Guns

This is not the checklist you’re looking for

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Mark Keefe wrote an article “20-Questions for a First Pistol Checklist“. The subheading was “Providing sound advice for purchasing a firearm requires knowledge of the purpose, which means you have to ask the right questions.”

I would agree with that statement. Certainly knowledge of purpose is the right way to start, because a firearm is like any tool: there are many types, and you will do your job better if you have the right tool for the job.

And the article does start off that way:

1. First things first, what do you want it for?
Personal protection and recreational target shooting.

2. Do you understand that there are serious considerations regarding using a firearm for personal protection?
Yes, I understand and have thought it through; really that is why I am at this point.

3. Do you want it as a carry gun?
No. I may later, but not right now.

4. How and where do you plan to store it?
I will keep it loaded in a lock box in my bedroom

Question #1 is good, and questions 2-4 fall naturally from the answer given to question #1. So far, so good.

5. What cartridge do you want it to chamber?

Aaaannndd… we’re done.

Questions 5-11 ask about caliber, type of gun, capacity, frame type (steel vs. polymer), action type, mechanical safeties, external hammers. Question 12 asks about price (good question). Question 13-16 ask about accessories, sights, adjustability. Question 17 is about geography, which matters to some folks (but IMHO shouldn’t be a primary consideration). Question 18 on barrel length. Question 19 is about new vs. used (possibly relevant).

Well, while these can be meaningful questions — and perhaps they were meaningful and appropriate for the person Mark was questioning — this is not a good general line of questions for the first-time buyer. In fact, most first time buyers will have no idea about these things, what they mean, what their significance is — so how could they answer these questions? In fact, question #20 “Are you willing to take an NRA Basic Pistol Course if I help you out?” seems like a prerequisite to being able to answer many of these questions! Certainly all of those mechanical features would be defined, discussed, and made relevant to the newbie.

I’ve gotten to a point where any “buying a gun” checklist that puts “caliber” near the top of the list automatically gets nixed; caliber matters, but not as much as the Internet makes you think. If you still think steel guns are better than polymer-framed guns, Glock would like a word with you. If you’re new to shooting and your goal is concealed carry, checklists that push you to small guns as first guns are checklists to ignore.

Checklists to pay attention to? Ones that are made by people that actually shoot and understand shooting. That understand beginners and their needs. That it’s more important to find a gun you can shoot right and shoot well (e.g. gun fit is a primary concern), because shooting the gun is enjoyable and you see success in your shooting (that’s what gets you to return to the range and to training classes).

Here’s one such checklist.

More fuel for the caliber wars

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Since th3 int3rw3bz loves to endlessly debate about equipment and caliber, here’s some more fuel for the fire. Because we all know 9mm sucks and any caliber that doesn’t start with a “4” isn’t worth shit.

Greg Ellifritz writes about his experience shooting a very simple drill. You should click through to read the drill and Greg’s experiences, no point in reprinting it here (or click here to read just the drill).

Here’s the thing:

I found it interesting that I could shoot the same number of rounds in 2.5 seconds (and with better accuracy) with my 9mm as I could in 3 seconds with my .45. There isn’t that much stopping power difference between the 9mm and .45 (using good loads) that I’m willing to sacrifice the 3- 4 rounds per second difference in speed for a marginal difference is stopping power.

So shooting a 9, Greg could shoot faster and get more accurate hits.

Hrm.

For fun, Greg ran it with some other guns:

Just for fun, I then did the drill from the ready position with a 2″ snub .22 long rifle revolver (S&W 317). 3 rounds (from ready) in 1.8 seconds. Set the par time at 2 seconds and ran it 10 more times.

Results: consistently 6-7 shots. One time I hit all 8 shots in 1.99. No misses.

So what you’re telling me is, when there’s less recoil to manage, you can shoot the gun “better”. Whodathunkit?

Look, if you really want to shoot a handgun chambered in .40S&W or .45ACP or some other “manly” caliber, go ahead — I won’t stop you. But I would ask you to consider your goals and purpose. If it’s shooting for fun, go for it. If you are shooting in competition, you have to play by the rules of the game. If you are shooting a particular gun because you have no choice (it’s all you have and you can’t get anything else, department regulations, local laws, etc.), then you gotta do what you gotta do. If it’s about the ability to defend yourself and your loved ones, then wouldn’t you want to choose equipment that can best serve you towards that end? The fabled “stopping power” of .4x-caliber rounds isn’t what you think it is — all pistol calibers suck about the same. Ultimately there isn’t any meaningful “stopping power” difference between 9×19 Parabellum (Luger), .40S&W, and .45 ACP with modern self-defense ammunition. So where can differences be had? 9mm allows for greater capacity (who ever said they wanted less ammo in a gunfight?). 9mm is less expensive. 9mm has less recoil (both real and felt/perceived), and leads to results like Greg experienced above — ability to mange recoil more easily, allowing for faster and more accurate hits — and isn’t the ability to deliver accurate hits quickly what it’s all about? I fail to see the downside to 9mm, and I fail to see why some people continue to insist upon other calibers when they offer no measurable advantage.

Yes those other calibers work, but when your life is on the line, don’t you want to do everything you can to stack the deck in your favor?

Your business, or your rights?

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

The other day when I attended my Texas Concealed Handgun Instructor certification renewal class, many people arrived quite early (including myself). While in line waiting for the doors to open, I listened to a lot of the conversations happening around me.

One of the big topics was the recent changes to the CHL-related laws: the change in number of hours (4-6 hours for the classroom), and the removal of classroom/proficiency for renewals. There were many comments and much discussion going on about the various aspects and impacts this had, but one line of discussion stood out to me.

There was talk about loss of business. This makes sense. If people had to come to you for renewals but now that need is eliminated, that’s a fair portion of your business killed off. And now if people don’t need to be in your classroom for as much time, you just can’t charge as much money for those classes.

I cannot deny this affects and hurts business, and there were voices expressing how upset they were the law changed in a manner that damaged their business. I cannot fault them for being upset about this.

But what do you want?

If there was open carry and Constitutional Carry in Texas, you wouldn’t have any business at all! Are you saying it’s more important to preserve your business model than your fundamental rights?

I’m not necessarily advocating one way or the other, but just step back from your emotions for a moment and consider your stance.

Meantime, I see many ways in which the change in the law actually opens doors for creative business-folk to offer more classes, more instruction, and work in ways that can improve the class, capability, and confidence of Texas CHL holders. Of course, it might mean you have to get out and expand your business, your marketing efforts, your own skills and résumé so you can offer these things and still grow your business. But isn’t that what America is supposed to be about? You getting off your duff and building the future you want, instead of having the government structure and hand you something?

 

The importance of managing time in the classroom

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

The other day I spent a very long day sitting in the Texas Concealed Handgun Instructor certification renewal class. It was a very long day (class officially started at 8:00 AM and I didn’t leave until 7:00 PM). There were a few things that stood out to me about the class, but one thing in particular.

Classroom time management.

When you have a particular set of material that you must cover, you must be aware of how you present that material in a manner that is not only effective but also sensitive to time constraints.

There are a few big time killers.

First, anecdotes. There’s no question anecdotes aid learning. It gives real-world perspective to what is being taught, and the impact of the story can  aid in retention of the material. But anecdotes must be used sparingly. If every bullet-point on the slide is accompanied by a story, everything will drag out. Furthermore, a heavy amount of stories lessens the impact of those stories, both from overload and the restlessness of the audience with “Oh boy, another war story”. Sometimes as well, it expends further time because now others want to chime in with their stories. And the time-wasting grows.

What can make this worse is when you have multiple instructors (e.g. co-teaching) and everyone feels a need to chime in. Yes, we all like to make our pet points, yes we all have things to say. But all instructors must be mindful of keeping on time and on track, and sometimes that means shutting up. This isn’t to say the other instructors must remain in silence, but that the entire teaching team must have their watches synchronized and do their part in keeping the classroom on track and on time.

Second, and this isn’t so much a time-killer as a morale one, but setting time-expectations. When you start off saying this next section should only take 20 minutes to do, then it winds up taking 45 — because of so many anecdotes — people are going to be annoyed. When the invitation says class should be done by 6:00 PM then you start going on about how we’re going to run over because time’s being wasted, but then you’re the one wasting the time? Um… doesn’t sit well with folks.

Furthermore, when you know Q&A is an important part of the reason for holding the classroom session, then there’s almost no time alloted for Q&A because all the time was used up by stories and other time-wasters, that’s a problem — especially when you set the expectation that part of the reason we’re there is to have open lines of communication between the students and instructors.

Third, underpromise and overdeliver. This goes back to the time issues. If you say “this is going to take 20 minutes” then you take 45, people are going to be upset. When you say we’ll be out by 6PM then we’re not out until 7PM, people are going to be upset. Instead, you should say it’ll take 45 and deliver it in 30, or that we’ll be out by 6PM but we’re actually done by 5. Be more realistic in setting your expectations, overestimate a little bit, and that way if you run up to that time then at worst you did what you said; if you still go over, hopefully then it won’t be by much; and if you go under, everyone will love you.

Finally, realize that it’s your classroom. You are the one in charge. If you set rules for classroom procedure, you need to follow and enforce those rules. Furthermore, you should not chastise the students for being the time-wasters, because if the students are wasting time it’s only because you are the one allowing them to waste the time. If you set rules that questions should be held until a particular point of the presentation, you should not be acknowledging hands raised at other times during the presentation (other than perhaps to say “I see you, we’ll take questions at the end”… do that a few times and everyone will get it and things will flow better). But of course, you must ensure to allot and then preserve that Q&A time — it cannot be sacrificed because you failed in other areas of time management. If the classroom fails to run smoothly and on time, it’s not the fault of the students, it’s the fault of the instructor.

I do understand how this goes. I have to run classrooms, I assist in classrooms. I’ve been there, done that. I know I have my own things to work on, and that’s probably why these things stood out to me because these are things I see in myself and my own classrooms. Things we’ve worked on, things we still need to improve upon. I don’t say this to be ugly to the instructors of my CHL-I class, but rather as feedback from one instructor to another on how we can all work to make our classrooms better, more productive, and more conducive to successful learning.

Pushing – walking a fine line

/ hsoi

In a prior article, I referenced an article written by Kathy Jackson. Kathy discusses her role as a self-defense instructor, and the gravity of that role. And while she might strive to make a fun class and work to see her students enjoy her teaching, she understands there’s something more she must do:

In order to fulfill my most important responsibility to my students, I have to risk pushing them beyond their comfort levels. And I have to do it in a way that will cause them to work harder rather than to shut down. If I’m not willing to take that risk for the sake of my students’ lives, I have no right to call myself a self-defense instructor.

We do this in classes at KR Training, varying the level of “push” depending upon the class. In a class like Basic Pistol 1, for some of the students they are pushing their comfort levels merely by attending class and picking up a gun for the first time, so we instructors don’t need to add push and pressure (just comfort and reassurance). In a class like Defensive Pistol Skills 1, we start to relay the gravity of carrying a gun and what self-defense actually involves, so we have students shoot on a timer and yes there’s some yelling by the instructors to raise the pressure levels (because someone trying to kill you is going to be a pressure-filled event!). Then you get to force-on-force classes, and those have a range of discomfort as well.

I think that’s why some people avoid training, or at least, particular types of training.

I know I’m victim of it. I’m human too. I like comfort. I like known. I don’t like getting my ass kicked, I don’t like the physical pain, I don’t like the ego bruising.

But we don’t get better unless we push ourselves. Heck, the only reason I can squat 300# now is because I pushed myself over my fears, over my discomfort, over my hate of squatting, over my fear of getting hurt, fear of not being able to get back up. I pushed myself, I got better.

Generally we shouldn’t take big leaps: someone that’s never done force-on-force before, even just verbal no-contact role-playing stuff, probably shouldn’t take SouthNarc’s ECQC as a first go. But if the thought of force-on-force is a little scary to you, I urge to to find a “101-level” type of FoF class (e.g. KR Training’s AT-2) and give it a try. I’ve never seen anyone come out of such a class not better for it.

So realize, when your teacher, coach, instructor, whatever pushes you, it’s an attempt to help you get better. If we go too far over the line, it’s not malicious; but do let us know so we can be mindful (because too far will just cause you to shut down and close off to learning). But don’t worry if you feel a little uncomfortable: we all did, we all do, we all will, and we all will grow from it.

The Second Annual Suburban Dad Survivalist Preparedness Conference

/ hsoi

Paul Martin, known to some as “The Suburban Dad Survivalist“, is presenting the Second Annual Suburban Dad Survivalist Preparedness Conference.

The event will be held on Saturday, January 4, 2014 from 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM at the Cabela’s in Buda, Texas.

Complete details on the conference, including speakers, schedule, cost, etc. can be found at the SDS website.

I will be presenting at the conference, and look forward to seeing you there!

KR Training November 2013 Newsletter

/ hsoi

The KR Training November 2013 newsletter is short, sweet, and now available. Classes are firming up through Spring 2014, with plenty of guest instructors coming.

Also, are you in the Central Texas area and doing anything this coming Saturday November 16? If not, Karl needs a few more students for his AT-7 force-on-force class. An excellent training opportunity.

There’s also a special in the newsletter. Between that and the FoF class, well… we know money is tight, we know ammo supplies are low, so anything you can do to gain training within your budget, all the better.

Instructor Ethics

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Here I sit in the too-early morning — even too early for me (stupid daylight savings time). Later today (at the time of this writing, which isn’t the same as the date of publication) I will be sitting in a classroom to renew my Texas Concealed Handgun License Instructor certification.

I dug back through some emails I sent to myself, finding an article Kathy Jackson wrote titled Instructor Ethics 101:

When you step up to teach a self-defense class, you are literally asking students to bet their lives on the quality of the information you have and on your ability to teach it to them. This is no exaggeration, but just the simple truth.

[…]

I have even heard some handgun instructors deny that they are teaching self-defense. “It’s just a carry permit class,” they say — as if people carry guns for any other purpose. Or, “I’m just teaching them to use a handgun, that’s all.” But if your students think otherwise, if they come to you to learn skills they think they can use to protect themselves and their loved ones, you’re still on the hook. It’s so tempting to engage in these kinds of denials, and maybe that’s a more comfortable place for us to live as instructors, but it does our students no good.

As I prepare myself to sit in a room full of other CHL Instructors, I hope every single one of them understands it’s not “just a carry permit class”. That they take the gravity to heart, and will go forth and teach accordingly.

Even for myself, it’s a good reminder.

We are not the people you should be afraid of

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

The Texas Department of Public Safety keeps track of conviction rates for Texas Concealed Handgun License holders. You can see all the published reports so far, and here’s the 2011 list (latest as of this writing).

While it’s evident CHL holders are not immune from doing bad things, the data does support the notion that CHL holders are an extremely law-abiding bunch – far and above the citizenry as a whole.

Here’s some number crunching:

The number of CHL holders that commit murder or manslaughter is remarkably low. From the DPS reports for 1996 through 2011, the number of murder and manslaughter convictions for CHL holders totaled 30 over the 16 years.

DPS also reports on the number of active CHL holders for each year. Those numbers were totaled to obtain the number of CHL holder-years. The total number of CHL holder-years for the 1996-2011 is 4,295,434.

The two numbers give us the ratio of CHL holder convictions for murder and manslaughter per 100,000 CHL holders per year. That number is .70/100,000.

Yes, the decimal point is in the correct place.

The rate of murder and manslaughter for the general population of Texas averaged for the years 1996-2011 is 6.0/100,000.

If such is the case, why do you think we’re the people you need to stop? Why are you afraid of us? We’re demonstrably more law-abiding and statistically less likely to commit a crime. Aren’t we the very sort of people you desire?

 

There may not be enough time for someone else to respond

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Greg Ellifritz writes about the recent Sparks, Nevada school shooting.

4) Time.  The entire attack, from the time the first child was shot until the shooter killed himself, lasted less than three minutes.  Think about that for a second.  You don’t have much time to act.  Don’t expect the police to be able to arrive in time to save you.  You won’t be able to get to your vehicle glove compartment to get the gun you don’t carry “because it’s too heavy.”  You are on your own and will be forced to use whatever gear you have on your person to stop this kind of attack.

Just let the reality of that sink in.

And for those who think there are other strategies you can take:

3) Talking is a poor strategy. The heroic teacher in this case attempted to talk the student down after the student shot his first victim. His heroic attempt was rewarded with a bullet in the chest. Historically, begging, pleading, and talking to the killer has not resulted in positive outcomes. In general, talking should only be considered as a last resort when no other options are available.

So as you go through life, as you make decisions for yourself — and for others — should you make them based upon contending with your dreamy ideal of how the world should be or how you think it is? or contending with the realities of how the world really is?