Sheriff's Tips: Some Actually Listen

Recently I was talking with a couple of CCW instructors and listening to their sad comments about too many of their students. These men were bemoaning the fact that their students couldn’t get off the range fast enough as soon as class was over. This was in spite of the fact that both instructors offered free range time for additional practice, advanced classes for more training, and would even loan guns so the students could find what really suited them. They were afraid that too few CCW holders realize that their education has just begun with that basic class.

But, all is not lost. There are, in fact, quite a few defensive shooters that realize the need for furthering education. They know that they have to hone their skills and develop personal defense plans. Personal defense, for them, is a lifestyle, not a hobby. Here is but one example.

Personal defense ... is a lifestyle, not a hobby.

A few years ago, a couple owned a barber shop/hair salon in a major southwestern city. On the day of the armed robbery, the wife was in the front of the shop with customers while her husband was in the back office. The robber entered the salon and pointed a handgun at the wife, demanding money. She told him that was no problem and he could have all the cash. The cash, she told him, was in the back office with her husband.

As she led the robber to the back, she called out, “Hey, cowboy, I’ve got a guy here who needs to see you.”

As the wife entered the office, she bumped a lamp that started to topple over. She stepped sideways in an attempt to catch the lamp and her husband shot the armed robber graveyard dead.

You see, the couple had developed a personal-defense plan for just such an eventuality. The wife’s immediate willingness to cooperate in every way was part of the plan. Calling her husband “cowboy” was his cue that an armed robbery was taking place. The lamp was situated in such a way that the wife could easily knock it over and give her a reason for stepping aside to give her husband a clear shot.

I have heard it said that no plan will survive the first contact. But I hasten to disagree. A defense plan gives you a place to start and the understanding that both of you have a job to carry out. Besides, modifying a plan is a whole lot simpler than trying to create one when you have a gun stuck in your face. I have seen statistics that suggest that armed citizens use guns something like a million times a year to thwart criminal attacks. And, in only a fraction of these does it become necessary to actually fire a shot. I have to think that this is because a whole lot of armed citizens take the whole thing very seriously.

So you instructors out there should keep right on preaching the need for more training, more practice, and continuing education. There really are those who are listening to you. Folks really do get the message and lives are saved because of that.

Image courtesy Gunsite Academy