A shooter was struck by a 9mm FMJ bullet in his upper arm. The projectile passed completely through and fortunately did not sever the brachial artery. Medical care was given and training was halted to investigate and determine what happened.
Firearms Training Articles
3 Things Your Concealed Carry Gun Cannot Do
Recently, we at Student of the Gun addressed the subject of going armed to the zoo, or anywhere else for that matter. With a very quick, easy to follow video we pointed out how a person can be very well-armed, but do so discreetly, even when wearing just a T-shirt and a pair of cargo shorts. All it really takes is a bit of forethought. We pointed out that, as we have been preaching for decades, an armed citizen needs more than merely a firearm to be prepared for the unexpected eventualities the world throws at us. When you step out of your front door, you have control over your actions, but no control over the actions of those you…
The Test: Do you have the right stuff to be a “Gun Expert?
The modern era could legitimately be described as the “Age of the Expert”. Thanks to the Internet, 100,000 self-proclaimed experts have arisen in all fields of endeavor. The television news channels trot out “experts” to fill time in their reports and bolster the opinions of the talking heads. Recently, I was on the phone with a peer in the training world and we discussed the concern we both shared regarding the danger of new gun owners or gun carriers getting online advice from “gun enthusiasts.” Before we progress. I have a confession to make, I am a vagina enthusiast. I have been my whole life. That being said, you won’t find me at the local clinic asking women to…
“We’ve Always Done It That Way” Intellectual Laziness and Fear in the Firearms Training World
Though I have previously read various versions of the psychology experiment referenced below, this morning while perusing my email it occurred to me that this is a excellent avenue to consider an all too prevalent phenomenon in firearms training. Take a moment to consider the following: PSYCHOLOGY 101 – HUMAN BEHAVIOR EXPERIMENT If you start with a cage containing four monkeys, and inside the cage hang a banana on a string from the top, and then you place a set of stairs under the banana, before long a monkey will go to the stairs and climb toward the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, you spray ALL the monkeys with cold water. After while another monkey makes an…
5 Handguns Every Instructor Should Master
Regardless of your personal leanings, if you have taken the steps to become a firearms instructor, it is time to set your bias aside. There are tens of thousands of part-time or occasional firearms instructors in the United States.
Fighting Guns: Tools not Trophies
Every firearms instructor worth their salt will tell you that when it comes to choosing a defensive handgun, or any firearm for that matter, that function is the number one consideration. That advice is really is a no-brainer or a truism. We give constant lip service to the fact that the top quality of any firearm chosen for combat or fighting is reliability. However, the truth of the situation is that more than a few online tactical gurus and gun shop experts favor popular mythology over reality based on experience and fact. For instance, the non-stop drivel about the .45 ACP overshadowing the 9x19mm cartridge in the “stopping-power” arena still abounds. First of all, there is but a fraction of…
Will is More Important Than Skill
We’ve all seen the dash-cam videos available on BluTube, YouTube, or “Insert-Cool-Name-Here” Tube. Many of these real-life video clips are pure entertainment IE: the drunk that gets Tasered five times because he won’t comply and surrender. If we sort through all the trash we can indeed find actual recorded traffic stops and other “in progress” calls that have training value. Some of the training value is positive as in “see that worked well” and others are a form a negative reinforcement, “don’t ever do that!” On the dark side, the moment in-car video recording began we knew that at some point what the camera recorded would end up as part of a post-mortem investigation. Sooner or later a cop would…
Night Fire: Three Things You Realize When the Lights Go Out
For the last three decades I’ve had the good fortune to take part in some of the best firearms and tactics training available to the US Military, Law Enforcement, and citizen alike. Small arms trainers realized long ago that for any training program to be practical, the troops needed to shoot at night. After all, the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program regularly shows that violent attacks on police officers take place at least fifty percent of the time “during hours of darkness or diminished light”. Even the layman can clearly see that if you are called upon to defend your life from an violent attack the chances are fifty-fifty that it is either going to be dark or you’ll be…
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