This is the reason why this website exists

Owning a gun is just the first step on a journey. Guns are not self-protection talismans that ward off evil-doers all by themselves: You have to have it handy when you need it and you need to be ready, willing and able to defend your life and your loved one’s lives, if, God forbid, the need to do so arises. I applaud Sherri Shepard for doing what thousands of other people have also done: In order to keep her family safe, she has chosen to purchase a defensive firearm and become her own first responder.

The alarm and it’s warning terrified Shepherd, her husband Lamar Sally and their son Jeffery, despite the police arrived seven minutes later to reassure the family it was simply a false alarm.

Nonetheless, the devout Christian who has taken a more conservative stance on a number of recent hot-button political issues to make The View’s roundtable, declared they were buying a gun.

‘I’m trying to calm Jeffrey down and all I had was this wicker basket,’ Sherri said. ‘I have nothing, a bat, nothing. We’re going to get a gun.’

And that’s what this website is about.

If you’re a first time gun-owner, we’ll help you get your gun out from its box underneath the bed (or wherever) and onto the range. At TeamGunBlogger, we’re not tactical ninja SWAT types and we’re not ex-special forces with years of experience in the sandbox. We’re people like you who have chosen to purchase a gun (If I’m honest, more than one…) for self-protection and enjoy the shooting sports. We’ve gone down the road you’re about to go down, and we’re here to help guide you where needed. 

Stick around, and let’s enjoy the journey together. 

Getting Started In Practical Pistol Competition

AKA Intro to USPSA 090

Duck Dynasty is the #1 show on basic cable. Top Shot is returning to History Channel. Guns are selling in record numbers. The clampdown on gun ownership proposed after the Sandy Hook massacre has failed, and despite Joe Biden’s tough talk, gun control just isn’t a priority for the American public right now.

In short, it’s safe to go back to the range again. If you’re one of many, many new gun people who have bought their first gun these past few years, now is a great time to think about different ways to enjoy going to the range. Along with thousands of other people, I’ve found that practical pistol is a great way to have fun with a pistol and learn how to use it safely under the stress of competition. 

I didn’t get into the shooting sports because I grew up around guns, (though I did quite a lot of shooting in my youth), I shoot because a) it’s FUN and b) I want to protect my family’s life from a lethal threat. I am fortunate to have a home range that is ground zero for USPSA in my area, so I thought I’d write a quick guide for everyone out there who want to get into USPSA but doesn’t know where to start.

Two quick points:

1. I’m not “high speed, low drag” (the opposite, in fact’¦) and I’m not a Tier One Tactical Operator, I’m just a guy who thought practical shooting might be a fun way to get in some firearms training under stress, so this advice is coming from someone whose first time at a match wasn’t that long ago. 
2. There are two major organizations for practical pistol in the United States: the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) and the International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA). What’s the difference between the two? Lots, and yet, very little. What it boils down is that USPSA tends to have more specialized equipment, and IDPA tends to focus on “real world” application of things. If you need an analogy, think of USPSA as Formula One, and IDPA as NASCAR.
   Which is better? That’s for you to decide. 

This is the basics for USPSA Production class, which is for “stock” semi-automatic pistols. Now before you start thinking that it’s the Little League of practical shooting, some of the best shooters in the world compete in this class, but don’t worry, you don’t have to live up to their standards. USPSA (and IDPA too) is set up so marksmen of comparable skill compete against each other, not against the top guns. 

What You’ll Need

A serviceable and safe semiautomatic pistol in 9mm.
Almost anything out of the box in that caliber is good to go as is, as long as the magazine can hold ten rounds. Sucks to be you, New York. And yes, you can compete with a .40 S+W or a .45 auto, but Production division was set up with 9mm in mind.
A safe holster that attaches to a belt.
Nylon may (MAY work), Kydex or leather is better. No drop-leg, shoulder, cross-draw or small of back holsters. And a good stiff gun belt to hold everything secure on your waist.
Magazines and mag pouches. 
Four is pretty much the minimum. In USPSA, you can shoot up to 32 rounds (without misses) on one “stage”. To make things even for states with mag capacity bans (sucks to be you, California) and to account for the varying capacities of a bunch of different guns, the USPSA mandates that Production guns can only start with 10 rounds in a magazine, even if the mag holds a dozen or more rounds. 10 rounds a mag, 32 shots… You do the math. 
Ear and eye protection. 
Safety glasses and good earplugs are a start. I like electronic earmuffs, myself.

What does this add up to, cost-wise? 

$500-700 for a new pistol. Glock, S+W, CZ, Springfield, H+K, whatever. If you own own of those already, you’re in. If you don’t have one already, get something you like, know how to use and are comfortable with. If you’re one of the thousands of people who recently bought a pistol for home defence, go ahead and use that. I did.

$50-100 for the holster and magazine carriers. Bladetech, Safariland and Blackhawk! are all good brands to look out for. Hard plastic nylon or Kydex is preferred, but soft nylon works as well. 

$50 for a gun belt. I started out thinking a gun belt was just a “vanity” accessory and that any ol’ belt will do. It won’t. Think of the gun belt as the foundation that will hold the weight of your pistol and magazines as you run around on a stage. The better the foundation, the more secure your stuff will be.

$50-100 in spare magazines. Get at least four, because you’re going to be dropping these suckers into the ground over and over again, and stuff breaks.

$10-50 for a range bag to carry everything. Something big enough to carry all of the above yet easy to lug around with you from stage to stage. I saw a guy at a match last month with a DeWalt tool bag as his range bag, and you know what? It worked GREAT!

$50 and up for ammo. Here we get to the really expensive part of USPSA. A typical match for my club is 4 stages, each with about 25-35 rounds fired. Add in misses and the need to keep your spare magus full and you’ll soon see that bringing 200 or more rounds to a match is a good idea. The good news is we’re starting to see 9mm creep back into stock again, the bad news is, it’s at higher prices than it was a year ago. But don’t let the cost of ammo stop you: Practical pistol is worth the ammo costs, that’s for certain. And it’s STILL cheaper (and more fun) than a round of golf.

Pre-match preparation. Go to a match ahead ahead of time without your gun and see how things are run before you shoot your first match. Find someone there who can show you the ropes the next time when you show up. Know how to use your gun and use it safely. You don’t need to be Annie Oakley, but you should know how to load it, how to unload it, how to deal with loading or feeding issues and most importantly, the basics of gun safety. And be safe and have fun.

Is it worth it? 

Oh yeah.

A practical shooting competition will quickly show you how well you perform under semi-stressful conditions with a firearm. Under the artificial stress of the timer, simple things like reloading an empty pistol become the hardest thing you’ve ever done, and hard things like hitting a 25 yard head shot become nigh-impossible. But the more you do it, the easier it becomes, and the more you become confident in your firearms-handling abilities. Todd Green, who knows more about combat pistol training than just about anyone else out there, said it best: 

Possibly the biggest benefit of competition is that it is often the most stressful shooting many people will ever be exposed to. While obviously not the same as being in an actual gunfight, shooting in a competitive event in front of peers and strangers will do a great job of showing you just how easy it is to make mental mistakes under stress. Learning to stay focused on the task at hand and building experience fixing mistakes under pressure both have legitimate real world payoffs. 

At the end of the day, there are pros and cons to competition shooting for the ‘œdefense-minded’ shooter. But, the pros are pretty universal’¦ and the cons are really only cons if you let them be. Because whether you stay true to your original purpose or give in to the dark side and become an absolute gamer, you’re still getting more time on the range and more experience shooting complex problems under stress. As long as you don’t fall into the trap of thinking that winning at a game makes you an honorary gunfighter, competition is a fun and effective way to become a better shooter. 

This is the reason I do this, (well, that, and it’s FUN) and it’s the same reason why humans have used games to train for combat since the days of ancient Greece. We train to be good when it doesn’t matter so we can be good when the highest stakes we have are on the line. 

Training Review: Onlinecarrytraining.com

Advantages: Qualify for an Arizona Non-Resident concealed carry permit anytime, anywhere there’s an internet connection

Disadvantages: Basic information only, no interaction, no re-watching 

Rating: 3 stars out of 5

The guys over at Onlinecarrytraining.com reached out to me and asked me to review their product, which was fortuitous, because I’d been thinking about online firearms training for awhile now. Online education has become quite the thing since I took some online classes back in 2002, and I was curious to see what their course was like and if it was a viable alternative to real-live people classes. 

The verdict? Sorta. It depends not on what they’re teaching, but rather on what you want to learn.

A little about my firearms training background. At this point, I’ve got about 100 total hours of gun-related training under my belt, some in big classes, some of it one on one. I’ve gone through the NRA Instructor class and USPSA Range Officer training, taken classes from a bunch of different local and national schools, and I’ve got Massad Ayoob’s MAG40 class and an Appleseed event on my training horizon. I’m not Todd Green, but I’m not Gecko45 either. 

The OnlineCarryTraining.com class is simplicity itself: A fifteen minute video, with a short test afterwards. Pass the test, you’ll get a get a certificate that says you took the class and qualify for a CCW permit. A note of caution: The video covers the basic information you need to know to safely use a semi-automatic pistol: It doesn’t cover the operation of revolvers at all. and what it teaches about pistols is short and to the point. Grip, stance, sight picture, all the things that my NRA First Steps class covered, but it’s covered in less than an hour, not half a day. Take notes. No, really, take notes, especially if you’re unfamiliar with firearms. There’s a lot of data packed into this class, and unlike a class with a live person, you can’t get more help if you need it. 

To be honest, I missed being able to ask questions, but then again, I have a curious mind and I learn what I want to learn, which may or may not be what’s being taught. I’m always “that guy” in the class that just can’t sit still and listen to the lecture and always has to ask questions, and there was no opportunity to do so with this class. 

As for what’s taught, the course is comprehensive, but short. It’s pretty much the standard NRA stuff about sight picture and gun safety, but taught via video and not by a person. The product values are first-rate, and the presentation was easy to follow. Due to my training and experience, the test (for me) was easy, but I was a little quick on the clicker and entered two wrong answers due to errant mouse clicks, ending up with a 90%. 

Sue me. 

As an Arizona resident, I wasn’t familiar with what an Arizona Non-Resident permit gets you, but it’s not bad. Complete this course successfully, and you get to carry in… 

• Alabama
• Alaska*
• Arizona*
• Arkansas
• Colorado
• Idaho
• Iowa
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• New Mexico
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Utah
• Vermont*
• Virginia
• West Virginia
• Wyoming*

*These are “Constitutional Carry” states. You don’t actually need a permit to carry concealed in these states, but in my opinion, it’s a good idea to have one anyways. 

As I said, not bad. If you live in a state without reciprocity for those states, this course is a pretty good deal for you. 

So, was it worth it?

Well, that depends on what you’re trying to get out of it.

If you actually want to learn to use your gun defensively, you’ll definitely need more training than this course, and to OnlineCarryTraining.com‘s credit, they mention this fact a number of times throughout the class. This course is a painless way to get the government’s permission to accomplish the “Carry” portion of “Carry, Compete, Practice, Train”. Nothing more, nothing less. 

However, if you want an easy way to qualify to carry in a bunch of states quickly, it’s worth your money and time to enroll. Set aside an hour, have some note paper handy, turn your computer speakers up, and get your CCW. It’s as easy as that. 

Technology. Gotta love it! 

Static ranges are boring

If you’re wonder why we here at TeamGunblogger endorse the idea of competition as a logical follow-on to getting your CCW, this video pretty much explains it all. 

Shoot Outside. 

Shoot On The Move. 

Stay Safe.

Have Fun. 

What Is A Safe Room?

So in my last post I casually mentioned I have a safe room, specifically, 

“I have a Mossberg 500 in my safe room loaded with #4 buckshot, and I have a pistol (usually one of my CCW guns) on or near me at all times. The shotgun is for defense of the safe room, and the pistol is there to move around the house if needed. On my shotgun, I have a shotshell holder with extra buckshot and a few slugs. I figure 13 rounds or so rounds of #4 buckshot, a couple of slugs plus the content of my CCW pistol(s) will be enough to stop most threats outside of a rampaging bungalow or at least enough to hold them off until help arrives.” 

It occurred to me later that new gun owners and people new to the idea of personal self-defense don’t know what I’m talking about when I say “safe room”. Let’s explain it quickly and easily. 

A safe room is to personal protection
what a home fire escape plan is to fire prevention. 

And just like a home fire prevention plan, a safe room and a plan how to use it comes down to what’s important to you and how your home is set up. 

Now there’s probably more than a few people out there saying “Look, this is a bit much. I have a gun in my home so I’m safe, so why do I need to think about this sort of thing?” 

Let me ‘splain. 

At Cub Scouts a few years ago, my son and I were tasked with creating a home fire escape plan in order to earn a merit badge. We wrote out what we’d do in case of fire, how to tell if the fire’s outside your door and how to move through smoke. Good things to learn, but what are the chances of a deadly home fire versus the chances of a deadly home invasion? If you live in the Phoenix area, as I do, you hear stories on the news every week about home invasions. Deadly house fires? Not that often. 

Alright, so how DO you secure your home? Let’s look at a floor plan for a typical home in my area (your mileage may vary). X’s represent potential points of entry for bad guys such as windows or doors, and arrows are possible home invasion routes (1: Front door, 2: Garage, 3: Back door). To secure this house (or any other home) would take three steps. 

1. Secure the exterior
2. Strengthen the interior
3. Prepare a refuge

1. Secure the exterior

You know that old joke about the two hikers running from a bear and the one turns to the other and says “I don’t have to run faster than the bear, I just have to run faster than YOU!”? 

That’s what the outside of your house should look like. You don’t have to live in Fort Knox to be safe, you just have to make your home appear a little more difficult to break into than the home next door. If someone REALLY wants to get into your house, they’re going to to get in, but any casual burglar is going to look for the easy mark and not the bank vault. I know this from experience: My first house was a town home, and the house at the end of our block of houses DIDN’T have a security door while the rest of us did. Guess which one was broken into? You betcha, the one on the end.

Some quick and easy ways to secure the exterior of home are: 

• Exterior lighting: You don’t need to light home your home like a prison yard to make it safer. I have a simple, cheap decorative yard lighting system in the front that makes my house look really snazzy and it also has a few spotlights in strategeric areas that light up otherwise dark corners. It makes my house look great and it makes burglars consider going to the house down the block which forgot to leave their porch light on.

 

• Bushes and shrubs: One of the nice things about living in the southwest is there’s a whole lot of bushes that have pointy bits on them that can be planted beneath accessible windows. Now I’m not saying you should plant jumping cacti under your kid’s bedroom window, but a pyracantha bush looks great and HURTS when you get stuck in one (ask me how I know this…). 

 

• Animals: Got a yappy dog? Good. Got a “Beware of the dog” sign? Better. 

 

• Signs: I am not a big fan of the “I don’t dial 911, I dial .357!” type of sign: Why advertise to crooks there’s a highly desirable prize for them (a gun) in your home? And just what are you saying to a prosecuting attorney with such a thing on your front lawn? If you’ve got a burglar alarm (more on those later), advertise it. That gives crooks one more reason to move along. 

We’ll talk about burglar alarms next as part of how to…  

2. Strengthen the interior 

Ok, so the bad guy has decided the risk of breaking into your home is worth the potential reward. What can you do to make it harder for him/her? 

• Get a burglar alarm: No, seriously, get one. Yes, the cops will not show up in time, we know that, that’s why we own a gun. And no, the alarm noise probably won’t scare the burglar off. But who’s watching over your stuff when you’re not around? What happens if there’s a fire when you’re not home? You can’t watch over your house 24/7: Get an alarm, because it gives you more time to get your plan into action, keeping you safer. 

 

• Exterior Doors: These are a BIG weakness in most houses/condos/apartments. If your HOA or landlord allows it, get a decorative steel security door for the front AND back door. If not, a reinforced jamb and striker plate will slow down most break-in attempts to the point where they’ll give up and try something else. 

 

• Windows: Are they locks on your windows? Are you using them? Why not? 

3. Prepare a refuge 

Okay, so NOW your dog is barking and your alarm is going off and the bad guy is in your home and is not leaving.

This is pretty much a worst-case scenario.

Your job at this point is to get you and your family to a safe place and keep them there until the threat ends and/or help arrives. Your job isn’t to defend your big screen TV: It’s to keep you and your family alive. If the plan for a house fire is to get your family OUT of the house as quickly and safely as possible, the plan for a home invasion or armed burglary most likely be to get your family IN to your safe room as quickly as possible. Just as a good house fire escape plan as two escape routes for every family member planned out in advance, a good home defense plan has a plan and a backup plan in case that first one fails. 

Where should your safe room be? Depends on the home. Remember, time works for you, not him, so your safe room needs to be somewhere you can get to AHEAD of the bad guy. Also consider where you spend the most in your home: if 90% of your time is spent in the kitchen, family room and bedrooms, designating a safe room that’s near to all three of those rooms is a good idea. Let’s go back to that earlier floor plan. The three most likely entry points for a bad guy are, in order, the front door, the garage entrance and the back door. Most of the time spent in this home will be probably be spent in the bedrooms, kitchen/nook and the family room. Given all of this, I’d look at using the master bedroom closet in this house as a safe room because it’s got one entrance to cover which is REALLY easy to defend. The difficulty with this location will be getting getting any family members that are resting in the other bedrooms into the safe room before the bad guys get to them. That’s where a dog and/or an alarm come in handy: They both give you more time to react and get your plan into action and get your family safe. 

What should your safe room look like? Simply put, it should be more secure than any other room in the house. Make sure the door to the safe room locks, and reinforce the door with a heavy-duty striker plate at the very least. Consider putting some decorative bars on the window(s) if allowed by the HOA/landlord/zoning regs. Safely store a loaded firearm in the room and team it up with a first aid kit, flashlight and a charged cell phone (any cell phone, in a service plan or not) can call 911. Realize that “Panic Room” was just a movie: If someone REALLY wants to get into your safe room, they will, and at that point it will be up to YOU to stop the threat. 

Sobering stuff, I know, but it can happen to anyone. If you’ve accepted the fact that your house may catch fire so you have smoke alarms and a fire extinguisher, also realize that your house might be targeted for a violence and plan accordingly. Accidents (and crime) happen: It’s what we do to prepare for them that determines a successful outcome. 

Real World Self Defense Tips for Women

Update: Welcome new readers!  Please take a look around our site, we’ve got lots of great tips for both new and experienced gun owners.  You can also stay up to date on the latest information for gun owners by Following us on Twitter and liking us on Facebook.

 

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs has been rightfully called out for publishing a ridiculous list of tips that include some unusual and ineffective self defense tips designed to protect women from sexual assault.  Due to public pressure, the tips they published on their official website have been removed, but below is a copy of their original list:

What To Do If You Are Attacked

These tips are designed to help you protect yourself on campus, in town, at your home, or while you travel.  These are preventative tips and are designed to instruct you in crime prevention tactics.

1. Be realistic about your ability to protect yourself.

2. Your instinct may be to scream, go ahead!  It may startle your attacker and give you an opportunity to run away.

3. Kick off your shoes if you have time and can’t run in them.

4. Don’t take time to look back; just get away.

5. If your life is in danger, passive resistance may be your best defense.

6. Tell your attacker that you have a disease or are menstruating.

7. Vomiting or urinating may also convince the attacker to leave you alone.

8. Yelling, hitting or biting may give you a chance to escape, do it!

9. Understand that some actions on your part might lead to more harm.

10. Remember, every emergency situation is different.  Only you can decide which action is most appropriate.

 

I’ve come up with my own list of tips for preventing rape, and have published it below.  It’s a lot easier to remember, and the techniques have been proven to be much more effective:

One last tip – Responsible gun owners use protection, so make sure you have a decent pair of impact-resistant safety glasses. They don’t have to be expensive, just make sure they meet ANSI standard Z87.1 for impact-resistance. All of the safety glasses below meet or exceed ANSI standard Z87.1, so check out these safety glasses at Brownells:

 

Carry Often, Carry More Than A Gun

So you’ve decided to carry a gun on a regular basis. Good. Deciding to take care of your personal safety yourself is one of the most important decisions you can make, because you are, and always will be, your own first responder. Carrying a pistol with you, concealed or not, creates options in defense of your life that you just cannot have without having a firearm on you.

But a gun is not enough. In fact, a pistol is just the end of the journey, because chances are you’re not going to need it, thank God.

So what should you have with you besides your gun?

1. A Flashlight. We spend half our lives in the dark, a flashlight isn’t just a good idea, it’s an aboslute necessity. In the past, I relied on the flashlight app on my iPhone, but after some testing, I found the flashlight app just isn’t anywhere near as powerful as even the smallest dedicated flashlight. After filting around with a few different lights, I’ve settled on a Streamlight Microstream, and I absolutely love it. Why?
   • It’s small, which means you’ll carry it with you more often
   • It’s BRIGHT for it’s size, brighter than a AA Maglite, and bright enough to light up a doorway from across the street.
   • It’s cheap, so you won’t be heartbroken if you misplace it
   • It’s rugged. Mine has survived two trips through the washing machine and the dryer (don’t ask why) with no issues whatsoever
   • It takes one AAA battery, which means you can find spare batteries for it everywhere, and if you want the longer-lived (and more expensive) lithium batteries, they’re also available.
2. A Knife. Quick! Open up that clamshell plastic packaging without a sharp object, I dare you! Oh, what’s that you say, you can’t quite lever out the jammed paper in the photocopier? And now you’ve ripped the “easy open tab” off your microwavable entree, and you’re faced with the prospect of an unintentional day-long fast or a jaunt outside of the office for lukewarm, lackluster fast food. Knives make too much sense not to have one on you, and I understand they’re a pretty decent self-defense tool as well (sarcasm). As I work in an office and I don’t want to carry something that screams “TACTICAL!”, I usually have a CRKT Pazoda unobtrusively clipped to my pants pocket. It’s small, lightweight, sharp and doesn’t stick up over the pocket much at all. 
3. Extra Ammo. Make a quick list of everything that can go wrong with a modern semi-automatic pistol. No, go ahead, I’ll wait.
   Done? Good.
   Now, how many of the items on your list are related to the pistol’s magazine? And you don’t carry a spare magazine on you because….?
   I use a Blackhawk! Single Mag Pouch when I carry my CZ P07, and it works like a charm. I’m not planning on shooting 32 rounds of 9mm in a defensive situation, but I figure if something goes wrong with my gun and I have to reload, I can.
4. A Smartphone. We can have the “I just want my phone to be a phone and make phone calls” discussion some other time, but the fact is a smartphone allows you to have a Red Cross First Aid Guide and an Emergency Radio Scanner and a GPS and a weather alert radio and a whole bunch of other useful information at your fingertips. Plus, we now know that when an emergency happens and the cell phone towers are overloaded with traffic, text messages can go out when phone calls can’t (pdf link). A smartphone also has a camera to document what happened for the police and/or insurance companies, and you can always play Angry Birds on it while you wait for the other first responders to respond…

What other items should a well-prepared person have on them besides their gun?

Team GunBlogger Tip: Tag Your Stuff Before Your Next Range Trip

Here’s a simple tip that could save you a great deal of money and heartache.  Before you leave for your next trip to the range, make sure you include your contact info in your range bag, rifle case, spotting scope case and any other gear you’ll be taking with you.  An index card, sticker or a piece of paper with your name, email address and/or phone number is all you need to include in your case or bag to exponentially increase the chances of recovering your important belongings, should you ever leave something behind.

Even if you’re only taking a couple of items with you, or you believe you will never make the mistake of forgetting something, I would highly recommend doing it anyway.  I consider myself a responsible person, but I accidentally left my competition belt out at the range last year.  I was VERY fortunate that the match director found it and sent an email blast out to those that shot the match that day.  

While there’s no guarantee you’ll get your stuff back, the shooting community is by and large some of the kindest and most honest group you’ll ever be a part of, and I know for a fact that they will go out of there way to try and reunite a lost item with its owner.  Let’s all make it easier for each other by adding contact information to anything that’s going out to the range.

 

 

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