Wednesday, May 20, 2020

The Insanity

These days, one will frequently see on social media claims that while COVID-19 survival rates are over 99% - the real issue is the long term and permanent side effects. 

Folks, if we have only known about this strain for six months, how on earth could we possibly know about long term and permanent side effects? Logic dictates we cannot. 

Also - the actual survival rate is 99.975%.



Thursday, May 14, 2020

The Gun Kobayashi Maru

This was too long to post on the Facebook page, and it also needed a blog post.

In Star Trek fiction, the Kobayashi Maru test was the  no-win scenario. This same no-win scenario most certainly exist in the gun culture. Specifically, when people ask the credentials of an instructor. The no-win scenario comes in because there is no way to make everyone happy with the instructor's credential.

If the instructor was a Navy SEAL, then the person asking will say they wanted an Army Ranger.
If the instructor was an Army Ranger, then the person asking will say they wanted a Navy SEAL.
If the instructors were a Navy SEAL and an Army Ranger, then the person asking will say they wanted Marine Force Recon.
If the instructor was former military, then the person asking will say they wanted former law enforcement.
If the person was former law enforcement, then the person asking will say they wanted former military.

There's no way to win.

Furthermore, even if the instructor matches what the questioner wants, they never buy.  That's right, they are not buyers. 

So why even answer the question?

To complicate things a bit more, even if you try to answer the question; if they don't like the answer, then they leave a phony negative review.  So, for the Facebook page, I simply delete the question and ban them.  They aren't prospective clients, and they aren't going to win over any clients.  Their sole possibility is to scare off potential clients without having ever having been to a class for a real evaluation. 

One more issue is that they didn't even click the link to the Facebook page, where the question is answered fully:
"All Patriot Training live fire classes are designed to the specifications of combat veterans and are taught by certified instructors."
If someone is not intelligent enough to do that, then they certainly aren't intelligent enough to trust around firearms for a day. 

That said, anyone respectfully requesting further information on instructors will be gladly and promptly answered.  And no, that answer cannot possibly satisfy everyone - and that's ok.


Wednesday, May 13, 2020

How To Find Buyers

Recently, I asked several military veteran friends how they thought I might attract more former combat military to my classes. They were very gracious in their responses. The one subject line that kept coming up was ego - on the part of combat vets. The questions still remained though - how to get past that ego. I asked five different men: and I got five different answers (not surprisingly). I did not expect going in that any of them would have the answer to the question. I did expect they would provide insight from different points of view. I was not wrong in my expectations.

For the sake of clarity - vets who did not serve in combat roles and are honest about that will be lumped into the same group as most civilians - they have minimal training, and they have almost identical buying habits to civilians when it comes to gun classes.  The purpose of these questions was to attract combat vets. Based on the responses I got, here are the discoveries made:

Not all civilians advertised to are potential customers. Same is true of combat vets.
How to separate potential clients from those who have no intention of buying is the key with both civilians and combat vets.

I have and have had a very good framework from which to work to determine who are the buyers in the civilian world, but up until recently, the framework of how to attract the combat vets has eluded me. Not any more!

Benefits
It all boils down to what I have to offer: superior marksmanship instruction, superior instruction overall, and a new take on their new roles in civilian life, which will necessitate a change in the circumstances that dictate the missions they might undertake now. Of course that will be a potential stumbling block to their ego - and it can also be a tremendous motivator, as I can challenge the skills of most shooters. 

Buyers
Also, it is essential to distinguish quickly between the buyers and those who have no intent to buy. And in that part, one thing becomes painfully obvious: there are two types when it comes to combat vets. And here, to describe that difference, I'm going to borrow from a line in the movie, Full Metal Jacket:
- The Crazy Brave
- The Phony Tough

The Crazy Brave are up for a challenge. They aren't afraid to fail in training. They don't have any problem learning something new. These are all attributes of successful teachers, as well.

The Phony Tough are afraid. Afraid of being shown up. Afraid of not being able to hit their target. Afraid of the "what-ifs." Afraid a civilian might know something they don't.

The phony tough are not buyers, the crazy brave are. Just that simple. Now, how do I weed out one from the other? That's the secret you must pay for.

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Own It

Several years back, I was able to play witness to a small number of US Military Veterans really give a civilian a hard time about gun and tactical training that was being taught. The irony was that the civilian was actually teaching at the behest of most of these individuals just a few months prior. There had been some drama, and the vets couldn't seem to drop it.

This was what really changed my mind as to whom can instruct firearms and tactics classes. Hence, this blog post - which was written shortly after the drama, edited over time, and was way back in the day set to post on the last business day of April this year. Over the years, my perspective matured and refined. Of course, during that time, I took multiple classes myself - and that helped mold my current opinion, as well.

When I take a class and take notes, some of the notes are of what the instructor does well. Some of the notes are about relevant material. And some of the notes are about presentation of the material. When people ask me who the best instructor I've had was, I clarify if they are talking about best instructor as a teacher, or best material, or best presentation. Different people hold the distinctions for each of those categories. And only one of those distinctions belongs to a military person (and no, it is probably not the category you think).

Since the military does not have the corner on the market for shooting, let's dig a little deeper on this topic. Here are the facts:
The military does not have the corner on the market when it comes to shooting.
The military does not have the corner on the market when it comes to tactics.
The military does not have the corner on the market when it comes to team movement.
Law enforcement doesn't either.

And if you ask an infantryman or combat vet, and if he is being honest with himself, he will agree. Why? Because of METT-TC. Another thing they will chalk it up to is "mission dictates."

METT-TC is a mnemonic used by the military to help commanders remember and prioritize what to analyze during the planning phase of any operation. It stands for mission, enemy, terrain, troops available, time, and civilian considerations. In other words - situation dictates.

Because situation dictates, and because civilian situations are almost universally substantially different than military (or law enforcement), skills must be at an all-time high and tactics must differ substantially.

All military operations are looked at with an "acceptable loss" in mind. Depending on the operation, there may be an acceptable loss rate of 60% casualties in some situations. Many situations allow for 33% or higher casualty rate. In civilian operations, there are few scenarios where a single casualty is acceptable. The tactics MUST be different.


Because of all of these facts and factors, I would suggest that not only is it wise to seek gun and tactic instruction from current/former military and also from current/former law enforcement, you also NEED to seek instruction from civilian instructors. 

Monday, May 11, 2020

COVID Craziness

I keep seeing this meme about why you should wear masks.  It attempts to make a simile to why we wear pants and don't urinate on one another. 

As usual, the Left and the Globalists can't meme, and this shows. 





 Cloth masks do not work unless you combine with hand washing and social distancing. 

Since the vast majority of people will not adhere to these strict guidelines, cloth masks are virtually useless. 

A better simile would be that even though we all wear pants (hopefully), we can still all smell the other person's flatulence, as well as our own.