Friday Collection of Half-Thought Thoughts

"One hypocrite laughing all the way to the bank!"

Love these posters, which have been turning up in LA bus stops. Another asshat who takes our money and craps in our living room. Did you notice that after his antigun spew, Neeson's most recent movie dropped off heavily?

Couple of other thoughts this AM before I go torture a scope onto an AR. This week's TBD on "An Altercation With a Neighbor" has generated a lot of buzz, most of it very good, some of it questioning. Here's a good example from the DOWN RANGE Forums:

The "force on force" scenarios were nothing like I've seen on other shows, either TBD or any other show/network. 

Keeping those scenarios 'dirt simple' was genius. What a great way to get in reps on different ways to work out a problem!

Here's a link to our FaceBook page and the discussion there. I wrote this response on our overall planning with the scenarios:

In fact, the sim we created was based on a shooting incident that happened to a TBD viewer 2 years ago. I was able to debrief our viewer in person and at length. Our sim was faithful to the original, to wit, what our viewer thought was a simple neighborhood argument, same as any argument one might have with a neighbor, changed radically when the neighbor put a load of 12 gauge buckshot into our viewer's driver side window where our viewer's head had been moments before he ducked. To borrow a phrase, let me be clear here — neighbor altercations can go "hot" very quickly precisely because we DO NOT treat them with the same seriousness and reticence we might treat a hostile encounter outside our home turf. We think we KNOW our neighbors (our viewer told me that, sure, the guy had been a jerk for a couple of years because he didn't like what our viewer was doing to his property, but he was a NEIGHBOR). Ironically, we readily accept the fact that most assaults on women come not from strangers, but from acquaintances, in some case close acquaintances, but we balk at the idea that MEN might be at the same risk...

I wanted to reiterate that final point. I think to compare the fact that sexual assaults on women are more likely to be from acquaintances than strangers to the dynamics of an assault by a neighbor is very fair. No person intentionally dates another person thinking that he or she is going to be assaulted by the person they're dating. I don't even think there's a check-box for that on eHarmony!

We all have different relationships with our neighbors. There have been places I lived where every evening was a block party; other places where I could not reliably pick my neighbors out of a line-up. One of my best friends started out as a neighbor; another of my neighbors killed his wife, whom I liked, and unborn child and beat the murder rap.

The function of a simulation is to as much as possible deal with the specific event that requires the reaction. In some cases, the back story is self-evident — for example, an active shooter or a road rage situation. In other cases, the back story is either implied or completely hidden. In our neighbor altercation, we don't know what has preceded the events we show, because, honestly, it doesn't matter.

We are dealing with the specific actions as they unfold. The fact that your neighbor is a mixed martial arts master, that last week he beat the crap out of the neighbor down the street or that he in fact is a Satanist who eats babies for breakfast will not necessarily be allowed to be admitted into court for your defense [I AM NOT A LAWYER, NOR DO I PLAY ONE ON TV...WE HAVE MARTY HAYES FOR THAT].

I strongly recommend that everyone who is even thinking about carrying a gun for self-defense do the following 3 things:

• Immediately join the Armed Citizens' Legal Defense Network...Marty Hayes is the President, and you need to be a member!

• Buy and read THE LAW OF SELF-DEFENSE: The Indispensable Guide for the Armed Citizen, by Andrew Branca, a lawyer who has had a profound effect on my own thinking.

• Buy and read DEADLY FORCE: Understanding Your Right to Self Defense, by Massad Ayoob...Mas needs no introduction here.