In recent days, I read two stories of abusive boyfriends who killed their girlfriends:  

• Last month, an Abusive Ex Murdered His Girlfriend in her home in New Jersey leaving behind two young children.  
• Last week, 27-year-old Jenna Soderberg was killed by her abusive boyfriend, 39-year-old Sherrick Byrd, in a Houston Hotel Lobby.  She had recently filed for a protective order which, unfortunately, didn't protect her.  Byrd had already spent time in prison this year for previous abuse of Soderberg.  

Stories like these make me sick.  I cannot understand any "man" who would physically hurt a woman.  These kind of crimes happen all too often.  According to the National Coalition to Prevent Domestic Violence:

• 1 in 2 female murder victims are killed by intimate partners
• 65% of all murder-suicides are perpetrated by intimate partners
• 96% of murder-suicide victims are female

If you are in an abusive relationship, please get help.  I would also consider your options for self-defense.  I'm not saying that carrying a gun is for everyone but, with proper training, it might give you a chance of surviving a deadly encounter like these. 

Today I got 3 different emails offering cases of 9mm ammo for sale.  This was great news.  After the huge gun demand in 2020, ammo became really hard to find and prices went through the roof.    Ammunition manufacturers didn't expect the rush of new gun owners and the corresponding ammo sales, but it seems that production is starting to catch-up.

Now that ammo is available again, all gun owners should celebrate Independence Day and our freedom by doing some shooting!  When you go out, take a new shooter with you!

I'm partnering with a group called "Powhatan Home Defense" to offer 3 introductory handgun clinics over the summer months.  These sessions will give beginners the steps needed to get started to owning a handgun for self-defense.  More details are available on the flyer below.

Officer Christopher Royer, a police officer in Nashville, shot and killed a man who attacked him with two butcher knives during a traffic stop on Saturday night.   If you are a private citizen who owns a gun for self-protection, do yourself a favor and read this article (and watch the video).   Officer Christopher Royer

In my opinion, this was an excellent example of using a handgun for self-defense.  Some observations:
1. Officer Royer didn't use his gun to protect property - the bad guy got into the police car without any resistance. 
2. He gave the bad guy every chance to stop the attack.  Officer Royer retreated 25 yards from the man with the knives.  In the video, you can see the bad guy to run at the cop.  At that point, it is clear the bad guy is an imminent threat - this is life or death.
3. He shot the bad guy in the chest to stop the threat.  When the adrenaline dump of the life or death situation occurs, you will fall back on your training and practice.  Officer Royer had likely practiced making shots to the torso to stop the threat.  Once the threat stopped, he stopped shooting.

In my defensive shooting courses, I recommend that my students start following news on shootings and other circumstances where they might need a gun for self-protection, this is training for your mind.  An excellent way to do this is to sign-up for VCDL's VA-ALERT e-mail list.  Another way is to read good books on self-defense.  

I just finished reading "Surviving a Mass Killer Rampage" by Chris Bird and I highly recommend it.  The author describes in-detail many mass shootings, some that were stopped by citizens or law enforcement and some that were not.  Reading about these killings gave me a glimpse into what a situation like this might look like and some of the options when fighting back.  A majority of these shootings are over before law enforcement arrives and is able to confront the shooter.  His overall point is that allowing private citizens to carry guns and eliminating gun-free zones will significantly reduce the carnage that these killers can cause.   

In addition, the author attended several multi-day courses meant to train private citizens to stop mass shootings.  The book describes the content of these courses in detail.  This section includes lots of basic tactical information and some things concealed carriers could use to practice on the range.   For instance, one of the courses talked about the importance of scoring your first hit and had the students take their first shots each day at 50 feet.  That is well beyond the average distance of a gunfight but I see the wisdom of regular practice at longer distances and I plan to work that into my future sessions. 

In August, Michael Drejka was convicted of manslaughter for the 2018 shooting of Markeis McGlockton.  Mr. Drejka was a concealed carry permit holder in Florida.  He shot and killed Mr. McGlockton after getting into a fight over a parking space.
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This is such a tragic situation for all involved.  Apparently, Mr. Drejka had words with Mr. McGlockton's girlfriend who was sitting in a car with her kids waiting for Mr. McGlockton inside a store.  Drejka was upset that she was parked in a handicapped parking space.

It appears that Mr. McGlockton showed-up when Mr. Drejka was arguing with his girlfriend and shoved him to the ground.  Drejka then drew his gun and shot McGlockton.

From the article:
"When I just say something to a person about being parked there, I don’t expect it to go where it went," Drejka told the detectives.  Moffett pressed him, asking if he was concerned about prompting a violent confrontation when he previously complained about people parking in handicap spaces.  Drejka answered, "That's why I take precautions. I'm a very careful person. I have a [concealed weapon] permit."

I definitely understand why Drejka was convicted.  In essence he picked a fight.  When it escalated, he shot the guy.  When we carry, we need to have the mindset that we want to do everything we can to avoid using our gun.  Yes, we should be confident in our ability to defend ourselves but we should not be walking around looking for a fight.   

A family in Chesterfield County, VA survived a violent encounter with a naked home intruder last week.  The Lewis family describes the intruder as looking "possessed" and "having the strength of four men." 

Apparently, the man of the house encountered the home intruder first (a naked woman) and felt threatened enough to retrieve his pistol.  When she wouldn't leave he fired warning shots in her direction until he ran out of ammo - 39 warning shots!  At this point, it looks like the whole family was involved in fighting her off.  The family is covered in bites and bruises shown in the video of this article and you can see a significant amount of blood in the house.   This was a fight for life and death.  I'm glad the good guys survived.  

It would seem that this woman was high on some sort of substance that made her extremely strong and resistant to pain.  I disagree with the Mr. Lewis' decision not to shoot the woman.  I wonder if part of his decision not to shoot her was because the "bad guy" here was a girl?  By shooting warning shots, he endangered the lives of his family and neighbors and destroyed his own house in the process.   Each of those holes in the walls of his house could have hit an innocent bystander.   Additionally, if she was as strong as four men, couldn't the home invader have taken the gun away from the home owner and used it to kill his family?  Each of us gun owners needs to look at this situation and think through what we would do and what measures we are willing to take to protect ourselves and our loved ones.  

I would have retrieved my pistol, pointed it at her chest and told her to leave.   If she made any move toward me, I would have shot her twice in the upper chest.  Hopefully, that would have ended the confrontation.  If not, Plan B is a single shot to the cranial ocular cavity (head shot).   Hopped up on drugs or not, that shot would have stopped her.

Many people own guns for self defense and think they will rise to the occasion when they need it.   In an encounter such as this one, you don't have time to think.  Your body will default to your level of training and practice.  Contact me if you'd like to build your skills and confidence with a gun.  

#RVAReady #RVATrain #HandgunTraining #SelfDefense

Last month, a man in Houston, Texas successfully fought off FIVE armed intruders with an AK-47.  He shot all five of the attackers, killing three of them and emerged uninjured.  He won the gunfight big-time!  

How many times have we heard from the anti-gun crowd that "no one needs more than ten rounds to defend themselves" or "no one should have a military style rifle"?   This is a great example of a time when a high capacity magazine and semi-automatic rifle were needed.  You are never going to wish you had less ammo in a gunfight.  I realize, this situation is not the norm but I'm pretty sure this man was glad he was prepared!  ​

This got me thinking about training for multiple opponents, which is not something I normally do.  After a little web research, I decided to try the El Presidente drill to test my skills.  This drill requires the shooter to stand hands raised with his back to three bad guy targets.  At the start signal, the shooter will then turn around, draw his gun, shoot each bad guy twice, reload and then shoot each target two more times.  The par time for this drill is ten seconds!  

I tried it three times and only once was under ten seconds.  Each time, I hit 10 or 11 of the shots into the bad guys' thoracic cavity (heart and lungs).   I look forward to improving my times and accuracy as I add this drill to my practice.  A couple of my initial runs are shown in the video below.  

I just heard about a really unfortunate event at Colonial Shooting Academy last week: a Capitol police officer accidentally shot himself in the leg while training.  If you read the linked article, the  CSA employee suggests that the design of the holster may have caused the accident.  I disagree with his opinion - I have several SERPA holsters and I like them very much.   If used properly, the holster release does not put your finger anywhere near the trigger!

The main thing we should learn from this event is that using a holster with a loaded gun, without proper training, is dangerous.  I think many people assume they can buy a holster and intuitively use it safely.  This is a myth.  You should start by learning the proper way to draw (and re-holster) with your chosen rig and then practicing SLOWLY with an unloaded gun.  As you go through the motions ensure you never break the first two rules for safe gun handling (Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction, Always keep your finger off the of the trigger until your sights are on target).  Speed with come with practice but should never sacrifice safety.  Drawing from a holster is one of the topics of our Intermediate Defensive Handgun course.