Many of the presenters and attendees alike were cops or retired cops. Across the board, there was unanimous agreement that the current trend toward private citizen disarmament was deplorable and wrong-headed.\u00a0 Host Tom Givens, the founder of the program, made a telling point: real-world analysis of violent crime indicates about a one-in-thirty chance that any individual American will face it at some time in his or her life.\u00a0 (Virtually ALL of the presenters had come face to face with it already, one reason they were selected to teach.) Tom pointed out that over the years, sixty or more of his civilian graduates have been involved in lethal force encounters.\u00a0 All but two prevailed and survived.\u00a0 The two who didn\u2019t prevail, died.\u00a0 Not coincidentally, those were the two who were unarmed when it happened.\u00a0 Tom reminded us all of the advice of Jeff Cooper\u2019s acolyte Mark Moritz, a gun-wise attorney: \u201cThe first rule of gunfighting is, Have A Gun!<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n
The eclectic program encompassed emergency first responder trauma care for gunshot wounds, stabs and lacerations, and blunt trauma injury, taught by MDs.\u00a0 It included a veteran psychologist on one side and a homicide investigator on the other delineating how human predators think and act.\u00a0 There was hand-to-hand work, and knife awareness, and recognition of assaultive behavior cues.\u00a0 There was aftermath management: the blocs I taught revolved around lessons learned in some of the more recent homicide trials I\u2019ve been involved in, including one a month ago, all of which were killings done in defense of self and\/or others. (And yes, in each case the jury agreed.) The veteran cop who talked about \u201cactive shooter\u201d scenarios deplored the fact that this has become the terminology, since human monsters such as those should be considered \u201cactive killers\u201d or indeed, \u201cactive mass-murderers.\u201d\u00a0 He had been involved in two such incidents himself, both of which ended in the quick death of the monsters as soon as they were confronted with lethal force resistance, and he quite pointedly noted that some of the cases under discussion were ended by armed citizens who saved countless lives.<\/p>\n
Time with people who understand the ugly reality of having to stop murderers, is time well spent for those who may have to one day face such murderers.<\/p>\n
And \u201cthose who may have to one day face such murderers\u201d includes everyone reading this, and indeed, everyone, <\/i>period.<\/p>\n
Thanks to Tom Givens and his team for making this top-tier level of training available to law-abiding private citizens, as well as the many cops who were in attendance.\u00a0 Next year\u2019s program will be held on February 21-23, 2014 in Memphis, and you can get more information from the Rangemaster Website<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0The RangeMaster complex in Memphis had room to train 150 good people.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \n Jon Hodoway gave an excellent lecture on the survival capabilities that can be found in an ordinary smart phone.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \n Ever heard of SouthNarc? He’s retired from police work now, so I can finally publish his picture…and I’ve long recommended his street-wise training.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \n \n \n![\"TacConf13_01\"](\"http:\/\/backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/TacConf13_01.jpg\")
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