The Amtacblades.com Northman IWB sheath is now available. It's got some new features that I'll be posting about soon. For now go get one if you have a Northman blade. It is literally a must have.
Not all earpro are created equal and after using these MSA Sordin Supreme-X's with the Noisefighter Gel upgrades, and the new Qore Performance Ventilated headband, I can say I am pretty impressed. Comfortable, cool in hot weather, and a definite upgrade to out of the box earpro.
Think about the amount of time you spend sitting around and being pseudo productive, sometimes giving yourself a false sense accomplishment. How often does that happen? It is often said that you must do a task, or train a skill for thirty days to make it a habit, yet instead of training ourselves to do productive things we train ourselves to sit and watch TV, or worse, eat while watching TV. We do this consistently and at our very detriment. It is one thing to spend two or three hours a week watching TV in total, it is something completely different to spend that same time on developing applicable skill sets. Reading a book on mindset, dieting, accounting, child rearing, etc is exponentially more productive in the long term than that TV show you just binged on. Spending time exercising compound movements is an extremely good way of developing muscle and overall fitness, yet we do not apply the same fundamental concepts to developing our skill sets or mental fortitude. Why not? Can you listen to a podcast on an informative topic while exercising? Watch a documentary about a particularly difficult topic while doing burpees in your living room? This isn't multitasking, which would be a divided attention task, this is focusing on a particular task while passively intaking another skill concept. You can, and should, work your body and mind at the same time. You want to listen to music while running or exercising? Great, you are actually losing precious time applying yourself to learning something while you are working out. Try it. This greatly applies to driving distances as you should be listening to audio books on topics you want to learn more about. This should be a standard for you whenever you drive, listen to an informative podcast, listen to an audio book, listen to something which gives you dual productivity and allows for cultivation of a mental skill set which you would otherwise require direct or "deep thought" type attention to obtain.
According to today's TCCC announcement, the Ratcheting Medical Tourniquet is now on the TCCC approved list. Which means it has, in a short amount of time, gone from a relative unknown, yet highly versatile and applicable tourniquet on the market to TCCC approval, which is essentially the "stamp of approval" for many LE/MIL contracts/applications.
As I posted today, I am not surprised it was approved by TCCC, I was just surprised that it was done so quickly, I thought it would be another year or two before it would happen. Either way, this RMT has been in line with my experience and personal testing. I can tell you, without any hesitation, that the RMT is a very good to go tourniquet, as it was years ago when I began to endorse it over the SOF-T wide and the CAT (gen whatever), both of which I have broken in real world applications, and have posted about here, as well as other places. There are plenty of people who have been very dismissive of the RMT and they are probably not too happy that a recognized body has accepted it as being highly capable and applicable to that which requires a tourniquet.
I am still in the process of typing out a general review of the RMT, mainly an overview of how it works for EDC and training, both of which it excels in. I would highly recommend you always carry a tourniquet on your person at all times, and this is a very good tourniquet to have.
Pistol mounted optics are going to be a field which is going to progressively get better, while innovating in the technology area of the optic world. We are seeing the development jump which occurred from the 1-4x to the 1-8x LPVO's of last year, that ended up with the NX8 and its soon to be competitors, but the pistol mounted optics segment is, in my opinion, heating.
Massdrop is a discount site which offers a pretty legit discount on most things they do "drops" for. Once you get in on a drop, you'll have to wait for it ship, usually 2-4 weeks. So if you don't want/need something immediately and want to save usually 5-20% off retail, its worth checking out. I've purchased a lot of stuff through massdrop over the years, they have some decent deals and I check them regularly, and post here whenever I see pretty good stuff. You have to make an account, please use this link to make that account, you get a $10 discount on your first order and I get a $10 credit for you signing up. Once you sign up, just search for the item you are interested in. All prices are plus shipping.
The above pictured Salewa Ultra Train 2 shoes are listed for $89 on massdrop and $120 on Amazon. Salewa is one of the biggest competitors to Salomon.
The ALTRA KING MT 1.5 TRAIL SHOES are ultralite and only $70 on massdrop, decent reviews too. On Amazon, depending on your size they can be over $100.
The Oakley Fuel Cell sunglasses are $85 on massdrop and $110+ on Amazon depending on what type you decide to get. Good fit for duty/street work.
The Adidas Skychaser LT GTX shoes are $105 on massdrop, and about $150+ if you can find your size on Amazon. Adidas has made extraordinary leaps in their "Tactical" and "Running" sneaker lineup. These have the same aggressive styling as the Salomon SpeedCross.
The Darn Tough Hiker 1/4 Sock are one of the best socks you'll find on the market, the whole brand is pretty damn awesome and, darn tough. I've got a bunch of these that I wear on duty, during training and long rucks, they are really comfortable. Two pack on massdrop is $32 in various sizes and colors, on amazon, depending on your size they may be up to $20 for one pair.
The ADATA HD710 Pro External Hard Drive 1TB on massdrop is $52 with an optional add-on purchase of $19 for 6 (that's six individual) 16gb ADATA thumb drives. The higher TB's are more but you save $10 over Amazon's price and have the optional add-on of the thumb drives. I have several of these specifically because of the features which they offer. I like redundancy and having an external backup HD is very important to that face. Technically speaking you should have two backup HD's in different locations which you backup once every two to three weeks with your personal information. Scans of personal documents, tax returns, birth cert scans, bank info, wills, etc. This is all stuff you'll need if your house burns down and having a copy of them is better than not. Also all your photos which are always in need of backup.
The Alpina Startimer Pilot Quartz is a pretty decent entry level watch which is Swiss made and has a lot of really nice specs for the price point. They are $250 on massdrop and come in different colors I know a few guys who have Alpina watches and they are pretty happy with them.
The Oris Big Crown Pointer Date is $520 on massdrop, and at 40mm it's a decent dress watch with a lot of flair. Same one is double the cost on Amazon and about $200 more on jomashop. This is a really good deal for a really sophisticated watch. Would make a good gift for a suit wearing guy or a woman who likes bigger-than-girly watches.
Sometimes massdrop has exclusive items and collab's with well know manufacturers in a particular field, they have this "MASSDROP X SENNHEISER HD 58X JUBILEE HEADPHONE" which is a wired studio quality, top tier headphones, with a lot of pedigree behind them. If you've never had high end headphones they are pretty good. For $160, which is $100 cheaper than you can find a comparable headphone somewhere else. These seem to work really well. Make an account on massdrop and search for them.
According to a local news agency, this female officer shot and killed Danquirs Franklin after he refused to drop a pistol he was holding. The two officers in the body camera video responded to a priority 911 call for a person with a gun inside of a restaurant. This is a call which is taken extremely serious, and if founded, has a very high probability of arrest and/or use of force by responding officers.
I am not going to get into a play-by-play but I want to touch on one subject specifically because this will be crutch of any decision made in determining if this was a good or bad "shoot".
If you do not know what "Reactionary Gap" is watch this video for a pretty simple explanation:
So what does "non-physical contact" reactionary gap mean? It means that a person will see a movement, intake the response stimuli and respond within a predictable span of time, which may be after a person has already completed an action and moved onto another action. It's the old "they shot him in the back" tripe which has been debunked a million times over in numerous court rooms by experts on the matter. Thankfully this is settled scientific fact at this point.
The officers kept telling Franklin to drop the gun, I didn't count how many times but it was more than 10, at least. Franklin, instead of just dropping the gun on the ground where he had it, and predictably would not have been shot, instead chose to move the pistol forward in front of him in a manner consistent to a draw stroke. The movement itself was quickly executed with purpose, which is completely counter to the commands given to him by the two officers. The female officer saw the quick movement of the pistol forward and reacted immediately, the issue was that there was still a span of time during that movement which elapsed.
Average human reaction time is between .5 and .8, so in that span of time he was able to move the pistol forward enough as to not be aiming it at the officers, the issues is that the female officer had already taken in the stimulus which prompted her to fire two shoots at Franklin. What she did was 100% correct.
A LEO does not need to wait until they are being fired upon, they are not required to be shot at before taking action against someone. Per Graham v. Connor, use of force must be "objectively reasonable" and it would be completely unreasonable to wait until someone is shooting at you before using any amount of force.
This was 100% a good shoot, which we can use as a learning scenario. There was no use of cover, at all. Franklin could have shot at the two officers first and possibly injured or killed one of them before either would have reacted to shoot back. With two officers on scene, both should have used vehicles as cover when forming an L-shape and one should have attempted to deploy less-lethal like a taser. Pipe dream, of course, as this was a very tense situation and both officers were likely in condition black, hence the repeating commands constantly. Officers need to be taught to have more in their bag of skills than yelling a command repeatedly while pointing a gun at a suspect. There are two possible outcomes within this type of scenario when you go into it in such a manner, one we saw happen, the other did not because of the actions of Franklin. He is the only one responsible for how that situation went down. At the moment when the police arrived he could have just raised his hands in the air, and/or put the gun on the ground and complied with the orders of the two officers and this wouldn't even be something we'd ever known about. He was shot, twice, because of his failure to follow reasonable commands and his unreasonable actions.
Massdrop has a decent deal on some Adidas Terrex Swift R2 Mid GTX shoes. These are pretty decent, larger version of the Adidas Fast R Terrex I reviewed.
Two things which need to be done, first please use -> This Link <- this is an affiliate link which I do get something from, and you get $10 off your first order, then, after you sign up, click -> here <- to see the massdrop page for these shoes.
I enjoy these types of videos, not for the fact that an actor is actually taking the time to learn a concept which he would otherwise not understand and completely misrepresent on the big screen, but for the fact that competition guys like Taran can only stand there, watch what is being presented and not have anything to add, because as always, real world skill / knowledge completely outweigh fantasy world gaming.
The story of Bonnie and Clyde, as told by a Netflix budget. This is definitely a better done movie than the previously reviewed Triple Frontier, which was sold as a better piece but not as well made as this film. Since this may be a thing, customary disclaimer that this post will contain spoilers.
I read an article, "Virtue and Guns"posted by Tuhon Tom Kier which he shortly touched on. This article is exactly what is wrong with the "intellectuals" who sit around all day and think instead of going out and doing.
I was given a recommendation to read this book, A Failed State, by Andrew Coussens, who is most definitely a been there, done that type of guy. From his website, afailedstate.com, Coussens is described as:
I am not a gucci glock lover, but I do enjoy a well thought out design every once in a while. I've posted about Thompson_leh Slides before, they are legit and I'd recommend checking them out instead of the ridiculously expensive slides already out there. These are cheaper than most and manufactured way better. On the TL slide I've got a 1MOA Trijicon RMR, a prototype barrel, a Streamlight TLR7, Ameriglo Suppressor Height Sights and an SCD from taudevgroup.com. The Blade is a headhunterblades.com Kryptos Dagger, and one of the best daggers on the market.
diver on metal bracelet. Pretty cheap for what it is and has a lot of cool features for a cheap EDC beater watch. 
Supreme-X's with the Noisefighter Gel upgrades, and the new Qore Performance
Ventilated headband, I can say I am pretty impressed. Comfortable, cool in hot weather, and a definite upgrade to out of the box earpro. 
holding up a Modlite OKW head on an 18650 body. Geissele Rail, MTG MLOK Panels (these are awesome). Cole-tac Suppressor covering a Gemtech G5t. SKD Pig Multicam Black Gloves
, Headhunterblades.com Kryptos Dagger.
are listed for $89 on massdrop and $120 on Amazon. Salewa is one of the biggest competitors to Salomon
.
are ultralite and only $70 on massdrop, decent reviews too. On Amazon, depending on your size they can be over $100.
are $85 on massdrop and $110+ on Amazon depending on what type you decide to get. Good fit for duty/street work.
are $105 on massdrop, and about $150+ if you can find your size on Amazon. Adidas has made extraordinary leaps in their "Tactical" and "Running" sneaker lineup. These have the same aggressive styling as the Salomon SpeedCross
.
are one of the best socks you'll find on the market, the whole brand is pretty damn awesome and, darn tough. I've got a bunch of these that I wear on duty, during training and long rucks, they are really comfortable. Two pack on massdrop is $32 in various sizes and colors, on amazon, depending on your size they may be up to $20 for one pair.
1TB on massdrop is $52 with an optional add-on purchase of $19 for 6 (that's six individual) 16gb ADATA thumb drives. The higher TB's are more but you save $10 over Amazon's price and have the optional add-on of the thumb drives. I have several of these specifically because of the features which they offer. I like redundancy and having an external backup HD is very important to that face. Technically speaking you should have two backup HD's in different locations which you backup once every two to three weeks with your personal information. Scans of personal documents, tax returns, birth cert scans, bank info, wills, etc. This is all stuff you'll need if your house burns down and having a copy of them is better than not. Also all your photos which are always in need of backup. 
is a pretty decent entry level watch which is Swiss made and has a lot of really nice specs for the price point. They are $250 on massdrop and come in different colors I know a few guys who have Alpina watches and they are pretty happy with them.
is $520 on massdrop, and at 40mm it's a decent dress watch with a lot of flair. Same one is double the cost on Amazon and about $200 more on jomashop. This is a really good deal for a really sophisticated watch. Would make a good gift for a suit wearing guy or a woman who likes bigger-than-girly watches.
, by Andrew Coussens, who is most definitely a been there, done that type of guy. From his website, afailedstate.com, Coussens is described as:
, a prototype barrel, a Streamlight TLR7
, Ameriglo Suppressor Height Sights
and an SCD from taudevgroup.com. The Blade is a headhunterblades.com Kryptos Dagger, and one of the best daggers on the market.
