13
Trends in CHL class enrollment, revisited
Demand for CHL training seems to be easing up a bit.
15
The psychology behind the SEP field
I came across a very good article on another blog which has some research on what is commonly known as the “Bystander Effect”. Read more about it [...]
4
Independence Day 2010
On this July 4th, consider just how close we are to losing what our forefathers fought to give us.
3
Security in the Home: Vacation Electrical Timer
One of the items mentioned in the NRA Refuse to be a Victim class is a simple electrical timer to turn lamps or TVs on/off at various times in order to make it look like someone is home. Such timers are also good for other purposes…
27
Trends in CHL Class Enrollment
The CHL course prepares you for a gunfight about as well as buying a piano makes you a musician. That, and other changes, have led me to branch out into NRA classes.
13
Large CHL classes vs. small CHL classes
The GDR Fundraiser was a huge success, but I found that some of the techniques I use for smaller classes don’t scale very well, so I am adjusting my procedures accordingly.
29
Clear Your Space
The typical criminal considers himself successful if he gets away, regardless of whether he accomplishes possession of whatever it is he is trying to steal.
29
You Will Fight the way you Practice
The last thing I mentioned in the last post is “Just be sure you practice the correct things.” So this is really just a continuation of the [...]
28
Understand Combat Stress
Stress is a marksmanship-killer. It is estimated that the typical police officer loses up to 80% of his marksmanship skills during his first deadly-force encounter.
29
Stay out of that Car
If some lowlife is trying to force you to enter a car, why do suppose that might be?
28
Lock the Door
Once upon a time, folks left doors unlocked, and didn’t have to worry about it. I know my grandmother did back when she lived in Dexter, NM.
16
It’s not Possible to Out-Draw an Already-Drawn Gun
There is a saying in aviation that the superior pilot conscientiously avoids situations that might call for his superior piloting skills. That should be the practice of the skilled CHL holder, too.
3
Get Away ASAP
If you are facing a bad guy pulling a gun at close range, your best course of action is probably to get as far away as quickly as possible, and NOT to try to out-draw an already-drawn gun.
1
Keep it hidden
I am not philosophically opposed to open carry. In fact, I would be all for it. But I would not openly carry my handgun even if legal, unless there was no other choice.
26
Rules That May Save Your Life
I have three collections of various “rules” from a variety of places that I use in my CHL classes. This post covers the set that I call “Ten Rules That May Save Your Life.”
20
Greater Dallas Republican Fund-Raising Class
I have arranged with the Greater Dallas Republicans to do a fund-raising CHL class for them on May 30
12
The Reason Behind the Dry-Firing Rules
In my last post, I wrote about the rules for dry firing, and hinted about the story behind those rules. Probably the most important of those rules is the one about making a definite mental break after you are done dry firing.
3
Dry Firing Rules
Last week, I gave my justifications for using dry firing as a regular technique for improving marksmanship. I mentioned that I cover some rules meant to make [...]
24
Dry Firing
One of the things I cover in my CHL class is how to dry-fire safely. I present some rules for dry firing that arose from an unfortunate [...]
18
SmartCarry review, revisited
I got my SmartCarry holster back in July (See my initial review). At the time it was my favorite holster, the only one that I could find [...]
12
Important change in Texas CHL Law, section 411.171
Sealed Juvenile convictions are no longer considered when applying for a Texas CHL. You still have to report the arrest, and provide documentation of the order to seal the records.
11
Changes coming to CHL-TX.COM
Even though I have more than 30 years experience as a programmer, I am fairly new to web programming (after all, from my perspective, the Web is [...]
7
Phishing and social engineering
My ‘little’ brother (also a CHL Instructor) has been collecting and investigating phishing and related scam emails lately. Here is one of the ‘better’ ones, employing some [...]
28
Is it time to buy a gun?
For me, it’s time to buy a gun pretty much anytime I can afford another one. In fact, I’m shopping for a couple of them right now. [...]
25
It seems strange to have to wear earplugs at a symphony concert…
As a CHL instructor, I have gotten into the habit of always having a set of those memory-foam earplugs in a little case in my pocket. I [...]
17
It’s a small world after all…
The name Bob Taylor isn’t particularly rare, so I didn’t really think much about my cruise dining companion for the first couple of days. I was on [...]
7
Icy streets in Dallas, Snow in London
It’s cold this morning in Dallas, but the streets appear to be passible, and I don’t anticipate any problems getting to work. Unlike some folks in other [...]
22
Video is the new ‘net cancer
I have had some semi-serious interest in internet marketing for some time now, although I have been thoroughly turned off by MLM and other obvious scams targeted [...]
28
Contesting: The Name it and Claim it Game (Book Review)
Contesting: The Name It and Claim It Game : Wineuvers for Wishcraft by Helen Hadsell, published by Top of the Mountain Publishing. I saw this book super-hyped [...]
21
Funny thing happened on the way to El Paso…
I got on the plane, put my stuff in the overhead bin, and sat down & fastened my seat belt. After a few minutes, a female voice [...]
18
40-year High School Reunion
I’m about 5 book reviews behind (yes, I read a lot), but life just happens while you are busy making other plans. I’ve been really busy the [...]
27
How to Get the Best Deal on Health Care
Healthcare has been in the news a lot lately, and that has caused me to reflect on some of my own experiences with healthcare. I had a [...]
8
Project 2996, Remembering Michael J. Berkeley
I signed up for project 2996 about a month ago, and was assigned a name of one of the 2,996 people killed in the WTC atrocity. The [...]
5
What kind of gun should I buy?
A handgun is not a “one-size-fits-all” sort of thing. But there are some general guidelines that will help you buy a gun that fits you.
16
BRASS: Key to Good Marksmanship
A common acronym used by the military to teach elementary marksmanship is BRASS. I use this in my CHL classes. It stands for: Breathe. The sequence of [...]
30
Book Review: The End of Overeating
It’s been a while since I did a book review, so I thought I would plug one of the most important books that I have read in [...]
21
A review: The SmartCarry
Back when I first got my CHL, my instructor warned me that I would probably spend more on holsters than guns. I didn’t believe him. For a [...]
3
My Marksmanship Epiphany
Epiphany (n): A sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or [...]
1
Independence Day Parade in Plano
Now that I’m no longer president of the Plano Early Lions Club (http://www.planolions.org), I should have a little more time for other things — including being more [...]
29
NRA Basic Pistol Instructor Certification
I had a busy weekend. I made the trip up to ShootSafe Academy to take the 20-hour instructor’s course to qualify to teach the NRA Basic Pistol [...]
1
CPR and First Aid
I now have an up-to-date CPR card good for two years; I took the CPR refresher course yesterday, and also took the basic first aid course. I’m [...]
26
Blog move
It was both easier and harder than I anticipated to move the blog. Easier because the WordPress software did a lot of the work for me, harder [...]
25
Ironic
When I went back to correct a typo in the last post, I discovered that the word count in that post was 380.
24
Where did the .380 ammo go?
You have probably noticed that .380 rounds are simply not available anywhere at any price, and if you carry a .380, you are probably wondering what happened. [...]
30
The Constitution of the United States
Have you read the Constitution? Lately? Are you generally familiar with what it says? If not, why not? It’s easily available (at least for now) on the [...]
26
Swine Flu Hysteria
20 Confirmed cases of Swine Flu across the US, and there is a National Emergency. Sometimes I wonder how this sort of thing grabs the headlines. The [...]
22
Summarize
Well, I finally got around to writing about the last step in the LEAPS sequence. “Solve” would also work here, except that you just can’t solve every [...]
27
Paraphrase
This is the feedback step, one of the most important parts of the LEAPS process. This is how you confirm that you really understand what the other [...]
19
Ask
In order to communicate your empathy, it is necessary to ask questions. Your questions need to be neutral and obviously geared toward soliciting the other person’s viewpoint. [...]
6
Empathize
To have empathy for someone does not mean that you agree with that person. It means that you understand what that person is feeling, and perhaps why [...]
2
Listen
The first letter of LEAPS stands for listen, a typically underdeveloped skill in most folks. I know that I’ve personally found this to be a challenge. There [...]
29
LEAPS
There is a highly effective way to improve interpersonal communication that is taught as a regular part of the Texas CHL course, in the section entitled “Non-Violent [...]
28
Black Friday, indeed
This morning, a WalMart clerk was trampled to death by a mob of morons that charged the door as it was opened. This Black Friday crap has [...]
4
Why not just sit this one out?
If you aren’t sure about who to vote for, just consider that you do not have any duty to vote. You should just sit this one out, [...]
12
Bigotry
The subject of bigotry came up in my last class, and I didn’t really get around to discussing it in much depth. It occurred to me that [...]
10
New Applicants Increase, Renewals Taper Off
Over the last 8 or 9 months, I have noticed that even as my new-applicant classes have been consistently full (and occasionally, I have to turn away [...]
11
September 11th, 2008
Seven years ago today, a handful of young Arab terrorists were able to murder more than 3,000 people because US airline crews were unarmed. Terrorists and other [...]
10
WordPress Upgrade
Silly me, I have been running an old version of WordPress for this blog ever since I started it. I was blissfully unaware of the existence of [...]
20
DPS is SWAMPED
I have been hearing from my March and April students that they haven’t gotten their licenses yet. According to a local radio news story, the DPS is [...]
23
Shady dealings in Internet marketing?
I mentioned before that I was interested in internet marketing in general. Well, I finally broke down and bought one of those $9.95 e-books, mainly because it [...]
28
Overbooking
I don’t much care for overbooking. Airlines do it, even with the possibility of having to deny boarding to some passengers if everybody actually shows up. They [...]
29
Followup on Blog course
Ok, I finally got a chance to look at Joyner’s multi-media blogging course. Kind of amusing, in a melancholy sort of way. I’ve been following several different [...]
20
A multimedia blogging course
I see that I’m not exactly setting the world afire with this blog, so I thought I’d try something different. I follow a number of mailing lists [...]
6
Funky Winkerbean
For those of you who are not Funky Winkerbean fans, you are missing out on a great comic strip. This strip is a bit out of the [...]
22
The strangest gig I ever had
Back in early 2005, I got what turned out to be the strangest gig I have ever landed. I was chosen to be a soloist for a [...]
20
Starting a new blog
I have tried posting book reviews before (a couple of years ago), but I was doing it by hand in HTML, and it got so tedious that [...]