I was shocked to see the viral video of the FBI agent who accidentally shot someone while dancing in a Denver night club.  This guys has moves but loses his gun while doing a back flip.  Then, he accidentally fires a shot while quickly grabbing the pistol off of the floor.  Thankfully, no one was killed by his shot.

Observations:
1. When carrying a gun, you should always be aware its presence.  This should obviously prevent you from attempting back flips or doing a ninja warrior course.  If you need to do acrobatics while carrying, you should get a level 2 retention holster.
2. This would have been a non-event if the officer had exercised trigger finger discipline.  The second rule of safe gun handling is to "ALWAYS Keep Your Finger Off of the Trigger Until Ready to Shoot."  A gun will only shoot if the trigger is pressed.  This was a stressful situation and the agent wanted to quickly cover-up his mistake.  Unfortunately, he grabbed the gun by the trigger instead of correctly picking it up with his finger off of the trigger.  
​3. I notice that the agent picked up the gun with his left hand but then holsters his gun with his right.  He appears to be a right handed shooter but used his left hand to grab the gun since it was on his left side.  One good take-away for all of us is to practice safe gun handling with our non-dominant hand.   

I was saddened to hear the news about the church shooting in Tennessee.  I'm very glad that Mr. Engle was there to stop the shooter and had a gun in the car.  I'm pretty sure that he will be carrying his gun in church from now on.

Have you ever thought of carrying a gun in church?  Some Christians may not think this would seem very Christian.  I read an awesome book on this very subject several years ago called "Shooting Back" by Charl Van Wyk.  Mr. Wyk single-handedly stopped terrorists from attacking his church.  This book tells the story of the attack and investigates why he believes Christians should defend themselves. I highly recommend this book!

I'm not looking to be a hero.  But if I end-up in a mass shooting situation, I want the ability to defend myself and my family. ​

Cleveland Taco Bell employees shot and killed a man attempting to rob the store last week.  The story says two men came into the store in ski masks and armed with handguns at 3 AM and ordered everyone on the ground.  Three employees drew guns and shot one of the would-be robbers dead.  The other robber escaped.  

Observations:
1.  The Taco Bell employees showed excellent marksmanship as the bad guy was hit SIX times and no good guys were injured.  The bad guy that got away may have been hit too.  
2.  I appreciate that there's no mention here that Taco Bell is firing these employees.  It says they will offer counseling.  Way to go Taco Bell!
3.  THREE employees were concealed carrying!  Wow!  That has got to be the safest place in Cleveland at 3 AM.

This is just one of the hundreds of times a day that guns saved lives.  Most of these events are never reported because no shots are fired.  More guns = less crime.  

I saw an article last week about an elderly Florida homeowner defending himself against an intruder and was reminded of the Old West adage "God made man, Samuel Colt made them equal."  The article doesn't say the age of the homeowner but I assume he was physically no match for the intruder.  A firearm leveled the playing field.  Race, gender, physical fitness, age, height, weight - none of those mattered.  

Contact me if you'd like the opportunity to build confidence with your home defense weapon.

If you carry a gun for self-defense it is important that you spend time learning about real-life scenarios so you can visualize how you will react if you get into a similar situation.

Even a quick trip to pick up a pizza can turn into a deadly encounter, as a man recently discovered in Levittown, PA.  

In my analysis of the situation, he handled the situation perfectly:  

1. First of all, he carried a gun.  He didn't just have a gun at home or in his car, he was carrying it with him.  
2. He waited until the situation turned threatening.  A simple robbery may not always be justification for deadly force.  Your gun is for protection of life, not property.  In this instance, when the robbers pistol whipped him and ordered everyone on the floor they displayed their willingness for violence and I believe that flipped the switch in this customer's mind and he chose to react with deadly force.
3. He displayed excellent markmanship.  He hit both robbers in vitual areas, ending the threat on his life and the lives of the shop employees.

Also notice that the police are not pressing charges against the customer for defending himself.  This is a great victory for law abiding citizens.  Guns save lives!

Anyone who owns a gun for self defense needs to think about what situations they are willing to use it.  Did you hear about the recent tragedy when a CrossFit gym owner was killed in Texas? 

Mr. Antell, a CrossFit gym owner, apparently witnessed Mr. Bradden, a soldier, having an argument with his wife and then shooting at her feet!  Mr. Bradden's wife then went into her place of work for help and Mr. Antell decided to step-in.  When he got his handgun and asked Mr. Bradden to drop his, Mr. Bradden killed the gym owner.  It is commendable that Mr. Antell wanted to prevent an additional crime from taking place - maybe even prevent this man from murdering his wife. However, the decision to get involved cost him his life.

Observations:
1.  Protect yourself, not others.
I understand the desire for the victim to protect the woman that he saw getting shot at.  When carrying a gun, it is easy to imagine yourself protecting others and stopping the bad guys.  However, it is important to remember your primary responsibility is to protect yourself and your loved ones.  The police are paid to protect everyone else.  Mr. Antell should have taken his wife a safe distance away and then called 911.  

2. Don't escalate.
He retrieved his pistol from his vehicle - this was opportunity to escape.  Based on the facts we know, it appears Mr. Bradden's wife was safely inside the store.  At this point, the crime may have been over.   If this situation had turned out differently and instead of having his gun slapped away, Mr. Antell instead had to shoot and kill Mr. Bradden, he may have been charged with a crime by basically picking a fight.

3.  Keep your distance.
The article says Mr. Bradden knocked the handgun away from Mr. Antell.  Once he decided to get involved, Mr. Antell should have kept his distance from the bad guy and used his truck for cover.  As a trained shooter, distance is your friend.  
This incident is a good

Something we teach in all of our courses is practice the way you want to perform under duress.  If you get into a situation where you need to use your handgun, your adrenaline will be pumping and you won't be thinking.  What will you be doing?  Your body will automatically be performing what you've trained it to do - a common term for this is "muscle memory."  

For example, when you train, how many shots do you fire in a single string?  If you step to the line and shoot until the slide locks open on an empty magazine - that is likely what you will do in a self-defense situation.  

For example, see the Dashcam video of Chicago police shooting Laquan McDonald in late 2014.  Mr. McDonald was shot 16 times by one police officer.  
I am not discussing whether or not the shooting was justified.  Mr. McDonald had a knife and was clearly disregarding the commands from the police.  Since we weren't there it is hard to judge what made the officer decide to shoot.

If you watch carefully you can see small puffs of smoke coming from Mr. McDonald's body after he falls to the ground.  I would guess he was shot at least 8 times after he was on the ground.  No one would argue that Mr. McDonald was still a threat to the officers on the ground.  Shooting him on the ground was likely not intentional by the police officer.  I believe that he probably trained by doing a magazine dump when shooting his pistol.  Thus, when he needed his gun against a real target he shot until the gun locked open and hit his target 16 times.  We train to shoot twice at the target and then evaluate if the bad guy is still  

You've heard the saying "practice makes perfect."  For handgun training, think "perfect practice makes perfect."

 Have you ever thought about what you would do if you were in a public setting when a mass shooting starts?  If you haven't, you need to start thinking about it right now!

The first and most important thing for you to do is to be mentally prepared that something unthinkable could happen to you.  If you can't imagine this happening to you, it will be hard to take any action when it does.  

Your plan should be the following (notice none of these involve doing nothing):
1. Get out - your first response should be to get safely away from the situation.  Even if you are carrying a concealed handgun or other weapon - that weapon is for the protection of yourself and your loved ones. 
2. Hide out - if you are unable to escape, look for ways to hide or develop barricades against the attacker.  
​3. Take out - if you have no other options, you should act as violently as possible to stop the shooter.  If you have a handgun, this is the time to use it.  If not, improvise a weapon or just counter-attack with your fists.  

Check out the excellent active shooter video from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Concealed carry on campus?!? That is a school I want my kids to attend!