This is going to be a general overview of the history and concept of using a knife to defend yourself against imminent death. This kind of combat has been around for centuries and has alot of lessons behind it, if you are paying attention to your history. There is absolutely no free lunch in this type of combat since sometimes you are just going to break even in terms of returned damage. Nevertheless, this is an important discussion as many people carry bladed instruments, or multiple, just in case the situation gets so bad that you have to revert to this ancient and deadly art of defense.

An Observation Post (OP) is set up for a number of reasons. It is important for anyone in the military to understand what will be expected of them when setting up an OP. This requires alot of discipline, good attention to detail, and dedication. The teams will most likely be really small in order to keep a low profile. However, if compromised, you will have to be skilled in defending yourselves and evading capture. With all that said, let's get into it.

Let's face it, if you are in a militia, you probably have an agenda or think you are some badass who is ready to fight and be heroic. Kinda sad to see the group of jokers that makeup these clusterfuck groups. Half of the people I see in these groups are so old or out of shape that going from prone to standing would be measured with a calendar. They lack training and are not diligent in consistent practical practice. They have zero consistency of camouflage that works in their own environment. Not that everyone needs to wear the same thing, but stop wearing that gray ACU crap. You look like a dumb ass wannabe. Granted there are some groups that are relatively squared away, but I don't think many of these groups know what they are really doing, or they lack good leadership and experienced members that have done more than LARP (Live Action Role Play). 

​Rant aside, I wanna talk about the role of militias in a time where they would actually be useful. Truly organized and state sanctioned militias may indeed be mobilized in certain cases, and have at least here in Alaska. However, in this article, I want to cover a mission that a militia may be suited for in the sense that they are generally considered expendable.  The fact that they can fill roles such as casualty transport, humanitarian jargon, and limited reconnaissance missions would free up special mission units to do more important missions. The subject I am going to cover in this article is going to be how militias can be used for a LRRP (Long Range Recon Patrol) and an OP (Observation Post).

The center axis relock is a style of shooting that has been around for a good long while, but has become more noticed as of late, thanks to the John Wick series of movies. I do not think that it is a bad thing to have this semi-mysterious and showy style presented on film. However, I think that people might be interested to learn a little bit about the style and how it was intended to be used. In addition, I would like to cover my own observations about the John Wick style of using this style for offensive close quarters engagements.

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.