Book Review: The Gun Gap (Mark Joslyn, 2020)

I picked up a copy of this e-book recently. Someone I follow online (can’t remember who, sorry) recommended it. The author, Mark Joslyn, is a political scientist at the University of Kansas who does research on voting trends and demographics, including gun ownership. According to the introduction, the author “has never owned or gun or …

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Austin Crime Stats and upcoming tactics courses

(From Paul Martin): Last week, the Greater Austin Crime Commission released a Crime in Austin report. Download it here. Citywide, aggravated assaults and individual robberies were up last year. Response times are slower, and traffic fatalities increased. Cutting 100 cops takes us back to 2015 staffing levels. Does that make sense in a rapidly growing …

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Texas Bar Online Course on Firearms Law 2020

The Texas Bar continuing education program offers a session titled “Firearms Law: What Every Texas Lawyer Needs to Know”, on September 24-25, 2020. The session is not limited to Texas lawyers. Anyone can attend. I’ve attended the in-person sessions in previous years and found them very useful and informative. Speakers typically include prosecutors, defensive lawyers, …

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Book Review: The Red Dot Club (Robert Rangel, 2014)

I picked up a copy of this e-book when it was recommended by Greg Ellifritz (Active Response Training blog). The Red Dot Club is a series of first-hand accounts of gunfights – shooting others and being shot (getting a “red dot”) told by police officers, mostly from Southern California. The accounts are very detailed, with …

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Gunsite and the C-Bar Ranch

The SIG Pistol Mounted Optics instructor class Sean and I attended was held at Gunsite. Gunsite is the root of the tree for defensive pistol training: where the modern era began. The Col. Cooper era, often called “Orange Gunsite” by its students, had basically ended before I had the money and free time and interest …

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SIG Pistol Mounted Optics Instructor Course AAR

On June 18-19, 2020, KR Training instructor Sean Hoffman and I attended a session of the SIG Academy’s Pistol Mounted Optics Instructor course. The class was a mix of private sector and law enforcement trainers. It was held at the famous Gunsite facility in Paulden, Arizona. I picked this particular session of the class to …

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1920’s Police Revolver Qualification

During the Rangemaster Master Instructor Course, Tom Givens shared a police qualification course of fire with the class. The course was published in J. Henry Fitzgerald’s book “Shooting”, in 1930, but was in use in New York in the 1920’s. That book is available in print and e-book edition here. It’s one of the earliest, …

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Book Review – Basics of Pistol Shooting Pt 4 (NRA, 2020)

The National Rifle Association recently released a major update to the Basics of Pistol Shooting book. This is part 4 of a multi-part review of the book. (Part 1 of the review is here, part 2 is here, and part 3 is here.) Most of the book is excellent, with significantly better graphics and content …

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Book Review – Basics of Pistol Shooting Pt 3 (NRA, 2020)

The National Rifle Association recently released a major update to the Basics of Pistol Shooting book. This is part 3 of a multi-part review of the book. (Part 1 of the review is here, and part 2 is here.) Most of the book is excellent, with significantly better graphics and content than previous editions. However, …

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Book Review – Basics of Pistol Shooting Pt 2 (NRA, 2020)

The National Rifle Association recently released a major update to the Basics of Pistol Shooting book. This is part 2 of a multi-part review of the book. (Part 1 of the review is here.) Despite the review being full of complaints and criticisms of the content, most of the book is excellent, with significantly better …

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Book Review – Basics of Pistol Shooting Pt 1 (NRA, 2020)

The National Rifle Association recently released a major update to the Basics of Pistol Shooting book. You can order it direct from NRA here. The book is printed in a standard large paperback format of 6″ x 9″, but spiral bound on the short edge. So it will fit on a bookshelf with older NRA …

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Rangemaster Master Instructor Course AAR

In late May 2020, Karl Rehn, Dave Reichek, and Tracy Thronburg of KR Training attended the Rangemaster Master Instructor certification course, held at the Boondocks Firearms Training Academy facility in Clinton, MS. John Daub and Jeff Edwards had attended a previous session of this relatively new course. John’s AAR is here. In order to attend …

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Vintage Force on Force video from 1998

Teaching no classes in April 2020 gave me some time to go through the 30 year archive of pictures and video we have recorded during classes and special events. Thanks to modern video restoration tools, I was able to clean up some fairly low resolution, low quality video of an October 1998 session of Advanced …

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Three Seconds or a LOT less, Maximum Speed

When we were developing the “Three Seconds or Less” test, one of the concerns was making each of the strings of the test roughly equal in difficulty. We enlisted the help of a couple of very fast shooters, K. Clark (multi-time winner of the Rangemaster Tactical Conference shooting match), and national champion Ben Stoeger, to …

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1959 NRA Basic Pistol Instructor Manual

As discussed in a previous blog post, I recently purchased some vintage copies of the 1959 NRA basic pistol instructor and student books, and received permission from NRA to scan and share them freely. The 1959 student book download link is in this blog post. The 1959 Basic Pistol instructor book can be downloaded here. …

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