The Rotac Training Group: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Rotac Training Group: HAPPY NEW YEAR!: WANT TO WISH EVERYONE A HAPPY & HEALTHY NEW YEAR! MAY ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE & YOUR GOALS ACCOMPLISHED!

GOOD GUYS WIN!

I don't believe that anyone or any community is safe today.  This tragic incident happened in my town yesterday morning.  Thank GOD that the three officer involved are, from what we were told, going to recover from their physical injuries.   However, the psychological trauma that they experienced is probably going to take a little more time to sort out.  This could have been a lot worst had it not been for their training and their ability to have worked through, probably the worst thing a person could encounter, that being some crazed nut ball trying to kill you!  This time it worked out good.  The cops prevailed and the perp is no longer a concern to the community! 

WISHING THE THREE OFFICERS A SPEEDY RECOVERY AND HAPPY & PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

WISHING EVERYONE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

A FATHER'S COMMENT

COLUMBINE STUDENT'S FATHER 12 YEARS LATER !!
Guess our national leaders didn't expect this. On Thursday, Darrell Scott, the father of Rachel Scott, a victim of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado, was invited to address the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee. What he said to our national leaders during this special session of Congress was painfully truthful.

They were not prepared for what he was to say, nor was it received well. It needs to be heard by every parent, every teacher, every politician, every sociologist, every psychologist, and every so-called expert! These courageous words spoken by Darrell Scott are powerful, penetrating, and deeply personal. There is no doubt that God sent this man as a voice crying in the wilderness.. The following is a portion of the transcript:
"Since the dawn of creation there has been both good & evil in the hearts of men and women. We all contain the seeds of kindness or the seeds of violence. The death of my wonderful daughter, Rachel Joy Scott, and the deaths of that heroic teacher, and the other eleven children who died must not be in vain. Their blood cries out for answers.

"The first recorded act of violence was when Cain slew his brother Abel out in the field. The villain was not the club he used.. Neither was it the NCA, the National Club Association. The true killer was Cain, and the reason for the murder could only be found in Cain's heart.

"In the days that followed the Columbine tragedy, I was amazed at how quickly fingers began to be pointed at groups such as the NRA. I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun. I am not here to represent or defend the NRA - because I don't believe that they are responsible for my daughter's death. 

Therefore I do not believe that they need to be defended. If I believed they had anything to do with Rachel's murder I would be their strongest opponent.

I am here today to declare that Columbine was not just a tragedy -- it was a spiritual event that should be forcing us to look at where the real blame lies! Much of the blame lies here in this room. Much of the blame lies behind the pointing fingers of the accusers themselves. I wrote a poem just four nights ago that expresses my feelings best.

Your laws ignore our deepest needs, 
Your words are empty air. 
You've stripped away our heritage, 
You've outlawed simple prayer. 
Now gunshots fill our classrooms, 
And precious children die. 
You seek for answers everywhere, 
And ask the question "Why?" 
You regulate restrictive laws, 
Through legislative creed. 
And yet you fail to understand, 
That God is what we need!

"Men and women are three-part beings. We all consist of body, mind, and spirit. When we refuse to acknowledge a third part of our make-up, we create a void that allows evil, prejudice, and hatred to rush in and wreak havoc. Spiritual presences were present within our educational systems for most of our nation's history. Many of our major colleges began as theological seminaries. This is a historical fact. What has happened to us as a nation? We have refused to honor God, and in so doing, we open the doors to hatred and violence. And when something as terrible as Columbine's tragedy occurs -- politicians immediately look for a scapegoat such as the NRA. They immediately seek to pass more restrictive laws that contribute to erode away our personal and private liberties. We do not need more restrictive laws. Eric and Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors. No amount of gun laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of massacre. The real villain lies within our own hearts.

"As my son Craig lay under that table in the school library and saw his two friends murdered before his very eyes, he did not hesitate to pray in school. I defy any law or politician to deny him that right! I challenge every young person in America , and around the world, to realize that on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School prayer was brought back to our schools. Do not let the many prayers offered by those students be in vain. Dare to move into the new millennium with a sacred disregard for legislation that violates your God-given right to communicate with Him. To those of you who would point your finger at the NRA -- I give to you a sincere challenge.. Dare to examine your own heart before casting the first stone! 

My daughter's death will not be in vain! The young people of this country will not allow that to happen!"

- Darrell Scott
Do what the media did not - - let the nation hear this man's speech. Please send this out to everyone you can. 
God Bless

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman's most recent comment

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman · 8,940 like this

21 hours ago · 

Below is my most recent writing. Not yet published, but submitted in response to a request from Fox news.

Best regards, and a Blessed Holidays to you and yours,

Dave

****

Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill

Dave Grossman, Lt. Col. USA (ret.)
Author of On Killing, On Combat, Warrior Mindset, and Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill
www.GetBulletProofMind.com

****

So, the brutal, merciless, savage mass murderer of first-graders in Connecticut was another in a long line of avid video game players who turned their sick fantasy into our tragic reality. Surprised?

I train military and law enforcement nation-wide, on the road almost 300 days a year for 15 years. I was an Army Ranger and a West Point Psych Professor. An author of many very successful books on this subject. This is the perspective that I come from...

Bottom line: From a military and law enforcement perspective, violent video games are "murder simulators" that train kids to kill. They act just like police and military simulators, providing conditioned responses, killing skills, and desensitization, except they are inflicted on children without the discipline of military and police training.

Research on the background of our juvenile mass murderers show they have one thing in common: they ALL dropped out of life and filled their lives with nothing but violent movies and violent video games. The sickest video games and the sickest movies are very very sick indeed. And the sick sick kids who immerse themselves in this "entertainment" are very sick indeed.

Jonesboro in the middle school, Columbine in the high school, Virginia Tech in the college, and now this generation gives us Sandy Hook as adults… 

The Sandy Hook massacre has been building for years. And there is much, much worse yet to come. (They are NOT "shootings" they are massacres ... five died in the "Boston Massacre" which touched off the American Revolution … six murdered in the "St. Valentines Day Massacre" … many times more were murdered in Sandy Hook and we hide the reality from ourselves by calling it a "shooting" … "shooting" is what happens on the range … a "shooter" is the guy who got lucky during deer season! These are brutal mass murderers, committing savage massacres unlike anything seen in human history.)

This has all been building up for years. Consider the stats on officers murdered in the line of duty in the US:

'08: 42
'09: 48
'10: 56
'11: 72

Anyone see a pattern here? Medical technology is holding DOWN the murder rate. The number of murdered cops should be going down every year.

These are criminals who practiced killing cops since they were six years old, every day of their lives, playing Grand Theft Auto, and now they are primed to kill cops as adults.

If we intentionally tried to raise a generation cocked and primed to kill, we could not have done a better job.

The answer? Parents MUST enforce the rating system. They MUST understand the danger. To do that, they must be informed by our media! And the schools must begin to educate their kids! Go towww.TakeTheChallengeNow.net to learn about a school TV-turnoff curriculum pioneered by Stanford Med School and demonstrated to cut school violence and bullying in half!

An "M" (mature, 17 and above ONLY) rated game is the same as an "X" rated movie! The people who manufacture the game say so. Their own industry says so! A "T" (teen) rating means no child under 13 should play the game. Period. It is a very tragic, horrendous situation when adults let their children immerse themselves in M rated games! Just like, sex, gambling, porn, alcohol, tobacco, drugs, guns, and automobiles: these are all things that adults must not give to kids!

Not all of the kids who play these sick games will become killers, but they will all be desensitized to human death and suffering, intentionally and realistically inflicted by themselves, for their own entertainment…

If YOUR child is one who commits a brutal crime, and YOU let them play these sick games, t

THANK YOU!

Food For Thought

REALITY HUMOR!!!!

Food For Thought

Tragedy

First please let me say that my THOUGHTS & PRAYERS  go out to the family's of those children and the others who's live were taken yesterday in such a tragic and senseless act of violence.  I  was so upset when I heard this.  I felt a sort of emptiness in my life and then a anger that was like an emotionally roller coaster.  Where do these PSYCHO'S come from?  Normal human beings are not hard wired to take another human being's life.  God did not make us that way.  To take these lives especially this time of the year when children's lives are filled with so much excitement and love is an unthinkable act of pure violence.  It makes me wonder why this BASTARD couldn't have been hit by a truck on his way to that school.  To have taken his own mother's life first, MAY SHE RIP, then proceed to the school just goes to show what a crossed wired dysfunctional sick  person this kid was.  I can't believe that there was no kind of warning signals given by this kid that would indicate that there was something majorly wrong going own in his world!  Now the BLAME GAMES start.  The GUNS, THE GUNS, THE GUNS.  But I have not heard a word about the VIOLENCE that are kids are exposed to through the ENTERTAINMENT AND HOLLYWOOD INDUSTRIES.  Lt. Col Dave Grossman, wrote about this in his book, ON KILLING, (Section V111) published back in 1995.  We are about to enter the year 2013 and we don't seem to have the answers to our social problems, or simply want to ignore them.  To me we seem to be going backwards instead of forward.  We keep blaming objects instead of addressing the real issues.  Our Politicians and Legislators go after what appears to be the easy target, because it makes most people feel good.  It's like putting a band aid on a major cut, It looks like your doing something but in reality the problem is not solved.  If we do not take a serious look at what our children are involved with and being exposed to the problems are only going to get worst.  This is just my feelings on this UNGODLY ACT OF VIOLENCE!  MAY GOD BLESS ALL THAT ARE INVOLVED AND WHOSE LIVES WILL BE CHANGED FOREVER!

JUST WANT TO CONGRATULATE ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS ON HIS NEW ASSIGNMENT WITH THE PHILA. P.D. SWAT TEAM.  I HAVE NEVER MET A HARDER WORKING AND DEDICATED PERSON IN MY LIVE.  JOSHUA, YOUR COMMITMENT TO YOUR TRAINING HAS PAID OFF.  GOOD LUCK BROTHER, STAY SAFE!  

Finally with all the craziness that's been going on in the military a decision that makes sense is a reality.  Nothing like GOOD JUDGEMENT & COMMON SENSE!  

The Rotac Training Group: FOOD FOR THOUGHT

The Rotac Training Group: FOOD FOR THOUGHT: "In a gunfight, you will not rise to the occasion; you will descend to the level of your training." __Hersal Davis Retired U.S. NAVY SEAL ma...

The Rotac Training Group: FOOD FOR THOUGHT

The Rotac Training Group: FOOD FOR THOUGHT: PAIN SHARED=PAIN DIVIDED/JOY SHARED=JOY MULTIPLIED Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, From his book; ON COMBAT

FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

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HAVE THIS IN BOTH THE SERRATED AND STANDARD BLADE

Selling a couple of knives from my ZERO TOLERANCE COLLECTION.  Brand new in the box.  You can't get these knives at these prices anywhere.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, CALL ME @ 215-416-0750

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
PLEASE SAY A PRAYER FOR OUR TROOPS WHO ARE IN HARMS WAY MAKING SURE THAT WE CAN ENJOY THIS HOLIDAY.

LITTLE HUMOR!

IF WE LOOSE THIS RIGHT, WE SURELY WILL LOOSE OUR FREEDOM!

HANDGUN, A DEFENSIVE TOOL THAT GIVES YOU THE ABILITY TO DELIVER FORCE AT A DISTANCE!  

THIS IS THE TRUTH, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!

Received this from a good friend of mine.  Great article and well worth the read.  By, Larry Mudgett



Why Surrender Is Never an Option,
The first phase of surrender is failing to be armed, trained and
committed to fight. We are prepared to surrender when we are unprepared to resist. The second phase of
surrender is failing to be alert. You must see trouble coming in order to have time to respond. The warning may
be less than one second but it will be there and it must be recognized and acted upon immediately.
The Third phase of surrender is giving up your weapons.
The last phase of surrender is up to the monsters who have taken control of your life and perhaps the lives of
your loved ones. The last phase of surrender is out of your hands.
Surrender during war
During the American Revolution 12,000 Colonists captured by the British died in captivity on prison ships,
while only 8,000 died in battle. Had the 12,000 who surrendered continued to fight, many would have survived
and they could have done great damage to the British and likely shortened the war.
Civil War prisoners were treated so badly that some 50,000 died in captivity. More Americans have been killed
by Americans than by any foreign army in any war. Six hundred and eighteen thousand Americans died in the
Civil War. 
As many as 18,000 captured American and Pilipino prisoners died or were murdered at the hands of the
Japanese during the six days of the "Bataan Death March." Had most of these soldiers slipped into the jungle
and fought as guerrillas they could have tied up elements of the Japanese Army for months or years and perhaps
more of them would have survived the war.
Of the Americans who actually reached Japanese prison camps during the war, nearly 50,000 died in captivity.
That is more than 10 percent of all the American military deaths in the entire war in both the Pacific and
European theaters combined.
In addition to the 50,000 captured Americans who died in Japanese prison camps an additional 20,000 were
murdered before reaching a prison camp. If those 70,000 Americans had continued to fight, they could have
provided time for the United States to build and maneuyer its forces, perhaps shortening the war and saving
even more lives. Some of them would have likely survived the war. If they had all died in battle their fate would
have been no worse.
During the early stages of the "Battle of the Bulge" American soldiers were massacred by the German troops
who captured them.
During the Vietnam conflict many American Prisoners Of War were tortured daily for years by the Communist
North Vietnamese. Many Americans died during the process. Only Officers (Airmen) held in North Vietnam
were ever repakiated. Enlisted Americans captured in South Viet Nam were routinely tortured, mutilated and
murdered by the Communists. As a combat soldier and knowing my fate should I be captured, I was committed
to fighting to the death. I made specific plans to force the enemy to kill me rather than allow myself to be
captured.
In recent years, American troops captured by Islamic terrorists groups have virtualy all been tortured and
murdered in gruesome fashion. If I were fighting in the Middle East, I would make a similar vow and plan to
fight to the death. Under no circumstances would I allow myself to be captured by our Islamic enemies.
Death by Government
RJ Rummel, who wrote the book, "Death by Government' states that prior to the 20th Century; 170 million
civilians were murdered by their own governments. Historians tell us that during the 20th Century perhaps as
many as 200 million civilians were murdered by their own governments.
Some of the Nations where the mass murder of civilians occurred during the 20th Century include Russia,
Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, The Congo, Uganda, Armenia Vietnam, Cambodia, Nigeri4 Laos,
China, Cuba, Manchuria, Iraq, Iran, Biafra, Rwanda and many others. The slaughter of civilians by governments
appears to be as common as not.
Most of these slaughters were only made possible by disarming the victims before killing them. Had these
people resisted, their fate would have been no worse and perhaps better. Resistance is much more difficult after
the government has already taken the means of resistance away from the people. Planned genocide has been the
primary reason for weapon confiscation throughout history.
Jews and others who surrendered to the Nazis were murdered in slave labor camps by the millions. Had all the
Jews in Europe resisted when the Nazis started rounding them up they could have made the Nazis pay an
enormous price for the holocaust. The fact that Hitler confiscated guns in 1936 made resistance far less feasible.
Had the Jews in Germany resisted, the outcome may have been the same but the world would have learned
about the holocaust years earlier and may have intervened. Most people would prefer to die fighting and trying
to kill their oppressor, than be taken off to a death camp and starved to death or murdered in a gas chamber.
William Ayers, former leader of the Terrorist organization "The Weather Undergroumd," and close friend of
Barack Obama told his followers in the Weather Underground, "When we (Communist Revolutionaries) take
over the United States, we will have to kill 25 million Americans." He was referring to those who would never
submit to a Communist takeover. Those who would refuse to deny and reject the Constitution would have to be
murdered. If this sounds impossible, remember that Genocide by Government was the leading cause of death in
the last Century.
Surrendering to Criminals
The "Onion Field Murder" in California was a wakeup call to Law Enforcement Officers everywhere. On March
9,1963, two LAPD Officers were taken prisoner by two criminals. The Officers submitted to capture and gave
up their weapons. They were driven to an onion field outside of Bakersfield.
One Officer was murdered while the other Officer managed to escape in a hail of gunfire. The surviving Officer
suffered serious psychological problems, having been unable to save his partner. As a result of this incident, the
LAPD policy became, "You will fight no matter how bad things are." "You will never ever surrender your
weapons or yourself to a criminal."
Consider the Ogden, Utah record store murders. Read the book if you do not know the story. The manner in
which the criminals murdered their young victims cannot be described here. Resistance might have been futile.
Compliance was definitely and absolutely futile.
The courts in this country have ruled that the police have no legal obligation to protect anyone. Why do Law
Enforcement Officials always tell civilians not to resist a criminal, while they tell their Officers to always resist
and never surrender? Police administrators fear being sued by a civilian victim who gets hurt resisting.
Furthermore, the police, like all government agencies derive their power by fostering dependence.
According to Professor John Lott's study on the relationship between guns and crime, a victim who resists with
a firearm is less likely to be hurt or killed than a victim who cooperates with his attacker. His book is titled
"More Guns, Less Crime."
The Doctor and his family in Connecticut complied and cooperated, meeting every demand ofthe home
invasion robbers to whom they had surrendered. The Doctors wife and daughters were tortured, raped, doused
with gasoline and burned alive. How did surrender and cooperation work out for them?
In another home invasion robbery, a kindly couple with 9 "adopted, special needs children," surrendered to the
robbers. The victims opened their safe and did not resist in atty way. When the robbers where finished
ransacking the home and terrifying the children, they shot both parents in the head several times before leaving.
How did surrender and complete cooperation work out for them?
Handing over your life by surrendering to someone who is in the process of committing a violent crime against
you is a form of suicide. Some survive but many do not. The monster gets to decide for you.
We have heard brutalized victims say, "lhe robber said that he would not hurt us if we cooperated." Why would
you believe anything that someone who is committing a crime against you says? He will be lying if he speaks.
As we say in law enforcement, "If a criminal's lips are moving while he is speaking, he is lying." Criminals by
definition are dishonest and should never be trusted or believed.
You have no doubt heard friends say, I would not resist a criminal, after all why would he kill me? This is stupid
and naive. In law enforcement, we call these people "Victims by Choice" (VBC). There could be a long list of
reasons why a criminal would kill you despite your cooperation.
You may be of a different race, thus a different tribe. Only members of his tribe are actually human in his mind.
He may feel hatred toward you because you have more than he does. Gratification from being in a position of
total power is reason enough for some.
Criminals are sometimes members of a Satanic Cult who worship death such as the "Night Stalker" in
California. Eliminating a potential witness is often cited as a reason to kill a victim, Sometimes criminals simply
enjoy causing suffering and death. There are people who are in fact, pure evil. I have heard criminals say, "I
killed her just to watch her die."

A victim who begs for mercy can give his attacker a tremendous feeling of power which many criminals seem to
enjoy. You cannot expect mercy from someone who does not know what mercy is.
Resist!
We each have a duty to ourselves, our loved ones, our neighbors, our community, our city, our state and our
country to resist criminals. Reasoning with a thug who believes that his failures are because of people just like
you is not likely to be helpful. Pleading with a terrorist who has been taught from birth that his salvation
depends on murdering people like you is a doomed plan. Resist!
Resist! His gun may not be real. After you are tied up it will not matter. His gun may not be loaded. After you
are tied up it will not matter. He may not know how to operate his gun. After you are tied up it will not matter.
Resist!
Statistically if you run and your assailant shoots at you he will miss. Statistically if you run and he shoots and
hits you, you will not die. Bad guys shooting at the police miss 90 percent of the time. The odds are on your
side. Better to die fighting in place than to be tied up, doused with gasoline and burned alive. There are things
worse than death. Surrender to a criminal or a terrorist and you will learn what they are. Resist!
If you resist with a commitment to win you may well prevail, especially if you are armed and trained. If you lose
it is still better to die fighting in place than to be taken prisoner and have your head cut off with a dull knife
while your screams gurgle through your own blood as we have witnessed on numerous videos from the'Islamic
practitioners of peace," as well as the Mexican drug cartels.
Some who have refused to surrender.
History is filled with brave people who refused to surrender. Some of these men and woman have won their
battles despite what seemed to be insurmountable odds. Others have gone down fighting and avoided being
tortured to death. Some fought to the death to help or save others. Many have fought to the death for an idea or a
belief.
When General Santa Ana (also the President of Mexico at the time) ordered 180 "Texicans" to surrender the
Alamo, Col. Travis answered with "a cannon shot and a rebel yell." Eventually General Santa Ana was able to
build his troop strength to ten thousand. The Mexicans then swarmed the defenders and killed them all.
The battle of the Alamo delayed the Mexican Army long enough for Sam Huston to build his Texican Army,
which met and defeated the Mexican Army and captured General Santa Ana. General Santa Ana traded Texas
for his life and the sacrifices of the Alamo defenders changed history.
Frank Luke was a heroic aviator in WW1 Shot down and wounded he refused to surrender when confronted by
a German patrol. He killed 4 German soldiers with his 191I Pistol before being killed. Luke was posthumously
awarded the Medal of Honor.
When his unit was pinned down by German Machine Guns and all of the Officers and non commissioned
officers in his company were killed or wounded, Alvin York never considered surrendering. Instead, he attacked
hundreds of German soldiers killing about 25 with his rifle and pistol and then captured 132 others by himself!
Most of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto (Poland) surrendered to the German Army. They were taken off to death
camps and murdered. Between 400 and 1,000 Jews refused to surrender and armed with only a few pistols,
revolvers and rifles, they held off the German Army for three months before dying in battle.
During the "Battle of the Bulge," the 101st Airborne was surrounded by the German Amy and ordered to
surrender. Faced with overwhelming odds, the Commanding Officer of the 10lst sent this reply to the Germans.
"Nuts." The Americans refused to surrender and they stopped the German advance. Most of the Americans
troops survived.

On Sept 2,2010,40 armed criminals took over and robbed a train in India. Some of the robbers had guns, others
used knives and clubs. When they began to disrobe an 18 year old girl for the purpose of gang raping her, one of
the passengers decided to fight. He was a 35 year old retired Gurkha soldier. He drew his Khukasri Knife and
attacked the 40 robbers. He killed three of the robbers and wounded 8 more despite his being wounded in this 20
minute fight. The remaining criminals fled for their lives leaving their stolen loot and eleven comrades dead or
wounded on the floor of the train. The eight wounded robbers were arrested.
How does one man defeat 40? How does he summon the courage to fight such odds? He utilized all of the
Principles of Personal Defense: Alertness, Decisiveness, Aggressiveness, Speed, Coolness, Ruthlessness, and
Surprise. He was skilled in the use of his weapon. Most importantly, He refused to be a victim and allow evil to
triumph!
If this one inspirational soldier can defeat 40 opponents using his knife, it would seem that we should all be able
to defeat a group of armed criminals by using our firearms if we are professionally trained as was this heroic
Gurkha soldier.
Final thoughts
How will you respond if you are confronted by evil as some of us have been in the past and some of us will be
in the future? If you have not decided ahead of time what you will do, you will likely do nothing. Those who
fight back often win and survive. Those who surrender never win and often die a horrible death. Have you made
your decision? Remember, no decision is a decision to do nothing.
Mudgett is a long time Rangemaster and Instructor at GUNSITE Larry and his wife
Stacey also run classes in Utah through their own school, MARKSMANSHIP MATTERS. Larry retired from the LAPD
after nearly 35 years where he served as the Chief Firearms Instructor at the LA Police Academy for I 3 years
and the Chief Firearms Instructor and team member for IAPD SWAT for 14 years. Larry also served as an
Infantry Light Weapons Sergeant in the First Air Cavalry in Viet Nam 1967-1968. Larry trained the first USMC
Special Operations Training Group at Camp Pendleton and was an adjunct firearms and hostage rescue
instructor for the DOE Central Training Academy for 10 years. He currently teaches Rifle, Carbine, Pistol,
Double Action Revolver and Single Action Revolver.
Learn more at marksmanshipmatters.com

HAPPY VETERAN'S DAY!

Please say a prayer for all those that are now serving and those who have ever served and paid the ultimate price for protecting our freedom and our way of life.  You guys & girls are my HERO'S!  May GOD bless YOU! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  NOVEMBER 10TH

Received this from a friend.  Don't necessarily agree with everything, but most of the information is pretty valid.  FOR INFORMATION ON THE AUTHOR, AND THE VIDEO YOU CAN DO A SEARCH UNDER HIS NAME, JIM HIGGINBOTHAM, AND THE VIDEO IS ON U TUBE


The “Center Mass” Myth and Ending a
Gunfight
By Jim Higginbotham
Surviving a gunfight isn’t what you think it is.
Don’t let conventional wisdom get you killed. A well place
round to “center mass” in your attacker may not take him out of
the fight. Lots of people stay in the fight after “center mass” hits,
and some even win it. If you expect to win your gunfight, you
have to make sure that you have effectively ended the threat of
your attacker. One, two or even several well placed “center
mass” shots may not do what you think it will, and learning to
recognize this before you gunfight may save your life.
There is a self styled self defense “expert” under every rock, and
perhaps two behind every bush, these days. If you have a pet
theory on what might work on the street then you can probably
find a champion for that idea who actually charges people to
teach them that skill. But few of the experts out there have ever
been in gunfights, and even fewer have studied real gunfights to
see how things really work out when the bullets really fly for
blood.
There are more misconceptions out there than I can cover in one
article but the one that probably gets to me the most, even over
all the caliber wars that rage interminably in the print and cyber
media, is the nearly universal acceptance that shooting a
miscreant “center mass” with ________(fill in your favorite
make, model and caliber) shooting _________ (fill in your
favorite ammunition) hyper speed truck killer is practically
guaranteed to get the job done.
Having studied in this field from a number of decades, I have
run into plenty of cases where bullets did not do what folks
would have assumed. And I have now collected enough of these
that I think that rather than being anomalies, they are actually
closer to the norm. Center mass hits in a gunfight do not in most
cases end the fight. Erroneous assumptions can get you killed!
There is a well known video in training circles in which a
Highway Patrol officer shoots an armed subject 5 times “center
mass” (this is not my assessment but the statement of his
immediate supervisors which are interviewed on the full version
of the hour long tape) with his 4” .357 Magnum revolver firing
hollow point ammunition. All 5 hits failed to do the job and the
subject was able to fire one round which struck the officer in the
armpit. That round wondered around in the chest cavity and
found his heart. The officer unfortunately died at the scene and
his attacker is alive today.
In a class I conduct under the title “Fire For Effect” I start out by
showing a video of standoff in which a hostage taker is fired on
by police with .223 rifles and .40 caliber handguns. Throughout
the whole disturbing sequence, which lasts about 10 seconds, the
bad guy is hit multiple times in the torso with both rifle and
pistol rounds. You can see him place his non-firing hand to his
chest, clearly a lung is hit. However he is able to shoot his
hostage 3 times, not rapidly. The hostage, a trim female, is
active throughout the scene but later died from her wounds. In
this case both the attacker and the victim had “center mass” hits
that had no immediate effect.
I have accumulated confirmed incidents in which people have
been shot “center mass” up to 55 times with 9mm JHP
ammunition (the subject was hit 106 times, but 55 of those hits
were ruled by the coroner to be each lethal in and of themselves)
before he went down. During training at the FBI Academy we
were told of a case in which agents shot a bank robber 65 times
with 9mm, .223 and 00 buckshot – he survived! These are not
rare cases. The happen quite often.
If a gunfight ever comes your way, your attacker may fall to a
hit to the liver and he may not. He may fall to two or three hits
to the kidneys, intestines or spleen, but he may not. He will
certainly be in bad health. He likely will not survive, but what he
does for the next several seconds to a few minutes is not
guaranteed because you hit him “center mass.”
Heart and lung hits don’t statistically fare much better. I have
three students and three other acquaintances who were all shot in
a lung at the outset of gunfights. The students came to me after
their fights to learn how to keep from getting shot again. Last
time I checked all of those people were still alive and the people
who shot them are still dead. Every one of them was able to
respond effectively after being shot “center mass”, one might
even say they were shot in the “A-zone”. And they were shot
with .38 Special (three of them), 9mm, .357 Magnum and 8mm
Mauser, so it’s not all about caliber. One of those was a Chicom
12.7 mm round! He lived next door to me for many years.
So, what’s a person to do? First off, realize that one shot, even a
fairly well placed shot may not do the job so don’t set there and
admire your handiwork or wait for it to take effect. But even two
hits may not get the job done!
After years of trying to get a grasp on this I have come to look at
the results of shooting a living breathing target – be it a human
attacker or a game animal – as falling into 3 or 4 categories.
They are :
1. Instant Collapse – this takes place 1 to 2 seconds from the
shot being fired
2. Rapid Collapse – this can take from 3 to 15 seconds and is
quite common.
3. Marginal Effect – this can even be a lethal hit but it takes
from 15 to 300 (yes 300!) or even more seconds.
4. The 4th is simply unacceptable and is a total failure.
The last category we don’t like to discuss but happens too often .
We saw it recently in Washington with a Center Mass hit from
an officer’s pistol and the subject was still walking around the
next day.
What is “effective” shooting? Sad to say, it is demanding. It is
also, I think, variable depending on the conditions. For example,
the robber armed with a scattergun who is standing 10 feet away
must be stopped “right now!” If you do not bring about Instant
Collapse someone may very well die…that someone may be
you!
On the other hand, if there is a gang banger launching bullets in
your general direction using un-aimed fire about 20 yards away
then a hit that brings about Rapid Collapse might do the job.
I cannot imagine a Marginally Effective result being very
desirable in any case, but it does buy you some time in some
cases.
How does this relate to hits? In order to achieve Instant Collapse
you must scramble the “circuitry” that keeps the bad guy on the
attack. That means the brain or spinal cord.
The head is not only a fairly difficult target to hit in the real
world – because it moves a lot – but it is also difficult to
penetrate and get a pistol bullet into the place it must be to be
effective. For normal purposes we might write off the head,
keeping it in reserve for very special circumstances.
The spine is not that easy to hit either. It isn’t large, and to be
effective the hit needs to be in the upper 1/3 of the spine or at a
point about level with the tip of the sternum. I think that is
around T11. But of course the huge problem is that it is hidden
by the rest of the body. We are the good guys, we don’t go
around shooting people in the back. So the exact location is
something that can only be learned through lots of practice on
3D targets. Your point of aim on the surface changes with the
angle at which the target is facing.
The bottom of the spine isn’t much use. I know of several
people shot in the pelvis. It did not break them down as many
theorize. I am not saying it doesn’t happen but in the only case I
know of in which it did the person who was “anchored” with a
.357 magnum to the pelvis killed the person that shot him – you
can shoot just fine from prone.
A shot, or preferably multiple shots to the heart and major
arteries above the heart (not below!) may achieve Rapid
Collapse, but not always. Officer Stacy Lim was shot in the
heart at contact distance with a .357 Magnum and is still alive
and her attacker is still dead! Score one for the good guys…or in
this case gals!
So now what constitutes Marginal Effectiveness? A hit to the
lungs! Even multiple hits to the lungs. Unfortunately though,
most often lung hits are effective in ending the fight because the
subject decides to quit the fight, not because he MUST. A
famous Colonel Louis LeGarde once wrote what is considered
“the” book on gunshot wounds. 65% of his patients shot through
the lungs – with rifles! – survived with the predominant
treatment being only bed rest!
Effective Practice and “Dynamic Response”
The goal of practice, one would think, is to make correct,
effective shooting techniques a matter of reflex, so that you
don’t have to think about what you are doing in a gunfight.
Most people will perform under stress at about 50 to 60% as
well as they do on the range…and that is if they practice a lot! If
they only go to the range once every other month that
performance level decreases dramatically. Shooting and
weapons handling are very perishable skills. Also folks tend to
practice the wrong stuff inadvertently. I put this in the
classification of “practicing getting killed” but that too is a topic
for another
day.
Movement and Variation doesen’t mean
innacurate shooting. In a real gunfight you and
your adversary will most likely
Let’s talks
about a basic
response, what I call “Dynamic Response.” Situations vary and
this is not meant to be a universal answer, just one that will work
for about 80% of scenarios.
It is pointless to stand still on the range and shoot a stationary
target, unless you simply want to polish up some marksmanship
fundamentals. That is a necessary part of learning to shoot. But
if you are practicing for a fight, then fight!
Some rules.
1. Don’t go to the range without a covering garment – unless
of course you always carry your gun exposed (no
comment).
2. Don’t practice drawing your gun fast – ever! – while
standing still.
Part of the Dynamic Response is to step off the line of attack (or
on rare occasions that are dependent on circumstances
backwards or forwards) and present the weapon with as much
alacrity as you can muster and engage the target with
overwhelming and accurate fire! By the way, never assume a
fight is completely over just because you canceled one threat.
Don’t practice “standing down” too quickly. We have a video
attached which will hopefully give you the right idea.
I wish there was a formula of how to stand and how to hold you
gun but there really isn’t. We don’t do “Weaver vs. Isosceles vs.
Modern Iso vs. whatever”. We don’t do “Thumbs Crossed vs.
be moving. Click here if you can’t see the video.
Thumbs Forward vs. Thumb Up…never mind.” Those are things
for you to work out on your own. You use what makes YOU
effective not what works for a guy who practices 50,000 rounds
the week before a big match (that is not an exaggeration).
Competitive shooters will throw out advice on what works for
them. It may not work for you.
There is also not “one true gun”. Your skill is far more
important that what you carry, within reason. We are not really
talking about “stopping power”, whatever that is, here but rather
effectiveness.
I can find no real measure – referred to by some as a
mathematical model – of stopping power or effectiveness. And I
have looked for 44 years now! Generally speaking I do see that
bigger holes (in the right place) are more effective than smaller
holes but the easy answer to that is just to shoot your smaller
gun more – “a big shot is just a little shot that kept shooting”.
True, I carry a .45 but that is because I am lazy and want to
shoot less. A good bullet in 9mm in the right place (the spine!)
will get the job done. If you hit the heart, 3 or 4 expanded 9mms
will do about what a .45 expanding bullet will do or one might
equal .45 ball….IF (note the big if) it penetrates. That is not
based on any formula, it is based on what I have found to
happen – sometimes real life does not make sense.
Practicing Dynamic Response means practicing with an open
mind. Circumstances in a real gunfight are unpredictable and the
more unpredictability you mix up into your practice the more
your brain will be preparing itself for a possible real gunfight.
In real life, your gunfight may be dark, cold, rainy, etc. The
subject may be anorexic (a lot of bad guys are not very healthy)
or he may be obese (effective penetration and stopping power of
your weapon). There are dozens of modifiers which change the
circumstance, most not under your control. My only advice on
this is what I learned from an old tanker: “Shoot until the target
changes shape or catches fire!” Vertical to horizontal is a shape
change, and putting that one more round into his chest at point
blank range may catch his clothes on fire, even without using
black powder.
We tell our military folks to be prepared to hit an enemy fighter
from 3-7 times with 5.56 ball, traveling at over 3,000 feet per
second. This approach sometimes worked, but I know of several
cases where it has not, even “center mass.”
With handguns, and with expanding bullets, it is even more
unpredictable, but through years of study I have developed a
general formula, subject to the above mentioned unpredictable
circumstances.
 2-3 hits with a .45
 4-6 with a .40
 5-8 with a 9mm
With a revolver, the rounds are not necessarily more effective
but I would practice shooting 3 in a .38 or .357 merely because I
want 3 left for other threats. Not that those next three won’t
follow quickly if the target hasn’t changed shape around my
front sight blade. A .41, .44 or .45 Colt I would probably drop to
two. Once again, they are not that much more effective than a
.45 Auto but I don’t have the bullets to waste.
In any case, I want to stress the part that it is more about how
you shoot than what you shoot, within reason. It is also more
about the mindset and condition of the subject you are shooting
which is not under your control. Take control – buy good bullets
and put them where they count the most! And remember
“anyone worth shooting once is worth shooting a whole lot!”
(but please stop when the threat is cancelled, we don’t advocate
“finishing shots”).
Gunfights are ugly things. I don’t like to talk about the blood
and guts aspects of defending life any more than the next guy.
But it is our lives we are talking about here. By researching how
gunfights are fought, and more importantly, how gunfights are
won, it may give both of us the edge if a gunfight ever comes
our way. I hope to cover many of the points I have learned and
learned to train others in over the coming months. It isn’t as easy
to write about it as it is to teach it in person, but you can only
succeed if you are willing to try.
I hope you enjoy the ride.
Press on!
Jim