Premise: Criminal profiling has come a long way over the last several decades, both in terms of its investigative methods and prominence in pop culture. One name that stands out in this area of study is John Douglas. His FBI career not only brought him face to face with some of the most notorious criminals in recent history, but his pioneering research in the field of criminal profiling has made him an esteemed lecturer, consultant, and author. The Netflix series Mindhunter is based on Douglas’ extensive work. 

His most recent book, The Killer Across the Table, compares and contrasts four different murderers to provide greater insight into what makes violent offenders tick. Douglas immerses us in his interrogative world to help better understand whether killers are born or made when examining their motives, rationale, and childhood. The author also parallels the anatomy of these crimes and their perpetrators to his experiences with other prolific criminals such as Charles Manson, Edmund Kemper,
Dennis Rader, and Gary Heidnik, among others. We’re treated to a front-row seat of how a malignant desire for power goes from conception to conviction. As Douglas says, there’s “one universal among all serial killers and violent predators: Other people don’t matter, they aren’t real, and they don’t have any rights.”

The 411: The Killer Across the Table is divided into sections on each individual profiled, walking us through their crimes, how they were ultimately caught, and their own interpretations of what they’d done. Douglas recounts his chilling interviews with these men while simultaneously providing an analysis of their behavior and pathology. The first criminal evaluated is Joseph McGowan, a schoolteacher who killed 7-year-old Joan D’Alessandro when she came to his mother’s house selling Girl Scout cookies. The second is Joe Kondro, a drug addict and drifter who killed several young girls who were children of friends and acquaintances. The third is Donald Harvey, who may have killed as many as 87 patients at hospitals he worked in over a 17-year stretch. The last is Todd Kohlhepp, a real estate broker who killed several people he felt had betrayed or insulted him. 

The book is rife with intuitive passages that distill the thought process of these criminals and explain why, in most cases, rehabilitation after their crimes have already begun is practically impossible. We see how patterns in these killers’ lives contributed to who they became and why. Douglas shares classic indicators that murderers often exhibit when their violent tendencies are still evolving, such as the “homicidal triangle” — fire-starting, cruelty to animals or people, and chronic bedwetting. 

The author also reveals common ploys often seen by criminals to manipulate their trial or parole hearings, and the dichotomy between criminal insanity versus conscious choices within that narrative. He goes on to discuss loopholes in the judicial system’s evaluation process that enabled, or could’ve potentially enabled, dangerous criminals to be set free. Douglas describes how killers often participate in searches for victims and have premeditated their crimes so carefully that they’ve formulated strategies to misdirect suspicion away from themselves. “Predators may look and sound and often act like we do, but they don’t think like we do. Their logical process is completely different,” Douglas says.

The Verdict: As the reader, you feel like you’re sitting in the room with Douglas during his interviews. For those who wince easily at descriptions of violent acts, this book may be a bit too intense. Douglas does a very professional job of keeping the tone conversational and empathetic; however, in order to understand these crimes, we must wade deep into the waters of visceral discomfort. Douglas has numerous other books, both on criminology as well as fiction, but for those who want to understand the mentality of a murderer, this is an excellent place to start. You’ll walk away a bit more confident in knowing why there are insidious people who, in their own way, are profilers looking to detect and exploit the vulnerability of potential victims. Works like Douglas’ serve as important tools on how to recognize and protect yourself from society’s criminals. 

Book & Author

The Killer Across the Table: Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators With the FBI’s Original Mindhunter
By: John Douglas and Mark Olshaker

Publisher: Harper Collins
MSRP: $17 paperback (Purchase here on Amazon)
URL: mindhuntersinc.com
Pages: 352
Rating:

• THRIVE
• SURVIVE
• DIE

OFFGRID LIBRARY OF RECOMMENDED BOOKS

• Tactics and Firearms
  • Two Person Close Quarters Tactics by Special Tactics
  • On Combat by Lt. Col. Grossman.
  • The Irish Republican Manual of Guerrilla Warfare
  • 100 Deadly Skills by Clint Emerson
• Skillsets and DIY
  • Visual Guide to Lock Picking, 3rd Edition
  • Primitive Technology Survivalist Guide Book by John Plant
  • 101 Skills You Need to Survive in the Woods by Kevin Estella
  • The Survival Medicine Handbook by Joseph & Amy Alton
  • Bushcraft by Mors Kochanski
• Novels and Literature
  • The Final Day by William Forstchen
  • The Savage by Frank Bill
• Scenarios and Survival
  • Lights Out by Ted Koppel
  • Waste Land by David T. Hanson

The post Book Review: “Killer Across the Table” by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker appeared first on RECOIL OFFGRID.

EDC, or Every Day Carry is a deeply personal topic. Everyone has their own ideas of what to have on their person on a day-to-day basis. These items often include a handgun, knife, wallet of choice and sometimes medical components. In addition to the items on a person, some choose to bring along a small pack or satchel as a way of expanding what they have on themselves when they go out and about. To be clear, we are not discussing Bug-out bags or Survival kits.

Having additional equipment off-body can be incredibly valuable, but there are some considerations about what pack to choose for this task. The Eberlestock S25 Cherry Bomb with the optional hip belt removed fit the bill for looks, and its features met our objective requirements. The Cherry Bomb comes in several colorways, but we choose brown, or the “dry earth” option as listed on their website. None of these colorways scream “tactical” or “look at me, I like camo and I might have a firearm”. The aesthetics of your pack will inevitably come down to your location, but for those who live in sub-urban or metropolitan locations, standing out isn’t particularly a good thing, so we are staying away from tactical packs covered in webbing. If you’ve taken the responsibility to carry a firearm on your person for defending your own life and those around you, it’s best to be the most dangerous person in the room/street/road with no one knowing.

The primary feature of the Eberlestock Cherry Bomb is a scabbard in the main compartment that runs the length of the pack. We relocated the rain fly from its original storage location that was initially in its own external compartment located at the bottom of the exterior of the pack, providing enough space in the scabbard compartment to fit an AR with a 12-inch barrel and a Law Tactical AR Folding Stock Adapter. Without the folding stock adapter, one would need to run a 6” barrel or less on an AR or pistol caliber carbine for it to fit. Stowing a Primary Weapon System MK111 Mod 2 pistol with an SB Tactical SBA3 brace, we let the mentality of the pack drive what features to use on the firearm, keeping it simple and relatively lightweight. We topped it with a Vortex UH-1 gen 2 and Troy fold-down backup iron sights and also affixed a Surefire Mini Scout weapon light with a pressure pad. Due to the design of the bag, one only needs to unzip the primary compartment, to expose the pistol grip on the MK111 for an easy drawing of the entire firearm. A 20-Round magazine inserted into the firearm kept it slim and prevented it from binding when removing the MK111. In addition, a Dead-Air Sandman S Suppressor fit conveniently alongside, to be added on request for quieter activities.

While the 11.85-inch barrel AR in the scabbard took up much of the room available, an Invrt Bandoleer by IC13, a unique micro chest rig concept, still fit in the bottom of the main compartment. Holding two 30-round Pmags and a medical pouch filled with some of the essentials this easily deployable and rapidly adjustable bandoleir became an essential part of this EDC Pack. Not all chest rigs are as quickly adaptable as the Invrt, and when living in a place where someone might be in a winter jacket one day and a t-shirt the next, that speed and versatility together made the Invrt shine. Beside the chest rig, we included a G-Code Scorpion Softshell Magazine Pouch with a paddle backing in order to allow throwing a mag pouch on our beltline regardless of if we were in gym clothes or formal attire.  Inside the pouch we put a 40-round Pmag. Above the chest rig and pouch and below the folded brace was a small space where we placed an additional trauma kit.

$22.50 G-Code Scorpions at Optics Planet

Having a trauma kit handy, especially if you intend on carrying a firearm is a good idea. If you have the power to put holes in people, best to have a method to stop up those holes whenever possible. While there is some debate about what to have in a trauma or med kit, we kept it fairly simple: 1x pack of quick clot gauze, 3x packs of compressed gauze, 1x roll of tape, 1x compressible bandage, and of course several pairs of gloves at the very top. All of this fits snugly into an inexpensive black Cordura zip bag.

The admin panel at the front of the main compartment features a pair of what looks to be AR magazine pouches with retention bungees. A fully-loaded AR magazine here made the flap too heavy and cumbersome, so instead, we opted for a tourniquet and trauma shears on one side and a battery holder on the other. Behind this panel is another compartment where we stowed a small zip bag for essential items.

Small essential items tucked neatly into an ITS Tactical waxed canvas zip pouch. Inside here we put a few items one often cannot live without: writing instruments such as sharpies, pencils, pens, a highlighter, and a small ruler. Since most of us carry cell phones on a regular basis, we added a spare charging cable and a small battery bank. The pouch also contains a batch of boo-boo kit bandages, aspirin, ibuprofen, and Benadryl, a small sharpener, as well as a spare folding knife: a Skallywag Tactical Blackwater. This small bag fits either in this small sleeve-pouch within the main zipped compartment or in the secondary compartment.

The outer section of the Eberlestock Cherry Bomb is a bit confusing. The full-length clamshell design with zippers running to the very bottom of the bag allow this portion to flay open all the way. At the very middle of this compartment, a slip pouch maybe 10” deep and perhaps designed for tablets or books sits right in front of the main compartment that only has a half clamshell opening. If one were to put anything rigid deep into this pouch, it would prevent the main compartment from opening wide: a problem if fast access to the main compartment is required. This seems like a glaring flaw in an otherwise well-thought-out pack. We remedied the issue by putting nothing in this compartment at the “hinge point” of this compartment. The above-mentioned essentials pouch and a Skallywag Tactical D2 Dagger stow neatly here where both could be accessed without interfering with the rest of the pack’s contents.

Above: With everything else included, this outer pouch couldn’t be utilized as well. If anything rigid were stowed here, it would prevent the opening for the scabbard from folding over, frustrating the action of drawing a firearm from it. 

There are three additional pockets worth noting on the Eberlestock Cherry Bomb, a small but long pocket at the very front of the pack (that suffers from the same issues that plague the second compartment) and two small zippered exterior compartments found on either side of the pack. We used one of these side pockets to stow the relocated rain fly, and the other we kept largely empty save for a multi-tool occasionally.

After two years of continual use and minor refinement, the Eberlestock Cherry Bomb continues to prove itself as an exceptional EDC pack that won’t make the wearer stand out nearly as much as other options while still hauling about a slim but capable setup tailored for uncertain times. As this world seems to be chasing toward chaos, this EDC pack leans into being prepared in the event of an active shooter or to be used as a “get home” bag if things get weird. We hope we never see the day when we need a pack such as this, but if it’s needed, this setup is designed for the occasion.

Cherry Bombs for $250 at Optics Planet

Eberlestock Cherry Bomb Bag Drop

• • Eberlestock S25 Cherry Bomb Pack: eberlestock.com
  • MK111 Mod 2-M Pistol .223 Wylde: primaryweapons.com
  • SB Tactical SBA3 Brace: sbtactical.com

SBA3’s for $140 at Brownell’s

• • Wise Man Company SBA3 Splitfix: wisemencompany.com
  • Vortex AMG UH-1 Gen II vortexoptics.com
  • Troy Folding Front Sight: troyind.com
  • Troy Folding Rear Sight: troyind.com
  • Surefire Mini Scout: surefire.com
  • Hiperfire ECLipse Trigger: hiperfire.com
  • Magpul MS1 Sling: magpul.com
  • Invrt Bandoleer: ic13.us
  • Scorpion Softshell Mag Carrier: tacticalholsters.com
  • ITS Tactical Zip Bag (Canvas is discontinued for the time being): store.itstactical.com
  • Skallywag Tactical D2 Dagger: skallywagtactical.com
  • Skallywag Blackwater Folder: skallywagtactical.com
  • Sterling Sharpener: sterlingsharpener.com
  • CLC Zippered Bag (used for medical): www.northerntool.com
  • For medical items: narescue.com/
  • Condor Battery Case: condoroutdoor.com

More Bag Drops from OFFGRID

• • The Amazon Gray-Man Pack.
  • The Winter Survival Pack Loadout.
  • The Austere Environment Backpack.
  • The Commuter Backpack.
  • The Vehicle Bailout Bag.
  • 10 Bug Out Bag Tips for Long Treks.
  • The Gray Man EDC Pack.

The post Eberlestock Cherry Bomb EDC Bag Dump: appeared first on RECOIL OFFGRID.

Feeling cold is a matter of perspective. Hot summer days can make the nights feel unbearably cool by comparison. This scenario is precluded by the fact that when 90 degrees F turns to 60, your health and wellbeing is usually not in immediate danger. Contrast this with a region which has harsh, or longer than average, winter seasons and this temperature change dynamic creates a new series of risks. For example, when temperatures dip into the negatives, even mild sustained winds can cause exposed skin to freeze solid in minutes. In the U.S., approximately 1,300 deaths occur each year due to cold-weather injures, about twice the number of fatalities incurred by heat.

Preparing for extreme winter conditions means preparing for the worst. As an avid outdoorsman in a region with extreme amounts of snowfall, I needed a survival pack that could accommodate spending a weekend snowshoeing, and just as easily be converted to a roadside emergency kit. In remote areas, if your vehicle gets stuck in a snowbank or you become disoriented in a forest, you could be facing several days’ worth of hiking to the nearest civilized outpost. Meeting my maker via cryogenesis never appealed to me, and the Saddle Peak backpack from Mystery Ranch is perfectly suited to prevent this, not only in weight and size, but also its functionality. It was designed for extended backcountry winter excursions and has versatility in droves, including gear-specific pockets and straps, a ridged yet comfortable synthetic frame, and zippers protected from snow and ice buildup.

Above: Saddle Peak’s lightweight design and cold-weather durability make this the ideal bag when faced with formidable winter conditions.

One of the most important aspects for me was a balance of gear durability and loadout adaptability. When it comes to staying warm and thriving in a blizzard, I lean heavily on Varusteleka’s Särmä products. Their thermal cloak is waterproof and lined with merino wool, a material that will stay warm even when wet and absorb odor. Another important aspect of Varusteleka’s gear is that it was created as a higher-quality alternative to standard-issue Finnish military gear, which means it needs to withstand wear and tear in arctic conditions. Combine that with the fact that the Mystery Ranch Saddle Peak backpack has a front pocket specifically for this type of emergency gear, making it easily accessible when every second counts, and you have recipe for cold weather survival success.

I always have core gear available for first aid and fire-starting. The trauma kit has compression bandages, several Combat Application Tourniquets and an EMS blizzard blanket to treat hypothermia. It should also be noted that this is a modified version of the Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) I carried on multiple deployments overseas. For rapid-snow-accumulation scenarios, Black Diamond has an avalanche kit which includes a metal alloy collapsible shovel, avalanche probe, and GPS locator. The tools in this kit can be put to use in a variety of situations. The probe can be used as an impromptu shelter support and the shovel for digging a wind-blocking burrow or digging out a stuck vehicle. For fire, I pack some lighters and matches, a few emergency candles, and a heavy-duty puukko-style knife from Varusteleka, which can be used for cutting and chopping firewood, in addition to traditional knife uses. Being seen can be a matter of life or death, whether you’re on the roadside or trying to get the attention of a rescuer. For this reason, I pack a Fenix HM65R SuperRaptor headlamp, also sourced through Varusteleka, which is rechargeable and has an output range between eight and 1,400 lumens. 

Being active in the cold means more calories are being burned, so it’s also important to have a high-calorie food source on hand. Food is even more important if you have to hunker down for a while. I prefer using a canteen and metal canteen cup over other water systems simply because I don’t have to worry as much about damaging the vessel, freezing tubes, or puncturing a bag. Having a canteen cup makes heating food or melting snow for water much easier.

Lastly, one of the most important things to do to prepare for a cold weather emergency is something that won’t fit in any bag — letting someone know your plan. Telling a trusted friend or relative exactly where you’re going and how long you intend to be gone, could be the most important thing you can do to preserve your health and your life. If you think you’re headed into inclement weather on the road, or if you only plan on spending an hour or two in the backcountry, tell someone, even if you’re only sending a quick text message. 

What gets packed in the bag is easily adapted to the situation I expect to find myself. How I pack when I have to be on the road during a snowstorm is slightly different than when I’m using it for recreation. Most people who live in cold regions are already wearing things like insulated jackets, boots, gloves, etc. But imagine driving to visit someone, only to find yourself in the middle of an ice storm or a blizzard with whiteout conditions. The vehicle you’re in loses control or is struck by another vehicle. Now you’re stranded on the side of the road; it’s too dangerous to keep the engine running because of leaking fuel and help could be a long way off. The roadside emergency loadout is intended to be able to respond to trauma and stay warm until help arrives. Or picture being on a remote trek when an unexpected whiteout occurs, and now you must hunker down until the storm passes. Having the right equipment on hand can make all the difference in the world. 

Make and Model

Make: Mystery Ranch
Model: Saddle Peak
MSRP: $219
URL: www.mysteryranch.com

More Packs and Bag Dumps

• The Amazon Gray Man Pack.
• The Winter Survival Pack Loadout.
• The Austere Environment Backpack.
• The Commuter Backpack.
• The Vehicle Bailout Bag.
• 10 Bug Out Bag Tips for Long Treks.
• Eberlestock Cherry Bomb EDC Bag Dump: Armed and Anonymous.

The post Cold Weather Survival Pack appeared first on RECOIL OFFGRID.

What do horror movies, home invasions, alien abductions, and special operations missions all have in common?

They usually take place at night.  

Evolutionarily speaking, humans are not nocturnal creatures. But our ability to produce tools has allowed us to create artificial, if not perfect, adaptations to our environment. In the case of darkness, our first adaptation was fire. We could create light where there was no light, making our environment more usable, even after the sun went down. This technological use of fire was surpassed by that of electricity. From street lamps to flashlights to headlights on cars, “electric torches” became the safer, more efficient version of the gas lantern or burning stick. But about 75 years ago, the way human beings interact with the night took another turn. Instead of projecting light into the dark, we figured out how to extract light from the dark, by amplifying barely perceptible traces of ambient light and converting infrared light into visible photons. Thus was born image intensification technology, or I2, colloquially known as night vision. 

For decades, night vision devices like goggles or scopes were the sole domain of elite military and law enforcement units. But in the last 20 years or so, the proliferation of this technology to the open market has been significant. Even then, the most common use of night vision by civilians was nocturnal hunting — for example, feral-hog control in west Texas. But last year we saw something intriguing. Photos and videos appeared from several cities plagued by civil unrest, featuring ordinary people wearing helmets and night vision goggles, standing outside their homes and businesses while parts of the city burned around them.

Interest in night vision and associated accessories, specifically for home defense or personal protection use, has grown significantly in the last several years. We believe that the unrest-slash-protest-slash-riot events of 2020 only made that interest more valid. While the technology isn’t new, the finer points of it are largely unknown to the average person, and we wanted to fix that. So, we’ve conglomerated knowledge from some of the premier night vision training specialists in the country. Ranger Battalion and Special Forces alum Don Edwards gives us a down-and-dirty Night Vision 101 Q&A session for those who don’t know what they don’t know about night vision. Sam Houston of Silent Solutions then takes a deeper dive into the technical specifications of night vision tubes, including how to understand the details and make an informed night vision purchase. Former Cavalry Scout and SWAT Officer Bill Blowers explains how to set up a helmet to function harmoniously with that night vision device. Another Ranger Battalion graduate, Jon Dufresne, reviews how to accessorize a carbine to function best as the force-projection arm of your helmet-goggles-gun night vision system.   

In addition to traditional night vision, Patrick Diedrich goes in-depth with the Sionyx Aurora Pro, a full-color digital optic that functions as a camera and a rifle scope in day or night conditions. And since white light is still a perfectly valid solution to darkness-related problems, I spent some time with the aforementioned Edwards and Dufresne studying up on white-light search techniques and room-clearing tactics. 

Whatever your preferred method for overcoming the sun’s absence, preparedness isn’t a fair-weather pursuit. Bad things do happen in the dark — more often than in broad daylight, in many cases. So, we urge you to read this issue thoroughly, maybe even repeatedly, and use it as the foundation to build or reinforce your nighttime game plan for the bad day we hope you never have.  

The post Night Fever appeared first on RECOIL OFFGRID.

In previous issues, we had a chance to attend and evaluate Byron Rodgers’ Protector Symposiums 1.0 and 2.0. What we walked away with was nothing short of thinking to ourselves, why didn’t anyone put together an event like this sooner? If you haven’t read up on the inaugural and second event, be sure to do so. What it consists of is top self-defense trainers of various backgrounds providing both a lecture portion on their approach as well as a hands-on portion to familiarize yourself with their techniques and school of thought. There’s a lot of material to digest over the course of a few days, but for anyone who wants to up their fight IQ and learn a bit more about recognizing and protecting themselves against threats, this is an event you don’t want to miss.

Protector Symposium 3.0 brought together some instructors from previous symposiums as well as a few not often available to the public. What we walked away with was a well-rounded cross-section of disciplines. The points discussed and demonstrated are both cerebral and tactile. Here we’ll give you a taste of what we got to experience, prefacing it by saying self-defense is everyone’s responsibility to undertake. With the rise in random acts of violence in our communities, why wouldn’t you want to enroll in an event like this? If you’re in the market to learn from individuals who have credentials well respected by their peers, think about attending one of these symposiums when you get a chance.

MC Byron Rodgers, the man behind the Protector Symposium, lays out the schedule for the weekend.

Yousef Badou

Astute readers of OFFGRID may recognize Yousef from our profile of him in Issue 37. Having taught the Marine Corps Combat Hunter Program, Yousef’s stock in trade is behavioral profiling and teaching. A book that underscores much of his philosophy, Left of Bang, delves into the theory that there is a timeline that precedes an event and follows an event — the event itself is the proverbial “bang,” if you will. The pre-event indicators on that timeline are what precede the event (left of bang), everything on the right is the reaction that follows the event (right of bang). In order to thwart or escape from danger, you need to identify the event precursors. Yousef’s portion was strictly lecture-focused. He began by showing the audience a scene from the 2007 film, The Kingdom and deconstructed the preliminary efforts terrorists and killers use when researching a target as well as dissected the elements of the planning cycle.

The big takeaways from his portion of the symposium were to recognize that there’s a chain of events to all violence that can be observable; a whole other side of the coin you can witness before the gun comes out. One must have emotional intelligence to queue you off to people around you. Reading the crowd and developing internal awareness is key to threat recognition. What can you do to spot the problem before it evolves? When Apache Indians would pick their trackers, they’d pick kids 12 years old or under because of their curiosity and ability to get down on their knees to get dirty. Don’t lose that curiosity. Spot the anomalies before you get to bang.

www.emergencedisrupt.com

Bazzel Baz

In Issue 39 of OFFGRID, we did a detailed overview on the underworld of human trafficking. One of the subject matter experts we spoke with for that feature was Bazzel Baz — a former U.S. Marine Corps captain with a background in counter-terrorism and former CIA special operations officer. Bazzel also participated in our RecoilTV panel discussion on the topic. He heads up The Association for the Recovery of Children (ARC), which specializes in operations to rescue children from trafficking. Some may also recognize him from his acting work on the TV show, The Blacklist. Baz’s lecture focused leacture-driven presentation discussed operations he’s been on to recover children abroad and domestically who’ve been kidnapped by traffickers. His recounting of these events sent a palpable shockwave through the audience — you could hear a pin drop during his discussion. His gravitas resembles few lecturers we’ve ever seen.

He reported that some 421,000 children went missing in 2019 and also highlighted that this is indeed a national security threat. If traffickers can kidnap and transport that many children undetected, imagine what else can they traffic. His discussion also revealed some of the various industries and even government agencies they’ve discovered have individuals involved in the trafficking operations. Takeaways? Know your client and who his/her enemies are. Navigating fault lines is critical to mission accomplishment. Your team is only as good as the people who are part of it. And most importantly, if you were a child, wouldn’t you want to know someone was coming to save you? ARC does offer training for those who are serious about becoming involved in anti-trafficking efforts. Visit the site below to learn more.

recoveryofchildren.com

Tony Blauer

Having taught martial arts for decades, and developed a system that’s equal parts biomechanics, neuroscience, and physiology, Tony Blauer has been a fixture in the series since its inaugural event and has returned for Protector Symposium 3.0. A pivotal moment happened in Tony’s early days as an instructor. A student of Tony’s got his ass kicked in 1980 by someone at school and relayed to Tony that his training hadn’t been effective. After describing what happened, Tony realized he needed to change his game. He recognized that the body has a natural reaction to defend against danger. Think about how you’ve reacted when walking into a spiderweb, as a passenger in a car when the driver slams on the brakes, or when you see an object out of the corner of your eye flying toward you. As part of that startle flinch, you throw your hands up to protect yourself, right? Your body automatically flinches when it perceives danger. Tony has developed a way to convert that instinctive movement with a self-defense posture called the “Spear System.” His defense posture of fingers splayed and arms out in front of you at 90 degrees is honed into a defense mechanism to be a bridge to your next move.

Before getting into his hands-on portion, Tony explained the philosophy behind what he developed and why. “Instincts, intuition, intelligence need to work together,” he says. Tony’s training is a way of taking what your body will automatically do in a dangerous situation and weaponizing it. He also pointed out how in many violent encounters we see videos of, in most cases we don’t recognize some superior martial arts training that helped the victor prevail. What we see is chaos and it’s important not to get something that isn’t evidence-based training or you’ll get really good at the wrong thing. Many rehearsals and techniques don’t happen the way it goes down in the real world. The people who manage their fear manage to fight. Situational awareness often gets overridden by cognitive dissonance. Physiology doesn’t care what martial art you study. It’s important to understand how to develop that reactionary response into a weapon.

blauerspear.com

Jason Johnson

Jason is a new addition to Protector Symposium 3.0 as one recognized for his skills as an accomplished knife thrower and knife maker. In fact, Clint Emerson included him in his training in his new book, 100 Deadly Skills: Combat Edition. Jason’s lecture segment also included demos of his techniques to use the knife as a defensive projectile that can buy you some time to fight to cover, concealment, or your next weapon. Let’s face it, no one wants to go one on one in a knife fight. It’s going to get messy really quick. If you can use the knife as a force multiplier to bridge the gap between you and an assailant to buy you some precious seconds to escape or retrieve another weapon, it makes sense to become savvy about effective throwing techniques.

The meat and potatoes of Jason’s portion of Protector Symposium 3.0 was the tactile aspect of learning what it feels like to properly throw a knife. As Jason puts it, you’re projecting a cut. As class members were shown how to properly throw a knife and how that changed depending on the distance to the target, there wasn’t one student who wasn’t impressed by the kinetic energy that can be achieved by landing an effective knife strike. The range to do this is essentially anything inside 10 feet. It’s a primitive form of self-defense that follows the same principles as throwing a tomahawk on the battlefield. If you can use this method to intercept an attack and that could potentially mean the difference between life and death, this is one more skill to add to your self-defense quiver.

proknifethrower.com

Tom Kier

Tom Kier is another new addition to Protector Symposium 3.0 who isn’t typically available to the public, but has a background training military, government, and law enforcement. His edged-weapons expertise is highly regarded in these circles. As a practitioner of Sayoc Kali and having dealt with many confrontations as a bouncer in Philadelphia, Kier has certainly been validated by decades of experience. He explained the need to understand three critical elements inherent to violence:

Force – The ability to affect the opposition (firepower, manpower, political pressure).

Space – The ability to control an area or move through it (mobility, access, and range).

Time – controlling the initiative, who is going first and who is responding, feeder (someone controlling the events, taking and maintaining control) versus receiver.

His explanation underscored the importance of controlling at least two of the aforementioned elements. Winning occurs when you capture the third element. Each element allows for exploitation of another. Tom’s hands on portion of the course involved explaining different striking and counterstrike techniques, knife types and materials, effective striking zones. Key takeaways were studying conflict and how it works; identifying the force, space, and time components in your life; assessing your readiness; and understanding your willingness. Know how the mind of an active killer works. If you know the other teams move, you can counter and use it against them. We overheard a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu taking the hands-on portion of Tom’s instruction say, “I’ve learned enough from this to know I need to learn more.” We think that speaks for itself.

sayoc.com

Tim Larkin

Rounding out the Protector Symposium 3.0 trainers is Tim Larkin, a former military intelligence officer and author of numerous books on combatives. Tim’s philosophy is simple: when violence is the answer, it’s the only answer. His coursework is about the justified use of lethal force. His lecture portion included prison examples of fights and interviews in the prison system to underscore how violence is the currency of the correctional system. “Inmates live in a Petri dish of asocial violence. Power is derived from the successful use of violence as a tool.” His fight prescription of getting to know your enemy is crucial to survival. “Alpha predators look for similarities among victims, not the differences.”

His hands-on course was both a combination of video examples of violent attacks as well as coaching students on landing strikes effectively in places that can incapacitate the assailant. “When you look at violence, there is nothing to be learned from the victim’s perspective. There’s no such thing as self-defense, it’s violence you need to learn now to use. You need to look at violence encounters agnostically and ask where it changed in the other person’s favor — that’s useful information,” he says. Why should the predators have all the intel on how to effectively attack and subdue someone? Tim’s approach is to get the fundamentals down, earn speed, and inoculate yourself against defensive reactions. Echoing Tom Kier’s sentiment, Tim also recommends not to become efficient at the wrong things. Effectiveness is doing the right things, efficiency is a luxury in training, but doing the right things the right way.

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Byron Rodgers is taking this show on the road, so check out www.protectorsymposium.com for information on upcoming events.

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