I’ve been working on my presentation for the 2025 Pat Rogers Memorial Revolver Roundup quite a bit, lately. The presentation will focus on a handful of law enforcement gunfights involving officers armed with revolvers, and identify some “lessons learned” for armed citizens who are similarly equipped.
Whenever I conduct this kind of analysis, I take great pains to look beyond the “hardware,” and focus my attention on the “software,” which is infinitely more important. Honestly, this is not the usual approach in the greater “gun industry,” which seems overly obsessed with widgets.
We don’t have an aversion to neat gear, here at RevolverGuy. We like it too, and we’ve done plenty of writing about the latest blasters, ammo, holsters, and other stuff, over the years. However, we also like to throw an article about mindset, training, or tactics in the mix occasionally, because that’s where the really good stuff can be found—the stuff that will make a difference on your worst day. Even our “gear reviews” are flavored with observations about the way said widget can be most efficiently employed to accomplish the mission—more of that “software” stuff creeping in, when you weren’t looking.
USEFUL MODELS
Readers who are familiar with my book on the Newhall Shooting, or my prior articles on “software” in these pages, know that I’m fond of a model that I was taught early on by Massad Ayoob. I first encountered Mas’ “Priorities of Survival” model in a Lethal Force institute LFI-I class back in the early ’90s, and it’s served me well as a framework for analyzing armed conflict, and our preparation for it, ever since. Since I’ve been working with the model a lot in preparation for my November Roundup presentation, I thought it would be valuable to pause for a moment, and make some remarks about it for the benefit of the greater RevolverGuy audience.
Mas’ model takes the shape of a triangle, or pyramid, composed of multiple layers, and we’ll break those down in a moment. But before we do, I’m obligated to look at another popular model that predated Mas’ own work, and assuredly had a great influence on it.
The “Combat Triad” model popularized by Lt. Col. John Dean “Jeff” Cooper and his American Pistol Institute (later, Gunsite Academy) is also pyramid-shaped, and sports equilateral sides composed of three key elements: Marksmanship; Gun-Handling, and; Mindset.
I think it’s significant that the Combat Triad uses Mindset as the base of the pyramid, while still emphasizing the notion that the three elements work together to ensure victory. Mindset, it would seem, is “more equal” than the other elements, despite the model’s appearance. Without the proper mindset, the rest is for naught.
Colonel Cooper described this concept more eloquently in his 1990 book, To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth, where he posed the question, “What, then, is the combat mind-set?” In response to his own inquiry, he suggested:
It is that state of mind which insures victory in a gunfight. It is composed of awareness, anticipation, concentration, and coolness. Above all, its essence is self-control. Dexterity and marksmanship are prerequisite to confidence, and confidence is a prerequisite to self-control.
There, in a nutshell, are the core components of the Combat Triad—the state of mind that allows a good man the confidence and clarity to handle his weapon with maximum efficiency, and place accurate rounds on target that will terminate the threat. While those gun-handling and marksmanship skills were essential to achieve the objective, Colonel Cooper recognized that it all began in the brain, for, “Man fights with his mind. His hands and his weapons are simply extensions of his will, and one of the fallacies of our era is the notion that equipment is the equivalent of force.”
PRIORITIES
The Colonel’s Triad is an efficient model to address the priorities involved in winning a gunfight, but it didn’t close the door on further development of these time-honored concepts. Just as Colonel Cooper’s work was inspired by the work of prior thinkers and warriors, his Triad model inspired others to wrestle with the elements of victory, and consider ways they could describe and share them.
Massad Ayoob’s effort to distill the essence of combat victory took a similar shape as the Triad, with a base layer composed of Mental Preparation and Awareness, topped with additional layers dedicated to Tactics, Skill at Arms, and Equipment, in that order. These elements would be familiar to anyone familiar with Cooper’s prior work, or the work of Sun Tzu, Musashi, Heraclitus, and others who predated the Colonel. Like the parable of the blind men and the elephant, each writer was striving to best describe the problem as they uniquely understood it.
MENTAL PREPARATION AND AWARENESS
I think it’s notable that Ayoob’s Priorities of Survival model, like Cooper’s, relies upon a base dedicated to issues of the mind. Everything is built on this foundation, and if it’s deficient, then the integrity of the entire structure is vulnerable, and prone to failure—a house, built upon sand.
In his attempt to describe the Combat Mindset that Cooper wrote about in his own words, Mas emphasized the importance of both preparedness and awareness. I’ve often described these things as opposite sides of the same coin, and they’re both critical to a proper mindset.
It seems to me that these concepts are closely linked, but separated by an element of time. Preparedness is an action that occurs early in the timeline, prior to a critical event, while awareness is something that happens later, in the moments directly before, during, and after the event.
Our preparedness efforts must focus on a number of areas, to include:
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- A realistic assessment of, and comprehensive knowledge of, the threat. Knowing the enemy and his tactics will help you to detect, identify, and evaluate the threat in a timely and accurate manner;
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- A thorough understanding of moral, ethical, and legal boundaries / responsibilities, to determine the limits on one’s use of force, and settle the issue of what you’re willing to do in a violent confrontation. These decisions must be made well in advance of the critical event, to avoid confusion, deadly hesitation, and mental stalls that will rob you of your ability to respond in a timely, efficient, and committed manner;
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- Sufficient training in the necessary skills and tactics to arm the mind with a solid understanding of the options it can choose from to deal with violence. Simply put, we must know what the best response is, and what we’re capable of doing on demand.
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Armed with this kind of preparation, we then rely on our skills of awareness to determine the baselines in our environment, and detect the threats that act in ways counter to those baselines. The prepared mind is of no use if our sensory net is down, and we’re not attuned to what’s going on around us. All of your training, preparation, and equipment are significantly diminished if you’re asleep at the wheel with your nose buried in your phone, and your first warning of danger is when the threat lands his first blow.
Once we’re engaged, we’ll continue to rely on our powers of awareness to collect the information we need to make and execute lifesaving decisions. This feed of information must be continuous, to make the best decisions possible. Detecting a slight change in behavior, a glance away, a subtle shift in the angle of attack, or the sudden presence of innocents blocking your shot requires a continuous assessment of the threat, the environment, and the people in it—it requires the height of awareness.
Panic, of course, is the killer of preparedness and awareness. When the mind is flooded with panic, any sense of preparedness or awareness is vanished, consumed. Panic is a short circuit of the brain, which completely interrupts normal function, dulls the senses, and dooms us to failure.
Colonel Cooper told us a panicked mind will become preoccupied with thoughts of, “this can’t be happening to me,” in a moment of crisis, rendering us incapable of taking the necessary actions to prevail against our aggressor. To forestall such an event, he urged students to mentally prepare themselves for the eventuality that they would be targeted, and come to a level of acceptance that would allow them to respond in a different manner—to say, in effect, “I knew this would happen, and I know what to do about it.”
This kind of response is predicated on having confidence in one’s training, abilities and equipment, which illustrates how all of the elements in the Triad and all of the layers in Ayoob’s model are interrelated.
It all begins in the mind though. As friend, and world class trainer, Wayne Dobbs recently told me in conversation at the 2025 Revolver Fest, “what we really need you to do is hold it together for two seconds, and make one good shot.”
TACTICS
The proper use of tactics is the next step in Ayoob’s hierarchy. As a military man, I know tactics as the actions we take to achieve the objectives outlined in our strategy, but for the purposes of our discussion here, the distinction between strategy and tactics is unimportant. What we’re really talking about are the things you do to maneuver against your enemy, and deny him the ability to hurt you, while you maximize your ability to hurt him.
In this category, we’re talking about such things as the use of cover and concealment, the proper use of lighting, or the use of maneuver to get off “the X,” get out of “the hole,” place your opponents on line, or flank them. We’re also talking about effective communication, assessing your environment, positioning, and decisions that minimize your vulnerability to risk.
In practical terms, tactics involve things like where we park our vehicles, what we’re looking for when we’re out in public, and the way we move through transitional spaces. It also involves things like how we manage a panhandler or a request for the time from a stranger, knowing when to access your weapon and when to wait, and where to stand on a subway platform.
Tactics are the moves we make to help ensure our victory, the things we do to make our employment of force even more effective, should that become necessary. If we fail to use good tactics, we complicate the problem for ourselves, perhaps to the point that it can exceed our ability to solve it, no matter how skilled we are.
An interesting thing about Ayoob’s model is each successive layer is smaller than the one below it, indicating a lower degree of priority. While using good tactics is important to your success in avoiding trouble, or achieving victory if you can’t, it’s less important than being mentally prepared and aware. It’s possible to short-circuit an attack with superior preparation and awareness, to cause the enemy to break off their attack because they’ve lost the advantages of surprise and superior positioning. Even better, it’s possible to see an attack coming and avoid it entirely, by removing yourself from the environment and the reach of your attacker. If you can accomplish either of these things, it will be completely unnecessary to use your tactics, skills and equipment to prevail against the enemy.
SKILLS
Should your mental preparation and awareness, and your use of good tactics, fail to prevent you from becoming involved in conflict, then your skill at arms is the next element that you will rely upon to ensure your survival and victory.
It would be ideal if we could maintain Cooper’s “Condition Yellow” level of awareness to a degree that we always saw trouble coming before it found us, but that’s not realistic. Despite our best efforts, we all slip into “Condition White” at inappropriate times, and since our eyes are mounted to facilitate forward vision, and we can’t turn our heads as effortlessly as an owl does, it’s hard to see everything that’s going on around us in a 360-degree world—especially one that assaults the senses with an overload of inputs to the eyes, ears, and nose.
Likewise, our tactics may not keep us free of trouble, even if applied in earnest. Crossing the street to avoid a predator may not work if he’s committed to making you his target. Taking a position of cover may not protect you from the savvy attacker who moves to flank your location.
When everything else fails, it comes down to whether or not you’re skilled enough to deliver the hits necessary to stop your attacker. This is an issue of training, but also an issue of self-control, as Colonel Cooper noted. Being able to do what you’ve been trained to do in a moment of great stress requires a focused mind—a mind unfettered by panic and distracting thoughts.
Legendary lawman Wyatt Earp described this state of mind when he wrote, “the most important lesson I learned from those proficient gunfighters was the winner of a gunplay usually was the man who took his time,” and went on to say:
Perhaps I can best describe such time taking as going into action with the greatest speed of which a man’s muscles are capable, but mentally unflustered by an urge to hurry or the need for complicated nervous and muscular actions which trick-shooting involves. Mentally deliberate, but muscularly faster than thought, is what I mean.
Armed with this mindset, and supported by a regimen of training and practice that allows a defender to deliver the necessary performance and make the hits, we can achieve victory.
Making those hits requires preparation, though. We have to practice the right things, with the proper frequency, intensity, and attention to detail, to build the requisite skill. This requires two things that are often in short supply—time, and money. For some folks, the money is not a problem, but none of us have unlimited amounts of time to train, so we’ve got to be productive with the time we have.
This requires hard choices about what to practice. It’s important that we avoid the temptation to practice what we’re good at, because it strokes our ego, or what is most entertaining. Instead, we need to practice the skills that are objectively important, with a focus on the skills that we’re not so good at. Is a sub-second draw really important enough to dominate your training efforts? How about increasingly short splits that encourage shooting faster than you can see, think and react? Be deliberate about your training, and focus on the right things.
It’s important to note that if your confrontation devolves to the point that shooting becomes necessary, your prior effort in the areas of mental preparation and awareness, and the proper use of tactics, will be a great help. It’s much easier, for example, to make a good shot on your attacker when you’re firing from a strong tactical position that provides suitable cover, and a position of dominance. Similarly, your superior awareness may give you enough warning of trouble that you won’t experience the debilitating panic that results from surprise violence, and robs you of the mental clarity and physical dexterity needed to shoot straight.
So, your mindset and tactics may not stop the fight by themselves, but they’ll help you to stop it quickly if you have to resort to your skill at arms. Good awareness and tactics support the winning application of skill.
EQUIPMENT
The final, and smallest, layer of Ayoob’s model is Equipment, and it’s the most controversial.
The controversy, as I see it, is that the people in our gun culture tend to focus on equipment way too much, despite the fact that it’s the least critical factor in our success.
The vast majority of the “gun press” (meant as an all-encompassing term, to include print, social media, online, video, podcasts, etc.) spends the vast majority of their time talking about widgets. We Americans like our guns and gear, and we like talking, reading, watching, and listening about them! As both a writer and editor, I know that articles about hardware are always going to garner more positive attention and feedback from readers than articles about software.
Hardware sells. It’s sexy, fun, and entertaining. It generates ads and revenue. It can be obtained relatively easily, without any of the demanding effort and work that accompanies real training and skill building. Some marketers are good at selling the lie that equipment alone can solve your problem, and provide security for you and your family, and some people are wont to believe them. Unfortunately, you can’t buy competency, you can only achieve it through hard work, and selling hard work is difficult, because people often don’t want to do it. Colonel Cooper told us that, “you are no more armed because you are wearing a pistol than you are a musician because you own a guitar,” and he was dead right, but it seems there are many more “guitar owners” than “musicians” in our gun culture.
If a confrontation escalates to the point that shooting becomes necessary, a shooter’s skills will likely be much more important to his success than the gun he is carrying. We of course need suitable and reliable equipment for the job, but assuming we have those needs met (which is not too difficult in today’s rich marketplace, despite the significant quality control issues we are seeing at all the major manufacturers), success depends more on the shooter than the equipment.
As enthusiasts, we love getting lost in the details of competing products, and definitely have our preferences about which systems, designs, features, or brands are better, but in the final analysis, it matters very little what firearm is in your holster, as long as it works properly. With the right training and effort, we can learn to achieve proficiency with a firearm that’s not our favorite, and doesn’t have the features we prefer. We’re adaptable, and we can train around those things, with the right effort.
This isn’t to say that equipment is unimportant, because it certainly is. We will do a better job with equipment that is better suited for the task, and more amenable to our preferences and abilities. You’ll shoot a gun that fits your hand better than one that is too small or too big. You’ll also shoot a gun that you have confidence in, because you can work it without undue effort, much better than one that demands more of your conscious attention. And, your firearm will be much more useful as a defensive tool if it launches a capable projectile–one that’s likely to produce the desired effect in the target, with a good hit.
Reliability, of course, is paramount in a defensive firearm. Unreliable equipment can sabotage our efforts very quickly, no matter what level of training, skill, tactics, awareness and preparation we have achieved. Thus, we’re obligated to ensure that our firearm and ammunition will work with the greatest possible reliability, and to keep them well maintained.
So, equipment is important, but once we achieve a certain standard of suitability and reliability, our efforts are better spent on achieving mastery with that equipment, instead of tinkering with it, or buying more stuff.
If your objective is to enhance your combat readiness, spend your time and dollars on good training, not more toys!
THE PARADOX
I’ve already set the stage for this observation, but it bears emphasis. The paradox of Ayoob’s Survival Priorities model is that people often turn it upside down, and reverse the priorities. They spend more effort, time and money chasing equipment than they do working on their skill with the equipment, developing their tactics, or readying their mind.
This creates an unbalance that destroys our readiness for combat. Such a model is inherently unstable, and doomed to failure. Yet, the things that are most important to our survival and our victory are the things that we often spend the least amount of effort on. Improving our abilities in these areas is difficult work. It’s rarely easy, entertaining or sexy.
However, it’s critical if our objective is victory in combat. If we’re truly interested in winning life and death battles, we need to keep our priorities straight. We need to spend our limited resources on the things that provide the greatest return on our investment.
So, be deliberate, stay focused, and stay safe out there!
Mike,
This is probably one of the best articles on this site. I have been anxiously awaiting this article for a while, and trying not to peek at the draft! I jumped on this as soon as I got up this morning. Thank you for taking the time to write such a thoughtful article.
I regret I won’t be at the Roundup for your full, in-person class. Maybe one of these years…or maybe they’ll bring that to RF next year.
Thanks, buddy!
Justin
Thanks pal, I sincerely appreciate it! Not sure if we’ll add a classroom track to Revolver Fest or not, but I’ll have the presentation ready to go, if we do.
The timing of your article Sir is mind blowing. Over the past few days, I personally have been doing some soul searching on this very topic. It is easy to think that because I have spent so much of my life as an outdoorsman, a Police Officer, a student of preparedness, and an armed citizen, that I have everything figured out and I am ready for anything that may confront me. What I have realized is, that as I age, I have to change and modify some of my habits and behaviors. My “software” is something I can continue to improve because I know that physically, I am not the same man I was 25 years ago. Thank you for the reminder and the thought provocation that encourages us to be better and to improve our mindset to not only look out for ourselves but to continue to be prepared to help others.
Thank you Sir! It’s an ongoing thing, isn’t it? As our lives change, there’s always some reassessment needed. I’m as guilty as any of “forgetting” that I’m not 25 anymore, but my body reminds me. Glad you found this useful.
Very well said sir.
“The final weapon is the brain, all else is supplemental.” – John Steinbeck
Thank you for the excellent teaser of your pending presentation. I’m very much looking forward to it.
Working at a shooting range as a safety officer and instructor means I’ve encountered myriad gun owners who have been convinced by YouTubes, Internet forums, and gun rags that they can solve their problem with the latest technology. Sadly, but not unsurprisingly, stuffing a plastic high cap 9mm (don’t forget the RDS and WML) and two spare 20 round mags and a wicked looking knife down the front of one’s pants doesn’t transform a fella into John Wick, let alone John Wayne…
For now, what struck me most about your essay is that the first two steps of LFI’s “Priorities of Survival” model, Mental Preparation & Awareness and then Tactics, don’t even require a firearm, or any other defensive implement. Seeing the problem first, preventing it, avoiding it, or deescalating it, is almost always better than solving it. As The Colonel once told me, “An alert man is very hard to kill.”
See you next week!
Michael, I sincerely look forward to it! I hope the presentation will be worthwhile for you and the rest of our tribe.
Your observations are spot on, and I appreciate you adding them to the conversation!
It would be fun to ask your customers if they ever heard of a gent named Walter Mitty. 😆
FWIW, while you suggest that awareness and mental preparedness to use deadly force, when indicated, are opposite sides of the same coin I came to view them as separate entities and my book (third edition is a free download at https://snubgunstudygroup.com/) is so structured.
Thanks!
I think you just said it not the arrow it’s the Indian. But I reserve the right to be wrong.
Indeed, Sir! That’s one of my favorite Evan Marshall quotes, and I use it often!
Good morning Amigo. In my humble opinion you have just crossed an invisible line and joined the ranks of great handgun writers of the past.
My first handgun was 63 or so years ago and since that time have read everything on the subject of handguns and their use in defense of self and others. Always seeking more information and practicing with chosen platforms.
This article should be required reading at each LE Training Academy and each states concealed carry class nation wide.
We never stop learning life’s lessons until our life expires.
Thank the Lord for those who teach and share.
Tony, you humble me, pal! Thank you so much! I’m just a student sharing what he’s learned from others.
Mike, an extremely well thought out and articulated presentation. It is sunday morning, and I’m probably not that well thought out or articulate.
I tend to view Jeff Cooper’s triangle more appropriate for real life. It is balanced, and recognizes that each element is dependent on the other. His triangle is akin to a three legged stool. As long as you have all three that are steady, balanced and support each other, you have stability and a functional stool. Remove one of those legs, shorten or weaken one (or more) of the legs and you have your back side meeting the deck.
Ayoob’s level of priorities is well articulated as to priorities, but it is not balanced. If one does not continually train the brain for reaction, evaluation, analysis of a given environment, then they are running Windows 3.1 in a Windows 11 world. When the stuff hits the fan, we react to startle. The scenario will unfold slightly faster than we can respond. Situations go into the tank quickly, and being able to implement Col. Boyd’s OODA loop is critical. Mental preparation and training can cover the Observe, Orient, and Decide elements because we have to be able to quickly recce our surroundings as they are now affected by adverse actors. Much of this element can be mitigated by not going to stupid places with stupid people doing stupid things. It also helps that when we are out of our secure space (home), we have our radar doing continuous 360-scans about us for things that are not right. Unfortunately for those on the job, you have to go into stupid places where stupid people are doing stupid things.
Wayne Dobbs aptly stated correctly: Hold it together, breathe deep, and make your shot count. If you do not breathe, your brain is not getting oxygen and you can not think clearly – not that you’re thinking too clearly when someone is shooting at you. Wyatt Earp is said to have stated that “Fast is fine, but accuracy is final.” Precision trumps speed in critical situations. “You must learn to be slow in a hurry.” echos Wayne Dobbs.
To respond, one must have something resembling a plan (Mental Preparation, anyone). What are we going to do when a potentially deadly situation presents itself? Will we be able to deescalate? Will we be able to get out of the area without being noticed ? Is there a way out ? If so, where and how. Have you even considered where your avenues of escape might be? You need to be able to adapt, improvise, and overcome.
Action will have a limiting factors of its own. Your mental preparation has to include your phyical ability and the fact that you are going to be impeded by your physical condition, or lack thereof. If you are of my era that remembers when Eisenhower was president, walks with a cane, has bad knees and lower back issues, well, sorry – you ain’t replicating John Wick. Your action may well fall back to your hardware.
As for hardware -it matters not whether it’s a bottom feeder or a cylinder gun, or as I like the quip: A Smith & Wesson beats Four Aces. The question is not what gun you have, but rather is the gun is in top mechanical condition, is it totally reliable, is it accurate, and do you and your gun function as one? Can you run it in the dark ? . . in the cold ? . . . in the rain? Missed shots do not stop threats, instead you hit Widows, Nuns, and Orphans (not good).
Outstanding points, all! Once again, the Comments are better reading than the article itself. 😁
Mike, the comments here are very good. Not sure that they are better than the article in this case, Sir. This piece is a good reminder to keep the software updated and remember that the hardware is supplemental. Well done, thank you!
Thank you Sir! Looking forward to seeing you soon!
Kevin,
Very good point about software updates. What was not addressed, and what is perhaps a subject for a totally different article, is that one should familiarize themselves with the current Statutory and APPELLATE COURT CASE law regarding concealed carry and the use of deadly force. For all the years I taught ‘gun stuff’, I did two things religiously. First, I continually updated my compendium of case law from our Court of Appeals and Supreme Court (going back to the 1800s) on the lawful and permissible use of force. Second, I made sure every class had a comprehensive session on the current state of the laws and court decisions (Georgia Supreme Court said I could do that). Every state has their own quirks, so wisdom is arming yourself with that knowledge.
I’m not sure if there’s any literature that would confirm this but we may be evolved to chase the widgets. And, of course, they are fun! One of the reasons I like revolvers is the constant awareness that I only have five or six, so I’d better get hits. I think police hit ratios in the street have really gone downhill since the hi cap guns showed up in our holsters. Finally, was it True Grit where John Wayne talks about how you have to be willing to pull the trigger? Mindset is vital.
You sure got that right, buddy. How many folks carrying guns out there havn’t had an honest talk with themselves about what they’re TRULY willing to do with it?
Hit ratios: I would definitely agree. All these mag dumps being caught on BWCs!
Evolved to chase the widgets . . . hmm, that requires some consideration. The caveman who used the first rock may have started something.
Last night I revisited “44 Minutes – The North Hollywood Shootout.” It’s been at least a decade since I saw the movie depicting the 1997 Bank of America armed robbery. The actor portraying the seriously
wounded LAPD officer summed up the 1,700 -2,000 round gun battle,”they had the firepower, we had the willpower.”
How appropriate to round out my evening by reading the importance of mental awareness and preparation in The Priorities of Survival.
Talk about mindset!
Good stuff dude. Let’s talk at Round Up because I have a small tweak to that pyramid and I would dig your take on it.
Hanging prominently on a wall inside Diablo Canyon’s simulator room is a poster with this reminder from the great Vince Lombardi:
“Practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.”
This is an excellent article, Mike! We all need this reminder…and often. It prompts me to return to the ‘foundational things’ again, and access my own mindset and preparedness. Keep up the good work!
Kevin Massey
Thank you Sir! We can never get enough of the fundamentals, right?
Please allow me a trip down memory lane here. Back a few years ago I had knee surgery. While recouping I decided to walk 350 feet to my mailbox. Dr told me I needed exercise. As I retrieved my mail I was slowly hobbling back to our home when I hear screeching brakes and turned to see 3 YOUNG men speedily backing to get in my driveway. Long story short I was armed, realized I could not get away should trouble come my way. Well, it did.
The driver exited and harshly asked “Old Man, do you have any work for us?” The hair stood on my neck because I realized it was only a ruse so he could gain access to me. He came across the yard at a fast walk with one passenger coming hurriedly behind the driver. I turned to face and told them no I had no work, and for him stop and to get back in his truck and leave. He came to withing 30 feet of me, I turned to face him and began to draw. At that point the passenger “Read My Body Language” and told his buddy, “Come on Bobby, it ain’t worth getting shot over.” The driver had fire in his eyes. My intuition told me I was getting ready to take a beating, or worse. The driver had come close enough that I could see he had already drawn his hands into fist and was coming in great haste. Driver finally stopped, at about 12 paces, when he seen his backup was no longer coming.
I found out 2 days later they had found another guy, one of my neighbors, and he was doing the same, getting his mail. The poor guy was in the hospital for 3 weeks. His son told me he never really got over the beating he took and died 4 days after he was discharged. He was 84 and legally blind.
I was 68, and barley able to walk at the time this happened. I have left out a lot of detail in this story.
My biggest mistake in all of this was I never called the Sheriff and filed a complaint. Just might have kept my neighbor from taking a terrible beating. Mindset and willingness are a real big part of the thing, along with the other parts. Great article Mike.
Pop Pop, it’s great to hear from you again, Sir! That’s an excellent illustration of these principles in action, I thank you for sharing it with us.
That certainly sounds harrowing, what did you happen to be carrying at the time?
Yes, it was a terror to me. I was doing a lot of training at that period in life. At 65 I took a training session to become an NRA instructor. I passed and was certified and have taught a lot of people their first experience with Handguns. It has been rewarding for me. Just had a young man from my church bring his 3 young sons (16, 14, 11) to let me introduce shooting to them. I start with a SW 3″ 22 Revolver and progress on upward to 9 MM and 38 Spl.
I had just watched video on reading attack indicators and aggressive body language. I was amazed, later after time to think, that the other follow-up dude “read my body language” and told his buddy he was about to get shot, and that is what stopped the lead aggressor. That weas total proof to me that it works.
I tell you this guy never blinked his eyes from the time he hollered at me until he stopped and started yelling, spitting at me, kicking in my direction and cursing me. I thought his juggler veins were going to explode out of his neck right in front of me.
When I finally hobbled back to my front porch my strength just melted. I began sweeting and shaking. I still have dreams about that sometimes.
I was pocket carrying a Taurus 7 shot 2″ brl snubby revolver, loaded with Cor Bon DPX 357 mag HPs. Never felt I needed anything else. It is in my pocket as I type this reply, Jeb. I carry when I am out of bed. What is your EDC.
It was a real benefit to attend your lecture today at the Pat Rogers Memorial Revolver Roundup, 11-24-25. The entire event was very well run, the instruction superb, and your lecture at the end of the event offered real word applicable lessons for all. Thank you again for the presentation.
Thank you Sir! I’m so glad it was useful. I enjoyed shooting with you and all our RevolverGuy pals this weekend!
Your brief at PRMRR was outstanding. Thank you.
Look forward to seeing you next year.
Thank you Sir! I look forward to it as well! Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, and be safe!
Like Splithoof and Steve, I truly enjoyed your lecture. We all left the Roundup with shooting homework; you gave us important thinking to do. It was a pleasure to share the range and to sit in your classroom this past weekend. Look forward to seeing you next year.
Thank you Michael! Keep your eyes peeled for this weekend’s entry, where I tell everyone how you beat me by two points, and earned the Top Gun award! ; ^ )
Mike, it was truly a great pleasure meeting you and listening to this presentation in person. Lots of food for thought, and relevant applications for us EDCers. Thank you for for all your work brother.
Shimon
Thank you Sir! I appreciated your participation and interest, and look forward to seeing you down the road. It was great meeting you. Be safe!
I’m a graduate of Ayoob’s LFI and I’m remembering 2015 when I made an air return to Australia with a copy of his book. OMG, I was interviewed for two hours because of that book, which pictured an obviously Middle Eastern man on the cover firing a pistol. No handguns here, to speak of. I persuaded the chap that Mass was an ex-copper in the U.S. and a noted authority on self-defense over there, and that I knew him personally. Eventually, I was allowed to pass through security and with my copy of the book intact :-).
Great article Mike and spot on 🎯