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“When seconds count, police are minutes away!”
~ National Rifle Association slogan
By Corey Lynn and James White
The deterioration in our sense of personal safety comes from many directions. After a break-in at our neighbor’s home, we start to read the local reports of crimes and arrests. Or we hear reports of or see videos of predatory street crime and violence. Or we go to a protest that turns violent. Or our car is vandalized—lucky that we were not in it. Whatever the threats that have touched you and your family, the growing importance of taking personal responsibility for your safety is why this Solution Series episode is so timely.
Richard Merfert joined the armed services at the age of 17 and has never looked back. With prior experience in Special Operations (1st Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment), he had multiple combat deployments supporting the Global War on Terror. He is a lead high-threat security operations instructor and a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in advanced carbine marksmanship, combat pistol, hand-to-hand combat and defensive tactics (Special Operations Combatives Program), live fire, close quarters battle/close quarters combat (CQB/CQC), executive protection, tactical medicine, and basic demolition. In the course of his profession—which now involves providing close protection for celebrities, politicians, and high-net-worth individuals—he has traveled the world. When it comes to personal protection and situational awareness, Richard is the man with the bona fides.
We are delighted to welcome Richard to the Solution Series as he presents life-saving information that we can all use and understand, whether on the streets, in our car, or inside our home. This episode is top-notch!
Money & Markets
This is the last week of the month, so there is no Money & Markets. The next Money & Markets will publish on April 6. Post questions for Catherine or John Titus at the Money & Markets commentary here.
Related Solari Reports:
Right to Own and Bear Arms with John Harris, President of the Tennessee Firearms Association
Related Resources:
Fith Ops Perimeter Camp Safe Alarm
Best solution series segment published. The people I know that have a similar background as Richard does, recommend smaller caliber firearms in the home. Given the percussion that that is given off when large rounds are fired ( slugs from a 12 guage ) in an enclosed space such as a home seem to have ramifications. Any opinions?
excellent
Good job bringing this to people’s attention. As one active in this field of knowledge, I’d encourage folks to understand their personal safety is their responsibility and no one is coming to save you. While online videos are nice for general learning, I’d highly recommend scenario training. What is scenario training? Check into WOFT located in Orlando, Florida
https://woft.com
https://woft.com/pages/about-us
Corey & team, if you find the topic of scenario training interesting to bring to the viewers, let me know and I’m happy to connect you with the owner of WOFT (Philip) as he is quite a passionate and educated individual with the most in depth knowledge surrounding the topic of self defense.
Cheers and thank you for all you do.
Excellent! More like this please!
Great interview.
excellent and inspiring…Thank you!
Thank you James, Corey and Richard for this, and thank you Solari and Catherine.
I’ve been getting a lot out of a YouTube channel called Active Self Protection and their other channel Active Self Protection Extra. John Correia owns a self protection company and on YouTube he gets videos of self defense encounters and law enforcement badge cams and talks about lessons to be learned from the videos. Fair Warning many of the videos show people getting shot and or killed. Many of those have a warning from youtube and you have to log in to watch them.
https://www.youtube.com/@ActiveSelfProtection
https://www.youtube.com/@ASPextra/featured
I have had a Concealed Weapon license in California for many years. For the first few years I didn’t carry much even though I had the license. We live in a small town that is mostly safe. One day I was taking my 4 year old son on a walk when a dirty, disheveled, half dressed, mentally disturbed man popped out of the bushes with a HATCHET in his hand and started yelling at us “Hey can I ask you a question?” I thought OMG am I going to be able to outrun this man carrying my 4 year old son in my arms, because that one day I might have really needed my weapon I didn’t have it!!! Luckily, he didn’t see us until we were quite a few yards past him and he didn’t pursue us, and I told him we couldn’t stop and kept going. But that scared me and I vowed that moment that I will always carry my weapon and I always have since then, because you never know.
I moved to far northern California because I grew up in southern California. While I lived down there I was a night manager at a popular well known fast food restaurant. One night 3 armed men came to the door as I was about to close and lock it for the night. The man in front pulled a pistol and pointed it right in my face. My brain locked up for about 2 seconds and then I knew what they wanted and got busy giving them what they wanted. Tunnel vision is real! For those two seconds, that gun barrel looked like it had a 10 inch diameter. My vision really did shrink. When we got to the safe in the back office they held the muzzle of the gun right up against the back of my head. One little slip of the trigger finger and I could have been dead. Cooperating worked that night, neither me or my crew were physically hurt. But at another location soon afterward that crew got pistol whipped.
I went back to work a few days later at another restaurant in the chain in a better neighborhood and I was on the day shift. I had Acute Stress Disorder for sure. When a well dressed business man in a suit reached inside his jacket to get his wallet I almost passed out. My heart must have been beating 200 bpm. It’s still uncomfortable to this day 30 years later to write about this.
I grew up in a good loving family. I was trusting and naive. I had never been exposed to the bad. Even after the first incident I hadn’t learned my lesson yet. So one night I wanted a snack. I lived a few hundred yards from a grocery store. I left my apartment on foot. A man was walking on the other side of the 5 lane street and crossed over to my side. When he got to me he said, “Do you want to hear a joke?” He pulled up the waist of his hoodie, exposed a gun, pulled it out, pointed it at me and said, “Here is the joke m*****f***er give me all your money!” I took out my money threw it on the ground and ran. He shot 1 shot at me and I started running in a serpentine path. I got to the gate of my apartment complex and even though the wall was as tall as me I managed to scale it, very quickly. When adrenaline is wearing off, you shake uncontrollably.
After that I had mostly learned my lesson. I didn’t go out much. Even though I never looked for trouble and I was a good, nice kid, trouble had found me twice! I became much more alert and aware. But the hatchet man story shows I still hadn’t fully learned my lesson. Third time is the charm; I think I’ve finally learned my lesson. I hope trouble never comes looking for me or mine again, but if it does I have put some time into training and preparing gun use and tactical first aid, and I carry around a tourniquet and few other small “Stop the Bleed” items, I’ve hardened my house somewhat and I have a dog. I have USCCA insurance, and I have studied the law about when gun fire is justifiable and when it isn’t in self defense. John Correia, Active Self Protection, says you can’t get into a gun fight if you don’t have a gun, but you can get into a shooting! Given a limited choice between the two, I’d rather be in a gun fight than a shooting!
I highly recommend John on Active Self Protection on YouTube. I think his intention is in the right place and his skills and analysis are on point. You’ll learn some good stuff. And get live training, if I lived near Richard Merfert, from this show, I’d go see him.
Darren
Fantastic. It barely scratched the surface, but still I got a lot of notes. I was glued to the screen the whole time; my attention didn’t waver for a second. I have to decide, now what am I going to do to build this out into something I can really use. (Even tho it’s hard for us when there’s not a whole lot of money – and even less time.)