Upcoming series of posts will be about gear. Difference will be that I’m taking a different tack from everyone else. Biggest problem in tactical world outside of fuddery, and somewhat related, is gear worship. Having the best brand, best model, most featured, piece of kit will not save you on its own. What most people do in this space with gear is fashion. Let that sink in. It is fashion.

It is essential to know how to use the kit, how to select something that matches your skill level, willingness to train with it, afford-ability, and features you will actually use and understand. I will not tell you to buy a certain model or brand. I may mention brands that generally have certain properties or are safe bets, but also why. I will tell you the key things to look for when selecting a quality piece of kit, especially when evaluating a newcomer. Sometimes getting a new company’s product offering you can get a fantastic deal on an incredibly high quality item precisely because you aren’t paying for name and reputation. I’ll relay my experience of features that are really slick or game changers and those that sound nice but get in the way in practice or never get used.

This one is a bit different because I’m thinking out loud here and asking a bunch of questions. Y’all know how to contact me semi-directly via MPG and Greyman if you have answers or thoughts.

Further different because updating this post with the answers based on conversations I’ve had this last week

Having friends to help you in a critical encounter is extremely beneficial. But, most of us cannot take our backup everywhere nor regularly and intensively train with everyone that may aid us in a critical incident. Operating as an overt team with uniforms and specific memberships and rosters makes one a target for other factions that do something similar. Most of us cannot and do not want to live our lives that way anyway.

Below I use the term “critical incident”. In which I mean one that time is an issue, one or more people may already be involved in resolving it. Either by dispensing medical techniques, freedom seeds, corralling the 80%, or any other number of activities trying to make things better or at least not worse. In a critical incident it is not practical to conduct interviews of those coming to attempt to help.

• How do we interface with people we’ve never met that are of a similar mentality and morality during a critical incident? In the current situation “Uniform Wins” is the key rule. Beyond that it’s demonstrated competence. This one’s going to require feeling it out and utilizing your personal and observational skills

• How is this accomplished if they do not follow the same groups, shows, channels, etc that we do? Again, uniform wins, and demonstrated competence. Throwing weight around and trying to command is probably unwise. Generally, unless something major happens at a national level - do what’s right but try to extract yourself from the situation as soon as righteous and safe to do so. Don’t try to be involved just to be involved. Once the uniforms have it handled, let them handle it. A lot of this is based on you get there before the uniforms. As a result you are there to make the situation less bad and keep it from getting worse. Once the cavalry arrives, you’re relieved. For now.

“Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries – for heavy ones they cannot.” - Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

The above quote is a lesson given by both Machiavelli and Musashi. In warrior circles Book of Five Rings and the Art of War are default texts, but for some reason The Prince is often ignored as book concerning itself with politics, not combat. Maybe even to the point of it being cowardly because Machiavelli is generally wanting others to fight battles and put themselves in danger in his place. The Prince is critical to read and understand if one is to operate in the world and follow Musashi’s advice of seeing your wisdom in the martial arts as useful in all things. The Way is about putting what you know about combat into practice everywhere. If you understand Musashi and you understand your art, you will see how this is so with The Prince.

“The true science of martial arts means practicing them in such a way that they will be useful at any time, and to teach them in such a way that they will be useful in all things.” — Miyamoto Musashi

This is the Way.

The discovery of Musashi was a pivotal moment for me. The above quote sums up why. When first reading the Book of Five Rings I had already passed multiple qualifiers for service and participated in multiple formal trainings in pistol, rifle, shotgun. Technically I was very good. All this martial knowledge was separated from my daily life so it meant for little in most things. The Book of Five Rings brings it together.

To gain mastery of something it is necessary to specialize. Mastery is different than command, and command is sufficient for most things. Being 80% of the way there lets you cover just about every contingency in many topics, where 99% mastery would require the entirety of your time. You then find yourself completely incompetent at even basic tasks because of your extreme mastery in one area, often of limited relevancy. There are people on this Earth that understand the workings of a Neutron Star as much as any human could, but are utterly incapable of cooking for themselves.

Something you discover being a renaissance man is how often topics come up that a broad command is useful and how much overlap there is between topics. Going on an exploratory trip into something you know little about often yields gains in areas you already have a decent command. There is another utility. It makes you more useful and necessary to have around. Regardless of what is going on you will be high on the list of people to pick.

Let’s also go outside of the utilitarian pieces. It makes you into a unique person that is not a stereotype, is surprising to others, and generally more awesome.

A reminder, I’m not an attorney. None of this is legal advice. Simply passing along my framework, previous experience, and training.

By request… somewhat… this is more laying the groundwork for a future “to carry or not to carry” post that will get into some considerations for when you may have a serious problem if caught carrying in a non-permissive environment. Nobody wants to write that post. I don’t really either because it gets into some considerations to take when deciding to flat ignore the law for reasons. Some people will take that as permission or advocacy to ignore the law when it is not. Today I’m laying the groundwork by starting with some practicalities and considerations of carrying your weapon when it’s “not allowed” even if legal.

Non permissive carry is the idea of being in a location where if your weapon is discovered you’re going to have a problem. While it may be legal to be armed, the person confronting you may not care and may in a hostile manner insist on their way. This person may be an ill-informed police or security officer. Whether they are right or not doesn’t matter. It’s our responsibility to diffuse and deescalate the situation. Especially if you’ve ignored a sign or notice regardless of if that sign is lawful or carries weight of law. Best way to deal with this is have a very solid concealment game, avoid accidental discoveries of your weapon, and know the weapons laws as if you were a lawyer in your state. Ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure, because cures usually have side effects.