Random Shots

In mid-July, Soke Jeff Hall and Sensi Norm Hood returned to southwestern Ohio to offer another round of Hojutsu-Ryu train-ing. As you may remember from my earlier writings on this subject, I was exposed to Hojutsu for the first time about a year ago. Hojutsu is an integrated fighting system that brings together some traditional martial arts techniques with Colonel Jeff Cooper’s mod-ern technique of the pistol, plus some things that Soke Hall has learned over his many years as an Army paratrooper, Alaska State Trooper, and martial arts practitioner. As you progress through the discipline, in addi-tion to open hands and pistol techniques, fighting with a knife, cane, shotgun, carbine, long-range rifle, and eventually subma-chinegun are added to the mix.

After last year’s class, I recognized the value of integrating the martial arts fighting tech-niques with that of using the pistol in self-defense situations. I found two aspects es-pecially useful—the firearms retention tech-niques and the fluid movements that the various martial arts disciplines emphasize. Never having studied the traditional martial

arts before, I must admit that my technique and form leave a lot to be desired, especially for someone of my age. I continue to strug-gle with those but at least I am trying to learn them. In the weeks leading up to the class, I’d been working with some fellow students from last year’s class in learning the first kata of Hojutsu. (A “kata” is a se-quence of movements you must make in the proper order, similar to learning the steps of a dance.) While the kata comprises the se-quence of movements, I must now work on the power needed to effectively use my hands, arms, legs, and feet in a fight.

This year’s class consisted of about a dozen participants—in addition to the instruc-tors—, half of them returning students and the other half new ones. The training time was split between Premier Shooting and Training Center (West Chester, Ohio) and Mad Duck Firearms Training (West Elkton, Ohio). Sensi Jim Lentz was our host at Premier where we practiced our martial arts techniques in their modern dojo and did some shooting on their excellent indoor tactical shooting range. John Farquhar and Lisa Murphy were our hosts at Mad Duck where we spent a day perfecting our shoot-ing on John’s outdoor shooting range.

Accurate shooting is one of the major em-phasis areas taught in Hojutsu. No misses are permitted and that was my goal over the course of the 3-day class. I almost made it. Last year I had a problem with shooting “parrots”, “nuns”, and “cats”—those are all types of misses. (This year Soke Hall added a “snake” and an “Indian” to the mix, indi-cating where the missed shot was in relation to the intended target.) If you get any of those your score for that stage of fire does not count—it is a disqualification (DQ).

September/October 2016 Volume 6, Issue 6

Edited and Published by

Gary Evens, Rangemaster and

NRA Certified Firearms Instructor &

Range Safety Officer

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to

keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed in Random Shots are those of the author(s), and

do not necessarily represent the positions of any other individual or

organization.

Soke Hall congratulates Bill Martin on being the latest

member of the class to get to wear the “parrot”. Soke Hall leads the class in going through the steps of the

Hojutsu kata.

Out of about 550-600 rounds fired during the weekend at distances ranging from 2 yards to 50 yards, just one of mine failed to hit within the silhouette target and of course that happened on the last day of class. That one round went high over the head area when I was trying to make a head shot from 15 yards.

In addition to the formal Hojutsu courses of fire we performed some shooting from un-orthodox positions—sitting; laying on our back and shooting between our legs at the target; laying on our right and left side in a fetal position while shooting; laying on our stomach, right side, and left side while shooting; shooting while laying on our back with our head pointed toward the target, and shooting from different kneeling positions. We also shot a lot more at longer distanc-es—15-50 yards—than we did last year. One drill that I liked involved firing three rounds at the target from 2 yards then taking a step back and shooting three more shots. This process was repeated one step back-wards at a time all the way to about 15 yards. The target area was the same each time—the high chest area of the silhouette target.

Another drill that I found interesting could best be described as “shooting blind”. From about 3 yards away, we would orient ourselves with our target and then close our eyes while drawing and shooting. The pur-pose of this drill was to demonstrate the value of learning your Natural Point of Aim (NPOA). What I learned is that it works. All of my “blind” shots—about 10-12—struck the intended “upper chest area” of the target.

I used my Colt 1911 Competition pistol chambered in 9mm Luger for the class. The gun performed well, but I did experience some unintended malfunctions. I had two double-feeds, one on the first day and one on the last day. I also had three failures to fire, all on the second day. I have no idea what caused the double-feeds, but after thinking about it I figured out that the fail-ure to fire malfunctions were a result of

gripping the gun too high so that I was pushing up on the grip safety rather than pushing it in. This just goes to show the importance of getting a proper “master grip” on your pistol while it is still in the holster.

My trigger control left something to be de-sired, especially as the days wore on. When trying to shoot very tight groups with no time limits, mine tended to open up more towards the end of the range sessions. I’m going to have to spend some time at the range trying to diagnose just exactly what is going on. My hits tended to be an inch or more lower than my point of aim, and even more when I was shooting at longer distanc-es. I do know that I was not “slapping” or “jerking” the trigger as my finger stayed in contact with it all the time when it was sup-posed to be on the trigger. Also, my Colt pistol’s trigger has a very short distance of travel so I did not have to move it very far whenever I pressed it. The symptoms seem to point to my wrist “breaking down” or relaxing my grip at the instant I pull the trig-ger. A range session where I can focus on just that should help me isolate the problem.

Sensi Hood kept “fussing” at me about my slide racking technique. Rather than reach-ing over the top of the slide and grasping it as I pulled the slide to the rear, I was grasp-ing it between my thumb and the side of my forefinger—i.e. the “slingshot” technique. He asked me several times why I was doing that and I told him I had no idea. On the drive home after the last day of class I fig-ured out why I was doing that. For the past three years, the majority of my pistol shoot-ing sessions have been with either my High Standard Military Citation semi-automatic pistol or my Ruger Mark III Hunter semi-automatic pistol. Both are chambered in .22 LR and I have been using the guns in my summer weekly bullseye shooting league. My High Standard pistol has a rear sight that is mounted to a fixed bracket and the slide moves back and forth underneath this bracket. With this pistol, I have no choice but to grasp the slide between my thumb and forefinger to pull it to the rear. My Ruger pistol has a solid receiver with a bolt moving inside it and thus no slide. The only place to grasp the bolt is at the rear of the receiver, so there is no way to pull it back except to grasp the bolt “gripping lugs” be-tween my thumb and forefinger. Even when I go to the range to shoot my other pistols I tended to use the same technique without thinking about it and with no train-

ing partner to see what I was actually doing and correct me it has become ingrained in me.

So I did learn some things about my shoot-ing techniques during this year’s Hojutsu class and now I can focus on the specific aspects that I need to improve on. Hopeful-ly I’ll have worked my “training scars” out by the time Sensi Hood returns in early Oc-tober for another Hojutsu training class—one day of pistol training, one day of rifle/carbine training, and one day of shotgun training. (If you are interested in learning more or attending this class, contact Bill Martin at Defensive Training Solutions in Tipp City, Ohio.)

— G.R. Evens

My Journey to Becoming

a Rifleman

Part 7: Project Appleseed

Redo

In mid-June the opportunity to participate in another Project Appleseed event presented itself so I decided to see if the improve-ments to my custom Ruger 10/22 semi-automatic rifle would make a difference in my performance.

Before I went to the event I made another “upgrade” to my rifle—I replaced the stand-ard Ruger factory barrel with a fluted and threaded Tactical Solutions X-Ring bull bar-rel and a Tactical Solutions compensator.

Installing the new barrel was fairly straight forward but not without at least one compli-cation. The old barrel came out easily—it is just held in with two bolts in a “V-block” assembly. The “complication” was that the

Page 2 Random Shots Volume 6, I ssue 6

new Tactical Solutions barrel was slightly oversize and would not slide in as easily as the old barrel slid out. My solution—one of “Buckshot’s” favorite gunsmithing tech-niques—was to use a hammer (a rubber mallet) to drive the new barrel into place. (I probably should have followed the manufac-turer’s instructions to use some 600-grit emery paper to sand down the portion of the barrel that goes into the receiver slightly, but I didn’t have any.) I put the standard end cap that came with the new barrel on it so that I wouldn’t mess up the threads as I “whacked” the muzzle with the mallet. It finally went, but I’ll probably never be able to get it out again. Screwing the compensa-tor on in place of the standard end cap was not a problem at all.

This barrel modification reduced the weight of the rifle by a little less than one pound, and significantly improved my rifle’s accura-cy. Now the only original factory Ruger parts that remain on it are the receiver, the bolt assembly, the bolt handle/mainspring assembly, and, of course, the magazines. Along with the other modifications that I wrote about back in the September/October 2015 edition of Random Shots, my rifle was ready to go. The question is, was I ready? To find out I decided to go to the range. I needed to sight-in the rifle with the new barrel anyway.

At the range I discovered a couple of prob-lems. One of the magazines would not come out of the magazine well freely. The second problem was that the bolt would not fully go into battery when chambering the first round from the magazine. I surmised that the barrel was inserted too far into the receiver by a thousandth of an inch or so. A couple of “whacks” with the rubber mallet should fix it—but it wouldn’t move. Fur-ther investigation turned to the bolt handle and mainspring assembly.

When I had reinserted the bolt handle/mainspring assembly into the receiv-er I had rotated the mainspring guide rod so that the notch in the end of it faced “in” towards the barrel’s chamber rather than facing “out” towards the side of the receiver. (I confirmed the proper orientation by look-ing at another 10/22 that I own.) I thought the cartridge rim of the first round in the magazine might be catching in this notch as it was being shoved into the chamber by the bolt. A twist re-oriented it properly and after reassembling everything the bolt seems to “snap” home much better.) But now I

had to go back to the range again and con-firm the optical sight was adjusted properly since I had to remove it while I worked on the gun after I got home from the range.

The next day I did, but the misfeed problem persisted. I had been using Winchester-brand M-22 Long Rifle ammunition with 40 grain “Black Copper Plated” round nose bullets. I happened to have a box of CCI Mini-Mag .22 Long Rifle ammunition with 36 grain copper-plated hollow point bullets and they fed perfectly through the magazine and into the rifle’s chamber. This once again shows that guns chambered for the .22 Long Rifle cartridge can be very finicky in what ammunition they will digest! While both rounds measure 0.226-inches in diame-ter, the Winchester round measured 0.986-inches in length while the CCI round came in shorter at 0.971-inches.

I also found out what the magazine issue was that I had encountered during my earlier range session—I had a Ruger 77/22 maga-zine mixed in with my 10/22 magazines. They are both a 10-round rotary design and while both have worked in other 10/22 ri-fles that I’ve owned, this particular rifle just doesn’t like them. I’ll have to make sure I only use magazines intended for the 10/22 in it.

Accuracy is excellent with the new barrel as you can see from the below images. The first photo shows my best group with the Winchester ammo.

The below photo shows my best group shooting the CCI ammo.

Both of these were 10-shot groups fired at

25 yards. The “V” circle is just under 1.25-inches in diameter. These were fired from a seated benchrest position and so my accura-cy shooting with a sling will be less.

The Project Appleseed event took place on June 18-19 at the Piqua Fish and Game As-sociation range. A total of 22 participants attended the event, along with three Apple-seed instructors. I was the oldest participant with the youngest being about 10-12 years old.

I can report that things went much better for me this time, although my performance on the second day was disappointing. (See the July/August 2015 edition of Random Shots for a description of my first Appleseed event.) I only had a single failure to feed malfunction all weekend. I used a red-dot optic with a 3 MOA “dot” so it did not cov-er up the smaller silhouette targets. Maga-zine changes went well for the most part. My shot group sizes were very consistent on the first day—more on that later. Getting the bolt to go forward after being locked to the rear went off without a hitch. So, it looked like my equipment problems are behind me—or so I thought.

Following a safety briefing, we started off by shooting the Appleseed “Red Coat” target. It contained a series of silhouettes simulat-ing targets at 100, 200, 300, and 400 yards. Shooting was done from the prone position with the actual target placed 25 meters down range. Three shots were fired at each target. I got three hits on the 100 yard simulated target, thee hits on the 200 yard simulated target, three hits on the 300 yard simulated target, and two hits on the 400 yard simulat-ed target. I also managed to hit “Morgan’s Shingle”, a tiny 1-inch by 3/4-inch rectangle meant to simulate a “shingle” placed 250 yards down range. I was pretty pumped up by this since we had not received any of the Appleseed marksmanship training on the use of the sling yet.

Next we received some instruction on how to properly use the rifle’s sling to shoot prone and fired at a grid target to see what our groups looked like and to make the ap-propriate sight adjustments. My groups were good but I needed to make a windage and elevation adjustment to my sights—3 “clicks” right and 9 “clicks” down. (One “click” equals 1 inch at 100 yards or 1 MOA per “click” on my particular optic sight). After that was completed, we moved on to learning about shooting from the seated and

Page 3 Random Shots Volume 6, I ssue 6

standing positions.

Part of every Appleseed event includes learning about history—specifically the events that took place outside of Boston on April 19, 1775.

After lunch it was time to begin shooting the Appleseed Qualification Test (AQT). This consists of shooting a total of 40 rounds at a series of simulated targets at 100 yards, 200 yards, 300 yards, and 400 yards. (I provided details about the various stages of fire to complete the AQT in the article referenced above on last year’s Appleseed event.)

Our first attempt at the AQT was for prac-tice so we could get use to the sequence, timing, etc. I got my best results on this one when I scored 194 out of 250 points. That was good enough for a “Sharpshooter” rat-ing. Next it was time to try it for real. This time my score was 138 points or a “Marksman” rating. My highest score the previous time I took a Project Appleseed course was only 84 points so I was very satisfied with my progress.

It was getting pretty hot so I didn’t try any more AQTs on the first day. We did shoot another “Red Coat” target though. I didn’t score as well on this one. I got my three hits on the 100 yard target and I hit “Morgan’s Shingle”, but only got 2 hits at simulated 200 yard target and none on the 300 and 400 yard targets.

On the second day I did not score nearly as well. We started by once again shooting a “Red Coat” target. I got three hits on the simulated 100 yard target, but missed the 200 and 300 yard targets and only scored one hit on the 400 yard target. I also missed “Morgan’s Shingle” this time. Next we fired at a grid target to see if our sights needed to be adjusted. My hits on that target seemed to indicate a change was needed so I made an adjustment—8 “clicks” to the left and 2 “clicks” up. That was probably my big mis-take because my shooting went downhill from there. Indeed I only scored 67, 64, 76, and 73 points respectively on my attempts at the AQT. With the temperatures on the second day in the low 90s and much higher when the heat factor is included, I’m sure the weather conditions were not helping me either.

Whereas last year two individuals (out of 12) earned their Rifleman’s patch by the time I left at noon on the second day. This time I

stayed until the end but only one individual (out of 22) got their patch and another indi-vidual “requalified” for his. It is not unusual for individuals to have to take the course 3-4 (or more) times before they score enough points—210 out of 250—to earn the patch.

Once again I probably should have spent more time at the range practicing. My “excuse” is that I didn’t decide to attend the event until just a week before it was held and I spent all of my range time getting my rifle (and a back-up rifle just in case) sighted in with my optic(s). But I think that the biggest thing I need to work on is develop-ing my natural point of aim (NPOA) in each of the shooting positions. That will be a subject for futures articles in this series. I also once again had the problem of my cheek sliding forward and down on the stock as my face got sweaty in all that heat. I’ll need to find a solution for that as well.

My first priority the following weekend was to get back to the range and see how much I had moved my sights from where they were when I adjusted them while shooting from a benchrest. That is when I discovered that my equipment problems were not at an end like I had thought they were. When I took my rifle out of its case I found the Picitanny rail mount on my rifle had come loose! I could wiggle it almost ¼th of an inch from side to side. When I took the optic off of it I found that one of the mounting screws had backed completely out and had reversed itself in the hole in the mount. The other three mount screws were very loose. I tight-ened everything back down—I’ll need to apply some Lock-Tite later—and remounted the optic. Then I set about sighting it in again using a benchrest. To get it properly adjusted I had to move it 10 “clicks” to the right and 12 “clicks” up. No wonder my AQT scores were so bad on the second day!

— G.R. Evens

The FBI has decided to switch back to the 9mm Luger/Parabellum cartridge after using the more powerful .40 S&W cartridge for many years. Their move away from the 9mm was prompted by the 1986 Miami shootout between FBI agents armed with 9mm handguns and two armed robbers

where the rounds fired by the FBI agents proved to be woefully lacking in stopping power. The FBI began experimenting with more powerful rounds such as the .45 ACP and 10mm, but settled on the slightly less powerful .40 S&W as the best compromise between power, ammunition capacity, and controllability (i.e. recoil management). Most U.S. police agencies followed suit and also adopted the .40 S&W as their standard duty ammunition.

So what has prompted the FBI to change to a less powerful cartridge? Improvements in the ballistic performance of 9mm ammuni-tion is a major reason, but another one cited is improved recoil management. In their justification for the switch, FBI officials stated that “LEOs [Law Enforcement Offic-ers] miss between 70 – 80 percent of the shots fired during a shooting incident”. Several other studies show similar results. For instance, a RAND Corporation study on the New York City Police Department’s firearms training program showed that be-tween 1998 and 2006, the average number of “hits” during officer-involved gunfights was just 18 percent—rising to 30 percent if the suspect did not return fire at the pursu-ing police officer(s).

I find the “hit ratio” particularly concerning for FBI agents. They have to successfully qualify with their handguns three times each year. I have fired the “FBI Qualification Course” (in 2014 when I took Tom Given’s

Page 4 Random Shots Volume 6, I ssue 6

Rangemaster Instructor Development Course). This particular course of fire re-quires 60 rounds to be fired at a “QIT-99” target (see image below) measuring 26 inch-es by 12 inches—the smaller zones on the target measure 3 inches by 3 inches (head area) and 4 inches by 6.5 inches (chest area)—from distances ranging from 3 yards to 25 yards. Forty of those rounds are fired at the closer (3-7 yard) distances. Any “hit” within the bottle-shaped target counts. Time limits range from 3 seconds to 15 seconds for multiple shots, with the time limit increasing as the distance to the target increases. While most shooting is done from the standing position using a two-handed grip, you also must be able to shoot with one hand and to shoot from a kneeling position.

To pass this test, FBI agents must score at least 80 percent (48 hits out of 60 shots fired). FBI instructors (and students in the Rangemaster course) must score at least 90 percent (54 out of 60) to pass. (Later in the course I had to pass the “Rangemaster Qualification” which was basically the same course of fire except that only hits within the smaller “head” and “chest” areas count-ed. Again a 90 percent hit rate was required to pass. And yes, I passed both qualifica-tions.)

Unfortunately, the majority of law enforce-ment agencies have far lower shooting profi-ciency standards than the FBI does and the low “hit ratio” statistics cited by the FBI is not limited to just FBI agent-involved shootings. As Chad Baus points out in his recent article, “One of the reasons for the FBI’s move to 9mm ammo just might sur-prise you” (posted on the Buckeye Firearms A s s o c i a t i o n w e b s i t e —www.buckeyefirearms.org—on November 4, 2015), the ammunition shortage in recent years, coupled with budget constraints, has resulted in a significant decrease in the num-ber of rounds law enforcement officers must fire annually to maintain their firearms qualification. In Ohio, the qualification requirement is as low as 25 rounds per year, with most officers only firing an average of 100 rounds per year for practice! (SWAT and similar special team officers undoubted-ly fire more rounds in training and practice to maintain their proficiency.)

By passing their qualification course, we know FBI agents are capable of shooting accurately, but why don’t they seem to be able to duplicate this performance during “real world” shootouts? FBI officials seem

to be implying that the greater recoil pro-duced by the .40 S&W cartridge is partially responsible for the lower “hit ratio”. This position is supported by other studies that show the size and power of the bullet is less important in stopping a threat than shot placement is—i.e. less recoil means better shot placement. Greg Ellifritz made this point in his article “An Alternate Look at Handgun Stopping Power” posted on the Buckeye Firearms Association website in July 2011. Dave Spaulding agreed in his more recent post—“A 9mm Journey: Hard to believe I have been wrong!”—at hand-guncombatives.blogspot.com in March 2015. (Greg and Dave both have extensive law enforcement experience and are well-respected firearms instructors.)

I find the “recoil management” argument to be suspect. Again, FBI agents are able to successfully pass their qualification course using their duty handguns and ammunition. So what other factors might be contributing to the low “hit ratio”?

I think stress is probably a better reason for the low “hit ratios” being experienced in shootouts. Violent encounters tend to hap-pen with little or no warning, they are chaot-ic, and they are over within seconds. While law enforcement officers do get involved in sudden violent encounters, quite often they are responding to a reported crime scene and thus they have time to mentally prepare themselves for the encounter they are about to become part of—if they arrive while the encounter is still in progress. Thus factors other than being caught by surprise seem to be contributing to the problem as well.

One factor that not a lot of data is available on is whether the shootout occurs in dimin-ished light conditions. The less light there is, the harder it is to accurately place shots on target. The limited studies that have been done seem to indicate that law en-forcement officers seem to be reluctant to use their flashlights during diminished light situations, fearing that using a flashlight will draw the attention of the bad guys to their location.

Another factor seems to be the number of law enforcement officers that are involved in the shootout. The data seems to show that the greater the number of officers in-volved, the lower the “hit ratio” becomes, all other factors being the same. A phenom-enon known as “emotional contagion” may be at play as once the shooting starts every-

one starts shooting whether they have a clear target to shoot at or not. An example of this occurred on January 1, 2011 near Enon, Ohio following the fatal shooting of Clark County Sheriff’s Deputy Suzanne Hopper. Local law enforcement officers surrounded the suspected shooter in his trailer. In an ensuing gunfight, which oc-curred in broad daylight, the suspect was killed and his trailer was riddled with bullet holes. It seems the “trailer” became the target for dozens of the responding officers rather than the individual inside the trailer as the entire duration of shooting lasted but a few seconds and many of the officers that open fire simply kept firing until their guns ran out of ammunition.

Trigger pull weights might also contribute to the poor accuracy experienced in law en-forcement shootouts. A majority of agencies/departments equip their officers with Glock pistols. The standard trigger pull weight on these pistols is 5.5 pounds. However, New York officials, concerned about liability and accidental discharges, mandated that the trigger pull weights on their issued firearms be increased to about 10-12 pounds. Using the standard trigger, Los Angeles police officers are able to hit their targets about 51 percent of the time, while for New York officers it is only about 15 percent of the time. Heavy trigger pull weights make it more difficult to fire accu-rate shots.

So, what does all of this mean for the aver-age armed citizen? First of all it should demonstrate that your ability to place accu-rate shots on target on the practice range does not directly translate to a similar ability to accurately shoot during a violent encoun-ter where your life is at stake. When con-fronted with a life-and-death situation, you will undergo physiological and psychological changes that will greatly affect your shooting ability—you will likely focus on “the threat” rather than your handgun’s front sight as

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you were trained to do. Exposure to these physiological and psychological changes is not part of the typical basic handgun course required to obtain your concealed carry li-cense. For that you will need to seek out advanced handgun training where you will be exposed to increased stress levels while engaged in shooting exercises. This is im-portant in inoculating you from the stresses of combat. Using time constraints during the various courses of fire does increase the stress you will experience. Having to com-plete the drills under time constraints and in front of an audience (i.e. your fellow stu-dents) will further increase your stress level. However, none of these will approach the levels of stress you will experience in a real gunfight. The closest thing that I’ve found is undergoing a Tueller Drill during training where the target is rushing at you from just 21 feet away and you have to draw your handgun and fire multiple shots at it before it reaches you. Many firearms instructors do use the Tueller Drill as part of their ad-vanced handgun training programs.

Stress inoculation is not something you can do by yourself on the practice range. It re-quires others to impose the stressors on you while you go through the various shooting drills

Now it is up to you to do the responsible

thing and get additional training in stress

inoculation and the use of your handgun for

self-defense. It will improve your confi-

dence in your shooting abilities and it will

help you avoid hitting innocent bystanders

should you become involved in a shootout.

Remember, there is a “lawyer” attached to

every bullet that you fire!

- G.R. Evens

Don’t Get Yourself Blown-Up in the Process!

As a result of terrorist attacks in France and Belgium, I and some other firearms instruc-tors have written about how an armed citi-zen should deal with the extremely remote po-tential of confronting a terrorist-bomber (suicide or otherwise). Rather than being mass-produced for military use, most bombs used by terrorists are Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and are assembled out of available materials (an explosive, fuse, tim-er/detonating device, materials to produce shrapnel, a container, etc.). But just because they are not military-grade doesn’t mean they are any less dangerous.

Being in the area of a terrorist-bomber is really a worst-case scenario and your best strategy is to get as far away as you can as quickly as you can. How far away you need to get depends on the amount of explosives in the bomb (i.e. the “explosive capacity”). The below table reflects the “minimum” and “safe” evacuation distances for bombs of varying size. Evacuating to the “minimum” distance requires that you be protected from the effects of the blast by a structure that can withstand them. Only by getting to the “safe” distance do you have an assurance that you will not be harmed by the blast.

However, that is not always possible and you might be forced to confront the bomber. Your chances of survival decrease the closer to the bomber you are when the device det-onates—as it will likely do even if you are able to neutralize the bomber. However, there is a chance that you could survive a bomb blast and that is the focus of this arti-cle.

The first step in surviving a bomb blast is to understand how bombs cause damage. When a bomb (or other explosive device) detonates, it creates an exothermic reaction—an extremely sudden and violent release of en-

ergy. The detonation of the bomb causes damage as a result of this energy release by producing mechanical stress/shock waves, impact and penetration of projectiles (shrapnel, debris, etc.), overpressure, col-lapse of structures, etc.

Shock waves are produced by the sudden release of energy that compresses the air surrounding the point of detonation and forcing it outward, away from that point very rapidly, exceeding the speed of sound often by several orders of magnitude. This is the primary mechanism for causing dam-age with a bomb. This rapid movement of compressed air creates a physical “wave” that increases the pressure (i.e. overpressure) being exerted against things (people, struc-tures, vegetation, and other physical objects) in the vicinity of the detonation. This over-pressure is designed to cause structures to collapse. The movement of air—or water in the case of an explosion that occurs in bod-ies of water—away from the point of deto-nation occurs so rapidly that it creates a sort of vacuum just behind the shock wave and at some point results in air/water rushing back in toward the detonation site. The pressure—positive and negative—of the shock wave decreases as the distance from the blast site increases.

The sudden release of energy also produces heat (i.e. a “fireball”) that is capable of ignit-ing objects in the area—aka secondary fires—and of causing catastrophic burns to living creatures. The diameter of this fire-ball from the point of detonation is very limited compared to the other effects gener-ated by the explosion.

The break-up of the container holding the explosive device and the dislodgement of objects surrounding the blast site (dirt, de-bris, vegetation, man-made objects, etc.) by

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TYPE OF BOMB

EXPLOSIVE CAPACITY IN

POUNDS (TNT EQUIVALENT)

OVERPRESSURE (PSI) PRODUCED AT MINIMUM EVACUA-

TION DISTANCE

MINIMUM EVACUATION DISTANCE IN

FEET

SAFE EVACUA-

TION DIS-

TANCE IN FEET

Pipe 5 1.17 70 1,200

Suicide Vest 20 1.14 110 1,750

Briefcase/Suitcase 50 1.15 150 1,850

Car (sedan) 500 1.16 320 1,900

SUV/Van 1,000 1.17 400 2,400

Small Delivery Truck

4,000 1.16 640 3,800

Tanker Truck 10,000 1.17 860 5,100

Semi-Truck 60,000 1.17 1,570 9,300

the shock wave creates shrapnel/fragments of varying sizes and shapes that are pro-pelled at high velocity outward in a straight line from the center of the blast. These projectiles then can penetrate things in the vicinity of the detonation and can travel a considerable distance from the blast site. People, animals, and larger objects can be thrown through the air by the blast and be-come projectiles themselves.

The characteristics of an explosive detona-tion—i.e. overpressure, fragmentation, im-pact, and heat—are the things that cause death or injury to people and other living creatures. The overpressure can result in damage to internal organs, bleeding, rup-tured eardrums, etc. The damage may be all internal, with no external signs of injury. Fragments can cause bleeding or dismem-berment as a result of objects penetrating or cutting soft tissue. Collapsed structures can produce crushing injuries. The person may be thrown against other rigid/stationary objects resulting in damage to internal or-gans, broken bones, etc. Finally, the heat wave may incinerate flesh, causing sever burn injuries to the skin and internal organs. All of this occurs nearly instantaneously following the detonation. The distance that these blast effects occur is directly related to the amount of explosive material used in the bomb. Fortunately, the effects of the bomb blast decrease the further away from the point of detonation you are.

So how can you protect yourself from the effects of a bomb blast if you cannot get far enough away? To minimize the chances of being struck by fragments, you need to get behind a solid object that they cannot pene-trate through. This would include lying down in a depression that is below the level of where the bomb detonation takes place.

Make yourself as small a “target” as possible to the fragments, shock wave, and the fire-ball. Your feet should be facing towards the blast site with the rest of your body facing in the opposite direction. You should lay face down with your arms supporting your body’s weight so the blast does not knock the wind out of you if the ground heaves up. Your body may be forced up into the air as the shock wave passes through the ground.

To reduce the effects of overpressure, you should open your mouth to equalize the air pressure inside your body with the sur-rounding area. It may even help to scream while you do this. Cover your ears to pro-tect your eardrums from the overpressure as well—and close your eyes.

You will likely be injured the closer you are to the blast site and the severity of those injuries will determine what your next ac-tions should be. If you are conscious, you need to check yourself for bleeding injuries that could result in rapid blood loss. Such injuries may not be readily apparent as the effects of stress and adrenaline work to pro-tect you from harm. You will very likely be experiencing symptoms of shock.

If you can move, get as far away from the blast site as possible. There may be second-ary explosive devices in the area that will be detonated as first responders arrive on scene to secure it and treat the injured. As a re-sult, stay away from parking lots as that is a likely place where the first responders would try to establish a triage/evacuation site and thus a likely place for the terrorists to place their secondary and often much larger bomb(s)—think of “car bomb(s)”. Once you are safely away from the blast site, seek medical attention.

You may be tempted to assist others that

were injured in the blast. If so, you will likely be confronted with very traumatic injuries, including amputated limbs, bleed-ing, shock, dead and dying people, etc. If you previously did not have any symptoms of shock yourself, you are likely to develop them now. Some victims will be beyond any help that you can provide. You will proba-bly not be able to determine if a victim has internal injuries. Since you are unlikely to have any medical equipment with you to deal with injuries, you will have to improvise things like splints, tourniquets, pressure bandages, etc. Basic first aid knowledge will probably be of little use in treating the kinds of injuries you will be confronted with. As a result, perhaps the best thing you can do is to help move the injured to where they can receive medical attention. There is little likelihood that you will cause more injury to the victims of an explosion by moving them so try to get them away from the blast site as soon as they have been treated to stop mas-sive blood loss. If you feel someone is too seriously injured to move, go on to the next victim and try to help them. Let someone with more training deal with the more seri-ously injured.

You are much more likely to need skills to deal with the aftermath of a terrorist bomb-ing than you will need to have shooting skills to deal with the terrorists themselves. You should plan your training accordingly.

Page 7 Random Shots Volume 6, I ssue 6

- G.R. Evens

The Principals of Personal Defense:

Coolness The 5th principal Jeff Cooper wrote about in his book, Principals of Personal Defense, is “Coolness”. If you are confronted with a violent assailant that intends to kill you or inflict serious bodily harm—i.e. cripple—you, you must be able to “keep your head” as you respond. You cannot afford to let fear and panic take control. Instead your response must be logical and well thought out (preferably in advance), and executed with precision. As Col Cooper said, “If you ‘lose your cool’ under deadly attack, you will probably not survive to make excuses.”

Coolness under stress boils down to nothing more than self-control. A good example of this is the actions of a football quarterback trying to throw a pass while the defense is blitzing. The good quarterback will focus on his receivers and depend on his team-mates to protect him while he throws the pass. The poor quarterback will panic and scramble to avoid being tackled, usually losing yardage in the process or perhaps fumbling the ball.

Self-control will be difficult to attain and maintain when you are under high stress. As I’ve previously written, when you are experiencing stress, your blood pressure goes up and various psychological and phys-iological changes occur as your body auto-matically configures itself for “fight” or

“flight”. A classic example—that fewer and fewer people seem to experience—is what happens when you are out hunting and sud-denly see the game you are seeking appear before you for the first time. The encounter will typically happen unexpectedly and the adrenaline surging through your body will produce “buck fever” in you. Your hands will be shaking and you may find it difficult, if not impossible, to move the safety on your gun to the “fire” position as your fine motor skills disappear.

You can use these psychological and physio-logical changes to your advantage in re-sponding to the assailant and they can help you gain control of the situation as long as you do not allow your blood pressure to get so high that your ability to think clearly and respond deteriorate. For instance, tunnel vision will help you focus on the threat, or at least the first threat that presents itself. Auditory exclusion will also help your focus as it will eliminate distracting sounds from your environment. Your sense of time—either speeding up or slowing down—can aid you in evaluating what is happening and in responding to the attack, while at the same time enabling you to see details that would normally go unnoticed.

Training ahead of time in stressful scenarios will help. Stress inoculation training allows you to experience what happens in a con-trolled environment and will enable you to recognize the indicators when you begin to experience them at some future time. When you again experience the effects of stress, you will know what is happening and be able to exert your self-control much more easily.

Your “coolness” will come as a surprise to your assailant. He will be expecting you to panic and be submissive to his demands. When you do not respond in the way he expects, he will have to re-evaluate his ac-tions and make the changes needed to get you to comply in the way he desires. While he is going through his OODA loop to do this, you can launch your counterattack. Assuming you have developed the basic skills, your self-control should enable you to fire accurate shots to stop the threat.

In future editions of Random Shots, I will deal with Cooper’s other principals in more de-tail. In the meantime, stay alert, act decisively when necessary, when you act do so aggres-sively, use speed of thought and action to get ahead of your assailant, and stay cool while

you act!!!!

— G.R. Evens

Glock pistols—you either love them or hate them. But, you have to admit that they have risen to a level of acceptance that is proba-bly only matched by the Colt Model 1873 Single-Action Army revolver in the late 19th Century—indeed, some have claimed that the Glock is the “modern Peacemaker”. No one can claim that Glock pistols are not reliable, a primary criteria for a self-defense firearm.

The Austrian-designed, striker-fired, semi-automatic Glock pistols feature polymer frames with steel slides and barrels. They come with Glock’s “Safe-Action” trigger system as the only external safety device. This design means that the amount of force needed to fire the gun is the same 5-6 pounds for every shot. Most of the internal fire control system parts are interchangeable between models. All Glock pistols have double-stack, high-capacity magazines ex-cept the “slimline” Model 36, 42, and 43 which have lower-capacity single-stack mag-azines. Since entering production in 1982, Glock pistols have evolved through four “generations” with Gen3 and Gen4 pistols being in current production depending on the specific model.

Glock semi-auto pistols can be had in a vari-ety of centerfire chamberings including; .380 ACP (Model 25/28/42, but only the Model 42 is available in the U.S.), 9mm Luger (Model 17/19/26/34/43), .357 SIG (Model 31/32/33), .40 S&W (Model 22/23/24/ 27/35), 10mm (Model 20/29/40), .45 GAP (Model 37/38/39), or .45 ACP (Model 21/30/36/41). Conversion units are availa-ble from several 3rd party vendors that ena-

Page 8 Random Shots Volume 6, I ssue 6

ble some Glock models to fire .22 Long Rifle cartridges. Glock pistols are also avail-able in a variety of barrel/slide lengths rang-ing from the “long slide”/competition mod-els (Model 17L/24/34/35/40/41), standard models (Model 17/20/21/22/31/37), com-pact models (Model 19/23/25/32/38), and sub-compact models (Model 26/27/28/30/ 33/36/39/42/43). Some of the models are available with compensated barrels and are designated with a “C” following the model number. And then there is also the fully automatic “machine pistol” Glock Model 18 chambered in 9mm Luger.

Numerous countries around the world have adopted the Glock as their standard sidearm for their national police and/or military. And of course millions of private citizens own Glock pistols for personal protection. Glock pistols have become the standard law enforcement handgun and are carried by approximately 65% of all the police officers in the United States, with the Glock Model 22 in .40 S&W being the most commonly encountered model. The compact Glock Model 19 is the most popular handgun in the world right now. One of the reasons for the widespread acceptance of the Glock among American law enforcement agencies is the minimal training needed to convert from the previous standard double-action revolver to the Glock pistol. The lack of an external safety meant that training officers did not have to worry about their students having to learn a more complex manual of arms to get the pistols into action and thus it shortened the time needed to train everyone to use the new pistol.

Many firearms instructors, including myself, use a Glock pistol for instructional purposes as well as personal self-defense. It is a good “generic” pistol to teach the fundamentals of shooting with and can easily be disassem-bled on the range for specific demonstra-tions. They are reliable in the extreme and very easy to clean and maintain.

The U.S. military has not adopted the Glock for general issue, but that may be about to change. In late 2015, stories started to emerge that the U.S. Navy SEALs were ready to switch from the 9mm SIG P226 model that they have carried since the mid-1980s to the Glock Model 19. The U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC) has also started issuing Glock Model 19s and the Army Special Operations Command is also adding the Glock 19 to its inventory. In early 2016, the U.S. Army

Chief of Staff began questioning why the Army needed to go through an extensive evaluation program in order to adopt a new standard service pistol to replace the 9mm Beretta M9 that entered service in 1985. The Army’s XM17 Modular Handgun Sys-tem program includes a 356-page require-ments document that potential suppliers of the new pistol must meet. However, the Army Chief of Staff is questioning the need to spend the time (2 years of testing) and money (approximately $17 million) evaluat-ing new pistol designs when a proven and reliable design already exists and has been widely adopted by other military and law enforcement agencies around the world, including many nations that are closely allied with the United States. Fielding Glock 19s to meet the Army’s requirement for 287,000 pistols would cost about $91.8 million (based on the price Army Special Opera-tions Command has negotiated for each Glock pistol they are procuring) compared to the current XM17 estimate of $350 mil-lion.

Despite the common-sense approach the Army Chief of Staff would like to follow in procuring an existing commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) sidearm for general issue, his approach does run afoul of “political con-siderations” and federal procurement rules that require “fair and open” competitions in all but a limited number of situations. He’ll undoubtedly have to convince Congress to allow a “sole source” procurement and that may be difficult when domestic firearms manufactures complain to their Congres-sional representatives that any purchase of replacement pistols should go to an Ameri-can company rather than another foreign one. (Of course Glock does have a manu-facturing facility in the United States that could supply the required pistols just like Beretta did for the current M9 pistol.) Crit-ics within and outside the military will also likely point out that Glock pistols lack an external safety, something that has been “required” on U.S. military sidearms since the Colt Model 1911 was adopted at the start of the 20th Century. However, no such requirement existed prior to that time. Such an argument would ignore the fact that thousands of police officers and soldiers around the world have successfully been carrying Glock pistols without external safe-ties for many years now without any prob-lems.

A final problem that adopting the Glock 19

would have to overcome is the criticism that the 9mm cartridge is just inadequate for battlefield use. The XM17 program includes a requirement for a more powerful cartridge. The problem with the 9mm in U.S. military use is that the ammunition issued is full metal jacket (FMJ) to comply with interna-tional treaties requiring the use of non-expanding bullets. Replacing the FMJ car-tridges with expanding bullets that are used by law enforcement officers, armed citizens, and by U.S. Special Operations forces would likely solve perception that the 9mm car-tridge is inadequate and this could be done with a policy change.

Will the U.S. military adopt a Glock as their general issue sidearm? Only time will tell. In the meantime, there is nothing preventing you from considering a Glock to fulfill your needs and you certainly won’t go wrong by seriously considering the Glock 19.

— G.R. Evens

The Aging Shooter: Part 2

In Part I of this series, I described some of the common vision issues that all shoot-ers—not just those of us that are getting older—have to deal with. For instance, during the most recent Hojutsu class I had to figure out how I could keep my front sight in clear view and also be able to clearly see my target at distance. I have to wear tri-focal glasses to see properly at various dis-tances. To keep my front sight clearly in focus I need to use my “mid-range” lens. To see the target clearly beyond about 5 yards, I need to use my “long-range” lens. With my normal glasses on my “long-range” lens occupies the upper 50% of the space, my “mid-range” lens then uses about 20% and my “close-range” lens occupies the oth-er 30% of the lower half of my glasses’ field of view. Using my regular glasses I would have to tilt my head backwards to see through my “mid-range” lens while holding the pistol properly. Doing this pushes my center of gravity backwards. To correct for

Page 9 Random Shots Volume 6, I ssue 6

this, I wore glasses that had the lenses set to only my “mid-range” vision. This meant that beyond about 10 yards I could no long-er see a clear aiming point on the target. (I had asked Soke Hall how to deal with this problem last year and he suggested placing a small stick-on “mid-range” lens in the upper inside corner of my dominant eye glasses lens. I tried it and it works great when shooting a rifle, but not so good when shooting a pistol. To be able to look through the stick-on lens when shooting a pistol I must turn my head about 45° to the right away from the target. This means that I cannot see anything approaching me from the left—not a good idea in a self-defense situation. The other alternative would be to place the stick-on lens more in the center of my glasses lens. That would be extremely distracting and interfere with my long-range vision when looking straight ahead. The challenge is that for normal day-to-day activ-ities, I wear my regular tri-focal glasses. Since self-defense situations occur unexpect-edly, I won’t be able to switch to my “shooting glasses” to deal with a threat. I guess I will just have to live with a “fuzzy” front sight—but there are more serious vi-sion issues that fortunately I don’t have to deal with, at least yet.

In this article I will discuss some of the more serious vision issues and how they affect our ability to accurately shoot a hand-gun. Once again I am drawing on the arti-cles published by Dr. Robert Buonfiglio, a Boston-area optometrist, for some of the basic information contained in this article.

It should be obvious, but being able to see and identify your target is a necessity if you are going to shoot a firearm. Indeed, one of the basic firearms safety rules is to “be sure of your target and what is beyond and around it”. We don’t want to have our shots miss the intended target and strike some innocent bystander!

As Dr. Frank Puckett says in his article “Pistol Shooting and Your Vision” (http://

coloradovisionsource.com/pistol-shooting-and-your-vision/), “Our eyes tell us what and where the target is, and at the same time they must help the muscle-motor system align the sights of the pistol on the target”. If you can’t see well enough to identify and hit your target then you need to consider other self-defense means. You should not be carrying a firearm!

What are some of the more serious vision problems that can significantly affect your ability to see the target (and your gun’s sights)?

Cataracts

Floaters

Macular Degeneration

Blindness

Cataracts occur when the crystalline lens of one or both of our eyes becomes cloudy. This crystalline lens is located just behind the iris of the eye. The older we get, the degeneration of the crystalline lens results in a loss of visual clarity and things appear to be yellowish and translucent. To you, it will appear you are looking through a foggy windshield. Objects will appear to be blur-ry. Color differences will be more difficult to discern. Your ability to distinguish con-trast between objects may also decline, re-sulting in having difficulty seeing your target in low-light conditions. The use of tinted lenses in your glasses may help with this.

Once they develop, cataracts can be stable for many years or degrade quickly, depend-ing on the particular type and location of the cataract. Indeed, they can affect more than one area of the lens. If they are located in the center of the lens or toward the back of the lens, cataracts tend to have a greater impact on your vision.

Annual eye exams can identify the onset of cataracts early. My own eye doctor has indi-cated that I am showing early signs of devel-

oping cataracts. Initially your visual sharp-ness may be able to be corrected by simply changing your eyeglass prescription, but at some point you may have to have the cata-racts removed surgically. Fortunately, the surgery success rates for removing cataracts is in the high 90% range.

Floaters are any translucent or opaque ob-jects that are floating around in the fluid that fills the eyeball. They can appear as small spots or shadows, and are fairly common, especially as you get older. Floaters can become more or less obvious depending on lighting conditions. Many times they exist and you are not even aware of them, but shooters tend to notice them because of their need for precise vision. In general, they are not a sign of any serious condition, unless they appear to increase in number and size suddenly. If they do you need to seek immediate medical attention as this could be a sign of retinal detachment!

While floaters can be surgically removed, it is not recommended because doing so sig-nificantly increases the risk of infection, retinal detachment, and other serious vision complications. Some research is underway to determine if precisely-focused lasers can be used to remove them, but this procedure is probably years away from general use.

Macular Degeneration—also known as Age-Related Macular Degeneration (ARMD)—is the leading cause of vision loss in individuals over the age of 65. It causes the loss of vision in the very center of the retina (aka the macula), the part of your eye that you use when looking directly at some-thing or someone. ARMD may progress slowly or result in an almost instantaneous loss of your central vision. In most cases, the loss of vision as a result of ARMD is permanent.

ARMD may be hereditary as it tends to show up more in some families than it does in others. Other factors, in addition to age, that increase your risk of developing ARMD

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include smoking, hypertension (i.e. high blood pressure), and obesity. Some studies have shown that the use of nutritional sup-plements (Vitamin A, C, E, Beta Carotene, Zinc, etc.—look for supplements labeled “AREDS-2 Formula” in your grocery or drug store) can slow or halt the progress of the disease.

For shooters faced with ARMD, the use of high magnification lenses can sometimes help. While individuals with ARMD will still be able to determine where their target is, they probably will not be able to see the sights on their gun and thus align them with the target.

The graphic on the bottom of the previous page shows some examples of how cata-racts, floaters, and macular degeneration can affect your ability to see your sights and your target.

There are varying degrees of blindness, but in general this conditions indicates you can no longer distinguish objects. While there have been some techniques developed to help blind shooters participate in sport shooting activities, those techniques will be of no use in a self-defense situation as an assailant is unlikely to wear a device that allows you to determine their location audi-bly or time for an assistant to describe to you precisely where to point your gun to hit the target.

The bottom line for you...take care of your eyes. Without them your shooting days are basically over.

In the next edition of Random Shots I’ll ex-amine other issues affecting the aging shoot-ers.

— G.R. Evens

Changes Coming to NRA

Basic Pistol Courses—An

Update

In the May-June 2016 edition of Random Shots I told you about changes that have been made in the way NRA pistol training is conducted. Since then I’ve had an oppor-tunity to learn more about conducting the new course. In that earlier edition I indicat-ed that the on-line portion of the instruc-tion—i.e. Phase I—should take 3-4 hours to complete. I was wrong about that. A very knowledgeable and experienced firearms

instructor that has taken the Phase I course says it will take 7-8 hours to complete. I have also learned that the hands-on Phase II course will require you to fire at least 200 rounds on the range. Doing so will require each student to spend 2-3 hours on the range performing live fire exercises. This is in addition to any classroom instruction required for Phase II, and there will be some. The major impact of this live fire shooting requirement will be that class sizes will probably be limited to the number of students that can be accommodated on the firing line at any one time.

With the changes to a blended learning con-cept, the NRA FIRST Steps Pistol course is no longer offered. There is now only one basic pistol course offered by the NRA.

At the most recent NRA Annual Meeting in Louisville, it was revealed that the next courses moving to the blended learning for-mat will be the Personal Protection in the Home (PPITH) and Person Protection Out-side the Home (PPOTH) courses. As I learn more, I’ll be sure to pass the infor-mation along to you.

— G.R. Evens

Choosing a Firearms

Instructor When you decide to take a firearms training course, what criteria do you use to choose which one to take? Is it the content of the course? The cost of the course? When the course is available? Or, what the qualifica-tions of the instructor are? When you take your first course, the factors that guide you are probably a combination of the content of the course—i.e. what you want to learn

or get out of the course—, when it is availa-ble, and the cost. Little thought is probably given to the qualifications of the instructor. Indeed, information about the instructor’s qualifications may not even be available other than that they are “NRA-certified”, etc.

If all you are interested in is getting your concealed carry license, instructor qualifica-tions and course content are probably of little concern as long as you get the course completion certificate at the end of the training so you can get your license. This is unfortunate, because your instructor’s quali-fications can make the difference between a meaningful exchange of information, knowledge, and skills or just “filling a square”. Upwards of 95% of the individuals that take firearms training never bother to continue that training by taking other classes to advance their skills. As a result, it is im-portant to get the best quality of training as possible especially if this is going to be the only class you take! This is very frustrating for me as I know there is a lot more to learn about how to competently use a handgun than can be taught in the standard 8 hours of training required to obtain an Ohio Con-cealed Handgun License (CHL)—the amount of training required by many other states is even less. Ohio law defines the minimum content of the course and what topics must be covered. Unfortunately just covering the mandated minimums takes nearly the entire 8 hours, especially when the class is made up of individuals that have little or no previous experience with hand-guns.

Recently Dave Spaulding, one of the top firearms instructors in the U.S.—who just happens to live in the Dayton area—went on a Facebook “rant” regarding the current state of firearms training (see https://www.facebook.com/PanteaoProductions/). (I have trained with Dave before and I very much respect him. Even his “rants” are well thought out and logical.) Dave was frustrat-ed by an individual that questioned his cre-dentials as a firearms instructor when he had no military background. As Dave points out, the primary weapon used by the military is the rifle, while the primary firearm for armed citizens is the handgun. So, if you want to learn how to use a handgun, why wouldn’t you want to seek training from someone that is an expert in the use of a handgun? As Dave says, the handgun is the primary weapon used by law enforcement

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and thus firearms instructors with a law enforcement background are much more likely to be an expert with a handgun than someone coming from a special ops military background is. (I’ve been in classes with some former special ops veterans and I was-n’t all that impressed with their handgun skills.) However, the vast majority of law enforcement officers are far from being experts in the use of the handgun. Indeed, their duties are such that for most of them the only times their handgun is used is dur-ing annual training and the training stand-ards used by many police departments is pitifully weak. (I am aware of at least one former police officer that claims to have been able to successfully pass his annual firearms qualification training while wearing a blindfold!) A step up would be a SWAT-experienced officer as they spend much more time training with their firearms, but most SWAT teams primarily use the rifle or submachinegun rather than the handgun. An officer that served as their department’s training officer would likely be the most qualified in the use of the handgun. In addi-tion to Dave Spaulding, Greg Ellifritz (from the Columbus area) and Tom Givens (from Tennessee) fall into this category and they all have excellent reputations as firearms instructors.

While it may be very glamorous to take training from some special ops combat vet-eran, the reality is their skill set has little resemblance to what the armed citizen may be confronted with. Instead of learning essential skills that apply to their real world environment, students that seek “high-speed, special ops” instructors are often “wannabe commandos” that never were in the military and want to live out their video game-inspired fantasies. This is fine, but you need to take it for what it is and realize that it won’t help you confront a mugger at midnight if you find yourself in the bad part of town after spending time in a local pub.

Dave was also frustrated by those individu-als that seem to think they can get all the firearms knowledge they need off the Inter-net. While watching training videos does have some value, it is nothing compared to what can be gained from hands-on instruc-tion from a competent firearms instructor. Indeed, it is that hands-on training that is essential in developing the muscle memory needed to properly employ a handgun dur-ing a high stress violent encounter.

Of course, just because someone can shoot

well does not mean they are good at teach-ing others how to shoot. Skills and experi-ence in public speaking, teaching, adult learning techniques, and the use of presenta-tion materials are also essential instructor qualifications. Indeed, I think they are even more important than being able to shoot tiny cloverleaf-size groups at 25 yards are.

Training provided by highly qualified fire-arms instructors is not cheap! They are in high demand and often travel a lot to pro-vide their training courses rather than oper-ating from a “fixed base”—the exception being training schools such as Gunsite, TDI, Thunder Ranch, etc. As a result, in addition to their time conducting the training the price they charge for their courses must cover their travel expenses, supplies they provide, classroom and range rental, etc. A cost of $100-400 per day per student is not out of line for these top notch instructors.

A pet-peeve of mine is the firearms instruc-tor that never or rarely seeks training from other firearms instructors to improve their own skills. Such instructors have stagnated, in my opinion, and are unable to incorporate new concepts or techniques into the training courses they offer. As time goes on, the training they provide tends to become less and less relevant. Those instructors that do seek regular training must include the cost for that training in the price they charge their students so they can recoup previous training costs and save for future attendance at training classes. Maintaining firearms instructor skills is not cheap and most in-structors only teach part-time. For the top notch instructors it is a full-time job and their only source of income so that also factors into the price they charge.

A final concern that I have is with those instructors that offer “high volume, low cost” classes. While the cost per student is low, and thus attractive to many, the large number of students that must comprise each class to cover all the instructor’s costs limit the amount of individual attention each student is given. It also limits the number of student questions that the instructor will be able to answer within the allotted time for the class. Instructors that offer lower student-to-instructor ratios must necessarily charge each student more to cover their operating costs, but it also means each stu-dent will get more one-on-one time from the instructor. What is the right ratio? One instructor for every 4 to 6 students, especial-ly for live fire training, is probably about

right.

So, the next time you consider taking a fire-arms training course—or when one of your friends ask you about your recommenda-tions—factor in the qualifications of the instructor. Better training will be the result. Your life or the life of someone you know could depend on it!

— G.R. Evens

Gun Sales Continue to Surge

In a recent post on their website, the Buck-eye Firearms Association (BFA) reports that gun sales continue to set new records. Based on NICS background checks are up almost 28% over the past year (July 2015 to July 2016). NICS checks are a requirement to purchase a firearm but not necessarily a direct reflection of gun sales volume. The surge in gun sales seems to follow the pub-lic’s uneasiness created by the terrorist at-tacks in San Bernardino, Orlando, and in Europe, along with all of the anti-gun rheto-ric coming out of the President and the Democrat candidate for President. Uneasi-ness is further exacerbated by the attacks on law enforcement officials following the highly publicized deaths of several black men allegedly at the hands of the police. Crime rates are also increasing, and com-bined with terrorism and a lack of trust in the police are resulting in more people de-ciding they need their own firearms to pro-tect themselves and their families. Predicta-bly the liberal media claims this increase in gun sales will result in further increases in crime and violence but historical evidence does not show that the two factors—increases in violence and increases in gun sales—are related at all. Indeed, the oppo-site trend has been generally observed.

— G.R. Evens

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