Wendesday Wisdom: 12 November 2025

A weekly compilation of valuable information and insights for the citizen defender. These posts will contain links to my writing as well as posts that I believe are worth the time and trouble to read. They will cover the entire gamut of personal security, electronic security, self defense, firearms, equipment, and more 

Gary Reeder Does Elmer Keith

Elmer Keith’s influence on handgun design was substantial, his influence on handgun cartridge design truly revolutionary. The big-bore hunting handgun as we know it today -– whether a direct descendant of a Keith concept or a totally different gun made possible only after Keith knocked down the doors -– would not exist were it not for that one man’s pioneering efforts. There would be little or no big-game hunting with handguns, because no timid corporate CEO or board of directors would ever have had the courage to manufacture appropriate guns and ammo to prove the viability of the sport. Not without Elmer’s front sight pressed between their ribs. One strong man supplied the guts and the vision, and the world followed, which is the way things usually work in real life.

How Do I Hide This Thing?

After much soul-searching and careful consideration, you’ve made the decision that your life is worth defending whatever the cost. Toward that end, you’ve purchased a firearm and have decided to carry it with you wherever you go.

Musashi 

The Go Rin no Sho is an important and useful work for the martial artist or anyone engaged in conflict, but value it for what it is and recognize what it is not. It is not a moral or ethical guide. 'Kensei' gets translated as "sword saint" but Musashi was no saint-- he was a murdering bastard who, late in life when he felt death closing in, attempted to recreate himself, elevating his murders to duels and his insights to enlightenment.

Global Incident Maps

Maps with lots of information concerning Kidnapping for Ransom, Major Drug Interdictions, School Security Incidents, Self-Defense Use of Firearms, and many more with most being free.

USS Constitution -- A Look Inside "Old Ironsides"

"Sail ho!" I hear from above. The sea spray blurs my vision, but our masthead lookout is right. Two ships are on the horizon. One breaks off and races toward our position off the coast of Brazil. I see the British flag, and my stomach lurches in fear. It's too late to run, as we did in July 1812, escaping a British squadron of five ships off the coast of New Jersey. I nervously tug at the white-spotted and red cotton bandanna handkerchief around my neck. It is Dec. 29, 1812, and I am a sailor on the USS Constitution.

Gunshot Residue and Personal Carry Ammunition

In September 1997, after 8-1/2 years and four trials, Daniel Bias Jr. began a six-year prison sentence for murdering his wife. One of the key issues associated with the case was the presence or lack of gunshot residue on Lise Bias after the shooting. The defense attorney in Bias’s trial argued that Lise Bias died accidentally as she was pointing a pistol at her head: however, the prosecution argued that the lack of gunshot residue on Lise Bias's nightgown and head wound shows she could not have shot herself.

Why To Think. Not, "What to think."  

Thanks — I suspect — to social media, kids seem to believe that the way to win a debate is not through facts, but through emotion: that the winner of a debate or discussion is the one who is the most passionate about the subject at hand — the side that can scream the loudest, tug the most heartstrings, misbehave the most egregiously in the service of said subject.

Home Defense Shooting Drills

Part of my curriculum development work for the live fire drills was to go to the range and shoot the drills I planned to use in the KR Training Home Defense Course. I modified our old Home Defense Tactics course into the new Home Defense Tactics and Shooting Skills course. Instead of teaching home defense with inert plastic guns (often called “red guns” or “blue guns”) in a student’s home, I teach the same skills in the A-Zone classroom building with the inert guns and add an extra hour of live fire drills. 

Security Measures Categorized

Though many view an alarm as a serious security upgrade it is important to realize that it does not actually make your home more difficult to get into. An alarm is merely a detective security measure; that is, it makes your home more difficult to get into undetected. There are three categories of security measures: deterring, delaying, and detective. Alternatively these categories can be thought of as “before” (deterring), “during” (delaying), and “after” (detective) security measures, based on what stage of an attack with are intended to address.

Shooting Incident

To his credit, the captain finally realized that he wasn’t hitting anything he wanted to hit, got his head out of his ass, leveled his pistol on the suspect’s upper chest, focused on his front sight, and carefully (this time) fired four additional shots. This time, all four shots hit the suspect in the center of the chest. The dumbfounded suspect dropped his gun, wobbled for a few seconds, and then dropped to the ground. He was dead at the scene. The captain was unhurt.

Jeff Cooper's Commentaries – October 1993

 Anyone who knows anything about marksmanship knows that it is something one does not boast about. You may remember that Billy Dickson always attributed his long shot on the Indian to pure luck, and this was always called mere modesty on his part. Other examples will occur to you. However, if you would like a conspicuous case study of how it was done, consider the famous "Tinian shot" delivered during the occupation of Saipan and Tinian during the Pacific War.

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Gunfight Analysis: The Richard Mendoza Incident Update

Update:  Officer Miguel Alarcon contacted me several years after the incident discussed below.  He expressed amazement at how accurate the "play by play" description of the incident was with only the video to analyze. My analysis of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) videos: Click here to view the video

Los Angeles: With only 9 months left on probation, Richard Mendoza was not going back to prison. When the the female officer told him to get out of the car, he knew the police would discover his pistol. Mendoza also knew that surprise was on his side so he decided to take the chance.

The LAPD released video of an officer-involved shooting that left the suspect Richard Mendoza dead and one officer wounded in the leg. The shooting happened during a traffic stop in North Hills, California, on the night of July 27, 2018. The video shows a female officer speaking to Mendoza who appears to be cooperating and following her instructions when she tells him to step out of the car. 

Video then shows Mendoza pulling out a pistol and shooting her in the leg. He then turns to shoot at her partner, Officer Miguel Alarcon, over the car.  However, Officer Alarcon quickly fires striking Mendoza in the head and torso. Mendoza later died at a hospital. Police records show that Mendoza was a gang member and had previous convictions on drug and weapons charges. Mendoza indicated during the verbal exchange with the female officer that he had nine months left on probation at the time of the shooting. Mendoza likely attacked the officers hoping to escape rather than be arrested and returned to prison for charges of a felon in possession of a firearm.

In the video you can see Mendoza glancing at Officer Alarcon out of the corner of his eye just before he exits the car and shoots the female officer. Mendoza was likely trying to confirm the male officer’s position in preparation for engaging that officer. You can see Mendoza’s pistol on Officer Alarcon’s body cam video as Mendoza exits the vehicle. The female officer’s body cam shows Alarcon glancing away at just that moment—understandable if unfortunate. Officer Alarcon was simply maintaining situational awareness of their surroundings.

From the time the female officer could have seen Mendoza’s pistol until he shot her was approximately 0.86 seconds—far too short a time for her to react. Officer Alarcon clearly reacted an instant before Mendoza fired at the female officer and before Mendoza turned to fire at him. It is not clear from the various videos whether Officer Alarcon was reacting to Mendoza’s aggressive move toward the female officer or whether he glanced into the car just in time to see Mendoza’s pistol as Mendoza was exiting his car.*
 

I believe it was the latter. Officer Alarcon fired his first shot in 0.72 seconds after Mendoza’s shot which leads me to believe that he saw and reacted to Mendoza’s pistol. The car dashcam video shows Alarcon dip his shoulder in a manner indicative of drawing his pistol an instant before Mendoza shoots the female officer. The dashcam and Officer Alarcon’s body cam both show that he had started lateral movement to his left at the instant of Mendoza’s shot.

After he shoots the female officer, Mendoza turns and aims his pistol where he likely believed Alarcon was still standing; however, Alarcon had moved.  Video analysis does not show Mendoza firing a second shot and I believe not seeing Alarcon where he expected to see him caused momentary hesitation.  In any event, it is likely that Officer Alarcon’s first shot strikes Mendoza before he can fire. The video shows Mendoza beginning to fall 0.5 seconds after Alarcon’s first shot and Mendoza continues falling until he hits the pavement. Alarcon’s second shot ricochets off the top of the car and may not have hit Mendoza.

Officer Alarcon is positioned over the car trunk at this point, likely out of Mendoza’s immediate line of fire. Alarcon’s 3rd and 4th shots go through the car’s rear window. His 3rd shot may have struck Mendoza, his 4th shot probably did not because Mendoza had fallen out of his line of sight by this time. Officer Alarcon fires four shots in 0.90 seconds or a rate of fire of 0.30 seconds between shots. Studies show that Alarcon’s rate of fire would fall within the range of a typical police officer of 0.25 – 0.30 seconds between shots.**

What can we learn from this incident? The person who takes the initiative gets to start the fight—all they require is decisiveness, marksmanship, and the will to win. Mendoza had the initiative in this fight and his surprise attack immediately dropped the female officer.

Officer Alarcon in this incident faced a reactive event where the bad guy was already preparing to shoot him. Studies and countless officer involved shooting videos have shown that the initial reaction of many officers (and private citizens for that matter) who are facing a deadly threat is to stand flat-footed, draw, and try to return fire—this is how most departments train their officers—stand and deliver. That is also what square range practice and many “shooting courses” typically teach.

However, Officer Alarcon did not employ the typical stand and deliver tactic, but rather he dynamically moved off the “X”, drew his pistol, and fired before Mendoza could fire at him thereby ending the gunfight.

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* The Los Angeles Police have not released any accounts of the incident from the officer’s perspective; so some of my analysis is educated guess. 

** Police Officer Reaction Time to Start and Stop Shooting: The Influence of Decision-Making and Pattern Recognition, William J. Lewinski, PhD; et al.; Law Enforcement Executive Forum, Vol. 14, No. 2 • June 2014

Wednesday Wisdom – 5 November 2025

A weekly compilation of valuable information and insights for the citizen defender. These posts will contain links to my writing as well as posts that I believe are worth the time and trouble to read. They will cover the entire gamut of personal security, electronic security, self defense, firearms, equipment, and more.

Black Gun Owners in Chicago Charged with Felonies Despite Valid Firearms Owner Identification (FOID), Concealed Carry Licenses

You can jump through all the hoops in an anti-gun gun state or city and still be charged with felony firearms possession. 

Seeing Inside a Suppressed Gun Barrel! Outlier’s BackDraft Technology

Suppressors and barrels get hot. New carbon fiber heat reduction technology may help mitigate the heat buildup. The BackDraft Barrel and a suppressor working in tandem reduce suppressor heat by up to 40% and accelerate cooling times by up to 40%. An interesting video exploring how this technology works.

The FBI Ammunition Testing Protocol

More than you might ever want to know about the FBI ammunition testing protocol.

"The Moral is to the Physical..."

 

So the test is about that- what do you think makes a good team? A good team member? What purpose does the team serve? For the agency? For the community?

10 Myths About Knives & Knife Defense

A look at myths associated with defending against the knife.

Get Training and Carry Your Guns 

Worship services — particularly of the Christian variety — have become the soft target of choice for the critters during the current cycle of violence. A “Soft target of choice” because a good many Christian churches have chosen to forget some of Christ’s more … sticky … lessons, and have either forbidden the carry of the least of our weapons in their houses of worship, or have declared that only chosen “Security Teams” may carry.

I personally provided Texas License to Carry and firearms training to over forty members of a church just down the road from the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas that was the site of a horrendous massacre at the hands of a deranged lunatic. Had he chosen a different church, the result may have been very different.

Bag of Chips Mistaken for Gun by Maryland High School AI Security System

Kenwood High School's AI security system mistakenly flagged a student's Doritos bag as a firearm. Miscommunication among administrators following the alert led to a student being handcuffed.

The "TAP" In Tap Rack, and Why It’s Important

I do not agree with many of the thing Gabe Suarez says; however, he makes several good points concerning eliminating the “tap,” in the tap/rack malfunction clearing sequence.

Why You Should Take a Firearm Training Course

There are three types of people who should consider a firearm training course: anyone who owns a gun; anyone with access to a gun; either of the first two who have already received firearm training, but it has been a long time since their last training class and/or it has been a long time since they handled a gun. Firearm training and practice is like bathing. The more you do it, the better it is for everyone.

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Gunfight Analysis: The Elijah Wilks Incident

Milwaukee Police released a video on October 9, 2025 of an off-duty officer involved shooting with Milwaukee resident Elijah Wilks. The officer’s personally owned dash camera captured a video of much of the incident.

In the video, Wilks (in the right lane) attempted to speed pass the officer  (who was in the left lane) on the officer’s right as both approached an area where the right lane was closed. In doing so, Wilks’s vehicle clipped the officer’s front right fender. Both individuals pulled over and stopped a moment later. Wilks exited his vehicle with his right hand in his hoodie pocket and verbally berated the officer as he was exiting his vehicle. It is unlikely that Wilks knew he was confronting a police officer. The officer walked in front of his vehicle and stepped up on the curb as Wilks followed.

Wilks suddenly drew a pistol from his hoodie pocket and struck the police officer in the face with the pistol (see lead picture above). Wilks then stepped away from the curb into the street between the vehicles as the officer begins to draw his pistol. From time Wilks withdraws his pistol from his hoodie until he strikes the officer is 0.400 secs; the officer’s draw takes 2.750 seconds from the time he is struck until the exchange of gunfire begins.

Wilks retreats to cover behind his car and fires the first shot at the off-duty officer who returns fire with his first shot 0.070 seconds later. Wilks fires his second shot in 0.220 seconds followed by the officer’s second shot 0.110 seconds later. Wilks trips and falls behind his car and the officer fires four additional shots while Wilks is out of the officer’s line of sight – one of which strikes Wilks’s car. 

Wilks reappears at the front passenger fender seven seconds later appearing to use the car for cover. As Wilks rolls out from behind his car, the officer fires six additional shots at Wilks. The video’s resolution makes it difficult to determine precisely what Wilks has in his hand as he rolls out from behind his car; however, he does raise one hand toward the officer. Wilks then retreats behind the front of his vehicle as the officer begins giving commands for Wilks to stay on the ground, etc.

Whether Wilks was attempting to use his car for cover to continue firing or was trying to maneuver on the officer is unclear. However, anyone (police officer or private citizen) with training in defensive firearms use would reasonably conclude that Wilks was continuing the gunfight as he rolled out from behind his vehicle. The police officer’s six shots were fired at approximately 0.250 second intervals and he fired the sixth shot after Wilks retreated behind the front of his vehicle. The officer ceased firing after the sixth shot once Wilks was no longer a visible threat.

When Wilks withdrew his firearm, struck the officer in the face, and then stepped back out of reach, the officer could have reasonably believed that Wilks was about to fire on him. Defensive striking and then stepping out of reach is a tactic taught in many firearms training classes. Obviously, a subject can use this tactic offensively as well. Additionally, when Wilks struck the officer, at one point during the strike Wilks’s pistol was pointed directly at the officer’s face (Wilks’s finger was not on the trigger).

When the officer stepped up onto the curb, he looked down and away from Wilks who chose that moment to execute a surprise strike to the officer’s face. If the officer had continued looking at Wilks as he moved to the curb he would have been better prepared to react to Wilks’s attack. Wilks did not discernibly telegraph his intent to attack – he was laser focused on the officer until the moment he executed his movement.

Craig Douglas teaches a course titled Managing Unknown Contacts (or MUC) which outlines a strategy for – as you might imagine from the title, is about dealing with situation like the one discussed above. In an undercover capacity, he was robbed nine times and survived them all intact. Some of those experiences turned out Ok, and some not so much; however, it gave him a unique view into criminal tactics and how to deal with them successfully.

Many instructors teach a variation of his techniques. MUC represents a body of work and lessons learned during Craig’s 21-year law enforcement career and 23 years instructing under the brand Shivworks. You can find more information by clicking here.

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