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JUNE 6, 2023

Camfour announces Glock as the June Vendor of the Month. Throughout the month of June, dealers who are signed up with Camfour will be able to take advantage of free goods, sale pricing on select Camfour Custom Cerakotes and split payment terms on all Glock handguns at certain purchase levels.
Bear OPS will display their new lineup of knives at this year's Blade Show. Visit Booth 5 at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta, GA from June 2-4, 2023, to explore their tactical, lightweight, and automatic knives.
Is your pack squared away? Keep your gear organized with FirstSpear's popular, American Made Summit Bag - the ultimate organizational tool in the FirstSpear arsenal.

The Galco KingTuk Cloud hybrid IWB holster is now available for the Shadow Systems DR920 pistol. The holster’s comfort level comes from its innovative backing plate, composed of a ballistic nylon front over a closed cell foam body.
Mission First Tactical announces their Black Leather Hybrid line of holsters including: Appendix Inside Waistband (AIWB), Inside Waistband (IWB) and Outside Waistband (OWB) holsters.  
Beretta announced the signing of a new athlete to their professional pistol competition team - Cameron Templin. Templin will compete with the new 92XI SAO in the newly established Limited Optics division of the United States Pistol Shooting Association.

Target Sports USA is now actively expanding its network of influencer partnerships to broaden its reach further, forge deeper connections, and elevate the overall customer experience. Influencers passionate about joining forces with Target Sports USA are encouraged to explore exciting collaboration potential.
This year, Primary Arms optics submitted four of their newest optics for NTOA testing. The 4th Gen SLx® 1-6x24 SFP Rifle Scope and GLx® 3-18x44 FFP Rifle Scope earned ‘Silver’ scores, averaging above 4.0 out of 5. Meanwhile, the GLx 10x42mm Binoculars and 2nd Generation SLx MD-25 Red Dot performed at the highest level, earning ‘Gold’ scores with average scores above 4.5 out of 5. The GLx binoculars scored especially high at 4.72/5, earning the title of Primary Arms Optics’ highest-scoring product.
Blackhawk is proud to sponsor tactical athlete Jared Halbert for the 2023 Tactical Games season. This season, Halbert is competing in both individual Men’s Elite events as well as Men’s Elite Team events with Blackhawk teammate Zach Rodman.

ZeroTech Optics announces its 2023 shooting team, featuring two talented and accomplished marksmen: Mitch Hogan and Adam Piromanski.
Renowned for its quality and innovation, the Taurus GX4 pistol and its variants have captivated both domestic and international markets. The GX4 GL received the "Great Buy" award as the "Best Pistol 2023" in the micro-compact category from Outdoor Life and in 2022, the GX4 series achieved the coveted Handgun of The Year award from GUNS & AMMO magazine.
Attorneys for the Second Amendment Foundation and its partners in a long-running legal challenge of California’s magazine ban statute have filed a memorandum in support of their motion for summary judgment and opposition to the state’s counter-motion for a summary judgment.

Creedmoor Sports announced the launch and immediate availability of their new Shoulder Datum Tool. It allows users to accurately measure their cases for proper shoulder bump when reloading.
For the first time in over 50 years Weatherby will introduce a new centerfire rifle action, the Model 307. Meant to complement the historic Mark V and Vanguard lineups, the Model 307 is a 2-Lug, fully cylindrical action compatible with many aftermarket accessories.
To honor the service of our nation’s military and law enforcement professionals, Daniel Defense has released a new Global War on Terror rifle package. This commemorative rifle package is available for purchase only by active-duty and retired military and law enforcement professionals, U.S. veterans, and those who diligently and selflessly served our nation in times of need.

CrossBreed Holsters now offers a broad range of its popular holster systems for Anderson Manufacturing's new Kiger 9C and Kiger 9C Pro 9mm pistols. CrossBreed is offering a deep bench of its top EDC Kydex and leather hybrid holster plus several of its modular and soft holster systems.
The Second Amendment Foundation announced that it is enlisting the aid of highly-respected Second Amendment veteran strategist Chris Cox and his public policy/public affairs consulting group, Capitol 6 Advisors, as we forge ahead in our effort to win firearms freedom, one lawsuit at a time.
Following the clarification by a federal judge regarding the scope of a preliminary injunction in the Second Amendment Foundation’s case against the Biden administration’s new “arm brace rule” – that it applies to SAF members – interest in membership was so heavy during the first 24 hours it crashed the website.

The NRA Foundation recently awarded the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Department a grant totaling $6,000 to fund equipment for School Resource Officers assigned the responsibility of protecting our schools.
Bear Creek Arsenal announced the "Brace Yourself Sale" where you can get all the pistol uppers you could ever want. This limited sale on select pistol uppers chambered in 7.62x39, .450 Bushmaster, 5.56 Nato, .17 HMR, .22 WMR, .223 Wylde, .300 Blackout, 6.5 Grendel, and .350 Legend gives a variety of options.
The Armory Life announced the release of the Summer 2023 issue of The Armory Life print magazine, featuring a cover story interview with MACV-SOG’s Major John L. Plaster. This quarterly print magazine complements the daily digital content available on TheArmoryLife.com.
The Headrest Safe Company has partnered with e-commerce giants Amazon, Optics Planet, Quadratec, and Turn 5 to fulfill the demand for their industry-leading vehicle safe.
 

Today’s feature is from our parent service, The Outdoor Wire. Our services cover the ground and you never know what you’ll find in each of them. This is a particularly relevant discussion for our focused topic area and for the times in which we live.


In the military, it’s commonly accepted that “generals fight the last war.”

Strategies are usually based on the last war, not the next one. Unfortunately, that’s often proven true as tactics evolve following setbacks.

During my recent trip to Gunsite Academy, Michael Bane made a statement that, brought the soldier’s lament home: “The whole world changed in 2019. We’re training for the wrong fight.”

In his new world, seldom will you see a random attacker. Since 2019, multiple attackers have become more common than lone assailants-with the exception of lone-wolf crazies who attack places, not people.

“We’re still training to stop an individual,” Bane said, “we need to be training to identify and defend ourselves against multiple attackers -it’s the way the world works anymore. There are packs of attackers.”

I wanted to wait a bit and consider his assertion before writing about his assertion. After a few days reflection, along with reading and watching local news, I’m afraid Michael is -once again- onto something.

In the local news I’ve forced myself to watch, there were eight violent attacks reported. In seven, there were multiple attackers

So what’s that mean for people?

We commonly train on square ranges, grooving a “shoot the drill then holster carefully” mentality. We’ll, that keep your “head-on-a-swivel” thing isn’t just for “operators” or fighter pilots.

No one’s implying there’s no need for training on the “square range” these days. Training to shoot accurately, especially when surrounded by gunfire, is helpful for whatever situation you may encounter. But it might not be enough for today’s new realities.

Neither is the OODA loop. Everyone needs to be prepared to observe, orient, decide and act faster than ever before (yes, that’s the “OODA” loop).

That means paying attention to those “uneasy feelings.” It means living like a sly fox, not a frightened rabbit. Being aware of our surroundings and being ready to move.

NOT like someone headed for the OK Corral. Just someone who knows where they’re going and is headed there purposefully.

Nose out of phone.

Head out of the clouds.

Mind on what you’re doing. Living in the now.

It’s the kind of preparation that chooses to walk away, not escalate. That withdraws instead of engaging until theres no other option; then acting decisively to end the threat.

In other words, choosing not to fight until you have no other choice -then ending the fight quickly. “Ending” does not mean shooting someone to slide lock or until the cylinder’s empty. It means until the threat isn’t threatening.

Living like you won’t become a victim without putting up a fight.

You know the expression: “If you don’t want to get eaten, don’t look like food.”

Unfortunately, your responsibility as a responsible citizen won’t end if/when the attacker’s no longer attacking.

To me, that seems to be the place where we’ve left a huge gap in our training. We train like hunters not humans. If we’re hunting, the goal is simple: a clean, quick, one-shot kill.

Self-defense doesn’t work that way.

Not every confrontation will end in bloodshed. Not every confrontation with gunfire will end with no one needing medical assistance. In fact, that scenario may end with everyone involved needing medical help.

That’s where it seems we’re missing the boat. We characterize ourselves as law-abiding citizens who only fight when forced to. We are peace-loving citizens otherwise.

But I’d argue that when you carry a gun, you carry more than the responsibility to use it wisely. You also carry the responsibility to help after the gunfire ends. In combat, soldiers are taught to shoot the enemy. But when the enemy stops being a combatant, the soldier -sometimes the one who inflicted the wound- goes to work attempting to save that person’s life.

Don’t know about you, but I’ve never had any sort of training transition from a shooting scenario into a first aid drill. But I have faced the frustration of being in a real emergency situations where I knew I wanted to help, but lacked the knowledge to do anything substantive.

Beyond the Boo Boo by Paul Markel is an eye-opening suggestion that maybe we’re not fully training for any unexpected situation.

Since reading a book called “Beyond the Boo-Boo” (Traumatic Training for Citizens) by my friend Paul Markel, I’ve changed how I think about my responsibilities as a gun owner. In his book, Markel makes a great point when he says “If we can train 18 and 19 year old kids to save their buddies’ lives on the battlefield, why can’t we teach the average citizen to save lives on city streets, in workplaces, and in the home?”

He offers this sobering answer: “The answer to that question is that we can train citizens to save lives, however, for far too long we have chosen not to.”

Before you start talking about opening yourself up to lawsuits by trying to help, note there’s a big difference between helping apply direct pressure to a superficial cut with a dirty handkerchief and saving someone with an arterial cut squirting blood with every heartbeat.

One is a “boo boo.” The other is a “blowout.”

You can survive a boo boo until help arrives, but a “blowout” can mean death in minutes -including the minutes before you realized it was a desperate situation.

Most first aid kits won’t have the tools to handle a major medical situation.

But a little knowledge can help you improvise a short-term solution that works until the professionals do arrive.

Becoming aware of how little I know about saving lives after a shooting, I’ve made a couple of small tweaks to my EDC.

There have always been some very basic first aid supplies in my backpack. I’ve added a tourniquet to the outside, along with a roll of gauze and an Ace bandage in a baggie to the inside. They add a few ounces of weight, but could make a disproportionate difference in the outcome of an emergency.

Guess my definition of “personal defense” has expanded. I’m OK with that.

— Jim Shepherd

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