Classes are chock-full, including a lot of great guest instructors. I’m most excited about Kathy Jackson coming to teach her instructor course, and that Greg Hamilton is coming back for Street & Vehicle Tactics in the Fall. I took S&VT many years ago, and look forward to taking it again.
As well, we’re determining our class schedule for the rest of the year. If there’s a particular class you’d like to take, speak up and let us know!
Melody Laurer just published an article over at the Lucky Gunner Lounge: “What’s Wrong With My Handgun Grip?” In the article Melody consults with 4 top instructors — including my boss-man, Karl Rehn:
At the top of my list of people to talk to when I started researching grip issues was Karl Rehn. Rehn is a IPSC Grand Master who started competitive shooting around the time I was born. In addition to taking almost every shooting class available from every major gun school in the country, he’s also an instructor who is well-versed in the history of shooting and technique.
I will not seek a fight, and if possible I will avoid one, but if one is forced upon me I will do whatever it takes to survive.
My sidearm is neither a status symbol nor an emotional crutch. I will not reach for it unless out of dire necessity, but if I must use deadly force to preserve my life or that of an innocent person, I will use it skillfully and without hesitation.
This is something a lot of non-gun-owning people – and people afraid of (people with/owning) guns – don’t understand about gun-owning people.
The overwhelming majority of us are not out to seek a fight.
In fact yes, most of us want to avoid fights.
But if you bring me a fight – and a fight that if I do not swiftly and decisively respond to likely results in death or grave harm to myself or another innocent person – yes I will respond.
These people are supposed to be academics, but they demonstrate a lack of research, knowledge, understanding, and empathy about the issue and people involved. Not just because they keep talking about “open carry” (check the laws; there is no legal open carry on Texas college campuses), but because who are they afraid of?
The only people that would be allowed to (concealed) carry on campus are licensed individuals, who again are extensively background checked, fingerprinted, not felons, not drug users – try saying that about your average college student. In fact, try saying that about your average college professor! A little digging around (and someone please correct me if I’m wrong), but from what I can find about the hiring practices of Texas universities, criminal history is only used when hiring for security-sensitive positions. So that seems that a UH professor could be a felon, a drug user, a deadbeat mom, at some point in their life perhaps committed to a mental institution, subject to a restraining order, and who would know any of that? But if you have – and wish to keep – a Texas Handgun License, you can’t be any of those things.
Who should be afraid of whom?
Are such-licensed individuals people you should be afraid of? Aren’t non-criminal, drug-free, mentally sound, good people the sort of thing our society desires? How will presence and existence of such good people cause you harm? Why should it give you fear? Can you articulate a sound reason for your fear? Note that it’s not unreasonable to be afraid; it’s the difference between having a rational fear or being afraid of the boogeyman.
It’s funny how a lot of people say “I don’t carry a gun, because I don’t live in fear”. Well, the above behavior speaks to the contrary.
I don’t carry out of fear – I carry out of an acceptance of reality. Just like I keep a fire extinguisher in my home because I understand fires can happen. Just like I wear a seat belt when I’m in a car because I understand brakes can fail. Just like I have insurance because stuff happens. I suppose you don’t do these things tho, because you don’t live in fear.
I don’t carry a gun because of you. I don’t carry a gun to intimidate. I don’t carry a gun to try to “get my way”. I don’t carry a gun for political reasons.
I carry a gun because I love my family, and if someone seeks to cause them harm, I will not allow it.
I will not seek a fight, and if possible I will avoid one, but if one is forced upon me I will do whatever it takes to survive.
My sidearm is neither a status symbol nor an emotional crutch. I will not reach for it unless out of dire necessity, but if I must use deadly force to preserve my life or that of an innocent person, I will use it skillfully and without hesitation.
Rifle [Open Carry] is fucking stupid. It’s not done to keep peace, it’s done to get attention and create confrontations. And those of us with actual training and experience, especially those of us who carry concealed pistols to defend ourselves, our families and innocent people around us, have to react when we see someone carrying a rifle ready to engage in public. For those of us with a sworn duty to protect the public, OC creates even more problems. This isn’t about police overreaction; after aaallll the mass shootings we’ve had in America, and after the horrors of the Paris attack, any police officer who ignores Random Guy Walking Down The Street With A Rifle is guilty of criminal negligence.
[…]
Now that we’ve seen, over and over, what kind of damage a murderer with a rifle can cause, we sane 2A advocates have a responsibility. If we want to maintain 2nd Amendment freedoms for ourselves, children and grandchildren, we need to oppose the mindless stupidity personified by OC activism. Scaring the public with rifles isn’t exactly the best way to show why we citizens should own ARs and AKs. The Founding Fathers recognized the right to bear arms for a reason: they didn’t want American citizens to fight tyranny with pitchforks against cannon, as so often happened in Europe. It’s safe to say they didn’t want a bunch of untrained dipshits swaggering around town showing the world they could massacre everyone around if they feel like it.
Despite it being pretty well-established that the SERPA holster is A Bad Idea®, there are still those out there that deny the facts. But then, we have people who believe the Earth is flat and meth is good for you. What’s particularly damning about this video is it comes from a greater video that’s all about the denial, then within the video the guy does precisely the thing that shows why it’s A Bad Idea®.
Look: you’re welcome to (continue to) justify your bad decisions – that’s also your decision. Remember, this is realm where ego-investment really doesn’t serve you well. There’s lots of good equipment out there, that does the same job better. Then there’s you, who can practice and even use video to help keep yourself honest. You carry a gun to keep yourself safe, right? So, make choices that help keep yourself safe.
As you might guess, most of the holders naturally fall where there’s the most concentration of people – cities. Nothing really odd about the distribution.
And yes Austin – lots of people in and around Austin are licensed.
The article seems to be based upon a database published by mySA.com, but that’s just numbers (enter zip code, get numbers). The map is certainly better for visualization.
I find it interesting that we’re just shy of 1,000,000 license holders. Every time I look at this number it’s increased, and it shows no signs of slowing down.
Otherwise, the article is a poor one. It jams a bunch of unrelated “gun news” into a single article.
You believe in women’s rights. You believe in a woman’s right to choose. Rape and rape culture disgusts you. Every woman should not just feel safe, but be safe – especially on campus.
What is your response to rape-survivor Shayna Lopez-Rivas?
I do have nightmares from being raped on campus. Sometimes they are so bad I wake up at three in the morning sweaty and terrified because in my mind I am being raped again. In my mind I am there: I am forced into a secluded area, forced to unzip my pants, forced to lay down as tiny cuts are made all over my body and a man I do not know rolls on a condom and forces himself on top of me. I remember how cold the asphalt felt as I distracted myself from the sting of the knife. I remember looking into his eyes and realizing there was no emotion behind them, no sympathy just sadism. And I remember thinking: this is how I’m going to die and then getting up after it was done, tears streaming down my face and neck wondering how I even survived.
Ms. Lopez-Rivas continues:
I fight for my Second Amendment rights because I believe I should never have a chance of getting raped again. I won’t deny the possibility of getting injured, but my gun gives me a chance that pepper spray, stun guns, and pocketknives never will. It prevents a knife being held at my throat and the voice of a stranger promising me he won’t kill me. And I won’t be denied the right to have that chance of surviving a potential attack rather than being assaulted again.
Sen. Diaz de la Portilla, why are you so adamant in denying me my right to protect myself and have a gun on campus? Why have you not schedule the campus carry bill for the Senate Judiciary Committee you chair? Why have you not met with me for 15 minutes since October when I began sending you and your legislative assistant weekly emails asking for an appointment?
I hope this open letter will engage opposition to campus carry. I hope everyone will understand why it’s so important that the bill be scheduled for a vote. Senator Diaz de la Portilla: Don’t let me be raped on campus again, let me arm myself, and whether you vote yes or no, at least schedule the campus carry bill for a vote.
It was good to get outside, away from the computer, and spend the day teaching. Truly, helping people learn and grow is a wonderful thing, and I’m fortunate to have the ability and opportunity to do so.
For the record, once again classes did not uphold the stereotype some wish to paint of gun owners. The BP1 class was 2/3 female. Both classes ran the gamut of young to old, male and female, and had a mixture of well… everything: you pick the arbitrary criteria of gender, race, socio-economic status, education level, whatever. Sorry, but the only thing you can truly “stereotype” about gun owners is they are people interested in their freedoms and their personal safety.
Overall, both classes ran smoothly, tho we did have a couple hiccups.
Takeaways for the students:
The gun is just a tool, just a piece of hardware. Yes, it’s important to find on with the proper fit, but once you get in the ballpark it becomes more important to get training and practice. Again, if you have any questions or troubles finding the right one, just drop us a line and we’re happy to help you out.
Still, hardware is one of the cornerstones, and you can’t build a strong house with cheap, flimsy hardware. Get good supporting gear, like belts, holsters, magazine pouches, and yes… more magazines. It pays off.
A lot of folks came to BP2 with small guns, few magazines, and those magazines held little ammo. The more magazines you can have, the faster and smoother class can run.
You can buy a big supply all at once, or do like I do: every time I’m shopping at a store (brick&mortar or online) that sells magazines, just throw one in the basket. Over time, you build up your supply and it’s rarely a big hit to the budget.
Get an UpLULA. Speeds and facilitates the mag-loading process.
Dry fire costs you nothing, but pays big benefits. Practice the skills and drills we worked in class. Do this regularly and you will see improvement.
After the BP2 class, I was talking with one student and another student joined the conversation. This other student was an accomplished competition bow shooter and he reinforced a good point to the first student about measurable skill. Do you know where you stand? Do you know how you perform? If not, measure it against some standard, then continue to measure it to see where you need work and where you do not. If you can’t measure your skill, how do you know if you’re getting better?
So in this case, the BP2 class ends with shooting the Texas LTC (formerly CHL) test. There we go: there’s a measurable drill and performance standard. The students saw how well they shot it, now they have a baseline. A way to work this is to pick a drill (the LTC test is a good one for students at this level). Shoot the drill as written but without time-limits: just work to shoot the drill 100% clean without any time pressure. Once you can do that, put your shooting against a stopwatch to figure out how long it takes you to shoot it — don’t worry about limits, this is open-ended trying to determine what your limits are. Once you know how long it takes you, now you have limits. So say the published string of fire is “2 seconds” but it takes you 5 seconds. Fine: it takes you 5, now you know, and now you have something to work against. Figure out: why am I not shooting to the established standard? Am I taking too long to get the sight picture? Am I slapping the trigger? Self-analysis, video, instructor/coaching can help here. Once you know the problem, work on it in dry practice and work to beat your standard: maybe getting it done in 4 seconds, maybe 3, working down to that established standard of 2 seconds. Once you can do it in the standard, can you beat the standard? Once you can, consider moving to a tougher standard. And repeat, while skill improves in a measurable way.
As for that thing that didn’t run so smooth: we did have a student with an interesting vision situation. We did what we could to work with the student, but unfortunately the time limits and class format didn’t permit us the time needed to fully diagnose the issue. She’s coming back out in a couple weeks to work directly with Karl – we will get it sorted out. What we (the instructors) took from it is a few things we could do a little better on the range. For example, having a gun with a laser on it as a part of the BP1 “buffet”. I also remembered a trick Tom Givens taught me towards helping diagnose sight picture issues, so keeping a “red gun” (a fake, plastic gun) in the range wagon would be useful for such events (alas, I didn’t remember the trick until we instructors were discussing the situation afterwards). There’s always ways we can make things better.
All in all, the day was good. A really good group of students, everyone leaving demonstrably better than they started. I’m happy.
And Greg is just a workhorse; the man’s got a fantastic work ethic. 🙂
KR Training’s primary focus is on the handgun. For a number of years, Karl has offered his unique Defensive Long Gun class, but it’s an all-day class (which means a lot of time/resources to allocate) and over the past some years customer demand has been oriented towards handgun instruction, so the DLG class was mostly backburnered.
But, with so many people buying rifles the past few years, certainly people were coming to Karl wanting instruction on how to use this new purchase. Karl responded by offering Basic Rifle 1, which is akin to Basic Pistol 1 for a person who may have little to no prior experience to obtain a basic introduction to the concept of rifles. As well, Karl took the Defensive Long Gun class and trimmed some things to take it from a full-day class to a half-day class: Defensive Long Gun Essentials. DLG-E maintained the basic curriculum of DLG, but dropped some things such as the role-play scenarios. This class worked well to provide people with some fundamental instruction, but didn’t require a long day to do so.
Still, once people completed that, they wanted more; they wanted to continue to improve their skills. After I returned from taking Paul Howe’s Tactical Rifle Operator course back in October 2015, Karl asked me if we might be able to use learning there to create an “intermediate rifle” class. While we certainly could, I wouldn’t feel right about teaching it. As Karl and I continued discussion and who could perhaps teach such a course, I suggested Aaron Marco. Karl and Aaron got to talking, and here we are.
Aaron is certainly a proper person for such a class. Aaron is a USPSA Grandmaster-level shooter. He’s an avid 3-gun shooter. He’s also a member of a full-time Central Texas SWAT team. So consider, Aaron has knowledge of both the “gamer” side and “tactical” side of things. He can speak to both sides equally well, and he’s uniquely positioned to comment on both “gamer” and “tactical” topics, including all the back-and-forth that those exclusive to one side or the other lob about in disparaging the other side. Aaron’s got it pretty simple: if you’re a better shooter, because the fundamentals apply to either problem set, it will always help you. Granted, there are differences (and I was a good example of that; I’ll detail this later), but on the whole if you can be a better shooter, that will always be to your advantage.
Class
It was an unusually pleasant day: mid-70’s/low-80’s in January, sunny, clear; just an excellent day to be out on the range. We had a sold out class of 10 students, with a lot of familiar faces. I attended with my friend Charles from Tactical Gun Review, and Oldest came with me as well. Aaron running the class and Karl assisting. A range of equipment, with a number of suppressors and short-barrel rifles. I believe all but one person was running an AR-patterned rifle, some set up for “fighting” some set up for competition. Two people were running irons, the rest had optics (most popular were 1-4/5/6x scopes, a few red dots).
The class was certainly set up to be a competition class (3-gun, etc.). That wasn’t my expectation going into the class, but I was fine with it. I knew whatever skills were taught would still help me become better.
We started by checking zero. This is a good thing to have done, because people were zeroed in different places, which was fine and you could keep whatever zero you preferred. Aaron was mostly ensuring people were zeroed somewhere, but also understood the zeros. Furthermore, Aaron discussed zeroing in a 3-gun context. Whereas a lot of tactical shooting might zero at 100 yards because it rarely cares about more than a 300 yard engagement, in 3-gun you may be shooting out to 600 yards, so different zeros may be needed, such as a 200 or even 300 yard zero! The game is so much about a balance of speed and accuracy, and speed is sometimes about minimizing manipulations that consume time (e.g. reloads, adjusting your scope, getting in and out of positions). In fact, much of the class had that as the undertone.
After zeroing, we ran various drills to illustrate important concepts. For example, issues of holdover. Aaron set a target and we walked back: 10 yards, 15, 25, 50, 75, 100, shooting it standing offhand each time (let me tell you, 100 yards quickly offhand is humbling), working to help manage speed vs. accuracy, how holdover changes, and so on.
We also worked in different positions such as kneeling, prone, around barricades, off low barrels, etc.. We worked on target transitions, working on being smooth with a steady cadence.
One fun drill we shot was Kyle Lamb (VTAC)’s “1/2 and 1/2 Drill)
10 rounds at 20 yards in 10 seconds
10 rounds at 10 yards in 5 seconds
10 rounds at 5 yards in 2.5 seconds
Here’s a video from Kyle himself:
Of course, it’s a lot of fun to blow through 10 rounds in 2.5 seconds, but it’s also very challenging. On the longer distances, you have to slow down, use all that time, get acceptable hits. On the shorter distances, you have to really go but even then you can’t rush: you still have to ensure the front sight post, the dot, whatever, is still bouncing within the target area. Then we ran the drill backwards (5, 10, 20), and that’s also a tough one because
Oh, and if you watch the video and see the results? Notice how all the hits are in the lower portion of the A-zone? That’s the holdover problem, and it’s tough because on a pistol there’s holdover but it’s not much and usually we don’t worry about it. But on a rifle it’s significant, and in running a drill like the 1/2 and 1/2, your brain gets so focused on “that target spot” that it’s easy to forget to adjust. All telling learning points.
One fun part of the day was Aaron set up a competition stage on the shoothouse berm. We pulled out some .22 rifles and ran though the stage. When Aaron was critiquing my run, he pointed out how he could easily tell I was more of a “tactical shooter” than a competition shooter because of how I ran the stage: how I’d shoot OR move (instead of shooting on the move), how I’d approach doorways, etc.. Interesting observation for sure.
Take-Homes
I appreciated the class. It was great to finally meet Aaron (we’ve know of each other for a while, even exchanged some on Facebook comment threads; but never met in person until today). He’s very easy going, very skilled and knowledgeable. I also appreciated the extra time he took with Oldest to help him with some things.
For a first class, it was generally good. I do think there’s some room for improvement in the class flow. For example, the typical mode of operation in our pistol classes that might utilize the shoothouse berm will be to break class, everyone goes over to the berm for a briefing on the exercise/drill, then everyone goes back to the main range and continues class. Since the shoothouse drill is generally a one-person operation, then we’ll have 1 person break out from the main group, run the shoothouse, then rejoin class. By doing this the rest of the class keeps going, doesn’t stand around bored, everyone gets a run through the special drill/scenario, and things just run a little smoother in terms of time and curriculum management. In this class we didn’t do that: everyone stood around and watched while each person ran the stage. Sure, that replicates how a match works 😉 but a class doesn’t have to run that way. It’d would have been cool if perhaps the large range was set up with an array of paper targets and people worked on “with 15 yards” walking and target-transition engagements, or some other skill. Basically, keep everyone moving.
Small issue tho, and again, this was the first run of the class so of course we’re going to find room to improve.
Me personally?
The biggest thing I got was reinforcement of fundamentals. Again, I felt the CSAT course was not a beginner course, not an advanced course, but a fundamentals course; something that anyone and everyone can benefit from. I saw how the fundamentals worked, even in “competition”; it’s all the same. I also saw how when I forgot to apply the fundamentals, I stunk up the joint. It really reinforced to me that these skills are not fully engrained in me. Need more practice.
I also continue to see how rifle shooting and pistol shooting are more alike than different. Sure there are differences, but not as much as my brain wants to put into it. My brain needs to just “shut up and shoot”; it generally knows what to do.
I was happy for the class. It was just what I needed, both in terms of instruction, and just a bit of fun! A great day, excellent weather, good people, and yeah… getting to spend time with my friend Charles (we haven’t seen each other in a while) and my Oldest… hey, all good things.
Stuff From Hsoi 