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TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 2023

- ARCHERY -
Bowtech Archery's pro shooters demonstrated an unprecedented show of precision and prowess, seizing three Pro divisions in victories at the ASA Pro Am held in London, Kentucky.
Easton Archery’s Acu-Carbon process is a continuous-fed, single-die manufacturing method that produces uniform shafts and eliminates the need for spine and weight sorting that can plague accuracy-seeking archers and bowhunters.
- BOATING -
Between May 27-29, FWC officers removed approximately 100 unsafe and impaired vessel operators across the state of Florida for boating under the influence and responded to over 30 boating accidents. There were zero fatalities reported during this time.
- COMPETITION -
After the first day of competition on Choke Canyon Reservoir, Texas Team Trail anglers Keith & Chuck Cole were sitting in 60th place after catching just 5 pounds. Contemplating going home, the team decided to go ahead and fish the final day and give it their best shot since they worked all year to make the championship event. It worked.
Nosler Sponsored Shooter James Rowe and teammate David McNeil finished in fourth at the Leupold Relentless Rifleman NRL Hunter match.

- FIREARMS -
Magnum Research invites customers to own a true family heirloom with the “Tyler Desert Eagle”.
- FISHERIES -
The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department is reminding anglers and the public to avoid disturbing spawning sea lamprey that may currently be found in the Connecticut River and several of its tributaries.
- FISHING TOURNAMENTS -
With a phenomenal four-day total of 44 lbs and 3 oz on the Sabine River, Brock Mosley completed a run at his first blue trophy at the Folds of Honor Bassmaster Elite event.
- GEAR -
The Backdraft OT from Tagua Gunleather offers a fast draw in a quality holster that ensures safety. The Backdraft OT features an open-top design that keeps the trigger guard covered.

The Galco KingTuk Cloud hybrid IWB holster is now available for the Shadow Systems DR920 pistol. The holster’s comfort level comes from its innovative backing plate, composed of a ballistic nylon front over a closed cell foam body.
There’s an angling craze that’s sweeping the world, and it’s called slow-pitch jigging.The technique is different from standard vertical jigging, and Fish Monkey’s Freestyle Gloves offer a bit of extra padding and non-slip grip in the palms that reduce hand fatigue.
- GRANTS -
A $25,000 grant from the Manitoba Fish and Wildlife Enhancement Fund will double the number of student participants in Delta Waterfowl’s University Hunting Program in Manitoba in 2023 and 2024.
- HUNTING -
Residents and nonresidents may apply for a draw status Nebraska deer permit in three mule deer conservation areas June 12-23.

Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife in conjunction with the City of Augusta will hold the annual moose lottery at Mill Park this Saturday, June 10. Starting at 2:00 p.m., the names of the winners will be read.
- INDUSTRY -
Norma Precision Inc announces the launch of its new Dealer Locator feature on www.normausa.com.
Blackhawk is proud to sponsor tactical athlete Jared Halbert for the 2023 Tactical Games season. This season, Halbert is competing in both individual Men’s Elite events as well as Men’s Elite Team events with Blackhawk teammate Zach Rodman.
- JOBS -
Easton is searching for an International Sales Manager to grow its international customer base.

- LAND MANAGEMENT -
If you planted new trees this spring or last fall, bring out the garden hose. A little water will keep those trees healthy and happy as Michigan’s dry spring progresses into summer.
- NEW PRODUCTS -
Powered by advanced nutrients, Drought Defender from Turf Titan helps grass thrive through the hottest, harshest months for a lush, green lawn.
CrossBreed Holsters now offers a broad range of its popular holster systems for Anderson Manufacturing's new Kiger 9C and Kiger 9C Pro 9mm pistols. CrossBreed is offering a deep bench of its top EDC Kydex and leather hybrid holster plus several of its modular and soft holster systems.
To honor the service of our nation’s military and law enforcement professionals, Daniel Defense has released a new Global War on Terror rifle package. This commemorative rifle package is available for purchase only by active-duty and retired military and law enforcement professionals, U.S. veterans, and those who diligently and selflessly served our nation in times of need.

For the first time in over 50 years Weatherby will introduce a new centerfire rifle action, the Model 307. Meant to complement the historic Mark V and Vanguard lineups, the Model 307 is a 2-Lug, fully cylindrical action compatible with many aftermarket accessories.
- NOW STREAMING -
On the latest episode of #WeAreCollegiateBass Podcast talk with Tucker Smith & Hayden Marbut from 2nd-ranked Auburn University. The duo won the BoatUS Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops at Lake Hartwell.
- ORGANIZATIONS -
Following the clarification by a federal judge regarding the scope of a preliminary injunction in the Second Amendment Foundation’s case against the Biden administration’s new “arm brace rule” – that it applies to SAF members – interest in membership was so heavy during the first 24 hours it crashed the website.
Since the Scholastic 3-D Archery program held its very first 3D National Championship with less than 200 archers from only Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois competing, the program has exploded over the past ten years and now has more than thirty active state chapters.

- PROMOTIONS -
SilencerCo is bringing the heat with another BOGO offer. This year, the “Spectacular SilencerCo Summer Buy One, Get One Free Extravaganza Super Terrific Fun Sales Event” (don’t forget to breathe) is the biggest sale yet.
- PUBLISHING -
The Armory Life announced the release of the Summer 2023 issue of The Armory Life print magazine, featuring a cover story interview with MACV-SOG’s Major John L. Plaster. This quarterly print magazine complements the daily digital content available on TheArmoryLife.com.
- RETAIL -
Power Rack Deer Mineral from Antler King is loaded with the nutrients deer need for a healthy immune system and optimal herd health.
- SPONSORSHIPS -
WW Custom Taxidermy & Hunts has decided to remain a Whitetails Unlimited National Sponsor.
- STATES -
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is seeking to fill two vacancies on an advisory council that provides ongoing monitoring of upland game bird enhancement program activities.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Speedway Trails Association (STA) today opened the recently completed B&O Trail extension in the town of Speedway and city of Indianapolis.
Utah DNR is sharing a few things to know about moose in Utah and how to avoid conflicts with them if you happen to encounter one.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife recently received a donation on behalf of Marion and Fred Conkel of 177 acres of land in Pike County for use as a public wildlife area.
Indiana Audubon will be hosting the 6th annual Hummingbird Migration Celebration at Mary Gray Bird Sanctuary on Saturday, August 5.
With slightly cooler weather aiding firefighting efforts, crews continued work Monday to suppress the Wilderness Trail Fire that has burned an estimated 2,400 acres southeast of Grayling. The fire is more than 90% contained.
- TELEVISION -
Anglers can get their weekday dose of freshwater fishing during World Fishing Network’s freshwater block of programming beginning at 2 p.m. ET.
Dorsey Pictures CEO Chris Dorsey joined Fox News Tonight host Joey Jones to discuss the many differences between green environmental groups and conservation organizations...and who does more for the environment.
On the latest episode, “Keith Warren’s Deer and Wildlife Stories” will travel to the bluegrass state of Kentucky where the deer farming market is white hot.
This week, MOJO TV is looking back at the highlights from the last seven action packed episodes and closing down the second quarter.
 

“I ain't complaining
Just matter of fact
And a little suspicious
That the deck is stacked”
— Zero
End of the World Blues

I think my favorite memory of before the world ended is Christmas, 2019…good food, good friends, good fun, a sense of optimism and a faith in a better future. On December 31 of that year, a small unnoticed news report talked about an outbreak of a new pneumonia in Wuhan, China.

Talk about a slippery slope! Within a year, so many things we’d taken for granted growing up in the United States, rights that we thought were “inalienable,” were…inoperative. Unconstitutional mandates, illegal lockdowns…and the dominoes just kept falling. The cities burned, laws were ignored, people and businesses were “cancelled” or destroyed, violence soared to unprecedented levels, and every day brought a new indignity.

There used to be a meme in the prepper community to the effect of “How will we know when the SHTF?” How will we know when we are truly in the soup? The best answer I ever heard was from a man I met at Auschwitz in Poland, a man who had survived the hellish nightmare of the Balkan genocide. Couldn’t you tell, I asked him?

“Hindsight,” he said. “You can only tell in hindsight.”

We tend to think of violence — aggression against a person or persons — as an event when, in fact, it is a process, a series of actions moving along a timeline to achieve a specific goal. That goal might be taking your money, taking your car, or for that matter, taking your life.

Violence is an inherently chaotic process — that is, so many known and unknown factors are acting on the process that it’s impossible to predict the outcome. Because the violence is happening along a timeline, the factors acting on the process are constantly changing, adding even more to the unpredictability.

Violence is also cultural…the risks a person might face and the appropriate response from the person differs depending on where they live. Denver is different from Mexico City which is different from London which is different from Johannesburg. Makes sense, right?

Here’s where things get tricky…scary tricky, if you ask me.

Both as students and trainers of self-defense, we have to make certain assumptions, and those assumptions are culturally based. But the culture that we base those assumptions on no longer exists, poof, gone, shredded by COVID, “mostly peaceful” riots and a vicious progressive agenda that has driven much of what we thought of as American exceptionalism off the cliff.

In other words, the end of the world has already happened, the Schumer has already hit the fan, and the Denver, or any American city for that matter, of now is not the same as the Denver of the Good Old Days before the world ended, say Christmas 2019.

How has the culture changed in ways that might affect the self-defense “landscape?” Oh, let’s count the ways:

• An almost stunning racial animus. And I say that as someone who grew up in the South during the Jim Crow years, whose grandmother’s — rest her soul! — favorite story was, “When Michael went in the ‘Colored’ door” at the local burger hangout. Racial violence is off the charts, even with the mainstream media knocking itself out to hide it.

• Politically sanctioned violence, such as the Antifa and BLM “mostly peaceful” riots. This creates “protected” groups of people who can initiate aggression toward you, but if you respond even in a way that is, in fact, legal, you may be the one going directly to jail.

• The demise of equal protection under the law. In our “new normal,” some animals are indeed more equal than others. I’m betting you’re not one of those animals. If you don’t believe this, try and get in touch with some of the J6 defendants…no wait…do that and you’ll have the FBI at your door.

• The defunding, demonetization and demoralizing of the police. The police aren’t there, but if they are there, they’re not coming. If they are coming, they’re coming late…response times are drastically slowed. And if they do come, it might not be the aggressor who gets arrested.

• The so-called “Soros prosecutors,” prosecuting attorneys funded by George Soros specifically elected to “fundamentally change” the American justice system…and not in a good way. The concept of bail is eliminated; what were once felonies are no longer prosecuted. Misdemeanors? Just good fun…the revolving door is firmly in place, but not for you.

• The on-going collapse of major cities, especially the Blue cities (but I repeat myself). Chicago, Memphis (where I was born and grew up), Baltimore, St. Louis, Milwaukee and others are literally ripping themselves apart. The tax base has moved out, the big businesses are gone and violent scavengers are picking over the bones. Sound like places where you want to raise your families? Oh, and watch out for that pile of brown stuff on the sidewalks.

Those are what I think of as the “macro” changes, but they have spun off a series of deadly consequences. Just briefly…

…a shift toward multiple aggressors, gang/flash mob, join-in type attacks.

…a shift toward anonymous/random violence.

…because of the lack of legal consequences, more crimes are committed in daylight than ever before.

…the decriminalization of “shop-lifting” has lead to a proliferation of “smash and grabs,” systemized looting of stores, etc.

…absence of consequences means a willingness among criminals to escalate, for example a rise in violent “follow-home” robberies, which my dear friend, the late Dr. William Aprill, defined as a “murder waiting to happen” and violent carjackings.

…violence as entertainment.

The last point needs some explanation because it is so deeply tied into the cultural disaster we find ourselves in. “It’s a slow evening…what say we all go put on matching neon green bodysuits and beat the crap out of some old people on the subway?” That attack happened in New York late last year, by the way.

Violence is entertaining…ask any 14-year-old boy who punched his brother. The net-net for us in the self-defense community is that if violence is entertainment and the consequences of that violence are low or non-existent, the threshold to violence is lowered. And the nature of the aggressor changes. It may not be a career criminal who puts the gun to your head and ‘jacks your car in the middle of the day; might just be a couple of bored teens looking for a cool ride. Do you think they might be less, or more, likely to shoot you?

Or the implications of multiple attackers…those multiple attackers may not be the Neon Green Bodysuit Gang. The additional attackers may be join-ins or hangers-on who didn’t realize what was happening until the game was afoot, then decided participation looked like fun. You may have thought you had the existing situation well in hand, but three or four additional attackers will be, I guarantee you, a game-changer.

Are you seeing these changes being discussed in self-defense training? I’m not, and that worries me a lot. Why? I’m going to go back to Dr. William Aprill for the answer. William was one of the most astute, thoughtful and knowledgeable persons on self-defense and training that I’ve ever been honored to work with, and his untimely death was and is a staggering loss to the community.

For self-defense training to be effective, William said, first a person has to make space in his or her head for what can potentially happen — not just that it can happen to you, but this can happen to you! Or, as legendary trainer Tony Bauer puts it, “You can’t create a solution if you don’t see the problem.”

Students, even trainers, need to openly discuss these cultural changes and what they mean for our everyday defense. If you are an armed citizen and the first time you think about stuff like this is when you’re in the middle of something that looks like a major riot mated with a Mardi Gras parade — and you appear to be the Designated Piñata — the likelihood of what “Tactical Professor” Claude Werner calls a “negative outcome” becomes a virtual certainty.

Thankfully, there are some top trainers who realize the world has shifted. Ed Monk at Last Resort Firearms Training, John Murphy at FPF Training and Greg Ellifritz at Active Response Training (among others) are on the cutting edge, but it is up to you to make sure the training you are getting is reflective of today, not the days before the world ended.

Sure, I miss the hell out of the world that once was and what we allowed to slip through our fingers, and I’m sure the Founders are rolling in their graves. But I grew up in a poker-playing family, and one of the earliest life lessons I learned was you can only play the hand you’re dealt.

No one is coming! Stay safe out there!

~ Michael Bane

 
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