What Can *I* Do?

Last week, I read a post shared by Renegade Medics on Facebook. The gist is that everyone in a school setting should be trained in trauma management. Does that mean that secretaries, teachers, and custodians need to be paramedic certified? No.

Credit: Renegade Medics

What it means is that a lot of traumatic deaths (in this case, gunshot wounds) are preventable if people are trained to deal with them. It matters not if a person is pro-gun or anti-gun, we all have the ability to save lives.

I am personally fairly comfortable with treating trauma, as I started my "life" in medicine first as an athletic trainer, then an EMT. Though I currently teach Medical Assistants, I'm still fairly comfortable with trauma. I knew that if something happened at work, I'd be okay handling it, but I was being short-sighted. While I could handle it, could others on our campus?

After reading the post by Renegade Medics, I made up my mind to do something about it, because they are right - everyone on campus should be trained. That's something I can do for my campus - staff and students.

I immediately started texting my boss, telling him that I wanted to place a trauma kit in every classroom and that I wanted to do a staff/faculty training to teach everyone how to use it. I'm not looking at making a full trauma kit - there won't be any IV bags, trach kits, etc. It will be a very basic, oh shit bag, with TQs, chest seals, and packing gauze. You know, basically what I carry in my IFAK. One in every classroom, with all staff/faculty members trained will go a long way toward saving lives.

I know, after every big tragedy, we look around and ask, "what can I do?". Well, this is what I can do.

What can you do? Start by getting training yourself. Here's a great place to start: Bleedingcontrol.org
Look for free classes near you. Or, if you're an instructor, sign up to teach free classes.

Over Easy, Please

I love me some over easy eggs. It's my go-to order when we go out for breakfast. This morning, I woke up wanting some eggs, so I got out my non-stick pan, some butter, a couple of eggs and a bamboo spatula.

Pic from Google Images

Once the butter was hot, I added the eggs, salt and pepper, and let them cook. When it was time to flip them, I slipped the spatula under the eggs and attempted a flip. Yeah, it didn't work. So I did it again, and it sort of worked. One of my eggs flipped over on top of the other and the yolk broke.

Damn it, I was going to end up with over medium eggs and those are gross.

My eggs were slipping all around the non-stick pan and the broken yolk was quickly cooking, but the whites that needed to cook were not and it was rapidly looking like I was going to have a fried egg sandwich for breakfast instead of my two over easy eggs.

Eventually, I got it sorted out - the whites cooked, while minimizing the cooking of the broken yolk - and got my very ugly eggs onto my plate.

I was grumbling to myself as I sat down to eat my ugly, not-perfectly-cooked eggs, "I wish we had one of those thin nylon spatulas! Then I could have flipped them."

At that point it dawned on me that I was blaming the tool (bamboo spatula) for my lack of skill. I had all of the tools I needed, namely a non-stick pan, but I did not have the skill. My husband is a chef, he never uses a spatula to flip eggs. Why? Because he has the skill to use the pan to flip them.

I have neither the skill, nor the courage, to attempt to just flip my eggs with a flick of my wrist.

As shooters - sometimes new shooters, sometimes old shooters - we can have a tendency to blame the tool. It sure the hell wasn't the bamboo spatula's fault I screwed up my eggs. It's an inanimate object that I put into use poorly. It was my fault. I didn't have the skill. Running out to buy a high speed, low drag thin nylon spatula isn't going to magically give me the ability to make perfect over easy eggs.

A chef, like my husband, may consider the ability to flip eggs in a pan a fundamental skill that all trained chefs should know. Lay cooks, like myself, who can cook well enough to feed themselves and occasionally impress friends tend to find work-arounds for those fundamentals. To an untrained person, my "skill" in the kitchen puts me just slightly above average. To a trained person, I cause much head-shaking, because I don't have the fundamentals down. I know just enough about a very few things in the kitchen to be dangerous - impressive to others who don't know any better, but exasperating to the trained.

Instead of going out to buy a new spatula, I'm going to buy another dozen eggs and have my husband teach me the fundamental skill I'm lacking.

SHOT Show 2018 – Clay Pigeons and Thumb Busting

Here are a couple of interesting items we found at SHOT this year.

First up is the Crazy Quail clay pigeon throwing system.  The Crazy Quail is an automated system for throwing clay pigeons.  They offer a single, dual and even a quad throwing system.  You can buy their thrower or mount your own.

The Crazy Quail has a 360 degree rotation so you can throw clays in any direction. 

One of the best features, they have an App so you can control it from your Smartphone or Tablet.  Either program it for a specific pattern or have someone control it for you.

If you are serious about shot gunning and want a serious clay throwing system, then the Crazy Quail system is for you.

Next up is a tool to assist with the fun job of loading magazines.  There have been tools to help load magazines for years.  But I think ETS tactical has come up with one of the easiest systems I have come across.  

They have a universal tool for rifle magazines then the pistol tools are caliber specific.  The tools work with single stack or double stack magazine.  The tool will self center the magazine.  

If you need help loading magazines check out the ETS Tactical tool. 

By: Mez

February 2018

SHOT Show 2018: Toys, Tools, Guns & Rules

One of the great things about SHOT show is all the celebrities you can see.  This year I was fortunate enough to meet Mrs. Julie Golob.  Julie is a veteran, national and international shooting champion and a great spokeswoman for the shooting community.  

She was at the Girls with Guns booth promoting her new book, "Toys, Tools, Guns and Rules".  TTGR is a book designed to introduce guns and gun safety ideas to children.  It is kept simple so children can understand.   

It is a great introduction for children to the world of guns and gun safety.  Grab a copy and read it with your children today.

"Toys, Tools, Guns & Rules"
Written by Julie Glob
Illustrated by Nancy Batra


Additional resources:

Kidsgunsafetybook - Additional information and companion resources to the book.

Project Child Safe - Gun accident prevention program

Eddie Eagle - Gun accident prevention program

Girls with Guns - outdoor apparel designed by women for women.


About Julie Golob:

JulieGolob.com
JulieG.TV
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