Outline/ Summary
Hypothesis - We are a sick society. Gun violence is a mere symptom of this sickness. George Orwell’s doublethink creates cognitive dissonance leading to mental illness and too often irrational, criminal behavior. A primary doublethink is claiming American ideals while in reality we aggress against and occupy the world. A society with immoral leadership cannot expect its lesser, weaker members to act morally, and nihilism makes perfect sense in the vast gulf between our ideals and our immoral reality.
Terrible truths
Plutocrat corruption/ welfare
Gun control we need – Cut by half defense, security, and intelligence spending. Cut this funding of our aggression. Eliminate this primary doublethink and make our ideals our reality in American foreign policy.
Gun control we must avoid – eliminating citizens access to effective weaponry for the defense of ourselves, others, the country, and the world. We the people are capable of self governance and self defense.
An American phoenix program
Sources and Footnotes
Addendums
Hypothesis
Americans are people of the lie – willfully ignorant cowards unwilling to face terrible truths. The truth is we have an immoral government, run by an immoral plutocracy, with the acquiescence of an immoral populace. Contrary to our ideals we have aggressed against native America, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Vietnam, and Iraq. We needlessly killed millions in Vietnam and hundreds of thousands in Iraq. We support financially, diplomatically, and militarily Israel’s aggression in the West Bank. We are the bad guys.
There are many areas of contradictions and hypocrisy in our society which contribute to our sickness. We claim to be a land of equality, but we have not had such inequality in wealth and income since the 1920s. We claim to have a free market economy, but we are not a free competition capitalist system. We are a corrupt, monopoly/ oligopoly capitalist system. We claim to be free, but with only 5% of the world’s population we have 25% of the world’s prisoners. We claim to be a Christian nation, but we more often extend the back of the hand rather than the helping hand. I will concentrate in this paper on our most egregious hypocrisy – our claiming American ideals while perpetuating unnecessary killing in unjust wars.
Doublethink is Orwell’s term for holding two contradictory beliefs at the same time. This contradiction creates cognitive dissonance (CD), too often resulting in irrational and/or destructive behavior. CD theory postulates deviant behavior results from our natural bias to seek consonance between our expectations and our reality. Given this bias, we attempt to reduce the dissonance by lowering the import of one of the discordant factors, adding consonant factors, changing one of the discordant factors, etc.
I suspect we also compartmentalize in an attempt to separate different realities. We separate our religion from our science. We require individual morality but allow our government to act immorally. I submit integrity is the integration of all our values into all our realities. What is true in science is true in religion. What is true for an individual is true for a country. Truth is not relative. Time and space are relative. Our individual perceptions of truth will vary, but the truth does not vary. Truth is absolute.
Whatever games we may play pieces of the truth leak into our consciousness.
Terrible truths
America has often gone to war through gross manipulations. General Zachary Taylor was attacked after being ordered into disputed territory between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers, Spain could not have benefited from blowing up the Maine, the Lusitania had munitions in her hold, it may not have been mere coincidence that there were no aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbor on 12/07/1941, the first Tonkin Gulf incident was provoked, the second incident didn’t happen, I don’t believe jet fuel fires in the upper floors could have thoroughly demolished the entire superstructures of both the Twin Towers on 9/11, Bin Laden was intentionally allowed to escape Tora Bora in December 2001, and there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Further, a nuclear capable and/or armed Iran will never be a significant threat to the United States.
We have overthrown democratically elected heads of state because they were socialist and/or threatened American business interests. We overthrew Mossadegh in Iran 1953 for Iranian oil, overthrew Arbenz in Guatemala 1954 for the United Fruit Company, and helped overthrow Allende in Chile 9/11/1973 for ITT, Anaconda, and Kennecott. If we were immorally capable of coup de tats elsewhere, why not in America?
I believe our war plutocrats assassinated John F Kennedy in 1963 because he planned to get us out of Vietnam. Kennedy wasn’t a socialist, but he threatened future war profits. Kennedy had refused to introduce US troops into Cuba, Laos, and the Congo. He allowed military advisors into Vietnam but refused to introduce US combat troops. Through the 10/11/1963 NSAM 263, he approved plans to remove 1,000 advisors from Vietnam by the end of 1963 and all 16,000+ advisors by the end of 1965. Sources: http://www.jfklancer.com/... and “JFK and the Unspeakable” by James Douglass. Just over eight months after his assassination, we created the Tonkin Gulf incidents. There would have been no such incidents under JFK.
Plutocrat corruption/ welfare
America is a plutocracy. Corporate welfare is plutocrat welfare, and corporatism is plutocracy. Blaming our problems on Corporatism allows our plutocrats to escape their personal responsibility as the owners and operators of our large corporations. Every level of American government, government bureaucracy, media, and academia are corrupt. We the people are free and have influence, but we do not control our country. Millions in the streets before the attack on Iraq did not keep America from attacking. On 10/10/2002, 68% of the House and 77% of the Senate authorized unilateral war with Iraq while only 37% of their constituents supported unilateral war (1). Congress refused to abide by the wishes of their constituents and followed the wishes of their contributors.
The finance and real estate industries are the largest contributors to American politics and thereby among the worst corrupters. Their plutocrats have destroyed the world’s economy for their extraordinary profits, but while their corporations are fined, and even though we are the most incarcerated nation on earth, none of these plutocrats went to jail. Even after the devastation of the Great Recessions I, we have not reregulated. We have not restored free competition capitalism, not eliminated abusive conflicts of interest by reestablishing Glass-Steagall, and not reestablished honesty in our markets. See the case for these ideas at:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
The linked article deals with corruption on a national level, but it is at all levels of government. See addendum on redevelopment in San Diego, CA.
If Americans are willing to acquiesce in this corruption, I can accept their acquiescence until this corruption leads to unnecessary killing in unjust wars.
I submit foreign states and terrorists are not existential threats to America, while Our war plutocrats are our domestic enemies and an existential threat to America. War plutocrats are the flesh and blood people who own and operate our major defense contractors and other large corporations with major benefits from our war economy. I submit the goals of our perpetual war are cheap resources and war profits for these plutocrats.
The Carlyle Group – combined privileged information and deep connections for high profits. In 2001 - its total investments in the arms industry made it the 11th largest US defense contractor. George H W Bush and James A Baker were advisors. Former British prime minster John Major was the Chairman of Carlyle Europe. The Group combined the House of Bush and the House of Saud including the bin Laden family until after 9/11 (2). George W Bush provided the American military while Saudi Arabia provided 15 of the 9/11 hijackers. No doubt Carlyle’s pre 9/11 defense investments became extraordinarily lucrative after 9/11.
Two 9/11 hijackers were known to the CIA before they entered and while they were in the US, al Mihdhar and al Hazmi on Flight 77. These men were helped by Saudi nationals in LA and San Diego. Their landlord for a time in San Diego/ La Mesa was an FBI informant who was allegedly unaware they were with al Qaeda. The CIA refused to inform the FBI of their presence in the US (3) Source: http://www.pbs.org/.... Former counterterrorism czar Richard A Clarke believes the CIA planned to turn these men into double agents (4). The CIA and its sixty employees who knew these men were in the US have never been forced to openly explain their actions. I suspect they took no actions to turn these terrorists, and they weren’t incompetent. They were simply following CIA traditions in the service of our war plutocrats.
There are other examples of nominal enemies colluding:
Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban – (The Afghan Taliban and Pakistani Taliban are two different, separate organizations.) American Military and Intelligence in Afghanistan have continually complained of Pakistan’s duplicity. Pakistan, our nominal ally, helped create the Afghan Taliban, allowed its leadership, the Quetta Shura, to stay in Quetta, Pakistan at least through February 2010, and I believe allowed bin Laden to stay in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Pakistan played and likely continues to play its part in this perpetual war.
Greater Palestine terrorists are collaborators with greater Israel Zionists. Unending terror rationalizes unending occupation which rationalizes unending terror. It makes perfect sense for Israel to release terrorist prisoners and then refuse to give up the West Bank. I doubt there is direct collusion, but I believe there is indirect collusion.
The control we need -
Cut defense, security, and intelligence spending back to year 2000 levels - 50%. We now have 600 bases and/or deployments spread over 156 countries and consume just under half the world’s military spending (5). The 2014 defense budget is 625 B (6). This defense budget does not include 73.3 B for military construction and the VA, 39.3 B for the Department of Homeland Security, and 49.0 B for the State Department and foreign operations (7). If we cut the defense budget by half, we would still greatly outspend Europe with a total defense budget of just 275 B (8).
Our military strength has been derived from our economic strength. No doubt we have some economic advantages derived from our aggression, but our economic strength more influences our military strength than vice versa. Unfortunately, we are now economically decrepit partly due to overspending in defense/ offense.
Total domestic, nonfinancial debt is 248% of GDP - 41,431.9 B in debt to 16,695.7 B in GDP (9). This is the highest or one of the highest debt/GDP ratios in our recorded history. This annual ratio has stayed above 247% since 2009 in spite of a growing GDP and a trillion dollar reduction in household mortgages with over four million foreclosures. Federal nonfinancial debt has seen the most growth, growing from 5.1 trillion in 2007 to 12 trillion at the end of September.
Republicans always want to blame our federal deficits on high social spending. They refuse to recognize the effects of low taxes and high defense spending.
The F-35 Lightning II fighter program is the poster child for needlessly high defense spending. The Foreign Policy Association states it is literally the “most expensive weapon ever developed.”(5) The program has a current projected price tag of 391.2 B for 2,443 aircraft (10). Future costs including maintenance over the life of the aircraft are projected to be a trillion on this program (5). That’s a trillion with a T plus the hundreds of billions already spent for this one fighter program. The F-35C carrier version has a current flyaway cost of 200 million for just one fighter. There have been 163 B in cost overruns so far, and there will be more (11).
The F-35 program was moved into production while still under development ensuring the likelihood of continuing the program. There was no dual contracting to allow competitive effects in fighter production. We’re developing a thoroughbred racehorse to work on the farm. This delivery system and its munitions will cost far more than most all of their targets. And, we already have a fifth generation fighter in the F-22 Raptor.
Iran - We have caused great harm to Iran. We overthrew Iran’s democracy and their Prime Minister Mosaddegh in 1953. We supported the aggressor Saddam Hussein in the Iraq Iran War from 1980 to 1988. Iran is flawed given its support for the targeting of civilians by Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Syrian regime, but neither America nor an American armed Israel has a morally superior position from which to attack Iran.
We cannot afford a protracted engagement with Iran. It is true that WWII got us out of the depression, but all the deficit spending for the depression and the war resulted in a 1946 total nonfinancial debt to GDP of only 164%. Further, in 1946, given the world had just been decimated by depression and war, there was nothing but growth ahead of us. Today we have no similar growth to look forward to. Unless we pillage defeated countries as did Nazi Germany, war today makes no economic sense from a macro perspective. War plutocrats may see their cheap resources and war profits as advantageous from their micro perspective, but they will prosper while America dies.
If we used our military strength to support just causes like stopping genocide in Bosnia, Rwanda, or Darfur, I could justify continued though necessarily diminished support for defense spending, and the world would love us. Instead we continue to aggress for the benefit of our war plutocrats, and the world hates us. I am not recommending we isolate ourselves in fortress America. Step back from the world militarily but step forward diplomatically. Instead of going into the world to kill people, go into the world to help people. Do good.
Full disclosure – In the summer of 2001 just before 9/11, I condemned the mainland Chinese government as the most belligerent in the world and made the case we should increase military spending to meet the threat she posed to Taiwan. I even voted for Bush in 2000 for fear Gore would not defend Taiwan. After 9/11 the Chinese government was replaced by the Bush Administration as the most belligerent on earth.
China on 11/23/2013 declared an air defense identification zone ADIZ over the East China Sea including the disputed Senkaku/ Diaoyu islands. On 1/1/2014 China announced new fishing regulations in the waters of Hainan Province which claims 2 M square kilometers of the total 3.5 M in the South China Sea (12). I am still concerned with possible Chinese aggression; I’m just more concerned with continued American aggression.
The control we must avoid -
The second amendment delineates an inalienable, pre existing individual right, but also provides for a well regulated militia. Reasonable regulation is acceptable, but the removal of effective weaponry is not acceptable. America may be corrupt beyond non violent redemption. Rough justice may be the only justice possible. We don’t need effective weaponry to shoot Bambi; we need such weapons to shoot the lowest form of life on the planet, Homo sapien predators. If you think we’ve progressed beyond our Wild West culture, how do you explain our unnecessary killing of millions of Vietnamese and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis?
There is no better deterrent to our enemies, both foreign and domestic, than a well armed citizenry. Further, our heavy military weapons do not provide deterrence against our domestic enemies, the only enemies that now existentially threaten us.
Just over 50 years ago the M14 rifle was adopted by American military. Irvine C Porter as a member of the NRA Executive Council wrote the following about the M14 in March 1963, “All that remains to be done, in my opinion, is to provide means for every physically fit male in the age bracket of 18-65 years to qualify annually at least as a Marksman with this fine weapon. Such an achievement will materially strengthen the physical as well as the mental and moral fiber of our nation, contributing greatly to its defense.” (13)
California has among the most restrictive gun laws in the nation but still allows some effective weapons including the M1A rifle, the civilian version of the M14. I believe the laws are overly restrictive in prohibiting the AR-15 rifle, the civilian version of the M16, but the laws do allow a version the M1A rifle that has been somewhat modified such as eliminating its flash suppressor. Relative to the M16, it has a more effective, higher caliber 7.62 mm cartridge and with scopes a longer effective range of up to 875 yards. The Taliban can muster 440 yards from M16s with near impunity. The M1A is an effective weapon.
California’s Democratic governor recently had to veto a law which would have prohibited this weapon. The CA legislature passed this law SB 374 indicating we must continually defend the legality of these weapons. We have an inalienable right with or without the Constitution, and hopefully, we can keep these weapons legal.
Open carry laws - should reestablish the practice in California. Prior to 2012, Californians could openly carry an unloaded pistol with separated ammunition. On 2/13/2014, the Federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found California’s concealed carry weapons CCW laws to be unconstitutional reasoning the second amendment requires states to permit some form of carry for self-defense outside the home. Given CA CCW laws only allow carry permits for applicants who can show “good cause” for a permit, most ordinary citizens don’t qualify. Ordinary citizens were prevented from both open carry and concealed carry. The court therefore nullified the “good cause” qualification in the CCW law. I submit open carry would satisfy the court, be a safer alternative to CCW, and provide greater crime deterrence than CCW.
California could and should clean up its Armed Prohibited Person System. The State Auditor in an October 2013 report found the program failed to take guns from 21,000 Californians who had lost their gun rights. The report also found the current mental health, criminal, and gun databases were riddled with errors, and that 3 of 8 confiscation decisions were incorrect. Gun Owners of California, a pro gun organization, estimated the system was 40 to 60 percent incorrect. Others put the percentage lower, but it was still high. (14) This is not reasonable regulation.
“Stand your ground” laws - should be repealed. It is not okay for civilians or police to shoot unarmed attackers. If one is faced with shooting an unarmed assailant or retreating, the correct choice in most all cases is to retreat. One can then continue to pursue an attacker when sufficient help is available.
School security - We don’t have to live in a police state or make our schools armed camps. As part of a general initiative to extend personal responsibility for our own security, I recommend all schools have secured gun safes at a few locations on campuses. The safes would hold weapons and ballistic vests to be used by capable staff for the protection of students and staff. Vests should be clearly labeled “School Security.” We have former soldiers everywhere fully capable of using such weapons, and non veterans can be trained to use such weapons. Obviously all staff would not be capable, but certainly several capable staff can be found in most all schools. The primary effect of such a program would likely be deterrence, but it would also save lives when deterrence doesn’t work.
Flight 93 – Todd Beamer and other passengers took actions against hijackers after learning three other planes were flown into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. These passengers weren’t able to save themselves, but they saved the Capitol building or the White House. This assumes 93 wasn’t simply shot down. Even if the plane was shot down, passengers took action. I submit passengers of the other planes would have taken action if our intelligence community had condescended to inform the public that suicide hijackings were possible, and citizens should not necessarily be passive.
We the people are capable of self governance and self defense.
An American phoenix program
The Vietnam Phoenix Program between 1965 and 1972 neutralized over 81,000 Viet Cong VC operatives, supporters, and informants. Those targeted were not soldiers but civilians who were part of the VC infrastructure. Neutralized meant captured, converted, or killed. Over 26,000 were killed.
I propose a similar program in America targeting the worst of our war plutocrats and the worst of their political, bureaucrat, media, and think tank cronies. Support the threat to neutralize these aggressors if Congress authorizes military action and/or concurrent with any future military action against Iran - next war, civil war. The immediate and primary purpose of such a program would be to save the lives of tens of thousands of Iranians.
George W Bush and Dick Cheney committed high treason in December 2001 when they repeatedly refused requests for the resources and actions necessary to prevent Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda from escaping Tora Bora. If we had captured or destroyed bin Laden and al Qaeda at Tora Bora, the rationalization for continued war would have ended, but Bush and Cheney wanted war for cheap natural resources and war profits. I submit, if we had neutralized Bush and Cheney for high treason in 2002, we may have been able to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. See the case for their treason at: http://www.dailykos.com/...
We should overthrow our war plutocrats’ control of the government, not the government. Our government and police are not our enemies. These institutions certainly include the corrupt in their ranks, but their ranks also include those who stand against the corruption and support American ideals. We may also be able to reestablish America’s sanity and humanity. Again, our primary purpose would be to save Iranian lives, but saving Iran could save America.
Sources and Footnotes:
Primary sources: The Economist magazine, San Diego Union Tribune SDUT, www.wikipedia.com
(1) 9/20-22/2002 Gallup poll
58% opposed a US invasion of Iraq without UN support,
37% supported such action. Our politicians claimed they supported the Iraq war for political reasons. Their political reasons were dollars not votes.
10/3-6/2002 Gallup poll found - If the President decided to invade, 47% thought the U.S. should invade and would support his decision, and 27% thought the U.S. shouldn’t invade but would still support his decision, for a total of 74% who would support his decision.
A poll by Princeton Survey Research Associates on 1/23-24/2003, published 1/25/2003 in a Newsweek web exclusive, found the following:
53% of Americans opposed a unilateral war with only one or two major allies and without UN approval,
7% were undecided, and
40% supported such a war. These were the results after Congress voted.
(2) The Shadow World by Andrew Feinstein pgs.282-6 and The Carlyle Group by Tom Shorrock with thenation.com 3/26/2002 http://www.rense.com/...
(3) 2/3/2009 Nova episode - The Spy Factory http://www.pbs.org/... Mark Rossini and Doug Miller were liaison FBI agents at Alec Station in the CIA. They were ordered not to inform the FBI of these terrorists’ presence in the US.
(4) 10/2009 Interview of former counterterrorism czar Richard A Clarke https://www.youtube.com/... Clarke stated on record he had intelligence that three former top CIA officials -- George Tenet, Cofer Black and Richard Blee -- knowingly withheld key information on alleged hijackers al Mihdhar and al Hazmi in Kuala Lumpur/San Diego from the White House, the FBI, Immigration, the State Dep., and the Defense Dep.
Clarke stated the CIA wanted to get inside al Qaeda, and he suspects they hoped to turn al Mihdhar and al Hazmi. The CIA finally placed these two on their terrorist watch list on 8/21/2001 and 8/23/2001. Clarke postulates that if this information had been shared with senior levels of counter terrorism offices in the White House, FBI, NIS, etc., even as late as the Principles Meeting of 9/4/2001, we could have apprehended these suspects before 9/11. They were using hotel rooms and credit cards in their own names.
(5) Great Decisions 2014 by the Foreign Policy Association p.6
(6) http://www.ainonline.com/...
526.8 B in base expenditures, 80.7 B in overseas contingency operations (including Afghanistan), and 17.6 B in Dep of Energy nuclear weapons programs for a total of 625.1 B.
(7) http://appropriations.house.gov/...
(8) 12/21/2013 The Economist p.82
(9) The GDP figure used was the average annualized figures for the first three quarters of 2013 from the Federal Reserve’s 12/09/2013 Z-1 release at http://www.federalreserve.gov/...
(10) 12/08/2013 SDUT p.A32 New US Bombers by Tony Capaccio with Bloomberg One hundred of the Air Force’s new long-range strike bombers are projected, by three defense analysts, to cost 81 B or 810 M per plane. http://www.bloomberg.com/...
(11) http://www.cbsnews.com/...
(12) 1/18/2014 The Economist p.40
(13) 3/2013 American Rifleman p.33
(14) 12/29/2013 SDUT article on new gun laws by Steven Greenhut p.A11
Addendum - State and Local corruption
The linked article above, in the Plutocrat Corruption section, deals with corruption at a national level, but it is at every level. I will address San Diego and California as indicative examples. Until 2011 California law allowed the formation of redevelopment agencies financed by increases in future property taxes. I submit these agencies were used overwhelmingly for plutocrat welfare. All new property taxes in a designated area like downtown San Diego went to its redevelopment agency. In the years before repeal of this welfare law, San Diego’s downtown agency had hundreds of millions to invest in redevelopment.
We had redevelopment and other public funds to invest in a baseball park we didn’t need and a high end, central library we didn’t need, but the city’s general fund couldn’t afford to pay our pension costs, maintain our infrastructure in roads buildings and water system, or hire 500 needed firefighters. We could not meet minimum public needs.
Our investment in new structures reduced our capacity to maintain current structures leading to a need for new structures. Developer plutocrats flourished while San Diego declined into one of America’s worst cities.
The above described redevelopment agency could lie with impunity. It claimed in 7/2009 that original plans for a new city hall would cost only 432 M. The cost was 520 M. There was no law enforcement or regulator response to this agency’s misrepresentation, though the new city hall was never built. This public agency continues to exist as Civic San Diego.
San Diego has been criminally negligent in not providing adequate fire protection. The City lost hundreds of homes in October wildfires, 321 destroyed and 70 damaged in 2003, 365 destroyed and 79 damaged in 2007 (Sources: City of SD After Action Reports). Interestingly, developers and the building industry made profits rebuilding those homes. So while we can’t afford adequate fire protection because we’re funding unnecessary redevelopment for developer profits, the resulting reduction in fire protection also results in developer profits. It’s like Orwell’s 1984 but with wildfires replacing wars to create the destruction reconstruction destruction cycle in Big Brother’s utopian economy.
The City now plans to spend 520 M to expand our convention center while we can’t afford to maintain the current facility. The facility has over 25 million in deferred maintenance costs. (Source: http://www.sandiego.gov/...)
Community planning is a vicious circle of exceptions. A developer identifies a community need and promises to fill that need in exchange for a variance such as higher density in a planned development which creates another need, a need which is then filled by the next developer.
Poway Unified school district, which services my portion of San Diego, borrowed 124.6 M in 7/2011 on construction bonds for which it will pay back 981 M. The bond exceeded its legal lending limit of 105 M and pays 5.9% effective interest well over the then market rate of less than 3.75%. These are capital appreciation bonds so we will be paying excessively high interest for an excessively long period. This may not directly involve developers but at least a small portion 124.6 M will benefit developers’ allies in the building industry. The biggest ill gotten benefit will go to the special bond holders who hold these special bonds. It is certainly another example of corruption to which, again, there has been no law enforcement or regulator response.
The fact that California’s redevelopment law was repealed gives me hope, but our developer plutocrats continue to push for new redevelopment legislation such as CA Senate Bill 1 – Sustainable Communities Investment Authority. This bill allows a local government to establish an Authority and direct tax increment revenues to that Authority in order to address blight by supporting development in transit priority project areas, small walk able communities, and clean energy manufacturing sites.
09/12/13 placed on inactive status
09/09/13 Senate concurred with Assembly amendments
09/09/13 passed Assembly version 48 to 28
05/28/13 passed Senate version 27 to 11, 1 abstention
Addendum – Proper Gun Control
Know your weapon. Dry fire (snapping in) Practice Visualize every possible situation.
Practice to develop the muscle memory needed to take you through any situation.
Use the meaty part of the tip of your finger on the trigger.
Use a sling on a rifle.
When shooting a rifle, support your weapon with your bones not your muscles.
Attain a natural point of aim. Do not force yourself into a position. If you are in a natural point of aim, you will return to the same position after firing a round. (You will then be able to instantly continue firing at your target. This assumes you are using a semi auto weapon.)
Site picture – concentrate/ focus on the front sight blade. The front sight should be crystal clear. Place the tip of your front sight on the center of your target. The target should be out of focus. If you concentrate on the front sight, your rear sight will fall into place.
Do not anticipate your shots. You should not know when your weapon fires.
Remember your BRASS:
Breathe – Do not hold your breath. Exhale.
Relax
Aim – focus on the front site.
Slack – take up the slack in the trigger.
Squeeze – Don’t jerk. Don’t anticipate your shots.