In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Training and Use of Lethal Force.....Lesson 9
RugerNiner
Member Posts: 12,636 ✭✭✭
LESSON #9
FINDING A SOURCE OF TRAINING
If we need to paint a barn we don't need a class on formal portrait art methods. Self-defense is more like painting a barn. Basic, crude and pretty simple if you look at the whole picture. It is just a big job.
Training can be found in many places. We warn students about the Hollywood gun magazine logic that makes training fun, exciting, and filled with action. That isn't self-defense. Few understand that just about anybody can get "certified" for being an instructor. It may require only a day or two class at most. Some go as far as a week, but they almost always are aimed at teaching formal target shooting if you look at the base of such programs. You will also find instructors that have faced nothing more dangerous than a cardboard target.
Self-defense is a serious subject and requires knowledge from someone that has "done it." Some that has tasted fear and known the emotions and reality of street encounters. Most cops (if on the street long enough) will have some clue about that. Avoid those with only some reserve experience in small towns or quasi "exposure" to law enforcement. Also a strong military background is of little value. The rules and procedures are not the same as a military operation.
Just having dinner with someone that has "done it" or "been there" is far more rewarding than someone trying to turn you into a formal target shooter and give you a false sense that it can help you on the street.
Don't worry about shooting skills. Worry more about education that will prepare you for the reality of what happens in real life. Read everything you can get your hands on about crimes and how they took place. Look at the facts including time of day, methods, and other facts that will help you.
We do encourage persons to take the basic course that are available including safety classes. They give you a good foundation for basic safety etc.
Once you move beyond the basics, it is time to look at serious reality. One way to learn a lot is to try and find a police department that lets you ride along to observe. A night or two is priceless as you seem crime close up in many cases.
Another method is to join a police reserve unit that may give you further training and you will again see the problems on a first hand basis and contribute to your community.
Nothing beats experience. Ask around for victims of crimes and ask them what happened to them. You will find some very constant events that take place. Ask them what took place in their minds, what errors they made and what they learned.
Seeking actual experience is the most important fact and it will often conflict what your common sense and logic when you look at what some are trying to teach you.
One great source is a jail or prison or talking with convicted criminals. Talking to a real home burglar is enough to send you running to your house to start major projects to secure it from burglary. Real burglars soon shock you into finding out what easy victims we are and what simple things we can do to stop a burglary.
Gun magazines are a poor source of training information. They are almost always self-serving efforts for a mind set that is designed to profit a few. They boast efforts more designed to entertain and make movies.
Much of the police world is also tainted by this mentality. You are going to be reliant on your common sense and efforts to learn the reality of crime and personal safety.
We preach that you need to learn the BASICS and then master them before any thought of any other efforts.
Do not confuse "shoot a lot' with real experience that will aid you in survival. Formal target shooting is of little value. The only realistic benefit is learning to know your gun. We find one of the primary causes of failures in practice is not knowing the basic operation of the gun as how to reload or function the gun. Something that is simple to cure with little effort by you.
We also tell students to keep coming back to the basics and not worry about more advanced things that are applicable only in the rarest of cases. If you notice pro-sports the team does basics before the game.
At the range we can do a lot of things, but we must put most of our effort into basics. Few of us will ever shoot enough that the basics are mastered. One survey claims the average gun owner only shoots about 100 rounds per year. Some shoot more of course, and many of us fall into an area in between that amount.
The basics are simple.
1. 21 feet or less
2. 85% in low light or darkness
Many shooters never shoot in low light or darkness and most want to shoot at longer ranges feeling that if they can hit at longer ranges that close up will be easy. That is not the truth. The closer the person is to you the more difficult it will be to hit what you shoot at. A strange concept, but true.
Don't worry about stances as you won't use one. On the street the thugs are thinking of hurting you not stances. While you are trying to figure out which one to use you get killed. Your mind is needed elsewhere.
You won't remember a bunch of complex concepts. You will be filled with mind numbing terror. Crapola like "muscle memory reflex" are terms invented by gun writers trying to sound knowledgeable. It is not a scientific term or founded in science. It just "sounds good" as so many other things do.
Keep stressing the basics and your chances of survival will improve, but the bad news is that if you don't make a mistake you can still get killed. Life isn't fair. We do encourage you to find a copy of Bill Jordan's "No Second Place Winner." This book is a legend and filled with plenty of common sense and logic that will help you. Probably the best book ever done on the subject.
Remember...Terrorist are attacking Civilians; Not the Government. Protect Yourself!
FINDING A SOURCE OF TRAINING
If we need to paint a barn we don't need a class on formal portrait art methods. Self-defense is more like painting a barn. Basic, crude and pretty simple if you look at the whole picture. It is just a big job.
Training can be found in many places. We warn students about the Hollywood gun magazine logic that makes training fun, exciting, and filled with action. That isn't self-defense. Few understand that just about anybody can get "certified" for being an instructor. It may require only a day or two class at most. Some go as far as a week, but they almost always are aimed at teaching formal target shooting if you look at the base of such programs. You will also find instructors that have faced nothing more dangerous than a cardboard target.
Self-defense is a serious subject and requires knowledge from someone that has "done it." Some that has tasted fear and known the emotions and reality of street encounters. Most cops (if on the street long enough) will have some clue about that. Avoid those with only some reserve experience in small towns or quasi "exposure" to law enforcement. Also a strong military background is of little value. The rules and procedures are not the same as a military operation.
Just having dinner with someone that has "done it" or "been there" is far more rewarding than someone trying to turn you into a formal target shooter and give you a false sense that it can help you on the street.
Don't worry about shooting skills. Worry more about education that will prepare you for the reality of what happens in real life. Read everything you can get your hands on about crimes and how they took place. Look at the facts including time of day, methods, and other facts that will help you.
We do encourage persons to take the basic course that are available including safety classes. They give you a good foundation for basic safety etc.
Once you move beyond the basics, it is time to look at serious reality. One way to learn a lot is to try and find a police department that lets you ride along to observe. A night or two is priceless as you seem crime close up in many cases.
Another method is to join a police reserve unit that may give you further training and you will again see the problems on a first hand basis and contribute to your community.
Nothing beats experience. Ask around for victims of crimes and ask them what happened to them. You will find some very constant events that take place. Ask them what took place in their minds, what errors they made and what they learned.
Seeking actual experience is the most important fact and it will often conflict what your common sense and logic when you look at what some are trying to teach you.
One great source is a jail or prison or talking with convicted criminals. Talking to a real home burglar is enough to send you running to your house to start major projects to secure it from burglary. Real burglars soon shock you into finding out what easy victims we are and what simple things we can do to stop a burglary.
Gun magazines are a poor source of training information. They are almost always self-serving efforts for a mind set that is designed to profit a few. They boast efforts more designed to entertain and make movies.
Much of the police world is also tainted by this mentality. You are going to be reliant on your common sense and efforts to learn the reality of crime and personal safety.
We preach that you need to learn the BASICS and then master them before any thought of any other efforts.
Do not confuse "shoot a lot' with real experience that will aid you in survival. Formal target shooting is of little value. The only realistic benefit is learning to know your gun. We find one of the primary causes of failures in practice is not knowing the basic operation of the gun as how to reload or function the gun. Something that is simple to cure with little effort by you.
We also tell students to keep coming back to the basics and not worry about more advanced things that are applicable only in the rarest of cases. If you notice pro-sports the team does basics before the game.
At the range we can do a lot of things, but we must put most of our effort into basics. Few of us will ever shoot enough that the basics are mastered. One survey claims the average gun owner only shoots about 100 rounds per year. Some shoot more of course, and many of us fall into an area in between that amount.
The basics are simple.
1. 21 feet or less
2. 85% in low light or darkness
Many shooters never shoot in low light or darkness and most want to shoot at longer ranges feeling that if they can hit at longer ranges that close up will be easy. That is not the truth. The closer the person is to you the more difficult it will be to hit what you shoot at. A strange concept, but true.
Don't worry about stances as you won't use one. On the street the thugs are thinking of hurting you not stances. While you are trying to figure out which one to use you get killed. Your mind is needed elsewhere.
You won't remember a bunch of complex concepts. You will be filled with mind numbing terror. Crapola like "muscle memory reflex" are terms invented by gun writers trying to sound knowledgeable. It is not a scientific term or founded in science. It just "sounds good" as so many other things do.
Keep stressing the basics and your chances of survival will improve, but the bad news is that if you don't make a mistake you can still get killed. Life isn't fair. We do encourage you to find a copy of Bill Jordan's "No Second Place Winner." This book is a legend and filled with plenty of common sense and logic that will help you. Probably the best book ever done on the subject.
Remember...Terrorist are attacking Civilians; Not the Government. Protect Yourself!
Keep your Powder dry and your Musket well oiled.
NRA Lifetime Benefactor Member.
NRA Lifetime Benefactor Member.
Comments
Remember...Terrorist are attacking Civilians; Not the Government. Protect Yourself!
NRA Lifetime Benefactor Member.