The Firearms Instructor Issue 50 15 R ecently, I had an opportunity to attend a Firearms Instructor course offered by a major U.S. training facil- ity responsible for training Law Enforcement personnel. The course lasted two weeks and covered subjects including basic marksman- ship, instructor liability, reduced light shoot- ing, and disabled officer shooting, just to name a few. Safety was also a primary subject covered in just about every block of instruc- tion as well; which is appropriate considering not only the demographic most of us are tasked with teaching, but also the nature of the instruction itself. During a few of the blocks of instruction the student instructors were tasked with teaching different courses- for the purposes of this article I will refer to our Down/ Disabled Officer block of instruction. As many of you know, the purpose of down/dis- abled officer training is to expose the student to a number of options or techniques that he/ she can use in a gunfight should their weapon side hand or arm be injured or otherwise un- useable. Drawing the pistol from the holster, performing malfunction clearances, re-loads, and of course shooting- all with the support side hand only. This type of training not only emphasizes that an officer CAN continue to fight despite injury, but also that one can WIN. Surprisingly, in this particular course, the lead instructors would not allow the stu- dent (instructor) to actually draw, re-load, or clear malfunctions with their support hand. Although the course’s lesson plan clearly called for drawing from the holster with the support hand, we were told “just draw the pis- tol with your weapon side hand and transfer the pistol to your support hand.” They (the lead instructors) cited “safety” as the primary reason why drawing from the holster with the support hand could not be allowed, and this mentality continued during the portions related to malfunctions and re-loads. I heard the other students mumbling after this por- tion of instruction, so I asked the question: What good does it do us to draw the pistol with our weapon hand during a drill spe- cifically designed to train us what to do if our weapon hand is injured? The instructors indicated that if we were ever confronted with this situation, then we could draw the pistol with the support hand – but it was “unsafe” to do on the range. It was about this point that my blood pressure spiked and my head nearly exploded. Am I to understand that actually training the way we would like to perform under stress is a safety violation? Keep in mind that none of these techniques required timed per- formance. It was just a matter of actually per- forming the techniques in a static environ- ment to work out the “bugs” and to become familiar with what worked for the shooter and what didn’t. I believe that actually train- ing the way we would hope to perform in a real fight is a major contributor to officer survival in armed confrontations. If your agency doesn’t allow the officers to perform techniques on the range that are being adver- tised as “viable options” during a gunfight, you may be doing your troops a disservice. The same goes for DT, traffic stops, etc. Now, I’m not advocating an unsafe training environment, but I believe we can and should provide quality instruction to our officers and safely allow them to perform the tech- niques on the range. One of the ways we can accomplish this is to first introduce the tech- nique using a plastic training weapon. Once the instructor is confident that the student understands the basic movements involved in the technique and can perform them safely, then we can move onto range training with a real gun. Once on the range the technique is performed dry fire first, then live fire. Crawl, walk, run (or at least jog). The bottom line is to do in training what you would like to do in a fight. To quote one of my mentors, “If you find yourself doing something in training that you would not like to do in a fight, then stop doing it.” On that same note, if you find that you are not doing something in training that you would like to do, or what makes sense in a fight, then start doing it! TFI About the Author Tony is currently assigned as a full time instructor and lead firearms instructor for a large department in Alaska. He has attended over 500 hours of instruction in various subjects relating to the use and instruction of firearms and tactics.