Well, I am enjoying my first Spring down here in West Texas, and I must say it’s glorious!!! Not to rub you northern fellers’ noses in it, but I do not miss the long, alternately dusty and damp, chilly months of March and April as they go in Wisconsin and/or Alberta!
But weather aside, we have other things to be pleased about here at TAS this month.
First thing: I had a great block of training up in Minnesota in March with the Special Operations Training Association of the Upper Midwest (SOTA). I had the opportunity to speak at their annual convention on March 4-6, then held a Shooting with Xray Vision for SWAT class at Hennepin Tech College on 3/7.
I had the opportunity to sit in on Johan Boden’s ballistics class at the SOTA conference. Johan is an old friend of mine from IDPA, and he is also the guy at Federal/Speer who demo’s their ammunition ballistics all over the world. He takes the high road in his classes, meaning he does not comment on ATK’s competitors. He simply demo’s the Federal/Speer ammo line, which is all that really needs to be done. I am not a ballistics expert, but I’ve hung out with a few over the years, and I know good ballistics when I see it… and I can say without a shred of hesitancy that if you want ammo that will perform at or beyond the established FBI standards under any patrol or SWAT conditions you can think of, Speer and Federal ammunition will fit the bill. I have carried Speer’s GDHP handgun ammunition in all my carry/duty pistols and revolvers for years, and Johan’s demo at SOTA last month confirmed my choice as a good one. I have also been a proponent of the Federal Tactical Bonded .223 round for years (either 55 gr or my preferred choice, the 62 gr) and Johan demonstrated the exemplary performance of this ammunition in bare gelatin, clothed gelatin, through windshield glass, and even through automobile sheet steel. If your agency is looking at a major ammo purchase and you haven’t looked closely at Speer/Federal, I strongly recommend you get hold of Johan at ATK and get him on board for a demo.
Our SXRV class at Hennepin Co. was a very good class. As usual, the background, training, and ongoing mission of the partcipants drove much of the content of the course. This was a pretty switched-on group of guys, so we were able to cover some of the more advanced material I don’t usually go through in many classes, including such topics as the anatomically-correct used of edged weapons. I have tended to stay away from discussion of edged weapons in my training, but I’m getting questions about knives and other edged weapons a lot more often lately. I’m not sure that we’re seeing more use of such weapons in police encounters with felons, but awareness of them is certainly increasing.
I haven’t written anything about edged weapons under the Tactical Anatomy masthead to date, but I’m wondering if I should do so. Please contact me through email if you have strong opinions one way or another!
BOOK NEWS: Some folks are waiting for books, and for this I apologize. I am part-way through a rewrite of my Tactical Anatomy Instructor Manual, which will be released as the Second Edition some time this summer. I’ve listened to what people have had to say about the first edition of the book and tried to incorporate new material that reflects the questions and concerns I’ve heard about. I have greatly expanded the educational ("adult learning theory") theme I touched on in the Introduction of the first edition, making it a chapter in its own right. I have also added a lot of material to the Computer Simulator section, and have added a Live Fire Training section as well, all of which is drawn from real-life experience with police departments around the country that are training their cops in the Tactical Anatomy SXRV system.
The Second Edition will be released as an e-book, which means I will no longer be shipping each copy out of my home. I know those of you who have had to wait on orders when I’ve been too busy with medical and/or SWAT team priorities to tend properly to shipping will be pleased to hear that. (… and the crowd goes wild!…) My editor/publisher is working on an all-electronic option as well, so the book may be available for downloading to your Kindle or computer, if we can get it set up right.
I will keep y’all posted here on my website when the Second Edition becomes available.
Upcoming Training: I am working with my longtime friend and training partner in Minnesota, Elliot Gilchrist, to bring a Tactical Treatment of Gunshot Wounds class to the Twin Cities region in June 2012. We are looking at the end of the week of June 18 (so 6/21 or 6/22) for this class, and depending on demand, we may schedule a SXRV for Civilians class as well. Both classes will be open to LE and non-sworn personnel. If you are interested in attending either or both of these classes, let me know by email asap so I can plan for numbers. Tuition for TTGSW is $150.00, and all training materials are supplied. Students will need to bring a change of clothes (a pair of pants and a long-sleeved shirt you can destroy), sidearm, tactical rifle/shotgun, and a modest supply of ammo. And as in all Tactical Anatomy classes, remember to bring along your brain, ’cause you’re we’re gonna make you use it!!
