Gun Training With The Non-aggression Principle, Vol 1

Today I have a review for you I’ve been waiting for. Gun Training With The Non-aggression Principle, Vol 1 directed by Michael W Dean from the Freedom Feens podcast and other great products. The DVD is hosted by Jared Waltz. The run time on it is 99 minutes of jam packed information.

I’ve been a fan of Michael W Dean since I tried to make a low (no budget) film years ago. He has a book called $30 Dollar film school that is amazing. If you’re trying to make an indy film I would highly recommend it. More recently with launching survivalpunk and combining my passions in life: Survival, Libertarian beliefs and punk music I re-found him. He has a lot of freedom motivated projects going on. Months back he put on Facebook a trailer of a projects he was working on about Freedom and gun training. Two things I thoroughly enjoy. Here’s a look at the trailer for it.

Gun training and the Non-Aggression Principle

To most these two have nothing in common. Gun training is for aggression your will onto others and the Non-Aggression principle means you must curl into a ball and take what violence without returning it. Both statements would be wrong. To quote the Non-Aggression Principle 2.0:

“Do not initiate, or accept, aggression.“

The creators of this DVD and I strongly agree with this point. I carry a gun daily and train with one regularly. I hope that the only thing I ever shoot are inanimate objects. I never want to have to shoot someone. I however am prepared to protect both myself and others from aggression though. I loved that this video opened with this concept first. I have known some gun owners that are perhaps too eager to use their firearms. Who think themselves are vigilantes. Jared stresses that often the best choice is avoidance or exiting the conflict. Given the choice to run away safely or end a life is no choice to me.

The Five Rules of Gun Safety

Jared goes over the rules of gun safety with an expanded one. I separate this rule out and change the tried and true Four Rules of Gun Safety to Five. I learned this first from my friends at Condition 1 and was very happy to hear Jared say the same. The rules are:

The Five Rules of Gun Safety

1. Treat every gun as if it’s loaded.
2. Never point a gun at anything your not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your on target and ready to shoot
4. Be sure of your target and it’s surroundings.
5. Never try to catch a falling weapon.

Rule number five I’ve only heard from some of the best trainers. So many people in the industry are patriots to what they’ve heard. Although you can get away with only the normal four the fifth definitely has a place and will always be included by me. Jared did a great job of covering all the rules in depth. He like all great trainers stressed the importance of safety. The point was also stressed that these are tools. Tools designed for a specific purpose and should not be treated as more. To demonstrate this point and the show the safety of modern firearms he on at least two occasions threw his glock onto the ground. I mean really threw!

Cooper Color Code

Jared went into detail on the Cooper Color Code created by Jeff Cooper the father of Modern technique of handgun shooting. The color code is a chart for the levels of situational awareness. The color codes go from white to Red (sometimes black is used also) This section is a quick and basic run down of developing situational awareness. Jared covers the topic using the great metaphor of driving a vehicle. Although the topic of situational awareness could easily be a DVD on it’s own Jared covered it exceptionally and would be a section to re-watch a few times.

Basic Handgun

Jared covers all the information you need to go from never having fired a handgun to consistently hitting targets. He shows you how to find your dominate eye. Jared spends a good amount of time on the proper stance. Instead of being too big on exact feet placement and all that he sums it up with an athletic stance. Ready to move but not rigid. Knees bent and shoulders rolled. The grip he teaches and the one I use is the thumbs forward approach. Although he didn’t say it he definitely displayed the “Nose over toes” philosophy that has improved my shooting. Basically make sure that you are leaning forward trying to push your nose in front of your toes. Another tip I didn’t hear was grip strength. I have improved since learning to grip the hell out of the gun. Before I was mostly holding it. Now I tend to grip almost to the point of muscle shakes. Once again though Jared displayed his difference from the majority of bad instructors in that he taught to press the trigger. So many movies will have you believing you want to squeeze the trigger. This is wrong. You only want to use your trigger finger not your whole hand. The key is to press with the pad of your trigger finger.

Basic Rifle

Jared goes over the basics for the AR platform as well. He demonstrates the stance for standing, kneeling and prone shooting. Once again I felt his stance was spot on. I’m actually eager to get out and do some prone shooting since I’ve never got around to it. He covers reloads and clearing jams for both handguns and rifles. Jared covers the routines you should in grain in your memory. He briefly goes into cover vs concealment and hints that Vol 2 will go into much more detail. Dry firing techniques are also covered which I’m a big fan of. Unless you have an unlimited supply of ammo you will never be able to go to the range as much as you need to. Dry firing is a safe and cost effective technique to get in practice time.

This DVD was so packed with amazing content. I can’t possible cover everything packed into this DVD. I’ve seen quite a few DVD’s  and YouTube videos on Firearms and this one was the best. Jared and Michael added a sense of humor to what can easily become overlay technical and boring. I liked the way that important ground work was laid down first then expanded on. You will not only become a better firearms owner after watching this you will become a better (or learn about) Libertarian. You will learn why you need to be prepared to stop aggression from happening to you.  Instead of deciding what new firearm invest in your training and pick up a copy of Gun Training With The Non-aggression Principle, Vol 1 and let Jared Waltz and Michael W. Dean show you how to think and shoot better.

Disclaimer: I received a promotional copy for review. This in no way affected my opinion of the DVD.

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