Do you know what to do to keep yourself from dying if you ever get shot?
Do you know how to keep your loved ones alive if they get shot?
What if you’re in a public place and a terrorist bomb explodes and now there are tons of mass casualties missing limbs and gushing blood?
Unfortunately, a standard Red Cross First Aid or general CPR class will NOT help in situations like this. You need to know tactical first aid that was developed specifically for battlefield injuries.
The World We Now Live In
Despite what anyone in the media says, it’s clear that the FedGov’s war in the Middle East — The Global War on Terror (GWOT) — is also being fought in America.
In short, many public places are now targets of opportunity for guerrilla warfare and you’re now a soldier in an asymmetric battlefield.
Unfortunately, because you’re a civilian and you’re not actively hunting terrorists, you don’t get to choose when the fight happens in this battle.
It will choose you.
It could be a mass shooting the likes of San Bernardino or the Orlando Nightclub or the small unit terrorist attacks in Paris. Or it could be a terrorist bombing, you just don’t know.
Along with training to defend yourself both unarmed and with various forms of tools — to take life if necessary — you should also train yourself to save life if necessary.
Having Life Saving Medical Skills Is Just Simply Good Common Sense!
Even if you’re not ever involved in a terrorist attack …
Or even if you never have to get in a life-or-death fight with anyone …
The truth is that having life-saving medical skills is just good common sense.
How many of us know someone that has had a MAJOR medical accident — like a saw cut off a person’s fingers? Or a chainsaw cut into a person’s leg?
Or how many times have you driven by a gruesome accident on the side of the road?
Having life-saving medical skills in your back pocket just makes too much sense for you to ignore it, especially when:
1. The information is FREE for you to learn how to save lives.
2. The medical gear is cheap and easy to learn how to use.
Introducing Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC)
Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) guidelines were developed by USSOCOM (United States Special Operations Command) to properly train non-medical personnel to deal with the preventable causes of death in the field. Now they’re being used by all of the U.S. military.
We’ll discuss more about TCCC later, but one of the most important things to understand is that the #1 cause of preventable deaths in combat is Hemorrhage from extremity wounds — responsible for 60% of combat deaths.
That means it’s super critical to stop massive bleeding in gun fights, which makes sense right? Bullets punch holes in humans, and humans bleed. Sometimes it’s a lot. Too much blood loss you die.
The good news is …
Because of these protocols, combat survivability is at an all-time high for US Soldiers. In the pic below you can see how the percent of the wounded who die in combat is now at the lowest it has ever been, mainly because of TCCC.
We may not be in combat, but as prepared gun owners, we need to know civilian TCCC.
Introducing: The M.A.R.C.H. Acronym For Civilians
When it comes to TCCC, you can actually get all the guidelines free online from the US Army manuals or other websites which I’ll link to in just a moment.
If you’ve ever had a medical class, you may be familiar with the ABC acronym that stands for “Airway, breathing, circulation”. Well, forget all that.
The new acronym to remember is M.A.R.C.H.
Massive hemorrhage – control life-threatening bleeding.
Airway – establish and maintain a patent airway.
Respiration – decompress suspected tension pneumothorax, seal open chest wounds, and support ventilation/oxygenation as required.
Circulation – establish IV/IO access and administer fluids as required to treat shock.
Head injury/Hypothermia – prevent/treat hypotension and hypoxia to prevent worsening of traumatic brain injury and prevent/treat hypothermia.
Specifically, as a civilian walking around, living your every day life, you may not have the medical tools or resources to take care of every one of these things (for example, the best way to open an airway is to stick this little tube called a Nasopharyngeal Airway (NPA) up a person’s nose. You should know how to do it, but aside from a full-size blow-out kit in your shooting bag, you probably won’t carry one around).
The #1 thing you CAN focus on — and easily carry medical supplies for — is stopping Massive Hemorrhage (aka stopping bleeding)….
For those who have the time, comprehensive first aid training is a useful asset. The Wilderness First Responder certification is taught over nine or ten days, and is considered a standard certification for those providing first care in remote locations and austere conditions.
John Mosby is a firearms trainer with a very good reputation. He also does some work with Sam Culper from Forward Observer (who was at our expo). He has a website at 
There will be an Appleseed rifle marksmanship training in Waitsburg, WA on August 27th and 28th. Information and registration through this link: 
Lower Valley Assembly 