedule trips to the range to expend live ammunition.  There are a variety of training methods out there that I use, including dry firing with the LASR App System, and using non-lethal projectile shooting tools such as paintball to help build the muscle memory involved in firearms operation, and that allows you to actually practice tactics with moving targets in a safe environment.

There are many other self-defense and training tools out there, but in my testing, I have found one in particular that I am writing about today offers both a good training tool and a good home defense tool, especially for folks who just aren't comfortable with having firearms in their homes.

Paintball as a Training Tool:

When it comes to training for tactics, having the ability to shoot at moving targets, and in return being shot at by moving targets offers more realism into actual scenarios that you may encounter.  This is a type of training often referred to as "force on force" training and is more effective at helping you to learn tactics and gun handling skills under pressure than simply shooting at static targets.  The type of training tools to achieve the desired proficiency outcomes is an important aspect to consider, however.  Whereas airsoft tends to use guns that emulate actual weapons functionality, such as forcing you to perform magazine changes, they offer little, in comparison to paintball, in the "pain" incentive to force you to be more tactfully minded to prevent from being shot.  While I have found airsoft to be a great training tool for indoor close quarters training, paintball offers a more fast-paced alternative to outdoor and longer range scenarios.  Since the incentive "not to get shot" is higher with paintball, the "stress inoculation" component obtained provides a more realistic force on force training as well.

Paintball as a Group Bonding Tool:

Putting on my prepper hat for a moment: Being able to train with your family, members of a team that you are prepping with, or even just the people you work with has its benefits also.  Paintball fields seem to be popping up all over the place.  Here in Colorado, "woodsball" is a very popular activity, as we have our beautiful mountains and forests in which to play games, and those areas offer a wide variety of terrains and scenarios.  Grab your bio-degradable paintball ammo and head for the hills!  Paintball has become very popular for families and groups to include as part of a camping trip, as well as for groups of co-workers to plan team-building events. 

Paintball as a Home Defense Tool:

In my recent testing, I have been quite impressed with the types of non-lethal self-defense paintball ammunition on the market today.  In addition to regular paintballs, you can also purchase pepper balls that contain pepper spray, hard rubber balls, PVC nylon balls, and even glass balls containing iron dust for use in paintball guns as a self-defense tool.  In my testing with various materials used as targets, I have seen the PVC Riot Balls, for example, cause enough damage on multiple thicknesses of heavy cardboard and drywall to be very plausible as a self-defense method.  I am awaiting a shipment from Bulls Breaker Balls in South Africa so that I can test their latest product, but my research so far indicates that that product has promise as a self-defense ammunition as well.

Paintball Gun Recommendations:

Hands down, the Tippmann A5 is my personal recommendation.  The Tippmann A5 is sort of the "Ruger 10/22" of the paintball gun world in that accessories, modifications, air supply variations, upgrades, and spare parts are so plentiful and widely marketed, that this gun can be personalized very easily.  This gun is extremely easy to work on and maintain, and there are a plethora of YouTube videos out there to give you advice and instruction.  I also prefer the Tippmann A5 simply because of the "Cyclone" feed system that has shown to be extremely reliable, and saves the expense of having to buy an add-on electric hopper, or some other feeding system, ta make the gun run consistently and reliably.  The Tippmann A5 also uses the larger 20+ oz CO2 and 3,000psi High-Pressure Air (HPA) supplies, which allows for larger capacities and more shots.  Reusable CO2 canisters are relatively inexpensive to purchase and fill, and fairly easy to find refill stations.  HPA refill equipment is becoming more readily available and inexpensive, and HPA is said to actually be better on paintball gun internals and more consistently shooting in a variety of environmental conditions (temperatures) than CO2.

My home-defense Tippmann A5 is modified with a buttstock, red dot sight, Vortex magazine conversion kit, and Flatline Barrel.  The magazine conversion is inexpensive and was very simple to install.  Instead of a hopper that is now in the way, I have the ability to load 20-round magazines with a variety of ammunition types.  I have the red dot sight set up for very close engagements, zeroed for 21 feet, a typical distance of encounter within my home.  I have the velocity set at around 300fps, which is enough velocity to be effective, but yet low enough to help prolong the life of the gun internal valves and o-rings.  The CO2 supply is a 24oz external cylinder that is screwed in, but not fully, so as to prevent leakages, but still be on the gun so that it can be quickly screwed in the remaining turn or two to fully charge the gun when needed.  The ready condition of this gun also includes a fully loaded magazine in the gun and four spare fully loaded magazines nearby. 

For those of you who prefer more of a "handgun" type of platform, there are two front-runners out there.  The Tippmann TiPX, and the Tiberius T8.1.  In fact, the Tippmann TiPX is used as the manufacturing model for the SALT Supply Pepper Gun, as those models are actually manufactured by Tippmann, and then sold as a self-defense weapon.  Both the Tippmann and Tiberius are .68 caliber paintball guns, an important factor when choosing a caliber for your paintball ammunition.  68 caliber is the most readily available when choosing actual self-defense rounds, and it has more capability as a self-defense caliber (in my humble opinion) than the smaller paintball calibers.  Both also use the smaller 12-gram CO2 cartridge for the air supply.  These cartridges are very inexpensive to buy in large quantities but have very limited capacity when shooting.  I recommend the handgun platform as a backup, but not as a primary defense tool.

My personal preference (for the handgun platform) is the Tiberius T8.1.  The main reason I chose the Tiberius model is because the CO2 cartridge and the paintball rounds are both contained within the magazine.  That means that will very magazine reload, you are getting a fresh CO2 canister as well as more ammunition.  These paintball pistols only fire 10 or so rounds per paintballs CO2 cartridge, so being able to quickly reload both ammunition and CO2 quickly is extremely important in a self-defense scenario.  I also chose the Tiberius model because it comes ready to go out of the box with the ability to load and shoot the new "First Strike" shaped paintball rounds, which come in both paint and solid self-defense rounds.

A Word on Airguns/Airsoft for Self Defense:

Airsoft guns are NOT self-defense tools.  Period.  They may offer a half-second distraction so that you can flee and go find another weapon, but they will not stop an attack.  There is a chance that brandishing that airsoft gun will give the bad guys pause, but they will soon see that orange tip and know that you do not have the ability to do them any harm at that particular moment. Other air guns, such as pellet guns, may have the ability to cause minor injury or a momentary distraction, but again (in my humble opinion), pellet guns just are not made to be self-defense tools.  There are varying opinions about that out there, certainly, the video below explains some ideas on the subject.

Wrapping It All UP!

I believe in firearms as the most effective defensive measure in the event of a home invasion. Period!  Violent criminals only understand one thing: Force.  Speed, surprise, violence of action, and a determination to win will help you prevail against evil.  I always have a firearm at the ready at various places in my home and am ready to employ the firearms as a defensive measure all the time, but I also have non-lethal tools such as pepper spray and paintball guns that I see as viable options in home defense scenarios.  

Not everyone is comfortable with having firearms in their homes and would like a non-lethal measure to stop or at least slow down an attack.  Paintball guns offer a viable self-defense alternative, in my opinion.  There are a variety of inexpensive and reliable paintball guns out there, including the Tippmann A5 and Tiberius T8.1 guns, that can easily be adapted and customized for home defense use.  But whatever tool or tactic you choose, you must be familiar with the operation and maintenance of that tool, be familiar with its capabilities, and above all practice using them in order to be effective.

Refuse to Be a Victim: Beware of Solicitors!

It’s late afternoon.  You are finally at home after a long day, and are relaxing on the couch. Someone comes to your front door.  You answer the door and this normal looking young man is there, and says that he represents a window company.  They are looking for homes in your neighborhood to install new energy saving windows, and then showcase your home as part of their advertising.  In return for allowing your home to be a showcase, you will get a significant cost savings on the project.  Nice looking guy.  Official looking clip-board, ID badge hanging from his neck, clean cut.  And this is such a good deal!  How can you pass this up?

This may be a legitimate sales call.  Or this may be a scam.

 

You are a little hesitant because perhaps you don’t want to start this type of major project right now, or maybe money is a little tight.  The sales pitch is now being laid on thicker and thicker to convince you that you really need to consider this. 

So the solicitor says:  “Can you give me a landline number?  My company will get in touch with you and explain the deal further.”

Did you catch the scam?  Before I tell you what it is, let me give you a hint and tell you that these scams are kind of like “sleight of hand” gimmicks in that one thing is used to distract you from the real purpose of the “mission” that this person is on.  And yes – I used the word “mission” on purpose to give you a hint.  Any thoughts yet?

The Scam:

OK – here it is.  This is possibly a reconnaissance mission.  Reconnaissance to look for targets for home invasion and/or burglary.  The thick sales pitch was a distraction from the other subtle things being asked, such as for you to give them a landline phone number.  And if you’re thinking about your house windows and energy savings, you aren’t thinking about looking for what other pieces of information this person is collecting during this visit.

First, by going door to door, our “salesman” gets to write down street addresses and house descriptions.  That official looking clipboard is for taking notes, after all.  A salesman writing down notes looks perfectly normal. 

They get to see if anyone is home at that time, they get to see who answers the door (man, woman, child), they can now tell which houses have dogs (as alerted by the doorbell), and they can also see which houses have alarm signs in their front yards (and/or stickers on the door).  If a person answers the door, besides seeing if an adult, man or woman, they can see what “type” of person it is: Stern, timid, mad, happy, geeky, forceful, easy to convince, skeptic, gullible, etc. 

All of these characteristics can help the thieves decide if that person will present a threat to them even if they are home during a potential home invasion.  They now also know what other threats to their success exist at that house.

Secondly, they asked specifically for a landline phone number.  Why do you suppose that is?  Well, if they have a street address, and can then associate a landline (hard wired) phone number to that address, they then have some pretty concrete exploitable information about your physical residence. 

Then the next part of the reconnaissance begins.  Several calls can be made to that landline to see if anyone is home at various times of day, find out who is home at those times (did an adult or children answer the phone?), and start putting together a pattern of the most opportune times for an invasion or burglary.  If someone answers, it is easy to fabricate a story for why they are calling.  It is also extremely easy to spoof the phone number for the caller ID, or simply make it appears as "Unknown." 

Associating a landline with a home with an alarm system also gives the thieves an opportunity to figure out which methods they need to use to defeat or circumvent the alarm.

Here's What You Can Do:

For starters, you are not obligated to answer your door.  But to help you decide whether or not to answer, consider installing a wide angle peep hole in your door so that you can see a wider area of your front entry area.

Only allow the adults in your house to answer the door.  Tell children that under no circumstances are they to open the door to anyone.

If you are going to answer the door, take a moment to compose yourself, put on your game face, and prepare yourself to question everything about this person standing at your doorstep.  You don’t need to verbalize every question, but don’t get so caught up in the sales pitch that you forget to keep asking yourself why they are here, what red flags should be going up, and what general suspicions you have about them.

Put a “No Soliciting” sign on your front door.  Where I live, it is against the law to make unannounced house sales calls like this if there is a “No Soliciting” sign posted.  Maybe this will keep them away and help avoid the whole situation entirely.  If it is a legitimate sales person, they know about the laws, and will probably honor it.  Criminals don’t know or care about laws.  If they won’t honor that “no Soliciting” sign, that should be a red flag.

Do NOT give them your home (landline) phone number under ANY circumstances.  I personally would be hesitant to even give them a cell phone number.  Ask for the company's phone number and tell them that YOU will initiate any call for service. 

Ask for more official identification (such as a driver’s license) to compare to that neat looking little ID badge they have hanging from their neck.  Write down who they are, what company they claim to be from, and even ask for a business card.  If they have no business cards, that should also be a red flag for you.

Answer their questions with conviction.  Don’t waffle or look like you are unsure of yourself.  But keep your answers short and direct.  Don’t give out information about you or your household.

If you are not interested in the sales pitch, state as such directly.  Again – tell them YOU will initiate contact with their company if services are desired, and after you have verified the legitimacy of their company.

After you close the door, write down everything you can remember about them.  Time, date, height, weight, race, hair color, clothing, what they were carrying, name from identification.  Were they on foot, or did they drive up in a vehicle?  If a vehicle, write down a description and license plate number, if able.  Did they seem nervous?  What was their general demeanor?

If you have an alarm system, explore whether or not cellular technology is available for the monitoring portion of the alarm, or consider switching to an alarm company that does offer cellular technology.  I have looked into the “SimpliSafe” alarm system, for example, and will be switching to that from ADT. (I will write a separate review once installed).

It may be a legitimate sales call, or they may be sizing you up for burglary or home invasion.  Absent your crystal ball or superpowers for predicting the future, you have no way of telling.  If it is for criminal purposes, you have to remember that they are sizing you up and doing risk analysis on you and your home.  They don’t want to get hurt “on the job” and they don’t want to go to jail.  It is your job to size them up also, try to see the red flags, and do your own risk analysis and threat management.

Ultimately, you need to do whatever is possible to make your home an undesirable target for them.  If you can get them to move on and eliminate you as a target quickly, then that is a very good thing.

Refuse to be a victim!

Perceived Penalty For a Miss

A phrase that we often use in firearms training is the concept known as the “perceived penalty for a miss” (as in missed shot).  This idea of the perceived penalty for a missed shot can apply to any scenario in which you use a firearm, be it home defense, self-defense while out and about, or even while shooting targets at the range.  But for the context of this article, I will concentrate mainly on firearm use in home defense.

I am regularly on the lookout for news articles where firearms are used to save lives and protect property.  I recently came across an article about a man who shot a home invader, but then ended up accidentally shooting his wife as well.  This unfortunate incident clearly illustrates that in the course of defending our homes, not only are we responsible for the safety and protection of our families, but that we are also responsible for what happens as a result of our using deadly force as part of our home defense strategy.

Let me be perfectly clear about my own personal philosophy in this matter: Firearm ownership is an individual right that calls for individual responsibility.  I do not endorse in any way, shape, or form the legislating of every single aspect of firearm ownership.  Training, firearms storage, and safety are our individual responsibility as gun owners.  We already have thousands of laws governing firearms ownership – we don’t need any more.  They can’t even enforce the ones we have. 

We are individually responsible for taking it upon ourselves to maintain marksmanship proficiency with our firearms, and being able to simultaneously and quickly think past the front sight of that firearm when we choose to engage a threat.  In other words, we need to be able to quickly engage and stop a threat, as well as make sound decisions about that engagement based on risks and possible outcomes.  Once that bullet leaves the muzzle, it can’t be called back.  There will be consequences resulting from the defensive use of our firearm, and the final resting place of that bullet.

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Something that we emphasize in firearms training over and over, and that I also see very heavily emphasized in the advanced tactical training I have taken to keep up my own proficiency, is the idea that this concept of a penalty for a missed shot is very closely related to a fundamental firearms safety rule.  The rule basically instructs you to know your target, know what is between you and the target, and know what is beyond your target.  If you understand and apply that basic rule, you will better understand and apply good decisions based on the amount of perceived penalty in case you miss your target.

Firearms and self-defense expert Rob Pincus of I.C.E. Training mentions that the perceived penalty for a miss translates to how worried you are that you will miss, or what happens if you miss.  What happens if you miss can be a factor of where you are in relation to the threat, in relation to everything else.  Are there other people, either seen or unseen, that can be in jeopardy?  What is behind that threat?  Can you move so that if you shoot at the threat, you shoot towards a more solid backstop where there is less of a chance of over-penetrating into a soft wall and hurting unknown people behind that wall?  This is an example of how training is an important factor in helping with decision making and will be discussed in part 2 of this series.  But I wanted to give an example of the types of things that come into play when thinking of the perceived penalty for a miss.
 

As I mentioned above, there will be consequences (outcomes), positive and negative, resulting from the use of deadly force in protecting your home.  For all of the scenarios below, a violent criminal enters your home with the intent of doing you and your family harm.  You are armed and intend to exercise your natural and legal right to defend your home.  So let’s take a look at just a few of the possible outcomes.

Scenario 1:  You engage the threat, your bullets hit their intended mark, and the threat is stopped.  No other people are hurt or property damaged.  The police come to investigate.  You are found to be a victim of a home invasion who successfully and lawfully protected yourself and your loved ones.

Scenario 2:  You engage the threat; your bullets hit their intended mark, but over penetrated and went through a wall.  Or some of your bullets missed the bad guy altogether and went through an interior wall of your house.  Another family member or pet may or may not have been on the other side of that wall – you didn’t know that when you fired the shot.  You later find out that you also wounded a family member.  The police come to investigate.  You may or may not be charged with negligence, but you will forever be emotionally scarred knowing that you hurt someone you love.

Scenario 3:  You engage the threat; you panic and shoot wildly hoping to hit the bad guy.  Your shots miss and go through some interior walls and some outer walls of your house, go into a neighbor’s house, and wound a neighbor.  The police come to investigate.  You are found to have negligently discharged your firearm and are arrested to face possible charges.

There are many other possible scenarios, and I won’t presume to know or report them all here.  But the above illustrate just a few of the very real and possible outcomes.  Again, minimizing risk while protecting your family member’s lives is what it’s all about.  The ultimate goal is for your family to be safe, and NO lives put in jeopardy.  Of course, when the criminal invader chose to enter your home and commit a violent crime, he or she made the decision that they were willing to take the risks of injury or death in doing so.  That’s a risk mitigation that is out of your control.  But what IS in your control is the ability to decide whether or not to engage the threat with deadly force, and if so to hit your intended target by building marksmanship and proficiency, and making sure that you know your target, what is between you and the target, and knowing what is beyond your target.

Now that you have an overview of the concept behind the “perceived penalty for a miss” and the background behind the thought processes for reducing this risk, we will now discuss getting back to basics and remembering the fundamentals of firearms safety.  In particular, the rule of knowing your target plays a big part in minimizing the risk of causing harm to others in a defensive incident.  

SHAMELESS DISCLAIMER: The strategies and scenarios depicted in this article are not all encompassing.  There are many possible scenarios and strategies – I do not presume to know them all.  Your own situation and environment will certainly vary, so you have to use common sense and be able to think through your strategy for yourself.  In other words – everything you read here is based on opinion derived from my most diligent research possible, and my own ability to think critically. I am not responsible for other people’s inability to use common sense or sound decision making skills. I and NCFST are not responsible for the actions taken by the readers of this article series.

 So having said all that, here are some suggestions for reducing the risk that a missed shot may cause unintended harm.  You need to think these through for yourself, and apply them in a way that makes sense for your own unique situations.

 

Know and APPLY The Fundamentals of Firearm Safety:  Think about and constantly remember those basic rules you learned when you were first introduced to firearms.  Then, actually APPLY those rules every time you handle firearms.  Whether you are going to the range, carrying concealed while out and about, or just having a ready firearm to defend your home, you are responsible for applying these common sense rules.  In case you need a refresher, here they are again:

• Always assume that every gun is loaded
• Always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction
• Always keep your finger OFF of the trigger until ready to shoot
• Always know your target, what is between you and the target, and what is beyond the target.

Know Your Home and What is Around Your Home:  Think about all the possible places where a home invader will enter and travel throughout the home, as well as what they might be looking for.  Think about where your family members will likely be in proximity to these places, and where you will be in the course of defending your home and stopping the attack.  Walk through your house and think about each of the walls – what is behind those walls?  Don’t forget floors and ceilings – what’s on the other side of those?  A basement, a bedroom, a bathroom, or other frequently inhabited area?  Think about those exterior walls.  What’s on the other side?  Are the houses in your neighborhood close together?  Do you live in a townhouse or apartment with a neighbor just on the other side of that wall?  What are the walls made of?

Know Your Plan of Action: What will you and your family do if you hear or suspect a break-in or the intrusion alarm goes off?  Can you all get to a safe room, or will family members be in areas scattered all throughout your home?  Can you all stay barricaded in one place until the police arrive, or will you be forced to go on a “room clearing mission” so that you can secure other family members?  “War Game” possible scenarios and think about how to get all of your family members to a safe room in case of an emergency.  If that’s just not possible, then think of where you would position yourself in any of your rooms in case you have to shoot.  Think of how you can reposition yourself in relation to the invader’s position in order to take a better and safer shot.  You need to be aware of your entire home and environment in order to minimize the risk of a bullet missing and going into an area where people may be.

Know Your Defensive Ammunition: Is the defensive ammunition that you use in your home defense strategy going to stop the threat, but also over-penetrate and go where you don’t want it to go?  Now is the time to think about other types of ammunition that are possibly better choices for home defense, such as frangible or “safety slug” ammunition.  Glaser Safety Slugs, for example, provide optimum penetration, yet fragment very quickly to prevent over penetration.  These rounds are a popular home defense round, and are available in many common handgun and rifle calibers.  Using a home defense shotgun with a shell containing non-lethal rubber balls as the first round, followed by rounds of bird shot or #4 buckshot is another popular choice.  You have to decide what types of ammunition and home defense firearms you are comfortable with.

Know and Constantly Improve Your Own Skills:  Being proficient is a huge responsibility, and perhaps the most important of all of these strategies.  Becoming highly proficient in firearms deployment for defensive uses may take a lot of your time, but the effort expended is beyond measure in its worth.  Do you regularly practice your marksmanship?  Do you regularly practice defensive skills such as drawing from a holster or shooting on the move?  When was the last time you took advanced formal training beyond just the basics?  Continuous training is extremely important.  Maybe participate in IDPA or defensive pistol matches on a regular basis.

Wrapping it All Up:

The penalty for a missed shot can be huge if you don’t prepare and you will never completely eliminate all risks.  The best you can do is to mitigate the risks to the extent possible, use due diligence in your preparation, and use some common sense in your actions.  Armed defense is an individual right, but with rights such as this come great individual responsibility.  Prepare, practice, and be sure to get back to those fundamentals from time to time.  Know and apply the basic safety rules of gun handling, know your environment, know your plan, and know your equipment.  Always strive to improve them.

Be sure to visit the NCFST blog where I have also posted this article series in its entirety.  You can also learn more about the use of firearms in home defense by visiting the new sister-site to the US Concealed Carry Association, the Home Defense Association of America. 

Be informed, be protected, and be safe!

Click Here To Join The NRA Today!

Refuse To Be A Victim - Smartphone Security - An Overview:

WARNING:  This article contains absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with firearms, but has everything to do with not being victimized by the bad guys who use the very technology we use on a daily basis to attack us.  Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the 2012 Rocky Mountain Information Security Conference (RMISC), which was hosted by the Denver chapter of ISACA and the Information Systems Security Association.  One of the breakout sessions I attended was Georgia Weidman’s talk on the glaring need for smart phone security.  Besides leaving with the thought “…what ever happened to the day when these things were JUST phones?!”  I was reminded of the fact that with the added technology and functionality, our “phones” need to be protected just as do our computers. 

Specific Dangers: Your smart phone does not just contain your contact list.  Many people are using their smart phones to receive email, store documents, input calendar items, keep notes, store passwords, and various other useful things.  So these devices now hold all kinds of potentially sensitive personal data that must be protected.  If a piece of malicious software (malware) gets installed on your phone, it can steal this data and send it off to the bad guys without you even knowing about it.  The SMS (text message) functionality, along with the Internet connectivity features, on these devices are often leveraged vehicles for “exfiltrating” your sensitive data.

Not only is your personal data at risk, but also other information, such as your phone’s identity (the information that uniquely identifies your phone on the network), your geographical location, and information about the hardware and storage on your device can be disclosed.    According to Ms. Weidman, the International Mobile Equipment Identification (IMEI) number that uniquely identifies your phone is as valuable to the bad guys as a credit card number, as this number is used by various apps to identify the smart phone as being yours when it logs on to the service.  GPS information is also used to identify where you are located when using the services that you are accessing with your phone.  Your phones can also connect to mobile WiFi hotspots, which means that they are as vulnerable to attack by malicious hotspots near your local coffee shop (disguising as legitimate hotspots) as is your laptop.  Be careful about the networks you are connecting to.
 

So what can you do?  Two things that really stuck out from this presentation, in terms of minimizing risks and ensuring better personal security, were the need for: 1) Having a security suite installed on your smart phone, and 2) Be careful what you download, and what permissions are being asked for.

Smart-Phone Security Software:  In case you weren’t aware of this already, there are various apps out there that will help provide added security for your smart phone device. The problem is, however, that the tradeoff for additional security is often reduced performance.  Do some research and find out which security suites have better reviews.  I use the Norton Mobile Security Suite for my Android, and so far I haven’t noticed any huge or unbearable performance hits.  Even the “lite” version will give you basic malware protection, but you can get additional features in the paid version for remotely wiping or locking your phone if it is lost or stolen.  This is kind of a cool feature – I set up my spouse’s phone as a “buddy” so that if my phone is stolen or lost, I can send commands to my phone remotely.  For example, if her specific phone number sends a “wipe” command to my phone, along with a password, I can wipe my phone remotely and erase all of my sensitive data.

There are various other security suites out there such as Avast, Kaspersky, and Lookout.  Take a look at the links, do some research and find out which ones have the features you need and the performance you want.  Each link gives reviews to help you see what others are saying about each product.

Application Security: If ever there was a need to read the fine print, reading those permissions that your new apps are asking for is it.  When you download a new app for a smart phone, the app will often tell you what permissions it needs in order to operate.  Every time you download a new app, go ahead and read that list of permissions and take note of what that app needs to access in order to function properly.  Here is a good article that further explains permissions and how you can get more information about each permission that is being asked for when you install an app.

Sample Android App Permissions

 

Smart phone security is every bit as important to keeping you from being an online victim as is protecting your computer.  In the coming weeks, I will take a look at some additional ways to stay safe by addressing specific smart phone issues.  It's up to you to Refuse to be a Victim!

Additional Resources:

• Article: How App-Based Malware Infects Android Devices
• Article: What Can a Zero-Permissions Android App DO?
• Bulb Security (Georgia Wiedman)
  
  ...Now – back to our regularly scheduled firearms programming.

Defensive Pistol Storage in the Home

One of the things that we emphasize in our firearms classes above all else is firearm safety.  Of the NRA rules for safe gun handling, the third rule states “ALWAYS keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.”  However, when teaching the “Personal Protection in The Home” course, we modify that third rule to tell you to always assume that the gun is loaded.  The reason for that is because our personal defense gun is considered to be the “ready” or “in use” gun, and is therefore usually loaded. After all, it doesn’t make too much sense to have an unloaded gun for personal defense.  Would you keep an empty fire extinguisher for kitchen fires?  Safety is paramount, but we are talking about the safety and proper use of a tool that we will possibly use to protect ourselves and our families some day.

In my own household, where our youngest is a teenager, the risk of a small child accessing our guns and “playing” with them is extremely small.  But what about that same teenager with nosey friends?  What about burglars who break in while we’re gone?  Part of my own philosophy about gun safety and responsibility says that I will not put guns in the hands of those who will intentionally do harm to others, but I will always have a firearm readily available when called upon to use it for defensive purposes.  We as gun owners have as much of a DUTY to keep guns out of unauthorized hands as we do the RIGHT to own them.

So having said all that, I wanted to use this article to discuss the various aspects of home firearms safety versus accessibility.  That is – the safe handling and storage of firearms versus accessibility to a “ready” firearm when you are in a crisis situation in your own home, and mere seconds count.  Having a ready firearm available and accessible involves a certain amount of risk analysis.  The risk of having a ready firearm that is accessible to unauthorized people versus the risk of not having a ready firearm available for self defense is a serious one and takes a great deal of consideration.  And when we say “unauthorized people” this can be a child who finds the gun and decides to play with it, a nosey friend of your teenager just looking around your house, or a criminal who has broken into your house and steals your firearms.  It is important to remember that safety not only applies to your own handling of firearms, but household members who could inadvertently hurt themselves, and also to criminals who steal your firearms and do harm to others. 

To help illustrate this point - In my “day job” in the computer security biz, we often have to contemplate the balance between the need for keeping our computers and networks safe and our users being able to do their jobs.  If we are too secure, our network will never be hacked, but our users will not be able to conduct business.  If we are too lax or too open, we will be successfully attacked, our data stolen (or worse), and our business suffers greatly.  To accommodate the fine balance needed between security and accessibility, we use something called “defense in depth” to make sure that we have various layers of security.  Each layer is (hopefully) transparent to the end user, but presents a virtual gauntlet of protective measures that an attacker has to break through in order to get to our data. 

Likewise is the risk analysis that we as gun owners have to perform when we make the decision to keep a loaded firearm in the house for personal protection.  And just like the example above, we want to present a “defense in depth” of multiple security layers of protection.  This article will present some different scenarios of safety versus accessibility, along with an analysis of each method’s safety versus accessibility profile.  This is not meant to be an absolute recommendation of any particular safety strategy – only YOU can decide which is right for you!

NOTE:  The following sections talk about doing drills and performing practice.  Do NOT do your drill or practice with LIVE ammunition.  Remove all of your live ammunition from your ammunition storage container, and put some dummy rounds, or “snap caps” in your storage container, and in the magazines you store in that container. Check, double check, and triple check that your firearm is unloaded before doing any drills or practice.

 
Strategy 1:  Unloaded Handgun in the Storage Safe:

This scenario assumes the most safe and secure of all storage methods.  In this scenario, we are describing the large fire-proof gun storage vault with a combination lock and/or a digital keypad.  This strategy also assumes that the firearms kept inside are all unloaded, and in keeping with best practices, the ammunition is locked in a separate container.  If there are young children in the house, this is by far the safest way to ensure that getting to the guns is extremely difficult, but that an unauthorized person loading the gun and accidentally hurting themselves is more difficult still.  In the case of protection from burglars, this strategy makes stealing your guns and ammunition as difficult as it gets.

But what about accessibility in a home invasion situation?  Can you quickly get the storage vault unlocked, and retrieve a firearm?  Can you then quickly retrieve ammunition, load the gun, and make it ready for use?  How long will this take you to do?  In the mere seconds that it will take for a violent criminal to burst into your home and get to where you are, it is going to be very difficult to retrieve a ready firearm and protect yourself and your home.

Safety:  High

Accessibility:  Low

Recommendation: 

• If you are preparing for home defense, and accessibility is a concern, change your strategy to one that is more suitable and considers more of a balance between safety and accessibility.
   
• If you are insistent that you are going to use this as your only storage strategy, then drill yourself to find out how long it takes to retrieve a handgun, retrieve the ammunition, load it, and be ready to use it.  Practice doing this in the dark to see if you can do it, or to see how much longer it takes than doing it in the light.

NOTE:  Do NOT do your drill or practice with LIVE ammunition.  Remove all of your live ammunition from your storage container, and put some dummy rounds, or “snap caps” in your storage container, or in the magazines you store in that container. Check, double check, and triple check that your firearm is unloaded before doing any drills or practice.  Get a second person to assist you with your drills.  Have them verify that all live ammunition has been removed, and that your guns are unloaded and that only dummy ammunition is used in the drill. 

• Put loaded magazines or speed-loaders in your ammunition storage container for easier retrieval and loading.
   
• Harden the target.  Make sure that your home is as inaccessible to burglars as possible.  Keep as many barriers between you and the home invader as possible.  Those barriers might include dogs, locked doors, deadbolts, alarm systems, and a safe room in your house.
   
• Make sure the gun and ammunition storage is in your safe room.  Having a locked door between you and the person invading your home will at least buy you some time to retrieve the firearm, load it, and be ready.

 
Strategy 2: Loaded Handgun in the Night Stand:

This represents the other end of the safety/accessibility spectrum; from both safety and accessibility standpoints, this is in direct contrast to the strategy mentioned above.  If there are no children in the house, then the risk of a small child getting to the firearms is relatively small.  Your firearm is immediately accessible in case you need it.  But it is also immediately assessable to unauthorized persons.  If you leave the firearm in your night stand while you are out, and a burglar breaks into your home, it will be easy for them to find and steal your gun.  A night stand, after all, is one of the most common places for people to keep pistols and other valuables.

Safety:  Low

Accessibility:  High

Recommendations:

• If you don’t usually take your firearm with you when you leave the house, get a safe in which to lock up your firearms while you are gone.
   
• Same goes for any other firearms you have in the house.  Even if you don’t have a risk of children who can get to your firearms, there is still the risk of a burglar coming in and stealing your firearms.
   
• Use some concealment methods to hide your firearms.  Most burglars look for the low hanging fruit.  They quickly look around for items to steal and get out before they are detected or the home owner comes home.  Even if you keep your ready pistol in a handgun safe, consider concealing the safe.  Many small pistol safes can be easily pried open if the intruder has a crowbar or other tools.

 
Strategy 3: Loaded Handgun in the Handgun Safe:

This strategy offers an excellent balance between safety and accessibility.  The defensive handgun is readily accessible with the push of a few buttons, but is still locked up and secure from children and the amateur burglar.  Always keeping your ready firearm in the pistol safe gets you in the habit of always retrieving your gun from that safe.  In contrast to the scenario above, you develop a habit for going to that location for your defensive pistol, and do not run the risk of forgetting to move your handgun from the night stand to the safe each day when you leave.  There won’t be that nagging “Did I leave my pistol out?” feeling.

Safety:  High

 Accessibility:  High

 Recommendations:

• Make sure to buy a pistol safe that can be bolted to the floor or other solid structure.
   
• Choose a location for your pistol safe that is quickly accessible to you, but not readily visible to children or burglars.

 

• Drill yourself on how long it takes to open your pistol safe – including drills on doing it in the dark.
   

NOTE:  Do NOT do your drill or practice with LIVE ammunition.  Remove all of your live ammunition from your storage container, and put some dummy rounds, or “snap caps” in your storage container, or in the magazines you store in that container. Check, double check, and triple check that your firearm is unloaded before doing any drills or practice.  Get a second person to assist you with your drills.  Have them verify that all live ammunition has been removed, and that your guns are unloaded and that only dummy ammunition is used in the drill. 

• If you have a pistol safe with push buttons or other electronic technologies that require batteries, test the mechanism often, and change your batteries often.  Perhaps coincide this with your schedule for changing your smoke detector batteries.  (You DO have smoke detectors, right?)
   
• Put a low intensity battery powered light near your handgun safe.  This provides a quick way to get low level illumination on the safe so that you can see the buttons, and helps provide light in the immediate area so you can open your safe.  I use one of those big push-button closet lights.  You push the large dome for the light, and the light comes on.  It is very low intensity so as not to hurt my eyes, but so that I can see the safe and the immediate area.
  
   

 

• Put a high intensity flashlight inside of or in the immediate vicinity to your pistol safe.  This will help you illuminate the area in front of you to make sure you are only aiming at the bad guy and not a family member.  The high intensity light will temporarily blind the intruder as well.
   
• When you travel, if you do not take your ready handgun with you (some states do not recognize your CCW permit), then take your handguns out of the handgun safe, unload them, and put them in your gun storage vault.  Put the ammunition in your separate ammunition storage container.
   

Wrapping It All Up:

Safety versus accessibility, when it comes to firearms, involves a great deal of consideration and risk analysis.  On one hand, if firearms are not secured, even though they may be highly accessible, unauthorized people can gain access to them.  On the other hand, if secured too tightly, you may not be able to access and use them when needed during a home invasion or other personal attack.  

Food For Thought:  If someone breaks into your house, and you end up in the same room, it takes the average intruder only one and a half seconds to reach you from a distance of twenty-one feet away.

As I mentioned before, “unauthorized people” can be a child who finds the gun and decides to play with it, or a criminal who has broken into your house and steals your firearms.  It is important to remember that safety not only applies to household members who could inadvertently hurt themselves, but also to criminals who steal your firearms and do harm to others.  I certainly don’t want to be the one who is responsible for hurting a child, and I especially don’t want to be the one who enables a criminal with a new tool (my firearm) to use for committing their crimes and other acts of violence.

Use defense in depth!  Build layers of protection around yourself and your firearms with good household locks, personal awareness, home security strategies, and common sense.  Take an NRA Personal Protection in the Home course or attend an NRA or Refuse to Be a Victim seminar.  In our NRA developed and approved courses, we will teach you how to have a plan, practice the plan, and use common sense to keep yourself and your family safe.  These courses cover such things as designating a safe room, keeping your firearms secure yet accessible, and how to be aware of your surroundings.

Firearms security versus accessibility means practicing risk analysis to avoid risky practice.  Practicing your methods and strategies is vital to successful deployment in a crisis situation.  Having a plan and being able to react quickly can save your live and the lives of others.  Your personal safety and the security of your family depends on it!