The question that has been on my mind is whether being a veteran really makes me better prepared to defend myself against an attacker here in the civilian world. Well, that is riddled with variables on the individual in question, the type of attack, and a host of other critical things we must analyse and be mindful of. Society has created a standard to respect the military and all individuals wearing a uniform without knowing why. "Thank you for your service" has become about as meaningless and half-hearted as a cashier asking if you how you are doing and if you found everything you were looking for. It is societies new saying to run through the motions on.

Despite the mindsets of certain people out there, defending yourself in low light is not as simple as having a light. There are some challenges you have to get used to and practice to overcome. Having a light on your person means very little, just like having a gun makes you just as capable of defending yourself as owning pots and pans makes you a world class gourmet chef.

Shooting is one of the hardest skills to pick up and perfect due to the physical, mechanical, and technological variables. Your fitness, your mental state, your firearm(barrel length and construction), and your ammunition will all have an effect on your performance. Not to mention that the climate and environment will all play a role as well. There are alot of things that go into shooting, but the hardest thing for people to get right is being able to exercise great discipline and learn to control their mind and body in order to shoot consistently well. For almost all shooters, this is a lifelong struggle no matter how much better they get. A good shooter always strives to be better than they were yesterday rather than just trying to be better than the person next to them.

Fighting in a low light setting is one of the most demanding things you can do, let alone with a firearm. It requires alot of things to be done right and for you to be very proficient. This means that you must practice and constantly challenge yourself. If there is anything I have learned in my time of fighting in low light and training in low light, it is that there is no one thing that is universally applicable. Darkness will complicate everything and adding in having to use and be mindful of other gear, in addition to your gun, adds to the complexity. There are a few basic things that are necessary and vital to effectively fighting at night, and I want to go over them briefly.

The gun market today, whether in sales or training, is concentrated away from the traditional DA/SA design. But is the design DEAD just because it is not as popular? I think we can answer that by evaluating something that I would consider to be the source of misunderstanding that the DA/SA pistol suffers from. It may not be the most popular action on the market today, but I personally have found that the rewards outweigh the few disadvantages.

It is all too common these days for people to use capacity to justify a certain firearm or even a caliber. I personally shiver when people try to make generalizations based on arbitrary information that doesn't even match up to their situation. Some of the studies they cite are based on studies or plain old ballistics gel demonstrations. This should be an interesting thing to discuss. Good old caliber debate analysed peripherally.

You probably hear the statement all the time in caliber debates as an excuse to win or come to a draw in the debate. "It all comes down to shot placement" is an old and tired statement when we think about how it is used and the implied meaning of the statement. I would submit to you, the reader, that people misunderstand and are grossly negligent in regards to how they are using it.

As the title states, it is common for people to try and break even in a caliber or pistol debate by using the common and boring say of "all pistols are under-powered anyways." I rarely let people get away with that claim. I usually have to insert logic and reality into the equation, which often brings people to get upset that they couldn't just parrot a saying and bring the debate to a draw. There are just too many facts out there, and I feel that it is important that people wake up and accept that they need to respect their pistols and take care to get good with it. 

An ambush is a big action to undertake, no matter the enemy numbers. There are alot of moving parts to this action, though the concept is simple in nature. You must have a crystal clear objective, communications, understand the timing, targets, roles, and have patience when needed while also being able to lay hate on the enemy immediately with great effect.