A coming race war?

I think I’ll preface this by saying that I have zero respect for anyone that judges another person by their race or religion. (That’s putting it lightly.) The fact is, I’m Mormon and twice in my life I’ve had people tell me that they wanted to train with me but found out I was Mormon and couldn’t trust a Mormon to train them in the use of firearms.

In another instance, I was doing training when I walked up to a group of instructors from another school that I did not know. They began talking about how they could never train with a black man and they used a very ugly word.

In both cases, I wish I could say I did the Christian thing and tried to help these ignorant folks or something along those lines. But the truth is, I simply walked away because I knew if I opened my mouth I would tell them what I thought of them and a fight would likely ensue. And since guns were present, it was much better for me to not say a word, control my temper, and get away from them.

I bring all this up…

Because recently I was working for a client and I had to do some in-depth research on the KKK and the Black Panthers. I’m sure you’re familiar with them but if you spend 5 minutes searching online you’ll be amazed at how sick each of these groups really is.

And I say 5 minutes because after that short amount of time you’ll feel sick to your stomach from what you’re reading and won’t want to see anymore. In a way, I feel sorry for these people because they must have had horrible childhoods to now be spewing such hate.

But I was researching them because of the upcoming election and because each group has stated that there is going to be some outbreak of violence if their candidate doesn’t win. If Romney wins, the Black Panthers claim they’re going to go around killing white people. And if Obama wins, the KKK and skinheads claim they’re going to do the same to Black people.

I realize these groups having been saying this type of thing for years…

But lately the talk is becoming uglier and happening more often. If you don’t believe me, just read an article about Obama and then scroll down to where people can share their comments. It won’t take you long to see the hate in this world.

So what can you do about this? Well, I know that 99% of people reading this aren’t racists, but that doesn’t mean you still won’t get attacked by one of these hate groups. A stray bullet doesn’t care if you’re black or white or Asian. In other words, on the night of the election I wouldn’t be hanging out in any major cities… especially Chicago. That place is going to have an all out war any day now.

I’d also be extra vigilant in the days leading up to the election. If you want to see how quickly a city can collapse you should watch some of the videos of the Rodney King riots. In a matter of minutes society broke down and innocent victims were being pulled from their cars and beaten.

I know this week I didn’t share my usual firearms tips, but sometimes I just want to make you think. And a lot of people think the economy is the biggest danger this nation faces, but it’s looking more and more like a race war, which is just another reason why you need to carry a firearm to protect yourself and you need to have good situational awareness and not do anything foolish like hang out at a skinhead biker bar on the night of the election (or ever).

Do you shoot human-like targets?

Right now I’m still on the West Coast and I’ve been traveling around Utah and Nevada looking at new shooting ranges to use for future training classes.

And the other day while I was inspecting one of the ranges the gentleman who was showing me around said, “You don’t use targets that show real people do you?” I explained to him that I use several different targets throughout my courses and some of them are indeed human-like.

He then got a frown on his face and said, “we do mainly hunter education here and we don’t like to encourage people to shoot other people so we don’t want human-like targets on the range.”

A comedy routine?

When he said that, I almost laughed out loud thinking he was deadpanning some comedy routine, but when I realized he was serious I simply said “okay” and left. The sad fact is, I guess this illustrates, much to my surprise, that all gun people aren’t perfect.

I do realize there are a lot of ranges and even states that don’t allow human-like targets. (I don’t know if this true, but I was once told that the state of Massachusetts did not allow human targets.)

Now for people who have common sense, and I like to think I’m one of them, obviously, shooting a human-like target is not going to encourage me to want to go out and kill people. Normal people (like you and me) have no desire to kill another person and will try to avoid it at all costs.

The only people who want to kill others are already “messed up” in the head and I’m pretty sure they’re going to kill people whether they’ve been training on human-like targets or bottle-shaped targets.

The thing is…

Us “normal people” who carry guns for personal protection need to make our training as reality-based as possible. When someone breaks into your home at 3am and tries to kill your family it’s going to be a person, not a bottle-shaped cardboard silhouette.

And if you’re sitting on the range and you get queasy about shooting at a human-like target then carrying a gun is not for you. It’s better you find out now before the gun is taken from you when you hesitate to use it, and instead it’s used on you.

The bottom line is, at my pistol courses we shoot at human-like targets because that’s what the threat is most likely going to be one day (it could be an animal too) and you need to train as close to real life as possible.

So if your range allows it I encourage you to take a few human-like targets with you next time or if you dry fire in your house you can start dry firing on a human-like target. And if your friends or family members tell you it’s “inhumane” or wrong to use a human-like target, just remember that these will be the same people begging you to grab your gun and protect them when someone’s trying to break into your house or cause them harm.  

Locking up my guns from my daughter

On Friday, my wife and I welcomed the newest member of the Concealed Carry Academy family. Although, unlike my other employees, this one won’t prove useful for a number of years and will probably end up costing me a small fortune... Her name is Scarlet and she weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces.

Now that I’ve had my first child I can fully understand how someone could go all Charles Bronson Death Wish for messing with your child. I also understand why people’s gun purchases diminish after a child. (Let’s just say I almost had a heart attack when I found out the price of the baby pictures they take right before you leave the hospital. And yes, we got them. I may be cheap, but I’m wise enough to pick and choose my battles.)

And now that I’ve got my first child at home I thought it would be appropriate today to cover the topic of how I lock up all of my guns. I have a lot of guns in my house and I utilize a variety of safes and “gadgets” to keep them secure.

The two most common safes in my house are the Gun Vault and the Stack-On PDS 500.

Both of these safes are fast opening, allowing the gun to be accessed in 3 seconds or less. Personally, I have guns stored on every level of my house and thus, one of these safes is on each level so that I can quickly access a gun if need be.

Also, both of these safes require me to punch in buttons to open them and they don’t use any biometric/fingerprint scanning. The biometric technology in most safes is not good enough yet and you don’t want to be killed by an intruder because you swiped your finger 15 times and the safe still wouldn’t open.

For my long guns – shotguns and rifles – I do a few different things.

For some of my guns I have them locked in a hard side case. For guns that I want slightly quicker access to I use the Breechvault (made for shotguns by the Gun Vault Company) and the Magvault (for my AR-15, also made by Gun Vault.)

Of course, there a dozens of different firms that produce vaults and safes, but the important thing to remember is that all guns should be locked and secure somehow. In other words, I meet a lot of people who tell me they have guns hidden in their house in secret locations (like the clock the NRA sells that really holds a gun.)

These are obviously not a good idea, especially if you have kids around because they only hide guns, they don’t safely secure them. One other thing I want to quickly cover is what I discussed last week. When I’m in my house I’ll often carry my Ruger LCP or a S&W snubby in my pocket.

When carrying these guns I’m always mindful of where the gun is pointing to make sure I’m not muzzling anyone. And if I ever take off my pants to shower or change, then the gun obviously goes right into a safe and not on the ground still in the pocket of the pants.

And don’t forget, even if you don’t have young kids you probably still have friends, family members, plumbers, electricians, the cleaning lady, and other people walking through your house. So lock up those guns so nobody can access them, except you and your spouse.

How to carry in a restaurant

I rarely go out to eat unless I’m traveling. And the last few days I’ve been in Utah, Nevada and California. I was in Utah for my family reunion, which is always a good time since this is the side of my family that actually gets along and doesn’t try to avoid each other.

I was in Vegas for a few meetings, and now I’m back in California visiting the wonderful in-laws. And because of all of this traveling I’ve been eating out quite a bit and of course, carrying my gun in the restaurants (except in California.)

Today, I want to share with you some simple and important information about carrying your gun when you’re out to eat that will hopefully keep you and your family safer. First off, the gun I’ve been carrying is a Smith & Wesson snub-nosed revolver. I’ve been carrying it in my front right pocket, which is where I carry all of my pocket guns.

When carrying in your pocket…

The critical thing to remember is not to muzzle the person who is sitting across from you. In other words, before you sit down at a table in the restaurant you need to plan where you’re going to sit so you aren’t pointing a loaded gun at your family member.

Luckily, this is easy to do because when I sit in a booth I always sit on the left hand side, furthest out. In this position my right leg is pointing out into the walking area of the restaurant and nobody who is with me is getting muzzled. (This is because men typically have their legs spread when sitting, which is why my right leg is pointing in the walking area. For women, you may have to adjust your legs and pretend you’re a guy for the duration of the meal.)

The other important thing to remember…

Always try and face the restaurant entrance if you can. I’ve had people in the past tell me that this is “stupid” to do or is what “Rambo” types try to do and I think they’re crazy to think this way. Almost all police officer’s do this and it’s takes about 5 seconds to change seats with someone, so if you’re carrying a gun I highly encourage you to do this.

After all, if you see someone come through the entrance showing warning signs of an attack, that extra second you have to react may be the difference between life and death. Again, the two items I’ve just shared are so simple that there is no reason not to do them the next time you go out to eat because you should always follow the 4 safety rules and because we know that attacks happen everywhere.