You May Not Know It, But I Am NOT Operator-As-Fuck

by Cori Tyler

I think each of us that puts some thought into protecting what we hold dear tend to periodically take stock of how we’re doing.  If I’m wrong, then I’ll just talk about me, because I definitely do a periodic inventory.  I mean looking at skills training, equipment, and what they’re all needed for.

Like so many people, I need more training.  Don’t get me wrong.  I do OK, and I’ve been lucky enough to soak in some very outstanding training from some great instructors.  Still, I often find myself looking at what’s available, and dreaming about what I’d like to learn, or who I’d like to teach it to me.  This is where the conundrum I want to talk about comes into play.

Sure, I want to keep a measure of preparedness for the worst-case scenarios on a global scale.  Nothing is impossible.  I plan for my family and friends to still be around when the zombies come, and flourishing in a safe and secure place.  That being said, it’s probably a safe bet that I have a greater chance of running afoul of a mugger, or a home invasion robbery, than a ghoul that’s craving my brain.

By the same token, I don’t see a lot of door kicking, flash-bang tossing, dynamic entries in my future.  It isn’t a need I have.

I’ve done that training.  I’ll be the first to admit.  IT’S A FREAKIN’ BLAST!!!  When I did it, I was working at a career goal specifically satisfied by that training.

That’s not where my needs are, today.

If we all take a look around the internet, there are trainers coming out of the woodwork whose videos feature shooters with helmets, vests, plate carriers, thigh holsters, bloused fatigue pants, and just about every other tacticool thing in existence to show us all what a bunch of badass, high-speed warrior-killers they are, and by extension, will transform anyone awesome enough to complete their course into as well.

Let me be clear.  Those guys are cool (the ones who are the real deal).  Their skills are cool.  The ones who we’ll never know or hear of, who do that kind of stuff every day?  Yep, they’re pretty cool, too.  I’m in awe of, and gratitude to, such people.  Thank God for spec-ops.

Also, their gear is cool, and fun to play with.  I have a Kevlar helmet.  It’s a souvenir from some of the aforementioned training.  I have a tac vest.  Know what?  It has nothing to do with duty.  Might it be handy if the world goes nutso and I have to be a Minuteman?  Sure.  And, I may or may not have used exactly that justification for keeping it set up.  The bigger truth is; it’s a handy way to carry a lot of crap for when I want to shoot a lot of rounds.  It looks pretty cool, too.

I’ve worn it at the range a few times.  Mostly, and the initial reason I bought it, it was for wearing at a fun shoot:  Outbreak:  Omega 5 in 2012.  O:O6 is happening this June.  You guessed it.  I’m dusting off the tac vest for that.  Like I said, it looks cool, and carries a lot of crap for when I want to shoot a lot, which I intend to do at the dozens of scenarios at Outbreak.

So, it could be that I’m basically doing zombie apocalypse cos-play.  It could also be there are a lot of practical uses for this gear.  The vest is a convenient, easy way to carry some heavy stuff.  It’s also got cool Velcro panels for some of my sweet patches.  When I gear up with it, weapons, magazines, a Camelbak, and whatever else goes along with it, I feel like I’m awful damn prepared.  It doesn’t have a whole lot to do with the daily risks I actually want to be ready for.

You’ll probably notice a similar theme with the classes our organization teaches.  We aren’t training spec-ops warriors.  We’re teaching people to defend themselves in their boring daily lives, in case they should find themselves suddenly in much less boring circumstances.  So, I’m not, and we won’t teach you to be, “operator-as-fuck.”

We will train ourselves, and our students, to be “lawfully-armed citizen going through daily life-as-fuck.”  That’s the stuff that we see in our daily lives, and that’s the stuff many people seem to forget to study in their own training.  So, if you find yourself looking at what you’ve learned, what you want to learn, or what you see a need to learn, ask yourself how it might be useful to you today or tomorrow.

There’s nothing wrong with having a good time with the other stuff.  Learning it is fun!  Using the gear is great.  The nice thing about shooting is, you can make it into whatever you want it to be, on any given day.  That’s why I know people who are cowboys on one day, high-powered rifle competitors on another, police officers another, and zombie hunters right alongside me another.

Enjoy yourself.  Just don’t kid yourself if you’re training at something for fun, that it’s something else.  Enjoy it.  If you find something in it that applies to your actual needs, throw it into your toolbox.  If you don’t, just have a good time anyway!

Well-Rounded Training

 . . . by Cori Tyler

Why do you train?  I'm sure you've likely put some thought into that question.  Right?  Right?  Sure you have!

If you're like me, you train to defend the people, places, and things dearest to your heart.  In fact, most of the worst case scenarios I can imagine involve a threat to my family or friends.  I work to be effective in defensive skills, whether with a firearm or unarmed combatives, or any number of other possible weapons I might find in between.  Hopefully, if the moment comes that I have to use the skills I learned, I'm good enough to win.  I intend to be.

Of course, when we talk about defensive skills, combatives, weapons, or attackers, we're talking about an outcome where someone ends up hurt.  There's even a real chance someone might end up dead.  That's why this is such a serious topic.  We train to hurt or kill people if it becomes necessary.  The alternative is we let them hurt or kill us, or even worse, someone else we'd protect.

For non-self-defense-types, this is where they lost interest.  How could anyone in their right mind want to prepare to injure or kill someone?  What kind of person would even open themselves up to that possibility?  Didn't our mommies, the Bible, or any number of other potential sources of morality instruction impart that little tidbit on us?

I know I learned "Thou shalt not kill" from an early age.  Of course, being curious and hungry to keep learning, I looked beyond that initial learning to find there were a lot of exceptions.  Soldiers in battle, peace officers in the righteous course of duty, and those defending what they love all appear to be allowed to kill, when necessary.  So, it seems the more complete iteration might be "Thou shalt not MURDER."

We don't look to kill, or even injure someone else.  We acknowledge that another's actions might not leave us with a choice.  In preparing, we've likely drawn that line where acceptability ends for us.  It's a good bet we can all envision scenarios that really come close to that line, or blur it quite a bit.

How about injuring someone?

Are you prepared to break an assailant's arm, leg, fingers, elbow, etc?

How else can you prepare?

My first foray as a training instructor was through the American Red Cross - great organization, by the way.  Their training and assistance programs do countless good things every single day.  As a First Aid/CPR/AED instructor, I taught correctional staff how to assist someone having a medical emergency.  I had students who used their skills at work, and even more who used them outside of work, on family members.

When I first became a Defensive Tactics instructor in the same place, I jokingly described my instruction as the total skills package.  I could teach you how to break 'em and how to put 'em back together.  Part of that characterization also came from the fact that, at that time, those two skills categories were pretty much all we got for in-service training.  So, I taught the total annual offering.

Time marched on, my career grew, changed, progressed – in step with the rest of my life.  I continued acquiring and polishing skills wherever I could.  Something I’ve added along the way, originally out of necessity but maintained out of personal desire to keep those skills, was certification as an EMT.

The joking from years ago comes back to me more often now, except there’s some truth that rings through a lot more.  To an extent, I really do know, and teach others, how to break ‘em and how to put ‘em back together.

No, I’m not a doctor.  Nor am I a hardened killer.

I guess I’m trying to speak more to things that I think are important to consider for a well-rounded set of skills.  I think if I’m doing all this training, studying, contemplating, learning, and improving my abilities in self-defense, I have to balance it.  I have to be able to render aid of a type other than use-of-force.

Realistically, most people are likely to use medical skills more often than self-defense skills.  People get hurt in accidents, get sick, and have other medical needs all the time.  Knowing how to deal with those things is important.

Even the most skilled fighters get hit.  If you have to defend yourself, your chances of being injured are better than average.  If you’re shot, you might have to stop bleeding, while continuing the fight.  You may have won the fight, but found yourself cut deeply, or suffering any other significant injury.  You need to be able to provide care for your injuries to truly survive.

Now, it gets surreal . . .

Fact is, if you have to defend yourself physically, you may face the ironic perspective of being the one to provide medical aid to your attacker.  If you knock someone out, you may have to protect their spine and head from injury.  If you break one of their bones, you may have to splint it.  If you shoot them, you may have to try to control the bleeding.

I’m not talking about being soft on the bad guy.  I’m talking about being the good guy in every aspect.  Not only is it important for your humanity to assist where you can, but imagine the difference when you have to explain your actions in court.  It sounds terrible, but it’s much better for you in that analysis if the bad guy died in spite of your best lifesaving efforts than if they died abandoned in the street, where you shot them.

Does this mean I think everyone should be an EMT?  Nope.  I think if you are going to be a serious student of self-defense, you should also prepare to address the consequences of defending yourself.  You should be prepared to help everyone survive the fight that can, after the conflict is resolved.

Freedom and Power

 . . . by Cori Tyler

I haven't gone on a rant for a little while, so why not start now?  I figure I'll throw one of the unspeakable topics out there.  Sort of.

Though we're a training organization, politics affects us.  Of course, it affects all of us, but since we particularly work with an area that is always contentious, firearms and self-defense, often the fighting and bickering hits us pretty close to home.  Chances are, if you're reading our blog, I don't really need to preach about those topics, or specifically I can't likely give you a whole lot of food for thought that isn't already in your own head.

I want to instead go with something else.  Voting.

Is there a more taboo subject in the taboo of discussing politics than voting?  I don't think so.  Everyone seems to want to tell anyone who will listen how they should vote.  Well, I'm trying to avoid doing any such thing.  I think the liberty to vote for the candidate of your choice is one of the many great freedoms we have here.  My interest here is in getting everyone to appreciate what that means.

You get to put your choice in writing at every election.  Every single one!

I think a lot of people have watered down the importance and strength of each vote.  How many times do you hear someone say if you don't vote for the big two candidates, you're wasting your vote?  "They", whoever "they" are, tell you that any other choice takes votes away from someone who actually has a chance at winning.

Think about that a minute.

Why would they actually have a chance at winning?

It's our votes.  They only win if enough of us vote for them.  Yet, every election, I hear people talking about choosing what they saw as the lesser of two evils.  If you really didn't want them in office, why in the sweet, blue monkey crap did you vote for them?

See, this two party bullshit is a self-fullfilling, defeatist prophecy.  People pick the lesser of two evils because they want a guarantee they're voting for a winner.  Of course, this only solidifies the hold a bunch of jackasses (whether shaped like donkeys or elephants) have on government, and our nation.  At this point, all they want is to grow and solidify their power bases, and wealth.  None of the ideology matters to them anymore.

Want to know the real difference between Democrat and Republican parties?

There is none anymore.

Of course, maintaining their power means they have to convince you and me to keep voting for them.  That means they have to exclude any other options, and divide those supporters.  They have to make other positions, other candidates, seem futile.  Want proof?  Who has heard of the Libertarian Party, Tea Party, or Green Party?  I bet all of you have.  I bet you might even remember some of the candidates they've run.  You may have even said to yourself that you liked one of them, if only they had a chance.

It's time to make that change.  We're coming up to a midterm election this year, and a general election in just two years.  Here's my challenge to each of you.  It's the same thing I'm challenging myself to do.  Vote your conscience!  If there's someone running for office who you like for that office, VOTE FOR THEM!  Don't overthink it based on party affiliation and who holds the power.  You hold the power.  Your only means of truly exercising that power in the voting booth is to vote your conscience.  If everyone did this, you might be surprised at where these politicians would learn the power really lies.