Checking Your Preparedness with the PACE System, by Wolverine

I had been using the PACE system for years, I just didn’t know that is what it was called, or that it even had a formal name. I first read about the PACE acronym over on the Viking Preparedness site, in a post by Joe. Growing up we joked that the system was called one’s good, two’s better, and three is about right. It is the same spirit of “two is one and one is none” that the PACE system stresses.

PACE stands for Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency. It is a good solid way to break down your preps to make sure that your survivability is high. It doesn’t have to be a long hard plan, it can be very simple. Ask yourself the question for each major category of survival.

Water
What is your primary source of drinking water? If you are like most of us you turn on the faucet. Okay, your primary source is covered. Most likely all of us have the primary items covered by our “normal” living. You throw a light switch for lights, turn up the furnace for heat, and open the fridge for food. We live with our primary supply system.
The first level of survivability is at the Alternate level. When the power goes out-what next? For some it is 12 volt back up, others light candles, and still others fire up the Coleman lanterns. The totally unprepared sit in the dark and grumble. So what do you do when the power goes out and you can’t draw water from the system?
I can tell you my plan. I had to use it about a year ago when I still lived in town and the city put a No Drinking of Water notice on our block. I got the sealed water cooler bottles I had stored and opened one of them for drinking and cooking. The bottles cost under $4 each and hold 5 gallons of pure drinking water. There is no chemicals added and they store well. I checked with the dealer and found out that if I buy the natural water, same price, it will store well over five years as long as it is kept in a cool and dark place. They said it might store forever but they couldn’t tell me that. I keep four of them stored as my Alternate plan for water as well as several camping jugs, one gallon jugs and a couple cases of bottled water.

If we go into a long term situation and I run out of my stored water I have to fall back to my Contingency plan. I have a filter system that will allow me to make lots of drinking water before I have to change the filter. Either rain water or water from a point well can be cleaned and ready as needed. Another layer of my contingency plan is water tabs to us as well.

My emergency water will come from the stream a quarter mile to the west of my farm. I have a Katadyn filter to use to clear it and make it drinkable. We can also boil water to clean it. I can draw the water from my hot water tank if needed. We also have bleach. Our water back ups are more than just [three] PACE levels because water is so important. Besides, it is not that hard to develop a few good purification methods for water.

Heat
Without power we lose the furnace and our heat. We heat with propane so I can drop into the Alternate plan easily and turn on the fire place and the stove to heat our “cocoon” room. If needed, we can live in our kitchen/living room for days on end. While not really part of our PACE plan, it is good to know that we can heat a smaller area and stay comfortable during cold weather. Our contingency plan is to bring in the kerosene heater out of the barn and use it to heat the cocoon room. If we are in a long term grid down situation I can pull the fireplace insert and convert it to a wood burning fireplace in a matter of minutes. We consider that our emergency plan.

Food
I will not speak much about food because if you have read any of the survival blogs you know that you need to store food, canned and packaged, grow a garden, store grains, harvest wild edibles, and plan on hunting and trapping.

Shelter
I am very fortunate to live at my retreat. I moved back to the family farm less than a year ago. My wife and I had already stored a large amount of our preps in the barn and had planned to bug out to here even if the house was not completed. Our plan was to make as much of the house livable as possible if TSHTF. If that was not possible for us than we would build living quarters in the barn. Unable to do that we would put up a tent and camp out. Now that the house is complete and we are living in it we have revamped out plans to stay in the house and moved the living in the barn to our emergency plan.

Life in General
The PACE system is easy to understand and follow, and gets easier as you do more of it. Pick any aspect of survival you want and work out a PACE plan. Say you want to have weapons in your plan. Okay, primary will be your MBR. Your alternate might be your shotgun or bow and arrow. Contingency, sling shot. Emergency, Atlatl and spear.

Back ups to the back ups are a necessary part of life. You already use them and probably never thought about them as an emergency plan. If your car dies what do you do, call a friend for a ride, take the bus or ride a bike? More than likely you are already PACE-ing yourself. Keep that mindset toward the forefront of your thoughts and your prepping should get easier and deeper. – Wolverine

Odds ‘n Sods:

Luke Z. wrote to ask about a source for the bayonet socket light bulb adapters that I mentioned in my novel “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse” (These adapters allow standard table lamps to be converted to use 12 VDC with either automobile tail lights or bayonet-base halogen lights.) They no longer seem to be stocked by Real Goods, but they are currently available from Kansas Wind Power. (Scroll down to item # L450.)

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I hope that this article isn’t just hype or wishful thinking: Engineer Gets 110 MPG Out Of ’87 Mustang. (A hat tip to reader Kevin A.)

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John S. flagged this article from ABC News: Thousands Worldwide Prepare for the Apocalypse, Expected in 2012. Its because of the “end date” of the Mayan calendar, dontcha know… While their motivation is based on a very dubious premise, I can at least commend them for their preparedness.

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David in Israel sent us a link to an article with more details on how he “killdozer” attack in Israel was stopped: Men Who Killed Terrorist: Policeman Was in the Way

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“I learned from my two year’s experiment that it would cost incredibly little trouble to obtain one’s necessary food, even in this latitude; that many a man may use as simple a diet as the animals, and yet retain health and strength.” – Henry Thoreau, Walden, 1854

Note from JWR:

Happy Independence Day! May God continue to grant his grace on our nation.

An update: Reader KAF sent us a video blog link to a re-up ceremony in Baghdad: How did you spend Independence Day?

Buying Storage Food Locally–Prepare While Keeping a Low Profile






Food storage is perhaps the single most important preparedness measure that every family should take. It is insurance against any number of perils, ranging from natural disasters and disruption of transportation to something as mundane as simply being laid off from work. In part because of galloping food and fuel prices and some spot shortages at the wholesale level, demand has recently far exceeded supply for most long term food storage vendors. Many vendors now have orders backed up for as much as three months. I most strongly recommend that you get your family’s food storage squared away soon, before the vendor order backlogs stretch out even longer.

If possible, buy locally and haul it yourself. Not only will you save money on shipping, but your will also have the opportunity to keep a lower profile. If you pay in greenback cash, and they ask you for a name, just say “Mr. Cash”. For those that value their privacy there are fortunately food storage vendors throughout the United States. As listed below, several of them advertise of SurvivalBlog.

Our paying advertisers that sell storage food include:

APACK – Evansville, Indiana
Freeze Dry Guy – Grass Valley, California
JRH Enterprises – West Green, Georgia
Ready Made Resources – Tellico Plains, Tennessee
Safecastle – Prior Lake, Minnesota
Best Prices Storable Foods – Quinlan, Texas
CampingSurvival.com – Fulton, New York
Healthy Harvest – Vancouver, Washington
American Made Survival – New York State

Our affiliate advertisers that sell storage food include:

Nitro-Pak – Heber City, Utah
eVitamins – Southeastern Michigan

Other reputable vendors that sell storage food include:

Walton Feed – Montpelier, Idaho
Mountain Brook Foods – Chubbuck, Idaho (a former SurvivalBlog advertiser)
EM Gear – Atlanta, Georgia (a former SurvivalBlog advertiser)
Honeyville Food Products – Salt Lake City, Utah; Brigham City, Utah; and Rancho Cucamonga, California

Another high priority for your family’s food security should be gardening seed. Long-term self sufficiency is the goal, since your stored food will probably be exhausted in a long-term crisis.

Our paying advertisers that sell non-hybrid (“heirloom variety”) garden seed include:

Seed for Security
Safecastle
Best Prices Storable Foods
Ready Made Resources
 Healthy Harvest
 Everlasting Seeds

Letter Re: Securing Needed Prescriptions for Family Preparedness

Jim,
I’ve been stockpiling medicine since before it was fashionable. My dad is a physician and gave me an Rx for ciprofloxacin and other antibiotics before 9/11 (in prep for Y2K). That is all refrigerated and despite official expiration dates, probably still fine. More recently, my dentist wrote me an Rx for TamiFlu. I won’t drag on about it, but the bottom line is that virtually anyone with a medical degree who is semi like-minded can give you an Rx for whatever you want. All you have to do is assure them you are only worried about shortages and won’t administer the medicine until a doctor has okayed it. My insurance co-pay: $4.68 for two adult courses of TamiFlu. My insurance is great, YMMV. Regards, – Matt R.

Letter Re: Economic Gloom and Doom is Justified

Jim,
Ironically, just a day after I wrote an e-mail chiding you [for giving too much attention to economic gloom and doom in SurvivalBlog], I had a meeting with one of our clients that has been a very successful Wall Street trader. He gave me a laundry list of banks that he expects to fail before the end of the year and predicted a complete collapse of the financial sector. Worse [for us], since we are in Michigan, he said that some of the Big Three auto makers are in serious trouble.

When I asked him where he saw the financial sector ending up, his response was that he had "never lived through a depression" so he had no real idea. Not exactly the response I was hoping for. – JMM

Odds ‘n Sods:

Jack B. recommended a very interesting series of video clips from a seminar presented by economist Don McAlvany.

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Today is the last day for BulletProofME.com’s special sale on Interceptor Body Armor and Kevlar helmets, just for SurvivalBlog readers.

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Facing a soaring trade deficit and 25% annual currency inflation, the government of Vietnam has just banned gold imports. I guess that Vietnam’s bureaucrats failed Econ 101.The citizenry rushing toward the stability of gold isn’t the cause of economic trouble. Rather, it is a symptom of a horribly mismanaged currency. In the absence of national treasury restraint, it doesn’t take much for a troubled currency to tip over into something approaching Zimbabwean scale hyperinflation. Our friends at The Daily Reckoning note that at last report, a pound of margarine cost 25 billion Zimbabwean dollars. But don’t blink. One rough estimate (based on the Rule of 72) shows that some consumer prices in the former Rhodesia are now doubling every 21 minutes.

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My recent mention of the possibility of looters using lightly-armored bulldozers prompted three readers to mention the 2004 “Killdozer” incident in Granby, Colorado. A YouTube video clip shows part of what happened. With that much armor, even AP ammo would not be effective. Upon seeing the video clip, our #1 Son commented: “That shows that the Second Amendment has applicability to civilians owning RPGs.”

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"With respect to our rights, and the acts of the British government contravening those rights, there was but one opinion on this side of the water. All American whigs thought alike on these subjects. When forced, therefore, to resort to arms for redress, an appeal to the tribunal of the world was deemed proper for our justification. This was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take. Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion. All its authority rests then on the harmonizing sentiments of the day, whether expressed in conversation, in letters, printed essays, or in the elementary books of public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney, et cetera." – Thomas Jefferson, letter to Henry Lee, May 8, 1825

Letter Re: The Reactive Culture, or 20 Years of Greater Depression

Dear Jim,
America, and modern industrial democracy, is a reactive culture. We wait for disaster to strike, then we talk about it, vote, and throw money at it until it goes away. That’s what we’ve been doing since the deficit spending initiated by FDR, socialist that he was. Now we’ve reached the end of deficit spending, having exported our jobs, currency, and control of our economy overseas and become a great big lazy balloon floating over the glass recycling bin at the local dump. Gasoline, food, and other essentials are in a tight 18% inflationary spiral and the public is only just now starting to complain, to shift their behaviors. Carpooling is becoming more common and accepted. Smaller cars are replacing SUVs and large pickups for solo commuting needs.

The trouble is, this is too little, too late. The disaster is already upon us. Oil prices are $140/bbl. Financial opportunists claim “oil price correction next week” then exploit the delusional optimism for profit. Gasoline is $4.50/gal, diesel $5.30/gal. Thieves (most of them methamphetamine junkies) are stealing the copper wiring running irrigation pumps, gutting houses abandoned by foreclosure (an irony if ever there was one), taking the farm diesel from unguarded tanks and equipment. Farmers are angry, but basically helpless to stop this. The Chinese pay top dollar for “salvage copper” and ship it back to mainland China to grow their own economy, meanwhile gutting US infrastructure. And its probably even worse in the Third World. Then again, lose enough infrastructure and the USA will be the Third World (again).

As a Republic, we are ill-positioned to deal with proactive efforts. There’s no percentage in the risk associated with planning out a solution you may not be in office to reap the political capital for. Instead, our representatives vote for pork that benefits their constituents and wins votes now or in the next few months. Stuff that people remember at the polling station.

Trouble is, Peak Oil isn’t going away. It’s getting worse. And solutions need to be developed 5 years ago to have any value today, to help with this situation. What can be done today is grassroots carpooling, use of mass transit (often slow, smelly, and expensive, as well as impractical), and eventually the highly unpopular but inevitable: fuel rationing. I know that’s terrible, but that’s inevitable too. If you don’t ration, you get hoarding and the US economy collapses faster. What’s worse, it’s terribly unpopular politically and no Rep who wants re-election will vote for a national fuel rationing plan. We, as citizens, are going to have to beg for fuel rationing just to make sure we get some fuel as things get more dire. Even with that, America only produces 7 million barrels per day of oil, and our demand is 21 million barrels. Libya and much of OPEC is responding to the threat to seize assets of terrorist sponsoring nations by cutting production to the world, which then pressures the world to squeeze the USA to back off. So expect trade tariffs, first as warnings, then as punitive measures. That means our inflation rate will worsen.

We’ve seen protests and riots over fuel prices in Portugal, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, and the UK over the last few weeks. This is only the beginning of troubles. As the prices rise thanks to production falling, the blame game will continue, and further irrational public behavior will worsen. The public have resolutely refused to grasp that oil is ancient energy and it will run out. Right now, our leaders here in the USA point fingers to delay tactics, like offshore drilling, domestic discoveries (which would have already been exploited if they were remotely as big or easy as these non-geologists like to claim). The oil under the ANWR? That’s 45 days of [global] oil supply. That’s it. If you saved it for US-only consumption, you can stretch it to around 6 months of oil supply. Better than nothing–only it takes five years to reach the marketplace. All those pipelines and wells and sideways drilling takes time, and by five years from now, the price of oil will be around $500/bbl. and gasoline something like $20/gal, well beyond the means of humble lower and middle class users to buy. Only the rich will be burning $500 per barrel oil.

And at some point, your fuel ration and carpool won’t get you to work, or it won’t get most of your co-workers to work so your operation/job ends. It doesn’t have to be your fault, it just happens. Some few businesses will relocate, but they may leave your area and offer you a job if you follow–if you can sell your house and convince your family to join a company town somewhere in the Midwest (assuming that’s where they go, not overseas). Rinse and repeat and the conservative estimate for job loss due to Peak Oil is around 20%. Public works programs, hiring the unemployed on contract for physical labor is very likely, a return of the WPA. Roads must be maintained. Railroads need to be rebuilt, with spurs reaching every town in the USA (and other nations would be wise to do this too). That’s a high demand for steel, so all those useless SUVs can be turned into 3 feet of heavy rail apiece. Rail is cheap transportation, very cheap with energy. Frugal. We like that.

Smarter and wealthier towns will also install streetcar railing and overhead wiring for electric operation. And then police that wiring for thieves looking to steal it or the power generated. That returns mobility to the local population so they can get to school, get to work, get from their neighborhood to the job on the other side of town instead of bicycling. But it may take 5 or 10 years before the economy can support that. It’s cheap to do it now, but nobody cares enough to make it happen while they can still afford it on Chinese-supported bonds. And that’s the real tragedy of Democracy.

None of this happens until after the disaster, after people can’t buy gasoline, after they’ve lost their jobs and the unemployment rate jumps 20% in a week. Only after disaster will things change. And when you proactively Hurry Up And Wait and Just In Time, you get slow improvements, shortages of critical infrastructure supplies so you can’t rebuild fast enough to save all those businesses. Unlike the Great Depression, your gasoline, the fuel that runs the recovery, isn’t going to cost four cents a gallon. Its going to be “out of reach”, “can’t buy it here”, and “sorry Mister, we’re out.” With no interim solution, those jobs are going away for good. And the general public is going to shift from Middle Class to Poverty with no way around it.

Both candidates for US President are funding a contest to invent a new car battery for all electric cars. Good move. Doubt we’ll see it anytime soon, as the laws of physics and chemistry are laws for a reason, but maybe we’ll get lucky. It would be nice. Even with a crash program like the Manhattan Project, you’re still looking at years before a product hits the shelf, years with a collapsed economy is decades of Greater Depression and generations of mistrust and sore memories of our suffering. You don’t recover from that easily or quickly. Children today are going to have to grow up in a time that’s worse than the Great Depression was, and it will last longer, too.

We still need to face facts that the Saudis have promised us $200 oil this year, and that’s $6.30/gal. gasoline. Think about how you’re going to operate your life on $6 gasoline. My commute is now two miles. I could walk if I had to. How many people can do this? Not many. If you own a house, or are leasing one from a bank, you probably don’t have the option to just move closer to work. If you take a job you hate or aren’t suited for to have a commute, your pay will decline and your job security too. Not a good move for most people. And businesses won’t move to keep their employees until after they stop showing up for work and they realize they have to close their doors. It only pays to be Proactive if you’re smart enough to look ahead. The fact that you’re here reading this means you’re smart enough. But are your neighbors? Your coworkers? Your boss? Your congressional representative? Probably not. And we get to live with their mistakes and ignorance as a consequence. Best, – InyoKern

Letter Re: Advice on Getting Started in Precious Metals Investing

Jim,
Your reader TheOtherRyan wrote asking about how to get started in precious metals investing, especially the challenge of purchasing only a small amount each month. First, Ryan is wise to realize that you want to buy in small amounts, and not wait until a big “buy,” which might be at an unlucky price spike. Investors call the process of buying a little each month with a disciplined approach “averaging in.” It means you’re buying more on the months when the price is low than when the price is high, lowering your average total cost. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to do this economically. Many good mail order sites have significant minimums of thousands of dollars per transaction or more. Or the shipping costs kill you for small orders. Some states actually charge sales tax as you turn paper money into “real money” (silver or gold bullion) so retail shops are out of the question. Gun show sellers may offer some, but it will be hit or miss, unless you are looking for very popular items like 1-ounce gold bullion coins.

But there are some easy solutions. One is to open an ordinary brokerage account at any service like Fidelity, and use this to buy the funds that precisely track the price of your commodity. SLV tracks silver, and GLD tracks gold, each fund actually holding the commodity. The transaction costs are low, and it allows you to put in a small amount at a time, until you have accumulated enough to make a mail-order purchase from a reputable dealer. Meanwhile, you are secure against future price increases, and are averaging out the spikes and dips. It also lets you wait until the moment you choose to “buy on the dips.” However, this is harder than it sounds, because while a dip on a chart shows up as a drop followed by a rise, all you get to see in the real world is the drop, and you don’t know whether it will drop more, or rise. (Jim, I’d advise telling people to “buy on the drops” as a more helpful guidance). Of course, your stock fund will do no good in a crisis, so you need to cash it out when you have enough to make a mail-order metal buy. Research in advance for how you will make a fast withdrawal and transfer to the bullion supplier, and don’t forget the several day waiting period for liquidating securities. This option can suffer if you monthly investment is small, because the transaction fee to buy may be a large percentage of your cost. But maybe you can deposit $50 each month, then buy SLV when you accumulate $250, then sell and buy bullion when you reach $1,000, for instance.

Another option, especially for small purchases, is to buy on eBay. If you know your prices, and watch for reliable sellers with a track record of selling the kind of product you want, you can buy right about at spot price. (Try searching 90% silver rolls – or “silver dimes” or “silver quarters”). There are lots of choices at or around $100, and the eBay market generally knows the spot price. Be careful not to bid early, because a price drop may mean you overpaid by the end of the auction. Use a “bid-bot” like BidTamer.com to place a bid at the last minute, so your bid does not encourage others to outbid you. Halves and dollars tend to price higher relative to their silver value, so look for dimes and quarters. Liberty dimes can be worn down to reduce their weight, so look at Roosevelt dimes, or at least check the photos for an idea of condition. Know the spot price, and that there is 0.715 ounce of silver per dollar of face value. There are 50 dimes in a standard roll (or 40 quarters). Don’t try to get a screaming deal, because you will always be outbid. Look at completed auctions, and know what things went for relative to spot price at the time. You should be able to buy several rolls of coins shipped for about spot price. Of course, there is a small risk of fraud, so don’t put all your eggs in one eBay transaction, and don’t bite when it’s “too good to be true,” because the savvy bidders probably see the flaw you are missing. Figure 2% lifetime loss to eBay fraud, but you are still getting a good deal.

For comparison, if you were buying $500 face value of junk silver coins ($9,000 cost today) from an established mail order house (like Tulving.com) you’d get free shipping, and be buying pre-1964 coins at $0.10 per ounce under the spot price. Auction sites like eBay can come close to that (sometimes better), so don’t sweat a few percent of the price, because that can paralyze you. Remember that buying the quantity of silver coins you need is like buying beans for your survival storage. You aren’t buying them as an investment to make money, you are buying them as a means to survive. Best Regards, – Ben L.

Two Letters Re: The Five Minute Bank Run

Dear Mr. Rawles,
Read the letter from W.D. in Texas with great interest. I have been a recent visitor to your blog and read the postings on the banking system with great interest – and shared them with immediate family. As a Florida resident, even though in the less vulnerable northeastern part of the state, it is prudent to be ready for adverse weather as the ATMs and banks could be closed in an emergency. Good luck trying to get cash at that point in time.

I strongly suspect that most people nationwide have about as much cash on hand as they do ammunition – in other words very little. A weather related or other emergency will likely catch most of the sheeple unprepared. The articles in your blog have hit home with me. I visited a branch of my local credit union and withdrew several thousand to supplement cash already on hand. I certainly didn’t get the runaround W.D. in Texas got but I did have the senior teller come out to approve the transaction and ask why I wanted so much cash. While tempted to politely reply that it was none of her business, I mentioned coming into a bit of an inheritance (truth) with plans to share (also true but not via this withdrawal).
My credit union hires local off-duty police officers for on-site security. The police officer watched me as I departed – no doubt alerted by the bank staff. Oh, I forgot to mention: I also withdrew $20 in nickels! I’m planning to do that every week or two.

My wife has been very understanding of many of my other preps as well. Thank the Lord for this wonderful woman! I am also very blessed by your advice and that of other contributors to your blog. Sincerely, – Jay in .Northeast Florida

 

Sir:
First of all, I would like to thank you Mr. Rawles for all of your hard work to keep those of us who choose not to keep our heads in the sand informed. I work for a medium sized credit union in Maryland. I know first hand what a bank run would do to our office. Our policy is to limit cash withdrawals to $3,000 per day per member. We can on occasion accommodate a member’s request for more, but most of the times we require 24-to-48 hours advance notice for any large withdrawals. Even with a $3,000 limit we could only accommodate 100-125 withdrawals of $3,000 [each] before we would be out of cash. I keep an eye on the dollar index regularly throughout the day and plan to take a long lunch once the run begins. (Since Maryland is a gun-hater state I’m not permitted to protect myself.)

If you keep most of your money in financial institutions, there is a very good possibility that you won’t be able to get it when you most need it. And even if you can there will probably be additional limits set in place. More than likely all financial institutions will be ordered to close. Please don’t be foolish enough to believe that once the banks and credit unions reopen that the nice government men will just let you waltz back in to retrieve your money.
Keep up the good work and many blessings to you and your family. Yours in Christ, – Vernon <><

Odds ‘n Sods:

Russ in Georgia sent an article link from Israel that reminds us that the threat of bulldozers should be considered when planning for defending your retreat. It doesn’t take much welding know-how for a miscreant to add a few armoring plates to a Cat. With this in mind, have you laid in a small supply of AP ammo? Let me clarify about the Federal law here in the US: There are no Federal restrictions on most “rifle” AP ammunition, but things get complicated for ammo that can also be fired through some pistols. Pre-ban manufactured AP “pistol” ammo is legal for private parties to buy, possess, and shoot (in most states), but only if it is not newly-loaded, or bought from a FFL holder. That makes the small quantities still available on the secondary (private party) market scarce and expensive.

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Ready Made Resources now stocks the Technon “Breath of Life” protective mask. I’m planning to pack a couple of these whenever I travel.

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SF in Hawaii recommended a new book from Hesperian Publishing (the publisher of the “Where There is No ..” books). It is titled: “A Community Guide to Environmental Health.”

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Cliff H. mentioned this NPR story from Beirut, Lebanon about hardening houses: Not your average home improvements

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them." – Barry Goldwater

Letter Re: Feedback on Training at Front Sight

Dear James,
Just wanted to say thank you for letting your readers know about the Front Sight Gun + Gear + Training special offer. My husband and I attended the four-day defensive handgun and the one-day CCW courses last week, and are expecting delivery of the [Springfield Armory] XD40 [pistol]s we used during the courses, in two days.

Neither of us had any real experience with guns before the course. To be honest, when I read your book and in reading your blog, I always skimmed through or skipped the “gun sections” altogether.

Well, the course was a blast (pun intended). They took us from knowing virtually nothing to being able to hit the “stopping zone” on targets that flipped around in 1.5 seconds. (Okay not every time, but enough that we impressed ourselves!) We learned how to recognize and clear malfunctions in a matter of seconds, and do emergency reloads in the middle of “gun battles.” They took us through mazes with pictures of bad guys and good guys and hostages and we had to shoot the bad guys, not shoot the good guys, and rescue the hostages. There was a night shoot, and shooting at close range and while moving. (The close range and moving were part of the CCW class.)

I can’t say enough about the caliber of instruction. We had a main instructor and two to three coaches helping 18 students at a time. Each was very patient with this newbie. I felt that when I needed it, I was able to receive one-on-one help. Most of the students were already very experienced (law enforcement, military, and gun enthusiasts), and they also felt they were making valuable progress based on their experience levels.

We are looking forward to our continuing practice and education. And since we have recently moved to “The Wild West” (very rural Mendocino County [,California]) we have a new-found sense of being able to take care of ourselves.

Thanks again, – Pat in Northern California