Happy New Year, and belated welcome to 2026. Hopefully the progress started in 2025 will continue.
Why the Department of War is Afraid of Guns
The recent attack on members of the National Guard in Washington D.C. struck a bit of a personal chord. Video (note that this video is behind a paywall) obtained by the Wall Street Journal showed soldiers scrambling under fire with what appeared to be unloaded weapons—clearly struggling to rectify the issue. This event touched a nerve because it is reminiscent of so many of the experiences that led to the writing and publication of the book Building Shooters and, ultimately, to the development of the NURO® Shooting System.
To be clear, we have no inside knowledge. We don’t know for sure what the standing orders for the National Guard members were. As a result, we are making some educated assumptions based on experience as to what most likely led to the events shown in the video.
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Our new Secretary of War is aggressively emphasizing “The Warrior Ethos,” and inspiring all our troops to embrace his way of thinking: “Everyone who serves must be individually ready to defend himself and our nation, instantly and enthusiastically, with lethal force when necessary.” The (Nov 25) fatal armed attack on two of our uniformed National Guardsmen in Washington DC by a lone Islamic terrorist unhappily reveals that little has changed at the base level.
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American Tactical Cavalry 3B is making an affordable triple-barrel shotgun that would be a extreme home-defense shotgun.
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The "Twilight Zone" of Wound Ballistics
The (now defunct) International Wound Ballistics Review had a wealth of information from actual experts. (Note: This article references the television show The Twilight Zone, which featured actor Rod Sterling) There is one common misconception which has done much to confuse and mislead people about wound ballistics: the belief that there is some mysterious mechanism by which a bullet can cause sudden incapacitation without disruption of the central nervous system or rapid blood loss. Rod Serling might have introduced it this way: "There is another method of incapacitation beyond that which is known to man. It is in the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition and it lies between the pit of man's ignorance and the summit of his imagination. It is a mechanism we call:
(Chose any or all:)
- Stopping power
- Hydrostatic shock
- Relative Incapacitation Index
- Remote effects
- Kinetic energy transfer
- Temporary cavitation
- "Chi" vibrations
- Reticular activating system shutdown
- Shocking power
While the above exotic, mysterious, and always ambiguous definitions have a powerful attraction to many people, the reality of incapacitation is much more banal. The only reliable mechanisms by which bullets can cause rapid incapacitation are:
1. The bullet either struck and damaged the central nervous system, the heart, a major vessel, organ or bone rendering the suspect physically incapable of continuing or;
2. The person being shot consciously and voluntarily decided to cease his assault or escape.
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War on Heroes: The Hidden Battle That’s Unmaking Our Sons
The heroes our sons admire forge their souls, and our future. They Still Matter. Walk into a cinema today and you will be surrounded by heroes, or at least, by figures dressed in the costume of heroism. Capes flutter, swords clash, superpowers are flung about in a riot of special effects. Never before has the screen been so crowded with champions, and yet never before has the idea of heroism felt so hollow. These luminous figures entertain, but they do not instruct. They dazzle, but they do not inspire. For all their spectacle, they do not serve the ancient function of the hero: to teach men and women how to live.
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Emergency Eating: Survival Food for When the Stores are Empty!
Being prepared for the unexpected is not paranoia, but smart, sound thinking. Whether a manmade emergency strikes or Mother Nature displays her power, the norm of everyday living can get disrupted quickly. With such crises, the food supply chain can be broken with many people left scavenging for whatever they can find. Don’t be these people. Instead, prepare well ahead of any problems. The survival food listed below is a great starting point. They offer needed calories, durable packaging, and an incredibly long shelf-life that will go the distance until things get back to the status quo, whenever that may be.
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Beware Old Men--They are Dangerous
While I am certainly not at an age that can be qualified as old myself, as the pages of the calendar are torn away, I am beginning to understand what he meant. Age breeds experience, specifically the experience of handling difficult circumstances, and while the body may be weaker, you are left with a more resilient spirit that cannot be as easily crushed.
Such was the case with my gray-haired coach (who, might I add, pinned even our best wrestlers every time they faced him), and such was the case of Captain Samuel Whittemore.
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Man attacks Wash. SRO who stopped to help at crash, tries to grab her gun
After a TASER was ineffective, the man began fighting with the Thurston County SRO and others who arrived to assist, including a tribal officer and an off-duty corrections officer.
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A female relative approached me with some concerns she had. “Kathy,” she asked me, with somewhat elaborate casualness, “your husband tells me you’ve been taking a lot of shooting classes…?”
“Yep,” I told her, “I’ve got another class coming up in March, an advanced class which I’m taking over again because I didn’t do as well on the test at the end as I’d hoped. It’s pretty challenging stuff.”
She shot me a weird, sidelong glance, and then said, “Well, as long as you enjoy it. You know, guns really scare me. I like shooting at paper a little bit, but … I’d never be able to shoot it, like at another person I mean. And guns really do scare me.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”
“My husband kept telling me I should carry one, back when I was doing all that driving every weekend by myself. But I thought, you know, I’m not going to use it, I really wouldn’t.”
I told her, “I understand what you’re saying. I think you’re safer without a gun than with one, if you aren’t sure you could use it.”
She nodded. “Anyway, um, er (stammer stammer stutter), I wanted to ask you. Do you think you could use a gun, like that? Really?”
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Carry a Firearm - FBI Disrupts Alleged New Year’s Eve Attack
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