NRA Convention The Dave Grossman Seminar

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman should need no introduction to the serious gun owner. The author of On Killing and On Combat and many more books, he's an expert on the subject violence. If you haven't read the above two books and you carry a firearm for protection, you owe it to yourself to do so.

The Presentation he gave was tittled: Sheepdogs! The Bulletproof Mind for the Armed Citizen

The Seminar was advertised by the NRA like so:

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, co-author of Glenn Beck's new book Control: Exposing the Truth About Guns, and author of the book On Combat and several others, gives his special presentation on mental and physical preparedness for the armed citizen. Grossman will speak about your role as an Armed American Citizen in the future challenges to our nation. Hear about the potential threats, be they internal or external, and the response to those threats as intended by our Founding Fathers. Grossman will also discuss how to prevent PTSD and be physically and emotionally triumphant after an armed encounter. Seating for this one-of-a-kind presentation is first come, first served.

The seminar was all that and more.

First Col. Grossman immediately grabbed everyone's attention by noting that while no children have been killed by a fire in school in 50 years, many have been by violence, and the biggest reason for it is denial of the problem. Why none form fire - we have fire drills, fire alarms, sprinklers and fire resistant building requirements. We currently lack killer-resistant schools because we continue to deny the problem and not take steps to detect potential killers, deter them from attacking by denying them access to their targets, and to effectively defeat them when they do attack.

He also stated something that changed my worldview on the matter. He noted that the media and politicians are calling these "School Shootings" committed by "Active Shooters".

These murders he correctly pointed out aren't school shootings - these are school massacres and mass killings. Here the media and others are focusing wrongly on, and blaming a weapon used and not the killer. Using the term active shooter stigmatizes people who shoot and associates shooters with criminal acts.

From now one, this blog will not refer to these massacres as school shootings committed by active shooters. Instead I'll be using school killings and killers accordingly. Following Grossman, the killers names will not be mentioned on this blog as that is one of their goals - to know they will be remembered and associated with their horrific acts. If the media ceases to name them, ceases to put them on the cover of magazines and in the news, future killers who do it to crave the attention will realize that they will receive none, and that will deter some of them.

Grossman went into the reason why, after over two hundred years of firearms ownership, we're only recently seeing kids take weapons into school and murder other children en masse. He convincingly and eloquently argues and points the finger at violent video games and other media that is inuring and acculturating susceptible youth with mental issues to commit acts of murderous violence by both seeing it and virtually committing it. He identified a few using very vivid examples: “Grand Theft Auto V” has the players get a higher score by killing police, stealing, selling drugs, patronizing prostitutes, and then beaitng and killing the prostitutes and taking their money back. He pointed out that the Wii's “Manhunt 2” game has players using the motion sensor controller for the game to actually physically reenact the actions of the character on the screen - bashing people with a baseball bat and creeping up on people from behind and slash their throats with a knife. Grossman said that all of the multiple school killers tended towards being loners and anti-social, and all of them spent many hours playing these types of violent video games and racking up scores by killing doing so.

Grossman notes that denial of the problem and the lack of will to both face this media onslaught and to have both secured schools and armed personnel in schools is the problem. This makes schools a target-rich environment that offers the killers the opportunity they crave - the chance to run up a high score of kills and get media attention for their murderous acts.

He points out that at Sandy Hook, the killer gained access by shooting out a standard window which let him open the door to the building - a mesh screen or inexpensive but effective laminate coverings for the glass could have prevented access or slowed him down further and saved lives.

He continued by pointing out that the lack of potential armed resistance gives these killers the opportunities they need to commit their crimes. He stated their greatest fear is failure and the presence of armed individuals increases their risk of failure and deters them, and he gave plenty of examples of how and where that deterrence has worked.

Sadly at Sandy Hook, two officers arrived at the school while the shooting was ongoing but failed to enter the building for six minutes due to orders to wait for two more officers to arrive so they could form a four man team as the doctrine dictated at the time. This was exactly the wrong decision. Doctrine has now changed to two or even solo entry to get at the killer as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, it took a lot of innocent lives to reach the obvious need for rapid intervention. Failing having armed security on the premises due to denial, rapid intervention will prevent at least some lives from being lost.

He then made some damn scary prognostications:

1. There will be shootings at day care centers as killers seek easy opportunities for both easy kills and media sensationalism

2. Once US forces fully pull out of Afghanistan, we will see a Beslan-level terrorist attack against a school here by an organized force of Islamic terrorists.

3. We will see incendiaries (gasoline, firebombs etc) used in a school attack and the casualties resulting form the fire will be greater than in any school attack to date. He stated unequivocally that the Islamic terrorist attack will use fire as a weapon, as they did at Beslan and on 9/11. Expect the non-Islamic killers to do the same.

4. We will see increased violent gang activity in the US, and it will make parts of the US look like the areas in Mexico that are currently under control of the drug gangs.

5. The disturbed kids already inculcated to violence and taught by video games that violence is the way to solve problems are going to grow up and enter the workforce. Expect a wave of workplace killings as these ill-adjusted people enter the workplace and work things out by violence.

Yes, it was a damn scary presentation.

He covered what can be done about it, including joining the school board or being active in what is happening in the schools and working past denial to enhance actual school safety. He also covered the role of the armed citizen as a deterrent to such acts and in deterring crime in general and the psychological resilience and mental preparation needed for doing so. He also called on the audience to be involved in their community and to demand their school boards take action to make their schools more likely to deter attacks.

He received a well-deserved standing ovation from the crowd at the end of his three-hour detailed presentation. To say it was informative, powerful and enlightening would be an understatement.

Fortuitously, I just received a school security survey from my local school board yesterday. I sent it back noting the availability and need for the installation of the security laminate on school windows, and strongly suggested that they have Col. Grossman give them his presentation and consult with them on effective school safety. We'll see if we can get past the denial stage at the local level.

NRA Convention Day 3

Yes this post disappeared so I'm going to try and recreate it by memory. Quick word to the wise: Never have blogger editor running on two devices. So, here goes.

So we got up, had some breakfast and headed to the Convention. We met all the usual suspects in the media room and then headed out on the floor.

First we went and paid homage to Dillon Precision, the manufacturer of the finest reloading equipment bar none.

I thanked them for their excellent customer service and products. My Dillon 550B is about 20 years old and still going strong.

Then we went for another Tour de FN.

The FN rep spent considerable time with us talking over, and talking up, the merits of the PS90, the SCAR and the FNS pistol.

He gave me a very detailed overview of the PS90, including operation and maintenance.

Apparently I can order it as an SBR from the factory to be shipped to my dealer once the paperwork gets approved. It would be quite the fun little gun to have. Not sure what I'd use it for really, but sometimes just having a fun range toy is reason enough.

The FN rep was an excellent ambassador for FN and he knew their products and importantly knew how to communicate about them, and he certainly moved both FN and the company's products way up on my list as a result.

Next, ML went to Colt to rail at their service guy over their customer service, or lack thereof that he has experienced, and I looked at their firearms. Most of their pistols earned a solid "meh", but this one caught my interest:

That's a Colt Delta Elite. The first ever handgun that I shot in 10mm was a Delta Elite and I have some good memories of shooting it. This one on display however could have used a trigger job, and you'd expect a much nicer trigger that wouldn't need any enhancement from a $1,115 pistol. The Glock 20 beats it terms of capacity, price and ease of trigger adjustment, but it's a Delta Elite, so both primacy and recency still make me want one.

From there we went on to the Glock exhibit and I handled a Glock 30S and a few other Glocks in 45 ACP. I need a Glock in 45. Not sure why, I just do.

Then we stopped by the Remington display and I handled the new R51. They certainly brought a lot of them to the show:

The R51 felt pretty good in the hand and I liked the retro-futuristic look of them, including the blending in of the rear sight to the slide, and the grip safety fit very nicely. However, the trigger was gritty to say the least. Still I kinda want one, no idea what I'd do with it though, may just get one eventually as a sample to add to the collection, but then I'd have to pickup an original model 51 like Tam. The R51 just didn't make my Buy-It-Now-Or-Real-Soon list.

Then I needed to go around and take pictures of some pink guns as the girls requested them, and as a dad I obliged.

Here's some Walther P22s in pink:

Meanwhile, someone had snuck up on the Whitney Wolverine at the Olympic Arms booth and painted it flourescent pink:

Ok, it's not actually the same gun as I saw on Day One, but that's one very pink pistol.

At Walther we also saw the new Walther CCP, Walther's Concealed Carry Pistol. My picture of it didn't work out, so go check it out on Roberta X's blog and Tam's picture that she posted after this post originally went up. It's a delayed gas blowback pistol and is both slim and visually appealing with a smooth trigger both surface and pull, along with an easy to use thumb safety. Racking the slide is really easy due to the lighter spring, and I can see this having a definite appeal to those with hand strength issues who want a smaller slim and shootable pistol and not a revolver. The gun fit like a glove in my hand, and doesn't have the squared off block appearance of the Walther PPS. I certainly wouldn't mind trying it out once it's out on the market. If it is competitively priced and the design proves robust and effective, it should do well.

Then we headed to the seminar that was perhaps the most important and informative of all the seminars that were held at the convention.

NRA Convention Day 2 - Blogger Meetup And Blog Roll Update

So after walking the convention floor on Day 2, we headed to the blogger gathering get together at Thr3e Wise Men in Broad Ripple. The meet was setup and organized by the real Most Interesting Man In The World, so you knew from the get-go it was going to be great. It was.

A very good time was had by all and I got the chance to meet and talk with a number of bloggers.

Some I had read online regularly and were on my blogroll like Tam, whom I met in person for the first time during the convention, and who was just as awesome in person as she is on the Internet.

I also met a long-time occupant of my blogroll for the first time Bill of e.IA.f.t., a fine gentleman and excellent conversationalist. We need to go diving sometime Bill.

And there were many who I had only met during the convention and had not yet added to my blog roll or perused their excellent blogs. So I'll fix that now. They're all a bunch of darn good people.

Pediem of Random Geeking - a truly and genuinely nice person who's always smiling and a good doc to boot.

Midwest Chick of Non-Original Rants - Another awesome blogger with my sense of direction.

Mr. B. of In The Middle Of The Right - A darn nice guy indeed from the moment we met at the hotel on Friday morning.

Kelly of A Day In The Life Of An Ambulance Driver - Thanks for the great Shooter First Aid Class.

Tovarisch Karl of Ushanka.us - A darn nice guy with a great blog.

Kathy Jackson of Cornered Cat -She's as classy in person as she is on her blog.

Danno of Sandcastle Scrolls A very nice guy indeed.

EMS Artifact of EMS Artifact. A true gentleman.

Linoge of Walls Of The City - Quite an interesting fellow.

Eric of Snooze Button Ronin - If you want to know about guns in the state of Illinois, talk to Eric.

If I've overlooked you, let me know as I apologize for the oversight or lack of your blogging info and I'll get you added.

Since I was the designated driver for the return trip and not the designated decoy, I did try a small glass of the Double IPA (which was darn good) to start the evening, but then switched to Pepsi for the rest of the night along with snacking on some pizza and mainly focusing on having some good conversations with many of the people who were there. Much good conversation resulted and I was able to bounce a situation off of Tam and a couple other bloggers and their responses will be most useful in a case I'm currently working on, which is much appreciated.

During the get-together and after a couple beers, Murphy's Law had a little problem with a small issue, but happily it was resolved in short order even as it was blown all out of proportion.

ML went on to bigger and better things, like more beer drinking and attempting to engage a waitress with a marriage proposal. Yep, it was a darn good night.

After the party broke up we went back to the hotel and met up with Old NFO, Bubblehead Les, Keads and a few others with names that escape me for an afterglow with some whiskey and good conversation until the hotel staff told us to go to bed.

A darn nice way to end Day 2.

The NRA AR Convention

The Convention floor was like a gathering of AR-15s and variants.

It seemed everyone and their little brother had at least one if not a multitude of AR models on the floor.

There were ARs by FN:

There were ARs by Rock River:

There were ARs by DS Arms, better known for their excellent FALs:

There were ARs by Windham Weaponry including some beauties in 7.62:

There was a colorful array of ARs by Olympic Arms.

There were superlight ARs by Bushmaster:

There was a 12 gauge AR by Rhino Arms:

Assuming it is as good as represented, and shoots as good as it looks and handles, I think my Saiga may be set aside for the Rhino.

There were ARs by Advanced Armament Corp in 300 Blackout with silencers:

There were ARs with night vision:

There were custom pink ARs:

There were lots more ARs there by Just Right Carbines, Colt, Remington, Mossberg, Smith and Wesson, and many others. I half expected to see Hi Point had come out with a line of budget-basement ARs.

Given the ubiquity of the AR platform, it is indeed rightly referred to as "America's Rifle".

Dear anti-gunners, you really think you can ban the AR15 and variants now?

Look at the pictures and realize this is not 1994 anymore.

While you may have a bit of traction in places like New York, California, Connecticut and Colorado for now, don't expect any movement in the rest of America, and expect your temporary success there to get rolled back in time.

The AR platform is now by definition, both de facto and de jure "in common use".

NRA Convention Interlude

At the gathering at our hotel Saturday night, after the blogger gathering, I bought this from Old NFO, which he kindly autographed:

Old NFO is quite the fellow.

He knows everybody, always has a good story to tell, always is pleased to meet you, and is amongst the finest gentlemen I've had the pleasure to meet.

So, I was wandering the Internets and found this incontrovertible proof of the above facts:

Yes, "The Most Interesting Man In The World" is Old NFO's bitch. That is all.

NRA Convention Day 2 Part The First

After Day 1, we got up bright and early and headed to Ambulance Driver's Shooter Self Care Class.

It seemed that most every blogger I've heard of was sitting in that classroom.

AD, along with the other paramedic experienced volunteers, taught us everything from the new technique for CPR; using an AED; applying tourniquets; treating bleeding; how to treat a sucking chest wound; and how to get really grossed out by various really graphic pictures.

In short it was a fantastic class, highly recommended.

Then, after stopping by Hardees for a protein in-rush we headed to the NRA convention.

Thence to the convention where we smartly avoided parking in the parking garage. On the first day we had parked in the garage and it took 1 hour to get out. Murphy's Law was not a happy camper waiting all that time in the garage for the idiots running it to incompetently get people out. So, we found some street parking and were happy and better adjusted for it.

We arrived and found the convention was packed.

Heading to the Kyle Lamb seminar on the Survival Mindset we passed by a very long line and here's who was at the head of that line:

Yes, The Gunny, live and in person. Even with the long line, he gave everyone some personal attention and was an awesome charming fellow.

Then we hurriedly made our way to Kyle Lamb's seminar on the Survival Mindset.

The seminar was standing room only, but again ML found us some seats - he's very handy that way.

Again, Mr. Lamb's presentation rocked. He started off by saying it is not about surviving a gunfight, but thriving in a gunfight. To thrive requires understanding and preparation before, during and after the fight.

He covered in depth the many considerations for preparing for a self-defense incident, which was the bulk of the presentation, as well as issues to be aware of both during and after the fight.

Afterwards, he personally autographed his books. I picked up a copy of Stay in the Fight!! Warriors Guide to the Combat Pistol and a copy of Leadership In The Shadows, a book so new Amazon doesn't seem to have it available for sale yet.

A great seminar and I'm seriously contemplating organizing a Viking Tactics / Kyle Lamb pistol/carbine class.

Any of my fellow bloggers interested in doing it? If so, we can either do it in the DC area or in Michigan. Let me know and if there's sufficient serious interest I'm willing to take the lead in the logistics of arranging the class.

Back In The Office

The NRA Convention was fantastic.

Met a lot of previous blogger friends and met quite a few new ones, and I really need to revamp my blogroll accordingly.

A nice safe trip home and a good and very informative time was had by all.

More reports on Days 2 and 3 to follow, just need to do a little digging out from under the work-pile first.

NRA Day 1 - Switching The View On The Convention Floor

The last booth we went to as the show was shutting down for the night was the MGM Switchview display.

I had recently bought a Switchview for my Vortex Viper PST scope and for some reasons it would not fit no matter how hard I tried following the directions. Luckily and most fortuitously I had it in my bag and asked one of the MGM people there if he knew why it wasn't working. He checked and it was for the older Vortex Viper PST with the rubber focusing knob rather than the newer metal knob which I had.

They had the proper part right there with them and without me saying anything, he switched them around and gave me the right part and gave me a quick tutorial on the best way for installing it.

That's some seriously good customer service right there.

He also showed me their newest product, the MGM Eagle Eye Switchview Universal Speedlever. The Eage Eye, instead of being metal has an adjustable polymer strap and is universal for all variable focusing scopes.

It looks like a solid product.

It also felt solid and it's a great alternative to having to buy a specific model to match your scope.

If you don't know what a Switchview does, it makes changing the magnification on your scope much faster and easier to do then wrestling with the focusing knob - you just push on the switch and the leverage it gives you lets you quickly adjust the scope to your desired magnification.

I was highly impressed with their customer service and knowledge and they make a great product. If you've got a variable-power scope you really should check them out, as they certainly stand by their stuff.

NRA Convention Day 1 Part 2 - The Seminars

The first seminar we attended was the one by Rob Pincus of Personal Defense Network titled "Defensive Shooting Skills Development".

Mr. Pincus was a dynamic speaker with a good presentation and style.

He covered a lot of information regarding defensive shooting including some good techniques for training oneself and others.

After wandering around the convention center some more, we went to the next seminar that we wanted to view by Kyle Lamb titled "Leadership In The Shadows".

For those that don't know, Mr. Lamb of Viking Tactics is the real deal - A former Delta Force operator and he's been there, done that in both Somalia and Iraq and he's a compelling speaker with many compelling stories to tell.

While this seminar was abbreviated from his standard Leadership Seminar, it was well worth attending with a lot of food for thought.

Whether you're in the military, law enforcement or business, there's a lot to be gleaned from his seminar on leadership.

Darn good seminars, and we'll be attending more tomorrow.

After Mr. Lamb's seminar, we headed back to the convention floor which will be the subject of my next post.

NRA Convention - The IWI Tavor Booth

Yes, IWI was in the house!

Considering it won the NRA's rifle of the year award, it certainly deserved to be here.

That's Mike Kassanar, VP of Sales & Marketing IWI US, and one of the driving forces to getting the Tavor in production and for sale in the USA. If you've got a Tavor, thank Mike.

I had a great chat with him and with Shlomi Sabag, President of IWI Ltd about the Tavor.

Apparently the biggest hold-up to getting a 300 Blackout conversion into production is getting enough 300 Blackout ammo available for testing and development. They need 50,000 rounds to thoroughly test it in Israel before they will roll it out, and there's nothing like that amount of 300 BLK ammo available right now.

They're now holding off on making the 5.45x39 conversion kit available, now that the ATF has just slammed the door on cheap Russian 5.4.5x39 imports.

They do have 9mm conversion kits out, they use the AR15 9mm conversion magazine or you can easily convert UZI magazines to work and still work in your UZI.

They also demonstrated the stance and hold that provides an excellent supporting position using the Tavor, making for a rock-solid position for rapid accurate fire.

Murphy's Law tried out the Tavor in a left-hand setup and declared it good.

Good folks and a great rifle.

Close to IWI was the Geissele booth and yes, they had a demo of their drop in trigger enhancement for the Tavor.

The trigger upgrade seriously rocks and eliminates the only complaint most people have about the Tavor. Getting a chance to try it out certainly moved it onto my must-buy list. Unfortunately, they didn't have any here, otherwise a purchase would have been made.

We also tried out some of their other triggers and DMR trigger upgrade for the AR makes for a very nice precise rifle trigger.

It was a great opportunity meeting the people responsible for bringing the Tavor to market and seeing so many Tavors in one place. Judging form the interest around the booth, the future looks bright for the Tavor among NRA members.

NRA Indy Day 1

This morning at the hotel we had breakfast with OldNFO, and with Midwest Blog Chick and Mr. B.

Then we followed Midwest Blog Chick and Mr. B. from the hotel to the convention center, taking quite a scenic route.

After an extended tour of the ring around the center of Indianapolis, we arrived at the NRA Convention:

The NRA has this convention humming and they're running a very efficient show indeed. We were in, with our floor passes issued, in mere moments by some friendly and efficient volunteers and then we went onto the convention floor.

The convention floor is huge and it seems that every name in guns is there. So we started walking down a row at random and ran into some Radoms.

An excellent display of Radom VIS 35 pistols to be exact.

There were two more of the same sized racks on display and it was a very comprehensive collection indeed, along with very descriptive narratives of the different periods in Radom VIS 35 production and the variations.

Right by the Radoms was a display of Great Westerm manufactured Single Action Army revolvers:

Olympic Arms was there with an AR to suit every color preference.

They also have a new production run of the Whitney Wolverine available for sale if you want a futurist-looking .22 pistol.

Mec Gar is also here with a nice display of a magazine for all your pistol needs:

In case traffic gets bad on the way out, there's a gun jeep.

Then we stopped by a couple booths that deserve a post all to themselves.

Good Arrival In Indy

The drive to Indianapolis, while long was relatively pleasant. Traffic was manageable and I did not scream even once after Murphy's Law took over the driving for his shift, and we arrived unscathed.

We checked in at the hotel, ran into OldNFO in the parking lot and then went looking for dinner.

For dinner we went to the Black Swan Brewpub, which had some excellent beers and burgers which hit the spot. The Irish red beer was excellent and the burger was large and tasty.

At the Pub we met up with Keads and eiaftinfo and had an excellent and far-ranging conversation with these distinguished gentlemen and had a very good evening indeed.

Looking forward to the first day of the convention.

It's Three Hundred And Ten Miles To Indianapolis, We've Got A Full Tank Of Gas, Half A Pack Of Chips, It's Daytime, And We're Wearing Sunglasses.

Hit It.

Murphy's Law and I are off on the road to Indy.

We'll hopefully see you (if you're there) at the NRA Convention. Looking forward to meeting up with blogger friends and make some new ones.

Will blog from the convention as opportunities arise.