Happy St Patrick's Day and Things That Frustrate...

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everybody. I hope the “Luck of the Irish” be with ya and the roads rise to greet ya.

I thought people might find a little look at what frustrates Instructors interesting. At my latest instruction period several of us discussed things that frustrate us. These are the most common frustrations that I and the other Instructors find personally we deal with constantly. Whether it be civilian or police we agreed that the following things just frustrate the heck out of us as a group of Instructors:

1. Lack of practice on the part of trainees
2. Lack of “smart practice” by trainees
3. Lack of concern by municipalities for the need of continued “in service/structured practice”
4. Lack of funding by municipalities for allotments of ammo for continued training
5. Lack of contact of trainees with their Instructors beyond initial training periods
6. Unfamiliarity with weapons owned or issued to or by trainees
7. Unfamiliarity with basic equipment needs for carrying a weapon
8. Lack of practice of weak sided weapons manipulation by trainees.
9. Unfamiliarity of weapons malfunctions and clearance of malfunctions or practicing them
10. Failure of our trainees to seek out or take advantage of further training whether offered by the original Instructors/Agencies or from outside sources/training facilities

These were the ten most common ones we had as a group. There were others like poor maintenance habits etc. but notably absent was any one mention of lack of safety on the part of our trainees as a whole. We as Instructors are all proud of the safety standards our trainees constantly maintain and display on the line.

We all agreed that we just can’t make people practice no matter what we offer or how hard we try and the Police Instructors had universal gripes and agreements about the budget and need assessments of their municipalities in regard to continued firearms training. What does this teach us as Instructors and you as trainees? For one it shows that universally continuing in service/training with firearms is not a priority in either sector for another it emphasizes the assertion that there are a lot of folks in both sectors  who are armed and certainly they are dangerous both to themselves and others. Why you ask? Because if you fail to maintain skills and practice them especially when you are carrying a deadly weapon, you are putting yourself at risk of and the public at risk of great harm and you expose yourself to liability beyond your comprehension. Simply put firearms skills are PERISHABLE. If you don’t practice them regularly you will lose them. As Instructors we all agreed that we constantly remind our trainees of two things, safety and practice. We also universally agreed that we are puzzled by our trainee’s complete adherence to the former one and almost complete disregard for the latter one.

I want my trainees to have fun when they go shooting. I want my trainees to practice and practice smart. What is the easiest way to accomplish this? Do them separately of course. If you have five pistols, three rifles and two shotguns and want to “SHOOT” them all at the range. Do it! Take em all, shoot em all, and have fun ...BUT…don’t call that a practice session, call it a fun familiarization session. That’s what it is and by all means have fun with your guns at the range, and burn up some ammo. Have fun!!………..and then….Take the two firearms that you carry the most or use for your main home defense guns, one box of ammo for each, and ten rounds of your “defensive ammo/carry ammo” for each of those weapons….AND ONLY THOSE TWO WEAPONS!  Take your holster and cover garment and spare magazines, realistic situation targets, magazine holders and ….leave everything else at the house.

Practice magazine reloads and drop the mags don’t grab them; let em fall to the floor they’ll survive it.
Practice from 6 feet to 7 yards and no further, practice drawing from concealment, practice swapping hands, practice with both eyes open etc etc etc etc…have fun with this too. Challenging yourself should always be fun.

What about me? Hey I went on the College of the Mainland website and saw in the Continuing Education schedule that they have “Civilian” shooting skills /structured practice sessions and the dates are listed as is a description and that Lem Powell will be the instructor among others. I’m signed up for the April 1 & 15 sessions. Lem is a very good Instructor, and I’m going to learn and to practice smart! Check it out and sign up and check out the classes they are offering for civilian shooters. It’s damned good training, it’s local, and there’s no excuse to not take advantage of it.

Hope to see y’all there

Your Instructor... Eddie