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Summary: Are you genuinely improving your skills, or simply getting better at practicing what you already know? In this episode of Making Shooters Better, retired U.S. Army Master Sergeant and Special Forces veteran William “Will” Thornton joins Terry Vaughan to explore why meaningful improvement requires more than repetition and experience. Drawing on his journey from the 82nd Airborne to Special Forces selection, along with decades of leadership and coaching, Will shares lessons about mental preparation, overcoming setbacks, testing our confidence, and the importance of remaining a lifelong student. From the shooting range to everyday life, this conversation challenges us to recognize our limitations, embrace opportunities to learn, and ask ourselves whether our training is actually making us better. Episode Description: Are you training to improve, or have you simply become comfortable doing what you're already good at? It's an uncomfortable question, particularly for experienced shooters. We develop skills, build confidence, and establish routines. But somewhere along the way, it's possible to confuse familiarity with genuine improvement. In this episode of Making Shooters Better, host Terry Vaughan welcomes retired U.S. Army Master Sergeant and Special Forces veteran William “Will” Thornton for a conversation about preparation, mental resilience, and what it takes to keep growing. Will's remarkable military journey took him from the 82nd Airborne Division to Cold War Berlin, where he witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall, and eventually through Special Forces selection and into 3rd Special Forces Group. Along the way, he discovered that physical ability and experience are only part of the equation. Mental preparation, adaptability, humility, and a willingness to learn from setbacks can be just as important. In this episode, we explore: Why repetition doesn't necessarily translate into improvement.How confidence can become a liability when our abilities go untested.The role of visualization and deliberate dry-fire practice in developing shooting skills.Why adding appropriate challenges to training helps us recognize our limitations.What failure teaches us about resilience, discipline, and personal growth.Why learning from people who are better than we are can accelerate improvement.How to remain adaptable and open to learning throughout life's inevitable transitions.Today, Will is the founder of The Unlimited Well Group, where he helps individuals and organizations navigate change, recognize their potential, and pursue meaningful growth. The takeaway? Becoming a better shooter isn't simply about spending more time practicing. It's about making that practice count, challenging our assumptions, and having the humility to recognize that there's always something more to learn. Connect with William Thornton Website: https://theunlimitedwell.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-thornton-acc-b3979b2a/ About Making Shooters Better Presented by Laser Ammo and hosted by former Royal Marine Commando and TOP SHOT Season 4 alum Terry Vaughan, Making Shooters Better brings together experienced shooters, instructors, and subject-matter experts to explore practical strategies for becoming safer, smarter, and more capable. If this conversation challenges how you think about training, share it with a fellow shooter or instructor, and subscribe for more conversations designed to help you train smarter.

Summary: What if the training that makes you feel prepared is actually giving you a false sense of confidence? In this episode of Making Shooters Better, host Terry Vaughan sits down with 2025 ILEETA Trainer of the Year Duane Wolfe to expose the dangerous gap between practicing shooting skills and performing when your life is on the line. From the hidden pitfalls of scripted training and competition shooting to the physiological effects of stress, Duane explains why knowing how to shoot is only part of the equation, and how realistic, unpredictable training can reveal weaknesses before they become deadly mistakes. Description: You've practiced your draw. You've worked on accuracy. You've run the drills. But what happens when the threat doesn't follow the script? Most firearms training begins with an enormous advantage you won't have in a real confrontation: you already know what's coming. That knowledge can make you faster, more accurate, and more confident. Unfortunately, it can also convince you that you're prepared for something you've never truly experienced. In this episode of Making Shooters Better, host Terry Vaughan welcomes Duane Wolfe, a retired Minnesota peace officer, veteran firearms instructor, longtime Police1 columnist, and 2025 ILEETA Trainer of the Year, for a revealing conversation about the difference between performing on the range and responding to real-world violence. With more than 25 years in law enforcement and 28 years as a full-time instructor, Duane has spent decades examining what happens when training meets human physiology, unpredictable threats, and life-or-death decisions. In this episode, you'll discover: The danger of "training clairvoyance": How predictable drills create unrealistic expectations about your ability to recognize and respond to an attack.Why shooting proficiency isn't the same as survival readiness: The critical differences between marksmanship, competitive shooting, and defensive performance.Feed, Read, Succeed: Duane's framework for recognizing behavioral warning signs, interpreting threats, and connecting perception to appropriate action.What stress actually does to your performance: How physiological changes can affect vision, reaction time, cognitive processing, and shooting mechanics.The importance of unscripted training: Why reactive targets, realistic scenarios, and force-on-force exercises can reveal weaknesses conventional range practice may never expose.Lessons from real-world violence: Duane recounts being assaulted during a DUI arrest and explains what the encounter taught him about warning signs, distance, and reaction time.Training your mind as well as your body: How breathing techniques, stress regulation, and realistic repetition can support clearer thinking and better responses under pressure.Why training smarter matters more than simply training harder: How instructors and individual shooters can better prepare for the unpredictable while maintaining critical skills over time.Along the way, Terry and Duane challenge some deeply held assumptions about firearms training, including whether competition actually improves defensive decision-making, why qualification scores can be misleading, and how seemingly small changes to training methods can produce meaningful improvements in performance. Perhaps most importantly, Duane introduces a question every firearms owner, instructor, and law enforcement professional should consider: Are you training to respond to what actually happens, or simply getting better at responding to what you already know is going to happen? Because the time to discover your training has limitations isn't when someone's trying to kill you. It's before. Connect with Duane Wolfe Duane Wolfe | LinkedIn Find Duane on LinkedIn to learn more about his work in law enforcement training, officer safety, and performance under pressure. About Making Shooters Better Real Stories. Real Strategies. Real Skills. Presented by Laser Ammo, and hosted by former Royal Marine Commando and TOP SHOT season 4 alum Terry Vaughan, Making Shooters Better brings together experienced shooters, instructors, and subject-matter experts to explore practical strategies for becoming safer, smarter, and more capable. If this conversation challenges how you think about training, share it with a fellow shooter or instructor, and subscribe for more conversations designed to help you train smarter.

What actually makes someone a better shooter? Frank Melloni has spent more than a decade answering that question from nearly every angle in the firearms world. A Top Shot Season 4 competitor and president of Renaissance Firearms Instruction, Frank is also a competitive shooter, precision rifleman, handloader, hunter, instructor, and prolific firearms writer with more than 1,100 published articles. In this episode of Making Shooters Better, Frank and Terry Vaughan reunite fourteen years after Top Shot to talk about the lessons that only come from experience. They explore the strengths and weaknesses of being self-taught, why good firearms instructors never stop learning, how competition can expose weaknesses under pressure, and when better gear genuinely improves performance versus simply masking a training problem. Frank also explains what precision shooting and handloading can teach us about consistency, how measurable drills help track real improvement, why dry fire matters, and why shorter, more frequent training sessions may be more effective than spending an entire day at the range once a month. If you are interested in firearms training, competitive shooting, precision shooting, dry fire, handloading, or simply becoming a more capable and thoughtful shooter, this episode is packed with lessons you can apply to your own training. Connect with Frank Melloni Renaissance Firearms Instruction:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/renaissancefirearmsinstruction/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=renaissance%20firearms%20instruction Muck Rack: https://muckrack.com/frank-melloni Website: Renaissance Firearms Instruction Writing: American Rifleman Hook & Barrel Guns & Ammo Topics discussed Firearms training Shooting fundamentals Competitive shooting Precision rifle shooting Handloading and ammunition Dry fire training Gear versus skill Instructor development Top Shot Season 4

You can shoot regularly and still not be training. Kyle Johnston learned that firsthand. After serving in the Marine Corps, Kyle spent nearly a decade building a successful career in filmmaking and media before returning to military service and ultimately becoming a Green Beret with the 19th Special Forces Group. When he returned to structured firearms training, something surprising happened: the shooting ability he thought he had began falling apart as soon as speed, movement, timers, and pressure entered the equation. In this episode of Making Shooters Better, Kyle and Terry explore what separates purposeful training from simply putting rounds downrange. They dig into: • Why firearms skills are far more perishable than many shooters realize • The difference between shooting for enjoyment and training for improvement • Why goals, drills, timers, and measurable data matter • How pressure reveals weaknesses that static range shooting can hide • Why dry-fire and at-home training can dramatically improve consistency • The value of discovering what you're bad at instead of repeatedly practicing what you're already good at • Why tactics and techniques should remain adaptable rather than becoming doctrine • The strange difference between the shooting community online and the one you'll actually meet at the range • Why experienced shooters have a responsibility to help newcomers rather than intimidate them • How Kyle balances training, military service, family, and his work with Unit Solutions Kyle’s experience offers a useful reminder for shooters at every level: Going shooting proves you can pull the trigger. Training tells you what happens when things stop going according to plan.

EPISODE SUMMARY After decades of teaching defensive firearms and tactics, John and Vicki Farnam argue that becoming harder to kill has far less to do with simply becoming better at shooting. We explore preparation as a way of life, recognizing and avoiding danger, the difference between force and violence, why instructors must adapt to their students, what happens psychologically when avoidance is no longer possible, and why some of the greatest victories in defensive training end without a shot ever being fired. EPISODE DESCRIPTION The hardest decision in a gunfight may need to be made years before the gunfight ever happens. John and Vicki Farnam have spent decades teaching armed citizens, law enforcement officers, and instructors around the world. But their philosophy of preparedness reaches far beyond marksmanship. In this episode of Making Shooters Better, former British Royal Marines Commando Terry Vaughan will ask John and Vicki to examine what it really means to be prepared. Why does John believe avoidance deserves more training than confrontation? Why does Vicki begin by asking students whether they truly believe they are worth protecting? Can observation actually be trained? What separates healthy vigilance from paranoia? Why can technically competent shooters still be dangerously unprepared? And what happens when all the avoidance, awareness, judgment, and preparation in the world still leaves you with one unavoidable decision? Vicki also shares the remarkable story of the 700-pound wild hog that charged her, the shot she ultimately had to take at roughly three feet, and what the experience taught her about the purpose of training under pressure. We also explore how firearms instruction itself can fail students when instructors teach the technique they know rather than the person standing in front of them, including lessons Vicki learned while helping instructors better communicate with female shooters. And perhaps most importantly, John explains why hearing from a former student who walked away, kept quiet, chose different friends, or simply decided not to go somewhere can mean more to him than hearing about a shooting his training helped someone survive. Because the ultimate purpose of defensive training isn't winning gunfights. It's making better decisions before one ever begins.

Summary Wayne Dobbs has spent nearly five decades teaching people how to shoot, but his message is not really about shooting. It is about the gap between owning good equipment and actually being prepared to use it well. From grip and presentation to red dots, reloads, decision-making, and mental readiness, Wayne challenges some of the habits shooters cling to most tightly. Along the way, he explains why fundamentals matter more under pressure, why some impressive range skills may have limited defensive value, and why the most important tool in a fight is still the one between your ears. Episode Description What if the biggest thing holding back your shooting isn’t your gun, your optic, or your ammo? Wayne Dobbs has spent 46 years training shooters and 25 years in law enforcement, and he has some strong opinions about what actually matters when performance stops being theoretical. In this episode, Wayne breaks down why grip is so often misunderstood, how poor presentation can make a red dot slower instead of faster, why shooters may be overtraining certain skills, and what mental preparedness really looks like before a defensive encounter ever begins. This conversation goes well beyond technique. It is about building a repeatable process, understanding what your gear can and cannot do, and preparing for the moment when your expectations collide with reality.

What happens when everything you've practiced works perfectly on the range, but the real world changes the rules? Tatiana Whitlock, National Director of Training for A Girl & A Gun Women's Shooting League, joins Terry Vaughan to explore the uncomfortable but essential gap between firearm proficiency and genuine preparedness. Tatiana began shooting as an adult and quickly discovered that mastering marksmanship was only the beginning. Her pursuit of defensive training eventually exposed a much bigger challenge: learning how to apply technical skills inside unpredictable environments involving movement, judgment, family members, changing conditions, and consequences that cannot be reset with another run of the drill. In this episode, Terry and Tatiana explore what she calls "training in context," including why shooters should train for the bodies they have and the lives they actually lead rather than some imaginary version of themselves. Tatiana also explains why skill development must evolve as we age, recover from injury, change lifestyles, become parents, change vehicles, move homes, or simply discover that the shooter we remember being isn't necessarily the shooter standing on the range today. The conversation takes an especially powerful turn when Tatiana shares an attempted home invasion she experienced while her children were inside the house. That event forced her to reconsider concealed carry entirely. Her conclusion: the firearm may belong to one person, but preparedness must involve the entire family. They discuss how families can build awareness and emergency responses without creating fear, why gamifying situational awareness can make children active participants in their own safety, and why a concealed carrier cannot afford to manage both a threat and an unprepared family simultaneously. They also examine the responsibility of firearms instructors: adapting technique to the individual rather than forcing every student into the same physical mold, teaching students to process information rather than simply perform drills, and creating training experiences that expose limitations without destroying confidence. Because the goal isn't merely to produce someone who shoots well under familiar conditions. It's to develop someone who can think, adapt, recognize, decide, and perform when those conditions disappear. In this episode: What "training in context" really meansThe difference between firearm proficiency and real-world capabilityWhy fundamentals are universal but their application is personalHow aging, injury, parenthood, and lifestyle changes affect defensive skillsWhy shooters need training that occasionally humbles themThe danger of confusing range performance with preparednessWhy concealed carry is a family skillPreparing spouses and children without creating fearDeveloping situational awareness through games and everyday experiencesWhy instructors must adapt techniques to individual studentsTraining the brain to recognize, process, communicate, and respondWhy the best defensive training prepares you for uncertainty rather than rehearsing a perfect scriptTatiana's message is ultimately simple but demanding: Proficiency with a firearm is not the same as preparedness. Train for the life you actually live, because that is where your skills may someday have to work.

What actually happens in the first 30 seconds of an active shooter attack? According to Ed Monk, that question should sit at the center of every active shooter response plan. Ed is a retired Army officer, law enforcement officer, firearms trainer, author of First 30 Seconds, and a longtime researcher of active shooter events. His work challenges some of the most widely accepted assumptions about how schools, churches, businesses, and public facilities prepare for mass violence. In this episode, Ed explains why active shooter events are fundamentally a time problem, with victims potentially being shot every few seconds before law enforcement has even been notified. He challenges traditional lockdown policies and the familiar Run-Hide-Fight model, arguing that waiting for outside help can carry an enormous human cost.  We also explore why people often fail to immediately recognize the sound of gunfire, the psychological barriers that prevent ordinary people from acting, and why someone already at the scene may be the only person capable of stopping an attack quickly enough to dramatically reduce casualties. For armed responders, Ed goes even deeper. He explains why active shooter response is very different from the typical close-range defensive encounter most shooters train for, why every shooter needs to understand the limits of their own accuracy, and why in a crowded public space there are no true “misses,” only intended and unintended hits. He also introduces the mental battle he calls “the monkey”, the overwhelming pressure to shoot faster than your actual ability allows.  This is not a comfortable conversation. It is a conversation about what happens when prevention has failed, innocent people are being murdered, and someone has to act. For anyone responsible for protecting a school, church, workplace, public venue, or family, this may be one of the most important episodes of Making Shooters Better yet.

What happens when two elite competitive shooters reach the top through completely different paths? Randi Rogers began shooting at just 11 years old alongside her grandparents in Cowboy Action Shooting, competing under the unforgettable alias “Holy Terror.” Shooting became almost second nature, and over the next 28 years she accumulated more than 85 world and national titles across nine different shooting disciplines. Gordon Carrell's journey couldn't have looked more different. After years of football, pole vaulting, rock climbing, hiking, hunting, and other athletic pursuits, Gordon entered competitive handgun shooting in his mid-thirties. He quickly began applying lessons from athletics, physical education, movement, mental performance, and eventually detailed performance analysis to figure out exactly where shooters gain or lose time. Together, their contrasting approaches create a fascinating lesson in how shooting skill is actually developed.  In this episode of Making Shooters Better, we dig into why many shooters misunderstand speed. Gordon explains that meaningful improvements often aren't found by pulling the trigger faster, but by eliminating unnecessary movement, hesitation, inefficient transitions, poor positioning, and tiny pauses between actions. Randi adds another piece: eliminate mistakes. Missing targets, poorly planned reloads, forgetting stage elements, and failing to analyze previous performances can cost far more time than fractions of a second gained through raw shooting speed. Her experience across multiple disciplines also illustrates just how much shooters can learn simply by carefully watching other competitors.  We also explore the mental side of competition. Gordon shares the lesson he learned from legendary shooter Rob Leatham about conserving mental energy during long matches, along with his own method for reframing nervousness as preparation rather than something negative. Randi takes a different approach. When she reaches the line, she narrows everything down to one simple internal cue: “Sights. Sights. Sights.” Different mental strategies. Same objective: get the conscious mind out of the way and allow trained skills to perform.  Then comes one of the most valuable training discussions of the episode. Gordon argues that many shooters practice what they're already good at because success feels good. His philosophy is almost the opposite: practice should deliberately push you beyond your existing comfort zone, then analyze why each repetition succeeded or failed. Instead of hoping you've improved, create baselines. Measure your draw. Measure your transitions. Measure your splits. Record your movement. Study your video. Then compare what you actually did against what you're capable of doing. As Gordon puts it, practice makes permanent. Poor repetitions simply make poor habits more durable.  Randi provides the perfect counterbalance. Her ability to watch a movement and reproduce it almost instinctively comes from decades of observing other shooters, beginning with her grandfather. It's a reminder that improvement doesn't happen only when we're pulling the trigger. Watching, visualizing, analyzing, and mentally rehearsing can all become part of training.  And then there's the minor complication that these two champions happen to be married. We get into competition between spouses, learning when to coach each other, and the surprisingly useful rule they've developed whenever one begins talking about a problem: “Do you want me to listen, or do you want me to offer advice?” Possibly the most marriage-saving shooting technique ever discussed on this podcast. Ultimately, this episode isn't really about trophies. It's about deliberate improvement. Whether you're a competitive shooter, defensive shooter, instructor, or simply someone trying to become more capable with a firearm, Randi and Gordon offer a remarkably practical blueprint: Train consistently. Work on weaknesses. Get outside your comfort zone. Measure performance. Analyze what happened. And never confuse doing more repetitions with actually getting better. Because sometimes the fastest way to become a better shooter is to slow down long enough to figure out what's costing you time.

What if the biggest weakness in your personal protection plan has nothing to do with your shooting? Lou Ann Hamblin has trained thousands of shooters during a career spanning more than 30 years. She is a retired police officer, longtime firearms and defensive tactics instructor, international trainer, and the creator of Building Warrior Women®. And her message is refreshingly uncomfortable: Being good with a gun does not automatically make you good at protecting yourself. In this conversation, Lou Ann and Terry examine the broader “personal arsenal” every responsible armed citizen should be developing. That includes shooting ability, but also fitness, mobility, situational awareness, verbal skills, medical preparedness, judgment, emotional readiness, and the ability to recognize when a situation should never become a gun problem in the first place. Lou Ann shares lessons from law enforcement, undercover work, scenario training, and thousands of students, including why people routinely overestimate what they will be capable of under pressure. They also tackle the firearms-training industry itself. How do you tell the difference between an experienced instructor and someone who has simply memorized someone else’s PowerPoint? What happens when an instructor can demonstrate a technique but cannot diagnose why a student is failing? And what can an instructor's social media behavior reveal about their judgment before you ever step onto their range? Finally, Lou Ann explains why she continues to seek out younger instructors, ask questions, change her thinking, and stay curious after decades in the profession. Because experience is valuable. But experience without curiosity can become dogma. If you carry a gun because you take personal safety seriously, this conversation will challenge you to look at everything surrounding that gun.

What happens when a decision made in a fraction of a second is later examined for months, or even years, by attorneys, experts, judges, investigators, and jurors? In this episode of Making Shooters Better, Terry sits down with Lewis “Von” Kliem, a nationally recognized expert in use-of-force law, constitutional policing, human performance, and police practices. With more than 30 years in the criminal justice profession, Von has served as a police officer, prosecutor, legal advisor, military attorney, educator, policy specialist, and litigation consultant. He currently serves as the Chief Consulting and Communications Officer at Force Science, where he works on high-profile use-of-force cases across the United States and internationally. This conversation bridges both the law enforcement and civilian self-defense worlds. Von explains what the law actually means when it asks whether a person’s actions were “reasonable.” That question is far more complex than whether a weapon was ultimately found or whether a threat was visible on video. The legal analysis must consider what the person perceived, what those facts meant to them in the moment, the context surrounding the encounter, and whether their response fell within a reasonable range of options. Terry and Von explore the difference between fast, intuitive decision-making during a violent event and the slow, deliberate analysis that follows afterward. As Von explains, force decisions are often made under stress, uncertainty, time pressure, incomplete information, and the permanent consequences of getting it wrong. Those same decisions are then evaluated later in quiet courtrooms, where footage can be paused, replayed, slowed down, and examined frame by frame. They also discuss why video does not necessarily reveal what the officer or civilian actually perceived, how still images can be weaponized in court, and why hindsight can distort the evaluation of a rapidly unfolding event. The conversation moves deeply into jury psychology as well. Many jurors have learned about violence primarily through television and movies. They may underestimate the danger of a single punch, misunderstand the speed of an edged-weapon attack, or assume that a person under threat had more time and more options than were realistically available. Von shares examples from both police and civilian cases where jurors were asked to judge shootings, physical altercations, mental-health encounters, and self-defense claims. He explains how prosecutors and opposing experts may build competing narratives, how personal beliefs can influence verdicts, and why even legally justified actions can produce unpredictable outcomes once a case reaches a jury. For armed civilians, the episode delivers an especially important warning: carrying a firearm is only one part of being prepared. Training should also include decision-making, de-escalation, avoidance, verbal commands, movement, retreat when practical, threat recognition, and the ability to explain why certain actions were taken. Von refers to these as law-driven tactics: actions incorporated into training before an incident so they become available under stress and can later be clearly articulated. The episode also examines the importance of documenting training, understanding the legal principles of innocence, imminence, avoidance, proportionality, and reasonableness, and considering the financial realities of defending a use-of-force case. Expert witnesses, attorneys, video analysts, engineers, medical specialists, and human-performance experts can all become part of a legal defense, making self-defense coverage an important consideration for responsibly armed citizens. Finally, Von speaks directly to anyone who may one day sit on a jury. His message is simple but critical: recognize what you do not know about violence, remain open to expert testimony, understand that the reality of violence rarely resembles television, and follow the law even when you dislike the outcome. Whether you are a police officer, firearms instructor, concealed carrier, attorney, trainer, or potential juror, this episode provides a powerful look at how force is perceived, evaluated, defended, and judged. It is a conversation about fear, responsibility, preparation, human performance, and the enormous gap between making a decision in the moment and defending it afterward.

What happens when the uniform comes off, but the need for mission, community, and purpose remains? Viviana Morales Kolb served twelve years in the Army, including time as a preventive medicine specialist and drill sergeant. But when she transitioned into civilian life, she discovered that leaving the military meant more than changing careers. It also meant losing the camaraderie, structure, and shared purpose that had shaped much of her adult life. In this episode of Making Shooters Better, Viviana explains how veteran organizations, endurance training, and time on the range helped her rebuild that sense of connection. She also brings a refreshingly honest perspective to firearms training: shooting was not one of her natural strengths. Rather than avoiding the discomfort of being a beginner, she chose to surround herself with people who were more skilled, more knowledgeable, and willing to help her grow. That decision became one of the most rewarding parts of her journey. Terry and Viviana discuss: • Why veterans often struggle to replace the mission and camaraderie of military life • How shared challenge builds genuine community • Why being around people who are better than you can accelerate growth • The value of admitting where your skills need improvement • How women can begin developing confidence and competence with firearms • Why supportive instructors and training groups matter • How physical fitness can improve performance under pressure • The importance of realistic, repeatable training • Raising children around firearms responsibly • Why service does not have to end when the uniform comes off This is not a conversation about pretending to be the most capable person in the room. It is about having the humility to enter the room, the courage to learn, and the discipline to keep returning until the skill becomes yours.

In this episode of Making Shooters Better, Terry Vaughan sits down with Dr. Travis Yates for a frank and deeply important conversation about what is happening inside modern law enforcement and why the consequences reach far beyond the walls of any police department. Dr. Yates brings more than three decades of law enforcement experience to the discussion, including over 25 years in supervision and upper management with a large metropolitan agency. He is a former ILEETA Trainer of the Year, has trained and consulted with agencies in 46 states and three countries, and is the author of The Courageous Police Leader. He is also the developer of FOCUS, Field Observable Cues for Unknown Situations, an evidence-based behavioral recognition framework designed to help officers identify, articulate, and respond to the warning signs that often appear before violence begins. During this episode, Terry and Dr. Yates examine why so many of policing’s most important indicators are moving in the wrong direction, including recruiting, retention, morale, officer safety, operational effectiveness, and public trust. They also explore the growing disconnect between falling violent-crime statistics and the continued rise in assaults against law enforcement officers. Dr. Yates argues that the common thread behind many of these failures is leadership, specifically the absence of leaders willing to support officers, defend sound police work, challenge politically convenient narratives, and speak honestly about the realities of crime and public safety. The conversation also takes a hard look at mandatory de-escalation policies and the unintended consequences of teaching officers to remain in a verbal problem-solving mode even after the behavior in front of them has shifted toward violence. Rather than asking only whether an officer used force, Dr. Yates urges leaders and trainers to examine what happened before force became necessary. What did the officer see? What did the suspect do? Were there signs of noncompliance, concealed hands, movement, declarations of intent, tactical positioning, or behavioral clusters that indicated the decision to resist or attack had already been made? This is where FOCUS becomes central to the conversation. Dr. Yates explains how officers can move beyond vague phrases such as “something didn’t feel right” and begin identifying specific, observable, evidence-based indicators of danger. He also explains why earlier intervention at a lower level may prevent a far more violent confrontation seconds later. The episode covers: • Why law enforcement may be facing a leadership crisis rather than a staffing crisis alone • Why officers are leaving agencies that fail to support them • How politics has reshaped police leadership and training • Why assaults against officers continue to rise • The limits and unintended consequences of mandatory de-escalation • How hesitation can place officers and civilians in greater danger • The pre-attack behaviors that frequently appear before an officer is assaulted • Why noncompliance matters more than many officers realize • How behavioral cues should be viewed in clusters and context • How FOCUS gives officers a more structured way to recognize and articulate danger • Why civilians need a better understanding of police decision-making • What police leaders can do immediately to rebuild trust inside their own agencies This conversation matters to officers because ignoring these lessons may cost them the chance to make it home. It matters to civilians because when policies, politics, and poor leadership hollow out law enforcement, the consequences eventually reach the public. In the worst moment of your life, calling for help only works if someone is still there to answer. This episode is not simply about what is wrong with policing. It is about what happens next if we refuse to fix it.

What do dangerous people teach us about human behavior? Dr. Mary Beth Wilkas Janke returns to Making Shooters Better for a deep, fascinating, and at times unsettling conversation about the mind behind the threat. A former Secret Service agent turned forensic psychologist, Mary Beth has spent her career studying human behavior from both sides of the danger equation: the people trying to prevent violence and the people trying to understand it after the fact. In this episode, Terry and Mary Beth explore criminal behavior, psychopaths, sociopaths, stalking, domestic violence, fear, lying, body language, restraining orders, and whether violence can truly be predicted. But this is not an episode about becoming paranoid. It is about becoming harder to fool. Mary Beth explains why dangerous people rarely look the way we expect, why many acts of violence are situational rather than pre-planned, and why the public often wants to explain violence away as mental illness because it feels safer than admitting ordinary people can be capable of terrible things. The conversation also digs into stalking and domestic violence, including why victims often stay, why shame and isolation are so powerful, why restraining orders are not magic shields, and why some perpetrators escalate when they feel humiliated or exposed. For anyone interested in personal safety, human behavior, threat recognition, self-defense, law enforcement, or the psychology behind violence, this episode is a masterclass in seeing the world more clearly without letting fear run the show. Every episode of Making Shooters Better delivers a story, a lesson, and a way to train smarter. This one delivers all three with a forensic flashlight and a very sharp edge.

In this episode of Making Shooters Better, Terry sits down with Brian Baxter, combat infantry veteran, retired Texas State Trooper, and CEO of Force Science, for a conversation that changes how you understand perception, memory, decision-making, and accountability under stress. Why can two honest people experience the same event and remember it differently? Why might body-camera footage miss the very information that drove an officer’s decision? Why can a defender continue an action for fractions of a second after the threat changes, even when they are trying to stop? Brian breaks down the science behind time compression, tunnel vision, attention, automaticity, fragmented memory, and the uncomfortable truth that human beings do not make life-or-death decisions the way calm people imagine they do from the sofa. This is not a conversation about excuses. It is about honest accountability: holding people to clear standards that are actually within the limits of human performance. Whether you are law enforcement, an instructor, an armed citizen, a home defender, or simply someone who wants to better understand how the brain behaves when the stakes become terrifyingly real, this episode delivers rare insight from the world of Force Science. You will learn why you are always behind the power curve, why “vision” is not the same as a video recording, why memory is not a playback device, and how better awareness, better training, and a little more patience after a critical incident can matter far beyond physical survival.