As he led a rifle squad at Woippy, France a crossfire from enemy machine guns pinned down his unit. Ordering his men to remain under cover, he went forward alone, entered a building housing one of the guns, and forced five Germans to surrender at bayonet point. He then took the second gun single-handedly by hurling grenades into the enemy position, killing two, wounding three more, and taking two additional prisoners. At the outskirts of Metz the next day, when his platoon, confused by heavy explosions and the withdrawal of friendly tanks, retired, he fearlessly remained behind armed with an automatic rifle and exchanged bursts with a German machine gun until he silenced the enemy weapon. His quick action in covering his comrades gave the platoon time to regroup and carry on the fight.
At the outskirts of Metz, France the next day, when his platoon, confused by heavy explosions and the withdrawal of friendly tanks, retired, he fearlessly remained behind armed with an automatic rifle and exchanged bursts with a German machine gun until he silenced the enemy weapon. His quick action in covering his comrades gave the platoon time to regroup and carry on the fight. Two days later, S/Sgt. Miller led an attack on large enemy barracks. Covered by his squad, he crawled to a barracks window, climbed in, and captured six riflemen occupying the room. His men, and then the entire company, followed through the window, scoured the building, and took 75 prisoners.
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No Second Place Winner
Col. Jeff Cooper once wrote that “owning a gun doesn’t make you armed any more than owning a guitar makes you a musician."
From Wyatt Earp to Rex Applegate to Charles Askins to Bill Jordan to Jim Cirillo to Jeff Cooper to Tom Givens — the message is consistent: under stress you will do what you’ve trained and practiced to do. There’s more than 100 years of history, writing and study on the topic of fighting with handguns. Those that study it seriously all come to the same conclusions. That might be important.
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The Colt Walker Percussion Revolver
Texas Ranger Capt. Samuel Walker, serving as a member of the U.S. Mounted Rifles, went east in 1847 to recruit soldiers and on a visit to New York City met with Samuel Colt about improving his revolver. Walker praised Colt’s guns noted they were too delicate, took too long to reload and needed more stopping power. Colt returned to the drawing board, simplified the gun’s action, added a sixth chamber in the cylinder and chambered it in .44 caliber. The Army ordered 1,000 revolvers.
The Colt Walker could be loaded with a .44 caliber ball or conical bullet and up to a 60 grain powder charge. For comparison, most muzzleloading pistols would be loaded with around half that amount of powder for a ball of that size. A 60-grain powder charge was more typical of a .54 caliber rifle. They were the most powerful revolvers manufactured up until the introduction of the .357 Magnum cartridge and Smith & Wesson Registered Magnum Revolvers in 1935.
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This Old Gun: Smith & Wesson Registered Magnum
It started with the cartridge. With the country in the throes of the Great Depression, and organized crime running rampant, law enforcement—primarily armed with .38 Special revolvers—found itself under-gunned. But Sharpe felt that the caliber had potential. Assisted by Elmer Keith, S&W Vice President Douglas Wesson and Winchester, the .357 Mag. emerged, using a slightly elongated .38 Special. case to prevent it from chambering in standard .38 Special guns. Indeed, the resulting Registered Magnum was anything but standard.
Each revolver was built to order, with customers specifying a blue or nickel finish, any barrel length from 3½" to 8¾", and numerous front and rear sight options. Guns were sighted at 25 yds., with buyers specifying either a 6-o’clock or “dead-center” hold.
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Situational Awareness Pt 1
This point was driven home by an on-line conversation with someone who has been following me for years, who happily informed me that they “scanned for danger all the time”. That’s … not what situational awareness is. “Scanning for danger” means you’re looking for things that are already a threat — and only looking for active threats puts you way behind the power curve.
Situational awareness, for lack of a better term, is observing and determining what is “normal” for the area and time and looking for things that aren’t normal. The professional term is “baseline."
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Speed of Assaults and Decision-Making
In the 1950s, William Edmund Hick and Ray Hyman published a series of laboratory experiments that became known as the Hick–Hyman Law. Their findings showed that as people were asked to consider more choices, their reaction times slowed in a predictable way. Participants responded to simple signals, such as lights or tones, by pressing matching buttons. When each option was equally likely and clearly defined, reaction time slowed as alternatives were added.
Hick’s Law requires that decision-makers have time to consciously weigh multiple options before acting. But research on assaults shows that officers (and private citizens) often face conditions where considering multiple alternatives is unrealistic.
A fast suspect can point and fire a weapon or attack with a knife in around 1/10th of a second. By comparison, the fastest visual reaction times are just over 2/10th of a second (and that only begins the physical response). These timelines mean that the kind of slow, analytical thinking reflected in Hick’s Law would be too slow in force encounters.
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What Is Cybersecurity and Why Is It
A friend of mine just had his bank account hacked. He now thinks cybersecurity is important. Cybersecurity refers to the practice of using technologies, processes, and controls to protect networks, devices, programs, and data from cyberattacks, damage, or unauthorized access.
Today, common cyberthreats facing everyone include various types of phishing, malware attacks, and online scams. Threat researchers at Gen Digital warn that the emergence of generative AI is making these attacks easier to launch and more convincing than ever before.
While some people may associate cybersecurity with corporations or governments, following cybersecurity best practices is essential for individuals, too. Protecting yourself means combining smart habits with robust Cyber Safety software that goes beyond basic antivirus.
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Arguments Against the Shotgun
A Gabe Suarez video concerning view’s arguing against using shotguns as a defensive weapon. Most are based on simply not knowing the system sufficiently, or on not liking it. The only one that made sense was that there are some slight stature people that would have a difficult time using it. That is true...it is not an egalitarian weapon, which is likely why it is rarely seen in police work today.
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Real-World Trauma Skills with “Stop the Bleed” Training
The guidance now and for several years now has been to apply a tourniquet two to three inches above the wound, not on the wound, and not over a joint. The old adage was always high and tight, as high up on the limb as you can get it as high up on the arm, as high up on the leg as you can get it.
That is still being taught. If the situation is exigent or it's still emergent, and you really can't do a thorough assessment. You can't figure out where the bleeding is coming from. Go ahead and apply the tourniquet as high up on the arm, as high up on the leg as you can get it.
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Enable Advanced Protection on Android 16
With Google's release of Android 16 last in 2025, the company rolled out several hardened security settings you shouldn't ignore. Arguably, the most important change has been Advanced Protection.
Instead of hunting through many menus to secure your phone, you now have a quick way to lock down your Android device and better protect yourself against theft, unsafe apps, insecure networks, scams, and spam. Advanced Protection is a new one-tap mode that enables Google's strongest security and privacy features. It's like Apple's Lockdown Mode.
The thing is, it isn't turned on by default because it enforces stricter safeguards that create friction. While there may be some trade-offs, Advanced Protection is for those who care about security and want to be protected.
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Firearms Training Process and Method
When levels of stress increase—such as typically happens during real-world firearms use—the brain’s access to conscious memory becomes very limited. In fact, high levels of stress act as something of a “switch” to unconscious (procedural) memory.
While we may be able to consciously think about and control how we perform in relatively low stress range settings—where we almost always know what we are going to do before we do it—during a critical incident we are probably going to do whatever is in our unconscious memory system. Based on a variety of factors (most of which are related to how a person has trained and practiced) this may or may not be the same thing.
For example, if both memory systems contain the same information for “grip the pistol,” then the shooter will perform an equivalent grip both under stress and during range exercises. If not, the shooter may grip the pistol much differently in the real-world or during force-on-force training than during range training and qualification.
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In The King’s Name: The “Citizen’s Arrest”
The power and process of arrest should never be taken lightly. By the person making the arrest, the person being arrested, or by the rest of us, in whose name someone’s liberty is abruptly taken away. The U.S. Supreme Court and many other courts have noted that an arrest is serious, traumatic, and never forgotten; even when no charges are brought, or an arrested person is acquitted. The handcuffs of a cop killed in the line-of-duty may be carried (with lights/siren activated) to the scene where the killer has been apprehended. They are ceremoniously ratcheted down on the murderer to confirm the arrest — in the name of the fallen officer. Even though the cop killer is being transported to the morgue.
I have argued in court (unsuccessfully) that a looming arrest serves no purpose and should be judicially preempted. I have surrendered clients for arrest and been granted unusual courtesy, being allowed to; confirm the cuffs are “loose,” remain during the “booking” process, and accompany the client into a holding cell. I have pleaded with prosecutors and LEOs (successfully) to “undo” the arrest of a client (sworn and nonsworn). I have accompanied cops as a civilian observer, and then, and otherwise, observed many dozens of arrests. I have assisted cops in several arrests, while armed myself. An arrest is of symbolic importance; it suggests that the law is irrefrangible.
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