To guide, inspire and prepare Wyomingites and their fellow Americans to act against existential threats to their liberties and to Western Civilization from radical revolutionaries and Emperors who have no clothes.
Emerging Threats
Preparedness
Shooter, Train Thyself
We will be posting complete firearms training curricula on this site. Here's why.
Lawless, violent threats to U.S. citizens are mounting. Violent crime rates that began a long decline from earlier highs in the 1990s are once again climbing rapidly in much of the country. These increases are much more pronounced in urban areas, where illegal drug trafficking and gang activity is high, social trust and cohesion is low, and political polarization is most extreme. But because we are a mobile population, none of us are unaffected or not at risk.
We are confident that most return visitors to this site come from the 50% or more of American households that own firearms. Just 2-3 years ago, most sources reported that percentage in the low 40s, but tens of millions more firearms have been sold as the trends we are considering have spiked rapidly. NICS (background check) data shows that first time gun buyers accounted for over 10 million purchases in 2021 alone. These are people who apparently decided for the first time in their lives that they need a firearm for protection of their lives, as several surveys have affirmed that protection is, by a large margin, the most often cited reason for firearms purchases.
Extrapolating from current trends, we don't see a restoration of order anytime in the foreseeable future. In fact, we predict a continuing decline in the ability - and in some cases, the willingness - of government to protect us. The notion of a government "monopoly on violence" has never been too reassuring to Americans. Now it's increasingly obvious that it is an illusion.
One aspect of the decline in order and governmental capacity to protect us, especially against the growing frequency of "active shooter" events in public settings, is represented by the adage, "When seconds count, police are minutes away." If you live outside urban and close suburban zones, where police are fewer in number and less well trained, even that is optimistic. Response time nationwide in the last few years, in urban and exurban areas alike, has averaged 10-15 minutes from the first 911 call to effective intervention by police, and a lot can happen in that time.
When law enforcement does arrive, as the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas recently demonstrated, they may prove unwilling or unable to do what must be done to protect the citizens they serve. The courts have clearly established that police have no legal responsibility to protect any individual, and the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 was the vanguard of a war on police and policing that has led to a decline in the numbers, morale, and motivation of police officers across the country. The willingness of officers to risk their careers or their lives in a potentially lethal situation declines in direct proportion to the level of support they get from their management, prosecutors, courts, and community.
All of which is to say that we must be prepared to protect ourselves and our loved ones without depending on a governmental response that may be too slow, or ineffectual, or both.
Our privately owned firearms are powerful tools, but without demanding, stressful, realistic training and frequent practice to sustain trained skills, they may as well be paperweights for all the protection they will provide. They are not magical talismans; and those who would take our property, our freedom, and our lives will exploit any hesitation and any lack of skill and spirit in the moment where we have to make the sudden transition from "normalcy" to the surprise, chaos, fog, friction, fear, and confusion of combat. If you believe that growing up around firearms is familiarization enough, or that an NRA classroom course or a half-day of "concealed carry" training are enough, you are dreaming, and waking up may be a brutal experience. Military training for the 90% of personnel who are not combat troops or military police - with handguns especially - is for most personnel brief and cursory; law enforcement academy firearms training is decent at best and skills are not usually sustained over the course of a career.
There are many good (and many not-so-good) firearm training courses and programs available in the private sector. These days it seems like everyone with any military or law enforcement background bills themselves as professional trainers, and it can be hard to vet them for the ones who really are. Unless you have a trusted friend or family member who is himself well-trained and able to help you select a good program, you may be disappointed, and you may find it hard to maintain any skills you do acquire, without ongoing coaching, mentoring and frequent, well-designed practice sessions. All private sector firearms training worthy of the name is expensive (hundreds or thousands of dollars for a few days of training), and often require time off from job and family, and travel away to a training facility. If you are lucky enough to find quality training near your home, and can afford the time and cost, good for you!
Once everyone in your family, or in your neighborhood or your workplace or your community have also sacrificed the time, money, and resources to train to the same level of proficiency in compatible techniques and tactics, then you can be much more confident in your safety against evolving/emerging threats. Realistically, though, that is unlikely to happen. For many, even attending a quality off-site training course is problematic.
We will offer you an easier option. We have extensive experience in firearms and related training from service in military, law enforcement, and high-end security organizations. We will provide you with detailed, step by step curriculum that will allow anyone with a basic familiarity with firearms and their safe handling to train themselves or a small group of motivated people in proven techniques and tactics for self defense and defense of others. If you, or someone you know and trust, has prior training and experience with combative firearms, and especially in the presentation of training, all the better; but the instructions will be clear, detailed, and written in familiar American English, and usable even by inexperienced shooters.
Our training courses will be published section by section in an installment format, every week or so over the coming months. We recommend that you print off each installment as it is published, and maintain it in a folder or binder. After the initial rollout, we will make each complete course available as downloadable pdfs, at zero cost.
Stay tuned for the rollout of our handgun and rifle training courses.
Firearms are inherently dangerous, so you must take responsibility for your safety, and for all others who participate. We will define safety rules and practices, and provide a carefully sequenced set of drills to allow you to start simple and build more complex and advanced skills. But we won't be there to hold your hand or blow a whistle when the dumbassery starts. That's on you.