30 Aug 02

Training risks and benefits:

I hesitate to call it a "trend," but a number of defensive firearms trainers (some I've seen on TV news programs) have decided to place students (real people) in the impact area, standing next to paper targets during live fire exercises. The supposed benefit of this practice is to dramatically increase the seriousness with which students approach the training session. It surely does that, but it strikes me that this practice fairly begs the question. It surely has no place in mainstream training.

As part of our overall philosophical approach, we teach students that deliberately or inadvertently pointing a gun in the direction of another person (who is posing no threat) is not only unsafe, it is rude. It is a display of bad manners. In the same breath, of course, we say that sometimes, in actual incidents, pointing a gun at an innocent person, though regrettable, is unavoidable. In training, in fact, we often place inert "non-targets" next to the target we want the student to shoot so that the student will experience the situation where his target is in close proximity with innocent people.

However, if I were a student at a shooting course, and my instructor asked me to walk downrange and stand next to a paper target while other students shot at it with live ammunition, I would politely decline. And, if my instructor asked me to fire at a paper target when another student was standing next to it, I would also decline. Shortly thereafter, I would unilaterally withdraw from the program.

Placing live people next to targets strikes me as a dare. It is an attempt to temp fate, to titillate the student's sense of adventure. It is also an attempt to be trendy and exciting. Unfortunately, it is little else. I fail to see any substantial benefit, and, as indicated above, it begs the question. Training casualties are always a risk, no matter how careful we all try to be. Training goals must always be balanced against acceptable risk. Risk needs to be effectively managed, not courted or, in this case, virtually invited.

The four gun safety rules by which we all live have served us well, and I recommend sticking with them. They are imperfect and must be occasionally redefined, but they have and continue to provide a good foundation for all gunmen.

/John