Red dot sights (RDS) are commonly used on handguns and rifles. They’re lightweight and versatile, helping you get accurate hits out to a certain distance. How far that distance is going to be depends on a lot of factors including skill level and the capabilities of the gun you’re using. So, how do you get a little more range out of your favorite RDS? You use a red dot magnifier.
Here to help you figure out how to zero your magnifier in a video tutorial is Aaron Cowan of Sage Dynamics.
Aaron Cowan of Sage Dynamics explains how to zero your red dot magnifier. (Photo Credit: Sage Dynamics)
Why a Red Dot Magnifier?
RDS magnifiers are useful because they make it possible to get accurate hits on target at longer distances. Different models have varying levels of magnification and, just like any optic, they are not all created equal. Some magnifiers have better clarity than others and some are tougher than others when they get banged against trees and barriers. And, as Aaron points out, using one helps you get good target identification.
When you choose your magnifier, do your homework first. Watch reviews by guys like Aaron who know what they’re talking about and really put gear through its paces. Decide exactly what you need the magnifier to do — hunting, competition, home defense — and choose the magnification level accordingly. Also, save up as long as necessary to be sure you get the right one for you.
Aaron Cowan explains briefly that yes, magnifiers do have to be zeroed: “Just like on an optic you’ve got windage and elevation knobs and they’re not there for decoration. You actually have to zero the magnifier after you’ve zeroed the optic. It’s not the end of the world, it’s not that big of a deal; depending on how specific you want to be, you can literally…”eyeball” it. The reason it has to be zeroed is it may not be perfectly in visual alignment…parallax with the optic itself, the optic body, and the red dot, which is, of course, what you’re looking for.”
Yes, you have to zero the magnifier to make sure it lines up right with your red dot sight. (Photo Credit: Sage Dynamics)
Here’s the video tutorial.
A Word on Red Dot Sights
Your choice of RDS matters, too. The RDS you choose should be well-suited to its use and it needs to be up to whatever abuse you’re going to put it through. Also, make sure the size of the dot itself works for you (adjustable dots are great) and stop to consider the color. Just because we call them red dots doesn’t mean they don’t also come in green, and if you have astigmatism, green may work much better for you. And, of course, the RDS needs to work well with whatever magnifier you choose. They don’t have to be a perfect match, but they aren’t exactly one size fits all.
As with any piece of gear, do your homework and take your time choosing. When it comes time to zero your magnifier or learn other skills, check out Sage Dynamics‘ videos. Aaron Cowan is a wealth of information and a legit, skilled shooter.
In this week’s episode of the Mag Life Podcast, our esteemed co-host Varg Freeborn returns! This time around, Varg discusses the details of his newly released book, Beyond OODA: Developing the Orientation for Deception, Conflict, and Violence. In it, he presents a study of how the human mind reacts to and understands real-world violence. Together, Daniel and Varg unpack perception management, controlling one’s emotions and intentions, and self-orienting during violent encounters.
00:26 Before you go out of the loop you have to understand it
In understanding the purpose of Varg’s latest book, one must understand what the OODA Loop even means. The “Observe, Orient, Decide, Act” concept was developed by military strategist Colonel John Boyd to help combatants process and make decisions on the battlefield. Since then, this thought method has been applied to everyday situations, especially in regards to reacting to sudden violence.
Varg’s Beyond the OODA focuses on the second “O” of the OODA Loop concept, specifically how the orientation phase relates to reacting and understanding real-world violence. Daniel speaks upon his experience as a training instructor and how this concept is widely misunderstood in the self-defense world.
“The ‘orientation’ is the foundation for all the other parts. So everything grows out of the orientation. The ‘observation’ feeds the ‘orientation’ but the ‘orientation’ colors what the observer is seeing and that then influences the ‘decision’ part.”
The OODA Loop is about processing information before making an action. Varg Freeborn emphasizes the orientation of that information.
Both Daniel and Varg believe that Boyd’s concepts, particularly the orientation process, should emphasize more of what’s already present or commonly known. In essence, the orientation process is taking on an individual’s previously held belief systems, traditions, behaviors, and attitudes to then make decisions off of. This holds true in an almost universal context, whether it is a business negotiation, a romantic relationship, driving in traffic, or in a fight.
06:46 How life experiences orient life decisions
Daniel draws upon real-world examples of how one’s upbringing and life experiences have influenced or otherwise oriented future decisions. At around the same time, Varg was entering the prison system as an inmate, Daniel was stepping on the yellow footprints at Parris Island to enter the United States Marine Corps Recruit Training. It was by the indoctrination, combat experience, comradery, and cultural traditions from the Marine Corps that Daniel developed his own value system that to this day he uses to navigate through his life.
Varg explains that while Daniel’s experience may indeed be unique from the vast majority of the population, the formula of how people think and gain experiences that eventually influence their decisions is the same. It is a false conclusion to assume that others do not think as you do. Daniel agrees, bringing up the common saying from firearm trainers that “Bad guys don’t think like you and me, they don’t make decisions like you and me” is in fact not true. Those who wish to do others harm do in fact use the same decision-making processes as the rest of us, criminals and evildoers are not inherently any less or more capable than the rest of society.
Varg further adds that the old warrior saying “To know your enemy is to know yourself” remains true. All cognitively capable human beings are capable of observing, making decisions, and choosing their actions. As such, Varg argues we operate under the same formula, adding that humans share the same weaknesses and aspects that can be exploited. That is why one of the most detrimental factors when entering any situation is uncertainty.
“If you’re going into a fight, the more uncertain you are about your own actions… [and] the outcomes of your own actions that you’re trying to predict, the less effective you’re going to be, the less committed you’re going to be… So you understand that about yourself, now you understand that about your enemy. You can say ‘if I can disrupt his confidence level or if I can disrupt his plan enough that he doesn’t feel like he can confidently predict the outcome of his plans anymore, then I have effectively begun to turn that fight in his mind.”
Participating in violence without an understanding of your own capabilities or the capabilities of others is asking for a fatal outcome.
16:30 Deception and perception management
Daniel builds off of Varg’s idea of knowing oneself as he brings up the notion of “true” concealment. This concept goes beyond simply just properly concealing a firearm on your person but the ability to conceal your intentions, knowledge, and the act of gathering information. Daniel argues that this ability to conceal actions is not possible without a firm understanding of the orientation piece of the OODA Loop.
“Concealing” in a defensive setting goes far beyond simply hiding a gun with your shirt.
It is comparable to a Jujutsu match in which one combatant attempts one form of submission or tries to go a more advantageous position, the other combatant will react accordingly with his preconceived idea on how to counter. Varg agrees, adding that somewhat experienced Jujutsu practitioners will recognize an attack and immediately counter whereas the experienced black belts will allow an attack to unfold to trick their opponents into further compromising themselves. An experienced fighter will effectively conceal their intentions and manage their opponent’s perception of the fight in order to achieve victory in the least amount of effort.
“If you’re the type of person that doesn’t have self-control or you’re not acclimated to working at that level of stress, the likelihood of you being able to manage someone’s perceptions is very much lower because you aren’t in control of yourself so you can’t control what you’re projecting out into the atmosphere”
20:38 Beyond OODA: a deeper dive into the human psyche
Daniel expresses his high praise of Varg’s book and how it presents a comprehensive understanding of human behavior and mentality in relation to violence. Varg does not simply present anecdotal evidence for the sake of telling a story but supports each personal account with scholarly studies and subject matter experts.
Nowhere in Daniel’s extensive experience in the firearms or defense world has he found such a cohesive breakdown of the human condition during life or death situations. Varg asserts he does not ever try to “sell” anyone anything, that his book, Beyond the OODA, was created at the request of many who found value in his multifaceted experiences within the criminal world, prison system, and self-defense training.
27:54 Being honest with oneself, perception management outside of conflict
Varg makes the observation that so many today refuse to be honest with who they really are or the image they project, especially during the advent of social media. It has become socially accepted to be fake. Almost every piece of personal information put out into the world is now a specially curated piece of content meant to present a desired image, not an image as it truly is. Varg warns that there are consequences for constantly telling the public about your desires, beliefs, biases, and the like because this will be built into your own story. This self-projected part of yourself that is now made public can then be manipulated by others.
“When you can clearly determine the story that someone is telling themselves about.. who they want you to think they are, you literally gain the keys to their emotions and their actions… You get the keys to all of those locks.”
32:22 What is the most important piece of information in the book?
Daniel asks Varg, what part of the book does he believe to be most important and most needed in regards to our current society. In the book itself, it is broken down into 3 main parts: origins, operating inward and operating outward. As discussed before, Varg feels individuals must first honestly understand and express how they operate inwards before they project outward into the world. He warns against excessively or incorrectly operating inwards or focusing too much on internal struggles that nothing is allowed to come out.
If you find yourself in a fight, hyper concerning yourself with what you’re afraid of may happen will prevent you from actually imposing any form of outward attack or defense of your own. This applies to everyday life as well, an individual is not truly living their life if they’re unable to impart any change into the world at all. As such, operating inwards in a healthy, productive manner is essential to understanding your place in the world. It creates the foundation to then influence the actions of others or to navigate the world without harm.
There is no guarantee in a violent encounter, but you can better prepare for it with the right analytical mindset.
35:32 Who is the audience of this book?
Daniel asks what the target audience of Beyond OODA is. Varg explains that unlike his last book, Violence of Mind, this book is not specifically targeted at the firearms community. This book is meant for the general population, anyone who works in education, law enforcement, military, criminal psychology, and just everyday citizens. Varg notes that his book is also meant for anyone who is unaware of how manipulation and deception occur every day in their lives.
36:50 Deception in everyday negotiations
Varg adds that the act of deception is not necessarily bad or detrimental. Part of understanding yourself and others around you is how you manage what you choose to reveal in order to attain a more beneficial end. That is essentially what daily forms of negotiation are.
Varg gives the example of haggling for a good deal when buying a used car from the lot. If one jumps up for joy the second they see a car after hearing the initial price tag, the dealer has already won the exchange and there will be no opportunity to ask for a lower price. However, if the buyer chooses to be more reserved in their emotions and start pointing out flaws in the vehicle before discussing purchasing, the chance of acquiring said vehicle at a lower price is more likely.
Daniel draws a comparison to how Varg’s book is very similar to a world-famous FBI hostage negotiation book, Never Split the Difference, in that both apply concepts of deception management and how to impose this upon others. The major difference is that Varg applies this to real-world violence and survival.
Daniel gives further praise to Beyond the OODA, that he promises viewers if they are not satisfied with the purchase of the book, they are welcome to email him and ask for a refund.
The Tomorrow War, like many 2020/2021 movies, was meant to go to movie theatres but was forced to stream by COVID 19. Amazon picked the flick up, and the film premiered July 2nd, 2021 and has properly started the summer popcorn movie season. As you can expect from a sci-fi action flick, there are a wide array of firearms involved. In this article we’ll be looking at the guns of Tomorrow War.
The film has a pretty solid premise. Chris Pratt plays Dan, a former ‘Special Ops’ soldier who led ‘combat missions in Iraq’. He’s now a high school teacher and family man with a smart daughter and a lovely wife. In the midst of the world cup, a group of time travelers from the year 2051 pop onto the field.
They are there to inform the people of 2022 that in 2051 humanity is losing a war to a species of aliens. They’ve come back because they need fighting forces to aid in the fight to prevent humanity’s extinction. Thus the Tomorrow War starts.
If you don’t want spoilers, I recommend tuning out now. There are two things I can’t do: I can’t speak without cursing, and I can’t review a movie without spoiling it.
The Tomorrow War Moves Fast
I do appreciate that the movie cruises past the first act and dives headfirst into the action. It moves at a decent speed, and we see details of the civilian draft. After Dan gets his draft notice, he goes to his estranged shady criminal type father, played by a ripped and awesome J.K. Simmons, to get out of it. J.K. Simmons, by the way, also wields a Desert Eagle 50 caliber pistol, name-checked by Dan.
The 50-cal Desert Eagle is just one of the numerous guns (using a “ton of ammunition“) used in The Tomorrow War. The movie was originally made by Paramount Pictures, who later sold the film to Amazon Prime Video.
After some tense family drama, Dan calls him a coward, has self-realization, and decides he’s gonna go fight. He visits his family, and he grabs what appears to be a railed 1911 with a Surefire X300U before he goes.
He reports to basic training (or something like it), then we found out a tour of duty is seven days. If he’s still alive on day 7, he’ll be shot back to the past.
Like any time travel movie, the Tomorrow War explains the mechanics of time travel but doesn’t get too deep in the weeds on it. The explanation works, and though I’m sure it wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny, it does establish the movie’s rules.
Guns of the Tomorrow War
Our First Glance
Here we also see our first glance at the future rifles of the Tomorrow War. They are short-barreled, fully automatic AR-type rifles fitted with Hera CQR stocks and foregrips. These things made a splash a few years back for their futuristic stylings.
CQR Hera Arms makes a futuristic looking AR platform rifle.
In no time at all, and with no real training to speak of, Dan’s group of mostly civilians is transported to the future. Everyone gets their issue of Hera CQR equipped rifles and a whole loadout of PMAGs — except of course for badass Tomorrow War veteran Dorian.
He carries a slick Beretta 1301 tricked out with Aridus gear for his third tour alongside a souvenir spike from what was reportedly the first whitepsike killed.
After a disastrous landing, we get a better look at the guns and gear. The Hera CQR rifles are equipped with ACOGS and Inforce lights as well as offset red dot sights. In 2051 this gear makes little sense.
Heck, in 2021, it doesn’t make much sense.
They establish that precision shots to the belly or neck are required to kill the bad guys in one of the very short training scenes. Why use an ACOG over an LPVO? Also, Inforce lights are not superbly powerful compared to modern options like the Cloud Defensive Rein, and heck, if they want a 12 0’clock light go with the OWL.
Among the many long guns of The Tomorrow War are a Beretta 1301 and several Hera CQR rifles, most equipped with Aridus accessories, Magpul furniture, Inforce weapon mounted lights, and other tactical goodness.
On the other hand, Dorian’s 1301 is a very modern fighting shotgun. It still wears an Inforce light but rocks Aridus Industries upgrades in the form of the Magpul Zhukov handguard adapter and Magpul SGA adapter and what could possibly be the Crom mount for the Aimpoint T-2 he’s using. Dorian even rocks some shotgun shell caddies for the three-gun world for his reloads.
Once the poop hits the fan, we get treated to one of the best creature reveals I’ve ever seen. The first time you see a white spike in the light of an Inforce, it’s a creepy experience. Prior to that, we knew what they were called, but not much more.
Most of Dan and Dorian’s force is quickly slaughtered by White Spikes. We see Dan and Dorian team up to use his 1301 to great effect, but in general, their rifles are mostly useless. It’s quite clear they need different, more powerful rifles to deal with this threat.
Their 5.56 peashooters have the same effect as a spitball on the monsters unless they hit them in the neck or belly.
Warning: If you want any form of realistic action, then this movie doesn’t pack it.
Sure, Pratt and Dorian aim their guns, and most of the untrained civilians blind fire erratically. Pratt moves well with a gun and looks comfortable with it. Beyond that, there are no squad tactics, fire discipline, or real common-sense decisions. In a scene where they are trying to be stealthy, they shine their Inforce lights around with zero light discipline.
Just get an LPVO
They fight an enemy that requires precise shots to be taken but constantly just spray full auto fire at them. Also, like a 1980s action flick, there isn’t a single reload. From here, Dan and what’s left of his team are rescued, and they go to the Dominican Republic. There Dan meets — the big reveal! — his daughter from the future.
Boom, we’re hit with family drama!
Anywho, beyond that, Dan has been brought by his colonel daughter to help her solve the White Spike issue forever. She needs his help to secure a Queen White Spike and develop a toxin that will kill it and other females.
He gets geared up in Multicam black, an actual plate carrier, and another Hera CQR rifle.
Breaching the Sphincter
aka WTF with the 50 Cal?
They fly out in helicopters to the queen’s lair and start their mission. The queen’s lair is a hole in the ground that looks like a butthole: in fact, it looks like one sphincter lined up with a whole bunch of other sphincters.
Periodically one of the shooters in a helo will drop a line and zip down to join the soldiers trying to capture the queen…presumably to ensure there enough bodies there for her to mangle and destroy, but not quite enough to subdue her.
Muri takes charge. While she brought him to help, she — the commander of the operation, and as we soon learn the critical White Spike researcher — tells him to stay in the helicopter while she personally fast-ropes down through the target sphincter into the queen’s lair.
There she essentially goes to fisticuffs with the alien, then gets mad later because he left the helicopter to save her and help secure the queen.
So why did she bring him?
Here is where we find out that the most efficient weapon to fight White Spikes in The Tomorrow War is the same gun that’s turned the enemies of America into pink goo for well over a century: the M2 50 caliber machine gun.
Add that in with suitable plot armor and we quickly see Dan and his daughter massacring White Spikes while they flee from the hive.
But…if this gun works so well, why the hell wouldn’t you bring all of them from the past to the future?
Use them for every operation you embark on. It shreds these critters to pieces!
Though the handling of the guns of Tomorrow War leaves something to be desired, there’s no doubt they put some effort into selecting some good lookin’ ones.
From there, they go to a lab, and we see science stuff, MRE jokes, more family drama, and finally, success. Dan’s daughter succeeds and has developed the toxin. Of course, now the heavily sedated queen awakens, and the research facility becomes swarmed by endless male white spikes.
That gives us the opportunity to see some Phalanx CWIS miniguns lighting em up, rampaging helicopters, talking 50 cals, and more. It’s a fun scene.
The Colonel wants Dan to take the toxin to the past and use it to prevent the Tomorrow War from ever happening. He doesn’t want to leave her, drama ensues, they lose the facility, and right before Dan dies, his timer runs out, and he’s transported back to the past, toxin in hand.
A Frustrating Turn
Here’s where I get frustrated with the plot. He tells one person he has the toxin, and he needs to go back and kill the beasts in the future. The time machine is destroyed, and he can’t. No one seems to care that he has a toxin that can stop the event from ever happening. Why governments would instantly begin mass-producing the toxin for deployment for when the aliens arrive is beyond me.
But maybe that shouldn’t be a frustration. What the government does in real life is often beyond me.
Anyway, he goes home, and family reunification occurs. He and his wife figure out that the aliens, who supposedly land in Russia in the future, never landed at all. They were already there. A joke about a volcano-obsessed student pays off, and it turns out Global Warming melting the ice caps is what freed these frozen creatures.
It Continues
Enter J.K. Simmons
How do you get to Russia when global communities are falling apart? Well, you need a criminal with a plane. What criminal do we know? Dan’s dad, of course! The old man agrees to fly Dan, his funny sidekick, Dorian, and some of the soldiers from the future trapped in the past.
Now our troops are armed with more traditional M4s fitted with red dots, PEQ 15s, and lights I couldn’t identify. J.K. Simmons arms himself with a scoped AR 10. We also see a Glock in a single scene.
Everything goes wrong, and the final fight scene begins. Dorian goes out like a gangster, and Dan, his Dad, and funny sidekick are left. J.K. Simmon’s AR 10 proves that 308 would be the better choice for killing white spikes than AR 15s and M4s. His more powerful rifle has a more notable effect.
We also see Chekhov’s gun in full effect as J.K. Simmons wields that chrome 50 caliber Desert Eagle efficiently against the monsters.
A final battle with the final queen has the movie reaching Fast and Furious levels of ridiculous (which, in the context of the flick, is not a Bad Thing). In the end, Chris Pratt’s in a nice fight with the queen.
Good guys win, go home, Dan and Dad are bros, and everyone lives happily ever after.
The Bottom Line
The Tomorrow War is a fun summer flick. It has an original plot but lives on tropes. I will say the twist at the end was a good one that opened up more questions about the universe they live in. It has a sudden, satisfying turn that keeps the main plot from being predictable (unlike the emotional ploys, which are all too much so).
The Tomorrow War doesn’t deliver well on firearms or tactics. Outside of the Beretta 1301, none of the guns of Tomorrow War stick out as cool to me as a gun guy. No impressive gun handling or tactics applied, no light discipline, and nary a reload in sight. If you’re okay with that, though, and don’t mind turning your cerebral tacticalortex off, it’s a fun flick.
Jeff Cooper has been described as the “father of modern handgun shooting”. His influence pushed shooting forward, and his contributions to modern handgun handling deserve notation. Over time we may have evolved, and tactics, techniques, and firearms change, but the way we see shooting in 2021 was built on the blocks of Jeff Cooper’s contributions. Today we are going to look at three of his drills.
These are part of a larger martial art called Combat Pistol Shooting which got its start in the early 1900s. It combines works from Cooper’s Modern Technique as well as contributions from Captain William E. Fairbairn and Sergeant Eric A. Sykes and their time in Shanghai as well as Rex Applegate, Jack Weaver, and many more. These drills were based on actual events, and Jeff Cooper applied what someone could theoretically do should they be armed with a pistol.
Mozambique / Failure To Stop Drill
You might argue this isn’t technically one of Jeff Cooper’s drills, but I’d argue it is. A mercenary named Mike Rousseau was fighting in the Mozambique War of Independence. During a particularly harrowing fight at an airport, he turned a corner and came face to face with an enemy armed with an AK 47. Rousseau engaged with his Browning Hi-Power and fired two rounds into the guy’s chest.
The Mozambique drill only requires a chest and head target.
The man didn’t go down, and he continued to advance. As such, Mike fired a final shot to his head. He recounted this story to Jeff Cooper, and Cooper added the Mozambique drill to his drills folder. You surely recognize this as the classic two to the chest and one to the head.
It’s a very simple drill, and you’ve likely already figured the core of the drill out. Shooters face the target, and on the signal, they fire a double tap or hammer pair to the chest of the target. From here, they take a well-aimed shot at the head of the target. Headshots should be focused on the T zone of the target. This is the entire that ranges from eye to eye and down the bridge of the nose to the upper lip.
Two to the chest and one to the head wins hearts and minds.
The drill is modular and can be fired at nearly any range with either a rifle or pistol. Shooters can start holstered or in the low ready, and a timer can institute extra stress. It’s a great drill that allows shooters to continually increase the difficulty of the drill as their skills increase. The Marine Corps still uses this drill, and they label it the Failure to Stop Drill.
The El Presidente
Undoubtedly as far as Jeff Cooper drills go, this is the most famous. The El Presidente drill came from a 1970s issue of American Handgunner. While training a South American security force, Cooper designed the drill to test shooters and gauge their skills.
The drill is simple. You’ll need three man-sized targets spaced a yard apart from each other. Shooters will stand 10 yards from the target. From here, they will face away from the targets, with their hands in a surrender position with their firearm holstered.
The El Presidente Calls for three bad guys
You’ll need a firearm loaded with six rounds, and a magazine or speed loader also loaded with six rounds. A shot timer should also be present with a par time set to 10 seconds. On the beep, shooters turn, draw and engage each target with two rounds.
Once the gun is empty, they reload and fire two more rounds into each target. Shooters who score all shots on target in under 10 seconds have passed the drill. That’s a surprisingly generous par time, and this makes it rather easy. I’m surprised Jeff Cooper didn’t choose a tighter time.
Getting below seven seconds provides a more worthwhile goal. It’s more challenging and makes this page of Cooper’s drills more useful and practical.
An El Pres calls for a rapid reload on the fly.
I also fire the drill from concealment. Concealed carry wasn’t a hugely popular thing in Jeff Cooper’s time. As such, the drill doesn’t force you to hide your piece. Adding a concealed carry garment makes the training more practical for the vast majority of us.
Shooters desiring a good challenge and a good time should give the ole El Presidente a try.
The Dozier Drill
In 1981 five Italian Communists kidnapped Brigadier General James Lee Dozier from his apartment in Verona, Italy. The kidnappers posed as plumbers, which leads me to believe they all looked like Super Mario. Anyway, they kidnapped him, held him for 42 days, and eventually, he was freed.
Dozier recounted the kidnapping and how one man pulled out an SMG from his tool bag and loaded it as another read some filthy commie statement. Dozier was prohibited from carrying a firearm at the time. In this Jeff Copper drill, you play Dozier, but you’re armed.
Now you have to face five Italian plumbers.
You’re facing five targets five to seven yards away. Cooper dictated they be steel poppers that fall when struck. However, that’s an expensive proposition. I think the A-Zone of an IPSC target works, as do Sage Dynamics free printable targets. Each target should be one yard apart or so. Start with the handgun in the low ready, and engage the five targets as fast as possible.
Add a Partner
Now, if you really want to kick it up a notch, have a partner behind the firing line going through the motions of retrieving a weapon from a bag, loading it, and making it ready. To keep things fair, use a toolbox or tool bag that closes.
Your goal is to shoot all the targets before your partner has the gun ready. Your partner represents the armed terrorist retrieving his weapon. This method of measuring time is a part of the original Dozier drill, but it often gets ignored these days. It creates a moving par time that’s never the same thing twice.
Make it tougher by taking a seat and starting from this position.
A friend and fellow Marine and I do this drill on occasion, and it often becomes quite competitive. It’s also a lot of fun with a buddy and motivates me to do better when I gotta beat someone else. To further alter the difficulty level, start with the handgun holstered or placed on a table in front of you. You can shoot each target once or use double taps, whatever floats your boat.
Jeff Cooper Drills
These drills will make a plain ole range day a bit more interesting. Now the big question is, are they out of date? They are admittedly not very difficult and can be done by most average shooters. With a little practice, anyone can do an El Presidente, but how many can do a Sage Dynamics Eleanor drill?
They aren’t necessarily useless as they do train valuable, defensively-minded drills. However, Jeff Cooper’s drills are a lot like his contributions to modern pistol craft. They act as building blocks and give shooters new skills they can build upon. Check ’em out, and let us know what you think below.
In this episode of The Mag Life Podcast, Daniel visits with Ed Calderon, a former Mexican police agent with extensive experience and understanding of border control issues, drug cartels, and the complexities that exist between the US and Mexico.
Born in Tijuana, Mexico in the 80s, Ed decided to go into police work when he was 21. For over a decade he worked in counter-narcotics, investigation of organized crime, executive protection, and public safety along the northern border of Mexico. Later, he came to the US and is now recognized as one of the world’s most preeminent researchers and personal security trainers, offering security consulting, seminars, and private training in anti-abduction, escape and evasion, unarmed combat, unconventional edged-weapon work, and region-specific executive protection.
Together, Daniel and Ed discuss complex issues about the escalation of the Mexican Drug War, foreign gun-running, US intervention, issues of governance and firearms ownership in Mexico (and the parallels in the US), human trafficking, and more.
Ed Calderon is recognized as one of the world’s preeminent researchers and trainers in the field of personal security.
02:22 Imparting Valuable Skills to Others
Daniel inquiries about the life-saving skills Ed learned on the job while he was active in Latin America and Mexico. Ed’s extensive background in counter-narcotics work has covered escape and evasion—namely, how to:
• escape from handcuffs, • manufacture tools for survival, • be armed in non-permissive environments, • look for early warning signs of an ambush in an urban setting, and • understand the social norms in Mexico.
He has brought his in-depth, hands-on experience in the undercover narcotics world to other law enforcement agencies in the United States (FBI, Secret Service, among others) so that they may be better equipped for threats across the border.
06:05 What scares you?
Daniel asks Ed what genuinely scares him. Ed replies that his one fear is to not live without a purpose. Having faced a great many near-death experiences, Ed has become numb to the idea of physical danger. Rather, it is the concept of having gone through what he did and not being able to bring meaning to his experiences.
“You know, people think ‘Hey aren’t you afraid of the cartels coming after you and shit like that?’ If I was I wouldn’t have gone into this line of work when I was 21. So that specific thing doesn’t really… make me lose sleep. What does make me lose sleep is having gone through that whole experience and not making it worth it. Or not giving it some sort of purpose.”
Ed Calderon, counter custody expert.
07:22 What should scare the American public?
Daniel flips the question: “Based on everything you know… what should WE be scared about?”
Ed feels that American public scrutiny immensely neglects the sheer amount of Chinese government influence with Mexican drug cartels, and how their activities are increasingly becoming a threat to national security. He cites that the Chinese have a direct hand in fentanyl supply to cartels, a strong influence in major American industries. He further adds that this is occurring with full knowledge of the Communist Party in China.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación or CJNG) actually managed to grow in size and in influence during the COVID epidemic when all other organizations and institutions halted, due to being able to receive fentanyl shipments. They were able to do so because they had supreme control of the ports that faced the Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, the Sinaloa Cartel has been smuggling fentanyl from the US, processing this into their product, then smuggling it to be sold into the US. In essence, there has been an ongoing drug proxy war across the US and Mexico.
Ed further emphasizes the sheer amount of influence the Chinese government and their companies have within US media and industry. Disney/Marvel and many entertainment conglomerates are basically barred from openly criticizing China. NBA players receive consequences for speaking out about China. Trade relations suffer if companies recognize Taiwan as a country. Daniel makes the same observation, adding that in his experience briefly being part of the film industry, he has noticed movie studios will continually push out sequels to old franchises because it simply caters to the one Chinese market. While perhaps only a few care about a repetitive franchise, this caters to billions in China. Ed concludes that “We are losing the culture war.”
11:45 China’s Actions and the Worsening State in the Mexican Drug War
Ed delves deeper into the issue of China’s actions in the Mexican drug war, specifically how they supply and finance cartels. Criminal enterprises have, in fact, used Chinese banking apps to launder this money. Profits made in the US can be transferred using the apps, then an overseas Chinese fixer sends the funds into their country’s banking apparatus. Later, the funds get sent to Mexico. Legally speaking, the US cannot do anything about it—further cementing that they are losing the economic war.
As a result, there are effectively two major cartel superpowers fighting for power in Mexico: the Sinaloa and the CJNG. Their capabilities and spheres of influence are staggering. Very recently the Sinaloa Cartel essentially defeated the Mexican military, with the ability to put up no-fly zones across the country. The largest lithium deposits in the world are found in northern Mexico, and they have become highly sought after by the cartels. A couple of years ago, headlines hit that Mexican-American Mormons were massacred by cartel enforcers, it was at this very location where the murders occurred. Ed also points out that a Canadian mining company that was operating in the lithium mines was later bought up by a Chinese company.
On the whole, the Chinese-Mexican cartel relations have already created noticeable shifts in the country. Strange rises of bogus pain medication and pills laced with fentanyl are hitting the Mexican pharmaceutical market. In addition, there is a large trend of Norinco firearms and drones from China in the hands of cartel soldiers. For those who have been monitoring the situation, the dynamics of the current drug war have been frightening.
17:46 Foreign Gun-Running in Mexico
Ed recalls personally finding countless foreign firearms in the stashed weapon caches of cartel members—recognizing a few from the now infamous Operation Fast and Furious. For those unaware, that operation was part of a “gun-walking” sting in which the ATF allowed firearms to be sold to illegal straw buyers in hopes of tracking the guns to Mexican criminal elements. In effect, it caused the deaths of many Mexican nationals as well as American federal agents, the most notable of which was US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Both Daniel and Ed agree that the operation was a disaster. Ed tells of an incident in which a law enforcement agent and his family were attacked while driving in Mexico. Sicarios ambushed the family and used FN Five-Seven pistols to murder the agent, his wife, and crippled the daughter. These very FN Five-Sevens were directly sold by US-based weapons dealers during Operation Fast and Furious.
“[Mexican federal agents] are the people that never get called or named, no cameras are ever placed on them, nobody’s telling their story… These are the guys fighting off people with AK47s and AR15s with a Colt M4 in semi auto that has two magazines to it and a soft second-chance body armor set up. You know? Cuz we were poor as ****, we were just [using] what we had.”
Ed explains that gun-running in Mexico today is no longer just coming from the US, but from all over the world. Countries in Africa, the Middle East, and South America have all had a part to play in smuggling firearms into the hands of cartel members. Ed asserts that Mexico has been the cradle of innovation since the inception of the drug war. Today, cartels are weaponizing civilian drones with explosive devices, using mobile mortar vans, and utilizing IEDs against law enforcement and military personnel.
Much of this creativity is the result of enduring poverty and lack of resources, making innovation a necessity. In addition, there is very little regulation being enforced in the majority of the country.
24:07 Should the US intervene in Mexico?
Daniel asks Ed what he anticipates will unfold in Mexico in the near future. Ed believes that within his lifetime, the US will force a military intervention as the drug war becomes more and more uncontrollable. And while this may be the most likely scenario, Ed does not necessarily believe it is the best course of action. Historically, the United States has had a terrible track record in producing positive outcomes from direct foreign intervention as made evident by the Vietnam War and the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Additionally, Ed raises the question for Americans, what would happen if, hypothetically, we were able to wholesale eliminate the flow of drugs between Mexico and the US? A healthcare crisis of monumental proportions would occur, one that would make the COVID epidemic pale in comparison. Ed also stresses that the cartel problem is not just a Mexican problem, it is actively a US problem. There are multiple cartel organizations that make a living within the US alone, with direct ties to our domestic drug trade. The drug war is multi-layered and interconnected, ensuring Mexico and the US must deal with the fallout of each other’s actions.
As far as what can be done immediately, Ed believes the US Border Patrol needs more personnel numbers and funding to directly combat the transfer of people and products across the border. Much controversy has surrounded former President Trump’s initiation of a border wall being built but according to experts like Ed, this will only barely slow down the cartel’s operations.
“There are ‘shock groups’… [They] are operational, 80 strong, even more sometimes… of just convoys of homemade armored vehicles, full auto rifles, 50 Cals, dudes kitted up head to toe with Wi-Fi cell phone disruptors… That is not happening across the ocean… that is happening a five minute walk from the border in places like Mexicali.”
Ed Calderon looking over the world’s busiest border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana. (Image source: Offgrid Web)
33:06 Are Islamic extremists coming over the border with cartel assistance?
Daniel dives deeper into the smuggling operations done by Mexican cartels, specifically if they have been playing an active part in transporting Islamic extremists into the US. Ed explains this has been occurring more recently due to the fact these extremists are able to simply hide in the mass of bodies being smuggled across the border within caravans. Traditionally, cartels have not and do not want to be associated with Islamic extremists due to the fact that it would bring much unwanted attention to themselves. However, the dynamic is changing. As a new younger generation of Mexicans takes up leadership roles within cartel groups, they do not share the same level of restraint as their predecessors.
35:11 Should Mexican drug cartels be labeled as terrorists?
Ed speaks about the concern and the repercussions of labeling cartels as terrorists. Even during the height of the Trump administration, they stayed clear from taking such action as it would have severe consequences of its own in relation to immigration.
But ultimately do they meet the definition of a terrorist organization?
Their actions would seem to meet that label. Cartels have Instagram live-streamed themselves executing political candidates of rival cartel organizations. The president of Mexico has shaken hands with El Chapo’s lawyer and even made a personal effort to visit the hometown of El Chapo in order to greet his mother. The cartels can even be considered as a transnational organization. Sinaloa Cartel members have been arrested in Australia, Indonesia, and some countries in Africa. Ed believes cartels to be more transnational than Al-Qaeda.
Cartels have also exhibited cult-like behavior. Some groups practice cannibalism as a show of strength, intimidation, and as part of their initiation process. They will film themselves eating still-beating hearts and post these videos online to spread fear. Certain leaders of cartels are considered to be holy deities and raise young men to believe as such. Much of what the American public commonly associates with Islamic terrorist organizations can also be widely attributed to Mexican drug cartels today.
It is apparent to both Daniel and Ed that the Chinese Communist Party’s involvement in the Mexican drug trade is very purposeful and done with full support. Some individuals believe the trade and financial support coming out of China is being conducted by rogue actors but according to Ed, nothing comes in or out of China without the CCP’s full knowledge. In some ways, China could be acting as a state sponsor for terrorist organizations.
As for the reason why the US does not recognize cartels as terrorists, it is simple: it would be an immigration nightmare. If there was an official designation of terrorist actors in Mexico, that would mean Mexicans could claim refugee status, fleeing from a terrorist organization into the US. The immigration problem is already immense. The last thing the US government wants is to exacerbate the issue.
45:04 Current State of Mexico’s Government and Law Enforcement
While Ed has been a strong advocate for increased funding and resources directed towards combating the drug cartels, more often than not, those are misappropriated. For years, the US has poured taxpayer dollars to fund and equip Mexican law enforcement agents, from 5.11 tactical clothing to H&K firearms. Unfortunately, hardly anything has changed. This sort of passive support is clearly not enough to turn the tide. The US government typically bets on having a strong military leadership in Mexico. However, absolutely no one in the government is safe from cartel influence. Mexican Marine Special Operations forces have recently been bribed into becoming bodyguards for drug lords and commanders have been seen staying in lavish houses owned by cartels.
Federal agents in Mexico are often offered bribes by criminal elements. Ed warns that the second anyone says yes to an offer, they are owned by the cartels. It becomes a trap and blackmail becomes the easiest tactic to force agents into their pocket. So prevalent is the corruption of law enforcement in Mexico that the second Ed tells anyone of his background, more often than not people automatically assume he was one of those corrupt agents. The few good men working within Mexico’s law enforcement system are almost never recognized for their efforts outside of American entertainment media and some major headlines.
“Mexico is a conquered nation. It’s a colony. It was a Mexican Empire and then it turned into a Catholic Empire. It’s gone through a bunch of changes as far identity goes. But the things that remain are memories of its violent past and very violent present. [Also] cultural elements of people being for themselves and not for each other… [This is due to] desperation and poverty. Mexico is a rich *** country, it’s just the distribution part of it is not [good].”
53:39 Parallels in the US
Ed and Daniel observe that Mexico’s current issue with the distrust of law enforcement has also been developing wildly within the US in the past few years alone. Daniel’s concern is that this distrust and propaganda will inadvertently turn away the good cops that stand for protecting individual rights, to be replaced by those who only follow orders no matter how unconstitutional the law may be.
Daniel believes this is a coordinated attempt to end self-reliance and make the population less able to defend themselves. Ed points out with the growing anti-cop sentiment; recruitment numbers are down. Some areas in the US do not even have a real police presence anymore. “Who wants to grow up and be a cop anymore?”, Ed asks.
Ed believes the attempt to take away individual freedoms such as firearm ownership is not something as one-dimensional as agents barging into your door and taking away your guns. It’s rather an attack on the entire concept of gun ownership, or a culture war against guns. The laws that are being pushed involve restricting not the act of owning a gun but the conditions that surround your ability to use them, such as caliber, magazine capacity, and areas of use restrictions for a firearm. The overall strategy is to make it so difficult to even own a firearm, the owners will be rendered incapable of using them effectively. It is a gradual process.
01:01:00 Firearm Ownership in Mexico
In stark contrast to the US, Ed discusses the severe firearms ownership laws in Mexico. Despite having a clear stance on allowing firearm ownership for self-defense in the constitution, the Mexican government today has a single blanket gun law in place that wholesale restricts how any legal citizen can acquire and trade a firearm. The legislation basically monopolized the legal trade and manufacturing of firearms to the military. At one point the Mexican people actually gave up the vast majority of their guns, willingly, to the government through gun drives and buyback programs. Since then, the act of purchasing a gun is a ridiculously arduous process.
“There is a single firearm store in Mexico. [It is] in Mexico City. So if you wanna buy a gun in Mexico, you have to be able to purchase a plane ticket to and from Mexico City from wherever you’re from, go there and buy this overpriced gun…
“Just imagine the most funny, piece of **** gun out there… that you wouldn’t want even as a toy…. [then] you do a bunch of paperwork for it and then you fly back home and store it in your house. And you can’t practice with it unless you’re part of a shooting club and that’s an expensive thing to be a part of.
“So basically, if you’re not upper-middle class, having a gun is not an option for you… The military can shoot a minigun into a city to try and take down a cartel [member] but you can’t own a 22 caliber revolver.”
In addition to all of these restrictions, the Mexican government is currently asking community defenders fighting off cartel members to disarm themselves, despite the immense danger they face. Within central Mexico, government forces are attempting to push into deep cartel territory and “clean up” the area. However, one must consider that much of how the cartels were even allowed to be as prevalent as they are is due to the government’s local offices being part of the problem. Simply put, on both a practical and legal level, all the cards are stacked against the average citizen in Mexico seeking to defend themselves.
At a Counter Custody Class, Ed Calderon explains the anatomy of an abduction.
It is because of these experiences that Ed Calderon is a strong 2nd amendment supporter. He wishes he could find the most staunch anti-gun liberal in the US, drive them 30 hours into Mexico to a marginalized community that has been assaulted by both the corrupt police and the cartel, and have them ask these people if they would like to be armed. “In a heartbeat,” Ed says, “All of them would say yes.” Daniel further adds that every single instance of major gun control legislation being passed has directly had a hand to play in mass murders and oppression, no matter the setting.
01:12:09 Sex Trade and Human Trafficking
Daniel asks Ed about his knowledge regarding the sex trade and human trafficking operations within Mexico. To no one’s surprise, Ed paints a dark picture of the grim realities that await young Mexican women as they attempt to cross the border. It is not uncommon for girls as young as 12 or 13 years of age to disappear. Women in their travels through the country are often raped and taken advantage of. Those who are deemed attractive enough are recruited into sex work in brothels.
This is further worsened by the fact Mexico on the whole has a terrible record of actually solving crimes, especially murders. According to Ed, 96% of all murders in Mexico go unsolved. So for serial killers, it’s is an ideal place to prey on the innocent. For example, only recently had authorities caught a man who had 40 bodies buried in his backyard in Mexico City—and he was only found out due to his own mistake.
Slavery is often thought of in the past tense, especially in America. Ed asserts that slavery is happening right now with migrant Mexican workers who have been reduced to becoming indentured servants. And it is not as uncommon as one might believe. The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, had workers who were paying of their debts working his winery during the height of the COVID epidemic.
“People need to kind of pay attention… to things that are happening right under our noses and stop thinking of it… as a ‘Mexico problem’… It’s a problem that is in your backyard now.”
01:18:50 What can we do? How can we pay more attention?
Speaking on behalf of the listeners, Daniel asks Ed how can Americans pay more attention occurring with the Mexican drug trade and what can we do to help. Ed encourages listeners to firstly keep up with the news and current events in Mexico much as they would here in the US. Secondly, he recommends that Americans contact their representatives and ask them to monitor and audit what taxpayer dollars are being used for in the drug war down south. American citizens should focus their attention and question their government officials on why millions of dollars have been spent on the drug war for no real difference to occur. Accountability must be enforced.
To sum it up, Ed states, “Last year was the most lethal year to be a Mexican in our history. Why aren’t Americans screaming for accountability from the government?” The situation is, again, extremely dire. There are over 82,000 missing people in Mexico with active practices of slavery and countless dead.
“Americans need to call what’s going on in Mexico what it is: it’s a Narco insurgency where the government is not to be trusted. [There are] multiple sides to it and there are foreign actors working within Mexico against US interests. That’s what that giant wasp’s nest of a country is and it’s right across your border. It’s not gonna be like pulling into Iraq, it’s not gonna be like Afghanistan. It’s gonna be its own thing.”
For a true military intervention to be truly done, the US must take into consideration the horrific economic effects this would take on the country as Mexico is one of the US’ largest trading partners as well as preparing for a guerrilla war, unlike anything they’ve ever seen. Ed says people ask him what the solution is, but it’s very complex. It should be a priority, just from the aspect of regional stability.
Dogs are used in some of the more advanced counter custody materials. (Image source: Recoil Web)
1:24:03 Priorities
Ed says Islamic terrorism is a threat but it’s not the biggest threat to the US right now. The regional de-civilization of the country right next to the US that is also the biggest trading partner should be big on the list of priorities. Islamic extremism is something to worry about, of course, but Ed says there are things eating away at American society, like Fentanyl-laced heroin, that are actually more of a threat than somebody trying to commit a terrorist act on US soil.
Daniel says he holds few things in higher esteem than the US flag. In fact, the only thing he holds in higher esteem is what the flag represents: individual liberty, freedom, independence.
He goes on to say that right now, our priorities are out of order. For instance, millions are dying of heart disease and obesity. But people are pushing body positivity instead of getting healthy. Or COVID—you’re going to die of heart disease before Covid gets you. Or even the push to ‘save the kids’ by getting rid of guns….there are a bazillion things that should be of higher priority than these things that are happening because there are a lot of things taking more people off the planet unjustly because of mistakes that we’ve made as a society.
Daniel points out misplaced priorities in the 2nd Amendment crowd too. He says he despises the idea of federal firearms reciprocity. He’s not a fan of the federal government having power. If they’re not doing something to protect the people, they shouldn’t be doing it.
1:30:33 Victims
There is an epidemic of professional victims causing a tremendous amount of problems and murdering common sense.
Ed says, “If you have a victim mentality, you have the privilege of saying that police should be the only ones with guns.”
Not everybody gets that. Ed discusses how many people think he is in the US because of the wrong things the US has done to Mexico. And, yes. The US has had some pretty bad foreign policy with Mexico. But also, Ed can walk around in places in the US and not get picked up by a van with a bunch of dudes carrying AK47s. Mexico has not been innocent about it’s own situation.
So people can go into the victim mindset, saying everybody’s at fault for what we don’t have, but what good does that do?
Or, we can spend that same energy trying to get things to work out better. Ed asks people, “What have you done for your community in the last five days?”
Ed also points out that people question why so many cops in Mexico switch sides to work for the cartels. It’s because there’s no support from the government or from the people. He says that he is earning his way in this country. Daniel follows up by saying even though he isn’t earning his way into the country in the same way, he believes we need to continue to earn what this country can be for our kids and grandkids. If we look at the news reports, it seems like we are failing. But, Daniel still believes in the quiet majority—the good guys who are censored at every turn. And, the longer the good guys are censored, the more impressionable young people are permanently swayed to the other side.
1:36:56 What about changes in immigration policy?
Ed points out that people who applaud change in immigration policy, (as far as border enforcement), are also applauding the fact that the cartels that control that border are making Bank. They’re applauding the fact that children disappear across the border. They’re applauding that children are tossed over the border, breaking their legs on the way down. Slavery. Indentured servitude. Rape. Murder.
Ed went through the immigration process. It wasn’t easy. It took a while. It was hard and stressful, and he says it isn’t fair for someone to circumvent the process — to have the benefit of being in the United States. He says that a lot of Americans need to understand that most Mexicans are conservative. They’ve just been through a period of being labeled as the ‘bad guys’.
Daniel says that he saw the same thing with the Cubans in Miami. He says, “They’ve seen the other side. They don’t want to go back.
Ed points out that some people like to say how beautiful Mexico is. And, of course it’s nice there! —Inside the fences and the gates with the armed security. He says, “Come with me to some of the places I’ve been to, where the people don’t move aside if you point a rifle at them, because they see them every day. Come to a place like that with me, and we’ll talk about reality. I wasn’t a tourist agent. I was a police agent. My main point of my activism is to bring light and voice to those people that don’t have them.”
1:39:20 Daniel says that he’s glad Ed is here and he really appreciates his service to this country.
Ed brings up that he’s done classes for border control. He’s seen the levels of humanity like guys just buying toothbrushes for the kids out of their own pocket. He’s also seen the bad side, he acknowledges that it’s not all good. But he encourages people to not generalize. The quiet people in that field should be a bit more loud. He gets to have conversations with people around the country in law enforcement and the military and he knows that they have a level of humanity that is completely color blind as far as what they are doing.
He points out that if it’s rare for people in the US to go into service, in places like Mexico, people like Ed who go into the service are like lepers. They get incredulous questions like, “Where are you going to work?” “How much are you going to earn?” “What are the risks?” He says that for the time he was in, it was rated the most dangerous job on the planet. And he didn’t get rich off it. All he got was a few concussions, a broken nose several times over, a few missing parts…and as Daniel points out, probably some serious mental trauma. Ed adds that he’s also got a few stories about donkey shows.
And he’s still out there. He isn’t working for the government anymore, but he’s working on the business side of it and a big part of what he does is activism. Through his platform, he takes up small causes and gives them a voice to expose some of the things that people don’t want to talk about.
Ed Calderon instructing self-defense with a medium blade knife. (Image source: Offgrid Web)
1:41:43 Where can you learn more about what Ed is up to, the causes he is after, and see how they can help and possibly train with him?
Find him at his website: Ed’s Manifesto. The site has a schedule, a blog, and a link to support very at-need agents that are working in Mexico, and some of the orphans that were left behind. For financial accountability, Ed documents every cent of donations and takes the money to the recipients personally. Ed also is raising money for the Sniper Foundation—he’s not one-sided in this. He is for this country, but he also looks back to the country that he came from. He’s trying to do things on both sides of the border.
Gunfire rattled and roared around the airport, as Rhodesian Mike Rousseau moved toward the next corner, his Browning Hi-Power in hand. He wasn’t expecting the enemy fighter who suddenly faced him from about ten paces away, AK-47 in hand.
The FN Hi-Power – The First Weapon Used in a Mozambique Drill
Rousseau reacted quickly, presenting his pistol and firing twice into the man’s chest as the guerrilla fighter advanced on him. It should have dropped the guerrilla—two 9mm rounds in the vitals should have torn through his heart and lungs—but he kept coming. Adrenaline can have that effect, keeping what is essentially a dead man moving long enough to do serious harm. And Mike knew he had to reassess and reengage.
Quickly lifting his point of aim, he fired again, aiming for the other man’s eye. But between the closure rate and his own adrenaline rush, he slapped the trigger and shot the guerrilla in the throat instead, severing his spine. The Mozambican fighter collapsed, and the engagement was over.
The Mozambique Drill, aka Failure to Stop Drill
Mike Rousseau was friends with Colonel Jeff Cooper, a legend in the firearms training world and the founder of Gunsite Academy. He told Cooper the story, and Cooper began to teach what he called the “Mozambique Drill” at Gunsite.
Col. Jeff Cooper – A shooting legend and the man who codified the drill.
Later on, some LAPD officers got permission from Cooper to teach the technique to the LAPD, renaming it the “Failure Drill” or “Failure to Stop Drill,” to avoid any political implications of the term “Mozambique Drill.” (Though that name has lived on to this day, as evidenced by the title of this article.) The latter name is actually more informative about its function, as it is intended to drop an attacker who not only isn’t deterred by an aimed weapon but keeps coming even with two or more bullets in their chest cavity. They failed to stop, so the Failure Drill is designed to put them down.
The drill is, on its face, pretty simple. Two shots to the chest, followed up by a single headshot. “Two to the chest, one to the head,” is the ditty many have used to remember it, while some Marines of this author’s acquaintance altered it slightly to, “Two to the heart, one to the mind.” There are some nuances, though, and the way it is trained has changed in certain circles over the years.
The two stages in the Mozambique drill.
From Rousseau’s anecdote, the drill started out of pure combat necessity. While it’s unclear why the enemy fighter charged him instead of shooting, obviously there was a close combat situation about to go down, and the instinctive pair to center mass didn’t do the trick. Rousseau had quickly evaluated what had happened, and went for a “circuitry kill” (destruction of the central nervous system, thereby immediately shutting down any impulse to attack or pull a trigger), since the “hydraulics kill” (destruction of the cardio-pulmonary system, denying the body blood and oxygen to keep functioning) hadn’t worked fast enough.
Cooper incorporated the drill as a similarly situational engagement. He taught a quick pair to the chest, followed by a pause to see if that had done anything, and if it hadn’t, then take the headshot. This is somewhat in keeping with minimum force requirements for legal reasons when teaching civilians. After all, most people who learn this drill are not going to be in an African civil war, with guerrillas and mercenaries on both sides.
However, given the reality of a close-in, deadly force encounter, in which the target might be amped up on adrenaline—like the guerrilla Rousseau shot—or otherwise “chemically enhanced,” over time that pause has been edited out of the training. The rationale there is reasonable enough. At pistol engagement distances—usually about 15 yards and in—you might not get that moment to reassess after the initial pair. Especially if your opponent is charging you. Remember the 21-foot rule: if a man with a knife is within 21 feet, you’re probably going to get stabbed before you can shoot him. These things happen fast.
So, the pause to reassess after the first pair got edited out, and the whole drill became simply, “Two to the chest, line up the headshot, one to the head.” To paraphrase Tuco, “If you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t wait around to see what happened.”
The drill hasn’t been limited to police and civilian concealed carriers, either. The military adopted it as well, and not only for pistol shooting. The author learned it on his first shooting package as a carbine drill.
A Mac-10 is not the ideal weapon for this drill, but if it’s a semi-auto, it will still work.
Further evolution has happened over the last decade or two. The original way the author learned the drill was a hammer pair to the chest—two shots as fast as humanly possible—followed by a slower headshot. Over time, however—and it’s uncertain how much of this was due to actual combat experience or competition experimentation—that’s changed to more of a “cadence drill,” where all three shots are more evenly spaced, though still extremely quick. Some of this has much to do with the shooter’s own proficiency. Hammer pairs are much more instinctive, and a headshot is more difficult to line up, as it’s a smaller target. Beginners to the drill will most likely best practice that hammer pair, line up, headshot, and then worry about smoothing things out. After all, in a deadly force encounter, it’s metal on target that matters a lot more than split times.
Is the drill any good?
This seems to be the question that gets asked about just about every drill out there, and it’s not an unreasonable question, given that if you dig deep enough, you start to find some pretty gonzo stuff for self-defense drills. <cough>Voda<cough>
Well, first of all, it was born in combat, and it worked. Furthermore, given the fact that its been taught for decades, and has presumably been used quite a few times in CQB downrange in Afghanistan, Iraq, and various other places, it is a proven technique.
Furthermore, if you look at it objectively, from a mechanical perspective, it is designed to immediately incapacitate a threat in the most effective way possible—the above-mentioned “hydraulic” and “circuitry” shots. The chest shots are the first step, as a center-mass shot is considerably easier than a headshot. The headshot is to ensure that the threat is stopped, and may or may not actually be necessary, but is trained because in the event that it is necessary, it’s going to become that way faster than most people can adjust without having already drilled it.
There are, however, some cons to it. Like everything else, the Mozambique/Failure Drill isn’t a magic bullet. Headshots are hard to take, and they’re even harder when the target is moving, rather than being a stationary IPSC target at ten yards. That is why some units have instead focused more on multiple shots to the chest, rather than just a pair and a headshot. In the words of Clint Smith, “And if I shoot him and he keeps coming, I should do what? … Shoot him again! And again, and again, and again, and repeat, as required, until what I want to happen, happens.” Again, some of this comes down to training and proficiency. Some of it is also situation-dependent.
No shooting drill is perfect, no drill is the magic pill that is guaranteed to save your life. But the Mozambique/Failure Drill is a good baseline for a close-in, deadly force encounter, especially in a situation where your opponent is either too riled up to feel his heart and lungs getting destroyed, or too chemically enhanced (which is just as likely to happen in the inner city as on some battlefield against a bunch of ISIS fanatics). The Failure to Stop Drill is a good one to have in your toolbox.
To be prepared in today’s unprecedented and challenging times you would be remiss in omitting either hard skills or soft skills from your proverbial tool kit.
Hard Skills vs Soft Skills
Soft skills afford you three layers of threat preparation which hard skills cannot.
Hard Skills
Hard skills are those skills that require your physicality such as firearms, hand-to-hand combat, edged weapons defense, defensive driving, and the like. Hard skills by their very nature introduce a scale of injury and mandatory physical training.
Scale of Injury
If you plan on going toe-to-toe with one or more adversaries in a gunfight, knife fight, or old school knock-down, teeth slammed into a street curb fisticuffs, then you immediately raise your scale of injury.
At the lower end of the scale, you walk away from the fight without so much as a scratch. Although possible, it is highly unlikely. Next up on the scale of injury is a minor injury such as the need for a band-aid or ice for a bruise. Again, you can live with this but it’s still going to hurt, and most likely accompanying bloodshed.
The next level up on this same scale is a recoverable injury such as a broken arm or leg. Yes, you can recover from this at some point, maybe weeks or months down the road, but at that very moment, you are rendered combat ineffective and become a detriment to yourself and to those you may be trying to protect.
Advancing up the scale, the next level is a permanent injury such as loss of limb or an eye that cannot be repaired. Lastly is dead right there — sorry but nobody comes back. There is no return from these last two levels. The objective is to keep yourself and those with you at the lowest end of the scare.
Physical Training
All hard skills require formal training. Most people with zero firearms training and background believe that if they buy a gun or a knife for self-defense that they are magically protected from all harm. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, without proper training on safety, storage, carry and maintenance, you could very well end up hurting yourself. Contrary to popular belief we are not born into this world instinctively knowing how to shoot, fight with a knife, and drive.
All hard skills are perishable. Even after receiving professional instruction, you then need to maintain those skills. If you plan on using those skills to preserve life and limb then you’re probably going to want a high level of competency which means a higher level of commitment to your training. Regularly practicing your newly learned skills is the only way to stop hard skills erosion.
Relying on your hard skills is relying on your physical training, your continued practicing of those skills, and your willingness to incur physical injury or even death in a violent physical altercation.
Soft Skills
Soft skills are set at the exact opposite end of the survival spectrum from hard skills. Soft skills are those skills that do not require your physicality such as good situational awareness, threat recognition, verbal judo, and other such de-escalation techniques.
When planning a strategy or preparing tactics it’s important to know the difference between the two. Strategy describes the destination and how you’re going to get there. Tactics describe the specific actions you’re going to take along the way.
Soft skills can be utilized both strategically and tactically whereas hard skills can only be used tactically. Soft skills afford you three layers of threat preparation which hard skills cannot. These are: frequency, proactive measures, and a tactical advantage.
Frequency
Think back to the number of times you’ve had to go to guns, knife somebody in the face, or take somebody to the ground in a bloody fistfight (hard skill). Now compare this to the number of times you used your situational awareness to observe an anomaly that caught your attention, say someone swerving on the road next to you (soft skill).
Now apply a percentage to your for-real prior hard skills usage and do the same for your for-real prior soft skills usage. In most cases, for most normal earth-walkers, it’s something along the lines of 98% soft skills and 2% hard skills. Can you anticipate those same percentages for the remainder of your time here on earth? Yes. They are unlikely to change.
Odds are in your favor that you will most likely apply your soft skills prior to or in lieu of your hard skills.
Proactive Measures
Soft skills are inherently proactive measures. As with any real-world threat the bad guy always has the initiative at the beginning of any altercation. They determine the when, the where, and who they will target, what weapons will be used, and the like. You, on the other hand, are placed woefully behind the action-reaction power curve. Utilizing your soft skills to hear it, see it, smell it coming proactively places you closer to the front of the curve.
Active measures can be applied during an emerging threat such as two hoodlums following behind you on foot. Using your proactive measures, you observe that you are being tracked. Only after this can you then take active measures such as to walk across the street, and/ or change your pace to create space and buy yourself time.
The only remaining option after active measures is reactive measures where you didn’t see it coming, failed to be proactive, failed to take active measures and have found yourself up against the wall with a muzzle in your face. Here you have no other choice but to switch gears to your hard skills which are purely reactive measures.
Tactical Advantage
In addition to the strategic application of threat avoidance, soft skills can also be used to gain a tactical advantage. Either you control the threat, or the threat controls you. Utilizing the granddaddy of all soft skills, situational awareness, you can gain control of your immediate environment visually, with audio using your senses and all with mental interaction. Relevant incoming information affords you educated decisions.
Situational awareness can be used to detect, deter or delay a real-world threat. Awareness is the currency that buys you time and opportunity to solve the tactical problem.
The advantages of soft skills over hard skills are numerous. Soft skills can be utilized both strategically and tactically whereas hard skills can only be used tactically. Soft skills are utilized more frequently and can therefore be practiced regularly without anyone around you knowing. Soft skills are proactive measures as opposed to reactive measures. The better your soft skills, the greater your odds in solving a problem by staying ahead of the action-reaction power curve and not raising your scale of injury.
In today’s episode of The MagLife Podcast (formerly Gunfighter Cast), our discussion involves safety in the context offightingwith a gun. The 4 rules of gun safety are often taught from a “going to the range” or “attending a class” perspective, but they must be maintained when the fight is on as well. A self-induced Bad Thing is just as bad on the two-way range as it is in practice.
How complex can the fight be? How should you structure your training to address the most likely scenarios that might require you to defend yourself with deadly force?
You must control what you can control, hold yourself accountable for your own physical safety, your own personal weapon handling, and learning to fight realistically while following safety rules, such as the commonly used 4 rules of gun safety. That is advanced safety. That is advanced gun-handling.
Some of the terminologies used for the so-called “fundamental rules” have changed over the years, such as the rules that Daniel and Varg use, but the necessity to understand advanced gun-handling, to be viscerally aware of your trigger finger, your muzzle, your foreground and background, and all other surrounding factors — none of those have. Nor will they.
Check out some of the main topics discussed below:
1:55 it gets complicated
3:40 navigating unpredictable movement
6:13 look like a good guy
11:30 high ready vs low ready
12:39 artificiality of training
14:41 aiming cold guns
18:40 DS rule #1
20:12 VF rule
25:00 muzzle positioning
26:23 DS rule #2
28:30 safety
31:47 know your target
32:59 gas station example
37:13 get online with your partner
1:55VF says,
“I prioritize what I teach, by what I think is important through my experiences. Having seen a lot of violence and having been around a lot of really poor gun handlers in violent situations…[T]here were a lot of things that I picked up on that I incorporate into what I teach very naturally;
If you’re talking about fighting with a gun, the most important aspect is to not add more harm to the situation than is already there.
The way that we make a situation worse, is by not adhering to a level of safety that is conducive to keeping people safe.
The standard safety rules, the big 4 that people use, or the 3 from the NRA, those are circumstantial … and there are modifications that need to be made. I know a lot of people don’t like to stray from that because it ‘gets too complicated’. But fighting with a gun is a complicated thing, and if you can’t think on a somewhat complex level, then your ability to operate under pressure is probably not going to be that great.”
This is true in every aspect of life. Every bullet has a potential life attached to it. Proper gun handling is of paramount importance no matter where you’re walking out or stepping off — or for that matter why you picked up that weapon in the first place.
3:40VF says,
“When I have a weapon out in a public situation: One of the biggest concerns is, how do I move around other people who’re moving unpredictably?”
Safe gun-handling will likely become more difficult in an actual deadly force encounter. This is a screenshot of a church service in Texas from December 2019. It shows a man who shot and killed two people before two members of the church security team shot and killed him. Muzzle awareness and backdrop are obviously of great significance here.
“The security guys were armed and they drew their guns out. One guy nailed the bad guy from the back of the church and put him down, but he had already shot 2-3 people. It was the aftermath that we can learn the most from. You see all these security guys, and they pull tier firearms out in a church full of scared people because people had just been shot. So, people are panicking, some are on the floor, some are standing up, some are frozen, some are beginning to move. And you got guys running through the room with their pistols out, pointed in all these different directions. There’s no standard of movement and control amongst this group of people.”
“Mitigating risks is easy to do, if you train for it.” -VF
Look and Sound like the Good Guy
6:13DS Says,
“To the observer, to someone entering that room who just heard gun-shots and knows people have been shot and they see someone mishandling their firearm… that does not put in my mind that this person is well trained… my first thought may be, that looks like that bad guy. I’m a big believer in looking and sounding like a good guy when you have a gun out in a public environment. That is a part of safety. Not necessarily weapon’s handling, but it totally ties into weapons handling.
Or, you see someone moving with a purpose, handling their weapon in a way that is safe for everyone around them, and safe for themselves in a way that looks like they have some level of training and understanding of what to do when the gun is out in a public environment. Officers tell me all over the country that he may get commands, but he’s not getting bullets.”
4 Rules of Gun Safety
As Daniel Shaw instructs them.
Be relentlessly aware of your muzzle ensuring it is always pointed in the relative safest direction.
Keep your finger off the trigger and outside of the trigger guard until you are on target and have made the conscious decision to fire.
Keep the weapon on safe until you are on target and have made the conscious decision to fire.
Be certain of your target and that its foreground and background remain clear.
Example: Muzzle Awareness
8:25, VF says,
“If we talk about muzzle control during movement, and we talk about ways to manage your space, manage the muzzle, keeping control of the weapon. If there’s going to be contact or you’re in a potentially contact situation. How to achieve two-handed control on the weapon with muzzle control.
…One of the big things I talk about, is manipulation. Sometimes you have to manipulate your weapon in a downward position. Sometimes it needs to be up. To be able to change like that on the fly, and understand how to manipulate your weapon in those different positions, as the environment dictates, is truly a mark of someone that’s accomplished with their weapon [handling].”
There have been so many accidents throughout the years by guns that are understood and thought to be unloaded. That mindset that my gun is unloaded, so I can treat is differently now, is a horrible mindset to be in for any kind of weapons handling. -DS
9:46 DS says, “I need to be carrying, transporting, ready to deploy my gun in a way that is safe for me, safe for everyone else around me, but still, lethal for the bad guy.”
12:52 VF gives an example;
You’re at Dairy Queen, and active shooter breaks out, and there’s a whole baseball team of seven-year old’s having ice-cream. Sole position and muzzle down, is probably not going to be cool with a bunch of 3-foot-tall humans running around.
…you should think constantly, what does my environment call for me to do to keep this safe for me, and others around me, while still being effectively dangerous for the bad guy(s).
14:45 DS says, “There has been so many accidents throughout the years by guns that are understood and thought to be unloaded. That mindset that my gun is unloaded, so I can treat it differently now, is a horrible mindset to be in for any kind of weapons handling.”
Daniel & Varg Discussion on Safety Rules
18:40DS reveals his rule #1,
“My rule number one, no matter what situation you’re in, whether you’re in a house or a gas station, whether you have your child in front of you and you have to draw your gun, no matter what’s going on, be relentlessly aware of your muzzle, ensuring it’s always pointed in the relative safest direction. … a safe direction is relative to yourself, everybody else, and your bad guy.”
“My number one rule in the safety briefing is that; it is your responsibility to always know the condition of your weapon at all times, no exceptions. -VF
Ex:
“You can be in a situation where you’re cleaning your weapon and [then] you’re loading it, then you hear your child screaming from outside in bloody horror. You run out and they’ve fallen and ripped their knee open. There’s this big drama and your mind is now completely distracted. [Meanwhile], Number one, there’s a loaded weapon, unholstered laying on your workbench. Number two, will you remember the gun’s condition when you come back to it?”
It is not limited to just situational awareness and being switched on. Complacency kills, overseas at home. On the job, on the street, at the range, in the home. A responsible gun owner or gun-carrying professional strives to avoid complacency in training, in gun handling, in anything whatsoever do with that weapon.
20:12 VF explains another rule [one that isn’t in the standardized “4 Rules of Gun Safety”]: “Don’t handle a weapon unless it’s in your master grip…
It’s master grip, full muscular control, intentional awareness of the gun when it’s in your hand. That’s how we start knowing the condition of the gun at all times.
This is a complex situation and you have complex problems that you have to solve when you’re going into a fight with a gun. And it’s [going to] get very, very confusing for some people if you’ve never trained before. If you have to jump into a home defense situation, there are moving parts that you don’t understand or have never thought about before. In the midst of all this coming at you, you still have to intentionally control that gun and have complete control over yourself at the same time…. This requires constant practice.”
26:23 DS next rule:
“Keep your finger off the trigger and outside the trigger guard, until you’re on target and you have made the conscious decision to fire. Your finger doesn’t go on the trigger while changing levels, or [when you’re] moving from position to position. Your finger should only be on the trigger when you’re in the act of shooting…The last thing I’m going to do is flip the safety down while not even losing time on this. You have a skill deficit if you believe the safety slows you down. If it does, you need more training.
31:47 VF says, “You should always know your target, what’s behind it, what’s in front of it, and what’s flanking it on both sides. As shots start firing and people start panicking and running, how many people could run in your line of fire?”
How many guns in the fight?
If I’m not online or I don’t allow my partner to move online and I’m not being a good partner. I am bringing more risk to myself. You have to do your best to allow everyone to get in that fight. It’s going to keep you safer and everyone else around you. -DS
40:10 VF responds, “Absolutely, and that’s the kicker right there; the compounding of combat power. Bringing the biggest force you can to the fight. If you cut your partner out of it, you’re endangering yourself more, because there’s one less gun in the fight.”
Final Thoughts
We hope this episode of The MagLife Podcast has inspired thought beyond the surface of safety rules as they are often presented and discussed. If you have any questions, comments or ideas send us an email or comment on this post. We would love to hear from you.
Gunmag Warehouse’s own Director of Marketing, Daniel Shaw is a retired US Marine Infantry Unit Leader with multiple combat tours and instructor titles. Since retirement from the Marine Corps, Daniel teaches Armed Citizens and Law Enforcement Officers weapons, tactics and use of force.
Daniel takes his life of training and combat experience and develops as well as presents curriculum and creates digital media content to help Law Enforcement, US Military and Responsible Armed Citizens prepare for a deadly force encounter. When he isn’t directing marketing for Gunmag Warehouse, Daniel travels the US teaching and training under his company, Shaw Strategies, and discusses all things hoplological and self-defense related on The MagLife Podcast.
You’ve been involved in a defensive shooting — ideally a shooting and not a gunfight. What comes after? What should you do post-engagement? Here’s a hint: it’s not just flipping your head around dramatically in a theatric scan-and-assess. In today’s episode, we discuss what to do after. Though important, situational awareness is necessarily different in every situation. However, to develop the proper mindset Daniel presents his system that if used in the course of training will help you prioritize your post-defensive shooting actions. Mindset, mission, purpose, and mental-emotional preparation can help save your life and protect your loved ones. We’ll talk about that.
Listen to the podcast, or feel free to jump to a specific topic in episode 166…
Defensive Shooting: what comes next?
02:00 listen to the environment
02:34 what to ask yourself
04:24 access threats
05:37 training awareness
08:40 fighting with no cues
09:45 looking at things not for things
11:23 training in a shoot-house scenario
16:52 mindset focus
18:00 context and discussion: a short story by DS
24:00 comfort in discomfort
Scan and Assess
Should you scan after a defensive shooting?
2:00 VF says,
“I try not to be dogmatic about (this is what you do [after] every time you pull the trigger), you do this exact procedure.
It’s more about trying to find out what the environment is telling me and what the highest priority need is going to be.
The first one is going to be safety, then after that, we look at; do we need to fight more?”
2:34 DS suggests the questions you should be thinking to determine your next priority,
“This threat… does it need more bullets? Is it over? Can I stop shooting to evacuate my child? Is there anything else here that can hurt me?
There’s this idea that you can’t leave the scene and where it came from I don’t know.
It’s situational…”
4:24 VF says, “If it’s important enough to shoot, it’s important enough to make sure its shot. From there, the tasks are prioritized by the environment…
[Ask yourself] …what are the highest threats to my safety and what are the avenues to deal with it?
If someone wants to train scans, I’m ok with it, I just encourage people not to do it every single time they shoot.”
Mindset: Prioritization
Daniel’s mindset priorities:
Does he or she need more bullets?
Is there anything else here that can hurt me?
Am I in the most survivable location?
What’s my next problem to solve?
Training, mindset…is way more important than where you look around -VF
5:37 VF says,
“You go to an indoor shooting range, and you got these black ballistic walls that are eighteen inches on each side of your head… you’re essentially training yourself to look at nothing, because you know there’s nothing there, and I don’t support that type of training. I don’t think it’s conducive to creating the type of awareness that allows you to prioritize the tasks when you look at the environment.”
8:40 DS says,
“I see it all the time where someone doesn’t know what to do, they’re standing in a vulnerable spot, they’re not in a great location, they just had to shot somebody and they’re looking for the next thing to do, and they can’t figure it out because they’re not receiving any cues.
…Third piece of my thought process is; am I standing in the most survivable location? “
Vulnerable civilians are seen panicking to find safety after a shooting took place at this airport in Florida.
9:45 VF says,
“You need to stop looking for things and start looking at things.”
Here, a teacher in Arlington, Texas is getting trained to carry a gun in their classrooms, so that if a gunman ever comes to their school they’ll be ready to protect their students. The teachers are never told who will be walking through the door; a threat or a student.
Ex: [During training] “…If you have to go through a door into a room where they don’t know what’s there. A lot of times they’re expecting to see something there. They’re looking for a bad guy with a gun, this predetermined image in their head. If you get through the door and that’s not what you encounter, your brain has to loop all the way back and re-figure out what you’re looking at. The trip back to that square one would be a lot shorter if you didn’t have an expectation already set.
You [should] go into an open room with an open mind, and you’re looking at what’s in front of you, not looking for something.”
11:17 DS adds; “Looking for something vs at something results in no-shoot targets getting shot.”
11:23 VF’s shoot-house scenario training method for civilians;
Ex:
“I’ll put an active shooter in what would be a bank. You got someone in there talking to the banker about a mortgage, you got a couple of people working in there, then an active shooter comes in looking for their estranged wife (or whatever), and one of the scenarios is;
I’ll send in a second shooter. Either an average CCW guy, trying to help but he’s not doing it properly which is fully expected, and then you’ve got officers responding. I’ll use real police in those roles. Then I’ll have civilians in there who just got into an engagement with an active shooter, and now you’ve got a gun coming around the corner at you. Its either going to be; a second bad guy, a second good guy, or a law enforcement officer and if you’re looking for juts a gun, all three of those guys are going to get shot.”
15:19 VF says: “If all you’re doing is going to the range and doing fast draws, working on your draw stroke, putting a lot of rounds downrange, you can shoot great [that’s a good start], but the mindset component can’t be skipped.
Unfortunately, a lot of classes don’t deliver a mindset component because the flashy shooting part, is the most popular part in the industry and it’s the most fun…
Gunfighting is like 10-20% shooting and 80-90% thinking.”
Its training and thinking on the range, on a level where recognize our assets, our vulnerabilities, and figure out a way to mitigate those vulnerabilities and increase our assets – DS
DSCreates training with unpredictable elements, foregrounds, and backgrounds, to enforce mindset essentials on the range;
“It’s usually a very big eye-opener for a lot of folks about how many times they didn’t even recognize that there was a target right behind that [other] target, they didn’t clear a foreground or background, or didn’t make the right movement… yes you’re shooting guns, but it’s really just trained thinking in problem solving and mindset”
20:00 VFagrees by adding, “And you shock a lot of people because they actually become shocked by their own behavior, they don’t expect themselves to respond the way they did and realize they weren’t even close to figuring it out.”
“Plans rarely work out when they meet contact.” – DS
24:01 VF says, “I have had some pretty deep experiences with violence myself, numerous times. After a while, if you’ve got what it takes, you begin to develop this ability to rapidly adapt to a situation. What happens is, after the situation starts to unfold into chaos, or a more hostile event, you adapt and using your mindset, you just do your job.
That could be taking all this information in at a super rapid rate. You have all this stuff happening; people running, things are moving, there are bullets flying, all this crazy stuff is happening. Your ability to take that in and process it very often improves over time. In my case it did. I became more comfortable in hostile situations.”
17:25 VF says; “It matters how you conduct your training. And of course, it comes down to anything else, you get what you put into it. If you go there [a square range] invested in “I want to get faster and shoot better,” that’s all you’re going to get if you’re lucky.
…Or, you get your mind opened up by a good instructor [that teaches you that] the decisions are going to come at you so fast, and sometimes you’re going to have choices between great decisions, good decisions, and sometimes it’s going to be between two bad decisions. That’s just how it goes. Sometimes you have to do that. There are things that you may have to do that are not comfortable, but you have to be able to process those thoughts, while you’re in a super elevated condition, physiologically and psychologically
Check out Daniel’s short story: The First Step, explains what was going on in his head during one of the moments leading up to his first firefight in the Battle of An Nasiriyah, on March 23rd, 2003.
Gunmag Warehouse’s own Director of Marketing, Daniel Shaw is a retired US Marine Infantry Unit Leader with multiple combat tours and instructor titles. Since retirement from the Marine Corps, Daniel teaches Armed Citizens and Law Enforcement Officers weapons, tactics and use of force.
Daniel takes his life of training and combat experience and develops as well as presents curriculum and creates digital media content to help Law Enforcement, US Military and Responsible Armed Citizens prepare for a deadly force encounter. When he isn’t directing marketing for Gunmag Warehouse, Daniel travels the US teaching and training under his company, Shaw Strategies, and discusses all things hoplological and self-defense related on The MagLife Podcast.
With the high level of civil unrest currently racing across the country, unsuspecting motorists are suddenly finding themselves caught in the middle of riots. They often get attacked by the mob, dragged out of their vehicle, and beaten, even though they had nothing to do with the protest and did not instigate the riot. They were truly victims of a mob mentality that feeds off its own energy. How do you survive this type of encounter if it happens to you?
First – Avoid
Obviously, if you can avoid the situation, do it. This starts by watching the news or online to find out where the unrest is happening so you can stay away. Do you really need to go downtown today, or can it wait? Often, cities will post protest schedules on their websites – assuming the protesting group got a permit – to alert everyone to street closures and re-routes.
Courtesy of Imminent Threat Solutions.
Sometimes, however, protestors don’t follow the rules (big shock, I know) and will meet up in areas unexpectedly. You turn the corner thinking you’re on a safe street and suddenly there is a mob marching straight at you. What do you do? Get out of there! Turn around and drive away. You probably don’t need to pull off any Hollywood stunt driving or jam a tactical J-turn, but make a quick-yet-safe exit from the area ASAP. There is no shame in beating a hasty retreat, especially if you have your family with you.
There are skills you can practice now to avoid bad situations before the threat becomes real. For example, thinking ahead all the time, in your everyday life, so you’ll be ready if the need arises.
“Condition yourself now by practicing reading the terrain,” says Charles (CK) Redlinger, former Law Enforcement Trainer for the Department of Defense. “Always look ahead several vehicles so you can gain insight on what is potentially waiting for you ahead. This is a good strategy when driving anytime, protest of not.”
But Now You’re Stuck
What do you do if you can’t get away from the riot because the mob suddenly formed out of nowhere and you’re surrounded? This can happen anytime, anywhere, not just under the current national unrest, so you need to be prepared all the time. First, carry a gun. This may seem obvious – you’re on a gun website, after all – but do you carry it all the time? You need to. Bad things don’t just happen in bad parts of town and at convenient times when you happen to be prepared. Take a cue from the Boy Scouts and be prepared – always!
Courtesy of NPR.
Now, this doesn’t mean you’re going to use the gun. You might, but keep it holstered for now. There are a few things that you should do first that might help you avoid a confrontation. Can you get out of the mob without hurting anyone? Will they let you just leave? Sometimes newly formed mobs still have enough respect to understand you’re not involved and will move out of the way to let you leave without incident. If so, great! Thank them on the way out and drive away safely.
There are certain “tricks” you can learn and practice to make your evacuation quicker and safer.
“Start practicing now when you drive to factor in a vehicular reactionary gap,” says Redlinger. “That means giving yourself enough room to escape by leaving at least a car length of distance between your vehicle and the vehicle or object in front of you. Don’t stop at red lights with your front bumper almost touching the car in front of you.”
If the mob won’t let you leave, that still doesn’t mean you’re in any danger. They might let you move along with them slowly if you don’t show any signs of hostility toward them. This is no time to pick a fight. Even if you disagree with their cause, keep your mouth shut. Be nice no matter what you think of what they are protesting. This is not the time to debate the merits of their cause. You just want to leave safely. Remember, it’s better to deescalate than escalate. If your windows are up, open them a crack and ask the closest protestor if you can drive out. Explain that you don’t want to get involved and just want to get out of their way. This may be all you need to get some cooperation that will get you out of there.
If being nice to the protestors doesn’t work and you feel that your life is in danger, it might be time to take decisive action. CAUTION: This is also where things can get legally sticky. Engage with deadly force only if you can legally and morally justify it. This will be a judgment call in the incident. Remember that deadly force can only be used to protect life, not property. If they are beating on your car but not coming after you or your loved ones, hold off on deadly force. Once the threat moves to the passengers, the game changes drastically.
The level of force you use depends entirely on the level of the threat. Redlinger advises, “When you find yourself boxed in and feel threatened, can you escape by damaging property first before using deadly force?”
Courtesy of USACarry.com.
If the person outside the window just broke through, for example, and is trying to beat on you, he or she is so far your only threat. Deal with that accordingly. It could mean using your gun or improvising another solution.
Sometimes a non-lethal alternative such as mace or bear spray can do the trick. Just make sure the nozzle is outside glass so you won’t spray yourself.
If the mob in front is starting to gang up on you, it might be time to escalate the action. Your car can be considered a deadly weapon, which is both good and bad. The good side is you can use it to stop a mass threat. The bad side is that using it can turn on you in court. Check your local laws to know what is allowed and not allowed when trying to escape a crowd.
We have seen instances of rioters slashing tires of vehicles trying to escape. Don’t let this stop you. It only takes 11 seconds for a mob to flip a car, so you need to get out of there immediately, even if all four tires are flat. You’ll be amazed how far you can drive on flat tires. Get as far away as you can, safely out of riot range, before stopping to call AAA. And tell them they may need to bring a few extra tires.
Train Shooting from Your Car
Before you ever get involved with a mob, you need to have the skillset and training to handle the situation. This includes drawing and shooting from a seated position in your car. Train with an expert in urban combat, someone who understands the unique dynamics of vehicular engagements, such as how to draw, how to shoot through windows, and other important skills. This will not only help you in the moment but also in court when the prosecuting attorney tries to impeach your abilities and judgment. The more training you have, the better you look to a jury.
Positioning your gun is critical, just in case you need to use it. You probably have a favorite carry position, chosen because it’s comfortable and you can quickly access your gun. But can you access it from a seated position? If you appendix carry, you’re set up for success, but if you strong side carry, it may be tough to clear your cover garment, lean forward, and unholster your gun. Not saying it can’t be done, but it will take additional training. Keep in mind that you will likely have to draw with the seatbelt on, restricting your forward motion. This is to prevent someone from yanking you out of the car.
If you must shoot through a window, remember there will be flying glass — not just out toward the target but also back at you. Keep a pair of sunglasses or clear glasses handy to protect your eyes from flying shards. If you’re already wearing glasses, those will work fine. Keep in mind, however, that many of these encounters happen at night when you’re probably not wearing your sunglasses (unless you’re Corey Hart cool).
When shooting from a car, be fully aware of where others are seated. The last thing you want is to put an innocent person in the crossfire. If the others in the car have guns and engage, too, divide and conquer by sectioning off the car using verbal commands.
Coverage
Perhaps this should have been at the beginning of the article because it’s something you should do immediately, but be sure you have legal protection in the form of some sort of legal defense fund. Companies such as US Law Shield (no, this is not a paid endorsement) and others will help pay for your legal defense should you be arrested and charged with a crime relating to your actions. Remember, getting arrested doesn’t mean you’re guilty — only that you’ve been charged and will have your day in court.
As always, your best bet is to avoid the situation in the first place. You really don’t want to get caught up in a riot. But if you find yourself stuck despite your best efforts, know what you can and cannot do to get you and your loved ones out safely.
Did you know we have a badass YouTube channel – you’d be doing yourself a solid by visiting. Me nem nesa.
David Workman is an avid gun guy, a contributing writer to several major gun publications, and the author of Absolute Authority. A logophile since way back, Workman is a quickdraw punslinger and NRA RSO and Certified Pistol Instructor. He helps train new shooters on basic handgun skills and CCW requirements and is a strong advocate for training as much as practicable. “Real-world shootouts don’t happen at a box range.”
