{"id":12975,"date":"2016-02-13T18:32:28","date_gmt":"2016-02-13T18:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/?p=12975"},"modified":"2016-02-13T18:32:28","modified_gmt":"2016-02-13T18:32:28","slug":"stop-the-stupidness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/stop-the-stupidness\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop the Stupidness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"S-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As much as some tactards would have us believe, self-defense is not an all or nothing proposition. The notion that you have to train daily, adhere to some strict doctrine, carry only certain firearms, ammo, and gear, and support your carry with multiple extra magazines, pepper spray, a striking instrument and a blade sharp enough to shave the abominable snowman is not just ludicrous, its paranoia at the highest level.<\/p>\n

Based on the ravings of some so-called professionals, your failure to do all of the above means your only option is to hire them and their band of merry men as body guards, because you are inept. Alternatively, you can take their one-week shooting course and be just like them\u2026tactical pants, tattoos, ball cap, and beard.<\/p>\n

Self-defense is more of a mindset than a representation of equipment. In a life or death situation your will to fight, win, and never give up will account for more than all the gear you can carry. Additionally, your alertness and adherence to the Principles of Personal Defense<\/a>, as presented by Jeff Cooper, is the primary key to your survival.<\/p>\n

\"S-4\"<\/a>
Can a high-end pistol like this Nighthawk with XS Big Dot Sights and a Crimson Trace laser grip enhance your self-defense situation? For sure, but not as much as the proper mindset.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mindset is the only all or nothing element of personal protection. For those with religious faith, the analogy is relevant; you must believe. It does not matter what you wear to church, how often you go, or how much attention you give to the sermon presented. You must, unconditionally believe. With self-defense you must believe that you will fight to the end, as hard and as long as is necessary, with all the violence you can muster.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t let your feelings of safety be belittled by those who claim the .380 you carry is not sufficient to save you. Don\u2019t think you have to kit out like a Delta Force operative to go to the grocery store. With the right mindset and minimal gear you can prevail.\u00a0Learn to use what you will dedicate yourself to carry on a daily basis. Develop the mindset that you will fight to your last breath. Commit to confronting a threat with all the will, strength, and speed you can muster. And, more importantly, don\u2019t live in condition white, with the assumption that the world around you is nothing but rainbows and gummy bears.<\/p>\n

\"S-2\"<\/a>
A self-defense handgun course is a great idea, especially if presented by a school grounded in common sense. If they offer to make you a ninja in a week, it’s the wrong school.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The minutia of self-defense and surviving a violent confrontation can be broken down to the point of nausea. Doing so\u00a0feeds the families of gun writers \u2013 guys like me – and the multitude of new age tactical trainers. It has its place; it makes people think. But the truth is that the effective employment of a defensive handgun in a life-threatening situation is really a very simple task grounded in common sense.<\/p>\n

If you can afford a training course and can dedicate one of the 52 weeks the year gives you to that course, intense dedication will allow you to leave that course with nothing more than a solid foundation. If you pick the right teacher, in a week you can learn to present your handgun swiftly, effectively engage a target out to about 10 yards, and develop the skills necessary to manipulate your handgun and keep it in the fight. That\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n

If you dedicate at least one day per month and about 1000 rounds to practice each year, you might be able to maintain those skills. The truth is most folks cannot meet that bar due to lack of commitment, lack of time, and lack of money. Forget the ninja bullshit, develop the mindset, and then master the basics.<\/p>\n

\"S-3\"<\/a>
Gunsite Academy has been teaching self-defense with a handgun for 40 years. They now offer common sense courses on the East Coast. You don’t last that long teaching stupidness.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As much as some tactards would have us believe, self-defense is not an all or nothing proposition. The notion that you have to train daily, adhere to some strict doctrine, carry only certain firearms, ammo, and gear, and support your carry with multiple extra magazines, pepper spray, a striking instrument and a blade sharp enough to shave the abominable snowman is not …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2509,2579,1],"tags":[138,111,2590,575],"class_list":["post-12975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense","category-editorial","category-uncategorized","tag-firearms-training","tag-gunsite-academy","tag-self-defense-schools","tag-tactards"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5hujZ-3nh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8145,"url":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/logic-and-concealed-carry-permits\/","url_meta":{"origin":12975,"position":0},"title":"Logic and Concealed Carry Permits","author":"gunwriter","date":"January 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In an effort to support a future dissertation on the logic associated with concealed carry permits and training, I've assembled a few polls. I'm interested to see the results and am open to comments too: [poll id=\"27\"] [poll id=\"20\"] [poll id=\"21\"] [poll id=\"22\"] [poll id=\"23\"] [poll id=\"24\"] [poll id=\"25\"] [poll\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "DEFENSE"","block_context":{"text":"DEFENSE","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/category\/defense\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Versacarry is an affordable and comfortable way to carry a handgun. In my opinion it is the most covertly comfortable way to carry a handgun concealed.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Versacarry-Post-200x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13763,"url":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/the-ar-versus-the-scout-rifle\/","url_meta":{"origin":12975,"position":1},"title":"The AR versus the Scout Rifle","author":"gunwriter","date":"August 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I like ARs, I own ARs, and I hunt with ARs; hell, I even wrote a book about ARs. Some folks like to use the term \u201cModern Sporting Rifle \u2013 MSR to describe the AR but I think this is nothing more than an extension of political correctness. It's an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "DEFENSE"","block_context":{"text":"DEFENSE","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/category\/defense\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Scout-12","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Scout-12.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Scout-12.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Scout-12.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Scout-12.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10895,"url":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/best-of-empty-cases-2014\/","url_meta":{"origin":12975,"position":2},"title":"Best of Empty Cases 2014","author":"gunwriter","date":"December 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Even though the Empty Cases BLOG had a major crash in late 2014, the most popular posts survived. So, here are the top four\u00a0for 2014 along with number 5; a late December entry\u00a0that has already run up a lot of views. (5) Johnny Walker - Hillbilly Appalachia is a cultural\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Elk Skinners\"","block_context":{"text":"Elk Skinners","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/tag\/elk-skinners\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"JW-2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/JW-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15561,"url":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/check-out-the-first-season-of-gunsite-academy-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":12975,"position":3},"title":"Check out the first season of Gunsite Academy NOW!","author":"gunwriter","date":"June 22, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Gunsite Academy NOW! is a series of short lessons from a variety of classes offered at Gunsite Academy. Watch as Gunsite's world-class instructors demonstrate why Gunsite Academy is the premier civilian firearms training destination in the world.","rel":"","context":"In "DEFENSE"","block_context":{"text":"DEFENSE","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/category\/defense\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Raven.jpg?fit=573%2C407&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Raven.jpg?fit=573%2C407&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Raven.jpg?fit=573%2C407&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7971,"url":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/simply-our-my-duty\/","url_meta":{"origin":12975,"position":4},"title":"Super Cool – Reloaded","author":"gunwriter","date":"January 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"UPDATE: Looks like this post was driving so much traffic to the video that the manufacturer thought it best to not let anyone see it anymore. (My job is done.) MORE RECENT UPDATE: The video is live again! Being the idiot gun writers that some think we are, it is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"gun junk\"","block_context":{"text":"gun junk","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/tag\/gun-junk\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7375,"url":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/is-the-blackout-a-wipeout\/","url_meta":{"origin":12975,"position":5},"title":"Is the Blackout a Wipeout?","author":"gunwriter","date":"August 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Its seems that all you hear about anymore - at least from tactards, tacturds and even some folks who seem rather normal on the outside - is the .300 Blackout. I gotta admit it is a cool name though I have no idea what it means. A friend of mine\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "DEFENSE"","block_context":{"text":"DEFENSE","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/category\/defense\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/IMG_2848-245x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12975"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12986,"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12975\/revisions\/12986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}