Should gun owners study martial arts?

Years ago, I was spending time with well-known firearms instructor Massad Ayoob. Since he’s been in the shooting business more than 40 years, I asked him, “What’s one thing you wish you’d known or done when you first started out?”

To my surprise, he said he wished he’d started studying the martial arts and hand-to-hand self-defense a lot sooner than he did.

And, actually, I can say the same thing. When I was with the Agency we spent a heck of a lot more time doing firearms training than training with a knife or empty hand defense. And when I left the Agency I continued the firearms training but didn’t spend the amount of time I should of studying the martial arts.

After all, I try and carry my gun with me every time I leave my house, but there are places I go that I can’t bring it, such as the post office. And, in two weeks I’ll be teaching a course in Los Angeles where I won’t be able to carry my gun at all.

The fact is, as much as I love guns, when it comes to personal protection I believe in being as well-rounded as possible in case I find myself in a life or death situation and I don’t have my gun.

Plus, even if I do have my gun with me, martial arts training teaches you how to move properly (to help you get off the X quicker) and it also teaches you how to fight in close quarters situations so you can properly defend yourself against an attacker while you draw your gun.

This is why I currently study the Filipino martial arts, but there are plenty of other choices to study too, including Krav Maga. If you do a simple Internet search I’m sure you’ll find lots of places around your home where you could get training (you’ll be amazed what you’ll be able to do with an edged weapon or even empty handed after having some of this training.)  

Another important thing to consider is that you don’t have to be a ninja or in the best shape of your life to train in the martial arts. I’ve talked to a lot of people who seem intimidated by going out to this type of training, but you’ll find people from all walks of life in most places you visit. And of course, if you try a place and it’s a little too “Rambo-ish” or the people are jerks then just try somewhere else.

When bad things happen you want to have as many options as you can to protect yourself. So even though I’ve got my gun on me anytime I legally can, I still want to know as many methods as possible to protect myself and my family.

So if you’ve ever thought about training in a martial art, look up a place near you today, and make it a goal to attend a class next week.

11 Items in My Range Bag

The other day, I realized it’s been quite a while since I’ve written about the items in my shooting range bag (that are always changing). And because I’ve gotten a lot of questions about this recently from new shooters, I thought I’d share the list with you today.

Keep in mind, because I have my own shooting range my list may be slightly different than someone who goes to an indoor range. So, pick and choose from the items below that work for you and your situation.

1. Range Bag- The bag I use for the range is a bag for police officers called the Galls Original StreetPro Gear bag. I purchased this bag many years ago when I first became a police officer and I’ve been using it ever since because it’s got plenty of room for all of my gear.  

2. Baseball Cap- The purpose of the cap is not to keep the sun out of my eyes (although it helps) but to keep hot brass from hitting me in the face and falling down my shirt.

3. Medical Kit- I carry the Adventure Medical Kits Field Trauma kit. I also carry extra packages of QuikClot with me in case there is ever an accident.

4. Hearing Protection- I have a set of Pro Ears electronic earmuffs. (If you’ve never tried electronic hearing protection, I highly recommend it.) I also have several soft earplugs in my bag in case people come shooting with me who forget their hearing protection.

5. Timer- I use a Pocket Pro II competition timer on the range to improve my skills and run various drills.

6. Stapler and Staples- I have a heavy duty Bostitch stapler. Since I have my own range I have to put up my own cardboard and targets.

7. Safety Glasses- I typically wear my Oakley sunglasses when shooting but I also have Remington shooting glasses too for when it’s not sunny enough for sunglasses.  

8. Targets- I have a variety of paper targets that I bring, ranging from the “Dot Drill” target to the “5-Square” target.

9. Ammunition- Obviously, the ammunition in my range bag depends on what I’m shooting that day. But, right now I have some 9mm Remington UMC and the .22 Remington Golden-Bullet Pack.

10. Guns- Just like ammunition, it depends what I’m shooting that particular day. But this week when I go to the range I think I’m taking my Glock 19 and Ruger LCP with me.

11. Gun Oil- A small bottle of Remington gun oil also stays in the bag.

You’ll notice one thing that’s missing is a cleaning kit. Personally, I clean my guns when I get home and not while at the range. But I know everyone has their own routines so you might want to include this if you prefer cleaning your guns at the range.  

186,873 Reasons to Carry a Gun

Picture this scenario…

You’re a police officer in Florida who pulls someone over for speeding. You run the driver’s information and it comes back that he’s wanted in Pennsylvania for sexually assaulting a 14-year old girl. You call the Philadelphia police department who issued the warrant and tell them you’ve got their fugitive under arrest and they can come and get him.

But guess what? The Philadelphia PD tells you they don’t want to come to Florida to pick up the guy because they don’t have the resources. So, you have to release the fugitive because he hasn’t committed any crimes in your state. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But anyone who’s been in law enforcement has been in this situation.

The scary thing is, most Americans have no idea how often this happens and how many felons are out on the loose. However, USA Today recently ran a feature series about this felon problem, shedding light on just how bad it is.

According to USA Today, there are 186,873 outstanding warrants for felons and “Police in Philadelphia, Atlanta and Little Rock — all among the nation's highest-crime cities — told the FBI they wouldn't pursue 90% or more of their felony suspects into other states.”

The USA Today article continues saying, “Among the fugitives police said they would not pursue: a man accused in Collier County, Fla., of hacking his roommate's neck with a machete during a fight over two cans of beer; a man charged with drawing a gun on a Newport News, Va., store manager during a robbery…”

The fact is, if you wanted to get away with a serious crime all you have to do is murder someone in Florida and hop on a plane to Nevada and there’s a good chance nobody will pursue you.

And unfortunately, I think it’s safe to say that the system isn’t going to change in the future. I don’t think states are suddenly going to be flush with cash so they can afford to send officers all over the country to retrieve felons. Plus, the state attorney’s who prosecute these cases will likely never find a day when they’re not overburdened and understaffed to the point that they have to pick and choose which cases to prosecute.   

For the rest of our lives, this means the guy standing behind you in line at the supermarket or pumping gas next to you could be a wanted felon in another state. This is why situational awareness is so critical and why you can’t take anything for granted. This is why I remember there’s no such thing as a “routine” trip to Walmart, or to get my haircut, or go to the grocery store. And of course, this is why I personally carry a gun everyday and why I do 25 “dry fire” trigger pulls everyday to ensure I am practicing and constantly working on my firearms skills.

Like everyone, I pray I never have to use my gun (or any weapon) to defend myself, but if the day comes that I do I want to be as prepared as possible to draw my Glock 19 from my hip (loaded with my Speer Gold Dot) to stop the threat as quickly as possible.

6 Self-Defense Tools To Save Your Life

Since I travel around the country doing training, I often find myself having to rely on different tools for my own safety.

For instance, today, I’m in New York City appearing on the Rachael Ray show. New York City has extremely strict gun laws (among other things) and NYC’s slogan might as well be: “we want our residents to be able to protect themselves as little as possible.”

So whether you live in NYC or in Texas, let me share with you the different tools you can use to keep yourself safe.

1. Firearm – Of course, I had to start with my favorite way to keep myself safe, which is a handgun. These days there are three guns that I switch between for concealed carry most often. First, my Ruger LCP, which fits nicely in my front pocket inside a small kydex holster. Right now, my LCP is loaded with Hornady Critical Defense ammunition. The next gun is my Glock 19. I carry it at the four o’clock position in an inside the waistband holster. I have several holsters for this gun and use the Clipper-DL, a CrossBreed holster, and a Kydex holster that a friend made for me. The last gun I carry is a full size Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm. Both my Glock and the Smith & Wesson are loaded with 124-grain Speer Gold Dot ammo. Unless it’s illegal to do so, one of these three guns is on me at all times.

2. Air Horn - I know a lot of folks have guns for home defense purposes only and don’t carry concealed. If this is the case for you, let me recommend an air horn. You can purchase an air horn at any boating supply store and the noise will scare the living daylights out of almost anyone. Let’s say you had an air horn in your purse and were being followed through the Walmart parking lot. You could quickly pull the air horn from your purse and use it to scare someone away. (If you haven’t tested an air horn lately make sure your ears are covered when you do… trust me on this one. Also, an air horn is great for college students and teenagers.)

3. Tactical Pen – The tactical pen is one of my favorite self-defense tools and what I’m using now since I’m in New York City. The tactical pens goes everywhere with me whether I’m on a plane, in a courthouse or in a city or state that has strict gun laws.

4. Knife – You never want to be in a knife fight, but if a knife were the only tool you had you would obviously use it. I keep my knife clipped to my pants pocket and the knife I typically carry is a Benchmade. However, the particular model I own is illegal in New York so it’s at home sitting on my desk right now.

5. Crow Bar – In the back of my vehicle is a crow bar. The beauty of the crow bar is that it has multiple uses, one being self-defense. It’s certainly not my number one choice for personal protection but it’s definitely better than nothing. If you don’t already have a crow bar in your vehicle pick one up this week from Walmart or Home Depot.

6. Monkey Fist Keychain – The Monkey Fist is a parcacord keychain wrapped around a ball bearing. It may not sound like much but getting struck by one definitely hurts. You can also use the paracord for escape & evasion purposes and another bonus is that you’ll probably never lose your keys since the Monkey Fist makes them easy to keep track of.

Updated Road Trip Checklist

Today, I head to Las Vegas to teach a survival course. Las Vegas is only 2.5 hours away so I’m driving instead of flying. Before I make any road trip, whether it’s a short one like this, or a seven-hour drive to Los Angeles, I always go through a quick checklist to make sure I’m prepared and have the gear I need.

Since the gear I use is always changing and I’m always searching for new gear, I want to share with you the current checklist of the items I have in my vehicle.

Before I get to that list, let me share with you one of the most important things I do before going on any road trip. It’s not the sexiest and most exciting thing in the world, but I make sure and check my tire pressure. Most people don’t realize that underinflated tires cause the majority of car crashes.

The reason for this is because a lot of folks have no idea what the correct tire pressure is for their car. You see, if you open your driver’s side door and look on the inside panel you’ll see a listing for your tire pressure. It might be something like 32 PSI (pounds per square inch.)

However, if you look on the tire itself it might say something like 44 PSI.

So if one says 32 and the other says 44, how much air should you put in your tires? Well, I have many friends who are experts when it comes to tire pressure and vehicle safety. And their recommendation is to put 10% less air in than what it says on the tire. In other words, if your tire says 44 PSI, you would put 40 PSI in your tire, which is exactly what I do.

So before you head off on your next road trip or even to work, check your tire pressure. You’ll save money on gas by properly inflating the tires, plus it may save your life if you ever have to make evasive maneuvers in your car.

Once I check my tire pressure and put gas in the vehicle, I quickly make sure I have the items below in the back of my vehicle. Since I live in Southern Utah and go through some pretty remote places, I want to ensure I’m prepared if my car ever breaks down.

-Two 72-hour kits that contain three days of food and water (Why two kits? Because they don’t take up much space and because as I just mentioned, I often travel in the middle of nowhere.)

-One quart of motor oil (Always have extra oil in your car, it’s a small investment that’s well worth it.)

-Full toolbox (I’ve got screwdrivers, hammers, wrenches, and a variety of tools if I have to do repairs.)

-Tow Rope (In case someone has to tow you to a gas station or you need the rope to tie down cargo. This rope goes inside my toolbox.)

-Guns (For this particular trip to Las Vegas I will have my Ruger LCP and my Glock 19.)

-Collapsible shovel (You can buy one of these folding shovels at any Army surplus store.)

-Ammunition (I have 100 rounds for every caliber of gun in the vehicle. So I’ll have 100 rounds of 9mm and 100 rounds of .380.)

-Knives (In the toolbox I have a Gerber LMF II. In my 72-hour kits I put a Swedish survival knife.)

-Flashlights (I have four flashlights in my car. Each of the 72-hour kits contains one of the LED flashlights that doesn’t require batteries. You simply squeeze it to generate light. I also have a light in my glove compartment and another in my door compartment.)

-Crow bar (These only cost about $15 from Walmart and have a variety of uses, from self-defense to opening doors to knocking debris out of the way.)

-Bolt cutters (For extreme emergency situations.)

-Toilet paper (Can be used for making fires and for that other important reason.)

-Dryer lint (Excellent for starting fires, just save the lint from your dryer for a few weeks and you’ll have a Ziploc bag full.)

-Zip ties (They can be used for making shelter by tying sticks together and securing other items.)

-Paracord (I often have a 1,000 foot spool in my trunk, but at the very least have 20 feet.)

-Map (A paper map in case GPS fails me, which happens far too often.)

-First aid kit (Both of the 72-hour kits have a small first aid kit but I add another kit to my car. Right now, I’m carrying the Voodoo Tactical Trauma Kit.)

I realize some people may think the above list of items I have in my vehicle is overkill. That’s why I recommend you pick and choose from the above list and put together a vehicle survival kit that works for you.

Even if you live in the city, snowstorms and earthquakes can happen at anytime and you never know what item in the vehicle will be crucial to your survival.

My armed and dangerous wife?

I realize not everybody loves guns as much as I do, but you’ve got to have a way to defend yourself against a home invasion. Some people choose baseball bats, others choose knives, and my wife and I choose guns.

Of course, the gun is a tool of last resort, which is why we also have an alarm system that will hopefully deter criminals in the first place, and keep me from ever having to use my firearm to protect my family.

An important thing to remember with that alarm system is to actually use it (you may laugh, but I come across so many home invasion stories where people forgot to turn their alarms on) and remember to even use it when you’re at home by placing the alarm in “home mode.”

“Home mode” typically means the motion sensors are turned off so you can walk freely around the house, but all of the entry sensors are still active so if someone tries to enter the home through a door or window the alarm will go off.

In fact, a friend of mine named Dennis who lives in Texas had a home invasion while he was at home watching a movie. He forgot to put the alarm in “home mode” and he ended up getting in a shootout with the intruders because he realized way too late that somebody was in his home. Thankfully, neither he nor his wife was injured and the intruders were eventually caught.

The bottom line is, get an alarm and use it, and then have a plan for what you’re going to do when that alarm goes off.

For example, the other day I thought I was going to be gone from the house for a long time because of several meetings I had. I ended up getting home early and when I walked into my house the alarm immediately sounded because my wife had set it in home mode.

It took me only a few seconds to shut off the alarm, but by the time I did, my wife was already at the top of the stairs with her Glock 19 ready to stop an intruder. (I jokingly asked her if this is how she planned to get rid of me by making it look like an accident. Like most of my jokes, she was not amused.)

My point is, my wife and I have a very simple plan of getting our guns from our rapid access safes and going to the top of the stairs. We’ll make sure the intruder knows we have a gun and that we want him to leave our house. But if the intruder is so strung out on drugs or alcohol and ends up running up our stairs to attack us, we will obviously defend ourselves.

I’m happy to know that because my wife and I have a plan she didn’t have to freak out and wonder what she should do the other day when I set the alarm off. She knew exactly what to do and was in place in just a few seconds.

Even if you’ve got your home defense plan down cold, does your spouse also know exactly what to do? Maybe over dinner tonight you could have a short discussion of what everyone should do if your alarm ever goes off.

Why you should get 5,000 rounds of this ammo

I’ve gotten a lot of questions lately about ammunition, even though the ammo shortage has been going on for months. More specifically, these questions have been about how much to store, what kind to store, and where to store it.

I realize that ammo is still hard to find in most parts of the country and that 10 minutes after it’s delivered to Walmart it’s already disappeared from the shelves. That’s why, if there was only one type of ammo I could get and one type of ammo that I believe everyone should be focused on, it’s .22.

First, you and I know that .22 is less expensive than 9mm, .40, .45, and other types of ammo, so we can afford to train more with it and enhance our skills. But price isn’t the only reason to stock up on .22.

It’s also a lot lighter and easier to carry. If you had to head out somewhere on foot or even quickly haul ammo to a vehicle, it’s a lot easier to carry 1,000 rounds of .22 than 1,000 rounds of .45.

What’s more, .22 has less recoil and is easier to shoot and train on. If things got really bad in your town and you had to arm family members who weren’t extremely well trained they could handle a good .22 rifle or .22 handgun better than an AR-15 or Glock 30.

In fact, when my daughter is old enough to learn how to shoot I plan to teach her using my Ruger 10/22  and also my Ruger Mark III. (In my opinion, two of the best .22s on the market.)

But what about the ability to stop an attacker with a .22?

Well, I think most people can agree that while it’s not the perfect self-defense round, it can still do the job. For my own self-defense round I use 9mm Speer Gold Dot. But if things got so bad that I’d gone through all of my 9mm rounds and I had to use .22 for safety and survival I would have no problem at all. The truth is, it would just take more rounds to stop the attacker than it would with 9mm, .40, or .45, but it would still get the job done.

And as I’ve mentioned in the past, for all of the people that claim the .22 is so weak that they’d never use it in a million years for self-defense, I’ve never had a single one of these people ever volunteer to be shot with one.

So how much .22. ammo should you stock up on?

Since it’s cheaper and easier to carry I’d get at least 5,000 rounds as soon as you’re able to. .22 comes in “bricks” of 525 so it only takes 10 bricks to get that amount of ammo. If you can afford more I would certainly do it, but 5,000 rounds of ammo is a decent amount to have for safety and survival purposes.

One thing I will mention is that I wouldn’t store all of your ammo in one place. You can split it up in different areas of the house, perhaps having a few thousand rounds in the basement and the rest in the attic. Even better would be to split up your ammo and keep some at your home and the rest at an office, storage unit or other cache location.

Wherever you end up keeping it, the most important thing to remember is to store the ammo in a cool, dry place. In other words, your home should be fine, but if you get a storage unit it will need to be a climate controlled unit as you don’t want the ammo sitting in the summer heat when it’s 110 degrees.

If you decide to bury ammo in the ground make sure and put it inside a Mylar bag with an oxygen absorber. Also, don’t forget to seal the Mylar bag closed (I do this with a hot iron.)

Of course, one last thing I should mention is the bartering ability of having .22. I pray that things never get so bad in this country that we’re forced to barter with .22, but if the situation ever occurs .22 could be a lot more valuable than the paper money in our wallets.

The bottom line is, get some more .22 when you can find it (I like Remington’s Golden Bullet Value Pack) and get out there and do more training, both by yourself and with your family members.