If you are looking for a way to keep your fighting gear off the ground, or just want a badass looking gear stand this article is for you.With just a few bucks and half an hour you can be the owner of something like this.

The first thing to think about is what you want the base of the stand to be made out of. I chose an 8”x16”x4” block of cement for my base. Whatever you chose you have to make sure it is either wide enough or heavy enough to keep the stand stable. I have found that the block pictured is the best choice if you want a small footprint. If you chose the block understand that you will have to pre-drill the holes for the floor flange into the block.

Once you know that the rest of the materials are as follows.

1-  Piece of 3/4” galvanized pre-cut and male threaded pipe 24” long

3- 3/4” pipe nipples 6” long with male threaded connections

1- 3/4” galvanized female four way cross tee

2- 3/4” galvanized female pre-threaded floor flange

The screws to mount your stand to the base

The pipe you need for this project can be purchased pre-cut and pre-threaded at most hardware stores all you have to do is screw it together.

The first step is to mount the floor flange to your base.

The next steps are to-

Screw the cross tee to the longest piece of pipe

Screw a 6” piece to both sides of the cross tee forming a T

Screw the T onto the floor flange

If you do not intend on putting a helmet on your stand you can leave it like this.

For the helmet stand attach the last 6” piece of pipe to the top of the cross tee followed by the floor flange on the top of it. If you do not want to use the floor flange on top make sure you tape or cover the threads in some way so they do not damage your helmet.

 

Ok, let’s start with plagiarism and add some sarcasm. It was the best some times, it was the worst some times…

Any handgun we carry concealed is a compromise. We accept that fact because if we knew we were headed to a gun fight we would bring a shotgun, rifle, or light anti-tank weapon if available. With concealed carry, the operative word is concealed.

Concealing a full size service pistol requires effort and commitment. Many of us, even those of us that carry and work with firearms daily will choose to carry a pocket pistol or revolver when the threat level does not indicate an immediate fight. It’s a compromise surely, but with .38 / .357 or 9mm as the starting point and a decent bullet design loaded in the gun, one should not feel too vulnerable versus carrying a full size service handgun.

A few years back while attending a training conference with several well known instructors we all went out for Bar B Que. The conversation turned to ” so what are we all carrying tonight?”. 4 out of the 7 had a .38 /.357 revolver, one a small pocket 9, the other two, a full size Glock and a 1911.

Personally my serious caliber pocket gun has been for quite a few years a 5 shot j-frame. Most recently the PD340 .357. I exclude .380′s and .32’s from this conversation, but acknowledge that when ultra concealment is the order of the day they play a role in our personal security SOP. We can discuss .380 and smaller calibers another day.

Recently I purchased a DB9 made by Diamondback Firearms. I will tell you that I have at this point made it my primary pocket carry pistol. The conversion was not without challenges though.

Below you will find weight and dimensional information. I have extensive experience carrying and firing the PD 340, and have so far put about 600 rounds through the little, and I mean little 9. I am carrying it daily and running it more and more each day. I have some thoughts on the matter and am forming some new opinions I’ll share as the conversation progresses.

More to the point though… I would really appreciate your thoughts, observations and experiences.

By Craig Stolzman

We talk about the survival priorities mindset, tactics, skill at arms, and equipment all the time. Lets apply the guidelines we have for equipment (readily available, reliable, and relatively suited for the task) to trauma kits.

Let’s look at readily available first, I often shoot IDPA and as of the date I write this I have not seen anyone with a trauma kit  besides myself. I am sure there are kits in people’s vehicles but some of the stages are over a hundred yards from the parking area. You having a small kit there might save someone’s life. Now I know you are not going to carry a full kit around in your cargo pockets everyday everywhere you go so having it in your vehicle is definitely better than not having it at all but during higher risk activities have it with you.

Wikipedia defines reliability as (the ability of a person or system to perform and maintain its functions in routine circumstances, as well as hostile or unexpected circumstances). You need to know how to use what is in your kit with confidence. I know the thinking is that the items in your kit are to be used on you so you should include things you might not know how to us because the person working on you will know how to use them. I don’t know about you but I do not have medical professionals following me around, if I don’t know how to use something most likely no one around me will either. Find a way to get the training.  The items in the kit need to be carried or stored in a way that they are protected from anything that could cause them to be unusable such as water, mud, sunlight, rips or cuts and so that you can access them Quickly.

What items should be included in your trauma kit?

The items in your kit should be relatively suited for the task. This is a trauma kit not a first aid kit a trauma kit is mainly set up to stop severe bleeding and or restore breathing a first aid kit is for treating  your everyday booboo’s, they should not be mixed. Things you should consider being in your kit are Military field dressings, hemostatic bandage, tourniquet, nasopharyngeal airway, 14 Gauge Angio-catheter, gloves, tape, occlusive dressing, or gauze. At minimum it should contain a field dressing, gauze, gloves, and a tourniquet.

There is a saying that goes something like this “if you are prepared to take a life you should be prepared to save one”. I believe in this completely. Whether it be a vehicle accident, work related injury, GSW, or a laceration you will be far better equipped to handle the situation if a trauma kit is available, reliable, and suited for the task.

Discussion Point:

How would your plan of action differ if you were home when they intruded versus if you came home and they were already inside?

By just focusing on what we can see in the video it appears that there is some type of altercation going on in a convenience store when a clerk uses a baseball bat to make an alleged robber leave. The individual comes back with a gun by his side and goes to the counter of the store where he is met by the clerk with a drawn pistol. The individual’s gun is still by his side, is the clerk justified in using lethal force at that time?

The alleged robber decides to leave the store but once he is out of the door he turns and fires into the store which is met by return fire from the clerk. Notice the person in green walking through the line of fire like nothing is going on. Do you think the clerks actions of not using his firearm when he first deployed it put other people in danger or was it the right answer at the time? What did you see that we can take away from this? Share your thoughts below

Another reason mounted lights are suboptimal in my opinion is that some times you need to use the light to illuminate something that does not need shooting. Using a mounted light to sweep areas or light up unknown persons (in less than dire circumstances) is somewhat irresponsible at the least. The mounted light beam is concurrent with the shot line of the pistol at all times, while the hand held is independent.

When training persons with job descriptions that require a mounted light on their pistols we insist they carry and use hand held lights for those times that they are most likely not going to encounter a threat. Unless you clear buildings for a living, you’ll likely run across more situations that do not require the pistol be pointed at the objective than the other way around.

One of the ways we search with pistol in hand is to utilize any number of muzzle averted methods. Examples include; pistol along side the body, in low ready, in position sul or protected guard. Then the flashlight is held in the neck index position.

We’ll leave the discussion of search techniques for another time and for now discuss using the light when we have identified a threat and need to bring the weapon up to a firing position. The following photographic progressions illustrate a few of the methods we teach at High Point Training for deploying a pistol or long gun while utilizing the hand held light.

When the gun needs to be brought to bear on a threat simply raise it or punch it out from whatever muzzle averted position it was being carried in. Of course if the threat is close the gun should be brought to a retention position. We advocate either position #2 or # 3 of the draw stroke for extreme CQB.

While presenting the gun to full extension another option would be to move your hand with the light down to the Harries position as you bring the gun up to bear on target. Remember to keep your live hand, your no dominant hand (left hand for most people) close to the center line of your body and trace from your dominant side bicep down into the locked Harries position. This will ensure you don’t sweep your self as move into the Harries. Those of you that have taken our Armed Low Light / No Light 3 gun class are familiar with this technique. It’s important to remember that the dominant hand is not resting on the left, but mating to it.

Here is an expedient method of moving in a closed environment with handheld light and a rifle that does not have a mounted light attached. As you see, the risk for a take away attempt is high based on length. That is why we strongly advocate that any rifles, carbines and shot guns that are to be used in defense of life have mounted white lights. Of course a hand held backup light should be carried as well as stated earlier in our discussions.

Here we have a series of photos depicting the method that we’ve developed to manage the handgun and hand held flashlight at the same time during a reload.

I hope I’ve got you thinking a bit about your methods of operation with regard to white light and weapons. Please feel free to add your thoughts or comments to the discussion.

The idea for a semi annual Tactical Conference in Central Florida just kind of evolved. It started when Jim Clark, High Point Personal Security Training, LLC (Tampa, Florida) and Andy Stanford of Options for Personal Security, Inc. (Ridgecrest, California) had a phone conversation about the benefits of tactical trainers networking on a regular basis. Andy was planning a trip to Florida, and they arranged to get together to exchange ideas and train together. Soon Tony Torre, Miami Arnis (Miami, Florida) was invited, as well as Lance Biddle, Florida Firearms Instruction (Wauchula, Florida). The next thing you know several other people that have trained or shot with the group in the past asked to join the days’ events, so the decision was made to formalize it and sell tickets to benefit a worthy cause. Camaraderie, a bar-b -que lunch and a day full of training was the result. Everyone enjoyed the days’ events; so much that we decided to plan another within 6 months.

That brings us up to the present and the Central Florida Tactical Conference for Spring 2010.The date is set for April 18, 2010, and the location is the Vet’s Recreational Area, Fort Meade, FL We are very happy to say that both Andy Stanford, and Tony Torre will be returning as guest instructors.

Two new additions have been made to the cadre. Dave Harrington, Martial Gun, LLC
(Tampa, Florida), and Don Redl, Executive Options, LLC (New York and Florida).

Registration Information

You can register for the 2010 Central Florida Tactical Conference by downloading the registration form or by visiting the official website, www.CentralFloridaTacticalConference.com.

For a good cause – Wounded Warrior Project

Action News Matt Saffer was on hand for this event and produced this story.

ECQC LA 08 from Initiative Deficit on Vimeo.

Instructor Bio:

“SouthNarc” is the on-line pseudonym for the assistant commander of a multi-agency drug unit, in the southern United States. SouthNarc is also the commander of his agency’s SWAT team.

SouthNarc has been a full-time police officer since 1990 and has held line assignments in corrections, patrol, narcotics, investigations, and for the past seven years has been a narcotics group supervisor. He was also the primary defensive tactics instructor at the Southern Regional Public Safety Institute from 1992-1999 and has personally trained over five thousand police officers at the academy level. SouthNarc has extensive operational experience in an undercover capacity which is reflected heavily in the Extreme Close Quarter Concepts coursework.

SouthNarc has a thirty year background in Phillipine, Indonesian, Brazillian and Japanese martial arts and is a veteran of the U.S. Army. He has been conducting training in the private sector in the U.S. and abroad for the past 5 years.

ShivWorks Extreme Close Quarter Concepts (ECQC)

The ShivWorks Extreme Close Quarter Concepts (ECQC) course is a two and a half day (20 hours) block of instruction which focuses on a multi-disciplinary approach to building functional, combative handgun skills at zero to five feet. The course is designed to instill core concepts of seamless integration and provide the platform for aggressive problem solving during a life or death struggle. A heavy emphasis is placed upon commonality of body mechanics between skill sub-sets, which means that all combative software is reinforcing. Once the student’s skill sets are initially ingrained, the participant will be stress inoculated with force on force drills utilizing marking cartridges and protective equipment.

Topics covered include:
Day One (4 Hours)

• Criminal Assault Paradigm
• Unequal Initiative Events
• Managing Unknown Contacts
• Practical Unarmed Combat

Day Two (8 Hours)

• Diagnostics
• Introduction to the components of the Combative Drawstroke
• Building the #2 position in live-fire
• Firing throughout the horizontal line of presentation
• Off-hand fending positions
• Default position
• Basic empty hand blows
• Theory of in-fight weapon access
• Grounded basics

Day Three (8 Hours)

• Challenging the potential attacker
• Preemptive weapon access
• Multiple attackers
• Negotiating the F.U.T.
• ECQ Handgun retention in holster
• ECQ handgun retention out of holster
• Handgun recovery
• Handgun striking

Equipment Required:

Holster, pistol, two magazines, eye & ear protection, heavy sweatshirt or soft body armor, mouthpiece and cup, 500 rounds of ammo.

To register for this special event, please contact Jim Clark of High Point Personal Security. Course cost is $400 and a deposit is required.

This class is not recommended for beginning shooters and prior documented firearms training requiring holster work or instructor approval is required. Students should be relatively fit as this is a contact class. Most of the latter half of each day will be spent utilizing marking cartridges and FIST helmets, to allow the students to gain confidence in applying their newly acquired skills against moving aggressive opponents.

See another video from SouthNarc’s training –

What he does next is fire into the suspect from that position. This with a second firearm retrieved from near the cash register, after stepping over/past the downed suspect twice!

What is your reaction to this pharmacist’s use of force? I have my opinions… what are yours?

Would you have reacted differently? Please share your thoughts with us by adding a comment below.