‘Why I Carry’ (part 3)
Too Safe
There is no such thing as “too safe.” The stakes are too high. My mentor had me review “the rules.”
I watched my mentor very carefully. He never violated the rules.
Whenever a gun left his possession or came into his possession, he assumed it was loaded, treated it as such, and checked it’s status. Before dry firing, he removed the magazine and checked the chamber twice. When dry firing, he always had a safe direction to point the muzzle.
He had me do the same when dry firing the Glock. After each trigger pull of the Glock, the slide has to be activated to cock the hammer and ready the trigger. He explained that and I quickly did it. He stopped me.
- “Give it a visual chamber check when you’re cocking it.”
He did a visual chamber check between each dry firing pull of the trigger. A small habit but one that lowers the odds of a potentially catastrophic negligent discharge.
Holstering, my mentor always made me slow down.
- “You can never be too fast on presentation. You can never be too slow on holstering…If you’re going to shoot yourself, this is when it usually happens.”
He showed me how many people, not thinking, cover their leg or hip when holstering because they point the muzzle inward trying to get it in the mouth of the holster. Train keeping the muzzle pointed away, use your extended small-finger to find the holster and then slowly, firmly seat the gun. Then, practice.
Training
Practicing is not training. Standing at seven feet, 15 feet, and 20 feet and shooting two or three or ten magazines at a paper target isn’t preparing you to deal with the situations that make carrying important. Static target practice helps you get acquainted with your gun but it will not prepare you for a serious, perhaps deadly, confrontation. You MUST train with various scenarios, under stress, in bad weather, you must give yourself every opportunity to “feel” what it’s like to shoot in confrontational situations.
When we got to the range, I’d anticipated we’d shoot a few rounds at targets and then maybe try some various drills. Nope. My mentor (after going through another safety review) walked me down the range and started describing a scenario.
- “You’re right here, in a parking lot, just got out of your car, and 20 or 30 feet away, over there, a guy gets out of his car and approaches you. What do you do?”
This wasn’t shooting. What was this? Can’t I just go over there and shoot a magazine at the bowling pins and see how this Glock 36 feels? This was training in tactics.
It became very clear very quickly that carrying a gun isn’t about “carrying a gun.” It’s about all the variations and situations that can occur while you’re carrying a gun. And, more importantly, it’s about how you react to those situations.
My mentor continued, “He starts talking to you, approaching you, asking for directions. What do you do?” No time for an answer. “He’s now 10 feet away, moving faster. What do you do?” But, I… “Now he’s five feet away and pulls a knife. What do you do?” I… “Too late…you’re dead.”
I never even got a chance to think about proper grip, proper presentation, proper sight picture, proper trigger press…I was dead. All to prove a point.
Simply carrying a gun didn’t make me safer in that parking lot scenario. It was, in fact, of no use to me, even though I’ve “practiced” (a lot) shooting a gun. This was the purpose of training. To give me the mental and physical skills to be able to rapidly make a decision, under stress and win the fight.
The Goal Is to Win
The goal is to win. That doesn’t necessarily mean shooting the bad guy. Winning means getting to live to see your loved ones and live another day. Sometimes that means running away as fast as you can. Sometimes it means just telling the bad guy, “No thanks, back off, wrong guy.” Sometimes it means running to cover and then engaging the bad guy.
Sometimes it means shooting one bad guy and not shooting the other. Sometimes it means running into the fight, sometimes it means letting it come to you. Sometimes it means shooting and hitting repeatedly until you know with absolute certainty that the bad guy is dead. The only “right” answer is doing what it takes to go home to your loved ones.
The scenarios created by my mentor made training more real. Running a scenario and making that split second decision made it much more real. Even though it was only bowling pins, the added effect of an imagined scenario, varying threats, my mentor’s voice taking the part of the bad guy responding to my verbal engagement, etc. made things much more serious; brought the reality home much more drastically and heavily.
Carrying a gun is serious, serious business. If you only practice and don’t train, if you do get into a threat confrontation, it will be too late.
I was privately embarrassed at how naive I had been to think that simply qualifying for the concealed carry permit and carrying a gun made me ready to carry a gun.
Refresh Your Perishable Skills
Practicing is not training. Even after many, many “practices,” when we started training and my mentor said, “Shooter ready? Go!” I went right back to my bad habits. It takes a lot of correct, trained practice to make it work in a stressful scenario. How much more correct, trained practice will it take to make it all stick when the real deal happens and bullets are flying at my head? A lot.
However, it was important for me to learn that even though my grip isn’t quite where I want it to be and that my presentation isn’t as smooth as I want it to be, my stance needs some work…I still got hits. Lots of them. Only two or three times did it take more than one shot to get a hit.
- “You shoot better than half the guys I trained with in the police.”
stated my mentor. Doesn’t say much for the police force. But it does mean that practice is better than nothing.
How many of you concealed carry people haven’t been out on the range in a month? When was the last time you practiced presentation? When was the last time you did some dry firing and practiced your trigger press? Do something. Think about that while I pull out my soapbox…
I believe whole-heartedly in the individual right to keep and bear arms. The right to defend ourselves with more than a rock and smooth talk when necessary is what makes the USA unique and blessedly so.
Philosophically, I disagree with the laws that require tests and classes and qualifications to exercise that right (I don’t see any classes and permits to exercise your First Amendment rights).
But, just as I believe an individual must exercise reasonable personal restraint when exercising freedom of speech, if you’re going to carry a gun, you’ve got to have the discipline to get trained and keep getting trained. Just as I believe it’s a duty for citizens to be willing to defend themselves and others, I believe it’s a moral imperative to be trained to do it well.
Even just the few hours I spent on the range training with my mentor, proved to me how little I knew and how ill prepared I was for a confrontation. Not physically but mentally. Only training can get you prepared mentally. My brief experience showed me how much more I need to do to prepare myself and I’m committed to doing it.
If you’re going to carry, you’ve got to make that commitment as well. Don’t let the city or county or state tell you how it has to be done. If you go do it on your own, then they won’t have to go into big brother mode and do any more legislating than they’ve already done. DO IT! If you can’t do anything else, practice is better than nothing. I’m putting the soapbox away.
Good Training, Good Lessons
Practicing is not training. Training gave me the opportunity to have to decide if I would carry my gun in my hand while I ran or leave it holstered, how fast to run, how to clear a shell that didn’t eject, reloading, stumbling over a rock, not clearing my clothing completely with my support hand, breathing hard and trying to get hits, working behind cover, etc. And many other things that I wasn’t even aware of consciously. And…it increased my confidence.
I discovered that I didn’t even notice the recoil of the .45. In the heat of the moment, I never thought about “too much gun.” I was surprised to find out that the narrower grip of the Glock 36 didn’t fit the way my fingers curved around it. My “refined” hands like the thicker grip. Until I get to be a better shot, I think I like the idea of 9 vs. 6 in a magazine as well. I also learned I could get 2 out of 3 on a bowling pin at forty yards (says more about the gun than the shooter, trust me). I couldn’t have learned any of this without training. And it fed my desire to be a more skilled and confident practitioner of the 2nd Amendment.
Train, train, train…if the goblins come, be ready.
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