I see it regularly on social media; the gun community rallies together to subject some poor soul to scorn, ridicule, and mockery for saying or doing something the group may not approve of. Perhaps they said something perceived to be stupid. Maybe they espoused a technique that defies the norm, or they may even have done something that is dangerous. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Instructors
Why?
As a trainer, do you have a reason for teaching everything you teach? Do you have a reason for why you include every skill, concept, idea, or tactic in your curriculum? Can you articulate those reasons? Are you prepared to explain, in a detailed manner, why you teach each skill or concept in the precise manner you teach them and why, in your opinion, “your way” is the best for your students? And furthermore, are you able to articulate how you arrived at your current conclusions? Continue reading
The Goal of Training
Missouri law has a very minimal shooting requirement for to qualify for a concealed carry permit. The entire live-fire exercise consists of a student shooting at a B-27 silhouette target set at twenty-one feet with either a revolver or a semi-automatic handgun. Twenty rounds are fired as a live-fire demonstration and another twenty are fired as a live-fire qualification. Fifteen of the twenty qualification rounds must be inside the silhouette portion of the target in order to pass.
For anyone that has even minimal shooting experience this qualification is a breeze to pass. It can become very easy to take for granted the minimal skills required to successfully complete it. For the novice, however, the task can require a significant expenditure of concentration and effort.
An Instructor is Not a Beaver
I have been an instructor for about sixteen years now and I have been fortunate enough to turn some good students into great friends over those years. I am delighted to see these same folks come back to class after class but I would be doing them a huge disservice if I didn’t encourage them to obtain training from other instructors.
“Where can I get the quickest, cheapest class?”
Yes, you read that right. Here are a few of the questions I’ve seen posted on social media sites in just the past week:
- “My mom wants to get her CCW permit for Christmas. Who offers the lowest priced course?”
- “Can anyone tell me more about the online Virginia CCW course? I like the idea of being able to just pass an online test and get a non-resident permit, and it looks like I can get it real cheap.”
- “Where can I get a fast, cheap CCW class in the St. Louis area?”
- “Who has the best price on a concealed carry permit class?”
I think you get the idea. You could probably look through gun forums and gun pages on social media sites and find hundreds of similar questions from just the last couple weeks alone. Continue reading
Is “blended learning” really the “future” of firearms training?
I recently read a blog post where the author opined that “blended learning” is the “future” of firearms training. As someone who has provided countless hours of in-person firearms training to a few thousand students, and who has also taken part in “blended learning” formatted instruction, this line of thought bothers me a bit. Continue reading
Is Your Instructor Certified or Qualified?
Part two in my series of “gun people” getting words mixed up will take a look at who you are receiving your training from. Many people, especially instructors, confuse the words certified and qualified. Continue reading
Are You Training or Practicing?
The words we use to describe a particular activity are important. If we use the wrong terms it can lead to a gross misunderstanding by others of what we hope to convey. This is especially true in the use of text since there is no variance or inflection of voice to help get the point across.
With that in mind, I have noticed many people in the “gun world” using the wrong words to describe all sorts of things. One pair of such misused terms is training vs. practicing. Continue reading
Armed Missouri, Inc. 