Ken Solinsky, president of Insight Technology Incorporated, was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2009 national winner in the Distribution and Manufacturing category. Now in its 23rd year, the awards recognize leaders and visionaries who demonstrate innovation, financial success and personal commitment as they create and build world-class businesses.

Ken Solinsky spent 15 years in the US Army learning about night vision, then took that expertise and founded Insight Technology to build and deliver higher quality, more cost-effective products for the military and police departments. Ken received his first government contract to make infrared aiming lights. Today, Insight Technology is a world leader in the production of night vision goggles, laser aiming rangefinders and thermal imaging systems used by soldiers on a daily basis.

As promised, I posted a Newsletter today with a bit of an update about some of what’s been going on with I.C.E. !

Also, there is an article about some of the problems that can be caused by Dry Repetition. Here is the beginning:

“Dry Reps can lead to Poor Performance.
Too often, we see students who have been practicing without the accountability of firing a shot, rushing their actions and failing on the range.
by Rob Pincus

I can remember when just about everyone you talked to, in a gun shop or on the internet, was repeating clichéd lines in regard to the incredible importance of dry fire practice. “Dry fire 1000 times for every live round you shoot” used to be a common thought in the firearms training world. Nowadays, most people have figured out that over-thinking and over-choreographing the single trigger press without recoil and without the accountability of a result is only a valid training method for extreme marksmanship pursuits like Bull’s Eye pistol shooting or extreme precision rifle endeavors. The importance of rapid multiple shot strings of fire in regard to stopping a threat is pretty much universally accepted and the old days of over emphasized “follow through” and controlling your breathing while pulling the trigger on a defensive gun are pretty well behind us.”

Read the rest of this article, and more at the latest I.C.E. Training Update!

Here is a blog article written by Randall H. Miller which highlights some thoughts that I offered him to share in the aftermath of the Ft. Hood Shootings.

Randall H Miller.com

-RJP

John Lott gives us some straight facts about the shooting at Fort Hood:

“Mandy Foster’s husband had been shot but was fortunate enough not to be seriously injured. In an interview on CNN on Monday night, Mrs. Foster was asked by anchor John Roberts how she felt about her husband “still scheduled for deployment in January” to Afghanistan. Ms. Foster responded: “At least he’s safe there and he can fire back, right?” — It is hard to believe that we don’t trust soldiers with guns on an army base when we trust these very same men in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, most of CNN’s listeners probably didn’t understand the rules that Ms. Foster was referring to.”

Read the entire article here….

This week on Down Range Radio, Michael Bane addresses the same topic and also delves into the whole concept of “active shooter,” what it means to the armed civilian and what civilian training for such events might look like…

Listen here…

From the Ruger S.A. Defensive Revolver Class in May 2009. Photo Credit: Ron Canfield

October is usually our busiest month of the year at Gunsite, and this October was no exception. We had a full schedule of regular classes, military classes and, of course, the GAS Match, our annual family get-together. This time of year we also experience our very best training weather. It’s cool in the mornings and sunny and warm, without being too hot, in the afternoons. This great weather is going to be around for awhile, so come shoot with us if you can.

If what we are seeing here at the school is any indication, revolvers are making something of a comeback. Although most of us older shooters started on revolvers and then transitioned into self loading pistols, there are many shooters out there these days who are doing things “backwards”; as in, they started on the semi-autos and are now learning about revolvers. That being said, I thought we should spend a little time talking about revolvers in this newsletter. First, as to training, there is no reason not to take a regular Gunsite pistol class with a revolver. But, if you want a revolver specific class we have Defensive Revolver, a three day class. We will be running DR May 10-12 and July 7-9 next year. And for those who enjoy the single action revolvers, we even have a single action version of defensive revolver and it runs May 3-5. Continued

In this video, Michael Bane and Ruger’s Ken Jorgensen talk about Ruger Rimfire Shooting Competitions and the plans to expand it for 2010 with regional matches all over the US. Continued

Rob O. from Larimer, PA, is the winner of the first of the 13 knives we are giving away on CAScity.com and DownRange.tv . Congratulations! Continued

Our October – December Giveaway was launched on October 7. In addition to giving away a FNAR and a pair of Ruger SASS Vaqueros, we are warming up for the gun giveaways with 13 knives from Chuck Stapel.

Chuck’s knives have appeared in dozens of movies such as “Quigley Down Under”, “Switchback”, “No Mercy”, and “Little Nikita”; in hundreds of commercials; and in countless television shows such as “Wildside”, “Magnificent Seven”, “Thunder In Paradise”, “Walker: Texas Ranger”, “Knightrider”, “Jason and the Argonauts”, and “Magnum P.I.”

His knives are prized as works of art, and collector’s items, and are displayed at many museums, such as the Roy Rogers Museum, and Gene Autry Western Museum, and in the private collection’s all over the world, including such celebrities as Robert Stack, Tom Selleck, Roy “Dusty” Rogers, Jr., Chuck Norris, the Mandrell Sisters, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, and John Milius. Continued

Time sure flies when you’re having fun, or staying busy, and here it is October already.  At Gunsite this is our time for perfect weather, the annual alumni shoot match and many classes on the schedule.  In addition to our regularly scheduled classes, this October we also have two classes of Marines coming in for training.

We enjoy the relationship we have with the military and I’m not sure if the military students or the instructors who work with them receive the most from these classes.  Surely, it’s the military students who receive top level training, but it’s the instructors who get the most from the relationship on a personal and emotional level.  We hear, over and over, from our military students, that the training they have received here is the best they have had since joining the military and we also hear from many of them who call or write to thank us for providing the training that saved their lives or the lives of their buddies in combat.  We regret that our soldiers aren’t always getting the best training but we do our small part and are deeply gratified to hear that our contribution has made a difference. Continued