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Thread: Evolution of Mindset

  1. #21
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    Good thread. I think that many may have gone through the same or fairly similar progression.

    I remain very glad that I discovered this forum, as it moved me quickly beyond the foolish ignorance and complete lack of skills that I had when I first began shooting pistol. This forum (and pistol-training.com) accelerated my increase of awareness of what 'good' pistol shooting and high-level skills are. This reoriented my focus away from just owning & blasting a pistol to actually understanding what separates poor from average from top level shooter

    Thanks, Todd.



    Ubervic, forgive me for chopping up your post ^^^^, but some things didn't apply to me. The last two words? They belong/apply to ALL of us!
    Last edited by 11B10; 10-17-2018 at 07:32 AM.

  2. #22
    Site Supporter rob_s's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by David S. View Post
    I still think this article, Becoming a Civilian Defender by @Sherman A. House DDS, is the best place for most to start.

    He suggests his list be accomplished in order:
    1. Criminology/Street Smarts/Physical Preparedness
    2. Defensive Driving
    3. Emergency Medical
    4. Legal Preparation, Aftermath and Rules of Engagement
    5. Less Lethal skills
    6. Handgun Carry Course
    7. Handgun Skills and Tactics Course
    8. Defensive Tactics




    WRT 1, Criminology/Street Smarts/Physical Preparedness: Subscribe / follow Aprill Risk Consulting (on Facebook or Intstagram) and the Active Self Protection main channel (on Facebook or YouTube). Skim through Dr Aprill's short news clippings and his comments and watch John Correia's short videos. It's a low barrier to entry that doesn't jam "Gun-Life" down your throat. Do this for a couple weeks or months. I bet you start to see some trends and can start determining your level of participation.

    I would also add: improve general health. For most Americans, obesity and heart disease are far more likely to kill or "cause grave bodily harm" than a bad guy. Get to a healthy weight (BMI isn't perfect but is probably a good starting point for most) and do some modest cardio. Larry Lindenman's LSD workout program is a good place to start. This 1h20m podcast, SSA: Fighting for Fitness with Larry Lindenman, gives some good, realistic fitness recommendations.
    I like a lot of this, including that ordered list, but I'm afraid that it's largely something that only becomes clear in retrospect.

    Most people enter the pursuit around step 6 because:lots-of-reasons. This is good and bad. Good in that guns are the gateway drug to overall better preparation, better (in my view, anyway) political leanings, and frankly just spending time with a better class of people. Bad in that it comes with all of the baggage being discussed elsewhere in this thread.

    One other good/bad, and related to this, is the social aspects. I, and a lot of other people I've observed, got pretty caught up in and surrounded myself with a pretty big echo chamber of people, hobbies, websites, reading, entertainment, etc. that all revolved around guns, fear, preparedness, tactics, paranoia, self defense, bug out, social collapse, etc. it took some life events that made me break out of that chamber to get me to stand back and look at the whole thing more objectively. Made me look at the real numbers and statistics in a more objective way, made me realize that the industry is exactly that; an industry. and what that means for all of the rest of this stuff. This is that phase 8, 9, 10... 25 that I mentioned earlier in the thread. that, in turn, makes the ordered list above make sense to me *now* but probably wouldn't until relatively recently (maybe the last 4 years or so) of my total "gunz" journey (of the last 25+ years or so). and frankly, I'd edit that list pretty hard core.

    1. diet
    2. exercise
    3. mental health
    4. social and interpersonal relationships
    5. career/job
    6. finance & retirement
    7. Criminology/Street Smarts/Physical Preparedness
    8. Defensive Driving
    9. Emergency Medical
    10. Legal Preparation, Aftermath and Rules of Engagement
    11. Less Lethal skills
    12. Handgun Carry Course
    13. Handgun Skills and Tactics Course
    14. Defensive Tactics
    Last edited by rob_s; 10-17-2018 at 08:39 AM.

  3. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by rob_s View Post
    I like a lot of this, including that ordered list, but I'm afraid that it's largely something that only becomes clear in retrospect.

    Most people enter the pursuit around step 6 because:lots-of-reasons. This is good and bad. Good in that guns are the gateway drug to overall better preparation, better (in my view, anyway) political leanings, and frankly just spending time with a better class of people. Bad in that it comes with all of the baggage being discussed elsewhere in this thread.

    One other good/bad, and related to this, is the social aspects. I, and a lot of other people I've observed, got pretty caught up in and surrounded myself with a pretty big echo chamber of people, hobbies, websites, reading, entertainment, etc. that all revolved around guns, fear, preparedness, tactics, paranoia, self defense, bug out, social collapse, etc. it took some life events that made me break out of that chamber to get me to stand back and look at the whole thing more objectively. Made me look at the real numbers and statistics in a more objective way, made me realize that the industry is exactly that; an industry. and what that means for all of the rest of this stuff. This is that phase 8, 9, 10... 25 that I mentioned earlier in the thread. that, in turn, makes the ordered list above make sense to me *now* but probably wouldn't until relatively recently (maybe the last 4 years or so) of my total "gunz" journey (of the last 25+ years or so). and frankly, I'd edit that list pretty hard core.

    1. diet
    2. exercise
    3. mental health
    4. social and interpersonal relationships
    5. career/job
    6. finance & retirement
    7. Criminology/Street Smarts/Physical Preparedness
    8. Defensive Driving
    9. Emergency Medical
    10. Legal Preparation, Aftermath and Rules of Engagement
    11. Less Lethal skills
    12. Handgun Carry Course
    13. Handgun Skills and Tactics Course
    14. Defensive Tactics
    If you read the essay, I state all of that, as well as the rationale for writing it, AND where people should start, relative to their beliefs and stations in life.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  4. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by rob_s View Post
    One other good/bad, and related to this, is the social aspects. I, and a lot of other people I've observed, got pretty caught up in and surrounded myself with a pretty big echo chamber of people, hobbies, websites, reading, entertainment, etc. that all revolved around guns, fear, preparedness, tactics, paranoia, self defense, bug out, social collapse, etc. it took some life events that made me break out of that chamber to get me to stand back and look at the whole thing more objectively. [/LIST]
    Amen.

    Let all take care not to fall into the trap of echo chamber dynamics. After all, being prepared for misfortune is one thing, but if one bases all of one's existence towards that mindset and activity, what, then, is the purpose of living?

  5. #25
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    Question

    Quote Originally Posted by BehindBlueI's View Post
    So apparently one of my former students became a cartoonist... who knew?

  6. #26
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    I think the OP lists a good representation of the phases that someone starting out today or in the recent past may go through. I came at it a little differently, mostly because I bought my first pistol in 1976 in the Chicago area, a time and place where civilian concealed carry was something deserving of a science fiction novel. So my Colt 1911 and my S&W Model 19 were intended solely for target shooting at the range. No thought of being Batman, and I should especially thank whoever taught me to be patient and save my money and buy quality guns.

    Then after school I moved from the north suburbs into the inner city, during the Chicago gun ban. This had two immediate effects: 1) it forced a long break in shooting with any regularity with everything being in suburban storage for a very long time; and 2) it forced me to rely on other things to survive being a young guy staying out way too late in sketchy inner city neighborhoods.

    When I came back into shooting it was after moving west... yeah I know, California, but this is actually Jefferson up here and almost everyone owns a gun. I got my CCW because my job puts me in a lot of remote places (there's a long story attached which maybe I'll put in an appropriate thread one of these days), so it was about self-protection and no illusions about changing the world. I also found P-F right about that time which probably saved me several dead ends and detours (thanks guys, and I mean that).

    I still went through a bunch of pistols to settle on the right mix and the right way to carry. Not sure there's a good way around that other than experience and maybe luck. There isn't necessarily a standard Glock answer here in the land of the roster and 10-round mags, and while I shot a G26 pretty well (the second step on the journey) I got one of those brass in face and frequent stoppage tolerance stacked ones. So it took a while to get to the two HK's and a J-frame rotation which has been stable for a long time now.

    I still like to buy new guns, and I've accepted that it's just a way to learn new things and that it's OK as long as I keep it separate from the carry rotation. Everything else is for the range or for very special circumstances, and it's in a sell one buy one hold the total about the same stasis most of the time now.

    Another important aspect: I see the phases at the ranges that I RSO at, especially at the pistol range. There we have a bunch of people who never go beyond the early phases. Some show up every week, blast away for 50 rounds, go home, never get any better, can barely keep a random shotgun pattern on the paper. Lots of guys with G19s and G23s but they've never tested their carry ammo in those 10-round mags, only cheap FMJ and they almost all have the original plastic factory dovetail protectors. Most have never trained other than taking their CCW class, and those are very hard to fail.

    A few want to get better. Those are the ones we spend time with, the ones who are ready. Some improve rapidly. For me, that's a way of giving back because the late John Carenco, the then 82-year old retired federal marshall and former Treasury Dept. firearms instructor who owned Lane 1, took the time to teach me when I was a new guy at that range.

    The other range is a totally different dynamic. Mostly long range rifle, members only, screened before getting in, and mostly very good and very experienced shooters. That's part of what keeps me going, seeing periodically (just today when I had RSO duty there) that a lot of people do get to the more advanced stages, they're just low-key about it and it's easy to not notice them because they just quietly work on getting even better while blending in and not making a fuss.
    Last edited by Salamander; 10-21-2018 at 12:29 AM.

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