He should rename his site from Gospel Of Violence to Gospel Of Negligence:
In my post yesterday about the cover-up surrounding this incident I didn’t want to name names, but I can post this now because the information is verified (ridiculous registration needed to read full article).
Unknown to him [Sonny Puzikas], one of his instructors was still inside when he opened fire with a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol, striking unaware instructor in the hand and twice in the abdomen.
Wow and to think Sonny Puzikas wasn’t the beacon of safety I thought he was. I’m… I’m…. shocked….
^^^ That was sarcasm if you didn’t pick up on it.
It seems like almost every time I make fun of a “systema” or Spetsnaz video it gets removed. Here are a few examples I can remember:
- Dark shoot house ventilator himself Sonny Puzikas’ buddies at the Panty-oh production company got butthurt when I judged their promotional video a bit too harshly. They removed the parts I made fun of and re-released the video. That screen capture (which I also used in this post) is forever though.
- Training For War Laying Down And Acting Like A Weirdo – Touted as high level training for Special Ops, Military, and LE. I guess they couldn’t take the heat, cause that video was removed as well shortly after I posted it.
- Entertaining Pistol Training Exercises - Where some Russian Spetsnaz guys did some high speed stuff you could only dream of. Yea it disappeared too.
If those guys are as high speed as they act, why would they give a shit what some guy with a blog thinks about what they are doing? Funny stuff…
I’ll stress again the importance of saving retarded gun related videos you come across. If you don’t this is what happens; future generations won’t get to enjoy the fail we have seen.
Thoughts?
Hat tip: Kevin, Chris
How can you be prepared to shoot people who want you dead when you can’t deal with a little trolling?
You know what’s sad? He’s still a notch above Yeager followed closely by Erika and Cory. amirite?
What do you know? A person who does not look where he is shooting… did not look where he was shooting.
Hey, at least he is consistent!
hahahahaha yea
This guy is an idiot. Safety always comes first when shooting. Accidents don’t happen with smart shooters. Only IDIOTS end up shooting someone. It’s ridiculous!!! It just gives the anit-gun people more fuel for their fire.
I’ve wanted to take a shooting class but I keep thinking I would end up seeing through a lot of instructors BS. THeres to many want-a be Mall ninjas out there trying to teach everyone.
maybe one day
Unfortunately, accidents happen even with smart shooters. They happen when the smart shooter thinks he’s immune to accidents because he is a smart shooter. The safety rules always apply, even to smart shooters.
This just proves how great (useless) these instructors are, they just shoot where they expect to see a target whether its there or not.
Anyone who takes these courses is fooling themselves about what they have learned. Chances are you will wake up in the night and go spetz ninja with your skills and shoot your daughter sneaking back in because no one taught you to identify the shape before shooting. The only saving grace will be, as in this case your poor shot placement, thankfully.
I usually mock those who learn everything from halo, but its cheaper and just as effective as this stuff.
dave w,
You are painting with a pretty broad brush when you lump all instructors in with the likes of Sonny P., Yeager, etc. There are a lot of snake oil type instructors out there, but there are also many good ones as well.
yeah, there probably are good ones, but all i see are yeagers, putzikas, the clowns from that benny hill video and wanna be instructors like tacitical titties and her bf.
Not the best pool to draw a reference from i will admit.
You, just named a few of the worst offenders there, not the best group to represent all trainers. The better ones tend not to hype the shit out of themselves on Youtube like James Yeager does, but they are out there.
Unfortunately, the instructors you named and the real bozo’s (sorry Bozo( of the training world will post video evidence of their craptastitude all over youtube. The better instructors do not and or do very rarely. So there is much wider publicity for these morons and their “Big Boy Rules” crap than there is for honest safe instructors trying to help other be better prepared to safely defend themselves.
Dude, why are you such a H8r???
hahah haters gonna hate I suppose. I must be jealous because Sonny’s operating level is still 25 tiers above whatever I’ll ever attain.
Sonny says in his Panteo DVD trailer that “The inverted pyramid of firearms training also implies that we must put ourselves at the RECEIVING END OF A FIREARM…you cannot afford the luxury of turning around while standing in the same spot while engaging the enemy.” So what he’s saying is “Plan to get shot in my class!”
haha priceless
Would NOT happen in a Louis Awerbuck class.
IN SOVIET RUSSIA
“LIVE” FIRE SHOOTHOUSE REFER TO TARGETS
I know it’s bad of me, but I’m almost glad this happened assuming the dude is ok. It proves you right in your criticism and gives a good example to point to. Vigilante Derp, camera men downrange, keep calling ‘em like you see ‘em!
I just realized this idiot is shooting that ak in this picture not just holding it.
thats what I thought , glad someone saw that too!
You should archive them before you make fun of ‘em.
You should stop before you get hurt mike.
LOL get hurt. That’s gold…
Uhh, get hurt how, by whom, and for what?
I think most if not all here are sorry that someone was seriously injured, but is there something wrong with saying ‘I told you so,’ when everyone has been effectively saying “hey that’s dangerous?”
By a back-flipping hatchet attack through his window, if you know what I mean.
Ok I’m done here, not enough collective intellect in here to cook a pot of spaghetti, let alone decipher internet sarcasm. Fail- maybe there is more to these guys you go after.
More to these guys? I’m sure there is a lot “more to these guys” but if you want to talk about their humanitarian efforts, or how they were raised by wolves you should probably start your own blog, or beg Mike for a guest post on here. An instructor shooting someone because he was lazy and didn’t care about safety is something the entire gun community should be made aware of one way or another.
I agree- Sonny should get the rod for a bit over this one; however, perception of safety and actual practice are two different things. I’ve seen some things on here attacked in the name of safety that really I just think ppl are being sissies over. I’m not going to point out anything specific but I think y’all have a complex.
Lol u should do an operator level post with all your favorites like Yeager and FPS since you just dropped sonny
They aren’t exactly known for being collateral friendly.
petsnaz… 42 terrorists. 129 hostages. 171 bodybags. Mission accomplished.
Sonny Puzikas worked as a prison guard for 3 years under MVD and suddenly he’s a “Spetsnaz”?
Systema isn’t even official. All Spetsnaz use Combat Sambo, which is a national sport in Russia.
Sonny is Lithuanian by the way.
If you guys like to make fun of Spetsnaz so much.
Why don’t you go ahead and make fun of the modern Spetsnaz:
http://youtu.be/iwGBbMRd40I – Spetsnaz Documentary
http://youtu.be/VOxkIlo2ZkA – Spetsnaz FSB Alpha in the AK 100 promo
http://youtu.be/7sgOUP-2HHE – Anti-Terror Spetsnaz Unit
http://youtu.be/GFEmlXquhxo – Anti-Terror Spetsnaz Unit 2
http://youtu.be/GTpIXzs-D2w – Spetsnaz unit training with an IPSC shooter.
If you’re going to make fun of something, do it properly, with legit information. Not with outdated videos from the 90′s.
Just watch some of Sonny’s reloading video and compare with amateur and Polish Commando:
TMH: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkhq_3nKoyg
Sonny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3XCMNYMHFM
Polish Commando: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLfiNSEj0Lw
The production value on Sonny’s DVD is f-ing terrible. Apparently he can’t talk and demonstrate a technique at the same time, or just didn’t want to pay for a boom mic.
And some thing tells me he won’t be buying a boom mic any time soon….
I am sorry, but I am really pissed off because of all this “spetcnaz lack of safety” thing. Sonny does not represent russian spetcnaz and yet I DID NOT find any proof of his service in any unit. In Russia “Spetcnaz” includes everything from little local SWAT teams to Tier 1 recon units, and firearms training methodology will be very different. Tier 1 units now stepped ahead from “no light akimbo style shooting” and have an extremely high standards of safety in training.
That’s how modern
Vladimir, as you can see, this is the reputation the Spetsnaz has in the west.
You’ll be delighted to hear what Larry Vickers said about all Eastern European forces.
Larry Vickers is anti-Russian to the core. He always stabs Russia at any given chance. Just watch his TV show and you’ll see what i mean.
Which is kind of funny, because the guy basically spent his whole life waiting for a moment to fight against the Soviet Union.
Now he is way above weight and the only thing he can do is stab Russia with words.
Then Puzikas comes with all this “Systema-fu” stuff, claiming to be an elite Soviet Spetsnaz and tarnishes the Spetsnaz’s reputation even further.
While i was in Russia, i visited a shooting range in Ryazan, some Spetsnaz guys were there, i’m not sure which unit, but those guys had some really sharp skills.
No back-flipping hatchet attack, no muzzle sweeps, no finger on the trigger when not shooting.
Just smooth movements and great accuracy. They mixed some IPSC movements with the tactical environment really well.
And trust me, i’m really hard to impress. I’ve been following the Rifle competition shooting scene for almost a decade already.
Andrei Kirisenko one of Russia’s best rifle shooters:
http://youtu.be/JK4SA5KW4Qk
http://youtu.be/g7-8Dbcz5gA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hy7lJqOvqc&t=0m20s
http://youtu.be/IBpt3wwscG0 – Finger off the trigger, shows the weapon clear, always pointing it down range, etc.
Guess what? He gives classes to Russian Spetsnaz.
I’m sure if Kirisenko went to America to give ‘classes’, he would be considered a nobody. Despite being much more skilled than Sonny.
Americans seems to love the Hollywood stuff some famous instructors offer and Sonny happens to be(or used to be) one of them.
Oh well. Ignorance is a bliss.
Vladimir, I know a few guys who went from VDV to Spetznaz units, and they are some top of the line guys. I agree with you
Here’s an accurate accounting of what happened from the range owner as found on calguns:
http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showpost.php?p=9709689&postcount=43
Sonny said he was going in, then someone said OK, then he went in. Gene was in the initial room with the student, not the second room. Three targets were engaged *blindly* from this expert with 3 shots each from a pistol. Gene was in front of the first target Sonny shot at. So….yeah. It was pretty dark, and Sonny just went in by memory pretty much and happened to shoot up an instructor.
Was Sonny charged with any crime? Where is he now and what will he do now that his career is over.
I think I saw him at an auto body shop in Sacramento. J/k
Yeah, I saw him there too… he had accidentally shot himself but being a badass that he is, treated his wounds at the auto body shop, vice a hospital.
jez one accidental shooting and everyone wants to talk shit i guess yall r better..even seals,rangers exct. have training accidents from time to time you just dont here about it . theirs always risks when it come to live fire training
As someone who knows and has trained with Sonny as well as other firearms instructors, and heard about this before the internet did, I just want to offer a few perspectives:
1. Sonny is a highly skilled individual, with a lot of knowledge and experience. I have seen very few real world/tactical type firearms instructors who come close to his caliber. A lot of what he does looks strange or unusual, but there is a good reason behind all of it.
2. Sonny has a different view on some aspects of safety from most trainers. This is partly because of Russian mechanical safety doctrine (if you are expecting an engagement, safety is off) vs western (safety is always on until right before you fire, then right back on again). He also recognizes that in combat, the idea that you will never muzzle sweep a friendly is usually unrealistic, and demands a higher level of operator responsibility. Sonny places high value on realism in training, so when people do dry fire work (there is a lot of that in his classes) they do it with real guns (double checked unloaded). There is something about someone pointing a real gun at you and pulling the trigger that is very different from using a blue gun or other prop, and I believe that realism has value.
3. That said, Sonny has always been a consummate professional when it comes to safety. I have never seen an injury in any of his classes, and even when we’re doing something that most firearms instructors would balk at, the procedure and progression of training ensures that everyone is very safe – often we’ll do three or four perfect dry runs of a drill before attempting it live fire.
4. Sonny f*cked up, big time. I have no doubt he was his usual highly safety conscious self during the duration of the seminar, but in this case the seminar was actually over, and he fell victim to that lapse of awareness that comes after we think all the danger is passed. Most mountain climbers die on descent. Sonny should have known better – he did know better. He put his awareness down before he put his gun down, and we all know what happened after that. But he’s human, and humans f*ck up, even the best of them. I think we’ve all made mistakes that, had the circumstances been different, could have ended up just as badly.
I’m not trying to defend what Sonny did, but I’d like to encourage everyone not to judge and deride a man you’ve never met or trained with. That is all.
One accident,big deal.He is still pretty dam good.Maybje you ought to talk to him face to face.
LOL best comment ever.
He’s right, cool guy.
I’d like to see a video of you shooting ANYWHERE NEAR as well as these guys. I think you’re just as hungry for attention. You sound like a BABY WHINING about these total badasses that you’re TOTALLY JEALOUS OF. Sounds like a lover’s quarrel to me.
So you’re an ELITE OPERATOR eh? Video or it didn’t happen, mr. professional