The A-Political NRA of Yore Strikes Again – 1918 Edition

In a much longer recent entry I questioned the common narrative that the National Rifle Association was (largely? mostly? considerably?) a-political prior to the 1977 Revolt at Cincinnati. Continuing my stroll through 100 years of the NRA’s flagship publication, The American Rifleman, I came across still more evidence that the fundamental political emphasis of the … Continue reading →

Mike Seeklander: “The Way is Training”

Having borrowed so much from his American Warrior Show podcast recently (about Gabe Suarez, Steve Tarani, and Tom Givens), I thought it only appropriate that I search through the 60+ episodes to find one in which Mike Seeklander himself is the focus. Success: Episode #40 from 30 September 2016 on “The Way is Training.” In … Continue reading →

Tom Givens on Training Parameters for Civilian Gun Carry

Having started to listen to Mike Seeklander’s American Warrior Show podcast more closely, I find myself going all the way back to Episode #5 from 17 April 2015 to find an interview of Tom Givens of Rangemaster Firearm Training Services. Having attended the Polite Society Tactical Conference at Rangemaster (the physical incarnation of it) in … Continue reading →

From Armed Self-Defense to PreFense While Armed

I concluded my previous post about Gabe Suarez on Mike Seeklander’s podcast by mentioning seeing Steve Tarani at the NRA annual meeting in Louisville last year. Continuing my foray into the private citizen gun training industry via podcast this morning, I was surprised to find an interview with the very same Steve Tarani on Episode … Continue reading →

Defining Problems and Offering Solutions in the Private Citizen Gun Training Industry

I wrote yesterday about an interview with gun trainer Gabe Suarez of Suarez International on gun trainer Mike Seeklander’s American Warrior Show podcast. Near the end of the 1+ hour interview, Seeklander asks Suarez for concluding thoughts, which I found worth noting: There’s alot of people out there today that are comfortable with violence. Comfortable … Continue reading →

The American Concealed Carrier as Gunfighter

At the same time I am wrapping up my book chapter on guns and gear technologies for concealed carry, I am ramping up the work on my chapter on the rise of the private citizen gun training industry. To this end I am reading books and articles, watching TV shows, and listening to podcasts by … Continue reading →

How A-Political Was the National Rifle Association Before The Cincinnati Revolt of 1977?

I confess that I have always been jealous of historians and historical sociologists because their wide field of vision offers so many insights into the present. Good history helps us see where we came from, and how the present day is or is not different from the past. Total immersion into a previous time period … Continue reading →