Monday, August 20, 2012 at 11:00AM Hey Everyone! I see that there are still some people on this web site. I've moved everything to Modern Self Protection and continue to blog there. It's much easier for me to use and I think it looks better. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Here is my new RSS Feed
and if you would like E-mail updates, Subscribe to Modern Self Protection by Email.
Friday, August 17, 2012 at 11:00AM Hey Everyone! I see that there are still some people on this web site. I've moved everything to Modern Self Protection and continue to blog there. It's much easier for me to use and I think it looks better. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Here is my new RSS Feed
and if you would like E-mail updates, Subscribe to Modern Self Protection by Email.
Sunday, August 12, 2012 at 7:24PM Hey Everyone! I see that there are still some people on this web site. I've moved everything to Modern Self Protection and continue to blog there. It's much easier for me to use and I think it looks better. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Here is my new RSS Feed
and if you would like E-mail updates, Subscribe to Modern Self Protection by Email.
Friday, May 25, 2012 at 10:59PM I just updated and moved my site. It's way better then it was before. I'm actually proud of my new site and would love for you to check it out.
If you follow me on by RSS my new feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/ModernSelfProtection
If you want to check out my site, the address is the same www.ModernSelfProtection.com
Leave me a comment here.
Check it out and let me know what you think!
Stay Safe,
Ben
Monday, May 21, 2012 at 1:00PM 
I had a bumper sticker on my lunch box at work for years that said, “Your gun and knife are only tools, your mind is the weapon.” I totally agree with that statement. And your mind set has to be right for you to win a dangerous encounter.
At first inclining of any danger to you or your family, your first and foremost thought should be escape. Put your thoughts and energy into that first. If a large group of gang members is walking down the sidewalk towards you and your family in the city, there is no shame in crossing the street and getting out of their way. In fact I would suggest it. If that group decides to follow you across the street, get away. Go into a store or down another street towards another group of people. Call 911 and ask for help. Don’t be afraid to tell them you are in danger and need help that a large.
I even suggest that you give up your wallet and car if that is all the attacker(s) want. Then get away. If someone tries to mug you with a knife and you think that is all he wants. Toss him your wallet and run. Your primary goal is to get away. In self defense a fight avoided is a fight won.
If you can’t get away, then you have to fight. Don’t just stand there and think he will just rough you up a little. If the fight is on, it’s on. You have to change your thoughts into winning at all costs. It’s not a boxing match with a ref, you are fighting for your life.
In all my classes I teach a segment on mind set. The bottom line is that, even-though you are good person with kids, friends, and family, and don’t want to hurt or kill anyone, you have to become more vicious, more violent, more aggressive, and just plain meaner then the person attacking you. Most of us can’t fathom the amount of violence and ruthlessness most of these attackers use daily to get what they want. They want what they want and will do anything to get it, including killing you and your family. They will think about killing you and your family like you consider killing a bug in your house. They may or may not think about getting caught. Have no doubt, the only reason they may not kill you for your wallet or car is because they might get caught, not because they care about killing you. They look at you like a roach in the way of what they want.
So how can a normal person beat that? The Marine Corps use to teach the three things you need to win in an urban environment are shock force, speed, and violence of action. How that works when someone is robbing you is that you first give in. Give that person your wallet and car keys and see what happens. If they leave, you’ve won, if they want more one possible way to win is yell really loud, like a war cry on the movie Brave Heart (Shock Force to give you a second while that person is surprised), jump on them and grab the weapon and push it away from you (speed is just moving faster then the other person), and then punch, kick, bite, bang, poke, knee, gouge, choke, spit (violence of action) until that person gives up or stops moving. Then run away and call the police.
I don’t want to kill anyone, but I will if I have to. To protect my family and myself I’ll do whatever it takes. If you carry a weapon at all, dig deep into yourself and ask yourself, can I kill someone if I have to? Come to terms with that demon now. When your life is threatened you will ask yourself if it’s all right to take another life. While you are asking yourself that, the other person will be killing you.
Stay Safe,
Ben
Tuesday, May 15, 2012 at 7:00AM A long time ago in a state far, far away (California) I volunteered at the Placentia Police Department. Placentia is a small city in Orange County California, one city over from Disneyland. I loved my time there and learned some great lessons from some really good police officers. As far as I know, Placentia PD was the first to implement Megan’s Law. Megan’s Law is the California law that started the sex offender registration and then was expanded to allow local police to notify the public of a sex offenders in the area. Most states have the same law now. I thought for sure that the Supreme Court would strike the law down because of rights to privacy, but it hasn’t happened yet.
It was 1996 or 97 when the PD decided that they were going to implement this and pass out fliers to the neighborhood a paroled child molester was moving into. I helped pass out fliers with pictures of the guy and information about his MO (Modus Operandi), parole conditions, address, some other personal information I can’t recall, and a time and place of a public meeting. I had a special connection as I was a teenager still living with my parents two blocks down form this guy. My youngest sister was only a couple years older then his last victim.
People were outraged. How could the police department let a sex offender move into their neighborhood? To the police department’s credit, they were trying. They even had an expert in child molesting come in to talk about keeping kids safe from being molested. Some of the uniformed cops talked, and the investigator in charge of the case spoke. They all talked about keeping kids safe from potential molesters. The crowd was almost ready to riot. All they cared about was getting rid of the one molester they knew about. The investigator tried to give states, tell people how many kids had been molested by people that no one knew about. The crowd didn’t care.
The meeting broke up without anything constructive getting done. But I learned something. People will always focus on one perceived threat and completely ignore everything else. This guy was a threat, but not much after the fliers were put out. His neighbors pretty much spit on him anytime he left the house, there was always a cop driving by, and his parole officer was there daily. A couple weeks later he moved a couple miles away, and then couldn’t get a job because of the publicity. A job was on his conditions of parole, so he went back to jail.
After he moved everyone went back to their lives like there was no danger anymore. I know for a fact a couple years before this kids had been molested at a day care out of someone’s home a block away and I’m sure kids have been molested in the area since.
So what did I learn? People will worry about small things they can see and forget about everything else. People use to call it being an ostridge, if I can’t see the evil it can’t see me. Now it’s being called being a sheeple. People that act like sheep and follow the person in front of them and have a sheep dog to protect them from the wolves. People are still the same. They want other people to take care of them and will only look at danger if you force it upon them. Then they will be outraged. Outraged that there is danger in our lives and just as outraged that it was shown to them. They would rather live in ignorance then reality.
Don’t be part of the Sheeple. Learn what dangers are in your life and then take reasonable precautions to avoid them. If you ignore them they just might come crashing down on you and your family.
Stay Safe,
Ben
Awareness, Sheeple in Self Defense Monday, May 14, 2012 at 7:00AM Last week I had a quite a day. I got caught in the weather in south Texas. The rain was incredible. Roads started flooding out less then an hour into the storm. I was trying to get in and out before the weather but didn’t make it. Then when it started raining (and I had to work outside) I realized I forgot my jacket. It was at home drying form the day before. Nice!
Anyways here is some video and pictures I took. I wanted to get pictures but my iPhone isn’t waterproof and pictures weren’t coming out taken from inside the truck. I also wanted to take more video but the conditions where almost impassible and I had to put the camera down and drive at the parts that would have made great video. If I knew it was going to be that bad I would have stayed home. The rain was worst then the Typhoon I lived through in Japan.
Here’s a picture of the road conditions at the beginning of the storm.
This video was taken on the dirt road heading out to the main road. I had to use the trees to make where the road was. And the trees where already collapsing in. The road was wider when I went in. I had to stop filming to pass a truck going the other way. Yes the road was a river of running water.
This is when the storm started to get back. I was wondering if there was an ark around I could use to get home.
Then it got worst. I couldn’t believe it got worst. The video through my iPhone was actually better for visibility then looking out the window. This was the only time I’ve actually been scared driving a truck. I wasn’t sure if the trailer would blow over while attached to the truck or if the road was still there. Going the opposite way I could see places that the road had already been washed away.
Things I learned or was reminded of; check the weather before you leave, be prepared to stay some place if you have to, have an extra jacket in your vehicle, have extra clothes in your vehicle, let people know where you are going and when you are going to be back, and sometimes you just have to keep going.
Stay Safe,
Ben
Driving Conditions, Texas Storm Videos in Driving, Video Sunday, May 13, 2012 at 12:24PM I hope you didn't forget, and if you did it's never too late. Drop a card in the mail. Your Mom will assume the mail was slow.
Stay Safe,
Ben
Friday, May 11, 2012 at 7:00AM 
Bank of America has been all over the news since McMillan Firearms posted about a meeting they had on their Facebook Page. The bottom line of the meeting, after 12 years of working together B of A no longer wanted McMillan’s business since they were now making firearms instead of just accessories. There are conspiracy theories running wild, from full on tin hat people to take over the government people. They are kind of funny. I’ve got a lot of respect for Kelly McMillan who just keeps say this is what happened. He won’t speculate or bad moth B of A except to say that they won’t be doing business with them anymore. I heard rumors that McMillan was going to stop excepting B of A credit cards and bank cards for transactions. I hope that is true.
Here’s my take on the situation and why you should care. B of A is making an excuse to get rid of McMillan as a customer. B of A wants customers that are not in good with money. Major banks have been getting more and more money from fees in the last couple years. If a customer pays off his or her credit card balance every month the bank doesn’t get any interest (banks call these people dead beats behind your back). If you keep your free checking account balanced then they can’t fee you for overdraft. According to other sources McMillan actually keeps up with its finances and keeps its revolving debt down. Translation, B of A is unable to charge McMillan more for the accounts and McMillan was locking up money that B of A could loan to someone else that they could charge more.
I think B of A made a financial analysis of the McMillan accounts and determined that the money McMillan was using could be given to another customer that would yield the bank more profit. All the bank needed was a reason for McMillan to close its accounts. If you don’t think the major banks in America would do this, I ask you why not? Currently there is no recourse to them. If they blow it and lose all their money our Government will just give them any money they need.
So why should you care? B of A sets policy for most banks. Where B of A goes most other banks follow. You have to watch your accounts with the attitude that the bank is trying to steal money from you (because they are trying to do it in the ways of interest and fees). If you are getting charged for having an account, move your accounts. Every bank will take your money initially. If that bank doesn’t behave, move to another one. The days of our grandparents having money in the same bank for 30 years is over. Banks see you as a way to make money. They do figures like profit per costumer to see how much money they can get from you. Banks can make plenty of money off you the traditional ways and now in the digital age they can make more profit then in the past.
The banks will try to slip a $1 charge for something in, or a $5 per month charge to every customer. The most common times for bans to change their terms of service is at the beginning of summer and at Christmas time. They have found that people pay attention the least during these periods.
The bottom line is that you need to be prepared to move your account every two or three years. Most smaller banks will help you change all your electronic debts and deposits. It seems like a daunting task, but you can do it online in less then an hour. The last time I changed banks it took me about 3 hours to complete everything because I went down and opened the account in person. I’ll be changing banks again next month because mine has a horrible online bill pay and it doesn’t always work right.
Top three reasons to change banks (all from personal experience); 3 You feel like you work for the bank, 2 You spend more time dealing with them then you would at a part time job, and the number 1 reason, you start paying them to have the privilege of giving them money.
Keep your money yours and pay attention to what the banksters are doing.
Stay Safe,
Ben
Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 7:00AM At the end of last month I got a really cool email from Lucky Gunner. Lucky Gunner is an online ammo company and Russ wanted to know if I wanted some free ammo to shoot. My first thought, of course! Who wouldn’t want free ammo. But I had to write him back and say I’ll do the test as long as I can write about exactly what I found, good or bad. I also told him it’s been almost 10 years since I ordered ammo from the Internet. He said that was fine and wanted to know what I shot. I gave him my list of what I train with the most (9mm, .32 ACP, 5.56mm, and 7.62x39). I also told him I could get rid of some .45, .44, .22, or .38s. He sent me two boxes of .32 ACP Magtech 65 GR JHP. I carry a .32 Kel-Tec P32 as a back up and when I can’t carry my Glock.
I received an email order confirmation that an order had been placed for me with a gift card. The next day I got another email saying my order had been shipped. Two days later I got an awesome little box in the mail.
It looks like they just put an order in for me and didn’t treat me special. In the military and as a contractor my company was sent things but they just showed up in the mail. I never got any order confirmations. So it appears they have enough faith in their system to get things out on time.
I wanted to do a pour-man’s ballistic test on the ammo along with my current .32 carry load (Speer Gold Dots). So I was going to test Lucky Gunner for sure and buy extra Speer Gold Dots. The price was right, until shipping was added. Ammo is heavy and expensive to ship. 20 Rounds is $26 (I love that they put $26 instead of $25.99), which is about the going rate. Then I added shipping and it was another $13.49. Too expensive for my blood, so I started looking at other prices on the site.
Lucky Gunner comes into something when you start looking at buying in bulk or buying things you can’t find at your local store. Since I shoot a 9mm (because it’s the cheapest center fire handgun round) I looked at 9mm in bulk. The following is an accountant’s analysis of Lucky Gunner’s prices. I pulled prices from the Lucky Gunner and Academy Outdoor web site on May 7. I’ve been buying ammo from Academy for the last couple years and found that their online price matches what I find in the stores. I used the cheapest ammo each had and then compared prices on ammo they both stocked.
If you look close, Monarch steel case ammo is the cheapest stuff I can find. For practice it doesn’t bother me to shoot. It does recoil noticeably more then Federal, Sellier & Ballet, or Winchester. Before I found Lucky Gunner I would buy Winchester White box to shoot competitions, but I think I’ll start shooting Blazer. I’ve shot tons of this stuff in .45 and never had an issue. (Special Note: Lucky Gunner has brass cased Blazer 9mm ammo on sale for cheaper then the aluminum stuff right now). At the bottom of the chart you can see if you are going to buy large amounts of defense ammo Lucky Gunner is considerably cheaper then my local Academy.
The Lucky Gunner site says it keeps everything up to date and it looks like it’s true. In the time it took me to finish this post, Hornady Critical Duty ammo is no longer listed on the site.
I’m saving my pennies and next month will be ordering a case of Blazer ammo. I’ve looked at the Lucky Gunner site for a couple weeks now and they rotate sales almost daily, so check them out and find something you like on sale. When looking at ammo prices, sit down and do the math. Remember to factor in sales tax and/or shipping costs. I would also say that paying a little more to a place that is in the firearms business and that will continue to help you in the future is worth it. Lucky Gunner is a new player but after dealing with them I think they will be around for a long time to come.
Hat tip to Russ at Lucky Gunner that set all this up, found my web site, and sent me some free ammo!
Stay Safe,
Ben