Ever wonder how many people win a million dollar or more lottery ticket per year? I did. I tried to figure out that information. Turns out, you have to dig for it. Luckily, Dan Ma has an introductory to statistics blog and several years ago, he did a little research. Dan looked into state lottery […]
Category: self-defense
The Intentional Measurement Swindle
This post has a long introduction – please be patient. After the introduction, I’ll show how it relates to gun rights and self-defense. However, you need to understand the methodology detailed in the introduction. Introduction I have a technology background. The term “balloon effect” is used when a fix is made to a complex system, […]
Self-defense: Strategy, Context, and Tactics
In my book, I used the “fact box” to discuss the benefits and harms of concealed carry. The fact box was created by the Harding Center for Risk Literacy. I first read about them in the book Risk Savvy by Gerd Gigerenzer. They were developed to help people determine the risk of specific health tests, […]
Memes
I like memes! For a wide variety of reasons, when I am traveling, I carry a 1911 in condition 3, which means I have to rack the slide to shoot. I’m an ordinary civilian with a normal threat level. I’m mostly concerned to minimize opportunities for negligent discharges and being able to easily separate my […]
A Popular Topic
In the March/April 2024 Combat Handguns magazine, we have another article called “What To Say To The Police” by the vetran Massad Ayoob. Ayoob writes great thought provoking articles and his experience provides him great insight. I’ve written about this topic in the past here and here, so I’ll try and focus on a couple […]
Escalations and Thinking in Bets
In her book, “Thinking in Bets,” author Annie Duke remarks in the introduction, “Thinking in bets starts with recognizing that there are exactly two things that determine how our lives turn out: the quality of our decisions and luck.” She continues in the chapter LIFE IS POKER, NOT CHESS: “[…] our tendency to equate the […]
Rape and The Matrix
The first part of my book is called Perceptions. What I explore in that section is an ordinary civilian’s perceptions of violent crime. It is evident through the social studies data cited that the public’s violent crime perceptions do not follow violent crime statistics. This mismatch should be disconcerting to everyone. What this means is […]
Keeping Your Identification Separate from Your Wallet
As discussed in my book, I keep my identification separate from my wallet when I am out and about. Since most Americans keep their wallet in their back pocket, reaching for a wallet can be dangerous when stopped by law enforcement, as many people carry weapons in that vicinity. I carry my identification in an […]
Form 4473 Changes
There were some not-so-recent changes to Form 4473 that I’m finally getting around to discussing. Here is an excellent summary of the changes. My concern is questions 21.b and 21.c. Here are the actual questions from the source: “Do you intend to purchase or acquire any firearm listed on this form and any continuation sheet(s), […]
What If….
You are the operations manager of a firearms training facility that caters to the concealed carry market. Business is slow. Your marketing director says that to improve business, they are going to offer the following program: If you do your training, practice, and refresher, the training facility will pay all your legal bills if you […]