Category: Firearm Safety

Beware of 2-3 Hour Concealed Carry Classes!

Most concealed carry classes you see advertised online, in gun stores, in pawn shops, and at gun shows are just 2-3 hours. We don’t conduct them and never will. What you aren’t taught in those short classes can get you arrested, or worse, killed. In the 7 hours of our Pistol Intro class, we find it difficult just to cover the minimum knowledge and basic skills that you need to know.

Those classes are called “concealed carry” because they (barely) qualify you for applying for a concealed carry license from the State. They do not provide you with the knowledge and skills necessary to responsibly and safely carry a concealed firearm, much less the knowledge and skills necessary should you need to protect yourself or your family.

Typical 2-3 hour concealed carry class shooting a .22 into a bucket of sandYou’ll get to shoot a bullet or two for meeting the state requirement. You might not even go to a range though—it isn’t uncommon for those classes to have you shoot a low powered .22 round into a bucket of sand right there in the gun shop or pawn shop.

We offer a series of classes to take you from where you are today to where you would like to be. Our 7 hour Pistol Intro class takes you from being uncomfortable with guns to understanding gun safety, proper handling, and marksmanship. We’ve had students that had taken the typical 2-3 hour concealed carry class, but hadn’t gotten their permit because they felt less confident after taking that class than before. They leave our 7 hour class with confidence.

For learning proper concealed carry and defensive shooting techniques we teach the NRA’s Defensive Pistol course (1 day) and the NRA’s Personal Protection Outside The Home, PPOTH, (2 days). We also teach the NRA’s Personal Protection Inside The Home, PPITH, (1 Day) which concentrates of preparing you to defend you and your family in your home.

We keep an updated listing of our scheduled classes, along with sign up links, in a post pinned to the top of of our Facebook page.

 

Lots of Bad Instructors—Choose Carefully

On the heels of our last blog post, Did your instructor do this?, comes this story out of Texas.

July 23 (3:47 p.m.) A local gun store owner had an accidental discharge of his weapon while conducting a License to Carry class. A report was not made to police until the students in the class went home. When the police investigation began, the officer contacted an employee inside Potter’s Liquor, located next door to Triple G Guns at 1542 Sunset Drive, and discovered that the bullet went through the wall of the liquor store and hit a ceiling tile half-way through the store. The liquor store reported that this was not the first time the gun store has had a weapon discharge into the liquor store. James Goodwin, the owner of Triple G Guns, failed to report the discharge to the police department. The owner must report this incident to the State Board that regulates the License to Carry instruction.

Source: http://friendswoodliving.com/2016/07/25/police-report-july-25-2016/

And yet another…

N.C. — A negligent discharge at a  gun shop sent two people to the hospital last Wednesday.

The man, a retired military sergeant who teaches gun safety classes elsewhere, was told that it was loaded, but it went off.

According to the police report, the bullet when through the shooter’s hand and struck another man in the upper thigh.

Did your instructor do this?

The person in the photo below teaches firearm safety classes that qualify the students to apply for a concealed carry license. The photo is from one of their classes. They posted this and several more to their Facebook page and then shared that post to a gun group’s page. We have cropped it, eliminated the background, placed black boxes over their head and chest to conceal their identity, and converted it to black and white. The gun in the photo appears to be a real handgun, not a training gun (not that it makes any difference since training guns are supposed to be treated the same as real guns…).

bad instructor bwIf it is not bad enough that the instructor is standing in front of their class with the handgun pointed at his hand/arm and finger appearing to be on the trigger, apparently they saw absolutely no problem with this and posted it for the world to see…

To make matters worse, this instructor claims many years of law enforcement experience. If true, they are not someone that just took a weekend instructor class; they have decades of experience with handguns.

Another in the group of photos shows the instructor holding the handgun by barrel, appearing to be pointed towards his legs/feet. Yet another shows the students sitting at tables with what appears to be a handgun round in front of each. (Live ammo has no place in a classroom environment.)

This iGun Safetys why it is important to vet anyone you are going to take training from, basic or advanced. Look at their Facebook pages (business and personal), website, blog, Google search, etc. If you find images such as this, find another instructor!

Compare the photo above to this photo of a wounded soldier who is controlling the direction of his pistol and keeping his finger out of the trigger guard.

Navigating Our Training Options

We have updated our training matrix to provide a path to our advanced training options for those that already have a concealed carry permit or have taken advanced training from other instructors. “Advanced Training” means a handgun class that was at least 8 hours and that specifically includes drawing and firing 100+ rounds from a holster. (Email us if you have a question!)

Those that already have a concealed carry permit can take our 2-3 hour Gateway Class for $35. It is a safety & skills review class (classroom & range) that serves as a gateway to our more advanced training classes (PPITH, PPOTH, and Defensive Pistol). The class ensures that the students have learned the ALWAYS rules of safe firearm handling and employ them. Additionally it gives us an opportunity to work with them on their marksmanship skills on the range. We have found that the $65 two to four hour “concealed carry” classes may be enough to get a concealed carry permit, but the students usually don’t really learn safety and marksmanship.

We are also now offering the NRA’s Defensive Pistol course. The Defensive Pistol course is similar to the NRA’s Personal Protection Outside The Home (PPOTH), including having the same student book. One significant difference is that students in PPOTH must first take the Personal Protection Inside The Home (PPITH) course; PPITH is not required for Defensive Pistol. Another difference is that PPOTH includes more advanced shooting, such as from cover/concealment and low light.

By offering Defensive Pistol, our students now have a quicker, less costly, means of receiving training in the nuts and bolts of concealed carry and drawing/shooting from concealment.

We strongly believe that PPITH is a course that almost everyone will benefit from and we will continue to offer it. We will also continue to periodically offer PPOTH for those that might want the more advanced training.

A list of our class dates and links with complete information for each class, including signing up,  is available at http://www.facebook.com/strategicoutfitters/posts/463009630570244.

Here’s a summary of starting out with us on your path to confidence and competence in self protection:

  • You haven’t taken any formal handgun or concealed carry classes: Pistol Intro Class
  • You have a Florida concealed carry permit: Pistol Gateway Class
  • You have Advanced Handgun Training (NRA Defensive Pistol, NRA PPOTH, or other advanced handgun training that was at least an 8 hour class involving holster draw and 100+ rounds fired): You can take any of our classes, schedule computer simulator sessions, and attend our Skills & Drills Range Days!

Below is our Training Matrix.

 

#1 ALWAYS keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.

The NRA’s very first safety rule is “ALWAYS keep the gun pointed in a safe direction”. This seems simple enough, but how do we implement it in a typical classroom where there is going to be a lot of firearm handling?

If you aren’t already familiar with the gold standard in classroom firearm safety rules, take a look at our post on that topic.

On the range, the safe direction is obviously the berm/backstop. It’s not quite so simple in the classroom. There are not many places where firearm classes are held that have safe, bullet proof walls. Also remember that a ricocheting bullet or fragments from whatever is struck could cause serious injury. So how can you point a gun in a safe direction in a classroom?

IMG_20160620_191602The best “safe direction” option I can think of for using a real firearm in a classroom would be placing the barrel inside a clearing device or bullet recovery tank since the gun cannot fire in any other direction—pretty impractical or unrealistic for classroom training though. One fail-safe method for use in a classroom is to select the best “safe direction” and use a SIRT pistol or inert training gun—impossible for a mishap to occur!

(Note: SIRT and inert training guns are still treated as if they are real firearms. Failing to do so invites the negligent handling of real firearms. Train your brain to treat any “gun” with the same level of safety and respect.)

IMG_20160620_191837So how about malfunction drills in the classroom where a mechanically functional handgun is needed? One option, albeit not perfect, might be to “neuter” a handgun by removing its firing pin or striker. Whether using a “neutered” gun or not, the ONLY type of ammunition that should EVER be in the classroom is inert dummy rounds. Another option is conducting any training that requires a mechanically functioning firearm, such as malfunction drills, on the range instead of in the classroom.

How can we go about making the classroom “safe direction” the best that we can? Kathy Jackson of “The Cornered Cat” (website & Facebook) and I had an informative exchange in an instructor group on Facebook. Kathy offered some suggestions such as using a Kevlar vest or a box of books that is capable of stopping the most powerful round possible for the guns used in the class. Another idea would be a portable bullet trap.IMG_20160620_190405IMG_20160620_190234

It is important to remember that these enhanced “safe directions” are dimensionally limited though. A round discharged must impact the object for it to provide any benefit. An instructor or student having a negligent discharge may very well not have the gun aimed directly at the enhancement object—the other layers of safety rules have to be violated for the ND to happen in the first place…

Firearm Safety in the Classroom

IMG_20160619_163708It is tragic anytime there is a death involving firearms training. Such a tragic event happened this weekend in a concealed carry class in Ohio.

The loss of the victim is most regrettable, as is the guilt that the student that pulled the trigger will now live with. It is also an opportunity for those of us in the instructor community, as well as our students, to review our own safety precautions to ensure that we don’t miss something that could lead to another tragedy.

The victim was in his office, on the other side of a wall where the students were practicing a malfunction drill (clearing a firearm after a failure to feed, failure to extract, hang fire, etc.) A bullet was fired from the handgun being used in the exercise; it penetrated the wall and fatally struck the victim in the office.

The NRA has three “ALWAYS” rules and an additional set of rules for the storage and use of firearms. The ALWAYS rules are:

  1. ALWAYS keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.
  2. ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.
  3. ALWAYS keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.

As “ALWAYS” implies, it means all the time—not just when it is convenient. While rule #2 may not have been applicable in this training exercise since pulling the trigger may have been part of the drill, rule #1 and #3 certainly were. There can be no argument that the gun was not pointed in a safe and that the gun was not unloaded.

Of the additional NRA rules for the storage and use of a firearm, the very first states, “Know your target and what is beyond.” While the wall in the classroom might have been the target, the victim is what was beyond it and the wall was incapable of stopping the handgun round.

The NRA adds another layer of safety rules for its instructors. First, there is absolutely no live ammunition allowed in the classroom—by anyone. This includes the instructor, the students, and anyone else in the room.  No ammo, no negligent mishaps.

The second rule is that before any firearm, or even a training replica that is inert, is used for any purpose in a class, the instructor or student will have someone else verify that there is no live ammunition in the firearm or magazines. This applies not just to the first time is is used in that class, but every time it is used in the class.

Adding all of these layers of safety rules together prevents mishaps. Even if the class being taught is not an NRA course, these rules are the gold standard in safety and apply. Likewise, even if the person instructing the class is not an NRA Instructor, the safety rules apply.

As a student, you have a right to learn in a safe environment. If the instructor is not following these rules, it is not a safe environment; you should leave any classroom where the instructor doesn’t/won’t follow the safety rules and demand a refund. Better yet, ask the instructor what their safety rules are before you sign up for their class.

We will likely never know exactly what had been taught to the students before the fatal shot in the class this weekend. We won’t know if the safety rules had been taught and retaught before the students handled firearms. We do know that safety rules were broken and a life was lost.

Strategic Outfitters Rules for Concealed Carry

I’ve carried a concealed firearm for almost all of my adult life. As a patrol officer, I carried a concealed back up gun on duty as well as off duty. As an Illinois State Police Inspector and a Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent, I rarely openly carried a firearm, but virtually always was carrying at least one. As a civilian I am now limited in the places where I can carry a firearm, but I generally do wherever legal.

Drawn from that experience, here are some rules for the concealed carry of firearms. Aside from the first two, they are in no particular order.

  • #1 A firearm is a tool of last resort
    A firearm is a tool—nothing more. It is however a tool that you employ only when there is no other choice. A firearm is not a tool that you use to threaten or intimidate.

  • #2 Always carry the firearm fully loaded with a round in the chamber
    Modern firearms designed for concealed carry have safety devices built into them to prevent being fired unless the trigger is pulled. In a life or death situation, the time it takes to chamber a round could cost you your life.

  • Avoid confrontation whenever possible
    The wise concealed carrier keeps a calm demeanor at all times. They ignore it if someone cuts them off in traffic; they don’t flip the person off, tailgate them, or do anything aggressive. If someone insults them, they ignore it and avoid the person.

  • Remain alert to threats at all times
    Criminals prefer to prey on unsuspecting or weak victims. If your head is down with your eyes locked to your smartphone, you’ll never see the attack coming and likely have no chance to deploy your firearm. Always be aware of your surroundings, any possible threats in them, and any available escape routes.

  • Don’t feel emboldened because you are armed
    Having the ability to defend yourself doesn’t mean that you should put yourself into dangerous or unsafe circumstances. Being armed does not always mean that you will be the victor in a confrontation.
  • Any gun you carry is better than any gun left at home
    For as long as people have been carrying concealed guns, there has been ongoing debate about what an adequate firearm for concealed carry is. The bottom line is that the largest caliber handgun with the largest capacity of rounds that you can proficiently fire might be the best choice for a home defense handgun, but concealability and comfort of carry are prime factors in the selection of a concealed gun. Larger handguns are often easier to grip and accurately shoot, but they are much harder to conceal and uncomfortable for all day carry.

Many people have a variety of concealed carry guns, choosing one that works with the clothing and activities they have planned. If you can only afford one, it needs to be small enough that it can be concealed regardless of your clothing choice for the day and light enough that carrying it isn’t uncomfortable.

  • Know the laws of any jurisdiction you’ll carry a firearm in
    Unlike traffic laws which are generally uniform throughout the country, laws governing the concealed carry of firearms vary widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. While your driver’s license is valid in all 50 states, your concealed carry permit is not.

While states like Florida have passed preemption statutes that do not allow city and county ordinances to regulate firearms, many other states have state statutes, county ordinances, and city ordinances that all govern firearms.

Here are two sites with a wealth of information about the laws governing concealed carry:

http://www.usacarry.com/concealed-carry-resources.html

http://www.handgunlaw.us/

  • Whenever possible, avoid places you can’t legally carry
    Aside from the fact that you are disarmed, the act of removing a concealed firearm, hiding it in your vehicle, and then having to re-conceal it brings additional potential perils.

Having to go into a place where you can’t legally carry a firearm is inevitable. In some instances it is, however, avoidable. It is illegal to carry a firearm into a Post Office, but you can go elsewhere to get stamps or ship a package. If you are in a state where a merchant can prohibit you from carrying a concealed firearm by posting a sign, take your business elsewhere. Be sure to let the anti-gun merchant know via FaceBook or other social media that you have chosen to not patronize their business due to their prohibition of firearms.

  • Know your skill level and don’t exceed it
    Television is not reality—don’t take your training tips from it. In the incredibly unlikely event that you find yourself in a situation where it would be appropriate to employ your firearm, weigh the decision as carefully as the available moments allow. If you are not well skilled and practiced in drawing your firearm from concealment, the unarmed criminal standing close to you might successfully arm himself with your gun. For the typical concealed carrier, trying to shoot at a criminal that is twenty feet away risks hitting bystanders.
  • All firearms must be in a holster that completely protects the trigger
    Objects in a purse or pocket can depress the trigger causing at best a negligent discharge and at worst injury or death.
  • If carrying off-body (purse, bag, briefcase, etc.), always maintain the security of your firearm
    It is easy to inadvertently set down a purse or bag and then not pay attention to it, providing opportunity for tragedy or disaster—tragedy if a child accesses it or disaster if you need it and it is not immediately available.
  • There is no hurry when reholstering your firearm; ensure that nothing is going to snag the trigger
  • Holsters should be rigid so that the firearm can easily be reholstered
    A holster that collapses when the handgun is drawn can be dangerous when trying to reholster. This is especially true for Inside WaistBand (IWB) holsters such as ones made out of soft leather.
  • Holsters must retain the firearm tight enough so that it cannot fall out during vigorous activity such as running
    You never want to drop your handgun—especially if you are trying to escape a dangerous situation.
  • Practice drawing and reholstering your unloaded firearm from your concealed carry holster(s)
    Drawing from a holster on the outside of your belt with nothing covering it is far different than drawing from a concealed holster where a garment needs to be moved out of the way. This is even more so for concealment such as a handbag.
  • Test ammo that you plan to carry to make certain it functions properly in your firearm
    While most modern ammunition will function fine in a handgun of that caliber, some combinations of ammo and handgun can be problematic. This is especially true with semi-automatic pistols where the shape of the bullet can affect how it feeds into the chamber. The wrong time to discover that the combination of ammo/gun doesn’t work is when you are deploying it to save your life.
  • Practice regularly with any firearm that you might carry
    You should be able to operate the handgun without fumbling or having to look at it to see where the safety or magazine is located.
  • Be aware of how movements can cause your firearm to be exposed
    “Concealed Carry” means exactly that. You can be charged in some jurisdictions for even a brief exposure of the firearm. If you’re wearing a jacket covering your handgun in a belt holster and reach for an item on the top shelf at a store, the gun may be exposed as the jacket rises.