Marswolf

Oh, OK. If the question is have I trained civilians for pay, the answer is no except for certain LE groups and I just get my normal government salary. And I'd have no reason to take civilian training. I am a proven good judge of character.

Need to know, Rifleman. Sorry. I will tell you that I've been doing this when asked for many years. Some people seem to think I know what I'm doing. I was asked to come out of retirement after 9-11. This isn't pretend for me. You can believe it or not. As far as motives, they are just to help people when I have time for this recreation. I've learned a few things along the line about training and about people. As I've said, you need to check people out. I like training, even pseudo-military training, if done for the right reasons. But it isn't going to make you a warrior. There is a real danger in thinking it will.

I'm not sure about that. They are students. If they have been to several classes under different and good instructors they have a comparison. Without that, they may not know if the training was good or not. Only if it was fun or made them feel good. There are lots of people who thought they had good training but who are now six feet under. Even people who have good training on paper often don't have it in real life. I interact a lot with LEOs who have a lot of bad training but don't realize it. With a bit of work, we straighten out the bad tactics and substitute proper ones. But before our session, they would have said they had good training. About a year ago, I once did several sessions with SWAT teams on building clearing. I took a few minutes talking about why their uniforms were a poor choice because of their infrared signature. One team looked at me like I was from Mars. No one had ever mentioned it to them. What is common military practice wasn't even mentioned to civilian LE doing related activities. They had poor training, but had thought their training was top notch. They changed their uniforms, BTW. Testimonials are sort of like eye-witness testimony. You have to understand that what is being said isn't necessarily what happened. And the world is full of people who fall for con men and will swear up and down the guy who takes them to the cleaners is a great guy. Happens a lot with religion - Jim Baker, Jim Jones, Jimmy Swagart. Lot's of people named Jim.

Ah...the secrets start coming out.

Have you done training with him? Did a quick Google search. He's a chiropractor in Greeneville. Lots of schools he's attended and NRA certifications. He throws in the kitchen sink of all the stuff he does, like being a private pilot. When you start padding the list, I get suspicious. I also don't see anything about military service. That seems to be common among firearms training instructors for some reason. I hate being the negative old grump, but I've been around long enough to sense when there is probably a problem. It's a sense that has come in handy on several occasions. People who are really good at what they do don't have to build up their list of accomplishments and sell themselves. We have a local guy who does, and teaches, martial arts. Someone told me that Special Forces guys come in to train with him up in the National Forest every year. I had met him and knew he was good, but questioned whether he was that good. I made a couple of phone calls to some SF friends and found out that the story is true. He serves as a military adviser and survival-skills instructor. He doesn't have a website. He doesn't do all the martial arts hokum either with the bowing and crap. Unless you are into serious martial arts stuff, you have probably never heard of him. He does have a serious military background. He's the real stuff. That's all I'll say about that. Beware of people who "puff their wares" and always do a little background check on them. Bryant may be fine as a trainer. I don't find a list of people who hate his guts and that's good. But with what little I know, I doubt I'd go to him for training to protect myself. But I'd gladly take a beginning firearms safety class or a carry class from him.

Before you do too much construction on a range, you might check county codes. I talked to a friend, who is now a judge, about this when another friend wanted to build a range for occasional use but was blocked from doing so by county zoning codes. In Sullivan County, you can shoot on your property (as in all counties outside of an incorporated town), but when you start building stuff for a range you have to be on property zoned "commercial." Just something to check on before doing much work.

Be sure to watch their show on recycling.

I'm assuming this was tongue-in-cheek. Hope so.... OTOH, I notice that this was a thread on Glock Talk. I used to wander by there occasionally, probably when I owned a Glock, but quit after a while. Is it my imagination or does Glock Talk have an inordinate number of flakes and combat wannabees?

Yeah, most people will.... [sigh]

I don't know about Memphis, but it will be mixed rain and snow here on March 24 & 25. That's when the Bristol NASCAR race is. Last one I attended was in the 70s. Far too many people there these days. As the crow flies I'm about four miles from the tract, with a couple of ridges in between. That's as close as I want to get.

Thanks. I've been looking for that one for a while. It seems to disappear from servers on a regular basis. So, I'm downloading it so I can watch it at my leisure. BTW, an easy way to download a lot of videos is by going to http://www.bestube.com/ and follow the prompts.

Shrine of the Mall Ninja Some interesting and funny reading: This is a collection of the wisdom posted on the internet by a guy calling himself Gecko45. It all started back at the end of the halcyon summer of 2001, and his posts have created a certain urban legend that many refer to as the Mall Ninja. Hang out at any gun shop, gun show or shooting match and you’ll see one of these guys–you might even see a group of them since they are known to associate in the wild. The Mall Ninja is easily distinguished by an abundance of “tactical†gear, such as fatigues, a thigh holster (with, of course, a Glock), combat boots, bandolier and other accouterments that you’d usually only see on a SWAT operative. Median age is usually 19-25, and they tend to boast about their various exploits with certain Special Forces units, all of which they’re too young and idiotic to have joined (real Special Forces types don’t brag). They typically have opinions on everything, regardless of expertise, they are uniformly poor shots, and they tend to exhibit a frightening lack of safety training.

There are a lot of handgun manuals that tell you to not use reloads. I suspect it's for liability reasons and because a lot of people really don't know how to properly check their brass and reload properly. Because of the unsupported part of the chamber, that's particularly important in a Glock. But American Ammunition is junk. I bought a case of it a couple of years ago just for sustained fire practice. I didn't expect it to be accurate. Had a number of rounds that would not allow my USP 40 to go into battery and fire. The USP will absolutely not fire in that condition. You can't generally tell by looking at the rounds which ones are bad. Just don't buy it.

I think my area of Tennessee is pretty secure in being against gun control. On a national basis, I wonder if the liberals are really going to push this until after the next Presidential election. It's probably a vote loser for them and the way things are looking, the next CIC may actually lobby for more gun restrictions rather than be passive about them.

I was a SASS member for a year. I have some friends who do the events, but I never shot or bought the movie western duds. The more I thought about it and watched the videos and read the rule book, I realized it wasn't something I was interested in. I'm still interested in shooting the revolvers, but not in a costume.

Yeah, I regularly spot someone who is printing. I wonder how many I miss.

You are correct - you are wrong. Firefox has a built in spell checker, so you aren't using that. For IE, there is a good free spell checker at http://www.iespell.com/. Since I use both browsers, I use both spull chunkers. We now return you to the topic....

Yeah, but in the Smokies you can stand in two important states.

Actually, there is an old revolver that moves the cylinder forward seating the cartridge to the barrel. Can't remember the name right now. The bullet in indented in the cartridge. Several people I know bought one and had a terrible time trying to find ammunition. DAO and had a horrendous trigger pull. Russian???? I think????

Yeah, I have some problems with these guys. They saw the shooter fire, they say. I doubt that since they were past him. Then they drew on him. There seems to be conflicting information of whether the guy had put his gun away. If the gun had been put away, I would have called 911 and just watched the guy to make sure he didn't leave. If he still had the gun in his hand, I would have acted with more force to prevent addition shooting.

Something to be said for play. I like to go with friends who enjoy stuff like pistol shooting at 100 yards. Just play, but it also develops skills.

I forgot to mention a knife that is almost always in my pocket, even if just sitting around home. It's one of those little Swiss Army Knives. Victorinox Black Classic SD The "SD" stands for screwdriver. The screwdriver works on an amazing number of gun screws. Thin enough to fit in those tight screw heads. They are only about $10. I've sent quite a few to guys being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. One of those items that once you carry it for a while, it becomes a basic tool.

Probably not. It's a bit more than an hour drive each way for me Mostly Interstate. It's the drive across town that's a pain. I've met Witsell and know what ICE does (and often doesn't do ).

I only smoked cigarettes for a couple of years. I quit just before going to Vietnam. (Yes, I know that's really weird.) But I had cravings for the coffin nails occasionally for ten years after that. It's the psychological addiction that gets you.

SSSTactical, that's what I was trying to say. No one is saying civilians shouldn't take training classes. Just check out the school thoroughly. There is nothing wrong with taking military-type training classes for fun or camaraderie. It you want to go blow a few hundred bucks and burn some powder, why not? It would probably help on your team paintball sports and it's better than lots of other pastimes. Just don't come out of a class and try to tell me your are tacti-cool and will be just as good as any soldier or Marine at holding off the hordes of ATF agents trying to take your guns. Imagination is wonderful. But the guys in uniform know that when they train, it's training they may actually use.