Cool deal.
All right.
Well, I guess we'll get started then.
So, I know this is a little different, but the guys asked me to come up and do a talk on some home defense tactics and techniques and things like that.
So, hopefully, some of you will find it interesting.
So, me, I am Brandon Tice.
I've worked in IT ever since I got out of high school.
Been a security guy most of the time.
All blue team stuff.
Nothing special.
And the whole time, my whole life, I've also been involved in firearms and self-defense and things like that.
My father was in law enforcement to a degree, and I was always around that kind of defensive mindset.
So, that's probably part of the reason I got into security as well.
So, here's your obligatory disclaimer.
Take this information and do with it what you will, but if you do something stupid, it's not my fault.
So, when it comes to creating a defense strategy for your house, it really depends on your particular situation, your particular environment.
And there's so many variables involved.
But, you know, do you live in an apartment that's a heavily populated area, or do you live out in the country?
These circumstances are what's going to dictate, you know, say you opt to use a firearm for self-defense or protecting your home.
You know, what type of ammunition are you going to choose?
Is it going to be something that's very high velocity, a lot of penetrating power or not?
We'll get into all that.
But also, who do you live with and do you have pets and things like that?
And I'll kind of get into why those type of things are important.
So, if you want to mitigate this risk, and this is another way I approach it, similar to being a security engineer in my day job, is we identify risk, we assess risk and mitigate risk.
And I'm not going to get too deep into this.
We could do an entire talk on risk mitigation for home defense and the things that are listed here in this bullet list.
We could go so much more in depth.
These are some of the more, I guess, common sense type things that you hear about from law enforcement, things that just work.
The most important thing to understand is that burglaries, home invasions, things like that are crimes of opportunity.
Most of those types of criminals are opportunists.
They don't want a confrontation.
They don't want to be seen.
They want an easy target.
So, if they see, you know, you take two different houses on the same street and you've got one that's well lit, looks like someone's home, you know, you walk down the street and a dog barks, things like that, and then you've got this house over here that not a lot of lighting,
all the windows are closed, or you can see right in.
So you can see right in and you see that someone's left the blinds open, it's 9 o'clock at night, it's dark outside, and they've left the lights on in the house and the blinds open.
You can see no one's home.
Or, you know, you're a big burly guy and there's nothing but this little old lady home.
And , you know, it's an easy target.
And so we want, you know, you obviously want to avoid that.
The... you read a lot of things online that say even if you don't have an alarm system, put a sign in your yard.
It's just a deterrent.
I could go either way.
I think having an alarm system is great, but it's definitely not an end-all solution.
So minimizing the interior visibility, that comes with, you know, shutting the blinds and things like that.
My father was big on things like that because of the area that we lived in.
And , you know, people driving down the street, living on a busy street, and once the sun goes down, you've lit inside and dark outside.
You know, if you've gone and bought your new 80-inch flat screen, does it make a lot of sense to put that on the wall right in front of the window and then open the blinds at night and let everyone see you in a minute?
You know, it's a personal choice.
And like I said, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this.
This is just kind of quick touch-on type stuff.
But the cameras and the DVR, the reason I put those on there is because they're open-source solutions.
They're free.
They work with most of your Ethernet-based webcams that you can buy.
And you can create your own, you know, wired Ethernet or wireless kind of perimeter security and recording and keeping an eye on things.
I believe there are even smartphone apps and things for those solutions.
So, here's where it really gets into the plan, I guess.
You want to start with preparation.
Oh, yeah.
Everything revolves around this plan.
If you don't have a plan and you don't have training, then something goes bump in the night and you wake up.
Are you going to wing it?
Are you going to expect your three kids and your wife to wing it and everything fall into place, how it's going in your head at that moment?
Are they going to freak out?
Are they going to scream and run three different directions?
And , you know, if you potentially have two intruders in your home and you've got, you know, you don't know where your kids are, you don't know where your wife is, she took off and locked herself in the bathroom or whatever, you don't have control of the situation.
And you've got to educate everyone and get everyone on board for that.
So regardless of whatever plan you come up with, and we'll get into some of the options, but it's important to have everyone on board, including your kids.
Make it fun for them.
Train them.
And it's a judgment call when it comes to firearms and weapons and things like that.
Whether your children are old enough, if you want, if you think they're mature enough to...
I know I was exposed to firearms as far back as I can remember.
But the fear of God was put in me, was instilled at a very young age about ever even entertaining the idea of laying hands on a firearm when an adult wasn't present.
I never even considered it.
Because I was taught that respect at a very young age.
So if you think that's appropriate for your family, then great.
If your kid's old enough, then cool.
You want to designate a safe room.
This topic right here is debatable.
The safe room thing.
And the reason I say it's debatable...
A lot of people online, a lot of people that teach defense tactics, they suggest you want to have a room that you designate that's where everyone's going to congregate.
That's fine, unless that's the room the bad guy comes in.
And if it's a room... or hypothetically, the bad guy came in right in the middle of your path to that room.
The idea of the room is to get everybody in there and keep them away from danger.
You get in there, you call the police, and you shut the door and you barricade yourself in.
And you don't ever engage the threat.
So it's a great option.
And I think it's something to put into your plan.
If it's an option.
Bad guy comes in the back door and all the rest of you are in the front of the house.
And your safe room is in the front of the house, then sure.
It works out great.
I guess the point is to have a dynamic plan with multiple options.
The most important things you can have is your defensive weapon, lighting, and a way to communicate.
If you wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning, you hear a window break, are you going to remember to get your cell phone off the nightstand and take it with you?
Maybe you will.
But I am.
But I always stand by the fact that firearms aren't for everyone.
I do work part time at a gun range and training facility.
Obviously not here representing them in any capacity.
But I have worked there long enough to understand and truly understand that firearms are absolutely not for everyone.
The type of facility we have doesn't require membership.
You can walk in off the street, you can rent a firearm and go out on the range and shoot it.
Now, it's kind of an honor system, but you can...
We ask, have you had any firearms experience?
If you say, oh yeah, I'm an expert.
We don't test you.
Okay.
But if you verbalize and say, you know what, I've never held a gun before.
I've never loaded a gun.
I don't know what to do with it.
We won't let you go out and shoot.
But we get enough people in there that think they know what they're doing.
And obviously we have great customers, great knowledgeable skilled customers.
But we get some in there that shouldn't have their gun.
Just poor safety.
So, obviously your pros here with your firearms, they're your most lethal solution.
There's a cliche saying that, and I really try to avoid those, but the reality is there's only one thing that stops a bad guy with a gun.
Please tell me someone knows what that is.
A good guy with a gun.
That's exactly right.
Any situation, whether it's a school shooting, home invasion, doesn't matter what it is.
If there's a bad guy with a gun, what do you do?
You call someone with a gun.
Because that's the only thing that's going to stop them.
And that's just the way it is.
Guns are the great equalizer.
In the state of Tennessee, self-defense laws, and I'm more referring to outside the home, you don't have to be faced with a threat of another firearm in order to use your firearm to use lethal force.
I'm a smaller guy.
Four or five guys walk up to me and say, hey, we're going to kill you.
And they're all bigger than me.
I can legitimately fear for my life.
One guy my size could walk up to me with a crowbar or pipe in his hand.
I can fear for my life.
So unarmed, there's me and then there's a guy with a pipe.
I introduced the firearm into that situation.
I've not only equalized it, but I've got the upper hand.
So they obviously allow for distance between you and your attacker.
But they require more safety considerations and more training.
I cannot stress that enough, the training aspect.
Especially when it comes to firearms.
You can't train enough.
More specifically, a lot of people think that because they can legally purchase a firearm, and if they've shot a few rounds on granddaddy's farm or whatever, I've loaded it, I've shot it, I'm good.
Even the people that go through the Tennessee Handgun Carry Permit course, they learn the various safety aspects and they learn the laws.
They think they're good to go.
But what they're not prepared for is all of the real world high stress situations where you would actually use your firearm.
You know, low light, no light situations.
Defending from your car, things like that.
They go out on the range and it's a completely different environment.
So, before we talk about firearms, these are your golden rules.
If you're not too familiar with firearms, then obviously look them over here.
If you are, then you know them.
This is, anytime you ever go to a shooting facility, a training facility, anything like that, this is, these are going to be the golden four.
You're going to see everywhere.
Anytime you're handling a firearm, you always want to treat it like it's loaded.
Don't point at anything you're not willing to destroy.
Always know your target, what lies beyond it.
And keep your finger outside the trigger guard.
So generally, when you're holding a handgun, you're going to keep your index finger up on that frame.
And keep it, even this obviously training gun, molded plastic, no muzzle, no barrel.
I would never point it at anyone here.
It's more of a muscle memory kind of thing.
It would feel awkward if I were to do that after all the training.
So, when you get into the firearms for home defense, you've got three main options.
Your handguns, rifles, and shotguns.
And we can go over some of the pros and cons there.
Your handguns allow for more maneuverability.
And what I mean by that is when you're moving through the house.
If you're in the back room and you've got to get to your kids.
If that's part of your plan.
You've decided with your wife and your kids that if the alarm goes off, this is what's going to happen.
Your daughter is going to stay in her room.
She may have a little go pack that you've put together for her.
And you're going to come get her.
And you tell her, don't move until I come get you.
And you've got to move through the house.
You're going to get to her.
Doing that with a handgun might be a little easier.
Especially if it's a small child.
Say you've got a toddler, a two-year-old.
And you've decided with your wife.
Say, okay, look, I'm the one that's trained with the firearm.
Because I'm the guy and girls don't use guns.
It's a guy thing.
She's going to shoot me before I leave.
Jokes.
If you've got a handgun, you have an arm free.
So you can move through the house enough to get to your child.
And you can scoop her child up and you can still defend effectively.
When you're moving back to your wife or to the safe room or whatever the case may be.
Depending on the handgun you choose, you can have high ammo capacity.
Obviously a consideration.
Handguns are less accurate though.
It's easier to mess up with a handgun.
I really don't like citing statistics that I can't directly cite my source.
But I will say that where I get most of my training, the training director routinely cites a statistic that somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 to 85% of handgun wounds are nonfatal.
And I'd be interested to know where he got that statistic.
But the point is that it's not like you see on TV.
People survive handgun wounds all the time.
So just keep that in mind.
And we're going to get into defensive ammunition and different types of ammunition and things like that.
So maybe we've got rifles.
Rifles are definitely more accurate than handguns.
If you get into an AR-style rifle, your .223, .556, really low recoil.
Not bad.
If you've never fired an AR, don't be afraid to.
It's not nearly as mean as it looks.
It's really a lot of fun to shoot.
And easy to stay on target.
Easy for follow-up shots.
You've got your standard 30-round mag.
I mean, there's other magazine capacities, but you typically will have 30 rounds on you right there.
Requires both hands in most cases.
You know, some people train their AR.
And I didn't want to bring my AR and my 12 gauge and things like that and bring up on stage.
I was only able to access a training handgun.
But if you're... I'm a left-handed long gun guy.
If you're on target and you need to grab something...
An AR is a pretty lightweight weapon, depending on how much tactical stuff you have on the end of it.
You'd probably be able to drop your arm and keep it shouldered and fire if you needed to.
But maneuvering room to room around corners and things like that, it's not going to be easy to do one-handed.
Kind of the same thing with a shotgun.
It's still a long gun.
I assume everyone knows the story with Joe Biden suggesting to...
I'll just buy a shotgun, fire off a couple warning shots, that's all you need.
Yes, they did.
Home defense expert.
Yes, yes.
So yeah, obvious advantage to a shotgun.
You're getting more lead downrange.
You're getting more lead toward your attacker at one time.
And that's an obvious advantage.
The other thing is if you choose a pump shotgun, which I'm sure most of you are familiar with the sound you associate with that.
But when you're on target, you're firing and you fire and you cycle around and you bring it back up, it actually can kind of aid in getting back on target.
You're not going to bring it down and cycle and bring it back up.
You're going to keep moving and that just natural motion is going to get you back on target or at least assist, get you in that general area.
And translate internationally, get the hell out of my house, that's...
We're going to get to that.
It's interesting you say that.
It's coming up.
It's the sound that translates in every language.
It does resonate, but we're going to talk about that.
So the downside is recoil.
A lot of people that are even comfortable enough to fire a handgun fire a 12-gauge one time and say never again.
Not happening.
Really not that bad.
There are recoil-reducing stocks you can purchase.
There are lower-recoil ammunition that you can purchase.
You could actually move to a 20-gauge shotgun, which is going to be a lot less recoil.
I would say that if you or someone you know is entertained the idea but aren't comfortable with the recoil, at least explore some options.
Because there are definitely more out there.
You're not going to have 30 rounds in your shotgun.
You're probably not going to need 30 rounds in your shotgun, but you're not going to have it.
Unless you've got a Batman utility belt full of shells.
If you did need to reload, typically they're going to hold 4-7 rounds depending on your...
Say you've got a side-saddle that has 4-5 rounds in it, they're going to be a little slower to reload.
And again, you're going to require your two hands.
So, say we were to talk about that sound effect.
This is something you hear a lot of people say.
It's not a bad thought.
It's not.
Because that is true.
Everyone knows that sound.
But...
There's a couple of downsides.
Number one, if you're using a weapon for home defense, you want it to be ready to go.
You don't necessarily have to have the safety off, depending on what type of weapon, what type of firearm you choose.
But if you've got your shotgun and it doesn't have one in the chamber, which for those of you that aren't overly in tune with firearm operations, that's how you make the firearm ready.
Whether you cycle the slide on a handgun or you cycle the pump on a pump shotgun, that's moving around from the magazine tube into the chamber and that's what makes it ready to fire.
If you haven't done that, then your gun is a paperweight.
It's not good for anything.
You can take the safety off and pull the trigger all you want to, it's not going to go bang.
So the downside to not having one in the chamber is that you may not have the opportunity to put one in the chamber.
Say you keep, I mean I've seen these, they're not really great for houses with kids, but it's a metal rack, or like a bracket type thing that slides under your mattress and just has two hooks that stick out from the side of the mattress and you can just lay a shotgun right on those two hooks.
And if you woke up at 3 o'clock in the morning to see bad guys standing in your doorway, walking towards your bed, do you have time to wake up and grab your gun and then realize that you've got to cycle the slide and kick the safety off before you get a round out?
You know, how long is it going to take that guy to be on top of you?
So, and the other thing is, if you do, you hear somebody across the house and you're, you know, you're going through with your shotgun and you rack it, he knows where you are.
That sound may scare off your run-of-the-mill opportunist, kind of like we talked about earlier, that's just wanting to smash and grab and get something to go and not really want to confront anybody, but if there's someone that's strung out on drugs, anything like that,
or is just determined to hurt your family, that sound's not going to do anything.
Personal opinion.
So, if you're going to choose a firearm for defense, you've really got to know these different ammunition types.
When you talk about handgun and rifle cartridges, you've got your full metal jackets and things we're going to get into here, but your main considerations.
Go ahead and laugh at the first bullet point.
It's okay.
Penetration is a big concern when it comes to self-defense ammunition.
And what they mean by that is, if you've got a big guy wearing a big coat and things like that, you've really got to get in there to get to those vital organs.
The idea, if you have to pull the trigger and you've got to shoot somebody, you want to stop them.
And all those vital organs are going to be several inches deep into the body.
So, you want something that's going to expand for maximum energy transfer, and what that means is, you've got a bullet here, and that's your projectile.
For those of you that, again, aren't overly familiar, the copper part you see is your projectile.
That's your shell casing.
And inside there, there's powder.
So, when it ignites, it just pushes that projectile out.
Your full metal jacket ammunition is just going to be that round point.
There's no hollow point.
We'll get to those.
And these are great.
Actually, military uses full metal jacket because they penetrate so well.
They typically have to shoot through doors, walls, car doors, things like that, and they need that penetration.
And that's the opposite of what the average civilian is going to want to have.
So, if we step back here and look, there's your penetration.
So, your expansion for maximum energy transfer.
Sorry, I got sidetracked.
That's what we're...
These are not going to expand.
Major downside.
And what happens is, they end up going through whatever you shoot.
So, you hear about people that get shot, and say you get shot in the shoulder, it goes straight through, and they might not even know they're shot at first.
So, it doesn't stop what they're doing.
And that's a full metal jacket round.
It's nothing more than that round projectile.
It's very aerodynamic, and it's going to open up what it needs to go through and keep going.
So, downside here is your overpenetration.
It can go straight through and keep going, and then easily penetrate walls, doors, things like that.
That's your big concern.
You want to be as effective as possible, and still keep your family safe, and your pets, and things like that.
And full metal jacket is just not the best choice for that.
You can end up, especially if you're in an apartment complex or something like that, you end up shooting the old lady's cat next door or something, and then you're liable.
So, another solution is fragile ammunition.
This stuff kind of turns to powder when it hits its target.
At the range I work at, our backstop can't stop .223 ammunition.
It's an older backstop.
Handgun rounds are fine, but if someone were to bring in some standard FMJ, which they have, even AKs, things like the S762, it goes straight through it.
And there's actually a trailer park behind our facility, so they get fairly upset when flying lead coming down range.
So , what we do is we allow people to bring in ARs, but you have to buy our ammunition to shoot it, and it's fragile.
And so what happens is it hits the backstop and just disintegrates.
It's great for those overpenetration concerns, and it has good energy transfer.
But the penetration is not that great.
So, unless you're shooting a scrawny guy with no shirt on, it may not stop him.
So, that kind of brings us to the ideal self-defense round when it comes to handguns especially, is your jacket at hollow point.
It's got the penetration, it's got the energy transfer, and it can still go through.
Don't let that part right there make you believe that you can shoot it into that wall over there and it's going to stop or bounce off.
That's not the case.
I mean, it's still a high-powered round, and it can still penetrate drywall.
But the potential is definitely reduced.
But when we talk about the energy transfer, and I don't think I went into detail on that, these rounds expand.
You see that when they hit, it's going to mushroom out.
And that's when you see, if you ever see any pictures of entrance wounds and exit wounds, and the exit wound is like three times the size of the entrance wound, and that's kind of where that comes from.
And it delivers a force of energy when it hits its target.
That's enough to knock you back as well as create a damaging wound.
Whereas, like, with the full metal jacket, it could just whiz right through you and you could potentially keep going.
That's going to cause a lot of damage.
So we get into our shotgun rounds.
You've got three basic types, your birdshot, bugshot, and slug.
Your birdshot is a poor choice for home defense.
There's numerous cases you can look up where people have been shot with birdshot and survived.
It's basically like being shot with 30 or 40 BB guns at one time.
Exactly.
And I had that in here and I took it out, but it was in here.
And the reason I took it out is there were some misleading details about it.
He didn't shoot the guy point blank in the face like a lot of people say, and he didn't just shoot him in the face.
But it did happen.
Essentially, there was a hunting trip, and the guy went out downrange.
And he was 30 yards or so downrange, and Chaney took a shot, and it peppered the guy.
And he was like 78 years old, and he survived.
Now, he did have complications because one of these pieces of lead ended up near his heart, and he had a heart attack while in the hospital or something.
And they ended up going in and finding him.
He survived.
He was fine.
But yeah, you see pictures online of these guys, these people that get hit with birdshot, and they're peppered, and they have wounds, but they're still there.
So it's great for practice.
You can take your shotgun out and practice.
It's cheap.
Buckshot is kind of where it's at.
You've got your great transfer of energy, great penetration, and the projectiles themselves are large.
So it's like being hit by a small-to-medium-sized handgun nine times over at the same time.
So it's kind of an ideal situation for home defense.
Your slug, this is where you really stand the chance of killing your neighbor's cat and the guy down the street.
These are extremely high-velocity projectiles, and they're heavy.
I mean, it's just a slug, and I've got a picture here.
This gives you an idea of the actual options here.
So there's your birdshot.
There's some debate about these two here being the most ideal home defense round.
I guess that's why they're both on there.
The reason people like this, the number four buckshot, is that it does stop in walls a lot easier than your double-aught.
Double-aught is going to cause more damage.
I mean, you see the diameters here, and you can kind of put it together.
To give you an example, your 9mm, .38, .380 caliber rounds in that category of round, they are roughly .38, .37 in that diameter.
So you've got to think you're just under that round.
So you're larger than a .32 caliber, and you're shooting nine at one time.
I mean, that's fairly devastating.
But then your slug, it's huge.
It's heavy, and it does a lot of damage.
I mean, people deer hunt with slugs.
But you don't want to use it for home defense.
I mean, unless you're out in the country.
You live alone, and you're five miles from anybody, yeah, do it.
Just keep waiting for a boondock saints meme to pop up or something every time you say cat.
Good idea with the double...
I'll keep that one.
You shot my cat.
Tell me the name of that cat.
That would be misleading, though, because then people would...
Yeah, no need for the rope.
This is a little infographic about ammunition once it travels through interior walls.
So this kind of gives you an idea of what your buckshot does versus, you know, your 9mm .45.
I'm a big fan of .45 when it comes to handgun rounds.
It's a larger projectile.
The recoil is more, but it's not that bad.
But more importantly, it moves slower.
Moves slower.
You got a slower moving, larger projectile.
If you're using the right jacketed hollow point self-defense ammunition, you're not going to have to worry about overpenetration that much.
If you happen to get hit with a Remington 700 .308, you're going to have a bad time because that's horrible.
But you see what buckshot does.
Spreads out.
It's all good stuff.
So let's play this game again.
If I have a shotgun and it spreads, then I don't really have to aim.
That's a common thought.
People say, yeah, I don't really have to know a lot about guns.
I just know, number one, I make that sound and he's going to leave.
But number two, if he stays, I really can just, you know, I don't really have to aim because it's going to spread out and blow him through the wall.
So you guys can probably see this coming, but no.
There's your reality on buckshot.
So you can see at 15 feet, you get about five inches.
Still pretty easy to miss if you're being careless.
So it gives you an idea.
Here's some more data on shotgun spreads and things like that, different rounds.
Like I was talking about the diameters and then your spread at different yards.
So, I mean, think about that.
Think about the size of your home and the potential areas you may have to engage.
What's your average bedroom, 10 by 12, 12 by 15?
You know, maybe you've got a hallway, 15 yards inside a house.
It's a long way, 45 feet inside a house.
I mean, unless, you know, you've got it like that and you just, you're living large.
I don't.
So I don't have a lot of areas in my home where I'm going to have to shoot 50 feet away.
So you're really going to want to worry about in between these two, you know, 15 feet to 45 feet.
So if you're, if you can do 25 yards inside your house, I want to know what you do for a living because we need to talk.
So all that being said, what's your best choice?
And that's really a personal decision.
What, what works for you?
It may not be a firearm.
And I want to keep saying that because I know it sounds like I'm peddling firearms up here.
And that's, you know, it's a great defense tool, but it's not for everyone.
And that's OK.
So if you do choose a firearm, you want to choose the most effective caliber, the largest caliber that you can be effective with.
Let me put it that way.
So, you know, a lot of people say, well, my cousin's brother's boyfriend's uncle told me I need to shoot.
I need a Glock, number one, because everybody needs a Glock.
That's, that's, that's the gun to get.
It's a Glock.
But one of those Kimber Glocks, not a, you know, so and it needs to be 45.
And fully automatic.
Fully automatic.
That means when I pull the trigger, it goes bang once every time.
So it's automatic.
Yes.
No, that is not the case.
So, I mean, so many things you hear when you work in a gun range.
But so the point is, no one can tell you what gun is right for you.
Absolutely no one.
I don't care how educated and trained the person is.
Every gun has a different recoil.
It has a different trigger action, different weight distribution, and everyone is going to perceive all of those things differently.
So it's a very personal decision.
I myself, when I started out in my early 20s, buying my own handguns.
I can't tell you how many I went through just because I didn't know a lot of people that were into firearms.
So I really couldn't borrow a whole lot.
So I ended up buying them and I'd shoot it a few times and this gun's not right for me.
I don't like the way it shoots.
I don't like the trigger on it or whatever.
We have a, we have a rental case.
And a lot of people do.
A lot of gun ranges have rental cases.
Use that rental case.
Because a lot of gun ranges also have consignment cases.
And the way a lot of those guns end up in the consignment case is people that didn't use the rental case.
They come in and say, oh no, my cousin said I need this gun so I'm going to buy this gun.
And then they shoot it one time and say this gun sucks, I hate this gun.
I want to sell it.
Can you help me do that?
So you want to stay larger than .380 typically.
That's not a bad recoil.
It's not bad.
Things, you know, your .25s and .32s and things like that.
And a lot of people, oh I didn't even put the myth on here about a .22 being the most dangerous round because it bounces around inside you.
You know, there's that whole thing.
There's no energy transfer with a .22.
It rattles around like Pac-Man until you die.
Like I say, it hits all your bones and goes through your organs and then they're just Swiss cheese and they'll fall over and blow through the wall with the explosion.
It's not the way it happens.
So, choose the right type of firearm for your situation.
And that goes back to the whole DF kids, you know, it's your personal situation.
I didn't do a whole slide on laser sights.
I just wanted to mention it.
They're popular.
I will say that most of your altercations are going to be in low light or no light situations.
So, they can be helpful.
But just keep in mind the whole Murphy's Law thing.
It's a battery powered accessory.
Three minutes?
Yeah, so it is.
It's a battery powered accessory.
So, you don't want to depend on it.
Put it that way.
Because at the moment you need it, it'll fail.
So, I'm going to pick up the pace here a little bit.
You want that balance between readiness and safety.
This is what I use at my house.
I have an 11-year-old daughter.
And while she's aware of firearms, we go shoot, things like that, I don't think she would ever lay hands on a firearm.
I could leave it out in the open.
We're going to have guests, she's going to have friends over, things like that.
You can't trust everyone.
The safe I have is a biometric safe.
So, literally a button press and a swipe back and it's open and I've got my chambered handgun ready to go.
Made by a company called GunVault.
So, you may want to look into that if that's a concern you have.
There's not a lot of good solutions for long guns like that.
I've yet to find one.
Someone told me I should build one because it might sell well.
I don't know.
You want to have a flashlight.
The reason I say you want to have a flashlight is because of the whole low light, no light situation thing.
If you have to fight in the dark, do you want to be shooting blindly?
Gracefully, I borrowed this here because I somehow forgot mine.
So, you've got your mag lights that can easily be a weapon in and of themselves if you've ever held one.
Then you've got these little guys right here.
The one I use in the picture is cool because it has actually... those are pretty sharp.
It's actually a defensive flashlight.
So, if you ever needed to get up on someone and get them off you, you stick it in the neck or something and twist it.
And then you've got your weapon lights.
Good thing is it doesn't require another hand.
Bad thing is you've got to point your gun at everything you point your light at.
So, if your kid walks out of the room and you just want to shine your light and make sure it's the kid, you're also pointing your gun at them, which...
Then there's these kind.
I've only found one company that makes these, but they're pretty cool.
They just kind of hang off your hand.
So, you know, if you're... you know, you see that kind of situation a lot on TV.
I assume everyone can see that.
So, you see people like that.
That type of situation where, you know, cop shows and things like that.
Another technique is people will do this.
Sorry , I don't want to blind anybody.
The reason for that tactic is if you've got a bad guy in your house and it's dark outside or dark inside and all he can see is the light, you don't want him to shoot at the light.
And then you're holding the light right here in center mass.
You know, if you've ever been in a dark room and have someone shine a really bright flashlight at you, that's all you can see is that flashlight.
You can't see what's behind it.
So, put the light over here.
You can illuminate what you need to see.
You can be on target if you need to be on target, but you're not making yourself a target.
I'm not going to talk a lot about the laws.
I know a lot of you are not from Tennessee and we're kind of pushed for time.
So, I'll let you look over that real quick.
It basically tells you where to go.
If you live in Tennessee, you can go to that site.
It's free and you can look at all the TCA codes.
Look at that one specifically, 611, 311611.
It gives you an idea of what you can and can't do.
Oh, yeah.
You'd be surprised at how many people I hear say that.
Well, if they're at the door and they look like they're about to come in, then I'm just going to blow them back through the door and drag them inside.
I don't want to do that.
So, things are going down.
It's real.
What's going on?
What's happening?
You've got to stay calm.
I know I'm picking up the pace here.
But the idea is, if you take anything away from this, don't engage a threat unless you have to.
There's no sense in putting yourself into a confrontation unless you have to.
That's a really important point.
People say, if someone's in my house, I'm going to shoot them.
I'm going to find them and I'm going to shoot them.
What happens if the guy gets a jump on you?
Better shot than you, better trained than you, whatever the case may be.
If he's not looking for an altercation, you've got your kids in the safe room and cops are on the way, stay there.
Don't complicate your life.
Let them come take care of it.
If you have to engage, there's no such thing as a warning shot.
Don't do that.
You end up shooting your neighbor's cat or whatever because you missed, or shooting your own cat or whatever.
Floppy!
Yeah, exactly.
What do you mean?
Oh, sure, and I'm going to get into that.
I've only got a few slides left here.
But yes, it is very loud.
You don't shoot to kill, you don't shoot to wound, you shoot to neutralize the threat.
That's what you need to remember.
If you shoot them and they're still twitching, you don't shoot them again.
If you pull out your gun and they turn around and run towards the door, you don't shoot them in the back.
The threat is over, you're done.
If you ever do find yourself in a real-life situation, it's not going to be like you're at the gun range.
You're in a very controlled environment.
Your breathing is good, your heart rate's good, you're standing feet shoulder-width apart, you're taking your time, you're 30 seconds between shots, or whatever the case may be.
You can expect a lot of this if you ever have to really use your firearm.
And you're not wearing ear protection, like he said.
So it's going to be very disorienting.
So these are the kind of things you need to keep in mind and train for.
And when I say train for, I don't mean go out without hearing protection and shoot your gun.
But you know what I mean.
Cover versus concealment.
This basically says what cover and concealment are.
And keep in mind that you may need to use them in a home defense situation.
Like I said, just because you bought your gun doesn't mean you're prepared to use your gun.
Go get training.
Can you shoot it from your back, from your stomach, moving and shooting?
If you get in a fight, if you're fighting for your life and you get stabbed in your good arm, can you still effectively use your firearm?
If you have a weapon malfunction, this is a big one.
Say your gun jams and you've lost an arm, you're fighting one-handed.
Can you cycle the slide on your gun and dump around and keep going, keep fighting?
If you've just gone to Walmart and bought whatever's in the case and said, all right, well, I got my gun, you're not prepared.
Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
I think everyone should remember that.
Just keep in mind, if you do find someone in your home, try to think it through.
There's been numerous cases where people with dementia wandered into the wrong home.
And someone's just drunk and don't mean anyone any harm, just at the wrong house, walked in the wrong apartment building and it's the right apartment number or whatever.
And they walk inside and there they are.
Does that person deserve to lose their life because they've got a medical condition and they took too many of their pills and they're disoriented or whatever the case may be?
Use your verbal commands.
Attempt to deescalate the situation.
Don't just go guns a blazing because you can because someone's in your house.
That's when it really comes into can you really live with taking another human life and then especially learning afterwards that you may not have needed to.
That can be pretty heavy stuff.
Last slide here.
After it's all over, if you ever actually have to use your firearm.
If you ever actually have to use it, you're probably going to be in shock.
Just try to stay calm.
You're obviously going to call the police.
Don't talk a lot.
Just pretty much keep your mouth shut.
And this isn't because you've done anything wrong.
That's for them to figure out.
But what ends up happening is you say, yeah, I was sitting on the edge of my bed and I heard a noise in the kitchen so I went in there and there he was.
That's a statement you give the officer.
And then they take you down for questioning and two hours later you say, yeah, I just stepped out of the shower and I heard a noise in the bedroom and I went back there.
And they say, well, no, you said you were on the side of the bed.
No, well, I thought I was.
Well, yeah, maybe I was.
And it's not your fault.
You're still just disoriented.
Everything happened so fast.
But, you know, if there's any question called into the shooting, you know, a prosecuting attorney is going to try to twist that and use it against you as much as they can.
And if you never said any of it, they can't.
Keep your mouth shut.
Have your attorney and handle it that way.
So that is all.
I know I ran over a little bit, but, I mean, I don't know if that's exactly what you were expecting.
Does anybody have any questions?
We'll do is we'll take them in the back.
We're going to set up for the next...
Go ahead.
We're going to set up for the...
Well, first off, let's give Jim Flex a round of applause for coming out and talking to us.
But definitely some good opportunity if you've got questions on things.
I know we've got some law enforcement guys and other...