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View Full Version : AAR CWS Active Shooter Response/Low Light/Handgun - 2014-04-12/13 - Houston, TX



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04-20-2014, 04:47 PM
I apologize ahead of time for any vagueness, omissions, or mistakes in the AAR, as my notes are a bit incomplete, as a large amount of discussion arose organically and not as a set part of the class curriculum. Also note that this AAR has been sanitized at the instructors’ request, for OPSEC reasons, given that this AAR is freely available to anyone.



One can not predict when bad things happen, so the probability of finding yourself in a situation that needs to be addressed at night with or without the use of force is pretty high. But rarely are there opportunities to get that practice and training in that environment until now. Having worked the streets and hostile environments, we understand the importance of regular low light and night time training. The dynamics of a dark environment adds additional problems which are not encountered in normal daylight or lighting. The environment in which the light source will be used in, the type of light (hand held or weapon mounted), different techniques, as well as a breakdown of ones shooting fundamentals while employing such devices all adds to the complexity of low light/night time tactics and skill applications. This is where learning how to properly employ such devices and gaining experience in low light environments can make the difference of effectively taking care of a problem or becoming a liability.


Active shooter incidents are fast, chaotic, and over in most incidences before law enforcement make initial contact with the shooter. That means a CHL (Concealed Handgun License) or legally armed citizen could be the difference in lives saved if confronted with such a scenario. Or, it could mean that you have no other choice but to confront the threat as the threat is what stands between you and your family while trying to escape. Statistics show that most “Active shooting incidents” happen in large, public venues where there are large numbers of unarmed and unprepared people. That being said, the dynamics of a potential active shooter incident could prove to be overwhelming and deadly if not properly prepared. Either way, do you really know what you would do or how to go about handling such a situation if ever confronted with such a scenario? Our Active Shooter Response class breaks down the issues and tactical considerations that one should consider before or after intervening in such an incident. One should truly be prepared to make an educated decision as to the proper and best response to such violence rather than being a liability to themselves or others.


This was my second course to incorporate a large amount of low-light training. I had previously taken a low-light pistol course with Kenan Flasowski (former SFOD-D, a truly underrated instructor), along with various pistol manipulation courses with Larry Vickers and Todd Louis Green, and a pistol-oriented combatives type course with Craig Douglas. I used an H&K P30LS with the Grayguns Reduced Reset Carry Perfection Package carried in condition 1, with an X400 Ultra - Green laser mounted with the DG-11 and zeroed for 25 yards. For all holster manipulation drills, I appendix carried the P30LS using a slightly modified RCS Phantom at about the 0130 position; for the portions of the class where there was no manipulation and all drills started with gun in hand, I used a Safariland 6004-39512. I carried the magazines using Kytex Shooting Gear open top magazine carriers, and had Taylor Freelance Border Special +5 magazine extensions (with the aftermarket springs) on all magazines. My handheld was the Surefire E1B, slightly modified with a zip tie and two Scünci No Damage elastic hair bands to form a jury rigged lanyard. Besides the usage of the Safariland at times and the addition of a second magazine carrier, my set-up was identical to my EDC: t-shirt with relatively form-fitting jeans, The Wilderness Ti Instructor belt, SFB, folder, phone, etc.


Lee Vernon and Christopher Gray were the primary instructors. Class started at 1200; weather alternated between sunny and cloudy, with a fair bit of wind; temperature started at about 75 °F and dropped to about 60 °F at night. Sunset was approximately 2000, with a large full moon that was semi-obscured by light cloud cover. There was 11 students, all civilians, with one former LEO. Most guns were Glocks, with an M&P, a 1911 of some sort, Beretta PX4 Storm, a Springfield XD, and my H&K. Holster positions were mostly strong side, both IWB and OWB, with a couple of appendix, though I was the only one that used a cover garment consistently for that position, and one of the few to consistently use a cover garment at all. Several students used a SERPA, which was noted by the instructors, and the users were reminded to be exceedingly careful on the draw, especially when under stress. The students brought various types of lights, ranging from no-name Sam's Club purchases to a couple of Surefires and Streamlights; I was the only one running a WML and only one with a laser. To my knowledge, very few of the students had done any serious training besides myself and one other student, though most had gone through at least one basic class with local trainers or with Front Sight.


The class started out with a quick overview of how everything would go on the first day, with the class starting with some fundamentals in order to get a baseline down for each person's performance, before moving toward the low-light tactics portion of the course. It was stated that this class would have minimal emphasis on manipulations, as it was primarily a tactics course, and that it was expected that everyone had a solid weapons manipulation foundation. After having each student do a quick intro, the instructors introduced themselves.


Lee's firearms background consists purely of private training and courses, but he is also paid firefighter and EMT. Being a first responder, Lee has been able to see the aftermath of many incidents, and has been able to take away lessons from them. He had been teaching for 6 years at this point; he noted that most firearms classes were rarely put in the proper context of the realities of self-defense, and instead only offered manipulation instruction. This was not to disparage the manipulations courses, as a solid manipulations foundation is necessary in order to perform under stress, but to try to get across to the students that having great weapons manipulations skills is only one piece of the puzzle when it came to self-defense.


I had previously met Lee through two ShivWorks classes, as a fellow student. My positive interactions with him at the classes, coupled with my desire to brush up on low-light skills and a convenient break in my firefighting training, is what got me to sign up for this class.


Chris was in the US Army as a 95C before joining a major central TX metropolitan PD, where he has been for the last 16 years. He has worked UC, patrol, and even on a bicycle. He has been an instructor for the department before, and has been with Lee for two years at this point. Much of the curriculum, particularly the active shooter portion, was be derived from various training courses that Chris had received, along with his years of experience as an LEO. He notes that simply because an act is legally justified doesn't mean absolute protection from a civil suit; being able to articulate and justify one's actions is incredibly important in the aftermath of an incident, which ties into the ability to have more than simply manipulations skills.


The first lecture of the day was an overview of mindset. Before that, though, a key idea was introduced: threat recognition trumped target acquisition/engagement. Being technically proficient with the firearm meant little if one was unable to distinguish a threat, and arguably a detriment if one went as far as misidentifying a non-hostile as a hostile and engaged an innocent. As for mindset, Chris went over several key points. The first was the question of "Why?". Why were the students in this class? The overwhelming answer was the idea of being able to protect one self and one's family. Next was the concept of "if vs. when". As a general rule, the "if" is answered before the "when". Also, by asking "when" rather than "if", one would already have a plan in place to execute "when" an incident occurred, while if one was thinking in terms of "if", a plan may not be formulated at all, since there is the expectation that an incident may never occur. The next idea was the simple fact that "hope paralyzes". When one only uses hope, no actions will occur, no initiative taken; this is generally seen as being an exceedingly poor course of action. After that was the concept of being a feeder, rather than a receiver. The idea here is to be the one feeding stress to the opposition, rather than being on the receiving end. Tied to this concept is the OODA loop; by disrupting the opponent's OODA loop, while keeping one's own loop going, one is the feeder, while the opponent is the receiver. As a side note, Chris noted that the "oriented" part of the OODA loop is often misconstrued as being a simple physical act of turning toward the threat, rather than the actual meaning of finding one's position both mentally and physically in response to a threat. Following that was the question of "if not me, who". Chris noted that the typical active shooter incident lasted 1 to 7 minutes, while typical LEO response times in a metropolitan area was 5 to 7 minutes. The incidents almost always end in three ways: suicide of the active shooter, intervention by an armed civilian, or else the arrival of LEOs. The final idea was the idea of success, or rather, how to achieve it. In this case, Chris used the acronym TWDH: Think, Words, Deed, Habit. Think and Words are what drive us to train, while Deed reference the training/learning cycle itself, and Habit refers the sustainment part, where what is done is practiced regularly and made into a habit. As a final statement, Chris reminded us that we have only the rest of our lives to train.


I had already been exposed to most of the concepts discussed through prior training and exposure to the material online; however, given the demographics of the class, I think a fair number of them saw this as relatively novel material. One of the points brought up was the question of intervention on the behalf of others, and just how important that was. A classic pitfall of many mindset lectures I've seen is the idea of intervention at all costs, as if the training that we receive automatically burdened us to protect those that do not train, which Chris avoided handily, explaining that we all have different priorities and moral codes, so the decision to intervene is strictly up to the individual.


Now that the mindset lecture was over, we went over the 4 rules of firearms, just as a precaution, even though everyone claimed they already knew the rules. We then went over a quick overview of medical procedures in case anyone suffered an injury; in the event of an injury, Lee would take the lead, while I was tasked to be the secondary (due to my recent first responder training). A designated 911 caller was always found. Before heading up to the line, it was stated that if anybody felt uncomfortable with their skill levels in performing a certain drill, accommodations would be made.


We then headed up to the line for the first drill of the day. At the line, a student had a question about reloading, in particular, the question of whether to keep the gun in the workspace or fully extended. The idea behind the latter is to keep the opponent from realizing that one is out of ammo, since the gun is still out at extension, but as Chris noted, the opponent will probably come to that conclusion when the shooting stops, regardless of whether or not the gun was out at extension. On the other hand, keeping the gun out at extension makes the actual act of reloading slower and more difficult, particularly if movement is involved. By getting the gun up in the workspace and glancing down during the reload, especially if a visual mark has been created inside the magwell to help with alignment, the reload goes much faster, and the gun gets back into the fight much quicker. The next query dealt with tactical reloads, to which the reply was the dreaded "situational dependent". After that, we stepped up to the 3 yard line, where Chris stated that 71% of deaths from a firearm occurred within 10 feet, 50% within 5 feet, and 63% occurred in low-light periods of the day. Using a shot timer as a way to both to start the drill and to keep track of class performance, we then shot the first drill: draw the gun from the holster and put 1 round in the A-zone (COM on the IDPA target), then scan and assess. This was done for one full magazine. After the drill was through, and everyone was holstered, the line would be declared cold, which we were to repeat.


Interestingly, it was stated during this drill that there was no need for a very tight group, so long as all the shots were inside the A-zone, and that having a very tight group indicated that one was taking too long to shoot. If anything, having a looser grouping would be more beneficial, as this would spread out the trauma. I discussed this with Lee after the end of the class on the second day; I have heard the idea of "spreading trauma", but almost always in a negative context, as an excuse for sloppy marksmanship during training. After all, groups will naturally open up when under stress, and allowing for sloppy groups when under minimal stress did not seem to be a good idea to me. On the other hand, I do think it's okay to miss sometimes during training if one is trying to push one's self in terms of splits and the like, as stated by Todd Louis Green, so having a loose grouping during training is not automatically a bad thing. It was stated multiple times through the class that one should take the shot if and only if one was absolutely confident in being able to get the hit, and that one should not be going so fast as to miss the target. Lee also said that, this was primarily a tactics class, and that the balance between speed and precision was discussed in their weapons manipulation class much more in-depth. I suppose the primary source of my misgivings comes from the fact that it seems that it would be easy to take the statements out of context; my understanding of what Lee was trying to get across is that the idea is to push one's self as fast as one can to get hits in the A-zone, and having a loose grouping is hardly an issue so long as all the shots are within the A-zone, since the vitals are all in there anyway. However, I don't think it'd be a stretch to think that some of the students would take that statement to mean that they need only to train themselves to be only as accurate as hitting the A-zone while going fast but under no stress, which would mean that under stress, many of their shots would be outside the A-zone. A question of training philosophies, I suppose.


In Lee's own words: “The above in which I referenced ‘speed vs precision’ has to do with the fact that there is a time and place in which the situation will dictate which method is going to be used. When we are close in and time is of the essence, one does not have the opportunity to use sights as our brain is processing that information at such as fast rate that our bodies typically will not see the sights, rather I need to get combat accurate hits extremely fast. At the distances, which are typical for most defensive shootings, time is usually not a commodity and if the three fundamentals of shooting are used, one can have 100% combat accurate hits. I am not saying that you do not use your sight picture,you’re just not using the actual sights of the gun in most cases. Rather I am using a hard sight picture of the target. I highly recommend reading the most recent version of Rob Pincus’s Combat Focus Shooting as it goes into more detail about the science of all this.”


As for my performance on the drill, I had a two or three flubs clearing the cover garment, slowing me down by half a second; I also had a single FTE, which I quickly cleared with a tap-rack-bang. Because the target zone was so large, I used only my laser; the green was most definitely daylight visible at this range, compared to the old red laser X400 I had.


After the first drill, it was noted that all the students seemed to be fairly proficient at shooting at the target, and that most people's foundation were fairly good. There was a quick review of stance and grip. Stance-wise, the idea is to keep the hips and feet square to the target, maximizing stability. Grip-wise, the strong hand should be as high up on the backstrap as possible for recoil control, the support hand should fill up all the space on the support side of the grip of the pistol, and the thumbs should be forward. Chris noted that besides the fact that the isosceles grip is what's natural and instinctive under stress, it also means that any hits one takes is generally going to do less damage, since a bullet would pass through from front to back, and thus only one or two organs, rather than the bladed Weaver, which is much more likely to have multiple organ hits with one bullet. It was also at this point that the SERPAs were noted and the users told about possible issues. The drill was then repeated again, with the attempt to hit the target in less than 2 seconds; each student went by themselves to give individual performance metrics. The drill was then repeated with everyone on the line, except this time with a 2 inch circle for a target, once again a full magazine.


The smaller target, coupled with the large offset of the laser at 3 yards, meant I switched over to my iron sights, which I had little issue with, though I was slightly slowed by my eyes being draw to the laser initially. IIRC, I was still getting good hits on the 2 inch circle in under 2 seconds.


The next drill was over reloads. Chris gave a quick explanation of reloads (much of which was covered by the previous question posed by the student); he stated that he preferred to use the slide release, and that while it was indeed a fine motor movement, so was pulling the trigger and hitting the magazine release in the first place. That being said, if a student was more comfortable using the "monkey paw" (power stroke; this was Lee’s preferred method, due to his small hands), that was fine, too. The other key thing to do was to move laterally ("getting off the X") when reloading, to complicate any return fire. As for tactical reloads, Chris preferred to simply do a speed reload, and then picking up the dropped magazine if there was time, rather than doing the more complicated reload with retention, thus minimizing complexity. We then partnered up, giving our partners our magazines, and having them load 1, 2, or 3 rounds into our magazines, and then handing them back to us, having us load blind or loading for us, so that we didn't know how many rounds were in the gun. We then drew and shot from the 3 yard line into the A-zone, emptying all of our magazines each time, reloading as needed. This drill was repeated 3 times.


No issues here, besides the incorporation of the side-step; I would sometimes step before reloading, or else after, will need to work on consistency.


At this point, ~1400, we had a short lunch break at the range.


After the break, we started to go over the low-light material. First, the question Chris posed was, what was the purpose of the light? A light great for room clearing may be poor at searching; complex switchology may be useful on an EDC light, where multiple modes can be reached without stress or issue, but could be a huge liability in an armed encounter; essentially, one had to define what the mission of the light was when picking one out. Lee personally preferred a momentary-only light with a single high mode. Also, in their experience, they felt that a 300 lumen light was generally sufficient to complete overwhelm an aggressor's vision in low-light situations (not that higher lumen lights were detrimental), provided one was putting the hot spot right in the aggressor's face. Another thing to consider the usage of the Surefire Combat Rings (or other analogous pieces of gear, e.g., Thyrm Switchback), and the compatibility of one's light with them, of which Lee and Chris were both big fans of.


I was already aware of the limitations of my E1B, which were clearly illustrated to me during my first low-light course; the click-on, click-off made light discipline a little more complicated, and the high/low settings definitely made illumination trickier when flashing on and off. However, for me, the EDC utility of the light outweighed the negatives of its usage in tactical scenarios, especially since illumination during shooting was accomplished with my WML, rather than the handheld (my SOP is to search with the E1B, and then when a target is identified, turn the light off, drop it and allow the lanyard to retain it for me, and then utilize the WML on the pistol to illuminate the target while engaging with a solid two-handed grip).


We then moved on to the basic concepts of lighting conditions. As a general rule, one wants to be in an area where one can control the lighting, e.g., being indoors and controlling the lights, versus an area where one could not, such as office lighting or sunlight. Also, it is generally better to keep the area darker if one is able to control the lighting, until light is actually needed. Chris also went over some terminology about various lighting conditions.


After that, Chris went over four basic ways to hold the light while shooting. As he noted, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of a particular grip, one should first be aware of the three things that must be aligned in order to hit the target under low-light: the light, the eyes, and the gun. The first grip was the FBI: support hand up and away from the body. The primary advantage of this method is that by keeping the light away from the body, any fire drawn by the light should, in theory, be unlikely to hit the user of the light, and is the only light position that affords this possible protection. Unfortunately, this also means that the light is far away from the eyes and gun, making it more difficult to align with the other two, along with the fact that this position is totally unsupported one-handed shooting. The second method was the neck index: light right next to the jawline, usually using the knuckles on the support hand to index against the jawline. Unlike the FBI position, this brings the light in line with the eyes. However, besides the obvious risk of drawing fire around the head, it also suffers from completely unsupported one-hand shooting. Harries was discussed next: the support hand goes under, and curls up to provide a measure of stability. This position aligns the light with the gun quite well, and offers better support than neck index and FBI for shooting. The chief downside observed by Chris is that, when moving the light from a search position of Harries, those without much practice/training will often muzzle themselves as they try to get the light in the proper position. Finally, there is the syringe method, of which there were three variants; this is the only method in which the light is not held with an ice pick grip, and requires an exposed tail cap button to work. In the first variant, the head or body of the light is tucked between two fingers on the support side, with the tail cap button resting on the fleshy part of the palm, so that pushing back with the fingers turns the light on. The support hand is thus curled up in almost a fist, and put next to the grip of the gun, help filling out the empty space, and providing minor support. In the second variant, the same thing is done, but the support hand actually wraps around the gun a bit; this works only if one's hands are large enough, and so Chris had difficulties demoing this, due to hand size. The last method requires the usage of the Surefire Combat Rings; using the rings to retain the light, the tail cap button is now against the outer knuckles of the support hand, and is activated via tension on the ring driving the light back. This variant allows for essentially a full two-handed grip on the pistol, and is the closest thing to a WML when using a handheld. The downsides to the third variant is that one needs the rings to make it work (which adds bulk to the light) and that one cannot search using the ice pick grip (which is somewhat more intuitive, though hardly a pressing concern). A student then asked about WMLs; Chris stated that WMLs are useful in niche roles, particularly when forced to do one-handed manipulations, but they should not be used for searching, which greatly limits their utility. He is also very much against the usage of the pressure switches on WML for pistols, e.g., the Surefire DG switches or Streamlight Contour Remotes, as there are issues with sympathetic responses, i.e., accidentally pulling the trigger when simply trying to activate the light. For the same reason, he strongly advocates the usage of the support hand thumb to toggle a WML, as opposed to using the trigger finger. As for lasers, they are like WMLs, useful for niche applications, particularly in unorthodox shooting positions. Night sights were also briefly discussed, but largely dismissed, due to the need to use a light to PID/see a target when engaging it, which would thus provide sufficient lighting to use even solid black sights.


I felt that the finer points of Harries might have been glossed over, although I can't be sure, since I've had minimal exposure to it. I was mostly curious as to whether or not they had any particular insight, since I've heard from Darryl Bolke, who had trained extensively with Michael Harries, that the technique is often misunderstood. I also obviously disagreed with Chris's assessment of the DG switch, since that was my primary method of WML activation; speaking with him later between drills, he agreed that for the most part, the DG switch sympathetic activation was a training issue, and that if one trained to be proficient with it, no issues. It also sounded like he was more concerned with people trying to activate the WML when their normal grip wouldn't be enough to activate the DG switch, while I have mine set up so that a normal grip automatically turns the WML on, and I have to actively loosen my grip to turn the WML off (most of the time, anyway, assuming I didn't have a sloppy draw).


After inspecting the various lights and Combat Rings that were provided for our use for the class (several people tried out the Combat Rings), we then headed up to the three yard line, where we started with the gun drawn. The instructor would call out a technique, and we would engage using that technique, firing multiple rounds as we deemed necessary. It was asked here whether or not blading would help significantly with SHO shooting; Chris demoed himself shooting at a decent clip using just the thumb and trigger finger, demonstrating that the blading would be of minimal use, considering the fairly mild recoil of a pistol in the first place.


This drill reinforced to myself just how much I disliked having to utilize just the handheld for shooting. It was also vaguely comical trying these techniques out in the afternoon, since we could not see the light from the handhelds on the targets, but that's the nature of the beast, given how late the sunsets at this time of year.


Chris then went over the basics of clearing a room in low-light conditions, both single man and two-man, though it was clearly stated that the two-man clear is most likely of minimal use to civilians.


There was no drawing for the rest of the class for the day, so I switched over from appendix to drop-leg carry at this point for the sake of comfort and ease of reholstering (I am aware of the limitations of the drop-leg set up, will be changing to a battle belt set-up once my battle belt arrives) for all of the room clearing drills. I would search with the FBI position with the gun in a thumb pectoral index; upon identifying a threat, I would drop the handheld and engage with a two-handed grip. Lee noted that this was generally slightly slower than simply going with SHO shooting, and that I would need to determine if the increase in accuracy and recoil control was worth the extra time needed to start delivering rounds on target. I also had yet another FTE at the end of one run, this one cleared by simply putting in a new mag, as it was the last round in the magazine.


We then went to the final drill of the day, which was run one by one. First, each person starts off by doing some rigorous calisthenics to get the heart rate going. After that, one has to clear two rooms of hostile targets (in low-light conditions, of course), all while the instructors are verbally harassing one and asking various questions.


My first run was an utter disaster. I had yet another FTE on the last round of a mag, which I attempted to clear by simply placing in a new mag. However, the new mag simply refused to feed, and both tap-rack-bang and the rip drill failed to clear my malfunction. Upon inspection, it was seen that the magazine follower was totally bound up, thus not feeding anything. I did not have another magazine on my person, so I had to go retrieve more magazines and wait until the end to try again. My second run went quite well, though. The only failure I had was that I maneuvered around a no-shoot to engage a target, rather than simply pushing the no-shoot out the way.


The class ended at this time, at around 2230.


This was by far the most malfunctions I had ever experienced with the gun. After I got home, I inspected the extractor, which showed that it was totally caked with carbon build-up, enough that the shape of the extractor no longer even resembled a hook; the slide was also almost bone dry, devoid of lube; it was my own fault for failing to clean and lube the gun, as it had been over 2500 rounds and close to a year since I had done that. As for the magazine, after disassembly, I removed a very large quantity of fine sand which had accumulated in the extensions, which was almost like talc in consistency; I was reminded of Paul Howe's newsletter where he stated he had similar issues with his Glock 32, though he could not get his Glock 19 fail in the same manner. After cleaning the extractor, adding some Slip 2000 EWL on the rail guides of the slide, and blowing out the sand of magazines that I drop before stuffing them again, I had zero issues the next day, which actually had far more shooting.

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04-20-2014, 04:49 PM
Class started at 0900 on TD2. Weather was dark and cloudy, with minimal wind, temperatures around 65 °F to 70 °F; we anticipated heavy rain, but there wound up being only one or two short spurts of it.


Today was going to be mostly about active shooter scenarios. We started out with another mindset lecture. It was stated that if one finds themselves in an active shooter situation, one's survival depends on whether or not one has a plan for the scenario; this calls back to the "if" vs. "when" train of thought discussed yesterday. Different scenarios call for different plans; for example, presence of family, locale, etc.


We then ran a quick drill. Starting at the 3 yard, we would print to the 25 yard line, sprint back up to the starting line, and then get 4 headshots on the ocular window on the target, within a time limit (which was quite generous, almost no one took longer than half the allotted time). Any misses would be punished by a set of push-ups. This was repeated for the 7 yard and 15 yard line, each one with longer time limits.


I had no problems with this drill, as I am in decent physical condition, and the sprints did not significantly elevate my heart rate; I also was not flustered by the time limit, as I knew I had plenty of time, and took care with my shots.


We then went over the history of active shooter response. Chris noted that the first major incident at a school with mass student fatalities as an act of murder was the Bath School disaster in 1927 (this incident also illustrated that the idea of secondaries was not new, as they were utilized in that incident, too). However, it wasn't until after the Columbine High School massacre did any formalized response to an active shooter get developed, with the first program being HIP (Homicide In Progress, generally a single LEO response), which was eventually superseded by ASR (Active Shooter Response, a multi-officer plan). To re-iterate something that had been mentioned many times on TD1, deadly force is justified to prevent the death and/or serious bodily injury (defined as being the loss or permanent impairment of limb or bodily function) of one's self or a third party. Chris then quickly went over LTC Grossman's concept of sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs; he then noted that sheep can generally be put in two categories: those that one would place a very high priority on (generally family or friends), and those of a lower priority (random innocents).


Chris then taught us the mnemonic "ADD": Avoid, Deny, Defend. He also noted at this time that, despite the legal protections afford by the law, including the Second Amendment, such laws do not afford an ballistic protection, so one would be wise to comply with any LEO commands during and after an active shooter situation. LEOs are often given incomplete, contradictory, or sometimes even flat out wrong information by the dispatcher, which can only be made worse by the general public's lack of observational skills and knowledge about weapons and/or tactics.


We then ran a draw and shoot drill from the 3 yard line, aiming for COM, each person going one by one, and running the drill three times. While we were to put multiple shots onto the target, only the first shot would be measured with a shot timer. Lee stated that one should strive to keep the draw and shoot under two seconds at this range and size of a target.


I managed to score exactly 1.5 seconds on all three of my attempts.


We then did a distance-reaction type drill, as a psuedo-Tueller drill. One person draws and fires at a target, while the other runs toward the back of the range, and the distance is measured when the first shot is fired.


Most people, myself included, was able to get about 15 to 20 feet before the first shot happened. The weakness of this drill, IMO, is probably that the runner and the shooter were both reacting to the same signal, rather than having the shooter react to the runner. Still, it handily showed how a relatively large distance could be covered in most people's draw time.


We then went to pivot drills, which were nothing more than turning 90° or 180° while drawing, and then engaging the target. The key here is to keep the gun pointed down toward the ground, almost in a Sul, until facing the target, and then engaging. The difference between 90° and 180° is fairly minimal, simply more footwork. We ran drills that practiced turning both left and right.


I didn't really have much issue with this drill, and really don't see much point to it, although I suppose for someone who has done minimal SOTM, this would be quite the novel experience; as Lee put it, the point of this drill was simply to get people comfortable to be moving while handling the weapon.


We then moved on to a SOTM-type drill. All one did was simply walk around a cone in a tight circle, engage from 3 yards when "gun" is called, and switch the direction one was walking when "switch" was called. This was run with just three or four shooters on the line each time; it was run multiple times, with variations, such as shooting at a 3 inch circle instead of COM, holstering and drawing while moving, or using two cones and doing a figure 8. It was noted here that three things are paramount for good shooting: foundation, trigger, and sights. Losing one is generally surmountable (such as when SOTM, in which one loses a good foundation), but losing two is generally catastrophic for one's marksmanship.


It was amazingly easy to hit COM, using the laser; using iron sights for the 3 inch circle proved much more difficult, though I was able to pull it with pretty good accuracy off when shooting at a reduced pace. The holstering proved problematic, due to my appendix carry position, so I would on occasion miss out on the engagement, as I would still be busy trying to re-holster. I also felt that the figure 8 drill would probably have been more challenging if barrels were used in place of cones; cones one can just run over (as several students did), but barrels generally don't move even when run into, and will significantly screw up one's motion. However, as Lee explained later, the smaller size of the cones forces you to have much better situational awareness and o utilize your peripheral vision; various obstacles that could pose a serious hazard in SOTM are actually quite small, such as street curbs, chairs, children, etc.


We then ran a drill where, instead of a cone, one does a semi-circle around a partner, engaging from the 5 yard line when called. Great emphasis was put on not engaging while even the slightest bit behind one's partner (other students made sure that the shooter did not pass behind their partner by standing right behind where the shooter would be once shoulder-to-shoulder with the partner). This was repeated with the caveat that one was to get as close as possible when passing in front of one's partner ("nuts to butts") and with the other students giving light shoves and touches on the shooter, to help simulate being a crowd and being jostled.


I found this to be an interesting drill, and my speed did slow down a little, due to the unfamiliar experience of being touched while shooting.


There was a short burst of rain here, and it was an opportunity to expound on the dangers of drawstrings and zippers on a jacket. We then ran a seated drill, where two students were seated at a table and would draw and engage a target about 5 yards away. Due to the unfamiliarity of this drill for most people, coupled with the high probability of muzzling both one's self and other around on the draw, this drill was done purely for form, with zero emphasis on time except for the splits. Lee noted that this is where appendix shined, as the centerline draw allows for the gun to point between one's legs before being brought up, while a strong-side draw has a strong possibility of muzzling the strong-side leg, along with the limited range of motion of the shoulders and arms while seated. As a tangent, it was also noted how it was much easier to defend a gun at the appendix when entangled, versus on the strong-side. To emphasize the limited mobility of the shoulder, other students would stand behind the shooters and put their hands on the shooters' shoulders, placing some pressure. We were also instructed to always look at the holster when reholstering on this drill. Anyone that was uncomfortable with the drill ran the drill dry first. After that, the first couple of times the drill was run, Lee would call out specific steps (grip, draw, extend, engage); after that, we were still to run it slow to be as safe as possible, but only the command to start the drill would be given. Various scenarios, such as texting or eating, were roleplayed, to demonstrate that we'd need to change our posture in order to draw.


This was very similar to a drill that I had run with Craig Douglas. For me, muzzle awareness was the key takeaway then, and still was for this drill, especially on the reholster. For most students though, the very act of drawing, shooting, and reholstering in a seated position would be a very alien experience, even though so much time is spent in a seat in public places, such as restaurants, theaters, etc.


We then went over target discrimination. Chris stated that the order of a target scan should go body, then hands ("hands kill"), then waist (since this is where most people keep their weapons), and lastly demeanor. After that, Chris then showed us the acronym SIM (security, immediate action, medical), to be used after an active shooter incident. After that, Chris then went over the three types of cover, using the ABC mnemonic: accurate return fire, body armor (generally not applicable to typical CCWers), and cover (actual hard points).


We then ran a quick drill like the first one of the day, sprinting from the 3 yard line to the 25 yard line and back to the 3 yard, with 4 shots to the triangular part of the target that represented the ocular window (so a fairly small target), with self-imposed physical punishments for those that had fliers.


We then ran what was called a serpent drill. Essentially, the shooter would be doing semi-circles down a horizontal line at the three yard line while engaging 4 targets (also in a horizontal line), with the 4 students forming the points to be semi-circled, each one in front of a target, mildly jostling the shooter. This was done after the shooter had done 20x lifts (or squat lifts, depending on the shooter's physical health) of an ammo tin.


Again, the large target size, couple with the close range, made engaging with the laser relatively trival.


We then went over shooting on one's back and side. Once one gets in an fight, it's quite possible to be knocked down by an opponent or to take a spill while moving, and wind up on the ground. It is important to make sure the head does not hit the ground while going down, as this could easily cause one to lose consciousness, or at least stun one. Optimally, the gun is holstered before going down; having the gun in the hand might lead to accidently pulling the trigger, dropping the gun, etc. However, given that optimal outcomes rarely occur, this is where having strict trigger discipline and muzzle awareness is paramount. When drawing while on one's back, it's important to not muzzle one's legs. From appendix, it's relatively trivial; from strong-side, one may have to have one's strong-side leg flat or pushed toward the weak side. Lee prefers to have his feet flat on the ground, with the knees pointing up; this allows him far more mobility than having the legs flat, as he can now use his legs to turn himself one way or another. When getting up, if one's core strength is strong enough, one can try to simply sit up; other wise, use the support hand to sit up, while maintaining muzzle awareness with the strong hand. If the gun is kept in the compressed ready, it's far easier to get up, as it's close to the body. When on the side, put the leg that's on top over toward the front, i.e., if lying on the weak side, have the strong-side leg splayed forward of the weak-side leg. This helps stabilize the body, rather than having the strong-side leg pull the waist back and thus wind up fighting to turn the body fully. The drill run to teach these positions was as follows: call out a position, get to that position, engage multiple rounds on the target (preferably the pelvic girdle when on the ground). The drill started out with everyone on the ground, lying in their backs, before drawing.


I would occasionally put my leg on the wrong side, but beyond that, it wasn't too big an issue. The laser was useful while lying on my back, but I reverted to using the iron sights when on my side. An interesting note was how a student found out that his bifocals were terrible for shooting on his back, something he would never have thought of independently.


We then had a set of three stations to run: the first was to go to the ground and move into the position called and engage (essentially like the drill we just ran). The second station was to do the single cone drill, where one would circle a cone, engage when called, change directions when called. The last station was the serpent drill.


Again, not too bad; this drill did highlight for some of the other students the necessity of being in good physical condition for optimal self-defense. Also of interest was, at one point, when a student was lying on their side but getting shots off very slowly, Lee called out for him to go faster, and to ignore the sights. When I spoke with Lee afterwards, he stated that it was two-fold: the first was, at such a close range, one should be able to index off the slide and still get good hits on such a large target. The second was, most people are unable to see the sights under stress, unless one had gone through extensive training. He stated that, realistically, many students would not train hard enough to be able to see the sights under stress.


In his words: “It is possible to learn with extensive training to shoot with speed using sights, but in most realistic situations, the majority of people who experience an adrenaline dump and have to deal with a life or death moment in extreme time limits, NEVER see their sites due to the bodies uncontrollable reaction to process information. There IS a time and place for sights, that is why it is called SPEED vs PRECISION. Statistics and factual evidence show that the majority of the time when you have to act under time and stress, your sites will not be seen.”


We then had the final evolution of the day, ran individually. One would start out doing calisthenics, before given two seconds to look at three images of the targets to engage. One then would start punching a training pad until being called to run the gauntlet, which consisted of the rest of the students, formed up in two lines, pushing and shoving (lightly) as one worked toward the targets. After getting past the gauntlet, one would push a no-shoot out the way, draw, and engage the targets that we had been assigned. After that, one would draw a hand-held, and clear two rooms, each one next to each other, each one with multiple targets to discriminate and possibly engage. After that, one would move down the line to engage set of decisional targets, before being asked to put two headshots into the ocular window of two targets.


I ran the final evolution without much issue, and felt it was a fairly good wrap up of the class, as it did incorporate almost everything we had learned in the class. The only issue I ran into was that my laser died halfway through the evo, causing me to pause for a second while my mind reset and transitioned to iron sights the rest of the evo (afterwards, I established that the batteries had died; I had been activating both the light and the laser all day whenever I shot). Several students did choke up under stress, though, and there were definitely serious issues with malfunction clearance, with students taking large amounts of time trying to diagnose and fix issues.


We then had a hot wash, where students were asked to give at least one positive, and one negative. Many students, who had not done any serious formal training, let alone any with stress in it, were quite happy with the class, and expressed a deep appreciation of just how much stress degraded their performance.


My positive was that it was, indeed, a very educational class; I had always been academically aware of just how difficult a single man clear is, and now I actually have some real ideas of just how hard it could be. As for my negative, I did not like the fact that the targets were rarely changed/taped up, leaving us unable to account for the shots taken for the most part. This clashed with almost every other class that I had taken, where there was usually a very large emphasis on accuracy and accounting for one's hits; however, as Lee noted, this was not a manipulations course, and the emphasis is on giving the students a set of tactics they could utilize, while the accuracy is intrinsically tied with the manipulation skills of the shooter, which would be another class/their own practice.


In his words: “But I also recall routinely saying “make your shots count” and there were some repercussions for missed shots. This was the first time I have ever had anyone bring this up as most people are honest with themselves and know if they miss or if they hit. Not to mention if we taped up targets, then the down time would be a lot longer. Not sure I agree with this one, but I am okay with your opinion on it.”


This was probably the first dedicated pistol class where I was in the top half of the class in terms of ability, which was a nice ego boost, I guess. I found the room clearing material very interesting, and would love to pressure test it in a FoF course, perhaps something like a Shivworks AMIS (though it's probably of fairly limited utility in my actual self-defense paradigm). This was probably also the first class where I was able to rely mostly on the laser; the targets were big enough and I was close enough to not have to worry about bore offset issues, and I was generally able to keep a fairly type group despite shooting much faster than I usually do (a function of the fact that I rarely practice shooting fast at large targets). Codifying the majority of the issues to think about before, during, and after an active shooter was extremely helpful; while I could figure most of them out on my own if I sat down with a pen and paper, having the mnemonics and repetitions burned in (as Lee and Chris would often ask us to repeat back what and why we were doing something while running the evos) really helped me retain the information.


As for the class itself, besides my gripe about the utilization of the targets, the other main complaint that I had, which was also noted by the students, was that there was a bit of downtime. Part of it was due to issues beyond the instructors' control (not having the props in time from the range owner, for example), and others arose simply from the fact that many of the techniques demonstrated needed a fair bit of space to work with, forcing us to do multiple relays to get everyone through. However, I also feel that observing other students do the runs, and learning from their mistakes, is generally very beneficial, so the downtime, while annoying, was probably unavoidable for this type of class, simply due to safety considerations. Also, I found the physical stress component of the class to be quite useful in illustrating just how much degradation of skills occurred even with only a slightly elevated heart rate and minor stress; I think it would be quite interesting to combine the physical exertion aspect with a competition slant, like what Larry Vickers like to do in his class.


Gearwise, the main issue that existed was the sand in the magazines and the dirty extractor. Besides my catastrophic failure, the XD and several Glocks also exhibit magazine issues, which is probably also due to the sand. However, as Lee stated, the sand is a great way to find out the weakness of the gear; I personally became much more careful about blowing dust out of dropped mags after picking them back up. I had never seen the follower lock up like that, and it was extremely unnerving being unable to get the gun back into play. However, I am not too worried about it as a day-to-day thing, since it's unlikely I'll stumble into large quantities of sand and then roll about in it, enough so that it would get into my mag carrier and then into the magazine. I was also rather pleased with how the Taylor Freelance extended baseplates work; there were some minor durability issues with them before, but they seemed to have been resolved, and they ran like a champ during the course (besides the sand issue). As for the extractor, it showed me that even if the gun was running fine at the indoor range under optimal conditions, it may not do so when presented in an adverse environment. I will probably be more diligent about my maintenance schedule from now on. On a positive note, the green laser's day time visibility was simply astounding, compared to my old X400's red laser. I'm still struggling to ignore it on high precision shots (it slows me down at times), but on large targets, that thing is way easier to track than a front sight, high visibility or not. As for the E1B, the high-low and click-on/click-off still were issues for me, but given my usage of it purely as a searching light, I feel like only the latter is a real issue (as I have occasionally forgotten to turn it off when transitioning off of it, primarily on reloads, thus exhibiting poor light discipline).


Overall, 593 rounds were expended, 300 of which was Freedom Munitions 115 gr. RN, and 293 was Freedom Munitions 115 gr. RN New. A total of 3 FTEs and 1 magazine follower binding occurred.

SeriousStudent
04-20-2014, 09:33 PM
Thank you for taking the time to put this together, and sharing your lessons learned.