How to use this series
My goal in writing this document was to provide a way for individuals to identify gaps in their own knowledge and abilities, specifically in relation to firearms used as weapons.
I’ve talked to a lot of people who may have a degree of mastery with a firearm in one small area, and therefore seem to assume they are competent to use almost any weapon in a life and death situation.
Many of these people haven’t even mastered basic weapons safety, frequently pointing their weapons in unsafe directions and using the trigger as convenient resting place for their trigger finger.

This document describes, roughly in sequence, the disciplines to be mastered in order to effectively use a firearm as a weapon. Each entry describes the requirement, the purpose of the requirement, a means to evaluate proficiency, and (for some entries) ways to improve proficiency or places to look for help.

Your goal as your read through these points of competency should be able to claim a degree of mastery for each and every one. You should be able to read and honestly check off each one - and in some cases, check off multiple weapon types. Some items may be measurable in time or group size or both. Your goal should be to shrink these numbers.
However, the further down the document you go the harder it is to quantify or claim mastery. You may also find it necessary to add requirements to the list of skills.
This document is not the final word on fighting with firearms - it’s an overview summary and foundation. Add to it.

The final section of this series consists of areas of study that should be pursued - this is hard to quantify, but your goal should be to know your stuff and be able to teach others the content and ideas. If you can do that you have achieved a level of mastery.

This document is divided into several groups of skills:

• Safety
• Manual of Arms
• Shooting Proficiency
• Fighting with a Firearm
• Working and Fighting as a Team
• Knowledge and Philosophy

These groups of skills are largely dependent on preceding groups of skills. Please DO NOT attempt to jump ahead - go ahead and read the whole document, but honestly asses your development and don’t advance until you are truly qualified.

One of the greatest influences on modern defensive handgun use was the late Col. Jeff Cooper. He spent years instructing in the use of small arms and studying the art of winning a fight. He wrote a number of books, but this short little one (more like a pamphlet), called Principles of Personal Defense, should be a must read for every person aspiring to achieve an effective self defense capability. Fundamentally, it deals with human nature, and the basic elements necessary for successful resolution of violent conflict. It's like an Art of War in miniature and specifically only about the one-on-one and one-on-several conflicts.

Well, I found a PDF of it online. It's a fast read and well worth saving for later reference. It can easily be read in less than an hour. 

Here are a few noteworthy quotes from the book:

"If you are justified in shooting you are justified in killing, in all but a few quite obvious circumstances. Don't try to be fancy. Shoot for the center of mass. The world is full of decent people. Criminals we can do without."

"If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it. The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury. Therefore what he must be taught to fear is his victim. If a felon attacks you and lives, he will reasonably conclude that he can do it again. By submitting to him, you not only imperil your own life, but you jeopardize the lives of others. The first man who resisted Starkweather, after eleven murders, overcame him easily and without injury. If that man had been the first to be accosted, eleven innocent people would have been spared."

"Now how do we cultivate an aggressive response? I think the answer is indignation. Read the papers. Watch the news. These people have no right to prey upon innocent citizens. They have no right to offer you violence. They are bad people and you are quite justified in resenting their behavior to the point of rage. Your response, if attacked, must not be fear, it must be anger."

Several years ago I stumbled on an unpretentious site called Artoftherifleblog.com. The author has set out to master the rifle (or come as close as humanly possible). He's analytical, disciplined, and a good writer. His posts mostly focus on bolt action rifle craft (much carries over to semi-auto rifles), but there's a smattering of other gun or freedom related content. When I first discovered the site I spent a number of hours reading through all the archived posts, which was well worth it.

To get you started, here's some noteworthy posts of his:

Why the Rifle? - An explanation on why riflecraft is important

Rifle Ten: A test of rifle skill devised by Jeff Cooper

The Snapshot (and follow up post) - Goal: "a hit on a 4″ target from 25 yards in under 1.5 seconds"

And lastly, look over the Reference Section for a lot of his articles grouped by content type. Enjoy!
 

1. Cut your bills.

For most people, their monthly bills are a steady, predictable, and large drain on their available funds. Take the axe to these. I've listed some common ones below - you may have others that will need personal evaluation. 

TV - I've never been a TV watcher, but a cable or satellite subscription is what,$50 a month? $600 per year? Or more? That's a used Glock and a thousand rounds of 9mm every year (pick a physical metric when thinking about money - it helps visualize the savings)! And what does it give you? An easy way to waste hundreds (or thousands) of hours a year? And in exchange you are indoctrinated in whatever morality is acceptable with the Hollywood crowd? As Paul wrote in 1Corinthians 15:33  Do not be deceived: "Bad company ruins good morals."

If you spend hundreds of hours with Hollywood producers via their productions you are going to take damage. Don't deceive yourself on this point. Get your life and money back - stop watching large amounts of TV.

Electric Bill - for most people there's no good way to replace their electric bill or really effectively produce their own power. So all you can do here is consume less energy. This is worth a whole page (or site), but get a Kill-a-watt watt meter and start finding out what devices in your home are energy hogs. This isn't about being green and saving the planet - this is about saving money to put into needed preparedness.

Example: my desktop computer draws about 300 watts. I used to leave it running 24/7. Well, at 300 watts it's using 7.2 Kwh per day, or 216 Kwh per month. That's about $20 per month. So, I now always put it to sleep when leaving it for extended periods: this saves me about $120 per year.  

Your HVAC is probably your biggest energy dump. There may not be a lot you can do in the summer (for mold control purposes you need to keep humidity below 60%) but in the winter you may be able to use a more cost effective heating method. $150 gets me enough wood to heat most of my house for more than a whole winter; this probably saves me $1,000 over the winter.

Phone Bill - If you are still on AT&T or Verizon for your cell phone it's probably time to bail. We keep switching around, but between Cricket and Airvoice you can probably chop your cell phone bill in half - $30-40 per phone is the normal rate. No, they don't give you "free" phones every couple years. But they aren't free actually - you will pay for them eventually. Oh, and keeping your lines to a minimum is also a sure-fire money saver. Maybe I'm just feeling old and crotchety, but when I was a kid we didn't have cell phones - kids these days don't need a parent-subsidized smart phone (unless they really need it - i.e. for business). 

I'll talk about "luxury/consumer" spending next.