I know everyone’s in an emotional state right now… and gun control is hot on the lips of so many people.
This woman would have been raped or murdered, if she didn’t have a gun.
Is that what you want?
“Of course not!” you reply.
But that’s precisely what you’ll get if you get your way.
A gun is neither good nor bad; it’s what someone does with it that’s good or bad. It’s the person and their actions.
My prior article on instructors was primarily aimed at those that wished to be instructors and the path to get there. However, in examining the path one might follow on the road to becoming an instructor, it sheds a lot of light for those that wish to be students — how can you pick a good instructor.
While the context might be different — weightlifting/physical training — the principles remain the same. Dave Tate lists 4 ways to tell if your coach has a clue:
Doesn’t matter the context or the specific type of instructor. These pretty much hold for any instructor be it martial arts, lifting, cooking, painting, whatever.
I never set out to become a firearms instructor.
Heck, years ago I didn’t set out to ever own a gun either… but about 5 years ago that all changed. Well, it changed a lot earlier than that, but it was about 5 years ago that I bought my first firearm. If you go through life open to the possibilities, open to what flows, truly seeking Truth and not just confirming your own biases then well… it’s interesting where you wind up.
So as I took classes at KR Training, one day Tom Hogel takes me aside and suggests I get my NRA Instructor Certifications. I had no desire to teach, I was totally taken aback that he just came out of the blue to move me in that way, but he and Karl both encouraged me and well… here I am.
I am far from a master, but I have been travelling this Instructor road for about four years now. Kathy Jackson recently posted to her blog an article about “How to Become a Firearms Instructor“. It’s a good article, that contains valuable information for both instructors (current and prospective) and for students.
In fact, I think Kathy’s article speaks more towards students than instructors. Read on.
Kathy talks about how there are two roads: certification, apprenticeship. I’ve done both, and I can say that both are valuable. While having certifications are nice and they open doors and grant some level of immediately recognizable credentials, history, and understanding, I just don’t think they’re as valuable as apprenticeship. If you want to learn X you have to do X. So if you want to teach, you need to teach. But you can’t just go out there and teach — you need to learn how to teach, you need to be taught how to teach. And it’s not just how to be a teacher, but learning how to be a teacher in that particular topic area. I can attest to many things I’ve learned by being on the range, by being under Karl, watching Karl, seeing how HE does things (because Karl’s one of those few people that can both do the thing at a high level, and teach the thing at a high level — I’m fortunate). There’s just no substitute for experience, and doing it under the watchful eye of a mentor.
Still, certifications have a place. What I think is more important is to keep your binder of certificates growing. Kathy encourages this too: continuing education. I also am fortunate to have a mentor that acknowledges he doesn’t have all the answers and is willing to continually improve. Karl continues to attend classes himself and seek out training from other instructors. He encourages us to get better and grow. Granted, I haven’t done much to travel to other instructors, due in part to time and money, but as well, Karl brings some of the best instructors here: Tom Givens, Claude Werner, Caleb Causey, SouthNarc, amongst others (Ben Stoeger’s coming in 2013)… so if they’re coming here, great! I’ll finally be taking Rangemaster’s Instructor Certification course in 2013.
But what you must remember is, like Kathy points out, certifications usually just take a weekend to get.
I know what it takes to get NRA Instructor Basic Pistol certification — folks, it’s not much. I could probably take any KR Training Basic Pistol 2 graduate and get them their certification (ok, perhaps stretching it… but not by much). This isn’t to be a slight on the certification because it’s quite valuable and useful, but just realize that because someone has a piece of paper doesn’t mean they know what’s what. Just because someone is certified by Texas DPS to be a CHL Instructor doesn’t mean they actually know anything about shooting (and hitting the target).
It’s important for (prospective) students to look at the whole of the Instructor:
And yes… shop around. There’s lots of people wanting to join the bandwagon. Just here in the Austin area there are more and more people setting up shop as firearms instructors, so look around and compare who and what’s available.
Kathy’s article contains a lot of wisdom for people wishing to be firearms instructors. I’d also say that it’s good guidance for (prospective) students about the sort of instructors you should seek.
If you have to defend yourself, typically that means you are reacting.
That means you are behind the curve.
You have to perceive what’s going on, process what’s going on, figure out what to do, and then do it. That takes time. At best it may take only a second or two, but that’s still time. Every second can be critical.
I saw this posting at Fark about an F1 driver and his reflexes.
Here’s the video:
Watch how quickly things unfold, how quickly he reacts, and how quickly everything could have gone south. Of course, this is why he’s Dino Zamparelli and one of the top F1 drivers — and you’re not.
In the Fark discussion thread, Farker sat1va wrote:
That was pretty damn great. I left collision reconstruction about 4 years ago but the latest on perception-response when I last applied it was anywhere from 1.0 to 2.5 seconds depending upon the circumstances. Perception-response is the time it takes to identify a hazard, decide upon a reaction, and execute the reaction with your body. The circumstances make all the difference for this time and removing any element such as knowing you just need to brake or push a button will lower that time. For example if you’re driving in heavy city traffic (lots of visual noise) through a green light intersection and a vehicle enters from your left (unexpected hazard approaching from a high eccentricity) you’ll tend to have closer to the 2.5 second perception reaction time before you begin to steer or brake. On the flip side if you’re bombing down a sparsely populated rural tertiary highway (low visual noise) and an oncoming vehicle crosses the centre-line (low eccentricity) you’ll probably be closer to 1.0-1.5 secs. Clearly this driver was on his toes driving down the wet low visibility track, and we don’t know if he was fed any information on a yellow flag up ahead, but either way his reaction time was either spectacular or had a dash of fluke in it.
So consider that: 1.0 to 2.5 seconds to react. Look at all that unfolded within a second or two in that video. Look at how much can happen in such a short period of time. Consider in this racing context it’s a pretty controlled context and there’s a small set of possible situations and responses to have to deal with, so you can trim down your reaction time.
Now back out to a violent attack. How many variables could we have to deal with? How much will our brain have to flip through a mental rolodex to find what to do? And will it find anything? Considering the greater number of possible situations and then possible reactions (because “shooting him” isn’t going to be and can’t be the only answer), consider then how this affects your reaction time. Chances are, your reaction is going to be slow. Yes every situation is different, and yes people are different. But let’s just back up and look at the general concepts and its a fairly good risk of being slow.
This is where force-on-force training can be useful, because your brain can find a problem and solution to an already experienced event, instead of now having to invent one on the fly. You get put into real and typical scenarios, you then reacted. Maybe you did it wrong or did it right, but either way after the scenario is done, there’s a briefing to discuss, and you will ingrain the lessons. The more FoF you do, the more you’ll learn. The more you’ll come up with game plans, and then you can just act instead of having to wing it.
It’s also why formal training with reputable schools is important. These are people that have studied what it takes to stay alive in a deadly force confrontation. They have worked for formalize methods of teaching so they can imbue reactions in their students that are appropriate. For example, when we get into classes like Defensive Pistol Skills 1, we don’t just tell you to “draw” or “shoot” or “fire”. We yell “GUN!!!!!” as your indicator for when you should be drawing your gun and shooting. Why? It’s attempting to replicate what your brain is going to be saying. Some dude pulls a gun on you and you’re not going to ask him out for tea! No, your brain is going to be going “HOLY SHIT! HE’S GOT A GUN!!! GUN!! GUN!!!”, so it’s about ingraining that reaction to that stimulus. And then, your reaction times can decrease because you don’t lock up wondering what to do next, you can get to action.
I don’t know how much credence to put into sat1va’s numbers, but the principle remains. Shit happens, we’re behind the curve, and it takes time for us to perceive, process, devise a plan, and execute the plan (OODA loop). Anything you can do to tighten up your OODA loop works in your favor.
WATSONVILLE – A Santa Cruz man was shot in the leg during an attempted robbery outside Markley’s Indoor Range and Gun Shop Sunday afternoon, police said.
My friend E passed this article to me.
I’ve been to Markley’s. Take a look at its location via Google Street View so you can see the lay of the street. Now, I can only go based upon what the article says, so who knows what information is missing or what bias is to be had. But based upon what we have, let’s examine a few things.
The 38-year-old victim was with his father-in-law when the two left the range about 2 p.m., after some recreational shooting, and had secured their firearm as required, Sgt. Brian Ridgway said.
They put the gun in the trunk of their car and were about to get in the car when a man walked up, armed with a handgun and wearing a bandana over his face, and demanded their weapon, Ridgway said.
So they were mugged as they were leaving the range. Why do you think that happened? What do you think that mugger is going to do with the obtained gun? I’m sure it’s not going to a “buyback” program. No… I’m sure the exact intent was to “put another gun ON the street”.
The father-in-law, who is 46, grabbed the suspect’s gun and struggled with him momentarily and the younger man began running south on Vic Rugh Lane, he said.
The suspect broke free and chased him, firing several shots and striking him once in the leg, Ridgway said.
The shooter then jumped in a black or dark green Acura, which was last seen heading toward Freedom Boulevard from Gardener Avenue, police said.
Why the younger man started running is curious to me. Was he leaving his father-in-law to fight alone? Did he perhaps take their gun and try to get it as far away from the mugger as possible? Is there a deeper issue here (e.g. they know each other and this isn’t just a simple mugging)? It’s curious.
Anyways….
Here’s what stood out to me.
We always talk about how crimes don’t happen in certain places, like in police stations or in gun stores or at gun ranges. This situation doesn’t change that assertion. The reason those things don’t happen is because people in those places have ready access to usable firearms — criminals don’t like to get shot either. What happened here was outside a gun range and store, and the victim’s gun was useless because it had to be locked up and disabled due to California law.
These laws were put in place under the onus of safety, to protect the public, to serve the common good. I have to ask, who exactly did the law serve here? Who exactly benefitted from this law? These laws enabled two men to be attacked, one was shot and now had medical bills, time off work, pain, suffering, and who knows what long-term effects it will have — all because they obeyed the law. Once again the criminal — people who, by definition, don’t obey the law — suffers nothing and no loss. Because of the law he realized what a fine target this place and these people would be. And guess what? He already had a gun, which wasn’t properly secured as per California law. Doesn’t look like those laws were doing much to stop the bad guys — only the good guys.
If due to a law bad people benefit and good people suffer, is that really a right and just law? If not, why are we keeping that law?
Yeah yeah… some people will say that this is some exception to the rule, that for the most part the laws work as intended. Funny thing tho… they always justify such laws by saying “if it saves just one life, then it was worth it”. Well, it looks like it almost cost one life… so I guess by that same logic, no it’s not worth it.
… if it’s handy when you need it.
If you need to hang a picture, you need a hammer for the nail. If that hammer is in your hand, things work out nicely. If you have to go to the toolbox, that’s not as handy, but hanging a picture isn’t that critical so it’s not a big deal to go and get the hammer. But if you have no hammer and have to go to the store to buy one, well… again, not critical but just growing inconvenience.
If you get a cut and start bleeding, if you have a first aid kit with you, you can get right to business of stopping the bleeding. If you have to go back to the car or rummage through the medicine chest, well… again it may not be horrible, but blood is flowing and time is a bit more critical. Certainly having no first aid kit and having to now go to the store to get one isn’t going to bode well. If it’s bad enough, you could dial 911 for an ambulance, but even that will take time for EMTs to arrive.
Then… there are the people that refuse to carry their gun. They feel it’s sufficient to just carry their gun in their car, or to just have the gun at home.
But what if you need it now, and you’re not immediately in one of those places?
For example, many violent crimes, like muggings, happen when people are going to or from their car. Like in the parking lot going to the store, or coming out of the store, on the sidewalk, to the parking garage, on the way to the car. Point being, if the gun is in the car — and you are not — what good is that gun going to do you?
Then you have cases like this: (h/t Fark)
In the incident Sunday night at 9051 Wooten Road, Raymond and Barbara Ewing said they arrived home to find a gold Chevrolet Blazer backed up in their front yard. Their front door was open and an air conditioner was missing from a bedroom window.
Mr. Ewing said he entered the front door and found two white males trying to leave out of the back door. He yelled that he had a gun and for them to get down on their knees. They complied.
Now, we can debate if it was wise to enter the house (is it worth dying for? it may have been for the Ewing’s), but that’s not my focus here. My point here is Raymond Ewing had his gun with him. If the gun was in the house, what would have happened? What could he have done? He needed a useful tool appropriate for the situation, and since it was readily available it was far more useful than if it was stored in the safe in the house.
To paraphrase Tom Givens: carry your damn gun, people!
No, nothing gruesome… just sobering.
Andrew from the Vuurwapen Blog did a guest post over at LuckyGunner reviewing eye protection. In fact, he didn’t just review, he put a lot of eyewear to the test.
The thing is, there’s so much eyewear out there it’s almost impossible to test them all, so he took a good sampling and tried to focus more on protection standards, like ANSI Z87.
What’s most interesting is to look at the picture of prescription glasses and non-safety-rated sunglasses getting smacked. First, the pictures are pretty… it’s really cool to see all that glass flying everywhere. Second, the pictures are sobering, because of all that glass flying everywhere.
I’ve worn prescription eyeglasses since about the 1st grade. I do not think your prescription glasses are sufficient protection at the gun range (and I’m talking about typical prescription glasses, not people who go and get special prescription shooting glasses that are made for impact and so on). Typical prescription glasses are small lenses, offer no protection from the side, and geez… do you really want your lenses messed up? You spent how many hundreds of dollars on your glasses… don’t you want to take care of them? A piece of brass dings them, nicks the lens, and boy… that sucks. When you could get some basic safety glasses that fit over your prescription glasses for just a few bucks and save yourself a lot of pain and cost.
And… after seeing Andrew’s pictures, I guess there’s a lot more about your vision that you can save too.
Please, don’t think your prescription glasses or your cheap sunglasses are sufficient eye protection. Get some proper safety glasses and WEAR THEM when you shoot.
I just wish there were more/better options for us folks that want “over the glasses” style stuff. The Guardian Pro have served me well and I’m pleased with them, I just wish there were more choices.
Good holsters are a must. There are many criteria of what makes a “good” holster, but I’m going to focus on one.
The mouth of the holster needs to remain open when the holster is empty. Reason? Reholstering without having to fiddle around, in part because fiddling around tends to put your other hand in front of the muzzle in order to open the holster mouth to permit the gun to go in. I hope you can see why this is bad.
If your holster is made of a rigid material such as Kydex, this is likely not an issue. Look at a holster like the Comp-Tac CTAC, Raven Phantom, or any host of such styled holsters. By their very nature the mouth is always open, thus it’s easy and trouble-free to reholster. Hybrids like the Comp-Tac MTAC can work out fine too (I’ve worn an MTAC for years and don’t have a problem, tho certainly it’s not the same as a full-kydex holster). Usually where you run into problems is with holsters made of non-rigid material, like leather. However, good holster-makers know this and put reinforcing bands in their holster mouths to keep the holster open, such as the Pancake from Kolbeson Leatherworks. Usually where you run into problems is with cheap holsters — and there are lots of those, just look on the shelves at your local gun and gun accessories store.
So where did I change my mind?
From time to time in KR Training classes we get someone that’s just hell-bent on using some poor-choice of a holster. Some folks just don’t know better, borrow a good holster from us, and are convinced by the end of class to ditch the poor-choice and seek a better holster. But some have a reason for the use of and desire to cling to the poor choice. We do discourage the use of the holster during class because of safety issues and simple flow of class issues. But if they really want to use that holster in their own time for their own carry well… at least my personal stance has been to let them do as they want.
On the whole I still feel that way because I cannot force people to make good choices.
But what’s changed for me is I can no longer say “well, if you want to that’s fine…” and somewhat tacitly approve of the practice. It’s strong disapproval now.
Before, the feeling was most of the time when you carry you are carrying, not drawing, so if the attributes of the holster better suit your CARRY needs then well… ok, maybe perhaps that’s fine. Yes, it might mean you can’t practice with your gear, but you still could (e.g. dry work for draw and reholster); may not be ideal, but it’s your situation to work out. And if you find yourself in a situation where you must draw, the need to reholster will be different and one you can administratively carry out. What struck me tho was that mentality contrasted against this quip from John Farnam:
By that, I mean, when using it, you may be able to draw your pistol quickly and smoothly, which is all wonderful, of course. But, what do you do with your draw pistol when you suddenly need to go “hands-on,” or you need to politely greet arriving police officers?
[…]
The act of reholstering, using the holster in the above-mentioned ad, required both hands and the better part of thirty seconds. In a continuing emergency, that obviously won’t fly. The pistol would have to be quickly stuffed into a pocket (a dangerous procedure in itself), or jettisoned.
Emphasis mine.
See, we keep thinking about the situation in terms of “there will be time” to reholster. That you’ll have time to fiddle-fart around and do what’s needed to reholster. That’s the flaw in our thinking. First, we’re already aware of this because we generally recommend using good holsters (so why are we tolerating poor-choices? well… because we accept some people will continue to make poor choices despite our best efforts). Second, who says we will have time? We already know time can be precious and short, why couldn’t there be need to reholster quickly? ah… because our mentality is that reholstering isn’t a race, do it slow and deliberate — a good training/range artifact. Real life might not be that way tho, as Mr. Farnam points out. And so, an inconsistency has crept into my mindset. Thank you, Mr. Farnam for enlightenment.
So whereas before I could kinda sorta permit such poor-choice holsters (on their own time), Mr. Farnam’s quip shed a little light showing that poor-choice holsters remain poor-choice holsters, and we really shouldn’t compromise on that fact. A good holster won’t be a problem for you, ever, so why compromise in the first place? In the end, I still can’t force people to make good choices, but I now have more information to offer towards encouraging better choices. I can also remove my tacit approval of such avenues (I can at least change and improve myself).
Use good holsters, folks. 🙂
The KR Training November 2012 newsletter is up.
Classes through Spring of 2013 are listed… and they are already filling up.
Stuff From Hsoi 