Quotes from Dave Grossman

If a pro ball player stays up the night before a game, playing video games or watching TV, the other players would kick his tail, the coach would fine him, and that nonsense would stop immediately.

Exxon Valdese, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island had one thing in common: They were all industrial accidents that occurred in the middle of the night involving people with sleep management problems. Insufficient sleep is responsible for billions of dollars of industrial accidents.

learned in World War II that only 15 to 20 percent of the individual riflemen fired their weapons at an exposed enemy soldier.

the majority of the learning on a tactical exercise comes afterwards in what is called an "after action review," where all the participants talk about what took place. This phase is so important that to not do it is to have essentially wasted the exercise.

Stanford study showed two other interesting side effects when television viewing was eliminated for a semester: A significant decrease in obesity and a decrease in nagging parents for toys.

90 percent reduction in violence among the boys who had television and video games removed

in training helps to take some of the surprise out of it when the real situation arises.

the Romans were one of the first to also place leaders behind their men in an open order of battle.

Bilateral symmetry can have grave consequences for a police officer in a tense situation where he is holding a pistol on a suspect.

The guy pulling the trigger," wrote Allen Cole and Chris Bunch, "never suffers as much as the person on the receiving end." It is the existence of the victim's pain and loss, echoing forever in the soul of the killer, that is at the heart of his pain.

systolic blood pressure is a much better indicator of stress than heart rate.)

A trainer should never declare his students to be dead

When a training scenario does not go the way you wanted it to, then do it again, but do not ever think you are dead in an exercise.

a guy shoved a gun in my face. So I shoved my gun in his face and told him, 'Arrrrarrr-arggggh!

The fight-or-flight dichotomy is the appropriate set of choices for any creature faced with danger other than that which comes from its own species. When we examine the responses of creatures confronted with aggression from their own species, the set of options expands to include posturing and submission.

In developmental psychology there is a general understanding that an individual must master the twin areas of sexuality and aggression (Freud's Eros and Thanatos) in order to have truly achieved adulthood. In the same way, the maturation of the human race necessitates our collective mastery of these two areas.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. —Margaret Mead, anthropologist

The military and the politicians have been the same people for all but the most recent part of human history, and we know that the victor writes the history books.

for law enforcement firearms training to be legally sufficient, it must incorporate realistic training, to include stress, decision making

and shoot-don't-shoot training. This is the Oklahoma v. Tuttle decision (1984, 10th Federal Circuit Court), and today many law enforcement trainers teach that a law enforcement agency is probably not in compliance with federal circuit court guidance if they are still shooting at anything other than a clear, realistic depiction of a deadly force threat.

The fight-or-flight dichotomy is the appropriate set of choices for any creature faced with danger other than that which comes from its own species.

Unconscious incompetence. This is the lowest level of mastery. Most American male teenagers are at a level of unconscious incompetence when it comes to driving. They are bad drivers. They don't know it and usually they refuse to admit it. The

juvenile female aggravated assault rate took a 57 percent hike. Juvenile weapons violations for males went down seven percent, but for females it went up 44 percent.

predicted a few years ago that there would be an increase in violent behavior by young females from their exposure to the bombardment of violent, female role models in the media.