Customer Reviews

Jim Wagner's Reality-Based Personal Protection: Handgun Survival (Self-defense)

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This is the fifth film in series of Reality Based Self Defense (RBSD) films by Jim Wagner. This time Wagner concentrates on using handguns for self defense. There is no emphasis on how to act if you are threatened at gun point, however. For the most part, in those kinds of situations it probably would be wise to comply, but there may be situations where it would be reasonable thing to do to take the risk and attack the person who is holding you at the gun point.

At the beginning of the film, Wagner claims that this is the first time that empty hand self defense and using firearms are handled in the same film. This is not the case, however. First of all, Wagner does not cover empty hands techniques in this film (in fact, they are not even mentioned after this statement). Secondly, there is at least one film that handles both of the issues, that is some years older than Handgun Survival (the film is Extreme close-quarters shooting by Ralph Mroz, also available at Amazon.com). Handling empty hand combatives in this film would have been a welcome addition, indeed.

Wagner tells the viewer that he will be concentrating mainly on tactics instead of gun handling, as the viewer is supposed to know the basic operation of handguns before watching the film. He goes on to say that he will handle briefly the most important issues, mainly for safety reasons (and for liability reasons, I would guess). However, the majority of the film is used on basic handgun operation, and only ten minutes or so is devoted on tactics (and only the vary basics, at that).

The editing of the film leaves something to be desired. There are some editing bugs in the film (like Wagner standing still and waiting for the shooting to start, or the director saying "action"). Additionally, at least two times Wagner handles briefly some issue (like shooting double taps) and telling that he will handle this issue more thoroughly later in the film, but the issue is never brought up again.

This is not a bad film in the sense that it does not teach improper tactics or gunhandling. However, all of the issues handled in the film are very basic in nature and you would learn the same things (and probably much more) by reading just about any book on defensive handgun use, and at a lower cost.

Run time: 0:42

This is a decent introduction to the use of handguns for self defense. It is just an introduction though.

About half of the DVD is basic handgun safety and the balance has some rudimentary tactics for personal protection.

Although the information is good, it could have been much better. The video is very short (about 45 minutes) and just does not have nearly as much information as I would like to see.

This review is based on another DVD by Jim Wagner. I won't purchase his other DVD's for the reasons stated below. I'm sure he is an awesome practitioner of the arts, but he doesn't understand instructional production.

I can't help but think as an instructor Jim didn't consider the limited amount of time he had to convey a lot of knowledge. A lot of time was wasted on introducing many assistants and information about where they were from and their background; who cares? It wouldn't be as bad if he didn't use so many different people, but I got the impression he was trying to give everyone he knew their 15 seconds of fame.

Bottom line: This video could have been edited down to about 15 minutes of good information.