Self defense can become an essential survival skill, 

and the gun you carry is not a magic wand, so pragmatic hand to hand methods should be studied as well as shooting. This is a good tool to use for that purpose, that costs little more than the work it takes to build it.

This is my tire dummy, that I designed and made many years ago. I stopped using it when I got well into my 50s because my old body didn’t like the stress, but it was a very useful exercise and self defense training device when I did use it.

It’s like going to the shooting range with empty hand and improvised weapon technique: the target doesn’t shoot back or hit back, but it is still an important tool in learning how to use your weapon. It should not be the only training method, but it is an important one.

The tire dummy is way better than a bag because it has a more humanoid shape, and because you can kick it with shoes or boots on and hit it with steel bars and hammers and best of all baseball bats. All of this gives you immediate feedback about how effective the strike would be.

One of the most important things about this kind of training is that it teaches you focus; this is an important aspect of power. The baseball bat is good for learning this, and what you learn can then be applied to empty hand and all other techniques.

This is important training even if you carry a gun, because it is not uncommon for gunfights to be preceded by an empty handed fight. You don’t have to be able to defeat your assailant with your hands; all you have to do is give yourself time and distance to get your gun out.

This training can also be good for a patriot who has a mission to carry out in an area where guns are not allowed and he has to go through a metal detector to get into. It might help him get his hands on a gun once inside. And this is just one among many possibilities.

Karate and self defense are similar but they are not the same thing. This device is designed for self defense. Two of the most useful self defense techniques are the palm heel strike and the low side kick (which is essentially coiling your leg up and stomping on your opponent’s leg). This is very a good training device for both of those, among many other realistic methods of self defense.
@GrizzledOldNamVet