Yelp review of recent Tactical Response class

[GardoneVT]

The "just wait until the anti's get a look at this" is a tired trope.

So is complacency.

[Ed L]

This is still depressing to watch.

I'm really questioning if I got sold a pile of b.s. in the classes I took 5 or 6 years ago.

I don't think I did...but now...sigh.

I have done classes with other instructors since then and don't think I embarrass myself. Nobody has kicked me off a range for unsafe practices...

But to see this kind of behavior and the results...

I'm just going to chalk it up to "sometimes people change" because I just don't know what else to say about this...

Really poor showing.

Were you at one of the classes years ago when the photographer was downrange--the one that first made internet infamy?

[Mitchell, Esq.]

Were you at one of the classes years ago when the photographer was downrange--the one that first made internet infamy?

Not that one, but they did it at fighting pistol when I took the class. Hell of a first formal pistol shooting class (other than the NRA basic).

The hell of it is...the actual pistol manipulation, trigger control & marksmanship portions of the class, I still use.

You assume the people teaching you know what is and is not safe, which is the real danger when people say "Big Boy Rules!"
There was a cop in the class, and I figured "If it is OK with him, I guess it can't be that dangerous and I guess this is what real training is like..." but risk is one thing. Unreasonable risk is quite another.

The ability to make a differentiation between the two is something that comes only with knowledge & experience.

Looking back to that time I know I didn't have the knowledge base or experience in firearms training to make the differentiation between acceptable and unacceptable risk.

If I knew then what I know now I'd have walked off the line. There is a time & way to do "stress inoculation" - but in a beginning pistol class with someone downrange, no.

I wish I had known better. Glad I do now.

[Jared]

If I knew then what I know now I'd have walked off the line. There is a time & way to do "stress inoculation" - but in a beginning pistol class with someone downrange, no.

I wish I had known better. Glad I do now.

I think we've probably all got something back there in our own personal history where we look back on it and just wish that we had known better back then.

[Tamara]

Lots of jurisdictions have laws that could cover constitutionally protected speech. To the extent that they do, they are unconstitutional. The true threats and incitement exceptions are very narrow. I don't see how James' video is distinguishable from Watts v. United States.

I think they dug up the dueling contract in the wake of the video, but I am not certain of this.

[Ed L]

Looking back to that time I know I didn't have the knowledge base or experience in firearms training to make the differentiation between acceptable and unacceptable risk.

If I knew then what I know now I'd have walked off the line. There is a time & way to do "stress inoculation" - but in a beginning pistol class with someone downrange, no.

I wish I had known better. Glad I do now.

As Jared said, many of us have done things in the past that we would not do now since we now know better.

[Ed L]

I think they dug up the dueling contract in the wake of the video, but I am not certain of this.

I once challenged Yeager to go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line. Have not heard back from him.

[TCinVA]

TR at one time taught a very conventional but solid program...but then Yeager started to get weird. He himself is not that good. I've been on the line with the dude and despite the fact that he was a full time firearms instructor at the time, the best he could manage was middle of the pack in terms of skill in a basic level AK class. Then in an AAR of the class we took together he insisted that he'd been the fastest guy in the class on a walkback drill with his awesome Big Dot AK sights. Except for two problems:

- There was no timer on the drill
- He flamed out at under 100 yards (missing) while the drill went back to over 200 where a number of us (me included) were hitting

Now there's nothing wrong with not being awesome in a class. I've sucked in plenty of classes...but I didn't go online later claiming to be more awesome than anyone else in the class thanks to my goofy sights.

Some of the stuff TR has done over the years has been really good and based on solid information, especially the medical stuff they did with Sherman House. (A fine fellow) Often that stuff is the result of somebody with legit accomplishment from the outside who comes in and offers that experience to students through TR.

Silly stuff like the "high risk contractor course", though, is the product of echo chamber thinking with no external sanity check and as a result it becomes stupid and dangerous.

There's no legit reason to have somebody taking pictures between the targets. Delta may use "downrange" drills but people in an intro handgun course ain't Delta.

There's no legit reason to have students toss their guns on the ground. Yeah, they are tools...but you know what? Everybody I know of who depends on tools for their living takes awesome care of their tools. When you're betting your life on equipment, you take care of it so that it is in peak working order when/if you need to call on it.

I'm sure bits and pieces of Yeager's program are relatively conventional and useful, but you have to pick through a lot of shit to get those bits. And those bits are available from a lot of other quality instructors in more coherent presentations without all the Rex-Kwan-Do bullshit marketing.

Everybody can make mistakes...but this wasn't merely a mistake. This was an act of supremely bad judgement from beginning to end made possible by a ridiculous attitude that Yeager radiates to the world. It's not surprising that it was one of his AI's who couldn't process that a fucktarded demo done with a loaded weapon was a stupid idea.

[Kyle Reese]

TR at one time taught a very conventional but solid program...but then Yeager started to get weird. He himself is not that good. I've been on the line with the dude and despite the fact that he was a full time firearms instructor at the time, the best he could manage was middle of the pack in terms of skill in a basic level AK class. Then in an AAR of the class we took together he insisted that he'd been the fastest guy in the class on a walkback drill with his awesome Big Dot AK sights. Except for two problems:

- There was no timer on the drill
- He flamed out at under 100 yards (missing) while the drill went back to over 200 where a number of us (me included) were hitting

Now there's nothing wrong with not being awesome in a class. I've sucked in plenty of classes...but I didn't go online later claiming to be more awesome than anyone else in the class thanks to my goofy sights.

Some of the stuff TR has done over the years has been really good and based on solid information, especially the medical stuff they did with Sherman House. (A fine fellow) Often that stuff is the result of somebody with legit accomplishment from the outside who comes in and offers that experience to students through TR.

Silly stuff like the "high risk contractor course", though, is the product of echo chamber thinking with no external sanity check and as a result it becomes stupid and dangerous.

There's no legit reason to have somebody taking pictures between the targets. Delta may use "downrange" drills but people in an intro handgun course ain't Delta.

There's no legit reason to have students toss their guns on the ground. Yeah, they are tools...but you know what? Everybody I know of who depends on tools for their living takes awesome care of their tools. When you're betting your life on equipment, you take care of it so that it is in peak working order when/if you need to call on it.

I'm sure bits and pieces of Yeager's program are relatively conventional and useful, but you have to pick through a lot of shit to get those bits. And those bits are available from a lot of other quality instructors in more coherent presentations without all the Rex-Kwan-Do bullshit marketing.

Everybody can make mistakes...but this wasn't merely a mistake. This was an act of supremely bad judgement from beginning to end made possible by a ridiculous attitude that Yeager radiates to the world. It's not surprising that it was one of his AI's who couldn't process that a fucktarded demo done with a loaded weapon was a stupid idea.

You were in that AK class too?

[TCinVA]

You were in that AK class too?