Oh CRAP!!!
You went out and applied for, and got yourself, a Concealed Weapons Permit. You went to your local gun store, and paid a bundle for that Ultra-Bitchen Blasto 5000 that the guy told you was the ONLY gun to have. You strap it on, and go about your business, finally feeling secure and empowered.
You take the kids to a ball-game, and (of course), you’re just about the last ones out of the park. You get to your car, which is out in the middle of nowhere, and all that’s left out there is your car, another SUV, and a van.
As you get near your car, you notice there a few guys standing next to the SUV, yelling at each other. You look over, and one of them says “What are YOU looking at?”, and they start coming at you, reaching into their pockets. One of them pulled a knife out of his already.
Oh crap. What do you do now?
YOU thought you were going to be like Sylvester Stallone in The Expendables (a guy who spent his whole life training and fighting). It hits you that you didn’t bring a machine gun, and worse yet, you didn’t bring your friends with their machine guns. There aren’t any cops around (these guys know that), and you have your family with you. This is all up to you, and you haven’t had ANY training.
The Reality of Combat
The effects of stress, and its effect – the adrenaline dump, are well-known. They include:
- Tunnel Vision
- Loss of hearing
- Time distortion
- Loss of fine motor skills
In addition, in a survival situation, our instincts will affect our decisions and performance.
Everybody has heard of the “Fight or Flight” reflex, but that is not the whole thing. In reality, it is:
- Fight
- Flight
- Submit, or
- Freeze
Submitting is not an option, fighting or fleeing is a tactical decision. The last thing we want to do, or cause you, our students to do, is Freeze.
People freeze because they don’t know what to do. That’s what happens when you have no training and no plan.
It is our job, our responsibility, and our duty to provide that training and that plan to our students.
The Importance of Habits
When things go bad on the street, they can go really bad, really fast. It can take your breath away. You have the bewilderment factor, where you go through the “My God, this is really happening” phase. You get the adrenaline dump that changes everything about you physically and mentally. Every last brain cell you haven’t killed with a Budweiser is trying to figure out what’s going on and what to do next.
All of your gun-handling and shooting has to be done on autopilot. Like any autopilot, in order for it to do what you want it to, you have to program it first. That’s what training is supposed to do, and that’s what HABITS are for.
Bad habits can get you killed, and good habits can save your life.
It’s our job to eliminate the bad ones and instill the good ones.
In order to do that, we have to make our students into believers.
We Always explain why
Students will do anything we say. We’re the instructors, and we’re standing right there.
What about when we aren’t there? Maybe we’re down the range helping somebody else, or maybe you’re in a dark alley, a parking lot, a Denny’s, or a 7-11. What are you going to do now? You’re going to do what you did the last time you were at the range, which is what you feel like doing.
Maybe you don’t like to snap your holster all the way because you think it makes you faster. Maybe you watch yourself reload because it’s day time and nobody’s shooting back, so you can afford to do it. Maybe you’re looking at your holster every time you put your gun away, or holding onto your holster with your weak hand whenever you do it. Maybe you’re staring at your gun, trying to analyze it when it malfunctions. These are all bad habits, and there are many more.
We absolutely, positively explain clearly and convincingly WHY you want to have the RIGHT habits. If we can’t explain it, maybe we shouldn’t be teaching it. We have to make you understand how this particular habit can keep you alive so that you will personally take ownership of it. You aren’t doing it to please us – you’re doing it so you’ll live. It makes all the difference.
You NEED Training
Come get the skills and habits you need now, before things happen. Program that autopilot, so that when you need it, it’s there for you.
Our CCW/Defensive Handgun class will do that for you. If you’re going to carry that weapon around with you, you owe it to your family, and you owe it to yourself.