Kermit says: “You Learned Nothing at that 2 Hour Class at the Gun Show. But that’s none of my business…”
So you took a basic gun safety class or one of those hokey $19.95 online “Get Your Permit in 30 minutes or less!” courses, what else do you need to know besides the NRA 3 Rules of Gun Safety or Jeff Cooper’s 4 Rules of Gun Safety?
- Know How to Spot (and even Prevent) Trouble Before it Happens
- Understand that the gun is the last line of defense in a layered home security plan
- Know the “3 Stupids Rule”
- Avoid
- Stupid Things
- Stupid Places
- Stupid People
- Avoid
- Read Street Smarts, Firearms, and Personal Security by Kelly McCann
- Read Defensive Living by Ed Lovette
- Read “Managing Unknown Contacts” from Craig Douglas (SouthNarc)
- Read Massad Ayoob’s material
- Watch videos of muggings on YouTube
- Take a close look at the body language of the assailants prior to them striking their victims
- Know Your Local Self-Defense Laws
- Know How to Deploy a Less Lethal Weapon Efficiently
- Not every problem is a gun problem…
- If you are carrying pepper gas, where is it right now?
- Know How to Draw Your Gun Efficiently From Concealment While under Stress
- This means not using a cheap floppy nylon holster.
- This means SAFELY practicing your draw at home
- This also means practicing your dry-fire at home!
- Know some Unarmed Combatives
- Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu helps a lot!
- Fitness matters!
- Consider just cutting out calories.
- PROTIP: Stuffing your face with a large french fries and a 96oz Coke (1040 Calories) is bad for your health.
- Consider just cutting out calories.
- Cecil Burch has a great article on this very topic.
- Be able to fight off an ambush assault and respond accordingly.
- Be able to retain your gun in a “fouled up tangle”
- If you open carry, then you should seriously consider carrying a fixed blade knife to aid in gun retention.
- TDI Law Enforcement Knife or the ShivWorks Clinch Pick are excellent choices
- Know some Basic Tactical Medicine
- Greg Ellifritz of Active Response Training puts on an excellent tactical medicine course.
- Never stop learning!
RealDefense 
Reblogged this on Brittius.
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[…] via Seven Things to Do Before (or After) Getting a Gun — RealDefense […]
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Reblogged this on Women and Guns and commented:
Here is a list of great information regarding training. Right at your fingertips.
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Reblogged this on CIVILIAN GUNFIGHTER and commented:
I thought this was a pretty decent primer on the basics after you buy a gun. I might contend that getting training/practice in unarmed combatives and less-lethal tools (pepper spray, etc.) could/should come first, but my own journey introduced those things after buying a gun, so who am I to disagree?
I would add Dark Angel Medical to the list of people to do medical training with (although I’m a big fan of Greg Ellifritz and plan to take his course in 2017). And I would add Mike Pannone’s “Covert Carry” class to the bullet point about practicing drawing from concealment. I was recently contacted via a private message on one of the “best”–in my opinion–online forums for my opinion about that course. Looking back on my now 200+ hours of firearms coursework, I think that is the class I would most recommend for civilians practicing concealed carry.
One thing I feel is a must that is missing from this list, however, is the purchase of some sort of safe or the like in which the firearm can be safely stored away from children or smash-and-grab thieves.
Overall, a great outline of key points!–Robert
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I’ll probably expand it to eight things and switch the order around next iteration of this article series.
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