Training and practicing for self-defense requires an attention to details. Especially when you are talking about self-defense with firearms. When a self-defense situation calls for the use of a gun, obviously the stakes are very high. It is for that reason that you need to make sure that your training and practice are realistic. On the other side of the coin, we have to agree that when we are practicing and training with loaded guns, that raises the stakes as well. No one that I know trains so that they can get injured or killed. Instead, when you train your goal is to INCREASE your level of safety.
Violence is dangerous and if we aren’t careful, training and practice can be dangerous as well. Do you see how these two facts play off of each other and could cause a problem?
The factor that makes it even more difficult to sort out is the PERCEPTION that people have about defensive training and practice. Even people that are involved in the firearms industry have misconceptions about how safe realistic defensive practice and training can be. The idea that perception is reality is crystal clear when it comes to the policies and procedures that many ranges adopt with the goal of keeping their patrons “safe.”
Many ranges have rules that prohibit things like:
- drawing from the holster
- firing at a rate faster than 1 round per second
- targets being closer than 7 yards
These policies tend to be extreme instead of carefully metered. The result is a challenge for you the defensive shooter in finding a range that is amenable with you training realistically and unfortunately a decrease in your safety. If It is so dangerous for you to draw from a holster, how could it ever be acceptable to send you away from a concealed carry course without specific, professional instruction in the activity? You are going to carry your gun in a holster aren’t you? If you carry your gun in a holster and you need to defend your life, you will have to draw that gun from the holster. Is the middle of a violent encounter the best time for you to learn that skill?
I would argue that the answer is no. But that doesn’t stop the rule makers. The reason that I train outside with my students year round with my students is because I can’t find an indoor range that will allow me to teach my students to draw from a holster… Sigh. Frustrating indeed.
The consequences are much greater than frustration. It is your safety that is on the line. You are left to learn to draw a gun alone in your living room or in the middle of a fight. That has serious implications. Just like learning how to fire a gun at a realistic rate of fire for defensive shooting (3 rounds every second or even faster) and shooting with the required precision for realistic defensive scenarios.
If you don’t train and practice these defensive skills it could cost you your life. That is why training and practicing defensive shooting (and finding a range where you can do it) is so important.
So you need to find a shooting range that will allow you to do what you need to do. But how?
Read on my friend!