Happy Marksmanship Day!  Today marks 250 years since the "shot heard round the world" at Concord's North Bridge on April 19, 1775.   To hear the full story of this day and how colonial marksmanship won the day (and learn rifle marksmanship), I highly recommend you sign-up for a Project Appleseed weekend.

I was THRILLED to teach a handgun course today.  What better way to celebrate American freedom than by passing along principles of marksmanship!  

Buying guns or spending money on ammo seems impossible when the price of basics like milk, eggs and gas have increased so much in the last few years.  Last year, I wrote about inflation and potential impact on gun owners.  I don't have numbers but it seems there are a LOT less dollars getting spent on the shooting sports now than a few years ago. 
Shooting skills will deteriorate over time if not maintained, so my main worry about this is that gun owners will not be ready to protect themselves if they don't practice.

I have two simple suggestions for those feeling the pinch who still want to stay sharp: 

1. Dry Practice - a huge percentage of your speed and accuracy can be built and maintained by perfect dry practice.  In order to dry practice safely, you'll need to know how to properly ensure your gun is unloaded and you'll also need a safe direction (something that can stop a bullet).  While there are tools that can help your dry practice sessions, you don't need any of them (see #2).  How good would you be if you spent 15 minutes dry practicing your concealed carry presentation and trigger press once or twice a week?  Very, very good.
   
2. Ignore gun and accessory advertisements - most gun owners (including me) love new guns and accessories but most of us don't need anything new.  Instead of buying new gear, spend a portion of that same money on good training or range time and get good with the gear you've already got. 

I've written before about how important it is for all gun owners learn the basics of safe gun handling skills.  I was sickened by the news that a Virginia teen rapper accidentally killed himself on live stream.  I don't know the details and I didn't attempt to find the video.  His death, though, is completely preventable.  

Safe gun handling is not intuitive.  If you haven't been trained and intentionally apply the rules, you will not  automatically be safe.  You will likely automatically do what you've seen in pop culture.  Most TV shows and movies do NOT show safe handling.  The image below is a great example, the actor is pointing the gun in an unsafe direction with his finger on the trigger.  Review the rules and then apply them 100% of the time! 

Check out the video in this article of a man in South Florida pulling a gun in a road rage incident.  We don't know exactly what precipitated his actions, but the minute Mr. Slane gets out of his car with his gun in-hand, he's escalating the situation and no longer able to claim a shooting was in self-defense.  It appears that Mr. Slane didn't know how close he was to getting shot.  You can hear the man in the truck ask his wife, "Should I shoot him?"  Thankfully, the man in the truck kept his cool and no one got shot.   

This is another good video for us all to watch and think about how we would handle it if it happened to us.  I like that the man in the truck had his gun in his hand and kept it out of sight.  This definitely helped to de-escalate the situation.  Your handgun should be your last option.  Don't start shooting until you have no other choice.

My daughter recently enlisted in the US Coast Guard so, now my news feed has many military stories.  I got a good laugh out of the story about the picture above.  

Apparently, the Navy posted the photo above to their social media accounts and many people quickly noticed that the rifle scope is mounted backwards.  Imagine looking backwards through binoculars - a little tiny image of his target is all that this guy is seeing as he's shooting.  This would definitely make accuracy a lot more challenging.  I also loved the social media responses posted by the Army and Marines.

To me, it is interesting that there is brass flying toward the camera.  Not only is he pointing the rifle, he's shooting it!  I'm was surprised to learn that this man was relieved of duty due to this incident; I wouldn't think he would be expected to know about small arms.    

Ensure you are trained properly with your equipment and you practice with it!

​I've been wondering about the long-term impacts of inflation on gun ownership in America.  Recently, I was talking to the owner of a local gun store in Goochland and he said there are more used guns for sale than ever before.  One possible explanation for this is that people are selling their guns to help them afford the basics.   Since there are so many guns available, prices are low, so its actually a bad time to sell (good time to buy though).  

Also, this week Colonial Shooting Academy announced they are closing after 12 years.  This is a huge loss for the Richmond area.  Colonial was a fantastic facility with a large indoor shooting range and gun store.  I'm guessing the massive inflation of recent years means Richmond area gun-owners just don't have the room in their paychecks to shoot as much as they used to (or as much as they want).  I'm hopeful a new owner will buy the building and keep it as a range but if inflation doesn't ease, it seems like less people will be able to enjoy the shooting sports.  

We had some cooler weather in Richmond last week with mornings in the fifties.  Even though our summer weather is back, it was a good reminder of how nice it is outside in the Fall. 

If getting gun training is something you'd like to do, the Fall is an awesome time to take a course.  Contact me and I'll be happy to create a custom course just for you.  I only have five more course openings in 2024.

Many people keep a gun to protect themselves and their family at home.  If you're in this group, you should read about Kevin Monahan who shot and killed a woman who was a passenger in a car that mistakenly drove up his driveway.   

According to the article, Mr. Monahan and his wife were awakened by the sound of vehicles in his driveway.  He told his wife to hide inside and went outside with a pump action 20 gauge shotgun.  First, he fires a warning shot into the air.  Then, after losing his balance, shoots a shot into the car that killed Kaylin Gillis.  

There are many indicators to me that Mr. Monahan was not trained in self-defense because he did a lot of things wrong:

1. If he thought he was under siege he should not have gone outside.  He lost most of his defensive capability by going outside.  If three cars of people are trying to attack you, you should barricade yourself inside your house and create an advantage with cover and concealment.  Also, call 911!
2. He said he only wanted to protect his wife.  She was safe inside.  A self-defense shooting is only legally justified if there is an imminent threat of death or grievous bodily injury.  Nothing in the article suggested Mr. Monahan should have felt that level of threat.  Also remember, you should not shoot to protect property. 
3. He fired a warning shot.   No, no, no, no.  Seriously, don't do it.
4. If he really did accidentally shoot the shot that killed Ms. Gillis (its clear the judge didn't believe him), then Mr. Monahan was not applying the rules of safe gun handling.  The only way a gun fires is if you pull the trigger.  This can happen accidentally if you rest your finger on the trigger instead of following the second rule of the NRA's rules for safe gun handling:  ALWAYS keep your finger off of the trigger until ready to shoot.

I want to encourage everyone who keeps a gun for self-protection to spend time learning about scenarios you might be put in and thinking about how you would handle them.  Getting some hands-on live fire training is also important.

I recently wrote about the horrific Hamas attack on civilians in Israel and the lack of private gun ownership.  Thankfully, not everyone in Israel was unarmed or the death toll would have been much higher.  For those of you who would say that private citizens cannot stand against terrorists or military-grade weapons, please watch this  incredible account of a man who protected his family against more than 10 terrorists on October 7th armed only with a handgun.

This is a case study in home defense.  Miki kept his cool during the battle and ambushed the attackers as they entered his house.  He also never surrendered, even though Hamas used unimaginable psychologic techniques to try to get him to. 

The 2nd Amendment guarantees the right of Americans to own guns for self-defense and to help ensure an attack like that never happens here.  Let's be ready.