"B****, I OPERATE!"

This video: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CPS6i3En9WH/ (link below) is a video that Dakota Meyer posted several years ago. And EVERYBODY lost their crap about it. If you look at the comments on IG calling him....a Medal of Honor Recipient....just horrible, and patently disgusting things, you realize he is exactly correct. I own body armor. I own (too small) camouflage. I own a chest rig. I own a couple of AR's. I owned them when I was in the military, and I trained with them a lot to get better at my job. I don't anymore. I shoot the rifles maybe once or twice a year. I try on the body armor maybe once a year to make sure it still fits my middle aged beer gut (It doesn't really). When I go to the range for fun, I wear a white shirt and non-camoflauge cargo pants because they reflect the sun. When I teach a class, I wear a bright red shirt so other people can always see me (and I don't get accidentally shot by a nervous student). I used to wear a drop leg holster; I don't anymore. Why? Why don't I wear the drop leg holster or a chest rig or a plate carrier? Because I don't walk around town with that crap....anymore. I did walk around Baghdad with that crap, in a camo uniform, with a kevlar helmet that had a mount for night vision goggles on it, and a Yarborough knife that I didn't earn but was given to me (and my brother) by a Green Beret...and you know what? It SUCKED! The hottest I ever saw in Iraq was 146 degrees; in "full battle rattle" that BLOWS!!!! But I don't do that for a living ANYMORE. My "EDC" these days is a subcompact 9mm, a pocket knife and a keychain with pepper spray on it (maybe some other stuff). So, unless you are a SWAT cop, training with all that extra crap is a waste of your limited training time and--more importantly--budget! That money you spent on a plate carrier and a "war belt" and everything that 5.11 sells, could have been better spent on ammunition for the concealed carry pistol you ACTUALLY CARRY EVERYDAY! Dakota is correct. Taking all that crap to the range is Live Action Role Playing gaming. Time. Excluding teaching, I spend about four hours a month on a shooting range just practicing. I can spend that four hours practicing drawing my pistol from concealment and putting shots into a man-shaped target from a realistic distance, adding in some movement and maybe some reloading drills, because that is what I am ACTUALLY GOING TO HAVE ON ME if I ever have to shoot at somebody again....OR, I can waste my time playing a dress-up game and shooting zombie targets with an AR in "full battle rattle" doing transition drills and PRETENDING I am getting good at "Operating." That's bull crap. If you don't believe me, PLEASE watch the Active Self Protection channel on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsE_m2z1NrvF2ImeNWh84mw In thousands upon thousands of shootings caught on security cameras and cell phone footage, NONE of the civilian self-defenders were dressed like Navy SEALs! They used concealed carry pistols that they had practiced with as much as they could/would to get to a level of competence that made them effective SELF DEFENDERS! We are DEFENDERS, we are not OPERATORS doing raids on enemy safe houses! Stop spending time and money on FANTASY bull crap, and instead buy target ammo and invest the training time shooting the tool you are ACTUALLY GOING TO HAVE! The last thing I will say is this: 99% of all self-defense shootings are not done by SEALs, Green Berets or Recon Marines. Those guys don't tend to get mugged or raped all that often. Self-defense shootings are done by ordinary civilians with ordinary guns (WEARING ORDINARY CLOTHES) who don't have plate carriers and gas masks and machetes strapped to their belts! Self-defense shooting is a martial art, like Karate or Kung Fu, it is NOT tactical warfare! Tactical warfare almost always involves military units conducting highly rehearsed missions based on intelligence, unit training and a hundred other things that happen BEFORE the first shot is ever fired. That's not self-defense. And if you get those two confused, you are going to prison, because as self DEFENDERS, we have to be legally justified in protecting ourselves and loved ones, which means you can't be a vigilante going out HUNTING "bad guys." Please watch the video. "Stop LARPing!" -Dakota Meyer, USMC, MOH Be SIXuationally aware. Be armed. Be more dangerous than the scumbag! Soule Easy 6