Stephen Rementer: Essential Guide to Handguns

HS - Jason Hartman Income Property InvestingJason Hartman talks with Stephen Rementer , a Vietnam combat veteran and a 30 year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department. He is a certified police firearms instructor, SWAT team professional, and bomb disposal technician. More at: https://holisticsurvival.com/category/audio-podcast/. Currently, Mr. Rementer is a licensed private detective who specializes in dignitary protection, explosives interdiction and corporate security consultation. With his wife, Linda, he teaches defensive firearms skills and qualifies civilians, law enforcement, and security personnel at their Pennsylvania Lethal Weapons Institutein Bensalem, PA. He is a Glock and Smith and Wesson Certified Armorer.

Comments on the book:

“A one-stop-source of information for the new defensive pistol shooter. I seriously recommend it to my students.” — Gabe Suarez, President, Suarez International and internationally acclaimed tactical firearms trainer and author.

“This book is a definite must for all gun owners, novice to expert. It should be referred to often.” — Steven Silverman, President, Firearms Research and Instruction.

“This excellent text should be read by every gun owner. Thorough and informative, this is a good book to own.” — John Farnam, President, Defensive Training Institute.

“This is a great handbook for the handgun owner. Want and expert opinion on what to buy? Get this book.” — Larry Pratt, Executive Director, Gun Owners of America.

“This is an excellent resource for beginners and experienced gun owners alike.” — Tim Schmidt, Editor & Publisher of Concealed Carry Magazine.

A must for every responsible gun owner! Gun ownership has inherent responsibilities, including the knowledge needed for weapon care, the wisdom to choose the gun that fits your personal abilities plus the skill and training to use it safely. This thorough book includes extensive discussion of a wide variety of firearms ownership and use issues. Also includes instruction on safe range procedures, tactical self-protection tools and tips for ensuring that you re sufficiently prepared to act in self-defense.

With a focus on the safe use of combat handguns as a defensive tool. With violent crime on an upswing and the advent of terrorism, every responsible law abiding adult should be prepared with a personal defense plan. Owning firearms and knowing how to use and maintain them safely should be part of such a plan.

This book is not intended to serve as a substitute for appropriate, personalized, live training. It is intended to help readers in selecting appropriate training for them. It is also intended to serve as a reference that beginning, intermediate and advanced handgun owners can turn to again and again.

The right to personal self-defense is protected and affirmed by our Constitution. This right is basic to a free society. However, along with this right, comes the responsibility to be a good citizen, obey the law, respect other people’s rights, treat others as you wish to be treated, and be well prepared to maintain your personal security responsibly.

As Colonel Jeff Cooper so well stated, “Firearms, most particularly personal firearms, are Liberty’s teeth, as pointed out by the Fathers of our country.”

* In-depth exploration of revolvers and semi-automatic pistols.

* Psychological preparedness for armed self-defense.

* Safe and effective range and practice procedures.

* Basic tactical self protection tools and techniques.

* Recommendations for quality firearms and accessories.

Prepare to prevail and survive in a dangerous and violent world. Every adult individual is responsible for their own personal safety. The courts have already ruled that the police are not responsible for protecting individuals–just preserving the peace. Time and time again, tragedies are reported in the media wherein innocent lives were taken by violent criminals, and the police responded after the fact. If these individuals were armed, trained and prepared to use their firearms when they were attacked, they might not have become victims. Our goal is to help transform potential victims into responsible, law abiding citizens who have the desire and the knowledge to take responsibility for their own personal safety and security.

Narrator: Welcome to the Holistic Survival Show with Jason Hartman. The economic storm brewing around the world is set to spill into all aspects of our lives. Are you prepared? Where are you going to turn for the critical life skills necessary to survive and prosper? The Holistic Survival Show is your family’s insurance for a better life. Jason will teach you to think independently to understand threats and how to create the ultimate action plan. Sudden change or worst case scenario, you’ll be ready. Welcome to Holistic Survival, your key resource for protecting the people, places, and profits you care about in uncertain times. Ladies and gentlemen, your host Jason Hartman.

Jason Hartman: Welcome to the Holistic Survival Show. This is your host Jason Hartman where we talk about the people, places, and profits you care about in these uncertain times. We have a great interview for you today and we will be back with that in less than 60 seconds on the Holistic Survival Show. And, by the way, be sure to visit our website at HolisticSurvival.com. You can subscribe to our blog which is totally free, has loads of great information, and there’s just a lot of good content for you on the site. So make sure you take advantage of that at Holistic Survival.com. We’ll be right back.

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Start of Interview with Steve Ramenter

Jason Hartman: It’s my pleasure to welcome Steve Ramenter to the show. He is the author of the Essential Guide to Handguns: Firearm Instruction for Personal Defense and Protection. Steven, welcome.

Steve Ramenter: Thank you, Jason. It’s a pleasure to be with you.

Jason Hartman: It’s great to have you here today. Tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind the book and your background.

Steve Ramenter: Well, the inspiration behind the book was as a Philadelphia police officer for 30 years, I found that both my duty and with my ability able to train civilians to be able to protect themselves in the world we live in today. Unfortunately, today, as most of us realize, society is changing dramatically around us with kidnappings in places like Arizona and so forth. So the whole idea was you get people comfortable with the idea of learning how to use a tool, be proficient at it, know how it works and why it works, and to keep as many people as I could alive.

Jason Hartman: All of these crime statistics lately, Steven, are showing…And of course I know these statistics are all manipulated and everything and feel free to address that if you wish, but the overall word from our government, big brother here, is that crime is on the decline.

Steve Ramenter: I don’t think any American that’s listening to your radio show would believe that, Jason. On a personal perspective, no. Figures lie and liars figure. That’s always been a quote I’ve addressed in my life.

Jason Hartman: That’s a good one. So you were a police officer and you’re retired now, right?

Steve Ramenter: That is correct.

Jason Hartman: And how long have you been retired?

Steve Ramenter: I’ve been retired 10 years now.

Jason Hartman: And what did you see out there when you were a cop on the beat and you were experiencing people who couldn’t defend themselves, I mean what was going on?

Steve Ramenter: From a personal view, as I moved through the police department, I eventually wound up in the stakeout unit, which commonly in California would be called a SWAT team. As such, we went out as teams together, posting them in, dressed as either an insurance salesman, any number of kind of different descriptions that would actually try to get robbed. Seeing that from that vantage point, you realize how many savages we had that we call human beings are out there, waiting to take advantage of both the person who’s either dressed like a woman, an insurance man, a businessman, and how fast that goes down and what they did to recruit, and how brutal that attack can be.

Jason Hartman: And what they do to recruit you said?

Steve Ramenter: Yeah. Very often, people that see money flash, whether it be from a woman, an insurance agent, or whatever, will very often recruit from people around them on the streets. It’s never a solo thing because these people aren’t brave enough to attack anybody on their own even if they think it’s an elderly man. So what they’ll do is recruit from people walking around in the same shoes as them, explain what the money issues are, and together, more times than not, they will attack the person and rob them. So seeing it from that vantage point, you can see how society is weak and uncovered by police agencies. And the police can’t be everywhere at one time. So that was a way Philadelphia use, as well as New York and other cities, to try to control that underground population of hold up men that would actually beat and rape and so forth the civilians in our area.

Jason Hartman: So what did they do to control them?

Steve Ramenter: We put 6 granny teams out at one time on the streets of Philadelphia in different area, high crime areas of the city, trying to lure these people into robbing us as policemen. When you see that vantage point, and being policemen with a whole different area of training and being ready for this operation, how terrorized an actual civilian would be in the same situation.

Jason Hartman: It’s pretty dangerous out there no question. So your recommendation is that people have a concealed weapon on their person, right? I mean that’s what you have to do in those situations you’ve described.

Steve Ramenter: Very strongly, but they also have, in addition to that, the training to go with it. I’m not for civilians just arming themselves arbitrarily from the local gun store, going on and throwing the gun in the drawer or putting it in their pocket and when something happens hope for the best to happen to them. No, that’s not the way it goes. By training and learning for professionals who have the ability and the expertise to be out there, I think that more often leads you to the correct way to respond and more often than not leave the situation if you can rather than engage in an actual confrontation.

Jason Hartman: So before we dip into the real nuts and bolts in gun safety, talk to us about some of the other options. And hear what I’m saying, I’m addressing like tasers, pepper spray, what do you think of that stuff?

Steve Ramenter: I think they’re good alternatives. I know that they’re less lethal than any firearm would be. And to have alternatives in any situation would never be a bad idea. Tasers and so forth that shoot projectiles are very much illegal in most states in this country. There are other devices that can be handheld as a woman would be crossing the parking lot to get from the workplace to her vehicle to go home, and just common transit. Pepper spray is also a good tool, but it’s a very close-in device. Both of those devices have to be used with a very close proximity to the victim. That’s the downside.

Jason Hartman: Yeah. And so guns give you a further distance away. Who shouldn’t have a gun?

Steve Ramenter: Someone who is mentally impaired, someone who wants to be too much of a cowboy when you hear voices saying to them that I just want to grab and draw and shoot somebody, the typical off the wall kind of person who’s not responsible with any other thing in life. And everybody can judge. I call them BUBBIs, that’s Brother U Better Believe I’m and Idiot. Because that’s exactly what they are. They have no common sense. They’re watching old TV movies of cowboys and combat shows. We both know that’s not the reality of our soldiers in combat.

Jason Hartman: Good point. How does one prepare themselves for the responsibilities of having a firearm? I mean it is a big responsibility, no question.

Steve Ramenter: It’s a very difficult more responsibility that each person has to decide for themselves. I don’t think that learning about it and understanding it is a detriment to anyone. I think it’s an alternative should your life be in jeopardy, and that’s exactly what it’s for at that point. And all laws that are dedicated to the fact in this country pretty much outlined it for you. Does it give you a tactical advantage? In some situations it would. It’s all about training and constant practice. That’s how they said you get to practice so well. When you practice, you understand how it works, why it works, what situation you would use it in, where you would never use it. Can’t use a firearm to stop a kid from stealing the lawnmower out of your garage. Can’t use a firearm for a kid stealing your car. It’s only personal volatile crimes, rape, robbery, involuntary devious sexual intercourse, arson endangering persons, homicides. Physical force has to be used against an individual and they should be well aware of those facts before they ever purchase a gun.

Jason Hartman: You mentioned earlier that the police can’t be everywhere all the time and we obviously know that and people need to be prepared to protect themselves, but I think that there is a new sort of pressure on our police forces unfortunately. And the reason I think this is because I was talking to a retired police officer friend of mine recently and he said that a lot of cops just don’t like to make arrests anymore because there’s so much liability. And I thought “What are you talking about?” And he says “Well, if you work in LAPD, everything is scrutinized and it is making it very, very difficult for police officers to do their job. And I’m not sure this is a conscious thing and I’m not saying anything bad about them, but maybe it’s sort of a self-protection, he said police aren’t super excited about running to calls like they used to be and saving the day. He says they’re worried about that nowadays, coming in on the commission of the crime if they can get there fast enough at all, whereas before they really wanted to do that. They felt that that was their purpose. And nowadays they’re just under a lot of scrutiny. And he said police officers are really getting discouraged nowadays. Is that true? Did you find that to be true?

Steve Ramenter: Well, I think scrutiny is part of being a uniformed officer. You just can’t turn [0:10:02.7]. That’s not gonna work. Do we want to be out there saving the public? I don’t know anybody that ever took this job that didn’t have that mind when they initially took it. Do you see the results of society when you get out there? Yeah, everybody’s got a video camera today which often doesn’t describe the total situation. I mean if you don’t know the totality of circumstances, a little clip from the video camera doesn’t tell what you’re doing. That’s what the police get most disgusted with. Who are we trying to save out here? Our do-gooders, the criminals? I mean they’re the smallest minority on the planet earth. Every genre they cross, they’re still the smallest minority. They’re the people that want to hurt society. We put them in prison. What do we do in prison? We give them weight sets, TV sets and let them practice their weightlifting techniques and learn from other criminals. I don’t know the solution for it, but I understand the aggravation by most police today. It doesn’t stop the good cop from still going out and doing his job. They can’t be everywhere. And you’re probably right about statistically, yeah, they’re as anxious as they once were to get to a situation unfortunately.

Jason Hartman: And that is very unfortunate. And that makes it more and more necessary for people to really learn how to protect themselves properly and responsibly. What are some of the basic tactical self-protection tools?

Steve Ramenter: The basic ones are as you described earlier which some of them about products like pepper spray. I have a device that’s called a knuckle blaster. You hold it in your hand, you protect your knuckles with it and it shoots 940,000 volts at somebody should they touch you. And it’s fully directional. From there you go to a firearm. Now, I think not knowing how to use it, learn from proper people. I mean you gotta watch it out there. A lot of instructors that I’ve come in contact with is strictly about money, get you in, get you out, make a fast buck. I don’t operate like that here. I build friendships and not customers because as a cop you see too many people who have been attacked. And for whatever reason, somebody has either run them down mentally, physically, or whatever, and now you want to put them back on top and secure in the fact that if they had to protect themselves they possibly could. Is it the best case scenario? No. Are they gonna become police officers because they get a gun? No. But the more they could train and learn how to use it, the more proficient they will be because nobody trains the gangsters out here. I won’t have them in my place. I’d push them other places. I have a multi-racial, multi-ethnic range. All the gang members, Ku Klux Klan members, neo-nazis, I ship somewhere else. I don’t want them in my place because my concern is the populous around me. And it’s just my way of giving back the things I’ve been taught and the money that civilians have dedicated to me as a cop over the years to get the training I got. So why not share it?

Jason Hartman: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so the knuckle blaster, that’s interesting. I just looked that up online while you were mentioning it.

Steve Ramenter: It’s called Blast Knuckles.

Jason Hartman: Blast Knuckles?

Steve Ramenter: Yes. If you look that up on the internet, you’ll see it’s a very good tool. And if you’ve ever been around somebody, it looks like brass knuckles almost but it’s rubber coated. If you’ve ever had a tool around your hand like that, no one can take it off. The adrenaline of you being involved in an altercation will keep that on your hand and allow you to use it to protect yourself. I recommend it very highly.

Jason Hartman: Is something like that legal in every state? Like brass knuckles are illegal, right?

Steve Ramenter: Absolutely. But as you look at that device you’ll understand the fact that it’s totally coated with rubber and this is strictly for people whose lives may be in jeopardy. This is not for the hoodlum that uses a taser to pacify somebody so they can do some other things to them. It’s strictly for somebody who’s going across that dark parking lot at home and there’s no security desk to escort your wife or your girlfriend to a vehicle. It’s something she can have in her hand that is both non-lethal and allows her the avenue to escape.

Jason Hartman: But you’ve got to make direct contact with the person with that tool.

Steve Ramenter: You have to touch them. Yes, but it’s fully directional. It doesn’t transfer to you either.

Jason Hartman: Right, right.

Steve Ramenter: Which is the good upside to that. Pepper spray you’ve got to be aware of the wind.

Jason Hartman: Don’t do pepper spray up or downwind.

Steve Ramenter: Oh no. I’ve seen it clear out a few college campus lunchrooms in this area. Somebody thought it was a flashlight and they misused it.

Jason Hartman: So the basic tools are handgun, taser, knuckle blaster, pepper spray. What about those keychain sort of little mini batons? What are those called, kubotans?

Steve Ramenter: Yeah. I’ve seen them. They’re pretty much used in the area of martial arts. Martial arts is a very slow learning process. It takes years to get any good at it. And to buy a tool that you’re gonna use in martial arts in a tactical situation as a novice, you might as well just give them a big hammer and say hit me.

Jason Hartman: Makes sense. If you talk about handguns, how would someone choose the right gun?

Steve Ramenter: When I wrote the book, we listed a lot of different firearms so people could make assessments from reading about them. As you’re well aware, the internet is full of everything today. And sometimes it’s jaded by those people who are trying to sell these things or push a certain object. I would say go with the classics, the name companies out there, Smith and Wesson, Beretta, Glock, Sig Sauer, JK, the ones that have been around for a while. Anything’s that got a weird name like The Pond Around the Corner, no, you don’t want that for protection. It’s not gonna last. It’s not gonna get you out of a bad situation. And more often than not, it fails very quickly.

So research a little bit. That’s what I do to folks here. I don’t want to sell them a gun because they come in today and they learned how to shoot. Make an informed decision. I’ve taught you how and why this thing works. Now go out and research and make an informed decision. I don’t need to sell you a gun here. I don’t care about their money. But make informed decisions, whatever that be, and whoever you buy it from.

Jason Hartman: Revolver or automatic?

Steve Ramenter: I hear a lot of gun shops tell you revolvers are most dependable. That was true years ago. It’s no longer a valid point because all the semi-automatics produced today are just as reliable. But the bigger, different point is it has more capacity. Anyone that’s ever been in a fight with a firearm knows should the crap hit the fan, what you need more is ammunition, not a five shot little two-inch revolver. And people choose those more often than not because they can conceal them easier. Today, semi-automatics have a lighter weight, a higher capacity, and they’re greater accuracy.

Jason Hartman: But in California, you’re only going to get a 10 shot clip anyway.

Steve Ramenter: Well, if you need more than 10 shots to stop somebody, Jason, you need an air strike.

Jason Hartman: Right, fair enough. I just wanted to bring that up. So which semi-automatic…For someone who wants to get the concealed carry permit or if in their state it’s legal to carry concealed without a permit, what’s the lightest/smallest semi-automatic pistol that you’d recommend I should say.

Steve Ramenter: Oh, that I recommend. It depends on the usage now, Jason. To stop a human being was the means and the ability to hurt you, you need 124 grains of bullet wait or higher, which means a 9 millimeter 38, 40, 45 and above. For pocket use today, they have a lot of nice little firearms out, but you have to be really well experienced to use them. And my first illustration to you would be the Ruger LCP. It’s a very well made, very accurate small gun you can put in your pocket and has an 8 round capacity and is very lethal. Runts want practices with it. For people that are here, I never train them on small guns. I usually start with a glock semi-automatic 9 millimeter pistol because what I’m trying to convey to people you’re gonna learn on the same gun that the police are issued. Once you learn, you can understand and hold this and be accurate with it and understand its components, you can really easily move to a smaller gun. But they have to start somewhere first to build their confidence and their accuracy and note components. I don’t want somebody who had them in the customer waiting area. We all know what they do there. They blow smoke up your butt and say it’s raining outside. The less you have the customer waiting area, the more that you’re able to fix things and understand them themselves. That reduces that dependence on somebody else to tell you how and why to do things.

Jason Hartman: The Ruger LCP, you’re right, that is a tiny little gun. Is that a 9 millimeter, that little thing?

Steve Ramenter: That’s a 380. The 9mm is short. It’s what it’s called without Europe.

Jason Hartman: Wow. That is a nice little gun. Where would you buy one of those? When I go to gun shops locally here, they have a pretty small selection. And I mean can you buy guns online or is that not legal?

Steve Ramenter: If you buy a gun online, you have to get a licensed federal firearms dealer to receive it from a licensed firearms dealer in that other state.

Jason Hartman: Ah, got it.

Steve Ramenter: So if I was gonna buy a gun from California, I would have to get a dealer out there and one of my customers who lives here could purchase it there. He could not touch it, play with it, feel it. It has to be shipped…

Jason Hartman: To the dealer.

Steve Ramenter: Once I send my license to the California store, then he’s got a place to ship it too. Otherwise, it’s a federal crime. You can’t just buy it in California and transport it back here. That’s a crime.

Jason Hartman: So the Ruger LCP, you have a second best recommendation?

Steve Ramenter: The Walter PK380 is another very good gun. The difference between the two guns, since they’re both 380s, the LCP is strictly a carry gun. It’s not a gun you can practice with on a continuous basis without eventually damaging it if you shoot as much as other people do to practice, whereas the Walter PK 380 is strictly a target gun and defensive gun, so you could fire hundreds of rounds out of that and never damage it for your protection use. A tad bigger, it’s got a very ergonomic grip to it. It’s easy to conceal with the proper holster, and it gives you an upside that you can practice on a regular basis with or without damaging the gun. So you have to remember that. When you have really little firearms, they’re not designed for a lot of continuous shooting. They’re designed strictly as a protection device.

Jason Hartman: Right, right, for very rare usage, yeah.

Steve Ramenter: Yeah, very close up and personal.

Jason Hartman: We’ll take a brief pause. We’ll be back in just a minute.

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Jason Hartman: What about at home? Is the shotgun really the weapon of choice at home?

Steve Ramenter: I’ve heard that mentioned by other people before as a good home defense. If you want to go cheap, shotgun’s the way to go. There’s not a person on earth who doesn’t recognize that sound of a pump shotgun. However, it’s going to do a lot of damage to whatever else you’re aiming at besides the person coming in your door. The first thing you always have to do is recognize that the fact that that person that’s putting your life in jeopardy is not someone you know. You send a shotgun down the hallway and it’s your uncle from down the street, you’ve got bigger problems than you ever thought because you’re rarely gonna miss him. The handgun gives you more control. You should let the perpetrator come to you rather than you go to them, because everyone that’s listening to this radio channel knows their residence better than anybody breaking into it does. You’re gonna know where the rattles and squeaks in the floor are. You’re gonna know when he bumps into something in a particular room. Anytime you go to address a felon, you’re going into what’s called the fatal funnel of fire. And it’s exactly that. It’s a funnel starting from the point where this felon that is in your house outwards towards you. You do want to control that, so you want this felon to operate in your fatal funnel of fire. So do you go to your bedroom or whatever secure room you have and let him come into you, increasing your ability.

Jason Hartman: And you surprise him, that’s a good point. You’re surprising him instead of the other way around.

Steve Ramenter: Absolutely, because you know your residents better. And you never, ever go meet the police with a gun in your hand. I don’t care if whether the cop drives by 50 times in your residence, you wave to him when you’re cutting your grass, believe me, he doesn’t know who you are, and they don’t know who the good guy is and the bad guy is when they pull up, so never meet a police officer with a gun in your hand.

Jason Hartman: One question, though, if the guy breaks into your house and you don’t go seek out…You hear noises, this is what happens, right? You hear a noise, a bump in the night, and you go seek that person out, that you’re saying is dangerous and I completely understand what you’re saying. But if you don’t go investigate, how do you know it’s really a noise? How do you know it’s not just a fluke?

Steve Ramenter: Okay, you set a time limit, 15 minute time limit. You sit quiet as possible in the room you’re in and listen. That’s why God gave us two eyes, two ears and one mouth, to listen and see twice as much as we say. By listening and hearing, you’d be surprise you can hear movements. If you don’t hear any further movements after about 15 minutes, you know it’s something like an animal knocked something over that you have in your residence, the wind brushing by your window. You give it that 15 minute avenue to make sure nothing is moving around. Criminals do not have a long time to stay in your residents. They want to get in, get the objects they wanted, and get out. So that 15 minute avenue gives you some time to really reflect on what’s going on around you and to calm yourself down should it be a bad situation. And you always have your cell phone charging in your bedroom, not in the kitchen. First thing professionals do is cut the phone line from the outside. The next thing they’re gonna see is that cell phone charging in the kitchen. By having the cell phone in the bedroom, you have contact with other human beings, which usually will relax anybody that’s being attacked.

And it doesn’t hurt to get on the phone with 911. I heard a noise downstairs and I’m going to investigate. No, I’m going to stay in my room because I just heard it again. Now you have probable cause to think somebody is in the building.

Jason Hartman: Good advice. Any more advice on that kind of confrontation situation? That’s good to know.

Steve Ramenter: Yes. If you’re ever gonna buy a flashlight, buy a good one. Buy one that’s chargeable, have it in your bedroom or wherever your secure area is gonna be. Never hold the flashlight. Never put a laser beam on your pistol. It identifies where you are. What you want to do is have it as far away from your body as you’re on the opposite side of the room, just watching the doorway of light. It doesn’t have to be a direct beam. You’ll see what I mean if you try it. There’s a big wide area that the flashlight covers in the entrance to a bedroom or a hallway. That’s all you need to see. By holding objects, you’re identifying where you are and making yourself a target. If you’re going to shoot at the light, God bless him. Let him hit the light, then I’ll knock him right off from that point on. But it gives me a little tactical advantage. For all the guys that complained about their wives buying oak bureaus to put in their bedrooms, an oak bureau is pretty hard to shoot through. To begin on the full opposite side of it and protect yourself, you want to remove yourself from any avenue where you can be struck from.

Jason Hartman: On that discussion of the laser sights, I used to think the laser sight was a gimmick. Now, I like the idea of the laser sight, however you gotta know how to use it because you don’t want it to be on. You cover it with your finger actually, your trigger finger.

Steve Ramenter: You’ve been trained well. Okay, yes. Other people haven’t, they put the beam on constantly. And you understand the downsides to that, don’t you?

Jason Hartman: Yeah, definitely. And then the flashlight should not be attached to the gun. You use that in your other hand.

Steve Ramenter: Yeah. Well, you see that more often than not on the new bracket that attaches to your firearm. It’s all gimmicks. I’m not a gimmick guy.

Jason Hartman: Right, right. It makes sense. For flashlights, I have a couple of those sure fire executive defenders. It’s a little tiny light. It’s super bright. It’ll blind the intruder.

Steve Ramenter: Oh, SureFire is a very good company who makes an excellent product.

Jason Hartman: And then it has a weaponized bezel, so the bezel can be used as a weapon if you get close up and you need to, yeah, so that’s good.

Steve Ramenter: Very good choice for flashlight, very good people to deal with as well.

Jason Hartman: Good stuff. Anything else on confrontation?

Steve Ramenter: Not that we can train over the phone with them. It’s gotta be a more personalized thing. Everybody’s different and their situations are different. To speak generally to that fact, I don’t know how I really could.

Jason Hartman: What does someone do to practice? And if you’ve decided to take the responsibility of owning a firearm, how often should you go to the range? How many times do you need to go before you’re sort of proficient? Tell the listeners about that.

Steve Ramenter: When I start training people, I give them the basic overall view of how the gun works and why it works. When I take them out, and I’m not patting myself on the back but I’m very good at getting people to shoot accurately in the first 50 rounds that they fire. It’s a system that you have to continually practice to maintain that skill. It’s an unforgivable skill if you don’t practice. So what I do in the initial thing, we get them coming back a few times at their own volition. Because you can never look in another man’s pocket instead of his rice bowl because you don’t know what he makes and how hard he’s working or if he’s even feeding his family presently. So when I take them from there, I have a different way of handling that. Next I’ll teach them how to use a holster and how to draw from a holster. And then from there I’ll tell them not to shoot multiple targets. Then from there I go into the dark and let them shoot in the dark here. These are all things that just build that are ability to protect themselves and teach them what they can do. I reduce target sizes. I don’t use anything near the police sized target for qualification. It’s just humongously big, it’s ridiculous.

Jason Hartman: It’s too easy.

Steve Ramenter: Yeah, it’s too easy. Police can’t qualify with that. I don’t know how it is in your area, but very often when you see shootings in this area, 80 shots fired and nobody hit by the police.

Jason Hartman: But you have them shooting in the dark. That’s a really good idea.

Steve Ramenter: Well, I would like to think to grab the target coming at them to shoot at, see if they’ll be scared. And some of them are when you bring this thing in it, at their face, it’s an initial thing that would never happen anywhere else. In the dark, this does work out very good because does my night sights really work? Could my flashlight be used in another way? Which I make them put it 10 feet away to show them what it can do for them. And they move it with their foot rather than with their hands.

Jason Hartman: Oh, their flashlight they move with their foot, huh?

Steve Ramenter: Yes. Move it with your foot across the room. Because even laying on a rug, if you practice in your home in darkness you’ll see how much you can watch an entire room or floor of a building just by using it that way.

Jason Hartman: Is that your foot without shoes?

Steve Ramenter: Yeah. Well, it depends on the situation. If you have a linoleum floor or something your shoes could be hurt on, of course you want to take those off and you want to use the socks. You want to be as quiet as you can. You don’t want to identify where you are. You never go out of shadows in your home. Stay in the shadows. That’s why you don’t illuminate yourself with any device whether it be a laser or whatever. You, unlike the general public, have been trained how to use a laser. Believe me, most people are not. They put the gimmick on the gun. And if you’ve ever seen people that are untrained, put a target downrange, it’s all over the place.

Jason Hartman: And the gimmick makes them the target just like you said.

Steve Ramenter: Absolutely. And if they learn how to use the gun without sites, so what if the battery goes bad in your laser? They’re just out there, right? Learn to train to shoot the gun without all that nonsense on it. That’s the thing that’s gonna keep you alive, not the laser beam.

Jason Hartman: One other interesting thing, it’s just sort of a funny thing – Some people, I mean grown adults, are sort of afraid to sleep in the dark. And what’s odd is I think that whole thing’s counterintuitive. I think it’s better to sleep in the dark because when the intruder comes in, he’s not gonna see where you are necessarily. And he doesn’t know your house and he might trip over something and that noise will wake you.

Steve Ramenter: That’s exactly what I was talking about.

Jason Hartman: Yeah. I mean you’re always sleeping in the dark when your eyes are closed.

Steve Ramenter: Yeah. Well, people have phobias for a lot of reasons. Most often or not, it was the family they were raised in doing something stupid to them. You’re probably as much aware as I am there’s a lot of people in life that have been crapped on by one somebody or another. So night lights are a good idea, but you’re absolutely right. To get a tactical advantage, it’s better to sleep in the dark.

Jason Hartman: Yeah, because you’re on equal footing.

Steve Ramenter: How are you going to convince somebody that’s been scared of the boogeyman in their closet since they were 5? That’s a psychological problem. Neither of us are equipped to handle that one I don’t think.

Jason Hartman: Nope, probably not, probably not. This has been a good discussion of this stuff, and I’m glad we really got into some specifics here. And I really enjoyed the part especially about what to do in case of an intruder. Anything else you want to tell the listeners before we go just to kind of wrap up the whole concept or any more nuts and bolts things?

Steve Ramenter: Certainly. On the street, you never want to carry vast amounts of money in currency and expose it to people in stores. If you’re proud you had $100 bills in your business today, wonderful, keep it to yourself. You make a Cincinnati bank roll which means a lot of newspapers surrounded by a couple of 1s wrapped with a rubber band. If an attacker really wants your money, you throw it. If he’s going after the money, he’s there to rob you. If he’s doing it to you still, he’s there to do something a lot more dangerous to you. And things like that are just common sense things.

If you’re in a mall and you’re shopping and you bring your packages out and all of a sudden somebody comes up behind you and puts a knife to your throat and says “Woman, drive me to the nearest park around here. I’ll let you go when we get there.” You already have one crime scene, where the robbery initially started. My feelings are crash the car. You pay car insurance. Crash it, remove his avenue of escape. Why would you take anybody to a remote spot where they can rape and kill you. Once you remove that avenue of escape, you attract a lot of attention in that mall parking lot. You attract people that will help you and if you have a firearm you get out and look for the next vehicle next to you as he’s running away. You’re going to be able to protect yourself.

Jason Hartman: Yeah. I just want you to expand on that maybe for a moment. I have heard that never cooperate in the sense of getting into a vehicle or going somewhere else. Do not let the bad guy move you. Is that pretty much…

Steve Ramenter: Absolutely true. You’re taking one crime scene, making a second where nobody that you know. Suppose your wife says “I’m going down to the nearest mall, Jason” and they find her body 40 miles away in the desert. You didn’t know she was going out there. All you know is that it was the mall. Now the cops have to trace back from that mall hoping someone comes forward and seen something with your wife. I mean that’s what these criminals do to you. They torture cops in prison. Well, we’ll tell you where the body’s at. People need closure when those idiotic things happen.

Jason Hartman: Well, we just had that happen with this scumbag in San Diego that killed Chelsea King and he had a couple other victims and got on the radio and he was all flippant about it. The reporter said “Are there any other victims?” “Oh, you think I’m gonna tell you? Nice try.” I mean unbelievable.

Steve Ramenter: The media generates that stuff, though.

Jason Hartman: Yeah, of course they do.

Steve Ramenter: These creeps want to see their name in the paper. They want to see all these things. It’s why shows like Criminal Intent are on television, the FBI’s criminal task force. They’re out there. We have a lot of professionals out there to try to solve these things every day. We have a lot of dedicated people out there every day. Unfortunately, all the civilians around both of us don’t help enough. They don’t look hard enough. They don’t pay attention to things going around. I call them sheeple. As a sheep, you follow the one with the bell. If he goes over the cliff, everybody’s gone with him. We have to be more responsible to one another as citizens here. At least make a 911 call. If you’re suspicious of somebody being hurt, dial the phone. Get involved a little bit.

Jason Hartman: And you know what’s scary about that? And I think there’s actually a name for this kind of syndrome, I can’t remember what it is. But I remember a long time ago there was the story of the New York jogger and she was being raped and terrorized and everybody heard it, yet they thought someone else would call. They thought because it was so obvious that someone else had called and nobody called.

Steve Ramenter: I remember that job vividly. It’s the biggest disgrace in the history of this country.

Jason Hartman: It really is, it really is.

Steve Ramenter: We’re assuming. When you assume something, make an ass out of you and me. Never assume people.

Jason Hartman: No question about it. Well, what else do people need to know, just to wrap it all up?

Steve Ramenter: Be conscious of what’s going on. Be a little bit paranoid. It doesn’t hurt you. Pay attention. That’s what street smarts is. People who live in depressed areas are street smart because they’re being constantly shot at or trying to be victimized. They know when to duck. People that live in white bred areas or moved in communities and so forth that are a little bit more aesthetic in value and things like that, they lose contact with the realities of going to the inner city and they put themselves in jeopardy by their being in La La land. Pay more attention to your surroundings.

Jason Hartman: Good point. Where can people find out more? Your website? Or where can I get the book?

Steve Ramenter: PistolPeople.com is the website. It’s slightly out of date, but it kind of reflects the overall view, which I have. And of course the book is called the essential guide to handguns which is in publication for a number of years now.

Jason Hartman: And that’s on Amazon and all the other usual suspects?

Steve Ramenter: Yeah, it’s a lot of venues. Amazon is most prominent.

Jason Hartman: Excellent. Well, Steven, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate the insights.

Steve Ramenter: Jason, I thank you for the venue to come and speak to the people around us. I value their lives and I value their friendships.

Jason Hartman: Our pleasure. Keep up the good work.

Steve Ramenter: Thank you, sir.

Female: I’ve never really thought of Jason as subversive. But I just found out that’s what Wall Street considers him to be.

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Narrator: Thank you for joining us today for the Holistic Survival show, protecting the people, places and profits you care about in uncertain times. Be sure to listen to our Creating Wealth show which focuses on exploiting the financial and wealth creation opportunities in today’s economy. Learn more at www.JasonHartman.com or search “Jason Hartman” on iTunes. This show is produced by The Hartman Media Company, offering very general guidelines and information. Opinions of guests are their own and none of the content should be considered individual advice. If you require personalized advice, please consult an appropriate professional. Information deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. (Top image: Flickr | robertnelson)

Transcribed by Ralph

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