SafeMind LLC

10/09/2025

I've often mentioned "the skinny pedal on the right" as the primary defensive tool when dealing with a car jacker.
It's faster, it almost always works, and it doesn't take any more training than you already have.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Cw96KqCzV/

Your Defense is Personal

10/05/2025

Imagine that you are driving home from the range and stop at the "stop and rob", aka, convenience store for a slurpee. While paying for the drink a robbery commences and you believe that you are in imminent jeopardy so you use lethal force to defend yourself.
During the investigation it's noted that you are wearing a shirt that states that you love violence.
Does this help, or hurt, your claim of self defense?

Your Defense is Personal

09/27/2025

My family and I drove by this just after the shots were fired.
Road rage.
What is your threshold to get out of your vehicle and approach another driver when angry? Mean words? The finger? Lack of turn signal?

Your Defense is Personal

Around 2:15 p.m., police responded to the area of 7th and Missouri avenues for reports of a shooting

09/20/2025

Iron sights never fail!

During our Thursday night Cactus Combat Match League outlaw match the rear sights yeeted off of a brand new 2011.
Granted, the pistol went from box to range and screws hadn't been torqued or loc-tited, but, frankly, that's how most shooters roll.
Yeah, dots crap the bed, usually, again, due to improper torque and no loc-tite, and batteries, but I've had my fair share of irons go bye-bye while shooting.
Fortunately, we had the pi***la up and running (thank you Fix-it-sticks torque driver, and a dab of blue.

Check your gear....

Your Defense is Personal

08/31/2025

After a lifetime in the backcountry, a decade in the military and two and a half decades on Mountain Rescue, few injuries are as preventable, and debilitating as a blister.
I've, literally, seen some of the hardest people I know completely shut down because of blisters. For some it's a constant curse, for others a rarity. Regardless, I've seen just about every preventative measure and few are a sure thing. While the prevention is often hit or miss, the solution seems universal.
-If you feel a hot spot, address it now. The longer you wait, the worse it will get.
-while there are lots of favorites to patch it up, good ol moleskin seems to work best.
-clean and dry the area
-Cut a piece of moleskin twice the size of the blistered area
-cut moleskin into an oval. Corners and straight edges will peel and make matters worse.
-cut a piece of thin gauze, just bigger than the blister and place it in the center of the moleskin.
-if the blister has ruptured you can cut a "donut" shaped piece of moleskin to keep the rest of dressing off the injury. This goes around the injured site, with the hole where the blister is.
-Apply moleskin and smooth out center and edges. Any wrinkles will cause the dressing to bunch up and come off.
-Carefully put on sock, not allowing it drag over dressing.
-lace up shoes/boots and get moving.

Your Defense is Personal

08/27/2025

You know you're a gun guy when you read the WiFi as "ARMED-GUEST"

Why, yes, yes I am....

Seriously, donating blood is one of the easiest ways that you can save a life. Train all you want, and can, but add this to your plan.

Your Defense is Personal

08/21/2025

So many lessons come from this unfortunate event.

-If buying from Craig's List, Offerup, Facebook Marketplace, be careful. Many of the buyers, and sellers, are scammers (this is a different discussion, well worth having)
-Look up the buyer on the internet. Use social media, and other platforms to learn more about them. What do they look like, are they real, and such.
-Meet in a public, well lit location.
-Let someone know where you're going and have a plan to let that person know if you are ok, or not.
-Don't bring a lot of cash, only the amount needed for the transaction.
-Be armed.
-Just because the person you are meeting is a child, or a woman, doesn't make it safer. Kids can be criminals. Woman can be criminals.
-Have a plan for when it goes badly.
-Don't look at your phone, or be distracted. Conduct the transaction and leave.
-Don't trust, and definitely verify.
-Be armed.

Your Defense is Personal

Bullets hit multiple homes in the area.

08/20/2025

The skinny pedal on the right is a powerful defensive tool.

Your Defense is Personal

A Buckeye teen allegedly ran over and critically injured a man who had allegedly shot at him at his home on Monday night, according to Buckeye police.

08/19/2025

Remember when you honked at and flipped off that dude who cut you off in traffic?
Don't let your ego lead to your demise.
Sure, you may be angry that you will be delayed .34 seconds, but you can't predict the behavior of others. Believe it, or not, there are some folks who are even more unhinged than you are. Crazy, huh?
Their ego may be even bigger and they may respond with violence, not just a middle finger.
Keep it cool.

Your Defense is Personal

A suspect is behind bars after a bystander was killed by a bullet fired during a road rage incident in Glendale over the weekend.

08/15/2025

What's better than being on the New York Times best seller list?
Being featured in Greg Ellifritz's Weekend Knowledge Dump.

Aside from my brilliant piece on tourniquets, there is a treasure trove of great articles and information for the citizen defender. He releases this every week and it's worth checking out.

Your Defense is Personal
https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/weekend-knowledge-dump-august-15-2025?fbclid=IwY2xjawMMNwJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHiWCYg4Wwe3DIgh7yMxQtysYCqE1hci9x1DfkJuECHdELVWErbMTxHWzUC37_aem_QMAleOfp7vhSvb4nZkESEA

Knowledge to make your life better. If you have some free time, check out some of these links this weekend.   After Action Report: Knife Defense for Instructors with Greg Ellifritz Thanks to J…

08/11/2025

When it's 115 out it's only right to turn up the heat even more.
NM and I continued to work on seeing our shooting as a movie, not a photograph, and applying it to targets at distance. Starting with some vision work, and shot calling, on paper we moved to steel at distances well beyond the normal ranges for which we typically practice.
A 4" plate at 15 yds, 6" at 30 yds and an 8" at 40 yards did the trick. At these distances, on small steel, shot calling is absolutely necessary to go from the binary hit/miss mentality that we often apply to steel. A clang, or silence, isn't enough to inform us about our vision, and process. You must be able to call your shots to truly determine how the process affects outcome.

How do you train?

08/08/2025

A few weeks ago I wrote about the pros and cons of tourniquets. After digging in deeper I have continued this discussion here:

Your Defense is Personal

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