Author’s Note: This article was originally published in June of 2008. There are references in it to ‘recent events’ and the reader needs to understand those recent events were recent in June of 2008. But you should still remember there and the observations still all apply.

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A while ago I wrote an article that brought great response about how some training circumstances and tools used by our military services today may actually be teaching our soldiers to die. What I mean to say is that the training may be conditioning them to expect their own death. In recent months I’ve been studying instances of violence where American citizens didn’t fight back; didn’t defend themselves; essentially were willing victims. As I’ve examined these instances, I noticed somewhat of an age cap on the “willing victims” and I saw a link to our public school system and some policies that were developed in the late ’70s and early ’80s. This is a topic I’ve written about before, but I felt I needed to do some further study, and in this article, I’m going to share some of that newly gleaned information with you. Additionally, I’m going to share a story about a thirteen-year-old 8th grader who, just in this past week, observed a set of circumstances in her school that led her to believe something might not be right. She shared her story with her father and he became VERY alarmed. We’ll discuss why.

Author’s Note: This was originally written in June of 2007 – 15 years ago. It is still as applicable today as it was (I believe) when I first wrote it. Yes, there are some political outlooks herein and if you disagree with them, that’s cool. We’re all entitled to our opinion.

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On Friday evening I enjoyed a conversation with a gentleman whose knowledge and experience I respect. The man is a 30+ year police veteran who was one of the founding members of his agency’s SWAT unit. He’s old enough now that his own son is a police officer – just as mine is a Marine. He and I were discussing some of the challenges that face the current generation of warriors – and the general lack of true warriors wearing public service uniforms in the world today. While we sat “solving the world’s problems” we realized that the issues of today started – from our perspective – about four decades ago. The changes that have occurred present huge challenges for today’s warriors and if those challenges aren’t overcome, the future doesn’t bode well for this great country of ours.

Fair warning: This is going to be a short rant about assumptions people make pertaining to age. Just recently I had someone tell me that I should, “Grow up and act your age.” My first reaction was to tell them to pay attention to their own behavior. After all, if they felt I was so old, then shouldn’t they be showing their “elder” a little more respect? But I held my tongue, and then wished them a great day – and went back to doing what I was doing in the first place. What was that? Skipping. Now admittedly, I was in Walmart, but I was skipping down the aisle. That might seem not a big deal for a child, but I’m a guy pushing sixty years old. Why was I skipping? Because I felt like it. I can. Lots of people my age can’t skip… or walk… or get out of their grave. So, screw it, I felt like skipping.

Author’s Note: Republished almost 16 years after I originally wrote it. Still just as applicable today as it was then.

As I type this it’s Sunday afternoon, November 12, 2006. Two days ago, November 10th was the Marine Corps’ Birthday (231st). Happy Birthday Marines! I’m proud to have to call my older brothers on that day and wish them all a Happy Birthday since all four served as Marines and two even retired from the Corps. Yesterday, November 11th, was Veterans’ Day. To ALL who have served our nation in military uniform, THANK YOU for your service. I count myself both proud and honored to be one of you. Today – in just a few hours – my oldest son leaves. He’ll be traveling up to the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) near Baltimore to spend the night at a hotel. Early tomorrow morning he’ll be up and processed and shipping out to… Marine Corps Boot Camp. Thirteen weeks of life altering experience and training that will certainly change him in many ways. When I consider what kind of man he’ll be at the other end, I have to consider what kind of child / man he is NOW to have made this choice and be moving into it with the level of confidence and assurance that he has.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Originally published in late 2007 / early 2008 and now reposting again in light of the latest SCOTUS ruling that essentially makes the entire country a “shall issue” nation. Seems applicable for discussion about gun control… again.

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I’d love to take full credit for this idea, but I can’t. I came across this concept in a Facebook advertisement of all things. That said, I took at look at what they had included in their “Water Bottle Survival Kit,” and saw some redundancies, and I also thought of some things I thought they should have included but didn’t. So, true to form, I pulled out my one-liter Nalgene water bottle from Hydrastorm (by BLACKHAWK) and started researching. I wanted a complete basic emergency survival kit that would fit in that bottle and a way to carry the bottle conveniently.

This entry is a combination of an updated version of two blogs I wrote about 15 years ago. They have to do with reliance, self-reliance and how America’s original values (at our founding) may be related to them. These have been edited only to make them current-society appropriate.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I wrote this article about 15 years ago. It seems appropriate to republish given recent events. In July we saw Elisjsha Dicken stop an active shooter in a mall. Prior to that we saw an armed member of a church stop a shooter with well placed shots. Historically speaking, active shooters stopped by legally armed citizens kill far fewer people than those who attack in an unarmed populated area. Whether it creates a conundrum for law enforcement or not, we need to embrace the reality that a legally armed, reasonably trained populace minimizes the damage to be done by the criminally minded. As a final thought, with the recent Supreme Court Decision in the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the entire country is now (essentially) a “shall issue” country. We’ll see more legally armed citizens than ever. Rather than discourage that, we need to embrace it, encourage education, encourage training and appreciate the power of a legally armed populace.

Additional Note: How legally armed civilians should behave prior to and upon arrival of law enforcement is going to be a hot topic in coming months. We’re working on a protocol and appreciate the efforts of the 2nd Amendment Organization in this regard.

Throughout the course of my law enforcement career it has constantly caught my attention how many of my fellow officers – most especially the ones that seem to perform on the street in ways that demand respect – have played contact sports. Given that most of my contemporaries are 45 years of age or older, the popular contact sport of choice in their youth was football. Hockey was also popular, but football – by and large – was the most popular. Sometimes I wondered if their involvement in such a contact sport somehow helped them grow in such a way as to help them be better officers? Maybe I’d have to settle for them just being better people? But the whole wonderment led me to consider the value of playing contact sports in the development of a young man’s – as well as a young woman’s – life.

Most recently I had a conversation with a gentleman who is a Marine, a veteran police psychologist and an avid supporter of self-defense. The conversation started because I had been asking questions about families and the environment set dependent on whether the family itself – that being the mother and father (or other primary care-givers) – either taught self-reliance or they taught dependence. I was amazed to find out that studies had been done which revealed children were born predisposed in their reactions to challenging events. I’m having to be very careful in my wording but to simplify it some, what I discovered was that some babies are born apparently less fearful of certain events than others. When such children are raised in households that teach self-reliance and over-coming challenge, then the adults that result stand a better chance of dealing with traumatic events without negative side-effects.